cloudysarts

[cloudysarts]

breathe deeply and die laughing

[cloudysarts]

girl help someone is trying to mansplain wfrr to me

[cloudysarts]

man i dont think youre doing it right. that doesnt look like a wolf at all

[cloudysarts]

but i'm a chemical compound

you're just the gun in my mouth

[cloudysarts]

What Killed the Toon Patrol? (a toon death analysis)

I've been writing lots of WFRR essays lately and that reminded me of a topic I've been dying to talk about.....the misconception that DIP is the only thing that can kill a toon!!! I see a lot of people misunderstanding/not understanding the weasels deaths in the movie, so I thought I'd write a little post with my two cents in it :) Using evidence from the movie, the comics, and the books! (spoilers ahead if you havent read any of those. i highly recommend them!)

Can Toons die by other means?

Right off the bat, the answer is a resounding yes.

I understand the confusion regarding this point, though. I think this misconception comes from a line in the movie, where someone outright said that, for years, it was believed that there was no way to kill a toon, until Judge Doom discovered DIP. I think this line is misleading for a few reasons. One, being the fact that they must've known there were ways to get rid of Toons. In a deleted scene, Eddie gets a pigs head painted on by the weasels, and washes it off with acetone. So they know that paint thinner can rub one away, at least in part. But there are other ways to kill Toons that don't have anything to do with them being erased! They're just fundamentally different to DIP, in a way I'll explain later.

Toons die all the time in the books, and even a little in the comics. I'm mainly going to be talking about those comics, Who Wacked Roger Rabbit (wwrr) and Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit (wprr), because those are the two that closest fit the canon of the movie. I'm excluding Who Censored Roger Rabbit and Xerious Business for the sake of this argument, as I consider them un-canon. For example, WPRR prominently centers the death of several toons, namely Clabber Clown. While DIP is mentioned in this book, it is not mentioned when specifically talking about the death of Clabber Clown, who died via gunshot. This is notable, because two Toons are shot to death in WPRR, and in both cases, they mention that the gun used contained 'dip-tipped' bullets. I will admit, the writing here is inconsistent. Because, in WPRR, it states that dip-tipped are the only types of bullets that can kill a toon. Yet, one of the toons that die via these kinds of bullets follows the rules of a toon who wasn't dipped (I'll explain what I mean by 'rules' shortly). And, in this same novel, we meet another Toon who was stabbed to death, and a dipped knife isn't mentioned. My point is, I think Toons can die to both dipped and non-dipped weapons. What really matters is the circumstances leading to their death. Namely, a question that the movie brings up repeatedly: Was it funny? I'm sure everyone is aware of the famous scene in the movie, where Roger, who'd been handcuffed to Eddie for several scenes now, suddenly slips out of the bind. And, when questioned if he could do that the whole time, he responds "No, not at any time! Only when it was funny!"

He wasn't lying or being facetious in that moment, he literally only had the power to do that when it was funny. There are a few different types of toons that encompass different genre's, like Jessica Rabbit being drawn for seduction and Kirk Enigman being drawn for horror. They, presumably, have their own laws regarding what, and when, they can exercise their use of "toon physics". But Roger's, and other Toons fitting his genre, can do things when it's funny. The weasels, I believe, follow that same law. And that was what lead to their death. Their death wasn't a tragedy, it was a punchline! They've been setting this up for the entire movie, and ironically, if they hadn't been so concerned with the idea of dying laughing, it wouldn't have happened. It wouldn't have been funny, if it came out of nowhere. This was an idea that was placed in their heads with the express purpose of it later being payed off. Whether the judge knew he was dooming them or not is up for debate. You could say it was another layer of manipulation, or you could say that he genuinely didn't see it coming, as Toons unintentionally set up other Toons for jokes all the time.

Psycho didn't exactly die laughing, as I've seen a few people point out. I think his death was more by proxy. His death was still funny! And that's really all that matters to Toons like them.

TLDR: Toons that fit the genre of Roger and the weasels can die by other means, as long as it's funny. A really solid textbook example of this is shown at a Toon cemetery in WPRR. We see The Crypt of the Dipped, a place of remembrance for dipped Toons. And, right next to it, The Crypt of the Slipped. Toons who broke their necks slipping on banana peels. It's funny!

What happens to a Toon that dies by means other than DIP?

When a Toon dies from something OTHER than dip, there's a few possibilities that remain semi-consistent.

First of all, their bodies are still there. None of the books ever go into depth about the decomposing process, if there even is one. Toon garbage is described as smelling strongly of paint and chemicals, so I think there's a good chance that dead Toons smell like that, as opposed to rot. Also, elderly Toons are often describes as 'crinkly', or bearing the texture of old-newspaper, sometimes with faded colors, and I'm sure that would also happen. But when a Toon dies, they're not usually immediately gone. A few things could happen!

One, they could turn into a ghost. In the two instances we've seen of this occurring (once in the comics, with a toon bulldog, and once in WPRR, with the ex-wife of Pepper Potts), they seem to follow the stereotype of having 'unfinished business'. Usually they stick around to haunt a place or person, they can be summoned with seances, and they can possess people. There's probably more rules at play here, but we haven't seen them enough to know.

Two, they could go to some kind of afterlife. We only really see Heaven and Hell being implied...?? The most famous example of Heaven being the weasels, and we see a Toon (R.I.P. Dodger Rabbit) go to Hell in WPRR. I have absolutely no clue what happens once the Toon's 'soul' goes out of sight. I have no idea what Toon Heaven/Hell implies, or if it even really exists. For all I know, the second they go off screen, they disappear. And maybe there's other afterlives, depending on the Toon's birthplace/Artist's origin?? There's no way to be sure with the limited knowledge we have.

Or three, they could be reanimated. I don't mean literally animated, like with cell sheets and paint (although that does bring up an interesting point I'll come back to later), I mean in the more traditional, metaphorical sense. We've seen Toon zombies, the most notable of which being Freddy in WPRR. And considering a character says that a 'zombie turned him into a zombie', I assume this can happen either via death or through being infected.

These are just the ones that we've seen in the WFRR media that currently exists. If I had to wager a guess, I'd say there are almost certainly other things that can happen that we don't see in any of these instances. The takeaway here is just that death isn't exactly.....a death sentence. A lot of the times, the essence of the Toon still exists! Which leads me to my next point.

Why is DIP different?

So then, if Toons can die through other means, why did they make such a big deal about DIP?

Because DIP isn't just death, for a Toon. It's erasing. Like how when a human is gone, they're gone for good; there's no last looks, no chance to say one last thing, and there's no way to tell what really happened once the light leaves their eyes. Saying a dipped Toon is a dead Toon is frankly an understatement. They're not just dead, they're gone. Not their soul nor their body remains. And the process for this deletion is agonizing. It's a slow, painful, horrible way to go, and if a Toon is submerged in DIP, they're essentially gone for good. And it's not funny.

DIP defies Toon logic. In the other cases of death, there's some caveat. A Toon can't die unless there's some reason for it to happen. Either it was funny, or it was scary, or it was politically motivated, or something. A Toon can die from a regular bullet if there was a good reason for it to happen. There are some laws to how Toon's operate, some seldom-understood rules of the universe, and as long as you follow them, you can kill them. It's just hard for a human to follow these rules, or honestly to even know what they are. If a human takes a shot at a Toon with a regular bullet, more than likely they're just gonna end up being full of holes, but perfectly fine. Doom needed a way to consistently, reliably get rid of Toons. And DIP is the only way to do that.

The only documented exception to this rule is the comic The Resurrection of Doom. It's the most famous of the WFRR comics, and for good reason! The implications are fascinating. Using a multi-cell camera, a group of weasels (NOT the weasels from the movie, namely) resurrect Judge Doom using his old cell sheets. And, when he's revived, he regains all of his memories. He is, effectively, the same Doom that did everything he did in the movie! I assume what this means is that even after being dipped, a part of a Toons soul or essence must still....exist?? And I assume that you need the original cell sheet that brought them to life in the first place to be able to bring them back like this. (They do re-paint him, so I'm not sure what part matters. The lineart?) But since we know Toons can reproduce biologically (Jessica gives birth in WPRR), what does that mean for those Toons, if they were dipped? Could they never come back?

I don't love this fact-- I think the ability to revive Toons in this manner makes DIP considerably less scary. But this wouldn't be a thorough analysis if I didn't mention it, so I had to throw it out there.

Final Thoughts

Honestly, trying to get any consistency out of Toons or this universe is a losing battle. So many of the little details change between iterations, and I'm almost certainly making ties that weren't intentionally put there. There are also a few exceptions to the rules I tried my best to establish (like, Dodger Rabbit is shot with a dip-tipped bullet, but we still see his soul descend to Hell, thus following the rules of a not-dipped Toon. But in the same book, Kirk Enigman is shot with the same type of bullet, and we don't see anything happen to his soul).

In most post-canon materials, the weasels and Doom are treated as gone for good. The only exception being the resurrection comic, and Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin in Disneyland. They do not explain why they're back. Also they add another weasel for some reason??? Just in the ride, and not in the pre-show???????? Lot's of weird choices going on there.

I did my best to work with what we have, though, and I think this is a pretty fair interpretation of events. If you got this far, thanks for reading!!!

[cloudysarts]

i also wrote this essay today. i was on a roll i guess

I submitted Eddie Valiant for are-they-a-faggot and I absolutely want you to elaborate

holy shit i did not expect two people to actually want me to elaborate. well now i have to prove i wasnt bluffing. let me put this all under the cut

EDDIE VALIANT AS A CLOSETED GAY MAN: AN ANALYSIS

ok before i start i wanna preface with a disclaimer: this theory started off as an inside joke with my boyfriend when we were reading the wfrr books together. i made a comment about eddie being gay for hit celebrity clark gable and i was KIDDING but the more we read and the deeper we got into the books we just started seeing a lot of things that probably werent intentionally written in. im well aware that eddie is a canonically straight and vaguely misogynistic man and im not trying to change anyones mind this is all in good fun. ok lets get into it

His Treatment of Women/Female Love Interests

Across the movie and the three books which feature him as the protagonist, Eddie has four canon love interests. Delores (movie), Doris (i think just a stand-in for Delores in one of the books), Vivian (briefly, in P-P-P-Plugged), and Jo (more majorly in Plugged). I'm not counting any women he flirted with or has one-sided attraction too, like Jessica or Honey Graham.

Eddie very much has a type when it comes to women. They're always attractive, usually with a hot-headed or defiant streak, and they always leave him eventually. This is an inevitable cycle to him and one he talks about at length in the books. He finds a girl, he doesn't appreciate her despite her constantly begging for his attention, and then they leave him. Literally every relationship he gets to (save for one) follows this format. And the more you read about Eddie, the more it becomes blatantly obvious why this keeps happening. And the reason is that he is not treating them like how you're supposed to treat a lover. He never goes out of his way to spend time with them, and if he does, there's always somewhere else he has to be. In fact, he explicitly seems to only pursue love interests when he's on a case, and is on a 'time limit' so to speak. For example, at the beginning of Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit (which I'll call wprr going forward), he meets a woman named Vivien. They exchange information and yet, for whatever reason, Eddie decides to finally take her up on a date while he is in the middle of a very time-sensitive case. And, worse, he brings another girl with him??? The other girl, Jo, has to literally pull him away from the date because they have more important places to be. This leaves such a bad taste in Vivien's mouth that, when she sees him again, all she does is flip him the bird and ignore him. It's such bizarre self-sabotage, I can't even wrap my mind around why he thought it would be a good idea. I'll talk more about this "date" with Vivien in the future because it juxtaposes very interestingly with a scene that occurs in the next book.

In the movie, Delores receives a similar treatment. One of the most major problems in their relationship is that Eddie only seems to come by when he needs something, and never because he just wants to see her. Of course, we're only getting a tiny snippet of their relationship here, but the way she acts when he requests certain things seems to imply that this is a repeating pattern. The lack of apologies, the lack of time for her, the lack of ever returning the favor for all she does for him-- I'm not at all surprised that she was absent in the books (or, assuming Doris is her book counterpart, that she left him at the beginning of wprr). Eddie is either too dense to realize the effect he's having on her (which is hard to believe), or he knows, and just can't bring himself to change. Maybe this is a stretch, but future evidence that I'm going to bring up soon leads me to believe that he only keeps pursing these relationships while changing nothing about himself, is because he doesn't really...want them. This cycle of dating a girl --> treating her poorly --> being broken up with is one he's gotten comfortable with. Even when he looks back on his vacation pictures with Delores, he doesn't look at them like a lover would when admiring their wife. Not only is he more hung up on his brother's absence, but it's more the experience that he's mourning, and not the person. This is furthered by this (or a very similar) trip being very important to wprr-- it's not really about her. It's about everyone else.

The idea of being stuck in this cycle I think is furthered by his longest-lasting, most consistent love interest in Jo, Jessica's sister. For a while, it really seems like Jo is going to break the cycle. Not only does she genuinely enjoy detecting work, but she really enjoys Eddie's company in particular. This is a girl who could, feasibly, keep up with his schedule. She could literally stay with him at all times. She does, for all of wprr. She's 6 inches tall, she spends most of the book in his pocket. Which is why, the first time I read it, it threw me for such a loop when, at the end, Eddie breaks up with her. For virtually no reason! He does not explain. The closest he gets to any kind of explanation is "We're not only two different sizes. We're too different worlds." (pg 260) and he does not elaborate on what that means. They have so much in common. Jo is more of a creative type than he is, being an author, and perhaps more intellectual, but that seemed to be something he liked about her. Jo is constantly trying to make things work between them. They almost hook up once, and I think actually do manage to later in the book (don't ask how that works, i don't know). It comes completely out of left field. This next passage I think describes Eddie's relationship, not just to her, but to women in general. I'll transcribe it: "I'm sorry, pidge. I don't know how to do this gracefully. I haven't much practice at it. I'm usually on the receiving end." "Here's a suggestion. Come straight out with it. Try, 'So long, Shorty. It was fun while it lasted'." I took her advice. But it only made matters worse. (pg 260 - 261) (wprr)

He is so stupid. Why did he think that would help. Again, it's such a strange form of self-sabotage, I cannot understand what's going on in his head here. My best guess is that this is some form of character development-- He's realized he can't be in a stable relationship, and so is trying to end things before she gets too attached. But that would only make sense if Jo was a normal woman, who couldn't perfectly bend to his schedule. Who wasn't able, or wasn't willing to be with him all the time, whenever he wanted. But she is. So my other best guess is that he's trying to do the right thing, but isn't self-aware enough to realize that, if he likes her, he has every reason and is fully capable of making it work this time! I also have to mention that, after this, Eddie does end up taking her back, after she does her best to win him back over. But I don't think that accounts for much, considering that in the next book, Who Wacked Roger Rabbit (wwrr), she is nowhere to be seen. Now, these books don't perfectly follow each other....?? Like, Jessica and Roger have babies at the end of wprr and they are not mentioned even once in wwrr. But other events from the movie and from wprr are mentioned, so either way I think it's safe to say that they're broken up again by the time wwrr happens.

Eddie is, generally, just not very emotionally intelligent when it comes to women, and most of it seems like he's not even trying to do better. This is a character flaw they discuss in length, but never specifically about women, and never about how it's only women. Eddie has several friends, and connections, male and female, some even consistently spreading across books. It just seems to be romantic connections with women that he is completely deficient in. In wprr, there's a quote (that I can't find) where he complains about one of his ex's not appreciating a gift he got her. That gift being basically a generic hygiene products. And later, he laments about a woman not appreciating plastic flowers. He is so dense about this topic and this topic only, I just cannot help but wonder. Again, this could just as easily be 40's era sexism, but topics I dive into later make this feel so much like....some degree of comphet. Feeling like he has to be the head of a household, with a girl on his arm at all times, when he isn't good at it and, at the end of the day, doesn't even seem to want it. So lets talk about how he is with men instead!

His Treatment/Descriptions of Men (specifically hot celebrities) (he has a type)

My biggest counter-argument to him being queer is just the way he talks about Jessica Rabbit. Naturally. Famous sex icon, absolute strategic genius, what is there not to love? He shamelessly fawns over her in every single iteration of this series that he is present in, although tends to not outright flirt with her in the way that other men do in her presence. I think that's mostly out of respect for Roger, though, who he is with most of the time, and who he is good friends with (whether he wants to admit it or not). If it came down to standing up for Roger or spending the night with Jessica, he would chose Roger every single time, and I'm not just guessing! We see this exact thing happen in the books! Jessica in the books is not the loving, loyal woman that most people interpret her as just from seeing the movie. She is famous for having affairs and has several. She even extends that offer to Eddie on a few occasions, but he has shot it down every time, because it would hurt Roger's feelings. Once, Roger runs off crying while seeing Jessica flirt with another man at a club (it's more complicated than this description but the details aren't important). When Jessica comments, to Eddie, that he should stay and drink with her, while holding his arm with her wedding ring-less hand, he pulls away, and remarks that Roger is 'too good for her'. You might've read the title of this section and be wondering why I'm talking about Jessica when this is supposed to be about how he interacts with men, but this point leads me to the very first thing that made me consider that he might be queer: The way he talks about Clark Gable! (yes, that clark gable)

One thing that stood out to me even years after reading the book for the first time, is two scenes that happen almost consecutively. The first, is Eddie confronting Jessica about rumors that she might be cheating on her husband with Clark Gable. He spends more time having friendly conversation with her and gawking at her than doing any actual confronting, which is about what I expected. Every few sentences is broken up with a comment or two about how gorgeous, or smart, or seductive she is. But then that is followed by a scene where he goes to confront Clark on the same accusations. He finds him in his pool. And this, hilariously, sparks a paragraph long spiel about how famously gorgeous he is. Let me transcribe it for you (i have it highlighted in the copy of my book and annotated with just the word 'gay')

An advertising huckster seeking a ruggedly handsome face to drift the high plains in praise of a cigarette need look no further. His nose, perfect. His mouth, perfect. His chin, his teeth, his eyebrows, even his nose hairs were perfect. When he smiled, his face became a sheet of slightly crinkled bronze foil recently unwrapped from a very expensive piece of Anglo-American toffee. In those movie posters showing him with his shirt off, his muscles came from pressing iron, not from the end of an airbrush. Ladies nowadays called him a dreamboat. I'd classify him heavier and more dangerous, a light cruiser or a PT. Crowds would part to let this man through, and so probably would the Red Sea. (pg 107) (wprr)

Need I say more. This is very funny coming from a man who's descriptors of Jessica pretty much just say that she is 'curvy' and that's about it. This is especially interesting to me considering the fact that a major plot point in this book involves the theory that Clark Gable might be gay. If this were true then, of course, the rumors about him sleeping with Jessica would be presumed false. So, to Eddie, this mostly boils down to 'which secret would be better to give away', although Gable vehemently denies both rumors. Despite this, in the book, Gable does seem to be regarded as a queer icon, of sorts?? There's a man who asks for his autograph at a point, and I'm fairly certain it's implied that this man is queer, and though he says that the autograph is for his 'girlfriend', it's likely for a boyfriend instead. Clark doesn't call him out or act uncomfortable, which he does when anyone outright accuses him of being gay.

It feels weird to talk about Clark Gable like this because he was an actual real life person but the way he is characterized in this book is very interesting, and is an interesting parallel to Eddie. He actually holds a lot of the same flaws when it comes to romantic relationships with women that our protagonist does. For example, when Eddie tells the story of how he once got a woman hygiene products as a gift and she didn't appreciate it, Gable for some reason agrees that it was odd of her not to be complimented?? Which shows a massive lack of understanding of women in the first place, and also no desire to learn. Gable, like Jessica, is also in a committed relationship, and has, like Eddie, not been giving her the time of day lately. He desires a relationship, but he's not doing any work to maintain it, and doesn't care to. There's a moment where he and Roger get into an argument about relationships as a whole, and Gable's view is very pessimistic, and shows something interesting. Despite outwardly calling out Roger for not spending enough time with Jessica, he is doing the same thing!! So to a degree, he knows that never being home, being allegedly unfaithful, not appreciating his lovers wants or needs, etc etc will lead to them being unsatisfied in the relationship, but he's not doing anything about it. Considering how blatantly, borderline offensively he is queer-coded, it's interesting that that sentiment seems to be an exact parallel to Eddie. Almost like they're both doing the same thing for the same reason. To keep up appearances, and to stay in a consistent routine.

In wwrr, Gable is no longer a character, now replaced by a different celebrity. Gary Cooper. Remember when I said I planned to talk about Eddie's date with Vivien? This is where that comes back into play. During Eddie's date with Vivien, she's picking out a dress for a party she plans to attend later that night. With him, if he wanted to take her, but with the abrupt ending of this date, she goes with someone else. Now, they make a point throughout all of the books to say that Eddie has no sense of style whatsoever. Literally none. This man is wearing the same outfit through all three books and the movie. All his clothes are copies of this outfit. He is useless. So it does not come as a shock at all when he has no idea what the hell he's doing when helping this woman pick out a dress. He's also half-heartedly interrogating her about his case the whole time, so his head isn't really in the game anyway. He mostly just validates her opinion and gives her the thumbs up when she picks one. I sort of just chocked this up to him not knowing much about women's clothes, which is.....fine. But that's why a certain scene with Gary Cooper took me so off guard in the next book. AGAIN, you could attribute this to him just knowing more about mens fashion but 1) he knows nothing about that either for the rest of the book and 2) thats a less fun interpretation. In wwrr, Gary asks Eddie to help him pick out a suit to wear to an award show. And we get this lovely paragraph.

Choosing formal wear was far outside my areas of expertise. I was the guy you went to when you couldn't decide which gat to bring to a shootout. Still, Cooper was my client, he needed help, so I did what I could. I fingered the fabrics. "I would go with black instead of midnight blue. The darkness will soften your silhouette and highlight your dark, soulful eyes, which I would say are your best feature. I would go shawl collar over peaked. The shawl collar will give you a smoother line. I also like the grosgrain finish better than the satin. When the photos of this affair get published, you don't want your face looking like a week-dead cadaver. Grosgrain won't reflect the photo flashes up into your puss and give you deep shadows the way satin does." I held up my selection. "This one." "Agreed," said Cooper. "Shirt?" He had brought twelve of various fabrics and collar styles. I picked one at random. Cooper held my selection next to the tux. He nodded. "Perfect choice." (pg 191 - 192) (wwrr)

????? HELLO?????? WHERE DID THAT COME FROM. Mr. "I don't even look at the clothes I pick out, I just grab a certain number of articles of clothing and put them on blindly" Valiant just gave the most in depth and beautiful outfit selection I've ever heard. This is like something you'd see in an early 2000's cartoon to signal to you that this man is secretly gay. It's so toon-y, it's hilarious, it gets me every time and I don't think it's even supposed to be funny. I love it. Tell me more about Gary Cooper's dark, soulful eyes.

The Language Used

This one I have less defense for. Maybe I'm just reading into things that I want to see because by the time I started noticing this pattern, I was already well into wanting him to be queer. I just couldn't help but notice that Eddie's long, flowery descriptors that he uses very often tends to end when he starts to discuss women. He uses a lot of old-timey detective noir speak, but still only describes his sexual advancements with Jo to be "complicated", before moving on. He often focuses more on the things around them-- like the environment at the restaurant he's breaking up with her with-- rather than the crying woman who loves him. When Doris leaves him, he takes out his anger on her new lover by slashing his tires, rather than self-reflecting or being upset with her. He describes Jessica's house, her private beach, her friends, the bar she's at, far more than he describes her. And when he does describe a woman, it's very shallow. Maybe he'll throw in the occasional "She's got a beautiful mind to boot" or "I love a woman with a sense of humor", but mostly he just admires their physical attributes. And then, lines that I would consider to be far more flowery and romantic are often attributed to the men. Even when he's just describing their appearance (which he does often), he uses such fun and, in my opinion, intimate wording. Here's one that's immediately jumping to mind: The only good part of nuzzling up to Cooper like some scared sissy was catching strong whiffs of his aftershave. High end stuff. Gave me a mild buzz. If we ran out of his good booze, we could mix his aftershave with soda and ice cubes and get loaded. (pg 26) (wwrr)

Am I reading way too much into this or is than an insane thing to say about sitting with your chest to another man's back on his motorcycle. I mean, that and then the very shallow, empty descriptors we get for his main love interest.........I don't know I'm crazy. I plan to put more of my favorite excerpts at the end if you're not convinced.

The Way he Talks about Himself

My last point on the subject is very surface level. And it's just the way Eddie talks about himself. Like I mentioned above, he has very much accepted the way that his life will be; an endless cycle of women, before he likely ends up dying alone because he can't hold onto them. He hasn't even bothered considering that there's any other way for him to live. Also like I mentioned, wprr is pretty heavily focused on the idea that Clark Gable might be gay, which, at the beginning, Eddie seems to take a vested interest in. That could very well just be because of the fact that he's trying to do good by his buddy Roger, and the fact that he's also mildly homophobic, but it also could be....something else. He talks about potentially being queer like it's a fate worse than death. Not an uncommon sentiment for the time period, but I think it's interesting just how quickly he lets it go. He asks people in Clark's circle if he's gay, and starts really betting on that to get Jessica off the hook, but then he meets him, and almost instantly stops. Remember the long paragraph where he describes how gorgeous he is in the pool? He keeps that up through the entire book. He talks about him just as much, if not considerably more, than he talks about Jessica. You could argue that he's realizing something about himself here, just not something he'd ever admit.

The longest he ever rants about a woman is in wwrr, when he talks about a childhood crush he had on the first female, toon baseball player. He talks in length about how much he admired her, and how much she inspired him in his youth, and how much she still does today. I can't help but feel like it's just a little much. Like overcompensating, maybe. My immediate thought was queer people who cling onto celebrity/fictional crushes that they've had to defend that they must be straight, when really they're more attracted to what they represent, and the unattainability of that crush. of course, you could hypothetically argue the reverse-- that any potential feelings he has for these male celebrities are just as unattainable. But I don't really think they are. He might think they are, which is why he doesn't bother to humor these thoughts past constantly commenting on their charm and attractiveness. He knows these men personally. Intimately, even. He was the best man at Clark Gable's WEDDING. Someone play Good Luck Babe by Chappell Roan STAT

My point is that he hates himself so much that he would die before he admits being gay, god forbid acts on it. But he is. yknow??

Final Notes

I honestly think the sad truth here is that, if he is gay, he's not gonna do anything about it. As supportive as his inner circle might be, he's got a wiiiide circle to worry about. Especially after seeing how the press reacted to Clark Gable MAYBE being gay/bisexual. He might not be as famous, but if that got out, it could still be a steep drop in business that he literally cannot afford. But anyway there's a beautiful spin-off that lives in my brain where he and Clark Gable have an affair and I just thought you all should know that. Here's a bunch more excerpts that I've highlighted that you guys can take however you'd like because I don't know how to expand on them.

Even though Jessica's material told the tale, I took a gander at Gable's anyway. The mark of a consummate professional. Wrightlighter had turned over one of Gable's tones and found an ugly serpent lurking underneath. According to a "reliable" source, Gable wasn't the man's man he appeared to be. He swung more toward a hint of mint, if you get my drift. That was a revelation that would rock a neighborhood Bijou or two. I wondered why Louise Writghtlighter hadn't branded her byline on that juicy tidbit. And What did that do to Gable's supposed romance with Jessica Rabbit? (pg 20 - 21) (wprr)

"How's Doris?" "Happy, contented, not a care in the world." "She tossed you over, then." "More or less." (pg 75) (wprr) We (Clark and Eddie) walked side by side, the prince and the pauper. No question which part I played. (pg 111) (wprr) Gable showed me an upraised chin and a perfect left profile. The bugger didn't have a bad side, at least not one visible from the exterior. (pg 165) (wprr) Gable caressed his mouth into that sly, knowing grin that makes movie theaters keep smelling salts on hand to revive fainting women. (pg 168) (wprr) Gable stared at me a minute, then grabbed me by the ears and kissed me flush on the forehead. "Thanks, Eddie." He stuffed my breast pocket with a fistful of crisp, new one-hundred dollar bills. "For a job well done." (pg 255) (wprr) Cooper and I were riding over to Toontown together. Maybe if I was a very, very good boy, he'd let me drive his Duese. (pg 18) (wwrr) if youve read this far. thank you and im sorry. i didnt think this would end up being this long but im in too deep i guess

[cloudysarts]

The xerious business posts are making me go insane. Can you drop more information about Roger robbe because I feel crazy

I ACTUALLY STARTED FOAMING AT THE MOUTH AND JUMPING UP AND DOWN AT THIS ASK yes yes yes yes absolutely theres literally nothing i want to talk about more. he is infecting my brain. this is gonna be really long im so so sorry i have a lot to say

lets talk about this asshole.

Robbe's Descent Into Madness (and why it was maybe a good thing)

OK i cant tell from this ask if youve read the book or not so im gonna work under the assumption that you (and whoever else is reading) hasnt. also just to get this out of the way.........i think Xerious is .bad . for the most part. its supposed to be a set-up for the wfrr universe and i think it fails spectacularly at that premise. roger rabbit from wfrr and roger rabbit from xerious are different animals to me. like, ""toons"" as described in wfrr and all the other books DO NOT match up with the toons in xerious business at AAALLLL. i might expand on this more later but considering this book is set in modern times (which was a terrible choice imo) i just. i cant relate them together at all. this is its own story. here we go.

Quick Synopsis (feel free to skip this one if you've read the book)

So. To really quickly run through the plot of Xerious Business for anyone who doesn't know. This book features Jessica Krupnik (before she becomes Jessica Rabbit) as our protagonist. She starts off the beginning as sort of a Cinderella type? Young adult with a deceased father, living with her neglectful stepmother and abusive/evil stepsiblings, working a dead end job that she hates. Her life is very sad and dull, that is before she's scouted by X.E.R.I.O.U.S., a spy agency, and is stolen away from her life for good. She becomes their top female agent in two years, and is very much the typical girlboss archetype. She's smart and fast and they spend a lot of time focusing on her physical attractiveness (which they make a point of saying how hot she's gotten since joining). This will be important for a reason I get to in a second. XERIOUS is in an eternal battle with a guild of billionaires and supervillains, and the biggest and baddest of all is a warring agency: Y.U.K., run by a supervillain calling himself The Klown. The Klown is allegedly developing some kind of drug, the effects of which are unclear to the agency at first. When Staid, the head of XERIOUS, learns that he'll be hosting a gala, he decides to send Jessica out to investigate. But he can't send her alone. So he sends her with their other best agent...Agent Robbe.

Now Robbe............fucking SUCKS. This guy is THE WORST!!!!!! I could not stand him my first read through and that is VERY MUCH the point. Robbe is an asshole. He is a sexist prick who fully, proudly admits that he only sees women as sex objects, and now has his eyes on Jessica. Being the other most attractive member of the agency, he's insistent that they belong together. He's very insistent that they'll be together, one day, even if she doesn't like him now. He sees Jessica as a prize to be won, and she sees him as The Worst Man Alive. As does every other women at the office. He seems to be well-liked by the men, though-- Staid is genuinely shocked to find his best agents not playing nice together. Robbe isn't the typical sleazy type. He's smug, and cocky, in a way that lets him easily get whatever women he wants, as long as it's not a woman that has to be around him for longer than a one-night stand. Jessica agrees to do this one mission with him, but that's it. Afterwards, she wants a new partner. She ends up not getting the chance to switch.

At the ball, the two of them meet The Klown in disguise (although, Robbe doesn't believe that it is actually him). And while they're there, he decides to debut the drug he's been developing. It turns out to be administered through this green gas, dubbed 'Looney Gas'. Once inhaled, and in your system, it starts wreaking havoc on literally every aspect of your body. Jessica manages to dodge it, but Robbe does not. He inhales every bit of it. Thus kickstarts his slow, horrible transformation :)

Effects of the Looney Gas

Holy shit man, I could talk about this all day.

Looney Gas is a FASCINATING fictional drug. The effects are different for every person. But generally, its characterized by the same few things. First, it stops your heart. People who inhale the gas tend to choke, gag, and then pass out. If you check their pulse, you'll get no feedback. However, after a few seconds, they'll pop right back up, and start acting completely different. How "different" they act and what exactly they do depends on the person (I'll go more into why later in this section), but generally, they start acting....silly??? Hence the name for the gas. Dancing, singing, playing childish games or otherwise just having no spatial and social awareness. It's not a total, immediate loss of personhood, and the effects can be nullified/mitigated temporarily. It doesn't seem to worsen overtime, unless more gas is ingested, but it does cause the infected to develop "triggers" that start spells of this erratic behavior. Higher concentrations of the gas cause physical changes, not just mental ones. Robbe is the best possible case to analyze, as over the course of the book, he slowly ends up ingesting more and more, in increasingly large doses. His descent is slow and agonizing, not just for him, but for everyone in his personal life. As Robbe slowly looses touch with the sane, rational part of his brain, you can almost see his internal battle to hold on. His mouth says one thing, but his face, and his body language says something else. It's like there's two voices trying to talk at once. I'm gonna slap in a few excerpts occasionally to further my points; here's a few from the party! Robbe danced across the floor, his body loose, arms flailing, legs rubbery. Jessica chased after him, tried to catch him. No easy task. Robbe was moving at almost inhuman speed. Finally, Jessica caught him by the arm. "Stop that!" Jessica commanded him. "Everybody's looking at you." "I can't stop!" Robbe answered with grave concern. "I can't control myself." (pg 93) She snagged Robbe's arm, halting his chicken chase. "Come on," she told him. "We gotta get outta here. Now." "Aw," said Robbe, "you always spoil my fun." In the dark recesses of his gas-addled brain, Robbe knew full well she wasn't spoiling his fun. She was saving his life. (pg 94) Jessica grabbed the gun off Robbe's claw. "What's wrong with you? What was in that gas?" "Who cares," said Robbe. "I'd like some more, please. I feel GREAT!" (pg 97) When he's gassed at the party, the effects start off fairly strong at first. For a while, Jessica assumes some sort of hallucinogen or deliriant. Or, less seriously, that he's just experiencing similar effects to being drunk. When the effects don't subside after a day, or even a few days, she's alerted to the idea that it must be more serious than that. I said above that, when he has these fits, it's almost like there's two halves of his brain fighting for control. The interesting fact here is that the effects of this drug don't add this "other" being to your brain. It's not a parasite, it just functions like one. There's nothing possessing Robbe; everything he's doing is still him. What I mean is, this drug doesn't just make you act silly for no reason; if that was the case, it should effect everyone the same way, but it doesn't. What Looney Gas does, specifically, is it essentially turns your brain inside out. It amplifies everything that you'd been trying to repress. Every childish desire you don't act on to be a functioning adult in society? Suddenly, you can't keep yourself from acting on it anyway. Every emotion you know is irrational/unfounded? You're feeling it anyway, ten times as strongly. Repressed fears, trauma's-- things you overcame and worked past? Suddenly, all your progress has been reversed, and you're even more afraid than you were at the beginning. That also means that the traits you consider good, or useful-- like Robbe's intellect, bravery, and quick-thinking skills-- are pushed to the back. This is all but told to us. A few instances are coming to mind. The first being a moment from before he got gassed:

"I've never done anything I enjoyed more than performing in that musical," said Robbe wistfully. "For a long while after that, I wanted nothing more than to be an actor." His face fell. His wistfulness vanished. "Then things changed." He didn't say what. Jessica didn't care enough to ask. (pg 72)

Here, we see Robbe admit that his greatest dream in childhood was to be an actor, though he gave up on it for some (currently) unspecified reason. Interestingly, when he is gassed, virtually the first thing he does is put on a show! He does a silly little performance with the only other person who was gassed at the party. And he keeps this up through the whole book! His looney fits mostly consist of singing, dancing, and otherwise performing in front of an audience of as many people as he can find. He's not good at it, but it is funny, which makes perfect sense if you know anything about Roger Rabbit. Another, more negative example I can think of off the top of my head, is how Robbe starts reacting to small, tight spaces. When he trailed off in the above excerpt, it's presumably because of something he admits to Jessica later, after being gassed. He never had a mother, and was actually abandoned on a doorstep as a baby. He was passed around in foster homes for years, abused and neglected in all of them. This lead him to developing certain fears, that he had grown out of, until this brought it all back. Here's the excerpt (this ones pretty long): Crawling through thee air duct had been, for Jessica, a nostalgic, almost enjoyable remembrance of her warehouse tryout for XERIOUS. She negotiated the small, cramped space, the twists, the turns with an enthusiasm bordering on pleasure. She loved this kind of challenge. Robbe had a different, much more negative reaction. Robbe whimpered softly during the entire crawl. At times he grew paralyzed, unable to continue the journey. Jessica had to softly coax him into moving forward. Jessica knew Robbe was a brave man. Snaking through an air vent wouldn't spook him. He had certainly done far more dangerous things then this in his XERIOUS career. She chalked up his whimpering to one more aftereffect of his gassing. Her theory was partially true. Robbe had crawled through many dark, narrow spaces in his XERIOUS career, always without incident. The gassing had unleashed one of Robbe's long buried and dreadfully disturbing childhood memories. The dark, narrow airlock gave Robbe a horrifying flashback to his seven-year-old youth. His brutal foster father, in a drunken attempt to 'make a man out of the little woosy' had tied to toughen Robbe up by locking him inside a small, lightless broom closet and keeping him there, sometimes for days. That buried memory hadn't surfaced in years. Not since Robbe joined XERIOUS. Where Staid had done what his foster father couldn't, admirably succeeded in making a man out of him. (pg 132 - 133)

That's what's so sinister about the gas, to me. It makes you feel like you're being possessed, but you're just being possessed by YOURSELF. The parts of yourself that you HATE. The parts you have ACTIVELY WORKED NOT TO LET ANYONE SEE. It's humiliating, it's terrifying!!! But it's not necessarily bad! Because you're becoming, like or not, the most authentic version of yourself. Another example we see of people changing due to the gas, is two men who confess their feelings to each other the second they're both infected. The gas didn't just make them do that because it'd be funny. It made them do that because those were real feelings they had, real feelings they hadn't let themselves act on. It's fascinating!!

Robbe really got the short end of the stick, here. Because of the very small dose that he injected from the start, he was much more aware of these things happening to him than any of the other victims seem to. And his reaction is, mostly, absolute terror. And you can't really blame him! It's a scary thing to have happen to you! He's not just losing control of his body half the time, he's losing control of his mind. He can't easily separate which thoughts he'd be having anyway, and which thoughts are completely and totally irrational. It's like having a delusional episode, and being completely unable to distinguish reality from what you're feeling. Music tends to calm him down temporarily, and can prevent full-on fits, but it isn't a cure. He can tell his own condition is getting worse, and it truly frightens him. The scene that really put this into perspective for me is a scene where he and Jessica are on a long flight. this'll be another long few excerpts but i really need you to see just how fucked up this is for this guy The movie was nearly over when Daniel Craig went out of focus. Robbe tapped the screen, assuming a technical problem. That didn't help. The problem wasn't the screen. The problem was Robbe. His vision had blurred. He rubbed his eyes. No help. His vision remained blurry. Robbe's face twitched. The twitch spread to his shoulders, his arms, his hands, his legs, his feet. Try as he might, he couldn't stop twitching. Robbe leaned across the center console separating his seat from Jessica's. He shook Jessica awake. "Help me," he said to her, in a panic-stricken whisper. "My problem. My problem came back." "What?" Jessica asked. She sat up, sleep-dazed, not completely awake. Robbe's eyes rolled around crazily. His nose twitched like a rabbit approaching a lettuce patch. (pg 118) Inside the toilet, Jessica tried to calm Robbe down. She sat on the toilet, grabbed Robbe, and sat him on her lap. She wrapped her arms around him and cooed to him, rocking him like a baby. She stroked him the way she would soothe a frightened puppy. "There, there," she said comfortingly. "Everything will be okay. Take a breath." He did. "That's right. Good," she said. "Now another." Robbe breathed in deeply again. Then once more. She remembered how music had soothed him before. She punched up her Mellow playlist on her iPhone. A current pop melody started to play. She gave the wireless earphones to Robbe. The music had the desired effect. Robbe calmed down. Slowly, surely, he regained his normal composure. Robbe stood up, smoothed out his badly wrinkled tux. "How do I make this stop?" He asked Jessica, truly frightened. Jessica shook her head. She had no answer. (pg 119)

The absolute panic in his voice speaks for itself. The shame of having to be consoled like this. The pure, uncontrollable dread, knowing what you'll do if you let it take over.....And it's not even like he'll go on a murder spree!!! But honestly, that sounds less terrifying!!! At least if that was all, he'd have the comfort of knowing that these fits have nothing to do with himself. But here, he's having an internal battle with HIS OWN PSYCHE. And he knows he's going to LOSE.

All of this is taken to a new extreme when we learn that The Klown spent HIS childhood in a mental hospital, after being deemed 'insane'. The depiction of this facility is very cartoonish and arguably offensive, which is a shame, because the implications here are so fascinating. The Klown's motive, by gassing people with this, is to bring about a Utopia. A Utopia he plans to rule. He thinks it will be a Utopia in the first place, because this gas is meant to bring out the most true part of a person's being. Everyone is honest, everyone's having fun. Most people who are gassed have no desire to turn back! And everyone who knows them usually don't want the 'old' version back either! This is especially true with Robbe, which leads me to my next point.

Colleagues Response

We can't talk about Robbe's mental changes without talking about the biggest one: the same day he gets gassed is the last day he utters anything misogynistic. At the beginning, I characterized him as a sexist, awful man with no desire to respect women...At all. He doesn't see them as people, and was proud of it. But this changes the absolute moment this gets into his bloodstream, and is actually the first thing that makes Jessica realize that something is deeply wrong with his brain. (this is another long excerpt, sorry)

Jessica grabbed Robbe by the shoulders and shook him hard. "Get a grip on yourself," she said. Robbe rolled his head. He looked at Jessica cross-eyed. He licked his lips and smirked. "I'd rather get a grip on you," he said, reverting to type. He was talking the talk, the way he always did, always had, but his suggestive retort seemed involuntary. A reflex action. What he was expected to say rather than what he meant. 'Umphrey [their taxi-- later known as Benny] had a Frank Sinatra song playing on the radio. Robbe's head bobbed in time to the song. The music seemed to effect his mood, make him rational, calm him down. Robbe's expression changed suddenly from utter lust to abject horror. He grabbed Jessica's hands firmly in his and held on tight, as though she were a life preserver, and he was bobbing in the water after having just abandoned the Titanic. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Robbe said apologetically. "That remark was totally uncalled for. Especially after what you did for me." His breath came in short, quick, hard bursts, like he was running the race of his life, running a race for his life. A race he was terrified he was going to lose. "Throughout our whole relationship I've been a complete sexist boor. I shouldn't be hitting on you all the time. I shouldn't be harassing you the way I do. I shouldn't be verbally assaulting you with my gross innuendoes." He paused to catch his breath, as though he might run out of wind before he ran out of contrition. "Tonight, you protected me, kept me from harm. Instead of making lewd remarks, I should be down on my knees saying thank you, thank you, thank you. Believe me. I'm eternally grateful to you for what you did." He clasped his hands together in silent prayer to both their better natures. "I beg you. Forgive me for the way I've treated you in the past. Please. I'll never, ever treat you or any other woman than way again." Robbe lowered his head. "I'll really try to be a better man. I will. I honestly will." Robbe's contriteness and supplication worried Jessica as much as his lunacy, maybe more. This was definitely not the Robbe she had grown to know and hate. This was Robbe 2.0., radically improved form buggy version 1.0. No question, she much preferred this version. There was only one problem. This version wasn't normal. Not even close. Robbe 1.0. was sickening. Robbe 2.0 was just plain sick. (pg 99 - 100)

This proclamation is the only one he doesn't seem to be ashamed or afraid of. It's also one he doesn't walk back on, even once. I believe this is sort of our first hint that the Looney Gas does more than just make you act a little silly. I believe that Robbe genuinely did feel some level of remorse for the way he was treating Jessica, it's just that 'remorse' wasn't an emotion he allowed himself to feel before that night. If he ever felt bad when she'd call him out, he didn't dwell on it. He stuck to his guns 100%, because he believed being persistent was a part of who he was. When, really, it wasn't just hurting Jessica, it was hurting himself, too. This ties into what I view as one of the most tragic parts of this novel, and that being that, in a way, this complete loss of self was for the better. And, in a way, that means that the Klown won. People at the XERIOUS office, particularly women, are glad that Robbe has changed so suddenly and drastically. He's nicer to service workers, and more polite to women who try and get his attention. Like, objectively, when he's not being ""looney"", he's still a considerably better person than he was before. Jessica frequently laments about what a shame it would be if he goes back to "normal" after this, and slips right back into his old bad habits. Of course, she wants him to be his best self, but this really does feel like an improvement. And if you think about it, it's not like he's "losing" himself. He's just losing the façade that he put on. Good habits could, theoretically, he relearned. But would he want to, after being fully changed? The new version of him doesn't have a desire to save the world, or be a spy. He's clumsy, and cowardly, not to mention the fact that he sticks out terribly once the physically changes commence. And I haven't even talked about the physical changes yet!!! When the Klown said that he wouldn't have any interest in turning back, he was right. At the end of the novel, he's even offered the antidote, on the condition that the Klown gets to go free, and he refuses. There's just still something bittersweet about the fact that, if he wasn't too far gone at this point, he would've jumped for it. The old Robbe, the one who was shaking in terror on the plane, or pleading on his knees in front of Jessica, would've selfishly taken that deal in a heartbeat. So who really wins? Robbe will never be himself again, and he's happier, proving the Klown right. Or, the Klown goes free, so he wins, and Robbe is rightfully back to his old self. Would he have been scared straight? What parts of his new self would he have kept? We'll never know. It's hard to see it as a happy ending, with so many unanswered questions.

End Result

Okay I'm gonna go over the physical results really quickly because honestly the implications are never explained and they kinda bug me.

Robbe's physical changes start out small, almost unnoticeable. He becomes much more flexible, first. So much, that he occasionally gets tangled up in his own limbs. Then, he gains the ability to somewhat flatten himself, by releasing all the air in his lungs and diaphragm, allowing him to snake into small spaces, like between metal bars. Then he grows suckers on his palms, allowing him to scale walls. Then he gets shorter, grows longer ears, longer feet, etc etc until he eventually turns into a rabbit. The most interesting part of all of this is the way that he reacts to it. I'll put in a few snippets of his little breakdowns.

"I've always been a brave, fearless superhuman," said Robbe. "Now you're simply a normal human," Jessica replied gently. "Except I'm not!" Robbe's eyes started to water. He was going to cry. "I'm a...a...I don't know what I am. Slipping through those bars like I did. That's not human." Robbe pointed down towards the ground. "You know how I got up here?" She didn't have a clue. She shook her head. Robbe held up his hands, palms out. "Little suckers sprouted on my fingertips," said Robbe. "I climbed up that stalk like Spiderman. That's not human. That's downright freakish." (pg 165)

He put the cord into his mouth and bit the cord in half. The cord arced and sparked. Amazingly, for a harrowing split-second, Jessica, watching from the edge of the dance floor, could see Robbe's skeleton visible through his tuxedo. (pg 180)

There are far more instances than this but honestly I can't really justify these changes. As much as I love that he turned into a rabbit-man, one thing that really irks me about this novel is that, because it's set in modern times, these toon tropes already exist. In the rest of the WFRR series, the toons have always existed and they're just...like that?? But in this book, it doesn't make sense to me to have a man turn into a cartoon. In fact, he's notably not turning into a toon. Theyre not made of ink, and paint, these are just...horribly deformed people. In fact, when we see a group of looney's later in the book, they take the form of already-existing toons (like Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, and Shrek are all name-dropped specifically, as well as several others I don't care to pull right now). So unless Roger Rabbit is a character that exists in this universe (which I doubt) it either 1) doesn't make sense for those other people to turn into pre-existing IP or 2) it doesnt make sense for robbe to turn into something unique??? I like to pretend that everyone who gets gassed gets their own transformation into something unique and special to them but that's just not true.

The novel ends with the Klown being brought to justice. There were several victims to the gas in the process, including virtually all of XERIOUS (save for Staid and Jessica). At all the locations they hunted him down at, at least one other person was infected. Because of this, the government decides to designate a spot for all of the infected to live, as the Klown has destroyed the only antidote, and there's currently no hope for their return to normalcy. They name the spot "Loontown" (temporarily), and Jessica moves in with Robbe (now going by his first name, Roger), and they're married. His last name, Robbe, translates roughly to Rabbit, hence the new, full names. Roger and Jessica Rabbit.

Symbolism

I won't dwell on this very long, I just have to point out my absolute favorite detail.

The party in which Robbe is gassed happens to be a costume party. Robbe attends dressed as a wolf. Specifically Tex Avery's cartoon wolf! A character famous for lusting over attractive red-heads, which is no accident. This is how Robbe sees himself as the beginning. He calls that wolf his spirit animal. Which is why I absolutely love that the animal he turns into isn't a wolf, but a bunny. It perfectly incapsulates the kind of man he was on the inside. Small, weak, cowardly, clumsy, sweet. It's so perfectly juxtaposes the wolf he was pretending to be- literally a bunny in wolves clothing. Like a fable, the RABBIT outsmarts the WOLF in the end and that makes me CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!! thats why i always use a bunny to represent this part of him thats taking over or clawing his way out, and use a sick/dying wolf to represent robbe. i just think its so fascinating. it killed him with kindness. how are people not going batshit insane over this book i dont get it

Final Thoughts

The worst part about this novel is that I'm sure a lot of this symbolism and imagery wasn't intentional. Because if it was, it should be marketed as like. A psychological horror, and not a "jessica and roger backstory", which is the one place where I think this story fails. At the end of the day, this premise is KIND OF ruined IN MY OPINION by trying to expand the WFRR-verse. But at the same time, I understand that was probably more of a marketing thing, because this author's WFRR books are the most popular. They're his characters! This is the same man who wrote the novel who inspired the movie! But it's a very odd choice that I think detriments the otherwise very compelling story here. I totally recommend people read this book, but I would set realistic expectations. I HAAATTTEEDDD this book on a first read because it advertises itself as a "History of toontown" and "backstory" for the wfrr verse when really the only thing they have in common is their names. Like, Jessica doesn't even become a toon/"looney"???

None of the novels are particularly consistent but I enjoy this one entirely separate from the main characters. These are just humans/ex-humans who happen to share the same names/physical features.

if you made it this far into the post. holy shit im so sorry. im on a roll today i guess. check out my other essay about eddie valiant potentially being read as gay and in the closet that i wrote right before this one if you want. thank you so much for listening to my yapping

[cloudysarts]

am i crazy?

maybe i've always been.

[cloudysarts]

Artfight attacks!

Character Owners:

1. @rocketfire001

2. @cloudysarts

3. @thedoomcard10

4. @johnny-guitarr

5. + 6. swampfiend on artfight

7. @lemon-grenades

8. + 9. @myhoroscopeisdeath

[cloudysarts]

wabbit season

[cloudysarts]

artfight attack on @rocketfire001 featuring the stolas and blitz designs from our rewrite!!!! and a cameo from my fizzozzie redesigns. im pretty proud of this one, i love tweening <33

[cloudysarts]

made this for @cloudysarts for Artfight based on their Blitzo! I call this piece, “summer time” decided to get Blitz ready for the summer weather!

What do u think? I’d love to know💖

[cloudysarts]

got way too into this character design

somebody help me. im going mad.

I PROMISE THIS ISNT MISTAGGED. this is relavant to wfrr. I KNOW IT LOOKS INSANE BUT THIS IS BASED ON ONE OF THE BOOKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! if you like wfrr, overanalyzing media, and psychological horror. READ XERIOUS BUSINESS BY GARY K WOLF. if youre unaware, hes the guy who wrote the book that inspired the movie wfrr....he also wrote 2 spin off books after that set in the movies universe. and then he wrote a book AFTER THAT (xerious business) thats kind of a prequel to all of that and also a jessica/roger backstory but also its not that at all because its set in modern times. SOME OF THE HUMOR IS KIND OF CRINGE AND OUT OF TOUCH and its objectively terrible as an extension of the wfrr universe. but on its own????? fantastic. it tells such a genuinely horrifying story if you start to dig into it. 100% recommend

[cloudysarts]

somebody help me. im going mad.

I PROMISE THIS ISNT MISTAGGED. this is relavant to wfrr. I KNOW IT LOOKS INSANE BUT THIS IS BASED ON ONE OF THE BOOKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! if you like wfrr, overanalyzing media, and psychological horror. READ XERIOUS BUSINESS BY GARY K WOLF. if youre unaware, hes the guy who wrote the book that inspired the movie wfrr....he also wrote 2 spin off books after that set in the movies universe. and then he wrote a book AFTER THAT (xerious business) thats kind of a prequel to all of that and also a jessica/roger backstory but also its not that at all because its set in modern times. SOME OF THE HUMOR IS KIND OF CRINGE AND OUT OF TOUCH and its objectively terrible as an extension of the wfrr universe. but on its own????? fantastic. it tells such a genuinely horrifying story if you start to dig into it. 100% recommend

[cloudysarts]

a lot of people in the vivziepop crit community have expressed interest in my hellaverse redesigns (at least the ones i havent posted here). the problem is i havent actually......designed proper references for most of them and im not sure i ever will. BUT i do have a WHOLE LOT of sketches!!! and i finally organized them all!!!!

if you wanna see those sketches, check out this link to see the toyhouse page i made just for them!!

NOTE: my blitz and stolas designs in particular im really attached to, so they have their own pages. my boyf uses stolas as a kinsona, also, so hes on his page instead! you can find blitz's page here and stolas' page here!

[cloudysarts]

* it's almost like being in the sunlight again.

i have been a firm "undertale sans is originally from the deltarune timeline" believer since chapter ONE of dr came out and im loving seeing that theory get more canon basis/widespread acceptance lately. ive also been in love with sansby since undertale came out and i cant help but wonder if sans enjoys his company so much because grillbys warmth is the closest thing hes gotten to the warmth of a sunny day since hes been home.....anyway

[cloudysarts]

doing artfight again this year!!

some of my characters ^^^ (these are the 3 that were added this year) (i have a lot of fandom ocs/redesigns on my af if you cant tell)

see you on the battlefield!!!!!!!!!