#larry kinda represents an opposition to prism's whole railroad dm vibe in general

[taffy-glitch]

ok so. i apologize for blorboposting on main (just kidding i'm not sorry) but i've been having some Thoughts about Larry and Crimson and i just wanna try and put them to words and this is probably gonna be too long to post on the discord (big ole spoiler warning up to cpuk32/blue!!!)

So like. I find it very interesting that Crimson specifically chose Larry to be his "respawn point" in cpuk31/orange. Like, it makes a lot of sense from an in-universe perspective - Larry's shapeshifting ability is probably really useful for Crimson getting up to mischief, plus he knew from J0hn's intro that episode that J0hn and Larry (the two of them. together) were planning to get in his way. There's also the thing about Larry's deal with Cobalt, all of that. But I want to take a step back really quickly and think about the story implications of Larry and Crimson being stuck in the same vessel for the time being (with the preface that this probably wasn't specifically planned by Ryan, because a lot of the story is improv, this is just like. an observation)

So like. I feel like a part of Larry's character that doesn't get brought up as much (which, to be fair, a lot of the time you don't have to go further in your description of him than 'chaotic' and 'gay'), which is particularly highlighted in cpuk28/red, is just. idk how to word it aside from he just wants to be on good terms with everyone? And I don't mean in, like, a people-pleasing way, he just makes it a point to be friendly with everyone he's fighting against- chatting with Alabaster about how Juniper's doing, inviting Cupid to play backgammon, plus you've got little things in other episodes like the interaction with Twist and Chili's in cpuk17. Even with Cobalt, he refers to their relationship as a "rivalry" (which is. I mean it's something).

And this goes both ways- Folk even goes to him and J0hn for help at the end of cpuk31/orange even after the whole Sephiroth incident- and, I mean, it makes sense, right? Aside from a couple of... poorly thought-out scientific endeavors (he can be just a little unethical. as a treat) he's done mostly good in the grand scheme of things (the big things obviously being reviving The Grunk and defeating Doctor Order) (and not talking about the general, morally neutral chaos he commits outside of the tournaments) and is a pretty chill dude overall (not chill in a low-energy way but. y'know). We as the fans obviously love him, but he's also fairly well-liked in-universe because of that!

Now, you might ask, where am I going with this? Well, let's talk about Crimson for a minute. Crimson is, to put it bluntly, a rancid little bastard. Putting aside all of the possession stuff and killing The Grunk, like, he almost destroyed cpuk's dimension just because he wanted to see what would happen and because this dimension in particular was pissing him off (which, to be fair, there was a decent big of dimensional fuckery in season 1 that he probably wasn't happy with, but. that doesn't really excuse the fuckshit). And, understandably, most people strongly dislike him, because he hurt a lot of people and has shown basically no remorse.

But here's the thing. That was all up until cpuk32/blue. But in that episode, both Crimson and the audience learn something very important: that Crimson is the god of treachery. And that has to throw a bit of a wrench into Crimson's worldview, because sure, he's causing problems on purpose because he wants to, but how much of that is just because it's his "higher calling?" Would he be fine continuing as the way he was knowing that he was just doing what was expected, playing into Prism's plan all a long?

Now, again, consider the fact that he chose to possess Larry, specifically. And, despite the ways they're complete opposites, you can still draw comparisons between the two of them - J0hn outright says in cpuk31/orange that they're both chaotic as hell (also including himself in that). Regardless of what they actually think of each other, it's sure to be an interesting dynamic between the two of them, and I think that, if we do get to see the interactions between Crimson and Larry, they could have a real influence on where Crimson's character is going.

I'm not even saying I want a Crimson redemption arc, necessarily- I'm not sure what direction Crimson is developing in, but I do know that it's probably going to be. really interesting. And if he is going to get better, it would make sense that he's doing it while stuck with the Florida Man himself.