#it's also worth noting oliver is A BAD LIAR. and DOES get emotional and teary very easily.

[sweetpea-sprite]

i do think it's really fun how they consistently show oliver building a wall around himself whenever anything fucked up happens to him. he stays in his room for three days after allie dies and leila is so unsure of what to do she just goes into his room to leave him a slice of pie and leaves within ten seconds. he stayed in his room when he got bullied and had to be dragged out of it. when he discovers the truth about allie he stays in a coma and then within the coma IN THE ROOM.

even outside of his bedroom any time anyone's like hey you good he goes yes ^-^ even when it is blatantly untrue. right after he gets out of the soulsnare coma esther is like ARE YOU. OKAY. and he goes me? i'm fine ^-^. when you see alicia in the glittering grotto oliver swears to save her and esther goes "oliver..." and he immediately goes sorry everybody ^-^ and keeps moving. but the most insane example of this comes from dotdd and it's when he is GIVEN DEADLY POISON AND COLLAPSES IN THE STREET AND STOPS BREATHING AND WHEN HE WAKES UP AFTER BEING GIVEN AN ANTIDOTE EVERYONE AROUND HIM GOES HOLY SHIT, OLIVER, ARE YOU ALRIGHT, AND HE GOES haha i was just tired ^-^

the only time he doesn't do this is when he is actively in distress right at that moment. if he's not actively sobbing then baby he's completely fine you have to trust him don't EVEN worry about the tear tracks. actually coming back to this i lied the other time he doesn't do this is specifically to drippy (awww) when he's trying to convince him that we HAVE to break into myrtle's house mr drippy it's the only way because if you hadn't helped ME i would still be shut away! which isn't concerning at all i promise!

it's also worth noting that when the problem concerns other people this does not apply. again this is most noticeable in dotdd (because it's superior) but he has some small moments in wotww. he's also very blunt about other people. does not mince his words. recognised character trait. in dotdd it even nets him a nemesis. but HIMSELF? he gets genuinely pissed off at drippy referring to him as a crybaby and insists it's not true. when helping myrtle drippy even remarks on it as he asks if oliver is crying and oliver snaps at him that he wasn't and he says "so much for you being honest..."

it's just such an underappreciated character flaw of oliver's i think. world's sweetest least emotionally vulnerable boy