#meta rant

for a parent who’s indulgent at best and manipulative at worst towards his sons, in some ways Korn is a good father: he provides for his children, is accepting (or at least tolerant) of their lifestyles, and on a good day, he can even play act being supportive towards their goals in life. perhaps there’s an argument to be made that his affection towards his children are superficial, but the fact that he shows anything at all is in and of itself impressive, since typically Asian parents—especially fathers—are more subdued when it comes to showing their feelings. not that they don’t ever, but it tends to be a rare occasion.

sometimes I wonder if maybe that’s why Porsche and Chay are a complicated existence to Korn, that it’s hard to make out what his end goals are in bringing them into the fold of his family.

what I mean to say is, whatever his reasons are, imo it’s most definitely tied to Nampheung and whatever his complicated feelings are towards her. whether they be familial, romantic, maybe both, maybe neither, whatever they are, it definitely parallels the sort of intensity that Kinn feels for Porsche and what Kim feels for Chay.

i sometimes see people (not on here, mostly on Twitter) get defensive whenever Kinn or (especially) Kim are compared to their father, like it’s some insult to them, but the way I see it, it’s really an insult to the two characters if they only see Korn as some mustache-twirling villain that’s plotting world domination, and not a monster who still contains within him the complex, mixed emotions of a human being.

The way I see it, I don’t think it’s hard to see why Korn’s actions towards Porsche and chay seems to often swing between extremes:

on the one hand, I can see Porsche and chay being a reminder to Korn that they’re a part of Nampheung’s life in which he does not have any role to play in, besides a distant, but ultimately cut off uncle. a part of her life after the theerapanyakuls, a solid reminder that she’d moved on and built a life with Pat.

but on the other hand, Porsche and chay ARE extensions of Nampheung. They’re her children, so how can Korn turn a blind eye to them, when right here are two people who carry Nampheung’s legacy?

maybe turning a blind eye just seemed like the easier option for Korn. If he turns a blind eye to them, maybe he can forget them and get back to the pretend reality that Nampheung is still a willing member of the Theerapanyakul family and not someone who’d chosen to willingly leave them behind.

It’s always fascinated me the manner in which Korn kept Nampheung housed in the family estate. “Gilded cage” and all that, fine, but one can also tell that Korn provides for Nampheung as best as his selfishness allows.

I’m not defending Korn’s actions for keeping Nampheung atticwifed, but what I am saying is that within the endless pit that is his cruelty and greed, there are small pockets of humanity to make her life as comfortable as he can.

for example, Nampheung’s art supplies; in her own little world, she can paint and make art as much as she wants, without anyone interrupting her.

how would Korn have proceeded with providing this for her? does he make time once or twice a month to go to the art supply store and buys her her favorite brands of goasche paint? is it the sort of monthly routine where absolutely no meetings or murdering can be scheduled or take place, because he has to focus all his attention in making sure his beloved adopted sister has the exact watercolor palette she needs for her new canvas?

has he ever thought about investing in an art supplies company for her??

alternatively, has there ever been a time maybe when he instructed one of the guards to buy her a fresh set of paint brushes, only for said guard to buy the wrong set of brushes, and Korn had a field day in the dungeons?

Y’all see where I’m going with this?? Lmaooo

Korn -> Nampheung: Art supplies, pretty summer dresses

Kinn -> Porsche: nice suits, his expensive watch, etc etc

Kim -> Chay: expensive guitar, “free” music lessons, and use of his studio

is it possible that Korn can feel the same sort of intensity his two sons feel for Nampheung’s sons, the only difference being that Korn’s feelings went right over the edge and into the Abyss?

It has always pissed me of how no one blamed the Hokage of the conclusion to Hinata's kidnapping

There are a million things he's guilty of but I haven't seen this take yet

Sure I understand a war wouldn't have been good for Konoha, but those guys came over for peace talks so we can assume they should be at least as invested as Konoha in the no war situation

Still, even if was the one dude working solo who kidnapped Hinata and not the whole Kumo delegation, how much of a bitchboy do you have to be to agree to kill one of your Shinobi because the outside faction whined about it??

This dude kidnapped a 4 year old girl with a bloodline ability, and when he was righteously executed by her newly widowed father. Hiruzen in his infinite wisdom, decided to allow this foreign nin!! To demand the life of a clan head from a founding clan??

Sure to make matters worse it wasn't Hinata's father but Neji's who was killed. But Kumo asked for a Clan Head's life in exchange for their deceased criminal's and Hiruzen just went

Yep seems fair, do what you want (???) like??

At no point has anyone ever made Ford feel like he has intrinsic value. Deep down he feels people will only tolerate him if he is being useful hence his obsession with 'fixing' his mistake when it was really him being manipulated.

After Weirdmageddon, he immediately turned around and called his life's work 'an old man's folly'. He was willing to sacrifice himself to save his family but after everything he's gone through he calls Stanley the hero because Stanley was the one who got it done.

He doesn't forgive himself for making mistakes.

Ford always has all these metrics with which he judges himself and his standards are so damn high. He doesn't think he's a great scientist. He doesn't think he's a good man or even a good brother. He always has to be the fixer, the smart one, the one constantly trying to prove himself competent. Nothing he does is ever good enough because he knows the moment something goes wrong people will drop him.

He saw how his father treated Stanley, and he internalized it. Even when Ford made his father proud, he was keenly aware of how precarious and conditional it all was.

I'd like to think that at some point his family tells him it's okay to ask for help, but because he's so guarded no one has figured out that what he really needs is someone to tell him they won't love him less if he messes up.

*prepares rant*

i know albert and specifically haru and albert’s rivalry/rship drives a lot of the swimming plot but similarly to kinjou i dont think it was necessary to get into a whole other backstory and angst about another character to achieve the same themes message conclusion etc.

you’re right that expectations probably play a big role in how you receive the movie - personally i think more could have been done to actually tie off the major conflicts amongst characters, but i guess free! has always dealt with conflict through swimming so i cant actually complain. i do wish that we could have seen hiyori and ikuya’s rship (ie their conflicts and development) a little bit more bc thats one of the most unresolved plot points from past seasons imo.

anyway thank you for responding to my question! your insight was rlly interesting :)

These are very good points, honestly, and they reflect a lot of the more...unconventional storytelling decisions KyoAni made with Free! So I hope you're ready for another short essay about them :D

But I'd argue that the "let's add new characters instead of solving old problems" thing has been showing up from the beginning. Like, I agree it's weird! But they did it in season 2, with the addition of Sousuke, and again in s3 with Hiyori and Ikuya. (And as they're officially my favorite, I feel like I've somewhat lost the right to complain about it lmao)

And speaking more broadly...it's kind of like life, isn't it? Especially for young adults. The biggest problems are not easily solved (or even easily recognized), and new people keep coming into our lives, recontextualizing those old problems in new ways. That and the decision to build the story backwards as intensely as they did forwards were some pretty innovative-feeling storytelling choices, at least from my perspective.

As for adding Kinjou and Albert, and HiyoIku development: (more spoilery stuff below)

Rex and Ahsoka are really special in Star Wars. There’s a great deal of tragedy in this universe, and all of our beloved protagonists have their stories shaped or ended by tragedy in some way. Anakin is consumed by the dark side; even his redemption comes with the end of his life. Padme fights for justice her whole life but dies. Han is killed by his son, the clones are killed by powers greater than them, the crew of Rogue One makes the ultimate sacrifice to give the universe hope.

These stories are not less meaningful because they end tragically; in fact, perseverance and redemption in the face of tragedy is a main theme of Star Wars. But hope is also a main theme, and Rex and Ahsoka have a unique arc of hope that isn’t cut short by tragedy. We know Rex keeps fighting all the way up to the Battle of Endor, and he sees that victory. We don’t know the end of Ahsoka’s story yet but I bet she lives and fights as well. All the characters who die on the way to making that hope a reality have incredible, enduring stories. But Rex and Ahsoka get to live for their hope, they get to see it all the way through. We can follow them in a special way as the audience because we have seen all the tragedy and all the hope they’ve seen. When Luke seals the victory so many fought for, we can see it even more radiantly through their eyes, because we know what it means to them, and it makes the climax that much more satisfying.

She displays time and time again an inability to face the truth when it comes to accepting the fact that Hyde isn't an innocent, helpless kitten and has in fact done some very shitty things that put a lot of people in harm's way.

She should know that the dude she's defending has set a street on fire which resulted in the lodgers almost being thrown in prison and a lot of people ending up injured or homeless, yet when confronted with the fact that the image she created of him doesn't really fit realitiy and is quite chamerical, she pulls this shit.

This is a full grown adult she's talking about. I don't know where she got the idea from that he "has never had to take care of anything in his entire life" other than from her own delusions. We as the readers know that Hyde never truly had to take responsibility for himself or face the consequences for his actions, but there's no possible way that Rachel would know that.

From her point of view, Hyde is some random guy who she met two years ago and who shows up in the night to make a bit of small talk and then goes off into the night to cause trouble. Basically, she knows nothing about him other than that he's a bit dorky. Taking that perspective, she should assume that Hyde is absolutely capable of getting out of trouble and looking after himself, otherwise he wouldn't be able to visit her every night without letting people whom he pissed off beat him up or catch him. She created that helpless, weak version of him by ignoring all things she really knew about him.

This obviously has to do something with her brothers and having to watch them get taken away from her or losing them to their lives of crime, but that doesn't excuse her behavior or her unwillingness to face just how far from reality she has gone. Hell, she even admits that he isn't as innocent as she claimed, yet she still refuses to stop defending him.

This is Rachel admitting that what she's doing is for herself. "I don't want to lose him." The trouble is, she's willing to let other people suffer through his actions as long as he is safe. She flat out said that she knows that he did/does bad things, but it doesn't matter to her. It doesn't matter to her if he hurts other people as long as he doesn't have to face the consequences for his shitty actions. If you don't want to take my word for it, take Sabrina's.

This is extremely selfish and one-track-minded behavior on her part. She's willing to throw other people under the bus for him even though she knows that he's a jerk who doesn't really care about anyone but himself because she won't face her delusions and because she doesn't want to suffer emotionally.

"Yeah, well, I like him, and I see him as a sort of reconciliation to rid myself of guilt, so please just ignore all the suffering he's caused and probably will continue to cause, 'kay?"

That's really cold hearted and callous when you look at it that way.

Oh, and speaking about throwing your friends under the bus for someone you barely know,

Rachel really doesn't run short on examples there, either.

I really don't know how this collectively flew over the head of the fandom, but this is really fucked up.

It's fucked up that I have to point out how fucked up this is. This is a physical threat of violence. This is her showing that she would murder both Robert and Henry if it meant helping Hyde. This shows just how obsessive and ruthless she is, and the fact that the fandom reacted to this with: "Haha look at her, so devoted to Hyde, lol Henry yeah you better tell her" is really concerning.

I mean, c'mon guys. She literally held a knife to the throat of her friends. This isn't cute or adorable. She's incredibly entitled, posessive and creepy. To threaten someone with deadly physical force like that, to overpower and to frighten like this is really obviously not right. You know what this says?

"Tell me right now/do what I want you to do right now or I'm going to kill you."

You want to read some of the comments that were left on these exact pages?

(Chapter 6, Page 29. Yes, It's really the one where Rachel pulls the knife on Lanyon. Rachel threatens to kill Lanyon, yet he is the one who is being described as villain-like and not trustworthy.)

(Chapter 7, Page 6. Ah yes, confronting someone about their enabling attitude and their obvious reality dissonance is definetly way more contemptible and morally wrong than brandishing a fucking knife on two people you consider your friends.)

How come Rachel gets a pass even though she went nuts and behaved this shitty, but Lanyon is somehow seen as worse by the fandom? How come people are willing to interpret and theorize the fuck out of his words and behavior, yet when Rachel does something very, very obviously fucked up that could cause some serious harm, it's seen as cute and acceptable?

Also, on another note,