Soul Eater/WMG

Soul Eater

Maka's mother is a Witch

Probably not evil, since she has custody of Maka and no mention of any problems there. Witch genes helped Maka command the Black Blood when she and Soul get infected. Also helps her to "synchronize" with Crona's soul.

• This nicely dovetails into the "Maka's father isn't cheating" theory, their separation was to divert attention away from her; Shibusen isn't actively at war with non-hostile Witches, but it would be awkward politically for the current Death Scythe to be married to one.
  • It adds nicely to the horror that Death Scythe felt when Medusa described how she abused Crona. He knows she didn't have to.
  • There are a little holes in this theory, but just for the fun of it imagine it's all true and Maka's mother is not just a nice witch, but also the third Gorgon sister?
    • That'd certainly put an interesting spin on things.
• An issue with witch genes allowing Maka to control the black blood is that Kim explains that for witches "destruction is the guidance of magic", as it's the consequence of their powers (use of their "immeasurable energy" leading to destruction). Unless Kami (and so Maka) was an exception like Kim, whose powers manifested through creation/regeneration, surely witch genes would enhance the black blood's destructive effects, not alleviate them?
  • Well, her "Demon-slaying wavelength" (Or whatever your favorite translator calls it) isn't exactly a force of creation, now is it?
    • It's not, but the problem with Maka being the daughter of a witch is that Kim is the only known exception to the more-or-less Always Chaotic Evil categorisation of witches in the 'verse. While there are clearly degrees to which witches use the destructive 'guidance of magic', by this WMG Maka would fall into it somewhere without there being something else at work; either the nature of her mother's power, or the other special skills she's inherited. Which, given the grigori soul thing, is still not out of the question.

Stein is Crona's father

I dont remember reading or watching anything that showed how LONG Medusa has been associated with the school. She could have been enrolled in it while going through witch training as well. During this, she could have formed a relationship with Stein which lead to a pregnancy at an early age, similar to Spirit and Kami having Maka at 18. She then managed to keep the pregnancy a secret from Stein. Their relationship could have ended around the time of Crona's birth, eventually leading to her leaving Stein's life only to come back years later to be a nurse at the school.

• • The problem is, Crona resembles Stein even less than he/she does Medusa.
  • That seems like too far a stretch. Sounds more like a backstory for a fanfic than anything else.

Noah is Crona's father.

I have no why's. Other than it would amuse me.

• I don't think thats possible...seeing as how Noah is merely a physical manifestation of the chapters in the Book of Eibon.

The Kishin is actually Crona's father.

Medusa is not only a witch, she is a witch scientist. And she had Black Blood, and in Blood there are bloodcells- and DNA. She could've created a baby from that DNA and her own DNA. Besides, look how much they are similar.

• They have similar personalities. They are cowards who can't deal well with problems in their lives and kind of loners.
• They have somewhat similar faces.
  • But this is an anime/manga. Most people look related.
• In order to use Ragnarok and the black blood you'd have to have either a very aligned soul or give in to insanity. Crona can use Ragnarok even when he is not in the insanity, which means his soul is aligned with Rangnarock- and very similar to the Kishin's.
  • That is actually scarily plausible (also, according to Justin Law's rather faulty world view, would that make Crona The Antichrist?).
  • It is, however, worth mentioning that Crona's had Ragnarok in them since they were very small, and was shown to suffer some sort of insanity when it was first injected (blank eyes, mumbling to themselves). They could just be very used to keeping a grip on some sort of sanity even with the black blood in them.

Tsubaki's Father is a Death Scythe and a far more powerful Demon Blade then either of his children.

C'mon, Tsubaki comes from a long line of weapons and her father seemed just to cool to /not/ be a Death Scythe or at least have some future roll.

• • Except Tsubaki IIRC is the first of the family to enter Shibusen. If her father (who probably has some uncreative yet awesome sword-related name) is a powerful Weapon, though, he might be the equivalent of a Death Scythe rather than a official one. Though perhaps the failure of the Nakatsukasas to achieve anything save mass murder with the demon blade mode might have caused him to avoid using his Weapon form much.

== Excalibur was the first weapon. ==If you think about it, it makes sense: His legend started eight hundred years ago, which was just around the time the first Weapon was made by Arachne. It's possible that the creation of him was what sparked the natural birth of other weapons around the world. Also, don't forget, when Death still had his scary mask and began taking in Weapon children, we were shown children as young as five or six, supporting that idea.

Autonomous weapons are weapons who have automatic weapon forms.

Other than the fact that they're autonomous, meaning they can fight well without a meister, Justin and Giriko seem to have nothing in common. However, both the chainsaw and the guillotine work automatically. Well, the guillotine doesn't exactly work automatically, but the power behind doesn't come from a human wielding it. It's power comes from gravity, while the chainsaw's comes from the rotation of its blades.

• Not to mention Liz and Patty are clearly semi-automatic, so they exist as a pair that can wield each other!

Autonomous weapons are weapons that can't practically be used by a meister

An alternate theory to the above: It's not that Justin and Giriko work automatically is why they don't have meisters, it's because meisters are unable to weild them. Almost all of the weapons seen are things that are made to be weapons (pistols, swords, etc) or things that are not necessarily meant to be used as weapons but have a long history of being used as them (survival knives, scythes, etc). Justin and Giriko transform into neither of these. Yes, there's the trope Chainsaw Good, but the Reality Ensues portion of that page show why a chainsaw would make a remarkably awful weapon. With Justin, even the most skilled of improbable weapon users would have issues making a guillotine work as an offensive weapon reliably. Because of this, the only choice they had was to learn to wield themselves.

Death the Kid doesn't actually have a mother

Despite appearances, Kid isn't human in any way, shape or form. He's a god/junior anthromorphic personification.Given that Shinigami-sama is stuck in Death City, it's not too much of a stretch to assume that the universe was in need of a mobile death god or maybe just as insurance in case anything happened to the current one, and in response to this Kid just sort of came into being. As for why he's, well, a kid, Death should really have a certain amount of compassion and be able to understand exactly what his role means to the mortals that he's responsible for, and what better way to do that then for him to have a human (or close enough) life first?

• I came here tonight considering adding pretty much that. You've got my current theory on the matter kind of in one, and better phrased. Would add that the Sanzu Lines as they are in the manga had me thinking that rather than Kid just coming into being, Shinigami created him deliberately for the reasons that you give; necessity and security.
• Shinigami reproduce when wetted.

Death The Kid doesn't have a mother.

He's referred to as a "fragment" of Shinigami-sama by the Great Old One. The completion of his Sanzu lines seems to be dangerous to Shinigami-sama, but not to Kid himself. For reasons yet to be explained, Shinigami-sama created a "son" for himself out of his own being, allowing him to experience the familial bonds nearly all of his friends know and create a successor. When Death The Kid's Sanzu Lines hit their completion, he will re-integrate with his father and become the new Shinigami, his father's persona vanishing in the process.

• You know, the topic was brought up in the preview for the anime's third episode, shown at the end of episode 2.

Kid was reproduced by Shinigami-sama budding.

• The asymmetry must have driven little bud Kid insane.

When one Shinigami has a child and that child gains enough power, that Shinigami will die and pass on the rest of his power to his child.

• This isn't as far-fetched as it sounds. It's been shown that when Kid activates his Sanzu lines, Shinigami-sama is aware of it. In fact, it's even possible that the activation of the Sanzu creates a link between him and his father, drawing on power from him to fuel his attacks. Thus, the anime aside, it's possible that the more power he generates, the weaker Shinigami would get. If Kid really is a "fragment of Shinigami", or some kind of cloned offspring, the entire point of it would be to pass on the power of the Shinigami once he gets too old. Don't forget, as powerful as Shinigami is, he can still be beaten and possibly killed. Having a son would insure that the world would still be protected.

Spirit is not really Maka's father, Shinigami is.

Only three people in the world are known to be able to use Kishin Hunter; Kami, Maka and Shinigami. Now, what Shinigami says in Episode 37 after learning Maka has used the anti-demon wavelength/Kishin Hunter, is something akin to her having inherited it from her mother. However, how Kami got this power and how much genetics are involved is left open. It's possible that, either before Kami met Spirit or perhaps some time after, perhaps in response to one of Spirit's cheats, Kami turned around and either cheated on Spirit to spite him or was romantically involved with Shinigami before meeting Spirit. This union consumated in two things, which was a "passing" of certain things from Shinigami to Kami, including the Kishin Hunter, and a child, which was Maka. Kami either then passed Maka off to Spirit as their child from one of their acts if you go the cheating route or simply met Spirit later and became romantically involved in him, and he just treats the child as his own, Which might explain why he feels such a need to feel like Maka's father and be respected/liked by Maka as such. Also, while less factual, Shinigami seems to act friendlier to Maka than the rest of the Meisters, though that might just be This Troper's opinion. Also, please note This Troper has not finished the manga, so this may have already been Jossed.

• While highly unlikely, not to mention downright bizarre, the number of Maka/Kid shippers out there means that if it's at all true then the fandom fallout would be hilarious. Oh, there's a thought, where/how would Kid fit into this theory?
• Yes, the fandom fallout would be hilarious...anyway, Kid would be hard to place, but the possibilities generally point to one of three things. Either Kid is Kami's child as well, perhaps some kind of twins thing, Shinigami had another woman later or earlier, or Shinigami created Kid without a mother, which is why Kid is a "Shinigami" and Maka is not. Presumably, the third method means some funky magic.
  • Possibility No.3 makes the most sense (as much as anything about this theory makes sense anyway) but No. 1 would be the most entertaining if there was a reveal.
• Don't know about the manga, but in anime continuity at least this theory is completely and utterly Jossed
  • Not Jossed, but the manga doesn't cite the demonslayer wavelength as genetic, nor does Kishin Hunter exist (61 chapters in, we still have little idea of what Shinigami's capable of, though Kid's experience in the Baba Yaga arc gives us some hint that it is potentially epic). One might as well suggest manga-verse BJ is Maka's father, seeing as he's the only other human character to possess the same level of soul perception as Maka (as in soul protect-breaking).

Death The Kid doesn't have a mother.

He's referred to as a "fragment" of Shinigami-sama by the Great Old One. The completion of his Sanzu lines seems to be dangerous to Shinigami-sama, but not to Kid himself. For reasons yet to be explained, Shinigami-sama created a "son" for himself out of his own being, allowing him to experience the familial bonds nearly all of his friends know and create a successor. When Death The Kid's Sanzu Lines hit their completion, he will re-integrate with his father and become the new Shinigami, his father's persona vanishing in the process.

• You know, the topic was brought up in the preview for the anime's third episode, shown at the end of episode 2.

Shinigami is actually Maka's mother

Sounds like crack, but it's too much fun to ignore. Think about it: Her mother is normally referred to as 'Kami' (God). Shinigami (death god) is spelt 'gami' and not 'kami' because of the 'shini' bit, but it is still 'kami' at the core. There is also the fact that Kami is never seen on-screen or heard from off-screen. No pictures ever come up either. Add in the fact that Spirit is Shinigami's main weapon, and we're in buisness. Plus, can you say 'Shinigami CHOP!'? Add a book.

Kidd and Maka are half-siblings sharing the same mother

You know nothing about Kidds and Makas mothers, so maaaaaybe they could be the same person. Would coincide with Kidds reaction towards Noah's plans on her, so he probably knows. Maka may know or not.

Death the Kid's OCD came from trauma of seeing and/or causing his mother's death.

...I have no 'why's.

• (copies from my previous reply) no, it's because in Ch 73, it says that Kid has the Madness of order. symmetry is a form of order.

A rather odd theory on how Kid was conceived.

Feeling that he needed a heir, Shinigami-sama temporarily took on a human form and had a one-night stand with a mortal woman, quickly impregnating her. After that, said woman didn't knew that she was carrying the child of death until the morning of February 2nd, when she started feeling a strong pain in her womb and had to go to hospital immediately. The child, a seemingly healthy baby boy, was conceived successfully, but the mother died in the process and therefore didn't get the chance to see her child. However, Shinigami-sama took the baby as his son, claiming him with Shinigami abilities and giving him a perfectly fitting name... Death the Kid.

Kidd's mother is another Death Scythe.

It would explain why she's not around; she's probably off doing IMPORTANT DEATH SCYTHE THINGS.

• • I like this WMG better then the asexual reproduction one above.
  • Attached as I am to the 'asexual' idea (the 'fragment' deal in ch72 is not helping my inclination to believe that's the case) but, yes, this would be neat. How about that Kid's mother was the Death Scythe before Spirit? Just because. The shape of Kid's soul (both the lines and the brief skull shape are shinigami-related) could be explained in some fashion; mangaverse Maka's Grigori soul and absence of Weapon traits weren't an issue.
  • More specifically, she could be the Death Scythe in charge of Africa. If they had a falling out after Kid was born, it would explain not only why she isn't around, but also why the Death Scythe of Africa refused to follow the Summons after the Keshin's revival. More-over, assuming that Kid's OCD is inherited from his father, this would make the Death Scythes "perfectly symmetrical" gender-wise: Three male and three female, with one for each continent, sans Antarctica, which both logically and canonically lacks a Death Scythe.

Ragnarok is Crona's dad(but maybe either his memory is deleted or others...)

"Luke, I am your father"..."NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

• Or else, who is Chrona's dad?

"Crona, I am your father."..."NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I don't know how to deal with it"

• ......
  • Anyway, almost all casts have no father and/or mother.
    • • The mother of Death the Kid is, well, unknown.
      • The mother of Maka, Kami, divorced with Spirit and has disappeared into thin air.
      • Black Star's father and mother have been killed.
  • So, I just provide this idea for reference...

Dr. Stein is Maka's father.

And Maka's mother is one of the only ones who know it. And maybe Stein knows it too and is pretending not to know it. This is just based on the premise that Maka looks like Stein more than she does Spirit. Still, we don't know what Maka's mother looks like, but one would expect that she inherit some of her dad's physical traits. (And Maka's blaming her dad for playing around. Unless the incident of the pregnancy happened before they married.)

NOTE: This assumption would clearly apply only to the manga, as Maka genetically inherited Spirit's weapon powers in the anime.

• Addendum to the above note: Unless Maka's mother is a Weapon. We know there are at least two Scythe-type weapons, and Soul refers to the guillotine-weapon Justin Law as "the same type of weapon I am".
• Doesn't Maka have Spirit's eyes? Different colours maybe, but they're drawn in the same style, I think. That, and that in the manga Male!Maka seems to be just like Spirit when it comes to the ladies.

• • Which is why things will be easier to confirm or deny if Maka's mother shows up, which is certainly a possibility. Besides, all Maka got was a nosebleed (and maybe an erection), and that was one DAMN hot succubus.

• • • Actually, I don't think Spirit's ever been shown to get a nosebleed around "hot women". Soul does though, or at least he did with Blair. I think male!Maka was supposed to emulate Soul, since s/he was also quiet, moody, and had spiky hair.

Spirit's Urban Legend Love Life is due to him and Stein attempting to keep their relationship a secret

• Kami was just a beard that spiraled a bit out of control and/or Death Scythes are expected to have an heir and when Maka ended up not being a weapon, their pseudo-relationship dwindled. All those women people thought he was running around with? Yeaaaah... This also explains why the girls in the cabaret club know he's just going to whine about his life rather than do anything and why both Medusa and Marie keep getting shot down.
  • Also, I'm slightly amazed that this hadn't been brought up before in some form or other.

Liz and Patty are fraternal twins

But like in most scenarios of twins, the one born first considers themselves to be the older sibling, which Liz chose to do early on, and Patty just went with it.

Soul's Grandma is a Death Scythe

She was a weapon and the only reason no one has pointed it out is that Soul entered Shibusen under a false name

Chrona and Kidd are siblings.

Shinigami-sama is Chrona's father; Medusa is Kidd's mother. Medusa ended up having twins, one inheriting the father's shinigami qualities and the other inheriting her own witch qualities. She had wanted to have a child shinigami to experiment with, but ended up keeping the wrong child through some accident and made do with what she had. This is also why Medusa's so nervous when she goes with Spirit to meet Shinigami-sama face to face: the last time she was with him in a context besides school nurse, she seduced him. Squick.

• Despite the extensive wrongness of this theory, a teeny, tiny, very, very warped part of this troper thinks it'd be interesting if it turned out to be true, if only to see all the Kid/Crona shippers go blue screen.
• This also provides a Freudian Excuse for Kidd's obsession with symmetry; subconsciously, he misses his twin - his other half. (And if finding out he has a long-lost twin doesn't send him into a Heroic BSOD, learning that they're his non-identical twin certainly would.)

Maka is bisexual.

• I don't know, maybe it's just my opinion. But either way, she has both of a lot of Ship Tease with Soul (I don't mind) and also some Les Yay with Tsubaki and Crona (kind of). Also, when in chapter 72 everyone had their genders switched after getting inside the book of Eibon, she was turned into a feminine-looking boy- and she did have a Nosebleed when she saw the succubus. I do realise that it could be because of the Gender Bending... but then again we may never know.
• The Characters, when inside the first chapter of the Book of Eibon, are explicitly shown to have personality changes as well, which reverted upon entering the second chapter.

Maka's mother isn't the one sending her those cards.

Her father, or maybe one of the Shibusen staff, is sending them. Her mother is really either dead or has cut off all contact. Perhaps initially Spirit did it to stop her being upset (he's done sillier things), then they kept the charade going to prevent one of their more powerful meisters from having a Heroic BSOD, Face Heel Turn, shouting at her father, or any of the other potential consequences of the truth getting out.

• • I figure that, because of his suddenly serious tone at the time, that Spirit was trying to tell Maka something important about him and her mother during their rooftop conversation (if nothing more than an admission of guilt). This suddenly puts a new, weird, spin on it. Can see Spirit sending cards to cheer Maka up if her mother was out of contact, but not if she was dead. For a start, he's too bloody emotional himself to keep up such a charade.

Spirit is a chaste flirt.

His and Kami's divorce was for different reasons entirely, but Maka wasn't clearly informed, or she doesn't want to believe her mother had a part in it. So instead, she focuses on said father's flirting, citing it as the only reason for the divorce, and rejects him entirely. This would sorta explain Spirit's Urban Legend Love Life.

• • • Maybe not entirely different reasons, but certainly not the only reason, I believe. It would explain the curious lack of flirting seen from a character derided as a pervert (but not so much recently). The way Spirit, being serious, begins to tell Maka something when they're talking on the roof following the Italy mission has always struck me as maybe (though probably not) being a significant omission. If that wasn't an admission of guilt Spirit didn't manage to make, maybe there is something else to it?

Spirit the current Death Scythe isn't cheating on Maka's mother

He's pretending to, either to intentionally drive away Maka's mother to protect her from something; or else she's in on it to (even the divorce proceedings!) and it's to protect Maka from realizing...something. If he is a philanderer, he's the worst one ever; as it's an Informed Attribute. All he ever does at Cabaret Houses is talk about Maka and her mother; said Cabaret Houses are used to this.

• Alternatively, Mrs Albarn knows what an awful excuse for an adulterer he is and is divorcing him anyway as part of a Xanatos Roulette. She just hasn't told Spirit this. Because really, can you see Spirit being able to keep his mouth shut about it in the face of Maka's disapproval?
  • Similarly, she could have left him because she saw through his plan immediately, but was insulted he didn't trust her enough to keep her around ... thus setting the stage for her dramatic return and the time when Spirit and Maka's mother perform a ... Soul Resonance.
• On the other hand it could just be that while Spirit hasn't gone any further then very enthusiastic flirting, it was enough to make Maka's Mum ditch him. After all, if you assume that he's always been like that then she's had to put up with it for well over a decade. She probably finally decided that she'd had enough.
• Played with in a fanfic called One Night in which Spirit's memory is so damn fluid after an incident with the Mad Scientist that he's forgotten he married his on and off girlfriend and immediately stops after he remembers. This doesn't stop the witches from taking advantage of his lapses, though, as he can't remember what he doesn't want to think about.
  • Link, please.

Spirit was Kami's trophy boyfriend

Girls wouldn't keep falling for those lines if Spirit wasn't attractive, after all. Kami must have planned a way to get Spirit for herself.

• First, she exposed Stein experimenting on Spirit in his sleep and convinced him to change meisters - even though Spirit was supposed to keep Stein in control and he couldn't do that if they weren't partnered.
• Then she made Spirit into a Death Scythe, but when Spirit kept flirting with other women Kami decided to forcibly cement their relationship by deliberately turning Spirit into her baby daddy. It worked in that Spirit was eager to marry her and adored their daughter, but backfired when Spirit still kept flirting with every woman he saw - plus he was more interested in Maka than he was in his wife (not THAT way!), which pissed Kami off.
• Therefore, Kami filed for divorce and won Maka's custody in order to punish Spirit - but she doesn't care about Maka, which is why she's not around while Maka's at school. Maka, unaware of her mother's true intentions, has been manipulated to hate her father by her mother as part of Kami's revenge.
  • • Though I think this is somewhat extreme - deliberate selfishness as opposed to Spirit immaturity (and how much has his womanising *really* been shown?) - it would certainly be interesting to see the other side to the breakup of Maka's parents. All we know of the woman is that she was a great student/meister, and that Maka idolises her and wants to be as good as she was. Which may prove a problem in future if Kami was less-than wonderful. Though as the Ghost who inspires Maka she's probably just going to be a straight-up admirable, reasonable authority figure. Making her practically unique amongst the adult cast.

Kami is Medusa's Good Counterpart.

Thus, she'll be a Guile Hero Kuudere Action Mom Adventurer Archaeologist to Medusa's Magnificent Bitch Foe Yaytastic Evil Matriarch Mad Scientist. With a side order of being hot. Why? Well, for starters, I really want to see them fight. Also, Crona is set as Maka's Evil(?) Counterpart, being a Dark Magical Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds to her Plucky Action Girl status. So why the hell wouldn't their mothers also be counterparts?

Crona is a girl

Evidence:

• Wears a dress
  • See the replies to "Confirmed, she's seen as a child wearing a (dressier) dress."
  • It looks more like a robe, which is itself gender neutral.
• Name sounds more feminine then masculine
• Has pink hair.
  • That doesn't matter unless s/he dyed it. In flashbacks, s/he has the same pink hair and I doubt s/he would feel the want or need to dye it at such a young age. If it's Crona's natural hair, then that doesn't indicate if s/he's a boy or a girl.
    • ...and neither does it if it is dyed. Guys can dye their hair pink too, people.
• Has a somewhat feminine figure.
• Confirmed, she's seen as a child wearing a (dressier) dress.
  • Absolutely not confirmed, unless clothing is an absolute indication of gender. Might as well argue that Crona's a confirmed boy because s/he wore pants to the Shibusen Ball.
    • Boy under a certain age used to wear dresses in the mid-16th century. Also, Medusa doesn't seem like the kind of person who would care if the clothing matched.
  • To be in favor of this WMG, this (last) page of the recent chapter might leave some strong impressions.
    • Alternative link.
• Wasn't this Jossed by the author?
  • If you do have proof of this information, please be kind as to give a citation of an interview from the author, or some other evidence that says this. It would be a great contribution to end the Flame War.
    • It wasn't a statement of fact, it was a question. Some fans claim they've read an article in which Atsushi Ohkubo has said outright that Crona is a boy, but this troper hasn't found any such thing. It was more of a request for information, assuming someone who's claimed this before actually has proof.

Crona is a boy

Evidence:

• Talks with "Boku", a Japanese male pronoun.
  • That... doesn't really mean as much as you think. Bokukko use Boku even though they are girls.
    • Yes, but aren't most Bokukko a bit more...I don't know, "outgoing" or something? I always thought most Bokukko were less Shrinking Violet types, but that's just me.
  • The general translation for "boku" is more or less "I, a non-threatening male," which seems to fall in line with Crona's usual timidness. For a girl to use "boku," it could be more applied to a girl who's more outspoken or blunt than most. However, some Bokukko use that pronoun because they don't know any better, which would also seem very much in line with Chrona's characterization. The fact that "boku" is used sometimes for gender-neutral characters doesn't help.
    • However...Alphonse Elric uses the pronoun "boku," and since Chrona's voice actor also voices Alphonse (Japanese too, right?)...yes, I know this is Insane Troll Logic. I'm very sorry.
• Has somewhat more boyish voice.
  • So I'm not the only one who thinks so!
• Flat in the chest area. It's more obvious in the Manga, where Maka's breasts are visible and Crona is totally flat.
  • Even though it's not the best indication of gender, it's true that Maka does have something, which is still more than nihl.
  • Chrona's very undernourished, she complains that her ribs show too much. Any fat deposites were eaten up a long time ago.
    • If Crona was as malnourished as you claim, he-she wouldn't have such a feminine figure.
  • It is really hard to say. Consider the girls in Touhou; Almost all girls in Touhou are flat-chested.
• Crona is not a witch. And why would a witch's child not be a witch? Because he is a boy and only girls can be witches.
  • Do we know for a fact Chrona is not a witch? We didn't know with Kim for a while, after all. And even so, Noah might throw a hitch in that theory (maybe).
    • In Chapter 9 and Episode 12, it is a confirmed fact that Crona is not a witch as Medusa claims she is not the only one to bring outsiders who are not witches to the Witch's Mass.
• He/She did wear a tux/suit to a formal dress party.
  • Yes, but the Thompsons wore what looked like tracksuits. And there's no question of what sex they are.
    • Well, when the Thompsons dressed up that time, it was probably planned considering Kid had them dance the can-can. Then again, I thought s/he looked really cute in that white formal suit.
• In Chapter 68, when Black Star sees that Crona has three Demon Swords, he mentions his own three swords. His third being his "ultimate weapon". He then wonders if Crona has one more. So he's not sure, but he's betting Crona's male.
  • But I don't think so. I think it produces one more proof for Chrona to be a girl, instead.
  • I think females will be angered for being mocked of by Black Star's Penis Joke, as they may think someone like Black Star is looking down at female for being a female.
  • I believe that the penis joke said by Black Star is quite disrespectful to any girl, and thus, no wonder that Crona is angered.
    • I thought that Crona was more angered that Black Star's comment lead to Ragnarok trying to show hir privates. Boy or girl, Crona wouldn't like to be exposed like that.
  • It's Ragnarok's reaction that might hint at Chrona being a boy - he actually tried to show that Chrona had another "sword". He started lifting up Chrona's dress (thing), which may have been a way of "proving it" to Black*Star. Even then, I seriously don't think Ragnarok knows what gender Chrona is...
    • Oh, come now! Rags MUST know. If Crona is a girl, she must have periods and expel blood. If Crona is a boy, he must get erections and thus have his dick filled with blood. Either way, there's no way he doesn't know!
• "I don't know how to deal with girls" implies that "I" and "girls" belong to separate categories.
  • but you have to remember, the only contact Chrona had with girls (As far as we know) was with Medusa. So it could be that if Chrona is female, she doesn't know how to deal with OTHER girls.
    • The idea isn't that not knowing how do deal with girls means Crona isn't a girl. It's that the phrasing of the statement puts girls in a separate category.
      • Do you know how it was phrased in the original Japanese? Because in Japanese it might not be so.
        • Well, if he has a problem dealing with girls, then why wouldn't he have a similar issue with boys? Just saying...
          • Crona takes out a giant mob of thugs just before Maka shows up, which was, to my knowledge, entirely male. It could be that s/he had only faced males, if that scene and his/her dialogue when meeting Maka is anything to go by.,
• To add on to the theory that Chrona is a boy, it's likely he acts and dresses feminine because Medusa wanted a girl. She basically treated him like crap for being a boy, and probably played a huge role in his own gender confusion.
• Wasn't this confirmed by the author?
  • Confirmed? Where?
    • Someone has been trolling the internet and saying it is. Some deviantART works can be found to say as much.
• Crona is a boy because surely someone would have gotten curious and it would be a simple matter of following him to the bathroom. Everyone refers to Crona as a "he." So it seems likely to me that he's a boy.
  • Obviously in canon, everyone knows Crona's gender. And every time Crona has been referred to as "he" is really just the translator(including the dub).

Chrona is a "blank"

Or maybe a hermaphordite. Going with the "Chrona is a clone" theory below, Chrona doesn't really have a gender because s/he was created in Medusa's lab. Chrona's lack of powers other then the black blood and Ragnarok is due to his/her unstable sense of self

Chrona is female and Ragnarok is male.

Now before you jump in with cries of no duh, dumbass consider the following. Chrona and Ragnarok are never seen apart. Now, that could mean that they are two entities in the same being OR they are one in the same. Ragnarok is stereotypically masculine (Huge Muscles, Comically Perverted and taking the form of a sword)) while Chrona is more stereotypically feminine (Pink hair, fond of dresses, likes cute things). Chrona and Ragnarok are the Male and Female halves of the same person. Chrona is male in the same way that Ragnarok is female. They are male. They are female. They are weapon and meister.

• Yes, going with Crona/Ragnarok is a hermaphrodite. Two souls fused in one body due to Medusa's experiments. Ragnarok can poke out more than his sword arm whenever he chooses. Hence Rags had no problem rising to Black Star's penis joke bait. Crona resists of course because her girl parts would be shown at the same time. Thus endeth the Crona gender flame wars. (Or perhaps just adds a third faction.) I foresee some really nasty doujinshi coming...

Medusa's experimented on a sane Chrona until he/she/it (whatever Chrona was originally) until they cracked and splintered into two personalities. The timid Chrona created Ragnarok as a powerful alter ego to endure Medusa's torture but his/her own self loathing created a weapon that hated its meister as much as he/she hated him/herself.

Someday, someone will find out Crona's gender....

.... but then will be killed off before the info can get out to anyone else, including the audience.

• • After all the other jokes about Crona's gender, this has to be done at some point.

Chrona is autistic.

Even after becoming one of the heroes, Chrona has been shown having a lot of difficulty interacting with people or adapting to change. S/he also walks strangely and never makes eye contact. How severe hir autism would be is questionable; S/he behaves like a person with classic autism who developed verbal abilities. However, S/he would never have had much social interaction, so s/he may instead have milder autism, but was never able to practice social skills. This troper thinks that Chrona has verbal classic autism.

• • ....Well, I think the simplest explaination for that behaviour would be Crona's treatment by Medusa and their presumably limited social interaction with others prior to coming to Shibusen. Not to mention the effect of Ragnarok on Crona's mental state. Given what we saw in flashback it's unlikely Crona would quickly adapt to anything other than relying on Medusa and her orders. And considering Medusa seemed to get her child back from Shibusen pretty quickly, Crona didn't get the chance to develop the skills they lacked. The result of insanity and trauma would be this troper's take on it.

Crona has no gender/sex

She identifies as gender queer, was never given a gender by her parents thus does not think of one, or is intersexed.

"Noah" is a Noah

The fake Eibon He's got a tan, a snazzy dress sense, arcane knowledge, the right level of insanity (probably even before the Kishin got loose), and is apparently good at fooling humans and non-humans alike.

Crona has no gender.

• Crona is in a sense not human. Crona would have neither female organs nor male organs in this theory.

Mosquito is an abandoned sire of Alucard

He may have survived for 800 years, but it'd take more then a magic book to kill Alucard.

• It would explain Alucard's ability to revert back to his original body(ies) and how he can turn into a cloud of bats.

Shinigami-sama and Eibon had relationship similar to Dumbledore and Grindelwald

How similar has yet to be determined.

Arachne is the/an Other Mother

She's just more effective.

• I'll just leave this here ^{[dead link]}

Medusa really is concerned about Chrona

In the same way Mayuri is concerned about Nemu - while she probably doesn't see Chrona as her child, she is hers - her creation and experiment - nonetheless.

Chrona is Medusa's clone

You don't really think Medusa would go through the trouble of seducing a man and waiting nine months just for a test subject, right?

• Now consider Crona's name (and how Japanese transliteration works) and marvel once again at how brazenly Medusa hides things in plain sight.
  • For those of us that unfortunately don't know Japanese, can you explain?
    • 'Clone', if you replace the 'r' in Crona with an 'l'? Apparently, English translation can be awkward when it comes to which of the two it should be.
      • Actually, hir name comes from "Kuro na", that means something like "Dark One". Well, that explains a lot...
    • Well, that would explain the hips...

Chrona has become a Kishin

As seen in Chapter 65 Chrona appears to be undergoing some sort of ritual, possibly to become a Kishin.

• • In a depressing parallel to Maka, Crona was introduced at a point when they were close to becoming a Kishin - it's why Stein and Spirit were told to kill them, but Ragnarok lost the souls when Shinigami took them from him (manga only, Maka's specialness did it in the anime). Maka began the series close to making Soul a Death Scythe, but lost them to Shinigami after they screwed up with Blair. Now, Maka and Soul have recently reached their goal, and Crona has undergone their own changes. Like Maka and Soul are vastly tougher than they were before, I reckon that Crona is vastly worse, both in strength and mental state. It'll be very fun to see how Maka offers sympathy this time around. Though maybe not for a while; Crona's page of screaming was straight after a scene in Noah's hideout. Perhaps Medusa is after him and his book next, as another part of her long game (or games, she has had to re-think before now).

Medusa is not Chrona's mother.

I mean we only really have her word to go by and she is a chronic and competent liar.

• • Considering who she revealed this to, Medusa could have said it just to upset Spirit and Stein. It certainly struck the closest Spirit's got to a Berserk Button, as he was pissed off enough to try and attack her himself. Or want to at least give her a good talking to. And cry.
  • The likely explanation for this would be that Medusa is not Chrona's biological mother (unless we're at some point introduced to Chrona's father, which opens up a whole other can of worms for this page). Either Chrona was adopted/kidnapped or to tie into the idea that Chrona has no gender, that Medusa created her through some other method, possibly cloning or through magic.

Medusa really is a kind woman, she's just a well intentioned extremist gone off the deep end.

She does love Chrona, and does genuinely care for others, but due to reasons probably involving a horrifying tragedy in her past, possibly involving Kishin, she works along side them and does horrible things to find their weaknesses so that she may destroy them for good. She's actually raising Chrona to be a weapon against the Kishin. Unfortunately, she has gone insane during her research due to guilt and exposure to madness, and hardly remembers her past self. Someone from her past will then fight her to remind her of her true self, and she will spend the rest of the series repenting, and trying to fix Chrona's issues.

• Actually, that makes sense.

Medusa's plan is usurp Arachne as head of Arachnaphobia

But Noah and the third Gorgon sister are still Wild Cards.

• Nope, all she wanted was Arachne's body. Wait a minute...

King Arthur was one of Shinigami's Eight Legendary Warriors

Three guesses who his partner was (Excalibur! Excalibur! From United King! I'm looking for him! I'm going to California!)

The third Gorgon sister will be a little girl.

And she will be peaceful, wise beyond her years, and an absolute badass.

• • I support this. If only because it would throw everyone else for a loop.
  • And she has already been introduced: Angela. For starters, each Gorgon sister has had one or more male Dragons serving her, each of whom she has some kind of hold over or has manipulated in some way. Medusa has either Free, Eruka, or possibly even Crona. Arachne has Grinko and Misquito. Angela would have Mifune. She might have even stolen a young girl form like Medusa in order to gain Mifune's protection. And now that Black*Star has taken over Mifune's job...uh oh!
  • The third Gorgon sister's name is Shaula. She's slightly younger than Medusa and Arachne, looking teenaged, but she isn't a little girl. She was introduced in Soul Eater Not, the spinoff series.

The third Gorgon sister will be the final Big Bad in the series.

There has to be a reason we haven't seen her yet.

• I thought the reason was Plot Tumors. besides, wouldn't it make more sense for the Kishin to be the final Big Bad?
  • Unless he's the Bigger Bad - Asura's indirectly been the cause/inspiration for most of the events in the series and the Lovecraftian stuff Okubo's been pulling recently may indicate more of a Cosmic Horror role for the Kishin and his remaining fellows. Certainly Medusa is the one directly causing the majority of bad things so far.

The last Gorgon witch is dead...

And Spirit and Kami killed her, which is how he became the strongest Weapon barring Excalibur. That's why there's very little talk about her in-story, there's not much else to say about a dead witch. The reason I think this is because it's so simple that there just HAS to be some truth to it.

• Or she was the witch whose soul was used to create the first weapon.

The final Gorgon sister is an Owl witch.

Notice the trend with the first two. Both are females associated with Athena (Athena was a notable weaver; So was Arachne. Medusa's head is sometimes pictured on Athena's shield.) I personally choose to believe her name will be Metis and she'll use feathers and glasses as a motif.

• Furthermore, Arachne and Medusa were both (as noted above) transformed humans in the myths. One other notable story where Athena transform mortals is the story of Meropis. Who was transformed into an owl for insulting Athena. In addition her family were transformed into other birds by other gods (her sister into a seagull for joining in the aformentioned insulting, her brother a charadrius for attacking the gods in retaliation and her father a Raven and added in a curse to only give bad news for complaining). In another story she recives bad news from a Raven (the same person she'd transformed in some versions, a decendant in others and occasionally just some random raven) and turned it black (which apparently made all other ravens black...when they're previously been white...yeah). Soul appears to be an albino (and in any case has white hair), so...yeah...I don't know where I'm going with that.
• Also, the three gifts Athena gave to humanity were weaving, agriculture and metalergy. Medusa forged weapons, Arachne wove webs of decete/farmed madness so perhaps the final sister will have something to do with agriculture or weaving?
  • Actually it was Arachne who invented the demon weapons, so metallurgy fits her better. Medusa I would go with farming due to all her experiments growing things. That leaves weaving for the third sister.
• Ooh ooh, better, her NAME will be Athena!

The third Gorgon sister was Actaeon... until she was killed by Arachne and used to create the Nakatsukasa weapon.

In Greek Mythology, Actaeon was a mortal (and, um, male... but bear with me here) hunter who spotted Artemis bathing, decided to stay and watch, and was transformed into a stag and consumed by his own dogs for his trouble. So it would fit the theme of “mortals transformed by gods as punishment.� Further points of interest:

• The Nakatsukasa spirit is a deer.
• Tsubaki can transform into a wide range of different weapons, suggesting perhaps a particularly strong witch’s soul.
• Mosquito recognizes and expresses particular interest in Tsubaki.
• Medusa, in recruiting students for the charge she leads on Baba Yaga Castle, mentions only Black☆Star by name. Considering that one of her goals was to obtain a Gorgon body...
  • Oh wow. If this was a potential plot thread, poor Tsubaki would have been possessed by Medusa! This Troper is both acutely terrified and genuinely aroused at the same time.

Blair really is a Witch.

Even Shinigami-sama commented on her being a witch when they were watching via magic mirror. Blair being a cat doesn't exclude the possibility, as we've seen Serpent, Snake and Mouse witches. Also, we've seen that other witches have the ability to shapeshift into thematic forms. The cat soul (which is red/purple like Kishin Eggs!) she left after Soul "killed" her was just a decoy. Shinigami-sama and the other Death Scythe don't mind her existing, though, as she's not really evil. (Shinigami-sama knew that Black* Star refused to kill the child witch Angela, for example, and seems to have approved.)

• It has paid off, her defending Death City during the Christmas attack against the Mouse Witches was an impressive display of loyalty in itself.
  • In fact, it's possible that Blair is working in secret for Shinigami-sama all along; "testing" students who technically have 99 souls; but not the power required to create a Death Scythe. Maka and Soul, for example, couldn't synchronize at the beginning of the series; once Blair figures that they aren't synchronized she "loses" in a way that forces them to give up their collected souls. This would be similar to the test that Sid and Dr. Franken Stein were a part of.
  • Just prior to B.J. dying he mentions he detects 7 Witches. At the time the confirmed are: Medusa (1), two members of the Mizune Family (3), Eruka (4), Kim (5) and two workers at the one shop Maka's father frequents (7). So unless the last two were random innocents to account for that thing that killed BJ and Blair, or Blair was out of town at that moment, then this might be jossed.
    • After the Brew battle Blair actually went with Soul and Maka on a mission, so it's possible she really wasn't in town at the moment.
    • Note that Free can use magic and is a "wolf", but he isn't a wolf witch, though what parts of his magic are werewolf and what parts are from the witch's eye he stole...
    • It might be worth noting that the two unknown "witches" taken were from the club Blair works at. So it might be possible Medusa only knew a witch, or two, worked there and guessed at who she thought said witches were. The two taken are just red herrings to throw off people before the reveal.
    • The two that were taken are clearly witches as they are shown to be talking to the head witch just before they were taken.
      • Then for this not to be jossed three possibilities remain: She was out of town (Either coincidence or Shinnigami-sama told her to scram while B.J. was in town), B.J. was in on her thus it is 7 witches he was unfamiliar with or she's just that good at hiding herself (she is to Soul Protection as Maka is to Soul Perception).
  • One more possible point in favour of this theory; consider the writer's taste in character names, and then consider which film has Blair in the title. It's a stretch, I know, but it would fit in with the rest of the name-related wackines
  • Given Shinigami's reaction to the mere possibility that the destructive 'way of magic' could be surpressed in Angela, I'm finding it harder to believe that Blair is a human witch with a cat theme, as opposed to what she's said to be. If the Shinigami's willing to accept two witches as easily as he did, why bother to go to the trouble of hiding Blair's true nature? But Shinigami being Shinigami, he could quite simmply do both if it suited him.
    • Key phrase there: "human witch with a cat theme". This troper always thought that it's sort of the other way around, a witch-cat instead of a cat-witch, if that makes any sense.
      • See, this makes no sense, because none of her spells use a cat or feline based phrase, but Pumpkins. I think this supports the fact she's just a really magical cat of some kind. Plus the fact she doesn't lose her ears when she turns human.
      • Which would still make sense, as Free isn't a wolf-witch, but a werewolf with a witch's eye who can use ice-based attacks. Blair could be a cat with some part of a witch and have a pumpkin theme after a similar fashion. On top of that, Free is immortal, and Blair has nine lives/souls, which makes it even more brilliant!
• At this point, don't we just need Maka to look at Blair's soul to get an answer to this? She screwed up first time around because she couldn't tell a cat from a witch. Now she knows what witches are really like, and has the soul perception skills to get a definitive answer.
• Regardless, it doesn't really matter if Blair is actually a witch or not. She's proven herself to not be evil, like Kim.
• Unless the scanlation is wrong, on the Christmas attack Death the Kid comments he senses 8 witches. There are 5 Mizune sisters, Eruka(6) and Medusa(7), which leaves an 8th spot open
  • It's possible that Kid was including Free as a witch since he mentioned Ragnarok (And by extension Chrona) but not Free as an addition.

Blair is a former witch's cat

Lets face it, she must've learnt it from somewhere. Her powers might even be due to her being used as a guinea pig during her kitten-hood (this is not a source of angst due to her being, well, Blair).

Kim is being set up for a Heroic Sacrifice.

By letting Kim stick around, Shinigami has made sure the Spartoi have a witch handy who's indebted to the good guys. If worse came to worst, she might sacrifice herself to let one of their Weapons become a Death Scythe. (Who knows whether the 99 evil souls are all necessary, or just a nice big number to make sure the Meister is fully trained?) Nobody else has even thought about this, but Shinigami has -- and he hopes it won't happen, but a little insurance never hurts, right?

• If so, then Angela would be in the same boat.

Tsubaki becomes a Death Scythe by eating Angela's soul.

• She already fulfilled the requirement for 99 souls from Mifune, so she's primed to become a Death Scythe at any time. Will mostly likely involve a Heroic Sacrifice on the little witch's part.
  • Ironically, this was the original plan for completing Tsubaki's requirements, back when she and her meister were first introduced.

Kim is spying on the Witches Assembly, which will act eventually

We saw her at the assembly meetings before her being a witch became common knowledge. Shinigami didn't keep her around just to brainwash the 'sway of magic' out of Angela, he did it because he can use her to find out what his enemies are up to. Just because the Witches Assembly hasn't done anything of note yet doesn't necessarily take it out of the picture. The Queen's intention, after all, is for them to act as a group and not singularly as two of the Gorgons did; she was waiting to see what transpired. Smart woman. Unless, of course, the author has forgotten them as a potential...fifth side in this messy conflict.

There's a specific reason why there are no male witches (i.e. warlocks) that isn't genetic.

Either every time one is born they're slaughtered because the witch society is against men for anything other than mating, or like the Gerudo, one is born every X amount of years and they become the automatic ruler of the witch society. The head witch- I can't remember her name, sorry- wanted to keep her power and not give it away to some man, so she put a 'law' in place hat any male witch born was to be killed.

• The witch leader's name is Mabaa, which roughly means "Old Witch". The English dub of the anime calls her the "Grandwitch".

There will be a truce between Shibusen and the witches (in general) against the Big Bad.

I mean, come on, every substantial villain this series has seen easily poses (or has posed) a threat to both sides. So for an all-powerful, all-threatening force to surface, it would only be natural for two rival groups to set aside centuries worth of manslaughter on both sides to team up and fight a common enemy.

• • Would make sense, as Asura and possibly the remaining Great Old One/s are a threat to both sides, as is Medusa. An early chapter and comment by Eruka tells us that the Witch Queen was then biding her time before acting, uncertain of what the future held. If waiting has allowed her to see how the Witches Assembly and Shibusen have enemies in common, perhaps it will lead to an Enemy Mine (?) situation of both working together.

Medusa will be the true Big Bad in the end

She's clearly an Evil Counterpart of Shinigami; Witch vs. Death God that hunts witches. She created a child which she experimented on and abused horribly, he created a child which he treated with some degree of love and care (we assume) but kept in the dark about his true nature and (to a degree) powers. She wants to create a demon weapon, he wants to create death scythes...

• Jossed: Crona kills her.

Shingami is evil

Just because he apparently appointed himself ruler of the world and protector of balance, doesn't mean he is good I mean it looks like he put out an extermination order out on the witches even five year-olds like Angela or people that were not confirmed as being witches like Blair.

• Perhaps not evil per say, but what if he's simply Selfish Good? Discworld aside, having someone like Death be the one and only staunch protector of life and normalcy is rather thematically odd, what might make some sense is if he's simply trying to protect the historical cycle of birth and senescence on Earth from any radical change, purely because that would mean he'd be out of a job and thus cease to be. This also explains his choice of enemies: Kishins and other generic monsters (too many humans eaten would turn the world into a lifeless wasteland,) Asura (a formless sea of chaotic madness would have no life or death,) and the witches (numerous unnatural experiments, most particularly immortality.)
  • Well he still uses Child Soldiers as his personal army to fight Eldritch Abominations for him. Although he is lawful he is not good, in fact I would have trouble explaining such behavior as neutral even when and if those Child Soldiers were absolutely necessary.
  • If his main goal is to protect the cycle of life and death at any cost, with being a nice guy strictly incidental in nature, that would match up pretty well with child soldiers.
    • But he is still evil don't forget he made Asura the monster his today by training the poor bastard, He also has had shady dealings with Eibon and Medusa and has consented to the use of the Morality Manipulation Machine on the aforementioned five year-old to turn her into one of his soldiers. So I am pretty sure he is a Villain with Good Publicity and an Eldritch Abomination because he is Law not good or even neutral.
    • Interesting theory, but slight problem, with the "extermination of witches" bit: he didn't object to Black*Star sparing Angela (he even tried to give Black*Star a heads-up before he took the assignment).

• Or not evil, just different. For starters, he is implied to be a personification of the madness of Order, etc., which means he's an Eldrich Abomination. Also, depending on language or translation, his name (which he presumably chose himself) is either "Death", "God of Death", or "Grim Reaper". All the "evil points" ascribed to him are based on what central theme: That he kills people (directly or via proxy), allows people to be killed, or endangers people (particularly children). He may not even think that death is all that bad, so long as order is preserved. He may not be good though, just Lawful Neutral, which leads us to:

Kidd was created to make Shinigami more human

A continuation of the rebuttal of the above guess: Kidd was asexually created by Shinigami to make him more human. Its the reason both for the asymmetric hair lines, and how Kidd's power up seems to drain Shinigami. They are truely one being, thus one "energy reservoir". Kidd will live as a human, and then eventually be re-assimilated into his father, changing the latter to be more human.

Regarding Lord Death's body..

I'm thinking maybe his soul is bonded to that weird-looking appearance, much like Alphonse from Fullmetal Alchemist

• • Adding to this, in some way he lost his body, and before that, he impregnated whoever Kid's mother is before his soul was bonded to his current form. FMA crossover anyone?

Death's room in the DWMA is his Mental World

So the room with the mirror Death usually hangs around in appears to be some kind of strange infinite Bigger on the Inside violation of geometry, one bearing an oddly minimalistic appearance and loaded with symbolism related to him. It's rather strange really, the only other places like it in Soul Eater are… stuff like the lake inside Tsubaki's head, or the desert/beach in Crona's.

• That seems plausible.

Death the Kid will finally confront Shingami

Because come on, Kid's been trying to figure out everything on his own, and probably would have continued on this track had his very own existence not been questioned. After most likely some form of a Herioc BSOD, or maybe even during it, he'll finally demand answers of some form. It would be cool if he did it in front of all his friends, but doesn't really matter. Whether Shingami responds, however...

• • Kid's suffered from his assumption that Shinigami would not tell him the truth about Eibon. He was probably right, but like with the "Kishin closest to all of us" question (incidentally,it's worth noting Shinigami was lying about Asura again when he said he didn't know what he was. Just how far is he obfuscating...ignorance?) he might have been given something to go on if not the whole truth. As it is, Kid's hit with the GOO's Reveal without any solid information, poor bugger. He's got a lot to learn and confronting Shinigami would seem to be the way to get some answers. Shinigami will probably need to be straight with his 'fragment' eventually, because Kid's current state shows that even 'beings of insanity' can be driven into further madness and presumably on a purely practical level Shinigami wants Kid on-side to function as his replacement. (That and the fact I think he actually cares and won't be too happy another of his old friends is causing his not-exactly child grief).
    • Happened in the anime. We know how that turned out. Don't think it'll happen the same way in the manga given the circumstances.
      • You're probably right. Though it always struck me as daft, if understandable, that Kid didn't look for more information from his father in the manga and instead went along with poorly founded suspicions. Suspicions which turn out to be just part of only one side of the story. So much for looking for order and balance if you don't know one side from the other. Just one of the mistakes he makes.

A shinigami "dies" when he has a successor

It means Shinigami-sama would "die" (or whatever that happens to a Shinigami) when all of Kid's Sanzu Line connect and he will turn into a real Shinigami. That can explain why Shinigami-sama fell over when Kid's Sanzu Line connected, and why Spirit looked so morbid.

• • Seems to be the common fandom interpretation for the moment. Having an heir would make an awful lot of sense given that Shinigami is stuck, and there are clearly threats around that need a mobile death god. Having one only now could be justified by the current strength of Shibusen, as Mosquito admits its enough to maintain the order in the world, or at least until Asura's resurrection began to tip the balance. Before that point, any young shinigami could have been at too great a risk from the Shinigami's numerous opponents. After all, whatever Kid will grow up to be, until very recently he's not been shown as much more than a strong, fast meister not at all far removed from his human classmates.

Shinigami does have a human form

Mosquito's comment about adult shinigami having full Sanzu Lines makes this at least possible. Alternatively, he had one but lost it as he aged. Kid's been shown battered and bleeding plenty of times, but when Brew did its stuff he started looking less human and more like his father what with how those skull-arm things were working.

Kid's Sanzu Lines won't kill Shinigami

While the chapter where Shinigami reacted to Kid's Sanzu Line...thing did leave the strong impression that the Lines are going to be fatal for Shinigami, it's not necessarily the case. For the simple fact that Kid already has half of his Sanzu Lines. All he's missing is the second half that will complete the lines when he's a mature shinigami and not just, well, a child like Mosquito said. So, when this happens Shinigami will lost whatever traits correspond to the second half of the lines and be in a state similar to how Kid is now; fast, strong, damn tough with a Weapon, but not as powerful as a 'true' shinigami. They will, in other words, trade places. Shinigami isn't bothered because replacing him is why Kid is around in the first place and because he's Shinigami and he doesn't angst or mope much. His Death Scythe, on the other hand....

Eibon's full name has been revealed. It is Eibon Shinigami.

Kidd misread the name plate, and the Witches never realized the truth. It isn't Eibon and Shinigami. It is Eibon Shinigami. His first name written in a personal style, but Shinigami, the family name, written in the traditional family style. Here is the evidence for this conclusion:

• Eibon and Shinigami so far haven't been seen together, which doesn't seem out of place until you think back to the battle for Brew. Eibon just happens to show up when Shinigami did? Not to mention Medua made the claim Arachne made the first demon weapon without the aid of Eibon, just his book.
• Demon weapon and death scythes are implied to be one in the same through the creation of the first "demon weapon" described. A good many souls with a witch soul to glue it all together. Just the motives seem to be different. Ragnarok is off in this regard not because of being a demon weapon, but the black blood.
• Shinigami has a large collection of Eibon's stuff. He didn't gather it all, it was his to begin with.
• They look similar enough that the difference could just be a mask-swap away.
• Eibon created "Brew", which can draw out Shinigami powers - a likely invention of a Shinigami.
  • Actually, Mosquito says it enhances soul wavelengths, not specifically shinigami abilities. The Sanzu thing came about because of the kind of soul Brew was enhancing at the time. This troper wonders whether this was the reason Shinigami gave it to Kid; unlike the others, he hasn't had any major development in his abilities, and Shinigami knows the kind of thing Arachne does and what shinigami - obviously - are capable of.

Manga spoilers: The Great Old Ones are manifestations of different "flavors" of Madness

Not really much of a WMG, really, given that the thing in the Book of Eibon more or less spells it out, describing the Great Old Ones as existences that "drive men to madness," specifically mentioning "order", "knowledge", "power", "rage" and "terror". He also mentions that only five of the eight great old ones are still alive: Himself, Death, Eibon, Ashura (who ate the other three), and one unknown being he claims that Kid knows of.

I mention all this information to lay the groundwork for this WMG:

• • Alternately the Eight Old Ones are Shinigami's Eight Warriors, the rosters seem to be the same.

Death the Kid's new upgrade will be to use the new "Madness Fusion" technique

It makes sense in a way. We've already seen both Medusa and Justin use it, using the clown, which is an actual embodiment of insanity. The author isn't just going to let a new skill like this appear once and once only. However, the reasons I think that this is possible for Kid and Kid only is that:

• Both the Great Old One and the Table of Contents called him (or at least implied) that he's a fragment of Shinigami, who in turn is presumed to be the very being of the Madness known as the rule of law, implying that Kid himself is a being of absolute insanity, similar to that of the clown.

• As of chapter 73, it is most likely safe to assume that Kid is currently INSANE

• Kid is obsessed with balance (even if he does tend to focus on the balance created through symmetry) to illogical degrees--rather than just kick any irrational thoughts of insanity or following the path of the kishin, which both Maka and Black* Star did, he'll figure out some way to balance sanity and insanity.

• By creating this balance, Kid will be able to use himself as a catalyst for the technique "Madness Fusion", rather than using the clown since, even if just a fragment of the Madness known as Law, Kid still is a being of insanity.

If he does get the ability, it will probably let him power up several of his moves, or simply Liz and Patti. It might even let him develop some shinigami skills that should have come with age or proper training, or may allow him to force a similar reaction with his Sanzu Lines as the Brew did. l Chances are he'll be snapped out of whatever he is in when Spartoi finally find him anyway, but it would be a really cool way to come back into action. Even if it is a one off of regaining his sanity whilst he's in his state, just to see him use some skills of controlling his madness rather than pushing away like everyone else would be kind of neat.

Noah is a creation of Eibon

Or perhaps more indirectly, a creation of the Table of Contents. It wishes to teach humanity (revealed in ch82) and created Noah to fulfill it's goals by as of yet unknown means. It can resurrect Noah again as different personifications of the Sins. The first Noah was the Noah of Greed, who wished to collect everything, and the new Noah is the Noah of Rage (the TOC called out "Statue of Rage" when resurrecting him). This new Noah's ambitions probably accord to his sin.

• • Shinigami knows what Noah was, a chapter of the book, but didn't exactly admit it when Kid claimed - rightly enough - that Noah was like a 'machine' rather than a person.

== Noah is really the Kishin, Asura. ==l I typed this one up a while ago; I think it's since been Jossed, but I like it, so I'm posting it anyway. Here's the evidence, accurate up to Ch. 60 or so:

• Asura was built up as the ultimate villain of the series, a role he certainly played in the anime, but we've seen neither hide nor hair of him in the manga since he first escaped. Instead, Arachne became the immediate threat. Now that her storyline (and arguable Plot Tumor) is over, surely it's time to return to the Big Bad. Noah looks like another distraction -- but not if he's really the Kishin.
• Asura lives in constant terror and is obsessed with concealing himself; hence all the scarves. So even if he's going to take direct action, he'll want to be as well hidden as possible. How better than with a whole new identity? Hell, he's had two (Noah was calling himself Eibon for a while).
• Following on that last point, Noah's highest priority so far has been to eliminate the Shibusen personnel who are best with Soul Detection -- i.e. those who would have the best chance of seeing through Noah's disguise, be it Soul Protection or something stronger.
• So far, we only know of one character who was working directly for the Kishin: Nidhogg, captain of the Flying Dutchman. And who was he working with when we last saw him? Noah's buddy the Clown.
• Considering his god complex, Justin Law surely wouldn't have betrayed Shinigami for just anybody. His motive gets a lot more powerful if Noah is really Asura.

Asura's weapon partner still exists

He's still got the weapon itself in his throat - Asura uses it against Shinigami - which means that the weapon could be freed from Asura's body. Granted, the poor weapon's mind is probably shot to hell with madness by now, but there's no reason he or she can't make an appearance anyways.

• • Considering the number of parallels between Asura/his Weapon and Crona/Ragnarok (the Weapon existing within the meister's body, the affects of fear leading to madness and great destructive power (or so it seemed...)), there could well be something in this.

Asura (and possibly his first fight with Shinigami) caused The End of the World as We Know It

This is why the sun and the moon look messed up as well as all the wildly varied settings in one world, complete with people even forgetting who King Arthur was beyond a wielder of Excalibur, thus the series actually takes place in a rebuilt After the End. As to how the world was rebuilt, possibly Shinigami, as a personification of Order, was able to rebuild ALMOST every... As he remembered. It's possible there were other places not as badly damaged by everything, leaving strange gaps and anachronisms.

• Wow, that actually makes sense! Whoever wrote this, PLEASE make a fanfic about it.
  • I'm flattered and even considered this, but there's really not much to say about it. This troper mostly figured this based on the pre-opener scenes shown in the anime with Asura standing amidst an endless and massive pile of bodies, and beyond that a seeming world in ruins.

Eibon is connected to Ashura, and one or the other might be Death the Kid's other parent.

Compare Death the Kid's hairstyle that is genetically kept that way, see when he admits to haveing tried dying it in the past, to Ashura/Kishin's. With the lack of another parent it would seem either Ashura is the other parent or someone linked to him. Eibon is only thrown in as Death's father had a connection to Eibon and it would seem strange for Death the Kid to have two fathers assuming Ashura is also male.

• Other possibilities would be Ashura = Eibon, Eibon = Ashura's weapon and maybe Eibon = Ashura's relative. Also Shinigami might be secretly female.
• Partially Jossed it seems with the revelation of Eibon with Arcanaphobia and clearly being male.
  • Except that "Eibon" just admitted himself to be a wannabe using the name. So the original Eibon could easily have been female (super easily, considering the mask and duvet he or she was wearing in the flashback).
  • However, Kid's hair is apparently important: Mosquito comments on how the "lines of Sanju" are not complete....and then Kid gets fused with the Brew and one line completes itself and he gets a power-up.
    • And Ashura/Kishin's could merely be Sanju lines ALL connected, ifin you support this theory.
      • Then they'd have to 'broken' ones; they go the wrong way, being vertical rather than horizontal. Even so, the troper still likes the idea of Asura as a 'broken' shinigami.
        • Actually, look closely at Asura's hair. It's keeping in with his motif. They're eyes.
          • ^
• This Troper actually imagined at one point that Ashura may be Kid's genetic father, and that Shinigami only adopted him and lied about his heritage for all those years.
  • Interesting in light of recent manga chapters. They are vaguely related, and Shinigami has been lying (or at least omitting certain significant details), though it seems definite that he and not Asura is Kid's father. For a given value of 'father'.

Kisin are created by invoking Loners Are Evil

Shinigami basically says that Asura became evil because he was scared of being betrayed. When he appears after being revived he basically freaks out at being naked (or that's how I interprited him screaming at the only humanoid female present and improvising clothing from his own skin anyway) and Aracne may have controlled him briefly with The Power of Love, even though he didn't trust her. The only other character we see being this painfully shy is Chrona; a potential Kisin candidate. Furthermore there's Masamune, also on his way to becoming one (who became evil "because he was lonely" Well, that and sibling rivalry). Also, notice how in the anime Ragnorak was forced into Sleep Size Mode by Chrona's Heel Face Turn, implying that Chrona was actually weakened by The Power of Friendship. Oh, and what causes eveyone to worry Black* Star might be headed this way? Training on his own and having trouble working in a group.

• • Justin fits this one: a Weapon without a meister, isolated from others and appears to have gone mad after encountering the Clown.
  • Kid's now met the 'isolation' criteria in an extreme fashion, which he - in his moment of insanity - greatly appreciates for it represents absolute order with 'no left or right'. The difference being that unlike the other two he didn't seek it out, it found him.

Spirit will go mad (sort of)

Okay, silly, I know, but I like it for the lulz and/or potential Nightmare Fuel. Think of it: insanity is contagious, and Spirit has spent plenty of time around people who are either insane (Stein), or tackling insane characters alongside those who are hardly normal or particularly stable themselves (Shinigami). We know also that insanity can be transmitted from weapon to meister through soul resonance. If we assume the reverse is true, then Spirit has been exposed to Stein's madness for years. Why has there been no ill-effects? Well, because as we're shown and told, Spirit has a knack for controlling soul wavelengths (and becoming a Death Scythe only heightens this skill). If Stein can adapt his soul wavelength to compensate for his own madness, then why not the Weapon who is tasked with controlling the "hedonistic sadist" in the first place? Evidence that he is somehow affected by Asura's release; none, even at the time, he only noted the wavelength's existence. But...WMG, anyway?

Justin Law is a spy for Shibusen, and his crucifix is his communication device.

Remember, right before the fight with Stein and Marie, how he kissed his crucifix and apologized for the sins he was about to commit? Maybe he was talking about causing the people close to him anguish and the like, rather than betraying Shibusen - remember, he thinks that Shinigami is Jesus Christ, so I don't see him betraying his own God that easily, especially seeing how he's a Christian and all that. And remember how he took off his earplugs to listen to Kid's screaming? Maybe Kid was actually speaking in code about what he had seen in the book of Eibon, and Justin needed to take off his earplugs, since he couldn't read lips that he can't see.

Alternatively,Justin is actually a Non-christian.

It's the perfect disguise: Who would suspect the priest?

• • Altar boys, naturally.
  • Well, he does seem to be wearing a yamaka...
    • Actually, I thought his headgear was supposed to be a zucchetto or pileolus. (The little hat thing popes and such wear).

Justin Law's cross is also his iPod

Just because.

• Why isn't it connected to his earbuds then?
  • Rule of Cool has been shown time and time again to govern the world of Soul Eater. I'd be surprised if his Cross WASN'T his I Pod
  • The earbuds are connected... wirelessly. Why bother? Rule of Cool.

The Clown, Justin Law and now Giriko are all working for or with Eibon/Noah.

When forced to retreat by Marie and Stein, Law uses a piece of paper to escape, by being sucked into it and disappearing, much like how Eibon/Noah has been shown to capture things inside his book. This was a spare page of the book, which allowed him to teleport to his new partner/master's location.

• • Confirmed in chapter 62. He also has a little boy who's taken on the 'kill Maka Albarn for as yet unknown reasons' task. Good luck to him considering who she has on her side, if she doesn't just Demon Hunter him to death herself.

That thing on Giriko's nose that looks like a snore strip...

... Is an actual snore strip. If he doesn't wear it he'll buzz like a chainsaw, even when he's awake.

• • Great.

Giriko, in some previous incarnation, killed a witch

We already know he's at least as powerful as a Death Scythe, and he's perhaps the most creative of all Weapons when it comes to using his Weapon form on his own in battle; armour, transport, various attacks. The others can manage blades and chains on occasion but not very much. We're told by Marie that changing one's Weapon form is a basic thing for a Death Scythe. Giriko having eaten a witch's soul would give another explanation for his style of combat, and the fact he stood up to Justin however briefly. He's a Death Scythe in all but name. Given that it'll be doubly interesting to see how his fight with Soul turns out. He's got more experience, more versatility, Soul's got 'courage' in a chapter which involves apathy.

Maka will be the one to kill Free

Or more accurately, she's the only one able to kill him. Maka has the anti-demon soul wavelength, and there's been all of ONE injury we've seen free not recover from... when Maka cut off his tail with Hunting-Witch. With the power of her soul wavelength. Gopher might be able to do it as well.

• • After looking at a few of Free's appearances, Maka's demonslayer wavelength and anti-magic of Witch Hunter did manage to remove his tail, so it seems you have a point. It's presumably down to the kind of soul behind the attack, rather than the amount of damage done to the werewolf; he seemed to get cut in two by Mosquito and still survived (although he might have produced the hologram while Mosquito was transforming (realising it was bad news), and it was this that the vampire cut in half) Frankly, Maka's been given a collection of abilities which allow her to potentially wipe out all the antagonists. Might as well add the 'immortal' werewolf to the list... (if you're right, it sounds as though Free boasted about more than his magical ability).
    • Exactly. Except for... Free? Realize ANYTHING is bad news? If that's true, there would also be some Obfuscating Stupidity going around.
      • Nah, I just didn't consider Free's carelessness - silly thing to miss out seeing as I re-read his original and the Baba Yaga fight chapters to write that point * shrug* . And even doing it, say, because he figured actually * breaking the lock they came for* would be a good idea, it's a rather too sensible conclusion for him to come to; do the job, leave the kid to get owned.

Excalibur is not really that obnoxious

Think about it: if YOU were the ultimate weapon, would YOU want a bunch of inexperienced teenagers just waltzing in and claiming you as theirs? Excalibur's song and dance routine is his way of testing potential meisters - only the most noble, bravest, and most patient warriors (ie someone with years of training and experience) can put up with him. Even with Hero, Excalibur made himself obnoxious on purpose via sneezing because Hero's motives weren't pure. Excalibur's wielders aren't heroes because they put up with him, they put up with him because they're truly heroes.

• Actually, if we combine this theory with another one below, about Excalibur having the madness of power, he acts this way to stop that madness from spreading. those that can put up with him could probably survive the madness.
• He DID seem more normal, when he was offering his help in chapter 74...

Excalibur is a Bone

Seriously, he looks like one of the Bones, but with a nose job. Plus he acts like an even more full of himself version of Phoney, though without the greed. This probably makes the Lord of the Locusts a Kishin as well...

• Personally I thought he looked rather Moomin-esque...
• That makes way too much sense. Excaliber being a bone is now art of my personal cannon.

Excalibur is the Madness of Rage

That is why he was in the "Wrath" chapter. This perfectly fits his personality as well. Only someone who can not get mad at Excalibur through all his antics and provisions would be able to handle hia "Rage". He's the most powerful weapon in existence because he is the only Great Old One who was a weapon, not a meister.

---

Manga spoilers: Excalibur is the remaining Great Old One

He is insanely powerful, clearly not any normal being, has met Kid (and Black☆Star), and is certainly more than capable of driving people insane. Whether he has been sealed in his waterfall cave against his will, like Ashura was, or willing became a recluse for the greater good, like Death seems to be, I cannot fathom.

If we take the "elements" of Madness the sealed GOO mentioned to be the remaining living manifestations -- which, given that Order (Death) and Terror (Ashura) are of course, still alive, makes it seem likely -- than I would posit that Excalibur would have to be Power. If not, and the elements the GOO mentioned weren't necessarily meant to describe the living Great Old Ones, though, than I say Pride would clearly fit better.

• (ﺧ益ﺨ)
• Or it could be Free.
  • Possibly confirmed Noah said that he only needed to get Shinigami and Asura, and he'd have all the remaining Great Old Ones (or at least implied this). Guess who we just met in chapter 74? Excalibur. (ﺧ益ﺨ)

Excalibur is a parody of The Moomins.

He looks incredibly similar to them. The joke about him wearing clothes yet not wearing pants has been mentioned around the Moomins a lot… and to top it all off, his voice actor dubbed Snufkin in the Japanese animation of them. Coincidence? I think not.

Excalibur's "auto-resonance" with anyone results in automatic psychic emanations of disgust and rejection.

People have thrown Excalibur away; regardless of their situation. This goes beyond "annoyance." When you live in a world of soul-consuming Eldritch Abominations; "annoying" wouldn't be enough to throw it away at every opportunity. (Which many have done while in the middle of being under attack by said monstrosities.) Whatever "override" that Excalibur has that allows resonance with anyones soul causes acute psychological distress. While it appears the soul "resonates" with Excalibur; resonating with an unknown entity without being "familiar" with it causes the mind to reject it. The "It's annoying" response is a self-defense cushion for the mind.

Soul Evans will continue to grow in power and eventually become Vigilance

Just a Rule of Cool WMG, but given how souls seem to be used as power sources in Soul Eater and in Soul Nomad the most powerful spell catalyst thingy is the Crimson Tear, the crystallized form of someone's soul i may not be too far off.

Dr. Stein is Franken Fran's relative

The only "enhancements" Dr. Madaraki made were her extra limbs.

• Franken does sound like a surname. I could believe that there's a stitched-up old Asian woman out there who insists on putting the family name first.
• This troper thinks she's his daughter. She has the stitching, and also has blond hair. Both potential love interests for Stein have blond hair. Make of that what you will.
  • Now watch as your brain slowly shifts and notices that Maka is blond as well...
    • As are the Thompson sisters. God help those poor girls if they ever do badly on a test and need an A really badly.

Dr. Stein is this world's Gaius Baltar

And with the help of HeadMedusa and Empathetic Weapon Marie he's going to lead a small country and start a hugely popular cult (and not let Spirit have any of the babes).

All the witches are outlaws and rejects from Witch Haven

From the mini-anime Tweeny Witches. All the Big Bad witches would definitely have had to leave.

Yumi Azusa is an older Yumi Ozawa.

After the events of P4, Ozawa decides to change her lifestyle. She buckles down in her studies, enters student council, and starts grows out of her talkative, attention-seeking phase. Like so many others in Inaba, she eventually discovers she has a secret power; hers just happens to take a different form... One that Shinigami's interested in. She gets scouted, enters Shibusen, and many, many years later she's one of his Death Scythes.

• • And Stein is the crazy grown up version of Souji, aka the Protagonist

Ox and Kim are Shout-Out s to Hellboy and Liz

Only the opposite: Ox is pure intellect while Hellboy relies on brute strength (most of the time); Kim's healing powers vs. Liz's destructive fire powers. Their "weapon's" elements - electricity and fire, respectively - are definitely opposites to Abe's element of water, and maybe Bob the Homunculus' element of (power-absorbing) stone and Johann's ectoplasm "air/aether".

The universe in Ouran High School Host Club is the same as that in SOUL EATER.

In addition to sharing the same animation studio, same director, and a few of the same voice actors, there are in-universe implication. The characters obviously live in a world equivalent to modern Japan and other parts of the world- and who's to say the characters in SOUL EATER are not sent on missions in the same world? The enemies that the Host Club encounter are souls gone bad, and will one day be collected by meisters!.

Patty was Lilinette Gingerback in a past life.

It would explain a great deal.

• • Or Lilinette was originally Patti, and Starrk at one point consumed her soul. But that's just depressing, Lilinette getting a further, better existence is the nicer option. Though if she's Lilinette, what happened to Starrk? They were the same being once, after all.
    • Starrk is Liz, of course.

Spirit/Death Scythe is in someway related to CatValentine.

They have the same hair color, and both are fairly eccentric. Nevada also is not far from Los Angeles. In fact, Spirit could be her unseen brother.

The Soul Eater universe is in the same universe as Kingdom Hearts.

They're both Square Enix-owned, and souls are pretty close to hearts. Besides, how awesome would it be to see Soul and Maka hanging out with Cloud Strife in Hollow Bastion in Kingdom Hearts III? That'd be a Crowning Moment of Awesome right away.

• Then Frollo Would think that Maka and Soul are witches
  • Is there anyone in Soul Eater he wouldn't consider a witch?
    • Or maybe Frollo was tudored by Justin Law, who definitely has a priest/bishop/cardinal/Inquistion theme going.

Soul is Brendan from Pokemon.

Oh come on. Just look at the guy! And then look at the male player character from Pokemon R/S/E.

• adding to that, Spirit is Silver all grown up.

Stein is a cyborg.

Stein's experimentation on himself escalated to the point where he began to replace parts of his brain with hyper-advanced machinery of his own invention. This increased his own intelligence and dampened his ability to feel pain. The downside of this was that it increased his already burgeoning madness, prompting him to install the bolt in order to keep his mind clear.

• Strictly speaking wouldn't the bolt alone qualify him as a cyborg (in so far as it's a mechanic device which is perminently grafted onto his body)?
  • It doesn't even have to be permanent. Eyeglasses qualify you to be a cyborg...so, WMG confirmed.

Taken further, Spirit Albarn (or Death Scythe) is adult Tamaki in the future.

Tamaki graduated from school, became successful, went to the DWMA, married, had Maka, and then divorced. He then went a little bat-shit insane after the break-up, became somewhat of a ladies' man, and changed his hair color. In English, they're both voiced by Vic Mignogna. ...that wouldn't explain the different last names, though.

• Spirit could be the son of Tamaki and Haruhi. He'd get the red hair from Haruhi's side, Maka's blonde hair comes in from Tamaki, and as for the last name...um...well, he probably changed his surname to Kami's surname when they got married and now refuses to change back even though they're divorced.

Yumi Azusa is really Yumi Ishiyama.

She eventually moved to Death City, and somehow became a weapon and decided to enroll in the DWMA. I mean, look at her. Azusa dresses similar to Ishiyama, the hairstyles are fairly similar.. as for the last name, it could have been her mother's maiden name that she decided to take, and the reason she's called Azusa most of the time is because her father named her Yumi and she now has a grudge against her father like Maka does. She never mentions Lyoko because, well, she has to keep a secret.

• Because I like these two shows (Code Lyoko and Soul Eater), and as far as I know we don't see Azusa's miester, I'm going to guess that its Ulric Stern(also of Code Lyoko).

Being A Technician, Weapon, or Shinigami can damage the mind

Nearly every Technician or Weapon is mentally unbalanced in some way, ranging from neurosis to downright insanity. Meanwhile Stein is suffering the most from his insanity and is one of the strongest weapon technicians. Coincidence? I think not.

• Shinigami even comments on how powering current techniques against witches past the current point leads to the Path of the Kishin.
• Nice point, but if we're to believe Stein's little rant to Medusa, he's always been the way he is. If anything, Spirit has managed to hold him back and this was, according to him, his role as Franken's partner ("I almost forgot...it's my duty to control this crazy kid"). That Shinigami has repeatedly looked to Spirit to keep an eye on Stein would make less sense if working with the Death Scythe was actually worsening Stein's condition. In the process, he could potentially have lost both his strongest Technician and his own Weapon, for we know Stein used Spirit as a test-subject in the past.
• Maybe it's more of a trade-off with whatever it is that allows Meisters and Weapons to syncronise with each other having the side effect of making them more susceptible to mental problems. There's plenty of real life talents that are linked to various problems in that department (for example the traits that lead to creativity are also linked to problems like Tourettes and bipolar disorder) so it's not that much of a stretch. The exact level of crazy differs from person to person for an assortment of reasons that are not necessarily linked with their occupation.
• Maybe it's not so much that they're crazy because they're Meisters or Weapons, but that they're Meisters or Weapons because they're crazy? It certainly doesn't seem like a job someone who's perfectly sane would just pick out for shits and giggles.

Maka is an ideal Kishin candidate; being a Meister/Weapon hybrid.

While Kishin Eggs are simply corrupted souls who fed on Humans, the Kishin and Crona seem to be that way due to their fusion of Meister and Weapon. The Kishin ate the soul of his weapon, and Crona was created with Ragnarok inside her blood. Soul's experience with controlling the Darkness helps, but also the fact that Maka is the natural daughter of a Meister and a Weapon already gives her a huge advantage.

• It's doubtful that the show would end on such a down-note of her being the next Kishin, but she may find an alternative path.

Certain aspects of Soul Eater are based on Rush's Fear Series.

No really, go look at The Other Wiki page. It's not really that crazy. The first song (Part 3) is called Witch Hunting...what part of Soul Eater references that is obvious. Then there's The Weapon (Part 2), and not only does the name make it obvious, but it also the theme of it is somewhat touched upon in the series. Fear (as well as insanity) is used as a weapon against many people in Soul Eater. The Enemy Within (Part 1) deals with fear inside everyone, making us (or the characters) paranoid, worried, afraid and possibly insane. Finally, Freeze (Part 4), describes describes how people take on a fight or flight kind of idea towards fear, which the characters encounter almost constantly throughout the series. Makes sense, right?

• This would not be surprising, considering the amount of references to American movies and music prevalent in the series.

The cost to the Meister whose Weapon Partner becomes a Death Scythe is their ability to Soul Resonance.

The only Weapon Technician whose partner became a Scythe that is ever talked about is Maka's mother, who mysteriously isn't participating anymore. All of the others are mysteriously partner-less. One would think an accomplishment like that would have her more in the limelight.

• I've always put the absence of Maka's mum down to her practicing Spirit Avoidence. After all, we all know what he's like. It isn't hard to imagine him doing something extraordinarily embarrassing (eg, hanging onto her ankle while begging and pleading) in a bid to get her to take him back. I just figured that she decided to spare herself the hassle and give him a wide berth. Plus I kind of doubt that a partnership would work if one half is monumentally ticked at the other. Don't know about the other Death Scythes though.
  • I always believed that the lack of Meister is a result of the fact that not many Meisters can align their souls to the wavelength of a Death Scythe. (Which, by the way, would fit well with your theory).
    • Sort of disproven by Chapter 60, where the South American Death Scythe is still working with his Technician (who is a monkey). Also, consider that Justin Law became a Death Scythe without a Technician.
      • That still leaves Marie and Yumi who are both mysteriously meisterless, although I suppose it could just be that their meisters retired/went on to do something else.
        • Not so much of a mystery, I think, considering what both went on to do following their introductions. Marie got Stein as a meister, as Spirit went back with Shinigami, and aside from being wielded by Sid on the Brew mission, Yumi's role has been exclusively administrative, gathering information for Shinigami along with filling in as Death Scythe for Oceania (Marie's position). As such, she doesn't need a meister at the moment. If Shibusen's Asia campus (where Yumi was recently shown to be) is anything like the one in Death City, there's bound to be suitable meisters around if Asuza happens to need one.
          • Completely and utterly jossed, as of 63, Soul is now a Death Scythe; and Maka is becoming a rare kind of Meister called a Grigori where her soul has special abilities that can resonate with her Death Scythe.

Shinigami-sama could now leave Death City.

He was trapped in the city by a seal he set up to keep Asura trapped in his bag of skin. Except now Asura has left, so there's little reason for Shinigami to keep the seal around.

• Maybe removing it would damage Death City itself?
• Discussed in the manga: even though Asura is gone, Shinigami-sama is still "rooted" to Death City - if he wanted to move, Death City itself would have to become mobile.
  • New WMG: Before the end of the series, Death City will become mobile. Because that would be awesome.
    • Seconded. Given the fact that the Rule of Cool runs rampent in Soul Eater, it might actually happen just because of the awesomness.
    • No longer an WMG. It's canon as of 47. The City has legs and arms, and Shinigami went to great lengths to squash Baba Yaga castle, which also grew legs (eight of them). The robot ate Kishin Asura. Seriously. It was ridiculously awesome. Or awesomely ridiculous.
    • Which is non-canon in the manga. The anime has been acknowledged as having had a huge Gecko Ending, which started around the beginning of the Arachnaphobia arc, so this theory is still technically Fanon.
    • And is likely to remain so, as Shinigami's something of a story breaker judging by what we've seen of his abilities so far. Can't risk making the kids' actions seem obsolete.
    • Wrong. It IS canon, just not in the manga. Just because it only happens in the anime doesn't mean that it's fanon.
  • One of the first mentions of the real Kishin came about when Kid met Nidhogg and asked his father whether the 'Kishin closest to all of us' had something to do with why Shinigami left Death City. Which apparently it did, but when Kid guessed correctly (for once!) Shinigami brushed him off with a figurative, vague answer. Perhaps the in-universe reason Shinigami can't leave Death City even when Asura is free is because he used up his power not just sealing Asura, but when he created Kid in order to depower himself to avoid ending up like the Madness of Terror-person. Would not be the first time one of Shinigami's lessons turned out to lack certain details.

Marie Mjolnir is actually Liz and Patti mother.

She had them when she was young and couldn't take care of them so she left them in Brooklyn.... She acts like an older version of Patti. Pretty light, yes, but possible.

• Also, it's possible that's the real reason she wants to get married so badly. Unwed mothers aren't exactly exalted in society.

Official Shibusen Weapons don't really "eat" souls.

They just store them, and give them to Shinigami-sama to be purified. Thus Maka and Soul gave up their 99 when accidentally taking Blair's "spare" soul. Also when Death the Kidd took out the mummies in the Pyramid, he was forced to give up their souls to Shinigami-sama as "punishment" for damaging the architecture; implying no fusion takes place.

• Thus the 99 Kishin Egg Souls and 1 Witch's soul" goal is just a sign that one is ready to face Shibusen's true enemies; it doesn't actually physically transform one. That's the path of the Kishin.
  • That was what I assumed, but it could be that there is a limit of 99 souls for soul weapons to carry (nature counts in base 10, neh?), and they need to absorb the power of a witches soul while "maxed out." If they get a witch's soul before they have all 99 pre-kishin souls, it has no effect because the weapon can't handle the internal fight for the power when not "full." If it takes in a hundredth non-witch soul, it then loses the souls like the game glitch where too much damage rolls over to very little damage, or has them all confiscated to prevent damage to itself.
• Might just be there is no true fusion. For example, Ragnarok was trying to become a kishin and was really eating souls. Still he had his confiscated when Crona did her Heel Face Turn. Also, Ashura/The Kishin's weapon was "eaten", but still inside of him after all this time.
  • After rereading the manga and rereading the bit about the arms race between Witches/Shinigami and the development of the first demon weapon being done by Arachne by sacrificing a fellow witch to help glue a demon of sorts to the first weapon sounds eerily like the 99 souls and a witch soul bit. Tsubaki being descended from a demon weapon also hints that "demon weapons" and "weapons" might only really differ in the motive.
• Considering in Chapter 77 of the manga, Soul used a new ability directly linked to Arachne's soul, which he ate in order to become a Death Scythe, I doubt that it's storage or just a general requirement to prove you're ready.

Soul is the only weapon that LITERALLY eats souls

We've never seen Tsubaki actually eat a soul, and I believe (according to the anime at least) Liz and Patti load the souls into their magazines and then into themselves. This could also mean the 'Eater' part of Soul's name wasn't something he picked, but something everyone else nicknamed him as.

Soul Eater isn't Soul's real first name.

He comes from a wealthy family of musicians, and his brother's name is Wes. Who would name their children "Wes" and "Soul Eater"? Especially since it was before he discovered he was a weapon! His family is clearly rather messed up and Soul doesn't talk about them and went to Shibusen to get away from them, so it's not unlikely that he adopted the moniker "Soul Eater" to further distance himself from the Evans family.

• • I figured his name was Soul Evens, two brothers being names Soul and Wes isn't that much of a stetch. I assumed the Eater part was just him entering Shibusen under an ironic false name.
  • The idea the 'Eater' part is a moniker is furthered in chapter 80 - when Maka answers the phone, she mentions 'Eater and Albarn', as though 'Eater' were Soul's last time. Adopting that bit fits with Soul's dislike of his last name, and his previously shown desire to do something independent of his musical background and family which apparently led him to join Shibusen. For a Weapon, it also sounds like the kind of name you'd use for yourself because you thought it sounded 'cool', and Soul wants to be that.

Soul Eater, prior to coming to Shibusen, was a member in a family of wealthy Victorian Kishin worshippers.

Hence his internal landscape has him wearing a suit; surrounded by luxury and a record player. This is also how he knows how to turn Madness into song and dance; and is very aware of the danger in doing so. His "dumb thug" persona at Death City is an attempt to distance himself from his roots. It's also why he hates his last name, Evans.

• He may have joined Shibusen for the same reason that Black* Star did...they killed his parents, but found no reason to do so to him as he was just a child so they brought him in.
  • We see his house for a bit, and it looks grandish with all the photos and grand piano. Still, considering Maka was there was it a field trip or just take your daughter to work day if the above statement was true?
  • Jossed in chapter 55; Soul has a flashback where he speaks with his brother, and he muses about how he wanted to get away from his family of musicians. He was tired of being compared to his brother, and so, upon finding out about his ability to turn into a weapon (an apparent recessive gene), he found his opportunity to break away and find his own path in life. While it has been proven that he lived in some grandeur and wealth of sorts, it's suggested his "cool", rebellious personality is how he actually is, as opposed to an upper-class gentleman.

The remaining Death Scythes...

Throwing a couple of semi-serious theories out there regarding the remaining Death Scythes (the Area Heads, we don't officially know how many Death Scythes there are).

• There are meant to be two European Death Scythes. Perhaps Justin killed the other one for discovering his deception, and Shibusen has yet to hear anything other than he/she simply being out of contact.
• The lack of response from the African Death Scythes (doesn't seem right for there just to be one) is to do with the experiments Medusa was conducting, discovered by Kirikou's team. They turned up something suspicious and either got killed or otherwise involved. The Death Scythe meeting already turned up some points regarding Justin and the South America pair, perhaps the odd comments about the Death Scythes who didn't attend will also come to something significant.
• There's another Asia Death Scythe, and they're working with Maka's mother as their meister. Because under the circumstances it makes no sense for someone with as much informed ability as the former Mrs Albarn to be doing nothing useful. If she's not going to be any help to her daughter, she'd better be doing something right.
  • Well, we now know 7/9 of the Death Scythes. Soul, Spirit, Marie, Azusa, Tezca, Justin, and now a Russian guy called Tsar Pushka. He's currently fighting Chrona to the death.

Taking this one step further, might this have something to do with Death being bound to Death City? Heck, what if Death City is literally Death's soul turned inside-out.

Marie is THE Mjolnir

If Excalibur is any proof, weapons can live a long time (though this is Excalibur...). Marie is the oldest Death Scythe and Thor was the meister who got her there, eventually gaining enough legend himself to become a god.

• Though it would be kind of nonsensical, one must also remember her eyepatch… Guess whose dad also wears an eyepatch?

Joe was Marie's first meister

Another of the 'so simple it has to have some truth to it' ones. We at least know of the partners of most of the staff, and also that Marie and Joe had been in a relationship at some point. Perhaps that relationship began when they were in school, and they collected the souls which made Marie a Death Scythe. Then he left because his soul perception made it difficult to be with Marie (and possibly because he worked with Internal Investigations - he remarks its been a while since he's seen Spirit and the other staff). Marie ended up where-ever the Oceania Death Scythe is based with the intention of finding herself a husband and retiring.

Death City is connected to numerous points in the Time/Space Continuum

This is how the setting can go from Victorian London to a Japanese Ninja Village to Gangsterland Brooklyn to a modern-day Suburbia. San Dimas Time prevents Time Travel from being exploited, though.

What would the Mizune sister's look like all combined, if the one that was killed by Medusa was still alive?

• Well, the age of their fused form seems to be affected by how many combine at once. The young-looking one in the Baba Yaga arc took fewer than the one that fought Blair (2 rather than three? I forget how many are left). The last, late sister would by that process make the combined form look older. While on the subject, I wonder if Eruka will eventually tell the rest of the Mizunes that Medusa killed their sister, not Shibusen. They're not, as far as we know, being forced into serving her like Eruka herself. Although, this being Medusa, it's quite reasonable to suppose she has some way of assuring their allegiance.

Kid's "Skull arms" work in the same way as a Diclonius' vectors.

During his fight with Mosquito, his arm gets chopped off. He reattaches it in a similar fashion as how Nana uses her vectors to control her artificial limbs. A parallel could be drawn between a Diclonius' horns and the Lines of Sanzu (both need to be complete for the "arms" to work). If they are the same, then both can be used in... destructive ways, and that would be AWESOME. However, if Elfen Lied is anything to go by, then Kid has a very bad future

• • Shinigami has those 'arms' too, and uses them when threatening to skin Asura a second time. Thanks to the seal upon his soul, they don't reach far enough, but the implication is that those shadowy skull arms can indeed cause destruction.
  • On the Elfen Lied comparison, given how the story has gone about giving Maka and Black Star their power-ups (both suffered before working through whatever challenge others/their behaviour had created), then Kid might end up getting into some nasty trouble before we see a permanent one from him.

Kidd Will Use BREW To Fix The World

Okay, bear with me for a minute. It was stated (anime only) that BREW grants wishes based on the user's will. The greater the will, the more effective the wish. Everyone knows how obsessed Kidd is with symmetry, and way back in the beginning he stated that he wasn't interested in making sure good triumphed so much as balancing good and evil perfectly. At this point, it can be safely said that evil is taking over, and therefore the world is out of balance. Now imagine that Kidd's enormous obsession with symmetry could be applied directly to that imbalance. Whose will could be greater? It would also explain why Kidd is OCD. Shinigami did it deliberately to ensure this very situation.

• Actually, in Ch 73, it says that Kid has the Madness of order. symmetry is a from of order, and when he is mad, he realizes that in order for there to be perfect order, there must be no life. so as long as he is sane when he uses Brew, everyone should be fine!

The Great Old One is lying

More specifically, it's lying if not about everything he's said than at least part of it. Even if the 'personifications of madness' thing kind of makes sense, it's worth considering that Kid is being lied to. Making it not an answer, but yet another little mind-screw would be...interesting. And Kid's the one looking for answers in a mad world, so some new menace screwing with him would be very appropriate.

• • This actually ought to be the first thing that comes to mind of anybody sufficiently Genre Savvy when it comes to where the Book of Eibon and the Great Old One are almost certainly references to. Anybody who knows their H.P. Lovecraft or Lovecraftian lore should know exactly how far to trust an Eldritch Abomination found in a mysterious tome of magical lore.
    • And now Okubo seems to have taken away most/all the glorious cracky creepiness surrounding the Goo with the claim that it posed no real threat to Kid after all, and no longer does the Book. Aww, no fair...

"Insanity" is not the same thing as insanity.

In real life, insanity does not equal violence, but the "insanity" in Soul Eater clearly causes violence, and is infectious. Therefore, one can presume that "insanity" is simply a word that Shinigami chose to call the infectious force that causes people to become violent. Actual insanity is unrelated.

The first missions/chapters/episodes were a test

Each group got a test set by Shinigami to see how they would react.

• Soul and Maka discovered that they needed more than good combat skills to find and defeat a true witch. Their true lack of readiness is emphasised when Maka senses Medusa soul for the first time, after watching Stein and her father curbstomp Crona. Shinigami let Maka and Soul think they were going after a real witch - he has a list of targets - to judge the outcome. To kill two birds with one stone, he pretends confusion when watching the fight with Spirit in order for daddy to learn he has to deal with his daughter being in danger as a meister. Nowadays, Maka utilises her soul perception very regularly, to great effect.
• Black Star gets presented with his goal in a single mission, and the test is how far he's willing to go to get it. Even Tsubaki points out they might never get an opportunity as good as Angela and Mifune. Unlike Blair, both really are/were targets, but Shinigami used them to give Black Star a challenge beyond trying to beat things up. In the long run, and with lots of development, it seems to have worked.
• Kid gets what he thinks is the perfect mission, which his dad gives him because it appeals to his aesthetics and skills nominally as good as a three-star meister. We see he can't handle extremes of order and chaos without getting ecstatic/hysterical about it, but the mission ends with him in exactly the same position he started. Like the others, Kid pays the price for his mistake by losing the souls he collected, but it's taking him much longer than the others to get beyond his initial...issues. But he seems to have a thoroughly nasty justification for them, even if the GOO is lying, the order/death business with the Sanzu Lines and recent flashback with Shinigami still hold.

Tezca Tlipoca's cloning/illusion ability

Since we know virtually nothing about Tezca, and he's a mirror, it can possibly be assumed that he has some sort of reflection/illusion ability. Mostly backed up by a not-really-used-at-all Death Scythe being killed off in this way being sort of ridiculous. It's really jarring that somebody referred to as Shibusen's best tracker wouldn't take any precautions for the possibility of there being booby traps and just walk in unprotected in every way.

• Confirmed that it is an illusion ability. and he's not dead. his death was an illusion.

Sid's zombification is a Chekhov's Gun.

Same troper again. Anyway, I've always wondered why Sid ended up becoming a zombie. Stein doing it For the Lulz And For Science! worked back when Mad Scientist was pretty much all we knew about him but as of late, I no longer buy that. I don't doubt that he would turn Sid into a zombie for obvious reasons but these days, that "why" is looking really flimsy. Unless this is just a case of Characterization Marches On.

We will see what 'Order' is like...

When it's not split between Kid and Shinigami. If I understand the GOO's claims correctly, then Shinigami created Kid to prevent him ending up like Asura. Kid clearly got Shinigami's more direct and...fervent order-enforcing tendencies in a form too young and weak to cause too much damage yet. The result was that Shinigami turned into the Cloudcuckoolander everyone knows and loves/fears or at least are wary of (he told Asura it was to recruit kids so that Kid wouldn't be targeted). But because of this clear division between power and purpose both 'halves' of Death are at a disadvantage should they encounter of their own kind (GOO was only playing with Kid, Shinigami's not as good as he could be/was when he was more Super OCPD (or whatever fandom's calling it post-GOO)). At some point we will either see more of what Shinigami was like before he created Kid (i.e both the power of a Eldritch Abomination and driven to make 'order'), or (admittedly less likely) we'll see re-connection from Kid's point of view, and he will take on the original form of the madness of order. Which would be a shame to some extent because a) no Shinigami-sama and b)Kid should technically be different too if he takes on bits of his father's personality.

The Table of Contents is Excalibur's long lost twin brother.. thing.

Excalibur the sword apparently had a twin called Clarent, which was a sword of peace rather than war, which was stolen and used by Mordred to kill king Arthur. To C could be that sword, which was stolen and sealed inside Eibon's book to become the table of contents there.]]

Tim Burton will discover Soul Eater, fall in love with it, and make a movie.

It already looks like it could have been made by Tim Burton. A Burton-produced Soul Eater film could be the best anime movie adaption of all time. Johnny Depp as Stein? I'd bet on it.

• DO WANT!
• Scratch that. Johnny Depp being Stein would be INEVITABLE. He'd be really good with the role, too, especially with handling the whole madness thing. I can imagine Lord Death would be CG. Please, Burton. Discover what you were destined to adapt!
• OH GOD. I'LL DIE IF THIS MOVIE ISN'T MADE IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS.
  • I could also see Leon Thomas playing Killik. An actor for Justin Law is right at the tip of my mind but I can't think of who it is. Same with Mifune.
  • Helena Bonham Carter will play either one of the two main villainesses!
• Who will play Soul Eater then?
• I support this idea (Helena Bonham Carter has to play Medusa), and since the series has a primarily western setting, Americanization won't be a problem. The real problem I can see with this is how they'll find an actor or actress androgynous enough to play Crona (of course it would probably work if they got a little kid to play the role).

The main cast will harness the madness of The Great Old Ones.

• Kid has already come into contact with the madness of "Law," fitting his fetish for symmetry and leading to his want for nothingness.
• Black Star will soon come into contact with the madness of "Power," following in the footsteps of his father and leading to senseless strength.
• Crona will come into contact with the madness of "Terror," reverting to his/her state of mind before his/her Heel Face Turn, in which he/she destroys what he/she fears or is terrified by.
• Maka will come into contact with the madness of either "Knowledge," or "Rage," both of which represent aspects of her personality.
  • This is getting closer and closer to being confirmed...

Soul Eater will recieve an updated rerelease a la Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

• • DO WANT. If this happens, I hope they'll do a small arc based off The plot in the manga where Kim's secret is revealed and she escapes with Jacqueline to Arachnophobia and are brainwashed, with Ox and co. going to get them back.
    • Actually, me and a friend of mine that is also a fan of FMA and Soul Eater have been talking about this since ages. We're hoping for a Soul Eater: Conqueror of Shibusen and a while after that a Soul Eater: Meisterhood.
    • Now, what about Soul Eater: Meisterhood: The Movie?

Little Demon is a symbol of Soul's father.

We don't know much about Soul's family, but his father very well could have had overly high expectations of him as a child, like making him play the piano and stuff like that. He might have also possibly abused Soul, and now Little Demon is his way of remembering his father.]]

The Anime will one day begin airing again

And will use the All Just a Dream theory to reset the story from where the anime really began to diverge, rather than just the fight with Asura. Maka (or one of the other main characters) will be snapped out a madness induced hallucination. The character will rapidly forget what they saw in the dream and the story will continue on without any further mention of the Gecko Ending as an Animation Studio's Saving Throw.

Black*Star is the Hero!

Of the Salvage arc, that is, and deliberately so. In a different kind of series, Black Star's Hot Blooded Idiot Hero-ness would undoubtedly make him the protagonist. Being set up as the only one to save a Brainwashed and Crazy Kid in a straight-up Defeat Means Friendship battle allowed him to be just that. There was no sympathetic Anti Villain to give unusual ambiguity in a shounen, no beleaguered Tykebomb whose own 'salvage' is looking increasingly unlikely. Black Star got to cement his Character Development while taking the stage in the role he always wanted, leaving everyone else in the dust (NB their fight specifically, Noah was more a group effort?).

The fight between Black Star and Death the Kid put together the Hero and the Rival. There was talk of good, evil, and pithy speeches on purpose which were oddly long for this series' style of action. It was set up as being a climactic battle whilst patently being anything but, devoid of anything close to the significance one would expect in such a scenario. Nothing in Okubo's previous depiction of Kid and Black Star made this confrontation feel tense or even relevant, something which this kind of fight sure relies on for emotional impact (both in sympathy and rule of cool). And, more importantly SE's usual twisted approach to shounen was largely absent. Okubo pulls some crazy stuff recently, but this stuck out for being especially pedestrian.

It read like a plain action sequence in a series which rarely fails to add something out of the ordinary to every single fight, be it a surprise ending (Mifune), a nod to backstory/foreshadowing (Mosquito), or the 'mundane' importance of Soul and Maka's memories (why get your powerups from righteous goodness when you get can it from...violin music or your BFF?).

My theory on why Black Star vs Kid/GOO pulled out so many obvious shounen tropes? Okubo cast him as the Hero and wrote the chapters accordingly. Unlikely - most likely he did just fumble the 'dramatic final battle' thing - but it just seemed too shounen to be true.

In the Anime, it wasn't just a punch that beat Kishin, but a Logic Bomb

The discussion leading up to the punch was Maka trying to explain to Kishin just what courage meant. When she, completely without power, struck him without fear, he finally comprehended what courage was. For a god of fear and paranoia to comprehend courage is anethema to his very concept, and that is what killed him.

Kid was wrong about Death Scythes not being susceptible to madness

His dismissal of Spirit's suggestion as 'nonsense' was unfounded, especially when Kid himself said he didn't know Tezca and we've not seen him interact with many Death Scythes or have any understanding of what they're capable of. Simply saying it's 'nonsense' without justifying it sounds too optimistic and impulsive; he simply doesn't want it to be true. Justin's fate, even if it is put down to his 'faith', suggests that being a Death Scythe alone isn't enough to resist madness. Moreover, Stein and Azusa's original estimate back in chapter 27 ('Daily Life') made it clear that potentially everyone is at risk - the only difference is how long it takes. Spirit remains silent because he knows Kid is wrong, but won't say anything because the alternative is so very bad (Death Scythes include Spartoi's friends, teachers, and parents) and he doesn't want to put Kid off or upset him.

Shinigami and the Sanzu Lines

Kid's attack against Noah (in flashy lights and big letters) indicates that he is aware that the Sanzu Lines draw upon his father's power, and that he cannot always rely upon it. So far there has been no suggestion that he understands what the activation sequences do from Shinigami's point of view. Fanon holds that they are a bad thing, based on Shinigami's reaction - first time, he collapses, second time his mask cracks - and Spirit's response of miserable silence on both occasions. The first time came as such a shock that even Kid didn't seem to understand it completely, and so it would be likely he didn't realise what it did to Shinigami. The second time, with Noah, Kid is very much in control and knows what he's doing with this 'killing intent', even apologising to Liz and Patti for the trouble of acting in such a way. Kid is hardly without empathy, so it seems very unlikely that he knows his Sanzu Lines are doing Shinigami harm and yet is not at all bothered by it. Either fanon is mistaken, or Kid is still underestimating what coming into his true Shinigami powers actually involves.

The entire thing is the game of bunch of Cosmic Horrors

Who have made playthings out of humans and witches, and created a few more - the Demon Weapons - to join it.

• Shinigami's pieces are Kid (a smaller, alternative version of himself) and the humans and Weapons he trained.
• Asura pieces are Medusa and Justin, but being 'Terror' he didn't want them and Medusa at least is trying to use him, not vice-versa. But the Great Old Ones being what they are, even the manipulator has been corrupted and may yet find herself out of her depth with her own alternative version, Crona. 'Control' madness? The best she could hope for would be to let Crona loose and hope 'they' can be prodded in the right direction. Perhaps she is relying on Crona retaining some sanity - that resistance which prevented them becoming a Kishin before their debut - because so long as Crona's is aware they 'rely' on and fear Medusa, they will do whatever she asks. Making them completely insane, and so out of control, would presumably lose that aspect.
• Eibon influenced Arachne and like Asura he's had a massive effect without even turning up; she was able to create the Demon Weapons who are now being used/affected by his fellow Cosmic people Shinigami and Asura. Index, whatever it is, originally agreed with Eibon's intention of gaining knowledge, but is now going one step further than Arachne. She used what Eibon discovered - Index would teach it to others.
• The GOO itself, Power, clearly found a follower in Black Star and the fact it can go either way - a mindless void or purposeful application of power - both reflects what Black Star found in Nakatsukasa and indicates that the Great Old Ones can function without ending up like Asura or, 79 suggests, Eibon. Unfortunately, to do it you either need to split up your soul (Death/Kid) or seal yourself away from the world.

Naturally, the plucky kids will win this game, but it's interesting to look at the goings-on from a 'Cosmic' perspective now this whole Great Old One deal has been expanded on.

Soul's real name is Salieri Evans.

It's been mentioned that Soul is jealous of his brother Wes' superior musical talent, so having his real name be Salieri would be a good Meaningful Name (according to a popular urban legend, the composer Antonio Salieri was jealous of Mozart). Also before he went to the academy he could have shortened it to just Sal, and changed it to Soul apon entering the DWMA since it sounds similar to Sal (in a way) and because he wanted to seperate himself from his family. The Eater part of his name was added on after he started to make a habit of actually eating souls.

The Uncanny Sword is the first weapon that was created by Arachne.

It's been mentioned that Tsubaki's clan are direct descendants of the first weapon created by Arachne, and we know that all of Tsubaki's weapon forms were passed down to her due to the fact that she was the heir. However the Uncanny Sword despite its power was instead passed down to Tsubaki's brother. So it's possible that the sword was the weapon created by Arachne, and because of its origins the clan considered the sword to be too evil for their future leader to possess as one of her forms. But not wanting the sword to fall into the wrong hands they decided to give it to Tsubaki's brother instead (of course certain circumstances made it so that Tsubaki ended up inheriting the form of the Uncanny Sword as well).

• • The Nakatsukasas being descended from Arachne's experiments is confirmed by Mosquito when he sees Black Star fight Mifune.

Maka's issues in 'Salvage' were to do with her understanding of Soul

Which she will ultimately solve, but it will come at a price. Remember that she only other character with soul perception as advanced as hers was Joe. His turned him into a Living Lie Detector, a skill so great that he left his girlfriend (possibly Weapon at the time?) Marie. Maka has already shown in the Baba Yaga arc that she shares Joe's ability to see through Soul Protect, so it's not unreasonable to think lie-detection is on the cards. Given how important interaction and understanding is shown to be in the series, it would be ironic for Maka - who is otherwise an exemplary meister - to 'solve' her relationship with Soul not through shared experiences, or feelings, or hobbies (music was the Book's take on it) but through reading the guy's mind. That would be fairly horrible. And amusing in context, but mostly horrible.

Stein is Maka's Godfather.

Just throwing it out there.

• • That's cute. I'm adopting that as fanon. Seems the sort of thing Spirit would do, because it's clear he likes Stein really.

The series takes place in the same universe as Stephen King's novels.

And Pennywise is a variation of the clown.

There are three other personifications of madness besides the five we already know.

There were eight powerful warriors, but only five of them were confirmed to be madness personifications so my guess is that the other three who were eaten by Asura were also personifications of madness.

The DWMA will form an Enemy Mine with the witch's asembly against Asura.

My only reasoning for this is that I think it would be awesome.

• • Nice possibility. If we take the problem (one of them) with Kid's insanity in Salvage being that 'nothingness' doesn't allow for symmetry or order, then surely the witches - who thrive on madness simply in a different way to the protagonists - would see the problem of things like Asura overwhelming the current balance of power in the world. Same might go for countering Medusa, because she was persona non grata for the Assembly very early on, and possessing Arachne may not be viewed well, even if she was 'The Heretic'.

The Black Blood is coffee!

Behold this link! It's thick and black, too much makes you crazy and I know a few people who probably bleed it.

• From now on, this is my fanon.

The Series Big Bad

I believe the Big Bad of Soul Eater will turn out to be Crona. My guess is that Crona's madness will peak and Ragnarok will eat Medusa, becoming a Kishin version of a Death Scythe or Ragnarok will eat the current Kishin Asura and become even stronger. I also have theory that Crona and Ragnarok's soul will perfect mix together and they will become one, likely bipolar, entity of pure madness. Say hello to Ragnarokrona(I need to think of a better name).

• • Or if not the Big Bad, there has to be something in the notion of Medusa's plans for Crona backfiring spectacularly. Afterall, she's meddling in the 'realm of the gods' or whatever Kid and Mosquito called it, and all the stuff she's managed so far is related to what Shinigami and his ilk personify. Magical, second-hand versions, and as such incomplete and imperfect. As soon as Medusa gets what she supposedly wants - Crona as a psuedo-kishin - it's going to kill her. Mind you, you'd think Medusa would have accounted for the fact that the closer Crona gets to being something like Asura the less influence she's going to have over the child, much less the power to restrain Crona?
    • As of Chapter 87, Crona has killed Medusa, but judging by Medusa's last words, this was all part of her plan to make Crona a Kishin.
  • Also, it seems that Medusa's plan had Black Blood, the resurrection of the Kishin and Crona, all related from the begining as seen when the Kishin is affected by Crona becoming more powerful due to both having Black Blood. Is possible that Crona was created especifically to absorb the Kishin.

Maka's mother is the series' Big Bad

What? It's not like we've seen her...

The original witch was the madness of destruction

The witches have mentioned how they have an uncontrolable desire to destroy (except Kim) which seems rather like Kid's instinctive desire for "order". If this is true, we would have already met the madness of law (Shinigami-sama), the madness of power (GOO), the madness of knowledge (Eibon), the madness of fear (Ashura) and the madness of destruction. Also, it would put a new spin in Arachne's plan of becoming madness.

• • Both the heroes and the antagonists have an association with at least one of the 'Madness' beings, and most we've been introduced to overlap. Having witches in general included in this would be appropriate. It would also further indicate that in his well-intentioned extremism Shinigami is at odds with his fellow Anthropomorphic Personifications if not directly, than in spirit. We even see elements of 'order' in the fact the Witches Assembly are willing to act cautiously as a group in order to protect themselves from Shibusen, whereas the two Gorgons were ostracised from the Assembly for acting individually and meddling with other Great Old Ones.

Ragnarok hates Medusa as much as Chrona

He's just too afraid to admit it. Considering she melted him into black blood and stuck him in Chrona's body, it's easy to see why. After being stuck in someone else's body for all those years (and probably associating the resentment toward Medusa with her child), he turned out a Jerkass. He may have planned on becoming a kishin and then settling the score with Medusa, but Maka kind of ruined that plan. Luckily, he gets better.

Chrona and Ragnarok are Vitriolic Best Buds

Their personalities clash a lot, and neither is happy about being in the state they're in, but deep down, they really do like each other. After all, how else would they resonate?

• • Alternatively, they resonate because Ragnarok wants the souls Medusa sends them after, and she terrifies Crona into going along with it. Although without some understanding they wouldn't function at all. When they get really at odds with one another we get the kind of rejection we see after they're curbstomped by Stein. A kind of body horror played for laughs. Stein is an example of a meister who doesn't need friendship to wield a Weapon, just an interest in it.
  • Not to mention, if you pay close attention to them when they fight, it sounds like Ragnarok is trying to keep Chrona's head in the game, so to speak. Sure, he can be a real ass about it, but in the manga I noticed Ragnarok was sort of prodding Chrona along. Plus, in the anime, it seems like they have moments where one (usually Rag) is just being himself while Chrona's trying to be cordial enough to keep them from disconnecting. (really, how many people calmly tell someone that they can write a poem together after being called a dumbass? Then again, this is Chrona we're talking about, so this might be considered typical of him/hir).
  • Another alternative is that Ragnarok is trying to be a {{{Stealth Mentor}} Stealth Mentor}} to Crona. Originally, he uses a prodding carrotless-stick method of coaching Crona into better battle performance(this being something Crona is used to, and thus something, perhaps the only thing that Crona DOES know how to deal with), in order to please Medusa, which is Crona's goal. Later, after Crona's Face Heel Turn, Ragnarok instagates (or trys to) a Slap Slap Kiss relationship between Crona and Maka, whom Crona seems to have feelings for. He thus acts as the aggressive Id to Crona's passive Superego. He later protects Maka from Grinko (after extorting an unlimited amount of candy from her). While this seems self-centered (and may partial be so) it also demonstrates to Crona that he is not useless, and can be of value to Maka and Crona's other friends, in an attempt to negate the feelings of worthlessness Crona recieved from Medusa.

Shinigami knew Stein was experimenting on Spirit

But because it gave the kid an outlet for his...unorthodox habits without actively killing anyone, he let it go on. When Spirit exclaims during the Medusa fight that it was his job to "control the crazy kid", he meant it. He's worked with Stein, and has good soul wavelength control.

Between Spirit's skill and concern for Stein, and Stein using his Weapon as a test subject, Shinigami could keep a handle on a very effective meister who could cause untold damage if he ended up taking his abilities and intellect elsewhere.

Thus, Spirit was something of a Morality Chain for Stein, and as such was not as effective in dealing with him as Marie has been, simply because she accepted him rather than tried to actively hold him back by taking him to task for breaking the rules.

Spirit knows what Shinigami needed him for, and what it meant for him, but he doesn't like to think of it like that. So perhaps he ignored the scars he 'didn't remember getting' until someone else pointed them out.

Black Star's mother appears on screen

Very briefly in episode ten, along with the rest of Star Clan. That's her in the head scarf.

Any boyish/masculine traits that Chrona originally had were taken by Ragnarok

It sounded funny, that's why.

Chrona's gender will finally be revealed when someone Divides By Zero

And then the world will explode.

Excalibur and Ragnarok are actually related

I know it sounds random, but hear me out. First of all, the two of them are both extremely powerful swords, and both are also notorious Jerkasses. Plus, neither of them really looks human. Also, they may be at least Shadow Archetypes of each other (or something like that); Excalibur is white, Ragnarok is black; Exalibur and Ragnarok can give their users/meisters wings (Excalibur did it twice with Hiro and Liz, and Ragnarok has been shown doing this with Chrona). Also, the two of them are both "stuck" in one place: Excalibur is stuck in his cave waiting for someone who's willing to put up with him, and Ragnarok is stuck inside Chrona as his/her blood.

• Excalibur mentions that once he was in love with a woman, but she left him...Ragnarok may be their son!

Excalibur: I am your father.

Ragnarok: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!

Excalibur: Fool!

Black*Star's last name is...

Uzumaki! Well, duh! Well, why not, right?

• His last name is more likely to be "Barret", as he was adopted by Sid Barret. Also, I think that Black*Star is just a Code Name, since we already know Soul Eater is Evans' codename.

When Noah is gone for good it will get worse.

Noah will die multiple times as he works through the chapters of the book. When he reaches the end it will let out the Great Old One.

If Stein was capable of crossing over into other anime, no one would ever die.

Look at what he did for Soul and Crona, the latter of whom was impaled. Evidently, the man is a miracle worker. All it takes is a single IV line and whatever-he's-doing-between-scenes and we wouldn't have lost Kamina.

• Whilst what he did for Soul was cool, the guy wasn't in the best of states for a while afterwards. And Crona not only has black blood, but Marie and her healing wavelength were present.

There's a reason why Crona's gender is ambiguous

Because s/he is a Moe Anthropomorphism of pure woobiehood! Really, you don't get much more Woobie than Crona. And The Woobie is neither male nor female, as gender doesn't matter if the important part is that this character evokes sympathy from you. It's a trope that disregards gender, so it's only natural that the walking incarnation of this trope doesn't quite have a specific one.

Medusa was planning on Having another child

Which might be why she was damn-near seducing Stein, even in the body of a little girl. Hopefully, she was planning on switching to Arachne's body first, if only to make it less squicky, but it's possible she was trying to conceive another child on whom to experiment. Especially considering how Chrona had made a Heel Face Turn, she most likely caught on to his^[1] becoming really attached to Maka and the others, and, out of necessity for proper "backup", planned accordingly.

Kid is asexual

Kid's mother has never been mentioned, and there's already theories that Shinigami-sama is asexual himself. But to add onto that, we never see Kid's female form. He doesn't even really go through the chapters of Eibon, he just goes into his little pit of madness almost immediately. Unlike most of the other members of Spartoi, most notably Soul & Maka, Black*Star & Tsubaki, and Kim & Ox, Kid doesn't have the least bit of romantic tension with anyone I think Kilik's female form was meant to be like Jackie's in a Pair the Spares Pair the Spares kind of way, nor does he seem the least bit interested in boys or girls.

Kid does have the Madness of Order, and no one who's insane seems to really be capable of love Nygus did say that Stein wasn't capable of love, Stein told Medusa himself that people like him and her were incapable of love, and with the anime exception Arachne doesn't seem very loving either.

A Death Scythe's power comes from madness

The requirements for turning a weapon into a Death Scythe is 99 Kishin Egg souls and 1 witches soul, both souls are influenced by madness and it has been shown numerous times that power comes from madness(It is the main reason humans become Kishin in the first place.). Also if the wasn't influence from madness, then there wouldn't a need for a strict number of souls required to become a Death Scythe.

A weapon receives unique abilities upon becoming Death Scythe

A weapon steals the abilities of the witch, who's soul they have eaten. I forget which chapter, but I remember a chapter where Soul uses Arachne's webs attached to his piano, so is it really a stretch to say other Death Scythes can't do the same?

• I always thought that the Death Scythes' all had basic powers, like form manipulation, plus specific powers like Soul using Arachne's webs that they gain from eating a witch's soul.

Index is a fragment of Eibon

Just like how Kid is a described as a fragment of shinigami by the Black Mass, Index was created by/from Eibon. The way Index phrases this makes it seem sort of possible--he has the same basic ideals as Eibon, but wants to express them differently, which is very similar to how Kid feels in regards to Shinigami's principles.

Soul x Maka is Canon

Chapter 69 is titled "Love Triangle", which doesn't make any sense since this is a No Hugging, No Kissing manga. However, Maka is clearly jealous when Soul gets love letters/partner requests, and when he comments that she doesn't get any because she lacks sex appeal, she says to him

In other words, all guys need is breasts and asses that are like whipped pudding!

Female!Soul says basically the same thing to male!Maka in the Book of Eibon's first chapter (Lust) when she gets a nosebleed at the Succubus, who functions in that chapter as Blair's counterpart. Also, the Chapter of Lust also makes them look (and act?) the way the person they'd be most attracted to would. Like Soul, male!Maka is moody, quiet, and has spiky hair (s/he's dressed formally, but so is Soul when in his soul's room); Like Maka, female!Soul is bossy, cynical toward men, and flat-chested (that and female!Soul yells at male!Maka, when usually Maka is the one yelling at Soul).

Crona x Maka is Canon

After all, you don’t need a gender to have love. They both clearly care a lot about each other (a point emphasized in the anime but also is reflected in the manga) and despite how short of a time Crona was with Maka, this doesn’t stop her from always thinking about Crona and risking her life numerous times to find hir.

• Maka forgives Crona easily for what zhe did to Soul despite later saying that she would never forgive Medusa for what she did to Crona.
  • And Medusa uses this to her advantage by giving Maka no other choice than for them to team up to save Crona. Later when this is revealed to be a lie, the two of them have this little exchange.

Maka: "Where is Crona?!"
Medusa: "Give it up. The Crona you know no longer exists... I have no intention of surrendering my child to you."
Maka: "Why you..! What's that supposed to mean?!!"

• Medusa leaves and Maka is clearly upset over what happened and her failure at finding Crona*

• Although eariler, when Maka found out that Crona still had connections with Medusa, she was confused at what she was supposed to do. She knew she couldn't turn hir in because she was scared for thier safety.

"But if I tell Shinigami-sama and the others... will Crona be expelled? There might be an even worse punishment in store..."

• • And when Crona found out that Maka had seen hir, they too were upset and became eeriely quiet. Its possible that the revelation that Maka had seen hir was what ultimately caused Crona to leave.
• When Crona loses hir memories, its clear that they don't remember ANYONE. That was until Black Star mentioned Maka and right after that, Crona began to start mentioning Shibusen and the other students BY NAME. But the moment zhe rejects Black Star's comment about Maka and rejects that zhe knows Maka, they forget everything.
  • This point comes up again later when Crona remembers Maka again in chapter 83, but it didn't take anyone mentioning Maka. It was hir own flashback then and it seemed to calm Crona down for a moment... until zhe rejected the memory and used Mad Blood.
    • And it comes up once more in chapter 87 when Crona remembers Maka as zhe is killing Medusa. This moment can even be cited as a 'love confession' or them explaining how Maka felt about hir.

"But that's unfair mother.. Because you made me throw away the only one who ever loved me."

• It should also be noted that after Crona disappeared and Maka realized that Medusa had lied to her, she never stopped thinking about Crona nor searching for hir. This leads to a long Cat and Mouse race with Crona ending up somewhere and Maka trying to follow behind. Russia is a good topic there. Maka had been so surprised to hear of Crona's whereabouts and had hurried over to Russia.
  • When she found the Black Blood spheres, she was visably distressed by them. It proved that Crona was on the path to become a Kishin again and she began to cry. When later she got word of Crona in Ukraine, she hurried over there, not once looking back.
    • Granted, we don't know what happened after that thanks to the skip in chapter 88. (Hopefully a flashback would be seen next time.)
  • Not necessarily true; Maka never lets herself be distracted from the mission at hand. Crona isn't the only thing on her mind. Crona saying that Maka is 'the only one who ever loved [hir]' is Crona's interpretation and does not necessarily mean that either one is in love with the other. It's heavily implied that those who are insane can't comprehend or feel love. Maka is overprotective of Crona, but she wouldn't act any differently if it were Soul or even Tsubaki who went missing. She's a very loyal friend.
    • Maka would never get herself distracted from a mission, but there's no denying she wasn't thinking of Crona. It's very true that any of them would do the same for each other, but it seems that Crona is Maka's main focus, as the others relay finding Crona or the mentions of Crona as Maka's friend or how zhe hurt Maka by leaving. As for the insane unable to comprehend love, it doesn't mean they can't feel love. As Stein shows in Chapter 40 when comforting Marie, and in Episode 48, Asura kills Arachne because of his love for her and Asura didn't want to be weak like he had just defined Lord Death as. They can feel love, they just react differently. This is why I think Crona's speech while killing Medusa in Chapter 87 seemed odd at first, I think it shows the disconnect of Maka and the one zhe loves in a subconscious effort to protect her from when zhe may turn into a kishin.

"And yet that's unfair, Mother... Because you made me throw away the only one who loved me. You're fucking kidding me; I'm the only one who lives with an old bat like you. I threw away even Maka.

• • • • ...and after Soul was attacked by Crona, all Maka thought about was Soul. I just don't find her obsession with Crona that much different. In truth, I think both are canon. She loves all of her friends, but shows it in different ways. She just can't treat Crona the same way she treats Soul or Black*Star because Crona's already been abused enough. She can't even hit Ragnarok without him having a panic attack.
• But in chapter 88, Maka is distressed by the news she gets. Crona had ended up on Shinigami-sama's list and had to be excuted by HER and Spartoi.
• The Lust chapter of the Book of Eibon has been stated to make the person who is in it look and act like who they are attracted to. Maka is listed as a 'Solemn looking young man' and the others make a point to say she hasn't changed at all and is still as feminine as ever. She appears to have grown in height as well (Her arms and legs are longer too giving her the look of being a lot skinnier). Her attitude is very quiet and moody and she never smiles once when she has that personality. Such can be seen as quite like Crona...
  • Soul is also very quiet and moody, especially in comparison to Black*Star and even Kid. He hardly ever smiles, except around Maka. Her relationship with Soul is very clearly reversed in this chapter; she is usually yelling at soul while he remains quiet and moody, often mocking her as she criticizes him. Here, female!Soul chastises Maka while male!Maka simply sits there and comments on how creepy girl!Soul is. Maka also very clearly is a boy in the lust chapter...her gender in that chapter is not ambiguous. And by not having changed at all, they were merely mocking her for being flat. Maka looked angry, Crona usually looks depressed.
    • Actually, look up the word moody before you say it's different. I thought it would be quite obvious that Crona is moody, and s/he is most definitely a solemn person. Google is your friend when looking up information. Ambiguity may be in the eyes of the beholder, as it seemed to me that the joke of her not changing in appearance hinted at it, though I didn't take note of it until you just mentioned it. Though that isn't even a point I'd make about Maka being attracted to Crona, as ambiguity most likely wouldn't be a deciding factor on who you are attracted to. As for Soul, he didn't very much look like Maka or act like her except for when he mocked her, and Maka saying it's creepy doesn't really fit with Soul's temperament either. Just because they were in the forms of what they are attracted to doesn't mean that they didn't act like they usually would, as Soul usually does mock Maka, hence the comment on how it's creepy when he's a girl.
      • Everyone is going to see what they want to see. In truth, I don't think anyone changed appearances to signal what they found attractive. For example, female!Black*Star looks like...Black*Star, with boobs. But if you wanted to you could say that Patti's deranged junkie look was a cross between Black*Star and Crona, and Liz's male appearance looked like Girico. I'll agree to disagree...however, the connotation behind moody is angry. The connotation behind gloomy is depressed.
        • Very true about the viewing of Lust chapter. We can all see it in different ways, and since nothing is actually canon it's okay for us to see it differently. That is why we're on the WMG for it, is it not? As for moody, I have always known it as and read it as and learned it as an emotion ranging from sad to angry, and I agree it fits with Soul, but it also does for Crona. Though, I'm thinking that the Lust chapter has nothing to do with shippings, and we both are reading too much into it, sorry for that. It does seem that it should only change your gender, so maybe the Lust chapter is just showing them as the opposite sex and how they would act if they were the opposite sex of themselves, after reading Index's explanation it seems to be just that.

"This chapter is the chapter of "Lust"... It's no mystery that your sex should change to the opposite one, according to what interests and entices you with regards to the opposite sex."

• • Sorry for the argument mon ami/m'amie. And I'm actually beginning to think the Index just said that last part to mess with their heads...

Soul x Maka and Crona x Maka are BOTH Canon

Nobody ever speaks their feelings out loud, but it's clear that both Soul and Maka feel very strongly toward one another, as do Crona and Maka. Crona even says that Maka loves hir and Soul and Maka have grown touchy-feely over the course of the series, and the way Maka talks about Soul sometimes makes it seem like she's in love with him. Chapter 89 and up are likely to be Maka trying to choose between the two.

• • This troper believes that the "love" that Chrona has for Maka, and vice-versa, is more "motherly" love than actual romantic love. Think about it, Chrona needs someone who would love and care for him/her the way Medusa never did, the love of a mother and as of now that person is Maka, who seems to feel obligated to do just that.
  • This WMG, and the two above it, are currently jossed. These pairings flat out are not canon. They may become canon, but they aren't yet. It isn't canon until it is proven in the manga. Until then, it remains solely in the realm of speculation. (Incidentaly, I support Soulx Maka, so don't try and flame me. I'm talking about the definition of canon, not the pairings.)
    • While I can agree with the substance of your argument, allow me to be pedantic about one thing - Jossed means something has been disproven by canon (or Word of God), something that isn't proven one way or the other is not jossed.

Soul is a younger version of Stein, Maka is a younger version of Marie, and Crona is a younger version (or clone) of Medusa

(And Kid, of course, a younger version of Shinigami.) Thus, upcoming chapters will be Maka torn between sanity and insanity, like Stein was. It's a reversal since earlier in the manga and in the anime it was Stein battling between sanity (Marie) and insanity (Medusa), but it makes sense. Maka clearly cares a lot for both Soul and Crona, but she's also torn between following rules and doing what she thinks is right.

Lord Death and The Kishiin were more than just Employer / Employee

Please don't 'destroy me if it's been disproved in some episode after the one where Child Medusa goes to see the spider witch. They were lovers, and Lord Death loved The Kisshin's skin so that why he used a bag made of it, so he could just look down there with his special mirror whenever he wanted to.

The entire school isn't just surrounded by Lord Death's soul

He is so powerful that he can manifest his soul and change it's shape, so he did just that to repress the Kisshin, he placed his exponentially large soul on top of the burial place, and shaped it into a tangible fortress, that later became the DWMA.

Lord Death created Kid to keep himself from going crazy.

Since all of the manifestations of Madness seem to go...well mad, it would make sense that Lord Death would eventually as well. He created Kid (his 'fragment') to either split the Madness up so he's not all of the Madness or give Kid most of the crazy so Lord Death himself would stay sane. This would explain why Kid's obsessed with symmetry as a form of order while his dad isn't.

• • Wasn't that what the GOO claimed was the reason for Kid's creation? If not, I second this WMG because it fits well: Death still has the 'madness' it's just in a less dangerous form at the moment. Kid has the order compulsion, but not the sheer power to inflict it upon everything he pleases, and he can 'ignore' it on occasion. Similarly Death retains his power (comparatively) but is not entirely without order; look at the state of Shibusen, or simply his reaction to Asura.

On the off chance the anime continues...

• Medusa will come back. No, really: watch the credits for the final episode, and in the clip where Free, Eruka, and the Mizine sisters are relaxing in the forest, you can see a black snake covered in yellow arrows, slithering up a tree. Now what form did Medusa take when she possessed Rachel?

• We'll get an Excalibur episode starring Mifune. Because that would be funny.

Chrona will be forgiven despite being marked for death

• If Shinigami's a being of pure law perhaps he would be willing to allow them to plead insanity. Or self defence, in the case of killin Medusa, since Chrona was for all intents and purposes an abused child.

Chrona's gender confusion was part of Medusa's plans all along.

In this troper's interpretation, Chrona is a boy (the use of "Boku", "I don't know how to deal with girls", all these evidences were discussed erlier), but Medusa did many things to make him look feminine (the dress, obviously, and also, forced hormone injections could explain his feminine silhouette), and add gender confusion to the whole Madness and Black Blood stew that is the hell that Chrona's mind is. It makes sense if you think about it.

Soul's Real Name Is....

Don, possibly short of "Donald" or "Donovan". Okay, hear me out here. Psychedelic Souljam, if you look at the lyrics, looks like Soul talking about general events of the series. "So it's me, Soul the Eater cook up the bad and enjoy the dinner... Needless to say I'm number one, with a bit of help from the Devilish one." Now, one of the lines is "Don't call me Don." If Soul changed his name, he must have had a pretty bad falling out with his family. Possibly, they wanted him to continue practicing music and forget about going to the DWMA. Also, who would name their kids "Wes" (maybe short for Wesley?) and "Soul"? Plus, in Soul Eater NOT, Eternal Feather cites Soul as an example of name changes.

• Except Soul changed his name from Soul Evans to Soul Eater. The theory is still there though.

Maka's mother's name "Kami" is not so much a name as a description or title...

...much like "Shinigami". She may represent Life/Gaia/Whatnot but is of the same class of being as Shinigami himself. That's the reason why Maka has special abilities. Kami is absent because she is running all over the world doing Shinigami's job as he is now tied down in Death City. After all, no matter how dangerous Asura is surely Shinigami can't leave the entire world undefended. Shibusen would have taken a while before its first cohort would have been ready for combat so that's not a viable alternative and Kidd is too weak at this point in time to take on Shinigami's responsibilities. Kami had a child during a lull period but departed Shibusen once this Indian summer passed. Also to get away from Spirit...

• • Kami isn't Maka's mom's real name. It's just a LARGE fan mistranslation that ended up being spread around as Canon. 'Kami-san' is one of the things that husbands can call their wives (for more information, see here). Spirit called Maka's mom 'moto-kami-san', which roughly translates to 'my ex-wife'.

Crona will be the next Kishin.

If you think about it, Crona acts nearly exactly like Asura did before he became the first Kishin. Afraid of everything, thinking that obtaining power is the only way to escape fear... plus they both have the Black Blood, and they both share a body with their weapon partner (though on Asura, since he and his partner Vajra are still essentially two seperate bodies, and Asura just swallowed Vajra, he didn't get infused with him). Crona certainly has enough madness and human souls to become a Kishin, but (I think this was the reason they gave) s/he just lacks the will. So, as soon as Crona gains this 'will'... BAM! Kishin. Also, I'm pretty sure Asura said (in the anime, somewhere near the end), "Even if you do kill me, the only thing that will result is that a new Kishin will be born." Am I the only one getting foreshadowing vibes out of all of this? Really?

Chrona already is the next Kisin and is the one on the moon

Maka was searching for them and just so happens to pick up the Kisin on the moon?

With the amount of power they seem to have accumulated killing a death scythe and wiping out an entire town not to mention the personality changes that may well have come about from doing that and killing Medusa it wouldn't be surprising if Maka actually picked up Chrona's wavelength but mistook it for the Kisin's because of their increase in power.

• • This would be somewhat plausible, but Crona's already been revealed to be in the Santa Maria Novella Basilica...

Maka is fully aware of her weapon blood

In the final episode she says something along the lines of "not wanting this power and having to hide it from the adults" (paraphrased).

The suit Crona wore to Kid's party was Stein's

It kind of looks like something that Young!Stein would wear, and I don't think Crona would have anything other than hir dress to wear to the party. So, it's a possibility that Stein loaned/gave it to hir.

Death makes it so hard to become a Death Sytche because of how few he NEEDS, and wants to keep as many doing the grunt work as possible.

Like an above WMG, Death makes sure as many students fail to become part of his elite squad of sythes. The reason? He only ever needs seven. While it appears that new demon weapons are a rarity on their own (it doesn't appear that there are more than 100 demon weapons enrolled in his school, plus another 100 miesters to use them). It appears his main seven have some degree of autonomy, with some of them outright refusing to come to his aid when the end of the world was at stake. The whole "school" is not for the weapon's personal betterment (although he does hope they become more powerful) he creates the illusion of progress to give weapons and their miesters, some goal to reach to. Setting them up just as an army, like his scary face, also wasn't a conductive way to bring in new students, who's parents refused in the fear their children were being "drafted." As a "school," he can attract their unique talents when they are young and easily reformable.

Crona's gonna get better and pull a Simon at the last minute.

While there's no telling if Crona's ultimate Level In Badass will result in ... them(?) becoming Manly or Womanly, it's gonna be a Crowning Moment of Awesome either way.

Medusa's Still Not Dead

The woman managed to survive being cut in half, having her arms chopped off and being impaled. Whilst she has said she could only do it because of the Kishin's madness, isn't there madness all over the place now? Besides, she's been the chessmaster of sorts since day one, I doubt she'll give up now. Maybe I just feel like I've been denied of a good fight scene, but still... even if she does end up floating around as a ghost/spirit, the witch is tough as nails. She'll find a way to keep on going.

• How about this? Medusa is dead, but she somehow placed her soul inside Crona so she can actually see her plans come to fruition. After all, she did seem eager to do it. Ever since she fought Justin and Tezca, she knew Crona would be the death of her, but even though she may be legally dead, there are still other people who've lived on after being killed (Tezca for example). It's unlikely she'd be controlling Crona directly, but just watching.

Clown Kaguya is a Brainwashed and Crazy Kami.

Because it would be lulzy.

Death, or Death the Kid who became a complete Reaper, will be cause of Justin's death

This is based on chapter 69 when Tezka appeared in front of Medusa and Justin, and each saw a vision of Crona and Death respectively. Tezka did say stuff about him being a mirror that reflects people, and their death depending on the paths they take. Now that Medusa indeed died at hands of Crona, it seems likely that Justin will die by Death.

• Jossed. Stein kills Justin in chapter 96... presumably. He was decapitated, but not many people seem to die normally in this manga.

Stein is Maka's mother

He just got a sex change.

Crona's "dress" is made out of Black Blood

As far as I can tell it never gets damaged. Not even when struck by Soul or Spirit in scythe-form. The black blood could feasibly protect skin, but not prevent clothing damage. This also explains why Crona always wears it (save to Kidd's party), and how Ragnarok can just pop out of it: it is Crona's blood. And Crona is shown to have some control over his blood (e.g. Bloody Slicer, Bloody Needle).

Maka, Ash from pokemon, and Eddie from House of Anubus are all related.

What happened was that Peri Brown from Doctor Who and Mr. Sweet had a son named Eddison Sweet jr. Meanwhile, Spirit and Deliah were going to the DWMA together, and two years after Eddie, Maka was born. However, Being Spirit, he cheated on Deliah, and ,enraged, she went and had a kid four years after Maka was Born with Mr. Sweet and named him Ash. They get their powers from theri parents, too. From Deliah, Ash and Maka get soul perception/aura, from Mr. Sweet, Ash and Eddie get chosen one powers, and from Peri, Eddie got egyptian curses due to the fifth doctor audios with the egyption chick.

1. ↑ And using "he" is just out of convenience, as I'm already aware that Chrona has no established gender