#theory: crows can read killing intent or the lack of it

[bonesandpoemsandflowers]

I know the internet says big dog in yard is incompatible with crow friends, but legit my mostly retired hunting dog stood on my stoop this morning, looked straight down the little sidewalk at a crow hopping on the ground, and the crow looked at him, and they both just turned and walked the opposite way from each other and attended to their own business. huge "whatever, man" energy. "not my fuckin problem."

[firelxdykatara]

kitty i can't wait for your thoughts of Shadow and Bone asdfasfaw

Ok well I just finished and I have so many fucking thoughts. Most good! Some, less so. Part of it may just be my bias because I’ve only read the Six of Crows duology and have little interest in actually reading the original trilogy, because I know how it ends and Leigh clearly hates me personally and doesn’t want me to be happy (/j), so I was already predisposed to be far more invested in the Crows and Darkling/Darklina segments (genuinely, the Mal/Malina scenes/storyline bored me to tears, and while I appreciate that the show went out of its way to change Mal’s character to make him much less of a toxic douchebag [I’ve read enough excerpts and explanations of his actions in the books to really loathe book!Malina], it isn’t enough to make me ship them when Darklina is right there), but I also don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the Crows absolutely stole the show.

It’s actually kind of funny, because I’d assumed they were only being so heavily marketed to hype the show up even more, since while there’s a lot of TGT/SoC fandom overlap they are also two fundamentally different genres and I’d wager there are a lot of people who are massive fans of one but not so enthused with the other, while remaining fairly insignificant to the overall plot. Turns out, they make up fully half of the show’s runtime (much to my delight). Which is part of what I think will help this series stand on its own, both as a book adaptation and simply as a fantasy TV series.

I’ll put more of my story-specific thoughts under a cut, so there’s lots of show spoilers to follow!

I know that a lot of early reviewers were saying that Alina’s motivations and storyline revolved too much around Mal, and that really held true for me. It made sense in the beginning--he was the only constant in her life, she was thrust into something new, terrifying, and completely unfamiliar, and they’d developed an unhealthy codependence as a coping mechanism for their childhoods and the traumas they faced, the lives they lead growing up in a war-torn country. But she started coming into her power, falling for the General--not just his power and charisma, but what she felt when she was with him. The way he helped her summon the sun, the way she felt free in a way she never had before.

Until it all went to shit--but the Darklina make-out scene in episode 5? Fucking iconic. Poetic fucking cinema. The way they were quite literally about to have sex on that wartable (and someone better write fic of that moment, what if they hadn’t gotten interrupted), and the General left, but then he ran back just to kiss her one more time... this is what OTPs are made of ok.

I think what really bothers me overall is that Alina ultimately lacked agency in her one storyline, pretty much the entire way through. She did make a few choices, but they were mostly incidental, and a lot of it was Alina desperately trying to get back to Mal rather than seizing her own power and destiny and running with it. The most prominent example is the end of episode 5--Alina is having happy make-outs and almost bones the General in his own war room, and then he leaves, and Baghra comes in and infodumps to her about how evil he is and how he’s only using her and she needs to escape.

I recognize that a lot of this is probably because that’s essentially what happened in the book and Leigh is an executive producer for the show so she has a lot of shot-calling power. However, I really think that even in the book this plotline would’ve been better-served by having Alina make these discoveries on her own.

For example, imagine that the letters which were used as framing devices for episodes 2 and 3 were vitally important to the plot, rather than being one-offs that are mentioned a few times but not really affecting much of anything. Alina begins to get suspicious when she doesn’t receive word from Mal, and she starts wondering if her letters are even reaching him--so she starts snooping. She finds ashes in the war room hearth, late at night,, and recognizes a fragment of Mal’s signature and larger piece of her own. She now knows that someone--possibly the General, but maybe that creepy priest guy, or someone else in the palace--is keeping her and Mal from contacting one another. So she starts snooping around even more. She asks the General leading questions, trying to figure out what the truth is of his intentions. She still feels this pull--this connection to him, and she hopes she’s wrong, but she’s not willing to just sit around and wait for the other shoe to drop.

The Winter Fete still happens, she still gets the hot make-out session with the General, and then when he’s called away, she snoops through his papers, looking for anything that can tell her the truth. She finds a hidden compartment filled with journals.

She reads about Aleksander’s past (and, incidentally, wasn’t that supposed to be a huge moment in the books, him revealing his true name to her in private? kinda wish it had been kept that way in the show but who knows where they’ll go with it in the future)--that leads to the flashbacks in episode 6. She feels for him, but she also reads further--she gets a firsthand look at his desire for power, something that began as a noble desire to save his people, but was twisted by a lust for vengeance (for his lost love and all the Grisha who were killed) and shot through with greed, the realization that if he found the Sun Summoner he could control the Fold, rather than just destroy it. He could create a new world where Grisha could live without fear--where Grisha could rule.

Alina is terrified. Whoever the General used to be--whatever humanity she saw flickering in his eyes, the way his heart fluttered when they kissed--she can’t trust that it’ll be enough to save her from plans centuries in the making. So she goes to Baghra, the woman who helped her discover her power, learn to channel it--the woman who always seemed to know much more than she ever let on. Baghra gives her side of the story--Alina got it from the General’s perspective first, now Baghra is telling her something framed much differently. She isn’t sure what or who to trust, but she knows that Baghra seems willing to help her escape--but rather than trusting her ‘loyal Grisha’, she makes the choice she made in the show, to choose the other path, and winds up with the Crows.

Idk how Mal and the Stag thing would fit into this (if it isn’t obvious by now, Mal just... doesn’t interest me), but Alina’s story and her character arc would be so much stronger for it. And she’s supposed to be the central character, so her story being weak and her agency so frequently being compromised ultimately hurts the show as a whole.

I know I’ve gone on and on about Alina and the Darkling (look, I’m a slut for enemies-to-lovers, and also lovers-to-enemies-and-back, so Darklina and Helnik are where so much of my investment is rooted--plus Kanej, but that almost goes without saying), but the true standouts of the series were the Crows. Inej, Kaz, and Jesper, and Nina and Matthias in their episodes, stole the show (along with the Darkling, Ben is far and away the best actor in the cast and I love that for him, but Freddy, Amita, and Kit are also amazing, and Danielle&Calahan were fucking phenomenal as Nina and Matthias--I do have to say, though, that the whole cast is really solid and has amazing chemistry).

They worked together so perfectly--Freddy and Amita communicated so much with their eyes alone, especially together, and a whole lot of their relationship dynamic is rooted in how they exist together, which really came through. The show altered the Crows timeline considerably (I’m pretty sure Kaz would’ve been 14 during the original trilogy lol), so Inej is still at the Menagerie, but things like Kaz putting up the Crow Club for Inej’s freedom, the way Kaz needed her but could never bring himself to say it (until the end of the season dklhfgdkjfgh i SCREAMED)--the way Jesper played off the both of them, and it’s so obvious they all love each other even though they’re criminals and thieves and murderers, and Kaz would never admit it (out loud--which actually feeds into my theory that his love language is acts of service; Kaz does things for the people he cares about, he never announces it and he will almost always try to downplay it, but the way you know he cares is if, for example, he puts his entire life, everything he built, up as collateral for your freedom), but they’re a family.

One thing that I was kind of iffy about was Inej’s refusal to kill--but I thought it might be something they were planning to work into her overall character arc, and they did. It was the one line she hadn’t crossed--in the books, I��d imagine that it took a while for Inej to wind up at that point, being willing to kill on top of everything else. So I actually like that they worked that into the Crows plotline, and Inej killing for the first time was to save Kaz’s life.

Just like Kaz’s first selfless act was to save her.

(He’d deny it, of course. He protects his investments. He needed her for the job. But the truth is, he did it for her. And he’d do it again. Even if he’d never admit it.)

Meanwhile, Nina and Matthias’ storyline was pretty much note-for-note according to their backstory as it was revealed in Six of Crows, and I loved every second of it. Their chemistry was perfect, their journey from enemies to begrudging allies to friends to maybe something more (Matthias’ stomach cockblocking them when they were about to kiss had me fucking SCREAMING AT THE TV, and then of course the whole ‘betraying him to save him’ thing happened and I sobbed), and then suddenly right back to enemies.

Because from Matthias’ perspective, he trusted a witch--believed in her, liked her, wanted her--and she turned on him. He has no idea that she wasn’t the one who knocked him out in the first place, and no reason to believe her, because as far as he knows, she just confirmed everything he’d ever been told about Grisha. That they are deceitful and treacherous, would turn on you as soon as look at you, that they are dangerous and not to be trusted. It wasn’t revealed in-show but I imagine Matthias’ backstory is largely the same, which means that his entire family was slaughtered by Grisha when he was a young boy, and then he was turned into a brainwashed child soldier by the witch hunters and never knew anything else.

They are perfectly primed for their SoC arc next season and I, for one, am so stoked to see the rest of their journey. And if I slip Netflix a couple twenties, maybe they’ll let Helnik have a happy ending please please please.

Anyway, yeah! I have a lot of thoughts but things are still percolating in my head so I’ll probably float around the tags for a bit and let things settle. This is just a preliminary overview of my thoughts in the immediate aftermath of bingeing the entire show in one night kldfjghdkjfhgkjgf

EDIT TO ADD: I CAN’T BELIEVE I FORGOT ABOUT THE TRUE STAR OF THE SHOW, M I L O

MILO BEST BOY. MILO THE MVP. MILO DESERVES ALL THAT IS GOOD IN THE WORLD AND I HOPE HE LIVES A HAPPY AND HEALTHY AND FULL LITTLE GOAT LIFE.

[tetragon4-blog]

The Identity of Ano Kata

Today, I would like to reflect on an idea that came to me when I re-read some of the speculations about the Black Organization, and especially its boss, ano kata. Since I haven’t seen this theory floating around yet, I am claiming it as my own.

 It is possible that Aoyama has been misleading us intentionally: At the beginning, some people considered Vermouth aka Sharon Vineyard to be ano kata in secret, mainly because she is able to move more freely than her colleagues. However, the fandom discounted her altogether, after somebody sent her a text message that orders her back. Aoyama’s earlier hint that there is a relationship between the boss and Vermouth that exceeds employer and subordinate has since been forgotten. Few speculations take this into account, although it probably is NOT a red herring. She takes more liberties than the other members, she is not as afraid as them of being killed as punishment. It is likely that there is some form of attachment between her and the boss that is akin to a safety net should her deceit become known. I doubt that her gratefulness to Shinichi would be enough for her to risk her own life multiple times to save his.

Now, there is not much that we can say about Vermouth, because her identity is shrouded in darkness and lies. However, she is committed to one saying that might be the key to understanding her role in the black organization:

“A secret makes a woman woman.”

Keeping in mind that we are dealing with a mystery manga that incorporates fictional characters of Western stories, there is only one woman: Irene Adler whom Sherlock Holmes referred to as “the woman.” Although her role is very restricted in Doyle’s universe, she has been immortalized through countless adaptations, wriggling her way into the limelight. I can see some parallels between Adler and Vermouth, mainly her appeal, the cleverness, and of course, like Adler and Holmes’ first encounter, her first showdown with Conan was based on compromising pictures.

Now, there is a second oddity around Vermouth that is worth mentioning: She calls Conan and Akai silver bullets. This is a metaphor, of course, and the medium of comparison is their intention to take down the boss/organization. But there is another element to this curious phrase: Silver bullets take down werewolves. What if werewolf is a reference to the boss?

There is a non-canonical theory that Irene Adler had a child with Sherlock Holmes: Nero Wolfe, the detective of the eponymous novels. In Japanese, the pronunciation of were and Nero are very close to one another, because the w is not realized as as a /v/ sound as in violence, but rather as the ou in the French oui. The l and r are basically the same sound, and due to that, werewolf and Nero Wolfe are almost homophones (words that have the exact same pronunciation).

Since Adler is the “mother” of Nero Wolfe, this leaves us with two possible readings:

1.       Vermouth was ano kata at one point, but lost the position, making the organization her brain “child”, respectively

2.       Ano kata is literally her child.

3.       Possibility 1 and 2 are not mutually exclusive.

 Before I go any further down the rabbit hole, I would like to address the relationship between Vermouth and the boss once more. We know that their interests diverge, pointing towards the fact that they are different people: On one hand, Vermouth is attempting to protect Conan, on the other hand the boss encourages Bourbon to get close to Mouri. It is not clear whether there is an open disagreement between Vermouth and ano kata, or whether she is going along with the situation. However, the two of them are distinct people with different goals, no matter how they are related to one another.

  In fact, it is quite likely that the original boss who started the research on APTX is not the current ano kata. Unless they are stuck like Vermouth, the person would have to be at least 70, if not 80 years old, because the BO began investigating aging processes more than half a century ago. Few is known about their initial interest, and I am deliberately vague on this term. So far, we have had the shrinking effect, which seems to revert its victims to youth. Then there’s Vermouth who stopped aging. It is possible that, at some point, the organization researched how to age up people’s cells until they die, too. Assuming that Vermouth was at most a victim of the earlier experiments, that would render her about 70 years of age, and a child of hers 50 years at max. However, her hatred of the Miyano family may hint at their involvement in her condition. Since Ai’s parents took over the research project about 30 years before the current timeline, that would make Vermouth at most 50 years of age, and put a child at about 30 years. This is actually a curious timing, because I deduced in Vermouth’s Curse that “she has looked 28 years of age since at least since 21 years ago”. This would put her at 49 “lived” years. If Nero Wolfe refers to a biological child of hers, then it would be less than 30 years of age.

There is also some evidence of a change in leadership when you consider the muddy history of APTX: The “first” boss seemed to be very interested in the project, so much as to involve a foreign researcher without ties into the organization (Miyano Elena) and her husband. Yet, after the lab burnt down about 17 years ago, the project was scrapped entirely. At first glance, it might seem like all research data was lost in the fire, but Ai claims that when she took over, the organization provided her with the past results. There was no reason not to employ other researchers in the following years. Yet, the project was put on indefinite halt.

It is actually possible to pinpoint a rough date as to when a change in leadership might have occurred: Five years before the current timeline, the organization suddenly reached out to Shiho, and groomed her to continue her parents’ work. Their interest in the project suddenly pops up again. Also, for the first time, we may safely conclude the purpose of the research, because Pisco comments that Shiho managed to advance the project when he sees her child-like form. APTX is supposed to regain youth, not just stop the aging process like it did with Vermouth. It is not about re-creating that effect.

As such, it is likely that the boss’ identity changed roughly five years ago.

  Now, if we assume that Sharon was actually Vermouth’s real identity, because her supposed age matches the age I determined through logical conclusions:

Her husband might have been the real deal, too.

As such, we need to re-evaluate our information concerning Chris Vineyard, the supposedly alter ego of Sharon.

  Yes, I am finally at the stage where I may proudly state my theory: Sharon’s supposedly fictional daughter Chris is ano kata. She took over after ceding her identity to her mother who approached the end of her ability to mask her lack of aging.

Of course, there is no proof, but there are certain aspects that point towards the fact that it is POSSIBLE.

1.       The song Nanatsu no Ko that is associated with the boss is about a mother crow feeding her chicks. Crow is a homophone of the Japanese word Kuro, which means black. It is not farfetched to assume that ano kata is female, because the phone number may belong to the “mother” of the black organization.

2.       Chris is supposed to be 29 years old. Thus, she fits the profile.

3.       It is difficult for people to completely shield their private life. Sharon had been in the public eye for about 20 years, because she was already famous when she met Yukiko at Toichi’s. Depending on this calculation, Chris would have been nine years old, and Sharon cannot have posed as a child due to the different body structure. Either Chris appeared out of nowhere as an adult, or there must have been a child at some point.

4.       In an interview, Chris once claimed that the relationship with her mother is strained. This might have been a cheap lie to explain that they were never seen together in the same place (being the same person), or maybe there is a grain of truth in this statement: Vermouth’s relationship with ano kata is strained, too, after all.

5.       It would explain ano kata’s interest in regaining youth. She now is older than her own mother, being 29 while her mother appears to be around 25 years of age. It would also explain why Vermouth is dead-set against the boss finding out about the shrinking effect. She may not wish her own fate on her daughter, having to watch as everybody else withers and dies.

  I really would like a twist like this to become canon, because the manga is dragging it out, and if the reveal fails to be surprising, it would be quite disappointing. Also, a female boss would fit with Aoyama’s tendency to represent women in power positions, which is rare in shounen manga.