#so...theory but also character analysis

[midnight1nk]

After watching the movie it got me thinking,

What's Puzzles modivation?

Why does he want Wpnz for???

He has no interest in fame or perfection anymore.. He has his own "friend" Leggy 2.0, but I have a little theory..

Experience every single possibilites

He said in WOTFI 24 that he and Leggy shall experience every possibilites in life. And maybe... Revenge is one of them.

Smg4 and crew took almost everything away from him. He's fame, his dreams, his first ever friend, etc.

I saw an AU of Puzzles who is hellbent on getting revenge on the Smg4 crew and going insane, losing his mind and sanity chasing that feeling of vengance.

But that begs the question, what does he need Wpnz for?

I have a theory that to accomplish his revenge, he needs someone to break him out, someone like Wpnz.

But this is all speculation! Just wanted to ask what you think of this theory, and maybe sharing your reasons as to what Puzzles is after?

What his new modivations are, what is he after now?

Thanks for reading! ^^

I think you've got a good point! Let's refresh ourselves on what he said months ago, for the people who need it:

"I was so foolish... All this time, I was chasing 5-star ratings and fame. Fame is but a fleeting shadow. What I really needed was a friend. Friends are eternal. Isn't that right, Leggy 2.0? And now we're free to chase NEW dreams, you and I! Perhaps we could express ourselves in painting! Or maybe we'll adopt an adorable little puppy! OR we could assassinate our enemies and anyone who's ever double-crossed us! The world is full of possibilities! We shall experience them all!"

I always found Mr. Puzzles to be a compelling and tragic character. How he ended up in the present day, it makes sense. Plus, it is something we can relate to: the pursuit of perfection, our dreams, people in our lives shutting us down every time we try. Especially for television, those are very high standards to set yourself in. And I would know, as someone who works in the production occupation field.

Without support, like friends, it's an uphill battle. At the end of the day, Puzzles' actions stem from him being lonely for years. And I think that's why he would have a small connection to WPNZ. Think about it: How did he know what happened to WPNZ? Who he is? Or the "Cat got your tongue" line", despite being something Puzzles would say?

While solitary confinement definitely did not help any of his problems, Puzzles IS still in there. But it's exactly what I theorized before; it's not going to stop her from contacting the outside world. Now with double the grudge he has for the Crew. More so on 4, with another reason added to the list: for putting him in jail. So, just as it was shown at the end of WOTFI 2023, Puzzles was watching. I mean, what else do you do when you're strapped to a cot?

Now look, as much as I love to hate on WPNZ, he's also a compelling and tragic character. Assuming that his limbs were bc of his genes (y'know bc of the kids), then he was practically born and forced to be a weapon. It would be no wonder why Hitman Inc. would take an interest in him, and for taking the job such as having a partner grown to trust in, it's a lonely upbringing. Even the movie shows that if you look at it closely.

There's definitely one thing yall should note: not all obsession or manipulation is bad, it's part of being human. We all have it and done it. The difference is that it reaches to be unhealthy and even dangerous. For example, someone doing puppy eyes is a form of manipulation but it's practically harmless when it's like giving a cookie to a kid. And just as we lightheartedly get obsessed with a character, it's an expression that we love them. In characters like Puzzles and WPNZ, what they've done is stemed from loneliness and even if we don't condone it, we get it.

Redemption is possible for these two. Like I said before, change is there for those who have the courage to seek it. There's a difference between "I need to change" and "I want to change", even if nothing is given in return. If the time comes, Puzzles and WPNZ can be redeemed, it doesn't mean everything is going to be forgiven, but based on the end of the movie, they decide on revenge. This is what they think is going to help solve all their problems, to destroy the people who they blame for: the Crew. If they're able to connect from this one thing, then surely they're going to gather up people who are just like them, like Marty.

Marty, throughout the whole time we've known him, was underappreciated and underestimated by his cardboard cutout appearance. And sure, we treat it like a bit, but we've also seen how incredibly capable he truly is. He's smart, cunning, physically strong, and just like our 2 villains, he lost his only friend and creator Mario by betrayal.

This revenge plan is an unhealthy way to go about it but when they have nothing left to lose, we get it. At least, we should recognize that it's the case. That is what I hope for the Team to go along with moving forward, character exploration of loneliness and drive. Perfection and authenticity. They have a common goal but they individually have certain skills that the others don't. Just like the Crew, the more skills they have, the more complete each other into a whole.

Plus, if they can easily go against the government, WPNZ and Marty could get Puzzles out of jail. And concept Ink would totally have her coming out of the wreckage in such a dramatic way, rise from the ashes dirt :)

thanks for the ask!

[iamespecter]

GAHHHHHH CAN I JUST SAY IT REALLY PISSES ME OFF WHEN PEOPLE SAY THIS END SCREEN OF LN1 MEANS THAT ANOTHER SHIP IS COMING???? TERICHO NEEDS TO STOP PROMOTING THIS THEORY ISTG

NO, THE FOGHORN THAT SOUNDS WHEN YOU PRESS ENTER DOES NOT MEAN THERE'S ANOTHER SHIP!!!! BECAUSE THE MAW IS FULLY SUBMERGED IN THIS!!!! THE FOGHORN IMPLIED THAT THE SHIP THAT WAS DELIVERING GUESTS ON BOARD JUST LEFT!!!! STOP SAYING THIS IS ANOTHER SHIP!!!!! RAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

I HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR LITERAL YEARS AND EVERYTIME, IT FEELS LIKE I'M SCREAMING AT A BRICK WALL!!!

If you *critically* think about it, it ABSOLUTELY MAKES NO SENSE THAT IT WOULD BE ANOTHER SHIP THAT'S ARRIVING.

Because:

The Maw is fully submerged at this point.

We are very much shown that The Maw ONLY accepts Guests WHEN the top part/the "mouth" has emerged. As shown in this sequence of the game, and in the concept art.

It's stated that The Maw "arrives" ONCE a year. NEVER in the same place, but ALWAYS at the same time. SO NO, IT'S *NOT* ACCEPTING GUESTS OVER BECAUSE IT'S CLEARLY FULLY SETTLED BACK DOWN AGAIN. WHY WOULD IT WASTE RESOURCES TO SUBMERGE ITSELF IF IT WAS GOING TO RE-EMERGE AGAIN MOMENTS LATER.

The door Six exits out of is likely a maintenance door; for cleaning the Chimney in case of blockage. Especially because of the fact that there is a visible staircase that leads up to the smokestack. PLUS, IF IT WERE FOR THE GUESTS TO COME THROUGH; WHY IS IT A SLIM ENTRANCE UNLIKE THE ACTUAL ENTRANCE OF THE MAW? BECAUSE IT'S ONLY MEANT FOR WORKERS LIKE ROGER/THE JANITOR.

It's heavily implied that while Six and The Lady aren't related, nor are they stuck in a time-loop-- coughcoughlikeMonoandtheThinManCOUGH-- it's still possible that Six is intended to be The Next Lady of the Maw. Mostly because of the whole boss fight that doesn't really resemble a fight, but moreso a ritualistic passing of the torch. And the implications of multiple Ladies existing throughout the millenia.

To be clear; I don't think Six will be stuck inside The Maw for long. As her description states, she belongs elsewhere.

Which could mean that my girl *might* make a comeback for LN3, but I wouldn't hold it against Supermassive Games if LN3 doesn't even make a single cameo towards Six/making her appear. Because either way, I fully understand each outcome.

[beargregor]

wait i'm curious, what makes you say that gregor doesn't like everyone else (if i read that post right)? just curious since i've never seen anyone else say that

i don't necessarily think gregor dislikes everyone else at lcb but i do think that gregor is an incredibly petty person that isn't nearly as close to the rest of the sinners and even outright dislikes some of them cough cough rodya cough cough which a lot of people just Refuse to see because he's as much of a doormat as he is. there's several examples i could get into to try and prove my point however i'll just focus on what i personally think to be the biggest ones.

additionally, this is going to be kind of long, so i'm adding a read more. read more! read it. sorry for being so wordy. i have several diseases.

Pt1. gregor is the type to try and get along at least decently with everyone, especially if he gets a good first impression from them.

this is less a point in favor of gregor's distance w/ the rest of the sinners and more just a contributing factor to it. once again there's several examples i could point to here but i think the most in your face one happened in canto I with yuri, as several people have pointed out. even before gregor comes clean about growing attached to her as quickly as he did because she reminds him of his sister, we get this interaction.

i'll go ahead and make the disclaimer now that i don't necessarily think gregor is the most reliable of narrators, especially when it comes to his feelings and interactions with most people, but from the way he acts when the topic of yuri comes up (and the way we still see him act even all the way up to c7, nearly a whole year after yuri's death) i don't see reason to question his sentiment here. gregor immediately got that aya and yuri were close, potentially even taking note of their traded belts, and went out of his way to get something nice for yuri despite hardly knowing her.

i feel like a lot of people have forgotten as much, especially since it's been so long since c1, but gregor actually spent a good bit of season 1 doing the exact same thing with the other sinners! gregor reads a connection between him and ishmael pretty quickly despite getting off to a rocky start

mostly because gregor can tell that ishmael is pretty sardonic in a very similar way to him. there's been multiple instances where ishmael and gregor have essentially expressed the same sentiment at different moments, most notably gregor's little argument after ishmael got shot with a decay ampule in c4

and ishmael's response to pilot talking about self-sacrifice in c5

i could go ahead and pull up more examples, but in general pm has gone out of their way to show us that gregor and ishmael are pretty similar, so it makes sense for gregor to assume that they're friends, right?

this will be pushpin 1. keep note of this for Later.

ishmael's only the first sinner we see gregor trying to do this with in s1, we also see him try it out with heathcliff, sinclair, and ryoushuu

he's tried to get along with charon, being one of very few sinners that we've seen actually try to establish a connection with her at all

even rodya, despite my insistence that gregor doesn't like her nearly as much as the fandom thinks he does

all of these seem pretty fine and dandy, right? sure it frequently leans towards self-degradation, micromanaging, and commiseration, but gregor can at least be pretty chummy with most of the sinners, can't he?

Pt2. hell's chicken was more than just comic relief guys please

i'm fully aware that this is quite the hot take, but i think hell's chicken deserves a lot more credit for character writing than the fandom gives it. hell's chicken gave us foreshadowing for several events, such as the donqui bloodfiend reveal

heathcliff's distortion in c6 (as well as hong lu's highly speculated distortion at some point in the future)

and ryoushuu and sinclair's continued connection by making him the odd one out on her team

which, hey! that implies something about gregor's odd one out, don quixote, too, doesn't it? yes. yes it does. that's pushpin 2. keep note of that for later.

speaking of pushpins, hey! that's pushpin 1!

splitting into teams is one of the major events in hell's chicken, and most of the sinner's choices are either motivated by very little, backhanded, or motivated primarily by not wanting to be on the opposite leader's side. i didn't include all of the picks, just because i feel like including most of them already gets this across, but i think gregor took one major thing from this: most of the sinners, when push comes to shove, will only side with gregor when they refuse to or can't take his opponent's side.

now, don't get me wrong, i'm fully aware that this is primarily intended to be comedic relief, but when gregor is being described as having his trust broken by ishmael or nearly crying because no one on his team properly sided with him for him, i feel like it's pretty fair to read into this.

something that i think is pretty important to remember in conjunction with this is that we know that gregor is the type to hold a grudge, both from his general attitude towards the G corp soldiers in c1 as well as his continued distaste for vergilius

even beyond the splitting into teams of hell's chicken, the sinners have given gregor plenty of reasons to feel bitter. i feel like this is something people have noticed but haven't really put a finger on, but it's kind of wild just how often the rest of the sinners make gregor the butt of the joke

and sure, we could argue that a fair few of these aren't really made with any ill intent. quite a bit of it could have been meant as harmless teasing, but with gregor being more sensitive than most, it coming from nearly all sides, and as often as it does? yeah, i think he's prone to taking it a bit personally.

Pt3. yes i do still think gregor was the third most important character in canto VII you guys gotta hear me out okay

of course, all of this leads up to the bit of the story i highlighted, doesn't it? c7? i totally get why people haven't really picked up on all the gregor things i did in it, seeing as they were mostly not *directly* said about him or by him.

personally, i think that gregor's distaste for talking about himself on any serious level and thus leading to him getting sort of "sidelined" narratively (which i take issue with that claim, but still. it's effective for getting what i mean across atm) is supposed to lead players to take a deeper look at the times gregor gets held up to other characters and compare and contrast what's being said about them by the matchup. as i showed earlier with his immediate latching onto ishmael, i think this is something gregor himself is at least partially aware of too.

so, that begs the question, who was gregor compared to in canto VII that makes me think it's one of the most critical pieces in understanding his character?

really, i'd like to avoid getting too lost in the analysis of this canto specifically, since i'd like to do a proper post about this later, but i figure i can bury the lede a little before doing it properly.

c7 features several characters being made to perform in sansón's play, acting out the relevant backstory for this segment of the plot. a lot of these characters have rather direct, degrading reasons for playing the roles they do.

outis, a character with an inflated ego who wants her journey to have a purpose, is made to play an aimlessly wandering villager with a single line.

hong lu and ryoushuu, two characters for whom families and the expectations placed upon them are likely going to play a major role, are made to play bloodfiends.

rodya, a character who resents her lot in life and is constantly shown to be eager to leave her destitution behind her and become someone special, is made to play a helpless villager that's too poor to even offer any money to the hero that saves her.

heathcliff, a character that has spent most of his life getting dehumanized by comparing him to beastly animals, is made to play a literal bear whose sole purpose in the plot is to get beat up and then quickly left by the wayside.

sinclair, a character that has two opposed parties essentially treating him as a macguffin to procure for their side, is made to play the character who was arguably the catalyst for this entire canto, not to mention playing a decently major role in ruina.

our star don quixote is made to play her father, the first kindred, but there's someone by their side the entire time, isn't there? don quixote's dear, steadfastly loyal companion. a character which don quixote has tasked themself with getting to come out of their shell?

hello again, pushpin 2.

gregor has been made to play our unreachable star, sancho. someone had to, of course. you can't really tell a story without it's main character, now can you?

now, i should once again give a disclaimer. i am not trying to say that i think adapting what happens to donqui/sancho in c7 to gregor is the road pm is going to take here, not only would that toe a bit past the line of foreshadowing, but it'd also just amount to rehashing that plotline again, which i don't think would make for a particularly exciting story.

what i DO think is that we can take a lot of the things that are said to either directly be the case for sancho and use them to inform how we see gregor.

and god, does playing sancho have some fucking implications for our favorite ossan archetype.

starting off, the earliest moment we get to see of sancho is quite literally her just waiting for death to take her in a pile of ashes.

which, i should remind everyone, is actually pretty damn close to what happens to gregor's literary counterpart at the end of the metamorphosis. gregor samsa experiences one final breaking point that pushes him over the edge and makes him decide to just wait for starvation to take him.

gregor and sancho both consider themselves to no longer be human, something which sancho goes out of her way to highlight repeatedly throughout the canto and gregor is quick to get defensive on her behalf for when outis starts really tearing into her

sancho spends quite a lot of this story denying herself the joys of community and friendship, despite knowing that, even with the rest of the sinners frequently making jokes at her expense and outright insulting her, they were things that she desperately craved.

and, while this is getting into my "outis is a red herring meant to distract us from gregor's eventual betrayal" theorizing, i also think it's worth noting for this discussion that sancho's fellow kindreds, her family, all seem to be under the impression that she dislikes them and ultimately her departure was an act of betrayal

and that, despite gregor being one of LCB's resident mood makers and attempted conflict de-escalators, one of the sinners that's most prone to making appeals to the bonds they've all forged together, only him and faust remained silent during everyone's speech

so yeah, i think there's quite a lot of little details and hints building up to the reveal that gregor's not quite as fond of everyone as he presents himself to be. i do think a lot of this ultimately comes down to gregor getting in the way of his own happiness, similarly to donqui, particularly because he's been frequently portrayed as something of a self fulfilling prophecy, especially by giving him as many christ allegories as they have by way of priest and garden of thorns. gregor is convinced that the rest of the sinners don't like him because he's not convinced anyone could like him, so he convinces himself that he hates them because why should he care if someone that he hates hates him too?

a lot of this ultimately ties back to my personal interpretation of what happens in the metamorphosis as well as my own theories regarding all the times gregor has made weird callbacks and references to lobcorp and ruina, but yeah. i think about this guy and his deeper characterization a fairly normal amount, i think.

to end this off i'll highlight one of my favorite little "gregor is fucking seething and trying so hard to keep it cool" moments, in the credits CG for c7 we see rodya teasing him by drawing a little horse on his window and actively pointing and laughing at it, which gregor really doesn't seem all too pleased about.

i personally think this ties into the other cruel part of sansón forcing gregor to play rocinante, which is the more literal "he's actually just straight up playing rocinante" side of things. gregor was quite literally made to play something less than human, less than even animal really, as he was reduced to nothing more than the shoes don quixote wore as she got to play the leading role. sansón directly makes jokes about gregor being nothing more than shoes in the play twice, which adds to this reading, i think.

this, imo, really plays into the adaptation of the metamorphosis! i've seen a lot of readings for the book that posit that, despite being the protagonist, gregor samsa can't really be considered the main character due to nearly everything he experiences in it being used to further his family's character development at his expense, which i think fits nicely with limbus gregor seemingly having the most said about him through indirect means by holding him up to other characters. also it's rodya carelessly making fun of His Big Major Insecurities™ again like she did in c1 which i always find fun. rodya i love you but god you're the worst.

[rascallyrose92]

I wonder what Jax and Ragatha think when they see the other. After all, one expresses so freely the emotions the other tries so desperately to repress, making it harder to push down.

Ragatha represses her “mean” emotions (anger, annoyance, apathy, etc) in order to be a perfect friend to the others and Jax represses his “cringe” emotions (grief, compassion, wanting to be accepted, etc) so he can do whatever he wants. This makes it hard for them to get along, but each one has something the other lacks, so

Does Ragatha envy how Jax gets stuff done without worrying about how someone else would feel? Does Jax envy the connection Ragatha has with everyone?

That may be why they bicker so much. They’re fighting to keep down the emotions they’ve repressed for so long, but this ironically brings them more to the surface.

Their argument shows this so well. Ragatha puts her anger at what Jax did to Gangle over Gangle herself (leaving her on the floor w/ mask broken), and Jax doesn’t want her to think that he broke it on purpose, or that he’s a bad guy (he isn’t supposed to care about ppls feelings remember?).

Another example is how Ragatha starts worrying abt Pomni only for Jax to go “Poor POMNI? How about poor US????”, and Ragatha doesn’t answer. When Ragatha brings up Kaufmo’s funeral, it makes Jax’s mask break for a split second.

It’s like being around the other brings out what they think is the worst part of themselves.

This is also why they share eps 5 and 6. They are two sides of the same coin, so its hard to bring up one without the other.

I’m excited to see where Gooseworx and Glitch takes them next.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Theory: LX intended for CXS to dive to save LG

Preface and disclaimer: this is kind of an out-there theory; more a few loose thoughts that I found interesting to think on - I fully expect that some or all of this will turn out to be totally wrong. Link Click loves showing us scenes only to later have them be revealed as either a) shown out of order, or b) recontextualized by further info we weren't initially privy to. I fully expect this will be the case in s3.

For now though, concerning Cheng Xiaoshi's death, Yingdu arc is what we have to work with. And there's a particular scene that really, really bothers me: the very opening confrontation against Vein.

(Actually, there's a lot that bothers me. There are multiple timeline inconsistencies that can't simply be explained by animation error - the most egregious is CXS figuring out his powers by diving alone when he had to figure that out in s1, well after the point many timeline changes had already occurred that would directly lead to the events of s2, our current timeline. It makes my head hurt. That's why this post is not about the inconsistencies, even though it bothers me that I cannot come up with a good explanation for this atm. My best guess is that multiple possibilities or potentials are collapsing in on a singular timeline due to LX, SYY and/or LG's actions but I really don't know. Whatever. On with the theory.)

Let's start with a key assumption. If this assumption is proven to be wrong later, then the theory very much falls apart, but I feel fairly confident about this for now.

Assumption: CXS's death scene from Yingdu episode 1 is the original timeline, as is the dive back to the basketball court.

The reason I think this is from both a narrative standpoint and a character one. From a narrative standpoint, it makes sense to show us either the first timeline or the most recent one after s2's cliffhanger ending. These are the timelines that actually have consequences for our story. Here, we see a lot of focus given to the transfer of Cheng Xiaoshi's power, and his dying request of Lu Guang. This dying request, to save everyone, is referenced in a later nightmare sequence, where Lu Guang is reminded that everyone has died. I don't think it makes much sense to focus on Cheng Xiaoshi's final words in a repeated timeline, unless they were framed as something Lu Guang has clearly heard before, which, they weren't.

Which brings me to the main reason I believe this is the original timeline: Lu Guang's reaction.

He's in shock for much of the events here - doesn't look at all like he knows or knew what was about to happen. If this wasn't the original timeline, I would expect him to look more desperate and sad than shocked. His reaction after diving also doesn't make much sense to me if this isn't the first dive he's attempted. Again, I'd expect him to look more haunted and sullen if this is a repeat. Instead, he looks around at his clothes and at his surroundings for a bit before getting hit by the ball, sees Cheng Xiaoshi, gasps and immediately tears up. <- Not the reaction I'd expect from a man used to diving.

Hopefully, you either agree with me or can at least suspend your disbelief enough to hear me out.

Let's go over what's odd about the initial Vein confrontation, yes?

Vein never actually shoots or even aims at Cheng Xiaoshi

"This is the punishment for you changing the past."

Vein doesn't finish off Lu Guang afterwards

Point 1: Vein knocks Cheng Xiaoshi back and twirls his gun. A few seconds pass in which Vein does not aim at Cheng Xiaoshi at all, just stands there, maybe to make sure he stays down. Lu Guang rounds the corner and Vein immediately fires a shot at him.

If Vein wanted to kill Cheng Xiaoshi, he could've already done it here. He's fast. He fired that shot at Lu Guang in a split second. The implication here is that Cheng Xiaoshi was not the target - the target was Lu Guang.

Point 2: Vein tells Lu Guang that his actions are punishment for changing the past. If we go by the assumption that this is the original timeline, this... doesn't make much sense. Lu Guang doesn't have the power to change the past without Cheng Xiaoshi's ability. It suggests that Vein is not after them here because of Lu Guang's attempt(s) to save Cheng Xiaoshi, but for some other deviation.

Conclusion? This is a shared punishment. In the original timeline, it seems very likely that Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi made some kind of change, or changes, to the past. <- This may actually explain why Lu Guang in the current timeline is so adamant about Cheng Xiaoshi not changing anything.

It is possible that the combination of their powers resulted in some kind of significant deviation, or else that they were mistaken for or had the blame pinned on them for someone else's actions. Either way, Vein seems to only gun for one of them, but it's not the one I'd expect.

After all, if this is a punishment for changing the timeline (and presumably, you wouldn't want them changing anything else), why wouldn't you shoot the guy who actually... makes the changes? Why try to shoot Lu Guang?

Well... maybe you would if you actually wanted the exact opposite outcome.

Vein misses Lu Guang several times in this scene. It's a little strange, given that he's been backed into a corner and his attempt to fight back does him no good at all. You can see in his fight against Shao Yuanyuan/Wang Qing in episode 6 that he does have good aim and is actually fairly efficient with his objectives. You could say he's toying with him, and maybe so! Vein clearly loves a good fight. Much like Liu Xiao, he has the vibe of a "hunter". But Vein also is stated to have a certain set of principles. To me, it feels like he's putting on a show.

This brings me back to the main question: why didn't he try to shoot Cheng Xiaoshi? Why kill everyone connected with them and attempt to kill Lu Guang, ostensibly as "punishment", when Cheng Xiaoshi is the one who can actually dive?

Point 3: Lu Guang helps Cheng Xiaoshi into the darkroom and locks the door. Vein fires a shot but then just kind of... stands there, grimacing. He doesn't even try to break the door down, which I'm sure he easily could. <-This is the weirdest part of the scene.

I don't think this was supposed to happen. I don't think Cheng Xiaoshi was intended to take that bullet.

I think Vein put on that show, wanting Cheng Xiaoshi to see him shoot Lu Guang. I don't think Vein expected Cheng Xiaoshi to dive in front and die.

You could say that Vein just decided to wait outside for Lu Guang to come out instead of exerting energy, but that's strange because in the time afterwards, from 23:11 on September 12th when they stumbled into the darkroom to just a little before 00:05 on September 13th when he leaves, Lu Guang gets injured, but is left alive, and Vein is nowhere to be seen. There is absolutely no way Lu Guang was able to fend off Vein, and the only other possible sign of a continued skirmish is more blood on the photo and its positioning (this could be an animation error, truthfully - everything else in the scene is the same as before - but if it is an error then that helps my point even more - there are no further signs of struggle).

The police didn't arrive and force Vein to leave. The implication is Vein left Lu Guang alive after waiting patiently outside the door for him to come out. Why? Why wait?

Well, one possible explanation: he didn't want to interrupt the power transfer.

Think about it. Why leave one alive, but kill everyone else? If it was to avoid them making changes, only one of the pair with the actual powers needs to die. Not everyone connected to them. This situation seems explicitly orchestrated to make it so Cheng Xiaoshi cannot resist diving back. I suspect he was already intending to - if you look at the scene where Lu Guang glances down at the shattered photo, his breath hitches - I suspect Qiao Ling is already dead and they know that.

Cheng Xiaoshi's last request is to save everyone, since he is now unable to - he cannot take the shot himself, so he passes the ball to the person he trusts most. And I think this was the goal all along. In a situation like this, how could he not try to save them? Especially if, as I suspect, the rules regarding past and future weren't made quite as strict in this timeline as they are in the current one.

Except this didn't go quite according to plan, because in epic Cheng Xiaoshi fashion, he did something that wasn't anticipated and died in Lu Guang's stead. Not ideal, clearly, from Vein's reaction, but it doesn't actually matter.

All that matters is that one of them dives back. The outcome is the same.

Why kill everyone, but leave one alive, and with a power that will allow them and inevitably tempt them to try to save their loved ones? The most obvious answer is if this is exactly the outcome you wanted.

--

Now, why do I say Liu Xiao intended this if the main actor here was Vein? Well, for one, Vein doesn't seem aware in Yingdu arc of changes to the timeline, except in this scene. Needless to say, he is definitely not privy to Lu Guang having future knowledge - Lu Guang is suspicious to him, but it does not seem to occur to Vein that he could be from the future. This information likely comes from Liu Xiao, who Vein works with during the arc to obtain Cheng Weimin's book and who unzips his body bag at the end of the season. Out of anyone who could've orchestrated this, our favourite puppeteer manipulator is the most likely candidate.

I won't claim to know what's going on with Liu Xiao, nor what his goals actually are, but I suspect he has at least some future knowledge or is somehow able to catch glimpses of parallel lines. He comes across as much older in the flashbacks with him and Li Tianchen as children. There is an odd bit in Yingdu episode 2 during the roulette scene where there is a flash to the gun killing him. Metaphor or vision? It's hard to say.

Interestingly, in the Bridon pv, Liu Xiao looks back at Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang in the airport and smiles but does not approach them. Lu Guang even mentions that they didn't run into Liu Xiao in the past timeline.

At the end of episode 1, in the current timeline, Liu Xiao says "Finally, we can start the game." It implies that all the pieces are finally in place. This may be why he approaches Cheng Xiaoshi in the airport and asked Xia Fei to trail him, expecting him to have dived back from the future.

I suspect his knowledge isn't perfect. Liu Xiao is a gambler. He's not like Lu Guang, who needs to have perfect control and anticipate every outcome. He wasn't really paying much attention to Lu Guang at all until he noticed something strange - ostensibly his heartbeat. Again, I suspect the person he intended to have dive was Cheng Xiaoshi. Lu Guang was not expected - but he can still work with this, and clearly does, because at no point does it seem like any of Lu Guang's actions or knowledge disrupted his plans. Instead, it seems like everything is going smoothly because of his actions.

Everything Lu Guang does, including his decision to stall Vein and try to get him killed, seems to work out in Liu Xiao's favour. I suspect, inadvertently, that Lu Guang is doing exactly what he wants him to. Lu Guang's only real moment of "masterminding" is therefore implied to have been anticipated. Liu Xiao smiles when Xia Fei receives the call about Vein's "death", as if he knew.

"You might have seen something interesting."

It checks out. This frame from Train Trail during his verse says "the puppets are standing" over everyone's silhouettes - including Lu Guang. Lu Guang is also frequently shown as either trapped or drowning in official art and in Yingdu - if he was intended to be a mastermind on equal footing with Liu Xiao, I really don't think we'd see so much of his feelings of helplessness, nor his repeated assertions that he essentially has no idea what he's doing and doesn't actually expect the outcome to change. Liu Xiao doesn't seem to have any such compunctions or concerns in this sense.

If Lu Guang does turn out to have been essentially manipulated into this situation, it would follow a particular pattern seen in Link Click. There are characters who enact control over others but are ultimately being puppeteered or manipulated (Liu Min trying to control what is said about him comes to mind, as does Li Tianchen's literal control, to an extent), as well as characters who, through desperation and/or love, and the limited options available to them in their shitty situations, become complicit in something immoral and suffer for it (Emma taking the money from Zhu, Li Tianxi being the other half of the remote control, Vivian becoming a scammer). If Liu Xiao really did orchestrate Lu Guang's dive, then Lu Guang would follow both these patterns, as a puppet with the power of future knowledge that can (and perhaps has) hurt others, and as a victim who made a desperate choice and is now trapped by its consequences.

One last bit of evidence - this time explicitly about Liu Xiao.

^Everyone is familiar with 091305 by now. September 13th at 12:05 am. The date and time Lu Guang dived back from. However, something interesting here: the year is blurred out.

Moreover, I see people say sometimes that this is Cheng Xiaoshi's death date - it isn't. Remember the time from when they were in the darkroom? Cheng Xiaoshi's death occurred on September 12th, just a little past 11:11 pm.

Here's one last fun thing before I close out this post:

Liu Xiao, why does the date on your Tetris game-over say September 12th, 2024 when Yingdu arc takes place in 2019? I wonder whose game-over this could be?

[rorah]

The mentally stable Dimitri Fire emblem 3 hopes.

It surprises me that there's still ppl claiming so, but then I remember we're talking about 3h interpretations and I have to make peace with it.

But that doesn't stop me from venting a little bit in this little space I have lol. Actually, it dries me and makes me feel bad to bring this up because I will have to talk bad about Dedue, and I don't want to talk Bad about Dedue. He's a genuinely good boy. But "Human" nonetheless, which means Flaws. I like Felix too but he's become some sort of a clown that doesn't make me feel too bad. I like Felix tho, In a different way.

Mostly talking about these two because the take that "Dimitri has better support system" baffles me because, technically, these two are his support system in HopesVerse. The persons who Dimitri relays on and seek solace/advice/support. The rest doesn't really tackle any of his personal struggles (aside from the Mage!Mitri frustrated dream, but that's out of the bad equation in our 'mentally unwell' set of pixels, and Shez only has a glimpse). Contrary, to Houses verse where the whole blue lions cast knew about his shit, didn't know what to do, but didn't leave either.

I tackled this topic with other person on Twitter who was (or still is) on board with this take and the phrase they used was They contained him better, which of course I agree and remarked that was exactly the problem. Contain him is gonna be contra productive. I used a water dam analogy, where the structure of such dam is damaged, and the pressure of water keeps accumulating. Causing a foreseeable damage for the dam itself and the surroundings. You don't need to be a genius to understand it, you need experience or knowledge for mental ill topics tho.

I really don't want to extend so much on here because it's mostly just, rant format more than a proper analysis so I just want to point out these two things in their support conversations.

First, Dedue. Encourage him to keep on the vengeful path. Which we know was the final goal of Azure Moon and if you payed attention to 3 houses message. The whole Vengeful argument was something Bad, to keep it simple. Despite Dimitri actively looking for answers/guidance for something that, in a rational state he can see clearly like vengeance will consume his life (also Shez and Felix called out this behavior). Dedue answer only encourage him to keep on that path, because he would do that 💔. Presenting 2 oposite views is a great formula for confusion and disorientation. Now, Dedue's role is primary SUPPORT, not guidance nor orientation. He will support his shit no matter what, and we are quite aware of that if played Houses.

Second, Felix. Felix is a special case. He is smart but also an idiot lacks A LOT of soft skills to actually be of help. He's the only one who knows in this verse about Dimitri having a mental issue. In their A support to say the least, so they don't close or solve anything. What makes it more worrisome is the fact that Felix conceals the issue as a secret.

"So try to keep that whole "removing their heads" thing in check, yeah? We can just call it our little secret."

this extract here makes me feel so unwell 😭help

The whole burden falls over him and his lack of skills and wisdom on the matter will be too much for him later on. He at least, will be able to recognize that the problem is beyond of his capabilities and will look for help. Felix himself has his own issues and journey where he needs to learn. He's forced to get pass beyond some of his angry teen behavior but hasn't completely get over it.

There is a lot more to tackle, but that requires more work and time. What are the topics some of you think is important to cover around understanding the Hopes verse resolution? Dimitri's route? something? Do you think the route without Byleth is better? With that being said, I would like to delve deeper into character analysis, and the role each played for the Lords too. That also requires to talk about the Byleth and needs a whole analysis on their own, which requires time (which i don't have much lol) To end this vent, I would like to encourage people to do a little research for the terminology they're using like "Support System". Who makes it up and how it operates successfully. The fact that ppl saying "he has better support system" only because he didn't go feral on the run alone is not entirely valid. A reminder that people can feel alone with or without people around them. And containing the issue within doesn't solve any problem. At best, it's presented later. At worse, it gets worse.

[r0semultiverse]

Hey, Jake & Jack fans, is this anything?

Both men imprisoned (literal & metaphorical).

Both offered an out from their current predicament by an outside force (arguably in the case of Brain Ghost Dirk).

Both have loose ties to Lord English visually.

Yellow initial glow & Gamzee involvement too.

Sometimes a guy just needs to explode (same pose too).

Both dual wielding weapons.

That same said weapon type (for Jack Noir) having killed Jane Crocker.

It's really looking like Jake is going to do her in.

I would also like to point out that we've had interactions involving these three (Jane, Jake, and Brain Ghost Dirk) before that consisted of similar topics & themes.

Brain Ghost Dirk implying that he's just there as moral support, a manifestation of Jake's powers, and as a coping mechanism. Jane also talking about ruling an empire with him while talking down to him, similar to how she saw and/or still sees him in Beyond Canon's Candy timeline. Jake also being uncertain about doing anything to harm her despite all the bad things she's doing.

Brain Ghost Dirk going away tells us that Jake's more hopeful than he's ever been. This is the moment where he is the most sure of his decisions than he's ever been in his life, whatever those decisions may be in regards to Jane and how to handle this situation.

He is probably going to shoot Jane down, quite literally. I would also argue that after all this time, the lad isn't beating the Lord English allegations. We might as well have a parallel of him killing Jane much like how Jack Noir killed her right before he got possessed by Lil Cal & given some of Lord English's immense power.

Alternatively maybe we'll get to see what the power of hope or hope bullets can do to someone whose done so much wrong & come so far off the deep end in terms of moral wrongdoings. Maybe with every shot that hits her, she'll begin to be swayed to the side of good & start to self-reflect.

I'm still not fully convinced that Gamzee actually cured Tavros' peanut allergy, I mean just look at the panel.

This could absolutely be interpreted as Jake injecting his hope power into the epipen and by proxy injecting both his power & the epipen into his son! If younger Jake is strong enough to defeat Grimbark Jade, then adult Jake might just be strong enough to defeat a peanut allergy is all I'm saying! In fact, now that I'm rambling about it, this seems like the more likely outcome is Jake's hope power swaying or (in the very least) confusing Jane mid-fight. Hope bullets, they would look cool & would be pretty strong!

The power of believing in others & wanting things to change can be a strong tool indeed, Mister English.

If there's one person who still believes in changing Jane's mind (or bringing her back to proper canonicity depending on how you interpret the recent lore), it would be Jake English, the believer.

Okay, maybe this is something! Tally ho!

[wackywatchdotcom]

got reminded of it ... but i think about the symbolism of jax' model a lot bc i think its subtle!!! but its there

and i think the crux of it is that jax' model is very much a prey animal, something that contradicts his general tendency for reckless, mean bullshit. there could be something there about him having front-facing eyes too. and iirc gooseworx said the farm was a lie which i do take into account but also i think it helps w his generally very 'natural' or real-world-nature design components and ideas being evoked. he has clothes and these clothes are very minimal and hes a real animal fairly closely associated with farming or hunting and is very humanlike and his pocket just Has Mulch in it. even if the farm isnt real theres definitely something his design is evoking here

that and an idea ive thought of is that rabbits are VERY much animals that operate on instinct. they do a lot of things based on an immediate need, typically for survival, at least in the wild. and i dont know if id describe jax as fearful (some could argue he is in his own way, which i dont disagree with, but i think the implications can be a bit loaded- but theres many ways a person can be fearful) but he definitely operates on what he immediately wants. he wants to have fun. so he DOES. it doesnt matter what that entails. he wants control, so he takes it out on the others. it doesnt matter what that entails. etc etc. hes also running from something and i think the image of a rabbit fits that well

i think its deliberate that jax is the only design that actually revolves around an animal that we see. theres dobby and that worm on a string in the back but of the main cast its ALL humans or items, jax is the only one whos an animal (and probably still intended to be toy-like, but none of the others have distinct animals theyre meant to be). and it feels purposeful in a way i genuinely think about a lot. i cant place what its implying for certain because i genuinely dont think we have enough information on jax to fully understand his thought processes, but it does make him very connected to the real world, but in a distant way

[maplethedarkshine]

The true chaos

Crack theory/headcanon/Somewhat of an au(?)/insane rambling/character analysis

Ok so I WILL do a crackshit theory about how Sonic is actually just the positive manifestation of chaos and this the same being

First one to say "so this is just the Kirby lore" will be sent to the guillotine /j

This is barely a theory, I'll basically be 10% making actual points and 90% just saying stuff because it sounds narratively cool

Obligatory "English isn't my first language don't give me shit if something is written poorly"

OK SO CHAOS AND SONIC PARALLELS

Letting Sonic speak for himself for a moment, the game itself brings to life the parallels this is not something I'm pulling out of my ass

They're both one in the same as the song says, forces of chaos (literally) that do what they think is right, the only difference is that Chaos' heart is tinted with pain, and as the song itself says, evil, while Sonic is devoid of it, and in a way, pure

Also line from the song that always stuck up to me:

"I'm not gonna think this way nor will I count on others"

Which is such an odd thing for Sonic to say, right? Why wouldn't he count on others? In the game the other characters are who gathered the chaos emeralds and the people cheering him up is what got him to transform into super sonic

Except that's wrong, because what Sonic's doing there is appealing to his feelings, because he understands Chaos' reasoning

That first part, "I'm not gonna think this way", because he can't say he gets how he feels. Again, he's devoid of that pain that's been tormenting Chaos for thousands of years by this point. He's not delusional, he know there's no way he can say with a straight face that he gets it.

What he does understand is that narrow-mindness, because he's like that too.

Just like the game itself says, both are using the same power, just one the negative energy of the emeralds and the other the positive

Two sides of the same coin

What's the difference between the two then? That Chaos has closed himself out from the world and let himself be consumed by pain, while Sonic has... His heart opened.

The entire Song is Sonic trying to appeal to Chaos to "Open his heart". Because he knows that trapping him back on the master emerald would only make it all worse, because such a free spirit like he knows that the worst thing you can do to another is removing that freedom to them, and because what got Chaos to be so corrupted is exactly being trapped- not only in a physical sense, but in a phycological way

He trapped himself. And while on the boss battle the only thing that happened was Sonic beating the shit out of him until he got it, the song tells another story

To make first point short: Open your heart itself makes parallels from the two and directly says they're in a way one in the same, both set on their ways, and Sonic gets Chaos to a point, and that's why he can't let him have his way, because he's trapped, and he needs to be set free from that hatred to be able to make a decision. And once he is, his decision is to stop the destruction leave peacefully

For a so claimed "God of destruction", destruction isn't his natural way if being, it got imposed to him; chaos is neither a good or a bad force of nature, it just is. And for a being literally named by it, he seemed to only embody the negative parts of it...

So where is the positive part of chaos?

On Sonic.

Sonic is Chaos. Sonic is the good of Chaos, the good that got banished from him the day the echidnas got too greedy with power

Ever thought how curious is that SA1 was the first game were Sonic has green eyes? Green as in the same color of Chaos' eyes? Green as in "they're both blue and green they have almost the same color palette"? Or green as in the color of the master emerald, mainly notorious for its connections to Chaos?

Also outside of the things Open your heart already implies, there's so more parrales between the two...

I mean, being of water vs guy infamous for not going well with water can't get more obvious than that

Sonic is, as a character, meant to be the representation of freedom, that's where the comparison to wind comes from... And what's more free than chaos? No direction, doing whenever you want as you wish, isn't that what Sonic is? He's notorious for never calling himself a hero, one of his more iconic phrases "what you see is what you get, just a guy who loves adventure"

Sonic is chaos (the concept) on the way that he's freedom, doing as he pleases, liberating, never changing his ways

Chaos (the character) is chaos (the concept) on the way that he's directionless, he's destructive, and never changing his ways

Sonic is Chaos (the character), because they represent the same concept on different ways

Sonic already has a villain to present the danger of order (Dr. Eggman, aka: mr control freak), so Chaos presents the dangers of chaos. "Do as you please" and "Keep your convictions straight" sounds good on paper until those convictions leeds you to hurt people and doing whenever you want leads you to causing pain and suffering.

Because thinking of it, Chaos had good intentions- he was protecting the chao from the echidna tribe that were hurting them for selfish reasons- he was protecting them, but after that? After that it was simply rage for the sake of rage- he flooded a city full of people that weren't even born when the incident happened and have nothing to do with it- people DIED, yet he wasn't changing his ways- his convictions never changed, and since he still thought the Chao were endangered he did what he did last time: protect

Those are, in paper, the same principles as Sonic on Sonic and the black night: do what you think is right, no matter if that will make some see you as the villain... Except what Chaos did is CLEARLY different and wrong

Because, as much as they're both selfish (selfish as in "most Decisions they make are purely based on what they want"), Sonic is coming from love and Chaos from hatred. On paper maybe Sonic could be seen as selfish (example: leaves station square as soon as Chaos is defeated because the rebuilding is no longer his problem) yet his heart is always on the right place. And maybe he just does whenever he wants, but what he wants is what's good for the people, so his selfishness turns him into a selfless being. Chaos is "doing whenever he wants" from a misguided place: he thinks he's doing what's the best for the Chao, just like Sonic does what's best for the people, when in reality the Chao don't even need him to do allat. Even if he's running by instinct, he's not achieving what he's trying to get, and his selfishness is just that- selfish, even if it came from a selfless core

Sonic's motto is basically to help the world only when it can no longer help itself, while Chaos "helps" it when the help is not only no longer needed, but actively just making it all difficult to the ones he's trying to protect, THAT'S were they differ

That's why, while both "selfish", one his presented as clearly right and the other clearly wrong. Because Sonic knows what he's doing, while Chaos is too blinded to see the truth. But once he gets some sense to him and sees that the chao are ok he does the exact same thing as Sonic: he simply leaves. Doesn't stay to try to fix what he did, because he knows that at this point the world can help itself, and he won't do the same mistake he did of trying to help at a point where is no longer needed

Sonic got him to open his heart (I'm so sorry for bringing it up so much I just love the song-)

Ok, so we got to how Sonic and Chaos are the same in a thematic way. Cool. That's nice

Now here's why Sonic and Chaos are literally the same person

Now this part I don't have as solid as an argument so take is as more lf a fun AU thing

Early jp classic Sonic was very much treated like a fairy-tale character. A mystical creature that would appear and disappeared when the adventure is over, and even in more modern games he's sort of like that (come on guys he's literally summoned from the sky in SatBk how more obvious can it get...?)

He's, in most game characterizations, a flat character. He doesn't grow because he doesn't NEED to grow. He seems to be inmune to corruption (Examples: In unleashed he's unaffected by dark gaia's influence outside of becoming more furry. On frontiers he smiles through the pain to the point Sage questions him what the hell he's doing) He's unable to be corrupted, as he's usually not the one to learn something from the story, rather the one delivering the lesson to another character (ak: Sonic 2 him indirectly giving confidence to Tails by just being there. Sonic and the secret rings he being what brought Sara our of her toxic relationship. The one SatBK monolog everyone already knows)

Sonic is a lot of things, a lot of them bad: impatient, a bit of a brat, annoying, but on top of everything he's pure. Sonic is incapable of evil. And thus him not changing his ways ever is GOOD

Chaos IS corruption, as in that's what defines the his character and character arc- because he's, unlike Sonic, NOT a flat character, in fact he's the one that receives the lesson by Sonic in Sa1

He's also treated as this mystical being, except that instead of being a fairly-tale it's a prophecy of a disaster. Chaos is not only capable of evil, but rather he IS evil itself for a good part of the story, and thus him not changing his ways is BAD, even if it goes under the same core premise as Sonic's motto of freedom- a decision made from blinded pain is not a decision made in your full freedom after all

That evil is not inherent to him; once again, it was imposed- forced onto him. And when he got purified... What is his role on the next time he happens to appear in the story, when he's given the freedom of actually choosing without being tied down by the chains of old wounds? To only make himself known when the master emerald is in danger (said in Sonic battle and the sonic forces comic prequel)

On other words, he only helps when the world can't help itself

He literally turned into Sonic the moment his heart was devoid of evil

Sonic was not only reaching out to Chaos, he was reaching out to himself- a part of him he never got to terms with, as "hate" is not something he's capable of, not in this form. He not only helped Chaos, but he also processed that hate- a hate that he never got to experience, but it's indirectly "his"

... Except it's not his and never was his

Because of course, realistically, IF this theory/headcanon was right, Sonic would see himself and Chaos as different beings. Because who cares of what was before? Yeah, what IF he came from the guy? He's no longer that person, and be will not get tied by boring concepts as the strings of the past

This is a kind of Solaris Mephiles-iblis situation, except while Mephiles is obsessed with being "one in the same" and "complete" again, Sonic will give the autonomy to Chaos to decide to be his own being. Sonic is Sonic and Chaos is Chaos, he will not do any attempt to go back to being "complete", because he already IS completely, and then he helped Chaos be complete to... Why change what's not broken?

Chaos is happy being a guardian of the master emerald and Sonic himself is happy just being some guy who loves adventure. To make them go back to what was before would be to force a sense of order on two beings of chaos, which is counterproductive. I'm sure none of the two would agree with it

If, as Open your heart says, the fundamental difference between Sonic and Chaos is one being trapped by hatred and the other devoid from it, and then the moment Chaos is set free from that feeling he takes an almost identical fairy-tale like creature role Sonic also has... Then what does that mean?

Perfect Chaos is a fake god because he's not truly "perfect", the resentment is what's keeping him from it, and the moment he lets go of it he truly reaches the perfect state of chaos... And basically turns to Sonic

Sonic is perfect chaos, as he's the good of it

Ever wondered where he comes from? Game Sonic never ever had an origin story, at best an "He comes from Christmas island, no we will not tell you or show you ever where or what Christmas Island is"

He doesn't seem to have parents or an origin story. As far as the world is concerned there's been this blue hedgehog wandering around and randomly helping people then disappearing to never be seen ever again. Ever since that Dr. Robotnik guy has been causing trouble the hedgehog has always been there to stop him, as if he came out of nowhere... As if he spawned thin air

And perhaps that's the easiest reasoning. Perhaps he DID come out of nowhere. Because you can't keep trapped chaos (the concept). It WILL find a way to get out, and it won't listen to you, and it's only agenda is to oppose order

And what happens when a destructive force comes and imposes order on the world? In a way Eggman created his worst enemy... Sa1 was not the first time he liberated Chaos

Because when the world needed him the most it brought back his ashes to life into a form devoid from the hatred and pain that caused his perish on the first place. Made the good that was vanished from his heart and the kindness forced out of him into a being of flesh and bone. And from his wounds of the past there'll be something beautiful for the present. The pureness that the echidnas took away from him so many years ago will be reborn

There'll be brought chaos

They'll ne brought freedom

There'll be Sonic, Sonic the hedgehog

[justsigma-bsd]

A Blank Page, Torn From A Book Without Name

Well, I ended up trying to put the word salad in my head into actual, coherent words after all.

First of all, everything here is just my take on things. The theories and thoughts I've had on certain things. I don't think any of it is official, but if anything of it is, in fact, confirmed to be true or false, feel free to tell me!

Some of the panels were taken from a YouTube video, which I'll link at the bottom!

TW for: Human trafficking, dehumanization

Ok, so first things first, some of this stuff I've already written down a while back for writing reasons. I found some of my old notes, and noticed that, after rereading the panels, they make more sense than I previously thought.

Let's start here: what stands out the most to me isn't that he's in the desert, not even the ticket. No, it's the simple »[...] or even who I was«

Because who, indeed, is Sigma? Sigma does not have an identity. He has no history, no nothing. Just the clothes on his back, a ticket that seems to be useless and earrings, for some reason.

Without a name, you don't have an identity and without identity you don't have a name.

Then there is this, too:

»I gave myself a name. Sigma. A man of the casino«

I don't believe he had a name upon being created. I don't think he had one for a long time, because in the same panel that he mentions giving himself a name, he also mentions the casino- which came much, much later. Sigma existed for three years by the time the series started. However, the timeline is wonky as heck.

Because how long did he stay with the traffickers? How long was he on his own after escaping? How long ago did Fyodor find him? Questions upon questions, but since I've already mentioned the lack of a name and the traffickers, let's get to my thoughts on that, specifically:

»They captured and enslaved me« along with »And once they knew that I had a skill [...]« makes me wonder: how long did it take for them to find out?

I haven't researched anything about human trafficking, but it's basically slavery, from what I've gathered through the previous things I've heard and read. And he does say so himself, too.

Sigma, three days alive, spent his early life a slave. It's confirmed that he was shackled, seeing that he is wearing them in the panels.

(As a side note, I do believe that he has scars from the shackles around his wrist. He wears a tight, wrist-long turtleneck beneath his coat, and I think it's to hide the scars. Both from others and himself.)

His first human interaction was plain horrible. Did he know and understand that? Did he understand that this wasn't normal? I don't think he knew how wrong this was at first. I don't believe that he understood it immediately. If he didn't know who he was, why would he know that being treated like this is wrong?

I believe that he realized it at some point, but not as soon as it started. I think he lived like that for a while, thinking it was normal, before getting some sort of wake-up call. Perhaps through his ability, or a fellow prisoner. Maybe both, or neither.

He must've gotten whiplash, once people genuinely looked up to him when he was the manager at Sky Casino.

I also think that he, probably, does tend to forget that being treated like that is, in fact, not normal or okay. Our upbringing leaves some sort of mark on all of us, experiences define us, give us habits and a feeling of what's normal and what isn't.

Which means that his "normal" is skewed and he expects being used rather than kindness, probably even after learning that some people are genuinely kind. I'm guessing that his mindset is, due to that, a simple "If I'm alive I'm alright".

I don't think he'd complain about being treated wrong and or left behind, or admit when he's injured. Or at the very least attempt to keep it a secret as long as possible- especially from those he sees as authority figures.

However, I also think that he was isolated, as per this panel:

Not only the text, but also the background paint a picture that causes me to believe that.

I almost skimmed past this panel while making my analysis, before pausing and taking a closer look. I thought this was in Sky Casino at first, until I looked closer and realized three things:

1, the background does not match Sky Casino in the slightest

2, he isn't wearing shoes or his current outfit, but the old clothes he had when wandering the desert

3, the shadows aren't from the light of a window, they're bars from a cell

While I did believe before that the traffickers kept him isolated from others (due to wanting to keep him unaware of the wrongness of his situation as well as to make sure he doesn't learn things he should/other prisoners finding out things that Sigma got to know by accident), this sort of put the final nail in the coffin for me.

But, at some point, he did realize that it was wrong. Perhaps he'd had a bad feeling from the start. Maybe he hated being treated like this. Who knows? Point is, he escaped. This brings us back to this page:

»No matter how kind someone seemed, they used me and then tried to kill me for knowing too much«

Sigma, after escaping the traffickers, after escaping the life of a slave, probably still didn't know much about living.

And I firmly believe that Sigma is smarter than even he himself thinks. There's just one issue: Sigma is naive (at least in my eyes), and it's not even his own fault. He simply tried his best to survive, and what was the reason the traffickers kept him around? His ability, most likely.

Problem is that his ability truly is something people would love to exploit, and it seems as if they did. Which makes me believe that he has a talent for running into murderers thinking they're nice people, only to get a not-so-nice surprise.

»The last one to use me [...]«, this specific line is the reason why I believe Sigma to have been used a lot. We don't know how often, exactly, his ability was taken advantage of. But we know the latest person who did.

Fyodor was the last one to use him, which means that, at that point, he was probably used to it. Used to being treated like a pawn, and used to people trying to kill for knowing too much. And I believe that he was, quite plainly, exhausted.

Imagine, your entire life consists of being forced to aid others with crimes, with being shackled. You don't know the difference between working for someone and being used by someone.

If you were offered what you wanted most, wouldn't you accept, too? Even if you know that you're once again being used? I mean... this time around, you gain something for it. Doesn't that make it worth the risk?

It's a gamble Sigma took... and lost.

This page involves two quotes that give me pause:

»Don't you wish for a home?«

We don't know why or how he knows what a home and a family is, but he does. And he wants it. He says it was never within his reach. But it is perfectly clear to us, while reading the Sky Casino Arc, that he wants it. He wants a home and a family.

He'd rather sacrifice his own life than see Sky Casino fall. »Home« and »Family« are, to him, more important than staying alive. Because it's something he never had, and something he clings to. Simply because he doesn't have anything else.

»I, who was originally 'nothing'[...]«

Is the second line that makes me pause. Because like previously mentioned, Sigma was a slave with no name or identity of his own. We don't know when he found out about being created by the book (and I firmly believe that he found out one way or another), but I believe he didn't see himself as a human before, and this "confirmed" it for him.

Think about it, would traffickers care about their victims? Would they treat them as human beings? Call them by their name? What about a person who has no name to begin with?

He wasn't treated like a human being in the beginning, and thus considered himself nothing. Considered his home and "family" to be worth more than hid own life.

He was literally created from nothing. His story doesn't have a beginning. He has no memories prior to being created, he had no name nor identity. How his story will end is unknown. We don't know what's written on his page.

I believe this, combined with being with the traffickers, makes him doubt his humanity. Not only because he was created through the book, but also because for the first (months? Year?) of his life, he wasn't treated like a human.

His sense of self-worth is probably down in the dumps.

»In the end I never did understand what I was born for...«

I don't think he knows the details of his existence. The content of his page, the words that brought him into existence. He doesn't know why he was born/created. He doesn't know what things were predetermined.

He doesn't know what's real and what's just writing on a page.

Sigma, in three years of being alive, went through hell. He was enslaved, his ability was taken advantage of over and over, he was used by multiple people who all ended up trying to kill him and when he thought that he finally found a home? A family? It was taken away from him.

Genuinely, he needs a plate of cookies, a hug and a ton of therapy.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my little analysis and theories? I never did something like this before, so criticism is welcome!

Here's also the link to the video from which I got the screenshots: https://youtu.be/KwsSvFYAKjA?si=R_IvH-S8GYut_hrG

[agenderduck]

It deeply upsets me that there aren’t a lot of analysis posts off of Lesley, at least ones that don’t completely mischaracterize her. Often times Lesley is watered down to just being “Yellow’s Mom” by the fandom and nothing else. Lesley is tragic. She is not motherly, she’s a prisoner. A prisoner in a prison partially of her own design, but a prisoner nonetheless. matpat, and the david theory in general has rotted people’s brains. It’s fine to have an interpretation of a character, I could care less, but it’s an entirely different thing all together to completely miss the point of a character. Watching the line “you’re one of my favorites….” be brushed aside for what is otherwise a completely unserious line is infuriating. There’s no actual proof that Lesley is Yellow’s mother outside of theories. When she says “you’re not my real son” In my eyes, it’s more so in the way that she is the creator, and he is her creation, not that Lesley is actually an author, she just thinks she is. The trio represent parts of her, almost everything they do is by her hands. They’re miserable because Lesley is miserable. She believes herself to be an author, a creator, but she doesn’t hold any real power, just a small amount. Yellow didn’t scale the staircase on his own, everything was meticulously laid out by Lesley. Because, the truth is, he represents a part of Lesley that she has long since forgotten, the part of her that genuinely wants to change, to progress instead of regress. By giving yellow his batteries and bringing him up stairs, she is checking that she is still alive. That there is still that small part of her that can change.

But, as previously stated, she doesn’t have any real power, and she has no interest in truly changing. She has strings of her own, she can’t change even if she wanted to. Lesley has a tendency of setting up scenarios where the puppets are given a false sense of control. She does it with red in transport, and she does it again in electricity with yellow. In her mind she’s teaching them, teaching them that things cannot stray outside of what she has laid out for them. It’s her own twisted way of helping. Yellow, unlike red, possesses a genuine ability to question things and a natural curiosity. Lesley knows this. That’s precisely why his batteries are denied from him, unless Lesley hands them to him on a silver platter when convenient. Yellow has to pay the price of being constantly disoriented, to be in a constant state of confusion because if he isn’t then that would entail Lesley addressing what is pulling on her strings. The batteries are a threat to this cycle, hence why Lesley gifts him a book of false knowledge. A book of nothing. A red herring. She knows where that book is going, straight into the shredder as it always does. Where it should be. Because ever so slightly out of shot at the end of her room sits a door that creaks open every once in a while and she dare not question it. A door that she ignores as she continues on playing her piano as she always does. As it should be. No questions to be had. Just the keys of a piano echoing emptily in a dilapidated dollhouse, and the ghost of an artist who lost herself eons ago.

[greenleaf4stuff]

something something 'the door is unhinged either way it just opens in different directions'

[beryllineart]

About Toriel

Ok, you know how the first child's items are in the ruins? What if Toriel had years with that child, years to love and protect and be a mom again? For whatever reason, the child does not want to leave. Then the child dies. Maybe they are killed by a monster, maybe there's some sort of accident, but Toriel is devastated because she's lost a child all over again.

So she lets the next child leave, and the child after that, because she is too scared to love and lose again. It's like she's cursed to lose what she dares to love. She continues on, years and years of waiting, wondering why on earth Asgore hasn't just gone through the barrier and collected the rest of the souls himself.

What makes it worse is that now she's heard that some of the human children have killed monsters, human children that she let leave the ruins with barely any resistance. It's her fault that both the humans and those monsters are dead now. It doesn’t feel like she can do anything right.

She can hardly stand the guilt, but speaking to her friend on the other side of the door helps. They share jokes, talk about nothing in particular, and Toriel feels herself opening up more and more. A part of her is healing due to this time where she can set her expectations and guilt aside and just listen to a friend.

Then the final human falls down. That terrible flower is attacking them, but she takes care of him swiftly. It's strange though. He usually does his best to avoid her, and she knows that he knows that she visits the flowers at this time.

What she doesn't know is that this flower is her son Asriel, but it's not like he never told her. But Toriel didn't give the reaction her son was expecting. It's like she refused to believe that this flower is her son. Flowey thinks that she forgot him, that she moved on. But in reality, she was scared. Scared that if this really is Asriel, if she really believes and loves and lets herself heal, she'll lose him again, like she's lost everyone else.

Of course, she doesn't know any of this. Flowey has reset so many times that he's a different person now, unwilling to feel, just like his mother. But unlike Flowey, Toriel has some hope. She protected this child from the flower after all. Maybe she can protect them from everything else. Maybe she can love again without fear.

Everything seems to be going great for a while... but then the human asks to leave. Toriel is terrified of losing another child, and she knows that this is the last human they need to break the barrier, but she can't be responsible for the death of another child. She won't be responsible, so she decides to destroy the entrance to the Ruins. She'll never speak to her friend again, but that won't matter if she saves this human, if she breaks the curse that makes her afraid to love like she wants to.

But the first human that fell never left the ruins, a tiny part of her mind protests. She remembers the feeling of a cold, dead body in her hands all too well, something she wants to never experience again. She is still scared to love, but she's even more scared to be the reason a child dies. So, she makes a deal. "Prove yourself... Prove to me you are strong enough to survive."

So they fight. Toriel does not want to kill the human, only scare them back upstairs. But in an instant, no time for her to react, the human gets hit and collapses to the floor. She stands there shocked for a few moments before rushing to their aid.

The body is so warm... they could just be asleep, they look so peaceful lying there. But deep down, she knows. She has too much experience with this sort of thing not to know.

And this time, it really is her fault. All the guilt she felt before is nothing compared to this. All of those other times there was something else to blame, something she could be angry at during the hard times. But this time, this time she has no one to blame but herself.

Toriel remembers crying when Asriel and Chara died. But the tears won't come as she cradles this human in her arms. "This human..." She didn't even know their name. She feels a pain in her soul like she's never felt before, both dull and aching and sharp and hot, worse than anything she's ever experienced. But the tears still won't come.

All Toriel can do is hope in vain that somehow, some miracle can bring her child back.

........

When that miracle comes, Toriel won't remember the pain. It's better that way.

[hibernating-stag]

Which Faust design (baldhead incl.) is your favourite?

Ooo, this is a really good question! I'm gonna take the opportunity to ramble a bit about his designs, I hope you don't mind, Anon!

I thought my favourite would be Xrd Faust when I first started, it seemed to be the most up my alley. I still really like it, but for different reasons. To me, it feels the most like Faust trying to give the impression of Your Friendly Neighbourhood Doctor. Like by rounding out his edges and making his colours more saturated, in addition to adding a visible stethoscope and crosses. It all feels really deliberate! Like, a cultivated image.

I've definitely come around to Fausts Strive design, too! Also I might sound uniformed with this next ramble, I know nothing about Strives story or Xrds ending, so my bad if that happens-

My first impression of Fausts Strive design was I thought he looked like a slasher villain (which I do love). But the more I played as Faust, I don't think I see the design that way anymore. I don't know what happened to Faust yet, but something about his design makes me think he's... Comfortable. Faust changing into hospital scrubs and letting people see his scars, instead of trying to keep up the image he'd been cultivating since X. It feels like Faust is a lot more comfortable letting his work as a doctor speak for itself.

If I'm wrong, uh. Whoops! But if I'm right? Good for him :]

Finally, I think my favourite would have to be XX Faust, I have less to say about his design thematically, but it's the design of him that hooked me :>. I like that this design of Faust takes from Dr. Baldheads intro animation, it makes me feel like this is the kind of thing he used to wear as a doctor and it was his first thought of what to go back to when he started helping people again. It feels like a good first step design for his character.

Also if I could. One more moment of your time.

Eddie Faust I love you so much I wish you were REAL!! The wings making him look like he's a big caduceus symbol goes so HARD!!!

[dqzaiie]

i’m still undecided in which agency member i believe will be transferred to the port mafia, but i would like to expand on the possibility of it being dazai, because concerns seem to be growing by the hour.

firstly, i would like to draw attention to these official arts, as i find it very curious that dazai is wearing his port mafia bandages in conjunction with his agency attire.

this isn’t an isolated instance, it seems, so i’m wondering what the reasoning for this is, if not to allude to future events. (apart from referencing his past in the port mafia, but i'm trying to see this from the other perspective.) it feels very intentional on harukawa's part.

there is also the case of potential foreshadowing in the osamu dazai and the dark era light novel.

“…dazai’s capabilities are astounding. i’m sure in four or five years, he’ll have killed me and taken my place.”

these are words spoken by mori to odasaku while he is recruiting him to locate ango, taking place when dazai was eighteen. if this were to be a correct prediction, then it would place him at around twenty-two or twenty-three at time he gained the status of leader.

if provided the opportunity, surely mori would retrieve such a valuable asset?

many dispute this due to mori forcing dazai out of the mafia, but the reasoning for that makes quite a bit of sense when you take into consideration mori’s values.

mori believes that, as leader of an organization, you must devote your very being to maintain stability.

“mori ougai’s belief as the boss is…“the boss stands on top of the organization, and at the same time, be the slave of all.” for the sake of the organization, the boss must always take the “logical optimal solution.” that is the duty of the boss. there is an unspoken additional point to it. therefore, no matter how much your heart aches, you have to ignore your personal feelings.”

asagiri for the bsd exhibition

despite being his protégé, it doesn’t seem that mori felt dazai to be the perfect fit for leader during his time in the port mafia. this is due to dazai being overly emotional.

mori was able to suppress his emotions, whereas dazai let his emotional responses dictate his actions. this is exemplified by him changing course in life after odasaku’s death, done so in the name of keeping a promise to his closest friend.

while mori certainly regrets losing his subordinate, he is able to set aside his own reservations toward the loss, the outcome of which results in him gaining a gifted business permit. this is the “optimal solution” he sought after. dazai, however, could never justify sacrificing oda for the sake of a permit, hence the feelings of betrayal he’s fostered towards mori in the years since. while he understands why mori did what he did, he cannot disregard his own emotional connection to odasaku.

in the present day, however, dazai seems to have developed this ability—to remove the emotional aspects from a situation, and choose the most logical course of action. this is seen throughout the most recent arcs. for example, possibly sacrificing himself in meursault, directing akutagawa to save atsushi at the risk of his own life, etc. weighing the risks and the rewards, and choosing the most viable option.

(even if mori doesn’t choose dazai, there's the possibility that dazai just might volunteer himself for the sake of his coworkers. his self-sacrificial tendencies have been quite prevalent as of late.)

while dazai wouldn’t have been a preferable candidate in the past, he has matured since, and mori has realized this, with him keeping dazai’s executive seat open in the event he wishes to return. actually, i think this was quite intentional on mori’s part—similarly to how dazai manages shin soukoku, mori likely forced this for dazai’s own development.

another detail worth noting is the way in which dazai’s eyes have been drawn in the more recent chapters. as we know, harukawa depicts a character’s progression and alignment through their eyes.

in the recent chapters, dazai has been portrayed with an obscured eye multiple times. this is indicative of his port mafia “demon prodigy” persona being utilized during the chess match against fyodor.

there is also the concern of dazai’s crimes being made public. as it stands, while the agency is sure to be absolved of all charges, dazai’s crimes are separate, which isn’t particularly an easy fix.

ango has done it in the past through the use of mushitaro’s ability, sure, but seeing as dazai has literally staged a prison break from supposedly the world’s most secure ability user detention facility, i’m not too certain that this would be an effective method of clearing his criminal record.

this doesn’t cover all of it, either. there is quite a bit of foreshadowing within the anime to support this theory, but i have reached the photo limit on this post, so i will leave that for others to cover.

if you’ve made it this far, i applaud you. thank you for reading!!!

[rainbowberriesandcookies]

Pain is being an ulquihime shipper but having to block/avoid most of them because they are weirdly anti-Orihime, anti-bleach ending, or "anti how Kubo wrote Orihime" even though she's one of the most consistently and well-written female characters in Shounen as well as the fact that they try to make Ulquiorra care more about Orihime than he actually did in the manga or even god forbid try to say that Ulquiorra cared more about Orihime than Ichigo did.