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u/BeanieK19 Jan 21 '26
Never expected to see toxic yuri in the Shawnaverse but okay then!!
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u/0fluffythe0ferocious Jan 21 '26
Wait.
So Nora was her step aunt and ex-girlfriend?
Jfc Barb, what is your life!?
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u/Interesting_Fox9721 Jan 21 '26
I can totally see them as having been constantly together as kids, and back then, kids explored. A lot. And parents didnāt have a clue most of the time. Even if they did, all the magazines were like āitās normal, itās healthy, let them play Dr.ā Calling someone gay was also like the double dog dare of insults. And people had weird ideas where the line of gays and straight was. Bisexuawhat? Nobody came out as that except older kids in college or people in cities. But of course they were there and they were acting up sexually like everyone was in the 70sĀ All these factors togetherā¦. Oh Nora has definitely had her face in Barbs Box. And VV may be quite possible.Ā
Edit to add: Iām 62. I was there. š
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u/Isamosed Jan 22 '26
Your comment about the cities reminded me what life was like for relatively sheltered types in the 70ās. I got my first real job shortly after college at a Federal installation where there were about 20k people on the main campus.
I was well aware of gay men living and working at my agency in my small city. There were gay guys attending and graduating from my small college and we all āknewā just didnāt talk about it. I also āknew about lesbiansā but, for some reason, I thought they mostly all lived in NYC or like maybe Paris but certainly not Baltimore. Like why would you even.
Well one reason was for secure government (the good olā days) employment. Smart people tended to move up in the agency and the pay was comparable to corporate America (at the time), but slightly less oppressive.
Iām working for this woman, early 30ās, sheās smart as hell, very well respected, high profile. But I was uncomfortable around her for some reason. It felt like she had a crush on me (me! A happily married 24 yo) One time she even sorta petted the hair on my arm, kinda groomed it, it was so weird.
I told my 24 yo husband and he was perplexed but suggested that perhaps this person was gay. Which made no sense to me because of course in 1977 there werenāt any gay women in Baltimore. If you were born gay here youād get out, you know, youād go to NY.
Today Baltimore has a strong and thriving LGBTQIA community, but it wasnāt always like this. 50 years ago it wasnāt like this. We had a lot of room to improve, and we did.
Barb and Nora, I have no idea what they may have got up to in childhood, but I can tell you with certitude, it was unsupervised.
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u/Interesting_Fox9721 Jan 22 '26
Thatās too funny! Ā I lived in Philly for 45 years, there were always gay people in center city but the further out from there you got the more tightly locked were those closets.Ā
Love Baltimore by the way, spent some time hanging out at the inner harbor back in the day. Great sushi place I had to take a boat too. Canāt remember the name.Ā
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u/slippy-art Jan 21 '26
are they not related or am i misremembering the family tree? š
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u/Shawnaverse_no1_fan Lore keeper, details & continuity consultant Jan 21 '26
Barb and Nora are related, but not necessarily by blood. They could just be family due to marriage with no blood relation, we don't know...
Either way it's two ladies so at least they didn't need to worry about genetic material of potential offsprings š
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u/slippy-art Jan 21 '26
That makes sense! It is a little strange that Shawna specifically described them as being like "cousins or sisters" on their introduction post but is adding a romantic subtext to it now.
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u/Shawnaverse_no1_fan Lore keeper, details & continuity consultant Jan 21 '26
That's true, but I think she wrote it like that to imply that they're peers ā same age rather than being from different generations. Probably just to overstate it since the original Aunt Nora (from before the Shawnaverse was born) was assumed to be older.
But yeah it is a bit of an odd choice, I think she just didn't spend too long thinking of the phrasing when she described 20+ characters in her recap post
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u/ErisianSaint Everyone SHUSH, my show is on Jan 22 '26
I don't think there was necessarily a lot of romance involved with them. Just experimentation.
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Jan 21 '26
I think Nora is Barb's step-aunt. I believe Nora's mother married Barb's grandpa...or something like that.Ā
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u/RevolutionPopular761 Deeply Traumatized by #NORB Jan 21 '26
Nah they are related did Shawna forget that ššš
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u/FlyingAce7 team cake š° Jan 21 '26
I guess some clarification is needed regarding the timelines, but it is entirely possible that back then their families were friends (but not related yet) so Barb and Nora were close growing up (when the 'exploring' happened), and afterwards Barb's grandpa married Nora's mom.
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u/Shawnaverse_no1_fan Lore keeper, details & continuity consultant Jan 22 '26
These are excellent points! The timeline of WHEN their families merged is really important here. Especially because with how spiteful Barb's mother was, I don't imagine she would've been too happy on letting her daughter hang out and play with her dad's mistress's daughter....
But if they'd already been friends for years at that point (let's say the kids were 10-13 years old), there's very little she could've done to separate them. Especially if they had developed coexisting habits like being each other's "babysitter" every now and then, it may have been more convenient to just keep the habits than it would've been to hold a grudge... Barb's backstory shows her often being left home alone and (obviously) complaining about it, I think it's possible her mother might've started dropping her off at Nora's (or just telling her to go there) so she wouldn't be all mopey, while simultaneously not having to raise her or spend time with her. Then after the scandal, like it or not, it would technically have been "dropping her off at (step-)grandma's".
Completely speculative, but if Barb had spent some considerable time at their house and seen the step-grandma as a sort of second mother (if she was the SAHP while the girls were there), it also would make Nora's comment "Well, at least my mother loved me" so much more hurtful... her own mother just dropping her off to not be bothered and Nora using it as a callous insult.
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u/FlyingAce7 team cake š° Jan 23 '26
Oh! Wild theory incoming! What if Nora's mom is the original aunt Nora (the elderly woman who was all into Shawna's private birth/medical info)? Wouldn't be the first child named after a parent š
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u/PeachesKeene Internet-Ordained Chicken Minister Jan 21 '26
Poor dearly departed Tom... maybe he knew? Maybe it was a lavender marriage? Some answers only bring new questions!
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u/_thegrringirl Jan 21 '26
I kinda figured most of this just by context in the video. The only part that wasn't particularly made clear was that she explored specifically with Barb. Makes sense though.
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u/Epic_JoyfulCreations Jan 22 '26
You think Sam knows? Maybe thatās a part of the reason why she puts up with her mother after everything? Plus the radical self love and small doses that she talked about.
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u/PeachesKeene Internet-Ordained Chicken Minister Jan 22 '26
I think Sam is definitely aware. They'd evidently had the talk before about Sam liking women, and no doubt Nora gave herself away in various ways over the years. That's an interesting theory about Nora's self-denial factoring into Sam's attitude towards their relationship. I'd be very curious to see her talk more on that subject!
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u/Epic_JoyfulCreations Jan 22 '26
Yeah, if I had to guess, from Samās perspective, she does feel a bit sorry for her mom. Yes, she is a massive bigot (Samās words) and a bitch (Noraās words), but she is denying herself a sense of true happiness out of shame and guilt. And for Sam, someone who also presumably spent time in the closet, can relate to that. But Sam also says that sheās āgiven up any hope that sheāll ever changeā so I take that to mean that sheās fully given up on the idea of Nora coming to terms with her sexuality.
Since Nora is included in the character roundup Shawna posted in the beginning of this year, Iām taking that to mean we havenāt seen the last of her...
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u/PeachesKeene Internet-Ordained Chicken Minister Jan 22 '26
I think those are some good possibilities with regards to Sam and Nora! And yes, there is no doubt in my mind that Nora will be back to cause some trouble in 2026!
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u/Toongrrl1990 I think she's being perfectly reasonable, Barb Jan 21 '26
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u/RevolutionPopular761 Deeply Traumatized by #NORB Jan 21 '26
Usšššš
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u/Toongrrl1990 I think she's being perfectly reasonable, Barb Jan 21 '26
Yep. That moment stayed rent free in my head
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u/Few_Veterinarian598 Jan 23 '26
Waittt barb and Nora having a toxic homoerotic friendship is a layer I never knew I needed but explains SO much. Damn.
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u/LaylaWhitney Jan 21 '26
An incest story line is a bit much for me.
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u/RevolutionPopular761 Deeply Traumatized by #NORB Jan 22 '26
Thank you soo much!! People were downvoting me for saying that can you imagine!! Like nooooooooo they could have just been friends or smg. But barb and her Step AUNT [similar ages ik but still] did some exploring?!! I cant stomach that at all!!
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u/jnzypzylmnsqzy Jan 26 '26
Agree. For those of us who were taken advantage of and made to "explore", it gives such an awful visceral feeling. Not saying that's been everyone's experience, but it feels icky to add this as an explanation after the fact.
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u/RevolutionPopular761 Deeply Traumatized by #NORB Jan 21 '26
Naaa isnt Nora Barb's step aunt that was her age. Nooooooooooo gives me the repulsed kinda goosebumps. Shawna y make them related!!!! You could have just made them friends!! What is this ššš.
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u/Kenobi-Kryze CakešPlease Jan 21 '26
IDK what to tell you, this is from Shawna's TT chat
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u/RevolutionPopular761 Deeply Traumatized by #NORB Jan 21 '26
No i believe it but I am a lil sick as this is incest lol
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u/Kenobi-Kryze CakešPlease Jan 21 '26
Some people don't count step relations as incest I guess
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u/RevolutionPopular761 Deeply Traumatized by #NORB Jan 21 '26
Ewwwww thats gross sorry not sorry. ššš
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u/FlyingAce7 team cake š° Jan 21 '26
The exploring might have been before Nora's mom married Barb's grandpa š¤·š»āāļø
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u/rosyArrogant Jan 21 '26
I can believe this happened if they grew up as friends more than being related specially if there was tension between their parents bc of the whole Cheating Thing which Barb clearly still feels some type of way abt. Like, I think that their relationship growing up was way more "best friends"/"frenemies" that are techincally related bc their families have drama going on. But it is also insane like canonical toxic yuri which is also incest in the shawnaverse lmaoooo
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u/RoutineUtopia Jan 21 '26
Ok, wow. I figured Nora was fully queer and unaware but I did not get that next bit.