Talk:Re: Chapter 73/@comment-26542745-20160416155510/@comment-10733658-20160416161049

I do kind of also hope that Mutsuki will end up killing Torso, once and for all. It feels appropriate, as opposed to being saved by others.

What Mutsuki is currently doing is a specific behavior common in abuse victims, called "Learned Helplessness". Victims learn to alter their behavior in order to appease their abuser, and often convince themselves that they deserve the abuse or otherwise are incapable of escaping it. It's a survival mechanism, in the same vein as behaviors like Stockholm Syndrome. The brain learns that this is the norm, and adapts to it so as to survive for as long as possible. This is part of the reason it's so difficult for victims to leave, because they've spent so much time learning to be submissive and helpless in order to survive.

In Mutsuki's case, the abuse happened during formative years. There was no escape, the same way that Kaneki learned to be so submissive and avoidant as a result of his abuse. Torso seems to remind Mutsuki as his dad, so those behaviors are emerging again because of the need to survive.

It's basically a kind of self-brainwashing people do. And it's really, really hard to unlearn. D:

(I'm using masculine pronouns for now, simply because that's what has been used consistently. If/when Mutsuki switches things up, I'll adjust as needed.)