#lll meta

[thewhyw]

Also...

That whole BEA: Who are you? Costa: We’ve met before...(and the rest of that) WAS AMAZING. I NEED MORE COSTA IN MY LIFE. 

[websthetics]

The problem with Balth's characterization is that none of his flaws really influence the plot in a negative way like other characters (particularly Peter) do. The show still seems to want us to sympathise with him more than the others. He hasn't done anything that is unanimously agreed to be wrong and called out like Peter and Ben have. I'm waiting for Balth to be called out on screen for something like the rest of them before I can believe they aren't trying to make him the perfect one.

Anon, you make an interesting point, and I’d love to hear more of your opinion on this subject.

But to your points! First of all, I’m not sure what you mean by influencing the plot in a negative way. Do you mean that the plot hasn’t caused Balth to act in way that could be perceived as negative? (Which is kind of confusing because does the plot cause the characters to act, or do the character’s actions create the plot?) Because in any case Balth is directly responsible for like 50% of the Petrazar plotline (as in: their dramatic relationship in general, not necessarily romantic) by virtue of being 50% of all people involved in that mess of miscommunication.

Anyway, I would certainly agree that Balth’s flaws haven’t been as negatively portrayed as Peter’s, who has honestly received the short end of the stick when it comes to flaws being flaunted negatively on camera. But I do think that there is a lot to be said about subtlety in LLL because it’s so character driven and there is so much that happens off-screen or in the subtext. The thing about Balth’s flaws is he is subtle; he is passive; his flaws are not as loud and obvious as other flatmate’s are.

I also think that there is a lot to be said about point of view. Because in one sense LLL is a show created by The Candle Wasters but within that show the videos are uploaded by characters; within the show, it’s predominantly Ben who’s controlling how his flatmates are portrayed.

So if we’re going to talk about perceptions of what happens directly on screen we have to look at it from Ben’s point of view. I’ve written about Ben’s motivations before but let us consider Ben’s different relationships with Peter and with Balth.

Ben wants some specific things from both of them (even if he doesn’t know he wants them); 1 he wants his friends to stay pretty much the same, since Ben himself is afraid of change; and 2 Ben wants his friends to be happy in the way he sees as happiness, to be in a monoamorous romantic relationship.

Peter has changed a lot though, in the way he behaves, because he wants to explore his identity and different ways of being. Balth, however, has not changed very much at all. Thus, in Ben’s mind Peter has deviated from the rule 1 and is being punished in the manner of showing his flaws on the internet. Since Balth has not broken that rule, he is shown favorably. However in such an instance as Balth fails to live up to rule 2, as in PUNISHMENT, he gets punished.

To your final point, that Balth’s flaws have not been called out, I actually think that is what happens in AFTERMATH; both John and Ben make allusions that Balth’s feelings of responsibility toward and guilt about Peter are unhealthy. When I made that post about AFTERMATH I was exhibiting distress that people were interpreting Balth’s unhealthy feelings as good and sign of his “perfection” which is simply not possible because nobody, not character nor real person, can ever be perfect.

This sort of came out in TOWN but with Peter as the (for lack of a better word) “bad guy”, but like, imagine this from Peter’s point of view. Imagine if any time you screwed up you had a friend who felt guilty and emotionally responsible to you. That is an incredible amount of pressure to not screw up! Especially if your intentions at the time are to screw up a lot, then is your moral responsibility to yourself to figure yourself out? Or is your moral responsibility to your friend who feels responsible for you?

And maybe your point is that this wasn’t made clear enough in the videos, but that goes back to my point about subtlety. In LLL the characters are being painted as morally grey and take some critical thinking to figure out.

[websthetics]

Okay, looking at the lolilo tag in the aftermath of AFTERMATH, a lot of people seem to be thinking of Balthazar as like perfect or not having any flaws but... i disagree. a lot.

I think the responsibility that Balth feels for peter is a Major Flaw. That is not healthy. that is so not how to have a friendship. ultimately Peter is responsible for himself, and while it’s okay to care about friends, it’s really not a good thing that Balth feels guilty about and personally responsible for Peter.

Let’s also not forget that Balth is non-confrontational to a fault and doesn’t sit down and talk things out and actually address problems.

Now this is not me hating on Balth at all, I love him as a character and I think he’s a very interesting character, but he’s certainly Not Perfect. In fact, one might argue that the point of LLL is that Nobody is Perfect.

I know that people often fall into dichotomous thinking that there is “Good” and “Bad” characters, or people, or whatever. But I’d like to encourage people to consider that stories, the world, characters, other people, etc. are a lot more complex than just “Good” or “Bad”.

As always, all dichotomies are false dichotomies. Putting someone (even a character) on a pedestal is one of the worst things you can do to them because they will inevitably fail to live to your expectations of them.

[jdmara]

preliminary thoughts on PUNISHMENT

ok so like i've been hesitating to say anything about the most recent lolilo and i still have no idea what to say exactly but here are some...preliminary points?

i liked the waiting bit in the beginning because once fred turned up it was just a nice counterpoint of movement vs silent knowledge and the anticipation!!!!

and then that rollercoaster of emotions!!

my heart swooped and broke in like 5 seconds flat like???? help me

i am probably the most impartial person i could be right now bc i identify so strongly with both peter and balth and i understand both perspectives so very very well

i didn’t think the potential line was that bad i just think that peter was having a lot of thoughts and they came out wrong

i also think balth’s reaction was entirely understandable

the emotional states of both of these characters pains me!!!!!!!

on the plus side: balth’s too big shirt looked kinda like a cute dress!!

freddie was very ooc here??

ben is a douche for necessary plot reasons!! otherwise we would never have seen it.

ben looks so fucking guilty and his face is stone cold like i think it hurts him to do this even if he takes some sort of vindictive pleasure in it like he KNOWSS how bad the peter/balth sitch is or at least he has some idea and he’s at least somewhat invested in it so it’s like???

peter taking responsibility is just

balth’s apathy is just

im just

i

help

peter’s expression after balth leaves the room is heartbreaking

“don’t worry benedick. it won’t happen again! you made sure of that.” rip him a new one pete. also his FACE

ben is so unsure like he’s just a youth he doesn’t know whether he’s doing the right thing or not and like!! he’s a douche but i get it i get why

this was longer than i intended

[borntobeabooknerd]

k but also i remember someone saying they thought that meg’s “something extra extra special” she has planned are plane tickets for the auckland gang to surprise the wellington gang, which at the time was probably meant to reunite bea with her boyfriend and hero with her friend balth (they are besties in my mind okay he left her one of his ukes and probably taught her how to play it) and just generally to create happiness for all.

well now ben’s gone and fucked all the shit up and i can just see hero being all “we don’t have to go now, don’t worry about it” meanwhile meg’s still planning to use her plane ticket just to go slap some brains back into benedick hobbes’s head (tbh if i were in meg’s shoes i would do the same) and beatrice is stubborn and hot-headed enough to decide that flying to wellington is the perfect way to get revenge on him and the plot BEGINS.

[octoberisthebestmonth]

In defense of Beadick being ok

I rewatched ‘Town’ and here are my thoughts on the beadick parts (essentially, why I think they’re fine, at least for now)

1. Ben isn’t sure if Beatrice is watching - honestly this doesn’t actually surprise me, she’s obviously busy and so far has only appeared in one video. Remember his last video was posted less than a day before so it’s not surprising that she wouldn’t have watched it. Or maybe she just doesn’t want to reenter the world of Internet vlogging, or prefers to get information about Ben’s life from Ben himself.

2. Not showing her his shoes - Ben, imo, seemed fine about this. We know what Ben is like (overly enthusiastic) and we know what Bea is like (sarcastic and harsh) so I can literally imagine Ben commenting on his shoes every time he sees her and Bea being like “you have showed me these literally a billion times and now I hate them AND you” and Ben laughing and this being more of an in-joke than something serious.

3. Also he goes on pretty much straight away to say he misses her (and if they have any problems, which I’m still hoping they won’t, I think the long distance thing will be the source of it more than anything else)

4. The phone call - you can see Ben smiling and looking lovey-dovey so I interpreted this as Ben being in the middle of a sappy conversation and just being a bit shy about it being on camera (because he’s a HYPOCRITE) and this is supported by the fact that he is looking at the camera and sort of ducks off screen to carry on the conversation.

5. This quote from the description, “i have been editing and things happened beatrice ur vivacious and meg is cool”

Basically, tl;dr my otp beadick better be safe because otherwise I will cry but this episode didn’t really have me worried and I am a master worrier so I think we’re ok... for now

[websthetics]

i was thinking today, and maybe this is obvious to other people but i only just realized; so in nmtd we have “sigh not so” which is from the source of maan, right, and we also had “sigh no more” which is adapted/inspired from “sigh not so”. So i’m thinking that “running mad” is an kinda based from/adapted from “a merry note” in a similar way, but different. Since it’s an original song, it can be adapted to fit the storyline in general better, and balthazar’s character specifically, but it still keeps a lot of the symbols and metaphors from loves labour lost/a merry note. (specifically what caught my attention was the way both “a merry note” and “running mad” are divided into stanzas about winter and summer, but there are other things too.)