Soul Eater/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• The (anime-only, so far) ending to Soul Eater. At first appearance, it's a bog-standard, frustrating, meaningless Ass Pull, especially irritating since handfuls of at-first-glance far more reasonable solutions (Death the Kid's Sanzu Lines, Black☆Star's upgraded powers, Maka's Black Blood and Weapon form capabilities, the Power of Friendship, BREW, any or even all of the Weapons becoming Death Scythes). But either of the alternative interpretations make it an amazingly meaningful bit of Fridge Logic. In the pessimistic outlook, it's Downer Ending. It seems insane, and when the villain's power is to cause insanity, that does not suggest that the heroes really won. In the more optimistic, Asura's greatest attribute was as a personification of fear, and what individuals are willing to do to try and escape fear. Pulling random superpowers out of thin air, falling into the superpowered evil side, calling on supermagitech, training done to overcome the fear of not matching up to potential, that stuff can't beat Asura; it's what he's made from, and what made him what he is. It's not about some mystical power popping from nowhere at the last episode, it's about the same courage from episode one that lead her to strike down an opponent that easily outclassed her. Not trying to overpower it, not doing whatever was necessary to become stronger than the feared thing. Being afraid, powerless, and fighting anyway. -- User:Gattsuru
  • "No writer would be that stupid to ever change the story, so this must be why they did it! Of course!" I don't mean to be rude, but this sounds way more like Wild Mass Guessing than Fridge Brilliance. I know some fridge brilliance is grasping at straws, but I don't think they touched on any of those themes at all, even barely. Maybe I'm mistaken on that though.
  • The pessimistic interpretation seem less likely, as part of the final episode (after Maka beats the kishin) takes place from the perspectives of other people when she is nowhere near them at all.
• In the manga after a bout of gender bendng all the characters are as I expected, Liz looks tough and cool, Patty looks like a deranged junkie, Maka a straightlaced male student, Tsubaki a tall Bishonen, Black☆Star a busty cheerleader(cause what else would someone who loves attention that much be) bar one. Soul as a very stylish very feminine young woman seemed odd considering what he normally looks like. Then it hit me how Soul actually admitted a few times to putting a lot of effort in creating his sloppy slacker look so as to look cool. Said look wouldn't really work for a girl, so someone as look-conscientious as he would be a total fashion lover like that as a girl.
• I was quite impressed with how the author of Soul Eater handled the Kishin revival sequence. All throughout, I kept thinking that sequences like this ALWAYS wind up with the heroes losing, and wasn't getting too involved with the plot, aside from the character development shown. Then, when Black☆Star sliced the syringe in half and it looked like they had actually won, I was very surprised, and almost disappointed, because even though it would have been predictable, I was looking forward to seeing the battle with the Kishin. Then, when said victory turned out to be a hallucination and Asura was revived anyway, it hit me: the author came up with the perfect way to get around that "predictable villain victory" by making it seem like something completely different at first! I never would have thought of that! -- User:Hakurei Ryuu
• Most people were annoyed at Black Star's dub voice at first and likely still are; but then you realize that like the Japanese version, he sounds very similar to Naruto! -- User:Pika Hikari KT
• A very recent Soul Eater one... In the recent chapters, Soul and Maka went through the Envy chapter, where it was revealed that Maka envies girls who might 'fit better' with Soul, girls who can appreciate music like he does, and music in general, while Soul envies his older brother Wes' superior musical talent. Then, when they're fighting Giriko, Soul plays the Adagio of the Soul to calm him down enough for them to take him out, because he was frankly too tough for them to beat. The brilliance? the song was the one his brother Wes was always playing. Soul showed huge personal growth right there by using that song.
  • So that was the point? A sequence which served little purpose for Maka other than to re-inforce (with little details) what we already knew and she'd already demonstrated repeatedly, was there to show how far Soul had progressed. Okay, now the Envy/Sloth chapters are seemingly slightly less irritating.
• Just realized one about character naming. In Sanjuro, the nameless samurai claims his family name is Tsubaki (a change from Yojimbo in which he claimed it was Kuwabatake). Watching Sanjuro, I was thinking "the first time I heard that name was in Soul Eater- then it hit me, Tsubaki is a Japanese sword, making the name quite appropriate, and likely deliberate since the series has a character named Mifune.
• In the very first scene of the anime, we see a soul collected through a brutal murder, thus establishing how evil creatures acquire human souls. Therefore, it is logical to assume that all of the innocent souls we see throughout the show were collected in a similar manner. This means that every time we see an evil creature in possession of a large number of human souls, we're seeing indirect evidence of mass murder. When that one thief Lupin is seen jumping out of a window carrying a gigantic sack of souls, one can only imagine the scene of carnage and horror he's leaving in his wake. He must have killed hundreds to get a haul that big. Same thing for Al Capone's gang's feast. The Soul Eater universe must be a horrifying place to live for regular, everyday people.
• During the fight between Medusa and Stein, there was what appeared to be some amazing use of symbolism that went along with their dialogue. While they were fighting, Medusa was trying to talk Stein into joining her, calling the ethics by which he ran "a world of stasis," and telling him that with her, he could "move forward." (Terrible paraphrasing, I know). If you look carefully at their methods of attack, Stein used Soul Thread Sutures to hold Medusa in place, while Medusa used her Vector Plates to send either Stein or herself in the direction the plate pointed. Coincidence?
  • To further elaborate, Stein's use of the Soul Threads allowed Medusa to keep from moving, and kept him from being sent flying in her direction when he was on top of one of her Vector Plates. In other words, it kept him 'grounded' and prevented her from advancing in the fight. On the other hand, Medusa's use of Vector Plates enabled her to move in any direction the arrow pointed, and had the same effect on Stein. When she spoke of the "stasis" that came with being ruled by a God, and the "advancement" of being 'free,' Stein might have noticed the irony of how their powers worked; Stein's powers were keeping the enemy from advancing and him from being thrown in her path, while Medusa's powers sent whoever fell under the vector flying in the direction she pleased. Might I ask...What Do You Mean It's Not Symbolic?
  • So what Medusa thinks is 'freedom' actually isn't, because she's (somehow) gearing anarchy towards her own goals? If so, she is almost bound to get curbstomped by Asura or his ilk at some point. It might not stick, but it could come about somehow.
  • Somewhat related; Spirit's participation, as effectively he's keeping both in line. His soul wavelength control means he and Stein can keep Medusa in place, while he also makes clear (and it's shown throughout in their interactions) that it's his job to keep an eye on and "control [the] crazy kid" Stein. The fight shows something of how plenty of the meisters and weapons now operate, on a line between reason and caution, mindless recklessness and violence (now all of the main pairs are doing it one way or another). And Spirit acts as though this is par the course for him and Stein, which is rather disturbing.
  • Or brilliant? Soul Eater's central theme seems to be that of Madness and dealing with it(Which is part of the reason that Chrona is so messed up, as he/she "doesn't know how to deal with it"), either resisting like Stein or accepting it like Soul and Maka do after Soul's "infection" by Chrona. After all, Maka seems to get stronger with the madness of the black blood, and Death and Excalibur are personifications of Madness (of Order and War, I believe) and are extremely strong. So maybe this is standard? The meister goes somewhat insane, with the weapon being either a restraint or a guiding force for the meister. This could also explain what happened to Justin, as he has no partner.
• Okay, I'm surprised no one's asked this one yet: Chrona has been seen blushing several times in the anime. His (or her) blood is black. It could be justified by way of the Rule of Cute (a face flushing black would just look weird and not nearly as adorable), but it's kind of been a bit of a Mind Screw for me, almost as much as determining Chrona's gender or how the hell you spell his/her name anyway. Or, maybe not all of his blood is black, and there's still just enough red blood for him to actually blush...or...wait, NOOOO!!!!!!!!
  • Ignoring the proper consequences of black blood for Rule of Cute? Ragnarok's appearance and the number of times we've seen Crona bleed when in a less-unstable frame of mind would indicate that whatever Medusa did it made her child's blood black permanently (and yet, on a semi-related note, Crona still attempts - and briefly succeeds - to function in a world which is not trying to kill hir (?)).
  • Well, it might just be that the black blood is not really black, but really just an extremely dark shade of red. That might explain it.
  • If Crona's blood is truly black his complexion should be some shade of grey rather than pink... Maybe the blood turns black upon contact with air?
    • Well, when Maka coughed up some black blood and later asked Medusa about it (not knowing the truth about her at the time), she just Hand Waved it as being normal, saying that blood changes color and darkens over time (which is true, medically speaking, but not in this case). If she could pull off a lie like that, then it's possible that the black blood really is a very dark shade of red/brown, which might explain it.
    • (Same troper) Also, while it's true that Chrona would have a grayer complexion, s/he's still pretty pale, and I think I remember Chrona looking somewhat ashy at one point (but then again, that scene was from the church, and the lighting was fairly dim too; s/he's also looked a little more colored under the right lighting). Then again, in the scenes that do show Chrona blushing, it's usually light pink, and I don't know if Chrona's ever been shown with a Luminescent Blush.
• Don't know if there's any spoilers here, but this is either both Fridge Brilliance and Fridge Horror: Remember when Medusa wanted Crona to "defeat" the little black dragon rather than "kill" it? What if she wasn't saying it euphemistically; she could have intended that Crona simply debilitate it to the point where it couldn't fight back. There's still the question of whether or not Crona did kill the dragon, but...what if s/he didn't actually kill it?
  • Definitely just a euphemism because of how much they changed it from the manga. It was originally Crona's pet rabbit which completely changes the implications of the scene (as opposed to merely being afraid of the dragon, Crona had to kill something s/he loved) and they explicitly ate rabbit stew after it was finally killed.
• Noah has a worm motif and draws his power from a magic tome... because he's a bookworm!
• The idea of Medusa alone with a maddened, pliable Stein -- in the stolen body of a little girl, no less -- raises some truly frightening possibilties for Fridge Horror. It's all a question of what is or isn't beyond her.
  • Well, she could've been counting on moving to Arachne's body, but...maybe she was thinking about having another child on whom she could experiment. Considering how she had no qualms about this with her current child, it wouldn't surprise me. That being said, this might have been how she had Chrona.
    • Actually, in the manga, she does take over Arachne's body, after Maka and Soul kill her.
• So, when you become a death scythe, you can learn to fly, right? How can Kilik do this with a pair if gloves?!
  • It wasn't Soul being a Death Scythe that allowed Maka and him to fly. It was the combination of that and Maka's special skills/traits - soul wavelength control and grigori-type - i.e angel wings - soul. It may be that any individual soul-related ability of a meister or Weapon would also be enhanced by the latter becoming a Death Scythe. This is kind-of suggested when Stein can only 'stitch' Medusa to the spot with Spirit's help, and we're later told Spirit has a talent for soul-wavelength control.
• If Free is the series' only example of 'real' immortality (Giriko now being out of the picture, and Shinigami-Sama and co. still in question), how then did he manage to become one of/the last of his kind? Unless the immortality refers to their physical bodies and not their souls, and they had a similar weakness to Kishin-Arachne; attack the werewolf's soul directly if the body would only regenerate.
  • He was immortal because he had the Grand Witch's Eye.
• In episode 31, Crona's shirt is one that buttons up in both the front and the back. Why? So Ragnarok can get out!
• When the Kishin is released and later when Shibusen needs all the combat power it can muster to fight on several fronts against Arachnaphobia, we never see Shinigami mobilize any meisters except for those who are current staff and students of Shibusen. Instead Shibusen relies on Mooks armed with what appears to be sticks. Why? Its not like they cannot contribute to the war effort. Stein, Black Star and Sid all show that a meister can have significant combat ability all by himself even without a Weapon and can perform feats like Soul Sutures and Soul Shockwaves to a greater extent when partnered with one. Maka's anti-demon wavelength and soul perception are both crucial assets but her mother has the former at the very least. And yet they seem to talk about Maka's ability as their only ace in the hole despite the fact that her explicitly alive mother probably has better control over the anti-demon wavelength and is likely a more experienced combatant. Throughout the manga and anime, no effort seems to be placed on recruiting meister alumni to bolster Shibusen ranks even though they assemble the Death Scythes (most of whom have no current partner). Even if Shinigami considers that they earned their retirement after graduation, surely some would volunteer when the very sky itself turns red and madness runs rampant throughout the world? This can enter into Unfortunate Implication territory with many Meisters suffering from PTSD, dead or unwilling to literally help save the world. Another sinister turn is that the Weapons we see on panel are a large proportion of the Weapons still alive. We don't see very many Meister-Weapon pairs even in the background during the battle for the BREW which was a make or break battle for Shibusen. Conservation of Detail aside, what logic dictates that children should be sent onto a battlefield rather than trained adults who have longstanding relationships as Meister-Weapon pairs? Aside from the Spartoi, Stein and Sid, we hardly see any other such pairs even in crucial battles.
• Maka is both a meister and a weapon, with scythes coming out of her body as revealed during the fight with the Kishin. How is this possible? Well, she the daughter of both a scythe-meister and a deathscythe, therefore inheriting both sets of genes and abilities.
• I watched the anime first, and kinda noticed in the back of my mind that Jacqueline looks a lot like a broom when she and Kim are flying at the battle for BREW. When I went to read the manga, I realized that it was a hint/foreshadowing: Kim is a witch.
• Excalibur is the strongest Demon Weapon in the world, and is also implied to be a Great Old One. His legend began in the twelfth century, roughly eight hundred years ago, which was also around the time that Arachne created the first Demon Weapons. Essentially, Arachne may have experimented on an Eldritch Abomination / the god of rage. Perhaps this is why Shinigami sounded so royally pissed off when he was chasing after her in her flashback?

Fridge Horror

• The Soul Eater anime ending. "I see, so courage is just like madness."
• Death The Kid going insane in the Manga. Sure he returns to normal thanks to Black Star. But, think about it for a minute. He wanted to destroy all of existence just to create perfect symmetry in the form of nothingness. In other words, he's worse than the Kishin himself when he goes insane.
  • By extension, the fact this is what a young god/Anthropomorphic Personification tried to do when manipulated. Perhaps it's a good thing there's only a couple of the Great Old Ones left?