#as character foils. one example being their opposite views of what it means to fight for the truth as detectives
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What are your thoughts on Yuma x Vivia? I seem to be in the minority cause Vivia's mostly shipped with Yakou, but I personally see Yakou as more of a father figure to Vivia. Also amazing art as always.
short answer: they mean da world 2 me đ
#rain code#kokolight#ask draw#long answer> UHHH chapter 4 is so good for many reasons. ch 4 really helps jumpstart them as a duo/pair and ESPECIALLY#as character foils. one example being their opposite views of what it means to fight for the truth as detectives#vivia wanting to believe in a safe lie vs yuma wanting to find the cold hard truth#and with vivia finally wanting to aid yuma in the mystery labyrinth despite the harsh truth bc yuma helped HIM#with finally understanding his role as a detective. and having to come to terms with facing the truth even if it's hard and sucks :(#PLUS THE GUMSHOE GABS AND THE HEIGHT DIFFERENCE obvs#'guy who's a bit short x guy who's too fukcing long' lmao#vivia twilight#yuma kokohead#mdarc#master detective archives: rain code#ari art#i actually have a bigger kokolight post ive been itching to draw so look out for that too eventually âđź#AND TY ANON!! i can also see yakou as a father figure but with yuma mostly lol#or at least the older cousin you know that's kinda wierd but you still like hanging out with them :) that's what yakou can be#to the NDA gang LMAO
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What is Buggy's Endgame? A Post-1082 Analysis
Since the release of chapter 1082, weâve gotten more insight into Buggyâs character than ever before, especially regarding his dreams and thoughts on past events. So, given our new information, I thought Iâd revisit Orange Town Arc to see if 1082 re-contextualizes anything. Whatâs in the cards for Buggy as a character? What direction does Oda plan on taking him in?
To give you my answer, let me begin in a bit of a random place: the relationship between Shanks and Buggy.Â
From the moment Oda first introduced their relationship in chapter 19, Shanks and Buggy already solidified themselves as character foils. Their first panel together is literally a fight over whether the North or South Pole is colder, which is pretty on the nose if you ask me (sorry⌠I had to). Their red-blue color contrast is also pretty self-explanatory; although green is technically redâs complement, red and blue are often used as visual âopposites.â
Beyond all that surface level stuff, though, what makes these two foils of each other are their opposing values. As a pirate, Shanks wants to âmake time to see the world." He has no sense of urgency and no inherent desire to conquer the world â at least, not right away. Buggy, of course, calls this a âsoft way of thinking.â Unlike Shanks, he views treasure as the sole purpose of being a pirate. And not just any treasure, but material wealth, gold and jewels which "make its possessor a king."
Shanks and Buggyâs contrasting viewpoints also embody the underlying themes of Orange Town Arc. One man's trash is another man's treasure, and Oda takes great care to emphasize this point, from Chouchou to the mayor.
Luffy's hat ends up taking center stage in Orange Town, however, which I think is a great decision. The straw hat is what tethers Luffy and Buggy to Shanks. It's a weighted symbol, one that helped shape both of their characters â albeit in antithetical ways. Thus, when itâs used as a tool to explore their relationships, it works really well.
Take Luffy, for example. In his youth, Shanks was a pillar of support, friendship, and sacrifice; the straw hat is his treasure because it reminds him of Shanks, but also because it symbolizes what Shanks gave up for him. He owes his life to Shanks, but he uses that gratitude to fuel his own ambition, and to hopefully reunite with Shanks one day as a great pirate.
Shanks allowed him to go after his dream. Luffy knows this well.
Now look at Buggy. He sees the straw hat as worthless, and itâs clear why he does: itâs a painful reminder of the dream that Buggy gave up on, a representation of everything he lacks in comparison to Shanks. And to add insult to injury, Shanks gave that straw hat away to what Buggy sees as an insignificant kid. Of course that would hurt. Seeing Shanks give up Rogerâs legacy so easily, abandoning his potential to become Pirate King, when thatâs all Buggy ever wanted in life⌠I mean, wow. It's an amazing role reversal. Buggy gave up on his dream for Shanks, but Shanks gave that dream to Luffy instead.
I think 1082âs context adds some much-needed character depth, and explains a lot of Buggy's rationale. We know Buggy does not value sacrifice or friendship like Luffy does, nor is he the type to go out on a limb for someone. Heâs greedy, manipulative when it suits his interests⌠I could go on forever. So to see that Buggy once sacrificed his own dreams for the sake of Shanksâ â only to have it backfire â makes so much sense. Of course he became a bitter, cynical, and selfish adult. One of the people he believed in most broke his unwavering trust, and he never healed from that experience. (Not to mention that this happened directly after Roger's execution. His faith was already shaken, and it was just one heartbreak after the next.)
The impact of that betrayal only feeds into his greedier tendencies; Buggy is a character who keeps things close to his chest, figuratively and literally. He learned to fear trust, and it shows. All of his adult relationships (Alvida, Galdino, Crocodile, Mihawk) are strictly rooted in business and mutual, self-serving interests. Nothing more.
Just take a look at Buggy and Luffy's reactions to the Bara Bara no Mi story. Buggy can only focus on the things he lost, instead of what he had: a friend who was willing to jump overboard for him in a heartbeat. But Luffy, a character who values the people he loves, obviously has a different perspective. He concludes, âSo Shanks saved your life?â Where Luffy sees hidden treasure, Buggy sees nothing but loss.
So why am I bringing this all up? Well, I donât find it surprising at all that two of Buggyâs most prominent arcs â Orange Town and Impel Down â emphasize his struggle between selfishness and altruism. The internal conflict is played off as a joke in Impel Down, but Buggy has always been simultaneously comedic and complex. He actually parallels Luffy in that sense, but that's another meta for another day.
The position Oda has placed Buggy in is rife with potential. He's now closer than ever to the things which would fulfill his materialistic nature: the One Piece, Captain Johnâs treasure, and the title of Pirate King. Yet, at the very same time, he's closer to one of his most honest connections in life: Shanks. If there was ever a time for a character to be forced to make a fateful choice, Iâd say itâs right about now. People have been wondering why Oda made Buggy a final contender for the One Piece. Why has he ���failed upwardsâ for so long? Comedy aside, I think the answer is a lot simpler than weâre all making it out to be: Buggyâs story just isnât over yet.Â
Oda still has something he wishes to impart to readers, and he clearly believes it will be told best through Buggyâs character. Based on what we know about Buggy â his greed, his guilty conscience, his past with Shanks â I think that story will lead his character to some very interesting places.
Do I think Buggy is going to have a change of heart? Maybe, maybe not. In that regard, heâs already been in a gray area since Impel Down. I wouldnât be surprised if he accidentally ends up allying himself with Luffy again during One Pieceâs conclusion. But with the Cross Guild putting bounties on marines, a (potential) three-emperor interest in going after Blackbeard, and an open-ended Shanks-Buggy plot thread about going to Laugh Tale... Well, there's a lot of places this could go. Would Buggy be willing to give up the greatest treasure in dire circumstances? For Shanks? For the world? Will he become king, and then lose it all? Will he make a sacrifice that parallels Shanks' when they were kids? Who knows!
What do you guys think? Is Buggy going to play a larger role in One Pieceâs third act? What is your ideal conclusion for his character in the story? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
#can you tell buggy is my favorite character#this was definitely overkill#but in my defense oda started it when he dropped 1082#that shit was cooking in his drafts for a LONGGGG TIME i just know it#one piece#long post#op meta#one piece meta#buggy#buggy the clown#monkey d. luffy#luffy#shanks#red haired shanks#buggy one piece#op buggy#character analysis#meta
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Do you have any thoughts on how Maki will develop technique and character wise later on in the series do you think sheâll see Toji and take it has inspiration and free herself from the Zenâin or will she start to lean on others and deviate from her Iâll be strong on my own mentality
Toji is set up as a bar Maki is meant to surpass in both aspects. Toji forced himself to choose between family and his pride and regretted his choice. However, in a sense he also really didnât choose either. He kept wavering between them. He wanted to become the strongest and cut his ties to everybody, but he still loved his son Megumi. He loved Megumi, but was unwilling to let go of his pride so he chose to neglect his responsibility as a father and push Megumi as far away from himself. Rather than choosing wrong, Toji chose indecisively, he was out of balance - he couldnât choose one until the literal end of the line.Â
Which is why, Makiâs character isnât about choosing one over the other, but finding a balance between the two. Iâll explain more under the cut.Â
1. Maki and Nobara are Blind
Every character in Jujutsu Kaisen has a flawed viewpoint, but that doesnât mean theyâre wrong. Rather, I prefer to think of them as âout of balance.â Jujutsu Kaisen isnât about black and white ideas of right or wrong but rather a multitude of different perspectives. Selfishness isnât bad, selflessness isnât always good. Good intentions donât lead to good results, sometimes bad intentions can help people.Â
Rather than completely changing or flipping their views, because often the views that characters are hold isnât necessarily wrong itâs much more likely theyâll be pushed to reconcile their views with the views of the other people around them. For a quick example, at the beginning of the manga, Yuji wants to save everyone, Megumi wants to seflishly choose who to save, rather than saying one or the other is wrong when Yuji hears Megumi explain himself he says that Megumi clearly put a lot of thought behind his beliefs. Rather than one of them winning over the other they come to an understanding.Â
So, I think with that logic as the reason Maki will actually choose both, to free herself from the Zenâin, and also to lean on others more.Â
Makiâs primary character flaw comes not from really being wrong, but a lack of understnading. She doesnât really want to integrate the viewpoints of other people into her own views.Â
Which makes absolute sense if you think about it, Maki is the scapegoat child of the Zenâin. She went through the same abuse Toji did, which was having everyone constantly look down at her. She was treated as a servant and an inferior to her own twin sister. Itâs likely she responded the exact same way Toji did, by shutting everyone else, all their hurtful words out. Toji dealt with it by rejecting everything, both himself, and others.Â
Thatâs why in comparison to Maki who is still struggling against the Zenâin family, and still has her life very much defined by her want to be better than them, and prove them wrong, Toji is aclled âthe one who is free.âÂ
Tojiâs way of coping is what Maki wants to do, which is to shut everything out and pretend she doesnât care about anything. Only focusing on getting stronger. Maki has intenalized an unhealthy idea of what getting stronger is: not showing any weakness. Of course she has, thatâs what the Zenâin household has forced into her head her entire life. Even if she escapes from the house sheâs still affected by it. So then, hereâs where the foiling with Nobara comes in, they both have the same tendency to shut others out, and they both tend to be blind. Nobara loses an eye, Maki is always wearing glasses.
Thereâs a reason the fight in the Kyoto tournament ended up being Maki and Nobara vs. Mai and Momo.Â
Mai is the opposite of Maki, that Maki does not want to confront. Someone who cares about family more than being a strong willed individual. Someone who admits that she wants to cling to otherse.
Momo is the opposite of Nobara that Nobara does not want to confront. Someone who is much more open about how she cares about her friends. Nobara rejects the ideas of her friends, Momo indulges them to the point where she sort of enables their bad behavior and lashing out (but thatâs a different meta).Â
Momo is much more open about how much she cares about her classmates, (Nobara cares sheâs just guarded about it) and the Kyoto group is as a whole much closer together even though theyâre labeled as âweakâ by mechamaru.Â
Maki sees this dependance on others as a weakness. She still does. My best guess is her development since volume zero is that sheâs come around to Gojoâs line of thinking that she wants strong comrades to fight alongside her, but she still doesnât want to expose her weakness in front of somebody else. I donât think Maki could ever openly cry in front of others the way Miwa can for example.Â
Mai and Maki are two opposite extremes that need to be reconciled, Maki is independent, and Mai too codependent on her sister. We see the effects of Maiâs lashing out, but also I think itâs just important to understand the reasoning for Maiâs lashing out, Maki doesnât really understand her own sister, what sheâs going through, or how she feels.
Itâs even in the flashback. We see Maki bravely walking past the curse, and Mai timid and afraid of it. However, the difference is Mai can see the scary curse in front of her, and Maki canât. So of course itâs easier for Maki to charge fully ahead.Â
Maki wears glasses all the time. Her vision in impaired. She canât see cursed spirits without them. Symbolically, Maki is blind the same way Nobara is. Thereâs even more parallels in their backstories, they both come from environments where they had to shut everyone else out because they never really wanted to be at home. For some reason or another, they never feel home at the place that was supposed to be their home.Â
They both live in complete rejection of the place they come from, while at the same time sort of being defined by it. Maki is still very much tied to the Zenâin clan, and Nobara is closeminded in her own way like the rest of the closeminded villagers she hated. Your environment effects who you are whether you want it to or not. They also think having left their own homes, they canât really find any home anywhere else, except for within themselves. Which is why they donât let people in.Â
Which is also why we see the same consequences for Nobara and Maki they are, they keep getting blindsided. Nobaraâs consequences come from not listening to people who have her best interest at heart: Nanami telling her to stay behind. As a result of not listening to him, she loses her eye in the fight against Mahito (symbolism).Â
Maki tries to do what she always does which is prove that sheâs stronger than the anyone else in the Zenâin household, only for this to fail. Maki not only doesnât contribute much to the fight, she actively gets in the way, and has to be saved by Naobito, somebody she hates.Â
Every strategy that Maki has used before, her determination, her stubbornness, her refusal to backdown, starts to fail in the fight against Dagon, and then Toji shows up and makes things worse (the thing heâs best at).Â
Not only does Maki lose to Naobito, the head of the Zenâin family, she also loses to Toji, the reject of the Zenâin family. Playful cloud, the cursed tool that Geto used to beat Maki up all the way back in volume zero something she hasnât recovered from yet, not only kind of rejected her, but is used way better than Toji. Pure and solid power, for this reason itâs strength, depends on the wielderâs strength.Â
Maki is basically getting called weak by everyone around her, Naobito, Toji, even Playful Cloud which she couldnât use to the best of her ability. But thatâs not a bad thing. Realizing your weakness is a much better way to get stronger than just ignoring your weakness. Look at the symbolism as well, when sheâs humiliated by Nabito her eye narrows, when she sees Toji her eye widens.
So, in effect this arc has presented Maki with the two options she has to go forward.Â
Return to the Zenâin Family as she originally planned. Abandon everything for the sake of strength and her personal pride.Â
Only to show her that sheâs too weak currently to accomplish either. She canât be Toji, and she canât be Naobito. However, Maki has an option that neither Naobito nor Toji has. She has her sister. She has Nobara. She has the rest of the students at Jujutsu Academy. If Maki lets these people in, they can open her eyes, and show her that both are a possibility to her. She can be both strong as an individual, and still have a family to lean on, and lean on others.Â
Her sister is someone she needs to reconcile with not win against. Sheâs not going to be Naobito or Toji, sheâs going to be better than them both.Â
#1-percentbettereveryday#jjk meta#metasks#maki zenin#fushigoro toji#nobara kugisaki#zenin maki#kugisaki nobara#jujutsu kaisen#jujutsu kaisen meta#jujutsu kaisen theory#jujutsu kaisen analysis#meta
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Would you mind sharing your thoughts about vex and Beau being cross campaign foils?
so!!!! first things first: apologies for taking weeks to answer this, finals + having adhd sometimes makes my brain turn to mush and forget every ask ive ever recieved. second of all, iâm assuming you sent me this bc of what i said in my vm vs. m9 how they view the world meta. and iâll be real with you. i have exactly 0 memory of what was going through my head when i wrote that line, so i am simply going to type out a bunch of thoughts that i have on the similarities and differences between beau and vex and i hope that lives up to what you were expecting jsdflksjdksld
I'll detail some specifics in a moment, but overall, I think beau and vex share a very similar kind of trauma of exclusion in their formative years, that's caused them to have a lot of similar traits that manifest in different ways - for vex, she maintains control through her material posessions and beau finds an emotional control in her asshole-ness. I've broken this down into 5 points on which I think comparing the two really emphasizes that claim:
1. daddy issues: both beau and vex have awful no good terrible very bad dads. both syldor and thoreau can suck my ass. they both raised their kids with little love and impossible-to-meet expectations, alientating them and leaving them with lifelong feelings of inferiority and unbelonging. If beau and vex were to meet, i think they would have a very friendly toast to shitty dads, and then have a good drunk vent about it an hour later.
but, at the same time, the actual minutae of their trauma and the ways it manifests are nearly polar opposites. syldor wanted nothing to do with vex, or else wanted her to somehow become a full elf. her issue was that she would never be able to belong, despite her desire to, and as she grew up it lead to her being overly protective and even possessive of the people she found who DID accept her as she was.Â
With beau, rather than exclusion, her father created an environment of toxic inclusion. He created a role for beau to belong in, disregarding her distate for actually fulfilling it. And, as such, she ended up making herself into someone who could have no expectations and pushed away anyone who tried to set them up for her. In the end, they both came to love themselves by abandoning the woman their father wanted them to be but for vex it was the laying down of an impossible dream and for beau it was the picking up of a mantle she had feared to wear.
2. brothers: now, on the topic of family, I also think its really interesting how their interactions with their brothers play out. We've got vex and vax, tied at the hip til the very end and then some; and then we've got beau and TJ - decades apart and with beau barely acknolwedging TJ's existence. But, even that distance between beau and TJ didn't stop her caring for him when they actually met. She gave him lucky Jade, and she entertained the idea of kidnapping him to get him away from her stinko dad.Â
And I'd espeically like to talk about what she said outside the hag's hut - "I think Luc and TJ could be best friends", in comparison to the way Vex reacted when Vax told her was going to Zephrah with Keyleth for the year break. There's an aspect to the way they interact with their brothers that lets them slip back into those bad habits they formed growing up (NOT that i'm claiming vex and vax were like toxic for each other. but even good relationships can have unhealthy moments).Â
With Beau, when she offers to give her happiness so TJ can grow up safe, she's trying to take on the role she's ""supposed"" to fill - the big sister, the protector - because she failed to fill the one her father set out. And with Vex, when she grows jealous of Vax, it's because she's afraid that his leaving with keyleth is a sign that she no longer belongs in his inner circle, and she falls back on that childish, desperate desire to do anything to be accepted unconditionally.Â
3. romance: spoilers for 5 or so most recent m9 eps (115-120) Â if you haven't watched them ahead!!!! at this point, both vex and beau have an endgame romance - percy and yasha respectively. Obviously as the m9's campaign is still playing out, that could change, but like. yasha wrote her a love letter and they're officially going on a date so i'm counting that as at least endgame-track rather than just random flirting. What's interesting to me is that they both seem to flip between the SAME roles between their (in-game) general perception and their actual pursual of romance.Â
Vex gets characterized as a pretty big flirt, right? She's got the winks, the casual "darling". She's flashed grog her boobs on multiple instances with little prompting. Beau, similarly, has easily the most game out of anyone in the m9. She's slept with two guest characters and at least one more npc in the events of the game. Caleb made her a fuck mirror in her room in the mansion. And yet, in both of their actual romantic endeavors, they became the shy, uncertain type.Â
Vex only confessed her feelings when Percy was laying dead before her, and not an hour of game play before percy kissed her in the woods, she had a talk with vax about how she was pretty sure he didn't like her that way and she didn't want to pursue it. Beau, similarly, spent a very long time convinced that yasha wasn't looking for love after zuala, especially not in anyone like her, asked everyone in the party if they thought yasha ACTUALLY liked her, just to be safe, and then still terrified to ask her out after recieving a literal love letter. I'd argue this shift comes from that same sense of unbelonging - they're very good at pretending they fit a role but doubt their actual right to take it when the opportunity is presented. This time, the role is the lover rather than the daughter.
4. authority: Both vex and beau grew up shunned by the upper crust of society, and grew to mistrust those kinds of people. And yet, both of their arcs result in them assuming such a position. Vex, thrown out of high society gets her place as a baronness, and Beau, running from leadership of her father's business ends up a top member of the Cobalt Soul. There's not a lot here, but I find it interesting how both of their stories involve them shedding their baggage regarding authority and power and assuming it in a way that they feel comfortable in - invitation by someone she trusts for vex, and a promise of freedom of will and control for beau.
5. their deadliest sins: this is the point at which their similarities culminate and transform to a fundamental difference. despite everything they share - shitty childhoods, the small piece of family that's still good, flirtiness masking shy love, and a mistrust of those in power - vex and beau are such different characters because of their biggest vices. Vex, both in game and out, is "the greedy one". She's stingy with money, she haggles for everything, she mourns the loss of physical objects. Beau is "the mean one". She cares little for people's feelings if they're not in her immediate circle, she focuses on her tough guy image, she laughs at things she knows she shouldn't.Â
And, over the course of the campaign, as they find unconditional acceptance, they grow away from these traits (I won't say they grow out of them) because they heal from the things causing these vices to begin with. I've always been vocal about vex's greed being a manifestation of her class insecurity, and beau's asshole-ness stemming from her fear of being forced back into another position of complacency. And I stand by that now - all the similarities in their backstories are what tally up to these different women.
Despite her careful tally of party funds and her reflexive bargaining, vex is not cruel. she is not angry on her own behalf. She saves two boys from the market in the city of brass at great personal cost, she relinquishes an entire dragon's hoard to the devastated city of Westruun, she took the time to save a baby bear from a cage when she could have just cut and run after escaping her own. She's the first one most people go to when they need a shoulder to cry on, and she's devastated when they don't (thinkin about when Scanlan left). She carved "forgiveness" into the bow she stole from a man after killing him by proclaiming how much she loved someone, because she knew anger had no place in her heart.
And Beau, Beau is a bitch and she's harsh, but she doesn't hoard or protect like vex did. she spends her money without much of a second thought. She pitches in to help her friends buy a ton of glowsticks, and she loves to indulge in material desires like drink and good food and the nicer inn room. She's a member of an organization that's about making knowledge public rather than guarding it. And, though this may be controversial, I think her position with bowlgate of "its not our problem what cali wants to do with it", her long-standing mistrust of their alliance with the bright queen and  and more recently with the tomb takers of "i want to go in and talk, rather than assuming they're antagonistic, even if it puts us at a disadvantage" are both examples of this non-possessiveness too - she has no need or desire to get involved in controlling what other people are doing.
so, i guess the general conclusion here is: vex struggles to let go of things, of money, of people. beau struggles to let herself be known in case she gets wrongly interpreted again. they both fight feelings of inadequacy, they both fight the feelings of not belonging, of 'doing it wrong', they fight the perception of them as shitty people because of the shells they hide in despite their absolute hearts of gold. Â but at the end of the day, vex's story is one of having to lay down what could never be hers so she can carry what is, and beau's story is one of allowing herself to be known so a place can be made for her.
#hope this is what you and that other anon were looking for jdsflkdsajfsaldfsa#critical role#vexahlia#beauregard#long post
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Am I My Brotherâs Keeper?: Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng
Or, how the two most virulent Wen-haters in the story tragically mirror each other in far more ways than just their issues with the Wens.Â
Iâve written about MDZSâs use of character trios as a narrative structure before (here and here). In this meta Iâm going to talk about the main three and the Venerated Triad. Iâve also written before about how Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyaoâs relationship (however you interpret it) parallels Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxianâs, with Lan Xichen as a strong Lan Wangji foil (fitting, as they are the âTwin Jadesâ), and Jin Guangyao as a strong Wei Wuxian foil (as Wei Wuxian himself acknowledges in the storyâs final chapter). So letâs talk about the third member of these trios: Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng, who also closely foil each other... in particular, through their respective relationships with Jin Guangyao and Wei Wuxian.Â
But wait, you say. Jin Guangyao killed Nie Mingjue, which parallels Jiang Cheng killing Wei Wuxian!
True. There are some parallels between Jiang Cheng and Jin Guangyao (such as JC killing WWX to avenge JYL, even though she wouldnât have wanted that, and JGY doing it when NMJ hurts NHS, even though NHS adored NMJ), as well as between Chengxian and Xiyao, but this is not a meta about those specifically.Â
Nie Mingjue tried to kill Jin Guangyao in life (twice), and actually does do so in the end, and Jiang Cheng helped kill Wei Wuxian even if he did not do it directly. The reason both Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng were able to treat their brothers like this was because of their immense privilege, the privilege neither acknowledge until it is time to weaponize it. In those moments, both chose not to empathize but to see their brothers as an âotherâ instead of as someone they loved (and I do think both Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng loved Jin Guangyao and Wei Wuxian in a realistic, flawed way). In the otherizing of their brothers, both Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng put on robes displaying societyâs flaws as blatantly as Sect Leader Yao does, but with a lot more humanity than the flat, static Sect Leader Yao. Thus, MXTX tells us we cannot even âotherâ society as a whole.Â
If this sounds like Iâm hating on either character, Iâm really not intending to. Theyâre great characters and I enjoy both of them (Jiang Chengâs one of my very favorites), but theyâre flawed, and in fact thatâs the whole reason I like them. But I do admit this essay will be scathing to an extent; just know it doesnât touch on my whole opinion of their characters, and isnât meant to excuse Wei Wuxian (who had a savior complex) and Jin Guangyao (who sought societyâs approval to his own doom); Iâve just previously excoriated those two.
I. Defining Justice as TraumaÂ
Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng both lost their fathers to Wen Ruohan (as did the Lan brothers), and both vowed to wipe out the Wens as a result. However, both of them fail to think about the Wens as people, and wind up, well, becoming eerily similar to the worst Wens.
Jiang Cheng has lived through the pain of losing everything (status, family, home) and he not only refuses compassion for the two Wens who saved him so that he could fight to get those things back, but inflicts the same traumas on them. In fact, Jiang Chengâs reaction to Wen Qingâs predicament post-Sunshot campaign is paralleled explicitly with Nie Mingjueâs:
Jiang Chengâs brows were knitted. He rubbed the vein that throbbed at his temple and soundlessly took in a deep breath, â⌠I apologize to all of the Sect Leaders. Everyone, Iâm afraid you donât know that the Wen cultivator whom Wei WuXian wanted to save was called Wen Ning. We owe him and his sister Wen Qing gratitude for what happened during the Sunshot Campaign.â
Nie MingJue, âYou owe them gratitude? Isnât the QishanWen Sect the ones who caused the YunmengJiang Sectâs annihilation?â
...
Lan XiChen responded a moment later, âI have heard of Wen Qingâs name a few of times. I do not remember her having participated in any of the Sunshot Campaignâs crimes.â
Nie MingJue, âBut sheâs never stopped them either.â
Lan XiChen, âWen Qing was one of Wen RuoHanâs most trusted people. How could she have stopped them?â
Nie MingJue spoke coldly, âIf she responded with only silence and not opposition when the Wen Sect was causing mayhem, itâs the same as indifference. She shouldnât have been so disillusioned as to hope that she could be treated with respect when the Wen Sect was doing evil and be unwilling to suffer the consequences and pay the price when the Wen Sect was wiped out.â
Lan XiChen knew that because of what happened to his father, Nie MingJue abhorred Wen-dogs more than anything, especially with how intolerable he was toward evil. Lan XiChen didnât say anything else.
Thereâs a lot of irony in this. Wen Qing didnât speak up because she wanted to protect her little brother--something Nie Mingjue should have been able to relate to, considering he sent Huaisang to safety in the Cloud Recesses during the war. Also, I mean, Nie Mingjue, you didnât exactly rise up against Wen Ruohan until you knew you had the forces to win. He likely spent several years in begrudging deference to him, even sending Nie Huaisang along as tribute when Wen Chao demanded it. Jiang Cheng starts to do the right thing in this scene by speaking honestly about Wen Qing, but then Nie Mingjue reminds him of society and propriety, and Jiang Cheng backs down, crushed under society again. Both of them commit sins of omission, in that they stand back and allow society to belittle and vilify people.
The âsins of omissionâ is a motif that continues in both Nie Mingjueâs and Jiang Chengâs arcs. For example, Jiang Cheng stood by to let Mianmian be brutally killed in the cave of the Xuanwu of Slaughter, and even stood by to let Lan Wangji and Jin Zixuan die too as they protected her. He goes on to blame Wei Wuxian for the deaths of his family because of Wei Wuxian saving them. Nie Mingjue keeps the truth about the saber spirit from Nie Huaisang, and additionally, the very same conversation about Wen Qing referenced above, Nie Mingjue is directly stated to know Jin Guangyao is lying to help his father, and he says nothing at all even though Wei Wuxianâs life hung in the balance. (It then karmically backfires on Jin Guangyao).
Jin GuangYao came to save the day, exclaiming, âReally? That day, Young Master Wei busted into Koi Tower with such force. He said too many things, one more shocking than the next. Perhaps he said a few things that were along those lines. I canât remember them either.â
... As soon as he heard it, Nie MingJue knew that he was fibbing on purpose, frowning slightly.
...
One of the sect leaders added, â...Excuse my bluntness, but heâs the son of a servant. How could the son of a servant be so arrogant?â
With him having brought up the âson of a servantâ, naturally thereâd be some who connected it to the âson of a prostituteâ standing in the hall. Jin GuangYao clearly noticed the unkind stares.Â
While Nie Mingjue is quick to accuse Wen Qing for her inaction but languid with his own, this isnât exactly unique. He also is quick to accuse Jin Guangyao of standing by as Jin Guangshan manipulates to acquit Xue Yang for his crimes against the Chang Clan. (Iâm not defending Jin Guangshan or Jin Guangyao in this.) How dare they stand there and not argue for justice?Â
In spite of Nie MingJue being a junior to Jin GuangShan, he conducted himself in a strict manner and refused to tolerate Xue Yang no matter what. With an angry lecture, Jin GuangShan was left with no words and a great deal of embarrassment. Nie MingJue, as the irritable person he was, unsheathed his saber on the spot with the intention of killing Xue Yang. Even when his sworn younger brother LianFang-Zun, Jin GuangYao, attempted to ease the situation, he ordered him to leave. After a harsh scolding, Jin GuangYao hid behind Lan XiChen, not daring to say anything else. In the end, the LanlingJin Sect could only give in.
But, Nie Mingjue never offers a critique of Jin Guangshan when Jin Guangshan lied to Nie Mingjueâs face about Meng Yao. He discovered that Jin Guangyaoâs stepmother is routinely beating him, and Nie Mingjue does nothing. Even if his hands were tied, if he really cared about doing the right thing, why didnât he intervene somehow, some way, for his brother? If he really cared about holding people responsible for their actions, about making sure justice was served above everything else, why is it that the only person he consistently holds accountable is Jin Guangyao?
Could it be that, much like society, what Nie Mingjue was angry about was not injustice, but actually his hurting self? His hurt pride, his hurt child self still reeling from the cruel way Wen Ruohan betrayed his father and left him to die an agonizing death?
Likewise, Jiang Cheng knows, when he leads the siege at the Burial Mounds against the Wens, that no Wen there is dangerous. They are all elderly or children, not soldiers. He knows even that his sister died saving Wei Wuxianâs life, but chooses to ignore her wishes to satiate his own anger and the inner child inside of him still crying in loneliness. No one had ever chosen Jiang Cheng: his mother viewed him as a disappointment, and his father preferred Wei Wuxian, but Wei Wuxian promised to stick by Jiang Cheng no matter what. When Wei Wuxian breaks this promise, Jiang Cheng never gets over this, and carries out revenge on him for choosing actual justice over staying close to Jiang Cheng (looking back, this adds a symbolic irony to Jiang Cheng refusing to intervene and save Lan Wangji and Jin Zixuan in the cave: they are both the people who will be his siblingsâ spouses).
But the sad reality is, itâs a false dichotomy. Wei Wuxian did not choose the Wens over Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng, like society, chose society and conformity over Wei Wuxian.
Iâve said it before, but while Jin Guangyao isnât correct that the siege on the Burial Mounds is âallâ Jiang Chengâs fault, heâs not wrong when he makes this point:
âBut what you have to understand is that, for what happened to Young Master Wei in the end, you are responsible too and in fact, you are very much so. Why did so many people crusade against the YiLing Patriarch? Why did they shout their support, no matter if they were involved or not? Why was he one-sidedly condemned by so many? Was it really their sense of justice? Of course not. A part of the reason is you.â
...
â⌠Back then, the LanlingJin Sect, the QingheNie Sect, and the GusuLan Sect had already finished fighting over the biggest share. The rest could only get some small shrimps. You, on the other hand, had just rebuilt Lotus Pier and behind you was the YiLing Patriarch, Wei WuXian, the danger of whom was immeasurable. Do you think the other sects would like to see a young sect leader who was so advantaged? Luckily, you didnât seem to be on good terms with your shixiong, and since everyone thought there was an opportunity, of course theyâd add fuels to your fire if they could. No matter what, to weaken the YunmengJiang Sect was to strengthen themselves. Sect Leader Jiang, if only your attitude towards your shixiong was just a bit better, showing everyone that your bond was too strong to be broken for them to have a chance, or if you exhibited just a bit more tolerance after what happened, things wouldnât have become what they were. Oh, speaking of it, you were also a main force of the siege at Burial MoundâŚâ
II. PrivilegeÂ
The main villain of all of MXTXâs novels is privilege (Iâve touched on this here and here and here). Unfortunately, both Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue are heavily infected with it, and itâs partially why they treat others as they do.Â
Jiang Cheng speaks negatively of Mianmian in chapter 56, noting that sheâs probably just the daughter of a servant. When Wei Wuxian challenges this by pointing out he is also the son of a servant, Jiang Cheng expresses that Wei Wuxian is somehow different (and to be fair, he is indeed treated with more respect because of Jiang Fengmianâs background with Wei Wuxianâs mother), but the implication is also classist. Ironically, again, when Jiang Cheng will not speak up for Wei Wuxian or Wen Qing during that same conversation referenced earlier, Mianmian does; though Nie Mingjue expresses admiration of her for doing so, he does not do the same.Â
Additionally, Jiang Cheng says the following about Jin Guangyao:
Wei WuXian, âIsnât Jin GuangYao here now? Jin GuangYao seems so much better than him.â
Jiang Cheng... âSo what, if heâs better? No matter how much better he is, no matter how clever, he could only be a servant who greets the guests. Thatâs all there is to his life. He canât compare with Jin ZiXuan.â
This pretty much sums up how society treats Jin Guangyao, and Jiang Cheng doesnât think to question it. Wei Wuxian, on the other hand, points to Jin Guangyaoâs character, which at that point looked decent (even if... later... sigh). Additionally, itâs hard not to see this as a commentary on how people think Wei Wuxian should be acting. Even though Jiang Cheng is, er, wrong about how far Jin Guangyao can rise, he contrasts with Jin Guangyao in how Jin Guangyao builds the lookout towers to provide justice for the common people, while Jiang Cheng encourages Jin Lingâs initially snobbish behavior (leaving common people in traps).
Not only that, but Jiang Cheng routinely commits atrocities under his protection as a sect leader. Heâs described as having whipped the flesh off the backs of people accused of demonic cultivation, and supposedly no one arrested for that survived his tortures (ironically, Wen Ruohan is also known for torture). As someone pointed out once, the people who would turn to demonic cultivation are likely those unable to form golden cores (Wei Wuxian), or those taken in as disciples too late/too untalented to do so (Mo Xuanyu); Xue Yang was also taken in late as a disciple, but is noted to be unusually talented. The interesting thing is that all three of these people are from impoverished, humble origins. Thus itâs very likely the people Jiang Cheng was arresting and torturing to death were not wealthy cultivators (not to mention other sects would complain if so), but common folk.Â
As for Nie Mingjue, Jin Guangyao goes further than Wei Wuxian and directly attempts to challenge Nie Mingjue to acknowledge his privilege with brutal honesty on his own part, only for it to go... poorly.
Nie MingJue, âThereâs no need for explanations. Come back to me with Xue Yangâs head in your hand.â
Jin GuangYao still wanted to speak, but Nie MingJue had already lost all patience, âMeng Yao, donât speak such pretentious words in front of me. Your whole thing stopped working on me since a long time ago!â
Within a second, a few degrees of unease flashed over Jin GuangYaoâs face, as though someone with an unmentionable illness was suddenly exposed in the public. There was nowhere for him to hide.
He spoke, âMy whole thing? Which whole thing? Brother, youâve always yelled at me for calculating people and being too dishonorable. You say that youâre a proud, righteous person, that you arenât afraid of anything, that propen men shouldnât need to play with schemes. Thatâs fine. Your background is noble and your cultivation is high. But what about me? Am I the same as you? First, my cultivation isnât as firm as yours. Ever since I was born, has anyone taught me? And second, I have no prominent background. Do you think that Iâm in a steady position, here at the LanlingJin Sect? Do you think that I can rise into power the moment Jin ZiXuan dies? Jin GuangShan would rather bring another illegitimate child back than want me to succeed him! You think that I should be afraid of nothing? Well Iâm afraid of everything, even other people! He whose stomach is full believes not him who is starving.â
Nie MingJue replied coldly, âIn the end, all you mean is that you donât want to kill Xue Yang, that you donât want your position at the LanlingJin Sect to waver.â
Jin GuangYao, âOf course I donât!â
He looked up, unknown fires dancing within his eyes, âBut, Brother, I have always wanted to ask you somethingâthe lives under your hands are in any regard more than those under mine, so why is it that I only killed a few cultivators out of desperation and you keep on bringing it up, even until now?â
Nie MingJue was so enraged that he began to laugh, âGood! Iâll give you my answer. Countless souls who have fallen under my saber, but Iâve never killed out of my own desires, much less to climb up the ladder!â
Jin GuangYao, âBrother, I understand what you mean. Are you saying that all of the people you killed deserved their deaths?â
With courage gathered from nowhere, he laughed and walked a few steps closer to Nie MingJue. His voice raised as well, asking in an almost aggressive manner, âThen, may I ask, just how do you decide if someone deserves death? Are your standards absolutely correct? If I kill one but save hundreds, would the good outweigh the bad, or would I still deserve death? To do great things, sacrifices must happen.â
Nie MingJue, âThen why donât you sacrifice yourself? Are you any nobler than them? Are you any different from them?â
Jin GuangYao stared at him. A moment later, as though he had finally either decided on something or given up on something, he replied calmly, âYes.â
He looked up. In his expression were some of pride, some of calmness, and some of a faint insanity, âI and they, of course we are different!â
Nie MingJue was infuriated by his words and his expression.
He raised his foot. Yet, Jin GuangYao neither avoided nor took defense. The kick landed right on him, and again he rolled like a pebble down Carp Tower.
Nie Mingjue, here, is being compared to two other people: the man who kicked Meng Yao down the stairs at a brothel as the man dragged Meng Shi outside naked to humiliate her, and with Jin Guangshan--the very person Nie Mingjueâs enraged with--by doing the same thing: kicking someone he views as lower than himself down the stairs. Instead of addressing the actual problem (Jin Guangshan), he finds a scapegoat. Itâs not a good look. All three of these instances are linked with society standing by and allowing it to happen, with a few exceptions: Sisi intervenes with Meng Shi, and Lan Xichen intervenes to stop Nie Mingjue from killing Jin Guangyao.Â
Nie Mingjue never had to kill to climb the ladder within his sect. He did have to kill to climb the ladder in the cultivational world--and he actually did so, through killing the Wens. Yes, I know Nie Mingjue killed the Wens because he wanted revenge for his father and protection for himself and his brother, but the problem is... thatâs exactly what motivated Jin Guangyao: protection. Jin Guangyao just had more to fear than Nie Mingjue.
The irony of the above scene that Jin Guangyao knows killing is wrong, but itâs how to survive in this world, so he does it anyways. Nie Mingjue thinks the problem of someone thinking they are entitled to kill can be solved by killing the one who says such a thing, because heâs entitled to kill someone who thinks theyâre entitled to kill-- You get the point.
That sad thing is that being shoved down the stairs doesnât even end that scene. Nie Mingjue directly attempts to murder Jin Guangyao:
Just as Nie MingJue unsheathed his saber, Lan XiChen happened to leave the palace to see what was going on, concerned after having waited for long. Seeing the situation before him, he unsheathed Shuoyue as well, âWhat happened, this time?â
...
Nie MingJue, â... I know what Iâm doing. Heâs beyond hope. If these keeps on going, heâll do the world harm for sure. The earlier heâs killed, the earlier we can relax!â
This does not at all justifying Jin Guangyaoâs subsequent murder of him, but again, Jin Guangyao kills to protect himself, and heâs not without cause for fear of his life (this does not justify, because neither is Nie Mingjue entirely without cause, but people have gotta acknowledge that reality).Â
III. Reasons to Kill
I often see Nie Mingjue held up as someone who judged people based on their actions and was countercultural in that he was willing to stand up to Jin Guangshan when Jin Guangshan wanted to acquit Xue Yang of slaughtering the Chang Clan. However, this is decidedly not the case. Nie Mingjue is very much acting within societyâs principals here (calling someone else out is hardly unique or noble: see, Su She, Jin Zixun, etc.) Nie Mingjue stood up to Jin Guangshan then because the crime was so severe he knew he might actually be able to win; otherwise, he let Jin Guangshan do as he wished.Â
To illustrate this, Iâll share the piping hot tea a commentator spilled on one of my fics recently, because she says it perfectly:
She isnât wrong. You can hold Xue Yang--and Jin Guangyao and Wei Wuxian, for that matter--responsible for their actions and also point out the hypocrisy of a society that holds to ideals of how people behave, yet is constantly making exceptions for themselves. Nie Mingjue does just this by demanding Xue Yangâs head as a price for not killing his own sworn brother. Jiang Cheng does just this by murdering the older, helpless Wens at the Burial Mounds, and turning his back on the Wens who saved Jiang Chengâs own life.
Why do these characters kill?
Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng killed out of revenge to honor their families and save themselves.
Jin Guangyao killed to get his father to acknowledge him as his son, and then in revenge when he realized he never would, and to save himself.
Wei Wuxian killed out of revenge and then out of despair--really, revenge against the whole cultivational world that had set him up for failure no matter what he did.
Xue Yang killed out of revenge for his little finger.
What do all of these have in common? They reveal what each person prized.
Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue prized the honor of their culture and of society.
Wei Wuxian prized his loved ones.
Jin Guangyao prized himself as his fatherâs son, a sort of combination of JC/NMJâs status love and WWXâs wanting to be loved.
Xue Yang prized his body.
Xue Yang seems condemnable on paper, but letâs look at this a little deeper: what else did Xue Yang have? Nie Mingjue inherited a sect and had his beloved little brother, men who would die for him, people who admired him. Wei Wuxian had his loved ones, and then they were gone. Jin Guangyao had his dead motherâs wish for him to be approved for by society, and a famous father. What exactly did Xue Yang have besides his own body? He didnât have parents, as far as we know. What else was he to value? Why is Nie Mingjue venerated, and Xue Yang condemned? Why is Jiang Cheng allowed to torture the poor under him for so many years, just because they reminded him of his brother, and Xue Yang hunted down?
The only answer is privilege. Itâs privilege that allows Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng to decide when and how they want to enforce justice, and if they do at all. Itâs privilege that they had families to avenge. Itâs privilege that enables them to commit atrocities and get second, third, fourth chances. Itâs privilege of his birthright than enables Jiang Cheng to never once die in the novel (Nie Mingjue not so much). But when Nie Mingjue dies, he seeks revenge on his murderer, not justice. He kills countless others in his quest to kill Jin Guangyao, people who had nothing to do with his death, and he could have killed his own brother. Even when he succeeds he ends up battling Jin Guangyao in a coffin sealed for a hundred years--hardly a victory.Â
So since weâve brought him up, letâs talk Xue Yang and the Yi City trio now. The âjudgyâ member of the Yi City Trio is decidedly not privileged (A-Qing, as @thisworldgodonlyknowsâ wrote about her, foils Nie Huaisang, but also she foils Nie Mingjue), and her character reveals these precise flaws in Nie Mingjue and Jiang Cheng. She is a beggar girl and a thief, but she seeks justice for Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan out of nothing more than love. She herself does not kill, and frankly Iâd say she is the moral backbone of the series more than any other character (along with perhaps Mianmian). She was never a part of society, after all.
A-Qing dies young, alone by a river, mutilated. She has no privilege, but her spirit survives as a ghost solely because of her desire to ensure justice for Xiao Xingchen and for Song Lan. Her condemnation of Xue Yang is at first admittedly selfish--she was jealous--but then honestly understandable and easier to swallow, since she came from a similar background. But because of this, and because A-Qing is willing to empathize, she ends up understood and her wishes fulfilled. In the end, Song Lan leaves with the remains of her soul, determined to heal both her and Xiao Xingchen.Â
As I wrote here, A-Qing is also faced with a dark version of herself in Xue Yang. Similarly, Jiang Cheng is faced with a dark version of himself in both Su She (jealous of Lan Wangji, jealous of Wei Wuxian; he calls out their arrogance) and in Jin Guangyao in the temple, and only then is he able to move forward and grow. Nie Mingjue, unfortunately, did not recognize the dark version of himself in Jin Guangyao, and ends up trapped with him.Â
#mdzs#mdzs meta#mo dao su zhi#the untamed#cql meta#cql#chen qing ling#nie mingjue#jiang cheng#jiang wanyin#chifeng-zun#jin guangyao#wei wuxian#a-qing#xue yang#xue chengmei#wei ying#meng yao#mianmian#luo qingyang#song lan#xiao xingchen#jin guangshan
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G25 Part 2 Essay, Very Dense
There is very little I will say as a preamble besides that Part 2 was a very powerful conclusion to an extremely climatic arc. That being said, spoilers below and my Part 1 essay can be found here.
I will start by saying that although I am quite satisfied with this ending I wish things could have ended differently. This is the first time we were given antagonists who were actual individuals we had to overcome. And in doing so, we were faced with people who had powerful reasons and motivations to sacrifice for. That is something I will come back to later soâ
In a broad overview of the plot of Part 2, we were given an uplifting reunion with Talvish, who claims that his decisions and choices were made with the Milletianâs best interests in mind. And itâs nice* to work together after so long, to finally have him fulfill the promise of being with the Milletian at the very end. There is a sweet moment where the roles are reversed and the Milletian asks him if he is alright. Instead of being asked to trust him, he wholeheartedly puts his trust in the Milletian.
*if you know me even just a little, you know I simp hard for this man and let me tell you I went from âI will be the first one to punch himâ to âplease donât goâ in a matter of minutes
And then, when everything is rewound and the Milletian is able to protect their friends and prevent the worst possible ending, all the Good Guys have a Good Time. This is of course, glossing over the fact that Deirbhile sacrificed herself, Tani dying with a finality that Milletians shouldnât have, Piran falling apart, Treasure Hunter breaking down, and Marleid conflicted over what to do with her extremely Problematic Childhood Friend.
We still got to have a good time! We got to revel with our friends! Speak with everyone and catch up and talk and chat and eat andâ
It was nice but I am very bitter because those good times only emphasized how different it ended for Cethlenn and Vayne.
If Part 1 was about trauma, Part 2 was about breaking out of predestiny and walking a different path that was set before you. This comes quite literally when Talvish appears and rewinds time* to save the Milletian from the future he saw. He (and later, Hymerark) reveals to us something that touches the fourth wall:
*not sure why I was so surprised that he could manipulate time in such a way when the Milletianâs first meeting with him was through time. Maybe I just thought it was through the Milletianâs powers that they managed to communicate but clearly Talvishâs powers were doing something.     Oh dang it makes sense why he isolated himself in a desert for centuries nowâŚbecause he canât affect time that he has been personally involved in
The ability to redo main storyline missions when we fail them is quite literally the Milletian, breaking the flow of time to try again until we succeed. Due to the nature of altering timelines, those uninvolved with the messing of time donât remember all the previous attempts. Later, it is revealed that all our redoes and failures have a negative impact on Erinn; it increases the entropy in the world as different realities are created and then stopped. Tani is a result of that.
It is further revealed that Vayneâ âor I should say now, Beimnech, is a singularity who experiences all these timelines and realities. He must return to Mag Tuireadh whenever the flow of time breaks because it is the role he has been forced into by Hymerark. He is the counterpoint for Talvish. The two are diametrically opposed, canonical foils with mirroring ideals and views of the world. Beimnech mentions during Eternal Dreams that he has seen Milletians fail to convince Talvish* to change his mind about the world, or fail to garner enough faith in their friends. In the current timeline, Talvish is enlightened by the Milletian and so takes control of his fate and chooses to rewind time instead of having it cut off and restart.
*It is implied that Talvish also experiences the different timelines over and over again, but he forgets it the moment the timeline is replaced with a new one. Alternatively, Beimnech is also taken out of time and space whenever the flow is broken, so the cycles are even more unbearable because he is forced to witness them as an outsider.
Beimnech did not have the liberty of meeting the Milletian before he met Hymerark. Unlike Talvish, he could not surround himself with equal companions and could not hope for a life where he was not just fulfilling a role to balance the world. The only way he could have some control over his own fate as cycles repeated over and over again was to orchestrate his own death*. He remarked before in G24 that had he and the Milletian walked different paths, they could have been friends and not enemies. Both he and Talvish see the Milletian as a saviorâas a guiding, bright light. But while Talvish burned alongside the Milletian, Beimnech burned out like dying embers** or a shadow too weak to hold up against illumination.
*maybe itâs selfish, but who can blame him when he only has himself? I seethe with the unfairness of characters that have no choice but to be the âdarknessâ to contrast the âlightâ. The âwhat could have been if things were differentâ hurts as do the inability to break free from what was laid out. I seethe, but that means the story is doing as intended and I am by no means criticizing, just empathizing (Iâd highkey write something like this ngl I am a ball of angst).
**the refrain that plays when the Milletian is prompted to deal the final blow to Beimnech is called The Last of the Heat Fades/Residual Heat Fades Away.
Beimnechâs disappointment in the Milletian in Part 1 is suddenly very understandable. He had pinned all his hopes in one person and he knew they were going to fail. We even saw him return to end the Corrupted Milletian in the future that we never got to witness. He did for the Milletian what he hoped they would do to him*. And then for once, to have time rewind instead of abruptly ending? I canât imagineâŚ
*I chose to not stab him. Apparently that gives you more of his backstory. Regardless of the decision, when he tells you he lies for the first and last time about his deathâŚ
Something can be said about Cethlenn, too, who was âemptied outâ by Fodla. His current name, Cethlenn, was given to him by Beimnech, which honestly if you know your myth and lore spawns so much food for thought*. Speaking to Cethlenn in Tech Duinn on Saturdays reveals that Beimnech gave him that name because he always wanted a right-hand man with that name. Whatever that implies to the nature of their relationship⌠If you have the time, please, please speak to him with all the keywords at your disposal. Itâs worth it.
*another food for thought includes Sera being the one to help Piran escape and Beimnech noticing that. Beimnech being Super Old and Super Tired with so much bottled up Memories and Experience like the opposite of Talvish With a Purpose okay one day I will actually write a whole essay about their foilsâ â
Ultimately, Cethlenn is given the choice to be the watcher in the mists of Feth Fiada. He acknowledges his crimes* and so he refuses to exit (except on Samhain aka Saturday). He is openly antagonistic towards everyone except Marleid, which is understandable. He thinks he has tied Marleid down. Further conversations with him in Tech Duinn reveal that heâs pugnacious and as eager as Vayne once was to spar with the Milletian. Heâs also very easy to bully. He implies that in the future, he may recover the powers he lost in his deal with Hymerark and will use those powers for the greater good soâŚmore Cethlenn content in the future? Hopefully?
*what worried me the most at the end of G24 was that I could not see how he or Vayne could be redeemed. I would scoop them up in a heartbeat. But could my Milletian? Could the people of Erinn? Obviously not.
I know I brought up the concept of escaping predestiny and then dropped it like a hot potato so Iâll do some quick rundowns now of other examples. Enya realizing that she can have a life beyond just staying in her sanctum and caring for the Holy Flame, Piran gathering the courage to recognize his own existence is worth something,  Hymerark* realizing that there is no reason to continue to mess around with people and she can just observe. Iâve rewatched the conversation the Milletian has with Hymerark after the battle and I donât even know where to startâŚTalvish remarked that sheâs the closest in resemblance to Aton Cimeniâs will since she balances both freedom and chaos. Maybe these higher gods were never meant to have sentience or conscience because the moment they do, they make decisions and bam the whole world is a mess.
*the Milletian seem to do this to all the gods, huh?
My current understanding of things is that the Evil God Balor was created by Aton Cimeni as a counterpoint for Talvish, who is the Guardian, the sentinel of Erinn. Why? For Balance of course. But you canât just create someone to be evil. Somewhere in between, Aton Cimeni stops answering and while Talvish plots machinations for the future he saw, Balorâs disdain for his role grows and eventually beefs it in a fight with Lugh at the battle of Mag Tuireadh. His body is dead, but his spirit remains, picked up by Hymerark to be theâŚplug stopping Noitar Arat. I imagine Hymerark also faced the same struggle that Talvish did of attempting to carry out duties imparted on them by their creator but yet new to independence and the weight of their responsibilities that now fell on their shoulders. Hymerark expresses her faint indecision of hearing the wishes of everyone. There will always be conflict in decisions.
Meanwhile, Talvish realizes that the balance has shifted in the absence of the Evil God Balor and so the events of G21 happen, where he attempts to recreate the balance with his own hands and summon something to replace Balor. While this fails, Hymerark tries to do the same again by corrupting the Milletian and making them the final obstacle to correct the unending cycle that, frankly, started because of her.
In G25 Part 1, Vayne mentions that Aton Cimeni will always have a solution. I suppose in this case, he was talking about how even if he were to disappear completely, someone will always take his place. Just like how Trionaâs role was passed on to Millia, a new darkness grows. Not without repercussion, of course. Something is coming and thatâs for G26.
In the final confrontation with Beimnech, he offers the Milletian a choice to either kill him now and escape, or perish together with him in the rift. He mentions that in the end, we are all forgotten anyway. I donât think that is the case. The Milletian lives and the memories of everyone theyâve fought with lives with them. That is their burden. Not everyone can walk a righteous path. Sometimes, desperate individuals seek the wrong help and I like to think that the Milletian recognizes that it isnât just black and white, and that they are fortunate to have found the right people. Things are just going to get rougher for the Milletian because theyâre also a guardian of Erinn, which begs the question: who is the counterpoint for the Milletian? Does one even exist? Does there need to be one?
Instead of ending on such a gloom and doom note, Iâll go full circle and talk about Llywelyn again and his mentions of a sibling again? And also tea time?? 10/10 would fake date Llywelyn just for the court gossip. (LF > political intrigue comic ft. Milletian and Llywelyn dating like itâs 17th century France) Also Llywelyn being the next captain of the Elved Squad?? Tried to imagine him in Talvishâs armor and as I type this I realize they wonât do something stupid like that theyâll just change the emblem on his armor. Alright I think thatâs it Iâm hitting 2.3k words soâ
Oh right something something the Aces go off somewhere again just as Hunter was going to say somethingâŚcan we get a base for them please? So we can just visit them? So they donât just pop in and out of the Milletianâs life? Thanks.
Iâm about to get super sappy so readers, feel free to skip all of this. Iâve been playing mabi for about 11 years at this point and it has been a long ride. I didnât start writing these rants and essays until G21 and I also started drawing in earnest about mabi around the same time with comics and fanart. I donât participate much in the community as a whole because I am an anxiously overthinking person. Itâs no surprise that I found comfort characters in mabi and so I return here again and again (not that Iâve ever really left). Weâre getting a new game director after G25 and I am extremely grateful for all he has done for the game. And in the same vein, Iâm thankful to all of you reading this. Thereâs no point in creating content when there is no audience, especially when I am as reclusive as I am. So, to my new readers: thanks for coming along. And to my old fans: thanks for sticking around. Until the next chapter!
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The 100 and the Crab Bucket of Zero-Sum Heroism
This is a feeling I started to get during season 5, and season 6 has definitely confirmed it - since the start of season 5, there has been a definite bias in the writing and narrative framing of the show, designed to make Clarke and Bellamy - and only Clarke and Bellamy - the heroes of this piece, whether it is earned or unearned.
Now, one might say the story has always been about them. And to a point, thatâs true. But what happens when your âheroesâ have become so morally grey that theyâre really just a light shade of dark?
Usually the answer to that would be âmake them betterâ. Yet for some reason, The 100 has taken the complete opposite approach since the beginning of season 5 - thereâs been a concerted effort to redeem them not by improving their own actions, but by vilifying others for crimes no different than their own (or even lesser crimes, or no crimes at all). Instead of building their âheroesâ up, all they can do is tear others down.
Which brings us to the sociological concepts in the title that are applicable to this analysis:
Crab bucket syndrome is the concept of âif I canât have it, neither can youâ - put into the crab example, it describes how if one crab could escape from a bucket, the other crabs will prevent it from doing so, and thus they all die. In our case, thatâs how if Clarke or Bellamy canât be seen as âgoodâ, then neither should anyone else, and everyone else should be tarred with an even darker brush in order to make them look better.
Zero-sum heroism - a zero-sum game is one in which thereâs a fixed amount of reward, so if one person gets a lot, others get very little or none. Zero-sum heroism then would be the idea that thereâs a fixed amount of heroism to go around, so for some to have it, others have to lose it.
Now, this is all in how the story is told, not in how the characters themselves act - this post isnât a commentary on how the characters themselves behave (which is why Iâm not tagging it as anti-anyone), but on how we, the viewers, are expected to view and then agree/disagree with their actions and words by the way the narrative frames them.
I started to notice this in season 5, because the target for tear down and villainization was Octavia. In season 6, it is still Octavia, but Raven and Murphy have also been added to the mix, in different ways, but with the same goal - exalting Clarke and Bellamy at the expense of others.
RavenÂ
With only two episodes to go, our favourite zero-G mechanic has had very little to do this season. Sheâs had two jobs - glorified chauffeur and Miss Morality. Youâd think a character talking about morality and doing better should be good, right?
But thatâs not how the narrative has cast her. By making this her main role of the season, the narrative frames her as a catty bitch for wanting people to be good. Sheâs unreasonable for not wanting Clarke to go on the first exploratory mission. Sheâs mean for calling Clarke out on her repeating course of bad choices. She has to be convinced to not revolt against the Primes and that they need the Primesâ knowledge to build their own compound, but this is Raven fucking Reyes and when has not knowing the answer to a problem ahead of time ever stopped her before?Â
All the narrative has done to her has been to portray her as bad for wanting to be good, because her good conflicts with the narrativeâs ability to exalt Clarke. At first I thought this was in preparation for a moral ladder knockdown - that is, that this season Ravenâs going to be faced with one of those impossible choices, so that sheâs knocked off her pedestal, as has been done to Clarke, Bellamy and Octavia in the past, but more and more Iâm now thinking that it is in fact just to prop up Clarke. Which brings us to...
Murphy
Where this setup has Raven as Clarkeâs foil, Murphy is likewise Bellamyâs foil - and this last episode really threw this into stark perspective. What Murphy is doing this season is exactly what Bellamy was doing last season - negotiating with the enemy in an attempt to peacefully save their people. Yet somehow the narrative wants us to believe that Murphy is wrong for doing what heâs done, but we were supposed to cheer for Bellamy when he was doing the same.
Yes, Murphy has some aspect of personal gain going for him, in the name of immortality for him and Emori, but I donât believe that was his motivation. That was a pacifier. He was pretty sure that if he turned Josephine down that he was at risk of death, and he was right - he learned fast that Josephine was not afraid to kill people in pursuit of her goals. The only purpose the mind drives serve is camouflage - a way to put a âselfishâ stamp on him, when everything heâs done has been to try and cut their losses in favour of peace, drives or no drives. Plus this last episode, he was working with them to find Josephine not because he gets that immortality, but because if he failed, the consequence would be Emoriâs death.
Not to mention that all of this comes on Murphy just after heâs endured a traumatic near-death experience, which also plays into his choices, which brings us to...
Octavia
Octavia being cast as the villain (which was all tell and no show, as I talked about here), her PTSD and other mental illness being demonized (see here), and the horrible and hypocritical ways sheâs been treated by the other characters is something Iâve talked about at length (here, here, here, here and here). And when I first planned this post, before S6, it was set to be only about Octavia, but I never got to it, and now as S6 is almost over, I saw that other characters fit in here as well. So as this post pertains to Octavia, you can also read the posts that were building up to this one in my series of how everyone failed her (here, here and here).
So with all of that meta already done, letâs get to the meat of how it applies here - by the end of season 4, Octaviaâs star was fast on the rise. She saved the human race in a way no one else could. But the narrative sees a flaw to this - Octavia is the tritagonist, not the protagonist, after all, she canât be more of a hero than the protagonist or the deuteragonist, since sheâs a foil to both Clarke and Bellamy (see this post on the head, the heart and the soul) .
So what does narrative do? Make her fall from grace.
But for what? Making impossible choices to save her people? Clarke and Bellamy have done that. Being in charge of who lives and who dies? Clarkeâs done that too. Even if you believe that the war against the prisoners was ill-advised (I personally donât, see here) and something that could have been avoided - Bellamy has also done that.
(Not to mention how the war played out anyway - narrative tells us throughout the buildup to the war that it is something that Wonkru will lose, despite superior numbers and a sneak advantage, ergo why everyone was sabotaging Octaviaâs plans. But they won the war in fifteen minutes once all of our protagonists were fighting on the same side, despite having lost half the army and the enemy knowing precisely where they were and when they were attacking. Clearly it was not unwinnable, it was only unwinnable as per narrative because it was Octaviaâs plan, as seen here.)
There is nothing that Octavia has done that Clarke or Bellamy havenât also done. Octaviaâs only âcrimeâ is being Octavia, and thus not someone who is allowed to have the hero narrative.
In case thereâs any doubt about that, thereâs how sheâs been treated this season. At the end of season 5, she did what is expected of any repentant âvillainâ - try to sacrifice themselves, fail, then swallow their pride, step back and be a footsoldier for the good fight. Which is all thatâs ever been asked of Bellamy whenever heâs done a Heel-Face Turn (in season 1, and again in season 3).
But thatâs not good enough for this narrative. Octavia needs to be kept down. First by being excluded and beaten and abandoned. Then after beginning to find her peace (with no help or apologies from anyone who caused her to lose it in the first place), and in fact finding a peace sheâs never had, she keeps having her past thrown into her face by her brother - and a past he wasnât there to witness, at that, and likely doesnât have all the facts on. But the narrative still allows him to judge her for something he doesnât understand and didnât witness. The narrative is also making her work for forgiveness and redemption, when it hasnât demanded the same from Clarke or Bellamy (even when other characters have suggested that it should).
Clarke has been through the wringer this season (well, the episodes where she was present and conscious in her body) in terms of how sheâs been treated by other characters, but narrative framing says that we should be sympathizing with her - and Iâm sure that by the end of the season, all will be forgiven because of what sheâs experienced this season. But she still hasnât done anything to earn that forgiveness.
We are also supposed to believe - because heâs said so - that Bellamy has learned from his mistakes. But this season has shown that he hasnât. Other people have had to talk him down from genocide twice. That doesnât show the growth that the narrative tells us is supposed to be there.
With Clarke out of the picture as far as action goes for most of the season, and Bellamy wanting to go back to his emotional âkill everyoneâ solutions, it is no wonder that in order to preserve their sanctity as the protagonists of the show, that the narrative has had to throw even more people under the bus to accomplish that. I just question why. Why not treat all of the characters fairly? Why do some need to be disparaged for others to rise? Why not let everyone do better, and be allowed to do so without judgment? Those are some questions Iâd like answered.
#the 100 meta#octavia blake#raven reyes#john murphy#bellamy blake#clarke griffin#double standards#narrative framing#zero sum heroism#not here for the writing hypocrisy
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Community: Britta Perry Is the Worst, Which Makes Her the Best
https://ift.tt/3kixlnw
Sitcom characters very rarely come off of the page fully formed. Many classic (and not-so-classic) network sitcoms rely on time as an ally. Time spent with characters allows for not only an audience to get a better sense of them but also for the writers and actors to do so as well.Â
Community was no exception. Each of the ensemble castâs seven main characters (and tertiary characters like Ben Chang and Dean Craig Pelton) arrived in the pilot fundamentally unfinished. And each of them evolved over time, in some cases sharpening creator Dan Harmon and the writing staffâs original assumptions or defying them. No character, however, changed more from conception to execution over time than Britta Perry as played by Gillian Jacobs.Â
Originally, Harmon designed Britta Perry simply as a romantic foil to series lead Jeff Winger. When Community first premiered in 2009, The Office was entering its sixth season and at the height of its popular appeal. In that context, perhaps bringing a sitcom to NBC without a âJim and Pamâ firmly in place felt unwise. The problem was that the âJimâ portion of that romantic duo, Jeff Winger, was richly realized (having been based on Harmonâs own experiences in community college and played by relentless charm factory Joel McHale), and the âPamâ portion, Britta Perry, was simply a Pam stand-in.Â
In the first half of Communityâs first season, several attempts are made to humanize Britta. In one episode, the pressure she feels as an older student in community college leads her to cheat on an exam. In another, she begins to establish her feminist profile and interest in psychology by (perhaps accurately) observing that her male friends desire to fight class bullies comes from a place of pent-up homoerotic energy. For the most part, however, Britta and her storylines exist only to complement Jeffâs. By episode seven, Britta is suddenly a part of a Jeff Winger-Michelle Slater love triangle whether she realizes it or not.Â
Brittaâs failure to properly evolve as a character in Communityâs early episodes was significant enough that other characters on the show started to realize howâŚwell, odd she was. In episode six, âFootball, Feminism, and You,â Britta has a hard time connecting with her fellow female classmates, Annie (Allison Brie) and Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown), because she views the time-honored tradition of visiting the bathroom as a group to be a sinister patriarchal conspiracy.Â
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Earlier this year, Harmon revealed in an interview with EW that that plotline came directly from another writer on the showâs observation about just how much Britta sucked.Â
âWhen I said, âWhat about Britta,â [writer-producer] Hilary Winston said, âI donât like her,ââ Harmon said. âListening to Hilary talk about Britta, which started with like, âI wouldnât trust her if I was a woman. I understand that she means well and that sheâs saying the kinds of things that youâre supposed to say as a woman, but thatâs what makes me not trust her. I need a confidante behind the scenes, because the truth is, I do want to talk about shoes sometimes and I feel like she might sell me out if I did that â and I wouldnât go pee with her.â Stuff like that starts to dimensionalize Britta right away.â
By this point the showâs characters, writing staff, and audience had realized that there was something unlikeable about Britta. This was due to the showâs thin conceptualization of her as a character to begin with. But as we said above, time is usually on a sitcomâs side. Community had many more episodes of its first season order to tackle the issue. Whatâs interesting about how Community figured Britta out is not how it âfixed herâ but rather how it leaned into her existing flaws.
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That anecdote about Hilary Winston not trusting Britta turned out to be a feature, not a bug for the character. A lot of Brittaâs early traits â her political ideals, defiant attitude, and quick wit â were likely designed to make her appealing to both Jeff and the audience. In reality, they had the opposite effect. So the show just began to lean into those qualities as comedic fodder. Britta retained her same liberal political leanings but the show now highlighted how she had neither the courage or energy to follow through on them. She also quickly became known for accidentally ruining everything around her and snuffing out the joy from her friendsâ lives.
In the season one episode âPhysical Education,â Community finally provided the terminology for what would become the characterâs recurring meme through six seasons of the show (and hopefully a movie). Britta is, quite simply: the worst. After discovering that Britta pronounces âbagelsâ as âbaggels,â Ben Chang reflexively responds with âugh, youâre the worst.â Itâs a small moment to be sure, but one whose spirit Community would continue to capture with Britta time and time again.
Britta is the worst because she calls âbagelsâ âbaggels.â Sheâs the worst because she ruins the reputations of all the guys she dates for Abed (Danny Pudi) and Troy (Donald Glover). Sheâs the worst because she insists on being nice to Troyâs awful grandma and gets the switch for her troubles. Sheâs the worst because engages with the least amount of civil disobedience allowed by Greendale policy. Sheâs the worst because she wonât buy her one-eyed cat a monocle as âthatâs pretentious.â Sheâs the worst because she supports a lesbian student so enthusastically that she accidentally enters into a romantic relationship with her despite neither the student nor Britta being a lesbian.Â
Britta is just the worst. And that makes her one of Communityâs best creations. There are few examples of TV shows taking lemons and turning them into lemonade more apt or admirable than Communityâs treatment of Britta. The show deserves an enormous amount of credit for realizing that it was underutilizing a comedic concept in Britta and a comedic talent in Jacobs and reversing course by leaning in to that same course.
And letâs be clear here, Gillian Jacobs deserves an immense amount of credit for taking that opportunity and running with it. Though Jacobs may be one of the lesser-heralded talents to come out of Community, thanks mostly to the Russo Brothers ascent to Valhalla and Donald Gloverâs ascent to the top of the universe, she is just as valuable as anyone else involved. Near the beginning of season 3, it becomes clear just how much Jacobs relishes Britta getting to be the worst. From episode three âRemedial Chaos Theoryâ through episode 15 âOrigins of Vampire Mythology,â Britta and Jacobs are on absolute insufferable fire.Â
Itâs in this stretch of episodes that Brittaâs terribleness actually saves the day. The plot of âRegional Holiday Musicâ involves the evil Glee club director (played by Taran Killam) slowly brainwashing the study group into becoming Body Snatcher-esque glee club pod people. Britta succumbs in the end but when Abed encourages her to take the stage and sing whatâs in her heart, the transcendent awfulness of her performance immediately snaps everyone out of their trance. That also leads to the classic line of Dean Pelton seeing the showâs program for the first time and whining âah, Brittaâs in this?â
In a way, âRegional Holiday Musicâ is a microcosm of Brittaâs role on the show. Every character on Community has a part to play. Jeff is narcissistic, Annie is innocent, Shirley is devout, Troy and Abed are goobers, Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) and Ben Chang (Ken Jeong) are insane, and Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase) is old. But the glue that ties together all of those disparate characters together is Britta Perry and her special ability to be the worst.Â
She truly is the AT&T of people. And God bless her for it.Â
The post Community: Britta Perry Is the Worst, Which Makes Her the Best appeared first on Den of Geek.
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I donât know what to expect from IX. Iâm really hoping it is endgame and they donât just drop the romance angle, but itâs also kind of what Iâm expecting? Like I donât expect follow-through from it, even though I would love it if it happened
Hi Nonnie,Â
I totally get it. I understand that completely. Do I think itâs endgame? Yes.Â
However am I going into IX with any expectations? NOPE. Iâm a fandom granny. No seriously I have lived through so many fandoms that I simply go in with no expectations. That way if what I think might happen if even in some small way happens then I will be super happy and overjoyed and if it doesnât I am usually able to divorce myself from my disappointment and respect the creatorâs vision.
As a writer and someone who was professionally trained to do so, I know that creators have a vision. They have an endgame in mind. And they drop breadcrumbs about it from the beginning and if youâre clever enough to see them you usually can figure out any story.Â
This is why I ruin police procedurals for my mom. My dad and I made a game of it watching Law and Order as a kid growing up (and I mean OG Law and Order with Det. Lenny Briscoe). Whomever could figure out who committed the murder first won. We used to keep a running tally. My dad was really good at it, but when I got really into reading and started reading mystery novels and horror novels and other stories that rely heavily on mystery boxes I started getting better at it. We also watched Law and Order because my two actor 2nd cousins have been guest stars as defense lawyers idk how many times but thatâs neither here nor there.
And tbh ESBâs twist of Vader as Lukeâs father came as such a shock because IDK if even Lucas really knew he was going to do it until he did it. Luckily the story was vague enough in ANH that a throw away line about certain points of view was enough to close what could have been a crippling plot hole.Â
My mom is an OG Star wars fan. Mostly bc she loves the pew pew and the lightsaber battles, and secondly because Harrison Ford is a very handsome and talented man (tbh my first crush was Han Solo and second was Indy).
My mom was there when everyone was UP IN ARMS about Leia and Luke kissing. And how that was SOOOOOO going to be endgame. Which originally Lucas had intended that Leia would be a love interest for Luke and that the twin sister would be revealed in 7, 8 and 9 someday. However during writing ROTJ and filming ESB he decided to really hone in on Leia and Hanâs chemistry (granted Irving was directing then) but he made the narrative choice to make Leia the sister and Han her love interest. It simultaneously elevated Leiaâs narrative importance and made her the leading lady of her own story on equal footing to her equally powerful twin brother instead of just being Lukeâs sidekick love interest.
Even when I was a KID and I saw ESB it always kind of made me laugh that Leiaâs response to Han goading her about liking him was to smack lips with the only other humanoid male in the room just to prove how NOT smitten she was with Han. (AND if that doesnât make her simultaneously Padme and Anakinâs child I donât know what will convince you otherwise).
TPM came out when was was 13 and a half which will be 20 yrs ago next May - HOLY FUCK. And Iâve been an avid reader since I could read so I had gobbled up countless numbers of books by then. I was in the theater with my parents and legit held my hand up over Ianâs eyes and gasped and tugged on my momâs sleeve.Â
âMom thatâs THE EMPERORâ and she was like âNo honey heâs just a senator whoâs now chancellor of the republicâ
And this was still in the age of Dial-up internet and no IMDB. So I did my own digging and found our VHS copies of the OT and looked at the cast listing at the end of the movie. And saw the same name playing the Emperor as the man playing Senator-Chancellor Sheev Palpatine. Now the movies in the OT never actually say the Emperorâs real name. Heâs just the shadowy, scary Emperor with lightning bolts shooting out of his hands. So like we knew in TPM that Palpy was going to become the emperor. Now say what you will about the Prequels but Lucas did do a fair bit of narrative arc planning with it than what he threw together with the OT.Â
He knew we had to meet Anakin as a boy, see him as a caring and compassionate individual who is uniquely gifted in the Force. And that had circumstances been different he would have probably been the paragon force sensitive and balanced the force. However due to realistic flaws of all characters, good and bad alike, including flaws within Anakinâs character himself he falls prey to the darkside and itâs temptations and then becomes the very thing he feared.
Tbh next to TLJ, ROTS is right up there with ESB as my favorite in the saga. Sure the dialogue is wooden and clunky. Lucas is not a dialogue director. Heâs a vision director. He has a scene in his mind, and he wants it played like that. Which is fine. He also came from a school of thought in the 1970s where sci-fi was pure camp and overdramatic. His style never really changed. The OT is so lauded because he didnât direct all of them. He had other people come in and he had script doctoring and his first wife in the editing room taking his vision and turning it into a cohesive narrative. We seem to forget that Lucas was a young dude right out of film school when he made ANH. He barely knew how to string a narrative together and the early cuts of ANH were terrible and nowhere near what people saw in the theater. Donât believe me? Google âhow star wars was saved in the editing roomâ itâs a remarkable story about how Lucasâs first wife and principal editor basically made ANH into an actual story instead of a mish mash of ideas that it was before. The prequels had Lucas at the helm for all three. Yes by then he had gotten a hold of narratively what he wanted to convey, but he still didnât always convey it in the most efficient ways.
But there are moments in the prequels that Iâm stunned by their perfection. âThis is how liberty dies? With thunderous applause.â as Padme watches in horror as the Republic becomes an empire before her eyes. Itâs perfect to convey the horror she feels and her disgust at what the thing sheâs fought for so long to just crumble and slip away.Â
Or the entirety of the Anakin v. Obi Wan Mustafar battle. Visually STUNNING, and heartbreaking. You can feel how much neither of them want to fight the other but how they both are so entrenched in their now opposite ideologies that they know they have to fight.Â
Iâve also been a fan of JJâs for a long time.Â
Sure he loves mystery boxes but he usually makes the answer SO obvious that most people ignore it.Â
Like on Lost which I never actually watched save for maybe a few episodes, itâs pretty clear that something metaphysical is going on in that island with the crash. And there are clues dating back to the pilot as to what happened in the finale.Â
In TFA weâre introduced to Rey. Weâre given a mystery box of who is Rey and why is she important and who is her family. But weâre also given the answer. Sheâs no one. And thatâs why sheâs important. She is no one. She doesnât need to have this huge galactic sized legacy on her shoulders to be important, to be special. SHE IS NO ONE. And thatâs why the Force chose her as its vessel.Â
Reason why is that sheâs narratively the perfect foil for her counterpart Ben Solo/Kylo Ren. He has all that legacy and weight on his shoulders. Theyâre equals in power in strength, in light and darkness. They are complete equals. And TFA was all about establishing that fact. Now TLJ was all about deepening that initial connection. To get them both to scratch beneath the surface of one another, and get under one anotherâs skin. In doing so Ben learned that Rey just wants to belong, to be loved and have a place in the galaxy. And Rey, she learned that Ben is just as lonely, but has rejected his birthright because he felt rejected and abandoned by those who should have unconditionally loved and protected him from Snoke (which granted OT Trio tried but they def didnât have great parenting examples either sooooo).
Now as an adult Ben is bitter, full of resentment and rage because the people he should have been able to count on fucked up royally. And I love that. I resonate with it because of my own experiences as an abuse survivor too. But even more so because it makes Han, Leia and Luke less perfect legends and more human. It makes them real and relatable that they tried to do everything right by their kiddo but ended up fucking him up. Lukeâs betrayal itself was the least shocking part of TLJ tbh. Like does no one remember him going ABSOLUTELY banana balls insane when Vader threatened Leia in ROTJ?
That kind of Skywalker level extra doesnât just go away with age.Â
And yeah Ben needed someone in the fam to be like âso kid, um, lets talk about this.â No one in the OT Trio is good at talking about their feelings. Luke tries to control his by just not dealing with it - the kind of thing youâd expect from a âpray the depression awayâ type. Leia ignores it and bottles that shit until it comes out as thinly veiled anger. And Han is the most ridiculous of the three with his constant hot and cold routine throughout ESB.
The ST is yes about the failures of the OT trio, the failures of the Jedi and the Sith. But itâs also a story about the force and itâs two chosen vessels. A girl from nowhere and the last scion of the Skywalker line. The fact that their connections in TLJ are coded as sexual awakenings is very indicative of where I think this is all going to go. The Force is basically the Skywalker Patriarch if weâre going on the whole immaculate conception with Shmi. And Ben fell from his path for years now thanks to the other Skywalkers falling from the path and inadvertently pushing him down the rabbit hole with Snoke, manipulating everything like a master of puppets.Â
JJ himself even said he was upset that he didnât get to direct TLJ because he loved Rianâs script so much.Â
I have faith weâre going to get a hell of a finish to the 9 film Skywalker saga. With Reylo as endgame or not I think weâre going to get something truly satisfying that links all 9 movies together in a way that will have meta writers writing for years to come about all the parallels and thematic Leitmotifs within the narrative as a whole that encompasses technically 4 generations of Skywalkers (Shmi, Anakin, Luke/Leia, and Ben).
When Ben killed Han in TFA and you get that focused in shot of Adamâs face as the weight of what he just did HITS him and his eyes widen and his lips part, you see the exact moment he shatters his soul realizing that he just seriously fucked up. I leaned over to my best friend that night in the midnight showing and said âdo you smell redemption arc?â and Iâve been on that train from day one.Â
If he were truly irredeemable he wouldnât have split his spirit to the bone by killing his father. He wouldnât have cared to try to convince Rey to be her teacher in the middle of their battle. He wouldnât care that Rey stares at him like she did that night and call him a monster. A real monster wouldnât care at being called one. And is so very shook and pained by that moniker with his lower lip quiver and his eyes red rimmed. If he were truly irredeemable he wouldnât have killed his master just to save the girl, heâd have just usurped power and shrugged her off instead of trying to convince her to stay with him. He wouldnât have addressed her fear and insecurity of being nothing and no one while shaking his head and saying âbut not to meâ. If he were truly a monster he would have pulled the damn trigger when his had the bridge of the Raddus in his sights but couldnât because he felt his motherâs love for him even after everything heâs done.
Has he done terrible things? YES. He definitely has. But he has the equal potential for amazing things as much as he has for the terrible things heâs done. And I for one will be happy to see him begin to even slightly embrace that potential by the end of ep 9. Reylo or no Reylo Iâm sure Iâm going to be happy with ep 9. Thereâs no way Adam and so many other brilliant actors would have signed on without at least knowing where this is all gonna go. Adam himself was hesitant to take on the burden of SW but was convinced to do so because of the complexity of Benâs character. That to me says weâre getting something amazing in ep9. And I canât wait.
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I saw someone in the tags say that this line was an example of why Karli wasnât that well written, because she was supposed to be super smart and charismatic mastermind but didnât know that Bucky fought in WWII. But I disagree, and I want to talk about why this line is totally in character and an example of why Karli is a good character.Â
The actual exchange is: Karli: It doesnât matter if I survive this. Because Iâm fighting for something bigger than myself. And with all the bodies youâve collected have you ever been able to say the same? Bucky: You donât think I ever fought for something bigger than myself? Thatâs all I ever tried to do and I failed twice.Â
The thing about Karli is that while sheâs smart and passionate, sheâs actually very bad at stepping out of her perspective and seeing things from another point of view. She is so fervently, single-mindedly committed to what she believes in, that she canât even comprehend rival viewpoints. Thatâs why her methods become so extreme-- everyone elseâs viewpoints she writes off as being entirely bad and so thereâs no way that she can have enough understanding to actually discuss anything with them and get them to see her side.Â
Itâs not that she didnât know that Bucky fought in the war. She shouldnât even need to know that to know that Bucky is âfighting for something bigger than himselfâ because heâs literally doing that right that moment. But. Because Bucky and Samâs beliefs are not what she stands for, she fails to recognize that they are fighting for a cause just like her. She doesnât believe in governments or systems, so I think the fact that Bucky was a soldier made her pass over his service in WWII as just an example of being a cog in a corrupt uncaring machine. It didnât occur to her that maybe he was truly serving a cause he believed in. I think if you made her slow down and think about she would agree that yes, fighting Nazis is a good cause. But thatâs the other thing-- sheâs impulsive and jumps to judgment based on her gut reactions, and is stubborn enough to have a hard time letting go of those judgments once theyâre formed.Â
Thatâs also why when Sam shows up in his spiffy new suit, she acts disgusted and disappointed. Because his cause isnât hers, she doesnât see it as a legitimate one and rather than seeing it for what it is-- Sam rising up to embody an ideal and fight for something bigger than himself-- she sees it sort of as him selling out.Â
And itâs entirely fitting that Karli is like this. First of all because sheâs so young. I think sheâs supposed to be like 19 or 20, and itâs a very teenager way of viewing the world. You care so much and feel so strongly about something that you canât see why any decent person with half a brain would feel differently. And itâs why she is in the position sheâs in. That unabated passion and conviction is what draws people to her, but itâs also why she canât find a means to accomplish her goals other than violence.Â
And acting as her foil we have Sam. What I might call Samâs key trait (at least as far as this show is concerned) is that heâs the exact opposite. Sam is very good at understanding other peopleâs point of view. He sees people, even people he doesnât like or agree with, and he is able to see the source and nuance of their position. He spends most of the series engaging with the variety of beliefs and perspectives of people around him. Thatâs why heâs good at keeping the peace. Thatâs why he is able to find common ground with Karli. Thatâs why heâs able to simultaneously have empathy for the bitterness and cynicism of people like Isaiah and Sharon, and still ultimately reject their point of view.Â
Samâs crowning moment was the speech he gave to the senators. And itâs this trait that shines most there: the ability to see the issue from all sides and speak to that. He acknowledges the legitimate concerns the senator brings up. But he also brings forward the truth from Karliâs cause. He gives voice to his own experience, and the experience of all the people who are about to be displaced.Â
Itâs Karliâs inability to see beyond herself that makes her a villain. Itâs Samâs ability to listen, empathize and understand, while still taking a stand for what he knows is right, that makes him Captain America.Â
Karli: you should try fighting for something bigger than yourself.
Bucky: Girl, I killed Nazis.
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Miraculous Review #2: The Bubbler
Hereâs an issue I have with Season One. One thatâs not the production teamâs fault, but itâs still annoying. That issue is the inconsistent airing order. With every country, the episodes have all been aired in various orders. For example, the episode that I am covering today is The Bubbler. It was the second aired episode in South Korea and, iirc, France. Here in the states though it was the first one and Stormy Weather was aired third. Now Astruc HAS said that the episodes can be aired in any order, which is normal for a show lie this so that viewers can join in at any point and not be lost. But there IS a continuity and the season finale, Volpina, is meant to be the last episode you view in the season for... reasons. So not having an order when you are doing reviews is kind of a pain in the neck.
Due to this, I had to make my own order. Itâll go based off a mix of the order I saw the episodes in, the order on the DVDâs, and when I feel what episode goes where. Iâm not going in chronological order, otherwise Iâd have done the Origin episodes first. but I think that is better viewed after you see where the characters are now. Volpina will be the last one I do. So ow that I got that pointless exposition out of the way, lets discuss The Bubbler.
Overview
Itâs Adrienâs birthday! Whoo! Marinette has made a gift for her dream boy, but sheâs too nervous to give it to him. When Alya gets her to finally try, her attempt is foiled by the local mean girl, Chloe Bourgeois. Chloe is my absolute least favorite character in the series and youâll see why as these reviews continue on. Oh boy do I have things that I want to say. Since Marinette canât give Adrien the gift in person, she instead drops it off at his mansion... too bad that she forgot to sign it. Itâs okay Marinette, Iâm sure plenty of people have been in your position.
At the same time, Adrienâs best friend, Nino Lahiffe, wants to throw Adrien a birthday party. But Adrien is dismissive of the idea. Not because he doesnât want on, on the contrary he would love one, but he feels that his workaholic father, Gabriel, would never allow it. Nino decides to try anyways, going to the mansion on his own accord to talk to Gabriel personally. Now thatâs friendship people! Sadly, it fails and Nino is kicked out. Adrien tries to ease things over, but Nino is understandably upset and goes to the park. When he sees a parent taking a child home due to needing to do chores, he complains about adults being controlling. Cue the akuma!
Nino becomes The Bubbler and kidnaps all of the adults, sending them into the sky. This includes Marinetteâs parents, provoking her into Ladybug immediately. Bubbler forces his classmates tot he Agreste household, intending to throw Adrienâs birthday party whether anyone wants it or not. When Adrien realizes this, he runs off to transform... but hesitates. His Kwami Plagg, that I stupidly forgot to mention in the last review along with Tikki, convinces him to hold off. The party is for him after all, why canât he enjoy it for a little while? So the party goes on with Chloe talking Bubbler into putting on the slow music so that she can get close to Adrien. Just as Ladybug arrives too.
Jealous, Ladybug wastes her Lucky Charm to get the party music back on and ruin Chloeâs plans. But as a result, her transformation is undone and she reverts back to Marinette. When she enters the party to get Tikki rejuvenated, Alya finds her and drags her inside to that she can sign the gift. She finishes just as Bubbler traps a student who refused to comply to join the adults and she finally gets back into action. Ladybugâs appearance makes Adrien realize that made the wrong decision and to transform.
Bubbler traps the two heroes and sends them into the sky. As such, Cat Noir is forced to use Cataclysm to break them out. That gives them only a few minutes to defeat Bubbler. Their reappearance and the students becoming defiant provokes Bubbler to trap them as the fight heads for the Eiffle Tower. Soon, the heroes get the cursed bubble wand away from Bubbler and destroy it, getting rid of the akuma and setting everything back to normal. Later, Adrien is presented with a gift seemingly from Gabriel.Â
In actuality, the gift is Marinetteâs. Gabrielâs PA Natalie just took the name off cause she was too lazy to go and get something else. As such, Marinette is understandably confused the next day when she sees Adrien wearing the scarf that she made. Adrien, still feeling bad, tries to apologize to Nino for Gabrielâs actions, but Nino holds nothing against him and is just glad that heâs happy. Although Alya urges Marinette to tell Adrien the truth, Marinette decides not too. Adrien is happy after all, and she canât bring herself to ruin that for him. Aww! One day Marinette, after that you deserve his recognition.
Review
Man, this episode. Compared to Stormy Weather, this one has a major improvement in storytelling. As such the animation, while still very good especially int he final fight, is not as impressive as last time. I will say this though, the amount of background characters and the well done settings make the world feel all the more real so defenite props there. But this episode is more focus on itâs plot of Adrienâs birthday and how it affects the main characters. Itâs the opposite of the last episode, butting the story first and the animation second.Â
Story
The episode revolves around Adrienâs birthday and follows the characters of Marinette, Adrien, and Nino. Everyone is given something to do and no one feels that they get too much focus or not enough of it. The pacing is very well done and went as long as it needed to. Marinette struggles to give Adrien her gift, Adrien is completely unhappy with his won birthday, and Nino tries to give Adrien a party to make it a good day for him, leading to his akumatization. All very well done and make for one heck of a time when we hit the second half.
We also get more added to the cast. We get several new characters such as Marinetteâs parents Sabine and Tom, Nino, Chloe, Sabrina, Natalie, and Gabriel. We get to see the classmates too, but theyâll get more proper introductions in later episodes. We also get mroe glimpses into the everyday lives of Marinette and Adrien, and boy do they contrast big time. Marinetteâs family is happy and functional while Adrienâs is... not. Marinette talks to her mom before heading off to school, Adrien is handed a schedule from Natalie and thatâs about it. Sabine is sweet and warm to Marinette, even teasing her a little, while Gabriel is cold and harsh. The show really hammers in the differences between the two heroes lives and the contrasts are staggering. The beginning scenes where they prepare for school just really drives it home.
Overall, the story is solid. Itâs funny with Marinetteâs inability to deliver her gift, itâs heartbreaking with nearly all of Adrienâs scenes, it delves into the characters more as weâll discuss in a bit, and the DBZ-level action continues to impress. We are also introduced to some consequences with the Miraculous powers. When you use the main power (Lucky Charm and Cataclysm), you have five minutes before the transformation is undone and the Kwamis have to be re-energized. As such, the powers have to be used when ti is 100% necessary, which is nice and gives an excuse on why they canât just go for the final move immediately. If it fails,t heyâre screwed. The episodeâs ending is incredibly bittersweet, but fitting for the episode and it still ends on a happy note, so itâs still satisfying.Â
Characters
The rough draft had four whole pages devoted to character analysis out of seven. So this is gonna be lengthy. Youâve been warned.
I donât think theat the plot would have been nearly as good if ot for the characters. They are what made this episode for me. We got basic introductions of the main cast over with last episode, so now the writers can play with them more. They also expanded the cast and they fit in naturally with the show, also making the world feel all the larger. There is a lot of character stuff to discuss here, so since I like to save the good for last, weâll go into the bad first. As such...
Weâre going to start with Chloe. I already said that sheâs my least favorite character and there are many reasons why. First is how stereotypical she is. Sheâs the usual âmean rich girlâ type, like Mandy from Totally Spies which Astruc also worked on, so... anyways! Sheâs selfish and rude, treats her best friend Sabrina like a slave, and her behavior around Adrien is... well...
Pretty dang creepy! Yeah we learn later that theyâre childhood friends, which I guess can explain why sheâs able to be so touchy feely with Adrien, but heâs clearly uncomfortable here and friend or not, trying to force him into kissing her is wrong. Plus you donât know that in this episode, so... yeah... she doesnât give a good first impression. She is presented with zero redeeming qualities, and this isnât even her worst episode. Just wait until we reach Reflekta, ho BOY do I have loads to say about that episode. So you can only imagine how thrilled I am for certain things that are coming soon... but hey, Iâll say this, Chloe is definitely intended to be unlikable here, and the writers nailed that. So good job for doing the job right guys!
Nino Lahiffe is Adrienâs best friend and becomes the villain of the episode. Heâs presented as a very laidback and carefree kid, someone who relishes in fun and freedom. Itâs something that the more shy, sheltered Adrien needs just as the awkward Marinette needs the more grounded Alya. Like Alya, Nino is very loyal and dedicated to his friend and wants to make his birthday something good. When Adrien discusses never having a birthday party, Nino decides to talk Gabriel into allowing one to make his friend happy. Yeah it fails... badly, but thatâs not due to any fault on his own. You really feel for him since he didnât do anything wrong and got treated horribly by Gabriel just for asking if his friend can ave a party. Yeah blaming all adults may have been a little harsh, but you can understand where he was coming from. Weâve all bee there at one point or another.
Due to the above, Nino getting akumatized into The Bubbler is very understandable, You feel more for him than you did Aurore last episode anyways. The Bubbler is the personification of Ninoâs frustrations, getting rid of the adults and forcing his friends to give Adrien a party. All that he was feeling when his bubble wand became possessed. Akuma take what you are feeling int hat moment and amplify it, so itâs a LOT more than just simple mind control. At first The Bubblerâs gimmick of using... well, bubbles may seem kind of dumb. But they use it in really good was. Impenetrable prisons, using smaller ones to encase the victim in the prisons, using them as explosives of all things! Bubblerâs powers arenât the most impressive of the villains, but dang do the writers put it to good use to make him a credible threat. And during the party, heck! Just throwing the party shows that Nino IS still in there, so it makes you feel relieve when he is finally de-evilized. The design is also really nice, making him look all the more inhuman. Itâs a really nice!
My only real complaint is that Nino gets no resolution after wards. He gets de-evilied and... thatâs it. Next day, heâs his usual self. So did he get over his hatred for adults? We donât know, Iâm assuming so since it never gets brought back up. But I canât lie, the ending with him making it clear that h doensât blame Adrien at all for before is super sweet and made me love him. Heâs a really good friend and the kind pf perosn that Adrien needs in his life. So forget my gripes, Ia m happy with how Nino ended up in this episode! Also itâs kinda funny with the whole âhate adultsâ thing since Ninoâs dub actor, Ben Diskin, was the VA for Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 2 in Codename: Kids Next Door. If that isnât irony, IDK what is!
Now we move onto Adrien, and OH MAN...
One complaint I had last episode was that the only thing that we learn about Adrien is that he is Cat Noir. Well this episode made up for that! Although itâs his birthday, Adrien is far form happy and we very quickly learn the reason why.He looks like the kid who has everything. His family is wealthy, heâs famous due to being a teen model, lives in a nice house, but none of that means anything to him. Truth is his family life is in complete tatters. His mother is nowhere to be seen and his father is both cold and distant. Last episode followed Marinetteâs perspective mainly, so he seemed perfect because thatâs how she viewed him. But thatâs as far from true as it can be. Heâs really a sad, lonely kid who doesnât think that his own father cares about him. Even as Cat Noir, while he mostly acts like youâd expect, heâs still pretty downcast. I mean this scene says it all:
Ladybug: [Adults] care for their kids! They love them!
Cat Noir: Most adults do anyhow...
Ouch. What sells that is both the sad look on his face and the pure bitterness in his voice. Bryce Papenbrook nailed that line. Now Adrien knows better than to blame every ault and assume that theyâre all like his father but still it really shows how bad his relationship with his father is. Later episodes hint that it wasnât always that way, which makes it worst. Because of this, while we all knwo that it was a bad idea, you can 100% understand why Adrien listened to Plagg and tried to enjoy the party despite Nino being akumatized. He clearly realizes that it was a bad idea the longer it goes on, but because of how little freedom he has and how bad his family life is, the kid trying to enjoy himself just this once really hits you hard.
Then we get the ending. Man the ending. He thinks that he finally got some kind of proof that is dad does care about him. Okay in fairness, Gabriel didnât forget his sonâs birthday and did try to make sure he got something, but the asshole couldnât go and get it himself. So not much better. But heâs so happy, even shocked, to have some kind of recognition even if it wasnât in person. He is much happier int he end scene than he was through the other 99% of the episode. And even then, he feels guilty for how his father treated Nino even though he didnât do anything wrong. But while heâs ignorant to the fact that Natalie just used Marinetteâs gift and presented it cause she forgot to get something, heâs just so happy that you both feel bad that he has no clue about the truth, but relieved to see him doing better. Ignorance is bliss after all.
Finally we have our heroine, Marinette. The episode revolves around her trying to give Adrien a birthday gift that she made for him. The whole first half with her is comedy gold. Itâs super relateable because many of us had crushes and tried to give them something, but were nervous as a as all Hell. IDT anyone had Marinette-levels of bad luck trying, but we know how it feels. But itâs really cute and her groan of despair when she realizes that she forgot to put her name on the package made both feel pity for her and laugh out loud. Poor girl XD
We get to see of Marinetteâs home life as well. Unlike Adrien, who is more or less alone and has a very rough family life, Marinetteâs is essentially normal. Her mother, Sabine, is friendly and light-hearted and Marinette has a good relationship with her. While Tom only appears briefly in this episode, weâll see later that she is also close to him. They love her and she loves them back. Which them getting kidnapped really sells that fact in. For example, this is what Marinette normally looks like at the end of the transformation sequence:
In this episodeâs case, she looks like this:
In other words, messing with her family is a very bad idea.
We also get to see what is Marinetteâs biggest character flaw, her feelings for Adrien. While sheâs not the possessive type, she can get jealous of other girls pursue Adrien. Volpina is the largest example of that, but this episode has it as well. When she sees Chloe trying to kiss Adrien, she wastes her Lucky Charm to put an end to it despite knowing that itâll drain Tikki when she canât afford that right now. Then instead of transforming the second Tikki was energized, she instead went to sign the gift... okay we can Alya for that one, but Marinette could have easily made up an excuse. She realized it pretty quickly. but itâs still going to be something that continues to effect her judgement as the show goes on. But that make her all the more complex of a character who has problems that she has to overcome, so thatâs actually a good thing.
The final scene is by far one of Marinetteâs best. She sees Adrien wearing her scarf and is ecstatic that he got it. But then she hears him talk about it being form his father and she is understandably confused. But when Alya tells her to go and tell Adrien that it was her who made it, she decides against it. Why? Because Adrien is happy. While sheâs unaware of Adrienâs strained relationship with his father, him getting a gift form him clearly made him happy. And that matters far more to her than him recognizing her. Her crush isnât hollow. Itâs not because he is a cute teen model. She genuinely cares about him and is placing his happiness above ehr own. That is love and it shows just how selfless of a person that Marinette really is. She truly is a hero.
Conclusion
This is one of my favorite episodes and really sold me on the show. It brings in more characters, fleshes out the ones that we already have, and makes the world feel all the more broad. It was a perfect follow-up to Stormy Weather and showed the writers can tell emotional, but still fun and engaging stories. Everything it did right before, suck as the fight sequences, they carried over while taking the writing to the net level. It got us to care about these characters and for that, it gets an A+. Very well done!
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SKAM Theories, Speculation, and Analysis of what we know so far - Season 4 Hiatus
Hi all, Itâs Holly, your least favorite SKAM blog again. I am putting together a master post of speculation, theories, and other stuff because this hiatus is killing me. Youâd think after 112 days of absolutely zero content would prepare me for ten days, but here I am. So, this will kind of be chronological, and kind of in order of small details to big picture stuff. Because Itâs semi - chronological, most of the beginning sections will be Even and Balloon Squad stuff, and Feel free to message me on your thoughts, I encourage you all to disagree, have your own opinions, but just do it respectfully.
This should be pretty obvious, but if you arenât caught up with S4E5 yet, this will be spoilers galore.
Bolded things are summaries of a topic, or main / important ideas of a topic
Disclaimer: I am not an expert on anything bipolar / mental illness related, or anything related to Islam. Iâve pulled an Isak and googled different types of bipolar, I know a few people who are mentally ill, but its different for everyone. Iâve read a little bit of the Qurâan, and Iâve tried to educate myself of some Islamic traditions and rituals, but I definitely do not know everything. If I say something wrong or ignorant, PLEASE CORRECT ME, but do it respectfully and I will gladly change it.
Here is the list of topics in order that will be covered:
Sana being ignored - a look through the ages
Evenâs timeline
Evenâs relationship with each member of the Balloon Squad
Hvem er Mikael?
The Even x Mikael x Yousef situation
Sonjaâs Role
Evenâs Christmas Text
Season 4 Trailer analysis
Sanaâs feelings towards Vilde in S4
Was Yousef going to kiss Sana at the end of âThe Best of Islamâ?
Sana + Noorhelm drama
Yousef + not Fighting
What was the fight about?
Girls in the bathroom
Nooraâs motivation to kiss Yousef
Yousefâs Motivation to kiss Noora
Season 4 Hiatus Trailer Analysis
BIGGER IDEAS
Why the Russ bus is Important
Vildeâs Character Development / Gay Vilde
Sanaâs Mirror and Foil
Parallels
Themes
Perspective
Here we go!
Sana being ignored - a look through the agesÂ
Sana has been being ignored from the first episode she is introduced.
Vildeâs first visit to the school doctor: Whereâs Sana?
The rest of the girls drinking in Evaâs room before Vilde sleeps with William: Whereâs Sana?
We didnât really think much of it when it was happening, and thats because of perspective. Perspective is possibly the most important lesson in this entire series (more on that later) and we were seeing this from Evaâs perspective. Eva probably didnât notice too much that Sana was being left out, probably because she wasnât that close to her yet, but now we get upset about Sana being excluded because we are actually affected by it.
Evenâs timeline
This is what we have been told as of now. Some theorize that some of this info is false, and we obviously have a lot of missing information, but hereâs what we think we know so far:
In Evenâs second year, the video interview with him and Mikael was made. (x)
Itâs 2015
Even is in his third year at Bakka
He is part of the Balloon Squad
Sonja and him have been dating for a year or two at this point
At some point, Even tries to kiss Mikael
Mikael pulls away because he is religious
Even memorizes the Qurâan in Arabic in attempt to cure himself
Even begins posting verses on Facebook about gay people going to Hell (flame emoji?)
We know this is the schoolâs Facebook page, as per Vilde in this text
I think its safe to assume that Even was manic when he posted that stuff
BUT we cannot be sure whether he was manic or not when he decided to read the Qurâan.
Sonja says he was in S3E8
But Sonja has also said that Evenâs feelings for Isak are a result of mania, and basically that Isak was a symptom of Evenâs mania
Obviously this turned out to be false
So the line between his mania and non-mania regarding what happened at Bakka is still extremely blurry. (non-mania? idk what to call it sorry, as Iâve said, Iâm not an expert on bipolar, and I'm pretty sure itâs not appropriate to call it âwhen he was ânormalââ, is âstableâ an okay word to use? someone please educate me)
He hurt someone, and we have yet to find out who that is.
We know he hurt someone, or at least thinks he did because
Take a look at the aluminum leg story in S3E3. It seems like a harmless little joke, but it turned out to be an allegory to how he thinks Sonja views their relationship and such. So in S3E10 when he says âIâll just hurt you, and then youâll hate meâ, this isnât just because he thinks it will happen, itâs because it has happened before.
The obvious answer at the beginning of the season was Mikael, but now it seems to be Yousef. (I think itâs Yousef)
Evenâs relationship with each member of the Balloon Squad
Mikael refers to Even as his best buddy, so we know they were close at some point, definitely before the kissing incident happened.
Elias and Even must have been close as well. This is demonstrated when Even asks Sana how âthe boysâ are doing, and then asks specifically about Elias. This is probably because Elias is her brother, the one she would know most about, but he doesnât go on to ask about the rest of them individually.
Yousef and Evenâs relationship seems more complicated than the others. They were close friends at some point, (battle 2015 photo, Yousef knows too much a lot about what happened between him and Mikael) Even obviously still loves all the boys, as I said in the bullet above, and Yousef seems to still love Even too, as we see in S4E4. He was so upset about what happened with Even, he gave up his religion, his beliefs. I think the reason he could have been potentially upset at Sana for having them be in the same place at the end of S4E5 was because he wasnât ready. Not because he didnât love Even, or was mad at Even, but because he wasnât ready. (I think this goes without saying,but when I say love here, it is being used 100% platonic. The Balloon Squad, those boys, love each other. That much is obvious, and thatâs that.)
I think Mutta and Adam are just more side characters, to add to the dynamic of the squad. They balance out the 5 Girl Squad members and the 4 (5? Is Even officially part of the Boy Squad now?) Boy Squad members, so it just kinda makes sense that there would be 5 Balloon Boys as well. They were probably Evenâs buddies, but not as close to him as the other three.
Hvem er Mikael?
Ahh, here we are, the ever elusive Mikael. The Man, The Myth,The Legend. He is
Evenâs âbest buddyâ in 2015
âIâm honest because I care about youâ (x)Â Weâve seen Mikael and the other boys be affectionate with each other, physically and emotionally. This seems to be just another example of this.
Even refers to him as the âprevious man of my lifeâ in this text, and as Iâve stated before, Evenâs jokes always have an element of truth in them somewhere.
âHe tried to kiss Mikaelâ - Okay, but if all of what Yousef said in that clip was true, why would Mikael be laughing at the mention of Evenâs name in the SMS Roulette video?
When Yousef brought up Even in âThe Best of Islamâ, he was sad talking about him, obviously because one of his friends tried to kill himself.
I will explain in the âThe Even x Mikael x Yousef situation: A Theoryâ section of this post why I think that is that they have such different reactions.
The Even x Mikael x Yousef situation: A Theory
This is a theory, not an analysis of what we already know and etc.
Sooo... here are some theories (x) (x) (x) especially the last one, etc. about Yousef (and Mikael) being gay / not straight, and I honestly donât agree with it. As much as I would love to see a Muslim LGBT+ character in the media, it just doesnât seem like it would be Yousef to me.
Some of the evidence pointing to the fact he might be gay is
the visual parallels between Isak and Emma making out in S3E1 and Yousef and Noora making out in S4E5 (I.E. just kissing, arms at the sides, generally disinterested) which makes sense.
Julie is looking for any opportunity to throw us off, plot twist the shit out of this season, and keep us on our toes, which is getting more and more difficult as time goes on, so we always have to keep that in mind.
 Now hereâs why I think heâs not gay
If Yousef was gay, and it was actually him that was involved with the kissing situation then
 the Qurâan verses that Even posted would be directed at Yousef (and himself)
Hence the flame emoji thing in the SMS Roulette video
But Elias is the one that said that.
I highly doubt that when Even posted that stuff, he called Yousef out by name. So assuming the passages were just directed at Yousef and thatâs what Elias was referencing with the flame emoji thing, that would mean Elias knows that Yousef is gay or that something happened between him and Even. Then that would mean Elias encouraged Sana to romantically pursue Yousef in Humble, while knowing he was gay, and intentionally fucking over his sister???? which is the exact opposite of everything weâve seen with him????? It just doesnât add up
I could see Yousef being bi or something and having a sexuality crisis in his Bakka days, because I truly believe he had feelings for Sana, and if he was bi, then that takes care of that.
I also donât think Mikael is gay / LGBT+ because
he supposedly pushed Even away for being gay because he is religious
but he wears nail polish and kisses other boyâs hands and stuff like that
and in no way am I saying that because he does that stuff that makes him gay
But if Mikael is actually homophobic, or if he is actually gay and had internalized homophobia and issues with himself, I highly doubt in either situation heâd be too keen on doing traditionally gay things a lot
does that make sense?
I think that Yousef is the only Balloon Boy that knows Even tried to kill himself
Yousef seems to be the only one that is sad to see / hear bout Even
The others seem not affected, like Mikael in SMS Roulette, or upset / startled / angry, like Elias at the end of S4E5 etc.
Other people have pointed out that if heâs the only one that knows
Yousef must have been the one to find Even when he tried
Sonjaâs Role
If I did the math right, her and Even started dating roughly around 2012, waayyy before the kissing incident with the Balloon Squad
As I talked about above somewhere, she claims Even memorized the Qurâan, âbecause at the time he thought it was a âgood ideaââ, and how that might not be entirely true because the line between mania and non-mania back then was so blurry
So did she know about the Mikael situation?
I feel like her role might be really important, because it was actually one of the most important roles in S3, but I donât think weâd ever see Sana and Sonja interact, so maybe when we get the full story she will have something more to do with it.
Evenâs Christmas Text
This is bolded because itâs my favorite theory I think. Who could it be? That little facial expression (timestamp: 5:09) was not in there for no reason, and like Julie said, sheâs looking to throw us off.
Mikael: I donât think itâs him. The second Mikael sees Even and Isak at the karaoke bar, heâs outta there faster than a green snake in a sugar cane field. He doesnât seem too keen on acknowledging Even.
Sana: She might have texted him right before she walked in and told him not to worry, she wouldnât say anything, or something along those lines. Again, possible, but not likely.
Yousef: Probable. Like Iâve said before, Yousef was probably upset to see that Sana brought him and Even together because he wasnât ready. He seems like a very thoughtful person. After Sana asks him why he doesnât believe in Allah, he doesnât immediate respond. He takes a moment to gather his thoughts, and I feel like he would want to think over what he wants to say to his friend he hasnât talked to in a year who tried to kill himself very carefully, (who wouldnât) and what better way than a text he can write over and over again and revise it?
Sonja: Everything points to her, at least to me. After Isak texted her, maybe she felt she should say something directly to Even. This always seemed the most probable to me, but I am absolutely set on finding out what that was about, and like I said in the âSonjaâs Roleâ section, I donât think weâll see more of her. The only thing I could think of is if Even tells Sana that Sonja texted him, but I donât see how that would be relevant to anything.
Season 4 Trailer Analysis
Iâm not gonna go into what each action in the trailer means. People have already done that. But the new speculation: The Trailer Is In Reverse!!!
Iâm going to refer to the original trailer as the original, and the edited one as the âforwardsâ one.
So, in the forwards trailer, Sana trips Noora and causes a chain reaction that ends with Even getting hurt (with a selfie stick = social media?) and Isak stays by his side.
But, in the original, it starts with Even gathering up his blood (clearing up his past?) and Isak helps him back on his feet.
It ends with Sana pulling Noora up.
In the forwards version, Sana makes a decision that causes people to get hurt, while in the original Sana fixes everything just like sheâs done in all three past seasons.
Also, are the roles reversed? Even bleeds in the trailer, but Isak got punched. Sana tripped Noora but Sana got hurt when Noora kissed Yousef. So if Isak is actually Even and Sana is actually Noora, is Yousef actually Mikael (and Vilde falls for Eva?)
Sanaâs Attitude Towards Vilde in S4 so far
Sana seems generally annoyed at her and is ready to snip at her
âyour mom is not having a wine tasting partyâ
Sana wonât let her talk when they go to look at the bus
Sana tells the girls they are joining with Pepsi Max, and that they pay and she is the Bus Boss
This is Vildeâs reaction:
She looks angry
But she says âsanaâs the boss, sheâll fix it. Remember when she fixed the toilet paper situation (in S1)?â
This seems innocent, but I think itâs a challenge
Like âYou can fix it... canât you?â
Vilde is waiting for Sana to screw up so she can take over.
In S2, Vilde talks about how much she likes William, after she saw Noora kissing him
She does this because sheâs trying to get Noora to tell her about it and get a reaction out of her
So isnât she trying to get a reaction out of Sana too?
Sheâs also trying to get a rise out of Sana by talking about her and Magnus
In S4E1, before Sana walks in they are âcasually talking bout different shades of blueâ. Everyone stops, says hi, to her, and the Vilde pipes up and says, âanyway Magnus and I have sex all the time blahh blah blahâ
In her mind, maybe what she wants to happen is Sana snaps and does something, Vilde will tell the Girl Squad sheâs psycho (I could see her being like âI knew from the beginning and you guys didnât listen to meâ) and then she will be the new buss boss
Was Yousef going to kiss Sana at the end of âThe Best of Islamâ?
First off, Iâd like to say props to Julie Andem for creating potentially the most pure relationship in television history. If Sana and Yousef do get together, I feel it is highly unlikely for them to kiss or anything, so this would be a relationship fueled by purely emotion, trust, and communication, and not on physical things (of course thereâs the physical want weâve seen from Sanaâs side, but you know what I mean). Iâm pretty sure no one wants to see her compromise her beliefs and have sex with Yousef or something stupid like that (like Noora did with William)
I think that he was going to kiss her
they seemed to have an entire conversation that we, the viewers, didnât understand entirely just by looking at each other.
Yousef does this tiny little head nod (timestamp: 14:24) and leans forward a minute amount, and then Sana starts shaking her head.
Then, at 14:30 he rolls his eyes a little, and says, âNo?â like he was asking to kiss her, she said no, and then he was like âwhy am I such an idiot, she obviously doesnât like me if she deleted me on Facebookâ etc.
This would also explain why he would kiss Noora
Sana + Noorhelm drama
Eva was the first one to know about Williamâs knew
Sana was the only one who wanted to tell Noora
She wanted to tell her because sheâs trying to protect her friend
Just like she told Vilde William wasnât interested in S1
Noora thought that was mean of Sana to be honest with Vilde
But Noora thought it was mean of Sana to not tell her?
SANA WAS LITERALLY ABOUT TO TELL NOORA AND THEN NOORA STARTED TALKING OVER HER. In âheartbreakâ, (timestamp: 5:28) Sana takes a breath and says, âDu-â (you) and immediately gets cut off by Noora saying âoh my god, if I think about him with anyone else Iâm going to breakâ or whatever
Maybe Noora will realize this and apologize to Sana right away and it will set up Noora being on Sanaâs side when she finds out about Sana being kicked off the bus?
But maybe Iâm just being optimistic
Yousef and Not Fighting
I feel like the reason he stayed behind was because he didnât want to choose sides. If weâre sticking with the theory that he knew about about Evenâs suicide attempt, but the others didnât, then this makes sense. He didnât want to choose sides. He wouldnât want to go out there and fight with the Balloon Squad because he obviously still cares about Even and wouldnât want to fight his friends. But he wouldnât want to fight with the Boy Squad because then heâd have to explain why he stood up for Even to the Balloon boys, and tell them about the suicide attempt.
What was the fight about?
My original theory: before the clip came out, I saw the BTS pics and thought maybe Magnus finds out about the SMS roulette Nudes 4 Nudes thing and dukes it out when he sees Elias. This is probably not true now that weâve seen the clip.
Obvious theory: Mikael or Mutta, the only two outside with the Boy Squad, started a fight because they didnât like seeing Even in a homosexual relationship. Obvious. Too obvious. Especially because the girls in the bathroom think that's why it happened.
Other: Isak threw the first punch. As we see him walking away, we see him shaking his hand. Maybe because he was shaking off blood, maybe because he was shaking off pain?
Girls in the bathroom
Like I just said, Because they think that the fight was about Muslims Vs. Gays⢠this is probably not true.
Sana canât win. According to the girls, sheâs too Muslim to be on the bus and be a good bus boss... but sheâs not Muslim enough to be a good representation of Islam... like... what? That conversation upset me so much.
Did Vilde snake? Or is that just false rumors? I donât think Noora knows, or Chris, but did Eva know that they were going to throw her off the bus? She looks uncomfortable when Sana and Noora approach them and the Pepsi Max girls. Assuming they didnât know, will they stand by her? Will they take Pepsi Maxâs side?
Nooraâs motivation to kiss Yousef
1. Noora did not know about Sanaâs feelings for Yousef. She had already expressed interest in him, and was lonely and upset and saw him and kissed him.
2. Noora did know about Sanaâs feelings for Yousef, and she was upset at Sana and wanted to get back at her. Some think that Noora expressing interest in Yousef was actually her subtly asking about Sanaâs feelings for him. This seems ooc to me, but who knows?
Yousefâs Motivation to kiss Noora
This is more complicated.
Perspective: He didnât actually like Sana, and since weâre seeing things through her eyes, she made it up in her head. He is affectionate with his friends, so he would be affectionate towards her too. (This kinda makes sense, but my Yousana shipping heart refuses to believe it)
Mama Bakkoush told him to stay away. This seems like a possibility, like after she knows 100% that there is nothing to worry about, and then she texts Sana and is like âI trust youâ etc. I just feel like every time we see a kid with a religious family, the parents are always portrayed as overbearing and suffocating, and I feel like Julie is gonna give us a new look at a religious poc mom that is actually a great mom, like most of what weâve seen of her.
The most likely thing to me seems like he liked her, and then was upset because he opened up to her in S4E4, and then she put the Balloon Boys and Evak intentionally in the same place without warning him. Or Noora told him what Sana said about him being immature etc.
Season 4 Hiatus Trailer Analysis
Who is eating the carrot?
Assuming itâs Noora, the carrot represents Yousana. She destroys it.
Assuming itâs Sana, the carrot represents her feelings. Instead of âpulling it closerâ, like Yousef suggests, she âpushes it away and looses control over it.â Her feelings eat her up, and sheâs stuffing all her feelings inside.
It is Isakâs black eye, someone did a side by side comparison proving itâs him.
Whose hair and whose hand?
Yousef running his hands through his hair?
Mikael running his hands through his hair?
Even running his hands through Mikaelâs hair? (Pls no Julie)
It looks like a male hand, so not Noora and Yousef.
I think itâs Yousef. look at how he does it in âfeel it comingâ
Saraâs Mouth.
Sheâs smiling... dos this mean she gets what she wants and Sana is actually thrown off the bus?
BIGGER IDEAS
Why the Russ bus is Important
Itâs a symbol. Yâall are complaining that itâs getting too much screen time for something we wonât even get to see, but first of all, Itâs what brought the girls together in the first place. But itâs also a symbol to Sana. Itâs a symbol of her Norwegian identity.Â
Vildeâs Character Development / Gay Vilde
Very few side characters have gone through development. Itâs mainly only been
William through the second season.
Weâve also heard of Evenâs development; he hated himself for wanting to kiss boys and now heâs comfortable with himself. We didnât actually see that though, we only know him after heâs comfortable with himself.
One could make the argue Jonas had a little development, from Jonas âyou only know gay songsâ Noah Vasquez in S1 to Jonas âwhatâs up with you dissing gay peopleâ âhe needs to break up with his girlfriendâ âstraight upâ Noah Vasquez in S3.
Vilde is the most complex non-main character weâve ever had, but is there even time for a redemption arc?
When I first saw the gay Vilde theory, I thought it was just people on Tumblr doing their thing and head cannoning her as gay with only 1 questionable scene as evidence but upon further inspection....
The thing that sticks out to me most is the scene in S1 when Vilde is trying to get turned on when thinking about William, she says ânothing makesme hornyâ. Then in S2 when are the girls are sitting on the windowsil, Noora is texting so itâs only in some versions of the subtitles, but Vildeâs back at it again talking about Noora being a lesbian. And Vilde says âIâve made out with Eva. The feelings that arise when you make out with a girl donât necessarily mean youâre a lesbian.â Eva replies, âWhat kind of feelings?â To which Vilde responds âhornyâ.
This post does a nice job outlining it.
Sanaâs Mirror and Foil
Even is Sanaâs Mirror (click here if you donât know what a mirror is, or here to see how Noora was Isakâs mirror in S3)
Even pulled away from Isak after Isak said âI donât want mentally Ill people in my lifeâ
Sana pulled away from Yousef after he said âI donât believe in Allahâ
Again, God bless Julie Andem, we get to see the perspective of both sides
Evenâs struggle with his past vs. his future self, and weâll probably see him find a great balance, Sanaâs struggle with her Muslim self vs her Norwegian self, which again, we will hopefully see resolved.
Noora is Sanaâs Foil (click here or here if you donât know what a foil is)
She is the epitome of the typical Norwegian girl, what Sana thinks she is expected to be like, or what she wants to fit into. The girls in the bathroom saying âwow Nooraâs so prettyâ Noora kissing Sanaâs love interest, etc. etc.
Evak is paralleling Yousana
Evak is the foil to Vildus
I will explain more of that in a later post I will make and link to it
Parallels
Like I said, Iâm working on it. It needs to be a whole separate post because this is already so long.
Themes
Figuring out who you are and who you want to be, rather than what others want you to be. In Season 1, when Eva tells Jonas that âhis opinion meant more than her own, and thatâs not okay.â The central theme of Season 1, reflected again in Season 3 with Isak struggling to fit in with his friends. This also seems to be making a comeback in Season 4, Sana struggling between her Muslim identity, her Norwegian identity, and her personality. Sheâs the kind of person whoâs comfortable with who she is, but I think she has yet to find out who that is.
Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.
Learn to consider how other people think. Everyone has their reasons for what they do, not everyone will think the way you do, and thatâs not necessarily a bad thing. Think back to Sana and Noora and the windowsill talk in Season 2, or in Season 3 when Sana tells Isak âcanât we just agree that thereâs a lot between Heaven and Earth that none of us know anything about? Instead of sitting here criticizing my religion, just respect that weâve chosen different beliefs.â
Alt er love
Predestination. In season 3, with all of the Christianity symbolism and talk of parrallel universes, we see that you canât see the future. Every choice you make affects the possibilities for the future, so instead of worrying about what you did, and what might happen, just remember that
Life is Now.
Misunderstandings. Season 4. This is pretty self explanatory, and Iâm extremely interested to see how his plays out.
Perspective. THIS IS HUGE. THIS IS THE OVERALL THEME OF THE ENTIRE SHOW, SO IT GETS ITS OWN SECTION.
PERSPECTIVE
Oh boy, here we go. The reason why the narrative only stays in one personâs perspective for a whole season is because thatâs how we get immersed in the story. We donât know more than they know, we are frustrated because we donât know why that other person did that thing to the main. It makes everything more relatable, and hit closer to home. This ties into communication is key, this ties into misunderstandings, this ties into be yourself, this ties into Alt er love, this ties into be kind always. It teaches us that we canât get into someone else head. We canât make assumptions about other people. We wonât ever truly understand someone without seeing everything from their perspective.
So remember: Karmaâs a bitch, be kind, always, alt er love, and life is... Now.
#skam#alt er love#life is now#be kind always#karmas a bitch#skam season 1#skam season one#skam season 2#skam season two#skam season 3#skam season three#skam season 4#skam season four#skam theory#skam theories#skam thoughts#skam translation#skam trailer#sana#sana bakkoush#isak#isak valtersen#even bech nĂŚsheim#even bech naeshiem#even x isak#isak x even#even#evak#skam evak#eva mohn
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The Kids Who Canât Cry
Plenty of people besides myself have pointed out this pattern, but what does it mean? Why are Dabi, Himiko, and Shigaraki essentially the main trio of the league of villains all drawn making this face? Analysis underneath the cut.
1. Shigaraki
Whatâs important is all three of these scenes where Dabi, Himiko and Shigaraki are all drawn smiling in the most inhuman and unsettling manner possible are all parallels to one another. In those scenes the villain is talking with the heroic foil, and trying to express themselves some way only to be misunderstood. Shigaraki is with Deku. Himiko is with Uraraka. Dabi is with Hawks.Â
The common point between all three scenes is that these three characters are fumbling, trying to express something inside of them. The first scene happens between chapter 68-69 when Shigaraki wonders lost in the crowds trying to find an understanding with himself.Â
During the scene Shigaraki genuinely talks to Midoriya and asks him what he thinks. He expresses the feelings inside of himself.Â
However, Midoriya describes Shigaraki as someone he can neither understand nor accept. He rejects him entirely.Â
We, as the audience know all of the similiarities between Shigaraki and Midoriya. We know that Shigaraki was once Shimura Tenko, a boy with a dream of becoming a hero who was told by everyone he couldnât. We know that Tenko once stood up to bullies and tried to make friends. Itâs understandable that Midoriya doesnât understand this, heâs not a mind reader, but thereâs still a great deal of ignorance in the way Midoriya acts.Â
Shigaraki shows clear signs of trauma and mental illness, especially in his connection to All Migt, and yet Midoriyaâs understanding of him is shallow and two dimmensional. He canât possibly conceive of Shigaraki having any othr motive for hurting people besides âWanting to destroy them.âÂ
Shigaraki is trying to express himself to somebody unwilling, and unable to understand him despite all the similarities between them. This is a pattern in hero society, immediately after the UA attack nobody can conceive of a reason why Shigaraki would want to attack UA besides him being a man-child who enjoys destruction.
When Midnight suggests that somehow Shigaraki might not have gotten the same quirk counseling as everyone and thatâs why his quirk is out of control and he uses it so dangerously, Vlad even directly questions why they should even bother talking about his motives.Â
Does Deku have to go out of his way to try to understand the motives of him and his friends? No, not necessarily. However, Deku is somebody billed as an empathic and caring character. Itâs a character willing to empathize with anyone before this point showing a complete lack of empathy. To a character who shows clear signs of instability and mental unwellness. Shigarakiâs genuine signs of trauma, his itching, his fickleness, his inability to process his emotions in a healthy way just get him demonized as a man-child.Â
The kid who was able to see the kindness, in Eriâs quirk.Â
The hero who says that he canât call himself a hero unless he saves a crying little girl in front of his eyes. The hero who says he wants to save everyone, just sort of treats Shigaraki like heâs a one dimmensional monster even though his circumstances are literally exactly the same as Eriâs. Just because Shigaraki canât cry the same way Eri can. But some people smile when they express trauma.Â
When Shigaraki experienced the worst trauma of his life, he smiled and tried to ask for help when his family just died five minutes ago, and this was used to deahumanize him and as an excuse for everyone else in the busiest intersection on the road to ignore him. This didnât just happen to him as an adult, it happened as a kid as well, nobody helped because he couldnât beg and cry for help, because he looked ugly instead of like a perfect helpless victim in need of saving.
Shigaraki smiles in response to his trauma. He remembers his worst trauma, literally his family dying, and he grins. Itâs literally an attempt to distance himself from his own emotions and process them because he has no healthy way of doing so otherwise. Heâs trying to express himself in the only way he knows how and he gets ignored.Â
2. Toga
Toga acts similiarly to Shigaraki. She tries to express herself to Uraraka, tries to compare the two of them. As Himiko is much more emotionally intelligent than Shigaraki she also gives a voice to Urarakaâs innermost feelings.
Once again Uraraka doesnât see her as a human, or try to listen to anything sheâs said. Himiko isnât a person with feelings and her own reason for doing things, sheâs just a psycho.Â
Even though Himiko is really perceptive of Urarakaâs own hidden feelings the same is not true the other way around, even though we know that Uraraka is a very kind, emotionally intelligent girl who is always noticing the pain on other peopleâs faces she loses all that perceptiveness when dealing with Himiko.
Does Uraraka have to empathize with a girl literally trying to stab her and suck her blood? No, not necessarily. However, at the same time this is a character we are told always goes the extra mile to understand people, notice their pain, and always being motivated to help just kind of ignoring Himiko.Â
This relates to Himikoâs backstory as well. What was Himiko explicitly told to do by her parents? Always hide her pain. Always keep herself hidden for the sake of blending in. Wear a fake smile and be a nice, normal girl.Â
Himiko couldnât even cry when she was sad and alone. She had to repress everything for the sake of being normal, for the sake of being acceptable to others, and now she doesnât know how to anymore.Â
Himiko at least tried to be normal, tried to express herself in normal ways only to be misunderstood by everyone around her and is continually misunderstood and dehumanized even now. The easy life she wants is just the normal life that everybody else has, the one a normal girl like Uraraka has. But she doesnât know how to express that, and Uraraka who has not been traumatized in any significant way doesnât really understand what sheâs been through. She canât.Â
3. Dabi
We finally get to Dabi and his foil Hawks, where we can see not only is Dabi misudnerstood like in the previous two examples but his feelings are outright denied. Uraraka and Deku are ultimately both children, itâs understandable they donât get the feelings of villains who have tried to kill him but this.Â
Hawks is not any better than Dabi in this situation. He just murdered Twice in cold blood right in front of him, but even though Hawks is actively the agressor in this situation look how he treats Dabi.
He accuses Dabi of nearly killing Twice, even though not only did Dabi show up to intervene for Twiceâs sake, but he showed up to rescue Twice, from Hawks. The sheer gall of Hawks to try and kill twice but at the same time accuse Dabi of being the one to put Twice in danger.Â
The way they interact is completely different. Twice is someone who trusts Dabi. Dabi literally puts himself directly in between Hawks and Twice so Twice wonât get harmed any further. Yet, Twice still sees himself as the hero in this situation. Even while actively harming, and trying to kill Twice in his head he still thinks of himself as saving him.Â
Then after murdering Twice in cold blood after going on and on about how he was avoiding his vitals, and how he was going to carry him out of here and save him, when heâs directly confronted with Dabiâs anger over his dead friend, Hawks invalidates those emotions.Â
Youâre not sad because youâre smiling. Hawks says. Hawks, literally the person who killed Twice, right in front of Dabi, then criticizes Dabi for not being appropriately sad about it. This is when Hawks has expressed no remorse for what he has done.Â
In his own head, Hawks is the hero and Dabi is the villain. Hawks feels guilty for his own actions. His own inhuman ability to shut off his own emotions and do what must be done. However, Heroes donât kill people. Hawks must somehow remain the hero. He must be the one who is right. Therefore, he blames Dabi as the villain. Dabi is the scapegoat. Dabi is the one who was wrong. Dabi is the cold blooded killer even though he has done nothing more than try to protect his friend.Â
Dabi must be evil, must be a villain so that Hawks can be good. Hawks has to justify his actions and emotoins by dehumanizing the person in front of him. Itâs not about Dabi at all. Dabiâs emotoins donât even factor in or matter. Itâs all Hawks self justification and the narrative he tells himself where he is the hero doing the right thing. And this is something that appears in Togaâs fight against Curious too, the villains literally have to fight for control of their own narrative, to be able to tell their story about their trauma in their own way because the heroes will always try to render it in easily digestible forms. They canât be people, complex, messy people they must either be categorized as hero or victim.Â
Toga canât be a normal girl, she has to be a martyr. Togaâs own feelings or opinions donât matter. Hawks goes one step further and suggests that Dabi doesnât even have feelings, heâs not even properly sad that his friend is dead.Â
Which Dabi finally replies with what is true for Himiko and Shigaraki. Itâs not that he doesnât want to cry, he canât cry. Heroes continually confront villains with their actions and act like they feel no guilt at all, like theyâre heartless psychopaths and treat them as such when the manga has shown us again and again the opposite.Â
Even if Dabi was crying his eyes out it wouldnât matter though. Jin was crying, and that did not stop Hawks. The heroes who view themselves as heroes, who view themselves as empathic and good people who would never ignore a cry for help all stop acting that way when confronted with Shigaraki, Himiko and Dabi.
It eventually crosses a line into deliberate ignorance. Itâs not seeing those on the other side as human beings, which is dangerous because it can literally turn murderous in the case of Hawks and Twice. Itâs cries for help that go ignored because theyâre not presented as easily digestible narratives. Itâs a breakdown in empathy in a story where the stated goal of the main character is to be a hero who ânever loses, and saves everyone.â There are people not being saved. There are people who are not being helped because they canât ask for help.Â
Thanks to @savetenkoâ for pointing out this parallel to me here!
#shigaraki tomura#himiko toga#dabi#todoroki touya#shimura tenko#uraraka ochako#midoriya izuku#hawks#keigo takami#league of villains meta#lov meta#mha meta#my hero academia meta#my hero academia theory
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Here a Witch, There a Witch
Witchhood, Celicaâs Act 5 arc, and Treatment of Women in Echoes (aka several thousand words of musings. Coherency not guaranteed. Spoilers of course.)
I find the narrative choice of turning Celica into a witch who is then saved by the intervention of Mother Mila a really weirdly interesting one?Â
First off, I skimmed the Gaiden script and this doesn't happen. This is probably the weakest part of the whole story for me in Echoes, and, in Gaiden, it's even more confusing.
Jedah: Alm's trapped in Dragon Mountain. You must want to save him.      If that's so, then follow after me.      If you offer yourselves as sacrifices to Lord Doma, Alm's path shall      also open up once more!
Witchhood, the soul of a Branded child, Duma needing both Alm and Celica, all of that isn't spoken about, so it's not certain what exactly Jedah is doing all that time. So it's literally a game device to force you onto a linear Alm path. At the very least, turning Celica into a witch makes a bit more sense if you assume that there's some equal power exchange, which Jedah hints at. Celica's soul, her Brand, her magic, all are things valued by Duma, namely strength. Taking both Celica and Almâs soul would restore Duma to a sanity and power heâs been lacking for ages. Okay, sure.
The idea of sacrificing your humanity for a love one is supposed to foil to Rinea and Berkut (and to a smaller extent, Jedah and his daughters, probably). Â The idea of witchhood is so interesting because you get many different 'witches' in the game. You have those that chose the contract of their own accord (Nuibaba) and kind of exists outside of Jedah's faction. You have the witch sisters, which Sonya says it was Jedah's sacrifice to Duma that turned them to witches, but Jedah counters her, saying they offered up their souls willingly. You have Delthea who for all intents and purposes gets witch like powers when controlled by Tartarah. Finally you have Celica who, even after having her soul offered up to Duma unwillingly, is controlled but also is mentally present enough to tell Alm to kill her.
The idea of men sacrificing women for power is one that happens a lot in this game. The villains, Fernand, Berkut, Jedah, all destroy their relationships with women in their lives and women who reject notably megalomaniac men survive (Sonya, Mathilda). The masculine and feminine dichotomy of Duma and Mila is pretty slanted towards the Father who destroys and the Mother who gives life. This is echoed in the paternal relationships in Echoes (Rudolf + Alm, Lima + Celica) all being quite toxic ones while the maternal ones (Liprica + Celica is the most significant, Mother Mila being redeemed is another example) having positive connotations.
(Side Note: Given the eternal sleep of Duma, Sonya, no matter what her ending suggests, could not have become a witch by offering up her soul to Duma. The ending therefore, one could argue, is simply trying to demonstrate the futility of retrieving souls already sold, and Sonya could have easily taken up residence in Nuibaba's manor with ill rumors abound.)
(Second side note: The time when Alm is saved by Celica's pendant, notably that comes from Celica's mother as one of the gifts. Was it meant to protect Celica against the influence of witches? Lady Liprica did not want Celica to stand in front of Mila - did she fear Celica to lose her soul to not a god but a goddess? Was Celica's giving nature what allowed Alm to succeed even when he wasn't prepared for Duma's true might, possibly crippling her own protection in the self-sacrificial nature she had? The last one is almost certainly a yes.)
You also have quite a bit of 'liberation' through the protagonist's part (Delthea, Mathilda, Celica) in contrast to the hordes of witches that you can't save due to their lost souls to Duma. So why can you save who you can save?
Berkut and Rinea are easily understood. Berkut volunteered himself up to Duma, Rinea, being sacrificed but also unwilling to leave Berkut's side, is unable to be redeemed. Simple enough.
Delthea is controlled not by Duma but by Tartarah and notably against her will. Upon killing Tartarah, she's freed - so attempts to create witches can be thwarted through destroying the arcanist controller. Also- the soul didn't actually get to Duma in this case. Nuibaba did not actually sell her soul to Duma. Her contract was with Medusa and she's referred to as an arcanist despite her witch class.
Marla and Hestia - it's hard to tell if you can believe either Sonya or Jedah's story as the total truth. They were almost certainly coerced on some level, but Hestia mentions that she should have lived her life freely like Sonya. Again, a scrap of her own personality and some hint at a decision she made? It's hard to tell, but it's likely we couldn't save them because again, there was something in their process of becoming a witch they couldn't recover from. Did they make that decision out of their own lust for power? Itâs likely.
Now to Celica, the strangest of the potential witches, not only does she get her soul returned to her- it's through stabbing her with the Kingsfang/the Falchion. She gets her soul returned to her despite Jedah being convinced her soul is already devoured. How on earth does Mila have Celicaâs soul if Duma has taken it?
Well game logic suggests that by killing Celica, Duma loses her soul. You see this with Berkut and Rinea, in death, they are freed from Dumaâs control. Suddenly, Hestiaâs last words make sense. Dumaâs not all-powerful.Â
In the same vein, Mila finally gets over her fear of selling out her brother. Of note, Duma never used the Kingsfang on Mila and Mila never took an advantage to kill her brother. They fought bitterly but they also, like overgrown siblings, never wanted to kill each other. They were, in some ways, too proud and far more concerned with their own interests rather than those of humansâ.Â
So maybe from this viewpoint, it makes sense how Celicaâs self-sacrifice spurs Mila into finally releasing her seal on Falchion and entrusting her brotherâs fate to someone who was able to do something she could never bring herself to do - trust in her opposite and sacrifice each other for the greater good.Â
Of note, in Gaiden, instead of the witch dialogue, you get this:
Cellica:  It won't work. Judah possesses some mysterious power that's      obstructing all our attacks.      Besides, countless Bigles keep coming to entangle us. We can't even      move anymore.      We're probably already done for...      Sorry, Alm.      I wasn't able to do anything for you after all.      I've had a strange premonition...      A feeling that something terrible will happen to you...      That's why I came this far on a quest to rescue Mila...      That's why, until then, I didn't want you to fight.      Because of that... I acted so cold. I'm sorry... The truth is, I've      always...
This is after the crypt. I mean logically, this is because the game wants you to play as Alm as the hero and Celica now steps into a role similar to Zelda in TP - both a maiden to be saved as well as the wise queenly character to aid the hero. What's interesting is Echoes actually plays up Celica's self-sacrificial nature and her inherent importance, because of the part about giving up her soul. Gaiden's Celica actually makes less sense - she has no plan, she is just feeling defeated and like she failed Alm. Even if Echoes Celica makes a bad decision, she's takes action that makes a lot of sense for Celica at this moment - that is, a Celica abandoned by her goddess and used to bearing a lot of survivor guilt about her existence as princess.
For comparison, the Echoes dialogue goes:
Celica: Back on the island, I had a dream. A dream where something terrible happened to you. So I decided to petition Mila for the strength to protect you. Yet for all my travels, youâve still faced terrible danger. And you were even forced to end your own fatherâs life. âŚIâd seen it all. I knew it was coming, but I couldnât change a thing. I failed to keep you safe, Alm! Alm: Thatâs not⌠Celica, none of whatâs happened is your fault. Youâre not to blame for any of it! Celica: But I wonât lose you⌠I wonât let any of you die! I donât want you to fight Duma. I donât want anyone to be hurt or killed. Thatâs my only desire in this life.
Why did Celica believe Jedah? A lot of people kind of groaned when she bargained with Jedah, but I think, stepping back for a moment, looking at how Celica views the gods is important. Even if she doesn't agree with Duma, she still reveres him. Her ending dialogue with Duma is pretty much that. She recognizes what he did for Valentia but seeks to free him from his madness. However, at the beginning, she believed if the gods were lost, the land would become barren and humankind would surely die. She's not at Duma tower to kill gods, she's at Duma tower to retrieve a god and restate the natural order of Valentia. Celica, who was looking for Mila in order to circumvent the sufferings and the destruction of humanity, of course would turn herself into the problem. It's not that she trusted Jedah, but I think Celica at this point had been coping with a vast body of knowledge and pressure about the gods and their effect on the world that Alm never really considered. She makes a hard decision in absence of her own faith and confidence, in her eyes, a choice that would protect everyone.
The problem is Rudolf, in moving against the Duma Faithful, has already broken the Accord and set in motion events that means Celica's mission is a failure. The gods HAVE forsaken her. Mila notably doesn't come to her senses until the two branded children are about to kill each other in front of her. (Honestly, I think the Fire Emblem team has a small fetish for stabbing your loved ones, especially under possession. Awakening flashbacks anyone?)
Celica upon seeing Mila in stone, has a crisis of faith essentially stalls her entire arc. Is this weak writing? Yeah, it really is. Celicaâs arc lacks its personal climax. Alm has his Rigelian heritage and Berkut on top of this. Celicaâs arc gets absorbed into Almâs. Celica needed something else to restore her faith in herself, especially after her mental surrender.Â
Is the answer faith in loved ones? Partially. That part is already in the game though.
Celica: I do. Itâs as Mila said⌠Weâve had the strength to live and fight for our world this whole time. I lost faith in that somewhere along the way⌠But right now, it seems the most obvious thing in the world. I trust in mankind like I trust in you, Alm. Absolutely, and without hesitation.
The issue I think that would resolve this best would be actually in how they handle Mila. What would have strengthened Celica's final decision would be Mila reaching out to Celica rather than Alm, acknowledging how it was Celica that uncovered the mystery of where she was, came all the way to save her with her own, very human powers. That her journey to Mila gave her a greater wisdom and understanding of the relationships between gods and men that Alm couldnât have known.Â
Isn't that a kind of strength even the gods couldn't predict?
#fe15 spoilers#fe echoes#celica#alm#mila#fe gaiden#arget rambles#my meta#duma#what even is this#feel free to talk to me about this#as much as I love this game#and the emotional arc was super punchy#I think the way they handled this was just#good bad weird and yet still emotional#so who even knows what's going on#maybe I just need to write fanfic or something
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Black Womenâs Resistance
No one can go through a day without being exposed to certain forms of media. However, our media does not represent the worldâs problem perfectly because it only draws from a narrow pool of perspectives. It merely represents certain voices while ignoring others, especially the minority, immigrants, and women. Even now, throughout the media, we see from time to time that women stereotype still exists, it creates an unwanted and false portrayal of women. I was talking about women in general. However, there are a group of women who struggled to have themselves represented in their society, they are African American women.
An article by Bell Hooks, âThe Oppositional Gazeâ, discusses primary issues African American female had regarding how they are represented in the society they are living in. Throughout the reading, the authorâs emphasis is on the word âlookâ. Both black men and women we were afraid to look at their owners, the things they see on the screen, or sometimes at each other. Yet, the more force placed on them, the more they were tempted to look. As Hooks says, âThat all attempts to repress our/black peopleâs right to gaze had produced in us an overwhelming longing to look, and rebellious desire, and oppositional gaze.â People were trying to resist and fight for their representation. For example, when they first exposed to the media like films and television, they were fully aware that all the images in those media did not contain them.
In the past, African American utilized the idea of oppositional gaze to show their resistance to the dominating media and people by establishing black independent cinema, a venue that black people get to produce the right content and truly represent their race. Hook claims, âCritical, interrogating black looks weâre mainly concerned with issues of race and racism...they were rarely concerned with gender.â She points out the reality that black females were the biggest victims. The truth is, this is a major issue in every country, not just in America. Many cultures do not give much value to women. What I am trying to say is that women have been struggling to have themselves represented in their society, even in America among the white. However, in the case of African American women, they were treated badly because first, the White were racist against their race, and secondly, their gender was not given any value. Hooks claims, âmajor early black male independent filmmakers represented black women in their films as objects of the male gaze.â She explains that black male has a different experience in the same context, meaning their âgaze had a different scope.â
Black women were the biggest fan of seeing movies. Unfortunately, not every film was made with them in mind. Black females stated that they can enjoy those movies as long as they do not take it too seriously or think too deeply about it. In fact, most black women had already made up their minds before going to see movies. They expected to see contents which do not represent them, nor their race. They also claimed, âWhen black women actresses like Lena Horne appeared in mainstream cinema most white viewers were not aware that they were looking at black females unless the film was specifically coded as being about blacks.â Once they (the white) get to see, for example, an actor or actress act very good in a movie, they tend to believe that they are not black because black people, in their mind, cannot be that good. Therefore by default, they see them as white.
Women of color were degraded way more than their counterpart. A great example is how the image of womanhood was projected in a show called âAmos ânâ Andy.â âSapphireâ is a character represented a black female, but according to Hooks, âshe [Sapphire] was even then backdrop, foil. She was bitch-nag. She was there to soften images of black men, to make them seem vulnerable, easy going, funny, and unthreatening to a white audience.â Instead of taking in those messages, they felt resented the way Sapphireâs character was portrayed. Instead of being violent, they choose to stop giving any attention to such media contents. They âlookâ somewhere else, or basically just stop âlookingâ, as a sign of resistance. This shows a lot about how black women, they are patience, yet know the right way to respond to racism.
Another struggle black women face was that even there were feminist film critics back at the day, they were only serving the white. Hooks claims, even though they seemed to protect or discuss the issue of womenâs representation in films, their goal was to speak about white women, they decided to show resistance. To me, black women seemed to have a harder time compared to black men because of the nature of their gender and because they were never given a chance to prove themselves.
Hooksâ article thoroughly discusses black womenâs spectatorship and the hardship they were facing, given the fact that they were black and female. Her article portrays the real situation of black women, a situation that many people have taken for granted. It is sad but true that the issues discussed in the reading are still relevant today if we take a closer look at the media. It is truly hard for most people, especially when you are not black female to empathize what they went through. It is even difficult when you live in a society where you cannot speak for yourself and live the life that you want just because people accuse you of what you are not. I respect black women for what they experienced and how they positioned themselves in such a situation. This reading allows me to understand the whole idea of racism better, especially from black womenâs point of views.Â
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Kumagawa + Ajimu = 0
Medaka Box is a school battle manga that isnât at all about fighting. Instead itâs about how the characters connections to other people humanize them. How abnormals, are no more than normal people when they connect with others. The greatest example of this in the manga is Medaka and Zenkichi, the superhuman girl who becomes human through her connection to her normal and everyday best friend.Â
Medaka and Zenkichi have been together their entire lives, to the point where they both sort of build their identity around each other. Medaka was only able to see herself as a person because Zenkichi saw her as a girl first and not a genius. In other words as Medaka says, youâre the person that made me, me. Medakaâs most formative memory is not with the people who praised her as a genius or showered her in affection, but with the one person who always treated her like normal.Â
However, this post isnât about them. Instead of looking at one of the most positive relationships in the manga letâs look at one of the most negative ones.Â
Medaka and Zenkichi build each other up, but Ajimu and Kumagawa destroy each other. Ironically for the exact same reasons. Kumagawa and Ajimu are also the only ones who treat each other as humans, and they aer both at their most human and vulnerable when around each other, but unlike in Medaka and Zenkichiâs case this is what leads them to hurting each other.Â
This is because Ajimu is a shadow of Medaka, and Kumagawa a shadow to Zenkichi, and they were both built as characters to foil a more negative aspect to their counterparts, and even in their relationship to each other reflects Medaka and Zenkichiâs like a reversed and inverted image in a mirror.Â
Instead of talking about two good children letâs talk about two terrible brats.Â
1. Kumagawa and Zenkichi
Kumagawa and Zenkichi are both untalented people who want to stand out amongst the talented and special people. However, the differnce between them is not something so simple as Zenkichi works hard, and Kumagawa is lazy and always tries to take the easy way or cheat his way through.Â
The light novels even say so. That Kumagawa is a hard working person that always puts all of his efforts into everything he does.Â
When he took up the position of Student Council President, I hadnât expected it at all from him, but unexpectedly, as if heâd had prior experience, Kumagawa-kun properly completed his Student Council President duties.
He did his work in an unpleasant, indescribable manner that could really only be described as âcompletedâ, and it was a very unpleasant manner from the point of view of a General Affairs Manager, but even so, even if the work couldnât be considered splendid, I couldnât deny that Kumagawa-kun was truly a hardworking person. [x] translation by @polaristranslationsâ
The difference between them is Zenkichiâs efforts have always led to self improvement. They get rewarded. He always progresses forward as a person. However, Kumagawaâs efforts never get rewarded. He never improves, he only gets worse, he only spirals down. Zenkichi could be given one thousand tries and make it on the 999th time. Kumagawa would go all 1,000 tries without ever winning once.
In the first place, even if you got infinite lives as Mario or as Luigi, youâre someone that still wouldnât be able to defeat Bowserâbut still, since you ended up dying anyway. [x]
Internally, the characters are almost the same person. Theyâre both relatively normal guys who try their hardest at whatever they do, and they both have aspirations to be among extraordinary people. Zenkichi wants to keep up with talented people because he believes that makes him worthy of Medaka. Kumagawa wants to keep up with talented people because he believes the world only allows talented people, or people who are strong to be safe and happy, and he idealizes it as an escape from the constant chaos and misery of his life, while at the same time feeling spiteful towards them because heâs left out.Â
This is what Kumagawa also tries to get Zenkichi to understand about him in their first fight. Zenkichi and Medakaâs views on people acting out of trauma, or bad victims are a little bit black and white, they canât possibly udnerstand why someone would want to lash out and hurt others.Â
You know how a lot of people misinterpret Catcher in the Rye as the main character being unlikable, just because he presents his trauma in unlikable and not straight forward ways. Because he doesnât directly ask for help, but rather conceals his trauma and rambles around the point. Because he at no point cries out help me like a victim? Therefore people have a difficult time seeing him as one.
Thatâs basically Kumagawa and Zenkichiâs entire relationship. Zenkichi cannot accept Kumagawa, because Kumagawa never asks for help in straight forward ways. he never presents himself as a beautiful victim to save. In reality thought, Kumagawa is Zenkichi, just with a lot of trauma piled onto him. Kumagawa is aware of this and tries to make Zenkichi understand, but Zenkichi just doesnât.Â
This is even lampshaded in an omake. That despite pretending to be the most terrible villain he can possibly be, Kumagawaâs personality is weirdly friendly and approachable once you get to know him. Itâs because unlike Medaka, Kumagawa actually values the people around him as individual people. He values close connections instead of just trying to blankely love everybody. Which is what Zenkichiâs strength over Medaka is as well. They both are people that can connect to others on a personal level, they can harmonize others around them and their greatest strength is how they use that as a group rather than being individually strong on their own. Neither Kumagawa or Zenkichi actually need to be all that strong because their strength comes from empathy and their ability to understand other people.Â
Theyâre both natural support characters who think they have to be the ones fighting on the front lines. They also both lose most of the fights they get into, Zenkichiâs only real victory is against Munakata at the start of the manga. Even when he beats Nianami, he says heâs still the weakest member of the group. When he goes to the jet black birdal ceremony to save Medaka, he completely fails to save her and gets stabbed and becomes a hostage instead. Even both of them are essential to Munakataâs development, as Zenkichi becomes his first friend, and Kumagawa becomes the first person that Munakata ever killed. They both go out of their way to try to help him, but in opposite ways, Zenkichi as a friend, and Kumagawa helps him by making himself a victim to Kumagawaâs killing instinct.Â
Theyâre constantly comapred to each other in the manga, and they constantly act in opposite ways trying to accomplish the same thing at heart. Zenkichi even understands Kumagawa even when he pretends he doesnât.Â
Kumagawa is obsessed with cleanliness because he sees it as a relief from the constant chaos of his life, because he thinks heâs forced to love ugly, and unpleasant things because thatâs all he will ever see. Zenkichi sees through him because he shares that same obsession, he acts like an average guy who doesnât want to be dragged into the extraordinary but he loves beatufiul people, heâs obsessed with Medaka and part of him still sees her as something above the ordinary instead of treating her 100% like a normal girl. They carry the same contradictions within each other, itâs just for Kumagawa they blow up in his face a lot harder than they ever do for Zenkichi.Â
They both loved Medaka. They both met Medaka when she was two years old, and tried to give her an answer to the meaning of her life so she would stop worrying.Â
You could even say Kumagawa is just Zenkichi without a Medaka in his life, but thatâs not entirely true. Kumagawa has a Medaka, it just happens to be Ajimu who is terrible.Â
2. Medaka and Ajimu
Ajimu is the logical end result of Medakaâs ability to infinitely copy and gather skills. She now has quadrillions of them and is basically undefeatable. She too, like Medaka is a character that never has once lost in her life, the same way the main character of a manga never really loses. For both of them their incredible talent over others makes them feel completely inhuman and alienated from all around them, Ajimu just pushes it to an absurd extent crossing the line and becoming a âNon-human.âÂ
They also both are trying to pursue insane goals when they meet each other. Ajimu wants to create a perfect human, and Medaka wants to make everyone happy. Not because they genuinely want those things, but because they both want to fail. Medaka wants to be human and feel like sheâs equal to everybody else. Ajimu wants to fail and prove that reality is real in front of her and alsot hat sheâs a part of it.Â
Theyâre both absurd girls, and absurdly lonely. Theyâve lived their entire lives in almost complete isolation because no one has seen them as human. Itâs just Ajimu has accepted that declaring herself a âNon-Humanâ whereas Medaka struggles with her desire to be a normal girl. If you think about it nobody in their lives has ever seen them for them. Medakaâs father sees her as an heir who has to take over his entire company the moment she turns eighteen, her other father saw her as a replacement for his sister, his brother obsessed over her to the point that it was creepy, every adult around her either put her on a pedestal or they thought she was terrifying and blamed her for their own inadequacies. The only person she had in her life who remotely treated her like a normal girl was Zenkichi.Â
Ajimu was someone who can get anybody to like her in the whole school.
ăShe hadnât been such a sadistic character in the past⌠What happened to the kind and considerate Anshin'in-san that everybody lovedâŚă
ââŚâŚ?â
He was giving off a rather timid aura, which was unusual for him. [x]
Because if everything is fake then, Ajimu can act however she wants. If theyâre not real people, if theyâre just programmed npcs then she can just pick the right responses to gain points with them. Thatâs why Ajimu is equally capable of being a very caring and loving person, but also cruel and sadistic. Neither of them are the real her, sheâs equally both because she has nothing to ground her personality on, she doesnât see other people as people.Â
Which is exactly what Kumagawa calls Medaka out on, which happens immediately after he reveals how his âlove storyâ with Ajimu ended. Both Medaka and Ajimu have a trouble seeing other people as people due to how much they have been isolated and put on a pedestal their entire lives. However, both of them are both afraid ot come down from their pedestal as well and admit theyâre wrong. Their entire identity is built around being girls stronger than anyone so who else would they be if they werenât that?Â
Ajimu is just the negative result of such an attitude. Medaka is preechy and looks down on other people, but itâs never treated that seriosuly as a flaw by the plot. Itâs always looked on as something well intentioned and misguided, but ultimately just something she does out of ignorance. Whereas, Ajimu has full on malice for the people she doesnât see as people.
Ajimuâs complete apathy for other people causes her to treat others terribly. She carelessly tears Medaka and Zenkichi apart, throws everything into chaos, basically because theyâre her toys and she wants to play with them. The only reason Ajimu ends up not killing anybody is because Ajimu herself doesnât really care enough about anybody to kill them.Â
Medakaâs ignorance of other people, becomes complete and utter apathy with Ajimu. Her inability to love someone as an individual becomes Ajimuâs complete and total inability to see people as even real, or anything other than manga characters.Â
They both ultimately live empty lives that leaves them some form of suicidal. Medaka wishes she had never been born, and Ajimu wants to kill herself out of boredom.
What both of them want desperately is to be equal to other people, and to stop being alone, but also neither of them can let go of the fact that they are special and they think they have to stand above others which is what creates the central conflict in both characters. Itâs just that Medaka believes life is epic and keeps trying to learn how she can live, she keeps growing, whereas Ajimu like Kumagawa just spirals out of control slowly and becomes more minus, more negative.Â
Thatâs why in the end Medaka is the only one that can stop Ajimu from killing herself, because Medaka is Ajimu, she has those same suicidal feelings and can understand them.Â
3. Kumagawa and Ajimu
What exactly happened between Kumagawa and Ajimu in middle school is never fully revealed, despite being so formative for many of the conflicts of the plot. However, there is a lot of subtext for what their relationship was and almost none of it is pretty.Â
The most defining moment of their relationship is that Kumagawa ripped her face off. If you think about Medaka and Zenkichi as two people who humanize each other, who give each other their identity than Kumagawa did the opposite. The face is the sign of identity. When Kumagawa ripped it off, not only did he destroy her identity, he also made everyone else forget about her.
Another thing is Ajimu appears to talk with Kumagawa every time he dies, and this close proximity to her is something that makes him hate her as much as he loves her.Â
Itâs a pretty clear metaphor for being trapped in a relationship thatâs bad for both parties, that makes you eventually start to hate the person you love specifically because you feel trapped by them. Their relationship is something that contributes to Kumagawaâs misery, but at the same time itâs something Kumagawa cannot let go of because if he does not heâs afraid Ajimu might die.
Kumagawa was doing to Ajimu what Zenkichi did to Medaka when they first met. he was trying to give her a reason, any reason to live. However, his way of saving her life was to screw her down and steal away both her face and her freedom. That is to say he made her even less of a person that she normally is.Â
The general story we know is this. They met in middle school, and during that time both of them kind of experienced a âhoneymoon phaseâ of their relationship. Kumagawa was able to feel like a normal person around her because Ajimu is just that competent at getting along with others, and at that time he basically existed to do everything she said.Â
Even though youâre sitting arrogantly atop the seat of Student Council President, youâre nothing more than her puppet.
You may have heard the term âpuppet governmentâ before, but right now, youâre actually making that a realityâjust like our time in middle school, our time at Hakobune Middle School.
That timeâthat time you became the Student Council President with a zero-percent approval rating, you had basically turned into a yes-man for me, the Not Equal. [x]
Ajimu says the first time she had expectations for another person, that is the first human being she struggled to try to see them as human was Kumagawa. However, something goes wrong most likely due to Ajimuâs suicidal nature and Kumagawaâs wish for her to live.Â
My guess is that on that âdayâ we never got to learn the details of, Ajimu threatened suicide first and Kumagawa retaliated. Or, Kumagawa knew she was suicidal all along and he was terrified of losing her and over the course of two years those negative feelings built up until Kumagawa finally broke and acted up.
At which point they both broke each other irrepably. They started being terrible to one another. Kumagawa is specifically referred to as having trauma that outweighs all the other trauma in his life and itâs triggered when Emukae takes both of the exploding bracelets and almost commits suicide right in front of him to save him. In other words he had trauma with girls he loves comitting suicide. Itâs also the one thing heâs afraid of, like when he asks Gagamaru to kill him because heâs too afraid to just jump off the roof on his own.Â
When Kumagawa is describing all the negative things he has to accept in his life, he says itâs like accepting a lover. Which indicates a very unhealthy view when it comes to accepting the flaws of a lover in any relationship that youâre in.
Like some of the examples he lists are just, stuff that would happen in a relationship gone wrong.Â
The reason it went wrong being in the end, Kumagawa and Ajimu unlike Zenkichi and Medaka are too similiar, theyâre both too afraid of being human. Itâs even implied they both hold the same kind of cynicism and minus forms of views which is why the understand each other so well.
They both see the world as an inescapable reality thatâs not for them, where they donât belong. Kumagawa because he is too weak, and Ajimu because she is too strong. They are on complete opposite sides of the spectrum, but that is how they connect with each other, because the world is not for them, itâs like theyâre the only two people in the whole world.
Itâs Ajimu and Kumagawa who make all the metafiction jokes, about treating real life like itâs a manga. And thatâs a form of using fiction as escapism. Ajimu believes everything is fake, because the reality is that everything is unbearably lonely for her. Kumagawa uses fiction to escape, because the reality is life isnât like shonen manga and tragedy upon tragedy is going to keep happening to him and it doesnât matter if heâs strong or week.Â
They both have this desire to become human the same way everyone else is. They both feel left out from other peopleâs happiness. However, they also both have the desire to escape, to run away, because things are too painful, too lonely for them and they canât handle it.Â
Which is why ultimately both Kumagawa and Ajimu canât work together, because neither of them wants to be human because being human is vulnerable. Zenkichi even comments this, Kumagawa doesnât want to be understood, not really, or at least not the way he presents himself. He tries everything possible to make others fail to understand him.Â
Ajimu too, distances herself from reality as much as possible. She even calls herself a ânon-humanâ all the time, not because sheâs some weird space alien, but because she does not want to be human. Neither of them wants to get hurt, to feel pain the same way that humans do.
Which is why they canât work around each other. When theyâre together, they both know each other so well, they both fit so naturally together, that both of them become vulnerable in a way that neither of them can handle. Kumagawa even says as much, though he presents the notion in the most warped and twisted way possible. That he saw through the fact that Ajimu was just pretending to be kind and to get along with other people, and none of that was her real self, and he tried to see through the mask. It worried him that he didnât get to know the real Ajimu. Kumagawa at least at one point didnât want to love the Ajimu that was kind to others, he wanted to love the real her.
But in the end Kumagawa has no idea if his feelings reached or even mattered to her. When he says as much itâs the one time Kumagawa looks genuinely sad during this entire conversation, and the panel hides his expression.Â
Which is why in the end theyâre relationship is so important and formative to one another. They, just like Medaka and Zenkcihi are basically the ones who humanize each other. They make up each otherâs identities. But at the same time both of them are so afraid of being humans they go out of their way to dehumanize and destroy each other.Â
Ajimu even admits this on the final note of their relationship together. That Kumagawa in the end was the only real person to her, the only person she could show any bias towards. Thatâs why sheâs able to hate him and love him, because she actually sees him as a person.Â
In the same light, Kumagawa only starts to believe itâs possible for him to win when Ajimu tells him he can.
Thatâs how formative for Kumagawa Ajimu is. He cannot accept the idea that he could win, until Ajimu finally accepted and embraced him as a person.Â
Thatâs what it means to be close, you are equally as capable of hurting each other as you are helping each other. Thatâs why Medaka Box so beautfiully illustrates the power but also the vulnerability of human connection.
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