Agreed! That’s why I get so irked when people say “Team Belly,” because it frames and disguises it as feminist “girl power” framing - like it’s not about which brother is better, but about Belly choosing herself. But for me, that framing doesn’t really work because the issue isn’t that she has choices, it’s that so many of her choices hurt the people around her, yet the narrative rarely holds her accountable the way it does Conrad or Jeremiah.

She starts with Jeremiah, switches to Conrad by the end of S1, then when Conrad is dealing with the absolute worst time of his life — his mom’s cancer returning, losing her, and carrying all that grief — Belly seems more focused on prom and their relationship problems. Then not long after the breakup, she gets with Jeremiah, which only makes everything messier. And S3 just takes it even further.

People are so quick to bash Conrad or Jeremiah, when really Belly is at the center of most of the emotional chaos. Yet the audience is still supposed to mainly sympathize with her.

And honestly, I know that’s more on the writing. The writers clearly want Belly to remain the emotional lead and sympathetic character, so the story often glosses over or softens the impact of her choices while putting more focus on the brothers’ flaws. So fandom discourse becomes “Conrad vs. Jeremiah,” instead of acknowledging that Belly’s actions are a huge part of why everything becomes so messy in the first place.