#you want to complain about people putting pressure on Ikki if anything Daiji us the secondary victim

[firebirdsdaughter]

Also…

… While I’m on the subject of inferiority complexes, most specifically being a younger sibling w/ an inferiority complex… Well, I whole heartedly do not care about ReVice, but… I saw a comment that made me feel incredibly protective of Daiji and honestly the younger sister as well.

I’m a younger sibling. I am actually incredibly close to my sister, she’s one of my favourite people in the world, but everyone is a tired, moody teenager in some capacity. And I feel I have to say this.

Having self esteem issues centred around an older sibling is not selfish.

It doesn’t matter if that sibling is also having issues. Bc trust me. We get that. We know. Sometimes better than our parents do. But it’s impossible for us to will away our own issues just bc the ‘object’ and/or ‘cause’ is having a hard time themselves. It doesn’t work like that. We’re not ‘choosing’ to feel this way, we know perfectly well their actions are not ‘intentionally’ trying to upset us. We know that. But you don’t just walk up to someone w/ depression and tell them to ‘fix it’ (actual thing that happened to me, which is probably why this is setting me off). There’s no on or off switch—in fact, the only way to ‘stop’ it is do exactly what Daiji did—bottle it up and bury it under a bunch of other stuff. Things only came to a front bc of the whole actual supernatural occurrences. Otherwise it’d likely have been more just an eventual shouting match. Literally the only reason shit got real is that this is a universe where buried negative and persistent emotions manifest.

And it is not selfish to have self esteem issues centred around an older sibling.

Now sure, I haven’t watched it, but the impression I get is that once Ikki grabbed that Driver and used it, he was the only one who could. Fenix wasn’t at a spot yet where they were cranking out Drivers or anything. If anything, from my pov, Ikki was the selfish one for jumping in like that and then being like ‘lol nope actually.’ Well, gee, dude, then maybe you could just, uh, unbond w/ the super secret tech you just nabbed right out of your agent brother’s hands? This isn’t Barbie Swan Lake where she innocently pulls a stone out of a tree and gets told she’s the chosen one, he willingly grabbed a thing he didn’t know what it did but knew it was a weapon and jumped into the fight, then went ‘ha ha just kidding’ and tried to back out. Feel like it was pretty obvious this was a big deal/commitment when you grabbed it, mate.

Now, to be more fair, I’m not trying to deny that Ikki might have his own stuff. Again, I’m not watching the show, I don’t really care about any of the characters. But I don’t think it’s right to call Daiji selfish for having long-festering self esteem/resentment issues surrounding his brother and act like Ikki’s some poor, put upon victim for jumping into something that was clearly and then immediately trying to back out. Esp from Daiji’s point of view, who I think was supposed to have grown up feeling he’s never as good at things as his brother, so to have Ikki do this and then immediately drop it like he doesn’t care would absolutely aggravate those growing feelings. ‘Ikki shouldn’t have to save the world’ well then maybe he should have thought twice before grabbing that Driver that they said was literally made to fight these monsters. Actually, I seem to be getting the impression that that’s his character arc??? Not the first Reiwa Rider who needed to learn some empathy and awareness of others, although from what I’ve seen at least he’s making progress, unlike the other one.

Also, just assuming the sister is going to ‘resent Ikki’ just bc that was Daiji’s plot? Uh… You do know that these issues a) don’t all manifest the same, and b) just bc she’s transforming doesn’t mean it has anything to do w/ Ikki. Could be she’s mad at their dad, or someone completely unrelated to them. Way to jump to conclusions. And even if she is, so what? Again, just bc Ikki is dealing w/ his own stuff, doesn’t give him a free pass from hurting others accidentally. Just meaning well, or having your own problems, isn’t some impenetrable shield against causing harm, words I’d like to beat Aruto and Izu over their heads w/. Ikki was brash, stubborn, brave, protective, and self centred and this behaviour caused Daiji to feel inferior and not good enough, and it seems this has been building for a while. Ikki can say that he was trying to deal w/ his own burdens and was trying to do his best for the family or whatever, but that doesn’t mean that Daiji’s pain magically goes away. ‘Oh, you were having a hard time too, suddenly my suffering doesn’t matter.’ Like this is another thing that upset me about 01. ‘I’m the hero so my ‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘pain’’’’’’’’’ is more important then yours’ uh nope, sorry. Pain is pain. Ikki can be like ‘I’m sorry I was so caught up in my own shit I didn’t notice yours/that I was contributing to it’ and Daiji can be like ‘it’s okay, I know you were dealing w/ stuff too, let’s try to get better at communicating in the future’ or what not.

Now I say this bc to the degree I relate to anyone in this show, I do relate to Daiji. I’m a younger sibling who is close to my sister, but she’s also bossy, stubborn, and self righteous. I’ve spent many a family trip hiding in a corner in silence while people only ask her what she’s up to or about her drawing. It wears you down. Wanting to shine for once, wanting to be able to do something w/out your overbearing older sibling swooping in and taking over… I get that. That’s valid. And it doesn’t just go away bc they happen to have a hard time too, esp if it goes unaddressed, bc that doesn’t make it any better.

And it’s not selfish. Heck, calling Daiji selfish just… Encompasses the whole issue? He’s so inferior to Ikki, his pain is selfishness compared to Ikki’s! No. Get out of here w/ that. Difficulties w/ family relationships, even between those who love each other, are relatable and valid. They can both be in pain, they can both grow and learn from it, and Daiji is not a selfish inconvenience for being tired of Ikki swooping in.