⊹₊⟡ plat3uau (Plato) ⊹₊⟡

Im gonna interpret gilded cage as "a long time and appealing misconception Izumi struggles to break out of."

For my Izumi, this is modeling and his relationship w his mom. My Izumi's mom is still working as his agent, and he sees her as an overbearing but extremely effective talent agent who does everything in her power to help Izumi achieve his (THEIR) dream.

The most compelling part of Izumi To Me is interpreting his past as a neglected stage child. Sure his parents were smothering him with attention, but To Me their interest in their son was rooted in financial and egotistical incentives to see him succeed in the modeling industry. This is a situation that happens with a lot of real life child stars, sometimes the parents will entirely quit working to rely on their child's budding career, which puts a unique strain on a parent/child relationship.

(Jeanette McCurdy's "I'm glad my mom died" is a very interesting memoir about this topic)

I like to read Izumi this way because it becomes a sympathetic motivation for Izumi to develop into a yandere. His parents affection for him begins and ends at his professional success, which leaves him desperate for someone to connect with him like real family. So lonely child Izumi latches on to a surrogate little brother in need of protection that also allows him to perpetuate the same hyper controlling tendencies that were done to him by his parents.

And then Makoto outgrows him, and no longer needs his protection.

My Izumi isn't emotionally savvy enough to connect the dots that he was neglected. He inherited his modeling dreams from his parents, and never stopped to question whether the dream they chose for him was really his dream too. He likes being beautiful, he likes obsessing over his appearance, and mostly he likes the attention he receives from modeling, but he never chose it. Maybe modeling truly is his dream (canon seems to be guiding him towards an equal interest in modeling and idoling) but the point is that he never got to choose for himself.

I have no clue on what I'm doing anymore

deathbed

alt vers 🔽