Maka vs Crona episode 20-21
When writing fiction, there are many points that can end up becoming the defining moment where a story peaks as a tale.
The final climax is ideally when this happens, and the amount of times when that is the case aren't exactly rare.
However it is just as common for stories to peak early.
Goku versus Freeza on Namek is generally considered far, far better than Goku's many, many following bouts, Tolkiens battles of Helm's Deep and the Pellenor fields, climaxing with Aragon's sudden appearance with the rest of the Southern Gondor Forces is generally remembered far more than the battle at the black gate or the scouring of the shire, while One Piece has tried, and failed consistently to recapture the glory that was Water 7 and Enies Lobby that together formed the absolute best story in Shonen.
As for Soul Eater, wheter looking at the Anime, or the Manga, it is not exactly a controversial statement that neither qualifies as it's absolute best. The manga ended on a terrible note, while the Anime while sticking true to it's themes, didnt quite hit the landing as good as it could have.
What both have in common though, is the moment where their tales peaked.
The Rematch between Crona Gorgon and Maka Albarn beneath the halls of the school leading up to the ressurection of Kishin Asura.
Rematches are always a fun thing in fiction, for a variety of reasons.
The most obvious is simply seeing how characters have grown or regressed since last time they brawled, but the simple fact is that rematches are baked into stories where there is conflict.
The Hero suffering an early loss, then facing their earlier foe only to emerge thriumphant is baked into the Storytelling DNA of the Human race. It's one of the most important parts of the Hero's journey for a reason, and you will find COUNTLESS examples of it, especially in shonen, which thrives on conflict and battles between individuals.
Ichigo vs Byakuya, Luffy vs Crocodile/Lucci/Katakuri/Kizaru/etc, team 7 vs Zabuza, and so on.
In the case of Soul Eater's rematch, on paper, and how it's set upon it's start, this battle is very much set up as a classic revenge rematch. Crona and Ragnarok obliterated Maka and Soul the last time they met, and now it's time to turn the tables.
It starts off with a kickass action scene where Maka has learned from her mistakes in the earlier fight, and so uses Crona as a punching bag rather than something to cut...
It event has both combatants trash talking the other... Everything is set up for a good grudge match.
The funny thing is though, that this could not be further from what this fight is actually about.
Because after that exciting action opening, that is meant to contrast with the first one sided fight, it almost immediatly switch gears to what it is actually about.
Maka and Crona as people, their flaws, their strenght, how both of them act as foils and mirrors, and brings out sides from the other that the story has not shown us before.
The first such moment is a follow-up to something Crona said in their first match.
"I don't know how to handle pretty girls"
That was a compliment, though obviously not meant as direct flirting, and this new line isnt either.
"S-stop. I can't look directly at people with big, strong eyes."
Crona looks at Maka as, in her own way someone to be admired... Because Maka has something Crona does not, and wants. Confidence, strenght, beauty.
Crona is both terrified of Maka... But also admires her at the same time.
The trash talk has nothing to do with bravery, or even looking down on Maka... Instead it's an attempt at putting up a brave front so the problem at hand will go away... But the moment Maka refuses to do so, and instead stares Crona down, Crona immediatly begins to crumble and instictively back down in front of Maka's cool and confident gaze.
Also while the fight goes on, a lot things happens concurrently. Not much of it is important for the Fight, but the other big battle taking place, is. Medusa vs Stein and Spirit.
This fight has two purposes, in regards to Maka vs Crona. The first is to give us Medusa's opinion and testimony regarding how she raised Crona, and thus we, the audience does not need Crona to make a long monologue about their past while talking to Maka.
Spirit is absolutely certain that his little girl will win this fight. He has the bravery to trust in her, and her capacities, even after what happened the last time she fought Crona.
By contrast Medusa believes Crona will win because of logic, and calls spirit's faith in Maka "Blind Parental Love."
The funny thing is, they are both right.
Crona IS stronger than Maka... Yet Maka will ulimately win.
Their conversation also serves to contrast both of their children, and how they grew up. Medusa raised Crona as a weapon that is desperate for her approval and love. This will in turn be hammered in by Crona's own rather depressing flashback.
Meanwhile Maka was raised with love and care. It was not a perfect home by any stretch, brought down by adultery, abandonment and the blame game as everyone blames someone else, rather than accept the bigger picture(Maka blames her dad for everything rather than fully accept that her mother abandoned her, Spirit blames himself for his weakness rather than lay any blame at his exwife for abandoning his daughter and running off rather than take the parental responsibility she took claim too by fighting for Maka's custody, while mrs Albarn used her husband's infidelity as an excuse/justification to in turn abandon her own child).
Ultimately what this fight is all about, is both of these children finally beginning their journey to healing from the wounds left behind by their childhoods.
It also shows the values both Medusa and Spirit passed on to their children. Medusa twisted her child by instilling values like not killing... Then deliberatly forced her child to either break those values, or lose her affection, speciffically to emotionally break Crona down into an obedient weapon.
By contrast, Spirit, upon hearing Crona's backstory reacts with compassion, empathy, and understanding. And as the fight between Maka and Crona rages on, Maka will make it clear, that despite all of her protestantions to the contrary, she is her father's child.
The fight that follows between the next generation is a nice spectacle, but the next important development comes as both of the two meisters soul ressonance with their weapons, with Maka betting it all on her Witch Hunter, her strongest move...
And Crona completely blocks it with no problems, with a simple armguard, breaking the technique.
This moment is important for two reasons.
The first is the way it hammers in the point and themes that will later be repeated beat for beat during the climax of the series where Asura does this exact same thing to Maka's strongest technique in terms of raw power in either the manga or the anime, the Kishin Hunter, the same move that Shinigami used to beat and batter Asura around with ease.
Strength and Power will NOT beat madness and fear.
You cannot defeat fear, lonliness and depression by strength of arms, no matter how strong you are.
That is why ultimately Black Star and Kid will all ultimately fail to defeat Asura, and why Shinigami at his prime ultimately could not do it either, being forced to simply seal Asura away instead. Because every one of them faced this problem of trying to conquer their fears by using overwhelming force.
And they failed. Just like Maka fails here.
To defeat it you need something more, something completely different than might and power.
The second thing, and why this specific moment is what prompts Crona into going into a flashback right now, is that upon blocking Maka's best attack with ease, Crona suddenly has a spike of confidence, and lashes out, and brings Maka to her knees.
And it brings us into the next section of the fight, as we explore another aspect of fear, madness, and bravery.
"Weakness can imitate strength if bound properly, just as cowardice can imitate heroism if given nowhere to flee."
This is not a quote from Soul Eater, instead being from the Stormlight Archives, but it encapsulates the Theme of the next section of the fight perfectly.
Crona is not brave. The sudden burst of confidence did not lead to a turn around where Crona confidently and bravely defeated Maka in combat.
It was the lashing out of a scared child with nowhere to run, who HAS to win this fight, even if Crona does not want to be here at all. That one moment simply gave Crona the push to unleash an overwhelming assault of power that Maka could not match.
Weakness can masquarade as strength, and Cowardice can pretend to be bravery if it has nowhere to flee.
Which is why this in turn leads Crona compares Maka to the first creature Medusa forced Crona to kill.
The Fact is Crona has no idea how to interact with Maka, either as an enemy, a rival, someone who Crona finds Attractive and cool, or just a human being in general... So it sorta just jumbles together into a mess.
But Crona has not had the option of running away from either of their two fights, and so has been forced to actually interact with Maka, and so is completely all over the map in how to deal with her. Sometimes it sounds like Crona is hitting on her, cause she's an attractive girl as far as Crona is concerned, sometimes Crona puts up a brave face, sometimes tries to decisively kill her, and so on.
Which is why this in turn leads Crona compares Maka to the first creature Medusa forced Crona to kill.
We don't really know exactly how Medusa raised Crona before this point, but there are several important points to note here.
Crona understands at some level here that killing is, fundamentally wrong. When Medusa tells Crona to murder this thing, Crona does not want to do it, nor how to actually muster the will to actually kill.
1. is that Medusa deliberately raised Crona to be unprepared for this task. As Crona's mother, it would have been incredibly easy for her to raise her child with a far, far more viscious and brutal attitude against killing other living things.
But that is not what Medusa wanted. She wanted a broken and obedient weapon, an experiment she wanted to test and prod to see the reactions out of.
She WANTS Crona to not go through with it, and to be reluctant to do it at all, in order for the subsequent "Lesson" regarding obeying her speciffically no matter what, would hit as hard as it possibly could.
Upon little Crona's refusal to go through with it, she then locks Crona in a dark room with no food or water for days, alone with Ragnarok that bullies and beats Crona up for failing at the "task".
And when Crona still doesnt immidiatly go through with it, she throws Crona right back in, and blames it on her own kid again, hammering in the "lesson" that this Crona's own fault for being a "Bad kid".
this is all brutal, but it leads us into the second point to take from the way she raised Crona before this.
Crona WANTS affection from other people... But Medusa only gives it on a conditional basis, but also very deliberatly isolates Crona from ANYONE ELSE to the point where Crona doesnt even have contact with animals.
In the end, this does lead to Crona finally going through with it.
There is a very deliberate difference at this point between Manga and Anime though.
In the Manga, the animal that Medusa wanted Crona to kill was a defenseless, cute bunny, to further hammer in just how defenceless it is. The anime though, probably for censorship reasons was forced to drop this imagery... So they did something better instead, that connects it to what Maka and Soul are about to do.
in the anime, the animal is a small, dragon, unicorn thing that breathes fire, and upon first meeting it, Crona is for obvious reasons terrified of this thing, flinching away as it unleashes a jet of flame.
But after being starved, denied water, and physically abused by Ragnarok, Crona is let out from the room a third time. And this time, the reality that if Crona does not murder this thing, it will be right back to the room has set in... So when the dragon thing breathes fire right at Crona's face again, Crona doesnt even Flinch.
The fear is not gone though. it's just that with nowhere to flee, Crona mimics bravery, by embraces madness in order to not have to deal with the very real fear at facing the fire.
Crona is able to pretend to be both strong, and brave, by giving all in to madness.
The funny thing is though... Maka and Soul do the EXACT same thing.
Upon their tactic of just throw themselves in to the fight and hope to crush Crona with overwhelming force and power doesnt work, they instead decide to try to beat Crona and Ragnarok at their own game, by giving all in to the power of the black blood that makes Crona so powerful, with no heed of the dangers of embracing madness.
This moment, and the subsequent beatdown that Maka delivers is probably the single most iconic moment in the soul eater franchise.
Maka going completely nuts, completely unheeding of danger or any sense of tactics or morality, as she kicks Crona's ass, is Soul Eater's best action scene as it not only is visually stunning and entertaining to watch... but PERFECTLY encapsulates the stories Themes.
Maka wants to win this fight, and so she throws herself into a course of action that at first glance might seem to be brave... Giving up your sanity for power to win.
If Soul Eater was a story about people sacrificing themselves for the greater good, this might work, but it's not.
Soul Eater is ultimately a story about bravery, and bonds. About how it's people coming together despite all their differences, that makes life so worth living.
Sacrificing yourself... or others, is the cowards way out. It solves nothing.
Maka is not brave as she faces Crona withouth a hint of fear. Just like Crona prentended to be brave in order to have the capacity to kill that dragon thing, so Maka pretends to be brave by throwing away all her fears and sanity for power.
And in the end, embracing Madness only leads to Maka munching and gnawing on Crona's skull, having completely lost her marbles.
It's a different kind of defeat, but it still harkens back to her previous failure.
You cannot defeat fear by removing it, and pretending it isn't there... no more than you can do it with power.
Having completely lost herself to madness at this point, the only possibility left for Maka at this point, is to reassess her surroundings, and pull herself back from the edge.
And so, pulling on her speciality as a meister, her ability to sense and read souls, she begins that journey by reconnecting to her own soul, noting how it's such a small and fragile thing... surrounded by madness, it's so easy to fall in... And that's withouth jumping head first like she and Soul did.
And of course, being directly connected to her through the black blood currently steeping her very being, she also feels the soul of her best friend and partner Soul Eater Evans, a twisted, yet great guy who is always willing to listen to her, even when she's being selfish.
It is then though that Maka is drawn to another soul, one that fascinates her far more than either her own, or Soul Eater's soul.
Now the anime doesnt fully make it clear why Maka is immediatly so facinated by this soul... Crona's soul, but it's very clear that she is immediatly drawn to seek it out.
The manga however, makes the reasoning abundantly clear. She finds the soul beautiful for reasons she probably doesnt fully understand herself.
Regardless, she bonds with it, embracing it, and what it holds inside just like she did with her own soul, craddling it to her heart as she delves into it's mysteries.
It's mysteries is a beach with no water, an unatural thing, where there should be beauty and life, and yet is as as devoid of both as the desert it so resembles.
This is Crona's soulscape, the defining mental landscape of the young Demon swordmaster's psyche, as defining for Crona as Soul's jazz and piano room is for him.
It is here that we meet Crona's inner self, a young child, who deliberately draws a circle to be separate from the world... And yet so, so badly wants there to be someone, ANYONE else there.
And yet, when a companion appears, Crona's own shadow, Crona rejects it in a sad, yet resigned way, refusing to answer questions, passing on every one of them, until finally driving the shadow away as it becomes frustrated.
Now the questions are important in how Crona feels, but the actual takeaway isnt the answers, but how Crona refuses to respond to any of them, even completely obvious ones.
Crona does not know how to do so. Medusa's parenting and deliberate isolating her own child from any form of interactions besides her has completely and totally stunted Crona's growth, hence why here, inside Crona's own head it's back to the childhood self, not the teenage years Crona has entered into.
Which brings us to Crona's relationship with Maka. As bizarre as it might seem, Crona's interactions with Maka is the closest thing to actual socialization with another human being besides Medusa that Crona has ever had.
Because Maka by virtue of opposing Crona and refusing to back down has forced Crona out of that figurative sand circle, and actually had to interact with someone else. It was all over the place, but it was real, genuine, human interaction.
Hence why Crona thinks back to Maka in this moment as the shadow leaves, yet another lost opportunity that Crona let slip for interaction.
it's at this point that Maka, having now fully connected to Crona's soul, makes her appearance, in the form of her younger self with an adorable, lion's roar, scaring Crona, who protests that nobody else can be here, that this is where Crona is supposed to be alone from anyone else.
Maka does not care, and instead, upon being told of the circle's supposed purpose, destroys it by literarily stamping it out.
This completely destabilzes Crona's entire soul.
And upon returning to the physical plane, having left behind the Black blood and it's madness, Maka is face to face to a Crona who is having a form of seizure. All the methaphysical and psycological barriers that Crona has put up against the world have now been broken by Maka's actions, and is currently taking the form of the black blood inside of Crona's body shooting out everywhere in the form of spikes.
From a tactical perspective, this is a great development. Crona is wide open and immobilized, so now is either the perfect time to take another shot with Witch Hunter, or to just leave Crona behind to go join Kid and Black Star.
However, things have changed.
instead of doing either of those, Maka leaves Soul behind(much to his suprise and confusion), and withouth a weapon, completely calmly, walks up towards Crona, while talking in a kind, calm tone... The kind one does to someone who is freaking out and needs help.
And she keeps going forwards, despite the spikes that keep shooting forward almost impaling her every time.
In many ways, it resembles the kind of just abandoning fear to try to overcome it that she just tried to use to win this fight... But it's not.
Maka UNDERSTANDS Crona now. She knows what drives Crona to the core... And so she believes that Crona does not want to hurt her.
She doesnt know this. She fully understands that Crona might just kill her on accident... But she does it anyway.
She takes the risk that comes with this march forward, because she WANTS to connect further with Crona. Crona needs help, and maka wants to give that help.
That is bravery. True bravery, not the kind of bravado that drove her to take Crona on to begin with because she wanted to avenge her previous loss.
It is also insane. Pure madness... And yet it works.
Once more, she connects her soul to Crona, but this time, it's the opposite way, instead of delving into Crona's soul, she instead opens her own heart to Crona, to show that she understands.
Crona in response completely calms down, and after Maka lays out that she finally understands how Crona has never had anyone reach out and offer human contact before, Crona is... suprisingly at peace.
Crona still thinks that Medusa will now move and and that the time has come for mom to make good on her promises that Crona is expendable... And yet it somehow doesnt matter anymore.
Crona long ago gave up hope for physical, and emotional human contact with anyone, and now that someone finally has given Crona just that... That's enough.
It's time for Crona to just dissapear into the ether... To which Maka, very softly, but firmly delivers one of her book chops to get Crona's attention and out of the ending it all mindset.
Rather than let Crona continue on in this suicidal mindset, Maka instead takes the next step, and offers Crona the one thing that surpasses even the low, low bar of basic human contact and compassion. Her hand in friendship.
An offer that brings Crona to total tears of happiness and joy, and as the two of them grabs the others hands, they once more bare their souls to the other, while Soul Eater Evans looks on, and addmits to himself that Crona's great fear, of contact with other people is a fear that he too shares.
Just like Crona... And just like Maka, he too ran away from that very thing... But as the Manga shows in his thoughts, despite running away from his brother, he managed to find the very thing he ran away here at this school, in the form of Maka, blair, black star, tsubaki, death the kid, liz and patty... just like Crona now found Maka.
It's an astonishingly strong and powerful fight that encapsulates absolutely every theme and idea about bravery, madness, human companionship that the story had, while utilizing it's cast to the fullest, while also making use of it's power system to forge one of the strongest bonds in Manga.
However, we still have one final thing to discuss before we're done.
as we get as shot of Maka and Crona in Crona's soul scape once again, this time happy and smiling, hand in hand, the ocean finally begins, turning the desolate sands into beauty, washing over and then pulling back again, leaving the landscape actually alive, rather than the desolate, and lifeless void it was, and we end the episode on a special animation for the ending credit song.
That song is Soul Eater's second ending Theme, Style, and as we do a deep dive over Maka and Crona's development, we need to also go over it, and what it means, while also answering another question.
Why did Maka appear in the form of her kid self when she dove into Crona's soul scape?
the answer ties into why Maka and Crona made such incredible good foils and parallels for each other in this episode, and why both of them ultimately forged such a powerfull bond from these events.
Style you see, is a story told from the point of view of a child who is just making a new best friend by taking a risk and opening their door. It's about adults desperate to forge a "perfect future" like cogs in a machine, rather living in the moment, embracing everything as it comes, and asking god to make sure to record every one of the memories so they would be able to look back at these moments forever.
It is very much a soul eater styled song, but more importantly, it's a song that was very much chosen speciffically for Maka and Crona.
in a meta sense their relationship is DEFINED by this song, given how the episode ends with a special ending just for the two of them.
Maka and Crona's growth as people, are both defined by going forward... By going back and embracing their childhoods. More speciffically, what they both lost during it.
Crona lost both Childhood innocence, kindness and seemingly any chance to ever have friends and make normal, healthy human bond ever again.
Maka lost her ability to trust easily, became spiteful, hyperagressive, and lost her natural childhood kindness to others.
And both of them lost all of it, because of their parents. Crona lost it because of abuse, victim blaming, grooming and being treated as a weapon, rather than a child to be loved and nurtured.
Maka meanwhile lost all of the kinder, gentler, and trusting aspects of herself because of having to grow up and constantly see the dad she loved and looked up to cheat on her mother, and then subsequently being abandoned by that same mother, rather than have her serve as a source of strenght in her hour of need.
And through this newfound bond, both of them are able to regain all of it. That is the true beauty of Maka and Crona's relationship.
It's not as if all their problems go away, or their personalities go back to from before... the past, and how it has affected both of them is not ignored, or backtracked. but the path forward is a blend of what came before, and what they have become... while hopefully leaving behind the worst aspects of what they became at their worst.
Maka thinks Crona's soul is beautiful because deep down Crona is someone who wants to be kind and who thinks of others before themselves. all encapsulated by Crona's cute smile. That in turn brings out all of those feelings and emotions that Maka has tried so, so hard to bury to never be hurt again.
Crona thinks Maka is beautiful because she is a confident, brave, kind girl, who was willing to give even someone like Crona love, friendship, support and help even while being enemies. And in turn that makes Crona somehow reawaken the hopes, dreams and Values that Medusa cultivated just to deliberately murder for her own ends.
They both help the other to eventually get over their trauma in their own way and embrace their best selves... Despite the insane chance that Maka took to forge this relationship with someone she had no reason to even like, they were both so much stronger for it.
because they had the bravery, and madness to try.
Bravery and Madness, two sides to one coin.
And it all began here, over the course of two episodes.
