I posted a TikTok a couple of days ago stating this:
team 1: rafael & conrad girls
team 2: michael & jeremiah girls
i am team 1 and i will never not be team 1.
The point of this was to say girls who preferred Rafael over Michael in Jane the Virgin also favor Conrad over Jeremiah in The Summer I Turned Pretty. It has around 20k views and is slowly reaching girls across BookTok who have similar or opposing opinions. The comments range from "forever and always team 1" to "the brain wants team 2 but the heart wants team 1" to "OH NO OH NAH OH NAH OH NAH THIS DOESN'T ADD UP." This was all fun and games until I read this comment: "team 1: damon, team 2: stefan" which has now inspired this article.
From my personal experience and TikTok comments, viewers who have a history of loving a boy on Team A will continue to side with boys who have similar personalities/storylines in other shows. I have not done a controlled experiment, but I am confident in saying that it started for me when I saw Jace in The Mortal Instruments.
Simon is Clary's best friend from childhood, and he is obviously in love with her. They might have had a brief relationship if you refer to the books or the Shadowhunters series, but in the film, Clary and Simon are not endgame. When Jace shows up on screen, he is the bad boy demon killer who has tattoos and wears all black leather. He is your classic brooding love interest. If you completely ignore the fact that at the end of the movie they think they are siblings (it is a lie told to keep them apart I PROMISE they are not partaking in an incestual relationship), than I am confident in saying Clary ends up with Jace who is on Team A. If we start comparing Jace's personality and storyline relative to our main female character, we will see clear similarities between him and Rafael, Damon, Conrad, Edward, Steve, etc.
The title of this article is misleading because there are many girls who are Team B through and through. All I can say is that in stories where there is a Team A charming bad boy and a Team B sweetheart best friend, the same is true: Team A is usually a fan favorite, and in some cases, endgame. I have never seen a sane person be Team Jacob. I have never ever seen someone say they prefer Simon over Jace. I will continue to root for the boys on Team A, whether that is because of deep emotional trauma favoring bad boy who could possibly break your heart but ends up treating you better than the rest, or because there is a high chance our main character will stay with them in the end.
Below is a list of what boys I are on Team A or B. I will update this list as new shows come out or as I remember more from the past.
a comprehensive list of team a vs. team b boyfriends:
Team A | Team B | Movie/Show/Book |
Rafael | Michael | Jane the Virgin |
Conrad | Jeremiah | The Summer I Turned Pretty |
Damon | Stefan | The Vampire Diaries |
Jace | Simon | The Mortal Instruments |
Jess | Logan | Gilmore Girls |
Edward | Jacob | Twilight |
Steve | Jonathan | Stranger Things |