Platonic Crackship but it's three dudes that would get up to the most GOOFY shenanigans whilst traumadumping the heaviest crap known to man and acting like it isn't eating them alive
I recently watched EverymanHYBRID and I have some thoughts.
If I had to title this, it would be "useless analysis of EmH from the perspective of a psych student and empath who likes to analyze things" (real creative, ik)
SPOILER WARNING!!!
Long paragraphs, my opinions, probably a bit redundant, and me writing this from memory. Correct me if I'm wrong on anything, just please be kind about it. ^^
So... I've heard a lot of people complain about the series, and this is what I noticed about the main few I keep seeing. (bear with me lol)
I've heard a lot of people talk about how it goes from being good to just being "the Habit show". While I do think Habit's takeover was a bit sudden and slightly overwhelming, I think that fits the character. Watching the series, it's clear that this isn't just something the fans noticed- this was the case in-universe. Look at how Evan and Vinny handle the stuff Habit does. Neither of them got any time to process it and it shows in their characters. Vinny is dazed and erratic the entire time despite being shown from the beginning to be very intelligent. Habit knows this and acknowledges it multiple times, even using his intelligence as an explanation for some of the things he did. Habit used that to make him overthink, knowing that if he forced him into a situation where intelligence meant nothing because nothing meant anything, it would break him. As for Evan, in the scene where he's sitting and remembering the things Habit did, he's talking about these acts of brutality that were committed with his hands but he's completely dead-eyed. He talks about remembering cannibalizing his own baby daughter and instead of sounding mortified, he just sounds exhausted. The things he saw and the things that Habit did using his body were so mentally exhausting for him and it's made so clear. He becomes volatile and angry from that point on, a stark contrast to the calm and upbeat person we see in the beginning of the series, because of this. Habit screwed with them in ways specifically tailored to them as individuals, making Vinny's brain go into overdrive - breaking the fourth wall, searching aimlessly for answers that were never said to exist in the first place, losing sight of his goal trying to figure out useless puzzles - while practically shutting Evan's off - becoming erratic and angry, laughing at the things coming from his own because he's talking crazy and yet knows it's real, following along with whatever Vinny says despite looking at him like he just said grass is purple every time the guy spoke - at the same time. Yes, Habit's appearance and takeover in the series was sudden and fast, and from a writing standpoint that might be a questionable decision, but in-universe, to me it seemed like strategy.
I hear people saying that the ending was disappointing often. I would like to bring back my last point for this one. The ending was likely paced like that for a few reasons. First off, Habit's plan. I said before that the strategy I saw being used on Vinny was to overload his brain by forcing him into a situation where his intelligence meant nothing because nothing meant anything, and on Evan I saw the opposite. In the final scene, you notice them seem to fall away from this as soon as Habit leaves the equation. Vinny gets slower- physically and mentally, just ready to be done. He just follows orders he was never truly given, trying to get the whole thing over with despite not actually understanding how that would even work. Instead of sounding calculated like he's trying to save them, he calls Evan a monster for the things Habit did in his body as a retort for Evan calling him one despite reassuring Evan of the opposite when it first happened, which was likely because the emotional/survival parts of his brain were being triggered. His mind was finally burnt out enough to shut down. In contrast, Evan's gone back to that tired desperation. He's not just losing it trying to handle what happened anymore, he's taking action. He attacks Vinny because Habit showed him what he had done and helped with under Habit's manipulation. Evan has had two years of not having autonomy of his own body and presumably his soul. Unlike Vinny, who was being constantly force-fed information, Evan seemingly had time to process everything. Forced to sit and watch as somebody that looks like him did unimaginable things to the people he loved while showing him what the only other person he trusted was doing behind his back. He knew his goal, he knew what he wanted, and he had come to terms with the fact that, last he checked, he couldn't die. What he didn't have was a plan. He complained about the pain when he was killed, but when he realized he was dying, he smiled. He was free. Vinny, when death stared at him, realized that if he died there was no going back, no hope of starting anew or making up for anything that had happened, no way to fix the mess that Habit had convinced the pair that each other made. He would never be free. The ending seemed abrupt because it was. Habit very likely knew full well that the moment he left, they would be at each other's throats and that's exactly why he did it. How do I know this? Because he still had The Rake record it all despite saying that it had gone wrong.
I've heard people compare it to Marble Hornets, saying that MH was written better, that it was better quality, etc. but what people don't seem to understand is that, one, they're two completely different stories, and two, Evan and Tim (as well as Vinny and Jay) are in situations that are so similar yet so opposite and we see that in how they handle it. Neither of them had control over what happened around them, there were moments that both of them were not in control of their own bodies, and they both lost everyone. The difference is that they were dealing with different things for different amounts of time. Tim had been dealing with the Operator since he was a child, he knew how it worked even if he didn't truly understand it. He fought against it and isolated himself to keep others safe when he realized what was happening. He tore himself apart when he realized that he was the center of it all and tried his hardest to prevent more casualties. When he found a survivor, he made sure she got help, kept her oblivious, and moved away. Evan was dealing with possesion more than hauntings. He called himself a monster because he could remember what had happened - whereas Tim would black out when becoming Masky - and remembered it as if it was him who did it. He couldn't fight Habit, and the thing is, he didn't try to. His first plan was to kill himself and it failed. He went to Vinny and it went downhill from there, because instead of working against Habit, they decided to go to him for answers. Now, for Vinny and Jay, they were similar but different in a different way. They both recorded everything, but for different reasons. Vinny recorded out of a moral obligation he put on himself. He told others not to get involved while inadvertantly asking for the opposite, and continued to feed into said involvement because he felt he had to finish what he started. Jay was recording everything because he was documenting and using the tapes to help figure out what was happening. He found things in the recordings, used evidence, put two and two together, all because of that camera he had. Ironically enough, Jay died with his camera, while Vinny died the one day he wasn't holding his.
I hear people talking about Habit being too edgy and completely disregarding him as a character because of how he's written on the surface, but I genuinely love Habit as a character. Think about that as a concept- You're just existing with your friends when some urban legend starts messing with you, and you're all so stressed that MANKIND'S BAD HABIT decides to take your friend for a spin. Habit isn't just an edgy bad boy, he is literally the incarnation of the evil in humanity. He doesn't do things logically because evil isn't logical. While of course we need balance for good to exist(read The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, awesome short book that portrays this concept well), Habit does not possess that balance and therefore does not subscribe to what a logical mind would. He is pure evil- not just morally, but literally. He comes off as edgy, abrasive, and brutal because he is all of those things and more. He's not a pleasant character because the evil in humanity isn't pleasant. I love him as a character and I like fanonizing him as much as the next weirdo, but as for the canon character, it makes more sense for him to be an abrasive and unlikeable character than for him to be charming. He's blatantly manipulative but completely disregards subtlety because he has no need for it. He possesses mind control and yet doesn't use it to it's full potential purely for the fun of it. He's overthrown entire nations, killed millions, and committed atrocities in his other vessels and yet we complain that him just getting bored and entertaining himself isn't the right way to write him. And that is clearly what is happening, he says it himself to Vinny. Why else would an entity of his stature be messing around with a group of fitness Youtubers? He saw another being messing with them, saw them as easy targets, and had his fun because he's bored. It wasn't motivation, it was sadism. He's an eldritch-level jerk who got bored one day and decided to screw with some other monster's toys. Nothing he did made any sense because why the heck would it?
Anyways, that's just my thoughts. I might do another one of these talking about Marble Hornets or maybe Laughing Jack ngl
As much as I love shipping, one of my favorite tropes is doomed platonic soulmates or found family.
Give me House's and Wilson's "If you die, I'm alone."
Give me Cyrus's and Orion's "Did I reach you?" "As far as you could."
Give me Larry's and Sal's "See you on the other side" "Larry!"
Give me Pomni's and Jax's "You should've talked to me, man" "I don't wanna go..."
Give me June's and Ryan's "I... I'm scared" "C'mon, we're not supposed to cry now!"
Give me Tim's and Jay's "This wasn't supposed to happen..."
Give me Avery's and Derek's "I found you!" "That you did."
Give me Praxina's and Mephisto's "This can't be how it ends...!"
Give me Swansea's and Daisuke's "Close your eyes, Daisuke."
Give me Aang's and Giatsto's "Maybe the monks made a mistake..." "The only mistake they made was telling you before you turned 16."
Give me McGucket's and Ford's "I fear we've unleashed a grave danger on the world. One I'd just as soon like to forget." "Fine! I'll do it without you! I don't need you! I don't need anyone!"
IM SOBBING. WTF. HOW DID WE GET MASKY AND HOODIE FROM THAT. EVERYTHING IS NOT FINE. I AM NOT OK. TIM OH MY WORD YOU POOR THING. WHAT WAS THAT.
Seriously though, I'm genuinely crying. After I finished it, I put on some newer (like from the past few months) creepypasta/marble hornets/slenderverse tiktok compilations and I just. oh my lord. I feel like I'm 9 again. It's visceral. These characters helped keep me alive during the darkest time of my life mentally. There are shows I watched when I was a kid that give me comfort now, but back then they were just shows. Creepypasta has been my oldest comfort fandom since I was 6 and didn't even understand the stories. I'm crying because for so long I genuinely believed that my longest held hyperfixation's fandom was completely dead. It wasn't until I joined Tumblr that I realized that wasn't the case, and now I've finally watched Marble Hornets and I feel that same visceral, sharp and painful comfort that I had felt experiencing this fandom as a 6-11 year old dealing with depression, crippling anxiety, and insomnia that kept me up for days. I remember dealing with insomnia that was so bad it caused me to hallucinate and has left me with derealization now. I remember one of the few memories from those years that hasn't been blurred to mush was my young and dumb ahh trying to summon slenderman, me staying up at night reading about these characters I didn't truly understand. Now I understand them and I feel an even bigger fondness for them despite now knowing they aren't real. Despite knowing that their characters have been so distorted and I love multiple versions of them. Despite knowing that there's barely even a real canon anymore. I'm not scared of Jeff the killer because I know his story and that he's fake, but even when I was I still found comfort in the thought of hugging him and loved reading his story. I love Toby because he was always my favorite and I loved him then because he understood what it was like to be different and to not feel human. I like Smile.JPG now but I remember when I would truly believe that Smile Dog's face was adorable despite the fact that it gave me nightmares. I love LJ because I like his story but I loved him back then because he was scary and silly. I liked Hoodie and Masky because of association then, and I feel comforted now watching MH blooper's of Tim's actor running around and yelling at horses. I love Nina because she's an icon but I loved her then because she was fandom as a character from my perspective. And there's so many more. Searching for Herobrine, reading about the russian sleep experiment, all that jazz. All that rambling to say... I'm very glad I watched it
