#not meaning this as a macdennis meta but

[dennisboobs]

Can we talk about the fact the fact that the "one thing [Dennis] wanted more than anything else in the entire world" was not, in fact, the RPG. He doesn't care that there's no ammunition for it, or that he can't actually use it as-is, because what he really wanted was for someone to think of him on Valentines day. That was why he put the anthrax in the box. to stop the others from excluding him. Because even if they were being horrible to each other, he still wanted in on it.

For Dennis, the fact that he wasn't given gifts by the rest of the gang indicated that they didn't love him, and Mac giving him that RPG proved him wrong. He of course would never say it out loud, and still clearly works to suppress the full extent of his emotions even when he's just had an emotional outburst and is on the verge of tears, but Dennis craves this symbolic reassurance. Even as he actively pushes people away, shuts them out, pretends he's emotionless. He's upset that the others actually believe this mask of his, take it at face value and can't see past his lies. He wants to be seen and understood and he wants to be loved by his friends.

[sunnykeysmash]

thinking about this discussion I had before FVR even came out, thinking about blends, thinking about "give me dong or give me death", about how it's both. thinking about both mac and dennis getting exactly what they want (mac's fantasy in saves the day, for mac to go away from dennis) but with a TWIST (for mac to realize there's nothing on the other side, for dennis to realize he needs mac). thinking about the pulse checking, thinking about the flatline.

thinking about my meta that I wrote before s15 even came out, about how we've been witnessing an impossible choice that's splitting dennis in two, thinking about "<3 or die" being the name of the salon in chop (and off with the head / just start over meta...), thinking about new beginnings, and meet cutes. thinking about rebirth, and baptisms.

[sunnytastic]

in honor of my premonition, here is my running list of sunny episode ideas:

- the gang does drag

mac has the idea to do a drag night at the bar to make money. frank supports the idea as he's continuing to try to prove that he's "down with the gays." charlie gets surprisingly very into it, mostly because he doesn't understand gender and just has fun dressing up. dee dresses up as a drag king and gets hit on by all the gays (a "you're not gay. you're just really, really vain" situation). and of course, dennis just looks fucking gorgeous and most definitely sends mac into a gay panic ("i've got to get out here. this was a bad idea.")

- grey's anatomy parody

idk how this would work but this is a sitcom and it's the gang so i don't think they would have any reservations about pretending to be hospital staff. (dennis wants to sleep with a hot doctor/nurse, charlie wants to get into the operating room, etc etc) but ultimately it's very soap opera-y and romantic (gang style)

- the gang goes to comic con (meta)

charlie and mac are comic book nerds. but i general, the gang is there to see a panel with the thunder gun express cast which ends up being a metaphor for sunny and the cast

- high school episode with actual teenagers

the gang buys a roller rink doesn't exist in my head. please give me high school episode where i can actually pretend these people are still in high school.

- dennis and dee birthday

it is literally insane that we haven't seen a twins birthday episode because i mean, the possibilities are endless. the twins are harsh and competitive by nature and you can't tell me that wouldn't make for some good fucking comedy

- frank, charlie, and dennis day

enough said really. they should continue the episodes because character centered episodes are always really funny

- new year's eve episode

i always love their holiday episodes but they are running out so i think the next logical choice is new year's eve. the idea of a new year's kiss, obnoxious resolutions, and running a party at the bar.

- mockumentary

making dennis reynolds a murder does not count. that was a fake documentary. i want a parks & rec, what we do in the shadows, the office style mockumentary where the gang does something stupid and then they cut to an interview.

- the gang plays monopoly

i mean the chaos that could ensue. this might be too similar to chardee macdennis in terms of premise but i will say i've had games of monopoly where i felt like i was going to come to blows with my closest friends and family. monopoly has opportunities for alliances, betrayal, and absurd deals, which when done gang style, it'll get insane

- the gang goes to the amusement park

very similar to the gang goes to the water park and gang texts but in a different location

- the gang does shrooms

mostly i just want an episode where the gang is knocked on their asses from being high. it would be such a contrast to how we normally see the gang but being high still gives them the opportunity to be insane (look no further than the gang gets invincible)

if you guys have any ideas of plot points to add on to these episodes, lemme know!

[prettysymbiosis]

I’ve been trying to get these thoughts out for days but basically I feel like the unifying theory of s16 (as I see it) is a conscious exploration of the dichotomy between sunny as a classically bold and brash pee pee poo poo comedy and sunny as a thoughtful, nuanced and subtle show about flawed people and also about itself, at times (by that I mean the meta isn’t always about macdennis or the other characters but about sunny itself - win an award, clip show, big mo, etc). the trailer actually captures this dichotomy well through the dialogue clips and animations, as well as the pinned comment which said “get ready for a whole lot of subtlety.” it’s still so baffling to me that sunny can simultaneously read as one of the most loud, obnoxious, unsubtle shows ever on television, OR it can be so subtle and allegorical in the writing of later seasons that most viewers would think people like us are crazy for reading so much into it even though we’re really not. this kind of self-reflective flavor is another product of the rewatch/podcast project which has been almost universally agreed to have had a very positive effect on the writing.

anyway having said that, I want to just share my notes on the first two episodes without trying to edit them too much. I’m bolding the points that I personally haven’t seen anyone else mention yet and putting a 😎 next to ones that evoke a Classic Sunny VibeTM because that’s important to the experiment of this season.

the gang inflates

macden fun/domestic/DUMB again 😎

something something never committing to the couch when it was absurd not to and it ended up costing them so much macdennis blah blah

dennis hanging up on dee was so funny to me oops 😎

and the WHOLE dee (as a character and specifically the female character) thing about being minimized to an absurd degree. I like to think the bog was a turning point for dee and the show is gonna do better by her now hopefully by recognizing her plight in a more serious way, like the way the guys have been doing?

are mac and dennis…… you know…… like for real??? as many have said, it could totally be revealed kind of retroactively to undercut the shock and be like “honestly we’re surprised you didn’t notice sooner” I feel like that is something rcg would do. suggestive clues:

“I don’t wanna talk to you about–” “a TON”

or is dennis like well that’s news to me jealous vibes??

“I figured you were man” ??

“I’m getting a little concerned about our nut”

“you truly have no reason to be sleeping with frank”

they specifically put a lil reaction shot of dennis after mac says “that’s a lotta blowin” a la the lil grin in gets romantic and, well, I just think that’s a choice that was made

“it’s not homophobic” is that so?????

when mac is like “you think we got rid of our furniture too soon/that the business plan won’t work” it’s kinda like no it’s not the committing to what they have, it’s that mac still has big denial problems and dennis can’t work with that… maybe? but so does dennis tbh

in a show-meta sense it’s like, we should be less worried about whether the gay gay-ass love story will alienate people and more worried about how these characters are too ridiculous to even let the love story play out effectively. they need mental health days if we are ever to have nice things

it’s possible mac denying his reaction to the allergy has to do with his body dysmorphia?

also it occurred to me that maybe part of why rob is clean-shaven this season is so they could do those prosthetics more easily?

those handprints though…. I hate everything

oh also just the bed scene. its existence

the zoomed in neck touch of course

“I’m not going to do it!” “..okay” dennis keepin his cool :)

mac’s shirt! COOLER HEADS PREVAIL

just the sheer silliness of inflatable furniture - is there some metaphor here lol?

in a general sense could inflates be taken to mean flanderizes? also maybe it’s just implied but I noticed I hadn’t actually seen anyone mention inflation as a sexual kink and like, that was part of the intention right? if so, 😎

charlie “uhhhhhhhh… yep.” poor charlie :( he doesn’t want to live in a maze (like a rat)

“well then you’re just like being a predator” :( so here for charlie calling out bullshit with frank and mrs. mac and even his own mom so far in these first two eps

charlie just giving up and yelling in frustration which is kinda what bonnie does in ep2 (and ep3 based on trailer)

the gross horny male objectifying thing 😎

rob put his whole pussy into this episode

charlie saying “I don’t get why he doesn’t take me seriously” and dee saying “that’s gotta be maddening” 🙃

cats in the alley my loves 😎

gluing dee a pillow on the wall <3

“consider it an offering” “of war??” this says so much. must everything be a conflict?

charlie’s hair looks so crazy and good in the sleepover scene and also he’s so smart

charlie asks frank to “return everything to the status quo” by the end of the episode, sitcom style. full reset, no progression. except charlie is asking that frank not endlessly take advantage of the fact that mac and den can’t figure their shit out, not totally push dee out just because it’s easy, not make light of the trauma charlie has from what happened to him. all that stuff IS the status quo! so what is he really asking for? this is one of the bits of writing that I think is also about the show as a show, and how they’ve approached these dynamics forever. 

it’s funny that people are saying this season is such a return to form because it is, but it’s also so much more self-aware of what that form is/was and how deeper elements can coexist within it. they’re really walking with a foot in both worlds here and they’re doing it well. love this for them and for us, the people who know what it’s always sunny in philadelphia is REALLY about

“we’ll take you to the hospital, and they’ll have nuts. and you can– you can die there.” hahahah

[cosmoseinfeld]

five ships for five fandoms

tagged by @pepsi-maxwell - thank you ❤ I actually had to mull this over for a couple of days... In the end, I went with the ships that gave me the most permanent brain damage. in no particular order.

1. let's get this out of the way: destiel (spn). yes, i used to be a "heller" but it would be hypocrisy if i didn't mention this ship because i dedicated about 9 years of my life to it. it did teach me all i know today about film language and how to read meta etc. boy did i WRITE meta on this... the tragedy of it all and what good it did them in the end (nothing). let's move on........

2. tommyalfie (peaky blinders). it's amazing what fans can make out of 20min of shared screentime in total. well, it's also the gravitas of cillian murphy and tom hardy... put those two in a room together and it's like touching one of those plasma balls... i think it's the fact that they both added so much weight to their respective characters that that relationship became a thing of its own... it's also the constant power playing and the whole "i can be vulnerable in front of you" and the "i see you" thing and the "i don't have to pretend to be someone else with you" thing, yknow... even when i am not actively watching peaky, i often read tommyalfie fics. thank fuck for fanon.

3. macdennis (always sunny). where to start... what a mess. there are times where i wonder if ive just read too many fanfictions and read too many specs and meta posts (back in the day when the fandom was alive on here... back in the gif set days. not the pet cemetery "came back wrong" days) that what i love and long for is just the fanon version of this ship. it's gotten too confusing trying to figure out if rcg are doing anything with it or what they are doing with it or if macdennis is just glob.... but what I, personally love about this ship is the "i can make him worse"/"i'll take care of you"-"it's rotten work"-"not to me. not if it's you" dynamic that mac and dennis have. they know each other in an out. they are toxic for each other. they are co-dependent. they are in denial. they are in the closet. they are out of the closet. they are each other's messes and a mess together. no one can stand it when they are not with each other. it can never be. it already is.

4. hilson/house x wilson (house md). similar to macdennis, what attracts me is the absolute toxic co-dependency. they know each other intimately. they are vulnerable in front of each other and sometimes, they use their knowledge to hurt each other badly. wilson is definitely the "i can make him worse" type. he is house's biggest enabler. one could say he needs to keep him a mess, so he has something to fix. they are both rotten works and they'll take care of each other always. the show isn't even remotely subtle about this. i mean, there is meta stuff but there is also the fact that gay people worked and wrote on the show andd there is dialogue like "I was afraid your wings would melt" and "one day, our friendship will break and it'll just prove your theory that relationships are conditional and you don't need human connection or deserve it or whatever goes on in that rat maze of your brain." - "you've lied enough for me. Maybe I don't wanna push this 'til it breaks." and "if you die, I'm alone." there's also a lot of angst which i love but they simply cannot live without each other and everyone around them knows it, too.

5. jerrykramer (seinfeld). i think there's me and about 10 other people who ship this as a thing. they are my happy place. they had one angsty break up storyline early on and then it's apple pies and butterflies the rest of the series. i could and in fact have written A LOT about them. they are sooo domestic and married with each other, that elaine and george comment on it. whether they walk in on something they feel like they shouldn't have (george. twice.) or they immediately notice when the two had a falling out (elaine). it's my favourite trope - when the people around the characters KNOW. and yes, there's a kiss that totally did not have to be there but there's also little moments when jerry takes kramer to his vacation home in tuscany or to award shows as his plus one when he totally could've brought a date... just go through my tag. (there's also the fact that jerry seinfeld and michael richards were absolutely enchanted by each other...)

[dennistakesamentalhealthday]

redoing my intro teehee

i'm jasper i'm 23 and my pronouns are he/him

im autistic and a faggot

professional dennis takes a mental health day defender

im a writer on the side so i have a lot of thoughts about sunny meta and i think reaching and overanalysing is cool and fun and sexy. i dont care about being "right" about my analysis either because doesnt matter im still cool and fun and sexy

radfems terfs bigots fascists etc are not welcome here and also i block liberally

i would rather minors did not follow or interact with me but i can't fully control that so i'll just say if you're a minor: i am an adult and this is not a space that will always be suitable for you. sunny is an adult show and i don't want to talk about it with people who are not adults. if i don't follow back/interact with you it's likely because you are a minor or i don't know your age (not that people have to disclose it! but i prefer being safe). i also do make nsfw posts from time to time and if i find out you are a minor and you interact with them i WILL block you.

this blog is mainly an outlet for when the sunny hyperfixation hits and will reflect that. it is not criticism free but i don't think it's always the appropriate space for sunny criticism and i think tumblr is an awful format for discourse and discussions anyway. so like just because i don't always publicly engage w the show critically doesn't mean i don't. there's also aspects of the show i don't talk about here/usually ignore bc they are triggering topics for me. that doesn't mean im not considerate of them

adding to the last bit: i know they are present in the show but please don't talk about eating disorders or csa on my posts. just because they are big parts of especially dennis' character does not mean they are not sensitive and triggering topics

i woobify dennis because it's fun lol it's a very intricate and specific dance

im a macdennis "truther" in a very casual way LOL don't ask me if i think it's going canon or not. i don't know and honestly i dont care about that. i think it's just fun to see what they get up to. i think it's fun to feed into my delusions when the show decides to make them share a bed. i dont really have any stakes or expectations for canon. i also love charden and deestress. peace and love on planet earth

i will unfollow people very liberally because my dash is for me and i will unfollow someone sometimes even if i like them as a person. i also don't care about being mutuals. so like don't think you can't interact with me because we're not mutuals but also don't take it personally if i unfollow you (but also feel free to unfollow me back)

dennis has cat ears btw glenn howerton told me this

[boysareouttonight]

mac and dennis breakup always makes me go insane not just for all the obvious codependency stuff but how different dennis and mac's reactions are. and how dennis' behavior post mac coming out was the same.

after what dee said mac doesn't seem to get to any conclusions he keeps acting the same way around dennis who reacts in a total opposite way. hes like 'woahhh hold on' gets more self conscious about their relationship and pushes mac away. its almost as if mac still hadn't realized he was in love with dennis back then while dennis did and when someone from the outside noticed things, he panicked. and don't even get me started on the beautiful lips scene.

but then they eventually went back to normal cus they realized they didn't wanna be apart and they were still just two "straight" guys who happened to be best friends and totally codependent and then mac mentioned the woman with big boobs that was supposed to meet him at gugino's and from dennis' perspective everything went back to normal.

dennis acted like this again in s12 except it was much worse bc this time things were getting too real and they couldn't keep acting like that around each other anymore since mac was out, things couldn't go back to normal now. from s5 to s12 thats a lot of seasons and a lot of consistency there so i wonder if this was intentional bc its interesting how they keep giving focus to dennis' internal conflict when it comes to macdennis.

dennis' behavior every time their relationship is getting out of his comfort zone is always similar he doesn't want things to change bc he's too scared of having to face his feelings and the meaning of them especially bc he knows mac isn't afraid anymore.

[dennisboobs]

i still think its funny how people misinterpret the gang chokes as dennis wanting mac to Take Charge, take care of, and control him rather than just wanting mac to be more self-assured and reliable (ie. able to save someone from dying of his own free will) when one of dennis' common complaints in early seasons was that mac was too bossy. if you ever find yourself talking about power struggles, remind yourself that dennis doesn't want real power, he just wants the illusion of power. he only needs this because he doesn't want to be out of control. he's happier when he and mac are on equal footing.

[sunnykeysmash]

Extra:

Explosion 💥🎆

[gayasslovestory]

feel like i’ve run out of macdennis content to clown someone needs to drop a new meta post for us to obsess over pls and thank you

[lesbianaang]

ok obviously we do not stan the gang does a clip show bc it’s a bit of a flop that doesn’t develop its twist enough to be interesting and this is probably the most egregious case of “dennis being almost ooc-mean to mac post-nd”.

THAT SAID, if we can move past that and follow the theory that the whole episode is in dennis’ head, then the last scene where the whole gang is interrogating him as to why he would want mac as a roommate is kinda fascinating? like it becomes dennis having an extended conversation with himself (under like 50 layers of repression) as to why he continues to live with mac. and he doesn’t really come to a conclusion? he admits that mac is a horrible roommate but....... they continue living together??????

if he really hates Mac so much why doesn’t he move out? what is keeping them together? dennis has made it clear before that it’s not finances, so when he can’t fool himself it’s bc he loves living with mac as a roommate, what does that leave us with?

[bastard-man]

can i riff

i haven’t seen much on my dash so i don’t even entirely know what the discourse is about but i thought i’d give my opinion on this specific thing from the ep

first of all, no i don’t think macdennis is “over”. second of all, while i do think that mac crossing the line is something dennis didn’t like and didn’t want, it might not have entirely been because of the reasons he said. but i think especially given the subject matter, and just in general, it’d be problematic to say something like “oh dennis was just lying/kidding, he did actually want it.” i know what you guys mean by that but could you think about the connotation of that for one second? at least word it differently because i know you probably don’t mean harm by saying that but uh, it’s wrong. that’s the point. it’s wrong, and dennis called mac out for being wrong about that, just like the rest of the gang. mac touching and kissing dennis when he expresses discomfort, when he says no, when he pushes him away is wrong and mac is bad for doing that. i think i remember some post i reblogged about how it’s kind of easier now to empathize with mac because we see him being delusional and doing things like redecorating their apartment the way it used to be and being excited to show dennis and upset that it didn’t work out the way he planned, and how we look at that like “aw how sad :(“ but the truth is that it is weird and i think this ep did a good job of proving that. like i think i also remember seeing someone say that mac would have to do some horrible thing bc so many people are empathizing with him & woobifying him now that they’d need a reminder he’s just as bad as the rest of the gang.

i think this should be your wake up call. dennis might be hiding feelings or trying to push mac away or trying to ignore whatever it is that their relationship has become and that still doesn’t mean that mac should be doing that to him. i think that if they did get together, it’s great to have this episode preface that by saying that regardless, what mac was doing was wrong.

[crimeronan]

i think jeremy strong was created in a lab specifically for the consumer niche of tumblr girls who write long passionate meta essays about the subtextual poignant meaning of macdennis

[emberphantom]

This season of Sunny was good bc like...I could just watch it at face value without digging and clawing for any hidden meaning or meta like. Not that I don't enjoy our clowning sessions here on Tumblr dot gov but I loved this season so much because I could actually just pay attention to the content that was presented to me. Dare I say I felt like I could just enjoy it like a normal person. The fics and the fandom stuff can come later and definitely will bc I need something to sustain me during the hiatus before s16 but. It's nice to just watch the show again. I feel like I did when I watched Sunny for the first time without the MacDennis brainrot (I love the brainrot don't get it twisted) but it's nice. I feel good. I feel happy. And the small MacDennis moments we got? They just felt normal. Like Mac and Dennis being Mac and Dennis again. And honestly? I don't need anything else from the show bc we can just do the rest over here.

[macdennissurvivor]

I'm someone who watches but isn't really in deep w/ sunny but frequents the tumblr tag to study people. I'd like to say that it is for sure weird that the macden dynamic shifted so drastically (it feels like they didn't take mac being in love into account like at allll this season 😭😭 like guys there is a middle ground between that being his only trait and it not being present) but anyways if you're curious about an outside perspective I think the 3 act thing was for sure only applicable to tggr. Like it sticks out to people who fixate on macden cause of course it does but I feel like you could find a similar "dropped thread" with a lot of things if you look hard enough like rcg is not writing it THAT meta. anyways sorry for this message it is probably very strange okay bye

hello, anon!!! welcome to my storm drain shithole, where all the shit from my brain goes.

first of all: you’re totally right. rcg is NOT that meta. they’ve admitted this in their own podcast for sunny. i wont disagree with you there.

as for act 3, i totally see how that comes across as me reading too much into ‘meta’ that’s not really there, but for me, i don’t view that as a callback that they’ll bring up in an episode. (so, yeah, while act 3 is a thing that really only ‘exists’ within tggr, i don’t use it in that way.) i use it more as a metaphor for when the other shoe will drop. last season for us was like inching up a hill on a rollercoaster, except once we got to the top, the drop never came. the amount of mac and dennis screen time was excessive compared to previous seasons. (i mean i absolutely enjoyed it, but besides the point.) even reddit dudebros who despise don’t care for macdennis complained about it. i mean, if they’re noticing it, wouldn’t that raise alarms to you?

anyways, i could totally be clowning here (i probably am). and i’m sure there are other dropped threads, but nothing feels quite obvious as that, and even non macden shippers seem to think so. thanks for the ask tho!! seeing people without macden brain rot (assuming you don’t?)’s perspective is always interesting!!

[artheclown]

Can we talk about Season 14 Dennis? I've been dying to talk about Season 14 Dennis. I am so worried for that man.

Firstly, he doesn't once try to hit on a woman for the sake of actually wanting to have sex with that woman. This is a man who regards himself as some sort of player, has a whole system for getting with women, and has multiple sex tapes with women. He built a whole lot of his personality around being a 'ladies man' (in his mind). In Season 14 we only ever see him hitting on women in 'Gets Romantic' (pretty reluctantly because Mac was basically making him do it for his plan), and 'Dee Day' (again as part of a plan). Even in 'Solves Global Warming' he doesn't even seem to care he's surrounded by women in their underwear.

This is a positive for women everywhere, but it's strange that Dennis seems so detached from what previously made up a big part of his personality. I would question whether they're laying ground work for Dennis being attracted to men/Mac but it honestly doesn't seem like it and I still think rcg aren't ever going to make macdennis happen. It just seems like Dennis isn't really sexually attracted to anyone now.

Which brings me to my next point, that throughout that whole season Dennis seemed most of the time fucking dead inside, or sad, or angry. He fixates on very strange things more than ever in this season: seeing the lion feeding, whether or not to stop the jumper, winning at laser tag, stopping women from cutting their hair short, and doesn't ever seem to find joy in anything as he has in previous seasons (one exception I can thing of is his excitement to see Thundergun 4). He is desperate to be in control, particularly of the gang but of other people's lives too. Which makes 'Chokes' all the more confusing, where he actively DOESN'T want to have to make decisions for Mac. He was going through something in that episode that I can't begin to understand.

I'm waiting for Big Mo, Dennis does seem to come to a conclusion that there's no point in doing things, working for stuff, if you're not enjoying it any more. I know this episode was a big metaphor for the show in general, but I hope it also means that Dennis might try to enjoy life again / take it less seriously and we might see him a little happier in Season 15.

In conclusion that man needs a hug and I hope Mac gives it to him.

Ahh yeah, I have a hard time reading him too!! Sometimes I feel like I’m looking too far into these things and other times I feel like it has to mean SOMETHING !! You’re right, the bottom line remains the same, it sure does seem like he could use a hug. 

I don’t know whether rcg+ considers big mo a reflection of the character’s attitude or just the writer’s attitude, but like... the show and the characters should come before meta, right? so we have to assume dennis is at least thinking about picking fun and joy over “the grind” or whatever... but again i dont know!! 

I flip flop a lot on whether I think macden will happen, mostly I’m just scared of being disappointed so I err on the side of hesitance as well- y’know, hope for the best prepare for the worst!!