Hello! I hope youāre having a good day and just wanted to let you know that your explanation of chapter 4 was amazing!! If you donāt mind me asking though, who exactly is Falin? Or rather whatās her big schtick? Cause I liked her in the chapter but couldnāt really understand why she is who she is.
hii and thank you so much for liking it (*ā§āā¦*)š!! I go on a tangent when Iām speaking/writing so everything ends up all over the place?
also, I donāt mind at all, in fact, thank you for asking about Falin \(//ā//)\!! I wanted to talk about her so bad (and I decided I was going to make long post about her pretty soon! seeing your ask made me so happy, cause now I have a reason to talk about her!)
[also, anon, I kinda had one thing in my head and it turned into another so I feel like I deviated from what you wanted and turned it into something else? I apologise in advance if this was not what you meant. please let me know if this is what you meant or something else :D!]
spoilers for main story chapter 4, part 4 and 5 are below and trigger warning for breeding, captivity and human trafficking (technically not human but it still applies i guess?)
now, for people who have not read the story or donāt remember it clearly, Iāll briefly go over what happened in the main story revolving asking her, before jumping to what we know about her character and some of my own theories + things Iāve noted about her. unfortunately, we do not have information for why she turned into such a twisted character but I think that might be revealed in the coming chapter since the case of Seiran family has not been wrapped up yet; the investigation is still going on since the Master of the Seiran family is still alive.
her actions, leading up to her death:
this is meant for those who have not read or do not remember the events revolving her; Iāll wrap it up quickly! in case you have not read my previous explanation about chapter 4 (part 3-5) and are confused, please give it a read!
it begins when the butlers (+muu!) were taking shifts at night in various places inside the Seiranās palace (doing their guarding duties) when they hear the maids calling out to each other that āshe went into labourā or āthe child is about to be born, grab [insert necessity]!ā
[note: for child, the word used in Japanese by the maids is å/ko which does not only mean the child of a person but could be the child of an animal too. that was one of the assumptions of the butlers; that the child was a cat/dogās baby OR that the child could be of another possible (hidden) mistress of the head of the Seiran family.]
but it becomes strange when this happens again, and then again. now, the butlers were suspicious, especially when Falin reacted in an unusual manner, saying she had not heard the maids act like that before heading back quickly, avoiding the subject.
now everything comes to light when:
[this is after the Master of the Seiran family had been kidnapped by mr elf, and Fennesz and Haures were away searching for the Master of the Seiran family.].
Ammon, Boschi, Aruji with Falin at their side are confronted by the sight of elf guy interrogating the Master of the Seiran family.
[note: elf guyās people (their kind as a whole) are from the West (specifically from the valley regions.). they are governed by Elboa, the green headed elf looking guy with a hood.].
there itās revealed that the Seiran family had kidnapped the people of elf guy (people of the valley.). Boschi assumed it was for experimentation, like the Sardis family did. In response, when Boschi, in a repulsed manner, makes this remark out loud, Falin says this, gazing at elf guy with fascination:
āOh my, how rude! I have no interest in such trivialities. Lookā¦(gesturing to elf guy)ā¦.at that crystalline skinā¦those blue eyesā¦those elegantly shaped ears.ā
āI want to keep beautiful things close to meā¦increase them in numberā¦and share them with othersā¦isnāt that human nature?ā
she was the main culprit behind the kidnapping and unlike what the butlers were assuming, it was not for experimentation purposes (like the Sardis) but her desire to possess beautiful āthingsā and share them with others. not only does she keep the people of mr elf (locked up for her viewing) BUT she wanted to increase their number. now, what was the best way to do that?
breeding. she forced the really beautiful male and female captives to have children together, to produce even more beautiful children for they would be āmore desired by clientsā. now itās kinda ambiguous whether she sold only the children or the adults too; but she did have the elfās people sold to nobles for high prices. thatās the reason for the children being born mysteriously each night but never being seen or heard of.
(we donāt have information about who the nobles were but it could very well be to nobles anywhere. I donāt think their clients were majorly from the East since that would be risky for them. anyhow, i feel like information about who the nobles were will be revealed soon since investigation is still going on into the business.).
thatās how the Seiran family became so rich and influential in the first place (by human trafficking) so much so that even during the (current) wars that plagued the Eastern lands, the people governed by the Seiran family were always doing well, financially, were not impacted by the unsettlement in the East and were extremely fond of the Seiran family and grateful for their rule.
[the scene where Falin is waving and greeting the grateful civilians in carriage with Aruji and Muu becomes kind of unsettling when you think about it; the reason why the civilians could relish in security (financial + food + otherwise) was due to the money the Seiran family earned from trafficking. ]
[note: Seiran familyās āhuman traffickingā likely started when Falin married into the family (though we donāt know for sure from the main story.). Iām not negating Seiran familyās wealth in any way since they were nobility even 300 years ago, but their sudden wealth in the current years has been likely due to this business.]
after being exposed, the elf guy demands them to hand over his people but Falin says she had all of the āproductsā burnt on the orders of her husband.
[earlier, Falinās husband told her in private that he wanted to discontinue this ābusinessā of theirs now because now they had established their power and their kingdom was rich. so he wanted all evidence of their business destroyed. he was especially afraid now, after the Sardis family was exposed, stripped of their titles and now regarded as criminals.]
Aruji confirms that there had been no fire (they would have smelled the scent of such a huge fire or seen evidence of it), proving to elf guy that Falin was lying. She admits after giggling that she would never have her āproductsā harmed; she merely sent the products with her maids to her parentās home.
[long story short; elf guy then threatens Falin in an attempt to make her show him where his people were, the huge bell rings (the one signaling angels arrival) and Falin leaves in the heat of the moment. elf guy runs after her, hot on her tail.]
she runs back to her castle, where she sees Seraphim and Cherubim. she is instantly entranced by their appearance, especially after they kill some of her men with their ālight powersā.
she asks them to kill her; her ephemeral life was going to come to end someday, hence sheād rather it come to end with her last sight and the manner of her death both being beautiful. [her words, roughly.]
[note: she wanted to die by their light powers.]
Seraphim (after being weirded out š) agrees with a smirk. then he proceeds to stab her fatally (because he deemed her impertinent and arrogant for talking this way to an angel š). she slowly bleeds out as Seraphim and Cherubim leave with the cage full of elf guyās people with them.
[elfās people were seen being taken by the maids of Falin (by Cherubim and Seraphim above). after they saw the cage being transported, they killed her maids and men, and took the captives (the elfās people) who offered no resistance since all the time in captivity had made them apathetic and out-of-it. Cherubim will likely use the captives for experimentation :(]
there, elf guy arrives; he had been waiting behind in the shadows, unable to step out because he knew the intelligent angels were stronger than the average angels and he wasnāt sure he could win in a fight against them. there, he sees Falin, lying in a pool of her blood, her face pointing to a mirror in the room, gazing at herself (covered in blood.).
elf guy (almost pitying her because he planned on killing her in a quick manner, not in the torturous way she was currently dying) asks her to look into his eyes. she looks at him before he kills her with one quick attack of his sword.
[he also almost pitied her for the fact her last sight was herself covered in blood and not something beautiful; beautiful things were something she had dedicated herself to, all her life. thatās why he asked her to look at him so her last sight could be him (someone she called extremely beautiful and showed a desire to possess), fulfilling her last wish.].
thatās how she dies, her last sight being āsomethingā beautiful, right as she desired all this time.
now, with this out of the way, Iāll only be focusing on her.
Falin; her character and all the known information about her.
so Falin or ćć”ćŖć³ was the Mistess of the Seiran family: the wife of the Master of the Seiran family. she was originally a noble woman from a small aristocratic family located in a mountainous region in the East; her family did not have much influence and itās not known how she ended up marrying the Head of the Seiran family.
the first thing we learn about Falin, comes when Boschi notices her and remarks, in complete horror that she looks exactly like his mother. he goes further to add that even her voice was exactly like his motherās; only her personality differed as his mother was timid by personality.
[you can just imagine the extent of how similar they looked for Boschi to feel so uncomfortable in her presence; unfortunately we have no description of how Boschiās mother looked like to pin down Falinās appearance. all we know is that Boschiās motherās hair had a beautiful lustre to it and was likely long. Boschiās hair colour is something he inherited from his father so Falinās hair colour isnāt blue. we can also guess since Boschiās mother had a frail physique, Falin also had a similar one; she was also likely not too tall either and had a slim/skinny build.]
she married into the Seiran family. she is a descendant of a relative of Boschiās mother; (Boschi said so himself). while his mother did die in the fire, she had relatives remaining in her village. Falin is a descendant of one such relative ā this would explain her eerie similarity to his mother.
she was initially fascinated by Boschiās appearance because āhe is beautiful like Fubukiā ā both are cold, strong and have one eye. [this made me crack up š Iām sorry.]. we later learn from Finley that there were rumours that she had actually proposed to Fubuki a long time ago (to marry him) but was rejected by him.
there comes my next point! i think most fans got the impression that she was really young (like I did), being around the age of 25ā30 but I believe this is wrong. we know from her interaction with Aruji and Muu (where she was amused when Muu called her young) that she is a bit older (not calling her old š) but her age may be (from the way she recalls her past experiences as the time she was āyoungā) around 30-45. I want to push it further from 30 but with the current canon content, I want to be careful just in case i end up wrong.
[also Boschi saw his mother for the first time when she was around her 40ās; I doubt someone in their 20ās could look so startling alike to someone in their 40ās. Boschi would have then added then that Falin looked like a more younger version of his mother: but he didnāt.
he said that their face, builds and voices were exactly the same; he could have added the age part too.]
A bit of background about East:
now i want to focus on East a bit and the standing women have/had:
women of the noble families in the East are regarded with little to no importance. theyāre merely seen important for their ability to bear a potential male heir. Boschi further explained that they have no power or influence, live in seclusion, make no public appearance and have no political power (despite being mistresses of powerful noble families.).
an example of this is Bosciās own mother. she was the third wife of his father, had no political power or influence and till her death lived in complete seclusion. because she hid the fact that she had a son, so a child-less wife was not important.
[the first wife killed the third wife and her son, after news of her son being born came out. the reason why the first wife had so much power to begin either is because she had a son earlier than the other wives and wasnāt willing for the other wives to have a chance for their son/s to be potential heirs.]
so for power, the women in noble families could and would sink pretty low.
now, with this in mind, letās proceed!
Falinās role and how she stood out:
Falin breaks many of the stereotypes that we have of the Eastern noble women in akuneko.
first of all, sheās the first and only wife of the master of the Seiran family (from what we know).
thatās extremely strange, especially considering the noble men from the east so far have been depicted to have more than one wife. [polygamy was common; Boschi says so himself. monogamy, on the other hand, was uncommon.]
whatās also strange is that she has no known children. sheās been married to the head of the Seiran family for quite a while yet from their interaction, the topic of children never came up. [keep in mind, this is set in a land and time where women are only regarded important for bearing a potential male heir. wars are still rampant and there are new noble families attempting to rise to power. if she couldnāt have children, her husband would have another wife already. but thereās a split chance her husband cannot have children, but that fact could have been used to oust him from power by a relative of his, from the Seiran family already.].
[so itās unknown why they donāt have children or arenāt seeking to have them in a war struck region where male heirs are absolutely necessary for power.]
secondly, she had more authority/power (not on first glance) than her husband, the actual head of the family.
we know she (very likely) started the business of human trafficking; from how attached she was to it and how reluctant she was of letting go of it. she likely posed the business to her husband as a means of securing more influence and power in the Eastern lands (which is plagued by wars for power) but in actuality it was for her own twisted desire for ābeautiful thingsā.
her husband acquiesced to her whims very easily. this can be seen by when brought up the subject of ending the business and destroying the āevidenceā, she quickly managed to dissuade him with a little assuaging.
she even admitted in front of Aruji, Boschi, Ammon, her husband and elf guy that she manipulated her husband to follow her whims in this business.]
one other incident, which proves this is, when the butlers were told not to guard the master and mistress of the Seiran family (new guards of their own were assigned), she immediately went up to her husband and subtly hinted that she was āafraidā the new guards would not be able to protect her husband as well as the devil butlers (who have quite a reputation for their strength).
in actuality, she was not concerned about his safety (or even her own, to be honest.). she wanted the butlers by her side so she can gaze at their ābeautiful faces ā while she went about her day. she did end up accomplishing that as her husband had the devil butlers reassigned only for her protection.
her influence over her husband can also be seen in when she manages to rope him into allowing her to dine with Aruji [instead of dining with him], in hopes of seeing the butlers from close enough (as they would be guarding Aruji right in their room) since she wasnāt getting enough opportunities to see them from close enough.
[itās also interesting that her husband said that the devil butlers were invited to the Seiranās residence because he was concerned for her safety, not his. he says this as a reminder to Falin, in one instance, (I guess trying to keep her in check because he was a bit suspicious of her and her intentions.).
so did she possibly manipulate her husband into inviting the butlers? itās canon (in aknkās story), that the devil butlers (while they are detested by people all around the world) are well known for both their beauty and strength. since we know she wasnāt concerned for her own life, could it be she invited them after hearing talks of their looks?]
moreover, unlike the noble women of her time, she was extremely confident and sly (in all matters, with all people, even strangers.).
ignoring her husband now and focusing on her interaction with the other characters:
when she saw Boschi for the first time, she approached him confidently, even inquiring about how he received the injury on his arm and eye. his attempts to reject her questions (rudely too) only brought her satisfaction and made her even more curious and him.
in the incident where she dined with Aruji, she had managed to convince Haures too, into allowing her to go inside Arujiās room without informing them prior. and Haures genuinely seemed unable to deal with Falin and her persistent personality.
she switches her approach too, depending on who sheās dealing with: with her husband, itās gentle, concerned and complacent; with the butlers, itās persistent and clever.
even when she was revealed to be carrying out that business, she was calm and amused by Ammon and Boschi regarding her with hatred. even after that, she made one last further request to Aruji to capture elf guy in return for anything Aruji wanted (which they rejected.).
Extra:
I want to talk about one more incident where I loved the writerās subtlety in showing Falinās character:
it was when she wanted to have breakfast with Aruji instead of her husband; the reason she states for this was: that being surrounded by fully armed, āfaceless menā (the guards) would make her not enjoy her breakfast. and thatās when she remembered the āfaces of the butlersā (with whom she would be able to enjoy her food, since she liked their faces).
she could have said she wanted the company of Aruji or the butlers over the guards, or remembered them because she likes spending time with them or that theyāre more amusing; any excuse could have passed. but she said she remembered the faces of the butlers and thought she would enjoy her food better with them in her presence.
[by the way, this was after the head of the guards was changed because the original one was injured; the temporary head of the guards made it a rule to wear armour that covered their faces as well i think?].
Lastly, itās interesting how Falin, a mere mistress of the Seiran family has a name (despite the eastern noble women being put down in terms of power and influence) yet her husband was only āMaster of the Seiran Familyā throughout the story ā all in all, to show how irrelevant he was and how he had no power or a role in the story, besides his title.
my own thoughts:
I mentioned in my previous post that I would like it if the writers could give more focus to the Seiran family, in particular, Falin.
how did a woman from a small aristocratic family end up marrying the master of a (relatively) bigger noble family and rope the master into following her desires? (if she did start the business of human trafficking) how did she convince the master of Seiran family?
also, what started her obsession with beauty? considering how rooted it is in her, did it start from her childhood? did her parents engrain it in her? [I can come up with loose reasons for almost every question in my mind but my mind goes blank for why Falin could have been so obsessed with beautiful people. she didnāt show much regard for riches either so why beauty of all subjects?]
(another thought thatās been on my mind) is that the killing of Boschiās family was something well known in the aknk world; Berrien affirms this as well. so itās unlikely that Falinās ancestor (the one related to Boschiās mother) did not know of the killing of Boschiās mother.
how were Falinās family okay with her marrying into the Seiran family when they were responsible for killing her family just 300 years ago? itās unlikely they have forgotten it because (call me delusional) but I think they do keep records of everything (since the Eastern lands in aknk are loosely based off feudal japan.)
Or wait āØ! what if they (Falinās parents) made her marry the Master of Seiran family because they believed it would be a good proposal for her (Seiran family being rich) and they could benefit from Seiran familyās riches too if Falin marries into them (their past bad blood be damned)?
and Falin knew of what the Seiran family did to hers years ago, which is why she doesnāt love or show any regard for the Master of the Seiran family āØ?
[Iāll shut up; these were mostly my own thoughts from what canon content I could scavenge. but I think even if this isnāt the truth (what Iāve proposed), itās pretty close the truth. so Iāll settle with that.]
anyway, thatās it! iāll pipe down now but thatās what I could piece together. please let me know if i got a fact wrong (as the length of the story does make it easy to confuse parts of it.)
i hope we learn more about Falin, her childhood and what led to her character becoming the way it is! if they donāt, Iām coming for studio wasabi āØ! have a wonderful day, anon (*^ā½^*)!! i hope this was a good read!
and if thereās something you all want to add into what Iāve said, propose an alternative idea to what Iāve said, or correct me in something I said, please comment below or send me an ask. i donāt wish for incorrect information to be passed around, especially from my own mouth.
have a good day everyone! I love discussing the story content of aknk so feel free to send me asks anytime (*^ā½^*)! please pray for me, (if youāre someone that prays) because my exam result is coming out tomorrow morning š)
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