#tpn 046

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What do you think would happen if Emma had been sent to lambda instead of Norman?

I like the tags on this art by @norman-ratri-truther:

#i cant tell what roleswap scenario would be interesting #Emma and Norman swap places in most ways. Emma wants to eliminate the demons / Norman wants peace OR #Emma goes to Lambda/Norman goes to Goldy Pond HOWEVER Emma still wants peace. and Norman still wants to eliminate the demons #like is their opposite views on demons more so a result of the things they experienced after leaving Grace Field? #or does it rely more heavily on just who they are and how they were raised AT Grace Field #would the experiments at Lambda be able to push Emma into wanting to kill the all the demons? #would meeting Yuugo/Lucas/everyone at Goldy Pond. would meeting Mujika/Sonju make Norman want peace? #i feel like it wouldn't. i think it would change things a lot but i feel like their initial goals could remain the same #i mean ultimately they fit perfectly in the spot of the story that they are in #but its fun to think abt #i just need to figure out how Ray would be changed. i thought abt it too much in the context of Norman and Emma (via @polychromatiica)

#possibly the most interesting direction I’ve seen for this concept #like— Lambda!Emma will have to face moral crises and quandaries that canon!Emma never did #but I don’t think that would be enough to break her idealism (it didn’t really break Norman’s either) #an Emma whose ‘nobody can die’ philosophy and leadership is genuinely challenged?? that’s terrifying to me #an Emma who has to decide whether or not to ‘mercy-kill’ the mass production children— but she’d definitely make that a group decision #in that way she’s healthier than Norman but also crueler and this idea is INSANE #and Goldy Pond!Norman will confront a wider range of demons—Sonju and Mujika but also the corrupt GP aristocrats #he wouldn’t hesitate to go for the kill with Leuvis #and he’d still be surrounded by kids who hate demons and have suffered because of them #BUT he’d have a far healthier adult figure in Lucas (if not Yugo) then he ever had in canon #and he wouldn’t be nearly as much of a ‘savior’ figure this time around #so there’s all sorts of ambiguity with that #and RAYYYYY #a Ray who escapes with Norman not Emma? #he definitely still gets better mentally but it would look so different!! #because I don’t think a Ray who escapes with Norman has been ‘shocked’ in the same way that canon!Ray has #because Ray already respected Norman as the ‘best’ of them #and without Emma’s victory allowing him to fall for the ferocious joy and surprise of her perspective he wouldn’t change as much or as fast #because ‘you don’t have to give up’ comes from Norman but Ray needed Emma to pull him out of his mindset #Emma expands Ray’s world and Norman transforms it (via @esthelle-wanders)

#LOVE THE IDEA OF THIS AU SO MUCH!!!! #it would be such poetic/narrative justice if they went through each others experiences with their respective worldviews still in tact #i can imagine Emma seeing her worldview justified because both human researchers AND demons are at Lambda #so both are equally capable of being human/horrible #while Norman has a much more hostile view of Yuugo like he originally had with wanting to leave Ray behind #it would be so interesting if Emma's mentality while seeing Yuugo suffer was “we have to save him with the kindness he never got but we did” #while Norman and Ray's would be “being kind didn't save the one person who wanted to save everyone so why should we save him?” #it would be SO interesting for Ray and Norman to have a more selfish/grounded perspective in Goldy Pond #prioritizing the info on Minerva and getting out to save their own family and not risking their survival for someone else's (via @graphx)

I'd probably opt for a nature-based perspective, even though with Emma and Norman switching stances along with their roles there'd still be a difference in how they interact with the people around them. This is something that would crop up in a Lambda Ray AU too, but neither he nor Emma would let the Lambda kids elevate them to the level of a god. There's less distance and more communication, even if they opt to keep the secret of suffering from Lambda illness.

What kind of seals it for me is Norman being the most ruthless out of the trio (he gets it from his mother) in addition to him having the most rigid, black-and-white morality. I talk about this a bit here too, but he's prone to placing those he loves on pedestals. It's why he's so devastated and angry when he discovers the truth about Isabella and Grace Field and when he discerns Ray is the traitor. He would have been content to sacrifice Ray if Emma hadn't interfered, even if he would have regretted it later, because Ray had firmly slotted himself as an enemy in his mind.

(Chapter 4 | Chapter 14)

Emma's perceived death further fuels his loathing for demons and enshrines her atop the pedestal he's placed her on, but now in even more of an ethereal way. Her ideals were just, befitting of one filled with a wellspring of benevolence, and in a kinder world they would have been the moral underpinning of the universe.

But the world they find themselves in is far from that, and surely her ideals wouldn't extend to demons, not even ones that seem as human as Sonju and Mujika. While it would be foolish to not take advantage of the help they offer, in the end, it isn't worth the risk, and Sonju says as much.

(Chapter 46)

It's more pragmatic to extend Emma's kindness and understanding toward fellow humans like Yuugo. Even if Norman and Ray would be much more quick to cut their losses on this or with anyone who established themselves as a threat to their family if push came to shove (and they would have a back-up plan before approaching him), there's still the possibility of appealing to their shared hatred of the demons and uniting over that.

Also unlike in a Lambda Ray AU, I think Ayshe's father would be alive, and he and Ayshe would be aiding Emma in her cause, if not the whole group of scrapped demon followers of Minerva that Shirai originally wanted to include.

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 4)

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#OOH #don't get me wrong i adore canon Mujika we love a pacifist girlie #but damn her pulling out a sword and baring her fangs is doing things to me #i love fanart that shows off her demon features fr #its probably because of the evil blood thing but i always thought she was a bit too human-looking yk #she is a creature let her show her fangs and claws 🥰 #also prev what doodles i need to see them (via @darklight-owl on this comic by @frozentothetouch)

My bad with the wording; the doodles I was referring to are the chapter 46 and 48 bonus sketches and the concept art from the art book and mystic code book that have been out for a while.

The chapter 48 one shows her eating a whole chicken in one bite. The chapter 46 one isn't quite as noticeable, but it's a convenient visual divide between what could easily pass as human on quick glance—the angle purposely obscuring the sixth finger on her hands with how they're posed—and her feet, which is what tips Ray off in chapter 45/46 that Mujika is a demon in the dark cave Sonju constructed since she was taking great care to hide her hands from him and Emma. The angle we see them at in the water further distorts their appearance, making them look even more alien, and I think it's an interesting way for Demizu to illustrate that mental divide the Grace Field children have of her at this point to an audience experiencing the series through the volume releases. She's a demon, yes, but she's not in the same category as the one they were chased by earlier or the ones they envisioned prior to escaping in their minds, and the easiest physical reminder of that is separated from her in their minds.

This is something I've mentioned before on this post about some of my gripes with the series and how there's something to be said about the anthropocentric idea of humans being the pinnacle of intelligence demons strive to maintain and the organisms they desire to physically mimic (albeit at a larger scale and not exactly one-to-one), but it's something that I can accept given the target demographic of the series, this not being a series-original sin, and most importantly, the parasitic symbolism of those in the upper echelons of a hierarchical society needing someone beneath them in order to maintain their material comforts and define their sense of self and worth in relation to the world around them to avoid cognitive dissonance and doxastic anxiety.

The mystic code book shows her and Sonju looking even more human like a lot of other early demon designs, though there's one sketch of her barring her fangs.

And art book shows some designs further along in the process.

Some other demon designs under the cut for people who haven't seen them already:

[fullscoreshenanigans]

We lose a number of things in the transition between the manga and the anime such as all the minute details Demizu puts into the architecture, but for me it's worth it in season 1 for little animated nuances like this. Both Emma and Norman are completely caught off guard by Isabella being there, but it only takes Norman a second to shift between that initial shock to sorrow over realizing what it means that the woman who he’s viewed as his mother his entire life is here casually talking with demons and not recoiling in horror at what’s taken place. The way it creeps into his features is heartbreaking.

Another thing we unfortunately lose in the anime is confirmation Norman is the one who designates the demons as demons as opposed to settling on it as a term of convenience in episode 2 after having some time to muse on it (though Emma does tearfully ask Norman how are they supposed to escape from those monsters in her shared bedroom later).

There's a chilling, sinking horror upon reaching that conclusion with the moral connotation he associates with the term after witnessing the casual, gleeful indifference at his sister's life being snuffed out by these unknown creatures. Demizu's use of dark negative space as opposed to the backdrop of the inner gate's floor and the bottom of the truck further enhance the haunted, hollow feeling that's settled in his gut and etched into his expression as he whispers it into existence.

It's probably why Sonju reacts like this to Ray using the term in chapter 46, back before the promise when humans would openly regarded them as such despite their mutual participation in slaughter. "Monsters" can potentially overlap with this, but it seems to be more associated with mindless chaos unattached to any moral code, less severe in degree and scorn. Demons consciously choose to inflict cruelty and suffering, and it's a visceral, near-immediate designation from Norman founded on all the information and media he's been exposed to over the course of his short life.

(Director Mamoru Kanabe in the Minerva Confidential Report from the S1 Blu-ray)

I do understand why it was cut since the scene was reduced to less than a fourth of the episode's run time, and being in an audio-visual medium the grunt demons not picking up on their whispering on top of missing their scents becomes a bit harder for the viewer to ignore, but I still find it lamentable, especially with the differences that crop up in a later scene in the middle of episode 2 and the ending of chapter 2/start of chapter 3.

In the anime, Norman and Emma are presented as being on the same wavelength regarding Isabella as an enemy, and while weary of what now stands before them, their anger is more muted.

In the manga, Emma is having more difficulty reconciling the woman who raised her for over a decade with the one she saw at the gate the previous night.

Norman, though, emphatically renounces her. "Demon" is an extremely loaded designation for him, and it's spat out with such complete bile in his voice and reflected in his body language. He's physically revolted by her. I've talked about how rigid his morality is before and how badly his pride takes a hit at being deceived and left in such a vulnerable state (coupled with the horror of losing children he considers family), so it's regrettable to lose those insights into his character for the sake of episode runtime.