I never read the novel so I didn't come into this show all that attached to Gram or Black. I think the criticism about his arc may be the product of watching it week by week and having so much time to (mis)read into his actions. From the beginning, we saw Eugene sneakily meet up with him and hug him the morning after her disappointing night with 'Black', hinting that they're at least friends who seek comfort in each other, if not more. Then we had Gram's nervous reaction to the comment about him pursuing an arts student. Then the drunken kiss that HE INITIATED and she TEMPORARILY RETURNED, when we all know drunk people are usually their most honest selves (AND the fact that the person she chose to comfort her post break up was Gram instead of any of her girlfriends). There were a lot of hints that Gram and Eugene were close (and maybe even borderline cheating with each other) that we all collectively ignored because GramBlack shippers dominated the fandom dialog between episodes. Even his conversation with Yok about his secret crush makes sense being about Eugene, especially because she was his best friend's girlfriend and now ex. He knew she was off limits, and only decided to make a move much later when he saw how uncaring 'Black' was about learning about their kiss. It was a pivotal moment for Gram's character development, if we'd been paying attention. Something in him snapped. His love for Eugene hated seeing her pain, and his friendship with Black didn't even mean enough to 'Black' for him to feel betrayed and angry. He'd been burying his love for who knows how long, sacrificing it on the altar of Black, only for 'Black' to not give a shit? And as for the notion that Eugene didn't reciprocate, she was clearly torn. She kept going to him for comfort (that hug, that night of drinking, she even kissed back for a second). She clearly thinks of him as her emotional confidant, someone trustworthy and dependable, someone she's at least marginally attracted to. She is attached to him, but didn't want to start anything so soon after Black. I don't know, I guess none of this feels out of the blue to me, or like a plot twist. The big question for me isn't that they're potentially endgame, but HOW does their story tie in to the overall plot? This story is otherwise so tightly plotted that even Yok's mom works for Tawi.
Alright, let's do this thing.
I know nothing of the novel so I came to this with nothing but a shrug, a tumblr and a lot of amusement. I, in fact, have never been invested in GramBlack beyond the fact that it made a lot of sense and fit with the narrative we were being given in the story. Because it did.
So, you make a lot of points in this and it's gonna take me a bit to go through it but I'm gonna point out that while some of this does make sense, most of it still only makes sense in hindsight and with the knowledge that GramEugene is endgame.
I mean, from the start, we were specifically told that Gram and Black were best friends and very close and between the G and B little dinosaurs (which were a literal red herring as we have heard basically NO ONE ever call her Gene and there was NO WAY to ever make that connection until they started slamming us over the head with the GramEugene).
Yes, drunk Gram kissed Eugene and she pulled away. Rejection number one! This poor girl. Apparently it doesn't matter how many times she rejects him, she has to accept him in the end. Because that's how this works. Oh. Wait. No. But also she chose Gram because the narrative required a drama for White to want to get closer to Gram so we could continue being misled by White assuming that Gram had feelings for Black because oh wait it made sense in the narrative at the time.
Okay, all hints that they were close were on the same level as Sean and Namo being close and that was a one-sided crush wherein she instantly accepted being turned down and did not continue to pursue him despite him not being interested. Unlike Gram. But also them being close is called friendship. It was not shown until much later to possibly be more.
Do you know why the GramBlack shippers 'controlled the narrative'? Because the show was trying to convince us it was canon. Why would they have White make the assumption? Why would they have the dinosaurs be G and B? Why would they have the note not have a name on it?
No. I'm sorry, the conversation between Gram and Yok does not make more sense if it's about Eugene because the entire narrative we'd been fed to that point had been about how close Gram and Black were, how Black had taught Gram about freedom and rebellion and passion. None of that was connected to Eugene in anyway and, frankly, still isn't. Are we really saying that Gram joined Black's gang to get closer to Eugene?
Yes, she went to him for comfort because he is her friend. She turned him down romantically multiple times because they were friends. There was no sign of her being torn until this episode. Every other episode she turned him down instantly. Women are allowed to seek comfort from male friends without the assumption that this means she is sexually or romantically attracted to him. Eugene and Gram were friends and the assumption that there had to be more because she 'went to him for comfort' is very uncomfortable to me.
Now, is it truly out of left field? No. It's out of the last few episodes, for the most part, but you've also noticed a very important point here... it's completely disconnected from everything else. Nothing else in the plot is touching these moments. And that makes it even worse.
We literally have Gram finding out that Black, his supposed best friend, has an identical twin he didn't know about and there's... no worry? No fear? No looking for him? No wondering where Black has been? No being worried that he was beaten and replaced and that he didn't even notice? Nothing. Just laughter and humor and relief that Sean wasn't actually in love with Black?
Look, yes, GramEugene is a thing now. You can even justify it in hindsight. But that doesn't mean it doesn't also ruin Gram's character by completely removing his friendship with Black as any kind of motive in anything he does and also removing him almost entirely from the plot of the story itself and especially from the gang's story.
