#I feel like there's a lot of nuance and foreshadowing that goes unnoticed when reading

[trashlie]

The Asshole With a Heart of Gold: Kousuke Subverted

(I have also posted this to reddit but for the sake of having things organized in one place, I thought I’d drop this here.)

To me, one of the most fascinating aspects of the writing of I Love Yoo is the desconstruction and subversion of common tropes in shoujo manga and kdramas - especially those regarding love triangles. In one of her curiouscat responses, quim noted "Even though I admit Kousuke's creation had a lot to do with the way I thought during my teenage years, them being like your typical 1st and 2nd male leads in most shoujo manga is not a coincidence" and I gotta be real with you guys: this thought hasn't stopped haunting me. I love tropes and I love even more when writers play with them, whether they are blatantly using them or subverting them. My favorite one to think about these days is how Kousuke is set up as your standard jerk with a heart of gold, partly in particular because I find it fascinating to see how he went from a very popular, typical "first lead" type character who so many fans openly loved to one who is very scorned right now, but mostly because this is a trope I've never enjoyed, yet quim breathes into it so much realism and personality that the subversion just works.

Please note, I am not suggesting that Kousuke is a first or second lead. In fact, I don't think of either Kousuke or Nol as that. However, for the purpose of this writing, I am considering him as if he were a first lead, based on what quim wrote in cc.

The Jerk With a Heart of Gold

In many pieces of media with a love triangle, there is, quite often, a jerk with a heart of gold. Though not required, he's often rich and privileged, and he has not experienced the same kind of lifestyle as our MC love interest. Especially when the jerk with a heart of gold is rich, our MC LI tends to be from a much lower class - a classic pauper and the prince. We even see this played with, wherein Kousuke hasn't eaten things like street food or god forbid a hamburger without a fork and knife - he's not an animal! However, even early on, quim is fast to play with this: yes Kousuke is privileged, but it's not that his privilege has denied him simple peasant experiences. He just finds these foods unsanitary and prefers his more gourmet options xD

The jerk with a heart of gold is, usually, cold to most people (especially those of the opposite sex) and has no interest in people he deems beneath him. He can even be haughty, as well as unreachable, someone so far removed from normalcy that the plights of the wee peasants does not phase him. In the beginning, Kousuke is played quite straight to this - he goes as far as to trip Shinae over a piece of tiramisu and calls her a fat ass, insults her "cheap clothes", and implies that he is well above her; on a number of occasions he refers to Shinae's social class beneath him. We also almost immediately get to see the heart of gold - initially Kousuke seems to care about his brother, going as far as to want to thank to Shinae in some form. Even though he ends up at the mall with her due to a prank phone call gone awry, he's still witness Shinae's altercation with the mother of a child bully throwing her drink at Shinae, and secretly reports the incident to security and provides her a new t-shirt (and qtips lol). How sweet, the audience swooned. Look, he cares!

What quim does really well with her storytelling and use of tropes, though, is that we learn fast that not everything is what it seems: Nol isn't a happy go-lucky second lead, Yui isn't the mother she seems, romantic scenes may not be that, and Kousuke is not simply a misunderstood tsundere. As the story reveals more information and we learn more about the characters, we see how they play into or subvert their respective tropes.

Misunderstood Jerk

Often the jerk with the heart of gold is either misunderstood or protecting himself from a past pain - usually both. Something - often family - prevents him from opening up his heart, and it's only our resilient, plucky, MC LI who can thaw his heart and help him love. Or maybe she inspires him to live better, teaches him that life is worth living, yadda yadda. One way or the other, something about the MC sparks something in the jerk with the heart of the gold, and his grumpiness falls away (at least, around her it does).

Initially, Kousuke certainly seems misunderstood, and to some degree, he follows the trope. He does come from a troubled family who is the reason he has become the person he has. But rather than a watered down version of this trope for the sake of drama, Kousuke is wonderfully developed, in all his persnicketty assholery. (Please note I say this with tongue in cheek; it cannot be denied that Kousuke can be a jerk and, at times, an asshole. This is not trashing a character but discussing his traits, and why those traits exist and how they serve to play with or against this trope.) I really appreciate the depth quimchee puts into her characters - it's easy to write a character who is a jerk without reason, who enjoys being mean but suddenly changes. But how are readers supposed to see the importance of his change when it doesn't make sense to us?

Kousuke is the product of his environment and how he was raised. In a home that had little to no affection, where Kousuke was pampered, his mother manipulated him onto a one-track path to Rand emulation. From a young age, he was made to believe the only thing that mattered in his life was to become his father, a "very important man" too busy to be bothered, with whom Kousuke never developed any bonds. His childhood was beyond pragmatic, and by missing out on crucial moments playing with other children, we find that Kousuke didn't properly develop empathy, did not learn to deal with complex emotions, did not learn healthy conflict resolution, and suffered stunted emotional IQ as an adult. In so many cases, our jerk with the heart of gold is simply an emotion hungry, attention-starved guy who made himself feel he was better than others so he didn't have to face his feelings. Kousuke is a grander scale of this - he is attention starved (for Rand's attention), he is emotionally constipated, but because we've seen his background and how he developed these traits, it will make it more satisfying when he inevitably undergoes his eventual Much Needed Character Development. Kousuke is not simply an empty vessel for a popular trope - he embodies it in such a way that gives it more life. He owns it.

Kousuke is not simply misunderstood or "just needs a friend": he is man who (like everyone else in this story lmao) is in a great need of therapy to work through his issues. Unlike in shoujo or kdramas, it's not enough to fall in love with this man and expect him to change. Quim takes the trope and applies realism to it. Love does not heal all wounds.

A Heart of Gold

The heart of gold aspect of this trope can be played with in many different ways. Sometimes, he is simply a tsundere who is not good at expressing his more vulnerable emotions, and possesses a softer side than his prickly appearance reveals. We know, though, that Kousuke's core is just as prickly as his surface - a fun subversion on quimchee's part. Other times, he reveals his heart of gold when he can't help but grow soft towards the MC LI, who, for some reason, makes him feel unlike anyone else has made him feel, who can get through his hard exterior, who makes him feel vulnerable. In these cases, he is often of the variety who is mean to everyone but the one girl he secretly likes.

Again, early in the story, quimchee makes us think that's what we're playing at. Kousuke seems to us as readers as having taken interest in Shinae, the rough around the edges, unrefined, uncouth mess that he's tangled his path with. In fact, it is further implied when Yui Hirahara enters the stage and heavily implies that Kousuke is interested in Shinae. "The only girl he's really spoken of? But soft! It must be love, for our jerk has revealed his heart of gold and fallen for our sweet damsel!" This is a detail I find incredibly fascinating, because it only starts to make sense further into the story, or after completing a recent reread.

For so long, if we take Yui's words and Kousuke's actions at face value, it is easy to think that the gears of a ship to come have start spinning, and readers even start to read into scenes as plaintively romantic. A good example of this is the scene where Kousuke sees Shinae in just his work shirt after she has been tricked into wearing it like a shirtdress. We see Kousuke hide his face and blush, and Yui teases that he's having lewd thoughts, but like with most things in this story, there is more than at the surface. In time as readers we come to realize there is a different in how blushes are drawn: with and without pink. After rereads, it's plainer to see that Kousuke isn't flustered or blushing - he's embarrassed of this situation, likely for himself AND for Shinae, but it hardly reads as romantic so much as embarrassed by a meddlesome mother who is trying to get a rise out of him and putting a teenage girl in an uncomfortable situation.

A reread after episodes 142 and 143, though, reveals that it is much more likely that Kousuke's interest in Shinae has never been romantic, but rather, has always been related to Nol (initially in his realization that he could use Shinae to pacify Nol and also because we realize he sees in Shinae Nol). Moments like Shinae buying a slice of Kousuke's favorite cheescake evoke a memory of Nol, not because he's simply reminiscing, but it's an act that echoes the actions of his younger brother years before. It is easy to construe Kousuke's behavior as something romantic - he's trying to help her get ahead in life, trying to make the best of her opportunity, etc etc - but after realizing that Shinae is, as someone on reddit put it, a mirror to the way Kousuke has treated Nol, it creates a fascinating debunking of the "jerk with a heart of gold" love interest. Kousuke's heart of gold has nothing to do with with falling in love, but with someone who makes him face his remorse and deep-buried guilt in the face of his brother.

This is probably my favorite way quim has played with this trope, and how she takes something so incredibly popular in most love triangles and flips it around. At surface-level, it's played straight, but the more we delve into it, and into Kousuke's personality, the more we learn that the trope is not utilized in the typical fashion. It makes both for satisfying rereads of this story, and incredible development. There is something I find very satisfying about the way characters are set up as standard tropes, and then they are turned into something far more dynamic. Of course, on the flip side, we have seen that in doing this, it really changes the views people hold of characters (of which I'm certain is quim's intentions). People who love the cold characters with a soft interior, who find the happy "second leads" to be boring and insufferable, cleave to Kousuke from the getgo. We watch the way he treats Shinae, all his seemingly sweet or kind moments that maybe, just maybe are a sign - only in time to get a better grasp of his personality, his past, and the realizations that Shinae represents the guilt he wishes to assuage, and the past sins he wants to be absolved from, but cannot yet face.

Subversion

At the end of the day, I can only speculate, and I am biased by my own opinions. At this point in the story, Shinae is still a minor and Kousuke is an adult, therefore it makes no sense to show any romance between them. However, I still can't help but feel that the subversion of this trope - that Kousuke is not so much a jerk with a heart of gold but a jerk with a whole lot of baggage to be unpacked in therapy, whose heart of gold extends to someone who reminds him of the damage he has caused - is not a love interest, as is typical of this trope. I can't help but feel like the set up was deliberately done as a commentary about what we tend to expect vs what is reality (as in, what you see is not what you get and everything is always deeper than it looks). I feel like the deliberate set up of these two in traditional "roles" was purposefully to throw us off. Readers come into the story with expectations and we start reading the story we want to read - whether it's seeing romance in the tiniest interactions, whether it's overlooking certain flaws in characters, overlooking certain personality tones. Kousuke isn't the only character that this is done with, but with him, I find it especially fascinating, because he is constructed in a way to make lovers of this trope cleave to him, only for reveals of his past and his behavior to cause some to pull away. And THAT is what I find fascinating - the way the set up of the story vs the reveals change the ways people read the characters and what they think of them. We've seen this with those who come around to love Nol, those who once enjoyed Yui but come to loathe her, the way readers view Maya, etc. etc.

In most cases, the jerk with a heard of gold is easy to sympathize with and even forgive. He's so cold and cruel, but it's only because he needed love/his family was so awful/he didn't know how to reach out/whatever other justification there is for him. But Kousuke isn't justified. We understand why he is the way he is and we understand what caused him to become what he did but the story never excuses his behavior. He is called out time and time again - by Shinae, by Nol, even by Hansuke - for how he treats people, how he behaves, the way he treated Nol growing up. Unlike the jerk with the heart of gold, readers hold Kousuke accountable for his behavior, and it's what will make his eventual Much Needed Character Development so satisfying to us - that we have come to learn about him and see him at his worst and it makes us want to see him become better - whether it's because you're a fan of him who knows he's capable of change or you are livid with him and want to see him acknowledge his mistakes.

It really cements my current theory that as far as Shinae's relationship with Kousuke goes, in a sense of subversion, it IS about helping Kousuke to learn to face his faults, though not necessarily through Kousuke falling in love and wanting to become a better person for her, but rather, by seeing Nol in her and desperately trying to do better. I don't think Kousuke is likely to change as a person any time soon - not until he has some kind of event to serve as a catalyst for change. Crumbling under the pressure of a job he's not yet prepared for? Stress? A reveal that shows Shinae the things he tries to hide and the loss of her respect? Whatever the case, I fully expect Shinae's involvement in whatever breaks Kousuke and leads him to finally addressing the things he hides from himself, and undergoing character development. He's already lost Nol. If Shinae is his second chance and he loses her, too, I think THAT will be a good spark for him to finally start facing the realities he hides from.

I won't go into it here because this is such a long post already, but similarly, Nol is placed in the stereotypical "second lead" role, a character type who is often earnest, respectful, understanding, sweet, and bound to break your heart. But like with Kousuke, this trope is subverted. The second lead boy is so often what you see is what you get, someone with his heart on his sleeves, and instead, we learn that Yeonggi is, in fact, deeply troubled and desperately lonely, a desperate facade. I just really appreciate how these tropes create a set up and expectations for us as readers, and over the course of the story, completely throws our expectations away.

Tropes are so fun in stories, but especially so when they are played with to enrich the stories. If you made it all the way through, congrats lol! 

[owl-eyed-woman]

Attack on Titan Season 2 Episode Analysis - Episode 9 (Episode 34)

Last week, I briefly expressed frustration over the lack of focus on Eren’s troubling predicament.  Well, I guess the show read my mind, because this episode is all about Eren, consisting almost entirely of an extended conversation between Eren, Reiner, Bertholdt and Ymir. I see now why they structured these episodes as they did; by getting last week’s stuff out the way, this episode can concentrate on Eren’s experience.

Now, I do need to impress just how light this episode is on any plot. To be reductive, this episode is basically just 4 titan-shifting kids hanging out in the trees and chatting. It’s about as chill as an episode about being kidnapped could possibly be.  

The only time we cut away from this scene is to remind us that the scouts are closing in as a type of ticking clock and to show us that maybe, finally, after so many episodes, Hanji might have figured out that humans have been turning into titans (we’ve waited so long, please I’m so tired). Apart from these brief digressions, this episode is all about an intense yet intimate situation, providing an opportunity to show off AOT’s deft characterisation.

But before we get to all that fun character stuff, we first need to establish the specifics of the situation. Or in other words, we need an explanation for why everyone can just chill out and talk for a while. The reason for this is relatively simple; there’s literally nothing else they can do.

AOT makes it abundantly clear that they have reached a stalemate, lovingly detailing the reasons why their only option is to sit around and shoot the shit. They’re good reasons too: they’re surrounded by titans, Reiner and Bertholdt are the only ones with ODM gear, all of them are too exhausted to turn into titans, they need to heal, and so on. Every possibility is accounted for and comprehensively dismissed, just to force the audience to suspend their disbelief and hopefully alleviate our inevitable frustration. It’s quite sneaky when you think about it.

So Eren is caught in a situation where wits and a cool head are essential. To further complicate matters, Eren is forced to work with Ymir. This is the first time we’ve seen Eren and Ymir properly interact and I think I can guess the reason why; Eren and Ymir are such fundamentally different people, it’s obvious that they really don’t like each other. Eren is naturally idealistic and moralistic, wearing his emotions and his ethics on his sleeve. Ymir is unfailingly cynical and frequently selfish, concealing her true intentions behind several layers of snark and misdirection. If they had to choose who they’d be stuck with like this, I’m sure that they’d be each other’s last choice. It’s telling that Eren, the guy who trusts almost every single one of his fellow cadets, isn’t sure if he can trust Ymir.

In general, this whole situation is completely antithetical to Eren. Eren is a man of action and emotion, so the fact that he has to stay put and stay calm is practically torture. Funnily enough, Eren is fully aware of this and that, in order to succeed, he’ll need to supress his emotions; this is obviously a big ask for Eren, the most emotionally volatile character in AOT. I mean, I’m sure he’ll fail (and he does) but it’s nice to see that he’s aware of his flaws and is actively trying to address them. Progress!

Ymir, on the other hand, is frankly excelling. One of Ymir’s defining character traits is her ability to conceal her emotions and intentions, remaining cool and detached while secretly pursuing her goals. She is in her element and she is playing the people around her so well. Ymir seems bored and honestly indifferent to the situation, but all the while she’s gathering information and investigating her enemies’ intentions. This doesn’t go entirely unnoticed by Reiner and Bertholdt, but she’s successfully using her façade of aloofness to confront them and bide her time (what for, we’ll have to see).

Still, Eren and Ymir are only one plate on offer in this tension buffet. Another integral dish to this very messy situation is the current betrayer of the day, Reiner.

For the first half of this episode, Reiner is a suitably imposing captor, acting very straight-laced and intimidating. But then, something changes. Entirely unprompted, Reiner starts talking about completely mundane topics, about military promotions, about being worked too hard, as if he was still a soldier and not a traitor. For a brief moment, the Reiner we knew and loved, the one who cares about his friends and who wants to marry Christa, is back. But it’s all so wrong.

When Reiner’s true motivations were revealed in episode 6, it was honestly a challenge to reconcile this new knowledge with how I’d previously understood Reiner. Reiner truly seemed like a morally upstanding, sincerely loyal soldier, more so than Bertholdt or Annie. Could I have completely misread Reiner? There had to be more going on to justify this unexpected about-face.

Now, we finally get an answer as the true depths of Reiner’s psychology are revealed. In the face of his incredible crimes against humanity, Reiner’s guilt became so great that his mind and memories split into two different personalities. All this time, there have been two separate sides to Reiner, warrior-Reiner and soldier-Reiner. One side is aware of his monstrous crimes and his ultimate aim, and the other side is entirely oblivious to the truth as a coping mechanism to live with the guilt and find solace in the simple life of a soldier. All those shots of Reiner’s reflection in the water in episode 6 definitely make a lot more sense now; they were there to foreshadow Reiner’s bifurcated personality.

Reiner’s act as a loyal soldier was so convincing to me because he had convinced himself it was legitimate. Unlike Reiner, Bertholdt and Annie never risked their lives for another soldier or even got emotionally invested in their deception; such actions could jeopardise the mission, which a true traitor wouldn’t do. It all makes sense, then, why Reiner risked his life for his comrades and seemed to genuinely care for his fellow soldiers – because one side of him actually did!

Of course, Ymir and Eren are completely shocked and dumbfounded when they realise just how unhinged Reiner truly is. Bertholdt’s reminder that he’s a warrior, not a soldier, snaps Reiner back to reality and has an almost triggering effect on Reiner. He starts to shake with fear and suffer through a PTSD-style flashback. He actually starts crying; that’s how traumatic it is.

As is to be expected, Eren doesn’t react to this revelation well. Reiner and Bertholdt’s betrayal has been incredibly painful for Eren to deal with and he’s still working through conflicting feelings of love, hate, anger and betrayal. To have this betrayal complicated by the fact that Reiner was (in his own messed-up, split-personality way) sincerely loyal this entire time, is truly confronting for Eren. This is all compounded by the fact that Reiner and Bertholdt’s actions directly resulted in his mother’s death; his beef with Reiner is deeply personal.

So in the wake of this reveal, Eren is justifiably livid and almost sanctimonious, verbally attacking Reiner and rejecting his right to this emotional trauma and guilt. Usually, I question Eren’s propensity to ignore the moral complexity of these situations, but he makes a salient point here; Bertholdt and Reiner did horrible, monstrous things, so how much sympathy do they deserve? I do think it’s important to remember that no matter how relatable and sympathetic they may seem, our true sympathy must remain with the tens of thousands of people that died because of their actions. As Eren argues, they aren’t soldiers or warriors or any other noble classification, they’re just murderers.

But then Eren goes and takes it too far, demanding that they stop pretending to have emotions because they aren’t human anymore. I had honestly hoped that episode 7’s fight was a sign that Eren could acknowledge the humanity of his enemies, rather than simply dehumanising them to make them fit into his moral worldview. Sadly, Eren has reverted to his typical response. It’s always one step forward, two steps back with Eren. Humans can do monstrous things, Eren (that’s the point of your show).

Dangerously, Eren’s moralism blinds him to the bigger picture. He focuses far too much on the clear-cut evil in front of him that he is unable to realise that Reiner and Bertholdt are almost certainly pawns in a much larger conspiracy. Yes, they did something horrible, but there is still so much we haven’t been told about the circumstances surrounding their participation in this massacre. While, I’m sure this will not absolve them of their crimes, it will at least explain their motivations and add nuance to this tragedy.

Reiner doesn’t react well to Eren’s virulent condemnation either, and angrily asks what Eren wants from him since his diatribe won’t bring back the people they killed.

Eren’s reaction to this is really fascinating. He is taken aback but then he admits to his naivety and vows to “make you guys suffer in the worst way possible”. There’s something monstrous about the way Eren says this.  At this point, Eren isn’t trying to do the just or moral thing, he simply wants the most violent, painful kind of revenge. Eren isn’t as pure or as good as he thinks he is. He has a cruel, monstrous side that has grown more and more pronounced.

This proclamation might have led somewhere too. But then, Ymir scoffs at him, telling him off for his childishness. Morally, Ymir is the complete opposite of Eren. Eren sees the world in strict black and white and truly believes right and wrong can be delineated in every situation. Ymir is all grey, prioritising her own wellbeing and rejecting moral codes in lieu of self-preservation.

So when she hears Eren’s very simplistic response, she completely rejects it. Ymir doesn’t care about who Reiner is or if what they did was right or wrong. Besides, Ymir knows there’s a bigger enemy behind all of this. But before she can tell Eren who this enemy is, Reiner interjects.

Since Ymir already knows so much and is so unaligned morally, Reiner offers her a chance to join their side. Ymir initially balks at this - she has no reason to trust them or side with them. But then, Reiner brings up Christa. Ymir is often a confusing, complicated character, but one thing has been made very clear: she genuinely loves Christa and will do anything to protect her. This is the key to Ymir’s allegiance and Reiner knows this.

As this episode has shown us, Ymir has no love (or even loyalty) for Eren, feeling either indifference or antipathy. Every interaction with him thus far has been a tactical move to ensure her survival. But when Reiner says that they can protect Christa and appeals to this side of her, Ymir makes her choice to side with them. Ultimately, while Ymir values her own wellbeing, she will prioritise Christa over herself no matter what.

I can only say that I genuinely hope Christa can snap Ymir back to her senses. It’s hard because I desperately want Ymir to stay on Eren’s side, even though it makes complete sense that she would go against him. It’s such good characterisation, even if it pains me to watch her make this choice.  

On that depressing note, the episode ends. It’s a fairly simple episode, but still well-done overall. All will be decided next time…