#it's a lengthly joke told without a punchline

[caroline-in-hr]

another long macdennis-related finale pre-angst post

me trying to consolidate (or maybe just console) my macdennis-related anxieties regarding the finale:

I’m not even concerned that It’s Not Going to Happen - I’m banking on that, honestly. I think my worry is unnecessary cruelty.

without knowing anything beyond promo material, and with the caveat that I have a track record of getting most shit completely wrong, I’d be incredibly surprised if RCG instantly pursued macdennis beyond the confines of the fake-dating setup. I said instantly for a reason - a possible setup could be dennis gently letting mac down, only for s13 to be mac discovering grindr, catching up on all the gay sex he’s missed, and dennis seething with jealousy covering up a lot of emotional cowardice.

but I feel like the setup would lead to a lot of unnecessary (perhaps unintentional, but we’ll make that call on wednesday night) cruelty if the entire possibility of mac and dennis Actually Having Feelings was summarily dismissed - “mac’s just obsessed with dennis because they’re close friends!” and “dennis likes mac, but just as a friend, he wouldn’t want to Sully Their Friendship!”

I can put up with a lot, a lot of bullshit. but I draw the line right about here.

I have no problem with romantic entanglements that begin as friendships quibbling over how much damage said friendship can sustain in the pursuit of non-platonic feelings. it was the entire basis of sunny fic 1, from dennis’ side of the story; it is something I’ve lived through, being a queer girl sorting through intense crushes on straight female best friends. I have no problem with friendships being given as much importance as romances - I encourage it, in fact.

my worry here is that the finale will prioritize mac and dennis as friends at the expense of a possible non-platonic narrative. anyone is free to argue that mac’s dreams about dennis in ‘PTSDee’ default to lust instead of love, and that lust is a different animal. my argument here also contextualizes ‘the gang tends bar,’ an episode that begins with dennis claiming people come to a bar on valentine’s day ‘because they don’t have people who love them or get them shit,’ continues with dennis’ passionate declaration of having ‘big feelings’ and sustained hurt over no one getting him a holiday present, and ends with mac getting dennis ‘the one thing he wanted more than anything else in the entire world’ - even if it was a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. dennis’ reaction is a maelstrom of Big Feelings.

in the world of television, with anywhere from 17-22 minutes of screentime ten times a year, an overt narrative is expensive. subtext is much cheaper, and for the past 11 seasons sunny’s made do with subtext to augment character, though not without noticeable breaks in the pattern (confirming dennis’ BPD in ‘psycho pete returns,’ having mac come out of the closet for good in ‘hero or hate crime’). it would be difficult to argue events related to mac and dennis as subtextual anymore.

I don’t expect their feelings (at the very least, mac’s more ardent affections for dennis) to go unaddressed in the finale. a fake-dating plot is more than enough segue for a real conversation about their feelings. what I do fear is for their feelings to be evaluated and immediately dismissed in favor of the status quo. my concern is dennis gently telling mac he would never want to jeopardize their friendship, it’s too important to him; mac’s only in love with him because they spend all their time together, and he’s not the right kind of guy for mac anyway. my concern is mac accepting this with only a token resistance, before accepting the offer of friendship and forgetting all about his crush on dennis.

one of my biggest appreciations for this ship is its deep roots in friendship. and again, from a more personal context, I understand the fear of ruining a friendship in favor of a romantic pursuit (again, literally why dennis ran off in sunny fic 1). but given the recent overt narrative taking great pains to illustrate not only mac’s feelings for dennis, but dennis’ reaction to demonstrations of said feelings, it would be some unequivocal bullshit to present viewers with the excuse of ‘oh, but they’re Better Off As Friends!!!’ instead of carefully disentangling plot threads. the finale can address dennis as feeling ‘not ready’ for a relationship with mac (especially with a kid on the line). the finale can claim mac should play the field more, exploring his sexuality openly instead of jumping at the first committed relationship within reach. the finale can address worries about what would happen to their friendship if something happened and they broke up - it’s a valid fear! - but it should address this, instead of jumping straight to ‘let’s just be friends’ without another thought.

addressing the situation offers plenty of opportunities to drop or sustain a macdennis-related plotline. it can carry over into the next season. it can filter out. I won’t pretend to know the writers (with the possible exception of #shitposting), and I’m fully cognizant of the show’s general penchant for never letting anyone get what they want, not generally entertaining romance, and being a dark comedy. I make my argument here in that it is unnecessarily cruel to take several years’ worth of subtext, stir in a rapidly-textual subplot, and at the end drop everything in favor of an unchanged status quo.