#and joke's whole family being red whom he hasn't had a pleasant relationship with...

[dribs-and-drabbles]

This was going to be a post only about shoes as a gift for @respectthepetty...but then Pet made this post about graphic designers understanding the assignment and my thoughts started spiralling. I'll come back to the title cards and colour-coding later...but first, SHOES!

If you've been following me for a while, you'll know I pretty much lose it when I see a Thai character wearing the Mustard yellow-soled shoes (I really need to buy myself a pair). It started with Pat, Pran, and Pa in Bad Buddy...

...but the shoes have also been worn by Win and Lin (in Cupid's Last Wish), Tinn and Gun (Our Skyy 2 x My School President), Jeng (Step By Step), and most recently, Zo in Hidden Agenda.

But this isn't the point of the post. No.

My gift to Pet is my recent discovery that Joke in Hidden Agenda has shoes with BLUE soles.

I have yet to find them online but I haven't given up yet. I mean, look at them (I need a pair of these as well):

I had noticed the little pop of red on the heel during the airing of the show and thought it was a nice little nod to the red and yellow theme, but the discovery of the blue and Pet's insightful post I mentioned earlier has got me questioning.

Because I know the red and yellow theme was emphasised with the roselle and chrysanthemum juices, and the stories of the red roses and yellow sunflowers...and I know Pet has already written an outstanding analysis of the use of these two colours plus the blue and how they connect to the triangular theory of love...BUT I can't help looking at this

and wonder if this graphic designer also really understood the assignment.

Like, really understood

Really

Definitely

Understood

Because despite the red, I wonder if we do have singular colour-coded characters, with Joke being a loyal blue boy and Zo a yellow yal.

On Zo's practice date, he's painting in yellow with the yellow water in front of him but Joke has blue water in front of him despite painting green (in their play-fighting Joke threatens to throw the blue water over Zo). Joke also wipes the green on his face - a combination of these two colours.

After the date-that's-not-a-date, Zo decides to leave for a few days and takes both these colours with him (and, he soon accepts, Joke as well).

And when they meet Uncle Yod the hotel owner he's wearing their merged colours.

To Joke, Zo's face looks like the sun. He feels comfortable and warm around him. Zo thinks Joke should learn to generate that warmth for himself. Warm and cold.

Zo struggles with Joke's sincerity (just like they struggle to get the blue bus moving), even whilst wearing the blue shirt (with the yellow detail below the collar).

And even though Zo wears red once (and pink a few times), he wears blue several times. (I don't think I remember seeing Joke in red at all). And we get a colour exchange, with both of them in front of green backgrounds.

And finally, despite going home to his very red family, Joke has blue over his heart and Zo is finally embracing his yellow.

I'd very much like to posit that these are their true colours, that they've been carrying in their soles souls the whole time but maybe hiding them because they weren't fully sure of themselves or each other. Because when looked at like this, the graphic designers really did follow the assignment.