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Yeah, unfortunately it's a consequence of not giving her a whole lot of agency or depth until now. She's been serving as a vehicle to help explore fame/idol culture (including how lovely/exploitative it can be), but as a character she really hasn't been given a lot of depth up until this moment. Like, Aqua at this point has pretty much driven all of the romantic and dramatic plot beats, but meanwhile Ruby just hasn't even really had any sort of personal life outside of trying to revive B-Komachi. So while this does feel completely artificial, at least it seems to be an authorial acknowledgement of the prior status quo and hopefully a spur to make her much more of a co-equal to Aqua in the underlying drama.
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May 7, 2022 04:21
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Really liking Dark Ruby running with the scheming way beyond even Aqua's comfort zone, though the slump he's in may be affecting his view. Looking forward to what happens when he finally does the math on his friend's dad's death and gets back into revenge mode alongside her.
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Sep 8, 2022 19:40
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He can say this is all according to keikaku* but for all his navel gazing about being a grown up, Aqua really is just a messy bitch who loves drama. * keikaku means plan. Seriously though this is about to really gently caress up the lives of everyone around him even worse. He better know what he's doing (he doesn't).
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Jan 18, 2023 17:23
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Yeah if the angle turns out to be "loads of people knew a complete lunatic has been on the loose for decades and just let it happen for Showbiz Reasons" and if it's pulled off well, that could be a more interesting development than anything having to do with the specific identity of the killer himself, and a timely commentary on systematic abuses within the entertainment industry.
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Feb 25, 2023 03:14
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Dude's sucked from the very beginning, he had capital-i Issues about Ai and Serena and the circumstances around his parentless childhood only carry him so far as an excuse. If they can circle this back around to make a cogent point about how the industry exploits existing social voids to harm children and encourage their abusers, and can draw a direct correlation between both Aqua and the murderer, and if the publisher could even let them get away with such a cutting indictment, I'd be very impressed.
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Mar 17, 2023 03:43
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OnimaruXLR posted:Those two finally realizing who each other really are (if it actually happens, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't) is probably my most anticipated moment in this comic Aqua's always known, though. And when Ruby finds out who he is and that he's known all along, it could actually completely shatter what little trust she has remaining in him. The flash-forward to the movie premiere at the beginning of the series seems to suggest he gets back in her good graces, though it could also be a bit of very convincing acting.
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Apr 13, 2023 21:06
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C'mon. He already had his suspicions when they were infants and her reaction to seeing his corpse would have confirmed it.
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Apr 13, 2023 21:38
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Aqua considering a little murder right now himself
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May 24, 2023 16:40
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In the end I think we can all agree that drinking lassi through a bone is absolute freak behavior
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May 24, 2023 18:31
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She was never there for her young child while she was dying alone in a hospital. That's pretty loving evil and she'd need a drat good excuse for it -- like, a "being held hostage by the murderer" kind of excuse. Thinking about it, the implications of her mother having been involved in the entertainment industry opens up the possibility of new twists and connections, possibly disturbing ones. If I recall correctly, Sarina and Ai were about the same age and Sarina knew about her before Ai really blew up -- and 12 seems really loving young to go big, even for Japan. I wonder if her Mom had been working with Ai, and accidentally made her aware of Ai's work through recordings she brought home, shop talk overheard by Sarina, etc. usenet celeb 1992 fucked around with this message at 22:58 on May 24, 2023 |
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May 24, 2023 22:56
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Very interesting choice not to show the eyes in that last panel. Still some twists to come about what the white/black stars signify, I guess? Or maybe just about lovely Mom's state of mind.
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Jun 8, 2023 05:05
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Don't hate on his decisions if you're only ever going to be cryptic, crow lady
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Jul 5, 2023 16:47
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Kanassandra; cursed to always be right but heeded by no one
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Jul 20, 2023 16:36
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Super Jay Mann posted:6 pages counts as a spinoff, I’ll allow it Says it's "part 1 of 4" at the start, hopefully 24 pages unless each part really is just a mini-vignette about different characters who've been sidelined lately.
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Aug 17, 2023 15:42
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What an amazing chapter. A complete swerve into comedy just when things were looking like they might get too dark, as well as a perfect culmination of Aqua's intentions and the comic's themes -- "cryptic god that refuses to be helpful and blames the humans for their consequent failures" is another angle on "the adult world [particularly the entertainment industry] is a poo poo place for setting up teenagers to be exploited and discarded before they even figure out the rules of that world". Aqua getting one over on that thing (whatever it is) feels pretty satisfying in that context.
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Sep 27, 2023 20:11
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The most solid team player among the kids. A real mensch. Memsch.
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Oct 25, 2023 22:08
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She may also have just felt like it's something that needed to be said, that they needed to hear, but she felt they needed to be old enough to face up to it (knowing nothing of their actual mental ages). A lie so terrible the truth had to even be kept under wraps after her death, up to 15 years. The 15-year lie. The thing I can't figure out is if it's that bad, how come the actors with access to the script aren't reeling from it? Aqua's probably withholding something else (safest bet in this series, really) and maybe plans some other route, like splicing the DVD recording into the movie itself.
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Oct 26, 2023 20:22
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Maybe Aqua is a messy bitch but has respect for the classics and was hoping for a Hamlet resolution. Alternatively, maybe he thinks the lie/secret he's withholding is so bad that it can indict and pull down the entire entertainment complex that he hates. It's Quixotic for sure no matter what he's really intending.
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Oct 26, 2023 21:20
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And Hamlet, oh wait
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Dec 1, 2023 01:49
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Einander posted:Oshi no Ko doesn't have Kaguya-sama's narrator to chime in and say, "BTW, they're spouting bullshit," and sometimes I feel like that's to the detriment of individual chapters. It's not a detriment at all, people have to learn sooner or later that not all characters are reliable or as knowledgeable as the rest of us! It just requires a level of engagement beyond simply taking people's words at face value. Frill is a character who has not been given anywhere near the level of shading as anyone else in this series but that's no reason to assume she isn't as full of poo poo as everyone else.
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Dec 7, 2023 04:25
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Yeah, the underlying issue is the insanity of the entertainment world, which is exactly what the script is all about. It's intended to bring all that crazy right to the surface, to make the subtext text. It's unearthing all the parts they hate about it (and themselves) and forcing them to confront them. Like all the jealousy and petty rivalries, or the bullshit stories they tell about themselves in order to cope (like Frill wrapping up her self-worth in her spurious narrative about her superior acting technique). I thought Aqua's original intent here was a Hamlet-style "make the murderer confess or otherwise expose him" plot, but maybe it's an I, Claudius-style "Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out" plot. Maybe both. usenet celeb 1992 fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Dec 7, 2023 |
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Dec 7, 2023 18:34
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I had just been assuming that the movie script was going to do a hard swerve from biopic to murder drama, but even though I don't know what Japan's libel laws look like I have a hard time believing such a script would get a green light to begin with. Regardless, there's definitely some kind of swerve in the works, but it also requires us to buy the equally preposterous idea that a script is filmed in the exact order in which the scenes are written. But one way or the other we're going to have to swallow some number of narrative conveniences.
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Dec 11, 2023 00:32
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marumaru posted:as someone who has no idea what you guys are talking about, what does any of that mean The UK (and Japan, if Xelkelvos's recollection is accurate) have libel laws that are much more favorable to the aggrieved party bringing the case -- that is, it's much easier to prove malicious intent to harm one's reputation than, say, in the US and other countries where the laws have more grounding in free-speech principles. So in short if the movie is straight-up accusing a prominent entertainment-industry figure of being a murderer (and probably other things) without it having been demonstrated in a court of law, it would be extremely easy for that guy to absolutely wreck everyone involved by bringing a libel case (edit: and in a movie claiming to be a biopic with real names and everything, that would probably be standing for a libel case in any country). So the movie must be intending to accomplish Aqua's goal some other way, but it's hard to see what. If Aqua does have slam-dunk evidence up his sleeve, maybe he's predicting it would just get buried if he tried sending it through normal channels -- but if it came out during discovery as part of a messy, high-profile lawsuit, it would be much harder to ignore. That's all I've got anyway. usenet celeb 1992 fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Dec 20, 2023 |
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Dec 20, 2023 18:29
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I appreciate the in-joke of having actors in their 20s+ play teenagers but they really did Ano dirty by putting that much makeup under her eyes. Mem-cho is supposed to pass! You really didn't have to make it that overt!
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Jan 24, 2024 03:31
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Interesting to also use this in a counterpoint in intentions. Ai wanted to use "lies" for self-defense and to connect with people (no matter how paradoxical or counterproductive that might be), Aqua is using "lies" (though more just filling in the blanks he doesn't know) in order to hurt one very specific person. Both know how to mix in enough truth to make things really hurt. The production has also been a good way to shed more light on the present-day characters and their relationships. Feels like we're due to find out more about just what's going on with Frill. If the star (black star) eyes are for weaponizing lies, do the lizard eyes mean anything in particular?
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Feb 14, 2024 17:47
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