Sassaphrass

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Isn't it odd how in 3 generations of dwma students only one of them has mastered self wielding? And how dwma doesn't actively promote it among its students? Soul Eater tackles the subject of established order (rather shortly, like everything else) so there's got to be an order driven and perpetuated by the school itself that safeguards their meister-weapon system. 

Weapons, being the distant children of Arachne and carrying demon blood forged by witchcraft, had a big risk of becoming an enemy of Shinigami and that's why he made the school, but he needs a pure blood(?) human vulnerable enough in their own mortality (save for Black Star) to keep the weapon in control and grounded. A self wielding weapon has no boundaries in terms of human limits, and having Justin be a unique exception to the rule serves more as an exhibition of skill against both enemy and pupil, just at the edge of becoming a threat to the school's status quo but distant enough from the students abilities that no one will consider pairing up with someone so exceptionally gifted (especially if they keep him away in the shadows, his name spoken almost like a legend in the corridors of dwma -and not for the better reasons)

Having a student so diligent that he became a death scythe at 13 is no small merit, and even though his self wielding ability came to be from a (dare I say !!) disability to be wielded in battle by another person, there doesn't seem to be any type of intention to replicate this self sufficient technique among other students. 

Justin doesn't seem to care either, just content to serve his god. A desire to give so much to a single entity, without minding one's own achievements or appropriate path, kind of reads to me as a misplaced gratitude. Now, for the self projecting, this is a bit how I felt towards my boss in my first job: a huge sense of debt for 'believing' in my uncredited capacities and giving me a chance to be useful. In a blown up scale, I could see how Justin being a weapon with no chance to be useful for a meister yet highly skilled in battle would fall into blind devotion towards the god that seemingly opened a window for him when the door closed (which, honestly, shinigami probably had no way to object to since he went and collected the souls he needed on his own, what was he gonna say? 'no thank u, next'?)

As for headcanons, I like this fight he has against something that (before he redefined weapon boundaries) was considered a weakness. So I decided to extend it to his lineage: since weapon blood is a family heritage, then the generations before him had it too. The guillotine being the most popular method of death penalty during the French revolution, I suppose those in charge of the punishment had to be Justin's very own family members that carried weapon blood, so regardless of how useless in combat they were, they surely occupied a position of power and wealth in dwma terms. But then, at the dawn of cruel methods of torture, their family name had to fall to disgrace, and so did their reputation, becoming an obsolete weapon. Under that pressure, Justin had to work really hard not to follow his family's footsteps and then achieve power as shinigami's scythe. And then, upon finding a figure of authority/source of power that offered a better use for him, it doesn't seem that strange that he would leave shinigami behind for his own good (ones self worth can be entirely defined by the environment/the chances ur given despite true potential, I've learnt)

I'm not sure how something like this would affect the way he perceives his own abilities tho, if he would rather keep his technique for himself so that no one else can dream of possessing it, or if his soul aches to find a companion(s) to whom relate to.

Either way, enter Giriko, who could either be a threat to what sets him apart from weapons with the ability to be wielded (which doesn't really sound that legit), or a demian-like character who not only matches him in what isolates him from the rest but also shakes up the illusion of loyalty he had for shinigami (come on he was a perfectly fine sheep until he coincidentally fought the chainsaw in Loew and the battle for Brew, y can't deny there's a before and after). Giriko has his own illusion of purpose and reason fixated on Arachne as the force supporting and justifying his ordeal throughout 800 years, but hey that's material for a different rambling (cue the oedipal triggers).

Anyway, they're both very similar. And very desperate. And might even dynamically work as each other's demian. And more importantly, them hot.

Also, some random ideas that came out of this:

-Justin being in charge of dwma's choir (since being so young i guess he can't teach yet??)

-Justin instructing the choir in self wielding techniques. Or attempting to before dwma removes him subtly

-For reasons beyond the justifications of this post, they vogue (like dis)

-Since the flawed institutional order of the school also dictates meisters resonate with weapons, the fuck let the two self wielding soul mate weapons resonate too right

-Giriko knows Justin's family history (Arachne's spiders saw everything)

-Wouldn't it have been fun if Justin had joined arachnophobia (shortly) instead

-Wouldn't it slap if their resonance was powered by madness (as in the fictional concept of madness in soul eater)

The Death Scythes seem to be more prone to fighting on their own, probably because of their higher powers and class. Their job is to protect certain areas of the world and be there to help during crises, and as such they can be wielded by multiple meisters because of their adjustable forms and souls. It stands to reason that they would learn some form of combat to better serve the DWMA but not enough to completely go without a meister. Marie has thrown some heavy punches a few times but mostly lets Stein wield her. Tezca didn't seem to really need Enrique to fight either, but being wielded was his preference. I just wish we could've seen more from the Death Scythes all around. The most we got from them was on the moon.

Though we haven't seen much of it outside of the few clans (which was practically a footnote), there are some weapons running around outside of the DWMA. Demon weapons are typically feared by the public and have a hard time transforming without any guidance. Almost all weapons go to Death City, either as a way to live peacefully or to learn how to use their powers safely. In their eyes, the place is a sanctuary. So that would mean that almost all weapons are kept together and taught the same principals: Partial transformation is typically frowned upon, weapons need meisters, meisters perform physically better as a whole, protect each other (but mostly it’s a weapon’s job to protect their partner), it’s always one meister and one weapon paired together except for rare circumstances (usually twin weapons), etc.

However, outside of Death City I think it’s a bit different. The only example I can think of properly (besides Giriko) is Liz and Patty. They're two weapons who can fight and wield each other perfectly. Technically they don't even need Kid, the partnership just benefitted them and they steadily grew closer as a team. They grew up on the streets and learned to use their powers to survive and get what they wanted. They’re depicted as wild and barbaric, causing trouble, doing whatever they want, etc. Most of the public wouldn't stand a chance against any autonomous weapons, and they knew that. Solitary demon weapons would be few and far between, so the chances of any learning how to fight on their own would be slim, yet a terrifying notion if said weapons were running around without any control. The sisters reveled in their power until Kid came along and offered them a stable home in exchange for them obeying the order of the DWMA and becoming his partners. Though Kid doesn't seem to care about them being autonomous, even uses that skill if it will help them in a fight (also the whole OCD thing). However it seems like this is unordinary in terms of partnerships, and other students (like those girls in NOT) seem even shocked at the notion of Liz and Patty wielding each other. 

And it doesn't seem like any of the students desire to learn how to be autonomous. I imagine a lot of them didn't even think it was possible unless they were rare cases like the Thompson sisters, until Justin came waltzing through the school with the determination of a charging bull. Unfortunately Justin had the tendency to completely ignore everyone and keep his mind to one goal without question, enough to be a prodigy in his craft and make a legend out of himself. This probably made being an autonomous weapon seem like a pipe dream to most students since some thirteen-year-old, reclusive kid who refuses to acknowledge his peers just straight up becoming a Death Scythe all by himself would seem like an unachievable miracle to everyone. 

Though I think some students would be put off by such an assumedly impossible achievement, a few would look at him as inspiration and would try to follow his path but wouldn't know how (and would be put down by the social order). Take Soul, for instance. During Justin’s first battle with Giriko, he had doubts about his partnership with Maka. After all, Justin was a similar weapon to Soul and here are these two powerful weapons duking it out better than most meisters could ever dream of. For the first time Soul is seeing what he could be capable of by himself if given the right training. He could protect Maka without almost getting killed, he could fight when she was incapacitated. However that train of thought is later squashed in the series (order, partnerships and all that).

And I wouldn't doubt that the DWMA would keep Justin away from the students fro this reason. Every autonomous weapon or ones without meisters are depicted as unrestrained and easily corruptible. Giriko, Liz and Patty, Tsubaki’s brother, and eventually Justin himself. And they are unrestrained, because they're not taught how to keep themselves in check without a partner. Autonomous weapons are strong. VERY strong. Too dangerous for the DWMA to let run loose. I think the only reason Justin didn't seem to see anything wrong was because of his blind devotion and the teachings of the academy. Then when the madness came around he just...snapped, I guess. Everything - insecurities, questions about the order, his loneliness, his own abilities - crashed into him at once and he let loose like an overly-sheltered kid finally moving out to college. 

Also: 

If Justin was even the slightest bit rebellious and less socially inept while attending the academy (or he just held the fuck up on becoming a Death Scythe for a couple of more years until he was in the same classes as the main trio) then I could see him hosting a weapon-only Fight Club where he teaches kids how to be autonomous, coining an entirely new fighting style, and accidentally spurring a rebellion where students can officially learn a new curriculum revolving around autonomy.