Highlights
- PePe Waccabrada, a Quincy with the Schrift L, possesses the ability to manipulate the force of love, making others love him and do his bidding.
- PePe's Vollständig form, Gudoero, resembles the Greco-Roman personifications of love, Eros and Cupid, complete with wings and a bow and arrow.
- PePe's manipulation of love serves as a contrast to Mayuri's unethical experiments, showcasing the depravity and control used by both characters.
The 10th episode of BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2, "Marching Out The Zombies 2" saw various forms of manipulation vie for control, with one type coming in the form of the Quincy PePe Waccabrada. Assigned the Schrift L by His Majesty Yhwach, PePe's role this season was brief, and nothing more than the addition of another kind of control to the clash of zombies taking place between Giselle and Mayuri.
Here's a breakdown of the abilities granted to PePe through his Schrift, as well as the power of his Quincy: Vollständig.
Schrift L
Sternritter L – The Love, PePe Waccabrada is a short, fat man with brown skin and a white beard. He dresses in a variation of the Sternritter attire that has baggy pants, a short-sleeved shirt with suspenders, and a cape, and unlike his colleagues, he floats around on a platform which makes his whole appearance reminiscent of fairies or pixies. The magical old man look is tied together by his staff, which is a coiled pink staff with a winged bulb at the top end that contains an eyeball. The L Schrift grants PePe the power to manipulate the force of love itself, which he believes to be at the core of all conflict. Therefore, with the ability to manipulate the love within a person or a consciousness, PePe can alter the very alignment of the target and make them love him so much that they do his bidding.
He uses his ability on 9th Squad Lieutenant Shūhei Hisagi and his own allies; narrowly missing Sternritter G – The Glutton, Liltotto Lamperd and hitting The Power, Meninas. The mechanic behind the ability is much like sending a kiss; PePe forms a heart with his hands and launches a projectile towards the enemy that then makes them love him so much that they do illogical things simply because he asked. As established before, the Quincies are opportunistic and will often cannibalize (in a loose sense) in an effort to come out on top and earn favour with Yhwach. As such, PePe tries to kill Liltotto with Meninas, and Byakuya using Shūhei. The ability can even affect Zanpakutō, and Byakuya's Senbonzakura becomes hostile toward him too. Shūhei, now armed with both Senbonzakura and Kazeshini, continues to attack the 6th Squad Captain, who can only block the offense using Hadō. The limitations to PePe's ability do leave a significant weakness in his strategy – those with no understanding of love cannot be affected; therefore, inanimate objects and the deceased are impervious to the ability.
Love Arrow
PePe's Vollständig is Gudoero, which is translated to "God's Love". A direct nod to the putto-esque characterization of PePe is the fact that his Vollständig contains "Ero", which comes from the Greek word "eros", meaning love and is the origin of English words like "erotic" or "erogenous". When he assumes his Vollständig, PePe's appearance lines up even more with his Schrift as he looks much like the classical depictions of the Greco-Roman personifications of love, Eros and Cupid, who were often depicted as babies in diapers, armed with a bow and carrying a quill of arrows on their backs – a depiction known as "putto".
His Heilig Bogen takes on the form of the quintessential Cupid's Bow, and the arrows are tipped with feathers which, like the bow, he produces from his mouth. His Vollständig has a deep reddish colour to the reishi, and he sprouts wings that are designed to resemble the classic feathered angel wings that are again associated with Eros or Cupid (especially considering their rounded, cutesified appearance). While in this form, PePe has access to his "Love Rope", which is a whip made up of heart-shaped segments capable of stabbing and immobilizing his target. He uses this on Byakuya shortly before Mayuri arrives with the zombified Kensei Muguruma and Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi.
Projections
PePe's biggest contribution and his demise all take place within the same episode, as he adds another element to the theme of total control clashing against free will, and the total depravity of the individuals who make use of living beings like tools. Mayuri has always been depicted as a despicable scientist who has no sense of ethics; but despite his failings as a person, the presentation of the Quincies Giselle Gewelle and PePe Waccabrada almost serves to make Mayuri the lesser of the available evils. The characterization of all three as manipulative, selfish and immoral varies, and PePe's specific position as the manipulator of a force that is commonly seen as the source of most positive things in life; as well as his use of his powers on friend and foe alike, is particularly haunting considering that Yhwach's reishi distribution abilities were originally said to grant people what they lacked.
The connection to make here, especially considering the parallel to someone as despicable as Gigi, is that many Quincy officers felt feelings of helplessness or powerlessness; a lack of love, affection, or companionship in their own lives; a lack of security and positive experience, so much so that their newfound powers granted them the control to no longer experience the negative emotions stemming from those various states of severe lack. Like with many others, PePe's myopia caused by this lack would be the guiding concept in their life: Äs Nödt suffered immense fear from living life on the border between life and death and therefore saw everything through that lens. For PePe, love became the lens, and so he couldn't conceive of a being that would be immune to the effects of his powers, leading to his defeat at the hands of zombified Muguruma and his pitiful demise when faced with the jaws of death.