PoT 258: argh.

[branchandroot]

*rubbing forehead* Konomi, you worthless hack, how am I supposed to make a coherent character for Kirihara out of this? This isn't a plot twist, it's a freaking mobius strip. I mean, the GB fixed by surgery was bad enough.



It was coherent up until Nationals. Kirihara's red-eyed berserker mode was shown to us, in his match with Tachibana, as something invoked when he's in danger of losing. Then we get his flashbacks to first year, his ambition, his frustration at suddenly having no less than three apparently unbeatable players over him like some kind of glass ceiling. I found it believable that this anger and frustration and, perhaps, shock could result in that berserk mode--that Kirihara might actually believe that he couldn't win without playing so violently.

And then we have the match with Echizen, in which Kirihara learns that even going berserk won't be enough all the time, and in which he sees muga. It's a shock and, apparently, a catalyst, because then we get the match with Fuji in which, again, berserk mode isn't enough. Kirihara responds by using the new template he's witnessed and reaching muga himself. He doesn't win, but it's darn close and he does lose honorably. So far, so good, it all hangs together, presumably he'll work on it more, driven by his desire to defeat the best third year players. Sanada even opens up his own arsenal early to drive Echizen into muga again, and jog Kirihara's memory and set him up to continue down that path.

But then we get to Nationals. And it's as if Kirihara never had those matches with Echizen and Fuji. As if Konomi has erased that plot path he had sent Kirihara down and instead moved him onto the plot path that takes berserk mode and squares it, continuing straight down that line. Personally, I find the hyper-berserk masochistic demon thing rather squicky, but if that had been where Kirihara was aimed in his past matches I'd at least buy it as plausible, if not very palatable.

My problem here being that those matches are not erased. They happened. So what, I am now left wondering, what could possibly have led a player as ambitious as Kirihara to abandon the muga technique? This has been demonstrated, repeatedly, as one of the strongest techniques there is, and on top of that it's the one that both Sanada and Yukimura use, not to mention Tezuka and Echizen. Given that Kirihara's ultimate goal has always been to defeat Yukimura, Sanada, Yanagi, why, having reached that, would he let it go? Even if Konomi decided to utterly bastardize Yukimura and Sanada, and have them discourage Kirihara from pursuing muga because, let's say, they don't think he'll be strong enough in it to win with it... I can't quite believe that would have stopped him. Not knowing that it's their own technique, not when they are his ultimate goal. And besides, Sanada clearly /did/ approve of it, at least during Regionals, enough to give Kirihara a helpful demonstration.

God damn it, Konomi, how am I supposed to rationalize this to write fic?!

I could just about buy Yukimura's severe changes in characterization from the whole "gentle smile" thing to the ice cold captain we're seeing now. It wouldn't be the first time a character has demonstrated very different personalities when playing and when not playing. But this I really don't know how I can reconcile. The whole bit, when Rikkai was playing the Elvish team, about "needing to awaken the baby of the team"... Kirihara had already been awakened, by Echizen and Fuji. It's like Konomi suffered some kind of memory lapse.



Or maybe he's just decided to finish the manga by destroying /all/ of the teams, one way or another. He's certainly well on his way to destroying Echizen with sheer ridiculousness. At this rate, I'm kind of hoping he never /does/ get around to Yukimura's match, because god only knows what he'll do to that.

So when I get this far in the Translated arc, I'm rewriting the matches. In some way that does not pretend all the development of Regionals has somehow vanished into the ether.

Comments

[prillalar]

You know, I feel I've been extraordinarily lucky with this series, that the characters I love the best have been treated well.

Thank you for your elaboration on Kirihara's progress and regression. It's very puzzling, at least so far. I'm not sure if I just haven't found the right context to interpret the text from or if Konomi has actually lost it. I don't think I'll know until it's over.

[branchandroot]

*wry* Yeah. I'm withholding final judgement until it's over, but I really think that Konomi is just burned out. He'll write ten issues of trash and then five of some brilliant match, and then it's back to trash. I think his endurance and enthusiasm have just run out; understandable if he's been dealing with illness. The entire arc of Nationals has been very incoherent. Build-up has ended in matches that sputter out. Maybe a third of the characters have had their progress preserved, and almost none of them are the ones with the highest energy storylines. The momentum of Regionals has splashed every which way, like it hit some kind of catastrophic brick wall.

To be honest, I'm not surprised the weekly contract is getting cancelled. *sighs*

[written-in-blue.livejournal.com]

I'm not in the middle of writing up my own version of Nationals right now or anything. Why would I be doing that?

(Half the problem is where he put Seishun. Logically, Seishun should be at the extreme outside of the bracket, just like Rikkai is. Instead they're in the middle and so we get all this weird crap.)

[branchandroot]

It does make things... complicated. I mean, obviously Fudoumine has to meet Shitenhouji. But all the build-up between Shitenhouji and Seigaku just... fizzled. Except Fuji's match. But could he get that from someone else? And the rent-boys were fun, but, really, Rokkaku should have made a better showing, considering how Seigaku blew Higa away. And the match with Hyoutei was just kind of ridiculous in places; especially the glowing crack-fairies.

I think we can totally knock off the elvish team, for sure, though.

[written-in-blue.livejournal.com]

*snorts* I'm sticking Hyoutei in the elvish spot, damn it. Rikkai can have more fun that way.

[written-in-blue.livejournal.com]

The other problem is that Seishun is too damn strong, going into Nationals. If Konomi doesn't up the ante a lot--and turn the opposing teams into demons--Seishun will walk all over everybody.

[branchandroot]

That is very true. There's almost no room for development, either, unless it's the whole 'mirror each other's techniques' thing. I think Momo might be the only one who's still developing in a normal way against his opponents. If he's not getting the Oshitari match, he should get a good singles match out of whoever they meet at Semifinals.

[written-in-blue.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. That's the only problem, is that there's no one to push Seigaku, except in scattered places. Shiraishi and Fuji, for example. Oshitari and Momo.

For all that people talk about "Oh, this is Nationals and National-level players!" it's mostly lip service when Seigaku says it. And that annoys me.

[snowfinite.livejournal.com]

...

i don't even want to know.

[branchandroot]

*sighs* Probably not, no.