Ao no Flag (SERIES FINALE SPOILERS!!)
Seriously, don’t read this if you are planning to read Ao no Flag. That being said, go read the manga now!!
Finally finished reading Ao no Flag and I have so many feelings. Non-coherent, rambly, messy feelings. I was looking at reactions online and what mainly boggles me about the reactions to the final 2 chapters is people being “how is Taichi suddenly gay??” My friend living on this big planet he never was (he’s bi). He most likely just realized it later in life. Did the events of his 3rd HS year help him figure it out? Heck yes. Is he suddenly bi? No.
Not all queer people pop out into this world and instantly know they are queer. Heck, it took me 23 years to figure that out. It’s not like Taichi instantly realized he likes Touma and started dating him. He knew Touma mattered to him somehow, but it took him multiple years to realize how, as evident by him maybe starting his relationship with Touma after 5 years when Touma contacted them all. He gained life experience and grew.
People go through a lot of learning, unlearning and growing. Especially if you are outside of societal expectations and norms. Taichi grew up learning to and wanting to blend in with society. “Be normal, don’t stand out too much”. Add to that low self-confidence and you feel stuck. Feel like there is only black and white. only one right answer to life. It can be very difficult to look out of this dark box, trust me, I had a tough time and sometimes still do. But it feels like Taichi thought and thought and pondered even back in high school and came to the decisions that he did.
And isn’t that what the series is about? growing as a person, making mistakes, learning, allowing yourself to be visible and vulnerable, and eventually, making choices, even if they don’t make sense to anyone else, and continuing to do so?
These two pages really hit me hard and I was wondering why. And then it hit me. This is possibly the happiest I’ve seen Taichi be since his childhood. Like genuinely happy. He’s reached max happiness points and is sharing those with Touma. He’s made his choices, and he’s happy. You can and are allowed to choose what or who makes you happy.
That’s all that matters.
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A part of Luffy's character I think is kinda overlooked or at least not taken too seriously is his views on violence. I often see people joke on how he was kind to Otama but pretty harsh on Momonosuke, but I think that not many people realise how he is really just doing the same thing that Garp used to do on him.
Its very clear that Luffy uses two types of violences. There is the "friendly" "affectionate" violence, and there is the serious, actually dangerous one. In the first instance is what we often see between him and his crewmates, they exchange beatings and other stuff (mostly from Nami lmao) and while it can be attributed to the slapstick like nature of One Piece's humor, it goes much deeper than that. Garp used his "fist of love" on Luffy all of the time, Luffy was used to this kind of stuff from an early age, and it was normalised to him.
An example of this is that scene in Dressrosa when after that long headed grandpa (forgot his name) explained why he hated Garp and Luffy told him that his reasoning was ridiculus because Luffy was hit way more times but never held a grudge. (Its also true that Luffy does reconise Garp's parenting as being too extreme tho, since in Amazon Lily he espressed not wanting to recall the nights he spent alone in the jungle. But at least when it came to acts of violence directelly from him he was fine with it.)
HOWEVER Luffy also knew actually bad violence from an early age, the one that was meant to kill him. He obviously freaked out when Ace and Sabo wanted to kill him, and of course he was genuenly scared when the Bluejam pirates kidnapped him and Ace. Luffy clearly has a neat distinction in mind when it comes to this type of stuff. And what we see with Momonosuke was an example of the remnants of Garp's tough love and Luffy's genuine and benevolent desire for Momo to be a great man.
I wanted to add some stuff, but I think you explained it pretty well. Honestly, I obviously don't agree with those methods of raising somebody, but due to it being a world of pirates in which they actually have to act with a bit of tough love and violence, I think it's not that bad. I think what makes Garp's "training" and "tough love" bad is the fact that he did it for the wrong reasons. He wanted Luffy to be a marine and tbh most of the times we've seen Garp acting like that around Luffy weren't even necessary for training. I can get behind tough love in a show about pirates, obviously, but not when there are more reasons behind that than just "you need to protect yourself / train" like Garp forcing Luffy to be what he wanted to be, and not letting him follow his dream. Which, you know, I get it because being a marine would be safer, but it was obvious that it was hurting Luffy. And Garp didn't even have the decency to at least take care of the kid himself, he just left him all alone and then had the audacity to keep treating him like that as if he had the right to use tough love on him. Like-- Zeff and Sanji also use tough love but Zeff doesn't leave Sanji alone nor tortures him and stops when it's too much. I think Garp doesn't. Maybe that's just how I perceive it.
But yeah- Luffy's views on violence are really influenced by Garp's way of raising him. Honestly, I think it's pretty normal (once again saying, especially around pirates because they do not have usual relationships and dynamics) in the crew to use violence like that between them. Nami hitting Luffy or, y'know, in general the crew is like that and they use tough love a lot. But it isn't serious?? Like. They're pirates. They fight. They're violent. We need to keep that in mind first. But also, it's not only tough love that they use and that's only occasional and not a thing that happens all the time. But Luffy recognizes that as tough love and that's why he acts like that with Momo. But tbh? Luffy does it, like, insanely better with Momo. Better than Garp for sure. He treats him that way because he recognizes that, even thought Momo is still a kid, he has a responsibility and he will hate himself even more if he doesn't grow up quickly to face it, Luffy helps Momo realize some crucial stuff about him using tough love but also never leaves him on his own and he's always by his side being a brother when he needs it. He's empathetic and a sweetheart to him too, he's just harsh when Momo needs to be stronger and that's the only way Luffy has of telling him. He doesn't treat Otama like that because she doesn't need it. She's just a kid. The only times in which he's harsh around her is when it comes to Ace's death, and he's just being realistic about it because dancing around it will only make it hurt more and he thinks that ripping off the band-aid is better than being careful with it. Because that's how his brain works. Dead people don't come back, and he has been aware of that ever since he was Tama's age, so...
Anyway, the thing with Luffy and violence is that he turns the way Garp raised him and how his crew acts around each other into a way of putting some sense of responsibility/reality into the kids he meets because if they have to grow up fast, better be ready for that with somebody that knows how it feels like.
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listen. I don't just love father brown because I first saw it while ill with the flu or because it's consistently kind to the outcast in a way that has reviewers calling it Too Woke, obviously a vote in its favour. or because the recurring thief character is very pretty to watch. though those are significant parts of it.
I love it because after eight seasons father brown sits down with the village drunk (a munitions expert in the war, has a soft spot for the parish secretary, name of harold or blind harry) to find out why he gave a murder suspect a false alibi and harry explains to him, calm as you like, that seeing the life leave someone's eyes changes a person, that it's what he reckons brought father brown to his faith, that it's what drove him to drink, and he didn't see that shadow in the guy the police are chasing this time. and father brown, rather than justifying or correcting or dodging or doubting him, says he knows how unjust the situation is. that he got something good out of the horrors of the war. that harry really didn't.
it is not a perfect show and yes I have problems with it but gosh, this is a character who's largely used for comedic beats, albeit kindly, and a scene like this isn't out of place at all but it still takes my breath away. we could've been left with this as subtext, y'know? I hadn't even put together that his alcoholism must have been trauma. but instead harry tells us this directly, tells us it's about guilt, that that's something he shares with father brown, who is competent and so often cheerful and I can't even imagine when he was younger, and it's a moment of such unexpected humanity and respect. and it's such a strange thing to see these characters side by side like that.
the scene ends with father brown calling harry a good man, and harry denying it ("they was only young lads" "so were we, harold. so were we.") and the two them sharing a drink as father brown gets a bit watery-eyed and I'm crying too over my nice cosy 'this is a concerning number of murders for a sleepy english village' show and just. hi. what. ow.
I also haven't recovered from the episode that turned into a heist halfway through but frankly I'm only mentioning that because I don't know how to wrap up a post like this. (it was good though. there were two separate honeypots, three if you count the impromptu replacement, one character terrible at grifting and one unexpectedly great at it, and, somehow, a con within a con. it was really very fun. get a show that can do both, I guess?)
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