A Sit Down With a Therapist is a Family Guy fanfiction written by chachingmel123
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It follows Lois Griffin who, after her therapist Judy tells her to divorce Peter, finally follows through on it and takes the kids away and tries to repair the damage she and Peter did to them. Meanwhile, Peter suffers a lifetime's worth of karma coming down on him.
The fic ran for 14 chapters before it was left incomplete since 2019, and can be read here
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A Sit Down With a Therapist contains the following examples:
- Abusive Parents:
- Peter's abuse of his family is portrayed in a more horrifying light here. As Judy spells out to Lois, thanks to Peter, Meg has mental health issues, including depression and suicidal thoughts; Chris is slowly turning into a clone of his father and is severely socially inept on top of that; and Stewie is now a Troubled Child who coped with his neglect by turning to Rupert for company and collecting weapons. Tellingly, once Lois divorces Peter, Meg, Chris, and Stewie's lives improve drastically.
- Lois often joined in on Peter's antics in desperate hope that he'll become the man she fell in love with again, becoming just as bad to her children. She also drank frequently to escape the realities of her situation. It took eight years of therapy for her to realize that she was stuck in an awful marriage with a Psychopathic Manchild, which finally motivated her to divorce Peter and take Meg, Chris, and Stewie away.
- According to Judy, Brian is essentially a second father to the kids and the one they're forced to turn to when neither Peter or Lois are available physically or emotionally. While he started out as the sole voice of reason among the Griffins, over time Brian became part of the problem and Meg, Chris, and Stewie ended up learning that it's okay to drink and behave like entitled Jerkasses. He also ruined Stewie's attempts to make friends and burned his teddy bear Rupert out of jealousy. Realizing this leads to Lois cutting Brian out of the family as well after divorcing Peter.
- Accusation Fic: The fic's core concept is calling out various Family Guy characters for their horrific behaviour in the later seasons of the show. Peter naturally gets the brunt of it — given that the fic involves Lois finally divorcing him and moving out — but Brian and Lois also get their own share of criticism for their Jerkass moments over the course of the fic.
- Adaptation Name Change: After divorcing Peter, Lois changes her Griffin surname back to her maiden one, Pewterschmidt. This becomes a plot point as Pewterschmidt Industries, her father's company, is well-respected and several people treat Meg, Chris, and Stewie better once they learn who the three are related to.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Meg and Chris get hit with this, as in canon they were both overweight due to Peter making Lois cook large amounts of food for the entire family (but mostly for himself). Once Lois divorces Peter and gets her children out of the house, they all start eating smaller portions; Meg becomes extremely attractive to the point where her friends from her old school are shocked to see her, while Chris (who Lois calls "Peter 2.0") also started losing weight and thus needed to replace his old clothes.
- Adaptational Explanation:
- In "April in Quahog", Peter buys the kids an Xbox that mysteriously disappears after the episode. Here, Judy reveals Peter broke the Xbox two weeks into having it.
- The reason why Meg and Chris look the way they do in canon is explained as Peter's Big Eater habits rubbing off on them and Lois cooking large amounts of food just to appease Peter.
- Adaptational Karma:
- Though Peter mostly got away with his horrific crimes in the show itself and got to live a cushy life, the fic goes out of its way to make him suffer as much as possible, with him losing his family and all of his friends, becoming homeless, winding up in debt to a mob enforcer, and even getting several of his fingers cut off due to his inability to pay off his debt.
- This also applies to Brian, the Griffins' family dog. Brian's enablement of Peter and abusive treatment of Lois in canon gets him left behind with Peter once Lois finally grows a backbone, forcing him to actually work to support himself and Peter. Eventually, even he recognizes Peter's psychopathy and leaves him, too, but he ends up falling into his old ways when he tries mooching off of Lois' Pewterschmidt family wealth. This gets Brian beaten up by Stewie and kicked back onto the streets by Lois, and it's implied he'll be reduced to homelessness with no other job to fall back on after ditching the soup kitchens to live with Lois.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Carter Pewterschmidt, who is normally shown to be a horrible person who frequently abuses his wealth to torment others and once developed the cure to cancer only to refuse to release it for petty reasons, is shown to be considerably friendlier towards Lois and his grandkids, with any jerk moments he displays being saved for Peter himself. In his case, it's implied to be because even he recognises how serious the situation is and is more concerned with helping Lois and the kids escape from Peter.
- Adaptational Upbringing Change: Lois growing a backbone and divorcing Peter leads to Meg, Chris, and Stewie living better lives as part of the Pewterschmidt family, whereas in canon, they stayed Griffins (and thus continued to suffer from Peter's abuse).
- Adaptational Wealth: Due to having divorced Peter, barred him and Brian from using her bank account, and taken back her maiden name of Pewterschmidt, Lois is now extremely rich, with her children being granted access to various luxuries like better food and schools. In Family Guy, this didn't happen as Peter and Brian were always wasting money on themselves, forcing the rest of the family to live in poverty.
- An Arm and a Leg: After Peter screws up shooting the correct kid for Sharktooth in Chapter 8, Sharktooth orders that Peter will pay $15,000 a month or lose a limb to pay for his stupidity. Peter loses his pinkie immediately after Sharktooth declares this and tells him it'll continue for every month. In Chapter 13, it's clear he isn't joking as a mob leader comes to Peter after he escapes from prison and cuts off another finger of his.
- The Atoner: Lois becomes this after receiving a massive reality-check from her therapist Judy. Realizing that she had willingly trapped herself in an extremely abusive marriage and Peter isn't going to change back into the man she fell in love with, Lois divorces him and takes the kids with her. Subsequent chapters focus on her efforts in being a better mother in atonement for her past abuses, such as building up Meg's self-confidence and encouraging her children's natural talents.
- Attempted Rape: In chapter 12, while attending a party at Chadley's house, Brian sees and tries to rape Chadley's pet dog, a female purebred Samoyed named Momo. Fortunately, Chadley's servants successfully stop him, but Stewie is beyond enraged that Brian would do such a thing after he and his family stuck out their necks for him and angrily drags Brian home.
- The Baby Trap: Chapter 13 has Stewie accusing Brian of planning this using Momo, Chadley's pet Samoyed. Stewie believes that had the Attempted Rape of Momo been successful, Brian would have tried using the resulting puppies to make Chadley adopt and pamper him, which would have led to bad consequences for Momo if it failed. Brian's weak response further implies this.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Peter roundhouse kicks Brian, his pet dog, in Chapter 3 when he believes Brian stole his couch, despite Brian being with him the whole time, and in Chapter 4 when Brian tells him to return his expenses.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Brian's seductions of the women in the Griffins' old neighborhood in canon are touched upon, with the fic noting how weird it is for a woman to hook up with a talking dog. Then Brian attempts to rape Momo, Chadley's pet dog and a female purebred Samoyed, out of lust and (if Stewie is to be believed) the belief he could use their resulting puppies to force Chadley to adopt him, allowing Brian to mooch off of the boy's wealth.
- Big Eater: Deconstructed. Peter's unhealthy eating habits made him dangerously obese, which made sleeping difficult for Lois as he would often roll over and crush her. This also led to Meg, Chris, and Stewie eating more than they should, with the former two becoming overweight themselves, as Lois had to cook massive portions just to appease Peter. There's also how Peter tried force-feeding Lois so they could have fat sex, which no husband would ever do. Once Lois divorces Peter and takes the children away, everyone starts eating healthy portions. Meg and Chris start losing weight because of their new eating regime, with Meg becoming drop-dead gorgeous and both having to shop for clothes as their old ones no longer fit them. Meanwhile, without Lois' money to support him, Peter's eating habits contribute to him being abandoned by first Brian, then Quagmire, Cleveland, and Joe after they take him in.
- Brutal Honesty:
- Justified as it's part of Judy's job as a therapist. Judy gives Lois a much-needed reality-check by telling her that both she and her three children are suffering under Peter and Brian's thumbs, Peter isn't going to magically change back into the man Lois fell in love with, and Lois was in fact making it worse by joining in her husband's abuse and turning a blind eye to everything. The only way out is to divorce Peter. However, Judy also encourages Lois by telling her it isn't too late for her to turn things around, and that there are men out there who are much nicer and more responsible than Peter. This gives Lois the spark she needs to cut Peter and Brian out of her and her kids' lives for good.
- In chapter 3, when Chris asks what's wrong with their old high school, Meg brutally admits that everyone in the entire school hated them — even those who weren't the popular kids.Meg: Oh, come on Chris. Everybody thinks your weird and gross, and I'm shamed before I even walk through the door. Our school hates us.
- Cerebus Retcon: In the original show, Peter and Lois having a child called Peter Jr. that Peter killed is played for dark laughs. Here, it's played for dark drama as chapter 2 reveals that Lois told no one about the fact Peter killed his firstborn son by shaking him while the latter was crying; when she tells Carter, he was understandably enraged.
- Dead Fic: The story hasn't been updated since December 2019.
- Deconstruction Fic: The fanfic deconstructs Peter's declining Flanderization and how it would seriously affect the people around him in a more serious setting. Peter's abuse of his family leaves his oldest son dead while his surviving kids are suffering from various mental health issues, and it grew worse thanks to enablement by his "friends" and even his love-starved wife Lois. When Lois receives a much-needed reality check from her therapist Judy, she promptly divorces Peter and takes Meg, Chris, and Stewie with her. Without his family to serve his whims and be his punching bags, Peter tries turning to Quagmire, Joe, and Cleveland for support; all three cut ties with Peter after enduring his Manchild behavior and seeing him for what he truly is. And with Peter no longer around to abuse them, Meg, Chris, and Stewie start despising him, which they extend to Brian for his part in their abuse and especially after he tried getting into their good graces again so he could mooch off to them.
- Didn't Think This Through: Brian quits his soup kitchen job and moves out of his apartment the instant Stewie lets him live in the mansion with him, clearly intending to live in luxury and mooch off the Griffins' fortune, and never considers what would happen if he were to get kicked out. Sure enough, when he gets kicked out after trying to force himself onto Chadley's female purebred dog Momo, he is rendered homeless with nothing to go back to.
- Everyone Has Standards: While Quagmire, Cleveland, and Joe were all willing to put up with Peter's antics before, having to deal with them constantly when he moves in with them quickly drains their patience, and they all have him thrown out after increasingly short periods of time.
- Even Evil Has Standards: In Chapter 13, Peter shows a surprising amount of resistance to Gretchen and the others wanting to rob and murder Lois for her money, saying she doesn't deserve it. He does buckle through with it, but only from the threat of Sharktooth being after his head. He's also genuinely disturbed and scared upon seeing the psychos Gretchen associates herself with.
- Fingore: Peter gets his pinkie finger cut off after screwing up an assassination for Sharktooth by shooting the wrong kid. He later gets another finger cut off after escaping from prison and failing to pay his debts to Sharktooth.
- Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Subverted. When Stewie meets Chadley again following Lois and Peter's divorce, he genuinely apologizes for tricking Chadley into thinking he's rich and shows the other boy proof that he's part of the wealthy Pewterschmidt family now. Chadley decides to give Stewie another chance, especially since Stewie was living with Peter at the time. Unfortunately, Brian's attempted rape of Chadley's pet dog Momo during a party puts Stewie and Chadley's friendship at risk of falling apart once again.
- Forgot Flanders Could Do That: In the earlier seasons, Chris originally had a talent for art that was quickly dropped. The fic reveals that Chris is genuinely talented, but psychological abuse from Peter dumbed him down as he was convinced he'd never amount to anything. Fortunately, Lois remembers that factoid after Shawn reveals Stewie's intelligence to her, and a subplot focuses on Bradley helping Chris bring out his artistic side out.
- Freudian Excuse: Lois' more villainous behavior, neglectfulness, and joining in Peter's abusive behavior towards Meg was her clinging to the memories of Peter before he was a father and thinking joining in would help bring back the man she originally fell in love with. She does realize eventually that she had been a horrible mother not just to Meg, but also Chris and Stewie, and whatever she and Peter had in the past was long gone.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse:
- Chapter 5 has Lois admit while talking to Meg that despite her excuse, it doesn't justify her actions to her.
- After shooting the wrong kid in Chapter 8, Peter tells a pissed off Sharktooth that he's not good with remembering things, given he's retarded. Sharktooth quickly tells Peter he has multiple mentally disabled friends that are fine criminals and that having a disability doesn't excuse him from not remembering something important like the correct kid to shoot.
- It's acknowledged that Brian, despite his intelligence, is still a dog with instincts he occasionally struggles to control. However, nobody takes it as a reasonable justification for him to rape another dog, given that he still has human-level intelligence and should thus know better than to commit such a horrible act to begin with. Him attempting to rape a purebred dog (after having chased her down for several minutes straight) gets him kicked out and exiled to the streets.
- Grew a Spine: After continuingly letting Peter trap her in a loveless marriage, Lois begins to grow a spine and divorces Peter, locking him (and Brian) out of the family bank account. She grows an even bigger spine in Chapter 10, when Peter makes another one of his emotional speeches promising to be a better person and, knowing full well it won't work given how many times Peter gave a speech promising to be a better person, only for him to be even worse by the next morning, Lois rejects his speech.
- Hated by All:
- By around Chapter 6, Peter's psychotic, narcissistic personality has driven away anyone who once cared about him. His own family has abandoned him, Brian refuses to put up with his crap, Quagmire, Cleveland, and Joe all end up cutting ties with him after he takes advantage of their generosity, and random people on the street despise him for killing their relatives.
- By Chapter 13, Brian ends up being hated by everyone for his attempt to rape the female purebred pet dog of one of Stewie's rich friends, with all of the Griffins cutting ties with him altogether and kicking him out to fend for himself. And given how everyone in Quahog only knows him as a pretentious douche, chances of him getting any kind of support are slim, to say the least.
- Hates Their Parent: Meg, Chris, and Stewie have all cut ties with Peter once they get a taste of a normal (albeit wealthy) family life and realize how horrible their father had been to them all those years. Even Chris, who Peter treated better than Meg or Stewie, starts hating him and wants nothing to do with him. This treatment also applies to Brian since he was their second father-figure, but had been nothing but a perverted, insufferable jerk who treated them like crap the entire time. After Brian tries raping a prized dog in front of Stewie and his rich friends, Stewie, Meg, and Chris all agree with Lois' decision to boot him to the streets.
- Ignored Epiphany: After being kicked out by Joe in Chapter 5, Peter begins thinking Brian was right about returning the items he bought, only to ignore it, thinking for sure Brian was on the streets.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: Deconstructed. Stewie is extremely intelligent for his age, but the Griffins refused to believe it because they all thought they were going crazy. This made it extremely hard for him to make friends with kids his age, which wasn't helped by Brian sabotaging his friendships out of jealousy, forcing him to turn to Rupert for comfort. Once Lois discovers that Stewie is actually a Child Prodigy, she promptly sends him to a school for gifted children as she was advised to.
- Jerkass Realization: In chapter 8, Bradley talks to Chris about his perverted behavior, pointing out that women should be treated with respect and even sexual harassment can get a man arrested. This makes Chris realize that Peter was not a good father at all if he didn't tell him of such things or let him behave however he wanted around women.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Befitting the story's nature as an Accusation Fic that deconstructs the more unsavory aspects of Family Guy, Peter and Brian get hit with this. Their abusive exploitation of Lois and her children eventually leads to the latter two abandoning them for a better life, with Lois tricking Peter into signing their divorce papers so she can finally be free of him. What follows is a long-overdue Humiliation Conga as both Peter and Brian suffer the consequences of their actions; Peter gets the brunt of it due to being a completely unrepentant Psychopathic Manchild, though Brian himself isn't immune and he is ultimately rendered homeless following an ill-planned attempt to mooch off of Lois' family.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- The fic is essentially one long Humiliation Conga for Peter, which starts after Lois finally gathers the courage to divorce him. Not only does he lose his family and house, but even his friends Quagmire, Joe, and Cleveland and his family dog Brian decide to kick him to the curb after getting fed up with his abusive behavior. Even as a homeless man, the world still gives him No Sympathy because of what a horrible person he is. Even the criminal underworld starts hating Peter after he stupidly screws up his first job as a hitman, causing his enraged employer to send someone after him and amputate his fingers if he doesn't pay off his debts.
- Chapter 5 has Peter's friends Cleveland, Quagmire, and Joe suffering this. After years of enabling Peter's behavior and turning a blind eye to it, they end up suffering what Lois went through when they take in a then-recently divorced Peter out of goodwill, only for Peter to mooch off of them and even endanger their families. By the end of the chapter, all three men disown Peter to his friend and abandon him to his fate.
- Lazy Bum: As a result of being married to someone with a lot of money, Peter barely goes to work and spends most of his time watching TV and eating. And despite Lois divorcing him and telling him she cut him (alongside Brian) from the family bank account, Peter still doesn't get a job and Brian's forced to get one to support both of them, which quickly goes south.
- Money Dumb: Peter even moreso than ever before.
- Chapter 4 reveals that Peter spent nearly sixteen thousand dollars in expenses while Brian is gone at work (coming after Lois locked them out of the bank account and the fact they can't pay for it) and refuses to return all the expenses. This leads to the bank foreclosing the Griffin house.
- Chapter 5 has Peter spend all of Quagmire's money he was given to get the latter's medication on random junk, and as Quagmire reveals, Peter got a three hundred thousand dollar debt on his credit card.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Brian comes down from his instincts, he openly regrets trying to rape Momo the purebred dog. However, it's unclear if he legitimately regretted doing so, or if he just realized it destroyed his chances of being able to mooch off Lois and Stewie.
- Original Character: A few.
- Lois' therapist herself Judy, who appears only in Chapter 1.
- Bradly Nissan, heir to the Nissan family, whom Lois meets in Chapter 4 and ends up becoming her boyfriend by Chapter 10.
- Sharktooth, a vicious criminal mob boss who enlists Peter to perform assassinations for him in Chapter 8. Following Peter accidentally killing the wrong kid for him, Sharktooth saddles Peter with a massive debt to pay back under threat of losing his fingers.
- Papa Wolf: Chapter 5 has this as the main reason why neither Cleveland or Joe are friends with Peter anymore. Cleveland's son Cleveland Jr. was shot in the arm by Peter for no reason, while Joe's daughter Susie was nearly drowned, then wrapped and nearly choked to death. Cleveland even states that he would've taken Peter to court if the latter wasn't broke.
- Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Gretchen, Peter's psychotic ex-girlfriend from "Take a Letter", returns here. She's still just as crazy as she was in her one episode, and still wants to kill Lois to take Peter for herself.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Deconstructed with Peter, whose comedic antics and tendency to hurt and abuse others for his own amusement are taken seriously. When Lois finally divorces him and takes the kids, Peter's refusal to change or become a better person results in the loss of his cushy life, his house, his friendships with everyone he cared about, and even several of his fingers when he pisses off a ruthless criminal.
- “The Reason You Suck” Speech: Brian gives one to Peter in Chapter 6, after the latter becomes homeless and attempts to exploit a homeless shelter to get better food.Peter: You got to take me back. I can't live like this!
Brian: No, I don't, Peter. The only thing you have learnt is that you can't survive without people to step on. Well, guess what, Peter? If you step on people and treat them like crap, then eventually they are going to realise they don't have to take your attitude and start leaving, and when they leave, so does a part of your comfortable life with them. And what makes it worse is now that your life has collapsed and there is no shield for your behaviour, the world is going to show you what happens when somebody like you exists. Good luck, asshole. [Brian leaves] - Riches to Rags: Peter goes from being rich enough to buy all kinds of useless junk (on Lois' dime) to being homeless and in crippling debt after she finally divorces him. Brian similarly suffers from being cut off from Lois' bank account, and while he does manage to make ends meet for a while afterwards (particularly once he moves into his own apartment and gets a job at a soup kitchen), he too is reduced to nothing when, after having quit his job and left his apartment to move in with the Griffins, he blows it all by exploiting them and gets thrown out onto the streets for it.
- Ridiculous Repossession: Due to Peter racking up so much money from buying unnecessary items and refusing to return them, the bank repossessed his house with Chapter 5 mentioning the bank moved the old house to a new location.
- Rule of Three: Chapter 5 has Peter stay with Quagmire, then Cleveland, and finally Joe at their houses after becoming homeless. Each time, he gets kicked out in increasingly short periods time (a month with Quagmire, a week with Cleveland and three days with Joe) after pissing them off with his insane behavior.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: Chapter 4 has Brian leave the house after Peter refuses to return all the expenses he bought, and roundhouse kicks him.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Lois' therapist Judy only appears in the first chapter, yet is the main reason for how Lois gets the courage to divorce Peter.
- Take That!: Chapter 1 features one towards people calling each other manbabies on the internet.Lois: We go to parents evening, and I am ashamed to bring Peter along. When other's look at Peter and me, they don't see a husband and wife. They see a care nurse who has to take care of a manbaby. And by manbaby, I mean a genuine one and not what a certain group on Twitter calls anybody who disagrees with them.
- Trivial Title: The eponymous sit-down with the therapist only occurs in the first chapter.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Brian is allowed to move into Lois' mansion... at which point he immediately quits his job at the soup kitchen and tries to mooch off of Lois' fortune. He immediately gets put in his place when he finds Lois won't abide by his every demand and refuses to give him money, knowing he'd just blow it on booze and women, and his attempts to get his job back are fruitless. Things only get worse for him when he slips back into his old ways and attempts to rape Chadley's purebred pet dog Momo, resulting in Stewie having him kicked out.
- Un-person: In Chapter 13, Brian is exiled from the Griffin family and barred from their mansion after he attempted to rape the purebred dog of one of Stewie's rich friends, with Lois even ordering her servants to shoot at him if he tries to return. The narration even points out how eventually, the family will forget who Brian even was after having wiped all record of his existence.In the coming years Brian would see Stewie but as Stewie grew older, his memory of him would grow less and less to the point he would be reduced to a weird talking dog that always wanted his attention, the family would have long since wiped all record of him and nobody would say a thing.
- We Used to Be Friends:
- Brian, Peter's close friend and family dog, cuts ties with him in Chapter 4 when Peter refuses to listen to him about returning everything he bought and later roundhouse kicks Brian and tells him he needs to do what he says with no questions asked.
- Quagmire, Cleveland, and Joe all cut ties with their friend Peter in Chapter 5 after he tries staying over at their respective houses, which led to the three experiencing the abusive Manchild behavior he inflicted on his family up close.
- By Chapter 13, Stewie, already annoyed by Brian's pretentious attitude and refusal to improve himself, and well aware of Brian having destroyed his original Rupert and replaced it with a copy, ends up having him kicked out of the mansion altogether after the latter tries to rape a purebred dog. From there, the rest of the family cut off ties with Brian and never contact him again.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- Naturally, Peter's tendency to harm children is drawn attention to here:
- It's mentioned that Peter accidentally killed his first child, Peter Jr. by shaking him too hard for crying. While it was an accident on Peter's part, he shows no guilt or remorse for the incident and has continued to harm and abuse his other three kids for years, leaving them with mental scars.
- Chapter 5 has Peter shoot Cleveland Jr. in the arm and almost drown and choke Susie to death before Joe intervened.
- In Chapter 8, Peter is tasked by a mob boss called Sharktooth with assassinating a child. Peter has no qualms or issue with doing so, nor does he particularly care when he accidentally shoots the wrong child.
- Sharktooth himself is a vicious criminal who tasks Peter with assassinating a potential rival's son. When Peter bungles the assassination and kills the wrong kid, Sharktooth is angry solely because it ruined his plans and not because an innocent child was killed.
- Naturally, Peter's tendency to harm children is drawn attention to here:
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Judy assures Lois that doesn't have to live in the rotting marriage she's in and reminds her she's still fantastic for her age and she can change her life by divorcing Peter. This gives Lois the determination to divorce Peter.
