Recap / SPY×FAMILY - Manga: WISE Arc

After Loid loses consciousness over Anya's low test scores as well as having a second Tontritus Bolt, he has a flashback to his childhood in Westalis, his time in the army during the war, and when he was recruited as a spy for WISE.

Tropes associated with the WISE Arc:

• Angst Coma: Basically, Twilight recollecting his past is caused by he losing consciousness over Anya's trouble at school.
• Disappeared Dad: A day after Twilight lied about wanting to buy and instead buying a toy gun and helmet with the money his father gave him, Twilight's father goes on a business trip to a town on the Westalis/Ostania border. After Lewen is leveled in the artillery strike, Twiight's father's whereabouts become unknown, and he grows up as an orphan after his mother is killed in an air-raid.
• Doomed Hometown: Twilight's was born and raised in the town of Lowen, which is close to Westalis' border with Ostania. In the opening stages of the war, it was leveled by an artillery bombardment, and he and his mother become displaced.
• Dramatic Irony: After Twilight says he wants to join the army, his father tells him he's too much of a coward to fight in a war, and when Twilight says he wants to join up to kill Ostanians, Twilight's father hits him, saying he should strive for peace instead of wanting to fight. Years later, after Twilight enlists under the name of Rowland Spoofy, he fearlessly throws himself into combat during the Westalis-Ostania War. Of course, as everyone knows, Twilight ended up working for exactly what his father hoped from him: long-term peace between Westalis and Ostania, having a deep hatred towards people wishing to instigate war.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Twilight might be the first-hand witness of War Comes Home, but he's too young to know what it actually means. As a result, when his mother finds him alive (and only slightly injured) after Luwen's initial shelling, he complains his mother planning to move to Kielberg because...
  Twilight: Wait a minute! Um... We can't! What about school? And the town fair is tomorrow. (Panel shows a destroyed town)
  Twilight's mother: (Drags Twilight) What are you talking about?! There's not going to be any town fair! Don't you get that?!
• Nothing Is Scarier: Twilight's mother's death is expressed in 3 pages of manga. There's nothing but sound effects, Twilight's voice, and flying debris on the first page and only the debris on the latter two.
  Page 1, Frame 1:

  SFX: KABOOM BOOM BOOM

  Twilight: Mom! Mom! Mom!
  Page 1, Frame 2:

  SFX: Boom

  Twilight: The house... no way... No! Mom...? Is that... ...y—
  Page 1, Frame 3:

  SFX: Boom... Boom

  Twilight: AAAHHH! AHH! AAAH!
  Page 2 and 3: (A two-page spread with nothing but flying debris.)
• Recruiting the Criminal: A WISE operative tells Rowland Spoofy that he's impressed with the latter's ability to go about the world without being discovered, and offers him the chance to either use his talents in impersonation and infiltration to become a spy, or the operative will turn him in for joining the army under a fake name.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Twilight lost his father and best friends during the opening stage of the war when Lewen was razed to the ground by an artillery barrage, and after his mother was killed in air raid he became a homeless orphan. When he was old enough to pass for eighteen, he enlisted in the Westalis army under the name Rowland Spoofy. After Rowland gets injured by an Ostanian army patrol, after the latter stumbled on him and Frankie, who was being hunted down for deserting from the Ostanian army, Rowland gets relegated to kitchen patrol, where he finds out that his friends from childhood survived the initial attack on Lewen, and after a brief reintroduction, they agree to catch up over some drinks as soon as the latter get back from a mission, uplifting Rowland, as he did not lose everything, or everyone from his hometown/childhood. However, Rowland is later informed that the unit his friends were a part of was wiped out as a result of their leader bungling the mission, and Rowland's handed his friends' battered and bloody dog-tags.
• Sociopathic Soldier: Twilight assumed the name Roland Spoofy to join the Westalis army at the height of the war when he was old enough to pass for eighteen, and made it a point to kill as many Ostanians as possible as payback for the deaths of his parents and closest friends. If his interaction with Frankie, who had recently deserted from the Ostanian army and was unarmed and unequipped, is anything to go by, Twilight has murdered Ostanian POWs, instead of taking them prisoners.
• Troubled Fetal Position: While initially too naive to understand what the bombing of Luwen means, a few days later he enters this state when the situation sinks in.
• Un-person: When Rowland Spoofy reconvenes with the operative from WISE, who offered to make him a spy or turn him in for joining the army with a fake identity, with a briefcase full of personal documents and mementos, the operative tosses it into a fire, and tells him that as a spy he will have no identity or name, operating in the shadows away from the public. The operative asks him what he wants to be called, and he chooses the code name Twilight.
• Uncertain Doom: Twilight's father leaves for a business trip on the day the war started, but although it's heavily implied, it's never clearly stated if he died or not.
• War Refugees: Twilight and his mother abandon Lewen, their hometown, after it was destroyed by an artillery barrage.
• We Have Reserves: After Rowland Spoofy spares Frankie's life, they have a discussion about the war, where Frankie makes the claim that the leaders of both nations started the war for personal glory, while people of their social status are brainwashed with propaganda and marched to their deaths.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: After getting home from playing war with his friends, a young Twilight gets into an argument with his father, as the boy wants to join the army when he grows up, while his father scolds him, saying he's too much of a coward to be sent into battle. When Twilight yells back that he wants to kill Ostanians, his father slaps him for parroting Westalis propaganda and tells him to work for peace instead wanting to fight a war.

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