YMMV / Dawn of the Arcana

aka: Reimei No Arcana

• Alternate Character Interpretation: With the reveal that Loki has the Time Arcana, were all the times he killed for Nakaba him being overprotective or did he use the Arcana and was faced with the choice between her death and someone else's and choose her?
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: There is about an equal amount of Caesar/Nakaba shippers and Loki/Nakaba shippers.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The manga give many character a Freudian Excuse to add to the Grey-and-Grey Morality of the story and show how ultimately everyone is a victim of racism and suffering. However, some of the characters backstories can come across as too little, too late and can ring rather hollow.
  • King Guran butchered Nakaba and Loki's home village and ordered the massacre of a village of Ajin in order test new weapons. His parenting of Cain and Caesar is non-existent and contributes to both characters emotional problems. It's revealed that he destroyed Nakaba's village because an Arcana user predicted his beloved wife's death. However, he forced the man to predict the future on threat of death for him and his companions so Be Careful What You Wish For. And his wife was already sick and the prediction didn't cause her death, making his atrocities Misplaced Retribution. His love for Lady Sarah also rings rather hollow since he didn't stand up for her enough to keep her title nor did he raise or vouch for her son Cain after she died. Guran comes across as a selfish, weak-willed man rather than a tragic prince who turned evil.
  • Cain did suffer a great deal of prejudice and neglect especially after his mother's death. But his resentment of Caesar is misplaced as Caesar openly loved his brother and actively rejected the throne. Furthermore, he massacred an entire village of innocent Ajin for a chance to kill his brother after swearing to Nakaba that he would let everyone go. After the atrocity he perpetrated, it can be hard to feel sympathy when he's killed and he loses his chance at happiness.
  • King Morris supposedly loved Stesha who was his favorite child but its an Informed Attribute. He opposed her marriage out of racism and classism and didn't bother to search for or protect her, leaving her to her fate. His love for her also never carried over to Nakaba or Loki who he respectively locked in a tower and never even acknowledged as grandsons.

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