I binged Promised Neverland with a visiting friend today and after hours worth of trying to digest the clusterfuck that was this show I am ready to put my deformed thoughts into a little twitter thread so here we go:

First of all: Ray. Easily the highlight of this show for me. Sure haha funny how I always favor the edgy, black-haired lil gremlins haha laugh all you want. I also laughed until I didn’t

In case this wasn’t painfully obvious, there will be spoilers further down this thread.

Anyhow: My infatuation with Ray started as ”awwww he’s a mini version of all my faves ever” and morphed into ”awwww I’d slaughter for him”

That scene with the fork? When he indicated they had to off Mama like he was commenting on the rust of the fork-teeth? Priceless. Instant shot through the heart for me.

Not to mention how fucking BRILLIANT he is? Holy SHIT? The best part was definitely watching him and Norman constantly try to outsmart each other but something about Ray’s morals and ways of thinking just sat so well with me.

I agreed with every single word he uttered so much? He was so right all along? Not to be heartless on main but given a situation like theirs, in which there were many children to be saved, I would have ditched all but the few most needed in a heartbeat.

So, yes, I love him because to me he’s the only one who’s actually thinking and who’s actually surviving. Sure, his intent was to die all along but his methods were so perfectly in line with everything I stand for? Of course, in that kind of situation.

Anyways. Moving on from Ray, sort of, I immediately categorized the three of them in the three different smarts.

Of course they’re all brilliant in their entirety, but I noticed a pattern in their values, morals and thought processes that I like to refer to as falling under one of the three smarts.

There’s Emma, who’s people smart. She knows emotions and how to handle people like the back of her hand, she’s determined and outgoing and wants to save everyone.

There’s Norman (sobs), who’s booksmart. He’s efficient and logical and while he would like to save everyone he also considers the option of either leaving them all or picking a few. basically, he weighs all the factors carefully.

And then there’s Ray, who’s street smart. He’s in it to survive, and doesn’t let his feelings get in the way of surviving. Survival first—feelings and morals second, basically. He didn’t hesitate to exclude the rest from their escape plan.

That was just my random little analysis of how they function, albeit very roughly. I recognize that they’re all the different smarts to some extent, it’s just that one is predominant over the other two in each of them uwu

Anyways, some words on Emma: brilliant, adorable, a little cliche shounen-protagonist but I feel like that’s a given. I overall really like her. I usually have a hard time connecting with female characters, mostly due to shit characterization,but I loved Emma

She felt human before anything else, and while she’s painfully naive (which is a trait in people I get irked by a lot normally) she balanced it out by being simply too likeable and too interesting to dislike.

(Sidenote but her suggesting they break Ray’s leg with a smile was the prime of anime. Ray’s enthusiastic ”let’s get cracking!” Only made it all the better and made me adore him even more)

And , lastly.... Norman...

I’m still convinced he’s not dead and that he’s gonna return later down the line but FUCK me if that wasn’t painful to watch in the most gut wrenching way.

Throughout the show I was in a constant state of anxiety, heavily enhanced by the show’s BRILLIANT cinematography.

Can we just praise The Promised Neverland for its immaculate camera usage and cinematography???? Them always being viewed from behind bushes and shelves and stuff indicating them feeling watched and captured??? Brilliant.

BRILLIANCE is what this show is. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.