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firebirdsdaughter · 4 years

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I'm honestly not too shocked that Aruto is going to work together Gai now. He always rubbed me the wrong way when it came to his views about Humagears, esp his reaction to Raiden & Subaru. That was a huge red flag for me. Also, if he's really so concerned about the well-being of Humagears, then he should offer counseling for the destroyed & revived Humagears to deal with the trauma. But I guess that would be too much to ask. As long as they serve humans who cares about Humagears' feelings.

I def agree w/ you, he’s rubbed me the wrong way in many of the same ways.

It’s hard to believe he sees HumaGear as people when he’s all pleased w/ Raiden talking about how he’ll be decommissioned soon and even calling the two of them ‘just like real brothers.’

You know, like he keeps saying Horobi is ‘trying to be like Jin’s father.’

And don’t even get me started on ‘a caring brother can’t be a spy,’ ‘if only you had been different,’ ‘why did you hurt Izu?’ ‘I’ve never treated them differently’…

AUGH.

To me, Aruto’s ‘dream’ can be summed up in a line from a song that was cut from Frozen (ya’ll thought I’d forgotten about this, didn’t you, but no) that goes ‘It’ll be just like it was, except for we’ll be best friends.’

This got long, so I’m cutting it here. Or. I’m trying to.

He doesn’t see HumaGear as equal to people, he just wants them to stay right where they are, and ‘be happy’ there. ‘Good’ HumaGear are the ones whose development is convenient for humans. Raiden was ‘good’ when he saw no problem dying bc his ‘purpose was served,’ Naki was ‘good’ when they just wanted to support other HumaGear’s dreams as long as they were steered towards HumaGear w/ dreams of benefiting humanity, Jin is ‘good’ now bc he’s not trying to get HumaGear away from serving humans anymore and is also willing to kill his own father or due himself to do something that will benefit humans. The morality of the show has always been very much centred around humans, how HumaGear benefit humans, and HumaGear are expected to be these perfect little angels who exist to help humans and never think of themselves. Horobi is ‘bad’ bc he has resentment towards humans and has been so deeply under the Ark’s control for so long that he can’t think outside of her (esp not after being possessed) so obviously he doesn’t ‘want’ to be ‘change.’

I said it in the tags of my other post, but there’s something wrong w/ the picture when you’re holding a literally mind controlled AI who hasn’t had any concept of free will or self thought in his entire life aside from small snatches that were quickly stomped out, more accountable than a human w/ full autonomy and knowledge and power who deliberately did things that caused death and harm (and shot someone in the head). It’s not a good message. I’m supposed to feel bad for Gai bc he’s ‘sad,’ but Horobi deserves to die? I’m sorry, what?

The message has very much been ‘humans are special special and HumaGear are expendable/need to be carefully moulded into a ‘singularity’ that’s at the least convenient for humans.’ ‘Good’ HumaGear aspire only to properly serve their humans, to be like them, they are pure and angelic creatures who never feel anything ‘negative,’ and if they do, they need to be purged.

I could rant myself in circles about this for ages. I think for me, the really glaring example is Aruto’s treatment of Jin, a relationship that could have been an interesting learning experience for both of them (though, honestly, I was also hoping to see Fuwa also help Aruto realise the issues w/ his attitude, bc as he started coming down from his prejudice and aggression, Fuwa actually treated HumaGear more like equals than Aruto did, one of the many things I loved about him and Horobi as a pair), but instead ends up being a glaring example of Aruto’s… Whatever.

So Horobi has his first moment of clarity and genuinely fears for Jin, so the Ark steps in and ‘tells’ him to protect his son, so he does and it hurt, and Jin is hysterical. Izu proceeds to walk right up to the still-transformed, clearly emotionally volatile and very uninjured Jin, and announce w/ a smile that Horobi has been defeated. Jin, hysterical and lost, reacts in the only way he knows how, violently, which she should have bloody seen coming, wth. But then, Aruto is demanding to know ‘why did you hurt Izu’ like she did nothing wrong and Jin just attacked her randomly (which was a thing that could have happened and would have made his emotions make mire sense, Jin lashing out at Izu as ‘revenge’ for Horobi), and then Jin gets treated like the total bad guy. Then, on top of that, Aruto finds out during the fight that Jin doesn’t actually know what’s going on, he’s just been raised into this. Instead of immediately trying to change tactics and reason w/ him, Aruto just spews his ‘I want HumaGear and humans to smile together’ line (what does that even mean?), and when Jin rejects that, Aruto just… Gives up and says ‘if only you had been different.’ doesn’t try to prompt Jin to think about what Jin wants, what Jin is feeling, doesn’t bother to try to find out why Jin is so hysterical. It gets even worse when he quickly gains the firepower advantage and learns that Izu will be totally fine, but he still doesn’t bother trying anything else. He just kills Jin, bc… What? Jin didn’t immediately bow to his ‘love’ for HumaGear? Of course once sentence wasn’t gonna do it, he just watched humans kill his father! Aruto didn’t need to kill Jin at all, it would have been easy to disable him—alternatively, if they really wanted Jin to go down there, there were ways to do it that didn’t make it come off as Aruto quickly erasing a HumaGear for having any negative feelings or resentment towards humans, esp when you follow it w/ a scene of him and Izu being all pleased about other HumaGear ‘behaving’ themselves, and then never mention Jin again.

Fast forward, and when Jin comes back talking about wanting to free HumaGear from humans… Aruto actually asks him what he wants, finally? Then Aruto gets the boot from Hiden and decides to go to Jin for help. This should be a turning point where Jin get to properly confront Aruto about what happened and Aruto reflects on what he did, but no. Jin gets to shout a little, but then Aruto claims he never treated humans and HumaGear differently and says ‘I watched my HumaGear dad die’ and Jin just… Says nothing? doesn’t shoot back w/, ‘so did I, humans killed him.’ Then they get interrupted and Jin runs off… Only to… Rescue Izu later? But then after he does he… Grabs her hand and runs away and tries to convince her to be free? After… Literally buying his father time to reconnect to the Ark? And this is Izu? Who he stabbed? Okay… Anyway, then we have more stuff w/ poor connotations of Jin saying he ‘learned something’ from Aruto killing him and Izu ‘choosing’ to keep being Aruto’s secretary like a ‘good’ little HumaGear (her liking him and wanting to stay on his side would be one thing, but this… Esp w/ him claiming that he thought she should choose, going by his later insistence that Jin can’t take G-Pen bc he’s a human’s ‘partner’), and only then does he take a bullet for her. This apparently means something to Jin, although I feel like the implications of ‘she’s worth protecting bc she decided to keep serving humans and I killed you bc you didn’t want to do that’ should not have been lost on him (also wtf did Jin start caring about Izu?). The we have the next ep w/ aforementioned G-Pen incident which for some reason Aruto defending another HumaGear choosing to serve humans makes Jin decide to ‘believe in his dream’ or whatever. But then later the Raiden scene makes it seem like Jin was playing along bc that conversation w/ Horobi about HumaGear needing guidance to break free gave him an idea or something, I dunno, but naturally Aruto reacts like this is some huge betrayal, despite the fact that they hardly have any relationship—okay, so this friendship is something Aruto made up in his head, given his character, and apparent assumptions that all HumaGear actually adore humans, that makes sense. That could work. But then episode thirty fucking six happens. Jin apparently cares more for Yaiba, a human he’s barely interacted w/ who had yet to show any sign of no longer considering HumaGear to be tools, who had previously represented all the things Jin hated about them, then his own father. Acts all protective of her, throws himself in as a shield for her, moons about while she’s in the hospital. Then we learn he decided he trusted her (?????) enough to conspire w/ her to… Use his own father as a sacrifice to kill the Ark. Aruto seems to be more worried about Horobi, but merely yells a bit about how Horobi should ‘remember who he is by now.’ Come ep 37, Jin fucking takes a hit for miss perfect HumaGear Izu (note: aside from her grabbing the idiot ball in ep 15, my annoyance w/ Izu isn’t really something she as a character has done, it’s the way they’ve written her as the ‘pinnacle of ‘good’ HumaGear for her devotion to her human’), and tells Aruto to leave. Now that Jin is behaving in a way that benefits/is convenient for humans, though, Aruto is a like ‘oh, we totally were best buds, I was right!’ and is so worried and distressed about him, forgetting Horobi (who is so ‘bad’ for not being able to break through more than a decade of mind control! forget him, Jin must be saved!). Then we have that incredibly forced scene in 38 where Aruto tries to ‘get through to Jin’ and Jin ‘breaks through the Ark’s control bc of Aruto’ (see my draft horse pack on a shetland pony analogy) and ‘tells Aruto to kill him!’ which continues in to this ep. In which we also have… Gai. Who Aruto quickly puts effort into ‘reasoning w/’ and ‘showing the light’ bc ‘oh no he had a bad childhood’… Okay, but… You killed Jin for that, and he literally didn’t understand what he was doing. Gai had full autonomy and knowledge of his actions. People were hurt bc of both of their actions, but it’s Gai who gets a big speech and Jin who gets blown up. I said it back when it happened. If Jin had been human? I bet they would have made Aruto approach that much differently.

The fact that Aruto is willing to do all that for Gai but killed Jin, and only now considers Jin worth any effort bc Jin is behaving in a way that benefits/is convenient for humans even at the expense of HumaGear (being willing to sacrifice Horobi, even himself, to stop the Ark, while that goal is technically ultimately noble, the context gives a bad connotation), and not trying to talk HumaGear out of being subservient to humans and telling them to think for themselves, or wanting to revive a HumaGear that Aruto was content to leave deactivated bc he didn’t have a ‘use’… But Horobi only gets a few shouts and then ditched bc he ‘won’t listen’… Leaves a really bad impression.

#Anonymous #Asks #Firebird Salt #Spoilers #wow #I'm #I'm so sorry #apparently I just…#really needed to go off #sorry about that

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firebirdsdaughter · 4 years

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Conclusion:

The ‘main’ reason I cannot understand this alleged relationship between Fuwa and Naki (and esp not that scene, I’m sorry, but what exactly did humans do to justify that?) is that they never seem to care about each other unless forced to interact.

Neither ever mentions the other, neither ever has any tacit indications that they’re thinking of the other or mention them at all. They don’t seem to remember the other person exists unless they are literally standing in front of them for some reason. Fuwa doesn’t seem at all concerned about Naki, doesn’t mention them, doesn’t ask about them. When the Ark raises and they only see Horobi and Jin, there’s no moment of him demanding if Naki’s okay, what happened to Naki. He never tries to seek them out. Likewise, there’s absolutely no indication of Fuwa having any effect on Naki. They don’t react to seeing the Ark giving them a wolf Key (which, after this development, there are so many connotations about that I hate), they don’t refer to him when facing Gai, they don’t seek him out. There’s no indication that he effected them at all or has any influence over them, esp not enough to counter the Ark’s power. When doubting the Ark, when talking to Jin, they don’t mention Fuwa at all. Fuwa doesn’t mention Naki to Ai-chan, as far as I can remember, nor does he ever specifically bring them up when discussing the chip unless someone else did first. Like, obviously neither would be talking about the other all the time, but the complete lack of interest makes That scene and the show’s repeated attempts to claim they are connected feel very empty and impersonal.

Meanwhile, in contrast, we have Fuwa and Horobi. Fuwa spent the majority of the first arc w/ a grudge against Horobi, and Horobi, while largely pompous and disregarding, seemed aware Fuwa’s existence outside of direct interaction. And on top of that, they spent all that time in the basement together, interacting. Fuwa was the only one Horobi saw, Fuwa talked about Horobi to other people, shot down Aruto’s suggestion to destroy him, confronted Yua about his restarting. When Horobi escaped, Fuwa pursued him.

Like… If they had given any other indication of either of them having any effect on each other outside of the times that ‘required’ them to interact (Naki’s one ep long ‘arc,’ when they were separated, Yua taking them to see him in the hospital), then this wouldn’t feel so weird to me. But it’s just like Yua and Jin. Two characters who give not even tacit indications that they’re connected suddenly being treated like they have some deep relationship.

I have other issues, namely the fact that Naki doesn’t feel like a character anymore, they feel like a device (excuse me while I go vomit bc I’m pretty sure I called that their ending is going to be them being reduced to Fuwa’s ‘Izu’ and I’m just… Just… No.). In the same way Williamson really should just have been Gai, Naki feels like they got wedged into a plot that was originally Horobi’s, for similar but opposite reasons—Williamson was wedged in to fill a space left by an abrupt attempt to redeem Gai, while Naki feels like they got wedged into this plot w/ Fuwa due to the abrupt attempt to make Horobi the bad guy. The unfortunate fact about this unfortunately accurate (for me) comparison is that Naki is so much more interesting than Williamson, it’s like… Painful. Oh my gods. Why is he even here.

But again, the above could have easily been mitigated (like, I’d still be salty bc, hello, die-hard Horobi and Fuwa fan, but that’s me) if, like… Naki and Fuwa had actually acted like they meant something to each other in some way. The lack of that is what makes me feel like I’m being dryly informed of their ‘relationship’ second hand, or at a distance. There’s a disconnect. Like w/ Jin and Yua, the actors give it their all, but they just can’t close the gap.

Alternatively, if Takahashi weren’t absolute shit at writing and developing multiple relationships, we could have had a cool thing about Fuwa being the focal point of realisation for two of the most fragile characters—I would have loved to see Naki get that boost of not being a tool, and then it being them who ultimately gets through to Yua, and that’s part of what prompts her to help mbjr separate them from Fuwa (this would be helped by, like, actually treating that as a thing… Literally the chip plot being expanded would have helped everything so much). I’ve said before I see Naki and Horobi as having been in different situations, w/ them being externally ‘conditioned’ and him being literally ‘controlled’ from w/in. Them recovering quicker and being able to move on would have made sense, Horobi was always going to be a long term project (which it seems humans were ultimately unwilling to commit to…). Following through on the ‘protect Vulcan’ plot w/ Horobi dealing w/ Fuwa and Naki being connected and/or separated, differentiating between them while they deal w/ their situation… I could totally have gone for that.

But instead, there’s this weird thing where all of Fuwa and Horobi’s development is treated like it never happened, and even though Fuwa and Naki hardly interact and show absolutely no lasting interest in each other unless required to do so, they’re apparently deeply connected and have effected each other.

It’s one of those things where Takahashi starts interesting… But then can’t follow through.

#Firebird Opinions #Firebird Negativity #not spoilers bc I am not addressing that scene in detail bc it makes my head hurt w/ how over the top and ooc it was #also… just… reducing Naki to Fuwa' 'Izu'#I've gone over w/ my issues of how Izu was treated #and esp w/ how everything has been going #it feels very much like Naki will be right back where we saw them at the start of Project Thouser #except it will be 'okay' bc it's 'Fuwa'#…#yeah no sorry #anyway this is the main reason why I just can't believe Fuwa and Naki as close at all #ESP not as anything that'd be comparable to Jin and Horobi or Subaru and Raiden or Aruto and Izu #all three of those relationships had clear connections they are aware of each other #like it was clear how they effected each other even when they weren't necessarily together #Naki and Fuwa again I just feel like I'm being told w/ no backup or evidence #which sucks bc Nakayama's a legend and Naki IS interesting #and I wish they'd been given more to do than… I dunno 'be a victim'#they don't really feel like they had a further part in mbjr #did they make the ZetsumeRisers?#like most of mbjr and Yua we literally know next to nothing about them #Horobi has an advantage in that front bc he's been in the show since the start despite Takahashi #Raiden his past was literally part of his introduction for all it was never ecplored #Naki feels even LESS utilised #which is a large part of why I struggle so much to connect w/ them and… to care in some ways #why do I care about this random new person when characters who have been there since the start are so under used?#anyway #I wanted to get this off my chest bc I know it'll be weighing on me over the course of the week #as I see #well 'see' I have had to filter Naki's tag again bc nope not looking at that scene #people talk about it

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