#like canonically reggie has trouble focusing on and understanding what people say

[askandsmile]

Hi babe! (I am still here, lurking around lol). Talk to me about how Reggie/Veronica/Archie is the true missed love triangle (ot3??) of Riverdale. Like, obviously Varchie was always gonna love each other more than they would Reggie but this triangle could have been hilarious and great in season 3 and wasn't (bc Riverdale). What would you have done with it? Season 3 focused of course because who cares about Reggie v. 2.

baaaaaaaaaaaabe! missed you.

under the cut for those who don't want to see me talking about this lol i know some don't

okay, so i'd start in the summer between season 2 and season 3.

reggie was kind of dropped by josie out of nowhere and he sees her going around with sweet pea and understands nothing. he also lives in an abusive household. he spends a lot of time at pop's, where veronica is working. archie is always around there too, and they're basically the only people in town that reggie can talk to atm (moose and kevin are having their secret thing so they are not always available lol).

while he spends a lot of time with varchie, he gets a little jealous of that relationship. they're very close and in love. but everytime archie leaves he sees how veronica is really trying to keep it together, notices how she's almost cracking, so afraid to lose him. he says some stupid shit to make her laugh and it often works.

a day before the trial, archie asks reggie to take care of her/protect her if anything happens to him.

when archie pleads guilty reggie is kinda angry at him, because he's seen first hand how hard veronica worked for that not to happen. he keeps going to pop's and offers help at the speakeasy, kind of to replace archie, who had been helping before. she accepts it. when she tells him about archie's sneakers, he offers to go with her to the mall, etc.

in my head, archie should've broken up with her sooner. a little after the jailhouse rock thing. of course, he does it to protect her - hiram threatens him, says veronica will be the one getting hurt next time, and archie does what he has to do. it's heartbreaking for him, but he wants her to be free of the ~harm that's being with her.

veronica would be equally heartbroken and angry. she would definitely know something's up, but archie would be strong in his decision. regardless, veronica would move out of the pembrooke and start living at pop's attic (obsessed with this idea by @flwrpotts, it's my canon).

then we'd have veronica reverting back to her old veronica days, drinking and partying and just losing it. betty would be worried, cheryl too, so veronica would slowly cut them off her life until the only one left was reggie, who was protecting her - also pissed at archie - but also ended up finding some sort of escape when he sees this new side of her, party and flirty and crazy. and during these times they'd start to fuck.

reggie would feel guilty for it, stop giving archie any news. until then, he used to visit archie. he stops. veronica would eventually notice reggie's troubles at home and they'd become closer. he would spend more time with her (and her booze and her drugs) than in his own house. they'd isolate themselves from others.

then, archie would be released. jughead and betty would be the ones who did it. when he comes back, she tries to stop it, but they immediately fall into each other's arms. but things wouldn't be the same, there's still too much hurt between them. he still is afraid her dad will hurt her. and it would be sort of a mess for a moment - veronica not being able to trust archie, archie not wanting to tell her the truth about their breakup and making things worse, reggie angry because he was sidelined.

veronica ends up "choosing" reggie because whatever archie has going on isn't working for her, it just hurts her more. but after that, reggie learns what really happened, while talking to archie. archie tells him that hiram is to blame. reggie tells veronica the truth, even if he's scared he'll lose her.

at first, he doesn't lose her, but little by little she starts to get closer to archie again with loads of mutual pining and reggie getting insecure. at some point, it gets unsustainable, and they breakup. #tome that would happen around prom. she'd go with reggie but they'd end it, and by the end of the party, archie would find her sitting alone and sit with her.

into s4 everyone would be single - veronica, reggie, and archie. it would be sort of painful between reggie and v, a little aggressive between archie and reggie, and veronica and archie in a friendship with tension. in the first football game of the season, though, the bulldogs would win, and veronica would kiss archie. the choice has been made!

(i don't know veggie s5/s6, i really don't, never saw anything more stupid in my life lol)

[crazy-loca-blog]

Disclaimer: Please note I’m neither a psychologist, nor a psychiatrist nor an expert in mental health. Everything I’m writing here is based on some reading I’m currently doing on this topic and on some personal experiences.

Even though I’m really, really happy and my heart is exploding because most of the LIs FINALLY stopped treating our MC as a friend and began to treat them publicly as a significant other (because you’ve deserved it for a long, long time guys!), I know that those people who are romancing Ethan are actually hurt and mad because he seems to be pushing our MC away AGAIN. But what if I told you I’m beginning to see this as canon for him? Like he’s actually not pushing the MC away because he wants to but because he is showing a part of his personality or something that is a result of his experiences as a kid instead?

A few days ago, I found a psychology article about attachment and how self-sufficiency can be very negative when taken to the extreme. For some reason, the article really stuck with me because I had never heard something like that and because I might have felt that some of the stuff on it represented me, to the point that I talked to some psychologist friends because I wanted to know more about it. And after reading the latest Open Heart chapter, I couldn’t stop wondering “what if this is the actual reason why Ethan seems to be pushing the MC away? What if he doesn’t even realize what he’s doing?”

These are some excerpts from the article (the original one is in Spanish):

“Being excessively independent and self-sufficient is a sign of having suffered great disappointments, to the point that we feel that we cannot trust anyone but ourselves.”

Sounds familiar? Another one:

“[…] when we show ourselves to be hyper-independent -and we don’t resort to the help of third parties- we are actually revealing something deeper. Some defense mechanism to protect us against the eventual possibility of rejection, damage or suffering.”

And what do you think of this longer one?

“[…] as adults, [these children] stick with their careers and what they feel they can control. Deep and intimate relationships turn into threats. Being vulnerable is not an option, because if they are rejected […] they may find the loneliness they know well. When they grow up, people who create bonds from avoidant attachment find it difficult to recognize their own needs. They are extremely independent, they can do everything on their own, but they really fear not being good enough for others, and ultimately they fear rejection. They are adaptive people, who can even be very successful in a society, but when it comes to intimate relationships, it is difficult for them to overcome those barriers.”

And a bonus, just because I can’t leave this out:

“This hyper independence can be linked to traumatic situations, even unconsciously. These experiences can translate into greater difficulty when setting up a couple project or a work project, or when committing to someone or something. Because of course, committing also means showing yourself vulnerable.”

Did you read them all? These quotes have the name Ethan Ramsey written all over the place! All of them are from professional psychologists who based their opinions on the Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment: Studies in the Theory of Emotional Development by Donald Winnicott and on the Theory of Attachment by John Bowlby. Based on this theory, Ethan would be an avoidant attachment type of person. In very simple words, he is “someone who […] often sees himself as independent and able to ‘go it alone’. He often maintains strict boundaries, can be emotionally distant, and has a hard time opening up to their partners or making and keeping close relationships.”

So based on all of this, I think Ethan may not even notice that he’s pushing the MC away because that’s part of who he is. He is so used to solve everything by himself, to be independent and to not rely on anyone when he has a problem (because that’s how he has managed to survive all of his life), that even though the MC constantly tells him that he’s not alone anymore he has trouble processing the message. The fact that he is also an only child may have even helped to exacerbate this behavior because, as he has no siblings, he had no choice but to deal with things by himself (and here I’m talking from the experience, I was an only child until I was 14 and I left my parents’ home right after turning 18, so you can tell I know a thing or two about growing up on your own).

His relationship with his dad also had an effect on him. Alan even described Ethan as a perfect son for a single parent. He always did his homework, helped at home and worked during summer. And he even said he didn’t have to motivate Ethan to do anything, that he did all of that by himself. But then the article says: “Parents who generate avoidant attachments with their children are mostly caregivers who are not fully emotionally available to them and therefore are concerned that they function from autonomy. That makes the child act in a certain way, to try to attract or to please those unavailable dads.” So what if Ethan did all of this not only because he wanted to do it, but also because he was involuntarily trying to please his dad? The article adds: “It is not a lack of love [from the parents]; it has to do with the caregivers having difficulties on terms of affective connection, so these children learn to adapt and be complacent.”

Should we also analyze Ethan’s social skills? We all know he hates parties and having to socialize could be a nightmare for him. Do you remember that he became friends with Dolores just because she kept in touch with him and she was the one who invited him to have a coffee? Or how Naveen took him under his wing not only as his mentee, but also as his putative son and friend? Or more recently… have you ever noticed how he basically never mingles with our friends, especially in book 3? Have you ever seen him at Donahue’s talking to anyone but the MC and Reggie? Did you notice that during Ines’ wedding he wasn’t with Harper and Tobias, with Naveen or with Baz? He is always by himself!

Let’s move on to his romantic relationships. Besides the MC, the only relationship we know about is with Harper. Have you ever wondered how their relationship was? For some reason, I’ve always felt it wasn’t as serious for him (we don’t have her side of the story). Sure, he cares about her a lot, but he never loved her, even though they dated for a long time. In fact, when I hear him talking about his relationship with Harper, I kind of feel like the only reason they were dating was to keep each other company. Did they have plans as a couple? Did they ever live together? Did they meet each other families? Did they ever talk about marriage? Did he ever tell her he loved her? I have too many questions, but for some reason I think the answer to all of them is “no”.

Finally, have you noticed how focused he is on his job? And please let’s forget about Ethan in book 3 because we all know the MC is solving every single case… I mean… he must have been an intern or a resident when he wrote his book! Let’s also remember how he was obsessed with diagnosing Naveen in book 1 or how in book 2 he focused himself on helping as many patients as possible before Edenbrook’s closure. Of course, let’s add that the man is a perfectionist as well (do you remember when he was mortified and ashamed for misdiagnosing a patient ONCE?).

So yeah, I’m beginning to think that all of this is not about Ethan being mean to the MC and repeating the same story over and over again on purpose. Instead, I think it has to do with his personality as a character and with his childhood experiences. But of course, we all know there is no way that PB makes any reference to this, I just needed to get it off my chest (and to stay awake until 5:30 am writing this) because when I connected everything I was like "OMG!" 🤯

Where can you find more info about this topic?

https://bit.ly/3toNBaA (this one in Spanish, but Google Translator might help you to understand it)

https://bit.ly/33qmbGP (this one is in English)

#playchoices #choices stories you play #open heart #choices open heart #open heart choices #ethan ramsey