#gee this was a long one

[oliventrae]

The politics of "Never Let Me Go"

What prompted me to finally watch the series “Never Let Me Go” was seeing a specific scene from the series. It’s the scene on the beach, where Nuengdiao is yelling at Palm about them being from different classes, different societies etc. This caught my attention as something that could have some aspect of political commentary. I didn’t expect it, but I hoped for it. Especially as I kept on seeing opportunities for this commentary to occur while watching the show. 

Disclaimer: I know that this show utilises a lot of lakorn tropes and isn’t necessarily meant as political commentary, but I still feel that it is relevant to investigate the politics of the media that we consume. Also, I don’t understand Thai and therefore do not have knowledge on the actual meaning of subtitles I’ve quoted or much knowledge on the culture. 

To go back to the beach scene that I just mentioned; I was baffled to actually watch the context of it. When I first saw it on social media, I thought it would have been a sad speech made in a time of hardship, especially for Nuengdiao. Actually watching it, however, it was a moment where Palm made the slightest rejection of Nuengdiao, pushing him away whilst he was grieving the death of his mother. This was the first time Palm had in any way been disrespectful to Nuengdiao and it was in every way justified given the context. However, this grasp for control in their relationship was entirely rejected by Nuengdiao and what had previously seemed to me as a heartfelt speech was suddenly not only an immature and disproportionate temper tantrum, but an attempt at oppressing Palm even further. Know your place. Although Nuengdiao never says it and frequently tries to convey the opposite, the message shines clearly through much of the show: If you’re poor, know your place. If you’re rich you can do whatever. This is especially illustrated in the contrast not only between Nuengdiao and Palm, but also between Palm and Phum, the bully. Nuengdiao, as I’m sure we are all aware, has a bit of a temper and is frequently controlled by his emotions. This is contrasted by Palm, who is very controlled and can even be described as obedient in most situations. As I just mentioned, whenever Palm tries to break away from this obedience, he is immediately knocked down by either an emotional story from his father or a bunch of mean-spirited yelling from Nuengdiao.    

Nuengdiao is being empathised with by the show. An example of this is when Palm has a conversation with the woman who cooks Nuengdiao’s breakfast and Palm mentions that the amount of food being cooked is exaggerated. We might initially think that this is because Nuengdiao is spoiled, but when Palm goes to speak with him, he complains that the cook insists on cooking too much food for him. After this, Palm’s father is the one to say that Palm shouldn’t eat with Nuengdiao, not Nuengdiao himself. The inequality between Nuengdiao and the workers is therefore blamed on the working class more so than on Nuengdiao, Nuengdiao’s parents or the economic system. Palm is also sympathised with, but I would argue that this is only because of his forementioned obedience. Palm is an empathetic character because he respects the wealthy and is willing to sacrifice himself for their well-being. When he is not keeping an eye on Nuengdiao’s alcohol consumption at a party, he is punished. A similar situation is when Palm pushes Nuengdiao at the beach. Palm lacks the self respect to ever really hold Nuengdiao accountable for his actions, which I feel bleeds into the opinion of the overall show. He also falls in love with Nuengdiao very quickly and gets a tattoo of his name after them having been together for maybe a few weeks, at most a few months. I think it’s supposed to be romantic, but in reality it’s really just bad writing. For the most part Palm plays the part of the Good Poor Person and when he doesn’t, he’s put in his place. The Bad Poor Person contrasting Palm is Phum (although I’m not entirely sure he’s poor since he’s at the school and he has the money to pay for the outing video, but I think that his experience with his dad and his anti-capitalist politics code him as poor or at least not wealthy). Phum is a character that, like Nuengdiao, is very controlled by his emotions. He starts bullying Nuengdiao when Nuengdiao’s mother’s new decisions at the family company affect his family’s (and others’) finances so much that his father attempts suicide. This is obviously a deeply traumatising thing to experience for a young man and whilst the bullying is not justified, it makes sense that he would do some of the bullying that he starts out with, e.g. putting the “cheater” graffiti and flyers on Nuengdiao’s locker and stealing the necklace that is connected to Nuengdiao’s father and Nuengdiao’s position in the company. The outing, which is arguably the worst thing he does, doesn’t happen until after he is confronted about the bullying in episode 3. This confrontation scene is complicated because Phum is not in the right here, but neither is Nuengdiao, although he is portrayed as a saint for only asking for his necklace back. Phum explains his reasons for the bullying and the very sensitive information that his father tried to kill himself because of what Nuengdiao’s parents did, yet Nuengdiao shows no regret, sympathy, self-reflection or apologeticness. I’ll say it again: Phum was not right in his aggressive manner of handling the situation, but Nuengdiao’s continuous lack of sympathy for the lives of people less fortunate than him is similarly despicable although it is not portrayed as such. When confronted about the bullying, Phum also says that he’s doing it because of Nuengdiao’s “capitalist parents” (EP 3). I think this illustrates that the villains of the show are people who do not respect Nuengdiao’s family’s authority. Anti-capitalists are necessarily the villains of the series because our protagonist and hero is the heir of one of the biggest capitalist companies in this fictional version of Thailand. The heroes are cheating, evicting and causing people so much financial insecurity that they attempt suicide. Of course anti-capitalists, leftists and poor people would function as the villains in this scenario.

Similarly to the Good and Bad Poor Person, the show also has Good and Bad Capitalists. Nuengdiao and Chopper are the Good Capitalists. Nuengdiao finally does something about the protests in EP11, where he goes to the poor people at the market. He is met by banners with messages such as “the market belongs to everyone” and “give the land back to us.” He doesn’t give the land to them, but he does announce that he is going to let them keep using it. We never see their reactions to this. Nuengdiao also stops a casino from being built at the hotel because it is illegal and interestingly mentions in EP11 that illegal business is already taking place at his company, but that he is going to end it. Once again, the morality of his parents, who most likely implemented this illegal business, is never questioned. The show even has themes of having to choose between what is right and one’s parents with Chopper and his father, but the show never dares to extend this questioning onto Nuengdiao and his parents. Chopper is also a Good Capitalist because he makes his own money through stocks and other supposedly fair methods and he keeps saying to his father that he wants to make his own money. The villain of the show (his father) points out to him that it’s not very easy to make your own money, which is true although it obviously doesn’t mean that what he is doing is right. We never really see anyone struggling with money, except the villains (and a flashback of Palm’s father) because the Good Poor People are loyal to their employers and don’t expect anything more than what they get. Chopper’s father is the villain because he is disloyal to Nuengdiao’s family and wants to cheat his way to something that isn’t rightfully his. It is rightfully Nuengdiao’s because… well, it’s his birthright. 

Honestly, I found that "Never Let Me Go" is quite poorly written and the use of lakorn tropes might have been what led to the questionable politics of the show as well as the fact that Nuengdiao’s father originally was supposed to be a mafia boss (or so I’ve heard). In many ways I think "Never Let Me Go" contrasts "Not Me" with its complete lack of class consciousness and self reflection for our main character, which is unfortunate because it could have had such interesting political commentary. If only the writers had been willing to give their characters - both pro- and antagonists - some more depth.

[mmm-asbestos]

wanted to compile all these into one seriesss

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

What can I say? They're my favorite.

[mcroutfits]

Whatever the hell this is

6/10 theyre like two peas from the same trashcan

[harpygee]

Opal finds out that Humphrey can hold a sword! What other fabulous secret powers will Humphrey reveal this week in Harpy Gee? https://www.harpygee.com/comic/team-pink-and-purple-pt-5

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[dizzybizz]

Draw your farmer holding a chick... And they're just mesmerizing the guy with all its glory...

- Danon

thats so funny that you should suggest that bc i scribbled this yesterday 😭😭

uhm have another i cooked up real quick anduhm i didnt mean for this to happen but everything i touch becomes a meme redraw im so

uhm one thats actually the actual request

[softgrungeprophet]

my kaine playlist is 2 and a half hours long...

okay well actually it's more like—

there's my primary Kaine playlist which is 2 and a half hours long and kind of doubles as a partial Janine playlist (still mostly Kaine but there's bound to be some overlap, all things considered):

and maybe it has some questionable song choices

—

There's my Spider-Man (well, really it's just Peter) playlist which is also 2 and a half hours long and has perhaps what some might call "too much" Blink-182 and pop punk on it:

—

There's a mixtape from Annabelle to Kaine which probably isn't done yet but is 40 minutes long:

—

There's a response from Kaine that he makes after leaving which is 44 minutes long and also probably technically not done yet:

—

There's also a playlist for the "worst year of peter's life" fic-in-progress which is 55 minutes long, probably complete, and which is sort of about Kaine but is also about Peter and in general about the entire situation that they've all been subjected to (including like, Flash's interactions with not-Peter (Ben)) and also a little bit about the past:

—

I don't have a playlist for Ben lol

[eazysause]

man this coloring thing got hands

(the res quality kinda bad… i dont know how to make it clear n’ crispy)

[queenie-blackthorn]

tw gore

see i had this cute lil dream of my dad teaching me to drive bc ive been begging him to teach me even before i turned 16

but i woke up bc my baby cousin came to my house n he was screeching in excitement over smth

then i fell back asleep while he was still screaming and had a nightmare about a weird school with creepy ass writing on the wall and starved childrens bodies without heads and their feet stitched on backwards

and the writing was basically in scrawled chalk and it was saying stuff like “PLEASE FEED US” and “LET US OUT”

how wonderful amirite

[twowink]

average subaru inner monologue: (ahhh. no matter what, i'm so glad i can stand on the sparkling stage with my friends…)

average hokuto inner monologue: (i'm a worthless man who left them all behind. i don't deserve to stand on the same stage as them.)

average makoto inner monologue: (i'm a burden holding them all back. i don't deserve to stand on the same stage as them.)

average mao inner monologue: (i'm just a normal guy among geniuses. i don't deserve to stand on the same stage as them.)

average anzu inner monologue: ( 🪰 )

[irbcallmefynn]

nothing like spending all of the money you have on steam on a replacement controller for your vr headset because the stick is busted!

yeah I've been wanting to play more vr for a long time but I've never wanted to deal with the stick drift and stick... twist? idk what you'd call it but the stick on the left controller of my index twists which is not correct. the replacement left controllers only got back in stock recently so i seized the opportunity and now ill be able to do vr again in like 3-5 days i think maybe.

yaaaayyyyy :333

[featuresofinterest]

i do wish tv local news was more than "here's the horrifying violent crime that happened near you today. also look at these disgusting disgusting homeless people killing the city. and now for sports and the weather" and i sure wish my parents didn't consume this every single day

[singsweetmelodies]

With all respect and love, I absolutely love your fake dating au. If I had to choose an update between that and the kissing fic (or anything else really) I would always choose the fake dating au. There is so much potential! Please tell me you plan on updating and finishing it? If you’re not, can you at least share with us the fic plans so we can have some closure about it? Would you consider letting another author adopt the gif to finish it if you won’t? It really is a Piarles must-read. I hope I can learn the ending!

but see, anon, you DON'T get to choose. only i get to choose, and i have chosen to update the 2023 kisses fic. 😌

... you know, i debated for a long time if i would even bother answering this ask, or just delete it right off the bat. because in my opinion, this is an incredibly rude, insensitive and entitled thing to send to any writer. it was ONLY A FEW DAYS AGO that i talked publicly about how important it is to remember that writers are humans, too, not machines, and to please treat us like humans. and yet here i am again.

i'm going to answer this one more time, and i'm going to answer it in detail, and then in future if i get any asks in this vein, they WILL be deleted without any interaction. you guys are making me consider turning off anon asks entirely, which i really don't want to do, because the other half of my anons are SO very lovely!! but i also have had enough of waking up to rudeness and blatant entitlement in my inbox.

so. why exactly is it that i think this ask is so entitled and insensitive? didn't the anon say "with all respect and love" and compliment my fic at the start of it?

yes. yes, they did. but the thing is, saying "with all respect and love" doesn't mean you can then proceed to be rude to me and it's all fine. that's like me saying "with all due love and respect, i have decided to delete the fic entirely." the fact that i prefaced it with "love and respect" does not make what i did later alright. (although in this case, it WOULD be alright regardless of whether i prefaced it with "love and respect" or not, since it's MY fic and i can do what i want with it.) this anon, on the other hand - this anon has no right to demand anything of me. i am a fanfic author and i do this for free. it is not my job. i have no obligation to do any of this. which means that nobody out there, really, has any right to demand performance from me. (lmao can you tell i have been deep in the law textbooks lately) but the point stands! i don't owe you anything at all.

yes, you can ask me nicely, and i can choose to reply if i want. (hell, if you ask me nicely, i'd probably LOVE to write things for you!!) but you don't get to DEMAND updates from me. and "tell me you plan on updating and finishing // can you at least share with us the fic plans so we can have some closure" is not asking nicely. that's demanding. YES, anon gave me a compliment and they said "with all respect and love." but they're STILL demanding performance from me, and that's not okay. the anon is making it sound like i owe you "closure" (even though this is a work of fiction, not a break-up you're going through, and i think the word "closure" is a VERY dramatic one to use.)

once again (because apparently i LITERALLY CANNOT emphasise it enough) i do not actually owe you anything. i, katie singsweetmelodies, owe you NOTHING. i do not owe you updates or fic plans or whatever the case may be. i might choose to share them with you, yes, but on my own schedule, since they're MY creations made in MY free time.

right. got that off my chest. gosh. NOW! one other thing that i want to make very, very clear before i end this off - i do not give my permission for anyone to "adopt" my work or to write a continuation of it. i am the one who's put in the hours to write all the setup we have so far. i'm not letting someone else benefit off that. if you so badly want a fake dating fic with the conclusion already ready, then you are more than welcome to put in the hours and create it from scratch yourself. but for someone else to take over my work and take it in a direction i probably won't even like? no. absolutely not. permission emphatically NOT granted.

anon: i'm sorry if you feel that this reply is unnecessarily harsh. but this could not have come at a worse time for me, because i really did talk about the importance of treating writers like people just here, just a day or two ago. needless to say, it really struck a very bad chord with me to get an ask like this right after i took pains to explain, publicly, why these kinds of asks are not okay.

i really am happy that you are enjoying the fake dating fic. and i do appreciate that you tried to tell me that, even though the way you did it was completely out of line. i hope that this answer won't... preclude you from enjoying the fic in the future? or something? i'm not sure, to be honest. the whole thing has left rather a bad taste in my mouth.

but one thing i will say to anyone reading this: i know it's been a long time, but just bear with me. i mean it when i say that there will be an update eventually. no, i can't tell you when. i'm not even going to try and give you a schedule, because like i said, i'm a human and not a writing machine. but the fake dating fic is very close to my heart, and i want to see it finished someday just as much as you do. ❤️

(P.S. - if anyone was very worried reading the first part of this answer: NO, i am not actually going to delete the fake dating fic!!! i was just using a very dramatic example, lmao. the fake dating fic is one of my favourite things i've written, and despite the slight... mess... about its updates recently, that's not going to change anytime soon. 💙)

[bestworstcase]

thinking abt sc searching for the relic at beacon is also hilarious bc it’s. like

gee.

i wonder if this random little circular ruin in the middle of the grimm infested forest where ozpin sends first year students to choose “relics” that not so secretly determine the composition of their teams might have something to do with where he’s hidden the RELIC of CHOICE

(bonus points if those ruins are ruins of the ozlem kingdom and ozpin buried the crown there for the symbolism of it all.)

[harpygee]

Happy New Year! Happy 2023! The Harpy Gee comic turns NINE years old this week! WEE!

[woahthisguy4721]