#ricky is a fat canonically bisexual man and he is an abuse survivor whose story is treated with respect and that is just. so much.

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

there are a lot of reasons i'm really, really impressed by how well sdmi portrayed the dynamic of an abusive relationship with pericles and ricky, and one of the big ones is how accurately they show what it looks like when abuse starts to escalate.

the extent of that is yet another thing that'll take a longpost of its own to go into, because it spans like.... the entire arc of their relationship in the show. but one thing that stands out to me in particular is their portrayal of the massive red flag that is a partner trotting out bigoted behavior against a group you're in. especially insults, and especially directed right at you.

this show has a LOT of fatphobia, jesus christ does it ever, and there are certainly some fatphobic tropes going on with ricky; but i've always been surprised and impressed by how many of the nastier ones they avoided, especially considering his role in the story and what his arc is about.

he is a major, nuanced character whose trauma is treated with full weight and sincerity. it's implied that his body type changed the way it did due to the trauma he went through when he was younger, and the ensuing mental illness, which is a pretty realistic experience for a lot of people. the things that happen to him are played for full tragedy and horror, when it would have been so, so easy for them to make light of it because Tee Hee Fat Guy and Tee Hee Male Abuse Victims Funnee. despite how his whole thing involves corporate greed, they don't go the route of portraying him as Gluttonous and Hedonistic; if anything he is very obviously not using all that money for even basic physical self-care, and the only time we ever see him eating anything it's when he's drinking wine grape juice with pericles. which, like, there's issues to be unpacked with that too, but jesus christ it's an improvement over what usually happens with characters like him.

he's a fat queer man who isn't degendered or made feminine in a mocking and/or predatory way. (there's nothing wrong with feminine fat queer men and they need more non-shitty rep, please and thank you god, but there is a lot of nastiness in the tropes they're often used for in mainstream media, and one of those tropes is when people consider 'fat queer man' and 'masc' to be oxymorons.) no one ever once calls him ugly; if anything multiple people in his life think he's attractive and desirable, for better or for worse. no one body-shames him. and no one ever mentions his weight.

except pericles.

'The Horrible Herd' and 'The Devouring' are two halves of a whole here, re: escalation of abuse. 'Devouring' is when the abuser goes full mask off and shit hits the fan; 'Horrible Herd' is the wind-up before the punch. HH is when ricky realizes things are getting Bad and he needs to put a stop to this now, and Devouring shows what happens when he tries, because by the point where it's gotten bad enough to give him a wakeup call it's already too late. it's how abusive relationships tend to go, and it's chillingly accurate.

and what's one of the things pericles says during Horrible Herd when that punch is winding up? something no one's ever said before now, including him? 'you pudding-faced dummkopf.'

he body-shames him. he insults his weight, and that's a major turning point. bigotry is something that's often there to some degree from the start, but not always, because some abusers are good at hiding things like that until they're confident they've got you where they want you. the message with ricky and pericles is loud and clear: when this happens, the walls are dripping blood. get out.

(if you can. and be careful when you try.)

when this show is good, it is really, truly good. god damn.

#sdmi #scooby doo: mystery incorporated #ricky owens #professor pericles #pericky #abuse cw #fatphobia cw #domestic violence cw #i am just consistently fucking blown away by what fantastic SA/DV survivor representation ricky is #i have no idea how he ended up where he did; especially with how godfuckingawful their *other* portrayals of IPV are; and just. wow. #he is incredibly important to me and i love him with my whole heart #also; to be very and extremely clear; i do not say he's queer as a headcanon or because he feels like he has Vibes #he is quite literally one of the two most blatantly thread-away-from-textually-explicit queer characters in the show #a show that is famous for *velma and marcie.* that is *saying something.* #and the other most blatantly queer character in the show is pericles #and they are mutually *why the other one is queer-coded* #ricky is a fat canonically bisexual man and he is an abuse survivor whose story is treated with respect and that is just. so much. #and that is why i am insistent that people do not ever ever tag my posts about them with 'not ship' #you don't have to ship them yourself to acknowledge that they're a thing and that matters; and discuss it #but like. don't. do not. do not ever try to cut ricky being canonically queer or a DV survivor off of anything that i post. thanks #SDMItag #dyn: when i die i want you to die too