My Analysis - Blog Posts

Sakuma telling Kidou he has better freedom as a part of Raimon and that he knows just by looking at Kidou can be a throwback of Sakuma's lines in Shin Teikoku arc. Sakuma said that "he can't see Kidou's world," but in the ending, it became "I've opened my eyes". Sakuma is the one to reassure Kidou in episode 56, as at that point Sakuma is able to look at Kidou with a clear vision.....

in middle of writing my analysis post, it's gonna be pretty long because i want to tackle as many topics in my to-do as i could in a single post than making short post for each. but honestly the reason why am i not finishing it sooner is because i'm not feeling well lmaooo

currently i'm thinking that sakuma is kind of an unreliable narrator in terms of his insecurity towards kidou. episode 38 and everyday frame it as him feeling like he's not as good as kidou is because sakuma himself mistook it as such. he thought that what he's insecure of is his own ability when it's actually of his place as kidou's friend

but it becomes double unreliable narrator in shin teikoku arc as yes, sakuma's (and genda + fudou but this is not about them) judgement is clouded by meteorite brainwashing but because the emotion he displays is very raw it reveals his Real feelings at the same time. "i can't see your world" = i can't understand you As A Person

even then "sakuma is jealous of kidou's abilities" isn't inherently wrong because he is.. because sakuma's insecurity is deep rooted that he feels bad about every single thing at once, and in ares' timeline where shin teikoku arc doesn't happen you can watch sakuma being left in his issues for a year

People either love or hate adult fei and like, i get both points? In my opinion they nailed the shape (it’s camp) but i also guess that they messed up his palette because fei is supposed to have strong yellow and orange palette in both skin and outfits so he looks off as an adult. because grayish outfit and pink skin are Not what he’s supposed to be. Most of Fei’s outfits are orange or if he’s not it’s the vibrant GO raimon blue

heyyyyyy there do u maybe wanna share more thoughts on butch lesbian kirino? im very intrigued 👀

This is based on projection of my own experience of identifying as MLM trans guy to nonbinary butch lesbian so I headcanon Kirino to go thru the same pipeline, hahah. Though different to my labels, I headcanon that Kirino is both transmasc and butch lesbian.

The idea came from how Kirino keeps his pigtails despite not liking being mistaken as a girl, so I headcanon that he has a complex relationship with masculinity, hence his complicated gender journey where he mistook his masculinity as being a binary man, but in reality it's entirely outside of the conventional idea of gender (being butch)

Other than his refusal to let go of his pigtails, my main idea of the headcanon is the way he finds kinship in Joan of Arc who during her entire life was demonized for not conforming to gender roles, leading to her death. And Kirino's Joan of Arc theming doesn't end in his mixi-max but it extends to his keshin sharing the same traits as Joan's (banner bearing / raising morals of other fellow members)

I also found Kirino's development to embrace his calling as a defender and to support Shindou and other members similar to butches in history where they took the role of supporting and protecting other members of the LGBTQ community in past, too

i feel like lot of things people easily miss or fail to do when analyzing ina11 characters is nuance or "these conflicting traits can coexist in the same character" and from observation it often happens due to projecting or biased view..

at which shindou is the main victim of this treatment because everyone remembers his weaker moments when he isn't thinking straight but rarely his kind actions and thoughts (which there are so many)... leading to the amount of mean shindou jokes which immensely pisses me off. if i were to sum it up, shindou is mostly strict when it comes to serious events where things are at stake because it's his role to keep things under control, otherwise he's very gentle to people. strict shindou and nice shindou are two traits of his that coexist, and so is shindou who is taken by his emotions because he feels strongly especially for people he cares for

there's also how kazemaru's breakdown is the part people remember about him but rarely his s1 focus and episode 94... understandably these scenes are the ones that leave impression in people but ina11 (OG and GO specifically) is a series that did a good job giving depth to the characters in off match scenes and more sublte interactions and i wish people take time in thinking about them too

i'm guessing i'm one who takes more time in the off match scenes because i came from slice of life genre and my favorite episode is episode 56 that flies under people's radar when it's very important in the kidou arc. people (and areori writers) forgot that kidou is supposed to stay at raimon for temporary time and S1 ended at him being Interested towards raimon at most instead of being Attached. he just stayed with them in early S2 because the schools are being destroyed and he only decided to stay after sakuma's encouragement

in middle of writing my analysis post, it's gonna be pretty long because i want to tackle as many topics in my to-do as i could in a single post than making short post for each. but honestly the reason why am i not finishing it sooner is because i'm not feeling well lmaooo

currently i'm thinking that sakuma is kind of an unreliable narrator in terms of his insecurity towards kidou. episode 38 and everyday frame it as him feeling like he's not as good as kidou is because sakuma himself mistook it as such. he thought that what he's insecure of is his own ability when it's actually of his place as kidou's friend

but it becomes double unreliable narrator in shin teikoku arc as yes, sakuma's (and genda + fudou but this is not about them) judgement is clouded by meteorite brainwashing but because the emotion he displays is very raw it reveals his Real feelings at the same time. "i can't see your world" = i can't understand you As A Person

even then "sakuma is jealous of kidou's abilities" isn't inherently wrong because he is.. because sakuma's insecurity is deep rooted that he feels bad about every single thing at once, and in ares' timeline where shin teikoku arc doesn't happen you can watch sakuma being left in his issues for a year

I always have been associating Kidou and Sakuma with eyes motifs but I was reminded of an interview saying that Fudou's eyes are expressive, so maybe eyes is a Penguin Trio and Teikoku thing? probably. But yes you can watch in the anime that Fudou's emotions are stored in his eyes.

And I'm very glad they still keep it in GO movie!! I had a discussion with @pinyacoladas about his eyes and if one looks closely they're drawn differently that when he was younger to make him less freaky.

GO!Fudou have longer, more oval shaped irises and his eyeliner game isn't as strong as baby Fudou's (as in the lineart for his eyes are thinner than young Fudou's are)

My guess on why are Fudou's eyes so expressive? From shape psychology theory perspective is:

Fudou's eye shape and eyebrows are triangle-like. In shape theory triangles symbolize movement, motion, and energy compared to rectangle and circle. His eyebrows are short and thin making them easy to notice even on GO!Fudou when he has full bangs. For see more closely one can watch the clip above and compare Fudou and Kazemaru's eyes as Kazemaru has round eyes and longer eyebrows

Fudou's design change in GO with longer iris and thinner lineart softens his expressions. I'm guessing this has to do with the smaller negative space it creates too but I don't have enough knowledge on it atm. He still does the shrinking iris thing as an adult though lol (on clip)

Not the same expression but the eyes are drawn in the same manner

Kisaku for my bi-monthly ship art quota. I wanted to draw another piece to be posted together but I've been physically burnt out lately so I made a no Kidou goggles file instead. Heh

This doubles as a character analysis art so I will write down my thought process under a read more. It's very christian so if you're not comfortable it's okay to not read it

I had been having the idea of making a Kisaku art with christian imaginery since early January, but I only managed to sketch a good composition for it last week.

This art is based on a post-Shin Teikoku arc scene that's also one that's very memorable for me. Like, it's just a very tender and profound one, especially when one can see Kidou's hand holding Sakuma's tighter after Sakuma told him he can't shake his hand. I also referenced the scene when Sakuma faints right before the match end whistle.

Another thought that inspired this was the christian concept of being saved from sin and its consenquences by Jesus' death and resurrection (salvation); which is pretty much what happened to Sakuma in this arc. Sakuma fell to the temptation of the aliea meteorite (sin), but it's Kidou's love that saved him from destroying himself physically and mentally (salvation).

An interesting part from Shin Teikoku arc was that while it ends with Sakuma and Genda being saved, Kidou came out becoming even more traumatized especially after seeing what happened to his friends and hearing Kageyama's words. And that's without mentioning that he also witnesses Someoka's sacrifice.

Kidou and Sakuma are two people who feel deeply yet tenderly for each other so I wanted it to show in the colors and rendering. I used colors that could remind someone of the dawn. I wanted to color in low contrast but the initial palette hurt my eyes (physically) so I ended up opting with shading with only highlight, with the soft light peeking through behind the pair. Subtlety was all I was aiming, so I tried to draw Kidou's expression that could express it too.

The text on the background is,

What is Salvation? Salvation is... to be saved from sin, and its consenquences from death, and eternal separation by your cross.

The text was thought and written by stream of consciousness, unlike the drawing where I worked on it precisely unlike my usual drawing style. Initially I wrote it by hand to see where should I type the text but I found that handwriting conveys the emotions in a rawer form so I went with it.

I also free style-ed the text's content because NGL, scrolling through christian articles and wikipedia pages gave me religious trauma based anxiety so I let my instinct and write whatever came to mind.

I was torn between "crucifix" and "cross" as I wanted a word to replace "love and suffering". I went with "cross" because crucifix is used to specifically refer to the cross Jesus was crucified on and the portrayal of it. For people, the word used is "cross" (referring to the christian concept of carrying one's cross). Kidou is very much associated with pedestalism, even Kageyama saw him in an idealized manner of a perfect creation to bring him back to his childhood. But despite everything Kidou is only human, and he's as sinful everyone else.

I had so much fun working with this piece, and I think I'm more satisified than I was with my previous character analysis art. I hope I could do more of this type of works in future.

Very cute observation I've gotten is how physically affectionate Sakuma is with Kidou and Kidou not minding it because, Sakuma isn't as overly affectionate with the others.

Sakuma cares for the other members and is on friendly terms with them, but he's more lowkey displaying his affection than he does with Kidou.

Episode 94, after Endou gives a speech to the team after he and penguin trio were away and Inazuma Japan lost their match against Argentina's team.

Episode 96, everyone is raising their hand as they're sending Kurimatsu away. You can look closely that Sakuma isn't raising his hand and is doing the same crossed arms pose Fudou does.

As for Kidou, Everyday hints that he doesn't really like to be touched with him frowning whenever he is tapped by the player (Clip 1) (Clip 2) (It's so funny because everyone else smiles when tapped). While it is possible that he grows to become more accustomed to it, he's still awkward especially with sudden contact, lol

Going back to the first pictures I've shown, this is really one of my favorite Kisaku official arts... it's very sweet when one thinks about Sakuma's body language, he's hunching to Kidou's level as he's considerably taller than him, aww

Adding to this post with my analysis of the emotional implications of this scene because it gets even crazier when one tries to visualize from Kidou's POV

You can see that Kidou was standing behind Sakuma in the initial composition of the scene's frame. It then switches to Sakuma's close up, which is more or less should be similar to what Kidou's point of view. So what possibly could be going on in Kidou's mind when it happened?

The close up of Sakuma's face ends when he fully turns his head, revealing the eye that's normally covered by his eyepatch and the disheveled hair his Shin Teikoku arc design has.

As one can see on the first post, looking closely Sakuma was drawn in a way that makes him look like his original design with the pulled forward hair and the eyepatch covered right eye, it was what Kidou saw!

What Kidou (and the viewers) initially saw was the Sakuma he knew, the one who played soccer together with him, the Sakuma who is his best friend. But something about it is uncanny, until Sakuma's entire face was shown and it was Shin Teikoku Sakuma that Kidou was seeing. It wasn't the Sakuma Kidou knew.

Even if their scope of love in their writings are different (Sakuma loves Kidou, while Kidou loves EVERYONE including Sakuma) Sakuma and Kidou care deeply towards each other. And it was Kageyama's actual purpose in the arc, to not win the match but rather to inflict as much trauma he could on Kidou by manipulating and hurting (mentally and physically) his best friends against him.

Shin Teikoku arc has really good animation and storyboarding in general; this particular scene has cleverly drawn frames where Sakuma's hair was positioned to look like how he normally looks until he fully turns at Kidou and you can see the the black eye

I don't have frames that are of 1:1 comparison but I hope you get the gist

Shin Teikoku Sakuma piece from 2024 when I was trying to analyze Sakuma's feelings in the arc (I keep forgetting to repost it outside twitter, oops)

Explanation under read more

The idea for the piece is to convey what Sakuma actually felt in the arc. What the aliea meteorite did was amplifying his negative emotions and converting them to hunger for power. Like how Kazemaru originally only started seeking power in a bout of deteorirating mental health; Sakuma (and Genda) only seeked the meteorite because he felt that Kidou abandoned him / them because they weren't good enough. So the idea here is to convey sorrow.

Unfortunately I'm very bad at writing analysis post in Tumblr's blogpost format as I'm very used to Twitter and Bluesky's thread style of writing; so I perhaps will revisit and rewrite this explanation.

Sakuma with covered eyepatch

Based on this frame from the end of episode 38, after he came to his senses:

The windows

Sakuma is wearing the same patient outfit as he did in episode 37's flashback

The sequence of closing the curtains is to express "closing one's heart off" (accepting the meteorite, going back to Kageyama, cutting ties with Kidou; etc etc anything works LOL). Also a reference to how Fudou entered their hospital room from the window lmao.

The eye

Should be self explanatory. It's also a reference to eye as a common symbolism used in Sakuma's character, which... he has... because Kidou himself has eye motif. gay ass.

I can't help but go HMMMM when it comes to Sephiroth and his goal of merging worlds. It reminds me of Jewish mysticism.

"The tree of life is a map that shows how creativity flows into manifestation, and how infinite possibilities manifest in reality."

GEE I WONDER WHAT THAT MEANS. IT'S NOT LIKE THERE'S MULTIPLE WORLDS HIDDEN INSIDE THE LIFESTREAM.

Wait then that means that Jenova is also in these many worlds and Sephiroth wants to reunite the worlds to make everything whole again.

If you defeat Jenova in one world, your not permanently getting rid of her cause her essence is scattered in the many worlds of the lifestream

Jenova is the corruption, but wait, if Sephiroth reunites all the world's, then that means that Jenova would be fully whole, and we get the chance to stop her once and for all.

But this obviously has to require some sort of huge sacrifice to do so.

Gee I wonder who is strong enough to take on a fully whole Jenova (if he gets a redemption of some sort)...

Hmmmm....

Interesting 😈

FF7 Rebirth Theories (that I have and like to scream about)

Here are some of my theories of what I think is going on in this game and what it means for the FF7 franchise moving forwards.

-The Lifestream is a river of souls, emotions and memories, yet sometimes these threads branch off and create new alternative universes/timelines, like light shining through a prism. Think of the lifestream and its different worlds as the roots of a tree.

-Like how the lifestream connects all lives and how it represents the cycle of life and death, so does the tree of life in various mythologies.

-Now that I look closely at Rebirth's ending I think Aerith is both alive and dead. She's entangled with the physical world and the spiritual world (Lifestream) and can hop between them at will.

-Which is why Cloud and Sephiroth see her as alive, but to the rest of the party, she's dead. She's in a fluctuation of states due to her ancient abilities and uses this to her advantage. (Schrodinger's Aerith lmfao)

-I dunno but I still think there's two Sephiroth's. The evil one who wants to merge all the worlds, become a god, and rule the planet alongside Jenova, and the one from the original OG timeline who's trying to stop this from happening and the one who shows Cloud the multiverses in the first place

-Cloud is slightly aware of what is going on regarding the different worlds/timelines, but the dude has to regain his true self first

I recently noticed that Sephiroth's personality in the OG is extremely self-centered and that Aerith says that Sephiroth only cares about the planet and himself during her monolog in Chapter 18 of the Remake.

Sephiroth's goal in the OG FF7 was to absorb all the lifestream in order to become a god. He sees himself on a higher level than the rest of humanity. So the dude has a bit of a god complex.

I've also noticed that Sephiroth is technically like a reverse version of Jesus, and this only fuels his god complex even more. Many of Sephiroth's story beats mirror that of Jesus and his supposed miracles as told in the Bible.

Not to mention that in Advent Children,Sephiroth coming back for a second time mirrors that of the second coming of christ.

Jesus sacrificed his life so that all of humanity gets to go to heaven

Sephiroth sacrifices all of humanity so that he can ascend to heaven.

Religious parallels aside, I think it's pretty interesting that Sephiroth acts as some twisted kind of savior in the FF7 universe. But there's one question that's been lingering on my mind that I hope Rebirth can answer. Like how Jesus sacrificed his life, how would Sephiroth sacrifice his

FF7R Mini Theory: Hollow and the Sefirot

So I've been noticing something regarding Hollow and the Kabbalah (it's way too complicated to explain here, but it's basically just Jewish mystism). Anyways, in the Kabbalah, there are these divine attributes called the sefirot from which God would reveal himself. It's also very important because this is where Sephiroth got his name from.

There's also the polar opposite of the sefirot, the qliphoth. The qlipoth that protects the sefirot much like how a peel protects a fruit. The qlipoth are also known to be called "empty shells/husks"

It's like there... hollow inside. Just like Cloud Strife himself

So without these sefirot (divine attributes) that manifest in the physical and spiritual realms, the universe will basically descend into chaos, which is the last thing we want. Cloud and Sephiroth during the edge of creation scene represent the universes of creation (Cloud) and death (Sephiroth), yin and yang,

The Qliphoth and the holy Sefirot

Well...without the sefirot, what will the qlipoth's purpose be? They are now empty, hollow shells, kinda like how Cloud's mind is shattered and how he wants to be whole again, yet he needs to regain his true self in order to do so. The sefirot makes the qlipoth complete, just like how Cloud becomes complete with Sephiroth.

I noticed something in the new FF7 Rebirth trailer

Sephiroth reveals the nature of Jenova and her ability but why?

Sephiroth never even revealed Jenova like this in the OG as a part of his plan, so why is he doing this? Isn't revealing her nature the last thing Sephiroth wanted to do?

Here's what I think is happening, Sephiroth is being forced to work against Cloud. He traveled back in time, still tethered to Jenova, hoping to stop her and save the planet from whatever destiny it's tethered to (yet it also has consequences as we see in the alternative timeline)

Sephiroth is doing this of his own will

Yet he's still shackled to Jenova, so he needs Cloud's help in order to break free from her, but Jenova is taking advantage of Cloud's shattered mental state and false persona, so it's like a godly game of tug a war.

I think the Sephiroth who's manipulating Cloud and trying to convince him that Tifa isn't real is the past version of him from the OG, while the real Sephiroth, the one who we've been following all along, is trying to break free from destiny's grasp, stop Jenova and save the planet.

I could be wrong, and this is just a retelling of the OG, but I don't buy that one bit, especially when both the developers and part of the story say otherwise. Anyways, that's what I grabbed from this scene.

I cannot stop thinking about Cloud and Sephiroth jian bird symbolism.

A Jian bird is a mythical bird that possesses only one eye and one wing. We already see this in both Cloud and Sephiroth's Kingdom Hearts designs.

Another thing about Jian birds are that they are two halves of a whole, dark and light, yin and yang.

"These creatures are born imperfect, and they need to lean against each other and act as one in order to be able to fly. Their mutual dependence is eternal, lasting through death and rebirth."

This symbolism just SCREAMS Sefikura to me, like imagine the possibilities this has in store for the FF7R Trilogy.

And you know what they say, without their other half, someone is left feeling empty or should I say...hollow 👀

I just thought of something that many other people forget to point out about FF7R.

Now Cloud at the beginning of FF7R doesn't care about the planet, remember he is hiding behind his 'too cool' persona.

Here is what I realized.

I noticed how Sephiroth says some very cryptic things towards Cloud, so it got me thinking.

What is Sephiroth doing? He is TRYING to make him 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦.

He says things in Cloud's hallucinations like "our beloved planet is dying." and "The bonds that connect us will be no more, and I loathe to live in such a world"

Heck even during the Edge Of Creation scene, he SHOWS Cloud the result of what WOULD happen if the planet did die saying "our world will become a part of it, someday"

He then asks Cloud to help him defy destiny, not only to defy his fate but the fate of the planet as well. SOMETHING is causing the planet to die, and it isn't Shinra cause Aerith said so in one of her speeches.

It's destiny itself that is making the planet die, cause in the OG it WAS Sephiroth and the PATH HE CHOOSE that causes him to try and kill off the planet in the OG. But here's the thing. Sephiroth in the FF7 universe has free will, yet he needs HELP. He wants to break free from destiny's grasp like he's trying to do in the FF7R trilogy.

And so he turns to the one person he knows that can help him, the ONE PERSON who knows him better than anyone else. The ONE PERSON who can help save the world by his side.

That person is Cloud Strife

Sephiroth is trying not only to stop his cruel fate but he's trying to stop himself as well.

So I read a interview with one of the developers that said that the final boss of Sonic Frontiers, The End is meant to represent how one perceives on what death looks like, and how the moon symbolizes death in some forms of fiction. Basically Sonic battled a lovecraftian entity representing a abstract concept none of us can comprehend.

This reminds me of the wasted potential Infinite had. Infinite represented a concept that nobody could comprehend, which is infinity. People not comprehending infinity is one of the main themes in cosmic horror so it would have been cool if the developers inserted that theme into Sonic Forces.

The End 🤝 Infinite

Representing abstract concepts

Screenshots I took of the second Super Mario Bros Movie Trailer.

Have some screenshots with captions because I am so hype for this film.

That's the entire world? I thought it would be a bit more diverse or bigger. Maybe it's just part of the entire world map? Either way the council of Toads are going to decide your fate.

PEACH LOOKS SO BADASS. GOOD CHARICTER ARC RIGHT HERE.

Furries when Bowser appears on screen.

So that's how the pipe system works, it all takes place in the V O I D

Idk who the other Karts belong to but I think they belong to the Kongs. How does Donkey Kong have so many friends? Or maybe they're just random apes he recruited to help Mario and his freinds.

RAINBOW ROAD SHJSJSHSJSJK

That is all I have for now, so hope you guys enjoy.

The Battle of Manhattan didn’t go the way the Fandom thinks it did; we need to address the “massacre” of the Titan Army!

The Battle of Manhattan is the most pivotal event of the first series. And we see the entire thing exclusively from Percy’s point of view. He takes us through the thickest of the fight from one end of Manhattan Island to the next, and shows us a desperate fight of good against evil.

But we have another point of view for the battle, one that comes from the demigods of the Titan army, and one that informs us of a far different, darker side to the conflict. One where an entire army of children is massacred by the victorious Olympians, without a thought or even a care. It’s a shocking, confronting side of the struggle that most fans don’t seem to be aware of. 

But it’s also completely inaccurate. 

Now I love Alabaster; he’s one of my favorite characters, and I want nothing but the best for him. But he’s a demonstrably unreliable narrator. I don’t even mean that he’s intentionally dishonest; but he’s very badly misinformed about what actually happened. And that gives the fandom three major misconceptions that need to be cleared up. 

Alabaster gets the casualty ratio for the battle wrong (the Olympians had more than he thinks).

The Titan army has far fewer demigods than most fans think (not much more than 50 at the most).

Alabaster does say that there was a “massacre” at the end of the battle, but most of the TA demigods had deserted before that!

Part 1) The Olympians Have High Casualties

“It was a massacre. If I remember right, my mother told me that Camp Half-Blood and its allies had sixteen casualties total. We had hundreds.” (pg 219)

This is the only time we get a specific number for Olympian casualties, but it just doesn’t match up with what actually happens in the books. Looking back at all the deaths we do see:

Charlie Beckendorf -1

one [Hellhound] got hold of an Apollo camper and dragged him away. I didn’t see what happened to him next. I didn’t want to know. (pg 182) -1

Michael Yew -1

A young dragon had appeared in Harlem, and a dozen wood nymphs died before the monster was finally defeated. (pg 203) -12

“We lost twenty satyrs against some giants at Fort Washington,” [Grover] said, his voice trembling. (pg 203) -20 Giants smashed through trees, and naiads faded as their life sources were destroyed. (pg 243) -1< Enemy archers returned fire, and a Hunter fell from a high branch. (pg 244) -1  Too many of our friends lay wounded in the streets. Too many were missing. (pg 257) -1< The flagpoles were hung with horrible trophies –helmets and armor pieces from defeated campers. (pg 282) -1< The Drakon lashed out, swallowing three californian centaurs in one gulp before I could even get close. (pg 288) -3 Poison spewed everywhere, melting centaurs into dust along with quite a few monsters, (pg 288) -1< The Drakon snapped up one Ares camper in a gulp. (pg 291) -1

Silena Beauregard -1

Leneus -1

a body covered in the golden burial shroud of Apollo’s cabin. I didn’t know who was underneath. I don't want to find out. (pg 303) -1

Oddly enough, we actually miss the moment that was probably the worst for the Olympians, the final push by Kronos that breaks through their line. After Clarisse slays the drakon and the monsters are driven back again, Percy and co. take the opportunity to go up to Olympus. Percy gives Pandora’s Pithos to Hestia, and then contacts Poseidon via his throne. It’s just as he finishes that Thalia comes up and tells them that Kronos is coming again, but they miss the fighting.

By the time we got to the street, it was too late. Campers and Hunters lay wounded on the ground. Clarisse must have lost a fight with a Hyperborean giant, because she and her chariot were frozen in a block of ice. The centaurs were nowhere to be seen. Either they’d panicked and ran, or they’d been disintegrated. (pg 312) -<500

And finally, Kronos does kill some people on Olympus itself.

A few minor gods and nature spirits had tried to stop Kronos. What remained of them was strewn about the road: shattered armor, ripped clothing, swords and spears broken in half. (pg 322) -1<

The specific deaths we have mentioned during the battle amount to 48 at the very least; and that is an extremely conservative estimate that only includes the deaths Percy has the time and presence of mind to witness in all the carnage. Considering how many others must have happened, factoring the sudden disappearance of the 500 centaurs in particular, it was likely in the hundreds. And most of the centaurs probably ran at the end, but even that would have involved heavy casualties.

It’s true that actual demigods were a smaller fraction of Olympian forces, and so would have made up just a fraction of losses. The number 16 might actually make sense if it were just the number of campers lost, but that’s not what Hecate said, she said total.

It might be significant that Hecate is the actual source of this misinformation. Would she have reason to lie to her own son, or might she herself be out of the loop. Right now, we just can’t know. 

And she might be underestimating Titan Army losses too. Considering how many times a wave of several hundred monsters tear into Manhattan, and get thrown back by the Olympians only to return later with no discernable drop in numbers, until the army is finally routed entirely, it wouldn’t surprise me if the TA actually took a thousand or more casualties. But those would be overwhelmingly monsters, because:

Part 2) Less Than Fifty Demigods Were Even In The Titan Army

To prove that there could not possibly have been hundreds of TA demigods killed at Manhattan, we need look no farther than Alabaster's own account.

“There was a war between the gods and titans last summer and most half-bloods–demigods like me–fought for the Olympians.” (pg 218)

So the TA could not have had more demigods than the Olympians; and they had about a hundred. There are forty campers to start with, who are quickly joined by the Hunters, who now have thirty members. Then, in the last hours of the fight, they are finally joined by the Ares cabin, which brings another thirty (jeez Ares, you animal!). So Olympus has an even hundred demigods. (The Hunters aren’t necessarily all demigods by birth, but I don’t think Alabaster would make a distinction based on that.)

So the TA has less than a hundred demigods, significantly less. I would argue they probably had no more than fifty because that lines up with the only solid numbers we ever get for them. And every time the TA is described, demigods are a clear minority. First, look at the foes Percy encounters when he infiltrates the Princess Andromeda:

I saw monsters patrolling the upper decks of the ship–dracaenae snake-women, hellhounds, giants, and the humanoid seal-demons known as telkhines . . . . . “I don’t care what your nose says!” snarled a half-human half-dog voice—a telkhine. “The last time you smelled half-blood, it turned out to be a meatloaf sandwich!” “Meatloaf sandwiches are good!” a second voice snarled . . . . . a telkhine was hunched over a console . . . . . a half dozen telkhines were tromping down the stairs . . . . . past another telkhine . . . . . And in the fountain squatted a giant crab . . . . . a couple of dracaenae slithered across my path . . . . . As I was running up the stairwell, a kid charged down . . . . . Laistrygonian giants filed in on either side of the swimming pool . . . . . demigod archers appeared on the roof . . . . . two hellhounds leapt down . . . . . The crowed of monsters parted . . . . . Giants jeered. Dracaenae hissed with laughter . . . . . throwing monsters off their feet . . . . .I knew him, of course: Ethan Nakamura . . . . . two giants lumbered forward . . . . . Panicked monsters surged backward . . . . . one of the dracaenae hissed . . . . . I pushed through a crowd of monsters . . . . . Monsters yelled at me from  above.

That was a quick summary of all the enemies Percy and Charlie encounter on the Princess Andromeda, I’m not crazy enough to try and write the whole chapter. But it’s pretty clear there are only a few demigods amid dozens of monsters. We hear the same thing from Poseidon later, that “there were only a few demigod warriors aboard that ship”; we might question whether or not Poseidon is a trustworthy source, but the evidence does back him up.

When we finally get to the battle, the disparity of demigod numbers in the TA is again evident:

The bronze image showed Long Island Sound near La Guardia. A fleet of a dozen speed boats raced through the dark water toward Manhattan. Each boat was packed with demigods in full Greek armor. At the back of the lead boat, a purple banner emblazoned with a black scythe flapped in the night wind. I’d never seen that design before, but it wasn’t hard to figure out: the battle flag of Kronos. “Scan the perimeter of the island,” I said. “Quick.” Annabeth shifted the scene south to the harbor. A Staten Island Ferry was plowing through the waves near Ellis Island. The deck was crowded with dracaenae and a whole pack of hellhounds. Swimming in front of the ship was a pod of marine mammals. At first I thought they were dolphins. Then I saw their doglike faces and swords strapped to their waists, and I realized they were telkhines—sea demons. The scene shifted again: the Jersey shore, right at the entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel. A hundred assorted monsters were marching past the lanes of stopped traffic: giants with clubs, rogue Cyclopes, a few fire-spitting dragons, and just to rub it in, a World War II-era Sherman tank, pushing cars out of the way as it rumbled into the tunnel. (pg 167)

Here we see the first wave of the Titan Army as a three pronged attack (which Percy says on the next page collectively numbered at least 300) and only one of the units has demigods. It’s the one that Kronos leads, so it’s probably meant to be a more elite unit, at least at first. 

We don’t know for sure how many there are. Speedboats are usually made to carry 4-6 people so a dozen would be possible 48 to 72. Considering Alabaster says there were significantly less demigods in the TA than the Olympians, I would guess it’s on the lower end; and that does match another number we see in a moment.

This fleet never reaches Manhattan, since Percy bribes the East River to swamp their boats. Those who say many TA demigods were killed in the battle might point to this as Percy causing a bunch of kids to drown; but Alabaster never mentions a mass drowning in his narrative of the battle, and he would have been on one of those boats, so it’s safe to say they just went for a swim.

(And Kronos was with them, which means that a very angry titan lord was suddenly pitched into the river and had to swim with the rest of them. That’s not really relevant, I just want everyone to know that.)

Percy is then immediately told that “Another army is marching over the Williamsburg bridge.” This fourth prong of the attack, led by the Minotaur, also has no demigods in it.

An entire phalanx of dracaenae marched in the lead . . . About a hundred more monsters marched behind them. (pg 182) More monsters surged forward —snakes and giants and telkines—but the Minotaur roared at them, and they backed off. (pg 186)

But more monsters keep advancing because by the time Percy kills the minotaur and the demigods charge and rout the whole group, it had grown to 200

Finally, the monsters turned and fled—about twenty left alive out of two hundred. (pg 188)

So the grand total for the first TA attack was 500 soldiers or more, with only 40-70 of them demigods. And after the monsters on the Williamsburg bridge retreat, those demigods show back up.

Then I saw the crowd at the base of the bridge. The retreating monsters were running straight toward their reinforcements. It was a small group, maybe thirty or forty demigods in battle armor, mounted on skeletal horses. One of them held a purple banner with the black scythe design.  The lead horseman trotted forward. He took off his helm, and I recognized Kronos himself, his eyes like molten gold. (pg1 188)

This is the only time we get anywhere close to a specific number when TA demigods are concerned. It would have been the same group that was sunk in the East River, who then had to swim for Brooklynn; which is where they are now trying to take the Williamsburg bridge. This reinforces the idea that the number of demigods in the boats was only a little more than forty, since they would not have suffered more than a few injuries in the sinkings.

I’m going to come back to this moment later to demonstrate how Percy refrains from killing other demigods, even in his Achilles state, but the other important thing to note is that this is the last time Kronos organizes his demigods into a unit that he leads personally. After they fail to break through here, Kronos just has them take on a secondary role, and puts his faith in bigger and bigger monsters to lead the charge instead.

The Titan Army units on Long Island then spend the evening marching the long way around Manhattan (for some reason) because they make camp for the night in New Jersey, at Medusa’s old lair. Percy again describes demigods as the small minority.

Hundreds of tents and fires surrounded the property. Mostly I saw monsters, but there were some human mercenaries in combat fatigues and demigods in armor too. A purple-and-black banner hung outside the emporium, guarded by two huge blue Hyperboreans.

And this is only part of the Titan army, because there are more troops north of Manhattan. 

“Tell my brother Hyperion to move our main force south into Central Park. The halfbloods will be in such disarray they will not be able to defend themselves.” (pg 237)

The army that marches into central park is bigger than the one camped in New Jersey. And it is made up exclusively of monsters. 

At the north end of the reservoir, the enemy vanguard broke through the woods—a warrior in golden armor leading a battalion of Laistrygonian giants with huge bronze axes. Hundreds of other monsters poured out behind them. (pg 243)

There is not a single mention of a demigod. However they’re already joining the fight in other places. 

When it flew above the rooftops, I could see fires here and there around the city. It looked like my friends were having a rough time. Kronos was attacking on several fronts. (pg 251)  

After Percy kills the Clazmonian Sow, the momentum of the battle shifts. With his main force failing to deliver a knockout punch, Kronos has his remaining armies spread out to put equal pressure on the entire defensive line, and catch it in a massive envelopment.

Midtown was a war zone. We flew over little skirmishes everywhere. A giant was ripping up trees in Bryant Park while dryads pelted him with nuts. Outside the Waldorf Astoria, a bronze statue of Benjamin Franklin was whacking a hellhound with a rolled-up newspaper. A trio of Hephaestus campers fought a squad of dracaenae in the middle of Rockefeller Center . . . . . The hunters had set up a defensive line on 37th, just three blocks north of Olympus. To the east on Park Avenue, Jake Mason and some other Hephaestus campers were leading an army of statues against the enemy. To the west, the Demeter cabin and Grover’s nature spirits had turned Sixth Avenue into a jungle that was hampering a  squadron of Kronos’s demigods . . . . . I spotted a familiar silver owl banner in the southeast corner of the fight, 33rd at the Park Avenue tunnel. Annabeth and two of her siblings were holding back a Hyperborean giant . . . . . The next hour was a blur. I fought like I’d never fought before—wading into legions of dracaenae, taking out dozens of telkines with every strike, destroying empousai and knocking out enemy demigods . . . . . At one point Grover was next to me, bonking snake women over the head with his cudgel. Then he disappeared in the crowd, and it was Thalia at my side, driving monsters back with the power of her magic shield. Mrs. O’Leary bounded out of nowhere, picked up a Laistrygonian giant in her mouth and flung him like a Frisbee. Annabeth used her invisibility cap to sneak behind enemy lines. Whenever a monster disintegrated for no apparent reason with a surprised look on his face, I knew Annabeth had been there . . . . . Kronos was riding towards us on a golden chariot. A dozen Laistrygonian giants bore torches before him. Two Hyperboreans carried his black-and-purple banners . . .

“THEN THE WINGED HUSSAARSSS AARRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVED” SABATON BLASTS ON ELECTRIC GUITAR

 Sorry, sorry, I mean then Chiron and the 500 centaurs arrived!

Kronos’s forces looked as confused as we were. Giants lowered their clubs. Dracaenae hissed. Even Kronos’s honor guard looked uneasy. Then, to our left, a hundred monsters cried out at once. Kronos’s entire northern flank surged forward. I thought we were doomed, but they didn’t attack. They ran straight past us and crashed into their southern allies . . . a shower of arrows arced over our heads and slammed into the enemy, vaporizing hundreds of demons. (pg 258)

This is how the second phase of the battle ends. And during the entire night, out of a sea of monsters (hehe) we only see one unit of TA demigods. And it’s the last time we get any reference to them participating in the battle.

After being driven south, the TA apparently did another long march, because they make camp northeast of Manhattan.

The Titan army had set up camp all around the U.N. complex. The flagpoles were hung with horrible trophies—helmets and armor from defeated campers. All along First Avenue, giants sharpened their axes. Telkines repaired armor at makeshift forges. (pg 282)

Ethan is the only demigod mentioned this time. And he doesn’t appear to take part in the next attack, aside from releasing the drakon. We get less of a description of the enemy army this time, but it’s all monsters.

The rest of the battle wasn’t going well. The centaurs had panicked under the onslaught of giants and demons. An occasional orange camp T-shirt appeared in the sea of fighting, but quickly disappeared.  (pg 289)

Of course the Ares cabin arrives, the drakon kills Silena, and Clarisse kills it. It’s another rout for the TA.

The monsters retreated toward 35th Street. (pg 298) There was no answer from the enemy. Slowly, they began to fall back behind a dracaenae shield wall, while Clarisse drove in circles around Fifth Avenue, daring anyone to cross her path. (pg 299)

After that we have the final phase of the battle, when the Titan Army finally breaks through the Olympian lines. But once again, we have no reference to demigods other than Ethan.

The Titan Army ringed the building, standing maybe twenty feet from the doors. Kronos’s vanguard was in the lead: Ethan Nakamura, the dracaenae queen in her green armor, and two Hyperboreans. I didn’t see Prometheus. (pg 312) “ROWWF!” Mrs. O’Leary bounded toward me, ignoring the growling monsters on either side. (pg 315) There were thousands of [skeletan soldiers], and as they emerged, the titan’s monsters got jumpy and started to back up. (pg 315)     The armies of the dead clashed with the Titan’s monsters. Fifth Avenue exploded into absolute chaos. Mortals screamed and ran for cover. Demeter waved her hand and an entire column of giants turned into a wheat field. Persephone changed the dracaenae spears into sunflowers. Nico slashed and hacked his way through the enemy, trying to protect pedestrians as best as he could. My parents ran toward me , dodging monsters and zombies, but there was nothing I could do to help them. (pg 318).

The fight continues like this, until Typhon is destroyed, and the defenders are joined by the gods, and Poseidon’s army of cyclopes. It’s then that the Titan army is “massacred.” Most of the fandom thinks that the demigods were killed too, but that’s not the case.

PART 3: The TA Demigods Deserted Before The Final Battle

As Alabaster remembers it:

the war didn’t go our way. I fought on the battlefield against the enemy, but most of our allies ran. Kronos himself marched on Olympus, only to be killed by a son of Poseidon. After Kronos’s death, the Olympian gods smashed any remaining resistance. It was a massacre. “We weren’t all destroyed,” Alabaster said. “Most of the remaining half-bloods fled or were captured. They were so demoralized they joined the enemy. (pg 219)

When you look at this narrative, and compare it to The Last Olympian, it’s actually more complicated than the TA demigods simply getting massacred.

Al says that while he was fighting, most of his allies ran. That’s odd, because we don’t see the relative numbers of monsters go down at any point. What we do see, is the number of demigods go down.

As I illustrated in Part 2, the Battle of Manhattan has four distinct phases. Phase one, that ends when the Williamsburg Bridge is destroyed. The second phase, that starts when Hyperion attacks Central Park, and ends when the Party Ponies arrive. The third phase, which is all about the attack of the drakon. And the final phase, when Kronos breaks through.

We only see TA demigods in the first two phases; they attack the Williamsburg Bridge in the first phase as part of the Kronos’s main force, then in the second phase they’re relegated to a supporting role by hitting the defenders western flank. And that’s the last we see of them. After that, Etahn is the only demigod left standing in the TA. Alabaster must be somewhere in the background, as a retcon, but there’s no one beyond the two of them.

You might think that they’ve just already been killed by this point. After all, Percy blows up the Princess Andromeda, then goes into an Achilles Curse fueled berserker mode several times in the first two phases of the battle. Surely he must have killed hundreds of kids, right?

No, not even close.

Maybe not any at all.

On the Princess Andromeda Percy finds lots of monsters, but the number of demigods he finds could be counted on one hand. And the first one he meets; Percy spares him and tells him to get his friends and evacuate. We can’t prove whether or not any demigods were killed in the blast; we just know that the two we can confirm were still on board, Ethan and Alabaster, both survived. And when Alabaster recounts it, he doesn’t mention any bad losses at this point.

As for the Curse of Achilles, it doesn’t send Percy into anything like the berserker state some people think of it as. It might seem like that when Percy lets loose on the Williamsburg Bridge:

You’re going to ask how the whole “invincible” thing worked: if I magically dodged every weapon, or if the weapon hit me and just didn’t harm me. Honestly, I don’t remember. All I knew was that I wasn’t going to let these monsters invade my hometown. I sliced through armor like it was made of paper. Snake women exploded. Hellhounds melted to shadow. I slashed and stabbed and whirled, and I might have even laughed once or twice—a crazy laugh that scared me as much as it did my enemies. (pg 188)

But when push comes to shove, Percy can control the Curse, and what he does during it. That last moment was when he was fighting nothing but monsters. But when the TA demigods arrived, Percy pulled his punches like he always does.

I tried to wound his men, not kill. That slowed me down, but these weren’t monsters. They were demigods who’d fallen under Kronos’s spell. I couldn’t see faces under their helmets, but some of them had probably been my friends. I slashed the legs off their horses and made the skeletal mounts disintegrate. After the first few demigods took a spill, the rest figured out they’d better dismount and fight me on foot. (pg 189)

Percy is still in complete control of what he’s doing; even when the worst happens.

“Annabeth!” I turned in time to see her fall, clutching her arm. A demigod with a bloody knife stood over her . . . . . I locked eyes with the enemy demigod. He wore an eye patch under his helmet: Ethan Nakamura, the son of Nemesis. Somehow he’d survived the explosion on the Princess Andromeda. I slammed him in the face with my sword hilt so hard I dented his helm. (pg 190)

Percy really has all the reason to hate Ethan at this point; after Percy spared his life in Antaeus’ arena, Ethan still joined the side that had been ready to write off his death, and deliberately helped Kronos achieve his physical resurrection. Because of that Percy’s friends and even-Riordan-doesn’t-know how many mortals are going to die in the next few days; and on top of all that, Ethan just stabbed the love of his life.

And all Percy does is knock him out, maybe a little harder than necessary. He makes no effort to kill him. Those aren’t the actions of a berserker with no control.

In fact, the knife turns out to be poisonsed. And Ethan now has an idea where Percy’s Achilles Spot is, and might tell Kronos. And even after all of that, Percy doesn’t seriously think about killing him as an option.

“I’ll bonk him on the head harder next time.” (pg 241)

But more on topic, there is no reason to think the TA demigods have particularly high casualties in this phase of the battle, though they have a few:

Our archers shot a volley, bringing down several of the enemy, but they just kept riding. (pg 189)

Though it’s vague if they are hitting the riders or the horses. In fact, it might actually be Kronos who’s responsible for more of their losses.

[Kronos] struck the bridge with the butt of his scythe, and a wave of pure force blasted me backward. Cars went careening. Demigods—even Luke’s own men—were blown off the edge of the bridge. (pg 192)

I will die on the hill that between this, Ethan, and other implied moments, Kronos killed more of his own demigods than Percy did.

In the second phase of the battle, when we see the TA demigods attack again, they’re in a very different situation.

To the west, the Demeter cabin and Grover’s nature spirits had turned Sixth Avenue into a jungle that was hampering a  squadron of Kronos’s demigods. (pg 255)

This is the only thing we see the TA demigods do as a group in this phase; and they’re fighting people who are using very defensive tactics, more hampering than harmful. They’re not likely to lose many fighters. A few of them do cross Percy’s path in the chaos, but even at his most Achilles fueled chaos he never loses control.

The next hour was a blur. I fought like I’d never fought before—wading into legions of dracaenae, taking out dozens of telkines with every strike, destroying empousai and knocking out enemy demigods. (pg 257)

He talks about killing monsters, but always “knocking out” demigods. Finally, that phase of the battle ends when the centaurs show up. Did the centaurs kill any demigods? After all, Percy said they “trampled everything in their path.”

Well the only report we get on the TA demigods puts them to the west. When the centaurs attack, they come out of the north east and drive the enemy south, and start off a wave of panic that ripples down the enemy lines ahead of them. The demigods were probably running before any centaur reached them, and might have had better chances of being trampled by their own monsters.

So if the TA demigods aren’t taking many losses, where do they all go in the third and fourth phases, when we don’t see any except Ethan?

They desert. 

Alabaster: “I fought on the battlefield against the enemy, but most of our allies ran.”

I think the demigods of the TA signed up with no real idea of what would happen when they fought the Olympians. They thought they were going to have a sure victory. 

Chris Rodriguez said it in SOM:

“I hear they got two more [drakon] coming,” [Chris] said. “They keep arriving at this rate, oh, man—no contest!” (pg 122)

Alabaster C. Torrington said it in SOM:

“Kronos wasn’t supposed to lose! You said the odds of winning were in the Titan’s favor! You told me Camp Half-Blood would be destroyed!” (pg 196)

And they probably weren’t well prepared for the war either. At one point Luke says they will fight well because he has been training the army. But most of them join because they are the children of minor gods who swear for Kronos, and that doesn’t happen until the end of BOTL, after Luke has been possessed. Most of the TA demigods never got training from him; including their two highest ranking members, Ethan and Alabaster. It’s no wonder most of them weren’t prepared.

As I was running up the stairwell, a kid charged down. He looked like he had just woken up from a nap. His armor was half on. He drew his sword and yelled, “Kronos!” but he sounded more scared than angry . . . . No way was I going to hurt him. I didn’t need a weapon for this. I stepped inside his strike and grabbed his wrist, slamming it against the wall. His sword clattered out of his hand. (pg 18)

And the demigods might not hold much loyalty to Kronos, a violent and temperamental eldritch horror!

Ethan moistened his lips. “He’s still fighting you, isn’t he? Luke—” “Nonesense,” Kronos spat. “Repeat that lie, and I will cut out your tongue. The boy’s soul has been crushed.” (pg 236) “But, my lord,” Ethan said. “Your regeneration.” Kronos pointed at Ethan, and the demigod froze. “Does it seem,” Kronos hissed. “that I need to regenerate?” Ethan didn’t respond. Kind of hard to do when you’re immobilized in time. Kronos snapped his fingers and Ethan collapsed. (pg 284)

And the demigods might have witnessed a darker side to his army that we didn’t.

Back on my first visit to the Princess Andromeda, my old enemy Luke had kept dazed tourists on board for show, shrouded in Mist so they didn’t realize they were on a monster infested ship. Now i didn’t see any sign of tourists. I hated to think what had happened to them, but I kind of doubted they’d been allowed to go home with their bingo winnings. (pg 15)

So, the demigods deserted. After the second phase of the battle we don’t see any at the Titan camp at the U.N., or taking any part in the last phases of the battle. They had been fed false promises, were treated badly, and were being sent against enemies out of their league.

“Most of the remaining half-bloods fled or were captured. They were so demoralized they joined the enemy.”

All except two, Alabaster and Ethan. The son of Nemesis, who has already given so much and is so desperate to see something good and fair come out of it; and the son of Hecate, who was promised victory, and is desperate to avenge the death of his siblings. Ironically, the two demigods who stayed loyal to Kronos the longest, did so because they had faith in their godly parents.

So if there was no “massacre” of TA demigods at the end of the Battle of Manhattan, why is Alabaster so insistent that there was one? 

“Yes,” Alabaster said bitterly. “Camp Half-Blood decided that they would accept any children of the minor gods. They would build us cabins at camp and pretend that they didn’t just blindly massacre us for resisting. (pg 220) “But I’ll never bow to the Olympian gods after the atrocities they committed. Their followers are blind. I’d never set foot in their camp, and if I did, it would only be to give that son of Poseidon what he deserves.” (pg 221)

Well, it’s because the children of Hecate suffered the most in the war. She didn’t have as many children as other gods, and Alabaster was the only one to fight in it and survive. He claims he convinced “most” of his siblings to join; but if Hecate does not have many children, and he is the only survivor of the battle, how are there still enough of his siblings to decently fill a cabin, it’s likely “most” was only slightly more than half. The sad irony is that the fact that the smaller group of demigods had more casualties than the larger ones (and it sounds like not just more proportionately, but more in actual numbers), also kind of disproves that there could have been a large massacre that affected them all.

Alabaster was a scared, frustrated, exhausted kid; who convinced his siblings to fight in a destructive war, and was the only one of them to survive. To him, that is probably always going to feel like a brutal massacre.