the myth of masculine individualism, and breaking free by smooching a streamer girl, in pokemon legends za
anyways. i think the justice dojo plotline is about how hyperindividualism and gender roles enable misogyny. and here's why!
Ivor is introduced as an exaggerated pinnacle of masculinity who dedicates himself to ceaseless training, all in hopes of defeating a woman who emasculated him and proving that his justice is correct. He is a hero of another story, perhaps, but a burdensome clown in this one. His beliefs are instantly recognizable as stupid to anyone who isn't superhuman, or anyone who'd like to go for a walk around their city without getting murked by a twelve foot tall dragon.
He just kind of shows up, states his views, and then jingles off stage left in his little clown hat, and then doesn't show up again until it's time to kick his ass to advance in the ranks. But, oops, he actually can't do shit without his sister! Over the course of the search for Gwynn, we learn a couple things about her: she regularly argues with people in city hall to keep the dojo going. She's friends with Canari, and sometimes goes to her place to watch her play video games. She likes the sewers, and has been scouting out a place for herself down there, complete with an illusory wall to keep anyone from finding her. Her voice may have been removed from the narrative, but we learn a lot about her secondhand.
And Ivor had no idea about any of this. Did she keep it from him deliberately? Or was he just not paying attention to her? It's hard to say.
Women are conditioned to be nurturing— and this isn’t biology, this is social pressure enacted on anyone near the splash zone of womanhood. So Gwynn feels like she has to be the one to field complaints, take care of her brother, make excuses for him, pick up his slack. And that's what she's been doing for so long, until she couldn't take it anymore. It's very possible that she felt she had no other options, that Ivor wouldn't listen to her if she tried.
His absurd training left him with no control of his strength, no ability to interact with the modern world via smartphone, and his individualistic views make him counterintuitively overly reliant on his sister. The message of this, I think, is pretty clear. Masculine individualism is a sham and women are coerced into propping it up.
Then Gwynnari provides a fascinating contrast— Canari is someone who is also an individualistic shut in, but she relies on her fans to give her a feeling of self worth. She alone seems to understand that Gwynn just needs some space, and their relationship blooms over the course of the story into something that makes them both feel less alone. So, let's look at the story from Gwynn's side of things.
She's first introduced as a Canari fan, attending one of her events. And oh my goodness, she is absolutely smitten. We don't get a lot more than that, unfortunately, but it leaves some questions open. Did this relationship start as a parasocial one? Are they already secret girlfriends? There's a lot of blank space to fill in, and I hope that the ao3 authors are already doing so because I wanna read my yuri.
The next time we see Gwynn, she's comfortable not just going to fan events, but hanging out with Canari when she needs a break from the dojo and giving her hints as to where she plans to go. Canari even has an affectionate nickname for her!
The third time we see these two is at Jacinthe's tournament, where they are, quite frankly, acting like a couple on a date. Gwynn is quite protective of Canari, and Canari seems pretty invested in making sure Gwynn has a good time.
As a side note: I really think that someone in Qasartico should set up a better system for arranging these promo matches. Seriously, that's just poor tournament design. Even Jacinthe, who doesn't seem to understand how seeds work, can do better than that.
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