#in which it becomes obvious i hate giriko

[bcbdrums]

Hi, I know we have quite different oppinions on some SE related things, but thats why I wanted to ask:

I actually really liked the manga Baba Yaga arc. Is your oppinion on it positve too or do you actually think its not as good or atleast weaker than the folowing arcs?

I'm curious on people's oppinions and finding out where the difference of perspectives originate

(Also think the Baba Yaga arc had a very strong SoMa moment with the whole puppet chapter resolution and Maka giving Soul and outstretched hand is an iconic panel to me)

I don't think the manga had a single "weak" arc. The more I pick things apart, the more I'm seeing what masterful storycrafting took place in Soul Eater, which is surely part of why it has such a strong fanbase to this day.

The Baba Yaga arc was fantastic!!! I have not read the manga since January, but I'll try to bullet point some of the key things that make it great.

And I'll preface this all by saying... The manga is divided into two halves, essentially (we know that), and at the end of each half...our main characters reach milestones in their stories and their character development. So it's like...they've all been hopping across stepping stones to reach the other side of the pond, and here they all arrive. And get ready to brave the waves of the next half of the story.

Also, I'm writing this in a way that assumes the reader has read and is intimately familiar with the manga. So I'm not going into detail about things. But anyway...

MAJOR spoilers for Soul Eater manga, if that matters to anyone.

The secondary trio. We get to see ALL of the kids in this arc, and time is spent with each of them; it's not JUST the main meister trio and their weapons, but it's also the secondary trio, and we finally get to know them more deeply as characters! And good heavens is that development ever GOOD! I won't detail it so folks can read it for themselves, but my GOSH was that ever phenomenal!

Minor characters. Eruka, Free, even Giriko, and Mosquito get their moments. And they're not just there to be on the page, they serve an actual purpose. And I felt that Mosquito here became more a genuine threat, less an annoying pest (lol, mosquito). We also get the unexpected introduction of a new enemy in Noah, which was a fabulous twist.

The first major seeds of doubt are sown here with the DWMA's decision making; perhaps they are not the great and wise leaders we've been led to believe? Because going along with Medusa's plan was clearly, clearly unwise. We have this sense the whole time that the effort is doomed simply by nature of...we know the decision was unwise. And with the little hints prior, and with what ultimately comes later regarding the DWMA and their place in the world...it was a fantastic stepping stone along that piece of the plot.

Medusa. The tension of her presence, of her supposedly being their ally. The clear and obvious lie she tells to Maka to gain her cooperation. Her true motives slowly but surely unfolding, and what ultimately happens with her in the end of the arc. It was a brilliant, brilliant play, completely inline with the manipulative character we know and love/hate, and an added level of threat throughout the arc since the point is to stop Arachne. And then to have the true plan revealed in the end... Sheer brilliance.

Black Star and Tsubaki vs Mifune. Another perfect stepping stone in the plot of Black Star's character development, from who he was at the beginning to who he ends up being in the very final chapter of the manga. Tense, powerful, bittersweet... Black Star is arriving here at who he needs to be to truly complete his goal. We see the growth in his words, his actions, and it becomes so important going forward.

Maka and Soul, and the battle against Arachne. Here we get back to the purpose... How was Soul Eater the series introduced? You defeat 99 evil souls and then the soul of a witch. So, we have arrived at last. A battle against a witch. And the themes of trust that were set up in that very first chapter get to shine here with Maka and Soul's growth as a meister/weapon pair. And oh ho HO that payoff... With yet another twist following... Fantastic storytelling!

Kid's sacrifice. Unexpected, heart-pounding, and yet again... A culmination of his growth. Throughout the arc... In his wise decision-making, his battle tactics, and then ultimately his sacrifice... He is stepping out of the...youthful and surface-level obsessiveness that is ultimately part of what is going to make him a great Shinigami someday, and stepping into the beginnings of maturing into that role. No more worrying about the height of picture frames. Only protecting the world, and protecting the ones he loves. It is a powerful, powerful moment in his development.

As I said in the beginning... This is an arrival, for each character. An arrival, and then they get to take a breath before the ultimate battle. Everything about this arc was phenomenal. Each and every character given their due; the pacing; the story itself with all of its frights, twists, and payoffs, and the way it makes the reader think. Truly, truly outstanding!

I know this was a very vague summary and assumes intimate knowledge of the manga, but my gosh... Truly a fabulous arc and I want to go read it again right now.

[blue-dream-rhapsody]

On Kugo Ginjo, Part 3/?: The Actions of Actors

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Tsukishima calls Ginjo a bad actor one time, and the result is this ridiculously long analysis.

[Long and photo-heavy-ish post ahead!]

When Kugo’s past is confirmed as the only one that was changed during the bulk of The Lost Agent, it is also confirmed that the rest of Xcution is fully cognizant of the situation they’re in the entire time. They remember the endgame that Kugo doesn’t, and even while they’re getting to know Ichigo and becoming somewhat fonder of him they’re still working in service of it. Riruka is the only one to visibly show doubt, but even she nonetheless sticks with the plan.

So that raises the question of why. We get Kugo’s motive well enough, but why are the others willing to go along with this? What is it that they’re going to gain from emotionally destroying a perfectly kind and understanding kid who yeah, maybe at one point was a symbol of everything Kugo hated, but right now is just trying to live his life? Why do this to someone who could very easily be one of their own, and who some of them even grow to like along the way?

For Giriko, the answer is pretty unremarkable.

He wanted power, and he was going to get it by manipulating Ichigo. He’s the one to first insist on Kugo’s promise to share with them, and is the most vocal about enjoying it once he has it. Even in his fight with Kenpachi his only obsession is with being the stronger man. For someone who supposedly finds his ability “perilous” he’s awfully reckless about amplifying it. Arrogance seems to be a serial problem for him, and it’s really about time when he ends up dead.

Yukio is somewhat the same, seeking the power to assert himself as well, due to his rather fragile (and immature) ego. Ichigo is merely the means to that end for a boy who has demonstrated more than a little trouble with empathy; Yukio is spoiled, and used to taking what he wants. However, at the end of everything, he does reveal a less self-centered side of himself which suggests he feels some loyalty to the other Fullbringers.

Shishigawara is worth a mention before I go any further.

His motivation is as simplistic as it gets—he’s fighting for what Tsukishima is fighting for. He’s pretty much separate from everybody else; there’s no evidence that he knows the rest of Xcution, and even Kugo seems to have no knowledge of him when they fight in the mansion, so it’s likely he was kept completely out of the loop on the greater plan apart from what his boss deigned to tell him. Additionally, he has no designs on Ichigo’s power, and seems unaware anyone else was getting any of it. He doesn’t have any contradicting personal familiarity with Ichigo like the others, either; he’s a punk kid fighting just another perfect stranger, per Tsukishima’s orders.

And then there’s Jackie.

She’s, to me, where things start to get complex. Because as Yukio says, Jackie hates her powers. She runs with the others to catch up to Kugo, but the entire time Giriko is waxing obnoxious about sharing, and then once she’s made stronger, she’s completely quiet. Somber. She doesn’t protest like Riruka, but it’s pretty obvious from her expressions that this isn’t especially what she wanted.

Yet, in a way, it is. She hates her Fullbring because it was useless to save her family. That association is never going to go away. But if she gets ahold of Ichigo’s power, this time it may be enough to protect Xcution. Jackie is the one at the end to propose the remaining three stick together. She’s the one who stopped to bury Giriko’s body when she came across it. Xcution makes up the people who are important to her, and even if she hates the thing that makes her one of them, she’s happy that she is one of them. She didn’t quite manage the same aloofness toward Ichigo that Yukio and Giriko did (she fought him one on one, after all), but loyalty most definitely compelled her to put any warmth she felt toward him on ice in the end.

And there may be something else she hints at, too, in this little moment she has with Renji.

This can be read one of two ways. In one, where Jackie means this literally, she’s simply wishing someone had come into her life sooner and saved her from her own cynicism.

The second way, however, it isn’t that Jackie hasn’t been saved. It’s just that, rather than it being by somebody like Renji, it was somebody like Kugo. Someone who she cares about, sure, and someone she understands. But in understanding him, it’s very easy to imagine she also sees his flaws, from his violent obsession with vengeance to his manipulative callousness. She says herself, at the end, that she realized the only thing that had ever tied the members of Xcution together was their shared experience as Fullbringers. They weren’t brought together out of a promise of a home, or a place to belong—Kugo recruited them all under him with a promise to give them the power the regular world has denied them.

And she mourns that. She wants things to be different, has been hoping for a thread of genuine connection with these others like her, and it’s why she asks Yukio if they can stick together a little longer, and why she’s moved when he replies the way he does. She knows what Kugo built wasn’t a place for warm fuzzies, but it’s all she has. It’s the only thing he could give her and the others, because of the way he is. But somebody like Renji? Someone who could show concern for not only a stranger, but an enemy; someone who doesn’t just surrender to a situation he can’t change; someone who won’t let go of his principles for anything? If she’d been saved by somebody like that instead, then she may have been in a completely different place. But here she is, and she’s not sorry she fought for it.

This brings me to Riruka, and the recurring theme that cropped up several times through this whole arc.

At first pass, her aim may seem to be inline with everyone else’s. She’s a part of Xcution, so she’s doing what they’ve all been directed to do. She’s isolated by her powers, but also identifies with them and takes some pride in the way they make her different. But where Yukio and Giriko have no qualms about their actions, and Jackie seems to have suppressed any misgivings she might’ve had, Riruka shows again and again that it’s weighing on her considerably. She’s forthright about not wanting Ichigo’s power. She tries to shut out Orihime’s attempts at friendship because she knows what’s coming. Her conscience is eating at her, and yet she still goes along with the plan.

She doesn’t want Ichigo’s power for herself, so why is she still ignoring her guilt and helping things along? What’s enough to make that worth it for her?

She tells us, twice.

First, to Rukia:

And then again, to Tsukishima:

You know, this is the one arc where one of Ichigo’s friends hasn’t been taken by an enemy. Ichigo, for once, doesn’t have to break into the Soul Society, or Hueco Mundo, or the Wandenreich to get anybody back. Yet somehow, over the course of the six volumes making up The Lost Agent, the concept of “saving” someone comes up six times (and that’s ignoring Yukio’s saving ability). Urahara saved everybody from Aizen. Ichigo saved Orihime from her pain. Ichigo saved the Soul Society.

Jackie wishes somebody like Renji had saved her. Kugo saved the Fullbringers from their isolation.

Ichigo saved Kugo.

I think we might be hitting on a common thread here.

And if you look at the scene where that last one is said:

“…Ichigo.”

Ding, ding, ding.

Everybody in Xcution knew the full scope of the plan from Day One. They all knew what Ichigo was, and they all knew what Kugo was. They knew why it was Ichigo he was going after, and each had their own reasons for their complicity. For Giriko and Yukio, this was a chance to make themselves more powerful. For Jackie, it was a means to gain the strength to protect her new family. For Shishigawara, it was what he was told to do. But what this moment suggests is that, in Riruka’s case, what she wanted wasn’t something for herself.

She says here, “We couldn’t save Ginjo.” And it’s all but a confession, isn’t it? To say you couldn’t, you have to have tried. You have to have wanted to. So was what Riruka wanted from all of this, to save Kugo?

She felt more guilt than anyone that they were lying to Ichigo. But for Kugo, the betrayed Deputy, he’s nothing less than the successor who got to be the hero. He’s a symbol of every injustice Kugo’s endured, and a reminder of everything he could’ve been if he’d just been given the chance. And there’s no doubt that, at the very least in the beginning, destroying Ichigo could sound like the closure he needed. If that was what it was going to take to grant some peace to the man who she feels saved her, and that felt like a big enough debt, then perhaps that was enough to overpower any of her doubts.

And, do you know what else is significant about this moment? Tsukishima listens, and stops.

He doesn’t care about Ichigo. He hasn’t had the same experience as everyone else (Kugo included), getting to know him over the past few days and seeing him for the person he is beyond being their target. And that’s assuming he would’ve had the capacity to feel anything genuine for him in the first place. He doesn’t let Ichigo go because Riruka has tapped some inner sense of morality Tsukishima has, or even because her defending him has somehow moved him. He stops because what she said is the truth, and it’s a truth he knows.

Because he wanted the same thing she did—to save Kugo. And in this brief moment of clarity, he sees Ichigo’s actions, Kugo’s death, as the salvation they’d failed to give him—salvation he, too, feels a strong desire to repay.

Remember how, when Riruka says all of this above, his mind goes to the day he and Kugo met?

He never calls it by that name, and from an outside perspective looking at the way he turned out, it may not seem like a positive thing. But he’s the same as the other Fullbringers.

He tried, too. He went along with the plan Kugo had decided on, because he too knew about Kugo’s Deputy past and certainly thought the same thing Riruka did—that it would be what he needed. Although…

…this isn’t the answer of someone who’s thrilled with the idea. Tsukishima’s emotional capacity doesn’t often expand beyond sadistic pleasure (his breakdown notwithstanding, obviously), and he has absolutely no problems backtalking to or outright refusing orders from Kugo. Yet here, he actually seems to be biting his tongue. Is it about the plan itself, how he knows it’s going to make Kugo hate him from the bottom of his heart? Or is it about the little ways Kugo has sabotaged his own odds, and the possible consequences? With him being the way he is, it’s difficult to say, but one thing stands true—he, himself, isn’t looking to gain anything from this.

When Kugo grants the other members of Xcution part of Ichigo’s stolen power, Tsukishima makes the case for giving some to Shishigawara, too. But notably, he never mentions getting any for himself; Kugo’s never shown giving any to him, not even along with the others; neither ever even brings it up, as if it wasn’t ever a question between them (and Book of the End is terrifying as it is, so this is probably for the best). There’s no motive of ambition for Tsukishima, beyond at most getting to have a little fun with his existing ability at Ichigo’s expense.

He plays his part in this entirely for Kugo’s sake.

Riruka knows what kind of person Tsukishima is better than the audience does. If talking him out of his vengeance was pointless, she wouldn’t have bothered trying to reason with him, especially not in the irrational state he was in. But she said what she did because she knew he would get it. And he does. He lets Ichigo be, and grieves the man he’s lost.

[I’m haunted even more by the dub’s treatment of her lines in that exchange; she says, “Face the facts. We couldn’t have stopped this.” It really feels like the inevitability or the necessity of Kugo’s death was a truth Riruka had come to accept along the way.]