Dawson is a Creator Insert. Kevin Williamson based the character of Dawson on himself, but straight, and Joey on his childhood friend. It always seemed like a "If I'd been straight we'd have been soulmates" when in reality they still wouldn't have been a good pairing.
Too often characters who shouldn't have cared about Dawson's feelings did. Joey's sister being all "how will this affect Dawson" If we had just started it out as Joey's story then things like Pacey realizing he liked Joey before Dawson even knew she was a girl would have been treated with more weight.
Instead in season 3 Joey finally seeing Pacey the way he sees her is treated like a betrayal of Dawson when in reality Dawson betrayed Pacey by never consulting Pacey about the fact his own feelings changed.
Which cool he didn't have to but to then act like Pacey who already had said "I like Joey" betrayed him? Or his "how did two people who couldn't stand each other end up dating" attitude? Joey and Pacey had been friends since season 1 when they bonded during the Snail project.
The entire show should have been about Pacey and Joey finding each other.
Some years ago I watched Dawson's Creek for the first time. I was a Dawson-Joey shipper so after the last episode I was sad, angry and I felt robbed. Then after watching the series some times, deciding to stop after episode 4 and suggested that the marriage footing shown at te beginning of the last episode was actualy taken during the end of episode 4 so they could get Dawson and Joey their happy ending and leave it there. I thought this especially because events of the seasons 5 and 6 are not mentioned in the wedding vows. Recently I was watching the last episode and then, in the end, it finally hit me. From Dawson and Joey sitting on the bench in the Leery garden. Saying things like "you and me allways" and "I love you" to one another, From Alexander climbing the ladder, from Lilly supporting him to get up from the window of "Dawson's" room, to the girl playing Joey in the Creek, directed by Dawson, stumbling into the room of the boy playing Dawson. From them speaking the same words as we heard Dawson and Joey saying to each other some momenst earlier. From them finally kissing each other. Happy ending for "Dawson and Joey".
Next we see Joey's reaction. She said: "That was perfect, absolutely perfect" And there it hit me. Was she really saying the end of the Creek, in which Dawson and Joey ended up together, was perfect, no it was absolutely perfect? What did that mean for the end she chose, she directed, ending up with Pacey? I strongly believe she is expressing her doubts for the end she chose. And she said it in presence of Pacey who heard that too. And I now what was said about Pacey's tears caused by him realizing it was the very last shot of Dawson's Creek. But what did Kevin Williamson tell us by entering Pacey's tears in the final footage? Pacey saw the ending of the Creek, he heard Joey's valuation of it and in stead of saying something wise and witty like: "Well Jo, I am glad we chose another ending" we see Pacey in tears. Is he valuing Joey's remark like her having doubts about chosing him and was she still dreaming about being with Dawson. I can only imagine it fed Pacey's uncertainties he showed in season 4 ending with his explosion on the promboat. That's what Kevin Williamson suggested with editing Pacey's tears.
And then the suggestion that Dawson got his dream? I think what Dawson got, was the life of A.I. Brooks. His girl chose his best friend and he was stock with the movie making. That certainly is not what Kevin Williamson wanted us to learn about Dawson in the final scene of the series. No, when Dawson walks out of his office he is accompanied by the music of Beth Nielsen Chapman's Say Goodnight, Not Goodbye. The same music they played when Dawson and Joey first expressed their feelings for each other by sharing a kiss. A moment Joey mentioned in Coda of Season 4 as her most life altering moment. Not having sex for the first time with Pacey, not her mother passing away. No, the first romantic kiss with Dawson. The kiss with Dawson at the end of season 4 she called a moment she lost her status as mere mortal and achieved a brief moment of true greatness. She had many moments with that boy and I am sure that the the kiss which was her most life altering moment was included there.
And that was the final feeling Kevin Williamson gave us. So I put hope out of Joey's valuation of "The Creek', Pacey tears as a reaction on Joey's words and Beth Nielsen Chapman's song at the very end of Dawson's Creek
Why you call it an interpretation and not an analysis. When it is an interpretation I am curious how you express Joey's words, Pacey's tears and the music at the end?
I see it as: Joey was calling "The Creek" depiction / recreation perfect, not her relationship with Dawson. Pacey was teary-eyed because TV episodes can be moving for viewers, even more so when you know the real people the episode is based on. The music at the end was just to use a significant song from the series.
I dare to disagree with you, because I think your motivation, for which I thank you, is not very convincing. As to the words of Joey. We only saw the ending of the Creek in which Dawson and Joey used the same words they did a few moments before in Dawson's Creek and then ended up kissing. I feel Joey rates the end of the Creek (which she discussed with Dawson earlier in the episode and said, make it a happy ending) with her words. Dawson gave her the happy ending and she thought that was perfect, absolutely perfect.
The tears of Pacey I cannot motivate out of the ending of the Creek we saw. Pacey was not an emotional guy, and when he does somthing out of character like crying. We can only motivate on which we saw and that was (the actors playing) Dawson and Joey chosing for each other and Joey that rating perfect. I come to no other reason than seeing and end with your competitor in love and hearing your loved one rating that as perfect.
You make the song choice sound somewhat like throwing dice which are connected to a song, and that's it. You also think the did this kind of choice more deliberate.
I just recently started rewatching Dawson's Creek, after a ten year break (it was constantly in syndication here back then), and all the while, my opinion hasn't changed about the show. The only 'new' observation I'm making, is that for a show created around the turn of the century, it has aged well enough to be considered a classic.
You are indeed correct in observing that the show's real central character is Joey. From a writer's/actor's standpoint, I believe it became that way because of Katie Holmes lending the character real credibility. To a large extent, she doesn't play her, she *is* her. Just rewatched Episode 1 of Season 3, the season, which, to me, essentially became the show's defining one. Her reaction to Dawson rejecting her sexual advances by slipping into what I call the characteristic 'Joey Passive Aggressive Defense Mechanism' to hide her vulnerability at the drop of a hat is something writers can write, but it takes an actress truly understanding her character to do it so naturally and effortlessly. That's what I think made the show's audience react to her - minus the usual contingent of detractors - in the way we did.
As for Dawson, I've always had an ambivalent opinion of the character...
As a person with ASD who also lives and works in the creative arts, I recognise a lot of traits I used to have as a teenager in the teenage Dawson : his single mindedness about his career ambitions and his continued drive to work through his experiences and emotions through his creative medium (mine being music). Now, this isn't uncommon in creative people. To make the obvious analogy : a lot, if not most of Spielberg's movies come from the same place, not least his last one, which for all intents and purposes could be considered his feature length take on his own Dawson's Creek, if you will.
That single mindedness takes on a darker turn in to obsession when it comes to romantic relationships : in Dawson's mind, there is no other option than Joey being his one true love, in spite of anything and everything, even Joey's own feelings. Unfortunately, this is something I have been guilty of myself at that age (16 - 20+) and watching a TV show character do the same simultaneously held up a mirror and made me cringe, but also allowed me to look at what it must have been like for the people who were subjected to that kind of behaviour and deeply regret it, even if I know that I had no tools or help to deal with these things differently because I was undiagnosed and I had no support whatsoever. When the show first aired, I was pushing 30, so by that time, I had lived and learned a bit. But it was awkward to see my younger self in Dawson, a character that because of that trait becomes unsympathetic and at times even pathetic. It does make me think that, intentionally or not, Williamson wrote Dawson as a kid on the spectrum, possibly because he's on there himself.
But why do I consider Dawson pathetic at times? Several reasons : one being that he can't get over himself and would rather blame others for misfortunes which he brought upon himself. The other main gripe I have is that in spite of this, just about everyone caters to his ambitions and feelings without even questioning whether they're right or wrong, especially Mitch and Gail, who for some reasons seem to want to forgive almost anything in that regard. Anything, that is, until he actually starts to behave like a teenager, for which he's punished by having to help his mother building up the fish restaurant. Apparently, attending an illegal rave - while sober - is worse than having a house full of strippers pay for the damage you cause to your father's boat and a pier. They remain blatantly absent during his unreasonable behaviour of Pacey and even support him in his vengeful boat race. There's a saying in my country : soft healers make for festering wounds. Dawson could have done with a serious dose of 'pull your head out of your arse, son' but never gets it. No, he is the 'gifted son', the 'silent hero he always is'. You'd develop a god complex for less accolades than that.
Derek Wheeler correctly observes that Dawson never informed Pacey about his changed feelings for Joey, whereas he did so just about every time he had a change of heart in the past. At least Pacey tried to come clean beforehand, failed due to the circumstances and then understandably can't resist his unabating feelings, especially since it's palpable that Joey feels the same, but hesitates because it would 'devastate Dawson'. Would it, though? And besides, why, when she isn't even aware of his changed feelings, would she take that in to consideration when going for Pacey when she just tried to make a go of a college student, where this didn't seem to pose a problem at all? Huh?
The list of people accomodating Dawson to an unbelievable extent and willing to cast Pacey into the role of betrayer is, frankly, stunning and I took issue with is all through the latter half of Season 3. The one off character Aunt Gwen is one of the worst : immediately coming down on Pacey from when she first lays eyes on him, to berating him and Joey when she catches them in a private moment, leaving no doubt about her negative feelings for Pacey when it takes two to tango. She launches into this half assed diatribe to Joey about not caring if she wants to be with Pacey, but Dawson's feelings! They must at all times be considered! Even when they're just friends! And then proceeds to usher Dawson to embrace his Dark Side, sorry, his resurging feelings for Joey by giving him her schmalzy painting of them. Yeah, no conflict of interest there, Gwen, the liberated woman who herself chose for her true loves a now dead painter and a life of liberty and leasure, but has no qualms in steering others towards the outcome she prefers. What hypocrisy.
Same thing goes for Bessy, who has every reason to be grateful to Pacey for actually giving her the idea to start a business which ultimately becomes a thriving business at that. Just about all the adults in Dawson's Creek during Season 3 (and Mitch and Gail in the previous two) are willing to buy into the Cult Of Dawson at the expense of his best friend, which they all willingly cast into the role of villain and loser. It's bad writing, in my book, simply directed at creating tension, but in the most cheap way possible.
Now, I have to admit I've always had a weak spot for Pacey, not least because, in spite of the things I have in common with the Dawson character, the circumstances in which I grew up line up with Pacey's. The proverbial black sheep of the family everyone looks down on and, hearing it on a daily basis, starting to believe he's actually that and acting upon that premise, making life more dfifficult for himself than it should've been. Because, understandably though it may be, Pacey isn't blameless : he's willing to buy into that image and doubt and second guess himself and his worth throughout the series, in spite of the 'devil may care' shield he holds up in defense. Well, until the series finale anyway. Even his knight in shining armour shtick comes from from his negative self image. But at least, that is a much more sympathetic character arc than what the writers bestowed on Dawson, and it makes for another more relatable character that you can root for and are happy for that he does end up with Joey because they bring out the best in each other. Whereas whenever Dawson and Joey are together within a romantic situation, it invariably results in negative tension. It was the case in Season 1 and it continued until Season 6. As friends, soul mates, they are unbeatable. As partners in a relationship? Not at all. It begs the question why Dawson continues to think he and Joey belong together in that way and the only thing that makes sense is the aforementioned autistic single mindedness : irrespective of reality (inasmuch as a TV scenario is real, of course), her own feelings and the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, he and Joey belong together.
I can't speak for Kevin Williamson, of course, but it's possible that he took all these things into consideration when writing the series finale, which may have informed Joey's speech to Dawson when they were sitting together in his old back yard in the penultimate scene. With a few sentences, Williamson rights several wrongs and misconceptions about what it means to be soul mates. In the plus column for the Dawson character, the series finale finally shows that he has indeed grown up and grown out of his teenage self obsession (while, of course, still relentlessly hanging onto his film/TV making ambitions), allowing everyone in that particular triangle to move on and have the lives they desire. And, if I may, in that sense, the show was indeed about Joey and Pacey finding each other, from the snail project to that final phone call. It's not uncommon even in real life that people have to move out of each other's periphery for several years and walk their own path for a while, only to find they belong together after all. I've certainly known a few couples where this was the case.
Dawson is a Creator Insert. Kevin Williamson based the character of Dawson on himself, but straight, and Joey on his childhood friend. It always seemed like a "If I'd been straight we'd have been soulmates" when in reality they still wouldn't have been a good pairing.
Too often characters who shouldn't have cared about Dawson's feelings did. Joey's sister being all "how will this affect Dawson" If we had just started it out as Joey's story then things like Pacey realizing he liked Joey before Dawson even knew she was a girl would have been treated with more weight.
Instead in season 3 Joey finally seeing Pacey the way he sees her is treated like a betrayal of Dawson when in reality Dawson betrayed Pacey by never consulting Pacey about the fact his own feelings changed.
Which cool he didn't have to but to then act like Pacey who already had said "I like Joey" betrayed him? Or his "how did two people who couldn't stand each other end up dating" attitude? Joey and Pacey had been friends since season 1 when they bonded during the Snail project.
The entire show should have been about Pacey and Joey finding each other.
These are excellent observations, Derek!
Some years ago I watched Dawson's Creek for the first time. I was a Dawson-Joey shipper so after the last episode I was sad, angry and I felt robbed. Then after watching the series some times, deciding to stop after episode 4 and suggested that the marriage footing shown at te beginning of the last episode was actualy taken during the end of episode 4 so they could get Dawson and Joey their happy ending and leave it there. I thought this especially because events of the seasons 5 and 6 are not mentioned in the wedding vows. Recently I was watching the last episode and then, in the end, it finally hit me. From Dawson and Joey sitting on the bench in the Leery garden. Saying things like "you and me allways" and "I love you" to one another, From Alexander climbing the ladder, from Lilly supporting him to get up from the window of "Dawson's" room, to the girl playing Joey in the Creek, directed by Dawson, stumbling into the room of the boy playing Dawson. From them speaking the same words as we heard Dawson and Joey saying to each other some momenst earlier. From them finally kissing each other. Happy ending for "Dawson and Joey".
Next we see Joey's reaction. She said: "That was perfect, absolutely perfect" And there it hit me. Was she really saying the end of the Creek, in which Dawson and Joey ended up together, was perfect, no it was absolutely perfect? What did that mean for the end she chose, she directed, ending up with Pacey? I strongly believe she is expressing her doubts for the end she chose. And she said it in presence of Pacey who heard that too. And I now what was said about Pacey's tears caused by him realizing it was the very last shot of Dawson's Creek. But what did Kevin Williamson tell us by entering Pacey's tears in the final footage? Pacey saw the ending of the Creek, he heard Joey's valuation of it and in stead of saying something wise and witty like: "Well Jo, I am glad we chose another ending" we see Pacey in tears. Is he valuing Joey's remark like her having doubts about chosing him and was she still dreaming about being with Dawson. I can only imagine it fed Pacey's uncertainties he showed in season 4 ending with his explosion on the promboat. That's what Kevin Williamson suggested with editing Pacey's tears.
And then the suggestion that Dawson got his dream? I think what Dawson got, was the life of A.I. Brooks. His girl chose his best friend and he was stock with the movie making. That certainly is not what Kevin Williamson wanted us to learn about Dawson in the final scene of the series. No, when Dawson walks out of his office he is accompanied by the music of Beth Nielsen Chapman's Say Goodnight, Not Goodbye. The same music they played when Dawson and Joey first expressed their feelings for each other by sharing a kiss. A moment Joey mentioned in Coda of Season 4 as her most life altering moment. Not having sex for the first time with Pacey, not her mother passing away. No, the first romantic kiss with Dawson. The kiss with Dawson at the end of season 4 she called a moment she lost her status as mere mortal and achieved a brief moment of true greatness. She had many moments with that boy and I am sure that the the kiss which was her most life altering moment was included there.
And that was the final feeling Kevin Williamson gave us. So I put hope out of Joey's valuation of "The Creek', Pacey tears as a reaction on Joey's words and Beth Nielsen Chapman's song at the very end of Dawson's Creek
Kevin Williamson: Chapeau.
That's a very interesting interpretation!
Why you call it an interpretation and not an analysis. When it is an interpretation I am curious how you express Joey's words, Pacey's tears and the music at the end?
I see it as: Joey was calling "The Creek" depiction / recreation perfect, not her relationship with Dawson. Pacey was teary-eyed because TV episodes can be moving for viewers, even more so when you know the real people the episode is based on. The music at the end was just to use a significant song from the series.
Shari,
I dare to disagree with you, because I think your motivation, for which I thank you, is not very convincing. As to the words of Joey. We only saw the ending of the Creek in which Dawson and Joey used the same words they did a few moments before in Dawson's Creek and then ended up kissing. I feel Joey rates the end of the Creek (which she discussed with Dawson earlier in the episode and said, make it a happy ending) with her words. Dawson gave her the happy ending and she thought that was perfect, absolutely perfect.
The tears of Pacey I cannot motivate out of the ending of the Creek we saw. Pacey was not an emotional guy, and when he does somthing out of character like crying. We can only motivate on which we saw and that was (the actors playing) Dawson and Joey chosing for each other and Joey that rating perfect. I come to no other reason than seeing and end with your competitor in love and hearing your loved one rating that as perfect.
You make the song choice sound somewhat like throwing dice which are connected to a song, and that's it. You also think the did this kind of choice more deliberate.
Ton
I hear what you're saying. I think we're going to have to agree to disagree!
I just recently started rewatching Dawson's Creek, after a ten year break (it was constantly in syndication here back then), and all the while, my opinion hasn't changed about the show. The only 'new' observation I'm making, is that for a show created around the turn of the century, it has aged well enough to be considered a classic.
You are indeed correct in observing that the show's real central character is Joey. From a writer's/actor's standpoint, I believe it became that way because of Katie Holmes lending the character real credibility. To a large extent, she doesn't play her, she *is* her. Just rewatched Episode 1 of Season 3, the season, which, to me, essentially became the show's defining one. Her reaction to Dawson rejecting her sexual advances by slipping into what I call the characteristic 'Joey Passive Aggressive Defense Mechanism' to hide her vulnerability at the drop of a hat is something writers can write, but it takes an actress truly understanding her character to do it so naturally and effortlessly. That's what I think made the show's audience react to her - minus the usual contingent of detractors - in the way we did.
As for Dawson, I've always had an ambivalent opinion of the character...
As a person with ASD who also lives and works in the creative arts, I recognise a lot of traits I used to have as a teenager in the teenage Dawson : his single mindedness about his career ambitions and his continued drive to work through his experiences and emotions through his creative medium (mine being music). Now, this isn't uncommon in creative people. To make the obvious analogy : a lot, if not most of Spielberg's movies come from the same place, not least his last one, which for all intents and purposes could be considered his feature length take on his own Dawson's Creek, if you will.
That single mindedness takes on a darker turn in to obsession when it comes to romantic relationships : in Dawson's mind, there is no other option than Joey being his one true love, in spite of anything and everything, even Joey's own feelings. Unfortunately, this is something I have been guilty of myself at that age (16 - 20+) and watching a TV show character do the same simultaneously held up a mirror and made me cringe, but also allowed me to look at what it must have been like for the people who were subjected to that kind of behaviour and deeply regret it, even if I know that I had no tools or help to deal with these things differently because I was undiagnosed and I had no support whatsoever. When the show first aired, I was pushing 30, so by that time, I had lived and learned a bit. But it was awkward to see my younger self in Dawson, a character that because of that trait becomes unsympathetic and at times even pathetic. It does make me think that, intentionally or not, Williamson wrote Dawson as a kid on the spectrum, possibly because he's on there himself.
But why do I consider Dawson pathetic at times? Several reasons : one being that he can't get over himself and would rather blame others for misfortunes which he brought upon himself. The other main gripe I have is that in spite of this, just about everyone caters to his ambitions and feelings without even questioning whether they're right or wrong, especially Mitch and Gail, who for some reasons seem to want to forgive almost anything in that regard. Anything, that is, until he actually starts to behave like a teenager, for which he's punished by having to help his mother building up the fish restaurant. Apparently, attending an illegal rave - while sober - is worse than having a house full of strippers pay for the damage you cause to your father's boat and a pier. They remain blatantly absent during his unreasonable behaviour of Pacey and even support him in his vengeful boat race. There's a saying in my country : soft healers make for festering wounds. Dawson could have done with a serious dose of 'pull your head out of your arse, son' but never gets it. No, he is the 'gifted son', the 'silent hero he always is'. You'd develop a god complex for less accolades than that.
Derek Wheeler correctly observes that Dawson never informed Pacey about his changed feelings for Joey, whereas he did so just about every time he had a change of heart in the past. At least Pacey tried to come clean beforehand, failed due to the circumstances and then understandably can't resist his unabating feelings, especially since it's palpable that Joey feels the same, but hesitates because it would 'devastate Dawson'. Would it, though? And besides, why, when she isn't even aware of his changed feelings, would she take that in to consideration when going for Pacey when she just tried to make a go of a college student, where this didn't seem to pose a problem at all? Huh?
The list of people accomodating Dawson to an unbelievable extent and willing to cast Pacey into the role of betrayer is, frankly, stunning and I took issue with is all through the latter half of Season 3. The one off character Aunt Gwen is one of the worst : immediately coming down on Pacey from when she first lays eyes on him, to berating him and Joey when she catches them in a private moment, leaving no doubt about her negative feelings for Pacey when it takes two to tango. She launches into this half assed diatribe to Joey about not caring if she wants to be with Pacey, but Dawson's feelings! They must at all times be considered! Even when they're just friends! And then proceeds to usher Dawson to embrace his Dark Side, sorry, his resurging feelings for Joey by giving him her schmalzy painting of them. Yeah, no conflict of interest there, Gwen, the liberated woman who herself chose for her true loves a now dead painter and a life of liberty and leasure, but has no qualms in steering others towards the outcome she prefers. What hypocrisy.
Same thing goes for Bessy, who has every reason to be grateful to Pacey for actually giving her the idea to start a business which ultimately becomes a thriving business at that. Just about all the adults in Dawson's Creek during Season 3 (and Mitch and Gail in the previous two) are willing to buy into the Cult Of Dawson at the expense of his best friend, which they all willingly cast into the role of villain and loser. It's bad writing, in my book, simply directed at creating tension, but in the most cheap way possible.
Now, I have to admit I've always had a weak spot for Pacey, not least because, in spite of the things I have in common with the Dawson character, the circumstances in which I grew up line up with Pacey's. The proverbial black sheep of the family everyone looks down on and, hearing it on a daily basis, starting to believe he's actually that and acting upon that premise, making life more dfifficult for himself than it should've been. Because, understandably though it may be, Pacey isn't blameless : he's willing to buy into that image and doubt and second guess himself and his worth throughout the series, in spite of the 'devil may care' shield he holds up in defense. Well, until the series finale anyway. Even his knight in shining armour shtick comes from from his negative self image. But at least, that is a much more sympathetic character arc than what the writers bestowed on Dawson, and it makes for another more relatable character that you can root for and are happy for that he does end up with Joey because they bring out the best in each other. Whereas whenever Dawson and Joey are together within a romantic situation, it invariably results in negative tension. It was the case in Season 1 and it continued until Season 6. As friends, soul mates, they are unbeatable. As partners in a relationship? Not at all. It begs the question why Dawson continues to think he and Joey belong together in that way and the only thing that makes sense is the aforementioned autistic single mindedness : irrespective of reality (inasmuch as a TV scenario is real, of course), her own feelings and the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, he and Joey belong together.
I can't speak for Kevin Williamson, of course, but it's possible that he took all these things into consideration when writing the series finale, which may have informed Joey's speech to Dawson when they were sitting together in his old back yard in the penultimate scene. With a few sentences, Williamson rights several wrongs and misconceptions about what it means to be soul mates. In the plus column for the Dawson character, the series finale finally shows that he has indeed grown up and grown out of his teenage self obsession (while, of course, still relentlessly hanging onto his film/TV making ambitions), allowing everyone in that particular triangle to move on and have the lives they desire. And, if I may, in that sense, the show was indeed about Joey and Pacey finding each other, from the snail project to that final phone call. It's not uncommon even in real life that people have to move out of each other's periphery for several years and walk their own path for a while, only to find they belong together after all. I've certainly known a few couples where this was the case.
Raf, I love your analysis and your humility. I agree strongly with everything you said.
I very briefly wrote about "The Fabelmans" here: https://teendramawhore.substack.com/p/teen-drama-links-december-6-2022