EXPLAINING Basara's and Mylene's arguments
I swear to god almost every time Mylene and Basara have an argument where on the surface it LOOKS like Basara is being unreasonable, a total downer or rude for no reason, when you actually look at what he’s saying, he’s almost always in the right. I feel like a lot of people who hate Basara for how he behaves towards Mylene were fooled into looking at him through Mylene’s eyes, instead of listening to what he has to say.
Here are some explanations on WHY EXACTLY Basara gets upset with Mylene during their most heated arguments, and why he has the right to be.
Here are some explanations on WHY EXACTLY Basara gets upset with Mylene during their most heated arguments, and why he has the right to be.
Episode 9: "Doing it right" argument
I really really love this scene because it shows exactly how different Mylene and Basara are at their core, AND spotlights what a well written artist Basara is. He is not a jerk in this scene, as has genuinely tried to give Mylene a very good advice. I stand 100% behind what he said, and he is 100% right.
The problem is not in what he said, but HOW he said it, in which he honestly has no excuse, he shouldn’t have been as aggressive as he was - but it's also necessary to take into account that they have been practising Mylene's song for hours and she kept starting over because of this one mistake. Anyone would be fed up with it at this point. It’s apparent instantly after Mylene leaves, that Basara honestly didn’t understand what he did wrong. He had no intention to upset her. He’s blunt by nature and doesn’t understand that others can’t take this kind of behaviour as easily as he does. On to my main point; why this scene clearly shows how different Basara and Mylene are. The issue arose because Mylene made a mistake in lyrics and instead of just dismissing it and singing on, she stopped the entire band practice. She failed and decided to stop. Basara fails again and again and again throughout the entire series, and never stops. It’s his core principle to NEVER give up and always go on and try again. What Basara essentially said to Mylene was, that she obsesses over rules and perfection so much that she puts them in the way of her feelings, and is therefore unable to sing with genuine passion. It’s like doing math when you want to do poetry. Unlike Mylene, who thinks hard about what and how she sings, Basara is so in tune with his music, that he doesn’t even have to think. To him, music is second nature, because he doesn’t think about it - he just makes it. This is something he even mentions in his interview, which came with the Seventh Moon single. This same mindset goes for many forms of art, not just music. You often just need to let loose and create, and let your work come out naturally. Personally I find myself much less satisfied with pieces that have more planning put into them, than those I create in the spur of a moment, because those are the ones that contain my raw feelings. Too much refinement can cheapen art. |
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episode 14: Planet Dance Success Argument
Wow, why can’t Basara stop being bitter and enjoy success for once, right?
He must be bothered that his music is mainstream right? Except that’s not what this is about at all. Firstly I want to address a complaint about Basara that I've seen around; that he hates the fact Fire Bomber became mainstream. That has never been even remotely implied in the show and I don't know where people get it from. Basara has never shown distaste for the fact his music is popular. He literally doesn't care of ten or ten thousand people listen to his music, as long as they truly hear his song. He's a casual person. He only starts to complain when his comfortable lifestyle is being meddled with, which just happens to go hand in hand with all the new responsibilities he has as he becomes a popular rock star. Anyway back to the point. Like many other arguments Basara gets into, the one discussed here is entirely about artistic integrity. The only reason Planet Dance went up in charts is because it was in a Minmay movie. It has nothing to do with Fire Bomber and everything to do with it being associated with that movie. Therefore, it's not technically a Fire Bomber success, because people still don't know them, they just know the song is associated with that Minmay movie. They didn’t listen to his song - they watched the movie. The song was just catchy background noise. I was at a convention in August 2018, and the piece of mine that sold the most was a poster I made, which was a reproduction of a poster that appeared in the background of My Hero Academia. I redrew what I saw in the anime. I made a nice amount of money from selling that, but it felt disheartening that THAT was the one that sold the most. Yeah I drew it and I got the money but not because it was my work that spoke to the buyers. People didn't like it because it's my work - they liked it because it's just like in the anime. Associated with something else, not with my art. It's the same with Planet Dance being successful because of the Minmay movie. People don't like it because it's a good song, but because it was in the Minmay movie, and that’s why Basara is not excited about the success. Once again, Macross 7 delivers amazing writing when it comes to an artist character. The fact that Mylene doesn’t understand his issue with this also shows a lot about her character. She's a spoiled rich kid who's used of having things handed to her and therefore she sees no issue in gaining success from simply riding on the popularity of the movie, the role in which was also handed to her. Basara is not negative. He’s just an artist who wants his work to be acknowledged in a proper way, and he doesn’t want success to be handed to him. He’s also an extremely positive character, just not in a traditional way. |
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EPISODE 15: Post-battle Argument
The moment in episode 15 where Basara and Mylene argue after the battle got to Basara much more than people might think, and the disappointment and devastation are literally written on his face.
The way his eyes are animated in the 4th GIF is usually a signifier of an anime character being on the verge of tears (this is a very distinct animation, and it’s not something that’s used often on Basara), and on the last two GIFs he gets a line under his eye, which adds a LOT of intensity to his expression (and is once again an aspect of his expression that's used VERY sparingly in the show, only at moments where he is mentally at his lowest). This isn’t the first time Basara has seen enemy soldiers die, as they are killed all the time on the battlefield, so why is he so affected by it all of the sudden? Well, I think I have a pretty good idea why; He believed in Mylene. As a member of Fire Bomber, Basara has seen potential in her, but he has also seen her childish insistence on wanting to fight. That’s why he didn’t want her to join the Valkyrie classes; he didn’t want her to become a killer, and he didn’t think she was old enough to make that choice. Basara was completely okay with Rex and her gang members taking those classes, because Basara is not anti-military. He doesn’t support their ways, sure, but he is aware that they ARE necessary, and he doesn’t look down on soldiers. After all, when Gamlin leaves the military, Basara suggests that he should go back, because he thought Gamlin thrived there. The reason Basara didn’t want Mylene to go down that path was, because he believed that she has the potential to eventually be able see his way. He has seen this potential in episode 7. In this episode however, she clearly showed that she didn’t see it, and even more, insisted that his way is entirely worthless. She essentially looked him in the face and she told him that his passion means nothing. The reason Basara is so upset in this scene is, because despite Mylene being a bratty and spoiled kid, he had hopes for her, because he thought he had seen her get on the right track, but those hopes were shattered right there and then, as she boasted and reveled in the fact that she just took someone's life. |
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