#but kairi's room literally looks like a blank slate and i think that says a lot

[t-u-i-t-c]

Bistrot Jurer

13 → Favorite Location (Main Base) - Super Sentai

Bistro Jurer

A French bistro owned by Kogure, that is the base for the Lupinrangers. The bistro is used as a front for the Lupins while they search for pieces of the Lupin Collection. The Lupins also use their positions at the bistro to gain intel from the Patrangers, who frequent the bistro.

The Yard

A small area behind the bistro. The area is mainly utilized in two heavier scenes, in which Kairi's resolves are called into question. One point is to question his resolve regarding doing anything in order to retrieve a piece of the Lupin Collection even at Touma's expense. The other point is when Kairi shows how his relationship with Keiichiro is making it more difficult for him to keep a clear head and focus on his goal.

The Kitchen

Located off the main floor, in view of customers. The kitchen is basically Touma's space as he is the one tasked to do all the cooking.Touma was a chef at a top restaurant prior to the mass disappearances, and is shown to find joy in cooking, even though he claims otherwise.

Dressing Room

A room in the bistro where the Lupinrangers change into their Lupin outfits before following leads about the Lupin Collection.

Kairi’s Room

A nearly empty room upstairs. The room has few personal items, having only a photo of Kairi and his brother to indicate that it is his room. The lack of personal items aligns with Kairi not feeling that he has a home and shows how the Lupins must be ready to flee at any time.

Dining Area

Located on the main floor, this is the area seen most frequently. The Lupins serve their customers here and discuss their plans as Lupinrangers after closing. When open, Umika is in this area most, as Touma spends most of his time in the kitchen and Kairi sneaks out whenever he can.

The dining area is also where the Patrangers frequently interact with the Lupins unknowingly. It is due to the growing relations with the Patrangers at the bistro, and even expanding outside, that the Lupins struggle throughout the series and most memorably in the final arc. An important thing to note is that Umika and Touma are shown to think of the bistro as their home, while Kairi does not. In the end, Umika seems to have the strongest attachment to the bistro and the memories made there.

#kaitou sentai lupinranger vs keisatsu sentai patranger #lupinranger vs patranger #lupat #super sentai #tokuedit #please do not repost #umbrella.edits #umbrella.posts #umbrella.gifs #gif.requestprompts #all text is under the cut in case it's hard to read :) #long post// #bistrot is the french spelling of bistro so i used bistrot in the name but bistro as in the type of place #i really wanted to do some basic analysis/explanations of how each room works in the story #i tried to find fonts close to the sign but this was the best i could do so i hope it looks okay #can't really say anything definitive about kairi's room showing him not having it be his home bc we never see touma or umika's rooms #i do wish we had seen them bc i feel like umika would have a few more things but for touma i could see him having little just bc it's touma #but kairi's room literally looks like a blank slate and i think that says a lot #especially since it's so open and feels so lonely

[nadziejastar]

(1) I suspect the reason you cling so tightly to the Roxas=Ventus theory is that it's your subconscious attempt to repair the damage caused by Xion being the original Subject X type that weakened a pre-existing story to make room for a new character. KH2 Roxas was the missing part of Sora preventing him from waking up but in Days this role was given to Xion instead. She goes on a journey of self discovery while Roxas sits on the sidelines for the vast majority of what's supposed to be his story.

(2) The result is Roxas being much hollower than the lead in one game and an important supporting character in others should be. But if Roxas and Ventus are the same character suddenly he has substance again! The change of his personality into something unlike his KH2 characterization now is purposeful instead of being lazy writing. It doesn't matter that he lost his original role of being Sora's other half, because he's now amnesiac Ven (the poor kid suffers from this problem a lot.)

(3) But really, this whole plot tumor could have been avoided if Nomura had simply stuck to his guns and not brought Roxas and company back at all, regardless of how much fans screamed that IT ISN'T FAIR and HE DESERVES TO BE HIS OWN PERSON. KH2 was bittersweet but conclusive about his fate and changing the story for fanservice demands has done the narrative no favors.

I can understand the comparison of Xion to Subject X. Both are female characters who were retconned into an existing male friendship. Skuld with Isa and Lea and Xion with Axel and Roxas. I think I understand what you’re getting at. Xion was the Subject X of 358/2 Days. She ruined Roxas’s character by overshadowing him in a Mary Sue-like way. So, I subconsciously want to view Ventus as the “real” Roxas because that allows me to wash my hands of Roxas’s story in 358/2 Days, which was more about Xion.

Believe it or not, Xion was actually very hated by much of the fandom when Days first came out. Sure, she had her fans, but opinions were a lot more divided. You wouldn’t believe how many people said that she was a Mary Sue and they hated how Roxas was so obsessed with her. And I can’t say there is no basis to that. When I first played Days, I felt kinda the same way. The whole concept of Xion was bizarre and convoluted.

When Roxas finally left the organization, it felt less like he was trying to discover himself, and more like he was mad that Axel was mean to Xion. Roxas was always “Xion, Xion, Xion”. Literally. In the novel, when he’s fighting Riku, he was trying not to forget her, so he kept repeating her name over and over. I understand why diehard Roxas fans wouldn’t like Roxas’s dynamic with Xion. He put her on a pedestal and he felt like more of a spectator in his own game. Personally, I saw Roxas’s relationship with Xion as more of a reflection of Sora’s relationship with Kairi. Roxas had Sora’s memories, so he acted like Sora would with Kairi. It doesn’t necessarily mean that Ventus would have acted like that with Kairi. That’s just my two cents, though.

Had I been more emotionally invested in Roxas, Xion probably would have bothered me more. This is just my own personal bias, but I was more upset with Skuld as Subject X than with Xion, even though I recognize the similarities. And I’ll be the first to admit, it’s because I didn’t like Akuroku. The ship, not the platonic friendship. Yeah, there’s the obvious thing like the age difference. But even if Roxas had been older, like a boyish-looking 23 year old or something, I still wouldn’t have liked it. That’s because I always had a soft spot for Axel, and I didn’t like his role in that ship. It seemed to me like Akuroku was a ship predominantly for Roxas fans.

In Akuroku, Roxas is the object of Axel’s affections. He’s the one Axel was desperately longing to see again. Roxas was the “prize”. Roxas was the one who was put on a pedestal. But it only ever went one way. Roxas never expressed those types of strong feelings for Axel. Axel was just the spectator of Roxas’s “specialness”. In a way, it’s similar to how Roxas fans must have felt about Roxas/Xion.

I admit I identified more with Axel. His death in KH2 hit me a lot harder than Roxas’s ending due to the fact that he was all alone, chasing after a kid who didn’t really feel as strongly about him as a “best friend”. It’s why I liked Lea and Isa in BBS. And it’s why I didn’t mind that Roxas was more focused on Xion, while Axel’s arc seemed to revolve more around his relationship with Saïx/Isa.

Judged on her own merits, I think Xion is only valuable as a character if her memories and experiences transferred over to Kairi. It was Kairi who was the flattest character. She badly needed her own journey of self-discovery to flesh her out. And if Xion retroactively allowed Kairi to gain character development, and form a deep friendship with Lea ahead of KH3, I think her existence was worth it for that.

But if Roxas and Ventus are the same character suddenly he has substance again!

Admittedly, I was never really that emotionally invested in Roxas. I liked him, but he was never one of my absolute favorites or anything. I felt sorry for him, but I never found him to be that interesting. And I have to say, being Sora’s Nobody was a big reason for that. It was hard for me to be invested in a character who was just a "Nobody” of another character. I felt the same about Naminé.

I never really liked KH2′s concept of Nobodies. It never made sense to me that turning into a Heartless would create a new person out of thin air. I don’t think that Nobodies should be able to coexist with their original selves unless there is a very, very unique reason. For instance, apprentice Xehanort had two hearts (Terra and Xehanort) when his Nobody was born. Sora had three hearts (Sora, Ventus, and Kairi) when his Nobody was born. They were special. Anomalies. Other than that, Nobodies make more sense when they’re like Axel. The Nobody is the same as the original person, just reborn without a heart.

I think Roxas previously being a human boy with his own name (not an anagram of Sora), his own past (not just a blank slate with jumbled up memories of Sora), and his own friends (the wayfinder trio), instead of just “Sora’s Nobody” is a lot more healthy for his character. It helped me to see him as his own person, and not just a fragment of Sora.

But “substance” might give the wrong connotation. At least in Days, Roxas was meant to be a pretty simple character. Even Axel said that. He wasn’t super smart or perceptive, and he wasn’t amazingly deep or complex. He wasn’t as ditzy as Sora, but he was still cut from the same cloth. He was a fairly ordinary kid. In KH2, he seemed a little more complex. But we didn’t get to see much of his character outside of the data Twilight Town.

This is my opinion on vanilla KH2 Roxas: Roxas was originally created to be Sora’s shadow. He was more introverted than Sora, more cynical, etc. That’s because, at least in the original KH2, Nobodies weren’t supposed to have hearts. Roxas’s darker personality was the result of him being conceived as a Nobody. He was Sora’s Nobody, so he was nicer than all the others. But he was a “heartless” character. He was “empty,” so to speak. Once Nomura retconned it so that Nobodies could have hearts, he decided to take Roxas in a different direction. He was no longer a “heartless” doppleganger of Sora. The reason he didn’t feel like Sora’s alter ego is because he actually wasn’t Sora at all. Plot twist! He was actually a boy who was secretly sleeping inside of Sora’s heart the whole time, named Ventus.

It doesn't matter that he lost his original role of being Sora's other half, because he's now amnesiac Ven (the poor kid suffers from this problem a lot.)

I think Ventus was conceived as an amnesiac specifically to explain why Roxas had no human memories other than the jumbled up ones belonging to Sora. Also, my own theory is that, like Ventus, Isa was an amnesiac after being experimented on. Lea took care of him, so Axel felt a special connection to Roxas because of that.

But really, this whole plot tumor could have been avoided if Nomura had simply stuck to his guns and not brought Roxas and company back at all, regardless of how much fans screamed that IT ISN'T FAIR and HE DESERVES TO BE HIS OWN PERSON. KH2 was bittersweet but conclusive about his fate and changing the story for fanservice demands has done the narrative no favors.

In all honesty, I liked the fact that Roxas was retconned to be Ventus instead of Sora’s other half. I liked Roxas’s prologue in KH2, but I couldn’t help but feel like it was kinda pointless? If Roxas was just Sora’s shadow, who was meant to merge back with him and disappear, his whole story felt meaningless. Like that one essay said, Roxas’s story didn’t even have much impact on Sora’s story other than the organization members constantly calling him “Roxas”. It was like Nomura wanted to create a new character, but was too afraid, so only took a half measure. Roxas was only half Sora. But since he had a different personality, different hair, difference voice, different clothes, it was only natural that fans didn’t see him as another Sora.

Personally, I never thought Roxas being Sora’s other half was all that convincing. So, I welcomed the explanation of Roxas being Ventus in a previous life. Then he could be brought back as a separate character with his own identity. Made more sense than him coming back as “Sora’s Nobody”.

The change of his personality into something unlike his KH2 characterization now is purposeful instead of being lazy writing.

Well, here’s the biggest reason I think Roxas was intended, originally, to be Ventus. Why would Nomura make Ventus SO much like Roxas? Scratch that. Why even make Ventus at all!? It’s not like he had to be created. Why not make Ventus look completely original, and have no connection to Roxas? There was no reason that he had to be sleeping inside of Sora’s heart.

If Roxas was always going to come back all on his own, there was no need to have Ventus at all. Or at the very least, Ventus could have had a completely original character design. He could still have been Terra and Aqua’s little bro, and still have his heart be asleep, in need of being woken up. But why make him look like Roxas of all things? In my opinion, it’s because Days was not supposed to be a standalone story. From its conception, its story was connected to BBS.

Axel was hinted to have a dark and tragic past in Days. In BBS, we just so happen to see Lea and Isa sneaking into the castle where dangerous human experiments were taking place. Xemnas had Terra’s body and memories. He was talking to Aqua and looking for the Chamber of Waking, where Ventus was sleeping. It’s not too much of a stretch that Nomura wanted Roxas to be strongly connected to BBS as well, by having Ventus’s heart. Fans downplay Roxas’s connection to Ventus as much as possible. “They only LOOK similar.” But I don’t think that was Nomura’s intention. 

I just don’t see any other reason why Nomura would make Ventus look almost exactly like Roxas, give them almost the same outfit, give them the same voice actor, change Roxas’s personality to be more like Ventus in Days, make them both serve practically the same role in KH3 (someone sleeping inside Sora’s heart) and even have Ventus meet Lea in BBS and have a similar dynamic with Axel as he did with Terra...if I was supposed to see them as two wholly separate people who just happen to look alike. If Nomura’s intention truly was for me to see them as two unique characters, all I can say is that he did an outstandingly HORRIBLE job and is utterly incompetent.

#kh meta #kh roxas #kh ventus