[gives up on phrasing and just puts words down]

i think that jmart can't ever really be happy and a truly healthy relationship because both of them are so mentally unwell and traumatized etc etc
i do think that rq did at least try to point that out ? because iirc correctly they have some conversation about how they're only even compatible because of the horrors and shared trauma which is !!! a very bad basis for a relationship

i also think that martin is for sure kinda confusing about what he wants and ig Who he is at his core but i think that's part of his character if that makes sense
like he doesn't know so we don't know
(which is annoying. but)

i feel like a nice happy healthy jmart in the fanbase for some things is perfectly fine bc like. therapy. but mainly i just go with assuming it's someone au or just. they love the characters enough to put them in Situations

that's longer than i meant it to be mb but yea :D

i think sometimes people just aren’t compatible and jmart very clearly are not and i think that’s the biggest problem with them tbh.

that and the fact that martin doesn’t really seem like he loves john at all (or even likes him) in canon, and never really progressed past a teenage-esque crush on the idea of him. this is clear in how martin belittles and shames john for his needs and his avatar behaviour that he can’t fully control and how he’s completely unable to really accept any part of him that he doesn’t like.

that man would not be compromising at all about anything if he didn’t literally need john because of the whole apocalypse happening

like they have no hope of any relationship if they don’t life-or-death need eachother because you don’t want to risk ruining your relationship with the single other person in the world that’s meant to like you.

((typing that out and like omg lowkey that’s slept on as like interesting toxic relationship possibility why was that barely even mentioned as a factor of their relationship))

im not sure it’s even trauma that’s dividing them because like trauma is the only thing that’s even uniting them atp. like it’s the only reason they’re together and there is no way that they would stay together if either of them was in any way well-adjusted because they just don’t have chemistry or really any basis for a relationship other than the fact they are literally each others only options and neither of them want martin to be alone/Alone and obviously john also doesn’t want to ruin his one chance remaining of human connection. and that’s kinda why i think that any attempts at creating a healthy jmart are oversimplifying or mischaracterising the characters and/or the relationship