#I still love Horobi and Fuwa w/ my whole heart

[firebirdsdaughter]

Looking back at your Ask box…

… And realising you have Asks going back at least two years…

Which is a good thing bc I just accidentally found out someone blocked me that I think I only interacted w/ them all of once and I'm not sure why but I might know why and now I feel bad, and…

… Yeah. I'll. Uh. I'll go think about the Asks, maybe.

[firebirdsdaughter]

So can we agree that Horobi and Jin will totally take in Fuwa and make him part of the new MBJR, just to have him off the streets? Like, Horobi would totally have Fuwa make a list of human things + explanations as to why humans are like that, while sewing him new clothes at the same time. Can you imagine Fuwa getting a bluetooth headset that looks similar to the one Horobi and Jin wear? Also, Horobi cooking for Fuwa (because someone has to) and Jin being happy because he has a second dad.

This is like, exactly what I want. ^^

I also want them to all end up living at Fuwa’s bc Daybreak is falling apart and them being there gives me anxiety.

One of my future aus actually has Horobi raising Fuwa’s son (who just… Kinda… Magically exists, I don’t think of details like that when I do my ‘future kids’ aus) after Fuwa’s death (sorry) and being considered his stepfather (in that universe Horobi has also created other kids who consider Fuwa’s son their ‘squishy, human brother’), and more recently I’d been having thoughts of Fuwa raising Jin/children of Horobi’s after something happens to Horobi, but… But…

Them being a family together. The new mbjr being Jin and his dads. My heart. It’s perfect.

I love the idea of Jin initially being a bit protective and territorial and very ‘what are your intentions towards my father’ at first, but eventually coming to accept Fuwa as part of the family. Horobi does all the cooking bc Fuwa doesn’t know shit about nutrition, and one time Jin tried and the whole building nearly burnt down. If some day Jin is able to do something like, go to college (I love the idea of Jin learning and growing and deciding what he wants to do like any other young un’), or just travel or something, he has this picture he sneakily took/saved of the time Fuwa fell asleep in Horobi’s lap (they’re both ‘camera shy’ and often look grumpy in pictures) and the first time someone asks who they are, he replies ‘my dads’ w/out thinking. Horobi is a house dad who will also lay down the law and Fuwa’s like, more like one of those… I don’t want to say ‘stereotypical,’ but he feels more like the type of dad who’d be playing catch and def the one who’d be telling dad jokes. The gruff and tough, but warm hearted dad.

But, like. Them being a family that works to protect peace and keep the Ark from happening again. It’s so perfect. I’m gonna cry. I am crying.

And then maybe eventually it can expand to include the others. I mean, Raiden and Naki are obviously part of it. Raiden’s like. The crazy uncle who just gets everyone into trouble, Naki is Naki, Naki is often the one stuck getting everyone out of the trouble Raiden gets them into. Yua kinda tentatively gets added. To me Soreo and Horobi are totally brothers, so technically Izu and Aruto are Jin’s cousins still.

But I’m going off on a tangent. The idea of Horobi and Jin adding Fuwa to the new mbjr feels like… So awesome and poetic? And them being a family unit on top of that. Is just. AH. I love. So much.

[firebirdsdaughter]

…

… It’s way too early in the week to get anxious about it, but I really really hope they don’t make Horobi ‘kill’ Izu, esp after how he literally reacted destroying other HumaGear in this ep. That would just feel over the top. You’ve got the Ark for someone who would do that. Horobi wants humans gone bc he thinks they’ll bring the Ark back bc he wants to free HumaGear from humans. Bc he considers humans to be the threat (in an absolutely wild way I think some Jpn fans are suggesting that maybe he’s being scapegoated eight ways from Sunday). Plus he’s got no reason to want to blow her up. She can’t fight. She can’t try to stop him, he’s got a ForceRiser and backup.

Fortunately, that whole scene in the preview looks rather suspish, even though I l know I’ve said that before and it turned out badly, but… It’s really weird? Aruto’s not transformed, but he doesn’t look injured or dirty or anything. There’s no one else there apparently. There’s a preview image of him holding her but also him running toward her? If they were in the middle of a fight, I highly doubt he’d be given a chance to do either of those things. And there’s also that moment of Azu talking about the Ark reviving over what looks like a smiling Azu, but… Off, and preview pics also confirm Azu is back, so…

We see Horobi fighting at that location, but he’s fighting Fuwa (be still my heart, they acknowledge each other’s existence?!) and is never shown inside? He’s also not shown attacking Izu or anything, and in the preview pics seems quite calm about her presence. He has nothing personal against Izu and (apparently) nothing particularly against Aruto, there’s no reason for him to go out of his way to harm her. Also Ark One is shown at that location. So I’m really hoping it’s the Ark’s ‘big come back’ to kill Izu or something. Assuming she even actually dies.

Like. Literally. It’s unnecessary in general already and would come across as just another attempt to forcibly try to make Horobi out as an ‘irredeemable monster’ even though he’s literally a recently semi-liberated brainwash victim. You have the Ark, it’s right there, it’s literally just announced it considers HumaGear no longer necessary and that it will destroy them. You don’t need to make Horobi do that. It’s out of character and unnecessary. Like I’m cool w/ him having this conclusion and I can honestly work w/ him going to his death over it, but if they try to pull that I will blow gasket.

… I really hope I’m just being paranoid about this, but I’m really touchy about how they’re going to treat this for Horobi. Him wanting humans gone to make a better world for his son and HumaGear at large bc he genuinely believes humans are ultimately evil and that Jin and the others will never be safe as long as they exist is fine, but they have to treat it like the noble, tragic, broken thing it is. That Horobi was driven to this by things beyond his control and even by the actions of humans themselves. You gotta grant he has a point bc humans literally created the Ark (and out of a petty grudge, too!). Making him out to be some ‘awful genocidal monster who kills poor Izu bc she likes humans bc he just can’t see that humans are actually good’ is… Not a great way to treat the literal brainwash victim, esp after what they did w/ Gai. An it’s not like the data the Ark had was lies, Gai gave her real data on humans. Horobi is aware of all that negative info, and has been conditioned to do things to the extreme. What worries me is that I’m afraid of Gai getting handed a (bogus) ‘noble intentions’ card (‘he just really loved Hiden and wanted it to do what he thought was right!’) while Horobi gets treated like some horrid monster for thinking of humans as a threat to HumaGear.

[firebirdsdaughter]

Remember when Fukuzoe said that he never met anyone who loves Humagears as much as Aruto does? If Aruto really loved them so much then he would've tried to help Horobi instead of yelling at him and blaming him for things the Ark (and Gai) did.

Ah, but Horobi’s an… An ‘evil’ HumaGear… Bc… Bc… *looks closely at smudged notes at bottom of page* He couldn’t stop being hacked!

But seriously. I know that whole sequence at the end was supposed to show how Horobi was ‘wrong’ and humans do have compassion, but… It just ended up being ridiculously frustrating rather than emotional and dramatic bc gee, guys, if you had just broken this all out, like, yesterday, we wouldn’t even be here!

Like… It’s the same as all those times Aruto only defended HumaGear who had been good and behaving themselves before hand. We’ll show ‘compassion’ now, to these HumaGear, to make them go back to being ‘good little tools,’ but Horobi doesn’t deserve any? Imagine if Yua had behaved like she did in that protest scene (too little too late) at the warehouse. We literally would not even be in this situation. It doesn’t feel emotionally charged for the same reason Izu’s death doesn’t feel tragic to me, bc it’s just a case of characters grabbing idiot balls and abandoning common sense.

I’d also compare the sequence of events to Aruto only taking a bullet for Izu after she’d announced she wanted to keep working for him. Basically, the fact that when it was just Horobi struggling w/ what he’d gone through, still being influenced by the Ark’s data, not having had enough experiences to truly disprove her conclusion… The humans react violently and aggressively, they show up ready for a fight and announce they’re there to kill him. They escalate the situation, validating the view he’s been imprinted w/ to the point that when Izu presses him about having something ‘human’ like a heart, he snaps and reacts in the way he’s been conditioned to do. It esp kills me w/ the way he was so calm w/ her before humans showed up, how he was turning to face her like he was open to the interaction/to keep talking. But then humans show up w/ weapons out, shouting at him and accusing him and all aggressive. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Horobi literally could not know better, his concepts of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are painfully damaged by years under the Ark’s influence. It’s up to humans to know better, and… Well, they fucked up.

But. The instant a human is in a similar position? All stops pulled out! Quick, show compassion to those HumaGear!

I haven’t been able to watch the scene w/ Yua (again, bc too little too late), so someone will have to correct me if she makes any reference to ‘reacting like that is what put us in this situation in the first place,’ but it’s such an incredibly glaring contrast to how she behaved w/ Horobi that it’s just ridiculous. It’s the same threat, honestly, HumaGear rising against humans, calling them the villains. But here she is confronting Williamson for reacting… Pretty much the exact same way she and Fuwa did to Horobi just last ep. It doesn’t feel dramatic and heartwarming, it just feels stupid and hypocritical.

They knew Horobi had been hacked by the Ark, Yua has shown herself to have at least some awareness of AI. At the least, she’s an engineer. And if she can do it now… Why the fuck couldn’t she do it then? Like I said, unless it’s specifically noted ‘we got into this position by reacting like this I’ve learned my lesson’ (and even then…), it’s just a double standard.

I mean, it’s not entirely Yua and Fuwa’s fault. Ultimately, I blame Gai for the entire situation, and you’ll notice he’s not just getting away scot free, but he’s ‘one of the gang’ now. Izu could have talked to someone, be it Aruto or Shesta, coordinated (though, honestly, she’s in a similar position to Horobi, just on the other side of the spectrum, it’d be unfair to expect complete emotional maturity and reasoning from her anymore then it’s fair to expect it from him). Aruto could have rushed right in to confront Horobi from the start rather than chilling around outside. I’m not expecting Aruto to be rational and thinking straight post the incident—like, it’s absolutely not totally Horobi’s fault, but I’ve lost people important to me before, and while I have criticisms of the way it was presented, he and Izu were close. Once that happened, I can understand Aruto, at least/alone, not being able to emotionally reason through things. Like. I give that.

The issue is everything leading up to that incident, and everyone else’s behaviour after. Yes, Aruto loses reasoning ability in grief over what happened to Izu, but Horobi never had that kind of emotional maturity to begin w/, bc he never learned it, he never ‘needed’ to, he was conditioned to rely on the Ark for all guidance on the subject. Someone like an engineer who has established she has at least some knowledge of AI should understand that. A guy who allegedly learned that running into things, shooting first, isn’t the answer, should… Actually utilise his development. Again, if we got at least  the slightest hint of the humans owning their part in this, I will recognise it, but I cannot stomach those parts of the ep, so someone will have to (politely) inform me.

But I’ll just end by bringing back what seems to be my tagline for post-hiatus:

Humans should know better. Horobi literally can’t.