If you dig deeper into the mental aspect of being paralyzed and isolated for 5 years, do you think Rex struggled to process being able to move and just... existing outside of Undar when he just escaped it? What if he got too used to being stuck as just an immobile mind and being only capable of observing the outside world that being able to actually interact with the world feels too foreign to him? I personally headcanon that Rex had to spend a few months in the Upstairs realm relearning how to function normally AND getting used to how the relm works before he built the ship and get the raptors. And i hc that he bedrots too.
Which makes me think abt the basic stuff like eating and sleeping. He's probably so out of touch with time and those concepts that he goes on days without them or just do them whenever.
I also headcanon that he sometimes mess up his thoughts and what he actually wants to say outloud lol.
YES. god i love these asks Please excuse the rambling
Other than all the trauma Rex has gained after Undar, he definitely has some physical side effects from being stuck in a different reality for 5 years. (Along with the crash that got him there in the first place)
I headcanon that in the real world, physical limitations minifigures usually have in their lego reality don't affect them anymore. That means that things that happen to them in the real world that could hurt them don't really do anything.
Falling off a table just makes them panic for a second, but there are no resulting consequences from what might have been a fatal fall.
Having a massive fan right next to them - that probably would've been deafening in their reality- is really just a mild annoyance that they can just shrug off. It's not like they have ears right?
That switch in the laws of nature messes with them a lot.
So, depending on the amount of time they spend in the realm of the man upstairs, the way they are affected by certain parts of the 'real world' when they return to their original reality can differ.
In the 'real world', they're all just plastic toys, so along with not having to deal with fatal consequences, any bodily function they previously had kinda gets put on pause. And 5 years of lying there in that weird stasis definitely messed with Emmet in irreversible ways.
In the first movie, Emmet just spends a few minutes in the real world, so when he gets back to lego reality, he's up and ready to fight immediately; the same goes with Lucy in the second movie.
But for Rex, well... he spent 5 years paralyzed, lying on his side, unable to do anything but watch. He spent 5 years as a plastic toy trapped in his own mind; he couldn't starve, he couldn't sleep, he couldn't even age.
But he was able to hear the winds of undar howling around him, he could feel the dust filling his lungs, he could scream and cry and beg for help, he could feel the searing pain of the explosion that made him crash, he could feel the hot-cold temperatures of undar. He could suffer
And after being stuck in that frozen state for so long, he's bound to have gotten used to it. The guy didn't really have any other choice in that situation.
Of course, once he finally manages to get out of Undar, he could move around. This would (In my headcanons) be a result of him getting so used to the reality of the man upstairs, that he can now move around more easily than just flopping. The rage of betrayal also helped.
Adrenaline is one hell of a drug, and that's something I think did help fuel Rex into finally getting out of Undar. But now the problem is what happens after the adrenaline rush dies down.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that after he got out of Undar, everything he told Emmet he did was embellished to hide the actual way he struggled.
When he slips back into the lego reality after being stuck phasing between that and the 'real world', well...
He keeps collapsing from muscle weakness. He has partial hearing loss from the constant banging of the dryer above him. He can't breathe properly for more than a week because of the dust that filled his lungs.
Every single feeling is overwhelming after years of isolation.
Doing anything in his reality feels almost foreign after years of doing nothing.
And it's a whole other level of torture to deal with all that alone.
He has to relearn basic motor functions in the lego reality, because fully integrating back there releases him from the stasis that froze his body in time. And now the dull pain that was in the back of his mind flares up like he's exploding all over again.
His limbs feel weak and shaky, yet they haven't changed at all from the day he crashed (Save for that large burn across his left arm).
His clothes are tattered, and his hair is slightly messy, but he hasn't aged. Yet he still has to deal with the aftermath and pain of being paralyzed for 5 years.
I'll say this again. It has been. 5. YEARS
Time is weird after years of being stuck wide awake. Hours could pass by, and it feels like it's only been a minute. Seconds can pass, and it feels like it's been hours.
He hasn't slept, eaten or done anything in those years. He barely remembers what any of that feels like anymore. And so that results in him forgetting to eat or sleep once he gets back on his feet.
And I don't mean that in a 'oh he just ignores the hunger eating away at him', no, I mean that he just doesn't feel hungry anymore. He completely forgets that food is something that he needs to put in his body. A whole week can go by, and it isn't until he checks the date that he realizes it.
He stays awake for 8 days without even a bit of sleep, and it's only until he wakes up on the floor that he realizes he passed out from exhaustion. Compared to the hunger, he still feels physical exhaustion to an extent, but it's just a lot fainter. Its the emotional exhaustion that hits harder.
So yeah, he spends a good few months phasing in and out of his reality and the 'real world', re-learning how to do normal people things again.
This is one of his lowest points because he's so consumed by pain, anger, and vengeance.
When he's finally physically 'stable' enough to actually build the rexcelsior and get the raptors, that's when his emotional state stabilizes a bit more.
Because now he has these prehistoric lizards noticing the lack of sleeping and eating. Their existence does help him to reluctantly develop somewhat more normal eating and sleeping habits.
But he will still get so consumed with his thoughts that thinking about any of these basic necessities gets put on the back burner.
And then there are the times where he gets flashbacks, and those days are always the worst. He feels weak, he feels pain, he feels a gnawing emptiness in his chest. So then he just lies there, blanking out. Disconnected from both realities.
He comes back to himself, thoughts fuzzy, to a heavy weight on his chest and surrounding him. He sees two bright yellow eyes staring right at him, a hint of concern in those intelligent reptillian eyes. And maybe, maybe that helps. Even just a bit.
