#but essentially all the theories I've had for uh how many chapters?

[empty-pizza]

thoughts on gideon the ninth chapter thirty-one

oh shit we're getting the harrow infodump

not sure why we're doing it in the pool but sure

salt water? uh ok i guess

so harrow figured out protesilaus (i am SO sick of remembering how to spell his name) was prolly dead from day one

someone else DID kill him, or at least as much as you can kill a thing like that, but she doesn't know who

man it does not feel like harrow is revealing she's the killer which is a real bad turn for my theory. oh well. unless she's lying, but her lying at a time like this would be a very bold and difficult thing for an author to pull off.

so harrow thought palamedes or dulcinea were the threats, and going to attack her. trying to save gideon. and thought gideon would trust dulcinea more. this is, admittedly, all making sense. my theory did attempt to explain why harrow would send gideon off with the teens, but this makes sense too.

"If my heart had a dick you would kick it" the quote of all time

lots of great nuances to this chapter, genuinely, like harrow acknowledging the possibility that gideon could have killed her, but my mind is still on the heart dick line

if it's not harrow, then at least harrow is struggling as much as i am to figure out the culprit (i am still coping and thinking it might be harrow though because i wanted to be right)

very thematically meaningful backstory to harrow, really puts the weight on her shoulders into context. and i think silas throwing out accusations at that was really just tossing around various suspicion of why he thinks harrow is evil, not building a specific case in any form.

and gideon? gideon was too fucking cracked to die, even as a baby. bad ass. lmfaooo even harrow's parents were scared of her. this is awesome. top 10 babies i've seen in fiction.

wait harrow fucking SUCCEEDED. she was a cracked enough necromancer to make it through the door and do whatever the fuck she had to do in there? and even her parents didn't get it, and killed themselves out of fear of consequence for the betrayal? shit man this is all coming together.

what clinches it for me that harrow can't be the culprit is that harrow values life. that is now essential to her character in a way i wasn't aware of before. she has to value life, because that backs up her self-loathing at the sacrifice of life that was necessary for her existence. therefore, she can't be the killer. shame. i had a lot of fun putting that theory together.

anyway, back to the infodump — oh shit it wasn't an infodump it was harrow at her absolute emotional lowest and gideon being there for her. wasn't ready for that.

so harrow still sees the locked tomb as something that needs to be protected. why? hmm.

ooh it's a girl in there. spicy. in a cold kind of way, given that she's apparently frozen. and harrow caught feelings. wild. and the exploding shuttle had a perfectly reasonable explanation.

the question (one of many) that remains is, who is the culprit, then? harrow couldn't figure it out. there are only so many possibilities. i don't know what else the clues would be. it's almost possible that this is an experimental story, like many of its inspirations, and goes for something surprising, but hopefully fitting, that subverts the expectation of a human culprit.

good chapter.

[ayaka6]

Chapter 91 Recap

So to recap, I sent somebody an ask about chapter 91 and I'm gonna elaborate a bit more on what happened in this chapter for anyone who isn't deep in the series anymore/isn't sure what's going on.

From the very beginning of the series, we've known that if you uncover the truth of all the yorishiro, something will happen. As confirmed by the most recent chapter, if you destroy all yorishiro then god will grant you a wish.

While Hanako had a bunch of perfect excuses at the time, he wanted to get rid of the yorishiro from the very beginning - and him already having been a rule-breaker and outcast when he was alive, it always felt strange for him to be so set on keeping up the peace because somebody told him so. It's convenient and using his power gave him the chance to destroy the yorishiro up to this point. We know by all of his past actions that he lies, he bends things, and he has other ulterior motives. These motives are usually protecting the people he cares for and especially Yashiro.

But Yashiro isn't what made him a supernatural. In order to become a supernatural after you die, you need to have regret. And the stronger your regret and emotion, the stronger of a supernatural you will be. Your yorishiro symbolises what that regret is and is always associated with it.

Hanako's greatest regret is having killed Tsukasa and everything concerning Tsukasa's death. Tsukasa is the only one with a solid connection to Hanako and he bears the seal all yorishiro do - and at the point we found out that Sumire was No.6's yorishiro, we knew that people can be a yorishiro too. Not just objects, as seen with the other numbers.

To Tsukasa's surprise, Hanako knows this. Hanako knew from the very beginning that if he destroyed all yorishiro, he would be granted a wish. And upon his death, what was the thing he'd probably wish for the most? It has to do with his greatest regret.

But things changed and Hanako wishes for Yashiro to live. He admitted as much, he said it in his conversation with Yashiro. And as soon as he admitted that openly, Tsukasa appears and urges him to kill him.

They both know what Hanako needs to do and that's why Tsukasa holds his hands with the knife and says "Let's do it." Because fulfilling Hanako's wish and destroying the yorishiro, at this point it's something only the two of them can do.

That means Hanako has to repeat what started all of this and kill his brother again. Not only that, he needs to make a decision - because there is more than one wish he has, but only one will be granted.

And that ignores all the other implications, no matter how you interpret Tsukasa's behaviour and the reveal about Natsuhiko. Even if he makes a choice now, there is no guarantee as to how things will turn out.

So that means we need to wait another month! Thanks for reading.