Aomine and Violence
Nov. 10th, 2012 06:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
branchandrootSo, let's think about Aomine and the issue of violence.
We have two instances of overt physical violence, from him, in canon. They fall one on each side of his loss to Seirin, and serve to highlight how much of a difference that loss makes to his actions and outlook.
The first instance comes soon after we first meet Aomine, when we are also first encountering the Touou team. He passes through practice on his way out, having stopped in only to retrieve one of his girly magazines. Wakamatsu objects strenuously to his lackadaisical approach and demands he stay to practice with the team; when Aomine brushes him off, Wakamatsu grabs a handful of his shirt and yells at him nose to nose a bit. Aomine's response to this is significant. He's a first-year being scolded, albeit rather vigorously, by a second-year. By the unwritten social rules of hierarchy, Aomine is constrained to accept it, or perhaps pull away and storm out if he's especially rebellious.
Instead, he tells Wakamatsu, in language far better suited to an equal or superior, "I'll forgive you this time. Let go." The instant Wakamatsu continues speaking, without letting go, he drives a knee into Wakamatsu's stomach hard enough to put him on the floor. Quite casually, and even with a little smile, Aomine observes that he did warn Wakamatsu, and goes on to dunk a ball so hard he tears the hoop down, telling the club at large that they can lecture him once they're better than him.
Let me re-iterate: this was a first-year talking back to (and then assaulting) a second-year within the school and school-club hierarchy they both belong to, and leads to his third-year captain apologizing to Wakamatsu for Aomine's behavior. (Which apology Wakamatsu is very properly shocked at.) . Aomine's behavior is so far beyond the pale he couldn't find the pale with both hands and a flashlight. That's the kind of action that could get a student ostracized as a dangerous thug, incorrigibly anti-social. Indeed, I would suggest that was Fujimaki's point; at this stage, Aomine has become completely detached from the regular social network and pretty much is a dangerous thug, willing to lash out physically at those around him.
The second instance is almost completely reversed. After Haizaki's match against Kise, Haizaki waits outside, it is implied, to ambush Kise and beat him up off the court since Haizaki couldn't win on the court. Aomine, having predicted this, finds him and tells him that whatever he does on the court is his own business but that he should not be attempting to attack Kise outside of the game. Consider the contrast with Aomine's own earlier willingness to do exactly that, not in fury at a loss, but apparently in fury that anyone would attempt to treat him as a normal citizen and part of the club, or impose a limit of any kind on him that did not derive from superiority in the game. The anger seems very similar, and I think Fujimaki is suggesting that Aomine's anger was equally unsportsmanlike. Certainly, Haizaki's insistence that, if Aomine wants to stop him, he should stop him with his fists forms a parallel with Aomine's insistence that, if Wakamatsu wants to stop him skipping, he should show greater strength than Aomine.
In this instance, Aomine does meet Haizaki with a punch that lays him out completely, and his expression this time is sober, even a little grim. His success in stopping Haizaki, again, parallels Aomine's own awakening in face of his loss at Seirin's hands. In both cases, it takes force to get through to someone that far gone. One thing I find significant, here, is that once Kagami and Kuroko have gotten through to Aomine, he quickly re-connects with the expectations and social rules of his sport—sufficiently so that he is the one who enforces those rules with Haizaki, as Wakamatsu was attempting to do with him. Force is presented as a perfectly acceptable, perhaps even preferred, way to bring a straying and anti-social character back into line with the social contract. The way these incidents bracket his loss demonstrate in a very visceral way just how much that loss redeemed Aomine.
Of course, the other thing that interests me is Aomine's apparent familiarity with the mechanics of violence. And Kuroko's, also.
Aomine is clearly no stranger to fighting. He knows how and where to strike, how to make it count, how to put his opponent on the ground without injuring himself. And, with Wakamatsu, pre-redemption, he has no hesitation in fighting a little dirty. Given what Satsuki says about Aomine playing on street courts since he was a little tyke, and what Kagami says about recognizing his style as pure street, we can perhaps speculate that Aomine gained enough familiarity with rougher types, growing up, to learn how to fight. It's pure speculation, but it seems not unreasonable for a boy who loved to play for the challenge; perhaps a nice brawl now and then was simply another sort of challenge.
What's harder to explain is Kuroko's similar familiarity. We only see him resort to violence once, but he shows no hesitation in punching Kagami, who is twice his size. Nor does he seem particularly fazed by taking Kagami's return punch, even though it knocks him on his ass. He's still focused and speaking through it a moment later. He also has no hesitation in confronting the thugs from Meijou, in Kanagawa, despite having seen how willing they are to use violence and clearly stating his awareness, later, that he would have been on the losing end of a fight if Kagami and Kise hadn't come to support him. We have no canon information at all about Kuroko's history outside of the Teikou club, so we have to fill in our own explanations for this.
My personal favorite rests on the fact that we do see Kuroko walking home with Aomine, back in middle school, and that they seem to have been friends as well as partners. What if Kuroko was present for one of Aomine's casual brawls? Working backward from his complete lack of fear in face of Meijou, it's easy to imagine he would have waded in after Aomine (possibly to Aomine's surprise, but possibly not). If fighting really is simply a pleasantly challenging occasional pastime to Aomine, it's a small additional step to imagine him entertained or pleased by Kuroko's willingness to engage, and possibly offering some pointers. Or possibly just accepting that Kuroko is going to wade in with him, and enjoying the company.
Which makes Kuroko's sulkiness in face of Kagami scolding him for putting himself in danger all the more amusing.
We have two instances of overt physical violence, from him, in canon. They fall one on each side of his loss to Seirin, and serve to highlight how much of a difference that loss makes to his actions and outlook.
The first instance comes soon after we first meet Aomine, when we are also first encountering the Touou team. He passes through practice on his way out, having stopped in only to retrieve one of his girly magazines. Wakamatsu objects strenuously to his lackadaisical approach and demands he stay to practice with the team; when Aomine brushes him off, Wakamatsu grabs a handful of his shirt and yells at him nose to nose a bit. Aomine's response to this is significant. He's a first-year being scolded, albeit rather vigorously, by a second-year. By the unwritten social rules of hierarchy, Aomine is constrained to accept it, or perhaps pull away and storm out if he's especially rebellious.
Instead, he tells Wakamatsu, in language far better suited to an equal or superior, "I'll forgive you this time. Let go." The instant Wakamatsu continues speaking, without letting go, he drives a knee into Wakamatsu's stomach hard enough to put him on the floor. Quite casually, and even with a little smile, Aomine observes that he did warn Wakamatsu, and goes on to dunk a ball so hard he tears the hoop down, telling the club at large that they can lecture him once they're better than him.
Let me re-iterate: this was a first-year talking back to (and then assaulting) a second-year within the school and school-club hierarchy they both belong to, and leads to his third-year captain apologizing to Wakamatsu for Aomine's behavior. (Which apology Wakamatsu is very properly shocked at.) . Aomine's behavior is so far beyond the pale he couldn't find the pale with both hands and a flashlight. That's the kind of action that could get a student ostracized as a dangerous thug, incorrigibly anti-social. Indeed, I would suggest that was Fujimaki's point; at this stage, Aomine has become completely detached from the regular social network and pretty much is a dangerous thug, willing to lash out physically at those around him.
The second instance is almost completely reversed. After Haizaki's match against Kise, Haizaki waits outside, it is implied, to ambush Kise and beat him up off the court since Haizaki couldn't win on the court. Aomine, having predicted this, finds him and tells him that whatever he does on the court is his own business but that he should not be attempting to attack Kise outside of the game. Consider the contrast with Aomine's own earlier willingness to do exactly that, not in fury at a loss, but apparently in fury that anyone would attempt to treat him as a normal citizen and part of the club, or impose a limit of any kind on him that did not derive from superiority in the game. The anger seems very similar, and I think Fujimaki is suggesting that Aomine's anger was equally unsportsmanlike. Certainly, Haizaki's insistence that, if Aomine wants to stop him, he should stop him with his fists forms a parallel with Aomine's insistence that, if Wakamatsu wants to stop him skipping, he should show greater strength than Aomine.
In this instance, Aomine does meet Haizaki with a punch that lays him out completely, and his expression this time is sober, even a little grim. His success in stopping Haizaki, again, parallels Aomine's own awakening in face of his loss at Seirin's hands. In both cases, it takes force to get through to someone that far gone. One thing I find significant, here, is that once Kagami and Kuroko have gotten through to Aomine, he quickly re-connects with the expectations and social rules of his sport—sufficiently so that he is the one who enforces those rules with Haizaki, as Wakamatsu was attempting to do with him. Force is presented as a perfectly acceptable, perhaps even preferred, way to bring a straying and anti-social character back into line with the social contract. The way these incidents bracket his loss demonstrate in a very visceral way just how much that loss redeemed Aomine.
Of course, the other thing that interests me is Aomine's apparent familiarity with the mechanics of violence. And Kuroko's, also.
Aomine is clearly no stranger to fighting. He knows how and where to strike, how to make it count, how to put his opponent on the ground without injuring himself. And, with Wakamatsu, pre-redemption, he has no hesitation in fighting a little dirty. Given what Satsuki says about Aomine playing on street courts since he was a little tyke, and what Kagami says about recognizing his style as pure street, we can perhaps speculate that Aomine gained enough familiarity with rougher types, growing up, to learn how to fight. It's pure speculation, but it seems not unreasonable for a boy who loved to play for the challenge; perhaps a nice brawl now and then was simply another sort of challenge.
What's harder to explain is Kuroko's similar familiarity. We only see him resort to violence once, but he shows no hesitation in punching Kagami, who is twice his size. Nor does he seem particularly fazed by taking Kagami's return punch, even though it knocks him on his ass. He's still focused and speaking through it a moment later. He also has no hesitation in confronting the thugs from Meijou, in Kanagawa, despite having seen how willing they are to use violence and clearly stating his awareness, later, that he would have been on the losing end of a fight if Kagami and Kise hadn't come to support him. We have no canon information at all about Kuroko's history outside of the Teikou club, so we have to fill in our own explanations for this.
My personal favorite rests on the fact that we do see Kuroko walking home with Aomine, back in middle school, and that they seem to have been friends as well as partners. What if Kuroko was present for one of Aomine's casual brawls? Working backward from his complete lack of fear in face of Meijou, it's easy to imagine he would have waded in after Aomine (possibly to Aomine's surprise, but possibly not). If fighting really is simply a pleasantly challenging occasional pastime to Aomine, it's a small additional step to imagine him entertained or pleased by Kuroko's willingness to engage, and possibly offering some pointers. Or possibly just accepting that Kuroko is going to wade in with him, and enjoying the company.
Which makes Kuroko's sulkiness in face of Kagami scolding him for putting himself in danger all the more amusing.
