Spethan - Tumblr Posts
the face of a man seeing his platonic friend. truly. definitely. (lie)
something that i think is Very funny about the first scene with reid and ethan is that reid jumpscares ethan (and the audience) and to me it seems like it was intentional. like yes he's smiling because he has dumb gay feelings but hes also smiling like "haha i got you >:)"
do you think he did this regularly when they were friends (or together, depending on how you read their relationship). do you think ethan was scared every time he turned a corner because half the time reid would be standing there like 🧍‍♂️
i know canon suggests reid and ethan met as children but ive always pictured reid as a friendless child (sorry </3) and so to me they met in college and in my brain they Did Not Get Along at first. anyway here's my reid/ethan timeline:
reid graduates HS at twelve, takes a gap year because he's worried about leaving diana, then goes to college at fourteen
during reid's second year, ethan starts, having graduated HS at sixteen—also early, because anyone who reid can describe as someone he "competed with constantly" has to also be very intelligent
they meet one way or another, and reid fucking hates ethan. ethan likes reid at first, but when he picks up on reid's dislike of him, he responds in kind and they form a rivalry
the reason reid hates ethan at first is because he sees ethan as being him, but better in every way. growing up as a friendless, awkward child with a...complicated family, reid rationalised to himself that that was just the price he had to pay for being as intelligent as he was. so what if he's dodging cps? so what if he's facing relentless bullying? so what if he can't figure out how everyone navigates social situations so easily while he fumbles? he's a genius. it's fine, it's an exchange. it's one or the other and he's okay with that. and then...ethan. ethan is extroverted and personable and likable, has a close and largely uncomplicated relationship with his family, and is also a genius. and now reid has no choice to admit to himself that everything fucked up about his childhood wasn't the universe balancing itself, but just...fucked up. and he hates ethan for making him think about that.
i have three different ideas of how they eventually become friends: a happy one, where ethan, who, yes, responds to reid's obvious dislike of him by also being a shitty teenage boy, but who also is determined to kill him with kindness and annoy the shit out of him until reid gives in and stops also being a shitty teenage boy. then a darker one, where reid somehow discovers ethan's own demons (either his alcoholism or the issues that led to it) and is like "oh nvm i was right! we geniuses really are doomed to be unhappy people :) we can be friends now" although ethan would eventually knock some sense into him. and finally a silly one where they're mid-argument and then for reasons neither of them can name, they kiss. they argue to this day about who initiated
anyway. they decide to keep up a facade of dislike because their rivalry has become kind of infamous on campus and it would be so embarrassing if they had to admit they like eachother now. god can you imagine. so in public they have increasingly dramatic arguments and then laugh about in private. especially true if you, like me, believe there was something non-platonic going on between them, simply for safety reasons. one person sees them making out in a closet but nobody believes them when they try to spread that around because wtf are you talking about. they want eachother dead. if you're going to invent a rumour at least make it believable god.
so u kinda mentioned this- how do u think spencer and ethan broke up? i rlly love ur insights into the characters :))
oh god now im realising i have way less thoughts on their breakup than i thought i did SORRY. also i totally forgot that @thereiddepartment also asked in the comments of the reid/ethan post i made so sorry!! hope it's okay to tag you
anyway so. we know from canon that ethan quit the academy after the first day. i like to headcanon that he left a letter apologising (because people like doing that to reid) but saying that they could try long distance. and they do.
and they can't.
ethan has his own stuff going on and reid is busy with the academy and then with work. maybe theyre even still together a couple months into reid being with the bau, but at some point, they break up. the distance is too much. reid doesn't feel like he can talk to ethan about the things he sees because ethan has his own demons to contend with. ethan feels like he can't talk to reid about his demons because of the things reid is seeing every day. they just drift.
i think it's ethan who rips off the bandaid. they have weekly phone calls to catch up and without even thinking, ethan picks up the phone one day and says "this isn't working." it ends quietly and anticlimactically—both of them find some small part of themselves wishing it had been more dramatic, more explosive. it was reid's first relationship and ethan's first serious relationship, and it just feels wrong that it just...fizzled out.
maybe they get back together after 2x18. maybe they don't, but rekindle their friendship. maybe there are occasionally benefits.
(also i love the reid/ethan headcanon you shared in the tags here and i can very much see that as well LMAO. just two guy best friends who live together and are planning to spend their lives together <3 my bestie is planning on following me into a dangerous career his heart isn't into just so he can be with me <33 why does he keep looking at me like that)
i know canon suggests reid and ethan met as children but ive always pictured reid as a friendless child (sorry </3) and so to me they met in college and in my brain they Did Not Get Along at first. anyway here's my reid/ethan timeline:
reid graduates HS at twelve, takes a gap year because he's worried about leaving diana, then goes to college at fourteen
during reid's second year, ethan starts, having graduated HS at sixteen—also early, because anyone who reid can describe as someone he "competed with constantly" has to also be very intelligent
they meet one way or another, and reid fucking hates ethan. ethan likes reid at first, but when he picks up on reid's dislike of him, he responds in kind and they form a rivalry
the reason reid hates ethan at first is because he sees ethan as being him, but better in every way. growing up as a friendless, awkward child with a...complicated family, reid rationalised to himself that that was just the price he had to pay for being as intelligent as he was. so what if he's dodging cps? so what if he's facing relentless bullying? so what if he can't figure out how everyone navigates social situations so easily while he fumbles? he's a genius. it's fine, it's an exchange. it's one or the other and he's okay with that. and then...ethan. ethan is extroverted and personable and likable, has a close and largely uncomplicated relationship with his family, and is also a genius. and now reid has no choice to admit to himself that everything fucked up about his childhood wasn't the universe balancing itself, but just...fucked up. and he hates ethan for making him think about that.
i have three different ideas of how they eventually become friends: a happy one, where ethan, who, yes, responds to reid's obvious dislike of him by also being a shitty teenage boy, but who also is determined to kill him with kindness and annoy the shit out of him until reid gives in and stops also being a shitty teenage boy. then a darker one, where reid somehow discovers ethan's own demons (either his alcoholism or the issues that led to it) and is like "oh nvm i was right! we geniuses really are doomed to be unhappy people :) we can be friends now" although ethan would eventually knock some sense into him. and finally a silly one where they're mid-argument and then for reasons neither of them can name, they kiss. they argue to this day about who initiated
anyway. they decide to keep up a facade of dislike because their rivalry has become kind of infamous on campus and it would be so embarrassing if they had to admit they like eachother now. god can you imagine. so in public they have increasingly dramatic arguments and then laugh about in private. especially true if you, like me, believe there was something non-platonic going on between them, simply for safety reasons. one person sees them making out in a closet but nobody believes them when they try to spread that around because wtf are you talking about. they want eachother dead. if you're going to invent a rumour at least make it believable god.