#the more i analyse ss the more angry i am on shun's behalf

[princesandromeda]

“My brother isn’t dead! He became stardust in the battle of the Twelve Temples! My brother is no longer in this world! My brother is no longer in this world!”

The Poseidon Arc has never been (and probably never will be) a favorite of mine, for many reasons. Nothing in the animated version really stuck with me, and now that Panini reached this point in printing the ultimate version of the manga, I don’t really feel any different.

In the animated version, some time after the battle agains the God Warrios in Asgard, Saori is kidnapped by Poseidon and taken to the world he created under the sea (no pun intended) and, after she rejected him again, he accepted his offer of letting her save humanity by flooding the main pillar with her inside instead of flooding earth.

In the manga, this happened in a similar manner, except for the fact that she wasn’t kidnapped at all, but rather, after Mermaid Sorrento killed Taurus Aldebaran, she went there and demanded to see Poseidon to try and convince him into not flooding humanity. (And they apparently didn’t know each other was Poseidon/Athena which was a funny scene I guess)

(I also want to point out that Kurumada did a really good job representing the mermaids from the Greek mythology)

He proposes they govern the new earth together, she rejects him again, and the same thing about saving humanity and becoming a human pilar usw. (in other words: I’m actually angry at the animated version bc they continued the narrative that Saori is rendered helpless every single time by every enemy, gets kidnapped and always has to be rescued by the Bronce Saints. One reason I really liked SSO, was because at the end of the second season, it broke off this narrative... sort of.)

The Bronce Saints wake up from their coma (for whatever reason), and follow Kiki’s nose (?) to the world under the sea.

For whatever reason Thetis explains them what the pillars are, where they are and how to destroy them (honestly, she could have just said nothing and they would have been none the wiser until they killed the shoguns smh).

We start with Seiya vs. Seahorse Baian, a battle I really liked bc it explains how Seiya has learned from his previous battles (!)

Then we have Shun’s battle against Scilla Io (one I actually liked), which demonstrates that while Shun still has some pacifist ideals (i.e. tying Scilla instead of killing him and attacking the pillar bc his goal was to destroy the pillar and not to defeat the shogun, though Scilla got between the attack at the end and died anyways, bc convenience) he will fight if it comes down to it, and also risk his life if it will mean less deaths, wtf not.

on another note, I didn’t remember Shun using the nunchucks and I also didn’t know it was something I needed in my life

I have no commentary for Shiryu’s and Krishna’s battle. I was just... ??? Idk I didn’t like it.

And then we have the battle against Kasa.

Both Seiya and Hyoga start out incredibly sceptical of the fact that Marin and Camus are there, but at some point they fell for it (too easy, imo, Hyoga should have known it wasn’t Camus by the fact that he wasn’t doing jibes at his Oedipus Syndrome). Shun also believed that Kasa was Ikki, but was saved from having the same fate as Hyoga and Seiya by the fact that his chains are awesome. Shun realizes that it isn’t Ikki by the fact that he is filled with hate when, after being brought back to Earth by Shaka, he was no longer hateful, but repentant, and trying to make amends, they apologize and have a wonderful heart to heart (cut from the anime unfortunately); anyways, Kasa reveals who he is, and Shun immediately knows the creature his scale represents, and how it parallels his technique.

He says that even if it’s a battle field, abusing the kindness out of people’s hearts is something he absolutely cannot forgive, and starts using his chains to immobolize him before using the triangle chain to try and kill him, but Kasa takes the form of Ikki again (thus the internal dialogue at the top, that I found very interesting and the main reason the outcome of the battle dissapointed me so) and Shun says that, even if he knows it’s the enemy, he couldn’t kill someone who looks so much like his brother.

Run that by me again?!

We have seen in his battle against Aphrodite (and even in his battle against Io) that he is capable of killing, even if very reluctant and after the umpteenth second chance. Even at the very end of his battle against Aphrodite, he tried to reason and not to kill him, out of the pureness of his soul, because he thought he was redeemable of killing his master with no thought (something on par, imo, with impersonating his thought-to-be-dead brother and attempting to kill his precious friends).

I think that, at this point, even with all his pureness, he could have been capable of killing Kasa, he knew it wasn’t his brother, and while I could have accepted him not wanting to kill him because he still dislikes killing and is queasy after his battle against Io, but I also think that him impersonating his brother would have angered him (it sure did at the beggining), and gave him a lot more reasons to defeat him and destroy his pillar.

In my honest opinion, Shun being rendered helpless by Kasa, only to be saved by Ikki later on, was a very cheap resource to bring Ikki back into the narrative, very influenced by the animated adaptation, and just... it completely destroys Shun’s character developement. And his battle against Sorrento (that I do not remember bc the Poseidon arc was just... not memorable) didn’t endear me to Shun’s animated version.

I think that, something that would have had way more impact, would be Shun defeating Kasa, destroying the pillar, helping his friends (or not bc they are always on a hurry I guess) and when they arrive at Kanon’s pillar they see Ikki doing a stand-off with Seadragon.

(and regarding Seadragon: I think that it being Shaina instead who stepped between Poseidon’s triton and Seiya undermined his redemption and it made for a lot of confusion in the Hades OVAs, when he is suddenly a super devoted and repentant Saint, jfc, though it did a very good job on driving the point home on just how fucking devoted she is to Seiya, something that, imo, the anime did really good.)

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.