If you think about it differently, instead of a shitty admiral, he's a nice admiral (having a taxi ready for her to go to town, giving her more opportunities to improve herself)
If you think about it differently, instead of a shitty admiral, he's a nice admiral (having a taxi ready for her to go to town, giving her more opportunities to improve herself)
I think of it as tough love. As I posted later in this series, my theory is that the admiral used to be a personality type much like Akebono - outwardly brash, boastful, and bullying to hide an inner vulnerability - and he's teasing her to help her see that, as embarrassing as it may be to be vulnerable, nothing actually bad is going to happen to her.
(In the case of this particular episode, I finally decided she's more than capable of handling this tougher mission - maybe she's a high-leveled Akebono with close to max stats for her class - and as embarrassing as her lack of "displacement" may be, the other heavier kanmusu are ones he can trust not to tease Akebono about it.)
I think of it as tough love. As I posted later in this series, my theory is that the admiral used to be a personality type much like Akebono - outwardly brash, boastful, and bullying to hide an inner vulnerability - and he's teasing her to help her see that, as embarrassing as it may be to be vulnerable, nothing actually bad is going to happen to her.
Honestly, I think I'd disagree with some of the people who say things like this.
While humorous, I'd say a large part of Akebono's tsundereness is directly from a lack of ability to feel like she can be open about her feelings. Which basically either means she feels her feelings are embarrassing or wrong, that she feels she can't trust telling anyone about herself for fear of ridicule, or that she has to overcompensate to prove her worth, since she feels she is too incapable and has to show everyone up and bluff about how good she is or how little she needs others. (See the hidden exercise.)
Whichever one of those it is, repeatedly humiliating her would only worsen the problem. She'd feel more of a need to prove her worth after she gets repeatedly mocked, feel that having feelings of attachment to others is even more shameful after being shamed for feeling them, and feel that she has to separate herself even more from her fellows to prove herself worthy.
Now, of course, the whole point of this is humor and schadenfreude, not proper emotional adjustment to society, but the idea that humiliating others is good for them strikes me as perverse.
Honestly, I think I'd disagree with some of the people who say things like this.
While humorous, I'd say a large part of Akebono's tsundereness is directly from a lack of ability to feel like she can be open about her feelings. Which basically either means she feels her feelings are embarrassing or wrong, that she feels she can't trust telling anyone about herself for fear of ridicule, or that she has to overcompensate to prove her worth, since she feels she is too incapable and has to show everyone up and bluff about how good she is or how little she needs others. (See the hidden exercise.)
Whichever one of those it is, repeatedly humiliating her would only worsen the problem. She'd feel more of a need to prove her worth after she gets repeatedly mocked, feel that having feelings of attachment to others is even more shameful after being shamed for feeling them, and feel that she has to separate herself even more from her fellows to prove herself worthy.
Now, of course, the whole point of this is humor and schadenfreude, not proper emotional adjustment to society, but the idea that humiliating others is good for them strikes me as perverse.
You may be right. It may be instead that the admiral still is the bullying sort, and he's just gotten more precise about it.
You may be right. It may be instead that the admiral still is the bullying sort, and he's just gotten more precise about it.
To elaborate a little...
In post #1627992 (the one leading up to this), you can see where she flips on the tsundere switch in the bottom right panel, where her face goes funny. It's the point where she starts getting praised, and she doesn't know how to handle it. People who aren't used to being praised (whether by being unused to people, or just more used to abuse, and therefore naturally defensive) tend to react defensively to praise.
In post #1618242, she is basically just going out to have fun on her day off, and gets caught and "punished" for doing so. In post #1713359, she shows she's already paranoid, but still gets caught. Clearly, the moral of the story is that she shouldn't ever try to enjoy herself, right? It just leads to humiliation.
Oh, and she shouldn't try to excel, either, because post #1647498 shows what happens if she tries to improve herself...
post #1692039 and post #1692040, she's basically just berating herself over her inability to relate to others without becoming completely defensive, only to be further humiliated about it just after, rather than helped. Ushio's the only one even attempting to reach out to her. (If you don't count the cat, at least...) Oh, and of course, being nice to the cat is also punished in post #1762372, so clearly she should cut off that tie, as well.
As a sort of aside, it seems odd that it's always Akebono and Ushio paired up as friends like that, even though I don't remember anything actually in the game pointing to those two in particular being close. (Rather than anyone else in the 7th des div, that is.) I have a sort of headcanon that, especially after seeing so many things like post #1714007 or post #1687812 where Ushio is a victim of sexual abuse, and the way that Akebono specifically is angry at the Admiral in the game for attempting to "see her naked" as the reason to call (presumed) him a "shitty admiral" that Ushio (if not Akebono as well) is a sexual abuse victim, and Akebono's severe personality is a result of her feelings of guilt and powerlessness to do anything for her only friend.