[Sh Ranger]

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Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Ikki and Sougo are 2 of the protagonists that is about how hugely oblivious they're. Though regarding the onsen one, I think it's heavily influenced by Ikki's hatred towards Vice, which was quite justified in how shady and untrustworthy he is before, to not let Vice scheme things. He would want nothing but to have Vice gone from his side, regardless if his character was to ignore inconvenient things or such, as he listened more to Daiji at ep. 4.... when it was presumed that Daiji would betray Ikki and started his own schemes based on envy.

They're both egoists as well, except Sougo's more open about it with his grand ambition of becoming a king while Ikki presents himself more modestly as someone who's just a busybody. Despite their obliviousness, they've also proven to be very observant when they're in the zone, like Ikki seeing through Kudo's and Chigusa's bluffs and Sougo effortlessly manipulating everybody. Interestingly, Zi-O and Vice have the same black/pink color scheme.

Ikki did start to trust Vice a little in Episode 4 though, when he conceded that he wasn't showing enough love to Daiji. But he should've gave Vice more chance to prove his reformed character. I think another reason for Ikki's selective obliviousness was his desire to prioritize his family's happiness above all else, even if that meant pretending everything was okay when it definitely wasn't. Ironically, devils like Vice and Kagerou ended up being the most objective about Ikki's flaws.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

I think it's about how it's quite known that to succeed in competitive field like sports (or even anything), you have to be egotistic and is only focused and concerned on yourself and how to make yourself better.... of which this obviously can be used to condone toxic acts in sports from someone who is successful, being seen as something necessary to reach the top by others or only being seen as fiercely competitive... Regarding soccer strikers, it's probably about how if you aren't egoist, you may throw the game to let others win so they won't upset or something (can apply in anything other than soccer), but if you're an egoist, then you'd try hard to win the game regardless if others feel upset of losing or such. This is probably conveyed badly though if this is another teaching lesson, in game, there's nothing wrong about trying to win and beating the competition, as long as the play is fair, you'd still nice player by that.

That's certainly a better explanation than the one Kimura gave us. So I guess Ikki's ego is the reason why he attempted that dangerous tackle, without considering how it might affect Jiiko in that critical moment, as part of having an ego is the confidence to take risks? There's also a parallel to Olteca here, with both Ikki and Olteca being guilty of breaking promises, although Ikki can be forgiven since Vice made him forget about it. Jiiko, who's apparently also an egoist, admits he was wrong for pressuring Ikki to make that promise, since he was forcing his own burden on to Ikki which caused him to lose his love for soccer. Egoists are very hard on themselves.