Carmen And Player's Relationship Was Such A Great Representation Of Online As Well As Just Good Platonic

Carmen and Player's relationship was such a great representation of online as well as just good platonic friendships in general !! It makes me so happy !!

See, I think what made them stand out to me are these incredibly realistic, relatively smol but amazing! details that I don't see that much in media:

- they're ! online ! friends ! And I love that they think of themselves as best friends; that it doesn't get invalidated just because they don't see each other in person often. Yes, it's not the same as getting to see them in person, but online friendships are still REAL friendships.

- the age gap; it's not that big of an age gap, but it's pretty obvious that Carmen is supposed to be somewhere in her early 20s while Player is a teenager. Okay, first of all, disclaimer: I'm not saying kids should be friends with random adults on the internet. But, most of the time, especially in kids' shows, the "best friends" characters are depicted as being the same age. Usually this is because the setting might be a school, or because they're catering to a certain age demographic and they want all their characters to be at that age to make them seem more appealing. Still, in real life, you can be best friends with someone outside your age group, and I don't often see that represented very often in modern media marketed towards kids.

- they don't have much in common when they first meet (at least, as far as they know of). This is something that isn't as rare in fiction for me as a viewer/reader, but I still love seeing it when characters come from completely different backgrounds and personalities and likes/dislikes and they just... work well together. It's so beautiful.

As someone who grew up homeschooled and constantly made friends with people who were older or younger than me, people who went to different schools, people who lived in a completely different world from me, and yes, people I met or became closer with online, I really connected with Carmen and Player's friendship! and I'm so grateful for it. When Carmen told him "you mean the world to me" I just broke aisndodjjrnjfnf--