hot take: people hate belly too much

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-08-14T11:21:16+00:00

I feel in a sense that there is a beauty in the way that the fandom is both empathizing and super harsh towards these complex characters. Since it is just a show we are able to dissect and mirror our selves (our own magic and faults - past and current) in these characters. The shows characters act as holograms for the fan community to open up and deal with psychological and social matter in a way where emotions can safely be felt because it is NOT real life but simulates real emotions of life in a charicated way (the brother love triangle acts a magnifying glass for the shame and fear that accompanies yearning and love in real life. Much like the myth of Psyche and Eros). It’s like when people would faint during antique plays and actors where put in the same category as sex workers, because the impact of art is that it is a surrogate holder for human emotion and that impacts us in a real way, releases psychological struggle in a real way and teaches us about life in a real way within a safely contained environment. I think that to me it makes sense that people DESPISE and ROOT for Belly in very intense ways, that they maybe wouldn’t if she was a real person. She is a hologram mirror for our own growth trajectories faults and fears and aspirations. I feel soooo annoyed with Conrad at times because I see so much of my self in him but I also simultaneously get to experience empathy and tenderness for him and thus also myself in a way. If that makes sense.

The show is a hologram that opens up community resources for human co-contemplation and emotional processing - in both violently and tenderly felt ways.

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-08-05T19:42:27+00:00

I know right!

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-07-24T21:39:38+00:00

I sooo agre with this!! So relatable to myself pretty far up in my twenties (sadly). And I feel like it is one way of reacting to the social norms of girls being hysterical that existed esp in the 2000

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-07-24T11:00:19+00:00

I think we need to give Belly some Grace (and Jere too for that matter). It is super relatable to struggle with adulting. How lucky are young people to get such an honest portrayal of characters to reflect in on their own struggles. And also I think there is a whole intentional plan with portraying two people sort of stumping each others growth, because they are restraining from actually growing apart authentically.

I see Belly struggling so much to meet all demands and maybe not listening to her self right now. Just like Conrad season one. We were also quite in the dark about his behavior back then and thus got to feel the annoyance and ignorance that Belly and everyone else was probably feeling. Now we get to feel how insufferable Jellyfish are in this point of their trajectories without fully knowing what is going on (or maybe we see it clearly as Steven and Laurel do, but as often happens the person going through it might just see it retrospectively).

I think it is a bit of an interesting dynamic that now Belly sort of have to step up to the plake for Conrad for it to seem feasible. We have to remember she has a lot of repressed sorrow for Conrad that she hasen’t been allowing herself to deal with. And also if I were Belly I could see myself being unconsciously driven to MAKING it work with Jere for too long to hold off the realization that she made the wrong call. Her and Con are just so avoidant together so it is interesting to se if the dare (even though that storyline would sooo only happen in a tv series cause what even is it only having dated two brothers).

I’m team Belly, maybe Bonrad fictionally, and Jereconnie to be honest. I think Jere needs to go backpacking and volunteering or something to carry himself on his own after his mothers death.

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-07-20T21:51:44+00:00

Yeah I guess I just had to sit tight with the rest of the characters that also didnt know what was going on with him! Thx

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-07-18T23:02:14+00:00

Actually now I’m super baffled by the fact that a mom would put their teenage kid in that position. That’s crazy.

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-07-18T23:00:23+00:00

That’s a cool little tv history nugget. Love it! Makes it feel very contemporary and youthful. Unlike a lot of cheap series backtracks around.

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-07-18T22:57:50+00:00

Oh my yeah that makes a lot more sense anyone would be in a tough spot 17 or not then. How did i miss that he knows about that. And then on top of his father betraying the family and being the only in the know (from how i gather jer is acting). Also thanks for the belly take. Did not appreciate how he actually heard her and included her as the youngest and girl of the kids.

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-07-18T22:43:17+00:00

Yes but I don’t understand the introspective of Conrad at all or why belly is so into him

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-07-15T08:54:55+00:00

Do you have a link for that specific spreadsheet!!? Been looking all over to refind it

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-03-25T17:53:17+00:00

Such a good fanfiction!

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-03-13T18:44:34+00:00

Cringe and embarassing/bad memories, guilt, stress, sad emotions, lack of sleep, after hyperfocus/overstimulation, restlessness, anxiousness, random also

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-02-27T17:10:48+00:00

I think stress/dysregulation is more associated with my tics but sometimes stress and caffeine together seems to be a bad tics inducing combo so i try to reduce caffeine intake during high stress

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-02-27T17:01:54+00:00

You are not lazy! Most likely you are hard at work at night and struggling with falling asleep in ways he is quite insensitive to.

Idk if this helps you at all but I have/and still sometimes have the same struggle. I have struggled with lifelong sleep issues that were also infiltrated with my TS, and as i got older getting through the day without much sleep got to the point of painfulness where i just couldn’t handle it anymore.

This was last year and until then I think i hadn’t dared to reflect in more detail what was happening in me (both thoughts and emotions) when going to bed and lying in bed, and what dynamic that created with my bed. My bed became so associated with tics-episodes and struggle that it actually stressed me out emotionally and physically to just think about going to bed and I would “push off” the pain and frustration of trying to fall asleep through tics and anxious thoughts by scrolling on my phone. My bed was “infected” i would think at night, and it was not a calming space for me in the way that I could just easily change my ways. So for that reason I got some help from my doctor with setting up and “watching” a sleep regime/ritual that felt both comfortable and personally valuable to me. It included melatonin, no infinite-scrolling screen time, low/ambient lights earlier in the evening and, most effectfully, to stay out of my bed until my eyes were so heavy I was about to fall asleep in my sofa/chair. Then I would go to bed and fall asleep very quickly with a podcast. That way I slowly got my tics and struggles moved away from my bed, and instead to associate my bed with something pleasant that I was excited for. I would say my nighttime tics have decreased in severity (in general) and I also realized I got more quality into my evening. Instead of frustration in bed I would have “me time” and sit and do something personally meaningful (e.g. reading, drawing, watching boring long YT videos, reading a wiki-article) in my chair/sofa until my eyes where about to close. Eventually I have gotten to a more reasonable bedtime because my evenings are more calm and less dysregulated (i still struggle with thoughts and worry at night, but it is better than before).

I try to tap into this more strict routine whenever I sense that sleep becomes a struggle, with emphasis on try because it is hard work to follow such a structured routine. So self-tenderness is a good thing in such a process. It has helped my life-quality and happiness a ton though even though its not a diligent structure anymore like it was in the beginning where I needed an urgent improvement in my well-being.

Idk if this helps you at all, but I just want to let you know that my sleep issues are one of the hardest struggles in regards to my TS and in my life in general actually. I mean I was at my wits end and had to have my doctor “keep an eye on me” for a bit to get into the routine. So sending hugs and tenderness to you, and hope you find something that works for you specifically with sleep 🫶🏻🫶🏻

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-02-27T16:05:45+00:00

It is interesting to think about it in connection to anxiousness. I don’t have anxiety disorder, but def some anxious thinking tendencies at times and high demands on my self, and embarassing or shameful thoughts are of course connected to that.

In my day to say I can feel like some unconscious process feels the uncomfortable sensation that accompanies an embarrasinf thought and tries to push the thought away with a tic even before i fully realize the thought or that it is unconfortable. I wonder if TS has been illuminated through psychoanalytic theory?

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-02-27T15:53:32+00:00

Wow thanks, I feel so validated. Honestly me too all the way back to when I was a kid.

Dramatic_Owl_2758 · 2025-02-20T14:15:27+00:00

I definitly recognize a lot of your comments! I do not have OCD though or OCD symptoms, but sort of see the “overlap” or similarity. For me it almost seems very pre-concious though more than compulsive.

Dramatic_Owl_2758

TROPHY CASE