Real talk ok, this just makes me so unreservedly happy because it’s just something that I didn’t think anyone cared enough to create. A big-budget dinosaur project that pays so much attention to detail, anatomy, and engages in interesting, reasonable and thought-provoking speculation seemed like some unachievable holy grail, seeing it finally become real is wild.
I have such high hopes for this show and you bet I will be raving about every episode, because with even the tiny pieces we have so far this is shaping up to be potentially the dinosaur show of an entire generation, the same way Walking With Dinosaurs was more than 20 years ago.
Of the top three Kizuki, Douma is expounded upon the least. Douma is never given a surname; we don’t even know if Douma is his real name. There are glimpses throughout the series of his life as a demon and of course what little history that is revealed during his backstory. It’s easy to write him off as a being of pure narcissistic evil, but I purport that he is far more complex than he is given credit by the majority of readers.
Even less information is known about Douma’s parents and how the Eternal Paradise cult was formed. It’s at least clear that his father was the cult leader prior to Douma’s birth. Whether or not his father was a master manipulator and con artist or he actually ascribed to the teachings he administered is something that will likely never be clarified but I tend to think the former is more likely. Given what is known about his multiple frequent extramarital affairs with female followers it seems as though he used EP as a means for personal gain.
Douma is eventually born and possesses his most prominent feature: multicolored eyes containing the whole spectrum of colors. Convinced that he is a babe blessed by the gods, from the very beginning Douma is thrust upon a pedestal from which he is never able to climb down. A common fan interpretation of his early childhood is that he was largely deprived of emotional support from either of his parents. While his physical needs were certainly met, neither parent offered him affection and he is assumed to have been treated as a revered figurehead rather than a child.
He seems to demonstrate traits of reactive attachment disorder due to this emotional neglect. Per the DSM-V some of these traits would be: (1) The child rarely or minimally seeks or responds to comfort when distressed; (2) Minimal social and emotional responsiveness to others, limited positive affect; and the child experiencing (3) social neglect or deprivation in the form of either persistent lack of having basic emotional needs for comfort, stimulation, and affection met by caregiving adults; rearing in unusual settings that severely limit the opportunities to form selective attachments. Some of these traits are evident in the recollection of Douma’s parents’ murder/suicide and his subsequent response. Rather than being distressed and running to a caregiver or adult his primary concern is the horrible way the blood smells.
Additionally, Douma himself admits that he always seemed to lack the capacity to make strong attachments or experience the full spectrum of human emotions. They are foreign to him. He knew that he was different in this way but as a child expected to be burdened with the problems and prayer requests from adults and other children alike he quickly learned that he needed to behave as though he could and did feel everything as he was “supposed to”. I imagine he spent a great deal of time observing others, not being allowed to play or engage in activities his parents perceived as being beneath him as the Founder. Even as a spoiled child in terms of having every material luxury he could ask for but had strict guidelines and expectations for his behavior. The Founder is to serve others but is decidedly separate from them. Untouchable. Unrelatable. It’s no wonder that his capacity for emotions didn’t develop as a child.
It is from this constant observation that he developed a knack for acting and fine-tuning his ability to convey emotions while in actuality feeling very little. He can smile or laugh or cry on command. He can dispense eloquent, moving speeches and not believe a shred of it. In fact, he doesn’t believe it. His parents insisted that as a child blessed by the gods surely he must be able to commune with them. Douma never heard from any gods and it is not surprising that a young child with the heavy weight of impossible expectations would go along with it to please his parents. I have to wonder if he did it hoping that if he played the perfect role for them that he would earn their love and maybe then he would feel.
I want to briefly look at Douma’s childhood compared to Erik Erickson’s Stages of Development up until adolescence; we’ll revisit the last stages later. Infancy (birth-18 months) the conflict at play is trust vs. mistrust. That is trust that one’s caregivers will take care of the child’s physical and emotional needs. After all a baby is entirely dependent on adults for everything: food, love, warmth, safety, and nurturing. We’ve discussed that Douma likely lacked love and nurturing; in this case children may develop fear rather than trust and a belief that the world is inconsistent and unpredictable. I wonder if this plays into the fact that even with his parents out of the picture pressuring him to lead EP he continued to do so in adolescence. While he was likely well-educated I don’t have to discuss how cults traditionally are very isolating and mistrustful of outsiders. Why leave what he knew would at least take care of his physical needs even if it was at the expense of emotional ones?
Next is early childhood (2-3 years). The conflict here is autonomy vs. shame and doubt, the desired outcome being will. I think it’s fair to assume that Douma was not granted much autonomy: he wore what his parents dressed him in, chided him for behaving in ways typical for any other child, and shamed him for wanting to be like other children.
Similarly is the third stage: Initiative v. Guilt in which children begin to assert their power and control over the world through directing play and other social situations. In a distorted way Douma actually succeeds in this area to an extent but only due to his position as The Founder. Rather than through play with other children he learns control and power by means of leading and advising the cultists. It’s possible that he circumvents feelings of guilt (typically arising from children trying to exert too much power and experiencing disapproval) leading to a sense of entitlement and inflated ego. The next stage brings us closer to the death of his parents.
Stage 4 (5-11) addresses industry v. inferiority. Again Douma succeeds in this area due to being a “chosen one” who can essentially do no wrong in the eyes of his followers. Though he doesn’t believe in the cult edicts himself, he develops a sense of competence and his belief in his skills to lead and act appropriately. We’ll break here to discuss the murder-suicide of Douma’s parents.
Regarding the violent death of his parents there is the issue of trauma at play. If we consider that from the beginning Douma as a victim of emotional neglect who has difficulty forming bonds and attachments it’s not wholly unsurprising that he reacted to his parents’ murder-suicide the way that he did. I think that his response was also a coping mechanism. Rather than process what was a horrific event for anyone, particularly a child, he focused on one part: the blood everywhere. It might appear that he was already a complete sociopath at this point but I don’t think that is the case.
For a child with a reduced capacity to experience the spectrum of human emotions this could have been the moment for him in which that proverbial damn erupted. At that point (he appeared to be 10-12 years old when it happened) he is so entrenched in maintaining the facade of the happy, sensitive Founder and so identified with the idea that he was different and that he couldn’t feel like other people that deviating from that perception of himself was something he was unwilling to do. Change is frightening on any level but especially something as significant as allowing himself the luxury of grief and genuine sadness. While that facet of the human experience was something that he desperately craved, what would having emotions really mean? Would it hurt? In this situation, most definitely. Experiencing this moment in its fullest would be daunting to a child unfamiliar with even strong positive emotions. Why would he open himself up to such pain? Rather than experience the myriad of emotions: sorrow, anger, regret, loneliness all that blood only reinforced the emotional wall in his path.
I’ve seen others take Douma’s seeming indifference towards the death of his parents as evidence that he is a psychopath. This is largely influenced, in my opinion, by media portrayals and perceptions of psychopathy/sociopathy rather than what it is clinically speaking: Antisocial Personality Disorder. Psychopathy isn’t an official diagnosis but is typically associated with APD. I would like to dispel this assumption by examining what the qualities necessary for such a label per the DSM-V: (1) Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors, as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest, (2) Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure, (3) Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead, (4) Irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assault, (5) Reckless disregard for safety of self or others, (6) Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations, (7) Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another. Now for diagnostic purposes a person must demonstrate at least 3 of these since age 15 and have evidence of conduct disorder prior to age 15 (and a few other criteria not important to this discussion).
Out immediately are 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6 especially prior to becoming a demon. He is a well-behaved child, a kind child even. He believes himself having been born to help others. Even though he thinks the cultist to be dim and foolish he isn’t cruel about it. He merely continues to lead as is expected of him, growing more jaded as the years go on. And in his position, who wouldn’t? He is a quiet observer (no more impulsive than the average child).
Looking at (2) with deceitfulness the difference between the deceitful behavior (faking emotional responses, purporting cult beliefs and benefits, etc) I argue that while he certainly obtains personal profit/pleasure I don’t believe that his goal is to obtain those things. Since he was born I’m sure that the cult showered him with gifts, monetary donations, services, etc. He doesn’t continue to be deceitful for the purpose of gain at this point in his life—it’s simply all he has known and it is what is safe for him. We know that later he uses the cult to gain strength as a demon by culling the numbers and consuming them. However, I think things get cloudy when we consider this because what demon wouldn’t do the same? They are no longer human so I don’t know that we can apply a human diagnostic label to him due to this. I don’t believe that he is maliciously manipulative in the way that many assume. Does he manipulate and deceive? Absolutely. However it has more to do with maintaining his own status and public perception than it does gaining something, material or otherwise, from his followers. This still ties into using the cult as fodder when he is a demon, but again, any demon would do the same. If we are going to say that Douma is a psychopath based on this, then ALL demons must be psychopaths. If all demons are psychopaths then Douma is not chief among them in this regard.
Then we have (7): lack of remorse. This is characterized by indifference or rationalization for hurting/mistreating/stealing from others. Usually the rationalization is superficial: “losers deserve to lose”, “he had it coming anyway”, etc. If we consider his actions as a demon which are undeniably reprehensible, yes he lacks remorse. The vast majority of demons do; they have to eat. In my opinion this is the strongest case for him as a sociopath however, this is only one trait and someone requires three to actually be considered to be considered for an antisocial diagnosis. His rationalization is likely something along these lines: “humans are so stupid and pitiful, they’re going to die eventually anyway. They believe in Paradise/Heaven/etc and want to go so I’ll just give them what they want sooner rather than later.” In his own twisted way Douma may believe that he is helping people and that eating his followers is altruistic. He even refers to this: “It must be difficult to be so dumb. I wanted to make the pitiful people happy and help them.” If he lives forever, then surely the people he eats will live on inside him in “Paradise”. We know this is blatantly wrong and not the case whatsoever but that doesn’t make the delusion any less real for him. It’s also one h e maintained for decades and that is something not easily undone.
I mentioned previously that evidence of conduct disorder as a child is part of the criteria for antisocial personality disorder. If we assume what has been purported thus far about Douma’s behavior as a child, he does not demonstrate this evidence. For conduct disorder at least 3 of the 15 following are required: (1) Often bullies, threatens, or intimidates others; (2) often initiates physical fights; (3) has used a weapon that can cause serious physical harm to others; (4) has been physically cruel to people; (5) has been physically cruel to animals; (6) has stolen while confronting a victim; (7) has forced someone into sexual activity; (8) has deliberately engaged in fire setting with the intention of causing serious damage; (9) has deliberately destroyed others’ property (other than by fire setting); (10) has broken into someone else’s house, building, or car; (11) often lies to obtain goods or favors or to avoid obligations (i.e., “cons” others); (12) has stolen items of nontrivial value without confronting a victim; (13) often stays out at night despite parental prohibitions beginning before age 13; (14) has often run away from home overnight at least twice while living in the parental or parental surrogate home, or once without returning for a lengthy period; and (15) is often truant from school, beginning before age 13. I have trouble imagining Douma presenting with just one of these, much less three.
Something to emphasize as well is that not all psychopaths are violent. The violent ones merely receive the most media attention and that shapes the collective perception of what a psychopath is: the Jeffery Dahmers, the Ted Bundys, the Aileen Wuornoses. But even if we separate Douma’s violent behavior from the rest of him, he qualifies as a psychopath even less. It’s appropriate, I think, to separate that because we don’t see evidence that he was ever violent as a human, it is purely a factor of his nature as a demon.
Returning to his life following the death of his parents and the stages of development: at this point we can assume Douma no longer is so strictly monitored by his father and mother in terms of appropriate behavior for the Founder and is free to explore a little more of his identity. Identity is precisely what the next stage addresses: identity v. confusion. This psychological stage occurs during adolescence and plays an essential role in developing a sense of personal identity which will continue to influence behavior and development for the rest of a person’s life. Success leads to the ability to stay true to oneself while failure results in role confusion and a weak sense of self. Douma outwardly maintains a strong sense of self: he is the Founder. However, I think that his internal dialogue is much less secure. After all he is only the Founder because his father and “the gods’’ deemed it so. I imagine he felt like a fraud, knowing that he has never heard any gods but, again, this life is all that he has known and it is safe for him. Why deviate from something safe even if it causes internal conflict? Just as Douma is always searching for experiences to facilitate genuine emotional responses, I think he is also searching for his real identity and that is something he continues to do until his death. Is leading this cult really all there is? What’s the point? Who am I really? Am I willing to do what it takes to answer these questions? Is being the Founder and playing that role enough?
In the second fanbook released a few months ago we learned a few snippets about Douma that I think warrant examination. We learn that he enjoyed drinking sake, dancing, and “playing at” love. We see this emerging hedonism. After all, if he’s been pampered by the cult up until his adolescence of course he would continue to indulge. Again, seeking an experience or a connection with another person that will get him to experience the full spectrum of human emotion. I’m sure he had fun and was content in the most superficial of ways in the moment. What about joy? Hope? Love? Those are consistently out of his reach. His identity in this period appears to be that of a playboy and it’s entirely superficial. Instead of genuine identity, he relies on this substitute for the time being. Being so pretending and wearing all these different “masks” play a role in identity confusion as well.
We know that Douma was 20 years old when he met Muzan and turned. We don’t know how much agency Douma had in the decision to receive Muzan’s blood; was it offered to him or did Muzan merely turn him? Any motivations in this decision are speculation at best. If it was his choice to turn, it can be viewed from the lens of being another attempt to feel something genuine. Douma may have decided at that moment that if he hadn’t felt as a human his whole life maybe he wasn’t meant to remain one. Or it could have been as simple as agreeing to live forever and continue on with his hedonistic ways. What is pivotal in his turning is Muzan’s telepathy. Having been told his entire life that the gods speak to him and never once experiencing it, Douma’s world is undoubtedly changed. Muzan can be heard in his mind just as he was told the gods should be able to. Therefore, Muzan must be a god. The databook also mentioned that Douma made Muzan the god of Eternal Paradise and this makes sense in context of these assumptions.
From this point Douma finds himself a newly turned demon in stage 6 of development: intimacy v. isolation. While among his cult he is not isolated in a physical sense but at no point does he form intimate, loving relationships with other people. Thus he never develops the ability to form lasting, meaningful relationships with others, platonic or otherwise. Given that he has failed many stages previously and that the psychosocial skills build on one another AND his reduced emotional capacity this is not unsurprising. Stage 7 is tricky as it addresses generativity v. stagnation. Given his immortality the need to create or nurture things that will outlast him isn’t particularly strong. Any desire to maybe have children is more likely to be rooted in the ongoing search for emotions—if physical intimacy (sex) doesn’t bring him emotional attachments then maybe fathering a child would—rather than the desire to establish a legacy. We see what might be an attempt with Inosuke and his mother, Kotoha. His reasons for keeping her alive and wanting to do so until she died a natural death—that she was pretty and had a nice singing voice—are shallow but appropriate for Douma at this point. Maybe he hoped that she would grow to love him or vice versa or that he would be a new father figure for Inosuke. We don’t get to see what might have been but it’s interesting to think about. He doesn’t find intimacy and is thus left isolated. When she discovers what he is and witnesses him feeding, Douma makes an effort to explain himself. He didn’t need to explain himself, he could have merely killed her then and there but some part of him hoped she would understand and stay. He wanted to fix the relationship they’d built and why else but for seeking out intimacy?
Even among his fellow kizuki his relationships are disingenuous, his own difficulty with emotions preventing himself from connecting as well as making others perceive him as being insincere. Douma ultimately stagnates at this stage, as the last stage (integrity v. despair) addresses reflecting on one’s life in old age. Being immortal, he doesn’t arrive at this point.
By this point I’ve mentioned attachments quite a bit. Muzan believed that humans without strong attachments could not become truly powerful demons and yet Douma seems to be the one outlier. While he lacks attachments to people (humans or demons), I do think he has one very strong attachment and that is in his desire to feel. Behaviorally speaking every action has a purpose to meet some need whether that is a physical, emotional, spiritual, etc. need. Throughout Douma’s life he has sought out that missing key that would allow him to feel just like everyone else: through his actions as the Founder, through hedonistic delights, through becoming a demon, and so on. He’s attached to the idea of being human. Not in the sense of wanting to return to a mortal state but to have the one thing that he has never been able to attain in his life.
We’re quickly approaching the critical point in Douma’s life: meeting Shinobu Kocho and his subsequent death. As a side note I do want to address the notion that Douma is misogynistic. People often assume this because of his preference for devouring women. However, this preference is not rooted in any hatred or bias against women, that he is eating them to cause them pain or enact some kind of vengeance or cruelty. Douma actually appears to be non-sadistic in general. He doesn’t get pleasure from the pain of others (unlike Enmu, for example, who discussed relishing in torturing humans) and offers to give Shinobu a quick death rather than prolong it. His preference to eat women comes from a far more practical standpoint: he believes that women are more nutritious because of their ability to grow, nurture, and birth babies. If anything, twisted as it may be, he seems to hold women in higher esteem than males. When people refer to Douma as being misogynistic the comparison that is usually made is with Akaza’s staunch refusal to eat or kill women, saying that the latter is a feminist because of this. While Akaza’s refusal to consume or harm women may be rooted in his love for his fiancee in his human life, it can also be perceived that he believes women to be the weaker sex and unworthy to be fought. His behavior is based in sexist beliefs whereas Douma’s is purely based in a preference for a particular food—he would rather have filet mignon than ground chuck.
It’s amusing that among his own ranks Douma is so vehemently disliked by everyone except Gyokko. He is also the only Upper Moon we see depicted in Gotouge’s simplified comedic style like many of the human protagonists. More than just making him a bit of comedic relief for the Kizuki, it lends to the idea of just how skilled he is in imitating the expressions and mannerisms of humans.
Though he wasn’t aware of it until their battle, Douma has been the focus on Shinobu Kocho’s quest for revenge in the slaying of her sister, Kanae Kocho by Douma. Throughout the manga we see both dialogue and artistic parallels between the characters. They also fight similarly with pleasant speech and smiles but underneath they are each cold and calculating.
They are specifically designed to be foils. Douma’s story is a quest for his humanity and to feel; Shinobu’s is a quest for revenge and arguably the loss of her humanity. Douma may be the literal monster but it’s arguable that Shinobu herself becomes one in the end in her desperation for revenge even to sacrifice herself to do it. Douma is poisoned by her wisteria, Shinobu is poisoned by her own hate and grief. The important point is that Shinobu, through all her rage, did what no one in at least 100 years had done: she made Douma feel something. Even in his dying moment he felt nothing: no regret for having lost, no feeling foolish for having been tricked. It is only when he is quite literally dead just before going to hell that he finally allows himself to feel. He likens this feeling to love, though it certainly reads as a schoolboy crush. It’s fitting that it would, given he’s never experienced these feelings before and, much like a child, he must navigate them. Douma and Shinobu are perfect foils for each other and are masterfully played against one another.
While certainly not at peace, Douma does finally find what he was searching for.
I’m Robert Hewitt Wolfe, writer of things like #Elementary #StarTrek #DS9 #Andromeda, etc etc, and author of the BILLY SMITH AND THE GOBLINS books.
I may end up moving here from Twitter if Grimes’ Baby Daddy lets the Orange Menace back onto Twitter. Because eff that noise. I’m not providing content to support that nonsense.
If you have questions about #TVWriting #NovelWriting or any of that kind of thing, feel free to ask and I’ll answer (assuming that’s even a thing on Tumblr).
I also talk about geek culture in general. Comic books, TTRPGs, all that kind of thing.
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Drove by a place we misread as Himmelsleiche - “Heaven’s Corpse” and was struck by inspiration.
[ID: A sketchy digital painting of a mountainous landscape in muted blues and gold. In the middle of the scenery lays a bloody mess of disjointed white wings and golden rings with eyes on them, reminiscent of biblical angels. Some of the rings are broken and one wing is unfolded towards the sky, crooked and missing feathers. The angel is the size of mountains. The rising sun in the background frames the angel like a halo.]
a pervasive and frankly borderline toxic issue in fandom these days is how popular headcanons are elevated to the status of being irrefutable canon and so insanely clung to and that when they are challenged, majority of fandom lose their damn minds and forget they was the ones to make the shit up in the first place
