#infini-tree

1. Melvin: “I’ll be a failure, I’ll be an embarrassment, I... I’ll be...”

Melvinborg: “You’ll be me.”

JUST??? Ok this scene being in the top spot of this list doesn’t make it special or like... necessarily above the others because the other scenes listed here are also so great imo. I love this exchange because like.... Okay here’s my specific reading of the scene. The tone in which he says it is so matter-of-fact. There’s a slight element of “it’s not the end of the world” potentially reassuring his younger self; (”You’ll be me [and that’s not so bad... right?]), with further implications that his kid self is a) being a little overdramatic in his reactions, b) the melodrama of kid Melvin’s behaviour here is kind of insulting of Melvinborg, because Melvin is complaining dramatically about the possibility of... Being him, becoming him. “You’ll be me”. It’s somewhat this blunt acknowledgement of the insulting nature of the overreaction. Like “right, right... you’re so upset because you’ll be me. Got it.”

But at the same time, Melvin never said anything about becoming Melvinborg being the reason for his woes - it’s obviously about the failure to get in to Eliteanati (which, yes, those two things are directly linked, but he was still focusing on the latter, not the former, while it’s Melvinborg who chooses to draw attention to the former). That was the connection Melvinborg drew! Melvin threw out the words “failure” and “embarrassment” and Melvinborg’s reply essentially just goes, “yep, those words apply to me alright.” His blunt reply is also this sort of resigned acknowledgement on his part that those words do apparently apply to him. At the end of the day they’re the same person with the same goals, and what Melvin sees as being a failure, of course Melvinborg will also see as a failure. He sees himself as a failure which is the entire reason he travelled back in time to help his past self like this. But Melvinborg, still being Melvin, has quite the ego regardless. So his reaction is like “yeah yeah, you’re being a little overdramatic, so you’ll wind up being ME... big deal, I know I’m a failure, what else is new... (but also I’m not that bad, wth).” seems to be a fair bit going on there imo.

“You’ll be me” also contains an element of “you’ve got this. we’ve got this” because me = still a boosted, great conception (tied into him still having a high opinion of himself)

And then he just nonchalantly tries to get his younger self to calm down and use the damn bag, fjdfjdfj

^This line too is so... lol. The element of shade to it. He’s watching his younger self all helpless and freaking out (in which the behaviour kind of insults him directly on a level as discussed above) and in his own way he’s trying to help out. but it’s also like “ok come on now” /observes his younger self being all cringe (lol)

I’ll admit this doesn’t necessarily feel like Top Spot material (and as we established, that actually goes to the dancing/singing scene which I exempted), but my god it’s fun all the same.

Honestly, just... all the Melvin banter and arguing is SO good, these examples can stand-in for other examples (like their huge discord in the finale). I didn’t find the bit that first reveals the laser eye thing and I remember that being good too. I also love Melvinborg just like... blatantly and purposefully ignoring things he really shouldn’t (the bee episode and the chances of his plan going wrong) he is just. so #silly hahahah

BONUS: Special mention to the scene where Melvinborg is chatting with Melvin through the phone in the two-parter finale and accidentally mutes himself, fjfjfdkjdfjk. It immediately came to mind when I was thinking up scenes to include and I really wanted it on the list..... It’s there in spirit. <3 Screencaps alone wouldn’t do it justice though, so it’s somewhat for that reason I didn’t include it. But my god it’s so good... The entire scene is just... So good.

Melvinborg: “Fortunately I have a few obstacles for just an emergency.”

imagine getting roasted by your kid self so thoroughly like this, ffdhdfjdf. The kid self that you’ve been trying to help all season!! LOVE the drama they have

He leans against the doorframe, sunlight glinting off his feathers, and she’s almost surprised at how good he looks. the years had been kind to him, it seemed. She hadn’t heard much about her time away. “I could say the same about all of you.” He says. the time for tears and jubilation had passed, emotions settling into a weird limbo under all their ribs, excitement and happiness simmering but not overflowing. she felt strange here, on earth, she felt... vauge. almost dreamlike.

She smiles and it reaches her eyes- she’s never been more happy, really, “Don’t get used to the long hair.” She tells him, her brother who in her darker moments she’d thought she’d never see again, “The first chance I get to go to a salon i’m chopping it off.” her hair felt so much heavier on earth, weighing her down. every part of her weighed down.

“The leg however...” She shrugs, “What can you do, y’know? That’s here to stay.”

He looks at her softly, and she winces at the pains she can see peeking out from the black of his pupil. She knew he wasn’t upset she was home, she knew he wasn’t hurt she was here- up there, on the moon, she hadn’t ever considered how her disappearance would have effected the people she’d left behind. it was residual pain, guilt, grief undoing itself. “And you..?” it’s his turn to wince, face twisting in hope or the desire to reach out and snatch those words out of the air between them. Della couldn’t tell which. her own twin, the person she knew better than she knew herself, now just a familiar stranger in front of her. she’d missed so much.

She nods, wiggling her feet in the dirt, smelling the crisp air, “I’m here to stay.”

Her sweeps her up, arms looping around her chest, and she marvels at the fact that she’s taller than him now. her spine had decompressed after all that time in low gravity. She winds her arms around him too, breathes out a shaky breath, and holds onto him even tighter. Grounding. Almost desperate.