i enjoy that every single human’s reaction to penguin is unrestrained delight
And penguins lack large terrestrial predators, so their reaction to humans tends to be, “HELLO STRANGE GIANT PENGUINS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DO YOU HAVE ANY FISH?”
Lowkey thinking a lot about this a lot and I’m honestly convinced that so much of what Dirk Gently does is performative. It’s not just that he wants a friend. It’s that his powers have stunted his ability to form functioning human relationships, while his experiences with the CIA would’ve made him hyper-aware that he’ll always have some sort of audience for what he does.
So the boy is a natural romantic and he’s still profoundly genuine, but I always read him as having this element of “people are going to be watching me no matter what, so I may as well ensure that my actions say what I want them to say”. He always feels like this carefully managed blend of self-consciousness and painful sincerity and it’s fucking fascinating.
He’s not only incredibly used to and aware of being watched by others (not just watched, scrutinized and judged.) There’s probably also a performative aspect to the way he behaves due to how he learned to be around people after Blackwing.
Honestly, I think he probably read a lot of books or watched a lot of tv. Imitating characters from dramas or mysteries. The way he describes being a detective, down to the rules about dress code and the brass plaque, makes me feel like after the CIA he was trying to figure out who he was, and was drawn to the lifestyle, and mystery of being a detective that’s shown in a lot of popular culture. And you know what, fair enough. He’s creating a new version of himself, moving on from the old Svlad, it helps to get some inspiration. But “regular” people don’t act like larger than life characters.
I’m excited to see more of those moments when Dirk’s pretentions drop away (usually when telling Todd off for being self deprecating) as he gets more comfortable with the idea of who he is. Not a dashing detective, not a sad boy in a lab. Both and neither and somewhere in between.
Loki vs Nebula // These two have so much in common. Both their character arcs consist of learning to overcome a jealousy stemming from mistreatment by their parents in order to learn to love their sibling again, and to be on their side.
Modern Life is Rubbish 