So, let me ask you this. Is confidence a good thing? Yes, right? I mean, I don't see why
it would be a bad thing. But it really depends on where your confidence honestly comes from.
In other words, how do you tell the difference between confidence and arrogance? And guess
what we're gonna find out on today's episode. And we're gonna find out by looking at a character
from Blue Lock who essentially toes that line for better or for worse, whose whole personality
is just derived from that sense of basically arrogance and honestly borderline self delusion
in himself. And of course, I'm talking about Blue Lock's king of villains, Shuhei Baro.
What's going on guys? My name is Nate and you're listening to the Otaku Liberation,
a show where we help you break free from the chains that are holding you back in your life
by connecting some biblical principles with themes from your favorite anime. Again, as
always, I got a little sport of warning ahead for all my anime only out there. So again,
just in case you come in and you haven't read the manga, you're not caught up yet, maybe
going over some things in regards to the future of this character. So without further ado,
let's get in. So Shuhei Baro. And then this guy is, if honestly, if Blue Lock had a mascot,
I personally think it'd be Shuhei Baro. This man just embodies ego in such a way that the
other characters are just now getting to that point where he just came out the gate like
that. And Baro, he described himself as the king. He's the king of the field, king of
the pitch. As soon as he steps on, everyone else is just his pawns. And that's the mentality
he brings to the game. That's the type of soccer that he wants to play. And I mean,
as a fan, as somebody watching the show, you'll be like, okay, this guy's pretty cool. He's
an interesting character, interesting take on it. But it comes across a little different
when you see someone in real life acting like that. When you see someone who's just so
full on themselves, and not just full on themselves, but they actually degrade others and just to
really make themselves feel better. And I don't know about you, but I don't think that's
cool. I don't think that's something I want to idolize. That's definitely not something
that I want to be. And I feel like we can easily slip into that if we're not too, too
careful because again, back to the question I posed earlier, confidence, especially self-confidence
is a powerful, powerful thing, but make sure it's not to the detriment of somebody else.
Because at that point it's not really confidence. It's fear and insecurity, but it's not what
you think it is if you have to tear somebody else down just because you feel some type
of way to try to boost yourself up. And that's more or less how it is for Barrow. So I guess
a little backstory on him is obviously he's in Blue Logs. He's one of the best strikers
in Japan currently. So he has the skill to back up his claims. And because of that, from
his young age, he was better than most other people that he played with. Of course, he
kind of built up this kingly slash godlike complex of himself where he sees himself as
the king. He's very, it's just, again, back to that word arrogance. He thinks that he
is just the it man. As soon as he steps on the field, he's him and nobody else can do
anything and no one else has anything to say about it. And he never listens to planning
from his teammates or anything. They're just there to pass him the ball. They're just there
to help him score his goals. It's not even for the goals for the team, but it's just
for him personally. And if you live your life like that, right? If you live your life only
pursuing your own goal for the sake of yourself, for the sake of just, again, just because
you think you're all that in a bag of chips, then honestly, you're just, you're going to
wake up one day and realize just how alone you really are. Just how empty it all feels
when you don't have anyone else to even to share that with, right? To even, to be able
to even express the same type of joy that you express, right? Because you would have
pushed everyone away. You would have have used up, used everyone up, just like, you
know, like they're just nothing to you. Right. And after a while, people are going to, are
going to notice and shy away from it, shy away from you. They're not going to want to
be bothered with the so-called king or so-called queen of whatever the case may be because
all that just becomes so much of a headache. I mean, if you're, if you're so good at X,
Y, and Z, then why do you need my help? Why do I need to be around you? Why are you even
here? And honestly, it may, they may at first may sound good or it may be like, Oh, I mean,
that's just whatever, that's just them. You know, they can't, they can't handle me. They
can't see what I see. Right. Well, if it's more than one person, if it's at person, at
the person, at the person, relationship, at a relationship, at the relationship, opportunity,
after opportunity, after opportunity, then I'm starting to think as you seriously, I'm
starting to think as you at this point, because what, you know, what's the common denominator
of all of these things? Don't worry, I'll let you think about it. That's right. It's
you. And, and I know, I mean, I might rubble some feathers with this one because I know
a lot of people, people, typically people who are this self-absorbed, typically have
a fragile ego. It's ironic, right? I'm talking about an anime where ego is literally the
whole entire premise, but it really, it really, how should I put this? It really, it really
puts it into perspective, right? When all and all you care about is yourself. And then
when you realize that not everybody else cares about you in that same sense is, it should,
it should be eye-opening, I think, and really help with some reflection. But, but actually,
so again, when I was doing this episode, I was looking, of course, looking through the
scripture and I found this one verse that kind of sums it up perfectly. And that is
in Proverbs chapter 18 verse 12. And it says, before his downfall, a person's heart is proud,
but humility comes before honor. And to kind of break that little snippet down. So those
of you who don't know, God hates arrogance, right? He hates people who are just soul-full
and basically who put themselves essentially above him in all honesty, but they put themselves
up in a higher place. Like they're just better than everybody else. And because of that,
he's not going to bless you, right? He's going to, actually, he's going to go against you.
And to be completely honest, he's just going to go against you. And honestly, that's a,
that's a good and a bad thing, right? Because, and the reason I say that is God loves us
so much that he, he wants us to be in his good graces. So even though we're strained
outside of that, he's going to do what any parent does, right? And try to give you some
course correction to bring you, to bring you back in alignment, right? So in this verse,
he says, before his downfall, a person's heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.
Meaning at the end of everything, he's going to bring you back into honor, right? And that's
kind of where Barrow's journey kind of takes us, right? If you, again, if you watched him,
especially watch the anime up to this point and even read the past in the manga, you see
that that transformation in Barrow, right? So again, the first, the first title he, Barrow
has had again is the king. He, you know, the, he, I'm the king of the pitch. I'm just, again,
I'm him. I'll just step on the field and everyone has to bow down to me. And unless you're passing,
passing me the ball, you're just garbage. Right. And the next title that I'm giving
to Barrow after the king is the fool. And again, that goes from arrogance to the humility,
right? And again, if you've seen the series, you've read it, you know exactly the moment
I'm talking about, but for everyone else who doesn't know out there, I mean, let me give
you some context. So during, during, during the second selection, right? Isagi who again,
who's the, who's the main character, he, him and Nagi took on Barrow and another, and another
blue locker, right? And in the end, Isagi in the beaten Barrow, Barrow's team, and then
he chose Barrow to come to the company him and Nagi to make a three man team. So, and
then they moved on to the next round. So first, you know, I don't want to blow past this before
I get to my main, main point, but that was typically the first time that Isagi actually
beat Barrow in a one on one. Like he just straight up beat him. Isagi honed his, his
gift, his tool, and it actually elevated himself to another level that allowed him to overtake
Barrow and score the winning goal. Right. And that was the first kind of taste of Barrow's
like, okay, it's someone who I deem as beneath me as, as he calls them in the anime, donkeys.
This donkey has decided to essentially challenge the king. So that kind of already started
off some animosity between the two, even more so than what was there before. So let's kind
of fast forward to the next match to have a three on three against somebody's old teammates.
And man, the things that happened in there. So going into this game, Isagi is trying to
make up a game plan using Nagi and Barrow so they can, you know, come up with a strategy
to win obviously. But again, Barrow the king is just set, just set on, nope, you guys pass
me the ball. I'm going to score goals on my own. And the thing is the, the opponents also
know that about Barrow. So they're just going to, their whole game plan is to keep him outside
of his shooting range long enough until somebody else can come take the ball from them because
they know he's not going to pass. And that, that results in them getting scored on twice.
You know, Isagi tried to pass the ball to Barrow. It got shut down. They took the ball
and scored, you know, that happened twice. And what Isagi decided to do after that, he,
he realized anytime he goes, tries to go to Barrow, it's just going to be a mute point.
So what he decided to do was use Barrow as a distraction so Isagi can score his own goals.
And man, when I tell you, I can't do it justice now, but again, if you're feeling inclined,
at least just look that up on YouTube, right? Just, just, just look it up. Cause it was
beautiful. It was beautiful to see because Isagi faked like he was going to pass the
ball to Barrow, but he passed to Nagi on the other side. So they doubled down to go to
Nagi because he can't run free because he'll score on them too. And Nagi, knowing the plan,
just passed it back to Isagi who went around and ended up scoring the goal. And so that
was the first time. And that was the first time Barrow realized this man just used me,
the king. I'm the king of the field. And I just got, just got used like a pawn by somebody
who I looked down upon. Right. And that's the type of humility, that's the humbling,
right? That really happened for him. And honestly, when it comes, when it comes to humility,
right, you can go two, two ways. One is significantly better than the other, right? You can either
humble yourself or life slash God will humble you, but either way you're going to get humbled
if you, if you're, if your head's too big and typically you're going to want to humble
yourself because when God does it, when life does it, it's, it's, it's not going to be
what you like. It's going to be the most painful thing that it can possibly happen to you in
order to get your attention. And in Barrow's case, it was losing his crown as the king
of the field because Isagi not only used him once, he used them twice. Like the very next
play, he used them as a distraction again to score his own goal. And that, like when
I say that broke him, it would be that like really broke him. And I know a lot of times
that's what God needs to do with us in order to, in order for us to be still, to be still
enough to listen to him and to hear him out and to hear his voice and to hear his plan
for us that he needs, he needs to break us. He needs to break us down to, you know, to
make us come to him to be, as you call it, gracefully broken. And again, that's the best
medicine that's the best medicine anyone can have for an overgrown ego is, is to be, is
not humiliate, not humiliate, humiliated, oh words. But to be humbled, to be humbled in
the sense that, okay, you know, maybe I'm not all that. I mean, I'm not who are just
the best of the best and you know, the best things in sliced bread, right? And okay. So
now that I know that, now that I realize that where do I go from there? Right. And that,
that brings us to the third title. I'm give borrow. So first he was the king, right? Which
it signifies his arrogance, you know, being the king of the pitch. Everyone else is just
garbage to me. Second title I gave him is the fool, which coincides with humility, where
he's like, he literally made him look like a fool on, on the, on the pitch and used him
for his own gain. And the third title I'm going to give borrow is the villain, which
coincides with, with confidence, right? And the, the villain for it, for borrow is essentially,
essentially this, right? So in the depths of his despair, when he realized Isagi just,
you know, made a fool out of him twice, he was about to be complacent with, you know,
being second fiddle. He was about to, he was willing to, you know, just give Isagi and
Nagi passes and that'll be it. But right before he was about to give him the last pass, something
spoke to him. Something said, if you pass to them now, you will always, always, always
be in someone else's shadow. And that was a turning point for him. He, he realized that
that's not who he is. That's not who he truly is. And thus he decided to become the villain
of the field. And what that means for him is, you know, again, he's thinking to his
own mental, his one man army mentality, but now he's more strategic with it. And the key
part is he doesn't look down on his teammates anymore. Now he still may call them, you know,
donkeys or whatever, you know, it is whatever it is. That's his personality. But in reality,
he respects them. Now he respects, he respects them as, as, you know, adversaries and as,
uh, as rivals to it, right? Cause you can be confident in what you, whatever it is you're
doing, whatever, you know, skill, whatever talent, you know, your job, in school, you
know, if you play in a sport, anything like that, anything that you're competing in, you
can be confident without being arrogant. And essentially confidence is, is, you know, believing
in yourself and your ability and what you've done to prepare. And while also respecting
everyone else around you who have done the same thing that you've done, right? However
it is that they prepare for whatever it is that you, that you're doing, you respect that.
You don't look down on anybody. Because at the end of the day, we all came in as this
world with nothing and we're all going to leave, leave this world with nothing. So what
happens in between, right, is that very, that very small window of time that we have here
on earth is, it says is what our life is, right? And I don't know about you, but I have
so much respect for anybody who's willing to put themselves out there and wanting to
go, to go through the work, to do the work that they need to do in order to get to the
next level. And you may, I mean, Hey, they may think that they're the best at this. You
may think that you're the best at this and they're okay. You say at that point that let's
test it out and see, let's see who really is the best at this. And it's not in a sense
of, you know, I got to prove that I'm better than you. I got to, if you got something to
prove, prove, prove, but no, it's just, it's just friendly competition, right? You know,
like iron sharpens iron. You, you, you need people who are at your level, actually honestly,
you need people who are even slightly ahead of you. So a, you have something to strive
for and B, you can see your own, your own shortcomings. You can see what it is that
you need to improve upon. And if you're the best of the best, quote unquote, then who
do you have to compare it with? Who do you have as you know, like a guiding light to,
to help aim you at? And essentially that's, that's kind of what borrow learn. And for
borrow that was Isagi after Isagi, you again, just made a fool out of him. Borrow, borrow's
whole mentality, his whole style of football essentially changed from just being, okay,
I'm the king of the field to, I'm going to do whatever it takes, whatever I can to beat
this guy, whether he's my teammate or not, I'm going to beat Isagi at any given opportunity
that I can have. Right. And, and Isagi's just like, okay, bring it on. He's like, bring
it on. I'm ready whenever you are. And granite sometimes in a heat of a game, because again,
it's still a team sport. And if they're on the same team, borrow's still going to try
to steal the ball from Isagi and score his own goal, regardless of what's happening.
So sometimes that's a detriment to the team because again, Isagi's got this plan drawn
out and here comes borrow running in to take the ball from them. But that also causes chaos
amongst the opposition, right? They don't, they don't understand what he's doing. Nobody's
going to take the ball from their teammate surely. And then there's borrow. So, um, again,
that's the kind of where his villain persona comes into play, where he just destroys everyone's
notion of what soccer is or what camaraderie is and uses that to his own advantage. And
again, what, what I want, what I want you got to take from this is it's okay to be confident.
It's okay to be sure of yourself. Actually, I'm encouraging it. Be sure of yourself. Have
that confidence. Be what you need to be in order to get through this life of ours. Right.
But not to the detriment of somebody else, not to you pull dragging someone else down
just because right. Yeah. So that's not because I mean, again, we're on this, we're on this
world together. We don't, we have enough natural issues to be, to be worrying about, you know,
between the sickness and, and, you know, age and things like that to be honestly fighting
each other, especially in just, in just such a, a nasty, you know, type of way. I mean,
again, competition is healthy. Competition is good. It drives innovation. It drives people
to get better, to better yourselves each and every day. Right. But again, it's really,
it's just, it's just, it's a bad look. And like I said earlier, you will find that you
know, your life is essentially going to be empty if you deem yourself the king or queen
of the world, essentially, and that everyone else is just beneath you and just a waste
of your time. And honestly, I honestly feel sorry for the people who truly believe that
because when, when the humbling comes and it will, it, it's, it's going to come like
a haymaker from Mike Tyson and that's a wrap. That's it. But so yeah, that's all I got for
you guys today. So again, thank you for tuning into today's episode. I pray that you got
what you needed out of it and that you learned something new about yourself. Feel free to
subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. And again, I love reading you guys' comments
and it really does help me improve each and every episode. And, and yeah, that's it. So
again, always remember you are the main character of your story and that story doesn't end until
he says so. All right. Be blessed.