#prathipsits

[vegaseatsass]

I really think it is the familial version of the word "romantic" that New dosed himself with his own murder drug just to see Non again.

Like when Phee snaps him out of it, New doesn't say he wanted to punish himself, or stew in his grief, or even be accompanied in his grief. He says he wanted to escape reality and see his brother again. He begs the accusing hallucination of his brother not to leave.

I'm just. This achingly, beautifully brutal story.

[vegaseatsass]

#know what I love about this? #lots of shows would've had Non admonish New #tell him he was wrong or he'd wasted his life #not dff tho #it gave them closure #and added to the mystery of the ending #is New's subconscious telling him what he wants to hear? #is Non's ghost really thanking his brother? #did anything after Phee passed out really happen anyway? #whatever you want baby -@impending-doom-lol

[ameliarating]

Love the split between Phee and New about what Non wants/would have wanted, with Phee crying that this isn't what he would want, that Non never would ask for this and New seeing? dreaming? hallucinating? Non at the end thanking him for taking revenge on his behalf, because in a likelihood, they're both right.

There just isn't really such thing as the one, immutable essential self. People change, have different sides, want different things from moment to moment. And a person who takes medication for mental illness, like Non, may not only exhibit very different selves when they are off or on their meds, but they experience themselves and the world differently.

And I've heard this described as mediation suppressing your true self or, conversely, as medication bringing forth the true self your illness has suppressed. But that again relies on the idea that there is one true self to begin with. Which there just isn't. (Which doesn't mean that people may themselves experience their selves to be trueer off or on meds. It just means that there isn't an objective true person hidden in one or the other experience.)

The Non Phee knew best and loved best probably would not have wanted that massacre. The Non of the end of his life who wrote the script that served as New's guide and who fantasized about it almost certainly did. Which does mean they're both probably right. But it also means they're both wrong to assume they know Non's full story in the first place.

Which, for sure, is the point. No one knows Non's full story. Everyone knows parts of it but not all and even his death happens off-screen. No one really knows what happened to Non. Let alone what Non wants.

[fracturediron]

This whole argument scene between Non's parents and the subsequent fight before he leaves the house is just heartbreaking. For anyone who has a dysfunctional family where screaming rows like this are commonplace, it's incredible relatable. Being powerless to stop your parents fighting, maybe even being the cause of your parents fighting, and feeling like it's all your fault. And no matter where you go in the house to cry, it's never far away enough not to still hear the screaming.

I've mentioned it before, but something I really enjoy about DFF is how none of the characters are completely good or bad, or particularly perfect in the way they handle difficult emotional situations, and that's also demonstrated with Non's parents. They honestly feel like the most realistic parents and family I've seen written for TV, especially parents of this generation.

So often, TV parents of happy families are 'flawed' and will make a mistake, only to be actually self-aware enough to realise they've done wrong or they fucked up with their kid, and to make it up to their kid(s) before episode's end, resolving everything happily.

Whereas real life really isn't like that. So many of these parents, when they're flawed, are really fucking flawed not just as people, but as parents! So many parents of that generation aren't self-aware! So many of these parents were also abused by their parents and went through the same kind of dysfunction, sometimes even worse than what they do to us! So many of these parents need fucking therapy and it will never even cross their mind because therapy's only for 'crazy' people! So many of these parents don't realise how unapproachable they make themselves to their kids and that's why they can never come to them with their problems! So many of these parents probably would've been happier divorced but will never do that and will stick together screaming at each other until one of them dies! So many of these parents will never, ever apologise for the harm they did to you, either because they don't realise they've even caused any harm, or because "Well, I'm your parent! I'm always in the right!"* So many of these parents are emotionally abusive without even realising they are or that emotional abuse is even a thing! Because hey, back in their day, they would've gotten beaten; you've got it so much better.**

Rant aside, though, for all their flaws, severe dysfunction and at times, frankly terrible ways they're handling this whole situation with Non, Non's parents still clearly love him. Yes, I say clearly. It's easy to hate on Non's parents (and for many of us who come from dysfunctional families, this is probably even easier; it's incredibly easy to relate to Non and a lot of his circumstances), and I've seen comments doing just that. However, as with Jin, I don't think Non's parents are monsters either.

Money might not buy happiness, but it definitely makes things easier. And if your family's poor, and constantly struggling to make ends meet or having to take out loans to support your kids, that makes your life circumstances already so much harder.

The myth of the perfect 'happy family' cultivates the idea that if your parents love you, then you'll all be happy together always and your family life will be perfect.

But in real life, your parents can love you - honestly, truly love you and care about your wellbeing - and still really screw you up emotionally. Sometimes, no matter how much they love you, it isn't enough to prevent then fucking up parenting and failing you catastrophically. It's a bitter pill to swallow.

For all the difficulties they have with each other and their child, he's still their son and they still care for him. Again, for all the terrible ways they're handling this whole thing, they care about him enough to make sure he gets the medication he needs, for his dad to stick up for him to his mum, for his mum to try and go after him when he leaves, for them to put aside their differences when he goes missing and to look into raising the money for a new lawyer to look into his disappearance. They're clearly worried and devastated that he's missing!

I wasn't really sure where this was going when I first started writing it, and I'm not sure how to end this, apart from thinking, well... the Prathipsits as a whole really are unfortunate.

*Adding footnotes because otherwise this would've broken up the flow of my writing. Although I enjoyed Turning Red, for real, the most unrealistic part was a Chinese mother actually apologising to her child. ASIAN PARENTS NEVER SAY THEY'RE SORRY AHAHA :'). The fat-shaming aunties, though, that was too real lol.

**While corporal punishment has decreased in general in most of Asia (and this'll vary by countries, but at least in some places, is not pracised in schools anymore), it's still seen in some parts or in some forms or contexts as acceptable by the older generation. Like, I'm a millenial in my late 20s, and I know male cousins or friends around the same age who still got physically beaten by their parents when they didn't do well in school or got in trouble, and that was just seen as normal by the parents and their peers. They didn't see it as abusive at all (their kids, not so much); just what was necessary to literally whip their kids into shape. Obviously, physical abuse is bad.

[void-of-chill]

Barcode Tinnasit Isarapongporn as “Non” Thanakorn Prathipsit - Dead Friend Forever (2023)

[recentadultburnout]

Dead Friend Forever - DFF (2023)

เพื่อนตาย (the series name in Thai) means best friend, true friend, real friend, faithful friend, but it consists of the words 'friend (เพื่อน)' and 'dead/die (ตาย)'.

Phi พี

Ratthakiat Phromjinda รัฐเกียรติ พรหมจินดา

Phi-meaty, plump, fat (positive meaning) or it might be shortened from something, or maybe a letter P.

Rat- state, country, nation, territory, realm, kingdom, land

Tha-a sound that put in to help link two words(Rat and Kiat) together.

Kiat- prestige, honour, honor, glory, reputation, dignity, fame

Phrom-Brahma

Jinda-precious stone, gem

Jin จิน

Jinnaphat Sukmek จิณณภัทร สุขเมฆ

Jin-This (จิน) spelling has no meaning in Thai. It might just be a simplified spelling of his legal name's first syllable(จิณ).or maybe it means to represent a word from other language. idk

Jin (จิณ)-Well behaved, one who behaved well

na-a sound that put in to help link two words together.

phat-good, prosperous, excellent

Suk-happy, happiness, joy

Mek-cloud

Tee ตี๋

Pariphat Wanit ปริพัฒน์ วาณิชย์

Tee-Chinese boy

Pariphat-Prosperous in every way

Wanit-Commerce, trade, business

White ไวท์

Watcharin Siriphan วัชรินทร์ ศิริพันธ์

White-Not a Thai word

Watcharin-Lord of Diamonds/Thunder (refer to Lord Indra)

Siri-splendor, glory

phan-binding, related, bound

Tan แทน

Siriwat Phatthanon ศิริวัฒน์ พัฒนานนท์

Tan-represent, stand for, substitute, replace, take the place of, substitute for, supplant, supercede, show gratitude to, repay(meaning dependent on the context)

Siriwat-prosperous

Phatthanon-rejoice in prosperity

Fluke ฟลุ้ค

Phakhin Thianthong ภาคิน เทียนทอง

Fluke-Not a Thai word

Phakhin-lucky person

Thianthong-gold candle, name of a plant (Duranta erecta L)

Top ท้อป

Sirawit Wibulsilp สิรวิชญ์ วิบูลย์ศิลป์

Top-Not a Thai word

Sirawit-The greatest philosopher

Wibul-big, spacious, many, full, complete

Silp-art

Por ปอ

Prachaya Suwannarat ปราชญา สุวรรณรัตน์

Por-jute, hemp, dragonfly

Prachaya-wit

Suwan-gold

Na-a sound that put in to help link Suwan and Rat together.

Rat-gem, precious stone. Might be refer to The Three Jewels of Buddhism (just my opinion)

Non นนท์

Thanakorn Prathipsit ธนกร ประทีปสิทธิ์

Non-pleasure, delight, enjoyment, happiness, joy, contentment, satisfaction

Thanakorn-Create wealth/assets

Prathip-lamp, lantern, light, torch

Sit-right, authority, privilege, ownership, possibility

Keng เก่ง

Ratchanon Kijkarun รัชชานนท์ กิจการุณย์

Keng-excellently, expertly, proficiently, skilfully, brilliantly, good at

Ratchanon-rejoice in treasure

Kij-affair, activity, work, business, operation, duty

Karun- kindliness, compassion, pity, mercy, gracefulness, benevolence, kindheartedness, beneficent

If you look closely, you may notice that some words in the names and surnames of each character are repeated.

The meanings of some of them are pretty similar too.

Not that it's weird.

I just feel like it is a little more than usual. But it isn't exactly like they are a set with an intended theme?? It's just that some of the words they use are kind of in the same group in my head????

Index

[syrena-del-mar]

"Thank you."

Barcode Tinnasit as Non Prathipsit and Mio Athens as Tan Phatthananon in Dead Friend Forever (2023). x

[raelle-writing]

From "I promise I'll never lie to you..."

To "I lied to you..."

To "You found out."

Ta Nannakun as "Phi Ratthakiat Phromjinda" and Barcode Tinnasit as "Non Thanakorn Prathipsit" in Dead Friend Forever episode 7

[blfanfest]

Dead Friend Forever - DFF

Details

Title: เพื่อน ตาย DFF

Also known as: Phuean Tai DFF

of episodes: 12

Air dates: Dec 23, 2023 - Mar 9, 2024

Director: Ma-Deaw Chookiat Sakveerakul, Chantana Tiprachart

Production Company: Be On Cloud

Country: Thailand

Watch via:iQIYI

Summary

Eight school friends take a trip to a vacation house in the mountains. It's supposed to be a last sendoff to a friend who's going to study abroad. The farewell has them revisiting old memories and they discover hints there's a ninth person hidden somewhere in the house. Soon, they're contending with life-threatening incidents and realize this is no ordinary farewell; a dreadful party of disaster awaits them.

Cast

Ta Nannakun Pakapatpornpob as "Phi" Ratthakiat Phromjinda

Copper Phuriwat Chotiratanasak as "Jin" Jinnaphat Sukmek

JJay Patiphan Fueangfunuwat as "Tee" Pariphat Wanit

Fuaiz Thanawat Shinawatra as "White" Watcharin Siriphan

Mio Athens Werapatanakul as "Tan" Siriwat Phatthanon

Bump Pawat Akkradetsakul as "Fluke" Phakhin Thianthong

Jet Jetsadakorn Bundit as "Top" Sirawit Wibulsilp

Us Nititorn Akkarachotsopon as "Por" Prachaya Suwannarat

Barcode Tinnasit Isarapongporn as "Non" Thanakorn Prathipsit

Episode Links

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

[vegaseatsass]

DFF Ep11 Spoilers: New/Phee Braindump

@bellamygate asked me to turn the Phee/New discussion in the replies of this post into its own post and I DO keep thinking about them, so:

After Tee and New throw away their futures for Non, in a deranged and desperate kind of self-abasement, White descends from a different, happier genre to avert Tee's depression trajectory and get him back onto a path with some hope, but New has no one. New is completely alone, clinging to his ghosts of the past for warmth as he burns down his entire future. Then @turtlesocksv2 brought up Phee, and his role and potential role in New's life!

And it got me thinking about how alone together Phee and New are. How they start out theoretically aligned in their grief and thirst for answers and accountability, but Phee wanders off their shared path into the woods with Jin pretty fast, and New spends the next two years trying to yank him back next to him in their partnership with brute force.

New has no relationships and nobody to help him process his grief or his pain or his very existent mental illness; the only people he has in his life after losing his ENTIRE FUCKING FAMILY are the high school kids who tortured his brother to death, and Phee. So yeah, when he calls Phee a slut and accuses him of cheating on the brother I believe New believes in his heart is fully dead, what I really think he's accusing him of is cheating on New. They're in this like unhappy arranged vengeance marriage, which New originally told Phee he could leave at any time and finish high school, but even after the passion went out in the first few months New's been hanging onto their partnership for dear life because Phee is all he's got.

ALSO: The cinematic parallels between New accusing Phee of cheating on Non when what he's actually mad about is Phee "cheating" on their shared project, and Phee accusing Non of "cheating" on him with Keng, when the real betrayal (which I don't believe Phee has ever admitted to himself) is that Non went outside their little codependency cocoon for help, and didn't trust Phee to be a superboyfriend who could singlehandedly fix all his problems.

(@turtlesocksv2 pointed out New is right there begging Phee to be his murder superboyfriend! What's the issue even!!! Why can't Phee commit!!! Are New's tears not delicate enough?? Does he smell too strongly of weed and loathing? Is he too tall to cradle protectively in ur arms?? Too much older than you to bottom??? Stop buying into fandom discourse about assigned roles, Phee! >:()

I also just love the idea of slippage in New's mind, between where Non ends and New begins. Phee tries the "Is this what Non would have wanted?" shit and New nearly laughs in his face, because New wants retribution: it's personal for him. They took his entire family. What they did to Non, they did to Non and New's parents, they did to New. I want to know how much he identifies with Non, how much he's lost sight of what Non would or wouldn't want, how often he deliberately hallucinates Non to talk to him, to consult with him, etc. (New is so alone did I mention how alone he is), but it's fascinating to me that his response to Phee isn't "yes he would fucking want this, I know him best" but, very clearly: "do you think I care what he wants right now?"

[airgiodslv]

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The most nominated fandom this year! Nominated characters:

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Dead Friend Forever - DFF (TV)

Non Thanakorn Prathipsit

Phi Ratthakiat Phromjinda

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[ameliarating]

I'd like to make the argument, in the whole 'What did Non want debate', that actually neither of them are right.

Non wanted to live. He wanted to live and be loved by his boyfriend and not have totally shitty friends. And now he is dead. Maybe Non's spirit would want revenge or maybe he wouldn't. What he really wanted, he will never have because his life was stolen from him.

I always viewed Phee and New's thoughts as them manifesting their own wants onto Non.

Phee wants to move on. He loved Non and I believe some of him still does, but he was also a young boy who has already mourned the loss of this relationship. He doesn't want to murder anyone or be involved in elaborate revenge plots. So he thinks that's what Non wanted.

New wants revenge. His whole life was destroyed by these boys. He has no parents, no brother, nothing left. Non might be dead, but he is the one that is left to clean up the mess. And he thinks that destroying the people who made Non's life hell will fulfill him. And so he thinks Non wants them dead too.

Both of them might be right to some degree, like you said. But truly I think the whole irony is that Non didn't want any of this. Non just wanted to live.

I think this is a very possible read, except that here it's not clear to me that Phee was necessarily wrong. Phee, in the end, doesn't want any of this either. And since I think Phee and New play a narrative role highlighting different sides of Non (both of which we see in him alive), we actually need New to have a point.

Otherwise it's the story of a tragic and cruel older brother who completely misread his younger brother and his younger brother's reasonable ex. That's definitely a read of the story and it's the one I'm sure Phee has! But I don't think that's the horror story being told.

Towards the end of his life, before he was kidnapped, Non was absolutely fantasizing about violent revenge, to the point of a stabbing at the house. This is the part of Non that New understands.

So yes, I absolutely agree with you that both these boys are projecting their own worldview onto Non who definitely wanted to live -and not just live, but live better, as we know from the note Tee read. (Interestingly, this is the part of Non that Phee never understood, as we know from his hallucinations that he imagines Non killing himself.)

But I really think there's something to both of their projections that aren't completely disconnected from the Non they knew and loved.

[vegaseatsass]

I obviously see a lot of potential for awful deranged New ships in canon; aside from my beloved miserable Pheenew, there is also i M o potential for terrible Teenew, and I always want the Tanfluke shippers to explain their passions in more detail to me.

That said, for anyone who wants a ship becoming of New's sexiness may I please suggest New/Porsche. Big brothers across universes. I do think New would probably be pretty mean to Porsche at first for prioritizing dick over his little brother in the last year but it would actually come from deep envy over how Porsche lived for his little brother and not himself for every year before that. And together they could either learn to balance their "I don't deserve a life of my own unless he's okay" unhingedness, or lean into it together and make each other worse <3

[vegaseatsass]

I was describing DFF to a friend from CQL fandom and she said New with Non sounded kind of like Huaisang with Mingjue, and it def clarified a lot for me about how I feel about both avenging brothers.

The ends don't justify the means, the cats and children and working class servants murdered along the way aren't erasable casualties in the name of a true justice, and these avengers are fundamentally unhinged, twisted, broken people, not righteous seekers of fairness in the world. But I love that both of them are driven by real desperation and are frantic and messy in how much they need to make their revenge happen at any cost; someone trying to burn the world down in their grief, and actually taking the good parts of the world and themselves down along with their target(s), adds so much texture and dimension to the narrative for me.

I love a justice story and an ethical revenge, but for example w/ The Glory, even though that's for me the best it's ever been done, we still have things like a woman being victim-blamed for her rape and drug addiction as narratively acceptable modes of vengeance. I find something freeing in a story that isn't about punishment and who deserves what, but just about the emotional depths people are driven to by loss and rage and the unfairness of a world with no accountability.

[fracturediron]

Hear me out, Icarus by The Crane Wives for Non and New

[recentadultburnout]

I’m so sorry here it is, it was shown pretty early in episode 9.

That's okay😆 It's talking about a form asking for a relocation. The wording sounds pretty weird to me, but in my understanding, Wiroj Prathipsit (I assume he is the father) asked his company to relocate him from the current branch to the Lampang branch, and the company approved.