sok

lolol you’re okay. You can think about that way if you want, but I was more-so thinking about Bills bad relationship with his mom.

I’ve talked about it before but in my HC I believe when Bill was first born and growing up his parents were decent, and he had a decent life up until around age 5-7. His parents started arguing more, and he would drown it out by indulging in his superhero comics.

During this time, his mom would put out her anger on everything close to her, including Bill, so she frequently yelled at him for very little things that didn’t matter. She had a destructive personality and did nothing to help herself. His dad couldn’t take it anymore, and he left his wife. Bill thought his dad loved him more than anything, but he left after they the divorce and Bill hasn’t seen him since. His mom becomes an alcoholic after too, which doesn’t help his current situation.

Bill blames his mom for everything having gone wrong in his life. He resents his dad for leaving him to deal with her all alone with just his siblings too, but his mom was always the bigger presence. However, as we see through the comics Bill acts the exact same way his mom does, lashing out for the littlest reasons, just being shitty, making excuses, being a massive hypocrite. For me, this is where his self loathing stems from. He becomes aware of who he is after a certain point, and he’s too far gone to change that. He’s no different. He hates that he truly is his mother’s son.

I think Pete was the only one influenced to like something. Realistically…

Josh —> I think he was a neurodivergent kid who also struggled with mental health issues, and his parents didn’t believe in that stuff despite probably have some of their own. They always brushed off Josh’s mood swings and emotions by the fact they had a good house, made good money, and he got whatever he wanted from them. Would make him feel guilty about his own emotions he couldn’t control. He naturally had an interest in Sci-Fi and clang onto it because it made him happy the way his parents said he should always feel.

Bill —> Dealt with divorced parents at a young age, I’m assuming he thought he had a decent childhood but then his parents began fighting and he tuned it out by reading and watching superhero stuff. The divorce finally hit, and it was affecting him more than he liked to admit and so he kept using escapism to ignore it. His mom was always an aggressive one just like him, and he was forced to deal with it since forever and she refused to get help. He really only felt somewhat okay around his dad, but his dad was out the picture once the divorce happened leaving Bill feeling abandoned. He probably blames his mom for his dad leaving and internalized that anger at a young age and it only grew and grew because he refused to get his help the same way his mother did.

Pete —> a physically and emotionally abusive household id say. I thought his mom would be out the picture/dead but I think shes mentioned once. Evan said he was bullied the most by his brothers and his father, meaning his mom never did anything about it and/or joined in on it even if it wasn’t as much. I think there’s a reason Pete never likes the club around his brothers, they always made Pete feel and seem weak since he was the shortest and weakest. He got into horror because his family watched whatever in front of him, and being too young to understand it he watched. When he was able to understand, he was already desensitized to it. When he found out other people are icked out about it, it fueled his interest more because it made him feel cooler and edgier that he could handle it all, like he was finally tougher than his brothers at something. It naturally became its own thing from then on.

I love all the boys equally, with Jerry just a little bit more for a reason I can't even tell you. Honestly my feelings for all four go somewhat deep so it's hard to explain. Like a lot of it has to deal with my personal headcanons and speculation on how they came to be the people they came to be—but I’ll try n keep it brief 😭

(I said this and still yapped a ton, sorry anon 🙇‍♀️ basically my takes are kinda the same, being ‘they suck and I love that’)