[Fish Sandwich]

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Originally Posted by Kurona

And honestly it’s one I wouldn’t take away from you — without that willingness to see everything through an optimistic lens I wouldn’t really have come around on a lot of things. You’ve half convinced me on Ghost; and I suspect only halfway because I haven’t found the time for a rewatch yet!

I was going to crack a joke for a second here. "Well, that's half more than I usually convince people on Ghost!", or some other inane gag; but instead I think I'd rather be more sincere and just say thank you for always being so encouraging.

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The true enemy in this show was always, ALWAYS how Humagears were not truly seen as people and what conflicts arose from that, but the last third seemingly wants to act like the true enemy was the Ark. And that, I think, is the worst possible direction the show could have taken.

I guess this might be the crux of how I see the show differently. Someone mentioned a ways back in this thread that the real theme of Zero-One was always self-identity, and that's a sentiment I find myself agreeing with. The show ultimately defined Ark in the end as something with the potential to grow inside the hearts of everyone, human and HumaGear alike. The name "Ark" itself was almost certainly chosen because it sounds like aku, which literally means evil. I absolutely believe that's the true enemy of the whole show. Malice is the enemy of everything. That's what the whole Learning shtick was always about in part: the idea that the way we treat one another influences what we become. How we can choose to let it influence us. Aruto lamenting to Jin in episode 16 that Horobi taught him the values he did, or, heck, even something as simple as Aruto telling Horobi he's himself, and no one else in 35 - the show is full of thematic material that's a bit broader in scope, as I see it. The idea of HumaGear oppression, and how society as a whole views them, that's something I don't have trouble seeing as merely being in service of a larger story, and for that reason, it didn't bother me too much to not get a lot of clear resolution to those elements at the end.

It'd always be nice to just have both, but I honestly believe the more individual, personal level the show decided to go out on, a hero struggling against his base impulses and a machine dealing with emotions he never knew he could have, was a very powerful and compelling conclusion in its own right.