#servamp tarot

[cryptid-called-ash]

The Star

Close up:

#servamp kuro #sleepy ash #servamp #behold #the over dramatic scribble that took 15 minutes #I drew this after a test #tarot cards #the star tarot #uncoloured version

[v-akarai]

References in Servamp

Arabian mythology

Jinn. Ch. 16

Greek mythology

Elpis. Ch. 75

Moirai. Ch. 108

Pandora. Ch. 130

Pygmalion. Ch. 123

Pandora's Box. Ch. 97

Japanese mythology

Gashadokuro. Ch. 129

Kitsune. Ch. 3

Raijin. Ch. 85

Norse mythology

Baldr. Ch. 39

Freya. Ch. 65

Frey. Ch. 131

Gleipnir. Ch. 101

Hati. Ch. 91, 131

Hod. Ch. 39

Hliðskjálf. Ch. 96

Idunn. Ch. 65

Loki. Ch. 15

Mimir. Ch. 29

Mjölnir. Ch. 53

Ragnarök. Ch. 101, 122, 131

Sigurd. Ch. 101

Thor. Ch. 41

Yggdrasil. Ch. 42

Biblical references

Abel. Ch. 8

Adam. Ch. 128

Boaz and Jachin. Ch. 42

Eden. Ch. 21

Eve. Ch. 1

John the Baptist. Ch.122

Lucifer. Ch. 135

Nod. Ch. 29, events

Hinduism

Asura. Ch. 57.5, 89.

Tarot

The Fool - Mahiru. Ch. 50

I. The Magician – Night trio. Ch. 41

II. The High Priestess – Mikuni. Ch. 42

V. The Hierophant - Shuhei. Ch. 77

X. Wheel of Fortune - Junichiro. Ch. 53

XII. The Hanged Man - Tsurugi. Ch. 50

XV. The Devil – Shamrock. Ch. 72

XVI. The Tower - Touma. Ch. 47

XVII. The Star - Iduna. Ch. 73

XVIII. The Moon - Yumikage. Ch. 69

Literary references

 "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" Lewis Carroll. Ch. 3, 4, 7, 19, 98, 122. Misono, Lily, Dodo, Mitsuki, Yamane, Hattori, Mikuni, Bad B and Good B.

"As You Like It" William Shakespeare. Ch. 10, 38.5. Mikuni's spell.

"My Fair Lady" English nursery rhyme. Ch. 10 Mikuni's spell.

"Dracula" Bram Stoker. Ch. 12, 30. Hugh.

"Romeo and Juliet" William Shakespeare. Ch. 23, 34. Hyde, Ophelia.

"Faust" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Ch. 29 Johannes.

"Through the Looking-Glass" Lewis Carroll. Ch. 29, events. Mikuni, Johannes.

"Julius Caesar" William Shakespeare. Ch. 23 Hyde.

"Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" Robert Stevenson. Ch. 23, 37. Hyde, Licht.

"Macbeth" William Shakespeare. Ch. 24, 31. Kuro, Saint Germain, Mahiru.

"Night on the Galactic Railroad" Kenji Miyazawa. Ch. 26. Higan.

"The Little Prince" Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Ch 30, 67. Kuro, Mahiru, Sloth demon, Gear, probably Jeje.

"Hamlet" William Shakespeare. Ch. 33, 34. Hyde, Ophelia.

"The Phantom of the Opera" Gaston Leroux. Ch. 36 Licht and Hyde technique.

"Peter and Wendy" James Barry. Ch. 44, 56, 74. Tsurugi, Touma, Mahiru.

"Ring a Ring o' Roses" nursery rhyme. Ch. 53 Junichiro's spell.

“Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens” James Barry. Ch. 53, 75. Tsurugi, Touma.

"Death in Venice" Thomas Mann. Ch. 55 Gilbert technique.

"Total Eclipse" a play by Christopher Hampton. Ch. 55 Rayscent's technique.

"The Morning of the Last Farewell" Kenji Miyazawa. Ch. 57.5 Tsubaki.

"Spring and Asura" Kenji Miyazawa. Ch. 57.5 Tsubaki.

"The Catcher in the Rye" Jerome Salinger. Ch. 62 Shuhei.

"Four and Twenty Blackbirds" Agatha Christie. Ch. 62 Shuhei's spell.

"Metamorphosis" Franz Kafka. Ch. 62 Shamrock technique.

“The Nighhawk's Star” Kenji Miyazawa. Ch. 62, 76. Shamrock technique.

"Rock-a-bye Baby" an English lullaby. Ch. 70 Touma's spell.

“Schlafe, mein Prinzchen, schlaf ein” lullaby. Ch. 70 Touma's spell.

"Who Killed Cock Robin" an English nursery rhyme. Ch. 70 Yumikage's spell.

"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" Lyman Frank Baum. Ch. 70, 88. Tsukimitsu brothers’ spells.

"Daddy-Long-Legs" Jean Webster. Ch. 74. Dark Night Trio, Touma.

"The Divine Comedy" Dante Alighieri. Ch. 118, 120, 121. Niccolo, Ildio, Gluttony demon.

“A Brute's Love” (人でなしの恋) Edogawa Rampo. Ch. 122 Mikuni, Lily.

"Coppelia" ballet Leo Delibes. Chapter 122 Mikuni, Lily.

"Salome" Oscar Wilde. Ch. 122 Mikuni, Lily.

"Turandot" opera by Giacomo Puccini based on the play by Carlo Gozzi. Ch. 129. Lily's technique.

"The Tempest" William Shakespeare. Ch. 131. Licht and Hyde.

"The Old Man and the Sea" Ernest Hemingway. Ch. 134 Hugh.

"Flowers for Algernon" Daniel Keyes. Ch. 135 Hugh.

"Jane Eyre" Charlotte Brontë. Ch. 136. Hokaze.

"Madama Butterfly" opera by Giacomo Puccini. Ch. 136. Lily.

"Hansel and Gretel" the Brothers Grimm. Ch. 140. Faust and Otogiri.

Music

"Für Elise" by Ludwig van Beethoven. Ch. 34

"Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" by Johann Sebastian Bach. Ch. 125

Movies

"It's a Wonderful Life" (1946). Ch. 131

"Life is Beautiful" (1997). Ch. 131

I believe this list can be expanded. Somewhere I’ve written only chaps when some reference was mentioned for the first time and omitted all further mentions.

Special thanks to hello-vampire-kitty, joydoesathing and passmeabook, because some works wouldn’t be included in the list without their observations.

#servamp

[ciaossu-imagines]

Personalization Prompt #2 – Ghostie

So, from the reader appreciation day of the event, I used the second personalization prompt for the talented Ghostie! She’s always been really supportive of my writing, does amazing stuff herself over here at @rebornologist if anyone isn’t following her, and I hope she’ll enjoy!

BLACK: what face claim from an anime, comic book, or cartoon do I associate with you?

Okay, so this one was a little hard because there’s a couple face claims I could possibly use and I had to narrow it down to the one I felt fit you best, as you exist in my mind! And that one, as seen above, is Nana Osaki! She has the colouring I picture you as having and the style seems to almost fit if you toss some more pastels in there along with the punk/goth aesthetic!

WHITE: what flame type and box weapon do I think you’d have in the khr!verse?

Oh, this is another hard one. I definitely see you as someone with the potential to use multiple flames, both Storm and Cloud flames, with Cloud being your more dominant flame type. As far as box weapons are concerned, I see you using Cloud dragonflies. Again, I’m basing this off spirit animal symbolism, with the symbolism behind dragonflies being change, transformation, adaptability, joy and lightness of being, and them being a strong symbol of the emotional realm and a connection with nature. That, and using Cloud’s propagation abilities, it’s really damn cool to imagine a swarm of colorful, shimmering dragonflies being used either as an attack or as a barrier.

RED: what aesthetics do I associate with you?

Alt fashion. Well-manicured hands delicately shuffling and then dealing tarot cards. Pastel colours. Low ponytails. Red lipstick. Experimental art and industrial spaces. Converse clad feet striding purposefully down crowded city sidewalks. Colourful Teacups. Late fall evenings slowly ticking away into the witching hour of early morn. Snakes slithering up and wrapping around an arm. Confident grins. The hectic sound of quick typing. Raw sensuality and a lust to experience life in its totality. Fear, respect, and attraction towards the macabre and the deadly, all held in balance. Anubis.

BLUE: what are three songs I’d put on a playlist for you?

WHITE RABBIT, jefferson airplane

FEMME FATALE, x-ray dog

BRING ME BACK A DOG, iamx – just because you’re the ONLY other person I know who knows of and enjoys Dogs: Bullets & Carnage as well and this song is always my go-to whenever thinking or writing about that fandom

YELLOW: what fictional world out of all my fandoms would I picture you in?

Of course, the obvious answer is that I picture you in KHR, right along the Varia babies. But I also can picture you in the Dogs universe, as evidenced by the other personalization prompt and I can pretty easily picture you fitting into the Servamp universe pretty well.

GREEN: who would I pair you with out of all my fandoms?

You already know my answer for the KHR fandom so, for K Project, I ship you with Totsuka. For Dogs, I ship you with Heine or Giovanni. For Nanbaka, I ship you with Uno. For Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun, I ship you with Asmodeus. For Bungou Stray Dogs, I ship you with Dazai. For Servamp, I ship you with Tsubaki. For Saiyuki, I ship you with Gojyo. For Eyeshield 21, I ship you with Agon. For Ronin Warriors, I ship you with Ryo. For Kekkaishi, I ship you with Shichirou. For GetBackers, I ship you with Ban. For Black Cat, I ship you with Jenos. For Karneval, I ship you with Hiroto. For Gangsta., I ship you with Galahad. For Bleach, I ship you with Gin. For Naruto, I ship you with Hidan. For Deadman Wonderland, I ship you with Senji. For Ouran, I ship you with Nekozawa. For Durarara!!, I ship you with Izaya. For Yu Yu Hakusho, I ship you with Yoko Kurama. For Gintama, I ship you with Okita. For Mystic Messenger, I ship you with Jumin. For Ikemen Revolution, I ship you with Lancelot. For Blush Blush, I ship you with Poe. For Date Warp, I ship you with Alben. For Hatoful Boyfriend, I ship you with Anghel. For The Outsiders, I ship you with Dally. For Class of the Titans, I ship you with Neil. For Ultimate Spider-Man, I ship you with Flint. For Gravity Falls, I ship you with Robbie. For The Mighty Ducks, I ship you with Portman. For The Covenant, I ship you with Chase. For Jungle Fury, I ship you with Jarrod. For Ninja Storm, I ship you with Dustin. For Mystic Force, I ship you with Xander.

PURPLE: what gif reminds me of you?

PINK: if you were an AU, what type of AU would you be?

Okay, but because I gush and fawn over your smut writing skills, it’s gotta be a succubus/incubus style AU! Something that gives the opportunity for lots of chances to sin and to write smut, hahaha!!

RAINBOW: if i were to write a khr sequel, following Tsuna’s demise, and could only use my reader’s as characters, who would you be?

I see you as the next Cloud Guardian for the Varia and one of the commanding officers, probably the right hand of the Varia’s boss.

#unrequested prompts #ghostie

[passmeabook]

Servamp Tarot Analysis: Kamiya Tsurugi

I’ve decided to do an analysis of the tarot cards in Servamp. Many of the meanings are taken straight from the books they were found in because I feel they explain the meaning of the trumps better than my own words could. I’m looking not only at the official tarot cards assigned to characters, but also headcanon unofficial cards that may have been quietly assigned by the author.

First up is Kamiya Tsurugi. The official card assigned to him in canon is The Hanged Man. In this analysis I will also share headcanons of how he has been unofficially assigned the cards of: Justice and Death.

The Hanged Man #12

Number: XII

Alternative Name: The Traitor

Numerology Link: III, The Empress

Astrological Sign: Neptune

Element: Water

Hebrew Letter: Mem

Symbol: Water and the Oceans

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The Hanged Man XII

The Hanged Man Key Meanings:

Transition

Waiting

Sacrifice

Enlightenment

Upright Meaning:

“Events are not moving with speed, but all you can do is wait patiently in the knowledge that the universe has its own plan. The card can also indicate that you may have made sacrifices just now and are eager to see rewards. Unfortunately, you cannot force an outcome that fits with your timetable. There are many other factors about which you can have no knowledge or influence. Therefore, you may also expect delays to travel plans and projects… On a creative level this card appears frequently when a person is feeling frustration with their progress… Another message from the Hanged Man is to try to see things from a new angle.” (Dean).

“In readings the Hanged Man bears the message of independence. Like the Fool, which signified doing what you sensed was best, even if other people thought it foolish, the Hanged Man indicates being who you are, even if others think you have everything backwards. It symbolizes the feeling of being deeply connected to life and can mean a peace that comes after some difficult trial.” (Pollack.).

Feeling trapped

Confined

Self-limiting

Uncertainty

Lack of Direction

Needing Release

Letting Go

Reversed Meaning:

“The Hanged Man reversed can be a sign of rigid thinking and martyrdom. You may need to revise your expectations; what you think you want may not be possible. In this position, the card asks you if you are hanging on to a fantasy that may make you a victim rather than a victor. Take another view and liberate yourself from a contract or other obligation that cannot offer you what you want.” (Dean).

“The trump reversed indicates an inability to get free of social pressure. Rather than listen to our inner selves we do what others expect or demand of us. Our awareness of life always remains second-hand, never a direct experience but only a series of stereotypes, like the person who models his or her behavior on the orders of parents and the actions of movie stars. The card reversed can also mean fighting your inner self in some way. It can mean the person who tries to deny some basic part of himself or simply the person who cannot accept reality and who in some way or other is constantly battling life.” (Pollack.).

Discontentment

Apathy

Disinterest

Stagnation

Impulsiveness

Negative Patterns

Detachment

The Hanged Man understands that his position is a sacrifice he needed to make in order to progress forward. The time he spends dangling from the tree will not be wasted on his journey. The hanging is not death, but life in stillness. It could be a repentance for past wrongdoings or even a calculated step back to rethink the path he will take once he continues on with his journey. If an approach isn’t working then look at things from a different angle to gain a new perspective. This card is one that tells its reader that waiting and suspension are sometimes what you need to do in order to achieve success. Sometimes action is not needed, and one needs to wait patiently for the proper opportunity.

The Message of the Hanged Man:

Use your time wisely.

The Hanged Man & Numerology:

“TAROT SYMBOLISM: Key 12 The Hanged Man. The keyword for the Hanged Man is reversal. The corresponding symbol means oasis, sea, or water. According to the alchemists, water was the basis of all life, the fluid substance that solidified into physical forms… Water was the first mirror in which the reflection always appears upside down. The significance of this card is that things are not as they appear on the surface. You must look beneath the surface for true understanding. The man is suspended by his foot, like a pendulum at rest. His crossed legs form a figure 4, indicative of key 4 Reason. His elbows and head form a triangle with the point down which is an ancient symbol for water. The Hanged Man represents a person who is poised in consciousness and under perfect control… He sees trouble in the world--people unhappy in marriage, in trouble financially and lost because they have no goals--and he knows it is because they all see things upside down. Yet they look at him and think that he is the one who is crazy. The Hanged Man’s philosophy sets him apart from the crowd and, at the same time, brings him peace of mind and perfect contentment.” (Javane and Bunker.) [Emphasis mine.]

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Looking at these meanings and ideas I find that Tsurugi very strongly if not perfectly embodies the Hanged Man.

I speculate that for a majority of the C3 arc Tsurugi is in the position of the reversed Hanged Man. The lines that really stood out to me while researching this were, “Rather than listen to our inner selves we do what others expect or demand of us.” and “In this position, the card asks you if you are hanging on to a fantasy that may make you a victim rather than a victor.” because they seem to fit Tsurugi so well. Tsurugi clings to Touma and the idea of family he idealized Touma as being. Tsurugi also does what others expect of him, and before his breaking away from Touma just did what others wanted him to do. Even in the TAROT SYMBOLISM section that I highlighted the line about things not appearing as they seem on the surface resonated with me about Tsurugi because despite Tsurugi’s smiles on the surface inwardly he has a lot of trauma.

The symbolism the Hanged Man has with the connections to water, the oceans, and the planet Neptune also tie into together with Tsurugi. Water as an element is related to the Cups suit. Cups/Water has the meaning of “I feel”; the suit focuses on emotions and relationships. The planet Neptune, the Roman name for Poseidon the Greek god of the seas, holds the symbolic meanings of: dreams, intuition, and imagination. Which negatively connects to Tsurugi and his inability to metaphorically grow up, dreams and imagination being viewed as childish, but also to his magic Neverland. In the series we’ve seen Tsurugi be visually connected to water rather directly. Both in his drowning before being saved by The Mother/Freya in Ch. 56 “A Windowless Room”/Ch. 57 “Born” and also in the bonus chapter Ch. 57.5 “The Person Searching for the Key” where Tsurugi is underwater behind his locked door. Tsurugi is also an incredibly emotional person, and has worked on coming to terms with his emotions and what he really feels instead of just doing as other people tell him too.

                                              ---------------------

Tsurugi’s/The Hanged Man’s Dilemma:

A great showing of Tsurugi and his dilemma of choosing between the upright and the reversed meaning of The Hanged Man is in Ch. 52 where Tsurugi is caught between Touma and Junichiro in making his decision to follow Touma’s orders or to heed to Junichiro’s words.

In Ch. 52 we have the scene where Junichirou and Touma are asking Tsurugi to come to a decision. Tsurugi is physically in the position of the Hanged Man, but he’s divided down the middle into a black side and a white side. On the black side where Touma asks him, “Are you going to ignore what I say again?” Tsurugi’s hair follows the course of gravity as if he were standing up, his long length of ribbon does as well, and his hood lays flat against his shoulder. Compare this to the white side, Junichiro’s side: the background is white and Tsurugi’s hair, hood, and ribbon follow the path of gravity that they naturally would if Tsurugi were hanging upside down. This choosing of Touma, and of the reversed meaning of the Hanged Man, allows readers to see that Tsurugi is not following the upright meaning of the Hanged Man, and that his trump has yet to be flipped to the upright position.

In the side by side comparison Tsurugi’s collar is black on Junichiro’s side and white on Touma’s, but when Tsurugi chooses Touma the collar is black. The collar represents both control and Tsurugi allowing others to make decisions for him. The removal of the collar in Ch. 74 represents Tsurugi taking control of his personal agency and decision making.

                                              ---------------------

Headcanon Tarot Analysis:

Tsurugi is directly portrayed as the Hanged Man in Ch. 50 “The Hanged Man”. The closest version visually of the Hanged Man as it is as a trump card is on the cover page of the chapter. Then we have another section in this chapter later on which portrays Tsurugi as both hero and criminal. Right before this Mahiru has just asked Tsurugi if he has been fighting to protect people all this time. Tsurugi denies this and instead tells Mahiru that to humans he is viewed as a hero, but to vampires he is viewed as a genocider.

What is fascinating is that visually he’s portrayed as physically being in the position of the hanged man, only as both lauded hero and condemned criminal. As the hero of humanity he’s in a upright Hanged Man position. As the criminal he is in a reversed Hanged Man position with a noose. Looking at the two side comparisons I feel that they both represent #11 Justice & #13 Death more so than the Hanged Man, “In the major arcana sequence, the Hanged Man falls after XI, Justice, and before XIII, Death. We had our values on trial in Justice, and now we must hold on until Death, when we can figuratively let go. Death brings transformation, while the Hanged Man prepares to make the sacrifice Death needs so he can move on.” (Dean)

Justice XI

Justice Key Meanings:

Fairness

Balance

Perception

Objectivity

With Tsurugi wearing a cape and a sword I feel it represents a reversed #11 Justice. Tsurugi’s hero is in the upright position for the Hanged Man, but in the reversed position for Justice. Trump XI portrays the personification of upright Justice on a throne with scales and a sword. Important to see is that the Justice trump is not blindfolded, her vision is clear. The scales held in her left hand represent favoring the deserving with the scales of mercy, and the upright sword in her right hand represents seeking retribution for past wrongs with the sword of retribution. The scales also symbolize the thought process put into making a judgement, and weighing both sides of a story. The sword symbolizes the action that results from judgement. The sword, when it is held upright, symbolizes success.

Tsurugi as a reversed Justice fits in many ways. Tsurugi, as an instrument for furthering Touma’s and C3’s plans, is furthering the goals of those that use him via corrupt justice. Vampires are captured we've seen, but are they given legal trials and do they have protected rights? From what we’ve seen of C3 I highly doubt it. Hence why he is in the position of reversed Justice. Tsurugi has often been connected to a sword, and his name can even mean “sword”, look at the sword of hero-Tsurugi. It is covered in blood, but Tsurugi’s arms are held behind his back. The blood on the sword is not boldly in your face, and is even a bit hidden behind Tsurugi and a speech bubble. Tsurugi does not hold the sword in his hand showing that he himself does not actively choose to to make any decisions with the sword, and instead I feel it represents Tsurugi's passivity and his following what others want and will of him. Later on we also see that when Touma manipulates Tsurugi with his spell power Tsurugi becomes blindfolded, and this is perhaps a symbolism of justice being both blind (traditionally) and blinded (corruption hiding the truth).

#11 Justice Reversed

“Reversed, the card indicates dishonesty with yourself and others. It shows an unwillingness to see the meaning of events and shows especially that you are missing some opportunity for a greater understanding of yourself and your life. In outer life it indicates dishonesty and unfair actions or decisions. Sometimes it is others who are unfair to us. The reversed meaning can refer also to unjust legal decisions or to bad treatment from someone. On the other hand we must not allow the suggestion of unfairness to act as an excuse for denying our own responsibility for what happens to us… ‘Nothing can save you but yourself.’” (Pollack.).

“Life goes out of balance as work, relationships, and money issues spiral out of control. A decision may go against you, so there may be dishonesty or a miscarriage of justice. You are treated unfairly, which is compounded by bad advice from a trusted individual. You are not able to speak your truth and feel overruled by those who don’t understand your predicament. It is important to find your voice and stay strong to your values- if you are in the right.” (Dean).

Death XIII

Death Key Meanings:

Decline

Rebirth

Transformations

Change

As the condemned criminal Tsurugi is in the reversed position of the Hanged Man, but he’s also in the upright position for Death. With Tsurugi wearing traditional black and white striped prisoner clothing and have a noose around his neck I feel this gives weight to the idea of connecting him to #13 Death. Tsurugi in this side comparison is on a scaffold. He wears the clothes of a criminal and he seems to be a minute away from hanging. Yet, the noose around his neck is loose. As the Hanged Man trump has told us, the Hanged Man is not going to die. Instead he is merely hanging around waiting. The trump card Death arrives after the Hanged Man as death follows a hanging. Only in the case of the Hanged Man this is a spiritual death and rebirth after a time of contemplation. The black and white colors Tsurugi wears are associated with Death in the thirteen trump. In the trump Death wears black armor and sits astride a white horse while holding a black and white flag in his left hand. The thirteen trump is associated with change, an extreme change in your life to be exact. When I read this page I see Tsurugi’s Reversed Justice representing who he is right now, and that his Upright Death represents that he needs to and will undergo a great change. Especially since the manga is written in Japanese and we read the pages from right to left.

#13 Death Upright

“In diviniatory readings Death signifies a time of change. Often, it indicates a fear of change. In its most positive aspect it shows a clearing away of old habits and rigidness to allow a new life to emerge. In its most negative aspect it indicates a crippling fear of physical death.” (Pollack.).

“Death brings ending and beginnings-sometimes all at once. This is a time of fast and deep transformation and an opportunity to let go of whatever you no longer need. Unlike card XX, Judgement, which signals a process of self-examination, Death’s impact is sudden and may be shocking. You have little control over external events when Death looms, but in time you will be able to see this sharp change in circumstances as a blessing. A break with the past-from relationships and friendships to work that is no longer satisfying-is the only way forward. In this sense, Death can be a release and a relief. Death, after all, is the ultimate reality check, and he leaves you with the bare bones, the truth.” (Dean).

                                              ---------------------

These are the views I have on Tsurugi and his tarot cards. I also thought about him perhaps having reference to the Ace of Swords, him being C3′s Ace and his name relating to a sword, but just decided to focus on the major arcana for now. Maybe I’ll do another post about that at a later date. I had fun writing this. I hope to make more posts like this in the future, but if I do they will likely be very, very sporadic.

References:

Dean, Liz. The Ultimate Guide to Tarot: A Beginner's Guide to the Cards, Spreads, and Revealing the Mystery of the Tarot. Fair Winds Press, 2015.

Javane, Faith, and Dusty Bunker. Numerology and the Divine Triangle. Whitford Press, 1997.

Pollack, Rachel. Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom A Book of Tarot Part 1: The Major Arcana. Aquarian Press, 1980.

#servamp #kamiya tsurugi #servamp meta #servamp tarot analysis #tsurugi kamiya #servamp tarot

[faith-gigliorosa]

the Servamp store [2/?] (x)(x)

#servamp #aesthetic #manga aesthetic #anime aesthetic #tarot cards #anime #manga #servamp store #aesthetics #moodboard #shirota mahiru #kuro servamp #sleepy ash #licht jekylland todoroki #lawless servamp #hyde servamp #alicein misono #watanuki sakuya #tsubaki servamp #who is coming #inner kuro #inner sloth #kamiya tsurugi #touma taishi #sendagaya tetsu #faithgigliorosa

[hello-vampire-kitty]

Servamp chapter 113 translation "Sloth."

While I was translating this chapter and 114, I have read The Case Study of Vanitas (which is awesome by the way, I recommended it!) and there is a character that uses the suffix "kun" like Hyde when he says Wor-kun and in the English localization of Vanitas, that character would say "dear (name)", to convey endearment and I like that!

I looked over the chapter where Hyde says Wor-kun the first time in the official localization to see how it was adapted and it just says "World", without the addition of "kun", although I have seen the honorific "san" in the localization. I noticed that when he talks about Licht, there is no "tan" suffix, most likely because readers in the West wouldn't know of it. If only "san" was kept, it's mostly likely because this is much more familiar even with the Western audience.

There is more liberty to a fan translation, so even though Hyde doesn't speak Japanese here, I still keep the honorific "kun". Like I mentioned, I like how it was adapted in Vanitas, in the case of Hyde when he refers to Ildio like that, it would have worked in my opinion, if "World" a version that would sound...let's say childish maybe? Hope that makes sense, like I googled "worldie" but that wouldn't work.

(UK, slang) Anything particularly excellent of its kind, especially a goal in sports or a beautiful woman.

So yeah xD

I have changed the last line because I misinterpreted...Initially I wrote: "I told him I wanted to stay together" (and also I wasn't sure if Hyde was just referring to himself or he was implying that he wanted all the siblings to stay together with Saint Germain), but I made a mistake because the form of the verb wasn't the one that expresses desire, so I apologize. I was also unsure about the line here, if Hyde was talking about himself or Kuro, because Saint Germain used the word "perfect" with him, though we can assume that he wants all the vampires to be "perfect." That's why I wrote the first time "because you (Kuro) are still not perfect", believing that the siblings staying together, depended on Kuro becoming "perfect" like Saint Germain wants to make him.

Here I tried to keep the word "Sloth", because Kuro's line would be literarily translated "I was "lazy", but given that the word ”怠惰” was written like this, I made his line to reference the name of his sin.

The intended reading here is CCC but it would have looked awkward if I left it "C3? CCC, right?", too many Cs, thus I didn't use the abbreviation, however, the way "Conjurer Control Convention" is written here in kanji is a little different from chapter 99 where it was mentioned the first time. In chapter 99 it says 魔術師統制会議 while in this chapter it says 魔術師統制機構, the last two kanji are different which makes you wonder if this is how CCC was called at first and later used the name from chapter 99 or Tanaka-sensei used a synonym.

機構 (kikou) means organization and 会議 (kaigi) means convention, conference, council. Also, I wonder if Tanaka's intended for "conjurer" 魔術師 (majutsushi) to be the term for the magicians? I use "magicians" because of the references to the tarot cards.

So yeah, I hope that the notes were helpful!

#servamp #chapter 113 #my translation

[katzkinder]

Do you have any lily headcanons for his birthday? My butterfly man needs more love and you always have such nice ones for all the characters

gjdfg yOU BET I DO!!

For starters, and this is my favorite one I have to offer today, Lily has a little box containing all the fake birth certificates and such legal documentation he needs to be recognized as a "person that definitely existed as a human being" that the Alicein have given him, and he receives a new one the March after he forms a new contract with a new Alicein, always as a birthday present. They have his old names, the year the contract was made, and it's always so nice, seeing documentation with the family's name attached to his own.

Welcome to the family again, All of Love. They hope you're just as happy.

Since the Alicein have a dance studio (multiple dance studios?), sometimes Mitsuki tries to learn the dances from her favorite girl groups, buuut... She's way too embarrassed to do it on her own lol. It's been a longstanding tradition, ever since she was a tween, for her to grab Lily by the hand and drag him along with her. He's more than happy to learn, and he loves seeing her excited face, the little wiggle shimmy she does without realizing whenever a song she loves comes on.

Many of the children Lily takes in are disabled in some way, so he's very much on the up and up about many different disorders, pain management systems, specific dietary restrictions, migraine triggers, allergies, the ways different medications interact with each other, mobility devices, etc... He's a huge advocate for kids of all kinds, and it breaks his heart to see the way his children were harmed for things they couldn't help, or for things that could have been prevented if only someone had listened to them.

He's the only Servamp other than Freya who's ever been married.

He knows how to do tarot and dream readings!

Doudou and Mitsuki reminds him of Hattori and Yamane in their youth. The constant back and forth bickering and the weird sense of rivalry... He always sort of expected Mikuni to be trapped in the middle and having a rollicking good time of it, just as Mikage once did. Of course, things didn't go at all like he thought they would...

Where Hugh served as inspiration for many a vampire tale, Lily was actually the base model for Carmilla! His beauty and mysterious nature has no doubt captured the hearts of many an author.

Finally, his subclass range from actual children to well over a hundred! Many of them are in fact adults only yet pretending to still be kids. They really... Can't bear to leave him. They're well aware that the biggest child who needs to be loved is Lily himself.

#servamp #asks #anonymous #kat's katerwauling #thanks for the ask nonny!! #snow lily

[akashizaya]

T H E    H A N G E D    M A N 

#servamp #kamiya tsurugi #mangacap #manga coloring #[B!edits] #tarot #the hanged man #will put it later on da

[xthunderbolt]

— Servamp Tarot Cards —

#this shit was so annoying to make I'm never doing this again #there are 3 versions of the lovers because all those ships deserved one #the kurogear one kinda sucks because that's when I got annoyed and said fuck it #servamp #servamp manga #sleepy ash #kuro servamp #servamp of sloth #eve of sloth #mahiru shirota #shirota mahiru #inner kuro #sloth pair #kuromahi #inner sloth #inner kuro x mahiru #kuro x gear #kurogear #gear servamp #neugear hatiwelt #thundergif

[danozi1]

Soooo.. I was talking about servamp with @the-devil-of-light and we noticed THIS!!

TAROT CARDS!!

Also in ch 84 hyde mentioned all of his eves and licht is the 14th eve sooo.. @the-devil-of-light searched about no. 14 in tarot cards and... BAAM

AN ANGEL

I'm sooo impressed!! Tanaka loves to reference things!!

The cards meaning :

※ no. 12 : The Hanged Man is the card that suggests ultimate surrender, sacrifice, or being suspended in time.

※ no. 14 : This card indicates that you should learn to bring about balance, patience and moderation in your life. You should take the middle road, avoiding extremes and maintain a sense of calm.

#servamp #servamp spoilers #servamp manga

[pocketsizebitch13]

OC Hotel

So since I can't draw very well, I'm just gonna make character sheets and then go from there about my OC's. It's going to probably go current to older, and the character sheets are going to be based on what fandom they're from. So info may vary. This is my MC list because most of them are from things like Otomes or 1st Person Adventure games.

Original Post

Hollis Nero

Beginning of the story

Twisted Wonderland OC

Male (FtM)

16

166 cm (5'4)

July 22

Cancer/Leo Cusp

Eye Color: Holly Leaf Green

Hair Color: Holly Berry Red

Sexuality: Pan

Dorm: Ramshackle

Year: First

Class: 1-A

Occupation: Student/Prefect

Club: None

Best Subject: Magic History

Dominant Hand: Right

Favorite Food: Mocha Mint Frappuccino (Alternatively Mint Tea)

Least Favorite Food: Green Beans

Dislikes: Being miss gendered out of spite

Hobby: Sewing

Talents: Jack of all trades, Master of none

River Dusana

Obey Me OC

Demiboy

19

Human

June 25

Cancer

Hair Color: Carrot Top but dyes it light blue

Eye Color: Ice Blue

Sexuality: Pan

Likes: Adventures, Movies, Books, Photography

Dislikes: Stagnation, No Wifi, People with no depth

Kuro Ikeda

Also known as: Witchling (All Vamps)

Diabolik Lovers OC

17

Alive

Witch

Male

162.57 cm (5'4Ft)

57.6 kg (127 LBS)

August 1st

Leo

Blood type: AB+

Hair Color: Black when calm/Pumpkin Spice when using magic

Eye Color: Royal Purple

Sexuality: Gay

Occupation: 2nd year student, Free lance fortune teller

Relatives: None

Hobbies: Tarot reading/writing poetry

Favorite Food: Ginger snaps w/ Ice coffee

Salem B. Hearst

Bungou Stray Dogs OC

Genderfluid

18

152 cm (5ft)

54.44 kg (120 lbs)

July 22

Cancer/Leo Cusp

Hair Color: Strawberry Blonde (W/out ability)

Eye Color: Sage Green (w/out ability)

Blood Type: AB-

Sexuality: Panromantic

Likes:

Dislikes:

Ability: Sight to Behold

Reference: NA

Occupation: Detective (Guild Archivist - Former)

Affiliation: Armed Detective Agency (Guild - Former)

Orion Anatolius

Kingdom Hearts OC (Originally, Now they have their own original work!)

Male

19

5'7

July 8

Cancer

Hair Color: Midnight Purple

Eye color: Blood Red

Blood Type: A+

Race: Half-Beast (Human-Crow)

Sexuality: PanRomantic

Keyblade(s): 8 for Heaven & 9 for Hell (Look up Crow Rhyme (I think) if you're confused Its part of a very long rhyme)

From: Mid-day Mountains

Sirius Salvatori

Kingdom Hearts OC (Originally, Now they have their own original work!)

Male

20

5'5

June 18

Gemini

Hair Color: Starlight Silver

Eye Color: Mercury

Blood Type: O+

Race: Witch

Sexuality: Gay/Aromatic

Keyblade: For the Pack

From: Mid-day Mountains

Valentine Ceri

Servamp OC

Genderflux

Unknown Age

5'3

December 21

Sagittarius/Capricorn Cusp

Hair Color: Wine Red

Eye Color: Valentine's Day Pink

Blood Type: B-

Race: Witch

Sexuality: Pan/Poly

Zula Onyx

Original Work

Female

17

5'2

February 14

Aquarius

Hair color: Dark Auburn

Eye Color: Earthy Brown

Blood Type: O+

Race: Witch

Sexuality: Lesbian

Magic Affinity: Fire & Divination

Before anyone asks; yes most of them are redheads. I myself am one and just like to have characters that are too. Leaf it aloe.

12/23/21 edit: I dunno what happened since I last posted about my ocs but something definitely came through

My next list will be my Side Characters! Aka the Characters who have more info than my MCs. I'm also missing some so bear with me.

#twst oc #bsd oc #diabolik lovers oc #obey me oc #servamp oc #kh ocs #kh oc #kingdom hearts oc #Bungou stay dogs oc #Twisted wonderland oc #Oc hotel #oc shenanigans #oc shit #writing #oc sheet #this is my life #All of these peoples have been my vent character #may add my other ocs #who knows #not me #Now I get to start incorrect quotes! #Yay!

[cryptid-called-ash]

The Star

Full colour

Close up

#servamp kuro #sleepy ash #servamp #tarot cards #the star tarot #symbolism #coloured version

[vampireofenvy]

((Reasons why y’all should read Servamp.

Interesting concept!

Captivating plot! You’re always left curious about things!

Filled with references to so many things, like tarot cards, Alice in Wonder Land (Misono and Mikuni’s surname is Alicein LOL).

Werewolves and other mythical beings are around, werewolves are just now becoming more relevant.

Also the seven deadly sins if my url didn’t give that away.

Some of the names are hilarious imo (I mean. Doubt Doubt, c’mon).

The antagonist! Is really complex and I love him!

And honestly so much more I’m not doing it justice here but it is SO good.))

#OOC;;

[animes-trash]

Servamp Theory Game

This is a “summary” with an explanation of every reference in Servamp, spoilers included !

Hello guys~ ! Holy heck, it litteraly took months to make. Like, I started in September (I’m also lazy since lots of weeks though). So, as you may know, Servamp has a lot, and I mean, a lot, of references coming from a lot of different things such as myths from various mythology, plays, books, poems and else. I tried to find and explain them as best as I could, even though I'm not an expert about some of them.

Also, this has been written the BIG HELP of my dear friend @amaranight ! All of the tarot cards and the Mikuni parts are from her ! I want to thank her A LOT for the help and also for the emotional support XD

Remember, this is not an exhaustive list. I don't know all of them, though I tried to find the most I could. Also, I didn't want to say wrong things so there are references I wrote less about, even though I still searched a lot for every of them. Yes, there are things probably already have been explained somewhere in the fandom.

ALSO ! The manga isn’t finished yet. I’ll edit this post when there’s a new reference or if some of you have things to say to complete what I say or if modifications need to be made.

Forgive me if there’s typos, spelling mistakes or whatever. This post is really long and there’s still things I couldn’t correct, and note that I’m french so English isn’t my first langage, so pardon me if some things sounds weird. 

Here is a table of contents

Alicein family and Servamps

Greed Pair 

C-3 Arc 

Tarot cards

Basically, that’s how I cut this thing. There are some things that aren’t related to the C-3 but happen in the arc so I also put them under it. 

This is a very long post (+10 000), everything is under the cut !

Alicein family and Servamps

Lust Pair

I found something about Misono and Lily’s attack. When they fight Belkia (vol. 2, chap. 7/ ep. 3), Lily "cuts" Belkia's head. When doing so, it is written "Good Night Sweet Dreams, execution block of the Red Queen". The first part doesn't mean anything, it's just saying good night because Belkia ends up... knocked down.

What's interesting is the second part : "execution block of the Red Queen". Given that it's about cutting heads, I thought it could be something about Alice In Wonderland, which would fit the Lust Pair. (I mean, Lily's mail is "Alice-In-The-Garden"). But when I searched, I learned that it wasn't that. In Alice In Wonderland, the queen who's always like "Off his head !" is the Queen of Hearts, and not the Red Queen. In fact, there's a Red Queen in Through The Looking Glass (Kind of a "volume 2″ ? of Alice in Wonderland). But she's not like the Queen of Hearts, she doesn't cut head and all.

So I kept searching and I found who is the Red Queen. It is Marie Stuart, queen of Scotland (1542 - 1587). She was put to death because she was plotting to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, queen of England. Her head had been cut off on the scaffold.

That's not all. Her last word were "in manus tuas domine commendo spiritum meum", which means in english "into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit". After "cutting" Belkia's head, Lily says "The thing I destroy is not the body, but the mind." So, it kind of connects with her last words with the spirit thing.

Most of all, in the anime when Lily cuts Belkia's head, things are written in japanese and there a crown that's put on one of the Kanji, I screened it.

This is the same crown as Marie Stuart. (In one of the paintings of her, she wears a crown like that, made of gold with a Christian Cross.) This is all I had to say about this one.

Mikuni Alicein

East of Eden - 1

In an official art, we see Mikuni (and others) reading. Mikuni is reading "East of Eden". Though we don't know the author, we can easily guess who it is. First because there isn't any other known books with that name, and second because you'll see that all fits. 

It is "East Of Eden" from the author John Steinbeck. (1902 - 1968). it's a book that refers to the verse of the Bible about Caïn and Abel, but we'll talk about it later. This book talks about two families : the Trasks and the Hamiltions and interwoven stories. We can do some parallels with Mikuni's family.

Mikuni / Adam, son of the first marriage of their father, who remarried with a maid and had another son : Misono / Charles. The oldest, Mikuni / Adam leaves the house to engage in the army / C-3.

Another parralel : the mother of Mikuni / Adam becomes crazy because of a supernatural thing. (Religion in the book, the Servamp of Envy in Servamp.)

Some themes are quite similar too. In the book we have : individualism, Mikuni thinks he's better alone, without people to bother him in his projects, and freedom, which is what Mikuni assumes to have when he leaves the house.

The parralels are pretty hard to tell if you only read a summary of the book. You can find one online if you want to know more about it, but it might confuse you. I advise you to read the book if you want to fully understand all the parralels.

East Of Eden - 2

This time, I'm talking about Caïn and Abel. For those who are unfamiliar with that story, it's a biblical myth. Caïn and Abel are the sons of Adam. (Adam, like Adam and Eve.) The brothers don't get along, and Caïn ends up killing Abel. He is known as the first killer of the World. To punish him, God bannishes him and makes him immortal (with the Mark of Caïn, but it doesn't matter here). Then, Caïn leaves and go to the East of Eden, more precisely to the Land of Nod.

So, first of all, his doll is named Abel. I think it already makes things pretty clear. Second, we know that Servamp has a game, who takes place in Mikuni's shop, who is litteraly called “The Land of Nod”.

Do I need to say more ? "Nôd" means "to wander". When Mahiru first meets Mikuni (vol. 2, chap. 9 /he doesn't  say it in the anime) he says to him "I'm just a poor antique dealer, whose hobby it's to travel the world". He is wandering.

That all we had for these two part of East of Eden. Even if these fits with Servamp, there are still differences, things are not exactly the same. But, it's like that for each references, everything isn't exactly like in the books / myths.

My Fair Lady

Now it’s about Mikuni’s attack. When he fights with Tsurugi in chapter 44, we see his attack, which is called “My Fair Lady”. It comes from the musical / operetta of the same name. I won’t talk about it because it doesn’t matter now. What’s interesting is the reference of the musical. 

It is inspired by the greek mythology. More precisely bya myth from the Metamorphoses, a book by the Roman poet Ovid. The myth we’re talking about here is the one of Pygmalion and Galatea. 

So, Pygmalion wasa telented sculptor who decided to stay single. Though, he dedicated himself to his work and created Galatea, a statue of a woman. He found his statue so perfect that he deeply fell in love with it. Aphrodite, the goddess of love took pity on Pygmalion and decided to give life to Galatea. The sculptor lived happily with her.

Now, think about Mikuni and Abell, his doll. Though they aren’t in love, it fits the story. Look at Abell’s form when Mikuni attacks :

She looks like a woman that could be a statue. Also, look at how Mikuni treats Abell. Once again, there isn’t love or anything, but we see that he cares a lot about her. About the judgment thing, I think it’s just because of the title, my “fair” lady, with the idea of justice and all. Okay, maybe this one is a bit extrapolated but when we think about it, it makes sense.

Alice in Wonderland

So, I'm going to talk about the whole Alicein family and their servants now. They are all, or almost, from the famous book Alice in Wonderland, written by Lewis Caroll. Though, apart from Misono and Lily, they others don't really have a character development  or even a backstory, so we can't really develop. And even, at this point of the story, we didn't know a lot about Misono and Lily either.

So, firstly, Misono is Alice, and Lily the White Rabbit. Misono is "the center" of the family and the others focuses on him, he has all the attention. It's not really a common point with Alice, just that they are the "protagonist" of their story. Also, Lily's item is a pocket watch, like the White Rabbit. Lily is the "supernatural creature" that kind of drags Misono into other supernatural things, even if Misono already lives in a house full of vampires.

For Dodo, he's a reference to The Dodo. Yeah, it was a bit obvious. Though, only their name is similar. The Dodo being a caricature of the author, and isn't well developed.

For Mitsuki, she's a reference to the March Hare. This time, it's in the name again. In kanji, her name is "三月", "Mitsuki", which means March. So yeah, March Hare.  

For Hattori, he's a reference to the Mad Hatter. Once again, the almost only thing they have in common is their design. But, in Through The Looking Glass, there's another character that is Mad Hatter, but called "Hatta" (why, I don't know). Hatta / Hattori,you see.

For Yamane, she's a reference to the Dormhouse. If you only saw the movies by Tim Burton, she's called Mallymkun, or just Mally. This time, the two have the same "fighting style". Mally fights with a pin, and Yamane fights with that, which looks like a big pin.

For Julie & Marie, they are a reference to Tweedledum & Tweedledee. Just because... well, they both are twins. I told you, these ones aren't that complex.

For Mikado, he's a reference to the White King. The people in the Alicein family call him the King already. He's the White King, and not the Red King, because he's on the "good" side. (The Red King being on the "evil" side, as an antagonist).Alice and the others are with him, like Misono and the others are too.

That's all we know for them. For Mikuni, he has his own reference to something else, that I already talked about here.

Greed Pair

Shakespeare

You waited for it. Even though Lawless does quote Shakespeare a lot, his character is a reference to one play, Hamlet. Now, I'm going to explain what's Hamlet about, in the big lines : Hamlet's father, the king, died a week ago. He was killed by his brother, Claudius (but nobody knows), who becomes the king and marries Hamlet's mother. Hamlet learns that Claudius killed his father and only wants one thing, revenge. His thirst for it will drive him crazy. He loves Ophelia, and some people tells that it's the reason he's crazy, because he doesn't have her. In the end, he's killed by Ophelia's brother, Laertes, by a poisoned rapier.

Now, I'm going to compare the characters from the plays to the characters from the Greed Team, by explaining their character traits.

Hamlet - He is melancholic, bitter and very cynical. He is full of hatred for his uncle's scheming and so loses faith in humanity. Though, he's thoughtful and studied at the university. On one hand, he's hesitant and doesn't know what to do, and on the other hand he's very impulsive and do rash acts.

Lawless is a lot like Hamlet. When he meets Kuro again after all these years, he isn't angry and serious, he does bitter and sarcastic jokes. He doesn't take it seriously. We can also see him as melancholic, sort of. He is stuck in the past and refuses to turn the page. A major difference is that he's full of hatred for humanity, and not someone in particular. The other common points are his "bipolar" tendencies. When he's with his eves, at least the ones before Licht, he's rather calm. (Like, he doesn't kill every moving thing). But at the moment he gets bored, he becomes impulsive and violently kills them. When he was back to the castle, after the others decided to kill sensei, Lawless was very lost and didn't know what to do.

Ophelia - She'd the daughter of Polonius, a friend of the king. She is a beautiful, sweet and young woman. She obeys her father and the other men in her life, as long as she thinks it's for the good. Her father doesn't want her to be with Hamlet. When her father dies, she's the one who becomes mad. Not long later, she's found dead in a river.

Our Ophelia is also like the one from the play : sweet and caring for the others. She does what she's told to, like when she accepts to marry the prince of the other country, because she thinks it's a good thing to do. What changes is that our Ophelia doesn't become crazy, and she doesn't drown in a river.

Guildenstern and Rozen Kranz - They are Hamlet's friends since he is young. Though, the king turns them against him when he tells them that he's crazy. Later, Hamlet is send to England and the two have to go with him, the king wrote a letter saying that Hamlet shall be executed there. When Hamlet finds it, he thinks that his friends betrayed him. Which is wrong, they didn't know about the letter. So, Hamlet changes the names on the letter and escapes the ship they're on. The two ends up being executed in England, by mistake.

We can't really make parralels between them, exept that they're good friends. Maybe for Guildenstern who was with Lawless for a long time. Appart from that, they aren't really similar.

Now, I want to talk about the scene where Lawless goes back to the castle, or what remains of it. (chap. 34, vol. 7 / ep. 10). Because it is, for me, one of the most interesting scene with Lawless.

So, what happens ? When he returns to the ashes of the castle, he sees Ophelia's statue falling into pieces. Then, he hug the bust of the statue. That's from here that he becomes crazy. He starts dancing and singing. He sings "she is dead and gone, lady. She is dead and gone...", "Lord, we know what we are, but not what we may be !", and "Sweets to sweet, farewell !".

Now, what's interesting : in Hamlet, it's not Hamlet who says all that nonsense. No, it's Ophelia. After her father died, she goes in the Queen's room and says "he is dead and gone, lady. He is dead and gone". She talks about her father. She then starts talking nonsense. She talks about a baker's daughter who became an owl, and says that "we know what we are, but now what we may be". Then, she starts singing and dancing.

Lawless is quoting Ophelia in his madness. (Litteraly quoting, he’s a fan of Shakespeare and probably already read Hamlet). When he says, "she is dead and gone", he compares his love for her with the Ophelia from the play's love for her father, who was known to be immense. And I find that beautiful. Sad, but beautiful.

I also want to make a parralel with Hamlet and Lawless's duel with Higan. (Chap. 36, vol. 7 / ep. 11). It is like the duel between Hamlet and Laertes, Ophelia's brother. He wants to kill Hamlet because he thinks it's his fault if his sister died. (Technically, it is. Hamlet killed Ophelia's father, but not on purpose). They fight with a poisoned rapier and both of them die at the end, because of the poison. The "atmospheres" are similar. Though, this scene is more a reference to next thing I'm going to talk about.

The Phantom Of The Opera

Also an obvious reference, but this time with Licht in it. I’m now going to talk about The Phantom Of the Opera. More known for its musical comedy, it comes from a book with the same name, written by Gaston Leroux (1868 - 1927). Basically, someone is damaging the opera, the people are calling him "the Phantom". However, plays and comedies are still playing. Christine, a singer, will sing in an upcoming play. But she's afraid because, at night, someone comes in her room and sings to her with a beautiful voice. She calls him her “Angel Of Music”. She tells that story to the viscount Raoul De Chagny, who secretly loves her. They both find out that this "Angel" is really the Phantom, a man named Erik. He has an hideous face and is considered as a monster, he lives under the Opera. In love with Christine, he kidnapps her and drag her under the opera. Soon, Raoul comes to save her. A swordfight happens and Raoul wins, but doesn't kill the Phantom.

So, while fighting with Higan, Licht starts playing the theme of The Phantom Of The Opera on his piano. Because of the magic, both Higan and Lawless are wearing capes and masks, which are the costume of the Phantom. 

I guess we all assume that Lawless was the one compared to the Phantom ? Because it's wrong. Lawless tells to Higan "I have a verse that fits you perfectly. 'Ah, secretly, secretly. The loathsome gargoyle who burns in hell, but secretly years for heaven !'".

This quote is talking about the Phantom. Lawless is comparing Higan to the Phantom. The ugly beast with a beautiful voice. So, does that make Licht Christine ? It would make sense. Christine was kidnapped by the Phantom, Licht was kidnapped by Higan, exept that he isn't in love with Licht. Raoul fights for saving Christine, and that's, sort of, what Lawless is doing : he's moving forward. He doesn't want Licht to get killed. That's also in this scene that Hyde is telling himself "I want to change !". He, now, wants to protect what's important to him, like Raoul protects the one he love. (My mind wants to scream "LAWLICHT" do damn fucking loud but I'm going to stay serious). So, the "final duel" between Lawless and Higan is also a reference to the swordfight between the Phantom and Raoul.

I thought Licht was compared to "The Angel Of Music", that would makes sense. I mean he's an angel pianist. But no, the Angel of Music is the Phantom of The Opera. Well, after all, everything isn't like in the reference, so I guess it's still refering to Licht.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

This reference is not only about Licht and Hyde’s attack, but rather about themselves. It comes from the novel "The Strange Of The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", written by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894). It talks about the Dr. Jekyll, a famous Doctor known for his kindness. Philosopher obsessed with dual personality, he creates a liquid that separates Good from Evil in someone. Except that when he drinks it, instead of being two people, he turns into Mr. Hyde, who looks like Dr. Jekyll but smaller, more hideous and a lot uglier. Jekyll chooses to turn in Mr. Hyde at night so he can do whatever he wants without being reconized. In the end, he randomly transforms and the others are about to find out, so he kills himself.

This novel is about he duality of Humans. The Good and the Bad, what is one and what is the other. It's about the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, so different yet the same person. There's not a "right" one and a "wrong" one. It's the two perspectives of the same reality, seen by two different opinion. The two faces of a same coin.

It's exactly like Licht and Lawless. They are the two opposites and they perfectly complete each other. Licht is the Angel and Lawless is the Demon. Licht is the Good and Lawless is the Bad. Licht is the introvert and Lawless is the extrovert. Licht is the optimistic and Lawless is the pessimistic. Licht is the dreamer and Lawless is the stuck-in-the-past. Licht and Lawless' versions of the world couldn't be more different, but neither of them are “right” or “wrong”. Just two points of view. Even in their character design : Licht's hair has a white stripe, Lawless's hair has black stripes. In his hedgehog form, Lawless is black and his stripes are white, exactly like Licht.

In their attack, it's almost as if they were really the same person doing the same attack, when they almost can't stand each other.

And also, I mean, their fucking name. Licht JEKYLLand Todoroki and HYDE.

C-3 Arc

Oh dear, the C-3 is so damn full of references. Their spells have, generally, some verses of a true poem/nursery rhyme, some verses invented by Tanaka Strike to fit the charachter and things like that. Some of their spells are easy to find where they come from, but some other are either hard as hell or just aren't a reference to something. There's some where I didn't find anything, so I tried to interpret it, because why not. There’s also all the norse mythology things, not gonna lie it was a pain to write.

Tsurugi Kamiya

Norse mythology

At the C-3, his code name is Baldr. Baldr is a God in the Norse Mythology. He is loved by all, handsome and gracious. At least, most of the versions say he's like that, but they forget to mention his love for fighting and for war. Some people even say he's a God of War. One day, he begins to have dreams of his death. People laugh at that because he's an immortal being, so they just throw things at him. He is finally killed by Hodr, his brother. Hodr didn't mean to kill him : Loki, the guileful trickster of the gods, made an arrow with misteltoe (that can kill Bladr) and told Hodr, who was blind, to throw it at Baldr, and he did it without knowing it would kill him.

Knowing that Hodr is Yumikage's code name, it would mean that Yumi's going to kill Tsurugi. We can't say if it'll happen or not. The death of Baldr is very famous though. It could make sense, Yumi and Tsurugi are almost like brother, but it doesn't mean anything.

spell

When Tsurugi uses his spell (vol. 8, chap. 44.) it's "against" Kuro. It puts a kind of necklace / choker around their neck. A string of around 200 meters stops Kuro from running away and Tsurugi has power on him.

The spell is : « I want you to read pictures books to me by my bedside. I want you to pat my head and say 'goodboy, good boy'. Then hold me kindly, and say you love me. I am your treasure. 'Neverland' don't leave me alone ! »

I didn't find where it comes from. Not even some verses. Still, we can say that this poem talks about a child who doesn't want to be left alone, and to be loved, probably by the love of a parent. We can say with because of the pictures books by the bedside, who's usually a parental gesture. This poem is rather childish, and that's one of the reason we can relate it to Tsurugi, who couldn't grow up. He basically stayed alone, but with Touma. Even if he has bad influences on him, Tsurugi doesn't want him to leave him alone.

Another interesting thing is the "Neverland". Neverland is the magical land in Peter Pan. Once again, we have the parralel with the child who couldn't grow up, exept that Peter Pan didn't want to grow up.

Other

Here's a little thing I noticed. I don't really know how to call it or if it's even a reference but anyway.

In that pic (chap. 48, vol. 9), the white bubbles are Tsurugi's words. The two first are a quote from Martin Luther (1483 - 1546). Well, it's not the exact quote. The exact one is "Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree."

This quote talks about the fact that you should be happy now, instayead of wasting your life searching happiness. It has a sense, I promise.

What's interesting is the "I wonder what kind of tree it was...". The tree represents the "happiness", Tsrurugi is asking himself how to be happy. He doesn't know how to be. He wants to stop asking himselft how to be happy and plant that tree. But, which tree does he need to plant ?

Also, maybe a small parralel to The Mother's farm with her apple trees ? I don't know. 

Yumikage Tsukimitsu

Norse mythology

His code name is Hodr. We don't know a lot about this god, compared to the other ones. Though, we know he was seen as very strong, even too strong.

The most famous story about him is the death of Baldr, as I explained earlier in Tsurugi's paragraph. I'm not going to repeat it here. Though, I want to point something. It is said that Hodr was blind, when he killed Baldr. Buuut- he wasn't really. Buuuut- maybe he was. People aren't really sure about it, it depends of the versions. Though, most people tend to say that he wasn't really blind and that it was rather for the symbolism.

He is killed by Baldr's avenger, Vali. Vali almost has been made to kill Hodr.

Spell

His spell creates a kind of sphere, like a moon, of light. He can throw them and it seems to be very powerful. We see it he's fighting Touma. (chap. 70)

His spell is : "Who killed Cock Robin ? You said it was you. Cast away the green eyes ! Flee, cowardly Lion ! Everyone shall grieve your absence. The tree is swaying from the flight of birds, making the hanging craddle fall down. Kill your mother, kill your father, kill your friends, kill your teacher. Kill everything and end up alone. Crawl the sky drowned in spilled blood. Cry for the Moon."

So, so, so. The first two verses come from a nursery rhyme called "Who killed Cock Robin ?". Yeah, it was pretty obvious. This rhyme talks about the death of the Cock Robin, who was killed by Sparrows. Basically, the animals of the forest talk about his death and what will happen next (who will burry him, etc). It has many interpretations. One of them being the death of Robin Hood. But it's not the one I'm going to talk about now. The other one, is the death of Baldr by Hodr. Baldr/Tsurugi would be the Cock Robin, killed by Hodr/Yumi, who would be the Sparrow. Here again, the sparrow didn't kill him on purpose. It was by mistake.

Seriously, all tends to say that Yumi will end up killing Tsurugi, by mistake, yes, but still. Tanaka please ;;

We can notice is the "cowardly lion", a character that comes from The Wizard of Oz. The "green eyes" could be the Green Witch, but she doesn't have green eyes. Though, it is said that the “green eyes monster”, in Shakespeare’s plays represents the Jealousy.

Now, here's something else. The verse "The tree is swaying from the flight of birds, making the hanging craddle fall down." I think it's a reference to the nursery rhyme "Rock a bye baby", who's... one of Touma's spell. You know what, I'll talk about it in Touma's part, to get it less confusing. I'm putting a little (1).

Jun'ichirou Kurumamori

Norse mythology

His code name is Thor. Well, I think you all know who's Thor, at least his name. Still, I'm going to developpe. Thor is the god of lightning / thinder. He is the warrior. He's the loyal and honorable fighter of the other gods and their world. His sense of duty and courage are unshakeable. Doesn't that sound like Jun ?

Also, Thor has a charriot carried by goats. What is Jun's tarrot card ? The charriot. He also has his famous hammer. I'm going to talk about it right after that.

Spell

His spell can "summon" a big hammer. Like, a really big one. This hammer is obviously Mjölnir, Thor's hammer. In theory, only Thor should be able to hold the hammer. That's maybe why he's that big in that scene, like only the one who casts the spell can hold it. Here, he's fighting against Tsurugi. (chap. 53, vol. 10)

His spell is : "Let's talk about the past. Let's talk about when you smiled. Let's talk about when you got mad. Let's talk about when you were here. I still can't believe in all those things we called the past. Ring a Ring, the Wheel of Fate !".

I didn't find where any of those verses come. If they come from something XD. But I still have things to say there. I believe that this spell talks about Tsurugi, a bit. Since Jun is fighting with him, it's almost as if he's "blaming" him. Jun is talking about the past, when he smiled, got mad, was here, etc, so, when he had emotions. Maybe, when they were younger, Tsurugi was less... sick ? I don't know how to call how Tsurugi is doing now. In the past, when Tsurugi still had, at least a little more, emotions. But here, I'm just speculating.

There's another thing I want to say here. Touma is watching the whole scene on his screens. He says "even if he's not as good as the previous Thor, he's using Mjölnir better than I thought he would". That implies that spells can be transmitted from one to another.

Touma Taishi

Touma doesn't have a norse mythologic reference. He has more spells than the others, though. Most of his spells don't have an affect on himself, but on Tsurugi. Like, a boost of power.  Let's go in chronogical order.

Spell - 1

In chapter 53, when Tsurugi is fighting with Jun, Touma uses one of his spells.

It goes like : "You were born in a room with no windows. Today is the senventh you'll crawl on the ground. Instead of crying like an infant, scream out. Clutch your throat and yell. Breath five times in one second. Meanwhile, a single adult will die. 'Baby in the Dark', 'the black bird of Kensingston'".

The only reference I see is the "black bird of Kensingston". It comes from the book "The little white bird, or adventures in Kensingston Gardens". Written by James Matthew Barrie (1860 - 1937). This book is where Peter Pan comes from. In the first chapters at least, the next is someone else. As most of you know, Peter Pan's story is in Neverland. But in the beginning, Neverland was just the Kensingston's gardens in London. Barrie changed the name afterward.

Though, the title of the book says "white bird". But in Touma's spell it's "black bird". Touma could be compared to a darker version of Peter Pan, probably his shadow, given of one of his last spells.

One of the interpetation of Peter Pan's shadow, is that it is his inability to grow old. It would represent the spirit of a dead one, who's still tied to earth. For the first thing, it could Touma and Tsurugi. Tsurugi is Peter Pan, the one who couldn't grow up because of his shadow, Touma.

For the rest of the spell. Touma is probably refering to Tsurugi, also because his spells can make Tsurugi "stronger" to fight. But, it could also be referring to Touma, for we also know that he had a bad childhood.

Spell - 2

In chapter 70, Touma and Tsurugi are fighting against Yumikage and Kuro. (Well, Tsurugi doesn't want to fight with Touma, but he forces him).When Yumi attacked them with "cry for the moon", Touma fights back with his spell. Once again, the spell affects Tsurugi, and not really Touma.

The spell is : ... well there isn't really one. I mean, not a long thing. But that seems already enough. It is "Rock-a-Bye-Baby ! 'sleep, little one, go to sleep'".

So, Rock-A-Bye-Baby is a nursery rhyme. The most common version used today is "Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree tops, when the wind blows, the cradle will rock, when the bough, breaks, the cradle will fall, and down will come baby, cradle and all."

This nursery rhymes has some interpretations, but no one really suited the story in any sort.

Though, it talks about chidlren. That's probably why it fits with Tsurugi, who's still like a little child. I don't have anything else to say, exept maybe that the last thing "sleep, little one, go to sleep" comes from one of Mozart's lullaby. Same in that case, the only parralel is the child state of Tsurugi.

HANG OOON, THE LITTLE (1) IS NOW. So, in Yumi's spell was the sentence "The tree is swaying from the flight of birds, making the hanging craddle fall down." I think the hanging craddle is the same as in this nusery rhyme. We have the same idea of the wind who makes a craddle fall down from a tree. Maybe it's only a coincidence, maybe not. Still, I find it funny to tell.

Spell 3

Now, we're in chapter 74. Touma is fighting against Tsurugi, Kuro and Mahiru. Tsurugi is still a bit fighting against Kuro and Mahiru, because of Touma's previous spells. This time though, Touma's spell has an affect on himself, and not on Tsurugi. He can turn himslef into a shadow and attack people.

The spell is : "Do not open the lock, do not go outside. There's no place for you in the world. Tonight as well, monsters with the same face are bringing agony. Laughing in a world where I do no exist, there won't come a day when I can forgive you. The world is full of pain. Daddy Long Legs, 'nobody knows'".

Exept the litterature reference that I'll explain just after that, let's talk a bit about the spell in itself. It could be refering to Touma and Tsurugi, but it's rather for Touma I'd say. It talks about him. We know that Touma mostly had a shitty childhood, and let's say it a shitty life. I think the "onsters with the same face are bringing agony" sentence is referering to humans in general. He is full of hatred toward the others, he won't forgive them, as it's said. I don't think I need to say more, it speaks about itselft.

Now, the daddy long legs thing. Daddy Long Legs is a book written by Jean Webster (1876 - 1916). It talks about a girl, Judy who lives in a very poor orphanage. They live thanks to donor donations. When she's around 17, she wants to go to college, but she can't because of money. But, a mysterious donator offers to pay for her studies because he thinks she can become a wonderful writter. The only condition, she ahs to write a letter to him every month. She named him "daddy-long-legs because she never saw him and knows nothing about him, she only saw his shadow. To college, she has two friends. A kind and humble girl and a rich / snobinard girl. She not friend with the second in the beginning, but later.

Judy is obviously Tsurugi. He lives only from what he's given. (Even clothes, like Judy). And the Daddy-Long-Legs is Touma, even if now he's not someone good for Tsurugi, we can't forget he litteraly saved him and helped him a lot in the past. Also, Judy has two friends, like Tsurugi. The more humble one, like Jun, and and the snobinard one with whom she becomes a friend only later, like Yumikage.

Also, Touma has fucking long legs man.

Shuuhei Tsuyuki

For now, the only references we have for Shuuhei is his spell and his tarot card. Well, I wonder if he could be Loki, from the norse mythology, because Iduna calls him like that. But I don't see any parralel he could have with Shuuhei, so I'm not gonna speak about that, because, well, I just have nothing to say.

Spell

While he is fighting with Shamrock, in chapter 62, he uses his spell that he seems to have inherited from his father. Shamrock says they have the same eyes, and his power are a thing with the view, so maybe he inherited it.

The spell is : "I am thy law. Thou art a demon. Thou art corrupt. Fall from the rye field's cliff. Where no one will find you. You cannot return, even if you hold tightly to the 6 pence that you gave me. Four and Twenty black-birds. 'nobody in the rye'".

His spell gives him the power to have an unobstructed bird's view. He can know the position of objects and people and their behavior up to 10kms away, this power is called "Hayabusa", or "Hawk Eyes". The hawk is one of the bird that has the sharpest vision.

The "four and twenty black-birds" come from a nursery rhyme, who's not really one but we'll call it like that, who's called "Sing A Song of Sixpence". The rhyme goes like :

"Sing a Song of Sixpence, pocket Full of Rye, four and Twenty Black Birds, baked in a Pie. When the Pie was opened, the Birds began to Sing, wasn't that a dainty Dish, to set before the King ? The King was in the counting, house counting out his money, the Queen was in the Parlour, eating Bread and Honey, the Maid was in the Garden, hanging out the Clothes, when along came a Blackbird and snipped off her nose"

It has many interpretations, but the one that I find the better and who fits more Shuuhei is that the rhyme was Blackbeard's Alert.

Blackbeard was a famous and succesful pirate. Unlike most of the others, he paid the member of his crew. He paid each man 6 pence a day and a packet of rye whiskey. Like every crew on a ship, there was around twenty-four men. Given it was Blackbeard's crew, they were called the black-birds. Thanks to his many sources, he could usually know exactly were a ship would be.

(Blackbeard was the King, the Queen was his ship, the Maid would be the ship about to be attacked and it was in the garden, a specific area which was useful for Pirates. It was hanging out the clothes, meaning under sail. The black-birds were Blackbeard's mean hidden in the ship/pie.) The part in parenthesis isn't really important for the explanation, just for culture, if that interests you.

It fits Shuuhei because of Blackbeard's ability to know where every ships would be. The men are also the called "birds", and the hawks are birds. Also maybe, Shuuhei used to have black hair. And blackbeard had, well, a black beard.

Shamrock

We don't know much about him. We know a bit about his past, like the fact he was german. Like some subclasses, he has a special attack. In that case, it transforms him into a kind of... beast, that seems to be a bird, at least. Which species, I don't know. A kind of hawk, maybe.

His attack is called "Die Verwandlung. 'the nighthawk star'".

"Die Verwandlung" is a german novel written by Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924). In english "the metamorphosis". Basically, here's what happened. Gregor Samsa, a salesman, one day, wakes up, transformed into an insect. He has a sister and his two parents. Because of his "insect" state, he can't go to work and ends up fired. His sister is the only one who tries to help him (like, to feed him and all. He's not a little insect like we see everydays, he's a human sized insect). His parents are too frightened to help him. One day, his father throws an apple at his back, which ends up causing an infection. Now, even his sister stopped help him. He will die alone in his room because of the infection, he thinks of his death as a sacrifice to help his family to move on.

This novel is about the transformation. Gregor Samsa was abandonned because he became an insect. He was still the same man, but had another body. And because it was ugly to see, disgusting even, the others let him alone. It fits Shamrock, somehow. He didn't became an insect, but a vampire. Though, Tsubaki didn't let him. Yoshimasa did, but he wasn't a vampier yet. But we can still make the parralel of the abandonment. That's all I had to say for that.

"The nighthawk star" is a popular Japanese children's story written by Kenji Miyazawa (1896 - 1933). Here's a summary of what happens. There's a Nighthawk, who is a nightjar (another species of bird, but who isn't an hawk). He is bullied and hated by the others because he is descibed as "ugly". The "real" Hawk dislikes him because the nightjar has "hawk" in his name and demands him to change it. But the Nighthawk refuses. He is very sad to see that the others hate him just because of his appearance. He ends up dying, alone, while flying. He became a star and shines.

We have the theme of the reject because of the appearance back, and the theme of the birds that goes with the Tsuyuki family. It could be that the "real" hawk is Yoshimasa or Shuuhei, that hates the nighthawk/nightjar, so Shamrock, because he is an ugly beast/monster.

Shuuhei does hate him because he is a vampire. (Well, also because he killed his father, but the fact that he is a vampire has something to do with it). Yoshimasa didn't hate him, we can say that he abandonned him, but before he was a vampire.

Because of his attack, Shamrock does transform into something else. The two of his references reflect what happened/happens to him, and one if it is tied to the Tsuyuki family. Now, I'm done with him. Let's move on.

Wrath Pair

I didn't know if I can call Iduna and Freya like that, but for now I will. Their references are related. They have references to the norse mythology and an attack. Let's begin.

Norse mythology

I'll begin with Iduna.

Iduna, mostly called Idun, is the goddess of youth and fertility in the norse mythology, pictured with long blond hair. We don't know a lot of things about her, sadly. In her best-knows, and only, tale, she is the owner of a fruit that gives immortality. People accord to say that this fruit was apples. Whoever eats one of her apples finds his youth back.

Take makes a parralel with Freya's backstory, we knew she married a man that planted apples. Also both Idunas have long blond hair. Apart from that, there's nothing else to say. Let's go with Freya now.

Freya, also written Freyja, is the goddess of love, fertility and beauty. Her name would be a derivative from the german word "Frau", which means "lady". We have more stories about her than about Iduna, but it'd be too long to tell them. Also, they're not interesting for this post and for the parralels we're trying to make.

Freya und Iduna don't really have stories in common. Well, there's one book. It's called "Freya, Iduna & Thor : vom Charme der germanischen Göttermythen" (Freya, Iduna & Thor: from the charm of Germanic myths of the gods, in english). It's a book of some tales for chidlren about the gods. But it doesn't really speak about the two goddess together.

Attack

When Freya und Iduna are fighting against Shamrock, in chapter 76, they have a special attack called "Maiden of Orleans ! 'war maiden, take the sword !'".

Their special attack creates a bunch of light swords. Freya is fighting with them while Iduna seems to control the swords as well.

"The maiden of Orlean" is a reference to Joan of Arc, who had that nickname. She was a french girl who was born in 1412 and died at age 19 in 1231, burned at the stake. She was considered a heroine in the history of France and a saint by the Catholic Church (though she had been canonized like 500 years after her death).

At this time, the Hundred Years' War was going on between France and England. At age 17, Joan of Arc, who was the daughter of farmers, began to have hallucinations. She thought the angels (such as St. Micheal) told her she was the one who had to save France from the british. She went to see the future Charle VII, son of the previous France's king. He accepted that Joan join his troops and gave her and an armor. In the end, at age 18, she led the the French army to victory in the battle of Orléans. She was captured one year later by the British and had been burned alive.

The parralel obviously the fact that "Hey, I'm a girl and I can kick your fucking ass". (A sentence is better than a hundred of words, sometimes. XD). Because, I think y'all can agree with me, Freya is fucking badass, like Joan of Arc was. Iduna is strong too, but here it focuses more on Freya. She's the one with the swords and the shield, who were two of Joan's attributes.

Johaness Mimir Faustus

Norse mythology

This tall scientist is a reference to Mimir. He is the counselor of the gods and known to be exceptionally wise. We don't have a lot of sources on him, and the ones we are have are contradictory. For example, we don't know if he was a God himself, or just a Giant. Tanaka Strike seems to have choosed the second option, because Johaness is the tallest of the manga, with 2 meters and 11 cms. (Or 6'9'', in feet. Basically, fucking tall.) The vikings thought of him like "the one who helped the gods retain the wisdom of tradition".

Though Johaness is more seen as the "crazy scientist", we know he has a lot of knowledge, especially over vampires. His words also help Mahiru a lot, sort of, he acts as a counselor. So yeah, some people could consider him as a wise, in some ways. I already talked about his height, but I still want to say again that us, people, call tall people like him giants.

The Lion and the Unicorn

There's something else about Johaness but I don't really know where to put it. Given that it's Johaness who talks with Mahiru, I'll put it here. Also, it happens in the Greed Pair Arc, sooo yeah kinda confusing

So, in chapter 29, Johaness helps Mahiru to... hum, should should I say this... get into Kuro. Well, his mind. And before throwing him, Johaness says "I'll recite a poem for your journey !"

Here's the poem : "The Cat and the Unicorn, were fighting without the crown. The Cat beat the Unicorn, all about the town. Some gave them no flowers, and sent them out of town."

This poem is adapted from this one : "The Lion and the Unicorn, were fighting for the crown. The Lion beat the Unicorn, all around the town. Some gave them white bread, and some gave them brown. Some gave them plum cake, and drummed them out of town."

The real peom (who's a bit longer, but the last four verses aren't interresting here), also called nursery rhyme, is about the United Kingdom. As you may know, the Lion and the Unicorn are one of its symbol. Even before the unification of England and Scotland, in 1603, the Lion was England's symbol and the Unicorn was Scotland's smybol. When they unified, they combined. And this nursery rhyme was created.

Though, the rest of the poem, well... doesn't really have a signification. Some people say there was a battle between the two country and that England (the lion) beat Scotland (the Unicorn). but they officialy unified as equals. Soo, I'm kind of lost with this.

In Johaness' version, it is the Cat and the Unicorn. The cat is obviously Kuro, but for the Unicorn... I can't really say.

This one is kind of confusing. The rhyme talks about "fighting for the crown", but there wasn't a war or anything, they unified, as I said, as equals. It's pretty hard to make parralels when you can barely understand the base.

I did some research and asked friends, and it appears that the Lion and the Unicorn are two characters from Through the Looking Glass. (Who're also a reference to the original rhyme). It was surprising because the Alice's references are rather for the Alicein, but here it's in the Greed Pair arc, said by Johaness and to Mahiru. But hey, that's the only clue I have so let's go that way.

The Lion and the Unicorn are fighting for the White King's crown, which is pretty absurd because both of them are on the White side. There, the Lion is pictured as a rather slow, even stupid, but the better fighter. The Unicorn sees Alice as a monster, but he says he'll believe in her if she believes in him first. The Unicorn also "attacks" Alice, but the Lion protects her.

We know the Lion/Cat is Kuro. Now, here is my interpretation. I don't know at all if it really meant. I thought that Lawless could be the Unicorn, and Mahiru Alice. (Even if Alice is already Misono, buuuuuut, this and the Alicein aren't related, not in here.)

It could make sense, with Lewis Caroll's version and the Servamp one, combined (?). Kuro and Lawless are on the same side, sort of : they're against Tsubaki. They aren't fighting for a crown. Lawless doesn't believe in Mahiru, he stills thinks humans life are meaningless, etc. Though, Lawless doesn't talk about believing in him later. Also, Lawless attacks Mahiru, not the first time they meet, but after, in the concert hall, and Mahiru protects him.

In both versions of the rhyme, they end up kicked out of the town. But I don't see anything that speaks about that. Not even in the original meaning the rhyme. I guess it's just... there, with no meaning behind.

Now the question is why the fuck does Johaness tells Mahiru that, when he doesn't even know what the fuck is going on between the others and Lawless. I'm talking about Johaness' later, he's a reference to a wise being, so we can say he doesn't tell things with no meaning. Once again, it's only my interpretation there, but Johaness could be telling Mahiru that the fights between Sloth and Greed are absurd, just like the Lion and the Unicorn's ones (at least those from Lewis Caroll's).

Mahiru Shirota

So, the sunshine finally's got a reference to something. Bye bye norse mythology, we're now in greek mythology.

In chapter 75, Mahiru and Kuro are fighting against Touma. Mahiru's attack/spell is "Elpis". (I don't know how to call that. It is formuled like a spell, but spells are only for magicians, if I'm right. So maybe it's an attack with Kuro, or maybe Mahiru has magician blood ? Anyway, it doesn't matter here) It is a reference to Pandora's myth, with the infamous Pandora's box. Basically, here's the myth in the big lines.

Pandora was said to be the first woman. She was created by the gods, beautiful and sweet but also curious. She was what we could call a poisoned gift for the human, given by Zeus. She was sent with a small box, but with the ban to open it. But, because of the curiousity, she opened it and all the sins were released in the world.

She was so sad and cried, her husband came to comfort her and asked what happened. She opened the box again to show him, but this time Hope came out. (Depending of the versions, people says it was Hermes, another god, placed Hope in the box without Zeus (the god of the gods) knowing).

"Elpis" is Hope. It is the way to call it, and also the personification.

This myth means a lot of things. One of the most important, it tells you that you shouldn't be curious. I mean, see what it did. Also, when Pandora talked to her husband and showed him the box, hope came. She opened up to him, and it helped.

We already saw these black boxes in the manga. Everyone has their Pandora's box. Touma's one already opened and the sins came out. Touma says it himself, he's a bad person. It is said the key of his box is lost, so the box can't open anymore, can't release the hope. But, here's Mahiru. His spell made the key. Now the box will open again, and Touma will be able to release his Hope. (With a bit of chance, still). He and Mahiru will probably talk (or talking while fighting, we'll see). Maybe Touma will open up to Mahiru and, like the lesson the myth teaches us, find hope.

Nothing more about the sunshine boy, for now at least.

Yggdrasill 

This time, this isn't a reference to a character in particular. Rather to... the C-3 in itself. As you all know now, the C-3 is full of references to norse mythology. Let me explain, in chapter 42, we have this picture :

I don't know why there's a bunch of triangles on the ground, but that doesn't matter. The interesting thing is the tree. It is Yggdrasill, the Tree of Life, also called the World Tree. It is in center of the Norse spiritual cosmos, and the it leads to the nine worlds of the said cosmos. The Tree is connected to the worlds in all ways : if the Tree is bad, the worlds are bad. It is said that the Tree has three main roots, one leading to Asgard, the world of gods, to Midgard, the world of humans and to Helheim, the world of the deads.

It's not surprising to see the Tree in the C-3. After all, there's so many characters with a reference to the norse mythology in it. The C-3 probably represents Asgard, the world of gods, because all of the references are gods. Asgard is the fortress of the Aesirs (the people of Asgard). The C-3 is also kind of a fortress, and also the home for some of the members, such as Tsurugi (Bladr).

C-3′s building and Servamp - Eve distance limitation

Okay so I really didn’t know where to put that, but I wrote something about the Servamp - Eve distance limitation and about the size of C-3′s building here.

Gilbert Weasel

His attack is called "Forbidden Lover ! Dying in Venice !". He seems to be able to "shot" water. It is pretty powerful, even if it doesn't sound like it. So, this is a reference to the book called "Death In Venice", by Thomas Mann. (1875 - 1955). Here's a summary.

A writer, Aschenbach, goes in vacation in Venice. In his hotel, he sees a Polish teenager called Tadzio. Achenbach falls in love with him, finding him just... perfect. Though, they never spoke a word to each other, just stares. When he learns that Tadzio has to go back in his country because of a disease that spreads fast in Venice, Achenbach goes to look at him one last time on the beach and then dies, of the said disease that he catched.

We understand the "forbidden lover", now. The forbidden love between a 14 years old boy and a man. Though, there isn't a real link between this story and Gil. Except maybe the fact the italian is often seen as "the lover, the romantic" in a lot of stories, and Gil and Ray are both kind of gentlemen.

We also have the thing with the water. As you may know, Venice is called the city of water, and the story of the book happens in Venice.

Ray St. Crazy Rabbit

Ray's attack is called "Illumination ! Betraying the Sun and the Moon !", it seems that Ray can prevent the person from moving, for some seconds, in a small space, as if taking a picture. All colors, light and black, disappears from this small space.

For this one, it's more complicated than for Gil's. "Death in Venice" is a famous book, and was pretty easy to find. If Ray's attack has a literary reference, it's more hard to find, if you don't know the book at all. It's also complicated to search, because the sun and the moon are very common in italian litterature. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

If it does refer to something, I didn't find. But, I had another idea. As I said, it's almost as if Ray was taking a picture.

His attack is like the old way of taking pictures. Look, the time is stopped in a small space, and Before having the photo, we only have the negative, that we'll have to develop. If mangas were with colors, we could easily tell if it is the negative version of the old pictures, or just something in black and white, which would be something else then. The negative version of a photo reverse the colors, here, it works.

Tarot Cards

A lot of characters, almost all from the C-3, got references to Tarot Cards. All the following has been written by my amazing friend, I'll go character by character. For almost every of the, their tarot card was said in a chapter title, exept for Mikuni, it is the cover of a chapter who’s the same as a card.

Yumikage Tsukimitsu - THE MOON

Indicates that you are kind of "lost in thought", that you have something to overcome even though you refuse to face it directly (because it's in your subconscious).  =  Yumikage is shown to be kinf of self-conscious about the choices he made. Despite not helping Tsurugi at first, because he didn't think he could / didn't really want to care, but he was still always there for him

The Moon shines less bright than the sun, but its light is more persistent. In the night as in the day, it's the moon that you can see. In the end, it's the moon that shows you the way between the Towers, helping you to deal with your tamed aspects and your wild aspects  =  Yumi's role is very important for Tsurugi. Mahiru did a great job reaching out to Tsurugi, but, at the end, Yumi's the one really pushing Touma (the Tower) once and for all, so as to soothe his friend's anxietes.

Taishi Touma - THE TOWER

Chaos and destruction  =  Touma is no good news. It seems nothing good can be coming out of him. He tries to take everybody down with him.

Solid but shaky  =  Touma is a strong opponent, if not the strongest. However, his core is based on false, or at least biased assumptions. Is he really the monster he claimed to have become ?

Desperate situation but it is possible to be saved  =  Touma claims to be a "purebred villain", and seems to have done everything to be one and to stay as such, but is there really no way to make him realize that he's blinding himself, living a life that will destroy him ? Maybe he has already realized it. Persevering in his wicked ways will without a doubt lead to a disaster (for him and everyone else), but maybe the sun will clean the tempest.

Iduna Nobel - THE STAR

Highly feminine card, water everywhere which means fertility, renewal.  =  Iduna is one of the few female characters. The chapter named "The Star" focuses on her bond with The Mother, another female lead.

The Star also follows the Tower in the Tarot Deck  =  After the chaos Touma made, Iduna is there to fix her superior's bullshit, which she can do with her loving and pure energy.

Inner resources and and intuition  =  Iduna is shown to be able to adapt very quickly. She is a scientist, and a talented one, very creative.

Hope and faith  =  She seems to be quite good at helping people and guiding them on a better path. "You're open minded and want to help the others, and you should not feel down about it. Even if you do, you have to stand up and show that you can handle the situation". Which Iduna does quite well for someone who hasn't gone through some personal shit and is not used to fight.

Tsurugi Kamiya - THE HANGED MAN

Martyrdom, sacrifice to the greater good  =  Tsurugi's relationship with Touma (or how Touma abuses Tsurugi). He is to become the ninth Servamp, and his life doesn't matter as a human being, for he has to serve this higher purpose.

Ultimate surrender  =  Tsurugi's passivity regarding, like, his life in general. He doesn't choose things. They are imposed to him, and he doesn't care because he judges it's not his role. He is willingly serving Touma.

Break, new perspectives, letting go  =  However, at some point, Tsurugi really suffers of his situation. The Mother, his friends and Mahiru make him realize that maybe he's not really doing what's best for him. Maybe he just has to take a break and let go of everything stalling him. But, he has to be ready to make this decision, and not to be forced to, or he'll just end up killed, like the Hanged Man. If he takes the leap, things are sure to go better, though it won't come from nobody but him.

Mikuni Alicein - THE HIGH PRIESTESS

Highly feminine card  =  Mikuni, do you have something to tell us ? XD This card maybe as well be about Abel, at this point.

Sacred knowledge, secrets, silence, subconscious, withdrawal  =  Mikuni is the guy knowing the most of stuff (with Johaness, maybe). But he doesn't share them easily, if not at all. Even his own self is full of secrets, maybe even for himself. It's more likely than you think that the guy pulling the strings from behind is actually the one having the most troubles to settle with himself. He will help you if you're ready to hear him, but it is not said that following him will grant you what you were looking for, maybe Mahiru will do as well to trust himself more than relying on Mikuni.

BJ - entrance of the Temple of Solomon (B = Boaz, "in his strenght", J = "he will establish"), duality  =  Very likely, Mikuni holds the answers our main characters are looking for. However, they are his strenght, that is, he is the one making "good" use of the,. The heroes have to be ready to face him. Moreover, he's ready to do anything to prove his point, and has a kind of God Complex. "He will establish", no matter what it takes.

Jun'ichirou Kuromamori - THE CHARRIOT

Lack of direction  =  Jun has gone through hard times, and didn't know what to do in crisis. He was really despaired when he was left alone with his son, when his wife died.

Brave warrior, determination, willpower  =  Jun has faced life with all his strenght, despite having lost his wife and having to raise his kid alone.

Mahiru Shirota - THE MAGICIAN

Numer one  =  Mahiru is the protagonist, aka the most important character. It's also the number of new beginnings and opportunities. The infinity symbol and the snake biting his own tail around the magician's waist also stand for the unlimited potential and the blossoming of ideas and intentions in the character.-

White robe for purity and red cloak for worldly experience and knowledge  =  Despite being only a child (at least it's how he considers himself), Mahiru has experienced a lot of things in his life and acts in a very mature way, especially in the way he takes responsibility for things/ of the others.

The magician brings you the tools, resources and energy you need to make your dreams come true, he's a source of inspiration for many people who are still insecure about what they should do/ who they should be, and make them realise that what they want to achieve is possible if they make efforts to do so. The magician will help you gathering everything you've learned so far + establishing a clear vision of what you can and want to do  =  Like Mahiru with Kuro especially.

However the focus, to be efficient, must be on one thing it's easier and allows you to eliminate whatever disturbs you  =  "Thinking simply" is Mahiru's motto. The Magician can also help to question one self.  

Shuuhei Tsuyuki - THE HIEROPHANT

The Hierophant is the masculine counterpart to the High Priestess (Mikuni’s card) = Even if we don’t know a lot about their relationship, they are linked. Mikuni offers his help to Shuuhei (though it maybe isn’t a good idea)

The other things don’t really fit Shuuhei, but he isn’t that developped yet so maybe there’s more to come. 

#servamp #Servamp Theory Game #servamp theory #shirota mahiru #servamp kuro #licht jekylland todoroki #servamp lawless #alicein family #servamp lily #mikuni alicein #misono alicein #tsurugi kamiya #kurumamori junichirou #Tsukimitsu Yumikage #c-3 #servamp c3 #tsuyuki shuuhei #long post #it took so much time help #servamp jeje #kuromahi #lawlicht #tarot cards #touma taishi

[faith-gigliorosa]

Hello! I meant to ask you where you found that picture of the Servamp Tarot Card deck from one of your Servamp Store posts, I'd be interested in getting one!

Hello, anon :)

That picture is mine, I made the tarot cards 🙂 I used a few programs to edit the Servamp's pictures with colors and frame and then I ordered them on a website which printed out the tarot cards and then they delivered them to me 👍🏻

#ask box

[gracer222]

I LOVE how Mahiru being part of a magician’s family was foreshadowed since day one: 1.His lead was originally a broom that he rode like a stereotypical witch would 2.Kuro is a black cat. You could say he is Mahiru’s familiar 3.Forging contracts with a Servamp is par for the course but in Mahiru’s case it becomes more meaningful seeing as historically persecutors of witches saw them as enemies to God for contracting the devil for their powers. Bonus points for Licht calling the vamps ‘demons’

(Sorry for the late reply but I was so happy to see a message about Servamp in my inbox

SAME, ANON, SAME! I remember the very first time he rode his broom like a witch I started laughing and said how fitting it was given Kuro is a black cat so of course our boy Mahiru gets a lead like a wonderful witch~ I never considered it much beyond that, and I never thought about the historical beliefs about how witches got their powers, but that works so well as does Licht’s comments. And then there is also how the mangaka ties tarot cards to specific characters or chapters (poor Tsurugi lol). I just want to know every single detail about Mahiru’s family right now!! 

Man I just love this manga so much, and I always feel bad when someone asks me what it’s about because I suck at summaries and vampires have become really cliche, but theY’RE SPECIAL VAMPIRES AND IT’S MUCH MORE THAN JUST THAT AND THE CHARACTERS AND THEIR ARCS ARE SO GOOD AND THERE ARE SO MANY GOOD ALLUSIONS AND PARALLELS AND IT GETS MORE OBVIOUS AND MORE OBVIOUS JUST HOW MUCH WORK THE MANGAKA PUTS INTO IT WITH EACH CHAPTER

#anonymous #anon #servamp #mahiru