So this is actually a (late) response to Dustin’s post “The Treacherous Sunset (Durarara!! 4)“, born after I decided that a monster comment I had be writing to it would be better off made into a post in itself. I’ll try to make this post readable on it’s own, but I recommend that you check out Dustin’s post and what his commenters had to say before proceeding.
Dustin responding to a comment:
This tells me that either the animators did a really good job of displaying that part [creepiness] of his [Shinra] personality or totally missed the mark of the heroic, love lorn, underground doctor.
For the record I didn’t for a moment think the latter likely. I think I’ve seen enough portrayals of true love in anime (across the scale from the somewhat shoddy shows to the really good ones), to tell that this is clearly not it. This guy narrated the whole thing, which allows him to conveniently omit/skew things to his own perspective, and even then I thought there were some clear signs of selfishness and obsession. I’m pretty convinced that this guy is, in the end, all about himeself.
Dustin on what we know about Selty:
Without her head she can’t hold onto memories very long and thus her reasoning is impaired
I find myself resistant to both parts of this proposition. Firstly, I don’t remember any indication that she not only lost her prior memories but also her ability to retain her memories thereon after, except the (alleged!) fact that she doesn’t clearly remember the autopsy. Could I have missed something?
And then I disagree that, even with that disability granted, we can conclude that her reasoning is impaired. There is no evidence for this too as far as I see, indeed there may be several to the contrary, not least of which is the fact that she seem to be holding up quite well living with mr creepy who, if this episode is anything to go by, must have been ceaselessly showering her with hints and coaxes. Selty clearly understands her present dependence on Shinra, but she is also evidently able to keep it precisely at that. They live together, they chat, and even through Shinra’s narration Selty dots a deliberate full-stop right there. Another point of note is that Selty works for Izaya, who we can probably safely hail as an expert manipulator. Yet it pretty much looks like she is keeping her own head (figuratively ;) ). And Izaya does seem to be somewhat unable to control her. He seems somewhat more reserved and uncertain when conversing with her. “I don’t remember you joining the justice league!” Not made completely clear I know, but that’s the vibe I get.
Passerby in a comment:
The change subtheme is certainly still there
I agree. In fact the primary impression I got after watching this episode of Durarara was that this was a Selty (and Shinra) introduction episode, presented with some extended exploration of the previous episode’s theme on change (btw Dustin wrote an incredible analysis of the “change” theme last episode). In that episode we approached the canvas from the perspective of someone who desires change. This time, we approach it as someone who has changed, irreversibly (Selty), and someone who doesn’t want change (Shinra). I thought the exploration of Selty’s backstory this episode is an interesting contrast with the last – Selty has undoubtedly changed, and yet she desperately pursues her old self, the things destroyed by that change. You could even interpret it as a desire to reverse the change. On the other hand, Shinra is doing his best to stave away change, recognizing the discovery of Selty’s head – and with it her old self – as a change in itself. He knows that his bond with Selty is held up only by the fact that the head remains lost, and so wishing for her to never leave, he tries constantly to convince her to give up on it. This is the difference in their views/values that I see, a difference in opinion on the nature of change and it’s consequences.
(And as previously noted, this guy – Shinra – is in the end only thinking for himself. This is not love but selfish desire.).
And then enter Old Artist Guy. Drawn to him by the peculiar claim that he has “lost her head”, Selty discovers that the old man had been spending his life trying to reconstruct the beautiful visage (presumably hers) that he had seen and then forgotten. Somewhere along the line of the conversation that ensued Selty must have come to realize the futility of the man’s task.
Real beauty, when absorbed into the mind, is often perversely transformed. Into an even more beautiful, even more impossible, ultimately unreal thing. That one night was the moment of this man’s life. Who knows what his ghostly heart might have done to the original, true image in all those years of longing and yearning? The old man will never be able to draw that head, and Selty must have seen the meaninglessness of the endeavor paralleled in her own desperate search. When Shinra came and told Old Artist Guy that the Dullahan is better off without the head, he is really talking to himself, convincing himself that the change that must occur with the head’s discovery must be bad. But when Selty hears those words spoken by the Old Artist Guy, it must have had a different ring to her. There may be no end to the search, and even if the search should lead to the desired fruit, that would be change in itself – she would never be the same again. Selty would regain a part of herself only to lose another. Just like the old man, she would probably never be able to find what she truly desired in her heart, not even if she finds the physical object that parallels it.
And so we end the episode with this interesting picture. On the one extreme we have the artist, who would go on and on forever backwards in search of something that was lost and can perhaps never be regained. On the other we have Shinra, who is so obsessed with the present that he would neither move backward nor forward, but will fight to stand still forever. And in between we have Selty, obviously an important figure in the story. Ultimately I think this episode, despite being narrated by Shinra, was really more about Selty (Who cares about Shinra anyway!). If neither going backwards nor standing still makes any sense, then there is only one way left for our heroine to go.
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Dustin
I’m pretty sure there was something in there about Selty not being able to retain her memories (which was one of the reasons she was looking for her head). Ahh, whatever I’ll go looking through the episode real quick…
Shinra: As to why she came to Japan, to Tokyo, and to Ikebukuro,and as to why she’s so particular about her head… will be the topic of my story.
“The story takes place twenty years ago. When she suddenly awoke in the mountains, she found that her head was missing. And she realized at that moment that many of her memories were lost. She lost her memories of why she did what she did, and also her memories that trace back to a certain degree.
Further along…
“After thinking things through, she came up with a reasoning. Her thoughts were originally shared between her body and her mind, and the memories that were lost must have remained in her head. And so she decided to get her head back, which holds the truth about the significance of her existence.
Selty about her head: “I wanted to get it back as soon as possible. I’m sick of living with such a vague memory.”
Alright, so I didn’t find any evidence that she couldn’t retain memories after the fact. As I said in one of my comments I watched it after being awake for 24 hours and just before going to sleep so I felt like I missed half of it. I guess the line Shinra gave about Selty not remembering much of the surgery made me assume. I still, however, think her reasoning is impaired without her head. We can’t really make rationale decisions based on who we are without knowing who we are. Selty’s head is like a goal that she thinks will tell her everything she needs to know about her existence when she should instead look at her existence and judge for herself. That was kind of the point of this episode, the finding your head versus not finding it. There isn’t some magical sentence that tells us why we’re here. There are other reasons, but I don’t really want to go on another rant.
As for the rest of your metaphysical postulations I mostly agree ;).
Jason "moofang"
Hmmmm, I did a quick re-skim-through and as you said there are no direct evidences, but yeah, there are just enough hints to make what you said about her not being able to retain her memories make some sense. So maybe you’re right. Hmmmmm..
Hmmm, I guess this depends somewhat on what you mean by reasoning. She could still make logical decisions – she’d just be starting from the premise that she doesn’t really know who she is. That can be taken as a form of impairment, but I’m just saying that she could still decide, for example, based on what little she knows of herself and what she knows about Shinra, that she doesn’t want to get too friendly with the guy. The impairment is really more of a lack of information than an inability to logically interpret and understand information in general.
Dustin
That makes sense: Ignorance instead of lack of rationale. One of the questions brought up in this episode was why her head was gone (And it took all of those memories with it). She may very well have gotten rid of her head on her own because she could no longer bare her existence. Thus she’s acting against her own best interests. Then again she might have lost her head on purpose just to give her a purpose for a little while.
Jason "moofang"
Hmm, when you put it that way it does beg the question – what role, what meaning is there to being a Dullahan in this day and age? So if one is unable to find purpose in one’s existence, one creates a purpose. That would be interesting.
..I guess part of the story is also that I kinda like Selty and feel reluctant to cast her in the “lost sheep being led around by the nose” role.
Dustin
We all like Selty: She’s extremely likeable. She’s a badass yet desperate at the same time. I can understand though.
Along similar lines I can’t wait for Yin to go evil in the next OVA.
Jason "moofang"
And I haven’t even watched the first OVA :( Will get to it~
Keiri
I can’t help but think about the roles a Dullahan’s head and body play in this series. It’s apparent at this point that Selty’s head carries much of her memories of her existence, deeds and purposes in life, and losing her head meant she lost a rather significant amount of elements which define her role as a Dullahan. Due to the loss of her original memories, I suppose she couldn’t fully rely on her reasoning with regards to her thoughts being shared between her body and her mind. Taking this into context, I wonder if her body is really able to retain memories on its own, memories which have accumulated so far after she lost her head. If so, it will be interesting to see if the reunion of her head and body (if it ever happens) will cause some sort of conflict once she remembers her original role and compares it with the life she has led so far.
Assuming her memories don’t flow over from her head to her body, I imagine that would lead to a cruel cycle for her. She gets rid of her head because she couldn’t put up with her existence, and shortly after she wants her head back again. ^^
Jason "moofang"
Hmmm, the impression I was given was that Selty woke up one day as a Dullahan sans head and with no conception of who she had been – only with the certain knowledge that she was now a Dullahan. In other words what the head held (potentially) is information about who she had been before she was a Dullahan. Whether or not her body is able to retain memories for long, it would definitely carry some awareness of who she is now, as a Dullahan, and so a conflict would be inevitable should she ever find her head. As I said, she would find a part of herself only to lose another – the head is fool’s gold. She would probably never be able to truly find the self that she seeks, just as the artist would never be able to draw the head.
Interesting thought. Come to think of it though, one could wonder if there ever was a head to begin with. If we assume Shinra’s account was factually accurate, Selty woke as a Dullahan with no head, and so maybe what the old artist saw wasn’t her after all. Or could it be that the beginning of Shinra’s account is really just the beginning of the latest cycle after she had previously cast away her head?
Keiri
Hmm… Hasn’t Selty been a Dullahan all her life? Well, I’m not sure what the traditional folklore is like with regards to Dullahans but I assume in this series, Dullahans have always existed as Dullahans i.e. humans, other types of fairies or supernatural beings don’t change into Dullahans. Plus, wasn’t Selty’s headless horse with her when she woke up sans head? Perhaps in this sense, Selty’s being stayed the same whilst her identity (her past roles, for example) changed. Still, I could be wrong all together. Selty’s memory is at best vague. How much of what we see can we actually believe?
Assuming Selty *is* really a Dullahan, then she must have had a head but I also wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the old artist saw another Dullahan.
Jason "moofang"
Hmmm, okay, I don’t have any backing at all that Selty hasn’t been a Dullahan all her life. That was just the impression I got somehow – that Selty used to be human(?) and awoke one day a Dullahan. Maybe it just happens that most portrayals of ghostly existences that I’ve seen have stories of the human beings from which they originated. Well, either way we’re in agreement at least that Selty’s head represents a past self that her present self likely no longer matches. As far as Durarara is concerned that may be the only takeaway that truly mattered :)
Maureen
A lot of the ghost coach stories start with someone very wicked. It seems to be tied to Purgatory/ghost ideas, in that the wicked person has repented and is saved, but is presumably making reparation for some of the temporal consequences of their evil deeds. The ghost coach fetches other wicked people’s souls, and often seems to be supposed to scare people into repenting at the last moment or taking fright at the wicked person’s fate. This would seem to fit in with Selty’s general attempts to do good in the world and use her powers wisely. However, since she can be affected by pain and so forth, it’s clear that she’s not “all the way dead” and may be more in the way of a fairy.
Anyway… it seems obvious that since Selty lost memories of her “dissection”, that she lost memories of how she lost her head and some previous events because she was held captive and tortured for a long, long time. Since she awoke on the cold hill’s side, this really does seem like she fell afoul of the Good Folk, the People of Peace, etc.
And the fairies, having hung out with Celts, are quite likely to be into collecting heads. Of course, Japanese also collected foes’ heads, so you can see a theme here. Maybe some visiting Japanese feyfolk had a little diplomatic incident.
Maureen
Oh, and it obviously wasn’t another dullahan. She recognized her horse and her coach in the drawing. (Possibly her dress too, but that’s kinda generic Irish gown.)
Jason "moofang"
You brought out some interesting points :) though I’m not sure how much I agree on the evidence of Selty’s previous captivity and torture.
Also, we have no idea if a Dullahan’s horse and carriage is unique. And when Shinra offered her the notion that it may not have been her, she said “that was me. It has to be”. To me that seems to imply that her conclusion is more an intuitive than evidential one.