Observations About Vicious (And My Theories)
I know I must be one of the only Vicious (Cowboy Bebop) fans on the Internet. But as a character, Vicious has always fascinated me, and there are some particular observations about him Iāve had that Iād like to mention. Not trying to excuse the characterās behavior, which by all metrics is reprehensible, but I think he displays more humanity than most people realize.
This essay does contain spoilers for the five people who havenāt seen Cowboy Bebop. All screenshots below are from my official Bandai Remix DVDs.
So, loyal Lin blindly follows Vicious to Callisto out of honor to the syndicate and dies while taking a bullet for Vicious. Vicious doesnāt care and literally scoffs at the manās corpse.
Well then, what about Viciousā comments to Shin, Linās brother, in The Real Folk Blues Part II? He tells Shin ānot to follow in his brotherās footsteps.ā
No matter which way you slice it, he is telling Shin not to get himself killed. And it canāt be because he wants more loyal minionsā¦ because thatās exactly the quality about Lin he was so critical of. Is he telling Shin not to just be a loyal sheep? But he has to know encouraging such levels of free will will spell trouble for him (which it kinda does).
So, why? Why would he bother to say something like that? (ESPECIALLY if he even remotely suspected Shin of aiding Spike and Julia, although I donāt think he did.)
I donāt really have a theory about this one, other than I think it shows Vicious isnāt quite as dismissive of human life as he appears to be.
āLiterally Scoffing At Linās Corpseā
Looking at the flow of this scene again, another possibility has occurred to me. His line,Ā āThere is nothing in this world to believe in,ā which is said over Linās corpse, might actually mean something different within the context of the scene.
The reason I say this is because it comes mere seconds after he is responding to Grenās comments about TITAN (you know, the war-torn hellscape), and how Gren believed in Vicious then but his faith has since been shattered.
The official subs are a little wonky here but they seem to imply heās referring specifically to Titan.
Essentially, when speaking over Linās dead body after the scuffle interrupts him, Vicious might have just been continuing/confirming his earlier comments with a more poetic version of,Ā āYeah, this world is shit,ā after seeing Lin die on his behalf. The line may not have been about Lin specifically at all.
In fact, at the beginning of Jupiter Jazz, Part I, Vicious, again, kind of urges Lin to LIVE, even if it means betraying him. So to say he didnāt care at all about Linās well being, I think, is incorrect.
Itās also interesting to note that heās encouraging betrayal, because we all know Vicious is a man who takes betrayal so well. Maybe he thinks itās okay and expects everyone to do it now because of Spike and Juliaās betrayal in the past? That could explain why he went after Mao.
His Comparison To Fallen Angels
I never thought much on it before, but one of the first lines Vicious ever utters in the show may actually be revealing: āWhen angels are forced out of Heaven, they become devils.ā
The Japanese translation in the subs is also interesting.
Does this imply something about how Vicious sees himself? Did he see himself as living in some sort of paradise in the past, with Julia as his girlfriend and Spike as his best friend? Was he genuinely happy with his life (involved in organized crime though it was)? This is hinted at in flashbacks as well as official art, where he does seem to appear happy.
Vicious has his iconic pet bird that is seen with him nearly every time he appears in the series. He is shown feeding it and it molts and vocalizes, so thereās no reason to really doubt that itās a real animal.
However, when it explodes at the end, there is absolutely NO blood, guts, or anything else to be seen. Bebop may not be the goriest anime ever, but they donāt exactly shy away from it either. (Exhibit A: Pierrot le Fou). This lack of even a splatter seems odd to me. Because Bebop takes place in a science fiction setting, we donāt know how realistic animatronics might appear in that universe. Several smoke canisters clearly come out of the bird as well.
I think either could be true, but I personally tend to lean towards the theory that the bird is not a living animal.
His Honorable Moment At The End
Iāll be honest ā I never really noticed this until someone on TVTropes pointed it out. However, itās an interesting observation that during the final confrontation between Spike and Vicious that the two men end up with each otherās weaponsā¦ and then honorably return them. It would have been just as easy for Vicious to hold onto Spikeās gun (or pick it up and use it to shoot Spike) while Spike returned his sword to him only to be cut down.
This is more than a little unusual for Vicious, a character who has been shown to favor practicality over honor throughout the series.
My theory for this is that Vicious perhaps wanted he and Spike to kill each other (which is perhaps echoed in Vincent and Electraās final showdown in the movie). That now neither of them felt like they had anything to live for. (Note: this was immediately after Spike informed Vicious that Julia had died.)
His Relationship With Julia
This leads into one of the core elements of the showās plot ā the Vicious/Julia/Spike love triangle. Iāve always been pretty fascinated with this backstory, and especially Viciousā relationship with Julia, for one particular reason: Vicious does not strike me as the kind of man who would be comfortable with intimacy.
Individuals who are so closed off emotionally, like Vicious, usually arenāt comfortable with being vulnerable around other people, and being naked while having sex with someone else is one of the most vulnerable things you can do. Yet, he clearly was having sex with Julia. I admit itās possible he, like most humans driven by primal instincts, simply had biological urges he wished to assuage. But I think itās more likely that this was unusual for Vicious ā that such intimacy happened because he saw something in Julia that he connected to (and perhaps vice versa).
Vicious having actual feelings for Julia is supported by some other pieces of evidence, too. For example, his seemingly genuine sentimentality (especially in the dub) when listening to the music box in the Titan flashback during Jupiter Jazz, Part II. I donāt think itās known when in the timeline the War on Titan happened or when Vicious fought in it. Itās possible that he was still in his relationship with Julia when he left (and maybe that Spike and Julia had their affair while he was away). Itās just as possible that heād already learned of the affair and both Julia and Spike had already been scattered to the winds. Either way, it implies sentimentality about her and missing her.
Another piece of evidence is simply the extreme lengths Vicious goes to after discovering Julia and Spikeās affair/betrayal. (Confession: I actually asked Mary Elizabeth McGlynn herself (both the voice of Julia and the director for the English dub of Cowboy Bebop) at a convention about her opinions on the nature of Vicious and Juliaās relationship, and her answer was essentially that she feels such deep-seated anger on Viciousā part had to have come from deep-seated passion.)
I know some people in the fandom believe that Vicious is a user of Red Eye. It would explain why heās such a skilled fighter and, well, vicious. However, watching Asimov use it in Asteroid Blues leads me to believe that Vicious wouldnāt be keen to use the stuff himself. Again, a man this cold, driven, and controlled isnāt the type of person who would want to give UP control. And thatās exactly what Red Eye does, even though it makes you stronger. It seems to me being such a skilled fighter would be a source of pride for the man, and that using Red Eye to achieve that level of mastery would be ācheating.ā His attitude towards the syndicate elders might be evidence for this ā he sees them as being unfit to lead because they canāt fight their battles on their own.
How in the actual hell did Vicious survive a point-blank grenade explosion at the end of Ballad of Fallen Angels?
titsay
snowghoul
jacobvanloon
vaporwave
areudirty
turnnoffyourmind
