msstock87

I know these two would make it work. I can see them both working and having day to day arguments but being completely and 100 percent happy.

MistyMountainHop

Just like Red and Kitty -- except even better because Hyde's less of a misanthrope than Red is and more emotionally open (hard to believe, but it's true).

FuriosityShell

The more I think about it, the more I don't really like the idea of Jackie and Hyde getting engaged at the end of S7. While that ending wold have surely been better than the one we got, I still don't think they were ready for it.

msstock87

I believe it.

I do like how Jackie and Hyde mirrored Red and Kitty a lot.

shyjamie

Except for Jackie can't touch an egg and she would rather hire someone to do the housework.

msstock87

Hopefully she gets over her egg phobia.

MistyMountainHop

I get that. Hyde and Jackie are still only twenty-years-old and eighteen-years-old, respectively, by the end of season 7, and -- considering who Hyde is -- an engagement isn't realistic for the real world. But T7S is a TV show, and an engagement is a TV trope to prove commitment/indicate a happily ever after for two characters (though in real life, engagements don't necessarily lead to a life full of happiness).

I would've been happy had Hyde verbalized his commitment to Jackie by the end of the series/S7. He could've said, "Gettin' married? I'm not even close to ready for that cr -- stuff. But when I am, you're the chick I wanna get hitched to," and ... well, if I say more, I might spoil something I plan on doing in the comics.

Good thing Hyde knows how to cook.

msstock87

As long as I knew they were together by the end of the series and knew they were headed towards the direction of their future together I would have been happy.

banane

Me too. I wouldn't have minded them getting engaged, though. They are young but there is really nothing you can't do if engaged or married that woudl be different if you are not, after all. I wouldn't have minded them just having an ending with no special revelation. Just them together, Jackie sitting on his lap, like they always do, no problems, no drama. I would have been happy with something simple like that.

MistyMountainHop

Same.

Putting all that OOC crap into their mouths during S8 was just ... no. And not canon.

FuriosityShell

It's not just that they're young. I think they had issues to work out before they could get engaged. I didn't like how sloppy the writers wrote their breakups and reunions. It felt like Jackie and Hyde broke up in "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and "Don't Lie to Me" and got back together in "Join Together" and "Down the Road Apiece" because the plot demanded it, not for character development. Due to this, Jackie and Hyde didn't seem to learn from their breakups or advance as a couple, just stagnate and regress as we see in S7.

My ideal ending for the show would have been Eric and Donna finally going to Madison at the end of S7, Kelso going to Chicago to be with Brooke and Betsy and maybe Fez going with him. I would love for Hyde to get Kelso and Fez's apartment and surprise Jackie by asking her to move in with him, and hint that someday in the future, marriage would be an option. It would be a great way to ensure a happy ending, confirm that Jackie/Hyde are committed and a have a future together post-show and they would have the chance to keep on growing as they do so well with each other.

The sad part is S8 kind of lead me on a bit the first time I saw it. In the first episode of S8, it seemed like Jackie and Hyde were going to get back together until the stripper walked in. Then they just called it off. Perhaps the thing that upsets the most about S8's OOC Jackie/Hyde writing was how they didn't seem to care after they broke up. There was no pain from Jackie or Hyde, no closure between them at all. I regard S8 as canon, but it just takes place in a different universe from S1-S7.

It's obvious in the S8verse, Jackie and Hyde's relationship was nothing more than a fling. In S8, Fez tells Jackie he's always loved her even though he gave up on her all the way back in "Ice Shack". Jackie seriously considers marrying Kelso in S8 and says that she's always loved him. It's just not the OOC writing, but S8 is so riddled with continuity errors that it can't possibly take place in the same universe as S1-S7. So yeah, a different universe entirely.

msstock87

I would have been happy with them engaged. I was engaged young and am happily married but it all depends on the couple too.

As long as I knew they were happy together and had a future instead of the crap we got I would have been happy.

MistyMountainHop

It's the same with Eric and Donna. When they get back together in GTC (501), Donna wants to talk about what happened between them, and Eric says, "No. I don't care." But that was the writers not wanting to deal with the consequences. They wanted E/D happily together so they could move on with the storylines.

Jackie and Hyde's reconciliations sucked. The only good thing about them is that they brought J & H back together. Their S6 reconciliation doesn't acknowledge what broke them up at all and does not put Hyde in a good light. In fact, I'd say it unintentionally portrays Hyde as someone who doesn't deserve Jackie, and it conflicts with how he handled learning he'd "cheated on Jackie for nothing".

Real!Hyde would not think he was "sorry one" or the more injured party. He would know what he did with the nurse far outweighed Jackie's night of pitting him and Kelso against each other in a competition for her. I think he might've even been impressed with her guile -- if we take his attitude about her blackmailing him in "Ramble On" into account.

"Magic Bus," though, is nice in-character post-script to what should've been an in-character and well-written reconciliation.

But their reconciliation in season 7 mischaracterizes their whole relationship. What Jackie and Hyde say about why they're together is so far off the mark that it's laughable. It takes Jackie's line in GTC (501) about them being together as being "really dirty and really wrong" and ignores everything that came after it.

I could've lived (no pun intended ) with that.

msstock87

I think in general this show dealt with reconciliations in a bad way.

FuriosityShell

Agreed. But I was happy with the way Eric/Donna was handled in S5. While the writers made a mistake by not having the two of them deal with WHY they broke up, I did like their engagement storyline. It was obvious that, despite the fact that they loved each other, they weren't ready for engagement and I think that's how the writers wanted us to see it. And it would have been the same with Jackie and Hyde. They could have gotten engaged in S7, but they wouldn't have been ready for it.

Yeah, Hyde was a jerk in "Join Together". Jackie did string them along in "Celebration Day" and it was implied that she had spent the whole summer continuing to do, so I can understand him being a bit upset by that, but Jackie was definitely the real injured party as he "cheated on her for nothing". S6 really disappointed me with the lack of follow-through to S5. Hyde's actions in "Nobody's Fault But Mine" were definitely plot manipulating character and it required a HUGE suspension of disbelief. But I did like the aftermath in "Immigrant Song" and "Celebration Day". Hyde telling Jackie he loves her, their scene in the hospital together in "Immigrant Song", Hyde telling Kelso he's "never felt this way about a girl before" and Jackie choosing herself were great moments. I like the idea of Jackie using the summer and first few episodes of S6 to find herself before getting back with Hyde, who would wait for her to make a decision. Jackie instead being the one to chase after a seemingly remorseless Hyde was disappointing.

Their S7 reconciliation was just bad. I'm grasping at straws, but the only thing I can come up with for it was maybe they missed the thrill of just having an uncomplicated, purely physical relationship like "Going to California" and the summer between S4 and S5? I don't know. But it was horribly OOC and contradictory to what we had seen before.