you can't be doing my girl Kaede dirty like that, first Sayaka, now this? manic pixie dreaming some guy's life on the way out is the least relevant aspect of those characters!!! And you dare call yourself a woman liker? When only looking at those really interesting and morally complicated girls from the lenses of how they affected those boys? For shame.
My girl, Kaede Akamatsu, is a scheming, lying, betraying murderer who felt the weight of the shot put ball in her backpack while talking about trust and cooperation. She dirties her hands, she makes sacrifices, she's the boss and feels responsible for the group but doesn't actually trust them. She's reassuring herself more than them, she doesn't really believe what she preaches, and she's scared, but she's responsible and so - she resorts to denial, toxic positivity, being too pushy, and still feeling like it's not enough and being restless, fidgeting, planning to do something on her own, because if she can't pull through on all her promises then she still has to try to do her best for everyone's sake.
When she doesn't claim the first blood perk it has nothing to do with Shuichi and forcing him to face the trauma or with guilt and wanting to be executed, she wants to catch the mastermind, for the group's sake, that's all that's on her mind. And when she makes him go through the trial the way she does it's for the sake of the group then his, she needs him to be able to lead in future trials and save the group, it's not exposure therapy, he's reliving the trauma to his detriment. Really, the promise is because she's already thinking that a murder can happen again and at most she can hope that this will make the next person hesitate.
V3 has such a strong theme of characters being fucked because of their sense of duty, everyone who killed or tried to felt obliged to, this includes kiyo feeling like he owes to deliver friends for his sister. Kaede isn't just Shuichi's fridged pure angel on his shoulder, he made up an idealized version of her to cope, sure, but she's there setting an example, so you can see Kaito with his hero complex and Kirumi's devotion in the next chapter and know that they're fucked. None of them are okay in that way, down to Shuichi on his executioner duty.
The previous games are like "wouldn't it be fucked up if even our bright youth was capable of atrocities?" and v3 is like "what if you tried to do something noble but were deeply mentally ill, and also who are you to make this decision for others? What if we'd rather all die together than let you take away the burden of the sacrifice all for yourself?"
She is morally gray and she did things that were not good and she is going to be so fucked up about it post-game and she kind of already was in-game, the lack of faith in people from the audition video seeping through the optimistic facade. This is such a rich mess of a character and you're going to say she's your fave because of Shuichi? Seriously?
Don't take it as me being personally mad at you, I am just opinionated about those stuff
Oh my god you’re so right fucking eating this like a fifty three course meal bestie. Legit I will be thinking about this all day you’ve wormed your way into my brain bestie
