#faust arknights

I'll beat anyone who dares to hurt you -Sasha (Faust)

I don't want to hurt anyone or get anyone hurt -Faust, in his final speech

it's mephisto that becomes the perpetrator, and faust who becomes the accomplice, rather than the boy standing up and defending another kid from abuse, and faust just doesn't know who to hurt about that except himself

it's a tragedy written exactlyyy the way i like it.

What are your ideals? I wanted to sing -Eno (Mephisto) I want you to live on with a smile -Faust

neither of these are ideals, nor are they big aspirations. and the closest they get to being fulfilled is, well, definitely not a happy ending (can a bird smile?)

faust asks mephisto to stop creating zombies, and mephisto asks faust to stop his pre-suicide speech. they're both self-sacrifices for the other's sake, and coincidentally, the one action that hurts the other the most and kicks off their tragic arc.

I-It's all okay. They aren't alive anymore -Mephisto

look at what mephisto cares about (besides singing) because it means nothing to him to murder people who he perceives would have hurt him, if given half the chance to.

(mephisto says that line in the second image)

Singing? Sounds great! You gotta sing for me sometime -Sasha (Faust)

look at, in contrast, the parts that faust wishes mephisto was concerned with. it's sheer disconnect. it's insanely lucky for meph that he got someone as kind as faust to stick with him for so long. they were never going to have a future together- the first person to show you kindness is rarely the person you really want to stick with for life- but maybe, maybe if they split, or they left talulah 2.0, they could have saved their own lives. and not killed thousands more in a pointless war (neither of their desires had anything to do with reunion's founding goal- they were only there to be talulah's child soldiers)

and that's how we end up with a suicide (love the anime for clarifying "he probably could've survived this alone if he wanted to") in lieu of a confrontation. and that's how we end up with the promise of 'we will live and die together' inadvertently coming true because faust can be in as much denial as he wants. mephisto was far too clearly dependent on his approval to do anything sane after his death. faust kills himself because only by their mutual destruction could he stop the most unethical, white-haired war criminal from continuing his torturous atrocities on the world

okay. i leave you with parallel screencaps:

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and a few more shots of how pretty faust is