the more i rewatch dawson’s creek the more obvious it is that joey LITERALLY feels stockholm syndrome when it comes to dawson

he’s the only constant she’s had in her life, he helped her get through her mom dying and her dad being sent to prison, his family became hers, dawson practically became her whole WORLD because she didn’t have anyone else

like this man became her only source of comfort and so she feels like she owes him her time & friendship & more when he wants it, because she DOES NOT KNOW ANYTHING ELSE and change is terrifying for her because she’s so scarred and traumatized

she feels like if she leaves him or loses him she’ll lose the only part of herself that was happy and easy and simple and comfortable (her childhood, her innocence) so she FEELS OBLIGATED TO STAND BY HIM

even when dawson constantly talks down to her, gaslights, blames her, doesn’t support her, holds her back... she cannot see that because she is convinced that she needs him in order to be herself because she doesn’t know who she is without him

this man literally trapped her. and he knows it and uses it to his advantage plenty of times, he knows the hold he has over her. which makes it even MORE fucked up. dawson leery is in hell .

okay thanks for coming to my tedtalk. joey potter deserved better than that oompa loompa