Anyway, back on track. I have an English oral that was due today, but I didn't get the chance to present. Darn schnitzel, I wish I'd been able to get it done! I shall be presenting to tomorrow though, so all is well! Then, I have a Maths exam on [next] Wednesday, and my Biology assignment due on Friday. Despite having a fair bit to do, I have mostly taken tonight off, for my own sanity. Hurrrm, I'm not sure if sanity is the correct word to use. Sane people don't generally spend two and a half hours on TVtropes, reading about anything and everything, buuuut... It is so addictive. Plus, I can't help but relate everything in my life to tropes these days.
I was re-re-re-re-re-watching (and seriously, for this particular episode, that's not even close to enough re's. Oh dears!) an episode of TDWT, and I noticed this:
Okay, so I'd never actually taken into account the colours of the train icon things before, because I can often fail at analysing mise en scene. However, last time I watched it, I was automatically like "ZOMGREDONIBLUEONI!" But then it occurred to me that Heather & Al were waay too similar to fit into that trope... aren't they? /creepy music/ Justification is just a hop, click and a paragraph of rambletastic goodness away, but for now, here's another picture.
Oooh, their representative colours have swapped... In the space of only one episode, too. How could this be? /dun dun dun!/ Okay, first let me explain what red oni and blue oni actually is:
Differing sets of personalities are attributed to red oni and blue oni, which have often come to be the personalities of many a protagonist/antagonist combination, or that of a pair of rivals. The two are almost always forced into close contact, either voluntarily or by some outside social or legal reason such as being members of the same family, school, dojo, soldiers together in The Squad, etc. Despite their wildly different personalities and philosophies the two often have either the same (or related) professions and/or skills. This of course gives them something to butt heads about, since they will also often have vastly different ways of going about whatever it is they're competing over and each will insist that his way is the best. [TVtropes]
For example, in real life, I am a blue oni and my sister is a red oni. She is the enthusiastic, zesty, more-emotion-than-intellect, better-people-connecting, positive one. I, however, am the more intellectual, proud, traditional, cultured, socially-strange, so-much-more-if-you-scratch-beneath-the-surface one. This picture pretty much says it all:
Poor Excalibur. I wouldn't want to be caught between the two of us either ;)
Aaaaaanyway, back to the anaylsis. Here is my hypothesis: In the sense that I'm alaylsing it, I think the visual symbolism used by the creators was purely unintentional. It does, however, highlight some of the key aspects of the two character's relations. On first glance, the two are quite similar, as they are both extremely manipulative and quite selfish. However, on deeper inspection, we can see that the two contrast eachother in many ways. Prior to the season finale [picture one], Alejandro was the blue oni of the pair. He was constantly thinking of tactics, and kept a level head and facade throughout kost of the competition. Heather, however, was very prone to letting her emotions and annoyances overpower her strategies. While it often payed off, her decisions and reactions were usually reckless and impulsive, whereas Alejandro's were extremely contrived and well thought out. Therefore, although both were antagonists that sought to win, their tactics and persoanlities, when analysed were very different. The role reversal occurs in the season finale [picture two], when Alejandro drops his calm facade, and decides that his relationship with Heather is what is most important to him. This married with his Beserk Button moment over being called Al, and his Freudian Excuse which came in the form of childhood bullying and abuse from his older brother, made him the more rash and emotional of the two. Heather, in contrast, used his newfound emotionality to her advantage, and strategically put on an act for the great majority of the episode, eventually winning the season. Yeah, this is what happens when you do too much English.
... Excalibur is asleep. I apologise if you also are. Well, at least I found my Red Oni, Blue Oni rant fascinating. Then again, I'll use any excuse to talk about shipping, or ranting in general. As a side note, the Fakiru pairing is completely ROBO, so much so that I don't even need to bother arguing it. Hnnn, I really do seem to like the whole opposites thing. Which reminds me! I totally started watching Shugo Chara today. I fangirled over a character, and shipped two characters before I even watched the show. I fangirled further over said character just because they turned up in the opening credits. I got even more crazy with my shipping, just because the two character had all of one scene together in the first episode. That pretty much sums up how I was with Tutu. You should all pray that it doesn't go down that path, otherwise you'll be reading a looot more about it. Random fact: the word 'oni' roughly translates to 'demon' or 'ogre' in Japanese. Ah, I should be getting to bed. Seeing as it is the last day of May, I did feel compelled to make one more post before the month ended. I made a sketch of Excalibur on my English notes, because I wasn't learning them properly, and Paint'd it just then. On this image, I shall end the post. Goodnight and sweet dreams, munchkinies!
//A.N: My Blogs have been being just a little serious of late. I promise you all I'll do something exceedingly random again soon. Holidays are in just two and a half weeks, and you can be sure that my mind will be flowing with crazy thoughts then. Beunos noches! x
Dude. I loved that analysis. I was far from bored. I'm all, ":O SO TRUE" You have truly enlightened me :)
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