He Just Wanted To Be Involved In The Conversation

figure painting: dead man

it’s so morbidly funny to me that eugene, the guy varian excitedly rambled at, the guy who knows how much this kid loves science and wants to change the world with it— eugene looks around at varian’s dusty, abandoned lab and goes “hmm. no, nothing seems off here. i’m not sensing any doom. this is surely just him being a messy teenager.”

Varian gets tanner and more freckly in the sun and Hugo just burns. There is no cure. Aloe vera & whatever concoctions Varian can whip up are helpful, but they just reduce him to his pale self again. He is doomed to either be pink/red or pasty. Varian desperately tries not to find it funny.

i feel like i’m going crazy— somebody validate my “varian sees andrew in hugo”

just. cocky, pretentious, self-assured, handsome, not that trustworthy (but varian wants to trust him). he lives with this guy for months. (trapped.) there’s an objective that both he and this guy are trying to achieve. varian would risk his life for him (but would he do the same if varian was in danger?) there’s a sense of waiting. (everything is not quite right.)

is he imagining things, reliving memories he hasn’t gotten over, or is history repeating itself? (time is a flat circle.)

rapunzel. rapunzel, i feel you. i understand that you’re lashing out because of demon magic and stress.

however.

you are talking to the man who chose to die for you.

i think he understands what a tough choice is.

a female celebrity gains weight. headlines after headlines emerge: “IS [X] GETTING FAT?” babies weep uncontrollably. children misbehave. teenagers encourage anarchy. there’s graffiti on every building. parents and civilians shake their heads in mourning. the economy crashes. a meteor changes course and heads for earth. the female celebrity has gained 14.3 pounds.

STANFORD PINES

but also we have to drop some charges. like. a few. and argue about his intentions.

im a blorbo apologist but also they did every bad thing they did and i will get mad if u ignore that. complexities

12 of 14 of my works were scraped by ai, and i know so many other authors are experiencing the same thing. this is your reminder to comment on fics you love, because creators are getting discouraged. we need to keep ao3 alive.

These are all really good points! My issue isn’t really with this scene in general, but more the fact that it’s a symptom of an underlying problem with the show when it comes to its treatment of Eugene.

We get Painter’s Block, an episode where Rapunzel tries to overcome her mental paralysis after Queen for a Day. We get endless scenes in season 3 of Eugene consoling her over her fears, Eugene encouraging her when she falters, Eugene surrendering his desire to fight Cass in exchange for Rapunzel’s desire to keep reaching out to her.

Not once do we get a Eugene-centric episode that isn’t about Rapunzel in some way. Not once do we see her helping him when it isn’t related to some lesson she has to learn/unlearn. Not once do we see her— or anybody, for that matter— call out the fact that he’s using humor or passive-aggression to mask his feelings.

And before anyone points out that Rapunzel’s the main character, we got an entire episode of her helping Attila and an entire episode of her trying to make friends with some guy who doesn’t like her. Yes, both of those episodes did turn out to be about Rapunzel in some way— like how it attempted to show that she would stick up for a criminal, and how it showed her people-pleasing tendencies after Gothel— but they still primarily featured those characters, and we still learned about them. We never really got that setup and payoff with Eugene.

So I look at this scene, and on its own, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. But I know that, in regards to the entire show, the tough choices Eugene has had to make are never really addressed. His character isn’t explored to its fullest potential— in fact, if you hadn’t seen the movie, it would be easy to forget he isn’t just some freeloader who’s devoted to Rapunzel, the way Cass believes.

Rapunzel tells him “we can chat about difficult choices,” but my problem is the fact that, no matter how valid her feelings are, they only ever talk about hers.

rapunzel. rapunzel, i feel you. i understand that you’re lashing out because of demon magic and stress.

however.

you are talking to the man who chose to die for you.

i think he understands what a tough choice is.

Yong headcanons and thoughts!!! If I may!!

YONG my PRECIOUS

-he has a lot of running jokes with himself. this comes from being overlooked a lot as a kid (you have to be your own source of entertainment when people don’t want to play with you), but it eventually just became part of his nature. these running jokes include making the most diabolically sexual comments and then blinking innocently when the rest of the group whirls around to look at him. “what? does that mean something?” they are his puppets and he is their master.

-he gets eczema sometimes. varian made some olay-worthy lotion for him.

-very musically talented! hand him any instrument and he’ll make a little ditty within a couple minutes.

-he thinks varian’s the coolest, hugo is the most suave, and nuru is the most wise. then he witnesses varian spend five minutes trying to extricate his boot from a hole it got stuck in without realizing that he can use his chemicals. and then he sees hugo go bright red when varian gets fed up and scoops him off the ground, slinging him over his shoulder. then he watches nuru realize she was holding her map upside down for the last forty minutes and discreetly adjust it. then he comes to the conclusion that he, yong, is the team leader.

-certified bug lover. he will pick up a cicada and present it to hugo, who will yelp and smack it out of his hand. this cycle will repeat with more and more frightening bugs. yong is using his innocent face, but he revels in hugo’s terror.

-one of the proudest days of his life was when he made a joke that had the other three in hysterics, even hugo.

-his main love language is quality time, then words of affirmation :D