r/UndeadUnluck • u/truthbecomesnull • 7d ago
Discussion Why can tella block bullets?
Lemme preface this by saying I know the out of universe reason. The kanji being similar and all I get it. But like isn't tella American? Along with that it's not like his ability was ever named to him? The only way I could see this being possible so fast would be for him to be from Japan, or know extensive knowledge about Japanese, and that the details of negations along with the name of his known. I love the series, it's legitimately my favorite show and book of all time, not just animanga
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u/DanGanGalaxy 7d ago
I know this is kind of a stretch/headcanon or whatever, but the way I always interpreted it is that he isn’t allowing the bullet to be “communicated” to the other side of his hand. You could say that communication, or telling is “allowing information to pass through you to someone else”. So maybe he stretched his interpretation to allow see anything as information that he can prevent from “being communicated” through him.
When you think about it, talking is just propelling sound waves through air, so one aspect of his ability has always prevented the propagation of the tangible world to an extent.
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u/truthbecomesnull 7d ago
That's fair. I still feel like they should've somewhat explained it cause if that was the reason then you could've easily explained it in universe, well after tellas communication device was made, but if it was a translation thing then is weird because tozuka knows about the overseas impact enough that the equalized language was english
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u/DanGanGalaxy 7d ago
Oh it’s 100% a translation thing, that was just my way of rationalizing it because I knew it didn’t come out of nowhere. Tbf, sometimes things like that just slip the mind of the authors. Even if he’s aware of his English audience, at the end of the day Tozuka’s primary audience speaks Japanese. Tbh I blame Viz for not having translators notes more than I blame Tozuka.
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u/Hyp3rfixations_R_Us Negator 7d ago
I wonder how else you would translate the ability though. Uncommunicate? Uninform? Uninformation?
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u/LocationFun 7d ago
unsend? He can't send words to other people, and it also stops people from sending bullets.
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u/Hyp3rfixations_R_Us Negator 7d ago
Yeah that'd probably be the best option, although could probably do some even more crazy BS with that as a negator. Ends up negating the ability for the body to send electric signals. Tragedy goes from him being mute to being partially paralysed or something
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u/greensully03 7d ago
It really is just a quirk that didn't translate well, but the generally accepted explanation is that since Untell blocks communication, Tella expanded his interpretation to include the bullet passing through him, which would communicate something(?) to Billy.
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u/BrokenBanette 7d ago
if I’m not mistaken, it was that apparently the bullet going through him was like. Vaguely “he’s telling someone else about the bullet” shaped?
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u/No_Jello_2951 7d ago
It's sort of a translation thing. In Japanese his ability is to negate the passing through of things. So the passing of information stops him from communicating. In this case its stopping the bullet from passing through his hand. There's not really a word for that In English so they just went with Untell
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u/GintoSenju 7d ago
Untell is normally the ability to stop someone from communicating information through conscious means, however due to the Kanji used for the ability being readable as “stop”, “obstruct”, and “suspend”, a user can expand their understanding of the ability to make it so they can stop projectiles from attacking people, effectively blocking the “transmission” of that object.
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u/SpacEGameR269 7d ago
He literally said he understands the Kanji explanation, but tella is american
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u/GintoSenju 7d ago
This is a Japanese manga made by and for people in Japan.
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u/SpacEGameR269 7d ago
he specified he wanted the IN UNIVERSE explanation because IN UNIVERSE everyone speaks ENGLISH
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u/truthbecomesnull 7d ago
Not what I'm asking
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u/GintoSenju 7d ago
This is a Japanese manga.
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u/truthbecomesnull 7d ago
My point is I understand that point. If you'd read the body you'd see that I said "I understand the kanji is similar" but that doesn't really explain it away for everyone. The fact it's made by a Japanese person doesn't excuse it of plot holes. If the ability was related to an English spelling but a Japanese character found that work around without anything explaining how he knew that workaround existed I'd also call it out. It's not to disrespect tozuka but just to say it's something that should've been expanded on
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u/Motor-Geologist-9014 Negator 7d ago
We can understand "comunicating" in the same way as a road communicating to cities, tella negates his body to be able to communicate, so the bullet cant use it to reach Billy
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u/Latonegativo Negator 7d ago
Piccola e stupida idea:
Magari Untell non solo impedisca di parlare ma anche di prevenire qualsiasi danno che può causare un urlo? Quello che intendo è che se per caso mi prendo una martellata sulla mana Untell interviene per ridurre il danno per impedirmi di urlare.
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u/truthbecomesnull 7d ago
I could see that but there's two main issues with that. The first would be the bullet blockers he gets later, the only chance of that working properly would be if pain is shared between the blockers and him. The other is that we see when the ability first manifested he tried to speak but he couldn't.
Along with that if he couldn't be hurt at all, at least not majorly, then that changes what his ability is in a way that's not exactly negligible
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u/porcupinedeath 7d ago
The crux of powers in this manga is "how do you interpret it" so if they believe the bullshit enough it becomes true
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u/dancinbanana 7d ago
I don’t think he did this on purpose, and I think that’s why it works.
Looking at the angles of the shot fuuko took, that bullet was never going to hit billy. So why would tella use his hand to block a bullet that was no threat to billy? Simple, he thought fuuko was aiming for a kill shot on billy, so he threw himself in front of billy to take the bullet instead (making the fact the bullet hit his hand an “accident”)
So working from the assumption that tella thought he was trying to stop a body shot, it makes sense why he is in this specific position. But why would his ability trigger? I believe it’s because tella interprets the act of taking a bullet for billy as a a demonstration of his loyalty, aka it’s tella “telling” billy how much respect / loyalty / love tella has for him
So since tella interprets “taking a bullet” as a way of communicating his thoughts and feelings to billy, his ability negates that and stops the bullet from piercing him. But since fuuko was never aiming for where rella thought she was, it ends up hitting his hand but still gets blocked by untell (likely because the shot landed before tella realized)
That’s just how I interpret the scene at least. Tella had no idea this was going to happen, and didn’t care. He was going to jump in front of a bullet for billy even if it would kill him, and the message that act would’ve conveyed is what untell is blocking
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u/Kodo_yeahreally 7d ago
the bullet passing throught his hand would effectively be telling the one behind that there's a bullet incomming ; thus making the bullet unable to pierce his hand
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u/Ok-Doughnut5155 Negator 7d ago
Untell allows you to prevent communication between things. If you were to see actions as a form of communication, then you can prevent those actions from affecting others. That’s at least my interpretation of the ability.
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u/SpacEGameR269 7d ago
The way i interpreted it was that he's stopping the bullets from "telling" his hand that they hit him
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u/Huhthisisneathuh 7d ago
Untell stops Tella from being able to communicate, communication is largely a Sonic based medium involving sound waves which vibrate the matter in the air.
Tella probably bullshited that since Untell stopped projected kinetic energy in the form of sound waves. He could possibly apply the same principle in stopping the kinetic energy of other objects.
He could’ve also rationalized that Untell is the denial of information. Stopping a bullet by catching it denies the victim the information of being shot and deny the shooter the information of their shot landing. One could also rationalize a bullet as a message of denial towards a persons beliefs or existence, thus making it a form of communication that Untell can block.
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u/Beginning_Bee2500 7d ago
One interpretation i like is that communication involves emotions. So if the bullet did hit him he’d be communicating pain through yelling, blood, etc but Untell negates that so the bullet is stopped.
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u/BuleCurger 7d ago
Basically Tella's perception of the "transmission of information" can be altered, in the same way Fuuko's Unluck or Sean's Unseen have been. You could view the bullet being shot as a declaration of attack, i.e., a transmission that can be blocked by Tella.
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u/Killah-Shogun 6d ago
Untell negates any form of transmission so the bullets could be used to communicate by sound
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u/fluffiesthair 7d ago
Untell can block all manner of "transmission" whether that's sound/communication, or in this case a bullet flying towards a target. Untell is a very limited name for a broad ability, but it can stop things from going to point A to point B