Doos and Nots

You'd think the robes would mean all three are absent or rotating but they could've just been left there, or maybe two of the dads visit which would account for the Christmas card in "Jingle Jingle Jangle" (if that wasn't a simple gift given by somebody close, which does happen.)

And this also makes me think of the way they tried to trap the Eds with the dolls and when they forced the Eds to "marry" them they said "we trapped us some men." With how May is probably the youngest going by her being the most naive and bullied, I'm spitballing here that their mom tried to get guys to stay using babies until she managed to snag May's dad, who stuck around. This might even be why May is "nicer" than the others if her dad is more nurturing toward her than the other girls and she has a slightly better upbringing.

People really love to downplay what the Kankers do and tell you that you're taking it "too seriously" when you point out that it's sexual assault. Like, wdym, that's literally what happens? It's no different than pointing out how Eddy can be a jerk and be unlikeable, it's talking about what's put there on the screen. And, duh, people who're on a forum about it are going to analyze the show deeper than shutting their brains off and laughing at every joke.

Sure, that's a simplification because there are many ways a fictional story is meant to affect you than pure amusement—wait, why am I even trying to bother with a disclaimer?

And I doubt that mysteries with immersive rainy and/or suburban settings are that uncommon. Timing's got something to do with it.

(While I'm here, I'll also mention some horror books I've read that had rainy settings...

Murder Road by Simone St. James

Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

Now, not saying teens aren't kids. There's just this bizarre framework that I started seeing where characters whose actions are seen as bad should just, broadly, be ascribed to them being teenagers and that teenagers can "mature" in the future. I witnessed a bizarre double standard where the idea was to treat the characters as teens to excuse their actions but not treat the characters as teens to judge their actions, despite some users trying to claim that wasn't what they were doing.

Which uh, unless the story emphasizes that they will mature in some way, how is that relevant? Their potential growth later on, assumed because they're teens even though they're fictional teens and by default they'll change more like fictional people than real people, has what to do with the way that the characters act and how they play in the story? These people exist only as when they are observed and a key part of developing them is fleshing out the way that they exist outside of the plot itself but that still doesn't necessarily mean that this part of their outside life is necessary.

And, this also seems to dumb teenagers down to quite a degree. I saw people ascribing actions that would absolutely be considered problematic in real teens as just a "teen thing." Teenagers are not some complete stew of immaturity, irrational behaviors, unoriginal thoughts, and moral blank slates where you can just shrug off what they do in real life, much less in fiction where these characters' actions are being asked to be engaged with. If you want to factor in that they are younger, excusing all behaviors as the result of immaturity feels to me fallacious.

Teens are people, people who will be colored by their age just as anybody will be, but people nonetheless. People are able to think. People are able to differ. People have morality and critical thinking. There are actions taken by characters that, when you factor in these characters' ages are still an action that they should know better about. Teenagers are not blank slates, they're not small children. And of course this will vary based on how the character is actually depicted in the media—if they're depicted as smart, good, bad, and their actions either contradict this or reinforce it then you can't just say that they're "just a kid" and brush it off. The story isn't saying for you to do that.

My opinion is you can't blanketly use characters been teens as a get out of jail free card or broadly ignore that they're teens. That flattens them.