#idk a lot about senshi

[postnuclearwar]

Dragon Age!Dungeon Meshi au where Marcille is just a straight up blood mage

[sheepydraws]

The secret Dungeon Meshi sauce that's getting people to eat better is that it's so non-judgmental. Senshi and the rest of the gang never talk about what not to eat besides things that taste bad and literal poison. They don't even talk about "health" that much besides the importance of a balanced diet. It's so much easier to eat well when you think of food simply as something your body needs, and that it's often worth the extra effort to make it taste good, especially when you understand how to connect "things your body needs" with "things that taste good"

[honey-doc]

Canaries: paralyzed and unconscious

Me: Look at everyone carrying them awwwww so precious <33333 I love them so much🩷💗💝💘💕❤️

[sabertoothwalrus]

here are some preliminary sketches I had done in my sketchbook for the peepaw chilchuck comic.

I wanted to follow it up with some worldbuilding thoughts I had while working on it, if that sort of thing is interesting to anyone:

- it’d take place 5ish years post-canon

- I changed almost everyone’s hair to show time had passed. Chilchuck and Kabru were the most drastic (I COULDNT STOP THINKING ABOUT THAT LONG HAIR KABRU THAT KUI DREW), Marcille grew out her bangs, Senshi’s beard is slightly shorter, and Izutsumi’s hair is mildly longer. Laios and Falin give me the impression that they’re the brand of neurodivergent that’d pick one haircut and stick to it for the rest of their lives. I almost gave Laios facial hair but idk he’s gotten over his daddy issue enough for that.

- Emertim Chils: I tried to follow both the half-foot and dwarven naming conventions for the baby, so Emer- comes from “emerald” (dwarven names are often gemstones or ore) and -tim because Chilchuck’s father’s first name was Tim :) Dwarves don’t have family names, so Emertim would take Chils, same as Flertom. Usually they’re named after their father but I didn’t wanna name a random dwarf man. thank you Chel for helping name him 🫶💕

- Initially the idea that Chilchuck would keep an entire grandchild a secret was just a joke, but it made sense when I thought about it. I wonder,, would dwarf/half-foot couples have trouble conceiving? Because if so, I’d imagine Flertom may have lost a couple pregnancies. Chilchuck is already such a private person, and I don’t think he’d feel comfortable airing his daughter’s grief like that. They wouldn’t wanna tell anyone until they were sure this baby was gonna make it.

- For the above reason, Chilchuck would absolutely spoil this kid. Not that he wouldn’t have spoiled his grandkids anyway, but I think after all that stress, he’d be extra extra doting. He’d be letting him do things he’d never DREAM of letting his own daughters do. Completely different parenting style.

- I think he’s still too prideful to take advantage of Laios being King (sidenote: is Laios even wealthy??? does a kingdom that sprung up from a previously-sunken continent even have money?? what the fuck is their economy), but like,,, if Laios offered any gifts he wouldn’t exactly say no.

- Izutsumi surprisingly really likes the baby :3 she’d like to take naps with him and he’d like her purrs and she’d have a lot of fun playing with him.

- SENSHI. meemaw mode. That kid would grow up not realizing Senshi isn’t technically one of his grandads. He is FEEEEEDING this kid.

- LAIOS DOES GET TO HOLD THE BABY!!!!!! just. eventually. They don’t actually expect a Tarrare situation LMAO they just wait until the kid is a little less fragile and a little more mobile. I think Laios would be really good with toddlers.

- Chilchuck is very thankful Emertim’s half-foot genes kick in sooner than later because he was getting too big for him to carry.

- Emertim would probably get the extended lifespan. He and Marcille would get to stay friends for a very very long time :’)

- my personal headcanon is that Chilchuck and his wife decide to split. He still loves her and it’s probably still a bit mutual, but after four years of almost no-contact, they decide their communication issues aren’t working well for their relationship. Plus, the Adventurer’s Bible says Chilchuck is renting their old house out to family, and he’d feel bad kicking them out so he and wife could move back in. They’d still be on good terms, and would be good at coordinating when to babysit.

[holmsister]

I think one of the things Dungeon Meshi is definitely about is how different people deal with being an outsider/marginalised/neurodivergent/what have you and basically what im getting at is that Kabru is TEXTBOOK "high functioning [insert diagnosis here]". Its that how they say it still? Don't care.

Basically. This man shows up and you listens to him talk and see how his party treats him and you think. Oh this is a cool guy who has his shit together. And then after like two pages you find out that he has constant flashbacks to Utaya that make him completely freeze, anxiety attacks, thought spirals, is incapable of analyzing his own feelings, is a stuttering mess when the stakes are high, has never done a chore in his life, keeps putting himself in triggering situations and re-traumatising himself, and the icing on the cake is when you read the extra material and it turns out he regularly forgets to eat and lives in a depression nest of dirty clothes and self-medicates insomnia with alcohol and also is 22. Which also kind of puts Misilril not wanting to let him go in another light - yeah for sure she's controlling and infantilising and also its not like she was really helping his issues but also she was not entirely wrong in her judgement. This man does NOT know how to take care of himself. He knows how to do the bare minimum so when he shows up at work the next day he can fool his coworkers into thinking hes got it together enough. For a bit.

He is DEEPLY unwell and he knows it but he is carried by the desperate wish to avoid another catastrophe. If he stops for a moment he KNOWS he'll collapse so he doesn't.

I also think this is why him acting nurse to Mithrun is such an important part of his arc. Its like. This person who has spent all of his adult life focused on a single objective disregarding everything else is faced with what happens when you do that for too long. And the result is a wet tissue of a creature who looks like he doesn't know where he is most of the time.

He is a man on the brink. I have no doubt he felt relieved when he decided he could trust Laios - not even in a Labru way, straight up because he knew he could not keep going like this.

But also like. Of all the characters in the manga, I think Senshi and Kabru are the most lonely ones. Except Senshi seems to be OK with solitude - for sure it's not entirely healthy to be alone for as long as he was but he definitely did well enough. He is very good at taking care of himself. Meanwhile Kabru *knows* a lot of people but can you really say he has friends? Rin, maybe, arguably, but even she does not seem to truly know him, you know? He keeps himself hidden from everyone. I think the only time we see him entirely honest is when he says to Laios that he wanted to be his friend, and hes so shocked when it comes out, you can tell he did not mean to say it. And differently from Senshi, he does NOT fare well alone. He likes people, he needs people. Again compare with Mithrun - he has like a squad of people taking care of him. If Kabru had a breakdown of that size can you say his party would go out of its way to help? Im not sure. Not because they're bad people, but because he's simply not that intimate with any of them.

Idk man it just struck me all of a sudden. Laios is weird and offputting and doesn't care about other humans the way Kabru does and YET he is infinitely more successful at building deep, meaningful relationships and taking care of himself as well. I think this is part of why Kabru is so fascinated with him as well. He can tell Laios has something he doesn't have. Wait this is turning into a whole another post I'll write this next time.

[thechekhov]

Since you've covered a pretty big bit of the manga so far, can I ask what are your opinions on it? Deeper than just the quick reactions you've shared with us so far.

What are your opinions about the manga's characters? Its pacing? The mystery element? The magic system? What areas do you think it succeeds, and what areas do you think could be better?

I understand if you're reversing judgment until you finish, but you've also read quite a bit of the story so far. Idk, I'm just curious!

Especially seeing as you're a writer yourself, so I imagine you have a different perspective on how the story functions as, well, a story!

Oh, hmmm... that's an interesting question.

As of right now I'm on chapter 35-36 so I'm about a third through the story. The first major arc (find dragon, yoink falin out of its body, etc) has kinda happened, and we're hitting some larger world arcs.

As you mentioned, I DO want to withold judgement but for now... But I will say what I think thus far, with full awareness that my mind might be changed later depending on circumstances.

Comment 1: The manga is finished! Actually, just knowing that makes me feel like it's a more cohesive storyline.

Maybe I'm boring, but I'm not a huge fan of neverending storylines in general. Naruto, Bleach, etc. They have their place in the forever-young-monster-of-the-week genre, and I know why so many manga just keep... on... publishing....... but I feel like there's a lot of merit to being able to just wrap up a story and say 'there, that's how it ends'.

Comment 2: Laios is very well developed, even at this point of the story. Senshi remains a mystery. Marcille... speedran her arc?

I think this is the closest thing I have to a criticism. While I think Laios' character is well-paced in its revelations throughout the series (the slow ramp-up from 'oh this guy is weird' to 'oh, this guy is a freak club card carrying member' to 'oh, this guy is the freak club president' was great!) Marcille is.... a little more of a mystery to me.

Now, perhaps my memory is bad. But I did find her turnaround at the end of the Red Dragon arc a bit... out of the blue?

Don't get me wrong. I think it's entirely believable. But I wish there had been more hints - or rather, more visible progress of her studies of ancient magic. I know it's been mentioned, and there WAS that chapter of her and Falin during their school years... but watching episode 2 of the show on netflix when she goes 'I feel useless, my magic doesn't help anyone :(' and then reading the manga and seeing her straight up go from 0 to 100 as she decides "we're gonna rearrange falin's bones and then I'mma raise her using this ancient technique I've been studying all along that I didn't tell you about because it was sus" is... a little bit of a turn?

Maybe it's on purpose! Maybe, when I read further about her personal journey, the pieces will fall into place more neatly. But compared to the rest of the characters, which seem relatively steady in their reveals (Laios, Chillchuck, Senshi) Marcille took a bit of a turn.

Which, again, isn't bad! It just seems contrasted to the rest of the team.

Comment 3: The magic system is more like a magic ecology.

Actually, in the beginning, I found the magic system Marcille used very vague. It was just a 'do what needs to be done' type of power with very few apparent limits or power balances aside from 'sometimes you run out of mana'. But I think at this point, I'm beginning to assume that the details of the magic are closer to the functions of an ecosystem or an organism, and therefore WHAT the magic does is kind of moot point. Marcille is just a little bacteria inside of the great intestine labyrinth of the dungeon, and she is using its energy to survive, like a sort of microfauna.

Comment 4: Man, the worldbuilding is cool. It's so cool.

I don't think I've seen another story that goes so deeply into dungeon ecosystems before this one. Not only are the people who live there fleshed out in terms of individual cultures and traditions and norms, there are also monsters that serve as a natural fauna that inhabits the halls of what OUGHT to be a mindless 'turn left and fall into a trap' setting!

There's sticking monsters into your world, and then there's 'digging out a trench 1 meter deep, pre-soaking the soil, inserting monster's roots lovingly into the spot, and then covering it with fertilizer and spritzing the leaves'. I don't doubt that there ARE other works that go into this level of detail, but the dedication and the ideas Kui-san has for this very much makes the dungeon a living part of this entire tale. :)

I'll probably have more to say later but for now.. that's about it!

[bxdtime-ceai]

what i think dungeon meshi characters would watch on tiktok (laios' party + kabru's party + thistle)

laios: those informational tiktoks about animals and which ones could crush us how etc.

marcille: entire dramas and movies esp the romance kind, occasionally dabbles in some trendy dances to relieve stress

falin: something with anime and shows that she likes, probably watches a lot of edits of specific characters

senshi: those "cook a meal for $1" tiktoks, probaly makes them as well

chilchuck: doesnt know how to use the app, the only time he watched something was when his kids showed him a meme on their phones and he didn't understand it

izutsumi: stuff about games like those "did you know x think about stardew valley?"

kabru: idk why i think he would watch tiktoks about travel destinations. also argues a lot with people in the comments about bitcoin on the side against bitcoin

mickbell: doesnt use it often but probably watches all the tiktoks about stuff that isn't safe for pets and life hacks for your home

kuro: ????? maybe some travel destinations like kabru but in more northern climates, probably made a trendy dance tiktok one time with mickbell for shits n gigglesw

daya: for some reason i think she would consume a lot of baking content for the asmr

holm: he strikes me as an asmr person, specifically those videos with "wood soup" or whatever

rin: probably thinks the app is a waste of time except for sharing information like new laws that affect them etc

thistle: doesn't know how to use the app, has never tried to use it, doesn't even know the logo

[dunmeshistash]

I have like sorta of a headcannon of how much hair each race can grow like I remember there's a tibit about how other races can grow hair, it's just normal to shave/wax (I could be misremembering) sorry if none of my words make sense I'm having a migraine

From least likely/hardest to grow body/facial hair to easiest to grow body/facial hair

1. Elves

(from what I remember we literally see no elf possesses body/facial hair minus Senshi in elf form, and if we compared his dwarf and elf form, for elves, Senshi in his elf form has like a lot of facial hair if his I'm pretty very long beard is barely a mustache, implying even growing a visible mustache is hard for elves)

2. Half-foots

(once again using Senshi as an example, when we see Senshi as a half-foot, his beard while still there, is still shorter? At least I think it's shorter in my opinion compared to dwarf Senshi, also We see Chilchuck with a noticeable peach fuzz/scruffy beard? Idk what's it called again when he's a tallmen or dwarf while it's not there when he's a half-foot)

3. Gnome

(oof this was a hard one, since I'm pretty sure tallmen can also share this spot, main reason why I'm putting gnome as number 3 and not tallmen is because for some reason, Chilchuck does not have his scruffy beard when hes a gnome, idk how long Senshi's beard is in his gnome form compared to his dwarf appearance)

4. Tallmen

(yup, uhhh reasoning ; Chilchuck has his noticeable peach fuzz/scruffy beard when he's a tallman, Senshi still his gracious long beard but noticeably shorter in tallman form, gnomes and tallmen have such a close tie with this, i seriously can't decide)

5. Dwarfs

(Reasoning : Senshi, I'm pretty sure this beard is the longest is this form, and with Izutsumi, whenever she is any other form her neck is slick and has no indication of fur poking out, but in dwarf form, she has a little fur poking out of neck, idk if what i said made sense for ituzumi but this is the best way i can put it)

I'm not gonna do other races, because from what I remember and can find, there's no official art of them as orges/orcs/kobolds

-🐰anon, sorry for the long rant

That sounds about right! Although I'm not sure how accurate the changelings are, senshi is the only half-foot/elf with facial hair we see, and while chilchuck gets a 5 O'clock shadow as a dwarf Laios doesn't, so maybe changeling magic is a little more subjective? Or maybe chilchuck just doesnt shave

On the race portraits the examples we have of facial hair for tallman arent very full tho, even for the half-dwarf (might be based on styling rather than growth tho)

For the half-foot even the oldest looking one doesn't have even a hint of a beard

Gnome beards do look a little fuller than the examples we have for tallman ones

They even have some with fuzz, which I might be reading too much into it but maybe it means their facial hair grows back faster? Or maybe just that they're less worried about appearances I'd say Onis are about the same? Or maybe a little more cause they seem to be harier in the face in general? Or maybe its like tallman and they have a bigger variation on facial hair between regions.

Kobolds and Orcs might not count since they're hairy all over but I think these are cute

My rating would be Elf > Half foot > Tallman/Gnome/Oni > Dwarf > Orc/Kobold

[guardianhalle]

fav dungeon meshi moments are when the gang is racist to chilchuck

like idk just something funny to me about how he mentions off handedly that halflings face a lot of discrimination and I think that kind of presents as people constantly treating them like children so actually Senshi teaching Chilchuck about sex was a microagression thank you for coming to my ted talk

[lavendertrash39]

(CW for discussions of death. Spoilers for up to Chapter 85 of the Manga. There's now also some spoilers in replies and all of that so beware 😅)

shoutout to dungeon meshi for handling death in one of the most unique and interesting ways I've ever seen before.

I feel like it's really easy for when universes allow reviving to happen that life just like... loses its weight. Dungeon Meshi manages to have reviving and species that often mix that all have different life spans, and it's just... so impressive. It's so cool how it all ties together, and you realize as you go on, this has been a theme throughout the whole story.

Marcille has genuinely become one of my favorite characters because of her relationship with death. It feels like it just works so well. It doesn't feel like her feelings towards it came out of nowhere. It's always been there. It's rare for elves to be in parties. But she's in a party. She's in a party with people she knows are going to live not even 10% of her lifespan.

Just... that line. "You run faster than everyone else... so you're going to have to watch lots of people go away." Shit dude. That would've fucked me up so royally if I'd heard that about my own life when I was little.

Marcille's fucking desperation to extend her friend's lives because she can't stand the thought of the other 70-90 percent of her life span being without the people she loves. She's fighting tooth and nail against death because all she can think about is that backwards ticking clock on her friends' lives.

There's so much weight in life. Marcille is so desperate to keep her friends alive. I think a part of me actually shattered when Laios said "Besides, we've known all along how to stretch our life spans without the winged lions power." and they all say those three things Senshi had originally said... it's so simple.

It's acknowledging the fact that they aren't powerless under death. There isn't any ticking clock counting down that they have no control over... they just have to take care of themselves.

Marcille is still going to lose them. It is still going to hurt badly. But she has them now, they're doing what they can now. 100 years is far away, she can start to think about the now. She doesn't have to live according to a countdown.

Idk,, it just hits really hard. I really love this manga 😭

[ohcorny]

I don’t think this is most people but for me personally, it’s just really frustrating to see a *trend* where the vast majority of fan content is about m/m and the vast minority of content is about f/f. I especially am seeing it right now with dungeon meshi, where a new fanworks tend to pair together male characters who don’t interact, or pair them in very out of character ways, and completely ignore the women (either ones who do interact or ones who don’t!), and it’s extra noticeable because pre-anime most shipping stuff was around the main f/f duo

and because the dominance of m/m is in a *lot* of fandoms it becomes really frustrating, even for someone like me who does enjoy m/m and m/f ships

I don’t think it’s a moral issue, I don’t think it’s misogyny, but also the internet right now is a place where when you don’t like something you have to justify it by saying the thing you don’t like is evil somehow, for a lot of people

And it’s not like the thing doesn’t happen to female characters, too—I remember a few people from locket tomb fandom who I considered infamous for ignoring the actual personalities of the main female characters in order to fit them into any random au generator prompt or incorrect quote possible. It’s just less common I think because there are a lot more media that have mainly male casts and a lot of people who prefer to do that with male characters

oops sent early but anyway yeah idk I don’t think anyone should feel obligated to write ships they don’t want to, certainly there’s no moral problem with only doing m/m and m/f stuff, and I can understand WHY being frustrated with general trends gets directed towards individual creators (of fanwork AND of original work), even as I think it really sucks that it DOES get directed at them Also, super love your work!! Glad you’re making what you want to make, and I’ll keep enjoying it

you said a lot of other things but yes, dungeon meshi is the cause of every fandom discourse du jour lately and this one in particular is nuts to me. nobody is going to be shipping senshi/chilchuck in five months. marcille/falin is so completely not threatened by the trans masc kabru/laios shippers. dungeon meshi is just a wild example for this issue because out of ANY fandom, it is absolutely the one where the f/f shippers won. marcille/falin is ubiquitous, it is a given, everybody knows it. sure the anime will have brought in the people who'll bang any two dolls together to see what sticks but that's just because it's popular. they are not going to last. they are fandom mayflies. they'll move on to the next popular thing and the marcille/falin fans will ultimately win.

anything getting popular is going to get popular with the wider demographics and that's going to have effects on the representation of fandom interest. it's the same as i said in the initial post. it's numbers.

[tofixtheshadows]

hi!! so there are a lot of improbabilities that make this hypothetical unlikely but: if kabru had met toshiro first & recruited him (toshiro being so passive + not with a clear goal would have helped there & kabru is ptsd-driven but very noble in his goals which can be explained) AND they got all the way down to the bottom (idk if i believe in them...but hypothetically!) would the winged lion find either of them to be a good target for next dungeon lord? one over the other? im thinking kabru has the intensity and complexity of desire necessary but i can't imagine what it would look like if he became lord of the dungeon. do you have any thoughts?

Good morning. This is a very fun thought experiment!

(side note: I got a second anon this morning with a very similar request? not sure if related. I'm gonna let this answer speak for both of them)

Toshiro sure would have had a different time of it if Kabru had gotten to him first, huh? On the one hand, Toshiro seems to like Kabru; I think it's sweet that Kabru seems to gravitate towards hanging out with him when he isn't with the rest of the main cast. So they probably would've been good in a party together.

On the other hand, Toshiro never would have met Falin and fallen in love with her. Even if she didn't reciprocate in the end, I don't think he regrets anything that happened. Even his difficult friendship with Laios was ultimately positive (for both of them!).

They definitely would not have made it to the deeper floors, I think Senshi is crucial to achieving that ... but this is a hypothetical.

I'm puzzling over the question of Toshiro, because he is a secondary character and there's only so much we know about his motivations. His big one in canon is to save Falin, even if it means all he can do is put her to rest. Without that, without her, what sort of desires does he have?

Toshiro originally came to the Island because of a demand from his father: for one of his three sons to find "something interesting" enough on their travels to bring back home that would convince their capricious bastard father to make them his heir over the others. So they're all off on their separate training journeys with their respective retainers with the added caveat that they can't return without something to impress their father. It's implied that after falling in love with Falin, Toshiro had wanted to bring back home a wife.

Since he's said to inherit the family after he returns home without her anyway, I've been assuming that the "thing" Toshiro ended up bringing to Toshitsugu Nakamoto was the story of the dungeon, the demon, and his friend Laios, king of a risen country and Devourer of All Things Horrible.

Anyway, the things we know about Toshiro's home life are kind of fucked. It's amazing he turned out to be so nice. He's always been a shy, sensitive person, and he was sickly as a child; Maizuru cared for him despite her spymaster duties and ended up filling a motherly role for him, even though Toshiro's mother is still alive. Historically, it wasn't uncommon for noble children to be raised more closely by their governesses/household retainers than their parents, so perhaps something similar was happening here (disclaimer that I don't know much about feudal Japan specifically).

We know that Maizuru loves Toshiro and dotes on him, but she's also very strict and frankly terrifying; she used the same Hag summon that she was monitoring Izutsumi with on Toshiro as a child just to keep him from wandering off. We also know that when he found out that Maizuru was having an affair with his father, it put a distance between them. Whether this is because he felt betrayed on his mother's behalf or because he dislikes his father that much, or something else, is unclear.

Toshiro was childhood friends with Hien, but as they got older, she had to take his place as one of his retainers, which seems to have severed that closeness. Canonically, he isn't close to his two younger brothers either. Toshitsugu literally bought Inutade and Izustumi (the latter as a drunken "gift" for Maizuru!). We see that Toshiro is uncomfortable with this, but doesn't know how to approach the issue. He lets Izutsumi go the second she's out of sight for five minutes, which implies to me that he really wanted the excuse to do so. Inutade is harder, because she loves being with the Nakamoto family and hero-worships Toshiro's father.

...all this to say, Toshiro has complicated relationships with his family and household. There's love there, but also a lot of coldness enforced by the upper-class need for propriety. Toshiro falls in line and acts as the proper stoic samurai, but he chafes at this; he envies Laios's gift for feeling and expressing things openly and readily. I think that's what the Winged Lion would prey on, given the chance.

I don't think he would be prime dungeon lord material, but if it came to that, I could see the Lion tempting Toshiro with a kinder vision of his life, one where he and his little brothers weren't pitted against one another, where his family was warmer, where there weren't barriers of class between him and his retainers, where he was allowed to be more himself.

Now ... Kabru.

Kabru is interesting because, since his ultimate goal is to seal the dungeon and eradicate monsters, I imagine that meeting a demon would be like a guy who's given a genie and wants to wish for no more genies. And if said genie is trying to take over the world via wishes, the genie is a bit screwed. I really think that Kabru is the character who would stump the demon(s) the most, despite his complex desires, because they are antithetical to the demon. Laios also had complex desires, but the Winged Lion lured him and set him up as the hero of a fake prophecy because a lot of Laios's desires revolved around monsters, so his wants aligned perfectly with the demon's methods. Oh you want monsters? That's great, they're the things I use to solve most of my problems anyway.

Even in the absence of prior knowledge of demons, I think Kabru's back would be up as soon as the Winged Lion tried speaking to him. Kabru's insight is almost preternatural, and he's well-versed in persuasive speaking thanks to his own silver tongue. He would mistrust the Lion immediately, especially considering its monster-like form.

Giving the demons bestial appearances is an artistic choice on Kui's part, so I don't think there's any indication that the Winged Lion & co can't look human, but the Lion might have been constrained both by Thistle's seals on it and the need to maintain the lie that it's just the innocent guardian deity of the Golden Country. If it could, I think it would try to look less monstrous, with Kabru.

Still, the point of the demons, I see, is that anyone can be tempted, anyone can be manipulated, because we are all full of buried desires that can be unearthed, and wanting things and having to defend them make you susceptible to manipulation.

Consider what Mithrun told Kabru: they keep the knowledge of demons secret because knowing the truth would not stop people from trying to have their wishes granted. After all, Mithrun was a Canary, but he fell for its temptation anyway. I've seen people characterize this as a sort of rock bottom decision, and maybe that's true, but I also pin it on his toxic inferiority/superiority complex. That's exactly the kind of thing that makes you think you're built different.

Would Marcille have stopped before unsealing the Winged Lion if Mithrun(/Kabru) had actually gotten to sit down with her for five minutes and explain why becoming dungeon lord would be a very bad idea? Maybe. Or maybe her desperation, and her own pride, would have made her decide that she knew better, that she'd be careful, that she'd go in with a plan and definitely get what she wanted with no dire consequences.

I think Kabru could be desperate enough to make a similar decision, even if his desires were antithetical to the demon. And the demons have an advantage over the aforementioned genie simile: their ability to eat desires.

If the Winged Lion were smart, it wouldn't let Kabru seal it away like Thistle. Given the opportunity, its best chance for dealing with Kabru would have been to immediately eat his desire to stop another Utaya.

I'm gonna plug this wonderful and tragic little one-shot someone wrote recently about the dungeon lord Kabru hypothetical: This place is not a place of honor.

[small-but-oho]

Idk if anyone has already made a post like this, but since I haven't seen one:

Borrowers would fit perfectly into Dungron Meshi!

Tiny humanoid creatures stealing food off adventurers without being caught or seen just makes a lot of sense in that world.

I could see some societies of tinies actually living own their own in the forests of the second level. They're perfectly elf-sustainable and don't want to have anything to do with the taller folk or other monsters. Both are very, very dangerouns to them. So whenever some tiny commits a great crime, they get cast out of the village and have to fend for themselves.

Those of course are the origins of the borrowers. Those outcasts learn to venture deeper into the dungeon and make their own groups, not unlike the adventuring parties of the tall folk. But it's also dangerous, of course. Tall folk often use animals or even their own people as bait, so a tiny creature like a borrower isn't exempt from that treatment.

Tbh I could see a borrower trying to steal from Laios' group, only to be caught as they become braver. Senshi would probably know about them. He's lived in the dungeon for years, this isn't his first time catching a borrower. Chilchick and Marcille most likely wouldn't have heard of them unless in rumors. Laios would ofc be amazed by another dungeon creature, even though it's rather humanoid and non-edible (according to the group's standards)

[snake-author]

Expanding on the swapped toudens au, I'd like to think that laois would try to throw the monster manual to falin since it's his most treasured item. And using the knowledge of the manual, falin would explore the dungeons and run into senshi.

When shuro and marcille find out, they probably lose their shit and go into the dungeon to get her back into her senses (with marcille joining falin's side.)

Idk if chilchuck would join them but he gives off concerned dad vibes, and them venturing the dungeons without any knowledge of traps would be insta-kill, so the answer is yes.

Now that I think about it, a lot of character development would go differently.... Endless possibilities. Character dynamics...

[wormlette]

I do think a LOT about why Chilchuck would join the "save Falin" dungeon dive at all tbh and it makes me feel like eating drywall. Namari is the one who brings up the "I figured you'd be the first one to leave, you never take a job without getting paid" and he's like yeah. I do insist on payment up front. But do you think he was ever going to bring up his motivations on his own? If Namari hadn't? I don't think he would talk about it because I don't think it's really that simple. We find out in the ep that just aired a few things--

1) Chil is paid in advance, and however that works, he's apparently already been contracted for future dungeon dives too ? 2) The adventurer's community is tight-knit and full of gossip, so the things you do will have impact on what kind of work you can do going forward.

There are other things we know about Chil:

1) he's worked for Laios' party for three years. Namari was a member before him (she joined at the same time the husband hunter and some tall man guy joined, iirc) and Shuro was a member after him, but after those two leave, he's the person who's worked with the Toudens for the longest. 2) He's had some really shitty jobs in his past, especially pre-union. He understands very well what kinds of things people will use half-foots for. 3) He is thinking about retiring. He was going to retire before joining Laios' party.

And one thing we learned in the very first episode -- Laios told Marcille and Chilchuck that they should sell their equipment so he could go down on his own to rescue Falin. Chilchuck asks him if he's suicidal and then invites himself along for absolutely everything that goes down after. He's more ride-or-die about eating monsters than anyone other than Senshi. Him breaking his contract is obviously not something Laios would have held against him. Maybe it would have "Changed his clientele" as he says to Marcille about Namari in the latest ep, but also: HE COULD JUST RETIRE.

IDK PERSONALLY I JUST THINK this all adds up to an implication that he is really very fond of the Touden siblings. As Marcille notes when she's making a fanfic of his wife leaving him he's not the type to ever say his feelings out loud so it's not ever really gonna be said in the text of the story and THAT'S WHY I'M HERE. They seem to be a well-renowned party during the events of the story, but when he joined up with them they were just a year out from being bodyguards in a gold-peeling party with a few other no-name adventurers (as far as I know from the extras that have come out so far, the order of main chars joining the party went Laios&Falin->Namari->Chil->Shuro->Marcille.)

Three years AFTER HE WAS ALREADY CONSIDERING RETIRING he is willing to go on a journey that every other character thinks is fucking insane for the chance to rescue Falin, even though he is not an optimistic guy and he probably has a more realistic understanding of how dangerous dungeons are than anybody else in the group. If he started doing dungeon work when he left his home at 14 then he has about 15 years of dungeoneering experience by the time of the story. He would know what he's doing is actually EXTREMELY dangerous in a way resurrection magic doesn't actually eliminate. They are going down into a floor that's so far down the story has expressed "it's really dangerous to go there and most people don't because it will be hard for corpse retrievers and necessary supplies to get to you if you die. if you are eaten you might just be gone beause no one will ever find you."

I think he's harsh on Laios because he really cares about him and Falin. We know he ranks Laios' ability as a party leader as like a 61 or something lmfao but IMHO he is like that stern teacher who is forced by admin to put a 20pt curve on every exam because everybody is fuckin failing. Nobody is doing a good enough job. But he must have faith in the idea that Laios is able to do better if he has the right coaching (kicking and yelling at him). I JUST THINK the Touden party has been the best one he's worked in, or if not the best then his favorite, for him to keep doing it for THIS LONG when he SHOULD absolutely have his pick of contracts, given that "no other half-foots had the expertise necessary to accompany Laios to such a deep floor of the dungeon".

[bellincurl]

which dungeon meshi character do you think would be most likely to do drag and what kind of drag do u think they would fw the most. i think senshi would love going to drag shows and tipping a generally ludicrous amount of money

This is the only ask in the worlddd to me.

I'm can't imagine most of the core party doing Drag themselves but the one's that come to mind immediately would be Fleki & Lycion.

Fleki's just bursting with personality, has the kind of confidence and banter that you want for a Drag artist. The little fashion explorations Ryoko Kui did too are soooooooo right for this. I think she'd 100% be drawn to the glamor and camp and stupidity drag has to offer. Probably play around between king and queen aesthetics. I also think she'd be so squarely be a baby queen tripping over her own heels but it's part of the fun and humor of it all.

Lycion is here bc he's besties with Fleki and also because his whole Everything of wanting to escape into being beast to alleviate his discomfort with his body and identity. Which idk I could talk about for ages, it's like Laois and Falin, another character who I have never seen before in media who speaks so deeply to myself as a person. Lycion is absolutelyyyyy doing monster drag it's not even a question. Like if we're talking about this in a modern setting then he's absolutely using some kind of wolfman drag persona as a way to alleviate his distress with himself. I think he'd be aiming for as inhuman as possible. I think he'd get a huge thrill out of performing it and it'd be an easy 1 to 1 with him feeling validated in fight rings as a beast. I think he'd also be able to beat his face so right if he was just dressing up nice, I know him and Fleki r doing makeup looks together.

Last character is Laois but also not quite. Like with any other modern day headcannon people have for him like fursuiting, being trans, being otherkin ect even if on paper these would absolutely speak to him I just don't think he'd ever come to those conclusions himself. I think that kind of repression and isolation are really crucial to how he views the world and I think he's more likely to be formulating his own ideas rather than fitting into any kind of community already. I'm putting him here for similar reasons to Lycion, since they're both characters who want to become beasts. Lycion though feels like an out twink with gay friends, who knows who he is and what brings him joy and I don't think Laois is quite there yet as a person.

UM thinking abt it now he'd be more likely be a creature suit actor. Drag monsters still are more symbolic / character focused, and with creature suits I think he'd be really abnormal talking about how he's bonded with the silicon. You know he'd be asking a thousand questions abt the designs biology. You know he'd ask about its diet so he can go eat like that too to get in character.

Other than that I think the main crew would show up to drag shows and have a good time. I'm kind of obsessed with the joke of Marcille being a bit of a prude / not knowing what a butch is so I think her going to a drag bar with Falin would be really really really funny. You know namari is a local, this might be out of left field but I could also see Chilchuck being around a drag bar a lot as some old queen (twink) manager who's catty about baby queens or ppls bar etiquette.

Kabru is there because he is gay. I think if Kabru saw Laois in his local drag bar he would burst a blood vessel and talk shit about how some people just shouldn't come to shows because they're not actually gay and how it's ruining his night and he stole his seat so now he has to stand or he's blocking his view LMAO. Senshi would absolutely be buying the queens drinks bc he wants them to stay hydrated.

I also think the winged lion would do drag, is that anything. I think the winged lion is a pageant glamour queen.