#to subvert the expectations of teh mentally ill character being a psychotic killer wouldve been just so much better

[globodamorte]

I think it's fun to see how some ppl will view chasing tails as being sympathetic towards seongbin but if I'm being quite honest I don't see it. if that was even bashis intention it just ended up being so shallow, like it's has the level of depth and care of a person watching someone fall on the street and get hurt, commenting to someone "oh my gosh look at that how awful :(" and not doing absolutely anything to help. like "look at that isn't that sad an awful and tragic?" but not truly exploring the roots and the effects of it and what can be done. it's deterministic and essentialist, teasing "what if" scenarios that just sound insincere given everything else the story has told so far.

"look at that isn't that sad? :("

"yeah well is there anything we can do about it"

"uhhh... idk that's so sad though..??" (don't dive into it just agree and say it's sad and move on)

I don't mean that chasing tails needs to play the role of an entertaining mental health brochure. but to claim to have researched a topic you say you were already interested in and ignoring the many facts about the reality of mentally ill people just comes off as disingenuous. or ignorant, purposefully so or not.

it's just bad. the way it shits on mentally ill people for the whole series to just then throw a "awhh isn't it sad that it ended like that? could it have been different?", when in the afterword itself they kinda confim it wouldn't have been different , after all, seongbin is mentally ill what else could've happened??? I can't even say it's performative bc it feels like it's not even trying to hide the pure ableism within itself. or maybe bashi doesn't even realize just how ableist they're being. I really truly can't tell.