#i dont intend to be a shameless friends apologist but im vvvvvvvvv invested in that group squad pic at the end of the op sequence

[snickerdoodlles]

Wai’s still the same

So something that I haven’t seen mentioned yet is how a lot of Wai’s actions in ep7 directly parallel his actions in ep1. And I want to turn a quick light on that because I’m personally really invested in how Wai’s actions have turned from a positive push in Pran’s life to a negative one due to different contexts, and how I think they will still change again as the story goes on and all these characters grow together

Put this under a readmore since it got long, but here’s some rambles about how Wai’s trying to be a good friend and why it’s not working, plus some Pat rambles as an end treat because I love that boy:

So, the first thing to talk about is Wai’s still trying to help Pran reconnect to music. Consider one of the first interactions we saw between Wai and Pran:

Music is very important to Pran and integral to himself. He’s always listening to music in everything he does and he even puts a lot of consideration in how the music integrates with his activities. It’s also a way he connects with his family and his friends, and also a very important way he expresses himself:

Yet in the audience’s introduction to the Freshy Day Music Competition, Pran insists he’s given up the guitar and he has no interest in going back to it. This is very obviously a lie, just look at the way the kid lights up any time he looks at the guitars in the music shop, but it’s a lie Pran’s clinging to. And one of the main reasons why Pran picks up the guitar again is Wai.

In fact, for most of ep1-4, we as the audience see Wai being a really good friend and a huge positive push Pran needs. Pran's main conflict in all of Bad Buddy can really be summed up here:

We know how it’s going to end, isn’t it better not to start at all? (x)

And Pran’s slowly learning that the answer is no, it’s always worth pursuing what makes you happy. You can’t know how something will turn out, but letting opportunities pass you by means you will never achieve what you want. You can’t and won’t out plan every risk, and that’s okay.

Of course, Pran’s biggest influence to overcoming this fear will be Pat. And I’ll circle back to that in a minute, but before Pat, the person pushing him and encouraging him was Wai. It’s Wai who encourages Pran to join the Freshy Day Competition and encourages Pran to confront the floor guy hitting on him via dumplings. And these pushes are a good thing. Pran is very insular and at the beginning of the show, he needs this outside push to help him confront his fears of risk. Wai’s earlier actions helped give Pran the excuse and encouragement he needed to reach for something he wanted (or, at least, something he’s scared to face).

The problem with Wai now is that he’s hasn’t realized Pran’s grown.

Pran is not the same person he was in ep1. In ep1&6, he wasn’t running away from only the guitar. He was running away from the very old and still weeping sore of his family’s drama he doesn’t want to be a part of and his long time crush on Pat. He’s wrapped up so much of this pain in his guitar that he wants to get rid of this physical reminder and presence.

Wai doesn’t know this.

Pran doesn’t open up to Wai about this very complex and messy situation. Which, fair tbh, but it means that all Wai knows is that his friend is running away again from something that he loves, something Wai had just seen Pran reconnect to:

Now, this push to help Pran come out of one of his shells in regards to music was only successful because Pran chose to make this leap--Wai may have encouraged him, but Pran was the one that ultimately chose it. The sequence where Pran is delayed getting the competition form wasn’t just a narrative tool to keep Pran away from Wai and the other engineers--it’s Pran choosing, repeatedly, to join the music competition. He could’ve let Wai distract himself getting the form, he could’ve left as soon as he saw the empty music room, he could’ve left when there were no more forms. But he doesn’t. Pran chooses, over and over, to join the competition, even if he won’t say it in words.

And that’s where Wai’s actions start to fall apart in ep7.

He assumes that Pran’s still running away from music and tries to help push Pran back to it. Just look at the progression of Wai trying to reconnect Pran to music in ep7: he starts with asking Pran to join him on sound for the play. When Pran rejects him, he still tries to get Pran to help out (and, from his perspective, Pran does seem to be pretty into it). And then, finally, he begs Pran to take over his duties as the sound person for the play and drops off Pran’s guitar that he’s been caring for.

And it’s wrong.

Wai is not listening to Pran. Even if giving Pran a push would be a good thing, it is not Wai’s place to decide this. He needs to respect Pran’s boundaries, both spoken and unspoken, and remember that it’s ultimately up to Pran to choose what he wants to do. Right now, he’s taking advantage of Pran’s nature to accept responsibilities to try to push Pran into a place that he thinks will be good for him.

Now, all of this does not make Wai a bad person. It just makes him a person.

But there are two reasons why Wai’s coming off as especially bad in this episode: Pat, and perspective bias.

Pat is just plain amazing. He’s very good at offering his help and encouragement to others in ways that don’t come off as overbearing or intrusive, and the way he acts around Pran especially highlights this aspect of his caring nature. Every time he pushes Pran to confront something he might be uncomfortable facing, he still does it in a way that still gives Pran control over the situation--he’ll ask Pran questions but let Pran set the boundaries (”do you think we could be friends?” / “do you?”), he’ll fold the newspaper but let Pran decide how much space to give him, he won’t let Pran run away but he’ll make up a bet to help Pran feel more comfortable. Pran can open up to Pat because Pat’s really the only one so far that doesn’t impose on Pran--he lets him come to him and he’s always there when Pran looks for help, and that’s why we see Pran’s first awkward and clumsy (and defensive) attempt to reach out for help in ep7

(Also, the way Pat rejects Pran hiding behind the wall of their bet but later still showing Pran that he’ll be there for him is AMAZING and we will be talking about that in a different post because I’m still half-feral over Pat being the best boy I love him so much.)

And the thing is, when we have this amazing foil and positive influence in Pat, the other characters trying to help/push Pran fall leagues short. They were good for Pran at one point and they're still actions of care, but Pran’s grown beyond it and his friends haven’t (yet).

That said, Wai’s actions are still particularly grating in ep5-7 in a way that they aren’t in 1-4, and that tone shift is also due to the change in narrative perspective.

Pran is a lot more forgiving of his friends than Pat. We see it in how the fights are framed and how Pran defends his friends in the first 4 episodes, and then we see that bias flip on the two friend groups for ep5-7 (and probably ep8 as well). But that doesn’t mean that the perspective won’t shift again.

We’ve already seen a huge narrative shift in character perspective on one character: Pat. Even just comparing how he’s introduced in the first half of ep1 to the second half. We got a speedrun on the narrative shift because of PatPran’s history, but Pat is introduced as a thug that’s uninhibited and out of control, plus a selfish jackass that won’t even do his own laundry and thinks the world revolves around him (”why did you follow me to university?”). But as soon as he starts to reconnect with Pran, his caring and nurturing personality is revealed. We even see how his confidence is mistaken for arrogance, how he gets pulled into drama he doesn’t want to be a part of, and how careful he is of other people’s boundaries even when he’s pushing someone out of their comfort zone.

the tl;dr of this is Wai’s acting the same as he always has been. He’s still the sweetheart we met in ep1-4, but he’s currently a static character in a developing narrative and we’re getting a much less forgiving narrative perspective on his flaws right now. And that’s okay! All of these characters still have a lot more room to grow, but they care about each other. It’s going to be really interesting to see how the narrative’s perspective on all of them change as we not only shift to a more balanced narrative POV in ep9-12, but also as these characters grow to be better people as well.

#bad buddy #bad buddy ep7 #long post #people can hurt each other out of love but they can also grow to be better for that love as well #all i want is for the friends to find out about patpran and decide on their own in secret to stop fighting and stop being dicks #like i just want them to go thru their character growth on their own time with many shenanigans so patpran can flirt in peace #ANYWAYS tl;dr i get being annoyed at wai these latest episodes but hes still the sweetheart from ep1-4 #i think i saw smth about a tweet about how hes not ''nice'' and tbh i???? dont get why ppl are worried about it??????????? #wai's literally never been ''nice'' have u watched ep1 #he cares and he tries but he has a mountain of an ego he needs to get over he always has #pran's just more sympathetic to him and we feel bad for him when hes bullied at work #i just dont think a b&w read on. well. any of the characters tbh but esp a b&w read on the friends is accurate #that does not fit bad buddy's overarching narrative #and if u dont care about the friends growth or reasonings thats cool but then this post isnt for u so 😂😂 nbd #i dont intend to be a shameless friends apologist but im vvvvvvvvv invested in that group squad pic at the end of the op sequence #and im v excited to see how we're going to get from the friends-as-of-now to that #the friends just havent rly changed since ep1. the audience still has to do a lot of legwork to extrapolate their characters atm #so it makes sense that they first want to show those sides and flaws of the characters first before they go onto the character growth stage #ANYWAYS SHUTTING UP NOW #this is so rambly hfjhfhjf i just have a lot of feelings about foils pat and wai ahhhhh