the pacing of pinegate is truly lioennothong i've ever seen. literally such a drastic 180 and it still has me reeling a few years later. ah how i love it so
obviously pine is the star of the show, and he comes and goes so quickly. like for easily the most deranged villain on this blog, he was barely around for a week, compared to other villains like dieter and kind of spewart now who's villain era's were slow paced and drawn out, so pine really sticks out in that regard and i find that so enamouring. and if i remember correctly we're gonna get more pine stuff? which is really intruiging considering he's dead (or maybe he's not?) so excited for that
this is also the first time we have a real focus on haru, and even though he's still somewhat secondary here, we still get the most of him than we have before or since. and he's like. okay, i'll be so fr i don't care TOO much for haru. like especially on day 9 where he just stuck weed in peasley's mouth like a baby bottle really put me off cause like?? comfort your child??
ludwig is the protagonist of pinegate, so obviously we see him the most, and this was before he became more comfortable being fucking furious. god if ludwig had that ability at this point it would have gone so differently. he was still kinda insane though, ripping the chip out of peasley and all. that got me i went mental when i first learned peasley was fucking CHIPPED.
peasley is the deuteroganist and like. there's the elephant in the room. at the time i was furious at peasley for a while (everyone was) but now re-reading, i'm getting a bit of a sense that pine was being very coersive, which as everyone knows, IS NOT CONSENT! was that your intention idk but i just cant shake that feeling that the pine and peasley sex situation wasn't so black and white
overall i thoroughly enjoyed pinegate, it is easily one of the most dramatic storylines yet it is still so short in comparison to ponr (officially it was like six posts but it umbrellas out far past its posts) or fucking iggogate my christ
The Beanbean Vacation was my first story that lasted multiple days. The first "Day _, Part _" format. Which has paved the way for many other series!!
Haru is fun. Very quirky side character- His dialogue with random caps and italics and eccentrism vs proper-ism is very fun to write. And his backstory of getting what he wanted and never learning any sort of lesson 'cuz sometimes life DOES work out, is hysterical to me. That being said, he's not a good father-
There is a REASON Persephone dumped his ass. Haru loves his son. And he loves having fun and letting his son have fun! Emotional stuff uhhh that's not his wheelhouse. He's a king and rock star bro, what else do you want? Remember when Peasley called up Haru asking for a bunch of weed and he let him have it, no questions asked?
Haru is my fucking favorite side character, bro. You just have to. Not think about him in terms of being a parent.
For Ludwig, I should have leaned more into the horror of like... Being away from home in a place you don't speak the language of. You are a GUEST. That unfamiliarity and feeling like no one's on your side. He's hesitant to reach out to Haru to vent about Peasley 'cuz that's Peasley's DAD. The feeling of not belonging and unable to reach out for help... Spooky. And like, being a shitty boyfriend or not, Peasley is the PRINCE of this nation, sooo, what are you gonna do about it?
I bet the pressure and anxiety would prevent Ludwig from doing anything crazy... Even if it would be fun to watch.
Like I said in the post before this, I wish I'd written Peasley's dialogue different because it gives me such bad second-hand embarrassment. But the point still stands, he LOVES Ludwig, and regrets what he did.
Pine very much, is the villain. He feels ENTITLED to Peasley (since their breakup wasn't really a breakup, more of a "see you later") EVERY chance he gets, he shows up to steal Peasley's attention away from Ludwig, remind him of the good times, get close to him, and eventually coerse him into having sex.
I never showed that on-screen 'cuz the sex reveal was meant to be a surprise to Ludwig's/the audience's perspective. But if I DID show it, it probably wouldn't be very pretty. Probably a long while of back and forth and begging, wearing Peasley down, and then I can imagine once Peasley DOES reluctantly agree, Pine is a bit forceful. To get it started and make sure Peasley can't change his mind.
Pine is great. He wasn't around as long as Dieter, but he proves to be double the threat in just a week. He's able to over-throw the longest-lasting relationship, and the reveal he'd been using a GPS chip on Peasley for YEARS now is unsettling. Who even IS this guy, bro.
I refer to him as a psycho. Sociopath might be more correct since psychopaths can't really form connections the way he has. But I like calling him a psycho- It just feels right. He's always been kinda fucked up (his family sent him AWAY for their own safety) but his obsession with Peasley gave him a directive to the chaos.
Too bad he died doing what he loved. Pining after Peasley. 🥀 Very sad, very sad.
Side note, I love everyone finally seeing what I've been trying to tell y'all this whole time as of the Peasley Pine Sex Scandal.
I think this saga was the best spaced! It of course had the main arc of Pine stalking Peasley, but had time for other fun things, like Ludwig's homesick day, establishment of Fawful & Cackletta, the concert, Haru's podcast situation, and more. <3
This was probably one of my most important, bestest series ever, and I don't think I've ever had another series that accomplished so much in just nine days.
Thank you so much for your analysis!!! Even after all these (two) years, it's still fun to hear people's thoughts and yap about it.
