Is it okay if you go into greater detail about Win's personality, fears, and insecurities?
OKAY SO.
Win's my favorite character! I love him deeply! And I've been enjoying his character growth in Between Us more than anything.
The interesting thing about following him as a character is that there're different versions of him with similarities and differences: currently unfinished Hemp Rope, his brief appearances in UWMA, the specials, and now the ongoing main series (currently episode four).
His character in Hemp Rope is hard for me to get a read on because we only have unofficial translations and an incomplete story, so a lot of his motivations and emotional interiority are missing nuances.
Here, have the most beautiful image ever drawn of Win, taken from the Twitter account of the official Red Thread mangaka:
Meanwhile, UWMA is tricky as well because as Boun has said, he put a lot of his own personality into the performance because he didn't have a layered character to study. He kind of created his own version of Win out of necessity. He only had about an hour total onscreen, and apart from his stairwell scene giving Dean advice, he didn't have much of an impact on the plot, so he wasn't a central character with a lot of detail.
That said, we got some crucial moments in his scenes with Team that helped us understand what kind of person he is.
So! When I wrote WinTeam fic over the past two and a half years, I used a composite of his characters in Hemp Rope and UWMA. The flirtatious side we see in UWMA, the nurturing side we see in Hemp Rope, etc.
The specials weren't meant to be canon, and honestly someone on here recently called them unofficial workshops, which…yes?! That's a brilliant way to think of them, I think. The feedback they got on the specials (mainly that they were portraying BounPrem more than WinTeam) probably helped them focus their performances in the main series.
So now we're seeing the main series unfold, and since Win has a full development arc to go through now, it's a lot easier for me to see all of these little nuances. He's a full-fledged, multilayered character! One of the leads! YAY FOR MY SON. <3
His core fear seems to be that he's going to be alone forever, and while he seems resigned to it in episode one, he still clearly has some hope by the fact that he's grabbed onto Team with both hands. Even though he also has no idea what to do to keep him, he wants Team.
I think he also has a craving for validation. That "Team helps Win feel wanted" from the synopsis has been an ongoing chant in my head for the past two years, and it's fascinating to see it play out onscreen. I want to see his interactions with his parents before I go too deep into analyzing anything with his family, but it's pretty telling already that no one's actually sat down with View – a sixteen-year-old – and explained what's expected of him. Not until Win did.
Win's mother seems to be the one who nurtures Wan, but then you have scenes where Wan is criticizing both of their parents when he talks to Tul and Win. (Maybe because she doesn't stand up for him strongly enough to his father?) I thought it was fascinating that Wan views Win as the favorite, but he doesn't seem to hold any serious resentment toward him. My guess is it's because of this "rule" Win apparently made up: they're equals to him. Even if their parents have chosen a favorite (unconsciously or not), Win isn't using that leverage over his brothers.
He's even enforced that same equality with food. Maybe it's a conscious or unconscious response to their parents making their favoritism obvious? Or it's just something he thinks is the right thing to do in general. I'm waiting on more scenes with his family, because right now I feel like it could be a number of things.
Basically, my dear Anon, I'm in the middle of a whole new Win Phawin analysis stage. I knew my characterization of him would change with his series, and I'm delighted by what we've gotten so far. :')
I hope this was what you were hoping for!
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ok well i did REALLY love episode 13 or 14 of UWMA when they were at the resort and I loved Win and Team in that and I loved the fluffiness of it and the comedy and how nothing went wrong I loved it so very much you all must understand this. i loved that very much. unfortunately I also love angst and I am willing to sacrifice continuity for the sake of it
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I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Between Us and something hit me regarding Win’s hair. The fact that Win prefers to have his hair up during the day is a kind of armor and maybe even a coping mechanism of sorts? If you compare how he looks with his hair up vs. hair down, the ponytail makes him look cool and like the traditional bad boy, but it also gives him a commanding aura and makes him seem somewhat intimidating and hard to approach (at least it does when he is looking serious). I feel like the ponytail is a part of Win’s uniform, in all senses of the word. Because then you have Win with his hair down and he looks so soft and vulnerable. When Win is feeling comfortable and relaxed, he lets his hair down. For example, at the camp he wears his hair down at dinner because it’s an informal gathering, he doesn’t have to be an authorative figure and can just be a member of the team, which in turn is an attempt to make the other members feel more relaxed around him.
(Never thought I’be be analysing someone’s hair but here we are. 😅)
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