#im trying not to tag ramble but he genuinely has so many great qualities that people ignore

[snickerdoodlles]

hi I am intrigued by wibble wobbles the nines are gone, what is this? 👀

omg okay, so that's my v ridiculous name that i came up with when i was sleep drunk at 3.30am for the episode 9...not rewrite, because i adore ep9, but it's a 'what if' reimagining i first outlined here. there's a lot of things fueling this WIP--a large part of it is need for more inkpa (a (very) small snippet here), as well as more Pran & Paa with a good side dose of Ming learning Pran's always been there for Paa in a helpful capacity. I think it'd also lead to more of Pran being an emotional support for Pat as he faces an old fear and struggle, which is always good. But another part of my drive is based around how despite the fact that Pat getting shot is a hilarious Romeo & Juliet parallel to me and i get so much fuel from that scene for fics, wrapping Wai's reconciliation into it almost makes it too dramatic to have the desired impact

i actually really like how the resolution with Wai happened in canon. it happens to a lot of parallels to my own relationship and past outing issues with my brother, so it resonates really well for me. i like that we get to see Wai fully support and comfort Pran in a way he hadn't really done so prior to that episode. i think Wai's a neat character and i have a soft spot for characters that are their own worst enemies. but ep9 as it stands is still the messiest episode of the series, and i think the sheer drama of the shooting scene & near arrest flattens both Wai and Pran during their reconciliation arc. i also want Pran to get to express some of his anger in a way beyond forcing his friends to deal with him being grossly in love Pat and for them to have a proper talk.

i apologize in advance because i can tell im building up to a long ramble, but i've been in a rut of Pran & Wai feelings lately, specifically around how their resolution played out in canon. not to start with the hot stone in this, but i think a lot of people were so angry at Wai for dropping the curtain in ep8, that they kinda...totally skipped over just what was revealed in Wai's POV of it in ep9?

like take a second to stand in Wai's shoes--you overhear your best friend since high school tell the guy that you hate that "you're my boyfriend. i'm scared of people knowing, but i care about you more."

and he says that to him, even though you have noticed something's up with him and asking if he's okay for more than a year

Wai's been looking out for Pran for ages. he knows Pran holds his feelings to his chest, so he's really careful about how he asks and pushes Pran to reveal what he's thinking. but he asks Pran what's been weighing on his mind before the beach trip, during the beach trip, when he's trying to compose the play's score, before Pran lies to him to bail on getting drinks with him to go on a date with Pat, during the not-a-date ramen competition (& Pran has been using him to tease Pat btws), when the two of them go get drinks before Pran bails on him to go comfort Pat. Wai has been asking Pran to open up for a really fucking long time, but respected the fact that his friend wasn't ready to open up to him about what he's wrestling with. but then Wai hears his best friend tell his 'enemy' that he cares about him more than his fear, which unfortunately has the unintentional double implication that Pran doesn't care about Wai more than his fear (which isn't true, but again: Wai doesn't know about Pran and Pat's history, because Pran's lied about it from the start)

does any of this justify him outing Pat and Pran? absolutely not. should he have talked to Pran about his hurt feelings instead of cutting himself off from Pran? YEAH. but Wai's not wrong for feeling hurt by the situation either. Pran's 10000% right to call Wai out for making it difficult to discuss his relationship with Pat to him, but we also can't ignore the fact that Pran's tendency to hide and lie to avoid difficult/emotional situations didn't help things either.

as episode 9 stands, a lot of the nuance in Pran & Wai's discussions gets a little lost imo. i love how it starts--Pran reaching out to Wai first is so good and amazing to me. i LOVE this subtle building of Pran's character and the implications it has for his childhood friendship with Pat--he's always been shaped by this hatred between his house and their neighbors, as well as Dissaya's pain over her fallout with her childhood friend. he lies and manipulates others to avoid conflict because he hates it, hates how its always been his burden, hates the pain its caused him literally all his life. and here, with Wai, it'd be so much easier for him to completely cut ties. but it'd hurt. it would hurt him so much to lose his friends, even if it'd be easier, and instead of isolating the way we know he's prone to, he reaches out first. and! this is noticeably the opposite of how Dissaya (didn't) handle her pain with Ming! Pran is and has always been the first one to break the cycle of pain between the two families--first in helping Paa, then building his friendship with Pat, then trying to find peace between the faculties. and for me, him reaching out first to Wai is this wonderful and subtle reinforcement of how he subverts our expectations and why he's my favorite character in BBS

so with episode 9, i would've loved something a little less dramatic than Pat getting shot that would've tied into that reoccurring theme in Pran's character a little more. the silent apology from Wai to him also got a little lost between ep9 to ep10, which put more of the burden on Pran ): so i want him and Wai to have a proper talk where Wai struggles with his messy feelings over everything and Pran is a little more honest about his connection with Pat, and Pran gets a proper spoken apology from Wai. Wai resolves to be a better friend and we see more of him being that better friend in situations where he wouldn't have to be (like, Wai wouldn't leave Pat to rot in prison for something he didn't do, that's just not who Wai is. so pushing Wai to instead be open with Pran and support/help him without bringing any of his own personal drama into it, in contrast to his past actions, has a bigger impact for me)

okay wow uh. so this story ramble RLY got away from me ahjfjhfjhf i think this even counts as meta now? rip. check out the other two links above for the Pran & Paa and Inkpa sides of this fic, but basically this fic is me grossly sobbing over Pran & Paa. breaking the cycle of hatred between their families really started with them and i think the ways that hatred and anger shaped the three kids is a lot more subtle with the two of them, and maybe gets a little lost in the fast paced narrative. so the ep9 alt doc is a lot of me crying over their character nuances but in writing fic form because i can't write proper meta to save my life 😂

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