#tawanaran

ME AND THEE // EP 8

Tawan is jealous and possessive of Aran and refuses to change or learn or get better. He does the same thing again and again and he might apologize but he will not learn. He is presented with the same issue again and again and takes the same path again and again.

I don't think Tawan realizes how abusive he is.

I don't know the book lore about his background, but the way he seems to believe that he has sole possession of Aran's attention and personhood might have something to do with it. He doesn't seem to realize that he's in the wrong in every way. For attacking Peach, for doing it while on the job and embarrassing Aran, for making their realtionship public. He sees none of this as an issue. And THAT'S the red flag.

I don't think Aran either even realizes what kind of relationship he has with Tawan. He seems to be aware that Tawan scares him sometimes and that he feels suffcated by his intensity and has probably written it off as him not being able to handle that kind of attention.

But really, we have a perfect example of a truly intense character already...Thee. Thee is intense in every sense of the word. It comes from his passion and his care, but what he doesn't do is try to control Peach and enforce his will on him, like Tawan. Even if he finds himself close to crossing the line, his voice is not the only one he listens to. He takes advice from Mok and listens to Peach when their conflicting upbringings causes a misunderstanding between them. They talk about it and continue to work on it. But Tawan seems to only value his own thoughts and feelings. Probably a learned trait of his upbringing, which is not a justification, just an observation.

Thee doesn't override Peach's wants and needs in favour of his own and try to isolate him from his friends and disrupt his work, like Tawan.

They both start out the story pursuing Aran and although Thee quickly pivots to Peach (as he should) the two continue to have clear parallels in the show

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but one of Thee’s defining characteristics is that he’s open and willing to learn about how to interact with others, to listen to how his actions make people uncomfortable or upset and change to fix those things

Tawan, on the other hand, remains firmly rooted in the idea that he has done nothing wrong and refuses to listen when others try and communicate that his actions are toxic and harmful

Where Thee is learning to communicate with his partner (although he isn’t always prefect at it) and therefore with others, Tawan actively shuts down or ignores any attempt Aran makes to do the same

Thee has learned that his jealousy is unfounded and not to take it out on Peach, not blame him for the way that he draws in others the same way he drew in Thee

Meanwhile, Tawan makes every petty instance of jealousy Aran’s fault, even when Aran tries over and over again to have an actual conversation about how he’s misunderstood things

Where Thee listens when Peach explains why he doesn’t want a private jet or to stop working or about how important Plub is to him, Tawan makes his borderline stalking of Aran by inserting himself into his work Aran’s fault, because he ‘wouldn’t have gone this far if he’d just answered the phone’

Tawan is what would have happened to Thee if he wasn’t actually interested in becoming the best partner possible

I will say, though, that I appreciated the extra little insight into their characters. And I appreciate the reality that is going back to someone you really do love everytime they mess up, because that's a thing that happens in this world. I also appreciate that (it seems like) Tawan might be ready to finally do some work on himself.

If they were the main characters, then I would want to have seen some of that work done before they ended up back together, however, I acknowledge they are side characters, and in Me and Thee we don't see the stories of the "side pairings" as much as we often do with Thai bls, and, quite frankly, I appreciate that little difference.

Yes, we see Rome and Mok's story, a bit, because a) the audience loves williamest and b) it sheds light on Peach and Thee's story. But, it's still something we've seen much less than side pairings in a lot of gmmtv bls.

Tawan and Aran's story is also something we've only really seen in as much as it affects Peach and Thee's story, with a few extra scenes to show how we got from point a to point b, and also maybe why Peach is so protective of Aran (truly, I need to know their whole backstory, Aran is just an incredibly intriguing character to me. He also kind of reminds me of a friend of mine in the past who I, and our other friends, often worried about because of interpersonal decisions he made.)

I appreciate that I'm not seeing all of Aran and Tawan's story. I appreciate that I'm seeing what I need to for the main premise of the story.

Don't get me wrong I love side couples in bls, I love when the side couple has their own story entirely, but I greatly appreciate that Me and Thee isn't following the same blueprint. I greatly appreciate the idea that maybe BLs are starting to evolve even more than they already have, and we're going to start getting more and more stories told in more and more ways.