Jaiden kinda sucks.
I’m making a post about this from the pure fact nobody seems to be talking about it, and while I’ll try to take an open standpoint this is entirely my opinion.
The categories:
Aiden (S2 overview)
James (S2 overview)
Jaiden in AS and S2
Let’s begin
SEASON 2: AIDEN
Where do I even begin on how dirty Aiden was done this season. He’s seen to be a kindhearted, slightly stubborn, twinkish guy who’s quick to form a grudge against James, but he’s compassionate enough to suddenly hop into Lake’s storyline to tell her that her parents are fucked (I don’t know why they had Aiden do this frankly, any character could’ve).
This post isn’t about how awful his writing is, but for a character that’s supposed to be kind and friendly, he’s around James way too much. All of his most memorable scenes are him being pissy at James, and out of context that victimises James WAY too much. James is way too glorified in the overall Jaiden plot.
SEASON 2: JAMES
I’ve already said it, but I’ll happily say it again. James is way too victimised in Season 2. He’s in general just an awful person, who’s development was rushed and purely for the sake of yaoi. Way to go, DC writing team, you made another ship into fetish content.
I’ll properly go through my main and infamous problem with him in the Jaiden section, but holy shit this man is insufferable, they were way too desperate to give him himbo energy.
I think the fandom can be blatantly misogynistic with who they call murderer on this season. Riya attempted murder, so did Yul, and James was the closest one to succeeding! If you call Yul an attempted murderer, James is just as, if not even more guilty. He took part in the plan against Aiden, mind you. He only seems like a hero because in the end he attempts to murder someone else. I hate Yul as much as the next Gabby or Grett fan, but yikes, the fandom got over that much too fast.
Season 2: Jaiden
Holy shit, there’s so much to cover. I think we may as well start with the most infamous scene that fuels both my James and Jaiden hate, and if it wasn’t obvious by now…
If the video doesn’t speak paragraphs for itself, this is blatant sexual assault. Sexual assault James gets no reprimanding for. It was another scene where they’re trying to present Aiden as an innocent twink who gets mad at James over small things, but frankly that was an underreaction, Aiden has balls to not drag his ass..
The first kiss wasn’t sexual assault, Aiden consented to the bare minimum. James pulling Aiden back in when he physically resisted IS sexual assault. I see a LOT of James fans (a certain youtuber who had controversy on X before proceeding to apologise then not change the slightest bit) try and excuse this with ‘Oh, the person who wrote it is weird!!’ or ‘Ah, let’s just pretend it doesn’t exist because it’s weird!’ While they’re not wrong, since presumably Carazar Zone wrote the kiss challenge in, the scene exists. The scene is canon, and you’re ignoring and defending sexual assault. You’re the Melaine fans of the DC fandom I fear..
The rest of the season goes relatively the same, James gets Aiden to forgive him, James fucks up, Aiden gets mad, and the cycle repeats. This is the most stupid trope to ever exist, no wonder Season 2 gets so much shit. With this cycle, really they shouldn’t of gotten together by the end of Season 2. That’s a setup for a disgustingly unhealthy relationship. Fuck this season, fuck Jaiden, fuck that bitchass motherfucker James🔥😭
ALL STARS: JAIDEN
In all honesty, this season would’ve been way more interesting if Aiden still had his brain from early S2 so he didn’t get with James and was still fucking mad at him, meanwhile TomJake was the side yaoi relationship that’s going impossibly well for how repeated the dynamic was.
Not only would Aiden have a justified reason to be mad at James (sexual assault, joining an attempted murder plan, using him for followers multiple times, etc), but it would make sense for James to be a first boot if no one there fucking liked him. Even then, if you move around the placements in all the seasons so James has Tom’s AS elimination spot and Aiden has Jake’s, it’d still be much more watchable, since they have reason to hold a grudge.
I love Tom, I love his autism coded, I fucking hate his child design but I forgive him, but it was never actually explained on why he didn’t at least send a dry ‘ok’ to Jake. Jake however, I will defend until I’m buried in the fucking pits of hell, that man has BPD, and that man had completely justified reactions because of that. I fucking love and hate both of them, they didn’t need that much focus.
Obviously the writing team didn’t do this, so we’re stuck with the reality of them being a happy and presumably healthy couple. I love All Stars Jaiden, a lot. I hate Jaiden in the context that Season 2 is canon and not just a bad dream. If Jaiden was just an out of the pocket ship they introduced in the first episode of All Stars, similar to YulGrett, I’d be all for it, because holy shit their colour palettes compliment each other, but they weren’t, we digress I suppose.
hope you enjoyed my little rant
