#challengersposting

[wizardempires]

i made these giggling and kicking my feet back and forth

[eugeniedanglars]

i literally did not see a single movie that came out last year other than wicked and furiosa so my understanding of the state of cinema in 2024 is pretty much just the snl gladiator 2: the musical sketch + the vaginoplasty song from emilia perez. to all oscars-watchers i'm happy for you or sorry that happened

[pinktuals]

@bwaldorf @galatariel

The challengers x hotd agenda continues

[kiermasz]

i really didn't plan on becoming insufferable about this. but i feel myself consumed by it. so a day after leaving the cinema i'm sealing my fate of being an annoying sucker by downloading to investigate further. and unfortunately this is the place to be for me because my irl friends cannot know i'm challengersposting in my mind. this is your warning i'm so so so so sorry mutuals.

[wizardempires]

re: your challengers playlist!

are you thinking of hot and heavy from Patrick's perspective?? coz i love that song sm but when i was listening to your playlist it was the first time i like listened to the lyrics and thought about challengers and patrick specifically and it was melting my brain woooooow

OKAY. this is amazing. thank you for actually reaching out i'm giggling and kicking my feet

short answer: YES!!!!!

long answer: yes. ↓

like obviously right from the beginning the "couldn't look away even if i wanted / try to walk away but i come back to the start" is the new rochelle challenger, seeing tashi in the lobby and art across the tennis court and everything from the past 13 years just floods back to him. i have more to say abt this chorus trust but i'll circle back.

to me, the next verse is after tashi tears her ACL and patrick comes just to see her with art: "how could i deny a diamond in the rough? /... how did i believe i had a hold on you? / you were always stronger than people suspected / underestimated and overprotected", which i interpreted as directed towards art saying like how could you do this to me? i didn't think you had it in you. but also even a little bit of a snarky dig about how, like, yeah. i didn't think you fucking had it in you. which is SO patrick. maybe even a little bit about art's tennis ability, how patrick knows he's always been a little bit better than him and feels like rubbing it in his face just to be a bitch.

this is followed by "when i went away, it was the only option / couldn't trust myself to proceed with caution / the most that i could give to you is nothing at all / the best that i could offer was to miss your calls". of course patrick is angry after all this, his girlfriend so publicly breaking up with him and even WORSE the betrayal of his best friend!! so when they call, he doesn't answer (at the very least, art calls. tashi might be too stubborn). he can't trust himself not to lash out so he leaves, and eventually they just stop chasing him.

then back at the chorus again. "being back here makes me hot in the face / hot blood in my pulsing veins / heavy memories weighing on my brain"—again: the new rochelle challenger !!! though patrick has not Literally been here before, it's the same situation as in 2006, playing for tashi's number. he's hot in the face because like yeah they're all smokeshows WE KNOW THIS but he is also pissed the hell off... how dare they dump him like he's trash and then sweep through his life again, tashi telling him to lose to art, art telling him he means nothing, not even to the most obsessive tennis fan in the world. even when patrick is trying to be vulnerable, to bridge that gap (we can argue about how genuine he's being in the sauna scene but my personal take is that he's using this taunting demeanor as an excuse in case his attempts to reconnect go awry. which they do), he is still being pushed away.

the next lines, "you used to be so sweet / now you're a firecracker on a crowded street" are about art. when they were in school together art was very boy next door and now he's like. the most famous tennis player in the world and he's been on a tailspin trying to come back from this injury. he's a firecracker, bright and brilliant, but he's taking everyone on this crowded street (tashi) down with him. and he's MEAN now (see above not even to the most obsessive tennis fan etc etc).

and then we have those lyrics from my first paragraph again, but a slightly different interpretation. "couldn't look away even if i wanted / try to walk away but i come back to the start": patrick, against all odds, is really fucking enjoying this match. he and art haven't played in over a decade and this is fun. he doesn't want to look away. he's tried to walk away, taking the easy way out by agreeing to let art win, but now that he's playing this match he can't let it be over so easily. he goes back to the start of their schism. he places the ball in the centre of his racket.

next we get "and it happens over and over and over and over again / i wish i was over it, over it, over it, over it". like yeah. they have been playing this game back and forth since the junior open. tashi has always been in the stands assessing their performance and art has always been SO desperate for the win. tashi has always ended up with patrick, whether he wins her number or it's a one night stand. art has never ONCE told him or tashi how he really feels about any of this. over and over and over again. even if this is fun, it's so fucking weary.

the tone of the song shifts here, getting a little softer, a little more intimate !!! "a hidden gem / my own goldmine / ... you were a secret to yourself / you couldn't keep from anyone else". patrick grew up with art. he knows how good he is, and obviously other people do too because he's made it so far, but nobody else until tashi has ever told him you should win like patrick has. he is no longer the person whose job it is to remind art that he is a GOOD FUCKING TENNIS PLAYER and that is bad. especially because tashi is doing a terrible job at it (you know. sleeping with patrick in order to get him to throw the game).

these next lyrics harken back to the firecracker ones, "now you're the biggest brightest flame / you are a fire that can't be tamed". here, art is the first lyric, tashi is the second. what a fucking power couple. art is the public star, the brightest flame, but it's tashi's fire that propels them. tashi NEEDS him to succeed, and patrick knows that almost better than art does (see again: sleeping with him in order to get him to throw the game). they are gamechangers PLURAL for a reason.

so close to the end. now we get "you're better than ever, but i knew you when". art is finally getting to be on level playing field with patrick. he has never beaten him before, but now patrick isn't even throwing the game and art might win. even tashi, who has recovered so well from her injury in every aspect except actually playing tennis, shaping art into the player he is now. but of course it wouldn't be patrick without a little bit of snark.... he knew art when he couldn't beat him even in a game that meant nothing. he knew tashi when she was the biggest up-and-coming player in the world. and so now, confronted with him again, they're forced to reckon with who they used to be. they're forced to reckon with the question of whether who they are NOW is worth it after all that. and patrick Lives for this chaos

the very last lyric of the song is really the thesis statement of the whole thing. "it's bittersweet to see you again".

if you read all the way to the end of this fucking essay i will give you an award LMAOOO... but i am so serious when i say if you have questions about any of my playlist choices. please reach out. i have thoughts about ALL of them.

anyways i can't write all this and then NOT link the playlist so. Here you go! thank you for reading and reaching out. i love you and i love challengers.

[wizardempires]

am i your girl by peach pit

Patrick thinking about art....???

#1: i'm really loving this thing we're doing where you guys ask me things so i get to talk about music and do challengers literary analysis all at once 😋

#2: YEAH I SEE THE VISION!!!! i had actually not listened to this song before now but i NEVER back down from an opportunity for growth.

let me talk your ear off about this... ↓

so right off the bat... i am a major pusher of the patrick feminization agenda. art is all classic male repression and manipulation but patrick.... with the way he was BEGGING for it throughout this whole film ??? those beautiful sad eyes in the sauna??? as a community we need to edit little coquette bows into him more often. he deserves to be somebody's little puppy too.

my take is that this song is them in the sauna, patrick trying to fit back into the familiar way they used to be and art FIRMLY shutting him down. now that i have listened to this song a few times it's so synonymous with that look patrick gives him, that "i don't matter?" look.... the first lyrics of "am i your girl / once again now" realllyyyyyy hammers this home.

then this is followed by "could be your all / but you figured me out in the bathroom stall". immediately bathroom stall translates as sauna to me so keep that in mind. in the context of this scene, it also could be interpreted as patrick being a little bit sarcastic, a little bit of a bitch, as he is wont to do... like 'we could have rebuilt this bridge, but you took your perception of me over what's actually there. you "figured me out" in this bathroom stall, so you're pushing me away yet again. you won't get over yourself and you're punishing me for it'. classic art repression!

after that is "i was, you've been / but could be you're back at me". patrick is calling back to the times Before The Horrors, thinking look at how they used to be! they were inseperable, and this challenger has the potential to bring them back together. this has the Potential to fix everything, but due to the way that both of them are (repressed, horny as hell, etc.) it simply will not happen. "could be you're back at me" is a little hopeful, thinking maybe art has changed his mind and come back around to their friendship, but the wording is also dangerously close to 'getting back at me'. it's sort of on a precipice, standing on the hope of rekindling but only one word away from tipping into bitterness and distrust once more. with art looking at him and telling him he doesn't matter, it does feel an awful lot like he's trying to get back at him.

the next lyrics that really struck me were, of course, "months have brought me somebody new / yeah, it's not you". nothing will fill the void of the relationship they used to have, whether we think of that as platonic or romantic or what. patrick fucks and we know this, but since he and art had their friendship breakup, he hasn't been able to get that same level of emotional involvement. even with tashi when they've hooked up, it's been very physical with as few words exchanged as possible. so yeah, patrick isn't ALONE by any means, but then he thinks about art and holy fuck he is lonely. nobody is him!

the rest of the lyrics here are all pretty much the same with the exception of "but it seems that i lost you a bit last fall" which like... yeah. he did. taking 'last fall' to mean back at stanford when art yelled at him to get the fuck out, ofc... but just that look on his face when he realises art has picked tashi over him. he is realising nothing will be the same between them! and he is right! and now they're here in this sauna talking properly face to face for the first time in over a decade and it's so so different. art is different. patrick has lost the boy he grew up with in a really major way!!

overall i love patrick wanting to be art's girl. this song and of course the ever brilliant 'one of your girls' by troye sivan are EXCELLENT for this. just something about patrick wearing his heart on his sleeve and all his emotions playing out plain across his face while art shoves them all down deep inside of him and never ever lets them out. patrick begging art to throw him a bone, give him something to think maybe this isn't a lost cause. patrick knowing that if art called he would answer on the first ring every time, no matter if it's been 20 minutes or 20 years since they've last spoken. i LOVE patrick being pathetic!!!! justice for patrick being pathetic!!!!!

thank you INCREDIBLY for this ask !!! if anyone else has made it this far please send me asks about music and challengers !!!! i will tell you literally anything you want to know. ask me about songs for each character, for each scene, for which era of their lives... ask me to explain the songs off my playlist... give me NEW songs to analyse..... i will do it all. i go crazy for music and i ALWAYS have things to say about challengers.

here is the challengers playlist in question... see u guys around 😋

[wizardempires]

is 'don't look back in anger' on the challengers playlist to do with atp letting go of the way they hurt and betrayed each other in various ways over the years? so want them to be happy and in love post new rochelle but given their track record wonder how that might pan out ---- is love and lust enough when anger in some form or another defines their older selves? methinks a post-match session of hate sex is not going to vanquish all that pent up hurt resentment and jealousy

YES!!! agreed to all of this!!!! post-tennis hate sex will not solve their problems.

to elaborate further... ↓

generally. as a whole this song is very like hey! bad things happened but at the end of the day "step outside 'cause summertime's in bloom"!! BUT i think that this is the mindset for more immediately after the match. when they all go back to the hotel room. this is not the time for hashing out difficulties this is the time for freaky throuple good times. they have this one day where they let their anger fuel their passion and don't look back on it too much, but after that there is SHIT TO UNPACK.

yeah this song in this context has the feel of acknowledging the sins of the past and deciding consciously to move them aside for the moment. especially with lyrics like "take that look from off your face / 'cause you ain't ever gonna burn my heart out", which i take from art's perspective, saying like yeah you guys have done some really fucked up shit to me (and i have done some pretty shit things to you too). but i will keep carrying on despite it all. especially since he's done it before—he saw them in atlanta & drew his own conclusions.

to me the central verses of "'but don't look back in anger' / i heard you say" is tashi talking to art and patrick because DESPITE IT ALL!! this is good fucking tennis. art has regained his fire for the game after his downward trajectory and patrick is playing not just to get enough money to live but to WIN. tashi is the only one out of the three of them that has stayed focused on her love of tennis this entire time, and this is her reassuring them like. guys !!! remember how good it can be!!!!! if this is what you need to get there, it can't be all bad !!!

i, too, love to think of them as immediately like yeah we fit together again... but it really is a learning curve. you have to add another person to this pre-existing relationship, whether that be art and tashi's marriage, patrick and art's longstanding friendship/rivalry, or tashi and patrick's series of affairs. there is a whole new dynamic to navigate and you have to fall in love with these people so many completely new contexts—and acknowledge that these relationships were created Without you in mind. but at the end of the day, i really think they do it.... if it was just any of the two of them alone, they wouldn't have made it, but as so many posts on here have said... it's the combo of the three of them that makes it WORK. it will take time and it will NOTTTT be pretty (because this movie is about nothing if not Mess) but i do think they'll come out the other side happy and Together. and then they really won't have to look back in anger!!! it won't be something they're just ignoring, it's something they've confronted and moved past.

but yeah...!! the lyrics for this one are a lot less literal to their situation than hot & heavy, but the message of the song is INCREDIBLY post-new-rochelle challengers. you really hit the nail on the head with anger being such a huge part of their older selves, so it's hard not to look back with that as your lens even when you do really care about those around you. still, though, i think they are ALL stubborn enough to do it. or at least tashi is. she could run the entire world and i would thank her profusely for doing so.

THANK YOU for the ask i love to explain my reasoning behind things!!!! and by God i love my challengers playlist. here it is. thank you for reading.