Unrelated, I did a re-read, and I realized that White Chain is basically the only one of the three that’s consistently drawn as “beautiful” (when out of her stone armor). Even when she gets angry (“SUBMIT!”) she becomes more statuesque than ugly.
Allison can pull some super-derpy/ugly faces (and I love her being drawn like that), Cio tends to be abruptly monstrous or weird or sexy, but White Chain is rendered by and large in a way that’s very pretty/beautiful, and that even continues if you look at Aspected Chaos’ design…it’s a lot further along on the “conventionally pretty” spectrum than Allison and Cio usually are.
I think this is really cool, that there’s something so subtle reinforcing that she’s an angel.
I love the New Coke inspiration for Nukoku’s name.
Musings…
I was thinking before that “eyes opening” was a theme, as it certainly was for White Chain, but if you put the three next to each other now, White Chain’s eyes have opened, Allison has one open and one closed, and Cio/Nukoku has hers closed. So I wonder if Nukoku might “stay” with her eyes obscured/gone to keep up an underlying theme that they are three possibilities along a spectrum.
It is interesting that Nukoku is so focused on small, quiet things, as that is the opposite of what you’d think devils would want. The opposite of greed and consumption. It’s also the opposite of White Chain’s arc, where White Chain is becoming a ruler (as far as we can tell so far), when for so long she was the one taking orders, not giving them.
I think more evidence is piling up that devils/angels become more powerful when they adopt a bit of their opposite counterpart. White Chain, originally of the cold white flame, now has a human body which is the warm black flame, and is a Demiurge. And Nukoku, the hot black flame, rejects who she was when she was a demiurge, and has enough order to her now that she could come back without an intact mask–she might have taken this increase in orderliness from White Chain while they were merged (along with Allison) as Aspected Chaos.
(My theory before is that Metatron is so powerful because his insanity is chaotic and basically brings devil-like chaos/creativity to him, while Himself has bound himself up with laws and order, normally an angel thing. So White Chain and Nukoku are paralleling this, just in a somewhat different way.)
You could also take “Reborn Sin Against Heaven” as an angel-style name…which is quite odd, and interesting, for a devil. Also, if “reach heaven through violence” is a thing, would “Reborn Sin Against Heaven” be reaching heaven without violence?
The jury’s still out, however, if Nukoku’s pink blood has anything to do with Incubus. We might still see Nukoku do a final transformation. Although, I think White Chain and Allison might also get another transformation before the book is done, too, as their arcs also aren’t complete.
Edit: Someone on the main website suggested Nukoku might actually bear Incubus’ key after Maya was done taking him apart. Which…would make a lot of sense? If White Chain can “redeem” Solomon David’s key of diamond/pride, then maybe Nukoku can turn Incubus’ key into something softer, like love. I’d kind of really want a flashback though of seeing all that go down.
Someone on the official site mentioned that pink might associate this Cio with Incubus.
I think that’s very possible. It would be very like Incubus to take advantage of someone’s Want when they are powerless, and Allison left the pieces of Cio’s mask right there with him. And it would be very “Incubus” like (in the more general use of the term–demonic lover that comes to you in dreams) to use someone’s lover as a weapon against them.
Also, demons don’t die like humans do, they are “banished to the void”. Only humans are true mortals.
Cio’s design here is a bit similar to the very first White Chain design, in that her helm covers/closes both her eyes. Given how symbolic that was for White Chain, and that White Chain’s eyes opened as her mind opened up, it’s also likely symbolic here
Cio’s design also, like White Chain’s, has a design on the forehead that could hold a stone. Granted, she had one before, an ordinary one–but I wonder if she might end up getting Gog’s. That would make both White Chain and Cio hold the keys that are possibly closest to their natures as angel and devil…or at least, opposites to one another
Cio’s design here is like a preying mantis, and as we know, they eat their mates
Cio’s teeth here are more purple than blue, as if they’re chips of ebon devil
Someone elsewhere pointed out that Cio’s teeth (in both mouths) are blue, and that she might actually be asking Gog for a shard of her mask that’s hiding on Gog’s person, not a worm.
But Cio is clearly struggling to form words, so I imagine Allison thinks she is asking for a worm (and she might be doing that too, or there might be no blue shard on Gog at all).
Thus, Allison might take a worm just to save Cio from it, and that’s how Allison gets wormed.
(Which, of course, also brings up the complicated question–if Cio IS asking for a worm, who is Allison to disrespect Cio’s wishes…again…?)
Anyway. If Gog Agog was smart, she’d work with Allison without worming her. Because given Allison is prone to doing things she shouldn’t be able to do, I would imagine it’s a possibility that if Allison gets access to the worm-mind, SHE will take over Gog Agog, and not the other way around.
Regarding the White Chain scene, the editor in me wants to edit a bit of Abbadon’s dialogue to make it flow better. In particular, the panel where Solomon David says, “Breathe, and you shall know it” and the one with White Chain’s, “This body…I yearned for it”. The dialogue between the two doesn’t flow properly, it’s a bit fumbly-awkward. I would’ve said the same thing in a different way. Probably would have put a pause on WC’s face and had her say pensively, “I yearned for this body.” The current usage of “it” by both of them doesn’t sound right and doesn’t evoke any sort of rhyme or rhythm as purposeful repetition sometimes does either, which is why I think it’s an unthinking error.
I admit, I wasn’t expecting to learn White Chain’s “age”. But having an effective span of 35 years for this incarnation…explains a LOT. (Do angels reincarnate as…adults, mentally? Or do they go through a baby-esque phase? DO THEY START AS CHERUBS?)
We have never seen White Chain’s wing-eyes with red irises before, have we? They’ve always been blue with some red, but never fully red. Even earlier ( this page: killsixbilliondemons.com/…/wheel-smashing-lord-3-… ) they are blue with slim red rims. Now they’re fully red.
I had a thought, related to me thinking over the creature-that-is-probably-Cio shown a few pages back following Allison.
In the drinking song segment, we see actual pale devils actually have white masks.
This devil has no mask at all. Suggesting that she keeps herself together without a mask. Is she some inverse of an unbound ebon devil? An unbound pale/pure white/etc. devil? A completely new thing?
If White Chain became a human angel, why couldn’t Cio become a devil that can keep herself together, and the tiny shard of blue mask perhaps only offers memories she can view from an external viewpoint now, and pick through more logically in order to build the life she wants to build from all her experience? Has Cio also picked up some shred of humanity–but the less chaotic, more orderly parts?
spoiler::: I’m surprised that on the website/twitter, nobody is predicting that Cio might be the one Gog is talking about. We already know she’s in this location with Allison and Gog per killsixbilliondemons.com/…/wheel-smashing-lord-3-…And Cio, like White Chain, has been around for a very long time simply by virtue of being a devil. If the high-level angels are aware the universe is being reset by Zoss, surely devils are. Perhaps Cio played a big part long ago? Also, White Chain has been going through her arc of growth, but Cio has not completed hers. I wonder if White Chain’s arc is something like learning how to change. Whereas Cio’s is…learning how to make something positive that sticks around. She built an empire on the backs of blood and tears and slaves. What if she could build a different sort of empire, one that embodies the ideals she’s hoping Allison will deliver to her? Also, I think it’s still possible that my theory about the highest-tier angels and devils being a bit of yin/yang is relevant. White with a dot of black, black with a dot of white. Angels can only speak truth, right? So they’re not “naturals” at the red art of lying? But are great at martial arts and self-discipline? So what about crazy-pants Metatron? Who speaks, thinking he’s 100% truthful, and thus manifests the most powerful red art of lying of all? If an ANGEL is utterly convinced something is True, will it not come into being even if it’s an utter lie? And what about Himself, who seems voluntarily bound up in laws and rules and contracts to keep the devil chaos at bay? Why is the biggest agent of chaos totally into contracts and laws and order? There must be a benefit to it, right? I think the ending of Cio’s arc will have to do with her deciding to Be something that isn’t chaos, that isn’t Yab–and stick with it instead of changing form or running from it or looking for a hero to save her. So we’ll have White Chain with a bit of disorderly Change in her, and Cio with a bit of Order in her, and Allison being Allison to pull it all together. Or, I wonder if Cio being a “fanfic writer” will give some insight into Metatron, who is basically Yisun’s fanfic writer. Which might suggest White Chain could give insight into Himself. I don’t know if any of this will play out exactly like this, but the themes I’m seeing in the comic suggest at the very least these things are being played around with by Abbadon.
killsixbilliondemons.com
Hot