Yusaku and Ai - The Origin and his Ignis
Yall know about their parallels but I also want to share my thoughts about Yusaku and Ai, the couple that are vastly different from each other yet similar in a surprising way.
I probably wouldn’t be astonished at the similarities they shared at this point, but episode 110 really hit me hard when Yusaku did not suffer from the same incident that Ai did, yet their pain has the same color.
And the way Zaizen siblings trying to negotiate with them
by sympathizing with the two
Zaizen siblings mean well, but they were too arrogant to think that they could understand even a small part of Yusaku and Ai’s pain. Or it’s just an emergency solution they came up with to calm the two down.
And this action angered both Yusaku and Ai, even Kusanagi
Not just the way they reacted to outsiders trying to cross the abyss in their heart, they were also not tough enough to overcome their own trauma
that they ended up chosing the path of revenge/revolution.
Stuck in their own grief, Yusaku and Ai even shared the exact same line, showing how similar they both felt about their traumatic experience
This scene broke my heart and made me dig back the entire 1st season just to find that very sentence Yusaku has said. “Time has stopped moving for me.”
I get it that they were crushed by their own emotions, but to the point that time has stopped for BOTH of them, that their personalities were flipped upside down we can’t recognize them anymore, just how can they be this alike? Yusaku was a cheerful kid just like how Ai used to be. Now Ai’s heart is dead cold like the 1st season Yusaku, with the only difference is that Yusaku didn’t try to hide it, while Ai maintained his joyful side only to conceal his immeasurable despair.
Ai’s oddly similar suffering to Yusaku’s also explains why he confined his sadness to only one person. And at this point we can all guess who they are. Because the very person, whose time had once stopped, is allowed to say “I feel the same”. And only him could understand what kind of pain tormenting Ai. Outsiders doesn’t need to know, because when Pandor exposed his sadness, Blue Maiden tried to sympathize with Ai while she knew nothing about it. And that doesn’t make Ai feel better, he’s angered.
There is however, one more difference between the way Ai and Yusaku chosing their destined path, and the reason why I didn’t refer to Yusaku’s case as despair, but rather Ai’s. While Yusaku knew what to do and what he did is justice that he accepted, that his so-called revenge would lead him to a brighter future,
Ai knew all his doings were wrong, and that made him the enemy of humanity. But he wasn’t intended to go back, and keep diving deep inside the dark. Ai is lost in his own path. When you’re lost, going back or moving forward are no difference. And since he already hurt humans, he couldn’t go back anymore. He has to keep going.
But did he have specific plans for the future like Yusaku? He didn’t even know himself. Ai isn’t just sad, he’s desperate. Ai would even take the idea of annihilating humans into his consideration although that wasn’t what he intended to do. This proves Ai would do anything to overcome his abyss of despair, to remove the burden that had crushed his heart, and to make his time start moving. There is no line to cross, because Ai doesn’t know himself anymore.
On a side note, Ai and Yusaku both have a cold heart towards different lifeforms
Yusaku probably wouldn’t do it for real, and cares more to the Ignis now. But at the beginning of the story, he did not give a damn about partnership with Ai. And Ai is now, attacking humans with a smile.
Back then, no one was able to stop Yusaku’s revenge. In fact, it was Yusaku who led himself to the path of light. But Ai is sinking down, with hopes to find relief in the bottom of the abyss of despair. Can Yusaku, the only one who understands Ai, grab Ai’s hand and save him? I really hope that the opening song will be a spoiler for their happy end.
