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Old 2010-12-12, 20:16   Link #82
Mentar
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Hamburg
Age: 54
Quote:
Originally Posted by relentlessflame View Post
I'm not going to reply to every single point... Since you're rather heavily invested in the "two-faced" interpretation at this point, you're not leaving much room for middle ground. My argument hinges on the fact that neither "side" of Tsukasa is healthy, so if you disagree with that premise... well, there's not much to discuss. But a few things...
Naaaah, my position isn't THAT extreme. However, my point is that what Tsukasa needs right now is NOT balance. It's reaffirmation of her Inner personality, because it just collapsed. Comparison: A kid has just narrowly escaped a traffic accident and is crying its heart out. In this situation you don't tell it to watch left-right-left. You go to it, hug it and comfort it, until it calms down again. Important things first.

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No, there is no contradiction. It's simply that you believe her ambitions and goals are unhealthy and also need to be put to death along with the facade; I don't believe that to be the case.
I reread what I wrote and I noticed that one can come to this conclusion. So let me remedy and clarify: I think she needs to let go of the extremeness of her goals. It's a matter of priority here: Until she has found a degree of stability and self-esteem in her life, she should stop trying to work herself into oblivion. First, she needs to give her Inner self some room to establish and develop. That will mean that she can NOT Facade herself to excellence, and she should ACCEPT that, at least for the time being. Compared to a healthy self, stuff like perfection records as festival committee chairwoman are SECONDARY.

Besides, someone brilliant can play dumb, but someone dumb cannot play brilliant. She is going to be highly successful in life in any case, since she is exceptionally capable. Once she has found her peace, she'll excel anyway. It's hard to avoid.

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Then, if you prefer, it's that she trying to shut herself out as well. She's eliminated the diary, which was her one outlet/safe-house, so she's trying to bottle up her emotions even deeper to make it as if they don't exist. Of course, it's destined for an explosion, and that's why it's unhealthy.
And this is exactly why for now, resuscitating her Inner side is way more important than "balance". First, you fix the critical issues. Then the rest.

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I don't think he fell in love with the "bad person", it's more like he accepted all sides to her and that "bad person" is a part of Tsukasa.
Let's not put undue emphasis on words like "good" or "bad" here. The "bad" Ayatsuji also encompasses the energetic, spunky aspect of her, her sharp tongue, her wit and her playfulness. It was the "bad" Ayatsuji who was sending him home at night, making a bento for him and giving him a very honest and touching confession. I didn't mean to say that he loved how she tonguelashed the bitches, he was clearly uneasy about it. But it's the fire and spirit which defined her that he came to love. NOT the teflon Facade.

Quote:
Originally Posted by relentlessflame View Post
I agree with your analysis; I haven't studied psychology formally, but this is basically what I was perceiving here.
I actually have, till bachelor level, as minor to computer science (what a combo, I know).

The main reason why I tried to avoid the Freudian id/ego/super-ego model is that it does not translate very well on Tsukasa - it added extra complexity to something which could be explained better with a inner/outer-personality model.

By definition, the Id is _not conscious_. It's the instinct, the nonrational aspect of us where pleasures and fears come from. So, in technical terms, you can NOT say that the Id is the "Inner" or "Bad" Ayatsuji. What you can say is that her Facade is her Ego which gives a very stringent representation of her Super-Ego. Did that definition help any? I don't think so.

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The central problem, it seems to me, is that the superego and id were originally far too contrasting/extreme, and this was unhealthy.
Id and Super-Ego are by definition contrasting, they are opposing forces. You can't control the Id at all, and the Super-Ego is merely a representation of your "social values", our conscience. The Ego is the arbiter between those two opposing poles. In the beginning, Ayatsuji's Ego was aware of the Id, and was trying to cap it via diary while she rationalized that strongly emphasizing the Super-Ego enabled her to realize her dreams of excellence. In eps 2 and 3, she was sliding more into the middle: She gave her Id more room, particularly when with Junichi only. And at the very end, she adjusted her Ego to panic mode.

You see, this isn't really helping us understand much. Neither her desires (Id) nor her conscience and values (Super-Ego) really changed, only how her Ego (the rational part) deals with things.
And this Ego now believes that she must suppress the "obstinate girl" completely in order to keep her relationship with Junichi and to lead the festival to success. This misunderstanding must be cleared up. Fast.
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