Honestly really curious about how much Hotaru knows about/is connected to the person whose death led to Millsage's creation, and more than that how she feels about it or *will* feel about it when she finds out if she doesn't already know.
I was thinking this because another thing in the MV that caught my eye is the white lilly that Hotaru is holding throughout it, and the one she is decidedly distanced from and seems to *want* out of reach.
The first fully isolated white lilly we see is when we're going through the members while they're isolated in their own darkened spaces, just before zooming in on Houka we are shown this white lilly with two visible flowers and 4 visible leaves, seemingly with more considering the stalk seems to extend upwards:
It's also important to mention that in contrast to the flowers the members are wearing this one seems to be quite healthy. I can't help but think that these two flowers that receive emphasis are some sort of symbolic representative for the old band/relationship that was with the now deceased individual and the Millsage that exists *now*, coexisting and having grown from the same core of that individual's presence and existence.
And then something i find interesting happens, we cut from this flower spinning to a group shot of the band playing *without* Hotaru present in the shot.
Before cutting to showing her, or someone, playing alone, with her face and body out of the shot
And not long after that we cut to Hotaru alone, and the white lilly she is holding decidedly only has one, very central flower, with no scarring from other growths having been cut, indicating that it's a different flower altogether. She is placed both in a physical and presentational sense by the MV and narratively speaking in an alienated state in relation to the other members; the other members in relation to Hotaru and vice-versa seem to hold a different view of either how things *are* or how they *ought* to be pertaining to the band.
Then, from that group shot we go to Hotaru walking along what we know is a riverbank while intercut with the open-field shots of the other members, all while holding a flower
I'm fairly convinced this white lilly is the one with two flowers related to the other members of the band, because in the next few seconds Hotaru opens her eyes and right after we see this:
Seeming to imply her throwing away that flower that beforehand in the MV appeared to be associated with the other members, probably pertaining to some aspect of the role their grief played and plays on Millsage and how they probably view the band as something that grew from and *because* of the death of that friend of the other members and as something they can use to somehow, very very very likely not healthly, deal with that death.
And then we go from *that* to Hotaru rising from seemingly being submerged in the water as if in a baptism, calling herself now a "blank canvas"
And presenting the same flower with the singular central growth she was holding in her solo section at the start almost as if proposing she pleads, to who I'd wager is the other members of the band, to color her as they wish (she is so so so normal and ok and healthy)
And this is made even more Concerning when literally the next group of shots directly after this show that this river bank where Hotaru is re-baptising herself seems to be a pretty important place for the other members of the band in relation specifically to the member who *died* and maybe possibly the place where said member herself died or went before dying?? This is me maybe reading too much into it since it cuts to the seemingly dead member after a shot of Mahoro looking all wistfully at the riverbank at sunset, and after that it cuts to waterdrop falling.
Honestly, i saw most people theorizing that the band is trying to employ Hotaru as a sort of replacement for both the member, and most importantly and messed up, the *person* that died, and I don't think that will be necessarily wrong, it definitely wouldn't surprise me at all; but I think maybe people are underestimating Hotaru's willingness and maybe even desire to actively *play* into it; she is remarkably sheltered and we know for a fact from her voice lines that going out with the members of Millsage is the quite possibly the first time in her *life* that she goes out with someone that isn't family. She is probably someone extremely unexperienced with personal relationships and how to properly form and nurture them, and I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't have the healthiest of ideas of how good, solid relationships and friendships should look like.
I wouldn't be surprised if after having this group actively search her out, engage with her, hear her out, actually giving her the opportunity to go out and hang out with them; if after having something like this for the first time in her life, independently of any second, denpending on the perspective even somewhat malicious, intentions involved, and I do think Hotaru is somewhat aware of that, that she *would* try to do anything in her power to keep those "friends" around; to force this happiness she is experiencing for the first time to stay around her. And it wouldn't suprise me if she interpreted that the best way to do this is to become the best "replacement" possible for the person who died, just as good as the real thing itself to a point where the real thing doesn't have a place to exist anymore and instead of the band being hinged on their grief for their friend it becomes hinged on Hotaru's deliverance of what they need her to be for their happiness. Honestly I don't know if this would be symbiotic or somehow a mutual parasitism.
To be clear I don't think Hotaru is malicious at all, it just worries me a lot that the relationship close to friendship that she has with anyone outside of (hell, maybe even counting) her family is with these four girls who clearly see her as a sort of replacement for someone already gone, who seem to be rather dysfunctionally dealing with their own different stages of grief, who may or may not have trauma-bonded to her. The first close bond that you genuinely form and invest yourself with another person/group of people being *this* is bound to not result in the healthiest mindset being formed, especially if you want to be seen and loved as *you* but your value to the others in this relationship is how well you fit the role of another person that isn't even there anymore for you to compare, and I also would think it a completly reasonable response to even *despite* that for her to still cling onto this band because it's the first time she seems to have been able to experience this happiness in companionship and even having the freedom to hang out and exist around other people, it wouldn't surprise me if there was a level of desperation to keep this performance going. That is to say that if what I'm theorizing about Hotaru happens to be right, and it might as well not be, I do think it's a completly reasonable response to develop from what we know of her circunstances and decidedly *not* a reason to blame or demonize her.
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romaincrisis
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