I admire Ann for being a lady that stood up against the idea of how a Victorian woman should but that ‘s it .I pretty much disliked the woman . I mean it’s one thing when you have a child like Lizzy favoring a twin over the other but for a grown up to play favorite between her nephews and our poor baby was aware of it .It’s just awful, I’m hoping that Frances will do better .

Hello Anon. And honestly? S a m e! Except that I don’t dislike Red, I’m really just neutral.

I do agree that she was an amazing example as a Lady in appearance: being able to stand up for her dream of becoming a doctor, for not being stereotypical as a Victorian woman (just like the whole female cast of Kuroshitsuji though), etc. Otherwise though, she was pretty pitiful because full of issues she never managed to solve, way before the twins were even born. ://

I know Ann really tried to be better and happier and it’s a series of unfortunate events in such a short period of time that eventually made her crazy, but still:

her everlasting ~~crush~~ obsession with Vincent?

Misunderstanding what her sister (who she claimed she loved and I don’t doubt that) was about and why Vincent chose her, which ultimately led to a lot jealousy?

Playing favorite between her nephews, most likely because real!Ciel acted more similar to Vincent than our!Ciel did back then?

Giving Lizzie a controversial advice?

[EDIT: I believe it’s the effect of Ann’s “advice” mixed with real!Ciel’s comment about being scared of strong women that gave Lizzie her self-confidence issues. However Ann, just like real!Ciel, obviously didn’t mean for their words to have such an impact.

So I don’t blame either of them but I think it was foolish of Ann to believe in such concepts when it didn’t apply to her, Lizzie, Frances or Rachel. This scene is Ann trying to justify why Vincent chose Rachel over her (more demure, perfect, lady-like Rachel or so she thinks), but she’s completely getting the wrong idea.

Vincent didn’t love Rachel because she was delicate and lovely: he was raised by a woman who was the Queen’s Watchdog before him and his sister is one of the strongest aristocrats in the country. The man himself told Ann that being different was a good thing. It’s Ann who misunderstood with such concepts in mind, eventually becoming jealous of Rachel.]

And finally, trying to kill her nephew and making him feel guilty about all that happened with her when he already had a lot to deal with?

Yeah, I can’t forgive her for all that stuff, even if she had terrible circumstances. The horrible circumstances is why I pity rather than dislike her (and also because our!Ciel still loves her, in spite of everything), but unfortunately, as an adult she had no right to take it out on her already traumatized nephew.

In that, I have 0 doubt that Frances already did better plenty of times (and will hopefully keep that up in the future, even if we can’t be 100% sure).

In fact, as I pointed out before, personally I think the timing of her introduction (right after Ann’s funerals and on Ciel’s birthday, taking him out hunting so that he’ll have fun) is no coincidence, in order to show how different the two women might turn out to be, where our!Ciel is concerned.

And while Ann mostly used to get involved with Ciel’s work as the Watchdog, Frances rather does simple little things to show her support:

like the hunting game for his birthday,
agreeing that he should come in vacations with them and take time off work during the Campania arc,
probably allowing Lizzie to visit him whenever so that he won’t be alone,
not saying anything about the Blue Miracle even if she knew it was all fake from the start,
maybe keeping the secret of him lying about his identity if she indeed knew, etc.

She would probably do more, but my theory is that she understands that he went through something horrible 4 years ago + that, mostly, she’s probably wary of Seb. And there is Tanaka keeping an eye on him anyway, possibly out of devotion for Claudia’s family (as he implied recently), so it works out.

And hey, speaking of which, Frances’ mom was very probably murdered when she was like 12 years old…

…we don’t know what happened to Cedric K. Ros– (her father) but I doubt it was more joyful, her older brother was murdered too and only one of her nephews came back after being abducted, but we never saw her taking it out on our!Ciel and making him more miserable.

So Red truly had 0 excuse. Maybe if she hadn’t been so very alone (or misled by Grell, because let’s be honest, that also played a part), she wouldn’t have fallen so low, but the JTR arc still happened and now she will never have a way to make amends for it. ://

These are the two main differences between her and Lizzie: kids are selfish and don’t know better, so yes, ten year old Lizzie half-unknowingly having a preference for real!Ciel is not to be put on the same level as an actual adult making a difference between her two nephews (with her favorite coincidentally being the one who acted more like the man she was obsessed with).

And secondly, Lizzie never tried to murder our!Ciel and that kinda accounts for a lot. Besides, Lizzie feels horrible about realizing that her younger self was very selfish and that’s actually huge character development when she’s only 15.

TL;DR I think Ann was a very interesting character but the story presented her as a despicable person who will never be able to make amends for what she did (and I doubt that there will ever be more than that to her, unfortunately).

That’s just a fact: it doesn’t mean we readers or our!Ciel should hate her, but when it comes to him having at least one outstanding adult figure in his life, well, that never was her. ://

However, I agree with you that this person could be Frances. If anything, in ch14 even Seb seemed to think that this idea could work out, but I guess we’ll have to see if that is what Sensei planned for her character.

Sorry for rambling, I kinda love the subject! ^^” Thanks for sharing your thoughts Anon, I hope you’ll have a nice week ahead!

For a long time I really thought that Worick had betrayed Alex and Nicolas because he didn’t want to die in the chaos that Gina said would hit the town (since he’s a normal guy) but you’re probably right when you say it goes deeper than that. I hope so because I loved his character and I don’t want to start hating him.

Hey Anon 🙂 Ah, well, I think Worick is one of the most complex characters of Gangsta. to be very honest with you, so doubting him, especially after what he did, is natural (and probably what Sensei was going for).

However, there was only one real betrayal so far and it was Daniel Monroe’s. Uranos Corsica doesn’t count, at least not for me: we always could guess he was shady since it was said from the beginning that he hated the Twilights.

But personally I could never doubt Worick (~~he’s my son and I will fight against everyone if I have to, just like Georgina said men and women used to fight over him~~), at least I didn’t till now because we’re talking about this man:

Like, I know we know nothing about Alex yet: we don’t know why she remembers Nicolas from obviously before ch1, why Worick wanted to save her in the first place (there is probably a reason) but still, he extended a hand towards her, he gave her shelter and even a way out, so no way is he a total asshole who betrayed her and Nico.

Besides, Nico obviously still believes in his partner

so even less reason to think Worick did what he did to follow in Monroe’s footsteps.

…Not to ramble, but to make a final point about why I don’t think Worick could ever become a full villain in the story: I remember checking the tags a while ago and I saw a post that said that Uranos Corsica’s and Daniel Monroe’s backstabbing was Sensei’s way to denounce white supremacy.

As it is, I don’t entirely agree (gotta be careful with that kind of concept), because Loretta and Gina are white too, but I think the point the person was trying to make was overall valid: Sensei does add all kinds of representation as much as she can and that’s amazing.

So yeah, two powerful white guys stabbed everyone in the back for their own interests, destroying the fragile balance of Ergastulum and it’s indeed up to the lesbian leader of a mercenary guild

and a young girl trying to uphold her father’s legacy

to try and stabilize things as much as they can.

And to help them? The Benriya, composed of a disabled swordsman of mixed Asian-White origin, a black woman suffering from PTSD because of her days as a drugged prostitute and, since I don’t believe Worick betrayed them, a gigolo aka a man who prostitutes himself (and who has tons of issues to solve).

You see, Worick fits the same pattern as Loretta, Gina, Nico and Alex

(I didn’t mention slightly more minor characters like Delico, Chad, Nina and Theo, but you get the point): yes he’s white, but he’s not of the same brand as Uranos Corsica and Daniel Monroe, so he too will be used as a pawn to play against them and the rest of the government.

That’s a little simplifying things, since I’m not even sure I really trust Gina, but you get the idea.

And honestly if Worick’s going to reach for the government through using the Corsica family, then he’d better act the hell out of everything and make even us readers doubt, eh? 🙂

Eventually though, I’m pretty sure that, just like how Worick decided to try and “get in the way” for the sake of others, he’ll need to be saved too, hopefully by Nico and Alex who will believe in him till the end.

My son is a good man (or well, maybe not good, but not exactly an asshole to the people he cares about), so please don’t hate him. :))

Thanks for passing by Anon and have a nice weekend!

do you know any blog that writes meta for d gray man?

Hey Anon! Um, I think @into–the–abyss did enjoy the series if my memory doesn’t fail me, but unfortunately they haven’t been around for a while.

Otherwise you might as well try with the treasure trove for meta for a lot of different series aka @linkspooky: spooky-chan has a list on her blog about series she’s reading or that she read in the past so check it out and her tags too!

Slight hunch but 0 certainty with the great @aspoonofsugar because we talked about reading a lot of series and I wonder if we mentioned this one. xD

Otherwise, I suggest you use the tumblr search bar with “d gray man meta” and you might find some results. 🙂 Or post something in the d gray man tags and see if people rec some blogs!

Sorry that I can’t help more, I hope you find what you’re looking for. Have a nice weekend!

I wanted to ask you about personal favourite characters in Black Butler and if there is a character you hate. Thanks for the answer!

Hey Anon 🙂 Nah, as some sort of personal rule, I don’t hate stuff in relation with fiction. I just don’t see the point.

Of course, there are characters I like less than others and some I don’t like at all, but in general they’re the truly unreedemable kind, like Kelvin or anyone involved with the twins’ trauma in ch135, as far as Kuroshitsuji is concerned.

I guess I’m pretty meh towards John Brown too, but that’s because I am suspecting him of being the big bad along with Queen Victoria and I love the Phantomhive family a lot so I can’t forgive either of them, if they’re the ones who cursed the family for the last two or three generations.

I also am not that fond of characters that are a little uni-dimensional, but I’d say that’s more in relation to the ‘trope effect’ of some parts of Sensei’s writing with some secondary characters: like Phipps (too perfect, pretty boring), Randall (too angry, at least voice it out man), the ex-P4/now S4 (except Violet, he’s got some depth) and maybe a few others I don’t have in mind right now.

As for characters I love, that’s pretty much everyone else, although I obviously play favorite with some of them: the Phantomhive family & associates are pretty much 80% of why I love this series so much, to be honest.

So our!Ciel, Lizzie, Tanaka, Frances, Edward, Vincent, the Undertaker, Claudia, Alexis, Dee, Lau & Ran-Mao, Soma, Sieglinde, the servants, Agni, Seb, Rachel, I like all of them. 😀

The twin is kinda a question mark tho’ because I haven’t seen enough of him yet to consider if I like to despise him as a villain or if I’m pretty meh about him too (even if I’m aware I may be influenced by the fact I never was fond of the 2CT). The possible twist of the RCMT is one I find very enjoyable though, so I’m pretty sure it’s going to end up being the former possibility.

I hope it answers your question Anon, have a nice weekend! :))

Hello, in TG Ishida Sensei seems to like showing his characters die, and if they aren’t explicitly shown dead they may still be alive (ex.when Eto wasn’t confirmed to have died at Cochlea many assumed she would reappear). That being said, after :re chapter 50 when Furuta attacks Matsumae with a chainsaw it never actually shows her being killed (only Furuta is shown).Also, in chapter 53 when Furuta rips off her kagune her corpse isn’t shown. So, do you think it’s possible she survived?

Hi Anon!

Well, no, to be honest with you, I don’t think Matsumae survived that chainsaw and neither did Hairu, Karren or even Eto (who else is there?) when it comes to their own death circumstances.

Since you mentioned Eto, I have yet to reread TG but, about the last arc and last chapters of :Re, in my opinion Eto was actually dead all along. She died in Cochlea like she said she might…

it’s just that the Clowns collected her body and Donato made a dead puppet out of her to “stall for time” during the last arc.

It’s hard to explain how this works exactly, since the Clowns and their powers remained mysterious till the end, but whatever they used to make a puppet out of her, killing V was the only conscious thing she was able to do before she “died again”.

That’s just my opinion though. The other possibility is that she did survive Cochlea thanks to the Clowns (probably Nico who healed her) and they kept her as a prisoner until she could be useful, during the last arc, while controlled by Donato. The attacks she faced ended up killing her for good, even though she managed to take it out on V’s members a little.

Whichever option you prefer should be in theory correct as far as Eto goes.

However, Matsumae didn’t get so lucky (?). And besides, if she had survived, shouldn’t she have been by Shuu or Mirumo’s sides?

So, I’m sorry Anon but not likely for Matsumae. ://

As always, just my opinion though, you don’t have to agree. Have a nice weekend Anon! 🙂

You’re French if I’m not mistaken, and I believe that you can speak French so I’d love it if you could give me some book recommendations (French authors), I’m trying to improve my French skills. Thanks in advance<3<3<3

Hello Anon! You’re not mistaken and I do indeed speak French daily, haha. 🙂

Good luck with improving ❤ and don’t hesitate if I can help with some stuff (I’m no teacher but maybe I can explain simple things). 🙂

And sure I don’t mind recommending you some things I like, even if I don’t know of your level, so my list may not be what you’re looking for. Under the cut!

Ultimate recommendation would be author Pierre Bottero, for whom I reblogged a post before and who’s one of my favorite fantasy/fantastic authors ever.

He built an incredible multiverse through several trilogies so there are plenty of books to read. I may be wrong but I don’t think they were translated in English, although I found a page for him in English on Wikipedia.

He’s got a very poetic and lyrical style, but it’s far from the inapprehensible metaphors some authors constantly use, so maybe it will suit you?

He died in car accident without being able to conclude his multiverse with a final trilogy, but it is absolutely still worth reading. Big kudos to him and his work. Truly.

There is also Serge Brussolo, another fantasy writer (I read mostly fantasy/fantastic/SF as far as books go) and, even if I didn’t read all of them, I do recommend his Peggy Sue series.

I think I read till book 9 and then there was maybe a delay in release or something and I never caught up again. They’re cool books though, a little out there maybe, but if you’re looking to improve your French, it should help.

Bernard Werber is a name I’d recommend too. I only read the Ants trilogy from him (loooong ago), but it’s kinda a classic, so something to check for you, I guess?

Pierre Pevel and Jean-Philippe Jaworski are names that also come to mind, but their books are fiction more directed towards adults, so maybe the writing style will be harder for you (again I don’t know of your level in French and it’s hard for me to have any way to gauge)?

I’m probably forgetting some names, but that’s a way to start.

When it comes to non fiction titles:

there is “A life” by Simone Veil that is a very moving book (she was a survivor of concentration camps during WWII and changed a lot of things for women’s rights in France), but I have no idea if this is something that is easy to read.

((I personally really enjoy Emile Zola’s work too, but that really might prove to be too difficult to read. I would still recommend it though, in case the books were translated in English or something. xD))

As for stuff that aren’t exactly books:

I can recommend a French manga, the only French manga I ever read (not that I believe there is a lot): it’s called Pink Diary and it is written by Jenny.

It takes place in Japan and it speaks mainly of school bullying, parent-child issues, self-confidence problems, but also stuff like anorexia and, of course, romance. I think there are less than 10 volumes, if I remember correctly.

And a Franco-Belgian comic series, I mentioned briefly once before called “Le Scorpion”, which is a personal fave of mine. Aside from maybe creative insults from time to time, I think it is pretty easy to read. 🙂

Manga and comics are generally easier to read than books, so if anything you can maybe start with them. 🙂

There you go, that’s out of the top of my head! I hope something will be useful to you in that list. :)) Have a nice weekend Anon! ^3^

About Gangsta I’m still emotionally damaged about Connie and Marco .I mean ,I know this is isn’t some fluffy shoujo but still the whole thing really hit home .Part of me was glad they at least died together and no one was left behind .

Hey Anon! And yeah, I feel you. Personally I really realized that there would be no hope for a large part of the cast when both of them died.

I mean, Doug was one thing: he was a minor villain for a few chapters but then he turned out to be a sweet kid and his death was used to introduce the return of the Destroyer. So I wasn’t particularly sad, although I felt bad for Galahad.

Connie and Marco though… Well, Connie was one of Alex’s rare friends and, I won’t lie, after the way her parents died, until the last moment I thought maybe Sensei would allow her to survive if just for her grandmother’s sake, who lost so many loved ones.

As for Marco, he was one of Loretta’s right-hand men, a strong support and a protector, and his death weakens both her position but also her as a person: she’s young but she’s already carrying a lot on her shoulder and now she lost one of the two most important men in her life. ://

I think the reason Connie and Marco dying hit so hard is also because of what they represent, as a couple: they fell in love despite that horrible past between them. And it was one of the few examples that, yes, Ergastulum is a horrible place but, at the same time, there can still be hope if you know where to look.

And Sensei killed that. Literally.

That’s kind of why I ended up realizing that I shouldn’t hope so much for pretty much anyone in the cast and a few chapters later, as you know, we had that reveal about Nina probably “having an expiration date” as Theo’s research. T_T

The only consolation I find in all that happened is, exactly like you, that…

at least they died together yeah, and also Connie managed to pull a fast one on Beretta and Striker.

Speaking of which, it really feels unfair that Striker and Beretta are still alive after all that they did to them, even if I strongly suspect that the whole point was so that Sensei could show us that even them are treated like the worst shit ever by the Corsica family (who still used them for their plans):

And I’ll bet you that the point is to reinforce that the Twilights and related experiments like Erika, Striker, Beretta, etc really have the worst fate.

Ultimately it ties with what Worick is trying to do, so it fits with why Connie and Marco (who found solace in each other) had to die while Striker (who always was treated like shit) survived, even if it still hurts a lot because everyone loved Marco and Connie.

Gangsta. is really a harsh series, but at the same time it forces the reader to enjoy all the simple and nice moments we sometimes are given, because we know it’s not going to last and the situation can always go

downhill

even more.

Like, I remember when Nico took Nina to see Alex sing that one time, to cheer her up because bad stuff had happened: when I read this part the first time, I was like “if only Worick could be here too” but now I’m just glad it happened at all, considering the even bigger shitstorm that hit right after. T_T

Anyway, Anon, I think that even if they died, Marco and Connie are still going to be a part of the story, which is comforting me a little too. The memory of them will haunt the ones who loved them and they won’t be forgotten. And there still is the mystery of that key…

so they’re bound to be relevant again!

Thanks for passing by Anon, I wish you a great weekend! :33

Yuri, artificially inseminated?

rottenprincessshura100:

midnight-in-town:

Answer next month probably, because the timeline finally fits, and…

It’d fit with the whole point of Section 13 being about experimenting in order to give powerful demons a durable vessel.

They tried baby clones in tubes (iirc?),

so next maybe…

they could try experimental surrogacy, starting with Yuri?

Personal opinion, but I just can’t see Yuri doing the do with Satan next month, since she’s clearly still in love with Shiro ~~(Sensei said after the chapter was released that there was no hope for them, I’m sad ;_;)~~ and having sex with him probably isn’t supposed to be a part of her whole “maybe helping Rinka” idea.

However carrying what could be a new vessel “for Rinka’s sake” might be something she could agree with? At least initially?
Obviously the concept is horrible because, if this is what happens, then she’s probably going to be injected/experimented on with stuff like elixirs/Satan’s powers daily, so that the vessels (the twins) will develop to be powerful enough to withstand Satan.

And things are probably going to take a turn for the worst at some point, because…

…otherwise, if the twins are originally a project of Section 13 (which has the support of the Order’s top brass), why would the Order ask Shiro to get ready to kill the babies?

Maybe Yuri ended up realizing she didn’t want her babies to become Satan’s vessels? Or the twins turned out to be way more powerful than expected?
Or she didn’t know what the plan was initially and when she found out, she turned out to be against it? Could be why Satan possibly burned her to death…

I don’t know but there has to be a twist to the twins’ existence somehow, because the flashback is really building up to this and also because we know that learning about the truth in alternative universes didn’t help with Yukio’s issues at all.

I just can’t see something physical between Satan and Yuri, even less the violent alternative of it not being consensual if it somehow happens so, eh, let’s go with the science option for now.

I think Yuri still doesn’t realize how bad section 13 is. She eventually finds out and Shiro and Mephy help her escape somehow?

@rottenprincessshura100 Forgot to mention earlier, but honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Mephisto really didn’t have to force Shiro into raising Yuri’s sons (so Shiro going against the Order for Yuri’s sake => yas). 🙂

There is that deal between them, that if Shiro ever caves in front of a demon, he’ll have to do something for Mephy. However, seeing how bad the situation will probably suck for Yuri considering how kind-hearted + how she indeed doesn’t seem to realize that Section 13 is the worst, I could see Shiro deciding to raise the twins out of love for Yuri but also out of a giant “fuck u” towards the remnants of Section 13.

About Mephy though, he knows everything at anytime, literally speaking, so I’m guessing Mephy not interfering with Yuri’s predicament might be the same as having his authorization and him “helping”. xD

I know several readers in the fandom have this theory that maybe Mephy is the big bad as far as the twins are concerned (and not Satan or the Illuminati), because he’s the chessmaster…

and he controls every development in the story, because he’s always a step ahead and… Honestly it’s a very cool idea.

Hard to pull off, I hope Sensei knows what she’s doing if she’s heading there, but hella impressive if she can manage it, because Mephy is on Assiah’s side, no doubt about that, so for him to be Assiah’s big chance but also the big bad towards the twins’ situation, that’d be amazing writing.

Anyway, I’m rambling, but all that to say that…

Satan, Yuri and Shiro are all a reason the twins exist, but Mephy (omniscient as he is, as Samael), is the one who allowed all of it to take place.
So whatever is going to happen to Yuri, Mephy already knew probably way before she was born and is probably going to let stuff unfolds the way he wants it to, for his own plans. Or he plans according to the developments he already knows about (same deal).

He’s a great character: I love to despise him. And I have mad respect for Shura since she’s the only one who constantly calls him out on his bullshit (Arthur too, but it’s less emphasized on). :))

banana-that-dislikes-carrot:

midnight-in-town:

I love how people are joking that our!Ciel is The One Who Shall Not Be Named, when in reality

Claudia

is.

Because okay sure we know her name, unlike our!Ciel’s, but damn if we ever find out about anything else when it comes to her in the plot.

She’s looming behind the truth of a big part of the main plot, or at least that’s the impression Sensei is giving me (oh yeah I’ll bet you anything that she’s very significant), but no real mention yet about anything besides her name.

~~sensei when~~

our!Ciel we know everything about and we have followed but don’t know his name.

Claudia, we know her name but almost nothing else.

There are so many other characters that I want to know more about, like Francis, Undertaker, the Shinigami’s, Meyrin and Baldo. I want to know what makes them who they are!!!

True that, @banana-that-dislikes-carrot! Well, if that reassures you (in case you didn’t know), we’re bound to find out more about Mey and Bard at some point because Sensei said she’d reveal how they came to work for Ciel.

Since Mey is Chinese, I’m guessing her arc will also be related to whatever Lau & Ran Mao’s arc we’ll be getting? Just guessing though.

As for the recurring Shinigamis, like Grell and the others, there is no guarantee but I’m guessing that when we learn about how the organization works exactly (and what’s up with those superiors), we might find out about some elements of their past.

Finally, for Frances, UT, Tanaka, Claudia and even Vincent I’m guessing this will be more or less addressed through the same discussions/answer moments and since this is main plot material, it can’t be helped that Sensei is taking her time.

I mean, we have Othello who made a comment that might be implying he met Claudia when she was a little girl 50 years ago + Othello knew UT as a Shinigami, so I think he’ll be doing the honors at some point during this arc, maybe giving Ciel a few answers, which will hopefully lead him to ask for more to anyone who might be aware of what UT did after his desertion.

These people, besides UT himself (in case he may not feel like talking, as we saw in ch141), are most likely Tanaka and Frances, that is at least what seems to be making the most sense (considering they also both knew Claudia) and anyway they are fishy too, at least as far as the current narrative goes.

=> Tanaka because he joined the Phantomhive family when Claudia was the Watchdog so he is bound to know quite a lot about her death and some circumstances behind Vincent’s death too…

And Frances because it was hinted she might become “an examplar to Ciel” very early on in the story (interesting when he still knows almost nothing about his family and it’s most likely the opposite for her), and yet now she’s nowhere to be seen even though we saw everyone else from the family.

So it’s not like Sensei can avoid to eventually answer all of this. TBH though, I just wish the pacing wasn’t so… slow.

I mean, I get building the plot and wanting to focus each volume around certain developments but :// well, this is killing me. 3 years on this arc and we still don’t know how the blood transfusions came to be, how real!Ciel is so perfectly undead and if UT is truly alone behind the sect. Amongst other things.

The hopes I have is that once we get past the chess game between the twins, we will find out about the Phantomhive family, Claudia and UT, but until we’re there, 20 pages/a month is haaaard because it’s making the wait so much longer.

I can’t blame Yana though: since Claudia was made to be so mysterious ever since volume 8, giving answers about her is very probably giving out big big hints towards the main plot and the target of Ciel’s revenge (to us and to Ciel himself), so she gotta build it up as much as she finds it necessary.

For me this arc is targeting Ciel’s long overdue character development, but it’d be cool if we could learn more about the P family (which basically means about Claudia since personally I think she’s the start of everything) within the next 5 years too.

It just struck me but someone amongst Kiro, Ogata, Asirpa and Shiraishi is most likely really going to die.

goldenkamuyhunting:

midnight-in-town:

Because Noda Sensei wrote about the use of fortune-telling/divination plenty of time in the story so far and, so as not to judge the customs of Ainu people or other minor ethnicities from Karafuto who strongly believe(d) in this, he made it generally accurate when it came to following plot twists.

Overall Inkarmat was more right than wrong (Kiroranke, Karafuto, Wilk didn’t kill those Ainu men even if he was Nopperabou),

her own prediction she got from Mifune Chizuko also turned out to be correct (Kiroranke, the man she was after, stabbed her),

Asirpa was indeed betrayed by one of the three men who used to follow her (by two, to be accurate, but you get the point)

Since most of what Inkarmat predicted is half divination/half investigation though, that’s why Sensei ended up introducing the additional idea that “fate can be changed”, meaning divination doesn’t have to be the only truth.
However, where Sensei could have let Inkarmat be the fake she initially seemed to be (especially when Asirpa didn’t believe in this kind of things), she ended up being given a lot of credits.

And that means that this reindeer’s shoulder blade from ch166…

is supposedly a good indicator that someone within the group who (unknowingly) received this prediction will die.

The most expected/logical candidate initially is Shiraishi because it’s his decision to keep on following Asirpa that changed the prediction from “someone is following you” to “someone is going to die” but as it is, well that’s kinda too easy to think like that. xD

Sensei could go for a double bluff (making us think it can’t be Shiraishi because #too easy, only to kill him anyway) but… meh. Besides, Shiraishi hasn’t really done anything wrong, okay he’s the Escape King, but he never killed anyone which is quite the difference with most of the cast, so killing him would be unfair.

When it comes to Asirpa, she ain’t dying ~~or I riot~~. Nah but for real, she’s got one hell of a plot armor, being (in theory) the only one who can work out the code her father hid amongst the 24 tattoos, which is why everyone wants her.

Besides if she dies, Sugimoto will most likely annihilate the whole world and this wouldn’t help his character development or the story, so double nah.
Final point, but eventually she also has to go back to her village, to see her grandmother again, so that Tanigaki can be free from that self-imposed duty (and so that he can go back home too) => so, not Asirpa.

Which leaves Kiro and Ogata, the two traitors. :))

And Kiro is the most likely candidate to die between the two, at least for me.

Firstly, so far, Ogata was the one who was hinted to have a possible chance at redemption

between the two, mainly through the concept of “guilt” he pretended never to feel but that he must feel regardless, if just towards the memory of his brother.

Besides, he does get along well with Asirpa and, while I agree that nothing guarantees Asirpa will forgive him for what he did (assuming she doesn’t already know), he might still really change, thanks to her/for her sake.

We may not know why he wants the gold, but he left nothing behind when he went to Karafuto, so he could definitely change his mind about the gold and using Asirpa, which is a huge difference with Kiroranke.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Kiro sees Asirpa as only a mean to an end (he’s not Tsurumi), but he’s still ruthless. For example, Wilk was his old friend, they even assassinated the Russian Emperor together, but he still ordered his death.

Besides, I personally think it’s likely that Kiro is actually the one who assassinated those Ainu men which is something Wilk took the fall for…

just like he’s the one who stabbed Inkarmat. Hopefully Inkarmat will survive this, but Asirpa still believes her dad murdered some of her fellow Ainu people and she’s bound to find out it wasn’t the case once she sees Sugimoto again.

For Kiro to hide a truth like that is not an element vouching in his favor or his survival. In the first place, going back to Karafuto is a real step back for Kiro, because it’s like going back to the past and as we know now…

…that past holds a lot of complicated elements that we have to take in consideration for the future developments.

Going back to Karafuto ties directly into Kiro’s motivations obviously, because fighting for the independence of minor ethnicities is all that he’s always been after and, as Sugimoto said to Wilk, sure it’s a just and noble cause, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of everything else.

For example, just like Sugimoto was angry at Wilk for apparently trying to make Asirpa this Ainu “Joan of Arc” (because it’s selfish as @sentrakk explained here), Kiro shouldn’t have gone to Karafuto without a single look back at the family he left behind (how many months has it been since he saw his sons?).

Again, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Kiro doesn’t care about his family.
On the contrary, having Ainu sons is giving him even more reasons to fight for the independence of Ainu people and other minor ethnicities, which is most likely why he’s even more ruthless now than he used to be and so why he even had Wilk killed.

But here’s the thing…

Kiro and Wilk were old friends, who fought and killed together, so for Kiro to have Wilk killed (just like maybe for him to frame Wilk for the murders), it must indeed have been because Wilk really changed when Kiro didn’t/couldn’t.

As for how/why Wilk changed…

…it’s thanks to Asirpa herself (just like it was the case for Sugimoto, Tanigaki, even Shiraishi and for Ogata next): Wilk’s plan and motivations regarding his daughter were definitely questionable, but at least it seems that he truly loved her and the Ainu people, to the point he wasn’t ready to keep going with the initial plan about the gold and that’s the major difference with Kiro.

He and Wilk used to have common goals, they used to be the same, but where becoming a father apparently changed Wilk, having sons didn’t make Kiro change his way of life/way of thinking: he just can’t leave the cause he’s been fighting for his whole life behind just to be with them.

And beyond the notion of this being “good or bad” (since the cause is indeed seen as just and noble), since Kiro couldn’t forgive/understand Wilk changing and had him (framed? and) killed for this reason, this difference between them is most likely what’s going to kill Kiro too at some point during this arc.

Personally right now I have no idea as to who might kill him or lead him to his death, hopefully not Sugimoto (who’s set up to confront Ogata) or Tanigaki (even if Kiro stabbed Inkarmat, because he should know revenge isn’t for him).

Maybe it’s going to be the Russians? Or maybe it will have to do with Shiraishi

one way or another, since it’s Shiraishi’s change of mind that led to this change of prediction in ch166.

TL;DR just my opinion, but I’ll be very surprised if Kiroranke were to make it back to Hokkaido somehow (unless he has a change of heart about everything, since “fate can be changed”, but it sure doesn’t look like it right now).

I hope you won’t mind if I’ll hijack your post but I really wanted to talk about all this and you gave me the perfect chance!

Afficher davantage

@goldenkamuyhunting I don’t mind, your inputs are always very interesting. :))

In regards to predictions, I agree and even mentioned that they’re not just divination and not 100% accurate (most of what Inkarmat was vouching for came from her own investigation indeed).

However, while Sensei could have gone full “it isn’t real” through several examples in the story, maybe out of respect for such beliefs (especially considering Ainu people and other minorities strongly believe or believed in this) he still wrote the related events as fitting relatively well overall.

One example: okay Inkarmat didn’t die and I hope she survives, but she was still stabbed and her life was in danger. She also said she and Wilk wouldn’t meet again (because she thought she was going to die) and technically she saw him from afar but he died before they could be reunited and talk.

It’s a little play on words and events by Sensei, but overall it works for whoever (in and out of the narrative) believes in this.
If Asirpa doesn’t believe in it, then she doesn’t have to see it as a sign. However if Shiraishi (for example) is more receptive to it, his resulting actions could be influenced and so it is interesting to consider it. That’s all I meant to convey. 🙂

If anyone from the group dies anyway, it won’t be a consequence of the shoulder blade itself (especially since they don’t know about that “new” prediction), but rather of the events and people involved (“fate can be changed” indeed), which is why the rest of my post is built on theorizing that Kiro has a bigger death flag than everyone else. xD

Also just saying but, from the way the scene was written/drawn and since Sensei showed us readers only the shoulder blade’s prediction changing, I have a hard time thinking it isn’t meant to at least be taken in consideration for possible foreshadowing, whether you believe it might really happen or not.

Finally, personally I don’t think that this shoulder blade is saying anything besides “someone is going to die”, a change that was triggered (so to say) by Shiraishi’s sudden decision that watching after Asirpa was more important than saving his skin. I don’t buy the idea that there were two meanings in one but as with everything, it’s only my opinion and I can be wrong. :))

Thanks again for your addition!