agallimaufryofoddments:

I know the Poet isn’t exactly the most popular Baccano! character around, but I’m honestly rather fond of him all things considered. Yes, even his poetry. (I know, I know, just hear me out!) I’m trying to pinpoint exactly why I’m so goshdarned fond of him - that is, why am I currently writing a fic in which he gets to be the main character? Well, I like that he’s one of the Observant™ characters in Baccano! - which, okay, okay, is a trait that appears in a fair few of the other Observant™ Baccano! characters I like, such as Keith and Alkins. I like that the poetry isn’t just a quirky gimmick. He deliberately speaks poetically as a defensive mechanism. Please don’t look at my eyes, he says. Don’t make eye contact with me. He distances himself like Sickle does with her cold, aloof, ‘masculine’ nature, like Chi dose with his clothing. All of the Lamia create barriers between themselves and the world in one way or another - except the Poet’s distancing is a little different in nature, I think. He can’t actually control his hypnotic powers. He doesn’t have a special visor or anything a la the X-Men’s Cyclops. It takes effort for him to control the flashing of his eyes, to the extent that it would impede his daily life. Not to mention, he clearly feels strong guilt whenever he uses his powers deliberately (e.g. when he dealt with the guards at the Russo Manor), so I imagine he’d feel pretty guilty if he accidentally caused a random pedestrian to zone out in the middle of the street (and especially so if they accidentally fell under the power of someone else’s suggestion). So he hides his eyes, speaks poetically - all so that he can protect other people from himself, from powers that he can’t easily control, powers that he feels guilty over. We’re told that in his past, he’d never been able to find the “road that brings happiness,” so now he “[idles] his life a way by daily playing a fool.” Pretty reflective, huh? Reflective and self-aware - he knows all too well that he’s been lying to himself for years in following Huey’s orders. Pretending that he was doing so out of caution (instead of cowardice?) as the “safest route” he and the others could take. Never been able to find the “road that brings happiness” …damn. As for his dynamic with Sickle…hm. It’s a bit of a weird one - I mean, it’s a classic dynamic you often see in anime, in which a woman frequently expresses her displeasure with her male counterpart through physical violence. Except - I normally associate that dynamic with high school teenagers in anime, and Sickle and the Poet are both adults (both physically and by chronological age). And while the Poet vocally expresses noises of pain (and thus unhappiness) when Sickle lands one on him (”OW” “Gah!” “Hurk!” - I admit, I find those utterances pretty amusing in their simplicity since they usually interrupt his very dense eloquent speeches), he still genuinely, deeply admires Sickle for who she is. “…Sickle refused to show any signs of pain, an act of endurance that made the Poet deeply admire her.” When she is disappointed with herself, he wants to argue against her feelings (and only doesn’t because he understands that nothing he could say would alleviate her guilt). When she freezes, he hurries to her side. (Side note - how the hell can Poet withstand so many blows from Sickle like he does? I imagine she doesn’t use her full strength on him, but still - not something to sneeze at, eh? His “OW OW OW”s are human and so very understandable) He gets anxious, nervous, and even terrified - sometimes he doesn’t back down when Sickle challenges, he’s guilt-ridden and isolated he notices so many things - Narita gives us a fedora wearing, poetry spouting eccentric (on the surface, at least) who really is more than what he seems, and I’m glad I gave him a chance. Is all his dialogue 100% comprehensible? …Nooo, and full disclosure I plan on avoiding writing as much poetic dialogue as I can in this fic (which matters to you only if it ever sees the light of day). Still. With all that being said, I would like to see the Poet have a few speaking lines in 1935-E. Any role at all, really. …As long as it’s not another conversation with Smith. You already had them meet in 1935-D, Narita, and that was quite enough for me, thanks. If you’re going to have the Poet interact with another eccentric speaker, make it more Poet-Graham scenes and not Poet-Smith scenes. The Poet, I like. Smith…not so much. The last thing I want is for them to get along.

Right, so I said earlier today that in writing the fic I’ve had Many Thoughts about the Poet. So many bewildering thoughts.

Long post ahoy. Repetitive rambling ahoy. TL;DR holy cow the Poet is powerful, why are the characters ignoring his potential, and why on Earth did Narita create a character like him in the first place?

I’m pretty sure that the Poet actually poses a bit of a problem for Narita, in that he’s conceivably one of the most powerful characters in the series - well, that is, he’s one of the characters who could very directly and significantly influence Baccano!’s course of events if he wanted…or if someone else wanted him to.

After all, the Poet has, essentially, a pair of hypnotic eyes. He can exert a sort of mind control on others - hell, he can even manipulate their (short-term?) memories to a degree.

I mean, it’s a good thing that not too many people know about the Lamia/about the Poet’s powers, because that is absolutely a power that people would kill for. The Poet really ought to be the sort of character that turf wars are fought over. If someone could get their hands on the Poet, well…!

Narita sort of addresses the potential of the Poet’s power in #10 - e.g. that the Poet could live a very comfortable life and not want for anything if he used his ability for his own ends. I wonder if maybe Narita realized then that oooh, shit, the Poet is sort of overpowered in a way that potentially be a story-breaker and immediately slapped some in-story limitations on the Poet before the reader got wise.

First, the Poet obviously feels guilt about his power, and he only uses it when he has to. This immediately ensures that the Poet won’t ever go off and decide to make, say, Melvi Dormentaire walk off a bridge. (Although…1935-E is still up in the air…) He doesn’t like using it, and there’s nothing personal that motivates him to use it.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, there is an inherent issue with how the Poet’s powers work. Those whom he hypnotizes are extremely susceptible to external influence - if someone shouts “Kill yourself” within earshot of a still hypnotized person, that person will likely try to do exactly that, sooner or later.

That’s a…big deal. That could definitely mess up a plan or three. (I suppose that you could also point to the difficulty the Poet has in controlling his power as another problem. Accidentally hypnotizing someone = bad implications, yes?)

Still, even with that significant technical issue with the Poet’s power, the Poet remains…pretty darn powerful. We’re told that he’s been useful on plenty of missions w/the Lamia before, but I have to wonder if Salomé’s ever directed him to influence people who actually matter.

I’m sure if Beriam had the Poet, he’d damn well be using the Poet to achieve his own ends. Local mafia leader making trouble? Have the Poet command the don to dismantle his organization top to bottom. Done. Rival politician making things difficult? Use the Poet to shift his stance.

All of this I’ve sort of touched upon in the fic to varying degrees, along with the question currently eating at my soul: “holy crap, couldn’t the Poet control incredibly powerful people like Ladd or Claire?”

If he could, I mean…holy hell. There’s nothing really about his power that suggests he wouldn’t be able to.

I suspect, however, that this is a question Narita may not entirely like, because if it is true than really the only things stopping the Poet from controlling said powerful people are his own guilt and lack of personal motive, and that Huey hasn’t yet ordered him to as far as we know.

I also suspect that Narita could very well attempt to argue that the Poet’s power wouldn’t work on characters like Claire or Ladd or Chané because of how strong their ‘personal wills’ are. Or something. “Hey, actually the Poet’s power is really only super effective against the weak-minded, if he tried it on Claire or Ladd they’d break free almost immediately.”

It’s also possible that there are people in Baccano! who’ve actually trained to resist mind control, I guess.

You know, the Poet is introduced to the reader as comedic fodder (within seconds of his monologuing he’s violently taken down by Sickle), and despite our glimpses into his observant, sane POV his repeated suffering at the hands of Sickle serves to enforce that ‘comedic role’ foundation. And of course, he’s just not in the series all that much. With the Poet’s comedic function established and his overall lack of presence in the series, Narita’s gotten away with blatantly ignoring the actual power that the Poet technically wields.

Sure, he says that the Poet’s power is pretty Something, but he only actually directly shows the Poet using his powers once or twice, and only on nameless nobodies. Show>Tell, and if we’re usually shown the Poet in a comedic light and never shown him using his powers on an important/impressive scale, then it’s a lot less likely we’re going to think he could possibly have any significant bearing upon the narrative (after all, why would he when most of the Lamia don’t seem to either in 1935) and bam, Narita high fives himself because now he doesn’t have to actually employ the Poet’s powers on a significant level ever.

Or maybe my expectations will be blown out of the water with 1935-E. Maybe he’ll have the Poet do something important after all (seriously, think of what the Poet could do at Ra’s Lance. Narita loves to emphasize the importance of the individual in the grand scheme of things - well, the Poet ‘influencing’ just one character could have Consequences. One of the Gandors’ assassins. Jacuzzi Splot. Hell, even Sonja - the Poet could get her to shoot anything or anyone he wanted).

I’d sure like to see the Poet do something, but I don’t think Narita would really want the Poet to influence one of the main characters because that would ultimately take away that character’s…mm, agency? In emphasizing the importance of the individual, Narita is emphasizing individualism (yes obvious I know hold on), really. Baccano!’s characters have distinct personalities, histories, worldviews. Baccano! celebrates their idiosyncrasies, and part of the joy in this series is seeing how characters uniquely react to and act upon everything they come across.

I know, no shit Rev, that’s the fun of literally every fiction story ever. But it matters here since it’s one of Narita’s main themes, and in using the Poet to influence a main character Narita would sort of ever so slightly be cheapening or otherwise undermining the core of what Baccano! is, I think.

The problem with using the Poet is that it would be easy. So easy. Some might even call it lazy, given how dramatically the Poet could affect the narrative. On the other hand, not using him to his full potential is easy in its own way - Narita can have events play out just so, but one would wonder (well, I’d wonder) why the characters aren’t actually using the Poet when it would be to their advantage to do so.

Of course, it’s also totally plausible that Narita actually hasn’t ever seriously thought about having the Poet Do Important Things because it just hasn’t occurred to him as a possibility. The Lamia have mostly been support cast thus far in 1935 as defined and controlled by their subordinancy to Salomé, more important as a group than they are individually - and the Poet’s included in that. How likely is it that this will change in 1935-E? Eh. Narita’s already got a ton of people to juggle as it is.

I realize I’ve been a little repetitive in writing this, I’m just…like I said back in the preface, I’m sort of stunned that Narita created a character like the Poet at all. Hypnotism…while it’s not removed from reality, it’s still sort of superhuman (as Narita presents it, anyway), and it’s not on the same level as the typical near superhuman abilities that manifest in Baccano! (strength/combat ability/etc). Hypnotism. Mind control.

I guess it says something about Narita and Baccano! that he can write a character who can properly hypnotize people and then get away with never really doing much with that power.

Bleh. I’m so tired, I’m just gonna talk in circles if I go on. Perhaps this would have all been more coherent had I actually gotten sleep last night, but…oh well.