A random thought about the very dumb “storyline” of Betty not doing anything but being horny, but how lucky were we that in the OG Riverdale timeline Betty had no reason to not feel desired or satisfied (thank you, Jughead) and was instead able to focus on more fun things such as murders or cults.
Is Bughead really the answer to every problem on this show? Usually, yes.
I love Most Iconic Triangle, and @daphnefangirling is an absolute gem for finding the best posts for me, but damn, Archie is a clueless, cruel piece of shit.
Betty and Veronica should both tell him to fuck right off.
im so obsessed with season 1 beronica because veronica moves to town and she's like "i need someone to teach me how to be a good girl🥺🥺" and betty is like "aww that is so sweet but unfortunately i am insane"
Barchies: We want to come full-circle from the pilot.
1x01: Betty's all, "I always saw us as this power couple," and Archie's like, "sorry, no." They go fall in love with other people.
7x20: Archie's like, "I always saw us together at the end," and Betty's like, "sorry, no." He goes and falls in love with someone else and her future love life is undetermined.
i want an 8000 word essay about how perpetually defining Betty Cooper as "the girl next door" means she always exists in relation to someone else (next door to whom?), never fully as an independent self
i want an 8000 word essay about how perpetually defining Betty Cooper as "the girl next door" means she always exists in relation to someone else (next door to whom?), never fully as an independent self
I know the series finale was a sad excuse for for an ending, but I have to admit that I get emotional just thinking about beanie Jughead appearing at the foot of Betty's bed, giving her those heart eyes. It's so obvious that she is the love of his life and he'd missed her so much. Not to mention Betty specifically manifesting him. Their connection is unreal.
It's hard for me to tell, after watching the episode several times and noting some things I missed on the first viewing, whether Betty manifests him or if it's Jughead's story all along. The fact that he walks away in the end, and we hear a typewriter (the last sound of the show!) is kind of interesting. Is he THE Writer/Creator just telling us this tale? There's another Jughead there, inside Pop's. The one who died and is now in this Sweet Hereafter. The fact that the Beanie Jughead is looking on and is able to exist outside/without Betty being the one "conjuring" him up... That means... something?
In other words, I don't know what the intent was, these writers are all over the place. But some things are certain: Beanie Jughead definitely had hearts' eyes for Betty (as did the '50 Jughead). Betty neither surprised nor expecting anyone else in those dreams/visits. She was definitely going on this journey with who she wanted and expected. The writers chose to construct the final episode of the series around Bughead, walking those memory lanes together. That was a choice. The connection is there, and undeniable.
Where do you think it all went wrong with Riverdale?
honestly, part of me is like, the show's over and nothing but fandom matters. so who cares?
the other part of me loves to complain about Riverdale and will continue to do so until the day I die in the parking lot of Michael's Diner in Montgomeryville, PA at the age of 86. so, long-winded answer under the cut
I'm tempted to say it's the s4 b*rchie kiss. It was so wildly out of character for both Betty and Archie that it's laughable. You know how you can tell when something is just blatantly OOC with no justification? They...don't justify it. They find ways to dance around any interaction that might offer clarification. They mute the reactions of the characters who should be devastated by it. And then they jump ahead 7 years so it's easier to just handwave it away as something that happened a long time ago.
but the thing is, I did keep watching after that. I thought: okay, at least we should get an exes-to-lovers arc out of this, which is one of my favorite tropes. there is no way they would spend 4 seasons developing Bughead as this loving, supportive, communicative, sexy, and almost-unbelievably-compatible couple just to tear them apart and never do anything with that dynamic again. maybe it'll be even sweeter seeing them come back together after so much hurt and longing.
boy was i wrong!!!!!!!!!
so, the episode that actually made me stop watching for good, with the exception of some standalones like The Jughead Paradox and the finale, was the s5 musical. that was when i realized that this team of writers was 100% willing, maybe even eager, to completely drop storylines they themselves had been building over the course of a season - do a 180 with all of the characterization and relationships - and then act as though the buildup they wrote never even happened.
in this case, i'm specifically talking about the Bughead reunion storyline they dropped in s5. i'm not going to pretend like it was a GREAT buildup - and it was mostly on Jughead's side, Betty's character in s5 was basically an emotionless misery bot that had sex sometimes - but it was there. Jughead told Tabitha he had unresolved feelings around Betty. that's followed by an entire episode that lays out Betty & Jug's time jump relationship, and how Jughead still believes she's the one who saves him from himself. they work on a case together, they start opening up to one another. Jughead's so worried about her he can't eat.
and then...you know what happens.
(i'll also note here that there was random bts stuff that strongly indicated the musical ep storyline had a drastic last-minute rewrite: lili tweeted a blue dress, suggesting the song with that line was meant for her character; RAS said cole had to do last-minute recording sessions; supposedly crew members have confirmed this was the case, too. since none of it's 100% confirmed you can take it all with a grain of salt, but i believe it.)
it was so fucking insulting as a viewer to give my time and attention to a show made by people who would not only randomly drop the threads they set up, but torpedo them altogether, and then behave like the fans are the ones somehow at fault for expecting a story that actually follows through on its own emotional and plot beats. we're just shippers, so our opinions are dumb and biased! it's just a tv show, so who cares! get over it!
so, i stopped watching, because i knew they would continue to write without any thought or respect for their characters or their audience, and therefore inevitably write themselves into another corner. and, shocker, i was right. they did it again, whisking everyone away to the 1950s because actually resolving any of the scenarios they set up was ToO hArD. why bother when you could just make every single character Righteously Angry and Incurably Horny all the time, lecture the audience about social issues that have already been mainstream progressive for the last several decades, and call it a "love letter" to your fans?
I really do wish bughead got the ending they truly deserved though. I mean we saw how much these characters meant to each other, how they supported, understood, encouraged, and loved each other. It’s almost as if we really never got any type of genuine conversation between them after the time skip and it was just kind of abandoned altogether. They really were my favorite relationship and enjoyed their overall dynamic in the show.
I’m sorry, it is still completely surreal that they are spending the last episode of this show doing this ~emotional wrap-up with the versions of the characters that only existed for one of the 7 seasons. 😂
The good news is that we don’t have to take one second of this seriously if we don’t want to, lmao. (And I don’t.)
do you guys remember where you were the day you found out a deranged BA fan successfully catfished a legitimate media outlet into thinking they were lili reinhart
never 4get that mere hours before this broke, I was texting with @imreallyloveleee and she said that riverdale was not, in fact, the craziest fandom she’d ever been in.
That's funny because I was literally talking about this with Vik.
And she said "and now they're gonna be ours only."
Isn't that the truth?
No more dreading whatever crazy storyline might come along. No more worrying about what a character will say or do. Or whether they will get the screentime they deserve. No more waiting for something that we hype up and then doesn't deliver.
These characters will not be subjected to their writing anymore.
