[magnuskn]

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Alto wanted to defend Frontier but didn't want to admit it to himself, so he ran to find an excuse to join SMS to protect his home. That excuse ended up being Ranka, who he barely took seriously. Isn't finding excuses and not wanting to admit the truth to yourself the same as running away?

I already said that I misread Tabby's post in that part. I continue to disagree that "running away" is the correct term to describe Alto's avoidance of his real motivation in that regard.

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Yasaburo was wrong in saying that Alto ran away from Kabuki and wanted to return, but he wasn't wrong in saying that it was ingrained in him. He is right about Alto wearing a Hero's mask, because of the roles that he mentally assigned to Ranka and himself. Alto wanted to run away from that fact. He didn't want to confront his past. With Michael, he was calling Alto out on a lot of things, not just leaving acting. Michael essentially was pissed off that Alto ignored the world around him, which Alto admits to.

Sure, kabuki still is a part of Alto's past, but not one he wants to return to. I disagree that Alto is wearing a "hero's mask" in any shape or form, because Alto is a hero, by every measure that we can apply to the term. Alto deceives himself on his motivation for fighting, but that is not remotely what Yasaburo was talking about, he rather was putting in question Alto's entire motivation in regards to participating in the war.

Where does Alto admit to ignoring the world around him? Please quote.

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Which is funny because by not confronting the truth about himself (essentially running away from it) Alto is the one who ends up putting himself in a box. His role of Ranka's Hero was a fake role that he is unsuited for but nevertheless is one that he used as an excuse to protect his homeland, in other words a hero's mask. Again isn't not wanting to admit the truth to yourself the same thing as running away?

Nope.

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Alto's "Hero mask" is really is desire to protect Ranka. In reality while Alto does care about her, she's merely an excuse for him. In his mind he's assigned her of the role as the perpetual damsel in distress (a role that she plays excellently) but the whole thing falls apart the moment he tries to become her hero. Alto is actually never able to save Ranka, when Ranka is saved its always someone else's doing, which he takes the credit for. Which isn't something that he isn't too proud of, because its just like saying that he's failing to properly play the role of Ranka's hero. A fake role which acts as a place holder for what Alto really wants to do. Another way of looking at it, is that Yasaburo wasn't calling Alto's desire to protect Frontier fake (since at the time Alto did not consider himself Frontier's protector) Yasaburo was calling Alto's role as Ranka's protector a fake. In fact the story acknowledges that Alto is no longer wearing that mask, when Alto is able to admit to himself that he is really fighting to protect Frontier.

Yeah, but Yasaburo did not know this. So he can't be taken seriously as a source.

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Alto was also running away from dealing with his own feelings towards the girls, as well as their feelings towards him. With Ranka he had pigeonholed her into the role of the perpetual damsel in distress, who couldn't do anything for herself. As a result he never takes her seriously, and even ends up lying to her making her believe that Alto really is her protector, when he isn't. With Sheryl she never fit into a clean role for him, and in a way I think that she may have confused and even at times scared him, she's important to him but he doesn't know why, and certainly isn't about to ponder about his own feelings to come up with an answer.

My read on Alto's interactions with the girls is different. It is pretty clear to me that he took notice of their feelings really in the episodes on Gallia IV. What happened afterwards may be a topic of debate, but in my reading what he was desperately trying was to avoid hurting one of the girls. Not the best solution, in my opinion, but it came from good intent.

I'd really appreciate if you guys would stop going through every permutation of what the character did and try to assign the label "running away" to it. There's a place for that term, but not with every action which involves avoidance of something problematic.