#I end up talking more about Kokonoe and hypothetical robot mobs

[cloudyspider]

Rereading/watching BBCT and rambling about things I find interesting or may've missed a first time part 5 featuring Taokaka and Litchi

Starting off with Tao there's not much to say. She's the fun goofy character and her story does well to relay that. That isn't to say she's one-dimensional as when she does have Arakune dead to rights she decides to let him go so long as he no longer bothers the Kakas. Partly because it's the right thing to do and partly because Litchi told her it isn't right to hurt people. Something he's never going to honor but it's the thought that counts. Her head maybe vacant ninety percent of the time but she is definitively a sweet girl.

Surprising that Kokonoe actually showed up to her in Kagatsuchi of all the story modes even if unintentionally. Even more so considering how patient and kind she was to Tao for as much as Kokonoe tends to be. No real condescension, concern for Tao getting in trouble with the NOL for not being in the Kaka Village underground, and willing to help her get back albeit also testing one of her devices on Tao to do so. Kokonoe being more friendly with Kakas in general considering they were the ones who saved her from Terumi after he killed Nine and Trinity wouldn't be a stretch.

I also wonder if the whole mecha Tagers and Taokakas are just supposed to be a one-off gag and shout-out to Robo-Ky or they were supposed to be something more. Nothing serious mind you but if BlazBlue was purportedly meant to be a RPG at one point then maybe they were supposed to be generic mob enemies. Or even just generic mobs that Kokonoe would throw at someone when she needs to distract someone like Azrael. Food for thought.

Litchi's episode is probably been one of my favorites so far but that could just be recency bias. It does a good job to flush out her character. She's kind, motherly, reasonable, a bit overbearing but in a "teacher who doesn't want her students to play to rough" sort a way. It also makes it clear she can be selfish. She wants to put down Arakune to relieve her own pain but she also wants to save him while knowing that in the meantime he's running rampant he's inevitably going to do more harm to others. All in all just a good episode to read.

The plight of the Kaka's population is made here through Elder Kaka Totokaka talking about it through Litchi. The population of the Kaka will never go past 100 under otherwise normal circumstances and in the event they can't naturally reproduce they will do so asexually. There's a concern by Toto on the fate of the Kaka on how they'll fade away to time and how they're forsaken by God. Not an unfounded concern because the Elder seems to understand that they will be victim to genetic stagnancy and decay. To paraphrase her words all the new children are just copies of those passed away and although they are a hundred they are essentially one organism. Eventually the parts of a organism will degrade and fail and the organism as a whole will die. Litchi thinks that through genetic alteration they can fix this but Totokaka thinks would just make them a further afront to nature. Which really begs the question of why the Kaka's are designed like this? Beastkin/Demihumans like Makoto who's kind were also made during the Dark War don't seem to have this problem and the population control factor seems to be an intentional design for the Kaka's.