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One thing i keep thinking about and going back and forth on since s1 ended is how exactly Fear Nice came about….
Shang De using Fear on him of course is the first to come to mind. But idk it somehow doesn't feel like that's the case when I think about it. In ep1, based on Shang De on the phone saying maybe Nice should take a break*, and the fake article about Lin Ling being the one to jump, it seemed like Miss J was able to successfully cover up the fact that Nice had died. I don't think it makes sense for Shang De to have knowledge of this and just not care, unless he had somehow immediately recovered the body to experiment on it within the minutes where Miss J was telling her guards to kidnap LL. Because Miss J specifically had to make an excuse to him about Nice needing to be absent for a while, and that does line up with the last interaction we know Shang De had with Nice of him (presumably) literally disappearing before his eyes.
So then what if it wasn't Shang De's intervention that made Fear Nice? Nice had already visibly absorbed the Fear, and all his existing negative emotions surely just made it worse. I think if he retained that Fear while being transposed by X's snap, it would be interesting if he himself was the reason he became Fear Nice.
*I'm immediately jumping into a side thought sorry but this drives me bananas ever since I noticed it, probably around when ep 3 or 4 was airing. He should take a break? ?? Because he's been under a lot of stress?????? ??? Back then i thought it was crazy(positive) that the guy that forced him into his perfect hero role would even show an ounce of kindness after it was already too late. But now having completed the season.... bro? Shang De pushed him that hard all this time to become Hero Nice, still got the result of Smile dying when Nice dared to try to go against his orders, and didn't care one bit when Nice came to him panicked that he was infected with Fear during the whole Ahu thing. Which was literally only One(1) day ago?? I assume Nice spent that day trying to find a solution on his own and had no other choice but to go to Shang De. It makes me feel insane. I just want to know the reason for why he was suddenly showing something that seemed like concern for someone who he thought incompetent at following orders. Could Nice disappearing from the warehouse have brought him some feelings?? Confusion? Did he think of Shang Chao? Or maybe it's the classic tale of taking something you have for granted, and realizing whats been lost only after its gone. Or maybe its just a simple corporate response he tossed out to Miss J. Idk tangent over.
1.) First of all I'm of the opinion that X has some kind of knowledge of this particular event needing to happen as LL's origin story. Maybe he doesn't know all the specifics, but there's something about how he seems linked to Nice both in universe and in irl promos/merch (i have a whole other thing with diagrams that i .... may eventually polish) as well as how he's taken notice of him... Maybe Nice fit all the boxes of what that Tarot girl had laid out in her cards?
Either way i think X's role here was to get Nice to where he needed to be. And from there maybe Nice's outcome was open to chance and/or his final decision. Nice jumps and LL becomes a hero. Or Nice doesn't jump/LL stops him in time, and LL still becomes a hero. I think the core factor isnt necessarily whether Nice dies, but that Nice had to be the one to incite pulling back the curtain on what it means to be a hero because Lin Ling A) well i guess already had a crush on Moon lol, but mainly that B) he had a hand in crafting Nice's image, and this forces him to not only witness but to be involved in what exactly the weight of public perception could eventually push someone to do. And in the scenario where LL does manage to save him, then it also proves his pitch of "anyone can be a hero" to be true. 🤔
2.) Secondly, we're given enough information about Nice to infer that he's given up everything from his freedom and future, his childhood ideals of what a hero should be, and even his (alleged???) best friend to become Shang De's hero. His last bits of dialogue right before X's snap were about his wasted efforts, what he was afraid of, and finally, why did he become a hero in the first place? He's played his role of Hero Nice to the best of his ability only to end up questioning who he even is and what his purpose is. He steps off that ledge, but perhaps could he regret it a little too late? Or could the combination of Fear and all of his negative emotion about what he's become translate to needing to die to become free of this turmoil?
Before the fear visibly sunk into him, he said it himself that he didn't want to die. And the fact that he didn't want to become like "that" like a being chasing its selfish goals fueled only off of negative energy... it's so sad 😭
3.) There's a lot of possible arguments to made. Like Nice could've just flown back up if he really didn't want to die. But in the same way LL lost his ability to fly once he rejected the identity of Hero Nice, Nice could have done the same. Or if he really did harbor so much hatred for himself he may not have wanted to try to fly at all.
Regardless, Nice dies. And his body "Hero Nice" remains.
With Nice out of the picture, the Fear Value still presently exists in his body. And if Shang De was able to create clone husks of Split using his corpse, that same logic can apply to Nice.
3.5) Hi. Trust/Fear Value side tangent.
My number 1 joy is thinking and speculating about the constructs and rules that superpowers can operate under so feel free to skip this bc TLDR From my understanding, Trust Value hinges on the Trustee (the living being who is the source of Trust) being alive in order to direct that force of energy to their Trusted, no matter if the Trusted is alive or dead. Presumably it's also infinite, and thus presumably even two opposing beliefs can coexist and still reward Trust Value to the intended Trusted(s).
speedrun list of things we know:
- Shang De was able to access the Trust-given powers from Split's corpse
- Trust powers and Fear powers can both be present, but it seems Fear is able to affect the way Trust powers work. ie Bowa still had use of her own power set even as she gained more negative emotion and new Fear-given powers
- An outsider majority's perception of you can manifest supernatural abilities. ie. even changing parts of LL's physical appearance to make him look more like Nice
- Trust Value can be 'transferred'. ie Nice->LL and Old E-Soul->Yang Cheng E-Soul
- I think this^ implies that Trust can be assigned to a symbol or idea of someone and not necessarily that person in their own right. ie. Split's body retaining the Trust powers; X being able to have a semblance of a normal life by having a secret identity and idk im assuming Hero X takes the brunt of negative effects of Trust?; LL inheriting Nice's powers and then losing them when he rejects that identity.
- Moon faked her death while she kept her powers- it seems the caveat is that its accessible only through her portal gun, bc Lin Ling was able to use it to find her again. Another example of conditional limitations is Smile being able to use his full power only when he's actively smiling.
It's kind of insane how much about Nice is foreshadowed throughout the entire thing. (There's also something really interesting in comparing Nice and Loli but that one for sure requires a rewatch first LOL) But grouping all these points together makes me think that it's possible for Nice and who he is as a person to have died, leaving the perfect symbol of Hero Nice to then be piloted by all of that Fear. Like, how ironic would it be for the manifestation of his fears to loop around to be the exact thing still holding him together? Enlighter always claimed Treeman had hired an actor, so for Nice, maybe the acknowledgement that he was an actor acting out his part and hating the outcome is the line that separated him from the people's Hero Nice.
Don't quote me on this one but I remember reading somewhere that LH0 had said something about how the trust Lucky Cyan got on the plane disappeared after the people on the plane died? Which means that the power of trust is quite literally sourced from the living, like its an active and passive(??) energy which can be used only if that source is still alive. Thinking back to when YC got his first Trust point from Pomelo, it seemed like it was a physical zap that affected his biology and gave him a boost. So if Trust can be considered a type of energy and the living's Trust is ever present, I'm going to assume that 'energy' as infinite. As in, why wouldn't it be possible for Hero Nice to regain all of the Trust that LL-as-Hero-Nice had? In fact, he may even have more points if the reveal of his death caused more people to grant him Trust in honor and memory of him. While that may not be enough of an increase to get real high up in the rankings, it could be enough to at least knock out and steal YC E-Soul's spot after he dropped to rank 10.
4.) One of the things I appreciate about tbhx is its commitment to killing off characters with very few death fakeouts (the only one i can really remember off the top of my head is episode 1 like with LL's dream of Moon. but i mean… it still came true.) Actually hold on the fact that the show started with Moon's death fakeout(eventually real) and ended with NICE'S FAKEOUT(actual fakeout)? Wait thats so epic. I love bookends
Anyway-- not a single person reports ever seeing Nice fall, and Miss J never says anything about his body. Idk how to articulate this but i dont mean the fake coverup article Treeman put out, i mean Nice's actual body. When LL asked her why Nice jumped, all she had to say was that he made his choice as LL eventually will too. Just imo, if there WASN'T a body to be recovered, Lin Ling would Not be the person to tell that to as he's someone who has literally freshly taken over Nice's life. Don't give him any ideas- what if your new Nice fakes his death as a way of quitting?? Oh waittttt, LL eventually ended up at that exact idea with Moon anyway. Inchresting.
5.) Lastly. The other bit of Nice's dialogue before X's snap whisked him away.
He questioned his purpose. What is he if he's not a Hero? If he never reaches what he set out to become when he's given up everything else in pursuit of it? Was it worth it? If Boss Shang can give him one more chance, just one final chance, then he can prove to him that he can make it to the Top 10 to enter the tournament. This is the thing that will save him, that will prove his worth and justify all his sacrifices.
The fact that this was his train of thought before he got snapped to the rooftop with seemingly a clear head makes me think Nice's 'Fear activation' moment could have cemented what he saw as his purpose to carry out now that he's presumably more powerful and presumably 'without human weakness'. The way Fear Nice without any of his gaudy accessories struts onto the tournament platform with such a serious emotionless face really reminds me of like, a ghost with a lingering task keeping them tethered to the world before they can be put to rest.
Well. Idk whichever direction they decide to go I'm excited to see it. I am just kinda totally obsessed with the thought of Nice being not so nice anymore after he botched his own death bc of his own fears and that same Fear is the only glue keeping him alive(?). Bros is it really regaining your autonomy if the thing driving you and keeping the lights on is the surge of abstract negative emotion you experienced in your final moments.
In a weird twisted way, he still reached his goal. It's kind of a win for Nice for once in his life even if the human part of him will never know it 👍
I genuinely have nothing interesting to say abt today's episode other than it was epic and im just logging this for my own record for whenever season 2 shows up to either slap an egg in my face or to give me a giant head
1) i love winning every week for 6 weeks straight with every single character
2) toss my previous theory post out the window i literally dont even care. This rules. He's both tragic and also kind of pathetic hes everything to me
3) the way the ppl behind this show are so aware of expectations and tropes is sooo funny. I love that a few weeks ago they used that bit from the 2022-23 X trailer about the world needing heroes in full, like literally just plopped in the clip itself without the audio, and it was an insane shock. And then this week you expect it again bc a scene is fully rendered and you know whats coming so why wouldnt they but actually theyre like yeah no we already did that once. This line of thought also i think cements to me that there are no more death fakeouts... my poor moon... (shoutout to the commitment if true)
4) in general i do praise this show a lot but first of all i am a sucker for superheroes and themes of heroes being exploited and also replacements and second who am i to deny any show that presents to me a giant ensemble cast whom i dont have any expectations of 100% enjoying but by the time they show up i'm cheering and slamming my fist on my desk bc they all have the most unexpected dynamics with each other
5) the reverse chronology storytelling ouuugghhhh *my head explodes* and if theres any e-soul time travel at all then it's over. Thats my entire checklist of the exact shit i love. And the culmination of everything happening being heavily bc of the guy u knew for three entire seconds wow... the dots really did all join to make a giant dot.... epic......
6) something something glitching billboard at two particular inchresting coincidental points .
On the question of: Why did Nice jump on the exact same day, same moment, same time that Lin Ling was on the roof after getting fired?
I propose the idea that it was not by fate or lucky coincidence... but because he saw lin ling's promotional video pitch.
- Lin ling says he thought his boss wanted him to send it asap
- presumably, miss j while being the person to manage nice, still requires nice to be present to give his opinion on his brand (if only for optics or awareness or bc he wants to be there, whichever) or whatever but he saw the video.
- nice, post-smile incident(whatever it may be, at this point), is reminded of (like in smile's words) 'why are you doing this' (being a hero).
- Lin ling's pitch and the very first second of the show starts with "What is a hero?" And then the pitch basically ends with "you too can become a hero" / Anyone can be a hero.
- Nice whose entire career has been built upon lies and deception, who for reasons unknown had no reason to smile as a kid so he learned how to do so from his favorite hero and then later took it to the degree that his own purpose as a hero was to "protect everyone's smiles" (i always thought at the time that this was another odd choice in his concept pv considering there is a hero named smile), and nice who despite doing whatever he can to please shang de to try and meet his expectations, is unable to reach the perfection sought of him (the definition of perfection not 'being without flaw', but being shang chao). ...... this nice who has never been authentic and is currently at the lowest point in his life, sees lin ling's promo and his message of anyone can be a hero.
If Hero Nice is the opposite of the hero he wants to be, then maybe being a hero means taking that exact variable out of the equation*. Killing himself fulfills several things including A) disposing of one of the weapons(himself) that Shang De designed and created for revenge; B) autonomy in his first real choice; C) acting on his own beliefs, not to please anyone else, but bc he thinks its the right thing to do; and D) if he was tired of this entire performance, then... well.
Anyone can be a hero, including the Nice under all the layers of these fake masks
And what better way to enact his final choice than on the building of the company who opened his eyes to that? (Performers love the stage and poetic endings after all!)
Jury is still out whether he did know it was lin ling that made that video or not... but our glimpse at his genuine emotion, his smile, being directed at lin ling before he dies is insane bc it's also the first time we ever see him in person and off of a tv screen. To give the audience the lasting memory of a real smile from a character who shows up for three minutes and then never again for like 16 weeks after we learn he was essentially a puppet is such a cool and worthwhile narrative choice. Tbhx is so incredibly good at playing with superhero tropes and using subversion in different ways that consistently keeps making the audience reevaluating what they think they know and believe —because really at the end of the day, what is intangible belief to practical perception?
...
*Speaking of equations. What variable is the most commonly used in math as a substitute to find an answer?
It's X. To Be Hero X is like a freaking. Idk. It's like it can be a placeholder. An open ended sentence that you can fill in yourself despite or in spite of this world shaping you through the belief of others. Its to become #1, to gain the title and power/trust/influence of X, but also it can be to be the hero you decide to be? What kind will you be? Anyone can be a hero? Why are you doing all of this, for whom and what do you become a hero for?
To become a hero, solve for the hidden variable X, and the answer is your reason why.
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