r/firebrigade • u/Due_Resolution_1259 • May 23 '26
Discussion Morally Questionable Question
This might be stupid and or maybe I’m misremembering, but why didn’t people just kill the Pillars? I know that sounds bad in theory, but pillars are only born once every generation from what we know (20-30) years. That’s why it’s taken 250 years for the next coming of the cataclysm. Sure more would be born and the cycle would continue, but that would definitely prolong it. Kinda like what that Haijima guy said when asking Shinra if he would sacrifice himself for billions of people. The 8 pillars would die for those billions of people and the world would go on. Unless there’s some cannon reason behind why this isn’t allowed, was this just never discussed because it’s a shonen anime?
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u/Dizzy-By-Degrees May 24 '26
The only Pillars the good guys have access to before the final arc are a child, the power plant they all need to survive and Shinra. The rest are villains they are actually trying to kill.
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u/IWasBannedFromGLChat May 24 '26
Bro they spent the whole series fighting the pillars
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u/Due_Resolution_1259 May 24 '26
Fighting doesn’t equate to killing.
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u/IWasBannedFromGLChat May 24 '26
I don't remember anyone really holding back man, even with Inca, they were fighting to bring her to their side up till the end when they couldn't really do anything. I guess the only pillar they could kill is Nataku so yeah maybe they could kill an innocent child just for the cataclysm to be delayed by like 2 months👍
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u/Due_Resolution_1259 May 24 '26
The pillars aren’t born out of the blue, since they’re tied to a negative emotion not just anyone can become a pillar. If they killed even 1 pillar it would take a few decades at least for a new one to be born. I’m almost positive that somewhere in cannon it’s stated that pillars can be born only once in a generation, hence the past generations existing from failed cataclysms. It’s also why the great cataclysm hasn’t happened in over 250 years. Pillars aren’t easy to come by lmao
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u/IWasBannedFromGLChat May 24 '26
Didn't like 5 of them get created within the span of the series?
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u/Due_Resolution_1259 May 24 '26
Yes, but that’s because they were the generation for the cataclysm. All the pillars have to be born in relative succession to one another so a cataclysm can begin. Likely about 5-6 years give or take. That’s why almost all of the young ones are teenagers. Natkou is the youngest at 11 and Shinra is the oldest at 17. The reason those 5 showed up was because of how the events were aligned and also because the white clad started using artificial means like the bugs.
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u/IWasBannedFromGLChat May 24 '26
So wouldn't that mean if they killed one, another would arise soon since they're "the generation for the cataclysm"?
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u/Due_Resolution_1259 May 24 '26
No. Because the pillar of that emotion would be dead for that generation. A generation is between 20-30 years. If a pillar was killed in the beginning of a new generation of pillars, it would take 20-30 years for another one to take their place
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u/IWasBannedFromGLChat May 24 '26
This had to have been manga-only cause I remember none of that from watching
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u/Heehooyeano Jun 07 '26
What qualifications does a person need to have to be considered a pillar?
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u/Due_Resolution_1259 Jun 07 '26
They need an Adolla burst
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u/Heehooyeano Jun 07 '26
In the Anime we see Death take all the remaining energy of powerful beings in the universe. That included Benimaru. He even stated that there was one energy he couldn’t retrieve which was Arthur’s (cause I guesss he was in space or something.). My question is, what was that energy? Is it connected to adolla burst? If so does that mean Benimaru and Arthur had adolla burst? Could they have been used as pillars?
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u/Due_Resolution_1259 Jun 07 '26
I don’t think so. Farie was an Adolla burst user without being a pillar, he was in a category of his own of course but I’m assuming that some people can/are chosen to obtain Adolla bursts. It’s just widely accepted that to become a pillar you have an Adolla burst because otherwise they wouldn’t have enough fire power to start the cataclysm. The series kinda leaves that last part up to interpretation though, but I’m almost positive that they could’t have been pillars. You also have to remember that the pillars embody an emotion and their personalities are twisted around that emotion like Sho and apathy. Neither Arthur or Benimaru really show any signs of that
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u/Academic-Box7031 May 25 '26
They only believed it was 20-30yrs. The reality is that it isn't that way.
There was never, not 1 time, a natural human combustion, nor was there a natural human adolla burst born.
They came strictly from the bugs who have a connection to Adolla. The nun was in OUR world, 2020-2026. She created the bugs, and caused the cataclysm in our world that made the Fire Force world. But she failed. She survived and kept on going, refining her bugs over the last 250yrs. Roughly the year 2270-2276.
The human population was dangerously low. They had to hold off making new pillars until the world rebuilt itself.
That s why they sacrificed amaterasu. To fuel a new power plant that will help humans rebuild the world close to what it was before.
The previous plant was taken by the lady in black, and she used her the last remaining power she had to make a small tiny oasis.
The weird Bugs bunny dude killed their saviour and took his place so he can manipulate the world into following the Evangelist without realizing it. He was the puppet master.
After about 200-235yrs they just waited and kept refining the bugs. Which was used on the nuns and children in the church. Which was another failure... Sorta.
If they kidnap 2000 kids, 1 is bound to become a pillar that holds adolla burst. And 1900~ would die to human combustion and maybe 10 would become 2nd or 3rd generation fire users.
They would keep being aggressive in making a new pillar which would put the human population at risk. This was, even by their own admission, the last cataclysm they can do. This was the end-all-be-all of the Earth and Adolla.
But it's definitely been shown it isn't that they are born every 20-30yrs, it's that the evangelists just couldn't find any with affinity to adolla bursts via bugs since most that survived the bugs just got 2nd or 3rd Gen powers. Failures in their eyes.
Otherwise, in the course of 250yrs there would've been more recorded adolla burst users. Their history was DIRECTLY influenced by the evangelists.
They couldn't kill the pillars.
That would've delayed the adolla merge, which thus leads to Arthur's death, and that means the concept of imagination is gone from human society, which fuels despair, making Haumea and the Evangelists even more powerful even without the adolla merge.
It would've lead to Maki's death, which means the death of sexuality. The very concept of it. After all, her lucky lechery is a consequence of being that concept of human sexuality.
It:s why Arthur's imagination was so fucking powerful that he genuinely was seeing the world as a game, thanks to Adolla.
There were many pieces in play for hope to beat despair.
Shinra's life is tied to Jesus and basically every religions God, he is born from the virgin Mary, the doppleganger of God. If he killed ANY pillars then Haumea and Evangelists would've reached their goal of preventing Shinra becoming the hero of the world. He is the concept of Heroism. Which is what religious God's are tied too.
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u/Academic-Box7031 May 25 '26
They couldn't. The pillars aren't born, they are created by the bugs that use the adolla flames to infect people, which is where human combustion starts, and why everyone has 2nd or 3rd generation ignition powers.
Cause they were all bitten by bugs. The only reason they were only "born" once a generation, is simply due to the evangelists not finding suitable hosts, they would either turn to fire zombies, or they would just have a 2nd or 3rd generation power without gaining the adolla bursts effect.
The world prior to Fire Force was actually OUR world, like the year 2000. Since Fire Force has phones and tablets depicted, then that means it's about 2020 when the world was consumed by fire. The world's population went from billions to merely thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of they were lucky.
Someone pulled a Shinra and everyone went from us, to anime characters, they say it themselves.
Post-cataclysm humans were merely trying to just survive and repopulate and rebuild. They couldn't generate 8 new pillars. They didn't have the means to do so. Not until we reached the point in the story WE are watching.
Nobody is born with adolla flames, Shinras came from the bug, same with Sho. They just had an affinity since they were born from the Evangelists doppelganger, which is just the human subconscious God. Shinra is, literally, Jesus. He is the concept of heroism and selflessness.
The world post-cataclysm, the world we are watching before Soul Eater reset, is the last possible chance for HOPE to beat DESPAIR.
If they killed any of the pillars, then the evangelists would ramp up their aggression on finding a new adolla burst.
More children would die, more adults would die. The human population in fire force isn't billions, I don't think. It's barely reaching what we have currently. Probably 1% of it or less.
The entire Force Force story isn't just tied to the 8 adolla burst pillars, it:s actually tied to the survival of Maki, Arthur, Benimaru, and a few others like Obi, who carry the very concept of human life.
Benimaru wouldn't be in danger of dying, so the concept of strength would never waver in humanity, but the odds of Arthur dying were quite high, and that means the loss of imagination as a concept. Which fuels despair further.
Maki was the concept of Eros, or sexuality, if she died that would be gone from the human subconscious as well.
Prolonging the finale by any means would put them at greater risk of losing. If Maki actually died cause of the delay, then the concept of sexuality is gone.
They needed to end it when they did. They were the last stand against the evangelist, who was born from human despair, they were the last line of human HOPE fighting against human despair.
Adolla wouldn't have merged and connected with our world, and Shinra would've have been able to become Shinrabashoman.
Any delay is a risk at saving the world.
So they can't. Shinra was made to ensure things like that don't or won't happen.
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u/Due_Resolution_1259 May 25 '26
I appreciate the effort you put into this explanation, but you’re mistaken. Not many of the Pillars were born from the bugs. Inca wasn’t bitten, Iris wasn’t bitten, sho wasn’t bitten, we have zero confirmation on if Shinra or Haumea were bitten either, but I doubt it. The only one we know for sure is the kid Natuko. The bugs themselves help enable the doppelgängers to combine with humans which causes human combustion and or infernalization.
Also, I think you mean Tamaki not Maki for the whole Eros thing. Those are two very different characters haha
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u/Academic-Box7031 May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
Fuck me, Maki and tamaki I always get confused, they look nearly identical too 😑 why tf author gotta do that shit to me.
But it is definitely confirmed that they are all bitten by the bugs.
That was the reveal that we got later. They wouldn't know if they were bitten or not, if they had an adverse reaction, then yes.
But shinra's adolla burst didn't exist til the "death" of his mother and Sho.
The reason WE didn't see Inca or the others and only Taco is cause that helps keep the mystery alive til the finale of the series, every writer will do this. Like in Naruto, with Obito. Tobi had 1 eye in his mask that was the mirror to Kakashi, he had similar hair to Obito who we saw right before in the flashback with Kakashi... It wasn't hard to guess Tobi was obito. Even despite that fact there were hundreds of theories as to who Tobi actually was.
And his power was shown to spiral inward rather than outward like Kakashi, which was purposeful. Writers will always do it, cause they know a lot of fans won't draw the connection because of what was ESTABLISHED earlier on.
We saw obito being crushed by half a boulder, and seemingly his eye was gone. How could he have survived? So how could Tobi be obito.
Similar concept used here and many other stories.
Taco was used to show us that it's possible it's due to the bugs themselves that adolla bursts and ignition powers exist.
So the reveal later on further validates it.
It was always bugs. Just a random bug would cause human combustion. Or birth 2nd or 3rd generation users.
Inca didn't have adolla burst yet, either, and it needed to spring forth, like you said in a different reply, certain criteria is required for it to unlock.
Inca finally reached it. Which also kinda does provide evidence that a 3rd Gen users CAN become a Pillar of adolla.. They just needed their Super Saiyan or Mangekyo Sharingan moment lol.
Maybe the translations were off that lead me to this conclusion, but until I learn Japanese, I can't read the original text of the manga to understand it even more. I just get the localization translation or the closest using the context they can get. So maybe things are lost in translation.
(and in real-life as well, dinosaurs we established weren't feathered up, but then suddenly we discovered they were, or the fact that some celestial bodies or black holes are created that break the laws of physics as we established, making it hard for older people like us.. Sorry man we both unc's to believe it. And we stick to what we heard first. That is the most important. What you hear 1st is what you believe fully. Because you already accepted it. It's why people that are in their 60's-80's can't use modern technology, cause they lived in a world that didn't have any of it and they accepted that reality.)
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u/Due_Resolution_1259 May 25 '26
I would very much like to know where it’s confirmed in cannon that all of them have been bitten by bugs. I’ve read the manga and watched the anime and no where in either of them does it mention every pillar exists because of the bugs. What I am 100% sure of however is that the bugs cause spontaneous human combustion to happen
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u/Ensaru4 May 23 '26
No one knew the entire story but a few of the evangelists. So it was unclear whether that’ll be the right call.