#Shipping agencies

[verianal]

MY GIRLIES RAGHHH

[fawncrw]

I think it’d be really funny if after they got together, Charles made tons of jokes about Edwin’s horribly timed confession.

Charles: makes an inappropriate joke

Edwin: Time and place, Charles.

Charles: Oh you wanna talk about TIMES and PLACES??

[sunsetcurveauto]

and they were codependent coworkers

[leahaart]

I just really need them to serve cute looks and exhibit bestie behaviours for 6 seasons, minimum🥺

[skateboardtotheheart]

there is just something about the difference between edwin's love interests and having the cat king's reaction to edwin in hell being "i'll be waiting when he gets back" vs charles "no version of this where i don't come get you" rowland convincing a powerful trans-dimensional being to open a door to hell just so he could get him back

i am insane

[aroaceleovaldez]

the way the fandom (and canon!) treats Nico versus Meg is so amusing to me given they have like one year between them at best. Meg in TOA is older than Nico in TLO. Why is every 13 year old in TOA babey when Nico is treated like the hottest emo boy who needs to enter a relationship Right Now or he'll Die but he only just turned 14. Meg is even shown to be basically equivalently powerful to a Big 3 kid. but she needs to be chaperoned meanwhile Nico at 11 is just let loose on the world unsupervised after beating up a ghost

[blocks-by-ray]

"Sorry. no version of this where i didn't come and get you, is there?”

I had this in my head for like a month cuz Charles would love this (wrapping his jacket around Edwin when they hug) because it absolutely makes him feel like he’s protecting/ shielding Edwin from the world. I think Edwin likes it too but wouldn’t admit it .

However , those two tall-ass boys were never really both gonna fit in Charles jacket :( well I tried

[dotswithbrainrot]

The shipping in the show has some AMAZING potential, but can we talk about Nikos and Edwin's BOMB FRIENDSHIP?? I LOVE THEM SO MUCH THEY HAVE SUCH A GREAT DYNAMIC. Two people with autism bonding and helping eachother emotionally. I LOVE THAT!!

[moose987]

I NEED more dead boy detectives in my life

I NEED more Charles Rowland and Edwin Payne

I NEED more Crystal Palace Surname Von Hoverkraft

I NEED more Jenny Green and The Night Nurse

I NEED more wacky cases

I NEED to see them healing from their trauma

I NEED to know what’s going on with Niko Sasaki!

I NEED to see them figure out what the rest means!

I NEED more of them looking at each other like this

I don’t think you understand. This is a NEED, not a WANT!

[acertifiedwitch]

Dead Boy Detectives is all fun and games until you realize Charles and Edwin are going to outlive Crystal. She’s going to grow older, maybe settle down, face the hardships of life, age until she can’t remember her loved ones names and the boys will be forever 16 years old.

[bluebugjay]

A lot of people aren't vibing with Charles and Crystal's romance and honestly i think it's because it's not necessarily supposed to be a full-fledged, endgame romance.

I think it's written to be a fling.

Charles is a flirt; one of the first things he thinks about when Edwin tells him ghosts can't feel is that he would miss kissing, he says himself it's nice to be seen by someone his own age, he calls Crystal fit, etc. Assumably between cases he has a very small social circle of literally just Edwin so it makes sense that this girl who he gets on with and finds attractive immediately becomes a bit of a crush for him.

Then Crystal picks up on his flirting almost immediately, again they get on, etc. She says if he wasn't dead and she wasn't dealing with the aftermath of her toxic relationship with David he would be a good addition to her body count, i.e. just a fling. She doesn't say they'd date or she could fall for him just that they'd probably hook up.

Their first kiss happens when they're both dealing with some heavy stuff, Charles is angry, continuing to push down his trauma with his father and his past, Crystal is annoyed about not being any closer to getting her memories back whilst trying to deal with the trauma her last relationship caused her. They find comfort in each other in that moment. Crystal says she wants something real and the care they have for each other is real, there's no manipulation, no secrets. It's honest and it's innocent.

The song that plays in that scene is called Young Blood (White Sea Remix) by The Naked and Famous and has lyrics such as 'we're only young and naive still' and 'can't help myself but count the flaws, claw my way out of these walls, one temporary escape' and 'we lie beneath the stars at night, our hands gripping each other tight, you keep my secrets hope to die' - It does align with the idea that they're what each other wants in the moment, a distraction, to be able to pretend everything is normal and ok (keep each others secrets)

Crystal in the next episode, the next morning after their kiss, literally calls Charles a 'cute distraction' and says they should be friends. This time both of their issues and trauma are the reason for them not continuing the relationship. Blatantly, Crystal isn't ready for another relationship so soon after David, she wakes up with a nightmare about him and Charles. They bring up Charles fighting the Night Nurse and Charles says that he thought they were on the same page about it and 'at least that's how it seemed last night' which again leans into the fact they were both looking for comfort. Charles and Crystal kissing had nothing explicitly to do with her supporting his actions fighting the Night Nurse and yet that's how he took it because that's what he was searching for comfort from and acceptance on. Which is most likely why he seems to take the rejection harder than Crystal, seemingly agreeing to be friends more out of respect for her choice than the want to call it quits himself.

Charles tells Edwin later on about the kiss (right after Edwin is complaining about having to cancel plans with Monty) and says though he didn't physically feel it, he did feel it 'up here' and points to his head. The mind is generally not the place you feel love, I feel that's a given. (reminds me of the starfish on the beach that Niko says are in love, Edwin points out starfish have no brain and Niko says love doesn't require logic, meaning: love is not stored in the mind.) Charles and Edwin's conversation veers off to being about there own relationship, with Charles saying he wouldn't want to be dead with anyone else - not even the girl you just kissed? No? Ok.

The way that episode goes (The case of the two dead dragons) Crystal and Charles end up arguing about the very reasons they decided to not continue their relationship. Crystal likens Hunter and Brad to David, and Charles defends them saying not everyone is her demon ex-boyfriend which seems like he's projecting and really defending himself. Then Crystal calls him out on his 'rage problem' and what happened with the Night Nurse. So though they comforted each other the night before, their real feelings for each others issues are surfacing and they're not so on the same page. Of course they get over this and apologise soon enough. Though in the end, it's Edwin Charles opens up to and actually talks to about how he's feeling rather than pushing it aside and looking for a distraction. And after that, Charles gives Crystal genuine comfort not just a distraction by listening to her talk about her nightmares/visions about David. (immediately followed by the scene of Edwin and Monty on the swings in which Edwin suggests they don't see each other anymore, then back tracks, they kiss followed by rejection which definitely has... parallels)

After that, Crystal and Charles are still an obvious source of comfort for one another, they talk to each other about their stresses, they stick close together a lot of the time but there's nothing inherently romantic to their actions aside from the fact we know they have kissed which gives their actions a depth that, for example Edwin and Niko's don't, despite them also being affectionate and spending time together alone.

Then in the last episode as Crystal is attempting to leave for London, her and Charles share another kiss. When she tries to say bye to Charles, he says it feels like a 'good-bye good-bye' rather than a 'see you back in London good-bye' and Crystal doesn't correct him, essentially confirming it was supposed to be a forever goodbye. She instead kisses him. It's a good-bye kiss. A (supposed to be) final kiss. A 'we had a good run' type of kiss. Crystal kisses him because she thinks she'll never see him again. It's similar to the first in which the kiss itself is the beginning and end, and it doesn't mean much past that. It's a kiss as a secret again, like their first kiss. A kiss to fill the space left by things they don't want to talk about. She doesn't want to admit she's planning on leaving for good so she kisses him instead, it's a comfort and it's a distraction. (and its consistent)

When Crystal decides to stay in the end, Charles says it'll be great, then specifies that 'solving cases together' will be great, not anything else that could of implied. Which could either be them just being awkward, or a flip in their dynamic that now Crystal is the one more involved in their relationship and Charles is the one setting boundaries.

Overall I think they have a really interesting dynamic. They are exactly what each other needs in moments and then the opposite in the next, they care about each other so much yet are possibly the people that unearth each others insecurities and traumas the most. They're both looking for a new, different kind of relationship and find it within the other but inherently once the novelty fades they fall more into being friends than anything more. I think like most of the relationships in this show, they're supposed to be complicated, they're supposed to be more of a journey than a destination. They learn and grow from their interactions together and I think that's something really beautiful.

[the-rainbow-suit-dude]

“Charles doesn’t love Edwin”

“Charles and Edwin are going to be romantic partners by season two”

“Charles and Edwin are an unrequited love story”

No. Charles and Edwin are going to figure out their relationship slowly. Charles and Edwin are going to just be there for each other for a while. Charles and Edwin are going to talk about it. Charles and Edwin are going to find where they’re comfortable at. Charles and Edwin are going to figure out where they want to blur the lines of friends and lovers. Charles and Edwin are going to do things their way.

[dyke-will-graham]

Oh! I love that one ship...

You know the one with the repressed bisexual 80's leather wearing charmer with daddy issues and a million dollar smile and the autistic repressed gay twink who wears vaguely vintage clothing with sassy mannerisms and avoidance issues!

(the game here is guess what ship im talking about)

[eddiewithcat]

dead boy stans

did we all collectively think crystal had a giant crush on niko before it was revealed she had a parasite . like is that a thing we all did

(also they totally should have been girlfriends 🧎‍♀️ i was rooting for them up until the last ep bc .. well. you know)

[booasaur]

Special Ops: Lioness - 1x07

[alt-ernativewonderland]

people who don't think charles rowland is bisexual i need you to watch these clips real quick because there are A LOT of these moments in interviews and I'm tired of y'all saying he "friendzoned" edwin on the steps of hell