Author Topic: If Nezumi had the chance to grow up with his family...how different would he be?  (Read 778 times)

Ahiku

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If Nezumi had the chance to grow up with his family...how different would he be?

Well, there's the question! What do you think? :D The discussion is open.



I think a human has basic characteristics he’ll probably always develop. That means, he’d probably still be sarcastic and a jerk, at least sometimes. But he can also be very, very gentle, tender and loving. You can see it very well throughout the novels. I mean he’s stroking Shion’s hair pretty often, he’s touching his cheek and chin, he’s tracing his chest… When Shion is crying, he’s comforting him. I think he can be very nice. Okay, sometimes he’s acting and he’s using it as a weapon, for example when he’s talking to Conk. But especially concerning Shion, his sometimes maybe even unwitting endearments are not acted. (Most of them, I’d say…) I think in regard to his past, there’s still a lot of love and tenderness left inside him.
I think a not traumatized Nezumi would be a pretty good boy. Maybe not very easy to get along with, because I guess he’d still be pretty moody, but I know deep inside his heart he’s a little boy who wants to sing and dance in a forest, surrounded by stinking wildwood flowers. X’D

What do you think? :3

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Weisel

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Yes, definitely more openly affectionate, but still a sassy drama queen.

lawlya

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I agree :)

Nezumi's really intelligent but doesn't seem to have any intentions of using his brains as a job career. He shows a pretty laid back and lazy tendency in the novels so I'd think he'd be one of those unmotivated geniuses who has one topic (classic books and acting) that holds his whole interests and passion.
Which means he would still be snarky and probably quite bossy and maybe even arrogant. And sassy. Definitely sassy.
But as @Ahiku said: He'd also be more affectionate. He wouldn't have learned to fear human touch and relationships so he may act more on his feelings. Plus, he wouldn't suppress his feelings like he does in the canon No.6 story. And he would laugh more ^^

Meopat

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I think about this a lot. ;__;

Quote from: Volume 1 Chapter 1 Part C
"You just took in an escaped VC and didn't report it to the Bureau. ...If they find that out, that's even bigger trouble. They're not gonna let you off easily."
"I know."
Nezumi suddenly grabbed my arm. His thin fingers dug into my flesh.
"Do you really? I mean, it's not my problem what happens to you, but if you end up being wiped out because of me, I wouldn't like that. I'd feel like I did something horrible..."
"That's considerate of you."
"Mama always told me, 'don't cause trouble for other people," he said lightly.
"Then are you gonna leave?"
"No. I'm tired, and there's a hurricane outside. And I've finally got a bed. I'll sleep here."
"Make up your mind."
"Papa always told me to separate my public manners from my private feelings."
"Sounds like a great father."
His fingers withdrew from my arm.
"I guess I was lucky that you were strange," Nezumi said softly.
(x)

I also wonder how much of this is Nezumi making stuff up or if it was really something his parents had taught him.
Given the situation, it seemed like he was telling the truth...  If that's the case, then it's very possible Nezumi could have been a very polite boy. XD Sarcastically well-mannered? that sounds quite a bit like novel!Shion

kare_reiko

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Maybe he would be nicer, I really got image of him as a good kid in beyond when he and gran sit around campfire. He was cute and he had dreams and hope.
I think 60% of his current character was because of Gran teaching, this old woman was so devastated after lost of her homeland and people and she pass that everything to Nezumi (not like you cam blame her for feeling this way). Her hate and way of thinking influenced Nezumi a lot.
Second thing that changed Nezumi really deep must have been hunt and Correctional Facility. He was like 10? when he survived that hell.
Last thing, living in the West Block, alone, with no help, no one close for 12 must have been hard. How he managed to get food? He wasn't actor at beginning for sure. He was hurt by people many times probably until he find his way to survive in such environment.

Would Shion be able to get back Nezumi as like when he was kid? It's hard question, some scars are impossible to heal, mental too. Nezumi gone away in most important for that moment I think. Nezumi again has to cope with a lot of things, second hell and he chose to do it alone.
Maybe Shion's love wasn't enough to fix Nezumi's hurt?   

Damn, I should go to sleep because I again starting to analyse them too much and it turn into dark tones... XD     

Ahiku

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Maybe he would be nicer, I really got image of him as a good kid in beyond when he and gran sit around campfire. He was cute and he had dreams and hope.

Word! Nezumi was a very good kid. He loved Gran a lot, he was worried when she cried and didn't want her to cry, didn't want her to be hurt...
I don't think she was entirely bad and I think she also loved Nezumi. She rescued him after all and she just tried to protect him and to prepare him in case she's not surviving the next day. It was probably some kind of mental abuse in his case, but they lived in a harsh world and when they wanted to survive they had to be like that.

And he's not like Gran wanted him to be. ^^° Especially not around Shion... he broke down his walls so easily... no wonder he's afraid of him. X'D
But just like kare_reiko says, he's sooo deeply traumatized, I don't think that he'll ever be completely okay, but I think time helps him a lot.
He need time for himself to clarify things with himself. Shion is more the talker type. And I think after all those events, he's similar traumatized. They just handle their traumata completely differently. >,<

Kai

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I've wondered about this before as well.

He's quite a complex character with a very disturbing and complex history that probably has had a lot of influence in his behaviour when he was older.

Though, intelligence is not altered that strongly by nurture and Nezumi seems to be exceptionally bright. He has little problems with literature and is able to understand different cultures and worldviews, which is quite a feat thinking about the barren cultural background he grew up in. I doubt that people in the west block give a **** about other's beliefs or traditions if they don't even care for their lives. But Nezumi still understands the concept. (He though does have a head start as he was confronted with a most likely very traditional culture in his early childhood.)
He also seems to have an able mind when it comes to the mathematical-logic intelligence, since he's built the robot mice himself. Not to mention that apparently he was way better in making them behave natural as in the novels it is mentioned that No.6 robots are nice, but often dysfunctional especially with those that get more complex tasks and are easily recognisable as robots.

Taking that into consideration, no matter where Nezumi would grow up, he'd most likely be a person to think about and analyze the world around him. He'd most likely be critical either way as he developed that trait even in a world that tries to extinguish it within people. So yeah, the snarky, a little wary part of him would probably still be there. And I think if he grew up with the forest people he would definitely have met some sort of prejudice against the city as they clearly want to stay out of the developement business.

I could very well see him being interested yet very wary about technological advance. And with all that intelligence he would probably still know how to manipulate people just as well, but I could see him making less use of it and probably also being less harsh with it.

His emotional development would be the most interesting though and that could definitely even with his family take several routes. There's not much of a description on the forest people and Nezumi obviously does not remember very much. But their social structures would be very interesting.

There's one thing I did wonder about. Nezumi is a singer and due to that, how much of a different treatement he would have gotten because he has inevitably more "power" than others. I don't quite think there's as much of supressing hierarchy amongst the forest people since they're trying to just live peacefully with the nature around them, but even in tribes there's usually a hierarchy. And with someone that holds a potential for power treatment is usally different.
It could very well be that with growing years expectations of him would have grown and caused him to be more careful with his emotions. So he would still be careful whom he shows how much of his emotions. Also, he might generally be someone not so vocal and social, he seems to have been playing alone after all in the very few memories we get from him. Being alone in the fields when he meets the forest god.

The biggest difference I think would be the lack of his obsession with destruction. I think that is what would also make him more approachable and gentler in general. He wouldn't be driven with the destruction of No.6 which would broaden his sight for his immediate environment and mostly the people around him. I don't really think he'd give or show anything of himself carelessly, but he'd certainly be more invested in having people get along around himself and he probably wouldn't think in the strong dichotomy he shows in the novels. That part is almost controverse to his intelligence and undestanding of the human being otherwise, that's mainly driven/blinded by his obsession to get rid of No. 6.

The lazyness that has been mentioned, I'm not so sure if that is a part of his personality or more of a symptom of the depressive surroundings. Could be either way.

I'm actually going as far as to say that Nezumi would under the circumstances of the forest people being alive make a pretty good mediator - probably working best alongside Shion - between them and the city of No. 6. Gentler than he is with all the trauma, but still not naive and pretty realistic, good for standing his ground with his arguments.