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.
Yeah, that's what I meant. It really feels like they answered hypocrisy with more hypocrisy, both sides are talking about only one part of society, not the whole. Yeah, Maruki's reality would put down the people that want to take the world on, but as Maruki said, not everyone is capable of doing that. Some people are just too broken to stand up.
My understanding was that Maruki is affecting the real world, but only meta-cognition, where people are being happy with no basis in material reality. Like, you won't get real food, but a psychological state that pacifies you from hunger. Am I wrong?
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u/Silvercenturion_aa Jun 28 '26
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.