Joe Goldberg is NOT a good person, you're just afraid of love.....

 A lot of girls often infantilize Joe Goldberg as this good guy who would do anything for love.  I did too, I thought he was super-hot, and I couldn’t truly see the problem with what he was doing, until I watched season 4 and read book one. See, here’s the thing, Joe Goldberg doesn’t actually care about love. I mean, he does in the sense that he loves these people, but the love is very surface level. There is no real deeper understanding of what love actually looks like and what love means. It is just him assuming that he knows what love means because he killed for his mom, and his mom justified the murder because his dad was an obvious bad guy. I think that’s where the psychopathy really starts because Joe doesn’t care who he harms in the process. Again, on the surface, he does, because we catch his vomiting several times, not only in the show but in the book; he’s not all that joyful to see the dead remains. However, he is removed from the bigger picture. Yeah, it’s gross to see someone dead and chop them up, but he doesn’t feel any remorse for what he did. Joe basically feels bad because it’s gross, not because he feels bad for killing someone. And I think that’s where people honestly get it wrong, Joe doesn’t know love. I mean, how could he? His mom loved him on a surface level, his dad was abusive (at least in the show’s depiction), and Mooney locked him in a cage. What other standard of love can he really grasp onto? I mean, even when Love literally appears in front of him in the most raw, real way, he’s terrified of it. Because he realizes that Love is not perfect and never will be perfect. He wants that perfect love, the love where the girl is perfect and hot, and sexy, and never leaves. But that’s not real life, that’s not how love works, and even in the clips I saw of him getting caught, he blames the audience for his being alone. He can’t see love for what it truly is because, truth be told, it’s never going to be love; it’s always going to be the idea of love. That right there is the sole reason people like and defend Joe Goldberg; they also have an ideal of love that they are desperately trying to grasp onto. Everyone wants the perfect dream girl or guy, the guy who will open the door for you, bring you flowers every day, kill for you, and worship you. That’s not how life and love go, though. Love is messy and complex and hard, and I feel like most people aren’t ready to experience true, deep love. Because it’s never picture perfect of the love you want, it’s the love you need for that moment, good or bad. So, no, Joe Goldberg is a terrible person; you just don’t want to face the reality of love.

But what do you think? Do you agree or disagree, and did you like the books more or the series? 

Love you lots! 🩷💫

Mali