ృ zen

-🦭

SOURCE (timestamp is 31:46)

Also, me too gurl

So I wanted to write about IT2′s decision to make Richie canonically queer and how it offers so much more than pandering to Reddie shippers. It’s clear that IT1 was about a group of kids experiencing childhood trauma while IT2 is about the same group as adults reliving and trying to recover from their childhood trauma. For Bill it’s his survivor’s guilt after Georgie’s death, for Bev it’s sexual abuse at the hands of her father, for Eddie it’s his mom’s brainwashing with munchausen by proxy, for Mike it is losing his parents to a fire and for Ben it’s being bullied and assaulted by Bowers while Stan’s trauma lies in his emotionally repressive religious family leading him to be the loser most vulnerable to being devoured by Pennywise. The only loser who’s childhood fear and trauma is ill-defined in IT1 is Richie. When his friends asked Richie what he was most afraid of Richie told them it was “clowns”. IT2 reveals that this was a lie.  

We now know Richie’s biggest fear was people finding out he was gay. But for Richie to answer “clowns” is an interesting half-truth. Richie is the clown of the group who grows up to be a professional comedian. Richie has always used his (often sexually crude) jokes as a front to prevent others from seeing who he really is. In his IT2 flashback, Richie has a brief moment of being openly friendly with a boy that he likes. Bowers immediately pounces on this and calls Richie a fairy. The fear that this induces in Richie allows Pennywise to make an attack on him. So knowing how easily any honest show of affection towards another boy could be perceived as gay, it’s clear why Richie has taken to persistently teasing Eddie. It’s the only way Richie can have a relationship with his childhood crush without his secret being exposed. But his true feelings still slip out in moments of peril when Richie’s first instinct is to reach for Eddie. 

I wanted to say I loved how the theme of Richie’s mask slipping was symbolized through his glasses. There are two key moments when Richie’s glasses come off (at least which I can remember from only one viewing of IT2*). First as kids when Eddie flicks Richie’s glasses off with his foot. This comes in a scene when Richie and Eddie are sharing a hammock and their physical intimacy must be making Richie feel close to exposure. The second moment is of course when the surviving losers are swimming in the quarry after Eddie’s death. Richie, who is usually the one constantly talking, is sitting in silence with his glasses off. Then instead of saying anything Richie bursts into tears. I can’t help but consider this Richie’s coming out scene. The other losers saw how devastated he was when Eddie was killed. They all loved Eddie, but Richie doesn’t hide that his personal heartbreak is over something more than friendship. The others understand this and rather than saying anything, they all just embrace him. 

* Thanks to yer-a-workin-boy-now who pointed out that young Richie also loses his glasses during the Paul Bunyan scene, which fits the theme of them coming off when Richie feels his sexuality might be exposed. 

IT2 shows all the losers struggling to overcome their PTSD throughout the film. Whether it’s Stan succumbing to suicide, Bev falling prey to abusive boyfriends, or Ben’s continued body dysmorphic disorder. For Eddie, his mother’s years of psychological abuse have conditioned him into believing that he is weak and helpless. When Pennywise strikes, Eddie’s instinctive reaction is to freeze up. It’s Richie who recognizes that Eddie needs reassurance that he can be strong, something nobody else gives him. It is Richie who enables Eddie to overcome his own childhood fears and be the first to wound Pennywise, even if he dies in the process. And the fact that Eddie was prepared to risk his life to save Richie - the friend who saw him as his true braver self and not the sickly weakling his mother tried to make him - shows that Eddie did love and value Richie in return, whether you choose to read Eddie is queer or not. 

- is lowkey judgy/pretentious. He might not say anything (depending on how comfortable he is with you), but he definitely side eyes people/ looks them up and down. (Even though he's literally a loser)

^ donnie has something in between a rbf and casually looking like a neglected puppy.

- wears his clothes for multiple days at a time (usually the blue shirt)

- i think donnie would like parallel play to an extent. He'd relish in being in your presence, just sitting in each other's company, but he's also so touched starved and clingy that he'd crave any type of touch.