u/Ok-Fill-306

Dug out an old photo of the Lucy figure I made out of FIMO modeling clay back in 2018. I remember choosing her since she would be the easiest to make.

Chapter 5 involves just 2 characters and 1 setting. And it was the trickiest one to write…because it’s arguably the most important. This is Luna’s turning point. This is when she finally learns why Mr. Coconuts is so important to Luan.

Previously, I described my fic to be like Toy Story, in the sense that Luna watching her world fall apart as she felt Luan fading away from her mirrors what Woody was going through when he felt Andy was fading away from him. But let me tell you what I actually believe my story is like: Titanic.

Not in a grandeur-sense, but a story structure-sense.

Everyone on green earth knows the story of the Titanic. We all know that it does not avoid the iceberg. We know it hits it. We know the ship sinks. We know that many die and only few survive. We know how the story ends. But we’re still engrossed with the story anyway because of the question “How?”. How could this have happened? How did it all go down? How does the story play out to reach the inevitable ending that we already know? It’s the question of ‘how’ we get from Point A to Point Z of the story that brings viewers back to rewatch Titanic again and again even though everyone already knows the ending by heart. How did the characters handle the disaster throughout the story? How did the passengers react? How did the survivors beat the odds and manage to live?

So why do I associate ‘Put Down the Dummy’ with Titanic? Ever since Chapter 3, Luna’s biggest wish is for Luan to lose interest in Mr. Coconuts. We the audience know that will never come true. Luan will never retire the dummy. But we also know – especially from her relaxed attitude towards him in Chapter 4’s present-day segment – that present-day Luna is totally fine with Mr. Coconuts. She accepts him and shows no ill will towards the puppet, even responding to him when Luan uses him to speak. It’s as if this flashback past-story never happened. And more importantly, she and Luan are not split apart. So we already know the ending of ‘Put Down the Dummy’. But how? How did Luna get to there? Right now, Luna flat-out hates Mr. Coconuts. She hates him for taking Luan away from her and invading her perfect world. How did we go from Luna hating Mr. Coconuts and furiously ending her best friendship with Luan to present day when everything seems just fine? In Chapter 5 onwards, I answer the question “How?”.

Through a deep talk with her dad, buried secrets about Luan are uncovered before Luna’s eyes. The mystery song from the present-story in Chapter 4 returns, revealed to be a song that Luna would sing to Luan to help her sleep at night. The title still isn’t dropped and the audience still has no idea what song it is. But this song, Luna’s love for singing it, and her love for Luan are what Lynn Sr. uses to restore Luna’s heart and help her understand Mr. Coconuts’ significance to Luan. The fact that Lynn is also into music was both perfect and critical for me to utilize for Luna’s resolution. And he states the same phrase that Leni said in Chapter 3  – “Toys come and toys go, but sisters are forever” – making Luna (and the audience) realize exactly where Leni’s unusual wisdom in that moment came from: it was a lesson that Leni learned when she was going through the exact same problem that Luna is now when Lori was more interested in Fenton the Fox than her. Dad taught Leni this. Now he’s teaching it to Luna.

The importance of the friendship bracelets that Luna and Luan each wear was brought up in the last chapter. And here it is again. Luna, so ready to end her friendship with Luan, wants nothing more than to throw her bracelet away and never see it again…until she realizes she can’t. Too much of Luan is locked in this little yellow bracelet. And too much of Luan is embedded in Luna herself. No matter how angry she is with Luan, she just can’t banish Luan from her life. And the audience soon learns that Luna isn’t angry at all. She’s just wounded.

It is Chapter 5 where the true moral of ‘Put Down the Dummy’ – and really of The Loud House as a whole – is delivered: nothing is more important than your family. You do what you can to help those you love…even if that means sharing your sister with a creepy lifeless puppet. From the day when I decided that Luna was my favourite character of show, I could tell right away that this rock-and-roll queen was a girl for music second…and a girl for her family first. Young 9-year-old Luna already knows this, but the lesson is enforced in her during this chapter and will stick with her forever.

Chapter 5, emotionally weighty and prioritizing discussion over action, is the first to break the pattern of starting with a past-story flashback and ending with a present-day story. It’s instead focused entirely on past Luna wrestling with her big feelings. The sole easter egg of this chapter is the playground itself: the same one found in my older fanfics ‘Back to the Playground’ and ‘Forgotten Trust’. A little neighbourhood playground that the Loud children are fond of visiting and proves once again to be the magical place where hearts can open up.

Luna makes 3 song references.

Story link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14518644/1/Put-Down-the-Dummy

Glad everyone has been enjoying my little compiled sketchdumps of scenes from Put Down the Dummy and their accompanying BTS drops. Four down and six to go. Now here's a little further BTS: the original scan of the sketchbook page with the doodles used for Chapters 1-3, as well as one for Chapter 4.

As a traditional artist wielding a pencil and paper, I have to get creative with how to present my work. I basically cram as much as I can on one page, digitally scan it, then use some photoshop tricks to perform touchups, move everything around, and sort by chapter. Those are my hands pressing the back of the book to the scanner to get a clean finish.

Bonus fun fact: there was no room to draw the top of the theatre in the sketch for the Chapter 2 dump, so I 'borrowed' the top from the bottom right sketch of the Chapter 1 dump.

By Chapter 4, Luan is still playing with Mr. Coconuts without stopping, and Luna is still trying to hide how much this is tearing her up inside. Rita takes notice and offers her depressed daughter some encouragement. So now Luna has received some reassuring advice from Lori and her mom. Did their words help her solve her problem with Luan?

No.

Things escalate, spiral of control, and get ugly really fast. A horrifying revelation, a shattered heart, and now Luna is away without a trace. Lori, Leni, and Lynn all watch anxiously as their dad hurries off to find their missing sister. To make matters worse, there’s a huge thunderstorm on the approach…

…and then the story abruptly switches to the present. This is where my creative liberties really get to have fun. Unlike the present-story in the last 3 chapters, this is now a totally original scene that slips right in Room and Hoard. Luna and Luan play a hand of Go Fish before bed while Luan expresses disappointment in having to give up their theatre. They’re soon summoned by the sounds of Lily crying. Nothing the siblings try soothes their cranky sister, not even Luna’s singing, which usually does the trick. Then Luan gets the idea to put on a puppet show with their old theatre. She and Luna put her plan into action…and it works! With Lily now out, everyone retires for the night. As they drift off to sleep, Luan mentions to Luna that there was a certain song that Luna could have tried singing to Lily that may have worked. Luna doesn’t know what song this means and Luan unexpectedly becomes a little disheartened at this. Luna falls asleep with a question now bouncing around her head: what song did Luan mean?

This chapter is by far the most emotionally-heavy of the story so far. Young Luna Loud, the calmest, gentlest, and most sensible sibling, the prim and proper of the family, completely breaks. Finally pushed to her limit, she just explodes, something she has never done before. This is also the first time in the story when we meet young Lynn Jr. and Lincoln. Neither of them do much, but it’s very clear that Lynn is ready to scour the entire globe to look for her big sister. Lincoln only gets 1 scene in the entire past-story, but I made sure it was a good one for the die-hard Lincoln and Luna fans. Only 5 years old, and yet he’s already developed a sixth-sense to detect when his sisters are upset. Luna appreciates this greatly. In the present-story, the part when Luna sings to Lily while cradling her was deliberately written with the old beloved visual of Luna always carrying Lily around in mind. We all love that and we all miss that. There isn’t a single soul who doesn’t adore that doting big sis-energy Luna used to emit in the early days and I wanted it in my story. Finally, there’s a new element introduced in this chapter. A mystery element. There’s a certain song that Luan hints at and Luna can’t remember…but gets the impression that she should. Luan seems very cagey over this song, not even name-dropping, prompting Luna to try to figure out what the song is.

The entire concept of Luna and Luan playing cards on Luan’s bunk before bed was adapted from Parasomnico’s long-gone comic ‘All You Need is Laugh’ which featured such a scene. It’s very unfortunate that it’s no longer available as far as I can find, as it had some truly wholesome moments between Luna and Luan at a time when they had absolutely nothing. Also notice that the sisters are snacking on cookies. Not only a call-back to Chapter 1, it represents that the sisters’ bond has not changed in 6 years…despite the fight they had in this same chapter. Luna is also totally fine with Mr. Coconuts, a complete turn-around from her pure hatred towards him in the past-story at this point. A lot of flip-flopping with emotions in this one. It ends on a not-so-happy ending with a lot of questions that need answering. How did Luna come around to being on good terms with the puppet? What is this mystery song? And after such an intense rupture to their sisterhood and friendship, how did Luna and Luan get back together?

Luna makes 3 more song references. And Victoria is mentioned a second time.

Story link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14518644/1/Put-Down-the-Dummy

Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of The Loud House with the 10th chapter to my story 'Put Down the Dummy'. Aka, my review of Stage Combat. After 6 months of waiting for the eps to make its US debut, this thing is finally ready to meet the public eye. And at long last, the story is officially complete. Please enjoy my very long and overly excessive thoughts on this singular episode and the season, as well as a little epilogue to the story. Happy reading!

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14518644/10/Put-Down-the-Dummy

Things are changing way too fast for poor Luna over the course of a month as Luan becomes increasingly occupied with playing with Mr. Coconuts. They don’t put on puppet shows anymore because it seems that all Luan wants to do these days is ‘practice’ with Mr. Coconuts. In fact, Luan doesn’t even talk to Luna anymore, choosing instead to ‘talk’ out of Mr. Coconuts. Luna is not used to being ignored by Luan. She doesn’t like it one bit. And she finds Luan using the dummy to talk to be very irritating. But she holds her tongue, choosing to bottle her unhappy emotions inside her, as she doesn’t want to make a big deal out of this, no matter how much it’s bothering her. The Loud family is notorious for being a nuisance all over Royal Woods and the last thing Luna wants is to be a cause of more drama. After all, she is the calm sister of the family. Everyone knows that. At least she has her yellow friendship bracelet. She can take a piece of Luan with her wherever she goes. And knowing that Luan still has her purple friendship bracelet gives Luna a tiny bit of assurance that Luan hasn’t completely forgotten Luna. Meanwhile, teenage Luna and Luan discover a feathery chicken boa and Mick Swagger pinball machine at a rummage sale and decide to smuggle the goods home without their parents noticing. There’s also the name ‘Victoria’ introduced in this present-day segment. Luan seems to be concerned, questioning if Sam is aware. Luna assures her there’s no need to worry.

Chapter 3 is an info-dump, but a significant info-dump. Seeing things undergo such an abrupt change in Luna’s eyes is akin to Woody in Toy Story witnessing Andy transition to Buzz as his new favourite toy, with all the conflicted emotions and heartbreak to match. Woody’s comfy perfect world completely crumbled, just like Luna’s world here.

There is one very important scene in this chapter, and it’s a scene with Lori, Leni, and Luna. We touch on Luna’s relationship with Leni again and she interacts with Lori for the first time. Watching the show, I always got the impression that the 3 eldest sisters formed their own click with each other. Around Season 2, when Luan was just the comic relief and didn’t share any obvious connections with Luna, these 3 sisters really felt like the responsible matriarchs of the siblings. They were clearly close with one another. It made sense to me; Luan was always the independent black sheep separate from everyone else. It was like the trio knew they couldn’t trust her. The most telling instance was when Lori only allowed Leni and Luna to her ‘sophisticated’ party for the “older kids” in Party Down. Leni, I understand. But it’s nice that Lori considered Luna to be on her level too. She only reluctantly permitted Luan after Luan’s begging and warned her to be cool. And the show continued this in Season 7’s Force of Habits. I love Luna and Luan’s close partnership, but I also love the trio of eldest sisters.

Right from the beginning of this fic’s development, I knew that I wanted a scene involving the big 3. Something I think a lot of Luna fans tend to forget is that Luna is not just a big sister. She’s a little sister too, with 2 big sisters whom she can turn to for help. And that’s exactly what happens: 11-year-old Lori gives Luna assurance that Luan will come around once she loses interest in Mr. Coconuts. And Leni is just the sweetest, telling Luna that there’s nothing wrong with her. I make it very clear that Luna deeply loves and respects both her big sisters, no matter how bossy or ditzy they may be. It was very fun for me to envision Lori as 11 (present-day Lincoln’s age) and how she would respond to Luna’s problems. Leni also has a moment when she becomes unusually serious and offers Luna a statement: “Toys come and toys go, but sisters are forever”. Luna, like the audience reading, finds this moment a bit strange. And it’s strange for a reason that will become clear later.

And if it wasn’t already obvious from Chapter 1, Lori confirms in this chapter that Luna and Luan are indeed best friends, something that Luna is rather protective over.

Little nods and references to old eps include mentions of Carol Pingrey and Fenton the Fox, and Lori’s excessive use of the word ‘literally’, which will of course be her tic in her teenage years. There’s also an allusion to a future eps, Only Mime Will Tell, when Luna jokingly dares Luan to try going silent for an entire day. I even reference my own older fanfics. Yesterdayville, Luan’s favourite diner from my 2020 story ‘Forever and Always’ is used here. Even the friendship bracelets and their backstory are adopted from my 2019 story ‘Miracles’. While I don’t consider ‘Put Down the Dummy’ to be a part of the timeline shared by my previous Loud House fics (this is its own separate thing), a few elements from those old stories were just too good to discard.

As for who exactly Victoria is, that isn’t made clear yet. But you can kinda guess.

Story link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14518644/1/Put-Down-the-Dummy

Chapter 2 is where we start to see the story from Luna’s perspective. She arrives home from her violin lesson, fully expecting to find Luan waiting for her so they can go play. After all, Luan was so reluctant to see her go, and like a puppy, is always waiting for her. But when she finds Luan not waiting for her and instead playing with a big creepy doll that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, Luna’s world is turned upside down. Meanwhile, in the present, Luna and Luan find themselves a bit stuck.

Just like Chapter 1, Chapter 2 serves primarily to set things up for the reader. By the end of it, we now have all the necessary background info to understand the main characters and how life in this family operates. The 4 oldest sisters have a room to themselves. We’re properly introduced to Luna and Luan’s cardboard puppet theatre that becomes an important plot device throughout both the past and present stories. We learn how Luna and Luan love performing and putting on puppet shows for their family. Speaking of Luna, this Luna is full-on ‘Classic Luna’ as she’s known as in the fandom: a gentle and calm girly-girl violinist who dresses smartly and is into classical music. I’ve always headcanoned that Luna didn’t get into rock-and-roll until she was around 12 years old and attended her first rock concert as we saw in For Bros About to Rock. However, her love for music was always a thing. It was a lot of fun writing this alternate-world Luna, reimagining her speech mannerisms and behaviour in a way I have never truly dabbled with before. Not once in the past-story does she say ‘dude’. We also meet 10-year-old Leni and Lynn Sr., both of whom Luna shares a brief scene with, which touches a bit on some of her relationships with her other family members. Both will be important later. Charles as a puppy and Cliff the kitten also cameo. The present portion of the story is a familiar scene from Room and Hoard with some expansion to it. We get to see how Luna and Luan escape their cardboard prison.

Not much else to say about this chapter, but continue to keep your eyes peeled for more set-ups and instances of foreshadowing, like how Luna and Luan used to share a bedroom because Luan had trouble sleeping on her own due to her fear of the dark. There are also little easter eggs I slipped in that reference old favourite episodes from the early seasons. Leni’s 6-piece puzzle seen in Lock n’ Loud appears and Lynn Sr. is busily cooking succotash for this Saturday night’s dinner, staying true to the weekly menu that Lincoln presented to us in Fed Up. Stuff that only the most OG Loud House fans can pin-point to exactly where each reference stems from.

Story link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14518644/1/Put-Down-the-Dummy

P.S. You’ve all been patient; Chapter 10 and my review of Stage Combat will be published this Saturday, May 2nd.

What's up, folks? We’re back with more Loud House sketchdumps, this time of scenes based straight out of my latest fanfic Put Down the Dummy. I always like doodling up key scenes from my stories and I have quite a bit of background info that I’d like to share for every chapter of this 10-part adventure. And with the long-awaited airing of Luna and Luan’s token episode Stage Combat last week – whose announcement served as the main motivation to write this back in Autumn 2025 – now seems as good a time as any to share the secrets behind the story. Each of these little BTS pieces will give a quick summary of each chapter and then some background info behind their making. There will be spoilers for whoever has yet to read it, but I’ll make them as mild as possible.

So what exactly is ‘Put Down the Dummy’? It’s my first Luna/Luan fanfic written in the last 5 years, stuffed with headcanons that I’ve been sitting on for that duration. This was my big return to the Loud House fan community. The story is about Luna and Luan’s bond when they were very young and is my take on why Luan uses Mr. Coconuts so much (an issue that we as a community have wrestled with for years). The fanfic is split into 2 stories: one set 6 years in the past and one in the present that work in tandem to feed and build 1 big story. Each chapter starts with the past-story and ends with the present-story…at least for the first few. The past-story is our main story, a flashback to 6 years ago. Our protagonist is Luna, just 9 years old and a musical prodigy with her violin. Despite this, Chapter 1 is mostly told from Luan’s perspective. We learn quite a bit about young 8-year-old Luan here: she’s a lonely girl without many friends due to her unusual quirks and interests. She loves putting on puppet shows with her big sister Luna. She doesn’t like that Luna has to leave every weekend for violin lessons. And she wishes that she had another friend to play with while Luna is away.

One day, her wish is granted when out of the blue, a large doll falls out of the sky. His name is Mr. Coconuts. For you dedicated TLH fans, you’ll recognize right away that this past story takes place during the flashback we saw in the Season 7 episode: Doll Day Afternoon. It’s still astonishing to me that the show bothered to give Mr. Coconuts a backstory. And I decided it was the perfect start to get my story rolling.

Meanwhile, in the present, the 11 Loud kids are digging through the attic under their parents’ orders. Luna and Luan discover their old cardboard theatre that they used to put on puppet shows together. Right away, they both decide that they must do everything they can to save their beloved childhood toy and we the audience are made fully aware that the present story takes place during the Season 4 episode: Room and Hoard. And just like that, the chapter ends.

Chapter 1 mainly serves to establish the world for the audience. It’s very different than the Loud House that we’re used to: the family is 2/3 of its present-day size with Lori being 11 and Lucy only a toddler. It’s simple and tame with little action. But it gives the reader a fairly good idea of what to expect. It also quietly sets up a lot of key details that will become important later, some more subtle than others. For example, Luan calls Luna ‘Big Sis’ and it’s made clear that Luna is proud of this. Other details include Luna and Luan’s friendship bracelets, their secret habit of raiding cookies for a midnight snack, which wrists that they wear their bracelets on, the way they make promises with each other, Luna’s nickname for Luan ‘Lulu’, and that they call each other ‘Best Sister Friends’. When reading the story, keep an eye out for more of these little seemingly-unimportant details. Foreshadowing is deployed a lot in this story, which is something I not only love to do in my writing, but makes the story all the more satisfying with every read and reread. If it’s in the narrative, it’ll likely play some significance later.

And in true Luna Loud fashion, she makes song references throughout the story, even at her young age. There are 13 in total, 2 found in this chapter.

Story link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14518644/1/Put-Down-the-Dummy

DA: https://www.deviantart.com/thebluejetpack/art/Put-Down-the-Dummy-The-Inside-Scoop-Chapter-1-1325120662