#brytz

[reggies-eyeliner]

ship so good you get a foot cramp

[thelaurenshippen]

Hiya Lauren! I remember a while back you reblogged something about mark being romantically involved with nearly all other queer atypicals and it did mention oliver/mark as unrequited and I wonder if you could elaborate a little more on that?:D I'm just curious:) You don't have to of course! Ty!

oh gosh, I WISH I remembered this - I don't reblog very much that isn't fanart, so I'm having a hard time recalling what post this would've been and what I might've said/added to it!

I don't think of Mark/Oliver as unrequited at all. That said, in The AM Archives specifically, we were not writing toward that ship - it wasn't the intention and we had no idea that Andrew and Kristian had that chemistry until we were recording the whole season all at once. And then we weren't sure if we were going to get another season at all! So there definitely was a period when I was more uncertain about it, mostly because it was unclear what the future would hold for any of the characters.

While they don't get together in The College Tapes, I do think that they very slowly figure things out in the months and years afterward. In the TCT planner (which is technically the last bit of canon that exists in the Bright Universe, in terms of timeline), there's heavy implications that they're living together - or at least spending a lot of time together - and I think all of us who made The College Tapes were thinking of them as a romantic ship when writing that show.

They both have buckets and buckets of trauma and unresolved issues (as did Mark and Sam - and their inability to work through it together/the way they first met and got together, etc. is one of the reasons they didn't ultimately work out) so I can't say what their future holds, but as far as I'm concerned, they're headed toward romantic involvement the last time we hear from them (or already there).

I hope that answers your question!

[ivymeadowzs]

and if im just thinking about how mark feels like broken puzzle pieces that dont fit together and oliver literally being INTRODUCED by saying he likes a puzzle and figuring out difficult things thats MY business

[npdclaraoswald]

Constantly rotating this line in my head. The fact that Mark actually talked to Oliver about Damien when he couldn't do that with Sam or Joan

[pinkninja236]

Breaker Whiskey episode 200 / The College Tapes episode 4

[bi-biscuit]

In my defense, I have no defense. I just. Wanted to do this.

[thenameless15]

whoever on the bright sessions team decided carly rae jepson was brytz coded was so real for that because they so are i'm crying

[transgenderoliverritz]

not to start posting Hot Takes but low-key i do not think oliver was the sole or even main reason mark/oliver as a couple did not and could not happen in the timeline of tct.

oliver is obviously not ready for anything, which is not (believe it or not) his own fault. arguably, he has started working on himself and recovery, but he was sidetracked by the whole. blackwell manipulated him into joining a cult and fucked up his feelings (because he KNEW the book would) so bad that oliver could barely think for himself until later in the series. and this is addressed, actually!! oliver knows what he needs to at least some extent and he's at least gone through the work of building up some support system and recognizing his trauma and needs. we know this.

mark, though. mark, in tct, presents himself as a healthier person. he's allowed to be closed off to oliver about the trauma they don't share because he's getting outside help for it (this is said while he is yelling at oliver for being closed off about the trauma they don't share).

mark's issue is that he views recovery as linear. he's not recovered, nor is he entirely emotionally healthy. he freaks out when he realizes he doesn't know everything about oliver despite trusting him immensely. instead of recognizing the manipulation and abuse oliver is going through, he blames oliver for getting himself into it and not telling anyone. i think this is a direct result of his trauma with damien, because he recognizes himself and he still blames himself for what happened.

i think that, yes, oliver at least needs to have some support established outside of mark before they can do anything. but i think he knows that, and i think the thing no one considers is how much more difficult it is for oliver to find that.

tct was oliver finding help and support. his ability is so far ingrained into his issues that he can't pull off what mark is trying with therapy. and while oliver would benefit from therapy and i think he should at least try to find someone atypical, what he needs more than that is other people. and tct is him finding those people (which is also why beck should apologize for being a dick to him).

but mark is so incredibly close to making the same mistake with oliver that he made with sam. and i don't think he realizes that, except maybe subconsciously, and he pushes oliver away. but i think the reason that this matters a little more is that mark is pushing all the weight on oliver. he thinks he's at a place where he's not the one who needs to put in more work before they do anything.

and because oliver is very likely aware, and mark isn't, mark ends up having to put more work in.

and quite honestly, i think if they both apologized (mark more, because oliver already did) and both just acknowledged the things holding them back. it won't take as long as fans tend to project.

you can in fact be in a relationship while you're still working to heal. which is ultimately why mark is the key piece here.

i don't know if all of this made sense, it's super early. but have a little ship analysis.

[punksrespectpronouns]

Mark: Oliver ... Why did you draw a pentagram on the floor?

Oliver: Your text told me to satanize the house before you returned.

Mark:

Mark: I wrote sanitize, Oliver.

[thewolfofnoneofyourbuiness]

My friends and I went through a period where we were receiving relentless anons trying to pick bad faith arguments about Damien and about Oliver and about like the entirety of TAMA. It got to the point where we’d turn anon off and they’d start sending paragraphs through our submissions. We’d turn anon off for a week, turn it back on a week later and be met with more anons within hours. Otherwise a lot of the toxicity we talk about was stuff that was being posted while TCT was releasing; a lot of liveblogs from Damien fans making fun of Oliver and calling Brytz toxic in ways that read as ableist to a lot of autistic fans. Most of us don’t have anything against Damien as a character just oppose a lot of popular viewpoints about him and the way he was written. I know we all generally try to tag posts abt all that as “tbs discourse” so that it can be blocked. I try just to block and move on when I see Damien posts that I don’t like but I’m not above making a vague post if I see the occasional take that annoys me lmao.

oh nono I am fully aware of the anon hate I saw y'alls posts about them (I just realised how very vague and barebone my original post was I'm sorry) and I'm so sorry that happened!!

I think I was mostly just thinking of the second part of you message, I haven't really seen people hate on oliver at least I don't think I did. Situations like these maybe me feel insane because I can't tell if the damien blogs deleted that stuff or if I'm just not looking for it hard enough.

yeah makes sense problem with me personally is that I feel like there's so little activity in the fandom that every one in a while I just kinda scope through the tags and even if I mostly disagree with someone I don't feel like I can because that means I'll y'know see even less stuff.

I'm sorry for writing so much with so little substance but thank you for reaching out

ALSO if you want me to take the post down please tell me!! I just assumed since it's an ask

[quippip]

[image ID: Two colored digital sketches of Oliver Ritz, and then a third colored digital sketch of Oliver and Mark. Oliver is a middle-aged German/Pakistani trans man. He has tan skin with short brown hair parted down the middle, and messy stubble on his face. He has dark brown eyes behind square glasses and a sleeve of science-related tattoos on his left arm. Mark is a middle aged Japanese-American man with olive skin and long dark brown hair that reaches his shoulders. He has a bit of stubble on his jawline.

1: The first image is of Oliver, from the waist up. He is shirtless, and gesturing to his chest. He has many small scars over his chest, but he is gesturing towards his top surgery scars with his other hand on his hip. He says, “Ironically, these are the only scars the AM didn’t give me.”

2: The second image is of Oliver from the torso up. He is wearing red flannel over a grey t-shirt. He is holding a blue pen in his mouth and biting the cap, looking up to his right in thought.

3: The third image is of Mark and Oliver kissing. Oliver has one hand through Mark’s hair, and Mark has one hand on Oliver’s chest. Mark is wearing a mint green t-shirt, and Oliver is wearing a light blue-grey shirt under a dark teal flannel. The tattoos on Oliver’s arm have all taken a pink hue.

end ID]

I decided it’s Hot Oliver Sunday, bc I love men and I love him. Also cleaned up a Brytz sketch I did a couple weeks ago so if you notice any discrepancies no u don’t. Also I like to think Oliver has tattoos bc he has fun transmuting the ink into different colors.

[happyandticklish]

Thinking about how Oliver is the only one Mark lets call him Byron.

[thelaurenshippen]

Have you ever discussed the reasoning behind having Oliver call Mark "Byron" when he dislikes other characters using that name?

I'm sure that I have but I cannot for the life of me remember what it is I've said! I know this is something that we've talked a lot about in the pals discord, and I've definitely said in there that I think Mark comes to love the fact that Oliver uses it.

there was a tiny little moment in an original TAMA draft where Oliver heard the name for the first time (literally the only evidence of the script exists as a screenshot in the pals discord, I cannot find the actual original draft) but I do think that the majority of this particular habit happened in between TAMA and TCT. and who knows what I've said before, but I like to think that Oliver would text Mark out of the blue with "BYRON" and then a long block of text and that's how Mark would know it was Oliver (who of course would change his number from time to time out of paranoia). but past me may have said something entirely different!

anyway, I just realized I'm not even sure I answered your question: I think the reason he uses it is because he sees Mark and instantly wants to stand out in his mind/get his attention, so when he learns that Mark has a built in nickname, he grabs onto it.

[ivymeadowzs]

parallels

[autistic-oliver-ritz]

[Image ID: A colored digital sketch of Mark Bryant and Oliver Ritz. Mark is a middle-aged Japanese man with olive skin and long, shaggy black hair with gray streaks. Oliver is a middle-aged German/Pakistani man with tan skin and short, brown hair with gray streaks. Mark has a little bit of facial hair on his chin, and Oliver has messy stubble all over his jaw. Mark is wearing a periwinkle t-shirt, and Oliver is wearing a brick red long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. They are laying in bed on their sides, smiling and blushing, and Oliver is wrapping his arms around Mark from the back. Mark is wearing a silver ring on his left ring finger. A speech bubble with little hearts indicates Oliver saying, "Good morning, Byron Ritz." End ID.]

hiiiii starting off this blog strong with some married brytz <3

[crookswithbooks]

Matching annoyed boyfriend icons.