#masquerade theory

[ashieeeesh]

GUYS I KNEW THE COSTUME LOOKS FAMILIAR ITS FROM DIAVAL FROM THE MOVIE MALIFICENT HSJDJNSBS

[drama-glob]

Well, considering Ragatha just said this:

it's no wonder Gangle tells Pomni that, although I wouldn't be surprised if Gangle has been feeling like this for a while now since from what we've seen in the previous three episodes, Ragatha does more often than not put a sunny disposition on and suppress negative thoughts she may have like with Pomni after she left her glitching out on the floor, which is something she has a right to feel angry and upset about; she only really seems to gets angry with Jax, but that's fair/understandable giving everything he does to everyone. :/

I remember Gooseworx saying that episode 5 was supposed to focus on Ragatha and since she commented about people liking the "Dark/Evil Ragatha" depictions that's been going around, so maybe this will have a doppelganger of her that manifests from all her pent-up frustrations or she'll just wind up having her own breakdown and air out all her grievances against the others. Should be interesting to see nonetheless. ;)

[hanafubukki]

After knowing what we do in book 7, the real reason Lilia wasn’t included in Glorious Masquerade was because he would have straight up murdered Rollo in cold fury.

No buts or ifs, no excuses.

Rollo tried to hurt his boys: one of which took forever to hatch and is all he have left of his best friends/siblings and sees as an older son, another is a son he raised himself from the cradle he found him in, and another is the grandson of his best friend and is the youngest he loves to toy with.

And Rollo tried to kill them??

Lilia would have straight up taken his hatchet and don the mask of the General in how angry he would have been and no one would know.

For all anyone would be able to tell, Rollo would have fallen to his own plan tragically. Maybe even pushed off the bell tower into a bed of crimson flowers.

No one the wiser.

(He’s had blood on his hands from war, what’s one more?)

[thatguywhodoesstuff]

A Ragatha Theory

I just watched the new episode and, while I’m probably looking too much into this, I feel that I have come up with a reasonable assumption regarding Ragatha’s life prior to the Circus:

Before the Circus, Ragatha came from an affluent/high society family and her upbringing played a major role in shaping the way she copes with being trapped in the Circus (toxic positivity and general people pleasing).

Spoilers Under The Cut:

Starting out we have this line. I’ll admit, I initially thought this was just drunk talk for the sake of comedy, but not long after this scene, she says:

And this:

Now, it’s not much, but taking all of these together paints the picture that Ragatha has some manner of background involving wealth that would involve her needing to be prepared to conduct herself in formal settings and events.

Then of course comes the next point, that being Ragatha’s toxic positivity and people pleasing more than likely stemmed from a strict upbringing or background that expected a lot from her to the point of flat out abuse, as hinted at by these screenshots:

I understand that these two images could simply be in reference to everything she has endured during her time in the Circus, but I can’t shake the feeling that it runs deeper than that and the stream of consciousness she spouted in this scene was all tied to her background.

Meanwhile, these two images speak for themselves:

Overall, I’m probably grasping at straws, but I think this whole sequence of events should be kept in mind going forward in the show.

[that-hyperfixation-gal]

my lovelies, i need to inform you all that the reboot announcement has had me shaking in my boots for MONTHS. i have SO many questions. how will their paths cross again?? why now? what drama has gone down in the past ten years? what will happen when neal (adult) and neal (child) are inevitably in the same room and both respond at the same time to peter calling their name? (this one makes me laugh every time i think about it) does neal have a family? (i hope he does)

and, sadly, how are they gonna explain the unfortunate absences (mozzie, june etc) 🥲

god i’m just so excited that its coming back.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I'm sort of confused on Silver's personality. I know the game typically portrays him as someone who is empathic/kindhearted/etc., but after looking through his battle lines and the Glorious Masquerade tower scene (where he's joshing with Sebek before they go to fight the flowers), it seems like he lets out a different part of his personality? Battle lines were sourced from the wiki.

I initially thought it was exclusive to when he's fighting, but in his dorm uniform vignette, he's just praising Sebek's skills during their sparring (unless sparring vs. real fights prompt different reactions from him, but he doesn't seem to have the same cocky dialogue in book 7 either).

For reference, I'm EN only.

To those he considers his allies, yes, Silver is generally cordial (if not blunt) and empathetic. If it’s a situation where he has to protect his loved ones? Then Silver has to get serious and take down those threats. At the end of the day, he’s a knight and he has duties to tend to. However, it’s not so much of a confusingly merciless aspect to his character, erasing his empathy, or showing a hidden dark side to him 8as it is just another facet of who he is and an extension of his preexisting traits.

Given the opportunity, Silver tends to opt for discussion first before attacking or deceiving. Notable examples of this include Fairy Gala: If (where he expresses guilt for tricking the fairies and suggests just talking with them instead) and Endless Halloween Night (where he attempts to speak with the ghosts… until his peers ruin it by preemptively attacking them). In the cases where he does have to resort to violence, it usually comes with this air of reluctance, he’s almost never the instigator (but instead follows someone else’s lead, like Jamil in Endless Halloween Night), and/or he apologizes to those he beats down (book 7). When listening to the audio for the battle lines (I’m not sure if you did this too or if you just read them), I don’t really get a sense of arrogance from how Silver speaks. They’re mostly pretty neutral and soft. Because of this, I don’t think he takes any genuine joy or pride in striking others down. It’s just… something that comes with the territory and the nature of what he does. A “necessary evil”, you might say.

I cross referenced fan translations and native Japanese speakers in my own life about Silver’s battle lines. They seem to be pretty accurate, so the explanation for the can come down to a few things.

One idea is that the Diasomnia students just speak melodramatically; this is something that Azul and Idia remark on in Glorious Masquerade:

Having others misinterpret the meaning bc behind their words and body language is a detail that may ring especially true for Silver, as his Dorm Uniform vignettes center around a misunderstanding between him and some mob student peers. Lilia notes that while it may be easy for him, Silver’s father, to read and to understand Silver’s emotions and the intention behind them, this may not be true for others.

Let’s circle back around to Silver and his identity. Being a knight is a Big Deal for him, who wants to have the power to protect the people he loves and to “pay back” what he feels is owes to his father. He even references the fruits of his training and physical prowess in various battle lines. The pride Silver has in his own power, then, comes from that selfless desire to fiercely defend the things he cherishes—but as his Dorm Uniform vignettes show us, it’s so easy to misinterpret his aloofness as something else. Due to this + the dramatic flair of the Diasomnia students, maybe some players misunderstood Silver’s battle lines as being more arrogant than he intended for them to be.

Another idea that I think also makes a lot of sense is just how Silver perceives the situations he’s in. He’s able to be a lot more amicable when he’s fighting alongside Sebek, his childhood friend, fellow knight, and pseudo-little brother figure. They have known each other for so long that they can read each other’s true feelings and can perfectly coordinate their attacks with one another. Silver understands that Sebek lashes out because he’s embarrassed and this is how he shows affection; Sebek knows that Silver is empathetic and kind but that others fail to see if because of Silver’s stoicism, etc. They can afford to poke fun of each other while they train or do a practice sparring match—and Silver, being the older one, naturally feels a sense of pride seeing Sebek make improvements.

In Glorious Masquerade, Silver and Sebek are panting and starting to get tired from fighting the fire lotuses… and yet they’re still able to lightly tease each other, pointing out that the other is slightly faltering. This is how they communicate with each other, because they both have too much pride to show weakness in front of their fellow knight.

It is Sebek who suggests having a competition to see who can cut down the most flowers, NOT Silver. Knowing that Sebek is the type who conceals his emotions with fake bravado, it’s very likely that the competition was Sebek’s roundabout way of encouraging Silver and giving him motivation to keep fighting.

Alright, now pay attention to Silver’s face between the first and second screenshots here:

At first, Silver seems surprised. Almost immediately after, he’s doing that soft, lopsided grin while seemingly saying a really arrogant line about how he’s going to essentially mop the floor with Sebek and secure the victory. Looking at this scene from an outsider’s perspective, Silver’s weirdly being stuck-up to his friend in these dangerous circumstances… and that’s the thing, it’s the OUTSIDER’s perspective.

Given how well the two know each other and their respective communication styles, I’d wager this scene isn’t how it appears on the surface level. Again, it is Sebek who suggests the competition… after he notices that the chips are down. Silver knows that Sebek is brash in his efforts to cheer others up. That is most likely what Sebek is doing now, and that’s why Silver so quickly rebounds from shock to smiling. When he says, “I was just worried about how I’d calm you down when you inevitably lost”, it doesn’t necessarily have to read as an ill-timed taunt. It could also read as Silver joking back to try and ease Sebek’s weariness and grant him some motivation too.

Lastly, here’s the boring meta answer (booooooooo): things that are said or happen in battles/gameplay don’t always match up or make 100% sense in the context of the narrative. For example, playable characters don’t always have the same stats as when we battle them as mini-bosses, somehow you can have a whole team of the same character, etc. For Silver, the battle voice lines he has do not make sense for every battle he takes place in for the main story, and thus he may not truly be telling Silver Owls “Know your place” (which does, in fact, sound a little hostile OOC) when you deploy him to fight. You have to also consider that we have like… zero explanation for any battle lines other than they’re battle lines. This is completely unlike the main story which has tons of context and set-up.

Thinking of it like this, we can clearly separate battle lines from lines of extended dialogue shown in the main story, vignettes, etc. It doesn’t mean the Silver we see in battles isn’t “real”, it just means the Silver we see in battle segments won’t accurately reflect his current state of being at that point in the story because he doesn’t have specialized voice lines to suit each scenario. Silver has always consistently been kind-hearted and willing to hear others out; this was not changed even in book 7. It only appears that he has oddly stuck-up and out of character voice lines because our brains want to stitch everything together into a single narrative even when the gameplay meta and the story meta don’t want to align.

[rizdoodles]

If MC consumed a firelotus, would our dear prefect have magic?

Since these flowers absorb magic, you would just have to ingest them to obtain some, right?

Unfortunately, I don't think we know how the magic system works in Twisted Wonderland.

•for me in both cases that MC will have indigestion ♡

[ervikirvi]

“Now I know what you’re thinking— I don’t want a career in fast food! I want to be a comic artist! And eventually launch my own manga-inspired webcomic! And it’s cool to have dreams, but you also need to remember that they’re completely unrealistic, and YOU need to stop trying.” -Gangle

I don’t think a community has ever related to a character more than this, myself included. I think about this line constantly, and I have seen posts of other TADC fans posting about Gangle and how relatable she is when it comes to her art career. Which made me think about how many of us as a community are struggling as a majority of artists to find a crowd who cares and supports you. But can’t because of an algorithm or not being able to find your crowd or for whatever other reason you may have.

So I want you to put a link to the art you want me to follow and interact with. Heck! It doesn’t have to be your own! You might know somebody and their art that you want to give attention to. It doesn’t even have to be drawings, it can be writings, it can be music, it can be whatever. I may be one person, but I want this community to flourish. It’s funny whenever I accidentally stumble upon the author of a fanfic I read months ago. It’s fun finding the artists to works I saw on Pinterest (who didn’t bother to give credit 😤), or even just knowing who made the art by username just from the art style alone. It’s entertaining just talking to people who are passionate about their theories!

Maybe I am just rambling on for a bit about something you guys are too shy or too caught off-guard to do. But I DO want to get to know you guys! I joined Tumblr because I wanted to see more art between Kinger and Queenie, now I want to stay for the only part of the community that actually feels alive. So I ask you, please, send me a link to your work and I’ll follow you. I want to see more of TADC on my feed than anything else.

Sending Virtual Hugs to all 🫂

(I also encourage you to take a look at everyone who gives their link 👀 Support each other, that’s what will strengthen our community and others)

[chaothewise]

Does anyone else think that Jax might be the first ever person to get stuck in the digital circus because of the number plate he had in ep 4?

[rayroseu]

Azul was freaking SCARY during this part Ngl lmAO imagine blasting this guy with your most powerful spell and he starts laughing like a maniac with hollow eyes and SHOTS you unexpectedly with an even more POWERFUL spell😂😂😂

I would love more insane Azul ✨✨✨✨ being businessman prim doesnt suit him as much as this lol

Also I FELT this part lol its really nice seeing Rollo get beaten up after his nonsense 💥💥👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 Go get him board game club‼️‼️

I love the buildup towards this part. Malleus was written as if he was intimated by Rollo during the fight, but then his mask of being "weak" falls off and its actually revealed that he is not intimidated by Rollo at all, in fact the way this scene's vibes gives off??? He was looking down at him, with his 'plans' and his stupid delusion about antagonizing him.

I love when TWST reminds us that Malleus is a king. ✨✨

He hides off this personality that he truly believes he's too superior than anything, that he's undefeatable.

Not gonna lie y'all, I think Malleus won't be defeated by the flowers, he emphasized this from the start, that he's fighting Rollo because the flowers will be problematic for Briar Valley, but not him yk.

Plus, this is Meleanor's kid😂 Mother didn't birth a weak dragon‼️

I think this part also mirrors in Book 7 where the Silver Owls was convinced they caught Meleanor but she just laughed at them and declared that they'll decimate every human in her sight for being insulting as to think they can ravage her land and defeat her lol.

Also the fact that Henry basically narrates her as if she's the villain of humanity by calling her a witch... It parallels to Rollo seeing Malleus (even though he didn't do anything) as the root of all evil yk.

Also possible theory for the Kind Bellringer and the Just Judge??? We all know that their story is written more peaceful here than the Disney movie.

But one thing that's strange is that No one knows what the Bellringer was fighting for even if he's considered a hero of Fleur City-- at the same time, we don't know how Rollo even got the flowers (aside from studying ancient flora)--- Basically, Fleur City lore has many plotholes and no one knows what it is and why is that-- Its like Briar Valley history...

We know the crimson flowers are a reference to the scene where Quasimodo released lava around the Notre Dame to prevent Frollo from entering....

What if in Fleur City as well,,,, Quasimodo (as the Kind Bellringer here) rebelled as well against the Just Judge (Frollo) as well?? But the Just Judge is instead credited as "the saviour of Fleur City" because the evidence of the Bellringer acrually being the saviour is burned up or smth, thats why Fleur City's history has many gaps in them...

Also the Just Judge being the actual villain in the history but remembered as a hero now because of misinformation.... It matches Rollo's punishment that he'll forever be complimented by the actions he didn't do, and its up to his guilt whether he can stand living as a fraud who actually harmed the same people thats highly regarding him rn.

LMFAO GRIM????? DONT BULLY GRANPA TREIN??? YOU SILLY 😭😭😭😭 I wanna hug Grim he's so cute in this event.... My unruly son 💖💓💖💓🥹

The gargoyles are so cool🥹🥹🥹💖💓💖 How does Malleus differentiate them... 💥

Also this makes me wonder.... Why Briar Valley doesn't have talking gargoyles??? Isn't Briar Valley a magical nation??? Talking non living things should be a norm for them lol

but Malleus feels like its his first time ever with a talking gargoyle lol

ISNWIHBDHIWHID HE REFERRED TO HIMSELF AS "MAL" .... CAN YOU BE MORE CUTER THAN YOU ALREADY ARE 😭😭✨✨🫶🏻✨🫶🏻💓💖💖💖💖

he really loves nicknames rather than "titles" because people who gives him nicknames isnt shackled by the expected decorum of meeting him-- therefore these people are not acting and they are sincere with talking with him, it helps with the connection and feeling like he belongs 🥹🥹💞💞💞

I COULDN'T RESIST COMPLIMENTING GRIM AAGHHH MY CUTE AND ADORABLE AND HANDSOME SON YOU ARE MOST PRECIOUS THE ADORABLE HERO OF FLOWER CITY 💓💞💖💓💞💖

I love how Grim ran the moment he heard that someone is doing a celebratory toss lol The goofy running sfx lol 😂😂

I love how teasing Silver and Sebek was here lol Threatening to toss Idia in the air omg.. He's traumatized already from walking the stairs lol The way Sebek and Silver can be unexpectedly playful... it feels so... "Lilia taught this to them didnt he..." 😂😂😂

WAAAAHHH YUU CENTER ATTENTION YAY YAY 💖💓💞💖💞💖💓 i love how he used his sultry smile here though lol .... He knows we waiting for his undivided attention yiiiee✨✨✨💞💞💞

Also i hate this translation part.... In the twst JP Malleus dialogue shows the specific lyrics of "Make a Wish" hes singing rn but in TWST EN IT DOWNGRADED TO JUST " *SINGING* "l

also on the twistune, twst JP shows the lyrics but on twst en, theres none.... I don't get why they arent translating it... This game is for people who dont understand Japanese?? So its natural youre going to translate everything for us non japanese to yk... Atleast understand without googling for translations???

YEAAA PHOTOGRAPHER YUU HERE THEY SHINE 📸📸📸📸📸😎😎😎😎 be proud your mages still have magic crowley lmfao 💥💥💥

Also i hit the image limit now... But i love the Cinderella reference from Trein's dialogue ✨✨✨ that Yuu taking pictures of the ball can make the other uninvited students more jealous lol

Its a reference to how Lady Tremaine plotted against Cinderella just for her to never attend the ball... ✨

I like this event ngl, but I feel like Rollo's story was kind of rushed ngll jdnfiind we never found out why he's so angry at Malleus, how did he even come to the conclusion that killing Malleus is killing magic, bruh...🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ Malleus is not even the top 1 strongest mage??? 😂😂

Also i feel like this event was made for Idia instead, it felt like Idia was the main character imo...

I just feel like the event couldve given their dynamic more light because its so intriguing that they went to similar trauma but have different outcomes...

In a way Rollo is what Idia wouldve become if he continued tormenting himself for Ortho's death alone...

He said to Rollo that "is removing magic what your brother wouldve wish?" I think thats very telling that even if its tragic that Robot Ortho's creation was fuelled by Idia's grief and defiance that Ortho is forever gone, it was suitable for Idia's pain to remind himself that Ortho wouldve wished he goes on... as is very telling of Book 6's ending about Ortho's refusal on Idia's suicide by going with him on the Underworld...

also because I think Rollo would need some person like Idia whos blunt for regular reality checks just so he wouldn't blinded by his delusion again and ransack the world 😭😭

[double-starr]

TADC EP 4 THEORY???

TW: Not directly but hinting to SA, Mentions of Abuse, Suicide, Depression, and some swearing

Y'all I hate to say it and people can fight me on this but Jax definitely went through some sort of abuse at some point-

Let's be honest, the whole "employee reevaluation" was hinting some sort of abuse in his old job in the past.

He was absolutely furious at the idea of working a normal job. That's why he likes other adventurers, because it's a disconnect from his past reality and trauma.

I mean FUCK DUDE-!!! Most people are talking about how he doesn't wanna "look weak" on the right image, but I think it's more of a hint that he was abused by a boss from the past, and that he was asking if no one could see, because almost everyone in this episode hinted to their real lives through dialogue or actions.

Like seriously, think about it:

Boss: So, first things first, are you happy here?

Jax: I mean, not really.. I think there's favoritism and-...

So this escalates, and the boss grabs Jax.

Boss: I think it's time for your employee reevaluation.

You can guess the rest. The TV could represent Jax reliving those past memories.

Where does this get interesting?? GANGLE WAS ABUSED TOO.

Gangle and Jax worked the same job. Gangle was also abused by their boss, but they were higher up than Jax was, and they felt as if the only way to keep their job was to continue doing what their boss said to. Although everyone dislikes Gangle due to how they're always very on top of everything, which again is how they're keeping this relationship with their boss. Jax thought they had privileges because the boss "liked her". He had no idea they were in an abusive relationship.

So in short, Jax ends up doing harmful things to Gangle, like being emotionally abusive towards them. Gangle has enough of it one day and reports him to their boss, and then the boss decides to "talk" with Jax.

Now, Gangle finds out about the incident, and who tells them?

Zooble does.

Gangle asks one day after Jax is gone for a week where he's been. Zooble tells Gangle he quit, because of what happened with the boss.

Gangle confronts their boss. He threatens to fire them if they tell anyone about what he did to Jax.

This leads to a sort of survivors guilt, and that's when Gangle commits suicide after work one night after a shift.

Idk I might be looking into this too much tbh

[rukminis]

I have a theory about Lady Tilley Arnold in the show and how it might be an indication that the next season is Benedict's (please gods, let it be Benedict's), here we go

SPOILERS for Bridgerton season 3 and An Offer From a Gentleman under the cut!

Right, so I was pretty mad when they introduced yet another love interest so flippantly for Benedict, but I rewatched the portions with Lady Tilley and there are two things that go unexplained.

1. She mentions that she had a husband, and had had several seasons to mourn him already

2. She was arguing with a solicitor when Benedict called on her, and never properly explained why

I'm hoping Part 2 will give us more insight, but here's what I make of this, and the book comes into play now.

What if Lady Tilley is a shoe-in for Araminta?

The circumstances do seem similar: Araminta also married Sophie's father, the Earl, shortly before he died. Tilley didn't mention having children at all, so either she hid the fact that she had daughters from Benedict, or she doesn't have children in the show at all.

And funnily enough, not having step-siblings would really add to Sophie's story, because Tilley might certainly be bitter about the fact that she didn't get to produce a rightful heir to her husband's estate and the only remaining person with an actual blood relation to the Earl is Sophie. It would also serve as such a great plot point for why Araminta/Tilley might torture Sophie in the show.

On to the second point, Tilley was arguing with a solicitor. When Benedict asked, she just explained it away saying he was overcharging her, but what if it was more?

What if, like the books, the late Earl left everything to his ward Sophie and Araminta/Tilley was trying to get the solicitor to hide or edit out that portion in her favour? Araminta did conceal and lie about the will to Sophie in the books, so it isn't too much of a stretch to have that in the show too.

If we assume Tilley married her husband in her early 20s, he died in her mid 20s, and she's now in her early 30s, it still gives us a huge time span for her to raise (read: enslave) Sophie for more than half a decade.

ALSO, in a promo reel where Bridgerton cast members were associating this season with emojis, Luke Newton said 'drama masks'. Yes it could be about Penelope's mask as Whistledown coming off, but Benedict and Sophie's storyline is centered around the masquerade ball, which also involves masks.

Eloise's midnight deadline for Penelope to reveal herself (in the part 2 teaser) also seems significant to me because it's a converging point for the drama. And Sophie escaped the masquerade ball at midnight in the book.

I'm thinking that, at some point during the last two episodes, Violet hosts her masquerade ball. Benedict meets Sophie like the books, even leaves Tilley alone to dance with this mystery woman. And when midnight approaches, Penelope reveals herself as Whistledown.

There will, naturally, be pandemonium. Benedict might even have to rush to Colin and Pen's rescue, he's a Bridgerton after all. And in this chaos, Sophie leaves. That very night, Tilley realises that Sophie went to the ball. Not only is she angry that her little servant flouted her orders, she is mad because Sophie stole her man's attention away. And she casts Sophie out (we may actually see this whole POV in the next season though, so hmph).

But I think this season will end with Benedict coming out of the masquerade utterly smitten, and vowing to find the woman in the mask who has won over his heart. And that's how his season will begin.

Unless they decide to break my heart and pursue Francesca's story.

Ah well. Let's see haha.

[yuri-is-online]

A Pocket Full of Posies and WTF is up with Rollo's Hankie

Before we begin, a slight disclaimer: yes, Medieval beliefs about disease and how it spread were weird. They did not have the ability to know about germs because those are literally microscopic and germ theory would not be "discovered" until the 1860s. THIS DID NOT MEAN THEY WERE STUPID AND IF I SEE YOU SAYING THAT WE WILL FIGHT. Anyway-

If you have been kicking around on the internet for a bit, chances are you might have heard the "dark history" fact that that the "Ring Around the Rosey" nursery rhyme is about the Black Plague. That's probably not true but the reason it was originally theorized to be the case has to do with Miasma theory, and the use of strong scents (typically herbs and flowers) to ward off the "bad air." What does this have to do with Rollo huffing that handkerchief every time someone talks about magic? Well we'll get there but first just what the hell do I mean by bad air?

Miasma Theory in Practice

The Black Death/Bubonic Plague was a roving pandemic that gets it's name from the first wave that bitch slapped Europe from 1347-1351. There were technically three forms of plague kicking around by I am not a scientist and we are here to talk about that. Given that this was, as stated in the disclaimer, pre-germ theory the ideas people had about why this was happening and how to prevent it wildly varied, but Miasma Theory was so popular it actually stuck around long enough to duke it out with Germ Theory when scientists started talking about that.

The basic idea is that diseases like the Black Death were spread from bad smelling air. This theory was proposed by Hippocrates, as in that guy from third or fourth century Greece we aren't even sure existed, but it was a pretty universal belief, we have sources from Ancient China that also reference the idea that bad smells can make you sick. This "bad air" was thought to come from decay; in the case of the plague, dead bodies were believed to have released it (hence all the "bring out your dead" stuff), as were cracks in the earth, and sewage. ALL AIR WAS THOUGHT TO HAVE A LEVEL OF MIASMA, but smell was the best way to tell if you were in danger of getting sick; basically if it smells like shit out then you are in danger because there is only so much of it you can breathe in before you get sick. So when you end 1351 with 40% (that we can confirm!) of the population dead, how exactly do you keep yourself from huffing in all that invisible miasma?

Roi du Mouchoir

Well you make the air you breathe smell nicer of course! And this is where we get to Rollo's hankie.

The "posies" in that nursery rhyme doesn't actually refer to one specific flower. It's a type of small bouquet, which apparently are also called nosegays or tussie-mussies? It's also the technical term for those tiny groups of flowers that make up a corsage. The idea was that people would carry around things that smelled good, like flowers and herbs, and any time you smelled something bad you would bring the flower out of your pocket and hold it up to your nose just like Rollo does with his handkerchief. Literally, people usually kept those nice smelling flowers in "Plague Bags," which could refer to nicely sewn sachets or just neatly wrapped up in cloth. Eventually these got super fancy, and evolved into these really elaborate pouches people put potpourri in, but given how strict Rollo seems to be with himself (and everyone else) I've chosen in my own fan fic to interpret his posies as being the common kind, which would be rosemary and lavender. Today they are thought of as being soothing scents that calm you down, and that does seem to be what he is trying to do with all those deep breaths.

I got a lot of this specific information from this article here which is on a wonderful website curated by a professional perfumer I highly recommend poking around if you are interested in learning more.

Cool Story But?

"Sure Yuri, all of that is neat but isn't Rollo's handkerchief a reference to Esmeralda's scarf?" Yeah probably. I don't really think it has to be that deep, but I do think this stuff is cool and well-

Malleus's name is likely a reference to the Malleus Malificarum, a book I have a PDF of on my computer because of course I do that was published around the same time that this theory of disease would have been kicking around. It's about- well the author says it's about "witchcraft" but that's another paper for another time, and why they are super evil and bad and should all die. Specifically why they should all be burned at the stake, it's a fun read. And sounding oddly familiar to certain events...

That's all to say, sure it probably isn't that deep but with all the other really well researched and designed character choices, I would not be surprised if it was.

Semi Unrelated Fun Facts:

Bridal Bouquets are thought to have started, in part, as a way to ward off Miasma and keep the bride healthy on her wedding day.

Miasma theory was still super popular in the Victorian Era and lead to a lot of public clean up projects as people thought that they could get rid of disease if they got rid of all the sewage everywhere. And hey they were right, just not for the reason they thought they were.

Yes a lot of people thought the Black Plague was a punishment from God and a sign of the end times. I will remind you that 40-60% of Europe's population DIED IN FOUR YEARS. I'd assume something supernatural was out to get me too tf? Seriously these people were not stupid, they just lived in interesting times.

If you are wondering "hey I heard Plague Doctors stuffed herbs in the long beaks on their masks, is this why?" Yeah it is! Gold star!

I love you for making this far, thank you for listening to me friend and I hope to get back to entertaining you soon (っ˘з(˘⌣˘ ) ♡

[hanafubukki]

I just realized why kalim wasn’t in the glorious masquerade event.

Just like how we know Lilia would have realized something was up and possibly killed Rollo for trying to hurt his family.

If Kalim was in the event, dealing with the flowers would have been too easy.

The idea was to magically implode them by having them absorb magic until they couldn’t anymore.

Kalim’s unique magic would have done that easily without causing him too much trouble.

Kalim, I believe mentions, how his UM doesn’t take too much magic from him and not only that but it literally downpours waters enough to flood the area.

So not only would his unique magic put out the fires ironically, it wouldn’t have really caused him that much magical strain 😂

Can you imagine Rollo’s face then? All his hard work undone by Kalim’s magic. I mean everyone would be wet but it’s an easy enough fix.

Just imagining a wet cat Rollo makes me laugh.😾🤣

(It’s quite interesting when you think about how certain characters were chosen and those who weren’t. You can tell a lot of thought went into how the scenario would play out when certain characters attend or not.)

[androidicks]

OKAY HEAR ME OUT

These flowers from glorious masquerade, right?

Tell me why they look EXACTLY like the toom bloom flowers from the second live action maleficent movie.

This took me a whole having to replay the glorious masquerade event to remember this theory

I might be onto smth 👀 (if someone hasn’t done this already)

[tenshiharmonia]

I was browsing through the Paranatural tag when I saw a post talking about a certain "Sphinx of Crimes" that Zack Morrison apparently hinted at on their Patreon page, and it made me think. Assuming that this Sphinx is the antithesis of the Sphinx of Rules, the same way the golden Sphinx seems to counteract the Sphinx of Truth, does it mean that the Sphinx of Pacts also has an opposite ? The Sphinx of Betrayal, maybe ? I don't know what I'm getting at, but I thought it was worth mentioning...