analyzing joel in my fic, lunar bodies, to convince you to read it :]
recently i posted a hurt/comfort smalletho fic called lunar bodies! it's bursting at the seams with space references and its one of my favorite things ive ever written, and i want to ramble about my boy joel for a bit !!
joel beans my beloved. hes obviously not in a great mental state because he grew up as a child actor and immediately decided he didn't want that anymore (good choice!!), so he completely isolated himself from anybody else because he only has one person he can trust and he barely trusts him anways (bad choice !!). he clearly has some unresolved trust issues as well as just overall loneliness :( he lives in his cold dark apartment in the city and he lives off of the money he made as a kid (which, by the way, was enough so he would never have to work again for the rest of his life, and even more so since joel lives frugally). this is the part that i think emphasize boat boys relationship in this the most!!
the first is joel showing us how their situationship goes—etho asks for him, joel follows. he even mentions earlier that "he doesn’t think he’s ever initiated their situation." while we don't get to see joel's side of the situation, its pretty clear that there are Not any good discussions happening about when fun times happen !!! joel is totally okay with following along with etho, but by doing that he also neglects his own emotional needs (which of course etho has too). very bad !! not good!!!
the main takeaway in their relationship is that they both think that the other wants a situationship.
this leads to Bad Communication !! thats a no no!! they both think that the other is just coming to them because they're each other's only true friend in life. they both have some serious unresolved childhood trauma that they've never fully addressed, and unless they find a way to come to terms with what happened to them as child actors individually and how that shaped their relationship, they'll never be able to fully commit to each other. so their shared past is what brings them together but ultimately it's their greates obstacle in their relationship :]]]]
ill try to post an etho analysis later !!
again, this is the fic i wrote, and if you liked this post then i hope you'll like the fic itself :]]