#jeia

[squidward-irl]

I love you T90S. I love you happily ever after Eric + Donna. I love you Leia Forman and Jay Kelso and Nate and Gwen and Nikki and Ozzie. I love you Grandpa Red and Gramma Kitty. I love you Point Place High. I love you 90s fashion. I love youuuu

[thatseventiesbitch]

If season 3 of t9s got renewed how do you think Donna wanting to send Leia to catholic school would have played out?

I think we would indeed have seen Leia attending Our Lady Of Perpetual Sorrow (😭) at the beginning of season 3, as punishment for the night before school shenanigans on the roof. That would have been a source of stress for Leia's friendships and relationships - being separated from Jay and her friends just when she thought she was going to get to go to school with them and fully assimilate, so to speak. In addition to the strain on she and Jay's relationship after the reveal that he stole Kitty's keys to get them onto the roof... I could see some cracks forming.

Donna, I imagine, would continue to be guest starring a handful of times a season and we'd continue to see this new dynamic play out where she feels the need to give Leia stricter boundaries and begins to fear her daughter doing the things she did as a teenager (finally relating to the feelings Eric was having in the pilot), and she and Kitty butt heads in their approaches to Leia's teenage rebellion. Donna would slowly have to figure out that she needs to let Leia learn from her own mistakes, and Kitty would be sympathetic and reflective about her own parenting mistakes, leading to some great bonding moments and character growth for both.

In the end, I like to imagine that Donna decides to let Leia transfer back from the Catholic school to Point Place High, right as Leia and Jay finally call it quits and break-up. Setting up the drama for season 4 perfectly...

[starchaser45]

I do in fact believe that jeid could have been great if it happened in earlier seasons or if she wasn't MARRIED

[getyoursorryasstomine]

Ships so rich that they get reduced to one aspect of their relationship (lust)

[winnie-the-monster]

😂 oh, Jay bless your heart.

[sulietsexual]

Jay & Leia in Parts 2 & 3 That '90s Show [2023 - 2024] Requested by @piperslovebot

[yenalii]

OKAY BUT IN ADDITION TO THIS TWEET (which is so true)

what if i say drop dead is jeia coded too

[thestupidhelmet]

How would you have written the Jay and Leia's first time storyline? You talked about how there was no emotional impact and it basically just fell flat, so how would you have handled it?

Hi! 😃

Within the context of T9S as it is, that's a tough question to answer. Jay and Leia's first time storyline fits the overall lighter, more superficial tone of T9S vs. T7S.

I would've rewritten Jay and Leia's whole storyline, tbh. I would've given both characters different core characterizations, particularly Jay. Leia's malaise and unhappiness at her Chicago life would remain the same; the cause for it would be deeper.

The foundation of their relationship would've built on depth rather than the superficiality of a Kelso clone who's capable of lasting growth and a Leia whose unhappiness is portrayed as significantly deeper than the reasons the show gives for it.

Like Eric/Donna and Jackie/Hyde before them in T7S, Jay and Leia would've connected with each other through finding solace from their woes in each other as well as joy.

Donna is Eric freedom from his (perceived and actual) suffocating and hyper-controlled home life. Eric is Donna's emotional stability and safety that she doesn't have at home.

Jackie is Hyde's challenger to face his fears of abandonment and his teacher that he's not unlovable. Hyde is Jackie's teacher that love isn't shiny presents and obedience but acts of love, like sacrificing what makes him happy to cheer her up, going to jail in her stead, becoming homeless (almost) to protect her reputation, and so much more.

Jay and Leia's relationship lacks depth because the characters do. As I've written previously, Jay in actuality would not be a Kelso clone with his upbringing by two ever-divorcing, ever-remarrying parents who are in a toxic relationship. He'd have a lot of emotional baggage and, hopefully, be a thoughtful kid rather than being a relatively carefree womanizer who overuses the word bro.

Leia is raised by two loving parents in a healthy relationship yet suffers from a sadness that is portrayed (intentionally or not) as mild depression. Finding joy and freedom in Point Place starts with her discovering Gwen, who is her real force of change. T9S would've needed Leia to stumble upon Jay, not Gwen, letting loose in his room to forge that bond.

Like Eric and Donna, their relationship would've begun platonically. Their first attraction to each other would be emotional, not aesthetic or sexual. In season 1, we would've seen their bond develop and grow, connecting Leia to Jay's friend group and -- perhaps -- causing some insecurity-jealousy-resentment from Jay's best friend, Nate. At the end of season 1, Jay and Leia's emotional bond has transformed into a romantic one, and they kiss.

In season 2, Part 1, Jay and Leia would navigate figuring out whether they want to "sacrifice" their friendship for a romance. Leia might be idealistic about it because of her parents' relationship while Jay is more cautious because his parents' relationship sucks. He'd rather keep a healthy friendship with Leia than risk a potentially toxic romance with her.

But with guidance from his friends and Red and Kitty, he realizes he and Leia don't have to be Jackie and Kelso or Eric and Donna. They can be Jay and Leia. Part 1 ends with Jay and Leia officiallybin a romantic relationship.

In season 2, Part 2, Leia is sex-positive and ready to have that connection with Jay. Jay, however, has witnessed how sex tears his family apart. He's afraid that having sex might turn him into his dad, and he'd never want to hurt Leia the way his dad hurts his mom. This would be a nice parallel and reversal of Eric and Donna's storyline in T7S.

Leia, and perhaps other characters, help Jay understand that he's nothing like his dad. He's not selfish or narcissistic. That he worries about hurting Leia proves this fact (as does so much more). Betsy, too, could've been used as an ally rather than an antagonistic. She and Jay could've bonded over and validated their dad's awfulness to their mothers.

Jay and Leia connecting sexually, having their first time, would be an affirmation of the freedom and joy they've found in each other. The actual act could've been awkward, although Donna prepared Leia how to make it less awkward. Sexually-experienced Nate could've given Jay good advice: 1) jerking off earlier in the day so that he'd last longer with Leia and 2) all about foreplay being important (although it might've been an hilarious callback to T7S had Kitty told him this information).

The scene itself, with all the emotional build up of season 1 through much of season 2, would've allowed for Jay and Leia's first time to have a similar emotional impact for the audience as Eric and Donna's.

In the aftermath, Leia is blissful and shares TMI with her friends. Jay, though, is happy but anxious. He still thinks he's got a ticking time bomb of his dad's infidelity in him. So he proposes he and Leia not have sex again for a while. In his mind, this will prove he doesn't need sex to be happy.

Leia: You mean like a week?

Jay: More like a month, maybe two. Three at the most.

Leia: I might be in Chicago or California by then if my mom doesn't let me stay in Point Place.

To Leia's mind, she thinks Jay hated having sex with her.

This conflict is resolved swiftly, however (in an episode). Jay admits enthusiastically that he loved having sex with Leia. He felt super close to her. He's just afraid he'll sleep with another girl.

Leia: Do you was to sleep with another girl?

Jay: No! But what if it's instinct, like salmon returning to where they were born to spawn?

Leia grasps his shoulders gently and kisses him. Afterward, she says, "Were you thinking another girl then?"

Jay: I wasn't thinking at all! I just --

Jay kisses Leia back, passionately. This leads to them making love again.

As they hold each other in bed, Leia says, "Still scared?"

Jay: Of what?

Leia: Cheating on me with other girls.

Jay (deadpan): What is cheating? Or other girls? I don't understand these alien concepts.

He and Leia grin at each other then make out.

***

The deeper the characters, the deeper the storylines. T9S's writing isn't deep. It's easy. It's funny but nowhere near as funny as T7S because -- at its best -- T7S's humor rose organically from the deeper characters and their deeper storylines.

T9S is another case of having a great opportunity, a great cast, and squandering it by writing toward the middle to satisfy nostalgic T7S fans and appeal to new ones. T7S didn't have the pressure of being a sequel to another show. Its creators were free to be fully original.