- Feb 26, 2021
- 223
- 1,191
Why did I think I could challenge you of all people to a screenshot contest?
I gotta say though, I appreciate your work, but I remain unconvinced.I've always agreed that the things Zoey does and says from the start of the Interlude to the very end - including drawing the MCs face all over her journal with hearts and shit - is consistent with being in love with someone. But it doesn't matter what you or I would call that kind of relationship, we're talking about what Zoey thinks and what her motivations are. At the end of the Interlude, Zoey says and does nothing different from the start of the Interlude. Instead of saying that she's returning because she loves the MC, she says she's returning because she loves her hometown and the people in it - including her mom and Neil, who she hugs when she gets back - and also obviously the MC, but we don't know if it's love for her best friend or love for something more. We just don't. There isn't a single piece of evidence that Zoey feels any differently about the MC at the end of the Interlude than she does at the start. Does she still 'love' him as a best friend, or has she discovered she 'loves' him as something more?
That's the ambiguity problem, which as you say could be intentional, though why that needs to be done is a mystery. Every piece of evidence we have for Zoey loving the MC comes from the period when she's leaving him - drawing him in her journal, on the train, fucking him - all of that happens when she still thinks they're best friends (which she explicitly says to multiple people when she has no reason to lie). Zoey could be in complete denial and cope about wanting to be in a relationship with the MC, but there's literally no evidence for that. All we have evidence of is that Zoey has the same feelings for the MC at the end of the Interlude as she does at the start, and we can fill in the gaps with theories but that's all they are unfortunately.
I'm not sure what to say to this and I'm not sure what kind of response I'll spawn by replying but here we goOnce again, you only read what you wanted to read and blanked out the rest. That can also be called home blindness.
Yes at her first tattoo session Zoey said that to Bret. But we have a decision there about what Zoey can say back to Bret. Was it just that Zoey and the MC started fucking each other or the two started exploring their bodies together.
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She wants her MC back. You should also consider the other pictures of this scene.
She tried to suppress these feelings at the beginning of her journey.
Zoey: "The feeling I tried so hard to push back and ignore."
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As time goes by, Zoey realizes that she was missing something, but she hasn't yet realized what it is or who it is.
Zoey: "But ultimately...the feeling that l was missing something I couldn’t put my finger on."
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She looks at the drawing of the MC and realizes what she didn't see because of home blindness. The MC.
Zoey: "Home blindness."
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Let's get to this picture .
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black-haired badass=Emma: Zoey learned from Emma what home blindness is and that you shouldn't hide your feelings for someone. (Neil also said that to the MC in EP1).
shaven teddy bear=Jonah: Jonah has led Zoey down the right path as far as high school and college are concerned. The conclusion of this should be so that standing still is actually going backwards. Zoey is graduating from high school and has applied, albeit unsuccessfully, to a college nearby.
red-haired, tight-pants-wearing goofball=Bret: Not only did he tell Zoey that the MC might have had more feelings for her than she realized, but at the end of the Interlude, he also told her that her grandma just wanted Zoey to be happy.
These three friends messed her up at the beginning of her journey, but also set her straight at the same time.
The image may also have another meaning that just occurred to me. There is an expression "arguing over the emperor's beard". So two people argue about the MC. He's wearing the beard in this picture. But Zoey didn't draw the beard and neither did the MC. Who was it? Emily is either Josy or Maya and Trevor actually means the MC. Josy and Maya don't have a car and take the train.
The MC also tried to draw something with blue and then rather writes that T-bone was here. Tremolo-bone. It was Maya. The MC replies in EP8 to Maya if he had a bony ass.
Zoey doesn't only call the MC her friend to Bret, she does it when showing her journal to the other chick too, so that's wrong. The choice to say to Bret 'fuck' or 'discovering our bodies' only modifies the language in the following text and not the meaning (whether it's romance or meaningless), but either way it's not evidence that Zoey thought or thinks of the MC as more than her best friend or not. The feelings that Zoey was trying to ignore does refer to the MC but there's absolutely no evidence that these feelings are more than the feelings she had for her 'best friend' at the start of the Interlude. Home blindness refers to her love of her hometown and the people in it, like the screenshot says, not exclusively whatever "new" or "discovered" feelings she has for the MC which is never explicitly stated when it easily could have been - which I guess is why you then go off on some kind of classic dalli theory train (pun intended) 
