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Extreme Fan
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 2,614
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The following was taken off an internet blog and it makes a lot sense.
The author is someone called Christ-Teen
Quote:
Shockingly (to me) I am one of the only 90's kids who is not a Joey?pacey shipper. Not only do I not ship Joey and Pacey, I actively dislike them together. Yeah, that’s right. I’m a Dawson and Joey shipper. A true believer! So let’s get to the facts.
First of all, Dawson and Joey and their relationship was the premise on which Dawson’s Creek was built. This is indisputable. In fact, everyone, even people who now consider themselves in the Joey/Pacey camp, started off as Dawson/Joey shippers. In that first season, all you wanted was for Dawson to realize that Joey was the greatest thing ever and that she was madly in love with him and that, in fact, he loved her too. Everyone was a Dawson/Joey shipper at least once. That isn’t something that’s easy to say for all ships or shows.
Secondly, let’s talk about the cuteness that was Pacey Witter and Andie McPhee in season 2 of DC. We all loved it! Yeah, Andie was a little bit of a loon (that seems a callous way to phrase it since she was, actually, someone who struggled with mental illness, but she was also a Marnie Michaels type—uptight, tightly wound, control freak), but Pacey was too much of a slouch back then anyway. Together, Andie and Pacey did a lot for one another. Pacey not only helped Andie through her mental health struggles (remember the scene where he climbed up to her window to tell her he was the #1 person in the Andie McPhee fan club?), but he also helped her relax and enjoy herself a bit more too (see, e.g., the episode where she gets drunk and sings karaoke). And Andie’s effect on Pacey is measurable throughout the entire series run of Dawson’s Creek. Heck, even way after she’s left the show, Andie returns to celebrate Pacey’s graduation with him. And she’s the most important person there with him because she was the first person to believe in him. (In case you couldn’t tell, I’m also a Pacey/Andie true believer).
I think that there’s a clearly identifiable moment where Dawson’s Creek just went utterly wrong: the season 3 decision to have Andie cheat on Pacey in the mental institution. This was not only implausible, it was freaking absurd. (Side note: who remembers the Dawson’s Creek website the summer between season 2 and season 3? You could go onto each character’s “desktop” and see their things. On Pacey’s, for example, you could see letters exchanged between him and Andie while she was away. The letters actually set the table for the breakup because Andie starts to pull away and get weird toward the end of the summer. Naturally, I found that deeply irritating.) First of all, why would Andie cheat? She and Pacey ended season two with this incredibly heartfelt breakdown, recovery, and huge exchange of love and support before she went off to the institution. Andie was super messed up at that point—she was in the center to recover her health and get back to her life and boyfriend. Period. I know she was a teenager, but you would think that a mental health facility would keep better tabs on its residents! I mean really, was fraternizing allowed? This plot choice was depressing, it stunk, and honestly, I don’t think Dawson’s ever really recovered. (True Life: The final nail in the DC coffin, though obviously I watched it continuously and obsessively throughout its run on The WB, was the lobotomy the writers inflicted on Joey Potter’s character after she went away to Worthington. Joey was my favorite character on the show—a sharp, sassy, sarcastic tomboy who had a lot of feelings, but buried them under a sheen of quips as a defense mechanism. That’s my kind of gal. Worthington and post-Worthington Joey was a sad facsimile of her former self, who became obsessed with boys and her hair was often three colors at the same time and it was all just horrible.)
But I deeply digress. Not only did Joey and Pacey each have other OTPs (is that the right usage?) with whom they should have ended up; they also had some of the worst moments in Dawson’s history together! Case in point: the scene in the cabin where Pacey brushes Joey’s hair. That scene is ATROCIOUS and it makes me feel gross. I don’t think I’ve watched it in years because I hate it so much. Even the Joey/Pacey shippers I know feel grossed out by that scene. They also have that horrible, late era-DC episode where they get trapped in a KMart together and, I believe, Joey’s shaves Pacey’s face. (Clearly, I have a problem with grooming scenes.) I don’t totally blame them for that because all of Dawson’s Creek was terrible at that point, but still. I will say that I love the Joey and Pacey breakup on the prom boat during season 4. Obviously J/P shippers hate it, because it’s a fight in which both parties explicitly confront everything that’s wrong about their relationship (she’s successful, he’s lazy and jealous and can’t handle it), so naturally, I loved it.
Look, the bottom line is, the premise of Dawson’s Creek in which I, and everyone else, became invested was that of smart, sarcastic, emotionally damaged brunette girl who finally wins the heart of good guy, best friend, and neighbor, for whom she’s always pined. That was a story that every 7th grade girl like myself wanted to see. And we were ultimately deprived of that story because, it seemed, the writers got bored. I will forever lament that Dawson and Joey were never allowed to really flourish and have time together as a couple. Do you realize that the only extended stretch in which Joey and Dawson were together was the first, maybe, 8-10 episodes of season 2? Then they break up because Joey wanted to “find herself” and then, after they get back together, Joey ridiculously and totally implausibly, breaks up with Dawson after he tells her that her Dad is dealing drugs again. I mean, really, was that Dawson’s fault? And that was the last we ever really got to see Joey and Dawson be together. Why? For a show built around Joey and Dawson getting together, it seems incredibly bizarre.
So yeah, I believe that, given the chance, Dawson and Joey would have made the better pairing than Joey and Pacey. And that’s why, except for the first time I saw it, I’ve never again watched the series finale past the scene of Joey and Dawson on the bench. In my mind, that’s how it ends—the way we were promised it would.
“A soul mate, it’s like a best friend, but more. It’s the one person in the world that knows you better than anyone else. It’s someone who makes you a better person. Actually, they don’t make you a better person, you do that yourself because they inspire you. A soul mate is someone who you carry with you forever. It’s the one person who knew you and accepted you and believed in you before anyone else did or when no one else would. And no matter what happens, you’ll always love her. Nothing can ever change that.”
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