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kafkaoftherubble · 2 months

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把死人给带回来？难道...?！

// If They Are Bringing Back the Dead...

This post contains spoilers for Chapter 184.1 of To Your Eternity.

It also contains speculations galore. This is NOT a meta essay.

Shoutout to my homie branetheory in Discord!

Thanks to them, I was reminded of what Parts of My Brain had wanted to talk about:

Bruh. I can't believe ToFu made me so high last night that I forgot to talk about this.

Honestly I regret nothing Okay, memory water.

A little Kafka Aside: I'm gonna have to consciously ignore how... not-there the scientific backing for this is. Honestly, this Memory Water thing reminded me of the New Age/Pseudoscientific idea of "water memory" or Masaru Emoto's "water consciousness" thing or DNA teleportation. However, this is a story where weirder shits have happened, so suspension of disbelief willingly and gleefully granted. I just need to get this out of my head first.

To reiterate, Kaibara's experimental procedure involves

Extracting cells from a person's body

"Turn" it into water (how?)

Make a "clone" drink it (who?)

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Who could these clones be?

The only clones we know so far are the Mizuha clones. Their existence seems to imply a similar purpose to Hayase's descendants—they are supposed to inherit Hayase's Will, which is 95% "get injected with a tumor we call the Left Hand Nokker."

But Nokkers have long become invisible and fully integrated into this ecosystem. In the Future Era, they are embedded in tag chips, and they grant the bodies they possess all sorts of abilities and augmentations.

What would an inheritance of Hayase's Will even look like here? At first, I thought it would be similar: a tag chip with the Left Hand in it. Mizuha's, uh, possession (for the lack of a better word) manifested through the same mechanism other Nokkers used, after all.

However, the story gradually told us that the clones had all been massacred via an unknown operation for yet-untold reasons. Why would they do that?

Were these clones failures?

If they were failures, then it would make sense why Kaibara treated them as disposable; after all, in the past, the Guardians always exalted Hayase's Descendant(s) no matter how incompetent they were at their mission. Failure to secure Fushi's seeds I mean love never made them disposable enough to be killed, right?

So, as branetheory (crediting my homie even though they might not see this ahahhahah) also thought—

Could it be that Hayase herself has been successfully reincarnated in the body of one of these clones? (8)

I assigned this hypothesis an 8, or "80% confidence level."

Is she who you're gonna see, Bon?

Why would Kaibara need so many Mizuha clones in the first place? They only need one Descendant. They only have one Left-Hand Nokker...

Unless these clones were made specifically for bringing back Hayase. They were all experiments. Few experiments ever go right at the first trial. But this? Experiments this challenging and important as "recreating our legendary progenitor, Hayase?"

It will definitely require a lot of trial and error. So these clones were made to be expendables.

Honestly, who would name their offspring with numbers if they weren't meant to be seen as expendables?

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There is an interesting point to note: Memory Water only works if one has a Nokker implanted in them. Remember how Abel can't drink it and instantly know the answers to their stupid-ass questions?

So do all clones have Nokkers implanted in them? They all own a tag chip, after all. But there is only one Left Hand Nokker, and that bitch seems deadset on possessing only Hayase's appointed heir (or in this case, Hayase herself).

Does that mean

all the clones have their own Nokkers, but none of it is the Left Hand, until the Experiment? (3) OR

all the clones have empty tag chips until the Experiment, in which the Left Hand Nokker is then implanted inside before the subject drinks the Memory Water? (6) OR

other hypotheses I could not think of at the moment? (1)

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Doro and Her Sisters: Were They Trying To Stage a Rebellion Against Kaibara's Highest Echelon? (7)

Assigned (7); "70% confidence level"

Could this scene actually depict a failed experimental result, where #32/Doro was the subject? After all, she didn't look like she died in a massacre. She looked like she died alone, leaving her sisters behind..

Doro liaisoned with Fushi in secret. So secretly, Tonari didn't know it happened.

Why would she do that? Way back then, me and the Discord gang had speculated some sort of clash between Doro and the rest of Kaibara. At that time, I think our speculation was that it had to do with the Wish-granting Orb specifically.

But now, with this new information in mind...

Could it be that the liaison was part of the clones' planned rebellion? (6)

Assigned 6; "60% confidence level."

It could be that, in addition to passing vital information about Kaibara to Fushi (who is still not exactly forthcoming about what they know so far), Doro was also trying to ensure that the Wish-granting Orb will never fall into the Highest Echelon's hands.

Was her conviction formed out of concerns about what Kaibara might do with the orb?

Or was her reasoning more pragmatic—she didn't want Kaibara to have the power to crush her rebellion?

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Back to the number-as-naming convention. What if these weren't names, but the assigned turn of each clone for the ultimate experiment (6)? If that's the case, then Doro is the 32nd experiment that failed.

That's a lot. And the fact that she failed would mean the experiment will keep going. The clones will keep being bred to be used for these experiments. It's a conflict ripe for seeds of rebellion, right?

And so, there are extra hypotheses as to why the clones were massacred in the first place:

Hayase has been successfully reincarnated (8)

The clones' rebellion plan has been found out (7)

Hayase has been successfully reincarnated AND the clones' rebellion plan has been found out (5.6; 8/10×7/10)

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Dolly's Purpose(s)

While Doll's original purpose might have been for amusement and fun—Doro rescued it from some trash heap and just engineered it to be a playmate—I had always found its ability to dish out powerful punches suspicious. Why would a playmate be good at granting people concussions in the first place?!

And it was good enough to take out mercenaries, right?

I'm quite confident that Doll's punch is a defensive ability to guard whatever's stored in its memory (9).

I should review what Previous Me had speculated:

Doll holds Doro's brainwaves or consciousness

Doll holds the Left Hand Nokker within it

Doll is a combination of Doro's consciousness/brainwaves and its original AI

There is also the speculation that Doll is the Wish-granting Orb itself, but I think the confidence level for that hypothesis has gone pretty low... at least to me, personally. It sits at less than 10%.

Now, I want to add new hypotheses and rearrange them from most confident to least:

Doll's memories include Kaibara's top secret: key infrastructures, their real master(s), their experiments, whatever information they have gained about the Wish-granting Orb, their master plan to counter Fushi, and the like. Things that could give rebelling clones an edge. (8)

Doll holds Doro's brainwaves/consciousness integrated within its original AI (7)

Doll holds Doro's brainwaves/consciousness AND it is Doro's consciousness/memories that possess knowledge of Kaibara's top secret (5.6; 8/10×7/10)

Doll holds the Left Hand Nokker (less than 2)

The first (and by extension, the third) hypothesis can be supplemented by the fact that Kaibara really wants the Doll. Why, if not because the Doll holds vital information regarding the entire company?

They could go after it for Doro's consciousness, sure, but the priority would drop a lot more, wouldn't it? ...Unless the third hypothesis is true!

The second hypothesis can be partially supplemented by Abel's dedication to possessing the Doll; he really cherished Doro, and to him, the Doll could lead him to her again. He also claimed that Doro "is still alive," though when pressed, he gave no evidence.

Was it wistful thinking, or could he have been privy to Doro's experiment to transfer her consciousness into Doll? Did he really know nothing about Doro's death?

There is also the "Now I am human" line Doro uttered while blindfolded. Given we now know what the clones are used for, Doro might see her existence to be inhuman/subhuman because of her real purpose. Maybe, to her, she could feel more human by being a doll than in her human body.

Hell, who knows? Doro might secretly envy Abel's humanness—a guy who was likely born from normal copulation and couldn't fit in with the rest of the Tagged society, yet all the more a genuine human being than the rest of them.

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What is the nature of Doll's Brainwaves?

Could it have been a digital transfer, or could it have used a similar mechanism to the Memory Water?

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Miscellaneous Implications of Memory Water Bringing Back the Dead

Bruh I swear if they reincarnated the Nameless Boy to torment Fushi I will fucking sever my friendship with Left Hand Nokker and nuke their Paradise. Oh hi Left Hand, nothing over here.

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And that concludes my hypotheses round-up, updated to only Chapter 184.1. Remember! Y'all are always welcome to reblog and add your own thoughts to it!

Fuck, I will be so honored if y'all Fushi-fied my writing by adding absolutely anything.

Thank you for reading my ramble. Rest assured, I have prepared just the right image for the moment I clown myself by having most of my hypotheses come out spectacularly falsified:

(Hi everyone this is Kei from Ajin)

#Man. I know I have adopted the “confidence level assignment” habit since I learned about super-forecasting and got a bit better at stats #But I never really knew how to incorporate it to help me organize my hypotheses and speculations...#...until lately. I feel like all I've been doing is TRYING TO FIGURE THINGS OUT AND SPECULATE HERE AND THERE #My livewired brain has evolved in a very specific way. I just know it.#What I don't know is whether I should thank the chief instigator for this evolution. Or strangle them.#Maybe both. Pretty sure (99% confidence level) they deserve both. Aye guys?#fumetsu no anata e #to your eternity #fnae #fnae spoilers #fnae manga spoilers #tye #tye spoilers #Wish Era #speculations and hypotheses

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aq2003 · 4 months

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christopher eccleston do you know that i would die for you (1 2)

#christopher eccleston #re that nine post i did not in fact dream him saying this actually it's real #reading some of the interviews .. gosh hes had it so awful i wish only the best for him in his life rn #dr who #mt #9 era

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kafkaoftherubbles · 8 months

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Crack-ass Hypotheses Record #1/ 致命脑洞记录 (一）

Eko has her clay pot. I have my crackpot.

This is where I gather my current To Your Eternity hypotheses and speculations that are wild (low probability) and have minimal-to-no concrete in-lore evidence or arguments per what the story currently shows. Over time, some might get promoted to formal hypotheses (IPA pronounciation: ˈram-bəl) if the evidence pools to its favor, but for now, take 'em with the same copious amount of salt as needed to make marinated Nokkers to serve unsuspecting Human Nokkers. Yum!

Dolly has 32's brainwaves, including a copy of her consciousness/personality (at the time of her copying), uploaded into its AI module. It is still loading in the background.

Dolly has 32's brainwaves and some bits of Left Hand Nokker's consciousness. Ironically making it the latest Hayase "rebirth."

Dolly has 32's brainwaves because she is (forcefully) uploaded into the doll to leave her actual vessel for Left Hand Nokker to completely dominate. Dolly is 32's last-ditch attempt to remain "human."

Dolly is a hybrid of 32 and Left Hand Nokker's consciousness as the Left Hand Nokker's latest attempt to "be human." Hence the panel "I've become human."

Dolly is the Beholder's Orb (a rather popular one in the fandom as it stands, but it's personally placed rather low on my probability scale)

AD and 32 (+ other Mizuha clones) had a very important relationship.

AD was one of the Mizuha executors.

All Kaibara's most dirty-working executors have no stars.

AD is frequently depicted as wearing goggles because (1) he has soft expressive eyes which, despite the intimidating physique, can easily betray his emotions. (2) his eyes are distinctive enough that revealing it will make readers recognize his lineage or connection to past characters. (3) a fashion statement. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

The Mizuha Massacre was conducted because Left Hand Nokker has finally perfected its vessel and it no longer needs these "Hayase's rebirths" anymore.

Left Hand Nokker's perfect vessel is constructed or engineered from scratch the way designer babies like Andy are, but with materials from the Left Hand Nokker itself such that for the first time, it can say this is its body. This is its first time as an independent human being, "free" from Hayase and her "incarnations."

There could be a grand revelation of the true nature of Hayase's rebirths, which the Left Hand Nokker recounts to taunt/spite Fushi. Perhaps the revelation that the rebirths have always been arbitrary and socially constructed and that only the Left Hand Nokker is the constant. In other words, Kahaku could have just been a normal Yanome boy without all that baggage—and self-hatred—all along. (very wild if true; for now, very low on the probability scale despite how much I like this one)

There will be a World Tour of sorts, with each immortal warrior's personal theme and life story coming to full circle and perhaps even dying. It will make this part of the Wish Era mirror the Previous Era's emotional gut punches.

The tundra will return (whether it's still the tundra or not... well, climate change might beg to differ). The NAMELESS BOY (ooh, didn't need to capitalize that) and Joann both will return to the story in some form.

As they are Fushi's earliest memories and life impetus, to the point of being pre-Hayase, they are the ones most connected to the Beholder's Orb.

Nameless Boy is (or the base of) Fushi all along. It doesn't change the fact that Fushi is "everyone", though, but in some philosophical-spiritual-scientific-whatever-sticks way, Nameless Boy and Fushi are "one person." (Also very wild if true, but also very low on the probability scale despite how much I like this one to bits)

Fushi would make do with what they promised Left Hand Nokker back in the Present Era and "become its vessel."

That's it this time! I wonder what everyone's crackpot theories are as of now?

Thank you for reading my ramble.

#fumetsu no anata e #fnae #to you the immortal #to your eternity #tye #wish era #manga spoiler #crack pot mud slinging #some of these are nigh lethal doses of copium #No Beholder speculations though #huh did I do something wrong? feels like I did because no Beholder hypotheses #and I'm supposed to be the president of the Beholder Be Holding Bee Club

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i-need-of-a-hobby · 4 months

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jegulus haters are all "james is straight" "james isn't gay" but never "regulus is straight" cuz no man who writes a resignation letter to his evil boss saying "I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more" is straight.

#i really wish voldemort found the RAB note #just bc it would have been so funny #voldemort: that little twink-#the marauders era #regulus black #jegulus #starchaser

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caspervi · 2 months

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Jegulus “engagement photoshoot” commission ⭐️

#jegulus #james x regulus #sunseeker #starchaser #regulus black #james potter #they’re so grossly in love I hate them #jegulus commission #imagine being happy and in love I wish they were dead oh wait they are #I’m just kidding I cry every night over them #marauders era

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zuzu-draws · 4 months

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"Well Well... Aren't we gawking with a little too much enthusiasm?"

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k-pepp · 1 month

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An anti-fairy tale told in three parts The cursed wish

The wish coming true

The curl of the Monkey's Paw

#August in his Fuck Around and Find Out era #he got what he wished for #young royals #yr s3 spoilers #yr s3

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ringinginmyearsnoneonmyfingers · 4 months

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revenge era frank iero save me…

revenge era frank iero…

…save me revenge era frank iero

#girlblogger #early 2000s #emo #im just a girl #my chemical romance #my chemical fucking romance #frank iero #revenge era #three cheers for sweet revenge #it’s not a fashion statement #it’s a death wish

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d4ggerfish · 8 months

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My shadow monk/thief rogue tav (so enraptured by gale I rewound 40 hours to romance him 🤪)

#bg3 #tav #baldur's gate 3 #dragonborn #dnd #d4ggerfishdraws #the dragonborn in this game r so cool i wish there were more early game #entering my scalie era

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socialistexan · 1 year

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"Why he was conducting the survey wasn't completely clear"

Well that dog whistle is loud and clear to my trans ass. The reason is eliminationist. Full stop. It's to make us even more second class citizens than we currently are. To push us further into the margins. To make is pariahs to distract from their disasterous policies. To direct the fears and anxieties of the public on to us and have them do the dirty work of eliminating us. The history of politicians targeting an extremely small minority to demonize is... Well, do I even need to say it?

And I'll reiterate: it was never about "protecting kids." Nearly all University students are adults. That excuse is dead, the mask is off.

If you give even the smallest shit about trans people as just human beings that deserve rights and even just to be alive then you have to do something. Anything. We are begging you.

#trans #transgender #lgbtq #lgbt #nonbinary #we are living in the era of extreme backlash that was bound to come from all the progress of the 2010's #boy i sure do wish time wasnt cyclical

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bestbonnist · 22 days

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Chapter 175

175.1 | 175.2

I love the chapter title. “A Perfect Plan.” Yeah, Fushi, lying to your friends (again) is a brilliant idea. That worked so well for you the last time you tried it.

This feels like a good time to go over Fushi’s tendency to lie in the present era, because now it’s continuing over into the wish era and at this point I would go as far as to call it an essential part of their character.

Chapter 125 "Secret Base"

It starts with Mizuha, and Fushi’s decision to omit the truth about what happened to Izumi for her peace of mind. During their conversation the night after Mizuha kills her mom, they have a pretty telling exchange about lies and their deeper meaning. Fushi reveals that they think lying to someone means that someone’s important to you. They don’t say why they think so, but I’m going out on a limb and assuming it’s how they justify the decisions Bon made in Renril.

Chapter 105 "Setting Sun"

Immediately after Fushi tells Mizuha what they think of lies, they then proceed to lie to her, setting up that she’s important to Fushi and laying the groundwork for their eventual conflict. Mizuha doesn’t go into why she thinks lying is bad, but in the case of her relationship with her mom, she was so upset at Izumi stealing her hair-tie and lying about it because it was an act of self-preservation. Sure, Izumi wouldn’t have lied if she didn’t love Mizuha, but her lie was—from Mizuha’s perspective—100% selfish. Fushi is already inclined to take Izumi’s side, because they’re doing the same thing she is. After all, they’re concerned about Mizuha because she’s Kahaku’s reincarnation.

Fushi continues to lie not just to Mizuha, but to their other friends. They don’t tell them about the knockers returning because they want their friends to remain blissfully ignorant of what’s really going on. They tell Yuuki that it’s because they promised their friends a peaceful world, and they don’t want to let them down.

Chapter 131 "Alongside Peace"

Ideally, Fushi would like to take on everything by themselves and spare everyone else the pain. Connecting all of this back to the events of the chapter which I am supposed to be discussing, Fushi lies with the intention to "protect." Reality doesn’t go away if they don’t tell their friends about it—it’s still going to hit them eventually—but given the option Fushi will always choose to pretend everything’s fine for just a little longer.

Chapter 175 "A Perfect Plan"

Chapter 1 "The Final One" (panels in achronological order)

The composition of some of the panels in this chapter are a callback to the scene where the nameless boy thinks the rustling of his fishing line means a human tripped it. He and Fushi both expect to see someone on the other side of the door, although they’re hoping for different things—the nameless boy hopes that someone will be there, Fushi hopes that no one will—and they both switch back to a happy denial when the moment is gone.

Like Fushi, the nameless boy is a liar. He kept up the appearance that everything was fine, and carried on imaginary conversations with Johann because admitting the truth would completely break him. In a way, he was lying out of necessity. But the only person he was lying to was himself.

In the same way, when Fushi lies to the people around them, they’re trying to paint over the truth with an idealized version of reality. They’re lying to themselves just as much as they’re lying to others.

Chapter 172 "Utopia"

Earlier in the wish era, when one of the lacking dies in front of them, what Fushi says when reassuring him reveals more about what they would find comforting in this situation. Similarly, when Fushi lies to their friends about what’s going on with the knockers or Mizuha’s clones, they’re projecting what they wish happened over what actually happened. Fushi doesn’t want to say that the clones are dead, because theoretically they could have stopped the massacre. They especially don’t want to disappoint the doll. Hence the lie that they choose to go with, about all of 32’s friends remembering her.

In terms of whether Fushi’s lying is selfish or not, well. That’s not a distinction that matters in any way. Fushi is doing what’s best for themselves, but they only go through with it because they genuinely believe that’s it’s the best for the people they’re lying to as well. They’re just… not always right about that.

Chapter 175 "A Perfect Plan"

Moving on to the second half of the chapter—which I don’t have nearly as much to say about—this is our introduction to how Fushi uses Yuuki’s form now that he’s acquired it. Immediately I wonder what would happen if Fushi lost Yuuki’s form. It’s clear just from what we saw in this chapter that their memories of Yuuki have become a core part of Fushi’s decision-making process. “What would Yuuki want?” The wish era is the world that Yuuki built, of course Fushi is unwilling to disrupt it even thought they're familiar with its flaws. Maybe that'll change if they lose his form—or if they realize that this world isn't what Yuuki would have wanted.

It seems like most of Fushi’s friends don’t approve of their insistence on pacifism. Tonari and Messar are just tired of it, Bon and Hylo don’t really understand. It’s sort of ironic, since Fushi wanted to create a peaceful world for their friends to live in, that most of them don’t value peace all that much. What they value more is their life with Fushi. A peaceful world has been Fushi’s dream since Takunaha, and they believe everyone else wants it as much as they do. Kind of like the way they lie assuming everyone wants that kind of treatment. Just tied it all together, bam.

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kafkaoftherubble · 1 month

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185.2章：放下？还是压抑？可贺，抑或可悲？

// Chapter 185.2: Detachment v. Repression

This ramble concerns To Your Eternity manga Chapter 185.2. It is edited from a conversation between (yea you guessed it) @bestbonnist and me after the chapter dropped before I had to hastily run off because sorry gotta see shits with my Besto Furrendo! Lisan al-Ghaib! Lisan al-Ghaib!!!

Although this chapter is devoid of hype moments—unlike C184.1 where plenty of us were sent into a frenzy— and good old macabre, this is genuinely one of my favorite chapters to date.

Because it became a really nice philosophical discussion between friends. Sounds a tad cheesy when I say it like that...

(1) Two Different Perspectives on Fushi's Latest State of Mind

Ray expressed dismay that Fushi's coping mechanism seems to gave become even more terrible because they are essentially repressing their emotions. They are telling themself not to feel anything and to be detached. In the Wish Era, Fushi seemed to have become more resigned to their fate, which became starkly apparent when contrasted by the Doll and Andy's loud, outward desire to see Abel live.

That dismal observation actually stunned me—because I happened to see this development in a positive light. What better state of mind should Fushi aspire to attain apropos to their immortality... if not a state of non-attachment? After all, if they don't learn to be so, then the sheer impermanence of life will torment them forever. To me, non-attachment—or in a more English-natural manner of speaking, detachment—is a goal worthy of pursuing, even if it is often fraught with erratic instances such as mistaking "repressing one's emotions" as similar to "being genuinely unperturbed."

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(2) The Benefits of Attachment

In this story's universe, attachment keeps a person's faie (their soul) around.

Hence, to Ray, Fushi's loss of attachment implies their death (which I agree is a reasonable projection for the end of this story). When they no longer have anything to do—no goal—then it is time for them to move on.

But more than that, there's this other thing Ray is worried about. The manga asked whether Fushi is human, especially in its earlier exploration. Whether they think they are human. Therefore, it's hard to see Fushi's detachment as anything other than dehumanizing themself ("I'm not human so I don't deserve to be attached/feel bad when people I care about die.") It's one step to Fushi's progression into becoming a deity at the expense of their humanity.

This prospect is upsetting because they wanna see Fushi leave as a human being, as someone who dies after living a satisfying life like Yuuki did.

Ray also argued that there's a difference between acceptance and detachment. "Acceptance is acknowledging that something is out of your control and acknowledging that the way you feel about that." To them, Fushi seemed to have acknowledged that something was out of their control, but they hadn't yet acknowledged their feelings toward it.

Then, they conceded that while Fushi was frank about being pained by people leaving, ultimately, the dude seemed deadset on trying to ignore that pain altogether. "Fushi isn't good at being 'above' feeling things!"

I agree with this. Of course, they aren't! One of Fushi's powers is supernatural empathy. They can't ignore the sensation of pain or (occasionally) love in their vicinity even if they try. Feeling shit is what they do, willingly or not. And from an emotional connection like that, one easily forms attachments.

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(3) The Common Error: Mistaking Detachment with Apathy

Strangely, at that point in our conversation, it became clear that Ray thought Fushi should not be detached because it stops them from accepting death—while I think Fushi should learn to be detached because it helps them to accept death. Same destination, but different ways of assessing detachment as a path.

Now, of course, when I use the term "detachment" or "non-attachment" (preferred), I'm once again drawing it from a Buddhist philosophical perspective. Because dude, it's me, 睿得失。You fucking signed up for this the moment you talk to me, bwaahhahahahaha!

Even Buddhists, born and raised, often make the mistake of conflating "equanimity," which non-attachment encourages, with "apathy."

One of the four sublime qualities (brahmavihārā), equanimity (upekkhā) is the state of being unwavering and unperturbed even in the face of loss and gain [1], good-repute and ill-repute, praise and censure, and sorrow and happiness. Its far enemies—as in, its direct contrasting vices—are greed and resentment. But its near enemy—the quality mendaciously close to equanimity—is apathy.

[1] Just a little aside: this is why I joked that Fushi should take up my self-given Chinese name in our conversation. 睿得失 means "being wise (about one's) gain and loss." The hope of attaining some semblance of upekkha is built into the name already.

Plenty of people think being detached means being uncaring and indifferent, and that it has some elements of dehumanization to it—be it to other people or to yourself. But it's not. Being detached is to keep a balance between concern and coercion. It's expressing compassion while being mindful not to conflate your genuine care with your desire to will things and people to bend to the state or situation you wanted.

Fushi and us mortals could easily realize one fact about life: it is truly impermanent. The desire to impose our will on the universe—as if there is some supernatural feature to our will that can influence things to happen—is a source of agitation. Life doesn't bend to our will; it indifferently stays impermanent even when we demand it to be permanent in some sort of personal bliss.

In Buddhist thought, it's our actions and intentions that impart changes. Our will (and our demanding desires) don't. We'll revisit this in our 5th Chapter later.

In other words! Contrary to Ray's interpretation, I see being detached not as imposing a limit on your compassion but liberating it from constraints. Now that you're detached, your mode of compassion is centered around the situation and people as they are, not as you hope them to be. True compassion asks for nothing in return—not because you suppress your demands, but because you genuinely have none to begin with.

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(4) Fushi's Laudable Baby Steps

What really made me think that Fushi had grown here was their insistence that whether Abel lives or dies is "his decision to make."

Not Fushi's, despite their god-like powers. Not Doll or Andy, despite their love and attachment to Abel. It's Abel's choice. All Fushi can do is to accept whatever the man says—and that acceptance is only possible if they begin practicing detachment. After all, attachment results in the reactions Doll and Andy expressed.

To me, Fushi is taking a step in the right direction already. This is the kind of wisdom I think an immortal, most of all, should gradually pick up (I also think mortals like us should, too, but that's beside the point).

Here is where I think Ray's criticisms warrant merits in my interpretation: Actually practicing detachment/non-attachment is hard as fuck. I wouldn't deny that though it doesn't make you an apathetic non-human, you're not gonna be very normal-humanlike if you manage to be equanimous either. While learning to be detached, one often takes up a lot of problematic tactics and mistakes it to be detachment.

One such misguided tactic? Suppression of emotions. You force yourself to pretend you're not feeling anything instead of facing them and realizing their falsity while believing you're being detached. So Ray's concerns are completely warranted, because I don't believe Fushi has consummated their learning either. They wouldn't have lied about the massacre if they were really that detached.

Repressing your emotion, as a tactic, is wrong, but it is the hallmark of someone who's trying to get there, especially when you compound it with the philosophy Fushi was articulating. They care. But they are also being clear-eyed about the limits of their demand.

I don't think they seem resigned here. I think they are being wise. Baby steps, and their method is imperfect, but good nonetheless.

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(5) Yuuki the GOAT and His Biggest W Yet

Fushi grappled with wanting to impose their will to make others live as long as they in the Modern Arc, right? That's one of their biggest and most constant sources of dukkha (dissatisfaction/suffering). But Yuuki's satisfying death and life... actually steered him in the right direction!

Fushi didn't come to earn detachment because of some horrible, tragic death turning them jaded and cynical. They learned because Yuuki's life and death were that fucking good.

Learning philosophy from pain is all well and good. It is usually how people learn it (few would give a fuck about existentialism or Buddhist philosophy or stoicism or what-have-you if they weren't in a personal crisis). But learning philosophy from joy is a whole other thing. Whatever you learned from that instance has no hint of jadedness and cynicism to corrupt your thinking; it's like making a decision when you're at the most optimal state.

This is Yuuki's victory. He influenced and taught Fushi without giving him pain or trauma to live by. He was not some main character of a tragedy despite outwardly looking like a bumbling normie.

Think about it: none of the Immortals who were attached to Fushi, until now, had been capable of influencing and teaching them without accidentally leaving some grief, pain, and trauma!

Why does Fushi take on Yuuki's form so much lately—if not because Yuuki is the only one who managed to teach them without the use of pain or trauma or anything like that?

And as Ray pointed out, Yuuki was the form embodying "Peace." Even his death was offscreen and peaceful. On a bed, unpoisoned and unhurt. Fushi remembers him constantly because he makes them feel at ease.

"It's our actions and intentions that impart changes," that was what I mentioned in Chapter 3 of this long-ass ramble. Here it is exemplified. People inherit the fruits of other people's actions (and you yourself are one of those who will inherit your own actions, too). And well? These are the fruits of Yuuki's actions that Fushi continues to reap even now.

That's how complete Yuuki's W is. He managed to leave just the kind of food for thought for an Immortal that eventually set them up to grasp the kind of wisdom they lacked. Who says the Modern Arc has no lessons?

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(6) Conclusion, or The Abrupt Ending of a Conversation

As you can tell, I really don't think Fushi's latest development is bad. Bittersweet and a bit of a mixed bag, sure, but I ultimately think it's commendable rather than worrisome. Of course, my ass interpreting things through a Buddhist lens has a lot to do with it, but brutha, this is exactly my niche! You should have seen me talk about non-self vis-a-vis Fushi in a YouTube comment section!

Ray did leave this paragraph that had eluded me because, again, the Muaa'dib was calling me and I really gotta go:

"I have a potential counter-argument for you, which is about how Fushi's ideal person to follow is kind of a mix of Yuuki (as you explained) and Kahaku (bag of mess and you haven't read that part of the present era anyways), which is putting the concept of detachment together with a really selfish kind of selflessness (as we talked about). But I'm not clear on whether that's still there after their fight with the left hand. I feel like it's lingering a little but I haven't seen much evidence for it in the wish era."

Now, I don't really know what that whole bit was like because I didn't actually read all of the Modern Arc—just the latter half. But again, "detachment" and "self-lessness" are complementary and forward-feeding to one another in Buddhist Philosophy, so on this concept alone, I don't see a clash.

I should probably clarify what Ray's "selfish kind of selflessness" meant here, but... I'm kinda tired now. And I've briefly touched on this in my essay about... Gojo Satoru, goddamn it.

Or maybe Ray should explain it themself! I distinctly remember someone owing me like, 3 essays or something. I'm such a kindhearted person I'm willing to give them a discount and accept just one essay for this week, though. Don't squander it, you!

Thank you for reading my ramble.

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Did you enjoy this? If yes, wouldn't it be really fucking cool if you get to read essays and commentaries like these, alongside fanfic and fanart and other interesting bits, in one place?!

BECAUSE! We are thinking of starting a To Your Eternity zine! It's merely in its Interest Check phase, but you gotta fill this form up so we can see just how many people in our modest little fandom want this! Be a supporter or a contributor, it don't matter at this stage! Support is the currency here!

#Honestly even before I started writing this I wonder if I *should* ahahhah #Yesterday it seemed like a really prime essay material!#Today? Suddenly call its meaningfulness into question ahahhahaha #But man this work deserves a lot more essays than it's actually getting. It's sad that it doesn't even have enough! WE NEED TO REMEDY THIS!#Me trying to fill the void is truly a 蜀中无大将廖化作先锋 moment. “An underqualified person answering a call because there's no one better.”#or in Jujutsu Kaisen parlance: I'm fucking Kusakabe holy SHIT #AT LEAST I DON'T HAVE TO SAY “Throughout heaven and earth I am alone"...........#.....until I'm attending a convention as a TYE fan #fumetsu no anata e #to your eternity #tye #fushi #fnae #manga spoilers #Wish Era #buddhism #yes a buddhism tag because fuck it. This is a lecture in and of itself!

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