#hot minute since there was a multiparagraph post abt the guy but here we are

[unproduciblesmackdown]

see ppl would be like “lars would just wanna leave the planet again” and i would be like :///////// boy i hope that’s not what happens tho................lol

cuz idk for me it’s like. hmm i would have hoped that he’d be able to Find His Place amongst his actual home and like, find that sense of belonging there which was so important to him? out of maybe somewhere on the entire planet? and i def think there’s multiple ways of looking at / interpreting this but mine is like.....not loving this aspect of lars peacing off of the Entire Planet (i will just keep saying that lol...the wholeass world)

i mean first of all it was weird that like. lars dies and is entirely gone but there was seemingly way less of an impact back home than you would’ve thought? or i mean, maybe not more than you would’ve thought (just a random kid in a random shop) (but also! uh he died!!) but like, it’s seemingly confirmation that he Didn’t belong there and nobody cared that much? like he’d have reason to be upset about that lol......and then like. timing-wise it was also weird that finally being Back was like, a ten second deal lmao like uh where are his parents!!! somebody gonna tell them or. and speaking of, where are his parents when he’s all “yeah i’m leaving the entire planet again” lmaoooo like okay but they have no simple direct way of getting in touch with him!! bro you are in space.....bro

and like, it Did make sense that sure, lars could thrive Innnn Spaaaace in ways he couldn’t back home just cuz of like, hey everything’s completely different and you have these very solid goals and these people are totally new to you, there’s no pressure of what-ppl-expect-from-you and i don’t just mean that in an “achievement” way, but just like, ur established relationships with whoever and Performing How You Think They See You or etc etc.....and yes a group of weirdos who nobody likes is potentially gonna be real accepting to other weirdos nobody likes. and i think for a character like lars it can kinda make sense that like, such a drastic Fresh Start could even be welcome to him. and also it seems sort of like a portal fantasy situation? like, look you’ve left the Regular World and now you’re in some totally different scenario where you’re now considered remarkable just via being so unusual but also you kind of have superpowers, and nobody here knows you and you can be whoever and you have this new status and a purpose and etc etc etc etc etc etc like, imo for kids who Really Do Not Feel They Fit In for lgbtq and/or depressed-ass and/or nd reasons, etc etc, it’s like.......portal fantasy content hits different!!!!

but yanno, irl there’s no Portal Fantasy situation that hits (like, you can sure travel a distance and be in an entirely different situation / environment, but not like, narnia) and when you get older it’s obviously more like. lol okay but seriously how do i fit in Here...........and like, ppl aren’t always gonna Find that greatly improved sense of belonging or anything, definitely not always right away, but it’s still like.......i mean i was real :///// about the idea of lars being like “he’s totally fine now, this is his thing, he’s good” Before this, and maybe it will continue to Not have this be like, his ~end point~ but the idea that Lars In Space, Again, might be the “he’s totally fine now, this is his thing, he’s good” deal is even more ://///////////// cuz like. he doesn’t belong on the entire planet lol??? and once again it being not that huge a deal to ppl that he’s leaving the entire planet, except to the guy who’ll have the easiest time talking to him (but still not a Direct way)........i was all like oh hey lmao is buck gonna talk to him wow!! i’d be way into that!!!! but then.....no.....i’ll take “standing next to each other” for Something but like. idk to me it feels like it’s confirming that Lars Didn’t Really Belong And Couldn’t Belong and it’s like..................................well it’s very understandable that lars could end up feeling that way and have made some level of peace with that (when he has a Portal Fantasy option :|||||||||| ) but uhhhh like. not a .........good thing???? doesn’t seem like To Me????? like again maybe this isn’t the true final point of his arc but like. already it’s shown that him Leaving The Entire Planet is seemingly no more a big deal than going to medical school and like. maybe like, attuning the perspective on the situation re: fantasy elements, you could interpret this as the equivalent of just like, moving somewhere really far away, what with one person having his cell phone number and it not Having to be a one-way trip, but.................shouldn’t it still be a bigger deal than this. and idk he’s still Not Belonging Anywhere On The Entire Planet like. what if he hadn’t happened to land in this situation of intergalactic fugitive making friends w/ a few aliens?? he would just have never belonged? anywhere on the entire planet????????????? again like, i appreciate how like, for the most part the Places You Can Be options here are mostly “this one particular small-ish town” and “goddamn outer space” and i can also appreciate that yeah, maybe lars wouldn’t end up feeling like he belongs in this one small-ish town but like. even if he could never befriend the other Peers whom he was trying to befriend, there......are other peers even in this one town

i also appreciate that probably the “probably living for millennia” thing was going to make Feeling Like He Belongs difficult but like, that’s another thing he’s not alone in nowadays. and like wow a new way it’s difficult to feel comfortable in The Way Things Are? what else would be new. like, why would we expect him to feel like “trying not to die twice in space” fixed everything forever.....which is why i was :/// about the idea that yknow, prior to this we could assume he was totally gucci. i guess the thesis statement i wandered to is that like, it seems like lars’s sense of alienation was only affirmed? like, litchrelly bro you fit in better with these actual aliens........and like, i can see how that can be interpreted as validating, and i’m not saying i think that that interpretation as wrong, but for me yeah it’s like. oh so lars really did Not belong, and all that time he spent beating himself up over thinking that nobody was gonna want him around? well!!! he is leaving the entire planet it’s kinda a “c’est la vie” matter apparently. like, i can assume he Does want to leave, but it’s still ://///////// like well lars every time you self-sabotaged b/c you thought you couldn’t fit in? you didn’t have to have done that but you were right to think that you weren’t gonna find the connections you wanted. like, god damn. is how i feel about lars going into space :///////////////////