Michi(n)

This is kind of a response to @onepunchmiss but it ties to how avaricious intentions can cloud the better judgment of those who usually have their heads on straight.

Without a doubt, the typical response to seeing Saitama’s limitless prowess is envy and pure astonishment. It was a response we saw with every member of the S-Class after the events of the MA Arc. Like many people, you start to assemble theories and hypotheses. Zombieman is, of course, no exception to this. But this quote that is direct to Dr. Genus always gets me:

“I know many monsters who disregard their strength’s limitations. When they don’t become actual monsters, the world calls them heroes.”

If you’ve seen my recent posts, you would know that ZM is having a hard time in Dr. Genus’s basement. His pain tolerance is at its peak, he’s gagging on his own blood and there’s not even a flinch of worry by the doc. So, it begs the question as to why he really wants to endure such horrors for something he could just workout for.

Many could argue that he has an inferiority complex after being regarded as the “weakest S-Class hero” with only his regeneration and an absurd pain tolerance as the sole reason why the HA was interested in him in the first place. However, I think back to this panel alone when he spoke to Child Emperor:

“I’m a grown man but I have to rely on you. I want to thank you on the behalf of everyone.”

I personally think that he’s trying to become stronger for the sake of CE’s mental well-being.

Being a child who is much more rational / composed in the presence of mere adults can be extremely frustrating and stressing. Though, if he becomes capable of taking care of himself, there wouldn’t be any need for CE to fret about him (or the team for that matter) so much. On the aspect of the inferiority complex, maybe—but he’s a lot more down to earth than other characters who have a similar dilemma (see: Fubuki and Genos) that it wouldn’t exactly be perceived the same.

So, as has been addressed several times now the past couple days (thanks @gottahaveguts and @handlewcaare u feed my brain), Zombieman is straight up Not Having A Good Time Right Now. And so naturally I have been overthinking why he’s putting himself in this situation, and maybe a little bit where he could be going.

So with the most recent developments in the webcomic, we get confirmation that Zombieman has not been seen since going to Dr. Genus about his limiter.  As narration pointed out in webcomic ch. 130, Z is not one to cut off contact on his own normally. While they interpret this as him being in danger and in need of rescue, we as readers are fully aware that this is in fact exactly what he did. It’s safe to say that he doesn’t want to be found.

And regarding the limiter, I should wonder why he didn’t confront Saitama first. As far as we know, Zombieman doesn’t know that Saitama’s own power is a mystery to himself, so I would have thought that Z being a pretty logical and goal-oriented guy, would consult the guy with the experience of successfully obtaining the exact thing he wants first, directly. Obviously we know this wouldn’t get him very far, Genos is the living testament to that, but he doesn’t know that.

But no, what does he do instead? He goes straight to a guy who only witnessed that power, a guy who has already himself admitted that it made no sense and effectively broke his will to continue his former research. Genus more or less admitted he didn’t know how breaking a limiter was possible the first time Zombieman confronted him, stating it defied all common sense.

And on top of this, we already are very aware that Zombieman is NOT fond of his time at the House of Evolution. Genus recounts earlier that same confrontation that Z went on a rampage to escape the HoE, destroying the facility in the process. Then, over the span of 10 years while finding an identity as an extremely successful S class hero, he had still been tracking and monitoring them with the intention to dismantle the HoE and kill Genus. Alsooo during this confrontation, might I add, is the only time in the series we see him lose his cool and legitimately start straight up yelling with next to no provocation.

Genus was just sitting there with some takoyaki, yet the axe and emotions were raised high.

Zombieman generally appears to be pretty sensitive to the value of human life, and does not like his own humanity being questioned, which presumably stems from him being the product of the HoE’s experimentation. While admittedly not as intense as the above image, he’s pretty obviously pissed at Amai for accusing him of being a monster at the MA raid meeting. Its a touchy subject.

So it’s safe to say that even though we saw him talk it out with Genus, only sparing him once he was sufficiently convinced the HoE was truly disbanded, Zombieman clearly has a lot of trauma tied to Genus and his experiments. For him to go back to Genus and demand to be experimented on, without even pursuing the first and most obvious lead he has on limiters, and to do so with out telling a single person where he was going, is freaking insane.

Basically, what I’m seeing is the behavior of someone with serious self worth issues culminating in drastic self destructive behavior. He’s taking an extreme and reckless route rather than finding positive constructive ways of dealing with any feelings of inadequacy and self doubt, and honestly I’m sure he knows this. This whole thing could hypothetically be a death sentence for him and he’s just… throwing himself at it full force, no turning back. To him, he must do everything he can, there is no other option. I mean, let’s not forget this bit.

“Thus, as if he wanted that” Z, pls no

He can, will, and has thrown himself into situations he knows are impossible and could end him- he wont allow any less of himself. And now he’s done it again in Genus’s basement. The degree to which his experience in the HoE really affects him isn’t well defined, but I think there’s enough evidence to say that it does affect him pretty negatively. Purposefully exposing yourself to trauma/triggers is a legitimate for of self harm, and I get the impression that Zombieman forcing himself to undergo some excruciating process at the hands of the very person responsible for his likely trauma, without telling a single person of his whereabouts, when there are other more obvious courses of action available, is just as much a form of self-punishment as it is him legitimately seeking to improve and grow stronger. Subconscious or not.

I’m worried, because I obviously don’t think he’s going to break his limiter. Narratively I have no idea how that could work, it’s just not going to happen. So then… whats next for Zombieman? Whats it going to take for him snap out of this all-or-nothing mentality he’s seemingly developed in regards to himself, since his sense of self-preservation is kinda missing? He’s putting himself through all this agony, but how’s he going handle the realization that we can’t achieve his goal? I’m so curious as to what kind of story is One trying to tell with him. There’s a high level of intrigue surrounding his character, and he’s received a good amount of emphasis compared to other S class members we’ve yet to focus on (like Pig God or Watchdog Man) so I’d say he’s about due for some sort or character arc. And now that he’s dabbling in the limiter business, which is like, THE thing of OPM, I dunno, something substantial has to happen with his character next time we see him. 

until end july. don’t hesistant to dm me. use the coupon to get discount

Comic name: red strings au

Chapter: Prologues | chp1

Requested one short: Zombieman have a child but is a single dad.

I sacrificed my sleep schedule and I'm still bearing the consequences, but I'm not regretting drawing this to celebrate his official S3 poster.

Vs when your kid asks them this question

Should I make the manga version? And this is a compensation for no OPM smau this week😅

Vs when your kid asks them this question

Commission art.

Thank you 😊

Hey there!👋 Thank you for the request! Let's see what came out of it😁 If something is not right, please let me know, and I'll fix it. Have fun!💕

Asking them a weird question

A/N: so... I wrote a half of Zombieman's part in headcanons, and Tumblr doesn't let me save the post... And no, this is not because I have over 4096 characters in text blocks – I've learned how to deal with that. But it just keeps saying "We're sorry. There was an error processing your post" (or smth like that). So yeah, if technical support won't help, then I guess I'll have to divide the post into 3 parts (that I'll upload at the same time)🤷‍♀️

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