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homestuck-and-the-monomyth · 8 months ago

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I’ll meet you long post for long post here.

First things first, I have to say that you’re correct that Ruby’s relationship with Kana (and Mem, although that’s less important) is still active as of 121. We do know from the later arc that it is wounded (on Kana’s side) at that moment, but to Ruby at that moment it is still a working friendship and a source of strength. I hadn’t reread 116-120 closely enough before making the ask, you’ve got me there.

That said, I don’t think I’m wrong in saying Ruby is isolating herself through the 80-121 stretch. Her refrain of “everyone is a liar” from 106 and 112 certainly doesn’t scream of somebody who is open to authentic connection. Her truth-presented-as-a-lie suicidal ideation in 115 shows her self-isolation as well; she’s thinking of her dead mother and doctor as her closest relations, even over her living friendships, and wanting to go to the dead. In 121, the lead-in to her final line (also suicidal, I’ll note) is “everyone who gets involved with me will be unhappy, I only bring misfortune.” Her friends may not have abandoned her, BUT she is abandoning them. And that’s without even getting into the Aqua of it all (although I can’t resist noting here that even in 122, she calls him, her closest confidante for literally 17 years, a “complete stranger.” That’s definitely indicative of total self-isolation in my book.)

Zooming out from the simple textual facts a little to look at this through a more thematic lens, it gets even more obvious. BOTH Aqua’s arc and the BH Ruby arc drive home the isolating nature of their revenge quest, that’s essentially the entire theme of the revenge plotline. It’s sprinkled across the whole story, but especially obvious in 95-98, where, within the first 4 chapters of restarting his revenge quest, Aqua leaves both of the women he loves in tears. What Aqua does in the name of his revenge quest, and likewise what Ruby does when she is emulating him, is both self-isolating and spiritually corrosive.

Speaking of spiritual corrosion, this is where we have to get into the idea of narrative punishment for Ruby’s wrongdoings. You seem insistent upon the idea that Ruby must be confronted for her crimes by someone else and externally punished for her sins; this is simply dramatically incorrect. Externally, or more specifically, in the eyes of other characters (besides Aqua), what has Ruby done wrong in the Mainstay Arc? She offered an innovative solution to a problem that benefitted everyone involved and made for good TV. To the people she has “wronged”, she appears as a creative, adaptable, and talented problem-solver who has ultimately improved their lives. In what narrative way would it make sense for them to criticize her? Oshi no Ko’s world rewards risk-taking of that type if it makes a better show, and that’s not limited to Ruby. Aqua habitually threw grenades into productions like LoveNow and Tokyo Blade, and Ai’s reaction to her kids’ dance was very nearly disaster for B-Komachi. Yet in both cases, their popularity exploded. Ruby certainly doesn’t get off any easier for her risk-taking, externally, than is standard for this world.

The important thing to understand is that Ruby’s (and Aqua’s) transgressions are INTERNAL; her sin is the corruption of her motivation - her selfishness. Therefore, dramatically speaking, her punishment must also be internal. Her self-isolation and suicidal ideation are symptoms of the internal corrosion that is the consequence of the general corruption of her morals. Dramatically speaking, the pain she is feeling at the end of 121 is the punishment for her actions collectively, despite the fact that it does not directly follow from them in a cause-and-effect sense. The evidence for this is as simple as the fact that 121-122 is where her black stars disappear: there’s a very obvious visual connection running along everything she does in the black star arc, all leading up to those painful moments in 121 and 122.

(I’ll also note here: if we read Ruby’s feelings in 121 as *solely* a stress response triggered by Ai’s own trauma as portrayed in the film script, it doesn’t make sense that the cure is reconnecting with Gorou/Aqua. However, if we see Ruby’s break in 121 - which is due to the specific reasons you’ve laid out, certainly - as the finale to a much longer arc of increasing self-isolation, it makes sense that reconnecting with the most important person in both of her lives is curative.)

Beyond that, I think your reading of events from 124 and on is outright incorrect in places. Tensions clearly do remain in B-Komachi to be dealt with, even if their working relationship is intact; that’s the entire point of that stretch from 133-137. To the point of what the text actually supports, I don’t think the text actually shows Ruby intentionally stepping on Kana or Mem’s careers by any means; the closest she gets is suggesting that the assistant director’s sister join B-Komachi, which hits Kana in a weak point (and even then, Ruby is ultimately punished for that by the reveal of Ai as her mother - despite the general benefit to her, that was something she didn’t want to happen). Certainly her popularity and tendency to outshine her teammates is something they all have to deal with - but contrary to what you’ve said, that is exactly apples to apples with Ai. The only metaphorical orange here is that we actually give a shit about Ruby’s teammates.

That said, the insistence that Ruby must overcome the exact social, structural, and societal challenges that Ai does a disservice to Ruby’s character - Ruby is her own character, and her challenges are, and ought to be, largely her own, not those of her mother. Ruby has not transgressed against idol culture in the way that created challenges for Ai (I will say, this has the unfortunate effect of not allowing Ruby’s storyline to be as critical of entertainment culture as Ai’s or Aqua’s are). Ruby’s challenges are: first, to overcome the structural challenges of an idol group just starting out (Ai’s challenges were more those of a group’s early-to-mid-stage development); second, to understand and make understandable to others Ai’s feelings; third, to resolve her own desire for vengeance on Ai’s killer; and finally, to be an inspiration and source of happiness to others. This is the key thing to recognize: Ruby’s challenges (beyond the very start of her career) are largely person-vs-self, whereas Ai’s are largely person-vs-society. Ruby’s challenges aren’t necessarily easier or harder than Ai’s; they are just different in nature.

Narratively and dramatically, I’m convinced of all of the above. Past this point is where we’re gonna have to agree to disagree, since I tend to prefer Ruby as a character over Ai and you prefer Ai as a character over Ruby. I could bring up any number of uncharitable interpretations of Ai’s relationships with those around her (the only one I can’t resist is that she did in fact damage Miyako’s career - she relegated a talented manager and promoter to babysitter duty for 4 years!), and provide charitable interpretations of Ruby’s narrative challenges. You could do the opposite just as easily.

Man, I think you gotta re-read from chapter 81 if you really think Ruby faced no consequences for the black hoshigan arc and hasn’t grown at all since. Like, she’s utterly alone (as a consequence of her own actions) and actively suicidal by chapter 121. The “The End” panel in chapter 121 is the genuinely cruel recompense for Ruby’s actions in the preceding 40 chapters; she’s in part isolated herself, in part driven her friends away, to the point where she’s seeking out Marina for a long-shot hope at ANY connection whatsoever. And the word of literal god, basically the authors’ mouthpiece, tells/shows her that it is hopeless, there is no such connection, she is completely alone.

And even after she re-establishes her connection with Gorou/Aqua and reopens herself to her relationships with her other friends and family, there are wounds on those relationships. Mending those wounds is the entire point of her sub-arc with Kana from 133 to 137. Also, notably, that’s where the real growth comes: where she is forced to dig into the depths of both her own and Ai’s psyches, acknowledges the emotions she finds and forces others to acknowledge them as well, and then finds a way to move forward with Kana specifically.

Notably, I think this is the specific area where we know she has surpassed Ai, at this point. Look back at those four pages of the performance in 159: while Ruby is clearly the focus, taking up roughly half of the total space on those pages and the center position in any shared panels, Kana and Mem are clearly each taking center stage as well for some songs, and the affection between the three is visible. In comparison, in how many of the panels in which Ai appeared did we ever see her teammates’ faces? Did we ever see her relinquish the stage? We know her friendships with the old B-komachi had essentially dissolved by the time the twins were born, Aqua tells us as much at the end of the prologue.

Sorry to say that I actually re-read the ch80-123 recently (I was trying to feel out how a hypothetical third season would be paced) and if anything, seeing just how many interesting ideas it sets up and fails to meaningfully iterate on just made me feel that even more strongly. What you've laid out in this ask is a good idea for the structure of BH Ruby's arc but if that was Akasaka's intent then the execution is so insanely botched that it is fundamentally absent from the work itself.

Like… there's no way for me to say this w/o sounding like i'm hitting you with an UM ACKSHULLY 🤓 but the idea that BH Ruby was even passively abandoned by her friends is just not supported by the text. We do see the beginnings of Kana's sense of inferiority towards Ruby take root just prior to Scandal starting up but this is framed as being emergent from Kana's own existing low self esteem (though admittedly triggered by Ruby wanting to add Mimi to B-Komachi). Moreover, it's more or less the same as how her feelings towards Ruby are framed during the Movie Arc, where Kana's jealousy is said to be a response to Ruby being "blessed with natural talent […] special and different from [her]". There is no textual connection drawn between Ruby's clout chasing and her behaviour towards Kana and Mem and Kana's sense of rejection and Kana never treats Ruby poorly as a result. Not only that but when Ruby is seen hanging out with Mem and Kana across those arcs, they're chatting and bantering like always and Kana is even actively supporting and mentoring Ruby in the immediate leadup to Ruby going to try and see Marina in ch121. In the actual text of the story, what leads to Ruby's breakdown is the physical and emotional stress and exhaustion of her massively overpacked schedule - something which is itself Miyako's fault, as explicitly called out by Kaburagi and Ichigo - and her lingering issues with Sarina's abuse and abandonment being quite literally triggered by her engaging and empathizing with material depicting Ai's abuse and abandonment at Ayumi's hands.

Outside of B-Komachi, the most we really get from her school friends that there's any cracks in their friendships is that little internal musing from Minami about Ruby getting tangled up in the "dirty world of adults" but that both comes before Aqua's assertion that BH Ruby is causing strain in her relationships and is clearly spoken out of affection and concern for her. Frill actively reaches out to and supports Ruby during the interpersonal audition way past Aqua's note about cracks and is basically the reason Ruby gets the role of Ai over herself or Akane.

Ruby is by no means abandoned by anyone. She is actively, effusively supported by everyone in her life the entirety of her BH arc. Even the one relationship she does end up fracturing - her and Aqua's - is repaired lickity-split as soon as the past life reveal happens and any tension in B-Komachi is reset to zero as early as 124 with no real nod to of any issues BH Ruby caused. In fact, the issues BH Ruby causes are never so much as acknowledged by the narrative, let alone addressed or worked through. When Kana is, finally, allowed to express any discontent to Ruby during the RBKN conflict, she is not actually permitted to confront her with any of Ruby's actual wrongdoing and is instead just mad that Ruby is more popular. This conveniently shifts the focus away from Ruby's behavior and so rather than having to actually address it, Ruby can simply graciously forgive Kana for being in the wrong and not do any meaningful work on the tension that exists in their relationship. The narrative absolves Ruby of responsibility, sparing her any genuine reckoning or growth.

You brought up B-Komachi as a point of comparison and as a place where Ruby has surpassed Ai but not only do I feel like these are apples and oranges, I also just feel like it's further proof that Ruby is not being allowed to learn and grow because the narrative excessively coddles her. Both Viewpoint B and 45510 explicitly say the issues with the group in a professional capacity are explicitly said to be the result of management excessively favouring Ai and not something she herself did and in Spica, we even literally see her attempt to surrender her center position to one of the other girls all while actively working hard to take steps to put them all in the best possible light even when she does have to be the center. And while there are interpersonal issues in B-Komachi, these are presented as two-sided failures to connect that Ai is actively show trying to resolve - Viewpoint B shows her approaching and reaching out to Kyun when she sees her feeling upset and the entire point of 45510 is Nino's utter revulsion and rejection in the face of Ai's vulnerability.

Not only that but like… Ai's behaviour never damages or endangers anyone's career! Gen 1 B-Komachi was certainly not a good environment for anybody in it, but everyone in it was still part of Japan's biggest and brightest idol group and enjoyed all the fame and money that came with it. Ruby, by contrast, very much did endanger the career of an entire TV show's worth of people and stepped on Kana and Memcho's backs in order to further her solo career. She is never so much as asked to examine this behavior or face any consequences for it and when we do finally see her express any sort of remorse or regret for her behaviour, it's all exclusively focused on how bad it felt for Ruby, personally to do bad things and how sad she, personally is that she decided to be shitty to people and then Aqua just wholly absolves her anyway. She never attempt to make amends with or even express concern for the people who she might have hurt in the process.

Because of this, both the Ai-Nino/Ruby-Kana parallels and the attempts to uplift Ruby as an idol 'surpassing' Ai fall flat. At no point past the Mainstay arc do we ever see Ruby correcting for Ai's mistakes or better handling situations that Ai had flubbed, mostly because she never gets a chance to. Her career as an idol is propelled along by the narrative failing to place any roadblocks in her way and rather than showing us Ruby's strength of character by letting her overcome social, structural and societal issues that troubled her mother, she is simply arbitrarily unaffected by them in any way that manifests in on-panel action taken by her.

This is what I mean when I say Ruby learns nothing—because the narrative, past a certain point, never challenges her or holds her accountable for her behavior in a way that would allow her to. Ruby is portrayed as a passive beneficiary of favorable circumstances, with any challenges she faces being swiftly neutralized by forces outside of her control or influence. This is not only frustrating to experience as a reader but ultimately diminishes the impact of her success as the story has begun presenting it.

#oshi no ko

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