tl;dr cr meme

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RELATIONSHIPS❤MEME
① List all the characters you play.
② People reply with CR they truly, madly, deeply want to know about.
③ tl;dr on character relationships. first impressions count too!
④ ???
⑤ harvest all that tl;dr!

Comments

[psychup]

Okay! Nanami

Gundam is the more complicated one. I need to go into his thought process in SDR2 and MM1 a bit to explain his castmate feelings, because they're pretty similar between Nanami and Kuzuryuu even though the way he feels about them personally is different.

So Gundam is tricky when it comes to friendships, and in canon he's pretty prickly. He tries to make it known he doesn't get attached (though does a really bad job of it). And he never would have called any of them in canon his friend, except for Hinata after all the FTEs who pulls it out of him. He did feel attached to them, but it was in spite of himself, and also not particularly individualized; it was more that the idea that there was some kind of group and group camaraderie and he was part of it that meant a lot to him, even if he never expressed it. IMO that's the main reason someone as strong willed as he is would have been really susceptible to despair; he just craves being connected to other people but also can't even really admit that to himself.

The other thing about that is he goes to great lengths to put on this evil intimidating aloof persona and it's the world's worst persona. No one has ever bought it, even for a second. He was pinpointed as a weirdo but probably just shy and lonely within two seconds of opening his mouth. But...he doesn't...know that. He thinks it's a lot more convincing than it is. He genuinely thought, in SDR2 and in MM1, that he was pulling off the aloof thing, and was convincing people to keep their distance because he wasn't interested in them. That's part of why he appreciates Nanami in particular; he feels like she saw through that a bit because she went out of her way to include him and help him at points. He doesn't know that everyone saw through it, it's just that most people just couldn't be bothered to indulge his shit that consistently.

But yeah, that camaraderie. It was actually pretty hard for him, he's kind of terrified of it. He doesn't trust people, and he's really afraid that if he just tried to be sincere and make friends he'll get hurt. So he basically, instead of dealing with those fears, lies to himself that he likes it that way. And in SDR2 he really kind of lied to himself to the grave. Or coma pod, or whatever. His thought process was really self-deluding in that he could tell himself he could kill Nidai and either he or they would live, and if they didn't catch him, fine. But in the trial he pretty much immediately gives up because there was never any chance he could really have let them all die, and he never wanted to. But even to the end he's keeping up this enemy/smug shonen jerk/going to be swallowed up by hell thing and won't just acknowledge openly the way he feels.

So in MM1 he had similar development, except he was forced to actually confront his own lies. When he had his moment of covering up genuine caring with smug shonen bullshit and having it be called out, he didn't die immediately after. So he had to live with the consequences of people knowing how much he cared. And then a whole bunch of things happened that basically culminated in him acting like an idiot and nearly getting himself killed and making everyone very upset, and he really saw that everyone actually didn't see him as any different than the group, that they had pretty much all understood he was just some awkward well-meaning guy. It basically took a day of people who he never even suspected cared about him at all to express how relieved they were he was alive and to be really sincere about it for him to realize he had just always been so, so wrong about how people acted and perceived him. A lifetime of trust issues aren't overcome that fast, but over three years of having that trust reinforced, he actually is kind of...comfortable with the idea of friendship and acknowledging it and not being insecure about it or feeling like he has to posture.

Which leads to the SDR2 kids because they wound up being a big regret for him. After he had this epiphany, that in two separate situations he came to really trust a group of people when he was forced to, he realized that the way he'd handled things in his trial was kind of...underestimating that group. Like, if he had acted differently, he could have become as close to them as he became with MM1, and he understood that if he stands around going 'no I actually didn't want you to invite me I'm aloof' all the time, he has only himself to blame for being disconnected. So he just started questioning his thought process in Ch 4, if he should have trusted them more, and if he wasn't wrong to do what he did, he should have at least been more genuine.

So like, a chance to see some of the SDR2 kids who were alive in his trial again is answering one of the regrets he's been hanging on to, because he really wants a chance to get to know them as the person he became instead of the person he was. He's very aware he's been transformed quite a lot. When he told Nanami, in their first conversation, that they were both made to fulfill a similar function (I forget the exact phrasing) he really did mean he'd been made, because he felt like the way he bonded with people around him made him into someone very different. Which is probably true, considering despair backstory.

As for Nanami specifically, he quite likes her. He doesn't really get the whole AI thing. Like he understands what it is but it's just one of those things for him? Oh, you're an AI, that's nice, I'm a half-demon. But the lack of free will really bothered him a lot, because choice and free will is such an important part of his personal values system. So he would have been bothered by Nanami Mastermind either way, but seeing her in that kind of position made him really furious.

He's been really touched by how quickly Nanami trusted him, though. To be honest he had been kind of nervous about taking over Stiles' role because he knows he's not...the best...at people. But he feels pretty vindicated in his memories that Nanami is good people. He also is happy she likes Stiles so much because Stiles was a pretty crucial part of his development, he was really a replacement for Hinata who kind of embraced befriending him even harder. So there's no inferiority complex about Stiles being her favorite Host, he is like 'yeah I feel you, Stiles is great.'

Athena on Nanami: Much simpler. Okay, Athena really likes robots she just thinks they're really cute? Having robot siblings is like, one of the only happy childhood memories she has. She's the opposite of the 'who cares about robots' people, she extra cares. Add that to the fact that what Nanami was doing would actually be like, the culmination of all of her mother's work? Her mother was a psychology expert, creating AIs to be therapists for humans and help them get in touch with their emotions is something her mother would have loved so she thinks it's amazing, too. So the AI twist with Nanami was like, oh, okay! She previously thought Nanami was cute, after that she's great and wonderful and how dare the awful people of the show manipulate her like that.

She really thinks Nanami is very sweet on her own even without the AI thing, though. She's good at understanding people and goes out of her way to look out for them, which are very good traits in her book.