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Alright so, the purpose of this thread is to establish a nearly universal ability that everyone in the Kill The Past series has access to. That is, the ability to sense threats and other things. But let's go in order.
Moving on, combat skill seems to be tied to instincts/bloodlust/criminal power. Again, criminal power can make normal people more dangerous than trained elite troops, criminal power allows one to pull off crazy feats, sensing bloodlust is something that can be trained, Native Dancer seems to treat bloodlust/killer instinct as evidence of Travis' skill and so on. On its own this doesn't mean anything concrete, I'm just bringing it up as a general rule.
Up until now, I've mostly been talking about combatants, or at least criminals, but this ability to perceive things is universal to humanity. In The Silver Case, people feel that Kamui is approaching, as shown by the amount of Kamui-related internet activities spiking. The very war between political parties in 1990s Tokyo is just born of instinct instead of actual reasoning.
But if you think that's not enough examples, and I could agree, worry not, I gathered a few more. To be precise, OVER 140 EXAMPLES of characters showing or being hinted to have the ability to instinctually sense things. I'm not going to bring up any specific examples unless asked since this thread would be twice as long if I did, but a lot of these are performed by normal people, especially those from The Silver Case trilogy or Hand in Killer7.
Definition of Instincts/Bloodlust/Criminal Power
- What "instincts" are should be pretty self-evident, but I should establish that Instinctive Reaction is a very common power in Suda51's works. Travis Touchdown is the most notable example, especially in his NMH3 key, but other characters like Bad Girl have even better showings.
- Now, "bloodlust" could throw off some people, since it doesn't align with the meaning that VSBW uses, which is to say losing all restraints and fighting optimally. Here, it's the willingness/eagerness to fight and kill that many characters exhibit. Once again, it's a very common trope in Suda51's games, and most of the time it's shown to us, it's through another character's sense for bloodlust picking up on it. Again, Travis has a lot of examples this, but he is far fromthe only case.
- Finally, "criminal power" is a more specific term mostly used in The Silver Case and The 25th Ward and is the least important term out of these three, but I wanted to bring it up anyway. It's tied to Kamui in a very hazy way that gives us little factual information (I wrote about Kamui's effects on those coming into contact with him here), but that's not important at the moment. What does matter is that, ultimately, it's a willingness/eagerness to kill, which ties it pretty heavily to bloodlust. It is also brought up in works unrelated to The Silver Case, so it's not necessarily tied to Kamui in origin.
Why does this matter?
The reason I'm bringing all of this up is to prove that characters sensing things in Suda51's works is not just a plot armor-y way for characters to realize something's about to happen, but a very real and tangible element in these stories. Here's some more evidence of that, as well as evidence that these three things are tied to each other: A 'certain ability' beyond brute strength or weaponry is said to be a power of sorts, that those who wield can see in others. Criminal power can make normal people more dangerous than trained elite troops. It is also said to be a type of almost tangible mental energy. Intuition is often straight-up necessary to chase certain sorts of beings. Killer Instincts and bloodlust are seemingly related. Fighters draw their power from their instincts which are powered by their emotions, and the more experienced and powerful ones draw power from emotions even more primal than spite and anger.Moving on, combat skill seems to be tied to instincts/bloodlust/criminal power. Again, criminal power can make normal people more dangerous than trained elite troops, criminal power allows one to pull off crazy feats, sensing bloodlust is something that can be trained, Native Dancer seems to treat bloodlust/killer instinct as evidence of Travis' skill and so on. On its own this doesn't mean anything concrete, I'm just bringing it up as a general rule.
Up until now, I've mostly been talking about combatants, or at least criminals, but this ability to perceive things is universal to humanity. In The Silver Case, people feel that Kamui is approaching, as shown by the amount of Kamui-related internet activities spiking. The very war between political parties in 1990s Tokyo is just born of instinct instead of actual reasoning.
But if you think that's not enough examples, and I could agree, worry not, I gathered a few more. To be precise, OVER 140 EXAMPLES of characters showing or being hinted to have the ability to instinctually sense things. I'm not going to bring up any specific examples unless asked since this thread would be twice as long if I did, but a lot of these are performed by normal people, especially those from The Silver Case trilogy or Hand in Killer7.
Conclusion
- Every human character in KTP (I would extend it to non-human ones since it's more of a personality thing IMO but I have no evidence of that) gets limited Extrasensory Perception/Precognition by virtue of being capable of sometimes perceiving things such as others' power, or dangerous events about to happen.
- All human characters who are capable of combat lose the "limited" part as their instincts/bloodlust grows with their skill. As additional evidence for that, Travis straight-up mentions that, since Shinobu's as bloodlusted as he is,he would be unable to pull any sneak attacks on her. This again hints at a certain level of bloodlust being the source of abilities such as perceiving others' bloodlust. So, most NMH assassins, Killer7 killers, and Killer Is Dead... killers... should get the same instinctual abilities given to those in the same profession that are less successful than them. Here's the abilities:
- Again, they lose the "limited" part of Extrasensory Perception, evenrelatively low tier fighters (Per the series' standards, I mean. Hell the last guy isn't even a combatant) are capable of sensing people's bloodlust and presence.
- Precognition. Once again, scaling off people who by all rights should be assumed to have less honed senses, who are capable of sensing incoming events, such as two goons feeling something awful about to come after a random call telling them they'll die, an incredibly inexperienced Shiroyabu realizing he's about to get shot, or a random doctor feeling a dark premonition of an encounter with Harman Smith, which will lead to his death.
- Instinctive Reaction. A fighter's instincts are honed as they become more powerful, with even pro bikers being capable of entering a state where their bodies react to issues automatically and entire species of alien warriors being capable of fighting through sheer instinct. Various highly skilled fighters such as Travis Touchdown, Shinobu Jacobs or The Killer7 have shown the ability to predict attacks instinctually.
Random Killer Is Dead (Game) Additions????
This has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the CRT, but here's a few additions for Mondo Zappa. To be honest, I really just didn't want to make another thread just for this.- Afterimage Creation (Can move fast enough to leave afterimages)
- Explosion Manipulation (Can punch the ground and cause an explosion)
- Vibration Manipulation (Can cause a shockwave by plunging his sword into the ground)
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