During The Scene In Watching And Dreaming Where Belos Begs Luz To Help Him I Couldn't Help But Remember

During the scene in Watching and Dreaming where Belos begs Luz to help him I couldn't help but remember the scene in King's Tide where Belos tries to petrify Luz as an act of mercy only for Luz to beg him to let her live and he agrees. That happens because she called him by his name and also because she is a human like him, and this from the point of view of Belos is like solidarity between humans.

That is why when he pleads with Luz by reminding him that they are both human, it is because Belos expects Luz to help him in an act of solidarity between humans due to the fact that he is human like her just as he did with her in King's Tide.

Did anyone else think Apollo vs Leonidas was like watching pre-heresy Fulgrim vs Sevika?

Pre-heresy Fulgrim and Apollo

- They're handsome.

- They're obsessed with being perfect.

- They want to inspire others to be the best version of themselves.

- They value the arts, music, poetry, and both physical and inner beauty.

- They worked hard and become respected by their "paternal figures" (Big E/Zeus).

Sevika and Leonidas

- They have the same physical build, similar clothes and the same hairstyle.

- They detest a privileged person or group (Piltover/Apollo) because they believe they were the ones who caused the misfortunes their people have gone through (Zaun/Sparta) and seek revenge as a result.

- They are both smokers.

- They both use weapons that can change shape.

For those who say that Satoru Gojo lost unfairly against Sukuna, they forget that we are talking about an ancient sorcerer from the Heian era in the golden age of sorcery and he was not just any sorcerer but the strongest of that time. Sukuna had a huge amount of experience as well as being quite smart because Sukuna wanted to see what Mahoraga was capable of and saw his fight against Satoru as the perfect opportunity to use the shikigami and to do so he made Gojo think that he could beat him if he used his domain extension and although he looked as bad as Satoru by letting himself be attacked by it, actually every time Satoru used the Infinite Void he was only strengthening Mahoraga.

Sukuna conditioned the fight so that he would win with the shikigami, but if Sukuna had wanted, he could have ended the fight much earlier by using Domain Amplification (the improved version of Simple Domain) in each domain extension clash he had with Satoru, avoiding suffering damage from the latter, and when Satoru couldn't use his domain extension and his Limitless Technique to protect himself due to the wear and tear on his brain, Sukuna would eliminate him using the Malevolent Shrine. If it were not for Sukuna's whim of wanting to use Mahoraga, he would have beaten Satoru and it is even implied that Sukuna allowed himself to be hit so that Mahoraga would adapt to Satoru's infinity.

Even in their activation of domains Gojo had to destroy and regenerate his brain five times while Sukuna didn't have this problem, this is because Sukuna didn't lose his domain as many times as Satoru because we must not forget that Sukuna's domain doesn't need barrier like Gojo's so it was easier to destroy Satoru's domain than Sukuna's.

The Spot's Seek for Respect and Revenge

Contrary to what many people think, Spot is an interesting character but, as happens in the movie, he is underestimated by everyone, so I decided to write this post to analyse this character.

His arc is a perfect mix of a comic relief character who seeks everyone's respect and a character who puts his revenge above all else to the point of hurting himself and others.

DUDE, WHERE'S MY RESPECT?

Let's be honest, everyone looks down on Spot and when I say everyone I mean EVERYONE because not only is he treated by Miles as just another villain in the crowd, Miguel ignores the potential threat that Spot is to the multiverse and dedicated himself to chasing Miles for the entire half of the movie but even we the audience underestimated him by dismissing him as comic relief but Spot is tired of everyone underestimating him and he proved to be a real threat he took both all the characters and the entire audience by surprise.

This desire to be respected is quite reminiscent of characters like Inosuke Hashibira, King from The Owl House, and even Ken from the Barbie 2023 movie: characters who are considered comic relief by everyone but are frustrated that no one respects them or takes their feelings seriously and decide to take actions to make everyone respect them. These characters are tragic and have serious self-esteem issues but the narrative presents them to us as comic relief to make us, the audience, let our guard down.

Inosuke is seen as comic relief by bragging about how strong he is and doing weird things but is later revealed to be a boy who is deep down afraid of being a child whose parents abandoned him because they didn't love him only for it to be revealed that he is a boy whose mother allows herself to be killed by Douma to save him.

King is treated by everyone as if he were a living stuffed animal and the character clings to being a demon king when in reality he is a child who, like Inosuke, was abandoned and hidden by his father to save him from the titan trappers and the archivists.

Ken acts obsessively towards Barbie and acts quite funny because he was programmed to be her boyfriend and is treated like an accessory so his sense of identity is low to say nothing and he doesn't know anything else.

Spot also gets this treatment: he's introduced to us as a villain who tries to steal an ATM but doesn't know how to use his powers and even tries to convince the store seller that he's doing nothing wrong by taking the ATM and the store seller hits him and the way he introduces himself to Miles as he has loaves spilling out of one of his holes, calls him villain of the week and even his fight with Miles is basically Miles dodging him smoothly while chatting with his dad on the phone and even we the audience dismiss that his motivation to revenge on Miles is because he threw a bagel in his face when actually it's much more than that and the bagel thing is just the tip of the iceberg. At this point Spot is comic relief for both the characters and us.

But these characters seek respect and take actions that make them respected by others:

Inosuke proves to be a pretty good demon slayer to the point that he and Kanao with Shinobu's previous intervention manage to defeat Douma, King discovers his origins and his powers and is a key part of saving the Boiling Islands.

But just as respect is achieved through positive actions, the desperate search for respect makes others seek it through negative actions to the point of being threats to their world, just as it happened to Ken and is happening to Spot:

Ken sneaks into Barbie's car and together they go to the real world and Ken feels respected in the real world and after he discovers that the world is run by the patriarchy, he decides to bring it to Barbieland and turns it into Kendom, making the Barbies be the accessories of the Kens.

Spot learns to domain his powers and after merging with the collider from Mumbattan, becomes a threat to the multiverse.

Ken and the Spot go from being jokes at to being threats to their respective worlds. They prefer to be seen as villains than to be mocked by everyone because having power makes them important people and their very low self-esteem is raised.

It's okay to want to be respected, but when you seek respect through negative actions, you end up doing even more damage to yourself and those around you.

What happens to Spot is a reversal of Ken's character arc, so much so that I would dare to say that the Spot is the villainous and dark version of Ken:

Spot and Ken have the same funny personality but hide resentment and low self-esteem, they both discover something new and use it to gain everyone's respect, and Ken and Spot are obsessed with the attention of Miles and Barbie because they feel their existence is tied up in that but while Barbie, after she with the help of Gloria, Sasha, Allan and all the resistance make everything return to normal but giving the Kens the opportunity to have equality with the Barbies, Barbie becomes sincere with Ken and apologizes for not taking his feelings seriously and encourages him to discover himself, showing him that he is enough and Ken decides to follow his advice but when Miles tries to convince Spot that he no longer considers it a joke, he doesn't listen and merges with the collider.

The reason this works with Ken but not with Spot is due to two reasons:

Barbie knows it's not entirely her fault with regard to Ken's programming but acknowledges that she hurt his feelings, apologizes for it and even makes him see that he can be more than the role of being her boyfriend. While Miles knows it's not entirely his fault for the collider situation (it's Kingpin's fault for wanting to use it in the first place) and tells Spot that no one sees it as a joke, he doesn't acknowledge that he previously hurt Spot's feelings neither does Spot make him see that he can be something else than just his nemesis or that he can even be a hero with his powers which makes Spot even more attached to his role as Miles's nemesis.

Ken, despite being a doll, has a human appearance and has connections to others in Barbieland that aren't just Barbie. Spot, despite being human, does not have a human appearance nor does he have connections to anyone else, so he clings to his rivalry with Miles as the only "connections" he has.

Basically the entire arc of these characters can be summarized up in the chat beetwen Silco, Vander and Jinx from Arcane:

Vander: "You'll get people killed. For what? Pride?" Silco: "For respect."

Silco to Jinx: "It's okay. We'll show them. We will show them all."

REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD

Speaking of Silco, Spot's obsession with getting revenge on Miles reminds me of Guts, Silco and Neo in the sense that they seek revenge because all of them lost everything they had and also because the only thing that makes sense of their lives is to take revenge on those who took everything from them and to make things worse none of them respect Spot, Guts Silco and Neo and even look down on them which makes Spot, Guts Silco and Neo have more reasons to get revenge but Guts, Silco and Neo differ from Spot for the following reasons:

Guts still has loved ones who love him despite how tough he can be.

Silco has a bond with Jinx that despite being flawed is also a bond he developed because he related to Jinx's pain and said bond humanizes him and makes him think of something other than revenge.

Neo has the opportunity to choose her new physical form and she has the opportunity to rediscover herself to start again.

But Spot? he has absolutely none of these things. Spot doesn't have loved ones to care for him like Guts, he doesn't have a bond with someone he can relate to or humanize like Silco, and he has no chance to change his form or start again like Neo, even worse, Spot doesn't even have a human appearance like Guts, Silco and Neo do. That's why when Miles tries to stop Spot from merging with the collider he doesn't listen to him and it's because revenge is the only thing that gives meaning to his life and Spot doesn't want to lose something again as he lost everything else.

Spot lost absolutely everything: he is no longer human, his coworkers make fun of him and he lost his job, his family does not want to see him because they see him as a monster, he cannot reverse his current physical state and I doubt anyone would want to give him a job or that a person wants to date someone who looks like Spot so having a life, a job, a normal appearance and even a romantic relationship with someone is impossible for him so he clings to the only thing he has is his anger and revenge towards Miles to the point that he wants Miles to lose everything, making the only thing he has is his rivalry and thus making Miles feel just as lonely and miserable as him.

It's like Tyrion Lannister once said: "Never forget what you are, the rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor and it can never be used to hurt you."

"That child is a demon."

Do you remember the incident with the bird?

Many believed that Himiko killed the bird

but in reality the bird was already dead when she found it.

What if, just like the bird, the incident with Saito it was a misunderstanding?

We never see Himiko stab Saito with the cutter, we only see Himiko with the cutter in her hand

so we can assume that she attacked him... or she just found Saito injured on the floor and Himiko just grabbed the cutter already bloody and when he saw the bloody wound, Himiko couldn't hold back any more and took the opportunity to suck Saito's blood.

It must be remembered that Saito was fighting with another classmate,

so said classmate could have been the one who attacked Saito with the cutter and Himiko simply found him already injured on the ground with the already bloody cutter.

Because what we see with Himiko with the cutter is what people think she did

but what actually happened was that Saito was already injured, Himiko only took advantage of the situation to suck his blood.