Spring Fire

Rewatched ep 20 again to try seeing if there was any difference on how Kaito’s being portrayed… while comparing subs and the likes.

And hey, there is something that was there yet seemed like it changed yet it hadn’t! Cos on the random posts I occasionally see on my dash, fandom seemed like marked him as if he’d gone crazed or something. Or being more asshole and the likes.

As it stands, Kaito’s character hadn’t really changed so drastically as fandom reactions seemed to imply. Well, how you see him now would depend on how you read/interpret Kaito’s last reply to Ryouma.

Obviously, Kaito’s still bitter at Yggdrassil for the many things that happened in the past. Just look at how he reacted after recognizing the shrine tree being the source of the artificial crack, and then realizing that just because of that tree… Kaito, Mai… and many other people related had their lives changed. And then, he was told about Helheim.

To be honest I don’t claim to know Kaito that well…. or know how Ryouma thinks, and I might be wrong to interpret it like this…

But I view Kaito’s response as… he finds it stupid for Yggdrassil to conceal the truth from the public. Like what’s the point? Just keep concealing the truth while there’s still people getting hurt and having weird plants growing from their wounds and thinking the beat riders are the cause for letting the Inves run free?

Why should he protect the weak? When he used to be weak, people stronger didn’t come to his aid. He ended up having to strive to become strong on his own. So now that he became strong, why should he protect the weak? Yes, by normal thinking… he should’ve done that, to show that he was better than the other people. Yet, having people to protect… (while to some, might give them strength to continue fighting) might also be bad. For one thing, it’ll become a burden to you… the stronger one, to protect the weak. And looking at this as Kaito, why should he carry this burden for people who probably won’t care to do the same to him? And having people to protect, will give you a weakness. And we see that Kaito disliked having weakness.

And then, let us recall that time long ago when he told the young boy stuck on a tree to save himself. That logic of his came back to play now. He didn’t feel the need to protect people weaker than him because… he rather those weak people go protect themselves and become strong (as well) by themselves. If people chose instead to turn on each other and destroy themselves on their own, why bother? If that means all that survived at the end ended up to be those people who haven’t lost the will to keep surviving and became strong in return, wouldn’t that be better? Aren’t we better off without some of the bad people that made the world a bit more chaotic?

In a way…. some part of Kaito’s logic may resonate more to how Ryouma thinks. Thus why Ryouma took interest on Kaito. Some of Kaito’s logic might still be childish/naive… but hey, same should be said about Kouta. Honestly  I was curious how Kaito would’ve reacted if Takatora was the one that gave the revelation and Kouta getting it from Ryouma. Alas, beggars can’t be choosers and Kaito gets Ryouma while Kouta gets Taka.

And now I’m curious as to what the future will bring to these two boys~