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There was a lot of outstanding dynamics on display during the collabo tonight. While the primary engagement was Bao x Lia special mention for Uto for playing well and hitting every lick the two girls set up for her. There was an exceptional feeling of projecting seethe onto her at having to not only be the technical anchor of the team but then have to put up with the performance of her partners against an utterly overwhelming match. Very cute Nasa-esque voice quality and a stunning above the board engagement considering the spicy nature of her partners.
It would be easy to say that Bao walked away with the show but Lia held her own and in a lot of ways demonstrated the "truest" depiction of her character with an outstanding sense of demure deflection to Bao's leading performance. There were several moments of that classic Lia self-debasement where you could almost hear the knee knocking doubt creep back into her presentation. The split second where she begins to break before Bao returned was probably the height of this sentiment with a few scattered points of self debasement throughout. The post contextualization of the additional stress of her pet's health condition and looming responsibility of handling the concern really induced the desired tight in the chest feeling for the rollercoaster of a long stream.
Lia getting to defer to Bao's lead throughout the performance really gave her the spotlight letting her play a bit of her more wilting quality with the constant ego buffing provided by Bao's engagement. Seeing Lia's self exclusionary disposition in some of the collaborations outside of her comfort zone, especially during her early performances, was always one of the most difficult parts to navigate but seeing how hard she can swing when being lead by another talent was really satisfying. Lia's use of her own lack of self-confidence before Bao's return was, again, perfectly timed as an emotional cue to "refresh the palette" for the outstanding banter that came flowing after. Lia continues to do her best work in exploring her vulnerabilities with the highlights of her ventures in this type of content being the endearing quality of her "reaching". There are some stunted expressions with this, that either come across as stiff or too easily broadcasted, particularly with the Uto engagement and a few instances of doubling up on Bao's work, that you could feel the cheerful veneer of the gestures as a bit too forced.
Obviously Bao was the "lead" for their entire experience and her entire performance was a huge mood. She did an outstanding job expressing an early bratty foil that Lia usually occupies and did all of the heavy lifting with the fall back ideas when the stream started to lose pace.
Of course Bao x Lia is a double princess situation and with the added condition of being tournament "filler" that really rubbed Bao the wrong way her overall bratty mood really hit in a massively complimentary way to what youd normally find on a Lia production. The subtle resentment in the way she navigated the early content was great, with the underlying contempt of having to be the "lead" when she normally gets to lay back and take it from some of her more established streaming partners really got the saliva flowing. This really helped to color the entire performance, showcasing a lot of little dynamics that could have went otherwise unexploited on stream. Best of all for the Bao performance is where she got put in line for pulling the Gartic Phone and got corralled back into the esport commentating commitment that obviously underlied the broader production. The saccharine sweet facade of her interactions from there on out really kicked the entire performance up to the next level with Lia being able to equally match and run with the hard corpo interfacing demonstrating both of their technical expertise with the medium. Whether or not Lia really consciously processed the shift adds an additional layer of consideration with her act falling on either side being just as satisfying. Bao even really went out of her way to play some absolutely absurd fan service with the butt sniffing and some other hooks that really lock down her fan favorite status of being a consummate crowd pleaser.
Lia did great, gave lots of good emotional undulation and hit some real highs and lows throughout the entire scene, with her characteristic introverted awkwardness hitting all of it's marks. Lia really continues to excel in "moving" the viewer's spirit whether low or high and demonstrates the fragility of the position in a surprisingly relatable and supremely emotive way.
