sounds like he's THE KILLER?

[rhodochrosite]

this is a follow-up to my original killer post outlining some of the killer spinoffs and subtypes to more accurately describe the nuances within the field of killerism because it really is that serious.

first of all i want to formally retract my categorisation of haibara as The Killer, she is more accurately an almost-killer i.e. someone who had the potential to become The Killer but did not end up following the path due to a moral crisis (extremely cringe fail by the black organisation, how do you fuck up indoctrinating someone you literally raised from birth). the REAL killer in conan is ofc vermouth, who i had not properly met yet at the time i made the post. i understand the error of my ways now tho, nobody is more killer than vermouth.

also, some other killers i forgot to put in my first post: gilgamesh (fate), rokudo mukuro (khr), yagami light (death note), koon aguero agnis (tower of god)

THE SLAUGHTERER
these killers just want to kill as many people as possible, as gruesomely as possible. they love violence and harm, and aren't interested in hiding how unhinged they are. or if they do bother, it's a pretty flimsy veneer. this doesn't necessarily mean they lack technique or finesse, it's more that they are interested in deploying it to maximise the damage they can cause. often very angry/excitable/short-tempered people.

examples:

• akutsu jin (prince of tennis) - the original slaughterer the one i coined the term for. he's really The Slaughterer in a series full of people who love to inflict violence on each other
• kite eishiro (prince of tennis) - borderline killer/slaughterer he goes all in when he's actually killing but pays a lot of attention to elegant image maintenance off-court, he is literally just one confiscated tub of hair wax away from being a killer HE WOULD BE SO HANDSOME IF HE LET HIS HAIR DOWN .
• kirihara akaya (prince of tennis) - baby slaughterer <3 uncontrollable (unless...) weapon to be pointed in an enemy's direction by his handler of the day and then set loose
• noi (dorohedoro) - extrovert slaughterer! if you can keep up with her in a fight she wants to be your friend. if not then you're dismembered and dead anyway
• clove (the hunger games) - and all district 2 careers really, clove is just my favourite. enobaria gets extra points for ripping out a guy's throat with her teeth tho
• xanxus (khr) - literally the representation of wrath his powers and weapons are fuelled by how mad he is
• chianti (detective conan) - being a sniper is actually a hunter trait to me but she's definitely more interested in the slaughtering people part than the technique for technique's sake part. anyone who throws a screaming tantrum over not getting to kill someone deserves to be a slaughterer
• akabane karma (assassination classroom) - another borderline killer/slaughterer/hunter but i think he's in the early stages of slaughterism. naturally charming but lacks a killer's desire to conceal his true nature and also lacks a hunter's discipline

THE HUNTER
these are killers who eschew charm in favour of just being really fucking good at killing. they're technicians rather than politicians and probably take pride in a particular skill they excel at. any charisma they possess is not cultivated the way that a killer takes care to maintain their image. may be pursuing some particular code or goal. often lone wolf types, though weirdly well-suited to being henchmen sometimes? rt cindi: "the hunter must be…… elite… superiorly intelligent… the precise aim and dedication of the killer and the wide victim range of the slaughterer."

examples:

• hibari kyoya (khr) - borderline hunter/slaughterer i think he's too refined to be a straight up slaughterer and his slaughterism arises almost equally from his devotion to disciplinary committee president duties as well as generally enjoying violence. he's guy who likes to test his abilities against strong people
• superbi squalo (khr) - another borderline hunter/slaughterer it's mostly that he's so hyperfocused on 1) xanxus 2) the sword that his broadly violent intents and acts end up more narrowly directed like a hunter even though he's very loud
• akai shuichi (detective conan) - being a sniper is a hunter trait
• kawakami bansai (gintama) - pretty much same reasoning as squalo (hyperfocused on takasugi and the shamisen) but he's more polite and restrained so even less shades of the slaughterer
• tenjo kaito (yugioh zexal) - he was very the hunter during his numbers hunter era

THE HONEYTRAP
sometimes, killers are bottoms.

examples:

• amuro tooru (detective conan) - allegedly, i haven't met him yet
• malik ishtar (yugioh dm) - i may have to retract this later when i rewatch dm but i thinkkkkkk i believe in malikright atm
• irina jelavic (assassination classroom) - is this cheating when she is literally a professional assassin who operates as a honeypot?

THE CHILD OF GOD
you know how humans can't look directly at divinity lest they be burnt to ashes instantly as mortal beings are not built to withstand even viewing the power of a god? that's the vibe here. it's not that they kill because they have malicious intent; the killing is entirely incidental. they're just too strong. they destroy worlds and slaughter populations simply by virtue of existing. they COULD kill on purpose, but the majority of the carnage follows in their wake as a matter of course. this category is named after yukimura and i can't actually think of anyone else who would fit in this category* but i imagine that children of god are neither regretful nor gleeful about the carnage they cause because it's just a fact of life to them, they probably don't even think about it that much. you can't expect a god to operate on the same kind of morality as a human after all.

* this is a closed category TO ME. even if there are other children of god they will not be in my post because only yukimura is yukimura.

examples:

• yukimura seiichi (prince of tennis) - the child of god.

THE IMPOSTOR
these people have all of the killeristic traits but vitally lack the killing intent / disregard of morality. the emphasis here is on the charm, powerful image management, and identity/persona fuckery. while they are not actually Killers, i'm including them in this list too because i believe in acknowledging my sources (jaemin) and this category represents the other group of characters i associate with him.

examples:

• oikawa tooru (haikyuu) - WHO ELSE!!! i've been talking about this for like 7 years
• kuroba kaito (detective conan) - perfect handsome double identity performative bastard. notably does NOT kill as part of his whole gentleman thief thing
• not that he reminds me of jaemin anyway but also i don't think niou masaharu (prince of tennis) quite fits in this category because he IS a little bit killeristic too but mostly insofar as it is part of the persona he is playing... niou and yagyuu together form a killer/impostor hybrid?

once again i welcome all further examples and subtype suggestions <3 i've also been considering Killer Who Abides By Strong Ethical/Otherwise Strict Code (the vigilante? the.. executioner.....?) as another subtype but i wonder if that is drifting too far from the original concept of The Killer? examples would be guys like sanada and ryoken...

Comments

killer scholarship continued <3

[sarcoline]

ctfu how did we forget light yagami as one of the most notable killers of all time... naurrr... it's ok we were blinded by jaemin so handsomeface and also trying to categorize bottom killers/killer lights etc. so perfectly understandable. +1 vermouth quintessential killer with an extra flavor of self-sabotage.

WAIT i failed to mention dazai osamu from bungo stray dogs as well for normal usual killer candidate.. he used to be a mafia henchman (but like almost boss in every way) literally just under big boss level and then flipped script to lead a ""clean"" life after his best friend died as part of the mafia boss' gamble for something else (i cant really remember but probably something along the lines of like. immortality or some golden fleece type object thing or maybe it was to fight against an enemy with equal skill) so he's part of a detective agency that does things the "right" way and has this usually ~harmless friendly guy~sona normally but his sadistic killeristic tendencies show themselves in the most unnerving yet like awesome(?) and (morbidly) fascinating ways. like ur like wow this guy is incredible.. but also incredibly insane.

the slaughterer being chianti so true... and clove. and enobaria. wow revisiting my hunger games faves, could u not say finnick is somewhere on this list of killer subtypes?? maybe imposter-killer hybrid as he does in fact kill but it's out of necessity/he doesnt really derive joy from it and the emphasis IS on charm and persona...

while reading the hunter traits i was instantly like "akai" and SO GLAD to see that he indeed was there! clinical efficiency extending past fbi agentisms to his love life as well ctfu... f in the chat for jodie. tbh i think if shinichi went dark for some reason/got disillusioned with a no-killing detective life, he would be a hunter as well. or maybe the vigilante? hm.

"sometimes, killers are bottoms." being the only description for honeytrap is sending me but like it is true tho. amuro is honeytrap trust me. suddenly my catalogue of all previous killer media has left my mind immediately and i cannot think of any killer bottoms even tho i love to consume content with killers and im sure at least SOME are bottoms. what the fuck. ill get back to u on this.

the child of god category is SO interesting to me!! ik u said it's closed and it's not like i actually have any other examples anyway but i just wanted to draw comparisons/connections to the messiah role in the messiah/machiavel trope, which i'm not sure if you're familiar with but it's like a derivative/play on the king/lionheart trope... abridged from tumblr user okayophelia:

you can have two forms of messiah/machiavel (1) where the machiavel loves the actual person who is the messiah and so falls in with the cause (2) where the machiavel loves the ideal the person embodies and so will do anything for the person who they see as the means to achieving that endgame/goal.
and in between, because humans are messy things, particularly when it comes to love and our ideals, usually those two ends of the spectrum get all mixed up. particularly with a prophet-type. it’s almost impossible to love the person and not the prophethood and vice-versa.

BUT IT DOES NOT NECESSARILY HAVE TO BE ABOUT A RELIGIOUS/DIVINE MOVEMENT; it can be pure politics or idealism or science, some kind of force of transformation/change whether on micro or cosmic levels.

and in that narrative context you usually have the messiah as visionary, the leader, the person who may be literally godtouched, or just godtouched in the sense of the charisma, depth and power of their vision or capacity to lead/embody that movement.

i'm not sure if im conflating things because of the religious undertones "child of god" and "messiah" both have but divinity/overpowered-ness/ability to kill out of sheer existence strikes me as something the messiah-child-of-god could entail.. they're so narratively inhuman that they cannot have normal relationships with people / their interpersonal relationships are probably really fucked up to a degree, and yet on the realest level they are still human so there are all the flaws that come with that, if that makes sense.

actually i know i said i wouldn't add to this and respect ur wishes but perhaps gojo?? might be some hybrid of child of god/imposter/killer bc he's literally the strongest man in the world / is inhumanly powerful but sometimes he does mean to kill people but it also is about the persona... IDK. i know u don't jujukai but im just floating it out there...

1-800 i love imposters... love that oikawa and kaito both love to front so much and care about the performance aspect so much... it is true i love jaemin in every form of media... kaito making it a point not to kill and still making it on here sasuga conanverse jaemin...

excellent scholarship as always <3

Re: killer scholarship continued <3

[rhodochrosite]

😚💖 once again thank u for ur excellent contributions to the field of killerism!!! sdkjfgdskfsdfj my friend asked if mamoru miyano had voiced other killers so i was going thru his filmography and i was like WAIT A SEC..... /THE/ KIRA HIMSELF? icb we forgot but we really were focusing so much on jaemin as the epicentre of killerism lmao

omg i do remember u brought up dazai when we were discussing killerism on twitter Added to list - The Killer 💫 he is ALSO mamoru miyano voiced right? i love a killer with a good respectable citizen cosplay

YES i was thinking about finnick too but i wasnt sure where to place him but i agree he really is impostor/killer hybrid bc he doesnt enjoy violence like d1/d2 careers its only part of his survival mechanism... johanna is even harder for me to place bc her persona in the games and as a victor were both created to be as offputting/abrasive as possible rather than charming...... slaughterer w/o the bloodlust? hunter w/o the pride/discipline? omg i just realised d1 would probably have a fair few honeytraps too...

my friend who coined the hunter term asked if akai was a hunter (since i am guy who has been talking incessantly about conan to my non conan friends too 😭) and i was like !?! so true. he really is!! not that jodie and akai would have lasted very long organically anyway in my opinion but yeah rip... also akashin twin flameism extending to killer designation so true (maybe vigilanteism is really just a subtype of hunterism...) But dark shinichi would actually be a vigilante fr like doing exactly what he already does just on the other side of the law. it is kind of freaking me out imagining what it would take for him to turn away from the principles that are so central to his way of life Like how many of his loved ones would have to die to get him to that point of extreme disillusionment 😟

kjfdskdjsd i was gonna say more in the honeytrap section and then i was like well what else needs to be said. They are literally just killers who are bottoms. i fully believe amuro is a honeytrap 😆 ID LIKE TO SEE ITT. i think some of the problem with this category is that killers are like Guys With The Upper Hand in a controlled way which is a little bit antithetical to being a bottom... slaughterers can easily be bottoms tho hmmm i will also keep trying to think about it

ooh im not familiar with messiah/machiavel but that is actually..... exactly exactly the energy i was going for with child of god!!! "so narratively inhuman that they cannot have normal relationships with people / their interpersonal relationships are probably really fucked up to a degree, and yet on the realest level they are still human so there are all the flaws that come with that" absolutely spot on this is what i meant!! yukimura is like a cult leader because his team is SO totally devoted to him(/the idea of him) theyre all sustaining extreme psychological damage adopting his victory at all costs philosophy even if its totally opposite to their actual moral codes... but at the same time yukimura is very much a fallible human boy, he spends like 90% of the original series on his literal deathbed with terminal illness before making his debut as final boss villain and ofc has to lose... it really is the messy intersection of love and ideals >__< the persona fuckery arising not from careful cultivation like a killer but from the pedestal / deification... i cant weigh in on gojo but i always believe and trust ur judgement hehe im sure there are other children of god Yuki is just my favourite boy

impostors are literally so good... free association with impostor syndrome too >:) We Are All like things we already like i also love guys who are jaemin <3

[prizefig]

[gripping armchairs] AND SAMATOKI... god i am so sorry i have to be this way on your posts but hhhh the slaughterer as established, you know how it is... 😔

more killerlites and killer-adjacents from hypmic:

• cindi and i coined the hunter for saburo even though at this point in canon he's still hunter-lite/proto-hunter himself, but the words did come straight from the horse's mouth
  
• hypmic is kinda chock full of imposters actually, ranked by most unhealthy to most healthy
  
  
  
  • hifumi - shinjuku's #1 host, literally has to dissociate into his constructed coping mechanism persona in order to do his job (being charming to women... when he is gynophobic due to trauma...), also the target/girl love interest of another killer who is a girl (honobono, the aforementioned trauma, queering the killer x girl love interest binary)
    
  • gentaro - stole his comatose brother's identity, pathological(?) liar, most likely to engage in actual killing or otherwise ethically dubious activities
    
  • jyushi - another dissociative persona as coping mechanism but less severe than hifumi, he also uses it for his job (visual kei stage performance) but is otherwise normal
    
  • jyuto - not an entirely separate persona but he does utilize charm/image management for dirty cop purposes and otherwise lacks much killeristic intent
    
  
  
• once again, ramuda defies categorization. i maintain that he is original flavor killer, just with slightly different aesthetic trappings, but we can give him a subtype of his own too
  

other examples: tamaki suoh (ouran) is ofc the imposter who i've described as "hifumi if he was atobe" but tamaki is also just a nice guy with no killeristic intent whatsoever which i know is part of the description but i need to distinguish from the more killeristic examples i gave, the hitachiin twins are also imposters as well but definitely more ethically dubious, kyoya is pretty much original flavor killer. mine fujiko might be a honeytrap but she's a thief first and foremost... she do be killing though. we already talked about mikey as another child of god, but he do be killing purposefully and physically as well, he's not exactly a slaughterer though he's just Guy Who Is The Strongest. and i still think ibu shinji should make the hunter category despite getting powercrept to hell and back. kazutora and baji are both slaughters to different degrees, and draken would probably fit under the proposed vigilante/executioner type.

the only subtype i can think of that's missing is like... yanderes... who are essentially just girl slaughterers with boy love interests. not sure if that's enough to constitute a separate type. i'll brainstorm some more if there's anything else missing.

[rhodochrosite]

pls i am open to hypmic examples!!!! i just didnt put them in my post out of politeness due to Not Knowing Canon i got worried i was misremembering the categorisations kdsjfgskfdjg thank u for the additions tho i knew i could count on hypmic to have some fucked up bitches in there. i did not know honobono was the noncon trauma in question for hifumi but umm word "queering the killer x girl love interest binary" ctfu. i dont think impostor charm needs to be a completely separate persona but once again i am sad that jyuto only has killer aesthetic and is not really actually a killer. i think ramuda is sufficiently aesthetically distinct from other killers that he does need his own subtype but i also cant think of anyone else in his particular genre........... or what his subtype would be called lol. Whats his stage name

ive been going back and forth on whether impostors need like angst over their identity issues or no and i think maybe no.. in which case tamaki would be like presumably way over on the light side of the impostor spectrum? (guy who cant remember anything about ouran) hitachiins definitely tho (guy who cant remember anything about ouran but DOES remember some fic they read a few years ago). i dont know mine fujiko but being a thief is kind of an impostor trait now that i think about it... my friend mich in the comment above raised gojo as another potential / partial child of god candidate and obviously idk jjk either but i guess Guy Who Is The Strongest is a child of god trait, its not like yuki doesnt also kill on purpose too. i forgot that we raised shinji as hunter subtype i agree with this

yanderes are kinda killer/slaughterer hybrid i suppose.. obsession with particular person of killer + wide victim range and trigger happiness of slaughterer. ik this is literally an established trope but i dont even know any yanderes i think... except like umm yuno gasai

thank u for the additional examples hehe !!!

[prizefig]

well thank you for the unconditional cringe acceptance. but yeah, jyuto is probably closest to your actual description of the imposter it's just that hypmic literally does have some fucked up bitches in there. it is kinda funny that you are lightly 1picking jyuto? or at least are really concerned about his killer status lmfao

re: ramuda, first of all his stage name is EASY R so... whatever that tells you... umm i also can't think of anyone else who would fit into this genre either, except maybe iv? for the idolisms/respectable civiliansona hiding a sick and twisted interior. i guess iv would just be the imposter as well, but one could argue enough killeristic intent to codify a killerish/slaughtererish imposter.

i think the imposter category is broad enough rn that's it's functionally distinct from the killer archetype/is an archetype of its own that can have multiple subtypes, but it's possible we are getting too carried away here lol. maybe it's really just the thief archetype except imposters have the added identity fuckery. tamaki is very world of light imposter for sure though, he does use his charm/persona to particular ends but he doesn't really NEED it badly or anything.

yeah i'm scrolling through the yandere tvtropes page and all of the high profile examples are from shit i haven't seen except for amane misa (questionable?), yamagishi yukako, anasui (lol i guess??? he kind of is the killer/slaughterer fusion in question but i wouldn't call him a yandere), and toga himiko. also ofc me and cindi think kazutora is a yandere.