![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inheritthewindAnd here is the essay (spoilery, natch) that Spitfire topped me into, hard enough that it got bumped above the essay I owe Aeon, since that one is just so that people can laugh at me. I'M NOT REALLY SURE WHAT THIS ESSAY IS ABOUT, it was just things that occurred to me to think about when trying to figure out how to deal with Spitfire, so it's a lot about Sora and some about Spitfire and Sora and I don't know, I'm sick and wrote part of this while hopped up on Nyquil, don't judge me. :<
Introduction: The Current Situation in Camp
There are two main types of people that piss Sora off: those who frustrate his plans and Kilik. Currently in camp, if I were to rate how much Spitfire pisses Sora off, on a scale of one to Kilik, he'd probably rate around a seven. Immediately prior to coming to camp, it was only around four -- out of sight, out of mind, mainly. Despite Sora's relatively controlled reaction to suddenly seieng, you know, someone he'd killed, it really was a very unpleasant surprise. Rest assured that it wasn't because of remorse or any other sort of emotion that would imply the existence of some sort of human decency. Neither does he view Spitfire as a direct threat to himself. But Spitfire isn't supposed to be here. He tried to screw up Sora's plans before, which was annoying enough -- and now he's here with those fucking kids, doing who-knows-what, and YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD AND TAKEN CARE OF, but some people don't know when to fucking give up (pot, kettle, black, etc.). So Spitfire is an unexpected and, while not insurmountable, still somewhat unknown obstacle.
So that's the basic shape of the situation and what will have the biggest influence in shaping Sora's actions toward Spitfire -- he's not going to worry himself over him, but you can bet that he's sure as hell going to be finding out what Spitfire has been up to and keep an eye on what he's doing.
BUT BACK IN THE DAY: Or, Spitfire, You So Strong and... Helpful
...as for the details of the situation!
One thing that interests me with Sora is how little of his own story we get from him. I didn't catch it the first time I read through our first encounter with Sora (volumes 5-6), but it's a little funny how we get the entire story from Rika. Later, of course, we learn that her perspective is woefully skewed due to the incredibly large amount of important information missing from it. Our other big source of perspective on Sora is Kilik. While more accurate than Rika's, I'm still inclined to be a little wary of Kilik's perspective when it comes to me working with Sora. FOR SOME REASON.
In general, as far as reliability goes, I'm most likely to turn to either Agito/Akito or Spitfire. Agito/Akito are our most experienced Kogarasumaru member, has already has his little "betrayal" episode (which only proved his loyalty), is smart as a whip and has no problem with calling people on their bullshit. Likewise, Spitfire has proven to be intelligent, insightful and on the story's moral good side -- to an extreme degree -- and has access to a lot more information than anyone else on "our" side. So that was where I went for a lot of the character gaps I had for Sora.
One thing we don't get to see much of is what made Sora so likeable and able to gain followers the way that he did back in the day. Broadly speaking, it seems that he was quite a bit like Ikki -- when Ikki is in the tower, one of the first thing Kilik remarks on is "quite the look-alike, isn't he" (chapter 149) -- and we really can see that, as Sora does look more and more like Ikki as the story progresses (check out his icons -- there's really no resemblence in the beginning, but in the vid-phone conversation, he really looks like Ikki's evil older brother). And god knows that Rika saw what she knew of Sora in Ikki.
So both the LOVE and the HATE are seeing a resonance between the two of them, and that makes me wonder about Spitfire's thoughts regarding that aspect of things. Spitfire's commentary, while never direct (damn you and your cryptic self, Spitfire), leads me to believe that, yes, there really was something, Sora isn't (or, at least, wasn't) nothing but a ruthless regalia-grabbing bastard. What with his whole "Once, when we looked up together... the thing we really wanted to put our hands on... Oh, the memories on that day!" (page 69 of Sora Scans' volume 18 extra pages) and his multiple variations of "you don't get it"/"it shouldn't have come to this" directed at Sora (and Nike), I get the impression that Spitfire sees Sora as having at least once not been completely morally bankrupt, having seemed to have had the potential of getting where Ikki seems to be going and just... falling short, veering off the path and not making it, and being completely blind to that fact. AND BECAUSE HE IS SPITFIRE, I believe him.
Sora obviously wasn't just like Ikki -- while still a complete shounen retard, he seemd to be a lot more polished than Ikki (smoother with the ladies for one thing, you fucking flower-eater), not to mention a lot more ambitious (in the more negative sense of the word). And, of coures, he was a lot more sneaky. Not that Ikki can't be tricky! But Sora, it seems, was always manipulative and untrustworthy, completely fucking with Kilik and being far less than upfront with those whom I suppose we'd call his friends.
As I'd briefly mentioned in Nishi's awesome A-T post, my personal theory regarding wind-type people is that they tend to work with other people in some way. I'd like to expand that to consider the important of how the wind-type uses people and things. A strong Wind attack can be pretty devastating by itself, sure, but it's at its most destructive when it's using something around it (e.g. helicopter). Similarly, both Ikki and Sora are the leaders of their respective groups, and they both use people, though in markedly different ways. There's effectively using people -- putting them into positions that will best benefit the team, working with them so you can both reach your potential, etc. -- and then there's using people -- manipulating them without their consent, going behind their backs, etc.. With the exception of his twin, who seems to be in on the deal, Sora seems to use people much in the same way that he uses everything else in his environment. While certainly not the only user in the Air Gear world, Sora seems to be the most extreme and self-centered/self-serving example.
One thing that I’m curious about is how much that really was hidden from Spitfire and the others back then. Speaking from personal experience, I’ve been good friends with people whom I’ve known to be selfish, sneaky cheats. It was just... part of who they were! But they were also fun and smart and, I mean, we were kids, what the hell, I didn’t care if they cheated at games of seven-up or whatever. The thing that I had assumed, though, was that they wouldn’t, you know... kill me or anything.
In other words, lil’ Sora was totally a loud-mouthed, retarded brat who you probably knew had a mischievous, sneaky streak. And from what Spitfire said, it wasn’t as though Sora was completely hiding his intentions regarding the Sky Regalia, etc.. And my personal opinion is that the fact that Kilik beat him so badly that last time is what made Sora really snap from "manipulative brat with a nasty streak and a chip on his shoulder" to "murderous sociopath lolz." Given the combination of Sora’s personality and situation, I think the progression was a pretty inevitable one. I have the benefit of hindsight, though, and I’m wondering how hard Spitfire is kicking himself now (and for what reasons).
"I guess this is goodbye, old pal...": So. About that whole "friendship" thing.
Which leads to the issue of Sora and relationships -- and what exactly Sora and Spitfire's relationship was and is like. While Sora might use people without the least bit of shame, I don't think that he necessarily sees them just as a means to an end regarding getting the Sky Regalia, etc.. Having friends is fun, and having fun is winning, too! It's sort of like that teen romance cliché, where the cool guy goes out with the uncool girl on a bet and ends up really falling in love with her, and then there's that scene where she finds out and is all, "You lied to me! IT WAS ALL A LIE! DDD:" and then he has to go to great lengths to prove his true feelings to her, etc.. Except that in this case, winning that bet remains the most important thing. If he had a good time, THAT WAS JUST A BONUS. Sora really just has a sociopathic lack of boundaries when it comes to... everything. He feels no conflict whatsoever between enjoying someone's company and then backstabbing them the minute that's the most advantageous course of action. "Friendship" is just another use, really.
Out of all the people in our current canon, though, I do think that Sora was closer to Spitfire than he was to most people. When I was intro-ing, I went through a brief moment of panic when I realized that I couldn't remember what sort of honorifics Sora used and I was perplexed as to how I could forget such a thing. Turns out that Sora doesn't use honorifics (at least in the scans that I've seen), which would explain why I didn't remember them! In fact, Sora hardly calls anyone by name, ever. Nike!Sora gets the most name-use out of everyone, and then we have Kilik, Spitfire, Rika and (surprisingly enough) Kaito. Unless I've missed it (...which is possible, I didn't have the manga with me when I began this essay and now I'm doped up on Nyquil), Sora never refers to Ikki by name. I don't think that Sora's necessarily pulling a Hazel here, but I do think there's something to Sora only connecting to those people from the past, even if that connection is one of BURNING HATE.
And his attitude toward Spitfire didn't start out as one of hate! In the beginning, the only one that Sora really seemed to dislike was Kilik. While you couldn't trust the brat as far as you could throw him, he didn't seem to behave in a manner that was actively malicious toward anyone else. The others were useful and fun, and the group dynamic allowed him to work to ostracize Kilik. After all, at the end of chapter 163, Spitfire is described as an "old friend" to Sora. I'd call that a true description -- as long as one bears in mind that Sora has friends Uchiha Itachi has a "little brother." It's not that the relationship isn't there! It just... functions differently than it does for most people.
"Form versus Function" is actually a pretty good way of describing it, I think. For instance, say you have a bunch of women working out with the same exercise program. When asked for their reasons, all of them give you the most socially acceptable answer that they’re doing it to stay healthy. But one of them is actually trying to lose 20 pounds to fit into a pair of her old jeans, another one is worried about her family’s history of heart disease, another needs to stay active to keep her mood stable, etc.. All different reasons! But you can’t tell until something happens that changes the situation in a way that would cause one of them to take a different course of action (e.g. the one reaches her weight goal and quits the program).
Also regarding their relationship, another thing that struck me while I was doing OOC work is how limited Sora's range of expression is. It's like: neutral, retarded/perverted, happy!smile, rapist!smile, comic!anger and sorta pissed. Sora's most dramatic expressions -- SERIOUSLY PISSED and slightly troubled -- come from him dealing with Spitfire's death. I do think that Spitfire's death upset Sora, if not in a squishy, sentimental sort of way. Spitfire was one of the last people remaining from the original Sleeping Forest and is now gone -- and Sora's shown that he's stuck in the past. Also, Spitfire was like him, in that he was both one of the original Gravity Children who was planned to be discarded and affected by a debilitating injury after that battle against Kilik. (As a side note, I've always found it odd that Nike would comment that Spitfire was useless as a fighter because of that injury when Sora has been knocked down so much harder. Then again, I tell myself to stop expecting Nike to be sane.) He was like Sora -- and he came up short. Sora seems to be genuinely pissed off when he thinks that Spitfire went down so quickly the first time (with the helicopter).
Really, it was a fight that Sora couldn't win. If he lost, then, well, he'd lose. If Spitfire lost, then Spitfire really did deserve to be discarded, which means that there's a risk that Sora did, too. As we currently have it, Sora and Nike seem to be the oldest of the Gravity Children that we know of and, well, the GC were developing technology -- they had to have changed as time and science progressed, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were some aspect that got "better" as the research went along. Given the way that we receive this section of the story from Sora (chapter 163), it's obviously something that affects him, has been affecting him for a long while (he witnessed that whole Kilik incident and looked NONE TOO HAPPY ABOUT IT BACK THEN, EITHER) and I'm sure that he's thought far too much about it.
...and, well. Spitfire had been on his side. I do feel that there's an element of feeling betrayed by Spitfire. Not in the "you hurt my feelings! DDD:" sort of way, but in the "you were mine and you were supposed to work, goddammit. DDD<" sort of way. Also, to Sora, Spitfire seems just as blind and foolish as Sora probably seems to Spitfire, so while he isn't remorseful, I do think that Sora regrets Spitfire's decision. So unnecessary, man! :/ Circling back around, Sora's current attitude toward Spitfire in camp is defined by the tactical situation I described in the beginning, but I think that it also involves a lot more emotion than most of Sora's relationships do (mind you, we are talking relatively here). Thoroughly negative emotions! Anger, frustration, making Sora think about things he'd rather not think about...
In Conclusion: u suck D<
Spitfire, you are such a pain in the ass. No, seriously. The fact that Spitfire exists here is the most serious damper on Sora’s mood out of everything. He won’t be avoiding Spitfire because, well, keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but Spitfire puts him in a bad mood that he’s going to do his best not to left Spitfire see. BECAUSE STUPID LOSER TRASH LIKE YOU SHOULDN’T BE WORTH THE TROUBLE.
Sometimes Sora has anger problems.
The End.
Introduction: The Current Situation in Camp
There are two main types of people that piss Sora off: those who frustrate his plans and Kilik. Currently in camp, if I were to rate how much Spitfire pisses Sora off, on a scale of one to Kilik, he'd probably rate around a seven. Immediately prior to coming to camp, it was only around four -- out of sight, out of mind, mainly. Despite Sora's relatively controlled reaction to suddenly seieng, you know, someone he'd killed, it really was a very unpleasant surprise. Rest assured that it wasn't because of remorse or any other sort of emotion that would imply the existence of some sort of human decency. Neither does he view Spitfire as a direct threat to himself. But Spitfire isn't supposed to be here. He tried to screw up Sora's plans before, which was annoying enough -- and now he's here with those fucking kids, doing who-knows-what, and YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD AND TAKEN CARE OF, but some people don't know when to fucking give up (pot, kettle, black, etc.). So Spitfire is an unexpected and, while not insurmountable, still somewhat unknown obstacle.
So that's the basic shape of the situation and what will have the biggest influence in shaping Sora's actions toward Spitfire -- he's not going to worry himself over him, but you can bet that he's sure as hell going to be finding out what Spitfire has been up to and keep an eye on what he's doing.
BUT BACK IN THE DAY: Or, Spitfire, You So Strong and... Helpful
...as for the details of the situation!
One thing that interests me with Sora is how little of his own story we get from him. I didn't catch it the first time I read through our first encounter with Sora (volumes 5-6), but it's a little funny how we get the entire story from Rika. Later, of course, we learn that her perspective is woefully skewed due to the incredibly large amount of important information missing from it. Our other big source of perspective on Sora is Kilik. While more accurate than Rika's, I'm still inclined to be a little wary of Kilik's perspective when it comes to me working with Sora. FOR SOME REASON.
In general, as far as reliability goes, I'm most likely to turn to either Agito/Akito or Spitfire. Agito/Akito are our most experienced Kogarasumaru member, has already has his little "betrayal" episode (which only proved his loyalty), is smart as a whip and has no problem with calling people on their bullshit. Likewise, Spitfire has proven to be intelligent, insightful and on the story's moral good side -- to an extreme degree -- and has access to a lot more information than anyone else on "our" side. So that was where I went for a lot of the character gaps I had for Sora.
One thing we don't get to see much of is what made Sora so likeable and able to gain followers the way that he did back in the day. Broadly speaking, it seems that he was quite a bit like Ikki -- when Ikki is in the tower, one of the first thing Kilik remarks on is "quite the look-alike, isn't he" (chapter 149) -- and we really can see that, as Sora does look more and more like Ikki as the story progresses (check out his icons -- there's really no resemblence in the beginning, but in the vid-phone conversation, he really looks like Ikki's evil older brother). And god knows that Rika saw what she knew of Sora in Ikki.
So both the LOVE and the HATE are seeing a resonance between the two of them, and that makes me wonder about Spitfire's thoughts regarding that aspect of things. Spitfire's commentary, while never direct (damn you and your cryptic self, Spitfire), leads me to believe that, yes, there really was something, Sora isn't (or, at least, wasn't) nothing but a ruthless regalia-grabbing bastard. What with his whole "Once, when we looked up together... the thing we really wanted to put our hands on... Oh, the memories on that day!" (page 69 of Sora Scans' volume 18 extra pages) and his multiple variations of "you don't get it"/"it shouldn't have come to this" directed at Sora (and Nike), I get the impression that Spitfire sees Sora as having at least once not been completely morally bankrupt, having seemed to have had the potential of getting where Ikki seems to be going and just... falling short, veering off the path and not making it, and being completely blind to that fact. AND BECAUSE HE IS SPITFIRE, I believe him.
Sora obviously wasn't just like Ikki -- while still a complete shounen retard, he seemd to be a lot more polished than Ikki (smoother with the ladies for one thing, you fucking flower-eater), not to mention a lot more ambitious (in the more negative sense of the word). And, of coures, he was a lot more sneaky. Not that Ikki can't be tricky! But Sora, it seems, was always manipulative and untrustworthy, completely fucking with Kilik and being far less than upfront with those whom I suppose we'd call his friends.
As I'd briefly mentioned in Nishi's awesome A-T post, my personal theory regarding wind-type people is that they tend to work with other people in some way. I'd like to expand that to consider the important of how the wind-type uses people and things. A strong Wind attack can be pretty devastating by itself, sure, but it's at its most destructive when it's using something around it (e.g. helicopter). Similarly, both Ikki and Sora are the leaders of their respective groups, and they both use people, though in markedly different ways. There's effectively using people -- putting them into positions that will best benefit the team, working with them so you can both reach your potential, etc. -- and then there's using people -- manipulating them without their consent, going behind their backs, etc.. With the exception of his twin, who seems to be in on the deal, Sora seems to use people much in the same way that he uses everything else in his environment. While certainly not the only user in the Air Gear world, Sora seems to be the most extreme and self-centered/self-serving example.
One thing that I’m curious about is how much that really was hidden from Spitfire and the others back then. Speaking from personal experience, I’ve been good friends with people whom I’ve known to be selfish, sneaky cheats. It was just... part of who they were! But they were also fun and smart and, I mean, we were kids, what the hell, I didn’t care if they cheated at games of seven-up or whatever. The thing that I had assumed, though, was that they wouldn’t, you know... kill me or anything.
In other words, lil’ Sora was totally a loud-mouthed, retarded brat who you probably knew had a mischievous, sneaky streak. And from what Spitfire said, it wasn’t as though Sora was completely hiding his intentions regarding the Sky Regalia, etc.. And my personal opinion is that the fact that Kilik beat him so badly that last time is what made Sora really snap from "manipulative brat with a nasty streak and a chip on his shoulder" to "murderous sociopath lolz." Given the combination of Sora’s personality and situation, I think the progression was a pretty inevitable one. I have the benefit of hindsight, though, and I’m wondering how hard Spitfire is kicking himself now (and for what reasons).
"I guess this is goodbye, old pal...": So. About that whole "friendship" thing.
Which leads to the issue of Sora and relationships -- and what exactly Sora and Spitfire's relationship was and is like. While Sora might use people without the least bit of shame, I don't think that he necessarily sees them just as a means to an end regarding getting the Sky Regalia, etc.. Having friends is fun, and having fun is winning, too! It's sort of like that teen romance cliché, where the cool guy goes out with the uncool girl on a bet and ends up really falling in love with her, and then there's that scene where she finds out and is all, "You lied to me! IT WAS ALL A LIE! DDD:" and then he has to go to great lengths to prove his true feelings to her, etc.. Except that in this case, winning that bet remains the most important thing. If he had a good time, THAT WAS JUST A BONUS. Sora really just has a sociopathic lack of boundaries when it comes to... everything. He feels no conflict whatsoever between enjoying someone's company and then backstabbing them the minute that's the most advantageous course of action. "Friendship" is just another use, really.
Out of all the people in our current canon, though, I do think that Sora was closer to Spitfire than he was to most people. When I was intro-ing, I went through a brief moment of panic when I realized that I couldn't remember what sort of honorifics Sora used and I was perplexed as to how I could forget such a thing. Turns out that Sora doesn't use honorifics (at least in the scans that I've seen), which would explain why I didn't remember them! In fact, Sora hardly calls anyone by name, ever. Nike!Sora gets the most name-use out of everyone, and then we have Kilik, Spitfire, Rika and (surprisingly enough) Kaito. Unless I've missed it (...which is possible, I didn't have the manga with me when I began this essay and now I'm doped up on Nyquil), Sora never refers to Ikki by name. I don't think that Sora's necessarily pulling a Hazel here, but I do think there's something to Sora only connecting to those people from the past, even if that connection is one of BURNING HATE.
And his attitude toward Spitfire didn't start out as one of hate! In the beginning, the only one that Sora really seemed to dislike was Kilik. While you couldn't trust the brat as far as you could throw him, he didn't seem to behave in a manner that was actively malicious toward anyone else. The others were useful and fun, and the group dynamic allowed him to work to ostracize Kilik. After all, at the end of chapter 163, Spitfire is described as an "old friend" to Sora. I'd call that a true description -- as long as one bears in mind that Sora has friends Uchiha Itachi has a "little brother." It's not that the relationship isn't there! It just... functions differently than it does for most people.
"Form versus Function" is actually a pretty good way of describing it, I think. For instance, say you have a bunch of women working out with the same exercise program. When asked for their reasons, all of them give you the most socially acceptable answer that they’re doing it to stay healthy. But one of them is actually trying to lose 20 pounds to fit into a pair of her old jeans, another one is worried about her family’s history of heart disease, another needs to stay active to keep her mood stable, etc.. All different reasons! But you can’t tell until something happens that changes the situation in a way that would cause one of them to take a different course of action (e.g. the one reaches her weight goal and quits the program).
Also regarding their relationship, another thing that struck me while I was doing OOC work is how limited Sora's range of expression is. It's like: neutral, retarded/perverted, happy!smile, rapist!smile, comic!anger and sorta pissed. Sora's most dramatic expressions -- SERIOUSLY PISSED and slightly troubled -- come from him dealing with Spitfire's death. I do think that Spitfire's death upset Sora, if not in a squishy, sentimental sort of way. Spitfire was one of the last people remaining from the original Sleeping Forest and is now gone -- and Sora's shown that he's stuck in the past. Also, Spitfire was like him, in that he was both one of the original Gravity Children who was planned to be discarded and affected by a debilitating injury after that battle against Kilik. (As a side note, I've always found it odd that Nike would comment that Spitfire was useless as a fighter because of that injury when Sora has been knocked down so much harder. Then again, I tell myself to stop expecting Nike to be sane.) He was like Sora -- and he came up short. Sora seems to be genuinely pissed off when he thinks that Spitfire went down so quickly the first time (with the helicopter).
Really, it was a fight that Sora couldn't win. If he lost, then, well, he'd lose. If Spitfire lost, then Spitfire really did deserve to be discarded, which means that there's a risk that Sora did, too. As we currently have it, Sora and Nike seem to be the oldest of the Gravity Children that we know of and, well, the GC were developing technology -- they had to have changed as time and science progressed, and I wouldn't be surprised if there were some aspect that got "better" as the research went along. Given the way that we receive this section of the story from Sora (chapter 163), it's obviously something that affects him, has been affecting him for a long while (he witnessed that whole Kilik incident and looked NONE TOO HAPPY ABOUT IT BACK THEN, EITHER) and I'm sure that he's thought far too much about it.
...and, well. Spitfire had been on his side. I do feel that there's an element of feeling betrayed by Spitfire. Not in the "you hurt my feelings! DDD:" sort of way, but in the "you were mine and you were supposed to work, goddammit. DDD<" sort of way. Also, to Sora, Spitfire seems just as blind and foolish as Sora probably seems to Spitfire, so while he isn't remorseful, I do think that Sora regrets Spitfire's decision. So unnecessary, man! :/ Circling back around, Sora's current attitude toward Spitfire in camp is defined by the tactical situation I described in the beginning, but I think that it also involves a lot more emotion than most of Sora's relationships do (mind you, we are talking relatively here). Thoroughly negative emotions! Anger, frustration, making Sora think about things he'd rather not think about...
In Conclusion: u suck D<
Spitfire, you are such a pain in the ass. No, seriously. The fact that Spitfire exists here is the most serious damper on Sora’s mood out of everything. He won’t be avoiding Spitfire because, well, keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but Spitfire puts him in a bad mood that he’s going to do his best not to left Spitfire see. BECAUSE STUPID LOSER TRASH LIKE YOU SHOULDN’T BE WORTH THE TROUBLE.
Sometimes Sora has anger problems.
The End.
