the shelby and toni problem
i love toni and shelby as much as the next gal but i do NOT want them to be happy yet. i don’t want dumb relationship drama i want real problems they have to face together and will probably drive them apart for some time. toni doesn't get to just not have temperament issues anymore and shelby doesn't get to just stop running away from her problems. they need to earn their arcs. while they bring out the best in each other, the first half of the season shows they can also bring out the worst.
i want them to take different sides on group decisions (which i know will happen because leah monologues that they had their first group vote, but we haven’t been shown any others) and have to work through that . i want one of them to say the wrong thing (not necessarily in a relationship context but just in a people working together to a common goal context). while they are cute together, conflict is probably the biggest pull to their dynamic for me because they handle things in complete opposition to each other. toni having regan calmed her down in the past in the same way we are starting to see with shelby, but it didn’t take away how explosive she is. actually, it drove them apart. shelby shuts down when things get tough, which has been explored on her path to discovery of her feelings for toni, and id be interested in seeing how this plays out in the context of an established relationship. i hope both of these elements are explored and arent just ignored to make their relationship easy. i hope the writers handle this well because too far one way they are bland, and too far the other way its petty relationship drama and i think these characters are above that.
realistically i see toni blowing up on behalf of shelby over something inconsequential or even at her, and shelby “running away” (physically and emotionally) and shutting down, and them having to work through it. or maybe shelby could be pushing down her feelings (hopefully not relationship wise because that has been explored) and getting negged by toni or someone else until she gets vindictive like she did during the interveiw
whatever they do i dont want a rehash of this season or the same boring relationship conflicts we see time and time again that lack depth. if they really want to get balsy they could go for enemies to lovers to enemies and have them really hate each other , out of a combination of exhaustion and frustration, both sexual and otherwise. opposites attract but they also have a tendency to get on each others nerves. at this point we know they truly care about the other (hard not to after the whole saving her life thing) and will have to work on themselves to salvage their relationship.
we still dont know what happened to shelbys leg. maybe toni will have to work to save her, or possibly even has a part in getting her in that situation in the first place which could lend itself to an interesting examination of guilt and remittance.
tldr i want enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers with these two. they are interesting because they handle conflict differently and dont see eye to eye. getting rid of this dificulty for cute relationships sake dumbs down their dynamic. i dont want petty relationship drama, but i want the stakes raised and for them to disagree, argue, and possibly even separate. both need major personal growth to work well together and i would love to see guilt explored and high stakes because the genre allows for it
