#okay sorry I got derailed by bitterness lol I need to move out

[flourescencia]

people who enter their adult life and don't care or outright refuse to learn how to cook are incomprehensible individuals

[akatokuro]

The Inevitable StS Rewatch, Episodes 37-38

Aiolia, are you like... okay? (HE IS NOT, IN FACT, OKAY.)

- Last time, I meant to write about these eps but I got hard-derailed with the need to scream at the walls about Milo. This seems to happen to me pretty often. It might be a problem.

- This whole Shaina-->Seiya subplot is still stupid as hell, and the way Seiya treats Shaina here is condescending as hell, but to be very very generous Seiya is at least perceptive enough to not fight back seriously because he understands Shaina essentially has a death wish. Sanctuary will fuck you up hard, dude. The mask issue is yet another way to approach the fundamental ways the entire institution of Sanctuary will break people over its knee.

- Hahaha, I love the way Aiolia enters the scene here, so ominous and terrifying! It's a great contrast to the very mellow, normal dude in the back Aiolia is framed as in his earlier cameos. HEY, SHAINA, DID YOU AND THE OTHER SILVERS REALLY FORGET I WAS A GOLD FUCKING SAINT WELL GUESS WHAT HERE'S A REMINDER

- Lia, are you... having fun sloooowly lifting Shaina into the air first - totally not to terrify her or anything, nope, no grudge here, what are you talking about, hahaha!

- I'm going to be repeatedly gushing about this through the next couple eps, but holy shit, Aiolia's Japanese VA is SO FUCKING GOOD.

- The way he's animated here is so good too! The combination of his flat tone as he introduces himself, his flat expression, and the way only his eyes move when he greets Seiya specifically - it really conveys a sense of tension and Lia being in very, very forced, tight control of himself right now.

- "lmao not even the gold saints knew that there were TWELVE ZODIAC-THEMED CLOTHS! like! twelve zodiacs! god! not just leo and sagittarius! who would ever have guessed!" yeah this is the most obvious thing for the broader lore to instantly fucking throw out the window because no.

- It's a semi-common fanon thing to regard Aiolia as "stupid", but honestly, he's never struck me as such - I like this moment where he's sizing up Seiya's answer re: Sagittarius, and comes to the conclusion that he's telling the truth. But still, murder mission means murder gon happen!

- Aiolia has problems with self-control--his emotions sometimes get the better of him and he can't help himself when he really needs to punch something because he's just SO FUCKING ANGRY--but that's a different thing altogether than just being stupid, especially since I think Lia is pretty self-aware about that aspect of himself.

- I love how Aiolia TOTALLY came here to murder the shit out of these kids, too. Like, think about the contrast with Milo later, when Milo offers to spare Hyouga for Camus's sake - Lia is apparently close friends with Marin, but does he extend the same courtesy? No. That Seiya is Marin's student doesn't fucking matter. He's here to perform a very baggage-ridden mission for Sanctuary, and that is what he is going to do, because Aiolia would really like to turn himself into a Good Saint Robot.

- And again, even as he's warning Shaina, Aiolia comes across as very tightly controlled and very short, played up as frightening and intimidating. His expression and tone doesn't change as Shaina pleads and he points out her emotional shortcomings. Aiolia can run very hot, but he can also turn himself very cold, and the combination of the two feeding into each other is what can make him potentially scary as hell, especially when you remove his inhibitions via a bit of brainwashing!

- That little detail of Lia clenching his fist and his fist shaking as Seiya accuses him of being another assassin from Sanctuary is really good. It should be clear from Lia's VA taking a BEEP BOOP BOP approach to his lines here, but Lia is internally struggling a lot already, and trying to press it down.

- Not struggling with internal conflict about his orders per se, mind you. Moreso struggling with not losing his shit over how fucking mad he is.

- And when Seiya tries to explain the situation to Aiolia, he gets this.

- Aiolia isn't actually stupid, but this is why he's interesting. He dumbs himself down because he feels he can't trust himself - both his actual thoughts and instincts, as what happened with his brother proved to him, and his ability to restrain himself. So what can he do but commit himself to his orders and the rules, especially knowing that he's already walking on a very thin tightrope compared to most people because of his TRAITOR'S BLOOD? (lmao, thanks Milo! Clearly the best friend Aiolia could ever hope for!) There might be a temptation to write off Lia as the "good boy" of the Gold Saints, since he's pushed as the protagonist figure amongst them, but he's really not. He's pretty complex.

- Lol considering how hard Shaina was shitting on and disrespecting Aiolia in earlier episodes... is seeing her so frantic and then flattening her effortlessly a little bit cathartic for you, Lia...? Just a little...?

- Lia's expression still not changing as he turns his FLATTEN BEAM onto Seiya. Truly the TermiLia right now.

- I love Aiolia's response to Seiya bleating off about his brother and why Lia is so loyal to Sanctuary. He is obviously trying to appeal to Lia emotionally by hitting what he knows are emotional weak spots and Lia is not having any of that shit. you are literally just making him madder seiya

- These sure are the words and expression of a very, very bitter man!

- Aiolos isn't exactly an interesting character to me as he is, because the series is by and large mostly interested in him as a straightforward admirable martyr figure - but he could be if you re-interpret him under a more critical lens. His treatment of Aiolia is kind of... something. I don't actually remember him ever offering a truly kind word to his little brother. Like, ever.

- There's even a fun ambiguity if you want to his line in this flashback about "You should be able to do this, because you have the same Cosmos I do - because we're brothers." Yes, it could be read as encouragement - as Baby Lia is obviously doing here - but it's also setting forth an expectation.

- Oh shit, this is some of the stuff I was planning on going through in my upcoming EIGHTEEN PAGE AIOLIA META. Uhhhh....... man, this situation sure sucks for Lia, being left behind like that! Aiolos! Issues! Probably! Yeah!

- Fucking Silvers!

- I'm glad Lia states that he hated Los and used that for fuel in terms of becoming a strong Saint, and also vaguely suicidal. You can totally see it. Leo Aiolia is a cold and hateful person in a lot of ways! It rules!

- Okay Seiya you deserve to be punched for this one

- lol Lia narrowing his eyes in response too hoo boy

- seiya why are you stripping that's shiryuu's deal

- ahhhh shit aiolia's va is SO GOOD! he was already pulling the "flat, controlled tone" before but after seiya hit him with THAT garbage he goes extremely low and dangerous and outright monotone, very audibly you're on thin fucking ice you little shit

- One of the little things that I like about Lia and how he subverts your first impression of "oh, this is the nice, protagonist-y Gold, right?" is that when you piss him off, he gets vicious and downright venomous verbally. Aiolia is capable of outright dripping with contempt for people in a way that's totally "oh, this is what he's been thinking the whole time, he was just holding it back." Like here, when he's practically sneering about "Oh, so this is all you've got after six years training with Marin, huh? You fucking scrub loser."

- Damn, I like Seiya crying as he attacks Aiolia again, knowing that it's hopeless! That's a nice touch. A LITTLE SCARED, HUH SEIYA?

- Lia, you totally should have been able to see Shaina moving and jumping in front of Seiya like that in time to pull back. You really should have. Is your mad getting the better of you? I know Seiya kicked it up several notches, but damn, man.

- yeah i do not think this is the face of someone who is actually going to be losing that much sleep over """"accidentally"""" punching the shit out of shaina

- And Seiya calls out Aiolia for not stopping his attack when he totally had the capability to do so, lmao

- Hahaha, so Lia lets Seiya punch him to let off some steam and goes: "Yeahhhh, my bad. Eh."

- I also like the detail that Lia can heal with his Cosmos! (And lol that Lia was originally going to just leave her there before Seiya called him out.) It's not an ability you actually see a lot of Saints have, including the Golds.

- Lia asks Seiya why he's doing this. Seiya starts to explain, but then Lia immediately cuts him off with THE POPE'S ORDERS ARE ABSOLUTE. aiolia are you like.... okay... i mean you asked him and he was answering y... all righty then. i mean i know that's what you've convinced yourself to cope but

- Then the shitty Silvers show up, and even these guys continue to shit on Lia for his TRAITOR'S BLOOD. Lia gets visibly mad and reiterates his determination to fulfill his mission and murder these damn kids. The Silvers ignore him, and obviously enjoy twisting the knife about being able to ignore him!

- Aiolos decides he's had enough of his bath and decides to give Seiya a hand! Wow!

- okay seiya really rocks the sagittarius cloth though. better looking than aiolos in it. sagittarius seiya is the best looking gold saint tbh. shiryuu is really hideous in libra unfortunately

- And this is Aiolia's face when Seiya puts on the Sagittarius Cloth. WHAT COULD HE BE THINKING? HMMMM.

- I love Aiolia, but he definitely has that smug Gold Saint arrogance running through his being as much as anyone else. "FOR THE GOLD CLOTH TO CHOOSE THE LIKES OF YOU..."

- But this whole thing is great, too. He was willing to let Seiya go - for the day - out of respect for Shaina and okay yeah he did feel a little bad about that, but now that Seiya's put on a Gold Cloth? Nah, you little shit. Sorry Shaina, looks like it's right back to murder o'clock for Leo Aiolia!

- Seiya, with Aiolos's help, manages to land a punch on Lia. He is very cute in his excitemement about this! AIOLIA IS NOT.

- THE TERMILIA HAS UPGRADED TO A NEW, MADDER MODEL. You'll note the feel of this whole thing is REALLY CLOSE to the intimidation of vicious, brainwashed Aiolia later on. All of that was legit in him. That's why it's still interesting as a facet of his character.

- Lia throwing out the "kono Aiolias" left and right. Considering his earlier talk about how much he hated his brother and wanted to surpass him, are we projecting a little bit onto this new kid wearing his Cloth, Lia? Maybe... maybe a little?

- "Aiolia, why are you so loyal to the Pope!?" "BECAUSE I AM DEEPLY TRAUMATIZED--I MEAN, BECAUSE, UH, HE'S A GREAT MAN! YEAH! FUCK YOU!"

- Lia's face when Hyouga and Shun arrive on the scene. YIKES.

- And here when he effortlessly blocks Hyouga and Shun's attacks, with a "lol, you're really going to try to fight KONO AIOLIA, the gold saint?" Again, the contempt and sneering just drips off of him - he's actively mocking them - in a way that is totally, one hundred percent consistent with the way he acts when he is brainwashed, and against Hades's mooks much later. Again, holy shit, I would LOVE to get actual insight into Lia's brain re: his opinion of Milo and the Silvers.

- It is sort of sad, though, as the more pissed off and frustrated Aiolia is obviously getting - jesus christ he just came here to murder some kids out of self-loathing, and then this bullshit with Shaina, and then that bullshit with the Silver Saints, and then the MEGA FUCKING BULLSHIT of Seiya putting on his brother's Cloth and actually hitting him, and now THESE little shits show up and complicate things even more - it feels like he more forcefully repeats those rote robot-lines about "as a saint, for justice, in the name of Athena, pope is like a GOD." Aiolia has issues, man.

- As the Bronzies keep challenging him, we get another shot of Aiolia's shaking, clenched fist. Once again I must emphasize that his VA is doing a fucking amazing job of continuing to escalate Lia's various shades of mad and the various levels of "I am seriously point two seconds away from ripping you little shits apart"

- Yes, Aiolia is refusing to listen and obviously repeating lines he's been "fed" - but once again, I don't think it's stupidity, per se. It's thirteen years of trauma where he had to crush out any personal doubts in order to survive in the environment he was in. But god these kids are making it HARD and reviving OLD FEELINGS and that's PISSING HIM OFF so they GOTTA FUCKING DIE because SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP.

- Hi Saori! Thanks for showing before everyone died!

- Leo "Fuck you I don't have time for this bullshit" Aiolia vs Kido "Fuck YOU I don't have time for this bullshit" Saori, go!

- I like how Lia refers to Aiolos by his name here, and as "the traitor Aiolos", though we see how in private, in his head, he still called him "nii-san" and he reverts to "nii-san" fully once he knows the truth. Aiolia had a hard life.

- thanks for the unnecessary flashback, episode, this writeup is already getting too long doot doot doot

- It's very hard to be told that "welp, I coped and doubted myself and twisted my thoughts and sense of self for thirteen years for nothing huh!" And I appreciate that Lia doesn't instantly believe her - he needs hard proof, because otherwise it means pretty much his whole life and everything he "worked" for just falls apart. He wouldn't be a bad fit as an Umineko character, really! <_<

- Saori selectively leaving out that Mitsumasa was also a horrible person but okay BABY SAORI IS CUTE AS FUUUUUUCKKKKKKKK

- God I love that Aiolia was totally willing to murder this young girl, too, to test if she was bullshitting him about being Athena. He was really going to try to punch her fucking head off. Aiolia owns.

- I LOVE SAORI FOR CALMLY AGREEING IT TOO HAVE I MENTIONED I FUCKING LOVE HER AND THAT SHE IS THE COOLEST?

- Lia's response to Seiya's outrage at the way he demands "proof." Even though it's brief, you really do get a sense of the weight of what Lia has been struggling with since Aiolos was framed, and how hard it is for him to just throw it all aside. And his "I need it!" re: proof.

- The ghost of Aiolos finally shows up, after all this time - exclusively to shit on his little brother. Hoo boy.

- It REALLY feels like twisting the knife for Aiolos to shoot him with basically "You're not only unworthy of being a Saint, you're unworthy of being my brother! You fuckup! You moron!" Like, again, if this is an indication of Aiolos's parenting methods with training Lia, uh... no wonder Lia has such deep-set issues...

- Like, Aiolia has legitimately suffered a LOT because of Aiolos's actions all this time, so to not have a single shred of compassion and only a very stony "you fucking failure" is pretty. Uh.

- Not that Lia challenges this himself, of course, as he cries over the fact that Los wasn't a traitor and "still fights for justice." Fully indoctrinated, after all!

- "I'm not suicidal over these developments or anything. Nope. Totally not running off here to get myself killed in atonement, encouraged by my brother's ghost who was yelling at me over what a sin I've committed. Not at all. Pay no attention to the sad lion behind the curtain!"

- Doesn't escape Saori's notice, either, as she quietly asks Lia not to die as he heads off.

- And Leo Aiolia exits the episode just as he entered it: in desperate, desperate, desperate need of some serious fucking therapy.