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Old 06-15-2019, 12:51 AM
  #69
clarkson_fan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Butterfly85 (View Post)
Well, in general I always felt that Dawson was always more into Joey (when it was convenient for him) than she was him but I agree she couldn't get away from him fast enough cause she was guilty and didn't have any more feelings for him. Then you see the rest of the season when Dawson acts like a crazed slave owner walking Joey on a leash, that she is MISERABLE around Dawson and in general. I don't get why he would even want to settle for second place. There was no denying she was in love with Pacey and wanted to be with him so badly.
Yeah, Katie plays it more like Joey is guilty because she doesn't feel that way for him anymore and feels awkward and uncomfortable and there's this big thing she's hiding from him and he's gonna be devastated and I bet she wishes she could love him like she used to, because then it would be easy for her to get back together with him and Pacey wouldn't even be a part of the equation, really.

But he is, and Joey knows it, she knows it deep down (maybe not even that deep down) that Pacey is who she wants, but she still loves Dawson - in a platonic way - but knows he wants her back (as evidenced by 3x19) and still loves her that way and this is gonna hurt him, so it just makes it worse.

I mean, look at what we get after he finds out - he makes an ultimatum, and in 3x23 Joey tells him if he hadn't, or if he would forgive her, she might have (would have) chosen differently, meaning she loved Pacey that way and not him.

Dawson is her security blanket, he's what's familiar, and he and his family are kind of home to her, and she doesn't want to lose that, so she "can't choose" for so long because of that, not actual romantic feelings on her part.

In 3x13 she says the way she FELT about Dawson, not feels.

In 3x19 she goes to Pacey, twice, to talk about their romantic relationship and ends up kissing him, she doesn't even think of doing this with Dawson.

In 3x20 she says she can't stop thinking about, wanting to kiss, or wanting to be around his best friend all the time. Nothing about wanting to be around Dawson that way too.

And like @Butterfly85 says, she's miserable throughout 3x21-3x23. She hates what Dawson's doing with the race in 3x21, doesn't find anything about what he is doing appealing, it actually makes her more miserable. She says the last thing she needs is another guy with romantic intentions for her - she needs a friend.

She says that to his face, that she needs him as a friend more than anything else. She maintains that they're building their friendship back up in 3x22, is pretty set on the idea that they go to the prom as friends, is uncomfortable the whole time she's with Dawson because he's making it clear he wants more.

She doesn't feel anything but misery when they're dancing, she's stiff and uncomfortable, she looks at Pacey instead of Dawson, she freaking melts in Pacey's arms and is so entranced by him it takes her quite a bit to notice Dawson standing there.

And it gets so bad that Dawson even comments on it in 3x23, and then at the end again when he goes "Come on, even I can see it."

Like...it really was no question, in the end. I know she says she "felt something" after he kissed in her in 3x22, but that could mean anything. From feeling just a bit of something to a lot, but given that she's all about Pacey and how she said she FELT and didn't FEEL about Dawson anymore, I would say it was just a lingering attraction, nothing more.

So, the point of my rant was...man, maybe it was never actually a LOVE triangle. It was, like in the series finale with what Joey said, a choice she had to make with herself, not between two men.

She was IN love with Pacey, always was. She loved Dawson, but as she says, it's "pure and eternally innocent" that isn't romantic, adult love.

So it was always between Pacey and her fear of losing Dawson, or more accurately the person who represented everything safe and secure and solid in her life. Joey always had people leaving her, intentionally or not, even Pacey, and I think that's what always scared her.

She was never really afraid of losing Dawson, though (except for when he made the ultimatum, but that isn't about romance), and kinda always knew he'd be there. That isn't romantic love, that isn't exciting or passionate or real. It's just comfort and security. Nice, but not your be all, end all romantic love, you know? Not true love.
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