Ok, I've been holding on this yap for a long time and for some reason, I need to release it.
I think a large part of people getting upset that Michael and Cassie weren't endgame and insisting that they were the couple that had more development and was more sincere and therefore should've been endgame, comes from the fact that this days, media believes that the cliche "Flirty loud sarcastic guy who is the representation for a bad boy should and always will end up with the nice, quit girl who is considered a good girl."
It's fundamentally wrong because people are so used to this trope and so familiar to it that some of them (not everyone) consider the "nicer quite guy in the love triangle" someone who doesn't know this girl and the loud flity one always ends up being the right choice because he knows her well.
But the naturals series is not a romance story. It does have romance sub plot and some tropes but it's main purpose is something else. The characters are not your normal mmc and fmcs who are here to feed into the stereotypical trope of good girl bad boy. They are deeply traumatized, out of the ordinary teenagers and they have a deep physiological reason for the things they do and decisions they make (this isn't a shade to the romance books at all by the way, I'm just saying the characters are vastly different.)
When I'm talking about stereotypical, it doesn't mean it's bad. I too, have lived my life adoring this trope in certain shows and movies and prefer the more reckless, bad boy kind of vibe like take Delena from Vampire diaries for example. But it highly depends on the story because it doesn't fit into every narrative and every character choice.
The reason Dean and Cassie click so well, is the same reason Michael and Lia click well together and Sloane and Celine click well together. They share an understanding on a level that words simple can't touch, they have this shared experiences that allows them to see each other well past the surface and kind of, in a non cheesey way, gaze into each other's soul and see what's underneath.
Cassie was able to pull Dean back from the surface in Killer instinct when he was about to go to his hometown alone with just a few simple words. Words that instinctively and without even trying came to her, and if anyone else, even Lia, said those words it wouldn't have had the same effect because Cassie and Dean having people in their families whom they are actively trying not to end up like but somehow there is a part of them that can't help but understand those people (in Cassie's case Locke and in Dean's case Daniel Redding) helps them have this mental image that allows them to see each other. And for some reason, they get called "boring" and "no chemistry" simply because Dean isn't the type of guy who makes jokes and jabs.
The same way Lia was able to make Michael pause from jumping Dean in bad blood with just a few words. Those few sarcastic words were able to make Michael pause because Lia is both good at ragebaiting and getting under Michael's skin and good at calming him down too, while Cassie couldn't even get Michael to look at her.
It's the same way Lia tells Cassie she can't understand what Michael is going through after he comes back from visiting his father in all in. Because Michael and Lia's abilities and the same type of abusive toxic background they came from allows them to understand each other better than anyone else in the world, that's why they keep running away and running back again and again.
It's the same way that Lia isn't able to give the comfort Dean needs in Killer instinct but Cassie IS, isn't because Lia isn't trying or Dean is actively neglecting Lia. It's because Cassie and Dean know what it's like to constantly fear turning into someone that is a part of you and will always be a part of you.
It's the same way Sloane and Celine, despite having different character types and preferences are drawn to each other. It's because they both know what it's like to be abandoned, and be considered someone's greatest source of shame. They both know what it's to remain ambiguous and unknown because their fathers didn't acknowledge them or acknowledged them the wrong way.
I don't know if I'm making any sense but I'm really passionate about my six babies so yeah. I rest my case.
