SAINT SEIYA THEORY: Ikki's flashbacks VERSUS Nachi
I've always found the "Nachi being a cartoonishly mean bully flashbacks" from (and exclusive to) the anime weird and uncharacteristic.
So I had a theory: could it be that the "flashbacks" are actually twisted, wrong memories of Ikki? That are either manipulated by Hades or Guilty's influence? Modified to make him believe he was in the right for enacting such violence as "deserved vengeance"?
Meanwhile in reality, Nachi wasn't bad or mean; at best, he was clumsy or "rough around the edges" due to his upbringing. A "we got to be strong [together, to get ahead]", more than the canon "you're such a weak crybaby".
But then the mindset of Ikki warps it and extrapolates it in order to make Nachi into an enemy, and make Ikki lose some more hope and connection with others?
The flashback also is so "special" because it depicts Ikki as such a central figure to his brother, maybe once again it's the bias and the piled up trauma that speaks and imagine how the scene went.
Nachi, in the present, also is the first character to call out Ikki's behavior, which could impact how Ikki's depicts Nachi in his mind. Ikki is the one "mind twisting people", but his own thoughts are "corrupted by fakeness"?
I don't know, I'm trying to work with what I have.
It's kind of a tengent from now on, and a larger observation and analysis of Wolf Nachi.
I honestly, personally decided to think of Nachi as a middle point philosophically, who was flawed but decided to grow beyond it and align himself with Shun's pacifism more as he matured during his training in Bomi Hills, Liberia, whilst despising vocally Ikki's destructive mindset.
"Hell on earth" is such a specific choice of words from him that it still stuck with me, along with the goriness of the manga chapter. "And came back [from Hell on Earth]": maybe that's the difference, Nachi got out of Hell, has a "self" outside of it, whilst Ikki became it.
Since Ikki can't invent nightmares, what sort of awful stuff could have Nachi seen, and then imagined happen to him?! A lot to think about. Nachi deserved better!
I understand why narratively he was vilified, even though I think:
it wasn't needed to make Ikki seem like a caring brother (the manga readers got the memo even without that scene, right?)
that it weakens the "Ikki hits an innocent bystander guy"
makes it like it was "comeuppance" for Nachi, who "deserved" it
it's OOC and makes Shun "in need of assistance" again
among other things
Ikki "needs to win" because it's the narrative exposition to his strength and heartlessness, but I don't know, I think it could've been done without completely shifting a character around. If you needed a mean guy, just take Tatsumi!
I know the orphanage kids, cut from the adaptations, were the mean ones, and that Shun being ostracised and judged for his personality is important, but I think there were other ways of accomplishing it. Ban, Geki (two characters very focused on physical prowess), Ichi (who also has an unique mindset regarding fights) or even Jabu (stickler for the rules) could've worked better for that role! Nachi just was unlucky, again, to be at that point of the lineup.
I think a shot of Nachi's mentor reaction to the carnage could've been interesting - so, so far away, there's someone, confused, helpless, mourning the Wolf Boy whilst everyone is agitated about the stolen Gold Cloth.
Just a quiet silent panel of that distraught Liberian woman, listening on the radio the internationally watched brawl whilst being the only one who sees him.
