Mod André - she/mech, trans, butch lesbian, genderqueer, system, autistic, and physically disabled. love shawn hatosy, our favourite butch <3 anti-hucklerobby.
[basic text: Mod André]
Mod Clyde - he/him, transmasc, AuDHD, physically disabled, unicorn lover, cripple punk, folk lover, number 1. Rabbot shipper. I was banned from the shawn hatosy wiki. 🦄.
oh the comfort of being able to feel angry towards someone you know won’t leave you. robby with his abandonment issues pushing jack away because he feels like he deserves to be alone & jack refusing to ever leave him alone, he wants to spend the rest of their very long life together.
Is it just me or does it seem like Pope age regresses? Cause I feel like there's several scenes where I look at him and am like, "yeah, that's a ten year old."
I mean I notice it a loooot more after Smurf "suggests" he moves in again. And I notice, in myself at least, that involuntary regression happens pretty frequently while/after interacting with past abusers.
I dunno, could just be a bitch with a trauma disorder projecting onto a bitch with a trauma disorder 'w'
we a hundred percent see regressor as well, but us and our friend noticed around s3-4 signs of DID, particularly with there being a child alter, in Pope
at the beginning of season four, there's a scene where deran and craig ask what popes doing with his property that smurf gave him, and pope responds with a more timid "i don't know," and this scene really cemented the idea of pope having DID in my mind, and i think likewise our friends mind as we had to rewind together a few times and talk about it haha!
there are so many examples of different popes, different alters, throughout the show that i feel INSANE knowing that this was most likely not intentional, yet somehow so obvious. like, i KNOW shawn hatosy was thinking about willis/clyde-andré (his did system character[s] from er) while portraying pope
I'll start this with a major trigger warning! My intent here is to discuss my thoughts on Pope's upbringing, and the definite implied sexual abuse he suffered. Please read with caution, as I will be relating this to my own struggles and abuse. Please read with caution or skip this if it's too heavy.
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There are so many implications and outright statements throughout Animal Kingdom, that show Pope's upbringing was less than ideal.
From the first episode, we see that Smurf is very loose with her sexuality. From kissing J on the neck when she sees him for the first time in a decade, or Craig kissing her on the lips while he's naked and she's in a bra. From the start I got the impression she wasn't quite right when I began watching.
Again, in the first episode, Smurf is mad at him for taking J to steal a car. He goads her on for a moment, then brings her hands towards his crotch and said, "Play with me mommy."
At that point, I understood the show was trying to say that Smurf not only groomed her sons to be criminals but also groomed them sexually. I began relating to Pope so much more after that, beyond his odd compulsive behaviors and awkward personality.
A few other concerning statements are made throughout the series, including Billy saying, "He was in diapers until he was 6." referring to Pope. That is one of the biggest red flags for sexual abuse, which mandated reporters are told to look out for. Reluctance to use the bathroom and frequent accidents. It is also mentioned that doctors believed his behaviors were "regressing". In the same scene, Billy says, "He loves the feeling of Smurf's hands between his legs."
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Now, the rest of this will be headcanons of how this treatment has affected his mindset and personality. Again, trigger warning.
In my opinion, this treatment as he was a child and teen affected the way he views relationships and sex. He expects it to hurt, expects it to be forced. When he's around 16, he vows to be celibate forever. He never wants to feel it ever again, and even getting an erection makes him sick.
When he's around 23, he tries to start experimenting again. It never feels very good, and he only pursues relationships that remind him of Smurf. It's not good for him at all, each relationship worse than the last. At some point, he tries to engage in a Dom/ Sub relationship, thinking maybe it could help him work out his trauma through submission. It doesn't and he suffers worse than ever.
His one reprieve from his own self destruction is when he gets sentenced to three years in prison. For that time, he finds solace in a few friends in prison, people who sort of relate to stuff he had been through although he never shares anything too deeply with them.
A few guys in prison recognize his past, and they vow to keep him safe, at least within the walls of the building. He's grateful every day for those men, because god knows what could've happened to him if he didn't have them.
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Due to the trauma Pope experienced as a child, he often struggles with involuntary regression. It comes after a stressful job or when he's sick, where his mind just slips down until all he can do is lay in bed and cry. Wish he had somebody who loved him and who would take care of him even when he feels so little.
His worst habit is thumb sucking, which usually comes along at night when he tries to sleep. He never went out of the way to buy any little gear, no pacifiers or little toys. No matter how bad he wants them, he never gets them. His pride is too consuming.
Pope likes to be alone when he regresses, and he wants to be taken care of, but he can't bring himself to ask someone to help. He knows it would be too embarrassing to ask.
Although sometimes, Deran helps him out a bit. Of course, Deran doesn't quite understand why his brother is sometimes so emotional, or so childish after a rough job, but he helps anyway.
Him and Pope are two sides of the same coin after all. So, he'll sit with Pope at night when he's crying into his pillow, and do his best to soothe his brother, hoping it helps.
Deran knows what Pope had been through with Smurf, most of the brothers had been. But he also knew Pope had it the worst out of all of them. Smurf knew he would crawl back to her no matter what, so she could do anything to Pope without much consequence.
Nobody else in the family saw Pope like this except Deran. Pope used to let Smurf help him, but in recent years he started denying help from her and only accepting Deran on occasion.
When Pope is little, he hates being touched, but he also wants to be held so badly. He'll cry against Deran's chest, while shivering and hating feeling the touch. But Deran, thank god for him, is so patient and kind, and lets Pope crawl away and come back when he's ready. There's never any pressure from Deran.
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Okay guys, this concludes my thoughts, I probably have more but I'm lowk busy with college. Anyways, I hope people find this sort of therapeutic like I did while writing it. Me and Pope are lowk twins, both so traumatized but so cool and epic. Anyways, peace out twins <3
pope cody is so abused and neglected pitbull who attacks when provoked and everyone says "oh he's a pitbull they're violent they can't be trusted its in their nature" but maybe if he hadn't been left chained up in the yard so many nights maybe if he had a warm home and loving owners he'd never have bitten so many people. he wants to be a good dog but "he's a pitbull they're violent its in their nature" so he was never given a chance. send tweet
THIS. So much of his behavior is very textbook and typical for PTSD due to a variety of different types of abuse - some is outright stated and some kinds are only hinted at, and in later seasons they show his mom drinking and smoking while pregnant with him and his sister - so based on his personality and behavior I’d add fetal alcohol poisoning as well. Then add everyone constantly manipulating him… I genuinely felt bad for this character.
"Where's my niece? Is she OK? Is she-- is she scared? Where did you put her? I need to-- I need to know where she is. I need to make sure she understands what's happening, that I still love her, and that I want her. And that I will get her back soon, OK? Because-- because I didn't know. When I was in the foster care system, I did not know what was happening. Nobody told me. Nobody told me what was happening, and I'm gonna tell her!"
And during all of this, there's unsettling music playing, people are talking over him, security is coming towards him to escort him out. He is on the verge of crying. He begs them not to write this down, because he knows it will result in him being marked as an unfit caretaker.
The problem is: this is a perfect example of what could be an anxiety attack triggered by PTSD/a trauma disorder, presented through the lens of a man who has OCD and/or Autism and has been abused his whole life for it. He knows what the system does, he knows he can take care of his girl better than anyone else could, he just needs fucking resources. And yet, he's being presented as scary and unstable because HE is scared and no one is answering him. Notably, he's not even being aggressive this whole time, his volume is controlled, he may be a little close to who he's talking to, but he moves when asked. This scene is fucking me up.
I feel a deep need to talk about aboit Andrew Pope Cody being autistic as well after my stuff with Jack. Andrew has more than autism and I need to put this out there that he canonically has a dissociative disorder. Though it’s not specified we do learn he has one because it’s heavily triggered after Smurf’s death. And I can’t imagine he doesn’t have some form of a personality disorder (I am aware autism can present as personality disorders or things like ocd if gone untreated i know). But that’s beside the point. Andrew’s autism shows up in a specific way that I could relate to so heavily. His need for cleanliness partly comes from his time in jail (I’m saying this based off a Shawn hatosy interview) but also because he doesn’t like germs. Like. At all. He’s just like me fr. And sure it could be ocd but one ocd is not only a cleaning disorder thats simply not how that works and then secondly there’s also a few times on the show that he misses social cues or he picks up on them but he isn’t entirely sure if it’s right and requires clarification because he doesn’t want to proceed without knowing the answer (like with Amy and the two of them having sex) and he also tends to hyper fixate on projects and people that he can help. Lena became his life line for a long time. And then later in the show with the skatepark he was focused on actually building the skatepark itself and then his focus switched to caring for the kids as best he could as an outsider. All in all I think Andrew definitely has autism but has probably spent so long masking and hiding from his wants to stim or anything like that because of Smurf that he probably wouldn’t know where to start and that sucks. Sigh. I’m so pope guys. I love my baby
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