KKM Thoughts (Rant) #1 Arrogance?

[lunarsensitive]

I've always been just a lurker in every fandom I've ever taken in interest in, but for some reason, Kyo Kara Maoh has inspired me to actually write something, namely, the first in a series of rants. It may not make sense or even be organized but it is all because I'm a fangirl. ^_

Comments

[lunarsensitive]

You make good points here, and I realize these are basic things I need to address in my rant. :P I see his behavior toward Yuuri in the first few episodes not as arrogance, but more as annoyance and fear because he doesn't want a bad/weak Maoh to take over after the war he esperienced and suffered through because of Stoffel. Cheri was never interested in being the Maoh, and the country paid for it. Wolfram simply is trying to make sure history doesn't repeat itself. Yuuri didn't seem to even want to be the Maoh which confirmed Wolfram's fears. I'd say he was expressing his disappointment more than actually showing arrogance. :) And anything harsh he may have said might have only be said because of the perfume that Yuuri had on.

And the thing about humans could be classified as arrogance, but Wolfram has been told since he was young that humans were evil, blah, blah, blah by his uncle, and then the war proved to him that humans and demons can't be friends. The thing is, whenever he's badmouthing humans, it isn't their weakness he's complaining about, it's their immorality. He's convinced that humans are simply bad. That isn't really arrogance though, that's more like hatred and seeing humans as your enemy.

When Yuuri proves to Wolfram that he wants peace and such and shows his inherent kindness and his passion, Wolfram forms a positive opinion about Yuuri, and knows that Yuuri is not a bad person, but that doesn't mean he thinks that humans in general are good. He has a negative view of humans through most of the series if I remember.

[soypants]

But then again, you have to keep in mind that Wolfram is a prince and the captain of a squad of soldiers and has probably been raised his entire life to think that he's better than everyone else, simply because he was spoiled as a child and the youngest. He's probably been coddled and babied and with that treatment, there is a certain degree of arrogance that comes with it. When you've lived your entire life as the son of a queen and suddenly, some stranger who houses the blood of the enemy claims to take your mother's place, its almost like a joke. And that's really what I think Wolfram was feeling. Like Yuuri was a joke and that there was no way he could possibly claim the highest position in the entire kingdom, to represent all of them, looking and acting the way he did. Wolfram probably held a certain arrogance during their duel that he could definitely beat Yuuri (which he made no secret of) and by that time, the perfume had probably worn off, leaving his words as his true feelings.

And the racism that Wolfram deals with certainly is arrogance. Putting aside the war and just using Wolfram's plain feelings and upbringing as evidence, I have to say that he does feel like he's better than the humans which is, within itself, arrogance. He doesn't just think that humans are evil, he thinks that they are disgusting which is why he doesn't like Conrad touching him and why he dislikes Yuuri so much in the beginning.

He is also very arrogant about war, he glorifies it and leaves out any possibility that the Mazoku could possibly lose against the humans.

Wolfram is also very judgmental of others which is also a form of arrogance.

[lunarsensitive]

But then again, you have to keep in mind that Wolfram is a prince and the captain of a squad of soldiers and has probably been raised his entire life to think that he's better than everyone else, simply because he was spoiled as a child and the youngest. That's probably true for commoners, but there is little evidence that Wolfram thinks he's better than the other nobles. And while he may feel his place in society is "higher" than the commoners, he still respects the commoners. In the episode when they were looking for the demon treasure in the town, they meet and interact with commoners, and Wolfram makes a comment about how they way they live is good too.

When you've lived your entire life as the son of a queen and suddenly, some stranger who houses the blood of the enemy claims to take your mother's place, its almost like a joke. And that's really what I think Wolfram was feeling. I agree, but that feeling has to be stronger than just a feeling of superiority or arrogance; it would be more like outrage, wouldn't it?

Wolfram probably held a certain arrogance during their duel that he could definitely beat Yuuri (which he made no secret of) and by that time, the perfume had probably worn off, leaving his words as his true feelings. Since Wolfram is an extremely prideful demon, even knowing that he made a mistake with the duel, it would look bad if he admitted his mistake and took it back. Even if the perfume wore off, that doesn't mean that his feelings were the same. And since Yuuri didn't even know how to sword fight, Wolfram felt even more validated with what he was saying. Here was a boy who didn't even know something basic. But again, that isn't really arrogance. Anybody who goes to military academy knows how to sword fight. It isn't really considered something special. I'm just saying that most demons in his place would have reacted the same way.

He did however not try his best during the sword fight which is why Yuuri won. That was overconfidence on Wolfram's part (which I think is a little different from plain arrogance but it's close enough.) I think the duel is really the only example of Wolfram being arrogant. His behavior was bad, even if he essentially thought he was exposing Yuuri as a fraud, and in the end he awakened the Maoh. XD But, he was also ready to die when the Maoh was crushing him (in the novels at least.)

Putting aside the war and just using Wolfram's plain feelings and upbringing as evidence, I have to say that he does feel like he's better than the humans which is, within itself, arrogance. Maybe. I do agree that he thinks humans are morally inferior which may seem arrogant, but he only reacts to humans after he feels they've proven their evilness. He doesn't generally go around talking badly of humans.

He doesn't just think that humans are evil, he thinks that they are disgusting which is why he doesn't like Conrad touching him and why he dislikes Yuuri so much in the beginning. His feelings towards Conrad are more complicated than just his attitude towards humans. His remarks towards Conrad are only meant for him, but as I said before, he loves and respects him. And when he is surrounded by humans in the human village in the first few episodes, he doesn't show any feelings of disgust toward the humans in the village that was attacked.

Comment continued

[lunarsensitive]

He is also very arrogant about war, he glorifies it and leaves out any possibility that the Mazoku could possibly lose against the humans. As I said before, Wolfram feels he has to maintain a facade, but when Conrad and his men were leaving for that battle, Wolfram was very worried and wanted Yuuri to give them flowers. Also, if Wolfram truly gloried war, he wouldn't be for peace, because he would feel that Shin Makoku would be able to conquer the world and what not, and show the humans the error of their ways. But Wolfram IS for peace. Yuuri himself figures this out (in the novel) when Wolfram seems excited about Yuuri's idea to find the demon sword in order to prevent war.

Wolfram is also very judgmental of others which is also a form of arrogance. If you mean judgemental towards Yuuri, then I explained my opinion that he just wants Yuuri to be a good king, so he's constantly pointing Yuuri in the "right" direction.

[lunarsensitive]

I hope my tone isn't argumentative :/ I just wanted to express my opinion fully. This rant is really directed to Wolfram-bashers who think that Yuuri could never feel anything romantic towards Wolfram.

[soypants]

The Wolfram I have been referring to, the the Wolfram in the very very beginning of the series, I think that he began to change almost instantly after the duel with Yuuri, but before that I still have to say that he was arrogant, which makes his change into the mature person he is even more dramatic and tangible. I respect your opinions and I'm not trying to argue or discourage you, I was just stating what my personal interpretation of Wolfram's character is because really, everyone has a different view of who he is and for what reasons he's like that

[kudouusagi]

I hate to say this but there is a huge difference between what the English speaking fandom thinks about the characters and what is actually true >.>

1 Wolfram is NOT a captain of any soldiers. Never has been. He has never been in any major wars. Conrad and Gwendal have commented on this many times.

2 Celi was NOT the Maou his whole life. The Maou is decided very randomly by Shinou. One day a messenger comes and says "Hey you're the new maou now" and you do it. I don't know exactly when she became Maou but it was definitely after Wolfram was born, and it was only about 20 years ago that Wolfram moved to Blood pledge castle as a representative of Bielefild. Before her was a king (who now follows her around as her servant because he is in love with her >.>)

[soypants]

Thanks for the info~ I'd never heard of that before :D

[lunarsensitive]

Wolfram is NOT a captain of any soldiers. Never has been. He has never been in any major wars. Conrad and Gwendal have commented on this many times. I think I read somewhere that Wolfram fought in battles, and I assumed they were small battles. Is that right? I'm also interested in what Gwendal and Conrad think about his lack of experience. :D

it was only about 20 years ago that Wolfram moved to Blood pledge castle as a representative of Bielefild. So was Wolfram living with his uncle that entire time before he came to the capital? Can you tell me whose idea it was that he come there? And do you know how much time Wolfram actually spent living in the same place as Conrad? Sorry, my mind is just about to explode with this new information. :) It seems I hardly know anything about Wolfram since he doesn't get any back story at all in the anime, sadly. :(

Thanks so much for sharing this info! ^_^

[kudouusagi]

I don't know the answer to that exactly... I know at times of war anyone with "kyou" after their name gets called to war, and Aristocrats are by definition part of the military. As soon as they are of age they are expected to go to war if there is a war. Now was Wolfram of age at that time?..... not sure... he was only in his 50s-60s.... hmm... I'll have to look into this more... But he definitely wasn't in any major battles. He's really skillful but that's mostly just from training.

It's really vague sometimes >.<;... most of the back story comes from Gunter's journal or from people talking. I don't know how much time he has spent with Conrad... I know that Conrad was there when he was born, Gwendal wasn't. Gwendal was in Voltaire at that time.

[lunarsensitive]

Aristocrats are by definition part of the military. As soon as they are of age they are expected to go to war if there is a war. Now was Wolfram of age at that time?..... not sure... he was only in his 50s-60s.... hmm... I'll have to look into this more... But he definitely wasn't in any major battles. He's really skillful but that's mostly just from training.

Ah, then I guess Wolfram didn't choose to go to military academy but he went because he was expected to?

most of the back story comes from Gunter's journal or from people talking.

Wow, I didn't know Gunter's journal was a source of information. That's pretty cool.

I don't know how much time he has spent with Conrad...

Awww. Though now I get the feeling that Conrad really didn't raise Wolfram. In the anime, Conrad talks about changing his diapers and stuff, but that could have been just when he was a baby. Thanks so much for answering my questions. :)

[diorama23]

I never thought Wolfram was captain but I thought he had his own squad of men, more due to the fact that he's a lord, the next heir of Bielefeld...but perhaps that could be fanon. I never thought he fought in any major wars the last one he was too young but I got the impression he might have seen limited combat, skirmishes etc, maybe even just against bandits.

[soypants]

I read somewhere that he actually did fight in the war for a short time or something along those lines. I wish he had gotten a back story episode in the anime ;A;