like i am truly being so deadass when i say red-haired Allen being the true Allen who's also allowed to be the current Allen is essentially what we've been building towards since the day we were told Allen's not all right in the head.
even though the story itself taken place over the course of no more than a year and some change, we as an audience have been trying to figure out exactly wtf Allen is for over twenty years! one thing about d.gray-man is that it's a story of deconstructions. we started with a standard 'boy lost his father and has to live on anyway,' which progressed into 'boy might be crazy,' to 'boy might be possessed,' to 'the boy is actually possessed,' to 'he's actually possessed by two people,' and oh btw, his many lives are truly just add-ons to a reality we still don't know! he goes from a standard shounen protag with a standard shounen protag backstory, to a true enigma with conflicting backstories and character development. and yes, while it may seem confusing and even antithetical at times to have him commit violence while possessed by nea, i think the contradictions and sudden bursts of violence and killing intent were all on purpose to get to this exact point where red-haired Allen comes into and becomes the Allen.
because after one deconstruction after another, we actually come full circle with red-haired Allen being established as the main character and the only real Allen that counts! we know barely anything about him as an individual, his motives, why nea chose him as the vessel versus past lavi, why he was fighting as a soldier, what his wish was that nea granted, etc. with all the deconstructions that were done to the original character known as Allen Walker, establishing soldier Allen as the one true Allen is exactly the trigger that pulls the story together!
because that way, Allen Walker from the beginning get closure as to why he was slowly going insane, bc hello, he's possessed! Allen who was being possessed by Nea without knowing Past Lavi was possessing him too also gets closure bc hello, you have souls warring inside of you! Red-Arm of the circus also gets closure because he knows now that his suffering wasn't an act of abandonment by parentals, but bc of a fuckass Catholic priest.
With the establishment of red-haired soldier Allen as the one true Allen, the boy we met in that first chapter can finally rest now that he knows it wasn't his fault. He didn't end up in that stupid Order on purpose. Tragedies led him there by design. And to understand that design, we have to understand the man who put it into motion - red-haired soldier Allen.
Not nea, because even now, nea is just a parasite. The man he's been wrestling to get control most of the story was just a child. What I believe nea will be fighting now is the ditch demon he made a deal with thirty-five years ago. And i think it matters that it is that man that nea deals with, the soldier, the man dying in the ditch, and not the confused and sick teenager. because nea had a lot of fun fucking with Allen even if he thought Allen would be older. he took pleasure in hurting Allen.
but this Allen is not that Allen. he is the first, and what i hope will be the last Allen. i think it matters that it's him meeting with Cross versus that sick and confused child who didn't even know that there was an additional ghost inside of him. when Allen finally gets nea and past lavi exorcised out of him, it's over for these hoes!!
