Rayne and Finn's relationship, The Analysis.
by a huge fan of the Ames brothers.
(panel from chapter 108 that i edited because the author messed up Rayne's lines by putting Lance's on him.)
This is going to be a long analysis about the Ames' characters and their relationship. The reason why i am writting this is for trying to explain more the reasons that pushed Rayne to take the horrible decision of cutting his brother off, and how he is not the only one to blame in this.
⚠️Disclaimer: i will try to stay in the canon as much as possible but you all know that there is a lot of things that the author didn't say about them, so there will be some of my own interpretations and thoughts that you may or may not agree with ⚠️ Also i prefer Rayne over Finn so i may sound too pro-Rayne in this, my bad!
1. Rayne's first appearance.
Chapter 1, we get to know Rayne's name, most importantly his last name, and that he is the new Divine Visionary. Very important points for the next. (Sadly we don't get anything else from him until chapter 24.)
2. Finn's first appearance.
Chapter 4, we get to meet Finn who shares the same last name as the new Divine Visionary which means that they are brothers.
Now, we can ask ourselves: what is their relationship? Is it good? Is it bad?
Sadly, we will never know until chapter 108. But, there are elements that could make us guess how they relationship is:
Since we have nothing about Rayne in the first chapters, we will focus on Finn; what we learn from him is that he is in Easton since middle school, and that he used to have a "normal school life" (despite the fact the he is afraid of bullies but we can still qualify this as "normal" because those kind of things happen in school sadly).
With that, we can fairly assume that Finn is a normal boy, with a normal background, which could mean that he has a normal relationship with his brother (i emphasis the could here).
But, then, in chapter 5, we learn that Finn is getting bullied by Lloyd Calvin rather... harshly. And things start to get odd.
To be extremely honest, when i first watched Mashle i didn't have in mind that Rayne was Finn's brother. But, now that i do, when i read chapter 5 with Finn getting beat by Lloyd, it feels strange, very very strange.
It makes us ask ourselves some questions: Did Rayne ever get to know that his brother was getting bullied? Did Finn ever tell his brother about the bullying? Did Lloyd and the vice-principal not know that Finn is Rayne's brother? Is Llyod's father higher in rank than Rayne? Normally no because being a Divine Visionary is the highest rank, but Finn also said that:
Why is he acting like he doesnt have a brother that works in the Bureau of Magic? Did the author forget or maybe it was a way to tell us that something was wrong between them? And, maybe, Lloyd and the vice-principal knew that? And that was the reason why Lloyd could mistreat Finn, and the vice-principal could expell him without being afraid of what Rayne, Divine Visionary, might say or do?
After this, we can assume that, since we have never seen Rayne's reaction to Finn's bullying/beating, despite having seen him in chapter 1 as the new Divine Visionary, Rayne and Finn's relationship is bad. But how bad? We wont know until the last arc...
3. Finn after Llyod Calvin's bullying
We will continue on analysing Finn before Rayne's real first appearance.
After reading several chapters, we can see that Finn is this chill nice normal guy among a group of total weirdos (Mash, Lemon, Lance, Tom, Dot etc...) but there is something that we can notice:
He is not at his place in Easton.
I had that thought even before knowing Rayne's existence which means that i am not even biased by the fact that i am a Rayne stan. Finn just clearly doesnt fit, not like Mash doesnt because Mash had an actual real reason to be here, but Finn? In the first chapters, we didn't know why he was there, and it was painful to watch him not being capable of doing basic stuff (according to Lance)
Or being so easily scared when they are literally in one of the most demanding school of the whole city which it is known to have crazy people that bullies for fun and stuff...
Or, lastly, having bad grades...
But, since we know that he has a brother, we can assume that he wanted to be in the same school as him. Like, okay? That could be taken as a good reason...? Because, at this point of this analysis, we don't know if Rayne was okay with him being there or not.
To conclude, we know that Finn is a normal guy, with an apparently normal life, but he put himself in a school that is clearly not for him because it is too scary + he is bad in magic + he barely passes his exams.
4. Rayne in the Magia Lupus arc.
In chapter 24, we get to see Rayne again. He was sent by Wahlberg to the basement where Mash&co + Abel&co were. But, we dont know if he knew that Finn was there.
This panel shows that Rayne is used to do whatever Wahlberg tells him, but this point is not relevant here so let's move on to the fight with Love Cute and Milo Genius.
It was a painful fight to watch because it showed how useless Finn was, but, anyway, at the end, Rayne appeared and beat Milo. We don't know why from all the fights happening at the same time (Lance vs Wirth, Mash vs Abyss) Rayne fell fortunately on where his brother was; maybe it was a coincidence, or it was intentional to save his brother? We will never know.
We get to learn that Rayne is the best student of Adler, adding to his Divine Visionary title, that he is violent, physically violent (probably to show where he had been raised, aka the streets), that he doesnt like to waste time, and that he values actions more than words which is a very important point.
In this scene, sadly, Rayne and Finn didn't interact at all despite being for the first in the same room. Rayne simply turned his head to Love, Dot and Finn to tell them to get out, but then? Absolutely nothing. But, we still can assume that they are on a bad terms considering what we said earlier and the fact that they acted like strangers (i honestly would not have guessed that they were brothers if Finn didn't say it out loud) But, again, we don't know how bad their relationship is, so lets continue.
After this, we see Rayne and Mash's first meeting, and we can notice something:
Rayne. is. not. a. bad. guy. It is very important to have that in mind.
We see that he can be violent and agressive (always with a reason somehow) but, when he realizes that he made a mistake, he actually apologies?
He cares enough that he noticed that Mash was injured and offered him a healing handkeichief?
He apparently tries to solve societies' problems?
We don't know why at this point but him accepting Mash despite his magic-less nature tells us a lot; Rayne is a fair man that is probably fighting for changing the world for the better, and him being close to Wahlberg (he bosses Rayne around which shows their proximity), emphasis the fact that Rayne is a good person. Even Mash says it!!
But, this doesnt fit with the fact that he is on bad terms with his brother? What happened between them for them to not talk to each other when they are both "good persons"? This becomes quite complex.
Sadly, in this scene, despite Rayne being Finn's brother and Mash being Finn's roommate and actual best friend, Finn was not mentioned at all, Rayne didn't even think once about Finn when seeing Mash, except at the end... In a flashback with Wahlberg:
...This got me confused a lot since Rayne never had ANY reactions to Finn's bullying/beating. Why would Wahlberg say that to him? Various things could be said:
1- Wahlberg might have said that to motivate Rayne to help Mash, but, if it's the case, it totally flopped, because Rayne never helped Mash before their first encounter (source: he didn't even know how he looked like), and we have seen above that Rayne usually does whatever Wahlberg is telling him, so do not come at me and say "Rayne didn't have the time to look after Mash", it seems like he always does for Wahlberg, but he somehow did not when it came to Mash... probably because he brought up Finn in this...? And if Wahlberg didn't, maybe Rayne would have helped Mash sooner?
2- if Rayne really wanted Finn to be "saved" why didn't he do it himself? Why would he wait for someone like Mash to help him? Why did we never get any reactions from Rayne when it came to his brother being persecuted? (I will answer those questions later.)
1-Throughtout the chapters, after Rayne's appearance, Finn had never ever talked about his brother to his friends, and his friends who, literally all of them, minus Lemon, want to become Divine Visionaries, never asked Finn about his brother. Maybe the author forgot? Or it was not relevant? Or Finn simply doesnt care about his brother? same for his friends? And same for Rayne who also doesnt seem like he cares about Finn? Like okay???
2-We learnt in chapter 44, that Rayne is also the prefect of Adler...
So, you are telling me that Rayne, brother of Finn, Divine Visionary, a good person, prefect of Adler, wasn't aware that his brother was getting bullied by other Adler students and didn't do a thing?? This definitely confirms that something is wrong between them, and probably worst than we could previously guess, because, either Rayne purposely doesn't do anything for Finn for a reason, or he really doesn't have the time and it makes me ask why would they chose him as a prefect if he can't do what prefects are supposed to do? (and even if he doesnt have the time, why doesn't he go save his brother??)
In chapter 45, this was the first ever scene where we saw Finn thinking about his brother, and there was no signs of their relationship's state, as if, again, there was nothing wrong, but we know that something is wrong regarding what we said earlier.
We don't know in which context Rayne had said that to Finn, but this proves that Finn knows how his brother works, and it is important for later.
About Margarette's fight, we get to know again a little more about Rayne, especially in the monologue he had about Mash. He had said some interesting statements that, in apparence, looks like he is only talking about Mash, but we can say that he was also talking about himself.
"Having no rights." "Despair" "Jealous" "Regretting that he was ever born" "hating society" those points are quite revealing. What if those were things that Rayne went throught? This shows his state of mind and mental health, and, spoilers, they are pretty bad.
But this creates a sort of contrast between the brothers; Finn acts normal, is normal, minus his scared personality but that is just his personality, we are not here to judge, there are persons who live normal all their life but are naturally scared so nothing is alarming in Finn's part. But Rayne? This guy literally has the job of a Divine Visionary, he is the number one student in Adler which means that he works hard on his studies AND he is the prefect of his dorm, like??? Why is he working so hard? What is his purpose? We dont know it until chapter 119... But, we have Margarette's fight and his monologue, and we could only assume that this guy went throught a lot. It is not obvious for Finn, but it is definitely for Rayne. So at this point we can say that only Rayne had lived something bad? and not Finn? But lets continuing before making conclusions.
7. The Divine Visionary exam.
The first thing that i will say is:
Because we have reasons for Mash, Lance and even Dot. But Finn??? Okay, I know why the author did that because of Carpaccio and stuff, but let's forget about that a minute and just see what else he did...
In the first stage of the exam, if it was not for Dot helping him, he wouldnt have passed. In the second stage, if it was not for some shonen kind of logic that made Carpaccio last the fight, Finn wouldn't have stand a chance, then, after, he was disqualified for some reasons, and, the end. What did he gain in this seriously?
Now, if we consider the bad relationship he has with his brother, I have a hard time understanding Finn's choice. Sometimes, i just reassure myself by saying that the author tends to forget about Rayne's existence because this??? Finn joined the exam and we have never ever seen Rayne's reaction to this??? (at this point in this analysis i could find this normal because Rayne never showed any care for his brother earlier, like, why would he now? but you and i know very well that he cares so...???) And Finn never told himself that it is a bad idea to attend the exam because of how his brother could react??? Maybe Finn truly doesn't care about his brother as much as Rayne doesn't care about him? So they are really just strangers? Okay, i accept it, maybe this is an agreement between them that they won't have anything to do in each other's life because Rayne doesnt seem to be present in Finn's life for some reasons, but it doesn't look like it is bothering Finn because we've never seen him talking about him or being sad about it or regretting him? He is just living a "normal" life without him and is pretty happy like that with his friends. Like, okay. As for Rayne, well, we know now that he has a goal, but we don't know if it is related to his brother? So he may just live his life however he wants without his brother, like his brother. So they both dont need each other in their lives, after all? Why do i even do this analysis??
...Of course, it is because it is not the case. So i will have to make sense of all this...
8. During the last arc before Delisaster's fight
in the 108th chapter, it is finally confirmed that something was bad between the brothers, and here are the proofs:
Okay, i may be mean to Finn, but honestly, i agree with Rayne. At this point in the manga, (strictly from Raynes POV) Finn hasn't proven that he could be useful in any ways (except with Carpaccio but it is still not very convincing to let him fight in the last battle where he could literally DIE) so it is understandable that Rayne, who only believes in actions rather than words, seeing that his brother hasn't accomplish anything FOR YEARS, would tell him what is true: he has nothing to do in the fight against Innocent Zero (it happened that Rayne was wrong but how would he know that Finn would be capable of doing anything useful? He works with evidence, not hypothesis, and Finn knows it well, so we cant really blame Rayne here for telling the truth, it was harsh yes, but it is the truth.)
But, Finn didn't listen to Rayne, and was still present in the last battle. And you want my honest opinion on that? He was right to do it, you go Finn, live the life you want, and prove that you are capable of doing something (and you did) but I can't blame Rayne to just have stated facts.
Anyway, we know now that there is a disagreement between the brothers on this subject, but is it the reason why they are on bad terms? That could be but that it feels incomplete. So let's continue.
in the chapter 114, we see that Finn clearly didn't listen to his brother (and it is not the first time that he does apparently) as he attended the meeting with the remained Divine Visionaries where they talked about the final fight.
We can also notice that Rayne and Finn still act like total strangers because throughout the whooole meeting and even after, they didn't even talk to each other or even give a single look to each other...
in the chapter 115, when Finn was giving a huge role to open the barrier in Innocent Zero's castle, it looked like Rayne had given up on his brother.
Like he was not even looking at him. But we will never know why exactly, and it doesn't seem like it is bothering Finn, so, yeah.
In chapter 116, after succeeding his mission (despite him being so close to give up) everyone was proud of Finn except Rayne. But, this time, he looked at him.
Maybe he was surprised that Finn was able to finally do something? Or not...? Again we will never know...
But than we finally get to know what may have happened between the brothers. And, of course, we got Finn's POV first.
Okay, so we learn that it is Rayne that stopped talking to his brother first. (it was not very obvious at first because both of them didnt look like they cared for each other so that's why i am stating it here.)
It is not very clear if Rayne had told Finn that the reason why he took his distance was because Finn sucks at magic and stuff, or if it is just Finn's speculation. But, i would like to believe (thats just a theory) that Rayne did say to Finn that he didn't want him to be in Easton without really telling him the reasons which leaded Finn to think that it is because he sucks. I am saying that because Finn said that Rayne barely talked to him "since he entered Easton", and chapter 108 clearly shows that Rayne wasn't happy about the idea of Finn being in dangerous places like the Bureau of Magic or Easton. Also, him saying "This isn't the place for you" didn't seem like it was the first time he ever told him something like that. (and he said that again in chapter 119)
Now, why would Rayne be so against Finn being in Easton? Well, simple, we have already talked about it; Finn has nothing to do there (point number 3), and Rayne even stated it in chapter 108 "You? Helping someone?" He is not wrong about it, even if it is harsh, because Finn hasn't done anything significant yet. You may tell me "yeah but Finn was a huge help to Mash" Ok, i agree with you, but i am talking stricly from Rayne's POV who probably never knew what Finn had done to Mash... So, yeah, the image he had of Finn is just him being in Easton without any good reason while being miserable and not acheving a significant thing. I must admit though that Rayne went too far for not talking to him for years because of that, but we have seen that he is not mentally okay with Margarette's fight so yeaaah. (i know very well that this reason is just a theory and not really what the manga told us but i believe in this theory because it makes sense unlike what is given to us, i will come to that later.)
Anyway, this reason explains a loooooot from the things that we were wondering earlier; since we know now that Rayne is mad at Finn for being in Easton, that could explain why he never ever did anything for his brother when he was getting bullied, and, after seeing that Finn still went to Easton despite his warning, Rayne must have decided to not interfere in his life anymore and let him do whatever he wanted since he can't force him to give up on it. And, probably, he intentionally let bad things happening to his brother/not helping him in his studies, all that for Finn to drop Easton/get expelled. That could even be the reason why Rayne didn't help Mash at first because Mash is a reason for Finn to stay in Easton while Rayne didn't want him in (more on that in another post.)
To sum: Rayne was mad at Finn because he went to Easton while he didn't want him to be there (for good reasons), that made him distance himself from him to make him understand that he was not okay with this decision (actions speak louder than words). But Finn didn't listen and still stayed there to this day (as he should).
There are other reasons to why he had stopped talking to him, at the moment, the first reason i offered is just a theory, and i won't blame any of them for what they did because they both have their reasons and we still don't have all the elements of their relationship so let's go to that.
It happened that Rayne and Finn ended up in the same fight. We don't know if it was a coincidence or if Finn was following Rayne on purpose or if Rayne made sure he was with him so he could protect him. Nothing. And they again never interact and acted like strangers until Rayne decided to jail Finn with his Partisans so he doesnt fight.
I mean, fair, what could Finn do? The only time we saw him fight was against Carpaccio but he was just enduring more than fighting, his magic is not very good at offensives, so Rayne is, again, right there, i can't blame him for telling the truth, but i can't blame Finn for trying neither. So let's continue.
Rayne fought Delisaster while Finn is watching and asking him if he could help, but, of course, Rayne refused and kept saying that Finn will be on the way etc... We get more fighting until we get this:
We learn that they are orphans???????? Since a young age???????? and that the relatives that took care of them after their parents' death were total assholes???????? That they had to life in the streets at some point, starving, while being just little childen??????? I mean???? Look how small they are????
Like??? What the hell?????
Okay, i will be honest, this was totally unexpected and i blame the author for making Finn the "normal guy" among the protagonists while he has probably the most traumatic background of them all? There is only the fact that he sucks at studying and magic that could lead us to guess that he might have some difficulties related to his past but apart from that, nothing would have made us guess that he was an orphan and treated badly.
Now there is Rayne, we finally understand his purpose and why he is working so hard by being a Divine Visionary/best student etc... He is doing all that for his brother. And it definitely confirmed what we had said earlier in Margarette's fight, Rayne's mental health is more than worrying unlike his brother's... But, we sadly will never know how they manage to survive and how they got to Easton, but there is something that i can say with certainty; Rayne has suffered way more from what they lived than Finn (just the way they act now says a lot) because he must be the one who had to make sure they both survived, i mean, it couldn't be coward crybaby little brother Finn that could have done something for both of them (he was probably 4 or 5?), but it had to be big baby brother Rayne (6 or 7?) that didn't have a choice but to take care of his brother since he realized at a young age that he couldn't count on anyone than himself.
This panels show that Rayne fights and keeps fighting, and doesnt give up because giving up means dying. He had been living like that all his life, fighting alone (according to what he said to Mash "I would like even ONE strong ally" that means that he is alone) all that for his survival and his brother's. Like, let's just be in Rayne's place for a second; you have lost your parents at a young age (which is a huge trauma that i dont think he has healed from it (probably Finn too but it is honestly not as obvious)), your relatives doesnt care about you to THIS DAY, so you are left alone with your little brother that you automatically have to take care of because you are the older one. Adding to that the fact that your little brother isnt really helping you in term of mental support because of his constant cryings and questionings (which is totally normal because Finn was literally a CHILD, but we couldn't ignore the damages that it did to Rayne's mental health, i mean, the only images that Rayne has of Finn is literally him crying:
Which leads me to my second theory of why Rayne has decided that he should distance himself from Finn, that is related to the third reason which is the only one stated in the manga. But, before that, i will go back to the first reason by adding the new elements that we had regarding their relationship.
1- We can understand more why Rayne was angry at Finn for having joined Easton considering the fact that Rayne has sacrificed and is still sacrificing his life for him, adding to that the fact that he probably only lived (survived) by HIS OWN decisions and rules, since nobody took care of them, without ever consulting Finn because he is the big brother and had to. Now, of course, Finn grows and wants to take his own decisions, but this is something that Rayne has a very hard time accepting because he doesnt trust anyone, not even his own brother, for their survival, so, of course, after living ALL his life by HIS rules, it is hard to change. And i don't think that nobody ever taught Rayne better, until Finn did it in Delisaster's fight. But anyway, all that to say that, after this, when Rayne saw Finn getting in Easton while disobeying/putting himself in danger when all Rayne wanted for him was to be safe, how do you want Rayne to react? Do you sincerely think that he wouldn't be mad?? Okay that doesn't justify what he did to Finn and we can blame him for that, but we can also blame Finn to not having considerate his brother's feelings in his decision, like, of course he is going to be against it, i mean what did Finn expect? But again, i still support Finn in his decision because that stays his life and he can do whatever he wants, but he should know that his actions has consequences (and if any of you come at me and say "but Finn was just a child" Rayne was too, it is not because he is 2 years older that he automatically knows better, no, he does not, and i can even say that Finn actually is more aware of things than Rayne now (quoting when Delisaster made him believe the joke about the scale) so yeah, Rayne had to unfortunately get "mature" way too early and i don't think he has evolved much since then, so he is mature in some ways but totally isnt in other ways, like how relationship works? And basic things? So, yeah, he stays childish somehow, despite his 18 years old.)
2- Rayne's mental health is bad, we have seen in Margarette's fight that he may hate himself and had thought about dying more than once. Lets remind ourselves that he had lost his parents at a young age and is pretty much traumatised by it since now, he had to take care, as a child, of his brother that worsened his mental health by being a crybaby, to the point that the only images he had of him is when he cries. What does that mean to us? Well, what if Rayne came to a point that he thought that he was a burden to Finn's happiness? What if, since he is not happy with himself because of his self hatred, that isn't getting better, he thought that he may be the reason why Finn can't find happiness? What if he took the decision of taking his distance from his brother so that Finn could be happy without him since he thinks that he prevents him from it? Thats my second reason that i love very much and that joins a litle the third reason that is the only canon reason given by the author.
When i first read this only reason given, i found it completly stupid, because, Rayne is saying that he is taking his distances so Finn wouldn't be taken as a target against Rayne but..., Finn still stays his brother?? whether he talks to him or not?? so if people wanted to take Finn as a target, they will still do it because they wont ask themselves "are they in a good relationship?" they will just act and thats all. Also, Finn actually got bullied at some point, so yeah... Giving this reason as the only reason is stupid. But if we think that he took his distance because he thinks that he will be a burden to Finn; his work is dangerous which means that he can literally die and Finn would be sad if they were on good terms, adding to that, they won't really be able to spend many times together considering how busy Rayne is etc... That would have been better! But just saying that he is keeping his distance because he doesnt want his brother to be taken as target? It doesnt make sense honestly.
Anyway, here are the reasons (in my opinion) that pushed Rayne to take the horrible decision to cut his brother off. We can blame him for what he did but we have to take in consideration how he lived all his life and his current mental health. Finn is not completely innocent here too even if he just wanted to be in Easton to get closer to his brother, but, when he saw that it didn't make his brother happy he shouldn't have forced to go to a place that is not suitable for him. Now so many years have passed and i dont think that any of them have tried to get back together, not even Finn, since he had a normal life as he has clearly stated in chapter 4. But, since he seems to be the most rationnal one, he should have thought about his brother and the reason why he was so upset, and no it is not because you suck Finn, it is much deeper than that, Rayne wouldn't just give up on you after having taken care of you for so long, he would have known if you suck and were weak much more earlier, so no it is not because of what you think, but it is sad that you didn't realize that... But i guess i expect too much from Finn? After all, he also lived a very traumatic life, but, i love to think that Rayne did everything to make the situation less traumatic for him (before he decided to cut him off), which explains why Finn is more normal than Rayne in term of mental health?
To sum: Rayne acted childishly but it shouldn't surprise us considering the fact that he didn't have a normal childhood. He didn't talk to his brother because he was mad and thought that he was a potential danger to him and a burden to his happiness. He obviously didn't try to fix anything for these reasons.
Finn seemed to have accepted this situation too rapidly but it shouldn't surprise us either because he is not someone that fight back, when he saw his brother taking his distance he was probably too scared and pained to do anything. But, now that he had grown and matured (unlike his brother) he should have done something to fix their relationship, unless he didn't want to which is comprehensible. But he ended up being the one who fixed it because Rayne was not mature enough (due to his past) and the end!
11- The end, the conclusion.
The brothers managed to fix their relationship when they finally get to talk in Delisaster's fight. Sadly, we didn't get much; Rayne just said what we could have guessed "he wanted him to live a normal blablabla..." but Finn didn't want to and finally got to tell him and showed him that he had changed and grown. Rayne acknowleged it but still didn't let him out of the cage until Finn gets his second line. And, that's all, that's literally it. We don't have anything left of the brothers except the chapters of the final fight but thats just fights, and chapter 162 where they appear to be on good terms???? I wanted to see more honestly but... Ok... Now they are just chill, and thats good for them!
And i will stop here! thatis already a lot and i hope that it makes sense even if i don't think it does cause i suck at writting and getting to my points.
But, anyway, thank you if you have read it until the end, and don't hesitate to tell me what do you think about it!
See you on an another post of my analysing stuff!!
