Mostly serious literary analysis... plus some kuroshit, rp, and cosplay. Original home of the Mother3 theory for Kuro :) I tag spoilers as #spoilers and #kuro spoilers. *she/her, unless I'm cosplaying/rping Undertaker or Othello*
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Well, we get back to the present moment, and Modri finishes his tale.
But then things get weirder. Like... who or what causes the destruction?
There's a "cute" and "funny" moment when John Brown "laments" not getting a turn at the game. But we should know by now that cute and funny moments tend to hide darker and deeper meanings.
I'm waiting for the translation to confirm, but it looks like hotel staff kill a visitor, too, after the guests spilt up.
Ch228 will be out soon, and I've been thinking so much about Seb and Modri's demon, as well as Modri himself... but haven't posted much about it.
To summarize my thoughts/feelings about some stuff:
I'm hoping that Modri's demon is someone else, not Sebastian. Preferably, it would by John Brown, but it can be any other demon than Seb. I just don't see much point to hiding the guy's face or name -- or even drawing all this out so long -- if it's just going to really be Sebastian, after all. Of course, the plan is probably to make our earl think Seb is lying under contract, an apparent breach. In the confusion, their contract might end (which Undertaker would want to take advantage of), even if the confusion is quickly resolved.
Modri's brain might not be his own brain. I say this because the brain is where cinematic records are created and stored, but brains rot quickly, and Modri's corpse was out in the open long enough for flies to arrive and reproduce and (inexplicably, without doing much obvious damage) leave again. Horribly, the brain in his skull might have come from one of those orphans who "fledged". One of the "Mastiffs", I suppose, if Modri really gets "Polaris" blood. His corpse is collected long ago (maybe) but not reanimated until just recently, now that Undertaker has access to new technology and techniques.
Whether that (the brain not being his) is true or not, the cinematic records could actually be from just about any demon contractor from the late 18th century who had dealings with a demon traveling from Vienna. If that's the case, then Undertaker might have connections to an active reaper, after all. Othello might be as useless in a fight as he seems to be... but he might be good playing a double agent. The logo or symbol on Othello's lab coat is from the game Othello, originally called Reversi. You can flip the game pieces over, depending on who has control over those pieces....
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demons, death scythes and exorcists (a short post on my thoughts)
ch227 reveals something that made me 99% sure that demon in modriβs memories is not sebastian.
..what?
βmy impulsive comradeβ, βour weaknessββ¦ these demons are not working alone.
but a comrade. an impulsive one, at that. what an interesting word choice.
if other demons have this kind of view to each other then why does sebastian say heβs never had a friend if heβs had comrades and family?
also why would another demon impulsively tell humans how to make weapons that can destroy them? the kanji that make up this word for βimpulsiveβ (which more accurately means βon a whimβ or βeccentricβ) is interesting βdrunk, poisoned, spellboundβ and βlunatic, crazy, confusedβ because thereβs almost this connotation that this demon is looking down on that one for being strange enough to give a βweaknessβ of the demons to humans (a weakness he doesnβt seem to believe they have, thatβs also odd).
but this isnβt sebastian because he doesnβt seem to have any camaraderie with other demons. hell, he doesnβt seem to even know this group of exorcists existed because in the first volume he talks about human weaponry and this is what he says
if we take the clothing in the flashback as guidance, modri was alive presumably a 100 years ago.
anyway did nobody else pick up on the other demon being mentioned by modriβs demon that seemed to have helped humans build anti demon weaponry? why did that demon do that? did he want to help people out of curiosity? was it part of a contract where a human asked for a demonβs weakness? or was he just sick of living (did he want to dieβ¦ for some reason)? wait, can demons starve? can death scythes actually finish them off? also what of that weapon layla had that the death scythe couldnβt cut? are they related to the demon-hunting weapons these exorcists have? modri uses knives too and UT knows of the exorcists (and probably their weapons) since he finds modri after one of those battles (while wearing a suit and having a fresh scar)β¦
but hold on, if his scar is fresh, is this revival around the time he destroyed reaper HQ (1819~)? why did he revive an exorcist when sebastian and ciel werenβt even contracted yet? fucking claudia wasnβt even born yet (she was born in 1830), let alone vincent or the ciels. what the fuck is even going on
anyway i just wanted to mention what we know since thereβs so much we still donβt know. any thoughts?
I have lots of thoughts about these things, but your comment section is restricted π«, so I'll just reblog your post, with some of my thoughts under the cut.
β οΈ Long post β οΈ
By "comrades", this demon might simply mean other demons, perhaps with similar powers and/or a similar power level. They might not truly be comrades in the usual sense. As in they might not be friends and might not be working together as a team.
This demon doesn't actually call out just one other demon as impulsive. It says "one of my impulsive comrades"... not "an impulsive one among my comrades." The way it's phrased here doesn't mean there's one in particular who is deemed impulsive. It's one of who knows how many demons this one calls "impulsive". And it's trying to set itself apart from all of them.
Regarding telling humans about their (demons') weakness, it's suggesting there's just one weakness -- or, more specifically, that some impulsive demon claims there's one weakness -- and it's silver. If it's true that one demon has given away a supposed weakness, it's probably more like multiple demons have, over time, given away multiple supposed weaknesses. Likely, while under contract, a demon might be forced to divulge some weakness or other that one or another demon might have. Even if under oath to speak the truth, a demon can be dishonest by not stating the whole truth; they can say something that's true while omitting pertinent information. For example, a demon might say silver is their weakness, but they leave out the fact it's just their personal weakness. Or a demon might say silver is a weakness for demons... but leave out the fact it needs to be mixed with some other element or chemical compound to be effective.
Modri's demon calls these exorcists fools for believing a fellow demon who says silver is the (or a) weakness of theirs. Mocking them and calling them fools might be the attempt at complete disinformation here... not divulging silver to be a weakness.
When Sebastian compares the firearms of the late 19th century to those of the late 18th century, he's just talking about their regular firearms -- those used for killing other humans as well as for hunting/killing regular animals. He does not mention anything about weapons for killing (or exorcising) demons. Crossbows aren't firearms, anyway; they are shooting weapons that don't require combustible material, just mechanical tension. FYI, in the late 18th century and early 19th century, firearms still relied on a flintlock mechanism.... (There are two π€±π»3οΈβ£ links here. π)
There's nothing to suggest that demons literally starve, at least not to death. There's been a lot of conjecture within the fandom that they might starve to madness, though. Sebastian doesn't mind the possibility of waiting decades for his young contractor to finally exact his revenge. So they can go hungry a long time (by human standards) before they can be said to "starve". Is William's information about demons' eating habits and requirements even correct? Or are they just assumptions... or misinformation... or even disinformation? π€
Death scythes definitely can destroy demons. Grelle has no reason to lie about that when the two first battle each other. Apparently, if the blow from a death scythe hits just right, it will not only kill the demon but also annihilate its soul.
It's interesting you next bring up Layla's -- or Al's -- scissors. They do not use them against Ronald's death scythe head-on. They mess with the mechanics of the lawn mower, just like Sebastian messes with the mechanics of Grelle's chainsaw. Both death scythes have gruesome modifications, but both also have a major flaw: they have moving parts that can be jammed. Sebastian jams Grelle's chainsaw with a worsted wool coat, and Layla (or Al, by then) jams Ronald's cylinder lawn mower with a scissor blade. They are likely regular human-made scissor blades and not the same material as death scythes. However... the weapons used by the Roman Curia Exorcists might have something in common with death scythes. A particular alloy, perhaps? π€·π»ββοΈ Still, any weapon with moving parts can likely be jammed. That goes for crossbows and firearms, as well.
The timeline for Modri's death to collection then through repair to reanimation is exceptional. Undertaker collects his body and saves it for later use. π¬ He doesn't necessarily know when, where, why, or exactly how he will later use this corpse. However, he does seem to realize he can't put it to full use until he has greatly improved his skills and techniques. So, he collects it several decades ago, after Modri's remains have dried out, and probably just after he's deserted the reaper organization... but doesn't reanimate it until just recently. That doesn't mean Modri sits in dry storage for the entire duration. Undertaker might store him for a while but then slowly works to rehydrate, repair and rebuild Modri's body, making major improvements after collecting real Ciel's body... and then reanimates Modri's body (manipulates his cinematic records) once he thinks it's the appropriate time. That explains why we see Undertaker with fresh, stitched wounds and a bandage over his left eye when he's collecting this nearly mummified body... and then Modri "wakes up" to see Undertaker as he is at a very recent node or milestone along the main storyline. Because in the scene when "Modri" opens his eyes and sits up in that fluid-filled coffin, Undertaker is most definitely "modern" Undertaker. These "special coffins" exist as early as the Jack the Ripper arc, so while our earl is sitting on the coffin that holds his older brother's reanimated corpse, one of the other visitors to the funeral parlor might be sitting on the coffin that contains the not-yet-reanimated corpse of "Modri". So... no. Undertaker doesn't reanimate Modri's corpse before Claudia's, Vincent's, or even real Ciel's death. He just keeps Modri in his back pocket or up his sleeve, so to speak....
But... Modri's brain?!? That's another story. π
I'm working on posts that expand upon these thoughts. If it's okay with you, I can tag you in the comments. I also plan to add a link to this reblog in each of those posts.
This is the really interesting part of the chapter, to me.
Modri is trying to drag himself forward, despite bleeding out from what appears to be an amputated (ripped off, most likely) left leg. He might easily have other injuries, too, and we just saw him coughing up blood.
He stops moving, the bloody marks and even his tattoo fade away, and flies come to lay their eggs -- many of which have hatched. They seem to be coming out of a cut on his forearm. Then even the flies have gone, leaving him in a somewhat preserved state... with bone possibly showing where that cut had been. [I don't understand why his tattoo disappears or why his corpse would be so intact after the flies. I keep telling myself that maybe he dies in a place so hot that he doesn't rot before he dries out, but that simply cannot be the case because of the flies. In real life, they would have turned all his soft tissues to mush. I won't go into further detail, since it's very unpleasant to think about. But my educational background in biology has me internally screaming.]
Setting basic truths of reality aside for a while... Modri's corpse (what little we see of it) is now somewhat dried out, with what must be exposed bone on the forearm, just above the wrist. And we see a black shoe or boot come into view. It's accompanied by a shadow.
The boot and shadow belong to Undertaker, but this isn't the Undertaker we know. We don't even know what name he was using before, except 136649. But this scene seems to be after he's already escaped from the reaper organization. He is wearing a long black coat or robes, his hair is down, he's got the braid. However, he's wearing a suit and tie (with a regular knot, not the Eldridge Knot he uses at Weston), his "scars" look more like fresh wounds with noticeable stitches, and he's wearing a bandage over his left eye. The left eye is where his facial scar goes across and up to the hairline, so this suggests not only are they fresh wounds, but his left eye was probably also injured, not just the skin around it.
This is intriguing, since we know he half demolishes the reaper HQ around 1819 (the year Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were born, as well as the publication year for Ivanhoe, for which the name Cedric was invented). But there's a lot of speculation whether he left the organization at that time or he failed then but escaped later, possibly as late as 1830, 1837... or even 1839. And if he failed at first, was he "retrained" or something and then forced to work again? Either way, Othello's memories of 136649 don't seem to ever include him with scars or stitched wounds or a bandaged eye. So, it would make sense that he either gets wounded at the HQ when he tries to leave, or he gets these wounds later. Whatever causes wounds like that on a reaper, that's a very serious weapon. My ideas are either 1) it's a whip used by the "higher ups" at reaper HQ, or 2) it's cinematic records that got out of control . And then we have his hair down, with that long braid, instead of up in a ponytail, without the braid. It seems he's possibly had that braid ever since he left the organization.
However, the timeline for Modri's tale is the late 18th century, not the late 19th century that's in the main storyline. Even if Undertaker finds and collects Modri's body as early as 1819, Modri was probably dead for at least 20 years. And he had been eaten by flies, had exposed bone in some places, and his left leg had likely been ripped off. Also, what about his brain?!? Undertaker has said (on the ship) that the body, with the brain that holds cinematic records, is left to rot in the human realm... while the soul is sent off for judgement. I find it hard to believe Modri would have brain matter left to hold cinematic records; the brain dies first and normally rots quickly (though the digestive tract is generally first to rot). Even reanimating Modri to the level of the bizarre dolls on the boat would be, at best, questionable. But to this level? I have an idea, but it's so damn sad. I'll explain later, probably in a separate post. Thereβs also this oddity that Modri seems to describe Undertaker's appearance at a time when Modri himself is dead... unable to know how Undertaker looks back then. Perhaps holes in Modri's narrative are simply being shown to the reader, but I somewhat doubt that.
So... Modri wakes up in one of these special coffins filled with fluid, and he's got monitors on his arms and torso. At first, he is submerged, but then he sits up, so that he's partly out of the water. We see two legs, even though his left leg seemed to have been ripped off. There's a nasal cannula giving him oxygen. He is no longer dried out, like he seems before. He lifts up his right arm and sees some scars, perhaps a few are still actually wounds trying to heal. Then he sees someone, and it's Undertaker... the way we know him now. Undertaker does have his hair up, much like in his active reaper days, but otherwise it's his current hairstyle. He's also got scars but nothing covering his left eye except possibly his bangs. He's wearing a cassock with a work apron, and his sleeves are rolled up. By now, he's definitely "Undertaker".
Modri sees this as a second chance to find and destroy that particular demon. He sees his many hardships, even being raised from the dead, as essentially trials of his faith. He even refers to himself as a "rotting vessel". All of that, and he decides to just accept it.
Shown next to the broken glass jars of blood (Polaris, or Type A), I'm thinking the new look and material used here might be to both conceal its contents and also to not be so easily broken. The panel showing blood on his hands (even as he's wearing those vestments) might be both symbolic and literal.
He shows up at Nectar Springs, ignoring the rain, expecting to run across the demon that ruined his life (and ruined the lives of people he cares about).
I get the sneaking suspicion that the way he's defining "the Lord" has the ability to change, from scenario to scenario.
Ch227 over, but I definitely have more to discuss on this chapter.
I've been working on part 5 for the past couple hours, but I need to sleep. Work has cracked down on phone usage in the lab, so my coworkers and I mostly just suffer every day.
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I started part 5, but I'm too sleepy to do this right now. I'm nodding off πββοΈ and hitting the wrong buttons on the screen. I'll get back to it when I can focus better.
Idk how I keep skipping pages. When I was reading the chapter in my kobo app, I might have skipped some screenshots. I'll go fix p4 as soon as I can. The missing parts are where he's initiated into the Roman Curia Exorcists.
First, a quick correction to p3 of the ch227 posts: Hellsing dude never needs to mention Rome for Modri to think that's where he needs to go. It's the demon who realizes what group this guy must be with, and it mentions the group by name. Of course Modri assumes the group is headquartered in Rome. π€¦π»ββοΈ Duh. π
So, Modri and that Hellsing dude are now in Rome... and headed somewhere, wordlessly.
With that dude leading the way, they walk right past famous and popular tourist attractions, like the Pantheon, Fontana del Pantheon (the nearby fountain in Piazza Della Rotonda), and even St. Peter's Basilica (apparently still the largest church in the world). Eventually, they make their way down into some catacombs.
I have reason to think these might be the original "catacombs" (the ones where that term originated), which would be the Catacombs of San Sabastiano. More on that after I post part 5.
At the end of one of those underground tunnels, Modri sees what he came for: other members of this order, called the Roman Curia Exorcists. (I've done a two page spread on them, since that's how it is in the publication.) I don't know how many there are, in total, but 8 of them are just hanging out down there. Hellsing dude and Modri make ten.
Sadly, we never really meet these other 8 characters; we don't even learn Hellsing dude's name.
Major edit: This next page had been skipped for screenshots while I was finally reading it in English. So, after Modri shows up with Hellsing dude, Modri has to go through an initiation ritual with multiple steps. Well, at least two, as far as I can tell. First, there is a pentagram within a circle -- that's a pentacle. There has been some talk about the irony of them using it, since it's also used by Modri's demon and Sebastian (if they are not the same, which I have a feeling they are not). But the pentacle has different meanings and uses based on the inscriptions and other symbols used with it. In this case, it's probably for protection, balance, and harmony. There's also some confusion about the offering (or whatever it's for) that appears to be some kind of organ. To me, it looks like the large intestines of some livestock animal. Then there are lit candles. And the visibly oldest member reads out an oath that Modri has to swear by. I find it interesting that he's being called a hound. It's too much like our earl being a watchdog, as well as Sebastian being named after a dog and sometimes referred to as one. Lastly, he gets a mark of membership, and that's the intricate tattoo on his right wrist area. I really don't know when or under what circumstances he gets the neck tattoos, etc. The only scenario I can think of is in honor of fallen comrades. π€·π»ββοΈ
Afterwards, it's all about their battles. One by one, the unnamed comrades each die horribly from (or during) battles against various demons. Some of them die in Modri's arms, including Hellsing dude.
Eventually, Modri might be the only one left, but he keeps going. In the right hand panel below, this could be a demon with a very different form than the one that killed Anna and the others, or it could be human... who has been transformed through possession? Idk. But every time I see that panel, I just get this stuck in my head. (I have the album that it's from on vinyl. Yes, I am old.) But he really does seem to have a stride going. I'm not sure exactly how he or any of the others know where to go or how/when to get there in time, but he fights demon after demon, hoping to eventually find the same one who killed Anna, her family, and their local doctor. That same one who ruined the life he had.
And...eventually, this loyalty gets him seriously injured, and there doesn't seem to be anyone else around to help. The fight itself seems to be over, and he's trying to recover his strength. He's panting, coughing up blood, and generally weakened by his recent efforts.
Major edit: I've read a recent comment (from @fwippysays ) suggesting his left leg has been ripped off. That might be the case. His left foot and part of that leg do seem to be missing, and there's a wide trail of blood as he drags himself.
He's so determined to meet again and destroy that demon from his past, he drags himself forward. Probably trying to simply get back to headquarters or something. He needs medical attention. Also rest, water, food, recovery. Then onto the next battle, if that's possible.
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This situation is what happens when I'm trying to get a chapter release posted but I've set aside some of the most basic research for later.
Anyway, parts 2 and 3 have now had some major edits in order to correct some equally major mistakes.
After the last two parts (p4 and p5), I would like to discuss their travel route, beginning with where on the map Modri might have lived with the Kornich family. Then winding his way southwest, through Venice, all the way to Rome. I'd like to pinpoint the location of these exorcists (within Rome) as best I can, too.
Then there's the timeline. Modri's tale does seem to actually take place in the late 18th century, not the late 19th century (current timeline for the main story). I will go into how that's possible... and what it might imply for Modri himself....
