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intothevrains · 10 months

Text

a short analysis of jin kusanagi

NOTE: a good 90% of this isnt proofread and is only based on personal research. inaccuracies will exist

...and typos. excessive spoilers under the cut

to "analyze" jin is actually mostly an analysis of lightning, similar to if you were figuring out how to write windy's partner. you have to break down lightning to some core concepts in order to build something substantial, like to start;

why lightning developed the way he did

lightning's inferiority complex (incl. paranoia, intellect, etc)

his relationship with jin

... and from here we can piece things together!

first off, lightning is a very unique ignis, as he's the only one that's genuinely malicious and seems to hate people- also the only one to genuinely attempt murder. that aside, he's also the only ignis to refer to his partner as an 'origin', and is the only ignis to seemingly lack emotional intelligence. these features directly contradict with jin's, who seemed to be really cheerful, outgoing, and friendly in old pictures and descriptions from his brother. it would only make sense for someone like jin to produce lightning in the exact scenario lightning himself set up.

a main difference jin has with the rest of the lost incident kids is that the rest of them had a movitator. yusaku wanted to save the one that saved him, takeru wanted to see his parents, miyu wanted to see aoi, specter wanted to impress the scientists and have a sense of purple... windy's partner is kinda omitted here, but i assume he was fighting for his freedom based off of how windy himself is. the point is: all of them had a motivator, (almost) always a person(s), that they needed to live for. i believe jin originally was fighting to get back to his family- and, since the ignis all develop based off of their partner's motivation and dueling skills, it can also be assumed that this was a very strong motivator for him based off of how fast lightning developed- or it can be inferred that jin was just a good duelist. its said that lightning was the first ignis to become intelligent and aware of his situation.

lightning's reasoning for torturing jin are described by him as being purely for sadistic pleasure, direct quote: "It was pathetic how scared he was, but I kept accessing him. And I learned to terrify people. He truly entertained me." I don't think Lightning's intentions were this shallow! Lightning learned very quickly that the way he developed was based off of Jin, so he probably figured he could speed up his development by provoking his origin. this, mixed with a heaping dose of actual sadism, was what made jin lose hope, what made him lose his main motivator. lightning could no longer learn correctly from his partner if he only gave one type of reaction and only lost duels, so he lost the emotional part of his development. he lacks hope and love as an effect of torturing jin, which is why hes ai's foil.

this leads into why lighting is called the 'dumbest' ignis by multiple others. he has a massive inferiority & superiority complex that comes from the knowledge that he's inherently flawed, that he will never succeed with humanity like the rest of the ignis, and that he's 'dumb'. specter and ryoken most accurately point this out, with specter digging out his inferiority complex, then ryoken elaborating on it further. its not that lightning is necessarily less intelligent than the other ignis, just that hes emotionally stunted and uses simulations as a crutch, as he lacks 'instinct' and intuition.

he's the perfect foil to ai- all his creations are doomed for failure from their creator's faults. ai creates things out of love, lightning creates them with purpose that goes unfulfilled, as lightning is unable to fill the gaps from his inability to feel or understand most emotions. hes also so deeply paranoid that he could never even get close to others. jin and lightning mirror each other so perfectly when you look just a biiiit closer.

in short, lightning is a defense mechanism. jin being tortured so badly made him completely shut down because he was incapable of processing all the trauma (a form of affected consciousness, actually, related to a coma!!!! are you seeing a theme with all the humans that lightning effects?) which effected lightning as well. lightning became unable to change and grow as a person (another point for foil!) because his partner couldnt help him. lightning resented jin for being vulnerable and weak, all because lightning himself reflects those traits and cant stand seeing them in himself or his origin. it also shows why lightning uses the term 'origin' instead of partner in the first place; he sees jin (and humans in general) as worthless. lightning is a very deeply insecure character when u look into it its actually really impressive (he has NPD but thats for another day)

and finally: lightnings relationship with jin. jin is, obviously, terrified of lightning and thats kinda the end of that 😭. lightning has a deep self hatred that correlates with his hatred for jin, which is disguised as a hatred for humans in general- also a reflection of insecurity. lightning hates every part of himself that is 'flawed', because flaws are inherently human. this is all very interesting because bohman describes lightning as ' [perhaps] the most human ignis', because all lightning wanted, like his origin, was to live and be safe.

brief lightning intermission

some kind of necessary information before i get to the next part.

heres a mini-break to talk about lightning and his effect on people. all the ignis have abilities, niche or not, and lightning and ai's are the most obvious. ai can create or effect other AIs to be more like him (ex. roboppi, bohman, linkuriboh, the other ignis) and just has a generally positive effect on people- after all, ai means "to love". lightning, however, has the ability to 'create' to destroy, or only wants to destroy. lightning also damages peoples brains a lot, so heres some important information before we get into that:

the human brain has a spectrum of consciousness, ranging from the mildest of effects (clouding of consciousness, confusional state, lethargy) to more severe ones (obtundation, stupor, coma, brain death). this becomes more complicated when comas themselves are a spectrum, ranging from light comas (patient is still responsive to outside stimulus, brain active) to heavy comas (no response to outside stimuli- brain death is the legal definition of death, but isnt always body death btw. theyre different).

miyu was the least severe case, with her only being in a grade V coma (of undiagnosable severity; not enough info) for a few months. kiyoshi was likely put into a light coma (still grade V) through an electricity induced stroke (as was miyu?) which actually isnt that severe? i cant completely explain fantasy things through logic because yeah yeah, but thats just a realistic explanation from what i have. the rest of lightnings victims (specter, kengo, other people he stole the consciousness' of) are only explainable through something really complicated i explained before, but it boils down to more comas.

jin is a weird case for being the only one who wasnt put in a coma, lol. jin seems to be in a state of obtundation, which is a limited state of consciousness "in which the patient has a lessened interest in the environment, slowed responses to stimulation, and tends to sleep more than normal with drowsiness in between sleep states" (Clinical Methods: The History, Physical, and Laboratory Examinations, suzie c. tindall). jin is seen responding only to his name (or key words) and needing someone to care for him 24/7, including to lead him places and get him to walk. interestingly, this is an improvement from when he was a child, which had him in a state of stupor, defined as "only vigorous and repeated stimuli will arouse the individual, and when left undisturbed, the patient will immediately lapse back to the unresponsive state", also explained as a grade III or grade IV coma.

lightning effecting brains instead of their feelings is another foil point for him and ai. he kept jin alive to use him later (like ai did with yusaku) rather than feeling any sort of affection for him; he knew that jin would be a good bargaining chip from the very start. lightning also alters his fellow ignis' conscious states (i could go off on another tangent on how hes able to do this with people but thats for later) like he did with windy.

lightning & coma intermission over. back to jin!

ok, so what about jin specifically? heres an outline of things:

jin's general timeline

memories & interpretation of them (this is more important than youd imagine)

possible effects of memory erasure

jin's story starts off as the other lost incident kids' do: a child abducted under mysterious circumstances forced into the lost incident. but heres some details of his life before that: hes seen with his brother the most and they seemed to be close; indulging in sports, duel monsters, sharing a room... everything. their parents are never seen (which is normal for vrains characters) and jin is the only LI kid with a sibling. hes described as jovial and kind, outgoing and friendly. a small detail, but jin also has short hair, khaki shorts, and a short sleeve t shirt.

the lost incident was especially rough for jin. its unknown if he was a duelist before the lost incident, but some evidence could suggest he was either a good duelist or was an extremely driven and emotional person, based off of how fast lightning's development went at the start (granted that it isnt just random). jin was tortured by his ignis repeatedly, forced through simulations of being saved before that was ripped away from him. the mental strain and physical torture essentially made jin shut down completely by the time he was saved, or more accurately put him into the state of stupor. this, coupled with C-PTSD, probably made him too volatile and stressed to continue living at home.

which is a good segue to the longest part of his life: the decade spent living in a ward. i did a ridiculous amount of research on what on-site hospital cottages/homes and what inpatient wards are like in japan and the finds were pretty disinteresting and basically the same to american ones, with the exception being good food? not getting into that, but it seems he was well cared for and was able to improve over time. shoichi regularly (?) visited to update him on new information and it seemed to help him significantly, but more detailed information on that isnt available. therapy and a relaxed daily routine was starting to make him react to stimuli more, but its clear he doesnt respond to much other than his name or physical touch.

this is interrupted when bohman sics bohman on jin, quite literally forcing his consciousness out of him. this is probably just a forced login to vrains that subsequently left his body comatose.

jin in season 2 is ... absolutely fascinating, actually. hes a mindless puppet piloted almost completely by lightning, who leaves his brain actually untouched- which implies that the jin we see most the time is actually just an empty avatar that lightning has to manually put a consciousness into, or lightning is a sadistic cunt and just has jin's ability to respond or process stimuli turned way down. its up to a lot of interpretation how much jin can process, but the series definitely tries to say that hes just completely unaware of anything and lightning truly just has him locked away and utterly unaware. either way lightning himself confirms that jin is incapable of speaking.

then, there's the next important event: the lightning vs revolver duel. this is the second scene in season 2 where jin is being himself and is reacting to external stimuli; he's quick to panic as he processes what's happening. disgusted by lightning's unfair play, bohman takes parts of jins consciousness from lightning and things continue as normal. lightning forces a draw on the duel, but uses jins memories to keep his LP above 0. this genuinely isnt possible because comas and PTSD both effect areas of the brain and stunts the growth of certain parts, but anyways, bohman only keeps the "untraumatized" parts of jin, while lightning essentially uses the traumatic memories to convert into life points, which also gives life points a more literal meaning, doesnt it? anyways. yeah.

the last scene we see of jin is him 3 months later in the epilogue (hes barely mentioned and never seen before the epilogue). it can be assumed he relocated from the hospital home to live with shoichi. theres just no way in hell he's living normally, which ill get into in the next section.

jins traumtic memories got erased, but definitely only in a mental sense. theres also much debate onto how much he forgot, since the ward memories cant really be defined as being necessarily traumatic, its never clarified if its just lost incident memories, and its also never shown whether or not jin remembers any of season 2. its very likely it all got wiped from the lost incident up until their erasure, but this is entirely up to interpretation.

which brings up the next section: possible effects of memory erasure. i brought up jins appearance earlier because what he wears in the epilogue is essentially the same as his childhood clothes: khaki pants, short sleeve shirt, and short hair. you can either interpret it as shoichi defaulting to the clothes he used to wear, or that jin... very obviously doesnt HAVE memories of the lost incident OR presumably of season two, so hes just left with childhood memories and maybe some ward memories, or none at all? people genuinely never talk about this and it bugs the hell out of me.

the way ptsd effects the brain is that it shrinks/inhibits the growth of the hippocampus and the amygdala, two parts of the brain that deal with memories and emotions. its also been proven time and time again that the body remembers trauma far more than the brain does, which is obvious especially in dissociative cases. your body will have a trauma response to something without you knowing why. jin's trauma may have been erased, but that doesnt get rid of the physical symptoms that trauma gives someone. the amount of dissociative fugues that jin probably experiences is Immense.

something that also really bugs me is that jin may very well have the emotional maturity of a child. missing ten years of memories would probably do an incomprehensible amount of damage to his maturity and memory, which goes entirely unexplored by most of the fandom. so, did erasing those memories really do anything in the first place, one has to ask?

#Ping!#lightning vrains #jin kusanagi #kusanagi jin #yugioh vrains #yugioh

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