I had thought of writing a love letter for Thame, Po and MARS for the anniversary, but, somehow, I just couldn’t. I have no idea why. It could be that I was never good at writing letters, or writing in general. It could be that I was too fixated in making it special that everything I wrote felt like garbage. Or it could be that my feelings towards this show were so overwhelming that I just shortcircuit everytime I wanted to write it down. Or it could be all the above. I was too caught up with the structure I dreamed of that it stopped me from putting my appreciation of ThamePo to words. Thus, this vomit of words came out. Enjoy!
You see, I found ThamePo during a period of my life where everything was changing and I was running to keep up with the change. It was exhausting, scary and quite lonely despite the fact that I was actually surrounded by my family. Changes, no matter if it was bad or good, took a lot of your energy and needed a lot of courage to do. I was and am still a coward pretending to be brave because at the end of the day, I still had to do this no matter what.
Finding ThamePo was an accident that I would forever be grateful for. After all, ThamePo is essentially the story of lonely people facing changes in their life, no? Po who freshed out of a break up, struggling to find a job (like me), and Thame, the boy who had always been lonely, currently facing the biggest changes in his life. The way both of them found each other, lightened each other’s loneliness and fought for each other, brought me so much comfort.
Somehow, ThamePo became my safe place, my respite from the real world. When I felt the world was too overwhelming, I found myself back at the group house, surrounded by MARS and Po. When I needed a moment to breathe, I was back with Baifern to fangirl about MARS. ThamePo helped me get through one of the defining moments of my life by just telling a simple story that some may call cliche, yet so full of life.
Through ThamePo, LYKN finally is in my focus and no longer just a blurry foreground ( I just had to for that one, it was right there),I rediscovered Est who had become much more charming since the last I saw him and most importantly, I found WilliamEst. I don’t know how but at one point, every single social media I had was filled with them. And to be honest, I am not complaining. I can spin a thousand word thesis on how much WilliamEst meant to me but, today is not the day for that. Today is all about ThamePo.
ThamePo gave me Thame, a lonely boy struggling to hold on to the connections he had. He went about it the wrong way the first time, but he learned from his mistakes and worked his way to ensure he did not make the mistakes again. The way he loves with his whole being is just so comforting to watch and actually drove me crazy for like a week after I finished watching. I mean look at how he treated Po, look!
Talking about Po, he has such a steady and reliable presence. Sure, he had insecurities about himself but, he never made it someone else's problem. In the midst of the chaos, Po had been so understanding and reliable in helping everyone that it came to no surprise he managed to attract two of the members (him being a cutie also did not help). Po is just so precious and I understand Baifern so much in terms of protecting him because he is not exactly naive but, the way he loves invited people to take advantage of him. And his love is precious and only should be given to the worthy ones.
MARS, oh my MARS. It was obvious that they love each other so much. And because of that love they were hurt so much from the miscommunication. I love that above everything, they truly love each other, they love performing with each other and they wanted to chase their dream together. Thame who puts MARS first and devoted his entire being for the group. Jun who despite his outward personality, is actually the one who held on to MARS the longest. Pepper who is always calm headed, the north star of the team. Dylan who not only lost his friends but his family, his home when MARS almost disbanded. Lastly, Nano, the youngest who was always protected but also desperate to protect his older brothers. They were young when they started out, and they were surrounded by adults who were continuously disappointing, misguiding and manipulating them. They love each other but, with things thrown to them continuously including the betrayal by the one they are supposed to trust, it was never going to be easy. But, I am so proud of them to be able to see past all of those things and come out stronger and together.
This post actually took me a month to write and it was not even that impressive. Heck, the anniversary had long passed. But, I felt the need to do this because I need, for my sake, to acknowledge the comfort and warmth ThamePo gave me during a time when I needed it most. I love ThamePo so much. So so much.
