[X] Take a moment to really think about Ono's comments. About your own presented image, contrasted with what you know about her background and wish.
[X] Ask her in earnest honesty how you came across as arrogant -- you're not too proud to admit to mistakes, and blundering our way into causing a new magical girl refusing to listen to life-saving information is certainly a mistake. If you're going to do better in the future, then you need to know what you did wrong in the past.
[X] Listen to her feedback. Don't treat it like an argument or a debate to be won, she's a magical girl who nearly died because you didn't know how to handle her.
[X] Thank her for the feedback, and give her a sincere apology.
-[X] Because if your ego is so inflated that this is too much, Ono is absolutely right about you being arrogant. You've discarded your dignity for lame jokes to cheer up an arsonist you call friend, and you've swallowed your pride to reach out to a delinquent who dishes out worse than Ono did regularly.
[X] Onwards to meeting the Animators!
- [X] Vote in abeyance
Thank you, I am glad there's a vote from somebody that isn't for doubling down on what is clearly a blatant sore spot for Ono. The only issue I have is with it is this part:
[X] Ask her in earnest honesty how you came across as arrogant -- you're not too proud to admit to mistakes, and blundering our way into causing a new magical girl refusing to listen to life-saving information is certainly a mistake. If you're going to do better in the future, then you need to know what you did wrong in the past.
As you pointed out in your own analysis, Ono has real chip on her shoulder. And with all those self-worth and self-image issues, the fact that she is thanking us for anything at all is actually quite eyebrow-raising. Her wish was likely made for the sake of her own pride (and her constant magic use almost certainly so) which makes the fact that she is actually swallowing her pride to thank us almost a near-miracle of the Oriko's-soul-twisting-itself kind.
The way I'm seeing it is this: if she is not exaggerating and really, honestly believes us purposefully arrogant (and not just telling herself that for her own benefit as some form of cognitive dissonance mitigation) then that means she's
doubly swallowing her pride to not merely to give thanks to anyone, but to do it for someone she truly dislikes. And in this case, drawing attention back to the fact we still seem arrogant in her eyes is tantamount to forcing a lemon down immediately after the pride. I personally also think it can possibly, in a sense, make us come off as yet again
so arrogant we can't even consider the fact that we're being arrogant.
On the other hand, if she doesn't
fully believe Sabrina to be so and is mostly just saying so to save face or to convince herself of it so that she doesn't have to consider that she could - god forbid - possibly have made an error in judgment on her part, it would just poke at her self-esteem issues and make her all the more frustrated at everything.
Sometimes there are minefield situations when doing nothing is the best option, because stepping in any direction can potentially trigger a landmine and even just jumping straight up could set one off that you don't realize you're already sitting on. This is almost one of those times. Just an apology, even a half-hearted one - since Ono wouldn't be expecting anything genuine if she believed us hugely arrogant and especially if she didn't really believe what she was saying - without bringing up anything else about the subject is probably the best way to respect that she has likely had to undergo some constipating mental gymnastics to spit out what she just said to us, I think.
Personally, I highly suspect that something recently happened between Ono and the Animators that we don't know about, something which elevated her respect for us and the Animators enough to be thanking us and to refer to the Animators as helpful people (even if she's obviously sore about their rough training). If I were ballsier, I'd vote for asking her what happened directly, but I consider it safer to try and pry it out of the other Animators.
The only alternative I can think of is that this is very clumsy attempt at trying to butter up Sabrina for some favor or other - and if it was, we'll know about it soon enough.
