royallyshafted | Esssaaaaayy

FINALS OVER, TIEM FOR SUGATA ESSAY

So. I actually find Sugata to be a really difficult character to narrow down. I've watched his scenes quite a bit, and I think gotten a feel for his actions, but his thought process is often a mystery to me. This makes him much more difficult to play than, say, Luke, whose thoughts I always know at any given time.

This isn't the first time I've apped a character like that though, and I generally get into their thought process more as I play them. The nice thing about the amnesia game set up is it allows me a little bit of elbow room if I'm not doing it quite right, and as he gets memories back and I look at them one-on-one, I think it eventually helps me solve those problems.

WHICH ISN'T TO SAY THAT I DON'T HAVE A MILLION THOUGHTS ABOUT SUGATA. I just am aware I can probably stand to Do Better 8|;;;

Anyway! THOUGHTS ON SUGATA.

Sugata Is A Helper. I actually think this might be his most central character trait, in a way. Obviously, he is not a jesus. He doesn't strongly empathize with most people, and he isn't bending over backwards for strangers. However, his life preeeettty much revolves around other people's goals, even ones they don't necessarily want. He does do things for others constantly. Whether it is lending them a place to sleep and letting them mooch off him, trying to set them up with a relationship where he thinks they will be happy, constantly carrying around a weapon for their protection, training them to fight, avoiding them so they won't have to suffer his foul mood, encouraging them to forget about him and follow their dreams, or sacrificing his life for their sake, you can basically assume that if Sugata is on screen he is in the process of doing someone else a favor.

Sugata Is Still A Selfish Bitch. Okay so how does a guy who is constantly doing everything for other people still come out a selfish ho? Mooostly it's the juxtaposition of always doing things for others while not really being that selfless. Sugata is one of the few sacrificing anime types who doesn't do it because he has no self worth. He might not care passionately, but he doesn't devalue his own life and is actually pretty cocky. He's spent his entire life being someone ~important~ and it isn't in his nature to be all "No actually I am WORTHLESS" like.... so many other characters do (BREAK).

There is also the fact that Sugata is more than a little fixated on his own problems, even if he extends that righteous anger to Wako's problems, and is more focused on helping her than escaping his own fate. Despite how controlled he is, he is very upset by the unfair nature of his life.

Aand then there is the fact that Sugata isn't particularly grateful to Takuto, which is one of my favorite things about their relationship. Takuto's function in the story is basically to act as Wako and Sugata's savior. Before he arrived, they were stuck to their own fates. His arrival stirred things up, and he promised to destroy all of the cybodies so that Wako could be free. This would almost certainly also free Sugata. And either way you might think that Sugata would be glad that Takuto is being such a helper, since Wako is baaasically Sugata's #1 priority, and Sugata supports their blossoming relationship!

But NO. Actually I think Sugata is pretty jealous of Takuto's heroics. Not, because, I think Sugata wants to be an hero, but because Takuto is doing what Sugata can't and isn't that always fucking frustrating? Sugata probably spent the past five years trying to think of a way out their trap, and Takuto shows up just all OH WELL I WILL JUST STAB THEM ALL IN THE FACE BECAUSE I CAN USE MY CYBODY. And suddenly shit is moving again and frankly Sugata played no role in it at all.

But this leads us too!

Sugata Isn't A Moron. Despite Sugata's very legitimate upset, and at least fairly understandable jealousy, he's not an asshole or an idiot. If he doesn't show a lot of gratitude to Takuto, that doesn't change the fact that they really are friends, and Sugata really does care about him. It's like being jealous of any friend works. Unless you are a total douchenozzle, you don't stop loving them, it is just kind of bittersweet and you might have some difficulty watching them outshine you all the time.

So! Sugata really copes with baaaasically most things pretty well. He contributes in the best way he can, by training Takuto so he will be better prepared for battles, and otherwise looking out for him.

Which kind of is the same as...

Sugata Is Self Aware. Not totally, he is sixteen and certainly has his blindspots. But he's really very grown up. He guards himself, and others from himself. He knows that he's selfish, even knows that he's jealous of Takuto, but makes the decision to be supportive instead of destructive. Makes the decision to be a better friend, not a worse one. He has plenty of negative emotions, but for the part he doesn't act on them, and realizes why he shouldn't.

Which is probably why...

Sugata Is Unflappable. I DON'T KNOW WHERE THE KID GETS IT. Maybe having maids in cat and bunny ears and a fiance who fantasizes about him with boys just made him impervious early. But BASICALLY Sugata only loses his cool when he is angry or his friends are in danger (or he's angry because his friends are in danger). I think it anchors in the fact that Sugata can read people really well and thus is difficult to startle, and when he is surprised he is more prone to finding it funny than anything. However having NEVER SEEN SUGATA FLAP I am assuming it is a core part of his personality because anyway I wouldn't have the icons for a flustered Sugata.

Sugata Is HyperProtective, Highly Independent, And Hates Being Powerless. These all kind of tie into each other so that is why they are all in bold right now. Baaasically, we see this the most in Sugata and his use of King's Pillar. One of my favorite things about Sugata is that when he gets a nuke that saps his life force ('libido') to use, he still isn't stingy with it. Any time that it seems like a good time to use King's Pillar, Sugata is all over that shit, with apparently no nevermind about the possible consequences.

I don't think this a front he puts on. While I think Sugata might move to use the King's Pillar a little fast because he has a bit of a boner for power, I don't think he uses it so easily out of any perception of his life lacking value. I think it's more that he just... does things very wholeheartedly, without much concern about life or death. Sugata held back for years, not, I think for fear of his own life, but for the simple logistics of it. No good would come of him Apprivoising. He would fall into a coma, accomplish nothing, and his life would be over. When the King's Pillar was needed to protect Wako, he didn't hesitate. And when he found out that actually, he can use the King's Pillar without dying pronto AFTER ALL. Heeee pretty much uses it any chance he gets and is only held back once in a while by Wako fretting at him.

So baaaasically, Sugata has power, Sugata wants to use power! Sugata has friends and wants to incinerate anything that endangers them, and Sugata pretty much likes doing whatever Sugata wants to do, regardless of little things like possible death, but sometimes he still loses to Wako.

TO END THIS SECTION, the director of the anime commented that Sugata (along with Wako and Takuto and possibly the rest of the cast) is the type to destroy the world for his friends, and is totally okay with that. And this is true. It also ties into Sugata Is Selfish.

Uuuh what else I am running out of random thoughts to blather about.

Oh right

Sugata and Sex. IDK. ASK ME NEXT WEEK.

OKAY I guess now I will talk about Aather stuff. This is already super disorganized so I am NOT EVEN GOING TO TRY to fix it now.

Baaasically, while Sugata is a really nice guy, he does not connect to people easily. This is preeeeeetty obvious in how Wako is the only person in canon he apparently deeply cared about for a long time, and he is still keeping a pretty strong emotional distance from Takuto. This is common for the prince type! So no real surprise there. While Tide is positive-ambivalent on basically everyone, he has no strong attachment to anyone, just varying levels of interest, or, in Pride's case, perceived responsibility. And this will prooooobably stay that way until something actually threatens someone whose company he enjoys. Like, Pride could very well stay at just "Sort of derpy teammate I should help out" for months, until that is threatened for some reason, whether it be game, memory, or whatever. Then SUDDENLY, HYPERPROTECTIVE Sugata will engage and he will finally notice that actually he cares about this person and would be highly upset to lose them and would like to crush anything making them unhappy.

Tide doesn't have a problem with the team oriented mentality, so far. In fact, AJ and I have been saying that chances are high Tide will end up the babysitter of Amethyst. Again, SUGATA IS A HELPER. So he doesn't need a lot of strong emotional feelings to just go about doing what he thinks is best for others.

Tho, one of the nice things about this is that while Tide is interested in doing what is best for others, he also realizes that people can make their own decisions. He will troll minorly, nudge people's buttons now and then. But he honestly won't step on them intentionally, not even to make a point. He handles Pride by just doing helpful things without asking if Pride wants help, but when Pride clearly wants to go handle things on his own, Tide won't get in his way. He's honestly pretty respectful of other people's choices and feelings, even if they are dumb ones.

Oooother stuff is yet to be seen. He is unhappy about the premise of people getting hurt, but he's already adapting to the idea of "If we get brought back to life then it's not really dying" (See: Sugata sort of doesn't care if he risks his life). He's MUCH more unhappy with the idea of anyone on his team getting hurt, or with knights getting hurt on his behalf, but he will cross that bridge when he comes to it.

Srs Drama Games are likely to have a huge impact on him. He's only managing to be lighthearted and cocky at the moment because A) They won a game immediately and it was a lot of fun, B) he's naturally sort of cocky and C) he got back a memory which, while he doesn't remember the exact meaning of it, gave him a boost of confidence anyway.

And fiiiinally... I look forward to Tide remembering his CANON ANGST because.... they're really very small compared to the problems of 95% of the people in Aather and I think it will be funny 8D;