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firebirdsdaughter · 4 years

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Okay…

… I feel very bitter right now.

But I am going to be eternally frustrated by the fact that as far as I could tell, Aruto’s (and therefore Izu’s) definition of ‘heart’ was ‘happy making humans happy.’

Or… ‘Seeing that humans are ultimately good’?

Really, just… I define a heart as ‘feeling emotions.’ Feeling emotions is useless unless you know how to handle them, which Horobi didn’t, and no one seemed at all invested in teaching him how. Just made him feel worse and worse, pressured him about something that terrified him and pushed him over the edge, and then a human who really should have known better went and grabbed the fucking Ark Key??? Like. Horobi’s somehow completely at fault for Izu pestering him until he lashed out like any emotionally immature child or even animal would and then she doesn’t move out of the way even though she easily could have, but Aruto grabbing the psycho Key and going nutty is ‘totally understandable bc grief.’

For one thing, wtf would Horobi believe Izu’s nonsense, she’s programmed to love and obey Aruto, and she never develops anywhere past that. He knows she’d say anything to save her beloved master. She has no identity out of ‘exists to serve Aruto and occasionally be cutesy.’ Listen, Takahashi, you need to work on your female characters when you resurrect one w/ no memory and she’s exactly the same.

My lack of sympathy for Izu’s ‘death’ is bc it could easily have been prevented by multiple other people even if Horobi did literally nothing different, and bc literally nothing was lost. If any of the humans had actually used that compassion they sing to the skies about, you know, like, the fact that they have years of practice knowing how to feel and control emotions. I’m sorry but, ‘did you feel Izu’s pain?’ Well, first off, no, bc she didn’t seem pained at all, she just kinda stood there parroting Aruto’s bs, but… What about feeling Horobi’s pain? Or… Was Izu being ‘sad’ Horobi didn’t magically forgive humanity for everything they put him through and took from him more important than him having being mind raped, controlled, conditioned, and abused for twelve years? ‘I believe in your heart’ you mean you ‘believe’ he’s going to magically switch around and conform to your views that humans are ultimately good and anything bad they do can be excused bc they teach you about ‘hearts’? Meanwhile, none of her memories changed her at all. She gazes lovingly at Aruto, she participates in his jokes… There was pretty much nothing to her other than ‘loves Aruto.’ Her character fell into the trap of KR’s general attitude toward female characters that they exist to be pure angels who unfailingly believe in the hero and the series’ attitude toward AI, that the definition of ‘goodness’ for them is completely devotion to humans and unrealistic purity and benevolence.

The question should never have been ‘will AI have benevolence towards humans’ but ‘do humans deserve it?’ ‘what can we do to justify that?’ Why do HumaGear have to ‘prove their worth’ and ‘teach humans to be nice to them’ but humans don’t have to… Like… Know how to be decent? Aruto’s sympathies and dreams for HumaGear were exclusively rooted in how they benefitted humans. He expects the ‘hearts’ they develop to be completely ‘pure’ and ‘benevolent’ even if humanity has given them no reason to be so.

Horobi was the most aware of how horrible the Ark was. Everything he did, he did bc he was conditioned to believe it was right for HumaGear. Bc he saw the cruelty of humanity, and wanted to protect his people from it. He was conditioned/programmed to react w/ absolutes and extremes. He didn’t turn on the Ark bc he realised humans were actually ‘good’ he did it bc she turned on HumaGear, and he fought bc he loved HumaGear. His love for HumaGear, for Jin, was stronger than her control. That was it.

But he also knew that she was created by humans. Deliberately. It doesn’t matter that Gai had a personality one eighty bc the satellite printed him a dog and Aruto’s only for humans AI therapist talked to him for a hot minute. This shit doesn’t work like that, Gai should be at least facing jail time for his part in things. Yotacrappy’s response was to manipulated Jin into trying to kill him as a sacrifice, even after the Ark was out of the picture. Not a single person reacted w/ ‘maybe we should give this poor AI who has literally had his entire mind and life fucked over by humans and has no reason to like us a bit of kindness and support to help deal w/ the emotions he’s suddenly feeling.’ Izu’s speech was kinda close, but the tone was ultimately ‘she’s right and he’s wrong.’ The attitude shouldn’t be that ‘humans can sometimes be beneficial, so that makes the wrong they do okay.’ The fact that they tried to pretend that even the most twisted humans were ‘actually just misguided’ was ridiculous.

Horobi’s suffering was real and valid, and deserved recognition beyond ‘lol, but humans are actually nice, tho.’ He was scared and confused, but no one was trying to help him through that, they were just belittling the very valid reasons he had to be angry at humans. Rather than being like ‘I understand you’re angry and in pain and those are valid feelings, but there’s a better way to do this’ the response was either aggression or ‘no, you’re wrong, they teach us to want them to be happy and to dream or serving them well!’ (pretty much what Aruto’s definition of ‘good HumaGear’ seemed to be). And then even the people who should understand the most how her feels act like he’s spreading a ‘shocking’ and ‘bad’ thought by offering HumaGear a chance to stand up for themselves. I really hate how the protests were treated as Horobi spreading ‘malice’ to the HuamGear and all conveniently disappeared when Aruto ‘won.’

Again. The Frozen quote is eternally accurate for Aruto’s ‘dream.’ ‘It’ll be just like it was except for we’ll be best friends.’

Aruto’s dream was never equality or freedom for HumaGear. What he wanted was for them to go back to work for humans w/ smiles painted on their faces to make humans happy. HumaGear’s meaning in life shouldn’t be to ‘be useful to humans.’ I wasn’t expecting the ending to be ‘everything is okay now,’ but I was under the impression that there would be some kind of motion toward HumaGear getting some rights and protections or respect by virtue of being, like, living beings rather than needing to work and be ‘useful’ to justify their existence. Aruto is very face value, he thinks that the programmed personalities humans give HumaGear are their ‘true natures’ when they’re not, they’re just a starting point. They need to branch out. The fact that Izu’s entire life just revolved around benefiting Aruto made it hard to sympathise w/ her in place of the more interesting and dynamic characters. The fact that Aruto tries to claim HumaGear are his ‘employees’ when the definition of that word literally is ‘someone who works for a wage’ and people pay his company to get HumaGear to work for them and he delivers them to people in boxes… It’s just ridiculous. They shouldn’t have to just be ‘perfect pure forgiving little angels’ just bc humans made them and occasionally are nice to them? Izu’s data was just as biased as Horobi’s, they should have met in the middle rather than her being painted as ‘right’ and ‘good’ for only thinking of humans as good.

Yes, Horobi should have responded w/ violence, but literally no one even tried to put real effort into showing him other ways to react, or to help him through what happened to him. They either shouted at him, put him down, invalidated his suffering (admittedly bc she was just as out of balance maturity-wise as he was), or outright tried to kill him. Any child or animal will lash out when stressed or panicked. It is the responsibility of the people w/ more awareness to know what they’re dealing w/ and act accordingly. Izu knew he was armed, she saw the weapon pointed at her, she had plenty of time to move, and choose not to. That was not Horobi’s fault. It also wasn’t Horobi’s fault that humans decided to not give her a back up to benefit themselves. How was he even supposed to know that? Where was Aruto? Why was he running around outside trying to make the other HumaGear go back to his definition of ‘normal,’ while telling them there’s ‘no reason to fight anymore,’ which really should be their decision??? If he really cared and wanted to help Horobi and saw HumaGear as people, wouldn’t he have run in and tried to properly talk Horobi down? Then we have Yua’s hypocrisy of reacting aggressively to Horobi and them giving a speech to Yotacrappy for reacting the exact same way to the protests. And then Fuwa literally shooting down the one time Horobi genuinely tried to reach out… While kinda in character… Definitely did not help. Horobi was never in a place to parse out implications.

Basically, they pushed Horobi over the edge, then blamed him for being broken. Meanwhile, they have all sorts of ‘compassion’ and ‘understanding’ for Aruto and it’s ‘not his fault’ bc ‘grief.’ The attitude that Horobi’s suffering at the hands of the Ark was less important than Aruto’s trained AI letting herself get shot? The fact that Horobi, however horribly they influenced him to think he was completely at fault, was willing to ‘forgive’ humans for everything he suffered through bc of them… Is much more compassion than Aruto ever showed him.

Horobi had every right to be angry w/ humans and blame them for their part in what he went through. And humans never admitted responsibility for that, and never apologised to him.

But he’s supposed to need forgiveness from them?

#Firebird Negativity #I am… SO frustrated w/ how that was handled #I would have felt less annoyed if they had actually had everyone else owning their part in the incident #it should have been treated as 'everyone was at fault'#not 'Horobi was at fault'#Horobi wasn't fighting out of malice #he was fighting bc he felt he had to protect HumaGear from humans #and when they had a chance to prove that they could really be as compassionate as they claimed to be they squandered it #and the Aruto just grabs the fucking Ark Key rather thand fighting on his own even though he's human and should know how to do that?#but no obviously Aruto losing a person he knew is infinitely more painful/difficult than experiencing free will for the very first time #and then obviously losing the person he knew was equal to Horobi losing his literal menaing in life #right #…#that was sarcasm #Izu was not to Aruto what Jin was to Horobi #and Aruto's situation was not equal to Horobi's #Aruto should have had to recognise and apologise for Horobi's pain #if he wants to be the representative of humanity to HumaGear he should take responsibility for it too #also the fact that there was literally no difference in Izu sans memory is just… wtf Takahashi #just bring her back trying to pretend something was 'lost' to give the rampant victim blaming more bs ammo is ridiculous

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firebirdsdaughter · 3 years

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…

… Okay, I swear to the gods, if I have to sit through more Izu-based manpain or whatever…

It’s not Fumiya at all, but I have to admit I heard the drama-saturated ‘Izu…’ in the trailer and just… 🙄

To be fair… I don’t think we got it that much in the actual show, but I think the last arc just… Sapped any sympathy I might’ve had. And let’s be real, the fact that the trailer is taunting me w/ what looks like Horobi and Fuwa w/in ten feet of each other means I will sit through it, I just…

I’ve driven this into the ground, so I see no point in going into detail here, but I just do not see the difference between this allegedly ‘new’ Izu and the ‘old’ one. None of her memories changed her, she was just ‘everything as master Aruto wishes’ right to the end. Trying to make ‘drama’ out of her being ‘different’ is immediately gonna have me rolling my eyes. Nothing was lost, get over yourself, show. Aruto didn’t suffer anymore consequences than Gai did. (actually no, no: I’m going to call myself on that. He did see someone he cared about, albeit in a kind problematic way, ‘die’ and blow up, that’s more consequences for just bad decision making than Gai got for active malice)

And I’m… I’m gonna say it.

I’m tired of Aruto and Izu.

Additionally, I just, personally, do not see the appeal. They were literally… One of the most boring relationships in the show to me. And they were like… Always together in show. Like, I know that he’s the mc and she’s the ‘main girl,’ but… Would it have killed the writers to let them fully develop bonds w/ other characters? Izu it esp bothers me bc it just fed into the ‘only exists to serve Aruto’ thing. I wanted to see her interact w/ Fuwa and Yua, get proper development via Jin and Horobi, kinda curious about her and Naki, just a bit. (it’s showing that I had more interest in Izu than Aruto, isn’t it…)

But no, she essentially only appeared hovering at Aruto’s elbow, ready to serve him, and it… Irritated me. They didn’t feel like a real relationship? Bc Aruto was just all ‘Izu’s so perfect, she’s such an angel just like a HumaGear should be!’ and Izu was all just ‘my life revolves around Aruto-shachou!’

Like, there were some sneezes towards more rounded relationships for them in the start, but at the end… They literally had no relationships w/ anyone but the… Kinda ‘huh’ one w/ each other. And that’s, like, a) not healthy, for either of them, esp for Izu, but for either of them, and b)… Really… Boring. For lack of a better word. I found both characters much more engaging (setting aside other stuff) when… They were interacting w/ other people. I want to see them (esp Izu) be allowed to have relationships w/ other people that they actually, like, are invested in.

Fuwa and Horobi are getting shot at by a jet. Jin’s getting the damn jet dropped on him while saving Fuwa (I might’ve said he deserved it in another conversation but I didn’t mean it like that). Naki’s having a wonderfully photogenic day while sitting in the rubble looking rather sad. Ikazuch might only have one scene in the whole movie. Yua’s fighting an army on her own. There’s plenty of other people in danger and getting hurt. I don’t think we need more of Aruto whining and moaning and raging and going nutty again bc something something Izu.

And even putting aside my issues w/ the way their relationship was presented, the fact that I can’t sympathise w/ melodrama about Izu ‘dying’ bc she’s exactly the same, nothing was lost… The ‘designated damsel’ is a really tired trope, imo. Again, the manpain. Why is Izu’s only function to stand around gazing lovingly at Aruto and then to ‘get hurt’ and make him ‘rage,’ as an anon I am still working on summarised it, pretty much. Like… I know people were throwing the ‘sexy leg lamp’ at Yua (which I disagree w/, I think she fared slightly better than that), but that same ask I’ve yet to post pointed out that, ultimately, Izu was the sexy leg lamp, and I was like ‘oh my gods, you’re right.’ She started out pretty well, but in the end, even her ‘contribution’ was… Adoring Aruto like she was programmed to do? But I’m digressing into details again.

My point is that, even setting aside all my other issues w/ how they were portrayed, the bare bones trope of ‘girl who literally is only there to be the ‘pure angel’ and then get hurt to upset the hero for drama’ is tired. And they already played that card, and really badly. Now, if I thought this was going to be Izu taking responsibility for her part in the incident that led to her getting blown up, or even Aruto learning to take responsibility (or, admittedly, just… Anyone recognising their responsibility in that incident, rather than trying to pretend it was all Horobi’s fault, bc that was a case of everyone having a piece of the fault), then I might be swayed… But I find it highly unlikely (admittedly, like I’ve said before, I consider Izu and Horobi the least responsible for what happened, they should never have been left alone together, he was volatile and she did not have the wherewithal to properly talk him off the ledge, someone w/ emotional maturity should have gotten in there).

So it’s like… A perfect storm. I know I’m preaching to a choir and calling water wet to be complaining about this kind of overused sexism in KR, but… W/ the addition of how poorly handled it was at the end of the show and the way both characters were treated… It just increases my frustration and annoyance tenfold.

I just… I really hope we’re not rehashing for… Oh, gods, for a third time. Bc this happened w/ Baby Jin, too. Bc you know, it’s the five year old’s fault the homicidal satellite that brainwashed his father gave him weapons. -_-

And the worst part is, bc Eden’s human, what do you wanna bet he’s gonna be getting away w/ it.

#Firebird Negativity #PLEASE #enough #I beg #we don't need a THIRD go of Aruto's 'pet AI' to be really harsh getting 'hurt' and him going nutty over it #esp after how badly it was written the first two times #also just #tired of this trope #tired of Izu ONLY existing to serve Aruto #tired of Aruto only caring about Izu #tired of Izu drama #tired of Aruto's Izu manpain #I liked him better when he got mad for other people's sake too…#those two need a break from each other honestly

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firebirdsdaughter · 4 years

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Okay…

… No one wants my opinion on the Izu situation, but I’m tired as all hell and looking to ramble, and I want to get this off my chest.

I’ve seen a number of takes on what happened floating around. Some people see it as the same as at the start, when they’d just ‘reset’ the HumaGear who had been hacked (Nigiro and Mamoru spring to mind), some people are furious and think this new Izu is a whole new being Aruto is trying to force old Izu onto and think it’s out of character for him, there’s a lot of ‘she’s not the same’…

For me? Well… I said I had salt, but I also said it’s not what most people are thinking/might expect.

My reaction can be broken down into two things, and both, I admit, are pretty harsh:

This isn’t out of character for Aruto at all.

I don’t see anything different between ‘this’ Izu and the ‘old’ Izu.

Now, I haven’t been quiet about my opinions about Aruto, but, like other things in the series, he started well, he had potential, there was def something in there, Fumiya did the best he could, bless him. But as the show went on, it became harder and harder for me to like Aruto. Oh, he had a few good moments, the potential he’d started w/ was still there, in many ways, but… Eventually, I just stopped waiting.

From what I saw, Aruto was never into HumaGear establishing their own identities, he just wanted them to be how he wanted them to be. That line from the Frozen song—‘it’ll be just like it was, except for we’ll be best friends.’ He never really seemed to want ‘freedom’ or ‘equality’ for them, just wanted them to be ‘happy’ where they were. I’ve never been comfortable w/ that ‘dream’ ever since he blows up Jin for being a confused, frightened child soldier and then he and Izu stand around all pleased about pre-singularity HumaGear ‘smiling’ together w/ humans… Aka, dutifully serving humans w/ smiles painted on their faces. For the entire show, his sympathies and his definition of ‘good’ HumaGear where ones that lived to work, lived to serve humans w/out complaints or wanting anything for themselves. As long as their dreams were convenient for humans, they were a-okay. He also ended up veering into implying he knew exactly what HumaGear dreams were. He thought Izu was the pinnacle of good HumaGear bc she was adoring and devoted, revolved around him. His alleged urging her to choose for herself fell flat bc there was never anything for her to choose between (that scene was weird from all angles bc since when did Jin care about Izu and we never did bring up that time she rubbed his father’s defeat in his face and he stabbed her). He says they have to ask G-Pen what he wants, but then won’t let Jin talk to him bc he’s ‘a human’s partner!’ He seems relieved when G-Pen wants to draw. And like I said, eventually, he seems to have just decided he knows that HumaGear dreams will be to have warm fuzzies doing their jobs to serve humans. He yells at Horobi about how he was made to serve humans, only later bringing up the fact that he can have an identity outside the Ark. He can’t seem to fathom the fact that HumaGear could be upset at humans outside of ‘evil hacking.’ (I was groaning so loud when he was like ‘there’s no reason for us to fight anymore’ at the rebelling HumaGear, bc I’m sorry, isn’t that their decision? Seems like they think there is still a reason). He never seems bothered or concerned about the fact that HumaGear have no rights, can’t be in control of their own fates. He’s a-okay that they can’t be in positions of power and live completely at the whims of humans. Apparently, never even tried to give Izu a back up and taught her to be fine w/ not having one bc it ‘benefitted’ humans. To him, HumaGear existed to happily do their jobs, to serve humans, that was all they should live for… Even though a fully self aware being could never truly live the life HumaGear are made to live. He waxed about seeing HumaGear as people, but would only revive them when there was a request for them, didn’t tell Delmo she didn’t need to ‘prove’ anything to be allowed to live. He assumes Horobi will instantly magically see things his way despite everything Horobi has been through, when things get complicated, he spends more time running around and trying to make the other HumaGear go back to being the ‘good little servers’ he thinks they should be, devaluing their feelings by claiming there’s no reason to fight (again, that’s their decision), rather than actually going and trying to talk to Horobi. Then the show spends ages painting him like a tragic victim and making excuses for him, when Horobi is literally a traumatised and abused AI and Aruto immediately jumped at the chance to grab the fucking Ark Key. I know grief was involved, by why the fuck did Izu still not have a backup, why did he let her go in there along in the first place, why is he more tragic than the brainwashed and mentally conditioned child soldier AI who literally had never learned how to handle emotions and had been conditioned his whole life to resist them and to respond violently. But no, Aruto’s the only tragic one, not the mind rape and abuse victim that everyone pointed guns at instead of recognising what happened to him and trying to rehabilitate him (and then literally doing that to a ‘good’ HumaGear the next fucking day, wtf). Admittedly, I more blame Gai, the Ark, and Yua and Fuwa, the first two for being responsible for everything in the first place, and the second two for being the ones to escalate the situation and triggering Horobi in the first place. And then he just… Lets Horobi blame himself for everything at the end. This after originally specifically saying that Gai was responsible. Like… All that would have need was something like ‘it’s more complicated than that.’ Bc yeah, Horobi’s done some stuff, but he’s mentally unwell and they were all manipulated. This isn’t cut and dry. Recognise that.

Ultimately, I am incredibly frustrated by Aruto bc there was stuff that could have interested me about the character, but it ended up being outweighed by the negative stuff. Of course he’d just try to ‘remake’ Izu, HumaGear aren’t people to him, they exist to benefit humans. Izu exists to be his adoring cheerleader.

And… Well, that brings me to the second thing. When I heard the ‘he’ll try to make her the real Izu’… My immediate reaction was ‘how’s that hard?’ Literally, Izu’s character ultimately ended up being worshiping Aruto. All he’d have to do is program her to serve and support him again, and tada. Which is exactly what happened. Horobi has been dumped w/ all this mental trauma and guilt, and… Aruto doesn’t seem to have suffered at all. She gazes adoringly at him, she’s all cutesy, she interrupts his jokes… Sure, maybe she lost some memory, but… Ultimately, none of those memories changed her at all, so it’s not a big loss. I don’t see what’s so ‘different’ about her that’s making everyone so upset. It doesn’t feel like anything was lost. I really think they should have just had her data be in the 02 or some shit bc her not having a backup was bull in the first place, her ‘death’ was also bull bc she could easily have dodged even after Horobi fired, and pretending that Aruto ‘lost’ something that he should blame Horobi for is also bull. Izu didn’t have a personality outside of ‘adores Aruto’ (I see you, sexy leg lamp anon, I’ll get there eventually, I promise). W/ the added fact that she chose to not get out of the way and to be hit, and that she was apparently a-okay w/ no backup bc it allegedly benefited humans… It’s all just very frustrating. Also bc, like Aruto, there were a lot of places they could have gone w/ her, she could have been a great set up for ‘HumaGear can choose to work w/ humans.’ But Izu never had anything to choose from, she remained blindly adoring of Aruto and humanity. Her conversation w/ Horobi could have been good, if not for an underlying tone of ‘she’s right, he’s wrong.’ Izu should have to recognise that there is negative aspects of humanity and the good things don’t make it all okay. Horobi shouldn’t have to come all the way around to agree w/ her, it should be recognised that humanity have capacity for both, HumaGear should be allowed the capacity for both and have it not be treated like they’re going ‘berserk’ or have it be assumed there’s an ‘evil AI’ hacking them. Anger and even hatred are natural feelings—benevolence should be respected, appreciated, recognised, but not constantly expected.

Basically, Izu didn’t feel like a person. She had no identity or character outside of adoring Aruto, or any strong relationships outside of him (for ex, she really could have benefited from a relationship w/ Fuwa (slight favouritism at work, sure), where he does something like teach her to punch or something), and revolved completely around him, just like she was programmed to be. Funny how Will was depicted as ‘evil’ for wanting to know how humans would benefit HumaGear, but Izu and Wazu are ‘good’ bc they’re a-okay not having any of the safety measures available to their kind bc it will allegedly ‘benefit’ humans, and bc all they live for is pleasing their owners. Wazu didn’t even save Izu just bc he cared about her and didn’t want his younger sister to die, it was ‘you can support Aruto.’ I’m sorry, what? I just… Don’t see what was lost here.

So… To try and wrap this up bc I’ve been complaining for too long: Aruto never cared about HumaGear having their own identities or them being their own people, he just wanted them to be exactly the same as before, expected the only thing they needed in life to be making humans happy, and I cannot find the difference between these two Izus.

And I am so fucking frustrated.

#Firebird Salt #Firebird Negativity #Firebird Opinions #Aruto Negativity #Izu Negativity #there's so much more that I can't articulate at the moment #I just…#it's so frustrating that at most the 'way humans benefit HumaGear' turned out to be #'they made us/HumaGear are just happy to make humans happy'#like… I think we needed to see a dream from a HumaGear that didn't necessarily fall in w/ Aruto's expectations/assumptions #a HumaGear who wants to make their own decisions #own a company or something like that #and address that see how Aruto handles it #'humans taught us to have dreams' is bull as long as all those dreams are 'to serve humans'#basically #I'm so frustrated bc the potential was there and it just…#down the drain

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