#simon!demetri

okay while the last one was purely self-indulgent, this is actually school spirits-related lololol

so first,

demetri as simon elroy

both are intp (like me teehee) so they're both naturally inquisitive. buuuuuut they're also both extremely loyal and dedicated to the people they care about, specifically maddie/eli. demetri, like simon, would totally accept that his best friend is totally just a ghost now and, yeah why not, only he can see and hear and talk to him because, sure i guess, they love each other so much that it pierced the veil between the living and the dead. just an average tuesday, where's the shovel?

simon is also pretty solid in his individuality, much like demetri. the others call him crazy and encourage him to search for maddie irl bc "she's just missing, she's not dead". but simon ofc is like "well i saw her ghost with my own two eyes so, yup, seems pretty dead to me". he doesn't care that everyone else would never believe him, he's dedicated to solving maddie's murder on his own if he has to (and he mostly does). dem is way similar. when the rest of the kids join cobra kai and take it at face value, he sticks to his mindset of "this is stupid and toxic". yeah he goes back a couple times but let me remind you HE IS BITCHING AND COMPLAINING THE ENTIRE TIME. like that boy did slightly give into peer pressure, technically, but he is still extremely set in his own beliefs and opinions, no one is changing that until he sees it with his own two eyes.

and also they're both so cute and so smart like yuh, that's boyfriend right there.

eli/hawk as maddie nears

this is mainly out of convenience for the plot but maddie and eli do have some similarities.

despite having a best friend who thinks the world of them, both of them feel pretty alone and as though they're drowning in the world. neither of them feels supported by their mom and they both have a lot of trouble verbalizing their issues to the people around them. so when in doubt, push everyone and everything away. which is what happened between maddie and claire.

also the peycob vibes ??

like i said mainly for plot but i'm all for other reasons.

so together, hawkmetri being parallel with saddie makes SO MUCH sense.

so, as stated before, simon/demetri think the world of maddie/eli. they have so much love and respect for their childhood best friend that they are so willing to do anything to pull them out of the darkness and into the light. when simon found out maddie was a ghost, he continued his work trying to piece together what happened but he also immediately jumped into working with her and accepting every word she said (not that he had a reason not to). like for sure, yeah, i can talk to you. okay, there are other ghosts i can't see, gotcha. mr. anderson and claire aren't guilty? faulty logic there but i'll still look into other suspects. in s2, after he has his doubts but confirms maddie is real, he works even harder to get her body back. THAT ENTIRE S2 FINALE WAS ABOUT GETTING HER BACK TO HER BODY. like he was non stop on maddie's side through the whole show and consistently wanted to make sure she never gave up hope. same with demetri. even when hawk was off being an asshole, he was still kind of on his side. in s1/2, he didn't like the hawk stuff but he still hung out with him and adjusted to all the cobra kai stuff. when kreese assaulted him and hawk attacked him OVER AND OVER AGAIN, guess who didn't immediately go to the police? and it's because he was still on his side. he chose to suck it up and go out of his comfort zone and join karate so he could get through to hawk in a way he understood, karate. and when hawk has his whole mental breakdown in s4, demetri is right there so scoop him up. he admits he didn't like the karate stuff at first but he does now, and he knows hawk does. he pulls him up throughout the season until hawk trusts himself enough to win the whole tournament. so there's that.

AAAAAND not to point out the obvious but

simon throwing his northwestern interview bc maddie wasn't going anymore (or so he thought) and demetri rejecting mit bc eli wasn't going anymore. thinking thinking...

also some extras

the living group:

demetri as simon miguel as xavier sam as claire robby as nicole

claire and sam, the popular rich girls who everyone makes assumptions about but if they took a second to get to know her, they'd realize she's just a kid like everyone else and she needs support every now and then.

xavier and miguel, lowkey i had no justification besides his dynamics with everyone (again, plot convenience). him being close with eli pre-ghost and demetri not really liking him, then kind of going being eli's back with sam (who would have some weird rivalry/neutral relationship with eli), then having a weirdly clashing relationship with robby and demetri (who, in ck, were both in miyagi do and hated ck) before finally settling in as a goofy guy and being a complete 180 from his intimidating reputation.

nicole and robby, both overhated, both being pushed to the side by their "friends," both trying their best to solve all the problems on their own before realizing it's okay to accept help (i'm specifically thinking of robby joining ck and his sekai taikai arc in which he thought he was in control of everything but realized everything was way out of his hands and he needed help from everyone else)

the ghost group:

tory as rhonda kenny as janet silver as mr. martin moon as wally and of course, not pictured, eli/hawk as maddie

rhonda and tory, hurt strong girls who keep everything inside bc they're too scared to let anyone in again but they realize some people really just want the best for them. also they were both victims of grown men being creepy and disgusting. also angry lesbian. that's it.

janet and kenny, i could say so much. they were both really hurt and scared but excited and ambitious young students that were disadvantaged due to something out of their control (kenny was really small and janet was a girl). so they trusted an adult to guide them but all this adult did was trick them into thinking they cared and force them to do awful things for the adult's personal gain. THEN when janet/kenny lash out, everyone acts like they're evil but they really didn't want to hurt anyone, they just wanted to heal the part of them that was destroyed by other people. then they come back to the "good side" and allow themselves to heal and accept help. LOVELOVELOVE

mr martin and terry silver, uhhhh die? jkjkjkjk, i really don't like either of them. they both suck, they both manipulated kids. i don't care what their justification was, i don't care how many years they were spiraling. i really don't care. they both hurt my bookies sooooo disappear.

wally and moon, my beloveds, they're so cute. i mainly did this for plot but they're both super cute, sometimes seen as aloof, individuals who really just want the best for everyone around them. they're also both reformed bullies who would go to the ends of the earth to protect their token gay best friend (thinking of wally with charley and moon with demetri). but, for plot reasons, eli and moon being together in the afterlife and him questioning if he even wants to be alive again with demetri if he could have moon. liiiiiike INSANITY.

so yeah, to start from the beginning, eli is forced out of his body and kenny takes over. demetri finds out his best friend is now a ghost, miguel/robby/sam momentarily freak out bc they think they're responsible, mr. anderson is johnny and he's pretty close with eli but he is also momentarily a suspect. robby/sam/miguel all work together to find eli but demetri's weirdly avoidant like "guys he's dead" and conducts his own murder investigation with eli's ghost

when they find the person who's been doing all these awful things, and it is in fact eli/hawk, demetri freaks out bc "great ! great to know i really am going crazy ! and i just didn't want to accept that my best friend changed and did all these crazy things ! good to know, goodbye forever !" and eli manages to get through to him to prove he is in fact a ghost but a kid named kenny is walking around his body, doing all this random stuff, and running away from mr. silver, who all the kids trusted until they realized whoopsy ! he's not really a good guy !

and when they get closer to bringing kenny/eli back to campus to switch him out with eli, demetri is hurt to find out eli is hesitating. he doesn't know if he wants to come back if it means losing moon. and this breaks demetri's heart even more. bc he thought when eli chose miguel over him, that that would be the last time he broke his heart. but eli again chose someone else, namely a dead girl, over demetri. he was considering staying "dead" and letting demetri graduate and leave so he can spend eternity with a girl. a girl who's the complete opposite of demetri in every way.

and when they finally go to switch, silver pulls another cheap shot, moon tory and kenny try to stop him and eli decides to help them. but his body is dying without a spirit and demetri is panicking bc he's so close to getting his best friend back. the first time he thought he died was the worst period of his life. and he can't go back to that now that he would know for sure that he's actually dead and his spirit will still exist, stuck in the school. so he tries to go back in to find eli but he doesn't realize eli just barely got back to his body at the last second. and now demetri is stuck with silver and kenny. BOOM ABSOLUTE CINEMA