I was impressed with how NOT tropey they managed to make MJ’s relationship with Peter after having forgotten him. We don’t dwell on any sort of disbelief where she’s convicted it can’t possibly be true. She knows it’s true, and that’s part of why it hurts her and confuses her. We also don’t have any type of “she doesn’t care about him anymore” sentiment meant to punch us in the gut. Yes it’s very sad for Peter that she doesn’t love him, but ofc she doesn’t since you can’t love someone you can’t remember—but she does care about him. Because you don’t actually have to know someone intimately to care about them, so even though MJ has none of the memories of her intimate relationship with Peter, she still has intelligent and curious conversations with him, then finds out their history and feels for him and is honest with him and sees his bravery and deservingness and invites him to come meet Ned because she knows that will mean a lot to him. Because MJ is a caring person, not just to her best friend and boyfriend, and so as painful as it is that she doesn’t remember Peter being the love of her life, it was so much more bearable than it could have been, because they didn’t murder her character to contribute to Sad. There’s a reason MJ made Peter so happy to begin with, and she’s still that same MJ, memories or not. She still has all the same qualities that made her fall in love with him and him fall in love with her, even if she doesn’t have the memories and feel that same love. And I kind of love that actually.
