#jane spring

First of all, Tori is an unreliable narrator which people constantly forget. We can tell that she’s an unreliable narrator from really small details and exaggerations in the narrative (like when she says she had a dream in her sleep, then a couple days later she claims she hasn’t slept in a week) and the content of heartstopper surrounding the solitaire timeline

Second, Tori is a teenager so it’s more likely than not that she’s hostile towards her parents at times for no given reason

This hostility and unreliable narration makes readers villainise Jane because of the way Tori describes mundane interactions. For example, when Jane wouldn’t iron Tori’s skirt. I’m don’t blame Jane for that because Tori makes it apparent throughout her presence in the osemanverse that she doesn’t care much about what she wears, so her harassing Jane (she does quite literally just repeats the word ‘mum’ until Jane snaps) before 8am is obviously going to piss anyone off when they have two other children, a job and other things to take care of. In addition to Tori’s established apathy it is objectively such a non issue at the end of the day because Tori easily could’ve worn the skirt without pleats or layer up like she did anyway which was probably more effective since it was so cold, and even if you think it was a nasty thing for Jane to do Tori herself gets over it within half an hour. Because of all of this I think it’s important to remember that Jane is just a regular mum- she’s not evil she’s just normal

What’s more, a lot of people think that Jane being ‘normal’ translates to Jane being apathetic because she’s not as vocally of physically affectionate as other osemanverse characters can be like Sarah. But just because Jane doesn’t show affection the way Sarah does doesn’t mean she doesn’t want anything to do with Tori, Charlie or Oliver. My reasoning for this is that since Tori admits that she and Jane are so similar, I head canon that they show affection in similar ways. E.g. since Tori’s love language is quality time I wouldn’t be surprised if Jane’s were too- I can totally imagine the two of them trying to make it through a movie but they both find it cheesy so end up making fun of it or they’re just sitting on their laptops in the same room. By this logic it’s not fair to call Jane an absent parent since you can tell that she is present - especially because we see her supporting Charlie throughout his mental health journey even if they argue (and clearly she would support Tori too)

Lastly I think a lot of people gloss over the fact that if Jane slips up then it’s because she has legitimate trauma from her own mother- Alice has drawn a panel of Jane being hit, Jane’s parents appear in solitaire and are unpleasant and Jane admits to their bad tendencies in the comic. This might not justify her behaviour but it does explain it, which is arguably better than nothing, and it also puts into perspective what actual bad parenting is. Jane comes nowhere close to how awful her parents were to her

it's an addams spring!

the springs decided to get creative with their family portrait ;)

bonus (and template) under the cut

Tori, who has anticipated the dynamics at this dinner all along and has pegged David immediately as the slimeball he is, is clearly wondering how she got sat between these two massive male egos. She's armed and ready for her confrontations with David (perhaps even looking forward to them just a tiny bit?) when things take a turn for the worse. Protective older sister mode activated.

I debated adding Jane here, but she's reacting to the posturing and conflict between the men just as much as Tori or Sarah, so she deserves to be included. She spends the meal deflecting, changing topics, trying to keep the conversation in safe waters. She silently but visibly disagrees when Charlie downplays his rugby abilities (thank you, someone, for acknowledging he's not actually that bad!). But when Nick finally confronts David, her face shows dread. Anyone who's read Alice's cannon knows Jane has a complicated family history riddled with conflict, and her instinctive fear shows clearly in this moment before she realizes that Nick is going to handle this problem gracefully rather than violently.

And Sarah. Having seen how lovingly she navigates life with Nick and how sensitively she helps him with his problems, we can only imagine that she has to have been pushed to the absolute edge by her time with Stephane to react the way she does here. I'm not even getting into the second half of the argument after Nick leaves the table--that's a whole other post--but Sarah is completely comfortable placing the blame squarely where it belongs, even in front of company. Sarah Nelson, putting men in their place left and right.