tetradynasty

[tetradynasty]

I am either piecing some things together, or I’m just hallucinating widely.

So Yura’s stated goal is to wield the Shinuichi. I believe him, but I also believe that that’s only the wind-up to his actual plan. You don’t plot and scheme for half a decade how to steal a nuke unless you want to actually use that nuke for something.

Before this chapter his actions… didn’t really make sense? He stole the swords, but then just sat on them for three years. Didn’t even train up some kid on Cloud Gouger, only randomly giving it away when he was about to kick it into high gear. You can try and explain that as wanting to stay low key, but that doesn’t ring right to me. Then he straight up tries to sell the Shinuichi, knowing it will just go right back to the Kamunabi. Why?

It doesn’t make sense if Yura just wants power. There’s simpler ways, using the resources he already has. No, I think he’s after something baser. Revenge.

Yura spends three years breaking the seal on the Shinuichi. This is not so that he can wield it. This is so that the original sword bearer can.

That sounds crazy. What could that even accomplish? The sword bearer is implied to have completed the Geneva checklist, and is such a war criminal that the Kamunabi straight up locks him up instead of putting him on house arrest like all the others. The only thing he’ll do if he gets his hand on the sword is murder a whole bunch of civilians.

Which is exactly what Yura wants to happen. He set Sojo loose, wanting him to use Cloud Gouger to break the public image of the wielders as heroes. Sojo falls, but Yura has more shots.

Next, he reaches out to Samura. The Shinuichi is back in the hands of the government, which means at any time they could decide, “you know, maybe war crimes aren’t so bad” and give the Shinuichi back to its master in the hope to use their weapon again. Samura won’t stand for that, and suddenly there’s two of the wielders duking it out in the streets. More damage to the Kamunabi’s image.

If Yura can manipulate Samura to kill enough sword bearers while he has control of the swords, he might be able to kill Samura when they turn on each other immediately after the last bearer dies, then he’s out scot free.

And so every sword bearer is dead, the smith who made the swords is dead, and the government that propped up them all up as heroes is dead.

If Yura really is a member of the losing side of the war, that could be how he wants his revenge.

And I think it would just be top notch for both the protagonist and the main antagonist to be primarily motivated by revenge.

[tetradynasty]

So, chapter 57 drops some big revelations.

Samura is likely the traitor, Uruha is likely dead, and everything has gone wrong.

But I think the biggest question after all that is:

“What the fuck happened in the War?”

In universe and out of universe, everyone has been very vague about the war, likely on purpose. We know it ended fifteen years ago, shortly before Chihiro was born, we know it made Rokuhira famous as a hero along with the swordbearers, and we know Japan was losing until Rokuhira made the swords.

And we know it was bad.

It seems like a bit of a joke at first, to have Shiba, Samura, and Uruha all go, “No, I’m not the hero, Rokuhira is the real hero”, but what happened to make them disdain any pretenses of being a hero? What did they do?

The Kamunabi propaganda’d everything about the war after it was done. It’s described as hell on earth by the people that fought there, and it sure as hell looks it.

But all the people hear about it is, “Rokuhira crafted six blades that led us to victory over the enemy.”

They don’t know that apparently everyone who fought in it, low to high, apparently came back with PTSD. They don’t know that it permanently fractured Rokuhira’s trust in the government.

I think most damning is that we don’t know what “victory over the enemy” looks like.

So what happened in the war?

My guess is that once Japan started winning, they were not merciful in victory. The sword bearers murdered countless soldiers. They reflected every loss back two-fold.

And I don’t think it stopped there.

The Kamunabi have been shown to not care about what’s right. They only care about what keeps them in power. But even they locked up the Shinuichi’s user where all the other sword bearers just got house arrest.

Either on the orders of the government or on his own, I think that the wielder of the Shinuichi committed genocide. Wiped out a significant fraction of whoever this “enemy” was. And after all that, after all the death and destruction, everyone came back to cheers and applause. To being called “heroes”.

I think that Samura just couldn’t swallow that. I think he wants the truth to come out, no matter what he has to do to achieve that. And so he makes a deal with Yura (who may be a survivor from the other side of the war?) to break this lie.

I think that whatever happens next, the Kamunabi is not coming out of it in one piece. They’ve made too many enemies.

But I’m excited to watch the fireworks.

[tetradynasty]

Hakuri is such a funny character.

Dude latched onto the first guy he saw act like a hero and decided right then and there that he was ride or die for Chihiro. He has no social skills from being both a rich kid and growing up horribly abused. He constantly gets into fight he has no chances of winning.

He’s very cute, lovable, and very much serves as a wacky counterpart to Chihiro.

And he is also a self-made orphan.

Hakuri was the one to provide information on all his family, Hakuri is the one that put down Soya, and Hakuri is the one that kept pushing Chihiro to not hold back.

The conclusion to the whole Rakurazachi arc was not, “Hakuri is fundamentally a good person, and because of that he was able to bring down this horrible practice.”

No, it was “God damn, Hakuri would have made an excellent human trafficker!”

Kagurabachi really likes playing with how being silly, is not the same thing as being safe. Shiba is a loving uncle, does bad comedy routines with Chihiro, and he will casually torture people to get what he wants. He is also probably a war criminal.

It’s definitely a neat parallel to have the protagonist be a warm, empathetic person who puts on a mask of a cold, uncaring killer, while nearly everyone surrounding him acts like warm and friendly, while being stone cold at heart.

[tetradynasty]

I don’t think enough people talk about how for as much as Chihiro is Hakuri’s first and only friend, the same is true in reverse. Chihiro technically lived in even more of a cage than Hakuri, it’s just that his father wasn’t horribly abusive. You just know that Chihiro wasn’t allowed outside of the property where he could be kidnapped and used as leverage. The only people that he saw was his father and Shiba, for pretty much all of his childhood. Is it any surprise that he latched onto Hakuri just as quickly as Hakuri latched onto him?

I’m sure it didn’t hurt that Chihiro looks so similar to the girl that Hakuri was implied to be falling in love with. I 100% don’t believe that yaoibachi will become real, but it would absolutely hilarious if it did.

[tetradynasty]

My favorite piece of kagurabachi slander that I’ve seen is that the reason the technology level is so weird is because the author is a zoomer who doesn’t understand history. “Yeah, this is way in the past, set in the 50s, so they didn’t have iphones back then. They had flip phones tho, right? And they hadn’t invented guns yet, they only had swords.”

[tetradynasty]

So, the most recent arc of UU has fired off some sparks in my head.

I think that Nico and Ichico and their whole tragedy mirrors Rip, Latla, and Leila’s tragedy to a fair extent.

The broad strokes are the same in loop 100. The will-be negators are deeply in love with someone who dies shortly after they awaken their Negations. Rip and Latla actually cause the death with their powers, while Nico just gets his incidentally, but it’s close enough.

I think that in Loop 100, both of their arcs are excellent. Heartbreaking and emotional in all the best ways, we’re slowly dripfed information about Rip and Latla’s tragedy throughout the first 100 chapters, while Nico’s gets done in only a couple of chapters. Both work well in my opinion, and the way that tragedy only begets more tragedy sets up the foundation for the complete renewal that is Loop 101.

But unfortunately for me, I think that the Rip and Latla arc in 101 stumbles a fair bit.

I feel like this boils down to one major flaw. Leila isn’t so much a character as she is a plot device.

In loop 100, Leila is the lost Lenore. Her personality didn’t matter, only the effect it had on Rip and Latla.

And frankly, it was fine that way.

I think that spending time and effort on fleshing out Leila’s character in loop 100 would have been a waste of pages, as well as a hit to the pacing. She’s a posthumous character. It’s fine if she’s a bit flat. It’s not like she’s ever gonna show up again.

And then loop 101 comes around. Whoops.

I think Tozuka had a really difficult task here. Rip and Latla have been extremely important side characters throughout loop 100. More time has been taken to examine their motivations and dig into who they are as characters, than pretty much anyone outside of Andy, Fuuko, Juiz, or Billy. And now Tozuka needs to essentially introduce a new character and have her feel just as important and complicated as Rip and Latla, enough to make you think that this duo is actually be a trio.

And he tries his best?

Leila is a sweet love interest, and she adds in a different perspective on how Rip should act as a hero.

But that’s the problem.

The heart of Rip’s storyline in 100 is not about Leila. It’s about his failure to be a hero.

It’s hammered in over and over again that he wants to be a hero, but has forced himself to be a villain, all so that he can save Leila. He mutilates himself, makes bad decisions, and only digs himself deeper and deeper. This intertwines beautifully with Latla’s feelings of guilt as she serves as his accomplice, and how it’s warped their relationship in a way they never would have wished.

This storyline continues into loop 101, with the climax being that Latla prevents him from taking that first step down the path of villainy, forcing him to share his pain with Latla, and not simply take it all upon himself.

And then in chapter 183 Rip says, “no, actually my story was all about me being in a love triangle.”

And that’s just… wrong?

In Loop 100, the Rip/Latla ship has long since been sunk. They flirt with each other, but it’s with the knowledge that Rip’s real love is Leila. Loop 100 ends with Rip quite literally choosing Leila over Latla, when he kills Latla for the chance to ride the Ark.

In Loop 101, the Rip/Latla ship isn’t even brought up until chapter 183. Then everybody brings up how sad it is that he can only choose one person, and how it has to be one or the other, and so on.

Rip’s decision is fine in a vacuum. My problem with it is that there’s been no build up for it in Loop 101. His sudden resolution that “no, I love them both equally” feels completely out of place. The was a single chapter about how close they were as children, but it didn’t read as romantic to me. It more read as a coming of age than anything else.

I think that the Loop 101 arc could have been better tackled in a couple different ways.

First, just get rid of the love triangle. Leave the Rip/Latla ship as platonic and end it with Rip marrying Leila. Simplest, quickest way to resolve it without changing a lot.

A second way would be to add in a chapter or two focusing on Leila, to try and stop her from being such a flat character. Have her talk with Fuuko about growing up a recluse, have her talk with Rip about what he should do after she dies, something like that. And then, she needs to have a talk with Latla, where she brings up Rip as a romantic interest for her. Whatever conclusion they make, whether Leila says the two should get together when she’s dead, or if Latla says they’ll compete once Leila is cured, it doesn’t really matter. There just needs to be something there to build upon.

Lastly, the real wacky way would be to give Leila her own Negation. Give her Undefinition or Unbalance and induct her into the wider cast of Negators. Have Rip marry her, then over time, broach the subject of including Latla as well. This would allow for more time to handle the development as opposed to just speed running it all in one arc.

And all that brings me to Nico and Ichico and their current arc.

We’re still in the opening stages of the Loop 101 Nico and Ichico arc, but I’m already liking it a lot more than the Rip and Latla arc.

Part of it is because the ground work for it has already been seeded, with Ichico being a full character in her own right from practically the start of loop 101. There’s her development of astral projection, and the effects that has on their relationship, and all the little ways she and Nico interact in the background.

What really interests me is Ichico taking a potshot at fridging.

I’m referring to the trope of killing off female characters, solely for the effect that it has on men, usually their romantic partners. Tozuka is a pretty big fan of this trope. It happens to Billy and his wife, Rip and Leila, Shen and his sister, and of course, Nico and Ichico.

I’m really looking forward to seeing if Tozuka is going to touch more on Ichico refusing to die, and maybe tie it in to how Nico gets his ability in loop 101.

Also, I think there’s something interesting in how in Loop 100, when Nico has to choose between Ichico and the Union, he chooses Ichico, but in Loop 101, Fuuko chooses to put Ichico and Nico’s happiness over the needs of the Union.

[tetradynasty]

please don’t Usagi Drop me please don’t Usagi Drop me please please please fucking hell

So I started reading Kill Blue recently, and I have to admit I didn’t have the greatest opinion of it going in. A manga about a 35 year old assassin who randomly gets turned into a middle schooler and has to go to school sounds like a great setup for the absolutely horrible edgy schlock-fest. But I have to admit it’s growing on me. I’m still cautiously waiting for the other shoe to drop, what with the way one of the middle-schoolers is being teased as a love interest, but he’s a fun protagonist.

[tetradynasty]

So I started reading Kill Blue recently, and I have to admit I didn’t have the greatest opinion of it going in. A manga about a 35 year old assassin who randomly gets turned into a middle schooler and has to go to school sounds like a great setup for the absolutely horrible edgy schlock-fest. But I have to admit it’s growing on me. I’m still cautiously waiting for the other shoe to drop, what with the way one of the middle-schoolers is being teased as a love interest, but he’s a fun protagonist.

[tetradynasty]

So, one thing that I’ve seen is people wondering why Fuuko seems to be doing a lot better in this last time loop than Juiz did in her own, especially considering she had 99 previous loops to practice with.

I think that there’s actually a lot of reasons why.

First, the loop itself. The first 20 loops or so were probably pretty useless. By that, I mean that loops without all of the master rules or any of the foundational ones, like kindness or burn, were probably incomparable to modern loops. There would be so many differences that information you gained there would be flat out wrong in later loops. I like to imagine a scenario where in an early loop Juiz and Victor try to prevent Burn from ever being added to try and depower the Sun.

Then there would be the one-off loops where something went wrong, completely dooming the loop. Somebody killed Tell, and now everyone is mute. Or Juiz trusted the wrong person and they rebelled against her. And you know Unluck ruined at least one loop from how much she wanted Fuuko dead.

Also about the loops, we know there is a bit of variance. The author’s deliberately been a bit vague on how much stays the same vs what differs, but people can be born later or earlier, in different places, and that can really fuck up a plan dependent on careful timing. Trying to recruit negators or manipulate events can pretty easily fail if they appear a couple years before you think they would. The missions are different too, so a mission that’s a cakewalk one loop could kill everyone sent to clear it the next. There’s no relying on a scripted plan, you have to be prepared to improvise a lot.

And speaking of plans, there’s also the underlying goal that Juiz has throughout her loops. It’s not actually to kill God. It’s to make the next loop more capable of killing God. Because her biggest advantage is the ability to carry over knowledge, and unfortunately, a low chance of killing God just isn’t worth it when it means she’ll lose all the knowledge she’s gained if she dies and can’t loop. This means that she can’t take huge risks. Staying alive and keeping all her knowledge is her highest priority.

And one of those risks that she doesn’t take is increasing the size of the Roundtable.

The bigger the roundtable, the longer they have to survive against God. During Ragnarock, we see the process of God reaching Earth takes about one minute. So if Juiz is the only member, that means that it is impossible for God to stop her from looping. With Victor as a guard, that time limit can reasonably be increased by a few minutes, so they can add a few more people. But any longer, and it no longer becomes a guarantee. And that means that Juiz has to deliberately fail any mission that adds seats, to not overstretch.

Now that she’s deliberately failing missions, that puts a hard time limit on how far she can get into a loop before Ragnarock occurs. And that’s not counting any missions that may fail for reasons out of her control, such as underlings getting suspicious of their leader who keeps on trying to fail missions.

And that’s where it starts coming down to human nature, and what I think is the biggest reason Juiz isn’t as successful.

Juiz and Victor aren’t as empathetic as Fuuko and Andy are.

UU is a shonen manga at the end of the day, and there’s a big focus on how teamwork and connecting with other people is the best way to overcome your problems. And Juiz and Victor aren’t going out and building the team they need, because of who they are as a person.

They have reasons for this, of course. Victor is overprotective, stubborn, and willing to sacrifice countless other people to protect Juiz. She’s the only person he cares for after so many others have left him, and is the only person that can understand what he’s gone through. Billions of years of suffering have worn away any softness he might have, any desire to reach out to others.

Juiz has gone through everything along with Victor, with the addition of the fact that Unjustice is implied to only work on people she doesn’t like/hates. So she is encouraged to dislike people she meets, in order to not be defenseless against them.

However, it’s not just all of the disadvantages that Fuuko no longer has to deal with. There’s all the advantages in this loop, that come from everything Juiz has done to increase their odds.

Juiz was the one that put G-Liner into the loop, which allowed Anno Un to save Fuuko in loop 100 and Fuuko to grab a bunch of artifacts in loop 101, creating Andy eventually led to Andy restraining all the master Rules and preventing them from fucking things up before the Union was ready to fuck them up which Victor refused to do, and lastly there’s all the general training and knowledge she gave Fuuko.

So I guess what I’m saying is that yes, Fuuko is doing better than Juiz did. However, that’s based on a hundred loops of Juiz’s hard work.

[tetradynasty]

This little bit right here is one of my favorites in all of UU, and it makes me sad because everyone else just seems to gloss over it.

Sure, forced child support feng is pretty funny, but everyone ignores the whole, “Baby Shen swore to kill himself if Feng didn’t save his sister too.”

Shen is such a great character because he is, in professional terms, kinda fucked up. And it’s an excellent continuation from the last loop where we see, no, Feng didn’t cause him to be fucked up. He definitely did some damage, but there was something wrong (affectionate) with the boy from the start.

Cause just imagine how it plays out.

Feng is trundling along, getting in fights and winning handily, just doing asshole things, when he comes across a tiny boy named Shen who just got his ass beat in a martial arts tournament. Something clicks. This is the kid Fuuko told him about. If he teaches this kid, then he can fight Fuuko again. He can finally live his dream.

So he marches right up to the kid, says “You’re coming with me.”, throws him over his shoulder, and fucking takes off. This kid is yelling, screaming at Feng to put him down, Feng ignores the kid since he’s an asshole, and they eventually arrive at Feng’s house.

Feng drops the kid, and he immediately tries to attack Feng. Feng just brushes it off with a laugh and slaps him down, cause he’s an asshole. Rejoice, he tells the kid, because I am going to train you to become the strongest in the world.

The kid tells him to shove it up his ass. He’s going back to his sister.

Feng’s kinda dumbfounded. He didn’t even conceive of the idea that kidnapping this random kid and trying to train him wouldn’t work out well.

The kid says, fuck you, fuck your training, and fuck the horse you rode in on, my sister needs me.

So of course, Feng gets angry at this point.

He’s looming over the kid, a pure wall of muscle and bad intentions. He says, you are not leaving. You will shut up, do as I say, and you will enjoy it.

The kid attacks him again, and Feng’s a little impressed. Still a terrible idea, of course. Feng puts him down with a single punch. Cause he’s an asshole.

Why, the kid asks. Why me?

I made a promise. Feng replies, seeing no reason to lie. I swore to a woman named Fuuko Izumo that I would raise you. In return, she will fulfil my greatest wish.

The kid’s on the ground, leaking blood. He’s covered in bruises and cuts, he’s wheezing, and in no shape to do anything.

Okay, he says. I’ll let you raise me. But here’s my condition. You have to raise my sister too.

Feng doesn’t bother to laugh. No, he replies. Because he’s an asshole, and why would he want to raise a second brat on top of this one?

The kid looks Feng in the eyes, and he’s startled by what he sees. He sees eyes a lot like his own. The eyes of the dragon.

“If you don’t raise my sister, then I’ll kill myself.”

Feng blinks.

I’ll do it when you’re not looking. Or in the middle of the night. I’ll throw myself off a cliff. You think this woman of yours is gonna be happy if she comes back to find my dead body?, the kid taunts him.

Feng’s taken aback and it shows on his face.

You’re bluffing, he tells the boy.

You wanna find out? the boy shoots back.

Feng is an asshole. He can beat this kid black and blue. Keep an eye on him at all times. Scare the kid into staying alive.

Or he can go get the sister.

And in the end, begrudgingly and complaining the whole time, he makes the right decision. And in the back of his mind he wonders, is this what Fuuko meant?

Is this what it means to care for others, with an unwavering heart?

[tetradynasty]

Zero Escape is such a funny franchise because the first game is mostly pretty grounded, but has a kinda high concept twist to reframe the act of playing through a visual novel and seeing other narratives as an in-universe plot point.

And then the sequels go absolutely bugfuck wild with that twist, to the point where to combat an evil suicide cult that is trying to kill the world, one of the main characters essentially makes their own suicide cult to fight the evil suicide cult.

You just gotta laugh at some point.

[tetradynasty]

Undead Unluck Theory

Feng’s Character Arc isn’t over - Possible Unfade Evolution

I’ve been thinking about this theory for a while and with chapter 191 partly confirming something for me I think it’s time to write it down.

Basically: Start Investing in Feng Kowloon stocks.

Major Spoiler Warning all the way up to chapter 191 of the manga. 

This theory initially spawned after chapter 177 came out. More specifically, it spawned from the spread panel that showcased the current union members (minus Chikara, Sean, and Yusai who were shown to be in the operating room with Latla and Rip).

Here it was shown that Feng was not with the other union members. Earlier it was hinted that he didn’t join because he wasn’t with them when the group time skipped from 1999 to 2015.

At the time I had suspected that Feng simply hadn’t time traveled with everyone else and had used those 15 years to train (taking advantage of Unfade) and might’ve rejoined later, but no, turns out he hasn’t joined the Union at all.

Which made me ask this: why didn’t Feng join the union? It would’ve been easy for Tozuka to write a little panel or two where Fuuko could’ve said, “ok sorry I lied to you, I promise this time we’ll fight monsters this time though” and Feng could’ve begrudgingly agreed to join at that point.

The thing with Undead Unluck is that Tozuka has a habit of constantly setting up minor plot details and then giving them major payoffs later on. It’s one of the best parts of the manga’s writing in my opinion. So I believe Feng not joining the union at this point of time was a very deliberate writing choice on the author's part.

So with that in mind, let’s get started.

Current Quest Rounds

Currently, there are four quests active.

Let’s take out “Capture of UMA Burn”. It's not relevant for this theory. What matters for this theory are the quests for Language, Beast, and Summer.

Language and Beast have relevance because of their rewards. Four extra seats added to the round table means four negators can participate on quests. But that’s all they can offer for this topic.

Summer, on the other hand, is extremely important. Because in loop 100, Summer was the exact quest Feng got his formal debut in.

My prediction is that in a direct parallel to loop 100, the 101 version of the Summer quest is where we’re going to get reintroduced to Feng, and probably get told that he’s been up to for the last fifteen or so years.

What follows is that one of the union members will tell Feng about the Sick fight, to which he will be extremely disappointed to have missed out on. It’s at this point that upon learning there’s more of these extremely strong UMAs that he’ll go, “Fine, you win Fuuko Izumo, I’ll join your Union.”

My guess is that, assuming that Fuuko successfully recruits the five negators Andy led her to, the open seats will go as following:

- Feng

- Top

- Tatiana

- Latla/Julia

This is because the first three are more suited to go straight into combat roles. As for Latla and Julia, I think the last seat could go to either one of them. It depends on whether Julia manifests Unjustice during this quest period but if she doesn’t, Latla can now fight directly due to being equipped with one half of Blade Runner.

This would leave Ichico, Nico, Kururu, Haruka, Bunny and Julia/Latla (aka the one who didn’t get the seat) as support members until new seats are rewarded.

It’s extremely important to note that at this point Feng isn’t part of the Union because he cares about protecting people or saving the world. Despite him acknowledging Shen as his son, Feng still prioritizes his quest of being the strongest more.

Unfade Intermission (AKA Billy Would Kick Feng's Ass if they fought Right Now)

This is where I talk about my thoughts of Unfade because this is where it would flow best.

(I am also going to put a quick disclaimer that this isn’t an invitation for power scaling arguments as they don’t have any relevance here.)

Anyway, Unfade, Feng’s negation ability. In Feng’s character bio in the volume 8 extras Unfade is described as a self-targeting compulsory activation type. “An ability that Negates aging after activation.”

… aaaand that’s all Unfade can do, really. 

In fact, Unfade stands out from other negation powers because from what we’ve been shown it has no viability in combat. I think the only negation that shares this trait is Unsleep. The reason Feng is such a threatening person has to do almost entirely with his years of cultivating his skills as a martial artist (granted, having an ageless, unfading body which is forever at peak condition probably does help a lot but I digress). It’s worth noting that if Unfade had been given to almost any other person, they wouldn’t nearly be as dangerous as Feng is.

It is my belief that within the current negators, you take out their powers and make them fight purely hand to hand as normal humans? Feng comes out the strongest, if not pretty damn close to it.

However, the second that negation powers are added into the fray, Feng would lose his title as the strongest, and he would lose that title very quickly. In a negator fight with, say, Billy, he wipes the floor with Feng, easily. Feng having no idea how negator powers work is how Fuuko was able to keep him in check for so long in loop 101.

In UU, negation powers don’t get stronger via traditional training. In order to level up, the negator in question has to expand their interpretation of their powers.

By expanding their interpretation, this typically leads to the negator having a journey of self discovery about themselves. Inherently due to this system, a lot of times this means that negators evolving their powers tend to be directly tied into character development. It’s a neat system! One of my favorite power systems in SJ because of how naturally it ties together with the narrative.

But for Feng? This is the literal worst thing for him. Because even though he’s a legendary martial artist, Feng has a terrible understanding of people. He’s the least emotionally intelligent person among the negators, and it’s not even close. Shen, who was raised by Feng for around twenty years, notes that Feng’s unending pursuit of strength hasn’t brought him any sense of fulfillment and that Feng himself isn’t even self aware of that fact.

Feng didn’t even realize he even had a negation tragedy until 150 years after his ability manifested. Even then, Shen (who, for the record, only found out about negations like… 15  minutes prior), had to spell it out to Feng.

Throughout loops 100 and 101, we’ve seen how differently negation abilities can evolve. Negation abilities so far have tend to have fallen in three ways:

It has direct ties into character development and how they evolve as people (Unluck, Unchange, Unseen)

It has manifested differently due to the wildly different circumstances between loops (Unfair)

The negator have found ways to work around what would be entirely detrimental abilities to make them useable to get through day to day life (Unsleep, Untell)

The idea that Unfade has never evolved since manifestation ties pretty well with how stagnant Feng has been as a person throughout most of his life. In fact, while the circumstances of manifestation are different, Feng 100 getting UF as an old man vs Feng 101 getting UF when he was around his twenties, the ability itself hasn’t changed at all. Which definitely isn’t unique but it is worth noting, I feel.

Master Rule VII

Remember at the beginning of this post that stated chapter 191 partly confirmed something to me? Yeah that’s relevant now. This was the big clincher that inspired me to write this giant theory. 

Right now we don’t know exactly what Master Rule VII represents exactly (it’s possible “Time Defense” is just an attack name just like how Andy uses “Crimson Bullet"), however he is absolutely heavily time based if not outright time. My top prediction for him is that he’s UMA Time or Fade. (For simplicity’s sake, this theory will use “VII” when it comes to referring to him.)

Anyway, assuming that we’re going in order of counting down, then naturally VII is next in the line up. Feng's first round as a union member means he’s conveniently part of the quest period where, chances are, he might be a hard counter to the UMA that represents time in some capacity, as Unfade negates the passage of time affecting his body. Everyone in the Roundtable comes to this conclusion as well and thus Feng is signed up for the quest for the neutralization of VII. In this scenario, Shen would also be one of the negators in this quest, this is going to be extremely important. 

However as the actual fight begins, Feng turns out to not be a perfect counter to VII for one reason or another. This fight would end up being a struggle for everyone involved because VII would presumably use his time abilities to avoid hits and disorient everyone by time lagging them like how he did to Andy in 191.

During this fight, Shen is going to be in danger, and possibly get hit with a fatal injury before he can even react. Feng, witnessing this, is going to have one thought in his head, “Shen is going to die.” “My son is about to die.”

And at that moment Feng recalls what Fuuko believes the meaning of being the strongest:

“Those who care for others with an unwavering heart have always been the strongest people around.”

And Feng, after decades of not knowing what she meant, finally realizes what Fuuko was trying to tell him. And this, in turn, causes Unfade to evolve. 

Interestingly, Feng back in loop 100 is stated to figure out how souls worked, but this hasn’t come up since. 

And I think this would be a great opportunity to fire that Chekhov’s Gun, because my friend (who also reads the manga) gave a really cool possibility on how Unfade could evolve into a combat viable ability by combining the idea of Feng mastering using his soul in combat. The basic idea follows that by unleashing his soul in his impacts he would be able to make strikes that don’t fade away. Tying into the idea of how he only unlocks Unfade’s true potential when he opens himself up to the more metaphorical version of “the impact he has on others” and vice versa.

(Of course this is just one idea of how Unfade could evolve, I just really like this idea because it ties with UU’s constant video game analogies, with Unfade’s evolution being akin to a damage multiplier like when you get a really good combo in a fighting game. Basically Tozuka would acknowledge Feng’s a giant Tekken reference).

I know that negation abilities are classified with external or self targeting, but Sean alone proves that if you bend the rules enough, you can get away with not following those classifications to the letter.

Either way, this upgrade leads Feng to turn the tides against VII and complete the quest in a way that leads to the Union getting away without casualties. Maybe as a bonus we get Feng making a Shen-esq joke (like "Your rules are outdated, you old coot" or smth) to tie how much influence both of them have had on each other. Also ideally Feng stops having the emotional intelligence of a goldfish and trying to fight Fuuko at a drop of a hat but that might be asking for too much, honestly. 

After the fight Feng would finally drop his tsundere bullshit and admits out loud (and to himself) that yes, he cares for Mei and Shen not just because they’re his disciples but because he genuinely loves them as family.

This would also be the point he’s marked as a true member of the Union because he now wants to protect his family.

[tetradynasty]

I think that the new chapter is a lot of fun, it’s setting up some themes that are definitely gonna get tackled with UMA Beast, and the art is excellent. I’m just kinda wondering whether they’ll address why Haruka didn’t immediately pay for Top’s mom to get treated after he got Unbreakable. Cause, like, the Union’s richer than god. They can pay for it. Rip could probably do it himself.

If the author does, I bet it’ll be something about Top not trusting them, but honestly I think a weak explanation is worse than no explanation in this case. Rule of cool has always been the only rule that UU follows. Just ignore how turning off the sun for five minutes would kill everyone on earth and cheer at our protagonists for walking on the surface of the sun. Ignore why the Union didn’t step in and just enjoy our new badass Brazilian who can double-jump.

[tetradynasty]

Queen’s Quality is such a funny Shoujo manga because one of the conceits is that there’s this psychic realm that people can enter and their form will change according to their self image and what is important to them. The Metaverse from Persona 5 is pretty similar. But the kicker is that there’s this one dude, kinda of a secondary character, who’s form changes to become a blonde girl with huge tits.

And this is just never remarked on.

Dude got introduced in the first ten chapters and still 70 chapters later there hasn’t even been a mention of “hey, what’s up with your self image as a girl?” I dunno whether this is a trans friendly moment or if the author just doesn’t know what transgender means.

What’s also hilarious is for such an otherwise sweet and sugary Shoujo, how downright villainous the leads’ powers are. The FeMC is rocking up to every early conflict with mind control powers going:

Meanwhile the Male MC is looking like a fucking villain, creating a network of sacrifices after becoming a sorta-god.

This motherfucker would be an early series villain in another manga.

And it is great.

[tetradynasty]

Harem protagonist Rip.

Also, this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I honestly would have liked it better if Rip had just married Leila and not Latla as well. I really enjoyed their dynamic in loop 100 where they seemed like lovers, but despite being flirty and affectionate, it was all essentially a mask for how desperately in love with Leila he still was. It was really humanizing and an example of platonic love versus the focus on romantic love that UU likes to show with everyone else.

[tetradynasty]

If Santa Muerte is telling me the truth the only way to save myself is to kill Mictlantecuhtli. If Mictlantecuhtli is telling me the truth, my only way out is to kill her. I’m being played, but I’m not sure which one is playing me.

So I’m going for Option C, which, let me tell ya, I’m a big fan of. Kill them both.

[tetradynasty]

“You have remarkable bladder control,” I say. “Be proud of that. Now get the fuck out of here.” I gun the engine, leaving the traumatized driver crying in the street.

The main character is a very friendly person.