It’s officially the last edition of ‘Sam watches Stray Kids music videos and has feelings’! This one is going to be kind of short, but it’s also going to be kind of delayed, as I am waiting until ‘Your Eyes’ comes out to post it. This one will have that video plus the four ‘Oddinary’ videos.
Parts One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine
*I’m going to add this disclaimer on all of them. These are just my opinions, these opinions are coming from someone who has only been a Stay for 2 months. I may miss stuff or think of things differently than other people, I don’t know. I’m just commenting on how I feel. Also, these are my opinions on the music videos as a whole. I’ve already talked about the songs themselves, and who I think stands out in a video may not be who I think stands out in the song.
Maniac - This was the first video and first song that I ever saw and heard from them, so it will always hold a special place in my heart. Even with that, it’s still one of my favorites. It’s full of chaos, a Stray Kids staple at this point, and I didn’t appreciate it as much the first time I watched it, but now I do. I love the choreography, love the looks, it’s a fantastic video. Also, love how colorful it is. Mentioned many times, but first one that caught my attention here was Jisung, but my personal favorite is probably Changbin.
Venom - Maniac was my first, but this was my second, and this is the one I love the most from this album. I love everything about it. The coloring, the looks, the concept. Even that creepy mechanical spider, and I hate spiders. There isn’t really any choreography in this one, but it’s still so good. Love the strings during Seungmin’s part, love that scene at the table with all of them, love all of it. Changbin is a stand out for me. Honestly, he’s my favorite in most of the ‘Oddinary’ videos. I watched all of these first, before any of other videos, and this is the reason I started to like him so much in the beginning. Seungmin was another fave here, and Felix.
Freeze - The shootout scene just doesn’t work for me, despite it being important to the plot of the video. However, everything else does. I absolutely love the looks. Love the concept. Love them putting Jeongin as the head guy. Love the rap line and the vocal line being separate at first. Love it. Changbin stands out, again, but so does Chan and Jeongin.
Lonely St. - Before I get into the video itself, I have to ask, why do the boys always have to be running in their videos? It occurs in at least half of them, and it’s like...is that how they get their cardio in? Anyways, this is an emotional video for an emotional song and I find it hard to talk about in terms of what I like. The boys all look fantastic, love the looks. Special shout out to Jeongin, who was stunning here. I’d say the part that touched me the most of Hyunjin in that glass box. It’s a little dramatic, but they’re all a little dramatic here, in terms of acting, which is okay, it fits the song. Also, love the ending shot, of all of them falling, thinking they were alone, but there were other people in the same boat. (I assume that’s what they were going for)
Your Eyes - This video was a lot. I barely even heard the song, I gotta be honest, I was distracted. I agree with the people saying that some of this was cringe, but some of it was cute. It was kind of on the line for both, honestly. I felt Chan’s part to be kind of cringe, but then Seungmin was cute, so it was back and forth. Minho’s part was my personal favorite, because, as I’ve mentioned, I am very fond of soft Minho.
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I try to generally be constructive and engaged with the show I love on here, so on this day, I’ll just say that one of the most thematically important aspects for me from the original ATLA is Aang’s emotional core of real shame for running away when he was hurt by the monk’s decision to send him away. People who feel the kind of deep-seated shame that Aang feels from this decision can understand how that kind of all-encompassing shame is not built around a simple failure or a lie they tell themselves; it’s constructed from real misbehaviors and transgressions of their own sense of ethics—lashing out, telling lies, attempting to hurt others intentionally—that then have consequences (abuses, abandonments, or deaths) which seem to far exceed their expectations or even basic logic.
The combination of the misbehavior with exaggerated existential punishments (along with a lack of support and amend-making in the immediate wake of the events) is what transforms a sense of guilt (I fucked up) into shame (I am a forever fuck-up). Then shame, that sense of being a secret monster ‘no matter what I do or how good everyone thinks I am,’ invites all the avoidance strategies (Aang puts on big smiles, makes lots of jokes, constantly tries to make everyone happy, hops from town to town without building deeper connections). One doesn’t want to acknowledge one’s true feelings or let others in to see those feelings and experiences because it’s too painful to face the grief at the same time that you have to look at yourself for being responsible—even when you recognize it wasn’t totally your fault. It’s just that if you had just been good, less emotional, less human, then maybe the world wouldn’t be so messed up. Of course, in a zen view of things, the world will always be messed up in the same way it will always be beautiful. These are constant facts that always coexist in balance, and this is the truth that Aang learns and that undergirds the whole series.
So I always loved that Aang ran away. It was his sin and his salvation. And it becomes this constant tension for the series—he gets hurt in Bato of the Water Tribe and starts to run away from Katara and Sokka, he runs away to the Guru in the Crossroads of Destiny and his best friend is attacked, he and the gaang retreat after the Day of the Black Sun failure, he runs away to meditation in Sozin’s Comet when everyone wants him preparing for war. Aang’s reluctance to be a hero and the attachments and petulance for which he gets criticized are what metamorphasize to become his most noble attributes. They allow him to empathize with others shame and, ultimately, wield the kind of compassion that can deconstruct the power and perfectionism of imperialism.
So yes, Aang ran away from his temple 100 years ago. It wasn’t the mentally healthy choice. It wasn’t the ethical choice. It wasn’t the wise choice. It was human and emotional and shameful and real. Aang is a better character for it. ATLA is a better show because of it. And we are better people when we understand these kind of tragic emotional experiences that people are trying so hard to grow through.
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Time loop fic set during season 2 when Jamie’s back around but Roy isn’t coaching yet where it takes Jamie and Roy an embarrassing amount of do-overs before they finally realize they’re both caught in it because for days Jamie goes over to Keeley’s place and antagonizes Roy in basically the exact same way because he thinks making the same stupid old man jokes all the time is funny anyway and any slight changes in conversation he just assumes is because he showed up at a different time or worded his own end of the conversation a little differently but Roy’s still basically saying the same grumpy old man shit anyway
And Roy makes basically the same retorts every time because he stands by it and he assumes Jamie shows up at slightly different times looking for Keeley as a butterfly effect of his morning with Keeley being different but that there’s no escaping him showing up to be a little bitch at some point
And like they both sometimes tell people but not the same people on the same version of the day so Keeley individually thinks that both of them are losing it on different versions of the day before eventually they both mention it
And then on like day 5 of the same day over and over Jamie doesn’t show up and Roy is irrationally angry about it but thinks it must be somehow connected to the fact that he was acting absolutely insane with Keeley trying to explain what’s happening while she thought he was fucking with her and somehow that made her brush off Jamie and him not show up or something?
And it takes Jamie showing up at 100 and just tearing Roy apart and going on about what a dick he is (which isn’t unusual but isn’t how this routine goes) and weirdly fixating on how he was excited to meet Roy but then he ended up just being an old washed up prick that never even gave him a chance because Jamie figures he can just show up, yell at Roy for all the reasons he’s so fixated on being a little asshole with a grudge against Roy in particular to get it out of his system, and then never have to deal with any consequences of Roy finding out about the whole embarrassing having been a big fan and expecting it to be so cool to play on a team with him just to immediately get offended that Roy didn’t give a shit about him and his bullshit and so Jamie ended up hating him thing
But instead Roy just scowls at him and is like “that’s not what you’re supposed to say” and Jamie’s like “…what.” And Roy’s like I’ve done this day like ten times already and either I make Keeley think I’m certifiable first thing in the morning and you don’t show up or else you show up looking for her and then make the same completely uncreative old man jokes at me and Jamie’s like what the fuck I’ve been doing this same day over and over and you’ve been making the same shitty jokes that weren’t funny the first time over and over again
And Keeley’s just sitting there watching this like “Are you two fucking with me? I can’t believe you two got along long enough to plan whatever the fuck this is.” And honestly, the fact that she couldn’t imagine them ever getting along to plan this stupid joke and agree on it is the main reason she actually starts to believe them that time in an okay either I’ve completely lost it or you two are stuck in a time loop kind of way and when she starts going on about how every time loop movie there’s like a moral the person has to learn and maybe they’re both caught in it because they’re supposed to learn how to get along and be friends and Roy’s supposed to take Ted’s offer and that’s how Jamie finds out about the Ted trying to convince Roy to coach thing
But they’re both like fuck no absolutely not, that’s not it and I’d rather be stuck in this stupid fucking loop forever than voluntarily spend time with him let alone get along (as if Jamie hasn’t shown up to annoy him practically every version of the day and Roy hasn’t just been sitting there waiting for him every time) and then they actively avoid each other for like a week’s worth of versions of the same day before they start considering that Keeley might have been on to something but it still takes three more days of pointedly not seeking the other out and waiting for the other to give in first before they run into each other at Ted’s place anyway and finally start actually swapping information they’ve picked up from their loops and what they’ve tried changing to try to get out and discussing ways to try to get out of it while Ted’s just sitting there cracking jokes and making annoyingly similar to what Keeley said comments about how in time loop and body switch things it’s always that you have to learn to see things from another perspective and be nicer to someone you don’t usually see eye to eye with before you can get out (Ted doesn’t actually believe they’re stuck in a time loop though, he’s just going well weird hypothetical but I’ll play along if this almost certainly made up scenario is what it takes for them to have an actual conversation with each other)
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