#bocje: the eclipse meta and squee

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It's extremely funny (even funnier after last episode) to me that Ayan's surprised to find out Akk got into fights with the students who mocked him in the first years: babe the first time you ever saw him he was starting up a minivan to run over other people, he threatens to punch you every time you rile him up, he manhandles you in lieu of showing correct posture in judo and looks extremely pleased with himself when he slams you to the ground and keeps you there effortlessly, he drops the shampoo onto your head when you ask him for it, and he DID punch you right into a locker handle (ouch) as soon as you told him you'd expose him. Ayan, sweetie, quit the bad boy act: you're not a thug, you're in love with one.

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give it up for wat who single-handedly saved everyone's ass and got his revenge by making his film everyone's problem (except namo, namo is delighted to be there (◕ᴗ◕✿))

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ayan being like: babe kiss me too sometimes, you make me feel like a brutish male lead having his way with an innocent maiden

akk being like: I’m no innocent maiden, I’m the married-for-forty-years husband trope, no kissies or words of affection and I’m gonna tell everyone you’re my ball and chain

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the eclipse fandom, september 16th-23rd: enthusiastically shares meta and fic about the akkayan kiss

the eclipse fandom, september 23rd-30th: *blurry eyesight, sniffling* enthusiastically shares meta about akk being so WHIPPED he fantasized in 1080p

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honestly though I know ep8's judo training scene is the most dramatically charged one for everyone so far, but it still sends me that 1) for all that Akk must still be weak from his fever, he nevertheless pins Ayan to the ground like in every other match, 2) then he realizes that's WRONG, NO PLEASE NO JUDO TAKEDOWN BED EYES FUCK I DIDN'T FACTOR IN THE BED EYES! ABORT MISSION!!!! ABORT!!!!!1!!1!!! and 3) oh boy Thua really went there and basically said to Kan beforehand, look, I wanna be plastered to you in gym class, you down? and Kan said, it's a date, and wore cologne

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I’m loving Teacher Waree’s subtle development in both its intended meaning -- ‘to be a good teacher you need to listen to your students and to let yourself learn from them as they learn from you’ -- and the way it’s told, with Waree evidently torn between admitting Ayan has one-upped her and secretly rejoicing about finding that student in a hundred that loves her subject as she does.

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on another note, one has to appreciate the cruel irony of ep11′s reveal scene: thua’s outburst is a time-bomb unwittingly set by ayan. ayan told thua his voice matters and thua found his voice (in a kinda twisted way, but still). and if you think about it from thua’s perspective, the worst betrayal comes when ayan, the very same person who encouraged him to speak up, is the one trying to silence him.

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I can't believe I'm the only criminal out here but I haven't seen discussion about this so here I am.

Through episodes 6 and 7 we've seen Akk gradually expanding his worldview in different ways: he's beginning to acknowledge his wrongdoings, to respect different opinions, to question rules and figures of authority and to form his own opinions (in baby steps, but still, we can see this happening).

Ayan, on the other hand, has always been the voice of reason, of difference, of equality. He is confident in his ideals, and his ability to pursue them. (And this is excellent, in theory.)

The thing is, I've never seen Ayan being so cruelly insistent and impractical as in episode 7. He's right ('cause he always is) about asking Akk to confess his actions, if nothing else because 1) Akk has been endangering lives and purposefully manipulating other people and 2) confessing would take a heavy weight off his shoulders. But while confessing is the right thing to do, it would also destroy everything that matters in Akk's life right now. He's on a scholarship, one step away from college, and all his family dotes on him. (So what?, you might say. That's the profile of the typical murderer. It is. We also know Akk is no murderer, and he's also been conditioned to do what he did.) Assuming he does get punished for his actions (this depends on how badly the faculty wants to cover up the whole story), all of that will come crashing down on him.

The thing is, Ayan still fails to see that. He seeks justice for justice's sake. Similarly to how Akk has been blindly following school rules because rules are there for a reason (right? right?), Ayan deals in absolutes. This is wrong, make it right. (Yes, yes, he's a teenager, that's okay, we've all been there.) What Ayan isn't yet seeing is the consequences that will befall Akk once he confesses. Partially, I think, because if Ayan were in the same situation, he wouldn't have the bear the brunt of them, what with his economic backing.

So what puzzled me in episode 7 is the relentlessness in Ayan's demanding that Akk confesses. It was even kind of unnerving to see him bouncing from flirty to pressing Akk on the matter in the same scene. We have seen that Ayan is capable of great empathy, but here I feel all of that empathy gets swallowed by his quest for justice. While Akk's worldview is gradually evolving, Ayan's is still stably rooted in ideals. Otherwise, he would see that forcing Akk to confess (and to confess now) is the worst thing he could do to him.

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oh I am SO here for Ayan crashing at Akk’s every single chance he gets

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akk: so anyway, I’ve got this theory-- anyone else: I beg you, please, not the student/professor kink again

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ok first things first I need a rewatch, but the thing is... does thua’s plan even make sense? I’d suspected thua was behind the disappearance of ayan’s notebook (that scene was basically: oh hey thua, oh hey fallen notebook), but the timing feels so off.

ayan’s notebook disappears at a time when only akk is set on taking it, and we know akk wants ayan’s notebook to figure out ayan’s goals (and secretly to check what he knows about the curse), and we know that at least kan (and maybe wat, I think?) knows that, so does thua know from kan that akk wants ayan’s notebook? and why does thua take it? it kinda makes sense only if thua already suspects/knows not only about akk enacting the curse, but also that ayan already knows and could, if provoked, reveal akk’s role to the others.

what other motives could he have to take the notebook? and why does he wait so long before trying to hide it among chadok’s stuff? by the time he tries to “plant” it there akk and ayan have actually grown closer (c’mon, thua, did you need to see them making out in the pool to notice? you surely saw them making heart eyes at each other at the seaside) and, if he was so angry about ayan covering for akk, that would have been perfect timing to set them apart by putting ayan’s notebook among akk’s things. what’s the desired effect of making it look like chadok stole the notebook? was thua expecting ayan to make a fuss when he found it there? is everything in thua’s plan depeding on ayan making a fuss? (probably yes)

also if thua knows about akk being behind the curse, why doesn’t he tell kan that? does it really make sense to leave the person you want to protect most frightened by his closest friend’s lie, if you’re so set on getting the truth out?

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okay, I don't really know if this makes sense at all, but the scene on the doorstep with Ayan complaining that Akk doesn't call him by his nickname gave me reverse-The Untamed/MDZS vibes: Akk is deliberately using Ayan's "full" name to keep him at a distance, but isn't that ultimately setting Akk apart from the rest of their peers by establishing he has a claim on the "unusual" way of calling Ayan? Imagine their classmates watching as Akk keeps addressing Ayan coldly like, say, one of their teachers, while being glued to him pretty much all the time he isn't with his friends -- there's definitely something going on with these two.

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no thoughts just thua's stepfather in ep8

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definitely a delusional scenario of mine because I feel it might be too ooc but humour me for a second: imagine ayan taking the annoying technique to the next level by frustrating akk into kissing him for a sudden lack of "proper" kissing. like he's always there, always in akk's space, always being very vocal about what he likes of akk and then he leans in and... drops a little kiss onto the corner of his mouth? a kiss on his nose? which is all well and good but akk's lips are. right. there! when is akk going to get his full-on fantasy make out session? he thought it was so close by, is he really going to have to kiss ayan himself?

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man I was SO betting on Ayan’s mum dropping a ‘Dika’ in the middle of the car conversation though

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So, I’m still licking my wounds here, mind you, though I’m in love with all the consequences of the kiss being in Akk’s head and the wonderful meta coming out of it. Just think about it: the kiss highlighted how much time we, as an audience, spend in Akk’s head, following him around and feeling what he feels. In retrospect, most of the time we are Akk’s audience, and see just what he wants us to see.

That puts also the curse into a new perspective: in the earlier episodes it confused me how little we actually knew about how the curse worked. We follow Akk as he tries to find out Ayan’s “evil plan” to destroy the school’s reputation. Does he actually find something? We know Ayan’s got a revenge plan in the making, but is it actually coming along? Doesn’t Akk’s hot pursuit feel like a distraction instead? Kan describes the curse, the students discuss it when they talk about the protesters, and Akk wonders discreetly if they’ll manage to stop the protesters before the curse does (ha). Akk has us going in circles for entire episodes while never really delving into the matter, because it’s in his best interest that no one finds out the truth behind it. And what’s interesting about this is that, at the same time that Akk tricks the audience, he also tricks himself into thinking he’s not really responsible for the curse events. It’s only when Ayan reveals the truth that Akk has to face the fact that he’s been endangering people all along to uphold the school’s ideals. If there’s a curse Akk can show us, that essentially saves him from owning up to his own actions.

The kiss scene follows pretty much the same trend, though dealing specifically with Akk’s personal desires and not his group responsibilities. We’re again in Akk’s head, in the version of reality he wants to show us and wants to live, this carefully crafted sandbox where things happen the way he likes and there are no negative consequences for his own actions. It’s no wonder we stayed in his head for as long as he could keep us there, until he had to admit that there wouldn’t be a tender, or awkward, morning after.