Just imagine if you will- Alice and Masquerade aren't completely different people.
To me, Alice always seemed like a person who didn't want to be weak and timid as people often saw her; she wanted to be strong and didn't feel like she belonged with her Brawler friends.
Masquerade was her desire for strength bastardized by the negative core. So part of Alice navigating through her PTSD would be accepting that desire for strength in her and if she blames herself, to understand it was all Naga's schemes manipulating and using her.
I believe the show makes it very clear that while Alice and Masquerade have different appearances and personalities, they are ultimately one and the same, two sides of the same coin.
The Silent Core's negative energy influences people by increasing the darkness inside their hearts, it doesn't insert something alien or new inside of them that wasn't there to begin with. Typically, this results in the affected people and Bakugan behaving a lot more aggressively than normal, as well as having little control over their actions, which is the case with Alice. Masquerade is very aggressive despite his calm and collected exterior, and he does rob Alice of her agency and her control.
It might just be Masquerade being an edgelord, but he does confirm this statement by referring to himself as 'the deepest darkness' after Alice calls for him to help Dan in S1EP44.
In Alice' case, she and her grandfather were exposed to so much negative energy that it created separate personalities, but those personalities were born from inside their hearts, which is why when Alice asks Masquerade for his help, he states that there's no need for his help because he is Alice and Alice is him. His knowledge comes from her knowledge and his skills are her skills.
You can probably make any headcanon you want as to what Masquerade was born from, because it's never explicitly stated, aside from it being the 'darkness inside of Alice'. Perhaps she had been repressing a side of her that needed to come out, one that fought for its existence to be acknowledged and disappeared once Alice finally did acknowledge and embrace it.
Brawling is Masquerade's reason for being, while Alice herself never fights. More likely than not, Masquerade was born from Alice' desire to battle, a desire which, like you said, was bastardized by the Silent Core's minus power. Interestingly enough, when Joe in S1EP33 asks Alice why she doesn't battle despite having the greatest knowledge about Bakugan out of all the Brawlers, she says this.
Exedra says something similar when he presents Illusion!Alice before Masquerade in S1EP36. The Doom Dimension trials are about learning more about yourself and the issues you might not be aware that you have, and the fact that Exedra presents Masquerade with an image of Alice adds meaning behind his words.
[Exedra:] This person is not real. It is a wall that you have created for yourself that you must overcome.
[Masquerade:] A wall for me to overcome? There is no such thing.
[Exedra:] You don't know yourself best. You'll get hurt if you underestimate them.
The wall in question is Alice herself. She is quite literally her own worst enemy, preventing herself from doing something she's interested in, possibly due to the fear of leaving her comfort zone. She sees her role as being the tactician, not a fighter and that's why Masquerade exists. It's why Masquerade keeps reiterating that the person who's going to offer their skills to the Brawlers isn't him but Alice. It's why he tells Alice that the power she wants to borrow from him is actually her own, and has always been hers to use.
[Dan:] Won't you come with us? Help us fight Naga!
[Masquerade:] That doesn't sound too bad. However, I won't be the one to do it. Farewell.
[Dan:] Thank you, Masquerade. You've been a big help. Don't say this is a one-time thing, keep fighting with us!
[Masquerade:] I already told you once. That's not my role.
We see a bit of Alice' hesitation come through during Masquerade's trial when Illusion!Alice asks Masquerade why he's avoiding a direct confrontation at the beginning. This is likely due to the fact that Alice' lesson tackles with why she avoids fighting, a lesson that she gets to experience in person in her battle with Klaus in S1EP40, while Masquerade's deals with the reason behind his excessive brawling and where his need for power stems from.
[Illusion!Alice:] Why aren't you fighting?
[Masquerade:] Hmph. I shouldn't underestimate you, right?
[Illusion!Alice:] Yes. But you can't win if you don't fight.
This is clearly aimed at Alice, who also avoids fighting in her battle against Klaus. It's also rather funny how Masquerade is being told not to underestimate the fake Alice, as Alice is underestimating herself as a fighter. Later on, Illusion!Alice is surprised to see the extent Masquerade is willing to go despite being on the brink of losing, as he's feeling the heat of Exedra's attacks.
[Illusion!Alice:] Why? You've been hurt so much. And for what? Why do you fight?
Why don't you fight? and why do you fight? Two seemingly contradictory questions to ask Masquerade, but they're aimed at two halves of the same whole. And yet, those two questions are also entirely related. Masquerade fights because Alice won't.
After Alice does find out she's Masquerade, she spends some time struggling with her immense guilt in S1EP40 and after her battle with Klaus, her first real battle, she wonders why she's frustrated by her loss.
[Alice:] I lost...why? I didn't intend to fight. Why am I so disappointed?
[Klaus:] It's because you're a Bakugan Battler at heart. Isn't it beautiful? The three Bakugan I used and the ones you used. Water, Wind, Fire, Earth, Light, and Darkness. If any one of these six attributes were missing, this beautiful harmony would not be possible. Nothing is useless, nothing is unnecessary. Even if it's darkness.
Alice learns to accept Masquerade as a part of her, a part that she doesn't resent anymore and instead refers to as, "my other me." She embraces the fact that she wants to fight, and she has friends that she's willing to fight for and who are willing to fight for her and believe in her as well.
As for how Alice feels about being a Brawler, she says this in S1EP25 which pretty much summarizes it.
[Runo:] I mean, what does Alice know? She's never even been in a battle!
[Alice:] I know because I'm one of you. Even if I don't have a Bakugan, we've fought together. I want to protect my beloved Bakugan from Masquerade. I want to become stronger and save Vestroia. I feel the same as you do. Believe in me.
I'd say it's more that Alice doesn't want to be useless to her friends and the cause they're all fighting for, rather than Alice not wanting to be viewed as weak and timid. Of course, no one likes to be seen as weak but it never seemed as if that was something that bothered Alice or something she was particularly concerned about. In S1EP28 and S1EP33, she's seen lamenting the fact that she isn't of any help and all she can do is wait for the return of her friends. She does think of herself as being part of the team, but she has no part to play in the fight to save Vestroia if she doesn't brawl.
Keith and Mira's weird relationship and why it's sus™ af: a powerpoint presentation by me ✨
Mira's obsession with her brother is as clear as day, but season 2 decides to take it a step further by sprinkling in some incestuous undertones to their interactions and the way their relationship is perceived. It's not as blatant in some cases while others will make you question the nature of their relationship for sure.
I'd say the first time people start to notice is when this picture was shown on Keith's laptop in episode 7. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say you could show this to someone who hadn't watched the show and they would probably think Keith and Mira were dating.
Flowers framing the two of them, Mira with her hand on her brother's chest, a bouquet of flowers in her other hand as Keith stares at her blushing face? There are tons of different ways this shot could've been drawn that wouldn't look nearly as suspect.
Speaking of Mira blushing, she tends to do that a lot around Keith.
Mira is mostly shipped with Dan and Ace and yet, the only time she blushed around either of them was in episode 37, during a scene that was cut from the English dub. There are a couple of characters in this show who have siblings but Mira's the only one who acts like this around hers.
Next up is episode 21 aka. the weirdest fucking episode of them all.
The atmosphere during the first part of the dinner scene is unmistakably romantic, especially when Spectra removes his mask and says Mira's name. The way he talks and behaves around Mira in this episode is just 💀Even if he was trying to manipulate Mira into joining his cause, that doesn't change the fact that he was doing it by encouraging something between them.
Spectra gifted Mira a dress to wear during their private dinner and then expressed disappointment when she didn't wear it during their battle. You can't explain this away at all, that's weird. Whether or not the dress was used as a ploy in order to manipulate Mira's feelings for him, he clearly enjoyed watching her wear it. That's why he's not wearing anything fancy for the dinner himself, because the dress was also for his viewing pleasure. He was feasting his eyes on her in it, so to speak.
That's not even mentioning how 'the villain gifts the heroine a nice dress and invites her to have dinner with him' is a typically romantic-coded trope in media.
Fun fact, the preview for episode 21 is the only preview in season 2 to feature a different music track. Every other preview uses the same track called 'bakugan battle brawlers' except for episode 20's preview of the next episode. The bgm used in that preview is the same one used during the dinner scene and it's called 'the door to ruin' 💀
Next are the things that are a little more hidden but still add to the overall pile of evidence.
I've previously looked to flowers for clues on when Shun's birthday could be, and concluded that it was in May due to the vase containing roses and Japanese pink hydrangeas in Shiori's hospital room. Those flowers are typically given to mothers on Mother's Day in Japan.
So once again, I looked to flower language since the flower vase in the middle of the dinner table was emphasized during Mira and Spectra's meal (but cut from the English dub.)
Moreover, I've also looked to song lyrics.
The highlighted parts are ones that I find to be highly relating to Keith and Mira. If you look at the song as a whole, it sounds very tender and romantic.
And it's not the only reference.
Again, romantic lyrics related to Mira and Keith.
And finally, the jealous teammates closest to these two.
Gus was salty about Mira the entire time she was with Spectra and Ace likewise couldn't accept Keith right away and everyone called him out for being jealous.
Also TV tropes seem to sense something amiss with Mira and Keith too lol
Personally I don't really care about whether it was completely one-sided or reciprocated or what have you, I just want it to be acknowledged that this isn't normal sibling behavior and the show was trying to paint their relationship in some type of way 💀Um, I guess thanks for coming to my ted talk lol
you can’t tell me that whatever spectra and mira had going on in s2 wasn’t at all intentional, especially knowing the tropes they used. to illustrate, i’ll compare episode 21 to three other pieces: the 2004 phantom of the opera film, star wars: the force awakens, and the myth of hades and persephone.
in the phantom of the opera, the phantom is an older masked man who’s infatuated with the 17-year-old christine daaé. the phantom is the antagonist of POTO, and often tries to entice christine to join him. he and spectra are already similar from the get-go, even sharing the name “phantom”. mira can be then likened to christine, though mira’s not as helpless as christine is in POTO. another similarity between the phantom and christine and mira and spectra is that the phantom taught christine how to sing, while spectra was also mira’s first mentor in brawling.
in POTO the phantom leads christine to his lair where he tries to convince her to stay with him, so his dream “could begin.” the music of the night ends with the phantom showing christine a figure of herself in a wedding dress.
the similarity with spectra and mira in episode 21 is apparent: spectra tries to get mira to open up to his “dream” and her joining him would be a great asset. though mira joining spectra is not as crucial to spectra’s dream as christine is to the phantom’s, the scenes utilize tropes that have long been romantically-coded/charged.
the scenes are also visually similar: mira and christine, when being told of their counterparts’ dreams, are dressed in white. this is a deliberate choice in costume and design, as white as always been used to signify purity and innocence. in both scenes, it’s used to contrast the “evil” insinuated by the phantom’s all-black clad design and spectra’s own… thing going on.
second is star wars: the force awakens where rey and kylo ren are our stand-ins for mira and spectra. regardless of your feelings for reylo or whatever, SW:TFA uses centuries-old tropes found in literature and media to frame rey and kylo. in TFA, kylo (antagonist designed in all-black villain design stuff like the phantom and spectra) brings in rey (female protagonist clad in all-white) to his lair where he needs to extract information from her so as to make his plans (dreams) come true. kylo also refers to rey as his guest, similar to spectra with mira.
TFA has another similarity with spectra and mira that POTO doesn’t: kylo removes his mask once rey starts acting apprehensive around him in order to make her open up to him easier. he shows the man behind the mask to “humanize” himself to rey, to show that he isn’t all monster.
look similar?
another similar thing! the star wars sequel trilogy also focuses on rey’s attempts to redeem kylo. one of the ways she does this is by referring to him by his birth name — ben solo. so funny how mira also tries to entice spectra back to her by constantly referring to him as keith. you can put together the pieces with how the star wars sequel trilogy ended with rey and ben kissing (before they killed ben off… the whole movie is a mess).
last but not the least is the granddaddy of all “man brings young lady into his lair and tries to get her to stay with him to fulfill his dreams” stories: hades and persephone.
you know how this story goes. hades, infatuated with persephone, kidnaps her and tries to convince her to stay with him in the underworld. there are many variations of the myth, where hades is either downright awful (to put it lightly) to persephone, or where he treats her with utmost kindness. either way, again, it’s the granddaddy of “man brings young lady into his lair and tries to get her to stay with him to fulfill his dreams” stories. hades wants to make persephone his bride and queen.
a few things that make this comparison standout against POTO and TFA: first is that persephone is the goddess of spring, while mira is a subterra brawler. second is that helios, the god of the sun, bears witness to hades abducting persephone but says nothing of it until questioned by demeter, persephone’s mother, herself. spectra’s bakugan is conveniently named helios.
the third is what really makes it standout: hades gets persephone to stay with him in the underworld, at least partially, by getting her to eat pomegranate seeds. the rule in the underworld is that if you eat its food, you’re bound to stay there.
“When Zeus commanded Plouton to send Kore (Core) [Persephone] back up, Plouton gave her a pomegranate seed to eat, as assurance that she would not remain long with her mother.”
“But he on his part secretly gave her sweet pomegranate seed to eat, taking care for himself that she might not remain continually with grave, dark-robed Demeter.”
episode 21. spectra and mira have dinner. like hades, he tries to get her to stay with him. though eating food might not mean a life sentence with a person in the bakugan universe, the pattern of tropes and archetypes exist. the audience, by inference, are expected to come to the conclusion based on pre-existing knowledge of the use of the trope.
however mira, unlike persephone, does not take the bait and is shown to not eat a single thing at her and spectra’s dinner. this will reflect in how a few episodes later, she betrays spectra and goes back to the resistance.
so yeah. three cheers for literary and archetypal analysis. mira and spectra are heavily romantically-coded in the show, whether you like it or not.
Julie is a wonderful character; she’s strong, ambitious and compassionate. She may have her comedic moments but she’s definitely a force to be reckoned with, and she’s always there for her friends to offer a helping hand.
Watching Julie on screen has always been a treat for me but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t noticed something that’s very exclusive to her character, something I couldn’t put to words until recently, and that is how Julie is stereotyped as the “Spicy Latina” character and is sexualized — within the show as well as outside of it — as a result.
season two of bakugan starts a trend that would persist until the end of the series, namely the cutting down of the main female cast from three to one, and eventually to none by the second arc of the fourth season. here i break down the misogyny behind this writing choice, most especially in new vestroia, and how it all boils down to one thing: toy sales.
part 2 of this will cover how new vestroia’s writing has affected its more active female characters as well as how the relationship between the gender binary and the toy market extended to bakugan’s toy packaging.
People think this is just a joke but Alan Turing was the inventor of the computer and his sexuality was illegal in his time (which was not even 100 years ago) and he was arrested. They put him on drugs that destroyed his genius brain and committed suicide a year after being covicted. He was gay and a war hero as well. He helped to break enigma which was a German code that they put all their messages through. He shorted WWII by two years and saved so many lives in the process.
dont forget! after his conviction for the “gross indecency” of being in a relationship with another man he was offered probation on the condition that he be chemically castrated with diethylstilbestrol, which is also what destroyed his mind.
hes also not only considered the father of the general purpose computer, but of artifical intelligence too! computers and ai are gay :)
I don’t like getting caught up in discourse/drama, but I think it’s very important to note that cosmic_hyena, AlienHyena on tumblr, has been exposed as a TERF.
It’s such a shame for this to be revealed about such an active member of the community, but I think it’s important to send the message that this kind of behaviour won’t be tolerated.
Please, if you support the trans and nonbinary community, unfollow or block them. Show that we won’t allow this hateful behaviour here.
Remember: I know her art often are amazing, you can like it, but supporting her, reposting and liking is making toxic and hateful ppl fameus. She can hurt more ppl with missgendering and talking shit like "you just girl who hate your gender", what she told to my friend.
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