#and then hear about the fires. and the degrading of emily and ethan's marriage and then oliver loses his family
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i just really love the trope where this very “joyful and bright and flashy” place is considered a place of great conflict. like wonderland in greater boston. it’s this big, beautiful theme park which is mainly associated in gb as, like, a place to escape to in the event of a tragedy.
what with nica taking leon there to help him “cope with his breakup,” or charlotte going there to take her mind of off her lack of direction, or the evicted residents of red line heading there for refuge after they’re torn out of their homes, and less notably, phil needing to use wonderland as a bargaining chip to get himself out of jail...
the place is typically associated with disaster and grief as well, since it’s leon’s death place, after all, and the history of tragedies it’s had (the burning robots...) just failure after failure after failure. it was renovated after leon’s death, and even AFTER that, the whole place becomes completely abandoned, once oliver, the current owner, “dies” after his wife divorces him.
wonderland’s place in the story is defined by escapism, grief, and disaster, and most of the time, when you go to wonderland, you don’t get what you’re looking for (nica took leon there to cheer him up, but he actually got so distressed that he died, charlotte went there and rode all of the rides and it didn’t do anything for her, and who knows what it might become for the new residents...)
with all of this in mind, it begs the question: what exactly does it mean, that ethan wants wonderland back so badly...?
#greater boston#greater boston spoilers#i yell into the abyss#love the way that wonderland puts a sour taste in your mouth over the course of the story#like. firstly. leon died there. oh no!#but. uh. it's not like he died because the roller coaster crashed or anything. he died because he was scared he only *might* die on it#and then you get charlotte trying to escape there. but still. not much of anything#then we see mallory get fired from there and it's like. huh.#then we find out that emily and ethan own it The Kind Of Person Ethan Is and it's like ''Oh?''#and then hear about the fires. and the degrading of emily and ethan's marriage and then oliver loses his family#and then wonderland is just dead. in an instant it's drained of all it's horrible energy moments before it was supposed to make a comeback#so many bad things in the story are associated with it that it makes one wonder if it ever really brought joy to anyone#and the evicted red liners flock there because it's a large mass of unowned property and yet there is still a sense of danger in it#like. ethan is dying to have it back. and if he does he'll eagerly raise it from the dead and watch as it bites at their ankles.#it's... really something.#wonderland is not a normal theme park.#in episode 1 it sure may LOOK like it is. but it isn't. and it's not even abnormal in a supernatural way.#the story doesn't go through special aches or pains to emphasize all of the misery it's seeped in#the characters don't have anything interesting to say about it (except ethan. obvs)#but you can still see it...#hopefully all of these tags stay on this post. one too many times i added too many and a bunch got deleted
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