Being closeted for 40 years is heartbreaking, but I feel especially bad for high school Mac.
The flush on his face when he caught glimpses of the other boys in the locker rooms and how hard he had to train himself to look away.
The first time he tried out for the wrestling team and the thrill he felt when the other guy pinned him down, and the fear that rushed through him afterwards, because now it wasn't just Charlie or Dennis who made him feel like this, it was every boy who touched him.
Him hearing all the guys around him talking about girls, and how hot their bodies are, and how great it is to sleep with them, and him having nothing to contribute.
Mac being able to keep quiet during the conversation because he had plausible deniability by being a virgin until he finds himself in a situation in which the straight man decision is to go for it, and the entire time he's thinking that he doesn't understand why people make such a big deal about sex and how quickly he resigned himself to a life without passion.
He must have been so scared and confused, wondering if being attracted to guys was a normal phase all guys go through and hopefully grow out of, but knowing he couldn't talk to anyone about it out of fear of someone telling him it's not normal
But it's not normal, and it's gay, and he's gay and he's only 14 but he knows exactly how the world feels about people like him, how his father feels about people like him.
And so at 14 years old, Mac begins to pray. and he prays for forgiveness for his urges, and he prays for strength against temptation, and he hopes with enough prayer, he will be able to chalk up his feelings to youthful indiscretion.
I have so many ideas for how they could implement Mac's sexuality into storylines seeing as we haven't really seen him with any sort of partner/ how he interacts with men romantically.
I think it'd be interesting to see Mac start to date a guy that Mac really wants to like, but the guy just isn't as badass as Mac. Mac's new boyfriend likes going on dates to Color Me Mine and wine tasting and Mac finds these types of dates painfully boring. He feels like his masculinity is being stripped away from him by going on such "girly" dates, but he really likes the guy so he continues on with it. Mac would have this whole struggle throughout the episode, worrying his sexuality is causing him to go soft, and he doesn’t wanna be any less of a badass just because he’s gay.
(Obviously, it’s stupid to stereotype his boyfriend as being non-masculine for wanting to go on dates that aren’t fueled by testosterone, which is sort of the whole commentary of the episode.)
Mac gets tickets for him and his boyfriend to go to a monster truck rally as it's something Mac actually wants to do and he hopes his boyfriend would try doing something Mac likes for once, but his boyfriend declines, saying that kind of stuff just isn't fun to him. Mac loses his temper and goes off about how he's been doing stuff he doesn't think is fun this entire time.
The pair end up breaking up because neither is willing to try new things for the other, which results in Mac coming home sullenly. When Mac comes through the door, Dennis asks why he looks so glum. Mac doesn't mention the breakup, but he does mention he has an extra ticket to the monster truck rally. Dennis excitedly asks, unprompted, if he can come to the rally with Mac. Mac just smiles.
Shouldve put a couple "no homo"s in here like I'm not convinced
jumping on the Gang As Animals Train! (i can’t erase with colored pencils obvs so just consider this a study for a future digital piece lol)
dennis is a russian blue btw
"stride, stride, stride, stride, execute!"
people talking about macdennis' toxicity as if that isn't the appeal
love him in his gay little hats
Luther and Mrs Mac hate Mac– this is undeniable. But it wasn't always that way.
Did they have to do this? Not necessarily. Breaking into a house and stealing other people's christmas gifts were extra risky with Mac being there. Mac gets excited and screams when he sees his gift, and they were probably aware of this, which is why he was the last to open his gift.
And yet they chose to bring Mac each time, even though they could've instead stolen the gifts to bring home, pretending like it came from them. I can think of a few reasons why they don't, but the one I'd like to believe is that while they couldn't afford decorating their home, they still wanted little Mac to experience unboxing his gifts the way most kids would– surrounded by a christmas tree and bright lights.
When Luther got out of prison, he showed indifference and even hostility to Mac the entire time, which was why Mac believed that Luther was going to kill him (and Charlie). But it turned out that Luther had listened to Mac when he said he always wanted to go to Cooperstown with his dad, and so Luther bought a ticket for them. When asked why he kept it a secret, Luther said that he just wanted it to be a surprise. For someone who didn't show much emotions, Luther wanted to express his apology by giving Mac what he wanted.
Mac does the same– he listens.
One of Mac's biggest romantic gesture in the show is buying the RPG for Dennis. He was even busying himself the whole day trying to figure out how to surprise Dennis with this. When he finally gave the RPG to Dennis, Dennis asked him, and how did you know I wanted a RPG? And Mac told him that it was because he knew Dennis... and that Dennis had mentioned it a lot of times. Giving a gift was Mac's way of showing Dennis that he cared, and Mac was all smiles after realising that his gift had an effect on Dennis.
Mac was also the one who immediately suggested buying a rat stick for Charlie's 'birthday'. And sure, this could be seen as manipulative, since Charlie wanted to quit rat bashing but I honestly think he knew that if Charlie didn't bash rats, he would still find some other animal to bash. That's because they've known each other since forever, and Charlie had a bashing stick when he was a kid too. And Charlie appreciated the gift, getting super emotional out of happiness.
(In the same episode, Mac bought Dennis a shirt too, but Dennis returned the actual shirt Mac bought for a nicer one. I think this was when Mac realised that he only enjoys giving gifts if the person receiving it actually likes the gift, which led him to listen to Dennis' wishes more and buy the RPG)
Okayyyy, the last. This is minor but Mac's insistence on buying a pear for Charlie when he found out Charlie had never eaten one. And now in the cook book, he has "Pear tart for Charlie" in his section, with a note of thanks because he thinks Charlie is going to like it. Super cute stuff