#i hope isami and lewis and bravern all form

[cuppajj]

BANG BRAVE BANG BRAVERN IS A SHOW FOR THE QUEERS

[unhinged-comics-screaming]

Bravern Ep 9 thoughts! Oh my god this got so long I'm sorry

I think if I was more genre aware the transformation/level up shouldn't be a surprise. I am actually fine having to remake the decal because I had to lift it up to fix how I applied it so its already lifting lol.

I'm glad that the theories are right like, a plot twist that can be predicted via foreshadowing isn't bad plus it helps my "keep shows weekly" fight. I honestly think the ramp up of hint dropping is done well like "oh he has lewis vibes, oh he knows a thing about Lewis, oh here's a direct showcase that they have the same gunpla hobby" (btw I love that they got an actual gundam box artist to do the ones in the show, such commitment to the bit). The final nail in the coffin being the Lewis flashback where his favorite toy looks a whole lot like Bravern.

For how mysterious Deathdrives were for a while, I like that the limbo zone reinforces the kind of importance in passing on on their terms for them. Just like, restating that this is the core motivation for them. Like yeah this is Cunty's goal death but Lewis isn't satisfied yet so he's in their loading zone going like "hey no this isn't right for me". My only complaint is that I wanted whole ass. No glowy cowardice. Full naked and just enough to keep it aired on TV.

The like, entire thing that gets me though is that Isami is now living thinking that Smith is dead. And he like. Is. If we consider the overly uh horny parts of Bravern to be from Cunus then he's not 100% himself in the end. Like he sees himself as Smith but is it wholly him? Like Smith is happy he can protect and save the world and have Isami inside him. But especially with Bravern/Smith being all shady Isami is just going to have to mourn him.

I hope that this makes Lulu get closer to Isami and she ends up revealing it somehow. Ooooor Isami is on such a wavelength with Bravern he figures it out on his own. I just want him to know. Bravern has a mouth to be kissed after all.

I don't have any idea what Lulu is cooking but I wanna see it. I like that she's getting agency which, apparently to Deathdrives, is totally unheard of.

The alternate timeline theories slap. Everyone who is able to point out proper discrepancies between episodes I love you keep it up. I don't have the mental capacity for that. I kind of want to go with "world without Bravern" ED/promotional art stuff to be like, final loop maybe? I don't know what kind of time loop that needs to work but like, maybe he takes Lulu with so he doesn't need Isami and can defeat the Deathdrives really early on.

Which. Interesting thought. Before Cunus' proposal she yeets one of her Lulus but appears to have two spots. Lewis, also a two life form system yeets his Lulu so you'd think the resultant mech is a two life form mech, the Lulu from Cunus + Lewis himself makes it whole but he clearly isn't in top form unless he has Isami. Bravern is also more than a Deathdrive/Special TS so who knows how that maths out.

Ugh okay sorry this got so long congrats on getting this far. I like, clearly don't have anime friends to scream about this irl except my partner who watched me go through the spectrum of "gay sex wins" to crying for Isami.

[unhinged-comics-screaming]

*crawling out of my migraine floor nest to open my drafts and post this before the next EP drops*

Because the joy in weekly shows is theorizing like mad and (壊せよセオリー I guess) Bravern hopes and dreams as we approach the end!

It's really long so uh tl;dr 8th potential death drive theory, seagulls and then some other odds and ends included

I'm living for Bravern as Gluttony somehow theories. Went down a random path and gluttony isn't necessarily just about eating too much but basically doing anything fun with food. From an article:

The glutton uses food for something other than its proper intention. 

Apparently one of the worst versions is straight up enjoying too much. Which like, every death drive treats their pilots/organic lifeforms as just food while Bravern is obsessed with how his "food" fuels him... And everything else about his "food". Ignoring whether he's actually using Isami the way a death drive uses Lulus and will eventually drain him, he's putting a lot more emotional investment into Isami than any of the Deathdrives into Lulus.

But also! As you dig into this there are also writings about how Gluttony isn't actually a sin so maybe Bravern is Gluttony but also he gets a pass.

Ugh no this could be a cool sidebar into what Bravern as Gluttony's "ideal death" would be. Like, truly overindulging in his "food" aka his pilot aka Isami aka gay sex. AND THEN. This gets rid of the Deathdrive/mecha form. Leaving Smith. And then gay sex with Smith.

With all of the Deathdrives being driven to have the ideal death, and Bravern being born of the desire to live*. I wonder if he can convince Superbia to live. That would be sick. Live a prideful life or something.

*it can be argued that Lewis Smiths resurrection is because he didn't have his ideal death so it's less of a counter force to the Deathdrive and more of his own version of being just like them but that feels less like the main energy of the story.

Moving on from that, I love the seagulls being a big part of the episode 10 preview and then the episode 11 preview having bravern surfing on the newly added fusion part just like them.

I think I read somewhere about seagulls going back to where they met to mate so. Yeah. Back to Hawai'i! With Brave being the one signalling I hope this is like, Isami really expressing his trust in Bravern and making it a matched relationship. My ideal scene is Isami seeing how Lulu's determination to pilot Superbia means he needs to commit to trusting Bravern. Which should totally include knowing who he is.

Which, adjacently, I think the reveal phrase should've been Bravern saying some phrase with "cool" in English. Like "the finishing move was ⟨super cool⟩> right?". It just feels more Smith imo. I really love how little they gave us with this though. Who were they fighting? How did they achieve this? Why did they get beat up instead of blasted/disintegrated? who knows. We can infer that they did save the day at the end but at what cost.

I think at this point it would be funny if they somehow slipped in another time loop. Hell give us a montage of time loops. Also I am a tiny bit smug about mentioning that Bravern not having time travel abilities yet like 1500 words ago. Will this be touched on more? Probably as some dramatic last episode if anything.

Considering the really fast pace of the show making everything feel important I hope we get references to some other things like Isami's built in airbags (maybe he gets ejected out of Bravern?). Isami's Senshi-bility in "we need to eat to save people". Whatever the heck Lulu's Heat Beam kick is. What was that. What's going on with the blood drop, does it mean something.

My only other hope and dreams is probably just some good old fashioned mech fights. It's been a lot of endure barrage of attacks -> get motivated -> super attack. I need substance!

[unhinged-comics-screaming]

I was gunna do the predictions bingo but honestly I am not feeling the juices rn. So maybe just a hopes list?

The obvious first one, Smith comes back as a human in some shape or form. Adjacently, this ends up as the ending of the OP shows up. I think Obari has been very direct in saying how much the OP is representative of the work and the scenes we don't have are the section where Bravern rolls out with the TSes and Smith demonstrating his pick up game. One of the news articles for a mech focused site has a thing about spotlighting TSes that show up in the later half and I don't know if they meant series as the whole or just the ep lol. Anyway, significant Smith helping lift Isami up scene pls.

I'm uh, not a Brave/Transformers focused person but I am in it for men kissing so I totally get people who want to keep Bravern but I like me a human Smith! Smith wanted to be in a bot and he's. In a bot. The same way we exist in our meatsuits. So I don't count it as a bad end either.

I think ideally we have both Bravern + Smith existing together... somehow. Actually it'd be so funny to have them both fight for Isami's attention. That being said some of the cute fanart where Smith can transform is probably my personal fave? Just throw in a magical girl show while we're here??

Oh at the very least

Isami figures out Bravern is Lewis Smith

I don't think there's any way we can get to the end without this happening so specificity. Isami finding Smith's dog tag in the cockpit is probably going to be the most obvious option. It's kinda brutal but I'm curious what the cockpit looks like "off" since it's like a projection orb or something.

It's related but imagine. A tokusatsu suit in there. I asked last week "what the fuck is 2m tall human man Isami Ao supposed to do against giant robot. What if he gets a hero suit + sword. Clearly Brave Printer can do anything so.

Actually I wanna know more about that but I feel like that's just something that doesn't need to be answered rn.

Another time loop??

It'd be kind of fun if Isami finds some sort of time loop trigger inside of his cockpit. Because I think it'd be kind of amusing tbh. That being said I don't really know where I'd want it to go. Lewis goes to when Bravern is introduced which I guess is because that's his time of need? And Lulu goes to when Bravern is "born". I don't really see it but people feel like Isami's shift from crying -> hero who makes everyone happy is too drastic so maybe somewhere in there but honestly I think its because there's only 12 episodes lol. Maybe because it's Isami the fusion moments are save points?

The thing about a last time loop without Deathdrives means we don't get Lulu and Superbia so that would make me pretty sad so maybe not that far back lol.

Deathdrive Lore

I think the key to that kind of thinking is finding out why the Deathdrives are here to begin with. Like, Bravern came into existence _after_ they were already invading so why are they all here with the motivation to get a death from Bravern specifically. How does that work. Did Cunus know something about it and tell everyone?

Actually that would be interesting like, Bravern's existence is what brings the Deathdrives to this... world? Timeline? Reality? in the first place so they end up stopping Bravern from existing at all. That would explain why its both Smith and Isami coming out of TSes in the last scene but not the uh giant holes in the city behind them. I think it'd be a cop out to like, find some way to defeat the giant mechas in the giant mecha anime without a giant mecha anyway. Covering my bases though.

Anyway, what is up with them. What is the gluttony one doin with all that magma (is he going to make a new island??). Why is Ira so mad.

Isami Lore

I need the equivalent of the "when I was a kid, I wanted to be a dude in a skintight suit" but for Isami. Maybe the opposite? I think the post got too eaten by the draft system for me to post but I think it'd be interesting to see Isami be a parallel to Smith in that he lost people close to him but he went for the inverse conclusion where there are no heroes. Actually that would be such a callout for the last episode to start the same way as the start and also the big reveal. Or is that too repetitive? I'd also like to see how he befriends Miyu and Hibiki.

I think after everything I'll put together a "episodes I wish we had in a full season" list because I think it'd be fun to see more of what this man is cooking. Will I dip my toes into doing it myself? Probably not! Despite the amount of words here I'm not a great writer.

I don't think I'm actually capable of writing a review, I'm capable of being critical but I'm also not that discerning if that makes sense. Plus I lack so much extra context in the greater universe of everything this show references it wouldn't be particularly useful.