we make our own fate

You probably know my gifs from twitter - an adult Bellyjere’s rush into summer madness. #teambelly forever

[loveinsomesacredplace]

✨I do not give one single solitary fuck✨ about the TSITP books. I treat the show as its own separate canon. Show Belly (and Show Jeremiah) are the only ones I care about. Get this book 3 nonsense out of here. Show! Jelly is what I ship.

Stop conflating the two. Real tired of seeing my feral girl being dragged for shit that hasn’t even happened and may never happen.

This is a #teambelly & #teamjere friendly tumblr. If you’re anti-Belly, kindly gtfo. Mentions of Conrad and Belly/Conrad will be rare. Characters and actors within the context of the show ONLY.

ETA 4/26/25: To be clear, I *have* read the books. I still don't care about them; shockingly, you can treat canons separately.

[isaacsdevil4108]

The Summer I Turned Pretty (2022-2025)

"Come on, Bells! Will I miss you? Oh, like crazy. But Paris is your dream and I want all of your dreams to come true because you deserve it." - Jeremiah

[loveinsomesacredplace]

To use any songs off that episode 11 of an TSwift album for this couple just feels wrong

[loveinsomesacredplace]

When I say I’m a Bellyjere shipper I mean I love both of them, separately and together (obviously). I’m not Team Jeremiah only and I’ll tolerate Belly because he loves her for now but he deserves better than her - which is a sentiment I’ve seen pop up lately.

[loveinsomesacredplace]

Reblogging for relevance and new people finding this tumblr. I see a ton of #Team Jeremiah (which the man deserves, no question), but rarely #Team Belly, so I just want to remind everyone where this tumblr stands.

That teaser - oof, those two are going to break my heart.

But oh, what a way to go.

[loveinsomesacredplace]

hey *taps mic* Still love them both, separately and forever together

[tryandbehappy]

Maybe this is what the writer intended, maybe that’s what she was going for — but how disconnected it is from the actual story. Let’s remember who Belly was in the pilot we all saw: a girl who loved life, who sang in the car, who danced. Across the first two seasons, she was full of joy, craving experience, loud about her desires, a leader who lifted people up, who protected the ones she loved. Two core traits that define Belly’s character have always been her contagious joy and her boldness

And the irony is — she was like this with Jere!!! Singing in the car, always smiling and screaming of joy, standing up for herself and her family (Jere) against the world, in s2 throwing herself into volleyball because she takes life into her own hands (thanks to Jere). That’s her core.

What do we see with Conrad at the end? We don’t even recognize this woman anymore. She looks like some femme fatale out of a serious movie, cosplaying a heroine instead of actually being herself. There’s nothing playful left in her anymore, no jokes, no fun, no teasing, no physical spontaneity we used to see. At first she’s flirtatious. Then she turns doubtful, even a little pathetic. And in the end, she gives this restrained Mona Lisa smile — with nothing left of the Belly we once knew.

Like, are you kidding me? That’s not who she is. That’s not her essence. Because this has absolutely nothing to do with the girl we met in season one. It should’ve been the other way around. If the point was that Belly “lost herself” with Jere, then she should’ve looked restrained, less happy, hiding behind masks. But what did we actually see? Pure joy. Euphoria. She was radiant with him.

Meanwhile with Conrad, at the end, she’s the complete opposite. Reserved. Always crying. Even after they officially “got together,” when they’re driving in the car — she doesn’t look like Belly at all. Real Belly would’ve blasted music, sung at the top of her lungs, shouted out the window. That’s exactly what we saw in the pilot. But this scene? It looked forced, stiff, like a car commercial, not a love story.

Same when they entered the house. Nothing about that screamed “this is Belly.” Not one thing. Real Belly would’ve jumped into the pool. Or dragged her bf in with her and kissed him there. That’s her essence. That’s who she is. Not this lifeless version we saw in the finale. God she was more herself with Benito, than with Conrad.

So the message is (judging by the interviews and her “happy ass endgame”) the real Belly is the one who loves Conrad. Choosing him = choosing herself (lol) (it’s actually what Lola said) Apparently fun, vibrant Belly was just a mask. The ‘real’ Belly is almost eerily quiet with Conrad — no spark, no joy, just a Mona Lisa smile and muted body language, her head lightly resting on his shoulder. This show…

[loveinsomesacredplace]

Also, I wouldn’t take anything Lola said about the series finale to heart or seriously, as much as I love her portrayal of Belly (and think she’s a lovely person), because everything about the press cycle for season 3 has been weird and contradictory from when it first started to how it’s ending - and then you realize, this is the media training at play, and some of the actors are freer to say what they really feel. Consider what JH has locked Lola and Chris in for, and that this is her using her cast to spin the finale into something good, and not as an utter betrayal of Belly’s character.

[loveinsomesacredplace]

Jenny doing this rage bait retroactively erasing Bellyjere significance tour and doubling down on trolling and trying to frame her writing this season as in anyway good and actually planned is classic propaganda. I’m now at there was no episode 11 phase.

[loveinsomesacredplace]

jenny really took her whole family away for the sake of a stuffed bear and a 16 year old promise chain

[vanillawildflower]

“yes in the movie he is the villain” benito i actually love you

[loveinsomesacredplace]

Belly’s Paris flirtation (was it really an arc considering the whole point of her leaving was to find herself as an adult and making choices for herself right now - not what a promise on a death bed or other peoples’ expectations wanted her to do and certainly not on something she wished for as a child) was basically Jere’s Cabo crashout but in French. Her friends who don’t really know her and support this guy who to them, came out of nowhere and a story, minus her ex (and Jere stand-in) being the lone holdout and saying Conrad is the villain?

And they cheer her on and pass her a fancy cigarette?

[benedictbatch]

Do the people who are like Jeremiah cheated (no he did not actually) so we hate him not care that Taylor and Steven both cheated a lot in previous relationships? Do people care that one of the times that Staylor were together they were actually cheating on their partners? For months+? Are we just gonna cherry pick where to draw the line?

[vanillawildflower]

they cherry pick their morals and judgements for pretty much everything that concerns their beloved emotionally stunted white boy

staylor actively cheating for months - bons: (silence)

jere having rebound sex - bons: OH MY FUCKINGAJSDHR21@#$#@$ HES EVIL I HATE CHEATING!!@#%$@!% FUCK CHEATERS FUCK1@#%$!#%

bellycornbread scenes when bellyjere were still engaged - bons: CHEAT CHEAT CHEAT !!!!!!

hypocritical idiots

[vanillawildflower]

BELLYJERE / soulmates

Maybe I knew his face even better than my own—the hours I’d spent staring at it while he slept, tracing my finger along his cheekbone. Maybe he’d done the same things to me. I wanted to be with him. His was the face I loved.

[loveinsomesacredplace]

I don’t really care about the love triangle (or really, the threat of it) in the film, because it was never successfully marketed/written/acted as one through the whole series to begin with — I want Jenny and Sarah to fix what they broke - Belly’s spirit and her character. Jeremiah got his breakthrough and passion and purpose in life, and is working on getting more - Belly’s can NOT be (solely) Conrad. That was already such a betrayal of the character she had steadily been growing into, and even if it was jarring seeing Book Belly stuffed inside Show Bells’ skin at the very end, I still remember the Belly I loved. I’m not quite sure of this version of her for a number of reasons, but as others have said, isolating the main character (well she was supposed to be) from everyone else in her life except for the man is a weird way to move as a series finale.

She needs to be with her people, and that vague VO about home and exactly when she came back —

[vanillawildflower]

no because with the changes the show has made to bellyjere’s relationship tell me how exactly it’s going to make ANY sense for belly to go back to conrad now.

if they have conrad say the “don’t marry him, be with me” line before bellyjere’s wedding. conrad, who belly hasn’t really seen in years. conrad, whose feelings belly hasn’t considered at ALL. belly was the one who didn’t want to tell him first. she wasn’t thinking about him. she was only thinking about her and jere. belly, who has repeatedly described jeremiah as her most important love. belly, who has been with jeremiah for four YEARS compared to the months she dated conrad at sixteen. belly, who is her happiest self around jeremiah. who has described him as her comfort person and her soulmate and shouted out the window that they’re going to be married.

it’s seriously beyond the realm of plausibility for bellyjere’s long term, intensely romantic relationship to not only somehow fizzle out, but also have belly suddenly start caring about conrad’s feelings again AND somehow be able to be around jeremiah somewhat normally despite YEARS of intense romantic history. i think the writers have gone too far with bellyjere to make any of this even remotely believable. there is just no way you can have that kind of relationship with someone — to the point of getting engaged and being really fucking happy about it — and be okay with seeing them while later being with their brother instead.

and SOMEHOW the writers will have to top bellyjere’s chemistry, deep emotional intimacy and intense romanticism with b*nrad, which i actually do not think is possible. even if the writers destroy bellyjere, it won’t erase the fact that they have been intensely in love for four years to the point of getting engaged! meanwhile the moments belly has had with conrad can be counted on ONE hand. even if he makes a move, conrad will still be the one intervening on a long term relationship (bellyjere), NOT the other way around.

what #those people can never seem to understand is that belly doesn’t belong to conrad. belly is not an object that belongs to ANYBODY. conrad doesn’t have any hold on her and we have seen, in the show, that conrad’s feelings are far from belly’s priority. she is too happy with jeremiah, too focused on them only, for it to make sense for her to suddenly switch up. it’s just so far from plausible in any way for her to go back to conrad after all the character development she has been through and all the ways belly has grown, far from the person she was at sixteen. they will have to not only do a 180 on bellyjere but also on belly’s entire character.

tell me how any of this could possibly make any sense. i don’t have much faith in the writers and i don’t think bellyjere will be endgame (though i obviously wish they would be), but that doesn’t mean i think the alternative is a good writing choice nor believable at all

[vanillawildflower]

it’s just so far from plausible in any way for her to go back to conrad after all the character development she has been through and all the ways belly has grown, far from the person she was at sixteen. they will have to not only do a 180 on bellyjere but also on belly’s entire character.

i wrote this back in july btw and turns out that’s exactly what they did 😀 belly i’m sorry you had writers who didn’t respect you

[vanillawildflower]

the thing that bothers me most about belly ending up with cornbread is that it will completely undermine belly’s autonomy, her agency, and the boundaries she’s set + everything she’s said herself all season. susannah’s line from ep10: “you’ve always been a girl that knows her own heart.” belly has chosen jeremiah all season. she chose him until the end. all season she’s barely cared about conrad, and when she has feelings about him, they’re mostly negative (shouting on the beach, crying in the kitchen and shoving him, calling him sick to name a few). belly left to paris to distance herself and grow as her own person, which is beautiful for her character, and lovely to see. but the problem is that conrad just doesn’t fit in this picture. he doesn’t fit in her life anymore, period. all he does is bring back memories from the past, weasel his way back in with one of the only three topics they seem to have in common anymore: sour patch kids, junior mint, and the infinity necklace.

what belly said way back in season one is unfortunately STILL true for conrad, who is the single most unchanging character in the show. he’ll start showing up to remind her that he exists right when she’s moving on (or in the case of paris and s3, already moved on). it’s not romantic. it’s not yearning. it’s sad and manipulative. not moving on in 5-6 years – and not making any effort to move on, on top of being unable to maintain relationships with anyone – is concerning.

to have them end up together would directly contradict all the decisions belly herself has made, and all the things she has asserted throughout the entirety of the show. pursuing and choosing jeremiah in s2, her long-term relationship with jeremiah + nearly getting married + choosing him over and over, choosing paris to find her own way + telling conrad he doesn’t know who she is anymore, “whatever [feelings she has left for conrad] it doesn’t compare to me and you” “you will never be what jere is to me”, fighting against everyone to be with jere. and it would push this concerning message that belly has somehow been in delusion / self-denial all season (which is what b*nrads believe), and basically confirm that yes, actually, everyone else was right about belly’s romantic decisions – except herself (on top of justifying conrad’s disturbing behaviour). i’d like to believe they wouldn’t do that to her.

we’ve seen belly all season. she chose jeremiah, and more recently she chose finding herself, looking ahead to a new future. to somehow retract all of belly’s own choices and things she has asserted CONSISTENTLY is appalling when you remember that this is primarily belly’s story. in ep10, belly didn’t care about conrad at all. she only messaged jeremiah on susannah’s anniversary, messaged him when she was drunk, dropped everything to answer his call, vs giving a single, bare minimum acknowledgement to conrad’s letters. i would like to believe that they wouldn’t undermine belly in her own story, and that they’ll allow her to give conrad a much-needed reality check – that his warped self-made narrative is far from reality. the reality is that belly’s choosing of jeremiah back in s2 had nothing to do with conrad; she chose jeremiah already. herself. because she wanted it. not because she felt pressured by any external force to do so.

honestly speaking my expectations are pretty low, i’m not sure i trust the writers to see this through. i do still have hope for, at least, a belly choosing herself ending. right now, conrad endgame is objectively the worst route they could possibly go down in terms of overall message, belly’s character development and arc, and respecting belly as a character in general.

[loveinsomesacredplace]

They murdered my girl on the dancefloor

[loveinsomesacredplace]

[loveinsomesacredplace]

isabel conklin, you will be avenged

[loveinsomesacredplace]

The fact that so many people online are fighting about what is essentially a Taylor Swift songfic is sending me. July’s probably going to be a bloodbath.

[loveinsomesacredplace]

and August, and September

[ormundshightower]

The Summer I Turned Pretty — S3E8: Last Kiss