Nanatsu no Taizai: The Doll Asks For Love
Ah, we finally get a Gowther side-story! Regrettably it doesn't really answer who the original demon Gowther was, how doll Gowther got made, and what crimes did he commit that he was imprisoned by the Demon King, but it's still answers a fair bit about how Gowther came to be a member of the Seven Deadly Sins slightly before the present-day stuff.
Apparently he lost all his memories and feelings due to his Commandment, but I think that's something that might've happened to Demon Gowther in the past, which we have to return to the flashback story to really understand. Whatever the case, doll Gowther wakes up several centuries after the original great Goddess/Demon Clan War, to be found by this girl Nadja, who we later find out is actually sister to King Barta and the knight Denzel. Gowther's confused about everything that's going on. What is this kingdom of Liones? What happened in the past 3000 years? Why is the great fairy forest underground? He befriends Nadja and smiles and all, before finding the dead body of his namesake and his wheelchair.
There's a bit where he's lonely and Nadja keeps visiting him in that underground cavern, bringing him books (which is why he's so obsessed with them). Gowther shows off his ability to extend his hair, as well as his doll heart. His opening of his chest and showing off his Zelda-style heart container freaks Nadja out that she faints. Nadja wakes up in her room and tells about how she likes Gowther to Barta, and apparently Gowther disguised himself as a maid to get Nadja help. Barta knows what's going on, and keeps quiet, allowing Gowther to hang around as Nadja's maid.
Some time passes, and Gowther continues to emulate the knight Meldor in the story that Nadja showed him the first time, taking her on horseback rides and whatnot. Barta tells Gowther to stay by Nadja's side forever after foreseeing another event.
Nadja is apparently super sick, and Gowther's sad. He also notes how he's ultimately just a doll, just someone's creations, and he will continue to exist for thousands of years unlike the frail humans that he loves. Nadja tells Gowther that their hearts are the same, and Gowther's afraid. He notes how his father, Gowther-the-Demon, died and went away before his eyes, and he knows that Nadja's time is not long. Nadja tells Gowther that he's grown so much more than just a doll, and he can feel. And then they make love. It's not graphic or explicit, but they definitely did it for two pages.
Nadja dies after the sex, and Gowther freaks the fuck out. They're both naked, and Gowther's mind thinks to Nadja's earlier words about how they both have the same heart. The guards that hear Gowther's scream enter the room to see Gowther, naked, straddling princess Nadja, with blood splattered everywhere because Gowther ripped open Nadja's chest to try and transplant his artificial heart to her. Thankfully Gowther's body blocks off most of the gory results of the chest, but shit, the image is still one of the more disturbing ones to come out of Taizai.
Gowther is arrested, of course, and his crime's probably felt a lot worse than any of the other crimes we've seen. Gowther is sent to death by immolation, Barta notes to himself that Nadja died happy, and Gowther? Gowther is crying, noting that if having a heart hurts this much, he doesn't want or need one, he doesn't want to remember, and all he wants to do is just to be a plain old doll.
A very great story, that's for sure, and man, I feel totally bad for Gowther right now. Poor dude. Definitely a well-done story that uses sex and gore well while still being classy at it, and it does explain a fair bit of Gowther's eccentricities in the present-day.
And so at long last we finally get an explanation for why someone so emotionless keeps doing his damnedest to mess with people's emotions like he did with King and Diane; he wants to see if someone else will come to the same conclusions as him and, if so, just how far someone can go and how much they can take before they reach that point. Granted, it doesn't make the whole "Diane's memories are gone" plot any less tedious or unfulfilling, but at least we finally have an idea of *why* Gowther did it.
ReplyDeleteIt also opens up a lot more in terms of plot-threads because we now have conformation that the Gowther we know is and has in fact been operating independently of the original, so what exactly is is aims? It also highlights that the original seemingly had some kind of benevolent side if he went out of the way to create a way for his creation to feel and outlive him. It also raises the question of what's happened to that artificial heart of his and if it's going to become relevant to the plot at some point in the future.
Gowther's story is actually pretty good, isn't he? I'm actually a lot more invested in Gowther's tragic backstory than... well, practically any other member of the Sins, I think. But yeah, the Diane's memories subplot is still absolute crap and I'm still pissed it's dragged on with no particular need to, but the Gowther end of that plot's still great.
Delete