thomas bezucha understood the core of love leagues better than most when he came up with, “i just want things to be nice for him. i know it sounds foolish. but, i just want things to be nice for him.”
Thinking about Pike from Big Eden and how he represents native gay and neurodivergent men in a movie that came out in 2000 and had a gaggle of yeehaw white pipe smoking suspender wearing men being the best wingmen literally ever
pike dexter is literally the romantic lead of ALL fucking time......dude is so painfully shy he runs and hides from henry and secretly learns to cook gourmet meals just to quietly make henry (and his grandpa) happy. AND he has a cute dog. i am simply so taken with him
Big Eden: a successful painter named Henry Hart returns to rural Montana to care for his ailing grandfather & catches the eye of the local general store owner, Pike Dexter. In a refreshingly positive rom-com twist, the townsfolk actually rally behind Pike’s efforts to win Henry’s affections!
PIKE GOT THE GUY………!!!!!!!!!
[id: three illustrations. the first shows pike and henry in full color, dancing with their arms tightly around each other. pike is facing the viewer with a big smile. henry is facing away, head tucked into pike’s shoulder with pike’s cheek pressed to the side of his head. the stars are bright behind them, and several strings of red and blue lights hang around them. the other two are in grayscale. in the first, pike is leaning against his dog with his eyes closed and a deep blush as hearts float around his head. “oh, frances,” he says, with a long pause before continuing, “…he came to the store today.” the next shows henry imagining pike’s smiling face with hearts around him and a hand clasped to his chest as he thinks, “ah.” above henry is an arrow with dust around it, reading “dean begone.” /end id.]
““I just thought, ‘Oh well, you know, it will probably be the first and only ever gay role I’ll ever get to do, so I’m just gonna go, you know, rock it at the audition, cuz I really wanna do it’ […] I think at the time, I just liked the material because it didn’t have any sort of… racist dialogue that I was so used to, and when you’re a Native American actor, you’re pigeonholed into doing certain types of roles. You sort of get used to doing period piece after period piece, and it’s no fun. And they don’t write gay characters for Native American people. It was great, because my character Pike, is like the diametric opposite of characters I was used to playing, who are like, swinging axes and shooting people, and Pike Dexter was the opposite of that, he was just a shy, introverted guy who was in love with… um, I mean the other character [Dean] that Tim DeKay plays, wasn’t sure whether he was gay or not, but Pike Dexter was damn sure he was gay and damn sure that he loved [Henry], Arye Gross’s character.””
— Eric Schweig, from ‘Big Eden: A Look Back’, a featurette in the bonus features of Big Eden, the 15th Anniversary Blu-Ray release (via petesdragon)
Pike Dexter laughing is everything ❤️❤️❤️
[ID: two gifs from the movie "Big Eden" (2000), showing mainly Pike Dexter (Eric Schweig), a tall Native American man with shoulder lenght black hair, and Henry Hart (Arye Gross), a shorter, white man with receding short brown hair.
The first gif shows them both, looking at each other, Henry grinning broadly, making Pike starting to smile, his smile growing more and more.
The second gif shows them both again, this time sitting next to each other, each one a plate of food on their laps. They're surrounded by the inhabitants of the little town Big Eden. Henry puts his arm around Pike and whispers something in his ear, making Pike burst out laughing, throwing his head back with joy. Henry and the other people in the room watch this outburst from the normally shy Pike very happy. The gif ends with Henry and Pike looking at each other, smiling. /end ID].
nobody ever told me this is what comes after that line i actually think i might explode
[ID: four screenshots from the movie “Big Eden” (2000), showing Pike Dexter (Eric Schweig), a tall Native American man with shoulder length black hair, wearing a plaid shirt. He’s talking with Jim Soams (O'Neal Compton), an old, fat white man and Widow Thayer (Nan Martin), an old, white woman, and other people from the town Big Eden. Pike says: “But, I just want things to be nice for him.” Jim answers: “Thing is, Pike, we want things to be nice for you too, buddy.” Widow Thayer and the others come closer to hug or otherwise comfort Pike. /end ID].
[ID: the "Do it for her" meme two times, it's edited and now reads "Do it for him" and shows several pictures of Eric Schweig as Pike Dexter from "Big Eden" (2000). He's a tall, Native American man with shoulder length black hair, wearing several different colored shirts. Some of the pictures also show Arye Gross as Henry Hart, the love interest of Pike. He's a shorter white man with brown, short hair. The second version features the same photos but at different positions and they now fit better into the frames. /end ID].
henry and pike’s kiss in its entirety (from “Big Eden”)
I would die for Pike Dexter
nobody ever told me this is what comes after that line i actually think i might explode
[ID: four screenshots from the movie "Big Eden" (2000), showing Pike Dexter (Eric Schweig), a tall Native American man with shoulder length black hair, wearing a plaid shirt. He's talking with Jim Soams (O'Neal Compton), an old, fat white man and Widow Thayer (Nan Martin), an old, white woman, and other people from the town Big Eden. Pike says: "But, I just want things to be nice for him." Jim answers: "Thing is, Pike, we want things to be nice for you too, buddy." Widow Thayer and the others come closer to hug or otherwise comfort Pike. /end ID].
““I just thought, ‘Oh well, you know, it will probably be the first and only ever gay role I’ll ever get to do, so I’m just gonna go, you know, rock it at the audition, cuz I really wanna do it’ […] I think at the time, I just liked the material because it didn’t have any sort of… racist dialogue that I was so used to, and when you’re a Native American actor, you’re pigeonholed into doing certain types of roles. You sort of get used to doing period piece after period piece, and it’s no fun. And they don’t write gay characters for Native American people. It was great, because my character Pike, is like the diametric opposite of characters I was used to playing, who are like, swinging axes and shooting people, and Pike Dexter was the opposite of that, he was just a shy, introverted guy who was in love with… um, I mean the other character [Dean] that Tim DeKay plays, wasn’t sure whether he was gay or not, but Pike Dexter was damn sure he was gay and damn sure that he loved [Henry], Arye Gross’s character.””
— Eric Schweig, from ‘Big Eden: A Look Back’, a featurette in the bonus features of Big Eden, the 15th Anniversary Blu-Ray release
Pike Dexter laughing is everything ❤️❤️❤️
[ID: two gifs from the movie "Big Eden" (2000), showing mainly Pike Dexter (Eric Schweig), a tall Native American man with shoulder lenght black hair, and Henry Hart (Arye Gross), a shorter, white man with receding short brown hair.
The first gif shows them both, looking at each other, Henry grinning broadly, making Pike starting to smile, his smile growing more and more.
The second gif shows them both again, this time sitting next to each other, each one a plate of food on their laps. They're surrounded by the inhabitants of the little town Big Eden. Henry puts his arm around Pike and whispers something in his ear, making Pike burst out laughing, throwing his head back with joy. Henry and the other people in the room watch this outburst from the normally shy Pike very happy. The gif ends with Henry and Pike looking at each other, smiling. /end ID].
Eric Schweig in Big Eden (2000)
“I just want things to be nice for him. I know it sounds foolish. But, I just want things to be nice for him.”
[photoset: 25 images of Pike from the film Big Eden. they show him in various scenes - looking pensive, reading, cooking, shaving, having dinner, smiling. Some feature Henry - them talking, hugging, eating dinner and, finally, kissing. end of description.]