[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I think it might to help to imagine what Nozomi's going through. She doesn't know how far gone Mutsuki is, because no one tells her anything. All she knows is that the nice boy that she's been friends with for years is suddenly going through something, and she has no idea what. He'll disappear for weeks at a time, sometimes reappearing in a bad mood, and none of this makes any sense to her. A lot of her story is her trying to understand Mutsuki from next to no information. She just thinks her friend is struggling with something, and she desperately wants to help. From the viewer's perspective, yeah, Mutsuki probably doesn't deserve someone like her. But from her perspective, he clearly needs her help.

Her being out of the loop is part of the problem, yes, but the sheer amount of time is also a huge factor. Even if she doesn't know all the details, by this point the smarter course of action really would be to just cut her losses. It also in no way excuses Mutsuki's' direct actions against her either. There's only so much you can do for a person until you come to realize that, frankly, it's not working out. And trying to force help onto someone who clearly doesn't want it isn't going to solve anything. ESPECIALLY if they refuse to offer any sort of context or consolidation.

I know that might be asking alot for a kid's' show but man.

Quote:

And, y'know, that's fair! I would never argue that the show is trying very hard to make Mutsuki a sympathetic character. He's very dedicated to Becoming Stronger in a way that is, at best, laughable. There's not a lot of moments where Mutsuki feels like a character worth caring about.

But that's why I really liked this episode? It feels like Mutsuki seeing his place in the narrative for maybe the first time, and trying to address it. He's so insistent on being strong that he's easily the weakest character on the show, with him terrifying his closest friend. One of the big themes on Blade is how power shouldn't be pursued, only cautiously accepted. Mutsuki gets to be the worst version of himself as a result of pursuing power, and he hasn't even gained anything from it. What does he think about that? What would he do differently? I like the show taking a couple episodes to focus on the most aimless character after dozens of aimless episodes. It's maybe not worth the trip for every viewer, but I haven't gotten sick of his story yet.

And I'm glad you're getting something out of it! Truly! But again, 30 episodes of this constant go-nowhere character is in no way entertaining for me. Had Mutsuki getting knocked the hell down happened even 5 episodes earlier, I'd be alot softer on it. But as it stands, yeah, no. Get him out of here. There's a tad bit more to it, but it technically qualifies as spoilers, so, we'll come back to it later, I guess.

Quote:

The thing I'm curious about is how people really don't seem to like Mutsuki, while I'd argue that Tachibana is more frustrating and unlikable? Mutsuki is a moody teeanger who no one likes, but he's been (unless I've forgotten something, and not counting Shima's sacrifice) pretty harmless? I mean, sure, he kidnapped Amane, but she doesn't seem that upset about it. Tachibana, however, has nearly caused the deaths of multiple people on the show, multiple times. Why does Tachibana seem to get a freer pass? Is it because he feels bad about it? That actually makes it worse to me!

Speaking solely for myself here, I actually don't give Tachibana a free pass either. Another reason I don't like Late Blade is that it seemed like the new writer had no idea what to do with Tachibana so he just did Tachibana's' first arc all over again. And while yes, relapses are very much a thing in real life, from a character development standpoint it is really frustrating.

Mutsuki also has most certainly not been harmless. Granted, he didn't cause any direct deaths, IIRC, but ever since "embracing darkness" he's actively been a hindrance to, well, everyone. And all while the other characters talk about how they feel sorry for him. Though granted, maybe that was due to Turn-Up Scrubs, because I could definitely see the other characters simply saying they more pitied him than anything.

When it comes to pitting the two against eachother, I do end up liking Tachibana more, mainly because I actually rather liked his arc during the first half of the show, and felt it came to a proper close. I looked forward to him being a proper supporting character there on, buuuut then we got this, which I already went over. There's a couple other moments too, but again, spoilers. The memes also do alot to help in terms of entertainment factor. Mutsuki's just boring at best and aggravating at worst.

So yeah, I really wouldn't be able to blame anyone who didn't like Tachibana, but for me, he had enough going for him to not totally hate him, just more hate where his story ended up going.