Note: An Inside Out writer's best friend? A thesaurus! It's usually not the way to go at all, but if you find yourself writing "Disgust made a show of her disgust," you know you need one.
Also, did anyone notice that the chapters ended up sorted by order of positivity? I swear, that was a complete accident. ;)
Sometimes, it was difficult to keep up the morale.
She knew she was the one who needed to do it, because she was the only one who could, hard though it was. Sadness was a lost cause most of the time, anyway - even though that never stopped Joy from trying, of course - but even Disgust occasionally made such a show of her revulsion that trying to calm down Fear seemed relaxing in comparison.
And Anger, oh boy… Anything could set him off, and when it did and his head sort of exploded again, the flame drew in the others as if they were a bunch of moths, and they would stare into the glow, sort of petrified, and the heat would addle their minds and undermine their resistance to the negativity, and afterward, it was always the hardest to pick up the pieces.
But with a little positive reinterpretation – sudden flames made for excellent spontaneous marshmallow campfire opportunities – even those occasions could be turned into fun and togetherness. She just had to find out how.
Yes, even she was down sometimes, particularly when she went overboard in excitement and Riley had to suffer the consequences for it – when she refused to go to bed when ordered, for example. It always made Joy question herself, made her try to figure out where she went wrong and why being positive wasn't always positive. And then she would sort of lose her nerve and the others would take over, openly questioning how she managed to always feel so "hyper."
But even that was okay, because whenever it happened, Joy consciously remembered the one irrefutably positive thing they could all feel.
Love. It wasn't just that Riley's love for her parents and friends resonated in them all. It was more. They all loved Riley, and Riley loved them, embraced them, even if sometimes they did make her feel down. But they were hers, and even in those moments when she tried to resist them, she always accepted them, was never afraid to let them guide her interactions with people. She wasn't always able to handle them, but she was always aware of them at the very least.
Her Emotions just were. It was she who had to decide whether she wanted them to be that way or not.
And the other Emotions knew that, too. They might sometimes complain about Riley or her surroundings, yes, but being treasured like that registered with all of them even in the darkest moments.
It was what gave Joy hope. It empowered her to face each new day. It made her happy to be part of this family.
Note: And that's it! Hope you enjoyed the ride, and that we will all have a blast watching the movie.