uniiversaalrerum replied to your post “who wants to hear my essay on how spirit albarn was emotionally (and...”
do tell
alright so sorry if this is disorganized i swear ive thought this out, and also this involves a lot of speculation considering we never see kami (i know that’s not actually her name and it’s a translation error but im just gonnna use it) but i think that itself is a clue, anyway--
let’s start with the fact that spirit has a need to please. we mostly see this with maka, considering she is his daughter and she kinda despises him. but i think we can also see this after the eve party nightmare arc, when he’s cleaning the hell out of everything to please shinigami. sure, it’s again driven by maka, but he still wants desperately to please.
and actually, let’s talk about that, too. why was he so sure that he would be sent away? consider that we know he’s death’s most powerful scythe. it’s said several times in canon. so why would he be sent away over making a mistake about where to go? if you think about what he knew when the lock was coming down, he made the right choice. he had no idea when death would be able to leave, he just knew medusa was a witch and she was escaping and stein and the kids were being jettisoned out of there to probably fight her
he made the only choice that made sense. chasing the witch.
and death would know this. so why was spirit so sure that he was going to be sent away from the city and his daughter? because of insecurity, and he had been shown that mistakes bring the ultimate punishment: loss of contact with maka
the only reason spirit sees maka as often as he does is because she goes to the school he works at. but we know how loving and devoted a father he is (if a little silly and overprotective). so why did kami get full custody? because the justice system always sides with women, no matter if they are the better parent or not. and what did kami do with that full custody?
she left
immediately
in fact, she might have already been gone while judges were deciding that somehow she was the more responsible parent. because the series starts just after the divorce was finalized, but from how maka acts when she gets a postcard, her mother has already been gone for months. what kind of parent leaves their child alone when theyre in the middle of a divorce?
and yes, kami is a meister, so maybe she was away on important meister business. but still, wouldnt the very recent divorce at least earn a visit home? or a phone call? in fact, what parent stays away for months at a time, doing a dangerous job, and knowing that their child is doing the same dangerous job, would not constantly call for check ups? what parent just sends a postcard every few months, with no other word of “hey maka, how have you been?”
you cant deny that, objectively, spirit would have been more responsible. yes, he’s an alcoholic--but he’s an alcoholic because of the divorce, because he has no custody of maka. he’s right there in the city, to support her. but because he has no custody, he barely has the chance to rebuild a relationship with the most important thing in his life. even if kami hated him for cheating, she would know how good of a father he is. so why did she take custody?
spite and punishment
she hates him for cheating. which, is warranted. but she also hates him for getting out of his control. here’s where it gets pretty speculative, but stick with me. we know they had maka when spirit was ~18. they probably found out about the pregnancy when he was 17. which is fucking terrifying in the first place, adding onto the fact theyre in the middle of a dangerous war, and we dont know if spirit was a deathscythe by this time. either way, terrifying. they dont know what to do. so they get married. and we can all agree 18 is too young to get married, right? so already at a young age, spirit was tied down to kami through pregnancy and marriage (and her to him)
consider again spirit’s irrational urge to please, and his belief that mistakes will cause him to lose maka. i think that kami would use maka against him. if he did something she didnt like, she’d remind him that they were married, he had a responsibility to them, if he didnt do what she said he wouldn't be seeing maka again. (she’d also kami chop him, which i think arguably could be said is physical abuse, but idk since it’s played as comedy within the series. interpret as u will). she wanted him under her thumb, because she was his meister and he was her weapon, and meisters control their weapons
i also think she was turning maka against him. we know from pictures and flashbacks that spirit was a doting father. he loved her more than anything. but ask maka, and all she can remember is the cheating. which is valid, but it seems like she completely ignores the good memories. i think all this was reinforced by her mother, that her father is awful and doesnt love them
now i know this is all conjecture, but consider maka. we know her personality is a lot like kami’s. spirit says so. so,we can kind of infer kami’s personality through hers. let’s go down the list. stubborn, confident, strong, temperamental. consider how her and soul get along at the start of the series. they fight constantly. soul gets maka chopped pretty frequently. consider the fact that soul and spirit are actually a lot alike. laid back, kinda emotional, obsessed with a certain image (cool, flirty). i think we can infer spirit and kami’s relationship from maka and soul’s. and i think that shows a lot
consider if soul and maka hadnt improved their relationship. consider if suddenly they had a kid and had to get married. consider if soul was just a little less stubborn and a little more submissive (and a little more like spirit)
what you’ve got there is an undeniably toxic relationship
now, to address the cheating. it wasnt right, no matter what, it was especially awful that maka saw. but i dont think that changes the fact that spirit was cheating to feel loved. if kami was like i say she is--if she was controlling, and belittling, and using maka against him. do you think he’d feel loved? not at all. so what does he turn to? the only thing that he can think of, that will make him feel loved: sex and women. kami didnt provide him the support he needed. he was already emotionally unstable bc of stein and his whole deal. kami should have been understanding, patient, loving. instead she kami chopped him into a shape she liked
spirit turned to cheating bc sex was the only thing that made him feel like he was wanted. and kami--kami didnt like losing control. so she punished him the best way she could: taking maka
in conclusion, spirit is insecure and afraid of rejection and losing his daughter because his exwife took custody just to make him feel like shit bc he left her control, thanks for coming to my tedtalk and im sorry this is so long
