[Mentar]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

@Mentar:
I'm sort of a bit unsure why you had to disagree so strongly with me before if all we're really talking about are differences of definition and priority.

Because I felt - maybe incorrectly, only you can tell - that you were heading in the wrong direction. You wrote that Tsukasa needed to go and apologize to the bitches. And that due to mere pride, she refused to do that even though she really "knew" that she should. So, she had to accept what you called "balance" in order to get a grip on the current disaster.

And that is what I consider fundamentally wrong. She does not need to apologize to the bitches, she needs to stay her course of emancipating herself from the Facade, and Junichi needs to support that, until she has truly understood that her suppressed Inner personality is not insufficient, and in fact preferred by Junichi. I also maintain that this is the aspect of hers that he really fell in love with. They get along well during the Facade ep, but there wasn't much of an attraction. That developed when she started to drop the Facade towards Junichi.

BAD END: Tsukasa's honest personality is lost forever; she shows only her people-pleasing persona and Junichi can no longer love her.

NORMAL END: Junichi brings out Tsukasa's honest personality again, and she comes back full force. The Festival is a failure (to some degree) and she takes the fall/blame, but she finds comfort in Junichi and is slowly able to rebuild her social standing without the facade.

BEST END (?): Junichi convinces Tsukasa that he loves and accepts her honest personality, which allows her to drop the unhealthy facade and start "being herself" in a healthy way. They work together to rally the help they need to make the Festival a success, and find that they are stronger when they (and everyone) work together as a team.

I think that it's safe to predict that any resolution will happen AFTER the festival. In the night, during the bonfire. Until then, I fully expect her to maintain Facade-in-Force. (That, by the way, would use the template of the "Good End" of the game - not the "Best End"). And then we'll see where we get. At the moment, I'm not sure how Junichi is going to pull this off, since he doesn't understand Ayatsuji at all.

This is basically why my original argument centered on the fact that completely abandoning her goals and ambitions would not be for the best. I know your argument is that she'd be better off abandoning them since they're remnants of her facade, but I think the show will go for both the "obvious" victory as well as the "less-obvious-but-more-important" psychological one. We shall see.

Well, IMHO she should abandon her goals and ambitions at least for the time being, if they force her back on an unhealthy way. So, if her choice would be between a successful festival and maintaining her Inner personality, she should choose the latter. It's going to be fairly temporary anyway, because people like her tend to get on her feet again sooner or later. But FIRST she needs to find herself, understand that her Inner personality is accepted, too, and reduce her Facade to a level which allows her Inner to breathe freely. Anything else is secondary.