Mazoku Love! The Unanswerable Question? (reposted)

Title: Mazoku Love! The Unanswerable Question? (repost)
Author: Tsutsuji
Date written: June 27, 2005. Edited 5/30/2006
Fandom: Slayers
Rating: General
Pairings: not applicable, although several are mentioned in passing.
Type: speculative essay
Warnings: thesis-speak; academic mindset applied semi-seriously to fictional reality, pedantic verbosity.
Status: complete (but open to further revision)
Spoilers: mild spoilers for Slayers anime series and novels/manga
Disclaimer: This is a work of fannish speculation on aspects of the fictional universe of Slayers. I do not own the copyright to the Slayers anime or graphic novels, and intend no copyright infringement against the creators of Slayers. Works quoted are copyright-owned by their individual authors.

Summary: Can Mazoku love? What evidence do we have that they can or cannot? What does this question mean, anyway?


(Author\'s Note: since writing this essay, I\'ve explored the questions of Mazoku and love, particularly their emotions concerning humans, in much more entertaining detail in my stories \"Happy,\" \"Poison,\" and \"Birth Rite\" (still in progress). In the process, a few of my ideas have changed a little from what is written here.)


---

Among many subjects discussed and debated among fans of Slayers is the question of whether Mazoku are capable of feeling love. This question is raised not only by \'shippers\' who want to believe Xelloss should (or shouldn\'t) be paired with Lina or another character, but also among fans who simply like to speculate about the intricate nature of the Slayers universe. Since I\'m interested in both of these aspects, I thought I\'d dust off my academic writing skills and add a few words to the debate.

The argument against Mazoku being able to love is usually based around the established fact that they draw their own power from negative human emotions. As one fan states:

\"Mr. Kanzaka has never said, \"Mazoku cannot love,\" but he has not said the opposite, either. Mazoku thrive off of negative feelings, and generally love is one of the most (if not the most) positive emotions that can be felt. Experiencing such a powerful, happy emotion would be lethal to an evil spirit such as a Mazoku.\"

(quote from Argy, SlayersUncensored website, \"Rumors and Myths\" section. http://www.geocities.com/slayersdatabase/rumors.html)


I\'m not usually one to argue from logic; I generally prefer to go with my intuition. However, as much as I value and respect the information on the Slayers Uncensored website, I have to point out the lack of logic in the statements above. It may be true that Mazoku can\'t love, but since Mr. Kanzaka hasn\'t said for certain that they can or can\'t, the matter is still up for speculation. As far as I\'ve seen, neither logic, intuition nor evidence proves that they can\'t.*

In the very first place, we would have to decide exactly what we mean by \"love,\" a concept that has been debated by poets, psychologists and fanfic writers throughout human history. What exactly is the question we\'re asking when we wonder if Mazoku such as Xelloss can love? Which kind of love are we talking about? Can they feel desire, affection, romantic infatuation, devotion, arousal, or need?

There is also the unspoken (but usually clearly implied) question of \"who could a Mazoku love?\" A blanket statement that Mazoku can\'t love leaves more questions than it answers. Can Mazoku feel any kind of emotion at all? Can they experience some emotions but not others? Can they feel some emotions related to love, but not love for an individual? Can they love among their own kind but not love humans?

I assume people refer to either romantic love, sexual attraction, or spiritual love, or else some kind of ideal \"pure\" love that combines all three, when they ask this question. Many people think of the most \"pure\" form of love as a willingness to sacrifice one\'s self for another individual (a blend of eros and agape, perhaps). This appears to be the pure love that Lina has for Gourry when she calls on the power of the Lord of Nightmares to save him even if it means destroying herself. If this is what we\'re talking about when we ask whether Mazoku can feel love, I think it still leaves room for more questions: Is this a positive, \"life-affirming\" emotion? Do we know for certain that a Mazoku would never make such a sacrifice for another being?

All we really know for certain is that Mazoku thrive off negative human emotions. Apparently they also thrive on the negative emotions of other sentient beings such as the Dragon Race, but it\'s not clear to me whether they get similar pleasure from the negative emotions of other beings, including other Mazoku.*** However, it does seem very clear to me that Mazoku also feel emotions of their own, and that they don\'t just reflect the emotions of other beings.

The statement quoted above ignores the difference between the way Mazoku draw power from human emotions, and the way they experience emotions themselves. They obviously feel joy, happiness, contentment, bliss, and other \"positive\" emotions, even if their greatest happiness is caused by the misery of others (especially humans and dragons). They also exhibit anger, fear, surprise, and other less positive emotions. If we accept the idea that they do feel emotions, it\'s a big gap of logic from \"they thrive on negative emotions\" to \"they can\'t experience positive emotions.\"

(I suppose it\'s possible that Mazoku only appear to feel emotions when they are in human form. What Xelloss feels in terms of emotions when he\'s in his true form could be another question. However, for various reasons, and especially since magic in the Slayers world is linked to human will and emotional states, I have to assume that Mazoku experience something like emotions even in their astral form. Beyond that it becomes a deeper metaphysical mystery of being and perceiving.... Believe me, I\'m enough of an academic nerd that I could go there, but I\'ll keep myself under control for now!)

I don\'t think the evidence is really very strong that Mazoku are harmed by positive emotions in humans. It is definitely an exaggeration to say that being exposed to positive feelings would be \"lethal.\" If that was the case, humans could have used positive emotions as very effective weapons against Mazoku all along. As far as I\'ve seen, Amelia is the only one to even try this, and it\'s not clear to me that it really affects Xelloss much at all. He cringes and looks uncomfortable when she hits him with her \"life is wonderful!\" mantra, but as Lina herself says, that would have an effect on just about anybody! (Episode 19 in \"Next,\" and pages 104-105 in Slayers Super-Explosive Demon Story 7.)

Amelia uses \"life-affirming\" statements, but she doesn\'t invoke some specific human emotion such as love or joy to use against Xelloss. And even though Amelia, Gourry and Zelgadis appear to subdue Xelloss to the point where Amelia can get him in a headlock, he recovers completely a few seconds later (episode 22 of \"Try\"). Knowing Xelloss, he could be putting on a show of being affected in the first place; however, even if Amelia\'s life-affirming attack really does make him wilt a little, it certainly doesn\'t do any serious harm.

On the other hand, there are plenty of occasions when Xelloss is directly exposed to strong doses of positive human emotions, including various flavors of \"love,\" and he doesn\'t even flinch. The best example is his long companionship with Martina. Although he twitches a few times when she\'s acting particularly flaky, he doesn\'t seem to mind her hanging all over him with stars and hearts in her eyes. Her romantic infatuation with him may be delusional, but it is still a positive-feeling experience for her while the delusion continues. She\'s extremely happy most of the time she\'s around him (before she finds out he\'s not human), and it doesn\'t appear to bother him one bit.

---

\"What? Who said Mazoku can\'t love? We live on pain - and what can possibly cause more pain than love?\"
(from \"A Mazoku\'s Seduction,\" fanfic by Xellas M. http://www.mediaminer.org/fanfic/view_ch.php/19393/48504)

I think it\'s very debatable that love is an entirely positive emotion, anyway. Love, especially romantic love as humans experience it, can include many conflicting emotions, and a lot of them aren\'t very \"life-affirming\" or positive. Jealousy, neediness, infatuation, insecurity, possessiveness, lust, desire to possess, delusion, pride, and a lot of other not-so-positive emotions are usually part of human love. In fact, it seems more likely that many varieties of human lovewould make an excellent meal for Mazoku.

But if Mazoku can actually experience emotions themselves, asking whether love is a positive feeling may not be the relevant question. It comes back to the first questions of \"what is love?\" and which of the many kinds of love could Mazoku possibly experience?

Whether Mazoku are capable of having \"A deep, tender feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person\" (American Heritage College Dictionary\'s first definition of love) is something we just don\'t know for certain. It seems unlikely, but that\'s not to say it is impossible. The dictionary definition doesn\'t begin to describe the array of human emotions related to love. It\'s pretty clear that Mazoku can feel a strong sense of loyalty and devotion to the higher level Mazoku they serve. It also appears that Xelloss has a sense of respect and reverence at least for the Lord of Nightmares. (He\'s the only one who expresses this, rather than the fear and horror shown by everyone else.) But whether this can translate into other related feelings just isn\'t clear.

The question of whether Mazoku in general and Xelloss in particular can love is usually asked in order to decide if he could be in a love relationship with any other character. In that case, the question of what type of love a Mazoku might be able to feel is even more important. For instance, could he possibly feel respect, fondness, or desire for Lina? Could he be drawn to Zelgadis in something like lust precisely because of Zel\'s negative emotions? Could he have a sado-masochistic attraction to Filia or Amelia?


I think there are a couple of more valid arguments against Xelloss getting into an intimate, particular relationship with any of the human (or dragon) characters, but they are not the ones I\'ve usually seen given. The fact that Xelloss is simply not human, and that his human form is merely a convenient illusion, might be a logical argument against his feeling attraction or desire for any particular human. In just about any kind of human love and especially romantic love, physical appearance has a lot to do with the attraction that inspires the emotion. It\'s possible that Mazoku would have a sense of human physical attractiveness, desirousness or beauty, but it\'s also very likely that they think the human form is uninteresting or unappealing. (They may try to choose attractive or impressive forms when they take human form, but only because they are aware of the effect such apperances have on humans).

Beyond the basic appearance of being human, there is of course the question of sexual anatomy. I\'ve never seen anyone question whether Xelloss actually even has a male body under his priest\'s robes, even though it is often mentioned that his clothes are really only a part of him, being a part of the form he takes in this world. The question of whether Xelloss could physically express love (or even lust) never seems to come up at all. For the sake of fanfiction, I\'m satisfied with the assumption that he can take on an anatomically correct male form if he chooses.

However, since it is officially stated that only higher level Mazoku can create a convincingly accurate human form, it\'s possible that a surface appearance is all that they bother with, and that (outside of the necessities of fanfiction) a Mazoku in human form wouldn\'t have any reason to have sexual organs at all. Since they only reproduce by creating new Mazoku from themselves, they wouldn\'t have the human reproductive drive, Human-style sexual activity would only be for pleasure - their own pleasure, but not necessarily the pleasure of a human partner. It\'s quite possible that they wouldn\'t find the idea of human sex appealing at all, and that taking form to engage in sex with a human would be more trouble than it\'s worth even for emotions of the human partner, when there are other, less complicated ways to invoke emotions.

Another argument against the idea of a Mazoku loving a human is the general attitude of Mazoku toward humans. It\'s been said (although I\'m not sure how official this is) that Mazoku view humans as cattle, meaning they relate to humans mainly as a source of nourishment that they can control and cultivate. This also implies that they see us all as nearly indistinguishable from each other, and certainly not as any kind of being to be attracted to. In that case, the most attachment a Mazoku might be expected to form for an individual human would be to think of one as a pet. Probably even then it would be like naming the beef steer you\'ve raised from a calf, even though you know it\'s going to be slaughtered for food eventually.

On the other hand, it\'s possible to imagine a sort of sexual hunger, a strong particular desire for an individual, which a Mazoku might feel in response to that individual\'s emotional turmoil (and possibly to the person\'s magical capacity as well, something related to their existence on the astral plane). The speculation that Xelloss might be attracted to Lina because of her volatile emotions and her powers, or to Zelgadis because of his inner angst, or to Filia because of her easily triggered temper and later for her guilt and anguish, all make sense if Mazoku are attuned to individuals with particularly strong emotions and magic. This wouldn\'t necessarily lead to an ideal romantic relationship, but it might result in something that looks very much like a lot of dysfunctional human relationships.

The other reason I can imagine that Mazoku can\'t love humans, in particular, is their relationship to each other. Mazoku are each created by and from higher level Mazoku, and are by nature devoted and loyal to those of higher rank than themselves. Although they seem to be capable of independence, they are each essentially extensions of their creator. Also, I understand that Mazoku power depends on \"confidence,\" their individual and collective sense of themselves as powerful beings. Any threat to this \"confidence\" weakens them, which is why they can\'t use human magic that calls on the power of other beings.**

Sometimes, the human experience of love adds to the self-confidence of the individual who feels love for another, but often, love causes insecurity and a sense of powerlessness in the human who feels that sense of devotion to another. In some ideals of love, this is supposed to be a good thing, a sign of pure love in the sense that one is willing to give up some of one\'s self for the other, or for the greater power of love itself.

If this were the case with Mazoku, the only love one could safely feel would be for another Mazoku. Xelloss could love Greater Beastmaster Xelas in a way that humans would recognize as love, but it probably would be more like human familial love (or perhaps spiritual reverence or devotion) rather than the romantic love felt by humans. Beastmaster might also love Xelloss in a familial way and as a part of herself, with pride or even affection. But for a Mazoku like Xelloss to feel any similar feelings of particular attachment to a human might be similar to him using human magic. It would be an acknowledgement of the possibly greater power of another being and would threaten his \"confidence.\"

On the other hand, if he can rationalize that loving this individual doesn\'t threaten his Mazoku confidence, then he might still be able to love a particular person. For example, even prideful, overconfident, egotistical humans sometimes feel an indulgent love for a person they see as inherently inferior and therefore not threatening to their own self-confidence.

I think it\'s safe to conclude that there is not a simple, singular answer to the general question of whether Mazoku can love, but there is a lot of room for speculation about how any individual Mazoku might relate to particular humans, and that some of those relationships might at least appear similar to human love relationships. Probably not the healthiest kind of human love relationships, but still... I think there are enough gaps in the evidence we have to suggest that, under certain circumstances, a Mazoku might be able to feel some sort of love, or something like love, for a human individual. The only thing we can\'t say for certain is that Mazoku simply can\'t love at all.

-----
Notes:
*My evidence is based solely on the anime series (First series, \"Next,\" and \"Try\" in Japanese with English subtitles) and one graphic novel (Slayers Super-Explosive Demon Story 7: The Claire Bible, English edition. Central Park Media, 2004). If there is more evidence for or against Mazoku being capable of feeling love, please contact me and let me know about it! I\'m certainly not trying to have the final word, and I\'d love to discuss any of the points I\'ve made here and any other speculation on the subject.


**Perhaps positive human emotions and life-affirming feelings indicate human confidence in a way that calls Mazoku confidence into question, and this could make those positive emotions dangerous to Mazoku. However, even if that\'s the case, once again I would make the distinction between the effect human emotions have on mazoku, and their capacity to feel emotions of their own.

*** Note added 5/6/06. It is stated clearly that they gain both pleasure and power from the negative emotions of other Mazoku in Slayers Volume 6, Vezendi\'s Shadow (Tokyo Pop, Dec. 2005), page 190-191, when Dugld sacrifices a lesser demon to power himself up.