Remember the last time I made a BlazBlue intro? Well, it's a game series I've been quite into right now. And I'm pretty hooked. But it became one of my undoing. By one of my favorite characters, no less. This is the character in question... Litchi Faye-Ling.
Litchi presents herself as a thoroughly good woman. She's kind, caring, maternal and loves children, and amongst the crazy cast of BlazBlue, she is quite sane, sensible and down-to-earth, as well as being driven with her love towards a friend in need. In other words, her friend was inflicted with a really fatal disease that turns him into a monster, and being a doctor, she felt it was her responsibility to save him, but the cure is currently nonexistant, so she tried to understand the symptoms by inflicting herself with said disease, but she couldn't find a cure in time before she starts experiencing the symptoms herself, meaning her time is running short and she may succumb into that sickness. (And trust me, how I described this was the theme park version of the real story. Just... go play the game yourself to understand just how SERIOUS the problem is).
At any rate, her concentration to her problem means that she didn't pay attention to the main plot in general, so suddenly, the evil bad guy came in and invited her to join their group of antagonists since they want her knowledge. At first Litchi refused, but they offered the undiscovered cure of her friend if she joins. While at first reluctant, Litchi was refused of help by her only other capable friend, thus she made the decision to eventually join the evil group and become an antagonist, all in the name of her love to her friend and her desire to see him cured no matter what. And she doesn't seem to have a lingering loyalty to the protagonist group, either...
THIS is my problem. Love is such a powerful force that it can make people do crazy things. Litchi was no exception. With love, it is quite possible that she will disregard her morality if it means getting him cured. I looked up to her as a shining example of sanity and pillar of moral character, but she turned against it. You can imagine how I suddenly feel crushed for about 6 months. Worse, the producer said that the continuation will not be coming soon, and it'll be a looong delay. While I believed that Litchi is still good... BlazBlue is a very cynical piece of work and things may go very bad for good morality later.
Now the comfort part? Thanks to Super Sentai, I find quite comfort and possible scenarios to look forward, revealing that Litchi might've gone antagonist just temporarily and will not be intoxicated! This is the term we call
FAKE DEFECTION
Basically, it is quite common in Super Sentai that the heroes suddenly betrayed the team and they've gone to the enemy side, earning the ire of their allies, but suddenly, in the very same episode, they would suddenly turn their backs to the enemy and reveal that they're just in the enemy side for something they wanted... not because they've had it being goody-two-shoes. In fact, amongst the Sentai shows I've watched, we got 3 shows in a row with scenario like this.
It starts with... Turboranger.
In the 19th episode, the Bouma attacked with a monster that inflicts fatal poison. In that attack, the monster tried targeting Haruna (Pink Turbo), but Youhei (Blue Turbo) ended up taking the attack and poison. Thinking that it was completely her fault that Youhei is poisoned, Haruna tried demanding the cure herself, but was refused and ended up taking a blow on her head and taken to the Bouma base. The next time she reappears, she looked as if she completely defected to the Bouma and attacked her friends (complete with an evil laugh on her own). Then at one point she got attacked and injected by the poison, which made her beg for her chief (at this point, the buffoon Zulten) for the antidote, in which she is given. Afterwards she retreated from the battlefield and quickly returned... and attacked Zulten and the monster instead. Turns out she just pretended being amnesiac, her defection just serves as a mean to get the antidote she needs to save Youhei, whom she brought along to kick some ass to make up for his absence.
The next series to feature this is Fiveman.
In the 32nd episode, a monster with time manipulation ability caused Gaku (Five Red) to get killed. Kazumi (Five Pink) fell into despair and thought without Gaku they'd never win against Zone. Thus she surrendered to Zone and attacked her siblings, it went so bad as Fumiya (Five Black) condemned her saying that he'll never consider her his sister again. As a reward for her 'betrayal', Kazumi got close with the monster and persuaded the monster to go back in time before he killed Gaku, and find a present for him. And... he did. Because the time is reversed, he tried finding the present rather than dealing the fatal blow to Gaku, thus all went according to Kazumi's plan about falling into despair and defecting. Gaku lives and she sticks with the team, as she never really had the intention to defect...
And then it ends with the feature being included in... Jetman.
In the 34th episode, Ryuu (Red Hawk) finally couldn't let go of his anxiety being separated with Rie, thus he handed down plans for Tetra Boy to the Vyram. Of course, his teammates didn't take it well and think he completely became a sell out in the name of love. Ryuu however trounced the Jetman while being aided with the Vyram. However, the Vyram turned on his back and shot him down, leaving his friends in anguish... only to find out that they shot a cyborg. In fact, while all of these happens, Ryuu was sneaking into the Vyram base to hamper their method of transportation and even called in his friends to help in the end. Turns out these were all staged by him and even quotes the saying "To deceive your enemy, you must deceive your friends first!" His overall plan ultimately failed, though. However, it shows that the Jetman has developed in terms of cunningness to be able to trick the sadistic Vyrams like that.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the difference between Super Sentai and BlazBlue in handling these scenarios was that Sentai usually wrapped this kind of scenario in one episode, and be done with it, while BlazBlue stops this in the middle for the sake of cliff hanger. Of course, this may turn out otherwise in the future, whether Litchi either was really desperate, or finally turned towards evilness completely. However, her scenario has a lot of similarities to the Sentai scenarios above. She fell into despair that she couldn't find a cure and it's catching up to her (kind of like Kazumi's that Gaku died), she did it to save another person with a cure (like how Haruna attempts to save Youhei with an antidote), and that person is the one she loved (like how Ryuu tries justifying his betrayal to save his love Rie (at that time being Maria)). Also I may be wrong, but Ryuu's quote about deceiving the enemy might originate from China, while Litchi's design has a lot of Chinese feel in it, so she might end up saying that in the end, if she really is just faking. But other than that, who knows what the future will hold for her, I can only hope for the best (in which, she was only faking joining the organization).
I'll talk more about BlazBlue later (in addition of Sentai). And apologies with all this absence. For now, even though I'm still rather butthurt on the events, I'll try my best to update this blog. Also, yes, I do realize that Ohranger and Abaranger have similar scenarios, but I didn't include them because I haven't watched them. Are we cool now? Good.
