#Oh I also wanted to get into how both his cooking hobby and his horticulture hobby are both nurturing

[flyboy-trainor]

Larry doesn't eat! (At least TV show Larry doesn't) Tbh this is important to me. He says it at least twice in the show. Larry doesn't need to eat or drink and it just makes him cooking for the team so much more interesting to me. Because it's something he's doing purely for other people. And he's good at it! And it makes him happy even if there's a bit of angst with it too because he obviously loves food but can't enjoy it anymore.

It also makes him going to the bar in the first episode really interesting too. Because I don't think he can drink either. But he goes there anyway, that's where he wants to be, he sits there and orders a drink and he can't drink it but he can pretend. And it's also like. Food and drink are such important things for humans socially, a lot of the time. A lot of social bonding is centered around food. And him cooking is one way he can still participate in that even if he can't actually partake in the meal himself. And it just contributes to his isolation but also shows his desire to connect with people still. Like at the bar, too. He's doing it to mimic normalcy, to try to fit in even though he doesn't. In a way that shows he craves it but can't have it. Which is the case for like. Most kinds of intimacy tbh. He *can* have emotional intimacy except for the fact that he's traumatized and sucks at it. Physical intimacy is obviously, understandably difficult.

I wonder how Sheryl would feel about the fact that Larry is the Designated Housewife of Doom Manor because I doubt he did that stuff with her. Like maybe he'd wanted to (I think he always had that in him) but he just had Way Too Much pressure to be Masculine, gender roles had to have been really, really pressed on him from a young age considering everything. Which makes me emotional about Larry projecting onto Rita before he even knew her. Relating to Rita's characters and projecting onto the woman's role in movies. There's no way he'd be able to actually talk about that with people. Except maybe John, you know. I bet if people knew of his interest in Rita's movies they thought he was attracted to her, that would have to be the way he'd play it, I'm sure.

Doom Patrol fans when Larry said he doesn't eat.