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criscura · 1 year

Text

The heart of the story

SPOILERS for the garou fight (i know it's been a while but still) because holy fucking SHIT. i am shaking. Bigass post about the symbolism of Saitama's suit, Genos' core, and the deconstruction going on in the whole fight.

I saw a coloring of this panel,

and the positioning/negative space of the hole in Saitama's cape combined with the wind-up of Garou's punch made it fucking click and--jjdjalsk;djL;KFJ;lkdjlLKJlkdj

I thought it was super weird that pretty early on in this arc, Saitama's cape got a hole punched through it and the way he was positioned kept on emphasizing it. Like....Saitama's cape is already emblematic of who he is. It flutters around to accent what he's doing like an exclamation point, when he's protecting someone it curls around them like it's an extension of his intentions, when he walks in it flourishes before him like an announcement. As much as the gloves are a symbol of his power, I feel like his cape is...hope? It's what he is to the people he comes to save? Or maybe it's the selfless part of what he considers a hero to be--so if the gloves are "you're stronger than anyone else," the cape is "so you can be there for everyone else." I don't know, I have to think about it a little more, but that's the sense I get. It's also, y'know--a cape is something you wear to defend yourself from bad weather or the cold or just to cover up. It's protection.

So it felt REALLY BAD that there was a big hole torn into it, right dead-smack in the middle of Saitama's chest, like it was a target. A big foreboding "Look out! Your defenses are down! Watch out behind you!" But what the fuck can get at Saitama, right? Garou wasn't going to defeat him. You can't hurt him. He doesn't have to watch his back, that's kind of his whole problem.

But. Bu t f= djkj;sd. jFUCKING. HE'S NOT. HE'S NOT INVULNERABLE. IT WASN'T HIS CHEST IT WAS FORESHADOWING

And that was fucking it. Garou ripped out Saitama's heart when he ripped out Genos', and it destroyed him. Saitama lost himself. He ACTUALLY lost himself

THAT'S NOT FUCKING SAITAMA. That's what he's always been capable of becoming, but that's NOT him. As the fight goes on, he gets progressively more terrifying and inhuman--featureless face, blacked or whited out eyes, an outline of a body--as he starts attacking more relentlessly. We're watching him forget the humanity he's been feeling less and less in touch with, as he gets consumed by fury and grief.

That's not even mentioning that he loses almost all of his suit--that thing that defines him, that's most important to who he is and who he wants to be. All at once Garou hits him with something that completely destroys that symbol of who he is (hohoHO doesn't that sound familiar)--

everything except the ripped up remnants of his glove, the part that symbolizes his strength, that's left to clutch onto Genos' core,

which Saitama protected and cradled to his heart as if it was his own?? like it was a lifeline?? like it was more important than his home planet, that he almost destroyed in a blind rage???

Like.....yes, it was a handicap as in "i'll only use one hand to fight you," but I don't think it's THAT much of an exaggeration to say it was also a handicap in that it stopped Saitama from going absolutely fucking bonkers and destroying everything. I think that WAS his heart. That was his last tether to humanity and empathy and hope. It was his fucking companion cube.

(I don't think it's a coincidence that in that panel where Saitama's curling his whole body around the core while being buried in the ground--and isn't THAT a fucking metaphor--that he looks legitimately pissed off. Garou's kick was on a direct trajectory to Genos' core. And isn't there something to be said for Saitama letting an opponent hit his head to protect it? A thing he's deeply self-conscious about normally, and a move that we've seen Genos pull more than once?)

I've said before that Genos does the hard emotional work for Saitama when he can't do it for himself (getting excited, angry, or sad for him; cheering him on; and all around taking the weight off Saitama to respond emotionally to things so that, at the very least, he doesn't have to feel guilty about not feeling anything). In return, Saitama is a stable rock for Genos to hold onto because, in his volatile world where everything is changing and can be taken away from him at any moment, Saitama can't. And like...

Saitama did fail in that he was too late. He didn't save him before the worst happened. But what little Saitama had left of him, was entirely devoted to Genos. He turned himself into an indestructible case for everything Genos was. And as much as Saitama carried Genos through that fight, again, Genos carried him. Again, Saitama couldn't relate--he was too far out of touch with his humanity to act like he still had it. But he could still cling to Genos, and Genos could feel it for him.

Genos' heart replaced the heart that Garou broke--because when he killed Genos, Genos wasn't the one to feel the pain of his own loss. It wasn't his core that shattered. It was Saitama's. The target on his back hit exactly where it warned it would.

And now like--I do need to add a byline that this sucks for Genos. All around. He was used, thrown away, and Saitama failed to get to him on time. Now he's also the ONLY one who remembers what happened. He is already so fucking burdened, this is too much for one guy. I'm legitimately worried about what this is going to do to him.

But also? Mythology is my shit and melodramatic shenanigans are my JAM, and what aspect of this isn't mythological? What ISN'T such an obvious allegory after you say it out loud that it feels almost silly? How many levels does this work on? A wayward knight sacrificed a virgin heart in battle in hopes of tempting a dragon out of its cave to defeat it, and got SO much more than he bargained for? God took away the one you love, so you fight heaven and hell to get them back? Your heart is my heart, you live on in me and I in you, even after either of us are gone? I can't--I can't even come up with other examples because there are SO MANY. I just.

GOSH, even structurally, as the fight goes on, the panels become more sparse and less detailed. We lose background and landscape--often because it's actually demolished--until it's only action lines scratched over a flat black or white, to the point where we get graphs like the paper they're drawn on has been so ripped up that all we see are the guidelines on the desk underneath it. Things are taken apart to an atomic level.

And meanwhile, we're watching these two characters argue over their most BASIC concepts. What are you fighting for? Who are you, really? What are you, after you've lost everything? What drives you? What scares you? What's your hope, and your worst fear? Are you human? Does it matter?

Why are you, you?

It's falling apart that's interrupted only by fantastic destruction that's as beautiful as it is terrible...and it doesn't fucking STOP until both characters have been so thoroughly torn down to their most painful, elemental pieces that they're fading to dust or erased fully from existence. This entire FIGHT is a deconstruction--of story, of characters, of the manga itself.

I don't mind the time travel bit because this is--this is Jjust--this is SUCH A FUCKING GOOD ILLUSTRATION of what makes this manga WORK because it fucking--it goes out on a limb and says, "what happens if we do the thing we can't come back from, what does that do to the characters, let's bring it to the absolute enD JDJALSDK;JF" and00asdljs;dlkj

I'm losing it. I'm fucking LOSEINjalkj LOSING IT. Like. Saitama's the pillar of the story. Everything revolves around him. Genos is the catalyst, Saitama's the plot. Genos is the machina, Saitama's the deus ex. Genos is the heart, Saitama's the soul. I've said this a lot. but fucking....

If a cape is protection from the elements, Saitama's cape is a symbol of the hope he brings, AND there was a massive hole in Saitama's cape for so much of this arc, there was both a nagging sense that he wouldn't be able to magically solve shit like he usually can and that he had some weak point that was wide open for an attack. That weak point ended up being Genos.

The only way to break Saitama was to break his fucking heart...and then everything else broke around him.

((And....jllaksdjls of course, of COURSE I have a fucking bias and you KNOW I'm looking at this from a shipping lens too, and like.....I don't......Genos has Saitama's heart, and Saitama has his. They share it. It's one in the same. When one can't carry it, the other carries it for him. Ilm.kjl i"m. I'M.ASD...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA))

#one punch man #one punch #opm #genos #saitama #garou #genosai #saigenos #precious robot baby #egg on legs #talk dirty to me #i am #literally #vibrating #THIS STILL ISN'T EVEN ALL MY EMOTIONS ABOUT THIS I DON'T KNOW HOW #THERE'S SO FUCKING MUCH GOING ON NNNNNN AJLA;SKJDF;ALSDKJ #please forgive me i fjfffucking KEYSMASHED this out at 2:30 IN THE MORNING it's not 4:18 I NEED TO GO GET MY LAUNDRY #GOSH THIS IS STILL PROBABLY SO GARBGLED AJLKJAL;JLAKSDJ KSJD;LASK

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