howdy!

Code july:day 1 reboot

HOOO BOY IM BEHIND ;-;

(hope this still counts as reboot day idk ;___;)

Aelita: …Alright…

^ stuff like that’s why I can’t really get behind Jerlita. There are some legit cute moments early on, like when she first came to Earth, but after that Jeremie gets…dismissive of her, ie in “Final Mix” or “Aelita”. I get the feeling he had this idealized version of her in his head, and now that she’s a real live person living a real life, he gets pushily disappointed when she wants to do other stuff. 

Well, in season one the return to the past was free and Xana was contained. They also hadn’t been fighting xana long. Of course they didn’t take things so seriously. 

Over time, however, the situation changed. The return to the past only made Xana stronger, Aelita could die if something happened to the supercomputer. He was the only person vulnerable to xana’s possessions. The others weren’t nearly so burdened by the supercomputer. He felt so cornered he even used a machine to try to improve his brainpower.

Thats not to say Jeremie was entirely in the right. You are right that jeremie shouldn’t be so dismissive, but thats not exactly what he said. Xana could attack at any moment, and time at this point was of the essence. By this point Xana literally had an army, he was on his way to take over the world. Not to mention William was a prisoner of Xana. Most of the other members didn’t put in remotely as much time into fighting Xana as much as Jeremie. His missing so much school was the inciting incident of double take. Aelita was the only other person really working with him. 

I think he said that more from a position of I’m barely able to do all this with you, its a pipe-dream without you. 

As far as in Aelita, Xana using her visions to bait her wasn’t the first time, so thinking logically, it being another of Xana’s traps just makes sense. 

To say Jeremie is work-focused is to say a doctor in the middle of surgery is work-focused. A wasted second could have dire consequences. He is wrong at times because he views Xana as the ultimate threat. And for the ultimate threat, we must make the ultimate sacrifices. He gives up his time, his sleep, a lot I would say. 

In fact, he’s gone through this mini-episode arc before–Aelita wants to do something new or explore an option, he shoots her down because it’s not ‘practical’/wastes time that could have been spent fighting XANA. Aelita’s feelings are hurt, they have a rift, but at the end of the episode make up. It’s a nice arc, relationships should have problems to overcome–except there is no overcoming. He forgets what he learned about compromising with her at the end each time this happens, so that next time it does, he’s back to being a jerk. 

Imagine if, instead of taking a look at a hopeful, excited Aelita, clutching her music for the audition, and scolding her, Jeremie realized this opportunity means a lot to her and wished her well. Watched back to back with “Final Mix”, it’d be a stark contrast and a good sign of character growth. Instead, we get regression.

Jeremie sacrifices time and sleep to stopping XANA, yes…but he’s also neglecting his friends and relationships to do so. That is a bad thing. People, especially 13/14-year olds, need breaks and time to socialize. The doctor analogy doesn’t work because no doctor is in surgery 24/7, which is what Jeremie is trying to do. It’s noble of him to put so much to the cause, but also foolish–I’d even say self-centered. As you pointed out, Jeremie feels that he has a purpose in fighting XANA. Feeding so much time into defeating him is partially a way of self-fulfillment.

But what he doesn’t understand is…it’s because they’re at war that they have to treasure their time together. A future where they can relax and be happy together is pretty, but a pipe dream if someone died before they got to that point. Or if he neglects his relationships so badly that by the time they get there, they’ve emotionally drifted apart.

Finally, Jeremie doesn’t have any right to demand Aelita make the same sacrifice he does. Especially since he doesn’t know about a lot of the things you pointed out–they haven’t discovered the army or the Replikas yet, if the former is even in production at this point. As far as they know, they’re at no more of a risk than they are already, and there’s no huge time crunch. She does not work 24/7, but she does put her 100% into the fight–as do the others. They’ve all earned vacation time and the ability to enjoy it when it comes.