bots get outta here

Let's lay the groundwork for HOW I'm going to discuss them. I'll be looking at three different points, along with my conclusions for each apprentice based on this. Reasons to stay, reasons to leave, and power/status.

Reasons to stay and leave both focus on the reasons for remaining an apprentice in the House of Spiders or leaving it. Power and status in particular focus on how high up in their Finger or powerful the apprentice in question is, and you'll see after the second entry why I'm including this aspect.

First up, the most obvious apprentice for this discussion.

Reasons to Stay: Viewing Valencina as a mother, and wanting to serve as a Textbook to Yoshihide. This is genuinely the only two reasons he has to stay in the House of Spiders, and the latter is one outright forced onto him, and applies to half the Apprentices.

Reasons to Leave: Many. Valencina's abuse, lack of community within the House of Spiders, wanting to avoid his fate as Textbook, and desire to rise up the ranks of the Thumb can all contribute to him wanting out of the House of Spiders.

Power/Status: He's pretty alright in terms of combat strength, though he ends up specifically struggling with multiple targets, and he's arguably one of the weakest in terms of combat. His offense and defense level both have generally plus levels though. His status is a bit ambiguous in terms of Thumb strength, as we only have Lei Heng to base him off of and he's both far above most other characters and a hidden Pinky member.

Conclusion: Lucio is the most cut and dry in terms of freedom. He wants it very much, but feels indebted thanks to the Thumb's ideology. He eventually does decide he wants to break free and kill Valencina, but even in this moment he feels like he has to finish the fight before him and arguably honor Valencina's words, which is what spells his doom.

Poor Sora.

Reasons to Stay: Praise, slight sense of belonging, and the ideology of the Prescripts and Index. This is a big one, as it's so ingrained into her that she's manifested EGO thanks to how dedicated she is.

Reasons to Leave: She doesn't feel like she truly belongs. She notes her companions are hard to approach or not good, and Kira outright is hostile to her even when she tries to match her level of interest, and Index Don likely illustrates the outright bullying received from her companions.

Power/Status: Despite her immense power, likely being the strongest single Apprentice, she's likely not very high up in the Index. While her cape is fairly lengthy, it's not to the lengths of someone like Esther or Gloria. She's likely a good bit behind someone like them, not helped by her being a part of the House of Spiders.

Conclusion: Sora is, like Lucio, someone who has been brainwashed to follow the rules of those around her. Most notably the Prescripts. Even if her environment got even worse than it already is with the bullying, she is so deeply ingrained that there is never a thought of her needing to leave the House of Spiders. The most freedom she ever expresses is wanting to go get ice cream, the praise of Rien, and her wanting Ryoshu to have the safe. It's debatable whether the Index would even take her in or not, and that's the only real thing she knows outside of the House of Spiders.

Why would you need freedom with a papa like Matthias?

Reasons to Stay: Fatherly figure she adores. Ability to choose what she wants to do and when. Complete lack of authority that she feels is overbearing. Plenty of money.

Reasons to Leave: A bigger family. One could say there's no reason for her to leave, but her statuses, flavor text, and Ishmael's identity story show that she is DESPERATE to be considered a part of the Middle overall. Something that just isn't going to happen in the House of Spiders, the place where her father was rejected from the Middle to.

Power/Status: For power, she's generally actually a bit stronger than most of the other candidates from the Apprentice, with most of her Skills having increased offense level and ability to accelerate. However, she's barely considered part of the Middle. The rest of the Finger shows her little regard in Ishmael's uptie story, and she doubts her own place within it constantly.

Conclusion: If we could only have one apprentice survive Canto 9, this was by far one of the most interesting options. As Kira's 'freedom' is a falsehood built entirely to placate her until she can serve a purpose for someone else's life and development and status Whether it be the intended one of helping train Yoshihide, or for her own father's usage as we see play out, we know nobody cares about Kira's power or status. Now, though, she's forced out of comfort and into something new. She no longer has the 'freedom' to ignore doing things and caring for herself in a meaningful manner, and will likely outright join the LCE or LCD. However, what she gains is the freedom to explore herself outside of being a tool for someone else, and the stifling embrace of her father. The ability to grow and be heroic in her own way.

Please give this artist and her sword girlfriend some companionship.

Reasons to Stay: Praise of a 'Maestro', and fairly fresh ingredients. On top of that, she wants to meet Yoshihide for artistic fulfillment of both herself and the one she's meant to help.

Reasons to Leave: Her master is a bitch, completely uncaring for her. She can't really gather ingredients for her artwork, as she's constantly shown doing in the brief opportunities during her boss fights. She's also shown to be desperate for companionship, trying to get the LCB sinners to be her and Fascia's friends.

Power/Status: In terms of strict power, she's actually got a bit of a lower offense level compared to most of the other apprentices, with some good defense skills being her only real draw. However, her artistic movement seems to have a lot of merit behind it, being extremely unique compared to her more 'gauche' and 'behind the times' master. At least in comparison to what we've seen overall from the Ring.

Conclusion: Albina likely feels like she doesn't really have the best reasons to leave, as she wants to meet Yoshihide first and share artistic fulfillment. It's her main focus afterall. This focus, and her maestro's influence, blinds her to the fact that she already has done great work in terms of moving towards artistic fulfillment. The Ring itself seems to focus on sharing ideas and concepts and movements, fitting with their link with lust, as we see exacerbated by some of the discussions in Leviathan. But there's no one else to share her artistic ideas with in the House of Spiders except her washed up father. It's a shame she couldn't see that the true art wasn't in other people and their guts, but inside her and Fascia all along...

Thank fuck for Sinclair's identity story.

Reasons to Stay: Desire to become one of the Pinky's Stars. Perfection of his technique. Most of all, likely, is his bond with the Pinky Nursefather. Sinclair's story shows us the bond between the Pinky Nursefather and Ren, and it's quite tragic. He seems to be acutely aware of the struggle she seems to go through with being displaced from time, and outright speaks on her behalf and praises her. He seems to be aware of the struggles of his Master, and barely even holds the cycle of abuse embodied within her against her. Araya and Ryoshu's story is one best suited for another post, of course, but overall he seems to hold an immense amount of empathy for Araya.

Reasons to Leave: With all of this understanding though, it's important to remember that he is actively punished with abuse when going through the training with the Pinky Nursefather. On top of that, his outburst and dismissal of Albina paints a picture that he is far from pleased from being in the House of Spiders.

Power/Status: This is where it gets really interesting. His power level is pretty average if not a bit above normalcy thanks to having around +5 offense level on most of his skills. However, we know where he ends up in terms of status. He ends up inheriting the title of Pinky Star once Araya dies, and that gives him a major boost over any of the other apprentices in the strength to choose his freedom...

Conclusion: ...so with all of this in mind, it's only more tragic that he ends up giving up the option of leaving the House of Spiders to futilely save his master. He's the only Apprentice we see given the option to outright leave, and he has plenty of reason to, but he doesn't. To borrow from the original story, the foolish monkey jumps into the fires of the carriage and burns away. Because to Ren, the act itself is a good enough meaning and purpose. To be able to try and save a life.

The Final Apprentice

L.F.G.

Ryoshu is in fact important in these themes. Because she was raised by the Nursefathers just as much as the individual Apprentices, and the freedom and chains surrounding her and the House of Spiders are similar and different. So, one last time.

Reasons to Stay: Protection from the rest of the Fingers. This is something outright mentioned by Rien at the end of the Canto, and it makes sense. She has a powerful relic and is considered one of the Stars of the Pinky, and thus is of utmost importance to them. But she's safe from them and their in-fighting in the House of Spiders. Attention and teaching from the rest of the Nursefathers is also applicable, but it's pretty minor once she's gotten what she wants, and that happens EARLY. Arguably her relationship with Rien, which is something that deserves it's own attention and post.

Reasons to Leave: Pretty much everything from the above 'Reasons to Leave' sections related to each Nursefather. Though with the added downside that she was raised under Shiomi Yoru and not Araya, though there still is a level of understanding about cycles of abuse similar to Ren's relationship with Araya. Speaking of her though...

Araya: This is a complex point, because her daughter honestly represents both a stay and leave point. Obviously, Ryoshu wants to escape the House of Spiders to ensure a good life for Araya and make sure she isn't used against her by the Nursefathers or Fingers. However, one can argue her own desire for revenge ends up turning Araya into a Stay factor, because of the way she keeps Araya safe by storing her in a safe and then escaping herself to come back later. In that sense, she has to return and stay for some time to retrieve Araya, but also needs to get out to ensure a good life for herself and Araya.

Power/Status: Though brought low by the contract, it's clear Ryoshu is a powerhouse. She's level 75 in Muga form, and that's her power not being bound by the contract with Dante. On top of that. she's considered a Star of the Pinky, and is both feared and praised by the other Fingers.

Conclusion: Ryoshu does manage to get freedom. She gets out of the House of Spiders unlike Lucio and Ren. But her family and reason to be there remains, like Sora and Kira. It's a complex push and pull that ends similarly to almost all of the Apprentices. With her in the House of Spiders, trying to get what she wants, but completely failing to. The entire reason for her to escape is gone. All of the Nursefathers except Rien dead, and her biggest reason for wanting to escape gone.

And yet, she hopes for something. With her retaining a single point of sanity...

We're able to bring back Araya for a brief moment. To reunite them for one last moment. To thank her for coming back. To remind her why she left. For the hope that her daughter could leave a better life.

And in the future, with the freedom to explore every possible option.

Roland's... A horrible father on his own, honestly. It's a mix of things; The fact that his daughter reminds him of his dead wife, the fact that he's constantly grieving his dead wife, and... Well, let's face it. Roland probably wouldn't be the best dad as is.

But he tries! He tries for her because it's what she deserves. This is his daughter and she deserves the absolute best he can give her.

Despite having almost no drive, one thing Roland can always do is cook! Once she's old enough to eat even semi-solid foods, his daughter's gonna eat like a queen.

He knows that the city is ruthless, so he teaches her everything he knows about fighting when she's old enough to learn. Which he'd deem... Probably middle school age? 11~12? Yes honey you're old enough to wield a sword.

She learns fast, obviously having inherited fighting skills from both parents. Roland couldn't be more proud of her.

While he takes the best care of his daughter that he can, this man easily forgets to take care of himself. Every so often he... will find bedtime at the bottom of a beer bottle.

He tries to hide those nights from his girl. He doesn't want her to see him like this. She knows though. She knows. And once she's old enough? She understands. She never turns to alcohol herself; She sees what it does to her old man. But she understands the grief. She never even got to meet her mother. She can only imagine what it must've felt like to lose her.

Once his daughter starts to grow more independent he kind of falls into his depression, finally. She doesn't need him to be so strong anymore, so he starts to let himself go.

And then she realizes. And she quickly reminds Roland just how much of her mother's no nonsense attitude she inherited. His daughter brings him right back to reality, and helps him begin to finally cope with the loss after all these years.

She finds him therapy.

She makes him promise to wean himself off the booze. (easier said than done, but she has the firm patience of her mother as well. He does get clean eventually.)

Neither of them know it, but Roland's daughter saved countless lives just by being.