In defense of Corey Matthews.
I'm a little late to the party, just finished s6 rewatch along with listening to the pod in step with the episode. And I have to say, you're takes made me viserally upset. No one defends Corey. Serial cheater, when Topangas away, etc... red flags, girls throwing themselves at him, etc... So I'm here to defend Corey as well as give a different nuanced perspective on the Heartbreak episode and aftermath. And even further, in the aftermath of Bruh s5 recap where Danielle says Corey not only doesn't listen, trust, support or respect her, I'm going to push back.
So let's start with those "red flags": serial cheater, and there are, if not mistaken around 3 or 4 instances where people say Corey is a supposed serial cheater. 1) Pittsburgh part 2. Shawn and Corey on a double date with the 2 british exchange students. It was clear Shawn set this whole thing up for 2 reasons - girls and to cheer up Corey. What does Corey do, he goes out with him, but basically talks about Topanga entire time and cries. He's moreso Shawns wingman than anything else. 2) Beach State girl. And this is purely sexual assault. She throws him on the bed and climbs on top of him. The excuse people give is that Corey made no move to get up. Now reverse that, Corey throws the woman onto the bed, and she makes no move. Would you consider that consent? Absolutely not. So saying Corey made to move to get away is one of the most terrible talking points you can imagine. But let's also understand, she throws him on the bed, and immediately Eric walks into the room, so she never gets to try and push it farther. 3) The other one was earlier when Corey and Shawn went to Dana Pruitts party (name might be wrong). But essentially he tries to call Topanga and the girl gets frisky, he runs into a closet and she pursues him into the closet and proceeds to essentially sexually assault him as well. He clearly said no, tried to run away, but she did it anyways. Again, not a serial cheater. And he also had zero expectation of this being 2 chicks and 2 guys party. He expected a party of popular kids. 4) the other 2 are dream sequences, 50s war story, and senior fantasy montage. Sorry, dreams don't count. And anyone that has ever dreamed should understand this. And further, as dream sequences go, then Corey really wants to kill Shawn...
In terms of girls throwing themselves at him. Not his fault. Even Topanga in the Lauren arc says "Do you know how many guys hit on me?" Further, when they got back together after Disney World, didn't a guy blatantly hit on Topanga with Corey standing right there. So this seems like a both sided issue. Thus saying this is a notch against Corey is asinine.
In terms of the different nuanced perspective of Heartbreak episode. I do believe Corey clearly emotionally cheated on Topanga, but maybe not necessarily in agreement with popular opinions. Basically, Lauren kissed Corey, Corey did not kiss Lauren. Notice the look Corey gives is like that 1st kiss with Topanga in s1. At that point he was spending time with someone interesting and when she kissed him, he realized it just got real. His cheating happened because when he realized it, he went back.
That said, there are no innocents in this, not Corey, not Topanga, not Shawn, not Angela, not Lauren. So let's timeline this. Lauren kisses Corey, Corey walks away. All good. Mistake happens when he goes back. Corey is going to tell Topanga, but he listens to his best friend, so fault Shawn, fault Corey. Topanga finds the letter...and keeps it and doesn't immediately give to Corey. Fault Topanga. I mean you can almost indirectly say that the reason Lauren comes to see Corey is Topanga fault because Corey never got the letter. That said, how long did she have the letter, I'm going to guess at least a couple of weeks because they were broken up for like 2 months. When we next see the letter, she's talking to Angela about it. Angela steals the letter, opens it and reads it. Fault Angela. Angela basically tells Topanga what's in it causing Topanga to read it. Fault Angela and Topanga. And Corey never gets a chance to tell his side because Chubbys incident happens. All I'm saying is that it a lot more nuanced and deep than most people think.
Last point, near the end of the Bruh recap of S5, Danielle lashes out about how Corey doesn't listen, support or respect Topanga. And this is where I viserally felt anger towards her with this take. In the aftermath and getting back together in the Starry Night episode and beyond, Corey is all of those things. I have a different view of the monkey bars. I think both were talking, both were listening to each other. Both had things to say and in the confines of a 20minute sitcom, this is how it plays out. But even at the end of the Corey says "So you kissed another guy", or meaning he heard what Topanga was saying. Prom - everything about that episode shows Corey listening, respecting and supporting Topanga. He's willing to suppress his sexual desires because he respects Topanga and the boundries SHE'S set. And this also means that again, he's listening to her and understanding her. Episode pre-graduation, he has a vision of how he wants their futures to play out. He lashes out, but Eric puts him on the right path. And he's fully supportive of Yale after that. Further, I think the nuanced look at "Graduation" shows that Corey is so supportive that he's willing to let her go to Yale if it kills him, and thinks that it will kill him. But he's going to stand by that decision because he loves Topanga.
That's it. That's all I got. And I hope this brings out an avenue of discussion.
Oh yeah, side note: I disagree with Will on the separation would've led to better episodes with a will they/won't they, together/apart/together, etc... I think that's a show ender. Let's face it. It's a been there done that concept that's not only been done to death with Ross/Rachel, and even Seinfeld where there was always a will Jerry and Elaine ever hook up. And also think their audience spoke up on the web site and wanted them married because it was different than what everyone else was doing.
Thanks for the read if you made it this far.