Charlotte - Episode 4 "Moment of Earnest"

Key Discussion
#88

No, he’s talking down on you for telling everyone else that they are wrong for thinking negatively about this episode. I havent seen a single person say: “This show is so bad, Im dropping it” or “This show has done nothing right”. Most people didnt even think that this was a bad episode. The average rating is above 3 after all.

[quote=“Naoki_Saten, post:87, topic:1669”]
There’s more to think about and to analyze than the one thing you mentioned. If you can’t find those, don’t just claim they don’t exist.
[/quote]Well, I hate to be rude here, but since you yourself could only come up with 4 relevant, “analyzed” things to discuss, and they were all just minor facts that, while may be true, theres not really anything to say about, I would say that this episode didnt really have much to analyze.

[quote=“Naoki_Saten, post:87, topic:1669”]
Everyone was talking about how Yuu was being a boring character but nobody tried to find out why. And when I did try to find out, you know, to bring something new to the discussion, all I got as a response was “Well, he’s still boring right now.”
[/quote]All you did was repeat what was discussed after episode two, about how Yuu now has to adapt and doesnt know what to do. That was fine in episode 2, but its been a while since then. If they can come up with some miraculous excuse for why the biggest narcissus on the planet lost his entire character and just gave up on doing anything, then I will applaud them.

[quote=“Naoki_Saten, post:87, topic:1669”]
There’s more characters in the main cast than just Nao and Yuu. If characters appeared in an episode and did something, then there’s something to talk about.
[/quote]Not really. The only reason the rest of them are better than Yuu is because they seem to have some kind of personality. But besides Nao, and maybe Misa last episode, none of them do anything worth while, none of them seem to be developing at all. Again, thats not *necessarily a bad thing, but with the series almost 1/3 of the way over, its starting to worry me a bit.

1 Like
#89

I do agree but there’s only so much you can say like:
“Joujiro was still an idiot fangirling over Yusa”
“Yusa’s reactions to water guy were funny.”
“I liked Misa trying to be athletic in a body that wasn’t meant to be”
“Ayumi is still cute/annoying”

None of them really did anything this episode and unless you have something to say about them or a theory based on information from this episode specifically then this isn’t the right thread for talking about them.

Not sure why that defaulted. I wrote in the general discussion thread why I thought people might be negative in general so far but the complaints are at least mostly things exclusive to this episode (besides Yuu and pizza sauce). Maybe a week is too long to keep discussing without these threads going dead or complaining? Not sure what a work around would be though, plus negativity was among the first comments so that’s probably not right anyway.

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#90

Wow. I… already have. I analyzed pre-release content. Episode 1 and 2 generally only covered the obvious things that we had already speculated.
There just hasn’t been anything to analyze. That’s my problem. I love stories that have hidden insight or multiple interpretations, I invest hours into those types of stories. My favorite route of Litbus is heavy on the speculation front. My favorite Key VN - Tomoyo After - is something that birthed plenty of theories in my mind. Heck, I moderate an ARG wiki. ARGs are 100% analysis.
I’m not denying that there is something deeper… It’s plainly obvious that there isn’t. There’s stuff in the OP, and there’s foreshadowing, but episode 4 introduced nothing new to the show.

I think you need to clear your thoughts.

A reason for being bad doesn’t make him not bad. That’s the problem. He could be handled better, instead of being a voice that randomly pops up to make a comment, or a figure to follow around.
It’s obvious why he’s boring. The dude is introduced to a crazy situation, made to swallow his own words, shown that his powers aren’t all that special, and made to question why he does all the little things he does. He needs time, naturally… but that’s not entertaining. Either make his confusion last only for an episode, or make him act in a surprising way that kick-starts character development.

Yeah, the episode was okay. It has it’s place as a lead-up to the upcoming drama.

1 Like
#91

The Devil’s Proof is for Witches, not humans. If someone says ‘there’s nothing to analyse in this episode’ they aren’t lying, nor are they false. (Well they could be, but that’d be breaching several linguistic guides) They genuinely believe what they are saying, what they are saying is true to them. If you disagree, that’s fine. Your truth can exist next to another person’s.

I saw the chance to shitpost Umineko style, so I did.

Not to me there isn’t. Charlotte hasn’t done anything to suggest me talking about why a character is wearing certain things, why their actions matter, and what everything entails. It simply doesn’t feel like Utena, Fujiko Mine, Night on the Galactic Railroad, Penguindrum, Kanashimi no Belladonna etc. In that respect neither does it really feel like Little Busters or Rewrite in that regard.

I’m not saying your thoughts and feelings are wrong. I’m saying you damn well don’t get to claim they should be my thoughts and feelings.

In a similar respect I’m not entirely sure where you think this thread is people hating on the show. If people dislike something, it’s something to talk about. Example, pizza sauce. I’m fairly certain the people who dislike that gag are actually in the minority. I’m fairly certain more people like it. The difference is, someone who’s okay with that gag probably don’t have much to say about it. Whilst if someone actively dislikes it, it’s something to say.

I guess in some meta aspect this episode gave me something to talk about I suppose. Philosophy of criticism is interesting after all. Kinda.

#92

It’s like looking at reddit, or online reviews. Sure, most of it is composed of negative comments, but that’s because the people with a positive view have nothing to say.
The pizza sauce joke is okay. It’s a Key thing, and I kinda expect it, so whatever.

#93

You should really come on to the character discussion thread, where we talk about things from a more long-term perspective. For example:

#94

I’m late but hey this show is still really bad c’mon team step it up

1 Like
#95

I’ll just say that my problem with this discussion is that it’s too much of a circlejerk going over the same shit. “Man that pizza sauce gag sure is bad” “This episode was boring filler” “Yusa is bland”

Yes. We understand. You don’t need to keep going over the same criticisms for 90 posts. Just because you haven’t said it yet doesn’t mean you need to add to the chorus. Discuss something else! Circular discussions aren’t fun for anyone.

Let’s freshen this up with something interesting. Why didn’t we see Yuu possessing the baseball dude? We saw his power working, then he wakes up in Nao’s arms. What was this little scene hoping to achieve? Did the power work and we just didn’t see it, or did something interfere with his power? Maybe there’s more to these powers than we realise, and Tomori knows something we don’t. Would Tomori really tell Yuu (and by extension the audience) that he isn’t the subject if she was lying? Let’s try and suss this out a bit.

#97

I was curious about that too, but naively thought that it was cause it was another power user. However we’ve already seen him possess another power user in episode 2 so… that’s out the window. My question is, is it something specifically to do with possessing the baseball guy (i.e. something specific to the situation), or just something she wanted to see out of the blue?

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#98

IMHO the scientists aren’t going to be part of the big twist, at least not directly. I presume there will be a group of antagonists fighting our MCs. I have to check someday, but I believe they even appear on the OP

#99

We don’t know. It’s blatant foreshadowing.
As I said before, I’m pretty sure she was testing the catcher guy with glasses or something.

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#100

That’s an interesting point, but I do hope something involving the scientists does occur, perhaps one of them is captured and begins to be experimented on? I feel if it’s just two groups of super powered characters fighting each other it won’t become very powerful as a show. Then again, that’s the plot of fate/zero and that show has quite an impact, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see haha

#101

Ah, I knew it! I had a hunch, but had no way of confirming it until now. The telekinesis baseball guy in this episode, Fukuyama Arifumi was voiced by Kimura Ryouhei - the same guy who voiced Hinata in Angel Beats!

So we can safely look forward to more guest roles for voice actors from other key Works! There’s been 3 of them in 4 episodes so far ^^

3 Likes
#102

Hello folks,

I’ve just noticed something (maybe is nothing) but still… it was on the back of my head all this time, but now (while re-watching ep.3 “is my video-camera ok?” scene) I’ve thought: these guys don’t pay any attention to their bodies. At least it seems bodies aren’t too relevant in their priorities.

Maybe what they really fear is (a word from the subliminal findings) the “collapse”, collapse of their minds, so they don’t really care about the body.

Remember the Futon scene? A collapsed mind, nothing to do… she’s not cold maybe, she just is accepting the fact that his brother is in hell (as a metaphor).
The previous camera broken scene. The cafeteria when he uses his power to grab sandwiches, without giving any major attention to a “head that is bleeding” or other injuries “happens all the time” (ep.2 and 3.).

Maybe their bodies are empty shells? Hmmm nah. My personal bet are (still is) they’re angels (probably as a metaphor, with scientific explanation).
Think about it feathers, Shooting Stars are associated to angels and fallen angels in some cultures, Consciousness or “souls”, supernatural topics (“posession” -angel related-), and… Key as a co.going back to his roots. It is just a theory.

How-Low-Hello… now “Ho-Lo” (if my memory is right) HoLo Hell?
Holographic (non-real-bodies) Hell?

If you are a “consciousness” without a real body: what would you be afraid of?
I think mental/consciousness collapse of some kind.

Finally, we all saw the electric discharges… what’s that I’ve thought. Then I remembered E=mc²… If you have no body, you have no mass in the classical sense… then you are E, energy. Energy as consciousness…

My 2 cents
P.S.: I’ve just remembered that some of us felt that this is somehow linked to Angel Beats anime / VN.

#103

So, this episode was interesting in terms of subtle developments. First, we see some extent to Nao’s planning here in this episode, particularly with regard to Yuu. In episode one she (indirectly) gave him the feeling that his power can’t solve everything. In episode two she showed him what can happen if you are caught, and also what might happen if you rely too heavily on your powers. In episode three, Yuu experienced how one might be able to utilize their powers to help others, while they can. Finally, here in episode four, Yuu experiences accomplishment without having to rely (solely) on his power.

tl;dr: Nao is actively helping Yuu move forward.

Personally, I found this episode to be a good fit, given where everything’s at so far. It felt lacking in some ways, but I’m not going to fault it for that.

[quote=“Aspirety, post:95, topic:1669”]
Why didn’t we see Yuu possessing the baseball dude? We saw his power working, then he wakes up in Nao’s arms.
[/quote]Nao likes Yuu, so she wanted him to wake up in her arms… :v

To answer seriously though, I’ve been thinking about this a little bit as well. When they introduced the catcher I figured “Okay, maybe this guy also has a power?” The way they interacted with each other seemed pretty… ambiguous. Perhaps the catcher was on to the existence of the supernaturals, and Nao wanted to check his reaction. But then wouldn’t she have been focused on that power user, instead of Yuu? However, Yuu woke up in her arms, and that was probably the point. Maybe Nao wanted to check what happens to Yuu when he uses his power. But then, there would be inconsistencies with the setting. (But, there are already similar inconsistencies. For example (although I haven’t put too much thought in this), in episode one, how did Nao get to that riverbank so quickly?)

I probably have more to say about this episode, but I’ll leave it at this for now. Sorry, there were a lot of posts prior to this, so I’ll have to give a proper look over them. Hopefully nothing here overlaps too much with previous posts.

#104

I guess I never talked about it, but what was going on in my mind when Nao asked Yuu to take over the pitcher guy was the specific power that they have. I was thinking “Maybe because both their powers are related to mind-control, they might not be able to affect each other” or something like that.

I guess it’s interesting how we weren’t even shown whether yuu was successful at hijacking the pitcher guy. For all we know, that might have been the first time that Yuu failed at it, and we just weren’t shown on-screen. And if he did fail, then why? Is it because their powers conflict with each other? Or is Yuu’s power getting weaker? I have no idea since we were given so little information to come by

1 Like
#105

ANGEL BEATS SEQUEL CONFIRMED

2 Likes
#106

Anime ORIGINAL confirmed. There’s a reason why it’s called "Original’ and not “Sequal” :slight_smile: Have a nice day

#107

I’m fairly certain Kanon was kidding haha

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#108

Yeah @Kotarou ,like the meme “Illuminati confirmed” :wink: I like to even laugh at myself about this.

Anyway that’s the point of a forum. To debate, speculate, and so on… we can speculate to a certain degree 'cos of the patters from previous works and topics, and at the same time we may have almost no idea of what’s going on. That’s what we all have been doing from ep1 and before. Little information escapes the studios and it is instantly shared here, but then again… too little. Things will get interesting in ep.6 I hope (when our petit theories will fall or make any sense). Some things may change its meaning in the very last episode. On the other hand, lets be careful about it, we can start a rumour among fans / potential fans easily though.