#werewolfcave

What a world we live in

it's worth it! especially when it introduces a new audience to a post i really like (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

GOOD!!! ghsjdfhgfjdh that makes me SO happy!! i love to be a good lesbian influence 🫡🫡

one of the two best parts of the show, no competition. sakura's a rare character type within rider, sure, but also in wider media: a girl who seeks strength and isnt punished for it. shes confident, shes proud, shes confrontational, shes stubborn, she knows who she wants to be with no compromise. her arc comes off the end of daijis, where hes seeking strength and agency hes been denied because of ikki, and she has problems that are similar but not quite. she hasnt necessarily been Specifically denied these things in the way that daiji has, and especially not by her siblings, but its something shes working for for her own sake. she wants to protect the people she cares about, but its also about her. which is sooo cool.

her relationship with her demon is the one that also makes the most sense with the setup revice initially gives: your demons are your repressed self, your true feelings- i referred to this show as persona while watching MANY, MANY TIMES - and while vice gets mascot-ed and the climax of the show entirely hinges on him being considered his own character and not part of ikki, and daiji beats the fuck out of kagerou cuz umm umm ummmm, sakura takes this weak part of her and embraces it. and its a genuine handicap at times, one she has to overcome. of course lovekov is a bit mascotted- look at her. sakura wants to be strong and it feels immature and bullheaded at times. sakura wants to be strong because at times she feels weak, unable to help and left out. sakura wants to be strong- but its not bad to be weak at all. true strength can only be achieved if you know weakness, after all. and that is sakuras arc- accepting she's not all powerful makes her invincible. who is better than her?? WHO IS DOING IT BETTER THAN HER?????

she's also the character thats more accurately described as nosy compared to ikki- sakura is shown with friends and relationships outside of her family. she has hobbies, likes, dislikes, a social life and extracurriculars, and she is involved with All Of IT. girls her age like her (perhaps more than as friends, lol) and shes not really afraid to transform in front of them after a point. she butts into other peoples business, she likes flexing her stuff, and she wants to protect people, whether theyre people she loves or just individuals in the world. its crazy the more you think about her the more the herospeakslop at the end actually belongs to her- its almost like the writer wanted her to be the protagonist the whole time.... (she is to me). peace, sure. but happiness? peoples smiles? get in EVERYONES business. because shes the one who does that.

i enjoyed everything about hanasakus arc- perfect opposites, fighting for what each of them considers family, one with ideas warped by grooming and being a literal child bride and one with the freedom to speak her mind and not afraid to kick people around with honesty, as one ought to. "youre weak, join me (i want to dye you in my colors, i have the power you want)" "youre better than this, you dont deserve the situation youre in (please listen to me, ill help you at all costs)- don't say it in the past tense!!! a girl who wants to be strong inside and out and learns her own weakness within her quest for strength helping another girl who has been groomed by the very spectre of heterosexuality literally her entire life regain her agency, her name, her likes and dislikes, her self and freedom- what could i possibly have to complain about.

of course she's victim to rider misogyny:

after she has her Big Moment with hana she gets super shafted during the action bits (majority of the rest of the story) despite her storyline unambiguously being the best and most true to what revice is .. .allegedly? trying to say? she gets a "stop fighting!!!!!" between daiji and ikki later when theyre fighting over stupid shit that should have been resolved already (but wasnt) even tho if she was involved she would have ended the problem immediately. her upgrade (unplanned either way) only comes after some fucking irrelevant side character man whose name i dont even remember gets a henshin cuz his actors agency bullied toei into it. as mentioned earlier: her arc has to come off daijis, which is weaker in every way.

and that is the truth of my discussion of revice: i dont talk about daiji OR ikki . ever.

i mentioned ive complained about daiji sucking, and ive gotten mad about the exact same problem with ikkis writing maybe 3 times at this point, both in reference to other shows where my complaints managed to bubble up again. revice's plot doesnt make sense, the writing doesnt care about its own internal logic, and the story repeats the same "danger" alarms so many times it loses any sense of stakes. the reason anything may be more or less talked about in my discussion of revice is because the show as a whole is so bad that criticism is generally what i turn to. because criticism is also analysis, so i do it. a lot. even then, for revice, i just generally dont want to talk about it, complaining or not. And the main things i have to complain about in regards to sakura are her not being the protagonist and both girls getting shafted after the big hanasaku moment. which are problems, obviously, but not only are they largely such stock-standard rider misogyny complaints that they feel almost redundant to mention at times (though with the bonus of sakura actually getting to be a rider), id rather talk about seasons i like than waste time complaining about a season i dont.

and thus i havent even posted any exposition on the complaints i just touched on. i dont think anyone wants to see them, and i think theyve likely been beaten into the ground over and over by now. so i havent really talked about revice. but sakura and hana are the best part of the show bar none. and i wish they werent in revice. badly.