#cutheory

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Melvin and the Silent Diagnosis for a Brilliantly Broken Psyche

Hypothetical Diagnosis Insecurity masked with narcissistic tendencies characterized with compulsive obsessions driven by blatant autism, and no that is not an immature insult I test extremely highly for Asperger's myself Here's the Evidence: (I will state before hand that Melvin-borg is a completely separate character in my mind, and thus will not be included in this particular theory.  Melvin decided not to turn out like him, so they are canonically separate characters) He is obviously and frequently inspired by George and Harold, but his deeply embedded fear of rejection makes him dangerously bitter, and it doesn't help that everytime he breaks out of this protective shell, he is rejected or betrayed once again. It’s important to note that while he may be high-functioning (aka: Aspergers) he is still Autistic. That’s because Asperger’s is not a form of autism- it is autism. Period. And any kind of autism or mental attypicality left untreated can develop in to many, many other severe mental disorders, or, in general, make life a metric heck ton harder and complicated than it already is. I also need to confess that I test highly positively for autism myself as well as being an INTP female (Myers-Briggs Personality Test). Not to brag, but all that combined with my naturally creative nature makes me rare af, but it also means I can't communicate or handle stress #liketheothergirls, so that has lead me to being/feeling bullied and ostracized.  I also have anxiety and depression issue which run in my family, and mild insomnia, and may or may not be relapsing into an eating disorder. Paired with psychical problems like acid reflux and severe neck tension, health, whether psychical or mental is of uttermost importance to me.  It suffices to say, autism is not easy to deal with and if not taken care for properly a person, especially if not made at least aware of what autism truly is, it can truly ruin their life. Combined with the neglectful nature of his parents (at least in the books) I and many others in this fandom truly believe Melvin is at least autistically coded. Not only does this fit the archetype of his character but it also fits the theme of the books to a TEE. At its core, CU, of all things, is a children's book series, about living your best life despite not being “normal.” Even characters like the teachers or Mr Krupp who strive for “normality” are shown to actually have deeply repressed creativity, or, in some cases, deep trauma from their own childhoods. It suffices to say that I resonate deeply with Melvin. Say what you want about him or me, I was able to relate to him the second he spoke his first line in the second book. Sorry to turn this into a long vent, but I feel it is best to use myself to support this theory as well as harder evidence, even if it is mostly a means of self-therapy. To start, we both are obsessed with school even to a detrimental degree. Ever since head-start (Pre-K but a million times better), these "book-smarts" were the first thing I ever truly excelled at. When the other kids bullied (or as I now know as teasing) me, I would lose myself in a stack of homework or a book 2-3 grades past my grade level (this is before I drew or wrote as a main hobby). Similarly, Melvin is rarely seen without a book or gadget, just like me. We both over analyze things and hide our feelings. We both have intense crushes on others but are terrified to dare express them, or do but to nothing but awkwardness. We were both science kids, and fascinated by words and/or numbers alone (I still am just in a more artistic way). We both struggle to communicate and relate to others. We both have a unusual sense of humor and are highly observant of surroundings all the while missing what’s in front of our noses. We both have interests that quickly spiral into obsessions and dropping the obsession only when sick of it. We both practice similar forms of stimming. We both not only thrive but crave control and structure with the world around us, even to the point of being "control freaks" and creating odd habits, routines, and rituals regardless of whether they are necessary or make sense. We both have an intense fear of intimacy and rejection to the point of practicing self-isolation and in some cases self harm or other unhealthy coping methods (seen with Melvin over eating sweets or over working himself. For me it’s disordered eating or self flagellation, something I have all but completely dropped but still) We also both tend to see ourselves as inferior to others and attempt to mask those feelings with a superiority complex (I feel bad for my siblings but I didn’t know what I was doing, and no it was not abusive just sibling rivalry and I’m the oldest anyway, and we are country kids and understand “rough-housing” =/= using each other as a punching bag, but accidents happen I'm sorry) We both seem to become easily overstimulated and have explosive mental and emotional breakdowns when things just . . . become too much However the harsh divide between male and female and fictional and nonfictional means we both present certain traits differently. Whereas he presents a more linear line of thinking my mind is overwhelmingly sporadic. Also, I have over sensitivities to touch and light (and sometimes certain noises, but not anything not normal? Wfk.) But maybe he does have oversensitivity but I can't think of an example off the top of my head. Enough about me however. I know Melvin and autism has been done to death.  Hell, I just did it to death.  My actual theory is more on the inner mechanisms of his mind and predicting how he will develop should the series allow for full character development. Also, similar to my Krupp theory, I will be listing his crimes out and give him a proper sentence for his age and maturity level (which will be light as I am sympathetic to his plight).   This is already getting too long, so Imma try to finally get to the point.  Characters with autism are honestly a mixed bag, sometimes there as standardized as my mystery Daddy Sherlock Holmes and other times they are as subtle as Pearl or Peridot from Steven Universe (has Rebbaca Sugar confirmed this? sorry). Honestly, it does distress me that autism is almost always used to have an evil genius character or some weird side character for brownie/ diversity points. (this makes me a bit hypocritical I guess, considering my own stories. I guess tropes are tropes for a reason) And while Dav Pilky May not be subtle with his scholastic politics or humor his one spectacular tool in his writing books has always been, when it comes to his characters, showing instead of telling. This is something I latched on to even as a kid, and I was already thinking up theories on the characters before I even knew character theories were a thing.  Like what happened to Harold's Dad (hint, hint).  Why was Harold's sister rarely used?  Does Mr Krupp actually like their comics (a now accepted theory, but not just min? And many many others I'm probably never gonna write.  It took until how long in the books to reveal George and Harold have ADHD? Before that they were simply described as being as smart as Melvin but just in different ways. Personally I feel that autism is inverted ADHD. This is an opinion I’ve recently formed so if I’m wrong bloody attack me in the comments. Anyway, Melvin presenting autism makes him the perfect foil to George and Harolds’ more sporadic antics. The only true difference between autistic folks and ADHD folks is that those with autism tend to crave a structured environment full of rules, and set goals to achieve, while such an environment is HELL to children with ADHD (aka:George and Harold). (Even though if with adults they can trust, children with ADHD thrive in structured environments if they are surrounded by adults or authority figures they can trust.)  I know some will tell me ADHD is on the spectrum, but I just learned this like actually the other day and don’t fully understand it.  My prediction is that Melvin will eventually and naturally mellow out if just because staying so high strung all the time is a huge waste of mental energy.  I know good as hell I had to.  Also, he mellowed our in the books and went from a screeching revenge exacting lil narcissistic white boi prick to a person who simply wants to pursue his interests and even helping George and Harold (selfishly, but help nonetheless). He even went from enjoying the fame and attention of hero-ing to realizing it did not fufill him. Indeed quite the opposite.  His true passion lay in solving world problems through science, and I don't think the ending for him in the books could have been any more perfect considering his character.   In the Netflix show, similar to how I think Krupp's personalities are merging, I believe that Melvin will eventually become more like his Broski alter ego (which I calmly demand more of).  Overall, given that this show needs to go back to the status quo more often than not, I don't think his core character will ever change, and it doesn't need to.  Multiple times throughout the series he's been shown to crave friendship from George and Harold, despite audibly hating him . Textbook Tsundere, I know.  He will form a friendly rivalry with George and Harold, I have almost no doubt about that, taking the season 1 finale, season 2 finale, season 3 first episode, and halloween special into consideration. (Yeah, if someone will send me clips I will give them my eternal gratefulness) To conclude, because by god this is long, Melvin is, SHOCKER, just a little kid.  A little kid who likes muffins and dolls and has big hopes and dreams.  A little kid whose love for science and unrecognized creativity is channeled into making inventions that are even more impressive than those of Professor P (sorry P).  But he is a little kid with his own needs and stuggles which at this point remain unmet.  His parents are canonically neglectful, I cannot repeat that enough times.  The effects of neglect are a hell-hole of its own regardless of growing up with undiagnosed autism.  But that's just a theory- Alright, that was a banger, I guess next up is Melvin-borg since writing this has given me some interesting ideas for him.  Let’s see how long this hyperfocus train will go!

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(DEBUNKED BY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL)

So the request was to answer why Bo Hweemuth (a clever pun on Boheemuth )keeps his eyes covered all the time and - a design trope meant to symbolize feeling socially isolated after being treated like a bully for so long, even after being befriended, the effects of that isolation either still linger or he just geniunely likes the hairstyle. Either way, the eyes covered/ closed trope is incredibly common.

The hard part here is answering what happened to his parents, as neither of them show up at Parent Day when they were in camp. I have two main ideas here and both are pure speculation, and I really don’t like basing my ideas on pure speculation because then they strictly evidence based. But I found this an interesting idea and weird that there’s never an explanation for it in the show.

So my first idea is that they were simply no-shows - possibly neglectful or work addicted parents who don’t have time for their son. This would be especially sad considering Melvin’s parents showed up, and they (in the books at least) are canonically neglectful.

My second idea- which I favor- is that Bo’s an orphan. As to how his parents died is something way out of my grasp given that there’s already so little to go off of, but having a character with this backstory makes sense in more than one way.

Narratively, it makes sense because each, okay well some, of the students represent different family dynamics with Harold’s parents being divorced being just one example. But not every kid gets to have parents. It’s possible that Bo lives in an orphanage and may not have a good relationship with the other kids there and his caretakers. Thus why flat out no one shows up at parents day. There are times when a kids parents die in some accident and their may not even be a means of calling the police or getting other people involved. Especially if he lived in a situation where his parents where cut off from other family members.

Most insanely, Bo may even be homeless along with living alone.And, hey, this could actually explain why his hair is so shaggy and his clothes seem so tattered. He doesn’t have anyone to cut his hair or buy him clothes. There are times when a kids parents die in some accident and their may not even be a means of calling the police or getting other people involved. Especially if he lived in a situation where his parents where cut off from other family members. That could end up with the child raising themselves and scared to get other adults involved, and maybe that’s another part of the reason why he isolates himself so much, he didn’t want to get close to anyone in fear they would find out about his situation and take him away.

For all we know, he could be very similar to a character of my own in my own works, where he was abandoned somewhere and left for dead, yet somehow managed to survive on his own.

All that is super dark and certainly not something that belongs in a show like this, and I’m almost certain none of that was the writers intent. Nonetheless that’s my interpretation. I do like to say that the most simple option is the most likely, so it really does fall between his parents just being no-shows or Bo being raised in a shitty orphanage, until I considered how the abandoned art room in the school seems to be his home. Sure, he hides in there during the day to create art and not scare other kids (which he fails at that tbh) but what if he sneaks and stays in there after school hours too? After all, none of the teachers even knew anyone was in there at all and the room was (in a way the show was finally paralleling the movie) completely locked up with Bo having to sneak in a different way.

TL; DR : This side character to a spin-off children’s show may secretly have one of the most tragic childhoods of all the characters and needs help!

Kinda Bonus: Again, I do like how the side characters in this show weren’t all just there for jokes or to fill space but, love or hate them, ways for the writers to portray different family situations and neuro-divergence. Even with Gooch, he’s more or less dead weight but it’s commonly thought he has some type of brain damage that impacts his cognitive abilities, especially since he seems to have genuine memory problems and dyscalcula ( the math version of dyslexia). When we get to see his contribution to the potato story (which, let’s face it, was a means for the creators to show the minds of their characters) he reveals he doesn’t even like slapstick but his thought process seems to work in a slap-stick type manner. I don’t know if I’m saying all this in the right way but it really does seem like a metaphor for brain damage, it seems like a birth defect to me. I can’t remember if I’ve posted this idea or not though since it’s been in my mind for a while.

It’s mainly because of Gooch that I speculate about if George and Harold’s class isn’t actually a Special Education class of sorts. I already did a video on that in my mini theories

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So far, in my quest to solve all of the tiniest mysteries spread through the Captian Underpants cartoon, I have thouroughly dissected the characters of Mr Krupp and Melvin, my two favorite characters. But this character is my best boy, for a reason, a reason I must not overthink. I'm getting sweaty, let's cut to the chase, shall we? Melvin-borg.  His debut in the next to last episode of the first season was a twist that even I did not see coming, and is a huge part of why I adore the writing of this show so much. It should've seen it coming, all the clues where dangling in front of me, and yet it went just over my smol brain. Speaking of brains, Melvin-borg's brain is much different than Melvin's, so much I canonically consider him a separate character of his own. An alternate universe version of Melvin if you will, since Melvin consciously decided not to become him. His brain is also, a bit different in other ways. Idid diagnos Melvin with Asperger's Syndrome (ASD1?) and I most definitely believe Melvin-borg shares the diagnosis nonetheless, but there's so many small differences between him and Melvin. Most notably, he is much more compulsive and driven by emotions than Melvin. Multiple times he and Melvin had to suffer the consequences of his half-baked ideas, including the invention of the bees which later caused him to wreck, and require his robotic side to be formed. We can assume the wreck completely disabled the right side of his body, as well as the right side of his brain. Similar to Inspector Gadget or Gizmo Duck, his brain is basically a motherboard for the computer of his robot body, an organic battery for his inorganic functions. If the writers are keeping in mind that the right brain, stereotypically, controls logic and reason more strongly, meaning that his robotic side is now controlling their functions. This singlehandedly explains the more compulsive nature of Melvin-borg, but it takes a bit of explaining. Anyone familiar with robotics or technology in general has heard of algorithms. Now I can take this chance to complain about some certain online algorithms especially on this website, but I don't really feel like it, why don't you ask me later? Anyway, there are different types of algorithms, and you can watch Techocracy from Mr Enter to learn more, but for now I want to focus on learning algorithms.   Learning algorithms are exactly what they sound like they are: They are a type of algorithm that is always learning new information. In light of this, it seems that Melvin Borg functions exactly like a learning algorithm, throwing ideas out at the wall and seeing if they stick. This is the opposite than Melvin’s technique, of intensely examining a situation before jumping into things. (basically Melvin is an INTJ while Borg is an ENTP, according to the Myers Briggs personality test.):

Another example of his half-brained antics is his lack of humanity. This was the biggest thing that made him and Melvin fundamentally different. Melvin borg was willing to betray George and Harold while Melvin was not quoting “I am not a monster” (In the final episode of season three he also states, clearly, that he is only human, to George’s surprise further proving my point here.)

Melvin may be selfish, easily triggered, and hyperfocused on his own goals, but deep down he adores George and Harold (esp George 😏) and would never betray them so coldly as Melvin borg did.

Now for some diagnosis!

Let’s see, definitely psycopathic, without a doubt. Possible PTSD from the car crash and killing George and Harold when he was 9 (courtesy of Blast-Processing on Amino). Narcissistic personality, check.

Just to analyze the character, we know he’s bitter over not making it into Elitenati Academy, secretly enjoys country music, and appearance still wears the same outfit as his younger self.

In conclusion Melvinborg shares a diagnosis with Melvin with the huge exception that he is an alternative timeline version of him and uses a learning algorithm to make up for his disabled right side as well as dealing with multiple traumas.

Also he’s bloody hot imo.

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Thoughts on the Choice-o-Rama

As hyped as I am for some choice-or-rama, I really don't like what role it seems Melvin's character is going to play.  It's possible it's Gelvin? from that Big Brain gym teacher episode (refer to the last 5 minutes?) but if it is canon Melvin I am extremely annoyed that he has to go through this villanous story arc for the 45th time already!  Krupp I can understand, despite the ending of season 3, where he and the boys are on good terms, but Melvin, I just don't know. The Halloween Special, despite me, loving it so much it actually pulled me into the cartoon, it puts any hope of forming a cohesive timeline into a high powered blender. Don't get me wrong, Choice-O-Rama looks FUN, and I and hyped for it even more than my 9 year old sister (maybe, lol). And considering the sneak peeks it does seem the school board will be involved (as someone who went to school under an arguably shitty school board, this will be interesting to me personally).  I am willing give them a chance to let them blow me away, just like the Halloween Special did (with Melvin's character), but it is going to take good writing unlike anything I've seen in a very long time. Rant over. 

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CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS AND THE SOUL-KILLING CRIMINAL INSANITY OF MR.KRUPP PART 2

More moments in which he wants to befriend George and Harold, giving them a Fresh Start TM is in the alternate dimension episode. He more or less admits he enjoys their antics when he states that he thought the school was boring, but switches and goes back to wanting to yell at children.  Again, he can switch personalities on a dime.  

In the episode where George and Harold ask to get suspended (the first episode where we see his inner personalities) we get to see that his paranoid personality and cranky personality are the most at conflict, and that the cranky krupp usually get the final decision. It does stand out to me that Smiley Krupp is one of the main personalities at the round table, and keep it noted that Smiley Krupp is always being insulted and suppressed by his other personalities. 

He comes to them first when he needs advice on what to add to the camp, and knows exactly what will convince them to stay with him, designing tree houses.  When they agree to stay, he forces his head underwater (oddly enough) to muffle his excited screams. One could say he was happy to serve his own self-interest, but if that was the case they could have just wrote an evil laugh. No, he was thrilled to the point of screaming because George and Harold specifically decided to stay. I'm shocked I left these moments out of the first part considering that the first moment atleast was a huge factor into what lead me to write this theory. I will also point out that each iteration of Mr. Krupp is supirisingly kind and lenient compared to the other teachers and even teacher's that I've had.  He gives them multiple warnings, and is always willing to talk to them about what they did.  He is never shown doing that to every other kid, whom he hands detention slips out to for looking at him funny.  Actually, looking back at the books, the worse thing he did in the name of discipline was having George and Harold trim to his every whim. Sure, George and Harold may be the "problem students" but the difference in how he treats George and Harold compared to even Melvin (when Melvin makes him mad) almost seems preferencial, even if it is a preference born of hatred. Speaking of lenience, I've seen children suspended or even expelled for greatly smaller infractions than George and Harold.  Don't get me wrong, my teachers and principals were all good people, but they didn't allow students to run over him they way the children in Jerome Hortwitz does. I'd even go so far as to say that if Mr. Krupp wasn't so cruel in his forms of punishment, that he'd actually be a fair principal. George and Harold have behavioral problems partly due to having a Pre-school teacher that let them do anything short of pissing their pants, and when they met Mr. Krupp, they tried to treat him as a pushover, and, as a result, pushing him over the edge. All this ties into my own theory that the "Captian Underpants" personality is his intitial personality, and that his abusive personality is a front his childlike self-hides under for his own emotional protection due to the abuse he suffered when he is was their age.  To make this clear as I am confusing myself, I believe most aspects of his CU personality is his true personality, maybe a tad less stupid. Just before the special and season 4 drops, I'm also going to make some predictions: We will get more of Krupp's backstory, as well as see his future self in the special.  Perhaps the reason he wants to destroy their treehouse is connected to an event in his childhood. Or maybe he was just born mean. He is either going to find out he is Captian Underpants, or the Captian Underpants personality will take over. Additonally, it is possible that we may get an episode where Cap and Krupp become "unfused" and interact with each other (which makes my favorite fan-fictions tbh) by the end of season 4. I do think he'll have a better relationship with his students by the end of the series. He'll always be their principal, and sometimes principals have to do "mean" things, but I think once he works things out with his Mom, he'll finally try to be a good person. It would actually be interesting to get a sort of story arc where he tries to be nice but ends up snapping due to stress, and George and Harold decide to help him somehow. Maybe they'll end up being better students. This is a rough draft so I'm open for anything you want to throw at it.   Next theory will be on none other than Melvin Sneedly (my fave character don't @ me) and I do want to expand on this Krupp theory some more, I just need to find more evidence and clues in the special and season 4.