Line #48 Headscratchers/KaleidoStar


1	KendraKirai: So I'm watching the second season now, about halfway through it, and Sora has just been unable to trust Leon to catch her. And they're saying SHE is the one to blame because she 'lacks power'?! When your life literally depends on your partner to catch you, and he has shown (VERY RECENTLY I might add) quite willing to LET GO with no safety net beneath you, of COURSE there's going to be trust issues! And they're saying it's WRONG for her not to trust the bastard who purposely DROPPED his previous partner, then grabbed her arm just in time for her shoulder to be seriously injured?!
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3	What.
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5	The.
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7	FUCK.
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9	-- A very angry KendraKirai
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11	Pretty much exactly what I was gonna say too. And no, your tragic backstory does not absolve anyone of this.
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13	-- A similarly angry [[KoR K.o.R]]
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15	-- Agreed re: Leon's despicable behaviour, but some discussion about it:
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17	The test was if Sora was willing to die in order to compete at the Circus Festival/to be Leon's partner. Now, previously, Sora WAS willing to risk death in the Legendary Great Maneuver with Layla to rescue the Kaleido Stage. It's one of the principles of the show's ethos: a good performer HAS to be willing to take risks. And the Circus Festival is also one without a net.
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19	I do think that Sora's choice deserved more credit than she got for it. She took the risk in the Legendary Great Maneuver out of SELFLESS motives: to save the Stage, to be with Layla, to give the audience a true show. And she doesn't want to take a similar risk for the SELFISH reason of participating in a competition. (And it's mentioned later that Leon wanted her to fail because HE was afraid of SORA.) It was perfectly in character for Sora not to value a competition as much as saving the Stage, but it does show in contrast with May that May IS willing to risk her life to take part in the Festival, and that's why May got in as Leon's partner. But in the end, May's motives are selfish, Leon's self-absorbed by his own issues and his behaviour is extremely selfish and abusive, and Sora's the one who's truly willing to give of herself to help the audience and her fellow cast members.
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21	-Also agreed
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23	Sora is totally justified in being afraid of trusting her life to a selfish jackass with a history of injuring people he doesn't like with no repercussions whatsoever, and also happens to dislike her.
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25	This troper will also go as far to say that Leon was not justified enough by canon for real redemption. As someone who is involved in the theater, it makes me very angry that he was able to force his directors to change the show and the script and the casting. This is not his decision or his place, and to think it is within his rights to do so is supremely arrogant. Kalos should have fired him. Mia could have fired him, she was the director! Allowing Leon to do what he wanted with no repercussions- abandoning a show in the middle and forcing Sora to play both roles, forcing Sora on stage when she had no part in it, injuring May in a performance!- is absolutely unacceptable, and deteriorated the quality of the shows. They said he was "saving" Kaleido Stage but he was really kind of ruining it. Of course this is some sort of gambit to make Sora into a True Star so it's totally okay.
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27	His redemption arc doesn't even match up with his terrible arrogance in the beginning of season two. Being unhappy on stage and punishing himself for his sister's death doesn't exactly line up with the "The audience is here for me and my skill and my devilishly handsome good looks, everything is me me me," attitude he had in the first few episodes. Layla and May both had good redemption arcs, but this troper felt that Leon's was pretty much just a handwave to tie up loose ends. HE WAS FAMOUS FOR RUINING PEOPLE'S LIVES. And he shows absolutely no regret or remorse for doing so and that's pretty much bullshit.
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31	Thirded. Nor does the fact that this was supposed to be a rehearsal for a new performance (If you don't get it, keep watching). If doing the routine wrong can get your partner killed, you shouldn't be using it as a 'test' to see who's worthy of being your partner.
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33	* In answer to the above, the entire second enfuriating season of ''Anime/KaleidoStar'' is a massive and stupid Xanatos Roulette by all the higher-ups (Carlos, Mr. Kenneth, Sarah, presumably Layla, etc.) to bring out Sora's "full, true potential" and turn her into the "true Anime/KaleidoStar". It's utter and complete bullcacky, but that's the explanation. Despite having SINGLE-HANDEDLY saved the KaleidoStage and everyone's hoped and careers, Carlos more than anyone, redeeming half the cast, and hooking Carlos up with Sarah finally, to say nothing of SURPASSING Layla's level of acrobatics and suceeding at the Legendary Act that no one had ever completed before, Carlos and the others decide that by ganging up on her, treating her like crap and demeaning her, demoting her, acting as if she's no better than when she first joined, and letting people like the borderline psychotic and completely disruptive Leon and the insanely jealous and arrogant May simply join and surpass everything that Sora had grittingly earned through hard work, blood, and and sweat despite them not syncing or fitting in at the KaleidoStage at all and standing completely in opposition to everything it itself stands for....That Sora will magically overcome and achieve a level of acrobatic excellence farther than anyone else has before just to spite them.
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35	The fact that this works, and that she isn't showered with the gillions of accolades that, say, Layla enjoyed when she's surpassed her and done more for the stage than anyone else, had this troper raging for weeks afterwards. If there's a trope that's directly opposed to the Karma Houdini, where someone good doesn't get what's coming to them, Sora is the prime example.
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37	Alright, here's mine. As far as I know, you never perform on the trapeze without a safety net. People CAN and WILL die if that safety net isn't there! I'm only halfway into the second season, and I've seen it happen four times now. The last two times people fell and got hospitalized (they should have died from that height, honestly), the second time was mentioned above with May. The first time it happened though...well...It's the Legendary Great Maneuver / Mystical Act, that one is slightly permissable. Slightly.
38	--A very bugged Magicwings
39	* You'd actually be wrong here. This is a very frequent (and cheap) trick to cap off an acrobatics performance. Rather than end the performance on a complex and potentially dangerous maneuver even WITH the net, they'll often remove the net and do something far simpler to create a sense of real danger to wow the audience with. And yes, this stunt occasionally gets said acrobats killed.
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42	Here's another: you know how the whole beginning of season 2 Leon gets these flashbacks that compare Sora to a gorgeous angel- like girl? most people (including this troper) thought that girl was his long lost love or something. I mean' the time he knocks Sora out of a car's way, it really looks like he's this close to kissing her (the only thing presumably stopping him was a potentially young audience), and after all the hints, it turns out that the girl is his SISTER?! come on' if it was a live show, I'd call Leon a very over- the- top actor.
43	* Or he just loves his sister THAT much.
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46	This is stupid and probably a coincidence but it will not leave me alone until I say it.
47	Why are her two best friends called [[ImNotHungry Anna]] and [[BigEater Mia]] in a show about gymnastics?
48	* [[FridgeBrilliance My...just...BWAH!]] [[TearJerker This somehow makes]] [[TruthInTelevision sense...]]
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50	Okay I have a couple so i apologize if this gets a little long.
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52	1.Sora's Weakness. Okay so you know how in S2 everyone keeps saying that while Sora has alot of natural talent she's hindered because she was not formally trained and therefore lacks all the basics? Well wasn't it stated in season 1 that Sora took Gymnastics for years before coming to Kaleido Stage? Wouldn't she have learned the basics there? Not to mention that all new recruits have to take lessons before being let anywhere near the stage.
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54	2.Show canceled. Okay so this has happened a couple of times throughout the series and it's always for the same reason,someone gets hurt before or during the show(and once a certain pissy acrobat leaving in the middle of the show)and then it's all oh no we have to cancel the shows for awhile. Okay fine that's a legitimate reason but shouldn't they have understudies ready to to go for this very reason? On a somewhat unrelated note how in the world did Leon not break his neck when he fell during Romeo and Juliet?
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56	3.Layla's shoulder injury. So at the end of the first season much fuss is made about how Layla's injury was so severe she couldn't preform acrobatics anymore,yet at the end of New Wings she returns to challenge Sora for the role of Odette. Let me just say HUH?! I get that she was actually trying to "become a demon" in order to help Sora succeed but how is she able to preform any acrobatics,let alone the Angel's Maneuver,when everyone including Layla herself said she couldn't preform like that anymore? I did notice that during practice,even for the Broadway show, she was wearing some sort of pink sleeve on her shoulder which I assume is some kind of brace but that doesn't really explain anything.Oh wow this ended up being way longer than than I anticipated,oops I guess I started babbling.
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58	1. You know May gets called out on a lot of things towards the end of the show, but she isn't called out on two things (this goes for Leon as well). May and Leon are unprofessional, and their unprofessional attitude ruins performances. Season 1 was great in the fact that everyone was a professional and they expected Sora to be the same way, and Sora had to deliver. However come Season 2 they forget about whatever professionalism they ever had as soon as May shows up. They all say she has a bad attitude but no one ever once calls her out of her unprofessionalism. Especially during the Salome in Vegas, where Sora was hired to perform, and May shows up because "it's unfair".
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60	2. The whole conflict of New Wings makes no sense. So okay everyone are rivals and are competing against one another to be the best, alright, but they are also performers. This means that no matter they have to work together despite their own attitudes. This also feeds into a question of why do May and Leon still have jobs, in the performance world if they are unprofessional and cause injuries to their partners to the point that people can't perform with them.
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62	<<\|ItJustBugsMe\|>>
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Context Headscratchers / KaleidoStar