#richie is a nerd either way

[f4llingst4rb0y]

Yk how in the movies when the guy would spray some weird type of shit in his mouth before kissing a girl?

That's Richie but with sour candy spray before kissing Eddie

[mind-lost-in-the-stars]

a very minor thing about Richie’s death that’s bothered me for awhile now is how Pete and Ruth (I suppose Grace and Steph as well) don’t piece it together after it’s mentioned that Zeke the Fightin’ Nighthawk was murdered

clip for context

i will say that the digital ticket shows more remorse from both Ruth and Steph, but only after Richie is name dropped so yeahh…why didn’t they know Richie was the mascot when other people like Jason (and most likely Max) did? we also know him being the mascot isn’t a recent development after Max dies thanks to Jason’s “member of this team who’s gone unappreciated for far too long” line. that to me implies at least since the beginning of their senior year

a few ideas:

- he never told them because max threatened him is the theory that makes the most sense since “Jägerman doesn’t let nerds go to football games”, but this means he let Richie be the mascot for some unknown reason. was it to let Richie have a bit of happiness that Max still ultimately had control of. I don’t know, but it’s fun to think about

- it’s also very possible he never told them because he never had a reason to tell them, but Richie seems like the type of person to talk about the things that make him happy, and he clearly enjoys being zeke

-maybe max never knew, and Richie knew that if he found out that Max would beat him up for it, but this leaves the question of how Jason knows. if Jason knew and not Max, shout out to Jason for not being a snitch—love that man

- (take this one with a big ol’ grain of salt if u don’t like michie related things) there’s a chance that Richie being the mascot allowed him to see other sides of Max that weren’t just the bullying side which made Max grow on Richie even just a little bit. he of course wouldn’t want Pete and Ruth to know about this, so he kept that and him being the mascot to himself. Jon matteson mentioned once on a stream how out of the nerds Richie felt the worst about Max’s death and maybe that’s because he was (by process of elimination) the closest to Max in that group

- a sadder theory is that Pete, Richie, and Ruth actually just weren’t that close of friends. they all kind of just formed a group at a young age cause they were all labeled as nerds and sorta just stuck with each other through life cause they didn’t have anywhere else to go. I know it’s implied in “go, go nighthawks” that Richie being late to class isn’t abnormal, but for him to be missing for NEARLY THREE FUCKING DAYS and to have neither Ruth or Pete bat an eye either says something about them, something about Richie, but definitely says something about their dynamic as a group. (this is absolutely just theorizing about worst possible scenarios in no possible way do I see this one being the case)

I know it’s not a big deal like at all (and is a problem with a lot of other slasher media), but it always gets to me when characters move past the death of one of their best friends so fast just because a show needs to keep the plot moving.

*sigh*

either way, Richie deserved so so so much better and I hope he’s being held by Rei and Asuka in wherever the hell he ended up <33

[rodentchild]

Okay I know it's been a while since NPMD came out but here's my Richie Lipschitz hc: he's deaf or hard of hearing

This is both me projecting my own disability onto a character I like and reasonable due to how Jon played him

The over annunciation of his p's t's and r's is because of speech therapy and trying to fit in at a mainstream school

I know him being a superfan of anime is part of his nerdyness but I know lots of deaf/hoh people who love anime because it's guaranteed to have captions and lots of stuff either doesn't have them at all or is the shitty automatic ones

Falling all over himself as Zeke the Fightin' Nighthawk? He can't hear the music beat or anyone telling him what to do and it's so hard to see in mascot costumes he can't tell when someone tells him to get out of the way

I do think Ruth and Pete would 100% learn ASL or PSE for him

For sure if he had them that boy would have decorated his hearing aids with anime stuff

Probably like Ruth's headgear, his deafness would absolutely have him labeled a nerd and outcast by the school bully

Some edits:

Apparently in the audio commentary Ruth kept having to tell him he's being too loud when he's doing the Naruto run on the way to the Waylon house

It's in a reblog but he asks people to repeat things and he makes sure he's looking at them when they repeat it

[thejagermeister]

this might be a controversial opinion so i will preface by saying that max is one of my favorite characters in hatchetfield and i love him very much. however

i think some folks take parts of his canon characterization (namely, his emotional intelligence and the fact that he acts kinda sweet after the prank reveal) and their neurodivergent/queer/etc headcanons (which are perfectly valid! i am an "autistic trans girl max" guy through and through) and arrive to the conclusion that max wasn't actually that bad of a bully.

as in, he didn't bully the nerds for showing queer/nd traits, he bullied them for other reasons. but like. what other reasons would he have.

like sure, he flick-it tickets richie for being in his hallway, but that's because richie "stinks the place up," and max doesn't want that in his space. richie's self-proclaimed overactive sweat glands are either a health issue or a nd hygiene issue or a combination of both.

he targets pete because of the rumor that he has a small dick. some folks use this as evidence for trans pete (i wholeheartedly agree) but even if you don't consider it from that angle, it's still body-shaming.

ghost!max makes fun of ruth for daring to engage with her dream hobby in privacy. he makes pun after pun about theatre to rub it in. the whole point of bullying is to isolate people who are different, whether they're nd, queer, poor, people of color, disabled, etc...

the takeaway from the "difference between intent and impact" scene is that he uses his emotional intelligence and "inclusive" vocabulary to manipulate people, not that he actually learns anything about inclusion. he'd know what transgender means and would probably say he isn't transphobic, use all the "right" language, but then turn around and make fun of pete for his body.

the "bully uses victim's preferred pronoun!" memes are funny and i'm not trying to police anyone's fandom experience by saying you can't talk about max like that. softening his harsher traits in fanfic where the focus isn't on a max redemption isn't like, a crime. do whatever you want. but sometimes i get the feeling people straight-up forget the way he acts towards the nerds in canon.

to me, the appeal of a max redemption arc is that he goes from a terrible, cruel, arguably traumatized person, to someone who's willing to learn from his mistakes and make amends. not that he was already kind of an okay guy to begin with.

[rhondafromhr]

Max and Steph roleswap AU where Steph’s the school bully/self-proclaimed God of Hatchetfield High. She started dictating what everyone can and can’t do and who’s cool and who’s a nerd and whether Kyle can date Brenda (the answer’s still no, by the way!) to gain a sense of control. Solomon scrutinizes her every move and doesn’t let her do ANYTHING that might make him look remotely bad and affect his reelection prospects. Her mom dissapeared after winning the Honey Queen pageant (but as far as Steph knows she just up and left). She has absolutely no control in her home life and had to find it elsewhere.

Do you see my vision?? We’d get a sapphic Stephgrace version of Dirty Girl. We’d get Mariah as the villain. She’s the star QB. To impress the high school football obsessed voters, Solomon forced her to either do that or cheer. It turned out she was actually really good at it and she started getting praise and admiration for once (she also gets none of that at home). Between that and being the mayor’s daughter, nobody can stand up to her. Kyle and Jason are her lackeys. Kyle still gets punched in the face for calling Grace a two bagger. Max is around and he’s like “no, I agree with Steph, Grace is kinda cute” he gets decked in the face too because he BETTER not be thinking of asking her out (poor Jason has to carry them both out).

Max is still a jock, but he plays a sport nobody at Hatchetfield High really cares about (idk lacrosse maybe), so he’s more of a fringe cool kid. Not having the power over the school he has in canon, he had to find a different way to cope with his Whole Deal so became more apathetic and adopted a cool/tough guy persona instead. He usually manages to fly under the radar, but Steph does pick on him occasionally - she copes with Solomon constantly insulting her intelligence by doing the same thing to others and Max “I’m so fuckin’ scared of skele-uhns” Jägerman is an easy mark. Kyle usually joins in out of desperation for Steph’s approval. Jason will too, but only when the others pressure him into it.

Max needs to get his grades up or he’ll be kicked off the team, so he cheats off one of the nerds, gets caught and eventually asks them to tutor him. Doesn’t matter which one, pick your poison depending on which ship or friendship you want to be the Lautski of this universe. I’m gonna make it platonic and say Richie because I love their potential friendship dynamic, I love aroace Richie and I love treating friendships with the same narrative weight as romantic relationships. Steph says hell no, the Pasqualli’s incident happens and Grace convinces them all to plan the prank.

Of course, Steph wouldn’t fall for it like Max did. She realizes what they they’re up to almost immediately, but she’s still delighted. She finds it kind of funny and endearing that they thought they could scare her with cheap costumes and creepy music. She likes that they planned the prank to get her to change her ways because it means they still think she has the potential to be good. Then she falls and they do Grace’s bury the body plan, but this is the mayor’s daughter and the police can’t write it off like they do most disappearances in Hatchetfield so they’re hot on their trail.

Also, I’m losing it thinking about how powerful Solomon’s death would be. And how fucking scared Max would be during the summoning.

[randomsufff]

I’m back Michie girlies and this has been on the dome for a while but I’ve been seeing people mention it and at least one fic has executed this idea (“I once was his tutor” I salute you 🫡) but I need to just present this idea anyways because it has COOKED for a while-

I think it would be absolutely fucking hilarious if Max had started treating Richie the way he did Grace. Like the whole, dumb himbo act where he laughs real hard at non-jokes and tries to rizz Richie up as he’s going to class.

In my head- this is connected to the “Richie tutors Max” universe, so in my mind- Richies been helping him out and he’s been getting to know the guy, Max either: 1) eventually realizes how much of a capital P Prude Grace is OR (the funnier option I think) 2) Grace, in her want to get thoughts of Max Jäegerman out of her head, goes so far in the opposite direction that she somehow accidentally sleeps with a woman and is no longer “forbidden fruit” as Max puts it. (Insert side story of Grace battling internalized homophobia as she developed a friends-with-benefits turned maybe actual relationship with…. idk Deb or Alice or someone.) Cue Max looking at Richie and being like “I can totally seduce this nerd, my skills aren’t lacking just because I couldn’t get Grace.. this is 100% not me subconsciously really liking the dude and wanting to genuinely date him and knowing no other way to outwardly express this”

ANYWAYS- point is I need Max to try to flirt with Richie in that himbo way that he did with Grace-and I need Richie “This projects on thermodynamics… what the fuck are you talking about???” Lipshitz to just be constantly confused on what’s happening to him.

AND THEN when he finally realizes that Max is trying to get with him, I need Mr. Richie “has definitely never been with or slept with anyone and is just as unhinged and horny as Ruth (need I remind you she said Stephanie was the object of both their sexual fantasies)” Lipshitz to look at Max, really debate over it, before going “I may not have standards but I, unfortunately, have morals” and that he couldn’t do anything with Max since he was… well…his and his friends bully for years.

Boom, kick start the redemption arc that starts with Max just wanting to sleep with Richie but shifts to genuinely wanting to date him and trying to open up/clean up his act.

(Also- to add to that ‘“Dirty Girl Soup” Richie version’ concept that I’ve seen somewhere- I think it would be so fucking funny if Max’s equivalent to this, scandalous, forbidden, sexual fantasy was just Richie being the most supportive, understanding and healthiest boyfriend ever. Just accidentally fantasizing them in the most domestic situation ever (you know, because it goes against his Literal Monster persona). Like Richie’s, i don’t fucking know, holding his hand as they get coffee together and is just so understanding and calming when Max attempts to bully this fantasy Richie, and Max-who is just swimming in toxic masculinity (but is super ok in knowing he’s bi. As people say- he’s an actual asshole but he will bully you using your correct pronouns damnit)- is just like “NO, what are these feelings??? Why do I feel like this??? This is so wrong… but why does this feel… actually nice???” Yeah… funny shit)

[vilnmelling]

The Matthews-Goldstein-Lipschitz-McNeils

While I make some more alignment charts, voilà, here's my rendition of the Jon Matteson family tree!

Gary and Paul are brothers, and they have an older sister who my sister and I definitely didn't name after Jon himself. There's quite a big age difference between the siblings, with twelve years between Joan and Paul (Gary's somewhere undecided between there).

I've seen many people headcanon Gary as Richie and Trevor's dad, but I just canNOT see that man raising children. Plus, the surnames don't match up. Speaking of surnames, though, Gary changed his on his own accord, purely for his lawyer brand. "Gary Matthews" just didn't have the right ring to it.

Joan has three sons: Trevor, Richard ("Richie") and Daniel. Trevor and Richie are twins (Trevor is eleven minutes older, I don't make the rules). Paul used to be saddled with babysitting the trio, and as a result, he's very close with his nephews, even now that they don't need babysitting anymore. He's especially close with Richie. BONUS: Trevor is the reason Paul had to see Godspell at the rec center. Trev was in it, and he also thought it was awful (in a fun way).

Since Black Friday tells us two of Linda's sons aren't Gerald's, and Lauren has confirmed that Linda and Gary have had at least one affair, we put two and two together and now Gary's the biological father of Trent and Seaton. (Seaton was picked at random, and Trent being Gary's child was just obvious). Whether or not Gary knows this is up to interpretation. It's possible Linda's the only one who knows.

Wallace McNeil and Boy Jerry are brothers and the cousins of Joan, Gary and Paul. Wallace got the f*ck out of Hatchetfield the moment he had the possibility to. Girl Jeri converted Boy Jerry into such deep Christianity, but then he took it further than she ever had.

Due to Lauren confirming Linda and Gary's affair/s (whether it was a joke or not, I take that as canon now), Roman Murray and the Monroe family aren't a part of this family in any official, legitimate way (*cough* looking at you, Gary and his illegitimate children *cough*).

For reasons I hope are obvious, Wiggly isn't included either.

Now just imagine the family gatherings. Summer barbecues, where Trevor takes every opportunity to reference the Barbecue Monologues. Christmas celebrations that Boy Jerry is specifically asked not to show up to. He shows up anyway — even the time they didn't tell him at whose house they were celebrating. Birthday parties where no one has any idea what to buy the birthday person. What does Paul get Trevor the theater kid? What would Boy Jerry get Richie the anime nerd? What does anyone get Paul the Normal Man?

[fastboatsmojito]

Fastboatsmojitos Masterlist 🧑🏻‍🍳🫶🏼

☆ indicates smut, ☾ angst, ♡ fluff, ☼ suggestive

The Bear;

Luca:

Guess - one-shot ☆

Off days - one-shot ♡

I can see you - request/one shot ☆ ☾

I’m poison either way - part 1 ☆ ☾

Period comfort blurb/thoughts :p ♡

Dad Luca ! - blurb ♡

After work Luca thots ☆

And they were ROOMMATES - blurb ☆

Miss you <3 - blurb ☆

Bed Chem - Req/Blurb ☆

Carm:

Who will come into my kitchen and be hungry for me? ☾ ♡

Peace - sleepy carmy blurb ♡

Syd:

Nat:

Richie:

Marcus:

Bottoms;

Hazel:

Baking together - req/blurb ♡

Isabel:

Your braids like a pattern - req/blurb ♡

Twisters;

Tyler Owens:

If you fear it, ride it - blurb/req ☆ ♡

Just hot out - blurb/req ☆

Size kink thoughts - blurb/req ☼

Scott miller:

Scott thot-ish

Size difference - blurb/req ☼

Gym nerd Scott - blurb/req

Sleepy Scott Thought - blurb ♡

Literally just depraved Scott Smut - blurb ☆

Scott + casual dominance - blurb

Scott + Shy! reader - blurb ♡

Shameless;

New Girl;

[starcanwrecked-confessions]

A bit of a long one so strap in:

Not gonna lie I've seen some posts about Max x Richie that have ended up souring me on their pairing.

I liked the pairing at first, but I also can't really see past the bully/victim trope, especially because Max shows very little if any remorse for bullying the nerds all those years. The closest thing was when he was going to say that the nerds throw a good party, but then immediately turned back on that when he fell 3 stories. Not to mention that he chases and tortures Richie before brutally murdering him.

I do find it interesting to play with the transition of Bully/victim to Jock/Nerd, especially if Max did redeem himself and genuinely apologized, but I suppose I don't see that for him. And whether Richie lives or not, I can't see him putting aside the trauma he faced to date Max if Max isn't truly sorry for what he did to Richie and his friends.

I do see that for Jason and Richie though. Jason and Richie have a cute interaction in the musical before the football game, and Jason genuinely shows remorse for making fun of Richie for as long as he did. He even shows some hesitancy before Max dies (when he says "yeah!" when Max asks if he should let Richie off with a warning, and when he says "if [Steph]'s cool with [Pete], then I'm cool with him."). He also apologizes to Grace at the dance for making fun of her. I think Jason doesn't genuinely want to be a bully, but fears being bullied like the nerds if he pushes back.

But without Max there, he's free to be softer, more caring (consensual butt slaps for the win!), and more willing to apologize, maybe even try to make it up to the nerds. He may have hurt Richie and his friends, but I can see Richie seeing the more caring side of Jason and be willing to pursue a relationship if they both wanted. Heck, Richie called him and Kyle his "bros for life" after the two were genuinely nice to him and his friends for about 2 weeks so Richie is definitely willing to forgive.

I have seen a little discourse of pairing Richie with Max over Jason for other reasons (Jason's paired up with Grace later, potentially racial bias, but I think either way people be sleeping on Jason and Richie in favor of Michie.

I'm not here to ship hate though, these are just my opinions.

~~~

[spiraling-voids]

A lot of you liked my idea rant about Hatchetfield characters, well, I got more

More things I thought of for Hatchetfield characters

I like to assume that the eltric gods can’t do anything outside of Hatchetfeild. Like Bill Cipher in Gravity Falls, there is a barrier around Hatchetfield that prevents them. I can go on about this idea but that would make this idea go on longer than the others

Pete and Steph could’ve chosen to not watch Max and Grace. . .but there was definitely a part of them that was curious on how that worked

Pete and Steph definitely hear the LiB voices every now and then due to the fact they wanted Steph to kill Pete out of the three giving up what they cherish

I’m a huge sucker for ghosts that have the  injuries they received when they died, so imagine Max having a big ol’ bloody hole though his stomach cause he died with wood planks through the stomach. Stage wise, that’s probably a bit difficult to move around in. But story wise, he could-

So, let’s say that Steph and Pete would find each other in every timeline, imagine how shattered Steph would be the moment she found out that everything is messed up when everyone is singing and thinks she can exit the school with Pete until she hears him sing along

After Max died all the nerds were definitely still tense and cautious when things were changing because of how long they were getting bullied, sure they were happy but that’s a huge change in literately a day-

Officer Bailey was definitely a theater kid but due to careers not careering, he became a cop

Mark Chasity is a closeted or repressed Bi, with how that man acts the way he does, he is not straight…either that or he’s a theater kid or both

The two guys in TGWDLM were not Greg and Stu, instead just two random people and Professor was too deep into his musical and his memories to realize that

Richie or Pete could’ve fallen and become vengeful ghosts like Max but their targets would be different. Again, could go on but this idea would be long

If Paul 23 and Android Emma didn’t reveal they were the real Paul and Emma, they would both definitely catch on that the other isn’t completely human….well Paul would definitely notice stuff while Android Emma could probably scan him to find out he isn’t human

Alice definitely sneaks out to go to Hatchetfield, and neither of her parents knows cause she got cool excuses

[all-things-john-constantine]

If you’re trying to avoid NMT3 spoilers I discuss what we know from the readings and synopsis and a couple things that have been said about the lore.

Thinking about NMT3 (Miss Holloween and Orbweaver)(THAT’S WITHOUT DISCUSSING TOM AND BECKY AND THEY’RE HAVING A BABY! I JUST KNOW ZOMBIE STANLEY IS GOING TO TRY TO RUIN THEIR HAPPINESS! TIM AND GRACE!!?!?! RICHIE AND RUTH!! DISASTER NERDS GETTING THEMSELVES IN MORE SHIT! BILL AND CHARLOTTE!! CHARLOTTE MIGHT FIND LOVE!!!) and the Miss Holloway Musical. Specifically I think about how Duke is totally dying in Miss Holloween. There is just no way they’re going to give us a happy ending (Kim and Curt please have mercy on me with your acting the reading was painful enough i know the actual thing will gut me). I also think about how we’re also getting Macnamara back. It brings up all the questions and thoughts for me.

1. What was John’s reaction when he saw Wilbur for the first time after the portal was opened? What about when he realized Wilbur’s mind was gone and it wasn’t coming back? Did he try to bring Wilbur back? What made him finally give up trying?

2. Who is John’s husband? It could be Xander, but I’m leaning towards it being someone else. I just feel like the “i know what I have to do” “no don’t go in there John!” moment would have been bigger if it was, but it was mid Wilbur monologue so maybe it would’ve been too clunky to do more. We don’t tend to get super huge reactions to deaths in Hatchetfield shows so maybe that’s just irrelevant.

3. How old is Miss Holloway? She’s depicted in the black book. Does that make her as old as it’s author Willabella? I’m leaning no. TURNS OUT MEG LLOYD TALKED ABOUT IT BEING FOR ORIGINAL WORKING BOYS SCRIPT!! IT’S BECKY!!! BADASS WARRIOR OF LIGHT!!! We could have a moment where it just works out and it’s applicable anyways, but I think we can put that on the back burner and just consider it a depiction of her making the deal. I think if she was enjoying herself as a rockstar in the 1980s she might have just been getting used to her immortality at the time which could make her birth year anywhere from 1900 to 1950. Something about that doesn’t seem right either though. I just can’t get a read on her as far as her age is concerned.

4. How did Douglas Keane Sr end up in Wilbur’s crosshairs? Were he and Miss Holloway friends? He was probably investigating something Wilbur did as sheriff and got in over his head. I feel like whatever it was leads to the initial Holloway vs Cross death match in the starlight theater.

5. What happened to Casey and the three girls Miss Holloway couldn’t save? Is Casey one of the three girls? What the hell happened beyond the obvious hatchet men ritual involving murder and burying people alive to grow as trees in the witchwood forest?

6. Why did Ethan recite the magical hat speech Miss Holloway gives to kids to Hannah in Black Friday? Where did he learn it? He totally had a touch of the gift and needed Miss Holloway’s help at some point in his life didn’t he? I also love the idea of all of the people being targeted by the Lords in Black like Paul and Ted having a touch of the gift even though there is no canonical support for that.

Alright I think that’s all I’ve got for now. Feel free to share your thoughts. I’m clueless and usually not great at predictions.

[red-balloons-and-flashing-lights]

Losers Club Favorite Movies

This isn't about specific movies, but about movie styles

Bill: He likes psychological horror most. He can't take movies where kids get hurt tho (for trauma reasons),but besides those he completely loves it. Horror in general too, although he'll pass if it's way too gorey.

Mike: He likes the historical kind best. Mainly the ones ambiented in 1500-1900, and the war ones in general. He's actually a history nerd (and we love him for it).

Ben: His favorite movies are either romance movies or the ones based in true stories. Romance movies are more of a guilty pleasure, he won't tell anyone about this (besides, maybe, some of the losers). He likes watching movies based in true stories so he can investigate the facts later, and learn something by watching it :)

Richie: Horror. Literally any kind of horror, but mostly slashers. Before Pennywise happened, he really liked clown horror too, and even forced the whole losers club to go and watch Killer Klowns From Outer Space right when it came out (and then laughed at the ones who got scared, because that's the most Richie thing to do).

Stan: Not really a movie guy, he'd rather watch documentaries. Richie laughs at him because of this, but he's the first to shut up when Stan picks an interesting one. Which happens almost always, as Stan is awesome at picking documentaries.

Eddie: Scifi movies are his favorites. He likes thinking of the possibility of a more advanced future, with cooler machines and better technology. When he's 15-16, wanting to rebel against his mother, he starts getting into horror movies because he knows his mother doesn't let him watch those. That phase doesn't last for too long after Richie brings him a very bloody one... but hey, at least it's something.

Bev: She likes musicals best, but honestly she'll watch a little bit of everything. Horror? Awesome. Scifi? Why not. Historical? Cool. Romance? Yeah. She also likes watching bad movies as a joke, those movies you end up rolling on the floor because they're so bad it makes them fun.

[rhondafromhr]

More ideas/headcanons for the ‘Nerds Corruption AU’

Link to the original post for those who aren’t familiar: https://www.tumblr.com/rhondafromhr/738012368733356032/dont-get-me-wrong-i-love-max-redemption-arcs-in

-The LIB adopt their human forms after the first time Max, Steph and the nerds summon them and RELENTLESSLY make fun of their true/eldritch forms. “our real forms would melt your minds” yeah sure whatever you need to tell yourself Pokey

-Tinky tries to use having Ted in the bastard box as leverage against Pete, but he just doesn’t care because that’s not his brother, it’s some other Pete’s brother from another timeline so it’s not his problem.

-Once everyone in the group starts acting like an agressive bully the way Max does, Grace finds herself attracted to all of them and has a crisis over it.

-At some point Max tries to apologize for before (“sorry for bullying you guys all these years, you never deserved that, everyone we’re currently bullying does but you didn’t.”) Now that they’re all literal monsters too they just dismiss him like “don’t apologize, we get it now, the power trip is fucking awesome!“

-Max’s signature move of using anti-bullying slogans to justify and get away with bullying is their favorite. They always tell Max how smart he is for coming up with it.

-They decide Kyle can date Brenda now but plot twist! Brenda leaves him for Ruth. Ruth taunts him for this every chance she gets and purposely makes out with Brenda in locations where he’ll have to walk by. Cue Kyle sobbing in the bathroom while Jason comforts him, leading to one of very few sweet, wholesome scenes we get in this universe.

-Ruth is confident enough to perform now, which obviously means they need to sabotage the lead in The Barbecue Monologues so she can take the role. They either just straight up intimidate them into quitting or frame them for vandalizing the school and get them expelled.

-One day Pete randomly remembers the time Brad Callahan pantsed him and he and the rest of the crew just drop what they’re doing to go beat him up. When they get called into principal Blim’s office they tell him they did it because Brad was picking on Hannah Foster earlier (“what do you want us to do? Stand by and do nothing? Being a bystander is just as bad as bullying, we learned that at the anti-bullying assembly!”) Brad has been known to do that so he believes them and lets them off with a warning. When word gets around people actually do mess with Hannah a lot less.

- (already mentioned this in a separate post but I’ll put it here too) after graduation Max, Steph + the nerds run an anime/comic book store together and Richie’s the only one who knows or cares about any of it. He’s rude and condescending to customers, everyone else is not knowledgeable and completely unhelpful, Grace tells every customer they need to go read a bible instead. They have like 1.5 stars on yelp but stay in business because the next closest similar store is in Clivesdale so nobody’s going to go there

-At some point Linda Monroe comes in and sees the gang being rude to Becky Barnes, so of course she takes an instant liking to them. She becomes an investor in the store and sort of a mother figure to all of them. She encourages their bad behavior, giving them tips for manipulating people in a more sophisticated way. Max and Steph get especially attached to her (the three bond over their dad issues) and they go to her house once a week to drink wine and and hear all the hot gossip about Linda’s rich frienemies.

-When Roman finds out about Linda’s new investment he comes to check out the store and he’s as icy towards her as usual. True to form, Max, Steph and the nerds say the rudest, most out of pocket stuff to him (Richie goes after his appearance HARD, not realizing the irony that he looks pretty similar) and eventually he storms off. Linda’s touched that they stood up for her. She cries and tells them how proud she is. Max and Steph cry a little too because this is the first time a parental figure’s ever told them that. After this they become obsessed with impressing Linda so they can hear it again.

-Grace babysits Linda’s kids sometimes and Linda pays her an outrageous amount due to being so out of touch with regular babysitting rates (“it’s one banana, what could it cost, ten dollars?” energy). Grace refuses to babysit for Tom anymore because he can’t match these rates. One night he can’t find any other sitters, so he tries to cancel on Becky but she suggests they spend a night in with Tim instead, leading to some nice family bonding (okay there can be one more cute wholesome moment, I’ll allow it.)

-They’re rivals with Frank Pricely. They hate him because Toyzone cuts into their merch sales. He hates them back for stealing Linda, who used to drop thousands per week at his store. They always scheme to screw each other over. Black Friday doesn’t happen in this timeline solely because they pay Lex to destroy the entire shipment of wiggly dolls. This is also what gets them on the LIB’s radar, Wiggly is absolutely furious.

- (This one relates to the popular “Paul is Richie’s uncle” headcanon) At some point, Paul is at his wit’s end with Richie and makes him move out in the hopes it’ll force him to reevaluate his life and stop being so awful. He doesn’t just throw Richie out, he gives him a timeline and helps him find a place. But he’s not sure if he did the right thing. He mentions this to Ted at work and Ted says his parents did the same to him and he’s totally well-adjusted. Paul just gives him a look and says “Ted…no.” This is the catalyst for him getting involved with the group and eventually getting his own corruption arc.

-After moving out, Richie becomes roommates with Max and Ruth. Steph and Pete have a luxury apartment together downtown (Solomon pays for it because he can’t deal with her anymore and wants her out of his house). Grace has a two bedroom apartment to herself - she had a roommate at one point, but they got fed up and left. Luckily she can afford it with her cushy babysitting gig.

[24-guy]

Here's an idea for the michie enjoyers.

Last resorts.

Like.

Prom time is coming around and Max needs a date because duh doy he's the quarterback of course he does. But he either procrastinates or only asks grace - to which she declined thanks to bla bla bla plot - and ends up with noone.

Everyone else on the cheer team has already paired up with their respective partners. He's solo.

But turning up alone is worse than every other option. So he works his way down the chain of order.

Somehow everyone else has a date.

He ends up on the nerds.

He already knows Steph is going with Spankoffski - she was his first choice for friends to go with.

Pj and Reese are going together.

Even Ruth is going with someone.

Which leaves Richie.

It's not like he has anything personal against Richie. He's just sort of. Weird.

[all-for-geek]

The Story Max Jagerman Never Got to Tell (Silly Goofy things I think about if Max didn't die and had gotten a redemption arc)

So I like to think that he is very slow going at the whole being nice to people thing. Like outside of the main 5 he is still very much the Literal Monster, and even within the main friend group still verbally bullies them he just isn't physically hurting them anymore. As he learns and grows with them, he gets better. First learning to treat his friends on the football team better, and eventually tolerating the other nerds. He still slips up occasionally and says things in the moment that he regrets later, but he's learning to apologize when that happens.

I think once he finds out that the prank was Grace's idea, he is convinced that it was Grace secretly letting him know that she liked him back. He proceeds to start full on courting her: he walks to all her classes, he buys her flowers on special occasions, she even has special privileges to go to the football games (still early on in character development). One day when she goes, he introduces himself to her parents, and the Chastitys make it clear that no one outside of the church can date their daughter. So Max converts. Or at least tries to. He can never grasp his head around all the rules, and by the end of the week, he has decided that it's better if he and Grace are just friends.

At first, he mostly uses Pete as a free tutoring service. He's upset that Pete won't just let him cheat off of him like he did with Steph, but it doesn't even take Max that long to figure out why Steph is different. He makes Pete a deal that he will let him date Steph if Pete cheats for him. Pete talks him down to tutoring with the promise that if it doesn't work, then he will help Max cheat. It turns out that Pete is actually a really good teacher. Max also has certain learning disabilities (I'm gonna go with dyscalculia since we know he's in remedial algebra) that never went addressed since his dad refused to get him tested. Pete is able to show Max techniques that help, and once Max's head no longer hurts from looking at numbers too long, he begrudgingly admits that it's not so bad. Pete also notices that the halls are little quieter before and after Max's math class now.

He never really hung out with Steph that much before. They knew each other and flew in the same circles, but they never really talked before. Max definitely learns how not-okay his dad is by seeing how Steph's dad treats her. As they get closer, he starts getting madder and madder about how the Mayor talks about her. It takes a long time for him to reflect on what he's saying and realizes that his advice works on him too. Him and Steph start bonding over their horrible dads and help each other out when home gets to be a lot.

Ruth is the one that it is the hardest for him to vibe with. While the others he either finds something kinda cool about or can use, Ruth is...Ruth. He doesn't actively bully her anymore, but he doesn't go out of his way to be around her either. He does inadvertently teach her how to be cool though. It's not intentional, but he is less willing to put up with Ruth's whining about how unlovable she is than the others. One day, he starts yelling back to her that maybe if she wasn't constantly complaining about never having anyone around her, then maybe more people would want to be around her. The others call him out for being out of line, but it starts a path for Ruth about learning to be more confident in herself.

I think Richie is the first one to be onboard with the whole 'Max is suddenly chill with us' thing. He's seen enough anime to know a redemption arc when he sees one. He also has a more intense look on Max's growth being around him so much as the mascot. He's the first one to reach out to Max about coming over and watching some anime with him. Max is unsure at first, but Richie convinces him that Attack on Titan actual is really cool and has a lot of blood and guts and fighting in it, so Max agrees as long as Richie doesn't tell anyone what they're doing. Max actually does get really into it, but Richie notices that he seems pay more attention to the "found family" aspects and the character interactions than the fight scenes. He gives Max DVDs that he can watch on his own if he wants: a combination of shows and movies about sports, fighting, and some introspective character pieces as well.

Max also spends the most time at Richie's house than the others. Not necessarily because he prefers Richie, but because Richie has the most chill homelife (the Chastity's still bug him about coming back to church, Steph's dad reminds him to much of home, and Ruth's parents are convinced that he and Ruth are dating. Pete is a close second, but his weird older brother is over a lot, and Max just gets a bad vibe from him). He will just casually pop into Richie's window some nights and say that they are going to watch anime. Richie agrees obviously, but he also wonders what else is going on. It's only after a really personal episode of My Hero Academia that Max lets slip about his dad.

In short, Max Jagerman has so much potential, and it is a shame that he has been doomed by the narrative to never show it.

[th3b4dk1dzz]

One thing I find interesting about The Best of You is how off it feels.

And by that, I mean we've all watched enough of The Hatchetfeild Series at this point to trust a straight forward happy ending, and Starkid know it. So, while this Disney Channel Original Movie-esque number is playing, there's something unsettling you just can't place, and it's not just the tonal shift from the rest of act II.

It's the lack of familiarity with most of the prom attendees. And Jason is the only popular kid there.

There was an active choice to include Detecive Shapiro at the prom instead of Brenda or Bryce's nerd character seen in act I. Same for Officer Bailey and Kyle or Miss Mulberry and Stacy/Reese.

Also, I know Lauren, Jon, and Will's characters are dead at this point, but that doesn't change the fact that we've never seen these prom kids at this point. Not in previous musicals or nightmare times, not even in background shots of this show. (You could argue Jon's prom attendee is his drama student, but there's nothing to support that)

Maybe it's something poignant about being surrounded by strangers and adults. Or maybe it's to position Jason as the one on his own, like Richie was. Either way it's very well done in using audience anticipation to aid the atmosphere.