#bb analysis

[turnonyrlovelight]

do you think there was a sense of homesickness throughout the years ?

did jake and elwood miss the orphanage, always go back to it in their minds and reminisce about it during stateville ?? did they see factories in the distance and think of the orphanage ? did they see a shitty little prison chapel and get reminded of sister mary ? did they want to come home, want to revisit the orphanage and be nothing but those two naughty little children again ? did they see an old janitor or a guard with a kind face and think of curtis ? did they wish some nights to go down to the basement and listen to music with him, to learn with him once more ?? what about the band ?

what about their minds and jake's during the court case when elwood got the longer sentence ? did they look over at him, did they feel sad ?? did jake feel guilty even though it wasn't his sentence ? did he overthink it ? what happened in those first few years in stateville ?? did the years end up blurring together and did it become home to them ? did jake and elwood stick together throughout it and did jake write ? was there any suspicion around his death ?? did camille ever find out or is she still looking, is she still out there waiting for him like elwood was when he left stateville ?

of course elwood felt guilty, but was there ever a time where the guilt left and he thought 'i started this, it's only fair i stay in longer' and did he ever forget who he was ?? were there times where he zoned out for weeks on end, maybe for years and one day looked in the mirror and realised he was changing, that time wouldn't stop and he shouldn't be waiting for it ?

did elwood feel at home again in the hospital, getting smacked by mother mary and talking to her in person ?? did it feel like he was a kid again being sent up to her office for setting something on fire or not paying attention, only this time it wasn't something he could apologise for or take back - even though he completed his task and the orphanage closing was years later - did he feel the need to apologise over and over again for what he did ?

and did she ever get overwhelmed ? did she get overwhelmed during the swap from sister to mother, from the little orphanage director in calumet city to the hospital director in chicago ? were there nights she missed curtis and missed the orphanage, missed the children, missed jake and elwood ?? did she ever cry ? did she ever go back to calumet city ?

did she see jake and elwood in buster when he came along, when he got into trouble for the same things and had the same attitude of jake when threatened and the same mannerisms as elwood when left alone ?? is that why she thought elwood would be the best influence to him ? did mother mary hesitate to call the cops because she knew buster was in safe hands and knew this would happen ?? did she chase after them with the others just to see how they were doing, held her tough front to scare them into not getting into that much trouble again ? was she scared she would lose them and they would lose each other ? was mother mary drafting another 'angels have dirty faces' letter when she heard elwood's charges and how far he'd taken everything ?

did mother mary feel the same as elwood in the sense that it was just them, that everything was gone and they only had each other ? was she so quick to yell at elwood because she would've broken down too ?? how she was much more defensive than she was in the first movie. there she was vulnerable and explained everything, told them she was worried and ended up guilt tripping them because she didn't know what else to do. in the second movie, she was harsher and more defensive, angry like elwood was. did she miss the orphanage and calumet city and joliet and curtis and jake an was it hard for her to look at cab and buster because of it ?

oh god this was very question oriented im going so feral abt them, no doubt there's gonna b another post soon

[bonefall]

⭕️Hey Bones! Is it ok if you explain and/or elaborate how Crowfeather is abusive to Breezepelt if please?⭕️

I do KNOW that crowfeather is indeed, abusive to Breezepelt, due to the fact that he emotionally and/or physically neglected him - with child neglect being known to BE a form of child abuse - and I also heard that he slashed and/or hit him within one of the books, which I believe is in the book Outcast, in chapter 16.

But I also wish people would talk and be informed about it more within the fandom, because in the parts of the fandom I’ve known portrayed Crowfeather’s neglect on Breezepelt as negative and bad, but not in a way that made me think and/or feel: “Wow, that’s pretty bad. That’s…actually abusive.” I suppose? So I hope more people will talk about it more in that type of way.

Also, please be aware that I have NOT read PoT, OoTS, etc. or barely any warrior cats books, since the majority of the information I got from the series is from the wiki and the fandom, so that probably explains why I didn’t know this part of Crowfeather’s character is as bad as it actually is until now. Also, feel free to talk about Crowfeather’s abuse on Breezepelt I haven’t mentioned and/or don’t know right now as well if you want.

I’m SO sorry that if this ask is unintentionally quite long, and feel free to make sure to take all the time you need to answer it. Thank you!

OH LET'S GOOOO

Breezepelt is both physically and emotionally abused by Crowfeather. I'm not talking about only child neglect; he is screamed at, belittled, and even once hit on-screen.

The fact that Crowfeather both neglected and abused him is very important to the canonical story of Breezepaw. There's actually a lot more to this character than people remember! Even from his first appearances he displays good qualities, a strained relationship with his father and adult clanmates, and is clearly shown to be troubled before we understand why.

As many problems as I have with the direction of Breezepelt's arc (especially Crowfeather's Trial), his setup is legitimately a praiseworthy bit of writing from Po3 which carries over into OotS. To say that Breezepelt was not abused is to completely miss two arcs worth of books SCREAMING it.

BIG POST. Glossary;

INTRO TO BREEZEPELT: The Sight and Dark River

ABUSE: Outcast, Social Alienation, the Tribe Journey.

DARK FOREST: How these factors push him towards radicalization.

For "brevity," I'm not getting into anything post-OotS. I'm just showing that Breezepelt was abused, the narrative wants you to know that he was abused, and that his status as a victim of child abuse is CENTRAL to understanding why he is training in the Dark Forest.

INTRO TO BREEZEPELT: The Sight and Dark River

Our very first introduction to Breeze is when Jaypaw walks off a cliff in the first book of Po3 and is rescued by a WindClan patrol. He's making snarky remarks, and Whitetail and Crowfeather are not happy about it. Whitetail snaps for Crow to teach his son some manners, and Crow growls for Breezepaw to be quiet.

But our proper introduction to him is at his announcement gathering, when Heatherpaw playfully introduces him as a friend,

From the offset something's not entirely right here between Breezepaw and his father. He's cut off by Heatherpaw here, but he's touchy whenever his father is involved, and we're not entirely sure why.

Throughout Book 1, he's just rude, with a notable xenophobic streak. He's a bit of a mean rival character for Lionpaw, as they're both interested in the affections of Heatherpaw and make bids to get her attention, but nothing particularly violent yet.

He participates in the beloved Kitty Olympics and gets buried in liquid dirt with Lionpaw, basically a rite of passage for any arc.

(And Nightcloud has a cute moment where she watches over them until they fall asleep)

As the books progress, the relationship between Crow and Breeze visibly deteriorates. They start from being simply tense with each other in The Sight, to the open shouting and hitting we see in Outcast.

In the very first chapter of Dark River, we learn where his behavioral issues are really coming from;

Crowfeather.

Breezepelt is getting xenophobia from his father. Occasionally he says something bigoted and his dad will agree and chime in, and those are the only positive moments they have together.

(Note: In contrast, Nightcloud explicitly pushes back against xenophobia, chiding Breezepelt for his rudeness to Lionpaw in back in The Sight, Chapter 21. The Sight is the book where a lot of "evidence" that the Evil Overbearing Woman is actually responsible for the rift between father and son but. No. She's not. Though she can be overprotective; Crow and Breeze have a bad relationship when she's not even around in Breeze's first appearance and even his Crowfeather's Trial Epiphany refutes it. Anyway this post isn't about Nightcloud.)

So he starts acting on his bigotry, accusing cats in other Clans of stealing, running really close to the border. What's interesting though, is that this is not entirely his doing. The first time we get physical trouble from Breezepaw, DUSTPELT aggressed it. Breezepaw and Harepaw were just chasing a squirrel and hadn't yet gone over the border at all.

We learn that WindClan is teaching its apprentices how to hunt in woodland, and tensions between the two Clans is starting to escalate as ThunderClan isn't entirely trusting of their intentions.

The second time, fighting breaks out over him and Harepaw actually crossing the border and catching a squirrel. WindClan is adamant that because it came from their land, it's their squirrel. So it's as if Breezepaw is modelling the aggression around him, learning how to behave from the older warriors and his father.

When he joins Heatherpaw and The Three to go find Gorsetail's kits in the tunnels, he's grouchy towards the ThunderClan cats, but very gentle with the kittens. Notably so. When Thistlekit is dangerously cold, he cuddles up next to her, and even assures Swallowkit when she's scared,

Through this entire excursion, he's the one in the comforting roles for the kittens. Breezepaw is the one who is taking time to tell the kits they'll be okay, that he'll protect them, and physically supporting them when they're weak, even when he's terrified.

And it's always contrasted to Heatherpaw who's way more 'disciplined,' as a side note. It's a detail I'm just fond of.

All this to point out,

Breezepelt displays his best qualities when he's away from the older warriors of WindClan, and he's at his worst whenever he's near Crowfeather. Even while he's essentially just a bully character for The Three to deal with. He's gruff but cooperative when it's just him and Heatherpaw interacting with The Three, but mean when there is an adult to please.

We're getting to the on-screen abuse now, but Po3 actually sets up Breezepaw's troubles and dynamics well before it's finally confirmed that he is a victim of child abuse.

ABUSE: Outcast, the Tribe Journey.

In Outcast, Breezepaw's problems have escalated into open aggression towards cats of other Clans, and is now a legitimate concern for his own safety. Yet, he's spoken over by older warriors, and reprimanded at nearly every opportunity, right in front of the warrior of another Clan.

Squilf just asked the poor kid how his training was going, and then Whitetail JUMPS to talk over him so she can complain, RIGHT in front of his face.

They can't even wait until they're alone to grumble something rude about Breezepaw, who is still just a teenager here;

They taught him already that a bit of prey that runs off their own territory still belongs to WindClan, encourage him to blow past borders in pursuit, and started a battle with ThunderClan over this. And then they're pissed off at him for being aggressive, thinking it's deserved to scold him in public.

When Onestar announces that he wants Breezepaw to go on the Tribe Journey, he's devastated by it...

Because he thinks WindClan doesn't like him, and he's right. He's gossiped about, torn into in front of a ThunderClan warrior, and even his own dad doesn't want to be around him. It's clear that Breezepaw's impulsive "codebreaking" behaviors are a desire to prove himself, and once you realize that, the way that he's being alienated is heartbreaking.

But Wait!! Hold on a minute! Where did he get a "patrol of apprentices" from to confront the dogs with, exactly?

Simple. Breezepaw CAN make friends! He actually values them a lot! So much that it's the first thing Crowfeather snaps at him over, out of frustration that his son is also being forced on this journey with him. It's an angry response to his child having emotional and physical needs, resentment that will continue all journey long.

Note that it's plural, friends. Breezepelt has multiple friends, at least one who is not Heatherpaw, and she promises to say goodbye to them.

Up next, they state over and over, Crowfeather and Breezepaw do not like each other. Crowfeather resents being around him and dealing with his rudeness, embarrassed and angry, and Breezepaw is absolutely miserable being sent on a journey to the mountains with a man who hates his guts.

The whole while, Crowfeather is brooding longingly about Feathertail, already thinking about her as soon as he kitty-kisses Nightcloud goodbye, his eyes looking somewhere distant. He makes a jab about loyalty when Breezepaw doesn't understand why they're helping the Tribe.

Breezepaw gets smacked after he's "shoved" at Purdy and acts rude to him, while the other three manage to be polite (while still having internal dialogue about how stinky he is).

Without so much as a, "cut that out," Crowfeather raises his paw and hits him. Breeze is quiet after that.

I don't give a shit how rude your teenager is being. Do not hit kids. Being throttled on the head is not okay.

In spite of the Three not liking Breezepaw, or even Crowfeather, they're constantly noting that their arguments are not normal, and that Crow is a cold, unsupportive father who digs into his kid constantly, and the only time he ever DOES "discipline" his child it's through immediately smacking him.

At one point, the apprentices get hungry, and decide to foolishly hunt in a barn that they know has dogs in it against Purdy's warnings. Once again, JUST like the first two books, Breezepaw is more friendly when Crowfeather is not around.

EVERY time he is alone with cats his own age, he's grumpy but cooperative. Even enthusiastic at times! The minute Crowfeather is in the picture, he's nasty.

Naturally, the dogs show up, but Purdy rescues them. Though Brambleclaw also chews his kids out (and i have strong opinions about bramble's parenting style for another time), Hollypaw is taken aback by the contrast of what a scolding from Brambleclaw looks like vs how Crowfeather reacts.

The narrative is desperately trying to tell you that the way Crowfeather treats his son is not normal.

And then Crowfeather is pissed off that Breezepaw is exhausted from running for his life from hungry dogs,

And he's constantly losing his shit whenever Breezepaw says something as innocuous as "dad im hungry"

Then, Breezepaw is made to watch his dad pine over the grave of a woman who died long before Crowfeather was even considering his mother for a mate. What he feels is jealousy, because he knows his own father doesn't love him anywhere near as much as he loves the memory of Feathertail.

This really goes on and on and on. The ENTIRE trip is like this, with Crowfeather treating Breezepelt poorly, giving him a smack before even verbally warning him, pushing him past his limits and blowing up on him when he asks simple questions about eating or resting.

It all comes to a head in this one exchange, towards the end. Hollypaw ends up snapping at Breezepaw for his rudeness, before having an epiphany.

It's explicit. Crowfeather's emotional abuse, his "scorn" for Breezepelt, is what is driving a wedge between him and all of his older Clanmates. Between EVERYONE in Breezepelt's life who wasn't already his friend. This awful treatment is only making him worse and worse.

Realizing this, she has more sympathy for him, but it's too late. He continues to be rude to her because he feels insulted, and her patience completely runs out. She's just a kid. They're both just kids. She's not responsible for fixing him when he's pushing everyone away at this point.

That's the end of Breezepelt in Outcast. It can't be helped anymore. Any spark of friendship they had together in the barn, or in the tunnels, is gone.

As the series progresses, Crowfeather continues to refuse any personal responsibility for the mistreatment of his son, even pinning all of Breezepelt's behavioral problems on Nightcloud. He is a cold, selfish father who only ever thinks about his own pain and reputation.

DARK FOREST: How these factors push him towards radicalization.

Everyone talks about the Attack on Poppyfrost, which happens in the first book of OotS, in oversimplified terms. YES he is going after a nun and a pregnant woman. I've never said that's not Bad.

But no one talks about "WHY", and that reason is NOT just that he desires power like so many other WC villains. Breezepelt makes his motivation very clear on the page.

Escalating to violence was about making Jayfeather feel the way that he does.

When Breezepelt says that he wants Jay to be surrounded by "lies, hatred, and things that should never have happened," he's talking about the way HE grew up, knowing his father never wanted him, and that his Clan HATES him as a result. Killing Poppyfrost is about trying to frame Jayfeather for her murder, so ThunderClan won't trust him anymore.

When Jayfeather points out the simple truth that what Breezepelt is saying doesn't make any goddamn sense, his hatred "falters." He's blaming his half-clan half-brother for his own treatment because of the reveal, but totally failed to consider that JAYFEATHER'S ALREADY GOING THROUGH IT... so his response is just this pitiful, "s-shut up, man."

Then the ghost of Brokenstar and Breezepelt bounce him back and forth between them like a beach ball for a bit until Honeyfern's spirit shows up.

Breezepelt's childhood abuse and social alienation was a hook that the Dark Forest latched onto, to reel him in. His anger at his half-brother is so obviously misplaced that its absurdity was something Jayfeather pointed out.

We soon learn that it's the Dark Forest who's planting that ridiculous idea in his head;

The narration is SCREAMING, "The Dark Forest is validating the anger he feels towards his father, and redirecting it towards The Three." He's described as 'kitlike,' Tigerstar's eyes are compared to a hypnotizing snake.

This prose could not make it more obvious if it drove to your house, beat you with it, and then spoon fed you the point while you were hospitalized.

At the end of this scene, Tigerstar sends Hawkfrost to recruit Ivypaw. This scene where Breezepelt is being lovebombed, and the command to start grooming Ivypaw, ARE LINKED. That was a choice.

A VERY GOOD choice! Again, as many issues as I have with OotS, its handling of indoctrination is unironically fantastic, and it owes a good amount of that to the outstanding setup of Breezepelt that was done back in Po3. And that setup doesn't work if Crowfeather was merely distant.

Breezepelt was abused by his father, both verbally and physically. It drove him to be more aggressive to prove himself, modeling the battle culture around him. The adults of WindClan judged him based off Crowfeather's responses, shunning and belittling the 'problem' teenager, which eventually drove Breezepelt to the only group that he felt "understood" him.

In a book series that is RIFE with abuse apologia, this is one of the few times that there's any behavioral consequences for abuse and the narrative holds the perpetrator accountable for it.

But people hear Crowfeather's deflective excuse in The Last Hope where he says he never hated him, blames Nightcloud for everything, and just lick it up uncritically.

Gee whiz, I wonder why the guy who never blames himself for any of his problems would suddenly say it was his ex-wife's fault. Real headscratcher!

(Crowfeather's Trial then goes onto, for all my own problems with it, also hold Crow accountable as the reason why Breezepelt turned out like he did. But that's a topic for another day.)

[apiratefellinlovewithastar]

I personally adore that when Clayton tried to get involved, Edward immediately shut him down like “do not interfere with Ciel—no, Earl Phantomhive.” because if we circle it back to when Ciel first showed up to a Fag’s meeting and parallel it, it shows that yes, that’s his baby cousin, but he is not that right now.

He is working, and he’s good at his job, and if he’s acting as his title then it’s because the situation calls for it.

He wholeheartedly trusts Ciel is there, not as a student now that he’s revealed it, but in the Queen’s behalf (something he had been suspecting for a while now). No matter how confused he is, he knows Ciel will eventually reveal what’s going on, and if he doesn’t, well. There’s always a reason for that too.

So it’s like this: my baby cousin should respect me, but I respect the Earl.

There is a place and a time for everything, and Edward understood the assignment.

[alma-n]

FowlFest 2023, day5, favourite scene

Heavy tlc spoilers

Artemis,

Help me.

We don't possibly talk enough about this scene. And theres no valid excuse for that!

We all, including Holly, know what he did was for the better; and he did not in fact let her die.

But imagine being stabbed through your heart with a fucking cursed sword, and you ask the one and only person you trust to save you in that situation for help, only to be watched to death before their very eyes.

And Holly had never asked for help. I don't remember her doing it after either. She does shit on her own. The agony, the pain, and oh boy the TRUST, for her to do that.

Its painful.

Yes, Artemis in fact didn't let holly die, but she is to forever have nightmares about that moment. And in her dreams, Artemis does indeed only care enough to glance her way briefly.

[galenthusiast]

Colorful stripes in B.B.gals magazine 2000/07

both balanced and unbalanced patterns

bayadere stripes

[magazine scan by gangal]

[theblueprincess590]

The Winds of Youth-A Character Analysis of Ventus

Ventus began his story much like Sora, as a starry eyed youth who dreamed of broadening their horizons and seeing what lay beyond their small homes. Yet unlike Sora, Ventus had something to prove. Ventus wants to be an adult, wants to be his friend's equal and yet he is denied this time and time again. Everyone treats him like a child, they dote on him like an infant that needs constant supervision, They coddle him in his training never letting him from reaching his true potential, and worst of all they keep him cooped up in his room like a cage bird all while using their infantilizing of him to justify it. With his found family refusing to ever let him leave, to let him fight, and never teaching him anything more than the basics, The Land of Departure eventually becomes a prison surrounded by wind for the pure hearted boy. Making it no wonder that when the call to adventure finally arrived he grasped it without hesitation even if the hands that offered it were stained in filth and hate.

It is Vanitas who initially gives Ventus the push to leave his home and travel to other worlds. Doing so by nagging on Ventus’s insecurities and fears by implying his best friend Terra will no longer be the same person, that the earth will grow into a mountain higher than the winds can reach. However it must not be mistaken that Vanitas is just doing this out of cruelty. No Vanitas is using Terra to help Ventus justify his decision to leave. Vanitas is Ven’s darkness, his other half, and thus knows all that Ventus feels all he truly desires. He knows how desperately Ventus wishes to leave, to prove himself more than a child. So he gives Ventus what he has always wanted, a “justified” reason to run away, a chance for him to indulge in his selfish desires without any guilt. And this is ultimately Ven’s greatest failure.

Ventus left the Land of Departure not to save Terra but to indulge in his own desires of freedom. Terra was merely the just cause. After all if Ventus was really just acting out of concern for Terra then he would of voiced said concerns to Aqua or Eraqus, returned home after encountering Terra again in Radiant Garden, brought up the existence of a mysterious intruder in his room (which he only does when seeking praise from Terra and Aqua for “defeating” him), or most importantly of all he would of told Terra of the warning he received before Terra left when he had the chance but he didn’t because if he did he did then he would of lost his chance to prove himself. That is why Ventus continues his adventures after succeeding in his goal to find Terra because it was never about Terra in the first palace.

Yet the journey still holds a great meaning to it. Just like Sora’s adventures Ventus manages to make countless friends, each of who manage to help him grow as a person. Through the kindness of Snow White Ventus grows from one who needs protection to a protector  ultimately pushing him to save Princess’s Aruroa’s heart from Maleficent, which in term gives him the convention of a Hero that allows him to train alongside Hercules and Zack. Of course though it is not just strength that the Disney characters impart on Ventus but also wisdom and perspective. Through their adventures together Ventus learns what it means to truly have a dream, no longer accepting the aimless life he lived before and instead striving to become a keyblade master just like Terra and Aqua so he can truly be their equal. He learns what it really means to be a friend through the joy of Lea and Isa. Which in terms helps him come to better appreciate Terra and Aqua when he sees just how much their friendship made Stitch’s life better. And in the end discovers the true value of bonds when treasure hunting with Peter Pan, That a bond is not something physical but rather an invisible link that will always connect your heart to the ones you love. 

However these lessons can not protect Ventus from his cruel fate. He fights alongside Terra and Aqua in the Key graveyard despite his heart being weighed down by the tragic truth of his existence. Yet even with his inner strength Ventus only becomes a burden. Not only does his presence end up distracting Terra and Aqua but he is quickly incapacitated by Xehanort, reduced to a mere object by the old man yet again. And when he does manage to finally put up a fight in order to save Aqua he only ends up giving The Masked Boy what he wants. Vanitas reveals to Ventus that it was he who orchestrated this hero’s journey. Everything from the UnVersed to the disney world to Terra, Aqua, and Eraqus were set up by Master Xehanort and Vanitas to make Ventus stronger, so he could forge the X-Blade. From the very beginning Ventus was playing a rigged game, blindly following a shallow script of lies and deception all because it fed his ego, because it made him feel like a big man, like a hero. When in reality he was just a pawn. 

At least that's what Vanitas wants Ventus to believe. This “Coming of Age” Story may have been written by a Dark Imp but that doesn’t mean Vanitas has the right to decide its value. The path he followed may have been a lie but the friendships Ventus formed and the lessons he learned were anything but false. Ventus got stronger not because of Vanitas but in spite of him. It was Snow White, Cinderella, Jaq, The Three Good Fairies, Lea, Isa, Minnie, Huey, Dewey, Louie, Hercules, Zack, Phil, Stitch, Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Mickey, Eraqus, Terra, and Aqua who shaped Ventus into the boy NO the Man he is now. It was them who imparted on him the values that gave his hearts strength, that helped him push forward past the darkness, and that gave him hope, love, and Dreams. Not this Shallow Shadow. Which is why Vanitas can never defeat Ventus. Vanitas made no effort to understand others, no effort to connect with others, and no effort to change himself. He simply remained the same, a spiteful parasite that sought conflict and conflict alone. He visited the same worlds as Ven and yet never once formed a connection of his own, only filling the worlds with more hatred and violence. Even his pursuit of Ventus and the X-Blade was just to instigate further conflict with a second Keyblde war. And Because of his unwillingness to change Vanitas could never understand Ventus, even when his heart was bare to him in their final battle. Vanitas could only see Ven as the lesser half, unable to understand why he put so much value in his friends, why this wayward boy was so ready to die for them. And because he stay the stayed the same, because he indulged himself in violence and ignorance Vanitas lost to the only bond he ever had. As it was the shared D-Link between himself and Ventus that ultimately destroyed Vanitas.

Ventus began his journey with selfish intention masked as richness ultimately resulting in his free spirited time of youth coming to end through harsh truths. And yet he was still able to grow from it. Because just like Sora Ventus is at his core a kind and heroic person with his heart open to all. He sought not only strength but connections allowing the bonds he formed to change him, gifting him with great ideals and power through every new command, keyblade, shotlock, D-Link, and Command Style earned. All of which help him grow from a shelter child to a true Man, one who always puts his friends before himself, reaching for the first time in the series the complete understanding of the power of friendship “My friends are my power ands I’m theirs”   

[imminent-danger-came]

I feel like I've heard so many takes on kh over the years, but the real answer about the story and it's decisions is that everything in kh is done for theme.

Why does data Riku contain the journal inside himself? Because they explore this concept of "their are worlds inside us", that wherever you go, you take pieces of the places you've been and people you've met with you, and those experiences change who you are (even sometimes leaving hurt where they used to be)

Why was Roxas put in a data twilight town? Because the heart is uncode-able. It's incalcuable. You will never be able to write down, capture, or understand everything about another person (something I think twewy also explores), even someone you think shouldn't or doesn't exist. You will never be able to fully understand them to even be able to determine that

Why does Ansem TW's machine turn Riku back into himself? Because Ansem's sacrifice, listening to his heart, gave Riku his identity back (the way Ansem lost his own in darkness). Ansem became Diz and Riku became Ansem, an imposter of ATW imposter—they both lost themselves for their goal. Riku shouldn't have done everything on his own much in the same way Ansem should have gone to Mickey for help. Ansem was destroying everything around him, and he tried to change that

Why did Aqua defeating Terra almost send the both of them to the ROD? Because Aqua needed to save Terra, and become lost to the Darkness she was so worried Terra would, and did, succumb to. She needed to succumb to that darkness herself. Literally why anti-Aqua exists.

Like that's it. It's for theme

[byler-alarmist]

For me, one of the biggest ???? Mike moments in S4 was this line:

I'm sorry, ruin US???????

What the absolute fawk, Mike. How the hell would El's bullies ruin your relationship???

It's not a scenario like S3, where Hopper can be reasonably scapegoated as the cause of MiIeven's division.

It's not like El's friends or bullies in Lenora were trying to pull them apart. It would be different if Angela or Stacy had spent their time trying to lure Mike away, or alternatively, if they called Mike names in front of El and implied he was making her look even more uncool.

But they didn't!!! Angela and the other "mouth breathers" have absolutely NOTHING to do with the decline in Melvin's relationship.

It was already sus for Mike to change the subject to the bullies at this point in the conversation. (it would have made sense earlier you know, in the car or at dinner the night after Rink-o-Mania, when he could've told her that Angela and them were nobodies to try to make El feel better, vs. in reality he just silently glared or made bitchy remarks at her.)

Telling El she can't let the mouth breathers "ruin her" is one thing, as it can be interpreted to be about the damage to her self-esteem. But I just can't believe that Mike had the audacity to say "ruin us", as if the bullies' actions were the reason why he couldn't write "Love, Mike" in his letters.

[facelessoldgargoyle]

I rate movies based on three scales:

Fuckability: is it sexy? Does it invite you in? Is it lush? Is it generative of new movies? Are there tiddies?

Esotericism: does it explain itself or is it resistant to interpretation? Is there a lot of exposition, or is most of the movie confusing images? Is there a clear moral stance or does it invite discussion without conclusion?

Goopiness: is it wet? Is it wild? How much fake blood, lube, and mud was used?

Things which are more goopy tend to be more fuckable. Things which are more fuckable tend to be less esoteric.

Here’s my chart:

[garoumylove]

The importance, influence and misunderstanding of Justice Man in Garou's narrative.

I'm writing this because I was inspired/compelled to do so by people still misunderstanding Garou and how he got into monsters etc what people get wrong about One Punch Man and I have rarely seen this discussed and I think it's an extremely important point to understanding Garou and why Garou isn't into 'monsters' but rather he's into fighting for the underdog/the outcast.

We don't have much mention of Justice Man in the manga but what we do have gives an extremely important insight into this kids show and how it influenced and reflected Garou and his peers.

So the most important insight we have is the flashback with Garou and Tacchan and his peers as small children discussing it. This is Garou at his youngest.

Tatcchan is discussing the previous day's episode with his cronies and they ***laugh:*** "Did you see Crab Demon's face when Justice Man beat him?"

Garou defends Crab Demon and says (and this is the absolute key to understanding this whole thing and why Justice Man is a piece of shit): *"Crab Demon just wanted to ocean to be clean and beautiful again. He wanted to protect the sea. One crab against a whole human army and Justice Man too!"*

This makes it clear that even though the character's name is "Crab Demon" there is actually nothing evil about him. His goal was to protect the ocean and make it clean again. Does that sound like a monstrous goal to you? And Justice Man came and kicked his ass, for what? What was the threat? Crab Demon seems like someone that just wants to protect the environment and is trying to do it singlehandedly. So Justice Man doesn't really have a legitimate reason to destroy him. It's the classic "misunderstood weirdo" trope of someone who appears bad or evil but is actually kind which is often seen in kids stories and fairy tales. But unlike those stories where people usually réalise the 'monster's true gentle nature and accept him, here they rejoice in destroying a most likely innocent being. This is what Garou ultimately finds disgusting as he gets older. This is what heroism is presented to him as and he rejects it wholeheartedly.

Justice Man is not a hero. Not in the noble sense of the word. He is presented as a narcissist that loves to beat up anyone he doesn't like. It seems that Crab Demon wasn't actually doing anything wrong or threatening anyone. And if he was, it was probably because they were trying to prevent him from looking after the ocean.

(Now, granted, the Crab Demon may have done some bad things to keep the ocean beautiful and clean, **we don't know**. But it doesn't matter because that's not why Garou is rooting for Crab Demon. What he admires about this 'monster' is his protective and caring nature.)

This scene is clearly set up to show us that Justice Man is a horrible person and that Tatcchan and his friends think his actions of picking on and destroying the outcast is hilarious. It aligns Tatcchan with that narcissist and Garou with the weird but kind-hearted character.

If you think about it, a sweet kid like Garou isn't going to empathize and relate to the monster character because of its violence, destruction and bloodthirst. He relates to the monster because it is unfairly ganged up on and beaten for nothing. Why would a empathetic and kindhearted little boy like Garou look up to monsters because of the pain and destruction they cause? That's because he wouldn't. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Garou doesn't identify with monsters because they're bad and evil but because they are unfairly treated, just like in Justice Man.

What Justice Man teaches, and encourages, is that it's okay to pick and bully those who you deem unworthy or ugly or weird etc. This is what Garou hates and fights against. The reason he aligns himself as a 'monster' is because that's what the weaker, stranger creatures in Justice Man were called. It's because that's the role he was literally forced to play on the playground and get his ass beat over and over.

Garou wasn't rooting for real evil monsters. He was rooting for the underdog because of his already kindhearted and empathetic nature. He says himself that he was a gloomy loner kid and I think that really helped him feel the pain of others who were lonely and rejected. And when the popular kids did invite him into their social circle, it was just to wail on him. No wonder he doesn't trust anyone who's popular.

Garou was not rooting for evil bloodthirsty monsters. In fact, on his hero hunt, while he never dares to actually kill a human he doesn't even think twice about ruthlessly killing actual monsters. He literally views them as disgusting. He thinks he's going to be this evil destructive monster and he sort of goes that way but he is never able to kill anyone or let go of his humanity. His use of that label is inaccurate and it's just a fuck you to the people who called him a monster and treated him like one. It's like taking a negative label and owning it and reclaiming your power. You call me a monster? Then I'll be a monster.

And even when Garou does go around beating the shit out of heroes, he doesn't do it senselessly or just for the sake of violence, he does it with a very, in his mind, noble goal to set society right. Monsters, real ones, usually just rampage for pure bloodlust which he does not do.

So no, Garou is not into monsters. He is into fighting for the underdog, for getting society rid of trash like Justice Man. He calls himself a monster because that's what his childhood show called those who were different and who were outcast. But he hates actual monsters and he hates heroes.

Justice Man conflated the idea of abusive narcissist and hero for Garou and to him they became one and the same. And he goes through life with that confirmation bias, seeing evidence for this everywhere. The heroes are flawed, yes, but they're not like Justice Man. But that's not what Garou sees. He has these blinkers on and any time a hero acts in a less than noble way to him it's confirmation that all heroes are just piece of shit powertripping assholes and he ignores any good they do or any good qualities they have.

Justice Man is a very important influence in his life and serves as an explanation as to how he got to be the way he is. It's not the only influence or explanation but it's a hugely important one.

Garou didn't start out rooting for monsters for being monsters, he started out rooting for the underdog, but everywhere around him the underdogs were being called monsters and so he adopts that label too. And yet, when faced with real monsters who threaten the innocent, such as Royal Ripper and Bug God, he himself has no hesitation to savagely destroy them.

Edit: just to clarify, I don't think that Justice Man was the one and only thing that made Garou the way he is. That would be a bit absurd but it's definitely an important element that I thought was very clever of ONE to use in the narrative. Justice Man is like a parallel to what's happening in his own life and he identifies with the non-monstrous monsters in the show being beat up for no good reason. That show seems to confirm to him that as long as you're strong and popular you can do whatever the fuck you want to whoever you want and he can't accept that. Not in Justice Man and not in real life.

[turnonyrlovelight]

also. i bet on losing dogs mitski ......... that song has had me in such a chokehold for so long n i'm thinking abt the blues brothers now.

"i know they're losing and i paid for my place by the ring/so i can look into their eyes when they're down/i'll be there by their side/i'm losing by their side" makes me think sm abt throughout the movies how jake, elwood, curtis n buster r the losing dogs, the way they can't seem to get a break or get something good, or keep something for a long time- whether it be the orphanage, a parental figure [looking at u buster] or a family. they're always losing. sister mary, cab and mack are betting on losing dogs. they know they're losing, they know the blues brothers can't catch a break, yet they stay with them.

"i'm losing by their side" they lose too, with the battle of the bands, the palace hotel, joliet, the orphanage, but not in the same scale, not in the way that they have to restart their lives over and over and over again like the blues brothers.

"i always want you when i'm finally fine" this lyric reminds me of camille, in the sense that her and jake's relationship would've been very intense, as the both of them are very intense, but not in a good way- in the way where it makes you feel good, but you know it's bad. them deciding to get married and jake running off, camille chasing him and trying to get him back, but trying to kill him, jake on his knees begging her not to, but he still has that little bit of compassion. they both do, but they weren't the right people for each other.

in conclusion ??? i bet on losing dogs .......... mitski u kill me a million times with every album u make

[bonefall]

Maybe I'll make a post on this at some point but like, something deeply fucked up about TNP and Po3 that people have totally forgotten about is how badly they try to whine that "Tigerstar Had Good Traits :("

Firestar does it, Brambleclaw does it, and they keep doing this after it becomes this GRAND irony that Firestar almost gets Tiger'd to death in a fox trap because he was too trusting. Bramble gets his pity award of keeping deputyship and then cries to his son about how No One Saw The Good In Tigerstar :(

And it's wiiiiild that no one else in this fandom has done anything with the fact that Leopardstar broke the Warrior Code to appoint Hawkfrost, who had no apprentice, an extremely aggressive and warmongering Tigerclone who says things like "Tigerstar wasn't the worst cat to look up to." ONLY qualifying trait was being kinda like Tigerstar.

And she practically did that the SECOND Mistyfoot went missing. And then Leopardstar continued to be one of the most violent and xenophobic leaders through Po3, joining with WindClan to attack ThunderClan.

What I'm getting at is that like, a few years ago, with books like "Blackfoot's Reckoning" and "Shadow in RiverClan" it's like they suddenly decided to retcon in a bunch of "redemption arcs" in hindsight. They just pretended like there was this grand high reckoning with TigerClan, when there literally wasn't, and if anything that caused SERIOUS problems for the cast that the authors didn't fully acknowledge as such.

And now ppl haven't actually read the main series and are just working with their recent memory of all these retcon books.

But TNP and PO3 are still there, and you can go and see the ACTUAL timeline where Leopardstar is really not apologetic at all, and Blackstar is a useful stooge for the very next wannabe dictator that strolls in, in spite of the new side content that COMPLETELY mischaracterized them for their plots to work.

[akkivee]

hitoya pointing that glock at dice really is a crazy evolved card lmao

[sakuraswordly]

[mayhasopinions]

Michael in the Bathroom analysis

So i've been getting obsessed with Be More Chill lately, as you do 

I listened to a few of the songs on and off throughout the years, mainly Guy that i'd kinda be into and Michael in the Bathroom, and MITB is my FAVORITE song in any musical so i'm just gonna infodump about why that is here bc this is Tumblr and why tf not :DD (tw: suicide mention, depictions of panic attacks)

So before this song, Michael is presented as a guy that doesn't give a shit. He's not popular, he only has Jeremy as his only real friend, but it's shown that he doesn't care about other people's opinions of him, he LIKES who he is. He's a catalyst for Jeremy's character, who always cares about what others think and wants to be liked, and is insecure about his character, and hates himself, which is why he took the SQUIP in the first place. 

Now, Michael, in my opinion is an autistic-coded character. He stims and has tics as we see in MITB, he has special interests in videogames and comics, and he doesn't pick up social cues all the time, like in 'Two Player Game' when he doesn't realise Jeremy is going through stuff. It's shown there that Michael has a neat and straightforward idea for his future as a cool kid in college with Jeremy. But when he has that fight with Jeremy just before MITB, Michael's whole future, life and 12-year friendship with Jeremy comes crumbling down, after Jeremy called him a 'loser', a label that he used to take pride in. It's a drastic change that happens so quickly, which prompts him to have a panic attack.

With his psyce being utterly shattered, we don't see Michael in his usual positive, upbeat self, we see him as a vunerable, broken guy who had just lost his other half. As the song starts, Michael is initially angry at Jeremy, speaking roughly but managing to hold in his growing pain, as we see him have tics, push back tears ruthlessly, and cope through the door being knocked on which leads to overstimulation. But then he "looks in the mirror" and the mess he's in, and chokes on his tears. It finally comes pouring out. You can practically hear his anguish and despair. And after that, he speaks softly, but after the line "I wish i stayed at home in bed etc", he speaks roughly again, and talks about himself, not Jeremy. 

Before this, throughout the song Michael sings it as if it’s Jeremy’s fault that he no longer wants to be friends with Michael, with the lines “through no fault of mine”, “ignoring all our history” etc. But now, he turns to himself, and sings the lines “Michael who’s a loner”, “god he’s such a  loser” etc, basically turning the blame onto HIMSELF and saying ‘of course it’s your fault. Of course he would want to leave you.’ And the fact that he calls himself a loser, something that he took pride within himself, and says “I wish I’d off myself”, shows that under Michael’s upbeat and positive attitude lies a deeply troubled and insecure kid underneath, who in reality DOES care about what other people think and how he is portrayed.

That’s why Michael in the Bathroom is a masterpiece. It peels back the layers of an already established character and strips that character to their rawest and most vulnerable point, and George Salazar delivers all of those emotions masterfully.

[telomeke-bbs]

BAD BUDDY'S BASEBALL MOM – ROOFTOP RUGBY WITH LUCY IN THE SKY… OR ON A BASEBALL DIAMOND?

One of the most mystifying aspects of Bad Buddy was the decision to have Pat wear the now-iconic Baseball Mom tee for the Epic Rooftop Kiss at the end of Episode 5.

It's so utterly incongruous with the drama onscreen. The scene was a pivotal moment for the narrative, with Pat's big coming out to Pran followed by the very steamy demonstration of mutual emotions, after episodes of unending turbulence around where they stood with each other. And The Kiss they delivered was so stupendous, it rocked the Internet to its very foundations.

And for that hugely important moment, Director Aof decided Pat should wear – a big woman's t-shirt more associated with loud, overzealous American moms cheering on their kids at Little League baseball? 👀

At first I thought production simply wanted something open and sporty for Pat, to contrast with Pran being all covered up (mirroring their states of mind – Pat actively seeking to confess his feelings on the rooftop, Pran all closed-off and repressed). That line of thinking was definitely behind a lot of Pat and Pran's outfits, and I assumed they just used a random tee and cut off its sleeves for this.

But in retrospect this seems altogether too blasé an approach, especially since we can see how purposeful the wardrobe decisions were throughout the rest of the series. (The Soon Vijarn Recap video for BBS Ep.5 also makes it very clear Director Aof was closely involved in wardrobe selection, choosing all the outfits for their appropriateness to the narrative – see this link here, at timestamp 23.24.)

(above) The Soon Vijarn Recap video for BBS Ep.5 timestamp 23.49

The examples of the wardrobe reflecting the characters' inner states are copious. Pran's emotional journey in the first half of BBS – learning to open up, getting his feelings returned, and falling into a relationship – was mirrored by his sartorial journey, and he went from all colorless and buttoned-up to a wardrobe filled with more relaxed, expressive and colorful outfits when out in public:

(above) Pran all buttoned-up in his early whites (Ep.2 [1I4] 1.56, Ep.3 [1I4] 12.40 and Ep.5 [1I4] 6.03)

(above) A selection of Pran's more relaxed and colorful sweaters that he wore outside later in the series (Ep.7 [3I4] 2.52, Ep.10 [3I4] 0.26, Ep.12 [3I4] 6.36 and Ep.12 [4/4] 10.14)

Loud extrovert Pat on the other hand was decked out almost from the beginning in bright prints and wacky t-shirts (with some rivaling Baseball Mom in wackiness), all the better to broadcast his outgoing character and personality:

(above) A selection of Pat's bright and wacky tops (Ep.2 [2/4] 5.03, Ep.6 [3I4] 4.37, Ep.8 [2/4] 8.30 and Ep.10 [1I4] 4.52)

The mystery deepened further when the fandom tracked down the maker of Baseball Mom – it looks like a small, possibly home-based business in the US, and the t-shirt is part of a line, one of several related tops (see this link here). It simply wasn't a random tee from some small Bangkok shop (unless the vendor had gotten it secondhand off some American tourist, and was re-selling it locally). This looks like a t-shirt that was specifically procured for the show (possibly even sourced from overseas), rendered sleeveless with low-cut armholes to echo the openness of Pat's personality, and then put on Ohm with absolute intent.

But why?

I'm convinced that there is an element of subversion about this (not the least because the t-shirt undercuts the heavy drama of the scene so drastically). @ranchthoughts has already pointed out in this write-up linked here that the feminine Mom is an allusion to the subversion of gender roles embodied by Pat's character, and I very much agree. It's also possible that this particular tee was chosen because the baseball standing in for (and thus somewhat obscuring) the letter 'O' in the word Mom kind of makes the word call out to M🤍M or MLM. (And here's an afterthought that occured to me watching Only Friends and the promo trailer for My Golden Blood – the baseball bat is also visual shorthand for the emotional violence that Pat and Pran wreak upon their relationship when each figuratively beats up on the other – and on himself too – while acting out their strange, rambunctious relationship as enemies who are secret friends and later lovers.)

But I also do think that there's still more to Baseball Mom than the above, and this particular train of thought was triggered by an Ask from @pandasmagorica about Ep.5's rooftop scene (linked here).

I now think we can piece together a reason for Baseball Mom on the rooftop, but it's only fair to signal that this wackiest of wardrobe choices is getting possibly the wackiest of explanations (and it's a doozy).

Now what @pandasmagorica's Ask triggered for me was the realization that Pat's directness on the rooftop was actually almost the complete opposite of something that he'd been doing very often, right up until Episode 5 – and that was his propensity to torment Pran with the bait-and-switch.

Time and again, Pat would reach out with the offer of something precious to Pran – a smile, a kind word, a tender moment, a suggestion of intimacy – but then quite suddenly he would subvert the situation and switch out the proffered affection with something wholly discomfiting, crushing hopeful Pran's expectations.

There are several examples:

During their childhood, Pat returned Pran's watch after Pran saved Pa from drowning (Ep.1 [4/4] 9.46), signaling the start of his friendship with the lonely little boy next door – only to impose the caveat "But…don’t talk to me in front of people. They might think we're buddies."

That (almost shirtless) bedside conversation at the end of Ep.4 (beginning at Ep.4 [4/4] 10.43), when Pat kept bombarding poor Pran with personal, leading questions, half-begged to be allowed to share his bed and cuddle, before shattering his neighbor's heart by declaring that it was Ink whom he liked romantically.

Tending to Pran’s injured shoulder at Ep.4 [3I4] 7.07, before suggesting he only wanted Pran to recover so that they could compete in rugby again;

Returning Pran’s long-lost guitar to him, then ruining the tenderness of the moment with “I just like to see your face… when you lose” (Ep.3 [4/4] 10.30).

And with Pran deep in his feelings for Pat, the constant intimations of closeness and deeper feelings, shell-gamed away at the last minute, must have been soul-crushing for our poor yearning boy. (This is also what the lyrics of Pran's theme – Just Friend? – are all about, e.g., "I can’t make sense of what you’ve done"/"Are we just friends or are we more?"/"If you don’t mean it, don’t act that way".)

No wonder Pran was trying so hard to keep a distance from the cheerful boy next door, who was always invading his personal space (after having taken over his heart). So much so that Pran on the rooftop was expecting more of the same, which explains his blunt statement "Pat, you've got to stop doing this to me. We are not a thing" in response to Pat telling him that it hurt to see the song they co-wrote in high school played with someone else.

Pran saw this as more of Pat's teasing games, but irony of ironies Pat was being totally serious this time. And yet, even on the rooftop in Ep.5, Pat did a version of the bait-and-switch one more time, but with the polarity reversed for once – he listed all the ways Pran's exile should have brought him joy, only to end with "It was so depressingly lonely for me." 😢

I think Pat learnt early on that this is what you do to your loved ones – because there's actually an example of Ming doing something similar to his son at Ep.8 [2/4] 16.12. Helping to wash Pat's car, he quietly allowed his son to natter on about his day with fibs about rugby practice, before landing a sledgehammer blow saying "When did I teach you to lie?" at Ep.8 [2/4] 16.41. This was an ambush, intended to take Pat by surprise and inflict the maximum amount of damage – and judging by Pat's despondent moping after, Ming certainly succeeded.

But it's not only Pat doing this to Pran, or Ming doing this to Pat, that we see in BBS. Director Aof and his writers actually littered the narrative with other examples of the set-up and switch-out as well, doing it to us the viewers:

Pat may have started out Ep.1 a ruffian, but then we saw that he was really a cheery big kid who needed his popsicles and cuddles from Nong Nao for comfort (Ep.1 [4/4] 8.37 and Ep.2 [1I4] 1.36).

Ink was introduced as a demure girl from the north (remembering that northern Thailand is seen as close to the birthplace of Thai culture) in Ep.4 [1I4] 7.41; then she tripped and let out a curse word at Ep.4 [1I4] 8.01.

Pa's glow-up at Ep.7 [1I4] 2.39 and subsequent story arc subverted her initial (albeit not very successful) portrayal as the frumpy kid sister with no life and no agency as a character.

BBS placed the emotional burden of Episodes 1 to 4 solely on Pran's pining shoulders, and then suddenly whipped it away in Ep.5 and dumped it squarely on Pat (kudos to Ohm, who gamely played Pat as a shining object of affection for the first third of BBS, before showing us that Junior Jindapat was so much more than a lovable, empty vessel himbo, and was instead someone who actually did possess an inner life that he could access).

And perhaps the biggest BBS bait-and-switch of all – Pran's unrequited love for inaccessible Pat turns out to be requited after all, but then without warning it's Pran who spins out of reach on the rooftop.

Looking at BL as a genre, the bait-and-switch is sometimes employed as a storytelling device to provide an unexpected dramatic twist (though whether or not it satisfies is debatable). For example there is the trap set for Lhong in TharnType, the aloof ice prince Sarawat turning out to have been carrying a torch for Tine in 2gether, and Nubsib's reveal in Lovely Writer as someone who also shared a past with Gene.

And if you think about it, all of Bad Buddy itself was kind of one big bait-and-switch as well. They set it up so that – at the start – it looked like the series would be shaping up into a run-of-the-mill, formulaic romance. The roadmap was laid out quite clearly – enemies to lovers, Romeo and Juliet or Kwan and Riam but the BL version thank you very much, star-crossed and kept apart by their warring families.

So we were expecting BBS to follow the usual romcom beats and rhythms, delivering the standard tropes, with the main storyline about how the enemies would fall in love against the odds, then find a way to beat the odds and stay together, or fall victim to it and be forever driven apart.

Except that Director Aof and his team pulled the rug out from under us time and time again, after setting this all up. The idea that Pat and Pran were enemies got turned on its head (they'd been secret friends since childhood). The process of falling in love didn't follow conventional beats at all – Pran was already in love, while Pat was… possibly already beset by emotions, just getting them all mixed up and projecting them onto Ink.

Instead of showing us the main couple falling for each other over the course of 12 episodes, this was firmly established by the end of Episode 5. Instead of their families being the primary conflict driving them apart, it was Pran's overthinking and emotional walls that drove a wedge between them in Episode 6. When family conflict finally did rear its head to threaten their relationship, well Pat and Pran just sidestepped it and carried on.

And the tropes? One by one they fell by the wayside as well. Ink turned up in Ep.4, looking like a formidable love rival for Pran (and he believed it too). Except that she wasn't the stereotype of the evil girlfriend at all – she turned out to be Pat's supportive bestie, while her eye (and camera) were focused on Pa instead. Any stereotypes overhanging macho Pat and pernickety Pran got subverted too, with Pat ditching sports practice for musical theater and Pran a credible street fighter and also a star player on his rugby team – so much for the seme and uke in this BL. The "gay for you" trope got put down (Ep.9 [2/4] 1.41), as was the "wifey" one (Ep.9 [4/4] 8.48). There are so many examples.

Even the end of Ep.11 was a bait-and-switch as well, when a large portion of the fandom was hoodwinked by Director Aof's Ep.12 preview into thinking that we were headed for a break-up. (Fortunately they switched it out for the happy ending that we got instead, thank goodness.)

There's so much of this going on, it seems as though BBS was actually celebrating the bait-and-switch (and in that way kind of subverting its use in BL as well). The thing is, nothing was ever what it seemed in Bad Buddy, and it was all intended to be so, from Day One, because it's solidly a thematic preoccupation underlying the series.

I now think Baseball Mom really plays into all of this glorification of the bait-and-switch as a storytelling device, and its subversion as well. But in a really wacky way, as perhaps is only fitting for the wackiest of Pat's t‑shirts.

So looking back on decades of popular media, who's been crowned the Big Boss of the Bait-and-Switch, the Grand Poobah of Switcheroos, the Queen of the Short-Con, the House Mother of all Bamboozlers?

It’s this little lady right here: 😍

This is Lucy Van Pelt, from Charles Schulz's comic strip Peanuts. Lucy is many things in the Peanuts universe, but one thing she's iconic for is a bait-and-switch prank, where she holds a football and then goads Charlie Brown on to kick it. He usually takes a bit of convincing, but eventually he goes for it and at the last second, Lucy pulls the ball away and poor Chuck ends up kicking the air, sent flying in the process. It's a running gag in the comic strip, first appearing in 1952 and recurring every year after that:

So what's the link with Baseball Mom though?

Football aside, in Peanuts Lucy is also a member of Charlie Brown's baseball team – and significantly she's absolutely terrible at the game. She misses the easiest of pitches, and even when perfectly positioned she gets hit on the head by the ball instead of catching it in her mitt.

So while she may be totally, confidently in charge of the situation baiting Charlie Brown with the pigskin, when it comes to baseball instead of football – Lucy is completely out of her element.

The parallel with Bad Buddy is that master of the bait-and-switch Pat Napat Jindapat – the BBS manifestation of Lucy – was pulling different versions of the Charlie Brown football prank on hapless Pran over and over again, causing much anguish to the latter's battered heart.

But suddenly on the rooftop, the tables got turned and Pran pulled the big switcheroo on him instead – by confirming their mutual feelings with a kiss so dizzyingly sensational that Pat must have been delirious with happiness… only to send it all crashing down by abandoning him there without a word of explanation.

(above) Bad Buddy Ep.5 [4/4] 12.58 – an abandoned Pat stares uncomprehendingly as Pran walks away from the wreckage of their broken hearts

In that moment Football Lucy morphed into Baseball Lucy, from self-assured manipulator to incompetent klutz, all alone in right field when the ball came zooming in from way out left. And what better way to mark this moment than with a t-shirt loudly proclaiming Pat's newly-minted Baseball Lucy status on its front?

(above) The Baseball Mom graphic – BBS's own version of The Scarlet Letter

Yes, I know this explanation is outlandish; that's how it sounded to me too when it first took shape in my head. So I decided to test it, by looking for supporting information elsewhere in the context of Bad Buddy. And the findings are truly surprising. 👀

No characters from Peanuts actually appear (in canon form) within any of BBS's visuals (not that they could, I suppose, for licensing reasons). But Charlie Brown and his cohort of characters aren't unknown in Thailand – there is a Charlie Brown Café (79/335 แขวงช่องนนทรี เขตยานนาวา, Bangkok, Thailand, 10120) that was previously at MBK Centre and a Charlie Brown's Restaurant (315/303 ซ.นราธิวาส24 แขวง ช่องนนทรี Yan Nawa, Bangkok 10120, Thailand) at Belle Park Plaza/Fortune Condo Town:

(above left) Charlie Brown Café; (above right) Charlie Brown's Restaurant

And even though we don't directly see Charlie Brown, Lucy or any other Peanuts characters in BBS, there are oblique references. One of the more obvious ones alludes to Lucy's younger brother, Linus Van Pelt:

When we see Pran out in the world with his PP hobo bag (written up here) or Pat snuggled in bed with his beloved Nong Nao (written up here), we know by now that the bag and the stuffed doll-pillow are our boys' favorite comfort objects, providing psychological security even as they face their personal fears.

(above left) Bad Buddy Ep.2 [1I4] 3.01 – Pran and his PP hobo bag, that he deploys like a shield when outside; (above right) Bad Buddy Ep.2 [1I4] 1.37 – Pat cuddling Nong Nao for comfort when he's all alone

But another name for these comfort objects actually has a connection to Peanuts – they can also be called Linus blankets, after the security blanket that Lucy's brother carries around with him all the time. Just a coincidence? I'm not so sure. (I think it's also significant that all three objects have blue as their predominant color.)

There's also a nod at Charlie Brown himself later, on the rooftop in Ep.7 [4/4] – Pat's tee is an unmistakeable visual reference to Charlie Brown's signature yellow top with its zigzag motif:

(above left) Bad Buddy Ep.7 [4/4] 1.48; (above right) Charlie Brown in his own iconic t-shirt

After their roles were reversed on the rooftop at the end of Ep.5 (with Pran pulling the ultimate bait-and-switch move back on Pat by walking away after The Kiss), the mantle of Charlie Brown the football prank victim was thrust onto Pat instead, and that is what we see here in Ep.7.

The brand name emblazoned on Pat's t-shirt also rings some bells – it's Patriots, which immediately calls to mind the NFL team from New England, and is another nod at Lucy's American football. (There is also a Minor League baseball team called the Somerset Patriots based in New Jersey; not as well-known as their counterparts – compatriots? – a few states away, but still… 👀).

(above) Bad Buddy Ep.7 [4/4] 2.13

And looking a bit closer the Ep.7 scene on the rooftop (the last one to be filmed among all of Bad Buddy's queues) really starts to overflow with meaning because it's actually a parallel to Ep.5's rooftop bait-and-switch.

It's far too much to include here, so I've put it into its own separate post (see this write-up linked here) – the short of it is that Pat as Charlie Brown plays the bait-and-switch one last time on Pran in Ep.7, but for the very first time turns the last-second switch-out into a win for his beloved instead, rescuing Pran who was floundering with the musical. And this reversal of the bait-and-switch, a redemption of sorts, is what convinces Pran to end their courtship competition and enter into confirmed couplehood instead. 👍

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Now all that aside, there's still one more element in Bad Buddy that I think is a direct reference to Lucy's bait-and-switch in Peanuts – and that's all the rugby, doing its part as a stand-in for Lucy's American football.

(above) Bad Buddy Ep.4 [4/4] 2.04 – the boys face off on the rugby pitch

It would never have been possible to feature American (gridiron) football authentically in Bad Buddy (it's not a popular sport outside of North America, to be honest, and would have been totally alien in a Thai setting). So they shone the spotlight on rugby instead, most probably because the ball used for play there is ovoid and almost the same as the one used in American football – it seems like the rugby in BBS is pointing at Lucy and the American football she deviously deploys.

(top) Bad Buddy Ep.7 [2/4] 13.01; (bottom) Bad Buddy Ep.7 [2/4] 13.02

This would explain why Director Aof and his team opted to feature rugby instead of soccer –the latter is far more popular in Thailand, and would have been a more obvious choice. In addition, soccer would have been far easier to stage – all the BBS rugby scenes had to be filmed at a completely different campus from the primary uni location (Bangkok University instead of Rangsit University) because the latter doesn't seem to have a rugby pitch, though it does have a soccer one. In case you were wondering as I was, the goalposts are starkly different so they couldn't just pretend to play rugby on the soccer pitch – it would have been a terribly obvious fake-out if they had.

They couldn't substitute another team sport even if it was easier to accommodate, because rugby (or rather the ball) was integral to this aspect of the storyline. It needed to be rugby if the intention was to evoke Lucy's favorite weapon of torment.

Further evidence in support of this can be found when you look at the original (rough-draft promo) Bad Buddy trailer that was released in 2020 (I think) to promote the 2021 lineup, before actual filming of the series itself in mid-2021:

The rugby was present even at that early stage (and Toto was on Pat's team! 😂). But what's mindblowing is that they're actually using an American football (the AF500), not a rugby ball (you can tell from the laces, which modern rugby balls do not have). 👀 So the gridiron football was very much part of Bad Buddy's primordial DNA, way back at its inception, even before actual filming began. Another nod at Lucy in Peanuts here.

(above) A screenshot from the original Bad Buddy promo trailer at timestamp 1.48

(above) A screenshot from the original Bad Buddy promo trailer at timestamp 2.15

Now all of this is dandy I suppose, but even with Linus blankets, Pat dressed like Charlie Brown, the oval ball and BBS's insistence on rugby (masquerading as American football) over soccer, for the longest time the hardboiled skeptic in me still wasn't fully convinced that Pat wearing Baseball Mom was actually Lucy in disguise getting her comeuppance, Bad Buddy style.

UNTIL I DECIDED TO LOOK MORE CLOSELY AT THE RUGBY MATCH IN EPISODE 4. And that was the clincher, that cemented the intentionality behind Baseball Mom in my mind, because there actually is a sequence where Pat executes Lucy's signature bait-and-switch move, with the rugby ball standing in for an American football, and with Pran as his fall guy.

The sequence in question starts at Ep.4 [4/4] 3.33, when we see Pat running with the ball, coveted by Pran (in more ways than one).

(above) Bad Buddy Ep.4 [4/4] 3.33

Pran tackles him, but in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, Pat flicks the ball away and before any of us (Pran included) can realize what's happened, Korn is off and running with it instead (and I think he scores the rugby version of a touchdown too).

(above) Bad Buddy Ep.4 [4/4] 3.38

Meanwhile, Pat and Pran are still locked in a full-body clinch – and if you look closely, it's Pat who's actually holding on to Pran, not letting him go (with obvious delight, even if he's unaware of exactly why he's relishing the contact so much).

Much of Bad Buddy is really chaste, but there's something about this moment here that makes it seem like a line has been crossed, and that things have turned inexplicably raunchy somehow. There's full-body grappling, legs spread wide, crotch jammed to butt, a whole lot of heaving and panting. Pat is clearly enjoying every second, almost as though it’s the successful climax of his great big plan to waylay Pran with this bait-and-switch. And of course it's the perfect cue for him to deliver that now infamous, golden line: "If you hug me this tight, you might as well take me as your boyfriend." 😂

Actually Pat had been teasing and taunting Pran with hints of romance even before the game (going so far as to acknowledge that his behavior was flirtatious, at Ep.4 [4/4] 0.48) so it's impossible not to see that body tackle on the pitch as anything but a close encounter suffused with sexual tension – and Pran would of course be the first to notice it. (It's possibly also a subversion of the accidental "falling on you" trope, since it's at once contrived yet consensual.)

If you break it down, Pat used the ball to get Pran to tackle him, only to switch it out at the last minute with something else (close, practically intimate body contact) that poor Pran (drowning in his crush) would have found absolutely devastating. This is practically a playbook version of Lucy doing the football bait-and-switch with Charlie Brown.

To be honest though, I'd always found this rugby clinch a little odd and confusing, and had wondered why they even had this scene. It was logistically complicated to set up (two whole teams of players!), and the bait-and-switch portion would have been extremely tricky to choreograph and film. The whole rigmarole was also a lot of work for just a few seconds of screen time. That the ball slips away unseen also makes it seem anti-climactic for the viewer – but not for master gameplayer Pat, who successfully got his planned payload nonetheless.

And because he did it using Lucy Van Pelt's signature move, I now think the reason for this scene is for it to be held up as the paragon of Pat's bait-and-switch traps in Bad Buddy, and a parallel for the Epic Rooftop Kiss when Pran slaps the old switcheroo back on Pat instead.

On the rugby pitch Pat baited Pran by pulling away (with the ball), and then crushed his heart with physical intimacy (hugging him like a lover, but making it seem like he was only play-acting at returning Pran's love). On the rooftop Pran baited Pat with physical intimacy (The Kiss, proof to Pat that his feelings were returned), and then crushed his heart by pulling away (and taking with him all promise of his love).

Atop Chana City Residence at the end of Ep.5, perpetual prankster Pat couldn't stop himself and went in for the bait (Pran offering himself up romantically), only to see it whisked away from him at the very last second.

Suddenly the rules changed and Football Lucy, the House Mother of all bait-and-switch bamboozles, became the victim of the biggest bait-and-switch of them all, and was thrust into a different game instead. Bereft of Pran and denied his moment of victory, Pat became Baseball Mom indeed. 😔

(above) Bad Buddy Ep.5 [4/4] 13.06

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P.S. You can order Baseball Mom (the t-shirt, not Pat 😂) from Amazon at this link here. (If the link doesn't work, you may need to change your "Deliver To" location at the top left of the landing page on Amazon to another country – not useful if you want to buy it when they don't deliver to your location, but useful if you just want to view the page, or get them to deliver to a third party who can then forward it to you. If changing the location doesn't work, try following the other instructions in this post linked here.)

I suspect the fandom has been buying up Baseball Mom like crazy, because it went from limited stock and availability on Amazon (selected locations only), to becoming available for other global locations and on Walmart.com as well – so maybe demand from the BBS fandom has boosted sales so much they started marketing it on more channels? Thai BL soft power trickles down. 🥰👍

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P.P.S. OK, just a little aside – this Peanuts fan theory for Baseball Mom is really wacky, but I think the universe is telling me to put it out there anyway because just as I was finishing the write-up, this random post about the Peanuts football bait-and-switch appeared on my dashboard.

What are the odds of it crossing my dash at the same time I'm writing about it, when I've not seen it referenced before throughout my history on Tumblr, ever? (There were a few random Peanuts and Charlie Brown posts that appeared at the same time as well.) I'm not superstitious, but I do think the universe has spoken. 😂