Just a few things before we start…

Hello there fellow people, I’m happy to finally be back with another blog of sorts. Today we are tackling a personal favorite of mine, a manga/anime that (for better or worse) has been getting more traction (and that makes me pretty happy). This, as you can clearly see in the title, is Record of Ragnarok/Shumatsu no Valkyrie. This particular blog is on one of my favorite characters of the whole thing.

Just to be clear, for the sake of this blog, I’ve looked at the Record of Ragnarok manga and the LuBu side-story as my main sources. The anime (which is currently in its 1st Season and who knows if they will make a second) is my go-to complementary material. I will make sure (or try to) update this blog to keep it fresh when I feel there is enough info to do so.

*Also, take into account that this blog will have spoilers from the Manga and Anime. So if you don’t wish to see those, I recommend you go back right about now. If you don’t care for such things, then we have nothing better to do than to dive in! I hope you enjoy it. Let’s gooo!

Background

Let's go back in time for a moment, if you please... to the dawn of the 20th Century, in a prosperous and beautiful city known as London, at the peak of the industrial revolution. Within the segregated brickwork of the beautiful city there was a poor and nameless child living with her mother, a prostitute from the slums of the city. They fought and did what they could to persevere in the awful era they lived in.

Despite it all-- the harshness of their lives, the indifference of the populace, the poor hand life had given them-- the nameless kid had but one thing he adored above everything, the thing that kept him going: his mother and her happiness. Every day, the kid would work and do his best to make his mother smile for another day. Sadly, like all good things, it came to an end. One fateful night, upon entering their room, the boy saw his mother not happy and serene as he had always perceived her, but rather sad and depressed. A man she had met long ago, a successful playwright who had promised her wonders, had finally made his move and left her alone, abandoned to her luck with a child she did not want.

Whether it was the revelation, the knowledge that his mother’s love was never directed at him, or simply that her mother’s true colors were corrupted by anger and madness despite his best efforts... we will never know. One thing is known for sure: wanting to “save” her, the kid did the unthinkable and took his own bearer’s life, later visiting his “father” to deliver the final blow. On that fateful night, that nameless child was no more. Taking the name of the man that had left his family to die, the boy was reborn as Jack… Jack the Ripper. Living within the shadows, hiding in the mist and striking the innocent, he would single handedly terrorize the greatest city at the time.

Fast-forward long after Jack’s time had come and gone, to the dawn of a new age. The gods from every pantheon reunite in the hopes to debate the status of humankind. Should they prosper for a million years more? Or should they be eradicated on the spot? Though many seemed hellbent on destruction, there was one valkyrie that stood up for us mortals, a fierce warrior by the name of Brunhilde. She incited the gods to the tournament of “Ragnarok,” a face-off between the 13 strongest gods and the 13 strongest humans for their survival.

Accepting the challenge, the gods rejoiced and chose their warriors. Brunhilde, being wise in her judgement, chose the strongest mankind had to offer, among them the man who terrorized the city of London: the Ripper. Being the 4th representative of humanity in their fateful battle against the gods that created them, how will he ultimately fare? Will he prevail, or will he perish?

Equipment

"Regalia-Generating" Pouch

Jack, being a fighter that is less about direct confrontation and more about dancing around the opponent and utilizing distance as a tool, prefers that his weapons do the job for him. So he carries a bunch of materials and different things to aid him in combat in a couple of pouches, tho he originally claimed this was his volhund (spoilers it wasn’t), the things seem to be capable of carrying things way larger than its length and in a much greater capacity as well (seriously how does he carry all of this shit inside) either it is because of some magical dexterity or simple anime BS is unexplained (tho I lean the latter). Either way, below is a listing of the things he has shown to have on his person within these pouches.

Knives

(Lots of them)

Jack’s preferred and most used offensive tool, usually used as a fast and effective throwing weapon that he can just spam whenever he wants to keep enemies at a distance, the man carries way more than should be humanly possible and has used them in various ways, either it be as a simple hand to hand weapon or combining them with his other tools in creative manners to amplify their effectiveness, like creating setting up tripwires or long chains of knives that can be used offensively.

Piano Wire

As the title says, this is piano wire, a thin and metallic yet pretty strong and sharp tool that Jack can use either as a means to tie stuff up, bounce things around, set up trip-wires and even stand on to make it look like he’s floating, perfect for mobility and tricky attacks.

He has combined this wire with his previously mentioned knives to some incredible levels, as making his knives bounce on several layers of wire for tricky attacks, or make traps to make a storm of the things rain down on the opponent.

Grappling Hook

A simple grappling hook designed for quick escapes, one of Jack’s preferred methods of reaching incredibly tall heights as fast as possible to gain distance between himself and the opponent. It seems to have a pretty considerable length, as it is to cover the entire height of buildings.

Umbrella

The most defensive tool within his arsenal, if it wasn’t obvious enough Jack uses this umbrella as a sort of shield, protecting himself from strong blows with the front of it, its even strong enough to deflect and protect him from strong foes like Heracles.

Swiss-Knife

An oversized swiss knife composed of 3 parts that Jack can build whenever he needs too, as the name implies is just that, a very big swiss-knife, however true to its nature it can reveal several more blades from within that can be used to create a weapon he can chuck like a boomerang.

Giant Scissors

Probably Jack's larger weapon within his person, letting out his best Kill la Kill impersonation Jack unites two parts of a giant pair of Scissors that become… well… a very big one that's for sure, it mostly serves as an oversized blade that is good for close quarters combat.

Divine Weapon: "The Unsettled One"

In the world of Record of Ragnarok, there is a very clear distinction as to what a god-made weapon and a man-made weapon are, due to their divine status, Gods cannot be naturally harmed by earthly hand, let alone by a man-made weapon, as they would simply snap like a branch hitting a rock.

To keep up with such beings in the Ragnarok tournament, humanity was given the ability to summon powerful divine weapons via the “Volund”, a process where a human and a valkyrie unite to become a single being thanks to being in perfect sync, in turn this grants them a weapon which befits their personality and tactics, capable of harming, and even killing the very gods themselves.

Jack is no different, and he partook in Volund with the Valkyrie Hlokk (by force no less what a gentleman), and was given the abilities that come with such a thing. Below is the divine weapon that was granted to him.

Divine Gloves

True to the nature of a sleak, gruesome, brilliant and downright cruel serial killer, Jack’s divine weapon is probably one of the most unique (if not the most unique) we have seen in the Ragnarok tournament as of now, now you may think that among the crazy weapons like huge lances, clubs, spiked brass knuckles, weaponized body tattoos and many other things, a pair of gloves aren’t such a great thing right? Well, what they lack in coolness they make up a thousand-fold in usefulness, because you see these things are not only a divine weapon by themselves, they turn everything they touch INTO a divine weapon.

Yep, you read that right, they can turn ANYTHING into a divine weapon, regardless of size or composition, the only condition is that Jack touch them with his hands, and should he do so either be as small as pebbles or as large as whole buildings they possess the capacity to harm gods. And as such has used this power in very creative manners: Using manholes to protect himself, using his own cloak as a shield, using debree as hand to hand weapons, using a fence as a sword, turning collapsing buildings divine and even using his own blood as a weapon. His creativity and his environment is the only limit to this Volund, and that in turn makes Jack a terrifying combatant to face.

Abilities

Intellect.

Simply put, this man is one very tricky son of a gun, there isn't really much to say aside form that. He is a genious when it comes to fighting and to trick his opponents into his claws. Like how he lied 3 times about his real Volund to keep it a secret, or how his strategy against Heracles (a physicaly superior foe) was to run away and keep at a distance with his many weapons.

This extends to setting traps, manipulating his opponents, etc etc. In short, man's smart ok?

Emotion-Seeing eye

Whether it be a gift or a curse is to be debated, but it's undeniable that Jack from the very beginning was born special. You see he was brought into the world with a peculiar case of heterochromia, (having eyes of a different color each) not only did his eyes were different from one another but one of them, his right eye, allowed him to see beyond what mortal eye could behold, it allowed him to observe… emotions… yes, emotions, like a form of advanced synesthesia that could interpret feelings into a tangible form, like an aura that surrounds everyone.

Jack from a very infant age was able to identify the emotions of the people around him by use of this special sight and as such identify their state of mind, with time he came to learn which color represented what from something as obvious to sadness to more complex things like contempt, and tends to use this to his own enjoyment (~~like the psycho he is~~) by making his victims fall into a state of fear and terror. He can see the emotions of somebody to match them, or to know how they are feeling and act accordingly in the midst of combat.

Feats

Scaling

(look at all these swole men and then Jack being a pool noodle)

So, this is a bit of a tricky subject to handle, but let me explain myself, you may have noticed thanks to this blog and the image above but Jack is not what you would necessarily consider a “powerhouse” kinda fighter, he is one that relies on trickery and agility to get by. He can and did throw hands with Heracles, his weapons able to harm him consistently as well, so it's reasonable to believe that at the very least his divine weapons should be comparable to the rest of his fellow humans and enemy gods, and even tho he is not in the upper-echelons of physical strength when directly compared, he is still said to be one of humanity's strongest warriors and pretty much defeated Heracles in his battle.

For the sake of argument and just personal point of view, I pretty much see Jack the Ripper being a mid to high character in the series, he should reasonably scale to the divine weapons of other characters and physically to a certain degree.

For the benefit of the doubt I will be mentioning everything I consider is worth scaling or at least worth mentioning that applies to Jack the ripper from Humans and Gods alike:

*(for the record you may notice a lack of Buddah and Zerofuku here, I've decided to skip them for now until, their fight is over... when it does and more stuff is added then I might be able to put it here at a later date).

Humans:

LuBu:

LuBu's Sky Eater move splitting the clouds.
A clash with LuBu and Thor shaking the entire stadium they were standing on (tho this is debatable, I decide to include it out of completion).

Adam:

Adam launching a barrage of attacks in very short spans of time.

Kojiro:

Sasaki Kojiro being able to predict and adapt to attacks in litteral seconds.
Tho slightly overwhelmed, Kojiro was able to stand up and block most of Poseidon's 40 Day Flood Technique with his own "Thousand Image Defense".
The same Kojiro who can "scan all of creation" in the time it takes Poseidon to launch an attack.

Raiden:

Raiden clapping so hard he makes a shockwave across the arena.
Moving a very big rock in his youth.

Gods:

Thor:

Thor being able to generate tremendous amounts of electricity with an attack.
His final clash with Lu Bu shook the entire stadium, generating a giant blast that cleared up the clouds above.
Filling the whole arena with electricity.
Odin says that one of Thor's techniques slayed Jormungandr (if this is anywhere close to irl myths then that serpent is as long as the world).

Zeus:

Zeus's Divine axe moving at a speed of 0.00000001 seconds.
Zeus destrying the entire small room where Ares and gang are standing on.

Poseidon:

Causing a powerful shockwave with one attack.
Moving faster than whta Kojiro can react too.
The later moving so incredibly fast that his after images forms a dome that looks like rain of attacks.

Heracles:

Fucking up a guy in a single blow.
Heracles and Ares' clash making a small crater.
The latter knocks down the Big Ben with a single swing of his club.
Dodges Jack's grapple gun at point blank.

Shiva:

As the strongest god of the Hindu pantheon, is stated capable of "destroying the world".
His punches are said to look as strong as cannon-shots.
Fought Indra, whom created this huge storm.
In his fight with Rudra their attack were making shockwaves so powerful they were "heard across India".
In the same battle, the blows were so intense that they apparently changed the weater in the process.
Can move and attack his body so fast that he litteraly combusts and sets his fists on fire.

Weaknesses

Despite his brilliance, his skill, and his strength, Jack does have one weakness... Man's a pool noodle, as in, he is not like his other fellow humans in the "damage sponge" department, yes he can take a few good hits but he mostly relies on his wits and strategy to do most of the work, he is still fragile and will fall given a good few hits.

It is also because of this that it is hard to say if he truly does scale to everything his fellow humans and gods have done in the past, yes you can argue that his divine weapon should be capable of the same output, but himself? Thats a tricky question.

And finally, he just really enjoys torturing people, dragging fights for the sake of proving a point and desire, which almost costed him his round at Ragnarok, in short, if you can get past his smart and deliver one good punch, you're probbaly good to go.

Just before we go...

Oof... its been a while huh? For such a simple blog it took a while to put together, Life has been hard I admit, but I hope that this blog was able to bring some fun and maybe interest you in the show! Its great I swear.

I have other blogs in the works ofc, some of them near completion but I need to keep at it. I just hope this is fun for you all to look at and read.

As always I did use some other sources, this Reddit thread right here helped me a lot alongside others from the same guy which I recoment, you can thank this user for most of the images presented here and I couldn't have done it without it so go check it out:

https://www.reddit.com/r/respectthreads/comments/g01xr4/respect_jack_the_ripper_shuumatsu_no_valkyrie/

With that said, I hope you all are good. I wish you all a wonderful day, and lets see next time with another blog someday!

-with love, Ani.

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Ani's DB Anlysis: Humanity's worst... Jack The Ripper (Record of Ragnarok)