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nurselynn · 21 days ago

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A Fascinating Forest Friend :: Part Two

Deep in the forest, in the middle of a dreary Cascadia autumn, an unlikely bond blossoms between the sun and the moon.

pairing :: tamarack baumann & pran taylor word count :: 2.1k

read on ao3 :: all parts :: part one

The next time that Pran saw the girl, he had been the one crying.

It had been a rough day. It started out with Pran waking up in the freezing cold, shivering under his little fleece throw blanket on his mattress on the floor. Daddy must have come home and turned off the heat to save electricity last night, and the thin trailer walls did nothing to keep the chill out.

Shaking hands fumbled around the floor, searching through discarded clothes to find something, anything to keep his body warm. Pran couldn't stand the cold, not after living in so many warm places all his life. But he also couldn't stand the thought of wearing a shirt to bed. Freezing or suffocated, he wasn't sure which would even be worse.

But finally, his hands landed on what he had been looking for: the only warm sweater he owned that fit, that pretty pastel sweater with the kittens on it that Amma had bought him when they moved here. It got a lot of use from Pran, and as such, had become worn and faded in a very short time. It also didn't see many washes, considering he was wearing it more often than not when one of his parents decided to finally do laundry, and the threads had begun collecting twigs and crunched up leaves from his time in the woods. He didn't mind, though; he liked that it was pretty, and it kept him warm, so he didn't particularly care if it was a bit dirty.

Pran had started searching through the cabinets for something to eat — if he was lucky, maybe Daddy had stopped by the food bank and brought home something other than canned lentils or dried fruit — but there was nothing in the kitchen that wasn't there yesterday. Which is to say, not much at all. He had just begun checking the jars in the fridge for their expiration dates, when he heard the muffled sound of voices coming from down the hall and froze.

It was Amma and Daddy, of course. They were hardly ever at home, even more rarely at the same time, and for that Pran was grateful. It wasn't that he particularly disliked either of his parents... but he definitely disliked them when they were together. Them being at home together meant they were probably arguing, arguing about Naans, about him. It made his stomach churn even more painfully than the hunger did, and he felt light-headed all of a sudden.

He hated it. Hated hearing it, hated knowing that they were probably mad at him, that he had probably done something bad and wrong and Naans were mad — probably mad at Daddy, but Daddy would get mad at Amma about it, and Amma would get mad at Pran for not doing better to make everyone happy, and... It scared him, not knowing what he did, what they were talking about. But it was about him, always about him.

This was the only time they ever paid attention to him, wasn't it? When he had messed up. Pran could clean the house, wash the clothes, pass whatever tests he had to take so he wouldn't have to go to real school... but that was never important. Only when he was bad. Only when he tried to make Naans happy, and his parents would get mad, or when he tried to make his parents happy, and Naans would get mad, and... Why wasn't he important other than when he was bad?

He was so deep in his anxious, angry thoughts, heart beating hard and head woozy, that the sound of his parents' door popping open was as startling as a gunshot. The glass jar in his trembling hands dropped, shattering at his feet, and glass and jam coated the floor. Pran could only stare down at it in mortified horror, his face hot. Oh no. Oh no oh no.

"Pranala?" came Amma's voice, and before she could say anything else, Pran bolted.

His feet didn't stop moving and his breaths didn't stop coming in ragged pants until he was deep in the woods across town. Only under the veil of dreary autumn trees did he allow himself to stop, and his hands were still shaking. Despite walking for miles and being out of breath, he felt restless, if only on the inside.

Honestly, he wanted to just drop to the ground and curl up into a little ball and disappear into the grass beneath him. He felt so bad, his lungs hurt, and he didn't know why. Well, he knew why, but he didn't know why it was so bad.

Why couldn't he just... let his mind take a backseat in his body and accept things, like he always did? It wasn't something he did on purpose, or something he had ever really thought about, until now, now that he couldn't, now that he was sitting in the forefront of his own mind and he had no way to keep the fear and the hurt from getting at him. He was feeling all of it at once, every bit of bad emotion and uncertainty and...

He just wished he didn't have to.

The cold wind bit at his face more harshly than it usually did, and Pran realized belatedly that it was because he was beginning to cry. Ugh. Even just realizing that he was crying made him cry harder, a hard lump forming in his throat and his hands coming up to rub stubbornly at his eyes. But the tears wouldn't stop coming, and it wasn't long before they turned into full-on sobs.

Pran ducked his head into his sweater, pulling the neckline up over his eyes. He pressed the sweater against his face, breathing shakily, trying to will the tears and sobs and that lump in his throat to just go away. He wanted everything to go away. Including himself.

But of course, the opposite would happen. Of course.

A flurry of leaves being kicked around startled him once more. Someone was coming. Pran didn’t even waste time processing anything this time before he began scrambling to climb up the nearest tree. He had to hide.

Pran’s thin legs and trembling hands worked on instinct, grasping at the rough bark as he scrambled up the tree. His breath hitched with every movement, his sweater catching on the branches as he climbed higher, fast and desperate. He didn’t know who it was, didn’t care — all he knew was that he couldn’t be seen like this. He didn’t want anyone to see him crying, didn’t want anyone to ask questions, didn’t want anyone to see how worthless and pathetic he felt.

Once he had climbed high enough — or at least as high as he dared — Pran perched on a thick branch, his thighs clenching tight around the tree limb. He buried his face in the crook of his arms, muffling his sobs as best as he could. His sweater smelled faintly of the woods, of earth and rain and leaves, and he tried to focus on that instead of the lump in his throat or the ache in his chest.

The footsteps below came closer, crunching softly over the fallen leaves and twigs. Pran peeked down through the lattice of branches, just barely lifting his head, and saw her.

It was the girl.

The one from before. The one with the auburn hair like sunshine and the big, curious eyes and the voice that had been so warm and earnest even while she sniffled. Tamarack, she had said her name was. Pran’s stomach twisted into a nervous knot as he watched her scan the forest floor, her hands on her hips and her brow furrowed in determination.

“Tamarack!” came another voice, distant but growing louder. That other kid, the loud one with the cranberry-red hair, was calling after her again. Pran’s heart stuttered. Of course she wasn’t alone. Why would she be? A girl like her probably had tons of friends. And if she heard him crying, if she told someone else about him, then—

“I heard it,” Tamarack muttered to herself, interrupting Pran’s thoughts as she spotted the tree he was in. She tilted her head back, and for one terrifying moment, Pran thought she was looking directly at him. He held his breath, pressing himself as close to the trunk as he could, his heart pounding so loudly he was sure she could hear it.

But she didn’t seem to actually spot him. Instead, she crouched by the base of the tree, poking around in the bushes. “Where’d you go this time?” she murmured, her voice soft. She sounded almost... sad.

Pran frowned, confused despite himself. Was she talking to him? No, that didn’t make sense. She couldn’t know he was up here. But then why—

“Tamarack!” The red-haired kid appeared from between the trees, their hands stuffed into the pockets of their oversized green hoodie. “What are you doing? You’re gonna get all muddy.”

“I’m looking for him!” Tamarack said, brushing a strand of golden hair out of her face as she stood. Her voice was louder now, not the soft tone she spoke with before. “I think he was here.”

The other kid squinted at her, clearly skeptical. “The tall, sad, ghost kid? Tamarack, come on. I told you, he probably wasn’t even real. Maybe you imagined him.”

“I didn’t imagine him!” Tamarack spun around to face them, her hands balled into fists at her sides. “He was real, Franky. I know he was real. He—” She stopped abruptly, glancing down at her feet. Her voice softened when she spoke again. “He just looked like he needed a friend, that’s all.”

Pran’s chest tightened. He didn’t know why her words affected him so much. Maybe it was the way she said it, like she really meant it. Like she wasn’t just saying it to sound nice or to be polite. Like she really cared.

But... no. She didn’t even know him. She couldn’t care about him. No one did. Not really.

“Even if he is real, Tamarack,” Franky said, tugging a leaf out of their hair, “he probably doesn’t wanna be found. You said he ran off last time, right? Maybe he just wants to be left alone.”

Tamarack sighed, crossing her arms. “Maybe. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try to find him.” She glanced back at the tree, her eyes scanning the branches. Pran ducked behind the trunk, his breath catching in his throat. “I think he’s scared.”

Franky shrugged, kicking at a rock on the ground. “Whatever you say. But if you wanna play hide-and-seek with a ghost, you’re on your own. I’m going to go find Qiu.”

“Fine,” Tamarack huffed, watching as Franky turned and disappeared back into the trees. She stayed where she was, though, her gaze drifting back to the tree. For a moment, she just stood there, silent and still, and Pran wondered if she really could see him. But then she did something that made his heart drop.

She sat down.

Right there, at the base of the tree, she sat cross-legged in the damp grass, leaning her back against the trunk. She didn’t say anything, didn’t move, just sat there, looking up at the branches above her.

Pran swallowed hard, his thoughts racing. What was she doing? Was she waiting for him to come down? Did she know he was there? Should he say something? Should he climb down? Should he stay hidden?

Before he could decide, Tamarack spoke.

“I know you’re up there,” she said quietly, her voice barely louder than the rustling of the leaves. Pran's eyes widened; she had known the whole time, but was waiting for him to be ready to come down. Oh. Oh. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”

Pran blinked, his breath hitching. Sorry? What was she sorry for?

“I didn’t mean to scare you off last time,” she continued, her fingers picking at a blade of grass. “I just... I thought you looked sad, before. And I know what that feels like. So I wanted to talk to you. But I shouldn’t have been so pushy. I’m sorry.”

Pran stared down at her, his head spinning. No one had ever apologized to him like that before. Not Amma, not Daddy, not Naans. Not anyone. And the way she said it, like she really meant it, like she was really sorry... it made something ache deep in his chest.

“I’ll leave you alone if that’s what you want,” Tamarack said after a moment, her voice quieter now. “But... I wanna be your friend. If you wanna be friends too… I’ll be here.”

Pran didn’t respond. He couldn’t. His throat felt too tight, his chest too heavy. All he could do was sit there, high up in the tree, and watch as Tamarack stood, brushing the dirt off her legs. She set off in the same direction her actual friend had gone, and he watched as she disappeared beyond the trees.

The sun was gone, and Pran started to cry again.

previous :: all parts :: next

#forestfriend.txt #.txt #our life now and forever #olnf #tamarack baumann #pran taylor #prantam

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telomeke-bbs · 1 year ago

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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. I only realized this after a recent rewatch, but American football actually does appear in Bad Buddy – take a second look at all the posters on the walls of Pat's student apartment:

(above, left) Bad Buddy Ep.2 [4/4] 1.06; (above, center) Bad Buddy Ep.2 [4/4] 1.57; (above, right) Bad Buddy Ep.2 [4/4] 17.21

(above, left) A composite image showing American football posters behind Pat at Ep.2 [1‌/4] 2.35; (above, right) more posters above Pat's kitchen sink at Ep.2 [1‌/4] 12.12, with a rugby one sandwiched between two American football ones

In my mind Director Aof really was signaling Pat's link with Lucy and her football from early on, in plain sight. 😊👍🤩

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P.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. 😂

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