#bugnarok

a short comic for the offical Sentai Final Live Tour twitter by Fujimoto Mame, the same artist behind Donbrothers's First Love Hero.

translation by me

original:

mayfly monster Gerojim from King-Ohger ep. 8

A new episode and a new theory! Or rather expanding on previous ones. Or even more accurately, in my case, adding new ingredients to the soup of ideas and speculations

So in the latest episode of King-Ohger (16th) we learned that the culprit behind the Wrath of Gods was actually identified and they are being held captive by the previous Supreme Judge (or whatever Rita's title is). The whole thing involved the Queen to fake her death and guard the cultprit for 15 years, while her husband takes the blame for killing her and spends said 15 years in prison and they leave the responsibility of ruling Gokkan to a 10-year-old Rita. They went with all those measures, because apparently, the crime committed cannot be judged by law (or sth like that). Well, causing a world-wide disaster and slaughtering lots of people seems like something that would easily get you a life sentence or even a death penalty, without going through all of that trouble, which means that this case can't possibly be that simple. Not only the guilt can't be clearly stated, but also, the case itself requires secrecy

Now, we've been given various glipses of information about the Wrath of Gods throughout the episodes, but during narration Jerami mentioned some interesting detail. He said that after the fated event, all the countries became dependant on Shugoddom. Now that we think about what we've got so far, it all makes sense. Rita and Himeno were just little children, N'kosopa was just a ruin at the time, used as a scrap heap of Shugoddom (as Yanma said). Meanwhile, Racules would be around 16 years old at the time and prepared to rule all his life, so it feels natural that he would take the lead in the world after the Wrath. The only exception being Kaguragi and Toufu. Kaguragi was in similar age as Racules and since he managed to lead a rebellion against the previous ruler, he clearly has leadership skills. But then, what is the very next thing that happens between Toufu and Shugoddom? Kaguragi secures help for Toufu in form of Demi-Shugods from Shugoddom in exchange for his own sister! Now, the only ruler that could potentially rival with Racules has become his puppet! Seems a little too convenient, doesn't it?

Let's go back to Shugoddom for a moment. So far, other kingdoms had rather clear themes. N'kosopa creates technology, Ishabana's domain are medicine and art, Toufu is all about agriculture and providing food and Gokkan is essentially an international prison colony, but Shugoddom was quite puzzling for the fanbase as to what does it do exactly? Sure, we've known it's the first kingdom or that it's aesthetic theme are gears and so on, but until recently we couldn't exactly figure out what could they provide to the other kingdoms. Now we know that Shugoddom's primary export goods are their Demi-shugods, like the snails and spiders traded for Suzume, those flying little TVs or pillbug taxi. This brings us back to the Wrath of the Gods, as Himeno mentioned that Shugoddom didn't send their demi-shugods to help them. And, of course, there is that gigantic swarm of cicadas

One can already see where this is going. Yes, indeed. I suspect that King Red killed with poison in Ishabana! (They're all even colour coded, anyway...) Previous king of Shugoddom and Gira and Racules' father, despite not showing up in the show so far at all nor being discussed by the characters, already has his name - Corsus Hastie - revealed back from the times when the show was just starting. Now that we know that not all previous kings are dead and could show up in the show, this could point to the relevance of the character to the story.

Before we'll go to his potential motives of let's go through means. As we know, Shugoddom produces demishugods, so if anyone could produce the swarm of cicadas, someone important in Shugoddom would be the best bet (unless it's some ancient army that layed dormant for years or sth). But he'd also need GodScorpion's venom. As we know, Sasorine's soul was in Gokkan, but the Shugod itself was called by Gira in Shugoddom. In episode 13 or so, Himeno wants Gira to communicate with Scopi, but he's unable to reach it in Ishabana, and he only hears the Greater Shugods underneath Shugoddom. This suggests that GodScorpion has been lying underneath Shugoddom the whole time and if so, even without the soul, King Corsus didn't have very far from the Shugod if he wanted to gather the venom for his purposes. The problematic would be actually going underground and knowing that GodScorpion is there in the first place. That's where the Bugnarok comes in! We saw them store the Greater Guardian Deities at their HQ and Gira sensing them under Shugoddom. Also, when Jerami emerges out of Bugnarok hiding place, he makes his first appearance in Shugoddom. This suggests that Bugnarok's main base lies right under Shugoddom (unless they have more than one and/or network of tunnels leading to every kingdom, but at least them sitting under Shugoddom is confirmed). That makes any potential cooperation between Shugoddom and Bugnarok far more convenient

But if he really was the one behind the Wrath of Gods, what would his reasons be? Of course, he could have simply wanted to seize the other kingdoms, but if his motive was simply conquest, then his conviction would be rather simple as well, wouldn't it? Unless the reason would be sth like not wanting for a conflict to break out between the kingdoms, but that's rather doubtful, imo. Far more probable, imo, would be if he had some good intentions behind his actions, but it still wouldn't justify, even slightly, what he bought upon the world, because whatever he was aiming at, sacrificing some people to make it better for others is completely unjust, as the other group could have lived just fine as they were and thus the improvement would have been just a whim and not a necessity. But what if it was? What if he sacrificed one group of people to save another one? Here we'd have a typical trolley problem

If, let's say, Bugnarok managed to plant giant cacoons (like the ones in episode 10) under every major city of Shugoddom and threaten to blow them up, destroying the whole kingdom? For example, of course. We already know that Bugnarok waited 2000 years not because they were dormant or anything like that, but because they were following Jerami's prophecy. Nothing prevents them from preparing for the foretold year. As we know, their hideout is right under Shugoddom so they could have prepared it without a problem and going to the King to blackmail him would be just a short trip as well. Add to that any of the variants of "Bugnarok meddles within Shugoddom court" theories and the king would find himself backed into a corner

Now, I don't know how would they possibly solve a threat like this in the show nor why wouldn't Bugnarok just do it with all of the kingdoms, but regardless of what the threat is exactly, it can't be really judged in an indisputable matter. As a king of Shugoddom, his duty would require him to save his people, even if it means dirtying his hands, as Kaguragi would say. On the other hand, he killed many other people to achieve that and it can't just go unpunished. What's more, revealing the threat will not only cause a mass panic among the population and may provoke the Bugnarok to fullfill the threat. Even if they don't if the king returns, they might just force him to do another horrible thing

With the king gone, the judgement remains unresolved and Bugnarok is left with no one to further blackmail. Well, except Racules who would become the new king. The question is, why wouldn't they blackmail him back at the time? Ah, yes, the prophecy that foretold Bugnarok's return 15 later. But then, why would Corsus have to disappear? Or maybe the disappearance wasn't something he planned, but was caught by the Gokkan crew? That being said, Racules being left with the country to govern, surrounded by Bugnarok spies would be hard enough, so having to also take care of his younger brother who could be used as another way to blackmail him would be exhausting

Here into play comes Gira's kidnapping. The reason why his very existance was erased, being that the information of his kidnapping would bring dishonour to the royal family always sounded like a bullshit excuse. If the situation described above would take place, though, Gira disappearing from the castle would not only ensure Gira's safety and lighten Racules' burden, it would leave Racules as the only remaining member of the royal family that would be available to Bugnarok. If Bugnarok tried to put a usurper on the throne, they wouldn't have as much support or devotion from the population like the rightful heir to the throne. What's more, power shift could raise people's suspicions and have them speculate on the reasons behind the power shift, risking Bugnarok to be revealed 15 years prematurely. To the equation we should add OhgerCalibur ZERO and King-Ohger ZERO. Those can only be used by someone with the genes of a Hastie family. Racules being the last of his family would make him untouchable to Bugnarok, if they want to make use of KingOhger ZERO

Bugnarok's involvement in Wrath of Gods is rather clear when we see Kamejim being dead-set on eliminating Shiron as soon as he left the prison. Shiron knows far too much and thus should be eliminated. If even he knows as little as who the culprit was, if it truly was Corsus Hastie, it would point everyone towards Shugoddom and could expose Bugnarok's machinations within the kingdom. Then why wouldn't Bugnarok kill him earlier, throughout those 15 years? Could be that they didn't want to draw attention to him, but if he spilled the beans they would be exposed and wouldn't be able to stop him on time. I guess it is possible that prison in Gokkan is just too well-secured to get in there. Sure, we saw Bugnarok break into the castle in episode 5, but it's possible that the cells are extra durant, as to prevent prisoners from digging their way out, and this way making it impossible for Bugnarok to reach

Why bring this up now? Well, if we remember the duel between Hastie brothers, Racules' demand regarding Gira's defeat was for him to be locked up in Gokkan. What's more, Racules thanked Kaguragi for his cooperation with capturing Gira, because if the matter didn't have international nature, Rita wouldn't take care of it. One could question whether Kaguragi was supposed to bring Gira back to Racules and decided to hand him over to Rita on his own accord, but Racules' reaction and the fact that Rita is seen investigating the case even before Gira was finally captured by Kaguragi suggests otherwise. If Shiron remained safely in his cell throughout 15 years, this suggests that so would Gira, yet not only Rita refused to put Gira into a safe cell in Gokkan, she also revealed to everyone Gira's identity as Racules' younger brother, putting both of them in even greater danger than before. No wonder that usually calm Racules lost his cool at that very moment

There are other things about Racules and Shugoddom that are yet to be covered. For example, his alliance with Bugnarok. If Bugnarok infiltrated Shugoddom, why make such a fuss about it? First of all, it's very possible that the infiltrating operation was Kamejim's doing and the meeting was supposed to have Desnarak involved. Another thing would be, that right now Racules' cooperation with Bugnarok is clear to everyone and no one is very surprised because they know that the peace negotiations took place. If they hadn't happen, it could make everyone question how did Shugoddom even manage to contact Bugnarok let alone to convince them to join forces. What's more, in current situation, it's very easy to shift the blame for the invasion on Jerami. After all, it's his silly idea of getting humans and Bugnarok to coexist that led to the disaster, didn't it? And he was the one who introduced Racules and Desnarak to each other! Because, of course, there is no evidence that the two had ever interacted between that very moment, isn't it?

Another yet unsolved mystery of Shugoddom and the Hastie family is GodKuwagata, it remaining dormant for years and Gira waking it up as well as Gira's ability to talk to Shugods. First of all, since we know that Shugoddom is filled with demishugods, can Gira talk to them too, can he only talk to guardian deities or maybe he'd be able to but the demi-shugods just don't talk much? Another thing is, since Shogoddom is literally State of Shugods (Shugod; -dom), could it be possible that whole Hastie family has that ability? After all, Racules still remains an enigma and he keeps his cards hidden, given above specultions, even from his closest coworkers. Maybe the ability to talk to shugods is related to the very same part of their genes that provides them with the red marks on their right temple and allows them to operate KingOhger ZERO?

But back to Kuwagon. When Gira manages to awaken it, Racules reacts by saying that it's impossible. He isn't shown to be accompanied by anyone, so we can assume that wasn't part of his act to keep Gira's identity hidden. This, together with the fact that GodKuwagata has been dormant for many years, suggests that Racules was genuinely surprised and didn't have an idea of what has happened. Again, if the theory above would turn out to be correct, it would mean that Racules has known about Bugnarok in Shogoddom's royal court, about Wrath of the Gods and circumstances of Gira's kidnapping. He's always seemed like he knows much more than other kings. He also seemed to recognize Jerami when he first appeared and Jerami's mention of history before the Great War seemed to mapke him realise something, but awakaning of Kuwagon seemed to be a surprise even for him. Again, Bugnarok weren't dormant themselves, they only waited 2000 years to reemerge because of Jerami's prophecy and thus they were able to still act and make their moves and preparations during that time. Imo, it's not impossible that the Bugnarok moles have been residing in Shugoddom for centuries. Maybe they were even the ones behind God Kuwagata going dormant or the fact that it's the only Guardian Deity without its soul being located within its cockpit

Another thing to speculate on is Suzume, she's been in Caucasus Kabuto Castle for 15 years already. I'm very curious on what did she learn over that time and what her relationship with Racules really is. Could she be in on the whole thing as well? Maybe they somehow cooperate together under Bugnarok's noses? It's worthto mention, that it's most likely thanks to her why Kaguragi decided to surrender Toufu to Racules and seeing what is about to happen in N'kosopa next week, I wouldn't be surprised if it was deliberate action to spare Toufu the same fate

What comes to mind are also flashbacks of Racules and Yanma working together in the past, contrasted with Yanma being now the one who opposes Racules the most. Coincidentally, he is the one that wasn't appointed as the ruler right after the events of the Wrath of Gods and he is the one who broke off from under Racules' leadership over the Quintet Alliance. Could Racules have done something to set Yanma against him? I mean, he sure had to, but did he do it on purpose? After all, (again, according to speculations above) the Wrath of Gods was specifically engineered to have all the other kingdoms to fall under Shogoddom's influence, that was by now in Bugnarok's grip. We remember how easy it was for Kaguragi to manipulate others in episode 4 as long as he ticked the correct boxes. Yanma and his drive to always emerge on top, as well as circumstances of his raise to power would make him the perfect target to sabotage the Alliance, if such necessity would occure. And if Alliance being led by Racules was orchestrated by the Bugnarok themselves, then it makes it quite possible that Racules purposefully discouraged Yanma towards himself, to sabotage Bugnarok's efforts. (Or maybe Yanma is on it as well? Though I doubt it)

That being said, I love all the little pieces we've been getting throughout the show and how such a complex intrigue is forming right in front of our eyes! I can't wait to see next episode and to finally see Racules back in action and working with Bugnarok, nonetheless. Many people already pointed out that Racules' evil mannerism from the preview resemble Gira's. Of course, that brings back suspicion that the two brothers used to play the exact same way as Gira did with kids in the orphanage, just with Racules playing the role of the Evil King, instead. I can't wait for more to be revealed and to see how the events unfold and what will the upcoming episodes bring to the table

Summary (speculations, not confirmed, major points)

Bugnarok has infiltrated Shugoddam's royal court over 15 years ago

Corsus Hastie, previous king of Shugoddom and Racules and Gira's father, is the culprit behind events of the Wrath of the Gods

He was forced to do so by the Bugnarok that infiltrated his kingdom and that's why judging his crime is such a difficult matter

Gira was taken from the royal court and erased from records for his own safety

Racules is in on everything: Bugnarok infiltrators, Wrath of the Gods etc.

Racules tried to imprison Gira in Gokkan to keep him safe like Shiron

King-Ohger Blu-ray vol. 1 Bonus Feature: Prelude to Chikyuu Dance Party - Team Bugnarok (subs by me)