In the fifteenth episode of the first season of Jane the Virgin<\/i>, we learn that tests suck. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Jane the Virgin<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of revenge porn<\/b><\/p>\n
Actually, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gong to open this review with what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s at the end of the video:<\/p>\n
Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, this love triangle is written so convincingly<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Which is part of why I had such an aversion to them for so long. I mean, yes, there was a terrible oversaturation of them, particularly within young adult fiction. But a key problem is that more often than not, the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153best\u00e2\u20ac\u009d partner is very obvious. That makes for a frustrating experience because the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153triangle\u00e2\u20ac\u009d element quickly becomes unnecessary. Is<\/i> the person caught in between two people having difficulty choosing, or does the writer just hope<\/i> we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll feel that way? With Jane the Virgin<\/i>, I genuinely understand why Jane was with either of these characters. She has this deep connection with Michael, and he effortlessly understands her because of their history together. At the same time, while Rafael behaves differently, he still understands Jane, too. He knew who her favorite romance writer is; he knew that her dream of being a writer was important to her. He is<\/i> kind, and generous, and supportive, and even when the two of them come across conflict, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still willing to do the hard work to resolve it and move forward.<\/p>\n I get it. I get why both these men seem attractive to her and why her emotions are so complicated. Now, if all<\/i> love triangles were written this convincingly, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I would have had an aversion to them. (I also went through a period in my 20s when I was uninterested in romance, and now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m all for it, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure that played a part, too.) From purely an entertainment point of view, this also<\/i> works well because I truly can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell where this is going. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s narrative tension here that is immensely<\/i> difficult to pull off. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s partially from the telenovela nature of the show, sure, but I think credit is due to the writing and acting here. What a task, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all: We have to believe Jane loved Michael. Then we have to believe that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fallen for Rafael, and THEN we get to this point, where Jane has to cope with the fact that the plan for her life has been completely thrown into disarray.<\/p>\n So I understand her actions in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chapter Fifteen.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I get why she balks at Rafael\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proposal, even if it was about as perfect as a proposal could be. (LOOK, I FELL FOR IT, TOO. I THOUGHT IT WAS ONE OF THOSE FANTASY MOMENTS.) Marriage is<\/i> a possibility, but\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 before the two have spent more than six months with one another? Before they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve co-habited? Before they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve reached any of the other significant milestones that would normally have come from being in a relationship? Of course, their relationship is hardly normal, so I also think that Jane is trying to grasp at anything that has stability, that feels like she imagined it would. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a complicated situation, you know?<\/p>\n It certainly does not help that Michael pops up multiple times in the episode, each time reminding Jane of the easy nature they have with one another. Despite breaking things off with him, look how quickly she fell back into it. The ease with which they joked, with which they understood one another. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that Jane can’t<\/i> have that with Rafael. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve definitely seen a different kind of it between them before, but you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t replace time<\/i>. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t replicate experience in quite the same way. That haunts Jane, and so she focuses on things like that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153test\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that her abuela gives her. And while the test confirms that her doubt was misplaced, it unfortunately hurts Rafael in the process.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a parallel we see in Rogelio and Xiomara, too, who test one another to see if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll say what they want<\/i> to hear, rather than just communicate directly. This shit is hard for them! They both had to bury their feelings for one another for Jane, so I get why they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t immediately figure out how to be actually<\/i> honest. That shit takes work. It does not take tests or gotchas designed to trick a person into revealing their true feelings. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think anyone was trying to be malicious about this. At the heart of Xiomara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s behavior\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand Jane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, too!\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis fear. Xiomara was afraid of what Rogelio would do if she were pregnant, and Jane was afraid that Rafael was not the one.<\/p>\n And fear makes us do funny things.<\/p>\n It can also motivate us. Petra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaction to Lachlan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attempt to blackmail her surprised me. First off: Fuck Lachlan for his whole revenge porn scheme. This wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just simple blackmail; remember that he wanted to release the video even after she was no longer in charge just to ruin her further. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s revenge porn, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much here that speaks to the insidious, misogynist shit at work. Like, why wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the video ruin Lachlan<\/i>? Why does it ruin Petra, simply because she was filmed having sex? Lachlan believed that he had all the power here, and he exploited it. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what he does, right? We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen him do it before. What he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect was Petra flipping the script. I appreciate, then, that it appears that Rafael went to Petra because he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to follow through with Lachlan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan. Right? I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t misread that, did I? Either way, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more important is Petra\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choice: She chose to leak her own sex tape and take ownership of it. That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t negate that it is still a sex tape, that this circumstance was forced upon her. Still, Petra did something to take power away from Lachlan. And if she continues to succeed, Lachlan will be forced into his own circumstance: Will he stay working for the Marbella? Or will he be so annoyed and frustrated that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll finally quit?<\/p>\n I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care for Lachlan at all; at least Petra is interesting<\/i>, and admittedly, I still want to know more about her. I feel like there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more beneath the surface with her. And so that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I was thinking of as I watched this. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the tiniest hint that maybe<\/i> Petra and Rafael could work together. For the moment, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a united force against Lachlan. But will that last? Will they go back to being terrible to one another? And what of Milos and Magda? Where are they? What are their relationships like with Petra?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Anyway, wanna know which joke in here is astoundingly real? When the romance author quipped that even her massage artist had a manuscript. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL HAVE NO IDEA. I had always heard of this from author friends\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat random people hand off manuscripts constantly, believing that this might be their path to publication. This has 100% happened to me since becoming published in the following contexts:<\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so fascinating that this is just a thing? But as someone who struggled to get into publishing for years, I get<\/i> it. I really do! Publishing often seems like a business you get into because you know someone else. Networking is certainly a huge part of this, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know too many success stories that unfold the way people think<\/i> they do. I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 for one, I barely have time to read for pleasure these days; how would I possibly have time to read a stranger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complete book and then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what? Elevate it where? To whom?<\/p>\n Generally, I actually offer advice they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect, but can help. I talk to them about agents, querying, critique partners, the power of rejection\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that sort of stuff. Because look, at the heart of all of this, these people just want their dreams to come true. And maybe their technique is misguided, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s real<\/i>. (Most of the time; as is sometimes the case, people are also jerks.) So you do what you can.<\/p>\n Which makes me wonder\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 did Jane\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s favorite author actually read her work?<\/p>\n The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chapter Fifteen\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – You can now pre-order my second YA novel, Each of Us a Desert<\/i>, which will be released on September 15, 2020 from Tor Teen!<\/a> In the fifteenth episode of the first season of Jane the Virgin, we learn that tests suck. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Jane the Virgin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[705],"tags":[706],"class_list":["post-7579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jane-the-virgin","tag-mark-watches-jane-the-virgin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n– Not only that, but my very first pre-order campaign is now live for North American readers! If you submit proof of pre-order, you can get a limited edition print that comes with the book<\/a>.
\n<\/strong>– If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"