Zexal Rant: I Can’t Title This Without Spoiling, But Please Read, Zexal Fans

[ellaziaspais]

WARNING: This contains Zexal spoilers up to the very latest episode (123 as of time writing). Do not read if you aren’t up to date with the show.

(Many thanks to Polarstiel and Qu-ko for helping me figure out how to write this!)

I have a story for you guys.

Once upon a time, there was a boy. That boy had a very good friend, and they grew closer over time and came to rely on each other. Together, they accomplished many great things they would not have been able to accomplish on their own. They fought a common enemy and supported each other throughout the conflicts they faced.

And then one day, the boy’s friend disappeared, only to then reappear, out of nowhere, on the enemy’s side. He wholeheartedly supported their enemies now, and had seemingly forgotten about his old friends.

The boy was heartbroken, of course, but that’s a story for another time, because now I have a question:

This boy I’ve been talking about, is his name Yuuma?

Or is it Durbe?

Don’t break your head over it; I’ll give you the answer. It’s either. It’s both.

These last few weeks, I’ve seen a lot of people get angry about Ryouga’s decision to join the Barians and regain his identity as Nasch. Most commonly, I’ve heard the argument that he’s betraying Yuuma, and that he’s turning his back on his friends without any remorse, only to side with their enemies and try to destroy the Astral world.

No remorse, huh?



Moving on.

There is no doubt in my mind that this revelation will hurt Yuuma badly. I’m cringing just thinking about it. Here Yuuma is, having just been reunited with Astral after weeks of thinking he’s dead, only to return to earth and find that Tokunosuke is gone and Kaito is in terrible pain. To find out that one of his closest friends has changed sides on top of that? Yeah, that won’t be pretty.

But there was a reason I told you that story at the start of this post. Throughout Zexal, the focus has always been with Yuuma. We’ve seen Yuuma suffer and be happy. We’ve seen his friendship with Shark develop. We have rooted for these characters. We’ve grown very attached to them. That’s only normal - it’s the hallmark of good story writing. But what if we’d seen the story from Durbe’s point of view?

What if, instead of Yuuma’s story, we’d seen the story of Durbe, forced to lead the Barians in the absence of their true leader and one of his closest friends, who disappeared along with his sister. What if we’d seen him agonize over trying to find him, while instead trying to lead a war for the continued existence of their world? What if, after we finally get to see him find Nasch, we find out that Nasch has forgotten all about his identity and his friends, and is now best friends with someone who’s very clearly allied with their enemies? If we’d seen that story, would we be angry with Nasch for betraying Yuuma? Because after all, Yuuma would still be suffering just as much as he is in the version of the story we’ve seen.

Probably not. We wouldn’t know Yuuma. We haven’t grown attached to him. But would that make his pain, as a person, less valid than Durbe’s?

I say no, of course not. It is a very complicated and painful situation. So if we get back to canon, where the roles were reversed, that doesn’t make Durbe’s struggle less painful either. More importantly, it doesn’t make Nasch’s decision to side with the Barians a bad one. These are people he’s spent his entire life with. People who look up to him, who count on him to be their king, people he wants to save. Is it any wonder that he wants to help them? Heck, what kind of person would it make him if he decided to abandon them? That isn’t like Nasch, or Shark, or whatever you want to call him. He’s a pretty loyal guy, even though he doesn’t always like to show it.

Here’s where we get to the essence of the whole thing: this is a tale of conflicting loyalties, where any decision Nasch/Ryouga could’ve made would’ve ended up in pain. He ultimately chose for the larger group, for the people who needed him more and for the continued survival of his subjects and friends. This does not make him a bad person. It makes him the opposite of a bad person, in fact. In a situation where any decision would’ve hurt someone, he chose to hurt the smallest group of people, who were more likely to keep going without him.

I get the ‘poor Yuuma’ kneejerk reaction. In fact, I’ll join in: Poor Yuuma. It is a horrible situation for him and his friends. But we, as a fandom, are biased towards Yuuma because his is the story we saw. Not so for Nasch. Nasch has led two lives, both of which are very dear to him. He’s suddenly faced with the knowledge that he wasn’t who he thought he was, and that he’d completely forgotten about one of those lives. In those circumstances, he had to choose. It wasn’t easy, it hurt him terribly, and blaming him for just abandoning Yuuma but not considering how the other side would’ve felt if he’d abandoned them for Yuuma is hypocritical at best.

I hope with all of my heart that this conflict will see a resolution where both sides get to live together. From the bottom of my heart, I want these characters to be happy. I hate seeing them suffer this way. But can we please, as a fandom, not blame Nasch for a terrible decision he had to make? Can we not blame him for hurting Yuuma without considering the situation he is in and how that situation looks from the other side?

I thank you.

Источник

Копипаста с тумблера. Кэп. Мне показалось довольно интересным, хотя не могу сказать, что разделяю это мнение. ._. Вообще я первый раз задумалась, когда  chibi mouryou завела речь, что Шарк предатель и прочее, сосбна на тумблере походу примерно то же мнение бытует. А я... А я не знаю, как я отношусь к его поступку. ._. Я ещё где-то на 108-109 сериях поняла, что его присоединение к Бариевому миру неизбежно. Разные варианты рассматривала, но как-то уже смирилась...