In Which I Absolutely Lose My Mind Over Pennhung
Pennhung is my most beloved and I would watch him in every scene even if it made no sense for him to be there. His tiny hat! The way he smiles! The fact that he's always thinking! I loved him from the moment he waxed poetic about croissants and I fully expect to only love him more.
His real fear in that kitchen was real. I also would not trust anything any of them cooked. He never hides his feelings but he doesn't speak up, doesn't criticize anyone, just watches them because he's absolutely the best boy ever.
His awkward words! The third person in the subtitles! The way he holds the lamp with both hands! He's so tiny and so awkward and he is just doing his best at all times. He puts down the little triangles to guide them home because he knows that getting lost won't help them! He is thinking in ways no one else does!
He loves those ducks from the instant he sees them and he makes sure they are not just loved but also cared for by everyone because you have to love your pets, you have to be able to take care of others in order to take care of yourself. He helps everyone to insure that the ducklings are okay and safe and fed and gives them all the knowledge they need.
The way he apologizes and begs not to be punished for defending himself, the obvious trauma that had led him here. This is an actually autistic character who is trying to cope with a world that has always punished him for being himself, that has pushed him down and locked him up and told him he was wrong for who he is and it breaks my heart to see him.
(Bonus: Please enjoy the bully getting slapped for being mean to Pennhung, may more punishment follow him for the rest of the series.)
And now the Pennhung Protection Squad is born and must also be protected at all costs.
Pennhung is brilliant and strong and fragile and beautiful and amazing and I love him so, so much. He named his duckling Baby Duck! Protect this boy at all costs. Please. Someone. Anyone. Everyone. Protect this boy.
And this is where you know how much he's going to hurt. Because he is so easy to manipulate because he doesn't understand how easily other people lie, how easily other people bend the truth or fake their emotions. He has no way to see past their smiling masks and fake apologies to the truth of how they're using him. And then he even went out before the storm and made sure to save their ducklings along with his own because he promised to protect them and care for them.
Protect him at all costs.
And we are not talking about how Hugo switched the tags to get him in trouble or how illegally absolutely traumatizing that ending was or how it was obvious that they knew the tag had been switched and still punished him for that conscienceless bastard's unwillingness to help him or how the protection squad stood up for him and I just... I can't.
Please, protect this boy and let him be happy again by the end. Give him friends, give him protection and comfort, let him matter to people and let the ones who would and will hurt him suffer for it.
(Do I already have a tiny corner of my heart dedicated to shipping him with Tibet? Yes. Yes I do.)
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