I love this VN to pieces, but I concede that the early chapters may have lost me and I only stuck with it because it was recommended by someone who knows me well. CJ in particular really ground my gears. His arrogant brainlet persona made him a massive twat and I wanted to dunk him in the river. Worse, he was opposed to Cro' and Hayato, who were much more interesting.
Thankfully, he drops the act and his real self is mostly as he was in the prologue: A simple, chill, kindhearted young man who would be content with his loving family, if only the supernatural weren't constantly beating down the front door. I empathize deeply with his self esteem issues and his struggle to enjoy the life he has while dealing with all the problems it creates. Chad is a compelling protagonist, but damn if his first 20 chapters didn't fucking krill me.
To me it feels like CJ always acts like with the girls interrests in mind, even the flashy outgoing clown-like persona.
Despite the fact that it made him look like a clown it was still refreshing? energetic? Im not sure how to describe it but it distracted from pressing issues and showcased some kind of possitivity for everyone.
All of them are kinda unhappy with the status quo before he came back, its like everything was gray and he brought the colour back. And even not considering this symbolic its important to consider that he's not really a human and his influences for the last years were Sarah (
) and his dad
KEK
.
But yeah, his whole act, persona and desire seems to be to support the girls in whatever way possible even when it makes him look like a clown. And he has the confidence for it, hes only really worried what people close to him think about him.
CJ always feels to me like someone who deliberatly put a filter(?) in lack of a better word on himself, or an earlier version of him did that. Like a omnipotent entity forcing to reduce the own omnipotence to give the rest of existence something like a free will.
He doesnt want this amount of influence and power. At least not alone? He doesnt feel worthy of it. So far we never saw the true amount of CJ's power i guess, it feels like he's restrciting himself all the time.
Cro revealed a lot of stuff to us already, in theory is apparently able to command all fairys and again he tries to not use it and instead giving them free will.
I think in the Theresa finale we see the "true/unrestriced" CJ for a short amount of time when he subdues Leah and Victoria, he's forced to strip them of their free will and he hates it. We dont really know how far this power extends, could he have even subdued the goddesses?
I think he feels like (and probably warranted) that getting to solutions soley by using his own power doesnt lead to the solution he's looking for and im pretty sure he (probably subconscious?) knows it.
Maybe trusting soley on his own omnipotence/power lead to whatever made the last court fall apart.