u/airashiratori11

For Aristotle, in his Poetics, fiction is the art of lying well. The art of lying well consists of presenting something false and impossible, but combining it with something true, so that the audience, believing the second part, swallows the first.

For Aristotle, art works with the probable impossibility, which is an event that, in the real world (in physics, logic, and real-world history), is impossible to happen, but, within the internal logic of the story, seems perfectly natural, inevitable, and true.

The improbable possibility, on the other hand, is an event that, in the real world, is perfectly possible, but, within the plot, sounds forced, false, gratuitous, and breaks the causal logic of the story.

The spectator is not there to see a newspaper report or a documentary, which is what actually happened, but to see what should or could happen according to the logic of emotions and human characters. If a scene is emotionally true for that character, the audience accepts even the impossible.

Aristotle teaches that if something is impossible or irrational, the author could justify it if that makes the final effect more grandiose. Things are portrayed as they should be, which is idealization and people believe that it is true, even if it is not.

That is why we accept the way the count escaped, how he found the treasure, and how he infiltrated Villefort's house.

Within the very logic of the 2002 film, which follows the improbable possibility, we could accept that outcome. We could say that the ending follows the logic of idealization, of how the ending should be.

Manga, anime, and light novels that involve magic and harems may sound absurd by real-world logic, but within the context of the story, we accept them as perfectly plausible. Even the reincarnation of Ruby Hoshino and Aquamarine in Oshi no Ko might sound absurd by real-world logic, yet within the context of the story, the audience accepts it.

The book's ending is more realistic. The Count's ending with Haydée is much more realistic, due to the similarities they have with each other: betrayal, loss of freedom and of their fathers, and the pursuit of revenge. It strongly resembles Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: when he was released from the Gulag, the reconciliation with his first wife, Natalia Reshetovskaya, did not work out very well. But he had changed too much, and they constantly fought. Later, he met the young Natalia Svetlova, who had a life similar to his; and despite the 21-year age difference, the similarities in their life histories brought them closer, and they stayed together. Like the Count and Haydée, their similarities united them.

But within the logic of the fiction itself, we could accept Edmond and Mercédès as viable.

But which ending would be more cathartic: Edmond returning to Mercédès, or Edmond leaving with Haydée?

https://reddit.com/link/1uc6og6/video/gc5kv558hq8h1/player

In addition to losing her mother, who no longer recognized her, Asuka also suffered from her father's neglect. He seemed more interested in pursuing a relationship with the doctor who cared for her mother. It is easy to imagine the negative view of relationships that she developed. The pain of losing her mother and her father's neglect were not enough; she also witnessed her father being unfaithful to her mother and appearing more concerned with his own romantic life.

Asuka became afraid of loving someone because she feared disappointment and emotional pain. Seeing that her father appeared more interested in physical intimacy than in genuine emotional connection, I sometimes wonder whether part of her sexualized behavior stemmed from that experience. Perhaps she came to believe that she could only attract people's attention by presenting herself in a sexualized way.

In addition to her fear of emotional pain, she used her appearance and provocative attitude to gain attention, first from Kaji and later from Shinji. When Shinji saved Asuka in Episode 10, at the volcano, she was happy because he rescued her without expecting anything in return and without valuing her only for her usefulness. Asuka may have felt that someone could care about her regardless of her worth as a pilot or her usefulness to others.

However, she struggled to open up emotionally and did not know how to express herself in other ways. As a result, she often relied on provocation and flirtatious behavior. One example was when she asked Shinji for a kiss, but did so in a provocative manner instead of directly expressing her feelings.

https://reddit.com/link/1uazx0q/video/1vzmjn6flg8h1/player

When Shinji saves Asuka from inside the volcano, where she could have died, he does so on his own initiative, without receiving orders from anyone. After Asuka defeats Sandalphon, she realizes that perhaps someone cares about her regardless of her value as a pilot or how useful she is.

Because of this, in episode 15, she tries, in her own way, to emotionally invest in Shinji when she kisses him to test his feelings, hoping that he would hold her and show affection toward her.

https://reddit.com/link/1u9qk06/video/ba8utahlo58h1/player

Asuka knows that Shinji is attracted to her, but she sets a condition: a complete and fearless surrender from Shinji to her, instead of just using her as an emotional crutch.

She is attracted to Shinji, but his fear of getting closer (along with the traumas that Asuka also has) creates a strong barrier that prevents them from being together.

Behind the arrogance in Asuka's behavior and the confidence she displays, there is a fragile girl who witnessed her mother commit suicide and her father being unfaithful to her mother with the doctor who was caring for her. This likely left a deep emotional wound in Asuka, leading her to build a mask of independence and maturity, acting as though she needed no one.

Asuka treated Shinji with apparent disdain, yet she was always trying, in one way or another, to interact with him or get his attention. Because she could not set aside her mask and admit that she was developing feelings for that fragile boy who, in some ways, reminded her of herself, she used her body to attract him.

She openly showed contempt for Shinji and interest in Kaji, but this was merely a mask designed to project the image not of a vulnerable girl, but of a mature woman. In reality, she was trying to get closer to Shinji in order to ease her loneliness.

Les Misérables is the worst book I have ever read.

Jean Valjean lives tormented by guilt. What the bishop did for Jean Valjean was not to free him, but to imprison him in an immense sense of guilt that only served to torment him endlessly, leaving him feeling indebted and constantly trying to atone for the mistakes of his past.

What is even worse is that he lived only for Cosette and to make peace with his past, with no room to enjoy life, trapped in a perverse asceticism caused by a guilty conscience, all because of Bishop Myriel.

The book glorifies pain and suffering as if they were something noble, emphasizing everything he went through to redeem himself from his past.

What happened was sadism and torture disguised as redemption.

Could it be that Tatsu will do like Waki Yamato in Haikara-San: Here Comes Miss Modern? Shinobu had lost his memory, and when a great earthquake occurs in Tokyo in 1923, he regains his memory and returns to Benio. Could it be that this attack that the black paladins suffered maybe by seeing the attack that Okarun is suffering could awaken her memories, just like what happened with Shinobu?

Interesting how Asuka and Shinji were similar. Asuka piloted the Evangelion so that she would be useful and thus receive attention from everyone, just as Shinji pilots the Evangelion to feel useful. Neither of them thinks that maybe someone could like them for who they are, for the relationship itself, but only because they are useful because they need them to protect themselves from the Angel attacks. Even in Asuka's approach to Shinji, she cannot get close to him naturally; she uses her body, because she thinks that since she is pretty, Shinji wouldn't resist her, and he could indeed offer emotional support to her, since he lost his mother and was rejected by his father just like she was.