I got reminded that I never posted about who / what I think the abh mock turtles are mourning,, ( which really means what the underground cast is mourning )
my ideas below the cut 💙
( disclaimer I haven’t read the book in a bit , some things may be wrong )
Harold turtle - quite obviously , Freddie , or his husband if you haven’t read the book
Butridge turtle - his grandfather , I like to think he was always really close with his family growing up , especially his grandfather. He died when he was young and was his first encounter with death
Tabatha turtle - I fear it might be very obvious , her sister , she’s never fully gotten over the grief , just forced herself to move past it
Dodgy turtle - His rabbi , I mean he pretty much explicitly says what happens. I do think his rabbi was a close family friend , he possibly knew him all his life
Clarissa turtle - Her aunt Beesly ( Breesly ?) , she doesn’t like to acknowledge it but her aunt died last year , she copes by still believing she’ll be around to host her next birthday party
Nigel turtle - His mom , of course , and his multiple brothers ( who I believe were also said to die in a raid in the book ? ) , his brothers he’s accepted at least a little bit , his mom not so much
Nurse ( Agatha to me ) turtle - Her childhood , I think she had to grow up fast , be so proper when she was only so young , she had no time for fun things
Angus turtle - I don’t think about that man either to have an idea of what he could be mourning , I don’t really see anything he could mourn other than his nonexistent pilot career
Lily ( female ensemble member ) turtle - Harold before the war , he’s her older brother ( by a year ) , he came back so different , it’s hard to remain normal looking into his dead eyes
Louis ( male ensemble member ) turtle - A friend who died in battle , he still wears that friend’s coat
So… I have an angsty theory about Your Shell of Grief
So, this song has some deeply silly lyrics, and maybe I’m in the minority but that doesn’t make it any less sad to me. I don’t know, something about it landed with me I guess. But my theory is about the characters and what their verses in the song say about them. Or the fact that they have verses at all, I guess.
Like I know it might not have been intentional, but I feel like it at least opens things up for headcanons based on which mock turtles sing.
Maybe it’s just me but I think the ones that sing solos are the ones who have losses they can’t get past in the real world.
Elaboration below the cut 🔽
Dr. Butridge sings and he’s a fucking doctor in a warzone. There’s probably been plenty of patients he couldn’t save, and maybe he blames himself for some of their deaths. Also given said warzone it’s more than possible he’s lost loved ones too.
Harold sings, and we already know he’s got some pretty severe ptsd. He alluded to a friend who died in a past scene and whether his friend and his ‘husband’ he mentions in the song are the same person or two different people, it doesn’t seem like his mental state has really let him process any of that.
Clarissa sings, and we don’t know much about her, but we do know that she holds on to material things pretty tightly. Things from her life before the bombings. That might be about a similar concept to Alice (mourning her old life), or maybe she holds onto those things because they’re associated with someone she lost.
Dodgy sings about losing his rabbi, and like… losing your spiritual leader in the middle of knowing that not that far away there is an army of people who want to wipe people like you off the face of the planet? That doesn’t seem like something you’d heal from quickly.
Alice, obviously, is just starting to accept that she’s going to lose/has lost Alfred. We already know that.
Meanwhile, I find it equally interesting to all of the above that Tabatha does not sing. They mention at the beginning that she had a sister she lost, but she’s also well-enough adjusted that she can counsel someone else on dealing with grief and letting go. She’s not stuck on her loss, so she doesn’t have a main part in the song.
Also, the Red Cross Nurse doesn’t sing, because she’s practical almost to the point of cruel, and it’s a waste of her time to dwell on the past. She keeps moving forward.
Lastly, Nigel doesn’t sing, because as far as he knows he doesn’t have a loss to sing about. (Do we even know that?) He was pretty adamant that his parents were coming for him but then again Alice was pretty adamant that Alfred wasn’t dying. He’s not stuck because he doesn’t know if there’s anything to be stuck on.
The characters who can’t move past their losses sing Your Shell of Grief. The ones that don’t have a loss or are healthy enough to move on don’t. *mic drop*
*I realize that this post does not account for Angus. This is because I don’t really understand Angus. Idk it’s hard to tell if he’s so carefree because of the drugs or because he doesn’t have anything he’s stuck on.*
Anyway there’s my angsty over-analyzation of Your Shell of Grief. Do I really wish that the show had given a little more insight into them? Hell yeah. Do I also realize that this is all probably a stretch? Also yeah. Do I realize I should be sleeping instead of typing this up so late on a school night? Absolutely.
the charming prince, the wary sailor, and the brooding captain
After their introductions, Alfred paused, looking around. Then, his gaze settled back on the young prince in front of him. Or...older, if he remembered correctly. Not much older than him—maybe by a couple of months, if his memory served him right. At this point, Alfred had been on the ship for a few months alongside Alice. His hair had grown down to the middle of his neck, a big mop of caramel curls framing his face in what Dodgy believed to be an endearing sort of way. Well, endearing for any other freckly pretty boy with a kind smile. This one just so happened to be a part of the pirate crew that kidnapped him, unfortunately.
Regardless, Alfred spoke quietly. “Are your hands hurting?” He asked, reaching behind Dodgy to feel his tender skin around the restraining ropes Tabatha expertly got him entangled in.
Dodgy sucked in a breath through his teeth, squirming as far back into the wooden wall of the deck he could go. He was still tied up and stuffed in one corner. “Don’t-“
Alfred frowned at his reaction and sat back on his bottom, looking across to Dodgy.
“I’m not trying to hurt you. I was hoping I might be able to help you. I could loosen those, if you’d like. Make sure your wrists aren’t cut, and all. I...can’t technically let you go and leave, because Captain Tabatha will have us both walking the plank, but I’ll do my best to make you feel a little more comfortable,” he reasoned.
The sound of the waves crashing and Dodgy’s shallow breathing hung heavy in the air for a moment, but he nodded. He had to be brave.
“I’d like that very much, Sailor.”
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