How do you think about Frepper? I'm neutral about this ship, but the fans Frepper attitude towards confuses me, Ivy and Freckle have only been dating for a week and know each other superficially, but everyone already thinks that by the end of the comic they will get married, I think differently, I think that in the end they will break up with each other because they are too different personalities, I literally can't imagine that both of them will be happy with each other in marriage, Ivy is assertive and active, on the other hand Freckle is passive and just agrees with Ivy, this is not a guarantee of a healthy relationship where a partner completely dominates the other, plus to all that, I will not forget how their relationship started, Ivy just decided that they were dating, and without asking Freckle's permission, she just KISSED him, again without his permission, Frepper fans think that it's cute, but when I saw it, I thought "what the hell did I just see?", in general, it's strange for me that Frepper fans are okay with such things, of course later Freckle shows attraction to Ivy, showing that he likes her in some way too, but I still won't forget how their relationship started and how Freckle used to try to escape from Ivy when she squeezed his hand tightly and forced him to her …
I'm not against Frepper, but I don't understand his fans who don't see these issues and who treat other points of view on their relationship (like mine) as … um, as nonconformity? Fans from reddit are just obsessed with Frepper, I don't know about other networks but that's how it is on reddit, I think there are people who have my opinion but are afraid to say it because of fans, of course, I met Frepper fans there who normally accept such an opinion, but still there is a feeling that such a opinion cannot be told
Simply put, Ivy and Freckle are a couple that will eventually break up with each other unless there's an event between them in the comic that changes my opinion of this couple, but that's how I feel about Freckle for now. I didn't plan to express my opinion, but it happened that way, I hope you don't mind it
first and foremost, i don’t mind seeing someone express their opinion in my inbox! you and anyone else are free to do so, even if i may disagree. this blog’s entire existence was made for me to share my opinions ( and love! ) for lackadaisy, as well as engaging with other fans, because what else is the point of a fandom blog? and as far as i’m aware, this is unpopular opinion central! most of my thoughts aren’t exactly the ones with the most voice behind them i’ve found, so i welcome all manner of different views. every fan is entitled to their own perspectives and opinions, and should be allowed to share them as they please! but with that disclaimer out of the way, i’m more than willing to discuss frepper in its entirety.
for me, there’s little confusion i carry where it concerns this ship’s popularity amongst the fandom. freckle and ivy, if we are to strip them down to their bare essentials, are a rather stereotypically ‘cute’ relationship : people enjoy opposites ( see zibwick or vikdecai for example ) and there’s an endearing quality found in puppy love dynamics. seeing ivy wear the pants and drag a shy freckle around by his ankle makes for quality content in a way! think the ‘excuse me, but he asked for no pickles!’ meme … ivy and freckle very much fit that sort of mold, and it helps that most fans are too scared to ship them with other characters in the cast too, due to what they perceive to be a lack of options. thus, frepper is an extremely ‘safe’ ship! you cannot get in trouble for enjoying something that is not only canon, but is relatively adorable ; and so i don’t believe a lot of the fans are actually thinking too deeply about the likely endgame of it all. most don’t! it’s fun to ship, and that’s all they really need i think. it’s also very easy to dismiss ivy’s forwardness as a quirk of being a young girl who’s of her temperament, recklessly boycrazy although still carrying sweet intent. this behavior is easier to hand wave when neither ivy or freckle are experienced at the dating scene as well … freckle due to his extremely religious upbringing and hermit nature, and ivy because of viktor’s constant meddling, which would hold her back more than you’d think. with that said, i don’t think any of this is excessively complicated. some shippers are rather simple minded and do not care for details and characterization all too deeply. enjoying dynamics is, at its core, supposed to be fun -- which makes simple ships like frepper prime targets for a very vocal and tight knit fanbase. there are other things i could speculate about why these two may hit so pleasantly for others, like how there’s an underlying queer theme to it ( what with ivy being the pursuer and freckle the shy, blushing flower ) or that it’s tropey enough to hit the right spots for others … though it all boils back to mere speculation. perhaps they still have time to escape this gangster lifestyle and live happily ever after? and that appeals to the lackadaisy fans who still want some sort of happy ending? it’s all a combination of frepper being easy, i think, and containing two young cats who still haven’t done anything particularly ‘unforgivable’ yet action wise. this is a ship you can root for without an ounce of worry in your heart, and so on and so forth.
but although i understand why others are so vocal about them, i don’t exactly agree with fanon’s views either! while i heavily enjoy frepper, i enjoy them as they are, and that includes their looming flaws and inevitable tragedy. they are bound to break each other’s hearts a lot on their current path ; even if they were entirely perfect for one another, this lifestyle isn’t kind to anyone, meaning if they don’t separate, they could always be forced apart via bullets and such anyway. they are young and woefully inexperienced in a manner of things, the last thing they need is the stress of a rumrunner life driving their every action, you know? i know people see them getting out together, and that is likely on the table! i do see that in many ways, but i’m also of the opinion that ivy and freckle will diverge onto different paths at some point and temporarily call it quits. from where the comic currently stands and given my view on ivy’s arc, i see her growing disillusioned with where she is and the honor and fun she saw within it as a royal spectator will fade ; she will become wary, fearful, and her resilience will die … meanwhile freckle will embrace it, similar to his cousin, fully understanding what it is and what he’s getting into ( like rocky, again ) but being unable to leave his refuge. i know lots of people think freckle will leave the lackadaisy first, but given his old concepts and former title as one of mitzi’s ‘trouble boys’, i think he will become lost in the sauce for a myriad of reasons. frankly i enjoy that twist on their relationship! since i believe ivy’s character development will revolve around maturing, changing as time stretches forward, because her character is ever growing, what with her entire schtick being the fact she’s everything a 1920s girl was during those times. she embodies that unladylike youth and manipulative sweetness, so i’d imagine a lot of her path is falling from such naive thrill seeking and stumbling upon a harsh reality. she will mature, and the very thing that should make their relationship stronger will be what divides them indefinitely. everything they have is founded on this bloody, varnished soaked ground after all … they are young adults who are experiencing what closeness feels like outside of family or platonic friends for the first time, so naturally they will overindulge in their own amateur games ; find respite in the boogie and kiss like couples do on the silver screen, laugh about it, talk about everything and nothing at all … relish in each other’s warmth and stupidly loyal protection. i’m sure frepper will grow closer before any falling out, because as it stands, it’s one of the few things they have in such a scary situation that feels comforting and kind. they will impact each other in the fundamental ways first relationships do and, to move towards your biggest gripe, do things they’ll regret or allow things to happen to them that they’re not entirely okay with.
ivy is very forceful with freckle initially, albeit in her typical saturated way ; and i can see why that would be hard to parse! especially when freckle spends a majority of their first scenes together squirming away and hiding, trying to duck her affections and bolt for it. there is a lot of boundary crossing between them! but not in a necessarily malicious way … like most things with frepper, this circles back to their mutual inexperience and how, in a lot of ways, this is their first ‘serious’ romantic relationship ever. and it’s rather common for such firsts to involve gray areas, since neither party is entirely sure of what their own boundaries are just yet! while freckle did appear frightened by ivy at first, it’s important to note that tracy’s mentioned him having a flight response whenever girls flirt with him … he is prone to run away instinctively, which if you consider his extremely religious upbringing, isn’t exactly a surprise. nina would no doubt look down upon freckle engaging with girls his age due to what most girls his age are currently doing in the roaring 20s they’re living in. sneaking out and engaging in illegal activities, dancing in a way that would disgust most of the more traditional and older generation, casually engaging in any manner of sexual activity before marriage, etc etc. and this isn’t even listing freckle’s cagey nature due to an incident we know was bad enough to send rocky packing for years, and fundamentally changed freckle himself at such a young and impressionable age. he is … very troubled! and rather scared of himself and the world around him … at this stage in life, freckle is perpetually unable to make any progress towards anything he may want, and so i have little problem myself with ivy mostly taking the lead. when left to his own devices and allowed to choose outside of influence, freckle did in fact sneak out of his mother’s house to go to the lackadaisy, surely well aware that ivy’s intention had been romantically inclined. so, to me, he has always liked her ; perhaps found her cute, in a shallow way, saw her eccentric behavior as endearing and frightening in equal measure, and while he’s still wading into this whirlwind pool unsteady and shaken, he -- wouldn’t mind it if ivy pushed a little more, or moved him around to her ( and what she perceives to be, their ) liking. perhaps this dynamic is familiar enough to him that it becomes comforting, since rocky was very much the same way in their adolescence. tugging freckle around and pulling his tail for whatever rocky wanted them to do, with little care for whatever his baby cousin desired at the time, ignoring his protests and chasing him ; nobody’s at fault here either, kids are extremely self absorbed and this is a flaw they’ll usually mature past, and while ivy and freckle are adults during the comic, i don’t think ivy’s outgrown this linear view on things just yet. she is extremely entitled! she is used to being the apple of everyone’s eye at the speakeasy due to her jazz baby status as atlas may’s goddaughter, and this gangster connection excites and awes the ladies she attends classes with at her university too. ivy pepper is used to getting her way and this has only fueled her determined attitude, her ‘pull it up by the bootstraps’ mindset, and in many ways, this is something of a flaw for her. it’s not bad to be confident and headstrong, although when you add that into a dangerous mix of rumrunning and gunslinging, it may become a problem rather quickly. but i digress! point is, ivy and freckle are hardly at fault for the awkward way they handled the start of their relationship, when it’s so new and fresh to them both.
neither of them have boundaries at this moment, as they either have no clue what those are or simply haven’t realized they should set them. so, in turn, there are things that the other may do that could cause their partner discomfort … and it’s mostly done out of obliviousness and good intentions and your classic dose of intense affection. doesn’t mean it isn’t messed up to a degree, but i think it’s rather realistic, and is a hard truth that comes with many first relationships of that sort. sometimes you don’t know how to say ‘no,’ or you agree and regret agreeing later, or perhaps you simply don’t understand there’s certain things you aren’t ready for or genuinely just don’t like. again, it’s a very muddied area, and the two of them are vaguely navigating what is mostly foreign to them. they’re bound to mess up! so i ivy some slack here, and applaud tracy on the realistic writing more than anything usually. young love also happens to be a great device to use for inexperienced characters finding themselves, through the good and bad of their relationship, and frepper is all about that. maybe freckle will inevitably bring up how he feels like he would’ve preferred it had ivy asked him out properly, or gave him time to court her in a traditional fashion … and she will be surprised ( and a little wounded ) by this, since she had never considered it before … too used to her way of things to realize there’s another path they could take. i think this aspect of the relationship is important, and i can understand wishing that more frepper shippers would view it as such, or comment on it's morally gray nature without just calling it ‘cute’ and leaving it at that.
tldr : they will most certainly break up at some point, maybe even multiple times! tracy has said before that they both have some serious maturing to do if their relationship is to be long lasting, and i doubt that maturing will happen to them both at once … since they have different things to work on emotionally. but they will probably strongarm some major personal development within each other, as well as love one another with a fierceless abandon that most kids do. i could see them getting married, i could see them not, but i agree that if they were to be wed happily, they’d have significant hurdles to overcome. but personally, frepper is something i adore mostly due to the impact they’re bound to cause each other, and even if they are to separate and find someone new and more fitting, they’ll always remember one another -- perhaps fondly, and sadly, and with some anger. a time they’d like to forget, but a person they’d like to remember … which is my cup of tea overall! they much more interest me as they presently are anyway, where i can fiddle around with their budding romance and friendship bonding. and as lackadaisy grows in popularity, i do hope there’s more frepper fans who see their complexity and flaws and explore them with all of it in mind.
anyway! i hope this was coherent, and that it was obvious that i agreed with you for the most part. i haven’t really talked about frepper before with anyone so many of these thoughts sort of burst out of me! and i feel like i have more to elaborate upon, but for the sake of simplicity i kept this short. oh well! surely this is enjoyable and informative regardless.
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Tell me you love me (even if you’re lying)
Eddie doesn’t want to remember a time before Chrissy Cunningham. He knows that time exists, has nightmares about the crippling loneliness, but in his opinion, his life started on the day of the middle school talent show. The day a small framed blonde girl with pom poms the size of her head watched in awe as he bounced around the stage with a buzzcut and Wayne’s beat up old guitar. Afterwards, Chrissy told Eddie how much she loved the show and how badly she wished she could perform like that. Eddie in turn told her how incredible her routine was with a mock of how her tiny hands managed to shake around the giant pom poms. She laughed, he smiled, and they had been best friends ever since.
They don’t always do everything together, now that they’re in high school. Chrissy is a cheerleader, so naturally she spends a lot of time with the rest of the cheer squad while Eddie is busy herding his little lost sheep. It’s no secret they’re friends, though. Chrissy co founded Hellfire and one is rarely seen walking into school for the day without the other. Eddie even sits in the bleachers during cheer practice so he can drive her home most days.
When Chrissy starts dating Jason, things get more complicated. She does her best to keep the jocks off Hellfire’s back, but with the rise of satanic panic it’s getting harder and harder to make him sit down and shut up when Eddie rants atop lunch tables. And if Eddie acts up a little more than usual as a form of disapproval for her choice of partner, well that’s between him and his gods. Which is not to say he’s passive aggressive about it. He’s voiced his opinions on Jason very clearly, many times, but Chrissy’s in a tough spot and he knows that. See, one too many longing glances towards a certain lanky soccer player with unruly shoulder length waves and a penchant for long ramblings had landed her in the hot waters of some scandalous, but not untrue rumors and it was only a matter of time before they got back to her parents. Her extremely religious parents. Eddie had offered to be her beard, naturally, but Chrissy wasn’t sure what would be worse in her parents eyes: their daughter being attracted to women, or attracted to the person they had referred to as “that no good Munson kid” for as long as they’d known each other.
They’re forced apart by Jason, in some ways. They see each other less in the halls, Chrissy stops coming to Hellfire meets, Eddie can’t even set foot in the gym during practice without jeering and insults flying his way. He never blames Chrissy, though. She still finds ways to spend time with him. They still drive to school together, they sneak off to their table in the woods after practice before Jason has had a chance to clean up and whisk her away. Any moment the two of them can spare is given to each other.
About two months into Chrissy and Jason’s relationship they steal away to their spot, but Chrissy seems off. She’s sullen and quiet, no trace of the girl who killed an entire adventuring party in three rounds of combat with a smile on her face to be found. Her silence speaks volumes, so Eddie fills the space between them by telling her about his day. He had a test in math that he’s almost certain he failed. All of second period he spent planning a one shot he’s sure Chrissy will love. Oh and he skipped English again, pretty sure he’s going to fail the semester.
That works to get her attention for a moment. She looks worried, says “again?” and her eyes drop back down to the carving of their initials in a little heart on the table. Eddie watches her as he rolls a joint. She traces the carving with the tip of her finger with that look on her face that means she’s deep in thought. Eddie lights the joint and passes it to Chrissy straight away. He can see some of the tension in her shoulders unwind from just one hit. A moment later and he knows she’s ready to talk.
“So, you’re awfully quiet today, Chris. What’s going on?”
She sighs and barely looks up at him. “I don’t know, Eds. Do you ever feel like you’re losing your mind?”
“Come on, you know I do. Are you okay? You know you can talk to me.”
“I know. I just-“ She sighs again and takes another hit before passing the joint back to Eddie. “I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”
“Do what?”
“This! All this lying, pretending to be someone I’m not. I’m just so tired and no matter how hard I try, I'm still not the person everyone thinks I am.”
“Chris,” Eddie hops up and over the table to sit next to Chrissy, wrapping her up in an embrace. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“He told me he loves me,” she says. It’s not joyous. They don’t celebrate. Her voice sounds deflated with a sense of doom. Eddie doesn’t speak, just lets her ride out her emotions. “He told me he loves me and I obviously don’t love him. I have to be a completely different person just to be around him.”
“Jesus H. Christ after two months? How good of an actor are you?”
“Too good, apparently,” she mumbles. “He tried to have sex with me, Eddie.”
“What?” Eddie shouts, springing to his feet. “I’ll fucking kill him.”
“No, Eddie, stop. I said he tried. Look, as big of an ass as he is, he is technically a gentleman. I told him I wanted to wait until marriage and he respects that.” Eddie seethes and paces around the table. “It’s just… what if he thinks that means I want to marry him?”
Eddie stops dead in his tracks when he sees the look on Chrissy’s face. It’s like he can see a full life lived in the creases between her brows. A life full of lies and disappointment. “Chris,” he starts gently, “if this is too much for you, there’s no reason you have to stay with him. Haven’t you proven your point?”
“No, Eds. Even now I hear the rest of the squad whispering about me. They think because I haven’t sealed the deal that none of it means anything. And I mean, they’re right. Even if I pretend it’s about ‘purity’ or whatever bullshit, I can’t even tell him I love him.”
Eddie settles back next to her on the bench. “What about me?”
“What about you?” she asks.
“Do you love me?”
“Of course I do, what kind of question is that?”
“Just- listen, hear me out. So he’s a douche and telling him you love him feels like drowning-“
“How did you know?”
“I know you, Chrissy. I’ve known you for years and I actually love you. Just like you actually love me. So just pretend when he says he loves you, that he’s me, or at least pretend it’s me you’re saying it back to, not Jason fucking Carver.”
“I don’t know, Eddie. You two couldn’t be more different. How am I supposed to imagine Jason is you?”
Eddie hums his agreement. Silence washes over them again as he holds her trembling frame. He offers her his ringed hand, knowing she takes comfort in twisting the costume jewelry around his fingers. In turn he plays with the green scrunchie she wears on her wrist when her hair isn’t up in her signature high pony. He takes it off her wrist without a word, grabs his bandana from his back pocket, and rips a piece of it off.
“What are you doing?” Chrissy asks, eyes wide. Eddie doesn’t say anything as he takes the strip of black fabric and ties it around the scrunchie in a little bow and puts it back on Chrissy's wrist.
“There. Now you’ve always got a little piece of me to say ‘i love you’ to.”
Chrissy looks at her wrist and laughs. The sound is like sunlight, a golden melody that brightens her eyes and fills Eddie’s chest with warmth. It’s so wholeheartedly Chrissy that Eddie can’t help but smile.
“I love you, Eddie Munson,” she says, catching her breath.
“I love you too, Chrissy Cunningham.” Eddie places a kiss to the top of her head and hugs her a little tighter.
A year later, when Chrissy dies, she’s still wearing the scrunchie with Eddie’s little bow. Eddie watches, unable to move as she’s suspended in midair and mutilated before his eyes. As much as he hates leaving her there, he doesn’t know what else to do but run. But first, he delicately removes the scrunchie from her hair and puts it on his wrist. He whispers “I love you” over and over, like a prayer as his van peels out of the driveway.
Eddie spends the next week on the run, his only contact being a 15 year old, the man Chrissy had spent years trying to convince him to just speak a single sentence to, and the girl Chrissy couldn’t manage to speak to herself. He isn’t sure if this is reality anymore. The world before Chrissy is a vague template for his nightmares. He never thought he’d have to see the after. It seems fitting that it’s the literal end of the world. And yet, somehow he survives. He not only survives, but now he has Robin, Steve, Nancy, and the kids that come with them. Eddie has a life he never thought possible without Chrissy.
When Corroded Coffin finally performs again, Chrissy’s scrunchie finds its way onto the fretboard of his guitar. The guitar Chrissy gifted him before their first ever show, his pride and joy, a little piece of her he’ll never give up. He dedicates every show to her, and whenever he looks at the little green scrunchie, he can hear her words clear as a melody.
“I love you, Eddie Munson.”
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