#ch. maruki

[p5-apotelesma]

Opinions on Maruki? (I like him very very much, fav video game villain ever)

i like him!!!! i like him a ton. also one of my favorite antagonists of all time... if joker has a helper complex then maruki is the one with the Actual Martyr complex and im constantly eating up and parallels between the two of them. and what marukis actions and his goals give us. comparing them to those of the phantom thieves. If Im Making Any Sense. The Parallels (tm) (i am tired)

the phantom thieves not trusting adults to Change and Be Better People of their own free will. and their major targets are in positions of power so. of course the fuckers arent gonna. and the Gang is out to change society for the better (even if their methods are. Ethically Questionable)

and Maruki is the same in his methods, by all technicalities. not believing people are Strong Enough to Overcome their own pain. (That they shouldnt even have to. because HE CANT) so hes just gonna grant people's wishes. even if those wishes KEEP PEOPLE FROM GROWING.

like. man. i remember specifically like. playing through third sem for the first time and listening to npcs and one concerned girl was asking another if she got back together with her boyfriend. "what if he hurts you again?" she asks. and the other girl responds "what are you talking about? he'd never hurt me. we're happy together"

like. what the fresh fuck. hell world. hell world. hell wo

augh. aaauuhhghghhh theres a lot more i can say about him. i love his character i love his motives i love his tragedy i love him hes so fucking (clenches my fists and flails around) but because hes not a Major Blorbo of mine its a case of harder thinking in order to gather and organizing my thoughts.,.,

ill prolly talk more about him sometime in the future :)

[p5-apotelesma]

rens parents were Not happy about him bringing an animal with them when he came back.

and its so ironic (considering what ren staying here leads to) that its marukis intervention on the matter of morgana,, that ultimately has ren trying to settle back in his hometown. when the one fucking thing that would have made ren turn around and go back to tokyo? is if his parents wouldnt let morgana stay

if there was no budging? no compromise? bye

ren calls maruki in a panic after haname throws a fit and starts a fight over morgana. ren just started to shut down and ran out of the house as soon as they said he had to get rid of the cat

and what else is a bitch to do but guilt trip the guy who gave you more trauma into helping you in a crisis?

but in all seriousness, it speaks volumes that ren does not call any of his friends. he does not call sojiro. someone who would take him back a second. who would fucking drive himself up there to come get ren even if it took all day and all night. no. he calls. fucking. maruki. someone who put them through a hell of an ordeal recently.

but the thing is. in that moment. they didnt think 'oh ill call maruki to help because he can bullshit some medical documentation for morgana'

no, they werent thinking ahead. they called him because maruki was one of the adults ren established the most trust with and was most vulnerable with for the past year. even if maruki’s actions impacted him greatly in the negative... the betrayal was only so great because maruki was someone ren would call when panicking in the first place.

and that relationship doesnt so easily disappear. in the overwhelming nature of the moment, of course hes going to do it again. does ren kind of regret it immediately? yeah a fair bit. once he calms down. (a good chunk of it is just the embarrassment. mortifying ideal of being known. ect)

so maruki helps. and the correspondence with him over the phone and through a few emails has haname convinced to tolerate morgana’s existence. but not without being a bitch about it the whole time.

(i was going to throw your cat onto the street, and i gave you a panic attack but i expect you to be grateful and treat me like the good guy because im letting you keep him. this also means im entitled to him now. come here. why wont you let me pet him? i bend the rules for you and this is how youre treating me? youre an asshole.)

and none of rens friends know that his parents wanted him to get rid of mona. ren doesnt tell anyone about what happens here.

[p5-apotelesma]

as i was developing APOTELESMA i realized that. during the third term. maruki would have brought momose back into rens life. (he's been rooting around in rens heart like a garbage bin.)

ren's ideal world is staying in tokyo, surrounded by the stars that have lit up his previously empty life. since he was a kid he's wished for what he has now. friends. a better home. and a family that loves him...

so why wouldnt momose be there? her coming back was something hes been wishing for since he was a little kid. and maruki has every reason to grant it.

ren sees her again new years day. his morning with his friends at the shrine was incredibly strange and he knew something was wrong. and thats when maruki brings her in. (dont think about what your friends said about spending time with their parents that are supposed to be dead! look!! heres your mom!!) they have dinner together that night and ren thinks some of the things she says are little strange too.

and then he wakes up the next morning and his cat is human and wakaba is sitting with momose and sojiro and futaba in the cafe, and goro shows up and ren is having some kind of existential crisis at 1/4th speed (goro and morgana and futaba are the only ones who see momose during third term. and its here.)

momose leaves again for work but stays in touch with ren throughout all this and ren becomes increasingly more unsettled. as he comes to the realization that her appearance was likely maruki's doing. and he doesnt know what the fuck it means. he hasnt seen her in nearly a decade at this point. and all his friends dead parents are back too, so in comes the horrible thought of, oh maybe she hasnt contacted me or come to see me not because she doesnt love me anymore, but because shes dead! :) (shes not)

and if shes not... then rejecting the offer doesnt just mean sentencing goro to his death. again. it means returning to a world where he didnt matter enough for her to come back for.

also ren doesnt tell anyone about this! because hes allergic to talking about his problems and his past and his emotions

he finds out later that shes not dead and she knew about his probation because his dad tells him that he asked her to house him but she said no. but she knew where he was. because she set him up there in the first place. and even if she didnt have sojiros number, leblancs number is in the fucking phonebook and he never heard a word from her.

now he thinks the one adult from his childhood who's love he held any faith in, turned out no different from his parents. and he doesnt take it well.