Hey hey hey! I’m Alexander, u can find anywhere as Alexzyzy1, I have really bad social skills, dyslexia, and I'm new to this app! I also do block freely.
My main fandoms are #objectshowcommunity #dandysworld #smilingfriends and #jackpotcrashcourse if u wanna learn more about me go check out my strawpage!
Pickle is a character who throughout the series has had a major focus on mental health, even going as far back as Season 1's "The Snowdown", which hinted at his feelings of helplessness and isolation early on, before the finale was written and his background storyline surrounding mental health truly begun. Throughout the series, shorts, and comics, we see his development and healing process with depression, trust issues and the emotional abuse he faces within the canon.
Prior representation of mental health.
Pickle's mental health and struggle with depression was a form of representation that was what ultimately ended up making myself so attached to him. I believe it's an incredibly accurate and realistic depiction of how depression and other factors such as prior abuse can harm and affect someone's personality. Throughout season one, Pickle is an energetic yet quiet person, who above all else values his friends, going as far as to kill others to defend his best friends. He laughs and he jokes and he's incredibly social, and as much as I hate to use it as a source, the season one remaster especially highlights his social life, even friendly with a host they all hated at the time. Whilst this may simply be trying to back-up Pickle's forgivingness towards MePhone4 in the finale, it shows how kind Pickle is and how he seems to get along with anyone he meets.
Season 2 almost immediately shows us the opposite. He's cold, uninterested, agitated, all within the first few minutes of the season's debut. He brushes off Knife's concern and seems frustrated about Taco's desperation to remedy things between them. Whilst we don't know for sure, the implication is that he read the letters and had grown increasingly agitated with them. Further on in the season, we see his struggle again in the episode "Everything's A-OJ", where we not only see his struggle reaching out but again, his struggle with frustration and we even get a glimpse into how he no longer enjoys the things he once did, such as a saxophone being found in the box of trash, or Pickle opting to stay inside when we not only previously saw but later on see that he prefers the outdoors. He's frustrated and immediately assumes the worst from someone trying to reach out and befriend him. Whilst it's a simpler representation of it, so many people I know, including myself, struggle with trusting people again after being hurt by someone they once cared for. Seeing the trust issues that come with depression presented in such a simple to understand way- something as simple as Knife breaking something that brings Pickle a semblance of joy- resonates with so many people and their experiences with poor mental health.
Within the same episode, we see so many experiences represented in an incredibly simple and easy to understand way. Things like Balloon (although regrettably) blaming Pickle for his misery, saying everyone else could see Taco's deception, although they couldn't, blaming her primary victim at the time for being "stupid enough" to trust her, is an experience many resonate with. For many, this guilt and blame is placed onto themselves internally, blaming themselves for the actions of others, though for many it is placed externally, especially common with male victims of abuse. Again- it was not Balloon's intent to say such, however it is still something that deeply hurt Pickle, especially considering in his final moment speaking face to face with Taco, she again called him an idiot for ever trusting her. I will later come back to this as it's an incredibly important point and relationship Pickle has with others.
We also see his clinging onto the past- clinging onto the good times he experienced with Taco. He says things such as "It never will leave, will it?" in regards to his memories with her, and although he avoids talking about it, does seem to enjoy remembering what they had, even if it was never real. He truly believes that his experiences will always haunt him, further highlighted in his discussion with Knife.
Knife points out his memories, and Pickle immediately shuts it down, keeping his experiences to himself, before being reminded that his memories aren't all there is to him, and that in order to replace those happiest memories with memories that don't make him immediately closed off and cold to the people around him who he has always loved- he has to be willing to fight through his struggle and try again. A message that so many people need to hear. Things can get better, but you have to be willing to get better, and he DOES fight to get better- we see him constantly reminding himself that only he can fix things, such as in "Seas The Day", where he is trying to get out and remind himself of the things he loves again, whilst not only reconnecting with old friends, but finding new people who care about him.
Ultimately, his story is about abuse and mental health and the struggle millions face every single day, and it is to me, such a beautiful representation of so many people's struggles and sends a beautiful message about fighting for your own future despite what life has handed to you.
Which, is what I hoped I could say about his entire storyline.
"The Reality of the Situation"
Unfortunately, his storyline isn't always perfectly handled. In the first episode of the season 2 finale, "The Reality of the Situation", Pickle is forced to address something he had moved on from long ago, because Taco is the one that was unable to move on. The episode shows his confidence in his feelings now and his refusal to dwell on the good- blatant proof that he's doing so much better than he once was. We even see him explicitly pushing the blame back onto Taco- he was blamed for being a victim as he was "stupid", however tells Taco that she was the one being an idiot, insinuating that she's the one at fault for everything that happened.
This episode alone seems handle his story quite well still- however it… very rapidly goes downhill from there on out. Friends of Pickle's forgiving the person who hurt him most, accepting Taco back despite having not changed in the slightest, ignoring all the damage her actions inflicted upon him. The only person to actually react is Paper, though, he too seems to be over it by the fourth season too.
Before the later episodes of the "movie" came out, the community and fandom was already incredibly hostile towards Pickle for his lack of forgiveness towards Pickle- but here's the thing.
Pickle was never petty in that way. When he saw someone who was remorseful and who had made an attempt to improve themselves as a person- such as Balloon- he did forgive them. With Taco, she had not made a single attempt to even understand his upset. She admits to have never considered his feelings in her manipulation, and tries to twist her abuse of him into them having been in it together, all after refusing to face him for a decade and harassing him through letters and stalking him. Pickle is simply able to now see through her deception and doesn't fall for her tricks again. This isn't to say he's smarter, or that he's stupid. Simply that he knows now who she is and knows he cannot trust her anymore, especially not when she is directly proving her inability to change.
The hostility that arose with the release of this episode entirely comes down to the fact that the community favours Taco for being "hot", and is incredibly unsympathetic to victims of abuse. Whilst I do tend to have laser vision when it comes to Pickle, I highly recommend checking out @lilacs-stashes and @microknifeyuri's blogs, and especially microknifeyuri's analysis of Microphone and Taco's relationship. They both have incredible understandings of other characters within the show who are victims of abuse and incredibly mistreated by the community, such as Mic, Baseball, Suitcase and MePhone4.
Intentions of Canon
Within canon, Pickle was apparently intended as nothing other than an idiot. When examining the character sheets made by MePhone4, we see a lot of… frankly awful messaging being sent across. Pickle only being an idiot, Taco having her awful actions built into her, Suitcase being a "backstabber" for confronting her friend's abusive behaviours, etc.
By writing two victim's who did not forgive their abusers (although, with Suitcase and Nickel, I again recommend looking at @lilacs-stashes' blog and their analyses of their relationship, or @microknifeyuri's posts about them too), to be things like idiots and backstabbers, it perpetuates the harmful idea that they're not good people or less than others for being unforgiving towards the people who have hurt them.
Especially with Pickle- when Microphone had forgiven Taco despite her lack of real apology or effort to change and better herself as a person- it's incredibly harmful to imply that he is being an idiot for not forgiving someone who threw him headfirst into trust issues and guilt and depression (although it was somewhat already implied in season one that Pickle had mental health issues, Taco's actions very clearly worsened these problems). If Microphone, someone who is depicted as smart in a non academic sense, is forgiving of someone who stripped her of her identity and sense of self, then why shouldn't Pickle?
This is only further highlighted in the finale when Taco still is unable to understand Pickle's refusal to forgive her.
This implication also seems to mock his problems- when you claim a character who's primary storyline is about his struggle with mental health was only ever an idiot, it makes for a clear mockery of men's mental health issues and disregards the very real struggle so many people face. Claiming that the character who so accurately represented how it is to struggle with depression is an idiot and nothing more, it comes across as very harmful messaging. Whilst this may not have been the intention of AnimationEpic, it very much so reads as such.
This messaging very much so shames victims of abuse who were unwilling to forgive and forget the actions of their abuser. It's an insult to victims who struggle with the guilt of being unable to forget about their abuse and simply forget all that their abuser did to them.
Audience Perception
The audiences perception is very much biased in terms of Pickles storyline, and the majority of the fanbase that so heavily opposes him, often feeds into the messages that the show sends. When we examine the ways in which the fandom treats victims, even such as Suitcase and Microphone, we only ever see a mockery of their problems or complete ignorance, even going as far as to harass those who take the time to point out these issues within the community.
When victims who are a part of this community are being mocked and ridiculed for the way characters feel about their abusers, it reinforces the belief that so mamy victims already have about themselves being wrong for feeling things such as hate for their abuser or upset when remembering their abuse. The community reinforces the belief that only forgiveness is right and that you are unjustified in your feelings, further serving to shame victims who are already existing within a society that shames them. This is especially apparent in the way the fandom treats male victims and refuses to admit and acknowledge that characters such as Pickle and Baseball are in fact victims, and instead only empathise with the female victims of their abuser.
This is mostly rambling, I'm very well aware of that, however, I do hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed going (inanimate) insane and writing it :-)
hii to celebrate pride month i drew a little art of my favorite gay rocks
Also all except the first are doodles I haven't shared yet
sorry i couldnt do more i am kind of going through a personal rut but heeyyyy at least i finished school its summer time gangy #survived another month hahahaha.. hha... WOOOOOO I'M GONNA BE MORE ACTIVE NOW HOPEFULLY WOO WOO
[Image ID: A digital drawing of Peridot and Amethyst from Steven Universe. Peridot smiles goofily as Amethyst reaches her arms over her shoulders and points out something, smiling as she talks. End ID.]
imagine coming back from being snowed in and instead of the usual hypothermia case you have some stupid idiot who jumped off a roof like frickin tyler from class 09
JACKPOT CRASH COURSE CHAPTER 1 Releases MAY 8TH 6PM EST
Jackpot Crash Course is a multi-chaptered casino-themed death game visual novel about crime, luck, and spectacle.
Against all odds, Eddie must take part in a game show starring only criminals and gamble against rival players to prove himself still worthy of being pardoned for his wrong deeds.
But is the show really about proving your innocence?
You'll be able to download the fully-fleshed out Chapter 1 of JCC for FREE on both Steam and Itch io on MAY 8TH 6PM EST!
In just the first chapter, there's:
😈 13+ Characters
🪙 90k Words
🔥 300+ CGs
🍒 25+ Original Soundtrack
If you already played the first half on itch io, this build will include the second half!
Please wishlist the game below for updates!
In a game show starring only criminals, you must gamble against rival players to prove yourself worthy of being pardoned for your wrong deed
