#even if that mentoring was basically relentlessly beating shion at vanguard starting at 2 am in a dingy laundromat XD

[carnelianwings]

Things I wish I could see more often in fiction: Have The Hero reach out and accept The Corruption wholeheartedly with both hands and getting absolutely Drunk On The Dark Side until The (Friendly) Rival (or The Crush, sometimes they’re the same person even) swoops in for an I Know You Are In There Somewhere Fight (with a side of “This isn’t you”/”Remember what you originally wanted to do”) and a massive helping of (homoerotic) Ship Tease. Those arcs always hit just a little different when it’s the hero who gives in and accepts it with both hands instead of having it forced upon them by the enemy. There’s something about it being a Personal Choice that’s just so much more impactful.

It also provides a lot of good context for The Hero’s speeches later on if there’s another repeat Corruption Arc and it’s their allies (or Crush, take your pick) who ends up on the receiving end of The Corruption because then the empathy and compassion the hero shows through their speeches isn’t just lip service - they’ve been there before and knows how it feels and how awful they felt after. It also means The Hero forgiving said allies almost immediately makes sense - their allies did that for them once, this is The Hero doing the same for them. It adds so much depth to the All Loving Hero that I wish they’d do it a little more often.

#yes this is about #cardfight!! vanguard #i will never be over the PSYqualia arc in s1 #bless you wingu for selling that whole ass arc by pitching down for drunk on the dark side aichi #it provides all the context for aichi's speeches in later seasons including g next and gz #i mean sure you could say aichi was a little premature in basically forgiving kai in the course of that fight in the lj finale #especially since kai's actions led to 2 worlds being put at risk #but in the end it was forgiveness granted on a personal level and kai arguably redeems himself from lm onwards #i don't actually count kai's redemption as complete after lm #that was him redeeming himself to their immediate circle of friends #kai's redemption continued into g with mentoring shion #even if that mentoring was basically relentlessly beating shion at vanguard starting at 2 am in a dingy laundromat XD #i missed them doing this in the reboot because it was such a defining character arc for me