I think it’s a deliberate writing choice/ intentional juxtaposition to have Jughead and Archie bro it out at the end of season 4 and have Jughead brush off Betty and Archie’s cheating as just “teen angst” but now post-time jump Jughead is actually holding someone (Betty) accountable for his hurt feelings. I always found it odd how people didn’t think the cheating would be a big deal for Jughead... do they know anything about his character?? anyway I think Jughead deserves better and the few times he’s been happy and safe this season has been with Tabitha so I’m open to it. It’s clear the writers have decided to do something different with Jughead and Betty going forward and honestly I’m here for it. #holdshittypeopleaccountable2k21
Here's the thing. I will say I agree with this pretty much entirely.
I think the fact that Jug seems okay with Archie (okay enough that he asked to live with the dude) and that Jug seems okay with Betty says more about Betty's fault in hers and Jug's dynamic than it does about Jughead's. Let me explain that out a little more.
The end of senior year: Jughead finds out the truth. He asks Betty or tells Betty "can we/let's talk about this when I get home". He OPENS that door for her. And she doesn't walk through it. Every single Betty-stan (they're no longer Bughead shippers, I embargo anyone calling them Bughead shippers on my blog because they are not, they are absolutely Betty-stans) who says "well they both need to put in the work!!!" are full of shit, I'm sorry. Jughead DID put in the work. He extended the olive branch by saying "let's talk about this" but then BETTY DIDN'T talk about it. It's not ON Jughead to initiate that conversation. He let her know he was open to a conversation, but since she's the one that screwed up, it is 100000000% up to her to make that first move, and she did fucking nothing with it. I don't care that she was scared she'd lose him if she pushed. She 10000000000000000% should have thought about THAT before she and Archie went behind his back. The responsibility for fixing the relationship was on her because she was the one who BROKE the damn relationship in the first place. The second anyone says "well they both..." No. They did not. We are all watching the same show. Jughead was nearly killed, had PTSD from being nearly killed, did not care about his homework, Betty got pissed off that he didn't care about doing his homework and went and made out with Archie. Then snuck around for a while after that flirting with the idea of breaking up with "the only man for her" for his best friend. That's not a "well, they both..." thing at all. That's a Betty FUCKED up thing, and Betty had a responsibility to fix it and Betty decided not to do that. I don't know why she didn't, but she didn't.
Still, Jughead extended that olive branch. He was kind to Archie before Archie left. He was hurt, and understandably so, but he wasn't cruel to either Archie or Betty about it. I think he was processing that hurt, but I also think that if Betty had actually worked to fix anything at that point, they would still be together. Or at least would've stayed together and maybe broken up a little later down the line over it. But either way, there would've been some real closure there, just like there was... kind of a sense of closure with Archie (still rooting for Jughead to punch him in the face, but whatever, Jughead is nicer than I am).
Then they all come back to Riverdale and Jughead goes to Archie to ask for help/a place to stay, and Jughead offers to help Betty with Polly and was kind to her and apologized for the voicemail (that he doesn't remember leaving anyway)... in essence, Jughead has been absolutely civil to both of them. He obviously still harbors some hurt re: Betty, but nothing that prevents him from being at least friendly and supportive to her.
Betty on the other hand is a totally different story. She's... politely indifferent to him at best, except when he offers to help her with something. Then she jumps at his help because he's useful to her, but is rude to him when she finds out that the mystery isn't as cut and dry as she thinks it is, and takes the first opportunity to dump him off the case when it presents itself (anyone remember her and Glen's exchange about 'No Jughead's' being flirty as FUCK? Because I do). She tells Tabitha, when the "only man for her" has gone missing and is presumed hurt or potentially worse that he's "not her problem" anymore??? And then everything is supposed to hinge on this voicemail (a voicemail he already apologized for btw), and it's supposed to be SO bad that it excuses Betty simply not giving two fucks about Jughead Jones since she's come back to Riverdale, and is supposed to suggest she's staying away because he's mad at her and doesn't want her in his
life (even though he already said he didn't mean that...) and then the voicemail turns out to be not the least bit untrue. Or at the very least, not something out of line for an angry, jilted ex -- who had the woman he planned to MARRY *checks notes* cheat on him with his best friend -- to say. The fact that Betty is using this voicemail as her sole justification so far... and the fact that the voicemail also suggests that Jughead tried to reach out more than once and was rebuffed... AND the fact that we KNOW Jughead extended the olive branch to her at the end of high school and she didn't take it.....
Idk. Like, I 100% think Jug and Tabitha are going on at least one date (I hope it's more) and we know without a shadow of a doubt that Jug LIKES Tabitha in ~~~that way~~~ with his Soft Voicemail to her. But I also think Jug at least cares about Betty, the way that you would expect a man who loved their ex to the point where he was going to marry her to at least care about them in a general sense.
But Betty? I'm sorry, but unless there is VASTLY more to this story, like EPIC levels of miscommunication here and not just Betty blowing him off... and I do not think that's the case, given the cold, callous way Betty is being written right now.... there is not enough trauma in the world to excuse the absolute trash way she has treated Jughead. I 100000% believe Jughead cares about Betty still, again as a friend and in a general sense, but I do not believe, at all, Betty gives more than a vague passing fuck about Jughead Jones these days. She's too busy feeling self-righteously angry at him for leaving her a not untrue if a little harsh voicemail, that she more than deserved given the narrative we know, and may deserve even more than we know, given the narrative we don't.
Also I would like it to be known that while I still love Betty, and I do, and I love where this character journey is going because I am actually okay with Betty going full on villain and think Riverdale being her villain origin story is actually a pretty fun idea (plz let her kill Archie, plz RAS I beg you, let her murder Archie Andrews), I do not love Betty with Jughead anymore. Nope. Jughead Jones deserves better. That's not to say I want Betty miserable and unhappy. I don't. But Betty needs to work on herself, and it is not Jughead's job to save her or help her do that. That ship sailed a long time ago.
If they're still going to be endgame (which I'm actually no longer convinced of) then I hope every Betty-stan realizes that it's completely at the expense of Jughead's character. Sorry, but this isn't the Bughead of yesteryear. That dynamic is done and gone and if this is the direction Betty is going to continue in, it's not ever coming back.
Anyway, stan Jabitha and Betty killing Archie for clear skin~
