The Cost of Freedom is High
Sit down, grab some water, I have had a Wemmbu character revelation. YAP'O'CLOCK LETZ GO!
Wemmbu has notoriously been closely associated with the concept or idea of freedom in Unstable. I know I definitely associate him with it, and I was really unsure where this idea originated form. At first, I thought it may be from Power Arc, or earlier, with Wemmbu expressing his need to gain power in order to not be bothered by others. And I saw the connection that could be made between these that, power and freedom, however a thought snagged me.
Has Wemmbu ever been- free? I could only think of a handful of times when Wemmbu had truly been free. mostly between arcs, like Wormhole/Pilot and Zampire, Mafia and Pirates, Power and Invis, then Law and Kingdoms. Most of the time though, Wemmbu isn't free. So how did a character so closely associated with freedom come to be as such if he wasn't ever free?
I could see how he could embody freedom in the desire to be free, in his search for power, District 7 at the end of Mafia, his self-experiment with Invis Arc. But desiring to be free and freedom are very different things.
To me, freedom would mean that Wemmbu is able to do what he wants, when he wants, without being restricted or restrained. He isn't low on resources, he doesn't have something be held over his head, he can get into and back out of the situation he is in.
Egg's existence is immediately a threat to Wemmbu's freedom, we're seeing it play out in Kingdoms Arc and we've seen it happen before when Egg gets kidnapped and Wemmbu is forced into a situation. I love Tax Duo, so I say this fondly.
Wemmbu will never be free so long as he is best friends with Egg.
So, I want to take a moment to separate Wemmbu from Egg. Separate them, think of the moments where Wemmbu is by himself but also free. I point you to the end of Power Arc and the pilot episodes. These were the moments where Wemmbu was at his most free, he does whatever he wants because he can, there is nobody to tell him no or hold him back. If he wants to back down, he can. If he wants to do something, nobody is there to stop him.
What sticks out to me, in these episodes, is that Wemmbu isn't playing by any rulebook, there are no barriers to his actions. When Wemmbu is at his most free, there is nothing he will not do so long. He has no line in the sand. No morals.
Wemmbu, when he is free, has no morals. He gains a reputation for betrayal because he works off his own whims, not loyalty. What he wants, he gets, and if somethings in his way, well, he'll just get rid of it. This, in a way, makes him a symbol of freedom, because unrestrained, freedom is anarchy, zero of control from others. It's dangerous, unpredictable, violent. Wemmbu's lack of morality makes him free, and freedom allows Wemmbu to disregard morals. It's a cycle.
We talk of Parrot and his black and white mindset, but Wemmbu has just as simplistic (shallow does not equal simplistic) mindset as Parrot. Parrot's is easier to lay out, good verse evil. For Wemmbu, it's 'are you in my way or not?'.
And then, we introduce Egg. This is where things get more complicated. Egg holds Wemmbu back yet he also enables him. With Egg, Wemmbu's morals become more restrained, more defined, centering around, none other than, Egg.
Originally, this post was going to be about how Wemmbu had no morals period, that there was no line he wouldn't cross, but then I had to sit and think about how if Egg was on the line, Wemmbu wouldn't cross it. It's literally playing out in Kingdoms Arc. Arachnid only had control over Wemmbu because of Egg.
Now I do realize that yeah, we all agree that Egg is the person holding Wemmbu back, yes, Egg pushes Wemmbu to do the right thing, so on and so forth.
But that's only half of it. Egg is Wemmbu's morals, the good and the bad. He's the angel and the devil on his shoulder. Alone and aimless, Wemmbu's a loose, very destructive, canon who doesn't care about what he destroys or why. With Egg, it's focused, there's a goal that Egg helps guide him towards. Is he always successful? No, but he at least has Wemmbu aiming at something.
Mafia Arc, Wemmbu leave Egg with Odyssey Duo to go fight Clown for revenge over burning Manes Tree. Wemmbu tries to fight Clown to the death, goes in without a plan, loses very swiftly. He meets up with Egg, who reminds him that the original task they were given wasn't to kill Clown, rather distract him long enough. Redirection. Distract, not kill. Wemmbu, despite his reputation early on, rarely killed pre-Power Arc. He's very content with getting his revenge a different way. Egg also reminds Wemmbu that the Mafia is the enemy, not Clown specifically. So, if Wemmbu can just stall Clown and give Parrot the time to do what he needs, then the Mafia will fall and Wemmbu won't have an enemy breathing down his back. And what does Wemmbu do? Fight Clown long enough to stall him out for Parrot and Spoke. Not because Parrot asked the first time around, but because Egg persuaded him to do so.
Eggpire. Oh my beautiful dusty empire. Nobody talks about this, probably because it was one episode and led into the Pirate Arc, however before Arachnid was using Wemmbu as his attack dog, Egg did it first. Angel and devil remember? Egg went on a power trip, building an empire, using Wemmbu to get XP from others via murder, threatening, and some more murder. I cling to this episode as a reminder that Egg is NOT the pinnacle of morality for Wemmbu. He enabled Wemmbu's violent tendencies, used them more specifically, for his empires own gain. And Wemmbu did it, he never once disobeyed an order from Egg. He questioned it, but never went off course. Similar to how he worked with Arachnid. You want to control Wemmbu? You just need to control Egg.
The only time Wemmbu ever blatantly ignored Egg was during their first trip out to the farlands when Wemmbu was becoming power obsessed. No matter how many times Egg said that they should turn around, Wemmbu kept pushing forward to Furtherlands Civ. Now why do I bring this up? Because power makes people disregard their morals, throw them aside. The need for power makes people throw away their morals, and what was Wemmbu doing during Power Arc? Pushes Egg aside in favor of the nukes. And Egg literally got pushed aside as well so- yeah.
So is Wemmbu the embodiment of freedom we see him as? Yes and no. When he is free, Wemmbu is the pinnacle of freedom, with the power to do what he wants and no morals to stop him from doing so. But that's only when he's free, and since Tax duo can often be found within several blocks of each other, and Egg is Wemmbu's morality, the answer is also no, because Egg will redirect Wemmbu away from his every whim, restraining him.
Wemmbu will never truly be free because the cost of freedom is forsaking his friendship with Egg, something Wemmbu values enough to center his entire morality around. Wemmbu has proved, in Kingdoms Arc, he will be anything but free so long as Egg is safe and with him.
Then again, power and freedom look a lot alike.
