The reason it was so hard to pass in a block outside of a template is because you're not supposed to do that :/

you're supposed to just use moonscript to build it

index.html

@@ -1,6 +1,19 @@
-{
-  date: "Thu May 08 2025 19:41:30.000000000"
-}
+<p>just_render: $just_render_the_damn_list{limit = 2}</p>
+
+$map{$do_unpack{}}
+
+$(do_other())[[what $rank, ]]
+
+<ul>$({"ho", "he"})[[<li>$it</li>]]</ul>
+
+$({{"one", "hossssssss"}, {"two", "hesssssssssssssss"}})[[$1 and $2]]
+
+$({{rank = "ok"}})[[what $rank, ]]
+
+$do_cards[[this $rank, ]]
+
+
+<hr />
 
 $map{{'one', 'Spades', 3}, {'two', 'Hearts', 4}}[[$1 and $2 or $3]]