Discussion Merlin

[kkck]

Well, there is definitely something very off regarding merlin's race however I do rule out her being specifically a goddess or a demon. For one thing, if she was either there would be evidence of that by now. Demon or goddess powers are easily identifiable by anyone in the manga at this point. It's not something she could realistically hide unless there is some bullshit explanation of her using her power to hide her demon/goddess presence. Another issue here is that when merlin talked about her power she talked about human lifespan.
https://jaiminisbox.com/reader/read/nanatsu_no_taizai/en/0/191/page/10

Now, I don't think she is a human either but it makes no sense that she is other stuff. She calls herself the daughter of belialin or something which going by myth is a sort of demon. So merlin having demonic origin is by no means a stretch however she is different enough from a demon herself that her actual power does not register as either demonic or anything else.

At the moment, if I had to go with a theory it would be her being a demon-goddess hybrid. Her powers lacking demonic or holy properties is the result of her not having either due to them cancelling out within her. Given her words, even her lifespan would be reduced compared to other races though her magic would be exceptionally strong.

 

[Demonspeed]

Beliaruin is a place, it could be a person's name as wrll but it's at least confirmed to be a place. If Papa Gowther were him, he would have no reason to hide his name. Other characters would have noticed if she were a Demon or Goddess(the twins don't even know what she is). The hybrid theory is still possible, I like the theory about her being Mel and Elizabeth's daughter, but I find all of this unlikely now.

Although she is not a Demon or a Goddess, I believe that she is related to the Goddess clan somehow(either because she has one as parent or because she is from an extinct race related to them). Gray Lord identified her as Human and according to her words she had the lifespan of one, but the fact that he found her dangerous(just like he feared Denzel's sword) implies that she has powers similar to the Goddess clan, she also said that she has been endowed with a natural resistance against Commandments too. Maybe that she has been artificially created just like Gowther Jr., which could explain why she regrets being born.

 

[kkck]

Beliaruin is a place, it could be a person's name as wrll but it's at least confirmed to be a place. If Papa Gowther were him, he would have no reason to hide his name. Other characters would have noticed if she were a Demon or Goddess(the twins don't even know what she is). The hybrid theory is still possible, I like the theory about her being Mel and Elizabeth's daughter, but I find all of this unlikely now.

Although she is not a Demon or a Goddess, I believe that she is related to the Goddess clan somehow(either because she has one as parent or because she is from an extinct race related to them). Gray Lord identified her as Human and according to her words she had the lifespan of one, but the fact that he found her dangerous(just like he feared Denzel's sword) implies that she has powers similar to the Goddess clan, she also said that she has been endowed with a natural resistance against Commandments too. Maybe that she has been artificially created just like Gowther Jr., which could explain why she regrets being born.

When was it confirmed to be a plan? And if that is the case, then we can't rule out her being a place's daughter being literal....

Her being identified as a human is also weird here. Though my guess was that if she is a hybrid and her innate powers cancel each other then she would be left without either power thus her registering as human. I guess she could also be "blessed" or curse by the place in question... However she likely is not an actual human in a similar way to ban not being a human.

 

[Demonspeed]

When was it confirmed to be a plan? And if that is the case, then we can't rule out her being a place's daughter being literal....

In the 2nd fanbook, it's her birthplace. We knew this name before the reveal in the manga.

 

[Baum]

Didn't Merlin mention that her name can't be pronounced by humans? To me that implies that she isn't human herself but something just different enough for her to barely pass as one before Gray Lord.

 

[kkck]

In the 2nd fanbook, it's her birthplace. We knew this name before the reveal in the manga.

Ah, ok. Another interesting detail here is that merlin's true name can't be pronounced by humans. Which should be pretty strong evidence that she does not have actual human origin. Looking back at the chapter fraudrin calls her a survivor.... Actually that would at least prove she was at least alive during the past war though I would still guess she was too young to be a major player in it. Setting aside the possibility of her being an alien, she could also be from a long forgotten clan. And given what we know, her being an alien is also a possibility....

 

[Demonspeed]

My guess is that she identified her as Human by default because she could not recognize other racial traits.

 

[kkck]

My guess is that she identified her as Human by default because she could not recognize other racial traits.

That is weird in itself... What I also find weird is that other races have powers which are easily identifiable. When gloxinia's race was revealed a specific reference to fairies power was mentioned. In the same way as demon's power and goddess' power is mentioned. I am not sure if we have a reference to a giant's power though. In any case, it seems like all races have a specific signature or feel to their power. So.... why don't humans have this? If humans had a specific feel to their power then there wouldn't have to be any confusion here regarding it. Humans would simply feel human and there wouldn't be any doubt about anything. It's kinda like humans have a neutral feel so to speak. Which is either racist or random (because gowther would feel like that as well).

 

[Demonspeed]

That is weird in itself... What I also find weird is that other races have powers which are easily identifiable. When gloxinia's race was revealed a specific reference to fairies power was mentioned. In the same way as demon's power and goddess' power is mentioned. I am not sure if we have a reference to a giant's power though. In any case, it seems like all races have a specific signature or feel to their power. So.... why don't humans have this? If humans had a specific feel to their power then there wouldn't have to be any confusion here regarding it. Humans would simply feel human and there wouldn't be any doubt about anything. It's kinda like humans have a neutral feel so to speak. Which is either racist or random (because gowther would feel like that as well).

Not sure that all racial powers can be easily identified. King and Elaine reacted but they are Fairies, people usually don't believe King is a Fairy unless he shows his true form. A Fairy can be recognized by wings, ears etc. Giants by their sizes. Humans are just plain, they have no characteristic differentiating them from the other races. So, unless she notices those traits Gray Lord probably classifies the rest as Humans by default.

 

[kkck]

Not sure that all racial powers can be easily identified. King and Elaine reacted but they are Fairies, people usually don't believe King is a Fairy unless he shows his true form. A Fairy can be recognized by wings, ears etc. Giants by their sizes. Humans are just plain, they have no characteristic differentiating them from the other races. So, unless she notices those traits Gray Lord probably classifies the rest as Humans by default.

There are plenty of instances of people being about to identify people by how their power feels. When the first commandments first arrived they almost immediately noticed how few goddess, giant and fairy presences there were. Hendricksen felt meliodas' demonic powers when they first met. Meliodas identified zaneli and her sister as goddesses on the spot. And meliodas IIRC was also identified as a demon. Granted not anyone can do it but it does seem to be a relatively common skill for people with some skill. Demons recently went further and mentioned there was a part of demons power that could only be felt by other demons...

As for humans being plane... I am not sure that makes sense as a thing. That would be a matter of perspective for each race. For a goddess a human would basically look like a goddess without wings for instance.

 

[ShadowHeart]

Whatever Merlin race I bet she using a illusion to hide it. And we all know Merlin capable of that considering she easily fooled 2 Great Holy knights. Not to mention not even Meliodas or the Sins recognized her at Liones. Well not until she messed with Vivian that is.

 

[Demonspeed]

Whatever Merlin race I bet she using a illusion to hide it. And we all know Merlin capable of that considering she easily fooled 2 Great Holy knights. Not to mention not even Meliodas or the Sins recognized her at Liones. Well not until she messed with Vivian that is.

The scale was impressive but even Ruin managed to fool both Meliodas and Diane with his illusions. I don't think she would be able to fool everyone for so long.

 

[ShadowHeart]

The scale was impressive but even Ruin managed to fool both Meliodas and Diane with his illusions. I don't think she would be able to fool everyone for so long.

With infinity it's definitely possible.

 

[Kay3795]

Demons, Humans, Goddess, Giants, Werewolves etc are sentient beings. They have their own lands, kingdoms, realms etc. The strongest of the races are the Demons and Goddess. They weren't always at War with each other.

I think it's possible that Merlin had a story that is slightly similar to Bayonetta, with the Umbra Witches and Lumen Sages being the Demon Clan and the Goddess clan in this case. In discovering who Merlin is, her past (the survivor), we might know more about the 2 clans and how they came about fighting each other.

 

[Rigval]

I genuinely think Merlin is a demon/goddess hybrid. Her father Belialin has demonic origins to her name. So likely he was a demon. But what was interesting is how Gray road thought Merlin was a human. Monspeet 3000 years ago said they could sense the demon civilians' demon energy in the fairy forest, but Gray road couldn't sense Merlin's demonic energy or power at all. I think Merlin's half goddess nature somehow conceals and hides her demonic power so other demons think she's a human. Monspeet did say the goddess clans light can destroy or cancel out the darkness, so Merlin's half goddess nature can conceal or maybe canceled out her demon power.

She is neither light or darkness, the middle road.

 

[Laoufette]

I would like to talk about the theory of Merlin being one of the Goddess clan and with the flashback we had, I am sure at 100% that this theory is true because of the last chapter.

I will start with those two pages

Spoiler: Pic 1

Spoiler: Pic 2

My point here is simple, Merlin is Gowther lover (There are some pages where they are exactly the same, i will put them after) and Gowther created his doll with the image of Merlin. Ok it's nice but what does it have to do with Merlin being a Goddess? It's simple as we can see in the first picture i put, Gowther has a lot of respect for Meliodas because he gave up everything for LOVE because he wasn't able or strong enough to give up everuthing himself for his lover who is one of the goddess clan just like Meliodas.

Spoiler: pic 3

Spoiler: pic4

For the ressamblance, they are exactly the same.

My next point is: The Goddess are the only ones we saw being able to take over a body of a human completly (the case of Fraudrin is really different) because as we saw in an extra pages Jenna and Zaneri did it. I think she survived and ran away to hide herself in a body of a human then used infinity.
This explains how the 10C knows her and why she just can't pronounce well her name.

My last point his Merlin knowledge, I think she knows so much about demons in gerenel ( culture, spells, etc.) because of Gowther; he was his lover so he must have teached her a lot about magic and demon stuff.

I feel like I am missing a point if I remember what it is i will update. What are your opinions about this?

 

[Demonspeed]

The problem I have with this is that I don't think they resemble each others this much. According to what Meliodas said, Gowther's face is supposed to be just like her. Merlin's eyes are different from him and their hair color too. If the face is supposed to be exactly like her as Meliodas said, it can't be Merlin, but if it's not, maybe. I think it's most likely Merlin's mother or another relative.

Her knowledge is good but I have the impression it's rather recent(from someone her age of course). She didn't know much about the Commandments and has revealed recent inventions related to them(Goddess Ambers, Cure Angel etc.).

EDIT: Just checked and noticed Cure Angel is her 48th item. It's rather old compared to most of her items which have been used).

 

[kkck]

Based on what we have seen so far to me it looks like merlin was indeed around during the last war but given her absence and overall lack of knowledge of the commandments my impression is that she actually was too young to have been a big part of it. with that in mind, if she was young when the war was going on then certainly she would have been too young to be gowther's lover, specially if this happened before he was imprisoned. And fraudrin didn't even know about the real gowther which would suggest this happened perhaps hundreds of years before the war.

 

[ShadowHeart]

Based on what we have seen so far to me it looks like merlin was indeed around during the last war but given her absence and overall lack of knowledge of the commandments my impression is that she actually was too young to have been a big part of it. with that in mind, if she was young when the war was going on then certainly she would have been too young to be gowther's lover, specially if this happened before he was imprisoned. And fraudrin didn't even know about the real gowther which would suggest this happened perhaps hundreds of years before the war.

Well Merlin was at least 500 years old before the war started. So older than most of the Commandments at least.

--- Double Post Merged, May 21, 2017, Original Post Date: May 21, 2017 ---

The problem I have with this is that I don't think they resemble each others this much. According to what Meliodas said, Gowther's face is supposed to be just like her. Merlin's eyes are different from him and their hair color too. If the face is supposed to be exactly like her as Meliodas said, it can't be Merlin, but if it's not, maybe. I think it's most likely Merlin's mother or another relative.

Her knowledge is good but I have the impression it's rather recent(from someone her age of course). She didn't know much about the Commandments and has revealed recent inventions related to them(Goddess Ambers, Cure Angel etc.).

EDIT: Just checked and noticed Cure Angel is her 48th item. It's rather old compared to most of her items which have been used).

I doubt the Goddess Ambers are recent inventions. It make more sense if she created them when the demons were actually around not already sealed.

 

[Demonspeed]

Can we really be sure that she was at least 500? The only hint we have regarding her age is that Meliodas knew her before the other Sins IIRC. Gowther Sr. is not a Sin so he doesn't count and Gowther Jr. was 500 at the end of the war since he has been created after his dad got imprisoned. She might have been a young girl or someone older than Galan. Even if she had great powers back then I am not sure she would have used her talents to fight as a warrior. The other strong fighters fought as a clan, Merlin was probably alone most of the time.

Based on what we have seen so far to me it looks like merlin was indeed around during the last war but given her absence and overall lack of knowledge of the commandments my impression is that she actually was too young to have been a big part of it. with that in mind, if she was young when the war was going on then certainly she would have been too young to be gowther's lover, specially if this happened before he was imprisoned. And fraudrin didn't even know about the real gowther which would suggest this happened perhaps hundreds of years before the war.

Fraudrin knew the two Gowther. It's confirmed in Volume 26 extras.