#live as the story unfolds. that by the end of the story he asks keito in his head to continue being idols

[mihai-florescu]

[mihai-florescu]

"This is beyond a ship and beyond an otp and i will stop before i start sounding insane" no omg by all means, this resonates with me, please carry on... "because all roads lead to wataei<3" i feel so seen right now, you're so real for all of your takes <3 my ship is mafuena from project sekai, i'm their strongest soldier.

I saw your ask i was about to shower so i spent about half an hour monologue ranting about wataei to myself and i dont think i remember everything to write it again but i'll try a little bit.

I am thinking about how wataei can be seen by people who havent read their stories (or how other characters see them in canon from afar) as "guy stockholm syndromes his crush that he bullied into loving him" but reading any of their stories shows you that's really not the case at allll and it's Wataru who has the upper hand over Eichi's life. How many times has Eichi just *thought* that Wataru actually hates and will leave him and stopped thinking clearly. And how many times has Wataru enabled Eichi's jealous behavior.

And it all goes back to the fact that Wataru saved Eichi's life. Multiple times, Wataru unknowingly (and then knowingly) reaches out to Eichi and gives him another reason to live. First on the hospital tv inspiring a sickly young boy to start loving idols, then after the war, when Eichi is about to let himself die, Wataru pulls him back into the story. Eichi thinks he deserves to die for his actions and here is Wataru stopping him, giving him a chance to write a happy ending for everyone.

I know Wataru says he didn't hate Eichi for the events that unfolded in the war but I do think at the time he wasn't honest. Not with himself, i think he really wanted to treat it from an outsider perspective as a coping mechanism, and brush it off, not treating real life as more than a play (which is why him saying that Eichi taught him reality is more beautiful than anything else is so important. They make each other grow and become better but at the same time they can also enable each other's bad parts through jealousy and misplaced attention. They're everything. And another tangent, I'm sorry, but I wonder if another reason Wataru called Tsumugi the best clown and thought he could take the role was because at the time they were both perceiving life as not really happening to them? Tsumugi because he's desensitized, and Wataru because he distances himself from feelings and events by treating them as a play. Which is why he was struggling with those last words from *himself* to the eccentrics regarding their youth together. He gets fully invested in his roles playing them perfectly, but they're not him. And that's why in the beginning he thinks that he too will be able to leave, but throughout that next year he lets go of the "life is a play and i'm doing whatever roles are required of me" mentality that culminates in offering his mask to Eichi at the end of the year. This is me, and i offer this to you. But there are other moments on the way such as him telling Eichi he acted upon a selfish wish in Diner Live to be on the same stage together as Wataru Hibiki and Eichi Tenshouin. Sorry for the long detour). But as he reassures in every later story over and over again, he came to love Eichi the more they spent time together. It's just so important to me that they actively choose to be together.

I don't remember exactly what else I was thinking about in the shower but i know i was giggling at some point about Wataru's "Keito calls himself Eichi's right hand, but Eichi is left handed" observation. It is all so much better post Blackbird. Keito was the author of the war with Eichi, but Wataru was the one creating the story of the ! era by Eichi's side. I really am so, so curious what the final Fine event will be. And then, beyond, in the next era...