rhodochrosite | it could be that deep

i know this was most likely not intentional since the a5 writing team would never put that much effort into a coherent storyline let alone one for serena but fuck you this is my city now IT COULD BE THAT DEEP

serena's first words to reiji in the maiami stadium basement when they meet again in standard are 'let me go!' (reiji's grabbed her wrist to stop her going after sakuragi yu), which are exactly the same first words she ever said to him when they met as children in academia (reiji helped her up over a wall to escape from security and they were holding hands as they ran through the corridors). i think it's a neat and fitting callback... unorganised thoughts:

so much of serena's central motivation is about escape -- she wants to fight on the front lines in xyz, she wants to strike out into standard to capture the reported xyz fugitives, she wants freedom, she loathes physical restriction, the brainwashing arc was probably the worst thing that could possibly have happened to her short of never managing to escape academia -- but it's with the express purpose of proving herself oh wait IS THIS HOW I CAN FINALLY RECONCILE HER TEXTBOOK CAUTIOUSNESS WITH HER RECKLESSNESS...?
ultimately all of her brash action is because she wants acknowledgement for her skills. she knows she's good but she wants that to be recognised by someone else. she has too much pride for quiet, unseen achievement. serena is kinda preoccupied with fairness, she has the whole Warrior's Honour thing going on and it's why reiji is able to turn her to his side after he/yuzu/shun explain the truth of academia's actions to her, so it isn't fair or right that she should be overlooked despite being probably the best duellist in all of academia... it offends her sense of justice. i don't know where i'm going with this... serena is more umm conformist than she would like to believe but that is okay. really she just wants validation!!
serena tells reiji to let her go and he does, which contrasts reiji with his father who does not, and contrasts serena with SHUN who reiji notably does not let go. like across eps 37-40 or so the entirety of shun and reiji's interaction is reiji calmly telling shun to stay put while shun seethes with rage but acquiesces anyway INCLUDING when reiji goes to meet serena and tells nakajima to make sure shun is kept away
the difference in the way reiji treats serena and shun is really... he claims to consider them both ~assets~ but he clearly respects serena more / exerts more control over shun and maybe it's because reiji holds all the power in his enemy-of-my-enemy bargain with shun but he has to work in order to win serena over... or maybe it's because reiji knows how to best secure their loyalties: he gives them both what they want, which is an opportunity to fight and prove her abilities for serena, and uhhh <gestures at hostageshipping> for shun. andrea said yesterday Well did shun really want that before he got reluctantly locked into the Akaba Reiji Mind Games route? maybe not but you know how repressed bottoms with control issues are
how did i end up at compromiseshipping again. LEGIT serena meta/thoughts pending for another day . . .