#which to be honest is an extremely absurd situation that random makes me very mad because what can i do about it

[deathtodickens]

Myka: Somehow I don’t think Artie will be convinced but know that I support your pursuit for hazard pay, one hundred and ten percent…

Helena: I had very few doubts.

Myka: …even as your room sits completely sealed off with caution tape from the last explosive idea you had.

Helena: Hm. I suddenly have a couple extra doubts.

[thetaoofbetty]

I'm going back through other love triangles like Dawson's Creek and I feel like Riverdale is not a love triangle or even a love square (adding Veronica because the writers sure aren't). There was weight in both relationships. In Dawson's Creek there was a build up and a relationship between Joey and Dawson. We saw Joey pining, Dawson realising he felt something for her. The Kiss, the break up. Rediscovering each other. Then the breakup again at the end of the season. Enter Pacey....

Hello lovely! 

This is why I don’t think of DC as a real love triangle in the traditional sense, tbh, and am writing it the way I see it in my DC AU fic. When Joey gets rejected by Dawson in the first ep of s3, she takes him at his word (as we all should when someone tells us they don’t want us, if it’s a lie, the onus is on them to rectify it) and heals and moves on but still thinks of him as her best friend even though they’re not talking all that much. 

Enter Pacey, fresh off of a break up (a painful one, poor bb) after Dawson’s asked him to hang with Joey (pls no one let me go off on that and how icky it is but it was 20 years ago) and they take their time becoming real friends, they both heal from heartbreak first. Pacey has always cared about Joey (if not romantically, then as a person, it’s clear from s1 where he’s like, son of a bitch, potter, i am going to have to punch this guy for you, really??) Their build up was extremely well done, organic, and the pining was *chefs kiss*. 

Dawson wanting Joey back when Pacey wanted her had very little to do with Joey and more of the ownership he felt over her. He didn’t want her but he didn’t want anyone else to have her? That’s clear from, like, was it ep 8 or 9? I don’t remember but it’s the dancing one for anyone who does. Pacey calls him out on it and Dawson only calms down when he realizes Pacey wasn’t fooling around with Joey. 

God, that’s gross. I need a shower thinking about how he reacted to the idea of a girl he rejected being with someone else. After chasing some random girl’s tail for weeks before that. 

Anyways, I think the thing is, Joey isn’t pining after Dawson while not being able to choose, she’s trying to keep her best friend, which is also her longest friendship. She doesn’t have a ton of friends and she just wants everyone to get along. That’s pretty clear in the prom episode where she’s like, i thought you wanted to be friends again, bro? and he’s like, but no, joey, i manipulated this entire event just to get you to date me again because i am a tool bag.

And she was like, wtf? As she should have been. Which is all to say that I find B/A situation less like the Dawson/Pacey/Joey and more like the Nathan/Haley/Chris Keller situation in One Tree Hill if we’re being really honest. 

(yes, i’m aware veronica exists, i’m so mad for her, it’s absurd but in this instance, it’s the character traits/motivations i’m looking over the actual situation)

Nathan was supportive of her, never failed in seeing them together and Haley turned into a hot mess for a minute, letting anxiety and what ifs get the best of her, etc, and she kisses the other guy. Or he kisses her, whatever, it doesn’t matter in the long run, but she takes off, blah, blah, they’re not together, right? 

Which is to say that Haley regrets her choices, comes back and has to get Nathan to trust her again, the whole season is him loving her but not trusting her and her needing to forgive herself for making mistakes and committing herself to earning back his trust so they can be together, if he wants. She leaves the ball in his court (ha, how apropos). That Nathan gets to punch Chris Keller later is just...well, fun. Which is to say I find that scenario more relatable to bughead vs the DC one or the classic comics love triangle. 

Dammit, now I want to rewatch that season of OTH. Naley is so stinking cute, I cannot.