Keito Hasumi 「 敬人 蓮巳 」 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lotusbloom) wrote2016-05-20 02:03 pm
lotusbloom) wrote2016-05-20 02:03 pm
Namanari
Approved May, 2016.
When a human becomes 'infected' by demon's influence (in Guren's case, by forming a contract with Mahiru-no-Yo) they run the risk of becoming a namanari. This occurs when the demon's influence becomes too great, causing the human host to undergo a personality split and awakening a second (but not entirely separate) consciousness within them.
Once manifested, the namanari personality is capable of taking over the body for limited periods of time. The longer the namanari has existed and the weaker the host's willpower the easier it is for the namanari half to take over, until eventually it's able to do so permanently. While the namanari is in charge the human side seems to have some awareness of their surroundings and the ability to fight back against the demon half's control, but this awareness is spotty at best. For Guren in particular, he's shown to have some awareness of his namanari's existence and actions but doesn't seem aware of the extent of such. His namanari seems to prefer to lay dormant for extended periods of time and only take over when there's a specific goal that Guren himself won't reach for, which further limits Guren and the namanari's 'interactions'.
POWERS
For the typical demon weapon user, their power scales up the 'closer' they bring themselves to the demon. Allowing the demon in the weapon to temporarily possess them them gives them more power than simply activating the demon's curse, which in turn gives them more power than simply being contracted with the weapon itself.
Becoming namanari is a natural progression of this scale, the next step up from temporary possession, and gives Guren that much more strength. When the namanari is in charge Guren's power goes up considerably, to the point that he's able single-handedly dispatch enemies that he previously would have needed multiple allies and careful teamwork to take down. This sort of power increase is shown to be common among namanari; of the other two shown in the series, one regularly bests exceptionally strong humans with little effort and the other has to be restrained with magically enhanced shackles when his namanari half takes over.
PERSONALITY
A namanari's personality is a slightly more complicated subject than their powers. As a general rule, a namanari seems to have all of the same goals, skills, and knowledge as the original personality, but none of the same morals. This holds true in Guren's case as well. While Guren himself simply pretends to be ruthless and believe that the end justifies the means, the namanari is sincere about these traits. The namanari has no issues whatsoever with the cruel and inhumane experiments his ally performed on a young girl to create the superweapon, nor with sacrificing dozens of Guren's subordinates in order to power said superweapon, nor even with grievously injuring Guren's surrogate son and throwing his best friend in prison for the sake of his plans.
While Guren himself is still fairly calm this personality trait is magnified when the namanari is in charge. The namanari always moves with an air that implies things are going exactly the way he wants them to, even when he's being kicked around by a vampire noble or suppressing the original Guren's attempts to fight back against him. The namanari is quite a bit more taciturn than Guren, as well. He doesn't banter as much, doesn't explain his intentions, and seems quite content to let other people do the talking and make their own assumptions about him and his nature.
Oddly, the namanari is considerably more honest than Guren himself. While Guren is prone to approaching some subjects in a delicate or roundabout manner, the namanari is more likely to speak in plain, direct terms about what he wants or intends. The namanari is also less considerate of protecting sensitive knowledge about Guren. For example, when discussing Mahiru's death the namanari states, "I couldn't save her." Previously, however, Guren had discussed the event in more vague terms even with people he's close to, often simply explaining that Mahiru had died without elaborating on the circumstances.
But as mentioned, the namanari still has quite a bit in common with Guren. He has the same desire to overthrow the Hiiragi family and reshape the world to humanity's benefit, the same desire to protect the people he cares about most, and the same patient, determined, and driven nature. Of significant note is the namanari's consideration towards Guren as well. He seems concerned with preserving the original Guren's emotional and mental state, though the motivation for doing so (or if he's even sincere in his desire) hasn't yet been elaborated on.
As a final note, while the namanari seems to be allied with Kureto at the moment his true end goal hasn't been explicitly stated thus far. It's just as likely as not that he'll eventually betray Kureto but for the time being he is, at the very least, still playing along.
JUSTIFICATION
I believe these 'updates' should apply to Guren's current canon point based on what other characters have said and the timing of their statements. Ferid knows that Guren is a namanari and makes a reference to a plan that his namanari half had devised, despite ostensibly having only met Guren once before. Kureto also wonders 'which' personality allowed himself to be captured by the vampires.
As for the timing, the plan that Guren devised was only initiated several days before Ferid references the namanari, and presumably was in the works for several weeks or months prior to that. Kureto's reference also comes when he's been apart from Guren for several days and would have to have already known ahead of time. While these incidents are the only definite indicators of how long Guren has been a namanari there are numerous hints that Guren's namanari half has been active for several years at this point.
In more concrete terms, Guren's current canon point is chapter 33. Ferid and Kureto's last confirmed meetings with Guren were in chapters 14 and 23 respectively, yet they acknowledge the namanari are in chapters 38 and 39.
When a human becomes 'infected' by demon's influence (in Guren's case, by forming a contract with Mahiru-no-Yo) they run the risk of becoming a namanari. This occurs when the demon's influence becomes too great, causing the human host to undergo a personality split and awakening a second (but not entirely separate) consciousness within them.
Once manifested, the namanari personality is capable of taking over the body for limited periods of time. The longer the namanari has existed and the weaker the host's willpower the easier it is for the namanari half to take over, until eventually it's able to do so permanently. While the namanari is in charge the human side seems to have some awareness of their surroundings and the ability to fight back against the demon half's control, but this awareness is spotty at best. For Guren in particular, he's shown to have some awareness of his namanari's existence and actions but doesn't seem aware of the extent of such. His namanari seems to prefer to lay dormant for extended periods of time and only take over when there's a specific goal that Guren himself won't reach for, which further limits Guren and the namanari's 'interactions'.
POWERS
For the typical demon weapon user, their power scales up the 'closer' they bring themselves to the demon. Allowing the demon in the weapon to temporarily possess them them gives them more power than simply activating the demon's curse, which in turn gives them more power than simply being contracted with the weapon itself.
Becoming namanari is a natural progression of this scale, the next step up from temporary possession, and gives Guren that much more strength. When the namanari is in charge Guren's power goes up considerably, to the point that he's able single-handedly dispatch enemies that he previously would have needed multiple allies and careful teamwork to take down. This sort of power increase is shown to be common among namanari; of the other two shown in the series, one regularly bests exceptionally strong humans with little effort and the other has to be restrained with magically enhanced shackles when his namanari half takes over.
PERSONALITY
A namanari's personality is a slightly more complicated subject than their powers. As a general rule, a namanari seems to have all of the same goals, skills, and knowledge as the original personality, but none of the same morals. This holds true in Guren's case as well. While Guren himself simply pretends to be ruthless and believe that the end justifies the means, the namanari is sincere about these traits. The namanari has no issues whatsoever with the cruel and inhumane experiments his ally performed on a young girl to create the superweapon, nor with sacrificing dozens of Guren's subordinates in order to power said superweapon, nor even with grievously injuring Guren's surrogate son and throwing his best friend in prison for the sake of his plans.
While Guren himself is still fairly calm this personality trait is magnified when the namanari is in charge. The namanari always moves with an air that implies things are going exactly the way he wants them to, even when he's being kicked around by a vampire noble or suppressing the original Guren's attempts to fight back against him. The namanari is quite a bit more taciturn than Guren, as well. He doesn't banter as much, doesn't explain his intentions, and seems quite content to let other people do the talking and make their own assumptions about him and his nature.
Oddly, the namanari is considerably more honest than Guren himself. While Guren is prone to approaching some subjects in a delicate or roundabout manner, the namanari is more likely to speak in plain, direct terms about what he wants or intends. The namanari is also less considerate of protecting sensitive knowledge about Guren. For example, when discussing Mahiru's death the namanari states, "I couldn't save her." Previously, however, Guren had discussed the event in more vague terms even with people he's close to, often simply explaining that Mahiru had died without elaborating on the circumstances.
But as mentioned, the namanari still has quite a bit in common with Guren. He has the same desire to overthrow the Hiiragi family and reshape the world to humanity's benefit, the same desire to protect the people he cares about most, and the same patient, determined, and driven nature. Of significant note is the namanari's consideration towards Guren as well. He seems concerned with preserving the original Guren's emotional and mental state, though the motivation for doing so (or if he's even sincere in his desire) hasn't yet been elaborated on.
As a final note, while the namanari seems to be allied with Kureto at the moment his true end goal hasn't been explicitly stated thus far. It's just as likely as not that he'll eventually betray Kureto but for the time being he is, at the very least, still playing along.
JUSTIFICATION
I believe these 'updates' should apply to Guren's current canon point based on what other characters have said and the timing of their statements. Ferid knows that Guren is a namanari and makes a reference to a plan that his namanari half had devised, despite ostensibly having only met Guren once before. Kureto also wonders 'which' personality allowed himself to be captured by the vampires.
As for the timing, the plan that Guren devised was only initiated several days before Ferid references the namanari, and presumably was in the works for several weeks or months prior to that. Kureto's reference also comes when he's been apart from Guren for several days and would have to have already known ahead of time. While these incidents are the only definite indicators of how long Guren has been a namanari there are numerous hints that Guren's namanari half has been active for several years at this point.
In more concrete terms, Guren's current canon point is chapter 33. Ferid and Kureto's last confirmed meetings with Guren were in chapters 14 and 23 respectively, yet they acknowledge the namanari are in chapters 38 and 39.