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Bad Buddy - Blog Posts
PAT and PRAN in BAD BUDDY (2021)
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief- that thou, his maid, art far more fair than he.
All my life, I was always told not to be friends with this one guy- but we all know that forbidden fruit is always sweeter. From two people who can’t be friends, without knowing it, we became two people who couldn’t just be friends. I wrote this song for him.
Thank you. For what? For trying to make a silly guy like me happy.
what a wonderful way of seeing things!!!
“what an honorable answer.”
‘Don’t you want to be free?’
“Do you think your mom will ever forgive my dad? If you were her, would you? We can’t change what happened. We can just live with it. If you want to, go ahead. I will not live with it. What are you going to do then? Run away to a place where there’s only us. Do you think they will allow that? Our parents won’t. But some people might.”
honestly speaking bad buddy is like....a slap to even western queer representation. im not even kidding. as someone from a queerphobic country, who got introduced to their first queer character at 14 through nico di angelo, who had to deal with queer identity being used for queerbait through stories like sherlock, who knew of the dumpster fire of queerbait that was supernatural, who rarely ever saw sapphic rep, who found shadowhunters and malec but the awkwardness in all those initial seasons (i wont talk about the books cause...yeah)
bad buddy is like a cure to all of that. this asian show did what western shows are so cowardly to do, unless they want to make it a pat on their back or showcase themself as revolutionary. no, bad buddy gave us a queer romance, told us love is genuinely blind to gender, told hs that sometimes girls do only like girls and nothing will change that, told us that queer people aren't a one in a thousand occurance. queer people exist everywhere, we just don't have the same stages and same spotlights to live out our love like non-queer people.
and bad buddy is what we'd get if we did. the family fued would've been a credible issue even if it was a girl and a guy. and thats why bad buddy feels so special.
this is recompence for suffering through awkward western queer rep, for always having to watch traumatic coming outs as if you can't have a love story without them, for suffering some disgustingly fetishistic pieces of media, for always having to read between the lines, the subtext, for having to make do with blurry lines and deal with "oh nah theyre just friends, you people can't let people of the same gender be friends without wanting a romance".
bad buddy showed that a girl and a guy could be good, even best friends without being in love with each other and still cheat the other. it showed that a guy who once liked a girl could definitely have feelings for a guy and accept them both as part of him. it showed that girls do have their niche set of problems navigating sapphic relationships (felt you there pa). it shows that queer or not, family can still be traumatic, as it has been. it showed that a coming out scene can be "i like a girl" / "oh cool okay" over bowls of noodles.
this is actually what we've ever wanted. we love normally, go through normal conflits, have friends, talk about stuff everyone else does. our sexuality or identity isn't our whole personality. we do music, play sports, slack off or do well at school, have rivalries.
and i gotta thank this show for giving me that.
OKAY BUT THE PROGRESSION OF PRAN SILENTLY CRYING ALONE AND NEEDING PAT SO HE TRIES TO CALL HIM
THEN SUDDENLY PAT IS THERE AND PRAN’S TEARS IMMEDIATELY START FALLING FASTER NOW
TO FULL ON SOBBING IN PAT’S ARMS
THE ABSOLUTE DISPLAY OF TRUST AND SHELTER AND DEVASTATION IS SO RAW
AND PAT, HEARTBROKEN AS WELL, TIRED AS WELL, BUT HOLDING PRAN FOR DEAR LIFE THROUGH IT ALL
hearing pran's teacher report as "a serious, hardworking child, though he doesn't have many friends" in the same ep as "you raised me like this, and that's why i'm not like other kids" has actually torn my heart from my chest and showed it to me still bleeding
“Fine. It’s a yes.” BAD BUDDY (2021)
“What’s bothering you? Did I do something wrong? No. You didn’t do anything wrong. You did great, actually. You’ve been very nice to me. But…You don’t need to be this nice to me anymore. Why? Don’t you like it? I do. I like it very much. I like it so much that I thought I was special to you. But I just found out that I’m your peer mentee. Yes, I’m your peer mentor. It’s my fault to think of you more than just a peer mentor. It’s true that I’m your peer mentor. But I had to fight everyone in our faculty to get you to be my peer mentee. The whole faculty. I have always had eyes for you. I just wasn’t sure what you thought of me. Since when? High school.” - Bad Buddy (2021)
“You are… someone with the smiles I want to keep to myself only. Can I do that? Can I?”
Let’s get away from here. BAD BUDDY THE SERIES (2021)
And we expect nothing less anymore
PatPran scenes as Taylor Swift songs.
yes! even their improvised scenes, they are improvising as their CHARACTERS, they are not themselves the actors, it just means that they know their characters well enough that they can improvise certain scenes and be it be in character and acted well!
this is one of my pet peeves in fandom because it happens all the time with actors lmao when the director (or whoever) says 'oh this scene is partly improvised!' people are like 'oh they are the actors here then' and it's like noooooo it irks me hahaha
To me great improvisation is a mark of exceptional acting talent. It means you are so into character you don't need script to tell you what the character would do or say or what they're thinking in a particular situation. I'm thinking especially of something like Ohm in the bus stop scene in episode 3, and how he told Aof he was just wrong about how Pat subconsciously felt about Pran in that moment, and Ohm was right. You can only get to that level if you are IN your character. And two-person improv is even harder, because you both have to be in your characters, the chemistry has to be there, and you have to trust your scene partner that they're not going to go left and kill everything.
I think to get people to understand improv is hard...it's riffing, it's vibing, in music we'd call it 'jamming'. It's not 'we're just gonna be ourselves' it's 'we're just gonna be these characters in this situation and see where it takes us'. To do it well is a BIG acting skill. There are lots of phenomenal actors who simply can't do it well. It's one of the cornerstones of comedy and comedy is HARD. Yeah I think people don't appreciate the skill level it takes at all.
Watching Bad buddy episode 1 hurts more knowing what we know now. Knowing that fight was the first time they saw each other after 3 years; knowing that was the first time that Pran played music again and he did it with Pat; knowing that Pat first instinct was to find a solution to end the beef between their friends in order to protect Pran; knowing that Pran first thing to do after seeing pat was to put on the watch perhaps because all his feelings came back; knowing that they both missed each other.
I just can’t... my heart hurts too much just thinking about it. How could they love each other so much since episode 1? I mean was episode 1. I’m not crying, you’re.
patpran being the healthiest relationship to ever relationship
bad buddy episode 9
what really strikes me about each of those scenes where pat is comforting pran is how pran responds to them. whenever pran gets upset over smth pat can't fix, pat makes himself vulnerable, offers him some cringey goofiness in hopes to cheer him up and each time pran's made sure to answer him, to show him his gratitude, to tell him it works.
bc it's so easy to just push someone away when ur hurt, to brood within ur own angry shell, esp for someone like pran who's always dealt with his emotions on his own. and he knows pat would understand if he did that, if he needed space pat would move away eventually, stop and leave him alone. but pran doesn't want that, he doesn't want pat to leave, he needs him there. he'd probably prefer silent company in some of these moments, but he knows pat's different, that pat needs loud affirmations and louder actions, that pat's doing this bc he loves him and pran might prefer quiet but he prefers pat more, so he returns the gesture, be it wiping his face or doing some mortifying dance. when he can't do that, when his hurt has worn him out too much, he still makes sure to smile for pat, to express his gratitude.
in reciprocating his gestures, pran is making sure none of his efforts go down the drain, he's making sure pat sees how it lightens the weight on his heart, he's telling pat he's grateful he goes to such lengths only to make him smile, he's grateful to have him here with him. he's encouraging pat's behavior by showing him how much he values pat's presence, how much all of pat's small efforts mean to him.
what really hits me thou - is that this started after the bet, before they'd fully opened up to each other, but once pran knows pat wants him, that pat likes him and is a reality he can have. before when he overheard what pat's dad said, when he was upset about the bus stop, when they'd kissed and he was devastated - pat chased relentlessly after him all these times, but pran adamantly pushed him away. it's how he's used to dealing w emotions - alone, in the confines of his own torn mind. it's how he thinks things will be better, if he tackles them on his own.
even then, pran had paid attention to how far pat was willing to go to ease his burden, to make him happy. in ep2 he even told pat that he enjoyed it, having pat indebted to him, implied he found solace in pat's guilt. but back then was when he thought he'd never have pat, or later that he could not. back then was when everything pat did confused him, tore him apart further till he didn't know what was upsetting him anymore - the initial trigger, or pat's misleading behavior.
now pran knows. it still surprises him - the extent to which pat's willing to go to make things right for him (re: offering to say he was dumped to fix things w their faculties). but now it doesn't devastate him anymore, does not break him to wonder whether it was just a friendly gesture or more, does not scare him w the idea of nursing a shattered heart later. now he feels everything pat intends for him to - mollified, warm, safe. so now pran too puts in effort to show him he knows why pat's doing this, that it makes him happy, that pat's efforts do and have always paid off.
this is how they've become each other's safe space, by plucking the courage to expose their soft underbellies to the other, and having that effort returned, rewarded and treasured.
The thing that has been stuck in my mind is the way you can literally see the moment when Pran realized just how much Pat loved him. I mean sure from all the things that Pat has already done for him, it should already be evident enough but still, you can see the look of realization in Pran's eyes when Pat suggested that he would post the status stating that they broke up just to make it easier for Pran. He's so taken aback from this idea because this is one of those telling moments where you see just how deep his love is.
As someone who has had feelings for one person for so long, them liking you back is a shock and you're always second guessing yourself and their feelings. There's always a constant fear that maybe one day they'll realise that you're not enough and they'll move on to someone better. But I think this is "THE MOMENT" where Pran understands that there's definitely no going back from this. Pat is as invested in this relationship as Pran, if not more.
He sees a man who's ready to be portrayed as the "heartbroken one" or "the one who got dumped" and does not give a damn if people make fun of him or tease him, just so that his boyfriend could get back with his friends. Pran, at this moment, finally gets it and that's why he reciprocates his feelings through Pat's love language, i.e. physical touch.
