my school president meta: gun and sound parallels + learning through love
in short: this post will discuss gun and sound's character development parallels through their relationships with their respective romantic partners, and how these similarities inform the closeness of their friendship!
under the cut because i have much to say <3
in the episode that sound is first introduced (ep 4), he and gun are set up as opposing forces. they’re competing for the leadership role of the band, and they have contrasting character flaws. what the other lacks, the other has an abundance of:
gun has no self-confidence but is earnest, kind, understanding, and friendly. even if the general public (aka classmates, teachers) look down on him for being a poor student, he has close friends who genuinely love him and believe in him.
sound is a successful actor and musician at a young age and therefore has an inflated ego. though he is talented and confident in himself and his skills, he lacks the social skills to build any meaningful relationships in his life, despite the love and attention he receives from fans and the public.
however, gun and sound's personal journeys to overcoming these flaws parallel each other closely, developing in large part through their respective relationships with tinn and win.
tinn and win are the perfect partners to help gun and sound confront their flaws.
tinn is kind, attentive, and likes gun unconditionally. he recognizes all of the good qualities that gun misses about himself, his compliments are always natural and unpracticed—he just genuinely believes in gun’s talent and goodness. he is communicative but knows what he wants, which is good for gun whose uncertainty leads to him hurting himself more often than not.
meanwhile win is combative and honest. sound’s celebrity status doesn’t affect win’s initial dislike of him or his loyalty to gun as their band leader. sound can’t be pretentious or falsely charming with him because win sees right through it. when sound tries to act superior, win pulls him back down to earth. win challenges sound to confront the unpolished qualities of himself that he hides from the public.
through these relationships, both gun and sound learn to be open and vulnerable.
in ep 5, gun hides his disappointment in himself from his mom in fear of burdening her. he wants to keep up a strong appearance around her because she’s already stressed about her physical health. so, tinn intervenes and takes of care of gun in his emotionally vulnerable state, ultimately allowing gun to be honest with his mom. throughout the show, gun continuously opens up to tinn about his insecurities as a musician and the struggles he has been through with his family. as he shares more of those feelings with tinn, we also see gun seek and accept physical comfort from him as well.
similarly in ep 8, sound hides his injury from his friends by secretly attending physical therapy and taking off his wrist brace whenever he’s around them. he knows the competition is stressing them out and he doesn’t want to add any additional burden, just like gun did for his mom. therefore, win offers to be his hand, supporting sound in his physically vulnerable state. in doing this, win also lessens the mental frustration and worry that sound tries to harbor all by himself. in the next episode, win continues to care for sound’s emotional state when he recognizes that sound is upset and checks in on him.
these are obviously not the only times that tinn and win have offered physical and emotional support for their boys. it’s no coincidence that for both tinn and win, the love language they use to express their love is acts of service, which is perfect for two boys who aren’t used to asking for help or showing their weaknesses to others. tinn and win know they can’t wait for gun and sound to ask for help, because they never will. instead, they offer their help in any way they can while still respecting gun and sound’s boundaries, allowing them the space to open up little by little.
gun and sound also learn to value their personal relationships on the same level as their focus on music. in ep 7, we see how love changes both of their perspectives.
for gun, rather than seeing it as a distraction, he realizes that love can be something that inspires his music and motivates him to do better in the competition.
for sound, he votes in favor of love, probably out of solidarity with yo due to his own budding feelings for win but also because he has come to genuinely care about his friends and sees how supporting each other contributes to their morale as a band.
in both instances, gun and sound stop seeing love/friendship and music as isolated parts of their lives, and realize it’s okay to prioritize their own desires.
i believe these similarities in their character arcs are the reason gun and sound are shown to be close friends. they innately recognize their similarities with each other and gravitate together because they know there will always be a level of understanding between them. we can see this when sound tries to protect gun from the “plots” of the student council, when gun allows sound to miss practice for physical therapy and keeps his secret from the band, when sound gravitates towards gun when he’s avoiding win, and when gun reveals his own relationship to sound to offer support and advice to him.
in conclusion, gun and sound began the show in a position that could have made them rivals with an antagonistic relationship that would only deepen each of their flaws. instead, their stories are unfolding in beautiful parallels, allowing them to grow closer as friends and bandmates.
*end of post, as of ep 9/12*
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I keep thinking about the scene in My School President where Tinn and Gun share their best memories and how it was different in Our Skyy 2 and the implications of it all.
In the original, this is the scene where Tinn and Gun start to open up to each other, telling each other their best memories, giving hints that Tinn has had a crush on Gun for a long time. But the next question on the list, what is their worst memory, is what really brings them together. Gun opens up about his dad's death: "When our loved ones are gone, they don't just go empty-handed."
In Our Skyy 2, they only show half the scene, only the question about their happiest memories. It's also interesting that Tinn is wearing a shirt that says "happier times are coming." In this scene they're both focusing on the happy memories, but also looking towards the future happiness they can have together. To be clear, I think this was a good choice, I don't think the fluffy Our Skyy AU needed that sort of grief to be explored in depth. But it does leave a lot of unanswered questions about what Gun's life is like in this universe.
Presumably Gun's dad is still dead in this universe, and Gun still had to and has to deal with that grief. What was it like for him to be raised by a single mom in this setting? We see that au!Gim cares a lot about Gun, but she is much more strict and uncompromising than in the original show. Gun would have grown up a lot more isolated, much like Tinn, but without his dad at home to balance his mom's sharpness like Tinn has. How would that have affected Gun's anxiety?
Gun also doesn't have the band behind him, though he does have Por. It might have been harder for him to make friends specifically because his mom was a teacher, and now is the principal. I think that could be part of why Gun seems a lot more subdued in this universe, without his full support network, without his musical outlet.
Anyway, thinking about this silly AU just made me sad but I think it shows how the little things that change when the characters are put in different circumstances, and how central the friends and family are to the feeling of love we get in My School President.
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