Weve all watched Steven Universe right? For a time my favorite character was Garnet. Thats why I immeditaly saw a huge incoherence when the writters suddenly decided to change the ideas they wanted to convey through the character. Garnet being the fusion of Ruby and Sapphire was an allegory for love. Ruby and Sapphire loved eachother so much that they became the same entity in perfect union and understanding of themselves. The song Stronger than youhttps://www..com/watch?v=JpXcpiOdp4s banger btw is a clear tribute to their relationship with quotes like: Im made of love This is who we are this is who I am. 500https://64.media.tumblr.com/9cabf8afa1cd43e9698608a006ce3d0f/tumblrinlineoqzi5s8ZwU1uua1t5500.jpg However later in the show the writers separated Ruby and Sapphire into distinct characters that went like Why are you so surprised to see us unfused? We both have our own lives you know. In addition we learned that they apparently always unfused themselves to go on daily activities. That doesnt make sense in the slightest the whole basis of their character were them always being fused together and this change obviously wasnt planned since we only ever saw them as Garnet before. I understand why they did that. The writers wanted to avoid sending the wrong message about always doing everything with your partner always sharing the same viewpoints and not giving eachother space. But then they could have just made a dedicated episode where the two characters decide to separate themselves rather than this. Instead of addressing the issue straightforwardly they pretended it was never a mistake to begin with. They could have easily corrected the inconsistency instead of making up a new story that isnt even coherent with the original one straight up lying to us in an attempt to cover the whole thing up. I dont know about you but I call this gaslight and thats what were going to discuss in this review. Gaslighting in fiction. 500https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/711862997638971486/1193908155235713116/Untitleddesign36.png?ex=65ae6c9dis=659bf79dhm=b5150325157c10395055ce7dc102302e3b9501c82bbd7f2b794918d86a001642 spoilers This one is kind of a special review because Im not going to deal with the entierty of Moriarty The Patriot but only with chapter 48 to 56. The finale of the first cour of the manga. Why? Because I found those chapters to be atrocious. I always really liked this story so talking sht about it saddens me but the ending was such a disappoinment for me that I just had to. I wont care too much about the presentation of the review this time around as it is more of a structured ramble than anything else. Chapter 48 opens up with the consequences of Sherlock killing Milverton his death causing the identity of the Prince of Crime to be revealed publicly. William decides to run away without his brothers so that the Queen only targets him and consider him to be the only Prince of Crime. He decides to take all the blame on himself and wishes for Sherlock to kill him as the final act eliminating all the demons of England. His brothers Sherlock Fred and Sebastian basically all refuse to adhere to this plan as William would be the only one suffering. This premise is pretty good and promising Ive got nothing against it but as always the execution is the problem. LETS SEE HOW IDEOLOGY IS RIDICULED BY PSYCHOLOGY I bear no personal hatred against you... Im simply here to execute your sentence William to one of the aristocrat he kills. This quote is supposed to explain Williams mindset. He doesnt kill for fun he kils as a duty. Right. His whole childhood was messed up because of the aristocrats he was bullied by them he dedicates his whole life to kiling them yet... Yet he doesnt feel even an ounce of joy by doing so. Hes almost like a messenger sent by god to do his work. Id like to bring up a quote from the movie Se7en: But it seems to me that youre overlooking a contradiction. If you were chosen by a higher power if your hands was forced it would seem strange to me that youd get such enjoyment from it. You enjoy torturing these people. That doesnt seem to fit with martyrdom does it? What I like about Se7en is that the writters made a character that killed for the greater good but still gave him a believable mindset. Hed like to see himself as someone who just accomplishes his duty but the fact he enjoys it prooves that hes not the saint hes pretending to be. Its possible for humans to be selfless but to the point you purposefully dedicate your entire life to something for ohters whilst not feeling any sort of satisfaction from it whatsoever? Nah its impossible. Its beautiful and touching thematically wise but its just unbelievable from a psychological viewpoint. I can forgive fiction for being unrealistic thats the whole point of it in a way but when you write something completely unrealistical you at least have to make it believable to your viewers. Take by example Luffy Luffy isnt a realistical character mainly because of his surhuman willpower his confidence and his insane goals but hes still believable to my eyes because hes represented as someone with normal human feelings and interactions. If Luffy were not to feel ANY enjoyment from beating the bad guys or freeing nations then his character would be completely unbelievable. Thats my problem with William him not feeling any joy from his revenge is just a pathetical attempt to make the viewers see him as a martyrdom and a poor victim. I hope you understand I used Luffy as an example because everyone knows about him Im not saying Moriarty should be like OP... clarification: The example of Luffy from One Piece is used to illustrate that even unrealistic characters can be believable if they exhibit normal human feelings and interactions. In contrast Williams lack of joy from revenge is seen as an unrealistic attempt to portray him as a martyr without making him believable. NARRATIVE MANIPULATION TO MAKE YOU THINK OF WILLIAM AS A VICTIM AND NOT AN ACTOR OF HIS SITUATION Ryousuke Takeuchi is an expert at manipulating his audience. I have to give him credits for that. In the scene below Fred is a vessel to convey the readers voices. He asks the same question wed ask to William making this exchange very significant in the story. read it from to 49https://blogger.googleusercontent.com//b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEvAuPE9P6JjFhVYsrDLWXz6strdj6amSiOXWVbD3MuSEyJFhWAPdzyQvelNy9mPXRBWfssYErC4awOCrw3HumZysbRBgw59IATs82pwxZNwvCT95zSxlAwYoYiCKd2ALJmcMjj1ED3OlKGNMofDMqLBDNDmluOVYCAM3WmMNcQmkyqi0Q/s1400/31.jpg 49https://blogger.googleusercontent.com//b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf3Yoh98qC9JCuNcrKF5FYE4owncpkrTTBSEuhNROBwSr19iohVoUpg2K7AsI58wXtZY7Lina4lh1fMmbhyAEc0BnOwRSA2e8hNB0dASHJL1H125pdaOO9RDAcKVQvugcSJzSPNZ4pS4dhvS4d4mit5t8NknmKNBj8NcpolNS66FCa1mQoeA/s1400/32.jpg Before that its stated that William thinks of himself as horribly as the people he kills. Of course normally readers whove followed his story since the begining of the manga do not agree with William. Yes hes done some killing but unlike the others he only kills for the greater good. A normal reader would naturally forgive his actions. Look at the second panel William is saying that he cant forgive himself. Hes so gentle and kind and nice that he cant forgive himself for something the readers already forgave him for. This is a genius move to make him seem like a saint. Hes even more virtous than the readers. Hes portrayed as a victim of his own plan even though hes the main actor. This could be intersting narratively wise but its only done as a way to victimize him. This is crazy because at some point in the story I was like Come on next they gonna say hes like Jesus or sum and the impossible happened. 500https://blogger.googleusercontent.com//b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFHTZHFyJLZ8LWG9y4mDphftpIp0t144MWJSs4R9plM3lHoPYZI1l3qfJ01SkQOXrI0ISwSzRggQ0tg5wMBMK4aXythuG3isn8HtLkmTYBV9g5NA54Q5DaE88WQUk48ySIprKBvaspfjHVCDSeTDWtSYozrsjU9tdAZPgnf8aYJbZLb57PwZZg/s1468/23.jpg You cant make this up lmao. William is canonicly the Jesus of Moriarty The Patriot. This is such a bad way to describe a serial killer. This is disappointing because I can think of many movies or shows liks Oppenheimer Se7en Berserk Code Geass and F/Z that have a similar plot but they all portray the hypocrisy of their character and their flaws along with glorifying them. In Moriarty The Patriot theres only mindless glorification its not even nuanced. William is just genuinely a perfect human being. Every possible flaws he could have is cut off from the narrative and replaced by positive characteristics. Its a shame that a manga dealing with psychology fails so incredibly at giving a believable psychology to the main character. If I were to be mean I wouldnt even call this a psychological manga its just ideological through and through no matter how unbelievable it is. I still apreciate Moriarty as a whole but I dont know if im going to continue the manga after this disaster honestly. If youre wondering my original rating was 83/10 this arc lowered it to 7/10