#skytag

my baby sky 🥺💛 i love love love seeing you on my dash everyday. you’re the sweetest and the kindest and eventhough we don’t talk everyday, i’m glad to have met u in these past few months. also, not unimportant to mention; but this baby CUTE!!! im serious youre so fucking gorgeous sky i love your face and will love it for ever and ever 💛

there's much to be said about the very, very, Very obvious parallel between mafuyu and a marionette doll That is quite literally spelt out for you by three characters [mizuki miku mafuyu]. however I am only going to focus on a very specific thing that one of those characters says in a side story :-) yay

(editing this the next day I Am a liar and a fraud. there's more)

truly I find it quite funny just how In-Your-Face this story was. mafuyu claims she's emotionally numb, becomes instantly nauseous and sent into what seems like a panic attack at the sight of a marionette doll sitting elegantly in a cage, held up by strings. Hmm. I can only wonder why the beautiful honour student with a future she didn't get to decide on is disgusted at such a sight,

(obviously I am exaggerating but I find it so funny how this is in essence what ena says. oh my god

I LAUGHED AT THIS I'M NOT EVEN GONNA LIE)

back to the point... I'm not going to speak about the event's plot itself, in detail, matter of fact I don't think this post will be very long to begin with, Like I said, the event is very obvious. it verbalises the set up and also verbalises the conclusion. you have to do absolutely no individual thinking to understand that mafuyu feels she has no autonomy and therefore lacks a sense of self. We're on the same page here. I'm sure.

this part though! [miku sst1] it's so symbolic. I really am sad that this wasn't speculated on in her sst2, or in another character's card. mizuki Did spell out for us that mafuyu became nauseous due to seeing herself in the marionette, and being puppetteered by her mother,

[ch7] but she didn't address the cut strings in any card story post-miku's [mizuki 3* & ena 2*]. which, with a character so obviously emotionally intelligent, aware and perceptive like mizuki, comes as a bit of a surprise.

then again, we truly can't have every single philosophical thought spelt out for us, so I guess I'll do that instead -

does cutting the strings of a puppet truly mean freedom?

in short, well. yes. obviously. what kind of question 😭

in long, I want to be philosophical myself for a bit; a puppeteered marionette is composed of three elements: the puppeteer, the strings, and the puppet. the puppet is manipulated and moved via the strings, that the puppeteer has full control over, decides what to pull and release and tug.

the concept of mafuyu "cutting" the strings off her body, doesn't mean she's removing her mother, but rather, her influence - a puppet can't be moved without its strings. either you take matters into your own hands drastically by touching the puppet and damaging its surface,

or the puppeteer realises they're powerless and can no longer control the doll.

then again, removing the influential power of a puppeteer means nothing for the doll if the doll itself has no motivations, desires, or other human moving forces that push it towards individual thought and decision-making, such as moving.

[excerpt from mafuyu's dream, ch6] mafuyu has expressed multiple times that she believes she's incapable of feeling - it would be normal to assume this after repeated constant pressure from one's parents and having all the capability to make one'own choices be removed from one (on account of the parents) - at a certain point one's true desires will begin to cross over with the "desires" put into their head by the people making all those executive functions.

I think what mafuyu is using here is learned helplessness, to a degree... we Know she's capable of feeling, otherwise she wouldn't have had such a visceral reaction to seeing the marionette in the exhibition. perhaps she *wants* to be emotionally numb so she's apathetic to her independence being non-existent, so she doesn't bother looking for her true self and her true motivations, so she doesn't feel fed up or upset with anything anymore. and yet, the sight of the doll jarred her so deeply she got sent into an uncharacteristically strong panic. mafuyu *is* capable of feeling, but not Joy. I don't think this is emotional detachment, since she's clearly capable of recognising her negative reactions (even if she can't explain the source or trigger of them).

I'm not a mental health expert. it might be depression, but I don't get to make that call. anyway, I just wanted to point out how giving mafuyu her autonomy back by cutting the strings of the marionette [symbolically] doesn't help her unless she finds her honest self, since her current mental state is so withered that she doesn't know What brings her joy, therefore she can't make decisions on her own based on what she believes benefits her best.

(I suppose you could go by process of elimination, instead using her negative emotional reactions as pointers on What to avoid, but that would develop too much stress and pressure for the end result to be even somewhat gratifying, I think)

Okay, I think that covers mafuyu. there's one more thing I wanted to point out about my beloved roach yoisaki kanade. and another excerpt from mafuyu's dream:

while this sentence is referring to mzen in the dream, I find it so cool how this word is only Just mentioned now.

kanade's constant pressure on mafuyu to tell her how she feels is Kind of Horrifying. like, I know the girls have met up a few times irl after they met in sekai, after the conflict in mainsto, and so on - they Are friends, I guess - but it's still a kinda ridiculous request to make every single day?

Everything kanade does is focused on mafuyu. I don't even think that's an exaggeration - when they interact online, too, knd tends to ask mfy for input, wishes her goodnight the first, and just. Emphasises Over and Over how badly she needs to save her. I understand this stems from kanade's deep rooted harrowing guilt for "harming" her own father, and that she's compensating, but for how much kanade talks about "understanding [mafuyu's] point of view so [she] can compose a song to save [her]", she Truly doesn't consider her current state very well. (I'd add sources but omg it's like every three sentences of hers)

so much so that mizuki has to step in and in essence tell kanade to knock it off.

kanade then has the Gall to be Upset about this decision.

"but she keeps it to herself!!!" 😁😁😁😁😁 OKAY? STILL? LMFAO??????? we all know kanade is selfish,

[mst ch18] but this is a little insane Lmfaoao. kanade.... you need to empathise with mafuyu... this isn't the way

Anyways yes! I liked imprisoned marionette, it was a very blunt way of establishing that mafuyu is fighting a battle that no one truly can grasp apart from maybe mizuki that won't involve herself too deeply since she understands autonomy is the thing mfy is lacking and letting her make her own choices, even in a dark and negative headspace (like telling the others that if she wants to commit, she should be free to have the option to do so).

[mst ch18]

this is...... so intimate