Jane the Virgin is still the most aggravating show ever when it comes to a love story.
So we have the protagonist Jane Villanueva:
She’s sweet, a romantic, a writer, a know-it-all, tries to be the best at Everything and family is the most important thing to her. She deserves all the good things.
As for love interests we have:
Who she marries! When they’re engaged early in season 1 there’s a lot of drama and they break up - and then they both grow as people and learn to be good friends before eventually getting back together and getting married.
He’s a very sweet guy who cares about Jane more than anything! He puts her safety ahead of his romantic feelings, he helps save her abuela in secret but doesn’t tell her it was him because he didn’t want her to think he was doing it to get her back, he loves her son Mateo and comes to think of him as his own son. His response to her being a virgin who’s saving herself until marriage is “okay, we’ll have to wait until we’re married then”.
They are best friends who understand each other so deeply, they support each other, respect each other, have fun and are honestly just so sweet together.
Until he dies. And it’s honestly insanely heartbreaking (and foreshadowed from s1 so it’s all planned) but Jane’s grief is very real and it takes her years to move forwards and it’s made so clear that she will always love Michael.
until the writing went to complete shit and they brought him back in the last season with amnesia and a personality change into an asshole and ruined everything and it was so messy and didn’t make any sense fuck
The next love interest is
The only good thing about the second half of the show was Petra and Jane’s relationship. Throughout the show these two balance each other out and bring out both the best (and sometimes worst) of each other. Jane listens to and protects Petra even when Petra’s still an antagonist, Petra goes out of her way to secret grand gestures for Jane (like BUYING HER A HOUSE get you a gal pal like that).
Petra, the ever confident ice queen, nervously asks Jane out (the show literally calls it a date), they have brunch together every week to support each other and keep their children close. They become best friends and each other’s family! They also literally: have a big public ‘I love you!’ confession, technically sort of get engaged, have a dance number where they almost kiss and people assume they’re together.
People thought Petra was bi because of her interactions with Jane, and in season 4 Petra does come out as bisexual! Jane also considers that she might be bisexual and she totally is. The show threw in a couple of “we’re sisters!” lines towards the end of the show to try to alleviate some of the romantic tension but I’ve never known two sisters to almost make out with each other.
After Michael died and Jane had time and closure, Petra was the perfect love interest for her. But the writers were cowards.
Next up on the love interests is
Adam was Jane’s first love! They nearly got married at 19 (which was a terrible idea and luckily didn’t happen). But then years later Adam unknowingly moved into Jane and Michael’s old house and found a hidden love letter Michael had written. Adam thought it showed what love should truly be about and it changed how he lived his life. And three years later he found out that the letter belonged to his Jane and he returned it and they were reunited.
He brings love and fun back into Jane’s life. She’s reminded what it’s like to feel alive again. He knows how important her book about her and Michael is - so he makes a cover for it! When she finds out he’s bisexual she does freak out a bit (which I think was more the writers trying to start drama because she’s super chill with Petra being bi) but they have a very lovely heart-to-heart.
They really start to fall for each other, until the terrible writing booted him from the show (the episode after he came out btw) when he suddenly breaks up with Jane to move across the country. I never really felt like these two were going to end up together, but they could have if they kept developing their relationship. Anyway they were sweet and their relationship deserved better.
This is a love story, but the heart of this show was always familial love, not romantic love. The three generations of Villanueva women - Alba, Xo and Jane - and their bond is so important. And as the show progresses their family extends - to Jane’s father Rogelio and her baby Mateo (as well as more found family like Petra). And Jane’s writing is so important to her as well!
Although I wanted Jane to get a partner who loved her, if the show ended with Jane happy with her family, publishing her book about their story (perhaps with an optimistic outlook for future romance) I would’ve been happy.
But no. Even with all those options that’s not what the show did.
They set her up with this abusive creep, Raphael Solano.
In season 1 it seems like he’s the “perfect guy” but after he and Jane get together it turns out he: puts work above all else, doesn’t handle any setbacks well and gets drunk and angry, doesn’t listen to Jane and gets defensive and petty when she tries to talk to him about it, has a terrible reaction to her telling him she’s a virgin, then breaks her heart “for her own good” only to backtrack like two episodes later and try to get her to forget about that and get back together with him. What a keeper.
Then it season 2 he: lies to her, forces Michael away from her, manipulates her, multiple times during fights Raphael tries to get up in her space and she has to say things like ‘Leave. Now!’ or ‘Let me pass!’
Admittedly, after they break up, I started to like Raphael. I liked that on Jane and Michael’s wedding day, he was still so in love with Jane that he wanted to confess, but he kept it to himself and was just there for her. I liked that he made his children his top priority. I like that he mellowed out, that he took responsibility for his own actions, that he was there for Jane after Michael died (especially that sweet flashback at Michael’s funeral), that he and Jane became good friends.
Them as good friends was wonderful! But apparently men and women can’t be friends in this show. I think if the writing was good, they could have pulled it off with them getting back together and being happy (like they did with Jane and Michael).
But Jane and Raphael get back together once the writing goes to hell.
He is pushy, aggressive, jealous. When things get hard he once again just gets drunk and aggressively lashes out at Jane (who has done nothing wrong but feels like she’s to blame). When he finds out Michael (AKA Jane’s husband) is alive which is terrible writing, he doesn’t tell Jane and instead has sex with her! And the scene is so weird and intense, it’s got major rape vibes especially considering she’s consenting while he’s holding back critical information.
I can understand that finding out your partner’s dead husband was still alive would be awful for you, the current boyfriend. But taking it out on your girlfriend is horrible!
Raphael also does things like: once again break Jane’s heart, pick fights all the time, turn their son Mateo against her in their break up, have an absolute meltdown when Jane suggests Mateo has ADHD (which he does), refuse to even consider testing their son, threatening for sole custody when Jane does the test anyway and finds out that yes, Mateo has ADHD.
Like if his shitty behaviour was just early on that would be bad, but if he realised how wrong he was, apologised and did better, that would probably be okay. But his shitty behaviour continues throughout the entire show, right up until the end. He treats Jane like crap and the show NEVER holds him accountable for it, instead treating their relationship as an epic romance.
When the show finished my sister’s friend was 15 - and she loved Raphael and thought their relationship was so romantic. And that’s terrible! It’s terrible that this young girl thinks that the way that creep treats women is not only okay but romantic!!! AAAAAAAAAA!?!?!?!
And there were so many good, happy, healthy options for romance of love or honestly any kind of ending rather than the one the show went with. I stopped watching the show at the end of season 4 after I realised it was only going to get worse. I still kept up with it (a tiny part of me thought Jane and Petra wasn’t just queerbaiting but might really happen) but am very glad I stopped watching because it was just terrible.
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