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murderous-snail · 1 year ago

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I don't mean to high-jack a post here, but I got excited someone kinda shares my headcannon a little bit.

I know this sounds insane, and maybe its unrealistic or self-serving, but I have a headcannon that Dabi only used the word "innocent" for impact.

In his broadcast, he says specifically: "I've killed more than thirty innocent people.".

Now, obviously "more than thirty" is any number between 30 and infinity - but, theoretically, if he meant a larger number, he could have given a higher minimum such as "more than fifty" or "more than one hundred". So, with that in mind, "more than thirty" more likely implies a number between 30 and 40.

What we do know for a definitive fact is that Dabi -at least the vast majority of the time- burns his victims to death with his quirk. Which is notable for having a temperature even higher than that of Endeavor's. I believe it's said in the manga somewhere to be over 2,000⁰C or something.

We also know he calls himself "Dabi" which means cremation - which is pretty damn accurate considering the temperature he works with - crematorium incinerators burn at temperatures between 760⁰C to 990⁰c, although, technically, 1,100⁰C is the minimum for complete bone breakdown - either way, Dabi vastly surpasses that minimum.

We know that Snatch said they were "finding burnt courses all over the city" and Dabi did take credit for this. So bodies were found, so, obviously, with fire as hot as Dabi's, he had to be holding back significantly to leave anything behind at all. Either way, flames hot enough to cremate a full-grown human twice over, are undoubtedly leaving those bodies completely unrecognizable - therefore, the authorities would have no way of knowing who they were, innocent or not.

However, as Dabi is a "evil" "villain", any corpse found fitting his distinctive signature would automatically be assumed to be an innocent civilian and labeled as such in his criminal record, further bumping his name up the wanted lists.

So, was Dabi really calling his victims "innocent", or was he just using the word the hero-based system baselessly labeled them as out of spite? Dabi has been known to take the piss out of the systems before. And he has been just as apathetic and deadpan when he does.

As for those we know for a fact, Dabi is responsible for unaliveing - as far as I am aware, we only know of the Villains in the alley. 6 of them.

So, six corpses in an alleyway, charred beyond recognition, clearly burned by a known Villain's flames?

You have no way to figure out who they were with any degree of certainty, and Dabi's a villain, so what could he possibly gain from killing other villains? The best you can do is add 6 more murders to Dabi's list of charges, shrug, and move on. They were probably innocent.

Furthermore; we know he took part in killing Snatch. Now, whether or not he counted Snatch among his 30+ is hard to guess, because Snatch wasn't solely his kill - he and Compress took out the hero. But it is easy to believe (and completely understandable) that Snatch pissed him off.

Snatch shouted at Dabi, "Have you ever thought about the families of those you murdered in cold blood!?" And, I mean, look at Dabi's face.

That's a cold expression. I mean, given Dabi's usual apathy, it can be rather difficult to read his expression, but the vibe here... 😶

Snatch roars at Dabi, demanding empathy without even a hint of having a single thought about giving it - then promptly attacks without hesitation. He didn't care who he was talking to, or what Dabi went through - he didn't even care if Dabi answered his question, at least, he certainly didn't wait for an answer. He asked about family, which was bound to bring up unpleasant memories for someone as traumatized as Dabi.

We also know that Dabi would execute a corrupt Hero - because he believed in Stain, and because of his father.

I theorize that Dabi, like Stain, saw the crazed hatred in Snatch's eyes.

I think, Dabi sensed that all of Snatch's valiant words were little more than a lie. That Snatch, too, was fueled, not by any kind of righteous fury, but by some need for revenge, and he was also using pretty words to dress it up.

I think Dabi made a call just like Stain did. Only Dabi was successful because no one came to save Snatch.

However, as Snatch was put in a Compress marble, his body would likely not have been found, and if it was, it probably wasn't with Dabi's usual signature. That, along with the fact it wasn't Dabi alone who killed him-

Whether or not Snatch counted towards his 30+ tally, I headcannon that deep down, Dabi never let go of that desire to be a hero. And because of it, he's not actually capable of killing innocent people - he kills villains, thugs, and corrupt heroes, and he only calls them "innocent" to mock a system that would label them innocent without even knowing if they really were.

Has Dabi ever killed a woman or child? In his broadcast he says he's killed over 30 innocent "people" but doesn't clarify any further. If he wanted more shock value he could have said something like "I've killed over 30 innocent people including a mother and her 3 children." Also in the alleyway scene where we see him burn 4 people alive they were all men. In the forest raid arc he goes after Aizawa and purposely avoids killing Aoyama who he knew was hiding. The hero Snatch he kills was also a man. He attempts to kill Hawks who is a man, but doesn't immediately try to kill Tokoyami when he intervenes. And yes, I know he's tried to kill Todoroki, but thats because of a personal reason. I feel like this speaks volumes to the type of person Dabi is. He doesn't kill indiscriminately or for the pure joy of it. He isn't like Shigaraki who will and has killed hoards of people regardless of age or gender.

Omg I’ve thought about this often and I actually agree with you!

*cracks knuckles*

It’s time for some Dabi analysis~

Firstly, we’ve only seen Dabi killing people when he was looking for new members, he’s killed thugs who he didn’t see fit for the LOV or fit for the society in general, lowlife villains who didn’t have a purpose and were overall just trash.

When Dabi came back to the hideout we see him saying “Am I the only one who’s looking to get us new members?”

And Twice says “You’re going around burning people to death!”

And Dabi replies “Not my fault nobody’s worthy”

Which results into me thinking that Dabi has actually killed plenty of thugs/ lowlife villains that he didn’t see fit for the gang, that’s all. I can see Dabi coming up to them, they either shoo him away and start acting tough, or after some talk Dabi sees that these people are not worthy, so he incinerates them all.

And also let’s not forget Dabi has burned plenty of people when they we’re fighting against the Liberation army in Deika city, after all they were attacking the LOV so Dabi had to fight too. I’m sure that’s where the body count reached higher.

We know Dabi participated in the summer camp attack against the students who were in fact still minors, but yet again, it’s clear that Dabi wants to kill all heroes out there, to him the society is full of fake heroes. After all the UA students aren’t little children anymore, they’re one step closer to becoming real heroes. I don’t see them being an exception to Dabi, he will still kill them if they get on his way.

Aoyama’s case was a bit different because SPOILERS: Aoyama was a traitor, a spy for AFO , and he told the LOV where the summer camp is, and Dabi knew that.

Also in Tokoyami’s case we don’t see Dabi instantly attacking him when he comes to save Hawks. We see Dabi in fact lecturing Tokoyami, trying to open his eyes about heroes, Dabi also says “they even got UA kids involved?” or something like that. He is kinda stunned that pro heroes had to involve students in a real war, meaning Dabi has to fight against them as well now. Because I don’t actually see Dabi priding himself at killing students.. he wants to go for the real deal, pro heroes.

I think at some point Dabi knows all UA students and many kids out there are some naive brats who blindly believe in heroes, because thats the society they grew up with. Dabi doesn’t hesitate to show them the truth, tell them how things really are.

But when Tokoyami still refused, Dabi then decided to finally attack, having no other choice.

So yeah from all of this I agree, Dabi doesn’t just kill people for the joy of it, I’m sure as hell Dabi has never killed small children or women, or a mother with her children, families etc. His killings have been focused on heroes, lowlife villains or random thugs in shady alleyways.

And even then, we see Dabi overthinking, the death of these people still haunting his mind and driving him insane…

Ordinary citizens haven’t been Dabi’s focus to actually kill. He didn’t do the TV Broadcast for no reason, because he could easily kill all of them. But no, he wants to use other ways, to convince them instead, open their eyes and show them how hero society really is.

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pianostarinwonderland · 2 years ago

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haha coffins go brrr [a theory post]

So I thought about several concepts at once: the reincarnation theory, the coffin theory, and the concept of TWST boys being self-aware that they're in a game. And I thought, What if we mixed these together into one big theory?

First, let's define said concepts. The reincarnation theory is the theory that all the TWST boys are reincarnations of their respective Disney character (e.g. Riddle is reincarnated from the Queen of Hearts). The coffin theory recently gained popularity due to the manga. Basically, it's the theory that those who enroll in NRC actually died in their previous lives. It gained popularity because of how the manga panels depicting Yuuken's and Yuuka's encounter with the horse carriage looks like they were gonna get run over and killed. I call it coffin theory because it's more concise than saying "the students-were-initially-dead theory". Lastly, the concept of TWST boys being aware that they're in a game is more of a fanart/fanfic trope than a theory. It's self-explanatory. But specifically for this post, we are going to go with this idea: The boys are aware that they were just created on the spot and given a data of what their names are, their "backstory", etc.

I think you may know where this is going.

Crowley stated in the Twisted Wonderland light novel** that the coffins are a representation of the passing from your old world to your new world (referring to Night Raven College). It can be thought that the old world just represents your old life, where you were living in another country. However, many fans speculated that it could also mean that old world means the world you came from, the world you used to live in until you were killed, and thus you were transported to TWST.

Now, looking at the Great Seven, it is interesting to note that every single one of them, with the exception of the Queen of Hearts and Hades, have suffered a gruesome death.

Scar was attacked (and probably eaten) by the hyenas.

Ursula was stabbed by the hull of a sunken ship and struck by lightning.

Jafar was turned into a genie at the end of Aladdin, but in Return of Jafar, after attempting to kill Aladdin, his lamp was eventually destroyed, consequently ending his life. In the Hercules TV show, he was temporarily revived but eventually casted back to the Underworld.

Queen Grimhilde (Evil Queen) fell off a cliff.

Maleficent was stabbed by Prince Philip.

While the Queen of Hearts never died, it is important to note that she was just a figment of someone's dream. In a sense, she could have passed on the moment Alice woke up. But even then, she was not immortal—she would have passed away at some point.

Hades is interesting. As a god, he cannot die, and falling into the River Styx would not kill him. However, I like to suggest that perhaps gods are immortal because there is a people who believe in them and worship them. The moment that a religion is no longer believed in, the gods of said religion die away. Perhaps Hades could have died in that way. It's similar to the Queen of Hearts in a way.

How about everyone else who was inspired by a non-Great Seven character? All the cards that served as basis for the Heartslabyul boys were part of a dream. Hyenas and wolves are not immortal, so are eels and humans. Apples have their own death. Everyone else had to have gone through death in some way.

From here, we can say that everyone 'died'. And so what if they have all reincarnated into the next life, aka the TWST boys?

But here's the catch: they aren't born. Their "birth" was not through a mother's womb, but through the coffins of Night Raven College.

Now, why would they have memories of their childhoods, from joys to traumas?

This is where the trope of the boys being self-aware that they're in a game comes in... except they're not self-aware but somebody has written their "backstory" and "personality" instead of them forming it themselves like .. you know .. actual living people.

Now hey! Maybe it's a stretch! It definitely sounds like a stretch!

(a) Twisted Wonderland is such an odd name for a world. You have to wonder why people decided to just go along with that name instead of being more serious on what to call their world.

(b) Something about the maps of the campus, Sage Island, and the surrounding countries look like old storybook drawings. It could be me, but the coloring and the drawing look very whimsical and more reminiscent of a storybook.

(c) In the Twisted Wonderland opening, in the ending sequence where a series of images are quickly shown, there's a shot of a book in the library.

(d) Ink. When you use magic, ink builds up in your magic gem and then in your body. What do you use to write? Ink.

So in conclusion... honestly, I'm just making a crack theory here. But what if everyone did come to NRC because they died in their previous lives, except that they never lived in their new selves?

#twisted wonderland #twst #twst theory

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number1mongrel · 3 years ago

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I dunno where the belief they hate each other specifically came from, but I feel like when it appears, there's a running theme of like... both the justaposition of how Archer Gil was introduced as a villain, and how CasGil was introduced as a hero, and how CasGil's wisdom and responsibility is emphasized, while Archer Gil's impulsiveness and hedonism is emphasized. So when I, personally, see them protrayed as hating each other, the best description I have is 'ugh, my younger self made so many mistakes' versus 'ugh, my older self is no fun'

But I've seen several fun analyses now about how it's less immature teen versus responsible adult, and more the same character in two different situations, shown from two different angles. CasGil, who is very tied to the present of Uruk, and who has a vested interest in the continuation of Uruk and humanity, who is genuinely threatened by Tiamat, versus Archer Gil who in Stay Night, Zero, and Strange Fake is displaced in time and seems more 'yeah I got nothing better to do, I'll see where this goes'. Could be wrong about these things but that's my takeaway personally, that the jarring difference in how they are portrayed maybe leads to people seeing them as more different and projecting how THEY feel about the respective characters?

Oh yeah I definitely agree. I know the way people feel about them is largely the juxtaposition of FSN Gil versus Babylonia Gil. And I agree completely that rather than an issue of maturity, it has much more to do with their respective situations. We don't know how CasGil would react to the modern world. He could very well be just as villainous. And also, Archer Gil is very capable of being responsible when he feels like it.

Archer Gil's reputation has never really fully recovered from FSN... which is fair given how he was portrayed there. But I feel like people always default to that instead of focusing on his characterization in, say, CCC. Gil's motivation has ALWAYS been how he felt about Uruk. So it's no wonder that Gil is much more caring when we see him in Uruk itself.

And, I feel like I have to explain this to people (not you, other people i mean) over and over but, ARCHER GIL IS STILL POST-EPIC. YES HE'S SUMMONED IN HIS YOUNGER TYRANT FORM BUT HE IS STILL VERY MUCH DRIVEN BY HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH ENKIDU AND HE IS AWARE OF HIS PAST MISTAKES. It's true that Casgil's profile specifically mentions that he's a version of Gil post-epic, but like, Gil literally has a flashback to Enkidu's death in the Zero LNs and manga. In CCC he has a speech about how he gained wisdom after loosing the herb of immortality, WHICH WAS THEN USED FOR CASGIL IN THE BABYLONIA ANIME!!! Even the series itself uses them interchangeably like this!!

I feel like, what bothers me the most is not that people think they hate each other, but specifically that people view them as SO different, blatantly as "archer gil is evil and immature" and "casgil is good and wise", that they're essentially two different characters. It's ignoring the complexity of his character when he's nowhere near that simple. When people will hate archer gil but love casgil as if they're not literally the same character. How they'll ignore CCC completely and get hung up on his introductory characterization when nasu has tried so hard to undo so much of it. Casgil should be seen as an evolution of how Gil's writing has changed, not making a whole new "good version" from scratch. Again, it's archer gil that shows up in solomon, but he speaks the same as the casgil guda knows. You can fight either archer gil or gorgeous P in gilfest and they both have the exact same dialogue.

i do wonder sometimes if CCC was more easily accessible to english-speaking fans would popular opinion of him be different.

#whoops this turned into a rant #lol but yeah ty for the ask!#gilgamesh #gilgamesh (fate)#gil bby

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shortnotsweet · 4 years ago

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Bakudeku: A Non-Comprehensive Dissection of the Exploitation of Working Bodies, the Murder of Annoying Children, and a Rivals-to-Lovers Complex

I. Bakudeku in Canon, And Why Anti’s Need to Calm the Fuck Down

II. Power is Power: the Brain-Melting Process of Normalization and Toxic Masculinity

III. How to Kill Middle Schoolers, and Why We Should

IV. Parallels in Abuse, EnemiesRivals-to-Lovers, and the Necessity of Redemption ft. ATLA’s Zuko

V. Give it to Me Straight. It’s Homophobic.

VI. Love in Perspective, from the East v. West

VII. Stuck in the Sludge, the Past, and Season One

Disclaimer

It needs to be said that there is definitely a place for disagreement, discourse, debate, and analysis: that is a sign of an active fandom that’s heavily invested, and not inherently a bad thing at all. Considering the amount of source material we do have (from the manga, to the anime, to the movies, to the light novels, to the official art), there are going to be warring interpretations, and that’s inevitable.

I started watching and reading MHA pretty recently, and just got into the fandom. I was weary for a reason, and honestly, based on what I’ve seen, I’m still weary now. I’ve seen a lot of anti posts, and these are basically my thoughts. This entire thing is in no way comprehensive, and it’s my own opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. If I wanted to be thorough about this, I would’ve included manga panels, excerpts from the light novel, shots from the anime, links to other posts/essays/metas that have inspired this, etc. but I’m tired and not about that life right now, so, this is what it is. This is poorly organized, but maybe I’ll return to fix it.

Let’s begin.

Bakudeku in Canon, And Why Anti’s Need to Calm the Fuck Down

There are a lot of different reasons, that can be trivial as you like, to ship or not to ship two (or more) characters. It could be based purely off of character design, proximity, aversion to another ship, or hypotheticals. And I do think that it’s totally valid if someone dislikes the ship or can’t get on board with his character because to them, it does come across as abuse, and the implications make them uncomfortable or, or it just feels unhealthy. If that is your takeaway, and you are going to stick to your guns, the more power to you.

But Bakudeku’s relationship has canonically progressed to the point where it’s not the emotionally (or physically) abusive clusterfuck some people portray it to be, and it’s cheap to assume that it would be, based off of their characterizations as middle schoolers. Izuku intentionally opens the story as a naive little kid who views the lens of the Hero society through rose colored glasses and arguably wants nothing more than assimilation into that society; Bakugou is a privileged little snot who embodies the worst and most hypocritical beliefs of this system. Both of them are intentionally proven wrong. Both are brainwashed, as many little children are, by the propaganda and societal norms that they are exposed to. Both of their arcs include unlearning crucial aspects of the Hero ideology in order to become true heroes.

I will personally never simp for Bakugou because for the longest time, I couldn't help but think of him as a little kid on the playground screaming at the top of his lungs because someone else is on the swingset. He’s red in the face, there are probably veins popping out of his neck, he’s losing it. It’s easy to see why people would prefer Tododeku to Bakudeku.

Even now, seeing him differently, I still personally wouldn’t date Bakugou, especially if I had other options. Why? I probably wouldn’t want to date any of the guys who bullied me, especially because I think that schoolyard bullying, even in middle school, affected me largely in a negative way and created a lot of complexes I’m still trying to work through. I haven’t built a better relationship with them, and I’m not obligated to. Still, I associate them with the kind of soft trauma that they inflicted upon me, and while to them it was probably impersonal, to me, it was an intimate sort of attack that still affects me. That being said, that is me. Those are my personal experiences, and while they could undoubtedly influence how I interpret relationships, I do not want to project and hinder my own interpretation of Deku.

The reality is that Deku himself has an innate understanding of Bakugou that no one else does; I mention later that he seems to understand his language, implicitly, and I do stand by that. He understands what it is he’s actually trying to say, often why he’s saying it, and while others may see him as wimpy or unable to stand up for himself, that’s simply not true. Part of Deku’s characterization is that he is uncommonly observant and empathetic; I’m not denying that Bakugou caused harm or inflicted damage, but infantilizing Deku and preaching about trauma that’s not backed by canon and then assuming random people online excuse abuse is just...the leap of leaps, and an actual toxic thing to do. I’ve read fan works where Bakugou is a bully, and that’s all, and has caused an intimate degree of emotional, mental, and physical insecurity from their middle school years that prevents their relationship from changing, and that’s for the better. I’m not going to argue and say that it’s not an interesting take, or not valid, or has no basis, because it does. Its basis is the character that Bakugou was in middle school, and the person he was when he entered UA.

Not only is Bakugou — the current Bakugou, the one who has accumulated memories and experiences and development — not the same person he was at the beginning of the story, but Deku is not the same person, either. Maybe who they are fundamentally, at their core, stays the same, but at the beginning and end of any story, or even their arcs within the story, the point is that characters will undergo change, and that the reader will gain perspective.

“You wanna be a hero so bad? I’ve got a time-saving idea for you. If you think you’ll have a quirk in your next life...go take a swan dive off the roof!”

Yes. That is a horrible thing to tell someone, even if you are a child, even if you don’t understand the implications, even if you don’t mean what it is you are saying. Had someone told me that in middle school, especially given our history and the context of our interactions, I don’t know if I would ever have forgiven them.

Here’s the thing: I’m not Deku. Neither is anyone reading this. Deku is a fictional character, and everyone we know about him is extrapolated from source material, and his response to this event follows:

“Idiot! If I really jumped, you’d be charged with bullying me into suicide! Think before you speak!”

I think it’s unfair to apply our own projections as a universal rather than an interpersonal interpretation; that’s not to say that the interpretation of Bakudeku being abusive or having unbalanced power dynamics isn’t valid, or unfounded, but rather it’s not a universal interpretation, and it’s not canon. Deku is much more of a verbal thinker; in comparison, Bakugou is a visual one, at least in the format of the manga, and as such, we get various panels demonstrating his guilt, and how deep it runs. His dialogue and rapport with Deku has undeniably shifted, and it’s very clear that the way they treat each other has changed from when they were younger. Part of Bakugou’s growth is him gaining self awareness, and eventually, the strength to wield that. He knows what a fucked up little kid he was, and he carries the weight of that.

“At that moment, there were no thoughts in my head. My body just moved on its own.”

There’s a part of me that really, really disliked Bakugou going into it, partially because of what I’d seen and what I’d heard from a limited, outside perspective. I felt like Bakugou embodied the toxic masculinity (and to an extent, I still believe that) and if he won in some way, that felt like the patriarchy winning, so I couldn't help but want to muzzle and leash him before releasing him into the wild.

The reality, however, of his character in canon is that it isn’t very accurate to assume that he would be an abusive partner in the future, or that Midoryia has not forgiven him to some extent already, that the two do not care about each other or are singularly important, that they respect each other, or that the narrative has forgotten any of this.

Don’t mistake me for a Bakugou simp or apologist. I’m not, but while I definitely could also see Tododeku (and I have a soft spot for them, too, their dynamic is totally different and unique, and Todoroki is arguably treated as the tritagonist) and I’m ambivalent about Izuocha (which is written as cannoncially romantic) I do believe that canonically, Bakugou and Deku are framed as soulmates/character foils, Sasuke + Naruto, Kageyama + Hinata style. Their relationship is arguably the focus of the series. That’s not to undermine the importance or impact of Deku’s relationships with other characters, and theirs with him, but in terms of which one takes priority, and which one this all hinges on?

The manga is about a lot of things, yes, but if it were to be distilled into one relationship, buckle up, because it’s the Bakudeku show.

Power is Power: the Brain-Melting Process of Normalization and Toxic Masculinity

One of the ways in which the biopolitical prioritization of Quirks is exemplified within Hero society is through Quirk marriages. Endeavor partially rationalizes the abuse of his family through the creation of a child with the perfect quirk, a child who can be molded into the perfect Hero. People with powerful, or useful abilities, are ranked high on the hierarchy of power and privilege, and with a powerful ability, the more opportunities and avenues for success are available to them.

For the most part, Bakugou is a super spoiled, privileged little rich kid who is born talented but is enabled for his aggressive behavior and, as a child, cannot move past his many internalized complexes, treats his peers like shit, and gets away with it because the hero society he lives in either has this “boys will be boys” mentality, or it’s an example of the way that power, or Power, is systematically prioritized in this society. The hero system enables and fosters abusers, people who want power and publicity, and people who are genetically predisposed to have advantages over others. There are plenty of good people who believe in and participate in this system, who want to be good, and who do good, but that doesn’t change the way that the hero society is structured, the ethical ambiguity of the Hero Commission, and the way that Heroes are but pawns, idols with machine guns, used to sell merch to the public, to install faith in the government, or the current status quo, and reinforce capitalist propaganda. Even All Might, the epitome of everything a Hero should be, is drained over the years, and exists as a concept or idea, when in reality he is a hollow shell with an entire person inside, struggling to survive. Hero society is functionally dependent on illusion.

In Marxist terms: There is no truth, there is only power.

Although Bakugou does change, and I think that while he regrets his actions, what is long overdue is him verbally expressing his remorse, both to himself and Deku. One might argue that he’s tried to do it in ways that are compatible with his limited emotional range of expression, and Deku seems to understand this language implicitly.

I am of the opinion that the narrative is building up to a verbal acknowledgement, confrontation, and subsequent apology that only speaks what has gone unspoken.

That being said, Bakugou is a great example of the way that figures of authority (parents, teachers, adults) and institutions both in the real world and this fictional universe reward violent behavior while also leaving mental and emotional health — both his own and of the people Bakugou hurts — unchecked, and part of the way he lashes out at others is because he was never taught otherwise.

And by that, I’m referring to the ways that are to me, genuinely disturbing. For example, yelling at his friends is chill. But telling someone to kill themselves, even casually and without intent and then misinterpreting everything they do as a ploy to make you feel weak because you're projecting? And having no teachers stop and intervene, either because they are afraid of you or because they value the weight that your Quirk can benefit society over the safety of children? That, to me, is both real and disturbing.

Not only that, but his parents (at least, Mitsuki), respond to his outbursts with more outbursts, and while this is likely the culture of their home and I hesitate to call it abusive, I do think that it contributed to the way that he approaches things. Bakugou as a character is very complex, but I think that he is primarily an example of the way that the Hero System fails people.

I don’t think we can write off the things he’s done, especially using the line of reasoning that “He didn’t mean it that way”, because in real life, children who hurt others rarely mean it like that either, but that doesn’t change the effect it has on the people who are victimized, but to be absolutely fair, I don’t think that the majority of Bakudeku shippers, at least now, do use that line of reasoning. Most of them seem to have a handle on exactly how fucked up the Hero society is, and exactly why it fucks up the people embedded within that society.

The characters are positioned in this way for a reason, and the discoveries made and the development that these characters undergo are meant to reveal more about the fictional world — and, perhaps, our world — as the narrative progresses.

The world of the Hero society is dependent, to some degree, on biopolitics. I don’t think we have enough evidence to suggest that people with Quirks or Quirkless people place enough identity or placement within society to become equivalent to marginalized groups, exactly, but we can draw parallels to the way that Deku and by extent Quirkless people are viewed as weak, a deviation, or disabled in some way. Deviants, or non-productive bodies, are shunned for their inability to perform ideal labor. While it is suggested to Deku that he could become a police officer or pursue some other occupation to help people, he believes that he can do the most positive good as a Hero. In order to be a Hero, however, in the sense of a career, one needs to have Power.

Deviation from the norm will be punished or policed unless it is exploitable; in order to become integrated into society, a deviant must undergo a process of normalization and become a working, exploitable body. It is only through gaining power from All Might that Deku is allowed to assimilate from the margins and into the upper ranks of society; the manga and the anime give the reader enough perspective, context, and examples to allow us to critique and deconstruct the society that is solely reliant on power.

Through his societal privileges, interpersonal biases, internalized complexes, and his subsequent unlearning of these ideologies, Bakugou provides examples of the way that the system simultaneously fails and indoctrinates those who are targeted, neglected, enabled by, believe in, and participate within the system.

Bakudeku are two sides of the same coin. We are shown visually that the crucial turning point and fracture in their relationship is when Bakugou refuses to take Deku’s outstretched hand; the idea of Deku offering him help messes with his adolescent perspective in that Power creates a hierarchy that must be obeyed, and to be helped is to be weak is to be made a loser.

Largely, their character flaws in terms of understanding the hero society are defined and entangled within the concept of power. Bakugou has power, or privilege, but does not have the moral character to use it as a hero, and believes that Power, or winning, is the only way in which to view life. Izuku has a much better grasp on the way in which heroes wield power (their ideologies can, at first, be differentiated as winning vs. saving), and is a worthy successor because of this understanding, and of circumstance. However, in order to become a Hero, our hero must first gain the Power that he lacks, and learn to wield it.

As the characters change, they bridge the gaps of their character deficiencies, and are brought closer together through character parallelism.

Two sides of the same coin, an outstretched hand.

They are better together.

How to Kill Middle Schoolers, and Why We Should

I think it’s fitting that in the manga, a critical part of Bakugou’s arc explicitly alludes to killing the middle school version of himself in order to progress into a young adult. In the alternative covers Horikoshi released, one of them was a close up of Bakugou in his middle school uniform, being stabbed/impaled, with blood rolling out of his mouth. Clearly this references the scene in which he sacrifices himself to save Deku, on a near-instinctual level.

To me, this only cements Horikoshi’s intent that middle school Bakugou must be debunked, killed, discarded, or destroyed in order for Bakugou the hero to emerge, which is why people who do actually excuse his actions or believe that those actions define him into young adulthood don’t really understand the necessity for change, because they seem to imply that he doesn’t need/cannot reach further growth, and there doesn’t need to be a separation between the Bakugou who is, at heart, volatile and repressed the angry, and the Bakugou who sacrifices himself, a hero who saves people.

Plot twist: there does need to be a difference. Further plot twist: there is a difference.

In sacrificing himself for Deku, Bakugou himself doesn't die, but the injury is fatal in the sense that it could've killed him physically and yet symbolizes the selfish, childish part of him that refused to accept Deku, himself, and the inevitability of change. In killing those selfish remnants, he could actually become the kind of hero that we the reader understand to be the true kind.

That’s why I think that a lot of the people who stress his actions as a child without acknowledging the ways he has changed, grown, and tried to fix what he has broken don’t really get it, because it was always part of his character arc to change and purposely become something different and better. If the effects of his worst and his most childish self stick with you more, and linger despite that, that’s okay. But distilling his character down to the wrong elements doesn’t get you the bare essentials; what it gets you is a skewed and shallow version of a person. If you’re okay with that version, that is also fine.

But you can’t condemn others who aren’t fine with that incomplete version, and to become enraged that others do not see him as you do is childish.

Bakugou’s change and the emphasis on that change is canon.

Parallels in Abuse, EnemiesRivals-to-Lovers, and the Necessity of Redemption ft. ATLA’s Zuko

In real life, the idea that “oh, he must bully you because he likes you” is often used as a way to brush aside or to excuse the action of bullying itself, as if a ‘secret crush’ somehow negates the effects of bullying on the victim or the inability of the bully to properly process and manifest their emotions in certain ways. It doesn’t. It often enables young boys to hurt others, and provides figures of authority to overlook the real source of schoolyard bullying or peer review. The “secret crush”, in real life, is used to undermine abuse, justify toxic masculinity, and is essentially used as a non-solution solution.

A common accusation is that Bakudeku shippers jump on the pairing because they romanticize pairing a bully and a victim together, or believe that the only way for Bakugou to atone for his past would be to date Midoryia in the future. This may be true for some people, in which case, that’s their own preference, but based on my experience and what I’ve witnessed, that’s not the case for most.

The difference being is that as these are characters, we as readers or viewers are meant to analyze them. Not to justify them, or to excuse their actions, but we are given the advantage of the outsider perspective to piece their characters together in context, understand why they are how they are, and witness them change; maybe I just haven’t been exposed to enough of the fandom, but no one (I’ve witnessed) treats the idea that “maybe Bakugou has feelings he can’t process or understand and so they manifest in aggressive and unchecked ways'' as a solution to his inability to communicate or process in a healthy way, rather it is just part of the explanation of his character, something is needs to — and is — working through. The solution to his middle school self is not the revelation of a “teehee, secret crush”, but self-reflection, remorse, and actively working to better oneself, which I do believe is canonically reflected, especially as of recently.

In canon, they are written to be partners, better together than apart, and I genuinely believe that one can like the Bakudeku dynamic not by route of romanticization but by observation.

I do think we are meant to see parallels between him and Endeavor; Endeavor is a high profile abuser who embodies the flaws and hypocrisy of the hero system. Bakugou is a schoolyard bully who emulates and internalizes the flaws of this system as a child, likely due to the structure of the society and the way that children will absorb the propaganda they are exposed to; the idea that Quirks, or power, define the inherent value of the individual, their ability to contribute to society, and subsequently their fundamental human worth. The difference between them is the fact that Endeavor is the literal adult who is fully and knowingly active within a toxic, corrupt system who forces his family to undergo a terrifying amount of trauma and abuse while facing little to no consequences because he knows that his status and the values of their society will protect him from those consequences. In other words, Endeavor is the threat of what Bakugou could have, and would have, become without intervention or genuine change.

Comparisons between characters, as parallels or foils, are tricky in that they imply but cannot confirm sameness. Having parallels with someone does not make them the same, by the way, but can serve to illustrate contrasts, or warnings. Harry Potter, for example, is meant to have obvious parallels with Tom Riddle, with similar abilities, and tragic upbringings. That doesn’t mean Harry grows up to become Lord Voldemort, but rather he helps lead a cross-generational movement to overthrow the facist regime. Harry is offered love, compassion, and friends, and does not embrace the darkness within or around him. As far as moldy old snake men are concerned, they do not deserve a redemption arc because they do not wish for one, and the truest of change only occurs when you actively try to change.

To be frank, either way, Bakugou was probably going to become a good Hero, in the sense that Endeavor is a ‘good’ Hero. Hero capitalized, as in a pro Hero, in the sense that it is a career, an occupation, and a status. Because of his strong Quirk, determination, skill, and work ethic, Bakugou would have made a good Hero. Due to his lack of character, however, he was not on the path to become a hero; defender of the weak, someone who saves people to save people, who is willing to make sacrifices detrimental to themselves, who saves people out of love.

It is necessary for him to undergo both a redemption arc and a symbolic death and rebirth in order for him to follow the path of a hero, having been inspired and prompted by Deku.

I personally don’t really like Endeavor’s little redemption arc, not because I don’t believe that people can change or that they shouldn't at least try to atone for the atrocities they have committed, but because within any narrative, a good redemption arc is important if it matters; what also matters is the context of that arc, and whether or not it was needed. For example, in ATLA, Zuko’s redemption arc is widely regarded as one of the best arcs in television history, something incredible. And it is. That shit fucks. In a good way.

It was confirmed that Azula was also going to get a redemption arc, had Volume 4 gone on as planned, and it was tentatively approached in the comics, which are considered canon. She is an undeniably bad person (who is willing to kill, threaten, exploit, and colonize), but she is also a child, and as viewers, we witness and recognize the factors that contributed to her (debatable) sociopathy, and the way that the system she was raised in failed her. Her family failed her; even Uncle Iroh, the wise mentor who helps guide Zuko to see the light, is willing to give up on her immediately, saying that she’s “crazy” and needs to be “put down”. Yes, it’s comedic, and yes, it’s pragmatic, but Azula is fourteen years old. Her mother is banished, her father is a psychopath, and her older brother, from her perspective, betrayed and abandoned her. She doesn’t have the emotional support that Zuko does; she exploits and controls her friends because it’s all she’s been taught to do; she says herself, her “own mother thought [she] was a monster; she was right, of course, but it still [hurts]”. A parent who does not believe in you, or a parent that uses you and will hurt you, is a genuine indicator of trauma.

The writers understood that both Zuko and Azula deserved redemption arcs. One was arguably further gone than the other, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are both children, products of their environment, who have the time, motive, and reason to change.

In contrast, you know who wouldn’t have deserved a redemption arc? Ozai. That simply would not have been interesting, wouldn’t have served the narrative well, and honestly, is not needed, thematically or otherwise. Am I comparing Ozai to Endeavor? Basically, yes. Fuck those guys. I don’t see a point in Endeavor’s little “I want to be a good dad now” arc, and I think that we don’t need to sympathize with characters in order to understand them or be interested in them. I want Touya/Dabi to expose his abuse, for his career to crumble, and then for him to die.

If they are not challenging the system that we the viewer are meant to question, and there is no thematic relevance to their redemption, is it even needed?

On that note, am I saying that Bakugou is the equivalent to Zuko? No, lmao. Definitely not. They are different characters with different progressions and different pressures. What I am saying is that good redemption arcs shouldn’t be handed out like candy to babies; it is the quality, rather than the quantity, that makes a redemption arc good. In terms of the commentary of the narrative, who needs a redemption arc, who is deserving, and who does it make sense to give one to?

In this case, Bakugou checks those boxes. It was always in the cards for him to change, and he has. In fact, he’s still changing.

Give it to Me Straight. It’s Homophobic.

There does seem to be an urge to obsessively gender either Bakugou or Deku, in making Deku the ultra-feminine, stereotypically hyper-sexualized “woman” of the relationship, with Bakugou becoming similarly sexualized but depicted as the hyper-masculine bodice ripper. On some level, that feels vaguely homophobic if not straight up misogynistic, in that in a gay relationship there’s an urge to compel them to conform under heteronormative stereotypes in order to be interpreted as real or functional. On one hand, I will say that in a lot of cases it feels like more of an expression of a kink, or fetishization and subsequent expression of internalized misogyny, at least, rather than a genuine exploration of the complexity and power imbalances of gender dynamics, expression, and boundaries.

That being said, I don’t think that that problematic aspect of shipping is unique to Bakudeku, or even to the fandom in general. We’ve all read fan work or see fanart of most gay ships in a similiar manner, and I think it’s a broader issue to be addressed than blaming it on a singular ship and calling it a day.

One interpretation of Bakugou’s character is his repression and the way his character functions under toxic masculinity, in a society’s egregious disregard for mental and emotional health (much like in the real world), the horrifying ways in which rage is rationalized or excused due to the concept of masculinity, and the way that characteristics that are associated with femininity — intellect, empathy, anxiety, kindness, hesitation, softness — are seen as stereotypically “weak”, and in men, traditionally emasculating. In terms of the way that the fictional universe is largely about societal priority and power dynamics between individuals and the way that extends to institutions, it’s not a total stretch to guess that gender as a construct is a relevant topic to expand on or at least keep in mind for comparison.

I think that the way in which characters are gendered and the extent to which that is a result of invasive heteronormativity and fetishization is a really important conversation to have, but using it as a case-by-case evolution of a ship used to condemn people isn’t conductive, and at that point, it’s treated as less of a real concern but an issue narrowly weaponised.

Love in Perspective, from the East v. West

Another thing I think could be elaborated on and written about in great detail is the way that the Eastern part of the fandom and the Western part of the fandom have such different perspectives on Bakudeku in particular. I am not going to go in depth with this, and there are many other people who could go into specifics, but just as an overview:

The manga and the anime are created for and targeted at a certain audience; our take on it will differ based on cultural norms, decisions in translation, understanding of the genre, and our own region-specific socialization. This includes the way in which we interpret certain relationships, the way they resonate with us, and what we do and do not find to be acceptable. Of course, this is not a case-by-case basis, and I’m sure there are plenty of people who hold differing beliefs within one area, but speaking generally, there is a reason that Bakudeku is not regarded as nearly as problematic in the East.

Had this been written by a Western creator, marketed primarily to and within the West (for reference, while I am Chinese, but I have lived in the USA for most of my life, so my own perspective is undoubtedly westernized), I would’ve immediately jumped to make comparisons between the Hero System and the American police system, in that a corrupt, or bastardized system is made no less corrupt for the people who do legitimately want to do good and help people, when that system disproportionately values and targets others while relying on propaganda that society must be reliant on that system in order to create safe communities when in reality it perpetuates just as many issues as it appears to solve, not to mention the way it attracts and rewards violent and power-hungry people who are enabled to abuse their power. I think comparisons can still be made, but in terms of analysis, it should be kept in mind that the police system in other parts of the world do not have the same history, place, and context as it does in America, and the police system in Japan, for example, probably wasn’t the basis for the Hero System.

As much as I do believe in the Death of the Author in most cases, the intent of the author does matter when it comes to content like this, if merely on the basis that it provides context that we may be missing as foreign viewers.

As far as the intent of the author goes, Bakugou is on a route of redemption.

He deserves it. It is unavoidable. That, of course, may depend on where you’re reading this.

Stuck in the Sludge, the Past, and Season One

If there’s one thing, to me, that epitomizes middle school Bakugou, it’s him being trapped in a sludge monster, rescued by his Quirkless childhood friend, and unable to believe his eyes. He clings to the ideology he always has, that Quirkless means weak, that there’s no way that Deku could have grown to be strong, or had the capacity to be strong all along. Bakugou is wrong about this, and continuously proven wrong. It is only when he accepts that he is wrong, and that Deku is someone to follow, that he starts his real path to heroics.

If Bakudeku’s relationship does not appeal to someone for whatever reason, there’s nothing wrong with that. They can write all they want about why they don’t ship it, or why it bothers them, or why they think it’s problematic. If it is legitimately triggering to you, then by all means, avoid it, point it out, etc. but do not undermine the reality of abuse simply to point fingers, just because you don’t like a ship. People who intentionally use the anti tag knowing it’ll show up in the main tag, go after people who are literally minding their own business, and accuse people of supporting abuse are the ones looking for a fight, and they’re annoying as hell because they don’t bring anything to the table. No evidence, no analysis, just repeated projection.

To clarify, I’m referring to a specific kind of shipper, not someone who just doesn’t like a ship, but who is so aggressive about it for absolutely no reason. There are plenty of very lovely people in this fandom, who mind their own business, multipship, or just don’t care.

Calling shippers dumb or braindead or toxic (to clarify, this isn’t targeting any one person I’ve seen, but a collective) based on projections and generalizations that come entirely from your own impression of the ship rather than observation is...really biased to me, and comes across as uneducated and trigger happy, rather than constructive or helpful in any way.

I’m not saying someone has to ship anything, or like it, in order to be a ‘good’ participant. But inserting derogatory material into a main tag, and dropping buzzwords with the same tired backing behind it without seeming to understand the implications of those words or acknowledging the development, pacing, and intentional change to the characters within the plot is just...I don’t know, it comes across as redundant, to me at least, and very childish. Aggressive. Toxic. Problematic. Maybe the real toxic shippers were the ones who bitched and moaned along the way. They’re like little kids, stuck in the past, unable to visualize or recognize change, and I think that’s a real shame because it’s preventing them from appreciating the story or its characters as it is, in canon.

But that’s okay, really. To each their own. Interpretations will vary, preferences differ, perspectives are not uniform. There is no one truth. There are five seasons of the show, a feature film, and like, thirty volumes as of this year.

All I’m saying is that if you want to stay stuck in the first season of each character, then that’s what you’re going to get. That’s up to you.

This may be edited or revised.

#bakudeku #meta #my hero academia #boko no hero academia #bnha #mha #bakugou katsuki #izuku midoriya #ok these are just my general thoughts in response to the people who have hang ups about this ship #like y’all need to pls chill tf out ok #this is also not comprehensive and could definitely be elaborated on #but it’s just general thoughts #it’s just addressing general opposition I’ve seen #I never thought I’d ever write this much about this ship wtf

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gamesception · 4 years ago

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The Promised Neverland is kind of really good, actually? I mean, yeah, I’m late to the party as usual, but I just binged the first season of the anime, and then the manga from that point on (the site I was on didn’t have any of the second season, but apparently it diverges from the comic and gets bad anyway, so maybe just read the comic to begin with). And, I mean, spoilers, obviously, but I’m going to get into some extremely major spoilers here so if you haven’t read it or if you’ve only seen the first season of the anime maybe skip this post and read the manga, but...

...

I’ve tried and failed to write a big long post about all the ways it’s so good, how the main three characters are each so compelling, how its pitch dark but not cynical or misanthropic, with mortal stakes but not gore-porny, positive and optimistic without being trite or naïve, how choosing Emma out of the main three to be the primary protagonist and viewpoint character keeps the story from becoming a masculine militaristic power fantasy, how the antagonists are treated as characters and not just monsters - even the ones that are literal monsters, about how the story never supports or glorifies the idea of sacrificing the weak so that the strong can survive, about how empathy and understanding and a chance for peace are extended to every single villain without putting a burden to forgive on victims and without ignoring the need to fight those who refuse the offer of peace and uphold the status quo, how the story opposes oppressive hierarchies at every turn - not just those the monsters use to control the human children at the farms, but also how the monster elites use access to human meat to controller the lower social classes of monster society, and even to an extent within the human resistance.

But there’s just way too much to talk about to get it all into one big giant post, and I don’t have the stamina for a big extended ongoing project right now - or else I’d return to one of the like 12 I have on hold.

But, like, to pick just one thing....

ok, so eventually we learn what the monsters are and why they eat people. They’re a weird sort of organism that can temporarily take on the characteristics of things they eat. Eat a bird and grow wings, eat a bug and grow an exoskeleton, eat a human and gain a humanoid body and the intelligence to become self aware, learn language, form societies - for a while. But if they go too long without eating people, then they lose their minds and revert to a bestial form. In order to save the humans, the resistance leader Minerva plans to wipe out the monster society altogether. After all, they literally have to eat humans to continue being people, there is no possibility of peace.

Protagonist Emma, though, has seen not just the horrific human farms and their cruel and corrupt rulers, but also their towns and settlements, their families and children. She was even saved at one point shortly after her escape by friendly monsters who opposed the farm system, and even though it seems impossible, she wants to save both the humans and the monsters.

A more typical show, at least among those with premises as dark as The Promised Neverland, wouldn’t take Emma’s side in this. She would be forced to ‘grow up’ and face the fact that she can’t save everyone. Her naivety would get someone killed to break her heart and teach her to be hard and cruel as if those things are virtues. Or, more likely, she wouldn’t be the viewpoint character to begin with, she’d be a side character whose ideals would get herself killed in order to elevate the male characters’ angst and justify their violence. Either way, the message would be “Emma’s ideals were unrealistic and could never survive contact with the harsh reality of the world.”

TPN instead takes Emma’s Side. She finds monsters who maintain a humanoid body and intelligence without eating humans, and they’re able to spread that trait to the rest of monster society while the humans all escape to the human world. Now, as much as I don’t like the grimdark ‘there is no peaceful option’ hypothetical version of the story, this development could have been handled pretty badly. Like, just reading it like that, it sounds like the story raised a big moral dilemma and then chickened out of it. But that’s really not how it comes off while you’re reading it, for a couple reasons.

First of all, Emma meets the non-human-eating monsters early in the story, long before we get the explanation of how monsters in general work. So by the time we learn that the monsters must eat humans to maintain their self identity, the audience already knows that there are exceptions and that an alternative exists. The story never sets this up to be a moral dilemma in the first place, so when the issue is bypassed it doesn’t feel like it’s undercut itself.

More importantly, though, is the thematic & metaphorical content. Because the monster society is a pretty explicit metaphor for unjust human societies, and monsters represent the people who make up such societies. Not just the aristocrats who benefit from the unjust society, or those who directly enforce and uphold it, but also regular people. People insulated just enough from the suffering and death that their lives are built on that they can turn a blind eye to it, but aware enough of their complicity in that suffering that they construct excuses to justify their part in it, and by proxy excuse those at the top who actually benefit from and shaped the society as it is. People living lives simultaneously just comfortable enough to keep them docile, but precarious enough that they’re too caught up with struggling to maintain the tenuous grasp on the lives they have to feel like they can work towards anything better. Monster society in TPN is a cage built out of the corpses of humans cattle, but built to imprison and enslave the monster civilians who eat them.

Hanging the story on the fantastical element of monster biology would divorce it from that essential metaphor while also endorsing an outright genocidal worldview, and TPN explicitly calls out the plan to wipe out the monsters altogether as just that - genocidal. It never even pretends to entertain the notion that the audience should accept that plan as the right choice, even while it doesn’t condemn Minerva for pursuing it. When Emma is proposing her plan to Minerva, the deal she strikes with him is ‘I will try to make my peaceful solution happen, and if I succeed then you cancel your plan to wipe out the monsters’. Minerva is eventually shown to be lying when he makes that agreement, but Emma isn’t, and note the if there. If Emma’s plan fails, then she - and thus the narrative - accepts that Minerva’s plan to save the children is still better than leaving things as they are, even if it means wiping out all the monsters. After all, the society IS monstrously unjust, and even the lower classes within that society ARE complicit in that injustice.

Minerva’s problem isn’t even presented as a matter of him hating the monsters too much to see a route to peace with them. The story doesn’t frame the conflict between Minerva’s and Emma’s plans as hate vs. love or revenge vs. forgiveness. It’s instead more of ‘hierarchy and division bad, mutualism/openness/relying on each other good’. The point is to show how Minerva’s role as a figurehead who believes he has to project strength to uphold the hope that the other humans have placed in him has worn away his ability to rely on others or to be open to alternatives they offer, leaving him with rigid and inflexible thinking.

So when Minerva learns about the monsters who don’t need to eat humans, he doesn’t see an opportunity for a better outcome - potentially even an easier outcome since he doesn’t have to make enemies of the entirety of monster society - rather he sees a threat to his plan to starve the monsters back into an animalistic state.

And if that whole subplot isn’t explicit enough, Minerva’s internalized need to project strength also results in his physical body wasting away in secret from a condition he believes to be untreatable, but the moment he finally breaks down and admits he needs help Emma is able to point to a solution, one that again doesn’t come across as a cop out because again it takes the form of another character the audience was already introduced to a long time ago.

In a story arc that the second season of the anime adaptation apparently cut entirely, wow the more I hear about anime season 2 the worse it sounds. And after the first season was so good....

...

Anyway, I tried to pick just one thing and this post still turned into a colossal gushing word cascade, and there are so many other elements to talk about. Like how The ‘Mothers’ and ‘Sisters’ are menacing villains with seemingly no empathy for the children, but when Sister Krona realizes she’s lost the power struggle with Isabella she leaves the kids tools to help them, and then when Mother Isabella realizes the children have escaped, she covers up the route they used in order to buy them a little extra time to get away. It’s these little touches - just as much as the short backstories that follow them - that show us how, while they might uphold the system out of fear for their own lives, and might have rationalize their part in it in order to live with the horrible things they’re doing, the mothers and sisters don’t actually hate the children. Knowing that makes it believable when in the end Isabella does turn on the system, and every single one of the other mothers and sisters join her.

The bit when the fighting is mostly over and she tells the Mother at the house “it’s over, now we can just love them” and the other woman breaks down crying is so sad and human, it makes me tear up thinking about it..

Like I said, all the villains are characters, not just monsters. They all have motivations for the horrific things they do - sometimes irrational, often selfish, but not even the most unforgivable of the monsters are just evil for evil’s sake.

Again, I’m rambling. It’s just... I’m used to these sorts of pitch dark dystopias being, for lack of a better term, kinda fashy in their messaging? Or at the very least deeply cynical and misanthropic and just kind of mean spirited. And TPN is so completely the opposite of that, in so many ways.

#tpn spoilers #tpn #the promised neverland #anyway yeah it's pretty good #though again apparently the second season of the anime falls of the rails #like from reading reactions today #it seems season 2 drops or completely flubs literally everything I go into in this post #don't watch it #i haven't #and feel better off for it #edited because I misremembered a couple things #like the 'we can just love them' line comes after the fighting not before #the point remains though

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cirichan · 4 years ago

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REREADING BLACK CLOVER

Chapter 1

(2/2)

We are introduced to the concept of grimoire - a book containing spells and allowing its user to channel their magic more efficiently. Grimoires were ‘magic books’ containing spells and rituals that had been used by early Christians, but also by many other middle-eastern and indoeuropean religions and cults. It supposedly granted a power to summon demons, spirits and angels as well as heal or curse others. The idea of having an artefact that is entirely yours and reflects your personality/potential is very close to me, my old soul thinks of wands and patronuses from Harry Potter LOL.

Lol Tabata you perv, we know it’s all about technique.

That panel makes me think that young people are considered an adult by the society once they receive a grimoire. They gain rights to work, move or hmmm, marry?

Yuno the best boy goes there and slaps everybody else clean across the face with his new fancy book.

tiny SPOILERS:

Even considering that we know of Yuno’s linage now, a four-leaf grimoire is still very rare, as they say, an item from legends. I suppose there is no more than one mage at the time using a four-leaf grimoire and I’m very curious of what would be the equivalent of it in the Spade? It looks like Yuno was predestined to either a) great things so the tool he uses to achieve it doesn’t matter b) the LUCK from the four-leaf kept him safe through his childhood and ensured he received his grimoire due time. Either way he’s cool.

Interestingly in Irish folk it have been said that four-leaf clover granted the power to see fairies and did not suit those faint of heart. The barer of it would also recognise witches and demons and it was said that four-leaf is the only true protection against the evil eye. Tabata clearly was aware of those tales (enter : Bell) so I wonder if he’s going to tap into folklor again while developing Yuno in the future chapters (projecting Yuno the Demon Hunter if the gates of hell opened, can someone write a fic about it?).

The chances of coming across the four-leaf clover are 1 : 10 000. Pretty special, huh? I’d say once in a life time there will be a mage with four-leaf grimoire. The lesser known fact about Irish Folklor is that four-leaf clover isn’t the luckiest symbol there is. The FIVE-LEAF clover is considered as the one that brings the most luck and stability to the person who finds it. The odds skyrocket to 1 : 1 000 000 so it is pretty safe to assume that Asta is one of a kind, once in an era mage. That’s SUPER FREAKING SPECIAL.

Tabata sets up the story giving us the opposites.

Handsome, collected, talented Yuno vs

Shrimp, loud mess, seemingly no power Asta,

but, we all have been tricked, becasue the special one, from the very first chapter, is Asta. One in a million mage blessed with the abitility to use an unique power not available to anyone else combined with a pure heart and perseverance. The only thing Asta needs to succeed is a strong rival, someone worthy of competing against - that’s why Yuno seems OP to some fans on the beginning, but again, I’ll touch on this in the next post about rivalry. I think so at least, it’s not like I plan anything in advance lol.

Well yes, thank you Yuno, Asta is, indeed, a CHOSEN one, he just doesn’t know it yet and to be fair he’s too selfless to ever self-reflect so he’d be living in a bliss oblivion for a while.

Touching on the Devil dwelling in the grimoire, I guess that doesn’t need explaining anymore if you read manga. I will just say that I think that the last arc of Black Clover might be a massive celestial war between races/worlds (devils, dwarfs, humans etc) becasue if you have devils and demons, naturally you’d expect to see some angels too. Maybe like one of those stories that God abandoned their creation and left the races to self-govern, but as always, shit hits the fan so human kind has to unite, probably being lead by Asta and Yuno? Story kinda goes this direction. ANYWAY.

Yuno’s fringe squint reminds me of my cat’s LOL

Okay, that’s it for now. I guess I have to close Chapter 1 with a post about kids’ promise. Thanks for reading, feel free to talk to me or ask any q and don’t be fooled, all I actually want is to talk about ships.

#asta black clover #black clover #black clover yuno #yuno black clover #black clover asta #grimoire #four leaf clover #black clover manga #yuno grinberryall #BCbyCiri

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remuswriting · 4 years ago

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What I’ve Learned In My Creative Writing Class: Character

Disclaimer: I may sound aggressive and people may think I’m “calling them out” but I’m not. When looking at things to address, I just scrolled through Tumblr to see what the most requested things were. Nothing against anyone.

Here is a mixture of things I learned from my professor and have learned over creating characters the last 11 years. In writing, character is probably the most important thing. If you write a character that doesn’t keep the reader entertained or become attached to them, then your character isn’t doing their job. It’s similar to if we know someone super boring, typically we try to avoid them (I could just be a bad person though). In x reader writing, Y/N is a character. Characters need more than just a name and description but a backstory, personality, insecurities, and identity.

Backstory

I kind of blend backstory and personality in this but I think it flows together??

Y/N needs a backstory just like canon characters do. They need a family, friend group, interests, childhood memories, and more. The reader doesn’t have to know all these things but the author does. How do you know what your character would do if you don’t even know your character? I’ll repeat this; Y/N is a character. We may not know how you picture them physically and can come up with that ourselves, but that’s all we can do. We can’t create a personality for Y/N because that’s your job. I may get controversial in this.

You’re requested to write flirty reader. Why is Y/N flirty? How is Y/N flirty? Are they trying to gain something from acting like that? Are they just flirty on accident? Have they always been flirty? Did something happen that now they act like that? You can tell when there is no depth to a character when you don’t have any of these questions answered. I become more interested when a character mentions that Y/N hasn’t always been flirty like they are now and I’m curious as to why because it could answer one of the questions listed above. I’m aware that requests like that are meant for quick fluff but I’m never satisfied with fluff. There’s never enough substance to a character for me to really like it. Before I point out other commonly seen things that could be enhanced, let me explain what I mean by the things I explain with one of my own pieces.

In Kisses, a Hinata fluff drabble I wrote, I pictured Y/N’s whole day as well as friends, relations to people, his college major, and why he shares government with Tsukishima before I started writing and only wrote 634 words. I hinted at those things because it was important to in order to get the whole effect of what I’m trying to portray.

Y/N says his day is okay and his government class was boring, even with Tsukishima next to him. He hates his government class, which either means his professor sucks or it’s hot his strong suit academically. In this context, it’s the first one. He and Tsukishima share the same major: Paleontology. He’s how Y/N and Hinata met each other and is decently close to Y/N. They’ve matched up schedules because of this. I didn’t write all of this because I doubt the reader wanted me to go on a tangent about it but I wanted there to be a justified reason of why Y/N mentioned Tsukishima so casually. It also just adds more to me as a writer when writing because there’s more to work off of.

Y/N is close to Hinata’s teammates, which means they’ve been dating for a while. He knows how Osamu owns an onigiri store and knows Atsumu well enough that he doesn’t particularly like him because of his personality. He’s nice to him though and tries to make him feel included because Y/N’s friends made him feel like the third wheel when Hinata wasn’t there. It shows that there’s a kindness to him and makes you wonder if that’s why Hinata fell for him.

I thought of all of this before I started writing. It adds more personality and depth to the character, even if minimal, if you know their backstory. You don’t have to have an entire childhood backstory (unless needed) but it helps to know more about your character beyond the fact that they’re flirty.

Focus

Don’t focus a character around one thing.

The flirty character thing is part of a personality and can be woven into different things when done right. A tall reader shouldn’t be just about how scared everyone is of them because their height. How does Y/N feel about their height? Are they self-conscious? Do they even care? Also, for the love the god, stop requesting seven foot readers. I have received four of those in the past and it’s unrealistic and annoying. So, Y/N is tall. What else do they have about them? Let’s say they are insecure of how tall they are, what do they do to hide that insecurity? A fun example of what I’m trying to say is in “Roy Spivey” by Miranda July. In the first three to four paragraphs, she mentions her height and what she does to go against it in a way.

For this reason, I always let men see me asleep early on in a relationship. It makes them realize that even though I am five feet eleven I am fragile and need to be taken care of. A man who can see the weakness of a giant knows that he is a man indeed.

This may not exactly scream “I am insecure of my height” by any means but she is aware of her height. Instead of sleeping, what does your character do to distract from their height if they’re self-conscious over it? Or do they love the fact they’re tall? If so, then what to do they do to show it off? Being tall is something but how someone reacts to it is another thing.

This applies to more than just tall readers but also readers who blush all the time (Touma Kikuchi from Ao Haru Ride), short readers, etc. You can use your characters so much better if you know they feel about the things you’re focused on.

Accuracy

If you’ve followed me long enough, then you know I have a thing about accuracy. I do a lot of research for everything I write, even if I think I am extraordinarily knowledgeable about the subject. This part is pretty optional depending on who you are as writer. I like things to feel real and be accurate but there are people who don’t care about that. Neither side is wrong. I do this a lot because of research I’ve done for novels I’ve written before and it makes me feel content. For Haikyuu, I just know the timeline near exact to where I don’t have to check to see what month certain things happened in. This is a me thing because I think it helps. It may not, writing is all opinion based anyways.

Volleyball player/manager Y/N is a common thing I see and I have written for both of them. I know literally nothing about volleyball, not counting what is taught in Haikyuu as well as the couple of matches my brother and I watched on YouTube, so I researched things. Sports are one of those things that it is hard to be 100% accurate unless you know the sport. I try not to write out game scenes because I don’t know how to explain what each move is but I can do a recap after the match of a character thinking it over. They’re thinking about how maybe the blockers blocked a spike or they fucked up a receive or how angry someone was when something happened. If you write in third person, this creates a more first person like atmosphere and makes the reader closer to the character.

Accuracy with characters can do a lot to make them well-rounded and realistic. This can go into other things besides sports like choir, band, cheer, soccer, basketball, etc. (I am actually decent at writing soccer because it’s the best sport ever.)

For me, realism and accuracy makes the story more enjoyable. In my class, we discussed how flat character who are doing something incorrectly make us put a story down faster than anything else. You have to see Y/N as a character in order to be able to use them to your full ability. You can’t do half-assed anything with them because they are essentially more important than a canon character because it’s focused on them. Basically, put the same effort into everyone you write but the focal character (usually Y/N) should be focused on more and should be the character you know the best.

Surroundings

Everyone is influenced by their surroundings. This typically affects their decisions and view but maybe not their personality. I’ve discussed this before on Japan and LGBT, but I’ll do it again.

Let’s say that even though Y/N is the gayest person to ever exist, they aren’t likely to be open about it in Japan. In my previously mentioned post, I talked about how gay relationships are still seen as taboo (it is decreasing slowly though) and usually fetishized. Trans individuals are even more likely to not be open about it. Wandering Son by Takako Shimura is one of my favorite mangas that talks about LGBT things but sadly it does make trans men feel slightly like a joke. It shows the language and shame forcing trans people to stay in the closet. From numerous articles I’ve read, the shame is decreasing but that doesn’t mean the struggle isn’t as bad as it has been. I believe the youngest person to have sterilization surgery (what must be completed to be seen as your gender to the Japanese government) was 20 years old. Also, there are very few places they can go to receive hormone replacement and gender therapy.

I’m focusing on Japan for this because it’s where anime takes place. I write male reader and I take this into account while writing. It affects how they interact with others and their thought process. Are they struggling with their identity? What is their family like? Even if their parents are accepting, are going to be open about it? How far are they willing to go to hide it?

Understanding the surroundings of your character affects who they are and how they respond to things. This also takes part in their internal struggles and maybe what the conflict of the story could be if focused on their identity.

Internal Struggle

Everyone has at least one internal struggle. Usually people have a lot more but in fiction you try to focus on one because real life doesn’t always transfer over in that regard. Struggles make your decisions though because you’re trying to deal with it. Characters are meant to feel like real people. My professor said that the goal is to write your character to where people will talk about them as if they’re a real person.

This can be difficult to do with Y/N but that doesn’t mean you can’t try. I always try to think of what is a struggle Y/N is going through that is either easily seen or never addressed. If I went through all of my one-shots, then I can tell you and explain why I did that. Does having a struggle mean that people see them as real people? No but at least there’s a chance they could. I really tried to make Y/N in my ficlet First Words more realistic but I don’t think I did the best job. It’s okay to not be perfect at it because it’s really hard to nail down original characters but reader characters are even harder.

It doesn’t matter how hard it is to make a character realistic because they do still need a struggle. There is character driven story and plot driven story; people prefer the first. An example would be Harry Potter or there’s also Forest Gump. We’re not focused so much on each plot point but what the character is doing during it. We love the character more than we love the story.

#What I’ve Learned In My Creative Writing Class #remuswriting #remuswriting advice

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astro-break · 4 years ago

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Quick first thoughts on the first ep of the Hypmic Anime. Spoilers beware (and im writing this as I watch so :p)

Otome’s speech is.... questionable from a persuasive point of view. Manga did a great job of introducing her (which you can read here) but they really cut out the more terrifying parts of her speech and how she uses force to show people that she's not to be messed with

Its cool seeing everyone in their respective environments though. thats cool. Though they could have added Sasara and Kuuko (shhh i know why they didn’t let me dream)

I love how poppy the typography is. Its amazing how the visuals just leap out at you. The OP does a great job of this. The first few seconds before the title really gives me Persona 4 OG OP vibes with the influx of information given. The rest is a clear concise and streamlined way that still gives character. Animation is sparse but still carries across a general idea of each character and shows off each character object. Rendering is really nice and pays a bit of homage to the posing artwork thats done for the MVs. They also do their division hand signals and thats cute

Love how the OP has blatant HifuDoppo and DRB matchup foreshadowing

so far I really like what theyre going for. BB is about brotherly familial bonds and they show the goods and the bads. Jiro and Saburo bickering right out the gate really cements the fact that they get along like cats and dogs but you can still see that they love each other, working together when the situation calls for it

Now the 3d models. Theyre... not great but usable if you don’t look too hard. They serve their purpose and don’t actively detract from the viewing experience.

Visual typography in the rap itself are fun and poppy but they dont.... speak to me? like theyre there yes and I appreciate them but the only ones that got me excited were from Ichiro’s rap

I take my words back the group portion was kickass and I apologize

I love how they interpret the Hypnosis Speakers though. Esp. Saburo’s organs. That was super creative and I love it! If there was one thing that I felt was missing from the franchise was a deeper exploration of the speakers but the anime puts a new and fresh spin on it! Love it, especially with their attack patterns!

If the production team ever feels inclined to, Id love to see those info sheets on Otome’s desk released. There seems to be very interesting info and stats written out about each member (like capabilities, personal status etc.) They all seem unique too so I really really really hope they release images of those sheets

OOOOOOOOKAY MTC. I have such a big biased for them so Im very torn to see what unfolds

Rio striking out on his own is interesting. Out of everyone in MTC hes the biggest team player yet here he trusts his teammates to go ahead. This either displays Rio’s willingness to trust his teammates or it becomes very OOC if the anime wants to set him up as a lone wolf like character

I love how they specify its a drug deal. It means that Jyuto surely will show up and it also shows that Samatoki knows Jyuto’s motives and willingly gives black market info that he knows aligns with Jyuto’s goal. Thats A+ detail writing there and a great establishing characteristic for both of them

OOohhhhhhhhhhhhh man Asunama-san’s voice acting is god tier his work as Samatoki is phenomenal. He pulls of Samatoki’s threatening voice so well with those almost calm words before his voice becomes loud and confrontational. Those rolling syllables in contrast to Komada-san’s almost lyrical and airy speech and Kamio-san’s strict and enunciated words is such a delight to hear. It just speaks to how amazing and great these Seiyuu’s are in order to pull of such amazing work

Im so biased but MTC has such a better rap than BB im so sorry. Just by watching Samatoki’s part, the imagery is amazing. Even the arrival of his Hypnosis Speaker was awesome and sent a shiver down my spine. using the lyrics to form blades and blood was such a great thing to do. Theres so much more variety that just him standing there and shots of his hypnosis speaker. The old fashioned vignette shots, the four panel spread, the nods to old Kurosawa era films are great and I love these small details. Even the typography looks better.

Again, the interpretations with the speakers is fresh and new. Its great and I love the different imagery and attack patterns. Each one is so unique but carries across each different style of rap.

The 3d modles aren’t any better tho lol

(Hi this is Astro who is reading over their assessment again and making a note. Yeah I’m a bit harsh on BB’s rap. I’m not going to change it since I still stand by it and this post is supposed to be a documentation of my first impressions. I think one of the reasons why I’m so harsh on BB is because of their dynamic as a trio of brothers. They Have to have a more uniform approach than the other divisions. Which in of itself isn’t a terrible thing, it just doesn’t catch my eye as much as MTC did. Thats all! I definitely don’t hate BB, they’re maybe my 3rd favorite division out of the current lineup [not including TDD era teams like Kujaku Posse, MCD, and Naughty Busters] its just that their rap was pretty meh)

Samatoki crouching like a real gangstar and the cigarette kiss killed me

sadjkhfjkasdghsadjkcsdjhsdfsjhf im dying i love these trio of dumbasses so uch oh y fod someone save me aaaaaaaa (Astro note here! yeah i died when the jyuto and samatoki’s stomach growled im weak please. Samatoki’s face is just so precious and funny I might set it as a profile pic somewhere)

But also my initial assessment of Rio possibly being characterized as a lone wolf is very much jossed and im very thankful for that. It seems that Rio was simply trusting his teammates to carry out their part of the plan while he carried out his own. I like that, it really shows how much of a team these three are and that they genuinely trust each other. He’s also comfortable enough around them to invite them to dinners after work casually and not just for special occasions.

I really love MTC guys

Oooh! we get Ramuda on his design process which is really cute. the inside of his studio is super cute and retro and i love it. the poppy old music you would hear in a cafe or 90′s resturaunt is also really cute (astro note: yeah i know that in ARB you see the interior of Ramuda’s office but its kinda different seeing it animated)

the translation i have has gentaro speaking in early modern english (Shakespearian english for those who aren’t english nerds like me) but from what I can hear, he doesn’t speak in a particularly old fashioned way? Its more formal than old? and hes speaking without any of his character persona lying thing that he likes to do (as he refers to himself as “Shousei” throughout the segment where hes in Ramuda’s office which is kind of his default pronoun of choice). so its kinda odd for the translation to go in that direction but im not complaining

Gendice banter is gold but it feels... flat? a little? it doesn’t have the same impact as in the drama cds or in the manga? i feel? Also Ramuda using gratuitous english is??? idk how to feel about that

kjshf thats against the rules Ramuda omgggg,,,,,,,, (astro note again: while watching i was under the assumption that using your hypmic for monetary gain such a as buskering [which is what FP is doing] is against the rules. May not be the case but whatever)

FP’s rap might be my favorite in terms of tune and lyrics though. It’s a nice laid back bop and really gives of chill vibes. the integration of 3d and 2d is really nice and i love how they play off each other in the rap. The wordplay is so fun with little nods here and there and the beat is poppy too so it really energizes me.

Ramuda’s rap concerns me slightly since he makes very subtle and small nods towards his past (being created in a laboratory, warfare, and his overall very unpleasant life experiences) but spins it into something cutesy. It could be a coping mechanism, it could be me overthinking it. But it does make me worry a bit. Gentaro and Dice’s rap really play off each other with Gentaro sticking to stories and Dice taking up the baton by carrying on that same imagery but putting his own spin on it.

the self awareness of how scattered they are as a team is interesting though. It doesn’t seem like something you’d speak about in a rap? but i guess since its not really a do or die situation they can afford to be looser on things like this.

Right off the bat, i don’t like how they handled Hifumi and Doppo in relation to Hifumi’s fear of women. Slug made a post once talking about this and I echo many of his sentiments. Hypmic has never been very tactful about tackling this particular issue and while I didn’t have high hopes that the anime would be any better it hurts to see Doppo take away the one thing that allows Hifumi to function within society.

Doppo’s breakdown mirrors a lot of my own mental state when I spiral though its shown a lot quicker than what happens to me oof. that hits close to home. though Jakurai’s advice is. Questionable. Its not the best advice to give to someone but we have no idea what kind of doctor Jakurai is so ill let it slide

Jakurai’s pose looks like hes going to do a mahou shoujou transformation lmao

I don’t have many thoughts about the rap though again. How they visualize the rap is interesting. the different imagery is quite interesting for each of them and the typography is nice a distinct but im still on the fence about the visuals here

The sound is in the same boat. The sound effects either drown out the rap or are too quet but some parts are nice at least. When they talk about Tokyo’s beating heart, the heartbeat sound is a but distracting especially since its only played once. But the imagery is at least nice

I wonder if for the eds they’re going to take a similar approach to what Enstars did and have a four different endings, one for each division. I love the blend of styles here and it really accentuates that although they’re different they mesh well together.

Ramuda’s silhouette though is hilarious. Love it.

:p and thats it. Uh not bad for a first episode. Established all 12 characters really nicely and their dynamics. I had some problems with it but then again nothing is perfect. I look forward to what they show us next week

#hypnosis mic #hypmic #hypnosis mic rhyme anima #hypnosis mic rythme anima spoilers #hypmic spoilers #my post

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casually-inlove · 5 years ago

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Hello. In one of your responses, you wrote: "I also have things that I don't necessarily agree with." Can you tell us about it? I am very interested in your representation of this manhua. What do you think is written well in the story, and what is not? What would you add or remove? What is missing and what is too much in history? I would very much like to know your TianShan headcanon. I have too many "wants". I'm sorry if I was rude.

Dear anon, this was not rude at all. Indeed, you have many questions, so much as I try to be concise in my posts, this one is going to be very lengthy. Let me start with a little disclaimer. Everything below is entirely subjective. It is in no way meant to undermine anyone's enjoyment of the series, nor is it supposed to be an attack against the author. I value the comic's episodic nature and light-heartedness myself, otherwise, I would not have stuck around. It is also true that for the past half a year my interest in it waxes and wanes. Besides, I am well aware that certain groups of fans grow dissatisfied with the manhua direction. That said, I must state once again, OX has every right to write the story as they please, while the fans, no matter how displeased they may be, do not have the room to make demands of the author. So then, without further ado, some of my quibblings follow below. Beware of the wall-of-text.

1) The plot and characters get stagnant at times — these two go hand in hand. I suppose it is a prevalent gripe with 19 Days, and I am sure everyone has experienced it at least once. Some of it stems from the very way the story is told: the manhua timeline moves slowly in comparison with the readers' timeline. It works for depicting slow-burn relationships and subtle changes in the characters' outlooks. The problem is, more often than not, the latest chapters are inconsequential to either plot or character growth. They do not have the substance or the conflict to them. When OX had introduced the characters, while undoubtedly charming and loveable, they were practically walking tropes. Jian Yi, the bubbly airhead. ZZX, the stoic childhood friend. HT, Mr Popular. As time passed, OX did the clever (and the right) thing — they have subverted these stereotypes, by showing us that the characters are not who they appear to be. Thus, we learned that Jian Yi is a lonesome, affection deprived kid who on occasion dreads going back home because it's empty; his bright grin is there to hide his sadness. We also learned that HT had a dysfunctional family and had been exposed to violence since a tender age; we also learned that he used to lead an empty life devoid of close interpersonal connections and passions, etc. I am not going to write about Mo because it is obvious and self-explanatory.

That sudden change in the perspective is what made those characters fascinating. A few of these developments co-occur with the addition of the “darker” mafia/gangster subplot. Indeed, the introduction of the criminal legacy theme (which is true for Jian Yi, He Tian, and Mo to an extent) allowed to show the wounds and troubles these characters had to face. It also dangled the prospect of an intriguing plot direction — a mafia-related story that is disguised as a school-themed slice-of-life. It was the underlying gangster plot-line that hooked me up; I kept asking myself: Are they connected (the Jian family, the He family)? Were they responsible for what happened with the Mo family restaurant? Will their backgrounds converge at some point? How does Jia Yi's kidnapping fit into all this? That sort of stuff. Alas, right now that subplot seems to be put on a backburner, which is a shame because this is the plot-line that leads to future events, such as Jian Yi's disappearance. The kidnapping is still going to happen and the threat looming over Jian Yi is still real, yet OX does very little to explain anything about it. Naturally, revealing everything at once is out of the question, but if it were me, I would have opted for unveiling bits and pieces now and then. To start with, it would have propelled the plot forward. Apart from that, it would have given the readers some food for thought and kept the intrigue fresh — they would have been cracking their heads to piece the puzzle. Finally, the characters' darker backgrounds provide the opportunity to give them development. For instance, how would Mo's view of He Tian change, if he learned that the latter had to face his warped father to save Mo (ch. 245 and further on)? Or how would Mo react, if he learned that He Tian lost his mother (presumably) due to his family shady dealings? Would it make him understand the other boy, relate to him on some level? Etc.

The comedy and fun, light moments are precious, but I miss those moments when the manhua challenged my impression of the characters. Right now, the plot stagnates in the sense that we know that someone is threatening Jian Yi, but we aren't being given any clues or updates on the matter, as if the whole thing wasn't important. So, in response to your question “what would I have removed”, I would say that I would probably drop quite a few school-centric chapters in favour of “criminal” subplot. Just a bit: maybe show Mr Jian's messages, or Jian Yi's mother discussing the situation with him, or He Cheng receiving some reports on the situation.

The character recent portrayal also disappoints me on occasion. They started as stereotypical manga characters, then they were given some depth, and now they are close to becoming yet another set of stereotypes. Yeah, I get that Mo is a tsundere and enamoured He Tian is an idiot in love — OX has been depicting them as such for the past year. It would be cool to take a look at other facets of their personalities now and then too. While it’s understandable that only a few weeks have passed since the beginning of the story, OX should remember that years have passed for the readers; keeping the audience engaged should be among their priorities.

I suppose I do have a bias here because as an adult I have little interest in all things school-related, and in general, I am not too fond of slice-of-life (I typically avoid reading it).19 Days attracted me because it had some universal themes, like dealing with past and legacy, finding your path, healing from the old scars, learning to handle difficult relationships within a family, and of course its low-key “mafia” subplot. It could be that OX truly doesn't have a meticulously chapter-to-chapter thought-out plot, hence why the manhua meanders at times, or it could have something to do with Mosspaca's internal agenda. Perhaps, it is the latter and the company somehow insists its artists stick with simplistic plots for the sake of keeping their target audience. Even so, there's a catch here, which was brought to the attention by @agapaic: the original reader audience has aged up already so to keep them hooked it would be wise of OX to “mature up” the comic as well. Not in the sense of 18+ content, but in the sense of introducing more mature subjects alongside the comedy and slice of life. Perhaps, they are not looking to keep the fans but to attract the new, younger ones. Who knows.

2) Drama and comedy imbalance. It is a pet peeve of mine which I consider to be one of the prominent manhua flaws: there is lots of slapstick comedy which ends up being out of place on occasion. I do realize the comic is humorous, however, there is no denying that OX introduced themes and topics that are no laughing matters. Jian Yi's and He Tian's loneliness, bullying and ostracizing, extortion racket, absentee parents, youth gangs and violence — just to name a few. There is a lot more, but you get the picture.

It is also obvious that three out of four main characters carry the remnants of childhood trauma with them, which directly affects their present selves. All the same, these topics practically fizzle out as soon as they get introduced, or get swept under the rug with comedy. Considering the humorous nature of the comic, it is given that dispersing some grimmer topics with playfulness will be used now and then. To my mind, however, OX relies on that abrupt drama-to-comedy switch too heavily, which makes the transition steep and often out of place. At times, it creates an impression that the author does not take these issues seriously. There have been numerous episodes when emotional moments were subverted and then dropped, without gaining climax and closure. For instance, the moment that sticks out to me the most is when He Tian attempted to tell Mo why he liked him. The visuals made it clear that it wasn't easy for He Tian to say out loud, yet OX never gave the intense moment the needed closure.

Mo brushed He Tian off and the latter just rolled with it, as if it never took him any courage to say those words, and then everything was swiftly engulfed by slapstick humour (the ball-slapping scene). A panel showing a glimpse of He Tian's face sinking to indicate he was somewhat let down by Mo's nonchalant response would have been appropriate — in fact, it would be natural for someone to get hurt when their confession is taken lightly. Likewise, I half-expected OX to show a bit more of He Tian's reaction towards Mo's story about his meeting with She Li. We got to see his expression darkening when he learned that She Li gave Mo the ear piercings, yet this time — mind you, when Mo suggested that She Li might have murdered someone — we never see He Tian react much. For the record, it was He Tian who asked She Li a rhetorical question about being able to take responsibility for taking a life.

Furthermore, I believe that someone romantically invested in another human being would have naturally shown more inquisitiveness upon hearing a story like that. Sure enough, some would say that Mo would not have liked talking about a traumatizing event, and that is fine as well — just show it. A single panel of He Tian being concerned and trying to inquire further and Mo refusing to talk would have been a very neat detail that could have potentially smoothed the transition into humour, while keeping our heroes in character.

3) Sometimes there is too much focus on the couples. The manhua has introduced several reoccurring supporting characters which are directly linked to our main quartet. For example, Mo had bonds before meeting our boys: his henchmen, the Buzzcut. Likewise, He Cheng was the one to raise He Tian; he shaped the boy's outlook on life. These characters all played important roles in making our boys the people they are today, and yet we know so little of their bonds. Maybe the Buzzcut is unimportant in the larger scheme of things, He Cheng, however, is not only linked to He Tian, but he also plays a part in the underlying mafia/gangster subplot. It would have made sense if he was the one to shed some light on the situation with Jian Yi and He Tian's traumatic past. I would have loved to see our boys interact with other people as well — it would have served to show the variety of relationships out there: friendships, familial bonds, mutual respect between the leader and underlings, etc.

Anyway, I am going to stop now. I could name a few more, but this text is already more than 2000 words long. I have made some posts with my nitpicking before, so if you wish you can read them here.

link & link

Once again, this is all entirely subjective and it is not meant to be perceived as me saying that the manhua is poorly written and no one should enjoy it. Writing and creating compelling plots is a tough job, especially when it comes to long pieces. It also goes without saying that the author should keep their target audience and marketing goals in mind. 19 Days appeals to a great number of people of all ages and that means that OX succeeded in creating something compelling. Their writing is indeed flawed at times, but there is no way around it. It is impossible to excel both at being a great artist and a good writer. While there may be things that each of us would want to change (when comes to characters or the plot), it is still important to remember that it is not our creation. We can only decide whether to keep reading and enjoy what we get or move along. There is no point in attacking the author or generating constant pessimism.

#19 days #long post #that...was a tiresome writing #Anonymous #q&a time

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gofancyninjaworld · 5 years ago

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Meta: What rough beast slouches to be born?

Right, webcomic chapter 125 has raised quite a few questions about cyborgs and I purposely left it aside. Until now. I’m sorry for the length, but I’m only allowed one ‘readmore’. :(

What we knew

Many moons ago for us, 9 or so weeks ago for them, Genos showed up at Saitama’s doorstep like a refugee from another world, telling a tale of destroyed towns, rampaging cyborgs, and desperate revenge quests. It’s seemed rather far-fetched, particularly as not much has happened on that front. Over the course of the story, we’ve had little bits of independent corroboration about the veracity of his story. The town that he was born in was definitely erased from the map. Yes, a cyborg is wanted in connection with the incident.

But where is that guy? Does it have anything to do with the powered suit-flogging cyborgs seen early on the series? Does it have anything to do with the ‘glimpse behind the scenes’ chapter the manga offered us with Drive Knight (but no context as to how that glimpse fitted into the wider story)? Come to that, where are all the cyborgs?

To start with, there are a lot of cyborgs of various sorts in OPM. Quite a few moons ago, I wrote a bit about them, drawing a distinction between those who used parts to replace lost function and those who looked at it as a change of identity: “Is the Organization a Claw Analogue?”

Chapter 125 has been surprisingly good about confirming some of what I surmised about cyborgs, but it’s brought some very good additional information! On we go!

There are cyborgs; and then there are Cyborgs

Our ambassador through the world of cyborgs is new Neo Hero recruit Koko (Solitude), who modified his body for the world of cyborg fighting, only he was a little too successful and no one would bet on him. We see him scanning various people and passing commentary on them.

The first to give him serious pause is Webigaza, who lost six months of life to getting her body modifications done -- no wonder she’s pissed off that her rival has self-destructed in the interim.

Koko is shaken by her having 71% of her body modified.

obsessive determination is terrifying to look at

Percentage body modification of the sort Koko is used to seeing, 30% maximum, you can do right here right here and now. It’s equivalent to losing a leg and most of the other. Here and now, we can also do brain implants to control tremors or fits or some neurological conditions, replace part of the heart, spine fusions, quite a few bits and pieces. The sort of modifications Koko is used to seeing are very functional ones that make sense for someone looking to get an edge in fighting for money. They’re also along the lines of what we’ve seen with One-Shotter or Death Gatling.

If you lose and replace all four limbs, that's 50% of your body modified. While quadruple amputees unfortunately exist IRL, I don’t know if anyone has had the kind of money, physical fitness and pure grit to do that. Nevertheless it’s not technically impossible. 60% sounds about right before you're now looking at breaking into the more vital parts of your body. The point at which the risk involved just can't be justified in terms of restoring function or health. I’m emphasising that because I’m going to come back to this point. He’s shaken because modifications that extensive aren’t about simply gaining an edge; they’re being willing to exchange serious bodily harm for serious power. It says a lot about who Webigaza is.

Within the Hero Association, I think we do know a hero round about that 60% mark. Jet Nice Guy comes to mind. He sports an armored exterior, powerful artificial limbs (which will need internal reinforcement to not just rip up his body), but his innards are all human. After the way he started to bleed out after Nyan slashed him, I realised that the reason it looked like intestines when the Deep Sea King ripped him open is because they were... >.< Sorry, dude.

the worst of both worlds -- too modified to have an easy life, still too weak to deal with the real monsters that exist

Scary enough, but then the security staff come in to stop the kerfuffle that Koko and his buddy, Mars Leo, were causing. Koko scanned them and was stunned into horror:

as disciplined and ruthless a pair of killers as you could never hope to lay eyes on. Definitely not frothing at the mouth, these two!

These two have modified themselves so extensively they’re almost inhuman. 94, 95% body modification is equivalent to having only 3.5 - 4.2 kg of live mass left assuming an original live mass of 70 kg. And, if the similar naming convention didn’t tip you off to it, it’s around the sort of hyper-extensive modification we see Genos having. [See under the readmore for a first-principles estimation I did a long time ago.] Maybe Drive Knight too if he’s a cyborg. What kind of power have they exchanged their human bodies for? What kind of people are willing to do that to themselves? Koko is very sure that he does NOT want to know.

When he tells you who he is, believe him

That’s dating advice often given to ladies overlooking obvious red flags but it goes with great force in OPM. ONE has characters tell us who they are early on, even if it doesn’t mean anything to us for a long time.

And he’s had Genos be a particularly straightforward and truthful character. He doesn’t always interpret things correctly, but he says it exactly as he sees it. Looking at the way the high percentage cyborgs we’ve met thus far either be very inhuman looking or completely disguised as regular human beings, he’s chosen an appearance that puts both his humanity and mechanical nature on display.

Something that the chapter has brought up that I've kept saying to people on the Discord and on Reddit: there is no medically justifiable reason for Genos to have a body as modified as he does. Which Genos TELLS US for fuck’s sake. His giant wall of text is a synopsis, no more and no less.

When he says that “...I asked Professor Kuseno to perform a procedure to modify my body. Then I was reborn as a cyborg for justice...” (Viz) “...I begged Dr Stench (sic) to transform me into a cyborg and I was reborn as a cyborg who fights for justice...” (Boon scanslations, who copied verbatim whoever did the webcomic version). It’s nothing to do with health. Feel free to have whatever headcanons you like, but please don’t confuse them with the story.

But it doesn’t end there. I look at Destro and Erimin and realise that there’s another perfectly truthful statement that’s been staring us in the face.

Genos knows. Why would he ask a mechanical engineer who uses a wearable battle suit and pilots armed drones to modify his body, let alone modify it to such an insane degree? Because he knows that Dr Kuseno knows how to build cyborgs like the one who destroyed his town.

We don’t know if Destro and Erimin have any responsibility for the destroyed town, but someone of their ilk does. Which brings us to a third nakedly truthful statement. When Genos talks of not believing that he could be defeated by anything other than the rampaging cyborg, he’s not anticipating winning because he’s suicidal. It’s because he’s aware that if he’s throwing rock, so too is his enemy: mutual annihilation is the best he can hope for.

At least until he met Saitama. And started to hope for not mutual destruction, but victory (check the difference in chapter 108 of the webcomic).

a world away from the attitude of mutually-assured destruction he started with.

Stepping away from the text a bit, it casts a different light on why he’s been so desperate to learn from Saitama. Learning Saitama's secret is his balance-breaker. He wants something other than rock, that is guaranteed to smash whatever rock his enemy might throw. But that’s not all there is. As Garou said, once he discovered Blue Fire’s flamethrower, once you know how a freakish weapon works, you know it. Any edge a new weapon might give Genos is liable to be studied and replicated (see how quickly Dr Kuseno was able to reverse engineer and adapt the principles of G-4′s curving energy beams). But Saitama’s strength is unphysical: no matter how closely you inspect his body, you can never relate the physicality of Saitama’s body to the power he can generate. That unphysicality, that’s what Genos wants too. It also puts in context why he’s been so fascinated by psychic power and wants to learn it if at all possible.

neat trick, I’ll take two! Genos dodging G4′s beams in chapter 38, and putting the principle of them to good use in chapter 120

And finally, since in his world, knowledge is literally power, it gives yet another layered reason Genos is so determined to keep anyone else from becoming Saitama’s disciple. If they learn his secret too, then the advantage he seeks will be lost. (that it doesn’t work quite that way for Saitama is a fact for us to enjoy and for him to find out).

Nothing is as scary as a human being

Nothing is as scary as a human being is one of the things that Reigen says to Tome on occasion. It’s in full force in OPM. Monsters may be strong, but they all live in the now. Only a human being could have put together the Monster Association. When it comes to cyborgs, their abilities may be inhuman but their thoughts, imaginations, morals and appetites are all 100% human. It’s a terrifying combination.

There’s something I missed when I likened The Organization to a Claw Analogue. In Mob Psycho 100, the protagonists are children and they're fighting an organisation made up of over-grown children -- adults who have refused to grow up. In One-Punch Man, the protagonists are adults and the bad humans in the story are very much adults too. With calculated cruelty and depravity to match. When The Organization bares its claws for real, this is going to get so brutal.

If Genos has not been standing still, then neither has his enemy. From the manga, even if we hold Drive Knight blameless and independent of all this mess, his besting Nyan told us that cyborgs can indeed come crazy-strong and highlighted how much more work Genos had yet to do. It also highlighted how very clever and calculating cyborgs can be -- well, they’re human, duh! If I was worried for his prospects then, in the webcomic, Genos is nowhere near as psychologically, physically or emotionally ready as his manga version is. And the guys who look to be his enemies aren’t going to be cutting him any slack. They’re very real. They’re not mad. And they’re closer than he ever imagined.

Fighting monsters is barely adequate preparation for whatever it is that’s to come.

Whenever Genos gets dragged into whatever it is those cyborgs are up to -- or runs into it, since he claims he’s still hunting the rampaging cyborg -- ‘rough’ doesn’t begin to describe it.

Extra Stuff

Edited from an answer I gave on Reddit to the question of how much of Genos was still organic about 2 years ago. It’s unexpectedly relevant!

Short answer: by mass, under 10% , assuming he would have weighed approximately 70 kg. By function, quite a bit.

The long answer.

I’m going to write this starting from what is most readily observable and readily inferred to the least. In appreciation of this being a work of fiction that treats physical laws lightly, I too am taking a more-or-less approach and will keep technical terms to a minimum. I'm also not a medic and I don't play one on TV -- assume generous hand-wavium. Items in {curly brackets} are incidental notes you can skip.

Level 0: Canonically observable. The least controversial observation is that Genos does have an organic brain. Genos does not live in a lab, but is able to live largely independently, including being able to eat whatever he likes with no ill-effect. Not just that, but he lives an active and hard-fighting life that appears to do him no permanent harm (I will return to this in a few paragraphs). What can we take from this?

Edit: There is also ONE’s initial settings for Genos, which I quote here from the Hero Data Book

ONE: There's no need to visit Dr. Kuseno's place every time when his wrist break down, because he got his own spare parts at hand. Dr Kuseno's Lab is there In case for a big reparation job, a drastic upgrade or an examination.

It’s tempting to think that because we see that he definitely has a brain that’s all there is – the brain in a jar phenomenon, so to speak. Something a lot of people miss is that the spinal cord proper isn’t optional either -- it’s a core part of the central nervous system. Spinal cords are a lot shorter than most people think they are, averaging 12 inches long for women and 15 inches for men. The rest are nerve processes that can be cut and will regrow (within limits). We’re also happy to allow for nerves and their endings -- there must be an interface for the prosthetics so they're under the fine voluntary control that we see. However, that’s not all that there can be. The Cartesian mind-body duality is completely wrong when it comes to physiology. Our brains are intimately bound with our bodies and our bodies with our brains. So what does one need?

Level 1: Perfusion. This is the most obvious one. Without a blood supply providing oxygen, glucose and removing waste products from our brains, we have 4-5 seconds of consciousness available, 2-3 minutes in which we can escape brain damage and 8-10 minutes in which not to die. So, number one is a reliable blood supply. Absolutely necessary therefore are a means of generating the various blood cells, perfusing and distributing them and disposing of damaged cells (red blood cells have a lifespan of 1-2 months). While not as acutely important, a self-sustaining blood supply is also the basis of a functioning immune system. It's a bit of an oops moment when your super-killer cyborg catches a cold and dies.

Accordingly, bone marrow is essential as a source of hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells. A suitably reduced blood vessel and lymphatic vessel system is also needed to run the blood where it needs to go. {An awesome feature of living beings is that new blood vessels will be recruited to where they need to go and redundant branches pruned back, a process known as vascular remodelling}. A reduced liver and possibly spleen will be needed to appropriately destroy worn out blood cells. At least one functional kidney, in the role of producing the hormone erythropoietin, without which red blood cells will not be formed. Not essential: a heart and lungs, which he definitely doesn't have. How much blood is needed? I’ll come to that answer once we’ve tallied how much body is needed.

Additionally, since part of perfusion is getting rid of metabolic waste, a liver and kidney will be absolutely indispensable.

Level 2: Homoeostasis. A living organism has a very narrow range in which its internal environment, such as oxygen saturation, temperature, pH (acidity or alkalinity) amongst other things can vary without harm.

There are around 40 or so hormones, the signalling molecules that keep us going as functional concerns, regulating such things as blood pressure, salt/water balance, available energy, sleep cycle, body temperature, mood, immune system... the list goes on. Each has a stupid number of secondary functions and interacts with others in a ludicrous number of ways (note highly scientific language). Their levels vary and change on the order of seconds to hours. It's a good job that the main organiser of homoeostasis, the hypothalamus, is part of the brain. {Incidentally, this is why a brain-dead cadaver cannot be kept ‘alive’ on life support indefinitely – everything falls out of sync and eventually to pieces.} To do this artificially is to have your cyborg never leave the lab: if you're not constantly monitoring and adjusting levels, then they will die. Fortunately, as mentioned, a living, functional brain has the control network needed to keep everything working without the extensive and expensive effort. Just add air, water and food (in that priority).

At this point, we've already met most of the organs needed to maintain homoeostasis in their capacity of maintaining a blood supply. We need to add some bone, not just to serve as a niche (living environment) for the bone marrow and its stem cells mentioned previously but as a source and sink for minerals, the adrenal glands and the thyroid gland. Finally, one must not forget pancreatic islets -- or it'll be for nothing as he goes into a diabetic coma.

Level 3: Energy. Speaking of food, a brain needs essential fatty acids for turnover and lots and lots of glucose for energy. It’s entirely possible to supply nutrients as total parenteral nutrion (TPN for short). People whose digestive systems have completely failed get individually formulated TPN solutions, which requires that they spend several hours a day feeding it into their blood supply. Not something we see Genos do. And yes, you heard it here: not everyone poops, but everyone sure as hell pees. While a brain only weighs about 1.5 kg, it uses up about 500 calories a day as glucose, so 700 ish calories a day should suffice for all the needs of his live mass. This bears no relationship to the amount of food we see Genos put away on occasion. Why hasn’t he wrecked his liver in a matter of weeks? The answer would appear to lie in the artificial digestive system Dr. Kuseno has given him which turns food into biofuel. It must be patched into a feedback loop which allows it to only supply what’s physiologically necessary at any given time. Lucky for some!

Level 4: So how much body does that add up to exactly? Nothing says you have to keep the necessary organs and blood vessel network the same size. With only a 1.5 kg brain to support, many can be shrunk a good 50% if not more. A total living mass of 7 kg would be quite feasible. We know from organ-on-a-chip experiments (and from unfortunate people who have lost part of their organs) that provided the essential architecture of the tissue is respected, they will work fine. Nothing says you have to keep them in the same place as the original organs were -- you can encapsulate it all in a can and shorten the nerves serving the organs to a more rational, manageable length. It's nice and compact and can be protected as heavily as the brain is.

Now we’re in a position to answer how much blood Genos has. There are about 70 ml of blood per kilogram of body weight, so at ~ 7 kg, we’re talking about 500 ml of blood. For comparison, the typical 70 kg person has 5 litres of blood. Why does this matter? Because it allows us to answer a question many may be curious about: how often does Genos get hurt?

The answer is: Almost Never. With so little body, and with most of that body consisting of aptly named vital organs, even small injuries can turn catastrophic in no time. Genos will bleed out with around 150 ml of blood loss, which is less than half of what is donated in a typical blood donation. Horrible and dramatic as the smashes he gets into are, it’s more akin to a Formula 1 race car tumbling end over end and catching fire, only for the driver to walk out unscathed. His cyborg parts are replaceable and can be sacrificed to protect what’s irreplaceable if need be.

#OPM #cyborg #Genos #meta #ONE hides things in plain sight #because they don't make sense until they do

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nezumiismissing · 4 years ago

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Authoritarianism Without Leadership and the Formation of Spatial Identity

I think at this point I have probably brought this up in every single one of my analyses, so it’s about time that this topic gets its own breakdown in a full length post (or 2 or 3). There’s a lot to cover and it’s going to get way out there, but hopefully you can find something useful here. And if not, maybe it can at least be entertaining. More exploration of this topic to come at an unspecified time after the convention when my brain decides to enter the No.6 zone again. (and yes it is over 3000 words so, you know, plan for that)

So if you couldn’t tell, the No.6 anime does not have an antagonist, at least not in any traditional sense of the word. The opponent our characters are facing off against, it turns out, is not an evil scientist or an organization or a military, but instead it is the city and its systems that must be either destroyed or reformed by the end of the story. And while those other characters exist within the world of No.6, and all take actions that go directly against the desires of our main characters, they are not fought against especially directly and within the anime have no real identity, instead only existing as part of the whole. But what is the whole exactly? I think the easy answer here is to say that the whole is society, the culture we live within that shapes everything we do in life and that must have some amount of force placed upon it to change in any significant way. But when we say that “society is the whole”, and therefore the antagonist of No.6, what do we mean by that? And how does our perception and interpretation of what it means to be a society impact how we read and understand the story of No.6?

Now, having society be the antagonist of a young adult dystopian series is not something that No.6 came up with, obviously. It's basically a necessity of the genre. But within that structure, although not always apparent at first, there is a lot of variance. These worlds are almost always authoritarian and hierarchical, the result of some massive war or natural disaster that we have been unable to fully heal from, but outside of that, the way in which these worlds are built and understood are vastly different. Some are pretending to be utopias while others give us no image of what it means to be at the “top” and only show suffering. Some take place in over-crowded cities and others have sparse populations of people constantly searching for each other. There are social (and human) experiments, revolutions of all shapes and sizes, monsters and aliens and governments that are all in one way or another trying to reflect the very real events that are taking place in the real world in a way that is perhaps more comprehensible, or at least entertaining. Society as it currently exists is very much the antagonist of these stories, and at the center (and everywhere else) of a society are individual people making decisions that may or may not be good and may or may not have good intentions. So it is easy to see how, when it comes down to it, while society is implicitly understood to be the antagonist, most of these stories focus their energy on the removal of a tangible threat, usually a person or group of people who are determined to be “in charge” of the society and therefore responsible for much of the misery of a dystopia. The No.6 novels also fall into this group, as does the manga. But the No.6 anime, for whatever reason, decided to do something completely different, and something that is arguably much more terrifying.

From here on out I will just refer to the anime as No.6 and will specify if I am mentioning the novels/manga.

In No.6 things do not happen because someone says they need to happen, but they instead happen for…. what reason exactly? We see the mayor referenced briefly in the first episode, so we can assume that he is the one in charge of decision-making, but he makes no actual appearances. The military is clearly shown demolishing the West Block, but who is giving orders? Who is watching over the scientists at the Correctional Facility? Deciding where the wall will expand next if at all? In most stories you would see questions like these answered either near the beginning of the story or revealed at the end, and if it's neither of those then they’ll probably still show up at some point in the middle. But in No.6 there is none of that. There is no one or no group clearly “in charge” of what is happening at any time in regards to the city and its surroundings. Instead, it seems, the city has reached a point in which the details of how these things are occurring are unimportant, and that for the most part, things will unfold with or without the input of an individual or group. The implication of this being that No.6 is somehow separate from its people and government, and is, in a sense, alive.

I think this is largely why the anime is able to be so effective, despite its many other issues. On a surface level, the story lacks any kind of antagonist, making it unclear where exactly it's going. But the existence of the city as an independent entity fills in these odd gaps, creating the image of a society that has, quite literally, lost control of itself. It also makes more concrete the theme of “society vs nature” that is kind of hinted at for most of the story and then kind of shoved in your face at the end with Elyurias and Nezumi’s backstory. But with Elyurias being the physical embodiment of nature, what exactly is it that she is opposing? But before we get into that, some framing and questions (or maybe just one very big question).

What does it mean for a city to be “alive”? Not in the sense that things are happening in it and people are living there, but in the sense that it thinks and feels on its own and makes choices about itself that are not the direct result of human or other external input? Clearly people were responsible for its creation, and took care to create systems that would hold it together. But those systems were not created for the city itself, but rather the survival of the people living within it, with the city and society simply being a result of our need to be social. The city, if we are to see it as a living thing, doesn’t really gain anything from this arrangement so long as we are in control of it, and so will seek out ways to separate itself from us. It does need us to continue existing, however, and so it can’t truly create anything new on its own, and will instead make use of what we have already created. It will warp itself in unexpected ways, or cement systems that otherwise would change or disappear over time, so that it will better serve itself and maintain continuity while still appearing as though run by people. Different people will have varying amounts of control over how this all unfolds, but at a certain point there will be things that can no longer be changed through “traditional” means, at which point people will have to create and impose systems on a large scale that do not fit into the current form the city is in. And this is the point at which No.6 finds itself.

Now, there is a lot of my thinking that I’m skipping over here, especially in regards to how this applies to the real world and the implications that has, but for the purposes of No.6, this is a good starting point. The city that existed before No.6 was “killed”, restructured, and brought back to life as the result of a world war, and at the beginning of the story, we are already at a stage in which this new city has separated itself from its people and become a conscious entity. We see this process from a different perspective in the novels, with characters questioning how everything got to this point as they come to realize that the things they thought they were doing were never in their control in the first place, and that something else had made the city what it was. By omitting these characters entirely though, the anime makes their point clear, “it doesn’t matter who thinks they’re in charge of things, the city will function just fine with or without them”. I would argue that much of this is made possible through the advanced technology available in No.6, making it possible to automate systems in a way that keeps people entirely out of the process of dealing with massive amounts of vital information. You could probably even say that the “essence” of No.6, its identity as a sentient being, is mostly made up of these computerized systems and algorithms that determine everything about how a citizen will live their life.

This is, of course, similar to the way in which Elyurias is understood to operate, the main difference being that she is made up of natural, rather than man-made and technological systems. As sentient, omnipresent beings, they make use of small parts of their greater existence in order to convince different components to act in ways that are beneficial to their continued survival, reproduction, and expansion, with the survival of the individual components being far less of a concern as they are perceived as being easy to replace. Elyurias uses the parasitic bees to infinitely self-replicate, allowing her to endlessly alter and maintain the natural world as she sees fit. No.6, on the other hand, makes use of social and technological systems to convince its citizens to keep things as they are, or expand the limits of the city, or any number of other things it cannot do on its own, but are seen as crucial to its continued existence. Within the context of the story, there is no one person that needs to be “in control” of these actions, since the city is acting in what it sees as its own benefit, but it is also aware that in order to maintain itself, someone must appear in charge, and may even be influenced to believe that that is the case.

The problem with No.6, of course, arises from its desire to continue expanding while otherwise maintaining society as it currently exists. A static city is one that is destined to fall apart, or else have control returned to the people until a new form of stability can be achieved. So in order for No.6 to maintain its identity as an independent entity, it must change in other ways, and thus views expansion and increased complexity as a path forward. When it comes into contact with Elyurias as a result of this expansion though, it is clear that their goals as entities are incompatible and cannot occupy the same space. For Elyurias this necessitates the destruction of No.6, since the city has already been responsible for the damage and destruction of large areas of her “realm”, while No.6 sees her as an opportunity to improve its own systems through the assimilation of her powers into its “realm”. This assimilation, as the city sees it, both expands its power through the elimination and subsequent exploitation of a competing entity, as well as further automates its own processes through the combination of technological and natural systems. None of these benefits are seen by the citizens, of course, and in fact the result would instead be an almost complete removal of their free will, but for No.6’s purposes those effects are inconsequential so long as the people continue existing.

This formatting can also be extrapolated to describe Shion and Nezumi’s roles and understanding of the world, which clearly play a much more prominent role in the outward text of the series. Shion has a difficult time understanding and accepting No.6’s absolute corruption not because he has no experience with the suffering it has caused or or the inherent problems with hierarchy. Clearly he has been subjected to both of those things quite early on in the series. Instead the issue arises from the fact that while Nezumi, who learned about Elyurias in his childhood and has an understanding of “sentient” non-human systems, Shion has no basis for comprehending this, and is therefore unable to see how No.6 could have become so awful without anyone noticing or intervening, and cannot understand the true nature of the issue without first passing it through the filter of human decision-making processes. Nezumi falls into this as well on several occasions when he claims that the citizens are the ones at fault for the city’s problems. But unlike Shion, this comes from a lack of understanding of the specific systems that make up the city and a need to have a concrete place of blame rather than a belief in complete human control over society. Through this lens, the story of the human characters of No.6 in the anime is one of coming to understand the nature of both human and non-human systems, where they may intersect and overlap, and then determining how change can be brought about when we do not have control, or even meaningful access, to those systems.

So when a city has separated itself from its citizens, when it has become functionally “alive” and begins to behave in ways that no longer benefit or sustain our conception of humanity, what can be done to regain control? Can a city that has become independent be brought back under human control, or must it be destroyed and rebuilt, its structure completely altered so that little if any of what was originally there remains intact? The answer that No.6 seems to give is much more in line with the latter idea (at least in this fictional instance). Because of No.6’s rapid development, there was never a chance for people to fully grasp what they were really doing, and if anyone did realize what had happened, it was far too late to alter the city in a way that took away its power. The city is authoritarian to the point of self-inflicted genocide in an instance of internal social destabilization, and the faulty addition of Elyurias’ power makes this self-destruction incredibly easy. The fact that her assimilation into No.6’s system is incomplete only exacerbates the issue, and is ultimately what leads to its destruction.

The destruction of the wall as a physical presence has any number of meanings, some of which I have written about before and others that I may or may not write about in the future. But within this reading of No.6 as “alive”, what stands out the most is the fact that what ultimately gave the city its independent status was its refusal to even interact with other systems. Its purpose, its role, as an entity was entirely one of self-preservation, born from the paranoia that inevitably followed the war responsible for its creation. By destroying the wall, and allowing people access to “others”, the city cannot remain isolated and reinforce a singular concept of society, therefore losing almost the entirety of its power over people. Without the wall, there is no No.6, and without No.6, people are once again free to build something new.

Just to bring this all back around to where we started, and maybe simplify all that down to something manageable, what does it mean to have an antagonist that is alive, but not human or otherwise sentient in a way that we understand? In No.6’s case, I don’t think it is enough to say that society is the problem, or that by removing a government and installing new leadership, all of the problems can be solved. Unlike in the novels and manga, the anime does not even give us the second option, since there functionally is no government to oppose for the most part. Instead, we are given a city that people have not had influence over for a significant amount of time, one in which “society” is not a single thing shaped by the people that make it up, but is also a social system that is imposed upon people by a non-human force. No.6, as an entity, needs its citizens only to the extent that they are useful to it, namely as a mechanism for expansion and self-defense, but exists as such that the people living within it are completely reliant upon it in every aspect of their lives. Something so simple as putting someone else in the arbitrary position of “leadership” is meaningless when that person has no real power, and so in order to reclaim human control over the entirety of society, an inaccessible entity must be destroyed. In this sense, Nezumi is not wrong to say that No.6 needs to be destroyed completely, and is instead only misled as to what that actually means, mistaking the people living within the confines of the city for the city itself. The defining feature of the city, the wall, also acts as the source of its power and independence, and thus its destruction is functionally equivalent to its death, leaving behind only a loose collection of systems and beliefs that are no longer upheld in any physical or tangible way.

Society is made up of people, that is clear, but what is less obvious is that people are also made up of society. We can recognize that society impacts us and shapes who we are and how we think, but it is perhaps the case that to an even stronger degree, society is operating outside of our own individual or even collective input, and is, in a sense, self-sustaining. Rather than our own beliefs being imposed upon an ever-changing society, it is a preexisting society that imposes itself upon us, deciding when, how, and if things will change. It does change over time, and that of course is due to people’s existence within it, but what No.6 makes clear, to me at least, is that while people are unable to survive without the construction of a society, even if that society is destructive, the society at a certain point will no longer need people to maintain itself outside of the basic definition of its existence, and it is at that point that it becomes much more difficult, and dangerous, to change.

#no.6 zine #no. 6 shion #no.6 meta #not sure how i ended up feeling about this one!#on one hand im in love with the concepts introduced!#on the other hand i sound almost entirely unhinged for half of this!#my brain processes do not translate well to the written word sometimes and thats just how it is!#anyways i watched the entirety of an anime today that i think i may be falling in love with the more i get into its themes #so im going to get back to daydreaming about all the ideas for writing i want to do for that!#edit #forgot to add this in the original tags #but this whole concept was inspired by a very specific youtuber and a couple specific videos of his #so thats fun!#gonna try and keep being a bit experimental with these in the future!#originals

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ichor-hunter · 5 years ago

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Queenslayer

Queenslayer Blood Code Study- Main Character

"Your own blood code, which was thought to be lost in the fight with the Queen long ago. The old feelings inside still speak to you. This time you must ensure a lasting peace. This code is well balanced for exploration and melee combat, and features high HP and endurance."

Introduction to Blood Codes and Main Character

Blood Codes are the abilities imbued within a Revenant's Blood. Each Blood Code is unique to each Revenant that resides within the Gaol of the Mist. Once a Revenant has awakened from their slumber after the BOR parasite has been placed in them, the blood takes on a Code which I believe derives from the characteristics of that Revenant.

As the Player Character, MC starts in the realm of Vein as a First/Second Generation Revenant who was enlisted in Operation Queenslayer. The story behind the main character is largely unknown besides a few details here and there, and their backstory is up to the Player's interpretation. What we do know, is that the main character is a chivalrous self-sacrificing individual who is willing to help find The Source and is determined to save the Successors while learning more about what they're meant to do.

Prologue of Queenslayer Blood Code

While the Blood Code itself doesn't reference from any mythology from different cultures, there are hints that it does link to Greek lore from my understanding of this blood code.

Back when I was still on anon and I was following Code Vein content on tumblr (cause I forgot my old password and logins), a bunch of theories started popping up in @louis-with-an-s ‘ blog (tagging for credit and source for comments below!). As inspired by lore hunters on youtube, I was already analyzing Louis’ and Yakumo blood code at that point and I was midway of researching for Louis’ Blood code study (since this series is helping me refresh on my Greek Mythology) when this comment came up (anon if you’re out there, let me know so I can credit you too!):

I was also thinking the same thing that it's way too convenient that the MC's Blood Code is named after Operation Queenslayer. Each blood code is uniquely named and it's different for each Revenant which probably made the most of us think that this isn't our initial blood code as presented in the game. It's 100% unlikely that the rest of the Revenants in Operations Queenslayer had this Blood code, but then why is MC's blood code named after Operation Queenslayer?

Then @nosferabbit mentioned these comments below (I hope you don't mind me tagging you! I just want to give you credit! If you're uncomfortable with it, please let me know D: )

I thought of it even more since I was already linking Yakumo’s and Louis’ Greek God counterparts since their lore is strangely close to Heracles and Heracles had interaction with both of them in a similar way as their mythology. Then I was like: "Oh lol, maybe MC's previous code was Heracles before they ingested the Queen's blood."

Then I started looking into the other blood codes, then bosses, the depths and my mind went into overdrive. I discovered more things about how MC alarmingly relates too much to Heracles and his lore and I was nervously compelled into making the blog in the end.

Beyond this point, its pure theory on my end. It might be debunked based on DLC's, future updates of the game, etc. If that ends up being the case in the future, I'll conduct a proper post for Queenslayer afterward.

Greek Mythology

From my point of view, MC's initial Blood Code is based on Heracles.

Heracles or Hercules (His Roman name), as most people mostly refer to him (they're still the same god regardless but for this post, we'll refer him with his proper Greek name).

Heracles was cursed by Hera even before his birth. Hera persuaded Zeus that the next child born under the house of Perseus would be the given the position of High King and the child following that would be a servant of Zeus. Hera commanded Eileithyia the Goddess of Childbirth to postpone Heracles being born so instead, Heracles cousin Eurystheus was born first prematurely and Heracles was born after.

Growing up, Heracles had several mentors that taught him various crafts, music, and arts of battle. Later on in his years, Creon the king of Theban gave Heracles his daughter Megara and together they had two children. Hera was jealous of Heracles so she struck him with a madness that caused him to kill Megara and their two kids. Feeling destroyed by the atrocity he caused, he was instructed by an oracle to serve Eurystheus for twelve years and fulfill all the tasks that'll be given to him to purify him of his sin. These tasks, in the end, became the famous tale of Heracles 12 labors.

Similarities between MC and Heracles

Both Heracles and MC are the heroes of their own stories. Albeit in different scenarios, Heracles through the twelve labors was granted immortality in the end while the MC is already an immortal vampire who possesses the Relic of the blood.

With Heracles being the inspired Greek God for this Blood code, there is one particular character that should be highlighted before expanding onto the other Gods. The relation to the other Gods will be explained in the next section regarding the 12 labors.

With Io, they're not linked by Blood Code but more of Io's namesake. Io in Greek Mythology was one of Zeus's lovers. She was turned into a cow by Zeus when they tried to prevent Hera from learning of their relationship and Io was made to wander the earth. During her travels, she encounters Prometheus who was still bounded and chained by his punishment. As a clairvoyant God, he predicted that in the future, Io's descendant will be the one to free him and that she'll also turn back into a human. She was eventually turned back into a human by Zeus when they both avoided Hera's gaze and many descendants later, Heracles was born.

Heracles is the descendant of Io (Greek) so Io (game) gives a lot of family/maternal vibes towards the MC and vice versa since MC cares a lot for Io's (game) wellbeing. Io (game) wandered throughout the Vein in search of MC just like her Greek counterpart (but for a different reason). Also, MC ventures into the Ruined City Underground in hopes of freeing Io (game) and in turn MC meets Louis (Prometheus) and frees Louis' worries of his Blood bead research with MC helping his cause. So Io (game) brought MC to Louis (Prometheus) just like how Io (Greek) ended up bearing her future descendant and brought Heracles to Prometheus (Louis' blood code).

While the MC is a silent Revenant, Heracles is more outspoken, quick-tempered and witty in his actions so personality-wise, they're quite the opposite. From the few chapters of the Code Vein manga, it displays the MC as a quiet individual who speaks up on certain occasions and is thoughtful of the things around them. Heracles started his adventures in life when he was eighteen years old which could be the same age as the MC (however, we don't know their official age and we can make up whatever age for the MC regardless).

"The old feelings inside still speak to you. This time you must ensure a lasting peace." It is likely hinting that the old feelings could either be their true blood code or simply just their memories of themselves before Operation Queenslayer. The lasting peace is part of Heracles where he wants to absolve his sins and be at peace with himself. Or it could be that MC died with regrets?Lasting peace is the MC being at peace with themselves and their own life within the Vein since their life before the Collapse was anything but peaceful.

Now if we observe the symbol for the Queenslayer blood code itself, it appears to be a distorted crown. If we look at it carefully, the crown has letters that spell out "Vein" but out of order. We see the letter "E" first on the left, then the letter "V" in the center with the letter "I" overlapping the V from behind and then the "N" on the right. We also see this symbol beside the area name we're loaded into.

Considering how the other Successors altered blood codes as mentioned from the prologue, each of their blood codes is from the relics the successors possess. The closest reference we can get at this point is with Nicola's altered blood code: Queen's Breath. You'd expect the symbol of it to be a mist of air or something similar to the like, but instead, we see the source of where the breath comes from, which is the lungs. The breath lies within the lungs while blood resides within the veins. With that being said, Queenslayer is possibly the altered blood code the MC gained from the Queen since they are the Successor of the Blood. The symbol is in the shape of a crown probably because of the importance of the Queen's blood during the experiments. It’s a unique visual interpretation of veins since we’re aware how veins in our bodies look like. So just like the Successor of the Queen's Breath is the symbol of the lungs, the Successor of the Blood symbol is the Vein. Neither of these relics can't be displayed physically for what they are and that's why the lungs and the word vein for these altered codes are a representation of these relics.

Continuing onwards, we also have to mention the aftermath of the 12 labors. With all the labors being fulfilled, Heracles joined the Argonauts who were a group of Greek Heroes that combined forces in search of the Golden Fleece. Considering the True End, MC leaves the Vein along with the others, starting their heroic group outside of the Vein. (Of course, they aren't calling themselves the Argonauts but they are similar sort of troupe). While they're not searching for the Golden Fleece since they already have Io's golden blood bead to guide them. Or we could say they’ve always been team Argonauts and they finally retrieved the Golden Fleece aka golden blood bead and achieved greater heights. Knowing Io's lore with Io (Greek) turning into a Cow and the Golden Fleece from the Ram, which is both from the same Bovidae family, the blood bead here is their Golden Fleece.

There's also a part of Heracles lore where he's thrown into madness which could be linked with several things. When MC was killed by Jack in their memories, he killed them since their body was rejecting the Queen's blood and without their mask, they were painfully going through bloodthirst and becoming lost. There's also the bad end where the MC becomes the new Queen and was falling into madness, but Louis killed them before that could happen too. Madness for the MC is falling into Frenzy.

These moments of frenzy could also relate to the death of Heracles as well. With Heracles' second wife Deinanira, she was attacked by the Centaur of Nessus and convinced her to take his blood-covered shirt (which is ridden with poison) and give it to her husband. Claiming it's a love charm and to give it to him whenever he's being unfaithful. She assumed that Heracles was cheating on her so she gave him the shirt, only for him to be tortured by an immense amount of pain. The poison here could also be the cause of the miasma which MC did take in, the Queen's blood which could be considered poisonous to them at first due to their body rejecting the Queen's blood.

Heracles 12 Labors

With the twelve labors, I initially connected them to the Depths since there are 12 in total. When MC is tasked by Davis to find the Map's to the depths and journey through them, we are given 12 in total for the duration of the game. However, these labors could also associate with other events and Greek Gods which associates with the other characters. Plus a few of the bosses do relate to the monsters Heracles has fought.

1. Slaying the Nemean Lion

The first task King Eurystheus gave to Heracles was to retrieve the skin of the Nemean Lion. The skin from the lion was impenetrable. Since Heracles' arrows didn't affect the lion, he grabbed his club, cornered it in a cave and then choked it to death.

The only thing that comes to mind with this trial is the Argent Wolf Berserker.

The Argent Wolf Berserker has a strong defense against debuffs (especially poison), but it is weak to blood damage according to the Code Vein Wiki. If I recall correctly, this is the only boss you can perform a parry and back-stab with a draining attack. Just like Heracles easily backed it into a corner and choked it, this boss is susceptible to the same things as well.

Interestingly enough, after Heracles kills the lion he ends up taking the skin from the lion (although some writers/researchers disagree. Heracles' lion skin is worn in most sculptures and paintings but for this instance, let’s roll with the former instead) and after defeating the Berserker, the MC received their first and only memory back. MC is greeted by their vestige after defeating the boss. It's really neat how the first trial holds its significance to Heracles and in turn, the MC regains an important memory of themselves.

2. Slaying the Lernaean Hydra

This labor relates to one area and two of the bosses in the game. The first one I'll be mentioning is the Butterfly of Delirium.

The Hydra in this labor has nine heads and its blood is venomous. As mentioned previously, the poison led to Heracles' death. This boss only has one main body and a tail that acts as a hydra's head since it always spews out poison at the MC. For the Hydra, there are nine heads and one of the heads is the main immortal (since each time Heracles would severe a head, it would regenerate). This is the second boss in the game and the second labor Heracles has to tackle.

Next is the area the Howling Pit and the boss Hatsune Miku Invading Executioner.

The swamp area pays homage to the area where Heracles slew the Hydra. For the invading Executioner, the only related lore linking with this labor is her Sickle. Some visual sources claim that Heracles used a sickle as part of his weaponry to kill the Hydra.

The depths that has these two bosses are: The Town of Sacrifice, Swirling Flood and Flood of Impurity is part of my count towards the depths connecting to the 12 labors.

3. Capture the Golden Hind

Heracles was then tasked by Eurystheus with capturing the Golden Hind (a deer). This Hind is very sacred to the Goddess Artemis. Knowing these facts, Heracles couldn't kill the Hind. It took an entire year to hunt the deer and when he gave it a minor injury, Artemis appeared in front of him and was furious. Heracles begged for forgiveness and explained why he did what he had to do. Artemis relented and healed the hind with the condition that the hind must be returned to her. Once Heracles returned to Eurystheus, recalling his promise to Artemis, he asks the king to step forward to retrieve the hind himself. Once the king agreed, he stepped forward but the hind ran back to Artemis.

As mentioned in the Artemis Blood Code Study, this heavily related to Mia and her Goddess lore. When MC and gang first meet Mia in the story, she attacks them for their blood beads. The minute Nicola came out to defend her and fainted, she protects him in case they were to hurt him. They gave him a blood bead but he was still killed by Jack.

When Mia and the others learn he's a Successor, they have to end up fighting him when he induced into a frenzy. With the power of the Relic of the Blood, the MC was able to let the two reunite within the memory echo and then revive Nicola afterward, allowing the two to reunite in person. More is expanded in the Artemis Blood Code Study.

With relation to the depths, the Silent White Depths has the Successor of the Breath which still links to the list of the 12 labors/depths with Heracles lore.

4. Capture the Erymanthian Boar

Heracles' next task was to bring the Erymanthian Boar alive to King Eurystheus. The Boar would come down from its mountain every day to attack everything in sight: Animals and people. It was known for its powerful tusks. This one I believe connects with the very first boss: Oliver Collins.

Oliver ends up killing everyone above ground (excluding Io) as he is fully turned into the Lost. When MC and Louis fight him and cut away half of his health, he fully transforms into his lost form. We see he has a tusk and a snout from his mask getting distorted at the transformation.

There's also mention of Prometheus during this trial. Heracles decided to visit his centaur friend before the trial to stop, chat and grab a bite to eat since he was famished. The centaur Pholus offered him a meal. When Heracles requested wine however, Pholus was scared to open the jar due to the wine belonging to all of the centaurs. Heracles was just like: "Its fine, I yolo for a living," opened the jar and brought on chaos with all the other centaurs rushing in anger that someone is taking their wine. They attacked him but Heracles retaliated with his poisonous arrows (he used the poison from the Hydra at the 2nd trial) and they ran off. Chiron, a centaur who ends up being a teacher to Achilles received a wound from one of these arrows. The pain was so dreadful that he was willing to take Prometheus' place instead of dealing with the pain. In the end, he gives up his immortality. Pholus wondered how an arrow caused Chiron so much pain. He picked it up curiously but it was accidentally dropped onto his feet. He ended up dying from the intense pain.

Poison is a part of this trial and while Heracles did not use poison against the boar (since he's supposed to bring it back alive), Oliver's boss form is susceptible to the poison debuff. MC traveled with Oliver as a friendly acquaintance in the short time they had together. Oliver like Pholus, was worried about a fellow friend/revenant that they bumped into. In the end, it became their demise. Oliver's mask broke and became Lost and Pholus died from the arrow.

Boss Oliver can be found in the Den of the Dead and Den of Darkness in the Depths.

5. Cleaning the stables of Augeas in one day

While there isn't an instance where MC is physically cleaning a stable (or cleaning in general). I think this labor relates more to the Trials of Blood. The occurrence happens at specific areas at random and none of the Lost will go away until all of them have been killed. This is one of the labors that has been disregarded in the end so this labor may not have any relevance to the game, however the Trial of Blood is the only thing I can come up with. Since MC does clear away the Lost in several waves like Heracles washes away the stables by re-routing the Alpheus River. MC has to clear out the lost in one go with these trials in the same manner.

6. Slaying the Stymphalian Birds

With no DLC's released as of this writing, I'm currently unable to see or connect with anything relating to this trial. There aren't any aerial creatures that resemble the stymphalian birds in the game or the events relating to the labor itself, so this one is a bit harder to narrow down. If there is anything revealed via DLC's, I'll be editing this instantly.

7. Capture the Cretan Bull

At first, I didn't have a clue who or what would relate to this trial but after understanding the nature of the Cretan Bull, I'm willing to put my bets on the Gilded Hunter.

Behind the story of the trial, there was Minos, the King of Crete. Minos promised Poseidon he would sacrifice whatever he sends. Poseidon sends a bull but Minos thought the bull was too beautiful so he sacrificed a different bull instead. Of course, Poseidon was angry about it, so he made the bull he gifted to Minos run rampant over the land of Crete. In the end, Heracles came and wrestled the bull and easily brought it back to Eurystheus.

Since the bull was sent to Mino's by a god, we could say that Mido is the god that let the Gilded Hunter run berserk. There was a point where I guessed that Mido could either relate to Zeus or Ares based on his connection to a few characters and his background, but here I can also consider Poseidon as another candidate for Mido.

The Gilded Hunter can also be found in the Arachnid Grotto in the Depths.

8. Steal the Mares of Diomedes

For this trial, I think there could be a better interpretation of it but from what we have now, I can see the Queen's Knight or the events of Operation Queenslayer itself relating to this labor.

Heracles eighth task was to steal man-eating horses. In some tales, he traveled with a group of companions searching for them. In the case of Operation Queenslayer, Jack's team along with the MC venture out to kill the Lost and track down the Queen.

The Bistones notices that Heracles and his crew were taking away their mares and they went after them (they would be the lost in this case). Heracles needed to free up his group so that he could fight them off so he left the mares with a man called Abderos. Abderos was killed by the time Heracles made it back so he founded a city in his honor.

Of course, at a later point, they encounter the Queen's Knight which the Queen's 'puppet' but since this lost has the title of "knight" the lost could be considered to be her steed. A Knight normally would go into battle with their horse to ride into the fields. While this lost isn't a horse, it has connotation of a companion in battle.

Or we can base this trial from the events of it. We can say the man-eating horses are the lost and the Revenants in Operation Queenslayer have no choice but to slay them. The MC takes the place of Abderos instead when they were put to rest and then Jack and Silva went onto founding the Vein (Gaol of the Red Mist). I highly doubt it was named after the MC's blood code but the MC's blood code and the "Vein" are both connected. As mentioned above before the topic of the twelve labors, MC's blood code has the letters of the word Vein while anytime the Player Character is transported to a new area, the same vein symbol like the MC's blood code always appears on the left side of the area's name.

The Queen's Knight can be found in the Zero District within the depths.

9. Stealing the girdle of Hippolyta

I had to think a while about this one since this trial is about Heracles taking the girdle from Queen Hippolyta. A girdle is a belt, and the origin of the girdle was gifted to Hippolyta by Ares since she is the best of all the amazon warriors. Heracles and Hippolyta both befriended each other and Hippolyta was more than happy to give Heracles the girdle but then we have Hera, who didn't want the trial to go smoothly. She told the other amazon warriors (in disguise as an amazon warrior herself) how Heracles was trying to get on her good side only to carry away the queen. So on their boat trip, Heracles noticed the rest of the warriors had their armor and weapons and went and killed the Queen and took the girdle.

Likely this could be associated with the good ending regarding Io. Before we entered the area for the final boss, there are the other Attendants there and we have Io talking with her sisters. Her sisters left their fate in her hands. When Io takes in all the relics and becomes the Weeping Tree, she leaves MC with a golden blood bead. That could also be considered CV's version of the girdle since MC does receive it in the end. Just without the deception part. Io gave the MC something golden and we can say she is the queen of the attendants now from this perspective.

10. Steal the cattle of Geryon

With this labor, I found it connects with the Insatiable Despot.

A very unique feature to the insatiable despot is that it has its main weapon (Tyrant's Labyrs) struck through its body. When you cut their HP in half, they proceed to take the weapon out from their body and use it to attack the MC. With Geryon, he has more than one appendage attached to him (three heads and three legs joined at the waist). The insatiable despot has one weapon/appendage through his chest. The boss creates henchmen to attack the player and they could be considered to be the cattle of Geryon. The only exception here is that MC doesn't need to steal anything from this boss. Heracles was tasked with stealing the cattle from Geryon and ended up killing Geryon in the end.

Via the Depths, this boss is found in the Cliffs of Rust.

11. Steal the Hesperidean Apples

Heracles was then tasked to steal apples from Zeus garden but he didn't even know where the garden is. During his journey of finding the garden, he encounters Prometheus who he ends up freeing from his torment by killing the eagle. The clairvoyant god gave him advice as to where the garden is and how he can get the apples. He also gave him advice on his future labors and endeavors. For more details, please refer to the Prometheus Blood Code Study.

Once Heracles arrived where Atlas was stationed, he quickly mentioned his plight and Atlas agreed to get to the apples from the garden as long as Heracles could hold the skies up temporary. He returned with the apples but had no intention of switching with Heracles. Heracles tricked him that he needed to put on some padding for his shoulders, so when Atlas took the skies again, Heracles just took the apples and ran off.

There was nothing too interesting but after MC accepted Louis' offer, Yakumo tossed him an apple. It's just a regular apple and there was nothing in regards to trickery or thieving, it was just simply an anime version of Atlas giving an anime version of Heracles an apple. Since the apple is what connects both of these gods and Yakumo with MC. More details are already written in the Atlas Blood Code Study.

12. Capture Cerberus of the Underworld

The final trial could be interpreted from two different events.

The first one right off the bat is the final boss Skull King and then The Virgin Reborn. They were previously Silva and Silva held the Blood Code of Hades. Hades is the ruler of the underworld and in a sense a protector of the Vein in and out of the Red Mist.

As we see in the boss fight, we have Skull King (aka Silva). During the boss fight, we also see Silva's Hounds-type Blood Veil, operating as the two heads of Cerberus, and Skull King himself being the main third head.

Heracles’ task was to capture Cerberus. After making the preparations to head to the underworld, he arrived there safely and confronted Hades. Hades said he can take Cerberus as long as no weapons are used against them. Heracles succeeded by using brute strength alone.

In Code Vein, it's more of the reverse with this trial, as the MC has no choice but to kill the Skull King aka Silva (who holds the Hades Blood Code).

We also have the two artificial Lost that Mido left for us. In the game, we had to fight Blade Bearer and the Cannoneer and quickly afterward we had to fight Mido. These three bosses could also represent the three heads of Cerberus figuratively. Blade Bearer and Cannoneer guarded the way preventing MC and group from progressing further to where Mido is. Just like with Heracles being prevented from entering without preparation. When they do reach Mido, Mido is guarding the path ahead and was also in possession of the relics before sending them Silva's way.

In the lore, the parents of Cerberus were an Enchinda which is a half woman and half serpent, and a Typhon which is a fire breathing giant. The Enchinda relates to the Blade Bearer while the Typhon is the Cannoneer. Based on both of their designs, the relation comes in full circle.

Both of these bosses can be found in the Void District of the Depths.

Queenslayer's Gifts

Drain Boost- Increases all drain ratings while you are focused.

Frenzied Fire- Fires a projectile that decreases the enemies' focus gauge.

Heracles was known for using a bow and arrow. Especially during certain labors after his second labor, where he coated his arrows with the hydra's poisonous blood. Frenzied Fire also matches with how Heracles was easily thrown into madness by Hera. With the focus gauge, once it's been filled, it prevents staggering and using drain attacks to launch an opponent in the air is possible. With the labors that Heracles went through he wouldn't allow any of the creatures, he fought to take advantage of him, so in a sense, he decreases the likelihood of his opponents overpowers him just like the function Frenzied Fire serves. Drain boost just displays the enhanced skills Heracles had while facing opponents. As already mentioned with Frenzied Fire with Heracles countering his opponents, Heracles himself as a trained warrior wouldn't allow himself to be staggered and is intuitive on when to attack.

Cleansing Light-For a limited time, a portion of the damage you take will slowly heal automatically.

Instantly this associates with Heracles’ immortality and the labors together. The purpose of Heracles going through these labors was to cleanse his sins of slaughtering his own family in his madness (which wasn't caused by him, Hera was the one that made him go mad). The immortality that Heracles ended up gaining wouldn't kill him no matter what the circumstances. This Gift is ultimately a portion of Heracles' true immortality while it's named after his cleansing ritual with the labors.

Circulating Pulse- Unleash a barrage of strikes. An offensive skill performed with One Handed Sword/Halberd/Bayonet.

Heracles throughout his youth studied many forms of combat and mastered several weapons. The fact that this gift is versatile with multiple weapons is a no brainer here. He utilized multiple weapons during his adventures and his twelve labors.

Final Journey- Immediately restores all HP and increases abilities but kills you after a short time.

Final Journey is a ticking time bomb. This could be related to a few things I have in mind since this is MC's signature Gift.

First, the name of the Gift itself. Final Journey relates to all of Heracles' journeys and adventures in general since he always lived life at the edge. Any of his adventures could easily be his last and he mustered his strength and prowess to go against all trials, achieve greater things and defeating his opponents. If you've read the labors above or know of them in general then you already know that these tasks are very daunting and no normal being would be able to handle these tasks.

Also similar to cleansing light, this also links with Heracles' immortality. As a god, Heracles used all his abilities in his journey and labors. With his story being so self-explanatory at this point, we know that he's one of the strongest Greek heroes in legend. However, even with that great power, the poison he received was too much to the point that he'd rather die than suffer through the pain. This part is likely the reason why MC/PC dies after using the power-enhancing gift since Heracles was willing to give it up and ascend instead.

Lastly, the image of the gift itself is a skull and most time in real life, it symbolized death or a poisonous substance. This gift grants power but we could also consider it as poison, the poison that ended up killing Heracles in the end.

Concluding Thoughts

PHEW, finally this analysis is finished lol. I had way too much fun thinking out this one. Please remember that this analysis is just a theory itself and you don't need to force your OC's to match with my analysis or agree with anything written in this post. What I've gathered in this post is simply based on facts I've noticed based on the amount of Greek Lore that's mixed in the story and with the MC. Regardless if this does turn out to be true or not, I sincerely had fun breaking down the possible lore of the MC. With MC's altruistic nature within the game, it makes a lot of sense of how they would behave. Their past before Operation Queenslayer remains (and will forever remain) a mystery since our job is to fill in those gaps. I like how there's so much Greek lore incorporated into the MC while still giving the player room to add in their own details. Asides from the whole "silent MC until the final scenes in the game" (I wish they could've spoken more D: ) the MC is a great example of how Player Characters should be done.

Also, if anyone wants to discuss more of my Heracles theory, just send an ask! Please let me know what you guys think about it! I hope this post was worth the wait! :D

#code vein #blood code study #queenslayer blood code #code vein theory #blood code queenslayer #code vein spoilers #long post

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