i think a big part of why i love dghda s1 as much as i do is because i love when sci-fi uses its genre to create really in-your-face symbolism.
dghda s1 is about literally so much oh my god but if i were to pare it down to its barest bones and try to describe it in one word, i’d say it’s about duality. the duality of fate and free will, which is arguably the one of the main ideological engines driving the entire series. the duality of how different people react to similar traumas, as shown by the constant visual and narrative paralleling of characters (dirk and todd/ken and bart, todd/suzie boreton [she’s s2 but that one in particular is interesting enough that i’m gonna include it here lmao], etc.). and most notably to me the duality of the self — specifically in terms of what it means to lie to other people.
all the members of the agency trio are characterized in a way that’s inherently contradictory. dirk is an inner pessimist whose goals in s1 require a facade of borderline grating optimism. todd’s most defining traits are both his dangerously fierce loyalty and his past lying. farah spends pretty much the entire time trying to hide her weirdness/anxiousness under rigid plans and combat skill. and ALL of their arcs have a core moment in which they acknowledge that they have effectively created multiple versions of themselves via their inauthenticity, which serves as a major catalyst for their character growth.
anyways all of this to say. IT’S A SHOW ABOUT HOW LYING FORCES YOU TO CREATE MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF YOURSELF. AND THE MAIN SCI-FI MECHANIC IS LITERALLY SWAPPING SOULS WITH OTHER PEOPLE.
the villains are people who cannot reconcile with who they are and instead become addicted to pretending to be other people, and its ultimately their unwillingness to let that go that leads to their downfall. the people that swap their souls too many times take on an uncanny demeanor, because to continue lying about yourself is to lose your humanity. and the element of time travel further emphasizes this. patrick spring creates multiple versions of himself by time traveling because he’s traumatized and he cannot move on, and he dies by another version of himself. him creating multiple versions of himself inadvertently forces his daughter into a false version of herself. and when dirk and todd go back in time, they walk away learning that you can’t fix everything. splitting yourself up does not free yourself or other people. rather, much like the other lies they’ve told themselves and other people, it leaves you permanently stuck in a loop of self-destruction.
considering most of the main dghda characters are holistic and have a very obvious important part to play. or if theyre not holistic they still have an obligation/duties to fulfill that makes them a part of this (farah being lydias bodyguard for example- she is a part of the spring case)
its so important to me that todd really is Just Some Guy. like he isnt really a part any of this- he can walk away but he doesnt! he chose to stay
i have so many thoughts about dghda and age, first off the blackwing gang(TM) never realy understand it (eg. vogel saying he can be amanda's grandson) and ALSO
since we don't have the official ages of the blackwing folk, this is what i feel each character gives off (and i'm not counting francis, bcs we know how old he is and he's def the oldest)
first we have the OG rowdy 3, who are probably around late 30s to 40s
then i actually think mona could be older too. think about it, she's literally a shapeshifter so is technically ageless.
y'all know i'm obsessed with dirk/mona being found family siblings, that's why i think mona would be older than dirk/bart/vogel. idk dirk just gives off younger brother energy, and i think because of that mona did a lot to protect him in blackwing, yk bcs she's like a god essentially. bcs of this i always saw her as an older sister type, bcs i feel thé sheer power of her was so often used to protect dirk in blackwing.
now i'm like a firm believer in dirk and bart being the same age. like, their abilities parallel eachother so much it makes sense if the universe decided to drop 'em both onto earth at the same time (i would even not necessarily doubt bart and dirk being biological siblings, but that's just a bit too off canon for me to fully adopt dkfjdjf)
and then i think vogel is def the youngest, just because (iirc) riggins/preist/freidken/someone mentioned that when vogel joined blackwing was when the project became too unstable, causing the initial breakout. so clearly, there was alot of time before vogel joined.
again obv just a theory (a GAME theory) and i would gen love everyone else's thoughts
the disease flare-ups in both of the brotzman siblings are stress-triggered, but it's sensory-heavy for amanda and emotion-heavy for todd. cases in point,
amanda:
freezes when she goes out on the street;
hurts her hand when she drums;
bursts into flames in a loud & bright store, despite feeling proud of herself for leaving the house;
todd:
gets a burn on his hand in which he held the phone when panicked amanda called him;
chokes when farah leaves him alone and he ends up running into police (while on the run from the government).
though, despite the difference, there's a similarity in that both cases somewhat represent the idea that "what you fear most in yourself, will hurt you (so let go of the fear)":
— amanda knows she's got the disease, so she stays holed up indoors despite hating the boredom, so even mild sensory distortions send her careening.
— todd believes his feelings are not worth examining, so he doesn't, and they boil under until they boil over.
advice for amanda: live your life, even if it's dangerous.
advice for todd: be honest, even if it's inconvenient.
Hello friends!! It's been a WHILE but I'm back with this series
- You may follow the google docs file I'm writing everything down in, also!
If you haven't yet, links to the first three episodes:
S1E1 - Horizons / S1E2 - Lost and Found / S1E3 - Rogue Wall Enthusiasts
Click read more to read the analysis of the fourth episode! Tagging: @clockworkcheetah @urlocallesbiab @generalized-incompetence @amber-angel @goatygoat @frenchfriedgiraffe
> When Todd catches up with him and Farah, he schools his expressions from excited to have seen him to bored/uninterested, both to show that he isn’t THAT excited he’s there - he seems to think having a bigger reaction to things he likes may cause unwanted reactions from those around him, so he constantly tones himself down
> When they get to the powerhouse, he’s SOOO excited about climbing the fence - I headcanon Dirk as a mix of sensory avoidant and sensory seeking, and his impulsivity is also very relatable
> “Push my bum!! Make me go up!!!” - I might die of second hand embarrassment everytime I watch this scene, but it’s so relatable! I, too, say things without noticing it might have double meaning and it doesn’t dawn on me until hours or years later
> When he isn’t able to climb up and then sees Farah just. Break the locks. It’s SO funny how he hadn’t even considered trying the more obvious steps first before just throwing himself onto the chain link fence, I love him!! Yes impulsive with no common sense king!!!
> As soon as they’re in he just grabs the map from Todd’s hand without even glancing at him - impulsivity but also hyperfocus on the task overriding the conscious effort to show courtesy by asking for things before taking them
> After he falls inside the maze, he tells Todd “Which was unsafe to do unsupervised, now that I think about it” - hard time thinking things through before doing it because, again, the hyperfocus ends up overriding common sense
> “Where are we?” / “Underground!” - WELL YES. Literal thinking icon
> Todd calls out to him, “Hey! Don’t wander off!” - elopping, we tend to wander off without noticing or letting others know, or stay behind because we stopped to look at something, often also involves not noticing danger
> “I think the message is… you’re going to die” - no filter, absolutely first thing that comes to mind is already halfway out his mouth, ADHD ambassador
> “You can’t just walk in blindly? You’re saying that to ME?” - Same trait as before, elopping all the way
> Todd goes, “When shit hits the fan, you fall apart!” - EXTREMELY common for us to not see the consequences or effects coming up until we have to deal with it, especially in situations we’ve never been through before, which is a constant
> *smiling * “...I hope you’re not smiling” DEEP frown - my beautiful son who has cartoonish expressions and can’t hide his emotions very well, we are one and the same
> In the strip down scene we see he wears a white undershirt, which could be providing deep pressure which is great for sensory seeking autistic people!! Also goes in hand with me headcanoning him as trans, double up tight shirt as a binder AND sensory stim
> “Hope you’re not claustrophobic” / “No, I don’t even like coffee” - two things: he has audio processing issues and misunderstood what was said, AND he responded based on what he understood even if it didn’t make sense for the context of the situation at hand
here's a silly little narrative/visual parallel that I noticed
Turning to Exhibit A: this is Patrick Spring. he has two massive electric-crossbow arrows sticking out of his chest. he's about to bleed out probably :)
and then Catherine saves his life! And Patrick immediately falls in love with her and they have a great time together (before she gets fridged for crimes of being a woman). good, great, we all knew that part.
BUT THEN we turn to Exhibit B: guess who ALSO gets shot with two arrows. that's right, this bitch right here:
and WHO, might you ask, saves his life????
aaaaaand if we follow the logic of things doubling up and paralleling and whatever that the show revolves around, we come to a very straightforward conclusion.
this is adding on to this post i made a while ago. basically, i fully believe that the writers of this show set up the perfect opportunity to have the theme of s2 be about childhood, specifically exploring the effects of trauma (and escapism/maladaptive daydreaming). its already something that is featured or referenced to, however i think that there was a lot of potential for the show if they fully embraced the theme.
the biggest and most prominent example of the theme of childhood being present is in the character of francis (The Boy), who experiences severe childhood trauma and as a result creates a fantasy world that he can escape to. this world is full of stereotypes of a conventional children’s fantasy, with knights, a magic train, and even a crazy evil wizard guy. yet despite this, the world he created also contains elements from real life, specifically things that he found traumatic. francis witnesses his father get killed with a pair of scissors, and the main weapon used by the characters in wendimoor are a pair of giant scissors. also, in the house within the house, theres a copy of his kitchen, featuring the scissors and smashed flowerpot.
this is probably the most obvious display of the lasting effects of childhood trauma in a character, although there are a LOT more, though they are quite subtle.
dirk may be the second most obvious example of the presence of this theme. his very first scene in season 2 is set in blackwing, the organisation that took him and experimented on him as a child. blackwing is hinted to have abused him as a child, although we only see how they treat him as an adult. (there is a deleted scene of him when he was a child talking to the previous head of blackwing, meaning that there was a possibility we could have seen what it was like for him as a child too.)
however it is clear that he suffered trauma from his time at BW as a child, as many of his mannerisms throughout both season 1 and 2 mirror those of someone with c!ptsd. and having that trauma resurface in s2 also causes him to be more distant and get upset more frequently. (theres more but this is long enough already)
despite escaping blackwing early on in the season, dirk is obviously extremely shaken from his brief time back in there, and its pretty safe to say that the experience brought up a lot of bad memories. he is much more subdued throughout s2, and his previous optimism is rarely present, with his attitude towards the case being very different from s1.
like francis, there are a few tiny hints to escapism as a result of dirks trauma from blackwing (although im probably grasping at straws here). while in blackwing, he frequently dreams about being rescued by todd and farah. while being chased near the end of the season, dirk is lethargic and rather unresponsive, which could be some sort of dissociative state that he entered in order to escape from the reality of his situation.
while these are the most prominent examples where characters are shown to be effected by their childhood experiences, most of the other characters can be interpreted this way too.
farah is another good example, where she mentions the passing of her dad, and talks about how he wasnt a great father figure and caused her to often feel like a failure. she actually gets a resolution to this, with hobbs seeming to step in as her new father figure (yay!)
this was also something that seemed to be half set up for other characters. for example, todd and amanda having to learn to accept the changes in their relationship and amanda having to recontextualize her past. tinas frequent references to her struggles with addiction as well. farson and his whole family… thing. oh, and also like EVERY other blackwing subject. (more examples but again, this is a fucking long post)
essentially, the characters in this season struggle a lot, and a lot of this is because of things that happened (or possibly happened) because of their childhood experiences.
which leads me onto my next point (oh god, theres more!?) about the missed opportunity with this set up. many people agree that a lot of season 2 felt rather… aimless? while things were loosely connected, they definitely felt a lot less connected than in season 1. events happened and because there were plots happening in different DIMENSIONS, there was often very little overlap. having an underlying theme like this would have made each plot connect much more seamlessly, and it would have been a nice opportunity to further develop and explore some characters.
for example, throughout his journey in season 2, dirk could be seen recognising the parallels between the case and his own internal conflict. as he sees the destruction caused by francis’ powers, he could mirror the events with his own experiences and perhaps realise the effects of what pushing down trauma does. i think it would have been nice to see a conversation between dirk and francis about blackwing, ending with francis telling dirk he needs to learn to face the shit he went through and stop trying to ignore his trauma. this would have been a good way to connect their characters more as well.
it would have been a good opportunity to connect ALL the characters, especially if the show embraced the idea of escapism and pushed it further through wendimoor. as they got closer to solving the case, we could have seen them recognising their own flaws and looking back at their pasts.
and they wouldn’t have really had to make any super drastic changes, because theres already so much material for this theme to be introduced!!
tl;dr: s2 set up a lot of cool themes and the season would have been a lot more well-rounded if they embraced them more.
dont even get me started on the concept of good and bad…
on messy redemption arcs (specifically todd brotzman's) and why i think they're a good thing
sharing the following thing i wrote in the dghda server re: todd's character growth in s2 upon the request of another server member!
for context, this is regarding a conversation that sprung up in the dghda server about some people viewing Todd as manipulative/uncaring towards Dirk, vs other people who saw his arc in s2 through a different lens. to be clear, despite various disagreements, the conversation was positive and everyone was respectful which was really nice, considering how bad discourse can get sometimes. but anyway i came in late to the conversation and this was my contribution - clearly, i fall in camp 2:
[About Todd's ups and downs in S2:] growth isn't linear and people can take steps forward and then fall back, but what matters ultimately to me is that they keep trying to take those steps forward even when they make mistakes and I think Todd does do that.
He's spent so much of his life in a prison of his own making, lying to everyone and digging a hole so deep he didn't think he could ever get out of it. And I think he did always care about Amanda at the very least but he did this HUGE fuckup and covering that up led to this avalanche of horrible decisions and now he has to own up to his shit and learn how to care about people again without hiding from his actions.
He definitely gets tunnel vision about Amanda, and I think that makes sense. He’s so desperate to “fix” things and a big part of his story in season 2 is learning that, like Amanda said, some things you can’t just FIX. Sometimes you just have to pick up the pieces you have left and do your best to make something good with them.
Additionally [in regards to previous comments made about Todd ignoring/not caring about the trauma Dirk suffered in his second bout in Blackwing], he doesn’t know the extent of what happened in Blacking, not yet. And he’s taken several steps back by centering all his focus on finding Dirk - Dirk who has always seemed so optimistic and enthusiastic - to “fix” things (because he hasn’t learned his lesson about fixing things yet). And he doesn’t know how to reconcile the Dirk he knew before with the things that this new stint in Blackwing has changed about Dirk.
I don’t think Todd is malicious or not caring about Dirk - I think he has done so much self isolation over the years that he is unused to knowing how to identify what’s going on with other people/doesn’t know how to handle things. He does try to uplift Dirk, even if he doesn’t always do it in the right way, but that doesn’t make him cruel or manipulative. It makes him a human person who is also struggling to learn how to exist in community with others.
I think there’s also something to be said for the black and white ways we can view fictional characters who react to situations in ways that create defensiveness in us based on our own experiences/our own traumas. I think processing that through fiction is such a powerful tool but it can also put blinders on us and view some characters as wholly good “perfect cinnamon rolls” and other characters as “horrible manipulators”, when really, both types of characters have strengths and flaws, and neither exists purely on one end of the spectrum or the other.
tl;dr redemption arcs can and should be messy sometimes because people are messy. none of these characters are inherently good or inherently bad and i think that's what makes them all such compelling characters.
