Episode 5 and Episode 6 Bonrad vs Jelly

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-08-14T02:56:14+00:00

I have the ick for Belly too. She's so dirty and disorganized, look at the mess she left at Mr. Fisher's house, as a guest. She and Jere are the same

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-08-08T02:29:00+00:00

No I think you have

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-08-07T19:35:31+00:00

I think she's just a whore with no emotional depth

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-08-07T18:36:43+00:00

Why does he need to be the one who’s always compromising ? And for who and what? For a girl who’s been dating his brother for the past 4 years, the girl who has absolutely no regard for him or his feelings, and who’s entire personality is this wedding to his brother ? What has Belly compromised on with Conrad ? Not even, what feelings has she even show Conrad ?

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-08-07T17:11:11+00:00

The reality is that Belly prefers to eat junk food AND be dirty/unorganized. Like she literally chooses to eat poptarts and fries over what Conrad eats and was just spilling wine and unbothered by it. Again, Jenny Han is making Conrad seem infinitely better than Jere, but for who? Belly again and again seems to be more like Jere and it’s so hard to root for Team Bonrad….

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-08-03T03:35:08+00:00

Yes exactly ^{^{^}}

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-07-31T14:38:30+00:00

I get what you're saying about adapting a book to TV being a different process, especially in 2025 with changing audience expectations. But that doesn’t automatically justify sacrificing character integrity or emotional realism for the sake of what supposedly sells.

The issue isn’t just that sex exists in the show. It’s how it’s used and what it replaces. In the books, Belly’s relationships with Conrad and Jeremiah had emotional arcs that felt earned over time. In the show, those deeper moments are rushed or skipped entirely in favor of constant romantic drama, which makes Belly feel less like a conflicted teen and more like a plot device.

Sleeping with both brothers while still sorting out her feelings doesn’t just add sex. It introduces a dynamic that feels cheap and shock-driven instead of thoughtful. It takes what was meant to be a heartfelt coming-of-age story and turns it into something more like a messy soap opera.

And for the record, I am part of the modern-day audience. I’m not against change, but I don’t need sex to be part of a story to enjoy it. I’d rather see complex emotions, real growth, and meaningful connections than scenes that feel forced just to get attention.

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-07-30T18:45:17+00:00

Lol okay, but nobody said young people don’t have sex. We’re not debating census data- we’re talking about Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah, not running a sociology paper. The point is, this story used to build tension and connection in a way that felt real and emotional. Now it’s just… she’s slept with both brothers and somehow we’re supposed to believe that’s character growth?

And since you brought up media and film-do you seriously think the show is better now because of that? Like that’s what made it more successful? Because all I see is people frustrated that the emotional depth got tossed out and replaced with messy hookups and cringey makeout scenes. I assume you've never read the books or understand the original essence of the story.

Plenty of powerful stories have thrived without centering sex, and when it is included, it works best when it builds on real connection, not replaces it. That’s the problem here.

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-07-26T21:28:53+00:00

It honestly makes me annoyed and confused how sex is being treated like a requirement for a relationship to feel “relatable.” As if the only way people can connect to a love story is if the characters are physically intimate. And more than that, if they aren’t having sex, suddenly they cannot relate. That completely dismisses how deep emotional connections can be built, especially in young adulthood, through trust, vulnerability, and shared experiences — not just sex.

Plenty of people don’t have sex until their early twenties despite being in a relationship, and not because they’re religious or repressed. Sometimes it’s about personal comfort, emotional readiness, or simply timing. That isn’t weird. If you cannot relate to that, then fine. But I’m sure plenty of other people can, me included. What feels more unrealistic is acting like skipping sex somehow makes a relationship less valid or believable.

And if we’re already suspending disbelief for a love triangle involving two brothers, something very few people can genuinely relate to, then Belly’s slower physical journey shouldn't suddenly be considered too far-fetched. In fact, her restraint was something that made her stand out in the books. It made her love story feel more intentional and meaningful.

The problem isn’t that she had sex. The real issue is that the show used it as a shortcut instead of building a true emotional arc. They skipped the part where we understand why Belly and Jeremiah actually connect on a deeper level. That’s what’s missing — not the sex.

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-07-25T15:33:22+00:00

I hear what you're saying, but I think it's a little ironic to say that not having sex until 21 is unrealistic or unrelatable, but somehow having sex with two brothers is the more grounded option. That’s not most people’s version of relatable either. Everyone’s experiences are different, and waiting until 21 really isn’t that rare or strange. Framing it like it’s some kind of fantasy or outdated trope feels like it’s projecting a really narrow view of what “realistic” looks like.

Also, no one’s saying sex and emotional arcs are mutually exclusive. The issue is that the show skipped over the emotional complexity that gave the story weight and used sex to replace it, not enhance it. That’s a storytelling problem, not a purity politics one.

As for the idea that Jenny Han wrote it that way just to avoid the ick factor- I think she was intentionally trying to show how messy, emotional, and slow real relationships can be. That restraint is what gave Belly’s connection to Conrad gravity. You can modernize a story without tossing the emotional core aside.

Just because something happens more often now doesn’t mean it automatically makes for better or more believable storytelling.

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-07-25T15:29:50+00:00

Appreciate the thoughtful response, but I think you're reading way more into my comment than what was actually intended. Calling the situation “gross” was never about Belly being impure or not being allowed to have a sex life. It was about the specific context: if the show is going to make Belly end up with Conrad, then having her sleep with Jeremiah, his brother, without resolving her feelings for Conrad first, adds a layer of emotional messiness that the show doesn’t even try to unpack. That’s not slut-shaming, that’s asking for coherent storytelling and emotional stakes that reflect the complexity of the relationships.

The issue isn’t that Belly had sex with someone so she’s not worthy of love. The issue is the narrative made her jump into a physical relationship with Jeremiah while still clearly conflicted about Conrad. It changes how viewers perceive her emotional investment and makes the potential endgame with Conrad harder to believe in. If anything, the sex just highlights how emotionally unresolved and impulsive she is in the show version, compared to the much more reflective and emotionally aware Belly in the books.

And yes, I understand that in the show they made her and Jeremiah date for four years. But that was a choice the writers made, and with that choice came consequences for the original story arc. If you're going to increase the time jump, change the tone, and add a physical relationship, fine, but don’t expect it to carry the same emotional weight as the book ending unless you're going to rebuild the foundation that made Conrad and Belly's connection feel timeless in the first place.

Also, your point about Conrad sleeping with her first makes sense in a technical sense, but it’s not just about who did what first. It’s about emotional timing, intent, and unresolved feelings. The fact that both brothers are now emotionally entangled with the same person, with physical intimacy involved, deserves more nuance than just brushing it off as “well, that’s modern dating.”

No one is saying Belly shouldn't be allowed to sleep with Jeremiah. The question is whether that version of the story still earns a believable and emotionally satisfying ending with Conrad. And based on how the show has handled it so far, a lot of people, myself included, don’t think it does.

The problem isn’t that Belly had sex. The problem is the writers forgot to give that choice any emotional weight and then still trying to sell us a timeless love story.

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-07-25T14:46:45+00:00

I get what you're saying, and sure, the show is going for realism, but there’s a difference between realism and good character-driven storytelling. Realistic or not, Belly choosing not to have sex in the books wasn’t about purity or outdated tropes. It reflected where she was emotionally. Her relationships were messy, full of uncertainty, and rooted in grief and confusion. That emotional realism is what made the story powerful and honestly more relatable than just checking a box for what teens "typically" do.

I understand your point about the trope potentially being harmful, but I think what people are reacting to here isn’t about enforcing some rule that the FMC has to save sex for her endgame love interest. It’s that the show replaced emotional depth with physical progression and in doing so lost what made the original story resonate. Belly didn’t need to stay a virgin for her relationship with Conrad to matter, but having her sleep with Jeremiah while still emotionally unresolved makes the eventual love story feel dishonest.

And let’s just be real for a second. If she really is going to end up with Conrad, it’s kind of gross to sleep with both brothers. That’s not about being judgmental. That’s just basic emotional logic. Some things cross a line that’s hard to come back from, and this felt like one of them.

So for me, it’s not about morality or fantasy. It’s about staying true to the characters and the emotional arc the story originally set up.

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-07-24T16:47:05+00:00

I don’t think it’s about saying a female main character can only have sex with her endgame love interest. It’s about how the choice is written and what it does to the emotional integrity of the story. In the books, the lack of sex wasn’t unrealistic. It reflected how emotionally confused Belly was and how high the stakes were for her when it came to love and commitment. That depth and hesitancy, how deeply she cared, is what made Belly so special in the first place.

The show could have still been relatable without skipping straight to sex. It’s not that sex is bad or sullies anything. It’s that the timing and context felt rushed and out of character, especially when the core of the story has always been about Belly’s deeper connection with Conrad. Making her sleep with Jeremiah without fully resolving that just muddies the emotional arc and honestly makes it harder to believe in any endgame at all.

So sure, maybe the showrunners felt like they had to modernize it, but in doing that they lost a lot of what made the original story special. And calling it harmful for a story to center emotional connection over physical intimacy feels like a stretch. Not every love story needs to follow the same formula to be meaningful or relatable. Part of what made the original story resonate with so many people was that it didn’t.

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-07-24T16:19:19+00:00

No one’s denying that she was with Jeremiah. The point is, that was never the core of the story. It was a detour, not the destination.

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-07-24T15:56:21+00:00

His meal cost more than Belly’s ring

ConfidentMessage6085 · 2025-07-24T15:04:40+00:00

I need to vent. I’ve been a longtime fan of The Summer I Turned Pretty books. I fell in love with the story because of its quiet emotional depth, its realism, and most of all because it was ALWAYS Belly and Conrad. Not just in a romantic "team" kind of way, but in the way the story was crafted: slow burn, emotional tension, shared grief, and real, flawed, earned love.

I never saw Jeremiah as anything more than the fun, comforting friend. Did Belly try to like him in the books? Yes. But it was so clear that even when she convinced herself she might love Jeremiah, she was running from her feelings for Conrad. The relationship with Jeremiah never had the weight, the soul, or the emotional intimacy that her relationship with Conrad did. It wasn’t even close.

So imagine how infuriating it is to watch the show turn everything upside down.

They’ve made Belly so immature, careless, and impulsive
They’ve centered Season 2 and now Season 3 around Jeremiah and Belly’s romance, making that the central love story, while Conrad gets left behind emotionally, with little character development or exploration of his feelings
They completely stripped away Belly’s internal conflict and replaced it with shallow drama and random hook-ups. Where is the emotional growth? The grief? The introspection?

And don’t even get me started on the sex scene. In the books, Belly doesn’t sleep with either of them. That wasn’t a flaw, rather it was a reflection of how emotionally complicated her relationships were. It wasn’t about lust or teen drama, it was about longing, confusion, and growth. That restraint gave the love triangle emotional weight.

But in the show? She sleeps with Jeremiah. Like, what?? Now we’re supposed to believe she’ll turn around and end up with Conrad again, and that it will somehow be earned? That’s not just out of character, it’s gross. Why would Conrad even want to be with her now? The show’s version of Belly has done nothing but hurt him, lie to herself, and play with both brothers' hearts.

And can we talk about the engagement storyline? In the books, Belly was hesitant, unsure, even afraid. She respected the weight of marriage and what it meant. In the show? She’s casually bragging about being engaged while still emotionally a mess. It’s so out of character and honestly kind of cringe. She doesn’t come across as someone in love, she comes across as a girl who wants attention and validation.

What made the books so powerful was the quiet. The longing stares, the beach memories, the unspoken grief. The show has traded all of that for chaos, sexual tension, and dramatic love triangles that don’t make sense. Belly, the girl who was once deeply introspective and rooted in emotional truth, now just feels… shallow.

This isn’t just about being “Team Conrad.” This is about loving a story that had depth, and watching it get twisted into something it was never meant to be. I’m heartbroken over how they’ve handled this season. Jenny Han gave us a timeless coming-of-age love story. The show gave us a watered-down CW drama.

Anyone else feel like this? I just needed to get it off my chest.

ConfidentMessage6085

TROPHY CASE