#There's Something About Aqua

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

Aqua! Underrated Queen

Chapter 3.

I decided to pay far more attention to Aqua this time around. Of the things that did catch me off guard the first read, Aqua's arc was a surprise to me.

The eldest sister always be having to sort of be a parent, but I don't even think that's exactly what we witness here, despiter her nurturing and support.

This happens a lot too. She quiet, so she gets kinda ignored a bit, so then I wasn't paying attention to things. Or maybe her arc came out of nowhere. But I am seeing little hints.

Voya in a moment of clarity about someone else for once.

Also.. the way that Aqua is 19 and having these memory lapses should've clued me in that something something, something something just ain't right!

[yuseirra]

onk spoilers!!

something after the most recent chapter (154)

I know I'm going to be off but I wanted to draw it out

[the-meme-monarch]

so i’ve been watching funny streamer duo i like play kingdom hearts :]. I’m becoming a video warrior I’m up to birth by sleep

[ayaraki]

No matter what happens, I’m on your side, Aqua-kun. I want to protect you, Akane.

[parasitoidism]

Sorry I just finished alpha sapphire for the first time I have like 8 years of drawing to catch up on

[maskofgabriel]

[cyberseabunny]

friend of mine recently said that shiraishi looks like ignignokt from athf and i have never mentally recovered since

i hope this information comes into the right hands

[wia-tia]

What was the author’s intention with Hikaru?

[0]

He didn’t commit to making him a fully evil villain, corrupted by the entertainment industry.

Nor did he develop him as a redeemable character, a victim of the industry and media (like Ai).

Nor did he combine these two standpoints into a character who plays a villain but also seeks to work against the industry and media that victimised him.

Instead, the author didn’t commit to any of these scenarios which would be fine if he didn’t go, “I’ll take a bit of this and that, it’ll work.” He doesn’t really explain what exactly Hikaru is supposed to represent in this story which makes his character confusing, inconsistent and at times, even contradictory.

So, I decided to try summarising, analysing and theorising his character and relationships on a mostly chapter-by-chapter basis and to find something that connects it all. (It’s mainly a reference for my fanfics, but I think some of you might find it interesting too! 😊). You’ll find the different sections of this post below (it would’ve been too long for a single post).

Part [0]: main post

Part [1]: Hikaru’s motivations

Random intermezzo

Part [2]: Hikaru’s relationship with Yura, Nino and Ryosuke

Part [3]: Hikaru's relationship with Aqua & Ruby

[penguinkyun]

finally got to read onk 136 and wow. okay.

love the understanding we're slowly getting of just how bad things were in first gen b-komachi! that fight is incredibly real and heartbreaking to witness

nino, in her own way is trying out of sheer desperation and a whole emotional cocktail to reach out to ai, to find something, letting loose all her bottled up feelings in one go but all she's getting back are practised perfected smiles and deflecting answers in response to the emotion shes pouring out because ai has no idea how to handle this because shes never had friends nor any major fight before so she's falling back on the "smile and please everyone" tactic but it isnt working here because that isnt what nino wants to hear so she gets even more hurtful but ai doesn't know that so all she can do, all she can try right now is smile and its a slow suffocation of everything that could've been because they were friends but now the cracks go too deep and can't be patched up at all because ai is now dead and nino is left with a bunch unresolved feelings that still affects her more than a decade later

its just so heartbreaking and frustrating to witness just exactly how everything culminated into what it is now because no one who could have did anything about it either, not even their manager which pushed the singular star - everyone else is just a side actor narrative even more

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

continuing on, kana's detachment yet empathy with nino as she observes from a distance while ruby is very much embodying ai, being her instead of keeping herself separate. kana knows herself and now she's able to sort out her hidden feelings easier now that she has an outlet in form of nino (she uses her own emotions for acting after all) but ruby with her years of grief and the sudden understanding of ai...yeah she is Not handling this well at all someone please get her out of there

this movie in terms of Ai Potrayal is getting worse and worse by the second oof

[uri59]

Oshi no Ko final episode reaction:

*Me watching "Aqua" kiss Akane*:

*Me watching Ruby going to a darker place*:

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

oshi no ko ep 4 spoilers under the cut!!

ohhhhh my fucking god this scene this scene this fucking scene this will never leave my brain it’ll rot there until every star in the sky has faded what the FUCK were they thinking (affectionate)

HE’S :((((((( A BABY. HE’S JUST A BABY. he acts so cold and detached but he loves his friends, he loves his sister, he has trouble thinking of happy moments at first but then it all just comes flowing into him!!! and it breaks my heart because i didn’t even know he could smile like this but of course he can because he’s a kid. he’s not gorou anymore. he’s his own person and that person is a high school boy who enjoys his new life even though he thinks he’s not allowed to. even though his past self literally manifests as a stern voice over his shoulder telling him he’s not allowed to.

GODDDDDDD . god. gorou is literally a fucking GHOST telling aqua not to be happy, never to be happy, just keep obsessing over ai and hating yourself for not being able to save her in the same way gorou must’ve hated himself for not being able to save sarina. just keep living for revenge and nothing else. don’t enjoy yourself. don’t enjoy yourself. don’t enjoy yourself. the relationship between these two makes me so ill because they’re literally the same person but also not. it’s like gorou’s bitter soul was born into a body not made to hold it. aqua is his own person but he’s also haunted by a guilt and an obsession that isn’t his own. he’s haunted by the death of his mother but more than anything he’s haunted by himself. ai would have wanted him to be happy. gorou doesn’t. gorou wants them both miserable and guilty.

and don’t even get me STARTED on akane??????????????????? mimicking ai to make aqua feel better??????????????????????????????? it’s all so twisted and it’ll all just make his obsession grow stronger and stronger. aqua is chasing a ghost. ai is dead and gorou is dead and sarina is dead. he isn’t. but if he doesn’t let himself be happy, if he doesn’t let himself move on, then he might as well be.

[redge]

How is it that I am more accepting of all the stories and theories I've read about the Oshi no Ko than where we are right now?

Also, some people really think that OnK readers are furious about the story because it was tragic? Tragedies are endings that will linger on you. Tragic endings are endings that will give a lasting feeling and in my opinion, they're more weighted than happy endings. In all cases, not all endings should be happy. I am very accepting of tragic endings but I just can't ride with this one because killing off Aqua did not feel like the only option left to punish the antagonist of the story. Why was letting the authority punish Kamiki not an option when they've already caught Nino red-handed?

The story has never been fair to anyone. Like crow girl oh my goodness what was the point of her existence anyway? She just narrated and talked in Aqua's dream and that's it?!

Ruby! She lost her beloved sensei. She lost her beloved idol. And now she lost her twin brother. So is the story we want to tell here is that life is shitty but you should pick yourself up and fight to the end because okay yes I get it but was killing off Aqua really necessary for the story to proceed? Because again there are other options we could've dealt with Hikaru so is this just tragedy for tragedy's sake?!

Akane! How come she's doing a detective's job when she should be doing her job as the genius actress that she is?! How come you put that weight on a character who almost killed herself and had felt indebted with Aqua's kindness to the point that she's willing to sacrifice herself for Aqua? How come you write off this character with the greatest deepest love through self-sacrifice wheh she is a young lady with a bright future ahead?!

Miyako! You made her take over Ichigo Production, take care of Ruby and Aqua, made her watch them from the sidelines. She knows she can never replace Ai as the twin's mother but she's done her best to be a mother to them then you decide to kill off Aqua could you imagine the guilt she will always feel for not protecting her son enough?!

Taiki! He was happy knowing that he has a brother because apart from the director, he's been alone all his life. I doubt they would ever know that Aqua committed suicide but could you imagine the despair Taiki would feel for losing his parents and his brother to suicide?!

The movie 15-Year-Lie! Even that movie was handled unfairly because are you telling me that with all the hype placed for that movie, with the story of Ai, the nation's favourite idol being told post-humous, is still not enough to be successful so let's kill off her son whom all she ever wanted was to live healthy and happily.

So maybe the message here is to endure life's cruelty, be strong, survive and live on "towards the stars and dreams"? Is that it?

[yuseirra]

I got sucked down into this Earth rather than any other planet Because that's where you were So please answer me Vaguely that you need me

It's not enough, I wanna love you, ah, ah I can't think of anything but you Love me, look at me only Oh, I love you down to the marrow

No not yet! Don't go running off somewhere I wanna spin around the star that you are

JUST...why introduce the idea of "gods who don't realize they are gods" if that's never going to be expanded upon?

have lyrics like "I've forgotten who I lived as!" and "creative fall from heaven?"

It'd be such a lost cause to drop hints like this and never follow through on them...

[foundationsofdecay]

Thinking about the escalation from the metaphor of being overtaken and swept under and away in Drag Me Under across the rest of the discography. The way that the agency shifts, the meaning evolving gradually but drastically over time. Going from "pull me beneath the surface, deep into you" to "flood me like Atlantic, weather me to nothing, wash away the blood on my hands," then from there to being "trapped under the surface of your words.”

Each album has a track that roughly thread the same surface message as Drag Me Under. In the case of TPWBYT this is Telomeres, where we see "you guide me in to safety and silence," though here we get a hint of this being a shared act - "and we go beyond the furthest reaches, where the light bends and wraps beneath us, and I know as you collapse into me this is the start of something." This track, in addition to Vore later on, are almost like litmus tests for how this relationship is evolving, and how this metaphor as a projection of that is beginning to change. In fact, this language continues to change in the following track, asking to "wash me clean before I pull myself beneath the waves." Note that almost all of these are passive, us being the object, with the exception of this line in High Water, which is very fitting for a track about solitude and determination to not be a burden on the other person, and what we see in Telomeres.

From there, going into TMBTE, it begins by introducing an explicit dismissal of this dragged-under metaphor with "beneath the stormy seas, above the mountain peaks, it's all the same to me, it makes no difference." Suddenly it's all about the earth and the sky because we've surfaced from the ocean and soon will begin to ascend, declaring that "I'm stuck in a time when the mountains shook," less about the ocean and more about "the sky above, the earth below." These aren't part of that metaphor in and of itself, but they're a drastic tonal shift that establishes the changes that we do see from here on out.

For example, returning once more to the through-line Drag Me Under-like tracks, we find ourselves in Vore, admitting that "my metaphors fall short in the end, your flesh and bone welcome me in." There's a similar possessiveness, but tinged with this visceral anger and pain, and again focusing on flesh and physicality over the symbolic and vast ocean. Notably, this track uses both the second person plural as well as the first person, muddying the image of this whether it's one person being consumed by the other or if you both are along for the ride. This comes just before Ascensionism, where we find "eternal ascension, setting me free," and indeed we never see the imagery of one person being dragged under or into another using this passive language after Vore.

There are still a few active versions of this, where we are no longer the object but the subject, such as in DYWTYLM, where we're asked if "you roll with the waves, or do you duck into deep blue safety," again a self-induced act. Asking and begging for someone to do this to you, but it still all comes back to you and your own agency in this. Rain comes close to a passive version of this, but the use of the phrase "saturate" is very different from the idea of being dragged under. You're taking someone in rather than being drawn inside, more reminiscent of the lines in Ascensionism about "you want someone to be" and earlier lines like "it's too late for me now, I am altered" from Alkaline. In fact, it's closer to a complete reversal of the original metaphor, but even then you don't get this complete loss of self from either party. The metaphor now has, by this point, morphed into a reciprocal act, embracing becoming inextricably entwined with someone and no longer wanting to lose yourself in the other but joining together instead.

This can only last so long, however, and indeed we don't see this "drag me under" type of language used after Take Me Back To Eden, where "we dive through crystal waters," and from there on out we're trying to break out of the codependency we've established through this evolving language, right on through to Euclid, taking what we've seen in songs like Rain and Alkaline and declaring that we "must be someone new, for me," even as we acknowledge our parallel lines and lives. Our agency here has evolved from wanting someone to take us under and in, to wanting to do this to ourselves, to us both actively doing this, and ends when you finally breathe and come up to the surface without the other person and make your way to shore alone, all expressed through this one bit of phrasing.

[haunted-xander]

Thinking about the parallels between Riku losing himself to darkness because he (believed) his life-long friendship had been broken and replaced and Terra losing himself to darkness because he wanted to protect his friends/friendship more than anything else

[copper-sands]

there's something about aqua regia and the gold on vessel's new mask and the new gold body paint that's starting to show almost as if breaking through the black but idk how to articulate my thoughts on it