Stupid Character Analysis

This doesn’t really have anything to do with the prior analysis I did of Pete, it was more just something I noticed that I wanted to talk about.

So in the beginning “Bring Me The Head of Boba Fett”, Pete is defending Interview With the Vampire (1994) and going on his usual rants when he mentions the original book written in 1976 by Anne Rice.

I have read Interview With The Vampire, and one thing to note about the book is that it is not a light read. Pages are dense with environmental descriptions of where the characters will be staying. The pace is slow and has sections dedicated to going into Louis’s contemplation on what it is to be a vampire. Groups of vampires debate each other about the existence of God and if He does exist, are they still His children despite their unholy transformation.

It is very different in tone from books in the splatter punk genre or horror comics where the focus is on provoking discomfort in the reader. 

I mention all of this because this contrasts a lot with the general assumptions of who Pete is. Yes he does have an interest in slasher films and gore, but horror as a genre encapsulates more than that. It’s shown from how he talks about special effects and make up in “The Marathon Men” that he has a lot of interest in the process it takes to make the final product. Genres like Classic Horror and Asian Horror cover a variety of films that involve a discussion of the other and how they are connected to society despite their monstrous appearance.

As much as he talks about gore and kills and hot women, he still has a clear interest in classic monster literature, and that’s a space that was never really discussed because of the comic’s short runtime.

To briefly touch another thing, vampires have historically been queer coded. Bloodsucking can parallel a kiss, but it also a sexual act. It happens in private at night, and can be seen as a metaphor for sex. Here’s some examples from Interview With The Vampire (1976):

Louis himself during the interview when asked to describe what it was like to have his blood sucked compared it to attempting to describe sex to someone who has never had it. It is an indescribable intimate experience between two people, in private, involving bodily fluids.

When he is being turned into a vampire, he is being overwhelmed by the powers he has just obtained, giving him a completely different view of the world.

**Hell the book itself focuses on the relationship between Louis and Lestat as they raise their adopted vampire daughter, do I need to explain further on about how the book is queer coded.

Interview With The Vampire (the book and movie) is really fucking gay. It has been discussed in several essays and video essays before about how it is queer coded. The book was and has been popular with gay readers since its release so this is not a new reading of the material.

I highly doubt all of this would have gone over Pete’s head when reading it. Yes he can be dense, but he is not that dense. He called it “homo-erotic”, he’s semi-acknowledging it without addressing the elephant in the room.

So yeah Josh was right, Pete is pretty queer for vampires. Happy pride everybody!

Sources:

“Anne Rice and Her Homoerotic Vampires Left an Immortal Mark on Gay Culture.” NBC News, www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-pop-culture/anne-rice-homoerotic-vampires-left-immortal-mark-gay-culture-rcna8632.

Rice, Anne. The Vampire Chronicles 1 Interview With The Vampire. Ballantine, 2009. 

Dyer, Richard. “IT’S in HIS KISS! Vampirism as Homosexuality, Homosexuality as Vampirism.” The Culture of Queers, Routledge, 2002, pp. 89–112, search.worldcat.org/title/172980952?__cf_chl_f_tk=2rRxLjpGJdDwIXiGq4vipLzcH3MI3XEAIpQnfH4Z38o-1782847122-1.0.1.1-IBwPgk9w374ibDGzF_ERZZCbQ7bIipSymPwCRxpFLks. Accessed 30 June 2026.

Book was initially published in 1976 by Knopf, was republished in 2009 by Ballantine.

CW for mentions of abuse and alcoholism

Ok I went on a hiatus for way too fucking long, but I am back, time to talk about Bloberta and why I think she is very complex.

I’m starting with her first because I both have a lot to say about her, and there’s a lot to dive into with Clay, so I’m doing her first.

To make things a bit easier, I split her analysis into 2 sections: her during her childhood/before being married to Clay, and her after being married to Clay since there is a lot to discuss with both.

Childhood/pre-marriage

Taken from Season 3 episode 7 “Help”, Bloberta grew up in an abusive household. She was isolated from her family choir for being a high soprano (and they already had a soprano), it is clear from how Bloberta’s father (Raymond) talks and behaves that he is intimidated by her mother.

(In this scene where Bloberta and her father briefly talk, he is visibly anxious and looking around, which I interpret as him both struggling to connect with Bloberta emotionally as well as being worried about Ms. Hymentact overhearing him.)

There is a high chance that no one ever advocated for her (aside from her father but that was in private) which is why she is usually ignored by her family ** However, even though they have a very limited amount of screen time, I don’t think that Bloberta was the only one being abused. Aside from her father being terrified of her mother, I would argue that Bloberta’s siblings also suffer some form of abuse. Even if they are the favored children, watching Ms. Hymentact slap her youngest son for laughing at Bloberta right after praising him a few minutes ago gives the idea that they are the favored children as long as they stay in line and do what they are told. **There is a possibility that Bloberta’s siblings have been conditioned to see Bloberta as the othered family member, and that they need to play their roles and keep their mother happy or they will end up like Bloberta. **Also what is important to note is Bloberta’s older sister Modella clarifying that it wasn’t her who was off pitch, immediately feeling the need to defend herself. **Considering how little Bloberta’s father is able to express his thoughts or opinions, there is a good chance that everyone in the Hymentact household is encouraged to suppress their emotions, making people like her father emotionally unavailable. **I also mention this because Ms. Hymentact has a clear level of control over the family. All of the decisions and final says fall on her because her father is unable to advocate for himself or his children. If she gets pushback, she immediately lashes out (evidenced by her yelling at Blobertas father for giving a suggestion), so the best thing to do is to go along with what she is saying. **These characters do not get a lot of screen time so this could be argued as heavy speculation, but I wanted to mention it as one reading of the siblings.

***Another thing to note in the scene where Bloberta is in her room is that it is very messy, completely contrasting the cleanliness of the Puppington household in the present. This is probably the case because at this time, she was using alcohol as a way to cope with her living situation. If she drank, she could feel numb, and being numb is better than feeling alone.

I would argue that considering the events that occur with her and Clay before their marriage, she sees alcohol as a way for people to be able to discuss or deal with their emotions, as her dad could only express his opinions when he drank. It was a way to see his true self and be seen in the family for a brief moment, as well as relieve herself of stress.

Continuing with her struggles of being seen, Bloberta also felt ostracized from the other women in her community. Most of them were already married or getting married, which might have made her feel like time was running out and she needed to be with someone as fast as she could. She was raised in a Christian household and was probably raised to think that the only goal she should have is to be a mother and wife.

It is also clear that Bloberta does care about how she is perceived by others, considering that she and Clay decided to not get divorced because they were worried about how people would see them and wanted to keep up appearances. (mentioned in Season 2 Episode 1, "God's Image".)

She already felt unwanted by her family, and her being the only unmarried woman in Moralton proved that to her, as she was already not being included in events by Ms. Censordoll because she was still single.

Bloberta's desire to be wanted by people is translated through her constant requests and eagerness to help. To Bloberta, if she helps, then she is proving her worth and value, that she is important to have around.

When Bloberta met Clay, she probably saw this as her last opportunity to get married to someone considering how quickly she latches onto him, and just before was looking at all of the married couples in church.

From the start of their interactions, there are some red flags present which will quickly develop into the problems present in the Puppington family.

Bloberta appears to have a tendency of pushing people to do what she wants, as she strong-arms Clay into going into the reception. She might be unintentionally mimicking her mother while doing this considering how much control her mother had over the family and their decisions.

Bloberta isn’t ready to be emotionally vulnerable to anyone, as she drinks to suppress her emotions and keeps her personal opinions to herself. She sees alcohol as a way to get people to express themselves, as her father could under the influence (at least a little) and encouraged Clay to drink with the initial intention of getting him to open up.

This was probably furthered as a good thing to Bloberta when Clay mentions that she helped him get out of his shell. She was able to help someone for possibly one of the first times in her life, and she needed to want to help, to have value to somebody. And the way for Bloberta to continue having value and helping in Clays life would be to marry him. She could help, as well as not be the only unmarried woman or need to continue living with her family.

When she is briefly left alone, we see her reflection on the countertop, emphasizing her loneliness and isolation despite her attempts to help. (Bloberta probably has low self esteem as well considering what has been discussed prior.)

Despite this, it was not right for Bloberta to push marriage on Clay while he was completely intoxicated and made it clear that he had no interest. Understanding a characters motivation does not equate to justification.

Her emotionally distancing herself from Clay as soon as he does not give the desired answer and hurting him (both by hitting him and later dropping his head on the tile while she was holding him) is also important to note, as it is one of the few times in the entire series that Bloberta ever externalizes her emotions. (especially externalizing it via violence)

**(Possibly manipulation/emotional abuse that she may have mimicked based on how her father and mother were)

In the scene of her caring for Clay, she gives herself this type of martyr title, that its because of her that Clay was ok even though she was the one who hurt him. In this case, the marriage is posed as the thing that can be done as a type of repayment for Bloberta’s help. The way she poses her help is that it is the only thing that Clay needs or can rely on, highlighting her own importance. Along with this, she phrases the offer in this tone of “I have done everything for you” which puts more pressure on Clay to agree to marriage.

When Bloberta begins to develop her habit of cleaning, it is another form of her attempts to help as well as suppress her emotions. If she cleans, she is helping, and can also emotionally distance herself from what is going on, making the situation easier to deal with. (I would also argue its somewhere to put her anger, as she begins to look at filth with disgust after seeing Clay drunk, and takes that anger out on the bar grime before hitting Clay.)

I’m taking down my Eltingville crackpot theory as information has come out about sapphicsandman also known as Joko.

Although this was a while ago, I was swamped with work and wasn’t keeping track of what was going on in Twitter, as I barely use it.

Now that I know about this, I do not feel comfortable keeping that post up, as I talked to them a lot about this essay idea before they deleted their discord account. I advise everyone to please stay away from Joko/sapphicsandman/MinecraftDoctor

From all the media I have seen about fandom and nerd culture, The Eltingville Club has the most accurate portrayal of misogyny and how it cultivates in fandom spaces.

The nerds in The Eltingville Club are a bit different from other creepy nerd archetypes in media who are misogynistic (ex. Upchuck from Daria) where they are overtly unpleasant to other characters. It's less that I believe that these people don't actually exist and more that misogyny comes in more forms than someone that creeps on women or openly talks about their hatred of them.

**It can give the idea that misogyny is always blatant, an easy "I know it when I see it". The most insidious thing about misogyny is that it is not a trait people are born with. They pick it up from the environment that they grew up in or the media they engaged with, which shapes their beliefs on women overtime.

The misogyny of The Eltingville Club is a bit more hidden in comparison (before the epilogue). They are not going out in public spaces to creep on women or catcall them. The club will only say or do creepy shit in spaces like Joes comic book store or in Bill's basement because everyone else has the same mindset that they do. These spaces end up becoming an echo chamber where misogyny is unchallenged because it isn't seen as a problem.

This can be seen most prominently with a scene in "This Fan, This Monster", when the girl walks into Joes asking if they have Saga comics before running out in fear. It's one of the few times that Bill doubts what Joe says rather than instantly agreeing with it. But Joe is eventually able to assure Bill that she wasn't a real fan. The echo chamber is sealed back up, and any self-doubt can be waived away because the most important thing isn't making people in a space feel comfortable, but shunning the "fake fans" to maintain the current space.

Although all of the club members are terrible people, there is no character in the club defined as “the misogynist” but it’s something that is present in how they talk and act in their own circles. Each character has misogyny engrained into their behavior, but it’s never to the extent where it becomes their entire personality. Characters like Pete and Bill can be argued to be more overtly misogynistic, but it would be a stretch to categorize either character as being “the misogynist” of the group (specifically referring to when they were still teens) since the characters frequently discuss their own interests and priorities. Even a character like Jerry who is argued to not be as overtly terrible as the rest of the club isn’t free from this.

The club has the tendency to view women as sexual objects first and people second. The members do not interact with anyone outside their own group unless they have to, so a lot of the way they have viewed the world has been through comics, movies, and tv shows.

Comics themselves have a history of misogyny, reducing them to damsels or as objects to be sexualized, even if the characters themselves are superheroes. (Wonder Woman's original weakness was that she lost her powers if she was tied up by a man, this was only phased out in the 1980s, "fridging" or killing/abusing female characters to give the male character motivation is an incredibly common trope that originated in comics) Although the issue has gotten better overtime, it is still an element that continues to permeate through comics. It wouldn’t be surprising if the clubs view on women was influenced by the comics they read or the media they grew up with.

***As clarification, no I am not saying that reading comics inherently makes you a misogynist or that you are not allowed to enjoy comics, I’m just using this as an example.

A lot of how the club views women can be shown through Bill, as he has the most scenes of his objectification of women. (I would argue a lot of it comes from Bill because he is the protagonist and as a result, the audience sees the most from his perspective, not that he is the most misogynistic out of the group.)

Bill’s fantasies usually focus on women that are subservient to him, willing to perform sexual acts on him at his command or serve as an accessory. It's a power fantasy, and these scenarios are thought up because Bill is insecure with who he is and like fandom, he can temporarily pretend he is someone else.

It can also be speculated that Bills misogyny may have formed because of his resentment towards women, considering in The Intervention Mandom breaks Bill down by mentioning that girls probably laughed at him at school as well.

Misogyny tends to be fueled by insecurity, and said insecurity closes people off out of fear of interacting with them. The more insecure and more isolated they are, the more frustrated they get, and the more frustrated they get, the more likely they are to lash out at women, blaming them for their own misery.

***Bill does lash out at people several times in the comic, but the element of misogyny becomes a lot more prominent in the epilogue

With Pete, (mentioned by Dorkin from the interview Vtuber Comic Club from 4:25:00-4:26:00) he grew up in a physical household where he was hit by his brothers and dad. He has had several angry outbursts to minor things which have led to physical fights and property damage, along with actively seeking out content where women are mutilated and raped for his own gratification.

***It could be considered a stretch, but I speculate Pete’s household was one that encouraged toxic masculinity (or a household that prioritized traditionally masculine traits like being dominant, self reliant, refusal to express emotion unless it is stoicism or anger) which can lead to misogyny since a lot of toxic masculinity pushes for traditional values including when women had less rights.

Pete growing up to be in a workspace like Sick Mofo in the epilogue can be seen as a transition point from spectator to participant since he was already engaging in spaces where people had the same views as him and later gave him the opportunity to play a role in it. Moving to a space where misogyny is prominent and common allows him to take advantage of women who are already being exploited.

** It is also shown during Mandi's introduction that he is able to hide his actual feelings and intentions from being seen by everyone around him. As soon as Mandi gets to the table, he stops making sexual comments not because it is wrong to do or was told to stop, but knew that approaching people with his workspace behavior upfront would scare them off.

Even a character like Jerry who is not openly misogynistic in the epilogue still permits misogyny, which can be seen when the club makes sexual comments toward Mandi which he passively tells them to stop, rather than actively defending his girlfriend.

The women drawn in the comics the club reads are usually sexualized or serve to be sexual objects for other characters.

All of this contrasts with the female characters that show up in the real world. The girl asking for the Saga comics in This Fan, This Monster forces the reader to see the comic shop and the club from her perspective, showing a first person view of all of the comic shop nerds tightly clustered together, only interested in ogling her. The panel is intentionally confining as it forces the audience to face the discomfort that fandom spaces can be to women.

Even when she leaves, the first thing that Joe says about her is that she was just intentionally trying to get people aroused by being there (even worse is that this is a grown middle aged man saying this about a LITERAL CHILD) and including the comment asking Bill if he has ever seen a girl that actually likes comics.

***Joe mentioning this can be seen as having a double meaning, specifically that women don’t want to be in nerdy spaces because they will be ogled at, objectified, or interrogated if they are a “real” fan when all they want is to engage with the fandom that they like.

It’s also important to remember that the misogyny present in fandom is not just limited to the Eltingville Club. The comic shows that misogyny is something that is baked into fandom itself. It can be seen both in how the background characters ogled at and took photos of the girl who just wanted a saga comic, and a background scene in the epilogue where a power girl cosplayer is surrounded by other fans who take pictures of her tits. (it can be argued maybe this was consensual, but again there is not enough information to go off of in the scene)

One thing that I especially like in the epilogue is how Mandi is introduced. Usually when a female character is introduced in a comic, there’s the tendency to change the composition to objectify her or put her in a more attractive light. In contrast, the panel frames Mandi’s first appearance neutrally, she’s just a person. The sexual comments that the club says about her are invasive text bubbles that cluster around her, directly highlighting to the reader how disgusting it is for them to talk about an actual human being like this, only stopping once she arrives at the table.

***this can also be said with the other female cosplayers to some extent, all of them are shown in neutral panels while the club judges them for not looking like the characters enough, or for not being sexually attractive to them in particular.

I partially want to argue that Bill is unable to view women as human beings, considering that he can only view women’s inclusion in fandom or their desire to participate in it always being a threat or having a sexual intent behind it, which is especially highlighted in his blow up at Mandi.

This is also extended to how he treated Agnes Zawatski as a threat to the club. It is not overtly stated in the comic that Agnes and Jerry dated or were just friends, but I tend to see them as friends because it underlines that even having a female friend is considered a threat because Bill is completely unable to see women outside of a sexual context.

**the single panel showing Agnes also does an incredible job at hammering this in, she wasn’t a threat to the club, she was just a nerdy girl looking for people that had similar interests.

Thank you, happy that you enjoyed them! Regarding Bill in This Fan This Monster, I think it could be argued that it shows up a little bit in the beginning considering that Joe is probably the closest thing that Bill has had to a consistent father figure in his life. Focusing on this comic by itself, (the inclusion of the first comic makes it a bit more confusing) its mentioned in the hospital that his parents are divorced and while when it specifically happened is unclear, his presence is also absent in other Eltingville comics. (excluding the first) 

Bill’s mom probably did not play much of a role in his life as well, considering how much resentment they both have for each other, which can be seen though Bill’s mom preferring to get people to tie him up in a chair for hours to fix his comic obsession rather than just talking to him herself in The Intervention and accusing him of blaming her for the divorce in This Fan This Monster.

In summary, Bill is not on good terms with either of his parents and probably latched onto Joe because he appeared to care about similar interests. (though he just sees Bill more as a source of money rather than an actual person)

** From this, Joe probably influenced Bill's behavior the most since a lot of Joe's behavior seen in This Fan This Monster (saying customers have to be treated like idiots, that women don't actually like comics) reflected in Bill once Joe needs to leave for an emergency and in the Epilogue. (especially in his rant to Mandi)

** Though I don't think that Joe was someone that Bill would ever open up to regarding his personal life and issues, its idolization rather than an actual familial relationship at most

I would say that the beginning of the comic has a mixture of two things, Bill trying to appease and learn from Joe while looking up to him as somewhat of a father figure, but also constantly testing to see how much he can get away with, he is still just as willing to break rules if it means he has easier access to the things he wants. Though that appeasement definitely comes back in when he attempts to blame his friends for the destruction of the comic shop in order to still cling onto the power he just obtained.

On his friends not being around, I don’t think that Bill got better without them present. Although he is the leader of the Eltingville Club, Josh and Pete are there to constantly challenge his opinions which prevents his ego from going completely unchecked. With their absence, you can see Bill’s ego gradually become more inflated the more he is around Joe, getting worse when Joe temporarily puts him in charge. Joe ignores Bill a majority of the time aside from making fun of him for doing grunt work, which allows Bill to believe that he can get away with being an asshole because he now has a higher status, and with this higher status, he doesn’t need a friend group to control.

**I tend to see This Fan This Monster as Bills Icarus moment, in the sense that his ego rises over the comic only for it to come crashing down when he sets the comic shop on fire out of spite.

Time to talk a lot about the last character in the crew, Jerry Stokes. A couple of quick things before getting into some lukewarm observations, this is not me trying to morally grandstand about a character actually being bad, this is The Eltingville Club, all of your faves are problematic. This is just about how his role feeds into the environment, and because I am not satisfied with only going over a list of bad things Jerry has done in the comics and want to go into why he is like this. I have seen a handful of people already go into his toxic behavior, so this is my attempt to contribute. To summarize, Jerry is both the support and doormat of the group. Even though all the characters rip on each other for their interests, Jerry is usually the main target. He is also the character that attempts to break up a lot of the arguments/feuds that the characters have. However, Jerry never actually fixes the problems present in the group, the most he does is postpone the terrible actions, but still goes along with whatever happens. I call Jerry the support of the group, but only by a slim margin. Like Pete, he has the tendency to enable the clubs behavior, but in his case, it’s by his lack of action rather than exacerbating the conflict.

Jerry’s main concern in the club is avoiding conflict. If he prevents the club from arguing, he won’t lose his friends. But because of that, it leads to a refusal to challenge any of the groups bad ideas. The Eltingville club has cultivated an environment where they all need to have the same opinion, and anyone who doesn’t is wrong or stupid and not a real fan. So the most that Jerry can do is just meekly suggest that something is a bad idea, but because he is also the doormat of the group, and isn’t really going to stop them, his protests can easily be ignored by the rest of the club.

Jerry ends up becoming both a bystander as well as an enabler, which has the tendency to get looked over because characters like Bill, Josh, and Pete are more blatantly toxic and destructive, so Jerry’s behavior usually goes under the radar in comparison to the rest of the clubs.

**The main reason the club will actually listen to Pete when he tells them to cut it out is because he backs up his threats, he will follow though if they don’t listen to him.

Jerry’s tendency to postpone conflict also comes with the result of refusing to call out any of his friends for their terrible behavior. He has almost never defended Josh even though the entire group bullies him for being fat is because it’s been normalized. From how bad arguments tend to get and how no one in the club takes Josh’s concerns seriously, he probably just writes it off as playful jabbing rather than bullying. Even with something like Bill making the Greedo-318 account to tell Josh to kill himself and telling Jerry to keep his secret, Jerry’s main concern is not wanting to lose his friends. He wants Bill to like him, because if Bill still likes him, the club can still exist. Jerry already has a lot of anxiety about the club breaking up, so revealing this would do nothing but add more conflict.

From what I can tell, the characters live in the suburbs. Eltingville is a tiny town with not much to do. None of them have a drivers license so they can’t go anywhere by car, days are monotonous, and the only place that holds any of their interest is a shitty comic book shop. I mention this because in this environment there is the need for community, even if that community is terrible, because it’s better than being alone. It is established that the club takes up a majority of all of the characters time, so outside of this group, there isn't really anywhere else for Jerry to go to.

Even if Jerry was able to make new friends, I have the feeling that the rest of the Eltingville Club would probably try to sabotage any attempt, considering that they spread rumors about him going around telling people that he fucked Agnes Zawatsky to reel him back into the club.

Misery loves company, and even if Jerry is the main punching bag of the group that the characters put most of the blame on, he can't leave, because they are The Eltingville Club, and its always them against the world.

Time to talk about Pete, the character that I have actually struggled the most to write about because I have a lot to say and have been struggling to coherently organize it. Also because I have seen some other people make really good analysis pieces about him, so I’m going to try my best to contribute.

On surface level Pete appears to have the same function as Jerry in the club, he is the support of the group and is able to break up a lot of the arguments that Bill and Josh get into. However, Pete doesn’t resolve the actual problem, he actually has the tendency to exacerbate it by actively encouraging the characters shitty behaviors instead of calming them down. One example that comes to mind is the Steel figures, instead of getting Josh to calm down and move on, he goes on a rant about the movie, and then encourages Josh with the idea of burning down the Steel display.

There is also the possibility that he originally joined the club as a kid both to talk about their nerdy interests together, as well as to get away from the violence in his family. But overtime he ended up needing to deal with fights and arguments from the club, as well as eventually participating in it.

*Focusing on Petes temper for a second, I think the main reason why a lot of his outbursts result in property damage is from him having no fucking clue how to deal with his emotions. From the brief scenes we hear his dad talk and what Dorkin has mentioned, Pete grew up in a household that encouraged toxic masculinity and rejected his own interests as being unimportant or for children. Dorkin also mentioned Pete growing up in a physical household where he was hit a lot, (which can also be implied when his dad threatens to break his legs if he ever tries to meet with the club again) so his go to for anything is to get violent, its the only acceptable emotion to express.

**I also like to think this is why Pete had the least of a reaction when Bill goes on his rant tearing him down, its probably the norm for him.

I find Pete’s contributions to the environment of the club to be interesting because of how contradictory it is. Pete is usually the character to call other characters pussies or make fun of them for not doing things that are traditionally masculine, (like the comment to Jerry about how sewing is for chicks, sissies, and sweatshop workers) but at the same time needs to defend his own interests from the club as it gets brushed off as being gay or not worth discussion, including needing to defend his admiration of horror make up/special effects.

His reaction makes sense in the context of his family life since they don’t care about his interests either, and the club being his only friend group probably gives the urgency to both protect his interests while also aggressively stamping out any suggestion that it implies something about him. If bi Pete is canon, I’m assuming he doesn’t even want to think about it because if it were true, it would probably lead to more isolation and more things for the club and his family to shit on him for.

Out of all the character punishments, next to Josh, I think Pete got the worst of it when it came to punishments, as he was forced to throw out all of his horror stuff after the comic shop burned down, since his method of escapism was completely ripped away from him and confirmed as non important kids stuff that he needs to grow out of. It’s also sad to see because in comics like Unstable Molecules and They’re Dead, They’re All Messed Up, you can see Pete’s interest in horror make up and costumes shine through. Mentions of him improving the zombie looks from the prior year and his admiration for the horror make up in The Twilight Zone episodes show that he cares about the craft behind it. (same with him talking about horror icons like Peter Cushing, Anne Rice, and Christopher Lee)