#LOOK WHO LIKES TO ACT TOUGH

[mellow-plum]

Tim Bradford - literally DONE with the whole world 🙎🏼‍♂️

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

elita pep talk

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

everybody stay with me im shifting back into speculation & analyzing mode, this time about everybody's favorite pair of besties. ill put this under the cut for everyone's sakes

and please, take all of this with a Hefty grain of salt.

so ive been... thinking about a thing. a maybe-possibility. which if this has some merit, the part of me that loves characters having a good time and feeling good feels is screaming in fear. but the louder part of me that loves angst and hurting characters is rubbing its little fly hands together.

short version: i think Barnaby is going to emotionally distance from Wally, if not outright grow to resent him. maybe temporarily, maybe not.

full version: *cracks knuckles* strap in folks. so.

first of all, an entire chunk of Barnaby's bio is dedicated to his character relation to Wally. everyone else only has one-off lines dedicated to their relationships to other neighbors - even Frank & Julie just have single sentences about each other (note that they're described as "partnered with" and "depicted with" respectively. more on that soon). even Wally's bio has his Barnaby mention tacked onto the end of his first paragraph instead of being its own dedicated section

and then there's their character designs - their bios explicitly point out that they share characteristics; color schemes, hearts on their soles, similar outfits.

they were made to be best friends. literally. this quote is what made me start turning this theory over in my mind (sourced from @ /theneighborhoodwatch's collected & absolutely fascinating livestream trivia)

it appears that Barnaby literally did not have a say in whether or not he and Wally are friends. their bios even say "illustrated pages note that they were best friends multiple times." they have to be best friends.

which brings us back to Frank & Julie. they briefly reference each other in their bios, but they aren't described as best friends. it's incredibly likely that they were meant to be a romantic couple - i briefly covered that theory in this post (dont read the first one i was going insane) but they managed to avoid that. Frank and Julie defied the script and chose to be best friends instead.

and then in the trivia document a few more character relationships are briefly touched on, like how Howdy considers Barnaby a close friend, and Sally considers either Barnaby or Poppy as her closest friend, etc.

everyone else seems to be choosing who they're close with. they're forming their own opinions and dynamics and relationships. & its interesting that Barnaby is stated for both of these - as if implying that he may return the friendship feelings, or at the very least he's developed enough of a relationship with them to earn their affection

Barnaby and Wally... i doubt they ever got that. they were best friends from the start, no development, no choice. it's written into them.

and then there's how their relationship has been portrayed so far. i believe i saw an ask where Clown stated that Barnaby is very polite to Wally, which struck me as odd. have you ever had a polite relationship to your best friend? have you ever seen best friends be polite? i'd be surprised!

best friends mess with each other! they tease and rib and roast! what is a best friend for if not mutual tomfuckery?! jesting around? playfully pushing boundaries? a Polite best friendship... that's a straight up oxymoron. no such thing. that sounds boring and exhausting.

not only that, but the fact that Barnaby is often used for Wally's painting segments, and is the go-to guy for teaching Wally something new, is kind of concerning. it gives me the vibe that a big part of Barnaby's literal reason for existing is to be Wally's friend & guide.

which would make the fact of him being described as polite to Wally make sense. of course he's not going to push their relationship or try to deepen it - he's forming his own dynamics with the other neighbors. with Wally... it's already established. that is how they are with each other. that is what they are to each other.

and it's not like Wally can be the one to introduce nuances. i don't mean that as a slight or anything - he's just the way he's been described and the things stated about him that make me think that he wouldn't really... know how to? it just wouldn't occur to him. he probably thinks his and Barnaby's relationship is what a best friendship is and is how it should be.

but they have to hang out. they have to refer to each other as best friends. and while i believe that Wally does wholeheartedly think that they're best friends, close as can be... i doubt Barnaby feels the same. like - yes, he probably does care about Wally. everybody likes Wally.

but it's gotta be frustrating for Barnaby, especially as time goes on and he becomes more himself as a person over just being a character playing a part. it probably stunts his relationship growth with others, since his ~best friend spot~ is already taken and who would want to encroach on that? especially since its taken by Wally mcfuckin Darling?

their friendship might become less of a role and more of a responsibility. Barnaby might grow to feel obligated to stick with Wally as his "best friend". someone invites Barnaby to hang out and/or help with something? sorry, he has to pose for Wally's painting. Barnaby is trying to do his own thing? sorry, Wally is knocking on the door and asking for help with something.

i wonder if Barnaby ever hopes that Wally will go to someone else, or feels relief when he does. and then does he feel irritation/guilt over that denied hope or that granted relief? then does he get angry at himself for those emotions?

how would this effect how he treats Wally and acts around him? this confusing muddle of emotions and this strange growing resentment for his painfully earnest friend who only ever means well, if he means at all.

it makes me curious whether or not this theory has merit. and how this could come to a head. what would Barnaby, in this situation, do if/when he discovers that they're puppets on a set, and he's literally written to be Wally's bestie while everyone else changed their scripts and chose their own relationships.

personally, i don't think he'd be happy, and i doubt he'd handle it well.

[m4ndysk4nkovich]

nothing hurts more than sandy confronting debbie about her abandonment issues, saying there’s always reasons people leave and that everyone in debbie’s family is sick of her and wants to leave her too, and then debbie, looking more small and helpless than she has in several seasons, looking terrified and frozen in a little kid bed surrounded by toys.

[itsamenickname]

I don’t know about you guys, but I absolutely love the idea of Bowser being the most fearsome creature in the entire galaxy to the point where he can very easily scare anyone into giving him what he wants because he is just so scary and terrifying.

And yet, when it comes to Luigi, a shy and cowardly little plumber, it is actually Bowser who is the more nervous one.

[bacchuschucklefuck]

the boy-but-not-that-way-ism of riz gukgak send tweet

[sleepy-bear-tm]

"You want me to handle this one, Reyes?"

"Seems you already know the answer."

[rafent]

i've been thinking a lot about modern rafal :softsmile: ....here's my hc miscellany....

My hot take is that Rafal dresses like he has crazy exes and this is true. Rafal also dresses like HE is the crazy ex and I think this is also true

Avant-garde. He wears the ugliest shirts and thinks he looks cool OR dresses straight out of Paris fashion week and actually does look cool there is no in-between

Super duper comfortable with his masculinity if that wasn't obvious

I see him stealing Nel's pieces from time-to-time because they’re basically the same size

Naturally platinum blond but definitely had a black hair phase

Smokes and vapes because "everyone else does it"

No-one knows what he does for a living but he always has money. Shady...

Has Nil and Nel tattooed on his body

Nil was alive in this verse but died. Rafal doesn't like to talk about it

Pretty AND a bad boy, of course modern Rafal is popular with the ladies. He's also a serial heart breaker :') He idolizes dad a lot and Sombron having 50 flings and girlfriends makes him think that's peak behavior (plot twist: it's not)

None of his relationships last long and he's always the one to end them. I think he's chronically lonely and has similar attachment / self-worth issues to canon so that's why he uses and throws away people. Oops

He calls relationships bodies. Yep, he's that kind of guy

Models occasionally on the side. Hardworking diva. Talented and serious about his job with a trendy androgynous 'heroin chic' appearance but also no-nonsense, arrogant, and often difficult to work with. Imagine the mishmash between a Naomi Campbell attitude and Shalom Harlow goth-chic visuality.

He eats all the calories and sweets he wants but still stays thin no matter what it's really unfair

Retains his strong liking for scary things; enjoys reptiles especially and has multiple snakes and lizards

Plays the guitar in his spare time. Has a bass he lovingly calls Revanche

[dreamstar-moonlight]

What was I just saying about putting people up on pedestals?

*sighs*

[mariatesstruther]

yall gon be mad but…

lowkey i think kaitlyn dever was a good casting choice

[beargyufairy]

You wouldn't last an hour

In the asylum where they raised me

[zappedbyzabka]

Racer bfs😍

[harmonybarmy]

I've been over halloween in general thanks to 'valloween' and 'summerween' and y'all being incapable of moving on from literally anything...but we're coming upon the time where I have to see tiktoks of white girls going to spirit halloween to buy their little boring twink boyfriends ghostface masks to proudly announce to everyone how kinky they are and I've had it.

[nerdyfangirlingbooks]

Every now and then I remember the times I would mention to my flatmate that I was thinking of buying myself something reasonably expensive (that I had been eyeing up for months and had budgeted for) and she'd tell me that I shouldn't spend that much money on something I didn't need and it would be stupid etc etc while she regularly impulse bought things that cost at least as much and she would use once (while complaining that she was under a lot of financial stress and couldn't afford <$3/week for 2 months for a rental washing machine when ours broke). She is... perhaps not my first call for financial advice

[infizero]

his faceeeeee someone get me OUT OF HERE

[tariah23]

Hi I hope this question makes sense but how would I call out friends use of what might be aave? Im worried about being wrong and it not being aave/sounding like a white knight but I dont want to ignore it.

Hi! And no, you’re fine. If you’re not black, it’s always best to look up terms and listen to what black people say to begin with, that’s the most important thing and if you’ve seen black people talk about a specific term that you might recognize as being aave, simply let your friends know that they shouldn’t really be using such terms in the first place since at this point, viewed as antiblack and micro aggressive because Black people have grown tired of having to talk about this same problem over and over again. Especially when they use such terms directed at Black people. If they continue to use the terms despite being told not to, then you already know what they are.