#i didn't even touch the egypt references hAH

[arminizewithme]

Hello! I recently saw the zexal powerpoint you made (which was so funny omg) and you mentioned that zexal had a bunch of symbolism and lore on one slide. Could you please explain some of the references you've noticed? I love learning about those kinds of deeper connections, and I only was able to catch a few when I watched the show! :0

Certainly!! I’mso glad you liked it! Here’s alink to the powerpoint if anyone wants to see.

(I accidentallydeleted this reply when i was almost done and had to start all over /wheezes)

*Lotta Zexalspoilers below:!*

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Religious/MythologicalImagery & Lore:

Faustian Pact: Kaito’s deal withMr. Heartland to hunt Numbers (and therefore photon-transform, mess up his ownbody, and steal souls) in exchange for saving Haruto. Kaito straight-up tellsYuma that he takes souls because he “made a deal with the devil”, letting Yumainfer that Heartland is “the devil”. Damn straight.

Pandora’s Box: Yumaopening the gate in episode 1 and releasing the Numbers cards (and Astral).Pretty sure the manga straight-up mentions Pandora’s Box. In the legend,Pandora released all the evils of the world, and only Hope was left in the box.And, well. Hopeis Yuma’s Numbers.

Beelzebub/Lord of the Flies:MR. HEARTLAND OH MY GOD. It’s pretty clear that he has a fly motif in Zexal II,between his first appearance and new suit and later Barian form. Beelzebub isthe name of a demon, interpreted as the devil himself in some traditions: ademonic fly, prince of Hell, symbol of gluttony. Heartland.

Eliphas Levi: Frenchoccult and socialist author and Eliphas’ namesake. Much like how Eliphas wantedto deprive Astral World of (actually necessary) Chaos, Levi wrote of “the end ofthe people’s martyrdom and the “resurrection” of Liberty: the perfectuniversal, socialist order”.  He alsowrote about “transcending” religious tradition, like how Eliphas wanted to “rankup” and achieve a higher existence without the work of Chaos. I’m not clear where humans fit into thismetaphor, but Levi accused the Church of tainting the teachings of Christ (muchlike how Yuma/Chaos tainted Astral).  

108 Earthly Sufferings:We know of 108 Numbers cards (99 released + Numeron Dragon + Barians’ 7Over-hundreds + Don Thousand’s No. 1000). 108 is significant in Hinduism aswell as Buddhism, where is is the number of earthly desires/temptations thatpeople must overcome to achieve Nirvana.

Pegasus: Durbe casually owns awinged horse, ndb. In Greek mythology, Poseidon created Pegasus, and I’m prettysure that Zexal’s Abyss straight-up IS Poseidon. So there’s a Nasch connection.

Crucifixion: Astralis crucified at least twice in the first series: by No. 96 in episode 20 and byIII in episode 47. Jesus’ crucifixion is central to the narrative ofChristianity, and Astral is arguably a Christ figure.

Other thoughts Ididn’t put in the PPT:

Biblical roles:Astral as Jesus, Eliphas as God in heaven, Don Thousand as the devil, No. 96 asthe Antichrist.

Nasch as Lucifer,a fallen angel who was once good but then allied with evil.

 ScientificNames/References:

Tachyon: Misael’s Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon is named after a hypothetical particle thatmoves faster than the speed of light; therefore, a one-up to Kaito’s Photon Dragon. Basically tachyons would heck up everything we know about physics (and philosophy), tying them to the Chaos Theory. Hello, Barians and Chaos.

Dyson Sphere: V’s ace monster is a hypothetical megastructure that completely encases a star and absorbs its energy output. It’s been explored a lot in scifi, and scientists think that actually building & implementing one would lead to discovering intelligent alien life. Fitting that V built the portal to Astral World!

Ursa Major: The Seven Barian Emperors are named after the seven stars of this constellation: Dubhe (Durbe), Merak (Merag), Phecda (Vector), Megrez (Gilag??), Alioth (Alit), Mizar (Misael, though he’s literally ‘Mizar’ in the dub), and Benetnash (Nasch).

Entropy: The scientific expression of disorder; this is mostly me guessing, but I think Zexal’s Chaoshas some links to Entropy.

Other References:

Heraldry: Tron’s deck ofHeraldic Beasts is a reference to the design/display study of armor and crests.Interestingly, “the use of helmets with face guards during this period made itdifficult to recognize one’s commanders in the field when large armies weregathered together for extended periods, necessitating the development ofheraldry as a symbolic language.” Makes me think of Tron’s mask when he’s nolonger recognizable as Byron. Heraldry is also related to Vexillology, which may bethe origin of Tron’s dub name, Vetrix?

Out-of-place Artifacts: III’s deck of OOParts (or Chronomalies) is a reference to artifacts that seem too advanced (or display things too advanced) for the time period they’re from. Ie, ancient “batteries”, hieroglyphs seeming to represent helicopters, etc. Makes me think that III is probably really into cryptids and conspiracy theories.

That’s all I can think of for now…! Feel free to reblog/add on if you think of anything else.