#goosebumps Isabella

[there-are-many-ways-to-smile]

This scene is so funny

[kal-derash]

On the 2nd episode of Goosebumps (2023) and so far Lucas is my least favorite character. And I completely support Isabella going off on him. I'd pissed too if some dumbass broke my stuff, offered 5$ a week, and then posted the video off him breaking my drone for shits and gigs.

[thatmultifandomchick]

Margot: We've been conducting an ongoing study to see what Lucas will and will not eat.

Isaiah: Grass? Yes!

Margot: Moss? Yes!!

Isabella: Leaves? Ohh, yes!

James: Shoelaces? Strange but true!

Isaiah: Worms? Sometimes!

Margot: Rocks? Usually nah.

James: Twigs? Usually!

Isabella: James’ cooking? Inconclusive!

Mr. Bratt: How did you... test this?

Margot: You just hand him stuff and say 'eat this' and if he eats it, he eats it.

Mr. Bratt: ... I don't know how to feel about this.

Nora: IS THAT WHERE ALL MY SPARE SHOELACES WENT?

[cannotthinkofanaccountname]

We supposed to pretend all that shit didn't happen?!

[marblearkz]

my friends, the haunted housewives of port lawernce polycule has just dropped

[rebelcracker-s]

every iconic horror trio needs:

a pure homosexual who just wants to be loved

a badass sapphic who takes no shit

and a guy who fluctuates between actually being smart and having 0 brain cells

[mcufan1066]

Yes. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

[maacchia]

Finally some good hatergirl representation

[reesiereads]

Isabella and the Mask (Goosebumps 2023 Analysis 2/5)

So for anyone who has not read my first post I highly recommend checking that out. The jist of this analysis however is that I am attempting to show the symbolism in the new Goosebumps show behind each haunted Biddle object and the connection of each object to each kid.

I’ve already talked about Isaiah so now let’s discuss Isabella.

(Spoilers below the cut, I seriously recommend watching the show first before reading. Trust me, it’s worth it)

Isabella is the point of view of the show’s second episode The Haunted Mask and in terms of symbolism is one of the most straightforward.

The Haunted Mask starts with showing us how Isabella spends a majority of her time: trolling her fellow classmates and leaving mean-spirited comments on their posts. There’s a vindictive sort of energy to her voice and facial expressions as she reads off each comment and stares down at her phone which completely fades the moment she runs into somebody else or attempts to talk to someone in person.

It’s implied throughout the episode that Isabella has some level of social anxiety. She struggles to raise her voice around others, apologizes unnecessarily for things that aren’t her fault, and in general conveys a rather anxious energy when talking with anybody that isn’t her family. The scene at the party where she sees Allison and her friends laughing and immediately grows self-conscious, assuming they’re laughing at her, is a prime example of this.

Now it’s also implied throughout the episode that Isabella has some anger issues (yes, even prior to her putting on the mask). The online trolling is a good example but there is also heavy annoyance in her tone and demeanor when dealing with Alan during breakfast as well as her snapping at Lucas for nearly running into her on the stairs, raising her voice around a person who isn’t her family for the first time on screen.

What’s interesting about Isabella’s first scene with Lucas at the stairs is that, while she seems frustrated, Isabella doesn’t seem genuinely angry until Lucas tells her he ‘didn’t notice her.” Her reaction to this line, particularly her facial expression, is a mixture of both hurt and genuine anger, as Lucas had unintentionally hit Isabella’s main issue right on the head.

See, Isabella is socially anxious, right? And Alan states later that she isn’t very involved when it comes to social events. This has inadvertently led to Isabella bleeding into the background, nobody knows who she is. Isaiah even states they’ve had classes together for years but he doesn’t know a thing about her, not even her name.

Except nobody truly knows her at home either, except perhaps her kid brother. Her Father is never home and her Mother is a nurse. It’s implied her Mother isn’t home very often either and that her Mother jumps very quickly to disciplinary action without fully hearing her kid’s out or connecting to them emotionally.

Isabella is invisible both at school and at home and this fact has caused her to grow resentful

It’s obvious both in her vindictive comments and actions to her fellow students and her Mother that Isabella heavily resents the people around her for how isolated she feels. When speaking with Alan she states she can’t go to the party because “no one knows who I am there. I’m literally invisible to them” in a tone that implies she believes it’s their fault. Alan challenges this by asking her if it’s possible she’s alone because she never joins in, which is what goads Isabella into going to the party.

Unfortunately, her social anxiety kicks in as soon as she walks into the Biddle house and leads her straight to the mask.

The Biddle mask works like this: It can whisper in the minds of it’s targets and once worn begins to drag out a person’s worst feelings and impulses. This effect is kept in place even after the mask is taken off and it seems to leave it’s targets in a sort of emotional trance. The mask also begins to fuse to it’s targets face and body once worn, though it can be pried off by the wearer with enough force. It’s also implied the mask has some sort of persuasive thraw about it that lures in it’s victims and convinces them to wear it.

Now the mask brings out three main reactions from Isabella: Confidence, Vindictiveness, and Violence:

It’s immediately apparent that Isabella gained a social confidence after putting on the mask at the party, going up to both Isaiah and Allison to dance around them and in general walking with a purpose that she did not hold originally. However the behavior continues the following school day, as Isabella holds a conversation with Isaiah that previously she seemed unable to manage. She’s speaking up to other students now, correcting them and holding full conversations. Her social anxiety hasn’t completely gone away as we see her struggle to speak to Isaiah when he first approached her and struggle to advocate for herself and her frustrations with Lucas and Colin, however there is still a markable difference in behavior.

The vindictiveness and violence on the other hand are radically apparent. While Isabella had already had a vindictive streak her anger begins to show far more apparently, exploding out of her in a way she quite literally can not control. Her original shouting at Lucas echos her original anger in the stairway however when the mask goads her in the office it’s very obvious she is acting out of character, digging into both Lucas and Colin’s insecurities directly to their faces the way she typically does online. She later forcibly walks Alan out of her room and then tracks down Lucas to violently beat him up, sent on a rampage by the mask that seems wildly out of control and erratic, nothing like the small bursts of anger Isabella had showcased previously.

She’s so lost in her own rage at her Mother that she ravages their home and almost attacks Alan.

The message for this episode seems about as clear as the last one: If you allow your anger and resentment at others to fester, only expressing it in small petty ways rather then properly communicating, you are eventually going to explode and there is a high chance people you care about will get caught up in the blast.

[there-are-many-ways-to-smile]

She’s just such a badass

[matrixian]

Isaiah : Which one of you was going to tell me that tea tastes different if you put it in hot water??

Colin : *spits tea out* HEH??

your putting it in cold water..?

Margot : Isaiah, answer the question Isaiah.

Isaiah : Yeah?? I thought for like 5 years that people just put it in hot water to speed up the - TEA-IFICATION process, didn't realize there was an actual reason..

Mr. Bratt : You don't have the patience to microwave water for 3 minutes??

Isabella : Why are you.. Putting it in the MICROWAVE to boil it??

Mr. Bratt : do you think I have the patience to boil water on the stove??

Isabella : IT TAKES LESS THAN A MINUTE

Mr. Bratt : IS YOUR STOVETOP POWERED BY THE FUCKIN SUN???

Nora : HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR YOU TO BOIL THE WATER ON THE STOVE??

Mr. Bratt : like 7 minutes!

James : Just stick the mug on top of the stove on medium heat.. And it boils in like two minutes.. Less than that is to use a SAUCEPAN

Lucas : YOUR PUTTING THE WHOLE MUG ON THE STOVE?? ON MEDIUM HEAT?? YOUR STOVE IS ENCHANTED???

Ben : every single person in this place is a fucking lunatic..

Kanduu : DO NON OF YOU OWN A FUCKING KETTLE??!

[captainimfangirling]

What I love more about Goosebumps is that hey slowly introduced Lucas and Isabella. If they were fully introduced in the first episode it would've been way too much. At first I thought Lucas was annoying but he became my favorite character.

[thatmultifandomchick]

“Nice argument. Unfortunately,”

Nora: *blocked*

Isaiah: I disagree

Harold: I'm literally neurodivergent and a minor

Allison: minor spelling mistake

James: Karen

Isabella: KYS

Lucas: your mom

Colin: I fucked your mom last night

Kanduu: I am inside your walls

Margot: *types up an actual counter argument*

Mr. Bratt: *types out an entire essay*

[blues-valentine]

I still prefer Margot and Lucas on Goosebumps rather than Margot and Isaiah. I don’t know if it’s just me but they don’t really have romantic chemistry so it’s very hard to read their scenes as romantic. There’s not natural spark in there. And to me, not matter the trope, it has to have some chemistry, otherwise it doesn’t work. The last speech when Isaiah was in the hospital just gave me best friends and not like you’re about to lose the person you’re in love with. The break up scene between Lucas and Margot had more angst than that. They need to fix that to make their romantic relationship believable later on.

And it’s the fact that the childhood best friends to lovers trope is a hit or a miss because most of the times the audience just has to accept by the narrative that they “know each other” and is often a whole tell don’t show situation. Aside from them knowing each other from when they were kids – I still don’t know why they like each other if not by familiarity or the need to explore a potential relationship. Like I am just supposed to accept the history that we don’t experience with them on screen. I was expecting them to give me some buzz the whole season but didn’t. Margot and Lucas probably won’t be endgame but I hope they get a better closure.

[demisexualwriter1987]

I LOVE the new GOOSEBUMPS.

Lucas and Margot are my OTP

Side note: I do NOT hate Isaiah but I feel like Lucas has more chemistry with her and I feel that with Isaiah he needs to learn the essential lesson of “when you put a toy aside don’t think that it will still be there when you come back to it”

Also there’s one thing about the show that irritates me a bit.

I want some WLW representation.

We have MLW and MLM but no WLW.

I know it’s nitpicking. But as a lesbian myself I want some.

[rebelcracker-s]

writing a goosebumps fic bc the fandom fucking deserves better 🫡 also it's marbella centered can i get a hell yeah for gay people

also i need goosebumps friends to yell at pls interact with me if youre interested :D