Your Zanka analysis was so good, so what about Jabber? I mean, he's obsessed with fighting strong people and finding people that are stronger than him, but still, he keeps going after Zanka, who has yet to fully bloom? I mean, he sees the potential in him ig, but he was bored after their last fight, but at the same time I don’t think he has given up on him? What do you think about it?
Thing is, I can see Jabber's interest in Zanka going a few ways. Also, since we have only gotten two fights between them, there is not really that much to work with without making leaps into conclusions or reading between the lines.
Uh. Where to start. Obviously I have my canon-wise straight-cut thoughts, some giving more flexibility and leeway for the rivalry that is so clear-cut between them, and my more Janka-oriented ones (this one's at the bottom, sorry! Had to ramble a bit, hah).
Canon-compliant, here is my stance based on what Jabber's said: Jabber, by all intent and purposes, should not care about Zanka anymore— they fought, and Zanka turned out to be a disappointment. It's a done-and-over thing, his interest, I believe. No matter how much he had thought it would turn different, the results are there, and so Jabber's done with it. I do wholeheartedly believe such thing's frustrating to him, though, or at least annoying/disappointing.
(also it just came to me that, there is a high chance Jabber intended to kill him, if we compare where his claws were headed to--Zanka's mouth. In his first appearance, that's how he ends up taking the other guys' life
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Next time they meet, I do not think Jabber will even spare a glance to Zanka. Beyond a "Oh, you've survived". If his interest has died entirely, I believe him capable of going all-out on the spot and going for the kill (after all, he kills the people he doesn't like). If Jabber, through the disappointing fight, still believes or clings onto the potential he initially saw on Zanka, I think he'd go the same way. He'd go all out to see if Zanka's grown since their last fight, holding himself back as to not kill him. He might even poison him, to keep alive for next time.
Now bear with me, cause I have, uh 👉👈, a lot of thoughts...
I don't think "Jabber keeps going after Zanka" is necessarily a valid statement (to my Janka-addled brain, it is tho... of course he keeps going after Zanka...). Considering their first encounter simply piqued Jabber's interest (and lord, do I have thoughts about that encounter haha). It started the itch, it did not scratch it. Their second encounter did— their first fight. The moment Jabber decided to test Zanka's mettle. Jabber had expectations, he had hopes, he had an idea of who Zanka was, could be. Alas, Zanka fell short. He went after him once, in the Trash Beast belly, and beyond him being on the Information Broker arc, he hasn't popped up again. He said nothing about Zanka then, simply addressed Riyo and asked her to shoot him again (Hence why I think he's moved on from Zanka, though he could have just been entirely occupied by the thought of fighting the Cleaners/Fu).
From their 1st encounter, to me it's clear: While not explicitly shown, I just know that Jabber was watching the fight. Or at least, he caught the tail end of it. Hence why he gets the jump on Zanka. Hence why he finds himself interested, why he could see the potential in Zanka.
Their first interaction is key to their following one, and on Jabber's stance on Zanka.
The fight in the Trash Beast Belly starts with Jabber testing Zanka. When the fight starts, Mankira is still in its compact form. Call it a warm-up, call it a test. I think Jabber is just testing the waters, considering his enjoyment on their first clash, and his comment of "finding out for how long Zanka can avoid the poison" from his claws. He slings the poison at Zanka, testing.
It is once Zanka's been so vicious in his response, once Zanka's flipped the earth-and-poison over Jabber, that Jabber gets the confirmation he needs. Zanka's not pulling punches, and so Jabber does not see the need to continue testing him— it also helps he doesn't get vaporized with the acid if he uses Mankira's claws as a shell lol. (i also think him Jabber says "play", whether he says it quite literally or as a way of saying "fight"... well... isn't it the same to him?)
"You can do it. He can take it. You can do it!!" That, and Jabber's words of "You can go all out now, too. C'mon! C'mon! ... Let's fight for real." Jabber thinks Zanka's holding back as much as Jabber was, if his words are anything to go by (and I believe him on that, too! I think Zanka has not truly shown his hands. I think he's holding back his full potential/Lovely Assistaff's real form/power due to X or Y or Z). Jabber thinks Zanka's got whatever's needed to wipe the floor with Jabber.
Zanka's "I'm all outta tricks." Sooort of rub me in the wrong way. Or, rather, it makes me think far too much into it. "Tricks", he says, and in a way I think that's probably it— all his skills are put forward as a trick, as a placeholder for what he really can get to. I think that's what Jabber sees.
When Jabber says "So is it game over?" while having Zanka pinned down, I think that's when he's decided to go for the killing blow— just like he did to that guy once he'd gathered the needed info on Rudo. Then, of course, there is that fight, that push, that potential. Jabber recognizes it, even if to Zanka it might seem like a desperate struggle to "prove it".
(also catch the way he tilts his head... as if trying to figure out if this is it. If this is all to it. Because surely there's more, right?)
Things just pick back up and then— Zanka gets caught up in it, maybe acts a bit recklessly, maybe forgets to account for Jabber's claws mobility. It's a high and a low one after the other, and to that, I think Jabber's disappointment is directed. Things just started getting good, Zanka was going to show him his potential, his brutality. But he gets caught. Jabber catches him and it's over.
(He tilts his head here, too, as if thinking "Huh. So this is it. This was all Zanka could offer me. How disappointing". And you can read that later on when he wonders if any other Cleaners would have been more fun to fight against. I see him as being bored by the fact Zanka's efforts only got him so far, annoyed even. Because he had thought, he had believed, he had hoped— but Zanka's brutality never came, he never matched Jabber in his savagery beyond cracking his ribs, he had thought Zanka would be it, the one to wipe the floor with him, but it never came to pass).
Him stabbing Zanka with Mankira's right, I think it's Jabber's frustration boiling over. Now I'm not sure if you require the Givers to be alive before being made sacrifices, or if you need to "connect their souls (body/Vital Instrument)". So Jabber going for the kill to me is a 50/50.
In a more Jabber/Zanka-sided answer: I don't think Jabber's given up on Zanka. I think he still wants to fight whatever potential Zanka's still not uncovered. My thoughts still follow the same "Jabber was disappointed, and even mad about Zanka's weakness, because it cut the fun short".
Because I truly think Jabber put him high up on a pedestal after their first encounter. He saw, he got the itch, but he really didn't get to fight Zanka. Easily proved by his words "I can hope that I've finally found somebody other than the boss who can wipe the floor with me". If Zodyl's words of Jabber's intuition about them is pretty perceptive (as he did with Follo and Gris, and Rudo even, saying his scent was similar to Zodyl. Guessing that might be the Watchman series Instruments... if not being Sphere-related).
So Jabber might've been disappointed, but he saw a glimpse of Zanka's potential, when he made a comeback, when he turned out "to be a real sadist". Jabber gets excited and all that excitement meets a wall when Zanka doesn't avoid Mankira's claws. And all that excitement turns to frustration— and in that, he stabs Zanka.
Specially when you consider Zanka's words of "not holding back, and fighting for real". Zanka says "someone as average as him WILL match Jabber." Zanka talks a big talk and Jabber's met with a short-lived struggle. Wouldn't that infuriate you? You're told you'll be served cake and get naught but frosting.
At the moment, it's all right if he ends up sacrificing Zanka. That's his mission, after all, and he already got as much of a kick as he could out of it. But seeing that Zanka survives (or, that he gets hauled off. I have so many ideas/wips regarding Jabber's thoughts on Zanka surviving, like legit surviving. Because next time he meets the Cleaners Zanka is not there and like. Does that point to his death, or his injured state? Anywaaaay) surely made it all the more tempting, to see what takeaway does Zanka end up with after their fight.
The next time they cross paths —their 3rd encounter and perhaps their 2nd fight—, I think Jabber would want to try Zanka again. Either he grew and got nearer to hit the potential Jabber sees in him, or he's remained stagnant. Overall, I do think a lot of his words, calling Zanka's front of swinging Lovely Assistaff "not all there is". Because I believe that. Much as of course, I would love for Zanka's Instrument to be as simple as a staff he swings, I also think there's more to it. There's more Zanka is holding back due to the way he perceives himself (an average joe).
In that sense, I think Jabber's obsession would steam for his desire to see Zanka's true strength. He wants go see what he hides (that brutality), he wants to see how much of a beating he can take if Zanka stops holding himself back. Above all, Jabber wants to experience the pain Zanka could bring, and he wants to see first-hand how vicious he can get. I think a lot about how others' conversations bleed into someone else's fight/scene.
Obviously here, the "shock to the system" Zodyl speaks of did not occur for Zanka, much to Jabber's dismay. But I also think it's more of a Zanka being so stubborn in his ways, he refuses to budge— considering the enviroment he grew in, much as he's changed and adapted, he's still so him, you know? Idk how to explain it proper, or even if a real, concrete thought is actually there. I'm very staunch of Zanka dismissing his own genius on the wake of the inadequacy created by his family's expectations and Hyo's superior skills. In that sense, I think he has deluded himself into being average (which don't get me wrong, I love how much that's played from his character, the effort he puts in and how simple his Vital Instrument is. But he's had to get creative and good at it, and isn't that a kind of genius, too?). He can be average, but if Jabber's seen the potential, then that means he can grow into it, right? He can match the geniuses. So Jabber wants to see it, what Zanka refuses to acknowledge/show.
(i also think Zanka's shock will come more as a realization that, to beat Jabber, he needs to go all out in his brutality and ruthlessness. That Jabber's victory has made him realize he has to look in the eye the parts he keeps to himself and represses— "his inner self will be dragged out". And perhaps Zanka's "inner self" is just him, being average. That there's nothing down there deeper, that this was as good as it got. I can work with that, too. Because then Zanka's belief of him being average stands true, so then his efforts to match Jabber ought to be great. I would find it more satisfying if it is Zanka coming to realize that, well, he's gotta match Jabber's freak. He can't afford to be playing by the rules.)
One of my WIPs has Zanka saying "I fought with everything I got. I was not holding back. I gave it my all", or something akin those lines, to which Jabber's rebuttal is "Perhaps. But you and me were fighting under different rules", and I think about that a lot. The "rules" being the way Jabber was aiming to have fun, not holding back, while Zanka was trying to prove a point, he was trying to fight while still holding himself back by one reason or another. Yeah they both gave it their all, but Zanka's own "rules", whatever limitations he's self-imposed on himself gave him such a disparity between them. He was never meant to win, the way he was thinking through the fight. He didn't heed Jabber's call for "showing his true self", so the match was decided even before either had a say.
Ahhhh, but that's just me being so fascinated by these two. Gghhhh. I love them so much. Sorry I rambled a lot. I have not really explored much their fight in the Trash Beast, I just had so much to think about ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡ when given an outlet.
Anyway all that to say: I think Jabber's expectations of Zanka would be more realistic next time they fight, and while he is still curious and wants to see what Zanka truly has to offer, he won't be as hopeful as before unless he sees Zanka's growth. He has not given up on it, no, but maybe he is not as eager as before. I think he'd be jusy as excited to fight him, if only to test and see how much progress he's made. If Zanka won't take strides to move towards the person Jabber knows he can be, Jabber will forcefully push him towards it, one defeat at a time if needed.
(@ask-pokecats) Bella approaches the group. She makes an excited smile towards Milo and Shummi.
"Meow! Hi! Have we met before? I'm sure I'm do. So, anyway, what are your plans mwere (here)?"
(Since I haven't did an event intro yet, here's a link of her event ref. I know you might have one but just in case)
“Me and Shummi were planning on checking out the market first. They had wanted to go to the one in Gramina before we came here but we didn’t have the time. It’ll be interesting to see what sorts of things they sell here as a posed to our town. I think Glitch has wandered off already, I think she was planning on getting that other raichu, Noir, to show her around.
Don't believe so— staffs often used in herding tend to be straight (rod), or curled over at the end. At least I believe so lol.
Far as I'm aware his Vital Instrument, active or inactive, are a reflection of a Sasumata. Which, uh, if you read from the link you have the Tsukubo (push pole) and the Sodegarami (spiked pole), too. "Torimono Sandōgu" or "Three Tools of Arrest", it says... which in turn makes me think about his siblings. Huh.
AHHH!!!
And now I'm thinking about the theory going around of the Nijiku siblings having no shine in their eyes, which we know it's a give-away of when someone is a Giver (giving part of their soul onto their precious object)....
(sigh) for my own personal archival and looking-later purposes: Torimono Sandogu: one(Portuguese), two(English), three(Spanish).
Jabber would be shot on the spot, no questions asked, the moment he tried getting chummy with them wihekgnjñm. Which would probably make him all the more eager to interact with them.
"Zanka! You didn't tell me how great your siblings were!" Jabber'd probably say, while Zanka's torn between letting Jabber fuck around and find out, or stop an inevitable fight lol. The Nijiku siblings probably get the shared experience of "this guy's so annoying, how do I keep him off my back?", with little to no success because Jabber's tough enough to withstand the beatings (he likes them anyway) and come for seconds.
On a very tangential note, remembering a WIP wherein Jabber gives the wrong impression to Kyouka by being all over Zanka and saying stuff like "My Zanka...", which prompts Zanka flipping him off with "I'M NOT YOUR ANYTHING, BITCH! THIS WHY YOU MAKE IT LOOK ALL SORTS OF WRONG WAYS!". Anywhooo
Do you think zanka biggest worry with jabber is that he won’t be able to measure up to jabber expectations?
Nnghh... This is such a hard question. Anon, this has been haunting me for the past days :c. Canon-wise, as of chapter 146, I think Zanka's biggest worry is trynna survive the fight without getting hit by Jabber's claws.
The short and round about answer, to me, is: Yes, in a way. It already stung that he had not been strong enough in their fight. So next time, I'm sure Zanka wants to close as much of the gap between their skills. But meeting up Jabber's expectations is just a by-product of meeting his own self-imposed expectations. So in a way he's set his goal on Jabber (his goal being that of surpassing the geniuses with his own efforts).
(and on a more long-winded answer that I could not shorten as much as I'd like, I've attempted like 6 times and I just. Have one too many thoughts on the matter)
Vol.7 shows us a lot about Zanka. Of where he stood, where he stands, and where he wants to stand.
Their second/first real battle was a series of rude awakenings to him. I believe. He had been doing so well in the Cleaners, but the moment's Jabber's decided to fight him "for real", no matter how hard he pushes back, no matter how much he thinks he can win, and no matter how much Jabber thinks Zanka can win, too, the power gap between them becomes obvious. Or the gap between skills, at least.
I think Zanka's bigger worry with Jabber is not so much that he won't measure up to Jabber's expectations, but more of a bitter reality that "he could never surpass the geniuses", that all the effort put in his training is, in the end, for naught. It's more of Zanka failing his own expectations, and falling so far behind the goals he's set for himself. He'd be failing the vision Enjin set out for him, and the rule that's kept him going: that even an average joe such as himself can surpass the likes of geniuses.
Zanka's so stubborn in this way (but I also think it has a lot to do with his desire to prove his own worth). When Jabber's got him pinned, he remembers Hyo, someone who he'd put on the pedestal of the geniuses. Hyo was the first one to show Zanka that after all, he was not the genius his classmates claimed him to be. Zanka is hit with the reality that it all was just a show, in a sense. Hyo knocked Zanka down from his high horse, and she is someone who Jabber reminds him of. Zanka thinks of Jabber as a genius— he recognizes the imbalance he'd seen with Hyo, now that Jabber is "fighting for real". So Zanka comes to realize that, all his effort, all the praise he might have gained, is for naught, again, when faced against the likes of Jabber, a genius (and in that, I think he also gets more invigorated to try harder, to show his worth and to prove that being a genius is not all to it— pretty much as we see when he first interacts with Rudo).
I think Zanka's so hung up on his past in multiple ways. Imagine, thinking yourself superior for so long, only for a newcomer to show you how big the power gap "between a real genius and one who's faking it" is. Add salt to injury with Hyo's words of "You just want people to tell you you're an amazing person". I think that created a big, deep-rooted insecurity and struggle in Zanka: If he is not the genius everybody's claimed him to be, he's on the same level the rest of his classmates are, who he has thought below him all this time.
His ego is something funny to me... Enjin makes him realize that being average shouldn't be something to look down upon— and I do wholeheartedly believe that such thing is also what drives Zanka forward, and gives him a new perspective: if he is not a Genius, then he's on the same baseline as his classmates. But compared to them who he's seen given up and fawn over those above them, Zanka simply refuses to stay stagnant.
I do like that about him, though. What a fighter, as Jabber says, hehe.
I think having been at the (very literal) bottom after such rude reality hit him with Hyo, he just refuses to go back to that same position. In part because he does not want to let Enjin down, and in part because he just wants to prove his own worth, to himself or others. Which is why Jabber's genius is a challenge to him, I think. He is an immediate goal before him, one he wants to reach. Zanka's tried the "i wanna die, I'm so pathetic" already— I think Enjin shifted Zanka's whole mind frame. Because, if Zanka was/is just as average as his classmates, the biggest difference between them was Zanka's efforts (which we know he trained hard, studied hard). If Zanka was a genius back then, and his classmates where just "chums", then it stands to reason the gap he's seen there can also be closed between him and "the geniuses".
...
Anywhooooo. Zanka's so afraid of letting Jabber down in my Janka-addled head because, well. Jabber's been clear he likes strong people, and if he's thought Zanka capable of beating him, then if he keeps falling behind, if he keeps losing, then that means Zanka's gotta be below average, right? If he lets himself down, and by proxy can't meet Jabber's vision of his strength, then that'd hurt all the more, right?
