#dghda thoughts

[holisticpippin]

todd's cowboy drawing will always occupy part of my mind. I might make a better quality version later

[t3arsforqu33rs]

i would willingly trade ten years of my life for an episode of dghda where they have to dress up like punks for Plot Related Reasons and todd spends the entire episode having a crisis over seeing dirk wear eyeliner

[robynator]

yknow what i absolutely love about dghda? how socially unaware all the former blackwing subjects are. like these guys have no clue what to do in normal society and that absolutely makes sense

dirk is the most well adjusted out of all of the ones we know of and even he climbs into this random guy's apartment through the window, immediately calls him his assistant and then declares that he lives there now. he's clueless. he wants friends but he doesn't know how to talk to people, even after 16 years lived in freedom

and then there's bart and the rowdy 3

bart doesn't know how radios and tvs work, nor what hotels are. all she's known her whole life is blackwing labs and the fact that she's supposed to kill people. so that's what she does. she doesn't know how to talk to people, she just goes with the flow

and of course the rowdy 3, the absolute icons. unlike dirk, who wants to be a part of society, and bart, who really doesn't care, they actively reject social norms. they saw punk culture and ran with it. they're rude, violent and, well, rowdy. and they like that. but they're also stupid in the way that you would be if you grew up in a lab with (probably) next to no real education. none of them have any functioning braincells or social grace and that works for them

i didn't talk about mona or francis/moloch bc we don't really have a real frame of reference for either of them. mona is an inanimate object 99% of the time and francis has been in a coma for several decades

[neeturnal]

what would have been really interesting for a dghda s3 plot would be to have riggins come back to maybe help dirk, or is part of the case and is connected enough that they kind of have to deal with eachother again

i love all the blackwing plots, all the government bad guys like freidkin priest etc., they all gave a more extreme idea of blackwing (and i think that was important to really unveil how traumatic blackwing was when the projects were kids) but after season 1 riggins was never seen again!

but I think what would make blackwing worse would be this old sweet looking man that seems caring, and seems like you can trust him. it has a unique effect psychologically of growing up in this overtly violent and dangerous place, and even the one part you feel safe around is secretly the man in charge of it all.

like in S1E3 when the two meet again, there's already so much emotion in it that you can tell sooooo much shit went down that even in s2 was not explored enough.

like, its one thing to grow up terrified of priest and everything, but I bet you dirk was so trusting of riggins in the past, until some big thing happened that completely flipped that feeling of safety

ALSOOOOo adding a reunion in s3 would make for such emotional, well-done scenes from Samuel Barnett. like mentioning S1E3 again, its onnly the third episode of the entire series, we know nothing about dirk at this time yet Sam's subtle emotions are so compelling. I would give my left leg to have a scene where after so much emotion from having to deal with riggins again builds up and one day dirk just snaps and it gets like heated. idk i think dirks anger really needs more of a spotlight sometimes

im realizing now that ~~maybe i just have daddy issues and something about dirk finally airing his grievances at essentially his father figure would make me so happy~~ but i wish people talked more about riggins! he and dirk have such a dynamic relationship that would be so well done on screen omfg

[sonseulsoleil]

Dirk: I have feelings for you.

Todd: I have feelings for you, too.

Narrator: The feeling was friendship, but neither of them had ever experienced it before.

[hbdttg]

Halloween costume idea for anyone who’d like to dress, verily, as a Normal Man from this world.

[frenchfriedgiraffe]

the scene with bart and priest is one of my favourite moments in s2. the guy gets his face sliced open and is still shouting at the blackwing soldiers to stand down. really drives home how much power bart really holds, and how priest knows it.

[urlocallesbiab]

amanda brotzman is a girl who's a she/her dude and dirk gently is a boy who's a he/him girlie. hope this helps <3

[goatyoat]

Just a sane guy doing normal things & having life-changing revelations mere moments before disaster.

[twilight-zoned-out]

The Dirk Gently bridge scene blows me away because there is so much setup that had to be done to fully appreciate what everybody doesn’t understand, and the fact that things have believably escalated to this point in only 2 episodes still boggles my mind. It’s a good scene out of context but in context it’s even more impressively effective.

[clockworkcheetah]

in dghda the universe is a stage all the characters are performing a role the universe wants them to act out, hence theres a backstage of reality, theres an ending to the cases thats all planned out

[holisticpippin]

we love the writing process!!

two days later and I still haven't done anything about this. whoops

[filthy-lil-bugger]

dghda au where one of the mexican funeral’s somgs blows up on tiktok and so somebody looks into the band and everybody’s like semi-normal except for todd brotzman, so a bunch of those tiktok detective people come out of the woodwork and find actual information on him (ties to murders, was on fbi most wanted list, theft etc) and then theorize about it in the most batshit way possible. eventually somebody finds the agencies address and tries to confront him about his heinous actions but it causes a weird case thing and there’s shenanigans

[shobolanya]

my Dirk Gently Supernatural crossover thoughts

i love both dghda and spn so ofc i imagined what could happen if the characters met (note that is is just pure crack but i would love more suggestions)

✦ they would met on one of the two cases in dghda or on one of the spn cases

✦ like sam and dean are just doing their usual thing when this weird chatty british dude, his assisfriend and a gorgeous badass appear

✦ i imagine dirk, todd and farah finding the case because dirk had a hunch they needed to be there and they meet these two FBI guys (who soon turns out aren't real agents) and they team up

✦ anyway they solve the case and sometime in the process of solving it they learn about what they really do

✦ i mean sam and dean learn about dirk being a holistic detective pretty fast but when things get messy the winchesters reveal what they do

✦ now i think they could team up again on some bigger cases (i imagine this being post season 2 of dghda and around season 12-13 of spn)

✦and maybe the universe led dirk to the winchesters so they could help each other

✦ so after they work on more cases more of the characters meet each other and here's who i think would get along with who

✦dirk and rowena become besties and sip tea and gossip; also she understands more about dirk being a holistic detective than he understands himself

✦ dean has a small crush on farah (but who doesn't), he's still married to cas though

✦ tina, farah, jody and donna are the best team ever

✦ CHARLIE AND TINA FRIENDSHIP.

✦ charlie and todd would be friends and she knows mexican funeral

✦ to his shame (not really) so does dean and he would never admit it but he was a fan before the band broke up

✦ dirk would be friends with jack because they are both confused sad cinnamon rolls

✦ also mona would randomly appear around the bunker nearly giving sam a heart attack; after that she would love to stay around jack and cas

✦ rowdy 3 would adopt jack (i got the idea from an amazing fanfic and it is a great dinamic nothing can change my mind, the rowdy 3 would be kind and understanding to jack and they could give him a cool jacket too)

✦ at some point friedkin appears because i want him back he's my dear beloved

✦ priest appears too and he teams up with arthur ketch

✦ bart and dean become best friends

✦ sherlock hobbs and donna are the best sheriff team

✦ rowena could teach amanda some spells

✦ the rowdy 3 can tell apart angels, archangels, demons, crossroad demons etc just by sensing their energy

✦ mona once turned in the impala to prank dean

[h3rmitsunited]

thinking about dirk getting a couple months into his friendships with Todd and Farah and completely losing his shit and like running away for a week

like listen, this guy is not someone that has lasting connections to people... not to like good friendly people. The Rowdy Three are probably the closest thing he's had to a constant connection over the years and we see how shit that goes for him

so like he goes on cases, he meets some folks, shit gets wacky, maybe some people get hurt, maybe he does weird shit, maybe things end up okay, but nobody ever sticks around

He is always... alone.

That's what he tells Todd. Always alone.

Which means he doesn't have to think about long term, or the impact of his decisions or how relationships go or whatever. These people aren't going to be in his life for long anyways. He's always surrounded by disaster and danger and death, so maybe they'll die before he solves the case.

It's not necessarily callousness, it's survival.

And then suddenly, the Spring case and time travel Dirk tells him, hey this guy's your best friend, and Dirk goes okay cool man

But like what does that even mean to him?

I can see why Dirk wouldn't really think about how Todd would take him keeping the time travel/maybe clone Dirk talking to him in the hall a secret, because like how often do these friendships last? Sure it hurt to hear Todd tell him he deserves to be alone, and he's trying to fix it, but by the hospital, he's sadly resigned to that being it.

"Well, here I am again."

But Todd surprises him by showing up. By saying that he's gonna stick around and then Farah wants to fund his agency and suddenly there's a long term and its exciting but also scary and there's no way this can last

and maybe it's a bit of a whatever when he feels that pull dragging him out to the sidewalk and into Blackwing's clutches because yeah this makes more sense now... he's not supposed to have friends and an agency and people that like him and stability so being rekidnapped, that's more his speed

And sure in blackwing, he's still daydreaming and night dreaming about Todd and Farah and getting out, but how shocking must it have been to actually get out and then have those two people be there waiting for him when he fell out of the trunk

That it wasn't just another restart, another case that brings him to more people with different names and faces and that don't stick around after he finishes the case

It's Todd Brotzman and Farah Black and they're here and they know him and it's crazy, but he's supposed to be the same guy that they knew from the last time he saw them and he doesn't usually have to do that and todds expecting more and he wants to give them what they want but he's never been good under pressure and it's worse now because blackwing and there's too much and people know him and they're there and now people are dying and Mr. Priest is back and everything is bad and Todd is looking at him like he's broken and this is the time that it would be better to just let them take him away again-

He shuts down. He pushes away. It's better to be alone. It's better when people don't know him enough to expect certain thing from him.

But he pushes through because he may be having a breakdown, but hell, he still has enough gumption to finish the goddamn case because he's a fucking detective.

And he does and once again, Todd and Farah are still there

And they open the agency

And its going and they stick around

But that little niggling itch is still there that this isn't going to last, that he doesn't get long term, he doesn't get to keep people

But Todd and Farah are still there and they know more and more about him all the time and knowing him means it's harder to hide the bad parts, the parts he doesn't like and tries to cover with bright colors and eccentric personality and rambling words

And one morning Todd comes in and sets a cup on Dirks desk and it's not coffee because he hates coffee, it's tea from that shop that he likes on the corner that the morning worker knows his name and Todd knows his drink exactly and it's perfect and Farah's left a note on his desk telling him exactly what questions he needs to ask this client at the meeting later because she knows that he'll forget because he always does and Todd looks at him in this way that feels too much

And he excuses himself to the bathroom but instead runs out the backdoor and just bolts because he wasn't expecting to still have this and it's terrifying because it's been this long and he's let himself want this life and now it's going to kill him to lose it and it's going to happen because it always does, so he's just gotta beat it to the punch

And then disappearance and panic and calling in the reinforcement and tracking down dirk and the long exhausting emotional talk about trauma and healing and growing and finding ways to feel safe and todd and farah convince him to come back

And its not fixed but it gets better and it takes time and love and support and fucking therapy man and dirk finds himself gazing at the two most important people in his life and it doesn't make him want to run and he can be okay with the time that he gets with them

[frenchfriedgiraffe]

dghda season 2 and childhood

this is adding on to this post i made a while ago. basically, i fully believe that the writers of this show set up the perfect opportunity to have the theme of s2 be about childhood, specifically exploring the effects of trauma (and escapism/maladaptive daydreaming). its already something that is featured or referenced to, however i think that there was a lot of potential for the show if they fully embraced the theme.

the biggest and most prominent example of the theme of childhood being present is in the character of francis (The Boy), who experiences severe childhood trauma and as a result creates a fantasy world that he can escape to. this world is full of stereotypes of a conventional children’s fantasy, with knights, a magic train, and even a crazy evil wizard guy. yet despite this, the world he created also contains elements from real life, specifically things that he found traumatic. francis witnesses his father get killed with a pair of scissors, and the main weapon used by the characters in wendimoor are a pair of giant scissors. also, in the house within the house, theres a copy of his kitchen, featuring the scissors and smashed flowerpot.

this is probably the most obvious display of the lasting effects of childhood trauma in a character, although there are a LOT more, though they are quite subtle.

dirk may be the second most obvious example of the presence of this theme. his very first scene in season 2 is set in blackwing, the organisation that took him and experimented on him as a child. blackwing is hinted to have abused him as a child, although we only see how they treat him as an adult. (there is a deleted scene of him when he was a child talking to the previous head of blackwing, meaning that there was a possibility we could have seen what it was like for him as a child too.)

however it is clear that he suffered trauma from his time at BW as a child, as many of his mannerisms throughout both season 1 and 2 mirror those of someone with c!ptsd. and having that trauma resurface in s2 also causes him to be more distant and get upset more frequently. (theres more but this is long enough already)

despite escaping blackwing early on in the season, dirk is obviously extremely shaken from his brief time back in there, and its pretty safe to say that the experience brought up a lot of bad memories. he is much more subdued throughout s2, and his previous optimism is rarely present, with his attitude towards the case being very different from s1.

like francis, there are a few tiny hints to escapism as a result of dirks trauma from blackwing (although im probably grasping at straws here). while in blackwing, he frequently dreams about being rescued by todd and farah. while being chased near the end of the season, dirk is lethargic and rather unresponsive, which could be some sort of dissociative state that he entered in order to escape from the reality of his situation.

while these are the most prominent examples where characters are shown to be effected by their childhood experiences, most of the other characters can be interpreted this way too.

farah is another good example, where she mentions the passing of her dad, and talks about how he wasnt a great father figure and caused her to often feel like a failure. she actually gets a resolution to this, with hobbs seeming to step in as her new father figure (yay!)

this was also something that seemed to be half set up for other characters. for example, todd and amanda having to learn to accept the changes in their relationship and amanda having to recontextualize her past. tinas frequent references to her struggles with addiction as well. farson and his whole family… thing. oh, and also like EVERY other blackwing subject. (more examples but again, this is a fucking long post)

essentially, the characters in this season struggle a lot, and a lot of this is because of things that happened (or possibly happened) because of their childhood experiences.

which leads me onto my next point (oh god, theres more!?) about the missed opportunity with this set up. many people agree that a lot of season 2 felt rather… aimless? while things were loosely connected, they definitely felt a lot less connected than in season 1. events happened and because there were plots happening in different DIMENSIONS, there was often very little overlap. having an underlying theme like this would have made each plot connect much more seamlessly, and it would have been a nice opportunity to further develop and explore some characters.

for example, throughout his journey in season 2, dirk could be seen recognising the parallels between the case and his own internal conflict. as he sees the destruction caused by francis’ powers, he could mirror the events with his own experiences and perhaps realise the effects of what pushing down trauma does. i think it would have been nice to see a conversation between dirk and francis about blackwing, ending with francis telling dirk he needs to learn to face the shit he went through and stop trying to ignore his trauma. this would have been a good way to connect their characters more as well.

it would have been a good opportunity to connect ALL the characters, especially if the show embraced the idea of escapism and pushed it further through wendimoor. as they got closer to solving the case, we could have seen them recognising their own flaws and looking back at their pasts.

and they wouldn’t have really had to make any super drastic changes, because theres already so much material for this theme to be introduced!!

tl;dr: s2 set up a lot of cool themes and the season would have been a lot more well-rounded if they embraced them more.

dont even get me started on the concept of good and bad…