I have a question.ln Angel Eyes we know that Ash manipulated the people who treated him cruelly. But later,in the main series,he never completely stopped doing that (even if it was for survival).Or is that simply because of when Angel Eyes was released?
Ooh! What a good question!!
Let's look at Ash's life before Angel Eyes. He'd been using his body for survival for years. There were men like Dino and situations like Club Cod where he had no agency at all, and I think that might be where he learned the trick of pretending eagerness to get what he wanted (gentleness, favors, eic.). I, for one, don't feel he did anything wrong there. He needed to survive, and manipulating bad men gave him the edge he needed.
Then, when Blanca trained him, he was probably told that he had the right, even the responsibility to use any means at his disposal to beat an opponent. It's like the thing with the cue stick: Ash was taught how to kill, but not how to be merciful. Obviously, Blanca's (Dino's) objectives were in opposition to Ash's personality, but again, they worked to allow him to survive.
And so, in Angel Eyes, when Ash gets a protector by trading sexual favors, he's just using the skills that had worked to keep him alive in the past. He knows exactly how to manipulate that relationship (pretending willingness and even eagerness) so that he has a more gentle experience, too.
Shorter, coming from a more honest background and not understanding the real stakes that Ash faces (he thinks this is about things he understands--street violence--and misses the deeper nuance--Ash's long history of sexual assault) lectures Ash about becoming as bad as his opponents. He's not wrong, as far as it goes, but he doesn't understand how Ash's history plays into it.
I think that Ash took Shorter's words to heart, that he really considered the path he was on for maybe the first time ever. But honestly, there's a lot that Shorter didn't understand. I think Ash maybe scaled back on his use of manipulation and saved it for when it was truly necessary. Like, Shorter made him consider each situation first.
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