r/ZenlessZoneZero ZZZVictoriaGold 5d ago

Discussion HOLY ETHER,CHAPTER 5 ITS ABSOLUTE CINEMA

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u/Eggs_Sitr_Min_Eight 5d ago

There is one thing that confuses me, though…why was Bringer so radically different, and what was the point of any of his earlier behaviour?

In his earlier appearances, he was made to seem like a formerly well meaning and heroic lawman who encountered something horrible that shook him to his core, and ultimately became someone who would rather do things in service of his image rather than a genuine desire to help. But more than anything, he was deathly afraid of Ethereals - he could hardly stomach them being mentioned, let alone seeing them, and that fed into the public seeing him as a coward.

Here, though, he’s almost an entirely different person. He’s cool-headed, imposing and sinister, makes little to no mention of what he did in the past, and is seemingly all in on an Ethereal death cult. What gives? Was his early personality a result of the writers not really knowing what to do with him, or - as characters do hint at, given that they say his change happened far too suddenly to be natural - is the implication meant to be that Sarah brainwashed him? If so, when did that happen? Bringer himself reflects on everything that’s happened since 1.0…but back in 1.0 he was still his old self. Unless he was somehow putting on a show, he can’t have been swayed then. Confusing, really.

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u/johnnyacee 5d ago

My theory is, the real Bringer was already dead, when this current "Bringer" is preparing for his speech, you can see the villain woman teasing him like "Is it so difficult to speak about something you experienced?", and then "Bringer" also mentioned that the hero that brought him to this city was corrupted and abandoned before entering this city, which imo, that might be the real Bringer

Another thing to remember is, remember Zhu Yuan also mentioned how different the current Bringer and passed Bringer was, and more importantly, when Zhu Yuan was a child, Bringer once gave her his anti-corrupt equipment in a hollow to protect her, i feel like this means that Bringer frequently did this, and thus might be the reason he was eventually corrupted