I had to take advantage of Hulu’s ten-second rewind for the part when Ringo spooks Lyuze with her “close makeup.” My morbid mind initially thought the implication was that this otherwise-benign little girl had squished the ladybug up and then painted her face with its guts.
But no... upon re-watching, it seems that’s supposed to be pollen from the flowers.
Though, if I may so, I do still think my interpretation would’ve been an evocative visual metaphor for this series. I was thinking of that bloody smile face icon from WATCHMEN, which is so brilliant in its simplicity. See, the face is supposed to represent how even the lightest superhero stories play with violence and darker themes of fascism in a fashion that mollifies them to anybody not paying attention. Likewise, I think Ringo’s guts mask would offer something similar for how we’re having these wonky robots, absurdly-colorful sentai heroes and over-the-top balletic battles set in a colorless world and in a plot that’s ultimately about their tragic futility.
Well, everything’s futile most of the time, anyway. There’s an optimistic streak that’s becoming more pronounced, lately - - even for the bad guys. Like in this episode, where it initially looks like Dio’s being set up to be the lamest villain available until he basically gets a pep talk from Braiking Boss about how he’s got to have something to fight for if he wants to be as strong as Cassie. I feel like that was the same theme as ROCKY II, so if this plot does end up spinning out to have the bad guy overcome adversity to get strong enough to defeat the good guy, then this may actually be one of the most daring inversions of regular heroics anywhere.
Honestly, I wouldn’t totally rule that out. Lest we forget, this series started basically at the end of another story, so all bets have really been off for a long time.
Before we jet today, I’ll bring up another morbid Ringo-related scene interpretation. Did any of you lunatics see that part where she’s rescued as being like some especially forceful robot C-section? How did she get into that carcass? The grizzled guy literally pulls new life out of something dead.
Watch this episode, "For the Strength to Believe" here and decide for yourself, then read my comments on the previous episode here.
Tom Pinchuk’s a writer and personality with a large number of comics, videos and features like this to his credit. Visit his website - - tompinchuk.com - - and follow his Twitter: @tompinchuk
I think that it was supposed to be exactly the same as a birth. You have the highly skilled professional (Ouji) working with his medical tools (pipe). I was honestly confused by this. Ringo is a robot. However, they talk about her bleeding. I thought it was some sort of a reveal that she was human, and believed that she was human. Nope, not the case.
@YotaruVegeta said:
Yeah, I'm pretty confused about that, too. Is it supposed to be some kind of conductive fluid like the ALIEN androids?
I thought Ringo was a robot, and now this episode just mess me up. I just think Ringo is like Casshern but more human.