#mr azinski

[number-1-kuaidul-fanboy]

I Have Some Concerns About Aki’s Arc

Okay let me clear: Aki has been nothing but excellent from the moment she was introduced. She’s my favourite character and just aspect of 5Ds so far. She’s a badass but she’s also very emotionally damaged and repressed due to brainwashing and a dark past, that I inwardly theorised for a while could’ve been due to abuse. She’s honestly very relatable to me personally.

And that’s why I’m saying this now: the way Aki’s parents were handled is problematic to put it lightly. First off, her mother barely exists. Her mother might as well not exist: the narrative would’ve been stronger if Aki had a single father, thus her only family/positive connection early in life who never had any time for her as a child and later in life unintentionally abused her. It would’ve also been stronger if Aki’s father realised himself that it was his fault Aki turned out the way she did rather than his wife having to be the one to tell him.

(This moment really makes it feel like Aki’s father doesn’t even fully think he’s to blame when the way Aki’s backstory is framed makes it abundantly clear Aki’s father is to blame for a lot of what happened to her psychologically.)

Second, and more importantly, Aki’s father abused her. It was clearly unintentional, the narrative makes that clear, but not all abuse is intentional. Some abusers believe that they’re right to treat their victim the way they do and in some aspects, Aki’s father does believe he’s in the right. He believed he was right to fear his daughter even when she was a small child, he believed his job was more important than her (or at least his actions hammer in this point) and that he was right to never make any time for her, thus making Aki feel emotionally isolated from a young age. Aki’s father makes it clear he never meant to hurt her, and some of it wasn’t even his fault like Aki assuming her parents were happier without her just from seeing them through the window and some of the times he’s legitimately too busy to spend time with her, but intent does not matter. Whether he meant to or not, he still abused her. He emotionally neglected her, he called her a monster, and treated her like one by further distancing himself from her.

And I haven’t yet addressed the fact that he HITS her.

Sure we only know for sure it happened once and he regretted it but you can’t say he did that by accident. You don’t accidentally slap someone across the face, that’s an intentional choice. He could’ve left the room if he was that pissed off. There’s no excuse for that moment.

Whether he meant to or not, Aki’s father was abusive and both the audience and the character himself know for a fact Aki internalised what he said and did to her:

I sound negative but so far all of this is actually really good writing. Besides Aki’s mother’s lack of involvement, this backstory perfectly explains how Aki ended up the way she did, and makes her even more sympathetic and relatable than she was before. What bothers me about this narrative is its resolution. As I discussed, Aki was abused by her father, and while her mother is never shown directly abusing her, she did nothing to stop it. Yeah, that could be due to the narrative being sexist but my point is this: Aki is justified in not wanting to be around her parents. Even if the abuser regrets their actions, the victim is in no way obligated to forgive them or even give them the time of day, much less let them back into their life.

So why the holy hell is the narrative not just pushing but forcing Aki to forgive her parents?! It’s not just Aki’s father pleading Aki to forgive her, that would be one thing, but both Yusei and the narrative itself act like Aki needs to forgive her parents in order to heal:

(This phrasing in particular really gets under my skin. “Incorrect hatred?!” Sure, ‘hate’ might be a bit far but Aki has every right to be upset with them! THEY HURT HER. It’s not your place to tell her that she’s wrong for being upset!)

Also, before you comment, for the love of god do NOT say “because it’s Japanese culture! They believe in more traditional family values!” Traditions that hurt people have no place in modern society and need to GO. This is just wrong. And harmful. Not all abusers regret what they’ve done. Making amends isn’t always possible, even in cases where there is regret, and it shouldn’t be treated as the end all be all solution. Of course I’m happy Aki was able to come to a place where she could forgive her parents but it never should’ve been the point of her redemption. The point should’ve been for her to move on from that resentment/trauma and not let it define her and that shouldn’t require making amends, otherwise many of us would never move on…

If the narrative wanted Aki and her parents to reconcile, it should’ve come after this. They either shouldn’t have been there or Aki shouldn’t have been forced to forgive them the way she was. That’s a harmful thing to enforce.

For a quick example of this idea being done right (within Yugioh, and I’m sorry to do this again if you’re getting sick of hearing me gush over how good GX is but this instantly came to mind), Judai wasn’t forced or even expected to forgive Yubel, not by the narrative, not by any other characters, not even by Yubel themself. It was a choice Judai made all on his own. And it wasn’t a last resort either. Judai was about to win the duel, as proven by this line:

Judai was about to win. He instead chose to activate Super Polymerization and fuse their souls. It was his choice to forgive Yubel and repair their relationship (that Judai was barely remembering existed) and the narrative treated it as such:

I know these are two very different relationships: Judai and Yubel’s being romantic and Aki and her parents’ being familial, but you should never be required to make amends with someone, regardless of whether you’re related by blood. At the end of the day, blood ties don’t automatically make a relationship meaningful or positive. If someone is hurting you, you have every right to cut them out of your life and never look back, and no one should ever tell you otherwise.

I’ll admit Aki’s narrative isn’t the worst version of this I’ve seen. Her father feels legitimately regretful and actually worked to earn his daughter’s forgiveness.

(This moment is really powerful and did legitimately hit me in the feels)

Really, I have nothing against the fact that she forgave her parents in the end. That was her choice to make and her parents showed they were deserving of that forgiveness. My problem is that it felt like the narrative and Yusei, a character within that narrative who has absolutely nothing to do with this situation and shouldn’t have a say in it whatsoever, were forcing her to that conclusion. It’s something that prevented me from feeling the weight of the moments that actually did work, which sucks because with some tweaking, this could’ve easily been one of the most powerful arcs in all of Yugioh, and I know to some people it still is. I assure you I’m not looking for reasons to dislike 5Ds. I desperately want to see it as the masterpiece others see it as, but with a storyline as intense and personally familiar as this, they needed to get it completely right or not try it at all. I can’t accept only halfway with something like this.

It’s honestly a shame is a shame because this story came so close to true greatness. I mean, just look at it:

Aki’s power being symbolized by these rose petals, something you’d normally think of as beautiful causing all this destruction and pain, her range of expressions as her mask of sadism slips off to show that she’s truly just a scared child who only ever wanted acceptance, the dialogue feels very grounded and real and the way the actors deliver their lines really does sell it. I really did mean it when I said a simple rewrite could’ve fixed all my issues with this. It was so close to being something truly fantastic. Maybe the following episodes will change things but as of episode 41, I’m disappointed.