There was recently a discussion about whether or not Snake translates precisely what the snakes say. While I think he would probably say just about what the snakes say, he could edit their words. That’s when a strange question came to me.
Do the snakes know that Sebastian isn’t human?
Animals are said to be more sensitive to the supernatural, and this often appears in stories. Plus, Webster was surprised when Sebastian didn’t react to his poison.
Snake himself seems to prefer to remain ignorant. He knew the circus troupe was up to something, but he never investigated. If he took the time to consider the matter, he probably is aware something is up with Ciel and Sebastian, but he doesn’t want to find out for certain.
However, I doubt the Snakes would be so quick to blind themselves to the truth. There’s a strong chance they know that Sebastian isn’t human. In fact, Webster clearly says that a HUMAN should not last against the poison (if we trust Snake’s translation) which is like the snake hinting that Sebastian has to be something else. If they know, they might have told Snake, but he has yet to say a word about it that we know of.
One question in Kuro is what is Snake precisely. There seems to be three major options. He’s either a human with a unique look and skills, a human/snake hybrid, or some other type of creature.
Could Snake Be Simply Human?:
Snake, like most people, does have the desire to feel accepted and have a group to belong to. On Campania, he was shown being very self-conscious of his skin.
Snake would like to fit in, and it’s upsetting to hm when he doesn’t. The women whispering and giggling did bother him, and he showed consideration to Ciel here. He didn’t want Ciel to be ostracized because of him. These are very human feelings. He’s also been shown wanting to belong to a group. When he was rescued by the circus troupe, he thought of them as family and was willing to avenge their death.
Again, the need to avenge loved ones is a rather human emotion. So all these things point to at least some humanity in Snake.
The skin condition could even be explained as something medical such as ichthyosis. This would create dry, scaly skin – and it’s only thought that Snake looks like a snake.
I honestly don’t think this is the case, however, because there’s a few too many things that would be left unexplained if Snake was simply human. For example, he can talk to snakes.
I’ve seen some disagreement on this. One theory is that Snake displays symptoms of someone with dissociative identity disorder, and uses the snakes to represent different parts of his personality or different identities. According to this theory, Emily is not the kind one or Wilde brash. These are all just parts of who snake. His normal demeanor is almost emotionless, so each of his emotions are given a separate personality that is represented by a snake. It’s not unusual that we might question this since even Peter did, and he had known Snake for some time.
Snake does know things that he shouldn’t be to without getting information from his snakes. The first example is the fact he had known that Ciel was in the first tier tents. He didn’t seem to have been able to see Ciel from where he was standing, but he did know enough to tell Joker and the others.
This isn’t the only incident of this. Remember Snake was able to find Ciel’s townhouse by following his scent, which is not something that a person could have done. More recently in the Green Witch Arc, Snake knew about the ‘werewolves’ in the basement because of what Oscar had told him. It didn’t appear Snake himself had gone down there, but Snake still knew.
Either Snake can really talk to his snakes (which is my guess) or has advanced senses that allow him to know more than simply what he can see. I think the latter is far less likely, but either way points to him being more than simply human.
Plus, the snake charming flute did affect him.
If He’s Not Human, Than What is He?
While it seems to be fair to assume he’s not human, there’s no real hint about what Snake might be precisely. The earliest memory he’s ever mentioned was being rescued from the cage by the circus troupe.
There’s no mention of anything earlier. He never talks about growing up or a family, or anything else. His past before being rescued is a complete mystery.
The idea of being a human/snake hybrid is interesting, although it’s a bit unusual. Finny had super strength from being experimented upon, so I don’t think it would be entirely impossible. Like Finny, he could have been some sort of an experiment to give a human the abilities of a snake. This would explain the still human desires to belong and fit in while having these abilities.
Of course, in a world of demon and Shinigami, it’s also entirely possible that Snake is some sort of supernatural creature that has these snake like abilities. There are creatures like that in myths and legends. This could be part of some big reveal that will happen later in the story. However, I still have one question.
What does Snake think he is?
He obviously wants to fit in with people. He doesn’t like standing out in a crowd, and the concept of ‘family’ is important to him. He’s willing to kill to protect or avenge those he cares about. This could point to the idea that he’s at least partly human, but there’s another possibility.
What if Snake is a supernatural creature but is completely unaware of it? He thinks he’s human and does his best to try and fit in with humanity simply because he doesn’t know anything else. Aside from the scales, tongue, and eyes, he looks human, and he’s probably always been told he’s a ‘freakish’ human. He could be something so much more, but he’s trying to be this lesser creature just to fit in.
Hey Anon, thanks for your input. 🙂 I actually knew about the skin condition but indeed that doesn’t explain why the snakes seem to listen and why he understands them, and besides I personally can’t call that schizophrenia. I mean when you look at this scene…
Not only was Oscar right but Snake understood perfectly what he meant, so schizophrenia is definitely not it for me, he truly understands the snakes and they understand him as well.
Maybe the skin condition is actually real though, but in any case there is no real way to explain his relationship with his snakes when they listen and he never was wrong translating what they wanted to say.
Anyway 🙂 he’s quite the mystery guy, so for now he’s in the same group as Agni, Ciel and Finny for me. I’m hoping we might get more info on his backstory though!
Thanks again for your input and for passing by, Anon! I hope you’ll have a lovely sunday. 🙂
Hey Anon! 🙂 Aw, thank you for reading and I’m happy if you loved it! ^^ This is quite the old theory (probably one of the first ever I did for Kuro) but I’m still holding onto the general idea (that Ran Mao is not human but something cat-related, at least in symbolism) even if it’s been a while since we last saw Lau and Ran.
As for your question, well, to be completely honest these days I try not to rely too much on anything animated, even if BoC and BoM did complete justice to the manga, for the simple reason that…
…this is one example in which Yana herself is apparently not decided yet on what color Ran Mao’s eyes should be, haha (in case you don’t see very well, they’re completely black on the right picture and amber on the left picture).
So are her eyes of the same color as Snake’s? Honestly it’s hard to say when Yana colors them amber once and completely black for a different picture. 🙂
As you were saying Snake’s eyes are definitely “amber” and shaped to remind us of a snake in the first place, especially with the scales on his face.
About Snake though, I had this talk with @wondrouswatchdog once actually, about whether or not Snake was even a normal human in the first place. After all, we had Agni’s example before we even knew Ran Mao or Snake, and Agni is not what you’d call a normal human.
You read my post on Ran Mao too, so you have an idea as to why I’m not exactly sure she’s humain either, so starting from Agni and Ran Mao, we wondered about Snake, especially because of his appearance and because he actually talks to his little friends.
There is a possibility that Snake might not be a normal human, like Agni isn’t, like Finny isn’t (due to those experiments), like Ran Mao, John Brown and even Ciel (with the lineage thing) probably aren’t, but the question should be where is the limit between “not-so-normal humans” and “actual supernatural beings” (like Shinigamis and Demons).
The way I see it for now, I call Agni, Finny and Snake (and Ciel) “humans” but they’re just not entirely as random as we initially thought (for Agni it seems to be linked to religion, for Ciel it’s linked to blood, for Finny to experimentation, so maybe it’s a similar reason for Snake?), while I tend to think of Ran Mao and John Brown as more on the supernatural side of the scale.
This is completely personal appreciation at this point of course, so feel free to disagree, but since I kinda see the Queen as the culprit behind the Kuro plot (Vincent and Rachel’s murders), I’m thinking the one soothing her mind with Albert has to be quite strong in order to make it interesting if she’s the big bad.
As for Lau and Ran Mao, well…
I wouldn’t be surprised to see some kind of conflict between Lau and Ciel very soon, so then again, since Sebastian barely had trouble against anyone but UT so far, it would be interesting for Ran Mao to be shown as a strong opponent, especially with the possible cat symbolism when Seb is Ciel’s “dog” and Ciel himself is the Queen’s watchdog (I wrote about this more in details here if you’re interested :)).
So, it was a good thing that you pointed out Snake’s eyes, Anon 🙂 because no matter what I don’t think he’s a normal human, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to talk to snakes, but still, I feel he’s not on the same “level” as Ran Mao if that makes any sense.
I hope it answers your little observation, somehow? Sorry for the rambling part in the middle Have a nice Sunday Anon and thanks for passing by! 🙂
999 Week – 9/2 ↳Snake: “I would appreciate it if you call me [Snake]. Since Ace has chosen cards, then I choose dice –"snake-eyes”, clearly. Which is particularly relevant, given that I am blind.“
midnight-in-town 