How I deal with Bobby's gender varies by the context. In canon context, she's a cross-dresser, a boy who's a girl who's not quite a man or a woman. I haven't yet exactly decided where exactly I'm going with it all, but I've been playing around with the idea of identity changes and draft dodging (World War 1 starts distressingly soon) and how it ties in with how violence and gender roles made her what she is. In modern AUs, they're nonbinary as well as transfem, though usually I think they ID as binary trans for a bit before coming out as NB.
Before I settled with my current iteration, I used to play around with genderfluid/agender any pronouns bobby, much closer to my own identity and presentation.
LIKES
bad movies
butterflies
sewing
ice cream
DISLIKES
Hamilton, Ontario
Winnipeg, Manitoba
tea
Fun fact : She was raised on classic Broadway, courtesy of her dad. She never took to it like her brother did, but she's still fond of it, and her favourite musical is Sweeney Todd.
In most modern AUs, I don’t actually imagine Bobby as having killed Gerard. It says something about us, to want to ignore and forget about the harsher realities of canon for something easier to digest.
JUNIOR
they/he | queer - nonbinary - aromantic
I headcanon Junior as hating their name, in part due to transgenderism, in part due to association with his father and in part because Lyle is just uhhhh ummm. not ideal. My name for them is usually Juliet, though sometimes I also consider and play around with the possibility of Julian/Julien/Jules !
Juliet from, yes, Romeo and Juliet, as well as also one of my own names. Juliet, simultaneously an icon of great romance, youthful defiance, and tragic adolescence. Juliet, a kid caught up in the circumstance of her parents' issues. Junior, caught up in a situation he isn't even aware of, his parents' circumstances unknown to him. Junior, who I love to imagine deep underneath that cynicism and ennui, wishes for something simple and beautiful, like a fairy tale, like a love story, though they cannot wholly place themself in the role. (Ohoho Jules and aromanticism is a whole other thing)
One immutable thing for Juliet to me is their hair. I latch on hard to that exchange in the Murdoch Knows Best where he and his father chafe against each other, his father pestering him to get a haircut. In modern AUs, Juliet dyes it purple, like Mania by Fall Out Boy. They'll probably try different colours later on, hot pink and turquoise and brat green... but purple is the main one.
LIKES
animation
Shakespeare
pop punk
late nights in the city
DISLIKES
haircuts
talking about their feelings
their father
ON : PROJECTION AND SILLIES
I talk a lot about all the niche implications and the analysis of all these different questions and themes, but really what makes up most of MPDGBB for me is that it’s insane and I have so much fun rotating these characters around in my head (not that doing hardcore analysis isn’t fun; there’s no way I’d be writing out all of the analysis out if it didn’t bring me immeasurable joy). This is fandom still; I love coming up with funny situations to put Bobby and Junior in and projecting onto them and playing with them like dolls. I do wholeheartedly believe that they would be emo in modern times, but it’s also just self-indulgent fun to make Junior’s favourite band, and his favourite album from said band, my own. (It’s Fall Out Boy and their seventh album Mania, by the way.) Bobby and Junior are minor characters and therefore have limited concrete characterization, but their existing traits allow for a projection of my own silly tastes, which lines up very well for me and that really is joyful.
Furthermore, I explore a lot of different ideas about sexuality and intimacy and shame and the fight for genuine emotional connection and expression despite the urge to hide it behind irony through Junior, and though this could be arguably rooted in his edgy and uncaring attitude in canon, I won’t pretend that it isn’t more so my own interests and experiences that I am indulging and figuring out. A beautiful thing about fandom and transformative work is how much of yourself you put into it; that’s another reason why I could only see MDPDGBB as being so niche and particular: because of how much of myself I put into it. I sound kind of pretentious in many parts of this shrine (in itself being because enjoying hardcore analysis is fun and shouldn’t be considered cringe, but you get what I mean) but truly a lot of it just comes from the heart.
ON : TRANSGENDER HEADCANONS
There’s a headcanon archetype I really like of the sad, troubled boy whose masculinity sticks out and is specifically a defining inconvenience or burden in whichever way, headcanoned to be a trans woman or transfeminine. Examples of comparable headcanons of mine include :
Charlito “Chip” Tolentino from the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Chip’s a cocky pubescent kid who says shit like “alpha male”, a boy with a very big head who is then humbled by a humiliating defeat when he gets a boner during the competition. He’s kind of horrid, kind of miserable, burdened by his oncoming puberty. I think she would be much happier as a girl, just saying.
Prince Oliver from Between the Lines. Oliver is the main character of a fairytale book where, once the book is closed, the characters do not have the same personalities, desires, and motivations as what is written in the text. Oliver’s a bold and daring prince whose masculine bold and daring are all an act; in fact he yearns to escape his story so he could be free to be his true self. (I firmly believe that his character and the musical as a whole are genuinely insanely queercoded, but that’s a conversation for another day.)
Bobby, in stark and plain contrast to his brother John, who Thomas Brackenreid feared was too soft, is praised by his father for being “rough and tumble, just like his old man”. It feels right, seeing a boy who has been raised to be strong and masculine and combative, praised for being so, and being deeply troubled by it all, and thinking yeah, what if she’s a girl, actually. Later on, he converts to Catholicism, further denouncing his past self and furthering a divide between himself and his father. Could that be considered a sort of transition ? (Okay, that part’s a Bit of a stretch, but that arc is pretty gay-coded anyways.)
Junior’s a different story. I think you could make an even better argument to his queerness. His mannerisms and peculiarities could be interpreted as those of a young loner queer kid, petty and spiteful and pretentious, crushed by loneliness because even though technically he’s not out, everyone can tell there’s something Wrong with him. He chafes against his father’s authority and hates him to the point of wishing him dead and even fantasizing about his violent death. Isn’t it so fucked up to be named after someone you hate ? To me, they’re non-binary.
FUN ALTERNATE UNIVERSES
pokémon
Junior's a guy who's never went on an adventure, it was never their thing. They've had a few Pokémon as pets but never caught a wild one until they met Bobby. Bobby's been catching Pokémon with her dad since she was a kid and has been on her own adventure for a while. She's been in a lot of trouble, bullied people, getting into one bad incident where a trainer got hurt... I don't know how their teams ended up so Galar. I've never played Galar.
Bobby's team
Poliwrath - Fished up from the river as a Poliwag when Bobby was a kid.
Vivillon - Caught as a Scatterbug when Bobby was a kid.
Rockruff - Described by the Pokédex as friendly but grows more aggressive and violent as it ages... The catalyst to a story, I suppose. Maybe it lashes out and hurts a trainer instead of the Pokémon it was supposed to be fighting. Maybe Bobby didn't stop it. Will eventually evolve into Lycanroc Dusk Form.
Snubbull - Outwardly intimidating, but cowardly and regretful of its frightening exterior. Women think it's cute though. Bobby picks one up after she's begun picking herself up from the whole Incident.
Mareep - I like imagining Bobby as liking sheep :)
Galarian Ponyta - Trans horse...
Junior's team
Purrloin - A childhood pet. Really fits the Anderson vibe, I think. Eventually evolves into Liepard.
Drizzile - Acquired as a Sobble as a starter Pokémon ! Drizzile is the perfect Lyle Anderson Jr Pokémon To Me. Because not only is it emo. But it evolves into a SPY
Golbat - The classic 'mon that evolves with high friendship. Junior'll get there eventually.
Drifloon - Junior's a morbid bastard who delights in morbid scenarios ; Drifloon are literally edgy with how they're said to carry children away to never be seen again. They think it's funny but then truly grow fond of it.
Morgrem - look me in the eye and tell me they don't look the same. Caught as an Impidimp.
