#wkbz spoiler

[grizeldanyx]

You know what makes me sad?

The thought of Michi trying to figure out what happened to Babsi after he got back to Berlin, because he hadn’t heard of her since she “disappeared” and went to rehab. Maybe he was hoping she got clean as well ... or if she hadn’t he would have helped her, offered her to stay with him and Andre etc. Just to find out that she died.

I really hate that idea.

#wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #we children from bahnhof zoo #wkbz #michi #babsi #wkbz spoiler

[v00bie]

#imagine having the audacity to do that #you can't hate him for it but you have every right to be angry and/or dissapointed #wkbz #we children from bahnhof zoo #wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #wkbz spoiler #wkbz benno #wkbz michi #wkbz christiane #christiane f

[wirkindervombahnhofzoo-txt]

ok but can someone please explain this to me. why was Axel attacked by those who cut his hair? what happened there? who were they? what did i miss? I HAVE SEEN THIS SERIES THREE TIMES AND I DON'T KNOW

#wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #wkbz #wkbz spoiler #is this another plot hole? is it just that kind of pointless violence that happens sometimes? #was it the jealous boy at axel's workplace who made this happen? #I'm going mad

[grizeldanyx]

Small details in WKBZ

(spoiler warning)

When Benno tells Christiane about wanting to go to Canada with Michi, he says that he needs 4000 DM for the plane tickets, to which Christiane replies that that’s basically the same amount she needs to become a show jumper. Later, Christiane calculates that they’re making about 4000 DM a month to finance their addiction.

On the day of Axel’s death he’s wearing a shirt saying 11:59, as if to show that his time is up.

In school Stella says that she’s dreaming of having a restaurant with an ocean painted onto the walls. Some episodes later, a montage cuts from Stella’s family to Michi’s workplace at a travel agency, where a huge picture of the ocean hangs on the wall next to him.

When Michi and Benno are at the Zoo station toilets after leaving the cemetery, Michi complains about annoying couples he had to consult at his workplace. In the last episode when Christiane visits Benno in prison for the last time, he complains about the couple holding hands at the table next to them and calls them annoying.

One of the posters in Axel’s room that he put above the Christmas tree shows 6 people in a crashing and exploding car, which might be symbolic for the squad and what’s happening in their lives.

In the other room there’s also a huge picture of a dragon on the wall, which reminds me of the saying “chasing the dragon”, which means doing heroin.

One of the posters in the subway at the beginning of episode 2 says “Die Journalisten” (”the journalists”), which might hint at the end of the series when Christiane meets the journalists who want to interview her.

At the streetwalker district at the Kurfürstenstraße where the girls wait to prostitute themselves, there’s “Her mit dem schönen Leben” (”Give me the beautiful life”) written on the wall. When Benno steps out of a john’s car in episode 4 at the Zoo station, there’s “Und, ist es jetzt schön?” (”And, is it beautiful now?”) written on the wall behind him. Both these graffiti fit the main characters who are searching for a fulfilling life very well.

Another graffiti said “Kleist”, which made me think of author Heinrich von Kleist. So I googled him and the German wikipedia side describes his life as being “shaped by restless pursuit of ideal happiness [...]” which seems very fitting for the main characters.

tw: rape. When Stella gets raped in episode 2, she watches a spider in its web. Later, in Benno’s letter, he uses being caught in a spiderweb as a metaphor.

The picture Babsi is drawing in the rehab clinic looks similar to the Anubis creature that first gave Christiane heroin at the Bowie concert.

When Benno is on turkey, Michi says to him that in his condition he won’t be able to get johns anyways. When Christiane starts getting on turkey, Benno says something similar to her, that nobody would want her like that anyways. 

#wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #i know the last one's actually a parallel but i don't have an interpretation so i thought i'll just mention it here lol #generally these are just a bunch of things i've noticed on my (too) many rewatches #i really love these details #if they're coincidental or not #pls add more if you notice any #wkbz #wkbz spoiler #michelangelo fortuzzi #bruno alexander #lea drinda #lena urzendowsky #jana mckinnon #jeremias meyer #we children from bahnhof zoo

[v00bie]

Imagine Ghost Axel meeting Ghost Babsi after she died :(

#I- #why did I think about this #im crying now #not cool @last.week.me making me cry #wkbz #we children from bahnhof zoo #wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #wkbz axel #wkbz babsi #wkbz spoiler #kinda heavy spoiler

[grizeldanyx]

The superpowers of the squad

So I’ve been thinking about this aspect of the show recently, because for me it’s another aspect of WKBZ that’s just ... there, but a bit weird. 

From what I’ve read on the internet most people don’t seem to even see it, and it was similar for me on my first watch. Only after reading interviews with Annette Hess I came to realize that what I thought to be either exaggeration or metaphors are actually part of a “meta level”, to which Dijan’s angel of death persona belongs as well. So, basically, these “superpowers” (I’ll get into examples later) of the squad are not just to be understood symbolically, but actually as real parts of their personalities ... I guess?

I really, really don’t like that thought, too be honest. Many stylistic choices of the show I started to appreciate, like the timeless setting. Prior to actually watching the show I was very sceptical of it, but then I ended up liking it. However, the idea that the squad actually has these supernatural powers kind of ... I don’t know, it’s a bit too much for me personally. I don’t mind seeing Dijan as a personfication of death, because it’s happening on a symbolic level. But I’m having a hard time to believe that, for example, in the scene where Michi tried to choke Christiane at Axel’s place one night he actually did so and the reason Christiane survived is that she’s immortal, so it was basically her superpower versus his. And no, I’m not making this up, this is literally how Annette Hess explained the scene in an interview. I prefer to stick to what I personally believed this scene to be: A dream Christiane had because she realized that Michi was jealous of / angry at her. 

Generally, I’m okay with this superpower thing as long as I see it symbolically / as metaphors or even as something the characters believe themselves to have.  Here’s what I personally see in the individual “superpowers” of the squad and how I make sense of it:

Christiane: I generally don’t mind the idea of her immortality in the show ... as long as it’s symbolic. I think it actually makes sense then, because the real Christiane F. had a lot of luck that she survived, because most of her friends died. Also, as Jana McKinnon pointed out in an interview, Christiane F. became somewhat “immortal” due to her story being published. So that’s a nice idea they had for she show. In the context of the story, however, I think Christiane’s idea of being immortal is just that: Her idea. Probably the elevator did crash (although probably not as severly as shown in the series, where it was probably just a visualization of what the crash felt like for her?) and now she thinks that she can survive anything - but still on a healthy level which is why she doesn’t jump from the roof. Maybe it also embodies a sentiment that explains many of her later actions of doing drugs: She doesn’t really think it’s that dangerous for her, because she’s young and feels “immortal” because of that.

Benno: His “superpower” is to talk to animals. Concerning that Annette Hess said that they actually considered to have Axel’s bird literally talk with a human voice only Benno and the viewer of the series can hear and, oh boy, I’m so glad they ultimately scrapped that idea. Because I like the ambiguity where nobody really knows whether he can actually talk to animals or just makes it up. Despite the possibility that he has some sort of connection to animals that makes him think he understands them, I also think it’s possible that he uses his proclaimed ability to channel some of his own thoughts - for example when the bird “says” that Michi is actually in love with David Bowie, it might have just been Benno mocking Michi, maybe even because he suspected that Michi’s not straight. Anyways, due to how it’s kind of left ambigous if Benno actually understand animals, I don’t mind this aspect, because it fits his slightly dreamy personality and it connects him with Christiane, who also loves animals.

Michi: I personally see his supernatural physical strength in the show as a combination of actual physical strength, a way he tries to compensate sensibilty and a visualization of his general tendency to try to appear “tough”. So, basically, I think that he has a huge amount of physical strength, even if it’s not as extreme as shown in the series: So, yes, he does push Christiane up the wall at the Zoo station, but not in this extreme manner that, for some reason, reminded me of a vampire movie. The way it’s visualized in the show is more how it feels for Christaine and/or him. Because I do believe that for him thinking that he is super strong is a way he tries to compensate feelings of weakness or general emotionality. We see him do that in the show outside of the context of his physical strength as well, so I think it makes sense that his belief to be that strong ties into it.

Axel: His ability to open any lock, door etc. (for example his boss’ box or at the Bowie concert) can easily be seen as a metaphor, I think. Because in the show it really is his special ability to carve his way: Despite his addiction he is able to metaphorically “open doors” in his career which allows him to get to a place in his job he wanted to get to. This is how I see his “superpower”, which in the actual context of the story is probably, I don’t know, just a general skill he has?

Babsi: Her superpower would be to be able to talk to the dead, but, honestly, I prefer to interpret her scenes of talking to her Dad just as an imagination of hers. Not necessarily a hallucination, but I think that she tries to visualize her Dad, talks to him and imagines what he would answer. Maybe she misses him so much that it even feels real for her when she imagines him to be there. It definitely shows the severity of her grief and inner turmoil.

Stella: She’s the only one who does not have a superpower due to being the most grown-up of them. In my opinion that makes a lot of sense, also symbolically, because she is more of a realist and doesn’t imagine herself to have any crazy ability.

So, yeah, that’s how I try to make sense of that weird, but therefore kind of interesting aspect of the series. As I said, I don’t mind it as long as it’s on a metaphorical level, which I can obviously appreciate. although the writers apparently intended it to be a lot more real.

Anyways, how do you feel about this whole superpower thing? Please let me know, I’m really curious to know how you guys see it.

#wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #i don't know what to think of the idea that the superpowers might have been real #but i just can't warm up to it #was that aspect of the show really necessary #it's just another bunch of random threads #wkbz #wkbz spoiler #we children from bahnhof zoo #the interview with Annette Hess I'm refering to several times was on the YouTube channel Sick #it's called #2. Staffel? Hass-Mails? Die Macherin von Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo im Interview

[grizeldanyx]

The barkeeper at the SOUND

tw: rape, drugs, suicide

The barkeeper is the one who first gives Babsi heroin and then rapes her. But since he, as a barkeeper, is also part of the staff at the SOUND just like Dijan, I think that he’s a symbolic figure as well and represents addiction.

He’s first really shown after Babsi’s rejected by Dijan - symbolically by death. We know that Babsi has this suicidal ideation, so she wanted to be with Dijan, which basically means that she wanted to die. But he says she’s too young for him, that she’s therefore too young to die. After he said that to her, she went back to the dancefloor. And then the barkeeper looked at her leeringly, which maybe shows the path Babsi begins to follow at that point: Because she can’t have Dijan, who as death is the one she wants, she’s about fall down an equally destructive and maybe even more painful downward spiral, her heroin addiction.

In Babsi’s diary entries that Christiane reads after her death, she says that shooting up heroin was “half the feeling of death” for her (btw, this is actually a quote from the real person Babsi D., the friend of Christiane F., but I treat it like a quote from the fictional character here, so I’m only talking about the fictional Babsi, not the real one). I think this quote shows that the root of Babsi’s addiction was her suicidality and that the drug is more or less a substitute for death.

To return to the motif of the barkeeper, as I said, I think he symbolizes addiction because he gets interested in Babsi as soon as she’s rejected by Dijan. In a later scene when Babsi is hanging out at the SOUND at closing hours, he also says to her that Dijan’s not there, and not much later Babsi goes home with him, again showing his fuction as a substitute - addiction instead of death, although she latter one is the one she actually desires. This also ties in very well with the fact that he is actually the one to first give her heroin. The visualization of her intoxication in which she meets Dijan also fits into this idea of her drug use being rooted in her actual wish to die.

That the barkeeper rapes her while being unconscious I guess shows the terrible consequences that also come with her drug use, which also refers to the prostitution, because the scene then cuts to Babsi being dropped at the streetwalker district.

Oh, and another sign that the barkeeper could be a personification is that Dijan and Babsi’s Dad are hanging out at his place, whether it’s just Babsi imagining them to be there or not. Also, the mere fact that he’s the barkeeper fits well with the idea that he symbolizes addiction.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

#wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #i can't believe i forgot about this for so long bc i always thought about it while watching the show #we children from bahnhof zoo #wkbz #wkbz spoiler #tw: prostitution #tw: rape #tw: drugs #tw: suicide mention #lea drinda #babsi

[v00bie]

#this has been in my drafts for really long time and its not funny anymore #but i have to post something right? #i mean like half of my posts are not funny but i still post them #so it will blend in for sure #wkbz #we children from bahnhof zoo #wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #wkbz axel #wkbz spoiler

[grizeldanyx]

#wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #wkbz #wkbz spoiler #we children from bahnhof zoo #rip axel #rip babsi #wkbz meme #cw: blood #cw: injuries

[grizeldanyx]

Scenes in the WKBZ series that are (probably) callbacks to the movie

Despite the series approaching the story of WKBZ very differently than the movie version from 1981, I think it still makes some references to this cult classic that Annette Hess says she has watched probably over 30 times lol. As someone who loves both versions it makes me very happy that the new one occasionally payed tribute to the old one. So here are some things that may or may not intentionally reference the movie or are just general similarities. (Spoiler warning)

The Bowie record: If I remember correctly, the Bowie record “Changesonebowie” was never explicitly mentioned in the book, but in the movie, Christiane is given exactly that record by Klaus, the new boyfriend of her mother. This is not the case in the series, yet it’s the same record Michi is now given by Axel as a Christmas gift. Furthermore, it can be seen in Babsi’s room a couple of episodes later (did Michi give it to her? I like that idea).

“I’ve got it under control.”: In the movie, even more than in the book, this is a recurring phrase most of the main characters use at some point when they get involved with heroin - Christiane on at least one occasion, and later she calls out Babsi for it when she wants to try heroin and Christiane already knows that they in fact can’t control it. This theme got a bit lost in the series just like many other sentiments regarding their addiction, yet it still comes up in one scene: In episode 1 Nati, Stella’s mother, says exactly that phrase about alcohol.

Outside the Sound: Christiane and Detlef first really interact with each other in the movie when she is outside the club vomiting and he hands her a handkerchief. Axel is also with him. In the series this scene also takes place, just a bit differently with Benno being the one vomiting and Axel giving both him and Christiane, who’s crying because Matze cheated on her, handkerchiefs. Just like in the movie, the next scene then is a bonding moment for the gang. In the series it’s the carousel scene and in the movie they enter the shopping mall. To be fair, the whole situation outside the Sound also happened in the book, but since the scenes after it were so similar in both adaptions, I would still count it as a reference to the movie.

Rooftops: After the scene in the shopping mall with David Bowie’s Heroes playing in the background, Christiane and Detlef end up on the rooftop together and talk for a bit before their friends find them. In the series a shared moment between Christiane and Benno also takes place on a rooftop, only that it’s the rooftop of Christiane’s home and that it happens a bit later in their relationship.

Christiane’s reaction to Babsi’s death: Now this is a very interesting aspect, I think, and probably the most noticable one. In both the movie and the series, Christiane attempts suicide right after finding out about Babsi’s death. In the book, however, this wasn’t the case, instead Christiane bought heroin from a bunch of different dealers because she thought that Babsi had injected toxic ingredients and she wanted to find her “murderer”. Her intentional overdose happened later, after an incident in which Stella betrayed her, but actually without any specific reason other than hopelessness and desperation over her situation.

#wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #wkbz spoiler #we children from bahnhof zoo #christiane f #cw: drugs #cw: alcohol #cw: suicide

[grizeldanyx]

More thoughts on Babsi’s storyline

I’m really invested in Babsi’s storyline at the moment, so here are some more thoughts on it.

(spoiler warning)

cw: drugs, prostitution, torture and abuse, suicide

- Her death: In my last post I mentioned how when I first watched the series I thought the scene in episode 7 in which Babsi steps into the car and is then shown wounded was a scene from the book. Christiane F. described that they were always very afraid of accidentally getting into a pimp’s car, because the pimps of the prostitutes who weren’t teenage drug addicts didn’t want them to be at the streetwalker district due to the competition. They would then sometimes torture and abuse them in order to threaten them and therefore try to keep them away from the district. And that’s what happened to the real Babsi. It’s honestly one of the most shocking scenes in the book for me personally, despite only being mentioned along the way. Now, we all know that the prostitution never hit that hard in the show. We never really get the sense how scary and traumatizing it actually was for them. Still, I feel like the way Babsi’s death was visualized in the series might have been a reference to what I described above. Generally, I think everything that happened after her shooting up heroin at the Bülowbogen toilets didn’t actually happen, but visualizes the process of her dying. I don’t know how painful dying from a heroin overdose is, but generally I believe the wounds Babsi suddenly has in the scene after steping into the car could be a literal representation of the painful physical process of her body dying. But maybe it’s not only the physical aspect, but also the mental one of how traumatizing and painful her life between drug addiction, one of her friends dying from it, prostituting herself, relapsing, running away from home again etc. was, culminating in her overdose. When Dijan then takes her with him he’s “curing” her from both the physical pain of dying and the emotional pain. Obviously, this is a pretty euphemistic take on her death and I’m not entirely comfortable with the show deciding to portray it that way, but I guess it fits the subjective narrative of Babsi’s view. Anyways, if her wounds are also a representation of what she was going through in her life at that point, this might be tied to her getting into that car in the prior scene. Because I think there’s a certain symbolic value attached to how she’s taken to that abandoned place where Dijan finds her by a car stopping at the streetwalker district where she used to prostitute herself. So maybe it’s supposed to represent this huge fear she must have had whenever she got into a stranger’s car and the visualization of what dying felt like for her is kind of a worst case scenario that she was always scared of experiencing. Sure, all of this would make more sense if there had been an actual scene in which the girls discussed these fears the way they did in the book, where they, for example, always noted the car tag when one of them went with a john and also made sure that the guy noticed it. 

- The tape she took from Dijan: In the podcast episode “Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo” (5): Lea Drinda im Gespräch by Freiwillige Filmkontrolle Lea Drinda mentions in the interview that in preparation for the role of Babsi she did a lot of research on bipolar disorder. I’m not a mental health professional nor do I have bipolar disorder, so I’m really sorry if anything in the following text doesn’t make sense, it’s just an interpretation based on my own amateurish research. So, after listening to that interview I paid attention to signs of Babsi being in (hypo-)manic or depressed states throughout the show. Everything gets a bit messy in the later episodes, so I don’t have anything to say about that, but a scene from the first episode stood out to me in this regard. I’m talking about that scene in which she wants to listen to the tape she took from Dijan’s car, she only hears that terrible screaming, her Dad gives her the advice to switch the side and then she hears that pretty lovely song. Since it was Dijan from whom she took the tape and her Dad shows up regarding it, it doesn’t seem impossible to me that this scene is supposed to be meant symbolically. And maybe, only maybe, the process of switching the tape is a visualization of her going from a depressed state into a (hypo-)manic state. The way she behaves before and after that scene does correlate with that interpretation. Before that she barely talks, seems very depressed, discusses suicide with her Dad etc. And then the next scene after the tape one shows her being taken out of the SOUND by the cop and she seems very bubbly and happy, especially in comparison to how she was before. When she’s in the car she’s very talkative and tells the cops a lot of random things which implies that her thoughts are racing very quickly, a sign of mania and hypomania. I’m not sure about all of this, obviously, and also, as I said, I can’t really keep up with this interpretation as the story progesses and it gets more messy with all the drug use and the focus being less on Babsi and more on Christiane’s storyline. However, I think it’s an interesting aspect to think about - sure, also another one that’s underdeveloped, but I get that you can’t cram every aspect into a series in detail.

- The stuffed animal: When Dijan first takes her with him in his car in episode 1 (when he tells her to take the backseat, probably because the front seat is reserved for people who die) she leaves that stuffed bunny there as she gets out of the car. It’s later shown again in episode 7 when Dijan really takes Babsi with him and she therefore dies. I think what this may symbolize is the loss of innocence that’s about to follow in the events after said scene in the first episode, which are definitely a downward spiral for Babsi. She left the stuffed animal, which could easily represent childlike innocence, in the car that belongs to literally death. Generally, there seems to be a motif going on with Babsi and fake animals - not only are there many stuffed animals in her room, but the also wears animal pendants on her necklace, and then of course there’s the scene with Axel’s funeral and the lion balloon. So, despite leaving that stuffed bunny there, I think it’s not accurate to generally say that she really left her childlike side behind, maybe only a part of it, which would make sense considering she does remain a sweet, more “innocent” person than the others in the group throughout the events, yet she obviously also loses a part of that due to engaging in all these things that are definitely nothing a young person her age should have to experience.

#wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #babsi's storyline is so rich in symbolism it's awesome #let me know what you think #or ofc if you got more/different interpretations #i really really hope what i wrote about bipolar disorder is not insensitive for anyone who has experiences with this disease #tw: suicide mention #tw: torture and abuse mention #tw: prostitution #tw: drugs #we children from bahnhof zoo #wkbz #wkbz spoiler #lea drinda #babsi

[grizeldanyx]

Scenes in WKBZ that parallel each other (part 2)

(spoiler warning)

(also please notice the trigger warnings before reading!!)

Curtains in broad daylight

When Christiane and Benno wake up in episode 6 after their withdrawal, the camera view first falls onto the curtains and the broad daylight shining through them, before we really see the two inside of the room. They start talking about being clean before sleeping with each other. In episode 7, the morning after Michi and Benno slept with each other, when Benno is already awake, the focus is also on the curtained window and the light shining through it, very similar to how it looked in the prior episode in Christiane’s room.

I’m not sure if this is supposed to mean anything intentionally, but it could be, because at least for me these camera shots were noticably similar due to being a bit unusual. I interpret it these ways: Because it is explicitly Benno who’s looking at the window in the second scene, he might be thinking of the first scene I described when he was with waking up with Christiane. In his letter he says that sleeping with Michi made him realize that he only loved her, so maybe that’s why. Other than that, maybe it also shows something about the nature of these two different relationships he could have: With Christiane he can be together in broad daylight, which is the time they were sleeping with each other in the first scene, whereas with Michi their relationship would always have to be something in the shadows, symbolically the night, he would feel the need to hide. This ties back to the idea someone brought up (I don’t exactly remember with whom I had this conversation, sorry. Edit: It was @wheresbenni. Thanks for reminding me :)) about how part of the reason why Benno chose to be with Christiane is that it’s the “easier” relationship for him, because he doesn’t have to face the struggles regarding his sexuality then.

Christiane calling both Benno and then his Dad an asshole in front of the other one

When Benno’s Dad tells Christiane that he stole his money in episode 7, her reply is “What an asshole”. In the next episode, when Benno tells her that it was his own father who reported him to the police, she says the same thing about him, although she knew that his Dad was going to do that.

I think this shows what a strain Benno not showing up at the Zoo station to go to Paris with her put on their relationship, because Christiane’s reaction in the first scene was probably fueled by her anger about it. I’m not sure whether her reaction in the second one means that she forgave him, though, after he explained that he had to help Michi but always wanted to return to her. Maybe she just said it because she thought it was what Benno wanted to hear in that moment. Same could count for the Dad in the first scene, actually, because Christiane knew that Benno used to steal from his father and I mean, how else did she expect him to get the money for Paris? I think how she seemingly couldn’t make up her mind on this conflict shows how confusing all of these events in general must have been for her, between trying to get clean, falling back into the drug use and having a strained relationship because of it.

Babsi and forgiveness

tw: suicide

During the carousel scene in episode 2, Babsi thanks Stella for the evening and she asks “I thought for getting you down from the bridge?”, to which Babsi replies “I might forgive you for that someday”. In episode 7 when her and Christiane are at Günther’s, Christiane confesses that she lied about Dijan asking for Babsi and she answers “Forgiven”.

Now I believe this shows in what a much better mental condition Babsi was after the rehab clinic ... Before she started doing heroin again, sadly. Because, if we assume that Dijan symbolizes death, Babsi was excited to see him again, thinking he was finally interested in her. (Although it’s honestly a bit weird here that Dijan also seems to be a real person, idk.) But when she finds out that this was not the case, she’s okay with it. This fits together with Dijan telling her that he was looking for a different Babsi - probably the suicidal, drug addicted Babsi she is no more at that point. In episode 2 however, she was suicidal as she was standing on that bridge and from there on things got a lot worse for her, as she was also slowly getting addicted to drugs. Hence she told Stella that she might only forgive her someday, because at that point she was stuck in that downward spiral and unable to be fully glad that she didn’t commit suicide. In episode 7, however, for a while she’s out of it and therefore quickly forgives Christiane. Although she obviously sounds sad saying it, and we all now that it doesn’t take long for her to relapse. I wish it was different. :(

Axel and Michi telling their crush that they’re beautiful

When in episode 2 drugged-out Michi tells Benno that he’s beautiful, nobody thinks he’s being serious, especially not Benno himself. When Axel tells Christiane in episode 6 that she’s the most beautiful woman he ever saw, she seems flattered and hugs him.

I recently mentioned this parallel in a text responding to @sun-undone, so to keep it short here, I basically think these scenes show the differences between Michi’s crush on Benno and Axel’s crush on Christiane, because Axel is able to communicate his emotions and therefore has a certain catharsis that Michi lacks, which leads him to such strong reactions of jealousy and hate for Christiane. A lot of that has to do with societal pressures and internalized homophobia that make Michi unable to express his feelings for Benno, who doesn’t seem to take him seriously in that regard anyways (maybe that’s why Michi said to him “Why can’t you ever take anything seriously?” at some point).

#wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #these were all the parallels I've noticed #but pls add them if you've got more #as always i'd love to hear your thoughts/interpretations #wkbz #we children from bahnhof zoo #michelangelo fortuzzi #bruno alexander #jana mckinnon #jeremias meyer #lea drinda #lena urzendowsky #wkbz spoiler #tw: sex mention #tw:suicide #tw: suicide mention #tw: drugs

[v00bie]

I will never shut up about this song being sad with the certain context

#wkbz #we children from bahnhof zoo #wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #wkbz spoiler #mild spoilers #technically......... #wkbz axel #??? #david bowie #changes

[grizeldanyx]

When @wheresbenni reblogged my last post about Babsi and the barkeeper, she mentioned a disconnect between the surrealism and realism of Babsi’s storyline in the tags and I’ve been thinking about it since. I generally really love Babsi’s storyline in the show, but only after rewatching the show several times and thinking about all the symbolism in it. On my first watch it mainly confused me, probably also because I didn’t expect that much surrealism in the series. Especially her death confused me. When she got into that car at the Kürfürstenstraße and the next scene showed her wounded and bruised I believed a scene from the book was happening which described that the real Babsi once got tortured and severly abused by pimps. And then Dijan showed up and I didn’t know that he personified death then and I was even more confused. When he healed her wounds I just thought the way it was shown expressed how it felt for Babsi in an exaggerated way, because finally being with Dijan made her feel so much better. And then the next episode she’s dead and I was like “... Wait a second”. Now, to be fair, on this first watch I binged the entire show and it was late at night, so maybe that’s why it took me a rewatch and some thoughts to get the basics of that symbolism. 

But still, to get back to the disconnect between surrealism and realism in the show, I think these two aspects could have been balanced better, because the way it was executed was ... a bit messy, even after putting some thought into it. What makes it a bit problematic is that despite all the characters having some surrealist scenes or aspects about them (mostly related to the “superpowers” or visualizations of their feelings/intoxications), they don’t all seem to share the personifications of Babsi’s storyline. Dijan doesn’t show up to take Axel with him, for example. And nobody else interacts with the barkeeper who might symbolize addiction, it’s only Babsi. Now of course this can be related to her individual “superpower” of also seeing the dead, but this is scheme is broken away from when Christiane overdoses and Dijan shows up. So his role as death is not only part of Babsi’s individual story in the show, Don’t get me wrong, Dijan as death might actually be one of my favourite aspects of the show. However, I still don’t understand how he’s occasionally a part of Babsi’s individual view, death in general for all the people in the show and also a real person they apparently can interact with - as Christiane does when she tries to convince Babsi to go the SOUND again. Or was he also symbolizing death then and Christiane tried to convince her with the prospect of life threatening danger the club provides for them due to the drug scene there?

I don’t know where I’m trying to get with this, and I couldn’t name concrete scenes that would have solved this. My main issue is really the balance between the surrealistic and the realistic aspects, I think. Because on the one side, the personification of Dijan (the most prominent surrealistic aspect of Babsi’s storyline, so I focus on him) is too obvious to keep a real ambiguity on if he’s an actual person or more, especially when taking the scene with Christiane’s overdose and Babsi’s death into consideration. Because according to the newspaper headline in the next episode, Babsi died of an overdose and probably never left the toilets, so she wasn’t kidnapped and tortured as I first thought. On the other side he’s not clearly a symbol in every characters individual story and it’s difficult to differentiate between what’s an expression of Babsi’s view, what generally applies to an overreaching meta-level of the show and what’s still grounded in reality. It’s difficult to tell surrealism and realism apart, yet they aren’t interwoven smoothly either, and I believe that makes it feel a bit messy and confusing, because both these interpretations - surrealism or realism - ultimately don’t feel entirely satisfying.

#wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #in the end i guess it's that weird fusion of both that makes it so intriguing for me #obviously idk if @wheresbenni meant something similar to that with her comment #please let me know your thoughts #wkbz #wkbz spoiler #we children from bahnhof zoo #cw: mention of torture and abuse

[grizeldanyx]

What are your thoughts on a second season of WKBZ? Would you want one?

I personally would say, yes, definitely. Not just because I really loved the first one despite its imperfections - okay, yeah, that is a huge part of the reason why - but also because (as I mentioned yesterday regarding @bybdolan’s post about The Dog Days Are Over) I believe the series could actually profit from a second season. The first one ended with the implication that Christiane has ultimately gotten out of her addiction, which was only the case temporarily irl. So I think a second season could back off from that happy ending vibe and show the long lasting struggles Christiane F. faced after the events from the book. Also, I’d be curious to see more of Stella’s storyline, because her ending was kind of weird. And since Michi and Benno are fictional characters per se the writers would have a huge range of potential storylines they could explore with each of them.

What are your thoughts?

#wir kinder vom bahnhof zoo #we children from bahnhof zoo #wkbz #wkbz spoiler #season 2 #all the rational arguments aside #a second season would just make me so happy #i want to see more of these characters