Is Bell's Dark Side Skuld? (From The Megami ML) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >On Fri, 30 May 1997, Henry J. Cobb wrote: > > >"Leonard Tai" > >That dark side of Belldandy's is disappearing if Kosuke Fujishima's current > >trend keeps up. > > What if her dark side is getting concentrated into another form, which > has yet to be introduced? Oh, but it has. That'd be Skuld. Many of the less pleasant qualities, especially the belligerence (towards Urd in particular) manifested by the character of Belldandy in the early volumes were transferred to the character of Skuld after volume 5. Basically, Skuld could do all the fighting with Urd that comedy required; also, within the context of the story, once Skuld showed up soebody had to be the grown-up in the house (Bell, for all practical purposes, has had to become a mother to Skuld), and Urd and Keiichi were clearly not mature enough to play the role. For Bell to remain as explosive as she often was early on was neither necessary nor desirable for dramatic purposes, and those parts of her character gradually disappeared. It actually makes a great deal of sense for Skuld to be a less pleasant manifestation of the chief elements of Bell's character. There are several reasons for this; I'll discuss the principal two reasons briefly below: a. Skuld is Bell's full sister, and as such is a rationalist like her full sister, which her interest and abilities in science and technology, which she shares with Bell (who herself far exceeds the abilities of most humans in engineering, though Skuld's almost certainly superior) reflect (as opposed to the irrationalist Urd, who's more at home with magic and the non-scientific). It's true--she's a genius, and there's probably few scientific problems she could not solve with some effort. Problem: She _knows_ she's a genius, which not only leads her to overestimate her admittedly great abilities (she did appear baffled when her "perfect" machines don't work the first time), but also to not only ignore the possibility of unseen consequences (e.g. Banpei-kun's "crush" on Bell) but also to interfere in Bell's relationship with a fellow her intelligence has judged unworthy of her--regardless of Bell's obvious wishes, to the point where she's as much a nuisance or more as Urd, and as such even more an obstacle to Bell's duty and the will of Kami-sama than the half-demon her half-sister. b. The original Skuld of Norse myth was the most malevolent of the Norns, frustrating the good fates pronounced by the other two sisters. She was also said to be one of the Valkryies who carried the souls of fallen soldiers to Asgard; those two elements coupled together made her a dark figure indeed, a sort of angel of death, which, after all, is the future fate of us all. One writer identified her with Hel, the goddess of death herself. Fujishima's Skuld is probably not the angel of death. Belligerent, though, she certainly is, in keeping with her reputation as a goddess of war. c. One possible translation of the name Verdandi is progress (literally, it means something like "becoming"). Skuld means "shall be," but more importantly suggests "should be." Present (capitalist?) progress towards a future state of (socialist?) perfection--a suitably Marxian notion. (This is what happens when an economics major thinks too hard about this stuff...:) ) I fancy a mature Skuld as something of the technological socialist myself, trying to make everything perfect in heaven and earth (for she's well intentioned, to be sure, but then so is Urd) with her mechs, as opposed to the more liberal Bell who wishes everyone only happiness and leaves them go, so long as they don't go near Keiichi (heck, she's said time and again she'd go home if he didn't want her any more, no questions asked). The excess of self-confidence at the back of such attempts would be her undoing, alas; the attempt to impose a vision on others has always leaded to misery, and invariably to war, conflict and chaos. Even her attempts to separate Bell and K1 only make Bell unhappy and K1 annoyed. Hm. Perhaps Skuld's the angel of death after all. I do think she's as liable to be corrupted, or more so, than Urd (though for different reasons). It may be the best goddesses make the best demons. She has, alas, shown herself with the ability and will to place herself in opposition to God's plan if her intellect sees fit. This is not a good sign for the future. Nothing has come of this in the manga, and probably nothing will--there's no need for Fujishima to redo the "Terrrible Master Urd" story. I have, however, seen some work done in fanfiction along these lines (in, for instance, "Malice and Denial" where Skuld helps Mara to kidnap Keiichi), and I find the idea fascinating. The ultrarationalist busybody and sometime goddess of war, a perfect foil to the eternally reasonable, caring, peaceful Belldandy. If you would seek Bell's dark side, look no further than Skuld. Which is not to say I don't like Fujishima's Skuld (on the contrary). But she could well turn out a nasty piece of work. > Belldandy is very ashamed of this other side so she tries to keep it > from K1 and the "Dark Belldandy" acts sweetly so that he'll drop his > guard long enough for her to get her pickaxe out... Or mallet...:) Paul Corrigan budgie@insomnia3.dorms.utoledo.edu "Sometimes I can't believe we're sisters..." "I dunno; makes perfect sense to _me_." ---- A new character has recently been introduced: Velsper/Vesper/Esper, who is the manifestation of Belldandy's 'dark side'. He appeared half a year after this article was written. It seems that if this 'dark side' dies, so will Belldandy; and vice-versa.