shy friend · 2d
returning anon, but ahhhh thank you... i'm glad to be validated even if it feels silly. because the lack of conversations around these subjects genuinely makes me so confused. i'm used to fandoms viewing critical thinking as an inherently bad thing, but i've never come across fans so averse to examining real life implications of what text may mean until i became a fan of enstars. like for example, people can write essays about eichi's psyche or whatever, but when it comes to what his actions contextually mean within a broader scope no one ever wants to talk about that and i find it odd. i don't hold it against people for liking certain characters, but the lack of conversation genuinely confuses me. when that fairytale event came out, i was genuinely shocked how little people raised concerns over project atlantis. granted, a lot of it is shoved into stella marris and iirc atlantis doesn't really cover it, but still... you would think it would make greater waves in fandom, considering how upset people were with amagis treatment (which is a good thing!!!). and yet, people were excited for tori to continue project atlantis... which somehow feels ironic, considering even he thought eichi's behavior was gross in stella maris.
anyway i guess my point is just i wish people would treat these subject matters far more delicately instead of like fun little detours to deepen their understanding of their enstars favs. like no, this is not fun ryuseitai lore. you are engaging with real life history that STILL EXISTS and AFFECTS people to this day. once you learn that, anything enstars has written in relation to okinawa (or colonization) becomes horrifying. it's not fun. it's awful to read about and experience as an audience, especially with how little seriousness the subject gets approached at the end of the day. or at least that's how i feel i guess
It is really uncomfortable to me that it has taken this long for people in the fandom to talk about the Okinawa Arc critically or show interest in learning about the history of the Ryukyu Islands, and it's still hardly even the bare-minimum. Especially a sentiment I saw that the introduction of Ibuki is what facilitates looking into this. This might offend some people, but I beg to disagree. The moment it became clear Okinawa is a place of significance to the Ensemble Stars plot, fans should have taken the time to start educating themselves. Especially Ryuseitai fans and fine fans. This pertains to your favorite characters. What took so long? I'm happy to see people are taking the steps to do this now, but really. Come on. You have to be reminded to do it? Do you even care about the story you're reading (assuming you're keeping up)? Yes, I'm being harsh about this. The same way we have had to be harsh about the Amagis. I'll make a racket. Which, you mention fans care about how Rinne and Hiiro are treated. I will let you know, this is a development in the past two years that started on Twitter because of some provocative posts challenging the way people approach them. Giving a shit about the Amagis was not an inherent quality this fandom had. It was pushed on them. And I'm gonna push the Okinawa business on them, too. You're all gonna be hearing from me about it for a while. I don't call myself the world's most annoying for nothing. Youko is diving right into this subject! I'm a Japanese history student at a famously woke university and I just so happen study under someone who specializes in Okinawa's history. So bring it on Enstars fandom. Let's pick apart what we're dealing with here in the writing.
