rewatching season 1 and thinking about these two scenes as parallels is so upsetting
Joyce reaching out, putting both hands on the wall where she can see her son on the other side begging for help and being able to do nothing about it and El doing the same, both hands on the glass of the tank, desperate for someone to save her, say that that's enough and pull her out but no one does. The man she sees as her only form of parental figure or even family is the one that put her there in the first place and he is not coming to help her, he's watching from the side lines as she panics and screams for help and chooses to do nothing.
That's why these scenes mean so much!! El finally having people there who care about her. She's in the same situation, sensory deprivation tank (or swimming pool), trying to find someone but this time she knows why and she's being supported. She has a choice and she knows this, she's told this. She's shown care and appreciation for her powers and selflessness in helping them find Will and Barb, she's not just a tool or weapon here, she's a kid. She's not being used, she's helping on her own accord.
She just deserves her family so much, Hop and the Byers and the rest of the party, people who support and love her for who she is, not what she can do.
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something I’ve been thinking abt is how many people think Makoto is immune to despair. I don’t think he is. I think becoming the ultimate Hope was BECAUSE he felt despair. He wouldn’t have fully reached that point without Junko. Makoto becoming such a beacon was his last attempt to avoid completely falling and it wasn’t because he didn’t feel despair, it was because he was too damn stubborn to allow everything to go to waste and he refused to sacrifice his beliefs for someone else’s. His inner monologue tells me he DID experience the same new low the other suvivors did in the final trial, but at the point where he had the choice to give up and die, he looked at the others and he looked at Junko and he couldn’t allow it to happen, not out of self preservation, but because the idea that Junko would have control over their lives made him FURIOUS. and that utter refusal to die kicked in, wether luck or otherwise, and he made the concious effort for one last push while something in him was breaking. He had to be broken in order for the Ultimate Hope to come through so aggressively, bc it could only exist in the face of the Ultimate Despair. He snapped the same way she did, but in the other direction. In what could have been his final moments he chose to embody everything Junko wasn’t, and every single optimistic and luck fueled ideal in him suddenly charged forward and pushed him. It was a combination of the final straw and a choice. Makoto isn’t immune to feeling despair, he’s just too stubborn to fall into it of his own volition. I think that’s why I like that scene in DR3 so much. People were SO SHOCKED Makoto actually fell for the tape, that he actually became despair for a moment. I saw people getting mad or disappointed, saying it was pathetic and Makoto seemed to fall from some sort of pedestal for them. Honestly part of me wonders if that sort of mentality, which clearly people had in universe, affected Makoto a bit. Like he started to see himself as less of a person, subconsciously. Prompting him to take more risks, less self preservation, act way more bold. It seems he has to be reminded a lot not to put himself in danger by his friends, to not do something too reckless. All over the place I would see in regards to that scene either this frivolous ‘oh this was just angst drama with no meaning behind it’ or ‘he can do better than that. he’s so weak’ or ‘come on, there’s no way he’d fall into despair, he’s the Ultimate Hope!’ This kind of mentality, which was kind of ironic considering Ryota was there the entire time saying the same thing and treating Makoto the same way. Like Makoto was superhuman. Like Makoto didn’t feel despair the same way ‘normal people’ did. In a way that was also how Munakata saw Makoto. Makoto stopped being a PERSON to the world when he became Ultimate Hope, he became a concept, a belief system, much the same way Junko ascended beyond herself. But the difference is that treating Makoto that way is the opposite of the reason Makoto became such a representative for hope. He wasn’t doing something no one else could. He was doing something everyone had the chance to, he just… was a little more optimistic, a little more stubborn, a little more ‘gung-ho’ about things. He just took the lead where no one else did, where no one else knew they even COULD in the face of Junko’s unstoppable force. She had overcome the biggest threats and obstacles in the world, what could one person do? And the answer Makoto found was, anything. Everything. It doesn’t all rest on Makoto, he’s just the one that was inspired to try to do what seemed like the impossible. But as evidenced by the change in his friends after that trial, it’s clearly not something only Makoto is capable of. The others pulled out of despair thanks to Makoto, but it was their choice to do so.
“But… this world is so huge, and we’re so small. What can we do…? No, we can probably do anything. Yeah! We can do anything!”
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I remember seeing a fanart on Twitter of Mahiru and Shidou jumping Kazui after they found out his crime. Can you do a fic of them beating his ass after finding out his crime
RIP Kazui sdfasdf -- thank you for the request pal!! (I assume you mean the cheating theory and not homophobic 06 09 LMAO) Mikoto is always down to stir things up, though it took a while to picture what Mahiru would be driven to. In the name of love I think she'd become a force to be reckoned with 👏👏👏 I hope you enjoy >:3
Some occupants of Milgram are excellent at lying. They hide a great many things, and pull a great many poker faces. Other occupants are the very worst at it. They wear their heart on their sleeve, for better or worse. Kazui was one of the excellent ones. Mahiru was not.
When Muu asked if he understood any of the celebrity news they were discussing at dinner, he convinced her that he knew everyone they’d mentioned with a grin. When Mahiru told Fuuta his hair looked “perfectly stylish” after he tried cutting it himself, she got a much rougher reception as he saw right through her.
When Es declared Kazui forgiven “despite his infidelity,” he had maintained the perfect expression to hide the fact that they were a bit off. When Mahiru waved her fingers and told Kazui nothing was wrong, he could plainly see there was bitterness underneath her words.
He couldn't fathom what he'd done to upset her – they'd had pleasant conversations during meals, and played games in the common area. The pair never spoke about it, though; there was no need to make her any more angry. Kazui had nearly forgotten about it by the time Es disappeared.
Mikoto proved a slightly better liar, but Kazui caught some odd expressions from him as well. They were smoking in silence together when there was a knock at the door. He answered with his cigarette still resting between his teeth. He was surprised to find Mahiru glaring up at him.
She drew herself up, appearing taller and more intimidating than usual. There was a fire in her eyes he hadn’t experienced before. “In the name of true love –!” she cried. She squeezed her eyes shut and wound her arm back. Kazui looked at her quizzically. It wasn’t as if she was going to slap anyone.
She slapped him. Hard.
The force knocked the cigarette from his lips and sent him coughing on the smoke. Suddenly Mikoto was behind him, holding his arms in place.
“Woo! He’s all yours, Mappi!”
Seeing the sudden turn of events, Shidou leapt in to help. He tried to wrench Kazui away by his right arm, but Mikoto held fast to his left. He didn't particularly enjoy being the subject of their tug-of-rope. His legs stumbled between them, falling a bit to one knee. He was left sputtering for breath, pinned between them and facing a fierce Mahiru. He didn't know when she and Mikoto planned all this, and his mind was spinning too fast to think too hard on it.
Kazui looked frantically to her, but her rage was rapidly dulling. She slowly returned to looking exactly 154 cm short. Her mouth twisted into a wobbly frown. “W-what do I do?”
“Eh? You said you wanted to teach him a lesson! Let's go, throw some punches! A few kicks!”
She covered his face with her hands. “I've never hit anyone before!”
“But, you just did?” Mikoto adjusted his hold.
“Not like that!”
Shidou bristled. “Why is she hitting anyone?”
Reminded of her reasons, Mahiru uncovered her face. “Kazui Mukuhara – this is what you get! This is what you get for being a dirty, rotten, cheater!” She tried again, bringing her arm back. The movement seemed to pain her more than anything.
He was met with another stinging slap, despite Shidou’s protests. Kazui gasped for air, finally catching his breath now that the smoke had cleared from his lungs. His hair had fallen in front of his eyes.
“We know what you did,” Mahiru said. “Oh, we know everything.”
Mikoto made a sound of agreement from behind. “It’s pretty fucked up, comforting Shidou about loosing his wife like that, while you’re a cheater yourself.”
Kazui opened his mouth, but Mahiru interrupted.
“I don’t want to hear any excuses! Es may have forgiven you, but in the name of true love, I’m going to punish you all the same!”
Although Mikoto was stronger than Kazui had given him credit for, he didn't have the muscle to completely hold him. Kazui pulled himself from the grip, grabbing Mahiru’s wrist as she swung for him again. Shidou took a step back, as the situation fell under control.
Kazui smiled gently. “You don’t need to punish anybody. Es didn’t get the full story.” He released her.
“Oh yeah?” came her incredulous reply. She lifted her fists as if preparing for a brawl, but she had one of the worst forms he'd ever seen. She bounced on the balls of her feet, brandishing her fists. She looked like she was going to start crying.
“Mahiru, I didn’t cheat on my wife.”
“Oh thank god.” She dropped her fists.
Mikoto raised an eyebrow, either from the turn of events, or he was annoyed at how effortlessly Kazui had escaped him. “There was no other woman?”
He let out a deep laugh. “Not at all.”
“Oh, I just knew it!” Mahiru leapt forward to hug him.
“If you knew it, why did you slap me…?”
“I’m sorry! I hope it didn’t hurt! Oh, and I was going to try and hit you again… I’m so sorry!”
She pulled back from the embrace, looking to him with horror. He continued with his warm expression.
“No, no. I was just surprised. I wasn’t afraid of another hit.”
She turned to Mikoto and Shidou to express her excitement, and Kazui reached up to rub his burning cheek. His eyes flicked to Mahiru with uncertainty. He was, after all, an excellent liar.
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Me, lying face down on the carpet: I don't know how many times I have to explain that people love characters like Steve Harrington and Zuko, is that they have done things that are bad. They have said things that are bad. Possibly reprehensible. Possibly violent.
But then. And this is THE fundamental aspect of them that you must understand, they realized they were wrong. They realized that what they did and who they were were not things they were proud of. Were not things they liked doing or wanted to continue doing. Were things that hurt people. They realized that they didn't want to be that person anymore.
And then they changed. They went and tried to apologize to those they wronged. They worked to fix what they had done or helped do. They made strides to be different from what they once were.
Zuko stood up to his father, he apologized to the Gang, admitted to them he and his people were wrong, and taught Aang Fire bending. He changed and he helped and he apologized.
Steve helped clean up graffiti, he went to Jonathan's house to apologize for the terrible things he said and their fight(and got dragged into monster fighting and saved Jonathan and Nancy's lives), he replaced the camera he broke.
They owned up to their mistakes and apologized and did their best to remedy them. The apology and the changed behaviour make these characters likeable. They have flaws that have glared but they have accepted those things, tried to do better than them.
I need you to understand that there are characters out there that do the same things but never apologize. When you question why someone likes character a but not character b, when character a has also done bad things, I need you to think about whether or not that character has apologized and since changed that behaviour and thus been sincere in their apology. That is why. No excuse or justification. Did the character apologize and change? Did the other not? There you go.
Me, sitting up with the imprint of the carpet on my face: Woah haha where'd that come from?
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Family and the Institution of Alice Academy
Was thinking about this ever since someone (I forgot specifically who, sorry) posed a question like this in the GA discord, asking about (I think) Natsume's extended family or something like that. It was a really interesting concept that I've been thinking a lot about since it was brought up, so here are the thoughts I've accumulated. I'll try to be concise but I have a LOT of thoughts and my brain is messy.
My general opinion at the end of all this thinking I did is that I don't think Academy students typically have very close familial ties after graduating.
I think the most apparent reason for that would be that students are expected to graduate when they are twenty years old. Our main four are exceptions to the rule, coming to the Academy pretty late in life. Most children are taken early, as toddlers or even babies. Natsume, Ruka, and Hotaru's families did all they could to avoid Academy scouting. Mikan was entirely accidental--if she had never met Hotaru, she might have never even found out she was an Alice to begin with. That being said, most kids were separated from their families at a very young age, only to be allowed to reunite with them once they're already adults. For many students, they've been away from their parents for close to two decades.
On top of that, the Academy doesn't allow visitations or phone calls and severely restricts letter communications. Only one child from each class is allowed to return home for one week each year, and that one week does not do much to make up for all the time spent at school.
My point is that by the time students are allowed to see their families again, that familial bond has already been severed, for all intents and purposes. That feeling of closeness and protection no longer exists. Students will feel more closeness and connection to their classmates and even to their teachers than to their parents or siblings, and as a result, I can imagine many graduates not even bothering to visit their families.
While I was pondering this, I made the connection between Academy students and the real life example of a similar situation with Janissaries from the Ottoman Empire. Basically, Janissaries were children stolen from the subjugated people under Ottoman rule. They were taken for the purpose of a "child levy", also known as a "blood tax." Some children were even willingly given by their families due to the possibility of socially advancing, and because the children were promised first class status (sound familiar?). Essentially the children were taken, forced to comply with Ottoman standards and traditions (including forced conversions and circumcisions), and then trained for military service. These soldiers would actually end up being incredibly loyal and efficient, despite likely never seeing their families again.
(Edit: forced circumcisions are particularly heinous when you consider that the children were typically at least 10 years old at the time they were taken.... so.... uh.... not pleasant.... But also interesting that the Janissaries were typically much older than the Alice children at the time of being taken.)
That level of separation doesn't endear ties; it severs them. These Janissaries--very often forcefully taken from their families--ended up growing up with very little connection to their parents or siblings. The feeling of belonging to their previous communities was gone. Absence does not always make the heart grow fonder. This was done as a means of creating a strong military force but also to disillusion subjugated communities and tear away their hope. Their children could always be taken; their communities could always be crushed, even without the use of physical force. It's a very effective tool to oppress a group of people.
(There's actually a lot of similarities between Academy children and Janissaries beside the separation of children from their families. They were also paid for their service and were high ranking; the Academy students are given an allowance and many of them, despite being stolen from their families, have a sense of superiority over non-Alices. They feel like they are treasures, and are of higher value and rank. Additionally, Academy students, especially in the DA class, are highly trained and efficient child soldiers, much like the Janissaries. Janissaries are actually a super interesting historical topic and are worth looking into!)
We can even see the effect of this distance when Yuka escapes the Academy and runs away to her family. Yuka was essentially sold to the Academy, with her parents trading her in exchange for money and status. She was very young, far too young to really understand that her parents had abandoned her. As a result, she romanticized her bond with them, and the longer she was separated from them, the more that bond became fantastical. She made many attempts to escape the school to reunite with her parents and she fantasized about seeing them again. When she finally is able to, it's nothing like she imagined. They're cold, and unfamiliar. They don't recognize her. She doesn't know her brothers. They're related, but there's no real connection.
"I shouldn't have come here."
Yuka's is an extreme example, but I'm sure she's not an exception. For most Academy students, the almost 20 years of separation from their parents would be too much to ignore. They would not recognize each other, or be close. I'm sure many parents did not sell their children like Yuka's family did, but the bond between child and family had not been nurtured the way it should have been, resulting in coldness and distance.
Because of that, I doubt most students even bother seeking their families out, or even if they do, it's to visit a few times before starting a new life with a career. That familial bond, now broken, is difficult to repair. The connections people often feel with their families or hometowns is something Academy students instead feel with each other. They are all Alices, all in the same boat together. That feeling of superiority that many kids feel means they view each other as on the same level, and I'm sure that could interfere with family connection as well.
Thus, I don't think there's many multigenerational Alice families out there with close bonds. I don't think families like Natsume's have strong ties with grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. Even the sibling bonds at the Academy are stunted, with the Imai and Shouda siblings being the prime examples of that.
The Imai siblings have a significant age difference, yes, but additionally the Imai parents had a very different approach to Hotaru after seeing what happened with Subaru. They refused to hand her over as easily, wanting to show her important things in life and build happy memories for as long as they could. Even when Hotaru does enter the school, it's more than six months before she even comes across her brother, since the high school and elementary school are not integrated with each other and they do not belong to the same ability class. Similarly, the Shouda siblings are in different ability classes but they have a much smaller age gap. Despite this, Sumire refers to her brother very respectfully, indicating that there isn't a particular closeness.
The Imais fight against this divide, and put in genuine effort into rebuilding their relationship, but it's a difficult process, and one they struggle to admit to for a long time and for various reasons. Familial closeness is not encouraged, not even within the Academy.
(Though Natsume's bond with Aoi is exploited and the school does rely on him caring for her to take advantage of him, but ultimately he is kept from seeing her. Thus, that bond is also severed despite being exploited.)
Additionally, it would make sense to me if many Alice graduates decided to, upon having children, avoid scouting, like Natsume's parents did, and thus ended up moving around a lot to escape Academy notice. Moving around like that and laying low means that you're not going to be hosting huge family reunions or inviting relatives over often, even if all the other points were moot.
Finally, I think all this creates further obstacles for Yuka's wish to "have a family." At some point she says that, for normal people, the desire to settle down with someone and start a family is a pretty modest goal, but for Alices it's almost impossible. Escaping from the school, or even graduating, is a struggle. And you can have a kid, but it's likely that child will be taken from you, just as you were taken, and by the time the child graduates, they will have no connection with you. Wanting to be a potential grandparent, for example, might seem like a definite impossibility, since being a real parent is impossible.
It's even more proof that the Academy exists as an institution to subjugate and undermine Alices, as children and then as parents. Ultimately, an Alice never has control, not as a child and not even as an adult. The pain doesn't end once you've graduated; in fact, it never does.
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