#like. its. ptsdee's roots.

[dennisboobs]

charlie bringing up a traumatic event involving older women only for dennis to brush it off as something milder than it was

(x)

#these are 6 seasons apart. before dee made a smut film. before thundergun express. even this far back #dennis' trauma with older women is acknowledged in the same episode that it's established he checks IDs to make sure #that the young women he's pursuing are of age #iasip #it's always sunny in philadelphia #dennis reynolds #charlie kelly #cw rape mention #he's fine. he's over it....... you're 'over' it? so you admit it was traumatic? #ada speaks #iasip scripts #anyway this was like. the BIG find i was so fucking. insane over in all of the 7 scripts i bought #because that sure is not in the ep!!!!!!!! #an acknowledgement of how traumatic gang gets whacked was for him??????? #and dennis' denial being established here??? when charlie is the one to bring it up???????? #like. its. ptsdee's roots. #i love when a key charden dynamic is confirmed seasons earlier before their shared trauma is fully established #makes me :)))

[caroline-in-hr]

another long macdennis-related finale pre-angst post

me trying to consolidate (or maybe just console) my macdennis-related anxieties regarding the finale:

I’m not even concerned that It’s Not Going to Happen - I’m banking on that, honestly. I think my worry is unnecessary cruelty.

without knowing anything beyond promo material, and with the caveat that I have a track record of getting most shit completely wrong, I’d be incredibly surprised if RCG instantly pursued macdennis beyond the confines of the fake-dating setup. I said instantly for a reason - a possible setup could be dennis gently letting mac down, only for s13 to be mac discovering grindr, catching up on all the gay sex he’s missed, and dennis seething with jealousy covering up a lot of emotional cowardice.

but I feel like the setup would lead to a lot of unnecessary (perhaps unintentional, but we’ll make that call on wednesday night) cruelty if the entire possibility of mac and dennis Actually Having Feelings was summarily dismissed - “mac’s just obsessed with dennis because they’re close friends!” and “dennis likes mac, but just as a friend, he wouldn’t want to Sully Their Friendship!”

I can put up with a lot, a lot of bullshit. but I draw the line right about here.

I have no problem with romantic entanglements that begin as friendships quibbling over how much damage said friendship can sustain in the pursuit of non-platonic feelings. it was the entire basis of sunny fic 1, from dennis’ side of the story; it is something I’ve lived through, being a queer girl sorting through intense crushes on straight female best friends. I have no problem with friendships being given as much importance as romances - I encourage it, in fact.

my worry here is that the finale will prioritize mac and dennis as friends at the expense of a possible non-platonic narrative. anyone is free to argue that mac’s dreams about dennis in ‘PTSDee’ default to lust instead of love, and that lust is a different animal. my argument here also contextualizes ‘the gang tends bar,’ an episode that begins with dennis claiming people come to a bar on valentine’s day ‘because they don’t have people who love them or get them shit,’ continues with dennis’ passionate declaration of having ‘big feelings’ and sustained hurt over no one getting him a holiday present, and ends with mac getting dennis ‘the one thing he wanted more than anything else in the entire world’ - even if it was a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. dennis’ reaction is a maelstrom of Big Feelings.

in the world of television, with anywhere from 17-22 minutes of screentime ten times a year, an overt narrative is expensive. subtext is much cheaper, and for the past 11 seasons sunny’s made do with subtext to augment character, though not without noticeable breaks in the pattern (confirming dennis’ BPD in ‘psycho pete returns,’ having mac come out of the closet for good in ‘hero or hate crime’). it would be difficult to argue events related to mac and dennis as subtextual anymore.

I don’t expect their feelings (at the very least, mac’s more ardent affections for dennis) to go unaddressed in the finale. a fake-dating plot is more than enough segue for a real conversation about their feelings. what I do fear is for their feelings to be evaluated and immediately dismissed in favor of the status quo. my concern is dennis gently telling mac he would never want to jeopardize their friendship, it’s too important to him; mac’s only in love with him because they spend all their time together, and he’s not the right kind of guy for mac anyway. my concern is mac accepting this with only a token resistance, before accepting the offer of friendship and forgetting all about his crush on dennis.

one of my biggest appreciations for this ship is its deep roots in friendship. and again, from a more personal context, I understand the fear of ruining a friendship in favor of a romantic pursuit (again, literally why dennis ran off in sunny fic 1). but given the recent overt narrative taking great pains to illustrate not only mac’s feelings for dennis, but dennis’ reaction to demonstrations of said feelings, it would be some unequivocal bullshit to present viewers with the excuse of ‘oh, but they’re Better Off As Friends!!!’ instead of carefully disentangling plot threads. the finale can address dennis as feeling ‘not ready’ for a relationship with mac (especially with a kid on the line). the finale can claim mac should play the field more, exploring his sexuality openly instead of jumping at the first committed relationship within reach. the finale can address worries about what would happen to their friendship if something happened and they broke up - it’s a valid fear! - but it should address this, instead of jumping straight to ‘let’s just be friends’ without another thought.

addressing the situation offers plenty of opportunities to drop or sustain a macdennis-related plotline. it can carry over into the next season. it can filter out. I won’t pretend to know the writers (with the possible exception of #shitposting), and I’m fully cognizant of the show’s general penchant for never letting anyone get what they want, not generally entertaining romance, and being a dark comedy. I make my argument here in that it is unnecessarily cruel to take several years’ worth of subtext, stir in a rapidly-textual subplot, and at the end drop everything in favor of an unchanged status quo.

#iasip #it's always sunny in philadelphia #macdennis #iasip spoilers #iasip s12 spoilers #sunny spoilers #long post #tl;dr do you know what a shaggy dog story is? #it's a lengthly joke told without a punchline #my worry here is that RCG will go one step further and actually shoot the shaggy dog #iasip meta

[adrianicsea]

I've never cried from sunny before but when dennis choked up I fucking sOBBED like why the HELL has it gotten so fucking heartwarming recently?! mac's coming out, dennis and charlie being kind good buds together in ptsdee, and now fucking dennis ADMITTING HE'S SAD HE NEVER GOT ANYTHING AND HAS "BIG FEELINGS" AND FUCKING ALMOST CRYING WHEN MAC GIVES HIM A SINCERE GIFT I can't stand this GODDAMN

can’t relate on the whole “never cried at sunny before” thing (dee gives birth, a very sunny christmas, and the gang goes to hell p2 have all Gotten Me before) but YEAH i teared up during the big feelings monologue in the gang tends bar as well

i’m SO glad the show seems to be going back to its roots of character-driven dark comedy With Some Drama On The Side with the second half of s12.... as much as i liked the first half of s12 it kind of reminded me of s11 in that it was just Oh Things Are Happening To The Gang Again! How Wacky! without as much of that legitimate character exploration???? if that makes sense? that’s probably the worst word salad i’ve made in awhile rip i’m sorry

#iasip// #Anonymous #asks

[dennisboobs]

one day i will properly compare dee made a smut film and ptsdee and the differences in the way they handle their very similar subject material but i have shit to do early tomorrow morning so. for now.

do you ever think about how RCG-written episodes, no matter how bad (both character morality-wise and writing-wise) they get, will always have a degree of humanity to them. like. 11x04 has dee doing something that is So incredibly wrong and horrible to dennis. but the reactions to it don't match its intensity. 12x07 again has dee doing something absolutely fucking deranged, and the gang tells her how fucked up it was. there's actually an acknowledgement both from her and from the others that what she did was awful, but her motivation, charlie, dennis, frank and mac's motivations throughout the episode make sense. dee's insecurity is the root of it, she can't handle being someone's "rock bottom", and she needs to prove that it can get worse. 11x04 dee just decides she's going to be a bastard and tell everyone that dennis was raped at 14. we don't know why she does this, and she really has no reason to, other than to be an asshole.

#cw rape mention #cw csa mention #ada speaks #i was like. lowkey sick to my stomach after smut film bc like. jesus christ #i think glenn's acting carried and many scenes in that ep live in my brain rent free #but ptsdee does what smut film did SO much fucking better in every possible way #like yes it had to be established previously to work #but. as an episode i just think smut film is extremely weak on the dennis and dee half of it #iconic episode for frank but jesus christ the contrast between both halves makes me die #rcg has always had this. 'yes these are terrible people but they Are People' vibe #that i think a lot of guest writers misunderstand #its not just a show about horrible people doing horrible things #its about those horrible people being UNAWARE of how horrible they are #they still believe they're Good. they are just unbelievably bad at being good. #like when the guys argue over whether or not they can call the israeli businessman 'the j word' #its about. the arbitrary rules they put in place. oh you cant call him a 'jew' THAT way. that's anti semitic bro. #they are capable of recognizing when something is fucked up and occasionally engage in self reflection #the thing is. theyre selfish. and they do it anyway.