#okapi chuffing

So I try to step away from the problem of who the show focuses on and try to think about what it focuses on to understand it from that angle, but then I run face first into the fact that it’s just… a worse Ride the Cyclone? Like spoilers for the leaked version I guess but it gives all the character’s a happy ending outside the circus in traditionally fulfilling lives. And I get what it’s going for! Never kill yourself, life gets better, which is true! But it also kinda contradicts with the shows stated theme that a stagnant life can still be a good life right? Ride the Cyclone has a very similar message, that whatever life you have is valuable even if it’s short and not traditionally fulfilling. Which I guess is what the character’s lives in the circus are supposed to represent? But they’re… not that. Maybe the morals aren’t supposed to be similar at all, maybe I’m just making an unflattering comparison but I can’t stop dwelling on it.

4th round!

Because Blue at least hates being seen, even by his enemies, his entire Blue Knight identity is built around the armor he wears to physically hide how his body changes. Blue literally runs away from fights multiple times rather than be seen.

And then there’s Brau1589, who’s entirely stripped down to his skeleton. The mechanics of a body he can’t control, a body he hates, entirely visible. Is there any comfort that in this state of utter ruin that this function of his body is almost entirely obscured?

Anyway. The Blue Knight says trans rights and I am fascinated by what that says about Brau1589 as an adaptation of him.