#spy x family chapter 99 spoilers

[queenofapeacefuldawn]

An Analysis of SPY × Family Chapter 99

Manga spoilers, and a very long post ahead!

I'd like to preface this with saying that all of this is my own analysis, and I'm not very smart at these things, so take this with a grain of salt!

This chapter was extremely heavy: with Henry realising his feelings for Martha, and how it echoed the main theme of this story: how war destroys relationships and how innocent civilians are forced to enlist out of fear for their families' safety.

The chapter starts off, continuing off the cliffhanger of the last chapter— it turns out to be a false alarm, but Martha leaves her feelings for Henry unsaid.

She begins writing letters to Henry, and they keep a regular correspondence to substitute for their tea parties--

The war continues to grow dire, and Martha's squad hasn't been given any combat training, yet, they're forced to go to the front lines, under the pretext of "serving your country" and "keeping your family safe".

Henry is obviously shocked and scared for Martha when he finds out she's on the front lines, but we never get to hear his thoughts with the introduction of this fucking bitch-

🤓☝️ lookin ass--

In this chapter, we get to see Donovan's own ideals, which are shown through his argument in the debate. Interestingly, Donovan is almost the same age as Demetrius is in the present-day. (At least, that's what I'm assuming-- Henry mentions being in charge of the middle schoolers, and Demetrius is a middle-schooler.)

He claims,

I have a couple of thoughts about this. First,

"I know that solving differences with dialogue and weapons is ideal". The phrasing of this is interesting, because it kind of sounds like he doesn't believe in that-- he just knows that solving differences with diplomacy instead of war is 'ideal', but does he really believe in that? I don't think he does-- and, his own definition of 'peace' is definitely... ambiguous. What does he think 'peace' is? Subjugating other countries with his own power?

He already has a strange concept of humanity and other humans' own ideals-- he believes that, at our core natures, human beings are liars. That the only thing we're capable of is war and destruction.

This is also very similar to his own ideals that we see in modern-day. He doesn't care about either of his sons, as he says, they are essentially strangers to him. And, you might have raised them (though with Donovan, "raised" is a stretch), you might be their own father, according to him, he will never truly know his sons. Which is why he doesn't even attempt to understand them. His own ignorance for human nature and for others around him is really what makes him a failure of a father-- we are never truly born "knowing" others. Yet, every day, we make an attempt to learn the people we care about-- and isn't that a little of what love is? Take the Forgers-- they are three strangers to each other, each concealing their own natures from the others. They're all liars, and yet, they're making an effort to heal; they're learning to love and they're learning to learn about the people around them, the people they care about.

This is his flawed ideology. In his world, humans are strangers-- humans are nothing to each other, they're always hiding their true intentions from each other. Humans can't be trusted-- humans don't trust each other, which is why war and destruction and pain is all humanity is capable of.

But it's really not. SxF's message is of how three strangers--- three orphans of a war they were forced to partake in--- come together and form a home. Yes, they are liars, yes, they're hiding their true intentions, but they're making a home for themselves, a home where one can be safe, where a young girl, who's experienced horrors no child should, can feel safe and in her mother's arms.

Which is why I think Donovan's ideology is so flawed--- and how beats of it echo in the modern-day SxF story, especially when Twilight meets him.

Yes, by mere dialogue, reaching a mutual understanding is idealistic, but the most important thing is to not stop seeking to understand each other.

Humans are flawed, humans are selfish, humans are kind--- there's a debate on whether, intrinsically, humans are good or bad. We're all given different cards to play with, but really, it's up to us to decide on our faith in humanity.

It seems like Donovan has a wholly negative view on humans--- we can never know each other's true intentions, and it's with this doubt that humans wage wars--- it's with this doubt that humans lie and kill and cause destruction.

It's because of this doubt that Desmond is planning a war himself.

Martha writes Henry a letter, and she talks about a dream where all the students are holding hands, circling Henry. She can't join them because her hands are filthy--- maybe it's guilt? Maybe she's feeling guilty, maybe she feels like she can't join the others because her hands are stained with blood.

She's scared. She's regretting joining the front lines. Her only solace is the letters from him. The only way he knows she's alive is the letters from her.

I feel like another story would have taken a turn, making Henry regret his own feelings for Martha because the war had torn them apart. Instead, Henry realises his own feelings and his own wants too late-- and it becomes the last letter he gets from her.

It feels like an extra gut punch, as in the beginning Martha was embarrassed to call him "beloved", but now, he's calling her beloved, and he misses her so much. He cares for her so much, and doesn't know how she is.

All he can think is---

His hands are stained with ink. The nib of his pen is almost breaking. Ink is bleeding onto the page. In Martha's dream, her hands are stained with blood due to her desire to protect Henry and her country. In Henry's reality, his hands are stained with ink due to his desire for Martha to come back, be with him again. The Soldier and the Scholar, each trapped in their own Hell.

Henry finds out that Martha's squad has been killed. Their lives were a "sacrifice" for their country. This is blatant propaganda, and, he feels they're sullying her memory by mythologizing her; by using her life, using her death as a way to snare more students into a violent and hopeless and painful battle.

He speaks out. He's punished.

He's been brutalised so much, that he needs to wear a monocle.

We learn more about Donovan's and Henry's own ideals. Donovan gives up on people who've disappointed him-- people who he deems as fools. Henry doesn't believe in that. He believes that everybody deserves to not be given up on--- every body deserves a person in their own corner.

Towards the end of the chapter, Henry's forced into a marriage by his father, believing it's "for the best", because the soldier he was waiting for never came back to him.

We cut to "Somewhere near the East-West border", to a home with a fireplace. Martha is just opening her eyes, and is severely injured.

This definitely isn't a safehouse or military barracks or a military hospital.

A home with a family, or at least a person, with a fireplace and a chopping block for firewood.

This place is also near the sea,

which makes me think it's somewhere near the south. (If I'm remembering the map correctly).

Edit: The map is faithful to irl Germany, which means the sea is to the north, not the south. Sorry for the discrepancy before!

I'm thinking someone rescued Martha while she was injured, and brought her to their place to rest and recuperate--- which is why she's presumed dead, and why Henry wasn't ever given closure.

The next chapter is no doubt going to be explosive--- the 100th chapter. I feel like this arc will segue into something bigger, something more heart-wrenching and painful (I don't know how that's possible, but I trust Endo-sensei.)

---

Thank you for making this far and reading this whole thing! I hope you enjoyed, and I hope I wasn't annoying with my hatred for Donovan lol.

Also, on a more light-hearted note, I explained the plot of SxF to my dad, and he's intrigued and wants to read the manga. I'm planning on showing him the first ep of the anime, to see if he likes it. I feel like he will.

[1alchemistart]

preparing emotionally for ch 100 JDKLFKLSD

[stellas-and-tonitruses]

these last 3 chapters more than ever have left me wondering about the timeline of spy x family and in particular,

donovan's age.

i'm not going to go too deep into the full timeline because i simply don't think we have enough info to make a real robust timeline, BUT i do think we can very feasibly approximate donovan's age with our current info.

I also won’t be using any precise years like 1964 or whatever bc at this moment in time I find that to be kind of useless, bc the only years we have happen very early in the story in background details and for a lot of those ones, I noticed endo had a tendency to just carelessly put whatever so long as it looked fine from afar, which includes news that were happening around the time of that chapter's release. SO unless he decides to explicitly highlight actual years, I’m not gonna be like “this happened in 1964 and that happened in 1953” and anything of the sort.

now, i shall partake in my least favorite activity.

✨math.✨

so uh buckle up my fellas and feel free to correct me anywhere where i might be wrong bc i am more than aware that math is NOT my strong suit!

SPOILERS FOR CHAPTERS 97, 98 AND 99!

gonna start with the facts!

according to the spy x family EYES ONLY fanbook, henry henderson is 66 years old at the time of the current events of spy x family! in the past three chapters we have learned that there is a 3 year age gap between him and martha, so that would make her 63 years old currently.

as of the events of chapter 99, he is 22 years old (and martha is 19), assuming there wasn't any years-long time gap that was not mentioned within the chapter! which, it doesn’t seem like there were any MASSIVE time gaps, so I’ll be using those ages for calculating.

so, what all this means is that we are (roughly) 44 years into the past at the moment! previous info about the war of loid and yor's childhoods puts it at around 20 years old, so from where we are in the backstory, we still have roughly 20 more years before Luwen is attacked — clearly, because this first war has already ended with donovan still in school.

while we don't have loid's age, we do have yor's, who is 27 years old — meaning she was born around the time of henry being 39 years old, aka clearly neither loid nor yor have been born yet as of the events of chapter 99. too into the past for now!

now, how am i gonna get donovan's age out of all this?

simple! henry's his teacher and has a talk with him after his jail time.

like I mentioned previously, I shall be sticking to 22 for henry’s age here. it may not be fully correct, it may be a year or two off because we aren’t given concrete details on exactly how long he was in jail, so just take it with a grain of salt! it's only going to remain as a rough estimate until we get a definitive answer on donovan's age.

so! henry has a talk with donovan, but the conversation itself, while very important for the plot and especially for our understanding of donovan’s character, is irrelevant for this conversation. no, what's crucial here is what henry is holding. endo even highlights it by focusing an entire larger panel on it!

it's a history textbook for year 7 students!

it being a history textbook is very poignant for the conversation they're having, but the reason this is important to me is because it's very clearly a year 7 textbook.

now, i don't know how much of eden academy's curriculum is based on the uk! but because pretty much all of the architecture of it is based on eton college and endo has literally just returned from a london trip where he showed us he visited a kindergarten, so i think that's grounds enough for me to assume eden academy's year 7 is generally populated by children between 11 and 12 years old. luckily for me, that seems to be the general age for germany's secondary school year 7 too, so even if it's not the british one, it's still close enough!

with all that being said, if donovan is, say, 12 in that moment and henry is 22, that means there is a 10 year difference between the two of them, which, drum roll please, means donovan desmond is 56 years old when our story's events take place! assuming the war of loid's and yor's childhoods took place exactly 20 years ago (when yor was 7 and henry was 46), this would make him around 36 years old when he became ostania's prime minister! it would also mean he had damian at 50 years old, and if demetrius is 12 right now, that would mean he was born when donovan was 44 years old (and his birth would’ve been in the last years of the war).

so, rough events timeline based on all that, focusing on ages!

66 years ago: Henry Henderson is born.

63 years ago: Martha Marriott is born.

~56 years ago: Donovan Desmond is born.

49 years ago: Martha (14) transfers to Eden and meets Henry (17)

47 years ago: Henry (19) graduates Eden.

44 years ago: Henry (22) joins Eden as a teacher, in the same year becomes Donovan Desmond’s (~12) history teacher. Martha (19) graduates Eden and joins the Women’s Defense Auxiliary.

~44 years ago: Martha (~19) is presumed dead. Henry (~22) faces jail time. The war ends, and he marries.

27 years ago: Yor is born. At that time, Henry is 39, Martha is 36, and Donovan is 29.

~27 years ago. [REDACTED] is also born. Same as above, just approximate this time!

~20 years ago: Second war begins. Yor and [REDACTED] are ~7, Henry is ~46, Martha is ~43, Donovan is ~36. Yuri is born.

~12 years ago: Demetrius is born. Donovan is ~44, Yor and [REDACTED] are ~15, Henry is ~54, Martha is ~51, Yuri is ~8.

~10 years ago: Second war ends. Demetrius is ~2, Donovan is ~46, Yor and [REDACTED] are ~17, Henry is ~56, Martha is ~53, Yuri is ~10.

6 years ago: Damian is born (and most other kids in his and Anya’s grade). Demetrius is ~6, Donovan is ~50, Henry is 60, Martha is 57, Yor is 21, Twilight is ~21, Yuri is 14.

5-4 years ago: Anya is born. Damian (etc.) are 1-2, Demetrius is 7-8, Donovan is ~51-52, Henry is 61-62, Martha is 58-59, Yor is 22-23, Twilight is ~22-23, Yuri is 15-16.

1 year ago: Yuri (19) becomes part of the SSS. Anya is 3-4, Damian (etc.) is 5, Demetrius is 10-11, Donovan is ~55, Henry is 65, Martha is 62, Yor is 26, Twilight is ~26.

I HOPE THAT HELPS PUT THINGS INTO PERSPECTIVE?? melinda is not included bc we have nothing to go off of for her age outside of purely subjective things like her appearance.

super glad endo included the year 7 thing JAKLSDFKLSD

anyway thank you for reading!!! :DD

[peanutjinan]

Seeing how unnerving Donovan already was as a middle schooler, I now REALLY wonder how Damian could turn out as a pretty much normal kid.

[tare-anime]

The way Martha always reprimand Becky for homewrecking, now hits different after chp. 99🫠🫠

[h0estar]

i like how this chapter took us back to the literal premise or conflict of the whole story. donovan thinks everyone is a fraud and the way he held on to this belief since he was young may make it harder for our protagonists—who are all liars btw—to get through him.

he does have a point with the way things are "peaceful" right now. both sides say they want peace, but then you've got spies and assassins crawling around in the shadows because no one trusts each other.

everyone is a liar. though our protagonists' intentions are for good ("world peace" according to them), their attempt to hide their identities with LIES still personify donovan's belief of what makes war a continuous loop. it's a paradox in a way: both sides fight for "peace," yet their actions are rooted in suspicion, continuing the very conflict they want to avoid. it's a cycle.

i see it as a potential twiyor identity reveal conflict. if their cover gets blown, twilight and yor might never trust each other again. lies, even for peace, can be a pretty big deal, especially when they're from enemy countries. they both fight for peace, but without believing the other's true intentions, suspicion might just tear them apart.

here's hoping endo surprises us and decides to break donovan's ideals by having the two secret heroes of enemy countries trust and love each other. the angst potential... i'm weak.

[friesucker]

My heart was aching so much through the whole chapter.

[wildgirl86]

Chapter 99 was heartbreaking… beautiful yes, but heartbreaking 🥲

X account : @w_wildgirl_nest

[cocktailjjrs]

How does a Action-Comedy Manga has such a pure, heartfelt and at the same time tragic and heartbreaking love stories.... It's something so wholesome...

Spy x Family is soooo...

Because at some point or the other, we understand what's going on with Martha or Henry -

Even in today's age we struggle to express our feelings freely, we chicken out at the last moment and then keep thinking back to what-ifs. Let alone doing so in a war-ridden world.

We can relate to Martha...

And there's this situation....

It's always difficult to keep in touch with someone who is even a city away... Distance is the biggest enemy of any relationship - platonic or romantic.

War changes a person, i think we've seen it so many times in the history...

It broke my heart when i read this😭

On a side note, if being pessimist was a person, it would be him -

Because while i understand where this narration is coming from... This simply can't be the only outlook of everyone in the world... If it was, this world might have burned to the ground ages ago.

But it also seems that kids seen some shit to turn out to be the man he is today... And honestly i can't wait for his back story too... because the question comes, is it a generational trauma that got him? Is it the war-ridden society? How did the situation get more fucked up, leading upto experimenting on humans?

All that shit... it just went down the hill from this...

Any ways, i was downright crying by the end of the chapter. Knowing Henry tried to move on, thinking Martha was never coming back... Only for Martha to be out there near the east-west border...

That's angst right there...

It's said -

That those who die, just pass away. It's those who survive, suffer...

And isn't that true...

How did we end up here again?

[yors-fangirl]

IM CRYING NOOOOO

[queenofapeacefuldawn]

BITCH

[cresneta]

「99」

You know how we just found out that Henderson got married?

What if it turns out that Yuri's boss is a child from that marriage? Just imagine Martha meeting Henry again only to discover that not only did he get married, but he also has a child as well. Talk about twisting the knife!

A marriage doesn't need love in order to produce children, and I imagine being raised by parents who don't love each other could mess one up enough to join the SSS.

Since Henry is 66, I don't believe this theory necessarily contradicts the fan theory that Yuri's boss is Loid's dad, but I'll admit I'm not convinced that Endo is going to connected his characters to this degree. Then again, Henry is shown to be blond in his youth, so I suppose that's another point in the favor of this theory. Then again, my math might be a little off

[binks-brew-co]

hmmm I wonder why Martha discourages "adultery" so strongly...

or... you know... definitely not something she might be tempted with in the next few chapters...

[such-a-downer]

HOLY FREAKIN BOMB

[tare-anime]

SxF Mission 99

(Beware spoilers)

I-.....

I don't know what to say.

This chapter really broke my heart to pieces 💔💔💔😭😭😭😭

Martherson really is Endo's way of incorporating the TwiYor angst trope.

Oh. My. Gawd!!!!

Let me count:

1. The intended confession that never had a chance to happen

2. The ask through letter that never come, causing misunderstanding because third party interference

3. When one's soul was broken, the other wish to help but can't be there for the other

Also that panel of broken Martha. I can't help but imagine the same case happened with Yor during her first time kills. 😭😭😭

4. The yearning to see each other

5. Wishing to whatever deity that could heard them, and yet, death separate them apart.

This "come back come back come back" panel is so strong, followed by desperation full with regrets that crush any remaining hope right after......

Oh. My. Gawd!!!!!

😭😭😭😭

Endo really compiled the TwiYor angst prompt, and "with mercy" gave us the Matherson version.

Still, if he can do this to the "side characters", what will he do to the Forgers???? 😭😭😭

Nevertheless, this chapter really broke me.

What will happen at chp 100???

I have no idea.....

[h0estar]

he desired to hear from her. he desired to hear her. he desired. his desire turned to yearning. and he yearned to hear from her. he yearned for her. he yearned her. he yearned. yearned as in by definition "to long persistently, wistfully, or sadly."

persistent fucking longing...

he longed to hear her. he longed to see her. he longed for her. he wished he could see her too. he wished he could see her. he wished to see her. he wished to. he wished. he