he is just...... so much. his whole arc asks the question, how do you move forward and find peace / acceptance / identity when your whole life is centered around traumatic experiences? on twitter a while ago i had a whole thread about this but like
tl;dr he hurts me and i want him to have the opportunity to heal a little bit. i also think it's really cool that he's a deaf character with a major plot role and the deafness still affects him even after the ~woo plot twist shock~ has passed
tetsugoro kusabi is his mentor, partner, and the one person alive he trusts with every part of himself it's completely disgusting and pings my love for loyalty kink so hard lmfao
the canon ship is him and ayame shimohira which i dont want for an endgame but i do also enjoy the tragic potential of an orpheus/eurydice "i have to go back for my love but i can never have them" theme, because she has literally already been executed
akira (mute silent protag) and sakura natsume (supernaturally drawn to sumio in the same way as ayame, dont worry about it) -- i want them all to hang out so bad. they know less about him than tetsu but sakura in the light novel gets to peek into his head a little bit when she interviews him, and akira watched his whole arrest go down lol
additionally, shinko kuroyanagi, terrifying badass lady from the 25W HCU, and kusabi's daughter toriko, who is involved in his life in obscure & mysterious ways
- my unpopular opinion this fandom's so small that most of my opinions are popular LOL but i guess it's... i interpret Flower, Sun, and Rain very fluidly & focused on the emotion/character beats as opposed to the ~lore itself which is very popular in some segments of the fandom
bc while it's full global government conspiracy it's also the story of sumio trying to come to terms with his continued existence and i care MUCH more about how that feels as opposed to "how does the international society trying to achieve global power/immortality play into this"
ive been a ghm fan for so long that i feel like i've grown up with him... im always surprised with where suda51 takes him, and this time i was very pleasantly surprised to see him grow up. his current arc of like: own up to your mistakes but go on however you can as the person you want to be... is so satisfying to me
like post-nmh2 i wanted him to die in-story so bad in some tragic ironic way, but suda did the impossible and made me believe there was hope for him to grow outside of fandom-land. i love where he is and im excited to see where else suda goes/how else to grow the ways i write him.
suda51 fucking gave me a canon crosscanon ship and you will take travis/kamui from my COLD DEAD HANDS, it's two killers who got fucked by the plot just trying to be normal friends and sympathize with each others' traumas. amen hallelujah
other ships include: travis/sylvia (as extremely toxic exes, NEVER functional), travis/holly (what could have been), travis/dr juvenile, travis/jacket (yes, from hotline miami, they really vibed in TSA)
- i want him and sylvia to stay horrible exes there is no way to make that relationship healthy (but i love it) - i want an asspull plot twist where the kids are actually henry's - i like his tsa arc / characterization way more than nmh2's - tsa was good you guys are just mean - THIS MAN IS BISEXUAL!! HE FUCKS OLDER MEN!!! - HE'S NOT A DOM! EVER!!!!
- even when he was horny he wasnt as horny as the fandom thought he was, he is a NERD who CAN'T GET LAID - @ the fandom please adjust your interpretation of his nerdiness for the fact that he is one of the oldest millennials, he is NOT young enough to know the new memes
you don’t “get better”, you can never truly destroy your trauma, but you CAN break it apart enough to accept it and move forward, and ...(me crying) and they were partners...
HIS COWORKERS! SQUAD GOALS!!
this fandom's so small that most of my opinions are popular LOL but i guess it's... i interpret Flower, Sun, and Rain very fluidly & focused on the emotion/character beats as opposed to the ~lore itself which is very popular in some segments of the fandom
my horrible horrible son i love him SO much
TRAVMUI NATIONNNNN
(rubs my hands together)
- i want an asspull plot twist where the kids are actually henry's
- i like his tsa arc / characterization way more than nmh2's
- tsa was good you guys are just mean
- THIS MAN IS BISEXUAL!! HE FUCKS OLDER MEN!!!
- HE'S NOT A DOM! EVER!!!!
- @ the fandom please adjust your interpretation of his nerdiness for the fact that he is one of the oldest millennials, he is NOT young enough to know the new memes
also I have no doubts that Oscar just straight up kill pre-development Travis. like he would.