@auralynn3862

4 years ago

This was the turning point. This was when the series became truly agonizing to watch. Not because it was bad or because this was just too sad... but because it was far too real. Shinichi finds out his mother is dead... and is then assaulted near-fatally by her visage. The trauma of loss, then the trauma of perceived betrayal. Everything changes here. His body is scarred in ways that externalize his inward trauma, and everything about him starts to change from his physical abilities to his behavior and emotional spectrum... and so he starts thinking he's becoming less human. And when he threw away the puppy's corpse, we wanted so badly to hug him and tell him that it was okay... that he wasn't becoming a sociopath or a monster... that he was just struggling to process the concept of death and its effect on the living... that a part of him was trying to devalue the dead in a desperate bid for normalcy, as if it would make the death of his mother less tragic and horrific. This is the most thoroughly written media portrayal of PTSD we've seen... not only exploring the "shell shock," but the depression and many-faceted alienation. The feeling of your trauma holding a knife to every throat surrounding you. The feeling of becoming less human - becoming an unfeeling or hateful monster. Losing or nearly losing friends because they can't understand because you sincerely can't find a way to tell them what's happening to you.

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