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stardomyx · 1 year ago

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“PROMARE” Theory -Burnout Burnish: The strange case of Governor Kray Foresight.

Originally from my Wordpress site: DISCLAIMER: I would like to establish that nobody has to agree with or even like my theories, especially since this particular post is on a Canon character. These are purely my headcanons and my thoughts on this character, I am not about to force these ideas/headcanons onto anyone.

It’s no secret that Studio Trigger’s 2019 animated movie ‘Promare’ is a fun, emotional ride from start to finish, and is more than likely to leave you with both a headache and a lot of questions, for it’s also no secret that this fiery fun fest is filled with more plot holes than a fine Swiss cheese. But some – including myself – would argue that this presents an opportunity to theorise and fill in the gaps for ourselves.

So that’s what I’m going to do.

Throughout the film, we see various characters succumbing and becoming hosts to the vibrant, alien fire life forms known as the Promare and as a result, this group of people go on to become known as the Burnish. The biggest montage of this occurrence happens right at the very beginning of the film, as the audience is introduced to the basic premise of the story. Throughout this bright, colourful, yet pretty grim series of shots, the majority of the newly awakened Burnish all appear to manifest their new powers in very much the same way, it’s almost worth calling it a pattern.

The film shows us that a Burnish’s awakening is often intense, sudden, and destructive to the people and property that are unlucky enough to get into its way. The Promare manifesting in this manner is undoubtedly a big part of what caused the Great World Blaze to be as devastating as it was, with half of the human population being reportedly wiped out. However, after I’d watched the film through a few times, I started to realise that most of the people who became Burnish throughout the story follow this pattern. The pattern being that the colourful fire would come bursting out from either their eyes or mouth, sometimes both; but most of these awakenings are generally centred around the facial area, as seen below.

The only, tiny anomaly to this strange pattern appears to be poor Thyma – who in “Galo Hen/Side: Galo” is seen to have Burnish flames rise up from directly beneath her while she’s lying on the ground. However, this first burst of flame does still appear to have manifested in her upper body, and upon closer inspection; her eyes are blank and her mouth is open. I would count her as a slight oddity, and perhaps that this is all owing to the fact that she was on the ground when the Promare manifested, but in the grand scheme of things, her awakening doesn’t stand out terribly alongside every other Burnish in the film.

As for what causes the Promare to manifest in these specific areas the most – I’m honestly not sure – my best guess is that it’s a metaphor for their minds and possibly also their wills merging together with their hosts; as human and Promare. Professor Deus Prometh is heard to claim that the Promare sync with the humans it resonates with, so perhaps the brain is where this resonance happens the most. Lastly, it’s worth noting that Lio himself says that the Burnish can clearly hear the Promare, as they urge their human hosts to let them burn, the Promare are in their heads. So with all things considered, the fire life forms manifesting in this way makes sense.

However, like most things in the world, there’s always an exception, and that exception just might take the form of one character.

That being the villain of the film: Kray Foresight.

Kray’s awakening is drastically different from any other we see. Not only is his first ‘spasm’ – as he so delicately describes it – concentrated into his arm rather than his eyes or mouth, but the resulting blaze also amputates that arm completely, burning it away to nothing but ashes.

So what happened here?

My best guess is that – canonically at least – this is all metaphorical; simply put, Kray’s bitter resistance to the Promare messed up his own awakening. Most of the Burnish we see in the film are proud of the fact that they are Burnish in defiance of the oppression they face. This rings particularly and especially true for Lio and the rest of Mad Burnish, but Kray very obviously doesn’t share that sentiment. His disdain towards the Burnish has lead to him shunning this part of himself, which is most likely why his awakening was depicted in such a way. There’s also the fact that he’s the antagonist, and this radically different awakening was most likely done to portray that fact. But I like overthinking things, and I quite like the idea that this is beyond just being metaphorical, and that there’s something seriously, scarily wrong with the way Kray synced up with his Promare. To the point that I’d argue that they didn’t actually sync up at all.

I’d go further than just saying that Kray’s Burnish awakening got off to a rocky start, I would say that he never received the immunity to the Promare’s power in the first place. The protection that the rest of the Burnish obviously have against the heat of their flames is very much absent here, and his big reveal towards the end of the film just solidifies the theory – to me – that his flames actually hurt him as a result of this imperfect awakening. Actively using his flames cause him pain as a result of his resistance to becoming a host for the fire life forms, which would no doubt result in strengthening his hatred of the Burnish and of the Promare. Lets dive in.

I’ll start with the most obvious point; Kray wants and perhaps needs to keep his Promare subdued to the best of his ability, not just because he’s the Governor actively campaigning against the Burnish, but also possibly because slipping up has a painful price tag attached to it. Thanks to the technology he has at his disposal however, he has been able to keep it under wraps.

There are a few scenes in the film which suggest that his uniform is infused with freezing tech of some kind; maybe even the same kind used in the anti-burnish cuffs. Of course, there’s the scene atop the Foresight Foundation building where Lio’s destruction of Promepolis almost leads to Kray using his powers, but thanks to Galo, there ends up being no need for it. The scene ends without there being a Burnish reveal on Kray’s part, but not before we’re treated to a tiny wisp of steam rising up from his palm. Besides that, there’s the more obvious and yet somehow simultaneously more inconspicuous scene where his flames – now well and truly free – have to blast through what’s quite clearly a coating of ice to get to their target. It really puts me in mind of – again – the anti-Burnish handcuffs, as well as the weapons used by both Burning Rescue and Freeze Force. This kind of icy shield would keep his Promare locked in and deactivated, thus decreasing the risk of injury.

This either implies that Kray wilfully deactivated the cooling tech in his uniform because he knew it was Crunch Time, or his Promare simply burnt through the safety features he’d installed. I prefer to go with the latter option, just… Because it’s kind of scary to think about.

Towards the end of the film – where we see the most of Kray wielding his Burnish powers – he appears to prefer the use of his prosthetic arm throughout his fight with Lio and Galo. This could just be because he’s a lefty and he never truly got used to losing his dominant arm, but the fact that the majority of his attacks all come from his prosthetic arm, does point towards the theory that his flames cause him discomfort. Sending the flames down through this prosthetic limb would probably divert some of the pain, and judging by the way the arm is seen to warp and swell up in size – more so than the swelling in the rest of his body – tells me that this is where he’s concentrating most of his Burnish power in an attempt to keep his body safe. Though, considering what happened to the rest of his body anyway, it looks to me as if his efforts are mostly in vain; more on that later.

However, there is an instance of him using his organic arm for his powers – while his prosthetic is busy treating Lio like a squeaky toy. The flames from his organic arm are actually the ones seen blasting through the freezing tech in his uniform, pictured further above. Once burnt through that protective, cold layer though, he visibly strains and almost flinches before sending his flames to attack Galo for a second time, like he’s bracing himself for the pain, and this is the only part of the film where we see him using his Burnish powers with his remaining arm.

Even before his Burnish reveal, it’s clear that his body is slowly gearing up to let it all out, the choice of sound design used for Kray straining against his Promare after Heris overloads the Prometech engine is absolutely terrifying and uncomfortable to listen to. But the situation is dire, and with Starship Parnassus’ engine destroyed, Kray might not even be in a clear enough state of mind to fully process the fact that it’s going to hurt. The fact that it takes him this long to consider letting loose and using what is clearly his last resort to get what he wants, just puts across how desperate a situation has to be before he even entertains the idea of using his Promare. The same can be said with how he reacted to Lio’s rampage on Promepolis, he was ready to resort to using his own powers then, only after all of the anti-Burnish technology on the outside of the Foresight Foundation building had failed to stop the fiery dragon.

At the risk of sounding like I’m siding with him – I can’t really blame him for going this far to suppress it all, if using his Promare is going to do… This to him.

I’ve made the argument before about how Lio’s “Kakusei” form and whatever happened to Kray differ in a few ways. Lio’s overall physique stays the same while he’s laying waste to Promepolis – despite the drastic change in colours and the ‘horns’ he grows. To me it looks as if he’s merely adopted the appearance of his Mad Burnish mech in an attempt to make himself look more threatening, though he uses his great, flaming dragon to deal out most of the destruction. Kray meanwhile looks as if he’s properly going through it, just to allow his Promare to burn, his skin takes on a strange, pink hue almost like that of a first degree burn, and the less said about those fangs he sprouts, the better. (Though Kakusei Lio also grew his own set of chompers.)

The dark circles around Kray’s eyes also don’t sit right with me – while they’re almost definitely just there as a design choice to make him look more threatening and more unhinged – I can’t help but think back to the fact that the Promare often manifests itself in humans by rocketing out of their eyes and mouths. If we are to assume that this is the first time Kray has properly used his flames since his initial awakening, it could be that – out of a desperation to burn after being denied that for so long – his Promare once again attempted to sync up with him properly, to perhaps start anew. But of course, it’s too little too late, as Kray’s pent up flames ultimately do their host more harm than good; blistering his flesh, singeing the skin around his eyes and causing his whole body to swell up to the point where his epaulettes buckle and the metal insignia on his left breast splits apart. Whether his constant suppression of his own Promare has lead to the fire corrupting in some way or not, is a topic I’m hoping to touch on in a little more detail in the near future; because a few things could theoretically happen when you keep fire simmering away without release for a long period of time, and none of them bode well for Kray.

And I could understand such over the top measures on Kray’s part; like the freezing tech in his uniform, if his Promare were completely out of control, or corrupted in some way. Lio, Gueira, Meis and the rest of the Burnish in the film all appear to have a degree of control over when and where they use their flames. The Promare want to burn hotter and brighter, the Burnish hear them and as a result they fulfil their wishes, but – far from simply spewing out fire all of the time – the Burnish decide when and where to use their flames, often calling upon them to aid them in battle. After seeing the film through multiple times and watching how most of the Burnish use their powers, I certainly wouldn’t call them “controlled by the Promare” as Kray describes it. There’s an understanding between a Burnish and their flames, there is – certainly in Lio’s case – a trust and almost a love, but if Kray’s awakening was so botched, it’s possible that he may not be able to hear the Promare as well as the rest of the Burnish, and therefore he might not actually know how to get it to stop.

From his big reveal right up until Lio and Galo go off to save the world (with love!) he’s burning constantly. His hair is ablaze, his prosthetic is repeatedly warped into various shapes and sizes with the heat of the flames, it’s around his eyes, it’s there simmering away beneath his skin, still resolutely kept cooped up by the remaining cooling tech in his uniform. The uniform that – despite the various scraps and fights he gets himself into – stays stubbornly and completely in tact throughout all of his time on screen, in tact and doggedly doing its job of keeping those devastating flames at bay, even when its wearer is actively using them. The Burnish themselves may not be controlled by the Promare – but to an extent – Kray just might be. It’s only after he’s brought back to reality with a bang that it finally stops, and when it does stop, the disgraced Governor is incredibly subdued. Once the Promare leave, we see a very, very different character to the one we’ve seen throughout the film, even his faux charm and charisma as the beloved authority figure is gone, everything about him in those final scenes is muted and dulled.

I will say that isn’t just him, the very last scenes of the film use a slightly less saturated colour palette for everyone, but Kray takes looking pitiful to a whole other level. Now a far cry from the bright, in your face colours he had just minutes before, at the very end of the film, he looks nothing short of drained. If you’ve ever seen the gorgeously animated ‘Firebird’ short from Disney’s ‘Fantasia’ you’ll probably know where I’m going with this, the animation there puts me in mind of what we’re seeing here; the man truly does look like he’s about to be swept away, carried off on the wind like ash. He’s burnt out, a Burnout Burnish who refused to let his flames burn – so they burnt him up instead – and whether there are other Burnish in the world who took resisting their powers to the same extremes as he did, I doubt we’ll ever know. Though there does certainly seem to be a link between a person’s mindset and how well they’re able to control their flames, and yes – Thyma could certainly be a candidate for this.

On a final note; as I write, I’m thinking back to something Professor Deus Prometh was quoted as saying right at the start of the film: “The oppression of the Burnish may lead to concurrent blazes worldwide.”

In other words, the longer you keep it down, the longer you resist, the longer the destruction will continue and the bigger and more serious the consequences will be. This is most likely in reference to the magma at the centre of the Earth slowly growing hotter in response to the oppression of the Burnish, but it can absolutely be applied to Kray’s Burnish awakening too. Perhaps if he had listened to the late Professor, things may have turned out a little better for him, he still would have become a burnish, yes, but his flames would’ve been untainted, perhaps he’d still have his arm, and perhaps he wouldn’t have come as totally undone as he did at the end of the film.

But, even with Trigger’s messy timeline, it’s safe to assume that Kray was a child when the Great World Blaze first swept across the earth, and when half of the population was wiped out. And as uncomfortable as this may be to acknowledge, it’s quite hard for me to imagine someone who witnessed that level of destruction at such a young age, being particularly happy about then being advised against resisting should they ever feel a Burnish spasm. That they should just give in to it, let it sync, let themselves become one with the Promare.