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    Asymmetrical Hair 

  • If Death the Kid is so bothered by his asymmetrical hair, why doesn't he just dye it? or shave it all off? there's plenty he could to make it symmetrical.
    • With the hair dye- Kid said that he tried it once, but because his body is that of a Shinigami and therefore he can't be affected by toxins or other chemicals, it rejects the dye. The shaving though...Let's just say that fan girls wouldn't be pleased.
    • What about a hat? I wouldn't think it would be so hard to get or make a hat (of even a headband) would fit his style and hide his difficult hair.
    • A hat or headband would hide the problem, but wouldn't alter the filthy, disgusting asymmetry lurking underneath. Kid couldn't live with a lie of that magnitude.
    • About the shaving, I think there's several problems. If he went bald, he'd have to make sure every hair was out. If he simply buzzed his hair down, he'd likely want every strand to be the exact same length. And then there's the final issue of the growth rate of each individual hair... hair doesn't always grow out even.

    Spirit's Fathering 

  • So I'll admit that I only watched the anime and haven't read the manga, but am I the only one who thinks that Maka's father comes off as the better parent than her mother? Her father is always there and is constantly offering his support and love while her mom is constantly MIA. Maka's feelings toward her whole situation are completely understandable, but I'm starting to wonder if everything I brought up was supposed to be the whole point all along...
    • While it looks like the author just decided he wanted Maka's mum out of the picture without actually having to establish her as being dead, in-universe the whole thing comes across as a bit of a mess. As Maka as shown to idolise her mother, and because is said to be a great scythe meister, I suspect the readers are meant to see the character of Maka's mother as a great person her daughter can look up to, in contrast to her feckless father. But by editing the woman out entirely, the author has wound up with the impression that it is Maka's mother, not Spirit, who comes across as the neglectful parent. For all that Maka is annoyed by, reminisces and worries about her dad throughout the series, her mother barely gets a mention. That could arguably be taken a few ways, and they don't all reflect well on the former Mrs. Albarn...
    • She might be dead though given her status, it would have been mentioned if she did die and she didn't even return for the final arc.
    • A meister like her would seem too powerful for Shibusen to ignore so they'd probably know and would inform Spirit and Maka if she did die. Furthermore, this whole thing originated from the proto-story that Soul Eater was based off of, where a Maka-like girl was talking to her friend about the impending divorce her folks will go through.

    Kid's Favorite Number 

  • So Kid's favorite number is eight, right? Because it's symmetrical horizontally and vertically? But if you don't write it a certain way, it's only symmetrical vertically. Zero, however, is always symmetrical horizontally AND vertically. And if you write it as a perfect circle, it has INFINITE lines of symmetry. Also, there is no way to divide it unevenly. So... why isn't zero his favorite number?
    • I doubt this is accurate in any way, but it might be due to symbolism. Beyond any possible symbolism of the number 8 (I've got nothing), turn it sideways. It looks like the symbol for infinity. He IS a shinigami, he has the potential to gain godlike (infinite) power...
    • In ancient times, Japanese considered 8 to be a holy number. In regards to Astrology in the Middle Ages, 8 was the number of "unmoving" stars in the sky, and symbolized the perfecting of incoming planetary energy. So I guess you could look at 8 as a holy number that represents perfection. Of course this might be just a coincidence. And this is probably entirely unrelated to anything, but the Norse God, Odin is often called a Death God and a "leader of souls", and he rides upon an eight legged horse. It's also possible that Kid didn't consider 0 to be an actual number (at one point in history, many people didn't).
    • The manga might give some clue to that as later the symmetry of nothingness becomes a heavy issue with Kid.

    Anime Ending 

  • I don't get why people have problems with the anime ending, calling it an Ass Pull. If I remember correctly, "Fear = Madness, and Courage = Antithesis of Fear" was set up as a theme as early as the fourth episode. The only semi viable justification I've heard so far was that Maka killing Asura alone subverted the themes of trust and friendship that seemed more appropriate to the show, but I think that Maka being completely on her own and still fighting was part of what made the ending so powerful.
    • It's because friendship is one of the biggest themes in Soul Eater. The entire series has Character Development moments that are crucial and the anime ending throws that all away for Maka to punch the Kishin in the face. Worst of all is that she does it alone. Not even using Soul for a good three-fourths of the fight.
    • Just because something makes thematic sense does not mean that it can disregard all logic whatsoever. It stretched what people were willing to accept to the breaking point, ruining the very message it was trying to convey by being such blatant writer fiat. There's no good reason the same theme couldn't have been expressed while actually giving a credible in-universe reason why Maka was able to defeat the absurdly powerful main villain.
    • Actually, it does make sense when one realizes that it was Asura's own fear that made him weak enough to be killed by Maka's punch. As to the character development and themes: It shows Maka's character development in that she has been able to overcome her reliance on needing others to help her fight. This time, their courage and faith in her was enough to inspire her to be strong enough to fight solo. So, both logic and the story's themes were upheld nicely. Boom.

    Death City Robot 

  • Walking. Castle. WTF?

    Kid holding his guns 

  • Why the hell does Death the Kid hold his guns (aka Liz and Patty), upside down? I mean, I know that Kid is a bit nuts but they'd be just as symmetrical the normal way around.
    • I always figured because the thumb and little finger of the hand resemble a gun more than the standard hold. It also shows him as a bit "alien", a born shinigami as opposed to the other humans.
    • Seeing as the Rule of Cool runs rampant in Soul Eater, I'd generally chalk this up to it as well. Alternatively, it could just be that his little fingers are unusually more dexterous than his index fingers. Or possibly it could have something to do with Liz and Patty's upward orientation during soul resonance. Or hey! Maybe because Kid is so obsessed with perfection, he intends to have each of his fingers be exactly as dexterous as the rest and he's just now at the point of training his little fingers to be this way.
    • It's also humanly impossible, since a human pinky hasn't got enough muscles to pull of the trigger, and doesn't look all that cool, but Kid is a shinigami, maybe he feels more comfortable this way?
    • Incorrect. It is not only very possible, but also a more recent version of "gangsta style" shooting. Death the Kid is not the only person who does this, so it's really just a question of why the hell someone thought it would be good in the first place.
    • The credit for the hands-down best theory (according to the Rule of Funny anyway)that I've seen so far goes to the writer of a fanfic called Soul Food. Said theory is that "in [Liz and Patty's] transformed forms, the handles and triggers of their guns comprised of certain sensitive parts of their body, and Death the Kid was only too aware of this fact every time he picked them up. Holding the guns upside down was his downright weird albeit very Death the Kid-ish way of retaining some sort of dignity."
    • That don't really square with him grabbing boob in his first episode.
    • One: he was having a symmetry snit at the time, the fact that they were boobs was secondary to the fact that they didn't match. Two: use a bit more imagination regarding exactly what's meant by "certain sensitive parts of their body".
    • What's more, when he's not having a breakdown over symmetry, he's extremely modest, blushing and trying to walk away when he sees his weapons tied up in the pharaoh's bandages, which were pulling at some of their clothes in... revealing ways.
    • It was said that the bullets shot out of the guns are spirit energy or something along those lines. So maybe simply using his pinkies put the least strain on his energy.
    • Most likely it is because he uses them as tonfa during hand-to-hand fights.
    • That would be the most accurate. On one page of volume 8 (160 I think.) Kid hits an enemy with the barrel of Liz or Patty while firing a bullet as the contact was made. So, he modifies his strikes with gunfire.
    • Some legends say Billy the Kid fired his handguns with his pinkies... maybe a headnod to this?
    • IIRC, when asked about this Death the Kid said that "they came out like that". My guess? Maybe the sisters were trying to prank him by coming out the wrong way, but it backfired...

    Maka's Mother 

  • Has Okubo forgotten Maka has a mother? We know barely anything about the woman who appears to have had a significant influence on Maka's attitude (wants to be a great Scythe Technician...like her mother; wants to be top of the class...like her mother). Originally, I thought she was being saved for a big revelation of some sort, but as the manga continues, I'm starting to think the author's just ignoring Kami Albarn's existence: somewhere, presumably doing * something* considering she has sole custody of Maka. Just a pretty conspicuous absence, I thought.
    • I just figured that Maka's mum was staying as far away from Spirit as humanly possible. After all, we all know what he's like. Her telling him that it was over probably triggered the greatest round of begging, grovelling and him following her around like a kicked puppy in history. Can't blame her for getting sick of it.
    • Alternatively, Okubo doesn't really have any plans regarding Maka's mother and just had her being divorced from 'Scythe because it was a justification for an Missing Mom that was less subject to angst and emotional upset then having her be dead.
    • In the anime, it's stated that Maka's mother is currently travelling the globe and that Maka often doesn't know where she is.
    • Which fits with the 'staying far, far away from 'Scythe' theory.
    • Probably not though. Given that Spirit was able to work with Stein despite the latter cutting the former up in secret during their five-year partnership and Spirit leaving when his future wife revealed it to him, it's hard to believe this. Given that the witches and Shibusen made a truce and moved on from their feud, her not showing up implies some darker theories.

    Does Crona have a canon gender? 

  • Why aren't we allowed to know Crona's gender? I need to know if it's a trap or not.
    • I have sneaking suspicion that the writer hasn't actually made their mind up in that department.
    • Medusa calls Crona her daughter thus ending the debate.
    • Not really, since the use of the word 'daughter' was actually just a guess by the translator. According to people who can read Japanese the original term would be more accurately translated as 'child'.
    • Witches have only been shown to be women, and Crona has a witch's soul. Add 1 and 1.
    • It has never been seen, either in the manga or anime, that Crona has a witch's soul. Where did you get that?
    • When Medusa turned up at the Witches Assembly, doesn't Eruka point out that she shouldn't have Crona with her because the child isn't a witch?
    • In Episode 12 of the anime in a conversation with Eruka Frog Medusa mentioned that "its not as if I'm the only one who brought non witches (i.e. Crona) to the gathering tonight" referring to the young witch Angela Leon and her guardian Mifune
    • If I recall correctly (and assuming that the person who posted the info wasn't making it up), Okubo has actually stated that he neither knows or cares what Chrona's gender is. My suspicions appear to have been correct.
    • So he doesn't care that fans are going crazy about it? Aw man. Just a guess, but I always feel like the quirks and events that happen to Crona (at least in the anime) are better suited for a male character. Can't explain it, it just seems to work better. But then again, Soul Eater isn't exactly a normal series.
    • What you could probably say is that Crona isn't supposed to have a gender. Crona's gender isn't important. If anything, you might assume that Crona was created artificially and thus literally doesn't have a gender and anything teasing it is just a throw-away joke.
    • Due to Okubo's statement, this troper and her friends have debated that Crona has no gender. Medusa is a witch and a scientist, as we've seen. While Crona may be her child, we don't know how witches are born and certainly don't know how Crona was born. Who's to say Medusa didn't create a body and create or steal a soul to create Crona as s/he isn't a witch? A sex would be pointless on a child created to be a kishin so we've agreed that Crona probably has no or both sexual organs or has a sex (biological) but has no gender (psychological) due to the way of being raised. I actually like the no gender thing; it breaks traditional roles.
    • Ragnarok refers to Crona as male, at least in the anime. Since Ragnarok is inside Crona, I figure he would know.
    • If you were watching the English Dub, it's proper English to use male pronouns when politely referring to someone who is genderless. So whenever Ragnarok uses 'he/him', it's just the translators way of keeping Crona genderless not Ragnarok actually knowing Crona's gender. The same thing could apply to everyone else in-series, with the exception of Medusa who uses 'it.' In the original Japanese, Ragnarok and everyone else was most likely using gender neutral pronouns.
    • This troper would kindly like to point out that there are real-life people, including this troper, who don't fit neatly into the categories of "boy"/"girl" or "male"/"female," so it's possible Crona could be trans and/or intersex (some transgender people are neither boys nor girls, and intersex people often don't think of themselves as male or female). Saying that a character is "neither male nor female" or "genderless" is, sometimes, actually the most accurate thing to say.
    • Okubo has stated that Crona's sex is unknown. Male, female, intersex, it's a mystery. There is a popular theory that manga Crona is a girl and anime Crona is a boy. If you ever come across this, it's incorrect. The official English translations (Funimation for the anime and Yen Press for the manga) both use male pronouns, but they both state that they chose that because using 'he' or 'she' was more respectful in the English language than using 'it', which was the better technical equivalent. There are unofficial English translations for the manga that use 'she' or 'they'. The point is, the artist himself says it's unknown. Because of that, there is zero definitive proof for any argument, leaving fans to take away their own personal interpretations. So whenever someone says they for sure know Crona's sex, tell them that's literally impossible since even Okubo doesn't know.
  • bit of fringe horror for ya, if Crona is a girl, what would happen to Ragnarok during that time of the month?

    Soul Resonance and the magnetic anomaly 

  • At the beginning of the BREW battle in the anime, Sid told his men that Soul Resonance wouldn't work near the magnetic anomaly. However, Kilik and Ox both not only performed a Soul Resonance, but a CHAIN Resonance as well. AND they were closer. Forgetful of BONES, or am I missing something?
    • I thought that it was Soul Perception.
    • It was Soul Perception that didn't work. At least, for no-one except Maka who could still sense Marie and Stein after they'd entered the vortex. Soul Resonance wasn't affected.
    • The initial confusion comes from the fact that Soul Resonance DIDN'T work inside the vortex itself. And perception outside. Hence the need for Soul to transmit his wavelength through sound instead of just resonating.
    • If that were so, Stein wouldn't have been able to resonate with Marie, and thus, won't have been affected by the madness of Medusa's snake.
    • My understanding of the situation is this: Sid said that soul perception and wireless communication is jammed on the island by the magnetic field's effects. It seems more like making it difficult than blocking the perception completely, since Maka(with very sharp soul perception) could sense Stein and Marie inside the field. Chain resonance did work on the island as demonstrated by Kilik and Ox. However within the field itself chain resonance was impossible so Maka&BlackStar&Kid had to go around the problem with Soul's piano. Soul resonance between meister-weapon pairs was never disabled.

    Excalibur and California 

    Sid's Zombification 

  • So was Sid turned into a zombie for the sole purpose to make it look like he had gone evil? They guy went zombie for a single class? Why?
    • It's explained that he was actually killed, and he was brought back to help teach classes and such. It's not so much he came back for one class as that the fact he was turned into a zombie made that class easier to teach.
    • All the characters in Soul Eater have to be nutty in some way. Sid wasn't an interesting enough character when he was alive, so he was made a zombie.
    • On a related note, who did kill Sid, and why?
    • In the mission where the kids capture him, Sid claims Stein killed him. If true, it may have been the consequence of an experiment gone wrong or, this being Franken, he was trying to create a zombie. Shinigami lets Franken get away with some Ax Crazy stuff because he's an asset so long as he's not too dangerous, and having a dead member of staff still able to teach would have been considered a bonus. Alternatively, Sid died in a mission and was brought back by Stein's Mad Science and Shinigami turned a blind eye to something which presumably upsets his life/death balance (having people go from death to life rather than just vice-versa seems...disorderly).
    • I thought someone mentioned Sid dying after having an accident that involved the Statue of Liberty. My guess: Sid tried to take down a kishin egg guy on top of the statue with a crazy badass flying attack- and he lands head first on one of the spikes on Lady Liberty's crown. That would explain the great big friggin' HOLE in his forehead.
    • In the anime during the scene they mentioned he was killed, he was shown with a small souvenir type Statue of Liberty sticking out of his forehead.
    • Completely solved in Soul Eater NOT!: Sid was actually killed by Shaula Gorgon, a witch.

    Spelling Kid's name 

  • It's Death the Kid, Not Death the Kidd. Why do people spell it with two d's?
    • Rule of Cool.
    • Really? Kidd just sounds off. Besides, Death THE KID.
    • Because Kidd is the real life spelling of the name. That's why they call him Kidd-kun, not by his family name of Death. In English parlance he is Kidd Death.
    • It is? But the name's pronounced as 'Death the Kid' in a way that sounds as though it's meant to be an English-language name, in the same way 'Soul Eater Evans' or 'Spirit Albarn' are. For that reason, I can't quite see Death as a surname, not when it's explicitly used as another name for Shinigami himself. Personally, I go for the The Trope Kid explanation, combined with the boy getting his dad's name.
    • I'm pretty sure Word of God said that he picked it for the cowboy motif. Cowgirls, guns, get it?
    • Does that mean Kid has Super OCD AND a cowboy fetish!?!?!? Holy shnikes.....
    • Okay, here's the deal. Shinigami-sama's actual name is "Death", as seen by his signature. Kid's name is both written and pronounced in English as "Death The Kid", making him both The Trope Kid and Death Junior. They do not have a surname. Furthermore, in the most recent chapter of the manga, Kid is referred to as "a fragment of the death god", and it's mentioned that all of the warriors who worked with/for Shinigami-sama in the past (and Shinigami-sama himself) are Eldritch Gods. So Kid has no mother, and is most likely the next incarnation of Death, slowly coming into his powers and maturing. When he reaches the peak of his powers and abilities, the current Death will cease to be, and Kid will become Death and create his own fragment "Death the Kid", or "Death the Third" if he continues to call himself Kid.
    • Except for the fact that the majority of that is being said by, well, a definite Eldritch Abomination who seems to have its own plans for Kid, so the truth of any of that (except for Shinigami-sama's actual name being Death, which is actually what's used when we do see his name in English—for example, every single time we see his signature) is...look, if an Eldritch Abomination told me I was...my given gender, I'd be sticking a hand down my pants to check my anatomy. Kid, however, never was particularly Genre Savvy.
    • Actually, let's go for the simplest explanation: the word 'kid' gets written in katakana as 'kiddo.' As a name, it's actually spelled both Kid and Kidd; in this case, though, the confirmed official spelling is 'Kid as in the Pirate Captain.'
    • Death the Kid is meant to go with the cowboy theme. It's a reference to Billy the Kid.
    • I always thought "the kid" was meant as in "junior"... That is, his name is Death, but they need to tell him apart from the Big Guy Death, so they add "the kid".
    • No, it's a confirmed reference to Billy the Kid.

[[folder:Shinigami, Angela, and Mifune]]

  • Shinigami doesn't seem too worried about letting Angela stay at Shibusen (It takes all of one page of dialogue to convince him). Does this mean that Mifune, one of the coolest characters in the series, essentially died for nothing? That's just depressing.
    • Originally, Black Star and Tsubaki went after Mifune to get his soul, which was worth 99 normal souls. Whether or not they actually got it seems unclear.
    • Holy SHIT you're right...
    • As far as I can tell, he evaporated, soul and all.
    • Ever mentioned to someone that you're, say, a Christian, or a Virgin, or something like that, and had them look at you like you're about to bring down THE WRATH on them, and they promptly get defensive? Not that everyone who isn't one of these things does this, and not that it's never justified, but given Okubo's use of religious references, and Kim and Jacqueline's experience, I'm wondering if Okubo isn't intentionally referencing the tragedy that can occur when people who have loose affiliations with 'bad guys' assume that the good guys are just destroying 'impurity.' Maybe in that context, Mifune's death is MEANT to be depressing.
    • Mifune didn't exactly die for nothing. He died for two (equally depressing) reasons that I'm aware of:
      1. Arachnopobia had his only real weakness and made oblique threats to destroying said weakness should he refuse to destroy their enemies. So his choices were to suffer his death or Angela's. He chose the former.
      2. Say what you will, but he DID seem interested in fighting Black Star to the death. Possibly just to leave Angela in the hands of someone who cares. Or maybe he wanted to die knowing he fell under the best.
    • Only made more depressing when compared to the anime, where Mifune WANTS to work for Arachnophobia because they'll create a world where Angela can be safe AND gets a Defeat Means Friendship ending. It's a copout that just emphasizes how much better Ohkubo's actual work is. Talk about a Headscratcher.

    Soul an albino? 

  • Soul got white hair and red eyes. Is he albino??
    • Most likely not, considering he is noticeably tanner than many of the Soul Eater characters, which is definitely not a trait of albinism. Mystical White Hair is likely in play, and the red eyes just happen to go with it. He's not the only character with odd colored hair (e.g. Black Star, Crona) or odd colored eyes (e.g. Death the Kid, Angela).
    • It is possible that Soul could be a black man who is an albino. If you Google Images search images of African-American albinos, you'll see that Soul's skin tone is very similar to theirs.
    • This is doubtful unless his entire family happened to be albinos. In the few glimpses we ever get of other Evans family members, they don't appear to be black, so unless the entire family is an African-American albino family (incredibly unlikely), the previous Blue Hair trope is much more likely.

    • True, but this is an anime about children who turn into weapons. "Likelihood" of anything is pretty much null. But Rule of Cool is a good theory as well.

    Kid's Stances 

  • Why does Kid use stances for fighting which are so asymmetrical?
    • Rule of Cool, also he cannot see himself xD
    • While we're on the subject, what the hell is he doing with the "Stance of Sin" he sometimes pulls? When he did it just before fighting Chrona he had one of the weapons pointed away and the other aimed at his foot! I've never even seen a real firearm in my life and I know that's stupid.
    • I have. Is his foot evil and deserving being shot? (One of the basic rules of firearms safety: never point a loaded weapon at something you don't want to shoot.) Wait. His foot is not symmetrical, so yeah, Kid probably would feel that way. And then shoot himself in the other foot, so they'll match...
    • Kid's guns shoot his own soul wavelengths. If he shot himself in the foot, he'd probably just reabsorb it.
    • He holds them at weird angles so he can use them to deflect attacks.
    • Also, how can he wear that Shinigami costume? The cloak's wiggly extremities didn't look very symmetrical to me.
    • He seems to make exceptions when it comes to being a death god/his dad. Anyone else dressed like that would induce a freakout and he's able to ignore his Skunk Stripes becoming more asymmetrical if it means doing his job as a death god.
    • Doesn't it make sense that his stance is also based off of symmetry? If you pay attention to his stance, he holds them roughly in the center of his body on the up-and-down axis.

    School Uniforms 

  • Why is it, in the recent two chapters, that everyone is now wearing a school uniform when there didn't seem to be a need for them previously?
    • They're in Spartoi now. They need to be recognized as badass officials from now on.

    Gopher's Gender 

  • What is with Ookubo and ambiguously gendered people? Is this Gopher person a girl or a guy, because I really can't tell.
    • Play TGWTG's game of Guess Their Gender.
    • Gopher is implied to have been created by Noah or the book, so maybe it really is gender-neutral.
    • Gopher is male. He is referred to with male pronouns in Chapter 65 of the manga, not just in English but in Japanese as well. So it is not a case like Crona.

    The goal of the series 

  • How the hell was the goal of the series achieved so quickly?! Soul's already a Death Scythe! But, then I guess it's now about the rest of the characters attaining that goal and them getting used to the new power-up...
    • Quickly?! This is a goddamn monthly manga. It took 5 YEARS to get to this point, not to mention there's still the Big Bad to deal with! He wasn't loose at the pilot.
    • Plot Tumors. First there's weapon kids looking for power ups. Then black blood, then demon god, etc.
    • Though it got re-enforced in a recent chapter, the 'making a Death Scythe' goal has pretty much taken a backseat, as the introduction of Asura and the repercussions of his resurrection has given the series a much wider context than it had originally. One thing I liked about how Soul became a Death Scythe was how it wasn't given this massive fanfare; we got that sense of closure and a goal met, but immediately went on to what happens next. And the 'next' is about protecting the world from Kishin and witches (as Spirit tells Maka and Soul), not getting the top grade in the school, which is what being a Death Scythe has been pretty much treated as (come on, as a reward for passing an exam? That was totally Stein trying to get the class to pay attention) for a while. Hopefully now we will see what this previously kind of vague goal (named, but not explored) actually involves.

    Sid Raising Black Star 

  • Sid was the one who raised Black Star, right? From when he was a little baby. So why did Black Star not seem to give a crap that he died and was turned into a zombie? Heck, he barely seemed to recognize him at first! (I'd also complain about how rude he was to his father-figure, but he calls the frickin' God of Death "Your Reaperness" and actively pisses off his son just so they can fight. He's not polite to anybody.)
    • Maybe that's the point. Black Star is a HUGE Jerkass.
    • Perhaps the author hadn't decided on their relationship at that point, or didn't care that Black Star was such a prat to the man who raised him. Either way, the times Black Star shows genuine sensitivity to anything are few and far between. It bugs me too in retrospect, but unfortunately it fits with Black Star being a complete jerk.

    Anime Ending, Part 2 

  • Why is the way Asura is defeated in the anime considered such a wall banger?
    • Some seem to argue it's bad because it was "just a punch" to what is an in-universe god, and so are missing the courage aspect in favor of 'power levels' and the like. Me, I dislike it because although the courage side works, the teamwork aspect of the meister and Weapon partnership gets dispensed with. It kind of comes across that Maka is the * only* thing that matters and everything else, including Soul, is just sidelined to help her along. Probably other, better, reasons than that for seeing it as a Wall Banger, but it just didn't ring true for me when looking at the other themes in the series.
    • You're looking at it the wrong way. It was a group effort, sure Maka delivered the final blow, but Kid and Black Star did quite a lot of damage beforehand. As a matter of fact, if you remember right, Maka said that the only reason she could show that kind of courage was due to the others' faith in her.
    • I'm not the one to hate the anime ending, it's fine in it's own right, but the problem is most likely that Asura was killed in the anime while in the manga he is literally immortal and has to be trapped on the Moon to be dealt with. In other words, his power as the great fiend is diminished almost to zero.

    Vivisection, not dissection 

  • Stein's catchphrase is "I'll dissect you!" but he doesn't actually dissect things... he vivisects them, because they're still alive when he cuts them open. They're usually conscious, too. Not a huge deal, especially since most people don't know or care about the difference between vivisection and dissection anyway, but... it just BUGS me...
    • Is there even a word for vivisection in Japanese? Maybe there isn't one, so they use dissection as a catch-all?
    • There is. Seitaikaibou, to be exact. Dissection is just Kaibou.
    • Oh, Stein does kill his subjects when he studies them... but only for a little while. Then he brings them back. Don't believe me? Just ask Sid.
    • That's the thing, Sid had to be death to be revived, and it's always said he experimented on Spirit, not dissected him, so what he's saying is that he'll kill then dissect whoever he's referring to.

    Rapid Travel 

  • How the heck do people get around? I mean like around the world around. For example, we know Death City is in Nevada. Maka and Soul first met Crona in Italy. And Spirit and Stein are just chillin at Shibusen in the middle of that first chapter, but suddenly are in Italy just in time to be Big Damn Heroes at the beginning of the next. Things like this happen multiple times. I get that the answer to anything in this series is Rule of Cool, but gosh darn it, I need logistics for fanfiction purposes.
    • My only theory is that Lord Death/Shinigami-sama can use mirrors to move things from place to place by going though it, including people, as well as for communication.
    • Wait, Death City is in Nevada?
    • Huge desert around Death City, Spirit is the Death Scythe of North America and he's in Death City. Even if that wasn't ever mentioned, Nevada would be one of the few spots it could be.
    • I dunno about that; Death Valley would make a lot of sense...
    • It was mentioned in chapter 23.

    Symmetrical Wielding of one weapon 

  • When Kid and Patti got separated from Liz, why didn't Kid just maintain symmetry by holding his one remaining gun with two hands?
    • Because it's been established he has problems?
    • Because even when holding a gun two-handed, you aren't perfectly symmetrical. One hand has to be over the other, only one finger can hold the trigger, etc.
    • Well, we are talking about the kid who can pull a trigger with his pinkies. Maybe he can pull the trigger with both fingers while holding one gun with both hands?
    • What I want to know is, why didn't Kid just fight him bare handed? Recent chapters have shown him to be pretty darn good at that.

    Ragnarok 

  • Just who was Ragnarok before being melted into black blood?
    • Ragnarox was (and still is) a demon sword, a weapon partner (like Soul) that has absorbed multitudes of human souls (unlike Soul). Being melted down into Black Blood just made him a liquid weapon.

[[folder:Mifune's Soul]]

  • So wait...if Tsubaki absorbed Mifune's soul, which is worth 99 souls...what happened to the soul of Masamune, the very first one she absorbed? Wouldn't that be 100 Kishin souls? Actually, was it even established that Mifune's soul was worth 99 Kishin souls and not 99 human souls? As far as I'm concerned, he never actually consumed human souls which is basically what creates a Kishin. Therefore, if Tsubaki had actually absorbed Mifune's soul, wouldn't that technically make her a Kishin?
    • In the manga there's no such thing as Kishin's souls or Kishin's eggs, they are anime only. This is one of the things that make the manga a little more of a Crapsack World, the idea seems to be that is okay to eat someone's soul if said someone is a criminal; Mifune previously worked with The Mafia, so maybe this made him a target of the Shibusen. Also, he didn't seem to leave a soul behind.
    • Maybe Anti-Villain and Kishen Souls are lumped together in the same category?
    • The anime says its the souls of 99 'evil humans', the manga defines the targets according to a list of Shinigami's. We're not told in detail in either version why Mifune counted as a target, only that he did so. It may be because he was protecting Angela, or because of his previous actions. Assuming Tsubaki did take Mifune's soul (which she surely would not have done if she was not allowed to), then she has at least 100 including that of Masamune. Which means she's made the same mistake that Soul did (the 100th soul wasn't a witch's), except under very different circumstances. (Two souls the girl's taken and both were total Tear Jerkers. The lady doesn't get a break!).
    • Wasn't the 99 evil souls supposed to be the 99 mafia souls that Mifune destroyed? If I remember correctly, the souls are scattered all over the area that Black*Star initially encounters Mifune. I think Shinigami suggested them to Black*Star since it would be an easy way for him to actually get some souls.
    • Did Tsubaki even absorb Mifune's soul? I just remember him disappearing into flower petals.
    • I'd wager she just couldn't stand absorbing his soul because of the history Black Star and Tsubaki had with Mifune, in addition to the avoidable tragedy of the whole situation.

    Niddhog damaging itself 

  • When Kid was running around inside the ghost ship Niddhog, when the spirit shot at them and damaged the ship, wasn't he hurting himself? after all, there was the whole "I am this ship as this ship is me" or whatever, as well as later on when Chrona cut the ship in half, the spirit's head, hat included, was cut in half as well.
    • The spirit probably did hurt himself, but the damage is so little that it does not show on the spirit's body. Getting cut in half is much more obvious than getting shot in the foot. Besides, why would you care about a small injury when you have Lord Death's son trying to kill you?
    • Seeing how much damage that guy can take, it's more akin to slapping yourself to swat a fly. Yes, you're theoretically "attacking" yourself but it's to get something much smaller than you.

    Marie and madness 

  • So apparently Marie can cure madness by touching somebody (in the anime at least) but waits until Stein goes completely howling mad to use it, in combat, against his will, as he tries to kill her. Where the hell was this ability the entire time Stein was losing his marbles over the course of ten episodes? It doesn't seem to be that difficult. Its not a Dangerous Forbidden Technique, theres not even any Sucking-In Lines required to charge it up. She just kind of palms him and he's fine again. So what, was Marie just using the madness as an excuse to keep Stein to herself?
    • Because of the snake Medusa had Chrona infect her with. Presumably if it made Stein go crazy from using souls resonance it would also counteract Marie's healing wavelength.
    • In the manga, this is when the Academy realizes something is very wrong. Because when they resonated, Stein's madness should have decreased, but the exact opposite happened.
    • Furthermore, look at the manga after Medusa's snake is char-broiled. The very next time Stein and Marie see each other, a wide-eyed bonkers Stein immediately calms down and gets his head in order. Cue the shippers or not, but Marie's calming wavelength seems to work quite well when it's actually available for use. As for the anime and her "Redeeming Wavelength"...
    • Actually, that makes sense if you understand that she was merely exposing Stein's soul to her own naturally soothing wavelength in much the same fashion that Maka did to Crona and Soul. The only reason she didn't work earlier was due to the snake inside her.

    Genie Hunter and inanimate objects 

  • In the same fight its explained that genie hunter only cuts evil, but both times its used its shown tearing a swathe through just about every (non-child) surface it touches. Were those stone columns just real bastards or something?
    • Maybe it's a not a case of hurting evil but not harming the innocent (thus inert matter isn't "judged" in anyway and gets destroyed by default. Or maybe the geometry was evil. It was Medusa's hideout and it was pretty crazy architecture after all...
    • Rule of Cool, the main way to answer ALMOST any question in Soul Eater.
    • Of course the stone columns were evil. Just ask Kid, the symmetry was horrendous, not counting the designs on them. The stone was lucky Kid wasn't there, or else there would be nothing left.
    • The technique may be designed to target evil, but that is still a magic scythe that would be quite sharp if superpowered up by soul resonance, so it would destroy anything it touches but not innocent people.

    Eating souls 

  • It has been said numerous times that only weapons could eat souls. However, just as often it has shown non-weapons eating souls as well. for example, Al Capone's gang was shown eating human souls, and it's highly unlikely that all 99 of them are weapons. so what bugs me is that I can't tell which one of those are correct.
    • I don't recall it ever saying only Weapons can eat souls. When did it say that?
    • Kilik said it when Lord Death/Shinigami was telling everyone about Asura being under the school.
    • I always thought the issue was that Kishin (and presumably, Kishin Eggs) ate human souls and spread evil; that's why weapons evolved to eat them. So anyone who eats a human soul becomes Kishinish, including Al Capone.
    • Well, weapons didn't evolve, Arachne created them because apparently she shares her sister's love of experimenting with stuff. As far as I can tell, technically anyone can eat a soul, but if it's a human soul and you eat enough you become a Kishin. Asura was the first person to do this. I assume that the Eight Warriors or whatever were organized before that to defend the world from witches and werewolves and stuff. And well yeah you all know the rest.
    • But weapons can become Kishins too, can't they? I remember Patty asking in the ghost ship if they could take the souls because no one was using them, and Kid rhetorically asked if she wanted to become a Kishin.
    • Eat good humans' souls, become a Kishin no matter what you are. Eat the souls of those on their way of becoming a Kishin while being a weapon, be on your way of becoming a Death Scythe.
    • This is a confusion introduced due to the Anime using a different criterion for the bad guys to hunt. In the manga DWMA kills people on Lord Death's list. Only weapons can eat souls and have danger of turning into a Kishin, so only weapons can become "a kishin egg." (Only Masamune and Crona has been referred to as possible Kishin candidates.) But DWMA hunts down criminals that are NOT Kishin eggs as well, such as Jack the Ripper, Al Capone, Lupin, and star clan. These guys didn't eat souls in manga, but were targetted for other bad things they did. But in Anime they decided to have DWMA hunt only the Kishin eggs, so they had to make all targetted villains eat souls.

    Disappearing bodies 

  • If bodies disappear after death no matter what they were killed by (it happens with Mifune's swords so it can't, say, be an effect exclusive to Weapons) then how did Shibusen know how BJ was killed? And what happened to Mizune's soul when she was killed by Medusa? The soul wasn't shown at all. (Though in that case it would be reasonable to assume Medusa simply destroyed the soul along with the rest of the mouse witch. Getting rid of the evidence, perhaps.)
    • All of Mizune was eaten, soul included. For BJ, he died in the middle of Death City, someone with Soul Perception would have noticed his soul suddenly disappearing without a trace.
    • Even if soul perception explains how they knew BJ was dead it does not answer how, if his body disappeared like all the rest and his soul was taken by his killer, they knew how he was killed.
    • Presumably, Justin ate it. As for why his body didn't disappear, it may be getting too much mention here, but this is probably just another thing that's gonna have to fall under Rule of Cool.
    • For that matter, just how was Sid brought back as a zombie if his body disappeared upon death?
    • everyone Mizune kills don't do that, so maybe it's a special power of weapons, in the case of Justin, he might had killed BJ with the clown.

    Crona's relationships and Ragnarok 

  • Okay, I've got one. Gender ambiguity aside, how the HELL is Crona EVER going to be in a relationship if s/he's stuck with Ragnorok forever? I'm sorry but the Squick is just too potent too ignore, not to mention sad.
    • Well, best way around that is that separating them again hasn't been ruled out in canon. If Stein can turn Sid into a zombie then one can imagine he can figure out a way for Ragnarok to inhabit a new body. But, yes, terribly squicky and sad for Crona.
    • That's debatable. I'm pretty sure I heard somewhere that Ragnorok is Chrona's blood now (hence the 'bloody needles' attack we see in their debut). The story so far is that the Demon Sword was smelted down, mixed into Chrona's bloodstream, and they cannot be separated. So it seems that no matter what gender Chrona turns out to be, any sex s/he has in the future will wind up an unavoidable threesome.
    • Well, if someone actually loved Crona, I imagine they would be able to put up with Ragnorok.
    • Well, it's not totally a bad thing. As long as Ragnarok shuts up and doesn't do anything (there have been moments when he did), then it won't totally suck. In theory.

    Death City currency 

  • Why does Death City have its own currency? It's apparently a city in Nevada. In the first episode, you can see Spirit handing the worker at the bar money that's ambiguously a separate currency for Death City.
    • It's probably all of North America that has the same currency, not just Death City. after all, we don't see money used elsewhere else in the series, so it might be true.
    • Also, Death city may be a bit of a city state, though located within Nevada, that doesn't automatically make it part of the United States. Having it's own currency wouldn't be far fetched if this was the case.

    Black Star a Naruto parody 

  • Everyone calls Black* Star a parody of Naruto. This wouldn't bug me if it weren't for the fact that A) They have virtually nothing in common after everything's said and done and B) Not once has this been hinted at beyond having Black* Star suck as a ninja, and that in itself was the joke. Why, fandom? Why?
    • Its because his personality is a heavily flanderised version of Naruto's. He's loud to the point where it inhibits his stealth abilities. His being a Highly-Visible Ninja is portrayed as a disadvantage. Naruto's extremely lofty goals have been exaggerated into Black* Star's massive ego. His highly energetic personality has been exaggerated to the point where only someone like Tsubaki could stand to work with him. Not to mention his ego is the source of his power, essentially parodying every Hot-Blooded character ever created (including Naruto). Oh, and there's also Word of God on the matter IIRC.
    • Would it be too much to ask where and when he said this?

    Demon Hunter 

  • Demon hunter dammit, not genie hunter!
    • There are too many demons in manga/anime already. Genies are more unique.
    • True, there isn't enough use of the word "genie" in anime.
    • Also, isn't one of the word 'Genie's origins with the word 'Djinni' which DOES mean 'Demon'?
    • Not quite. The origin of the word "Genie" is from the Arabic "jinn"/"djinn", but in Islam (which is where they're from), the jinn are one of three sentient races of creatures, the others being humans and angels. Jinni aren't demons at all, they're just some dudes who exist in a world parallel to our own; there are good jinni and bad jinni, just like there are good and bad people. Also, wikipedia tells me that "jinn" roughly translates into "the hidden", not "demon".
    • It makes far more sense for it to be called Demon Hunter. The whole point of it is that it amplifies the Anti-Demon Wavelength. I am not really sure why the anime decided to go with Genie Hunter instead.
    • It's because the japanese word they use, 'Majin', has a few different meaning when translated into English. It can mean that something is demonic, but can also mean magical, or refer to a genie/djinn. So for whatever reason, the translators decided to go with the last one.

    Giriko 

  • Am I the only one here who thinks Giriko's death was an Ass Pull on Okhubo's part?
    • "A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body." With his lifestyle and anger issues...

    Fanservice 

  • In the anime, in the third episode, was there really a point for the bits where the Pharaoh tried to do the ancient Egyptian version of tentacle rape? Feels a bit like a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment.
    • It actually makes sense; the episode was about introducing Kid and his quirks, and what better way to establish his relationship than show his reaction to walking in on them.
    • It didn't seem like a reaction only he would have though.
    • It was the Pharaoh doing this to them so it might have been for his own pleasure. He was Egyptian royalty after all, having sexy girls around himself would be expected if he plans to relive his old life where he most likely had his own little harem of concubines. Given his age by the time of his awakening, this does make him a Dirty Old Man, emphasis on old if he really was from ancient Egypt.
    • I rather thought it was because Okhubo started the first three chapters with a fanservice obsession. I mean, the Anime actually toned it down to something rather more tasteful. (in the manga the girl's shirts had boob windows like Power Girl) Of course, this got better as the series progressed, but remember that in ch 1 you had Blair in a bubble bath, in ch 2 you had Form-Fitting Wardrobe Tsukbaki, and in ch 3 you had Egyptian Tentacles Liz-and-Patty.
    • I guess that would also explain why only girls were naked when in weapon form at first.

    Noah a shotacon 

  • Why is Noah considered a pedo rapist? Giriko, I understand, but as far as I've read (up to chapt. 77 at this point) Noah's done horrible things to Kid obviously but I haven't seen him do that. Is this just fanon or is there a genuine reason to call Chris Hansen instead of an Amber Alert?
    • It's pretty much just fanon, but one could read some subtext into him taking very good care of his collection ...

    Academy Redshirts 

  • What exactly is the deal with the Academy's regular soldiers? They appear in a bit of a Big Damn Heroes moment with Sid in episode 30 of the anime, are a large part of the whole battle for Brew in 34-36, I guess appear in the form of the guys in black suits in episode 40, and now in the worldwide operations that begin in episode 42 (I'm at 43, no spoilers please). It makes sense that Death would have a standing army, but these guys seem to be nothing but the stereotypical Redshirt Army. They have guns in ep. 30, but after that seem only to carry melee weapons, though the same could be said for the Arachnaphobia mooks. But that's what bugs me: What's the point of deploying all these guys if all they do is clash on equal terms with enemy mooks and then get killed in bunches by Elite Mooks (by which I mostly mean Golems) or notable individual characters like Giriko. Inevitably the main characters then step in and kick ass, which makes me wonder why they (the meisters) don't just work without such backup. Or at lest give the poor guys guns on all missions! I know it's not exactly a realistic series, but somehow I came to expect better. (Note: I have not read the manga...does that have more clarification?).
    • The reverse could be said or arachnophobia's mooks. Armies are made of soldier, not heroes, it's reasonable to assume there were skirmishes where neither side's elite mooks got involved. Plus they seemed to have a mixture of weapons in the BREW episodes, so it's possible that they're meisters as well, just weaker ones. Another point; the soldiers with Sid were specifically stated to be based in the region, IIRC so it's possible only they were issued guns (or had a large amount of weapon bloodline soldiers who could turn into them).
    • It might not make sense from a "story" point of view, but that was kind of an all-chips-in battle. Having little effect on the outcome isn't the same as having no outcome; with the world at stake, should they have told all those guys not to bother showing up?
    • There's a similar situation during the final battle in the manga (on the moon!). While the main/secondary characters are leading the assault, there are many 'regular' soldiers also involved. We see Spirit working with several of them in turn to generate a simplified-but-effective version of Scythe Beams. And if they can do that, they are most likely meisters, if not elite ones like Spartoi or even the NOT group (two of which are also there - Akane and Clay).

    Death Scythe Meisters 

  • When Death calls over all the Deathscythes, the only people who seem to be capable of wielding them are him and Stein, where are their partners? For that matter, where are all the two and three star meisters?
    • True, it makes no sense that they turned up without even any reference at all to those who might be able to wield them. Presumably if they're usually separated around the globe they have a meister partner they usually work with (whether their original or not, for e.g Spirit's had three for various reasons). While we're shown that Weapons can work effectively on their own, it's also demonstrated many times that it's much more effective to have a meister wielding them. With all the holes in Shibusen's structure, this is just one of them. It's a global organisation, yet we're told only of the top levels of it with barely any reference to the rest, whether that's the 'non-elite' students or the regular members who aren't three-star rank. A recognition of a bit more...middle ground and organisation wouldn't go amiss. It really wouldn't take much, and if anything it could easily be used to the advantage of the main cast - illustrating in what way they're the 'elite group Shibusen brats- Spartoi'.
    • They don't need Meisters to come with them: Marie gets partnered with Stein, Azusa did recon for Sid (which doesn't need a Meister), Spirit's Meister is Death and Justin doesn't need one at all.

    Black blood infection 

  • I was literally at my fridge when this popped into my head but, remember when Maka and Soul fought Crona for the first time and Soul got infected with black blood? Why wasn't Stein infected as well? Soul got sliced with a sword, yes, but if I remember correctly, Stein got stabbed by the blood itself via "Bloody Needle". And I can't imagine Stein being able to fight off the insanity better than Soul. So, what gives?
    • Well Soul's wound pretty much bisected his chest and took him out of the fight, it's fair to assume it was a lot deeper than anything Stein recieved. Plus Ragnorak's sword form is made of black blood as well so there's no difference in that area. In fact given the smaller size of the droplets that become needles it's quite probable that it would have to stay solid to be effective (and thus be less likely to infect someone), while the sword, being large, wouldn't suffer for having part of it remain an easily transmitted liquid (in fact, maybe it keeps itself sharp by constantly reforming its edge, which would explain how a deep wound from it would infect Soul). On the other hand, this could explain some of Stein's mental degeneration (maybe he's already sufficently powerful, to the point where it doesn't make any noticable difference) or perhaps his unique wavelength cancels it out (it did quite a good job of forcefully making Chrona's blood reject him after all).
    • Was this just in the anime, or the manga too?
    • Everything that happened before BREW in the anime happened in the manga.
    • Given that we've seen how those who are 'naturally' unstable or infected with the black blood react around other sources of 'madness', does it seem like such a good idea for Soul and Maka in ch109 to use the black blood for Chain Resonance when they're right next to Asura? I've no doubt it'll all turn out fine eventually (and everyone invoking the Power of Friendship for Kid's sake was genuinely heartwarming), but I can see this being a big mistake.

    Revealing costume for Maka 

  • The revealing costume Maka's wearing in one of the recent colour pages. Firstly, the Weapon she's holding is her father - when excluding fanon there is little to suggest...that and plenty to indicate Spirit is a decent, well-meaning father if a philandering twit. Secondly, this is on or round about the same chapter Giriko estimates Maka's about 14 and attempts to rape her anyway, after claiming he decided not to wait ten years (referring back to his comment back when he ran into her during the Baba Yaga arc). I know this mangaka likes his fanservice but this is especially out of order. Just NO!

    Soul sulking in the book 

  • I love Soul, I really do. But doesn't anyone think he is being a little sulky and rude in the recent chapters? Like the time where he was goes right out and say that Maka is weak? (But maybe I'm wrong or he has a reason.)
    • Except that he hasn't been? Not an unwarranted amount, anyway. Are you talking about when he gets mad at Maka during the initial fight with the fake Giricco? That can be explained by the fact that he's just had all his perceived inadequacies shoved in his face by an image of his older brother, Maka had just tried to break up with him without explaining why, Giricco had just tried to rape then kill his best friend and then Maka is so bogged down by her insecurities that she can't fight, getting her almost killed in the process, all in the space of two chapters (both manga-wise and Eibon-wise). He's very clearly frustrated by his weakness and his inability to fight, since he is pretty much useless without Maka and scared that she's going to get hurt, so he expresses this through anger, I guess. I'm not really sure what you mean about him telling Maka she's weak. If anything it's the opposite, with Maka throwing herself a little pity party in Sloth and telling him that he doesn't deserve her because she's too weak. Soul does look pretty angry in chapter 80, though, but I guess that's probably because he and Maka are being forced to stay in the fight instead of finding somewhere safe to hide even though they are both seriously injured.
    • Soul never calls Maka weak at any point in time of the manga. He occasionally accuses her of being insane, but for him that's a weird way to show affection. This isn't exactly the first time Maka's ever freaked out about her own self-perceived weakness, but so far it is the most inconvenient time. As pointed out above, Giriko wants to rape and murder her. Not only is Maka clearly his best friend (besides Black*Star, Soul doesn't really seem to be friendly toward anyone else, nor does he display a tenth of the same amount of loyalty), but if she gets killed, Spirit would blame Soul, and Soul would blame himself for being unable to protect her. Soul already has Black Blood in him, imagine just how batshit insane he'd go if Maka killed, especially if he blamed himself for her death. They're already on an extraordinarily dangerous mission, trying to save a friend of theirs from a creep and from going insane and destroying the world. At that moment three people (Giriko, Medusa, and Gopher) want Maka dead, he's pretty much useless without her, he's feeling guilty from the previous chapter where Wes implies that the only reason he's with Maka to begin with is so that he can feel better about himself, he's probably embarrassed and confused from the chapter of Lust, they just got separated from their friends, and more than likely he's worried because 1) Maka didn't tell him what she saw in the Envy chapter and 2) again, as pointed out above, she just tried to break up with him for no reason whatsoever. I think he's more than justified to be upset with her, especially since we all know Maka would have a shit fit if he did the same.
    • When Maka gets over her Sloth, Soul accepts her apology without even needing her to say it and spends the rest of the arc holding her or holding her hand.

    Kid and the twins befriending everyone 

  • How do Kid and the sisters become friends with the rest of the group? I mean, they were fighting with Black*Star and Soul in one chapter then they all become good friends after that? In one of the recent chapters, when they threaten Maka, he goes freakin' crazy— which is awesome — but still makes me rather confused. And yes, they have a whole arc on saving him, but it didn't all seem like they were very distressed (except for Liz and Patti). It's like Kid, just him, is out of the loop here.
    • Because they put up a good fight?
    • Fair point. While there's a distinct lack of detail in how the group became friends (it's only indicated that Black Star and Tsubaki have known Soul and Maka for some time), it's quite possible that sharing classes and taking on similar missions could have led them to become acquainted over time. We do see them spending time together outside of class, such as the basketball game. The business with Kid's reaction to Maka being threatened does stick out rather more for me, though. It sounds so personal that it's the sort of thing you'd expect to be supported with some previous interaction. But Kid and Maka have had nothing of the sort. A couple of cute moments ("It's a monkey! *high-five*), but nothing significant. It's not just out of place for the stoic character whose emotional reactions are usually limited to 'symmetry' rather than 'threatened mates', it's out of line with what we've seen of Maka and Kid's relationship. Definitely an odd moment. Awesome to see Kid get angry, but it just doesn't fit.
    • Maybe they got put in a group by Stein, therefore took missions together, and so they started hanging out outside of class. Or, as was said above, Black Star thought the 'Death Cannon' was badass, and decided to befriend him. Because who would make a greater ally for the amazing Black Star than one of the few people skilled enough to BEAT the amazing Black Star!?
    • Black Star "befriended" Kid because he decided he was a god worth defeating, and Kid thought that was an admirable goal.
    • Of course, if nothing else, you could say that they then bonded over meeting Excalibur. (ﺧ益ﺨ)
    • I'd say it's a lot of behind-the-scenes things we don't see. After all, they are all in the same classes together and they frequently go on missions together. There are many scenes where we see them hanging out: the afore-mentioned basketball scene, the ball celebrating the anniversary of Shibusen, several scenes where they are eating/having a small party at someone else's house, hospital scenes. In an anime that isn't slice-of-life genre, this is pretty much all that can be expected. You're not going to get a whole bunch of 'how did they become friends' scenes. We do get a pretty decent foundation of how Kid befriends Black Star even after they fight (he is the only one that takes Black Star's goal of 'surpassing god' seriously other than Tsubaki, and even encourages him after their fight). We get enough that it's not unreasonable to assume the group has had enough time for Liz, Patti, and Kid to become very close to the others. It's not surprising that you don't get to see any relationship-building between Kid and Maka, because they're very similar in several aspects, so it's just assumed they'd get along and it would be 'boring' to show that. Frankly, I occasionally get more puzzled by Black Star's reactions than Kid's, because for me it takes a lot longer to realize that Black Star really does care about his friends (particularly Maka - it took me a while to believe his get-revenge-for-her bit).

    Maka's gloves 

  • I've only seen the anime, I don't read the manga, and maybe my question is answered there, but...is it ever made clear exactly what's up with Maka's gloves? It seems to be pretty clear by now that she only wears them when wielding Soul (and the fact that she has occasionally taken them off in battle like when she first befriends Crona during the whole arc where Asura is initially freed, or the fact that they suffered from battle damage a few times, both suggest that the animators were aware they were there and they weren't just a random part of her outfit), but why is that? Is there something dangerous about Soul's shaft?
    • I've been part of a color guard. Twirling a rifle/flag gives you calluses. That's probably what the gloves are there for.
    • Oh. That makes perfect sense. Now I feel kind of stupid for assuming there was something more unusual to it.
    • I don't know, I seen her wear the gloves without weapon Soul many times...
      • She may have liked them enough to make them part of her look. Also there are duals allowed between students on campus so she may need to be ready for a fight at almost any time so it would make sense she would wear them most of the time. Keeping her guard up you know.
      • Also she does read a lot from what we have heard, so it makes some sense she would wear gloves to avoid papercuts maybe?
    • Then why doesn't Stein wear gloves when he's using Death Scythe?
    • Well Dr. Stein is already a hand to hand combatant, so he doesn't need gloves because his hands are already tough enough/protected on their own (this would also explain why Black*Star wears the fingerless sort, he's not got as many callouses and scars to toughen his hands up and he prefers to go all out with his blows, thus needs to protect his knuckles but rarely spins anything in his hands, so there's no need to protect his fingers).

    Anime Ending...again 

  • In the anime ending, what exactly happened when Maka defeated Asura? So Maka has bravery and...for some reason that kills him? I'm very confused here.
    • You and everyone else.
    • Because he IS fear. So what gets rid of fear? Courage. It's like he was a living fire and she punched him with water. Kind of.
    • Here's what I think. All through the fight, Asura is going on about how he's not afraid, so he can't feel pain, therefore has the advantage. When Maka tells him that she doesn't care if she's afraid... Well he just doesn't get it. As Maka goes on about bravery, her fear shrinks while his grows like a forest fire. Those advantages get flipped pretty quick, don't they? Maka now has his strength of not being afraid, while Asura is trembling out of his mind. While yeah, I don't like the fact that Shinigami gave himself away during their fight, it did do pretty good to set up the "Oh crap, we can't win" mood. I like the anime ending, overall.
    • What gets me is not so much as the 'victory through bravery' shounen ending which I kinda-sorta hoped we wouldn't get but was resigned to anyway, but the implication that not being brave makes you somehow deficient and in Asura's case less than human. Serious Business, I know, but way to screw up an aesop.
    • True, that Asura did go completely insane, but he wasn't just not brave. The dude was terrified of everything! You know how bad Crona is? Asura is implied to be about 10 times worse. That should be enough to drive someone to demonicy.
    • He's not literally the embodiment or fear, though. He's just a crazy guy who got really powerful.
    • Animeverse only. In the manga, he seems to be an Anthropomorphic Personification of extreme/mad terror that got so out of hand he killed some of his peers and got imprisoned by another, Death. If so then he's only doing what's natural, as it were, and the 'Asura's fear led to evil because he lacks courage' explanation can't really stand. Not if Shinigami's answer to avoiding the same problem was to split his soul up.
    • I think he's the embodiment of Madness through Fear, which is how he spreads the Madness. Just like how Excalibur may be Madness through Anger: he pisses people off so much that they go insane. Asura's hallucinations frighten people, this driving them to Madness.
    • Actually, if you remember right, Lord Death said, while explaining about the Kishin's origin, that he was "nothing more than the embodiment of something deep within his heart. Perhaps fear." It was also implied that he was Lord Death's son when Death suddenly became sad after Asura said: "You'd better say goodbye to your son." It's subtle, but there. As to how Maka beat him, it's pretty simple. He always believed that gaining power and going mad was the only way to deal with uncertainty in life. A weak, beaten down person like Maka standing up to him shattered that worldview. This made him succumb to his fear so completely that he experienced a more extreme version of what happened to Black Star when his wavelength attack stopped working. He became so weak that Maka's punch was able to kill him.

    Soul Eater is Bleach 

  • Okay, I keep hearing that Soul Eater is like Bleach. Why? I have read/watched both and unless it's just the weapons that are alive... and... can upgrade (Shikai = Resonance, Bankai = Death Scythe / Demon hunter-ish level attacks)... and kill evil souls (Hollows Kishin eggs)... and... have upgraded versions of said... you know what? nevermind. I answered my own question.
    • We're glad we could help.
    • The short answer is that it's a Shōnen show. With all The Heartless and Power Levels you'd expect to be involved.
    • They're both about people (Miesters/Soul Reapers) who encounter souls and collect/send those souls with the use of a weapon that can come to life. There's also the fact that they go through special schooling to do this. Then there's the fact that they both have Mad Scientists. And Cat Women causing nosebleeds to teenaged boys. And it really doesn't help that Maka and Ichigo both have magical daddys and absent moms.

    And, for a change of pace, the anime ending 

  • People give the Gecko Ending all the bad names in the book just because it's different from the manga. Yes it's different but that doesn't automatically make it bad. It provides a new experience. Tropes Are Not Bad and neither are different storylines.
    • I liked the Gecko Ending, except for the last 5 minutes. Killing the Kishin with a Courage Punch is when I started hating it.
    • I didn't mind the Courage Punch so much, because I viewed it as only working because Maka was freaking out Ashura with her refusal to give in to pain. What annoyed me about the Gecko Ending was the horrible, horrible treatment of Medusa and Arachne. Seriously? Medusa can only think of using a vector arrow as a sword whereas in earlier episodes she had been seen using them to much greater effect against Stein? Arachne suddenly decides that Ashura is totally A-OK and able to be trusted, then ends up getting eaten in one of the most anti-climactic scenes ever? It did not do two of the best villains justice.
    • First, it's not really less arbitrary than just saying "oh, now our guys are stronger than the bad guy now". Second, I think it works really well- he might have been arbitrarily strong, but had an equally crippling mental problem; he was afraid of Everything. Maka didn't get a new super-punch, but it's also not like anyone could have punched the guy to the same effect. She faced the most dangerous thing in existence without fear, and it literally shattered his worldview.
    • To a lesser extent, he also might have been operating under the assumption that what everyone basically wants is to not die, so anything he did to make that happen was justified under "if they could do it, they would". Maka demonstrably had other priorities, which meant he didn't have the same moral carte blanch he assumed he did.
    • In general (note this, I know not all the manga readers will fit into what I say next), people who read the manga give the anime ending a bad name because they feel that the manga ending was more fulfilling and made more sense. That's all it is. People are allowed to have opinions and prefer one over the other. You can try to justify why you like the anime ending and why it's not bad, but some people are just always going to dislike it because they preferred the manga ending.

    Mosquito 

  • A few things about Mosquito - but first, I'll axplain a bit: His current form is a tiny old guy... who was a giant muscled bowling ball 100 years ago ("wnen I was at my toughest!"). 200 years ago, he was a human grasshopper ("when I was at my swiftest!"). At all those times, he has a giant schnoz. However, he was a powerful vampire butler... who looks completely normal (but still "at my most numerous!"). His form from 800 years ago ("at my most MAGNIFICENT!") is some sort of freakish humanoid (with, again, a beakish nose). Hear's what bugs me:
    • 1) What the heck is up with the wierd changes in appearance? the only one that makes sense is the old wizened one (he is over 800 years old). So what's up with this?
      • Insects are known for taking on multiple different forms in their life spans as they age, so it makes sense that Mosquito would have different forms at different times of his life. he can simply choose which form for different tasks, 100 years for strength, 200 years for speed, and so on. His form from 800 years ago must have been his original and therefore most human looking, because human is basic for his form with insect added into it.
    • 2) Why don't we get to see him fight as his "most magnificent" form? Why? WHY?! (or the forms from other years?)
      • He most likely was using this form for confusing his enemies, to give himself an opening to strike them quickly with another form. He may have also forgotten his original form didn't have any special abilities and he just assumed that it did since it was his oldest form it would have logically been his strongest before transforming, 8 hundred years ago is when death was still able to move freely through out the world so he would have had good reason to think it was tough gven the much different circumstances of the time.
    • A couple hypothesi to my own questions: 1) the author wanted to use both the Bishounen Line trope (400 year ago form) and the One-Winged Angel trope (the 800 years ago form). 2) The author wanted to keep the battle from being too long, and wanted to imploy the Worf Effect to show Noah's power. It still bugs me though.
    • Not sure about the massive form, but 'dracula' and 'mosquito' recall blood-sucking creatures fictitious or otherwise. The "I was legion!" is very similar to one in the Bible from a man possessed by many demons...though the many bats thing could just be a Hellsing Shoutout? And without seeing the page again I can't be sure, but the mention of the final form having a beakish nose reminds me of an annotation for Terry Pratchett's 'Carpe Jugulum' - "The beaked, hunched figure that Vlad calls 'a distant ancestor' is a reference to the stryx, a creature from Roman mythology that stabbed and drank blood through its beak."

    Kid's Sanzu Line Powerup 

  • Kid activating the second Sanzu Line and taking down Noah and his Cerberus with one shot. It seemed veeeeery anti-climax...then they just let Gopher run off with the Book of Eibon. The hell, man?
    • TOC apparently resurrected Noah, but this time as a personification of Rage, and not Greed, for as of yet unknown reasons.
    • One of the few good things I can say about the arc is that it leaves plenty to be used elsewhere. The Lovecratian premise was pretty neat and very SE-like in context. It's just the execution is so rubbish you have to wonder it wasn't meant as a joke. And with the original Noah dead, we have a former ally of one of the Great Old Ones, Eibon, running around. Shinigami all but admits he knows what it is, wonder how Medusa will handle it?
    • About Gopher - he'd been shown to not be all that powerful on his own, as shown when Noah brings out the giant speaker thing and Kid literally just kicks the poor guy out of the way, which apparently incapacitates him for the rest of the fight. They probably let him go because he hadn't been seen using the Book except for one teleportation away from Maka, and they see him as an ineffectual, heartbroken little weirdo. It's not like he actually did anything with it; he just sat against a tree and wallowed in self-pity with the Book next to him. And I pity the dude. Plus...people had been hurt. Tezca was apparently dead. I can't blame the DWMA for leaving Gopher be.

    Maka's comeback against Giriko 

  • Maka's comeback in the Giriko fight being a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the moment when she realises she needs to have trust in Soul as her Weapon in order to fight effectively is a legitimate and consistent use of the prevalent theme of trust and cooperation in the series. On the other, her change of heart comes about not through any acknowledgement of her own skills in the face of the Book playing on her weaknesses, but through Maka's acceptance that she needs to trust Soul in order to fight. There's something not right in the Book's fairly reasonable indications of Maka's insecurities - how well she knows Soul, how much of her skill as a meister is down to her own skill - were dismissed by an emphasis on her relationship with Soul, rather than by Maka acknowledging her own strengths - determined, smart, and thoughtful when it counts. *Some* acknowledgement of Maka's own achievements wouldn't have gone amiss. Otherwise it somewhat gives the impression that the Book was right; Maka really does rely on Soul. Unintentional, one assumes (such dependence does not fit with Maka's characterisation as the Heroine), but still.
    • Personally I took it as not meaning that she must entirely rely on Soul, but that it's okay for her to do so occasionally.
    • True. Leads me to another conclusion about that fight. The last time Soul got slashed across the chest, by Crona, he felt right down, understandably. That occurred because Maka could not bring herself to use Soul to defend when she knew he'd get cut in two (he was already bleeding in Weapon form). This time, against Giriko, Soul gets cut in a similar manner but continues to fight to defend his meister. Maka's realisation that, as you put it, it's okay to rely on him sometimes shows that in part she's getting past what happened in Italy - they are strong and courageous enough to work together, and protect one another. Now, it doesn't quite fit because Maka's hesitation against Crona was less about not trusting Soul's ability than knowing he couldn't stand up to Ragnarok unscathed, but I wonder if there are some parallels there.

    The nature of the souls 

  • I've only seen a few episodes of the anime, but I'm curious. Is it ever explained what, exactly, is the nature of the souls we see people collecting and eating? Are these actually supposed to be one's everlasting immortal soul? Is it that person's consciousness and life experiences distilled into a little glowing ball? Or is it more of a power-up, like in video games where enemies drop health when killed? It it's the former then it's kind of depressing that we're watching so many individuals get erased from existence, doomed to oblivion.
    • I'm pretty sure they are actual souls. However, I don't think they're getting erased from existence. The souls don't seem to be digested by whoever eats them, the person just keeps them contained and draws power from them. There is one incident where someone had all the souls they had eaten confiscated by Shinigami, so presumably anyone whose soul gets eaten could still be released and then continue on to whatever afterlife there is like normal.
    • More than once in fact (Kid in his first episode, Chrona after their Heel–Face Turn).
    • The souls on the ghost ship were still ghosts, so presumably they're the person's actual soul.
    • Keep in mind that they're working for Death. You know, the Grim Reaper. Harvesting souls is his job, and the natural order of things. That's just what happens when people die in this Verse. Also, there's nothing that says they never get reincarnated or sent to an afterlife later or something.

    Kid's creation 

  • If Kid was created after Asura was sealed so Shinigami could prevent the same thing happening to himself, then how old is Death the Kid? He acts and looks like a teenager (more-or-less) yet it doesn't seem right that Shinigami waited centuries before splitting up his soul. Unless he waited for a point when Shibusen was a strong enough force to maintain order in the world (as Mosquito describes it) so that his weaker, younger 'self' would not be put at as much risk than it would if Kid were created around the same time when Asura was imprisoned. As the patchy timeline tells us, a lot of bad stuff was going on at that time.
    • Probably the latter. In addition to all the chaos surrounding the kishin, Lord Death mentions that it's only recently that the Academy started overpowering the witches. For a long time, they were fighting a defensive war.

    Kid's Anatomy 

  • Ok, so Kid was created from a piece of his father's soul, right? So, here is my question for you... does he have a belly button?
    • We have never seen him shirtless so I guess we will never know
    • The prequel series did establish that Death based Kid off of his cretor so he may have included a belly button to make them more alike.

    Gender Fandumb 

  • Okay, here's one: understanding that Chrona's gender was never confirmed in canon, I noticed that some fans tend to make a call of 'one or the other,' so to speak. I'm fine with that, and it's one thing to assume, say, that Chrona is a girl, but when the Fan Dumb wants to pretend that their opinion is basically on par with canon, then I have a problem. I can't stand when fans will try to tell my they know that Chrona's a boy, or she's a girl...whatever. Having a pre-conceived assumption is one thing, but your word is just as good as mine on this one. I just think of him as a boy, but I know there's no canonical evidence for it, and so I don't correct anyone who refers to Chrona as "she".
    • Personally, I'm bothered by the lack of love for intersex Crona.
    • But I don't know how to deal with figuring out pronouns for that!
    • Hello, I would like to state that I and many others I know consider Crona to be canonically nonbinary— that is, Crona does not have a psychological gender at all, biological organs aside. I and others use they/them pronouns for Crona.

    Black Star's soul collection 

  • Why has Black*Star not collected any souls at all at the beginning of the series? I'm assuming that he's been doing this for as long as Soul and Maka, which means that he has had plenty of time. Even considering the fact that he generally ignores his (considerable) skills as an assasin, he's still an incredible combatant. Even if he's never assasinated a target before, I can't see him losing to someone like Jack the Ripper, who, by my understanding, was an above average evil soul/kishin egg.
    • His debut and early chapters establish that Black Star's problem is his ego and his approach. He overestimates his own ability and disregards that of his opponent, as shown when he fights Mifune for the first time. His approach to the mafia-types and to hunting down Masamune (until Tsubaki corrects him on both) is to rush in loudly. His mindset is as much a hindrance as it is an advantage, something which no amount of raw talent could entirely compensate for. I got the impression that what happened with the mafia people, if not Mifune, was just one more failed mission for Black Star and Tsubaki; he ran into the same problems over and again, and it took meeting Mifune (and Masamune) for him to get out of that rut. If that's the case, than he could easily have been doing it for the same amount of time as Maka and simply not gotten anywhere.

    The Poem 

  • Am I the only one who wonders just how bad that poem was? In a way, I almost care less about Chrona's gender at this point...to think that Black*Star, Maka, Marie...Sid...all got that depressed from just reading it, (if you take into account what some of these people have dealt with in their lives, that's saying a lot), it had to be pretty dark. This is one of the reasons I can't stand Medusa, actually.

    Rachel's show 

  • What kind of show was Rachel watching? They'd just repeat the same sentence over and over again? Some kind of educational program with a weird method?

    The Lust chapter 

  • Liz's comment after girl Black*Star starts rubbing her boobs all over male Tsubaki: Am I the only one confused? So Maka is a solemn young man...Soul is a bossy little princess...Black*Star is a naive girl...and Tsubaki's getting pushed around by Black*Star, same as ever, huh?
    • Patti seems to be implying that she's simply being sarcastic, but it sounds more like Liz is Lampshading something, but I can't figure out what. Maka can be grouchy but is usually cheerful, optimistic and friendly. Soul usually is grouchy and finds Maka to be grouchy. Those two characteristics could more be who Liz thinks they're supposed to resemble. But Tsubkai isn't exactly pushed around by Black*Star. She goes along with what he wants because that's just how her personality is, but she's perfectly capable of reprimanding him when she feels like it. She's also never shown as being naive. Black*Star, though a Large Ham and the type to act before he thinks, is also never shown to be naive, nor is he pushed around by Tsubaki. Any thoughts on what Liz meant?
    • The Lust chapter was shown to affect personality as well as appearance, so naturally they would not act themselves. I think it may be some kind of exaggerated pointer to how they'd attract their love interest. Maka being solemn, and mostly looking like herself with shorter hair, could show how she is not interested in dating. Black Star has no idea about romantic relationships, hence naive. Soul's a bit tricky, but I'd say that once someone caught his attention, he'd be very persistent about it. The thing with Tsubaki getting "pushed around" is actually a pun in Japanese, both referring to way she is wielded as a weapon and how she goes along with Black Star's egoism. It's just not a perfect translation.
    • I guess I was more confused. I originally thought she meant that's how their love interests would behave (hence the Shipper on Deck theory), but the way she phrased it confused me a lot. It wouldn't exactly be unlike Liz to suggest things like that... I'm also confused - they're supposed to change according to what attracts them in a member of the opposite sex. So like Black*Star has huge boobs, Tsubaki's all muscly, Maka's still skinny but has shorter hair, and Soul for some reason is flat. I just assumed that since their voices changed, their personalities did as well, since Soul was upset about Maka getting a nosebleed when he's normally all laidback and can't seem to really bother with anyone (I can't see him doing any different for a girl he likes) like Maka was in boy form and...okay that's confusing enough but why didn't their hair or skin colours change? I guess it also leaves no room for bisexuals or homosexuals...
    • While Liz's comment was sarcastic, to me it makes some sense. Maka becomes a short and thin 'solemn young man' (kinda like the cool personality usually displayed by Soul, who is also short and skinny); Soul becomes a flat-chested 'bossy little princess' who berates men for their vulgar lust (do I really need to say this resembles Maka, who like it or not sometimes acts like a bossy princess?); Black*Star becomes basically the female version of himself (possibly due to his mostly-previous self-centered-ness). Though I'm not sure about Tsubaki (Black*Star might come to be a manly martial artist, once he grows out of his Highly Visible Ninja phase), and I have no clue as to everyome else.
    • I have to agree with the comment above mine. It's pretty clearly stated that they are changed according to what their own interests and desires are in the opposite sex. Their personalities don't change according to how they'd attract their mate, their personalities change into what they find attractive in someone they might date. Whether you ship or not, you have two boy-girl partnerships that spend most of their time with each other: they even live together. To be partners, their personalities must mesh incredibly well. It's not a stretch to think that if any of them got romantic relationship, it would either be their partner or someone who is similar to their partner. So Soul and Maka essentially become each other. Maka getting a nosebleed could be a shoutout to how Soul gets nosebleeds whenever he sees Blair naked. Soul berates Maka for this, which is something that Make herself normally does to Soul when his nosebleeds occur. As for Black Star and Tsubaki, I'd dare to say it's the same thing. Tsubaki might not actually be naive, but Black Star might perceive her as such. Also, while Liz calls his personality "naive", I think it's a poor choice of word. Black Star as a girl didn't seem naive to me so much as just much more reserved than usual. Tsubaki I can't quite explain, but it could just be that Tsubaki's personality is so relaxed that it's just not possible change it, particularly not to something like Black Star's personality (also if it had changed they couldn't have had the pun that was present in Japanese). As for appearance, their appearance wasn't changed according to physical traits they like in the opposite sex. Their appearance was just changed according to what suited their own personality and looked like them, just the opposite sex.

    Homosexuality in Eibon 

  • In the Lust chapter of the Book of Eibon, you change depending on what you find attractive in the opposite sex. So what happens if a gay person goes into the book?
    • Not a clue but someone should write fanfic about it.
    • It expressly says that you perform a gender swap in the Lust chapter. If you are gay then I guess you would turn into a manly woman or an effeminate man.
    • You physically swap sexes, regardless of your sexuality. Your personality is what is affected by the traits you find attractive, so I'm assuming your personality would still just change according to what you find attractive in the same sex.

    Seeing Ship Tease everywhere 

  • A question about the Fanon on this site: Why does someone keep insisting that all weapon/meister relationships could be viewed as an Official Couple, Canon, Ship Tease, etc. when text, Subtext, anime, manga, and anything that actually is Canon only supports Soul/Maka, Black*Star/Tsubaki, and possibly Maka/Crona? There is absolutely nothing to suggest that Harvar and Ox, Kilik and/or Pot of Fire and/or Pot of Thunder, Kim and Jackie, Spirit and Lord Death, Kid and Patti and/or Liz, or Sid and Nygus (though admittedly, I like the idea) has even the slightest hint of Ship Tease? If you squint really hard, you might be able to find a small tidbit of Marie/Stein, but seriously: this is a No Hugging, No Kissing-type manga. The only pairing that is an Official Couple as of yet is Kim/Ox. When upset, Tsubaki will act endearingly towards Black*Star, and she is the only person he's willing to behave for. Crona refers to Maka as being the only person who loved him. Increasingly recently (as pointed out on Wikia) Soul and Maka have been holding hands (or otherwise touching) and blushing around one another. Once Stein was comforting to Marie. That's it. So how, exactly, can you infer that any other pairings besides Black*Star/Tsubaki, Soul/Maka, and/or Crona/Maka would be in the least way Canon? Am I the only person bothered by this?
    • I'm not particularly bothered, except for Kilik and his weapons. But, I think it's since they match as weapon and meister, it's not hard to imagine them fitting as a couple.
    • Soul Eater Not! makes room for a Jaqueline/Kim pairing, or at least Jaqueline feeling attracted towards Kim.
    • Even in Soul Eater proper Jaqueline and Kim held hands at least once.
    • The series ending has not helped, unless you are a fan of Ox/Kim or (here it comes) Stein/Marie. Now everybody gets to pick through the series all over again and re-interpret every character interaction ever. Fandoms do what fandoms do.

    Sid's age 

  • It has been shown that Sid helped kill off Black Star's clan, then took Black Star back to Shibusen and apparently raised him as his surrogate father. The problem: Sid states in the manga that he is 26 years old. Stretching it, the youngest age Black Star could reasonably be is 13. This makes Sid, at oldest, 13 when he rescued him. He definitely didn't look that young in the flashback.
    • In the manga he was apparently lying when he said he was 26- he could really be over thirty for all we know.
    • I don't remember reading anywhere that he was lying. He was indeed only 13, but anime pre-teens often look far more aged-up than they actually are. Aside from Black Star, and maybe Patti, whenever the main group is together, I often forget that most of them are only supposed to be 13-14 years old, until I remember that Liz is 5'7 and everyone else is shorter than her.

    Witches evil? 

  • Okay, there's one thing that bothers me. Why are the witches evil? I'm only maybe 30 episodes into the anime but this bothers me. So, we have a group of all female magic users. Yes, there are a few bad eggs like Medusa and Arachne, but then again the only reason Eruka helped Medusa was because she was threatened and Mizune only helped because she was tricked. Also, with the existence of Angela, it's implied that witches are born and not made, like Kishin, and that they're not born evil, either. If Lord Death was really concerned about the witches like Medusa, he probably could have taken advantage of the fractious nature of witches to have them turn against each other. But, instead, he sanctions genocide of them because they're required to make a death scythe. Death scythes are only shown to be useful on limited occasions where an extremely powerful weapon is needed, and yet this is the goal of all of the weapons in his academy, and from the looks of it, it's a pretty big school, and he's apparently been doing this for hundreds of years! A lot of their anger at Lord Death seems entirely justified, so why is he justified in killing them again?
    • I've only seen the anime, but it seems that most witches aren't evil. I'm not sure why Lord Death wants people to hunt them.
    • In one episode, Medusa mentions being unable to directly oppose Death in person, because he would put out a warrant on her. So, I assume Death only makes Witches who are threats to Shibusen targets (just like how only humans in danger of becoming Kishin are targets).
    • Being a witch isn't in itself justification for Shibusen to hunt someone; Death has a list of targets. The manga claims that witches almost exclusively Always Chaotic Evil due to their magic being driven by 'the way of destruction' and (mostly) can only be used to destroy. Eruka delights in it, Medusa ignores all authority in order to follow her desires, and Arachne...did her own thing (incidentally the Gorgon sisters are distrusted even amongst witches; Medusa for abandoning the Assembly, and Arache is dubbed 'The Heretic' for creating the Weapons). Problems arise when we get people like Angela who is too young for the 'destruction' aspect to affect her. If anything, Shibusen's stance could be why the Witches Assembly has done nothing yet - they genuinely can't afford to act rashly because they'd have all of Death's followers after them.
    • The manga makes it clear that the Witch-Shibusen conflict is pretty much maintained due to old animosity and the few rogue witches like the Gorgon sisters who keep pissing off Shibusen. The reason the conflict got started was probably a natural consequence of having a personification of order interacting with a group of super-powered people who have a tendency to blow things up. For the witches part, having one of your number hunted down and eaten as a rite of passage probably didn't sit well with them either.

    Crona cold-blooded? 

  • Here's one: Is Crona, like, cold-blooded? I mean, I doubt that Black Blood is exactly like normal blood except for the fact that it can harden. Can Crona give off... warmth? Or is s/he like a snake? (Well, considering hir mother...)
    • On a side note, if Crona's blood is black, shouldn't s/he blush gray?
    • On a somewhat-related note, Sid is shown bleeding several times, including a nosebleed. If he's a zombie shouldn't he not have blood at all?
    • Obviously, not all of Crona's blood is black, he/she must have some regular blood. He/she blushes red, and when Ragnarok comes out of Crona, then there must be SOMETHING in Crona's veins or else he/she would die due to a lack of blood.

    Maka's mother 

  • Are we EVER going to hear from Kami or whatever Maka's mom's name is? Seriously, we're ass-deep in the story at this point and we haven't heard hide nor hair from her YET. She made Spirit a Death Scythe for crying out loud so there's no question that she's powerful and they could certainly use her help on the Moon. And yet, nothing. Why? The anime has many problems but even they acknowledge Kami's effect on her daughter (she never physically shows up there either but she has regular correspondence with Maka and one of her postcards plays a part in the finale.).
    • This troper assumed that Maka's mom doesn't play an important part in Soul Eater's story, and so Ohkubo chose to never introduce her properly, unlike in the anime where they established a connection between mother and daughter through the postcards. In the manga, there's no reason to have her around, and her only real purpose is just to give Maka a Missing Mom without her actually being dead.

    Giriko's Weapon Form 

  • We know that Giriko is eight hundred years old. Assuming that Soul Eater takes place from 2000 - 2010ish, that would mean that he was born in the thirteenth century. That being the case: How exactly is he a chainsaw?
    • My theory is that originally he was something more akin to a woodcutter's axe or a hand saw. But as the generations (of himself) passed, he used his enchanting skills to change and "upgrade" his weapon form alongside improving technology.
    • IIRC, in the anime, he mentioned something about his children's bodies being involved. It's really his great^30-grandson who's a chainsaw.
    • Hell, is there any indication he was a weapon in the first place? If he worked for Archane before she 'died' then it's unlikely he was born a Demon Weapon and grew old enough to make a golem to hide Archane's body before Shinigami hunted her down. Weapon genes were probably passed into his family sometime over the 800 years.

    Crona Blushing 

  • Okay, I'm surprised no one's asked this one yet: Chrona has been seen blushing several times in the anime. His (or her) blood is black. It could be justified by way of the Rule of Cute (a face flushing black would just look weird and not nearly as adorable), but it's kind of been a bit of a Mind Screw for me, almost as much as determining Chrona's gender or how the hell you spell his/her name anyway. Or, maybe not all of his blood is black, and there's still just enough red blood for him to actually blush...or...wait, NOOOO!!!!!!!!
    • Ignoring the proper consequences of black blood for Rule of Cute? Ragnarok's appearance and the number of times we've seen Crona bleed when in a less-unstable frame of mind would indicate that whatever Medusa did it made her child's blood black permanently (and yet, on a semi-related note, Crona still attempts - and briefly succeeds - to function in a world which is not trying to kill hir (?)).
    • Well, it might just be that the black blood is not really black, but really just an extremely dark shade of red. That might explain it.
    • If Crona's blood is truly black his complexion should be some shade of grey rather than pink... Maybe the blood turns black upon contact with air?
    • Well, when Maka coughed up some black blood and later asked Medusa about it (not knowing the truth about her at the time), she just Hand Waved it as being normal, saying that blood changes color and darkens over time (which is true, medically speaking, but not in this case). If she could pull off a lie like that, then it's possible that the black blood really is a very dark shade of red/brown, which might explain it.
    • (Same troper) Also, while it's true that Chrona would have a grayer complexion, s/he's still pretty pale, and I think I remember Chrona looking somewhat ashy at one point (but then again, that scene was from the church, and the lighting was fairly dim too; s/he's also looked a little more colored under the right lighting). Then again, in the scenes that do show Chrona blushing, it's usually light pink, and I don't know if Chrona's ever been shown with a Luminescent Blush.
    • Obviously, not all of Crona's blood is black, he/she must have some regular blood. He/she blushes red, and when Ragnarok comes out of Crona, then there must be SOMETHING in Crona's veins or else he/she would die due to a lack of blood.

    Kishin War 

  • When the Kishin is released and later when Shibusen needs all the combat power it can muster to fight on several fronts against Arachnaphobia, we never see Shinigami mobilize any meisters except for those who are current staff and students of Shibusen. Instead Shibusen relies on Mooks armed with what appears to be sticks. Why? Its not like they cannot contribute to the war effort. Stein, Black Star and Sid all show that a meister can have significant combat ability all by himself even without a Weapon and can perform feats like Soul Sutures and Soul Shockwaves to a greater extent when partnered with one. Maka's anti-demon wavelength and soul perception are both crucial assets but her mother has the former at the very least. And yet they seem to talk about Maka's ability as their only ace in the hole despite the fact that her explicitly alive mother probably has better control over the anti-demon wavelength and is likely a more experienced combatant. Throughout the manga and anime, no effort seems to be placed on recruiting meister alumni to bolster Shibusen ranks even though they assemble the Death Scythes (most of whom have no current partner). Even if Shinigami considers that they earned their retirement after graduation, surely some would volunteer when the very sky itself turns red and madness runs rampant throughout the world? This can enter into Unfortunate Implications territory with many Meisters suffering from PTSD, dead or unwilling to literally help save the world. Another sinister turn is that the Weapons we see on panel are a large proportion of the Weapons still alive. We don't see very many Meister-Weapon pairs even in the background during the battle for the BREW which was a make or break battle for Shibusen. Conservation of Detail aside, what logic dictates that children should be sent onto a battlefield rather than trained adults who have longstanding relationships as Meister-Weapon pairs? Aside from the Spartoi, Stein and Sid, we hardly see any other such pairs even in crucial battles.
    • Not sure about the manga but the anime implies that Meisters being able to use their wavelengths without a weapon is pretty rare and there was fighting all around the world, most of the students apparently quit going to school meaning that all the battles would've been fought by the senior Weapons and Meisters, other than the few named young characters shown during the fight for BREW.

    Tsubaki's Multiple Forms 

  • Is it ever explained why Tsubaki's family can transform into different weapons? I've read the manga and everything, but I haven't spotted anything like an answer.
    • They're the direct descendents of the original Demon Weapon.

    We're in a rush! Now let us stand here and talk 

  • In the Asura Awakening Arc, it was really down to the wire. Kid and Black Star arrived just seconds too late to stop the Black Blood from being used to awaken Asura. However... Kid took his sweet time chatting with the hologram of Free. His earlier time-wasting can be explained by his OCD, but this wasn't even that, it was simply exposition. "Ah ha, your attempt to slow us down did not work. I will now stand here and explain why it did not work. Take a seat, it will take a while."

    Mifune on the list 

  • In spite of the fact that he is guarding Angela, a witch, Mifune is still human, not a Kishin-Egg. So why is his soul on Lord Death's hit list?
    • This is a problem caused by the anime. In the manga, there are no kishin eggs. There are simply souls, and they are on the list or they are not. So he was put on the list because he was a disturbingly powerful soul protecting a budding witch, and Lord Death decided it was better to be safe than sorry. Presumably he was pulled off the list after Black Star fought him and his story became clear.
    • We don't know if Death pulled him off the list after his encounter with Black*Star. After all, Death seemed to already know that Angela was a (yet) harmless little witch. The only new information from Black*Star's encounter was that he seemed to be a pretty noble guy. Regardless, he would have been put right back on the okay-to-kill list soon after, since he went on to join Arachnophobia.
    • Also, he was a mobster's bodyguard before he met Angela, that probably didn't do him any favors. In the anime Black Star wasn't after Mifune, he was after the gangsters who were hunting Angela to get all the souls at once.

    Screw 

  • How the hell did Stein get that screw into his head without dying?
    • Its an allusion to his Frankenstein expy-ness. Also it may actually be of some use given that he keeps cranking (turning it) it, in the manga atleast.
    • Also keep in mind that this is an anime where children turn into weapons. Basically, Screw Logic.
    • Did you really come here just to make that pun?

    Death Notes 

  • The currency used in Death City is called Death Notes. Pun aside, they're in Nevada, which is in the western USA. Why don't they just use dollars?

    Lust and the pots 

  • In the Lust chapter of the Book of Eibon, Pot of Fire and Pot of Thunder switch genders like everybody else, yet they still look exactly the same (i.e. completely identical except for their clothes). Considering that the two are Half-Identical Twins, and that the Lust chapter gives the ones who enter it the traits of what they find attractive in the opposite gender... Twincest anyone?
    • To be fair, they were both small children, six years max I'd guess. They weren't developed mentally or physically enough to know about Lust. So at best they would change into what they understood best about the opposite gender, that being each other. It's not outlandish to say they took baths together after all.
    • Also, only the personality was changing according to what people liked in the opposite sex. The appearance is simply a genderbent version of themselves. I'm not sure why this gets confused so often, considering they all look distinctly like themselves (Tsubaki is still tall with black hair, Black star still has his hairstyle, Maka just has shorter hair, Liz is tall and has the same sort of narrowed eyes, actually everyone retains their eye styles). So obviously, the twins still look the same because we already know what they look like in both sexes: the same.

    Abusive School Staff 

  • Anyone bothered how in episode 14 Stein and Sid don't get in trouble for their disciplinary methods? Stein beat Black*Star to a bloody pulp and Sid basically stripped Soul.
    • The stripping, I can see where you have a problem , but this is a school where kids go on dangerous missions regularly , so A: If anyone had a problem with the kids getting hurt someone would have stepped up by now. B: The kids pretty much knew what they were getting into (getting beat up and hurt often) when they signed up.

    Kishin Hunter 

  • The ultimate attack skill for scythemeisters is the Kishin Hunter, the most powerful expression of the anti-evil wavelength. In the anime, both Maka and Death use it against the kishin Asura and in neither case does it work at all, with Asura even telling Maka point-blank that an anti-evil attack can't kill him because he's not evil, he's just insane. Okay, makes sense, but... wait, why is it called the Kishin Hunter if it can't kill a kishin?
    • It's implied that, had it hit, Death's attack would have worked.
    • I think the original poster is confused on the nature of attacks. "Kishin hunter" is an attack for scythes, while "death cannon" is an attack for guns, etc. A meister's wavelength can be amplified through a weapon, but it does not change the type of attack, just adds a new element to it. Neither Shinigami nor Stein have an anti-magic wavelength, but they are still able to use Witch Hunter, Demon Hunter, and Kishin Hunter because they're partnered with a scythe.

    Symmetrical Death Scythes 

  • As of now in the Manga and as of the end of the Anime not a single twin pair of witches have been shown, that is a pair of witches with the same animal motif; how was Kid planning to create perfectly symmetrical death scythes given they take on aspects from the witch soul they consume?
    • Death Scythes can shapeshift to a degree; it wouldn't be difficult for them to edit their appearances to become identical.
    • ... did you not see the Mizune twins?
    • Were they really twins or just fragments of one witch? It didn't show the soul of the one that died so I always assumed they were just fragments of one witch.
    • I don't recall it ever being stated that death scythes take on aspects from the witch soul they consume. Soul doesn't take on any aspects of Arachne, and I believe that's the only transformation we ever see.
      • Soul took Arachne's spiderweb that helps him detect souls and spread his soul music. So no, death scythes do take on aspects of the witch soul.

    What Buddhist undertones? 

  • As I read some WMGs, and even part of the main trope page, I see a lot of people thinking that Soul Eater is supposed to promote/symbolize Buddhism. I've taken a college-level class on World Religions, and I feel that either my class was a complete lie, or the series has nothing to do with it.
    • The main idea of Buddhism is that life is, essentially, suffering and disappointment, so you should strive to desire nothing so you are never disappointed. In a nutshell. Now, I can see this as being Asura's theme, but most certainly not the protagonists, who are all very emotional, and who desire lots of things. They desire to complete their Deathscythes, the others to be safe, and in the case of Ox and Kim(and arguably others), wanting each other. (Greed from Fullmetal Alchemist, anyone?) That's just a short list.
    • I always saw Soul Eater as a bunch of major faiths put in a blender:
    • The gods of Hinduism each have a consort, or person typically of the opposite gender whose supernatural abilities as well as personality compliment their own(as in meisters and weapons). It also deals with reincarnation(which Harvar mentions is absolutely true in this world).
    • Christianity is about forgiveness and tolerance(despite what some Christians may think, that is what the Bible actually says), as demonstrated by numerous portions of the story where a character must come to deal with another(Maka and Black Star) and forgiving people for things they did wrong, whether under the influence of others or not(Crona, Eruka, and Maka to her father).
    • Jainism deals with how killing something actually causes little bad karma particles to adhere themselves to your soul and corrupt you(becoming a Kishin, in this case).
    • But Jains are strict vegetarian pacifists, and the meisters and weapons most decidedly are not. Killing the innocent or exploiting the deaths of the innocent corrupts you, but not killing the guilty.
    • Is there something I don't know? Because I see a whole lot of how Buddhist it is, when I really don't see it.
    • Not to mention that Buddhism denies the existence of these things called "souls".

     Assignments 
  • I guess this might just be a case of early installment weirdness but how do the students choose their witches? I ask because Spirit has been shown to be extremely protective of his daughter, Lord Death seems to show concern for the lives of his students as well. Except the first episode has Maka and Soul hunting down a "witch". From what we've seen in the series with actual witches it's a good thing that they were mistaken, a real witch would have slaughtered them without breaking a sweat. As it stands Blair could easily have killed the pair and they only survived her because like a cat she was playing with them for her amusement. It makes sense if Lord Death actually sends them out on assignments as we learn later with Sid and Stein the kids were likely in minimal real danger during those encounters and that Blair was a similar situation.
    • The manga, at least, eventually explains that there is a list of viable targets; Maka wasn't even allowed to kill someone attempting to kill her because he wasn't on the list. We also see students choosing regular assignments from a notice-board. Blair being used as a test for ambitious and careless students would definitely fit what we see of Lord Death.
    • Of the first three missions we see two of them are suicide runs. Blair could easily have slaughtered the Maka and Soul if she wasn't flirting and letting them escape and come back to pester her. Mifune vs Blackstar is no less one sided as the next two battles show. If he'd been trying to kill Blackstar he would have. Only Death the Kid was in a fight he could win.

     Worf the Professors 
  • So, while the kids mire through the Book of Eibon, the Badass Teachers are going to attack Noah head-on... and are utterly curb-stomped! Which is already absolutely horrifying, even before you start ranting at Ohkubo that they're just sitting there and taking it. They don't even try to resonate with their partners, so much as get knocked to the ground and have several moments of Oh, Crap!. Marie in particular has to be shoved out of the way, tries to appeal to the guy who murdered BJ (and whom she herself previously attacked all-too-happily), and nearly gets pasted against a wall until Stein finally does something useful and catches her. Sid gets in one attack, after loosing an arm. Nygus and Tezca are OTK'd. If Noah's just this fast and Justin's now hopped up on Madness Steroids, dear Shinigami-sama they're all doomed... And then the kids escape from the book just in time to save the day. I understand that the next generation getting strong enough to take over has been a major theme, but the "fight" beforehand looked more like a quick round of bowling. "Watch us, Sensei," indeed, but at least they prefaced it with a perfectly-understandable "What is this?!"

     Death The Kid vs Professor Franken Stein 
  • Isn't it odd that Kid doesn't react in any way to Prof. Stein? Stein is extremely asymmetrical after all.
    • While it doesn't justify why, IIRC, Kid never freaks out over Stein's appearance, his reaction in Stein's debut is interesting in hindsight. Later on in the series, we see that Kid is capable of ignoring the small details that previously would have left him a quivering wreck or sent him into an Unstoppable Rage. He's shown to do this when he recognises there are bigger things at stake. What does he do when he sees Stein's treatment of Maka and co.? Immediately decide to enroll in the school so he can intervene and help them. Of course, he then gets distracted by toilet-paper, but the thought was there.

     What determines when a corpse disintegrates? 
  • Seems like sometimes in the manga, a dead person leaves a corpse, and other times the body immediately disintegrates leaving just the soul behind. I'm trying to see if there's some pattern to it.
    • Watch episode one again. "Disintegration" happens when the soul leaves the body after the kinshin takes it.
    • Also, a Magic weapon being used seems to be required for disintegration. When Jack the Ripper took someone's soul a body was left behind but not when Soul Eater was used to take his soul.

    Medusa's disguise...? 
  • When Maka first sees Medusa in episode 8, how was she not able to tell that the lady in the doctor coat near the end of the episode is the same Medusa that was flying over the church? It's not like she altered her voice or her appearance, and I don't care if she can "hide her soul".
    • It would be like trying to describe an owl you saw flying overhead at night. Also, she was more than a little traumatized by Soul's injury.

     Blair 
  • How did Blair learn Sexy no Jutsu?
    • I'm more confused about why she shows any attraction to human men at all, considering she's a cat.
      • She obviously just likes the attention that others give to her when she wants it, considering she's a cat. IIRC she's never shown actual explicit attraction to anyone, she just enjoys teasing men (namely Soul) because again, she likes the attention.

     Death being unfair in episode 1 
  • So at the end of episode one, all of the souls that Soul has eaten are voided because the final soul was not one of a witch. However, this is hardly fair. Death is the one who gave them Blair's location and told them that she was a witch. If anything, this mixup is his fault, and Soul and Maka should not be punished for it. How were they supposed to know?
    • Most likely they went after someone they heard was a witch from local sources rather than do a little more digging. Death didn't give them Blair's location or even name, it seems more likely they just went after her without trying to find out more, which is what led to their failure for being so impulsive. They probably thought "Hey there's a witch, lets get her". We don't even know if she did anything evil to deserve to be hunted in the first place, making their failure even more self brought than a mixup. Further more, the manga shows that you need to eat 99 evil souls first, then one witch soul last, so he technically didn't confiscate them, they all became null and void because Blair was not a real witch.
    • This may have been a secret test from Death to see if they know a real witch when they see one and not just attack someone who looks like a witch or is suspected of being one.

     Black*Star's muscles 
  • Why do Black*Star's biceps look bigger in Soul Eater NOT! which is a prequel?
    • Perhaps laziness? Considering that it's a prequel, he may have done more training in the past and took his work just a tiny bit more seriously. But when he started to get more tasks, the lazier he became.


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