Originally Posted by
Xenon
I think this is kind of the minimum needed for salvaging but I can't say I like it because it's still MJ making the wrong choice, a choice she shouldn't be making, and a choice that could then be frame as her "moving on". It leaves doubts in your mind where "well what if PEter had to go away for a while for some reason?" and how loyal she actually is still. But you do bring up a point I wanted to address before that I failed to, about her giving up on Peter.
The Hospital scene traumatized me to the point where answering the "how could she not love him"" And my answer was "she couldn't, so it must be an act", and then the reason for the act being the children and Paul is actually gay so its a sacrifice for her too. It's not amazing but it addresses all of my problems it can. But in doing so I forgot a fundamental problem, which is the point where she loses faith in Peter to begin with. It just doesn't make sense. She knows he has created a device before, she knows he loves her, she knows he doens't give up. There just shouldn't be a point where she does that. There just shouldn't be an opening in her heart for the relationship to ever develop. You touched on one way to get her there, she thinks Peter is dead, I guess that works but it seems.....a little weak. If she thought he was dead seeing him again should have been amazing for her and, to be frank, should have revived all the feelings. So it woudl be weird. A thought I had from a different thread would be the time dilation. That is, Paul told her that even if Peter comes for them, it would likely be decades because of how his understanding of the dilation works. That might work as well, but should cause a schism between the two of them.
I dunno. While my intial theoory still mostly works, I'm starting to favor the magic chains influencing her behavior theories just becuase I just can't square the MJ of 25 with the actual character.