#cyrus.post

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so is this just the yaoi trial now or

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“The Choice To Be Kind” - A Thematic Analysis

(ft. Eden, David, Teruko, & Arei)

For me, Eden is the heart of this chapter that the cast is revolving around, all serving to contrast her uniquely genuine sentiment.

“I chose to be this way.”

“I’ll still make the choice to be kind.”

Her intentions are very blatantly stated. This is a decision she actively makes everyday. It’s not a naïve default, it’s a continuous effort.

This is a very important distinction to establish going forward in examining other characters’ perspectives of kindness. Kindness was not something she was born with; it doesn’t run in her blood or her genes. It is not intrinsic to her existence.

Kindness is autonomous.

This alone is in conflict with how Arei, David, and Teruko, all address “goodness” as a trait instead of an acquired skill.

So there’s this constant reiteration of “you are good or you are bad”

This is countered by Eden saying “you can be good or you can be bad”

But then, most poignantly, it is Arei who concludes with the most self-realized perspective of “you are not good, nor are you capable of becoming good, just as you are not bad, nor capable of becoming bad, because there is no Good or Bad to become”

And this is by far the healthiest way to conceptualize self-improvement.

All we can do is hold ourselves accountable for bad actions and acknowledge that they will never render future acts of kindness futile.

None of this is to disparage the idea of change itself — it is to say that David, Teruko, and Eden have a much different understanding of what “change” implies here. For them, change is a means to be made from Bad to Good. We see this sentiment reflected in Teruko’s exchange with Whit.

And there in lies the issue: these concepts of concrete morality are unattainable! They’re not real.

But what can be changed is your behavior.

Just as Eden established, kindness is an effort, and you can make it continuously. But unlike Eden’s implied sentiment, Arei has realized that there’s no threshold of Good to be met through these efforts. The effort to be kind is simply that: an effort. No one is barred from making it, nor is anyone required to. The effort means something, just as a lack of it does, but there’s no permanence to it all. It’s simply a consistency of effort that credits you reliable or kind in the eyes of others.

But everyone wakes up a blank slate, capable of starting or losing that consistency just as easily as the next person. And because of that-

-no one is too far gone.

No one is too far behind, because there’s no finish line to be reached.

Everyone can wake up and try to be a little less shitty.

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drdt invented comedy when they gave j the “get off your high horse” voice byte and had her use it most often against the ultimate jockey

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THE CHAPTER TWO THEMES OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE GOOD OR BAD AND THE IMPLICATIONS OF ACTIONS VERSUS SENTIMENT AND THE INTRICACIES OF WHAT IT MEANS TO DEEM OTHERS AND YOURSELF MORALLY CORRECT AND THE DENIAL OR ACCEPTANCE OF CHANGING WHO YOU ARE VERSUS THE DENIAL OR ACCEPTANCE OF BEING AS YOU ARE AND HOW ALL OF THIS IMPACTS EVERYONE AROUND YOU AND

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arturo is SO UNSERIOUS for pushing his "very mindful, very demure" agenda onto j and then busting out across the class trial room with

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i suppose ace finally got off his high horse 😔

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HEY WHIT. WHIT. WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT.

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sorry i know everyone is grieving but teruko is so hot

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so this is kind of insane actually

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everyone moved on 😔 but i’m still Here ☝️

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can we get one goddamn reliable narrator in this trial room

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Arei Nageishi & How Fear Reframes Kindness: An Analysis

there’s something so poignant about arei’s stunned realization that her interference in arturo’s threat was perceived as help.

for arei, it actively re-contextualizes what looking out for the kind people that she worries about truly looks like. it’s not about pushing them to cope with cruelty, but to give them someone to rely on in the face of it. we see this complete 180 from arei distressing eden to tears to going out of her way to alleviate distress that had pushed eden to tears.

and in turn, arei gets to be on the receiving end of that kindness that makes her so envious, so confused, so concerned, and so utterly terrified to witness. but to be the center of it, to have that light shine on Her… it clicks. this feeling is what outweighs all those risks she has been trying to prevent. to love is to be vulnerable, and even if she never had the time to grow out of her fear and into that vulnerability for herself-

-she was finally ready to encourage others to love.

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CAN WE SPREAD SOME YURI AROUND FOR ROSE PLEASE

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the way in which they chose to portray david’s expression here is making me insane. hindsight is 20/20 and all, but even in the moment, his expression looks out of place. mere seconds before he was smiling assuredly, only to freeze completely upon arei’s actions. given there was a lot to take in here, it was easy to brush this off as him simply being innocently flustered or caught off-guard, but knowing what we do now, this moment is incredibly eerie. given how seriously he takes his inspirational persona, it should have come as second nature for him to put on a trademark sympathetic smile, yet he can’t even bring himself to hug her back. he’s sweating.

“you’re nice too”

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EVERYONE WHO SUSPECTED EDEN OWES HER A HUG THIS IS NON-NEGOTIABLE ‼️‼️