DT17 Bushroot you still intrigue me. Get some damn water.
I honestly vibe with this concept for Reggie. It is a cool idea of what could have been. First off, he doesn't talk but is still able to show sass and emote and I honestly love that, shows part of his old self is still there. Another thing I love, is he became a fucking eldritch horror. That shriek he let out was haunting and my inner horror fan was fangirling so hard. I also love that with the little time we got, he was just as memorable as the others. Also love how LP and Drake were like "well he isn't really a bad guy" when their inner nerds were showing, made me very happy as I feel the same.
Bushroot has always had strong horror themes, a lot of his episodes have horror influence/inspiration. Beauty and the Beet is very Frankenstein, Night of the Living Spud is basically just a B horror movie, Twin Beaks. So it’s not so much a new addition more so a doubling down on something that was already there. Using that Frankenstein analogy, Reggie is essentially both the doctor and the monster. 91 Bushy leans more doctor, while 17 leans more monster.
DT17 is full horror movie monster. His design is so much more threatening; he’s actually still shaped like a duck, no longer a noodle, he’s like a husk of a man. His eyes are blank and unreadable, his colors are dull, and he’s far more aggressive than 91 Bushroot ever was. All that combined with the fact he’s apparently mute, and you have someone who’s very difficult to read, you can’t tell what he’s thinking, or if he’s even thinking at all.
But clearly he is. A lot of this is just how I’ve grown to interpret him, but if he really was the mindless monster he presents himself as, he wouldn’t work so well with the rest of the F4. He grins when beating up Bonkers, he shrugs trying to respond to Bulba, he has these tiny moments where his actual personality pokes through and that’s so important to me. Personally, I think the monster thing is probably a bit of an act. One heavily based in reality, he really can’t talk, really looks half dead, and is a hell of a lot more willing to fight himself than 91. But Reggie is also a massive coward, and isn’t it easier to just act like the monster he seems to be than to try and fight it? Easier to fight like the others if he forces himself to not think too hard.
He’s clearly very different from 91 but honestly I think some of that old personality’s still in there. How fun would it be to have a character that acts like a horrifying monster but can be goaded into dropping the act, revealing the cowardly, vindictive person underneath. Idk, this is mostly me rambling but I really do love this version of the character and I wish they’d had the time to properly flash him out.
