The logic of Gachiakuta; relating to my theories and my fic, Impasse.
Heavy spoilers.
There are a few “holes” in how anima (energy), the watchman series, and givers work.
But it’s all solved with the word “Giver.”
Givers are called givers because they give anima to objects.
Anima are thoughts, memories, and feelings. It’s the accumulation of emotion. Which emotion?
Love.
Why is this?
Because an object becomes someone’s vital instrument through repeated, dedicated care. That requires love, compassion and consideration for the object.
What about the watchman series?
The Watchman Series already has anima in them.
How do I know this?
Because each user “has something missing.”
What is that something?
Anima. Or, they have some anima, but not as much anima as other people. Watchman series users have something similar in common, and that is trauma. They do not have dedicated, repeated care; it’s as if they’re missing love. Of course, some of these users do love people; the biggest and clearest example is Rudo. But he was missing love when he was very young due to the abuse and abandonment by his father.
But let's stop for a second. In chapter 3, we are introduced to the nature of the ground by a human trafficker. I feel like people have assumed that this random guy knows why the ground is the way it is...despite all the chapters about how the origins of their world being a mystery.
He assumes the Sphere did everything. But what if it wasn't entirely the Sphere's fault? Would Urana really make a simple, "completely and utterly bad, irredeemable" society? No. The characters are shades of grey. I just think it's so simplistic of an explanation, given the themes in Urana's writing.
But what does this imply if I’m correct?
It’s fundamentally important, both for my theories and my fic, because it implies that there are people who can receive anima.
Giving anima to objects transforms the objects and makes them stronger. If people can receive anima, which is opposite to giving anima, then the people receiving anima can transform and become stronger. Living things create anima, something with thoughts, memories, and care.
Doesn’t this explain everything?!
Like with Kuro, maybe he’s a Receiver, that’s why he can change forms! Why would anima only flow in one direction?! Why can’t it go backwards?!
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Even though it makes a lot of sense, I don’t know if Kuro is a Receiver because it’s very OP. He has multiple forms, and if we go by my logic, then he can receive anima from multiple things. I think there are limitations. And why the hell is he hundreds of years old?
But Jabber does have multiple rings, but we don’t know if it’s one vital instrument or multiple. So it all depends on how Jabber’s instrument is described. If it’s one, then Receivers should only receive one. Or it’s the reverse again, they can receive multiple. But if it’s multiple, then receivers can receive multiple. Or it’s the reverse again, receivers can receive one. Applying this logic splits the chances 50/50.
But I also think the series having anima explains why Follo went crazy when he was wearing Rudo’s gloves. He already had enough anima, but he was receiving more than what his body could handle. He described it as “something eating away at his mind,” like something trying to take over it. The thing is anima, it makes complete and utter sense! It's a reaction to an overabundance of anima.
And for my fic, I was like…well, what if Rudo isn’t “missing something,” or he’s “insane,” (because seriously, look at Rudo and Amo, they’ve been through a lot, but they’re not insane. They’re healing). What if Rudo is a Receiver? What if it’s a naturally occurring phenomenon, and once upon a time, the Earth was shared by Givers and Receivers? Maybe Rudo's ability comes from relating to the objects. He sees something of worth and wants to fix it. That would explain why he could not repair that random slab of metal, because it was random. He didn't know what it was; it was not relatable.
I think with this in mind, the existence of the Sphere starts to make a lot more sense.
Because, Givers give anima to objects. So the objects receive anima. And since Receivers can receive anima, maybe that led to objectification? Maybe they only saw Receivers as something that they could use for their gain, and not really people?
And everything goes back to the beginning, because I think it’s suspicious how multiple times it’s been brought up that people want to study Sphereites to know the difference between them and the people on the Ground. To know the “difference between the races.” I feel like there is a legitimate difference.
Because besides time (Darwinism and how species on islands begin to diverge from the same species from their original habitat), if there is a legitimate difference between the two…and one was oppressed…then what does that brew?
Hatred.
How do the trashbeasts come to existence? Hatred from the Sphere. Trashbeats kill humans on sight. Specifically people from the Ground (and Rudo, but if you took away his gloves, would they react differently?). This explains why Canis said “the humans.”
That implies a difference. It just fits so perfectly, that’s why I feel like I have to spread this theory around like crazy. Because it explains so much. The "thoughts" within the watchman series is hatred and an intense need to do something about it. That's the source of the power. It's reverse.
I think Rudo’s position of poverty on the Sphere explains why he knows so little. He was essentially kept out of Sphereite society, and the rich stayed as far away from the tribesfolk as much as they could.
Maybe what drips from the Sphere is hatred of the tribesfolk, but I feel like that’s too flat? Would the problem just be solved by “overthrowing the rich?” I don’t think so. The problem is the existence of the Sphere, not the people on it. If the Sphereites started to recycle, yeah, no trash would be raining down, but the boundary would still be there. The sky would still be cloudy. It’s not just trash. The trash is tied to the Sphere’s existence.
Maybe the Sphereites, after being seen as objects, less than human, went into the sky. And maybe if they are Receivers, the obsession of materialism and the demeaning of life (in favor of inanimate objects) maybe pissed them off so much they went to the sky.
I realized this when I made a sudden connection to The Lorax. The Lorax flies itself into the sky after the decimation of the forest. And if Receivers exist, then that gives more meaning to nature.
"...when he heisted himself and took leave of this place, through a hole in the smog, without leaving a trace."
(How come Givers are seen as weird, then? Easy. What if Givers [people who can give anima to stuff] were Givers because they lacked resources? They had to take care of their stuff because they didn’t have a lot of it. But if they suddenly acquired a lot of resources, the ability to make a lot of stuff, then taking care of their stuff would be seen as low class. Everything in this manga cycles!! “Your father has to go, to break this chain. This chain of events. There was a series of events that occured.)
There was one subtle difference between how the Sphere was depicted at the beginning of the manga and how it was depicted in the anime.
The anime shows that there are trees on the Sphere.
But the obvious contradiction, there aren't many trees, yes, I get it. The Ground and the Sphere are parallel to each other because, if we use my logic, they're both ironic. You'd think the Sphere would be more conscientious, but I'll explain this later.
Like, once again, it’s repeating over and over. I feel like this:
But it all connects! Why would anima only flow in one direction?! What would have to exist for it to only flow in one direction?!
And so, here’s the biggest deal. What is Rudo’s curse?
I think it’s related to him being a Surebrec.
Let’s break it down.
Unlike Zodyl, Rudo’s myth-inspired last name is spelled backwards.
ITS IN REVERSE.
So I don’t think Rudo is supposed to be literally Cerberus, where he is the guardian of hell, I think he’s supposed to be the guardian of Heaven. Of the Sphere.
Canis Surebrec, the Undertaker.
Let’s define the word Undertaker.
1. One who undertakes: one who takes the risk and management of business: ENTREPRENEUR
2. One whose business is to prepare the dead for burial and to arrange and manage funerals
3. An Englishman taking over forfeited lands in Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries.
I want to use all three definitions because I think they all connect. Let’s start with the obvious.
“All I managed to do was bury them.” How do we bury? Sphereites drop the trash.
Canis created the Sphere.
“One who takes the risk.” This is assuming authority, doing it yourself, taking risk. You and you alone are doing this.
Canis created the Sphere himself.
“An Englishman taking over forfeited lands.”
Hehe. The Sphereites think the people of the Ground did something wrong, so they took land from them.
IT MAKES PERFECT FUCKING SENSE!!!
So. I don’t think Rudo is “half vital instrument” because he would be “half object.” But we're almost saying the same thing. He's a different type of human, one that people would call an object and objectify. But I can see why people think that Rudo is "half trashbeast." It’s a repeating pattern that Rudo is put side by side with the trashbeasts. Like this drawing is very interesting to me:
I think it’s a red herring. I think Rudo is a Sphereite, whose ancestor created the Sphere, and like with curses in general, they’re hereditary. But ultimately, I think it's supposed to be a parallel between their emotional states or their origins. Maybe they're both powered by revenge. The trashbeasts are the Sphereites' revenge for oppressing them or depleting natural resources. Maybe they wanted so much stuff that there was a mass extinction event. And so the Sphereites said, "Well, since you like bullshit so much, we're going to make a bunch of it, and give you all of it by dumping it off the Sphere." But that ironically made them just as wasteful as the people they hated. They fought fire with fire. But it made them no better than the Ground and instead created a legitimate reason for the Ground to hate Sphereites.
A cursed lineage, like in the Bible. Like how the Sphere has very intense allusions to Christianity. Like Tamsy Caines, or Cain (I’ll go into that some other time).
Tamsy is trying to awaken Rudo’s curse, and he knows what will happen. He knows about the series and what they do. He for sure knows Rudo’s ancestry. He wants the curse to be activated so Rudo can do his job. His job of protecting the Sphere. Tamsy is the only character we know who can go above and below. I think Tamsy knows the Sphere well. Because he was stalking Rudo for a while. He had reasons to watch, likely because of his ancestry, likely because of his curse.
Don’t worry, I have evidence for this too. On the Watchman (the thing in the boundary), there is Canis’ symbol, AND this happens:
As far as we know, Rudo’s vision was the only one to have “gone dark.” I think that’s him connecting to the watchman. Hereditary. Also, notice the similarity of the patterns of Rudo's hands, the watchman's hands, and Canis's. This is more than artistic design. People assume she does it to not paint something flat and black...but you can see that contradicting right under the watchman's hand.
I think the idea of this makes a lot of people uncomfortable (so they ignore these clues) because it forces you to confront the idea that Rudo is from a "privileged" society (the Sphere, because no one was dumping trash on them), and if I'm right, then Rudo is literally in control of what is hurting a lot of people.
With Zodyl professing his plan to take down the Sphere (it's literally why he wants the series), I think this will make Rudo choose between getting revenge for the Ground/Getting revenge for himself, and the morally right, but very controversial, decision to protect the Sphere. I highly doubt he is pro-genocide. As Zanka said, it will be a waste to spend so much time obsessing over revenge. Maybe Rudo will never get revenge.
People HATE this kind of attitude these days. "The Sphereites cause so much pain and kill people, and they were mean to Rudo; so we need to destroy the Sphere."
But remember that Urana is Japanese. Do you really think a mangaka from Japan would agree with this sentiment? "Japan/the Japanese have caused so much pain and killed people, so we need to destroy Japan."
No. I think this is what Rudo is supposed to represent. Rudo is someone with power who could legitimately destroy the Sphere, get revenge for everyone, but I don't think he will. Because he lived there. That was his and Regto's home. He won't think the place where Regto is buried deserves to be destroyed. He will have that option presented to him, but he'll reject it. Out of moral principle.
Continuing on, Tamsy says something interesting a few times during the Follo arc.
Why is it a waste for Rudo to get better at 3R? Because, maybe soon, Rudo won’t be able to use 3R. He’s building up a skill that he won’t be able to use. So what’s inside his curse?
I think it’s anima. I think he will receive anima from the curse, which will make him fulfill his family duty. It'll essentially swap out the anima he receives from his gloves with the anima he'll receive from his curse. And this is exactly what Tamsy wants.
And why does Semiu say “it could destroy the world?” Because it already has. Another red herring.
The curse was introduced when Rudo was feeling so much anger he couldn’t control himself.
It all goes back to hatred. Tamsy killed Regto and framed it on Rudo, so Rudo could become full of hate. Maybe that's why the gloves are so overwhelming to people who "aren't missing something." Because that festering, seething rage feels like it's eating away at them.
But why didn’t it work? Maybe because it was hatred towards the Sphere. What will awaken it? Maybe hatred towards the Ground. I did a whole thread on Twitter about how some of Rudo's habits indicate him coming from a high-trust environment (the risk of being dropped from the sky if you commit a crime will do that). So I think this hatred can grow just from how shitty some people on the Ground are. Remember, Rudo dealt with an intense class disparity and discrimination based on his class/hands/murdering father. But what he's seeing now is another level of fucked up; it far surpasses it.
I also think the two pages below are another red herring, but indirectly. I wouldn't be surprised if Mymo ends up controlling Rudo...considering they're fighting and you know...his ability works after drinking someone's blood. He even said he wants to control their powers. I think "And then, if I can..." is a way to make it seem less obvious.
I don't think Mymo is as stupid as he kinda seems at the moment. Especially when he knows about Tamsy and what he's done. Maybe Tamsy's little vacay is related to this...lol. Also, he and Tamsy are parent-killers, lol. Lol. So, combine everything I just said with this.
Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all night!
I’m 23 and unemployed.
Also, I predicted the entirety of the Amphoreus (HSR) story based on what was given in 3.0 and 3.1, so you should have faith in me.
I may be poor and in debt, but you know, if I had a job I wouldn’t be writing all this…
And so, in conclusion, Impasse is based all on this theory. I wanted to write out what I think, just in case I’m right. I want people to go “holy shit dude” if I’m correct.
But at the same time, I know I may be wrong…so I want at least, for my version of the story to exist somewhere.
Here’s another link.
