#royalrifle

[trashrat420]

The story releases and leaks gave me the motivation to make more of these,, spoilers!!

[markerofthemidnight]

At this point every P:EG fan ever should just join the Royalrifle club because they’re like the only significant ship (depending on what you define as ‘significant’) who didn’t get taken out back and shot in the leaks

Every other ship turned out to be either canon but doomed or canon but one-sided, but Royalrifle? They were having a spring wedding aside all that shit. Literally

[markerofthemidnight]

BREAKING NEWS: THE ROYALRIFLE FANS WON AGAIN

[markerofthemidnight]

in my head I’ve got the mental image of a scene in Chapter 2 where Mara talks to the students for the first time and she says something to them that’s kind of mean even for her, to the point where it could be considered a little out of line, causing Tozu to tell her off in his cold dignified way, being slightly mean to her back as he does so, and in Damon’s internal monologue he’s like “oh, I guess those two aren’t exactly on good terms despite running this killing game together”

and then when the two leave, the second they’re out of sight, the students immediately and clearly overhear Tozu being like “mara I’m sorry for being mean :(“ in the most sincere and sad tone of voice they’ve ever heard from him

[markerofthemidnight]

ok FINE here’s the latest edition of what I think Tozu’s backstory is and how he as a person works

Former Ultimate, probably a writer(?). Is indeed Cara’s killer and the sole survivor of her Killing Game- he was released after killing her as promised, but couldn’t tell anyone about its existence and instead had to act like nothing happened with only the cover story he was given as a vague explanation for what had happened

At one point found out that the government were either complacent in or outright responsible for his Killing Game, and gradually began to despise them because of this and many more flaws in the world’s systems that their selfishness was responsible for, with a particular hatred for the UTP specifically

Around 30 years after his Killing Game, he formed the mastermind group to finally put an end to it the only surefire way he could figure out how: by starting his own Killing Game, letting the public know about it, and blaming its existence on the UTP so that the public have no reason left to uphold the system.

He chose Ultimates specifically because, not only did he need to tie the victims to the UTP for the whole thing to work, but in addition to his hate for them he has a noticeable grudge against Ultimates themselves, seeing them as both the biggest victims and biggest upholders of the clearly broken system that is the program itself, and detests their attachment to their titles despite the amount of trouble it causes both them and others

Which brings me nicely into why he likes Mara so much: she’s a victim of the world just like him, and while she didn’t go through the same things he did, it did give her a similar hate for the machine and twisted sense of justice. It’s a little fucked up because there’s an argument to be made that a big reason they love each other is because they encourage each other’s desire for vengeance

But it’s also a little bit more complicated because Tozu and Mara kind of need each other, psychologically speaking. They’re both people who have been broken by everything that’s happened to them, but they don’t feel as broken when they’re around each other and they kind of fill the voids in each other’s hearts. If they had never met each other, sure, maybe neither one of them would be as dead-set on vengeance, but Mara still needs someone who cares about her and Tozu still needs to feel needed.

Oh, and this is also a good time to mention: I see Tozu as a person who vehemently believes that it’s impossible to be truly powerless in a situation and that everything affects something, no matter how little. The trauma he got from being the sole survivor of his Killing Game is kind of to blame for this, and to this day he still stands by the fact that maybe things could’ve gone better if he’d just done a few things differently. He feels an incredible amount of responsibility for all of the terrible things that happen around him, which is kind of the reason why he started this Killing Game in the first place

Anyways onto the littler details: Tozu acts like… that most of the time for a couple reasons: 1, he can learn more about people based on how they react. 2, he’s trying to make him and the team behind the game look as evil as possible so that the eventual fall is even harder for the UTP. 3, in general he’s pretty terrible at expressing strong emotions in ways that feel genuine, so playing them up is the closest he can get (this is why he also acts that way sometimes when it’s just him and Mara).

He understands why other people would think what he’s doing is fucked up, but still insists that he would never be doing what he’s doing if it wasn’t the only solution he could come up with that he was sure would work. However, notice that he does not care about how kind the solution is.

Because in his mind, it’s justified. The people in power have been hurting people because of their own selfishness for decades: if he hurts them for the sake of liberating the people they take advantage of, then it’s justified, right? And of course, he is doing this for the sake of all of the people who have suffered because of the broken systems of the world, both living and dead, but… he’s kinda doing it for himself too.

In fact, I could see a scene late into the game where he gets desperate and drops all this information on the students, expecting them to be driven to their absolute lowest point when they realise the reasons he’s doing this are completely justified, but then when they don’t do that and instead tell him to his face that he’s wrong to put them through the same pain he went through, he is absolutely PISSED.

To an extent, Tozu unconsciously kind of knows that all of his justifications and excuses for why he’s running the Killing Game boil down to “it’s alright if I do it”. Consciously, though, it would take SO much work for him to finally realise that all he’s really accomplishing is perpetuating the cycle of violence that started this whole story.

And the reason why he’s so in denial about that is mainly just… he’s afraid. Not only because this means that he’s failed so many people again and holds even more responsibility for it than he did last time, but because it took 30 years for him to come to this conclusion and achieve this goal, and if it’s not the answer, then… what is?

When he finally does acknowledge that, it leads to either the end of the game, the end of his life, or both. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure where I think his story should end, just that at one point he finally comes to his senses (though probably not before Mara does the same).

[markerofthemidnight]

I'd like to discuss it with someone, I like the fact that Mara has a 100% engagement ring. Although Tōzu doesn't have a hint of a similar ring, I still want to believe that they are truly married

.

…

…wait

[markerofthemidnight]

finding the og post where boyan confirms tozu and mara are married and seeing all the replies are just like “how TF did he pull her” is very funny

[markerofthemidnight]

in response to the recent information, an edit must be made