Oh Dennis....

art i did for the cover of @its-always-ziney-in-philadelphia 's summer pride zine !!! meant to post sooner but wasn't super active on tumblr till now! was super fun to work on this and love how the zine came out, go check it out if you haven't :D

finding comfort in homes broken differently than yours

Happy Star Wars Day! Here’s my other Skywalker Twins comic all in one post!

I don't think we talk enough about what Mac falling for Johnny means in terms of his perception of love and his relationship to Dennis. I mean, we talk a lot about Dennis catfishing and e-dating him and the sexual component of it —which gives us plenty to unpack about Dennis' psyche, so it's understandable— but my favorite aspect to dissect is Mac's willingness to "fall in love" with a ghost.

In the episode, Dennis mentions there being texts between them so we know Mac wasn't just talking to a wall the whole time, but he's been stood up by Johnny so many times.. yet he keeps at it, keeps going on errands and to motels just in case Johnny decides to actually meet him this time. He's constantly waiting for someone who never shows up for him, and that's reflective of Mac's entire character. He keeps searching for love and validation from his mom, his dad, Dennis.. and when he doesn't get it, he just keeps on pushing, putting in more effort because maybe this time it will be enough. He holds so tightly onto his faith in god, a being he can't even see or hear, but that represents a hope for eternal love if you do everything right and conform nicely to its supposed expectations.

Mac isn't a stranger to loving distant beings, so of course he fell in love with Johnny. He's so desperate for someone to love him back but the only form of "love" he recognizes is a distant kind. That's why he can't give his date from the episode a chance, and why he doesn't want anything to do with uncle Donald. Easy and earnest love isn't something Mac knows. Hell, it isn't even worth it. Love, in his experience, requires work and sacrifice, otherwise what's the point?

This also plays a lot into his dynamic with Dennis, and why Mac will never let go of it. Sure, we saw him kind of trying to move on in 'The Gang Gets Romantic' by fabricating a love story for himself with Greg, and a more genuine attempt in 'Frank vs. Russia' by dating Johnny, but all roads eventually lead back to Dennis. A part of it can be attributed to Dennis not letting him move on —keeping Mac at arm's length while giving him just enough to keep him hooked— but that's not all. At this point I don't think there's anything Dennis could do or not do to put a definitive end to Mac's obsession with him, because he's exactly the type of person Mac craves in his life. As mentioned before, Dennis is someone that makes him earn his love and respect, and Mac can't find that in other potential romantic partners. He already tried looking for it online, where you can meet all kinds of people from all kinds of places, and who did he find? Dennis.

Obviously, the Johnny thing being orchestrated by Dennis means that Mac "found him" on purpose, but the point here is that Mac didn't know that. From his perspective, it was a fresh start with someone completely new, a guy that met his subconscious requirements. It just so happens that his requirements are Dennis. Because as mushy and gooey as it sounds, at the end of the day Mac is irreversably in love with him. He loves Dennis so intrinsically that he falls for him a second time, without even being aware of it. And I suspect he always will, no matter how many times he tries to move on.

Deleted the prev version because there were some big hookup issues bugging me. But here is the Thrill of First Love macdennis cut

One last edit before I go to icbiballtay and my life changes forever

Joey's Ted headcanons

He apparently did the cameo in 2 seconds, so here, lol. Also, he does think I'm the official Ted artist in the fandom 😭 honor

Remember, these are just actor headcanons, nothing official 👍

Ted genuinely loves Pete

Hes' very romantic, but he puts on a facade of a bullshit guy cause he wants to seem cool

He does think Paul is his best friend

Ted's one of those guys who doesn't wear pants at home, he's just in boxers

He does wear a tie tho, in case he needs to go out or have a zoom meeting

He uses excessive amount of cologne

Ted constantly goes on dates. Most women in Hatchetfield have "gone on a date" with him, but they last 5 minutes cause how much of a terrible guy Ted is

Lot of people know him in town and think he's a creep

All his deaths need to be embarrassing

Always orders take-out, never cooks for himself

He takes Pete out constantly and tries to be cool in front of him, but Pete is embarrassed by him, but still thinks he's cool (side note is that Joey'd like a NMT episode of Bill and Alice hanging out and Ted and Pete hanging out)

Ted loves dogs and maybe has a dog at home we don't know about

Storytime!

after mac comes out he starts watching rupaul's drag race cause he's a gay man and gay men like drag but very quickly he realizes he's not interested (he was into the pit crew tho) so he stops but dennis who had been lowkey watching whenever it was on screen WAS into it so he starts watching it by himself and that's how you get dennis yelling at the screen during the lip synchs for your life cause the queen he's supporting isn't serving enough cunt