#maka's mother

[bcbdrums]

Maka Albarn, age 5, is an unreliable narrator.

Her mother is gone. She doesn't know why. Her mother has told her "Papa bad" and what other choice does a toddler have but to believe it? (Honestly the way some people talk, I think they have never spent any significant time around toddlers...)

And how else is a toddler gonna interpret the biggest celebrity in town smiling at other women who aren't her mommy? Especially when her mother isn't there anymore. And tiny Maka doesn't understand why and needs to find a reason.

[thekingofwinterblog]

Soul Eater Episode : 39 - Totally Uncool

Soul Eater has a number of great episodes, with the crowning jewel the series had being the finale to Maka's second fight with Crona.

However there is another episode that in my opinion is easily the second best, that being episod episode 39, where Crona's finally snaps regarding betraying Maka and the rest of the main cast to Medusa.

It's a very great episode, but the single best part is the way it connects both Maka and Crona rejecting their abusive mothers, just in different ways, while also using that to strengthen the bond between the two of them.

The first critical moment of this takes place in the early part of the episode, where Crona(Who is reeling with internal pains about Medusa, and betraying everyone) and Maka have a conversation where Maka bares her soul to Crona... Sort of.

Both of the two of them have massive, massive issues with their respective abusive mothers. While Medusa is an abusive mother who forces her child to dance to her tunes, and gasslighting Crona to believe nobody except her will ever show "forgiveness and kindness" Maka's mom instead very deliberately fought her exhusband for custody... Then after having achieved this symbolic victory over her husband, she took off, and abandoned her own child, only making contact with her through one sided postcards despite having every opportunity, and frankly a duty as Maka's legal guardian to look after her own kid.

Both of these women left deep, deep mental scars on their own children, just in different ways.

With Crona it is very, very obvious what Medusa has done, and is doing to her own child, as the episode is very much about confronting the effects of that abuse, but with Maka it's a bit less spelled out, and you have to read the subtext.

Maka puts her mom on a pedestal, mentally projecting her as a perfect woman who can do no wrong, not really being able to addmit to herself that her mom has left her and is not coming back. She instead projects all her frustration about everything to other people, more speciffically at the closest male figures in her life, Spirit and Soul.

It's a deeply, deeply unhealthy way of handling cope, and fuels a lot of her character flaws through the series, with both her relationahip with her father(Who though a terrible husband is not exactly the worst dad in the world) and her partner Soul being painted by hyper agression, a short temper, and a mental inability to give them any benefit of the doubt.

Interestingly enough, though chrona doesn't really push the point, it is Crona who is the person in the series who come the closest to realising directly just how fucked up Maka's relationship to her mom actualy is.

The most interesting part of their conversation though, is when Crona asks Maka what her best memories of her mother is, which Maka replies was when she divorced her dad, at which she saw her mom at her coolest.

This is a really, really fucked up thing to say for any child... But when you actually break it down, it gets even worse.

Maka blames her father rightfully for everything that went wrong in her parents marriage... But this divorce was a deeply fucked up thing. Her mother fought with her father for custody and won... Not because she actually wanted what was best for her child, but just to spite her husband. She wanted to rub it in that she won, and got the single most precious thing she could take from him... And having achieved this goal, she left, leaving her daughter behind in the same city her exhusband lived in, and effectively acting as her father anyway.

Its not exsctly clear why she did this. It could be that despite Maka's rose tinted glasses about her mother, her parent never actually loved her back nearly as much as she did her. It could be that she secretely came to resent her kid for a variety of reasons. Or it could be that she simply was too much of a coward to confront and live with the remains of her broken life, so she abandoned the most obvious reminder of that life.

Regardless, despite Maka's assessment that this was the coolest thing she ever saw her mother do, while the divorce itself was justified, what she actually did with it was the cowards way out, and left her daughter with a shit ton of issues, which she frankly was nowhere near able to recover from by the time the anime ended.

Regardless of her intentions though, her baring her soul to Crona about her(in denial) feelings about her mother does not help Crona, who still runs away from Death city, and has a breakdown of sort(a much smaller one than the one that will immediatly follow) after leaving the city and wandering to find a place to be alone.

Feeling completely alone, guilty, and with a massive case of selfloathing, selfhate and fear of rejection, Crona essentially shuts down, while thinking about happier days, the days with Maka and the rest of the gang.

It's here in this sandpit that Crona finally loses it due to guilt and lays it all out as Maka and Soul catch up.

Crona at first rejects Maka's request to come back home with them, angrily shouting that Maka doesn't know anything about Crona's real self.

It is here that Crona really, really loses it and lays out everything, poisoning Stein, still following Medusa's orders, the words, the tone and body language making it abundantly clear that Crona is absolutely wracked with self hatred for all this.

What Crona wants in this scene is for Maka to come down there and reinforce everything that Medusa has ever said, every lesson ever drilled in through long, hard, abuse. That Crona is a horrible, horrible person, who does not deserve sympathy or forgiveness, who frankly cannot be forgiven.

It's not what Crona actually wants deep down, but it is what the horrible words being said should logically lead to. It is the easy way out. The cowards way out.

And at first it seems to work, because Maka gets absolutely pissed, and storms down there to confront Crona directly, with Crona not offering a hint of resistance... Only for Maka, rather than punching Crona in the face for betraying her, instead say this.

Maka calls Crona out, but not in the manner she has so often done with her father or Soul.

Instead, rather than act with anger, or rage, lashing out because she feels angry and betrayed, she forces Crona to confront the fact that Crona neither wants to be a bad person following Medusa's orders, nor is completely devoid of virtues, quite on the contrary.

Maka is in this moment, doing the exact opposite of what her "Cool" mom did with her.

After experiencing a brutal, hard betrayal from her husband, rather than take the risk of opening herself up her heart again to anyone, she instead left her old life behind, and after one, final display of anger and rage, she left her own child behind after lashing out at her husband.

She took the cowards way out.

Maka does not take the cowards way out. Instead, after experiencing betrayal from a person she loves and understands, she makes the concious choice to take the hard road. To embrace the seeming madness that is opening her heart again to that person and risk facing betrayal again, despite Crona's words.

Its an extremely powerful moment, not just because it serves to show Maka's growth, how much Crona really means to her, but also for how in the end it ties her thematically to Asura, and the ultimate point of the series. Bravery and madness are two sides of the same coin.

It is madness to open yourself up to someone else, to bare your heart and soul, knowing fully well that action can lead to betrayal and hurt unlike any other... But it is also something that only those who are brave are able to do.

It is something Maka's mother, and Asura was never able to do... But Maka did, and through that, she's able help Crona begin the road to actual recovery as well.

[dreaming-wavelength]

The Kami/Spirit discourse will never die. 😓

[not-souleaterpost]

Maybe anti-Maka's mom propoganda will gain more traction

[soul-dwelling]

I have thoughts regarding the Maka's mom discourse.

I am way more favorable towards Maka's mom (while not ignoring the flaws--in the writing for her in the anime and the manga, not flaws with her or her actions exactly), and without ignoring Spirit's obviously larger in-story role for his daughter (without ignoring Spirit's own flaws as a husband and still-there-but-not-as-bad flaws as a parent).

Short version, in case I can't respond in more detail: if the crux of the argument is, "Maka's mother abandoned her," that is a valid evidence-based argument--but it's not the first leap I make.

And it's not one that I think has enough evidence to address numerous counter-arguments.

These include in-story/Watsonian counter-arguments. We haven't seen or heard about all the times Maka's mother came back to town or wrote to her or what she was doing that necessitated her to be out of town. And the DWMA is pretty much a boarding school, while certain students have their parents in town there are enough of them who traveled from around the world to attend this school, Maka strikes me as someone who is self-sufficient enough to live practically on her own. And there are numerous ways a parent is there for their child, even if not physically present.

And these include the meta/Doylist counter-arguments, that begin and end with Ohkubo just not being that good at writing. The easiest fix was to just tell us what Maka's mother was up to. But for whatever reason, he didn't want her around, and the likely reasons aren't great: "it'd be boring seeing Maka and her mom getting along" (then figure out an angle--the anime already gave you one with how Maka describes her mom, just imagine this absolute beast who Maka admires as the greatest person ever), "writing women is hard" (even though, despite himself, Ohkubo has enough cases of being competent or even good at it, give or take fanservice-bait crap).

But there are enough justifications that at least mitigate how bad the writing is. Maybe this is done for an allegorical reading: a lot of children don't have all parents living near them, so Maka's experiences may resonate with audience members whose parents are divorced, too. And as I said, the DWMA is practically a boarding school, so why would any of their parents be there? The response to that would be, what about how Maka's dad, Black Star's adoptive dad, and Kid's dad are all here in Death City? My flawed response is, they are the main protagonists, of course they have parents here, we want to progress their characterization by seeing how they bounce off of parental figures. And, to the benefit of their progression, the presence of their parents largely helps the story. Showing Soul's parents in Death City wouldn't have helped when his story is all about angst; showing Liz and Patty's mom would undermine that they have trust issues with authority figures; showing Tsubaki's parents...actually would have helped her a lot (seriously, why do we see her dad but not her mom--what, was she on a mission with Maka's mom, too?). But we need Maka's dad here to establish her trust issues, we need Sid here to establish just how rambunctious Black Star is and how seemingly relaxed Sid was in taking care of him, and we need Lord Death here as a reminder of what Kid is aiming to become but also the risk of just how badly Kid too could screw up this job.

I don't really have a conclusion to this post, seeing as I hope to have a more detailed response to certain posts another time.

But thank goodness we got one last appearance from Maka's mother, that still didn't answer a damn thing about her, just gives us a picture to slap onto the wiki, all thanks to a prequel no one was asking for. (Yeah, I can't stop myself from derailing a post to beat that dead horse.)

[sepostscreencaps]

Panel from Soul Eater post chapter 35

[neg-im]

Thoughts on Marie x Kami(Maka’s mother) ?

Kami doesn't deserve to be loved

(yes I have mommy issues, yes I'm exaggerating a little bit)

But I think they wouldn't work. First of all, because when they were young/before Kami getting out of the picture, Marie was very adamant about marrying a man (obligatory heterosexuaity), so even if she had a crush for Kami, she would have ignored it because that wasn't the right thing to do

In different circumstances they might be a cute "summer love story" thing but I still don't see any future for their relationship, they would just have very different goals in life.

[cjs-51703]

Stein, about Spirit: Seriously, what do you see in him?

Maka's Mother: He makes me laugh.

[takeyourcyanide]

Until I Ache

AO3

Content Warning: Alcoholism, intoxication

Fandom: Soul Eater

Character(s): Spirit Albarn, Franken Stein, mentions of Maka Albarn and Kami Albarn (Maka’s Mother)

Word Count: 2 113

Tag(s): Excessive drinking, alcoholism, hurt/comfort, bars and pubs, angst

Summary: Essentially, Spirit ends up too wasted to walk home and calls Stein to help him get there.

Note(s): This is another relatively short one. I’d like to write some much longer ones as I have once before, but the brain fog has been tormenting me lately. I hope that this isn’t the absolute pinnacle of mediocrity! I don’t want my work to suffer. (I don’t say this for any sort of pity.) I feel as though I could do so much more with his alcoholism and really delve into it, but whatever. Perhaps I will in future fics. I greatly enjoy detailing themes of addiction and self-medicating in my writing, so I most likely will.

The warm lighting of the pub gently flickered above Spirit’s head as he sat, slumped over on one of a ton of barstools.

The idea of even stepping foot into Chupa Cabra’s made him shiver, a sharp pang prickling his spine. He’d have to see Blair if he did as such, and any reminder of his Maka would send him surely spiraling even further down the wormhole than he already was.

“Another, please,” Spirit outstretched the hand in which a shining shot glass was held, holding it out expectantly in the direction of the barkeep.

“No, way. Sorry,” the bartender shook his head, cleaning off a martini glass. He set the glass down once sparkly, grabbing the one Spirit shakily held.

“What? Why?” Death Scythe pouted childishly, his eyebrows pinching sorrowfully on his forehead.

“That would be a legal liability, sir. I can’t afford anyone suing this bar just because they were too wasted for their tortured livers to handle,” his face was stern despite the small chuckle escaping his lips.

Spirit straightened his back, grimacing in pain as his temples felt as though they might just burst.

“I wouldn’t do that,” he assured sincerely, and rather desperately.

“Psh, I don’t care if you supposedly would or would not do that, I’m not risking it! You know that happened to another pub just a few blocks away? No way, no how! My apologies, Death Scythe, sir.”

A deep and melancholic sigh racked Spirit’s frame as he stood, the weight of a thousand suns on his chest and shoulders. He stumbled out of the bar, soon being met with the sight of the bloodied and wrangled moon.

How long had he been there?

He peered down at his watch, wobbling on his feet as he tried his hardest to stand still.

The hands of the miniature clock read “1:29.”

Spirit pinched the bridge of his nose, inhaling and exhaling slowly. He soothingly massaged his throbbing forehead, squinting his eyes in the direction he came from, attempting to plan his route home in his clouded mind.

‘One foot in front of the other,’ he reminded himself of how precisely to walk, as began trudging along the cobblestone streets.

……

Spirit yelped as he nearly face-planted into the sidewalk, his hands and knees surely scraped. Evidently, “one foot in front of the other” would not be enough. He fought back tears as they pricked in his eyes, feeling as though he were a pathetic child who couldn’t handle a minuscule scratch.

He hoisted himself upwards, leaning against the wall of some shoe store, fumbling for the cellphone buried in his right pocket.

The scythe dialed the only person he knew would be awake.

“Spirit?” A confused and sonorous voice rumbled through the speakers of the phone.

“Need help,” he slurred, the waterworks beginning.

“With what?”

“Can’t get home. Too drunk,” he whimpered pitifully, scrambling to conceal himself in the shadows of the dingy alleyway beside him.

“You know I live outside of the city, Spirit. It’ll take me a second to get… Wait, where are you?”

“I don’t know… ‘M so stupid,” his shoulders shook with a sob, as he slapped his palm against his forehead repeatedly.

“Calm down, Spirit. Do you see a street sign anywhere?” The voice was more stern than that of the barkeeper’s, and more intimidating, but a stable source of guidance for the drunkard.

“Uhm… I think so.. It says Morena Street,” he poked his head out cautiously, examining the sign carefully as he squinted.

“Okay. I can be there in just a few minutes.”

“Thanks,” he sniffled, a hand placed over his mouth in order to muffle his weeping.

“Yeah,” the caller hung up.

……

Stein scanned the dimly lit streets, his hands in his pockets and he walked. There was no sign of Spirit.

That is, until he moved closer to a certain alleyway.

The sounds of a familiar cry seemed to leave that narrow spot, flowing down the streets despite the weapon’s best efforts.

“Spirit?” Stein called out, entering the horridly-smelling alleyway.

“Stein!” He plummeted into the meister, face against his chest, as he wrapped his arms around his taut torso.

Stein’s eyes widened impossibly large, his arms glued to his sides. “What are you doing, Spirit?”

“Please don’t dissect me! Just get me home!” He bawled, Stein frowning as the fluids emerging from the scythe’s face were surely soaking into his turtleneck by now.

“Okay, then. First you have to remove your arms from around me, please,” Franken awkwardly suggested, struggling out of Spirit’s hold.

“Oh, sorry..”

“It’s fine… Here,” he allowed for the ginger’s head to rest against his shoulder, his own arm reaching out to steady the clumsy man as they exited the premises.

“Did I interrupt anything you were doing? ‘M sorry,” Albarn gazed at Stein sadly and guiltily, his blubbering certainly not coming anywhere close to ceasing.

“I didn’t have much to do, really. And stop apologizing, there’s no need to,” he reassured him.

“Okay…”

“So, why’d you get so drunk this time, anyway?” Stein questioned curiously, sparing a quick and inquisitive glance down at his former partner.

“Don’ even know anymore,” he began, sulking whilst wearing possibly the most petulant face the meister had ever seen. “Just didn’t feel good. I never feel good anymore, Stein. Maka hates me, too. Prob’ly partly ‘cause of this.”

“That’s not true, Spirit, I can assure you of that,” he spoke solemnly with an air of wholeheartedness.

“Whaddayamean i’s na true?” Spirit drawled, a whiny twinge to his voice like that of a young child. “She ma’es it so clear!”

“She doesn’t truly hate you, Spirit. She loves you. She’s always loved you. That’s why it makes the whole divorce and all that happened between you and Kami so much more difficult. She resents you, she’s bitter. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t love you. She’s still so young, and doesn’t know how to handle all those conflicting feelings - Hell, no matter your age, conflicting emotions are incredibly difficult to deal with and navigate, but being so young certainly doesn’t help by any means,” Stein elucidated, raising valid points even in the midst of Spirit’s hazy and inebriated mind.

“You mean it? You really do?” The scythe sniffled, his bottom lip gently quivering.

“Of course, Spirit. It’s a glaring fact. Haven’t you noticed how worried she gets when she sees you injured? She’s mad at you. She doesn’t hate you.”

A strident sob poured from Death Scythe’s lips, as he seemingly threw the idea of stifling his weeping entirely out of the window. His abdomen contracted, his entire figure trembling strenuously.

“It’s a good thing we’re going home, huh?” Stein chuckled.

Spirit produced a strained sound in agreement, harshly and uncoordinatedly nodding his head, something he would soon come to regret when the alcohol-induced vertigo came to strike him.

……

“Wanna be loved, Stein,” the redhead bemoaned as Stein fumbled with the keys he’d had to grab from Spirit’s pocket, eventually pushing the apartment door open. “And not jus’ for my body, for once. Not love. They want me for sex. Always. Never for me, is it?”

“Isn’t that normal?” Stein questioned genuinely. “I mean, isn’t it normal for people to seemingly only want you for your body?”

“Well, everyone else seems to not think so. Or maybe it is? Dunno. But other people love.. and it’s love,” he slurred into Stein’s shoulder, allowing himself to be maneuvered onto the comfort of his bed.

“Stein.. I know you aren’t the type, but do you love me? Don’ even mean romantically.”

“I don’t know how to, Spirit. It’s just not in my nature. But would it help if I were to tell you that you’re my favorite test subject of them all?” He asked as he tucked the man in, adjusting his pillow, and ensuring that he lay on his side.

“Hm. Kinda, I guess. ‘M certainly not Maka’s favorite. Maybe not anyone’s.. But maybe yours. But that means you wanna dissect me!” Spirit exclaimed, his bottom lip sticking out more and further than ever.

“Why, of course it does, my dear,” he shot the weapon a sarcastically adoring smirk.

“You’re so mean…”

“If I’m so mean, then why did I just tuck you into bed like a kid?”

“To dissect me.”

Stein sighed, laughing a little in response. “I don’t even have any of my scalpels or utensils, in general, with me at the moment. You needn’t worry,” the meister perched himself upon the very edge of the fairly empty king-sized bed, right up against Spirit’s legs. “Now, before you inevitably fall asleep, do you need to vomit?”

“Don’ think so…”

“Okay, well, make sure to stay on your side unless you want to die of asphyxiation tonight,” Stein gently patted his former weapon on his calves.

“Asphyxiation?” He slurred in his drunken state.

“Do you want to gargle and choke on your vomit, Spirit?”

“Ew, no!” Spirit yelled out, grimacing.

“There you go.”

Stein lifted himself from his position on the bed, taking strides toward the bedroom door, his hands resting in their habitual and almost designated area; his lab coat pockets.

“Wait!” Albarn exclaimed, his hands zooming out from underneath the warmth of his plush comforter, making grabby gestures at Stein.

“What is it, Spirit?”

“I’m not sure if I ever told you this, but.. I like your voice. It’s calm.. Well, most of the time. Can you read to me?” He averted his gaze from Stein’s, humiliated, ashamed, and tense with trepidation.

“Aw, the baby wants me to read him to sleep?” Franken Stein teased, stepping closer and closer to the flushed weapon.

“Sh- shut up, Stein. Just- please?” He stared up at him longingly. Stein found it almost cute.

“Sure. Is there anything specific you would like me to read?”

Spirit retrieved the book on his nightstand, handing it to the meister, of whom had once again sat himself directly beside his legs.

“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, hm? I hadn’t known that you enjoyed such literature,” Stein examined the detailed cover, looking over each and every speck of the book with his typical inquisition.

“I used to read it to my little Maka all the time,” his voice shuddered as his tear glands somehow managed to secrete even more salty liquid.

“Now, now, no more crying, Spirit. Your eyes are already all red and swollen. At this point, I’d figure that it would be painful to cry,” he thumbed at the older male’s under-eyes and cheeks, attempting to dry the moistness. “Are you sure you’ll be able to handle me reading this? Perhaps you shouldn’t have it on your nightstand anymore if it upsets you so much.”

“No, no! I can handle it, I swear. Please, Stein. That’s the book I want,” Spirit blinked whatever teardrops that were left in his eyes away, rolling them upward and into the back of his head.

“All right, then,” Stein patiently agreed, acting as the sturdy force, the glue currently holding Spirit together. “Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it,`and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice`without pictures or conversation?'”

Spirit’s eyelids slowly fluttered shut as Stein continued to read from the first chapter, though one last tear did managed to slip from his eyes as he fell down the abyssal rabbit-hole that was sleep, allowing each soothing, yet stirring hand to drag him down into the land of dreams.

“…In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well,” Franken ceased his reading, peering over at his weapon.

‘That was quick. So, he still looks just as peaceful when he sleeps as he did all those years ago,’ Stein thought to himself, a mischievous and nostalgic smile decorating his face as he reminisced on each incision that he had left scattered all over Spirit’s body.

He quietly shut the book, placing it back onto the nightstand with a hushed “plop.” Steadily, Stein stood from the bed, and step by step, he took strides towards the door once more.

“Good night, Spirit,” Franken muttered underneath his breath, sparing a quick and curious glance back at the weapon.

[cloverkingsmith]

started watching soul eater and now I have a problem

[crowsyart]

Already starting from the top. Some of this is older art so their designs aren’t fully updated but I don’t. Feel like redoing this.

[bcbdrums]

“what’s the best memory you have from when you were younger? of her.”

“that’s easy, definitely the divorce.”

“huh???”

Even Crona knows…. When it comes to Maka’s mother, something just ain’t right. The divorce was just a couple months or so ago, Maka. That's not "when you were younger" and if that is in fact your favorite memory...? Then either your mother was never around, ever or else you're in deep, deep denial about both of your parents...

But, that's just canon isn't it.

[thekingofwinterblog]

So just something I noticed about spirit, which might give an insight into his and Maka's mother's relationship, and timeline.

This is the only picture we have of Maka's mother as her and Spirit are telling Maka about the legends of Fire Force... I haven't actually read it, so i have no idea what those might be, but what i find interesting is how spirit looks so... Young, while his wife does not.

Like Spirit had maka while he was 18 years of age, so he cant be more than 20 at most here, but he looks like a teenager, while his wife despite being smaller, looks like she's in her early thirties.

Where am i going with this?

Well, in this flashback we see the dynamic the previous generation had while still at school... And notice that Spirit looks barely younger while flirting with this random lady, than he did after having Maka.

Now, for obvious reasons this doesnt mean that this scene is set before he and his ex-wife hooked up, but it's not hard to imagine that there likely was a period in Spirit's life where he tried to clean his act up, given that his wife actually agreed to marry him.

Meanwhile, this flashback to an earlier point than that gives us one of our only direct looks into how Spirit and Stein functioned as partners.

Their dynamic isnt as important as the ages here. This is clearly taken from their first year or so, and Spirit looks like a 12 year old who's hit a growth spurt, but not matured at all elsevise.

With all of this in mind, and with what we know of Spirit and his wife's school years, what can we figure out?

We know Spirit and Stein was partners, all the way until Maka's mother, while still a student discovered Stein's experiments, upon which Spirit was transfered into her care.

Why is this important? Because 1. It seems likely that all of the drama around this likely happened in their last year of school.

In other words, Maka was probably concieved while spirit and his wife was still in school.

If that is true, it likely means maka was not a planned child, and that one of the reasons why Maka's mother thought Spirit could clean up his act, was that he was still barely not schoolboy anymore when they hooked up.

In other words, while naive on her part, it was a possibility. Plenty of teenagers do leave behind their childish ways upon leaving school.

However, there is one final bit of info i havent covered yet.

We know there was a time period when the Albarns were happy together, or at least they were from Little Maka's perspective.

However, there is one little detail from these pictures from happier days that shines a final light on how things unfolded.

Spirit is not wearing his work attire. That means that at this point, he is likely not yet a death scythe, or at the very least, he is not THE death scythe.

When we get Flashbacks to Maka spying on Spirit as he's committing infidelity, Maka and spirit are both a bit older, but Spirit also has adopted his current work attire, meaning that at this point, he's become Shinigami's weapon... And that gives a very different picture of how things unfolded.

Because it means that when Spirit was still with his wife, as not just her husband, but her partner, he probably remained true to her, and was a dad Maka admired... It was when that stopped, and he no longer saw her every day, as their work took them in different directions, that Spirit fell back to his old ways, and began cheating on her. It's a thing that actually happens a depressingly lot in reality, when couples grow physically separated due to job developments, and one begins to cheat on the other.

If so it adds some very much needed context to why Maka's mother left Death City and her job as a meister behind so decisively without any further contact.

We know that she was a meister with the skills and determination to see Spirit's journey to a death scythe through to the finish... And the only thing she got out of it, was Shinigami taking her husband away from her, him then falling back into his old ways, and then years of an unhappy marriage, and finally all that remained of her happy teenage dream was the remains of a broken life. That was her reward for suceeding in doing her job to the fullest of her abilities.

No wonder she is bitter, not just at Spirit, but the entire system, and especially her old boss.

[not-souleaterpost]

Didnt do a pool on here for a long time, so lets do the topical thing:

The Spirit vs "Kami" (Maka's mom) death match- discourse

(If you click the last one, we all want you to know that the divorce wasnt your fault and we all believe in you, it will get better🙏)

[soul-dwelling]

Ever read fanfics that change so much about the charachters, setting, etc, that you start to wonder why it isnt an original story in the first place?

It's mostly fics that actually show us Maka's mother--her personality, her relationships, what she's been up to--that make me wonder why the original didn't feature anything with her, not even as a special chapter. (Irregulars Productions gives us so much lore...)

Or, content that explains some worldbuilding stuff. (Is the DWMA accessible for people with disabilities, given the stairway? How exactly can you make someone into a zombie? What is witch society like?)

But, for me, so much of what got me into Soul Eater initially wasn't just the anime but encountering it alongside the art and fiction of Cerrdy / ElementJax. If I hadn't seen what could be done with the character relationships by reading Cerrdy's / ElementJax's Winter Waltz, I'm not sure I would have gotten into the anime.

[sepostscreencaps]

Mary Sue-ish panel from Soul Eater post chapter 20