#theories and speculation

[fishtail-tavra]

everyone laughs at Amri for his

"the All-Maudra had to produce Vapra heirs- with pure Silverling blood, no doubt. Not a mix of snow and salt water"

reasoning when figuring out why a Vapra princess (Tavra) would keep her Sifa lover (Onica) a secret.

(hee hee, Tavra and Onica are both women, Amri must not know where babies come from- never mind that Gelflings aren't human and already have weird biology / magic going on)

but jokes at Amri's expense aside, doesn't it just explain so much of how Mayrin treats her daughters?

her HALF-SIFA heirs to the VAPRA throne...?

wouldn't Amri's reasoning mean that openly having children (or just /a/ child??) with a Sifa became a problem for Mayrin later on?

she did that when she was young and adventurous and newly made All-Maudra, back when she honestly acted like a balance of her three future daughters- strong and daring like Tavra, creative in her problem solving like Brea, trying hard to live up to her mother's high standards like Seladon.

Mayrin isn't like that by the time her daughters are grown though. She's clearly worn down by the living crown, resigned to just maintaining the status quo and not making life under the skeksis any worse or more dangerous than it already is, settled into both the power and the chains that loyalty to the skeksis places on her.

did she end up regretting having her kids with Kam'lu?

did it leave her feeling she must demand the best from her daughters: not just to make up for the subversion of tradition by having had them in the first place, not just to keep the skeksis from doubting her family and clan and removing them from power and the safety it gives them, but also for her daughter's own sake- to give the Vapra and skeksis as few chances to criticize or remove them from power as possible?

is her past relationship with a Sifa, and it's fallout, the reason WHY she doesn't want Tavra falling in love with one?

or does that have more to do with Kam'lu not being around anymore. Him leaving, or dying at sea. He fell in love with a woman who was ready to twist tradition into new shapes, but she changed, and now in the present Mayrin is alone. Kam'lu is never seen or mentioned in current times. We never see his daughters remembering him.

Did they know him at all?

(let's put a pin in that)

Tavra in the books says Mayrin's daughters had to earn their mother's love. That Mayrin placed being All-Maudra over being their mother.

That doesn't sound like Mayrin in her comic, the Mayrin that met and bonded with Kam'lu the Sifa ship captain and was so excited to have her first child.

Was her changing what broke her and Kam'lu apart, or did he insist on returning to the sea, Sifa that he was, only to shipwreck and down like Mayrin's mother had- maybe in a storm very like the one that almost killed Onica and Tae. Is that what broke Mayrin instead?

Is that why she can't accept the idea of Tavra with a Sifa?

Too much salt water already in the family. Or fear Tavra will run off to her father's clan and be lost to Mayrin like him (half way comes true, Tavra and Onica promised each other to leave both their clans behind, and they do, but by then Mayrin is already dead). Or, even if Tavra does stay in Ha'rar, did Mayrin fear her daughter wouldn't be accepted if she openly challenges the way of things just like her mother once did?

Point is: Amri didn't think Tavra was half-Sifa.

Seladon, heir to her mother's throne, definitely IS half Sifa, Mayrin was already expecting her at the end of her comic.

the Grot are a bit isolated from the other clans and Amri's main interest in the Vapra at first is thinking they all kinda really suck, but. This is still the daughters of the All-Maudra. There is a joke in the Sog about the "many daughters of Mayrin", so clearly the personal life of the All-Maudra is a topic of gossip and songs even on the other side of Skarith land.

and Amri didn't know? About Mayrin's Sifa lover?

did Mayrin never officially name Kam'lu as the father of her children?

(is that where the joke of many daughters comes from. if she won't say who the father is who's to say she isn't hiding other children too)

or did Mayrin have trouble having children at first. Did any of her children from Kam'lu even survive... but that would make the joke of many daughters so cruel, let's assume that isn't the joke. Let's say it's just speculation of possible unacknowledged children instead.

maybe many Gelfling /suspect/ who the other parent of Mayrin's daughters is, especially the people Mayrin's age or older who would've been paying attention while the whole thing played out, but with no official word, it stays just rumors. Just an uncomfortable moment that makes Tavra's face flush when it's brought up.

Amri clearly believes that a half-Sifa All-Maudra would be a huge scandal, maybe wouldn't even be accepted at all.

so maybe it's not just a crooked wing and a name with history that has Seladon feeling insecure. Maybe it's her Sifa father. Maybe it's her Sifa blood. Maybe, buying into the skeksis beliefs to prove herself, she ended up learning to hate what she was

maybe it's just being the only daughter old enough to really remember Kam'lu and the whispers that a Sifa in Ha'rar's citadel might have brought each time he visited, or having to watch her mother's pain, keenly aware or assuming that Mayrin would be better off if she Seladon hadn't been born from a Sifa father. The reflexive guilt and blame for herself and her parents both.

maybe the reason we never see Mayrin and Tavra having any kind of personal interaction or moment together is thanks to Tavra quietly continuing to visit the wharfs and her Sifa lover despite Mayrin's own history, despite being old enough to vaguely know about but not have been part of it, and Mayrin preemptively closing herself off from the soldier who happens to be her daughter before she can have her heart broken again

(the fact that Tavra is a reflection of the Mayrin who was once an active and hands-on All-Maudra. The fact that of Mayrin's daughters it is Tavra who the Vapra are shown to see as THEIR maudra. Even after Seladon is crowned. It's Tavra who people from various other clans- Drenchen, Grotten, Sifa- wish could lead them)

(They all see in Tavra now what Kam'lu saw in Mayrin back then.)

is that why Tavra tries so hard to believe that people can always change for the better and do the right thing? Why she wants to at least forget whatever terrible thing it was Mayrin once did- and hope she will light the fires of resistance now?

has she heard or seen dreamfasts of the woman Mayrin used to be and want so desperately for that person to not truly be gone?

is she also trying to be like her mother- just, not the version of Mayrin that she sees today?

anyway. Brea also doesn't seem to know she's half Sifa.

(if she's half Sifa. if Kam'lu is the father of /all/ Mayrin's daughters)

or, if she knows her father wasn't Vapra, she ascribes so firmly to the "a Gelfling belongs to the clan of their mother" view that it doesn't even mean anything to her where her father came from. She clearly never knew him. If she had, meeting the Sifa wouldn't have been such a curiosity and adventure for her.

TLDR: imo Mayrin disapproving of Tavra's Sifa lover despite having had children with one herself isn't a plot hole, it's the explanation of why Mayrin and Seladon are Like That*.

*in need of therapy. Badly.

[barren-heart]

not me going down the theory rabbit hole to say that I believe they already filmed a secret kiss scene between Guillermo and Nandor the very first week Harvey was there on a closed set.

And that’s why Harvey was genuinely happy about s6 and Guillermo’s ending during his first interview at the Critic Choice Awards that took place a few weeks later because he already filmed it.

Also, they had to keep it secret from the rest of the crew and the main cast to avoid leaks so that’s why we didn’t get any news about Kayvan until a month after Harvey supposedly arrived in Canada alone.

[sartelainargret]

Theories and Speculation: The Queen and the Gilded Cage

[This theory includes spoilers for the 7.0 Dawntrail Main Scenario Quests in Final Fantasy XIV. It was written before the release of the 7.1 patch.]

I theorize that the Endless Sphene was a figurehead without most of the powers of a real monarch. This may not have been the case when she was alive, but this was true of the Endless version of Sphene. She may have had some power over her country as an Endless, but her directive to preserve the Endless at any cost reduced her personal agency and robbed her of much of her free will.

I think this version of Sphene is a warped copy of the original because she had to adhere to her directive. This directive was given to her by someone or some group of people. These people asserted their authority over her decision-making process and turned her into a figurehead. Thus, she was unable to make the choices that were in line with what she really wanted—that is, what the living Sphene might have chosen.

“But what’s your favorite food, if you don’t mind me asking?” –Wuk Lamat

“My favorite food… That is a question I may never be able to answer.” –Sphene

It's also possible that the Endless Sphene is a cherry-picked version of her original self. Her inability to choose a favorite food, for example, may be evidence that she did not have this memory at all. Perhaps some memories were culled by her creators because they were deemed useless for a figurehead queen to remember. It may also be possible that some memories were lost over time—it appears she was an Endless for a while. Regardless, the scene where Sphene could not choose a favorite food seems to both foreshadow her difference from a living person and that she may have lost a connection with some of her memories from when she was alive (even before she erased them to serve as the Queen Eternal).

“Unlike me, you still have the power to determine your own fate.” –Sphene

Sphene’s creators may not have meant for the Endless to be prioritized over living beings. However, because the directive was so rigid, this is what occurred in practice. This rigidity may have also been intentional—the people who preserved Sphene may not have wanted her to disobey them. Her creators made her unable to alter her directive. This decision, at the very least, took power from her and made her less true to herself.

I theorize that the people that created the Endless version of Sphene always intended to use her as a public figurehead while they (possibly the group named Preservation) ruled in the shadows. It is also possible that this group still rules Alexandria.

“You’re useless! A queen in naught but name!”–Frantic Man

When Sphene gave the Warrior of Light’s party a tour of Alexandria, a man accused Sphene of being just a figurehead. It’s not certain whether she wanted to oblige this man and could not, or legitimately did not want to give him preferential treatment. Regardless, she placated the man, and this showed her effectiveness as a figurehead. Throughout her tour, she never offered to change the system she was supposed to be the ruler of. Regardless, she was able to offer solace to the people who were disenchanted with Alexandria’s society.

“It seems I’ve no choice but to continue down this path…” -Sphene

In the scene above Sphene lamented that she could not choose a path to a peaceful solution with Wuk Lamat. This closely followed a conversation where she could not speak her mind because there was a mechanical soldier watching her. At first, it seemed like this watchful eye was Zoraal Ja’s, sent to stop her from betraying him. However, at the end of the 7.0 MSQ it seemed more likely that these sentinels were meant to represent some other presence. Perhaps they were meant to be a physical manifestation of the directive, always keeping her in line. Alternatively, they could have been the watchful eyes of Preservation, or whatever group that was really in charge. It’s possible that this unknown group had the capacity to change Sphene’s directive but would not do so because her pursuit of the directive benefited their selfish interests in some way.

Sphene appeared keenly aware that her activities caused suffering for her own people, despite her assertion that she wanted to protect them at any cost. This troubled her when she visited the sick child in Alexandria. She made it clear that it was her fault that levin sickness was on the rise.

“The cause is quite clear, though—the excess lighting in the environment. It’s no coincidence the number of cases has risen dramatically these past thirty years.” –Sphene

“It’s all my fault…” –Sphene

I don’t think the Endless Sphene wanted to take the lives of others to preserve her own people. She recognized that her directive made her dangerously selfish, even when she did not want to be selfish. I also think she didn’t believe Alexandrian society always acted in the best interests of her people. However, the system that preserved her did not give her the freedom to pursue other paths. She may have hoped the Warrior of Light could find a peaceful solution that worked for her people and Wuk Lamat’s, but she also accepted from early on that being shut down might turn out to be the most peaceful solution that benefited everyone. However, she had to be careful that her acceptance of this path was never expressed in a way that would violate her directive.

“I am, in the end, a pitiful, selfish creature. One that should never have been created.” –Sphene

“If only I had met you when I was still alive, then perhaps…” –Sphene

I also theorize there is a second copy of Sphene’s memories in her crown. At some point it was mentioned that Sphene had a special regulator, and there was a small scene at the end of 7.0 that showed her crown glowing. It seems likely that a new copy of her will be created from these memories. I suspect that this version of Sphene will be devoid of any memories of her experiences with Wuk Lamat’s party.

[ode-to-an-inkwell]

I have an opinion question based on if kit and Sophie played Sansa and Jon with a romantic tension the same way Alan rickman played snape with a sense of empathy because he was told the out come or the books before they were released. Like maybe Martin told them their ending and the writers of the show didn’t care.

Hey, thanks for the ask!

So, I think the basis of the question is whether Sophie and Kit’s acting had romantic tension in the show. Tension can’t really be measured, mostly observed. Many of us share the observation of a Jonsa romance, and while perceptions can be argued, I believe there’s more to it than that.

As you said, it could be an instance where the actors intentionally portrayed the characters this way—with intense eye contact and heavy breathing. While we may never know if there was some kind of communication to them from GRRM, I try to keep in mind that it wasn’t just acting choice that contributed to the atmosphere between Jon and Sansa.

Costumes, cinematography, framing, editing, even writing all contributed to their romantic tension. Many of their scenes were intimate, not just physically in the space but in the topics of conversation, as well. They’re often framed together, and the editors chose to use shots that included lingering looks, holding hands, etc. Their costumes are reflective of each other, and Sansa even wears Jon’s cloak before she makes him a new one.

The writing poses their relationship as unfamiliar until they grow into partners. It’s revealed that Jon is Sansa’s cousin seconds before they’re in frame again. As he’s made KitN, he looks to Sansa. The writing also makes a distinction between Jon’s other relationships, such as his familial bond with Arya and Bran. Sansa is the person he trusts the most, and he proves that when he chooses her over everything else time and again.

My personal theory (just from my own observations) is that the idea of their romance was at the very least toyed with in the writing room. They may have wanted its possibility without fully committing to it, or to at least hint at something that could be in the books. There were too many deliberate choices made by the creators—even in the romantic tropes used to show Jon and Sansa’s bond and loyalty to each other—for their romantic tension to have no intentionality.

Sorry for rambling, lol. Thanks again for stopping by 💛💛💛

[graceandtheidiotsquad]

If Gen 10 or a future game is inspired by Greece/Rome, I really, REALLY Wonder if we'd actually get to learn more about the celestica people? I know this sounds batshit insane but hear me out-

The architecture they left behind is INCREDIBLY similar to real life greek and roman buildings and ruins, and the multiple deities such as the creation trio, arceus, the lake trio, ect. could parallel nicely with the greek pantheon, Mt Coronet possibly even serving as parallel to Mt. Olympus. Hell-a certain merchant in the postgame of PLA's outfit seems HEAVILY Inspired by those cultures.

[shiningstarr15]

I know you aren’t huge for Secret of the Mimic, but you gave theories on who is the main protagonist?

thaaaaaats a good question. I’ve seen some speculation around about it being a relative to Cassie (like a grandfather or something) but.. I fear I just don’t really see enough evidence to suggest it. I’m more inclined to believe that Cassie’s dad COULD be the silent protag of hw2, but again, it’s all up to speculation and really all we have.. is the fact that the person seemed to be a technician.

That being said, the best thing I can suggest maybe for now, is that it’s just another silent protag used to propel the story forward and never be heard from again. Which I’ll admit, is not my favorite form of storytelling bc it leaves any emotional impact with the character we play as diluted, but it serves its purpose to the bare minimum. And I suppose that’s all I can ask for.

(Also yes I’m aware TECHNICALLY Vanessa was a silent protag in help wanted and she clearly had bigger impact than we expected, so I won’t ENTIRELY write it off as them being unimportant in the long run, but this is also taking place in the past soo idk)

Also just one little thing I feel I should clarify: I’m not like, NOT looking forward to SotM, I’m just not like.. bouncing off the walls over it. I will admit to being interested based on the promotional material we’ve gotten with the commercials and tapes and stuff. But like I said before, I’m more interested in what it reveals regarding the story going forward. I definitely have my theories on what could happen/could be happening, but I like to solidify my evidence as much as possible before making claims to possible canonicity. In other words, I don’t like “jumping the gun” per se and keep things as either “hc or theoretical” until proven otherwise. That might be a me thing though lol

[meteorstricken]

Curious what do you think of possibly 2 Sephiroth’s working against one another ? I honestly wondered if one fought at end of Remake is “Future” Sephiroth, then I started to think of “original”/past Sephiroth the one in Northern Carter frozen in Mako. At first I thought for longtime are they working together ? But then it occured to me, what if they will end against one another ?

I'm not thinking there's >1 Seph at all.

My current favorite theory casts the Lifestream as an omnitemporal entity with an active will for how things are "supposed to" play out for the planet, and Sephiroth as having access to all that information. Because he has access to that information, and is technically "dead" he's working from within to subvert it--to bring it under his control as we see in the OG, where his control over the Lifestream prevents Holy from moving until he's defeated.

I don't think there's more than one timeline or more than one Sephiroth. I think what we're seeing with the Whispers and his various appearances are how he's taken on the omnitemporal nature of the Lifestream itself, and is slowly gaining control over it. This is evident in how, toward the end of Remake, we hear the cries of the planet coming directly from the Whispers as they swarm Midgar. The Whispers are a manifestation of a Lifestream under assault.

It's all about Sephiroth's gaining control over the Lifestream, and the Lifestream's attempts to resist that effort, resulting in its erratic behavior... We're just getting to see how the sausage is made this time, so to speak--how it all leads up to Sephiroth being able to block Holy.

Here's the dude who concocted this theory, and the two parts he's released so far. He's a theologian and professor who teaches religion, myth, philosophy, and literature IRL. (He's also fairly humble, values curiosity over bitter cynicism, and is willing to be wrong, which is a rare gem for VII's broader fandom, lol.) There will be a final, third part dropping shortly if you happen to find his takes as compelling as I do.

Part 1

Part 2

[confoundepangolin]

Noooo wait... it's coming full circle, right? Oh I really hope it doesn't... but it totally could... the first episode, Anglerfish, no way that's going to come back, right? No way they'd write that far ahead... but then again, it would tie everything up beautifully. I'm so conflicted. Jonathan Sims has broken into Gertrude's former house, I don't think that Sasha's boyfriend could possibly be good, but at the same time, I just want her to be happy. I'm still thinking about the tape with the burning clearing and the boiling pictures of Gertrude, of course an isolated mysterious ritual circle connected to the mysterious death of the former archivist with a recurring fire motif is going to be important, I'm so scared but this is amazing. Jon is so paranoid, and I can't help but think he could self isolate and fall into an insanity then villain arc, that would be cool. They all need so much therapy. There's also Mike, with his "I couldn't let the institute be taken this early" which is just way too much to unpack for my tired brain.

[nicky1388]

yeah i wonder if they knew the girl in the bob marely shirt😅

i strongly believe they didn't because Omar really has zero poker face. i think she was a fan who saw an opportunity to 'hang out' with someone she was a fan of and she didn't think before she did so. she kept getting in the middle of things and you can watch Omar's face just get a little bitchier as the stories progress. he was clearly there with Nurbo and Wilnur and Julia and that girl probably made that half hour very not fun for him. like, he's a real person, not someone for you to decide to hang out sith because you wanna be cool.

the trolls are all fussing about Lara being in front of them on day 3 and she was fine. she didn't try to get in their space or interrupt their time. she was doing the appropriate fannish thing. having fun being close without invading. but i have seen not a word about this obvious interloper and it bothers me so much!

[infinitevariety]

I've been convinced of this for days now. They were at least a dominion (funny how they mentioned that rank specifically, huh?), though some sources claim they are an archangel.

They are clearly very important to the story. Have you seen how well-lit they are? In the bookshop especially. Look at this shit:

They're a walking spotlight. And that last frame in particular. They're in the background, browsing the books. But they're dead centre of the frame, lit up like a snowy christmas tree. And their outfit. Of all the angels, every single one, Muriel is wearing the purest, cleanest white.

I have other thoughts and theories shooting around my brain that I'm working on. But Muriel is important.

It’s interesting how the Metatron et al. intended to demote Gabriel to the rank directly below Muriel—a rank which is implied to have been just invented specifically for that purpose.

It’s also kind of odd that the ranks of Scriveners in Heaven stop at 37. You’d think that they would go with 36, a nice even number, a square number, a particularly significant number in the Tanakh. So why would there be 37 ranks, unless the 37th was specifically created after the fact?

I’m calling it now: the punishment intended for the Archangel Gabriel has happened before.

And it happened to Muriel.

[twilightofthesandwiches]

The interesting thing is…. from the glimpses of SOUL-less Kris we saw in Chapter 1 + 2, it was notable how…. strangely they seemed to move. We saw them walking with a sort of zombie-like gait that maybe implied they weren’t in full control of their body still, or maybe just that they were in immense pain.

It led to a lot of people speculating that Kris does need a SOUL to some level. Maybe the SOUL is Kris’ but we’re a foreign entity that has taken it over, or that Kris’ original actual SOUL has been removed and replaced with us. If Kris needed the SOUL to live, that would explain their slow, deliberate movements and also why they keep putting us back inside despite clearly hating being under our control.

So now, with Chapter 4 giving us a much better glimpse of SOUL-less Kris doing stuff… it’s notable that they seem… fully capable of moving ‘normally’. Angrily, but normally.

Even when they do the whole Creepy Zombie Walk thing they are notably faster than they seemed to be in Chapters 1 + 2

They can do things that require fine motor skills, focus and swiftness like playing the piano, handling glasses, and beating the shit out of us with a hockey stick and it's all animated as smoothly as most other Deltarune Animations. Not really implying effort or stiffness the way that original Creepy Zombie Walk animation did.

And while Susie only gets a brief moment to interact with SOUL-less Kris in the Normal Route

Noelle has prolonged interactions with them in the Weird Route (both on-screen in Chapter 4 and off-screen in-between Chapters 2 and 3) and... while she does note that they sounded 'weak and shaky' and obviously their behavior seems weird on account of the whole 'traumatized by the Unkillable Evil Time-Demon only they can see" thing

... There's nothing to really indicate that there's anything outright unnatural or 'zombie-like' about the way Kris moves and interacts with her while SOUL-less. Since this is the Weird Route, Noelle even note this is the most natural and Kris-like they've acted in the last few days.... until we take over again.

And now we know they can go without the SOUL for a fairly prolonged period of time. The Ominous Phone Voice of Probably Carol does tells them they need the SOUL, it seems unclear why.

So… what that means for SOUL-less Kris’ behavior before? It’s possible that even if Kris can operate without a SOUL, it still hurts like hell. So right after tearing out the SOUL they are in Maximum Pain and it's hard to ignore, causing them to move in a struggling and slow manner. But the more they go without it, they kinda get used to it and the pain fades into the background - allowing them to do stuff more-or-less normally.

(Basically Kris has Chronic Pain but the only Painkiller that works for them is Demonic Possession)

…Or, knowing Kris, maybe this… was all an act. They were only behaving like This because they knew we were watching. It is pretty notable that they walk around normally in the Holidays' Kitchen while we're eavesdropping on them and only swap to the Creepy Walk Animation once they notice us....

Maybe this is an act, either to make us underestimate the things Kris could do SOUL-less… or because they’re a little teen Edgelord so they just enjoy playing up the whole Soulless Zombie thing when they have a chance.

[kaiserin-erzsebet]

One of the more frustrating things about the particular kind of anti-intellectualism directed at the humanities here and on places like tiktok is that pointing it out makes you seem like a killjoy.

No, I actually didn't find your "historians will say they were just friends" joke funny. No I don't think speculating that old photos are in black and white to make them seem older is harmless. But I seem uptight and "not fun" when I say these things.

[ghostie-goo]

welcome to the fog king 🙏

[egophiliac]

listen. people have always debated which character is the most normal guy but what if it has in fact been crowley the whole time. no string pulling no master plan just a guy who wants to keep his school running and is cursed with problematic students and incidents

honestly I think the funniest possible reveal would be one of two options:

ONE: Crowley has no plot relevance whatsoever. he wears the mask to cover his receding hairline. his darkest secret is the bottle of "medicinal" whiskey under his desk. this man can barely plan a PTA function with six months' advance notice, he doesn't have the time or patience for any kind of overarching master plot involving mutating students or whatever. the only thing wrong with him is that he's been running this school for (mumblemumble) years and, quite frankly, if you'd been putting up with NRC students for a couple of centuries, you'd have totally checked out by this point too.

OR

TWO: Crowley IS actually Raverne and HAS been slowly enacting a master gambit...to embezzle school funds. the overblots are still completely incidental. he has somehow less idea of what's going on than we do. we confront him about it and he's just like

[unikhroma]

we need to talk about ramb [analysis/theory]

MASSIVE shoutout to my friend mycringefactory for ripping his sprites

ramb! he's the power strip darkner in chapter 3 that runs the stand in the green room and introduces you to the set of games that leads to the chapter's unusual secret boss.

weird attention to detail with his sprites, telling kris that he knows they want, dismissing their concerns that something might be up, having a page of the sweepstakes ARG named after him instead of the location it's showing, directly introducing kris to a rendition of the weird route and saying that it's "REAL fun".

seems like if it were some other character, these would be ringing more alarm bells. but i knew, i Knew there was something up with him. he is the secret boss, it's just not in a way we're used to. strap in, cause this is long as fuck <- not an exaggeration i've been writing this for the past three days.

ramb is the shadow mantle enemy.

ramb wants kris to have fun and enjoy the games he's provided! no he really wants kris to have fun and enjoy the games. he mentions it a lot, and keeps saying that he knows kris and what they want. in the context of a game about the weird route no less.

and all this is much like the shadow mantle enemy. it says outright that it thinks a part of kris isn't getting the shadow crystals because it'll get what they want, instead it's that they're just enjoying this, like ramb keeps saying is the case for them.

it wasn't there to stop kris: what it wanted was to see kris play, said plain as day. i believe the flickering red comment is about kris' eyes, that it wanted to see them really get into playing the game.

it's hard to believe that this is all just a parallel when it lines up So Closely. i feel like you don't just have two characters speak almost exactly the same and with such an emphasis on the same things, with the only difference being an accent in one of them. not to mention that there's an NPC tells you who ramb parallels.

can't find footage, but m-chromatic says this is from a rudinn NPC

the shadow mantle enemy also further emphasizes its interest in kris having fun with a secret room in one of the games:

"Having fun?"

it feels like such a personalized message to them, and whether kris is having fun is something that ramb is very concerned with.

something particularly notable is what happens the first time you get proper dialogue from the mantle enemy. after the board is cleared, kris asks ramb about someone being backstage, and he denies it and says he's been there on security the whole time.

also i find it odd that the first line is one of the few times that expression of his shows up. in the second line he turns his head away in a smile

another thing:

and this bit might be a stretch but it's worth mentioning: the little creature that the mantle enemy turns into does happen to have floppy ears like ramb does.

once again shoutout to mycringefactory for ripping these sprites

alright, so ramb may have control of this game, probably from the wide variety of controllers in the backstage (though i have a personal theory that he can go into the game himself). but why do i think he has anything to do with the game itself? well, this ties into a sub-theory:

MANTLE/MANHOLE is a dragon blazers romhack made by ramb, and is what tenna unknowingly built his game off of.

in case you're wondering why i'm giving it two names. i personally think it's manhole cause it ties into other things

tenna's game vs the original game. "some big ol' blasted line from A to B" vs "the ORIGINAL game where YOU decide what to do". the parallel of regular route vs weird route is a lil on the nose. in this game, you're made to do a re-imagining of the weird route in chapter two and something beyond that. but the game wasn't always that.

the spamton sweepstakes is how we know this. the d_a_m_n_y_o_u_t_e_n_n_a page and noelle's icepalace_glaceir blog teases MANTLE/MANHOLE and ties it back to ramb. clicking the TV will change the screen to be static-filled (like the game cuts to when the controller isn't plugged in), and the lowest point of the page contains static squares, one leading to a neon blue screen and the other leading to ramb's page.

the neon blue screen (similar to the title screen of MANTLE/MANHOLE) can be scrolled up to show what looks like a representation of the ice area in the old game where you use the ice key. the door on the page leads to noelle's icepalace_glaceir blog, where she describes an oddity in dragon blazers that lines up perfectly with an area in the old game.

this cross area in the old game is accompanied by a track named GLACEIR. on noelle's blog, she writes that she's currently listening to a song from dragon blazers of the same name. it would make sense that if she's writing about that area and feeling nostalgic about it, she'd be listening to the song from it as well.

the choice of word for what her mood is.. i can't help but think of how that one weird ass expression of ramb's is called "nostalgic"

with all that in mind, i feel like it's pretty clear that that "old thing" tenna says he based his game on was intended to be dragon blazers. except that "original game" was clearly tampered with. it's not a coincidence that this game has a rendition of the weird route's beginning, it was put in there by someone. tenna is bothered by MANTLE/MANHOLE's contents as well:

another clue on the game being modified by ramb is, despite it being dragon blazers, the third board isn't a non-specific RPG location and is instead based on cyber world, specifically cyber city and queen's mansion's basement.

ramb originates from cyber world and while tenna may have known things about cyber city due to his connection with spamton, it's highly unlikely that he's seen the mansion basement, so it had to be ramb who modded it. ramb mentions people who live in queen's mansion like he knows them well.

another thing.. think about the names associated with him: his name is ramb. like RAMb. to put it simply, RAM is any data in a computing device that can change or be modified, and it's implied that he modded dragon blazers.

his name is misspelled as ROMb in-game and in the sweepstakes page regarding him and the old game. the track that plays in the S-rank room and thus when you speak to him about the game is called "Dump". to mod a ROM, you'd have to dump it from the hardware first (though i don't think that's necessarily what ramb did since we're in a fantasy world).

the dump thing is interesting to me also cause as mentioned before, the spamton sweepstakes has a page for ramb, but it was first accessed by clicking "[scrap heap]" in one of the prize descriptions. another allusion to him and trash... btw i feel like it's worth stressing: HE'S HAD A PAGE NAMED AFTER HIM THIS WHOLE TIME!!

oh and there's these two lines from him that absolutely implies that he had some kind of hand in the games backstage. the "HIS" would not be emphasized like that if the old game was impersonal to ramb.

so why is ramb like this?

why'd he want kris to play his fucked up snowgrave game so much? what's all this talk about fun? and then after all that, asking them if opening the fountain was that good of an idea... after all, doing so would cause him several darkners to turn to stone.

he's a power strip. like outlets, power strips can have a large variety of things connected to them: fans, chargers, TVs, video game consoles.. the key difference though, is that they can have multiple things connected to them at once and they're portable.

ramb shouldn't turn to stone because, unlike that zapper that turned to stone because its likely to be for catti's TV and isn't compatible with the dreemurr's, he's not bound by that kind of restriction. in fact there's a lot of uses he can have, multiple at once even. he's also directly relevant to TV world as being able to provide power to tenna himself.

but ultimately, in the same vein as tenna, he stopped being used. and getting kris to play these games, when his purpose is "letting you play your games", might've been a way to keep himself alive. "Without play... the knife grows dull." i think this line from him as the shadow mantle is also in reference to how without him being played, he'll turn to stone (grow dull).

i don't think this is just that side of himself being un-petrified because of the light. the light is enveloping him entirely, you can see it go well past him. i think he needed to be as close in proximity to the game as he could since it's tied to his purpose. more on this later.

selfish actions aside, i do think ramb cares about kris. but he was also suffering from being outcasted both socially and by lightners including them, so i think he was preparing for a fountain opening and the opportunity to convince kris into spending time with him again.

he was really done dirty by his fellow darkners man

he projects onto kris so much: he wants to have fun too. he misses those times. an opportunity to meet an old friend in the midst of loneliness and to relive those good memories he holds onto so much? well, he had to do something.

...and the something he did was steal the shadow mantle and create a fucked up game for this kid because he missed seeing them have fun and thought that all that fucked up shit was what they liked. (i think it's implied that kris plays video games in a bit of an aggressive way? unfortunately struggling to find specific scenes about it)

the thing about how he was already stone on the inside makes me wonder if that's a way of saying that he died inside a while ago and the loneliness broke him. part of me thinks he's intended to represent mentally ill people who fall through the cracks cause they don't "seem" like they are. this power strip needs therapy and medication man

the implications of him modifying the game to show the weird route in particular though... is he trying to encourage it? is it a warning? was learning about the weird route the thing that made him spiral and turn to doing this? it's very likely yes, since similar things happened to jevil and spamton.

how does he know about the weird route and what happened to him?

awesome first question: i don't know. it's possible that, because he's meant to parallel tenna, that he too was contacted by the knight, and they told him about it. however, it may not be that one-to-one. since spamton's forbidden knowledge came from someone outside of the in-game universe (we presume gaster), he could've gotten it from that.

and what's up with all the DEVICE_FRIEND appearances in his romhack? ..honestly can't explain it either. but since he depicts queen's mansion in it, i get the feeling that he's been down there and he saw it. maybe it's something that really stuck with him, or he had extended contact with it.

now as for his fate.. after the sword route is complete (meaning all three boards of his game are finished), the rabbick in the S-rank room expresses fear over something that happened with ramb.

so what the hell happened to him to freak this rabbick out so much?

most likely: he parallels tenna, so maybe he was also enlisted by the knight, and his job was to keep the shadow mantle out of kris' hands. because he failed to do so, he got taken or hurt by the knight as punishment.

less likely but more interesting to me: let's address the rabbick saying that kris already went past. we saw the pixel kris leave the backstage, so that seems to be what they saw. the pixel kris escaping the game may mean that the game will technically never be turned off, making it so that ramb is always being "used" and thus not fated to turn to stone while the fountain is still open

so the rabbick might've been frightened by a darkner that shouldn't be alive coming to life again (..thoough i have a theory that he might be able to shapeshift and that freaked them out but that's for another post)

either way, if you completed the sword route, ramb is somewhere else now. isn't that fun?

so! now with all of this information about him in mind: do you see why i'm insane about him. there's more evidence for some of my points (like ramb knowing you missed the ice key and having another creepy message for kris in a secret room) and evidence for potential counterpoints, but this post is so fucking long man.

thinking about exploring other things about him like his beef with tenna but we'll see. because this took a lot out of me LOL. anyway:

THANK YOU FOR READING!

oh and by the way, if there's a little man who doesn't fit with the other darkners telling kris to do some weird out-of-the-way shit and telling them that that's what they really want and he's talking about freedom, you should be asking questions