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2022-08-27
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Things to Love About Pandora Hearts- Reviews, Analyses, and High Praise

Summary:

Exactly what it says on the tin. The first 'chapter' is a comprehensive list of examples of B-rabbit foreshadowing.

The second chapter is an informal character analyses of Gilbert, and how he relates to the themes of 'obsession' in Pandora Hearts.

Chapter 1: Oz the B-Rabbit Forshadowing (Organized for Your Conviniance)

Summary:

You will not truly understand how big of a troll Jun Mochizuki is until you go back and see Oz being foreshadowed as B-rabbit every other chapter. There's so many clues they're hard to list. However, I made a good effort at organizing the ones I noticed for your convenience.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Specific Examples

Episode/Chapter 1

  1. Oz describes the 100 year old music box melody that leads him to falling onto Lacie's grave as 'somehow nostalgic' even though he's never heard it before. Also, the fact that he heard the melody at all while the watch wasn't physically playing means Alice's memory fragment was calling out to him because of their connection.
  2. This actually foreshadows multiple things, but when Oz grabs the pocket watch containing on of Alice's memory fragments, the dolls in the tower room recognize him, saying "He's back! She'll be so happy!" Similarly, what Alyss says that he "used to come to visit here here all the time". These words make sense whether you assume the dolls and Alyss are interpreting Oz as Jack or as B-rabbit. Both B-rabbit and Jack were supposed to return to Alyss and both visited her, with Oz moving back and forth between the abyss. Though when Alice attacks him and says she'll never forgive him, she's clearly mistaking him Oz Jack, and means she will never forgive him for what he has done to her and Oz.

Episode/Chapter 2

  1. When Alice first appears to Oz, she tells the Baskervilles they arn't allowed to harm her possession. Oz: "Your possession?" Alice: "Shut up. I decided it just now." Alice goes with with her gut, and despite not intellectually knowing that Oz was her stuffed rabbit, she still refers to him as her "possession" multiple times.

  2. When Doldum was possessing Gil and licked Oz's blood, they said that his blood "tastes different from other humans."

  3. Oz at the coming of age ceremony was the only one who is able to ever inflict a scar on Gilbert over the course of the story, despite having been slashed before by Jack and later Cheshire Cat as well. Normally nothing should be able to perminantly harm him, because he's a Baskerville, but Oz is B-rabbit; one of the only chains with the power to kill both chains and Baskervilles.

    (Note: in a special edition extra, Break theorizes that this is because even while mostly powerless, Oz retained some residue of B-rabbit's power, which makes sense, because even in a dormant state I don't think you could seperate B-rabbit from B-rabbit. Chains are not physical creatures and essentially their existence in a manifestation of their power.)

  4. "Your sin is your very existence." - Xai

    That sentence has a whole new context when you realize that Oz was a chain literally 'created' to destroy the world.

Episode/Chap 3

  1. Oz describes Alice's name as feeling 'nadtalgic' somehow, implying he knew Alice in the past.

  2. Alice did not have access to all of B-rabbit's powers until she made a contract with Oz. She assumed someone must have put a limiter on her powers and any contract would allow her to overcome it.

    (However, we later can infer that Alice never had full access to B-rabbit's powers because they weren't hers to begin with, and she was only able to increase the power had access to through a contract because she made a contract with the original B-rabbit, Oz.)

Cheshire Dimension Arc

  1. Oz instinctually hijacks Alice's supposed power in a moment of emotional distress, which is not normal at all for contracter and chain.

  2. After Oz loses it upon seeing Alice's death, he hears the words we will later hear parroted line for line in chapter 70: "Oz, you're a very special person to me. So please promise me that if I'm on trouble, or there are people who want to hurt me, you'll come save me." This is one of Alice's memories talking, so of course the question was, how did Alice's memories from 100 years ago recognize Oz? Also, when he heard these words, his mind fills with an image of Alice from a very low perspective, like someone looking up... or like he's seeing the memory from the perspective of a doll on the ground.

  3. Oz's words, that he would destroy anything that makes Alice sad, are paralleled almost exactly by the Cheshire cat; a character who actually shares many parallels with Oz, being a chain created and loved by a version of Alice.

  4. While Oz is destroying the dimension, Jack says "B-rabbit's true power lies within Oz" and that "A time will come when Oz no longer has need of that seal." Jack also says something cryptic like "He is Oz. Alice is B-rabbit. There's no way to break the bond between them," and that they would always be inevitably drawn together. By which of course, Jack means, the original B-rabbit will be drawn to who is holding his power. (Jack is clearly a total troll.)

Lutwidge Academy Arc

  1. Jack takes control and uses B-rabbit's powers to ward of Baskervilles at Lutwidge Academy. At this time, Alice is all the way across the school, but as Jack takes over what we presently think is Oz's body (but is really Jack's) what looks like a sleeping B-rabbit appears behind Jack. Asleep, because Oz is currently not conscious of the fact that he is B-rabbit.

  2. When Jack shows Oz a flashback about his fight with Glen, he gets bombarded with feelings of "I don't want to kill you" which he assumes jack's feelings towards Glen- but Oz is actually picking up on his own feelings from that time, because those words were exactly what Oz was screaming when Jack forced him to kill.

Returning to Sablier Arc

  1. Glen's memory recognizes Oz as an entity separate from Jack and he also says he should never have been born.

  2. Alice hears Oz's pitiful voice calling her in Sablier's ruins even when the current Oz we know didn't 'whine'for her (it's really a memory calling her).

  3. The fact that though Oz didn't remember ever using his scythe before, his body 'moved naturally' when he manifested one in Sablier.

  4. Oz's 'father' consistently calls him 'it' or 'that thing' depending on the translation.

Headhunter Arc

  1. In volume 14, when Oz rescues Alice from Isla Yura's ritual, Alice doesn't remember why, but she has a strong feeling telling her that if she lets Oz destroy anything else with B-rabbit's powers everything will have been for nothing. This of course being because she killed herself and stole his powers precisely so Oz wouldn't have to destroy anymore.

  2. Also in vol. 14, Oz has a feeling he's done something like this before after Jack uses his body to kill Yura, and has flashes to the tragedy of Sablier, including past Alice saying "Oz."

  3. 3. In vol. 15, it's revealed Isla Yura discovered in his research that the abyss can reverse aging as well as speed up time, foreshadowing the reverse aging of Jack by the power of the abyss.

Misc

  1. In vol. 11 Oz and friends travel to a sorcerer's mansion in the vicinity of a seal that suppresses the power of chains, and for some reason Oz gets a headache and starts acting out of it/homicidal, while no one other character present is effected (not even Alice). The next seal effects Oz also at Yura's mansion.

  2. The fact that Oz was suspected of being switched at birth. (First referenced Vol. 12)
    3. When Oz first met Gil (Ep/chap 6) he immediately wanted him to sign a contract- one about him eating his vegetables for him and doing whatever he said, but it's still perhaps a result of some of his true nature subconsciously bleeding out.

Generalities

  1. There are many details that show that Oz's contract with Alice is fundamentally different from normal contracts. For one, Oz's seal is always visible while on most contractors, the seal only appears when the chain is actively using its powers. However, in Oz's case, he's possessing himself all the time- technically, constantly using his power. As Oz's seal progresses, Alice's power also gets weaker as Oz regains more easy access to power that belonged to him in the first place.

    My explanation for how the contract between Oz and Alice works:

    When Oz made a contract with Alice, the way I see it, it was more Jack's body making a second contract B-Rabbit's power (this time an illegal one without the help of the Will of the Abyss, hence the seal) which just happened to be residing in Alice at the time. Alice was connected to both of them inextricably because she is essentially a ghost that is only sustained by B-rabbit's power. However, as more and more B-Rabbit power returns to Oz, we see later that her existence becomes less stable.

  2. The whole story, Oz has been suffering from bouts of PTSD (often triggered by Alice being hurt) even if he doesn't remember the source. It's easy to spot when you look for it.

  3. Personality:

    Oz is prodigeously inteligent for his (supposed) age, and has the ability to unnerve people very easily when he feels like it. Being self aware of his own emotions, recognizing, and aknowledging them for what they were did not come naturally to him. Much of Oz's character arc, from another perspective, is about him becoming more 'real' or 'human'; to learn to be more than what he believes other people expect him to be. And that he deserves to exist in his own right.

    Conversly, one of Oz's greatest strengths has always been empathizing with and percieving others' emotions; a potential callback to his time as an intimate stuffed rabbit, when all he could do was observe those around him. His innate lack of self worth (though it wasn't helped by Xai's rejection) is also a subconsious leftover from his time as a doll and then as an unwilling killer. Oz always had the feeling deep down that he did not deserve to be treated 'the same as everybody else's even if there was no conciouse rationale behind it.

  4. Oz is consistantly associated with rabbit imagery in artwork (even in imstances when Alice is not) and his character contains many allusions to the rabbit role from Alice in Wonderland. I.e., He carries a gold pocket, makes a couple references to being late (such as when he apologizes for being late when rescuing Alice during the Cheshire arc), and Alice innitially chases after Oz, 'the rabbit', as her key to escaping the abyss and finding her memories.

    In fact multiple characters chase the ellusive 'white rabbit' throughout the story (Gilbert trying to get Oz back counts, so does the Baskervilles trying to catch him.)

    Also, in the omake "Gilbert in Wonderland" where Oz represented the rabbit and wore black rabbit ears.

  5. When Alice is in human form she wears a skirt with the rest of her B-rabbit coat and when she transforms into a rabbit she wears pants. This is probably a nod to the form of B-rabbit (which she only borrowed) actually being male. (Got this one from TV tropes).

Notes:

References:

The manga (first and foremost), TV Tropes, and Jun Mochizuki Wiki.

Most of this evidence is based on my own impressions.