Long rant ahead; feel free to ignore it, as its more babbling on Kyros/Secrecy/misunderstandings etc. I just had some free time for once, and could use some mental excercise - plus, these things take up too much brainspace if I leave them unwritten .
[Hide]@Robby:
Sanji-I have to stay on the Baratie forever because I'm an awful kid and I owe Zeff too much.
Kyros- I can't stay with the princess because I am unworthy and filthy.
Sanji- But, there's this opportunity to live my dreams… but no, I can't.
Kyros- But, there's this opportunity to live my dreams... but no, I can't.
Baratie chefs- you idiot. We don't care about that. Now we're goign to make an elaborate show so you can do what you have to.
Dresserossa- you idiot. We don't care about that. Now we're goign to make an elaborate show so you can do what you have to.
See, this is where the deciding difference is. Both cases involve deceit, but in the case of Sanji, him leaving Baratie to go exploring is the ”right” decision, and the actions of the chefs ultimately pushed him towards that. It was done to affect a positive outcome.
This is not really applicable to the Dressrosan situation; in fact, it’s the opposite. 16 years ago the aim of Scarlet and Kyros was not to abandon their responsibilities but just to live together, and they create a whole scam for this cause. The secrecy, both from the Royals and the citizens is not causing a net a positive outcome; its not negative either, but it was ultimately a pointless exercise. Because Riku might’ve said that some people wouldn’t accept Kyros (unsubstantiated by the story since the only case of hostility on display towards him after his first year in the Coliseum was Scarlet, immediately called out as irrational by her sister), but evidently this was not the case. Everyone knew about Kyros and Scarlet all along, and no one took issue with it, no one busted their charade. It’d only take a single stuck-up citizen to bring the whole thing down. Now, I’m not saying Kyros and Scarlet didn’t live happily, but we readers know they could’ve evidently done that in public, without trying to con their entire nation. The lies ultimately didn’t benefit anyone.
The real drama is with the later chapters, of course:
@Robby:
You're letting someone do what they want, because you believe its what they want. None of those citizens knew Kyros personally, who are they to question their beloved hero and princess? If the king wants to sneak out in stupid costumes, let him have his fun. They didn't know he was leaving forever, or wasn't just going to stay on that hillside and meet in secret again, or whatever. "Living in the boonies makes him happy."
You can speculate many reasons why it makes sense that characters withhold Y information in X ways, but the problem is that we, as readers, are privy to the whole picture. We can see how ultimately pointless and potentially harmful all the secrecy and bullshit really is, how flimsy the excuse for the drama is. Because here, it was used to forge conflict and problems, instead of promote positive change, in the “doing what is best for you even if I have to make myself look like an ass” style of Sanji, Chopper, Franky and others. In contrast to Sanjis situation, Kyros abandoning Rebecca and leaving Dressrosa is the wrong outcome. The secrecy was creating a problem, and that goes for Kyros personally too: His decision to keep “lying to his loved ones because he knows what was best for her” was undisputedly the bad call, creating entirely avoidable drama. And unlike with Sanji and others, the citicens never come around to reavealing their true feelings to Kyros, they never help solve the problem, only enforce it.
@Robby:
This boils down to Kyros, and Kyros himself, feeling like he was dirty and unworthy of being with someone nice. He'd been cheered in the colloseum and a head guard and trusted by the king, but that still didn't make him feel worthy to touch his own daughter with his bare hands. That was his issue to get over, more than the citizens.
I feel like I’ve talked more than enough about Kyros character in this thread, but long story short is that I don’t think the writing supports his extreme self flaggelation being played to insanely straight. We’re told how people might not accept him without seeing anything to support it, we’re told he’s über tortured, but we don’t see anything to justify that. Also, even considering his personal hangups, his decision to leave Rebecca was still informed entirely by a misconception of his image; Kyros directly says that he’s leaving for the sake of Rebeccas future, that he wouldn't want her to "throw it away". We know Kyros used to be a bad egg involved in dangerous work, but in the present he's a pretty stand-up guy who retired as a farmer and has no visible enemies, so its not like Rebeccas future is somehow in danger from Kyros personally. That leaves her future being compromised in terms of image, by the publics perception of Kyros rubbing negatively off on her - "Oh my lord, to think our princess is the daughter of a commoner, and it's that rowdy brute Kyros to boot, how scandalous, I'll never accept her!" type of thing. The citizens having fessed up that they know about Kyros would’ve made his entire exit strategy void, and might’ve made him rethink the soundness of his reasoning.
Instead we have Rebecca sitting in a room being prepped for princesshood, being told by her grandfather and aunt that Kyros decision to bail is how its gonna be, and she has to swallow some horrible lies that practically have Kyros disown her, and appear to be accepted wholesale by the entire country.
Whelp, turns out she can just drop the Princess thing and go live with Kyros, who never needed to leave, ‘s cool, Riku and Viola are just gonna chuckle about it, no biggie, and the citizens knew about Kyros all along and don’t care either, no worries. Everything was actually peachy keen, only no one told each other. I know that Kyros doesn’t know that the citizens knows and they don’t know that etc., but we readers can clearly see just how hollow this entire thing is. Say what you want about Sanji/Chopper/Franky needing a kick in the bum to get out the door, the only ones they would've hurt by staying would've been themselves. Kyros, Riku and the entire nation could've kept up their roundabout pantomime forever for all I cared, if only it didn't almost ruin poor Rebeccas life for no reason. I think thats the heart of the matter for me
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At any rate, I'm curious to see what direction Dressrosa as a nation will take now; they've just closed down Doflamingos regime with layers upon layers of secrets, and Rebecca outright said "no more lies!" I hope Kyros and Rebeccas status gets pointedly outed next chapter, everything laid bare for everyone; if theres any place that should restrain itself with the nationwide scams its Dressrosa. You could've at least waited more than three days before trying to con all your citizens again guys.