Analyzing Allen's Dream in Chapter 184

[murasaki-mary.livejournal.com]

Below I've tried to make sense of Allen's dream in chapter 184. So after analyzing it, here are my thoughts below the cut. :) Though this dream is fairly complex. So the dream could be interpreted in multiple ways, and it'd be great to hear other theories and opinions from other people. =D

Meet the Noah

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this already, but I think that when Mana said, "There's a guest waiting for you. They've been waiting for a long time," on page 5 in chapter 184 that he might be implying that the other Noah are waiting for Allen and he wants him to meet them.

Resurrecting the 14th Noah

Also it seems as if Mana is trying to erase Allen somehow which is symbolized by the progressive erasure of his name in pages 5-6. Everytime Mana says his name, a piece of it is replaced with an "o", and when Allen finally wakes up, he really has been replaced by the 14th. It's weird, but by replacing his name with indesipherable o's, it's as if Allen is being buried by those o's and the 14th is able to take over. It's like a chant/spell by Mana, or is this Mana actually the 14th?!

The Clown is just a Disguise

Thus I come to my third point that the clown Allen dreamed of was not Mana at all, but the 14th. He seems to want to introduce him to the Noah albeit. It also seems that he has resurrected the 14th by erasing Allen symbolized through the erasure of his name. It's also very likely that the voice in pages 2-3 could be the 14th talking directly to Allen and failing to overtake him that the 14th decided to appear before Allen by taking on Mana's persona instead in hopes of ressurecting himself, the 14th, by taking over Allen's consciousness.

Lenalee's Innocence Appears?!

Although there is a very akward shape in the sky that looks very similar to Lenalee's innocence in pages 2-4. Check out page 13 from chapter 153 and page 4 from chapter 184. Could the ominous voice instead be Lenalee's innocence and not the 14th's? After all, they are both asleep in the same room. So maybe it wasn't difficult for her innocence to communicate to Allen in a dream. This is a complex dream that's hard to interpret, but I really doubt Hoshino would put that white stylized figure of Lenalee's innocence in the sky if it wasn't supposed to be Lenalee's innocence, because it's too distorted to be a plane or a cross to me. Also it's in the sky like a bird which is what Lenalee's innocence essentially is.

Was There a Message?

I guess it's safe to assume that voice is coming from the sky, because Allen looks up toward the sky in the bottom panel on page 3 when the voice says,"Your soul is the one that needs to be saved". _{This could also further support the theory of it being Lenalee's innocence in the sky.} Though this is where I fail to understand this part of the dream. if it was Lenalee's innocence in the sky talking to Allen, was that all it had to say? Was the message just to tell Allen that he was the one needing exorcism? Or was it because Mana and/or the 14th stepped in and interrupted the dream before it could say anything more? Or was the voice the 14th all along and not Lenalee's innocence at all?

Conclusion

To me, there seems to be a lot more going on than just Allen talking to Mana and waking up as the 14th. I think this dream shows how he turned into the 14th again through the replacement/erasure of his name with those o's. The 14th is actively trying to overthrow Allen now. This dream also seems to emphasize once again the connection between Allen and Lenalee at least through the appearance of her innocence's white silhouette in the sky. Also, if that isn't a white stylized silhouette of Lenalee's innocence, then what is it? O_o Surely nobody really thinks it's a bird or a plane? X3


Feel free to dissucss! Comments are really appreciated!

Comments

[leronze.livejournal.com]

...I thought "You're the one who needs to be saved" was directed at Allen? 0.o;

[ryuunokeshin.livejournal.com]

[eiliem.livejournal.com]

Seconded - it was in the same type of speech bubble as the two in the first panel on page 3: http://www.onemanga.com/D.Gray-Man/184/003/

Intriguing that the voice might be Lenalee's innocence - and that the white shape in the sky might be it, I just assumed that it was some kind of fancy stylized cross

I wasn't sure if the clown really was Mana, or Allen thinking of Mana, or if the clown was someone else, like the 14th. It seems to me that Mana is also inside Allen (through his cursed eye) so it might have been possible for Mana to actually communicate with Allen in a dream; that said, "Mana" was acting fairly sinisterly for someone who supposedly loves Allen.

I thought that the person "Mana" wanted Allen to go see was the 14th...

[mellmell.livejournal.com]

I also thought it was the voice who said that and not Allen. It seemed to me like it was saying, "You think you saved them? Boy, YOU are the one who needs to be saved."

I don't really have any theories about this dream. I'm really more of the type of person who just likes to wait for it to unfold in the manga instead of really making up my own ideas. But I would like to point out other strange things.
Like how there are stop lights and skyscrapers, which I'm pretty sure, though correct me if I'm wrong, did not exsist in the 19th century. ( >.> )
I know this is a steampunk and all, but I've yet to see any sort of technology that really stood out as much as those two things.

Out of all the things I've seen in that dream, that was deffinately the strangest to me. It's almost suggesting something happening in the future?
Uhg, it confuses me to no end! ( @_@ )

[murasaki-mary.livejournal.com]

Hmm...Good point! Now that I look back at the page, it does look like that dialouge is directed at Allen because it's in a speech bubble that looks just like the other two speech bubbles directed at Allen. Allen was looking up with his mouth open, and I was convinced he was speaking it. O_o I guess he was just gasping with his mouth open.

Thank you for you pointing that out. I'm going to go edit that out of my article. At least now I can narrow down some of the points in my article a little better. ;)

[leronze.livejournal.com]

I think that 'Mana loving Allen' is still unclear, and that if he had to choose between his brother or Allen, the 14th would win for sure.

That said, doesn't anyone think that Clown!Mana looks totally different from childhoodflashback!Mana?

[leronze.livejournal.com]

Okayy~ ^_^

[leronze.livejournal.com]

You know, now that I think about it... that weird light thing in the sky actually looked like the Ark's Gate to me at first. 0.o

I don't connect it to Lenalee's Innocence at all.

[yamamoto-kou.livejournal.com]

My current belief is that the narrative at the beginning, before Allen says that it's a bad dream, was from his Innocence: It was telling him off for thinking that he, the host for the 14th, was without sin and that it (Crown Clown) was the one doing all the saving, not Allen, and it concludes by telling him that he's also someone that needs saving.

The symbol in the sky would be the cross symbol that's on Allen's left hand, which is also the symbol of his Innocence. I find it interesting that the symbol was still in the dream sky when dream!Mana was taking Allen to whoever it is that's waiting. It's for that reason that I'm not sure whether dream!Mana was a product of the Innocence, the 14th, or maybe some remnant of Mana himself that's still in Allen (at least that's what I think the weird skull with a D symbol is). I mean, the Innocence overlooking the whole thing would probably have done something if it really the 14th trying to lead him astray... maybe...

At the moment, the theory that the gradual replacing of Allen's name symbolizes Allen himself being replaced seems the most plausible to me.

Also, it's interesting to note that since the three Japanese characters that makes up Allen's name (A-re-n) is replaced with illegible 'O's, whatever name that was replacing it (if there is one) would also have three Japanese characters and it could be the 14th's name.

[murasaki-mary.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I made a boo-boo. ^_^; I was convinced that Allen might have been saying it, because he was looking, I believe towards the sky, and had his mouth open as if speaking. Though, he does have a sword stuck through him and was probably just gasping. I've edited the article, because I do agree that those aren't his speech bubbles after all.

I'm glad that you find my theory on Lenalee's innocence interesting. :) I also agree that Mana was acting sinister like he was hiding something. So I feel that it's difficult to be sure if it's Mana, because he seems to be leading Allen on...it's like he's the 14th or was never Allen's friend or something..

[murasaki-mary.livejournal.com]

Edited! =D Though, editing it brought a new aspect to the quote. Maybe the voice is implying that Allen needs to exorcise himself or at least the Noah part of himself.

[leronze.livejournal.com]

...or rather, that Allen's soul is one in need of salvation because it is in danger of being overwhelmed by the 14th's?

[murasaki-mary.livejournal.com]

You mean like here http://www.onemanga.com/D.Gray-Man/135/DGM_135_pg02/ ?

[leronze.livejournal.com]

Maybe it symbolizes Allen being split in half? One part becoming 'allen the Innocence-User' and the other become the 14th?

[leronze.livejournal.com]

Umm.. yeah. o.o;

[murasaki-mary.livejournal.com]

Either that or both. It could have a double meaning since the statement in the quote is general and not consise about what part of Allen needs salvation.

[leronze.livejournal.com]

True, true...

[eiliem.livejournal.com]

*Desperately hopes that Mana really, truly loved/loves Allen because anything else is just too sad to contemplate*

Did you notice how...surprised Allen seems when he notes that Mana is really smiling? It was a surprisingly big deal; like Mana being truly happy was a rare thing. So I started thinking, maybe Mana was melancholy at lot - maybe Allen learned his lying!happyface from Mana, and learned the power and value of a smile because that's what Mana did: showed the world a smiling face when his heart never got over the death of his brother...

[murasaki-mary.livejournal.com]

The shape seems closer to Lenalee's innocence to me. Though it does look similar to either the Ark's gate or Lenalee's innocence. So either take on it is as plausible as the other. Also if it is the ark, it could further imply how Allen's dream connects to the 14th.

[yamamoto-kou.livejournal.com]

Could be, since my belief is that Allen would stop the 14th taking over completely somehow... *fingers crossed*

[murasaki-mary.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear that you thought that my theory on Lenalee's innocence appearing was good. If Lenalee's innocence is the Heart or part of it, then placing it in Allen's dream to warn him about saving himself from his noah side makes sense. After all, Allen has been theorized to be the heart or part of the Heart as well. Maybe Lenalee's innocence can communicate with Allen because they are both parts of the Heart? Yeah, I know that theory sounds kinda off the wall. ^^;

"I'm guessing that the "o"s are actually the 14th's name that Mana is calling Allen. Since Allen later told Mana to stop calling him "ooo" because that isn't his name. So it's sort of like Mana calling out for the 14th within Allen. Perhaps..." Good point! But that would mean Mana is calling out for the 14th. Or is this just symbolic of the 14th calling out himself or turning Allen into himself by renaming him?

[murasaki-mary.livejournal.com]

Thank you for telling me and other people have pointed that out too. So I've already rewritten a few parts of the article. :)

I also looked some info up on Wiki _{(Yeah I know I should find a better source *is lazy*)}, and skyscrapers have been around since the mid 1880's, but the buildings on page 3-6 still look ahead of 1899/1900. On page 6 there is also a trafic light, and modern traffic lights like this weren't around until 1912 and weren't even common until the 1920's. Considering that all of Wiki's info on that is true, then Allen's dream really is taking place in the future! O_O I'm schocked actually. Could Hoshino be foreshadowing by the demolished landscape that something could take place in the future, or did she just get her architecture off by 20 years? O_o Wow! Thanks for pointing that out. I thought that the architecture was possible for the year 1899 or 1900.

[leronze.livejournal.com]

I just downloaded the RAW, because I thought that would provide more clarity... (and lol, Mana's speech). Looks like I was right. I thought that the line "They've been waiting for you all this time" was a bit of a mistranslation.

Mana actually says: "Zutto mattetandesuyo 'Allen'" which I think just means "waiting all this while Allen". It could be referring to either Mana or the Noah waiting.

Also, Allen says, "Waratteru, sugoi waratteru." that I don't think is translated right in the OneManga scanslation. Or rather, "He's really smiling" is not taken in the right way. Allen's kinda.. saying it more like "he's seriously smiling". Err, I'm not saying this correctly. Allen seems surprised that Mana is smiling so much?


I'm still a beginner in Jap, so I may be wrong, but I don't think I am. ^_^;

[ryuunokeshin.livejournal.com]

[gedachtnis.livejournal.com]

I think the dream is another part of Allen's recently introduced search for establishing his own identity.

If one thinks about it, Allen views his Innocence very differently from all other Exorcists. To him, Crown Clown isn't a weapon, but an important part of himself that helps him walk forward. It's a very symbiotic relationship where one part doesn't exist without the other in his head.

When Innocence turned on Allen during the last battle, it must have been a severe shock to him. It's like a proof that now that Allen is a Noah, he and his Innocence are no longer two pieces of the same whole. He is now a corrupted creature who wields a purifying weapon, but he ultimately must be purified just like the demons. So he's a "corrupted tool of the left arm of God", not the "left arm of God" itself.

The vision of Mana is complex. It does hold the overtones of his doubt, because Mana slowly stops calling him Allen in the scene. It shows that Allen is still unsure if Mana really loved him or simply substituted him for his dead brother.

But, at the same time, it looks like Allen still holds enough faith in Mana to toss away his doubts about his role and his Innocence the second he remembers that promise. He doubts Mana's love for him, but he has enough faith in the lessons being with Mana taught him to keep walking forward.

Lenalee does play a role in that whole thing, but it's more about his awakening than the dream. If you look at his eyes, it really does feel like the one who awakened at first wasn't Allen. But hearing her voice immediately forces the 14th's presence back and establishes Allen as the core personality.

I don't know if this is a sign of their Innocences' connection. I do think, though, that Hoshino established a deep enough emotional bond between Allen and Lenalee for her presence to keep him in control.