#YuuGo

[sukugo]

monsters

[flower-blossoms654]

Each time I think about how they took out the Goldy Pond arc, I get so angry. Cause like not only was it a good ass arc, getting rid of it takes out something integral to the story as a whole, that I just don’t think they realized/cared about:

The validation of Emma’s beliefs.

Emma is established to be this happy-go-lucky character right? And as the children are still in Grace Field, you see that she still keeps this demeanor while juggling the new graveness of the situation she is in. While losing some of her naivety, she still shows herself capable of being someone hopeful for the future who will not let her circumstances get the better of her. The most important part of what makes this WORK for her character (instead of making it annoying and unrealistic) is the fact that she both acknowledged and experiences the tragedy of the world she is trying to be hopeful in. It’s not some little girl being like “I believe everything’s gonna be fine! Sparkles and rainbows!” while being shielded from the darker parts of the world. It’s a little girl who looks in the face of the darkness and that terrible world and is in the MIDST of it. It’s a little girl who found the dead body of her younger sibling and was faced with the reality that her whole life was a lie. It’s a little girl who realized her whole family was going to die and fought to grab onto her hope despite how overwhelmingly bleak their situation was. She knew and yet she didn’t hesitate to believe that they could escape. She knew and still wanted to yell to the world that she was going to save EVERYONE. Seeing someone so unwaveringly hopeful even after being hit with devastating loss and despair is like a beacon for anyone else struggling to keep surviving. Emma is lovable for how she loves—how her hope and determination stands fast in the face of adversity and still goes forward even as more events threaten to shake and bend it.

For whatever reason season 2 was changed the way it was (I’ve heard many things)(if it was because of the guns then WHY pick up the anime in the first place bc you derail EVERYTHING) it could never stand completely without Goldy Pond.

Goldy Pond is in plain terms Emma’s defining arc. It seems to be pushing forward a question whose answer will define the rest of the series.

“Who is Emma?”

Not as she is with her siblings. Not as she is when there is her family there to keep her going. Who is Emma, and how will she grow from here on out?

Goldy Pond is the first time Emma is “alone”. She has none of her siblings around her and she is in an unfamiliar environment, with people she does not know. People by all means unconnected to her when she has a family to get back to and protect.

But Emma doesn’t treat them that way. She cares for each stranger she meets, jeopardizing her safety by using herself as bait—by charging forward into battle to protect them and change the demons’ focus. As the arc progresses and she meshes herself into the other children’s ranks, treating them as family as well, it seems to be clear what the answer is. As she serves as a distraction in this main fight. As she reminds them of details of HOW they can win this fight even when there seems to be no hope left. When she gets empaled and STILL takes a shot to kill Duke Leuvis.

Emma is hopeful and kind and self-sacrificing. She treats strangers as she would treat her family, and cares for all lives the same. She is so overwhelmingly forthright and sincere in her emotions and love, that you can’t help but want to support and follow her. That is who Emma is. She is not naive. She has seen death and battle and bleak circumstances but still rises to the challenge EVERY time — and most importantly this time was the bleakest so far. This time she was “ALONE”.

She has the experience behind her to make her care for all things “valid”. This is not a silly, childish little girl not knowing all the different aspects of her declarations. She says they will survive and you can take her for her word because she knows what it’s like to be near death. But specifically and more crucially for Goldy Pond (and therefore the rest of the series): Emma says that she wants to save demons. And with Goldy Pond, you can take her word for it.

When Norman declares that his way of saving everyone is to have a demon genocide, the most important part of this is that we as the readers support Emma and her viewpoint (that the demons should not be killed.) Her viewpoint is valid in the manga because of what she has gone through. Emma says she wants to save demons and we can take her for her word because she has experience at the hands of some of the worst cruelty from demons possible. She and other children were hunted for sport. She was placed in a mockery of a sanctuary and hunted down for demons entertainment—not for the demon’s hunger or survival but for FUN. And she still turns around and says that she believes there are GOOD demons.

Without this, Emma has nothing in her experience for her to stand toe to toe with Norman’s beliefs. She looks like a naive, silly child trying to justify a foolish dream when she has experienced nothing of the world. It’s practically an insult to Norman and his experiences and it doesn’t give off what it should to the watcher. How are we supposed to believe in Emma (and go against a GENOCIDE) when it seems as if the writers want to paint that the genocide is the reasonable answer (when it fucking ISNT). And this is all because without Goldy Pond, Emma doesn’t have the experience to be meaningfully hopeful. She can’t properly value her positive experience with Mujika because she doesn’t not have a big enough negative experience to weight it against (and gracefield isn’t good enough bc Norman has gone through more than that). For Emma to have weight, she needs to be able to weight the good and the bad and STILL choose good. To still choose to be hopeful and caring.

Getting rid of Goldy Pond got rid of such an important foundation of Emma as a character and I can never forgive them for that.

[officersnickers]

boredom grows... whatever this is 🍵

[fullscoreshenanigans]

Emma with no hair except antenna

Threw Ray and Dad in there too

Family outing

[rabbitfolly]

so I made these arc-v stickers once

[twitter | instagram | store | ko-fi]

[itszygoart]

TPN ART IN 2023?? 😭 these babies will be available mid-late October :))))

[tree-lizard]

I've known this man only for ten chapters, really hope this poor bunker bastard is doing alright

[kondoram]

Not a ghost, not a mirage.. Unbelievable...

[yuucasworshipper]

Let's dance

[rayofsunshyne]

Missing Yuugo hours 😔

[chidoroki]

Bonus:

[evthesoup]

yuugo and lucas!! (and a silly little manga doodle of yuugo and chris)

[sukugo]

i love possessive boyfriends

[fullscoreshenanigans]

Cursed imagery

[ctrl58]

no words needed

[graphx]

something I’m exploring in my fic actually

Re-reading how spiteful Lucas got over the years of living in the hunting ground.

As far as we know only Gracefield is the only farm that doesn’t have some kind of town worked into the coverup/backstory. Lucas and Yuugo might have recognized goldy pond’s architecture as similar to glory bell since they were both built by the ratri clan and in the end they both became farms. Analyzing Minerva’s actions you can see how he was influenced by his upbringing as a Ratri.

he gives the lab rats the tools to break out, but doesn’t actually help them do so. It’s almost like changing factors in an experiment but not doing anything more. Exactly the kind of experiments that the Ratri has been putting children through in Lamba.

(From the perspective of the readers we know that Minerva died for supplying them with information, guns, shelters and a way out under the farms, but from the perspectives of kids who didn’t know that? Kids who had the whole world against them? Obviously they would be suspicious)

like lucas mentions here, he originally thought it was a lie/trap all along. From the trio’s perspective we see how they rule out Minerva being an enemy but we never see how Yuugo’s group escaped. Maybe they were less dependent on Minerva’s help? Was the pen the reason they escaped? Did they use the book and THEN start to trust Minerva? Was their trust of Minerva’s plans for them equal to the trios? Were they more distrusting since they didn’t have a sonju/mujika to help them?

(if bunker dads hadn’t died at the beginning of the search for cultivida arc their differences in perspective/opinion of Minerva would have been great for emma considering if the seven walls was the best option. While norman does represent the other half of this conflict we could have gotten some more gray areas to explore with the bunker dads as an alternative! Seeing Lucas and Norman bond would have been sooooo interesting!!!)

It would be so cool to explore how yuugo took the events of the hunting ground and blamed himself while Lucas blamed Minerva.

it actually kinda parallels the main trio. Emma blames herself for not doing enough to get everyone out alive while Norman blames outside factors (more specifically demons rather than Minerva but it would be cool to see what Norman thinks of Minerva actually. Yeah he uses his name and resources to get what he wants, but does he blame Minerva for not doing enough? For only giving them a choice rather than bringing down the system? Does Norman hate giving up his identity to be this god like figure? Does he hate the role he has to fill? The shoes he has to grow into??? Sorry rambling love exploring characterization—)

but yeah it would be cool to see how lucas, yuugo and dina parallel the OG trio as the group that lost their emma.

lucas (like norman) rallies other people to the cause, makes a rebellion and helps in every way he can (side note when emma looses her memories norman is happy that she can still live a good life regardless which parallels lucas being happy that yuugo is alive even if he didn’t go back to help them)

yuugo (like ray) shuts down when his plan is ruined and there is no other alternative solution

we don’t get that much characterization for dina so sadly I can’t parallel her to emma much

but we do see in her final moments she was encouraging her family to do the best they could even while holding her dying family members in her arms while staring down certain death. That fits Emma pretty well!

anyway thats it, thanks for reading! I just needed to get this down before I forgot lol

i would love your thoughts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!