#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!

[ayaraki]

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

[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

[vulcanette]

sound engineer & youtube reactor (matt) stripped back some of the parts of aqua regia to get a closer listen.

some isolated vocals, isolated drum and bass, isolated guitar.

reactor: the sound bus

[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

[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?

[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.

[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

[rainbowrocketquotes]

Maxie, horrified: Pineapples can be plucked...?

Archie: Not right away you gotta get the leaves off, but yeah it's like an orange you can seperate it, it's more like grapes than a single fruit-

Maxie: HUH-

[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...

[goldensunset]

aqua for @star-sworn! thanks for the request!

i think this is my first real attempt at a lineless/paint-like style and it was fun! love this queen so much she deserves the world

[thoughtspresso]

Predictions for Oshi No Ko Ending

1. Anemone will be the one to find Katayose Yura's dead body.

In Japanese flower symbolism, Anemones or Windflowers represent death, bad luck, and forsaken love. And it just so happens we have a character named exactly that, who happens to be the only other character apart from Katayose Yura who loves being in the mountains.

Anemone will likely be climbing the same mountains on Yura's wishlist, and just like before, The Crow might lead Anemone to the dead body.

It's like Akasaka-sensei decided Spider Lilies are already too obvious a deathflag so he chose a different flower.

I'm taking the bet that Akane might be the person who figures out the connection between Yura and Kamiki, or Miki-san might simply show up on the news as a statement about his "dear friend Yura" who "disappeared".

Akane might also give the head's up to Aqua that she thinks Kamiki murdered Yura, and that would be a reason for the two to spend more time with each other again. (Might shove a wedge between Kana and Aqua again, if Aqua isn't already doing that himself lmao.) Either way, it'd be a convenient way for Akane to attempt to both "save" Aqua and also help him accomplish his goals without killing himself.

2. The person who texted Frill Shiranui is Miki-san.

Sylvanes made a fairly solid guess that Frill Shiranui works for Kamiki Productions. Whether or not he was necessarily correct on this, I'm making the bet that Yura's "best drinking buddy" Miki-san is connected to Frill professionally, and goaded Frill into pushing Ruby into the spotlight.

Some speculators say this might have been Aqua's ploy, but I I think this was incorrect. Aqua agreed with Kaburagi that money comes first and Frill was a more reasonable choice commercially. He even said that Gotanda should "grow up" and not choose Ruby just because of his artistic integrity.

Apart from the friendly, casual tone of the text message that really sounds like the "Miki-san" persona and the image of decanted whiskey as his profile picture, I think Kamiki is actually praying for Ruby's success as a star.

In fact, I think people misunderstood why he killed Katayose Yura. He didn't kill Yura because his serial killer MO was simply because he liked killing up and coming megastars who shone brightly. He killed Yura because:

(a) He hates Stars who lie, who sell a persona to their fans that is vastly different from who they are as people, which is why he hated Himekawa Airi and Hoshino Ai.

(b) He killed Yura because he knew that the project being offered to her was the lead role in The 15-Year Lie. And simply, he wanted Ruby to play Ai's role.

In a twisted way, I think Kamiki believes he is protecting his children, and the public in general, from being lied to any further by celebrities like Yura who deceive the public with their feigned innocence.

Honestly? I think the reason he killed their mothers was to protect them from growing up with mothers who lie and abuse their kids.

3. Kana might play Hoshino Ai in The 15-Year Lie.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. I know. I know. Unhinged fan theory. I get it.

Even AquaKana stans think this is majorly unlikely to happen. I agree in that, I think it's insane. But I keep coming back to what Aqua meant when he said that, "Kana is so easy to manipulate", and "It's more convenient for me to build a good relationship with Arima right now."

People tend to say, he's making silly convoluted excuses again, he just wants to spend more time with her. But I think a man who is resolute in his goal to off himself by proxy of martyrdom doesn't care to date the person he was protecting from a love scandal anyway.

There are a few key reasons why I think Aqua's "using" of Kana will result in her playing Ai's role.

First of all, I think Aqua's plan is to play Kamiki, to portray him in the worst possible way, and expose him as the murderer through the film. Through this, Aqua will bait his father into murdering him too, and thus Aqua's death can be used as legal grounds for charging Hikaru Kamiki with Homicide.

As established above, I think Aqua doesn't agree that Ruby is the best choice for Ai's role. There are a lot of parallelisms baked in between Kana and Ai. Apart from the shot-by-shot remake of Sign is B, Kana is also the best person to get stabbed and deliver the lines, "Some day I hoped the lies would become true. / I did my best. I worked hard. I lied with all my heart. / To me, lies are love. In my own way, I thought I was showing my love."

Besides, you saw anyone else say these same things?

Uhuh, you guessed it:

So is Kana gonna get stabbed? Hopefully in a movie, yeah.

I think it could happen as a result of Kaburagi's dissatisfaction with Ruby's performance.

Kaburagi's "finalized" casting isn't final-final yet, really. We can see that he swapped Aqua to play Kamiki instead of Himekawa who will now play Ryosuke the university student/stalker here:

Which makes sense! Aqua looks like his father, is closer to his age during the time of the events, and Taiki's age and height also better matches Ryosuke.

And even though the paper says finalized on Ruby's casting, Kaburagi's still not completely sold:

I think the swap will come as a result of Ruby being severely overworked and unable to keep up with the demands of her role, and the Dome performance that she might want to prioritize. She may even outright collapse from exhaustion, as foreshadowed by Kana:

Apart from Akasaka-sensei absolutely trolling us to death by Ai x Kamiki on-screen romance being portrayed by twins, then just outright pulling the plug on that for fun, I think it'd just make sense for Kaburagi to say it's better if we pair Aqua with Kana for this role.

Ruby doesn't even have to collapse or anything. She's so loved up with the idea of Gorou-sensei right now, Aqua could literally just tell her "this is what's best for the plan, you trust me, don't you?" And she would absolutely just go with it.

I said before that I think up until Mem-cho pointed it out, Aqua was wholly unaware that Kana had a crush on him and joined B-Komachi just because of him. I think now that he has the awareness, he'll ask Kana to do it, first to help Ruby, but also because he can only trust Kana to play this role because she is "Special" to him.

A repeat of:

It really is the only way that this scene therefore makes sense to me:

Bonus: if the Shima D masterpiece film doesn't draw Kamiki's attention to her, Kana playing the role of Ai definitely will. And if she delivers the role with so much honesty, it might change the trajectory of the story altogether.

4. Aqua's plan will backfire.

I explained a little above and in a previous post that Aqua misunderstands Kamiki's motives.

While we all like to shit on Aqua for being the World's Nicest Master Manipulator, we have to give him credit for the fact that when it's used for saving other people, he's been really effective at spinning a public narrative in his favor. Like in the cases of Akane's suicide attempt and Kana's Love Scandal.

If the goal is to get Kamiki to stab him in plain view of the public, villify his father, and make it easy to convict him for homicide once and for all, I think he will fail.

Kamiki will not kill him or go after him. In fact, I think Kamiki will shed his Miki-san persona and reveal the truth: he was Himekawa Airi's rape victim, and Hoshino Ai was a manipulative person who seduced him with the prospect of true love, then abandoned him when she got what she wanted, which was a family.

In the absence of any evidence that he had anything to do with their deaths, Kamiki might even use this momentum of propaganda to make the public believe that he's happy to finally be reunited with his children that these terrible mothers took away from him.

Heck, Taiki might hate Uehara so much that he'd be relieved to learn about Kamiki? And if he really is connected to Frill, and if Kindaichi still cares about him, there might be real people who would back him up.

Then, it won't be until Akane works with Aqua and everyone to bring the murder of Katayose Yura to light that Kamiki would actually be brought to justice.