#Digged an old twt thread so I felt like adapting it to this post lol

[digisurvive]

A little post about Aoi's values.

So that we can appreciate how deeply ideological her corruption arc is.

Previously, I talked a bit about how Plutomon's extremism ties with the game's conflict around individualism and collectivism. What makes this corruption great is that it's stemming from the values Aoi has always held; as much as they enable her to be someone who can be very generous and kind, they also serve as justification for her most intransigent and oppressive postures. This is because what she values can be summed up as follows:

Social propiety: From talking to your superiors and elders with the due respect, knowing your place in the hierarchy, and general politeness and good behavior, you can see her correcting others based on this multiple times. Which is part of the reason the group is so hierarchical earlier on, as she enforces this a lot.

Social conformity: This is mostly apparent due the way she tries her best to fulfill the external expectations placed on her, be it academically, socially or on her own behavior despite the misgivings she might hold (which are a lot, given Labramon's rather bad-tempered and opionated behavior. However, no matter how much it might aggravate her, she sticks to upholding proper behavior as a way to preserve group harmony).

Duty to one's community: Another thing that deeply drives her is wanting to be a valuable member to her community, that responsibility she has an individual to contribute to society. You can see this in the way her Cerberumon's cut scene is phrased, as one of the main catalysts for it is the sense of responsibility she feels over everyone as one of the oldest kids. She doesn't want to protect just the people close to her but make sure she can proactively get the group back home.

Cooperation: This is actually one of the things she names out loud, and people constantly foregoing it and leading to more workload/stress for her is actually one of her main resentments. Her Plutomon mad rantings about being always the one saddled with the most work evidence she values everyone doing their part. This type of reasoning can be a double-edged sword as it can be used to be deeply cruel to mentally ill/ disabled ppl, + other kinds of minorities irl. To her credit, she usually has the good grace not to directly impose this on others, but her violent Wrathful behavior coupled with her belief everyone should be like her (and fulfill societal expectations as diligently) to reach her "perfect world" show she can think like this.

Fairness/Justice: She cares about everyone getting their due and the general betterment of conditions for everyone, which is the aspect to her values that can finally factor compassion in. But it's telling it's the one value about which the answer to her arc hinges on—it distinguishes between Rightness and Fairness for good reason, as social conformity and not being disruptive/acting right don't necessarily have to center treating others fairly (think of the contrast between the rethoric used for Anubimon in contrast for Plutomon...)

Most of her values evidence her commitment to not causing disruption to a group and ensuring its proper functioning. Because she values politeness, it can mean she prefers negotiation over direct confrontation, but this isn't always a good thing, which the game is rather in your face about with how ineffective the group is at handling Shuuji following her and Takuma's conciliatory approach. Her talk about reaching mutual understanding can either fall into the aspect of social propriety or justice, so it can muddle the group's capacity to resolve conflict.

However, not only prioritizing Harmony above all else can lead to problems going by unresolved and festering, it can also be used as justification to enforce rather unyielding and strict social norms (as we very clearly see Plutomon as she enforces a strict hierarchy in her debut). Ultimately, she needs the others to guide and support her to be fair just as much as she does for them.

#Digimon survive #aoi shibuya #Digged an old twt thread so I felt like adapting it to this post lol #Bet you thought I was done meta posting lol #I'm saving some other write ups for Survive week #This will be useful to reference lol #Aoi #Meta #Mine