#mazoku

A photograph that Jozak Gurriere would bid his entire fortune for

Movie study

Call Me by Your Name

Dir. Luca Guadagnino (2018)

Character study:

Wolfram von Bielefelt and Yuuri Shibuya (Takabayashi Tomo & Matsumoto Temari, Maruma, 2008)

Movie study

Atonement

(Dir. Joe Wright, 2007)

Character study:

Gwendal von Voltaire and Anissina von Karbelnikoff (Takabayashi Tomo & Matsumoto Temari, Maruma, 2008)

Bear with me, I enjoy studying movie scenes lately^^ gonna post some compilations.

Movie study:

Atonement (2007)

One of my favorite films ever but make it Gwendal & Anissina. I can totally imagine this kind of scene happened between them.

-I can’t stop laughing thinking about Milgazia sitting there, stone faced while Lina talked to the waitress, wondering if she really did have a twin sister.

-Wow, Milgazia hits Lina hard with pointing out the hostage thing, especially since he knows how Hellmaster drew Lina to Sairaag the last time. He knows a bit more then he lets on I suspect!

-And Lina must be very triggered. And as @savvyliterate pointed out, she no longer thinks of this as her history and her victimization, she thinks of it as her and Gourry’s history and victimization. Their we-ism is strong by this point. These types of shared experiences are the things that create a strong glue between people.

-I greatly appreciate the fan translation of novel 15. I also have to say, this all makes so much more sense now!

Gungnir Knight is now the official translation of Gunginiel Knight…and I have to update a bunch of fics.

-OK, so this clarifies that it was a woman of the royal family in Saillune who organized raiding parties against the demons, which leads me to think Amelia was behind this and not Naga. It also clarifies that there is only one Knight of Ceifeed and not a group of people known as the Ceiphied Knights in Zephilia and that the Eternal Queen’s special forces were dispatched with her. Lina does leave the question of the accuracy of the rumors open though.

-I do sort of wonder if this is where Lina learned where Gourry is from. He hears the rumors about the Gungnir Knights and how much he knows about them ends up betraying him.

-Oh, I’m actually happy to know that Rubia was staying in her own shop rather than that big empty mansion with all the memories of Halciform.

-Lina references being a former sorcerer’s assistant where she likely helped to cultivate herbs used for sorcery.

-Lina and Gourry geeking out over the greenhouse is simply wonderful. And I wonder what price Lina would make Gourry pay… ;-)

-Damn, Xellos just held Milgazia’s spell, that was hurting another demon, in his hand and negated it like it was water.

-Xellos does not seem to want Lina to tell on him to Greater Beast about him not paying her back for the coppers. Granted I wouldn’t see why she would care…

-Damn, Xellos hits Lina with a one helluva guilt trip over the greenhouse.

-Regarding Xellos’s appearance, I want to clarify that I like Xellos. Unlike a lot of his fans though I like him as a demon who does not have human emotions or sentiments and strongly feel that the novels and interviews reinforce that. And his appearance in novel 15 has only cemented that for me. I strongly disagree with the tendency to view his behavior and the behavior of other demons through a human lens (though I think that given that part of his duties seem to be fooling humans into believing that he is human, he succeeds rather well in that regard to his credit).

In this chapter we see that some demons, likely those aligned with the Demon King of the North, are trying to kill Lina and Gourry while others, those likely aligned with Luke, are trying to lead them to Luke. The former attack Lina and Gourry, the latter, such as the red muscle demon, defend them. Xellos’s actions are consistent with the latter group, and thus with Greater Beast.

He makes a comment about emphasizing with the bat from an old story, and I checked with a Japanese fan, Yuu-san, who kindly explained that this is a reference to a well known bit of Japanese folklore. The birds and beasts started fighting with each other and the bats would go between the two and side with whoever had the upper hand. She also explained that the term “bat-bastard” refers to someone who does not take a side and behaves well.

So what I assume is that Xellos and Greater Beast are siding with Luke because he is stronger at the moment and not because they sympathize with him or agree with him. Given that power is a big factor in relationships among Mazoku this makes sense. They are drawn to whoever is more powerful at the moment even if they don’t agree with the plan to bring Lina and Gourry to Luke.

He does not want to fight Bradu, and he has good reasons for this which he brings up. The demon race has had a bad run and he doesn’t want to lose anymore of them. And Bradu agrees with the reasoning and flees, and thus Xellos is able to do his part to ensure that Lina and Gourry get to Luke safely. By his actions I would say he is clearly aligned with Greater Beast here.

As for his comment about being neutral, I think it’s more of a reference to not agreeing on a personal level more with the Demon King of the North or Luke but siding with whoever has the upper hand. I think it’s obvious Xellos does not like the situation the demon race finds themselves in, and truly it does suck for them.

In the end, I’m not seeing any evidence that Xellos can go against Greater Beasts’ orders, or that there’s human or familial sentiment between him and Greater Beast.

If anything I see the inklings that Xellos might be similarly as fearful of Greater Beast as Sherra is of Dynast. This is speculation and there are other possible explanations, but I wonder if Greater Beast had ordered that when Xellos interacts with humans he better ensure he’s never in their debt or something similar.

I think the Mazoku in the Slayersverse are fascinating because they aren’t human and to me it is very clear that HK intended them to have different ways to relating to each other. There are certain rules I’ve gleaned from this (perhaps I’ll write that up sometime later in the future). I think it is fascinating to think of and untapped potential basically.

-And I also have to say, the tension between Xellos and Lina, Gourry, Milgazia and Mephy is something else. Lina and co are terrified of him and doing what they can to get at him. Milgazia is rather brave with confronting him. When he leaves Lina “wipes the cold sweat” forming on her brow. He is a very effective enemy.