It’s interesting how Betty and Archie’s trauma are about similar life-or-death traumatic experiences (Archie’s war PTSD and Betty’s kidnapping) but Jughead and Veronica’s trauma are all about their failed relationships. And before you mention The Accident, the real meat behind that backstory isn’t Veronica being traumatized by a NDE. It’s all about her crappy marriage.
I’m not gonna talk much about Jughead because his “trauma” storyline is just starting. I also don’t care for Jughead but I know no matter what happens, his storyline will be the core four story handled with the most care. It’s that trademark riverdale favoritism. Also, I don’t want to speculate about future storylines anymore. What we do know is that Jughead is fantasizing about an apology that never happened. An apology that Betty could never mean considering she had no regards for Jughead in the time jump when she f*cked Archie and wanted to keep doing it until Archie mentioned his feelings for Veronica. But it will be interesting to see if the writers are itching to bring b*ghead back together as quickly and they did v*rchie, because right now v*rchie don’t look too good anymore!
So let’s talk about Veronica, because I actually care about her.
It’s now canon that Veronica is stuck in a pattern where she makes excuses for men who treat her like garbage, and willingly chooses to ignore the red flags even if she’s aware of them, because she has a skewed idea of love stemming from her relationship with her father.
Once with Archie when Barchie cheated: She doesn’t ask him what the kiss meant. She doesn’t ask if he still loves her. She doesn’t get angry at him. No she cries in his arms instead when he’s the reason she’s crying. Worse, she puts herself in a situation where she’s forced to play girlfriend with him to protect Betty. It’s all very very ridiculous.
Twice with Archie when he told her he was hooking up with the girl he cheated with: She doesn’t ask why, how or when. In fact, she cared more when they kissed in season 2 but once again, she doesn’t let him define his relationship with Betty because she does it for him. She doesn’t even second guess her decision to get back to Archie when Betty is the reason their previous relationship ended. The past is very much the present.
Thrice when she cheated on Archie with Chad. 5x10 had Veronica look Chad straight in the eyes and she asked him if he wanted to murder her just so he could be with her forever. That’s grim. It doesn’t even matter if it’s true, she believed he was capable of it while she was slow dancing in his arms. He froze her accounts to force her to come back to him and the next episode, she was introducing Chad to her friends and being all lovey dovey in the high school lounge. She’s not in denial about Chad, that’s why she wants to divorce him. So it’s even more baffling that she chooses to kiss him and spend the night with him for “closure”, like she did with Archie before the time jump.
Just to be clear I’m not saying her relationship with Archie is nearly as bad as her marriage with Chad in terms of toxicity but here’s the thing… Just like Betty’s betrayal led to Jughead having a toxic on-and-off relationship with Jessica, I think Archie’s cheating has been a catalyst for Veronica falling into a bigger trap with Chad.
Why is she still pulled towards men who don’t treat her right? Hiram. I was hopeful in the graduation episode but it’s the same old shit. She hasn’t changed because the writers don’t let her be free of him. If this season doesn’t end with her in therapy and single, then the writers will have failed her, as well as her fans v*rchie fans who keep making excuses for the writers.
There’s a real possibility it will be never acknowledged that Veronica’s reaction towards barchie pre or post time jump was a disservice to her character, especially in contrast with Jughead’s. If they want to keep the varchie thing going all season then so be it. It would only confirm what we already know: v*rchie is just a security blanket for b*ghead.
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