You know, taking the running gag of ‘nobody cares about Misawa’ combined with his almost constant loss-rate over the last season and a half and making it that all this has actually given Misawa a MASSIVE inferiority complex and a desperate, self-destructive need to prove himself is honestly kind of an inspired bit of character writing.
Now I wonder if anyone will point out that about half of it is basically Bluie’s fault? lol XD
as Edo mentions in the last ep, a good duelist is one who believes in their deck and in themselves without the need for outside validation, and is one who would fight tooth and nail to be strong
but Misawa does not want to be strong, he wants to be acknowledged; and in their first meeting that is exactly what Judai gave him
without knowing Misawa's skill level, Judai calls him #2, whether it is due to audacity or confidence on Judai's part is secondary to the fact that Judai was the first person to directly speak to him.
but Misawa does not take Judai's claim lying down either. it is only when he sees Judai's enterance exam does he acknowledge Judai as #1
i feel that that the situation is a lot more nuanced and and complex than just the running gag of Misawa being ignored
Misawa is a person that thrives on attention and interaction, we can especially see that when he drags Judai, Hayato and Bluie for early morning duel practice
and while that relationship with Judai and the gang hasn't changed since season 1, Benkei's addition and Hayato leaving the group did change the group dynamics significantly.
both Bluie and Benkei are loud people that command a lot of attention and before season 2 Hayato was there to balance Bluie's attention and give Judai more space for other people.
Hayato's absence and the addition of Benkei, who requires just as much atttention as Bluie if not more, has taken up all of Judai's attention and social battery.
that is not to say that the interactions between Misawa and Bluie are always dismissive:
(as for bluie rejecting misawa in the second situation, that was more about missing judai than disliking misawa, something that misawa empathises with bluie on)
but for the most part, Misawa's interactions with the gang are mostly through Judai, which brings me to how Misawa and Judai's relationship has changed.
in the begining of season 2, Judai had Asuka to balance both Bluie and Benkei attention, but with Asuka now a part of the SOL, Judai is bearing the brunt of their attentions and so does not have eother the time nor the social battery to deal with anyone else.
since Asuka left, the only time Misawa was able to have an uniterrupted interachtion with Judai was when Bluie and Benkei got kidnapped in Domino City
Judai himself is not a very social person, and seems to be the kind os person who enjoys company in small doses. this idea is further supplemeneted by the fact that in Judai's prolonged interactions with Bluie and Benkei, there is a significant amount of silence involved with Bluie and Benkei waiting for Judai to break said silence (altho this could also just be scene breaks but i like my idea better)
the new dynamic has Bluie, Benkei and Misawa all wanting Judai's attention, with Judai not having enough spoons to deal with all of them, thus making the amicable relations between the other three more heated and antagonistic in nature; especially without a balancing force in the group like Asuka and Hayato
Judai is also not the kind of person to interfere with other people's problems unless it is bought to his attention first. Misawa is the kind of guy who speaks of his problems in a vague manner
here Misawa expresses his insecurities about the implications of not joining the SOL. the feeling of alienation brings uncertainity into Misawa's mind and makes him question his worth
but for Judai, who has constantly had his place in the academy being questioned (the slifer dorm situation just got settled a miniarc ago), this is nothing new for him and he could care less about how he is perceived by other people who are not his friends
i feel like if Misawa was more direct and forthcoming about his feelings, Judai would have been able to give his support and help more faster. but as both Misawa and Judai are private people, the doubt was able to fester without any interferance
Misawa's ongoing uneasiness about feeling alienated from the majority make Bluie's dismissive comments hurt far more than Bluie would have wanted.
Misawa is not the only person that Bluie has been very snarky towards, (see Benkei and Jun) and it seems that being snarky is Bluie's way of interacting with people that are not Judai, Ryo and Asuka. but in this case they are more like insults than simple banter
what i mean to say is that Misawa self-destructive need to join the SOL has been a long time coming and not something that could have been stopped in a single ep
Misawa's spiral towards a major inferiority complex and how it became worse and culminated to him joining the SOL is very inspired and i loved it from a characterization perspective
