Headscratchers / Epithet Erased

As a Headscratchers subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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• Why are there some people with barely any training in their epithet? Even if it doesn’t seem useful, there would still be ways to make it a valuable resource, which would surely be documented. And yet there are still people like Gorou Shimizaki.
  • Same reason that not everyone is a built Adonis IRL. Epithets are mainly trained by the people with some intrinsic motivation or reason - check out all the characters in the show already. Gorou is a great example of a person who has an epithet and is thus assumed to be better than the other choices, but spent 0 time training his epithet simply because he has no reason to do so. There's a reason we never see him using it.
    • But he shows off his epithet when Percy is nearby, so he clearly takes pride in it. Yet he doesn’t take the time to make it better in the face of more impressive Inscribed and Mundies. And how come nobody killed Gorou to stop him from arresting people?
    • Not only that, but unlike muscles, epithets can be used for anything if you’re creative enough, hence why Jello called Creativity the most important stat. And while most people aren’t that physically fit, cops are required to at least be above average in terms of physical fitness so that they can actually catch criminals if they run. Similarly, it would be expected that there would be a proficiency minimum to be in the police force if your epithet is your only draw.
    • Nearly everyone else in town is a criminal. Of course they hired a completely incompetent sheriff.
    • The only criminals in town were the visiting Banzai Blasters, Ramsey and Zora. Everyone else is relatively law abiding. Also, and this just came to me, how did people know he had an epithet if the only demonstration he could give of it was a moderate display of blowing power?
• Speaking of epithets, how are one in five people inscribed?! The number of words in the English language doesn’t even go to 200,000 and there are over a billion people on the planet. Even taking other languages into account, there wouldn’t even be enough words for one percent of the population to have epithets, let alone one in five!
  • Jello has stated it's not actually English, it's sort of a super language of the scattered languages the Ephitet Erased world used to speak. Also, new words are being made all the time. Jello specifically said that slang is a viable option. As long as the idea behind a word encapsulates a specific idea, it's fair game. That doesn't explain the 1 in 5 statistic, but maybe it's for Sweet Jazz City in particular? Considering most of the population of Redwood Run is stated to be Epithetless. There's likely at least 3 dozen or so residents even though we don't see many of them.
    • Even considering that, there still aren’t enough words in all languages combined to cover everyone in the entire world. And words aren’t invented fast enough to meet the challenge. Also, if the 1 in 5 statistic was only for Sweet Jazz City, then don’t you think someone would have pointed it out?
    • The original (Anime Campaign) used the metric of 1 in 20 people, so this may just be the author not realizing a 4x increase makes the dictionary's capacity to keep up difficult. Keep in mind, however, that the concept means that you could have someone with the epithet "Forget", and another with the epithet "Forgot". Additionally, there was an idea when people started making Anime Campaign characters about multiple interpretations being different enough to work, too. For example, "bow" as in the arrow-shooting weapon is interpreted as a separate epithet from "bow" like a ribbon. If you take this into account with English (~200k words), the possibility for extra conjugations, suffix/prefix changes, and split meanings can more than cover the disparity you're talking about. Also we don't have an accurate count of how many languages exist in EE universe, since in the original AC canon they used "[location] race" as a way of making stuff like elves goofier. Ocean Race, for example.
  • Perhaps more than one person can have the same word. It’s just that it’s random enough that a group of random inscribed can all plausible having different epithets to each other.
    • This raises some horrifying questions about the epithet “Fragile.”
    • Nevermind. I looked at the Trivia page and two people can’t have the same epithet.
    • In that case perhaps either the population is much lower in this world, one in five was a generalisation and not an accurate statistic, epithets can also be words joined together (for example goldbricker) which makes up for the lack of enough words and also perhaps epithets might be depended on the first language the person is taught or hears, which could also help. But I think joining words together to make new ones for epithets is likely how it works since goldbricker is basically that.
    • That explains the lack of suspicion from Indus when Giovanni said his epithet was “Butt Whooping.” Though I think that the last possible explanation is a little unlikely considering that epithets are given “at birth.”
    • Also, I just looked up goldbricker and it is treated as one word, so the word joining theory is slightly less probable.
    • People often join words as slang, and like was mentioned, Jello said slang is fair game. It's not unreasonable to think that word joining is fair game as long as the word generates a generally understood meaning.
  • Is it said anywhere that epithets can only be from the English language? In addition, you're assuming how many people there are in the world of Epithet Erased. There are over a billion people on our planet, not necessarily on theirs. Does Epithet Erased explicitly happen on Earth?
    • Where else would the story take place? The geography is Earth-like, the inhabitants are human(even with the “naturally growing star decorations” thing going on), the culture is close to ours, and they have a clear idea of what “gold” is, which means that they are in the habitable zone of a star and were fortunate enough to have gold land on the planet. Also, if epithets happen with multiple languages, then surely people would lean towards multilingualism even more, but nothing about this is mentioned.
    • None of that means it's earth. Hundreds of stories contain worlds with all of those traits which are not earth. And considering Indus is from a country just called "Desert Country", which does not exist on earth... Occam's razor...
    • And Word of God states that everyone speaks the same language.
    • Could you cite that? I feel like Jello has said that words may not be in English.
  • The show says "1 in every 5" but it might not necessarily be in the world just in that particular region, though depending on the size of the region that may not really change the problem. What's more if epithets don't ever recycle (that is when somebody with an epithet dies their epithet goes back into circulation as it were) then that only makes the plothole bigger. While it appears multiple word epithets are a thing as are non words that would solve the problem but then the question is how after so many epithet users are around can there still be so many people with one word epithets.
    • Epithets DO recycle.
• How do people even learn what their epithets are? It isn’t anything remotely scientific and the soul isn’t visible to anyone except those with a special ability that allows for that(like the epithet “Medium,” “Oracle,” or “Spirit”).
  • According to Word of God, people with an Epithet feel a very strong connection to their word once they hear or see it. This does lead to plenty of false positives, due to you just liking a word for no supernatural reason, as well as plenty of people who never notice they have an Epithet.
  • This was also played with in the narrative of the original work, though it's worth noting the way OTHER PEOPLE could confirm your epithet was by guessing it (and gaining Proficiency if they were right).
• What would happen if someone had the epithet “Lexism?”
  • What exactly would happen is as known as any other epithet, but possibly they can make other people more Lexist, at the very least. With more proficiency they could probably make Mundies fine with them, but utterly enraged at their Inscribed enemies.
  • Pardon me for complaining, but that sounds incredibly unimaginative. For more creative uses:
    • Extra damage against Inscribed people and their summons.
    • Sensing of Inscribed by way of hating them on sight.
    • Manifesting Eraser items.
    • Summoning bloodhounds that hunt down Inscribed.
    • Proficiency draining.
  • Or, if going by what Jello said about Lexism:
    • Enhancing summons.
    • Keeping mundies out of an area.
    • Increasing potency of epithets.
    • Bolstering Inscribed in some form.
    • Helping with epithet training.
• Why doesn’t Molly use her epithet on herself to dumb down damage? If she did that, she wouldn’t be hurt by Counting Sheep, she could take less damage from Dream Big, and she could just withstand more hits! I get that stamina has limits, but I would rather be tired than injured.
  • It's possible she just can't use it that way. This would make Mera's efforts to get it pointless, but Molly wouldn't have had a chance to tell her that.
    • Molly DID have a chance to say it, though. When Mera has Molly cornered, Molly says various things to distract her. Not to mention Indus, who told Mera about a false "ten-hundred" minions that Giovanni told Indus about. Molly could also tell Indus about her inability to use her epithet on herself, who would then relay it to Indus. Safe to say, this is out of the question.
    • But the other Inscribed with some influence on other objects are able to use their epithets on themselves; Ramsey can turn himself into gold while still moving(and he has the same level of proficiency as Molly!), Sylvie has that Dream Big thing, and Giovanni has Ancient Potion. So why wouldn’t Molly be able to use her epithet that way?
    • Molly is a twelve-year-old girl who never really expected to get into a fight. She mostly uses her Epithet to make life more convenient for herself, and to help her family. Given her personality, it's not surprising she found a way to protect people with her Epithet, but never bothered to develop the ability to use it on herself. Ramsey, by comparison, is a self-serving coward whose highest priority is self-preservation, so OF COURSE, he learned to use his Epithet on himself. Likewise, Giovanni would want an option to protect himself, considering he's planning to do crime stuff. Sylvie specifically trained for combat, and probably loves the ability to make himself bigger and tougher. It's ultimately just a matter of priorities and what a given person chooses to practice.
    • First, Sylvie is a psychiatrist, someone you would not expect to have the need to fight. Second, given how the world of Epithet Erased is, it would be surprising that there wouldn’t be any bullies that might want to target her, making use of her ability on herself a necessity. Lastly, Jello outright says that she is the smartest person in the show, so it would probably be a no-brainer for her to apply her epithet to herself. So why doesn’t she use her epithet on herself?
    • In regards to Sylvie, although his occupation is not one where he would normally need to fight, he is researching Epithets, so training his own would be logical. Additionally, Sylvie is a prideful and arrogant person, so having a powerful Epithet is likely a matter of ego to him. As for Molly, it's possible that at her current level of proficiency, she consumes the same amount of energy to "dumb down" an attack regardless of how powerful it is. She's seen protecting Mera from one very strong attack, but Counting Sheep relies on Death of a Thousand Cuts, so it would be impractical to waste massive amounts of energy negating a bajillion attacks dealing 1 damage. Likewise, using it against Beefton would leave her in the same situation Giovanni found himself in with his "Ancient Potion". If you don't actually have the means of defeating the enemy, trying to negate their attacks with limited-use abilities is just a waste of time.
    • Where does it say that her abilities are limited use? She herself didn’t say anything, nor did she tell Mera that she couldn’t block the next attack. In addition, she doesn’t seem all that exhausted after using her abilities through several battles, or through maintaining a silence bubble long enough to get to Mera, so she must either have a good amount of stamina to spare or her abilities might not cost that much. And before anyone mentions post-battle recovery, that probably only applies to injuries, considering that Percy was drained after the fight with the Banzai Blasters in Redwood Run. And what would be worse: slight exhaustion, or bite marks?
    • Word of God has clarified that Percy didn't actually "win" the fight in the bar. She didn't get a Stamina refill because Giovanni stopped Bugsy with a cheap shot and then left, and Arnold wasn't defeated at all.
    • Occam's razor on this one: Using an Epithet takes some kind of focus. Being actively attacked makes it very hard to focus.
    • Couldn’t she just use her epithet to increase focus by blocking out distractions? Also, why didn’t Percy just knock out Arnold to win and regain stamina?
    • ... She's literally a lawful good cloudcuckoolander cop? Considering you can just eat to regain stamina as well, I'm pretty sure the idea simply did not cross her mind at all. Also, the increasing focus bit is really more about her avoiding overstimulation... and even her mute bubble includes people near to her in it.
    • Percy could have had Howdy give her the house special, then. Also, Molly could use her epithet to clear her mind and use her abilities better. And she could mute her hearing like she did to Mera. And she could make her body forget to be wounded.
    • Also, in the fight with Sylvie, Giovanni manages to get post-battle recovery despite Molly taking care of Beefton with the fire alarm, not Giovanni.
• How did Percy not know something was up with Ramsey’s “extra tough forger’s crayons” when Bugsy explicitly called them “low quality?” That should have been an immediate clue that Ramsey’s crayons weren’t as good as he made them out to be!
  • Maybe they were tough for crayons, but still made of something cheap? Maybe they were supposed to be made of cheap wax and the tips were the only part that was "extra tough" as far as Percy knew. Plus, low-quality as a weapon and low-quality as a source of food mean different things.
    • Percy probably wouldn’t take that into consideration at the moment Bugsy consumes them. Also, tough for crayons is not tough enough to be used as a throwing weapon. And Bugsy didn’t seem to mind the taste of the bullet Zora suspended in midair, even asking for seconds, so he probably isn’t too discerning about food.
• Why is Zora hunting down Ramsey, of all people? Ramsey's just an appraiser, nothing more. Is it their epithet? If so, there should be bigger fish to fry. I think it might be that Giovanni has the amulet and is going to Ramsey, but Ramsey already knows about Zora, and Zora should be after Giovanni. So, this is a mystery.
  • If I had to guess, I would say that it’s more because he knows how to evade Zora for long periods of time, giving her an interesting challenge when it comes to catching him. Not to mention that he must have a bounty somewhat close to Zora’s from what he has done in the past.
  • Ramsey literally said in episode 5 that there were people after him “…for forgery and embezzlement. One nasty lady in particular.” So it’s pretty obvious that he conned Bliss Ocean, likely with a fake amulet, considering he just happened to have a goldbricked amulet, on hand, in the finale despite us never seeing him have time to make it between Giovanni showing the amulet to Ramsey for appraisal and the end of the season. My best guess was since people like Mera and Indus heard about the amulet with enough notice to get jobs at the museum, there must have been advertising saying “arsene amulet, coming soon to sweet jazz city museum” or something like that, probably with a picture. Ramsey heard about it, knew Bliss Ocean would pay big money for it, and just exploited that, so of course Bliss ocean would send their best bounty hunter to ‘collect on their investment’ so to speak.
• If people with harmful epithets like Mera exist as well as epithet nullifiers like eraser cuffs, why don't treatments to quell those epithets exist or come into use?
  • It's probably because eraser cuffs are not actually epithet nullifiers. Considering the fact that the eraser cuffs will make a user forget what their epithet is, the cuffs likely creates a purely mental effect that keeps people from actively using their epithet rather than removing or suppressing the actual power. This means that people wearing eraser cuffs can not consciously use their powers but any passive effects of the power will remain.
  • We don't know 100% that thse treatments don't exist—maybe our focus characters don't have access to treatments that would make their personal hurts go away.
    • And why haven’t they made anything to deal with the negative effects of epithets if they have at least a moderate understanding of epithet magic?
    • Having a moderate understanding of something doesn't mean you know all the ins and outs—we understand mental illness pretty well, and yet we still have no reliable way to completely prevent people from developing depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder etc. With the sheer number of epithets in the EE world, it can be really difficult to make a one-size-fits-all cure for their physical effects, especially since there are just so many ways an epithet can harm its user. Someone with Allergen might be allergic to literally everything—that's one cure that would have to get rid of hives, stopped up sinuses, and the allergy itself. Someone with Bouyant might have a hard time keeping their feet on the ground, and would need to be treated to make their whole body denser in order to make gravity work right. Heck, for a canon example, Mera's...everything breaks on a regular basis, and she'd need something to make her body parts more durable to avoid this. Medical science, while knowing what an Epithet does, may not have cracked the why of its physical and mental side effects yet and thus can't attack the root of the issue.
• There’s a good chance the answer is just Rule of Funny, but if the show takes place in a Constructed World in which the only country that shares its name with a real one is Australia, then how does Percy have a Canadian dollar?
  • Canada could possibly be the name of a place inside another country in the world of Epithet Erased, with it's own issued currency. A city, province, state, etc., instead of being a country like it is irl.
  • Canada is apparently the capital of Australia.
  • Jello has stated that all towns and cities in the County of Australia are named after real world countries.