I posted this on twitter a few days ago but I figured I’d post here as well and expand on it a little bit.
So I’ve been thinking a lot about how each episode of Only Friends is from a different character’s POV, and how we learn whose POV the episode was either because we get a voice over (Sand and Mew’s episodes) or because we see that character isolated in the credits.
I’ve been thinking about how the way a character is portrayed to the audience will be different based on whose POV it is and what the relationship’s are between the episode’s narrator and the other characters, and I felt it the most in episode 6.
So Episode 6 is the first time we really see Sand in a more negative light right? Like he’s aggressive with Top almost as soon as he notices Top is there, and he manipulates both Nick and Ray and uses them as a tool for his revenge. However, in previous episodes Sand is seen as a good friend, a hard worker, someone with strong morals, someone who will put other people over himself, and it got me thinking on what the difference was, and that’s when it hit me, this was Top’s episode, the one character with a known antagonistic relationship with Sand.
Nick and Sand are friends, Nick could be argued to be Sand’s closest friend.
Boston and Sand may not be friends, but it’s obvious that they know each other well enough to tease and joke, and for Boston to mention that Sand’s weed isn’t Sand’s usual stuff.
Mew and Sand know each other the least, but Mew has mentioned that he likes Sand, and ‘thinks he’s lovely’.
Ray and Sand started out as acquaintances and quickly hurtled towards a mutually beneficial relationship based on companionship.
Top and Sand have a painful history, we don’t know the details outside of Top stealing Sand’s boyfriend, but clearly it was painful enough to still effect Sand to this day.
Clearly Nick, Boston, Mew and Ray all have positive feelings of varying degrees towards Sand, and in their episodes we see him in a more positive light. Top has negative feelings towards Sand and it’s the first time we see him in a truly negative light.
This isn’t to say that Sand wasn’t manipulative in Episode 6, or that the events didn’t play out the way that we were shown. However, I do find it interesting that the negative portrayal was in Top’s episode, maybe it’s a coincidence, or maybe Sand’s actions were made to seem worse, that Sand was made to seem more manipulative, because it was Top’s POV.
I think this can also be applied to Ray, while Ray’s portrayal has been a rollercoaster of emotions and ups and downs, there are subtleties in his portrayal each episode. Previously shown as not caring about anything or having much interest in anything aside from alcohol, to being shown as someone who badgers Sand for his attention, actively shows interest in him, and learning more about him, drinks less, expresses that he cares about Sand’s feelings. Now we have his portrayal in Episode 6, agitated, bitter, violent, uncaring who he hurts, completely destructive not only to himself but to others around him. Again, this portrayal is Top’s episode. Top who actively dislikes Ray, and is disliked by Ray in return.
I even noticed that Boston seems that extra bit more uncaring about other’s feelings and emotions in Episode 6, again Top has issues with Boston. We know that Boston is selfish, he’s a narcissist, he wants what he wants and cares little for other people, but it seemed amplified in this episode.
I could be reading too much into things, but everything in this show happens for a reason and I truly think every episode characters are portrayed slightly differently based on whose POV it is each episode, and I feel like it was the most obvious in Episode because of how many people top has hostile relationships with.
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