[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

It doesn't have to be Jun, of course; a little mini-spotlight on any character would do! Maybe even Yua Yaiba! Gosh, wouldn't it be cool if she got development and backstory and ideals so that her actions don't feel bizarrely out of place and so that maybe her turn-heel later could feel like it means something and wasn't completely pulled out of nowhere? Wouldn't that be cool? Wouldn't it be really goddamn cool if Yua Yaiba, a character a lot of people were excited for and were rooting for for many reasons, actually got a fleshed out complex character and had a reason to work for ZAIA other than because the story said so?

It's simultaneously depressing and adorable that you trying to explain what didn't work about Zero-One's competition arc inevitably devolved into complaining about the show's treatment of Valkyrie. I'm honestly still trying to process that she apparently really was just working for ZAIA that whole time with no deeper motivation.

I think the same line of thinking we have for that arc of Zero-One could be applied to most "bad" subplots and arcs. Like, even Clone Makoto in Ghost, you know, there's a fundamental concept there of Makoto having this problem he feels the need to not "burden" his friends with that's solid, but there aren't a lot of real beats to that storyline. But if you beef it up a bit, maybe make those fights less repetitive in some way, or even incorporate some of the lore from the Specter V-Cinema to give things more interesting context, suddenly it might be a lot more worthwhile. It's all hypothetical and with the benefit of hindsight, but I think asking how a subpar story element could be improved is a little more interesting than just throwing them out entirely. Knowing what branches to cut is obviously an important part of creating a strong narrative too, but, I don't know, I like to believe everything is done with a purpose, or at least has the potential to be given one.