homicidalghostt

[homicidalghostt]

Mit2uba's Trauma: An Analogy

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Tw: I will be discussing the abuse Mitsuba has suffered from his environment, nothing that isn't in the manga, but I want to give a heads up. Additionally, I'm fortunate to have not gone though any severe traumatic experience myself, and am instead using my general knowledge, meaning if anything is incorrect here, please point it out!

(Also manga spoilers obviously)

I'm not pretending this hasn't ever been discussed, however I have yet to see an analogy of the consequences of Mitsuba's creation and (practically nonexistent) upbringing.

I'm going to divide this post into sections, but they won't really be organized, maybe chapters is a better definition. This thing is l o n g, so without further ado:

1: Mitsuba being paralleled to a puppet:

This is done quite often, although not in the same ways. Besides the psychological aspects of being Tsukasa's "puppet", as in being forced to do as he says and overall being under his control, but there are physical correlations too.

Tsukasa referring to Mitsuba as a "Thing"

Mitsuba lets Tsukasa hold him. This is much more then a surface-level fact considering Mitsuba usually rejects contact/uses it as an excuse to blame others. This is easily explained by "Mitsuba is simply scared of Tsukasa, he can't tell him no", except Mitsuba doesn't look scared when being held, he just looks, expressionless.

More then that, he completely trusts Tsukasa with his body weight, leaning into his touch and allowing himself to be comforted by it. This obviously occasionally backfires horribly

While Mitsuba being punched is framed in a humorous manner, the implications and weight of it are very heavy. It's all fun and games until you remember this is how Mitsuba is being raised, and it's all he's ever known. If Mitsuba doesn't want to do what Tsukasa tells him too, he gets punched. If he talks back, he gets kicked out of the broadcasting room (we'll get back to this later). If he asks to be Tsukasa's friend, he gets fireworks shoved down his mouth.

And the results of this... well:

This one in particular is interesting to me:

"It's just Mitsuba being surprised because Kou suddenly raised his voice". But that's not what's being illustrated. Upon hearing "brace yourself" even from someone like Kou, who wasn't planning on actively trying to hurt Mitsuba, he literally stiffens, pales, and begins to tremble and sweat, dropping the piece of chalk he was holding (those things break way to easily, yk he was serious). It's not shock or surprise being drawn, it's just genuine fear.

This could very well be me overthinking, but Mitsuba falls in what is almost a doll-like manner, arms and legs completely stiff.

2: Social rejection and trivial treatment:

The Mitsuba chapter (ch. 40) was worse then I remembered.

Mitsuba runs away from the broadcasting room in search of a better, safer place to stay. Only to understand he has none.

What's worse is that these are the characters we see being far kinder to the rest of the cast. We see Yako, Hanako and weirdo super-natural teacher together in his living quarters, watching tv together, but when Mitsuba approaches them...

(Tsuchigomori eventually does stay with him, but his opinion of him doesn't really change.)

"This guy's a pain, I'm out of here"

Tsuchigomori doesn't know Mitsuba, the only time we see them meet was when Tsuchigomori refers to him as emergency rations (above), and when he answered Mitsuba who asked him a question (answer starting with "You seriously don't know?" (YES SIR HOW WOULD HE KNOW HE'S LIKE ONE MONTH OLD)).

He probably heard he's a prankster from Hanako, which is why he wants nothing to do with him.

The point is despite Mitsuba needing to run from the closest thing he considers a "home", not a single supernatural actually understands his situation. Hanako borderline hates him, Nene barley understands he's a different Mitsuba, and Kou tends to accidently frame it as Mitsuba's CHOICE to stay with Tsukasa in the broadcasting room.

This is sadly something that can happen in reality, children trying to escape their less-desirable homes can often find themselves, sickeningly, returning after not finding somewhere or someone to take them seriously.

The most deranged part of this is that as a result of nobody properly digesting that he needs help, Mitsuba himself frequently convinces himself that everything is normal.

The implication that every time Mitsuba fights with Tsukasa he needs to just fend for himself until enough time has passed for Tsukasa to forget is sad. He's an outcast between the wonders for replacing the old No.3, despite his only other choice being death, which they don't know.

Sakura is probably the closest thing Mitsuba has to family, being in a similar situation to him, but it's incorrect to say she truly deeply cares about him. She's fond of Mitsuba, but never goes out of her way to help him when Tsukasa hurts him, and seems to have put her personal safety and goals as a higher priority then him (this isn't Sakura slander, I love my queen).

Natsuhiko treats him like a pet more then a human, and sometimes hits on him, which is just gross. Despite this Mitsuba genuinely appreciates him and sees him as an older brother. It's cruel to see this one-sided ordeal.

We don't actually know Mitsuba's true opinion of Tsukasa. In an almost realistic manner, his opinion is constantly contradictory. Mitsuba is scared of Tsukasa, but at the same time he only feels 'safe' when he's around.

Also, contrary to Sousuke, Mitsuba is more scared of Tsukasa then thunder, which could either mean that Sousuke's phobia of thunder was memory-correlated, or that Mitsuba is SO scared of Tsukasa that thunder is nothing in comparison.

Mitsuba freezing after hearing Tsukasa's voice

vs:

We know Mitsuba is aware that Tsukasa is not treating him okay, but by the time we learn this (pp arc), Mitsuba has half convinced himself that Tsukasa is doing everything he's doing to help him, and that "nobody else can help him anyways". Genuinely Mitsuba is one of the most subtle-yet-obvious victims portrayed in media I've even seen.

3: Ok-yeah-that's-not-okay moments

Do I really need to add anything.

I will anyways. Mitsuba is a dramatic by nature, unrelated to any of the emotional damage he's suffered. The fact that Tsukasa can make him stop crying just by demanding it really shows how bad he messed up Mitsuba. The ability to stop crying on command out of fear..... somebody save him.

Stay away!

Can't add to many pictures because of the tumbler limitations, but in every one of these scenes Mitsuba totally freezes, only regaining control and suddenly snapping once someone (aka Kou) does anything intimidating to him.

Going in-depth about the similarities between Kou and Tsukasa is an entirely different ordeal, but in short summery:

There's a carefully built connection between Tsukasa and Kou, that deserves a post of it's own.

4: Symptoms of trauma:

Trust issues are heavily associated with a problematic childhood, so it's not very surprising that Mitsuba struggles to trust anyone besides Tsukasa, even if he doesn't want to.

Very commonly appearing alongside trauma, self destructive behaviors are a tragically common coping habit. I don't think I need to add any pictures for this one, as practically every other sentence Mitsuba says have some 'Just let me pass away' coding to it.

Lack of memories is a symptom that appears in very severe cases, and while it isn't completely accurate to Mitsuba it's an interesting addition considering Mitsuba has no memories.

5: Character design:

Mitsuba has lots of chains and locks in his wonder form, a lock on his neck (which has multiple interpretations), one preventing his heart from beating, which could be a clever metaphor for Mitsuba further constricting his humanity by "choosing" to become a wonder, but most interesting:

What looks to be the remains of a leg shackle.

Mitsuba in a box labeled as fragile.

6: This definitely isn't a metaphor for an eating disorder:

"I'm always hungry, no matter how much I eat" -M

"You starved yourself from all this moping around, just because you didn't want to eat something different?" -K

Can we talk about how the fandom collectively just skipped over the huge reveal that Mitsuba STARVES HIMSELF. Because I feel like that really wasn't talked about. As if this guy doesn't have enough going on, he now has to deal with constant starvation, dehumanization at new never-seen-before-pace, and the loss of his will to exist in the first place.

He is both metaphorically and physically falling apart, constantly in physical pain. When he isn't in physical pain it's because he's experiencing gut-wrenching psychological torment as he can't stop eating live beings. I don't blame this guy.

The only person who knew of this was Tsukasa, until he "told" Kou. Told is in quotation marks because it was never really Mitsuba trusting Kou enough to open up about the hell he's enduring, as mentioned before Mitsuba doesn't exactly know how to trust. The fact was forced out of him due to a dire situation, but Kou could not have reacted in a worse way:

Pro tip: If your reaction to learning that your best buddy is suffering from a complicated relationship with food, is shoving said food into their mouth violently, you might need therapy just as much as they do.

Kou is still unaware that Mitsuba's diet contains living things too, but if we're being honest that doesn't really put Kou in the right here. Like, man, I know you're freaking out because your friend just asked you to end him, but please take out your anger on something that isn't him.

And don't act surprised when this is his reaction:

This is arguably the a result of post traumatic stress disorder. Mitsuba didn't just escape, he hid in the nearest corner, making himself as small as possible, hid his head and trembled. The reason I'm calling this out as PTSD is because the only other time he panicked like this was right after Tsukasa shoved the bird heart down his throat.

So for both situations it's:

Tsukasa force feeds Mitsuba -> Mitsuba loses control (starts attacking everything)

Kou force feeds Mitsuba -> Mitsuba bites Kou

And the results are the same. He reacted the same way because mentally it was the same situation to him, It doesn't matter what the intentions were, Kou triggered an event(s (considering he's eaten multiple supernatural and is absolutely repulsed by it)) that Mitsuba had no intention of revisiting.

Summery:

Mitsuba's trauma is often overshadowed by more obvious displays of mental scarring, like with the Yugi twins and Kou, and is often represented with irony or humor, including by the creators themselves.

Even without everything he's gone though, Mitsuba was always a hopeless character. He just existed one day. He doesn't have anything, anyone. He's never been told he's loved, he's never felt sunlight, he never got to play, he's never had anyone tuck him into bed, or read him a story. He was robbed of his childhood, and any connections besides the few who remember him for someone that he isn't.

He doesn't even know what snow is, yet he knows how blood tastes like

This entire post wasn't even scratching the tip of the iceberg in terms of how much grave emotional turmoil Mitsuba has faced. And will face. Yeah I don't know how well his trust issues will cope with Natsuhiko leaving him to die. If he lives.

The idea of this long rant was to point out that Mitsuba's trauma and mental struggles are just as, if not more, relevant then his physical ones. And they do affect him, and they do have consequences. And they will most certainly come back 20x worse later on in the plot. I would say to prepare mentally, but I know tbhk fans can handle just about anything.

Thank you for reading!

ヾ(≧▽≦*)

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[homicidalghostt]

A controversial post about the Yugi twins

Reply to comment on this post HERE

Comment from @hanakoisshort

"Could u explain and talk about the 2 first pictures please"

The two pictures:

Not long ago I received an ask about the connection between "eating" and "sex" that exists in JSHK in a very metaphorical way, if you're interested in seeing it, just click here

I will confess that I postponed creating this post a long time ago, but I realized that we need to talk about this. A lot of people ask me about their relationship, so I felt the need to be completely honest with my point of view about them.

Content warning: incest, cannibalism, sex

Important notes: This post exists solely for the purpose of analyzing the behavior and relationships between the characters, it is not a ship, nor an encouragement to do the same as them. Nothing I say here demonstrates my personal preference about the situation, again, it's just an analysis.

You must have already realized that the relationship between the twins is not an ordinary relationship, right? You must have found at least one or two strange behavior between them, but you chose to let it go, maybe this is a twins thing?

It will be?

Let's remember a little about what I said about the link between sex and hunger, Aidairo tends to use a lot of scenes referring to sex quite frequently and also talks explicitly about cannibalism, it's common for you to notice that cannibalism is also a metaphor for sex, like in the scene between Hakubo and Sumire, I explain it better in the post I mentioned.

Let's remember that supernaturals like to devour, eat, whether other supernaturals or humans, especially humans. It is quite obvious that the sexual connotation between the one who devours and the one who is devoured has to do with the characters' relationship.

So let's focus on the twins' relationship. They were born human, they know what it is to love and how relationships between humans work. Unlike someone who was born as a supernatural and has no idea how it works (like in the case of Hakubo).

Despite this, Tsukasa spent more time with the supernaturals than Amane, who only became close to the supernaturals later, and in addition, he encountered them very early. At four years old, Tsukasa, like any other child, doesn't really know what is right or wrong. He learned from that creature, and one of his principles is that you should be able to do whatever you want, even if it's selfish.

So, in the first phase of Tsukasa's life, we always see him blushing around Amane, it's really very common. He has a great love for his brother, but he doesn't really know what kind of love it is. He's just happy with what Amane offers him, while Tsukasa offers everything, even himself. Then, he returns as a supernatural, he returns home with that thing rooted in his chest.

He would now have the same hunger that supernaturals have. So let's travel a little to the future, we see Amane with suspicious injuries on his neck, cheek, mouth

Yes, mouth

So….

The rope marks on the wrists.

We still see Tsukasa blush when he looks at, or talks about Amane.

What is Tsukasa's favorite snack?

Does it seem to make sense?

When Amane transformed into Hanako, he began to demonstrate strong sexual desires for Nene, and perhaps, who knows, the desire to literally devour her, as he is a supernatural. The human part desires her sexually, and the supernatural part wants to satisfy his hunger.

Why is Hanako's appetite so strong? He holds back so much it's obvious.

So, about Tsukasa. He once told Nene, blushing, that they two are the same, this right after she said that she liked Amane, romantically speaking.

So let's talk about how apparently in love Tsukasa is with Amane. Yes, in love. In a romantic way.

I know, it's weird to think about, but we have some evidence. And believe me, he's not the only one. Amane also appears to have romantic feelings for Tsukasa.

The way Tsukasa usually touches Amane/Hanako, the way he usually blushes when he's around him,… Oh, let me show you more explicitly

So, to complement, let's talk about Sumire and Hakubo. Sumire saw Hakubo as her husband from the beginning, and she treated him as such ever since. We saw throughout her arc that their relationship worked that way, even if Hakubo didn't quite understand (after all, he was born supernatural, and had never learned about love). Hakubo has killed several times and none of them were in the same way as he did to Sumire.

There is a clear and obvious sexual connotation in this scene, it is the moment when he asks to take her as his wife, she is initially scared, and the way he does it, the way he likes, devouring every little piece of her.

She was his yorishiro, and to destroy her he had to devour her.

Do you know who else is a yorishiro?

Tsukasa

And who owns this yorishiro?

Hanako.

Tsukasa apparently doesn't want them to intrude at a time when it will be necessary to destroy him. Sakura made Yashiro see what happened to Sumire after she was devoured, but she did it hidden from Tsukasa (Apparently)

Tsukasa wants to resolve this between them. So, if Nene doesn't remove Tsukasa's seal, Hanako will have to devour him.

Yes, in the same way as Hakubo and Sumire.

Can you see better now?

How about if I show you this art from chapter 100

Doesn't that mean Hanako will have to devour him? Remember the sexual connotation of the scene. The way Hanako is positioned over Tsukasa, the way Tsukasa's hand is touching his lips….

This position, Hanako likes it a lot…. Who does he use this position with most often?

Besides being the same position in which he killed Tsukasa, isn't this a suggestive position for sex?

Hahaha, I think you understand now.

Amane and Tsukasa feel human and supernatural desires, the hunger they feel (but don't usually show) exists, we often see them yearning for each other, what kind of things didn't Amane do to meet Tsukasa's needs?

So, Amane being Tsukasa's "snack" could refer to the fact that he used to eat Amane at certain times (without gravity) perhaps to satisfy his desire and Tsukasa not hurt other people (when they were 12/13 years old)

After all, it doesn't matter, he always forgives, isn't that what he said?

A relationship of love, resentment, unrequited desires, passion.

So, in summary… Apparently the twins are or once were in love with each other, or at least feel a strong attraction between them. The desire that exists in them is reflected in a sexual way or through hunger. As humans and as supernaturals. They are like Hakubo and Sumire, one day Hanako will devour Tsukasa, so, if we take into account the metaphor that "eating" is similar to 'Sex', you can imagine what will happen between them.

Remembering again, this is an analysis of their behavior. Unfortunately I wasn't able to include all the photos I wanted due to the image limit

Initially, this is the impression it gives about their relationship. I didn't mention the AUS, nor the extras, which emphasize this even more. I also didn't elaborate on this in more depth because I don't know if you would feel uncomfortable about it.

It may be that in the future more information about them will appear and refute this… impression about their relationship….

Anyway, I'm going to stop here (although I have many other things to explore about this topic) because this is a response post, so I hope you didn't feel uncomfortable with the content.

If you want, I can better develop a post just to talk about the twins' relationship with this topic.