#could be reaching though. it's unfortunate so much of her screentime is hammering home how poorly jimmy regards her

[lightnersdream]

i've been thinking about exactly why people portraying one of the other crew members successfully killing Jimmy as a "for what you did to Anya" kind of thing rubs me the wrong way a bit and it's because like..... this is just another form of taking agency away from Anya, in a way. it's kind of framing her as some meek, shivery woman-thing who's entirely at the mercy of the men around her, either to hurt her or save her.

(i understand these are mostly for wish fulfillment on the audience's behalf because everyone would like to see Jimmy pay for his crimes. whether or not this is the intention of the person writing it isn't really relevant, characterization happens with or without intent. i feel like it misses the point by portraying it as an 'ideal ending'.)

because... Anya is a capable person. she takes things into her own hands when she can. it was partially(?) her idea to get into the cargo,

(before he interrupts her.. remember when she interrupted Curly in the dead pixel segment?)

it was her idea to get the code scanner from the cockpit,

it was her idea to get the medication from behind the foam.

(the chance to do these things herself is not given to her.)

she'd been keeping Curly alive for months in a critical state somehow, her psych evaluations at the start are only so useless because Jimmy refuses to take it/her seriously and Curly is obviously biased when he puts it into his own hands. he's known him a long time, like he said. "I'll just put good for that one."

there's not a lot of material to work with because of how the game is framed, but it's there. we are working with two very biased perspectives and neither one lends Anya what she deserves

there's significant changes in how she speaks post- and pre- crash, and depending on who she happens to be talking to. i recommend re-reading her dialogue, because the difference is drastic

she acts the way she does around Jimmy because he has tangibly done horrible things to her, is actively hostile, and physically could not escape him by any means. she can't take away Curly's agency herself, in my eyes. you have to remember that Especially in the post-crash segments of the game, it's entirely from Jimmy's POV, and he obviously does not (and has never) thought very highly of her or treated her with a shred of respect

i've seen a general idea that she can't bear to hurt other people for any reason, but that doesn't really track to me. this is the real point of the post by the way

it seems based on the parts where she says she struggles to give Curly medication. "It just hurts him so much, I can't stand the noise." "It makes me nauseous."

it's not really the same thing as, say, hurting someone in self defense

this sounds like she did want the gun itself. this never felt worded like someone who would refuse to, at very least, threaten Jimmy with a gun, with violence. if she had been given the agency to make that decision on her own. she wasn't though

she still tries to reclaim some of it even as she's denied it

by the end she's still trying to keep that gun out of his hands

i think some people overly soften her, for similar reasons the game itself is trying to comment on. she's not a tender victim who couldn't cause pain to another out of the softness of her soul, she's a person who's had every last bit of agency ripped from her repeatedly until she couldn't take it anymore. that's the point. that's why framing her that way, "needing" someone to save her, is odd to me

she didn't need Curly to save her, she needed him to take responsibility

she didn't want to escalate things, but she's not an idiot. self defense was absolutely on her mind

but who knows im just saying shit *smiles serenely*

[ladyloveandjustice]

And with that, we’ve reached the end of our Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer liveblog!

It’s really been a wild ride. Overall, I’d say this was a really solid action adventure manga and a good example of a shonen actually managing to pull off a strong ensemble cast. It managed to keep this very weird, wacky vibe throughout while strongly delivering on some more serious themes. The deaths and losses in the story all had weight, which ishard to pull off.

 It was impressive that it ballooned up into having like, a main hero cast of 13 characters (plus animal mascots, plus antagonists, plus one posthumous character...) but all of them got at least a little screentime and development. The gender balance was pretty good for a shonen too, since of those 13, six were girls. And far from being sidelined from the action, all of them were at least on equal footing with the guys battlewise, with Sami and Anima actually being the most powerful characters by far! They also all felt fully realized as characters too and got development and stuff! That shouldn’t be notable, but it’s something that’s sadly pretty rare in action shonen, so yeah, I’m gonna note it! 

(Also, Shimaki might be the first fat character I’ve seen in an action manga whose powers don’t revolve around his weight, and while there are a couple jabs at his expense, most of his screentime doesn’t either, instead focusing on how smart he is. A miracle.)

I mentioned this in the liveblog but I really like that while the manga very easily COULD have gone the direction a lot of stories go which is "we start out with a super powerful female lead and weak male lead, but naturally our male hero becomes more powerful than our female lead and thus is able to save her”, it very much did not go that route. While Yuuhi definitely got significantly stronger and more powerful and a lot of the manga was concerned with that, the end makes it very clear that he’s STILL nowhere near Sami’s equal when it comes to “power”, and what “saves” Sami is actually his willingness to emotionally support her, with the bonds they’ve made with their friends supporting them both! It’s a good message and strong emotional conclusion for both of them.

Though I enjoyed the manga, I wouldn’t be able to recommend it casually without going into the caveats, since this manga is heavy on the fanservice with its sixteen year old female lead, whether it’s with constant panty shots or just... randomly showing her at home in her underwear or whatever. It’s downright jarring in ways that damage the story at times, since panty shots will happen even during some important emotional moments. (It also has plenty of fanservice involving the adult women in the cast, but that’s at least a little easer to swallow). There’s also some really bad scenes of adult men (our protagonist included) being creeps/harassers to women, including to underage girls. This is heaviest in the early chapters and mostly fades once the plot really gets going, but still unfortunately makes some bizarre appearances even towards the very end when it feels the the characters should have developed past that.

It’s sad that this occasionally drags down what’s otherwise a really fun and sometimes meaningful story. True, I have quibbles- sometimes it did feel like the story had a hard time balancing all the plot threads and there were snags like the storyline with Yuuhi and his grandfather and the abuse not hitting the perfect note with me- but largely, it carried itself well.

From the beginning, I was charmed by the scrappy girl with the slasher smile declaring she’d crush the world in her hand, and I never stopped being charmed.  It’s a story about overcoming despair, finding second chances, and learning to love this weird, wild world we live with all its highs and lows. It’s got fun action scenes, good art and very self-aware sense of humor. 

There was a lot to dig into with it, and I hope you all enjoyed watching me grapple with it. I certainly enjoyed the experience. Big thanks to @liobi for sponsoring the whole shebang.