Just Another Fandom Blog

My Thesis Statement: The defining aspect of Zahard and Traumerei's relationship, built on a basis of genuine comradery and mutual support between the two, shows Zahard as the only Great Warrior so far who actually expects things from Traumerei (or to paraphrase, who, in however limited a form you want to argue, places his faith in him). We see Zahard confide in him, console him, and entrust vital tasks to him, to the exclusion of all their other comrades; not only as the first comrade Zahard turns to in the present day story (in what's Outside Zahard's technical debut), but also a long way back in the past, before the first war with F.U.G. even broke out.

I'll try to structure this into three segments (and going by the likely amount of screenshots, probably a reblog chain rather than one self - contained post as I had hoped):

Zahard and the Family Heads

Traumerei and the Family Heads

Zahard and Traumerei

1. Zahard and the Family Heads

The first thing I'm going to argue for this purpose is Zahard's sentiments towards his old Irregular companions. Contrary to what seems like a popular opinion in fandom, that the present day Zahard views them as means to an end exclusively, devoid of any kind of positive or emotional sentiment at all, I actually think it's the opposite, and that he would have a far easier time, strategically speaking, if he did view them in this indifferent manner.

1.1 Zahard and Self

I feel like the origin of this perspective of Zahard as a purely cold, ruthless and calculating mastermind stems from his treatment of the Hidden Floor, where he collaborated with his data to first segregate the data of the Great Warriors into the hidden hidden floor, and then delete them.

My main argument against the validity of this would be, first of all, that the recorded data of their past selfs are very much not equivalent to their Outside, real selves, and that it would be perfectly natural for Outside Zahard to not hold the same feelings for them as their "real" versions.

Secondly, I feel like people really overplay the extent to which Zahard manipulated his data self in this: Yes, we have Zahard sport a malicious grin when he reveals data Zahard's ignorance of events on the Outside, and declares him as a "poor thing", "a fake me":

(Tower of God #386)

However, what this scene itself confirms it that 1) data Zahard likely only got forcibly edited (and only regarding these specific memories) when Bam asked him about Arlene, since "their names" is unlikely to refer to Edahn, with whom he converses perfectly fine and in a familiar manner and thus likely to refer exclusively to Arlene and V, who were erased from offcial history on the Outside as well (and whom Zahard likely sometimes wishes he could edit out of his own memories as easily as in data Zahard's case).

This is basically all but confirmed in the beginning of #368:

and 2), that Zahard has a rather nostalgic side, considering that he harboured the wish to leave the remnant of his young and optimistic self in the world in any form at all.

We also get from data Zahard himself that he helped Outside Zahard of his own volition, in a scene that's arguably centered around the Outside Zahard's strong emotions:

(Tower of God #387)

The emotions in said case being "anxiety" and fear, but still ultimately serving to demonstrate that Zahard is far from limited to the stoic and ice - cold killer we saw in his words to and subsequent treatment of Bam immediately prior, something concluded in his decision to honor his young self's wish for Bam to reawaken his passion as he did for said data self, despite the fact that said data was already in the irrevocable process of being erased from existence, lacking crucial information about Bam and his current Outside self.

(Tower of God #388)

(Note that this is AFTER Zahard noted "That really is a power that desires the abilities of God" about the Second Thorn Fragment, about whose origin and purpose he would know, as well as a multitude of potentials regarding Bam's origin and "fate". That is not the kind of choice someone robotically calculating the best possible outcomes and most ruthless way to get there would make, much less at the prompting of a soon to be deleted "fake me" he truly held either nothing but contempt or no emotional connection to at all, one he might easily have deleted outright).

Also, I didn't quite know where to bring it up, but I'll also mention that there is no immediate correlation between the data of the Great Warriors entering the "Hidden Hidden Floor" and being automatically deleted. As data Edahn reveals, they were tired of their existence as data, and followed Zahard knowing there might have been something fishy about his mirror from his Outside self. For all we know, they might have been deleted upon explicit request, similar to the data of Yura's and Hwang's bodies mother, somewhat detracting from data and Outside Zahard as ruthless killers and deceivers in that particular matter:

(Tower of God #386)

But all of this has been very centered around Zahard and his interactions with his own past self, so when am I going to get to his relationships to the other Family Heads?

Well, this segment was important in and of itself for getting there, demonstrating that Outside Zahard is not an unfeeling robot but actually fairly sentimental, and will alter his course based on the considerations of people close to him whom he respects (even in ways that are arguably highly disadvantageous to his own continued well-being), even if in this instance said person was a version of himself, which still serves its own purpose of demonstrating a senitmentality regarding his younger days, back when he and his comrades where comparatively unburdened and driven young adults climbing the Tower together.

1. 2 Zahard and the Family Heads

(Blogpost Season 2 Episode 292)

In light of the abovementioned arguments, I don't think Zahard purposefully sawed of all connections to his old comrades because he no longer cared about them, but rather that he still values these relationshop above nearly everything else, and distanced himself because he though that was what was his duty as their leader and a "KIng", about which he developed something of a complex, in case you didn't notice.

Introduced in his data self of course (I promise, we'll leave the Hidden Floor after this one):

(Tower of God #365)

This mindset smells of Outside Zahard, and comes specifically after Bam mentions Arlene's name, which we have establish to have been one of the primary "triggers" installed into data Zahard. I also feel like the following "What do I look like to you now? A human being? Or a monster?" might reveal another sad aspect of Zahard's current self-image/conception, but I' ll have to restrain myself with the images if I want to be able to at least conclude the Zahard and Family Heads portion in this posts image limit).

In another form, we get this in Traumerei's (but truly, Enkidu's and Gustang's) recent flashback arc, specifically #618:

But since I'll have to save many of these more recent points for Traumerei's portion of the post lest I needlessly repeat myself, I think it's enough to conclude this with the observation that at least part of what drove Zahard to change his mindset and become the solitary figure he is in the present day story was a feeling of responsibilty, acting according to their stations, soaring far above anyone else in the Tower, an expectation he extended to his comrades.

As Kallavan said, With Great Power comes Great Responsibility, and all that:

(Tower of God #477)

And we do see Zahard explicitly consider the Family Heads in the big decisions/doesn't simply overrule them, such as involving Bam:

(Tower of God #539)

We as readers know that Zahard and Traumerei had their private conversation prior to the Nest that probably truly determined what happened wrt Bam, but if anything this just strengthens my point, since Zahard explicitly allowed Traumerei to do as he wished.

(Tower of God #551)

(The reason I included the panel with Zahard's reaction is that I find it very interesting and important to the point I'm making. I don't have a conclusive opinion, but to me he appears almost taken aback by Traumerei's answer. Because remember, Traumerei's answer here is his reveal of the "condition" under which he'd take up Zahard's proxy war against the Poe Bideau family. That's quite a selfless "condition", or at the least purpose for said condition, to place, so I might well imagine that Zahard was taken aback by the lengths Traumerei would go to, specifically for him. Even in a more cynical reading, this is still Zahard allowing Traumerei to recruit himself a second Irregular into his family (the one he may know is considered as destined to kill him) and therefore also showing a certain degree of trust wrt that. But more on their relationship in particular in the eventual concluding part of this post)

Last but not least (arguably the opposite), we also have what may be the implication of Zahard as the one who gave the Great Warriors access to their famous Imortality Contracts, or at the very least having done something to make Traumerei regard him as the main cause behind their current positions and perpetual longevity of said positions:

"From the moment we got to the top, the only choice we had was to fall or not. But Zahard has given us a way to avoid falling forever. Only now that we have defied the laws of the Tower have we become beings who will never fall."

(Traumerei, Tower of God #632)

So while I'll certainly agree that we don't have many direct interactions between Zahard and the Family Heads, he does leave them free room to act with the only stipulation basically not to declare war on him, and doesn't brute force his own choices over theirs. He is very lenient (so far) even in regards to the Family Head who has broken this one rule, and has shown considerable respect for Traumerei's opinions and plans. Furthermore, he may well have ensured or enabled the Family Heads current hax, for which I would find it difficult to see another reason than wanting to keep them with him.

While there is a very interesting conversation to be had about Zahard and Gustang (and whether Zahard was aware of Gustang's preservation of the Thorn and Floor of Death all the way back or not), it's worth pointing out that Zahard's order to destroy Gustang's family (something we now know Gustang himself desires) only occured as part of his three orders, and Gustang himself is not targeted by default.

Basically, I haven't seen anything so far that convinced me of the "Zahard doesn't care about the Family Heads anymore" stance.

And with that out of the way, I'll move on to Traumerei's relationships to the other Family Heads depicted so far (who thankfully does have some more actual interactions with them).

(And again, a point I didn't know where else to fit in in which only occured to me towards the end of this post: I do think it's noteworthy that Outside Zahard does adress data Edahn as a avalid representation of Outside Edahn, to the point of not considering that he may hold differing sentiments from Outside Edahn wrt his relationship with data Zahard. Which goes against one of my first points, that Zahard may have drawn a sharp line between the datas and Outside selves, but supports my main points even better:

2.1 Traumerei and Gustang

Traumerei and Gustang are not only rivals in a lethal sense in the current and serious plot, but appear to have had a less serious relationship of this sort practically from the beginning of their climb:

(Tower of God #581)

These challenges appear to have extended beyond Gustang simply throwing Traumerei into his labyrinth of books (who, to be fair, seemed to have taken a certain measure of delight in provoking Gustang's temper by beating his challenges) to matches of chess, which are suggested to have been Traumerei's expertise and version of these challenges:

(Tower of God #572)

The instances of sarcastic banter and insults between them exceed the necessity for screenshots (and my willingness to run up against the iimage limit for this post, since I'll still need to get to Traumerei and everyone else), as omnipresent they are in nearly every single interaction between those two.

It's clear that the primary sentiment in this relationship was of the "tough love" kind, with Gustang not mincing words and Traumerei responding in kind, fuelled by an underlying sense of comradery. We see this when Traumerei arguably considered Gustang as one of his primary friends back in said stage of their climb already (alongside Zahard)*:

(Tower of God #631)

Where their relationship started to break down for certain though was around the time of the betrayal of many of their initial supporters upon closing the gate to the 135th floor, which I've talked about before and the impact upon Traumerei's mindset specifically of which cannot be overstated (see #620).

As we learn in #630, a part of these "most beastly atrocities" was the murder of dozens upon dozens, if not all, of the Shinheu that weren't introduced as the seven specifically in Traumerei's arsenal in the present day plot. Traumerei laments this as underserved cruelty against not only innocents but children who "helped us all this time" and exclaims his desire for vengeance, to which Gustang basically tells him to give up on that due to its pointlessness:

"That is not possible, Traumerei. This Tower is immensely vast. No matter how many of them we round up and burn, they will reappear again and again, and if we get rid of them everytime, we will become very lonely beings." (Gustang, #630)

To which Traumerei replies:

"So...Let's burn everything else. When we're strong enough to disconnect from everyone else in the Tower. Never again. Never again. Will I doubt again."

(Traumerei, #630)

(During this speech, we see Traumerei start to take his deceased Shinheuh into the shinsu black hole sphere that would eventually become "All Creatures.")

Whereas most of Gustang's other blunt or snide comments were friendly banter, this attempted reality check and what he likely thought was genuine practical advice concerned a matter far more deep-seated and difficult, revealing a deep and going by the present day story, lasting, divide in opinion on the matter. While we obviously still lack many part of the story and a complete timeline, I think it's likely that it was at this point that the Gustang and Traumerei relationship began to grow more distant, whereas Zahard and Traumerei started their close collaboration (additional reasons for which will come up in the analysis of Zahard and Traumerei's relationship and development thereof).

(as a necessary aside, just a few chapters later we learn that Traumerei started to engage in necromancy early on during their climb, to bind deceased shinheu's souls to their body as if they were still alive. I feel like I have to bring this up preemptively in order to make clear that this in no way makes what happens to Traumerei's Shinheuh in #630 less impactful to him or genuinely horrible, since it's not like Traumerei went around purposefully killing his Shinheuh to turn them into undead weapons. Rather, it was precisely because he refused to/couldn't bear to lose them that he clung to something like necromancy in the first place, as an emergency solution. He is genuinely griefed and enraged by their deaths precisely because he'd rather have them fully alive than as living corpses)

This flashback from Traumerei's POV leads up to the sharp contrast of it to his present day sentiments towards Gustang (who, to be fair, has consistently been the one gunning for a fight and a "rift" that could no longer be ignored):

(Tower of God #630, and yikes)

I will be coming back to the Gustang relationship in the next part occasionally, but will end the specific segment on it here, since I don't want to make this purely a Gustang centric analysis.

The short of it is that Traumerei and Gustang started out as more or less friendly rivals who were nonetheless genuinely close friends underneath it, trading friendly ribbing and blunt "tough love"from Gustang towards Traumerei, until it wasn't enough anymore to bridge the increasing emotional gap between them and their respective perspectives. We still see similar banter in the present day, and Traumerei does not want to believe that Gustang is serious about what he likely considers a pointless mid-life crisis induced by people they had already decided to emotionally disregard long ago to the point of turning against his GW comrades. But once Gustang makes clear that he will not be deterred, Traumerei responds in kind and declares their former emotional connection fully severed.

2.2 Traumerei and the Family Heads

So, Traumerei and the other Family Hands. In this instance, specifically Yirang and Edahn, with a recurring smidgeon of Gustang (Hon does appear in the Enkidu flashback as well, but is also just kind of there. I think he and Traumerei are comfortable existing next to each other but not close in the sense of talking a whole lot, given that we don't see them talk or even stand next to each other even once the whole ordeal and Hon was happy enough to let an intruder into Traumerei's new house, so who can say)

Reddit user azebod already put it more succintly than I will be able to when they point out the impression of something almost infantilizing in the Family Heads (that we've seen so far) treatment of Traumerei. Traumerei is a bit of a dunce, he is someone other people get praised for putting up with, he is emotionally fragile, he needs to be treated with kid's gloves whenever in the middle of a pout. Which is maybe somewhat exaggeratedly put by me (though not wholly incorrect at its core), but the common denominator in opinions of Traumerei definitely are that he's a bit of a weirdo with lacking social skills and resulting troubles of establishing or maintaining genuine relationships with other people, whom his old friends are happy to help, which is great, except for the part where this reveals a genuine ignorance of Traumerei's full character, capabilities, emotional state, and motivations, contributing to the flashbacks bloody conclusion.

Some tough love from Gustang, and a not inaccurate assesment, but one we see repeat itself displayed in a lesser extent (and less openly stated) by the other Family Heads:

(Tower of God #618 and #619)

I'm not claiming that this means they do not care for Traumerei, after all it's precisely due to said care for him that they exhibit this behaviour: friendly heckling, looking out for his emotional well-being etc. They're good friends, they're looking out for him (and taking into consideration the flashback of #631, may well have been founded on guilt for having Traumerei be the one to shoulder the earliest version of the trolley problem in their climb)!

But rather that there is still this commonality of considering Traumerei borderline unable to get by without said help, and so this "shielding" of sorts not only helps to keep Traumerei's emotional development stunted but also prevents them from truly connecting with Traumerei on a deeper emotional level (which is exactly what we see happen with Zahard instead).

I also can't helpt but feel like this sort of attitude may have contributed to Traumerei's intentions of making his betrothal to Amizu a very public event, almost demonstrative in nature. "See, I can seal a honest relationship by my own efforts afterall", when he explicitly states that he hates parties and previously mentioned that he didn't mind not seeing the other GW's 24/7 anymore and was doing just fine on his own:

(Tower of God #617)

(Which is all the more funny because it stands in direct contrast to his disappointment about Zahard declining to attend. But we'll get there in the next and hopefully final part, not least because I've reached the image limit per post)

The main points to draw from this segment: Traumerei and Gustang used to have a well - established friendly rivalry based on solid comradery but gre distant at the very latest after their differing responses to the violent backlash against their choice to seal the gate to the 135th floor, culminating in their present day conflict, in which Traumerei, after all his promptings towards Gustang yield no relenting, decides to put aside their former friendship for good and go for the kill (whereas Gustang, in something I didn't include in the post, his perspective, wants to correct the distorted "false history" created by him and his comrades, act hin his role as team "judge" and overcome his current ignorance of the truth about key choices and events in the past, perpetuated not least of all by Traumerei himself).

Traumerei and the other Family Heads have a friendly if more distant relationship, with less of a demonstrated/established rapport between them than Traumerei and Gustang in particular. They joke around with him and look out for him, but both do so in a way that is rather blaseé at times, however well-meaning, and also consider him not fully able to cope by himself in the first place, and make this opinion known in various ways and severities. In turn they are unable or unwilling to fully emotionally connect with Traumerei or establish a full (or at least fuller) understanding of Traumerei's "true" character and capabilities (both in the positive and negative sense. Another point to potentially add here would be Gustang talking down Traumerei's highly lethal shinsu control skill, though in the present day he does acknowledge its dangers).

Something that, as previously mentioned, I believe to stand in sharp contrast to what we've been shown about Traumerei and Zahard's relationship, with which I will continue in the next part.

As mentioned in the very beginning, it was the dynamic between Zahard and Traumerei that prompted me to write this whole thing in the first place, basically in order to explain and somewhat explore for myself my perspective on them and their relationship dynamic (and said dynamic specifically, hence no deep - dive into Traumerei's character itself). I already complained copiously about the overtly sinister bent fanon tends to give this relationship, which imo is a genuine misunderstanding of its presentation and place in the narrative.

So, here goes!

3. Zahard and Traumerei

I initially wanted to start this as a direct continuation of last parts end, with contrasting Enkiud flashbacks Traumerei's attitude towards Zahard with the one towards the rest of the invitees, but let's do this chronologically.

There is no doubt that Traumerei was close to Zahard on his part from early on, as previously showcased in the Gustang part: Traumerei is solving what appears like the GW's first of many to come human trolley problems, and choses to save Zahard and Gustang's lives, as :

"As you guys know...I---do not like..people very much. But...I do like you guys" (Traumerei, #631)

Overlaid with a panel of Zahard and Gustang, who also continue to feature as his most significant and only truly showcased and explores relationships in the rest of the narrative.

He is further showcased as close to Zahard in this stage of life, minor details though they may be on their own, as the #632 flashback depicts him sitting next to Zahard at the campfire

(Tower of God #632)

, and specifically shown intervening in a Zahard (and Yirang) involved altercation with his developing perfectionist attitude "as mistakle after mistake and sacrifice after sacrifice was made, Traumerei began to obsessively reduce the number of mistakes he made." ("Just look at them!" "They're..certainly standing next to each other" on its own, but contributing to an overarching trend of emphasizing Traumerei's consistent close association with Zahard even from early on)

So, with these recent flashbacks, it turns out that Traumerei truly had always been close to Zahard in particular (and while we don't get Zahard's perspective, I see no reason to suspect he wouldn't have reciprocated. Going by what we know about young Zahard and Traumerei respectively, I furthermore thinks it's perfectly natural that they'd end up vibing, the adventurer and the beast tamer. But this is, admittedly, more of a personal opinion. I could still bombard you with screenshots, don't worry! Maybe rather in another post though, since I've got to save image space)

With which we come to the huge turning point that was the sealing of the 135th floor. I mentioned it multiple times, but it's really just that important to the way everything truly fell apart and we get into the more overt and strongly depicted aspects of the Traumerei and Zahard relationship and association.

I mentioned last part how hugely incisive it was to Traumerei's mindset, cementing his resolve to keep the gate sealed in revenge for the senseless murder of his Shinheu, and no doubt something we see in the Amizu confrontation still:

(Tower of God #620. And for the potential naysayers claiming Traumerei is just being a dick in that first part, I'd like to direct you to one of my previous posts on the issue)

As I mentioned previously, it's in the immediate aftermath of that incident that we see the contrast between the Traumerei-Gustang and Traumerei-Zahard relationship and what's part of their inverse development (Traumerei and Gustang growing more distant, Traumerei and Zahard growing closer).

One of the reasons I absolutely love #630 - aside from the general fact of good Traumerei content, a Zahard appearance in the form of a major interaction with Traumerei, AND good Gustang comeuppance- is that it directly spells out in Traumerei's internal flashbacks what I'm rambling on and on about to try and convey, the definite shift of Zahard>Gustang to Traumerei, centered around their different reactions and consolations of Traumerei in the wake of the first betrayal after sealing the 135th floor. I'm probably gonna invest a LOT of the available image space for this, but given just how crucial it is to my main point, it's worth it I think (only the Zahard conversation though, since you already got the main gist of the Gustang flashback last part):

(Tower of God #630)

Because just look at it! While it's main effect when reading the whole chapter lies in ist structure and place therein - "I only need you guys. I won't be lonely" from Traumerei @ Gustang -> "WE have/WE shouldn't/WE are now" from Zahard @ Traumerei -> "I won't be lonely anymore even if you are no longer here" from Traumerei @ Gustang, killing him as part of the proxy war on Zahard's behalf - it's still an absolutely incredible scene in its own right (I may be biased as a Zahard and Traumerei fan in particular though, I'll admit).

I mentioned it several times prior, but this is truly...Everything Traumerei likely wanted to hear but didn't get from the previous Gustang scene. "Revenge is pointless" vs. "We are the ones who get to determine right and wrong (and don't have anything to feel guilty for)." Where Gustang stoof with his hands in his pockets and talked to Traumerei's back, Zahard reaches for Traumerei's hand in a gesture of solidarity and support. Where Gustang chastises Traumerei and tells him that his rage-fuelled desire for revenge is pointless and not a viable option, Zahard sanctions Traumerei's actions implicitly, emphasizing their shared emotional development, burdens, experiences and shared position as "nature and laws of the Tower", as Traumerei will later proclaim to Bam.

Now, we don't actually now when exactly in the nebulous timeline this lies: it might be shortly following the slaughter of Traumerei's Shinheuh. It might be following the Amizu incident. Heck, it might be following the first war against F.U.G., or a as of yet unmentioned revenge spree against Towerborn. It might not be specifically related to any of these events. But what matters is that it is specifically placed as a contrast against the previous Gustang and Traumerei scene, serving as the lead-up to Traumerei declaring he no longer cares about Gustang as he watches his severed head topple towards the ground.

I also doubt that whis was intended as premeditated manipulation from Zahard's side of things, since there's as of yet no reason to doubt that what he espouses to Traumerei is his genuine opinion. Zahard was one of the primary drivers of the early disregard for Towerborn as legitimite people, no doubt related to the violent backlash for sealing floor 135th (for which I think he'd feel both most responsibility, potentially guilty and definitely angry, since he was the Great Warrior's leader. The comrades he was not only closest to but in a way responsible for, from whom "he received lots of trust" (see the blogpost screenshot in part 1) got violently traumatized in no doubt several different flavours (I refuse to believe that Traumerei's Shinheu and Traumerei were the only ones affected by the violence), and he seemingly couldn't do anything to prevent it. Despite the GW's custom of taking majority vote decisions, it would also have been his ultimate responsibility of choice that led to these events, given said position as leader):

(Tower of God #616)

Though as I speculated in tags prior, its left ambiguous to us whether this was Zahard specifically talking about Amizu, in which case her all but known "Grace" associations might have played their part in his opinion, since I've previously speculated that the perpetrators of the backlash for the sealing of the gate might have been the Towerborn progenitors of F.U.G., or at the very least a majority of V and Arlene's initial followers, which would add another reason for the already severe rift between the factions by the time of the Enkidu flashback and immediate and irreversible exile for anyone associated with them, OR a more general statement about the validity (or rather lack thereof) of Towerborn people as a whole.

It is following their decision to settle in the Tower itself that Traumerei and Zahard started to collaborate noticeably close, especially in contrast to the way the rest of the group began to drift apart and rarely see each other, as noted by Gustang:

(Tower of God #616)

(I can't help pointing out that the fantranslation I read back in the day had it reversed, with Traumerei interacting more with Zahard than anyone else. I suppose it doesn't really matter, and I'm just hypersensitive to the vibes it might give people about the fanon I vehemently disagree with, of Zahard basically grooming Traumerei into his confidant, rather than Traumerei doing all that because he genuinely wants to support Zahard out of his own, unforced, volition, since they're friends and all that)

Traumerei goes on to defend Zahard's reputation to Gustang, with:

"Even if there is, I'm not obliged to tell you. Everything Zahard does is for our sake. So don't fight him about every little thing...And that includes the selection of Princesses. One I'm all settled in my new home, I'll try to have kids of my own." "I don't understand what you see in that guy's bizarre ideas." (Traumerei and Gustang, #616)

Aside from confirming Zahard as the one who came up with the Princess System rather than Gustang (a popular former fanon I'm guilty of having perpetuated in the past myself- and I'm saying fanon since Gustang is only ever mentioned as progenitor of the system in the explicitly fake cover story Garam tells to Bam and then reveals as a lie: this had lead to people, myself included, simply taking across the Gustang mention into the true telling as well, where with his additional knowledge one might now see that actually Zahard was actually already explicitly mentioned as its true creator in Garam's story), and being one of the many, many, many instances of Traumerei defending Zahard's reputation in absentia and speaking positively of him in general (I made a little compilation of it prior), this scene is the first instance within the flashback itself of Traumerei and Zahard cooking up something unknown to all other of their GW comrades and working noticeably close together, with Traumerei aware of this fact and refusing to elaborate, simply deflecting with the answer that Gustang doesn't need to know, since whatever it is (he and) Zahard are working on is for everyones sake.

But before we get back to their secret project, a moment to look at the emotional components of Traumerei's closeness w Zahard in the flashback: Traumerei just declared that he didn't care overly much about their group drifting apart, and as shown in the previous reblog, wasn't overly enthused about the reunion at his housewarming party either, which contrast starkly with not only the previous screenshot about Traumerei and Zahard seeing each other frequently, but also Traumerei's disappointment that Zahard, whom he wanted to see most of all, wouldn't be able to attend, noticably only resigning himself to reluctantly join the party once he's notified of Zahard's confirmed absence:

(Tower of God #618)

Safe to say that this is a marked difference to his rather indifferent and in Edahn's case even slightly annoyed reaction to his other oldest comrades attending and the concept of the party on its own (doesn't like it, only doing it because he wants a big audience for his proposal to Amizu).

Amizu once again brings up the mysterious secret project of Traumerei and Zahard, as one of her main reasons for deciding it's impossible for her to stay with Traumerei any longer after he'd hearkened back to her initial promise of "staying forever":

(Tower of God #620)

It doesn't feel like an overexaggeration to say that Traumerei's closeness to Zahard starts to work to the exclusion of all his other relationships at this point- in this instance, it's the ultimate reason Amizu gives for being unable to stay with Traumerei any longer, despite her genuine love for him (combined with the several other instances in the selfsame flashback of Traumerei invoking Zahard and his statements, always to the effect of denying Amizu's worth and rights as an individual person and contributing to his treatment of her as more of a possession than his future spouse).

(I wouldn't be surprised if said "what you're doing in that new house of yours, and what you and Jahad want" turns out to be related to the whole "Red Light District" plot, especially with Traumerei as the expert in humanoid experimentation and bioengineering he's been depicted as, but at this point that's still pure speculation)

While we're severly lacking on details for the time period afterwards, we do know that eventually open war between Arlene and V's faction and Zahard, eventually involving the other Family Heads, breaks out, with V and Arlene attempting to gain the key from Zahard (another instance where, yes, what Traumerei did was objectively framing V, but fandom perspective really overexaggerates his ultimate culpability for the war. Traumerei very much was not the nucleus that started it all. V and Arlene and everyone associated with them had already become persona non grata to the Family Heads prior, the Family Heads had made the choice to seal the gate and subsequently erase their memeories themselves, the fact that they were willing to believe V would do something like what Enkidu "confessed" to speaks for itself, and for as long as V and Arlene wanted to get the key from Zahard, who wanted to keep the gate sealed there always would have been a war. Garam herself states that it was V and Arlene who declared war. I don't even particularly care about this in regards to debating the Great Warrior's morality, as if "who started it" would be the be all end all argument, but we do in fact have that factual information available).

What we do know is that at some point Traumerei himself was involved in fighting this war:

(Tower of God #635)

Since I think we can all agree it would be unlikely for Traumerei to have gotten involved with one of his strongest Shinheu only after V and Arlene as fellow Irregular level opponents were already out of the picture in Genesis (where we already see him delegating to his sons even in matters of revenge for his early descendants) this presumably refers to the original war with Arlene and V. And since Traumerei was already notably close with Zahard, closer than any other Family Head, it makes perfect sense that he might have thrown down personally, and probably as an early supporter, either against V and Arlene specifically, or in the mentioned "conflicts" among the Family Heads before they eventually all sided with Zahard.

(Tower of God #320)

The next glimpse we get, chronologically, of Zahard and Traumerei cooperating, is during Yasratcha's flashback, included in the "big wars" Yasratcha mentioned him and Wangwang gaining experience in after their adoption into the Lo Po Bia family and potentially still included in the time period of "after a great war had ended [...] the aftermath of the war was still continuing" (Tower of God #526) Yasratcha gives at the beginning of his flashback.

Lo Po Bia forces are cooperating with Zahard forces in order to subdue the ancient Akrinac, with Zahard paying a brief visit in holographic form:

(Tower of God #526)

While obviously far smaller in scale than the present day proxy war. this shows that Traumerei continued to be Zahard's go-to for military related cooperative undertakings and their continued close association past the first war (all the way up to the present day).

(Compare "Long time no see"/"It's been a while" (dep. on translation) with forgetting that he even had Gustang's contact information)

(As a side note, killing and otherwise messing around with ancients sure seems like it was one of Traumerei's hobbies, between this and the Enkidu flashback, huh. Even if, like in most anything else, he switched to delegating as time went on)

It's in the lead-up to the nest that we get out first in-story but chronolgically most recent Zahard and Traumerei interaction. In it, they discuss Gustang's recent declaration and perparations fo conflict, with Traumerei ultimately accepting the proposal to take up a proxy war in the Zahard families stead against Poe Bidau, in exchange for adopting Bam into his family as his heir, to use against Gustang.

I mentioned this conversation previously, with regards to Traumerei's begign intentions behind his "condition" as something meant specifically to turn Bam from a "thorn" against Zahard into an asset against his opponents instead, and Zahard's emotional rection to it, so I won't repeat myself on that front, except to reiterate that I see it as a genuine moment of some sort of sentiment from Zahard that briefly takes him aback.

(Tower of God #551)

Apart from that, we get Zahard inquiring after Traumerei's personal assesment of Bam, allowing him the prime position to "test" him for his potential (which is in line with Zahard's own statement to his data: "If that boy is truly qualified to have this, he'll appear before me again someday"). We have Traumerei pre - emptively offering to rescind that desire if Zahard didn't want him to act on it, but is not only granted permission and encouragement but nearly command to do so (based on Traumerei's stated desire, not as a preconceived notion of Zahard's, mind you).

Throughout this entire conversation Traumerei is more open that we've seen him with anyone else, most of all towards the conversations end, where Zahard inquires after Traumerei's nightmares (meaning they definitely came up in conversation between the two before, which is in line with the #630 conversation between them that's also touching on some intimate emotional experiences) to which Traumerei readily and in detail responds:

"By the way, how are your nightmares? Do you still not remember them?" "Yeah. They're definitely nightmares, but I can't remember what they're about when I wake up. I definitely threw that memory away to Leviathan...But why does it keep haunting me? I don't know anymore..Just who was it, and what kind of memory was it to torment me so much." (Zahard and Traumerei, Tower of God #551)

It's difficult to picture Traumerei opening up like this to anyone else currently alive (that we know of). I also find it unlikely that Zahard asked this as some sort of insidious check-up rather than out of genuine concern. Traumerei was the one bringing up his nightmares first in the conversation, as seen in the screenshots immediately above, Zahard is seemingly simply following up on that out of personal concern once the business talk has concluded.

I think it's fitting that I concluded the analysis with this scene, the first one we as readers got directly between Zahard and Traumerei, and one already exemplifying everything I've tried to argue in this reblog chain in some measure.

Going back to my initial propopsed "thesis", which went as follows:

The defining aspect of Zahard and Traumerei's relationship, built on a basis of genuine comradery and mutual support between the two, shows Zahard as the only Great Warrior so far who actually expects things from Traumerei (or to paraphrase, who, in however limited a form you want to argue, places his faith in him). We see Zahard confide in him, console him, and entrust vital tasks to him, to the exclusion of all their other comrades; not only as the first comrade Zahard turns to in the present day story (in what's Outside Zahard's technical debut), but also a long way back in the past, before the first war with F.U.G. even broke out.