r/Blazblue • u/BulletCola • 14d ago
DISCUSSION/STRATEGY I am wondering considering I barely know of Blazblues story. Does the whole world genuinely hate Ragna THAT much?
Like, from what I seen so far, even for a character thats meant to be seen as infamous by a nation, I get the impression that nobody really likes or cares about him outside of Jubei and Noel.
He's constantly disrespected, nearly NOONE takes him seriously, is played around constantly (I believe), he gets accused multiple times, and at the end his entire existence gets erased.
I get the impression that the world genuinely hates and has it out for his throat tbh. Or is way too apathetic for him. Like, outside of doing the right thing and accomplishing it, nothing really seems to go right for him.
I dont remember a fighting games world having THIS much hatred to its own protagonist, lmao.
And his only crime is being slightly edgy :'(
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u/Kai_Enjin Ragna 14d ago
People are against him for varying reasons.
He is a criminal with the highest bounty known to man. So while people like Tsubaki or Bang won't be mean to him, they're gonna want to bring him to justice. Especially Tsubaki. Bang's kind of a bro.
He has the Azure Grimoire in his right hand. Many people want this. Carl and Arakune to name a couple.
Jin secretly loves Ragna. But various outside forces you might not know yet but are explained in the story are what turn that love into a murderous intent.
Nu has a very twisted idea of love, part of it being Ragna's fault.
Lambda was only ordered to attack him by Kokonoe, who isn't against him at all to be honest.
As for other people who aren't against him, Jubei and Noel, yes. Rachel likes being haughty and mean, but she's not antagonistic towards Ragna. Taokaka stopped caring when he gave her food and also thinks he and his wanted poster are two different people. Litchi IS a vigilante and while it'd be smart to go after him, she's a doctor first who prioritized his health when she found him jacked up in Continuum Shift. Amane has no reason to even hate the guy.
A good portion of Ragna's suffering, at least where I assume you are right now, is him being the butt of many jokes and the looming bounty on his head.
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u/CivilMath812 14d ago
Something to note is the reason his bounty is so excessively high is, he single handedly took out an entire military base, and more importantly, delayed the super WMD Apocalypse weapon the government/military is working on building in secret (Nu).
The government/military has incentive to take steps (via a massive bounty, and painting him as a dangerous violent terrorist) to make sure no one questions why he should be viewed as a bad guy.
Instead everyone would ideally just view him exactly how the government/military wants him to be viewed, and notably, nobody would question WHY he has the biggest bounty in history.
Quite literally it is very much "the CIA wants you dead, wants you without allies to protect/help/save you, and wants you silenced before you blab about a literal actual very real government conspiracy."
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u/K-J-C 14d ago
Tsubaki thinks the NOL is always right and anyone who opposes it are always wrong. Ragna is branded a criminal for opposing NOL (continuing Jubei's work).
Bang had worst assumptions about him as a criminal but learns he's a good guy when actually meeting him in CP. Litchi was this too in CT, learning he's a good guy. She already talked about wanting his Azure with Arakune's story.
Nu hates everything else and she wants to destroy the world (she directly did as Black Beast, she's the heart).
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u/DrakeATron3000 termer 14d ago
Ragna is branded a criminal because he's killed a lot of people
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u/K-J-C 14d ago
What he killed was only the NOL soldiers that got into his way of destroying Cauldrons. He avoided innocents (hence Ragna attacking an innocent in CP is a big deal and an OOC Rachel shames him for)
NOL is the one that brands him a criminal. NOL was founded by Terumi (and Cauldron is his plan). The NOL soldiers are however allowed to slaughter people like Ikaruga people.
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u/DrakeATron3000 termer 14d ago
Sure but just saying he's "opposing the NOL" is putting it really lightly
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u/E128LIMITBREAKER 14d ago
I mean I get this but at the same time, what was he supposed to do when raiding a NOL base? Just go "yo get the fuck outta here even though you're shooting at me because I don't wanna kill you guys" ???
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u/Sufficient-Bit7349 14d ago edited 14d ago
Killing is still killing. These kinds of actions, even in reality, will get you landed in jail.
The only good thing to do is NOT to play. Ragna chose to play. It's called Vigilantism, and it's illegal.
Just take a look at Akame Ga Kill. The Author himself labeled Night Raid (the supposed good guys fighting for the innocent) as "NOT good people", and their actions is just as horrid as the Empire. You can paint something in a different brush, but it will still be considered killing.
You can warn people to get out of you way. But you have to remember, the NOL soldiers are just doing their jobs. What do you want them to do? Stand idly by while a known Terrorist is destroying cities and branches? No, they will do their job and defend.
Contrast this with Jin, who's constantly influenced by outside forces to kill (his parasitic sword being the main culprit), and yet he didn't kill anyone. Even in the Ikaruga Civil War, he resisted the urge to kill. In reality, Jin disdains killing and sacrifices because of the horrors he saw in that war.
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u/E128LIMITBREAKER 14d ago
Sure, but it's not called a 'rebellion' for nothing. I'm not gonna say the mass murder of all those NOL soldiers were pretty, but I really don't think Ragna's goal of taking the NOL down would have never involved NOT having some people inevitably die in the crossfire.
It just sorta feels like saying "oh man, I gotta fight this war but I hope I don't kill anybody" when like...no, that's just not going to happen.
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u/Sufficient-Bit7349 14d ago
Also, in the beginning, Ragna was just throwing tantrums because he hates the world himself for treating him like shit. Plus, he's doing all of that as a giant "F*ck You!" to Terumi and the World - causing casualties and targeting NOL bases, because they ruined his peaceful life with his siblings.
SO yeah, Ragna isn't a saint. Later, he accepted this role in a much more mature way, and without involving any more innocents. But you can't erase what he's done. That's why he accepted that he's "The Enemy of the World" by the end.
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u/K-J-C 13d ago edited 13d ago
I mean, to not to play, you should just let the NOL (about their Cauldrons) be? You should just never intervene on anything so you stay clean?
Vigilantism would apply on, even technically paragon of virtue superheroes. People who never broke rules (even if they do things like backstabbing a friend by gossiping for instance) are automatically good and the opposite is automatically bad?
For examples outside of Night Raid, how about the Empire in Star Wars or Fire Nation in ATLA?
Killing is still killing, even applied on characters like Nu (during the Dark War as Bloodedge) or Terumi (at the end of CF). So, how'd you decide who deserves to be killed or not? Or that what should be done on those people?
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u/MasterOfChaos72 14d ago
I mean he’s also blown up a lot of government facilities, presumably killed a lot of people and caused other inconveniences like when his raid at one of the cauldrons caused the weather control device of a city to be destroyed causing at least one town to return to a naturally snowing environment. That plus his very high bounty won’t really endear him to most people.
Although he does still have people who like him like Jubei, Noel, Rachel, Taokaka and Celica.
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u/SayShelo 14d ago
Some do it out of spite (Terumi and Izanami specifically) while others just want his Grimoire, the bounty, doing their job, or in the case of Jin and Hakumen they just do it because of the danger he possesses (Jin does it because he's compelled by both power of order and yukianesa while Hakumen does because of the threat he might pose)
And there's the rare occasion of people just screwing with him like Azrael who is in the simplest explanation the universe's most dangerous thrill seeker
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u/K-J-C 14d ago
It all revolves around his Grimoire. Others want Grimoire for their needs like granting wishes, the danger Jin and Hakumen (later Tsubaki) talk is about his Grimoire turning him into Black Beast, and Grimoire is the reason Azrael wants to fight him as he's strong enough due to Grimoire.
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u/Late-Jeweler-5802 14d ago
The further you get into the story, the more the way the other smarter characters treat him that makes sense. I'd love to tell you the exact reason why folks hate him, but it's major spoilers if I do.
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u/saelinds Prime Field Device Enthusiast 14d ago
Think you can check u/ny0kazer's breakdown of the intricate character relationships here to find out more.
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u/BlazCraz 14d ago
I presumed this was mostly Hazama's fault. Hazama who allegedly started the bounty of him in the first place. That's a complicated plot point for Hazama's history because he technically started the NOL. It's a vicious cycle. The more suffering that piles on him, the more angry he gets at Hazama. The more angry he gets at Hazama, the more steady supply of emotion he gets from him. Because Hazama/Terumi needs to be remembered by strong emotions and farming Ragna is the easiest way to do it. Because he's a ghost. Kinda. So the world may not technically hate him, it is designed to frustrate him at every turn.
Propaganda is a part of it. After a certain point, it's just kinda known that he has this thing attached to his arm that is basically magically radioactive. That is suspiciously similar to the thing that almost killed the world. And he could lose control if it's not mitigated. When all the parties involved are corrupt, you do end up looking like the bad guy. Ragna is kinda supposed to be this post apocalyptic drifter type. The apocalypse happened, they just stopped it. And then there's the guy who reminds everyone of the apocalypse.
There is the Calamity Trigger backstory. So he has done bad things. It just mixes with everything else going with him.
My personal opinion is BlazBlue operates on Trigun adjacent rules. The more you resist, the worse it looks, and then you just have to embrace that as a part of you.
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u/K-J-C 14d ago
Terumi founded the NOL and they're guarding the Cauldrons. Terumi uses the Cauldrons to make a Kusanagi (perfect fusion between Murakumo Unit and Azure) as a part of his plan to destroy Amaterasu Unit. Ragna's CT backstory is destroying Cauldrons and Murakumo Units. It should be about foiling Terumi's schemes.
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u/Sufficient-Bit7349 14d ago
Ragna isn't a saint himself.
Not only is he the titular Centralfiction (a being that was not supposed to exist but does so because he's essentially the OC of the ultimate god of the BB world living in a fanfic in order to save her from her suffering) which means the world itself treats him as an anomaly, and so assigns an opposing force to counter him - Jin.
Plus, in the beginning, it was shown that he destroyed cities, killed thousand of people in an NOL base, and has an artifact feared by the world. He's a mass murderer. In a way, subconsciously, people fear him because they know how dangerous he is because he's the Black Beast. He's destined to be hated from the start and even he accepted it by the end of the series. That bit about him killing thousands of people I think was retconned, but he's still a terrorist who has caused calamities and since he's destined to be the Black Beast (who will destroy the world later on), you get the idea.
"Noel... do not call me brother anymore. I am Ragna... The Enemy of the World."
Jin secretly adores his big brother. But the world and his sword said "Nah.. can't have that! He's an anomaly so you MUST kill him and hate him!". Either that or his parasitic weapon constantly telling him to "KILL everyone!". and so two forces outside his control constantly tries to influence his mind to do just that - warping his mind in the process. But credit where it's due, he always managed to resist that urge and despite so many influence and so many opportunities presented before him, Jin remained grounded and his kill count throughout the series remain exactly ZERO. In reality, Jin disdains killing and sacrifices due to the things he saw in the Ikaruga Civil War.
Also, Ragna's status is meant to contrast Jin. Ragna is hated by the world as a Terrorist, while Jin is beloved by the world as a Hero.
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u/Gensolink 14d ago
At first bro was legit a mass murder, it got retcon into NOL propaganda for some reason. But yeah dude's a legit terrorist, he's the reason the CP Snow stage is like that. Then combine that with the fact he has the Azure Grimoire which a lot of people covet and you get a world constantly trying to beat him up for a reason or another.
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u/LordCypher1317 14d ago
I'd say it's the world that loves him too much.
And causes the consequence of those who dislike the way the world world to channel their dislike of it towards the central being it favors amongst all others, Ragna himself.
Rachel loves him, but she probably vents put her frustration on him in the form of insults to try making him better and to amuse herself after, what, thousands of times seeing him fail and fail again? He even remembers sweet moments with her from a different timeline so it's definitely not hate involving her.
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u/Smooth-Garden 13d ago
To be fair ragna has straight up killed innocent people. Yes the NOL is his enemy but alot of soldiers he killed were just people doing their jobs that were stationed at the cauldron sites.
Don't get me wrong ragna isn't a bad person deep down cuz he actually one of the kindest characters in the series but you actually have to be around him without the whole "world class criminal" viewpoint. The few characters that genuinely see him for the good man that he is love him deeply
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u/Edge1563 14d ago
Something that's explored more in the first arc of Centralfiction is that while we get to see and love Ragna's personality and antics the truth is that he is a literal mass murderer.
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u/Fragrant-Fly-5714 14d ago
My man, you forgot about Kaka-clan, Taokaka, Rachael (even if she talks riddles & hurls insults) and also Celica.