#smt smt smt inho seethes bc the way into gihuns heart and mind is through a dead man who took what he had for granted

[shortnotsweet]

mitski’s “i bet on losing dogs” is about gihun’s flawed but altruistic drive to do what’s good, although it ultimately costs him and inflicts wounds in himself and those he loves that will never heal, not even to scar. “I know they're losing and I'll pay for my place by the ring, where I'll be looking in their eyes when they're down. I'll be there on their side. I'm losing by their side. I wanna feel it.” his mission to value the lives of others functionally comes at the cost of his own, which is masochistic but ultimately freeing because he’s lived in debt for years and constantly been aware of the monetary cost placed on his spirit and body. “Will you let me, baby, lose on losing dogs?” is a question rhetorically posed to both inho and sangwoo, both of whom dismiss the question as pointless or illogical (respectively), but deep down recognize that they themselves are the losing dogs and gihun’s devotion to them is not singular but an extension of his moral backbone. they hate themselves but can’t bring themselves to hate gihun so instead must resent the question, because there is nothing so bruising or so incapacitating as a reminder of their own lack of undeserved worth. there is a price to dignity and yet gihun would never name it, would rather die with them. if he can’t he’d stay with them while they went and lose himself all the more. inho watched gihun’s last moments with sangwoo and knew this. sangwoo was loved and still died like a dog in the dirt, and inho wills himself into his place because gihun will be with him to mourn the kind of man he once was and through the manufactured death of youngil, he will know that his life meant something to gihun. what sweeter death is there than that.

and marina’s “are you satisfied?” is about sangwoo bc he was a burnt out gifted kid. wow i can’t believe mitski and marina saw into the future and wrote those absolutely bangers using their powers of foresight and lyricism. absolutely legends for that