âť“ when reapers collect souls, they have to cut the body to view the cinematic records (correct me if I'm wrong). So, are cinematic records connected to the blood?
âť“ for a general Kuro question
I’m not entirely sure how to answer this, since Undertaker tells our earl and Sebastian that the cinematic records are created and stored in the brain, basically as memories, and that they stay behind in the brain once the soul is removed from the body. And we know bizarre dolls are destroyed by destroying the brains that contain the cinematic records.
We also learn from Undertaker that the cinematic records are normally cut after “End” when a reaper decides to collect a soul.
The weird part about all this is that all reapers access the cinematic records (which are canonically stored in the brain) when they assess a person for collection (versus a “shinigami pass”), but only the bizarre dolls that Undertaker makes are shown to have stitches across their foreheads. The typical reaper method for collecting a soul is to hack into the body with whatever sort of death scythe they have. Even a lawnmower-modified one will get the job done.
If this is not some continuity mistake, then it means that cutting a body with a death scythe forces the cinematic records to pour out of the brain and through the fresh wound, regardless of where the body is cut, and the reaper can cut the records after “End.” Then, perhaps the remaining reel re-spools itself back into the brain? This seems to be the case, even when the soul isn’t collected. Sebastian’s cinematic records didn’t just fall out and get lost; they went back to where they came from. But they seem to come out where he’s been stabbed.
But if you want to access the cinematic records with minimal damage to the body, add film 🎞 to the reel, and then shove it all back in place... you would want to make an incision across the forehead. For direct access to the cinematic records’ source!
About the blood. 🤔 There is a blood-brain barrier in the human body, but perhaps the idea is that the cinematic records come out of the brain, cross that barrier, and follow the blood vessels to where the death scythe cut the body? Following the flow of that blood, drawn there by the “magic” of the death scythe?
There’s one other oddity: When William and Ronald work at Kelvin’s manor, the cinematic records seem to be coming out from bodies all over the place, without even needing a death scythe to access them.
Aha! I think I’ve got it. It depends on the specific situation. Here are three:
When people are dying from random causes, their cinematic records spill out from their brains and through their bodies until they find an exit: wounds, mouth, etc. The blood? It might not particularly matter. A person dying without blood loss should still start “playing” its cinematic records. Reapers can view the cinematic records without cutting the bodies, but they do use special scissors(?) to cut the film after “End.” Then they use the death scythe to collect the soul. So, they are only normally causing extra damage if they have decided to collect. If there is any chance of giving a “shinigami pass”, they probably view the cinematic records without causing any more damage. I don’t think you can save a human that has been cut with a death scythe.... It seems to actually release and possibly even capture the soul.
When a reaper is fighting a demon (when Sebastian gets injured by a death scythe) or flat-out killing a human (like Grelle killing Madam Red), they are going to strike with the death scythe to draw out the cinematic records. There’s no intention of giving a “shinigami pass” or anything, so the damage doesn’t matter.
When Undertaker is working on his bizarre dolls, those bodies are already dead, so their cinematic records have already returned to the brain. Simply striking the body with a death scythe isn’t going to force the cinematic records to pour back out. That’s why he has to take a more direct and surgical approach to accessing their cinematic records to add film. Then he’s probably got to manually shove it all back into place. Simply because a corpse doesn’t respond the same way as a dying body. Since a bizarre doll then acts like it’s alive again, Ronald is able to access their cinematic records by cutting them with his death scythe. But destroying the brain of a bizarre doll doesn’t release the cinematic records; it just destroys the records, too.
