#pondereynolds

[victoriavonhemen]

i forgot i should keep posting my kitty gifs here… here are all of them i haven’t shared before

(except the thought leadership one with all of them… tumblr won’t let me post that one but it’s on my twitter)

[denniswithoutmakeup]

“no girl has ever really had this effect on me before”

[dennis + maureen high school sweethearts wip]

[arbitraryfuck]

the way dennis isnt even against maureen becoming a cat, just against the fact that she is doing it with HIS money. like when her family didn't support it she went to Dennis who kept her cat stuff with him, and he would let her groom him as a cat. of course it's about reducing the alimony payments, but come on. all that for $15? methinks he was getting something out of it too

[denniswithoutmakeup]

woken up this morning to an extremely devastating dennis thought and maybe someone else has said it before so apologies if that is the case and i am not even sure how to word it because i feel like i need to expose my entire train of thought in order to do so and that is so long but i’m gonna give it my best shot.

someone asked me the gang’s favorite genres of music so i was searching up the specific genres of all their fave artists to make sure i was being accurate and like it was funny i was having a lil laugh to myself over mac accusing dennis of liking glam rock femme shit as if he doesn’t listen to shit like bon jovi and whitesnake, and then i was like okay what if i made a collage of like who mac listens to vs who dennis listens to because when you put them all together and compare them its another perfect example of their “predator vs lethal weapon” “gay vs bi” dynamic.

so i was sifting through my playlists and running through the episodes in my brain trying to get a variety of artists and i remembered dennis mentioning alanis morissette when trying to justify his encounter with ms klinsky and i was like okay that implies that she counts as a musician he likes and is even potentially attracted to so then i went onto pinterest and was gathering my images and i searched up her name and like i already knew what she looked like i adore her as a musician but i don’t think i’ve gone out of my way to look at her face in years so the memory was foggy and when i saw her my brain just made this tragic connection that she kind of looks a bit like maureen.

and i started getting so emotional because when you think about how he remembers ms klinsky as being this beautiful woman and everyone is like no she was fucking gross its clear that he’d obviously blocked out the memory in self-preservation and i’ve like tried to briefly write dennis coming to terms with being raped before a couple of times nothing in depth but i always describe it as if the image he’d built up in his head physically starts to unravel when the others start explaining what actually happened and then you think about how in love with maureen he was in high school and how he refers to her as “the last time he had feelings” and says he feels like a “14 year old kid or something” when they get back together, which obviously, when paired with “gross you were 14 so technically you were raped”, suggests that his relationship with maureen happened before he was assaulted (obviously we know that already but just reiterating for context) and that the abuse he suffered was the catalyst of his mental collapse.

with this knowledge in mind that maureen is basically the last time he felt normal, and then knowing that he’s completely bent the memory of his csa in order to cope with it - altering how the woman responsible for abusing him really looked and instead turning her into someone he deems desirable (aka, in his mind, alanis morissette, who then resembles the girl who represents the last time he felt normal before he was raped) - its literally almost like he used maureen as a shield of protection against facing truth of what actually happened with ms klinsky, like a way of forcing himself to forget it because instead he thinks of someone like maureen who he associates with love and happiness, does that make any fucking sense ????

i am wording this so terribly and its also one of those things where i’m like woah the levels here are fucking insane there’s no way this is a coincidence how has it just fallen into place like that but then if i actually tried to talk to rcg about this theory they’d probably be like “idk man i guess we didn’t think about it” lol but i’m GOING CRAZY OVER HERE falling to my knees again over maureen and the idea that dennis basically used her likeness as a means to remembering/confronting his csa the way it actually happened and instead replacing the bad memory with something good. i don’t fucking know, i’m tired and this is probably unreadable but my heart literally bleeds for him

i wrote this a year ago in my trash twins study which i feel explains better what i mean about how the realisation hits him (obviously i didn’t write the imaginary woman as alanis/maureen because i was just making whatever up) but idk its just so sad and its not very relevant to anything but i just had to get it out there

[denniswithoutmakeup]

beloved oomf @noelismi asked me for more of my thoughts on Dennis and Maureen but i hate how the ask format looks when reblogged so i’m making a proper post and that way i can keep adding to it if i remember if i want to

FUCK! WHERE TO START!?!?!?

first of all, you really will have to pry them from my cold dead hands nothing will ever make me hate her they should have been endgame and i live my life by Ana’s incredible theory that she’s actually still alive and Dennis helped her fake her death so she could escape her unaccepting family

below are all the timeline i have for all the times they’ve hooked up off screen

- long distance college dating after getting back together and trying to maintain a relationship but it fizzles

- season 6 married for almost half a year

- in between season 6 he phones her on gasoline after his chemical peel

- season 7 they hook up in Dennis’ car after the high school reunion

- season 8 fucking at the wedding and then dating again in secret for a while

- sometime during s9 i haven’t decided when yet

- season 10 dennis goes to hers after the gang dates as a last resort confidence boost and also after he is diagnosed

- season 11 sneaking to hers while living with mac in the suburbs, after the trial because the laser pointer got him in the mood, and i can imagine him retreating to hers for a few days after the smut film incident

- season 12 after spending all day with Abby and thinking about fatherhood

first of all, i really like that it’s implied it isn’t that much of a short lived relationship. Dennis says he thought Maureen’s reason for being out of work was because they were in a “honeymoon phase” and, while i am aware this could just be a turn of phrase, he also could mean literally, and statistically that’s anywhere between a few months to a few years. obviously, in Dennis Gets Divorced, yeah, he’s leaving cab money and sneaking out of bed to avoid talking to her, but he still slept in that bed with her all night m and all the other nights before, like they go to bed together, they live together, it was real a real relationship.

i truly don’t think the reason they split is that he doesn’t love her - like when he says he doesn’t love her to her face, Dennis is notorious for Not Saying What He Really Means, and behind her back he’s like “i really loved that girl”.

the visceral light and life in his face when he sees her again for the first time since they broke up is indescribable like i would have given anything to have been a fly on the set walls and hearing what was being directed.

it’s important to note as well that so much of his developing disdain for her comes from external judgement - like other people making him feel stupid for wanting to be with her or pointing out her dead tooth - and Dennis has always been very easily influenced, especially when his self image is on the line. i also think its entirely plausible that part of the reason he doesn’t wanna be with her is because it subconsciously brings back memories buried deep within about What Happened When He Was 14 that he isn’t remotely ready to confront. SHE IS LITERALLY THE LAST TIME HE REMEMBERS HAVING FEELINGS BEFORE HE WAS ASSAULTED! THIS IS A HUGE FUCKING DEAL!

also like just the fact that she is someone he always goes back to; it wasn’t just a sex thing - he trusts her. He initiates nearly all of their interactions and she’s the only romantic interest he can’t seem to keep away from - Maureen herself is incredibly chill, she doesn’t fall for the DENNIS System, she moves on, she doesn’t keep calling him, she’s so unwaveringly nonchalant about the entire thing and it’s one of my fave aspects of them as a pair because it is always Dennis that reaches out.

like, regarding the timeline and when i think they would have hooked up again, i am convinced that after the HS reunion they would left together - especially with Dennis vulnerable after being rejected by tim murphy’s wife and insecure at his weight/shapewear being poked at - he needs the one person he can trust. man, not to be crass but they’d have gone all fucking night in the back of his SUV lol.

he literally sleeps with her on the night of her wedding - he can’t help himself! yeah, yeah, i know, i know, he just wanted the signature, but the way he runs to comfort her when she’s crying and the way he looks up at her as she confides in him….i don’t know….it’s one of those weird moments where he is reacting authentically - it’s not quite out of character because he is compassionate but the shell is broken [and we already know that Maureen is the only person to break that shell - he admits this himself] - and then it switches as he looks down and sees her boobs again instantly thinking with his dick but…..like idk idk, in that moment he cared.

i also feel like maybe he feels like he doesn’t deserve someone that actually wants him. he can’t seem to keep away when she is cool and casual but the moment she reciprocates it backs him into a corner.

a favorite Pondereynolds moment of mine is in Mac Kills His Dad; she looks crazy as hell, she’s started the cat surgeries, the Reynolds family walk in - Dennis sitting next to Maureen of course - and Bill’s daughter ask if they’re getting back together. I could 100% be completely reaching she delivers it with a tone of “this has happened before.” do you know what i mean? I DON’T KNOW, it gives the vibe that it’s a known on-and-off-again relationship, and that in itself to me is just so heaven. and she just plays it off so hysterically like the way she calls him baby as if no time has changed and her patting his thigh like “i think so” it’s just so fucking funny to me oh my god the man he could have been if he’d allowed himself to be with her.

and then like….even when they’re doing toxic shit or like, he’s not being nice to her it’s still like……cute?? like they’re on the same wavelength???? I KNOW I KNOW, maybe i’m looking way too deep into surface level comedy, but the whole miming asphyxiation thing where he’s pretending to strangle her and she pretends to be strangled like the way she just goes along with it is so funny!!! like thats couple goals!!!

and like yeah okay, on the surface in the trial of the century its all a big joke where Dennis is like “look at this crazy ass cat lady” but at the same time….Dennis……how did you know that she is gonna respond to the lazer pointer? how did you know that she’s that kind of cat? my cat doesn’t gaf about shit like that…..sorry baby but you’ve clearly done this before. he KNOWS her.

literally getting freaky in the middle of a court room what the fuck is wrong with them

DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON MAKING DENNIS REYNOLDS A MURDERER. WHAT DO YOU MEAN ITS BASICALLY CANON THAT THEY GET KINKY AS FUCK AND DO CAT PLAY TOGETHER ??? THE CRAZIEST CANON FACT ABOUT DENNIS EVER ??? LIKE THAT IN ITSELF IS FUCKING CRAZY AND YES I KNOW HE CLAIMS ITS BECAUSE SHE’S KNOCKING $15 A MONTH OFF HIS ALIMONY BUT LIKE……YOUR DADDY IS A MULTI MILLIONAIRE ??? FIFTEEN DOLLARS IS NOTHING ??? YOU DON’T NEED TO BE DOING ALL THAT ??? YOU CLEARLY LIKE IT !!!! AND THEN HIM SAYING HE LOOKS AFTER HER CAT STUFF COZ HER FAMILY ISN’T ACCEPTING LIKE WHAT THE FUCK? ITS SO FUCKING STUPID IN TERMS OF THE LITERAL CONCEPT BECAUSE SHE IS TURNING HERSELF INTO A CAT, BUT IF YOU JUST IGNORE THAT AND MOVE PAST IT ITS LIKE ???? HE’S LITERALLY HER SAFE SPACE ??? THATS REALLY FUCKING LOVELY

i am also a sucker for that whole trope of exes that just like….no matter how much they “drift” or “fall out of love” or whatever…..they still forever have that connection that they don’t have with anyone else, and i dunno….i get that it’s The Piss & Shit Bad White People Sitcom but….they mean a lot to me

i also can’t deny that i love that she looks like a bit like Mac, but it’s more than that i really do love her as a character, i love that she was his first ever love and probably his last, i think she is the closest to true love he will ever be capable of allowing himself to feel, and yet even that is too much for him.

there’s just so much to think about; like, i wonder how he actually must have felt when she died, because with her gone he has no protection from What Happened To Him When He Was 14 like thats his last true solace gone.

I’ve said this before - and I still don’t know how unrealistic this is - but I like the idea of his change of heart with Mandy and Brian stemming from him secretly grieving Maureen. I picture him getting nostalgic after his day at the water park and they hook up that night, it’s great and it becomes a frequent thing and Dennis is genuinely keen on starting a family with her again [hand in hand with Mac coming out - who knows?] but then she dies, and he pretends to be unbothered but it completely rocks him, so when Mandy comes to Philly, it brings up all these unresolved feelings about age/family/high school trauma etc and he decides to do it in the hopes to replicate what he always imagined he’d have with Maureen.

and of course thinking about them as High School Sweethearts makes me want to die. she was definitely a cheerleader. i can imagine all the boys fancied her. i know Charlie says she had the dead tooth back then but i kinda like to imagine she didn’t. i like the idea of her being so naturally pretty and radiant, with her long black hair and big toothy grin, soft spoken and kind, and all the popular guys ask her for her number but she just smiles wide and politely says “no thank you!” only has eyes for the chubby trust-fund teachers pet with wild wavy hair and bad eye sight and acne scars. she calls him Denny, they hold hands all the time, she leaves notes in his locker, he’s happy - no other girl has ever had this effect on him

as i was writing the bit about her possibly not having a dead tooth in school, i started thinking about when Dennis said “i remember being in love with Maureen Ponderosa and you are no Maureen Ponderosa” and got struck with the fact that so much of Dennis’ memories of high school are flawed - Maureen, his prom date, his status and popularity - and while I understand it’s a surface level comment on delusions of grandeur, so much of it is probably down to his CSA and him just blocking out the experience entirely and now i feel like i’ve been hit by a car

[victoriavonhemen]

thinking about this tonight