#after that ep the line “look who’s digging their own grave” really hits different | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mentalcurls · 5 years

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6.4 Basta

I actually half heartedly tried to make a proper post about 6.4 Basta, but I have too many different things to say so listicle it is, keeping with the tradition of my SkamIT meta posts.

in the very first shot, when Ele lags behind as her and Edo walk, she looks so much smaller than him. And like, she’s shorter, that’s a fact, but the shot exacerbates that and I wonder: is it her feeling particularly small? Or does Edoardo feel like the Big Bad Guy/Wolf (aka the epitome of menacing characters) to her?

then Edo starts talking and tells Eleonora how she feels and puts words in her mouth. Does he correctly guess the things Ele is thinking of saying? Yes, he probably gets very close. Does it give him the right of him to speak for her? No. He is trying to make them communicate and that’s good, that’s healthy in a relationship, but then it’s not a two way communication, it’s him telling her how she feels and what she’s gonna say.

Let’s talk about the conversation he imagines between them: he says Ele is gonna tell him to stop punching people; his answer is “Okay, but I told you to stay inside.” and guess what? That’s not a fricking answer to the problem Ele would be pointing out. She’s opposed to the frequent resort to violence on Edo’s part: if she had stayed inside, she wouldn’t have seen the violence, but it still would have happened. Besides, why should she have stayed inside? Who is he to tell her where to go and what to do? She was safe anyways, all girls were since they stayed well out of the fight and just watched. So, what he really means is: “Okay, you seeing me punch people was your own fault because I told you to stay away, so that I could (potentially) lie to you and downplay my part in the fight and how violent it was.”

Then Edoardo continues imagining their conversation: Eleonora would object “Okay, but you have to stop [punching people].” which is a fair assessment of how she’d react to his previous non-answer; then he says ⟪and I’ll tell you: “Okay, I’ll stop.” Peace. The end. We kiss and that’s it.⟫ and here lies the biggest problem imho: the way it sound to me is that he’d agree with her just to stop fighting so they can go back to making out, he wouldn’t do it because he understood what Ele’s problem with what he did is, he’d just agree in order to make up, he wouldn’t even stop to reflect on what he’d done so at the next occasion he’d act just the same and expect Ele to forgive him again too because he’d have a precedent. Again, no two way communication in his imagination, Ele’d be talking but he wouldn’t be listening.

and even outside of the conversation Edoardo imagines, it’s not like he listens. He hears what she says, but he’s got his answers ready, he’s already thought out which objections Ele will bring and he’s prepared to answer

and, I mean, Ele isn’t listening either, she definitely thinks she’s in the right and she’s not open to seeing Edo’s point of view, but to be honest instead of explaining his reasoning he’s just listing excuses and putting words in her mouth

the Edoardo says that thing with the guys from piazza Giuochi were basically over and that no fight would have happened if Marti and Gio hadn’t “decided” to fight. So many problems in such few words. First off, things were not over with the Piazza Giouchi guys, they might have been nearly over in his opinion/from his POV, but look at the chronology:

Edoardo headbutted one of the Piazza Giuochi guys because he hit on Emma but she refused him so the guy called her a whore so Edo intervened

the Piazza Giuochi guys beat up Canegallo and Martucci while Edo was with Ele

two Piazza Giuochi guys got kicked out of the raffle party for starting shit & being homophobic to Marti

the Piazza Giuochi guys caught Gio and Marti alone, hit them, Edo & co went after them

so what I see is a sequence of revenges: the Villa guys win, the Piazza Giuochi guys win, the Villa Guys win, Piazza Giuochi guys try to even out the score. Did Edo honestly thinking that in a general climate of animosity the other guys would just accept being thrown out of a party, because of someone they view as inferior too, and not try to get retribution? Jajaja, que fun, as my queen Lydia Riera would say. Then of course he does the horrible thing of trying to place the blame of an homophobic attack on the victims, so he’s basically digging his own grave here. He backtracks immediately when Ele points out he’s victim-blaming and tries to talk about the experience, very close to her, of a gay person suffering what’s basically a hate crime.

and here’s another thing that bugs me immensely: he doesn’t let Ele speak. He interrupts her when she’s about to go on a rant about homophobia and victim-blaming, then he tells her she doesn’t listen, then when she asks him to listen to her he starts trying to interrupt her and one-up her raising progressively his voice till he’s screaming so loud he imposes himself and shuts her up. Probably because he seems scary and intimidates her into silence, especially when you think that just a couple of days prior she saw him destroy a wooden chair on a person’s back.

he actually yells, so loud it echoes, “Listen to me for a second!” when, honestly, he’s done nothing but talk up until now.

and finally we get to the crux of the matter: Edo doesn’t want to get a lecture from Eleonora. A lecture he knows is coming, one he has imagined and against which he’s probably prepared arguments, even, so much so that even if it came at this point he wouldn’t listen to a word because he’d be too wrapped up in his own retorts. But the retorts are not even necessary cause he’s so mad because of what he expects her to say he doesn’t even let her speak, just yells over her, to avoid that infamous lecture.

So really, he’s asking Ele to see things from his perspective, when he doesn’t want to do the same. A balanced discussion and relationship? We don’t know them.

btw, I personally feel like Eleonora in this instance would be more of the “cold shoulder” inclination, not of the yelling and lecturing inclination, but that’s me; I mean, she avoided his calls for almost two days, she didn’t even want to look at him today, so… (btw, at the beginning Edo tells Ele to stop avoiding looking at him, so he wants her attention on himself, but it has to be the exact kind of attention he wants, which is why he gives her a script of what he wants her to say in a fight and gets mad when she doesn’t adhere to it)

and like, Ele sees things only in black and white, very few shades of gray, lines firmly drawn and not to be surpassed, which means she’s not willing to compromise and that’s not good for communication, the negotiation of conflicts and ultimately relationships. But Edo is also very, very firmly attached to his own cynical vision of things and his Black and Grey Morality, where he gets away with ruthless actions because he’s on the good-but-imperfect side while the other side is much worse (the homophobic assholes of Piazza Giuochi, who are obviously Evil), there is no truly good side and evil is Inherent in the System, so e.g. the police is not a real solution or any help.

so then Edoardo resorts to the Jerk Justification of Appeal to Inherent Nature: that’s just him. Which Eleonora correctly read as an attempt to use the Freudian Excuse of his Dark and Troubled Past, but a Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse so she gives him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech that closely mimics the speech she gave him in ep. 7 season 1 “Ho fatto un casino” (all capitalised and italicized words refer to tropes as categorized by TV Tropes)

the last jab about playing the victim is hella mean, but he shouted her into shutting up so I think we’re mostly even, personally

how condescending is that “You know, no-one is forcing you to be with me”? And it’s an ultimatum at the same time. Edo. Giving Ele a ultimatum. When he’s the one who has shown signs of violent behaviour.

the last look Ele gives Edo feels pretty pointed in my opinion, she’s telling him she’s not stupid and not to condescend her and yes, she’s perfectly aware she can not be with him, would he like if she actually decided not to be?, but the she breaks, opens her mouth to say something… and Edoardo stalks away, having already decided what she’s chosen to do without letting her speak

the poetic cinema of that last shot with Edo in black going one way and Ele with her bright white bag going the opposite way… kudos, Ludo

I’d also like to add that I’m struggling a bit this season. Too few clips, too few social media updates, it feels like I’m missing a huge part of the story (without even going in about Marti facing homophobia again and again and no way for us to see the consequences) and I can never understand Ele’s state of mind. I’m not into this season as much as I hoped I’d be.

#skam italia #eleonora sava #edoardo incanti #incantava #skamit s3 #6.4 basta #skamit meta #a. writes

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