I started wondering if he's not a robot ._.
No, the two children are analogies for how life has shaped him, he had a child in him hidden away and only uses the stoic one to play the gama aka life. Hes not a robot its a metaphor for how he views life.
I thought the kid playing the game was a representation of his father....?
No. It's a version of himself that he made because of what his father did to him and pretty much how his life was. The gamer is suppose to protect and shield the horned Kei. Rather than protect, maybe buffer? Buffer for everything that could hurt the horned one.
Then why did he say 'sorry, father'...? It doesn't make sense that he would apologize to his father when he's finally letting go of that buffer?
I'd be talking about the raws if I go further, I'll try not to. Rape victims usually blame themselves for what has happened to them. They don't blame their rapists, esp. if they are a family member, blood-related or not. Though some don't, I'm not generalizing. Anyway, Horned Kei apologizes as he remembers or as they are watching the flashback on TV, not necessarily apologizing to Gamer Kei. He is apologizing to the people on the screen or to the memory. Thus Gamer Kei tries to talk him out of getting emotional since it disrupts the smooth game play, Gamer Kei cannot smoothly control Kei's day-to-day function with emotions toppling over his system. Also, he's not letting go of Gamer Kei yet. The game is simply just getting corrupted by Horned Kei's emotions, thus Kei is able to feel different emotions. I don't know if I was able to answer that clearly.
No I understand how rape victims don't necessarily blame their rapists. My point was that Horned Kei, or rather, as I thought, present Kei, wouldn't apologize to his father if he was finally letting (literally meaning in the process of doing so rather than that he had completely done so) go of that buffer because to do so would mean that he is beginning to realize he DOES NOT have anything to apologize for. In other words, it seems to me he is apologizing to someone other than the person/s we see on the game screen because he is apologizing for something other than what this/those same person/people could ever need an 'apology' for.
If he was talking to Gamer Kei as his father's representative rather than the person/s on the game screen as his representatives that would still end up making much more sense, even in the way I described just prior.
The way I understood the scene was Horned Kei was the Kei who have been abused and in trauma, the Kei who would be so emotional and even be suicidal in the worst case, the Kei who holds all the memories of his childhood, and the Kei who is repressed by Gamer. Locked behind his shadow so that the real world Kei can function without his actions and decisions influenced by the trauma. With the threat triggered by Yutaka's Ex, the Horned Kei reverted back to the depressed and self-berating Kei and the memories flashing in-front of them seems like it is a memory where he is at side and witnessing his father beat up his brother. He is like re-living the scene. Curled up in a corner of the room, exclaiming to his father "I'm sorry" so he would stop beating his brother. Gamer Kei is saying "snap out of it". And maybe what Horned K was remembering is being shown on screen disrupting the game. He is not apologizing to anyone in the present, it's just a memory. Now that I think about. And maybe what triggered him to remember that is because back then Kei was too weak to fight against their father compared in the present where is very strong, he can defeat anyone who abuses and threatens them. It makes all more sense in vol 2, if you haven't checked out the raws, yet.
Gamer K cannot be a representation of anyone but Kei's defense against anything and anyone that would make him feel anything, most specially hurt him. Gamer K doesn't feel anything so it wouldn't make any sense if he receives an apology.
That is the old term.
It is now called dissociative identity disorder where a trauma causes a victim to dissociate from it by creating an artifical distance.
It is primarily known for creating alternate personalities who switch in and out of control of the body.
But there are many different ways dissociative identity disorder can manifest. For example, Kei.
To protect himself he created a reality that resembles a game. So everything he says, does, etc is played out like a gamer in his head.
There is a bit of a split between the Gamer and the Horned personality. I believe the Horned personality to be the core part of Kei. The one who has empathy.
The Gamer is the one who cut out the emotions.
In order to heal psychologically, the two personalities (Gamer and Horned) would need to merge that might take years to accomplish. Or...he could live like this for decades.
A trained shrink in this field would decide which method, merge or peaceful negotiation and transfer of alters, is best suited for the patient.
Kei is having bugs though. We were given a foreshadowing. Someone with a mental illness like his will reach a breaking point if he is not seeing a professional. We can't deal with our mental health issues on our own. We need help.
It's just like trying to deal with a medical illness but never treating it with medicine. There will be a breaking point. And I think Arakawa will cause it.
Most of what I've watched only dealt with identities switching in and out with or without the original person or other identities (main identity/I don't how to call it) remembering what the other identities did, e.g. Norman Bates (Bates Motel) and the movie Split. But I figured there would be other cases such as Kei's.
Not sure if you've seen the raws but it was weird how the "merging" happened, rather illustrated. It was very interesting. I know it would be more clear once they're translated but I think one can already interpret it without the translations. One who is capable. I'm frustrated because I admit I am not. LOL.
Okay, I will agree you have a point but I want to clear something up that it seems you might have misunderstood: I am aware that Gamer Kei is a defense. That's why I said he was a representation of his father rather than him being a representation of how Kei actually views his father in the present. I was talking about representation in that he used his ideas of what his father was like to create the defensive shield that is Gamer Kei. Remember that Gamer Kei often calls Horned Kei trash. I'm sure it's something that his father probably often called him too.
I would also like to point out here too however that many a multiple (that is, people who freely identify as several personalities within one host) has often been hurt by psychologists and psychiatrists in the past.
True. But that is also mainly due to how difficult DID is to diagnose and properly treat.
For a long time the psychologists and psychiatrists never believed it was possible. That the patients were just making things up. Or they classified them as having some other mental illness. Or they tried to do treatments to the detriments of the patient and the alters.
But I do think there is more knowledge about it, how to treat it, how to live with it, etc. But it's still a difficult field to understand since there is still so much unknown about it and each patient is different and what they need is different.
Agreed.
There's his brother too, who treated Kei almost as horribly as their father did. I guess Gamer repeats what Kei's father and brother did to Kei so that Horned is controlled/tamed down. Gamer's just shares some attributes to Kei's abusers since that environment was Kei's core/foundation. I guess what I was thinking when you say "representation" is that Gamer is made out of their father's image or somewhat close to that, which I don't exactly agree and probably only up to some degree. Gamer is the kid who grew up to be somewhat like his family while Horned is a kid who of course is damaged and probably did not want to have anything to do with that past.
No disagreement here. :)
I don't think he's letting go just yet. I was also confused about that part but I think it's because he's not quite ready to let go of the gamer lei, he reverts back to his usual unfeeling self even while seeing that image from the past and even goes so far as to apologize as if it's nothing.
Okay that answers my question completely now. :) So thanks!
I have this disorder due to trauma and you explained it very well!
I started wondering if he has a multiple personality disorder.