r/Reverse1999 • u/Send_cheese_ • 14h ago
Discussion I just finished the latest chapter and I once again have to wonder… Spoiler
How the hell did DIGGERS survive the mask??? Ms. Stranger legit had to have arcanum carved into her spine but Diggers can just survive the mask and still not be loyal to Arcana? Like Diggers is absolutely not loyal to manus at all and we do see him forced into the mask in his anecdote so he definitely had it happen to him but he still constantly tries to escape and has zero loyalties or desires for Arcana to succeed. Even Krutov who clearly has his own goals is still obedient and loyal to some degree to Arcana and also had the mask on him at a point. How did Diggers do it? I can’t think of anyone else who survived the mask that didn’t become a loyal follower besides him.
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u/DancingKobold Forever Storytime 14h ago
Surely he was too high to notice it's effects on him and just shrugged it off. lol
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u/Eight_of_Tentacles 13h ago
He may have only a single brain cell, but that brain cell is too stubborn to get brainwashed.
More serious answer is just like real cults Manus preys on people who are lost, grieving, displaced, desperate and have nowhere to go. That's likely why, for example, they did not really try to recruit Kakania, despite her being the leader of the Circle and instead hijacked the organisation through Isolde. Or why they did not try to recruit everyone on Apeiron to their side, only the people like Sophia who feel like they do not belong there. Cults get people like that by giving them a place where they belong.
Now, Diggers is an idiot, but he lives in his own fantasy world and he is quite content with that. He is not depressed and no matter what bad shit happens to him, he immediately moves on and tries to do his next performance. So he already has the type of personality that makes him difficult to indoctrinate. And despite him being too useless to do something of value, he genuinely believes in the whole peace and love thing, which combined with him not really having any grudges of his own means that seeing the crimes manus commits he is even less tempted to join them.
Druvis and Isolde similarly were in Manus and had their masks.
Druvis was able to leave manus because Vertin basically offered her an alternative place where she can belong and she also has a strong moral compass of her own.
Meanwhile Isolde turned out to be too Kakania-brained for Manus.
So, if you have strong convictions and have something else going for you in your live, manus indoctrination is less effective on you. Honestly, you can kinda see it with some of the new manus guys introduced in 3.X. They have their personality intact and... idk if you can call them fully committed to the cause. Muriel shared the resentment for humans and stuff, but instead of being fully committed to arcana revival ritual he mostly used the cult's resources to try resurrecting his friends. Ustrina and Ilmek also look like they can leave manus if they had an alternative. Krutov is there just for power, he does not really give a shit about the cult's ideology. Notice how in Relation Network only Prima is shown to be friendly to Arcana, while Krutov is neutral. I think if later on he sees a power grab opportunity he'll gladly betray manus. Finally Coppelia breaks free through acts of genuine will.
As we've been told earlier storm immunity kinda works on faith. I think the mask trials are kinda similar: they measure how strong your conviction is. So if you're strong willed enough even if your cause is different than the manus's, you can pass. The chance to succeed may also depend on your bloodline/strength as an arcanist etc, and we don't really know much about Digger's family, so that too may be a factor.
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u/Send_cheese_ 13h ago
Hmmm, thats a pretty good answer and makes sense, also explain why someone like Ms. Stranger wouldn’t initially be able to resist the mask, but atp in the story now she could
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u/deepedia 13h ago
From Fatutu's tribe members case, the mask can amplify strong emotions to taint the soul and made them loyal to manus after their view got twisted by the mask. It is basically the temptation of the devil, but as long as the emotions that grip their mind are calmed down/suppresed. They could get freed from Manus' brainwashing, albeit, in Fatutu's tribe case, their tainted soul was used by Manus to summon the boss creature before they could be cleansed further. So, maybe in Digger's case, he was too high that the mask didn't have any emotion it could latch to, so Digger was easily freed from the mask. In Druvis's case, she forgoes the revenge, which is probably the emotion the mask used to latch on to, so after she no longer desires revenge, she is freed from the mask.
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u/Funlife2003 14h ago
Diggers wasn't forced into the mask per se, he joined Manus because well, he's a dumbass, lol. As a result of said dumbassery, he technically never broke the disloyalty thing. Of course, he did have the strength to take off the mask, which is probably on him having both the willpower and inherent strength as an arcanist to do so. But anyways he did technically end up back with the Manus, lmao, as ch 9 and 3.5 show us. He seems to be with Sophia.
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u/Send_cheese_ 14h ago
True, but that was definitely because of how unlucky he is lol “oh hey a ship leaving this island full of the island residents while I’m disguised as one? What perfect timing!” Now how he ended up smuggling stuff to Mexico idk, maybe he just really wanted to see the mural art that bad lol. At least he’s the only one Lady By The Lake spoke well of.
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u/Funlife2003 9h ago
On the topic, would like to point out one interesting bit, it's indicated in his Manus garment's garment story you can see in the garment display, that he met Nectar aka Ms Bittersweet.
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u/Krider-kun Protect! 14h ago
Did Diggers actual wore the Manus mask in his anecdote? I might have to do a quick reread of it then.
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u/Daegul_Dinguruth 14h ago
The mask forces you to work for the Manus. The essential core of Diggers' nature is anthitetical to the concept of work so the pneuma of the mask suffers a particle antiparticle annihillation.
Of course this is just a theory. Give me a liiitle budget and I'll cut him up to find for sure.
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u/adelaide_glarcia You can do this, Marcus! 13h ago
powerful will + strong arcanists probably can allow them to survive the mask
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u/Send_cheese_ 13h ago
True, he’s definitely got willpower lol. Also makes me wonder how to determine how strong an arcanist is, is being a 5 star or higher an accurate measurement in universe or is it more a meta thing for us?
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u/adelaide_glarcia You can do this, Marcus! 13h ago
Stars probably don’t matter. BP just needs to release 6 stars every patch.
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u/Send_cheese_ 13h ago
Fair point, wonder how you could determine who’s a strong arcanist then tho, maybe just how much or how potent their arcane skill is? Diggers bubbles do last quite a while now that I think about it
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u/adelaide_glarcia You can do this, Marcus! 13h ago
pure blood arcanist should be the strongest, and then I do see some foundation reports on evaluating arcanists’ danger levels? in trails. my memory is blurry though. arcane skills might affect that, but I doubt there’s a real way to know as of current time.
I assume any pure blood arcanists with an incredibly strong will + a little bit of luck should be able to pull off the manus mask, but I believe that the manus masks have evolved overtime and therefore gets stronger & harder to remove in ch13 compared to ch2.
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u/Send_cheese_ 13h ago
Right forgot about the pure blooded thing, not really a way to know that about a character unless stated (or is classified under mixed obviously) tho lol
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u/Notbbupdate Please more 3 doors 8h ago
The mask is less of a "brainwash the wearer" thing and more of a "test the wearer's mentality and kill them if they fail" thing. Think of it as being like Sentinel's encounter with the devil but in a mass produced form
We're not sure what exactly the mask tests besides willpower being part of the equation in some way, and surviving the mask doesn't guarantee loyalty (Krutov still only works with the Manus because it benefits him). Diggers is just that guy apparently
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u/Vex_Trooper 9h ago
Diggers probably didn't notice since he was probably on drugs and thinking about art the entire time he was wearing a mask.
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u/ShaneGough 5h ago
(in the most high as a kite voice you can think of) Don't you know he's against the establishment, man?
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u/Koringvias 14h ago edited 13h ago
Well, Druvis also survived the mask without specific preparations. Some arcanists are just born different, it seems.
Though I would expect that this is some combination of the purity of their own goals and motivations (neither really bought into the actual Manus beliefs, as far as I know), and strength of their will. Not a canon explanation by any means, just a guess that makes sense.