• When you've had teachers concerned because you keep designing your own MKR style swords in class.
• When you realize that the green hat collection you started was probably because of Ascot.
• When you leave the fandom for years, only to get back into it on a whim and find yourself sucked in so easily since you still own the entire DVD set, the entire manga, the entire OVA on VHS, plushies, posters, collector's cards...
• When you're trying to create a full bestiary of Ascot's friends.
• When you're still annoyed over the anime's second season and you know you'll end up rewatching it just completely document what you found wrong with it.

All completely true.

No worries. It'll just be like pineapples. I don't care for them, but ya'll are welcome to eat as much as you like. Plenty of other fruits to enjoy.

Did someone say ASCOT?! FEELS SUMMON!

Okay, where do I even begin? Let's start simple. If I had to pick one word to sum up Ascot, it would be 'Growth.' There's the obvious physical growth, but then there's also plenty of mental growth evident. Just look how we're introduced to him in the manga. He's asking Zagato to "Let me play with them!" like the Magic Knights are barbie dolls for his beasts and they're gonna cut their hair and set them on fire and it's like DEAR MOKONA WHO LET THIS SADIST CHILD PLAY WITH THE WMDS?! He's kinda prejudice against humans, too. Like when Hikaru asks him if he's friends with Alcyone and he just laughs. When Umi tells him to apologize for hurting her friends, I imagine him just suddenly realizing, 'Wait... Humans can be FRIENDS?!' Or maybe it's just Cephiro people he has a problem with and that's how he's good with Caldina in the first season anime. Theoriez, I haz them.

Moving on, the part where he really shines. So, when this kid, this brat, this adorable little species-ist bully gets confronted with how horrible a person he's being, how he's hurting other people's beloved friends- He stops. In the anime, they draw it out a little more, but you still get it. Why is this so phenomenal? Because as humans, one the things we do best is self-justification. We all think we have good reasons for the things we do or don't do, sometimes while decrying others who do or don't do the same (like a co-worker of mine who ate six of the treats I'd made for Valentine's Day while complaining about others that had three or four). And often, the worse the thing we're doing is, the more we build up our justifications. Furthermore, Zagato wouldn't have chosen people he thought could be easily swayed by emotional pleas to be his minions.

Honestly, I think Umi got lucky (or had ridiculously good instincts, whichever you prefer). She stumbled upon the one string to pull that unravelled all of his justifications. Otherwise, well, he really had the upper hand in that fight. I mean, the other two were unconscious, for crying out loud, how much longer do you think Umi would've lasted? Actually, if Ascot hadn't felt like 'playing' with them, they'd all have been dead in five, ten minutes, tops. Sadist child with WMDs indeed. But however she did, the string was pulled. Everything he'd ever told himself, everything Zagato had ever told him, just shattered in an instant. In that moment, there was nothing to protect him from the full realization of what he'd become. How does he come to terms with this? Does he backpedal, deny, make excuses, try to rebuild his justifications from the ground up, grasp at straws to convince himself it's not really that bad? I mean, he could still presumably win this fight and go back to being a respected and feared minion with a home for his friends. If he was anything less than fully cognizant and repentant, that's enough reason right there to stick to the status quo.

But, as it turns out, he's just that awesome. No 12-step program to renouncing villain-hood, no 'not as big a jerk as you could have been' award, just quitting cold turkey. As great as Umi was, and is, and shall forever be, I still think it was Ascot's strength of heart that showed that day.

You can really see how absolutely appalled he is with what he's done, how sincerely he's trying to redeem himself, little things like (in the manga) turning down their offer for a ride to the surface from the Celes shrine, or learning his own magic in the second season so he doesn't have to put his friends in danger. Personal headcanon here, but I don't think it was his huge crush on Umi that made him hide when the Magic Knights returned to Cephiro. In fact, I read it as he was hiding from all three of them cause he was still ashamed and thought that maybe they hadn't forgiven him, but Caldina used the crush to actually draw him out. Even in the anime's second season (which I have... issues... with), he still manages to shine as the class act of unrequited love.

So, I see him being all amazing and awesome and I'm just left wondering- Who? Who do I need to kill, Ascot? Who screwed you over so bad in the past? How could this absolutely precious sweetheart with a plethora of beasts willing to die for him have been so corrupted? I'M SORRY I WASN'T THERE, LIL BROTHER! *sobs*

Okay, now I'm wondering something. In the manga, what did Ascot do after the Celes shrine? I mean, in the anime, we see him hanging out with Caldina and all that, but in the manga he's by himself (plus beasts). And homeless, since he can't really go back to Zagato. He could've hung out with Caldina after she was done in the Windam shrine, sure, if they happened to cross paths, but until then... Oh no. Now I'm imagining my lil brother, just sitting in the Celes shrine with his beasts sadly wondering, 'Well, where do we go from here?' Just reflecting on how even if he stands up for his friends, people might still (rightfully, unfortunately) have a problem with HIM around.

...

Hold me.

Hello. I started as a Rayearth fan about a decade ago, let it fall to the wayside for a while as life got in the way, but am now experiencing a revival of sorts. Made myself a Rayearth sideblog on tumblr (same name), made some posts, sought out some fellow fans, and one of them directed me here. So here I am.

I'm also determined to be the ultimate authority on Ascot, my one and only anime lil brother.