So he's reliving his past while he's probably dying due to a heart attack. The great at death's door is somehow changing the circumstances. This is so interesting and confusing. I can't wait to see where it goes.
I don't think Great can actually jump through time, I think everything in this series has already happened and he may be at death's door wanting to re-write all his wrongs.
Sand and his generosity.
Sand is a great character and I find it interesting that even though he did a crime, is actively doing another crime the majority of the fandom is behind him being such a good guy, and he is. But it got me thinking. Why is he so generous towards ray?
Now 14 yr old me would have instantly said true love but now I know a lot more. Something about his care for ray feel so familiar. Like he knows exactly what to do with someone like ray, on the verge of an alcoholic spiral 24/7.
The first few episodes we see them connecting but even if they did connect more then the other couples, there was something huge missing. Sand didn't know the extend of rays addiction. And then we see sand processing it and then top comes barging in and derails him and the entire trainwreck that resulted and sand had understood just how gone ray is. That boy needs rehab asap.
But sand goes after him, he saves him, he takes care of him, he bends to his every whim and is happy to do so, only to be tossed aside. And it's in the way he takes care of him. He knows how to take care of a drunk person , he knows how to be gentle with them , he knows how to scold them without coming across as demeaning or prejudice. He has the patience of someone who's already dealt with circumstances like these. Of taking care of a loved one who is an addict.
You can see it in the way he doesn't bring up the outburst. He bought up the drunk driving because it has the potential to cause lasting harm. But an outburst in a bar will be just that an outburst. Sand doesn't know that ray had told mew about topton, but he doesn't give the outburst much thought when ray had attacked him directly. And that's where I think he knows what to except from an outburst from an addict and is choosing to not take it personally. And that level of insight is not typical in a 20 something college kid , even if the college kid works in a bar , because ray targeted him specially. Nobody would have blamed him if he didn't go, heck rays friends who he have known for years didn't go but sand a recent acquaintance went.
Now it can be said that sand has seen the good side of ray, and he has. When it comes with dealing with addicts most people focus on changing the bad side and forget about the good side. But sand didn't , he saw the good side, liked it and is trying to get that back. That smile in the bathtub, he thought he was getting it back. But then he saw raymew dancing and that look is so interesting. Because there's no anger, there's sadness, and heartbreak and disappointed. And there's resignation. He predicted it would happen and it did.
He wasn't disappointed with ray, he was disappointed in himself. He was dealing with an addict, trying to save him when the person doesn't want to be saved. Something he has done before. Something he so familiar with he was anticipating the heartbreak when he and ray had hooked up. It's exactly like playing with fire.
So why did he jump right in when he knows the pain, because it's familiar to him.
So who's this person who has given sand the experience with working with addicts . Either his mom who's the closest person we have seen to him or his ex.
Imagine if it was his ex , someone he loved , cared for and has helped with a recovery process but then top comes and takes him away. By using drugs.
Which would explain why sand is so mad at him , why he insisted that top stole him.
Sand saw the good side with his ex , helped him get back and all that was tossed away for the next fix that top had with him. And he fought tooth and nails for him , but the ex chose his next fix and not him.
Then his eyes fell on a boy similar to his ex , who's also going through addiction and sand wants to help him since it's so familiar. And he knows it's a bad idea and he is watching the exact same thing happen away and this time he's so resigned and too tired too fight.
His generosity is not just because he's a good person , it's because he's used to it, it's because it's familiar to him.
It was good of Bison to make a visual schedule. Having met Style, I’m also not convinced he can read
I've seen a lot of people hating on Ray, and it's honestly baffling to me.
As someone who has loved, and been loved by addicts -- someone who was raised by an addict -- it's honestly infuriating and painful to see so many people write Ray off as just a selfish drunk.
At first, it was clear that most people have never met or loved an addict. But it's become more and more about just straight up dehumanizing addicts, as though Ray's alcoholism makes him a bad person who doesn't deserve to be happy.
And like, fuck. If people can't see a character as sympathetic as Ray as a whole person, Ray, whose motivations and hurt are so clear and easy to understand, then what about the people in your lives who are addicts or otherwise struggling with mental illness? What do you think about strangers you might encounter who have fucked up their lives or relationships because of addiction? What about the addicts who aren't so easy to understand and want better for? What hope and care is there for them in your eyes?
Do they not deserve to recover and make amends with those they've hurt and be met with understanding -- not even necessarily forgiveness! Just acknowledgement of their struggle and their attempt to get and be better!
What about the addicts that never really make it out of their addiction? Do they not deserve basic compassion? Yes, even the ones who are mean in their inebriation. Even the ones that can't see or can't care about what they're doing to the people around them.
Ray is easy to understand, and he's easy to love, and some of y'all are holding him to standards the rest of the characters don't have to meet, and it is 100% because he chooses alcohol to cope with and avoid his pain. And I just think you should take a few to really think about why that is.
(it's interesting that Ray's friends and his dad all do this to some degree, this dismissing his worth because of his addiction and reducing him to an inconvenience. That they all dismiss his feelings and his ability to feel, and even tease him about his need to be loved. They all refuse to see when he's trying to be better and making progress, because they've all decided that he can't change, that he can't get sober, and that means they don't have to stop encouraging and enabling his drinking; they don't have to care about him.
Mew gets a pass for his drinking and drug use and assholishness, because they can blame Ray for it.
Sand has been the only person to see Ray as a whole person, and to love him anyway.
It isn't easy, loving someone so deep in their addiction. But Sand knows who Ray is, he sees Ray, and has let himself love him anyway. And some of y'all have decided this means Sand is being stupid, or that Ray has manipulated him into it, and this means they're terrible and toxic for each other.
It's interesting that some people find so little likeable about Ray in particular when the whole lot of them are such a mess.
They're all selfish and destructive in their own ways, but Ray is the one who gets talked about like he doesn't deserve to be happy or redeemed. Because people can't understand why an addict behaves like an addict, and doesn't just choose to stop.)
Anyways, this got away from me.
The way this show is portraying young people living with addiction is so real and accurate, and it's difficult and painful to see Ray and his addiction be treated like he is by the people in his life, and in discussions about him.
I sincerely hope that the people stuck on characterizing Ray as less than never know the pain of addiction, but I really really hope that any addicts in their lives/ who may come into their lives get better from them than they're giving this character who is so clearly good, who is trying, who is so easy to understand; because those people deserve better.
Rewatching Apothecary Diaries and remembering how much I love these dorks
Reki Kyan and Langa Hasegawa matching icons from the new OVA :D
I really really liked this silly show. I think a lot of its problems come from the fact that it is an adaptation of a text that is almost a decade old now and shows it. (As much as I genuinely love the original, it is dated, and Returns goes a long way to unpick it).
But I like its humour (it's SO funny), I like its heart. I like that it has space for sincerity.
There are things that frustrated me - boss's moment of realisation and self acceptance was undone again and again, Mo starts out determined to fight but runs away again. And again. In the end, it's more like a sitcom or a cartoon in that regard: the conditions are reset, returned to the status quo (most especially with the factory reset of the amnesia plot) until something eventually shifts. Boss becomes almost like bugs bunny, popping up when he most isn't (or is) wanted - a trickster figure who stalls or moves the action on as required. If I watch it again (which I probably will), I'll watch it with this more in mind.
I like, also, that it gave Earth a chance to show his versatility. He's been so typecast that even still I see people surprised that he's not a 40 year old chicken rice seller. He's allowed to be goofy, sweet, and clumsy, to show what an excellent physical actor he is. He and Mix were given the space to improvise (the leg grab in the break up scene was improvised!!), showing their dramatic and comedic instincts. They seem to have really enjoyed filming this series, to have had the chance to try something new and work with a veteran actor like P'Krit.
It's so apparent that this show was made with love - it's not perfect and there are things that I would change - but I have so much time for it and I'm glad that it exists.
A little advice from someone studying extremist groups: if you’re in a social media environment where the daily ubiquitous message is that you have no hope of any kind of future and you can’t possibly achieve anything without a violent overthrow of society, you’re being radicalized, and not in the good way.
i think it's funny that some people would use maomao as an example of a 'strong female lead' to put down other shojo girls who are traditionally more girlish and feminine and emotionally sensitive (or 'crybabies') as if maomao wouldn't be the first one to jump into their defense if they're in the same universe. maomao is literally the most girls' girl, empathetic, understanding girl you'll ever see and she'll hate you for putting other fmcs down to lift her up
like. how do you like maomao bcs you're supposedly a feminist but you hate like a man??
Same
i say “this is my song” to about 50 songs
She/Her, Slytherin, can't focus on one thing, loves morally gray characters, likes bl way too much, all signs lead to it
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