#witch waka

[muiiobliged]

the importance of waka's eyes

(spoilers for afg up to chapter 96)

at the beginning of chapter 75, "witch", we're shown this image.

we know now that '???' is witch waka but i think that these three images can help to further differentiate some things.

one thing that confused me after seeing this was that if white eyes with a triangle is only ever alula,

then how come waka (when we're sure its her) also has alula eyes?

we know its our waka cus she speaks with saga dialect, which only our waka (and every waka in cycle's>1) does, but her eyes are also alula-fied? is it just to show that alula is inhabiting her soul? because in these panels,

her pupils are regular. and both of these panels are when she's in a sort of mindscape: the left hand one is when she's speaking to alula in vollof's house and the right hand one is when she's speaking to shion in vollof's house. the "mindscape" means that it's purely waka present, her soul if u will. so if the pupils are all that denotes alula's presence, why do waka's eyes not return to her original black ones?

because alula is still there. our waka and alula are inseparable. her eyes don't return because no matter what, she's stuck with alula. so it's not just the pupils that are alula, but the colour too. a waka on their own is always pure black. this makes everything that happened with shion extra tragic, imo, because there was no way to separate them. her eyes would always be there, tempting shion, because of witch waka's wish and nisroca's meddling.

we can see witch waka has no alula eyes, but we know by nisroca's own words that witch waka is alula. or at least just her mind. logically, alula being her mind means she should be present at all times before the cycle 1 waka is given to the ipo's to consume. so surely, she should have some hint of alula. but she doesn't. or, if she does, the triangle and colour don't matter? so, what is the triange then?

it appears first like this when waka regains her memories of being a witch and kills yakou. so is it witch waka's presence? that contradicts witch waka in cycle 1 having pure black eyes. this is the white triangle's first appearance manga-wise but timeline-wise,

it appears first during a witch's second droplet, when she uses her magic to make tokinaga see her as something otherworldly.

so then, her eyes have the triangle only when she uses magic. because in this panel in a witch's sea amber,

they're back to normal. right after her spell fades, her eyes aren't triangled. so triangle=magic and alula's version of the triangle is less mysterious looking because her powers are also less awesome (sorry alula). the triangle is simplified based on the level of magic? because the if u compare the abilities of the ipo's (which are incredible dont get me wrong) witch waka whose basically their creator (in a way), the difference is pretty striking.

but that would explain the prolification of the triangle. it was passed down to them from her. this is especially clear in these panels. here, witch waka is remembering everything and regaining her past and her powers (including alula's ipo stuff) and her eyes and the triangle go absolutely wild because she's likely both using magic (ww's white triangle, black eye) in remembering all this stuff in the first place but also has alula's abilities (alula's black triangle, white eye). then in the final panel below, she stops using magic and she stops having any eye triangles. the triangles r on her face now because uhhhhh idk. someone else figure that out.

that's all i gotta say really. ty for reading my yap if you have.

but also—

what about a character with no eyes?

[muiiobliged]

Rant on autonomy & after god

this is going be, as stated, a Rant. okay so—

bodies are, for some, what they must control (what they can control)—clothing is such a common theme in literature for that reason; control your appearance, control how ur perceived, control something. after god is full of a lack of control.

waka kamikura begins the story attempting to control something—the narrative of shion’s death. she chooses her culprit and moves to destroy them. it is fitting, then, that she has some of the least bodily autonomy in the story. she has control of her own body wrested from her by alula and doesn’t remember the interactions from that time, she has to wear those sunglasses all the time and her appearance is therefore obscured, she had no control over her eyes changing as a child. even before the story began, her body was fed to the IPOs. she was split by nisroca and her initial, childish wish for a true love was bastardised into whatever nisroca believes it to be. i feel like i should re-emphasise, her body was fed to the IPOs. her corpse. she had no respectability even in death.

witch waka faces a stranger version of this dilemma. she doesn’t have the alula switchy weird shit and she instead becomes a perpetrator. she forces tokinaga to see her as something so divine, so striking, that it literally leaches the colour from the rest of the world. he cannot find beauty, meaning, anything in the rest of the world. nothing satisfies him. nothing can. she superimposes all goodness in the world with herself and it was genuinely horrifying to read. obviously, in a way she loses some agency here as she gains cuts when she uses her power but it’s not as imposing as what happens to tokinaga. however, even after this she can’t overwrite his nature, can’t make him love her in the way she wants to be loved (the way shion loved her). so, she must force him into loop after loop after loop until she finds the love she wants. witch waka mentions that she chose to become a beautiful girl, explicitly demonstrating that she has more power over her body and autonomy than many other characters. maybe because she’s a witch, a woman outcasted and villainised by society.

that’s all for now

[muiiobliged]

Something something parallels to Waka and Shion’s relationship to Orokapi and Takanagi’s relationship on how one essentially use the other’s abilities to fed into their addictions (Shion using Waka’s eyes to disassociate and Takanagi’s reliant on Orokapi’s drug to sleep)

It honestly makes me wonder what was the nature of Waka and Shion’s relationship in Cycle one. We only get a glimpse of them via Takanagi’s perspective, and it’s clear how much Cycle One Waka loved Shion immensely.

But it does make me think of Cycle One Shion’s was perhaps knows about Waka being a witch, and thus use Waka for her magic. Perhaps using said magic to escape her home life?

It’s possible since Cycle One Waka still have a brother just like Cycle 8 Waka does too. So it is possible that Shion’s home life was a mess in the OG timeline just like it is in Cycle 8.

If so, then the parallels between Orokapi and Waka being intentionally is highly plausible. Especially if you consider the theory that all the IPOs are an extension of Waka.

God. This Manga be just a bunch of reflections of PAINNNN

ooooooo what was the nature of cycle1 wakashions relationship?

from what we've seen of waka1, she's much more mature than ours—almost colder. she's more introspective but she shares our waka's drive when she has a goal (attempting to supercede tokinaga's asexuality vs desire to kill the gods) which says, to me at least, that she is probably just as in love with shion as our waka. would she be as indulgent with her? i wanna say yes because i agree with your parallels and i think that it would be so sick if we have the same sort of dynamic four times between the characters (wakashion1, our wakashion, vollof&orokapi, tokinaga&orokapi.)

i think it would make their relationship all the more tragic as despite all cycle1 waka does to put off shion's suicide, it still happens. AND that waka's a witch. she has infinitely more power than our waka does and she still can't save shion. that'd be cool.

super interesting parallels imo

[muiiobliged]

thinking about witch waka….. comphet……… she was so destroyed After Shion that care from the only other person who seemed to know Shion like she did made her… love him..? i don’t think it was actual love, personally, i think she grew obsessed with him as a way to force herself to believe that she COULD love After Shion… she makes him see her as she saw Shion, “something sparkling”.. she wants him to be a beautiful girl and imagines him as Shion……. she was looking and “became a girl in this life” for the PersonSheLiked before, but found Shion and loved her more completely… so is her wanting for tokinaga comphet? probably not idk u tell me

[muiiobliged]

rant-y thoughts on chapter 107 & the faustian deal

spoilers for afgo 107

again, this is a RANT these ideas MAY be supreme ass i am spitballing okay cool—

this moment here, what waka says, is a reference to line 1700 of Goethe's Faust. It's the moment where Faust seals his the deal, stating that, 'if ever I shall tell the moment "Linger awhile! so fair thou art!" Then mayst thou fetter me straightway, then to the abyss will I depart!' or, in english, 'if i ever say to time 'stay still, you are so fair!', claim my soul and send me to hell!'

this is like an obvious alignment of witch waka with faust. then, nisroca, the wishgranter, is mephistopheles. unlike faust, waka does end up wishing to stay in the moment forever. nobody comes to save her as a result of her 'striving' for goodness. god doesn't intervene. how could he?

me and a mutual were making a joke about how the series could be called after waka and nothing would change but its true. waka is god, in this series. waka is the series.

(ignore my misspelling of essence there ouch im taking psychic damage)

the amount of connections she has to everyone and everything that makes after god after god is insane. like pick anyone. it'll all come back to waka. random side character who's in one panel? they probably know someone that knowingly or unknowingly has been affected by waka. or they are someone that has been.

in this godless world, then, her soul cannot be not saved. she is condemned to the loop. nisroca has sort of abandoned her in a way mephistopheles never did for faust. he's chosen tokinaga as his designated torture subject for the moment.

to me, this strangely victimises?? witch waka? like, till this point she has had exorbitant amounts of agency in comparison to characters such as our waka, tokinaga, yoriko etc. but in this moment, this strikes me as weirdly deterministic.

she is reciting faust to someone who has (presumably) no knowledge of faust. then, she's reciting for her own sake. she knows that the bargain is weighted unfairly (that it's faustian), she knows its a pyrrhic victory in a way to even have the wish granted. the tokinaga of today is not her tokinaga. her reaction here to what orokapi says is so poignant to me.

what does this face mean? is it resignation, a tired 'i know', or is it cold anger at being seen? unlike faust, she doesn't continue striving. she falls into the devil's trap, 'to the abyss'. and just like the line, she literally falls in the next panel to all fours and to the floor, which is dark and distorted. it's like she's following a script. it's like she knows there's no way out. all she finds solace in is the loop. the promise that each tokinaga will be as kind as the last, that, regardless, she won't lose him.

it's all shion. guys, it's all wakashion. again with the childishness, she can't move past her death. she overcompensates. rather than learn to grow up and move through guilt, she lashes out and decides that nobody leaving is the answer. or, at least, the only other person who knew shion as she knew her.

in a way, she's the antithesis to this panel.

she has only one dream.

one believes that trying, striving, and having dreams to achieve is what makes living fun while the other believes that there's no reason to try hard to live. but at the same time, that's what she's doing, isn't it? the loops take effort, dont they?

idk i guess she just doesnt care

[muiiobliged]

was thinking about after god (as usual) and like has anyone talked about the reference waka made to her godhood? ‘when i believed i was a god, i didn’t have any kind of mental illness’ and isnt that a weird ass thing to say majorly unprompted?? like??? what ones does she have now that she doesn’t believe herself divine?

what gave her the illness? was it the psychosis of being so otherworldly, being a god? the fact that even though she was a god, shion dying was irreversible? the fact that even though she was a god, tokinaga would never love her as she “loved” him? the fact that she had lived so mindbendingly long? the fact that nisrocas disgusting annoying horrific self was still alive? waka tellll meeeeeeeeee

[muiiobliged]

I’m curious on why you think Witch-Waka and Tokinaga are best friends.

From my reading, they seem to be more like acquaintances. They only known each other for like a week. I view Tokinaga’s urgency in helping Waka being a mostly due to his morals.

I don’t really gauge a more deeper bond between them. However, I am open to see a different perspective, so I’m genuinely interested to see your perspective.

i dont necessarily think that they're best friends cs, as you said, they didn't know each other for that long but in my opinion, tokinaga's urgency in helping waka led to a decently long time in which they were just stuck together in the house. and i think its important to remember that when ww goes back in time she doesn't lose her memories. though this'll make their relationship skewed into her feeling closer to him over the other way, it does still make it deeper. tokinaga, throughout his influence under her magic, will inevitably feel closer to her to since she is the only thing not in 'monochrome'. obvi ww feels an innate connection with him, i assume, cus they are the only two left that knew shion and because she wants to forcefem him into shion—the girl with a laugh 'ringing like a bell'—which only deepens the relationship on her side again. I think, in the end, what im tryna say is i do a see deep bond despite the time stated he was in her place for because 1. her magic makes her relive so much time 2. tokinaga getting magic'd 3. theyre both members of the weknowshion club

[muiiobliged]

spoilers for the most recent chapter (99)

not witch waka having the entire conversation basically with herself #okayifthatswhatyouwantgirl