[magnuskn]

Originally Posted by wisteria233

And avoiding something isn't cowardice?

Um, no? Avoiding something bad can actually be smart behaviour. In what kind of environment do you live that you cannot see that difference?

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Your memory is off, because Ranka was in danger exactly three times over the course of the series four if you count the ending.

Episode 1 in episode one it was realy Gilliam who saved her not Alto, and Alto himself ending up needing to be saved by Ozma.

Episode 11 it was Brera who saved both her and Alto.

Episode 14 Again Brera.

Episode 25 Alto was able to save her but only because of Sheryl's help.

Out of all these times Alto only comes clean about not being the one who ultimately saved Ranka once, and that was because Gilliam died to do it. Alto tries to save Ranka because he considers himself her protector, however he has never been the one actually protecting her. And don't even try saying that he was close to saving Ranka in any of those situations, because in each and everyone of those situations Alto was in over his head. Episode 1, the Vajra would have killed him; episode 11 the hydra was about to kill him, and episode 14 he saw the Vajra and became so enraged that he fired his missiles at it point blank and easily could have almost killed Ranka himself if Brera didn't outfly the explosion. Then again in episode 25 he probably would have gone ahead and killed Ranka(purposefully) this time if it wasn't for Sheryl's interference.

I guess if you don't count Alto jumping into cold space to save Ranka in episode two (where was Gilliam then, huh? Oh, yeah, dead) or him finding the manhole in episode three (where he simultanously saved Sheryl and Ranka), your count would be right. But, sorry, you are wrong. And I'd say that Brera saved Ranka in episode 14 was more of a pre-emption of Alto doing the same.

The only time Alto needed to "come clean" was in episode 10 and I already said that I think that at that point he was thinking about protecting her from that weirdo cyborg with the handblade. At that point nobody knew who Brera was, who revealed himself only as of episode 14.

And nice try to make it seem like he would have killed Ranka in episode 14. Pure fantasy, but okay.

Originally Posted by wisteria233

I'm being unfair, it wasn't just Brera who helped him out this time but also Sheryl and Ranka, or did you forget that Alto was incapacitated? The only person who Alto has legimately saved on his own is Sheryl.

Also Ranka, but you are conveniently forgetting or ignoring those instances.

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Again a person doesn't have to know every nitty gritty detail of another person's life to make a valid point. And again the fact that Alto was effected by Yasaburo's words meant that, he made a valid point whether he knew it or not.

You need to have an actual idea of what is happening to a person to make a decent point. And Alto was affected, but not in the way Yasaburo intended.

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Well that's too bad I don't feel like searching through everything again to find it.

So, point invalidated. Alright.

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Then which definition of avoid do you mean, because the description your using is a synonym for running away.

No, it's not. And I really don't think this is going anywhere, since you seem to be unable to distinguish between smart avoidance and running away.

Originally Posted by wisteria233

And yet Alto is still effected by his words. Tell me if someone says something to you and its completely wrong would you care about their words? would it even effect you?

Maybe, depending on our past relationship. I would be upset if someone I had problems with in the past, yet who is also dear to me would chew me out, even if what he said was wrong. And I am not Alto, who also has the tendency of internalizing a lot of his problems, I would be much more prone to clear up the misunderstanding.

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Then how can you call me out on interpretation when your doing so yourself?

Yeah, that was a mistake from me, I normally don't cite fanon as fact. Sorry.

Originally Posted by wisteria233

And again when was it ever shown that Alto made an honest effort to get his father to understand? For all we know Alto's father may have already accepted Alto's choice long before episode 25, but Alto just never had the guts to talk to him about it. The same thing with his brother Yasaburo, Alto never once tries to explain his side, at all. And as far as Yasaburo is concerned all he sees is the boy he considers his brother denying a part of himself, and essentially running away from/avoiding his family, to join a mercenary group, which is dedicated to the protection of their home, which Alto has made perfectly clear that he hates.

I admit that I am rather assuming a lot here, but Alto shows all signs of having had exensive rows with his family in the past. He ran away from home (yep, that was his instance of running away. Maybe that is the part everyone is harping about), he was disinherited by his father, his father ignores him, very deliberately, in episode four.

There simply exist family rows too deep to mend easily. Let's not forget that Alto's father also didn't seek out Alto to patch things up. You can of course try to assign "running away" to that, too, but it is not the term commonly used for deep family disfunction. Alto's father cannot accept Alto's decision, Alto cannot allow himself to submit to his father's desires. That seems to be the situation until episode 25, where Alto's father finally relents.

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Its also the definition for recklessness.

Oh, definitely. But that makes those kind of actions nonetheless heroic.

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Um... he lies to her three times. Once in episode one, though he eventually comes clean about it, also Ranka outright states that she was in no danger with the vacuum because she's part Zentradi in episode 2 Its really Sheryl and Alto in danger in episode 3. The second time in episode 11 when he carries her back to camp and Ranka exclaims how Alto saved her, and Alto doesn't answer her, and the third time in episode 15 on the elevator when she's jumping up and down with no underwear exclaiming how he saved her, he never tells her the truth.

What? You really think that Ranka was in no danger of the vacuum because she was one-quarter Zentraedi? Really? Really?!? You can't be serious, right? She didn't state that she was in "no danger", re-watch that scene. If you can be bothered to.

First off, that scene with Ranka telling Alto that he saved her was in episode two, secondly, he just had saved her from being sucked into outer space and you are being ridiculous if you think that Ranka would have been fine there for more than a few seconds. Third, in episode 15 Ranka should have well known who saved her, since she was concious throughout the whole last episode. If she thinks that Alto saved her, it is because he was part of the rescue mission and, hey, she saw him come in and clear the Vajra queens clock, so there's that. Although if you say that she lost her memory of that moment between episodes 14 and 15, I'd be fine with that, too, because it would support my fan theory why the hell she never told anyone about the Vajra queen singing to her. But that would be something Alto had no idea about and her thanking him for being there for her would seem natural, so no lying from him, either.

Man, you really don't remember a lot of the details, huh?

Originally Posted by wisteria233

From the way that she was talking it was kind of obvious, about what she was implying that there was more to story. However, Alto doesn't pay attention and so pushes her to come clean.

Okay, I can buy that he was being a bit oblivious to her nuances. However, it is up to her to come clean with those incredibly pertinent facts which could affect the safety of the entire fleet. That isn't something you can put on Alto.

I'll be happy to put on him that he just went along with leaving that unknown alien organism called Ai-kun with her without asking more questions, though. :-/

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Again I'm not talking about the girls feelings for Alto, I'm talking about Alto's feelings for the girls, and what they meant to him. Ranka for Alto was an convient excuse who fit perfectly into the role of the damsel in distress, for his fabricated role of her hero. Though he cares for Ranka he never thinks about her outside of her role and never really gets to know her as a person. For Sheryl, she never quite fit into a role, he's far too attracted to her for her to be just a friend, she's too easy to talk to for her to be just an acquittance. Its not until the chance of losing her becomes real that he stops trying to put her into a role.

Alright, those are very valid interpretations. How exactly does that relate to him "running away"?

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Not all of them. Alto's using Ranka as an excuse to join SMS was a bad decision that came from his own denial. Ditto for his complete an utter refusal to acknowledge his past as an actor, and his refusal to meet with his father.

Not really. His decision to use the excuse of "protecting Ranka" to join SMS just masked his decision as something which he could use to excuse to himself why he was suddenly protecting the place he purported to hate. He wanted to join SMS, anyway, so I am not seeing how that was a bad decision.

His refusal to give in with his father cannot be called a bad decision, since so far as I can see, his father wanted total submission to his demands. That is a place where you simply need to assert yourself as a young person, even if that means breaking off contact to your family. Making a clean break with your past, especially if crops up in places like episode 10, is also sometimes necessary, if you want to make something new for yourself.

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Except in the two examples that you posted.

In your interpretation, which conflates "avoidance" with "running away" completely.

Originally Posted by wisteria233

Perhaps too subtle, which again isn't helped by the fact that he really needed more screen time, and also the fact that his character arc didn't end. We just weren't really allowed to spend a whole lot of time with him.

Quite probable, given how he has fallen out of favor with fans very rapidly, while Sheryl was (Or maybe is? Nobody has posted updated charts in a long while) on the anime charts for favorite female character for years on end.

The end of his character arc actually was there, his problems with his family (actually Ranzo, but Yasaburo is nothing but an extension of Ranzo's will, after all) mended, his open sky there for him, his past accepted, his responsibility for Frontier, too. The only thing not allowed to be finalized was the romance aspect and I think it is pretty clear where that is heading.

If you want to talk about an unresolved character arc, look at Ranka. Oh, man, is that a regression of the character. :-/ But I think we all went over that quite a lot of times already.