#also i finally got some spoilers abt some of the bands at the festival this year hehehe :)

[imabiscuitinthousandworlds]

the funniest thing about being introduced to punk by your parents is when you go to buy a record and the bartender/vendor is like "are you sure you wanna buy this one" and you think uh oh is this about the mature label but then he follows it up with "i think your dad already bought that one" bc he's been very good friends with your parents for ages. also he knows my parents dgaf if my music is labelled as explicit content ig. just today my dad sang along with great fervour to a song declaring the singer an enemy of the state. idk what anyone expected of me

[nvcturnes]

rafa... it’s okay king ... go into the light

good evening to bilingual short kings, soccer haters, aerosmith cover bands, owners of orange 1972 competition fender mustangs, Gays™, bicons, ghosts that are in a band, band members that are not ghosts, radio assistant hopefuls, sad boys, rock fans, mechanics who will change your oil for a bag of doritos, supportive parents ( deceased ), and supportive parents ( alive ).

i’m emily & in addition to spending my days as a bio research tech, i will be ur host for the evening. i’m 22 for for 13 more days, i use she / her pronouns, i’m from the est timezone, & i am deeply sorry in advance.

u can find rafa’s full app here & his pinterest here if ur so inclined ! trigger warning for death bc he is, as we know, dead.

THE BASICS !

skeleton. nocturne.

full name. rafael medina.

age. twenty-four.

gender / pronouns. cis man, he / him.

faceclaim. taylor zakhar perez.

THE BACKGROUND ! 

now it’s time for what you missed on glee <3

baby rafa was born to a single mom named beatriz in london & she was a dancer for the royal ballet ! p much as soon as she was cleared to dance after giving birth, she dragged him along, so he grew up watching ballet 

he was always a lil bit of a scamp but he knew to be polite around the dancers and musicians, Especially during rehearsals

one day he wandered into the pit while they were playing and was in Awe of the first chair violinist

his name is alexei and we love him <3

five yr old rafa asked a million questions abt his violin & basically said okay magic man ur coming to my house for dinner to show me more of your crazy techniques... but lemme ask my mom first

beatriz debby ryan hair tucks and says yes 😌

spoiler alert they get married 🥺 a happy family 🥺

rafa grows up... gets better at the violin... makes first chair in high school... has a gay awakening when he sees abs in the locker room for two (2) seconds

strike one: the teen magazine that rafa stole off some girls told him his crush is “hot like burning” and he got so stressed he threw it away. strike two: his crush kissed him in the MIDDLE OF GYM CLASS. nasty. strike three: when rafa tried to talk to him in the hallway he said ‘do i know you’. ouch

so anyway ladies theydies and gaydies never trust a man

i’m so sorry to do this to y’all but just when rafa is about to play with the royal ballet orchestra for the first time as part of an internship... his parents die before ever making it to the performance :/

rafa... does not take it well and i do not blame him

he moves to the US to get away from all the memories & buries himself in as much work as possible to distract himself from his grief

some of the only things he brought with him were alexei’s violin & beatriz’s pointe shoes but he can barely look at them 😔

fun fact he gets fired from his job at the times square olive garden ( also known as the ninth circle of hell ) for telling a customer to go fuck himself after ordering his 15th round of unlimited breadsticks. king shit

anyway he eventually moves from nyc to la to get even Farther away and after making some friends, he eventually stumbles upon photography !

he’s surprisingly good at it, and he especially loves combining it w his love of music when he starts photographing shows and music festivals

eventually he meets this big indie artist named phoenix, whose music style is, as i recently described to admin a, “absolute hipster asshole fedora bastard” bc this was 2013 after all

*tolerate it by taylor swift plays*

spoiler alert: we still don’t trust a man :/

rafa gets caught up in all the allure of fame and thinking he’s in love, even though phoenix is the Worst kind of self-absorbed asshole who won’t even call him his bf

eventually he’s like hey ! this is bullshit ! and decides to break up w phoenix after a show that he’s shooting that night 

except he uhhhh gets robbed at knifepoint but refuses to give up his camera and d words

but it gets WORSE bc phoenix writes a whole ALBUM about it and goes on TOUR for that album while rafa’s ashes sit in a cheap urn in a closet in his house in la

this dude is shitty i’m telling u

final edition of Rafa Gets Bamboozled: he gets SCAMMED out of his soul bc this kind-looking dude that reminds him of alexei promises to help him figure out his unfinished business but just straight up steals his soul instead

so sorry to that man... i know i did this to him but at least i’m sorry abt it

THE PERSONALITY !

GAY. big gay. yes this is a personality trait

usually Gruff and Not Fun but like... can u blame him damn

he does have a heart underneath it all but every time he’s attempted to have a connection with someone it’s ended in disaster so he’s not really trying to do that anymore :/

absolutely not a fan of opening up to anyone for any reason ever. if he had ever gone to college i think he would’ve physically fought his orientation leader for like... asking where he’s from SDGDSLKJG

sarcasm and dry wit r the name of the game babey. if u catch him making a pun the rafa u know is dead and gone ( for real this time )

in conclusion he needs to be loved

congrats u made it through the chaos ! now it’s time to plot xoxo

[kitty8roses]

This is what I sent to her lol (under a cut tho bc im not that mean)

DONT LOOK UNDER THIS CUT FOR GIVEN SPOILERS!!!!

Ritsuka quickly realizes that Mafuyu is an exceptionally talented singer, and invites him to join the band. Ritsuka learns that Mafuyu's guitar was previously owned by Yuuki, Mafuyu's childhood friend and boyfriend who died in an apparent suicide. The band begins composing music in advance of a live performance, but Mafuyu is unable to write lyrics for the song.

On the day of the performance, Mafuyu has a breakthrough and sings a powerful song about his feelings of loss over Yuuki. The song prompts Ritsuka to realize his romantic feelings for Mafuyu; he kisses him backstage, and they begin dating shortly thereafter.

The band names itself – "Given", in tribute to the guitar given to Mafuyu by Yuuki – and begin to develop a following after posting a video of their live performance online. Given qualifies for a major amateur music festival, and begin preparing new material. Their efforts are complicated when Akihiko, who Haruki secretly has romantic feelings for, becomes involved with his roommate and ex-boyfriend Ugetsu.

Ok so in the beginning of our show: our first protag mafuyu sato is seen walking to school In the rain (with an umbrella tho lol) he says, as narrator, “mafuyu is not lonely.” And also some other stuff that’s all vibe you know? So THIS is repeated through out the series with him saying that “mafuyu isn’t lonely” especially when something bad happens. The thing is he IS lonely. Why you may ask? Well, his ex boyfriend from middle school killed himself and he thinks it’s his fault and stuff. They had gotten into an argument and he drank himself to death. RIP yuki. The only time where I personally believe this statement of ‘not loneliness’ is true is after Uenoyama (other protagonist and love interest) kisses him. I think that’s very swagger. Right before sed kiss mafuyu sang a song that he wrote at a live performance with da band about his heartbreak with yuki’s death. The person he truly loved. It’s called fuyu no hashi and I recommend you give it a listen it’s really good. Uhm but uhhh he realizes after da kiss that he has a new love ❤️ Ue! Yay canon gay ship time let’s party owah owah

NOW I wanna talk abt the opening and op lyrics. They are SO GOOD. they explain Mafuyu’s situation so we’ll just *mwah*. I think it’s called kizuato. There’s this one part where the singer (which could be interpreted as mafuyu despite it not be8gn his voice) says “Rainy, sunny and cloudy

Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. 365 days. You remain in all of them.” When he says the last line “you remain in all of them” we see mafuyu holding his guitar when a pair of arms wraps around him from behind like a hug. He shifts and kind of like compresses himself? Like you know what would happen if you got a hug. These arms are kinda transparent and they disappear before the line and that clip is over. AT FIRST before I knew about yuki and all that I thoguht they were from his late dad but now I believe the arms belong to yuki. Mafuyu’s dad was abusive and hit him when he spoke and I thoguht that would be the part of his trauma the show focused on but it wasn’t, instead they focused on yuki and his death more. Anyways I thoguht that was cool and representative of what happened pretty well.

Part of it also makes me wanna cry tho. It says “Dig them out. Take away these memories. The invisible voices that wouldn't reach. That Make me suffer/ suffocate me. Search deeper and take a look at this pain inside of me.” Specifically the “take away these memories” part just,, damn. And the invisible voices thing is just too fucking relatable. I’m so sorry Mafuyu

Oh god now I’m getting emotional about fictional boys who play guitar in front of my friends. Sorry guys.

Anyways. Main statement of the song time. “Everything you left behind, became my everything.” D a m n. Not only could he be talking about the guitar the he owns that is from Yuki he could also just be talking about the memories. ‘All the memories you left me, became the only thing that brought me comfort’ and that’s just... so sad man. He LOVED this boy. So much :/ It’s equally as sad with the guitar too. Because of how desperately he wanted to learn to play. For yuki’s sake because YUKI loved music. ‘This guitar you (kinda your mom but wtv lol) gave me, became my life” because it DOES become his life. When he finally accepts new love is after singing fuyu no hanashi. He finally lets go of all the pent up grievance and emotions while singing that song.

Now that point flows perfectly into our next one. It’s a possibility This will be the last one so just bear with me, please! So, one of Mafuyu’s main things is that he never knows how to respond or react the “proper” way. First of all!!!! NEURODIVERGENT KING. Second of all!!!! He talks about how he just doesn’t feel emotions as strongly or just the right way as other people. And how he can’t bring himself to cry and can’t cry despite losing his true love. After the kiss, mafuyu cries. A started clapping for him like yay!!! An icon ❤️ not only did he find a new love and move through some trauma but he also experienced a lot of emotions that he struggles to experience! That’s so good for him 💕💕But yeah he’d been talking about in the show how he just couldn’t “cry or laugh as hard as the other people could” which I can understand very well. It can feel dehumanizing at times so I’m really happy for him. One of the main reasons I kin him!

This brings me into a sort of continuation point about how no thought brain empty emotionless kin time. Sorry o just had to write that out Bc my nose started bleeding and I had to go take care of that and also not forget my clause (again). Mafuyu talks to Uenoyama about how everyone thinks that he doesn’t have emotions or doesn’t have thoughts because of how quiet he is and how emotionless he seems. And how he’s come to kind of believe it himself (a sort of ‘am I really thinking ever’ type beat). Ue kinda-over-aggressively is liek “hell no!!!! No way brain not have thought >:(“ like a old you know? And yes KIN TIME. not to make it about me or anything but I’m also constantly told/it’s joked about how I don’t have emotions. I just kinda roll with it tho.

I wanna say one more thing to end off on a note that isn’t about me but I can’t think of one so let me think. So much for that other one being the last shsndujsjjsidj

:OOOOO ok so I’m rewatching given and I just noticed another thing

So in the beginning, the VERY FIRST thing mafuyu talks about is how he keep shaving the same dream over and over again (this is to himself when he’s walking to school). Then, we see a clip of this dream. He is standing in front of someone (but it’s kinda shadowed so I didn’t see the other person the first time) and his eyes go wide and he grips his guitar so hard one of the strings snap.

Not only do I realize that 1) that dream actually happened: hs8 is a scene from when he fo7nd yuki’s body hanging (mafuyu was the one who found him dead). You can tell from the bottles on the ground (yuki got super drunk and then hung himself). this is why mafuyu’s guitar string is broken for Uenoyama to later fix.

I also realize 2) that this dream actually happened. I realized this when watching the show the first time tho lol. Right before the big concert, mafuyu accidentally breaks his guitar string again. And then Ue has to go run to the music store and buy a new one. That’s why there’s a look of desperation on his face when it happens because, Uenoyama brought his hope back by fixing the string the first time but now he messed it up again. Thank the lord for Haruki and reminding them it can be fixed!

Last thing 3) I talked about the hug scene in the last rant right? Well, when mafuyu broke the strings the first time (upon discovering yuki’s body), he mirrored the motions that he made in the hug scene in the opening. I think I described it as him shifting his body and guitar and like compressing himself? Yeah.

I realized one last minuscule thing while writing this but I doubt you care.