Jack the Ripper's valkyrie is going to have her own doubts about helping him for obvious reasons.
It would pair nicely with Heracles's own vacillating opinions on whether or not humanity should live, turn the fight into a rumination on how important 「resolve」 is, even if it's for the vilest of causes.- Technically confirmed? She wasn't all that happy with the arrangement, but Jack forced the issue and she's effectively comatose for the duration of the fight. Thankfully when she's released after the fight, she shows no trauma other than being very angry.
How the battle between Heracles and Jack will end.
Heracles will "win" the fight and as the gods are cheering he will start to make an impassioned speech about how the gods should spare humanity and end the contest. Just as he is starting to turn them around Jack will appear and kill Heracles (he may or may not survive as well), winning the battle for humanity but hardening the resolve of the gods to destroy humanity.- Jossed. During the climax of the battle, while Heracles has the upper hand for a moment, Jack manages to perform a sneak attack using his own blood as his weapon and manages to mortally wound his rival, winning the battle "justly" and with Heracles taking well his defeat. It however makes the gods want to win the tournament even more.
Göll is going to become the Volund of the last human fighter.
Her position as the deuteragonist and the 13th Valkyrie is probably not casual, and since there are 13 Valkyries for the 13 human fighters that are going to fight in the 13 rounds of Ragnarok, she's almost certainly going to participate as the Volund of one of the human champions at some point. While she may be a cowardly crybaby now, the continous lose of those dear to her in the tournament will give her some character development that will turn her into a more mature and brave character, leading humankind in the decisive battle as the 13th Valkyrie. Odin is going to be the Big Bad of the series.
It's obvious he is planning something for this tournament, he probably is going to betray everybody to become the absolute god. There is going to be a battle royale as the last fight.
If they end up 6 to 6 by the 13th fight and if the last one somehow ends in a tie, the survivor gods and heroes would face each other in a battle royale.
A human will betray humanity and fight for the gods
They will probably ask for immortality in exchange for fighting against humanity
- Alternatively, Nostradamus will betray humanity simply so that One of his prophecies is Right.
- Interestingly, Nostradamus’ introduction has the prophet make a prophecy that the gods will win… However, he admits he just made that up to mess with Göll.
Loki will fight Rasputin
- Rasputin will survive every single trick and trap Loki throws at him and defeats Loki by slowly whittling him down.
Loki will fight Souji
- Because he seemed to be angry at the god & declared him an evil god with disdain in his look. Plus both look child like & appear affable in attitude.
- Jossed, Souji fights Susano'o in the tenth round.
Simo will fight Anubis
- It makes sense for a human nicknamed the White Death and a dog breeder to fight a God of death who just so happens to have the head of a jackal. And their fight will happen in a frozen forest where Anubis must find Simo while Simo must stay away from Anubis, as one hit from Anubis would kill him.
The god who will take Buddha’s slot...
- Aphrodite, enraged by Buddha’s betrayal, will join the fight and reveals a Amazonian Beauty form before she fights. For irony, she will fall hard for her opponent and surrender.
- Ares. Ares will join and will fight King Leonidas, a man who once worshipped Ares until Ares abandoned him at the end of his life. King Leonidas will get his revenge on Ares.
- Hades. Just so all three of the top Greek gods get a turn to fight.
- Confirmed to be Hades in chapter 54. Funnily enough, Ares tries to volunteer, but he's quickly turned down.
Brunhilde is not just fighting for humanity, but also for revenge for Sigurd.
- Long ago, a Valkyrie fell in love with a mortal warrior. That Valkyrie was Brunhilde. That warrior was Sigurd. Due to a series of tragic events, Sigurd died, and when Brunhilde returned to the realm of the gods...she found that Sigurd had been sent to Niflhel for having a Valkyrie fall in love with him. Not only that, but Brunhilde discovered that the events leading up to Sigurd's death were orchestrated by the gods in order to 'teach her a lesson about siding with mortals'. And thus, she was filled with hate. Her initiation of Ragnarok wasn't just to save humanity; it was to get revenge. And based on the fact that she said she would also head to Niflhel...this is just her last action against the gods.
- Possibly jossed. At the end of Chapter 65, Buddha mentions that Siegfried (another common name for Sigurd) “will shake up Ragnarok,” implying that his soul still exists.
Humanity will rise up and wage war against the gods...
- By taking advantage of Jack the Ripper’s volund giving them divine weapons capable of hurting gods, humanity will be the ones exterminating the gods and not the other way around.
Nikola Tesla will fight Beelzebub.
- It will be mad scientist VS mad scientist. One representing all of mankinds scientific accomplishments the other all the evil science is responsible for.
- Confirmed, both fight in the 8th round. Though while Tesla represents mankind's scientific accomplishments, the reverse isn't true for Beelzebub.
Fight predictions.
- Either side only has to win 7 of the 13 battles. Given: It seems unlikely that humanity will be the losers in this tournament and it would be a waste if we didn't get to see all 13 battles. As of this prediction, five battles are done, and we're looking at a 2-3 record (of Ragnarok! Hey-o!) in the gods' favor.
Fight #6 is 1,000% going to go to humanity considering who their champion is, leaving a 3-3 tie, meaning fights 7-11 will also be split. My prediction is that the gods will win fights 7 and 8, followed by humanity taking fights 9, 10 and 11. Since Göll and Brunhilde will be the last two Valkyries to join the fight, in that order, Göll is 1,000,000% going to die in fight #12, stealing humanity's runaway winning streak and bringing it all down to the wire.
Since Odin is scheduled to fight at some point, and since he's a Top God, plus, you know, Ragnarok, he's 1,000,000,000% going to be the Final Boss, which means Loki will probably be the one to kill fighter #12 and Brunhilde.- Partially jossed as of Round 10. While the gods win in Round 8, Round 7 goes to humanity. Round 9 has the gods as the winners again, leaving everything open for the last rounds.
Buddha’s Six Realms Staff is a volund.
- Not only that but it was the first volund. However Buddha was not the one who created the technique, instead it was Kannon who he made a pact with to create the staff.
The sixth match will be declared invalid.
- After Buddha's defection and everything that has happened with Bishamonten/Zerofuku/Hajun it will be decided that the battle doesn't count towards Ragnarok. This will keep the number of human fighters at 13 but result in two new fighters for the gods to be chosen.
- Jossed. Round 6's result counts and adds a point to humanity, tying the score to 3-3.
With Buddha turning on the gods, one of the Einheriar will turn on humanity.
- It will be an ironic reversal that will re-equalize the number of contestants without having to add any new ones.
Qin Shi Huang will defeat Hades
- Qin Shi Huang, after a tough fight, will ultimately defeat Hades and will attribute his victory to him being an emperor while Hades, despite having both the right and power to rule, gave the position of Top God to his youngest brother Zeus.
- Confirmed, the winner of Round 7 is Qin Shi Huang.
Hades will defeat Qin Shi Huang
- As upsetting as Qin Shi Huang losing will be, it seems to make the most narrative sense. The Greek gods losing three times in a row (Poseidon, Heracles, and Hades) would make them seem like jokes and decrease their threatening presence in the narrative. Also, it seems probable that the final score would be close to increase tension (so seven to six) and since Buddha won the last round, it feels more likely that humanity won't win again.
- Definitively jossed after the seventh round.
Souji Okita will ask Sasaki to teach him.
- Realizing he needs the help of a swordsman who far surpasses him, Souji Okita will ask Sasaki Kojiro to train him until it’s his turn to fight.
Okita won't fight in the Ragnarok.
After Buddha's betrayal, the roster was pretty messed up. The gods fixed their side easily by adding Hades, but now the human side has 14 fighters. Adding another god fighter and making the Ragnarok have a maximum of 14 fights instead of 13 wouldn't make sense, since the first side to get 7 victories is the winner. The other possibility to use every human fighter on the roster would be having a 2x1 fight, which I don't believe will happen. The gods are now aware that they can't be careful enough, Zeus said so himself. The humans, on the other hand, have such high stakes that it would be dumb for one of them to risk fighting against two gods. The other way to fix it is simply removing one fighter from the human side, and Okita is the prime candidate. The authors were clearly aiming for variety when they made the roster, and even most of the japanese humans have very different fighting styles. Raiden is a sumo wrestler and Sakata no Kintoki is traditionally associated with an axe, but both Sasaki and Okita fight with katanas. Granted that they use different styles, but why have two japanese swordsmen when every other fighter is unique? Also, Okita was introduced fairly early on, is shown watching the fights and already contributed a bit to the story, and certainly will do more in the next chapters. Besides, he is a character in Chiruran: Shinsengumi Requiem. The author also said that his fight will be a surprise, so he will certainly have his moment of action, I just think that it won't be part of the Ragnarok and won't take place in the arena. Basically, he is the only fighter with enough participation in the story that can be removed from the competition without disappointing the readers who were hyped when he was announced as part of the roster.- Jossed, Okita is the tenth fighter for humanity.
The Iliad was the first time humans fought gods, and subsequently got purged from history.
It's more than a little suspect that one of the greatest heroic epics in existence, and the mighty heroes involved therein, has so far not received so much as a mention in a story that's all about clashing mythologies. A dozen or more potential participants to the Ragnarok, not to mention another occasion to pick on Ares, absent and untapped. One wonders.Naturally there's an explanation to this. The war of Troy took place in a time when gods were more directly involved with mortal affairs... too directly, as it turned out. Several humans took exception to the meddling, and struck back against the gods, and proved their strength and might. And though they did not even possess Volunds at the time (this having happened before Buddha), the gods grew touch nervous of where this was going and where it might yet end up, and banded together to destroy the humans decisively. They went on to glass the realm and wipe their hands off it and forget that the entire thing ever happened.
All that's left to tell of the entire mess is a few scattered notes of mortal epic, distorted by the ages and by now reflecting very little of what actually took place that day. But, naturally, the whole thing will be brought up eventually anyway. Perhaps when Apollo or Leonidas will take the stage.
Yahweh will show up as a literal Deus ex Machina / literal walking Karma Houdini Warranty
For all the pain wrought upon humanity by the Gods, the big man himself has to be mighty pissed. Especially considering one of His first children has been wiped from existence. The conflict now becomes humanity trying to stop Yahweh from basically wiping every God from existence entirely in a legitimately justified moment of Unstoppable Rage and Papa Wolf, due to the potential ramifications. The potential English dub cast
Heracles: Kyle Hebert
- Jossed: Heracles is voiced by George Newbern
Jack the Ripper: Kyle Hebert, Dan Woren
- Jossed: Jack the Ripper is voiced by Jeff Leach.
Buddha: Sean Chiplock
- Jossed: Buddha is voiced by Maaz Ali.
Qin Shi Huang: Johnny Yong Bosch
Hades: Ray Chase
Nikola Tesla: Alex Rochon
Beelzebub: Phillip Reich
Apollo: Ian Sinclair
Leonidas: Matthew Mercer, Jason Marnocha
Brunhilde and Göll will perform a dual Volund for the final match of Ragnarok
For the final match of the tournament (which will likely be a 6-6 tie), Brunhilde will decide to form the final Volund of the tournament. However, since Buddha betrayed the gods to fight for humanity, there is one more Valkyrie who hasn't yet performed Volund: Göll. Göll will volunteer to accompany Brunhilde into the final battle. Simo Häyhä will win against his opponent, whoever he is
Let's be honest: As a fairly big case of Ensemble Dark Horse (specially for a character who didn't even fight yet!) and real life example of a One-Man Army, it would be very disapointing to see Simo going down against an enemy god. By sheer hype behind him, Simo will win against his opponent thanks to Popularity Power. Simo Häyhä will fight against Artemis
Who would be a more fitting match for the Goddess of the Hunt than history's greatest hunter of men?- Very unlikely given that 'Artemis' makes an appearance in round 9, as an automaton of sorts belonging to Apollo.
Beelzebub will win against Nikola Tesla
- Like was the case with Zeus, he has far too much villainous narrative impact to die so early in the story. And the humanity won twice in a row and is currently in the lead, which can not be allowed to stand.
- Adding on to this, the battle will be the reverse of Jack vs Heracles, where Tesla loses but in the process saves Beelzebub from his inner demons.
- Beelzebub does win but Beelzebub is not exactly redeemed. The fight instead ends with Tesla declaring that Ragnarok will never come
Simo's fight will be in the winter forests of Finland.
They're his home turf, after all.- It would have to be a similar situation to Hercules vs Jack where his godly opponent is kind enough to grant that sort of request.
- True, but if Simo, a sniper who's all of 5 feet and three inches tall, had to fight in the sort of arena every other match has been in, he would be dead on arrival.
Nostradamus isn't scheduled to fight at all.
Rather, Brunhilde has recruited him in case humanity loses Ragnarok. He was able to destroy the bifrost, and could supposedly leave Helheim anytime he felt like it, so Brunhilde's banking on him for some backup plan for if the gods win. Anubis's battle will expand upon Niflhel's backstory
We have a second god of death coming at some point down the line of Ragnarok, and while unfortunately, we haven't had any chances with Hades or Beelzebub, we still don't know much about Niflhel other than that both gods and human souls end up there as dust wandering the cosmos for eternity. I feel like if they were going to expand a bit more on Niflhel as a whole, then Anubis would be the perfect leeway into how Niflhel was discovered/created.- If Anubis fights Rasputin, then they could also go into Rasputin's infamous death and how Nifhel might be related to that in some way.
The Thirteenth Einherjar will be Siegfried, with his girlfriend(?) Brunhilde as his Volund.
With twelve of Humanity's fighters revealed (either in-story like Kintoki or just previewed like Simo,) the 13th has not been confirmed. However, with the reveal Siegfried is still alive and connected to Brunhilde, they would make the perfect power couple for the final battle of Ragnarok.- Humanity's entire roster was revealed in the first pages of the series. The current remaining roster is Simo, Rasputin, Nostradamus, Okita and Kintoki. That doesn't exactly leave much room for Sigfried.
- There's one possible scenario that could call for Siegfried and Brunhilde to enter the fray; if Ragnarok reaches its thirteenth and final round with the score tied 6-6, and it ends with a tie, resulting in 7-7. So in order to have a tie-breaker, Siegfried could come out as the additional Einherjar. Whilst this could be Okita's chance to fight considering the Einherjar got an additional unexpected member in the form of Buddha, there are other reasons for why he won't be a representative; he's from another adaptation series and too similar to Kojiro as a Japanese swordsman.
Loki will fight Sakata Kintoki.
This pairing makes sense as an extension of Loki's feud with Buddha in previous arcs, as Kintoki is shown to be friends with the latter in this series. As well, in some versions of his myth, Kintoki is tantamount to a demigod, whom Loki seems to have a particular issue with if his picking fights with both Buddha and Heracles is any indication. He will likely volunteer to fight Kintoki in order to make a point about how humans should know their place instead of acting as if they can ascend to the gods' level. The Anime is heading towards a Gecko Ending
Lets look at the pace of the anime compared to the manga. Record of Ragnarok is monthly and currently on Fight 9. The anime is on Fight 6. Season 3 of the anime could come out at the tail end of Fight 9/begining of Fight 10 in the manga. Thus the anime will eclipse the manga in it's fourth season and we will most likely get a different ending for the anime if both continue at their current pace. One of the listed Einherjar won't be fighting.
There are meant to be thirteen rounds and an Einherjar for each one. Yet Buddha made the surprise decision to fight on humanity's side, meaning that if there are still to be thirteen rounds, then one of the remaining Einherjar at the time of this post's writing (Grigori Rasputin, Soji Okita, Michel Nostradamus, Simo Häyhä, Sakata Kintoki) won't get the chance to participate. Question is, which one?- Given his lack of promotion compared to the others, it could very well be Rasputin.
- Prior Leonidas's fight, he and Rasputin were the only Einherjar to not be as promoted and thus it would have made sense to assume he might be left on the sidelines, however he was the one to fight against Apollo. It could also be assumed that Rasputin is in a similar situation, just waiting on the right opponent.
- Nostradamus seems to be a likely candidate here, as he could have been recruited as sort of a trump card Brunhilde has up her sleeves in case something goes wrong like an above WMG states.
- Another above WMG states that Okita will be the one not to fight in the tournament due to Okita's similar fighting style to Sasaki, presence in other works by the author and somewhat substantial presence in the story right now, that his moment to shine can come from outside the tournament.
- That one is jossed as of Round 10.
- Kintoki could work too. He's likely trying to free Siegfried, which is a huge risk in itself. Not to mention, there has to be a reason why Siegfried is imprisoned in the first place.. Part-dragon Kintoki against dragonslayer Siegfried doesn't seem good for the former, if any fight might ensue between them.
The final match will be interrupted by a real apocalypse, and humanity's final champion will be a 'nobody'
During the epic final match, the gods' champion will gloat that even if humanity wins, their fate is still in the hands of the gods. The gods do not have to uphold their end of the bargain, but they probably will, because it means they'll get to do this contest in another millennia, perma-killing more heroes and inciting more hatred and conflict between gods and humans, again and again and-Suddenly, a transdimensional portal obliterates the champion.
A massive Eldritch Abomination emerges, drawn in by the fuming auras of the gods and capable of regenerating from all their attacks in microseconds. Even with the surviving human champions joining the fray, this being is practically a god of gods - and it's hungry.
From the portal comes an ordinary survivor. They don't have superpowers. They don't have honed combat skills or strong willpower or even a loving fanbase. They're just some random civilian who was thrust into an endless war between this monstrosity - 3,000 years in the future. With the power of humanity's technology and cumulative wisdom of three millennia of honed internet, they manage to push the tide, vindicating humanity's worth as more than some shit salad with flakes of heroes.
Results of the 9th round
If Leonidas wins, he will have a new found respect for Apollo even repeating the god's "Know thyself" phrase
If Apollo wins, He will keep his facial scars as a reminder of his fight with Leonidas calling them beautiful and gives a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to the elder Spartans who did not take part in the war calling them ugly while complementing the 300 calling them beautiful.
- Semi-comfirmed. Apollo wins and has nothing against the scars, so far he kept them for said reason. A speech against the elder spartans however is missing
Brunhilde hit the Despair Event Horizon when she realized humanity was about to be exterminated
In the 4th round, Hercules had noted that Jack the Ripper's hedonistic Serial Killer spree had come to be because he fell into despair. Specifically, realizing his mother never loved him and only saw him as a way to marry his successful father. It's somewhat implied Brunhilde went through something similar.According to Göll, Brunhilde was usually a kind, helpful, and dignified older sister, yet during the story, she takes increasingly morally gray actions to save humanity. From enlisting the help of people like Jack the Ripper and Michel Nostradamus in Ragnarok, to risking the lives of her sisters to help the humans via Volund, at least one of which against her will.
On top of that, she shows an increasingly unsophisticated and unfettered attitude across the story, with Göll stating that's she seems to be Not Herself. She incredibly emotional and She interrupted the conference to execute humanity at the beginning and accusing the gods of chickening out when they first refute the idea of Ragnarok, both actions Göll rightfully stated could've gotten her killed. Not to mention showing little fear to Thor or Adamas' death threats. And at the end of the aforementioned 4th round, she outright states in secret that she plans to join Hercules in Niflhel.
And in chapter 77 it is revealed that Brunhilde's lover, Siegfried, is not only alive but imprisoned in Tartarus. When Buddha asks her about him, she makes it a point to emphasize that she and him are still together and shuts down any further attempts at discussion with the one god she seemed legitimately scared of.
Put the picture together and it's clear that the god's cruel treatment of humans, and Siegfried's imprisonment in particular, strained Brunhilde's faith in the gods. With the vote to execute them straw that broke the camel's back.
To preserve dramatic tension for the final three battles, it will be a winner-takes-all three-versus-three battle
Going into the tenth round, humanity can only afford to lose one more match, which injects a degree of predictability into the upcoming matches barring a draw happens. On top of that, one of the Einherjar, Simo Häyhä, is a sniper, and thus at least at face value ill-suited for a direct battle against an opponent. With the current scores, a lengthy team battle would allow for narrative tension to be maintained.
The final boss will be....
- Instead of Odin, the Gods will read through Brunhilde's motivations and forcefully hire Siegfried as their last champion for the last round of Ragnarok, putting her in a Morton's Fork in which if Humanity wins, then her sole, apparent reason for all the mess will be for nothing as Siegfried will vanish, but if he wins then the Gods will be victorious and Brunhilde will possibly throw under the bus all of Humanity (revealing herself to be evil, but hey, no wonder here).
- The mysterious Primordial Odin may be attempting to be bringing back, possibly to take his own place, or in the event of a tie in the final event keeping the score tied, as outlined above, the competitor in a subsequent tie-breaker.
Zeus' appearance and behavior is because of Athena
This could explain how he went from a muscular guy to a 'frail' old man, whereas no other god has visibly aged. After Zeus swallowed Metis (like in mythology), latter gave birth to Athena and made some armor; the hammering sounds of which alerted Zeus that something was off. So Zeus cut open his head and out of his mind came Athena.. Or, he did the Ro R-equivalent of this story. Either way, with her appearing, Zeus lost some of his power (hence no lightning), visibly aged and had a shift in behavior.