#this started out as a jarchie edit but then i started thinking about all four of them and it fit maybe even better

[theultimatewildcard]

You said it was a great love One for the ages But if the story's over Why am I still writing pages?

[nooowestayandgetcaught]

i wanna preface this by saying: 

no, i don’t think you shouldn’t ship what you want. no, you shouldn’t be generalized for what you ship. this is just a critical analysis on the (admittedly, unsurprising) phenomena i witnessed for betty&jughead ship

it really is a “phenomena” to me because there was no telltale indication that they had romantic interest in each other that pre-dates the 1st kiss

(i’ll get back to that later on in this)

but... it’s canon? why are you picking on this one?

i’m genuinely not trying to

i was up for anything in this show tbh as long as it wasn’t the damn love triangle. i didn't come into this show with any preconceived expectations other than PRAYING for no love triangle bullshit

why? 

because i never encountered spoilers during this whole time

here’s the kicker: i think the leaks were on purpose. because what happened? it planted the idea (whether or not you were for or against betty&jughead) that the ship would be inevitable, and forced people to visualize it a certain way

ahead of time

doing this attempted to make up for the lack of romantic development

it’s shady and manipulative on the cw’s part, if that’s the case

but then again: what american television markets on is the safety net of heteronormativity. they pull in their lgbt+ audience with “baiting” (the beronica kiss in the first episode, the jarchie bathroom scene in the promos), but to ensure the homophobes won’t throw a fit, they put together a seemingly “straight” couple as the endgame or imply it to be it

this isn’t just the cw. this is a formula used in other american television programs as well. we are getting better, but it still exists

let’s try to as much as we can and look objectively at every betty&jughead scene before that 1st kiss (and by objectively, i mean this is coming from the perspective of someone who wasn’t spoiled beforehand) 

so what happens?

episode 2: 

- archie and jughead show up at pop’s while betty and veronica are together. archie stares at the girls, and he does this long enough and obviously enough, until jughead notices him staring. betty offers the invitation for them to the join the girls. archie does not respond and continues staring (arguably longingly) so jughead takes it upon himself to answer for archie and himself - since this outing with the boys includes the both of them. he introduces himself to veronica and bypasses her handshake, leaping over the back of the booth seat and sitting down beside her. all four of them enjoy hanging out, but seemingly nothing telltale about betty & jughead concerning interactions

pretty self-explanatory stuff 

episode 3:

- betty calls jughead over one of the classrooms and says he is doing a story about jason’s murder and makes a case by saying the whole thing started as a series of artciles. piecing that together, she asks if he would join the school newspaper. he refuses initially, and when she pushes for it, he asks if he’ll be given creative freedom. he’s not given the exact response he wants “i’ll help, and i’ll edit, and suggest” which jughead narrows his eyes and doesn’t look convinced, but he is eventually persuaded and does with both of them smiling

a lot of their interaction in this is playfully done, due to their already established friendship - jughead messing with the magnifying glass, his nose-wipe, betty’s use of ‘juggy’ and her body language being extremely loose and comfortable

but nothing inherently romantic is being shown. it appears to be a pleasant but platonic scene between them 

- the last scene of betty & jughead together includes dilton. exactly nothing is said between them and the focus is on primarily on dilton talking

episode 4:

- the pop’s scene with jughead ranting about losing his job/the twilight drive-in getting shut down. he’s clearly angry and looks to betty occasionally for a reaction, and she says nothing and looks uncomfortable/disinterested the whole time. they’re sitting very close to each other in the small booth. jug calls her ‘bets’ at one point. betty sees archie with ms. grundy and jughead tries to grab her sweater to prevent her from talking to archie, seeming to panic since he knows about archie & ms. grundy AND knows betty knows about ms. grundy’s car being a sweetriver on the 4th of july 

the only time they seem to warm up to each other is when betty suggests playing “rebel without a cause” (which is actually a q-coded movie itself) and jughead smiles at her while she smiles back, and they laugh quietly. 

an inside joke? maybe she just knows he likes the movie? he decides to play it that night after all. so as friends of course she would know what movies jughead would like. we can only assume this. 

again, no romantic indications of anything happening here

episode 5:

- jughead, kevin, and betty are discussing jason’s murder case. trev shows up, asking betty if they were still hanging out at pop’s tomorrow. betty tries (and fails) to explain what trev interrupted, and jughead says plainly it’s their murder board. betty calls her and trev’s meeting a “date” - it elicits a reaction from kevin and jughead with both of them looking surprised. they call her out on saying it was a “date” and jughead’s expressions are contemplative and his tone is blunt, but still somewhat surprised and processing what he heard.

i’ve heard people say “he’s jealous” in this scene but i’m no sure where they are picking that out? surprise is not jealousy. thinking out what you just heard is not jealousy. his body language hasn’t changed since the start of the scene.

- betty and jughead discuss the news of polly’s suicide attempt. he apologizes to her and calls that heavy. jughead suggests they go into jason’s room to figure out what the actual story is of why jason was running. 

pretty ordinary stuff. the focus is on their next plan in the investigation.

- betty’s bedroom scene where she finishes up dressing for the funeral. jughead comes into the scene dressed up fairly nicely for the funeral. betty looks at him and smiles, clearly approving but say nothing. jughead says it’s the best he can do but smiles and looks away.

it’s pretty soft and adorable of a moment with jughead looking embarrassed by betty smiling, but it’s still not romantically charged.

- they enter jason’s bedroom, looking for something to help their investigation and get scared by jason’s grandmother inside the room they never noticed. jughead stands behind betty and grabs her shoulder. he places a hand between himself and betty who is close the intimidating/scary figure of the old lady.

i’ve seen the argument done of “jughead was protecting her” in this scene and honestly that’s not the case if you are reading body language. protecting her would have meant putting himself between betty and the threat. grabbing her shoulder/standing behind her looks more like he’s using her for a block against the threat/using her as a human meat shield. it’s made even worse by the fact he uses his hand to ‘guide’ betty closer to the scary thing while he stays back.

- the last scene where betty and jughead discuss betty’s parents are lying. jughead thinks they’re lying more. he writes out ‘the coopers’ are possible suspects, glancing at betty and passing it to her to pin on the murder board. jughead says they need to talk to polly.

nothing out of the ordinary again. the focus is on the investigation.

episode 6:

- jughead is invited over her breakfast by betty. betty does this bc alice cooper would be interested in keeping an eye on jughead. betty uses that opportunity to have jughead as a distraction (going to the bathroom) so she can go through her mom’s things and take photos on her mobile. 

self-explanatory

- by looking at alice’s things, betty and jughead find the place polly is being kept at by looking it up on one of the school computers.

again, self-explanatory 

- during lunch, archie asks what they’re up to and if they need help. both of them shut him down - betty uses archie’s practice as a way to change the subject; jughead points out that it’s a stealth mission. at one point, jughead makes eye contact with betty, indicating he would like to take a piece of her food and she indicates it’s okay and he takes something we don’t see.

as a tactical move, it was smart to shut archie down. involving more people puts their investigation at risk. nothing romantic about that. 

- they get on a bus to visit the facility polly is at. they clearly appear intimidated by how it looks, and jughead attempts to make a joke about it. betty is near tears but she straightens her ponytail and walks towards it. betty gets checked in but jughead is asked to be left behind. betty eventually gets shut inside a room until alice shows up, grabbing her hand and intending to take her home. jughead follows. polly makes a scene about alice not telling her about jason. betty hugs her. jughead tries to move forward, because he sees betty move forward, and gets shoved back by one of the staff. 

focus is on the investigation, but also at one point, betty’s safety. jughead hasn’t been scared into a reaction - which would be to protect himself first - so he acts by wanting to get closer to his friend and protect her. 

-jughead gets a ladder, calls her juliet, climbs through betty’s window, makes a ‘the yellow wallpaper’ joking reference, she calls her parents crazy, jughead calls all parents crazy, betty suggests maybe polly was crazy, or that she is

-jughead uses a very soft voice and touches betty’s shoulder, tells her "we’re all crazy” and that they’re not their parents 

this is the point where something felt off. the dialogue here felt stilted and didn’t make sense? jughead is trying to reassure her shes not like her parents, because betty is in distress and doesn’t need to hear that and yet.... he says all parents are crazy and that they’re (parents+betty+jughead) all crazy

... but yet he says she’s not like her parents?

the logic doesnt come together.

“juliet” IS a clearly romantic reference, which if you have been following this analysis this long, should actually surprise you and make you think “how?”

-betty smiles and then jughead looks like he wants to say something, and betty repeatedly asks “what?” before he takes hold of her face and kisses her

from there, i was lost. i felt like i was missing something essential. and then it hit me later that i was. the romantic development is what i was missing

where was it? was it the lack of romantic indications this far in, or was i supposed to let heteronormativity decide for me that this was inevitable?

or were the leaks supposed to guide me to believably like it did other people?

either way that’s why i feel lost

i actually think it's a good thing i wasn’t spoiled bc i feel like i had a more objective standing on how relationships were gonna be developed 

bc watching what is happening on screen with no idea what to expect and forming conclusions based on real time events is what keeps the experience​ objective and that’s why, to me, when that kiss happened i had nothing to back up why - no indicators, no obvious romantic chemistry

(that wasn’t possibly heteronormativity being pushed at us)

of course you can love them and ship it - you’ve got show-canon now to back you up! the point of this whole thing is to explain that when someone goes “heteronormativity and possibly manipulated events created this” that thing explains why someone ends up saying this