[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

not very character driven.

Well what is Zeztz driven by, then? And I mean, I'm actually not sure what the answer would be. Are we really sure this show isn't trying to let the characters dictate the story more than the other way around? Something I thought was very strange as I was watching this episode was how quickly it almost totally pivoted away from big the Plot revelations NOX keeps hinting at. I wondered why Baku had no further questions, no scene where he asks Zero about even one little thing... and then I thought, you know, maybe that actually shows how seriously Takahashi was considering Baku's emotions and personality above just feeding more facts about Capsems and Nightmares to viewers? Because there's a pretty solid argument to be made that Baku would actively dodge the subject as much as possible, for a few different reasons, and the episode still puts his whole emotional struggle at the center, mostly waiting until the end to do further shocking twists.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

Except that that's literally what it is. Thanks to Baku, Seiya has a renewed faith in his dreams, and thus isn't letting what other snotty kids say get to him anymore.

Probably! I *did* explicitly say I don't understand this show!

I certainly don't think for a second it's meant to be portrayed as an outright bad thing that Seiya believes more in his dream thanks to Baku, and those other kids are clearly jerks, but... I don't know, I still got the feeling there was another layer to it under that surface. It's a couple things. One, the music cue in that moment came off ambiguously to me, this big emotional swell that's also slightly ominous. Two, the specific dialogue in Japanese has Seiya's blunt affirmative response coming after those kids joke about how he should "escape/run away" to space, which I also thought was a curiously specific way to write that exchange, in the larger context of the episode?

Don't get me wrong, if this was the simple narrative it seems like it's going to be towards the start, it'd still be a good one, but so much from the climax onwards is already about turning things on their head, I kind of figured the guest character plot might not necessarily be an exception? It works as a contrast that gives the viewer some sense of relief between the shock of ZEZTZ disappearing and Baku not waking up, showing that his efforts weren't in vain. But it'd also maybe work as a parallel to Baku, who decides here to continue pursuing his dreams without really facing the facts of his situation, and ultimately has to suffer consequences for it, as if the story is acknowledging that simply having a dream by itself isn't always enough.

But yeah, again, I don't know! Could be reading into just that scene the wrong way, the whole episode the wrong way, could even have some or all of it more right than I can be sure of! It's all just what I felt personally, and especially with the way I'm currently feeling about this show in general, I don't particularly intend to push back too hard if someone is reading things a different way right now.