#eriche

[keqikeru]

new face

[liverfeeding78]

AU thing where Munroe couldn’t let go and refuse to accept he’s gone.

[jinru0n0]

[ryanthel0ser]

As me and my buddy @felldownanotherrabbithole were discussing Munroe, Eriche, and Mophead, there were some things that just kept unfolding and making this whole situation even more complex and sadder.

Eriche and Munroe were clearly very close, at the very least brothers in arms. Munroe steals a candle from what looks like a group memorial to make his own private memorial to Eriche, he refers to him as "my Eriche" and the letter from Eriche ends with "Yours, Eriche." This affection towards Eriche clearly carries into how he treats Mophead, being the only person they make any real connection with throughout the pilot.

Mophead though is clearly physically different to Eriche in several ways. Besides the lack of scar they're physically smaller. Eriche was shoulder to shoulder with Munroe while Mophead is a little shorter. They look younger. Fresh face. Too perfect like a porcelain doll around the other characters.

With the clear allusions to the world wars present, the first thing I thought of was how someone could fight in the first war, lost their brother in arm, and then fight again in the next one with the son of that dead man. Munroe and Mophead almost feel like they play into this dynamic. Munroe, the WWI soldier, lost his brother in arms Eriche and now has to go to combat with the fresh faced Mophead, the WWII soldier, who may have "parts of him" but isn't Eriche. Even the shot of them looking at the memorial to Eriche has Mophead looking like a child next to Munroe.

Mophead also plays into the fact that going into WWII, people were not as willing to enlist, they'd seen the horrors now, they weren't as gun-ho to go sign up for the war like the first time. But with the draft, you had no choice, something that feels echoed in Mophead. The others say "you signed up for this" but Mophead didn't, they don't want this, much like those in the draft.

Looking specifically at how Mophead came back though, there's several strange things about it besides just the fact they look perfect. When they wake up the first time, they aren't in the machine, they wake up in bed.

How are they in this bed? When you resurrect you wake up in that machine so in order for them to be here, someone had to bring them here. And who is there right as Mophead wakes up, lying on the floor waiting for them?

Munroe.

Munroe is here waiting, probably waiting for Eriche to wake up, only for Mophead to ask "who are you?" Munroe answers as if this was unexpected. We also have a visual before Mophead wakes up of someone being dragged, so did Munroe bring Mophead here? Was Monroe the one dragging them or did Munroe carry them from the machine?

When Mophead first wakes up, Munroe is also pushing this idea that he was sick. Is this just an excuse Munroe is making for Mophead? If so why? Was Eriche sick? In what way, physically or mentally?

Despite all this though, Munroe is clearly not trying to push Eriche onto Mophead. He's keeping it a secret from him, as if he recognizes that Eriche is gone now. There is no death fog, Eriche is no more. Mophead is just this kid who doesn't know where or who they are being thrust into a war they had no say in joining. It would be unkind to push this person onto them, so Munroe does the next best thing: care for them. It's clear this is something that is eating away at Munroe though as we see him like this in front of the machine after Mophead walks away.

Grieving his Eriche in silence and secret until Mophead forces him to spill.

And both we and Mophead are left to wonder, what happened to Eriche?

[chuvaultimate]

What everyone sees:

What actually happens:

— Where are my crackers?)

— What crackers...?

Feeding Munriche fans with AU version

[liverfeeding78]

The size difference between Mophead and Eriche

[chuvaultimate]

Shurik and alive Eric

[chuvaultimate]

PaM!Eriche