#Beetlejuice marrying Delores

[livingwithhorrors]

Does anyone have the English version of Beetlejuice talking about his marriage to Delores?

It was originally released before the movie came out and the link I had to it, they have now replaced it with the theatrical version of Beetlejuice being dubbed in Italian.

I didn’t know this was a mistake they uploaded and so didn’t download the clip.

I also can’t find it when using different search means.

I’d highly appreciate the help.

I’m wanting it not newly for my own to save but to show someone that didn’t see it.

[sorebelflower]

beetlejuice two was amazing, send post

[katoska]

I keep rotating this thought and it won't stop turning.

BJ in movie1: "Maybe you can help me get out of here. Because I gotta tell you, this dead thing, it's just too creepy" [...] "I want out, for good. In order to do that, hey, I gotta get married."

Betel wanted to get out of being dead, permanently, and he needed to marry a living person to do it.

What's the difference between being not-dead for good, and immortality?

What are the chances that there are two ways in which you can gain immortality through marriage?

[girlbeyondthegrave]

THINGS I NOTICED WHILE WATCHING BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE AGAIN:

This is a very Beetlebabes-centric post, so if you don’t like the ship, please feel free to scroll away. <3

Beetlejuice cut Delores’ ring finger off, and while it was originally a fun joke in the first movie, there’s deep implications about that action when we look at it with the context of the second film. Beetlejuice attacked her after she betrayed him. Anyone would want to kill the person that poisoned them, but the fact that he took the time to find her finger and deliberately cut her ring finger off (and ONLY that finger) reflects how much that marriage meant to him. It also symbolizes that he’s effectively dissolving their marriage. He’s cut off the physical representation of their love and taken the ring, which he tries to give to Lydia hundreds of years later. He held onto that ring for centuries in hopes of finding someone he deemed worthy of it.

He calls his dynamic with Lydia a long-distance relationship, which could’ve been a throwaway joke if not for the fact that when he clearly notices how hot Janet is, he never talks to her or gropes her like he did with Barbara prior to meeting Lydia. Keaton said BJ wouldn’t be politically correct, so this isn’t to reflect the current political climate, but rather to reflect BJ’s motivations.

Beetlejuice was jobless at the start of the first movie, and in thirty years he’s built a company for his bio-exorcisms. Coupled with the picture of Lydia on his desk, it’s possible he did this to impress her. After all, she’s famous and rich now. BJ’s gotta step it up, y’know?

Probably overheard the convo between Lydia and Rory and deliberately bugged her at that time, because if he can possess the phone or whatever, he can probably use it to eavesdrop. This can be further supported by how he got rid of the influencers but kept the people that mattered to Lydia present—Delia and Astrid.

We can also assume he overheard the conversation where Lydia said that Rory loves her and that has to be enough because of the panning to a gravestone. BJ has a special fascination with graveyards, even tiny model ones. If he did overhear them, it explains why he used the truth serum on Rory. He’s testing him. He wants to see if this guy actually loves Lydia or if he’s using her, and then he gives Lydia the means to exact revenge on Rory rather than doing anything himself.

Lydia spends half the movie being strong -armed into a marriage with Rory, and in a way, it’s reminiscent of the first movie’s marriage attempt. Rory dangles their “love” in front of her like a carrot, and if she doesn’t want to be alone, she has to accept his manipulation and agree to get married. Yet she immediately offers it to Beetlejuice, only sounding annoyed rather than terrified. And the movie spends a lot of time proving that BJ has sincere motives this time around, whereas Rory doesn’t. It pushes an underlying message that if one of these guys is going to be a better choice, it’ll be BJ.

Despite Lydia having a tendency to back out of their deals, he still helps her first. He prioritizes saving Astrid even before finding his “runaway bride” again.

Casually calls Lydia the love of his life, looks so sincere when he says he’ll make her so happy. Clearly spent those 30 years planning that dream-dance sequence.

He doesn’t seem to care that Lydia’s sending him away. That coupled with the end scene illustrates how confident he is this time around. Lydia is still stuck with him, and even if he didn’t get her this time, he will eventually. But he also knows how spooked she is by marriage after being a snoop, so it’s possible that he’s just taking it slow on purpose.

In conclusion: Beetlejuice genuinely does want to be with Lydia and care about her. His feelings have evolved beyond permanent residence in the mortal world. If anything, if he still wants that, it’s so he can be by her side.

[katoska]

It's interesting to me that the reddit post says marriages get dissolved by a Code 699 violation when the movie made it seem like the contract was more like a pre-nub. Plus, Betelgeuse's part of the deal wasn't even mentioned in the stipulations (maybe the fine-print, but there's no way Lydia was able to read that). If her signing the contract counted as a marriage, then he had the opportunity to just leave out his part of the deal and walk free. Elsewise, the Code 699 violation was part of the contract, meaning he was bound to follow the deal while she would be immediately free from it the moment she entered the Afterlife, as tge signing of the contract itself was the payment. Which he must have known.

I doubt that Lydia is all that aware of that, though. It's been a while since she read the handbook.

But they were married for a minute, and B's at least got a wedding dance, albeit post-annulment.

Assuming there's a third Beetlejuice movie, what do you think about the possibility that Lydia might learn more about B's and Delores backstory and, bc said story involved a ritual that demanded marriage (and possibly sex?) followed by murdering the spouse to gain immortality, it might make her even more wary of Betelgeuse's motivations wrt herself and marriage to her than usual?

Cause like, personally, I found him a little too nice and helpful in the last movie. Would be nice if his moralitity and motivations were a little more ambiguous in the next one, though I'd have ofc absolutely no problem if in the end it turned out he was just in love. I just think it would be interesting if there were extra stumbling blocks wrt him convincing her he's in love.

It would be interesting if they start the movie showing us more ambiguous motivations from Betelgeuse, and then as the story progresses it turns out we (and Lydia) were misjudging him and his actions. Depending on how they do it, it might be a little over-played, though, considering that's sort of what happened in the sequel.

We have several instances in which Lydia sees glimpses of Betelgeuse at the start of the film and she's terrified that he might be haunting her because she's seeing him again. Meanwhile Betelgeuse is out there giggling and kicking his ghostly feet because "Lydia might have actually seen him this time"! I thought that was cute and funny, and also part of the joke in the film, that while Lydia is scared being "haunted" by Betelgeuse, all he's doing is trying his best to contact her. His intentions were not evil, though Lydia thought they were.

So there was already a misunderstanding there: Lydia thinks he's haunting her for the sake of tormenting her, while in reality, he's simply trying to get her to see him.

There's also his marriage deal to escape Delores this time. We the audience know it's an excuse to marry her because he's head over heels for her (we've already seen how he was trying to get her to see him for over 30 years through his conversation with Bob which happened before Delores was mentioned to him, so Delores has nothing to do with him trying to be with Lydia), but Lydia doesn't know that.

Now, at the end of the film, however, she's seen how Betelgeuse did have feelings for her, after all, and was helpful to her and did nothing to harm her. All the contrary, he did even more for her than he had to, and even got himself in trouble, nulling the marriage contract that was supposed to be his condition to help. It says so clearly in the page about Code 699, by the way, that bringing a living person to the afterlife will result in any marriage the Deceased has to that person being nulled and voided, so no doubt Betelgeuse knew getting Lydia into the afterlife world result in that (plus the extra trouble he got into), but he did it anyway because his actions are all for her.

Lydia should know this by the third film after the events in the sequel (if we are so lucky to get it), so I don't think that her finding out about Betelgeuse's past lover and what they did in their brief relationship while alive will deter her from being with him if she does end up falling in love with him. If anything, she will understand him better; she will know he was played and murdered. It was Delores who wanted to perform the ritual, in the first place, and he only had the satanic ritual to fulfill her wishes (more evidence that this man has always been a romantic who will put his girl's needs before his own; the man drank fresh blood for his girl and had a satanic wedding and everything lol).

I don't think Lydia will suspect he will be seeking to perform a similar ritual. He's already attempted to perform a ritual by marrying her, before, so, if anything, her wariness to be with him will be around that experience. It will be about the question "Does he truly love me or does he just 'want out' and is playing me?" Let's not forget Lydia is fresh out of at least one failed marriage that we know of (Richard) and a toxic relationship (Rory), so she will naturally be wary of getting into a new relationship now. Getting into a relationship with Betelgeuse also has the added spice of him being long dead and a prankster, potentially murderous ghost/demon.

It doesn't matter how nicely Betelgeuse plays or how many heroic actions he performs in the film, the default around him, at least for the characters inside the movie, will be to see him as a potential threat and a volatile character. As the audience we know he's probably changed and has good intentions, but the characters in the story don't know what to expect from him. Lydia at least now can have an assurance that he isn't as scary as she thought and will not harm her or her daughter.

She knows he does some scary tricks but in the end they are just scary, but harmless, illusions. At least to her. He has harmed others, but Lydia has been safe with him. The Babyjuice was an illusion, for example, and he never truly sewed her lips together. She was obviously not truly pregnant and didn't give birth to Babyjuice either. Those were just scary, yet harmless pranks. The nightmare Babyjuice coming from Astrid is also a scary and messed-up, but harmless, prank; even Betelgeuse himself thought that one was weird. lol

I think Betelgeuse struggles to show his affection in a non-scary to a living human kind of way. So it would be interesting and also funny if they show him trying to prove himself to her and completely failing to see that he's totally scaring her instead. This is where Astrid could come in and help him if they go this route in movie three (I keep saying this, but they have so much material to pick and choose from for a potential third movie, it's crazy).

Astrid doesn't truly yet know Betelgeuse. Just that her mom told her "don't' ever say that name". Outside of what Lydia warned her about "bad things happening", what Astrid knows about Betelgeuse is that he helped save her life. I'm just saying, if the writers wanted they could bring in that dynamic in movie three (not me lowkey wishing for a sort of "parent trap" kinda situation with Astrid helping out Betel win her momma's heart 💀. As if that would ever happen, but a girl can dream).

Anyway, to end my ramblings. I have a hope they could start the third movie with a time jump. Moving forward months or maybe a year or two. If they start with a time skip then we can start the movie with an already established Betelgeuse x Lydia dynamic. They could get along, though Lydia might be cranky about the whole thing (until she comes to terms with her feelings for him lol). There's so much material there for a fun movie. The second movie already ended with showing us Betelgeuse is still hanging around Lydia, so it would be easy to start from there.

Tl;dr: I don't think learning about Delores and Betelgeuse's past will get in the way of Lydia. She already has her reservations about Betelgeuse, but at least now she knows he also made mistakes in his love life, and in his case it literally got him killed. Betelgeuse will still have to prove that he isn't out to get Lydia for something nefarious, because as good as he behaves he will still be perceived by many as a villain (even by the audience!). At least now he has both Lydia and Astrid, and even Delia, as witnesses that he can be helpful and even caring (they all witnessed him expose Rory, for example, and they all benefitted from his powers and trusted him when they needed help the most). He just has to do something selfless, with no marriage strings attached, to finally prove that his fondness for Lydia and her family is genuine.

(By the way, sorry for taking a while to answer! I still have backlogged questions I'm going through, and I like to give thoughtful answers, so it takes me a little while sometimes to answer. Thank you so much for asking me! I appreciate sharing my headcanons and thoughts with you. 💚💜)

[impactrueno]

let's talk about shoes (stick with me here for a sec)

beetleboots beetleboots beetleboots.

what's up with the three of them wearing combat boots? they go well with each of their character designs so it's not like they look out of place with the rest of their outfits, but knowing this is tim burton and colleen atwood, these things are not mere coincidence.

(spoilers for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice below)

a common complaint i've seen people mention about Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is that "there's too many villains," but today i'm here to talk about why each of them matter in the narrative tim wanted to present here. yes the boots are related we'll get to that in a minute

delores, rory and jeremy all have one thing in common: the use of romantic betrayal in order to achieve their own selfish goals, destroying their victims in the process.

this, in turn, makes beetlejuice, lydia and astrid have another thing in common: they were the victims of these romantic betrayals.

you may think "okay but why is that necessary?"

this sequel made the interesting choice of nudging beetlejuice out of the villain role. he's now just a weird ally/deuteragonist...or perhaps even...a protagonist? but that's not enough! why should we as an audience care about him or sympathize with him?

that's where delores comes in. delores is less of a character and more of a plot device. her purpose (besides serving cunt) is to give beetlejuice backstory and be to beetlejuice what beetlejuice was to lydia, only worse. i talked a bit more about it in this post. thanks to her, we now learn that beetlejuice was a victim. not just that, she's also the looming threat beetlejuice needs to justify his marriage to lydia (he seems to be under the impression that this would help him escape delores more easily, but personally i'm not so sure, i think she's more powerful than that.) her return in combination with lydia's return to winter river is what sets his plan in motion.

rory is a pretty self-explanatory villain so i don't think we have to go into that. he wasn't out to kill lydia...but he's a golddigger, so i don't doubt he would've set something up to lead her into having a fatal accident and claim insurance benefits.

jeremy's role in the plot was to make astrid realize that she was wrong about the supernatural, as well as put her in danger in the afterlife, which is the drive lydia needs to turn to beetlejuice for help.

the role of an antagonist is to oppose or be an obstacle to the protagonist's goal. these three are the three obstacles beetlejuice needs to overcome in order to marry lydia.

first, he needs to save astrid as part of the deal with lydia. so he gets rid of jeremy to give astrid her life back. he knows exactly what it's like to be romanced into a death trap. you can tell this was satisfying for him. later, fucker.

then, he needs her fiancé rory out of the picture if he intends to marry lydia. since he knows this guy is a total piece of shit and is lying to her to lead her into the same trap he himself fell into with delores, he simply gives lydia the tools she needs to kick his ass herself. teamwork!

third comes delores. he just needs to survive delores, basically. he tries to pair her off with rory to try and kill two birds with one stone, but the stone that ends up killing them both is the sandworm that astrid summoned, which beetlejuice then guided straight to them. teamwork once again! (beetlejuice and astrid got rid of each other's problems, that's kind of cool)

these three things being taken care of means that beetlejuice can finally marry lydia.............

............except he doesn't. why? because he helped lydia. by bringing her into the afterlife to look for her daughter, he violated code 699. and he did it immediately after signing that contract. hoist by his own petard, this dumbass.

sorry i got sidetracked again. we were talking about boots, right? right right.

beetlejuice, lydia and astrid all walked in each other's shoes.

everything in this movie comes in threes. names, villains, victims, obstacles and pairs of combat boots.

[chaifootsteps]

Although he's the furthest thing from a bastion of consent and consideration for Lydia's enthusiasm in the matter, I do like that Beetlejuice didn't explicitly require her to marry him in exchange for saving her daughter, or even hint at it. It actually sounded like where he was going with all that was "Help me deal with my crazy ex-wife."

He's visibly surprised at Lydia's suggestion, and promptly forgets all about the very strong likelihood that Delores is going to murder him.

[thestrangesthell]

Beetlejuice truly loves Lydia.

The why of it all is a different kettle of fish altogether and, in all honesty, it doesn’t really matter. He loves her and she can genuinely do no wrong by his books.

Delores is shown as one of the “loves of my [Betelgeuse’s] life” during MacArthur’s Park, alongside Lydia (and a dog - which is coincidentally Burton’s, thrown in as a last-minute gag). Despite what she did to him, Betelgeuse legitimately and canonically acknowledges her as someone he loved.

But she killed him.

Yes and he killed her too. She’s out for revenge and he…kinda isn’t too fussed about her having killed him. He’s too fixated on Lydia to care all that much, and her threat mostly reads as a major inconvenience to him that she might come between himself and Lydia. Even if he was successful in marrying Lydia and came back to life, Delores could just suck his soul anyway.

Delores did Betelgeuse wrong and he has no feelings left there for her, despite calling her one of the loves of his (After)life.

Lydia, on the other hand, has handed Betelgeuse’s ass to him twice.

Not once but twice has she managed to escape a marriage - the second one involving a contract (which, if you ask me, absolutely did not depend on rule 699. That was bullshit and I will not be persuaded otherwise). But Betelgeuse barely tried to stop her when she sent him back. He hissed at her.

Huh?

We know he’s more powerful than that.

Infinitely.

At the end, when he reappears beside her in bed, (leaving that saucy little imprint), we as the audience know he’s still haunting her. He will not. Let. Her. Go. That man is committed as fuck, even after Lydia has bested him over and over again.

Why?

He loves her.

I would happily wager my life on the idea that, while Lydia was saying his name three times at the end of the movie, Betelgeuse let her. As another user Tumblr brilliantly pointed out, MacArthur’s Park is a farewell song. He knew he was against the clock, fate and some inexplicable loophole. That said, no one knows Afterlife rules quite like Betelgeuse. I refuse to believe he didn’t know bringing Lydia into the Afterlife would cost him their contract (and yes, I’m clearly still bitter). Either that, or he was a lovesick fool who was too excited to turn her down.

I digress.

MacArthur’s Park is a farewell song. Betelgeuse played that wedding out in excruciating detail to give Lydia some kind of amusement. He clearly knows what’s happened in her life and he wants to give her something special. He did the whole shebang, made it magical, (we all know how excited Lydia is to float at the end of the first movie) and something to remember. But his love for her is so deep he wouldn’t want her marrying him without actually genuinely wanting to.

Betelgeuse let the love of his life destroy him rather than risk destroying the trust they had built.

You saw Lydia’s face when she looked at what was left of him on the floor. She’s feeling guilty as hell. He’s haunting her because she lets him. She. Can’t. Let. Him. Go.

They’re utterly alone, together.

🪲🕷️

[geekmystic]

I'd have to give it a watch again but when Delores shows up at the wedding and Beetlejuice goes "What the fuck?!"...

Is it because he was so excited to marry Lydia that he genuinely forgot Delores was after him?

Because that is very on brand.

[yourladyem]

Beetlejuice 2 Thoughts

Lydia doesn't freak out at the end screaming when she wakes up either time. Nor demanding answers. Nor checking that he's truly gone. It's like when you wake up and are shocked your spouse is not next to you when you've dreamt about them. Plus, the sheets and pillowcase are wrinkled on "his side" while she stays on her side on her back in her own area. She's shocked but not terrified like she was during the beginning of the film where she had panic attacks when she saw him.

He never tried to force her to kiss him during the wedding or any other time after her refusal during the couple therapy session. He didn't force himself onto her like Rory did constantly. She didn't push Beetlejuice off or stop him from kissing her hand. She's not grossed out but doesn't like it when Rory tries to kiss her at any time.

He knew Rory was using her and thought it was about time Lydia knew without him trying to convince her. He waits until she's about to marry Rory then makes him reveal the truth. Thought it was interesting Beetlejuice didn't say anything during the couple's therapy session. Maybe he was trying to show Lydia that Rory wasn't who he was by scaring him until he fainted and Rory denying the situation. Maybe even punishment for not taking Lydia's warnings seriously and Beetlejuice punishing him for how he treated Lydia allowing her to give Rory the final blow to the face.

She's not angry at Beetlejuice when he taped her mouth. It's more like "Really? We're doing this?" Like an annoyed friend who's used to it then she somehow figured out how to get it off allowing his antics then questions his stalking and not defending Rory or checking on him even when they got back their world.

Hesitates accepting Rory's "affections" including his proposal. She doesn't really want to marry him. She tries to convince herself she loves Rory. She doesn't really care for his presence. Beetlejuice, on the other hand, she immediately agreed to marry him without hesitation. She doesn't fight him off during the wedding scene or tries to back out.

Delores automatically gets jealous over the picture of teenage Lydia on Beetlejuice's desk. She doesn't know who Lydia is so why was her immediate reaction pure jealousy?

Astrid never rejects Beetlejuice's suggestion of calling him Dad. As outspoken as Astrid is and how much she misses her Dad, Richard, she doesn't say anything even after the contract was voided. She smiles when Beetlejuice sends Jeremy to Hell. Even Richard smiles.

Lydia's only excuse for not marrying Beetlejuice was their age difference. Nothing else. Not his personality, not his antics, not his stalking, not unrequited love, not even the way he looked and he was dead. Just the age difference. You'd think after being terrorized and angry that he's back and screaming at him to get out of her life, that she would have given him better reasons.

Lydia never makes a remark of never loving him or it's never going to happen between them. Even when he serenades her with Richard Marx. She's not grossed out or snapping at him. She's just watching him.

Every time he calls her "Honey" she doesn't protest. Never protested about her wedding dress like she did with Rory's wedding dress suggestions. Never protested on his analogy of them being like Bonnie and Clyde. Never questioned him when he said he wanted to remarry the love of his life (her).

She grieved Richard which sent her to the group where she met Rory but showed no real remorse when she saw him again. She doesn't hug him or kiss him goodbye. No tears. No closure talk of how much she missed him or how he felt. She doesn't try to remarry him to revive him for Astrid's sake. They act like they are friends with no romance between them. They could have passed for siblings almost the way they interacted. Beetlejuice could have intervened dragging her away but he doesn't, instead he takes Richard's place at the window so Lydia and Astrid can have the closure they need.

Wedding scene gave Labyrinth Ballroom dancing scene vibes. Immortal man singing his feelings to the woman he loves. The girl is conflicted with her feelings. Same look from the women as the man sings to her. Gaping at him.

Lydia's look of regret/remorse when Beetlejuice blows up when she sends him away.

Doesn't burn the model like she demands earlier to prevent seeing him again.

Lydia never thanked Beetlejuice for his help with Astrid, Rory, or Delia.

Richard never tried reaching out to Lydia or Astrid when he checked in on him. No connection but Lydia has connections with other ghosts so it's not because he's less powerful than Beetlejuice. While Beetlejuice has a connection with Lydia for 30 years. You'd think Richard would have tried to find a way to connect to them. Meanwhile there's Beetlejuice.

What happened to the book at the end of Beetlejuice talking about the Living and Dead coexisting?

Beetlejuice doesn't put a ring on Lydia's hand during their second wedding. He takes his time with her compared to the first film (granted she was a teenager and Burton wasn't going to have it). He just wants to spend time with her as much as he can telling her how he feels and romancing her in his own way.

Beetlejuice doesn't stop Lydia from saying this name like he did with the tape during the couple's therapy session.

Delores and Rory would be a perfect villain couple going up against Beetlejuice and Lydia along with Delia and Charles as their side team. Maybe an actual love interest for Astrid too. The battle between the couples would be awesome. Delores seemed quite taken with Rory when she saw him and he immediately stayed close to her including wrapping his arm around her. And we know you can come back from being eaten by a sandworm.

The interviews of the actors are shipping the couple. They don't brush it off but encourage it. It's like they are teasing for a third film to see how people react. If they weren't, why promote the romance between them so much all of a sudden? Even Warner Brothers studios promoted a fan's video that emphasized the Beetlejuice/Lydia romance. Even the studio.

Michael always talks like he's still Beetlejuice and Winona is still Lydia after wrapping up filming. "Ask her. She'll tell you. She said secretly wants to marry me." "Secretly, we're kind of in love with each other. She secretly wants to marry me." Admitted they have definite chemistry. And they'd thought that for a long time. Thought it was cute. They should do a movie together outside of Beetlejuice.

Tim didn't protest the romance between them either.

[eyecan02]

Most people interpret Beetlejuice lip syncing "MacArthur Park" as a goodbye to Lydia because they felt he probably knew deep down that they wouldn't be able to get married. Here's my personal take. Yes, the song IS a break up song but I interpret the song as Beetlejuice singing about how both he and Lydia separating from their exes not from each other- how Delores and Rory are in their past now. That's why Beetlejuice freezes everyone (before Wolf shows up) because their pasts don't define them/matter anymore. It's about their "now" and living in the moment with each other. Just my take.

[missheavenfield1215]

I have a slight feeling that Beetlebabes will end like this

I don't really see it as very feasible that they will actually end up together (my heart broke when I thought about this).

I think they are going to get married, but they will not live together... Probably, Delores will murder him again or to protect them from the madness of his ex, Beetlejuice would sacrifice himself to protect Lydia and her daughter.

What I'm trying to say, is that if they are still in danger it would be a great redemption for Beetlejuice to sacrifice himself, and even if Beetlejuice is really loving Lydia, then he will let her go as a last act of love...

Winona has said that she has been shipping them since she was 15 years old... And that now she has openly told us this desire... It's probably NOT a SPOILER, but it's a central theme in the movie.

If they DON'T stay together, (because of plot issues, script and things like that), Winona has probably contributed a similar kind of idea.

If they can NOT be together, then they will have to secure a couple of tears in telling us that Beetlejuice loves Lydia enough to sacrifice himself for her. It would show us an evolution of character and its redemption, but with the price of giving EVERYTHING IT LONGED FOR MOST.

Being a man again and the feeling of being loved in the same way

[the-entity-down-the-street]

Okay so. The New Beetlejuice Movie.

I have thoughts about Lydia and Beetz, and how Beetlejuice's feelings developed for her.

Yes. I ship them. I don't think I've come out and said it yet, but yeah I'm one of those. Block me if it bothers you. Winona and Micheal ship it, too. For the record.

Analysis under the cut

Okay folks. So, I don't believe for a second that Beetlejuice loved her in the first movie. He doesn't know her, barely interacts with her, doesn't care about her outside of having a means to an end. You can see this in how he treats the wedding, too. He rushes it and does everything in his power to stop everyone from saying his name. I don't even think they had a cake?

Now, this isn't to say he isn't intrigued by Lydia.

"I think I could get along with Edgar Allen Poe's daughter, she gets me."

Let's be real, though. He's a scumbag and a sex pest in the first movie.

This is in stark contrast to the sequel. He calls Lydia the love of his life, keeps a photo of her on his desk, fulfills all his promises to her, helps her get revenge on Rory *after* making him tell the truth about his motivations, and the DANCE SEQUENCE?? If his goal was just to escape the Netherworld, he'd have rushed the wedding vows and gotten it over with as quick as possible. And considering he has *more* motivation to get out than the first movie-- Delores coming to kill him, for real, permenantly-- that makes the second wedding even more romantic. He is down BAD bad.

So, how did we get here?

That's what I've been puzzling over for past couple days. I think it has something to do with the psychic connection Beetlejuice mentions to Bob.

@herefortheships has an excellent post that helped fill in the "why" of the psychic connection. Lydia can see all kinds of ghosts. What makes Beetlejuice different?

It's because they almost completed the wedding in the first movie. Sure, Lydia never said "I do", but they were almost there, and with this marriage ceremony being so powerful as to bring the dead back to life, even an interrupted wedding forms a link between them. Beetlejuice being such a powerhouse himself, and Lydia being naturally psychic, probably strengthens it. The closest comparsion I'd make is never closing out with a Ouija board. A very powerful, horny Ouija board.

So, this gives Beetlejuice a chance to get to know Lydia over the years. He watches her grow up, with a set of ghost parents no less. He sees her powers strengthen, and how she goes on to start a show utilizing her gift. I wonder if the show inspired Beetlejuice to start his own business?

She becomes a wife, a mother, a fully rounded adult who never loses her adoration of the macabre. I think he sees what he originally saw in Delores, and it ignites something, for lack of a better term, long-dead within him. Lydia is a much better person than Delores, too, and Beetlejuice knows that. After all, she originally agreed to marry him to save her (already dead) friends.

No wonder he's fucking smack dizzy in love. He softens, becomes a marginally more respectable person. Keeping a picture of teenage Lydia on his desk is objectively creepy, but that's also when he saw her in person last, so it makes sense.

Something else I noticed, and this kind of a tangent, but it's interesting.

He only started appearing to her again recently. Like, she'd felt him around the corners, but it's only around the start of the film that he tries to actively get her attention. I have a theory as to why. In part, he wanted to make himself better for her before making a grand entrance (reputable businessman and all), but there's something else that's more obvious.

Rory. He knows Rory's bad news, and I wouldn't be surprised if he used his connection with Lydia to spy on him. Beetlejuice probably knew he was planning to marry Lydia for her money soon. Now, he couldn't talk to her properly due to her blatantly trying to push him out, but he could still be loudly present.

Notice how when Rory summons him, Beetlejuice presents as a relationship counselor. He even says "I think there's an enabler here, but we'll talk about that later," which I think is because he wants Rory to know he sees through the emotionally manipulative bullshit.

I think he also knows Lydia was not going to believe him if he said Rory was a creep. I mean, why would she? Beetlejuice bides his time with gross out gags and other typical Beetlejuice antics. It's only after he's proven himself honest enough to stay true to his word by saving Astrid and sending her boyfriend to hell that he gives Rory the truth syrum.

He's really, really grown to genuinely love Lydia, way more than he ever loved Delores I'd say, and it's because he's fallen in love with the woman he got to watch her become.

[iz1331]

Kinda sad to think that maybe Betelgeuse did love Delores, and thought she loved him to, only for everything to be a ruse to steal his soul and kill him.

Reminds me of what they did in the Musical. The Deetz-Maitlands tricking Beetlejuice, making him believe that everyone is starting to like him, and that Lydia wants to for real get married to him, then not even 5 minutes of being alive, killing him all over again.

[girlbeyondthegrave]

I Watched Beetlejuice Beetlejuice a Third Time: More Things I Noticed

Here’s my previous list for those that haven’t read it. Enjoy!

A lot of people on this post I made thought that the dog in the MacArthur Park sequence was Taco from the Ghosthouse segment where Beetlejuice appears in the audience. I am sad to report this is not the case. Taco is a chihuahua, and the dog that appears is more of a terrier. However, some people on Reddit wonder if the dog is the one that ran out in front of the Maitlands’ car and killed them. I haven’t rewatched the first movie yet to check.

When Beetlejuice stitches Lydia’s mouth shut, she’s more exasperated than afraid. She literally tries to yell, “COME ON!”

Beetlejuice looks so offended on Lydia’s behalf when Rory calls her codependent. Like, “Is he serious right now? Get him, babe!”

Beetlejuice appearing before Delia can finish summoning him furthers the eavesdropping theory I made in my earlier post, and if we go off that theory, we can explain by Beetlejuice wasn’t that bothered by being summoned away at the wedding. He’s overheard Lydia’s desire to take her relationships slow and her reluctance to marriage. (Which is most definitely because of him and the fact that the last living person she loved tragically died—even if their relationship was over before that point.)

In the film, Beetlejuice is the ONLY person that agrees to help Delia find Charles, which we see her do at the end of the movie. This means that Beetlejuice kept his word and helped Delia, and he didn’t keep her away from Charles after the wedding fell through.

“MacArthur Park” plays when the studio intros roll, during the wedding sequence, and the end credits—three times when we have three different iterations of Beetlejuice and Lydia’s dynamic, fun fact. This is meant to be their song, and although the song is about a doomed relationship, this part sticks out to me: “After all the loves of my life / You’ll still be the one.” It doesn’t matter if Beetlejuice gets the timing right. It doesn’t matter if Lydia marries him. He considers her “the one.” He’s always going to wait for her, as conveyed by “Right Here Waiting.”

Astrid opens pages about violation 699 and summoning sandworms via trapdoors. I understand that was meant to “foreshadow” later events and explain why she knew how to do those things, but the terms for 699 are barely on-screen, so it’s hard to catch the part where it lays out how bringing Lydia illegally into the afterlife makes her contract null and void.

When Delores appears at the church, there’s a huge gust of wind, and the Handbook moves, but NOTHING ELSE MOVES with that precision until Delores moves Lydia away from the altar. This is kind of a stretch, but I personally think it’s possible that Beetlejuice saw Delores, and he purposefully sent the book in Astrid’s direction. If we go off my eavesdropping theory, he clearly knows Astrid is a smart girl. Plus, he stopped her from getting to the book earlier, so he knows it’s a threat.

When Beetlejuice has a dramatic entrance or exit, it’s very intentional. He does a whole dramatic couple’s therapy bit for Lydia and Rory. He does the earthquake through the model with a slow rise from the smoke. But we’ve also seen him appear in straightforward ways, too, like how he appears randomly to spook Delia. Beetlejuice controls his entrances and exits, and so his dramatic exit at the end is intentional. He allows Lydia to send him away. He makes a big show of it. Lydia has been manipulated by Rory for years. He’s tried to control her and stifle her. When Beetlejuice lets Lydia send him away and makes a big show of it, he’s demonstrating the amount of control he’s giving to Lydia. He goes because SHE wants him to, not because he can’t stop her from saying his name.

(Editing to say that this post confirms the dog is Tim’s dog.)

[herefortheships]

Betelgeuse and marriage theory

A Beetlejuice head-canon/theory I have (It's somewhat "Beauty & The Beast" coded 🌹🥀).

Having died poisoned on his wedding night, Betelgeuse's soul is bound by the ritual of marriage.

We already know he will be able to reenter the mortal world if he marries a living person (due to the rules of the afterlife and whatnot), but here's where my head-canon starts:

Bound to the ritual of marriage, if he marries someone he loves, who truly love him back, dead or alive, his soul will be freed and he will be able to pass on to the great beyond next to his beloved (once his beloved passes away as well, assuming she happens to be currently alive *hint hint*). This person has to wear Delores' ring and accept and love Betelgeuse as is. She has to fall in love with his soul. Only loving him truly, wearing the ring, and sealing the deal with a kiss will release him, and that way, in the end, both his soul and his beloved's (it has got to be Lydia, please) can move on peacefully into the great beyond and exist without curses or attachments.

Totally a fantasy in my head because there's no way something like this would happen in canon much to the sadness of my little heart lol, but I thought I'd share it with you all. And who knows, maybe if there's a third movie they will explore what it is about Betelgeuse's character that is so attached to the concept of marriage. Because, listen, maybe the ritual where a ghost marries a living person and can materialize in the living world is something that is bound to the rules of the afterlife, and detailed in the Manual for the Recently Deceased, but the symbols and ritual of marriage is something intrinsic to the character of Betelgeuse itself.

He died on his wedding night, for starters. He was tricked by Delores and fell for her immediately. One could argue he fell quickly because she is so gorgeous and no doubt manipulated him into believing she loved him, and that's definitely part of it, but also, (and I have no doubt about this one), he believed her and fell for her immediately because Betelgeuse wants to be loved. He's a romantic underneath it all, and he wants to love and be loved. He might have been desiring it for a long time, failing to find love throughout his life until he met Delores.

He may exude self-confidence (maybe even to a delulu extent lol) and present himself in this very raunchy way, but inside, I'm sure he desires a genuine love; he wants to love someone and be loved truly. And he died, murdered by his bride on the night of his wedding. Betelgeuse was murdered on the night that should have been the happiest of his life, and his desire for love and a wedding stayed with him beyond the grave, now stained with blood and betrayal and a curse that can only be broken, in my head-canon/theory, by marrying someone who truly loves him, whom he truly loves.

Marriage is definitely a very important theme in Beetlejuice, so it'd be interesting if there's something more underneath it, which could be explored in the next movie if we are so lucky to get it.