#digiposting

ngl I do feel we're potentially at the point in Beatbreak's story now where either they go fully in one direction for one of the many theories regarding the Tenmas (Because hate it or like it, the addition of Dr Tenma has made the Tenma's a unique and special family of note and I know people already are rolling their eyes at the trope at play here)

Personally?

I think i'd rather see a case of Asuka and Tomoro both have e-pulse with unique properties (possibly to do with Kano Island and Dr Tenma) and this is the big family secret that had been going on for years because they wanted avoid Tomoro having to face that burden.

Rather than the various "Asuka is bait and Tomoro is the only special one and Wong has the wrong e-pulse" theories.

Early on I would have accepted this as a reason but that was before we had 2 arcs of silence on that as a plot point and I can't really trust beatbreak not to address the blatant issue of this concept if Asuka really made himself out to be bait.

Well I caught a glimpse of something in the recent episode during that flashback with Dr Tenma.

Hey.

Now that's an oddly familiar looking accessory.

----

Speaking plainly when I saw this I was pretty much saying "oh yeah, this is Asuka's grandpa alright, he even has a fucking watch like Asuka"

But then I looked at it again.

And honestly it might be that Asuka's watch IS his grandpa's

Which is interesting to think about BECAUSE....

This is the same watch he had in his 17-18 design!

He's had it since then!!!

But really, it's actually shockingly simple.

The White core isn't the major key item they need for it

"stores limitless e-pulse and enhances it's host's abilities"

It's effectively an e-pulse amplifier, for better or for worse.

However, the e-pulse in question that is "vital for the success of the Shangri-la project"

It's Asuka's e-pulse.

Asuka's e-pulse apparently has something that they wish to amplify to make the Shangri-la project work.

It's not a case of them using Asuka as bait, it's Asuka's e-pulse does SOMETHING, and that deeply worries me.

And it really makes me question whether or not Asuka was correct about Tomoro being the one in danger. :x

Am I going insane? I am reading through a bunch of East Asian Mythology because of the entire White Snake thing, and... Okay, first of: I give in. You are right. Gekkomon is Tsukiyomo. Absolutely no doubt about it.

But also Kyo is Susanoo. And...

I think Asuka might be Amaterasu? Like, shit. As I am thinking about it it makes so much sense. Kano Island, God Birth Island. Ties in perfectly in the 神生み (birth of the gods) myth in Japanese mythology. Habakiri is the sword of Susanoo. And yeah, the Gekkomon/Tsukiyomo thing is there.

But it means Amaterasu is missing. Amaterasu, whose most famous myth is "hiding in a cave", which... you can kinda read as the entire "being comatose" thing. And as I noted before: many of the most common writing version of the name Asuka involve the kanji for Sun or Dawn.

Asuka is important?

Okay, I have admittedly not that much of an idea what this might or might not mean, but there was a white snake in the new Beatbreak episode, and suddenly I look at Asuka's ePulse very differently.

And now I have some half-formed theory in my head, though I am not fully sure how it all connects. Especially as it does really seem that what is happening here is that they threw a bunch of East Asian Mythology into a blender.

But... In this episode we basically start on Wong and Genjo going: "For our plan we need the White Core and Asuka's ePulse!"

And then, when Kuroshio gets the White Core, it turns, for just a moment, into a White Snake.

And that was when my Mythology senses were once again tingling, because again: I am not super well-versed with Chinese mythology, BUT I know enough about it to point and scream when I see a white snake, because I have seen just enough Chinese animated movies about Chinese mythology to know there is a Chinese legend about a snake woman falling in love with a mortal man. (Honestly, while half of Greek Mythology boils down to "Zeus could not keep it in his pants", it seems like half of the popular Chinese myths boil down to "very cool and powerful woman falls in love with a mortal who is good at this one thing, and now she tries to make him immortal as well".)

Buuuuut, as I looked up the mythology for that again, after going: "Oh, this is the white snake from that one story", I realized another thing. In that story the White Snake woman has a sister. A Blue-Green Snake.

And... Uhm. Asuka's ePulse is Blue-Green.

And seeing this. The "White Core" and Asuka's Blue-Green ePulse being needed... Yeah, I do have theories now. I have theories now.

Especially given that the story of the White Snake, summarized quick and dirty (from memory), boils down to this: there is two immortal snakes, who love each other a lot (in the sisterly way). They turn mortal. The white snake meets a guy and falls in love. Stuff happens, he finds out she is a snake, and then he dies. White Snake goes to Kunlun with her sister to find magic herb to revive him.

Fun fact, the Server of the Digital World Shambala is Kunlun. And there... is a theory in here, right? And, you know, it just so happens that our protagonist is motivated primarily by trying to revive someone.

So, that first episode for the Kyo Arc.

It really is quite interesting how as soon as the characters were released from the GIFT arc, we ended up getting some familiar fun scenes and certain characters are getting some interesting moments instead of what we got in GIFT

Examples of this being

Brilliant Thorn being surprisingly capable and dangerous after what happened with Rose

Kishiwada being a major threat and kick-starting the next arc by being involved in Souji's release.

We also get the return of some characters that have been missing since TACTICS as some roles and also get to focus on the major plot line + antagonists again

Examples of this being

Kawarazaki being seen and talking to Gurando again + shown in the episode during Souji's escape.

Characters from past episodes being mentioned in the celebration dinner

And most importantly Genjo has made a reappearance as a major playing character when he was sighted at no point during GIFT and Wong dropping the major hint that Asuka's e-pulse is needed for the Shangri-la project.

In a weird way, the way I feel about this arc at the moment is that all things considered, with how this episode was done:

Kyo's Arc should have in theory been set up to occur sooner or at least begin right after Tactics was finished.

This is how the story feels regarding me and that's due to two things.

One fact is that it is during the Tactics arc where we first hear any mention of a previous star of Water before Honoka. (Kyo mentioned that he had never met her but recognized her as the new star of water)

And the second fact is Dr Tenma being shown again in a flashback, after also being seen in the Kano island incident.

Both of these story points have been hinted at in the start as a potential piece of foreshadowing but its not until after Gift arc had concluded that we got any continuation or beginning of it.

To put it simply, it kinda feels like we should have gotten to these points earlier.

But along the same vein, there is a major flaw to this.

I'm pretty sure Kyo's Arc is gonna essentially railroad us down the main story plot with very little chance of background character exploration being able to be given.

Basically, with this arc, a lot of the major story plots still yet unanswered are gonna be addressed or at least shown.

Plot points like Asuka, Asuka's e-pulse, the Tenmas, Genjo, Wong.

and most vitally, Everything about Kyo.

Essentially all the main story plot points that we're still waiting on answers for are gonna be happening now or pretty dang soon. And we might not have time to focus on other stories.

I ain't defending GIFT arc for what it was trying to do as it clearly could have hit some plot points better, especially with how it wanted to focus on Miharu as a character when Kishiwada probably should have had more focus and shown to have some major deal going on over Miharu.

But in a way, I can see why it has taken so long for us to get here.

In video game terms, We've essentially gone through all the nit-picky side quests that are here and can give us context for this arc and extra things because after this arc, those side-quests are gonna be locked down or you will be unable to access them

Because frankly, this was my hunch that it was going to occur from the start of the series and I don't think we're gonna be able to focus on those stories as much anymore.

Kyo's arc is likely gonna hit a lot of major plot points and after that we're not gonna have a lot of time for character exploration outside of it, which is why Gift Arc felt so jumpy and adrupt in certain areas in the first place.