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"Yes, father! We're about balance right?" |
A Death God (死神, Shinigami; FUNimation "Grim Reaper") is an extremely powerful True God who presides over balance.[1]
Overview
Appearance
The Death Gods mostly seem to possess the appearance of that of a human.[2] However, a Death God can also assume an inhuman form, much like Death has.[3] It's possible that he also retains a human form as well.[4] Perhaps the most known attribute of the Death God is the Lines Of Sanzu, which seem to be the source of their power.[5][6] Depending on the age, a Death God may or may not have complete lines in the case of Death the Kid. In the case for Asura, however, the Sanzu Lines may also appear differently.
Fragment
Asura and Death the Kid: Fragments of Death himself.
A method in which a Death God can reproduce is to fragment themselves and create a being.[7] The "parent" is able to either make them "complete" or "incomplete". It's also shown that the fragment carries some of the parent's traits, such as Death the Kid's inheriting of the Madness of Order and being born without fear due to Asura harboring Death's former fears within him.[8] While a fragment will have the Soul Wavelength of their parent within their soul, after two connections of the Lines of Sanzu, a Death God can forfeit their own parent's Soul Wavelength with their soul. When this is performed by Death the Kid, in order to power his own attack, he did so because he didn't want to "ride" on his "father's coattails".[9]
Role and Significance
Justin Law performing a prayer to Lord Death.
As True Gods in the world, the role of a Death God is the maintaining of balance and equilibrium between good and evil.[10] As such, they're often perceived to have surpassed human understanding[11] as well as being the very symbol of Order itself.[12] In addition, Death Gods are also authorities over souls.[13] Despite their purpose, however, they're mistakenly often thought of to preside over people's lives and death as well as being absolute authorities of Order itself.[14] As gods too, they're also even worshiped by like the Flying Dutchman, who worships Asura as the Kishin[15] or Justin Law, whom once worshiped Death himself until his defection.[16]
Types of Death Gods
There are several types of Death Gods:
- Immature: An "Immature" Death God refers to a Death God who was born with incomplete Lines of Sanzu, which is something decided by the parent.[17] Because of this, as a Death God grows, their control of the Lines of Sanzu and power expands dependent on age.[18]
- Mature: A Mature Death God refers to a Death God who is born with complete Lines of Sanzu. Not much is known about this beyond the fact that a mature Death God, unlike their immature counterparts, is born with all their Lines of Sanzu complete.[17] These Death Gods can co-exist with even a True Death God for some unknown reason.[17]
- True: A True Death God is an individual who possesses all three connected Lines of Sanzu, making them extremely powerful and allowing them to utilize the Madness of Order.[17] This also boosts their own soul and power to a godly level.[17] True Death Gods can also create fragments to later be their successor, even having control over the "maturity" their fragment initially are.[17] The drawback, however, is that only one True Death God can exist at a time and whenever a successor connects the three Lines of Sanzu, the then-current True Death God is killed.[17] According to Excalibur, the reason behind the existence of one True Death God at a time is because it is unnecessary to have dozens of them.[19]
Special Abilities
As Death Gods, these beings are perhaps the most powerful type of race in the world, possessing a high amount of raw power as well as special advantages over normal beings within the world. Although each Death God has their own, unique abilities, most of them display the same abilities such as:
A immature Death God retracting an object using his Shinigami Powers.
- Shinigami Powers (死神の力, Shinigami no chikara): Originating from the Lines of Sanzu are special, divine powers capable of being performed by a Death God. It appears some some sort of force similar to that of Magic, though is also independent of it. It can follow a Death God's particular theme.[20][21]
- Immortality (不死, Fushi): A Death God is capable of being immortal, unable to be killed by any means. This is due to them being an embodiment of a particular concept (such as fear).[22] This also allows them to be capable of living for long amounts of times (approximately over eight centuries) while retaining a youthful appearance and suffering no consequence of old age.[23][24]
A Death God regenerates his arm.
- Unique Physiology: As Death Gods, their skin are immune to sunburns , extreme temperatures, and repels everything such as poisons and cosmetics such as hair dye.[25] It's also speculated that the effects of Demonic Energy from those such as the Magnetic Field doesn't affect them as much.[26] Thy're also capable of powerful regeneration and depending on the Death God, can reattaching their body parts[27] or regenerate new ones altogether.[28]
List of Death Gods
Trivia
Kid and Death's aura in Battle Resonance.
- In Soul Eater: Battle Resonance, both Death and Death the Kid seemingly share the same, purple and lightning-like effects around their aura after charging it to either level 2 or 3 on the power gauge.
- Though Death Gods are known to reproduce via "fragmentation", it seems that they also possess groins, indicated by Kid's fear at Angela Leon's impending attack upon his testicles.[29]
- According to Excalibur, the limited number of Death Gods is due to the fact that the world itself doesn't require more than one, true Death God.[30]
References
- ↑ Soul Eater Chapter 77 — Kid:"We're about balance right?"
- ↑ Soul Eater Chapter 0.3 — Introduces Death the Kid, who's a shinigami.
- ↑ Soul Eater Chapter 0.3 — Death the Kid and his father interact, a contrasting difference in appearance.
- ↑ Soul Eater Chapter 110 — Shows that Death has the Sanzu Lines.
- ↑ Soul Eater Chapter 63 — Kid acesses one of his father's powers after a Sanzu Lines: Death Claw
- ↑ Soul Eater Chapter 108 — Kid accesses the Shinigami Jets item.
- ↑ Soul Eater Volume 19 page 92 — The Great Old One of Power: "When the Shinigami cut a piece of himself to create you....."
- ↑ Soul Eater Chapter 108
- ↑ Soul Eater Manga: Chapter 81
- ↑ Soul Eater Volume 19; Chapter 77, page 14
- ↑ Soul Eater Volume 19;Chapter 81, page 158
- ↑ Soul Eater Volume 21; Chapter 89, page 45
- ↑ Soul Eater Volume 4; Chapter 13, page 138 - Kid:What is he trying to accomplish collecting the souls of so many good people...? As an authority over souls, I cannot allow this..
- ↑ Soul Eater Volume 19; Chapter 78, page 65; Chapter 77, page 14
- ↑ Soul Eater Volume 11; Chapter 41, page 63
- ↑ Soul Eater Volume 7; Chapter 23, page 8
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 17.6 Soul Eater Manga: Chapter 108
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedChapter 52 - ↑ (Yen Press) Soul Eater Manga: Chapter 113 — Excalibur:Joke? Do you think we need a dozen Death Gods? You have the full, proper power of a Shinigami, so your father disappeared.
- ↑ Soul Eater Manga: Prologue 3
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedChapter 22 - ↑ Soul Eater Manga: Chapter 108, 112
- ↑ Soul Eater Manga: Chapter 16
- ↑ Soul Eater Manga: Chapter 108
- ↑ Soul Eater Volume 11; Chapter 30, page 121
- ↑ Soul Eater Volume 9; Chapter 34, page 144
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedChapter 53 - ↑ Soul Eater Anime: Episode 48
- ↑ Soul Eater Manga: Chapter 47
- ↑ Soul Eater Manga: Chapter 113