#he has solid morals for sure but they don't always align with the law

[canisalbus]

this image came to me a while back and wouldn't leave me alone until i brought it into the world, and after seeing your Barbenheimer art i thought i might send it to you. love all your work, and it's been great seeing the development of these two! <3

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#aw dang partners in crime! #very in character yes #Vasco's gleeful look is just something else I love it #thank you for drawing my boys #;_; #I'm glad to hear you've been enjoying seeing them around! #Machete #Vasco #own characters #Pandaboar #gift art #a little context tidbit since this reminds me of it #for the majority of their co-existence Vasco is the one who has a little bit of a criminal record and autrority issues #and since he's never gotten into serious trouble for it he's quite nonchalant about the whole thing #he has solid morals for sure but they don't always align with the law #Machete is an obedient well behaved goody two shoes until he slowly boils over irreparably and becomes the worst version of himself #I actually had a similar thing sketched last month but never got around to finishing it #should I still do it or is it too late at this point

[angofwords]

I have been thinking about the fact that, at the first possible opportunity, Eiji dives headfirst into crime. He steals a car, abets Ash in jumping bail, and then, just days later, joins him in an attempted murder. During this murder attempt, he (with Shorter's help) commits felonious assault (possibly murder??) with a deadly weapon.

Ash wants desperately to protect Eiji's innocence, but clearly Eiji is more than ready to be Bonnie to Ash's Clyde. We don't discuss this aspect of Eiji's personality much, but that boy flings himself headlong into a dangerous, criminal lifestyle without a second thought.

I've always thought that Eiji is morally grey, that his ethics are solid, but don't align well with what society deems "good." Sure, he has people convinced he's just an innocent cinnamon roll (even his closest friends seem to believe this), but there's just no way his philosophies can be considered pure.

Eiji forgives Ash's crimes easily, because he understands the purpose of Ash's crimes, but more than that, he chooses to make Ash his True North, to center his morality and ethics on what's best for Ash. If someone harms Ash, that person is bad. If Ash retaliates against that harm, it only brings balance. Nevermind that it's murder; it's justifiable murder.

I think that, if Ash really saw Eiji as the partner Eiji clearly wanted to be, the partner he tried to be, over and over, then he might've stopped thinking that Eiji needed to go away to be safe from him. He certainly didn't begrudge Shorter the chance to be the criminal he wanted to be.

Or maybe Ash did see? Maybe he was aware of how eagerly Eiji leaped into his life, and that was *why* he was so adamant that Eiji be protected?

Ash *isn't * morally grey. He sees good and evil and squares himself on the side of darkness, even though he longs for the light he thinks he'll never deserve. Eiji's willingness (eagerness?) to take on that darkness must've been shocking to him. He never realized that Eiji looked at the world in such a wildly different, all shades-of-grey way. Without the dichotomy of good and evil, there are infinite gradients, infinite paths to redemption and happiness.

Eiji's a good person. Definitely not lawful good, but maybe a chaotic good. (He'd probably be easily radicalized, lol.) I think that's why he's so good at recognizing the pain in others, as Sing mentions in GoL. He won't let judgment get in the way of seeing the person.

#banana fish #okumura eiji #character study #banana fish meta #be gay do crimes