Soul Eater/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

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** Perhaps the author hadn't decided on their relationship at that point, or didn't care that Black Star was such a prat to the man who raised him. Either way, the times Black Star shows genuine sensitivity to anything are few and far between. It bugs me too in retrospect, but unfortunately it fits with Black Star being a complete jerk.

* Why is the way Asura is defeated in the anime considered such a wall banger?

** Some seem to argue it's bad because it was "[[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu|just a punch]]" to what is an in-universe god, and so are missing the courage aspect in favour of 'power levels' and the like. Me, I dislike it because although the courage side works, the teamwork aspect of the meister and Weapon partnership gets dispensed with. It kind of comes across that Maka is the * only* thing that matters and everything else, including Soul, is just sidelined to help her along. Probably other, better, reasons than that for seeing it as a Wall Banger, but it just didn't ring true for this troper when looking at the other themes in the series.

** Some seem to argue it's bad because it was "[[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|just a punch]]" to what is an in-universe god, and so are missing the courage aspect in favour of 'power levels' and the like. Me, I dislike it because although the courage side works, the teamwork aspect of the meister and Weapon partnership gets dispensed with. It kind of comes across that Maka is the * only* thing that matters and everything else, including Soul, is just sidelined to help her along. Probably other, better, reasons than that for seeing it as a Wall Banger, but it just didn't ring true for this troper when looking at the other themes in the series.

* Stein's catchphrase is "I'll dissect you!" but he doesn't actually ''dissect'' things... he ''vivisects'' them, because they're still alive when he cuts them open. They're usually conscious, too. Not a huge deal, especially since most people don't know or care about the difference between vivisection and dissection anyway, but... it just BUGS me...

** Is there even a word for vivisection in Japanese? Maybe there isn't one, so they use dissection as a catch-all?

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* So wait...if Tsubaki absorbed Mifune's soul, which is worth 99 souls...what happened to the soul of Masamune, the very first one she absorbed? Wouldn't that be 100 Kishin souls? Actually, was it even established that Mifune's soul was worth 99 ''Kishin'' souls and not 99 ''human'' souls? As far as I'm concerned, he never actually consumed human souls which is basically what creates a Kishin. Therefore, if Tsubaki had actually absorbed Mifune's soul, wouldn't that technically make her a Kishin?

** In the manga there's no such thing as Kishin's souls or Kishin's eggs, they are anime only. This is one of the things that make the manga a little more of a [[Crapsack World]], the idea seems to be that is okay to eat someone's soul if said someone is a criminal; Mifune previously worked with [[The Mafia]], so maybe this made him a target of the Shibusen. Also, he didn't seem to leave a soul behind.

** Maybe [[Anti Villain]] and Kishen Souls are lumped together in the same category?

** Maybe [[Anti-Villain]] and Kishen Souls are lumped together in the same category?

** The anime says its the souls of 99 'evil humans', the manga defines the targets according to a list of Shinigami's. We're not told in detail in either version why Mifune counted as a target, only that he did so. It may be because he was protecting Angela, or because of his previous actions. Assuming Tsubaki did take Mifune's soul (which she surely would not have done if she was not allowed to), then she has at least 100 including that of Masamune. Which means she's made the same mistake that Soul did (the 100th soul wasn't a witch's), except under very different circumstances. (Two souls the girl's taken and both were total Tear Jerkers. The lady doesn't get a break!).

** Did Tsubaki even absorb Mifune's soul? I just remember him disappearing into flower petals.

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** It's probably all of North America that has the same currency, not just Death City. after all, we don't see money used elsewhere else in the series, so it might be true.

* Everyone calls Black* Star a parody of [[Naruto]]. This wouldn't bug me if it weren't for the fact that A) They have virtually nothing in common after everything's said and done and B) Not once has this been hinted at beyond having Black* Star suck as a ninja, and that in itself was the joke. Why, fandom? Why?

** Its because his personality is a heavily flanderised version of Naruto's. He's loud to the point where it inhibits his stealth abilities. His being a [[Highly Visible Ninja]] is portrayed as a disadvantage. Naruto's extremly lofty goals have been exagerated into Black* Star's massive ego. His highly energetic personality has been exagerated to the point where only someone like Tsubaki could stand to work with him. Not to mention his ego is the source of his power, essentially parodying every [[Hot Blooded]] character ever created (including Naruto). Oh, and there's also [[Word of God]] on the matter IIRC.

** Its because his personality is a heavily flanderised version of Naruto's. He's loud to the point where it inhibits his stealth abilities. His being a [[Highly-Visible Ninja]] is portrayed as a disadvantage. Naruto's extremly lofty goals have been exagerated into Black* Star's massive ego. His highly energetic personality has been exagerated to the point where only someone like Tsubaki could stand to work with him. Not to mention his ego is the source of his power, essentially parodying every [[Hot Blooded]] character ever created (including Naruto). Oh, and there's also [[Word of God]] on the matter IIRC.

** Would it be too much to ask where and when he said this?

*** I'd like to ask this as well considering that contrary to western fandom belief Naruto does not have an original personality. He is the typical shounen hero, his character in and of itself is a part trope that has been in existence long before his creation. Not only that but Naruto genuinely is a horrible ninja, however Black*Star isn't even an ninja he's an assassin and refers to himself as such, and when Black*Star feels like it he is actually a good assassin. Also motivations are different, unlike Naruto Black*Star genuinely wants to be strong and to be recognized as such. Loneliness is not Black*Star's main motivation. I've also never heard word of god stating that Black*Star was based off of Naruto.

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** It actually makes sense; the episode was about introducing Kid and his quirks, and what better way to establish his relationship and reinforce his [[Super OCD]] than show his reaction to walking in on them.

** It didn't seem like a reaction only he would have though.

** I rather thought it was because Okhubo started the first three chapters with a fanservice obsession. I mean, the Anime actually toned it down to something rather more tasteful. (in the manga the girl's shirts had ''[[Cleavage Window|boob windows]] like Power Girl'') Of course, this got better as the series progressed, but remember that in ch 1 you had [[Bath Kick|Bubble-Bath]]!Blair, in ch 2 you had [[Form Fitting Wardrobe]]!Tsukbaki, and in ch 3 you had Egyptian [[Naughty Tentacles]]!Liz-and-Patty.

** I rather thought it was because Okhubo started the first three chapters with a fanservice obsession. I mean, the Anime actually toned it down to something rather more tasteful. (in the manga the girl's shirts had ''[[Cleavage Window|boob windows]] like Power Girl'') Of course, this got better as the series progressed, but remember that in ch 1 you had [[Bath Kick|Bubble-Bath]]!Blair, in ch 2 you had [[Form-Fitting Wardrobe]]!Tsukbaki, and in ch 3 you had Egyptian [[Naughty Tentacles]]!Liz-and-Patty.

** I guess that would also explain why only girls were naked when in weapon form at first.

* Why is Noah considered a [[Shotacon|pedo rapist?]] [[Memetic Molester|Giriko]], I understand, but as far as I've read (up to chapt. 77 at this point) Noah's done horrible things to Kid obviously but I haven't seen him do ''that''. Is this just [[Fanon]] or is there a genuine reason to call Chris Hansen instead of an Amber Alert?

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** They're both about people (Miesters/Soul Reapers) who encounter souls and collect/send those souls with the use of a weapon that can come to life. There's also the fact that they go through special schooling to do this. Then there's the fact that they both have Mad Scientists. And Cat Women causing nosebleeds to teenaged boys. And it really doesn't help that Maka and Ichigo both have magical daddys and absent moms.

* People give the [[Gecko Ending]] all the bad names in the book just because [[Serious Business|it's different from the manga]]. Yes it's different but that doesn't automatically make it bad. It provides a new experience. [[Tropes Are Not Bad]] and neither are different storylines.

** I didn't mind the Courage Punch so much, because I viewed it as only working because Maka was freaking out Ashura with her refusal to give in to pain. What annoyed me about the [[Gecko Ending]] was the horrible, horrible treatment of Medusa and Arachne. Seriously? Medusa can only think of using a vector arrow as a sword whereas in earlier episodes she had been seen using them to much greater effect against Stein? Arachne suddenly decides that Ashura is totally A-OK and able to be trusted, then ends up getting eaten in one of the most anti-climactic scenes ever? It did not do two of the best villains justice.

** First, it's not really less arbitrary than just saying "oh, now our guys are stronger than the bad guy now". Second, I think it works really well- he might have been arbitrarily strong, but had an equally crippling mental problem; he was afraid of Everything. Maka didn't get a new super-punch, but it's also not like anyone could have punched the guy to the same effect. She faced the most dangerous thing in existence without fear, and it literally shattered his worldview.

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** 1) What the heck is up with the wierd changes in appearance? the only one that makes sense is the old wizened one (he ''is'' over 800 years old). So what's up with this?

** 2) Why don't we get to see him fight as his "most magnificent" form? Why? [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome|WHY?!]] (or the forms from other years?)

*** A couple hypothesi to my own questions: 1) the author wanted to use both the [[Bishounen Line]] trope (400 year ago form) ''and'' the [[One Winged Angel]] trope (the 800 years ago form). 2) The author wanted to keep the battle from being too long, and wanted to imploy the [[Worf Effect]] to show Noah's power. It still bugs me though.

*** A couple hypothesi to my own questions: 1) the author wanted to use both the [[Bishounen Line]] trope (400 year ago form) ''and'' the [[One-Winged Angel]] trope (the 800 years ago form). 2) The author wanted to keep the battle from being too long, and wanted to imploy the [[Worf Effect]] to show Noah's power. It still bugs me though.

** Not sure about the massive form, but 'dracula' and 'mosquito' recall blood-sucking creatures fictitious or otherwise. The "I was legion!" is very similar to one in the Bible from a man possessed by many demons...though the many bats thing could just be a Hellsing Shoutout? And without seeing the page again I can't be sure, but the mention of the final form having a beakish nose reminds me of an annotation for Terry Pratchett's 'Carpe Jugulum' - "The beaked, hunched figure that Vlad calls 'a distant ancestor' is a reference to the stryx, a creature from Roman mythology that stabbed and drank blood through its beak."

* Kid activating the second Sanzu Line and {{spoiler|taking down Noah and his Cerberus with one shot. It seemed veeeeery anti-climax...then they just let Gopher run off with the Book of Eibon. The hell, man?}}

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** The Lust chapter was shown to affect personality as well as appearance, so naturally they would not act themselves. I think it may be some kind of exaggerated pointer to how they'd attract their love interest. Maka being solemn, and mostly looking like herself with shorter hair, could show how she is not interested in dating. Black Star has no idea about romantic relationships, hence naive. Soul's a bit tricky, but I'd say that once someone caught his attention, he'd be very persistent about it. The thing with Tsubaki getting "pushed around" is actually a pun in Japanese, both referring to way she is wielded as a weapon and how she goes along with Black Star's egoism. It's just not a perfect translation.

*** I guess I was more confused. I originally thought she meant that's how ''their'' love interests would behave (hence the [[Shipper On Deck]] theory), but the way she phrased it confused me a lot. It wouldn't exactly be unlike Liz to suggest things like that... I'm also confused - they're supposed to change according to what attracts them in a member of the opposite sex. So like Black*Star has huge boobs, Tsubaki's all muscly, Maka's still skinny but has shorter hair, and Soul for some reason is flat. I just assumed that since their voices changed, their personalities did as well, since Soul was upset about Maka getting a nosebleed when he's normally all laidback and can't seem to really bother with anyone (I can't see him doing any different for a girl he likes) like Maka was in boy!form and...okay that's confusing enough but why didn't their hair or skin colours change? I guess it also leaves no room for [[No Bisexuals|bisexuals]] or homosexuals...

* A question about the [[Fanon]] on this site: Why does someone keep insisting that ''all'' weapon/meister relationships could be viewed as an [[Official Couple]], [[Canon]], [[Ship Tease]], etc. when text, [[Subtext]], anime, manga, and anything that actually ''is'' [[Canon]] ''only'' supports Soul/Maka, Black*Star/Tsubaki, and possibly Maka/Crona? There is absolutely nothing to suggest that Harvar and Ox, Kilik and/or Pot of Fire and/or Pot of Thunder, Kim and Jackie, Spirit and Lord Death, Kid and Patti and/or Liz, or Sid and Nygus (though admittedly, this troper likes the idea) has even the slightest hint of [[Ship Tease]]? If you squint really hard, you might be able to find a small tidbit of Marie/Stein, but seriously: this is a [[No Hugging No Kissing]]-type manga. The only pairing that is an [[Official Couple]] as of yet is Kim/Ox. When upset, Tsubaki will act endearingly towards Black*Star, and she is the only person he's willing to behave for. Crona refers to Maka as being the only person who loved him. Increasingly recently (as pointed out on Wikia) Soul and Maka have been holding hands (or otherwise touching) and blushing around one another. ''Once'' Stein was comforting to Marie. That's it. So how, exactly, can you infer that any other pairings besides Black*Star/Tsubaki, Soul/Maka, and/or Crona/Maka would be in the least way [[Canon]]? Am I the only person bothered by this?

* A question about the [[Fanon]] on this site: Why does someone keep insisting that ''all'' weapon/meister relationships could be viewed as an [[Official Couple]], [[Canon]], [[Ship Tease]], etc. when text, [[Subtext]], anime, manga, and anything that actually ''is'' [[Canon]] ''only'' supports Soul/Maka, Black*Star/Tsubaki, and possibly Maka/Crona? There is absolutely nothing to suggest that Harvar and Ox, Kilik and/or Pot of Fire and/or Pot of Thunder, Kim and Jackie, Spirit and Lord Death, Kid and Patti and/or Liz, or Sid and Nygus (though admittedly, this troper likes the idea) has even the slightest hint of [[Ship Tease]]? If you squint really hard, you might be able to find a small tidbit of Marie/Stein, but seriously: this is a [[No Hugging, No Kissing]]-type manga. The only pairing that is an [[Official Couple]] as of yet is Kim/Ox. When upset, Tsubaki will act endearingly towards Black*Star, and she is the only person he's willing to behave for. Crona refers to Maka as being the only person who loved him. Increasingly recently (as pointed out on Wikia) Soul and Maka have been holding hands (or otherwise touching) and blushing around one another. ''Once'' Stein was comforting to Marie. That's it. So how, exactly, can you infer that any other pairings besides Black*Star/Tsubaki, Soul/Maka, and/or Crona/Maka would be in the least way [[Canon]]? Am I the only person bothered by this?

** I'm not particularly bothered, except for Kilik and his weapons. But, I think it's since they match as weapon and meister, it's not hard to imagine them fitting as a couple.

** ''[[Soul Eater Not]]'' makes room for a Jaqueline/Kim pairing, or at least Jaqueline feeling atracted towards Kim.

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* Okay, there's one thing that bothers me. Why are the witches evil? I'm only maybe 30 episodes into the anime but this bothers me. So, we have a group of all female magic users. Yes, there are a few bad eggs like Medusa and Arachne, but then again the only reason Eruka helped Medusa was because she was threatened and Mizune only helped because she was tricked. Also, with the existence of Angela, it's implied that witches are born and not made, like Kishin, and that they're not born evil, either. If Lord Death was really concerned about the [[Complete Monster]] witches like Medusa, he probably could have taken advantage of the fractious nature of witches to have them turn against each other. But, instead, he ''sanctions genocide'' of them because they're required to make a death scythe. Death scythes are only shown to be useful on limited occasions where an extremely powerful weapon is needed, and yet this is the goal of all of the weapons in his academy, and from the looks of it, it's a pretty big school, and he's apparently been doing this for hundreds of years! A lot of their anger at Lord Death seems entirely justified, so why is he justified in killing them again?

** I've only seen the anime, but it seems that most witches ''aren't'' evil. I'm not sure why Lord Death wants people to hunt them.

** Being a witch isn't in itself justification for Shibusen to hunt someone; Death has a list of targets. The manga claims that witches almost exclusively Always Chaotic Evil due to their magic being driven by 'the way of destruction' and (mostly) can ''only'' be used to [[Bad Powers Bad People|destroy]]. Eruka delights in it, Medusa ignores all authority in order to follow her desires, and Arachne...did her own [[For Science|thing]] (incidentally the Gorgon sisters are distrusted even amongst witches; Medusa for abandoning the Assembly, and Arache is dubbed 'The Heretic' for creating the Weapons). Problems arise when we get people like {{spoiler|Angela who is too young for the 'destruction' aspect to affect her.}} If anything, Shibusen's stance could be why the Witches Assembly has done nothing yet - they genuinely can't afford to act rashly because they'd have all of Death's followers after them.

** Being a witch isn't in itself justification for Shibusen to hunt someone; Death has a list of targets. The manga claims that witches almost exclusively Always Chaotic Evil due to their magic being driven by 'the way of destruction' and (mostly) can ''only'' be used to [[Bad Powers, Bad People|destroy]]. Eruka delights in it, Medusa ignores all authority in order to follow her desires, and Arachne...did her own [[For Science!|thing]] (incidentally the Gorgon sisters are distrusted even amongst witches; Medusa for abandoning the Assembly, and Arache is dubbed 'The Heretic' for creating the Weapons). Problems arise when we get people like {{spoiler|Angela who is too young for the 'destruction' aspect to affect her.}} If anything, Shibusen's stance could be why the Witches Assembly has done nothing yet - they genuinely can't afford to act rashly because they'd have all of Death's followers after them.

* Here's one: Is Crona, like, cold-blooded? I mean, I doubt that Black Blood is exactly like normal blood except for the fact that it can harden. Can Crona give off... warmth? Or is s/he like a snake? (Well, considering hir mother...)

** On a side note, if Crona's blood is black, shouldn't s/he blush gray?

** On a somewhat-related note, Sid is shown bleeding several times, including a [[Nosebleed]]. If he's a zombie shouldn't he not have blood ''at all''?

* Are we EVER going to hear from [[Missing Mom|Kami or whatever Maka's mom's name is?]] Seriously, we're ass-deep in the story at this point and [[The Ghost|we haven't heard hide nor hair from her YET.]] She made [[Crouching Moron Hidden Badass|Spirit]] a Death Scythe for crying out loud so there's no question that she's powerful and they could certainly use her help on the Moon. And yet, nothing. Why? The anime has many problems but even they acknowledge Kami's effect on her daughter (she never physically shows up there either but she has regular correspondence with Maka and [[Chekhov's Gun|one of her postcards]] plays a part in the finale.).

* Are we EVER going to hear from [[Missing Mom|Kami or whatever Maka's mom's name is?]] Seriously, we're ass-deep in the story at this point and [[The Ghost|we haven't heard hide nor hair from her YET.]] She made [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|Spirit]] a Death Scythe for crying out loud so there's no question that she's powerful and they could certainly use her help on the Moon. And yet, nothing. Why? The anime has many problems but even they acknowledge Kami's effect on her daughter (she never physically shows up there either but she has regular correspondence with Maka and [[Chekhov's Gun|one of her postcards]] plays a part in the finale.).

* In the Lust chapter of the Book of Eibon, you change depending on what you find attractive in the opposite sex. So what happens if a gay person goes into the book?

** Not a clue but someone should write fanfic about it.

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[[Category:Soul Eater]]

[[Category:Headscratchers]]

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