#diclonius army

[nezu-mi]

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Lucy

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

It’s not very often you see a series where the villain is the main character, but then again it isn’t very often you see a series quite like Elfen Lied. The series is dark, foreboding, and gory, and a lot of that has to do with its protagonist, the Diclonius woman Lucy. Lucy is one of the most brutally tragic villains you’ll ever see, between her incredibly nightmarish childhood to the constant torment her very nature puts her through as a mutant. It all adds up to a very rich, complex character... though one that ends up not as fully realized as she could have been.

Actor: Kira Vincent-Davis portrayed Lucy in one of her star-making roles. The other? Osaka from Azumanga Daioh. She definitely delivers an excellent performance here, and it is easy to see how she managed to get such a varied career out of this. She knows just how to inject the right emotions into Lucy’s voice, and when Lucy is in her Nyuu personality she manages to fill the latter’s Pokemon speak with enough character that you get what she’s going for.

Motivation/Goals: Lucy is a Diclonius, and as such she has internal homicidal instincts that make her desire to slaughter as many people as humanly possible; coupled with the horns, the name she ends up being given (her true name is Kaede, but she ends up being called Lucy), and the fact she ends up embodying each of the Seven Deadly Sins if you read into her actions, and Lucy ends up a symbolic stand-in for the Antichrist. Of course, as a child, she didn’t really grasp this and in fact actively tried to suppress these feelings, but unfortunately fate decided to deal her a very poor hand.

First was her only source of happiness at the orphanage she grew up in, a puppy. A puppy that her bullies found out about, and in one of the most infamous moments of the series, beat it to death in front of her… and in turn, begin her descent into villainy as she slaughters the entire lot of kids, from her bullies to the girl she had befriended earlier who decided to snitch to the bullies about the puppy.

Second was what she felt was a betrayal at the hands of her only friend, Kouta. After he got her to open up and befriended her, she saw him at the festival with his female cousin and became insanely jealous, thinking he chose another girl over her… and so she went on a killing spree, which culminated in killing Kouta’s father and sister right in front of him.

And finally, her last ray of hope, a human who she had befriended was injured by the people who finally took her into custody… she died of her wounds, but Lucy wasn’t told until after she was imprisoned under the condition that they save her. When she finally gets a chance to escape, her sole motivation seems to be staying near Kouta again and try to find some way to apologize for her heinous actions, though even she realizes she’ll never be able to atone for what she did to him.

This brings about a pretty interesting facet of her goals: she slowly starts to defrost and gain more humanity the more time she and her split personality Nyuu spend with Kouta. It is in fact a major part of the story that she slowly becomes less evil as time goes on and she begins to develop, though by “less evil” I mean to say that at best she is an anti-hero, one who has no qualms about brutally dismembering anyone who dares to harm Kouta or herself.

This also ties into one of the major themes of the series: nature vs. nurture. Obviously, Lucy’s internal genetic desire to wipe out humanity is her inherent nature, but one also needs to look at what drove her to her killings; she was bullied, abused, and faced prejudice, betrayal, and scorn all around her for her entire childhood. Notice how when she’s shown the simplest compassion, she immediately starts to fall for that person and seems to want to do better, before a simple misunderstanding causes her to react in a volatile manner. It may seem over-the-top and disproportianate what she does to Kouta, but this is what her peers and caretakers molded her into: a violent misanthrope who clings desperately to even the tiniest shred of kindness in the world, and when she feels betrayed she lashes out and kills in a fit of rage, giving in to her violent nature. After gaining the amnesia during her escape at the start of the series and gaining her split personality, she is taken in yet again by Kouta and treated as a friend, an equal, and this begins Lucy’s ascent from pure villain protagonist to very, VERY dark anti-hero. 

Personality: Lucy is a cold, cynical, and bitter woman due to the numerous tragedies she experienced, but she is no emotionless husk; if there is one thing that is true about Lucy, it is that her capacity for love is one of her greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses. Love is what drove her to kill Kouta’s family out of jealousy, it’s what drove herself to sacrifice herself for Aiko (the girl she befriended before being captured), it’s what drives her the most throughout the series really. Her capacity for love is only even closely rivaled by her capacity for hate.

Final Fate: In the anime, Lucy finally confesses the truth to Kouta, and while he outright says he can never forgive her for what she did, he is at least a little more sympathetic to her plight than he was in the manga, where he outright said he hated her (though he did at least say her split personality Nyuu could stick around as long as she promised not to kill anyone). She then makes a heroic sacrifice against the army who is after her, one which she may or may not have survived. The ending is rather ambiguous, as opposed to that of the manga in which she is really and most sincerely dead after nearly bringing about the apocalypse in a fit of rage.

Best Scene: There are a lot of contenders, but perhaps her finest moment is the scene where Lucy as we know her is truly born, baptized in the blood of the bullies who killed her dog.

Best Quote: “When you're miserable, you need to make someone even more miserable than yourself.”

Final Thoughts & Score: Lucy is an amazing character. Her character arc is a depressing, heartrending rollercoaster showing her descent into the darkest depths of despair, cynicism, and evil before she begins to slowly but surely rise again, climbing out of the dark if only just a little bit. She’s stoic and sadistic, monstrous and vicious, cruel and uncaring… but at the same time, she has a boundless expanse of love inside her broken, battered heart, and a burning passion that drives her actions and the plot. She is shattered, she is flawed, but she is so very interesting.

A really fascinating aspect of her is how she deconstructs the tropes of the cute monster girl and magical girlfriend. The former is deconstructed by the fact that, despite being appealing to the viewer and us being given no reason to think she’d be unattractive to the humans of her world, her horns and other differences cause her to be mocked, tormented, and persecuted by her peers, with said persecution ultimately pushing her over the edge and causing her to become a serial killer. For the latter, her powers are incredily, seriously dangerous, as her invisible arms (or vectors, as they are called in the series) can easily dismember and when not dismembering infect the reproductive capabilities of whoever they touch, and there is also the fact that they are part of the contributing factor that drives her to madness.

Lucy gets a 9/10. She’s a very impressive villain, and one who has one of the most fascinatingly tragic backstories. In fact, she has the backstory by which all tragic backstories should be judged; if your villain wants to destroy the human race and yet their backstory wasn’t a horrendously cruel conga line of trauma the way Lucy’s was, you may want to rethink that backstory. It really is the tragedy and the way the series unfolds to show you just how she became the way she is that makes her so great; the only reason I don’t give her perfect marks is because the manga goes into far more detail in developing her, as the anime was made while the manga was still ongoing. 

And you know what? That might honestly be for the better. Lucy in the manga was far more insane, far more evil, and far easier to see as irredeemable, though even there she had moments of kindness and compassion that ultimately belied her true nature buried under the years of systematic abuse and betrayal. In the anime, while she is still a bitter, jaded serial killer, she comes off as bit more worthy of redemption; she revels far less in the actions she takes and seems to act in her adulthood more out of self-preservation than anything, as she harms only those who have wronged her rather than people who just get in her way. It does end up making it more believable when Kouta offers his sympathy at anime’s end; this version of Lucy seems more like a broken monster who does all she does because at this point it’s all she knows and all she thinks she can be rather than someone who all too often indulges their twisted genetic instinct. I would have much preferred to see this Lucy receive the culmination to her character that the one in the manga did, but sadly that did not come to pass. We are left with something brilliant, but also something that could have been even more heartbreakingly beautiful in its tragic poignancy. 

[glapplebloom]

Since I decided to cancel this on Patreon, I’ve decided to make a Special Edition version for everyone, with week early access for Patreon Supporters. And this is the chapter that begins it all.

In the World of Kirby, Meta Knight receives the flash containing the message. Being someone who has traveled the vastness of space, he knows a week Universal Time translates to three days on Popstar. Knowing he does not have a lot of time, he gathers everyone he could. In the next day, all who he can find were gathered. Dedede and a large portion of his army was there. Blade Knight, Sword Knight and Silica were by his side as always. And Kirby, Tiff, Tuff, Lololo, Lalala, ChuChu, Knuckle Joe and Gooey were there. Anyone else he could find were either sick or busy with their own things.

Meta: I have gathered you all here for a very important reason. An entity known as the Cosmic Vizier informed me that we have to form a Ten Person team and win a competition or else his master known as Genisis will wipe out our universe.

The crowd is shocked and scared of the news.

Meta: I am already on the team, so we need nine volunteers.

Dedede: Well, all we need is me and my Army to take care of this!

Dedede turned around to see his army shivering in fear. The only one not to do so is Bandanna Dee. He salutes to indicate he is joining the team.

Dedede: Well, he's practically an army on his own.

Blade: Sword Knight and I are willing to fight by your side Meta Knight!

Silica: As will I!

Joe: You can count me in as well!

Kirby: Poyo!

Gooey: Blub!

And in such a short time, a team of one has increased to a team of nine. But after that, no one else wanted to volunteer.

Meta: No one else wish to help.

Tuff: No offense, but the rest of us just can't help.

Tiff: I can summon a Warp Star for Kirby, but outside that I can't provide much help.

Chu: And as much as I want to fight alongside Kirby, I can't keep up with all of you.

Tiff: You nine are the best fighters we have. I don't think there is anyone on Popstar who can help this team.

Meta: Hmm... Anyone on Popstar did you say...

In space, a few hours later, a strange female is floating in space. In one hand, she has a container with the remnants of the Amalgamate. In another, what appears to be a cell phone.

Susie: I'm telling you, this stuff will do wonders for your business. If you mass produce it you could...

She then spots in the distance Meta Knight.

Susie: I'll call you back. Something came up.

She hangs up and puts the cell phone away before Meta Knight arrived.

Susie: Hello Meta Knight. Finally decided to take up my offer? I have the designs for Mecha Knight++ and with a little work.

Meta: We have no time for that. Our universe is in danger and we need one more member of our team to save this world.

Susie: Wait. You're seriously forming a team with those primitives? Do you want to lose?

Meta: Those primitives as you say did defeat your father. And you know what Kirby is capable of.

Susie: Yeah, Pinky is impressive. So I take it you want one of our machines.

Meta: More precisely, you.

Susie: Come again.

Meta: Machines can only do so much unless they have the right user. And you know well and good you were more responsible for my capture than your machines.

Susie: Alright. Someone has to carry your team to victory. Might as well be me.

When the three days pass, the Team Meta Knight assembled enter the portal to their fated destinies. But it is not only their world that found it easy to assemble a team. In a world similar to Akuma’s, this world’s Kari was the one who learned the final lesson instead of Akuma. And it is Kari who received the flash.

Seto: What’s wrong?

Kari: We have to form a team or else our Universe is in danger.

In a day, she has gathered her team. Chosen by Kari is Seto: the son of herself and this world’s Akuma. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Shadow: versions who are closer to their game version than the AkumaVerse. Metal Sonic: reprogrammed by Tails who was responsible for this world’s Akuma’s death. Ova: an entity similar to that of the Undertaker. And Seiya: a Diclonius who remains undefeated in battle.

Kari: I received a flash with a message. We must create a team of 10 to win a battle royal or else our Universe will be destroyed.

The group gasped at the news. Some looked worried while only Seiya seemed to enjoy the idea.

Seiya: This sounds fun.

Ova: Can’t we fight this thing?

Kari: For any of us to be able to, we need a lot more than the 10 of us to put up a fight. And we don’t know if these other universes will be willing to do that.

Sonic: Why not call that other universe? I’m sure that Akuma will jump at the chance at fighting something like that.

Kari: If we did that, there could be a chance their universe will be dragged into this too. And we shouldn’t risk theirs too.

Ova: Should we prepare an evacuation? In case we fail?

Shadow: Evacuate an entire universe in how many days?

Kari: 9 days.

Tails: It does seem like a tall order.

Sonic: Then that just means we can’t lose!

Kari: So for the next few days, prepare yourselves. We have a universe to save… And others to condemn.

At the end of the following day, the portal opened for Kari. This caught her off guard because she expected 10 days and not 3. She informs the others of this news and despite being off guard, they are able to arrive when called. They were hoping for more time, but they accepted that it was time and entered together. 

The 7th universe in this Tournament is a world where Silver Fox came from. Specifically a world where a more powerful version took over and nearly conquered the planet. He was eventually foiled and the feud between Robotnik and the Freedom Fighters ended with a peaceful Treaty. Sally Acorn is the one to receive the flash for this Universe.

 Sally thought it was of nothing, but she soon spots a small pool of water. What rose from it was the creature known as Chaos. While no one in this universe knows its purpose, it usually does arrive to help when things are at their gravest. And if it is here, then that flash was indeed true. She informed the others and while scared, they’re willing to risk their lives to save the universe. She also contacted Robotnik to aid the team. He provided a Robotic Sonic that he created to fight Silver Fox. The next day, he rebuilt the fake Sally he used in the past with some modifications for combat. What he promised was a third creation that will take more time. He was hoping to get Rotor’s help in building it since it requires two sets of hands to complete it not only in time but at all.

Near the end of the third day, the portal opens. This caught everyone unaware. With Robotnik’s final machine still needing days to create and Rotor’s aid, they are one person short. Robotnik was panicking as the others were thinking who could they get in short notice or hope that the 9 would be enough. Before settling on entering as 9, a wolf decided to step up. She was known as Lupe and since this peace treaty started, she was spying on Robotnik to ensure this was true. When she saw Sally asking for robotic aid, she soon began to spy on the Princess. She eventually found out about the Tournament and their current situation.

Sonic: Lupe! Long time no see!

Lupe: I would say the same, but that would not be true.

Bunnie: What do you mean sugar?

Lupe: I do not trust Robotnik. My Pack and I have been keeping an eye on him since we first heard of this treaty. Then I noticed you have been visiting him more frequently. And now you are here with two of his machines.

Sally: Lupe, inside that portal is a Tournament we have to win. If we don't, everything we know will cease to exist. If you truly want to protect your pack, you could help us. We are one person short and a full team is better than one less. Will you join us?

Lupe: It seems I have no choice. Besides...

She points towards Robotnik.

Lupe: Someone must make sure he does not betray us.

With the ten selected, the Freedom Fighters enter with a hope that they can return to their world.

[nezu-mi]