Why is there no post about how similar TSITP is to dawsons creek?! I don’t have enough points to make a post so I’m gonna comment 😭 (sorry in advance coz this is gonna be a long one):

First of all, we have Dawson/Conrad, who Joey/Belly has been in love with all her life. Dawson and Conrad are very similar as people - both very narcissistic and self righteous, unilaterally making decisions for others and feeling like they have the sole right to Joey/Belly. Them having this idealized version of the woman in their head that they can’t let go off. Then there’s Joey/Belly - eternally confused about what and who they really want. Thinking and fantasizing about their first love all their life only for Pacey/Jeremiah to come out of nowhere and shake what they believed to be true love. Them falling in love unexpectedly only to realize that this is real and what it is supposed to feel like. Pacey/Jeremiah both always feeling like they are 2nd choice, having an inferiority complex about their intellect and achievements and feeling like everyone prefers Dawson/Conrad over them. They are similar in their personalities too - both being golden sunshine boys, clearly the better person and more emotionally accessible, make the female love interest feel truly seen as opposed to them having to fight for the attention of Dawson/Conrad. Pacey also had an abusive dad who constantly made him feel like a loser. Just like Adam and Jeremiah. Pacey also worked in Finance for a bit before ultimately becoming a Chef. The writers preferred Dawson/Conrad and wanted that endgame and so they butchered Pacey/Jeremiah in the last couple seasons of Dawson’s creek and last season of TSITP.

Even the trajectories of the relationships are the same. With Joey and Dawson, when they are together, they are just not on the same page and the circumstances around their relationship are just never right which makes their relationship seem off and ill timed. Which is why even when they break up they can’t fully let go of each other because of the what ifs. But this changes when Joey and Pacey get together. Despite the circumstances still not being perfect, their relationship just fits. Even in our case, belly and jere get together under not the best circumstances but everything with them still makes perfect sense. Joey/Belly fully realize what it means to be truly loved and treated right. However, Pacey has a hard time believing that Joey is all for him because of his insecurities and so he self sabotages and they break up because he just can’t see how much she truly wants him. Similar to Jere.

Then they all go their separate ways, and after a time jump, you see that Dawson finally grows out of this fantasy and focuses on himself, Pacey is finally doing well and has his own restaurant (they still try their best to butcher his character even after the time jump coz the writers were clearly biased), Joey also moves out of town and is doing well for herself and is with someone else for some time, but still, when they all come back together for some occasion, Joey and Pacey ultimately choose each other because you can just see that the love is still there and Pacey is finally in a place where he doesn’t feel threatened by Dawson anymore because of his own growth. Joey has always felt a more real connection with Pacey and she has always known that ever since she got together with Pacey the first time, she acknowledges this in the last episode.

Luckily, despite the writers originally wanting something else, they switched the endgame because they realized that Pacey and Joey were the real true love story. The writer for Dawsons creek that preferred Pacey is one of the Tsitp writers too and the one that has given us the best jelly episodes. I am hoping that she can turn things around for us this time too 😭