#falin animal I have become save me. falin animal I have become. save me falin animal I have become

[karmaphone]

what do you mean I'm supposed to get a job I'm literally supposed to make amvs

[hachinanakomatsu]

I initially didn't have much interest in Dungeon Meshi when i first heard excitement for it becoming an anime last year. I just assumed it'd be a decent, wholesome cooking anime and that's all. However i finally got convinced to try the anime out back in April and i fell in love asap. The way the cooking aspect of the show aligns with the world and way you learn about it slowly each time. The cooking aspect just fits perfectly with the themes of the story and the characters and it works so well.

Marcille is also one of the reasons i got so into the anime because unlike a lot of female characters in fantasy series she isn't just 'the girl' that's in the group to become a love interest and just be the straight man. She has a lot of depth behind her motivations and she's more than just a surface level character. She's a half elf so she had to deal with feeling like she didn't belong in her own race, the elves nor other races since they have the same misconception about her that the races do in regards to all elves. Something i love about this is rather than wanting to change herself or 'become normal' (becoming a full elf or curing her infertility) it motivates her to want to achieve equality for all races no matter who they are.

Additionally, despite being an 'honour student' she has a lot of human flaws due to the fact she was sheltered for most of her life and didn't really have any friends. Falin was the first person to accept her for who she is underneath and thanks to Falin she started finding comfort in another person. She first meets Laios through Falin and when Falin gets eaten she deals with immense loss around having someone else taken away from her. She grows closer with Laios and the group on their journey but near the end it makes her fear of loss and outgrowing everyone even stronger. She comes to terms with it near the end of the story thanks to the group and manages to save Falin.

Basically Marcille just captivated me because she has a lot of typical traits most female characters in fantasy series tend to have but it's more than just a surface level look. She's complex, she feels human and I just love her so much. The rest of the characters in this series also subvert typical expectations on fantasy tropes and it's done so well.

[maeve-is-annoying-about-books]

I didn't really wanna talk ahead of the Dungeon Meshi anime but I had this thought bugging me as I was skimming the manga. So, spoilers for what's to come.

I don't think it's any coincidence that Laios' party, out of a cast of infinitely more capable people, makes it to the final floor of the Dungeon. Why? Cause they aren't heroes.

Look at Kabru, he's the poster boy for anime protagonists. He has a tragic backstory, a personal beef with the dungeon, skills trained by a master of the crafts, and a large party who seems genuinely friendly together. He has everything going for him to one day dive to the bottom and gain closure for his story but he just can't. He never will, because the dungeon does not work on his logic. It turns out that there is no plot armor against hearing a siren sing for the first time.

What about Mithrun then? Personally wronged by the Demon, he's the paradigm of vengeance. A tragic hero who will do anything it takes to get to his goal and probably die achieving it. He has a party full of dark history and interesting dynamics, really laden with moral greyness. Not Berserk but a step closer to it than Kabru's story. But he is, unfortunately, also a classic hero archetype, and although his skills are impressive they aren't fit for the ecosystem around him, singleminded vengeance will see you killed by changelings, the cold, or starvation.

Shuro, it's gotta be Shuro right? A man from a distant land but a familiar one to the primary readerbase. He goes back to train, hone his mind, collect a party, and save the love interest from a cruel fate. Perhaps he will learn there is no saving her, and tragically be forced to slay the monster she's become. His journey ends the second Faligon dies, so he has no chance, ever, of becoming the Dungeon Lord. There doesn't need to be any extra traps to deter him, he'll get what he wants at the fourth level and be gone, his desire simply isn't pointed that way.

Laios, on the other hand. None of his party are heroes, they're all here for selfish reasons and have absolutely zero illusions about heroics and greater goods. Laios is here to save Falin, he only wants his sister to be safe. And to eat and document monsters. Marcille is here for forbidden magic and Falin, and her two desires coincide with her resurrection. Chilchuck is here because he got paid up front and can't leave without rumors spreading. Senshi was always here and he just wants to live in peace with nature. None of them have heroic intent, broadly. But it also means they don't have heroic conceit either.

Laios' party will eat anything. They'll run from battle, take shortcuts. They treat monsters not as grand challenges to overcome but something to fight for their lives with. With their teeth if need be. There is no honor here there is only living. Honor gets you strangled by treasure bugs. Revenge will see you abandon your party to giant spiders for the mere shot at your target. Duty sees you skipping meals because your goal is so important. It is striking how different the dungeon is between Laios and the others. They all treat the dungeon as their personal hell to be striven against and conquered, only Laios sees it as an extension of the living world and understands his place in it. And I think that is so fucking cool, it's so multifaceted. Like, their exact skill set is perfect for getting through the dungeon because of how they all treat it. But also because the dungeon wants them there, because they have very personal, strong desires. Desires that shape their skills, and desires shaped by their skills in a kind of Ouroboros.

And it's an interesting question of how much of both factors into their progress in the story.

[sugarcoatednightshade]

I haven’t thought of Lily Orchard in years, but she just made a video on dungeon meshi and I wanted to hear what she had to say. I couldn’t even finish it.

It’s clear she hates anime as a genre and is pissed about having to review something she didn’t want to watch, and that anger permeates the whole* review. On top of that, it’s so fucking disingenuous to review a show that’s not even halfway over and then claim it’s thematically disjointed - like 1. Of course it’ll seem that way if you’ve only seen the first quarter of a piece of work, we’re still in the setting up stage, these themes haven’t had time to fully commingle and resolve and 2. Even considering that, dungeon meshi does actually know what it is/where it’s going, and at this point it’s fairly obvious how all the themes/mixed genera’s are gonna fit together.**

*to be fair, I haven’t seen the entire review, so maybe she calms down partway through. I don’t make a habit of watching things I know will upset me, and watching someone make bad faith criticism of something I like would literally ruin my week

Post chapter 65 spoilers below:

**Granted, cookings prominence in the show, while cute*** on its own, didn’t really seem plot relevant to me until around chapter 65 when it was revealed that in order to save falin they would have to eat her dragon half. Y’all, I went fucking feral over that reveal.

***cute meaning: it’s used mostly for worldbuilding at first. That’s really cool if you’re into it, and an integral part of the story ryoko kui is telling, but not technically necessary in every story. There are plenty of storys who spend needless time expositing about the world instead of focusing on the interesting bits, and if you’re only a quarter of the way into DM, I can see how you might think that this is one of those cases.

But obviously, as time passes, the worldbuilding aspects become more important, because the entire show is about worldbuilding. Or more accurately, it’s a deconstruction of the fantasy genera. It spends time setting up familiar tropes and then examines how those tropes would actually play out in a realistic world, setting up and then questioning our expectations for the world in a really nuanced way.

My favorite example of this is how dungeon meshi treats dark/ancient magic.

1. The words ‘dark magic’ and ‘dark elf’ have negative but vague connotations in traditional fantasy. “The thing is bad because it is bad.” It’s a fact we’re primed to believe, but shallow and easy to question

2. We learn that marcille uses dark magic, but that she’s using it for good. “Actually dark magic is forbidden because the people in power were afraid of The Plebs and want to restrict the populaces access to knowledge” is also a common fantasy trope.

3. As we learn more about dungeons and how they intertwine with dark magic, we learn that it does truly have the power to end the world. Not by itself, but because the dimension it pulls power from is populated by beings who would use that bridge of power to enter our world and cause havoc. Holy shit, we think, black magic is actually dangerous and was banned for a reason. Naming it ‘black’ was part of a smear campaign intended to save the public by dissuading them from using it

4. And then we learn that the so called catastrophe scenario has never happened, no demon has ever escaped a dungeon and successfully ended the world. Is this because of the work of the Canaries and ppl like them, or are demons perhaps not as much of a threat as they are made out to be?

And it’s great because there is no one correct answer. We learn things through the characters, whose perspectives are limited and realistic and based on their own life experience. Nobody knows the whole story, and neither do we.

[lai-mar]

You know, I really appreciate that you’re out here defending this widely hated relationship. Maybe it’s because the anime-only fans are a very vocal majority right now, but I’ve seen people who ‘watched the anime then read the manga’ *still* shit on Laios and Marcille’s friendship. Like you don’t have to ship it but if you deny that they care about each other or deny that they have chemistry, did you even read the comic?? ‘Oh they’re just siblings/siblings-in-law!’ have you ever had a sibling. have you ever had a sibling-in-law. they do not act like siblings they act like *intimate* best friends. ‘Ridiculously comfortable around each other’ best friends. They have a relationship outside of Falin, that is what develops over the entire damn story. 90 chapters. What comic were you reading where you think Marcille can barely stand him.

Thanks for the ask! Very cathartic to see this. About to go on another rant again lol (will be repeating some of my old points but yeah I need to get it out of my system)

"Defending widely hated relationship" + "anime-only fans are a very vocal majority"

Okay, let me play devil's advocate for a second here. Let's say I despise L/M as a ship and it squicks me out greatly and I think it's a boring ship of pairing the male lead and the female lead. What should I do? Obviously go into L/M posts and argue about it instead of blocking the tag and stating my stance my calmly when someone asks me like your average fan who knows how to curate their fandom experience.

Okay, more devil's advocating. I despise L/M as a ship but I have read the manga and engaged with it critically and understood its themes. Which means I like L+M as a friendship in the same way I like the themes of eating and life cycle and the friendship between the party and the worldbuilding. Because all of these are core parts of the story told. So what I do is to block all shippers and ship tag and look for platonic fics and fanart like Your Average Fan Who Curates Their Experience.

Like I'm sorry. I genuinely feel some people are so caught up in the intense fanonisation of DM that they start forgetting about canon. And I KNOW I am not the only one feeling this way because I read the notes on my posts and other people's posts and there's a lot of good thoughts on this. Plenty of people appreciate them. But to some people in the wider fandom, are we reading the same manga? Our male lead and female lead are friends who save each other. They are not together canonically. So canonically, they don't even get into the way of shipping?????? People can have important intimate friendships outside of romance??? And it's a canon well established friendship? I would say it's one of the most well developed dynamics in the series that we see? We get shown and not told? We see images and words and interpret them in our brains?

Devil's advocate level 3. Let's say mainstream fanonisation of DM is real. F/M is a canon ship and they get together and they get married in the end and L+M become sibling in laws. Maybe L/K is a thing. This still does not erase the entire journey L+M and co went on to save Falin. This still does not erase their friendship and chemistry.

"‘Oh they’re just siblings/siblings-in-law!’ have you ever had a sibling. have you ever had a sibling-in-law."

Okay. I do have a sibling. At this point I've long accepted this much be some sort of cultural difference and some weird American / Western thing I am not used to. And the hilarious thing about DM is that we do get canon siblings!!! It's the fucking premise! Falin and Laios!! And they're fun!

I'm sorry but this must be some cultural difference. Like no younger sibling is calling their older sibling by their GIVEN NAME. The sheer disrespect. I'll be scandalised. As a person with a sibling I don't understand the fandomisation of making non related people siblings in fanon? I'm calling my friends my friends, not siblings. My sibling is like a sibling to me. My friends are like friends to me. Idk. I've written the word sibling so many times that it doesn't seem like a word anymore.

Obviously these are just my personal thoughts but I feel like objectively, there has been a fandomwide trend of grabbing a canon friendship between a man and a woman and going "THEY ARE SO SIBLINGS CORE XD" (not siblings in canon) (not related) (don't even look similar) (they're friends). A lot of times this is valid and even fun but sometimes I get the feeling people sometimes push the fanon sibling thing to show they're squicky about them romantically. To which I can only say: a man and a woman can genuinely only be friends. If you need to magically make them related so you / other people won't see their friendship romantically... it feels like a step back. Why are we doing heteronormativity.

I think I'm the type of person who enjoys and mains man + woman friendships in fandoms (which are, unsurprisingly, unpopular as ships and even as friendships until I start spreading propaganda and pumping fics on Ao3), and I think one of the things that get me is. A man who could be attracted to women + a woman who could be attracted to men having great chemistry but staying friends. I want to stress this is different from a man who is not interested in women / romance + a woman who is not interested in men / romance because there is almost zero chance of a reciprocal romantic relationship going on. But for the first case, which I feel like many people dumb down to "straight people shipping", it's even more precious for them to stay friends and not give into the heternormative expectations despite one or both of them possibly (but not necessarily) being heterosexual. Like, here are two people who could date each other but they're like "nah we work better as friends, so we stay friends". To me, this is one fantastic argument for friendship. Not everything has to be romantic. Even better if they considered and thought about the logistics, but decide their relationship is more special non romantically. Having a taste of how their relationship could go and going "thanks, but no thanks". Is this not a great display of sincere and stable friendship compared to people going "lol they can't work as a ship because they simply physically cannot tolerate the thought of each other romantically". I'm rambling here but I feel like this is what I feel across various dynamics and fandoms. At this point, I think somehow non romantic relationships genuinely fascinate me more than ships. Save me QPR save me.

"They have a relationship outside of Falin"

I feel like some manga readers have missed the point so badly when it comes to this. It's hilarious. They have a relationship outside of Falin it's the whole fucking point about coming to terms with grief and death! You know, one of the core themes of this story that you finished!

And of course this doesn't erase the love they have for Falin. Falin is clearly beloved and their main motivation, but hilariously enough (for the L+M deniers), the manga shows Laios and Marcille's "true" innermost desires being granted and it's not about reviving Falin even though they both clearly want her back and it's at the forefront of their minds. Laios turns into a monster. His curse isn't about Falin not coming back (even though that was his immediate thought), it's about him not being able to interact with monsters ever again. Marcille was traumatised by what happened to Falin (nightmare chapter) but when she turns into a dungeon lord, she goes about trying to fix the lifespans, showing her fear of loneliness and all her loved ones (NOT just a single person!!!!!!!!) dying before her. You can argue they didn't revive Falin with magic lord powers because they don't trust the lion / trust their own plan of eating her, but I think the manga focuses enough on their desires for the interpretation of "the lion fulfills their innermost desires that define their existence" to work. Marcille is the one who finds Laios first after he turned back and Laios broke Marcille free from the lion's influence etc etc we know they play a part in each other's arcs. Laios says they wouldn't be on this journey if Falin hadn't been digested. Marcille says in the end she was okay with Falin not being brought back this time. Laios invites Marcille to stay with him. It's in the text.

"Boring straight ship" or whatever

This comes from what a friend said about my main duo of another fandom but it's like "why isn't [ship] more popular" "because it's easy to fall into the boring trope of pairing a man and a woman together".

And this is a thing that does happen! But not to pairings with strong canon foundation and chemistry sorry. Don't look at me, look at canon. A male/female ship with good canon support is a good ship. Why are you surprised. People like shipping characters who spend lots of time together saving each other and all that. Dare I say: sometimes (sometimes) shipping "straight people" is more respectful to their canon friendship than shoehorning them as siblings. Which I believe is true in the case of L+M.

Anyways. Well that was a nice angry rant. Sorry I had to get it out of my system. I've spend too much time writing this so I won't be doing much proofreading lol. If you've reached this point, thanks for reading <3

[jadequarze]

Jade, Jade I have a favour to ask: can you info dump about Dungeon Meshi? Work is going tits up and I was hoping for something to look forward to after my shift is over. Pretty pls?

Let me try because it's so hard not to spoil TOO much.

Dungeon Meshi is a manga about a group of adventurers who had a big fall when they were up against a red dragon and one of theirs (Falin) is killed/eaten. Once they manage to escape, the brother (Laios) wants to go back and save his sister. However, some of the members left because it's not worth the risk. Unfortunately, they don't have the golds to but supplies that then leads to the MC suggesting they should kill monsters to cook them. Who actually genuinely wants to eat monsters. He manage to convince them. Then, they meet with Senshi, who knows how to cook monsters and despite the other members reservation, enjoys the food Senshi cooked. This is a very brief summary but yeah. The running theme is going to be this, food.

The whole manga revolves around food. It starts with food and ends with food. Ryoko Kui is on point when it comes to the themes she made in the manga and it doesn't taper off. The manga have a lot of fun bits in and there are times where it's serious for character development. Like, it's a nice balance of fun and serious if that makes sense. It's not too overwhelming with information and you can see how it progresses and not feel like it gives you whiplash. It tends to end the day when the group stops to eat and gives them a chance to talk/ contemplate on what had happened hence, character growth. Eating together is the main core of the manga. Moreover, to me especially, Ryoko Kui doesn't focus too much on any romantic subplots. There are a few tease for Falin/Marcille, but other than that, it's not her main focus. You can ship them but don't expect too much of it and honestly, I don't mind at all. I didn't read this manga for romantic subplots, I just love the world building and the individual characters themself. Despite being really horny, like legit horny, it's not in a sexual way kind of horny. It's more to horny of eating or being eaten. This post is better at explaining it than I could.

Characters summary:

You have an autistic MC, Laios, who is really fixated on monsters. He has a sister, Falin, who died saving the group from the red dragon. They both live a really hard life as Falin is the only one who is magically-inclined leading to their parents keeping her under a tight leash. The way they treated Laios, especially his dad, is bad because he's not like other 'normal' children.

A cringe fail half elf girl, Marcille, who has nightmares of people leaving her due to her long life expectancy.

A divorced short dad, Chilchuck, who gets treated as a kid because he's short and looks young (especially in early chapters but eventually tapers out as they grow together). He's a half-foot (a halfling in dnd terms).

You have Senshi the dwarf (the one who has the fanservice, you'll know why soon enough). He's the cook of the group.

Finally, honestly my favorite character, you have a cat girl, Izutsumi. She appears later in the manga though. She's not the typical overly cute cat girl you usually see in medias nowadays. She's the legit cat girl, as in she acts as a cat. Moreover, as the manga progresses you can see Chilchuck taking her under his wing and basically becomes her adopted dad (which is really cute).

Again, this is really a really brief summary of the characters. There's more depth to them but I'm not saying too much. Avoiding spoilers as best as I can. The ending, THE ENDING IS SO ON POINT AND ACTUALLY FEELS FULL!!!1 The main plot has ended but that doesn't mean it ends fully because it's been mentioned that Ryoko Kui will be writing/drawing epligoues for the characters after the main plot. Which is awesome.

Here's a couple post that I think can articulate better on why I fucking love this manga:

[trans-queen-administrator]

My favorite manga ended after 6 years of me following it, so y'all get to hear me ramble about how Falin from Dungeon Meshi and Noelle from Worm are counterparts. Major major major spoilers for Dungeon Meshi, just a warning. And Worm I guess, but I just kinda assume anyone seeing my posts knows about Worm.

So first off, super obvious comparison, they're both women who have had their lower halves replaced with a massive monster body that's a mishmash of multiple animals that is so large their human torso is dwarfed. Falin has a rather coherent feathery and scaled chimera body, and Noelle has a mass of meat and mouths and limbs that's constantly expanding. Both of them got this lower body through some sort of fucked up life-saving medical procedure too. Noelle was dying and needed to drink her vial to heal, and Falin was a completely deceased set of bones before Marcille revived her. Both of them immediately seemed better in the aftermath, only for the consequences of drinking half a vial/repurposing dragon flesh to regrow a human with dark magic to show themselves after a short period of relief. The two of them are both taken over by their monster half as well. Falin's soul is overwhelmed by the dragon soul and her orders now that she's part of the dungeon, and Noelle is slowly subsumed by her broken connection to her passenger that takes away parts of herself until she's a violent and aggressive mess with barely anything of Noelle left in her.

Noelle and Falin are also the heart of their groups. Noelle was the common friend among everyone in the Travelers, and Falin was was similar with her being generally friendly and very important to Laios, Marcille, and Shuro. Both groups immediately start looking for a way to save them, but I think it's rather interesting how the relationships strain in different ways. In Dungeon Meshi, when Falin died the adventuring party fractured. Namari and Shuro left, and Chilchuck only stuck around because he had been paid in advance, and when she was revived into being monstrous there was consideration of giving up. The adventuring group in Dungeon Meshi weren't really friendly at first with Falin gone, they were co-workers who argued and bickered and stuck together out of obligation. Marcille thought Laios was crazy, Chilchuck thought he was dumb, and Marcille and Chilchuck were often getting on each others nerves, but through their quest to revive and then to un-chimera Falin they all bonded and actually grew close and cared deeply about each other. The Travelers are similar, they were all friends before their wacky psychological body horror isekai, bar Cody and Krouse, but once the group was put under stress and the heart of the group in Noelle got her condition they began to grow apart. By the time we see them in canon, none of them really like each other and they all feel alone despite being in the group, but they remain because they don't have anywhere else to go and most of them care about fixing Noelle. Both groups go from being friends, to having something horrible happen to the common uniting factor in the group, to being strained and disliking each other. The difference is though, Dungeon Meshi has them grow to like each other beyond their bond with Falin, and they make new friends along the way, but the Travelers just become more and more resentful of each other and can never really bond with anyone else on Earth Bet. The groups have the same starting point, but they travel in opposite directions and reach opposite destinations. Noelle doesn't get cured, but Falin does.

This is a Dungeon Meshi post, so I have to make a comparison to food as well, I'm legally obligated to. Falin is saved by being consumed, with everyone coming together to eat her lower half, and it's a proper meal. Noelle though, she mindlessly consumes with no purpose. She feels a constant hunger and is sustained with insane amounts of meat, eventually consuming people as well. It's not a meal, it's not a way to spend time with others and appreciate the effort put into food, it's just consumption with no joy or meaning. It's an odd parallel. One of their monster halves eats, and the other is eaten.

Another fun little parallel is how the adventurers line up with the Travelers in some ways. Both groups do some pretty illegal shit in their quest to save their giant monsterified friend, but I think there's especially a fun line to draw between Krouse siding with Noelle when she was fully gone and rampaging and Marcille becoming the lord of the dungeon with saving Falin as one of her main goals, and then they both get sentenced to super mega turbo jail after it all. Marissa and Laios both get the fun little moment of "resolving to kill their former closest friend because she's completely gone, only for her to appeal to their bond," but Marissa incinerates Noelle anyway while Laios hesitates. Marissa also parallels with Marcille because both of them have massive codependent desperate crushes on their respective friends turned into mindless monsters, and Laios parallels Krouse in being a leader that the group often hates, there's a lot of ways to twist those 4 around and look at them for funsies. Beyond that there aren't really any easy parallels to draw between the group members. Cody could be Shuro because they both have a crush on Noelle/Falin that goes completely unrequited, and they fucking hate the leader of the group. Jess could be Izutsumi because they both resent their bodies and desire freedom. Luke and Chilchuck both want to leave the group when everything goes to shit, and retire from adventuring after the experiences. Oliver is Senshi because they're both eye candy.

Ultimately, I don't have a point here, I just think that it's nifty that I can draw so many connecting lines between these two groups in vastly different media. Its neat seeing how having the central member of a group be put through the horrors can either fracture or forge friendships, and I like how they both turn out in such vastly different ways despite the similarities. Rip Noelle you would have loved Dungeon Meshi.

[cugareal]

SAVE ME FALIN TOUDEN ANIMAL I HAVE BECOME AMV

[wormlette]

We want to know your Farcille Half-Foot Incident Ideas please

OK SO THE FARCILLE HALF FOOT INCIDENT THAT LIVES IN MY BRAIN. nobody look at me i'm really tender about my farcille headcanons

Spoilers for like ch22 til 50ish and for anime onlys

SO ROLESWAP WITH FALIN AS THE ONE GOING TO RESCUE LAIOS AFTER HE GETS EATEN BY THE DRAGON. things would be similar to in canon with some differences. Laios getting fuckin bit in half saving falin. Marcille being the one to teleport them all and feeling really guilty for leaving laios behind but she was unable to stomach the idea of losing falin when it was so close to happening… both of them still having chil tag along (chil is now the one pining for his missing touden btw. if you even care).

And meeting Senshi who is a bit more reserved about Falin’s magic but less wary because it’s gnomish and he knew gnomes at least. Falin and Marcille both doing dark magic together to resurrect him. (Um. Falin may have put herself in the dungeon a bit and well you see she might just be a beautiful puppy girl with gender affirming fangs and feathers and. um. the dragon cock) and

She is grappling with taking what she wants and no longer just being understanding and easygoing and protecting everyone else but having to confront seizing her own happiness and her own life and rescuing Laios even if other people don’t like him. i see her as being a fundamentally deeply enmeshed character and growing from that would be her plot arc. Namari would still leave but they might still have Shuro idk. Or maybe Falin would alienate him by saying something abt Laios mattering more and not caring about Shuro or if he loved her if he can’t save Laios then who gives a shit about him. And then he’d leave to get his retainers and prove himself to HER rather than his father I think. Yeah that’s pretty good

And ANYWAYS falin is already a chimera so the changeling shrooms maybe don’t affect her or maybe she just gets like. Um. you know how izutsumi just becomes a different race of beastkin. Don’t look at me. And then Marcille is still a half foot and she gets soooooo overwhelmed. The speculative bio of it all. The undocked long tail. (Chil could share a little lore about them traditionally being docked at adolescence to become an adult to avoid stigma of being considered basically beast men etc [and falin would be like ooooh shit that’s why he’s so weird about eating demihumans huh bcuz some ppl consider half-foots basically as that.] but also that more modern half-foots are eschewing the tradition... He let his kids pick what they wanted to do, and Fler wanted hers docked but Mei and Puck chose to keep them.)

And anyway overwhelmed Marcille just wants Falin to take care of her so Falin carries her away in her big strong chimera tallman arms and keeps brushing her whiskers and well. They simply get so curious about each others’ bodies (no chance to explore really with the pace of the dungeon and staying ahead of Others), that they simply must bang it out. Falin can smell her. Btw. Biting with the fangs. Btwwww

Chil also had an experience of chimera laios treating him oh so gently and staring at him w the same usual dopey laios look before wreaking havoc on everyone else. Btw. And it keeps him up at night. If u even care

[oswednesday]

i was thinking before this chapter and now i even have something to Parallel with, like, okay, the flashback where hes coming up with the template of the ultimate monster and hes like my dream is to fly away from the village and falin is like me too me too and hes like get your own dream : / and then hes like hey you can ride on my back and we'll fly away and shes like okay we can also take [every animal on their land as children of a lord] and how hes been running from that burden his whole life, running from being a lord and from saving falin, he comes back for her but in a way thats like, she didnt actually need him to save her she was actually enrolled in a place where she found belonging and would have a life outside of having kids for the family, and now its like if he doesnt become king the shortlived people will be stomped beneath the desire of others, but even as king of this place he cant change the way elves are or dwarf are or halflings place in their society, its just re-opening the same wound to return an old cycle, but if he doesnt become king there is nothing but extreme hardships his friends will face because the dungeon is now gone

[lai-mar]

Can't wait till this blog is old enough so posts start showing in main tags, but for now, a salty lil rant

Shipping aside, I'm surprised by how Laios + Marcille even as friends doesn't get as much fan attention as I expected considering how heavily the series focuses on their development? I consider Laios to be the protag and Marcille to be the secondary protag but I can see the argument for the two of them being dual protags especially starting from around Thistle's house arc / Marcille becoming the dungeon lord. The protagonists are party members who bond over losing and finding a loved one. They save each other multiple times and live with each other in the end. They get copious amounts of screentime together and separate. They clearly care for each other and love each other (in whatever way). And there's no forced romance.

Before I read the manga, I saw all the yuri on my TL and was like YESSSSSS I'M READING THIS FOR THE YURI WOOOOOO and finished the Red Dragon anime episodes like "wow that was soooo good and gay. Let me go on Tumblr to see what people are talking about— people are shipping Marcille and LAIOS??? Probably annoying straight people who cannot conceptualize a friendship between a man and woman 🙄". So I started out with a squick for the ship. I think the fan perception made me believe F/M is canon and anything else would be like queer erasure? Except I later learned no ship is canon and was genuinely confused when the manga started giving us L/M crumbs (like the succubus chapter) because I thought the shippers were pulling this ship from thin air lmao.

The more I read, the more I was like.... "okay.... why are they kinda... okay I get it now... why am I.... oh shit... I'm really in it now" and I apologise because I really get it now 😭 and it baffles me to see people who have seemingly finished the manga going "Laios and Marcille have NO CHEMISTRY their only line of connection is through Falin". Like, okay, maybe that was how they were at the beginning (but I would argue they have chemistry even from the first few chapters), but that's the POINT and we get to see them evolve and get closer because they both love and miss Falin. Laios moves on from being "Falin's brother" and Marcille moves on from being "Falin's friend". L+M know about each other's deepest, subconscious desires. Marcille lives with the siblings at the end. No matter the bond, they are the two most precious people to her.

I was still squicky about romantic L/M even at the succubus chapter (which I know is probably the starting point for a lot of shippers) but THEN THE RABBIT CHAPTER. And after that when the Canaries found Marcille and she immediately jumped onto Laios I was like "Oh fuck. I'm really in this now fuck fuck FUCK". (Nothing makes me get into a dynamic more than having an initially squicky reaction because I'll need to have a strong enough conviction to overcome the squick LOL)

Anyways. Seeing people being annoying and pissy about L/M only made me like L/M more 🤡 because at least the shippers appreciate their bond. I'm a little desperate here. Even their platonic bond is kind of a rarepair in the English fandom 💀

I'm so glad the anime is going at the pace it is now because this is only the beginning of the L+M development!!!! The anime onlies will understand later!!! I made the same mistake and judged too early and I'm sorry!!!! So many anime L+M moments and panels and crumbs yet to be seen 🥺

Anyways. Laios and Marcille's bond is absolutely central to the plot and character development. But I wouldn't have guessed that if I didn't read the manga and just based it off fan attention.