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lukas dhont's exploration of how male friendships - and the affection young boys show to each other - grow more complicated and criticized as boys age due to strict social norms and toxic expectations for conventional masculinity greatly inspired the first part of good friends. in this section of the story, the main characters are 13 and in their final year of middle school, and after meeting for the first time, they instantly grow close and nearly inseparable until outside perception of their friendship threatens it. dhont's depiction of the loss of innocence that occurs on the cusp of adolescence was one i aimed to emualte here.