carrd. artwork. ao3. read before you follow. masterlist.

tl:dr; i’m jd (or jay dee, it doesn't matter)! this is my blog for horror media! the texas chainsaw massacre is my main focus, but i love horror in general :] enjoy your stay.

ask box is open!

i love writing thomas angst. he’s like a wet cat to me. he’s pathetic (and i love him very dearly for it)

i think i'm gonna make a post breaking down the opening credits of tcm 2006, going frame-by-frame and writing down dates, ages, etc etc. thomas' childhood is very vague, so i'm gonna try to gather all the facts.

would you guys be interested in that?

thomas, vietnam, and the army

thinking about this song in relation to thomas, but specifically this snippet:

“everybody loves a winner / so nobody loved me / lady peaceful, lady happy / that's what i long to be / well, all the odds are, they're in my favor / something's bound to begin / it's gotta happen, happen sometime / maybe this time i'll win”

although the song as a whole is related to romantic longing (which i’m sure thomas has very much of), when i heard this part, i began to think about his attempt to enlist in the army.

though it’s never directly stated, the opening credits of the 2006 film imply this—a newspaper reporting on the draft for vietnam being reinstated flashes on screen right before thomas slams his fist against his baby photo, with his diagnosis of “mental deteriation” fading into view. this pretty clearly implies that thomas intended to go to vietnam sometime in the late 1960s (likely 1967–68, as the dates on some of the newspapers reflect those years) but was denied due to his medical history.

i doubt he was drafted, as the age range of those chosen to serve in vietnam was between 18–26, and thomas would’ve turned 26 in 1965. this means that thomas would’ve deliberately chosen to enlist in the army—which is so interesting to me. why would he do that? he shows no interest in the military in either films, nor any of the comics (to my knowledge) or any of the scrapped movie scripts. the war in vietnam was very unpopular by this point in history, so there would be less pressure to serve his country as opposed to earlier years. when charlie came back from korea, he’d been irreparably traumatized—he would hardly be a pillar of inspiration. so why would thomas volunteer for the army?

i believe that thomas would’ve seen it as his last chance to really be something, to be someone. imagine being a man in your late 20s, no wife, no kids, no friends. thomas would have lived almost three decades and would have nothing to show for it. perhaps he’d see serving in the army as a chance to have something “honorable” to put on his gravestone, even if he were to die on the field. he’d be remembered for something. if you choose to interpret thomas’ standoff with the real sheriff hoyt in 1969 to be an attempt to commit suicide via cop, perhaps him enlisting in the army would be an expression of his passive suicidal ideation. if he dies, he died with honor—he died for his country. if he lives, he’s a veteran. he’d have survived war. it would be a win-win.

so then he’s denied. his country, his government, rejects him for something he was born with, something he cannot control. he loses his final chance to be someone, and it wasn’t even by his own doing. can you imagine the devastation he would feel? the hopelessness? thomas would be almost 30 years old, and despite his great strength, he’d been deemed too stupid to even die in war. i think that would be the day that he gives up on the idea of doing anything meaningful with his life. the snippet of the song i shared would be thomas’ last shred of hope before it’s shattered completely.

it’s not really an “aftermath” book, but just the novelization of the 2003 film—which itself is just a prose version of the original script, and shares the same plot points that would later be dropped when making the final film (such as erin being interviewed in the psych ward and telling the story in “present day”, which was 2003).

the og script and the novelization are the only pieces of media besides the comics (which i don’t like LMAO) that show what happens to the hewitts after 1973, including the fbi coverup, so i use that when writing eddie into the story. there seems to be no “canon”, as the comics go an entirely different direction from what i recall, so you can do whatever you want methinks. i just use the novelization lore for my writing.

here’s the novelization as a pdf. hope this helped!

i don’t think any of the hewitts would ask him that directly. that’s simply because they don’t seem like the type of family to really talk about feelings that deeply, and something as heavy as “do you miss your family (you know, the one you’ll never be able to see again)?” would be uncomfortable for most of them to ask. i could see jed asking though, because he’s a kid and has fewer “manners”.

there’s certain points in darkest hour where eddie speaks about his family to the hewitts, the first being him telling thomas about his grandparents in ch3 and the second being him mentioning his abusive father to luda mae in ch4. these instances are very different, but i feel like neither of them are him being the most vulnerable he could be. when telling luda mae about his father, eddie speaks with this kind of nonchalant “what can you do” attitude. “yeah my dad hit us, but it’s fine, i’m fine”, y'know? even when he told thomas about his grandfather’s death (and he was far more vulnerable doing so), he tells thomas that he’s not torn up about it because “death doesn’t matter”. eddie’s quick to downplay his deeper feelings, especially when it comes to his family, so it’d be hard for him to answer such a question in the first place. i feel like in the first few years of living with the hewitts, he’d only feel comfortable giving answers like “what’s there to miss? i’m happy where i am now” and “i don’t think about it. there’s no need to”.

it’d be easier for him to admit that he misses his grandparents because his relationship with them wasn’t all that complicated. they were good to him, of course he misses them (“but my life is better now, i’m free” blah blah blah). with his parents, i think it’d be far harder for him to speak about it. he doesn’t miss them, but rather the idea of them. what they could’ve been—what they were to his sister eileen, but never to him. deep down, i think eddie craves his parents love and “misses” what he could’ve had, if only he was a different person. “but that doesn’t matter! why are we talking about this?”

to answer the question of “when”, i think he’d only be able to tell the complete, honest truth to thomas specifically after the 1973 massacre, when he’s at his lowest and most like. emotionally raw? he changes as a person kinda. he becomes more mature and aware of his feelings, and begins to really reflect on the way he’s lived. this of course would bleed into how he feels about his family.

to answer your question of “where”, it’d be a one-on-one conversation, preferably in the privacy of their bedroom. eddie would bring it up first, probably after something triggered/reminded him of it. after his “death”, i imagine that news reporters harassed his family, demanding to know what they were feeling and thinking. i think they’d refuse to respond, and maybe that would make the news, and make it’s way to eddie.

this is a very long response, i rambled a lot ………. hope this answers your question!

eddie has a grave somewhere, though there’s no body in it. it’s just there to give his family somewhere to go when they think of him—but his parents rarely visit. his brother does a handful of times, out of guilt. he partly blames himself for how his little brother ended up. his little sister visits the most. not because she misses him, or loves him—but because she never really knew him. not like she thought she did, anyway. so she’d go to his gravestone, marked 1946–1973, and try to reconcile with the fact that she has no way of knowing who eddie truly was. she’d think of the memories she does have left of him, juxtaposed with his crimes, and feel guilty of the fact that she’s glad he’s gone.

just some thoughts

no you're so real because i've contemplated making an animatic with them to this song but alas i cannot animate ........ but perhaps i will learn ...... (i want to learn tweening!)

for me, i feel like the song illustrates their mutual dedication toward each other. in the fic, eddie's obsession with thomas is very apparent and is the focus because it's 1. in his pov mostly and 2. the story of them getting together. but do not be fooled, the obsession is Very much Mutual

so lyrics like "no me mires con esos ojos, me deslumbran, me derrumbas / no me mires con esos ojos, te lo doy todo, ni modo" (don't look at me with those eyes, you dazzle me, you break me / don't look at me with those eyes, i give you everything, either way) really make me think of how thomas envies/admires eddie and cherishes his love very deeply. the only thing thomas has ever known to do is to serve, so he'd give eddie everything in return for eddie loving him. AHHH i'm rambling but yeah you cooked

OH PLEASE FLOOD MY ASK BOX I LOVE IT!!! to answer your questions:

THANK YOU FOR READING CH6!!! i love getting comments so much <333 the kiss scene was definitely my favorite part of the writing process

also yes eddie is my little boyfailure and he actually needs to do some work in order to woo thomas (and own up to his mistakes). i wanted their romance to be believable, even if that meant there was some trial and error on eddie's end. and i also wanted thomas to have more agency, rather than being this stoic "hunk" so i am very glad that came across well!!!

overall this fic has been my pride and joy since i started writing it and i'm so glad people like it :3

ch6 is out! everyone come get y'all food