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#dhmis theory
ultimateloserboy · 6 months
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WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME ABOUT THE DHMIS STORYBOARDS WHAT THE FUCK I MUST ANALYZE IMMEDIATELY
Ok so Adam Beer storyboarded some of the scenes for dhmis, and looking over them they give some REALLY JUICY information that was cut from the actual scenes!!!
he did one for a scene in jobs as well as death, but those arent too different from the finished product. the scenes that werent included are cute but theyre not vital to the lore or anything, yaknow?
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death is almost completely the same, but i appreciate this drawing of red guy hes so shaped
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but anyway, like i said, these two aren’t necessarily important, all the info we have from these storyboards is the same general info that we get in the finished show. However, Adam Beer worked on one other episode that includes a good chunk of cut lines and you know what that is? ELECTRICITY!!!!!!!
THATS RIGHT BABY WE HAVE MORE LESLEY LINES THAT PROVE MY WHOLE POINT!!! FUCK YOU LESLEY HATERS I KNEW SHE WASNT THE VILLAIN FROM DAY ONE!!!!!!
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HER MEMORY IS FOGGY. SHE DOESNT WANT “US” GETTING IN TROUBLE WITH SOMEONE ELSE. WHAT DID I TELL YALL. I TOLD YALL SHES JUST AS TRAPPED AS THE OTHERS WHAT DID I SAY.
and the fact shes labeled as the narrator the whole time is so interesting because the narrator of a story does not necessarily control or create it, they simply tell it in an organized manner. SHE ISNT CREATING THE STORY SHE IS KEEPING IT IN LINE, TELLING IT PROPERLY, KEEPING EVERYTHING IN ITS PROPER PLACE OR ELSE SHE GETS IN TROUBLE DO YOU UNDERSTAND?? SHE IS TRAPPED AND MEANS NO HARM. SHE FIXES THEM UP WHEN THEY ARE BROKEN. SHE IS SIMPLY THE MESSENGER.
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AND THIS. THIS FUCKING DOOR. I KNEW IT MEANT SOMETHING AND LOOK. ITS ON THE FOURTH WALL. AND THE STAIRS LEAD UP. SHE IS NOT RUNNING THE HOUSE. THERE IS SOMETHING ABOVE HER, POSSIBLY IMPLIED TO BE THE IRL PEOPLE WORKING ON THE SHOW BUT THATS JUST MY GUESS.
but anyway dont yall EVER shit talk my girl lesley again you hear me?? shes just a silly old lady and she doesnt aim to hurt anyone. although it doesnt matter what she aims to do, because no matter her own wants, she is still dancing in chains.
ive told yall a million times. but she doesnt say “WE” for nothing. god im going to EXPLODE
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dhmis-tinhatter · 4 months
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“yellow guy is a kid” “yellow guy is an adult” yellow guy is a young adult who is intentionally kept in a child-like state (by denying him new batteries) in order to make him easier to control
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inbarfink · 9 months
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There’s something very ironic about the opening shot of (almost) every DHMIS TV Episode being the front door opening. Considering that in general, this show is about the claustrophobia and helplessness of these characters being trapped in their house unless let out by the capricious whims of their teacher - and specifically because of that, from our protagonists’ POV, that front door probably doesn’t exist.
Okay, so, judging from the layout of the house in both the opening and the show itself, the front door should be right here -
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behind the kitchen, right next to the mirror and the coat rack (which, you know, it makes sense to have the front door right next to the coat rack). 
But the characters themselves never directly explicitly interact with this location (and they only implicitly interact with it once, which I will get to a bit later). Instead, every time the characters are actually shown going in and out of the house - they use the door on the side of the Dining Room.
And this door might lead outside of the house -
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Or it might just lead to the living room.
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DHMIS loves to use the conventions of television to create a surrealist and oppressive atmosphere and that is just another example of this. Nonsensical house/apartment layouts are not unheard of in TV Production. You know, filming inside a real house is often a lot less convenient than building disconnected sets and cutting between them when the characters walk through a door - and sometimes flubs or inconsistencies happen or the production just straight-up doesn’t care about it as much as nerds online and whoops now the characters live in a canonical non-Euclidean pocket dimension. But in DHMIS this is not a flub, but an intentional element of unease and horror (and sometimes comedy).
Cause, you know, it’s not just that the trio live in a space that does not make any sense (where is the bedroom anyways? Is it also behind that same dining room door?) - it’s also that their own house is a space they cannot actually fully control or navigate.
They can’t determine whenever this is the living room door or front door. They can’t leave of their own volition, but any random stranger can come inside or force them out.
Just another reminder that is not really their house, as much as they are of the house. And meanwhile the space that should logically be the front door goes totally ignored by the characters - basically on the same logic none of them can see either the staircase or the empty chalkboard space lingering just past the fourth wall of their dining room.
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If it is off-screen, it basically doesn’t exist for the characters. Again, this idea of turning a convention of TV Fiction into another part of the Puppets’ Actual Nightmare is a recurring theme in DHMIS.
And on that same note, I want to point out the moment that comes closest to acknowledging the front door, or whatever else lies behind that little nook.
In Episode 2, ‘Death’, during the Memories musical montage, Yellow goes to the coat rack area -
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And then he goes outside.
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Basically the only time in DHMIS’ TV Series that one of the Puppets has left the house on their own. Not accompanied by a Teacher or following a ‘lesson plan’ (quite the opposite, really). Considering that he was by the coat rack a moment ago - that’s the closest we’ve got to one of the Main Three Guys Around using the front door where it’s supposed to be. 
It’s still all very… ambiguous. You know, and Duck was basically buried in their backyard, it’s not like Yellow was pulling a Transport and actually trying to leave. But I still think there’s something there. Cutting from the little coat-rack-hallway to the outside is suggestive of a certain kind of movement the same way heading towards the kitchen door and then cutting to the outside is. 
And the fact this is Yellow Guy, the Puppet who is at the same time most oblivious but also the closest to being aware of what’s going on -
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Is certainly very intriguing...
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squish-o-blair · 2 years
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My theory on Lesley: I think British people just act like that
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dandymaximilian · 1 year
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If The Lamp's theory about the DHMIS world being a sort of purgatory is true, then this is what I think life might've been like for Duck and Red Guy before joining Yellow Guy/David.
(TW: mentions of suicide)
Duck:
Was a Sergeant and an Air Pilot in the British Mililary during WW2, hence why he is so fixated on it. As shown in DHMIS 2, Jobs, and Death.
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Forged medical/enlistment documents, which lead to many deaths, a fact he tried to suppress in his mind, as referenced in "Worm in Our Brain" song.
Developed PTSD after the war, filled with regret over his actions during it. Wanted to establish a "digital currency based on respect" to make up for his actions.
Had constant fighting within his biological family, though he was in denial about this, as shown in Family.
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Always wanted to be a father figure, but he never had the chance, hence why insists on being "the father" in Family.
Had a fascination with space, conspiracy theories, and the rapid expansion of technology, as referenced in Jobs, DHMIS 2 and possibly Death.
He had a blackbelt in Karate, as shown in Death.
Was a fan of James Bond, as shown on his poster in his "customized area" in Transport.
Secretly performed drag at underground bars for money, as shown in Family in his infamous crossdressing scene.
Won a tournament at some point, as referenced in Death.
Had bouts of rage due to PTSD, often resorting to biting others. (Yellow Guy would compare this behaviour to a dog whenever he visited his father, hence why Duck appears as one in the flashback in Transport.)
Witnessed Yellow Guy/David's death in a nearby (retirement?) home next to Roy. (Next to another full house/orphanage? Possibly the origins of the teachers?) As shown in the flashback in Transport.
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Developed diabetes at some point, and died from kidney failure (a lack of water). Both are referenced during Death and Electricity.
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Red Guy:
Worked a 9 to 5 office job that he hated and felt pressured into working, as shown in DHMIS 6. Eventually he climbed up the cooperate latter, becoming the boss, but he was still miserable, as referenced in Jobs.
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Lived in a small community in England in the 40's by himself. As referenced in Transport, where Red Guy subconsciously wants and tries to return to "Clayhill."
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Mostly lived an uneventful life.
Enjoyed puppet shows, junveille songs, and child-like hobbies, but he was rejected for this interest. He ended up developing a sense of apathy as an attempt to fit in, as referenced in DHMIS 6.
Enjoyed cooking as a hobby, as referenced in Death.
Often attended bars, where he would try to express his creatvity through dancing and singing. Unfortunately, he was frequently booed off stage, as referenced in DHMIS 6.
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Was another witness to Yellow Guy/David's death.
Died as a result of suicide because of repeated rejection by his peers/family, drowning himself in a nearby lake, as referenced in Death and Family.
On a final note, I think Lesley might've worked at the Vaccum Cleaner Shop before she died? I think it would explain her fixation on inanimate objects. The figurine even looks like her.
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myshredda · 1 year
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this comment about the memories song from the death episode has me spiraling like I never thought of it like this…yellow potentially cheated death AND manipulated the simulation they live in just to get duck back using the only means he has at his disposal
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jaredpostz · 7 months
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i saw this post the other day about dhmis theories and they said "im surprised people think the machine isn't a metaphor for something" and as a "the machine from dhmis 6 is the god of dhmis" truther i think we need to stop thinking about dhmis metaphorically. like dhmis really does not feel like it wants to be deep meta commentary. we need more theories that take the weirdness and bizzareness of the world at face value and just let it be something that is how it is. not something that has to be deep or derive meaning from something always and all the time. it is allowed to be weird
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rileylastname · 2 years
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why does yellow guy need batteries anyway
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he’s human-ish, so he shouldn’t need them, right? unless…
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sillysadduck · 2 years
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that wasn't what he meant, lesley...
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yes self indulgent shit abt that one "Yellow is Lesley's son" theory😴😴
sorry if it looks weird, I was using school markers 👀
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phoebonica · 1 year
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I think I just realised why Unemployed Brendon echoes Duck's "I don't want to do this anymore!" from the food episode. I was always puzzled about that because it seemed like a really significant callback to give to a one-off joke character
but Unemployed Brendon exists to be a bad example. You don't want to end up like him, do you? You don't want to be a whiny little baby who says things like this :) you want to be good :) and play your roles like you're supposed to :) remember?
(Oh, and creating your own story is for silly little boys too, so don't even try it. Nobody's going to care.)
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ultimateloserboy · 13 days
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i just had a thought… you know how duck remembers things like winning a tournament? he didn’t actually, but he has it in his head? theres photos of him winning it, and flying planes and many other things, but it’s obvious none of that actually happened. do you think he imagines it? do you think he comes up with an entire life of being a father and winning awards because in reality he has no past or future? theres photos of him graduating, i think theres one of red guy too if im remembering right, but did that actually happen or is that ducks imagination again? do you think hes imagined graduating with red guy, having a childhood where theyre best friends, but in reality its just his imagination filling in the blanks? do you think he has a million fond memories of growing up together or causing trouble as highschoolers (or whatever british people call it) when in reality its just him imagining decades of friendship that never were? so when he asks red guy about the tournament or graduation or that time they snuck out together in the 80s or something, hes surprised to find out that red guy doesnt remember, because it never happened… or am i overthinking it…
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ajthebumblebee · 2 years
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The new DHMIS season has an interesting look at the found family trope.
Like in Family, the guys are told they aren't a "real" family because they're not related. So Toddney and Lilly force them to experience their very specific idea of a family. When Duck Guy doesn't fit that mold, or just does something by accident, he gets thrown out. Red Guy literally gets taken out of the picture for not fitting in with his family for being happy and showing affection. Even if an outsider can see he's not really acting any different from them.
Yellow Guy is the most interesting, because with the inclusion of Roy at the end, I think the implication was that it was his "biological" family. And he's forced into a role that he didn't agree to, for the sake of everyone else's selfish desires and skewed beliefs. When he's given the opportunity to leave, he does, and goes back to the guys. All while the family literally eats each other alive.
All that seems like it would work for a found family story... But the guys don't really like each other. They constantly complain about the other, they insult and belittle, they enact physical violence, and outright say they aren't really friends. But it's weird, because they're also the only ones who care about each other.
The following episode, Friends, explores this further. Warren is right that it's not okay how Red and Duck treat Yellow, and friends shouldn't do that. But Warren is only doing this for his own self gain, and Red and Duck actually care about helping Yellow. They spend their only day on the computer they can to save him, before they end up insulting and beating the shit out of each other anyways.
I think there's an overall theme with the new season, is of returning to a status quo, even if it's bad for everyone. Like how TV shows frequently go back to a toxic status quo, and how that warps perception in its audience to view real life.
In this instance, a lot of sitcoms have the main cast be terrible to each other, but when push comes to shove, they do care. DHMIS shows that while, yes, it's better than the alternative- it's not a good place to be in either. A lot of abuse victims end up being in unhealthy friendships that are only marginally better. How TV sitcoms normalize it for the sake of entertainment, thus only makes it worse.
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inbarfink · 8 months
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Among the various readings and interpretations of What the Hell is Up With the Ending to the DHMIS Web Show - one of the more interesting ones (from my perspective, at leas) has always been that it’s all a metaphor for repeating patterns of trauma and/or abuse. 
As in, most of the narrative of the DHMIS Webshow has been some sort of surrealist metaphor for Roy being an overcontrolling and manipulative parental figure for his son and his friends
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And then the ending shows them finally escaping his influence -
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Only that without a frame of reference for just how screwed-up their upbringing really was and without any healthy way to process their various traumas, they end up being in danger of just replicating his abuse on their own. Either on each other or maybe on the color-swapped characters who can, like, represent their own children or something. 
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And so the vague ending of the Webshow is an open question, yes, the trio might’ve gotten physically away from Roy’s influence - but are they free from it mentally?
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Or are they doomed to snap back into their old familiar world?
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And the interesting thing about this is that like… that could be what the Web Show is about on a metaphorical level. But in the TV Show, with its greater emphasis on interpersonal conflicts and the characters - the idea of our main trio unknowingly replicating the abuse they live under is not just something we can hypothetically ruminate on. It’s something we can actually see, something we can actually feel.
Like, the first thing that made me think of Yellow and Red’s interactions with Stain Edwards.
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This is basically the closest the Three of Them can get to being parental figures within the confines of the Format. He starts out as such a sweet and curious child-like being, his title for himself is literally ‘the Forever Boy’. And, well…
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Red and Yellow are just so uncomfortable with his curiosity and thirst for adventure that they basically immediately try and stomp it right out. And that’s like a whole big thing about DHMIS, isn’t it? The way that children’s edutainment and the education system actually curbs children's curiosity and desire for learning so they can better memorize easily-digestible simplified concepts and Respect Their Authority Figures. 
You know, it’s the whole thing with…
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And that’s kinda how Red acts with Stain? He’s a lot less violent and more subdued about it - but he also discourages the little guy from asking questions and wanting to explore the world. 
And he is trying to push him into fitting more into the Format. And, like, managing his life like the Trio’s own life is managed by the Format. First more generally into what being part of the DHMIS main trio is supposed to mean (‘just sit here and something will happen’) and then eventually literally turning him into something he didn’t want to be. 
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And from our more familiar perspective, it’s clear that Red Guy really just genuinely thinks at this point that sitting passively and Waiting to Be Taught At is how things are Supposed to Be and can’t really imagine things going any other way. He is honestly just trying to get Stain to understand how their life is supposed to work. (Well until it starts becoming about making a new Duck) 
And it’s also clear to us how much Red Guy is motivated by just unaddressed grief about Duck and wanting to avoid conflict with Yellow Guy, who's a lot more explictly lashing out at Stain in his grief
"What's the matter with him?" "Nothing. Just don't look at him." "What? Where can I look? I can't look at him, can't look over there..." "No, if, if you want to look at stuff, just tell me and I-I'll make a list. Of where you should or should not look..." "Seems like a weird system..." "Yeah, well, you seem like a weird little...thing with...and you don't even... the other guy at least had his own clothes"
But looking at it from Stain’s perspective, taking aside our understanding of Red’s character and motivation. This is just an authority figure giving him a nonsense set of rules and then lashing out at him when he questions it. Never giving a deeper explanation than ‘this is how it’s supposed to be’ and basically punishing his curiosity.
Kinda like, well, how the Teachers tend to interact with the trio.
And then there’s Yellow Guy who’s just totally lashing out at Stain through the whole thing, because, again, he can’t process the grief of losing Duck. Because his environment did not give him the tools to properly process that trauma and he has no healthy frame of reference to grief and that’s kinda...
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Yeah, that’s just what I was talking about. Stain’s subplot in ‘Death’ is just Yellow and Red having not interrogated their abusive environment and not really dealing with their trauma and thus repeating the patterns of the Teachers on their new child-like figure.
Which then culminates with either Duck killing Stain in the name of preserving the status-quo of the format (“there’s only supposed to be three of us”) or with Stain having internalized so much of what Yellow and Red (but mainly Red) taught him about what he’s supposed to be that he was willing to kill in the name of the Format - and then slotted in perfectly in the unadventurous, unquestioning role of Duck.
And this lil narrative is especially interesting if you believe any variance of the David Theory. Because Yellow and Red were mainly motivated in their mistreatment of Stain by their Grief about a ‘dead’ family member. Which could mirror Lesley's trapping and mistreatment of the trio and her own motivations. 
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But I think this idea of mirroring and repeating patterns of abuse are reflected in more than just this one episode. It’s also reflected in the way Red and Duck tend to mistreat Yellow.
Because while Yellow doesn’t slot as neatly into the Child position like Stain did- his simplistic naïveté does mean he often plays a Child-like role in our favorite Forced Family dynamic. And the way that Duck and Red can often condescend to him can… very well mirror the condescending way the teachers address all three of them.
Especially when you also consider the similar manner both the Teachers and Red + Duck react to Yellow being fully charged in ‘Electricity’. They are all so nervous about Yellow breaking away from his supposed ‘role’ as the Stupid One. 
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And they especially all seem so very insecure about the idea that Yellow might be smarter than they are.
And that’s, you know, also an aspect of children’s education that tends to actually harm children and their curiosity. This desire for ‘respect’ towards authority figures and this egotistical need for teachers and parents to always be smarter than their kids - causing them to subtly or bluntly punish children for just being clever or inquisitive. 
It’s, you know “I’m the adult, you are the child. I am supposed to be the Smart and Knowledgeable one and you are the one who must be taught. And you need to play your role!”
Again, that seems to be the whole thing in ‘Time’.
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Here it’s a lot more subtle and less openly hostile, but Yellow can tell that just like that Insurance Teacher,  Red and Duck’s egos have also been hurt by the fact that they might not be smarter than Yellow Guy anymore. And he considers going back to the role he’s ‘supposed to be’, even though being fully-charged seems to feel better for him (‘this doesn’t feel wrong’), just for them. 
That’s almost literally a child giving up on a pursuit of knowledge just to placate his parental figures. 
And then, you know, his refusal to do so and his assertion of his own ability to make decisions for himself (his own maturity, "they're not in charge of us anymore" "Maybe they never were") is directly what leads to him ascending and disassembling not just the trio’s dynamic but the very structure of the Format. 
And I think, it’s not just that Red and Duck’s treatment of Yellow mirrors the way the teachers treat the Three of Them - it might be a result of it as well. With how condescending the teachers are towards them in general, bullying Yellow is their way to assert some sort of maturity and intelligence for themselves. It's super-fucked up, but this is how they internalized expressing what ‘intelligence’ is supposed to look like. And they have no frame of reference for a way of feeling smart or in control that doesn’t involve shutting someone else down. Because that's what literally every authority figure does for them all the time.
Now, do I think that means that our trio is doomed to mirror those patterns? That they will always inevitability repeat the horrors they go through on each other and others? Well, just like with every ‘cycle of abuse’, it can always be broken. But it will take some actual understanding and self-awareness and personal healing from the trio. 
And without this, they’re not just trapped within the Horrors physically, but also spiritually as well. Without it, no matter if they do manage to run away, on some level, their journey will always end up back at home....
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fall1ngfeather · 2 years
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Ok another DHMIS thing I can’t stop thinking about- I was sitting here laughing at The Lamp’s afterlife rant like everyone else. But. Looking back on it, he said along the lines of:
“ i think that when we die we go to the mantle of the earth and we must relive our lives but as a performance for a new super race called the council. and every time you get it right, you get a pound. anyway, goodnight! “
And at the end of the episode before that, we saw the trio live out their “lives” at the factory job (with Yellow and Red getting super old and whatnot), and in return the Briefcase teacher gave them a pound coin. That’s... kind of significant, isn’t it? Perhaps just wishful thinking but still, haha.
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gnomeniche · 2 years
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i'm thinking so hard about the dhmis trio's characterizations and how interesting i find all of them. let's start by framing this discussion with a quote from this interview
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i want to talk about them in terms of their surface levels and their hidden depths. you can see the roles that they're supposed to play on the in-universe "show world", but then you dig deeper and you find something more real.
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yellow? plays the role of the innocently stupid one who's always the butt of the joke and can't see that his friends are jerks.
but we find out that he's the one with the most awareness of their situation and that his knowledge was literally taken from him. and he knows full well that his friends are jerks! throughout the show that is made clear. and even after he's functioning at full power and he admits that he thinks his friends are trying to control him, he still loves them enough to bring the book back to them so that they can all escape. he's shown to be genuinely kind, not just unwittingly innocent. and even when he's at low power he displays some memory of their situation, but he just can't express it.
red? plays the role of the chill and laid-back one who's always handy with a sarcastic comment and doesn't care very much.
but we find that he cares quite a bit about many things. he seems to have a rather sensitive heart, is prone to existential dread, and is distressed by the nonsense of their world. he wants so strongly; he wants something better, something more gentle and more sincere and more real than all this. he wants to feel comfortable somewhere but can't quite find that in either this life or any other. he's curious and imaginative but repressing it due to arbitrary standards, whether it's by the show world's rules or social rules (original 6's "real world" and new 3's illusion of a family).
duck? plays the role of the the high-strung, fussy one with an overinflated ego, dramatic emotions, and a sharp tongue.
but we see that, even if he can be cruel, he finds comfort in being with his friends and loves their daily life together. he sees them as a family! he can't just be by himself, and he genuinely doesn't want them to be separated. and pedantic as he is, he seems blind to the inconsistent nature of their reality. it's only when the status quo of their daily life is disrupted that he really freaks out, like when yellow goes off-script in 6 or when red disappears in the original series' 5. but this also makes him grounded in who he is; he just does not assimilate into new roles as well as the other two, and as dramatic as he is, he's often the most stable.
...
and it's their inner traits that lead to their downfalls, when they do occur. yellow's love leads him to go back downstairs and lose his memory over and over and over again. red's curiosity for more strands him outside of his world with no way back in besides intervention from a higher level, in both the original and new series. duck's stability makes him unable to deal with some lessons and thus liable to be violently removed or changed (perhaps this is why he seems to be so often replaced?), in both the original and new series.
and they all have their deeper personalities masked by the roles they must play in this tv-show-world. yellow's is most easy to see, because he is literally forced to lose all memory and return to his role as lovable idiot, but the abrupt shift in demeanor that red and duck experienced in 6 when a ray of stage light came back into the dark is also notable, as was red's sudden reset from desperate in 5 to apathetic in 6, right after the group came too close to knowing what was going on.
and on a level wider than the individual characters... you can see it with the undercutting of any almost-sincere moments by gags. you can see it in how full of holes their memories are. there are moments where their selves beneath the roles shine through anyway, but the status quo is always god. nobody can grow or change or be anything other than what they are supposed to be. and that's the tragedy of it
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Wait- ROY AND LESLY!?!?!
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I MEAN, I ALREADY HAVE SEEN ROY
BUT LESLY!?
Also, look closely... Lesly and Roy look human in that photo...
maybe a poster like 'wanted'
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