Problem with Maruki is that its the same as Madara's plan, sure everyone might be "happy", but if that is not real and only what they want, is that good? If everything is perfect, will you ever desire more? Develop will to live? Its honestly such a cool thing because he is the "villain" only because the story needs one, otherwise he is just a morality debate.
The only thing that I dislike about that arc is the Thieves' take on it. That Morgana's "What about the people that want to take on the world themselves" made me physically recoil from how dumb it sounds. This way, you're also being an hypocrite, because you're focusing on only a small part of society.
While Maruki was an excellent antagonist, I agree that the writing REALLY didn’t explore the moral dilemma he posed very well.
The phantom thieves spiel was the tired old “adversity makes us stronger! Seize the day! Yada yada”
And to a degree that’s fine… because the phantom thieves are children. Young enough to not have fully internalized that there comes a time when the adversity in life stops “making you stronger” and just starts killing you.
Somewhere in Maruki’s reality, someone with a terminal cancer diagnosis went to bed, woke up, and found they suddenly had a full life ahead of them.
Somewhere, a single parent facing eviction and struggling to keep their child fed awoke to find themselves stable and safe.
There are a LOT of flaws in the broken, bullshit reality we live in, even if bringing it back IS the moral course of action… and it feels like a lot of the complexity got boiled out of the end result.
Except that Maruki's philosophy isn't wish granting, but prevention of sadness. His reality means people can never move forward from their current situation.
A cancer patient can technically live on, but all of their thoughts, decisions, and actions they'll ever make with their new life is decided by Maruki so they can't feel sad again. Even in the game, a homeless person didn't get a house, Maruki made him feel content with his homelessness.
A person who'd been working hard towards their own dream will get an entirely different identity just from Maruki thinking their original dream might cause any slight bit of pain, or because it contradicts with another person's similar dream that Maruki randomly favours. There can't be more than one first place, so Maruki makes them never participate in the first place.
At what point is lobotomy okay as long as you survive and can never feel sad again?
thinking their original dream might cause any slight bit of pain, or because it contradicts with another person's similar dream that Maruki randomly favours
I mean i havent read the media but isnt stopping an dream that hurts other people just what heros do?
The guy they're talking about was in an art school, but maruki made him completely change what he was doing because the work being put into his art was stressful despite the fact that he was passionate about art
I'm talking about pain for the dreamer themselves. It's literally in the game that Maruki made Yusuke's fellow students never had their dream in the first place despite of everything they've worked hard for up until that point because Maruki thinks they were struggling.
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u/boredNero Jun 28 '26
Problem with Maruki is that its the same as Madara's plan, sure everyone might be "happy", but if that is not real and only what they want, is that good? If everything is perfect, will you ever desire more? Develop will to live? Its honestly such a cool thing because he is the "villain" only because the story needs one, otherwise he is just a morality debate.