#theories and speculation

[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

[bwlkins]

There are two types of people in GO fandom waiting for S3: 

[fortytwosonicbards]

I love that it's intentionally ambiguous. I hope s3 doesn't directly address it at all.

But because this is the internet I am going to add my musings to the pile.

I tend to take things at face value, so on first watch, it definitely felt like a 'I won't hold that kiss against you' or I saw one take that that said Crowley 'tempting' Aziraphale, and he was forgiving him the temptation. Both of which feel somehow really rude??

But the more I think about it, the more I wonder. If anyone besides God could Forgive/Absolve a soul, would it not be the Supreme Archangel? Does the title take effect as soon as he accepted it in his heart? Was that in fact Azi's first official act as Supreme Archangel?

And is it possible that the next time Crowley tries to draw his wings, they will be--inexplicably--...white?

Everyones got these headcanons about why aziraphale says "i forgive you," and why crowley said "dont bother."

I think theyre all right. Its a culmination of everything theyve been through that they cant put into words because communication is exactly what theyre struggling with. I think its all they could think to say.

Hiya! :). Mmm. What I would love is Neil's take on it :D<3.