#*varchie

i’ve learned a lot about it in the past year! comics varchie saved my love for the ship, honestly, after the cheating mess.

anyway. archie and veronica are the main ship in most of the digests. archie and betty seem to be more explored in some series, where betty is normally archie’s endgame. archie 2015 did the triangle very strongly (traumatizing 😭) but he ended up with neither. there are many different versions of the comics, so it’s always a toss, who archie ends up with. he’s also dated valerie in many comics, cheryl in some, katy keene, and sabrina.

on archie comics 600th issue, they decided that archie would finally choose and marry veronica in a 6 issues story. they got some huge unexpected backlash about archie’s choice - most of the readers wanted him to choose betty. so, archie comics decided to launch an alternative version where archie married betty, and that both versions would be only a fantasy -- in the end, archie doesn’t make a choice.

(but in both universes veronica is his first option, even the one where he marries betty. in fact the archie marries betty comics made me even more anti b*rchie)

there’s also the “life with archie” series, where again he marries both girls in distinct timelines. in the last issue, the timelines converge and he dies, saying to both that he’s always loved “you”, but no one knows if it’s betty or veronica lol. so no, we don’t know who he chooses in the end.

i think ras said at some point that he would make a clear choice in riverdale, and that he doesn’t like betty and veronica ‘fighting for archie’ because the comics do that enough, so i guess that’s why archie’s a lot more definite about his choices in the tv show than in the comics... although the comics almost always make a point of having v as his first choice.

why b*rchie kissed in s4, you mean? i think you do.

well, there’s the short version of why they kissed and the long one. 

short-version: it was a plot-device for drama. they wanted to break the main couples up and took the sloppiest, most ooc, stupidest way for that to happen. then, with the pandemic and all, they kind of backtracked on how much impact that kiss would have, and here we are. it’s never going to be brought up by archie again. he’ll never have to explain himself. veronica doesn’t care anymore. the show does not want to give it any importance.

long-version: the way canon put it, archie had a hell of an year with his dad dying, he wasn’t going to graduate, and he was feeling lost and uncertain about his future, in a lot of pain every time. jughead almost died and that triggered all those feelings again. and then, for a moment there, after having a fight with veronica, he felt like being with betty, his childhood friend, his oldest friend, who’s someone he met before all the mess in his life happened, betty who could be “carrying the torch” still, was the answer to those feelings of pain and uncertainty. 

his actions - the kiss and the emotional tryst afterwards - were self-destructive and influenced by everything that he had been going through the entire year. he’d been lost, and veronica was surely going to places he wouldn’t be able to follow, he felt like he was holding her back. it was not lack of love for veronica, it was lack of love for himself. so much that after he makes peace with all that pain, that “passes” (5x02), he wants to be with veronica again, but it’s already too late for them - she already decided they were going on separate ways. and in the end, he knew it had to happen, that they couldn’t stay together if he wanted to heal and if he wanted her to thrive.

but he never stopped loving her, and whatever those feelings were in high school, they didn’t matter anymore after seven years - veronica was still the one in his heart and being with betty physically didn’t change that.

i hope this helps you understand. it’s hard, because while betty’’s pov was really clear on 4x18 (”we feel safe with each other but i love jughead”), archie’s pov was explained slowly, from 5x01-5x03, and then throughout the time jump episodes too. but the conclusion is the same. it’s always been veronica, no matter what happened in the past.

the varchie proposal agenda isn't dead!

🏔️🩸🤝 = engagement in the mountains