um. be warned this kind of turned into a very informal mini essay ^_^;;
first impression of her is... okay! her character design is very pretty tho 💖 anyways she was just introduced so i dont want to say anything too harsh yet; gonna wait until more of her is shown before making a real opinion. still, im still mad at how ptj is currently handling her and worried for how her future will look.
first i will start off by saying that when she did this i laughed because i love how dramatic she is <3
confusion and curiousity
ok now onto stuff i wanna say: her only super amazing skill is gathering information, so much so it was even praised by gun. does she know this or is it word of mouth only? has she ever met gun or has he ever told this to her personally? how did she get so good at gathering information and how does she do it; how will it be shown? whats her background like?
speaking of that, based on whats currently been revealed; im... really confused? jake and jerry speak as if they dont know her at all, even referring to her with the wrong pronouns like they've never met her before but they still trusted to leave her in charge while they were away saving sinu...?
they also speak like theyre intimidated of her and deadass ran away when they heard she was coming which is... kind of funny but like. why. jerry's word choice is also pretty harsh 😭 even if this translation is off so the wording seems more cold, the tone is pretty set in stone for how he feels about lua
and im confused for how she came into big deal? jerry says she was able to come inside big deal with info gathering skills like she wasnt a member that they welcomed in like family--she just snuck in/blackmailed (im using that term VERY lightly) them into joining and they just let her in with no other choice??
but then in these panels jason speaks fondly of her:
does he, brad, and lineman all personally know her while jake and jerry dont and are scared of her....? and it seems like shes been a part of big deal for some years seeing as shes probably 17-19 in current time but in the flashback shes probably 14 at the youngest or something.
the girls on the street are also implied to have raised her so surely shes met jake and jerry at some point but they talk like shes a secret agent theyve never seen in their entire life while she talks like she knows them and has met them before ?? how come only jason, brad, and lineman seem to know her enough to be comfortable with meeting and casually chatting with her ?? (also lineman being a chair for her 😭😭😭) am i misreading or missing context or something ?????
complaints and concerns
once again i will complain about ptj being too much of a coward to make the girls be strong and able to fight. like the second i saw this panel i was bashing my head on the wall. shes introduced like "shes good at muy thai" and then immediately after "shes not good at it tho" fuck off 💀
secondly i feel the same concern a lot of other people have already expressed ! it's her involvement with johan, of course
like this post says here, im worried if johan actually ends up trusting her, he'll feel upset knowing she only grew closer to him to make him an ally of big deal. even if her feelings for caring about him do eventually grow genuine, im pretty sure johan would be upset either way. i guess the best outcome would just be for him to forgive her and then i guess they start dating? 😭
urgh but thats the thing, too... she just exists as a love plot device to help the men of big deal and to serve as johan's love interest ?! nothing for herself ...? unless she does something jaw dropping to help advance the story with her info gathering skills alone then im convinced she just exists as a love plot device to advance the story 💀
also sucks to say but her gender definitely plays into her character. if its not as this post theorizes that ptj just changed big deal no.5 from a guy to be a girl to have more girl characters "that can fight", then big deal no.5 was definitely made as a girl to play a love interest. why tho...? i know this can just be countered with "why not?" but i feel like johan is in way more need of a friend than a lover 😭
could be a friends to lover thing of course but it just irks me that no.5 could've been a guy and johan couldve just made a new friend (theres still worries about manipulation ofc). unless ptj somehow only keeps lua and johan just friends... maybe in another timeline lol but im pretty sure the direction is heading towards a romantic thing
and yet i still have to ask Why. was a new character necessary? will lua play a bigger role other than this obvious love plot device thing? if so, i'll be more willing to look past her plot device concept but if shes just relevant to make johan friendly with big deal and immediately tossed into the background right after because the plot is gonna go back to focusing on the guys fighting again once johan probably trusts big deal to join their side, i will... be frustrated, to say the least <3
and if she does just serve as a plot device then i guess she's just excuse for filler(?). why couldnt we have just seen johan slowly befriending big deal over time tho? 😭 i think thatd be way more fun to see; the big deal guys awkwardly trying to befriend johan who is cold to them at first but eventually befriends them and becomes like a lil bro to the guys ?? like damn let johan join big deal family ???? it would be a nice twist too because of how he almost joined them in the past until samuel rejected him but now he's basically part of the gang? (but again, johan would probably still be upset if he finds out their first intentions)
or hell, bring jace back on the scene! wouldnt it be fun to see jace somehow stumbling into friendship with johan again and big deal taking advantage of the situation? like they go up to jace and say "hey so youve been hanging out around johan lately do you mind telling him big deal is trustworthy and stuff ^_^" and jace realizes hes suddenly in some kind of dilemma?! maybe burn knuckles gets involved too and big deal befriends them all. we could see vasco and jake interacting again, have a bunch of these dudes become good buddies and bonding over how much they love their leaders (big deal with jake and burn knuckles with vasco ofc) i think that would be fun.
...i miss the j high kids so much.
on another note. if lua is still on the scene, i still think it would be fun if jace got involved again. like considering jace's intelligence, im curious to see if he would find out lua's intentions and how he would handle the situation. would he understand? would he warn johan? (maybe even speaking from past experience of when he got manipulated by that one girl 😭😭)
conclusion
i dont have much hope for lua plot-wise, just bare minimum with wanting some of my questions answered. i do hope she's shown having friendly banters/interactions with big deal though, it'd be great if i could add her to my big deal family agenda !! for now she's outside of it tho... ;;
