rant-y thoughts on chapter 107 & the faustian deal
again, this is a RANT these ideas MAY be supreme ass i am spitballing okay cool—
this moment here, what waka says, is a reference to line 1700 of Goethe's Faust. It's the moment where Faust seals his the deal, stating that, 'if ever I shall tell the moment "Linger awhile! so fair thou art!" Then mayst thou fetter me straightway, then to the abyss will I depart!' or, in english, 'if i ever say to time 'stay still, you are so fair!', claim my soul and send me to hell!'
this is like an obvious alignment of witch waka with faust. then, nisroca, the wishgranter, is mephistopheles. unlike faust, waka does end up wishing to stay in the moment forever. nobody comes to save her as a result of her 'striving' for goodness. god doesn't intervene. how could he?
me and a mutual were making a joke about how the series could be called after waka and nothing would change but its true. waka is god, in this series. waka is the series.
(ignore my misspelling of essence there ouch im taking psychic damage)
the amount of connections she has to everyone and everything that makes after god after god is insane. like pick anyone. it'll all come back to waka. random side character who's in one panel? they probably know someone that knowingly or unknowingly has been affected by waka. or they are someone that has been.
in this godless world, then, her soul cannot be not saved. she is condemned to the loop. nisroca has sort of abandoned her in a way mephistopheles never did for faust. he's chosen tokinaga as his designated torture subject for the moment.
to me, this strangely victimises?? witch waka? like, till this point she has had exorbitant amounts of agency in comparison to characters such as our waka, tokinaga, yoriko etc. but in this moment, this strikes me as weirdly deterministic.
she is reciting faust to someone who has (presumably) no knowledge of faust. then, she's reciting for her own sake. she knows that the bargain is weighted unfairly (that it's faustian), she knows its a pyrrhic victory in a way to even have the wish granted. the tokinaga of today is not her tokinaga. her reaction here to what orokapi says is so poignant to me.
what does this face mean? is it resignation, a tired 'i know', or is it cold anger at being seen? unlike faust, she doesn't continue striving. she falls into the devil's trap, 'to the abyss'. and just like the line, she literally falls in the next panel to all fours and to the floor, which is dark and distorted. it's like she's following a script. it's like she knows there's no way out. all she finds solace in is the loop. the promise that each tokinaga will be as kind as the last, that, regardless, she won't lose him.
it's all shion. guys, it's all wakashion. again with the childishness, she can't move past her death. she overcompensates. rather than learn to grow up and move through guilt, she lashes out and decides that nobody leaving is the answer. or, at least, the only other person who knew shion as she knew her.
in a way, she's the antithesis to this panel.
one believes that trying, striving, and having dreams to achieve is what makes living fun while the other believes that there's no reason to try hard to live. but at the same time, that's what she's doing, isn't it? the loops take effort, dont they?
idk i guess she just doesnt care
