#< okay perhaps moment fueled by my recent brainrot but shhh

[icharchivist]

It just kinda hit me but, can’t we say that the Spring Troupe, thematically wise, can be defined by the instances of betrayal?

Like it can perhaps be a bit of a reach for a few of them but i feel like there’s a possible reading there, especially in the sense of how it stunned their ability to trust and open up with others and that it’s especially on this level that opening up to their troupe is changing them around.

We have the obvious ones in the characters of Itaru, Citron and Chikage especially but i’m extending it to everyone.

Sakuya’s situation can be read as being constantly betrayed by relatives. Sakuya spent his childhood setting up some expectations for how the family dynamic should go, always pushing back limits (”if i do the chores and don’t make a noise and don’t bother anyone maybe i’ll be loved”), and in that sense, his relatives had constantly been betraying those expectations and constantly instead pushed him further away. It might sound like a reach but i think it’s a possible reading for the general vibe. Sakuya’s yearning for a family and general fear of being replaced steam directly from this attitude from his family.

Masumi meanwhile had two experience of feeling betrayed by his father. One that he mentions, over how his father was basically the reason Masumi didn’t feel like he could open up to people, as he would sue anyone who would even accidentally hurt Masumi, which worked to isolate him. The second time is when he basically tries to take him away from Mankai at all cost and does similar threats. Masumi’s whole attachment issues, difficulties to open up, the way he keeps his distances with everyone and only really change his perception AFTER the company basically challenged his father, supports this reading as well. It sets up Masumi’s difficulties within his troupes as steaming directly from this specific experience with his father, and i’ll even say that his attachment to Izumi also steams from it. 

Tsuzuru can be in general one of those i’d consider a possible reach, but also would assume would work with his general thematic. Mizuno’s parents forcing the two apart seemingly overnight, basically not even leaving them an opportunity to talk about it so much so that Mizuno carried the guilt of feeling like he had betrayed Tsuzuru for it and that Tsuzuru might hate him, would align itself to this possible reading. I’ll include also, though it’s a vague memory so i might be wrong, the fact i think Tsuzuru has a bit of resentment for his travelling older brother for basically having left all his responsibilities on Tsuzuru’s shoulders, constantly forcing Tsuzuru in situations where he had to chose between his own dreams and being the responsible older brother of the house.  Tsuzuru’s issues in general steam from his responsibilities as an older brother and this loss he keeps trying to fix in his mind, and the fact there are some people that can be held responsible for it befalling him can make a case for it being a sort of betraying. Though, this is probably a reach.

In the sense it’s also ironical i would say the younger ones are the ones where it all feel like a possible reach, while the adults have a much more clear and textual approach to it. In a sense it can also be a way to showcase the difficulty of accepting this type of situation when you’re younger, the barging side of it all.

once again, covering my tracks here, i can understand it being a reach up until that point now when talking about the adults, which to me, have a clear storyline linked specifically to thematic of betrayal.

Itaru was betrayed by Tonooka, he textually refers to it as a betrayal and is the most upfront about saying he could never trust again after what happened, and that meeting the Spring Troupe is what tested this trust again. He, textually, voices this thematic when he mentions that maybe now he can trust again in the first Spring chapter, or in the Alex in Wonderland chap where he specifically tries to open up about it in the sense of showing off this trust, before we finally learn about the whole deal i mean. And if we want to keep it in the family as all the others have those feelings of betrayal possibly rooted in family situations, the whole fact his sister pushed on him to be some princely prince to hide his true self possibly can also feel as such, especially since it ended up being the groundwork to the Tonooka situation, but on this it becomes a reach while Tonooka is basically Right Here for this specific point.

Citron meanwhile is constantly aware that two of his brothers, and all the people supporting them, are always plotting to betray him. It’s something he has to thread around at ALL TIME, it’s always at the back of his mind. As such he tends to keep an open eye to his surrounding and being hyperaware, which also means he tends to catch everyone’s troubles more easily. Citron never really let his guard down and doesn’t share anything about his past until he’s forced to because of how this situation damaged his ability to trust, not especially out of thinking everyone is a possible enemy, but out of being aware that anyone in the known would be in danger for just this fact. In a sense, it’s like the knife of betrayal is always hanging behind his back and he’s always aware of it in some shape or form.

Chikage meanwhile has this thematic pushed to the extreme because of his role in the story, as an antagonist and with the way his more extremely “violent” background pushes the level of betrayals to another extreme. He felt betrayed by Hisoka, had to have a whole arc before realizing he was being misled, and then turned his perception of it around by feeling like he was the one who has done the betraying. (”the one who was betrayed by his brother was you by my own hand” thing). And with this perception shifting, all of Mankai becme, to Chikage’s eyes, also victims to his betrayal (compared to how he could have only seen them as tools, a mean for an end before this perception shift). And on top of that, while he is bargaining with this whole situation in Mankai, he still knows someone betrayed them in the organization, he’s still constantly aware that his greatest loss comes from betrayal, Hisoka was just not the one who comited it, but someone betrayed them and it’s still something Chikage has to cope with, in a more direct way since the threat is still hanging and is an actual, physical danger to everyone he loves.

In a sense, Chikage extends the thematic further in a way that, if we accept this as a thematic of Spring, adds another layer to their dynamic. In the same way that, say, Guy entering the Winter Troupe ends up being, in a way, a test to see how each of Winter members have managed to work through their specific trauma (ex: Homare’s broken cyborg plotline, Hisoka’s amnesia, and how all of it relates to Guy), the fact Chikage is set to betray them, and still feels like he betrayed them, tests the whole of Spring with the way to test out the way they learned to trust again and managed to look past the betrayals they’ve been through and have had to work on.

Like i’m still a bit hesitant about really putting it as a possible thematic because of how up-to-interpretation/reaching the situations are for the teens, but as it is i would say it would actually make a lot of sense narrativewise to read it as such.

And perhaps even so since their general thematic is one of family. If we stop at just, they’re from broken family and are yearning for a full one, it’s true, but i feel it can feel a little incomplete. Adding the betrayal aspect brings the aspect of how nurture, which is usually more associated to family, is the best way to take care of a healing wound such as this one.  Because there’s an aspect of family being an unconditional love (at least for family you make yourself), founded on unconditional trust. The fact all of them have trust issues in some shape or form therefore make their yearning for family, for the unconditional version of it, to be a way to further mend their broken hearts.

But reading in the specific betrayal aspect can not only in general point out the origin of the hurt, but explain also how heavily Chikage’s storyline is a way to test the rest of Spring (and Chikage himself), by being the most extreme version of betrayal and how hard it is to gain trust back after such a betrayal, both from Chikage’s storyline exploring both sides of a betrayal situation, and on how Spring has to work through it using what they had learnt.

And there are others characters in the franchise that can be associated to betrayal plotlines in general (i think Omi and Hisoka for instance falls under this theme as well), but even in the vaguest reach possible i feel like Spring has it being a more solid possibility in general.

Anyway, just kinda musing about it all but i think it’s an interesting angle to explore.