thelxinoes:

Hmmm, she has to be a bit older than 15/16 right? Because she’s depicted as being around 5-6 during the Kagutsu Incident and that was 14 years ago? Double-check my math on that. I think Kagutsu happened 14 years ago, but I can’t remember where I read it. 

But I take your larger point about her mentality – she clearly doesn’t have the same sort of emotional/intellectual maturity as someone of her age should. She cares about Shiro and food and Kuro (after food, according to RoK). And so she did what she felt she had to in order to protect the things she cares about. I see what you mean. 

For me, though, I am really troubled by the whole manipulating memories thing. Like, I feel like she *does* know it’s wrong because when Shiro and Kuro are out shopping for fireworks and stuff with her, and Shiro tries to call Kukuri because he forgot the list, Neko is absolutely adamant that he not use the phone. She doesn’t want him to reach out to Kukuri because she knows that he’ll find out that he’s not who he thinks he is. And when Shiro insists on using the phone anyway, Neko runs away. She also doesn’t reverse the memory manipulation immediately when he asks. The consent issue is difficult for me as well. 

As I said, I get why she’d be attached to Shiro. And why she’d want to try to maintain and protect the only family she’s known. I would be just as fiercely possessive, I think. But I’m not okay with the method she employs. 

And I don’t want to be rude or anything, but I don’t know that it’s fair to characterize not liking a character as “ruining something for themselves” – we don’t really know if not liking a character is ruinous. Rather, it could be that hating a fictional character might be enriching because it prompts you to think about why you dislike this person and maybe thinking about these things is enjoyable for folks. We never know, right?

But I’m interested to hear how you would interpret that telephone scene, or other scenes with Neko in them! 

For my “ruination” point, I was referring to bifca’s quote on being “incapable of liking her.” It was my way of phrasing that someone’s love for a show could be dampened by thinking about it for far too long than necessary.

According to the wiki, Neko is 15 during the events of season one and 16 during the events of season two. I double-checked before sending my ask.

Even on this one scene in question with the phone, I’ll stand by my own opinion that disliking her for actions that she considered survival within her limited intelligence is just…“thinking away the enjoyment.” K has flaws, of course. Blatant oversexualization is the major of those, obviously.

But, back to my point. In the manga, Neko uses her manipulation to obtain a family. This is the same thing she did to Shiro. For her, this is as much survival as any other instinct. She is incapable of caring for herself without others. Does that make her actions justified? Of course not. But does she truly think about how she’s hurting others by keeping them from their lives? Probably not. Her thoughts are mostly on food and comfort and care. She does show compassion for others at many points. She fights alongside everyone and wants to protect the people she’s grown to care about.

She’s not some vile, manipulative person. She needs to be taught how her actions impact others.

But even all of this is looking too hard into something that was a quintessential plot device for the show to pan out the way it did. Shiro’s memory had to be wiped so that the viewer could learn as much as Shiro did about the story, at the same pace.

I find it very strange how many people can love villains and never question their favorability, but when a heroic character does something askew from a traditional moral code, everyone is up in arms.