正体はいつも一つ！unless...
Oct. 16th, 2021 06:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhodochrositedetective conan is full of identity fakers so it's fun to think about which identity is the Real one and why!! generally i feel like the name by which others usually refer to them / the name by which they're introduced in the narrative is the true self... but it depends. and i have so much shit to say about it. this post will go through haibara, amuro, akai, shinichi, vermouth, kaito and kir:
MIYANO SHIHO / HAIBARA AI / SHERRY
AKAI SHUICHI / OKIYA SUBARU / RYE
akai is always akai... despite also being a triple facer, i think akai has the most clearly defined distinctions between his identities because the others are literally just covers to him, they aren't real and they can be separated quite easily from himself. when he's okiya, he's okiya. when he's doing akai actions in his okiya disguise, he's akai, and the show will generally highlight this by having him open an eye to reveal the characteristic akai eyebag or superimposing an image of akai next to okiya's face or having him speak/narrate in akai voice. it's literally a silver bullet trait to have your original identity be your true self... this is also connected in my head to akemi's letter to haibara it's kind of like in-canon confirmation that silver bulletism is about that lack of construction and obfuscation of self.
also akai as a person is a pretty honest and straightforward guy, okiya as a person is completely made up so everything okiya says is built on lies but AKAI is different. except for the one extreme lie he's maintaining about scotch's death to amuro but that's an act of kindness not a signal of moral turpitude anyway. akai... is a really nice person...
KUDO SHINICHI / EDOGAWA CONAN
it's no coincidence that the other resident silver bullet is also original identity = true self, even though shinichi is significantly more of a liar than akai is. like... conan literally doesn't exist. shinichi never sees conan as more than a temporary and inconvenient state of being that is inhibiting him from getting back to his real life (AND RAN) and limiting his ability to effectively operate during cases, and he's always trying his hardest to return to being shinichi. unlike haibara, all the people shinichi cares about are attached to his life as shinichi, not as conan. even heiji, who he only became best friends with as conan, is always referring to him as kudo and clearly views him as shinichi rather than conan. haibara refers to him as kudo-kun when they aren't around others, and once kaito's figured out his identity he also thinks of him as a high school detective.
basically the only people in shinichi's life whose relationship with him is purely based on his identity as conan are the detective boys, but shinichi also isn't as attached to the detective boys as haibara is--he's protective of them, but he definitely prefers his same-aged friends, so there's no competition there LOL there's no question that shinichi is who he considers himself to be.
SHARON VINEYARD / CHRIS VINEYARD / VERMOUTH
vermouth is also special because i think that her black org codenamed agent identity is in fact her true one, sharon and chris were simply how she interfaces/interfaced with the public in a less killer-y way, even though i assume that sharon was her original identity (or at least her oldest known one). and that was probably just to further black org objectives anyway since being rich and famous gets her access to more exclusive human and material resources. since she's ageless and basically immortal it's kind of like when gods get bored with divinity and take human forms to go fuck around with the mortals. and also start cultivating their very own personal achilles heels out of a counterintuitive desire for self-sabotage and/or ability testing.
I SIMPLY THINK that it is incredibly touching that vermouth is fully aware that shinichi and ran will be her eventual downfall and she loves them more for it and will protect them even at her own expense!! i think that vermouth is fascinated by the prospect of society destabilisation despite the fact that it runs counter to her own objectives, it takes a lot to make her feel something and i think she treasures the way that shinran give her that experience. this may seem offtopic but MY POINT IS that it's because vermouth is the longlived remorseless manipulative executive agent of the black org that she forms the motivations and relationships most important to her. the ruthless killerism, the lack of moral code, the feminine charm, the nihilism, the fixation on the purity and grace and salvation that ran represents to her... that is all vermouth, even though she first met shinichi and ran as sharon.
vermouth gets extra points for the stylishness of convincingly puppeteering famous mother and daughter civilian identities at the same time and managing to convince the world that the reason they never appeared in the same room together was just because of a family feud. さすが witch of the thousand faces <3
KUROBA KAITO / KAITO KID
on the surface, kaito's identity situation seems similar to amuro's, in that he's equally kaito and equally kid but i would say that it's more that all of kaito's identities are constructed for show rather than a situational prioritisation of traits like amuro does. amuro blends in (OR AT LEAST HE'S SUPPOSED TO), kaito stands out. for kaito everything is a performance and everything is sincere (...just like jaemin!). and i have said this about jaemin before but kaito literally does perform himself and that is his real self. so it's kind of a pointless exercise to look for the truth when kaito himself is diametrically opposed to the concept, or at least like his entire purpose is to obscure the truth for the purpose of entertainment.
notably kid is more polite and mature than kaito but i think it's part of the grand smoke and mirrors act that is his overall persona. both kaito and kid exist for the benefit of the audience. he is a performer he performs that is just what a magician does. and a magician does not reveal his tricks 🤫
HONDO HIDEMI / MIZUNASHI RENA / KIR
we kind of do not have enough canon info about kir and her interiority in order for me to weigh decisively on which of her faces is her true self... i'm sure it isn't kir even though that's how i habitually refer to her, and i think it is probably hidemi but i also think that rena is not as distant from hidemi as eg okiya is from akai. but kir is definitely only a cover fulfilling the same purpose that rye did for akai. i will meditate further on this...
MIYANO SHIHO / HAIBARA AI / SHERRY
even though haibara is her constructed civilian identity, i think it's the one that is the most true. it's like a pinocchio story (guy who can't remember anything about the plot of pinocchio), haibara becomes a real girl... through the connections she forms with others. existence in isolation is not true existence, i think it's only once she is haibara that she actually develops, like, Personhood. shiho and sherry were basically empty shells (and another thing that makes haibara special is that her original identity is exactly the same as her black org codename identity since she grew up in the black org and was already a highranker by age 15, so shiho = sherry ≠ haibara. shiho was just sherry because she never had the chance to be anything else). she was always lonely back then, she had nothing but her research and her cold scientific curiosity driving her forward, i think her life in the black organisation was barely a life at all, so ofc haibara is her real self.
to me it's like haibara considers her time as shiho/sherry as locked behind her in the past, rather than something she wants to move forward into in the way shinichi does. shiho/sherry may as well have died when haibara took the aptx poison intending to commit suicide and instead deaged into haibara. the inaccessibility of haibara's shiho/sherry identities coupled with the lack of incentive to go back is what makes haibara such a good identity compartmentaliser. she has neither need nor want to conflate them.
it's really telling that even though haibara is the one who created the prototype antidote, she shows no interest in taking it herself, because there is nothing remaining for her in her former life as shiho--akemi, the only person she loved and the only person who loved her, is dead. everything important to her is in her life as haibara. she only returns to her adult body in two instances, both of which were in order to save the life of someone she had grown to love as haibara when she couldn't manage it in her child body. the first time was to stop the black org from finding out about the deaging in order to protect conan as well as herself, because pisco had known her as a child and would have recognised her immediately. the second time was to save the detective boys from a fire when they were all locked inside a cabin and only her adult body had the strength to rescue them.
once haibara develops a stable and viable antidote shinichi won't blink twice before taking it, but i think haibara will consider staying as haibara, because everything she cares about came into her life in her capacity as haibara. however, i think she will ultimately still choose to return to shiho because she's pragmatic and also dislikes being trapped in such an inconvenient, boring and unfashionable form. it will just take her a while to adjust to the understanding that everyone who loved her as haibara will still love her as shiho. in the letter akemi left her in the time capsule case, akemi told haibara to fly straight and true like a silver bullet, and i think haibara will hold onto that.
finally... the fact that haibara named herself 哀 meaning sorrow and THAT is her true self is literally soooo......
FURUYA REI / AMURO TOORU / BOURBON
amuro really truly is a guy who lies. to me, all three of amuro's identities are fundamentally the same and therefore all of them are the true self. he might emphasise different aspects of himself depending on the persona he's operating in at the moment--psb agent furuya rei is more serious and work-oriented, cafe poirot waiter amuro tooru is brighter and more customer service sona, black org agent bourbon is crueller and cockier. but all of the 'distinctive' attributes of each of these identities also surface in other identities, i don't think there's something you can really point to in any of his identities that marks it as a total fabrication (or, on the other hand, a total reflection of truth). for example, amuro may be the civilian identity but it isn't the same as, say, okiya, who IS the fictional 27yo engineering graduate student, and any instances where he isn't are actually akai. even amuro is always as much the capacity for violence as he is the cheerful competent ordinary cafe waiter. when he's lying and manipulating and scheming while in his cafe poirot apron it's all still amuro, it isn't bourbon or furuya acting. if that makes sense. amuro is always capable of everything that's within his skillset, that potential is built into each of his identities.
i think the reason he's able to so flawlessly switch between these three faces does not arise out of a perfect compartmentalisation system like haibara, but rather because they are all true in some way and therefore the only thing he needs to maintain is a situational awareness of who he is speaking with and why. he's so good at being a triple facer because the underlying reasoning driving each of them is the same. since amuro is an extremely utilitarian person who is always running cost-benefit analyses in his head to determine the most optimal choice, i think that's what's behind the differences in persona rather than any actual distinguishing feature.
this blurring becomes really apparent in moments where he's interacting with someone he knows in his capacity as more than one identity (eg akai, shinichi) and it's impossible to tell which face he's wearing. you can see this clearly when he goes to confront okiya at the kudo mansion during the scarlet arc he takes his psb subordinates with him, so he seems to be there in his capacity as furuya, but he's acting with the smug confidence more reminiscent of bourbon... because he is always furuya and amuro and bourbon at the same time. so in a way, amuro is the ultimate example of identity fuckery in conan by not actually being identity fuckery at all.
unrelated but i personally refer to him as amuro because i am a cover respecter 🙂
to me it's like haibara considers her time as shiho/sherry as locked behind her in the past, rather than something she wants to move forward into in the way shinichi does. shiho/sherry may as well have died when haibara took the aptx poison intending to commit suicide and instead deaged into haibara. the inaccessibility of haibara's shiho/sherry identities coupled with the lack of incentive to go back is what makes haibara such a good identity compartmentaliser. she has neither need nor want to conflate them.
it's really telling that even though haibara is the one who created the prototype antidote, she shows no interest in taking it herself, because there is nothing remaining for her in her former life as shiho--akemi, the only person she loved and the only person who loved her, is dead. everything important to her is in her life as haibara. she only returns to her adult body in two instances, both of which were in order to save the life of someone she had grown to love as haibara when she couldn't manage it in her child body. the first time was to stop the black org from finding out about the deaging in order to protect conan as well as herself, because pisco had known her as a child and would have recognised her immediately. the second time was to save the detective boys from a fire when they were all locked inside a cabin and only her adult body had the strength to rescue them.
once haibara develops a stable and viable antidote shinichi won't blink twice before taking it, but i think haibara will consider staying as haibara, because everything she cares about came into her life in her capacity as haibara. however, i think she will ultimately still choose to return to shiho because she's pragmatic and also dislikes being trapped in such an inconvenient, boring and unfashionable form. it will just take her a while to adjust to the understanding that everyone who loved her as haibara will still love her as shiho. in the letter akemi left her in the time capsule case, akemi told haibara to fly straight and true like a silver bullet, and i think haibara will hold onto that.
finally... the fact that haibara named herself 哀 meaning sorrow and THAT is her true self is literally soooo......
FURUYA REI / AMURO TOORU / BOURBON
amuro really truly is a guy who lies. to me, all three of amuro's identities are fundamentally the same and therefore all of them are the true self. he might emphasise different aspects of himself depending on the persona he's operating in at the moment--psb agent furuya rei is more serious and work-oriented, cafe poirot waiter amuro tooru is brighter and more customer service sona, black org agent bourbon is crueller and cockier. but all of the 'distinctive' attributes of each of these identities also surface in other identities, i don't think there's something you can really point to in any of his identities that marks it as a total fabrication (or, on the other hand, a total reflection of truth). for example, amuro may be the civilian identity but it isn't the same as, say, okiya, who IS the fictional 27yo engineering graduate student, and any instances where he isn't are actually akai. even amuro is always as much the capacity for violence as he is the cheerful competent ordinary cafe waiter. when he's lying and manipulating and scheming while in his cafe poirot apron it's all still amuro, it isn't bourbon or furuya acting. if that makes sense. amuro is always capable of everything that's within his skillset, that potential is built into each of his identities.
i think the reason he's able to so flawlessly switch between these three faces does not arise out of a perfect compartmentalisation system like haibara, but rather because they are all true in some way and therefore the only thing he needs to maintain is a situational awareness of who he is speaking with and why. he's so good at being a triple facer because the underlying reasoning driving each of them is the same. since amuro is an extremely utilitarian person who is always running cost-benefit analyses in his head to determine the most optimal choice, i think that's what's behind the differences in persona rather than any actual distinguishing feature.
this blurring becomes really apparent in moments where he's interacting with someone he knows in his capacity as more than one identity (eg akai, shinichi) and it's impossible to tell which face he's wearing. you can see this clearly when he goes to confront okiya at the kudo mansion during the scarlet arc he takes his psb subordinates with him, so he seems to be there in his capacity as furuya, but he's acting with the smug confidence more reminiscent of bourbon... because he is always furuya and amuro and bourbon at the same time. so in a way, amuro is the ultimate example of identity fuckery in conan by not actually being identity fuckery at all.
unrelated but i personally refer to him as amuro because i am a cover respecter 🙂
AKAI SHUICHI / OKIYA SUBARU / RYE
akai is always akai... despite also being a triple facer, i think akai has the most clearly defined distinctions between his identities because the others are literally just covers to him, they aren't real and they can be separated quite easily from himself. when he's okiya, he's okiya. when he's doing akai actions in his okiya disguise, he's akai, and the show will generally highlight this by having him open an eye to reveal the characteristic akai eyebag or superimposing an image of akai next to okiya's face or having him speak/narrate in akai voice. it's literally a silver bullet trait to have your original identity be your true self... this is also connected in my head to akemi's letter to haibara it's kind of like in-canon confirmation that silver bulletism is about that lack of construction and obfuscation of self.
also akai as a person is a pretty honest and straightforward guy, okiya as a person is completely made up so everything okiya says is built on lies but AKAI is different. except for the one extreme lie he's maintaining about scotch's death to amuro but that's an act of kindness not a signal of moral turpitude anyway. akai... is a really nice person...
KUDO SHINICHI / EDOGAWA CONAN
it's no coincidence that the other resident silver bullet is also original identity = true self, even though shinichi is significantly more of a liar than akai is. like... conan literally doesn't exist. shinichi never sees conan as more than a temporary and inconvenient state of being that is inhibiting him from getting back to his real life (AND RAN) and limiting his ability to effectively operate during cases, and he's always trying his hardest to return to being shinichi. unlike haibara, all the people shinichi cares about are attached to his life as shinichi, not as conan. even heiji, who he only became best friends with as conan, is always referring to him as kudo and clearly views him as shinichi rather than conan. haibara refers to him as kudo-kun when they aren't around others, and once kaito's figured out his identity he also thinks of him as a high school detective.
basically the only people in shinichi's life whose relationship with him is purely based on his identity as conan are the detective boys, but shinichi also isn't as attached to the detective boys as haibara is--he's protective of them, but he definitely prefers his same-aged friends, so there's no competition there LOL there's no question that shinichi is who he considers himself to be.
SHARON VINEYARD / CHRIS VINEYARD / VERMOUTH
vermouth is also special because i think that her black org codenamed agent identity is in fact her true one, sharon and chris were simply how she interfaces/interfaced with the public in a less killer-y way, even though i assume that sharon was her original identity (or at least her oldest known one). and that was probably just to further black org objectives anyway since being rich and famous gets her access to more exclusive human and material resources. since she's ageless and basically immortal it's kind of like when gods get bored with divinity and take human forms to go fuck around with the mortals. and also start cultivating their very own personal achilles heels out of a counterintuitive desire for self-sabotage and/or ability testing.
I SIMPLY THINK that it is incredibly touching that vermouth is fully aware that shinichi and ran will be her eventual downfall and she loves them more for it and will protect them even at her own expense!! i think that vermouth is fascinated by the prospect of society destabilisation despite the fact that it runs counter to her own objectives, it takes a lot to make her feel something and i think she treasures the way that shinran give her that experience. this may seem offtopic but MY POINT IS that it's because vermouth is the longlived remorseless manipulative executive agent of the black org that she forms the motivations and relationships most important to her. the ruthless killerism, the lack of moral code, the feminine charm, the nihilism, the fixation on the purity and grace and salvation that ran represents to her... that is all vermouth, even though she first met shinichi and ran as sharon.
vermouth gets extra points for the stylishness of convincingly puppeteering famous mother and daughter civilian identities at the same time and managing to convince the world that the reason they never appeared in the same room together was just because of a family feud. さすが witch of the thousand faces <3
KUROBA KAITO / KAITO KID
on the surface, kaito's identity situation seems similar to amuro's, in that he's equally kaito and equally kid but i would say that it's more that all of kaito's identities are constructed for show rather than a situational prioritisation of traits like amuro does. amuro blends in (OR AT LEAST HE'S SUPPOSED TO), kaito stands out. for kaito everything is a performance and everything is sincere (...just like jaemin!). and i have said this about jaemin before but kaito literally does perform himself and that is his real self. so it's kind of a pointless exercise to look for the truth when kaito himself is diametrically opposed to the concept, or at least like his entire purpose is to obscure the truth for the purpose of entertainment.
notably kid is more polite and mature than kaito but i think it's part of the grand smoke and mirrors act that is his overall persona. both kaito and kid exist for the benefit of the audience. he is a performer he performs that is just what a magician does. and a magician does not reveal his tricks 🤫
HONDO HIDEMI / MIZUNASHI RENA / KIR
we kind of do not have enough canon info about kir and her interiority in order for me to weigh decisively on which of her faces is her true self... i'm sure it isn't kir even though that's how i habitually refer to her, and i think it is probably hidemi but i also think that rena is not as distant from hidemi as eg okiya is from akai. but kir is definitely only a cover fulfilling the same purpose that rye did for akai. i will meditate further on this...
