MistyMountainHop

Of course you are! Your creativity and sense of humor always brightened up the T7S board.

That's how it seems to work. A person stops watching the show. Watches it again years later -- and bam! J/H feels and S8 hate.

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Colleen, you're on the board of directors of that club, along with me.

ride the lightning

You are too sweet At least someone misses my sarcastic nature

Yes! I'll never forgive them for it! Thank goodness S1 - 7 were so good though

MistyMountainHop

Yeah. The S8 showrunners squandered the opportunity they were given, but the people who hired them clearly didn't understand T7S either. Because the S8 showrunners (before they were hired) had a specific vision for S8 (i.e. bring it back to a season-1 feeling ... which they didn't even do), and that's what got them hired.

At least we got enough consistent characterization during S1-S7 that we can imagine how J/H would've actually continued after season 7.

msstock87

We all know in reality Jackie and Hyde ended up together.

MistyMountainHop

They definitely did. And the nurse incident never happened.

msstock87

Yes! The nurse incident never happened and neither did season 8!

MistyMountainHop

It shouldn't have -- and it wouldn't have had Hyde been written in-character. Even the writers knew they were manipulating him. Otherwise, they wouldn't have had that scene where Roy asks Hyde if he's talked to Jackie about what he saw at Donna's, and Hyde says, "No. Come on, man. I'm done with talking."

msstock87

Hyde was being written out of character a lot. I like to think of all the great in character things he did for Jackie though.

MistyMountainHop

So do I. Hyde has a lot of great character moments, and his most consistent characterization (his core) is wonderfully complex. Jackie, too, although that complexity wasn't acknowledged by the writers (or characters) despite that we see it in many episodes.

Grazzhopper

It is sad when that happens for the sake of plot or comedy or simply due to the writers being lazy or forgetful.

MistyMountainHop

Yeah. Wasted potential.

But at least enough good material was written for fanfic writers to work with and create better stories than what we eventually got on the show.

Grazzhopper

There is always that. As long as there are talented fans around, a ship will never truly be dead because it lives on and expands in their creations.

MistyMountainHop

Speaking of, so many future!fics for J/H are angsty (thanks to season 8), and they don't take place that far in the future. Five years at the most. But I'd like to write and read a future!fic of what J/H's lives are like ten to twenty years after the show takes place. See what they'd be like. Lots of story and character possibilities.

msstock87

I think I have ran across a few stories of them 10-20 years down the line but I don't remember what I thought of them at the moment! I am sure some of them were good!

MistyMountainHop

I've seen some, too, but none drew me in. Usually, it's about their kids, but the kids aren't characterized in a way that truly relates back to Jackie and Hyde. It's about "the next generation" of stoners in a basement (but T7S was, at its best, far more than that).