It's Quite Sad And Tragic That Chapter 269 Starts And Ends The Same Way: Shinichiro Carrying Mikey.

It's quite sad and tragic that chapter 269 starts and ends the same way: Shinichiro carrying Mikey.

Takemichi's ability to see the future works like Boku no Hero Academia's quirks: it evolves by the user's strong emotions and by the user's constant uses of it.

Grace and Simon, Kreese and Terry: A Destroyed Friendship

What would you think if I told you that this friendship

is similar to this one?

So that you can understand it better, here I will explain the similarities between both friendships and the possible fates of Kreese and Terry if they follow the same route as Grace and Simon:

GRACE MONROE AND JOHN KRESSE - PURPOSE, GUILT AND REDEMPTION

Grace came from a home where she was ignored by her parents and she could only get their attention through standards that they put on her and she got into trouble just to get their attention and the train picks her up and the fact of being in an unknown place without knowing what besides almost dying if it weren't for the fact that the false conductor (Amelia) inadvertently saved her, makes Grace consider that the train belongs to the passengers and that the denizens of the train have no value and are just decorations.

Kreese on the other hand had a hard life: her mother committed suicide and she had to work to survive and her girlfriend Betsy gave her hope for a happy life. Then comes the Vietnam War, Betsy's death and the rejection of both the government and American citizens towards the soldiers who fought in Vietnam and this ends up marking him for life with his ideology: peace is just an illusion, if not you attack first and hard or if you just don't win then they will kill you.

They both had a difficult life and had traumatic events (Grace being saved by the fake driver from almost dying and Kreese because of everything she lived through during the Vietnam War) that shaped their way of thinking (with Grace it is that the passengers are the only ones that have value and the denizens are only accessories and with Kreese it's that if you do not win and attack first they kill you) but you will wonder why they create Apex and Cobra Kai? The answer is simple: they seek to give meaning to their traumatic experiences and, by extension, they seek purpose in the current environment they find themselves in because if their traumas and pain are meaningless then they will have suffered for nothing.

Also during their stays on the train and in Vietnam respectively, they meet Simon Laurent and Terry Silver who will be their closest friends by sharing their trauma and therefore end up sharing their ideology and will spend years spreading their toxic ideologies to their friends (Simon and Terry) and the younger generation. Grace and Kreese think they're helping the younger generation survive when in reality they're harming them with toxic ideologies that will only bring them trouble in society.

Grace and Kreese continue with this way of life until they meet someone who will not have much of an impact at first but as time goes on will start a snowball effect that will make them question their ideologies: Johnny Lawrence and Hazel.

At first Grace and Kreese have a good relationship with Hazel and Johnny and even come to love them like family (Grace loves Hazel like a little sister and Kreese considers Johnny his son) but they constantly let them down to the point of that Hazel and Johnny don't trust them and want nothing to do with them anymore, this makes Grace and Kreese realize that they have ruined their relationship with them to an irreparable level but these aren't the only relationships they ruined to that level because they also failed in their relationships with Simon and Terry by manipulating and lying to them all the time not to mention that they feel displaced by Hazel and Johnny until they (Simon and Terry) get tired of Grace and Kreese, betray them and lock them up in prisons (Grace is locked in a tape with her memories and Kreese is arrested for a crime he didn't commit). All this, plus the guilt they feel for all their mistakes, forces them to recognize that they have failed and that they need to change for the better, Grace recognizing her mistakes and wanting to change not only herself but also the young people she has failed and lied to and Kreese will (possibly) have to do the same thing Grace did if he wants to fix his life and his relationship with Johnny because if he doesn't, Kreese will live miserable and alone for the rest of his life.

SIMON LAURENT AND TERRY SILVER - LOYALTY, DENIAL AND MADNESS

On the other hand, Simon and Terry have followed Grace and Kreese for as long as we've known them, but why are they so loyal to them? That's because Grace and Kreese saved them from dying in the past and Simon and Terry feel indebted to them but Grace and especially Kreese share their views with them and create Apex and Cobra Kai as a result, teaching them a dysfunctional ideology. In addition to taking advantage of Simon and Terry's loyalty by abusing it, manipulating them and (especially Kreese) mistreating them.

Simon and Terry are willing to prove their loyalty to Grace and Kreese to the point that they do horrible things to do it (Simon kills Tuba behind Grace's back and Terry almost kills Johnny) and this makes Grace and Kreese angry and they don't know. This is because Grace and Kreese are inadvertently changing due to their relationship with Hazel and Johnny, and by extension, are doing the opposite of the ideologies that govern their lives and their respective organizations (Kreese has compassion for Johnny and saves him from dying and Grace shows grief and pity for Tuba, a train denizen) so Simon and Terry feel like they were lied to all along and as King said in The Owl House season 2 episode 16 Hollow Mind:

King: No one wants to think they've wasted their life following the wrong person.

And this is what happens with Simon and Terry, they don't want to change because that would imply recognizing that they have been following a flawed ideology, a lie and they don't want to feel that their loyalty was for a lie, was for nothing and they choose to blame Grace and Kreese for betraying what they want to believe is the truth.

Also Simon and Terry realize that Grace and Kreese's change is motivated by Hazel and Johnny and at the same time they feel displaced by them.

All of the above (the constant exploitation and manipulation, feeling cheated and betrayed, not wanting to recognize that their ideology doesn't work, and feeling that they were displaced by someone else) makes Simon and Terry tire of Grace and Kreese, betraying and locking them up while they usurp their positions as leaders of their organizations (Apex and Cobra Kai) and while this is happening Grace and (possibly) Kreese reflect on their mistakes and are willing to change while Simon and Terry continue to refuse to acknowledge their mistakes to the point that this effort for denying the truth and refusing to recognize his mistakes turns into madness, making Simon turn the Apex into a cult himself and wants to kill Grace when he returns and possibly Terry ends up turning Cobra Kai into a cult himself too and wants to kill to Kreese when he gets out of jail. All this leads to Simon's death and if Terry continues with that same way of thinking he could end up like Simon.

Kreese and Terry are the toxic versions of Grace and Simon because Kreese is what Grace would have been if she hadn't realized her mistakes and that her way of thinking was wrong and Terry is what Simon would have been if the latter had remained alive and would have returned from the infinity train to the real world.

In conclusion, Grace and possibly Kreese recognize their mistakes and are willing to change, taking a step to redeem themselves while Simon and possibly Terry refuse to change and this only leads them to step into the abyss.

Anyone else imagine that the Collector turned the Boiling Islands into something like Totto Land?

How to forget the time in which Anya awakened the Dark Determination:

The people that predicted that Shinichiro is the second time leaper as a joke and it turned out to be true: