#phantom babbles

I actually think that Mr. Bennet was probably the most similar to Lydia for all that as his favourite daughter Lizzy shared his penchant for books and witticisms about other people.

The thing about Mr. Bennet is he's chiefly concerned with his own amusement, his own interests, while Mrs. Bennet panics over the entailment and what they'll do when he's dead he brushes it off and takes no action, if pushed on it he gets passive-aggressive. He's not interested in thinking about a world where he's dead or preparing for it, and while that's obviously irresponsible it's also not like that mindset's uncommon even today. Mr. Bennet doesn't save money, Mr. Bennet reads and jokes around, taking nothing seriously. Mr. Bennet is prepared to make fun of his young daughters "They are all silly and ignorant like other girls but Lizzy has something more of quickness than her sisters" and tease his wife "You mistake me dear I have a high respect for your nerves, they are my old friends." and everyone else that he comes into contact with "For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?" "Mr. Bennet’s expectations were fully answered. His cousin was as absurd as he had hoped; and he listened to him with the keenest enjoyment, . . . and, except in an occasional glance at Elizabeth, requiring no partner in his pleasure." He amuses himself with their antics without stepping in to teach the daughters he's responsible for better 'more respectable' ways to behave especially in regards to the scenes they make in public. That's far less entertaining after all. And would require him to actually put work in rather than look down on them as an observer.

Lizzy mirrors his behaviour a lot at the start of the book in regards to making character judgements about the people around her, but her care in trying to make sure her younger sister doesn't drink too much at the ball for example is something he never would've bothered with and she learns over the course of the book to be less prideful about her 'discernment' and less liable to allow herself to be prejudiced against the people she meets based on hearsay or first impressions.

Lydia meanwhile is similarly entertaining as a member of the family early in the book and later on is revealed to be similarly selfish in what her indifference to the consequences of her choices will mean for the rest of the family, in the note explaining that she has run off with Wickham, Lydia writes “What a good joke it will be!”

While her sense of humour is less cynical and sarcastic than her father's the fact she places priority on what's fun rather than the right thing to do makes her a very interesting parallel. Of course this is also an indicator of her immaturity and her parents' failures to educate her properly but Lydia ends up being a foil for both her parents', the result of their enabling and neglectful parenting styles and a merging of their worst qualities/personality traits. In fact her marriage echoes their own "My child, let me not have the grief of seeing you unable to respect your partner in life." in how she marries thoughtlessly, for attraction rather than love. As ridiculous and inconsiderate as her mother; as passive, selfish and careless in regards to 'duty to the family' as her father and as conceited as both of them.

I met the love of my life on this game.

I met my best friends on this game.

I started playing Destiny 2 in 2019 during one of the worst times in my life. At first, it was just a Bungie game that I wanted to see if it could compare to the Halo franchise.

But I fell in love with the world at Red War.

This game has seen me through hell and I could not be more devastated that it is ending. I have loved each chapter Bungie has rolled out. I have cherished the friends I have made brawling in Iron Banner, slogging through Trials. We have spent hours chatting our way through Strikes. And Raid nights were my always my favorite.

My partner and I have woven OC after OC from this beautiful game. We've written hundreds of pages in this intricate world.

We have fallen in love over and over through our characters because of this game.

I am heartbroken to see Destiny 2 end but I hold out hope that our cries have not fallen on deaf ears and we will see Destiny 3 one day.

So as you can see, there's clear evidence of intentional parallels happening here. This is the aftermath of Ai's death that mirrors the aftermath of Aqua's. Aka already claimed to have the ending planned well in advance months ago so it's not a big surprise that even the ending panels of the first (not counting the prologue) and last chapters match.

And yet Oshi no Ko still falls flat despite fulfilling its promise of a revenge-tragedy.

I think the biggest problem it has is the way the last chapter tells us instead of shows us as chapter 10 did.

Yes chapter 10 also used narrative text boxes a lot, but I argue that the effect then was much more immersive.

With them being used with precision to move us through a time skip with only the most necessary information about the fall out for the characters, even the distance had the effect of doing characterisation work with Aqua describing in a narrative text box how the policemen hid the scene from Ruby but Aqua felt his mother's body going cold beneath him as they arrived - this use of the text boxes casual tone over child Aqua sitting in his dead mother's lap gave a sense of disassociation and shock to the scene.

Even the textboxes turning black to mirror Aqua's dark emotions concerning his revenge as the star in his eye turned black showed how much attention was being paid to their use.

Ruby.

Ruby felt much more real in chapter 10, her rant about the internet's callous response to Ai's murder felt real and emotionally charged. In comparison, for all she's the main subject of the last chapter, she feels like a 2d cut out of herself, barely in there for all we see her struggling through Akane's observant gaze.

She expresses her motivation to be an idol despite hardship by acknowledging that Aqua's right about idolwork being difficult and cruel but reminding him that despite the darkside of the entertainment industry, their mother 'shone' very brightly. The talk about how Ruby shines more the darker things get and how this is a good thing because it reaches out to people trapped in darkness of their own (just like her when she was a terminally ill cancer patient) is clearly meant to echo this idea.

Frankly it fails.

Ruby feels hollow.

To the point where we barely get any insight into Ruby's real feelings at all or any emotional connection with her in comparison, by 166 it's genuinely unclear whether or not she's lying even to the portrait of her dead family when she's 'alone' on her way out the door.

We don't see a conversation between her and her adoptive mother about Aqua, we don't see her talking to Akane at all. We see her grief and her success from a deified distance, just like the fans do. And it alienates us from the character.

Lies are love and she has two stars in her eyes. Just like her mother did.

I think this more than anything condemns the idol industry, she has to keep lying even to herself about her job being fun because otherwise what was all that pain and suffering and loss for?

Aqua died in a murder-suicide (shout out to Taiki for experiencing a loved one doing this twice, poor guy) to give his little sister success in a job that she has to get up at 5.30 for, devote her entire youth to and will have to quit in less than a decade. It has to matter, that she provides escapism for people who are suffering like she did, but it doesn't change the grim reality of her exploitation.

I think the lack of dialogue in the final chapter and the loss of voice for Ruby in the last few arcs mirrors the loss of agency she experiences as she becomes the ultimate idol, everyone's star.

But that doesn't change the fact that from a reader perspective it's just bad writing. Aka failed to carry his audience with him to the finish line and his messages about the idol industry were blurred by the rushed plot after the movie arc began.

Some guy was going on about how the reincarnation thing in Naruto was an asspull and when people pulled receipts and showed him panels from part one that hinted at it he maintained that it was still terrible because the whole destiny thing ruined the themes of the manga and I'm here like somebody really read the whole manga yet missed out on the themes of peace through absolute power vs peace through understanding that were key to the whole thing.

The Akatsuki's dream of peace is enforced on the rest of the world through the absolute power of the 9 bijuu powered infinite tsukuyomi. Sasuke chases power in order to avenge his family so he can be at peace + not have the threat of Itachi killing any further family he makes all over again hanging over him. Naruto comes to peace with those around him by understanding them whether or not he considers their past actions forgiveable, he chases Sasuke because he understands that Sasuke's motivation of revenge isn't wrong but the way he's going about it is actively self-destructive and hurts both him and those who care about him.

The whole idea of the villages I think are to show that it's a cycle of hatred, between war and peace, between might making right and compassion being the key and Sasuke and Naruto are symbolically representative of it all!

The theme of generational trauma is also all over the world of Naruto! Whether it's the legacy of the Uzumaki sacrificed to become the jinchuriki of the nine tails, a burden his parents pass onto Naruto; Kakashi's trauma stemming from his father's, Hinata and Neji both innocent kids but who are divided by the toxic customs of their family when they should be like siblings to each other, Hashirama and Madara bearing the weight of the brother war the Senju-Uchiha conflict and how hard it is to achieve peace even in a world where neither side actually wants to fight because of all the history and distrust that's built up, the curse of hatred of the Uchiha stemming from Ootsutsuki Indra's madness and willingness to murder his closest friends for the sake of taking power by force, Obito being taken by his own clan patriarch, hurt when he tries to leave and brainwashed and traumatised into buying into the dream of a perfect world - he literally inherits his hatred for the existing one, Gaara and his siblings lives effected by their father's actions but also by the custom of jinchuriki being created in the first place, the children of Ame all orphaned by war, Kaguya the enslaver, Kaguya the dictator, leaving a fragment of her will called Zetsu aka 'tongue' that continues to spread hatred, fear and prejudice and divide the people hundreds of years on. Haku experiencing the results of both the ninja world 'shinobi are tools' belief system and the prejudice of Kirigakure towards those with bloodline limits when he's a child too young to fully understand either with Zabuza the demon of the bloody mist who killed all his classmates to end kiri's killer graduation exams once and for all who can't bring himself to express his genuine love for Haku until he's already dead. I mean I could go on but you get the point.