[ SECRET POST #2376 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2376 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.
[Lost Eden]


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02.
[Gerard Way/The Crow]


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03.
[Salad Fingers, Predator, Phantom of the Opera, Friday the 13th, Mortal Kombat, Mass Effect, Jonah Hex, Game of Thrones]


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04.
[Mikey Way on Aquabats]


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05.
[youtube/chaoticmonki]


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06.
[Orphan Black]


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07.
[Gin Wigmore]


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08.
[Man of Steel]


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09.
[Scandal]


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10.
[Measha Brueggergosman]


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11.
[Mass Effect]


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12.
[Defiance]


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13.
[Return of the Living Dead]


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14.
[Welcome to Night Vale]


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[ ----- SPOILERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]














15. [SPOILERS for Warehouse 13]



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16. [SPOILERS for Monsters University]



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[ ----- TRIGGERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]















17. [WARNING for self-harm]



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18. [WARNING for abuse]



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19. [WARNING for rape, I'm assuming]



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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 000 secrets from Secret Submission Post #339.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

18. [WARNING for abuse]
http://i.imgur.com/7NSP4tk.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a little confused. Are you saying your family was emotionally abusive and Malcolm's family looked great in comparison, or that you think Malcolm's family was emotionally abusive, but when you were little, you would have still preferred it to your own?

Either way, I just want to say FAVORITE EPISODE ENDING EVER. If I'm remembering it right that is. This is where he's afraid they'll think he's a freak for doing all that super-math for the fair, and instead they treat him normally even though they're clearly freaked out, right?

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, well when I was a little girl i wished Genma Saotome was my father and Soun Tendo was my step dad (because I was shipping even way back then).

I think I win in the dysfunctional fantasy stakes.

[(Anonymous)]

I might be in the minority here, but I don't think Malcolm's family was emotionally abusive. Financially abusive hell yes, but not really emotionally. Mostly because the kids never have to tiptoe around their parents if they're behaving or be afraid of blow-ups, and aren't wrapped around either of their parents' fingers when it comes to emotional stuff, they always know where they stand and are only afraid of their parents in terms of punishment for misbehaving.

On the other hand, the motives for and frequency of Hal and Lois dicking Malcolm over with regards to his finances made me kind of uncomfortable in later seasons. It kind of smacked of "okay, you did bad things with your money, so instead of making you stop and punishing you, we're gonna use your misbehavior as an excuse to totally screw you."

[maverickz3r0]

There was that episode where they (and eventually Dewey) stole an award for ten thousand dollars (or something like that) he was supposed to get...and the one where Hal stole his credit card. *sigh* At least the show didn't pretend it was okay they did that but they seemed to get off scot free.

[(Anonymous)]

And didn't Lois take a chunk of all his paychecks without giving any proper justification too? Not to mention that episode where Hal refused to let him go to that all-expenses-paid prep school or something because he wanted Malcolm to stay around to fix the family's problems.

Ah well, "Life is unfair" IS the central theme of the whole show...

[(Anonymous)]

It seemed a lot less just "life is unfair" and more "these people are too selfish to be parents."

[(Anonymous)]

That was part of the unfairness - it's unfair to have to have selfish parents and be helpless to change it. But a lot of other people were also unfair to Hal and Lois too. Not every single thing stemmed from them.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think it's that weird, if that's what you mean. Malcolm's family (btw, are they ever given a last name?) always seemed to me that their exaggerated dysfunctionality wasn't because any of the actual dysfunctions were that extreme by comedy standards, but because the sheer number of different dysfunctions present under that one roof was extreme.

[maverickz3r0]

They're deliberately never given a last name in the series. The finale made a joke of it; when Malcolm's name was called for his valedictorian speech at graduation his last name was covered by microphone feedback.

I'd agree, and also the handling of it--they never pretended any of them weren't fucked up in some way.

[(Anonymous)]

Supposedly the name Wilkerson can be seen on Francis' uniform in the pilot.

[(Anonymous)]

I have trouble watching more than one episode of Malcolm in the Middle in a go. And even that...not so much.

My family isn't abusive. But my mother is bipolar, and had a few SERIOUSLY bad episodes when I was younger, and as the oldest child, I got to be the one to deal with it first and to learn to navigate her moods and...yeah.

There's this one episode where she finally admits to Francis that she was a horrible mother, and Francis has a breakdown, because all his life he's been waiting to hear her admit it and say it out loud, and now she has, but it doesn't make anything better. It's played for laughs, but his confusion and ...I dunno, just his whole freak out over the realization that there IS no way to make his childhood better, that just because she admitted she screwed him over it doesn't fix anything or even mean that she'll be a better person or better mother in the future...I get that to a lot of people that was funny, but to me that was a little too close to home.

My mother and I are on fairly good terms now. But there's just too much in Lois that brings me back to bad times.

[intrigueing]

I usually find MitM hilarious, but yeah some moments when you realize Hal and Lois's bad parenting really, really doesn't roll off their kids' backs or become conveniently harmless can be pretty uncomfortable/painful to watch. Overall, it gave the show a more honest and relatable feel, but still.

Like, that episode where the kids are so terrified that Lois will send Francis back to military school if they do anything wrong that they concoct a big dumb charade to hide the fact that Malcolm accidentally got his head split open and had to get stitches even though they were actually trying to behave themselves and it really was just an accident that time? The depictions of the boys' emotions and logic based on their understanding of their mother was just....too raw and blunt for comfort. I mean, he was literally afraid of letting her know he got seriously injured because he thought they'd get punished for it. Which is actually why it's one of my favorite episodes, but yeah...

[(Anonymous)]

I think when we lack things in our own families it's easy to latch on to a fictional one. To this day my favorite stories are still about very close families or tight sibling relationships because it's something I really lack in my life.

[(Anonymous)]

I understand, OP. My family is incredibly cold. It's like we're all fighting a war - there's no love to be had here, and since it's hard for me to make friends, I'm alone here.

For many, many years I looked at Malcolm in the Middle, and saw this family that communicated and loved each other and protected each other, and saw none of the bad of it.

I think differently now, but I can totally understand why.

[(Anonymous)]

Even though Malcolm's family is pretty awful when you look at all the stuff they've done, I'd *still* prefer it to a cold loveless family. Maybe that's a stupid choice, but IMO as long as you're not sweeping stuff under the rug or denying it, it's not wrong.

warning for abuse

[transcriptanon]

warning for abuse

[Picture is a screen-capture of the family from "Malcolm in the Middle". They are all brown-haired with pale skin. Lois and Hal, the mom and dad, are on the front seats, with Hal driving. The four brothers are on the back; Francis is an older teenager, Reese is a little younger than him, Malcolm is younger than Reese, and Dewey is a child. Everyone looks excited about something.]

This is the family I dreamed about when I was young, when I didn't quite understand emotional abuse, but could long for a family that could actually be open and have fun.