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「大掃除と星祭り」 (Daisouji to Hoshimatsuri)
“Cleanups and Star Festivals”
This situation with the orphanage reminds me of highschool kids/university students who go to Africa over the summer to help with community projects or teach English. Which is to say I have massive respect towards Myne for what she’s doing. Sure, she might be strict with her demands and opportunistic. ‘Those who do not work, do not eat’ – I mean these are kids for crying out loud. But overall, she’s doing what she can within the bounds of societal limits in Honzuki no Gekokujou and is doing way more to improve the situation.
She isn’t just temporarily relieving the orphan’s plight, because as she mentioned, the situation would return to a horrible state after she left. By teaching them important life skills and literacy, they’re equipped with the ability to fend for themselves in this cruel, feudalistic society. And while I’m not entirely sold on the idea of giving nice food to a select few who prove themselves, it does instill the value and sensibility of meritocracy to these kids in a society where the circumstances of one’s birth and social status determine a bit too much – if those rotten blue robed priests and allegedly awful nobles are anything to go by. It allows them to see hope and possibility, when it comes to breaking through the glass ceiling set by the situation they were born into.
On the day of the Star Festival, Myne decides to arrange a tau fruit throwing event for the orphans. While wanting the orphans to experience some semblance of normalcy, Myne inadvertently discovers that the Tau Fruit can sap her mana AND transform into the trombe fruit. There’s much to be happy about, but I felt kinda disappointed. Isn’t that just way too convenient? That all her problems with mana threatening her life, and paper being too scarce a resource to craft books, were resolved in an instant? The Tau fruit is quite literally a Deus Ex Machina from the heavens, and it somewhat stunted my enjoyment of the current arc.
But at least the intricacies of Church politics remains untouched, when it comes to being a worthy obstacle for Myne to overcome. Ferdinand, unhappy about her failure to clean up the orphans mess, sentences her to solitary confinement – and having only just recovered from a fever, she collapses. I suppose many people will be unhappy with Ferdinand here, and I think his treatment of Myne was too harsh. But in his defence, he definitely didn’t intend to make her pass out and underestimated her frailty. And he can’t be seen by the other figure of authorities in the Church as treating her with undue favouritism, since it would threaten his position and that of Myne’s – since he’s the only one who can shield her. So I hope that people will be kinder in passing judgement on him.
Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss. See you all next week to find out how Myne continues furthering her multiple projects!
End Card
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Lovin’ this series, but from what I hear, they are leaving out a lot from the source.
And that’s a shame as as good as this series has become, it could be much richer because
the omissions are really important details. Oh well…
Ferdinand, in the Anime, is really painted as the bad guy — but he’s not as bad as he
is institutionalized. He is the way he is because he knows no other way to be.
Which is why his reflection was so important on what he did to Myne (glossed over
too in the Anime) is a real character development in the story. I think he’s really
starting to understand that Myne’s outside of his reference and he has to change
if he wants to better understand how she is/works.
I also have no problem with giving “rewards” to those who have gone above their
assignments. I suspect that some may see this as depriving others, but that’s an
incorrect point of view. Myne provides the baseline needs to everyone (obviously,
not everyone is 100% or as strong as some of the other orphans), so the rewards are
not meant as punishment to the others.
I wonder how many really understand the Tau fruit in that world. I like how it’s
woven into the culture and on the surface it looks like a Deus Ex Machina, there
are plot lines in the story that prevent that from happening. One is that nobles
don’t partake in the Star Festival. So orphans who might have the devouring
may not be strong enough to ever participate in the Star Festival because they
would have died. So, it doesn’t seem like it’s common noble knowledge about
the Tau fruit transformation, or even known by non-nobles.
Interesting to see how this will continue to play out…
Tau Fruit really aren’t really a “Deus Ex Machina” solution for everything. They are only available for a very limited time and as will be shown later the consequences of the Trombe getting out of control are pretty serious.
The Tau fruit, to me, doesn’t feel like that much of an ass-pull. Consider:
1a) the nobility, who usually have any amount of mana, don’t do the Star Festival bit. Doubt they ever need to touch raw Tau. They’d never find out about it.
2a) even if one of them did get to touch a Tau fruit, it would be kept secret because it turns into a freaking trombe, and it would be a cheap alternative to putting away Devouring mana. It would be kept as an extreme secret.
2) the commoners, who regularly participate in the Star Festival, don’t really get mana. When they do, it tends to be the Devouring and then they’re too weak to ever get near a Tau fruit.
3) the above 2 (3?) considered, you get a situation where no mana-having individual ever touches a Tau fruit before Myne. It’s convenient as a plot device, sure, but it isn’t that weird.
Pingback: Honzuki no Gekokujou – 19 – Random Curiosity | Steamedworld News
It is one of the greatest heresies by virtue-signalers that “Child-labor”, is supposed to be immoral because it is “exploitive”. Of course, these people have no interest in the well-being of “the children” (whom they will never interact with) with which they are actually “exploiting” for their own cheap vanity.
The truth of unwanted children is well understood by mature parents and historic societies; we don’t want to encourage illegitimate children in society, but neither do we want infants (born and unborn) to be murdered for the selfish reasons of their parents (from being “inconvenienced” to preventing justified social censure), nor do we want them to become a plague on the community by becoming beggars, thieves, and miscreants.
Unwanted and parentless children have a long history, be it the infant and child sacrifices of the Cathaginians and Aztecs to the war-orphans in any society – because while every country and culture in history has orphans and engages in Warfare (which inevitably results in parentless children), NOT every culture history treats orphans with the same consideration….
….some barely mention them, let alone build “almshouses” and “orphanages”, which is a pretty good clue as to how that culture “dealt” with orphans (often to “Save Face”).
Historically, Christian medieval society developed a number of methods for “foundlings/orphans” to become pillars of society, and as many might suspect, they revolved around God; Churches, Orphanages, Hospitals, Apothecaries, etc (which in many medieval histories are all “one and the same”). There were many methods by which the Christians would make orphans more beneficial – and therefore, more accepted – in society since there MUST be a mode of “mutual benefit”.
Respect must be earned; it is not “given” as an entitlement.
Thus, one of the most effective programs the Church engendered – and one any orphan would be lucky to benefit from – was “Apprecticeship”. To learn a useful tradeskill, earn a living for yourself, and prove one’s worth to your peers, yourself, and to God, is the best way for an orphan to elevate himself from the bottom of society’s rungs.
For this this system to be essentially outlawed today on the grounds of being “exploitive” is probably one of the greatest tragedies of modern society.
After all, one of Andrew Jackson’s greatest blessings was that he was Apprenticed to a saddlemaker.
America has a long and proud history with orphans – perhaps the greatest example being that of Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States, who was orphaned at 14 during the American Revolution – and yet, IN which, he had nevertheless fought. Jackson as a soldier, General, and later a President made it a point to encourage America’s Christian society to provide for orphans who would inevitably emerge from America’s wars, as well as foundlings who would be left at the door during Peacetime, Jackson (and his wife) adopting many orphans himself.
And while these war orphanages and homes for foundlings – built by American Churches, Missionaries and American Military were historically used against them as devices by domestic opposition and foreigners; the very fruits and infrastructure of their compassion were used against them by some very evil and vain people.
The Truth, of course, is actually in direct contrast to these malicious people’s fraudulent “concerns”.
Once again: ALL cultures and countries have a history of war and poverty – thus, the emergence of war orphans and unwanted children is as true for THEM as it is for the United States and Christianity.
And thus, it is NOT the history of building orphanages and the devotion of logistics and resources that that makes that culture “shameful”.
Rather, it is the LACK of orphanages, the LACK of consideration, the LACK of HISTORY in that culture which is “shameful”.
Not “shameful” from an outsider’s perspective, but “shameful” because that culture itself is so insecure to acknowledge the mere “existence” of such unwanted or parentless children, that it rarely – if ever – even mentions them (let alone builds infrastructure to provide for them); certainly not to the extent that their wars clearly should have “necessitated” if we are using the “balanced standard” of a Christian or American context.
Here’s a research assignment for you; what contemporary cultures of the above contexts might THESE be?
One of the little tricks a lot of military historians use in their research is to look for mentions of (or the LACK of) orphans and their care in documentation and logistics of military campaigns and occupations.