#meta posting.

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HC. Reze's depersonalization not only applies to her sense of self or identity ( or lack thereof ) but also the way her physical form is treated. The bomb devil literally being implanted inside her without consent is the catalyst; Reze is treated like property — less as a person with interiority or multitudes, &. more like an object to be used, molded, &. discarded. A doll. An empty husk to project their desires &. needs onto.

It's been outright said ( or inferred by Kishibe, if any of the rumors he's heard hold any weight ) that the Russian govt subjected these orphans to cruel experiments; what Reze went through can only be left to the audience's imagination; but, it wouldn't be far-fetched to believe those same people in power subjugated her, and other children like her, to a lifetime of physical abuse &. mental duress.

It would explain why Reze has no qualms with transforming into the Bomb Devil — a horrifying ordeal in which she decapitates herself first before rising from the ashes of death &. transforming into the embodiment of Hell on Earth. Her body rots &. decays right before our eyes, mutilated in the name of destruction. Destroying everything around her just as her body was defiled.

Not even she can call her body her own. All sense of self has been eliminated.

[razrbomb]

spark . i wonder how distorted reze’s sense of self is — she was taken as a child, ran experiments on &. subjected to harsh military training that presumably occurred throughout her whole life, already sealed with certain expectations by an imposing force much bigger than her. childhood is such a formidable &. especially malleable point of a person’s life; &. reze wasn’t able to develop her own personality at all because she had her agency stripped away from her. her speech, her mannerisms, her body, her physiological reactions, her entire being are all under tight control by the government. she was essentially groomed to act a certain way, violated to the point of having a portion of the bomb devil implanted inside of her. this part especially is so on the nose; i can’t believe reze isn’t in the same discussion as denji &. aki when it comes to the horrifying effects of trauma &. abuse; but...! i digress-

only a mannequin. a role. an archetype. following a script to reach an unattainable ending ( to steal the chainsaw man’s heart; hah! ) written by an authoritative power, by the soviet union. raised by a wire mother. she was never a fully realized person but a living breathing doll created to serve a purpose. a shell without a ghost.

no wonder she was too good to be true — she only acted as the prototypical teenage dream for the naive &. lonely boy to fall for. but damn... did she fall into her own web of lies in the process. reze really did believe, wanted desperately to believe, she could get that happy ending... the country mouse &. the city mouse.

[razrbomb]

spark . thinking ... on how the major events surrounding reze involves water. the inciting incident begins with reze teaching denji how to swim in a pool — both naked &. vulnerable; both fake &. true — the significance this seemingly selfless act has on denji is palpable, it stays with him regardless of the truth of her malicious intentions; we begin to see reze’s true colors in the rain, when she takes down &. kills an assassin with ease &. without mercy, as if to wash away the mask she wears; the fight finally ends with denji &. reze at the beach, washed ashore after a brutal battle, stripped away of their devil abilities. in all instances, she is technically weak, unable to transform.

i also think about the meaning of water in these moments. yes; she is weak to water, unable to light a spark to cause an explosion, making it a symbol of vulnerability by default; but, water is also a symbol of fluidity, of washing away one's sins, of looking below the surface, of change. she encompasses all these ideas. her personality changes like a passing wave, shifting to serve a purpose, to change with intent. this is her most natural state. but this is only a tiny piece of her character, a shallow perspective. you can look at this girl straight-on, staring her right in the face, &. you will still be none the wiser, unaware of the inner-workings of her world. below the surface, there is complexities &. nuance that even she cannot put into words, unable to say it out loud.

the most notable shift occurs at the beach, when the carnage finally ends, when she has been put down from her safety net &. impulses. denji pushes reze to the sea — the only time her interaction with water wasn't a choice. a stark difference between a contained body ( the pool ) vs a vast almost hostile expanse beyond what anyone could imagine ( the sea ). &. she is free because of it — symbolic of change in its relation to baptism; born anew, unguarded. denji puts her on the spot, &. her mask vanishes. before she shifts back to her seemingly true, cold-hearted exterior as she abandons him by the shore.

only at the surface.

the beach, her baptism, shifts her perspective, as she has now seriously considered her former proposition ( both fake &. true ): lets run away together. born anew, unguarded. this is perhaps the first decision she has ever made on her own; &. it was the correct decision. it's a shame she wasn't created in a less tragic series.

[razrbomb]

meta + childhood .

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HC. Reze was taken away by the Soviet Union when she was a child. She was an orphan — no family to claim her, no track record to trace her path; never cared for, never protected. Ripe to be manipulated with zero consequences. She was only five years old. For most of her life, she was "raised" in a special government program unknown to the public at large, subject to harsh military training &. cruel scientific experiments. A vessel was needed for the sole purpose of implanting a portion of the Bomb Devil's body in order to fulfill their goals, in order to win the war. She was only fourteen years old. Violated to the point of no return.

There is no childhood to speak of. There is hardly a person behind the shell she was molded into. Neither a city mouse or a country mouse; but, a lab rat.

In her fondest memories, there is a pool — where she learned how to swim; &. where she taught Denji how to swim. This is the closest experience she has had to enjoying her youth.

[razrbomb]

Meta + gun devil ( cause i’m so creative )

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HC. oh, gun devil? that's deadass her bestie right there. they share hand creams, paint each other's nails, have sleepovers, talk about boys~-

all joking aside, the bomb devil &. the gun devil are confirmed partners; we just don't know the full extent of their partnership due to the threat of death if beam so much as elaborated on the subject. but, seeing how bombs &. guns usually go hand-in-hand, especially on matters of war &. mass destruction, their alliance should be surprising to absolutely no one.

i'd imagine that because of the gun devil's elusive nature, the bomb devil hasn't come in contact with their boi in a long while, probably years ( the late 90s were generally uneventful times, you see ). needless to say, reze ( the vessel ) probably has never come in contact with the gun devil in her life, ever. stealing the chainsaw man's heart was simply a means, the key, to appeasing this long-time alliance. the soviet union's continued existence in the csm universe would suggest the race to steal his heart is also an allusion to the cold war.

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spark . here's a nice piece of trivia from her wiki:

Her name is likely a reference to the word "raze," meaning to destroy or demolish. In her native language of Russian, Reze ( spelt Резе ) is the term for a door lock, particularly one using a sliding pin.

emphasis mine. albeit, this is all most likely conjecture, as this is unsourced from the unofficial fandom wiki, her naming convention is still... inch resting.

[razrbomb]

spark . really sad how most ( if not all ) her verses will always have reze robbed of her agency &. childhood. it’s just a part of her character, intrinsically tied to her character no matter the circumstances: to be a nothing-person at all times.

[razrbomb]

spark . adore that her appearance is described like this, giving me more reason to believe reze has an affinity towards cats. on the flip side, it can also be argued that the cute crescent-shaped eye smile she always wears is reminiscent of a snake’s. &. knowing how she’s trained to be a master of deception, well...