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greenandhazy · 4 years

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There are two Abed moments in seasons 5 and 6 that I feel like are... quite underexplored in the actual text itself but which are sending me into a Hurt/Comfort emotional tailspin.

SCENE 1 (for those of you who didn’t watch past the first few episodes of Season 5, the context is that Abed, on his way to see a new Kickpuncher movie, unthinkingly sprays foam on a new-to-the-show professor’s cartoons, and the professor handcuffs him to a filing cabinet because he thinks Abed is spoiled and over-indulged.)

Oh, you have feelings?! Have you considered putting them into your work? Your cartoons are monuments to joylessness; nervously assembled jokes based on nothing from your life or anyone's life! You're furious at me for being creative because you want to be able to create. You have all this rage and shame and loneliness which I don't even know how to feel, much less understand and you decide to put what on paper? A duck? Jim the duck? You think I'm crazy? You think there's something wrong with me? Jim the duck! - Abed in “Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality” aka JUST TWO EPISODES AFTER TROY LEFT

Correct me if I’m wrong, but... this is the only time we see Abed lose control to the point of shouting, right? His anger and put-downs are usually cold and direct as opposed to loud--in most of the scenes where other characters are yelling, it’s even lampshaded by having him yelling nonsense rather than actually participating. And it is CHOCK FULL of projection. Like, the irony of someone yelling “you have rage I don’t know how to feel” is pretty obvious, not to mention the reference to loneliness; there’s a scene before this with Abed walking through the halls making Kickpuncher noises and then very clearly thinking “this isn’t fun by myself” and walking normally. And even though, in this speech, Abed describes himself as a creative person in opposition to Hickey’s formulaic work... he comes back later with a screenplay that is full of tropes instead of emotion and authenticity.

And it’s dealt with in a pretty subtle way. As viewers, Troy’s absence plays a huge role in this scene but it’s relatively unspoken--the closest we get is when Abed shows Hickey the screenplay and says “Troy thought it was hilarious. I didn’t have the heart to tell him it wasn’t a comedy.” There’s no “hey, sorry for yelling, I’ve been missing my friend” conversation or anything like that, which would be par for the course for this kind of show (and Community itself).

SCENE 2 has some more back-and-forth and I’m not going to type up the whole thing, but basically Abed is tasked with helping new character Elroy fix the wifi, which is down, and realizes it’s because a bird’s nest is in the router. He says “the mother must have built it there because of the heat. same reason my mom took my half brother to Arizona.” Then he says “If you move it, the mother won’t come back” and then repeats himself with more urgency when Elroy indicates he wants to move it anyway. Eventually the nest is moved, Abed takes care of the chicks, two of them die, and he comments that he’s worried the last one is “turning into a symbol of my own innocence.”

Again, this one does get some textual acknowledgement of what’s going on, but the reference to his own mom is pretty casual and it isn’t directly brought up again. I think it’s mostly powerful because the last real treatment of Abed’s relationship with his mom was “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas,” where it was such a Big Deal. and also because THIS IS HIS FACE WHEN HE REALIZES THERE ARE BABIES IN THE NEST:

HOW did Danny Pudi not even get an Emmy nomination? Literally, how? Like, damn, Abed is such a good, understated character that moments like this just wallop you over the head.

Oh, I lied, one more painful Abed scene post-Troy--in the first episode after Troy left, when Abed has “an intense burst of compatibility with a girl we never see again” as Britta calls it, only to feel betrayed when it turns out Britta bribed the girl to tell him spoilers for a TV show. And his reaction is “But I really liked her. I’m devastated.”

Which is also pretty unprecedented for him as a character. Granted, we don’t see very much of Abed being rejected romantically, but still, “devastated” is an awfully strong word to use from a character not prone to histrionics. Not to go to that Trobed well too often but... is it perhaps possible that he feels that rejection much more strongly having just lost his primary source of emotional support?? Again, unacknowledged in the script. They have Abed reunite with Rachel instead, which... eh. Okay, I’ll admit I’m biased when it comes to Abed ships, but I wouldn’t complain about a romantic relationship for him if it was handled well. My thing is... they could only get Brie Larson for two episodes. And you really can’t develop a good romantic relationship in two episodes--as evidenced by the fact that her disappearance in Season 6 is lampshaded with one of Abed’s meta jokes that offers neither an explanation or any hint of his emotional reaction. So I really do think the episode makes more sense, as a storyline, if you look at it as “Abed latching onto people in an attempt to fill the void Troy has left.”

IN CONCLUSION, seasons 5 and 6 are still not the best but GOD do I love me some Abed angst, and in that regard they do not disappoint.

#community #abed nadir #trobed

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slutabed · 3 years

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F, I, K for the fanfic asks!

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

“The best part about the hero’s journey,” Abed says quietly, “is that it ends where it begins. So you have to come home, like all the heroes do.”

“Of course I will.” Troy tightens his grip around Abed’s waist. “It’s going to suck so bad to be away from you. Just because I want to go doesn’t mean I’m not going to miss you like hell.”

Abed presses his face to Troy’s shoulder and exhales unsteadily. “Now I know I have a heart,” he says lowly, the quote muffled by fabric and the weight of his own grief, “because it’s breaking.”

Idk this whole scene is just so sappy and it’s from one of my favorite fics I’ve written. I love Troy and the whole hero concept, so I love his journey as a hero’s journey and the idea that he’ll come home. And this fic was supposed to be heavily based around movies and movie quotes when I started it but this ended up being one of the only specific quotes that remained. I really love trobed and specifically Abed paired with the motif of The Wizard of Oz so I liked throwing that quote in <3

i. Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)? Another guilty pleasure of mine is just like...idk I think fic follows different rules than regular lit and should be as sentimental and indulgent as possible if you want. So I love really impossibly fluffy stuff as well as incredible angst if it’s followed by a happy ending. idk if that’s really a guilty pleasure but I guess I don’t need my fics to be super realistic lol I’m here for the overwhelming emotion.

k. What’s the angstiest idea you’ve ever come up with? I think all my angst ideas have to do with Troy leaving and I don’t really have words for the plot for this, but the concept was basically 5 times Abed was indescribably happy with Troy and almost told him how he felt but held back out of fear of losing that friendship, and then Troy leaves and Abed has to deal with the realization of like I never told him how I felt because I didn’t want to lose him but now I’ve never told him how I felt and I lost him anyway. Which is just like the most crushing concept to me lol.

#I'm sorry I'm incapable of being concise #theimprobable1 #ask game

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