#dead boy detectives

[watchthedeadboys]

Meet and fall in love with the Orpheus and Eurydice from Dead Boy Detectives. I promise it doesn't hurt. Much.

[musichooman]

iconic icon no one can beat him

He's a 16 year old Edwardian ghost. He's gay. He's oblivious. He's in love with his best friend. He's got internalized homophobia. He's occasionally a woman. He's been dead for 70 years. He's never felt more alive. He is the kindest man you'll ever see. He is destined for hell. He has no rizz. Everyone wants him carnally. Edwin Payne really is THE most character of all time no one is doing it like him

[moresandmanstuff]

[championari]

So I’m constantly thinking about Charles and how he could eventually meet Edwin with his feelings.

Here’s something I realized: Charles, despite constantly talking about things he miss, things he wants, he actually has a complicated relationship with desire as a concept.

How I would put it is by taking Supernatural as an example. There’s an episode in Season 5 where the boys meet Famine, a horseman of the apocalypse. However, Dean is not at all affected by him. It’s because due to being the older brother, and a Hunter, Dean was never allowed to consider acting on or even having desire for anything.

You can see where I’m going with this. Charles, like Dean, doesn’t actually believe he should want anything, due to “not being good enough”.

This is something actually touched on subtly in the show through the acting. When Niko says, “I know what it’s like to want something you can’t have.” Edwin directly looks at The Cat King’s bracelet, while Charles stares off into space. When Tragic Mick describes Angie’s light as enforcing a sense of yearning, Edwin looks at Charles, while again, Charles looks off blankly (can’t access screenshots right now). Edwin knows what he wants but is scared of it, while Charles doesn’t know what he wants because he can’t allow himself to consider it. This gives an entirely new meaning to Charles’ hatred of the Cat King. A supernatural entity who describes his kingdom as being about “want and pleasure”. Thomas is the encapsulation of everything Charles was never allowed to have. Charles chases after things that he knows he can’t have, romancing a living girl despite knowing she will eventually leave. Charles can’t consider returning Edwin’s feelings because that would mean he’s been running away from what’s been in front of him the whole time. That what he wanted was always there, at his lowest point, when he thought he deserved it least.

Returning Edwin’s feelings means he was already enough. And Charles can’t imagine that yet.

While I would obviously adore an interaction between Charles and Desire of The Endless, ultimately I don’t think it would do anything. Like Dean, Charles might be completely unaffected by them because he’s spent most of his existence building walls around his desires. Edwin was completely blindsided by Thomas because he never even considered having to think about Desire due to having no attraction to women and that being the dominant narrative of his time. Charles pursues Crystal because he still wants to feel like he has a chance at “normal life” (which as I said is self-punishment by throwing himself at something he knows he can’t have). To accept that he’s in love with Edwin would mean no longer pursuing a living person. Edwin would be it for him, which he kind of already gets but it hasn’t fully sunk in yet. Just like his death

There's also this exchange that drives me nuts:

"You gave up tranquil eternity…for your friend?" "Does that sound like someone who belongs in Hell?"

THIS. MAKES. ME. INSANE. Because Charles, like he always does when confronted with his own wants, completely avoids it. He doesn't respond to The Night Nurse's obvious confusion as to why he ran from Death, and instead turns the conversation back to Edwin. He makes it all about what Edwin deserves, not what Charles saw in Edwin that led him to make that choice. You could say this is practical as time is of the essence, but I think that's the point. Charles throws away the chance to explain his viewpoint on their first meeting, the consequences of his choice to run from Death with a boy he just met and knew for a few hours, and instead remains single-minded on Edwin's safety. Like when Edwin reasonably questioned, "Why are you getting angry?" when he began freaking out over Thomas getting close to Edwin, he says nothing.

There's just so much happening in that head that I can't stop thinking about.

[senseless12]

THIS HAS JUST MADE MY DAY!!!!!!

ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ʙᴏʏ ᴅᴇᴛᴇᴄᴛɪᴠᴇꜱ | ꜱᴇᴀꜱᴏɴ 1, ʙʟᴏᴏᴘᴇʀ ʀᴇᴇʟ - ɢᴇᴏʀɢᴇ ʀᴇxꜱᴛʀᴇᴡ

[marymint-52hz]

just... imagining 😏

[fan-a-tink]

Emma's floating squid Dead Boy Detectives: Season 1, Episode 1

[pippin-katz]

am i crazy, or does charles look incredibly flirty in this shot?

like boy control yourself and that tongue lmfao

[idlesparksandgears]

Que the Kill Bill Rift 🤣

Back by surprisingly popular demand: them

[asidian]

So, hey. Can we talk about that hug scene in episode 5? I've talked a bit about what an incredible impact it makes on Charles, his emotional state, and his character arc.

But what I've never seen anyone talk about is the character growth Edwin shows in this moment. Yes, his realization of the depth of his feelings for Charles, but not just that. Something else that's arguably just as big.

For the whole show up until this point, Edwin has been playing trauma Olympics. He pulls hell out as a trump card. He wields it against Crystal like a bludgeon, as though to say "I've been to hell, so everything else pales in comparison."

And yet here, for the first time, he isn't making the reference to hell about him at all.

For the very first time, he's acknowledging this terrible thing that happened to him not as a way to score points in some petty argument, but as a means of comforting someone else.

Here, for the first time, it's not, "I've been through this terrible thing, so what you've suffered is less important."

Here, for the first time, Edwin's saying, "I've met the very worst people there are, so I know that you are wonderful." He's nodding to that place where he experienced nothing but pain, and for the first time, he's not using it to cause more pain.

He's using it to soothe someone else's.

[kikoschaos]

One of my favourite photos from last year. Had so much fun with @das-diddy-stalking as my amazing Charles!

[deadboyagency]

Behind the Scenes on set of Dead Boy Detectives by producer and writer Kristy Lowrey;

[kit-tastic]

just saving this for later, because I love it so much ^-^

[many-gay-magpies]

silly comic inspired by a conversation with @babyseraphim

[thatkeira9000]

"looks like you're stuck with me.." SOBBING. I think about this line daily.

Charles was just killed by people who he thought was his friends, but was comforted by a stranger who made sure he died peacefully. Who showed him love and kindness even when he was weak, And Charles never lets anyone see him like that. His dad taught him that no one would love him if he wasn't the best and strongest. But Edwin stayed by his side at his worst. Charles learned that maybe some dick heads won't love him if he's not the best.

But Edwin will.