The Time Honoured Choice: Betty Or Veronica?

Lately I've been pointing out to Vicki instances of what I refer to as "Betty or Veronica" situations. If you've never read an Archies comic in your life, I suppose it's possible that you don't know who I'm talking about. Teenage Archibald "Archie" Andrews is perennially trying to choose between cute, level-headed, eager-to-please, blonde Betty Cooper, and raven-haired, temperamental and adventurous (not to mention filthy rich and spoiled rotten) Veronica Lodge. Should he go for the reliable Betty who'd more often than not be thrilled to get a date with him, or pursue haughty Veronica, who might decide to dump him for not noticing that her boots matched her top?

There's obviously something of a morality play at work in even just the setup of that dynamic. Do you play it safe, or strive for the (potentially) unattainable? Do you want the person who wants you, or the one who probably doesn't care one way or the other about you? Do you consider choosing Betty to be "settling," or does going after Veronica feel to you like tilting at windmills? For all of those reasons and more, I often ask people, "So who do you prefer: Betty or Veronica?"

To the surprise of no one, I'm sure, I'm a Betty guy. Not because she's blonde - both my first girlfriend and the love of my life are brunettes! - but because of her personality. She's real, where Veronica tends to be shallow. She cares about other people, where Veronica only ever considers what other people can do for her! In my mind, there's no contest, but I suspect that the way I view the two characters has coloured my perception, to the point where I've filtered out most of Betty's flaws along with Veronica's occasional virtues. But even that's telling, in and of itself!

As a potentially interesting example of this dynamic, consider the characters of Juliet and Kate, on the TV show Lost. At a superficial level, one's blonde and the other's brunette, but that's incidental in this case. More significantly, though, our introduction to Juliet cast her in a villainous role - not only was she an "Other" but she was also psychologically tormenting heroic Jack, to a certain degree. However, as her story unfolds, we find out that she, too, is a prisoner on the island, and that the only reason she's there is to work on what she thought was socially-beneficial research. She's no villain! Meanwhile, when we first see Kate, in the series premiere, she's the epitome of the helpful, kind and considerate female lead. She sews up Jack's wound from the crash, despite being visibly uncomfortable with the ickiness of it all. Kate's concerned with the welfare of the rest of the survivors, and seems like the perfect love interest for reluctant leader Jack. And yet, by the end of the pilot, we've seen that she's actually a hunted criminal on the run, and wanted for murder!

So which one's Betty, and which is Veronica? (Or does the archetype even apply in this case?) Jack's certainly been put in a position where he seemingly has to choose between them - currently, Juliet has the upper hand, though Jack did tell Kate that he loved her! Juliet has slowly morphed from more of a Veronica type into a Betty, at least in terms of seeming wild and somewhat edgy before setting up a more domesticated relationship with Jack. Meanwhile, Kate has engaged in her own role reversal "Betty vs Veronica" decision, having to choose between Veronica-like Sawyer and Betty-ish Jack. Even Sawyer has his own dichotomy to solve, as he's had a child with one woman (who he, in the process, transformed from a Betty into a Veronica) but is attracted to Kate, perhaps because he can't really seem to get a solid read on her (Betty? Veronica?)

Anyway, it's a fun game to play. Who else has Betty-or-Veronica stories to tell?