#charlie mac's asks

[chrliekclly]

I need to see Charlie in one of Dennis sweaters or Mac’s shirt or something

this one rly got away from me

[specialtysacrifice]

Mac hugs the gang

[pick1e-party]

the gayest scene in always sunny is when mac and dennis are shooting the gun in the basement

[onthecrosslook]

Idk if u take requests but like young Mac and Charlie?💚

I never draw kids but I gave it a shot!

[charmac]

can you talk a little more about how each of their reactions to finding out they were sexually assaulted by that monkey fits with their history of trauma? i always love your interpretations and sunny meta

For sure. Just to preface this, though, I don't think I have anything too crazy deep here, I think if anything it's mostly the idea that RCG all definitely sat down and thought about how their characters would react in this situation that gets me. Like yeah, they wrote their history and they acted it all, but it still makes me spiral to see that even in the smallest ways it continues through their performances. Especially any time their characters face sex and/or assault, their minds clearly being deep in their lore gets me.

Finding out they were ostensibly raped by a monkey, Charlie and Dennis are both disgusted while Mac is a dichotomy between them, somewhat enthralled by the idea:

Charlie's disgust is an immediate, bodily reaction. His CSA was his first exposure to sex, resulting in his sex repulsion that is very physical in nature (obviously there's a lot of mental stuff there as well, but that's coupled with more complexities). Puking the moment he learns he was raped exemplifies the fact that his body physically reacts ahead of (or regardless of) mentally processing what happened (then and now).

Dennis' disgust, while still immediate, is more processed. He grapples with the idea and causes himself to spit out the taste in his mouth, dropping low and then paralleling Charlie:

Further, Dennis is then the one to engage with Frank about the monkey, unhappily and in disbelief as he learns Frank was well aware of the situation he was putting them in (while Charlie sits there silently until he pushes the conversation past it). While maybe not indicative of his CSA to the extent Charlie's reaction is (bc honestly anyone could/would react similar to Dennis if this happened to them), there's clear remnants in Dennis' reaction and an obvious parallel of the two of them, divided by Mac's freak.

So, Mac. Finding out the taste in his mouth is the result of a monkey fucking his face while he was blackout drunk leaves him chuffed, happily reserved with that knowledge. While Mac doesn't necessarily have a history of CSA, he does have a heap of childhood trauma in the form of physical abuse and neglect, which has clearly resulted in his desperate need for affection and attention. Latching to Dennis, Mac's obsession with him growing more heightened as the years go on then being met with neglect and physical abuse, all while their relationship hovers an extremely sexual line, has resulted in him getting off on being used and abused. Waking up with scratches and bite marks and finding out he's been used like a sex toy by anyonething is a fantasy for Mac.

[dennisboobs]

7x10 // How Mac Got Fat

↳ Charlie & Dennis + getting high together

[got-the-cool-shoeshine]

in the second level you can choose whether to give them a ladder or hammers to hit each other with

[dummydino]

were u the one who did redesigns of the character models from the sunny mobile game?? cuz those were so good i would actually play the game if they looked like that lmao

omfg yeah if these were the ones u saw:

if it was these though i'd be surprised, i posted them on twitter so long ago lol

(sorry for the shitty photos these are all i could find at the moment :p)

[opens-up-4-nobody]

could u maybe draw charmac.. [bats my cute eyelashes at u]

:-P

[sunscall]

yeah mac and charlie would push each other into an active volcano to save themselves but ultimately if they both had to die they'd do it together

[psymachine]

i think it'd go like this lmao

whole version

[chrliekclly]

I think alotta ppl forget that dennis canonically is the best at drawing of the gang nd just focus on charlie being the artist of the gang, nd idk maybe i just wanted to slip that into ur mind

Like i have this funny scenario in my head where charlie challenges dennis to a drawing competition nd dennis draws a near realistic portrait of charlie while charlie vaguely scribbles out dennis but the rest of the gang is just like 'omg charlie i didnt know u cud draw'

art is subjective

[prolibytherium]

Dee & Mac's dynamic is still probably my favorite. I love how they straight up just dislike each other in a (relatively) uncomplicated way and have the weakest bond BY FAR and barely give a shit about each other, but still have this intense level of casual intimacy purely by virtue of decades stuck in the same group codependency pentagon. They're like in-laws.

[godduh]

IASIP Character Analysis & Kohut's Narcissism

DISCLAIMER: I am not a practising psychologist. Kohut’s narcissistic personalities are not currently used in 2024 as a diagnostic tool. The use of Kohut’s research is simply being utilised here as a character analysis tool. This is not meant to be a commentary on anyone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, nor do I wish to perpetuate stereotypes or cause offence. Please don’t take this seriously or as gospel; I just like analysing my faves. Thank you!

Heinz Kohut's main focus of research was on psychology of the self, which included research into narcissistic personality disorders. He described a concept called "selfobject"; how we experience people (or 'objects') as part of ourselves, particularly when they affirm the self's narcissistic behaviour. He went on to describe how failed interactions between children and their “selfobjects” (which is often their parents) can cause a damaged self and lead to a disordered & narcissistic self. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's ragtag gang are shown consistently displaying behaviours and actions that could be seen as narcissistic, often seen with grandiose fantasies, lacking empathy, and a need for admiration. Kohut describes four types of narcissistic self; in this character analysis I will examine the elements of each narcissistic identity and correlate it with each member of the gang (except for Frank; sorry buddy). All links and read times below!

Kohut's paper used for this analysis

Charlie - The Understimulated Self (3 minutes) Dennis - The Fragmenting Self (5 minutes) Mac - The Overstimulated Self (5-6 minutes) Dee - The Overburdened Self (6 minutes)

Full read time: ∼20 minutes

[ask-charliekelly]

would you kiss mac for a block of cheese?

I kiss Mac all the time but I'll definetly do it if there's cheese involved. Y'know, maybe I should start a cheese for kiss system. Does that make me a cheese prostitute?

[charmac]

Opinions on Charlie woobification? Also, do you think the fandom woobifies Dennis (too much)?

A few people have sent me asks about my thoughts on Dennis being woobified in the fandom and I’ve failed to answer them (sorry). Not for lack of interest on the subject, it’s just hard to answer. I think, though, answering this Charlie question in the same ask might make it easier to explain my thoughts on this.

When we talk about the fandom we’re generally talking about the people here, a couple hundred people on Twitter, maybe some Instagram stans(?) and tend to ignore the million (1,000,000)+ people on the subReddit and the huge chunk of people on Facebook and casual Twitter who are constantly, continually pushing a narrative that these characters have no depth, and thus their characterisation is what we see on the surface and nothing more. I think the one time it’s probably important not to ignore those people as fans of the show is when it comes to woobification.

Because at a surface level, the people who are consuming this show as a comedy and making posts that exhibit their takes/opinions on these characters to the majority of people portray the characters very simply: Charlie is an idiot and the best member of the Gang, in every sense of the word, and Dennis is a mere representation of toxic masculinity to a psychopathic degree. And those opinions are the loud majority.

So any discussion in our minority section of the fandom that woobifies Charlie or Dennis operates within and on top of the general narrative of the public perception (“face value”) of the characters. Woobification of Charlie, then, almost always further infantilises the majority of his traits to contribute to the idea that he’s not a bad guy and doesn’t deserve the position he’s in in life, while woobification of Dennis mostly works to counteract the idea that he’s a cold-blooded psychopath.

In a way, I think you have to woobify Dennis to a degree in order to properly understand his character (and Glenn makes that clear). Do some people take it too far? When it gets into the realm of genuinely somehow believing he’s not a bad person, absolutely, but in over a decade of Sunnyblr posts, I think I’ve seen that conclusion once, maybe twice. I really don’t think any post that’s diving into how Dennis' actions reflect his insecurities and trauma is ever speaking ignorant of the rest of his character, and that normally seems clear to the majority of people because rarely, if ever, does a dive into Dennis woobification cause fans to understand the character worse than they understood him at face value.

Whereas, with Charlie, you constantly do see this. Posts and threads and fights between fans arguing up and down that Charlie is better than the rest of them: he’s the smartest, actually, he means to do good, he shouldn’t be lumped in with the rest of them as sexual predators... People in this fandom genuinely argue that you are a *better person* if you’re a Charlie stan, that Charlie ships are softer, more moral, than toxic Dennis ships. The result of Charlie woobification seems to often make people less media literate about the character (and the show as a whole if we’re being real) than they would be if they just watched at face value.

They’re all morally despicable characters.

TL;DR: Due to the face value perceptions of the characters, woobification is an almost necessary tool for better exploring and understanding Dennis under his surface, while it really only exacerbates an annoying surface-level understanding of Charlie