Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Hayate Reflections: Just How Did Ikusa Strike The Right Pillar?

This week's Hayate reflections is really a reply to Roop Banerjee's comment on last week's article about the good old RG.

So a bit of a recap, in chapter 263 of Hayate (which I never covered in this blog, btw), good old tiny A-tan says that in order to exit the Royal Garden, someone possessing a King's Jewel must come to rescue the person trapped inside (who opened the RG with a King's Jewel in the first place).

Then they gotta go to the Abraxas Pillars and while holding hands, slash the right pillar, which is only one out of 365 pillars. So like liddle A-tan didn't want liddle Hayate to try it and she never told him about these conditions coz she just knew that Hayate would suggest they try it. Anywayz, long story short, when Ikusa comes into the garden, he just casually rescues Athena by striking the right pillar. How did he do it? Why, there's a crying girl in front of him, how could he not do it!?

LOL HATA... brilliant explanation there, huh?

So How Did He Do It?

So like, that leaves a huge plothole, like we know that both Ikusa and Athena survived the trial and are happily outside the Royal Garden by the end of the series, albeit, Ikusa has apparently lost his memories -- which again was never expplained.

So really, how did Ikusa strike the right pillar out of 365 and given that he never had a previous bond of any kind with Athena in the first place, why was he willing to risk his life for such a fool's errand?

Well, I have a theory...

He Didn't...

Ikusa never struck the right pillar in the first place. He and Athena died when they tried it 10 years ago. The Ikusa and Athena we see at the end of the manga are actually doppelgangers taking their physical form but inhabited by one of the many lost spirits inside of the Royal Garden. Naturally, they also inherited the abilities of the originals. Because Athena spent such a long time inside the royal garden, the doppelganger who took her place also assimilated her memories. Of course, there was no time to do this completely for Ikusa, which is why he remembers very little about his family and his past.

Fortunately, whether they are the originals or not, the new inhabitants of the host bodies decided to live their lives as Ikusa and Athena. So in a way, they really are the same persons anyway -- even if they are just copies of the originals.

Also, cockamamie theories aside, It seems pretty clear to me that Hata was also side-shipping Ikusa x Athena. The reason that nothing really came out of it by the finale is because Hata didn't want to die just yet -- kthxbai see ya next week~

Fanart Corner

Got two for you today. Enjoy~
Remind me to take a better pic of this painting. Also, I might digitize this next week.

Hayate became happy with Nagi at the end of the series -- why, even Hata-sensei agrees~


  1. That would explain why ikusa refused to accept hayate as his brother.
    Or...he traded his memories for the right pillar. He used up his cognitive faculties so that he could gain insight about the right pillar and hence became cognitively weak after the incident.
    In any case, the moment Athena had revealed to him the secret to escape from RG, that very moment I knew they would make a good couple. Much better than hayate x Athena which only existed because of the past that they had and ceased to exist because of their ship's non-existent future.

    1. Truthfully, I never saw the appeal of Hayate x Athena -- and I guess I never will. The whole "get your ex back" thing just totally turns me off. To each their own, I suppose.

  2. Somehow I can totally imagine Hata-sensei doing this, specially after knowing Maria to be Hayate's sister.
    In the manga, the source of Ikusa's power was not explained properly, or how he came to be so righteous without Santa's motivation. Hayate just stated that he wasn't someone to you have to be a special kind of people to be able to die. These information would be helpful to find out if there could be another explanations of it.
    Even Yukariko could've done some tricks or hidden some clues there, knowing his father's intention or something. Or the way of their escape was not described there to show that Ikusa and atan's intelligence is beyond our grasp. There's so many chances.

    1. Well, I doubt Hata thought things through properly for a lot of these plot points. He basically revealed that the entire Royal Garden was just a plot device to let Hayate make the choice to give up his life for Nagi.

      Anyway, I just made up the theory in this particular blog post after marathoning the Conjuring movies upon Roop's recommendation.

