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BUY MY BOOK!!!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Golden Bug-Hunter
Well, I haven't quite deciphered 1986, but here are my main theories about Redaction before the Tea Party settles things...
Spoiler for Golden Bug Hunter's Witch Hunt:
It is easy to get the impression from the 90s scenes that Jeroboam is a male since Cass suggests a Rudolph costume, and the aliases used in their activities are usually male, but of course the Japanese people these aliases are used on might not necessarily catch on to that. They did get away with a Beetles reference apparently. There are a few things odd in the relationshiips though like the friend-zoning of Cass and the way neither Hiro nor Karl see Jeroboam as a rival for Cass's attentions even though they spar with each-other as a case of peacocking. And of course, the 'Dying Friend Zoning' thing which felt odd to me.
So that made me suspicious about Jeroboam's gender, but it was all circumstancial, until later. The really important key scene to that sequence, though, isn't in the sequence at all. It's when Natsuhi has the venom-dreams. One of her visions is of two women appraising her and feeling her up in a kinky but disturbing sort of way, and she can't move.
In that scene, Cass is presenting Jeroboam a gift. A Natsuhi costume she can wear to conventions. Natsuhi sees Cass and Jeroboam together, and they are two women.
That little snippet is crucial, because it also shows our culprit becoming enticed by the whole cosplay community side of things. The dual nature of a witch is emerging because as repellent as she clearly finds speculating about the truth of Rokkenjima, there is something about dressing up and partying and such that clearly appeals to her. So she pulls her pranks and disrupts events, but she can't help going to the cons as well. THis is our Witch of Abjuration. She loves the conventions, and playing pranks, and even solving the mysteries of the forgeries. But she hates herself for it too.
So of course... Walter's accusation of David Martin is incorrect. He is partially covering for the real culprit, yet he expresses sincere distress at the crimes. Mixed feelings that mean one thing to me. Walter Absalom is David Martin. He is accusing himself out of a combination of protecting his sister, and also a sense of remorse that by translating the first forgeries, David feels he helped to create the witch.
Since I spelled out a who and why-dunnit for 96, let's finish that with the how-dunnit.
The gold bar never existed. Its appearance marks the start of the fantasy sequence. Jeroboam started with Cass. She removed the boots, applied the cut, and gave Cass a line about how she must have sprained it or worked up an ache from poor footwear choices. Being extremely hungover and not exactly a detective to begin with, Cass trusted her and didn't realize a problem until the very end. Jeroboam then hit Karl and Hiro in the head with a rock to knock them out. Possibly with surprise by calling them over to help with Cass. She dragged Hiro to the cliff and threw him over, but Karl woke up during this process and ran for it. Jeroboam ran him down and finished murdering him. That's around when Cass finished bleeding out.
Oh yes, it's not hard to wrap up the issue with the detectives not wanting to investigate too much. Ito was an inspector in the aftermath of the 1986 Rokkenjima incident. He wants the case closed quietly and quickly because he watched the first one destroy careers, possibly including his own, for no results.
I wonder if perhaps Andy is a piece for Walter/David/the Brother. Jeroboam seems to have been used to pulling him into her hijinks one way or another as a kid, and that sense of combined guilt and anger would fit well with someone who has survivor's guilt over their family violently imploding, and creating the witch hunter movement. If he worked for Hideyoshi at one point, it might explain that bit where he says 'As the son of Laertes, I am going to blind the one who has shown me ill hospitality'. As Odysseus, or perhaps a wanderer and someone who has been around, David's background could line up with that. The next thing we see Andy do is kill the scout in Hideyoshi's Chiester delegation. Killing his scout blinded him, so did Hideyoshi show him ill hospitality previously? Perhaps as an employer that gave him a rough deal? Maybe it just means Hideyoshi was a bad host for shooting at the summoner's team in the guest house, but Andy leans in real close to the screen like he's saying it to the reader, so I feel like it's more meaningful than that.
Still need to make better sense of the 80s, but that's a chunk of my thoughts for now. Hopefully I'm at least doing better than 'Small Bombs'. |
Much better than that. I do hope you keep looking into the '86 bit as well (especially as the two stories are meant to give insight into each other, so it might help figure out '96 as well), but I think you're on the right track in several places. Well, actually there's one or two things where you're nearly spot-on (like 90% in one place and 99.999% in another), but I did want to address your mythological chops... It's important to remember that Andromalius is kind of petty. Well, okay, really petty.
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