it baffles me that grizzly says he’s bad at playing out horror (or something like that maybe im misremembering) because the way he plays lui, especially during/after these terrifying moments in upp 2 is SO fascinating to me.
lui has such a unique way of processing his fear, and trauma, and its such a stark contrast to the way his friends respond to danger, but its equally as gut wrenching, and grizzly has this facinating ability to play Lui’s logic approach without taking away from the fact that Lui is still a kid.
i think all the characters in upp feel like kids, but lui is interesting because when he does shut down, he goes still, he goes quiet, but he’s so clearly thinking, and trying to process, and trying to find a way forward, and the fact that grizzly can play all of this, without needing to say much about how he’s feeling is so freaking cool to me. Its such a human response to horror/trauma that I haven’t seen portrayed in media much, but i fuck with it heavily
ive said it before but i truly do not know how anyone in this group survived the first case files without lui there (and maybe thats why things went SO wrong), but he keeps then on track when they shut down, or freak out.
He’s also just objectively a good friend. From the phone call in early episodes alone you can tell how worried he is for his friends, and we see in empty graves how much his friends rely on him. He only takes a brief minuets after remembering his grandma died to start coming up with a game plan. When Norah explains what she remembers from her bout of madness, Lui treats the situation with so much care and respect, he’s the first to hug Isaac when they make it back in empty graves 3, and i feel like we’ve seen him ground William multiple times. Why else would William want to call him in diseased residents when everything is going wrong and they have no idea what to do?
Lui really does take care of his friends, both emotionally, and by keeping them alive. I didn’t initially get leader vibes from him, but all this combined with the way everyone looks to him throughout the series — even when he’s not there— really makes me view him as a sort of leader to the group. and i do wonder how all of that weighs on him if it does. I WISH we got to see more of their day to day lives because I think Lui especially would be so fascinating to unpack,
I also wonder what he’s doing during and after Prime Defenders. After the horrors he witnessed with UPP, I’d believe it if Norah and Isaac tried to live out normal lives but with Lui’s obsession with the occult, I find it hard to believe that he could leave a normal life. Even without true sight he’s usually quick to spot when something is wrong, so I think eventually he would find his way into dealing with the paranormal again whether thats intentional or not.
okay i got really distracted but my point was can we call him lock in Lui because i feel like when all else is lost at least lui locks in ok thanks guys
