Inside Out in Deadpool's Mind

If you are, like me, super excited about the upcoming Deadpool movie, you may also have acquired a newfound or renewed interest in the merc with a mouth. Deadpool is an anti-hero with a really cool healing factor. In my opinion, he's one of the more "real" comic book characters out there. His origin story is full of trauma and sadness, like many superheroes. Now, I love superheroes. But unlike most superheroes, Deadpool doesn't wallow in the brooding. There isn't much he takes seriously.

His process is very different. He has an incredible sense of humor (not always in a good way). He can be in the worst situation and still flip it on its back and find something to laugh about. Deadpool behaves like a normal human in most situations, laughing at adversity, and refusing to let bad situations get the best of him. Maybe that's because he knows he cannot die, so what does he have to be afraid of? That doesn't mean he doesn't experience pain, he just experiences it differently than most others. He has very different methods of coping, for example, his humor and his self deprecation. And maybe it's just me, but he seems to be a sucker for the idea of romance, or at least being in relationships temporarily. For example, that time with Big Bertha, when he was totally into her as she was and thought that she'd feel the same when he took off his mask. She did not. :( 

Image source: http://eyzmaster.blogspot.com/

Deadpool is the only superhero/anti-hero who lives full time as Deadpool. He doesn't have an alter ego with a different life, the mask is his life. When he takes it off, it is usually halfway. If I am wrong about this, please let me know in the comments. Anyway, I am honestly of the belief that we can gather the ten best psychologists in the world and ask them about Deadpool's coping mechanisms, and thought processes in general, and get at least twenty different sets of responses. Deadpool's thought process is not easily definable. It's like he's his own entity, existing outside of the comics/cartoons/movie. I am not writing this out of laziness, but he cannot be easily analyzed. He literally breaks the fourth wall, he exists outside of our perception of him. (Please let me know if I get too meta with the writing!)

But I do wonder what being inside his head might be like. Have you watched Disney*Pixar's Inside Out? After I watched that movie (which I loved) I thought to myself, "Gee, I would LOVE to see what goes on in Deadpool's mind from the point of view of his emotions!" I think this would be super tricky, because his mind has been compromised and works in many different ways. He literally has other voices inside his head. So what might we see inside his head? Funny Murder Island? A Bing-Bongpool who drives a chimichanga truck that runs on sarcasm power? I encourage all you Deadpool fans out there to flood the comments section below with your own thoughts.

What Emotions Might Lead HQ?

What emotions does he mainly seem to focus on? I think Joy would be an obvious one. But his Joy (Joypool?) would be quite different. Joypool would work together with Angerpool, to where they both sort of complement each other. Angerpool would not really ever have to get worked up over anything major. Joypool might take on a bit of Angerpool's qualities (maybe some vindictiveness), to where the actions that Joypool takes might serve to appease Angerpool, and vice versa. 

I am not sure what role Sadnesspool would take, or if she'd exist at all. His constellation of emotions might be very different from the basic ones we all experience. She might be who takes over when he wants his own shield like Captain America, or what he feels when he tells himself that sweet Ellie cannot possibly be his biological daughter. Disgustpool might be what Deadpool feels when his common sense tingles, but I don't think that emotion would be very active. If anything, Disgustpool would have learned by now that there is not much that can "poison" them, so she'd take a back seat and read comic books all day, every day. Fearpool might be similar, since there's not much that can really hurt him. 

What Islands of Personality Might Deadpool Have? 

If islands of personality are born from core memories, it's possible that Deadpool wouldn't have actual islands. His memory is compromised and his personality can't really be contained in the same manner. Take Inside Out's Riley; she is a normal pre-teen girl whose life has been mostly happy, whose parents have met all her basic needs. As she gets older, her islands of personality grow in number and richness. Now, imagine adding many more years of age and experience, traumatic events, an incurable disease, experimentation, a crazy doctor, multiple deaths, multiple killings, witnessing the worst of humanity, knowledge that you cannot end the cycle of death-regeneration-death which might lead to a sense of futility, the ability to see beyond what others see, and then finally acceptance that there's nothing you can really do about it except go on living and enjoying yourself as best as you can. Would anything really matter? How would one's personality change in structure? 

Deadpool might not have islands, but maybe "boulevards," "streets," or "corners." His personality might be composed of so many different core memories that it might be unlikely to find large clusters of the same thing (as in an entire island dedicated to family, for instance). If anything, his personality might be shaped the most by his experiences leading up to him becoming a mercenary, and then later his experiences in the Weapon X project. 

Some of his personality streets or areas might include: 

• Romance Avenue, complete with an imaginary girlfriend generator (imagine a Black Widow-looking woman stating "I would DIE for Wade!")
• Music Court, a place that includes jukeboxes that play pop music from all the eras
• Bea Arthur Blvd, with a golden statue of her
• Comedy Corner where Deadpool himself makes appearances every night
• Silly/Goofball Way is the only place I truly see as being large enough to maybe have its own island
• And of course, Chimichanga Place
• What others can you think of? (Share below!!)

How Might His Mind Be Organized? 

Deadpool's mind would be organized in a very different way than what we saw in Inside Out's Riley, not just for the obvious reasons. He regenerates cells very quickly, though he still has a lot of damaged areas of his body and probably his brain. But I think this might also mean that his brain might reorganize itself differently, and probably frequently, which is what makes him appear psychotic. 

In Inside Out, we saw the different areas of Riley's mind separated from one another. Some of what we saw included the long term memory area, abstract thinking (which was protected on all sides), Imagination Land, dream production, the memory dump, and the subconscious.

Deadpool is able to see past the fourth wall and speak to the "other" beyond it. He would not have any real boundaries separating the different areas. That is, his "Imagination Land" might extend all throughout his mind, and mingle with his abstract thinking. Having said this, his abstract thinking would probably have no walls containing it. He might have multiple trains of thought. His long term memory area might be damaged, or at least extremely disorganized. There might be a lot of things in his memory dump, but perhaps they would somehow end up coming back and the little workers in his mind wouldn't know why. Because his cells keep healing, maybe that would play a role in whether his memory dump works properly or not. He might be able to remember everything to the point that his facts get mixed with his opinions, which get mixed with alternate universe's facts and opinions, which might make him all confused. If anything, his mind might work overtime to try to keep things suppressed in his subconscious.  

What do you think Deadpool's mind might look like? Would the little guys inside his head be doing their job at all? Share your thoughts!