bluevalntine:

A friend of mine was watching Little Woman (2019) again and loved Amy + Amy/Laurie when she used to hate her, and I’m convinced that becoming an adult and maturing is realizing that Amy was passionate and ambitious. She wanted success and wealth, and was very aware of what she needed to do to have it and as the youngest she had a big responsibility on her shoulders to actually marry well and sustain her family. All the hate towards Amy for me comes with the media making us dislike female characters that are usually feminine and aren’t rivaling society’s standards like Jo. Also, the book being on Jo’s POV makes people root for her but people never wanted to acknowledge that everything that Amy apparently “took” from Jo (like the trip to Paris) was because Jo constantly kept making fun of Aunt March’s efforts and Amy was the one actually willing to do the work — at the end, Amy was the logical choice to present to society. She earn it and took it. Plus, Amy burning Jo’s book when she was 12 is such an old excuse, she was a child, acted like a child — but then grew up.

Maturing is not only about seeing Amy differently but also realizing that Laurie was comfortable being afloat in his life, immature and okay with holding onto his childish crush on Jo, wasting his talent and money away — and it was Amy that made him grow up and realize that in order to be with her romantically he needed to put on some work and actually be the man she deserves. It was her that made him go and work for his grandfather instated of staying in Europe wasting his money. Amy challenged him and made him become aware of his potential. Jo and Laurie were holding themselves back into what was secure and comfortable because neither of them wanted to grow up and face adult challenges.

And what the movies left out compare to the books is that Laurie genuinely loved Amy and never viewed her as a second choice. The more he spent with Amy in Europe the more he started to realize that what he felt for Jo was an infatuation — Amy showed him what being in love truly means. They balanced each other very well because she was a steady and grounding presence in his life and that’s ultimately what he needed.