…

… Okay. Okay. No. I did that to myself. It wasn’t clearly labelled tag-wise, but the content I could see made it very clear what it was.

I did that to myself.

But the emotions are still here. Fuck.

Okay, note to self: if you see a post that, even if it’s not tagged w/ negativity, seems pretty clearly like it’s going to be negative about your favourite character… DON’T CLICK READ MORE.

WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU EXPECT.

I just.

Horobi’s not a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ dad, he’s a ‘mind controlled by a homicidal satellite’ dad. A third category!

While I do subscribe to the belief that prior to Amatsu telling Naki to set off ‘Operation MaGear,’ Horobi was actually okay as far as actually raising Jin went, neither word applies. Like, other than hostility to humans and maybe being a bit of a workaholic… Og og Jin came across as a pretty well-rounded kid. Of course, they couldn’t stay in their bubble forever, and when the Ark’s goals come into play and shit gets kicked off and outside forces start coming in, the balance is disrupted, and Horobi, still completely under the Ark’s influence resets Jin.

Yeah, we all gonna need therapy when we remember that one.

But the fact is, it’s become pretty clear that the philosophy Horobi was spouting wasn’t really coming from ‘him him’ but from the Ark’s views, which in turn seem to have come from Amatsu. This isn’t ‘Horobi is an awful person who thinks these things’ this is ‘he was literally conditioned/manipulated/hacked to ‘think’ these things.’

Of course Horobi wouldn’t raise Jin to think for himself, he couldn’t. He couldn’t think for himself. In fact, in my opinion, while I think they deserve to care about each other, my hope is that they both grow on becoming more independent from each other. I want them to still be family, and like I said, Horobi is my fave, but they’ve def got issues they need to work through that will likely take some time. The Ark suppressed Horobi’s softer side as a father and tried to use him to mould Jin into a tool for its own use, yes, but, esp as far as she was concerned, Jin was also Horobi’s primary purpose. W/ her original plan, Horobi’s purpose was to raise Jin on her doctrine and then die, getting two birds w/ one stone of keeping him from ever actually developing out of the role she’d set for him by remembering how to care, and also giving Jin a grudge against humans. Jin was Horobi’s purpose for the Ark, and then the reason Jin is his singularity point is that Jin (who I still don’t think was connected to the Ark until ep 6) was also his only variable, esp prior to ep 6 and post return. Bc Horobi loves Jin, but doesn’t understand that bc of the Ark’s power over him, but Jin makes him change and behave and react w/out the Ark’s will. his love for Jin was developing further than the Ark could easily crack down on, and he gets more volatile, so the first chance it gets, it jumps into possessing him to prevent any further issues.

Horobi is not ‘actually’ a ‘bad’ person, he’s literally under mind control. And, esp at this point, Jin knows that. Addressing Jin trying to reconcile it might be interesting, but that would require us to focus on Horobi a bit.

There’s no point to this bc I already blocked the person, bc clearly they would not want to see my posts on this subject anymore than I’d want to see theirs, but the feelings it gave me are still very real and I need to vent before I can sleep.

And literally I realised my grave error seconds after clicking, so I only have two points bc I skipped as best I could, but…

Saying Horobi ‘consulted’ the Ark when he saw Jin in danger? Uh… Where the fuck did you read that? Like, okay, okay. So I do have to concede it doesn’t specifically say that the Ark stepped in, but I really don’t see how anyone got the impression Horobi started that connection. And even if he did… Again, he literally had no clue what free will was, he’s an AI designed to not think for himself and to obey orders????

Second… Blaming him for not dying??? He did die! Humans repaired him! WTF???

I would absolutely never say that all the things Horobi did or said while under the Ark’s control are okay, but this isn’t Banno, this is Souichi. Where Souichi is an AI that was designed to be completely subservient and never think for himself in the first place, under the malicious control of giant satellite designed to control other AI that really, really, really hates everything.

Horobi is not a ‘bad’ dad. We don’t know what kind of father Horobi on his own would have been. Horobi is an AI whose instincts and duty as a parent were manipulated and twisted by an outside, malicious force in a particular place of power where it could completely fuck up his mind for twelve years, and clearly saw him as a puppet. Again, not Banno or Masamune. Souichi. A father who had his identity usurped and weaponised, twisted so that an outside, more powerful entity could manipulate his child. Horobi was the Ark’s tool, Jin was the pawn that she was using him to try and manipulate. The situation they were in wasn’t healthy for either of them.

They both need space. Horobi needs to be disconnected from the Ark and probably needs therapy w/ learning how to work through the conditioning he was put through, bc it’s not going to be simple or easy. He’s going to need to be watched, and probably, honestly, mostly kept to himself w/ controlled visits, or something.

Fuck, all of MBJR is gonna need group therapy. Family therapy. But Horobi esp is going to need, like, serious mental and emotional support. And I do honestly think it would be good for Jin to maybe only interact w/ him under controlled circumstances (esp after how he’s been acting now). Bc I do, honestly, think they both need space and independence, again, from each other. Horobi’s life was always the Ark and Jin, if we remove the Ark from the equation, what’s the chance he’ll end up just switching all that over to Jin, and w/ the way the Ark messed up how he processes and handles situations… That’d be dangerous. And after everything that happened, yeah, Jin needs space from Horobi. Like, he knows that Horobi was being mind controlled, but there’s got to be some painful associations remaining. I mean, one of the reasons I would have loved to see Souichi wake up in Build was to see how they would deal w/ that.

But this rant is already very long.

So I’m gonna leave it here.

Horobi is neither a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ dad. He’s a ‘mind controlled’ dad.

Okay. So. Build 4...

... (spoilers below)

I know we’re all panicking (or, some of us are, anyhoo). But it’s episode four, so either they’re fucking w/ us, or the writers need to go back to class on pacing.

My money is that it’s something vaguely similar to Banno and Krim (key word in that sentence is vaguely)--a friend who went off the deep end or something; maybe Souichi got roped into it or something, but he’s not actually supportive of the ideals. To me, this is reenforced by the look of embarrassment and shame on his face when Sento confronts him. He can’t look the kid in the eye, instead looking down. That’s not an ‘oh my plan is foiled face,’ that’s a ‘i was trying to hide this out of shame’ face. Combined w/ what he said before about focusing on the present, though that was clearly a deflection method, also makes me think he’s trying to escape from some sort of darkness in his past, either something he did or let others do.

I don’t want him to be Blood Stark. I know some people do, but I think it’s a little too early to be revealing that one of the main crew is an enemy Rider. Even Ex-Aid waited on that one. Plus, I really love Souichi and really, really don’t want him to follow the long line of shitty fathers KR has had (dance on their graves, Director Kagami, dance on their graves you wonderful dad you!).

We now know he was one of the astronauts who brought the Box back; we know there was at least one other, and I highly doubt a mission to Mars had only two people, so the whole crew is now suspect. Obviously, this means whatever else they found up there will be important. I’m curious if they’re going to find out the other members of the crew in order to investigate this.

Another thing--Misora’s reaction. Her actress kept it pretty vague: either she’s uncomfortable because she knows something, or because she doesn’t, and she doesn’t want her father to be related to the people creating monsters. (also, knew random crack theory--Misora’s bracelet, the fact that she never goes outside... could she be the Kengo of this season? Souichi’s never mentioned a wife... is he even wearing a ring?)

I guess the big question in the end would be, who is creating the bottles for Faust? Could it be Misora’s mother who I just said hasn’t been mentions? Someone else completely?

And when is Ryuuga actually gonna transform?