#arguably-

Is it common to use gu/mueng with older brothers? Or is there ✨s i g n i f i c a n c e✨ (the way i am always on ONE agenda 😭)

Nani, I love you 😂😂 sorry it took me a few days to answer, work's been kicking my butt but I'm here now to talk pronouns~

First of all, it's so much fun to me when people tell me they start noticing pronoun choices hehe, and secondly, I remember having that same 😮 reaction when I first noticed a parent character use กู/มึง /guu, meung/ with their child (it was Chopper's dad in NLMG but he wasn't even the only parent to do so on that show).

For obvious reasons (Hi! I'm German actually!), I can't speak on how common it is to use กู/มึง /guu, meung/ with older siblings in real life but I went through my inner pronoun-use-in-shows archive (hush, not a word, this is who I am lmao) and among the sibling relationships there are in the many Thai shows I've seen, honestly not a lot of younger siblings use กู/มึง /guu, meung/:

1 - Day and his older brother Night (Last Twilight)

ไม่ต้องคิดมากมึง /mai dtaawng khit maak, meung/

2 - Punn and his younger brother Pai (Be Mine Superstar)

แล้วพ่อแม่กูอะ ก็พ่อแม่มึงนั้นแหละ /laaeo por mae guu a, gaaw por mae meung nan lae/

3 - Tai and his younger brother Tien (La Pluie)

มึง ลากกูออกมากลางดึก /meung... laak guu aawk maa glaang deuk/ -> These two have two more brothers still, one older and one younger than the both of them, who they speak to differently than they do with each other. With the eldest, Nuea, they call him พี่ /phi/ while Nuea uses กู/มึง /guu, meung/. Meanwhile the youngest, Chan, gets the baby treatment. :D

In terms of significance, I think it mostly comes down to what the writers or the characters intend to convey.

With (2) Punn and Pai, for example, they clearly are a roughhousing chaotic brother duo so having them use กู/มึง /guu, meung/ (and only switching to other pronoun choices once their parents or grandma get involved lol) makes complete sense to me. As for (3) Tai and Tien, it shows that their sibling relationship is closer and more like friends or bros than the relationships they have with their other brothers. (1) Day and Night are kind of a special case because they have a large age gap where you'd expect Day to be speaking politely/respectfully to Night. But since Night's past behavior and the accident have caused a rift between them, their use of กู/มึง /guu, meung/ reads almost combative at times. It kinda feels like a reminder of Night's past failure in his big brother role for Day to not call him พี่ /phi/ (which he does only one time in the entire show afair). They continue to use these pronouns though, even once they've made up, from where on it reads again as familiar and close.

Looking at the Heart Killers and how it's largely inspired by 10 Things I Hate About You, Fadel's role in the plot so far is a bit of an amalgamation of Kat and Walter (Kat & Bianca's dad), no?

Combine that with how much of a practical, stern, methodical, resolute, no-bullshit hardass Fadel looks to be after the first episode, I feel like no other set of pronouns would make sense for him to use with Bison.

And since Bison clearly has had to suppress his own wishes, aspirations, and to a point his own personality (kudos to rebellious Bison insisting on wearing his preferred style of loud colorful clothing though lol), all in the name of laying low and working to purge Thailand of the scum of society for คุณแม่ /khun mae/ (Mother)- there's just no space for needless pleasantries or sweet politeness.

At least that's my read on Bison using กู/มึง /guu, meung/ with his older brother!

With how much our resident babygirl likes to whine and twirl his hair though, it wouldn't surprise me if at some point he attempts to persuade Fadel with more than just a นะ /na?/-