AmberDreams

Thank the stars that Kotoha is back with her introspection

Momijikawa doing us a solid one, I'm curious to see how the trio of Nirei, Momijikawa and Sugishita deal with this.

Also, u think I was right and Sugishita might know something, Suo did say he wanted to talk more with him and maybe he did, maybe he said some cryptic things and Sugishita is now starting to realise what it was all about, aside from clearly wanting to shake some sense into Sakura, I'm not crazy to believe that he might say some shit about how Suo was not going to let him leave Furin and was willing to fight Endo for it, then Sakura can't give up on Suo without getting an actual reason from the boy himself.

My baby, oh fuck

Also, the way you just know he's used to paying attention to everyone and helping everyone out, I mean, it's so clear here. He's hyper aware of other people's mental state and problems. He cares about everyone

But who takes care of you Suo? Because I have a feeling you also hide things from Rakta and Bacchus because it's your "responsibility" as an officer right?

Bonus

I think Suo knows he's going to lose something even though he realised he was losing it, and it's such an angsty expression too...

If you have ever watched Chinese dramas under the wuxia genre or Hong Kong martial arts movies, or just had some peripheral knowledge about it, there is an emphasis/focus on sects and masters. They could be teaching different kinds of martial arts styles or chi cultivation or even magic (depending on the level of fantasy present in the show), but the most common thing being shown, no matter how good or evil your sect is, is filial piety.

It is one of the most fundamental principles of Confusianism and a cornerstone of Chinese society in general. A hierarchical order on which families, communities and governments were built upon for centuries. A disciple must always obey their master the same way a son obeys his father and a subject obeys their ruler. Supposedly, the person in the higher position must actually care for those below them in order to earn said respect, trust and obedience, but of course you always have people who will abuse this power dynamic and make their underlings blindly do anything and everything for them.

In the wuxia/martial arts genre, master-student lineage and who you train under is very important. They literally teach you what they know, the secrets behind their technique and prowess, and you must bow down and give your utmost respect and loyalty to said master/sect. Any deviation from that loyalty will have consequences, sometimes world-ending and with hundreds of body counts (looking at you mdzs).

This is the same with the samurai in Japanese history. If your lord orders you to go to battle, then you will go to battle; if your lord asks you to kill yourself, then you will kill yourself; if your lord dies in battle, then you are supposed to commit seppuku and follow him into the netherworld (if you are loyal).

The Red Chanpuruu is three different families that learned to coexist but it's very rocky at best.

The Red Chanpuruu was once three different families/ethnicities/fighting styles/bloodlines/etc but now consider themselves as one.

Keel is a pretty brutal group in its methods, so it's not out of the question to think of threats of hurting friends being made and violence being exercised on the person "sacrificing" themselves. And you remember that Anzai was mad and wanted to find Nagato and fight him but in the end as he learnt everything that was going on they solved it with a regular conversation and a meal.

We ramped up the themes during the gravel arc, we're told about Sunaba district in Makochi, a very poor place where kids basically don't go to school and they end up working shady jobs for survival, both Suzuri and Shizuka are perfect representations of what can happen to people who grow in the same place but diverge later on, Suzuri stayed because he gave himself the role to protect and care for all his friends, no matter what, it kept them alive but it kept them miserable, meanwhile Shizuka got found by Kanji, Who heard her sing, offered her a job and she ended up forming bonds, but Shizuka never told her friends about where she came from and that ended up coming back to haunt them.

Now, Shizuka was aware they were after her, and she was bidding her time because she didn't want to go but she steeled her resolve and was willing to leave with Gravel if they wouldn't hurt her friends.

We're introduced to themes of human trafficking, poverty, corruption of youth, manipulation, social inequality..... So really it's not farfetched to think that Suo's arc could touch on human trafficking, given that Suo's dream is the emancipation of slaves.

Now, Shizuka gets protected, they force a confession of not wanting to leave out of her in full Nico Robin style and then they task the kids to protect her and Tsubaki faces Suzuri, for this one they needed 3 upperclassmen and Roppo Ichiza.

And then Endo showed up, and Endo has all the shady connections and doings he can, however he seems to be able to call off Shizuka being trafficked or deal with the fall out andhe mentions some guy who was behind all this.

Am I crazy enough to imagine that guy could be involved in whatever is going on with Suo and that's exactly how Endo is going to find out about where he is.

We're shown Noroshi afterwards, that we need all of Furin to face, and again we're introduced to self-sacrifice from Sakura this time.

I'm saying, the topper of darkness in wbk seems to not want to get itself into mafia or Yakuza related things, Makochi has plenty of shady gangs, but they stay gangs. I think a mafia or Yakuza would work on bigger cities.

But wbk still doesn't shy away from topic of extortion, torture, human trafficking, duress, social disparities...

I'm just saying, we had a character pushing away a friend so he wouldn't get hurt while he gets hurt for not performing to the gang's liking, a character that almost got trafficked and wanted to avoid her loved ones getting hurt so she tried to offer herself freely, we had a character being told them being there was hurting their friends (Endo was one hell of an asshole) and convincing him the only way to stop their friends from getting further injured was to just leave with him.

And then we got a character who lost everyone in his family, to show us Nii-sensei is not scared to talk about death, to show grief, not because he might kill a main character, but because we might yet have to see the effects of a funeral on another person and without any support in a flashback, because we might be shown more graphic death scenes than Umemiya's parents. Because Momijikawa's arc touched on the topic of suicide, and showed how taboo it is to even imply it in Japanese society but how unafraid Sugishita was to use it, normalisation is important, because it reminded us that Nii-sensei wasn't scared to bring heavy topics, in case anyone had forgotten about Ume being suicidal as a child after his parents death. We might get some more suicide related stuff this arc.

We're definitely getting someone who was previously trafficked, who worked for someone else for years (slavery adjacent) and then got rescued but somehow lost his support system before the main events of the series and is willing to go back after being found in order to avoid their friends getting involved, or perhaps they already threatened his friends.

It seems pretty in line with the topics of Wind Breaker, that's what I'm saying.

If Sakura and Suo do fight, it might be about Suo saying to stop trying to get him back and maybe implying he's not worthy of being rescued or he doesn't need it, and not about how or why Suo left.

Also, while I'm on it, Suo's name not being Suo Hayato or him not existing before middle school, doesn't exactly mean anything bad or him "pretending he's someone he's not", because if Suo was trafficked as a child but remembers his birthday, he definitely was old enough to have a name, a name he might not want anymore depending on how he ended up on the trafficking network, then comes the very likely probability that he was given a number instead of a name for being trafficked, then whoever bought him might have given him a new "name" for his "job" and finally if he got out, because of the meaning of his current name, I do think it was a name probably given by his master, and one he is quite fond of. So again, not necessarily a bad thing, but something Suo knows shouldn't be brought up. A new identity keeps him safe until it doesn't anymore.

I've been thinking about this since yesterday, because i find most of his expressions in Kiryu arc were quite strange. I mean, he could be masking as usual, but the thing is, if he really had family issues, i think he should’ve been at least triggered even just a little bit, because that would be a sign of his deep-rooted trauma.

However, he looked the most... relaxed. And if we compare him to Nirei and Tsuge, they show genuine concern on their faces. Sakura, of course, was the most triggered because he knows the pain of being abandoned and abused by his dad. Suo, on the other hand, looked more like he was neutral... maybe even curious and confused.

And the last thing he said is this one:

"It's hard. We can't say anything... when it's a family issue."

To me, his words sound like someone observing things objectively. It’s like Suo is able to sympathize (knowing it’s a sad situation) but can’t empathize, he can't place himself in Kiryu’s shoes because he has no frame of reference.

It seems like Suo never had any concept of a "normal" family in his life. He might’ve been an orphan who never knew his parents and was raised solely by his master.

One thing that consistently triggers Suo are violence in general, or when his friends (Sakura and Nirei) were in danger. Remember how scary Suo was in KEEL arc, and how Suo tried to fight Endo in Roppo ichiza arc.

My take on this is that Suo probably never had a 'normal' family (high chance he’s an orphan), and his main trauma isn't domestic, it’s just... pure violence. He likely grew up in a brutal environment surrounded by abusers, and probably had lost someone before. Or...his protective instincts are his projection to his past trauma, because he couldn't protect himself at that time.

Ok let's go down the memory lane. You don't approach people you apparently don't want to connect with from the first day of school. You don't suggest your "non-friend", an outsider, to take up the grade captain role and then be one of the vice-caps yourself, where you're responsible for the safety and wellbeing of everyone else in your class. You don't visit that "non-friend" when he's sick, support him through his many hardships and accept him as he is. You don't have the obligation to protect your other "non-friend" who can't fight, get mad for the first time on-screen after said "non-friend" got hurt and then accept his request on teaching him how to fight. You don't go around reminding people that you're here and request them to share their burden with you. You don't participate in a WAR with at least 1000+ people for the safety of the town if they truly mean nothing to you!!!

And these are like surface level shit!!!