#belakyan

Wazukyan: Hey, you know, if spiders had a complex social structure like us and they viewed humans as gods and each one of us had a religion that groups of spiders group into, you know what that would mean? It would mean that there is a group of spiders out there who are rooting for you.

Wazukyan: But I am gay???

Belaf: I'm bi??

1. the sense of mutual understanding

even if we only knew them for four chapters, i got the sense that belaf and wazukyan knew each other very well - speciflcally on wazukyan’s side. 

there’s this sense that belaf is aware that people think of wazukyan as strange and eccentric, and he even admits to thinking so himself (“i first dismissed it as just him living in his own world...”)

2. the way they’re narrative foils to each other makes for an interesting, complicated dynamic.

@wayward-delver​ made a really good point about this in a reply to one of my previous posts - belaf and wazukyan work together and have the same goals, but go about achieving them in different ways. and in spite of their differences that become more apparent as their situation on the sixth layer worsens, they still continue to work together.

wazukyan basically has no qualms about feeding what’s essentially irumyuui’s children to the rest of the ganja corps if it means the survival of his people. i don’t think he’s evil, he just has a very strong mentality of “the ends justify the means” - there’s a really in-depth video on youtube that explains why wazukyan isn’t the villain people makes him out to be, and i agree with it on a lot of things. i don’t think wazukyan is necessarily evil, he just will do whatever it takes to reach his goals. goals that are actually selfless, seeing as how they include the rest of his crew.

belaf doesn’t have that perspective.

he has morals that are much more rooted in kindness compared to wazukyan - he is goal driven as well and wants to find the golden city, but will only do so much. and when he was human, his very pretty, clear blue eyes were a reflection of his intense but kind nature. look at how he comforts vueko. look at how he reassures her that she’s not the “dirty” or “unseemly” person she makes herself out to be. 

that’s why this happens:

he feels horrible over eating irumyuui’s children. so much to the point that he’s willing to be left behind to die for it. 

i feel like this kind of narrative contrast between the two of them back when they were human provides for a rather interesting relationship - especially in the shipping department of things.

3. in spite of it all, wazukyan does care for belafu.

in the beginning of chapter 48, we have wazukyan calling belaf “cocky” - but other than that, they don’t really seem to clash. i feel like as the story goes on, their relationship falls further and further apart, and it’s especially seen in chapter 51:

wazukyan misses the old, “cocky” belaf. he wants to see his people live and thrive, and belaf is most definitely among them. he can’t let belaf die. not even now.

if that doesn’t scream devotion i don’t know WHAT does

like the mutual understanding thing seems a bit more apparent at first on belaf’s side, but we definitely see that wazukyan isn’t nearly as apathetic as some percieve him to be. he’s trying to keep the mood lighthearted by making a joke about belaf’s cockiness, even though he’s dying because of their conflicting morals.