Raimundo Pedrosa ≈ Dragon of the Wind (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
xiaolindragon) wrote2012-04-15 03:52 am
xiaolindragon) wrote2012-04-15 03:52 am
(no subject)
I'M JUST GOING TO KEEP MAKING POSTS AND ESSAYS ABOUT RAI. OKAY? OKAY.
Anyway I've been meaning to do this for a while because I feel like its a really interesting subject to look at over the course of the series. I really like how subtle Xiaolin Showdown is with the more deep and meaningful friendships and relations it portrays.
Which is why i'm going to look at Raimundo and Omi's rocky friendship. I just really like talking about things like this because oh man is there a complex here.
So lets start off at the beginning here. If its one thing we've learned from the first episode, is that Raimundo is the master of first impressions.
Insulting his baldness, pantsing him, and then taking advantage of his technological ineptitude to troll him. Yep. I mean, really Rai is kind of a huge jerk at the beginning, we all knew this. But its pretty notable here that they get off to a rocky start. Eventually though, they do become friends, and while a good bit of this is off screen it gets obvious by My Homey Omi that at least Rai has warmed up to Omi.
I mean, pulling him into a crushing hug and the going on about how worried he was while the others look on in confusion is telling enough. Omi doesn't seem terribly impressed by this. Maybe its because Raimundo was crushing his lung.
Anyway after that its pretty obvious that the two of them are good friends. All four of them have gotten pretty close, and it starts to really show. Even with all their differences, the team is always stuck if someone is inexplicably missing. I'm of the impression the passage of time is probably about 6-12 months from episode one to the season finale so they've definitely had the time to bond despite the huge opposing personalities of the group.
And then Mala Mala Jong happened.
The situation itself was already pretty intense, and its really there we learn how much Rai 1, hates to lose, 2, hates taking orders when he doesn't like them, 3, how fucking reckless he is once he's got his mind set.
When Rai takes the fight into his own hands, he nearly gets everyone killed and the temple destroyed. With the rest of the team pulling to help save the day, everything eventually works out, but the damage was done. Rai fucked up, and because of it, he's not allowed to move up in rank with the other monks to Apprentice. This here is the first real big shift between Rai and Omi's relationship.
Its no secret that Omi has an ego. And usually? Its warranted. He was raised in the temple, he's been training his entire life, he IS ahead of the others in terms of knowledge and technique despite his age, but its here he really uses that to rub his successes in Rai's nose. Raimundo who was already burned over Jong and the promotion. Its no surprise Rai gets out of there in a fit of ragequit once Omi becomes intolerable.
"With my guidance you may become adequate."
So far its starting to sort of look like this friendship was a bit one sided. Not so! Because once we get into In The Flesh we're finally given a bit more on Omi's thoughts. When Rai leaves the temple to go work for Wuya, Omi is the last one to actually believe he's really betrayed them,instead convincing himself that Rai's had a secret plan all along. Its not till after he breaks into the temple to steal the serpent's tail that he finally realizes Rai's fucked them all over. And he gets pretty upset about it!
Raimundo spends most of his entire stay on the Heylin side being cocky and then extremely lonely. Rai really abhors being alone despite the front he likes to put up. He had anything he could have ever asked for but really he just wanted to have friends who respected him. When he finds out Omi was lost in the past, he's pretty upset about it despite the shit Omi was giving him before he changed sides.
When Rai traps Wuya in the box again, realizing all the materialistic crap he was fauning over wasn't going to make him happy if it meant his friends were dead, Omi is the first one to speak in Rai's defense to Master Fung. Rai did a little growing during this and, even with everything that happened, the two of them make up.
But that didn't really mean Rai was automatically forgiven. Things at the temple mostly resume as they were, but the others don't really let Rai forget what he did. Omi goes right back to specifically criticizing Rai's ability because he still isn't an Apprentice (despite Rai personally turning down the promotion when it was offered to him as he returned to the temple.) Omi seems to be holding Rai at an arms length through the rest of the second season.
Note how Omi wrote "Dear Friends" and then added in Rai as an afterthought as a little doodle. Rai is still concerned about him despite that, and is the one to use the crystal glasses to hunt down his whereabouts.
In the next episode, there's more of Rai being teased for being a rank below them. While Rai is trying to practice his element Omi is constantly in his business. granted, he's trying to help, Omi just doesn't seem to get what's actually helpful and what isn't...
"One day you too will be competent!"
Or maybe he does and just doesn't see why Raimundo is so adverse to his help. Either way, the rest of the team is still on his case about the whole thing. Jack even traps them in a double cross because they all refused to listen to what Rai had to say about trusting him. He ends up saving the day and winning the show down, in which Omi says "I could not have done better myself." Which on its own is a pretty damn good compliment from Omi. Rai is finally promoted to Apprentice.
return of panda bubba,
-end of season two [saving omi
-season three [return of master monk guan, hannibals revenge, time after time
Anyway I've been meaning to do this for a while because I feel like its a really interesting subject to look at over the course of the series. I really like how subtle Xiaolin Showdown is with the more deep and meaningful friendships and relations it portrays.
Which is why i'm going to look at Raimundo and Omi's rocky friendship. I just really like talking about things like this because oh man is there a complex here.
So lets start off at the beginning here. If its one thing we've learned from the first episode, is that Raimundo is the master of first impressions.
Insulting his baldness, pantsing him, and then taking advantage of his technological ineptitude to troll him. Yep. I mean, really Rai is kind of a huge jerk at the beginning, we all knew this. But its pretty notable here that they get off to a rocky start. Eventually though, they do become friends, and while a good bit of this is off screen it gets obvious by My Homey Omi that at least Rai has warmed up to Omi.
I mean, pulling him into a crushing hug and the going on about how worried he was while the others look on in confusion is telling enough. Omi doesn't seem terribly impressed by this. Maybe its because Raimundo was crushing his lung.
Anyway after that its pretty obvious that the two of them are good friends. All four of them have gotten pretty close, and it starts to really show. Even with all their differences, the team is always stuck if someone is inexplicably missing. I'm of the impression the passage of time is probably about 6-12 months from episode one to the season finale so they've definitely had the time to bond despite the huge opposing personalities of the group.
And then Mala Mala Jong happened.
The situation itself was already pretty intense, and its really there we learn how much Rai 1, hates to lose, 2, hates taking orders when he doesn't like them, 3, how fucking reckless he is once he's got his mind set.
When Rai takes the fight into his own hands, he nearly gets everyone killed and the temple destroyed. With the rest of the team pulling to help save the day, everything eventually works out, but the damage was done. Rai fucked up, and because of it, he's not allowed to move up in rank with the other monks to Apprentice. This here is the first real big shift between Rai and Omi's relationship.
Its no secret that Omi has an ego. And usually? Its warranted. He was raised in the temple, he's been training his entire life, he IS ahead of the others in terms of knowledge and technique despite his age, but its here he really uses that to rub his successes in Rai's nose. Raimundo who was already burned over Jong and the promotion. Its no surprise Rai gets out of there in a fit of ragequit once Omi becomes intolerable.
"With my guidance you may become adequate."
So far its starting to sort of look like this friendship was a bit one sided. Not so! Because once we get into In The Flesh we're finally given a bit more on Omi's thoughts. When Rai leaves the temple to go work for Wuya, Omi is the last one to actually believe he's really betrayed them,instead convincing himself that Rai's had a secret plan all along. Its not till after he breaks into the temple to steal the serpent's tail that he finally realizes Rai's fucked them all over. And he gets pretty upset about it!
Raimundo spends most of his entire stay on the Heylin side being cocky and then extremely lonely. Rai really abhors being alone despite the front he likes to put up. He had anything he could have ever asked for but really he just wanted to have friends who respected him. When he finds out Omi was lost in the past, he's pretty upset about it despite the shit Omi was giving him before he changed sides.
When Rai traps Wuya in the box again, realizing all the materialistic crap he was fauning over wasn't going to make him happy if it meant his friends were dead, Omi is the first one to speak in Rai's defense to Master Fung. Rai did a little growing during this and, even with everything that happened, the two of them make up.
But that didn't really mean Rai was automatically forgiven. Things at the temple mostly resume as they were, but the others don't really let Rai forget what he did. Omi goes right back to specifically criticizing Rai's ability because he still isn't an Apprentice (despite Rai personally turning down the promotion when it was offered to him as he returned to the temple.) Omi seems to be holding Rai at an arms length through the rest of the second season.
Note how Omi wrote "Dear Friends" and then added in Rai as an afterthought as a little doodle. Rai is still concerned about him despite that, and is the one to use the crystal glasses to hunt down his whereabouts.
In the next episode, there's more of Rai being teased for being a rank below them. While Rai is trying to practice his element Omi is constantly in his business. granted, he's trying to help, Omi just doesn't seem to get what's actually helpful and what isn't...
"One day you too will be competent!"
Or maybe he does and just doesn't see why Raimundo is so adverse to his help. Either way, the rest of the team is still on his case about the whole thing. Jack even traps them in a double cross because they all refused to listen to what Rai had to say about trusting him. He ends up saving the day and winning the show down, in which Omi says "I could not have done better myself." Which on its own is a pretty damn good compliment from Omi. Rai is finally promoted to Apprentice.
return of panda bubba,
-end of season two [saving omi
-season three [return of master monk guan, hannibals revenge, time after time