Warning: spoilers for TSITP

The famous relationship trope that is the “love triangle featuring two brothers” is once again a buzzing topic of discussion. The reason why so many people are talking about choosing a side is because of the popular book-to-film series “The Summer I Turned Pretty” (TSITP) by Jenny Han.

This isn’t a review of either the book or the show, but instead, a discussion of the two teams that are currently dividing a large part of social media, “team Conrad” and “team Jeremiah”. While neither team is perfect, by any means, there are countless reasons why the team to be on is Jeremiah. Even if it’s the less popular of the two, he’s simply the underdog, and who doesn’t love an underdog?

Almost everyone and their mother is head over heels for Conrad Fisher, but I’m not. The emotionally unavailable, dark, and brooding male character that always has viewers in a chokehold is one that I am honestly sick and tired of. 

This fantasy is just that, a fantasy. This type of character is often over-romanticized while, in real life, the men who act like this do not make for very healthy partners. 

Jeremiah Fisher is almost the complete opposite of Conrad and in the best ways. Both boys experience an extremely tragic event, I will not deny that nor judge how they grieve. But grieving and treating people–especially your girlfriend–poorly are very different. Jeremiah was always there for Belly, they had been best friends for years before any romance sparked between them. Because of this, toxic Conrad stans love to argue that Jere only started to have feelings for Belly when she “turned pretty”, but hate to break it to you guys, so did Conrad! At least Jeremiah paid attention to her before he found her attractive.

The TV show and books undeniably differ, at times, it feels like the two aren’t related in the slightest. One of the biggest differences that bothered me was the way the show tried to take away the truly special moments Belly and Jeremiah shared to try to make Conrad seem like the better choice.

Belly might have been “in love” with Conrad for years, but it’s clear to see that the “love” is simply an infatuation and she’s obsessed with a version of him that she made up in her head–not the real thing.

Something that is still very evident in both adaptations of the story is the communication skills that Jeremiah has with Belly. This is one of the factors that puts Jere on top for me. Everything becomes an argument with Conrad, when they are a couple nothing is ever discussed in a calm conversation because Conrad cannot communicate for the life of him. 

He loves to act as if he is a mature adult and everyone else around him is a baby, yet, when you look at the facts, Conrad is the only baby in this whole show. He can’t communicate, he runs from his problems, and he selfishly disregards his own brother’s feelings so he can be happy, and real mature!

As much as I can hate Conrad, he is not the villain of the story, Belly Conklin is. She is the one who has limited her entire dating pool to two men who are brothers. Belly plays with both boys’ emotions and disregards the fact that she is ruining a family by repeatedly changing her mind on which brother is right for her.