"It makes sense that Jonathan and Nancy broke up because most high school relationships don't work out" is such a bullshit take.
I can buy the rationale for them breaking up for space to grow and all that— I still don't think it was well executed— but to argue that it needed to end because it was a high school relationship and therefore wasn't realistically viable is frankly horse shit.
And yeah, I know I'm pissed and am taking it personally because I married my high school boyfriend. We dated and fell in love at 16, we went to separate colleges and then continued going to different schools for our graduate programs. We did long distance without breaking up for 9 years. We both got our terminal degrees, supported each other the whole time, and were able to make our lives work together. We only got married roughly 2 years ago after a 14 year long relationship (we actually got engaged during jancy week 2022, fun fact).
We are completely different people than we were when we were 16, we have seen so many seasons of our lives together and were able to grow both individually and together.
One of the things that drew me to jancy in the first place is how they explore the depths of finding real love at a young age in a way that honors such relationships. So when people, especially the creators, hand wave high school relationships away as unrealistic or less meaningful it makes my blood boil. My lived experience is rare, but it's the kind of thing we should be willing to accept in fictional stories that explore bonds between young characters, especially love. We invest time in these characters hoping for a good fictional ending that honors the story not one bursting with realism (and don't get me started on how they conveniently cherry pick decisions based on "realism').
The fact that the writers pivoted at the end and suddenly felt the need to explicitly break them up feels just so disingenuous and forces a contrived narrative they thought the audience was asking for (chronically online takes) more than where the narrative organically was taking the characters.
The epilogue only jumped another year and a half. They didn't need to show jancy married with kids at that point, this didn't have to be an all or nothing (break up or marriage at 20). They could have kept the goo room confession as a relationship restart where they commit to honesty, fostering their relationship, and helping one another live out their dreams. The epilogue could have had Jonathan and Nancy in New York and Boston, respectively, doing the long distance but looking happy and proud of one another and showing that they're making it work.
It's such a small tweak but it feels more aligned with the characters and achieves their narrative goals.
But no, instead we get "high school relationships are stupid. If it's real love they'll find each other again after the show is over." and an audience parroting the same.
Guess I should just go ahead an get divorced and start dating other people because I never found myself since I fell in love at 16.
