Why do the members of the Wild Hunt go down like chumps when the Jaegers consistently prove to be difficult opponents for Night Raid? Simple, the Jaegers are an elite unit that concentrates various battle-hardened members of the Imperial Military into a single formation. note Wave is from the Imperial Navy. Bols is from the Incineration Squad. Seiryu is from the Capital Garrison. Ran is from the Explorer Corps. Kurome is from the Assassination Squad. Esdeath is a decorated general. Only Dr Stylish is not a trained combatant. On the other hand the Wild Hunt are Syura's collection of pet psychopaths. They are essentially bullies who use their teigu and connections to wantonly rape and murder those weaker than them. Their combat experience against those as strong as them is essentially zero. Most of them are criminals of some sort rather than soldiers or trained combatants. Little wonder that when faced with serious opposition, they fold like a deck of cards.
Tatsumi's popularity among the woman of Night Raid makes much more sense when you consider the other men within Night Raid. Out of the three other guys in Night Raid, we have a Straight GayAction Hero (Bulat), an Asexual non-human Living Weapon (Susanoo), and a pervert who had made it clear that his heart belongs to Najenda (Lubbock). Also, keep in mind that the members of Night Raid often have to seclude themselves from other people, sometime months at a time. So that makes Tatsumi the only option for the woman of Night Raid that want to peruse a relationship. Unless you count them start a relationship with each other, which isn't out of the question since many of them seem to be flirting with each other on a number of occasions.
Akame and Kurome's Teigu are meant to be representations of how they perceive death and their fears of loneliness. Murasame allows Akame to kill her opponents in one hit reflective of how she's become desensitized by her life as an assassin and how she's able to move on after seeing someone close to her die. However, her fear is that everyone she cares about will die and she'll be left alone as represented by the fact that her trump card can only be activated if she completely disregards her humanity and relationships with those she is close to. Kurome however still can't get over the shock of the lifestyle she's been forced into and while she tries to hide it is greatly afraid of seeing people she cares about die. Yatsufusa allows her to resurrect those who have died as her mindless puppets. This is meant to represent her fear of not wanting to see people die and how she longs for the innocence of her life before her and Akame were abandoned by their parents.
In the anime Leone dies in an alley way in the slums. This is meant to allude to the fact that when cats die they return to a place that's familiar to them.
In the manga, Esdeath's death ends up being extremely similar to Chelsea's death. The injuries that Esdeath sustained during her final fight with Akame are surprisingly similar to Chelsea's injuries that she sustained before being killed by Kurome's puppets. Both women had their right arms and the 0 , and sustaining a fatal injury in the torso (Chelsea having been shot in the back and Esdeath being impaled with a remaining piece of Akame's Murasame in the same spot as Chelsea bullet wound). Both spent their final moments thinking about Tatsumi, and later had most of their bodies destroyed (Chelsea's body, save the head, was devoured by Koro, while Esdeath froze herself and shatter to pieces). The similarities of their death are possible done to signify the fact that both Esdeath and Chelsea were the most significant kills of Akame and Kurome, respectively. Chelsea was the only Night Raid member that Kurome was able to kill, while Esdeath was Akame's most dangerous opponent. Additional, both Esdeath and Chelsea were able to do the most physical harm to the sisters then any other of their opponents, including each other.
During the final battle in the manga, Esdeath losses her right arm and quickly replaces it with an artificial one made out of ice. This is like done to further highlight Esdeath as Najenda's Evil Counterpart. This can also be considered Laser-Guided Karma towards Esdeath, as as she was the one who destroyed Najenda's right arm.
At the end, Leone chooses to die rather than have someone treat her wounds. Her willful death is not as stupid as some fans might think. Do remember the very first scene when she scammed Tatsumi of all his money and admits that she's never been a nice person despite her friendliness, implying that's she's possibly killed and hurt other innocent people in addition to Honest's goons. In the end, she's just another piece of human trash produced by Honest's regime and she'd rather die than plague the new kingdom that will replace it.
Esdeath is the Darwinist, yet works for the Prime Minister, who appears to be someone she could easily take down by herself. That is until the end of the manga where he not only has an Anti-Magic Tegiu but underwent rigorous training that made him a master of the Iron Fist material art and able to take vast amounts of punishment. The former can completely sap Esdeath of her own Teigu and the latter puts him on par regarding combat. In other words, Honest is the worst kind of opponent for Esdeath to fight. Asskicking Leads to Leadership indeed.
This kicks in when you realize that Tatsumi has indirectly, yet unintentional, caused the deaths of EVERY Night Raid member, with the exception of Leone, in the manga. Going down the death in order:
Sheele's death at the hands of Seryu occurred because Seryu began to actively hunt down Night Raid to avenge the death of her mentor, Ogre. Remember who was the one that killed Ogre ?
Bulat's concern for Tatsumi's safety during their fight with the Three Beasts defiantly proved to be hindrance to him. In addition, had Tatsumi just held off Nyau for just a few more seconds, Bulat would have been able to kill Liver, and thereby preventing his own death.
Chelsea's death at the hands of Kurome was caused by her, out-of-character, brash decisions. Chelsea admits to herself that her out-of-character actions was the result of her feeling for Tatsumi, as well as her desire to impress him. It's also been speculated that decision to go after Kurome, herself, was a way for to build up confidence to admit her feelings for him.
Susanoo was killed by Esdeath when she used her recently acquired Trump Card, Mahapadma, which had the ability to freeze time, to defeat him. Remember, originally Esdeath developed this ability to prevent Tatsumi from escaping her again after his escape at Mt. Fake.
Lubbock's death at the hands of Izou was the result of Lubbock trying to escape capture. Lubbock was only captured because Syura was able to identify Tatsumi. Syura even admitted that he was not entirely sure that Lubbock was a member of Night Raid, and only kidnapped him because he was with Tatsumi
While Mine didn't die, the advents that lead to her coma was the result of her wanting to save Tatsumi after he was captured by the Empire.
During the fight against the last bodyguard for Iwokaru, he tells Mine that he's taking her alive directly to the Prime Minister, which makes her visibly uncomfortable. It's not hard to guess what twofates would've likely fallen upon her if he succeeded. Then there's the possibility that Honest would've just ''ate'' her.
Zank is very much likely a representation of what Akame is afraid of becoming. During their battle he tries a "Not So Different" Remark on her and even uses an illusion of Kurome in an attempt to emotionally break her. However whereas Akame was able to move on from her past by keeping herself collected, Zank hasn't gotten over the shock of all the executions Prime Minister Honest has ordered him to do which has made him go insane. It all comes full circle in chapter 74 where its revealed that Akame can activate Murasame's trump card by discarding her humanity and as a result giving into all of the lives she's killed. This really makes you wonder if at any given point Akame could go berserk and start indiscriminately killing people, just like Zank.
Prime Minister Honest's relationship with The Emperor. Honest is the only person that The Emperor can trust and frequently tells him that everything he's manipulating him into doing is for the good of the people. The Emperor doesn't know however that Honest is only using him as a puppet, and doesn't care about him at all. Chapter 68 even reveals that Honest killed his parents and lied about the circumstances they died under cementing the fact that Honest has been lying to the kid his entire life. At face value The Emperor is a kindhearted child who wants his country to be prosperous and simply just accepts whatever Honest tells him. All The Emperor knows is that he's doing a good job and has no clue that Honest has been lying to him right in front of his face nor has he seen the people of the Capital suffer. Its almost painful to imagine how terrifying a revelation it'll be and how broken he'll be when he finds out the person he's trusted his entire life has caused the people he wants to support to suffer. It seems he took it well enough in the end.
In the first chapter Tastumi finds Sayo's corpse and Ieyasu dying in Aria's shed. Already a horrifying sight in of itself but even more horrifying if you take note of the condition of Sayo's corpse. When Tastumi opens the shed Ieyasu isn't dead yet and Sayo's corpse hasn't begun decomposing. Night Raid attacked Aria's manor at night and taking into consideration Sayo's clean corpse, this would mean that Aria and her family gave Sayo and Ieyasu the poison that killed them some time during the day. In short Sayo and Ieyasu were not only alive when Tatsumi was brought to Aria's mansion but right in front of him too and he never even knew it until he was too late.
Another instance in the first chapter is when Aria is running away to the shed when Night Raid attacks her mansion. At first glance it looks like she's trying to bring Tatsumi to a safe place. But once we find out that she killed both Sayo and Ieyasu, the truth ends up being that Aria was actually sending Tastumi to the shed to kill him before Night Raid can find her.
Syura might have been a Big Bad Wannabe that seem Too Dumb to Live for changing Esdeath authority, but keep in mind that this guy has possible one of the most broken and overpowered teigu in the series. Remember, Syura did in fact successful sneaked up on both Esdeath and Tatsumi and teleported them to the other side of the world. The Fridge Horror comes in is when you realize that Syura could have got rid of them both at that moment. Syura once mentioned that he could teleport his opponents in a active volcano if he wanted to, which could have possible counteracted Esdeath's ice. In the case in the anime, he could have also sent them to a pocket dimension with no hopes of escaping. It's only through circumstance and bad luck on Syura's part, did he never use his "volcano plan" on anybody (see his character entry for more details).
And then there's Syura's relationship with his father. Syura has obvious contempt for the Prime Minister, but he also seems genuinely scared of him to an extent. While it's entirely possible that Syura was just a sociopath at birth, considering what kind of person Honest is, one has to wonder if the Minister's parenting abilities warped Syura into someone just as vile as his father. And if that is the case, just how bad was the abuse that it resulted in a person like Syura?
Prime Minister Honest's I Am a Humanitarian reveal in Chapter 71. Now, thinking back to all the times in the series where we see Honest gorging on food and recoil in horror when you realize he was probably eating humans the entire time.
However he gets a nice dose of Laser-Guided Karma in the final chapter as he's carved up like a holiday ham by the rebel army.
The reveal that Honest was a Hidden Badass all along. The fact that his son Syura was inhumanly strong could serve as foreshadowing that Honest would eventually be revealed to be the same as well. In addition to this, unlike in the anime, his teigu, which nullifies the abilities of other teigus, is reusable after recovering for a week. This would explain why he never showed any fear around Budo or Esdeath.
His teigu is doubly horrifying for Esdeath considering that her teigu is infused with her body. Meaning Honest is much more in control than he leads her to believe. If she ever turned on him, all he would have to do is be in close proximity of her to kill her with his teigu. Although he's smartest not to tell her about his teigu, as Esdeath wouldn't responded kindly to this.
Assuming that Budo knew about Honest abilities, this would could possible explain why Budo waited to take care of Honest last, after dealing with the rebellion. It would make sense that he would want to get rid to the enemies of the Emperor that he could use with teigu against, before engaging in a fight that would likely result in the destruction of his teigu.
When one realise that Tatsumi is basically the Cartwright Curse incarnate. Think about it, any character that seen to have developed an attraction towards Tatsumi, usually ends up being horrible killed. In the anime, the survivors of Night Raid consist of Akame and Najenda, the only two women that were not romantically attracted towards Tatsumi.
While the manga tries to leave things on a mostly happy note with its Bittersweet Ending, if one really thinks about it, there are a lot of horrifying implication about the rebellion leaders. First, there is Honest's Family-Unfriendly Death, while he did deserve it, the fact that his execution was later left public and his gruesome demise was kept uncensored could send the wrong message, like it's alright to brutally torture someone if they are against the new kingdom. Then, there is the fact that they were perfectly fine executing a kid that was literally brainwashed to attack innocent people and can hardly be consider accountable for his actions. Second, they employed many of Esdeath's soldiers to work for them. Keep in mind, many of Esdeath's soldiers have committed war crimes that rival the horrible deeds that Wild Hunt has committed, like rape the people of an entire village, or brutal torture thousands of civilians. Third, they secretly assassinate anyone that opposes the new kingdom, not unlike what the Empire has done. Finally, they choose to wipe out any records of Night Raid, people that were key to their victory, as if to get rid any information on how to defeat a corrupt government. It also doesn't help that all the surviving protagonists are put out of commission. All things considered the new kingdom is already showing signs of becoming a Full-Circle Revolution.
Probably because the western nation and foreign tribes would still like to invade them and as such they needed an experienced army like Esdeath's. Opposition in this sense means selfish people who would destabilize the new empire or start war for their own gains then it's justified. And it only lasted for a while given Akame was then free to go off on her own quest. The Night Raid is basically the rebel army task force at that point, wouldn't have made a difference mentioned or not. Also Najenda is still onboard in the new government.
We the readers know that Honest mind controlled the Emperor into making him attack indiscriminately. The people in the manga don't know that and think that he's doing it on his own free will. What I've heard from people is that the Emperor had to die in order to end the old empire and begin a new kingdom. The Emperor's death was like the end of a cycle of hatred.
