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thyandrawrites · 11 months

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Rereading bllk made me realize Reo and Nagi's dynamic encapsulates a lot of the themes of the story, and their conflict perfectly shows the clash between wanting to be good at soccer cause it's fun, and nurturing one's ego to become the best striker in the world.

Interestingly, Reo starts off as the one chasing the latter and Nagi the former, but their first loss in blue lock flips their positions around. Reo can't progress to a point where he devours his opponents in the 3v3 match because he's stuck playing a soccer that is meant to be fun, that plays by established rules. His role in the field is to balance out Chigiri and Kunigami's egos instead of chasing his own goals, just like how he relied on passing to Nagi to score in a pinch.

Reo is a team player, mostly setting up goals with his passes. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, per se. Controlling the field in such a way is a skill that he shares with Niko, but as Niko's loss also shows, limiting yourself to assisting someone else's goals is a losing strategy in blue lock, where one awakening can turn the scores upside down in a matter of minutes. Yet, Reo plays it safe because up till then his ideal of soccer is driven by the promise he made to Nagi. Winning together. Becoming the best together. His one objective throughout the match isn't being the best in the field, or even winning the match, but simply winning Nagi back. His ego cannot grow because he becomes complacent in what used to work for them.

As Ego puts it, Reo refuses to face reality and chases his dream for the sake of chasing it, refusing to admit to his shortcomings and thus entering a mindset where he can grow from his loss.

And Nagi calls this out.

Nagi, who used to think he'd quit playing if he wasn't good enough to win, instead ends up growing through a loss. The only soccer he knew until then was the one he played with Reo, but he's able to face that it wasn't enough to win. Thus, he chooses to advance alone, recognizing that what he lacks to become best in the world and crown their promise is not a lack of teamwork, but a lack of ego. Nagi lost to Isagi on a 1v1 before than the match as a whole. So he chooses him because Isagi demonstrated his willingness to chase after monsters to devour and better his plays, aka the drive Nagi lacked, but also the drive that is at the heart of true egoism. While Isagi would not give up in the face of likely loss and instead made an awakening happen, Reo, despite being equally driven, ends up falling behind. And that's, I think, because Reo gets so stubborn about not letting go of the idea of soccer he had before joining blue lock. The soccer that had himself and Nagi as its core, the soccer that didn't need anything else to be effective (not Kuon's subterfuge, not Isagi's direct shot, just the two of them as they are):

But, and here's where it gets interesting, Nagi, the unmotivated slacker, evolves, and Reo, the driven one, does not. Why's that?

One could say it's because Reo's a sheltered rich boy who never encountered a challenge in his life, and is not equipped for it. That could be true, I suppose. It definitely plays a role, just like how new soccer is to him in general. But it's also a matter of themes!

What Reo doesn't account for is that what worked against weaker teams won't work against team Z, who is the bottom of the barrel, and basically starving. They're willing to take themselves apart and rebuild anew just to remain in the running, and that makes them better candidates for Ego's goals. Nagi is able to recognize this, at least to an extent. He instinctively gravitated towards Isagi, the player whose hunger is arguably the strongest, and who thus is the most driven to break and rebuild himself anew in every match.

Reo, on the other hand, is more businessman-like. He asses individual strengths and drives them out with his passes and his machinations. That's how he can capitalize on less strategic players like Nagi and Zantetsu, while simultaneously being the driving force of team V. At the same time, that's also why he doesn't see Isagi's weapons for what they are, at first, while Nagi does. Since Isagi is still failing to be consistent, Reo sees a mediocre player who can only shoot, but is lacking in every other department. Nagi, who is much more reliant on trusting his guts, sees the guy who predicted where the ball would go and preceded him there, and realizes Isagi's true assets. That is, the ability to create your own scoring possibility, even though at that point it was still in its larval state.

To Nagi, who until then only played by receiving passes and following his inspiration, Isagi is the puzzle piece he's lacking. Reo's playstyle is different because they've never faced an opponent they couldn't beat together. In that sense, Reo can't teach Nagi that hunger that drives his plays, only Isagi can. To Reo, Nagi is already a treasure as he is. But Nagi's ego sparked to life, and he has questions that Reo can't answer. So he follows Isagi instead, in an effort to answer them.

Misunderstandings enter the chat. Chaos ensues.

Keeping all that in mind, when Reo then accuses Nagi of having changed, it opens the floodgates. Of course, it's true that Nagi did. He evolved, and that's plain for everyone to see. But, and this is equally important, Reo did not. Reo remained the same, to a fault. In fact, he's preaching remaining the same as a virtue that Nagi's pissing on.

So then when Nagi retorts that "the one who's forgetting our promise is you", I think he's saying that Reo is not actively trying to become the best anymore, but only seeking a soccer that is "fun". A soccer like the stuff that worked for them pre-blue lock, pre this mass of starved egoists. But they already played that way, and lost to team Z, to Isagi. They stopped being the best in their stratum.

During the 3v3, Reo begins to understand the reason why Isagi is a good player, and his frustration grows the more the march goes on. But he's powerless to stop them from winning, and then he refuses to accept the loss, griping at Nagi for discarding him again. In other words, instead of using that frustration as fuel to spark an awakening, Reo let himself crash into that wall, and then still asked to advance not because of his skills on the field, but simply on accounts of what he'd contribute to the team. He doesn't believe in his own ego, but relies on being chosen. Unlike Chigiri, who evolved to face the challenge, Reo and Kunigami were regular players, and that's why they get left behind. For the same reason, they both grow as characters when they start incorporating egoism into their playstyles. Reo becomes a chameleon, Kunigami a cannon.

But in this moment? All Nagi sees is a Reo who is fine being average. Comparing that to their dream, he blows up at him for letting that be the end of his line, for implicitly going back on the promise to show Nagi a 'life more enthralling than any nap or game'. They didn't even beat the best players in blue lock, so how can Reo speak of being the best in the world?

Of course, to Reo, it's Nagi who betrayed it first by advancing without him. He always assumed they would cross that finish line together. But the story tells us, this is the mark between a "lump of talent" and someone who can aim at being the best striker. The latter makes his own plays, and doesn't rely on others to create his opening; but an average player is someone who hangs on to dreams without putting in the effort to challenge oneself, even after a defeat.

Reo "lost" to Isagi not because he's unskilled, as he surmised, but simply because he didn't cultivate that hunger. Until now. But this moment, this loss, is what sparks his ego in turn.

And thus, the series tells us, do you have what it takes to keep evolving, devouring other people's play styles and incorporating them in your own, or will you cower, collecting only broken dreams?

#Nagi seishirou #Mikage reo #Blue lock meta #Bllk meta #Blue lock #I might update this with more thoughts when I reach the Manshine City arc again #Because that arc flips their positions again #There it's reo's ego which is more defined and nagi's that reverts and then fades away #But anyway. That's it for my nagireo propaganda today #This wasn't even meant as a shippy post but apologies if it comes across that way all the same. I just think they're neat #Bllk thoughts

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