#is it enough for the protagonist to hang onto after neil'd left and he has to move on with his life? with tenet?

[iamtheprotagoneil]

Hi Aris!!! I just wanted to ask if you’ve heard the song “1000x” by Jarryd James & Broods? IT SCREAMS PROTAGONEIL SO MUCH.

“In another lifetime / I would never change my mind / I would do it again / Oh, a thousand times.”

I just can’t get over TP & Neil and needed to scream this at you. Thank you for being the protagoneil resource we all need in these trying times. ❤️💙

hi, friend. dude, you don’t know how grateful i am of this ask, because i took a listen to this song and i am now OBSESSED. it is a good song (to me at least), and it most definitely screams protagoneil

Even if I'm leaving you at the door Even when I know that you're never lonely Harder than imagined Harder when it's cold

this makes me think of protagoneil post-canon, when they’ve found each other again and established their relationship like we all know they would.

it’s the protagonist leaving neil to go on a mission, or vice versa, and the protagonist wouldn’t be able to stop himself thinking and worrying about neil. is he fine? did he get enough sleep today? what did he eat for breakfast? for lunch? for dinner? is he lonely without me there with him? 

it’s all very silly. he knows neil would be fine, knows that he knows how to take care of himself, that he’s got friends (not advised per tenet’s policies), that he’s just fine without the protagonist there besides him. but the protagonist just can’t help it, okay? he worries, and he worries more when neil is the one who leaves for missions. he won’t die here; you know this, yet irrationally, the protagonist worries.

Even when I'm playing in the fire Even when I'm doing it for all my life Harder than imagined Harder when I let it go

i imagine this is them saying goodbye. see, the game they play; the life they lead is quite dangerous, and they lose people more than they could ever learn to get used to. still, the protagonist losing neil / neil losing his protagoneil in the future, still the hardest thing - the hardest loss that either of them would ever have to experience. 

i dont think i’ve talked enough about neil’s side of that goodbye on this blog. like, he’s also losing someone very important to him, and not for the first time. the first time (if they even had that) must have been agonizing, must have been going straight to hell and back, but then this - neil having to walk away from the love of his life once more because he’s just too good, too devoted to do the things that he wants more than anything else.

or maybe, they didn’t get that first goodbye because of circumstances, cutting short their time together (shorter than it already is). maybe neil’s learned to let go, to move on despite how hard it was. all those years in inversion, he’s figured out a way to stop it from hurting him so much. but then, he meets the protagonist again, and all of his efforts just go straight out the door that the protagonist had walked in, all confident and fresh and handsome and all the things neil’d tried so hard to let go  😭😭😭

Never would I ever let my love escape you Never keep you from the promises I gave you Further than imagined Further than we've ever known

thinking about the protagonist trying to keep his distance from neil and ultimately failing because that’s just not how their story goes. (also i imagine neil would be quite persistent in earning the protagonist’s respect; keep injecting himself in the protagonist’s life despite how much the latter resist.) ((i’ve also read the first chapter of that may contain nuts fic and it’s really, really good. basically what i’m trying to say here heh))

also the second line makes me think about how neil never outright lied to the protagonist in the movie. it makes me think of neil’s little “i’ll tell you about it after we’re done with this, if you still care”. it makes me think about how careful the protagonist would be with neil in the future, thinking things once, twice, thrice over in his mind before saying it out loud because he doesn’t want to give neil false hopes, can’t have neil knowing too much, can’t expose himself of all the things he’s been feeling.

Tell me that love is enough The seas will be parted for us Tell me that love is, ooh

idk dude, this just makes me really sad.

In another lifetime I would never change my mind I would do it again Ooh, a thousand times Just to let you in here Where you make me lose my mind In another life I'd do it all again a thousand times

and you know they would. you know despite how much it hurts, they’d do it all again. they’d fall in love again despite the pain it would cause them when they have to part. they’d die for each other again, because it would always be the easiest thing they’d ever do. they’d meet each other, they’d know each other. do it all over again a hundred times, a thousand times, a million times. it doesn’t matter. that’s just the way their story goes.