Feels Like Sugar In Meeeeeeeeee

feels like sugar in meeeeeeeeee

Tiny Goldfinch details that make me feel insane:

-Theo getting a glass of water when coming up with a lie to tell Hobie and remarking it’s what his father always did

-Theo telling his mother off for talking to someone and her saying he’s like his father and Theo’s immediate guilt

-Theo obsessively studying as if he could scrub away the guilt and shame and disgust he felt towards himself for no reason he could identify

-Mrs Barbour saying goodbye to Theo and looking like she was forgetting to say smth

-Boris taking his fathers gold lighter and putting it into Theo’s bag after he remarked on it once

-Theo and Tom cutting their palms, shaking hands and promising to be brothers 2 weeks before Tom betrayed him, leading to his mother’s death vs Theo beating Boris bloody until his knuckles were split and Boris kissing them to let him know all was forgiven, weeks before Boris stole the goldfinch. Theo remembering this all right before Boris came back and he found out abt Kitsey and Tom

-The clock being one minute to midnight in the photo of Andy and Mr Barbour.

-Andy’s innate almost prophetic fear of water. Being born with the knowledge of how he was going to die.

-Mrs Barbour inadvertently being the one to introduce Theo to drugs

-Theo’s mother saying the moon is home and Boris telling Theo his name means moon along with the quote “home is wherever I am. The center of my earth is you”

-Theo’s mother calling him puppy and the story in Theo’s suicide note of the injured puppy they couldn’t save

-Pippa being the “morphine lollipop”

-Theo’s terrifying dreams of his mother, trying to get home to her, only to realise he never could or it wasn’t actually her. Stuck haunting subway stations in his dreams never to return home again.

Daryl Dixon took awhile to age mentally

As I read more and more analysis about Daryl and rewatch some of the earlier seasons, I wonder if it was intended for his character to have some kind of age regression issue. (I didn't do, like, extensive research, I just looked into some CPSTD and age regression signs on a few different sites, so this is just an idea I'm tossing out in hopes of hearing some other perspectives!)

The first situation that really catches my attention is his reaction to Merle being left in Atlanta. Now, obviously, this would be an incredibly emotional time for anyone and it's not entirely out of place to just say he was very distraught over the news and anyone could have reacted the same way he did. I just think that the specific way he did might have some signs. If you think about a grown man, especially one who was raised in a very macho household, you would assume that their reaction might be to storm out or yell at someone. Although Daryl did yell, he also started crying and pacing. It seemed almost as if he was having a full-on meltdown. Some signs of age regression are meltdowns (Ranting, shouting, insulting others, threatening others, whining, angry tears, or getting physically violent) that ring any bells?

I couldn't find a gifs of that exact moment :(

It probably didn't help that the entirety of the camp was staring at him as all of this happened. Temper tantrums can happen because someone is scared/ashamed and can't regulate themselves. (Like sensory overload.)

Another thing that I want to kind of address is the way Rick responds to Daryl when he's having these sorts of meltdowns. Throughout the series, and in the third episode, we see Rick bending down almost horizontally just so he can make eye contact with Daryl. He speaks to him like he's a child, and instead of feeling insulted, Daryl actually takes comfort in it and calms down!

"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic, do you think we can manage that?"

What is age regression?

We all know that Daryl was abused as a child, and trauma like that can sort of freeze the brain. This is a quote I really like that explains it: “It doesn’t necessarily make you stuck at a certain age, but instead, [you are] acting out the emotional wounding that happened at that age,” Lapides adds." People may start to regress because they are triggered or feel threatened, and an apocalypse seems like it would cause a constant trigger. Daryl might be reverting back to childlike behaviors as a trauma response. (honorable mention being the nail biting, but that's a bit of a reach) Shane being the way that he was could have also been a trigger for him.

One of the symptoms of age regression is overly clingy behavior. And you are probably thinking, "well, if there's anything Daryl has, it's not clingy behavior. He's a loner." I disregarded this too for awhile before I really thought about it. He is highly independent when he's doing things he's comfortable in, like being in the woods or going for runs. But when it comes to making decisions or being social, Daryl immediately clings to someone who he knows will do it for him. Most of his life he had Mere to hide behind. The most outgoing and shameless person alive. I don't think Merle ever asked Daryl his opinion on anything. He would decide, and Daryl would follow, and I think Daryl took a lot of comfort in that. So when Merle was gone, he latched onto Rick because he was the best choice. He knew Rick was a very righteous man who had plenty of leadership qualities. He knew Rick would make decisions for him, and give him directions.

Carol and Rick's mothering

Circling back to the way Rick would react to Daryl's outbursts, carol sometimes did the same thing. I know some people ship them, but honestly, at least in the earlier seaons, I got major mother/son vibes from the two of them. Especially when Beth died and she was trying to teach him how to grieve. The forehead kisses, the pookie nickname, all of it seemed to point in that direction. There was also another time Rick pulled the "Can we manage that?" move, and it was during Aiden and Glenn's fight in S5. He made sure to get low enough to make eye contact, and block his pacing. He kept telling Daryl that "We can't do this now." It all just looks a lot like he and carol are parenting Daryl, if only in moments where he is feeling intense stress and that trauma triggers.

Anyways, this was just a few ideas I was tossing around, and very clearly this in my first analysis lol, any thoughts?

this show is criminally underrated