hello!!! sorry to scream in ur ask box but i saw ur essay abt sean while going thru the tags and saw that u also loved namo!! i was wondering if u had any more thoughts on namo and sean bc i actually rlly love their relationship/friendship, i think he's so sweet to her and she in turn is very honest and open with him!
hi!!! never apologize for screaming about shows in my ask box anon! so even though we haven't seen sean & namo in a little while, I fucking love them together! before white she is the only person sean seems to be fully himself & open to discussions with, and I really enjoy their dynamic!!!
so namo appears in ep 2 for the first time, after the boys have burned down tawi's house, and we see her doing some street art. in most of her appearances she's always doing art bc it is the main component of her character, & it's very clear that p'nuchie wants to include as much art & artistic expression in not me through namo, dan, eugene, that rapper, etc. and up until that moment, sean has appeared as an incredibly rough & closed-off character, and frankly that scene was a turning point for me starting to take real interest in him bc it's the first time we see sean outside of the gang & smiling. that scene might not be the most important of the series, but it establishes many things: first sean is very layered & actually a soft boi, second namo exists & she's an artist, and third & most importantly, namo's opinion matters A LOT to sean.
this whole scene is sean asking namo what she thinks of his actions, and it's really fascinating to see sean asking someone for their opinion about what he's done bc that's something he really doesn't do with any other character, appearing crazy for revenge to the rest of the gang. (until white of course!)
in their second scene together in ep 3, once again we see them hang out completely detached from the gang, and once again sean is helping namo with her art, showing how close they are to each other. and I love that scene not only because of how hot off is playing the bass (though it’s of course part of it lol), but also because we start seeing how much namo can see right through sean & how much she cares about him.
we see her immediately notice that sean has something on his mind, and he doesn’t hesitate to confide in her about the black situation, which once again is one of the only moments of vulnerability sean has up until that point. and namo not only listens attentively, but actually pushes sean to communicate with black, which is something that is obviously very hard for sean to do bc his social skills become shit around black/white lol. so while the first scene established how much sean cares about namo, scene 2 establishes that on top of that, namo is a really good influence in sean’s life & cares about him all the same. in that same scene, we see her interact with yok who asks her about unar. I really enjoyed that because this scene and the other one with yok in episode 5 where sean isn’t even there shows that namo isn’t only there to be the “vague love interest who will get her heart broken”, but she is actually impactful to two different storylines, on top of being her own strong person through all of her art that is showcased on the show.
and then, in ep 4, the plot thickens. sean & namo have been established to be very close, to trust each other, which would mean in most media around the world that they’re dating bc two people of the opposite gender can never be friends apparently lol. but then yok asks sean if namo has ever drawn him, and he says no. that comparison is striking when you see that danyok, the secondary ship, have both drawn each other before they’ve even had a proper conversation lmao. that parallel cannot be ignored and seems to show a flaw in sean & namo’s relationship. yok is surprised by that, saying “she’s your girlfriend but she’s never asked to draw you?” and that’s when sean replies that he’s never asked namo to be his girlfriend. so either namo is just his best friend who likely likes him & will get heartbroken by seanwhite according to the trailer, or they’re just casual & never really agreed to anything but still kinda dating. which in any case makes me pull up the 👀 emoji.
then in ep 5, the plot thickens AGAIN when white walks in on sean & namo sleeping on the bed together. I think we have to take into context that in 99% of thai dramas, a man & a woman just sleeping next to each other is seen as incredibly intimate so this is quite a big deal, even when they still have their clothes on & nothing seems to have happened. that scene is very removed from sean & namo though, and rather shows white’s jealousy of them two, even though he refuses to admit it. after sean had his first nightmare in ep 4 & cuddled with white, he is now in another vulnerable position (sleeping) with namo, and obviously white doesn’t like it. namo is perceptive as hell as always & immediately knows she gotta go bc “black” is uncomfortable with her presence. and the following scene is really interesting for her & sean.
when sean wants to drive her back, she calls a cab because she knows he needs to talk to black. she’s been aware of the problem with this new “black” since ep 3 & once again pushes sean towards actually expressing his feelings instead of pushing them down. once again they have a calm discussion about the issue with black, and namo really truly acts like sean conscience. she’s like a little angel on his shoulder always pushing him in the right direction of communication rather than just letting things bubble up. it is also important to note that once again like in every scene with her, sean is incredibly soft & does kinda act like a boyfriend (or at least what has been presented as boyfriend behavior by once again, the media) by walking her back to the car, telling her that she can always come by if she has a problem, and asking her to call him when she gets home (a favorite romantic trope of thai dramas.) like I’m sorry I don’t make the rules but these two are cute as hell lol.
we also learn another side of namo which is that her family doesn’t get the art that she does, and that she likely had a fight with them which is why she was sleeping over in the first place. once again, that small detail can feel insignificant, but it does help make namo more than a background character. we can imagine what her whole life is like even though she’s literally been in only 5 scenes. she’s not just a throw-away character, she matters.
and so far, that’s all we’ve seen of namo! I don’t know if she’ll be in ep 8 but I hope she comes back soon because I miss her! (even though let’s be honest her presence might announce some complications for seanwhite...) I also can’t help but compare sean & namo’s relationship as a softer version of teh & tarn in I told sunset about you. in itsay, teh is in his talking stage with tarn before they start dating at the end of high school, but before that he rekindles his friendship with oh-aew & starts falling for him instead, slowly pulling away from tarn who’s obviously heartbroken. here, even though sean & namo’s relationship isn’t very clear, I do think it crosses friendship & they’re likely to be in their talking stage as well, though it might be blurry since they seem to have been friends for a while. but here too, sean is starting to open up to white in a way he previously only did with namo, and with ep 8 we know he’ll probably open up more to white than he’s ever done with anyone else, including her. slowly, namo is getting side-lined :( I do hope they don’t go full “sad girl rejected by the mlm’s” trope, but I do trust p’nuchie to not mess this up. I also do hope we still get to see namo with sean because I do love them as friends & it’s very rare to see mixed friendships actually portrayed well on screen. hope you enjoyed this small essay anon <3
