"Phosphophyllite Did Nothing Wrong" - Houseki no Kuni

i think it's come time again for us to talk about my favorite series once more on the channel land of the lustrous otherwise known as houseki no kuni in japan a heartwarming tale about a young naive gemstone named phosphofylite on their quest to find purpose in their life and thus adventure awaits and then episode two starts and we begin the grade a certified pain train from the loss of their legs to the loss of their only friend our little gemstone has had it moderately rough but you know on the bright side they never did anything bad did they say [Music] a little longer than a few minutes later i may have gone too far in a few places [Applause] hello doomers and dumetz i'm your host dede and today we return to the land of the lustrous and our favorite depressed ptsd victim phosphophyllite with the manga still on hiatus and unfortunately no season 2 in sight at the time of this recording i wanted to contribute a bit to the current vacuum of content in the community and give some thoughts on our little gemstone while we wait for things to pick up again and potentially start a new video series along the way where today we'll ask the big question did phosphophyllite do anything wrong now before we begin i just want to establish some things and first off this video will contain full spoilers for the series up to chapter 95 and today we'll be evaluating their actions to determine whether or not it can be said that foss did nothing wrong if you haven't checked out land of the lost just already i highly recommend you do so as is one of my all-time favorite series and we've covered an introduction of it already on the channel you can check that out linked in the description below and as always if this is content you're interested in and you're new to the channel then i'd just like to humbly ask for you to consider liking the video or even subscribing to the channel as it helps me identifying what content should be made more and i greatly appreciate all of your support and if you're a returning subscriber welcome back and with that said let's dive right in so before we discuss the moral standings of the character let's first take a look at their journey up to this point phosphophyllite was someone struggling for purpose in the world and they had a childlike demeanor which was something that often caused a lot of ridicule and teasing foss was treated as someone incapable of working or downright told that he shouldn't even be around over a series of events foss gradually begins to lose pieces of themselves and has them replaced arguably they were seen as upgrades and give them a new sense of purpose at the cost of losing who they once were they become a better fighter more capable to rely on however they struggle with the guilt of those they have lost again and again bearing a heavy responsibility for that but despite that they still have their moments of expressing true joy similar to the younger self when things are looking well however things start to go from bad to worse when foss loses their head literally an attack from the lunarians resulted in their decapitation and with little options left their partner kangworm takes the head of their old partner lapis lazuli no not that one and they affixed their head to foss's body the problem with this however was that lapis lazuli and foss had two different personalities lapis was highly intelligent but someone who was cited to be more interested in talking to others for their own curiosity's sake rather than out of any desire to help and was even referred to as a bit deceptive foss however was someone who was willing to help others at the expense of themselves naturally this led to a bit of a personality change especially as they became more and more inquisitive of sensei but we'll come back to that this leads to a major turning point in the series where foss finally makes it to the moon where they meet prince achmea leader of the lunarians a very secretive character with a lot going on in his own right aquia provides foss with a lot of the answers to the questions they sought that sensei is a machine who exists to pray for the lunarians and his inability to function is the reason that they are attacking the lustrous this shatters foss's worldview as it provides justification for their recent suspicions and questioning nature and it allows for an easy outlet to trust this new entity while it may be easy for us as a reader to recognize the suspicious nature of this new character to foss this is someone who provided much needed information but we'll expand upon that in just a moment now after this point this is where foss starts to do some morally questionable things they return to the island and secretly convince half of them to return to the moon after which they launch a first attack on the island in a half-baked attempt to force sensei to pray for the lunarians which fails humiliatingly foss then attempts to go back to the island peacefully to negotiate but because of the recent attack voss is restrained shattered and their remains are scattered and buried across the island which leads us to the big moment after over 200 years of being forgotten foss is finally reassembled by sensei and enters a feral state consumed by the desire for revenge after being abandoned for centuries voss launches a brutal assault on the island grinding each gem under their heels after all there is no emotion more human than a thirst for revenge so what are the accused crimes manipulation stirring up a conflict going traitor and launching a full-scale assault with the intent to crush every gem definitely things they did but now we ask the big question did foss do anything wrong let's break it down i believe the point in the story where we can start saying things went bad is when foss had their head replaced with that of lapis lazuli sure they lost body parts before and changed as a character but this was a point in the story where the characters recognized foss wasn't behaving like foss anymore this differs from when foss lost antarctica as well as when they had their arms replaced as that was a point where the character's personality changed as a result of trauma and circumstance foss begins to question sensei's motive at that point and becomes a bit more inquisitive but the true driving catalyst that forces them to take action is the new head which begins to change their personality it's at this point where we see suspicion turn into outright defiance as foss outright accuses sensei of lying in front of everyone angrily confronting them and finally when they go to the moon and meet acmia it's at this point where they start to believe that secrecy and manipulation would be the best tactics to recruit others to their cause but hold on a second let's briefly talk about prince acme you may question why foss would have any reason to trust this man as after all he's been responsible for all of the abductions and the loss of all their friends at this point clearly he has an ulterior motive so how could foss be suddenly much more intelligent yet fall for someone so obvious well consider things from their perspective foss has had strong reasons to distrust sensei and was finally given validation for all of that distrust and was given proof that he was lying consider a time in your life where you were distrustful of someone and someone else provided proof of their deception to you naturally you would feel a bit more attached to that new individual would you not even if you had reason to distrust the new person later would you not feel a slight bit more trust towards them for providing you with that confirmation bias prince acmia provided foss with the answers they were looking for and he knew that but foss although trusting of acme for providing them with answers wasn't simply willing to blindly obey him upon their return to earth and contemplation for the coming betrayal foss is only thinking that so long as the lunarians get what they want there will no longer be a reason for them to come and shatter the gems and take them to the moon and foss isn't looking to cause any harm to the other gems at this point the reason for this betrayal stems from sensei's perceived deception towards them now we as a reader are aware that sensei now revealed to have the name congo isn't intending to deceive by choice but rather as a machine he has limitations on what he is able to talk about but to foss sensei was the only authority figure in their entire existence and now was revealed to be hiding some pretty substantial secrets what do you think that would do to a person to anyone the betrayal of the gems isn't intended to start a civil war to foss they see this as an attempt to rescue them from a being who has been deceiving them in an attempt to free them and bring an end to this millennia of conflict it's clearly established that the reason foss then works the way they do to cause a betrayal is because they're not capable of simply telling the truth to them if foss returned from the moon only to start rambling that their beloved sensei is a robot designed to pray the rest of the gems would consider foss insane just look at how intolerant bort is for proof of that but at the same time foss even recognizes that their attempts to prey on the weaknesses of other gems is rotten but it's seen as the only option to bring them to the moon this would probably lead on to what i would say is the thing that foss does wrong specifically targeting the weaknesses of the other gems while the motive is understandable and while foss even recognizes that this is manipulative it still causes some serious damages that could have been avoided most notably in my opinion the worst action is the betrayal of rutile now rutile i find to be an important character as they're one of the very few gems on the island who understand foss their relationship may not have been as close a friendship as say antarctica but rutile genuinely cares for foss and was clearly in deep worry over their physical and mental state but foss attempted to force frutal to go to the moon by taking the thing most important to them padparadscha their partner now padparacha suffers from a condition where they are unable to stay conscious for extended periods of time due to missing portions in their chest and this is something that rutile has spent countless years working towards just as foss laments the loss of their partners like antarctica padparacha holds that level of importance to rutile by kidnapping them in an attempt to bring rutile to the moon rutile was left without the person that they devoted their life towards saving giving them every reason to want foss grounded into powder phosphophyllite didn't just betray sensei they betrayed rutile however aside from that moment i'd argue in every other instance going forward that foss is a victim of circumstance and is constantly put into situations as a result of the manipulations of others consider the other moment often cited as a mistake their first attack against the island residents prior to arriving thoth made it very clear that the target to pursue was sensei which makes sense due to those feelings of betrayal and especially after prince akmiya makes the claim to the group that they are essentially forced to love him in addition padparacha makes the suggestion which foss agrees to to only take a small group of three being themself foss and yellow diamond so as to not let the island gems think that they've turned on them as well so why does this attempt to force sensei to pray go so bad what happened to cause things to become their own civil war in a sense and a feeling of one group versus the other well i think the blame can be placed partially on one individual for that bor bort oh come on bort hear me out immediately after foss betrayed sensei and left with the faction returning to the moon sensei approached the remaining gems on the island and he opens up to them he tells them that no one did anything wrong and attempts to take blame for everything admitting that at the very least the only thing the lunarians want is him sensei asks them to leave him and even says that joining phosphophyllite is okay he harbors no ill feelings towards it and before anyone can say anything next wart opens their mouth they condemn foss as deceitful a coward and most importantly not one of them in doing so bort's typical aggressive behavior has now drawn a very clear line in the sand of us versus them whereas characters like euclaise would rather attempt to broker peace bort is cultivating a culture where foss is clearly defined as the enemy something that sensei clearly was trying to avoid betraying them as and considering how bort is the strongest gem on the island their opinion clearly has a strong pull as well especially to the younger ones this goes even further when foss returned to the island alone in an attempt to negotiate for peace where they are shattered by bort and cinnabar who has now gone along with bort's groupthink while it's understandable to break false when they immediately arrive considering the previous attack it's the next scene which is far more questionable when sensei attempts to pray but fails foss tries to reach out to him begging him with a single word please before being completely shattered to pieces by every gem in the room aside from jade and eucles when euclase says that they want to negotiate bort is the one to shut down that idea saying that foss is too manipulative while it is true that foss used deceptive tactics sensei already absolved them of their blame earlier and even encouraged the gems to work with them to sensei the center of all of this foss was forgiven and he did not think of them any less and even wondered if they were correct and despite this bored in their arrogance and their fight first mentality continues to reinforce conflict by standing firm that they are now two factions the earth and the moon it's from here that the earth gems decide to hide frost's shattered remains across the island an agreement that they'll bring foss back once they decide its best but what happens they forgot if sensei didn't put foss back together after 200 years foss would never have returned at all so consider foss's full story up to this point they discover that the only figure of authority they've known their entire life has been hiding massive secrets and felt betrayed they attempt to lure their comrades away from this environment and after a confrontation gone wrong foss attempts to negotiate for peace and because of bort convincing the earth gems of the divide between foss's group and themselves factions were drawn and foss became the enemy despite sensei's prior statements and then because of this foss is buried in the ground forgotten for 220 years it's that incident which cultivated the thirst for revenge and it's what turns someone who is looking for a negotiated discussion into a monster but there's one last thing at play here one final piece to the puzzle that's far more influential than bort's actions the one manipulating every single event behind the scenes moving everyone around like chess pieces it brings us to the puppet master himself prince acmea while bort may have led some actions in the short term to cause issue acmia designed the game himself as he puts it a single win is nothing compared to controlling the entire field now this video was already rather long by my standard so i'll attempt to keep this brief as i think i can make an entire video just analyzing prince acme as a character but basically acme had targeted foss before foss had any idea what was going on in their most pure and innocent state akmia saw a gem one with a need for validation and a weakness preventing them from obtaining it and he took advantage of it acme had designed scenarios for foss to replace parts of their body lose their friends and losing who they are he forced them to be isolated and alone and ultimately by his admission it was he who designed it to be that foss would lose their head thus forcing the lustrous to replace it with the head of lapis lazuli while one might say that foss was foolish for falling victim to acme's manipulations how can you possibly begin to avoid traps set by someone when you aren't even aware of their existence essentially foss was losing chess pieces without even knowing a game was in place and all of this was to put foss in a situation where they would be able to replace sensei as the next prayer machine for the lunarians so can you really blame foss for these actions when they were essentially being used as a pawn by a greater power beyond them all of those actions of manipulation done with the head of lapis lazuli can you really blame foss when those actions were forced onto them before they had any idea what was going on foss had spent centuries being a pawn of someone they had no idea even existed and once they found out of prince acmea he further took advantage of them by preying on their suspicions who is at fault here the person who made a poor choice or the person forcing them into those situations by design and thus that brings us to answer our big question did phosphofylite do anything wrong ultimately aside from the instance with betraying rutile i honestly can't feel like they did when i see foss i see a deeply tragic character who is a victim to the circumstances around them i see someone deeply hurt by those using them as a tool and those completely uncaring of their plight and i can relate pretty hard to that i understand them i wouldn't want them to destroy everyone but i can see how they would end up that way years of trying and failing and being told that you're never going to be good enough and when you try your best to try to bring peace to things you're buried in the ground and forgotten that's enough to drive anyone to a feeling of vengeance foss was the only gem who was working towards peace with lulunarians foss was the only gem who was seriously working towards bringing the others back and what happened they were punished for it but now where does that leave us in the story it's a bit hard to say at the moment with foss being the only gem left on earth and everyone else being reformatted into lunarians on the moon there's a lot of different ways things can go if you ask me i think next we're finally going to meet sensei's brother in person and i also have a suspicion that life on the moon as lunarians isn't going to be as pleasant as they may think however one thing is for sure that i often lament on during this dry 10 000 year hiatus i may say that phosphofylite did nothing wrong and i do place most of the blame on prince acme but you know what the thing is i fault him for most because of him we lost the purity and innocence that was young foss and that's something that can never come back through his manipulations he took an innocent person seeking validation and turn them into a monster and because of him and his manipulations foss can never return to what they once had [Music] hey everyone if you stuck around to the end thank you so much for watching this is a topic i'm really passionate about so i put quite a bit of work into the script for this one would you say that phosphophyllite did nothing wrong how many times would you bash karen gorham with a hammer until you felt satisfied let me know in the comments i'm not sure when the next land of the lustrous video i'll make will come out but the next one will very likely be on prince acmia as i think there's a lot to talk about with his character if you have any suggestions for that or any future did nothing wrong videos feel free to let me know and if you haven't already be sure to join the discord if you'd like to chat personally thank you so much for watching and i hope i can see you next time

Channel: The Doomer Den

Views: 364,972

Keywords: land of the lustrous, houseki no kuni, phosphophyllite, phosphophyllite houseki no kuni, land of the lustrous phos, land of the lustrous phos change, phos, houseki no kuni manga, houseki no kuni manga review, houseki no kuni manga explained, land of the lustrous anime, land of the lustrous anime vs manga, land of the lustrous manga, land of the lustrous manga explained, land of the lustrous manga spoilers, phosphophyllite did nothing wrong, hnk, phos hnk, phos did nothing wrong

Id: 3EkZRSF6xGc

Length: 18min 7sec (1087 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 27 2021