Rock Lee Vs Gaara Is About More Than Hard Work Vs Natural Talent

Rock Lee vs Gaara is about more than hard work vs natural talent

Rock Lee vs Gaara is about more than hard work vs talent. On the first watch that may be what is taken away from it. Upon a second viewing after watching these characters grow and change and learning about Gaara’s past it takes on a whole different clash. One of views on the society as a whole. 

Both of these characters are products of their society. They were shunned by the people in their society for two completely different reasons and thus grew to have two completely different view points on society as a whole. 

Rock Lee was condemned by society for his lack of ability and therefore was considered an ineffective and useless “weapon” for the society to call upon in a time of need. He was considered worthless, so he worked his way up to prove himself to that society that believed that. He thrived off the atmosphere that society created. He was condemned for weakness and thus strove for strength. Rock Lee condones the society that ninja lived in.

Gaara is the exact opposite. He condemns society for what it did to him. It condoned creating him into a living weapon, but then condemned him for being what they created. He was crushed and twisted under the conflicting ideals society had about his birth and life. He was told his initial purpose in life was to protect the sand, but once he was deemed unnecessary because of the negative atmosphere society created around him his purpose was considered lost. His life was deemed worthless. 

Reyna and Nico-the Perfect Unlikely Friendship

Both Reyna and Nico suffer from isolation and loneliness brought upon by their respective reaction to their negative past experiences. Reyna strove for power to have the ability to prevent tragedy to herself and others and ended up causing herself more pain through the isolation the power brought. Her pursuit is ironic in that her pursuit to prevent pain caused her pain. She is truly isolated from her peers not truly of her own free will, but because the position requires her to be strong for everyone around her. Nico on the other hand isolates himself. This is due to the negative atmosphere created by the community he initially lived in. The community was strongly anti-gay and he was forced to fear a part of himself. His isolation is ironic because in his want and need to be accepted he didn’t give anyone a chance to really get to know him and accept him. 

Both Nico and Reyna have trouble trusting others and hide behind tough exteriors. They hide the broken remnants of their respective lives. Reyna through her position. Nico through self isolation. Because of their similarities in dealing with their hardship and shared isolation and loneliness they are able to find someone to open up to. Nico and Reyna share a mutual understanding of loneliness and loss. This coupled with their quest together created a bond that is my favorite friendship in the Heroes of Olympus. I look forward to seeing Reyna in the Tyrant’s Tomb and hope this friendship get more focus in the coming books.

The Last Jedi- The Importance of the Throne Room Scene and Kylo Ren’s development

The throne room scene was when we finally see what Kylo Ren is thinking. Kylo believes both sides of the force have failed him. First the light side with his teacher Luke and now the dark in his mentor Snoke. Both believed him to be a failure for different reasons. Luke because he feared Kylo’s tremendous power and Snoke because he believes Kylo is weak and that he has found a more fitting successor in raw strength in Rey. Snoke believed he was only luring Rey to him through the interactions between Kylo and Rey he forced upon them throughout the movie, but in reality he was causing both to find someone who truly understands the other. This caused Kylo to strike out against Snoke and lead to his demise. 

The subsequent fight against the guards showed how in sync Kylo and Rey were. Kylo believed he had found something in between in Rey. Something not quite pure light side or pure dark side, but in the middle. He had come to reject both sides of the force and wanted to make his own way by destroying the old “antiquated” systems and creating the world anew. He rejected Rey’s offer to join the rebellion and stop the first order because he saw that the rebellion would just put the old systems in place, the systems he believed failed him. He could only achieve his goals of change if he stayed with the first order and lead them. He wanted Rey by his side because he saw his goals for the new system in her, but Rey didn’t agree with his methods to reach his solution though tearing down the system through violence. 

Kylo didn’t know another way to achieve his goals but through violence. This was the disconnect. Kylo was taught his whole life to fight (through Luke) and conquer (through Snoke). Whereas Rey was taught to remain passive and accepting. Rey learned that to make change she would have to take action, but only when need be, while Kylo slowly resorts to action in escalating extremes. 

The Subversion of the Mark of Athena

Annabeth’s solo quest is a bright spot within this series in that it completely subverts your expectations for what both Annabeth and the reader thought it would be. Upon a re-read I realized that this quest was the exact opposite of what Annabeth had wanted. Annabeth wanted to prove herself to the gods and to herself instead she is forced into the quest, disowned by her mother, in the end Annabeth ends up questioning her mother’s integrity, and even when the quest is over she is sent against her will into an even more dangerous trial instead of going home to glory. Annabeth has always wanted to prove herself to the gods and in the end she is mad at the gods and doesn’t care for their approval. This coupled with the fact that Annabeth going on a solo quest has been built up since the beginning of the Percy Jackson series makes this subversion fascinating to read.

My Thoughts on Rose Quartz and Pearl in a Single Pale Rose

Spoilers for the new episodes below.

A single pale rose confirmed many of my suspicions about rose quartz as a person. In every previous episode centered on rose quarts she always seemed more curious and fascinated with humans and life on earth in a way that seemed more like she was more entertained by them than truly seeing “inner beauty”. The way she saw people seemed less than natural. Rose quartz/pink diamond created the human zoo which confirms her perception of humans. In this episode it all but confirms her warped perception.

 In the scene where pearl and rose are talking about staging her shattering it didn’t seem like rose had thought the plan through, like she was doing it on a whim because she wanted to. She also emotionally manipulated Pearl. She lead pearl on and let her believe that she had a future with rose. This really bothered me because while I had suspected this for a while, but having confirmation made it worse. Rose clearly knew that Pearl loved her and used that love to get pearl to do her bidding. And because of the actions taken in this scene pearl probably believes it is her fault for the diamonds turning their focus on earth and shattering all but a select few of Rose’s followers. She believes she caused the death of so many gems. Rose has caused many problems for pearl that I can’t help, but empathize with because I have watched Pearl’s struggles to move on from them. We have seen Pearl’s absolute devastation with Rose’s choice to be with Greg, have Steven, keep secrets from her, etc. Rose had long lasting mental scars on pearl. I hope that the issue of Rose’s emotional manipulation of pearl is addressed and Pearl eventually accepts and moves on. 

I never believed Rose was as great as the gems seemed to believe she was. She always seemed like a figure looked back upon riddled with nostalgia and rose tinted glasses. I never thought she would be this morally ambiguous. She lead a war from both sides until getting pearl to “shatter’ her which only made the situation worse. Then she goes on like nothing happened and has a kid and passes all of her problems onto him. She also bubbled bismuth without telling anyone and hid her away. She is incredibly childish and doesn’t think her actions and how they will effect others through. In the episode jungle moon when we see pink diamond complaining about not having her own colony and when she gets one she doesn’t want to tell them she doesn’t want that colony she tries to sidestep and make up excuses. Her shattering plan didn’t take into account the fallout. She didn’t consider the diamonds getting revenge for her, how it would hurt the other diamonds (blue diamond has depression and yellow is sad but tries to repress it), how her emotional manipulation of pearl causes pearl so many problems down the line, her manipulation of her followers on both sides of the war, etc. All of these show a sense of entitlement and immaturity. Rose quartz never existed just a pink diamond who had a fascination with humans because they entertained her like humans who go the the zoo to see the lions, tigers, monkey, and elephants. 

The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far from the Tree...or Does It? (Jessica Jones season 2)

Anyone who has watched season 2 of Jessica Jones knows the importance of mothers and daughters holds. Throughout the season Jessica struggles with comparing herself to her mother whereas Trish believes she is nothing like her mother. Ironically the opposite is true for each of them.

The comparison between Trish and her mother never really dawned on me until the scene where Trish wakes up in the morgue and is mad at Jessica for stopping the experiment on her and she ends up saying that Jessica is a disappointment, she has all this power and does nothing with it. This sentence mirrors something Dorothy says once before in the show. Looking back the two seasons have been building to this revelation. The first season does it incredibly subtly, but looking back after the revelations of this season it is obvious. 

At the beginning of this season Trish is on a ratings high talking about the street level heroes within the city.  She talks about Jessica on her show against Jessica’s wishes, though she didn’t say her name she said she grew up with a superhero which makes it obvious who she is talking about. She coerces Jessica in every way she can to take on the case for IGH and discover what happened to her. She does this under the guise that it will give Jessica closure, but in reality she wants jessica to find the truth so she can go public with it and rise in the ratings. This is similar to the methods her mother uses in season 1. Her mother does Trish a favor and immediately tries to “casually” bring up something Trish can do for her. 

Trish throughout both seasons tries to live vicariously through Jessica because Jessica has powers and the ability to fight the “bad guys”. Trish isn’t complacent with what she is doing to help people and wishes she could engage in a more radical, hands on form of justice. Dorothy was living through Trish throughout Trish’s entire childhood. Putting her in the limelight and getting her public recognition through any means necessary even at the expense of Trish’s mental and physical health. Trish may not realize it, but she is doing the same thing to Jessica. Trish pushes Jessica towards danger in both seasons and Jessica suffers incredible trauma in both. 

Also Trish only says she is proud of Jessica when Jessica is doing what Trish believes is right this is briefly shown is season 1 when Trish tells Jessica she is exactly the hero she wanted her to be when Jessica decides to go through with a self-sacrificial way to stop Kilgrave. Throughout season 1 Trish rarely tries to talk Jessica out of anything when Jessica is trying to stop Kilgrave the only time she really tries to nudge jessica into making a different decision is when Jessica tries to run from Kilgrave instead of face him. She also has no qualms with killing the antagonist of each respective season, which goes along with her the ends justify the means mindset. Dorothy has the same mindset in her thinking towards her relationship with Trish. As long as Trish gains and maintains fame and popularity Dorothy believes she is a good person and mother because no matter the means she obtained her desired end goal.

Jessica on the other had has been proven to be a polar opposite to her mother in just about every way. Jessica’s mother is a sociopathic serial killer who blames everyone else for her actions and views the past, before the car accident, in an extremely negative light. Jessica on the other hand blames herself for all the bad things that happen to the people around her even if she couldn’t stop it.  She blames herself that her mother is after Trish, she blames herself for Reuben’s death, she blames herself for the car accident, etc. Jessica also feels extreme guilt for every life she takes and in every situation the choices were limited. Reva-Kilgrave made her kill Reva. Kilgrave-no jail would have been able to hold him and he would not stop until he had Jessica. Dale- granted she was in his apartment, but he was beating her and wouldn’t stop so she lashed out without thinking of her strength. Dale’s death was the only one that was avoidable, but it was entirely out of self defence and accidental. Jessica is literally blinded by nostalgia and views her childhood and herself before the accident through rose tinted glasses. Jessica believes she is a bad person. She views herself in a negative light, but she always ends up doing what is right. She gets lost along the way and is conflicted about her choices, but she comes out the other side making the right choice even in lose lose situations. 

Jessica believes that no matter the ends if the means were horrible or inhumane it doesn’t make you a good person. Her mother believes the exact opposite, if the ends were as desired the means don’t matter. This is shown through their conflicting viewpoints on Karl. Karl was experimenting illegally on humans with inhumane methods on people who couldn’t say no due to their varying circumstances, but his experiment were in gene splicing which could lead to curing genetic diseases and disorders in people after birth and heal people who look to be lost causes. Jessica believes he isn’t a good person and should go away for what he has done. Her mother believes that Karl is a good person even before they enter a relationship and wants him to be free.

This shows the duality within characters related or not that have inadvertent similarities and staggering differences.