pissboy-pi

[pissboy-pi]

The Stolen Icon

holy shit a lot's happened! and truly seems like the 'Tectives have their Season's Crime to follow now :D

[pissboy-pi]

Hmm, yes it is certainly a lot of crime in a 'Cabot Cove/st Mary Mead is the murder capital of the world' kind of way.

Although timing wise you can justify it as:

Initial Vandalism/Painting Theft/Valve Theft

|_______________________________________|

|

All The Snake

Snake Vandalism -> Inspired Skeet

Ace's Theft -> Incidental

Which in terms of actual, categorical crime is only three independent actors, with one being incidental timing.

Assuming the fire is either an accident or also The Snake, then it's not all that much a coincidence?

Especially if you assume The Snake set their plans in motion because they knew the 'Tectives were there that night. So in a way, all this may well be happening Due to our beloved Drawtectives Presence. (Ace's theft excepted)

But if you keep updating your list here, it would be immensely funny to see if they crack ten crimes in one night, maybe they'll win a free toaster.

List of Crimes Committed in Midnight Alley This Evening

(and who committed them, to our best knowledge) (Up To The Stolen Icon) (parentheses are when crimes are introduced)

1. The Murder of Mitch Vite (episode 1, resolved): A false crime created by Jancy and Brigstoc's Theatre. In the play, the butler did it, in reality, nobody was harmed. However, Jancy did lie to get them to the theatre.

2. Midnight Alley Gallery Vandalism (episode 2, resolved): Skeet Autobahn, as well as possibly Porcino. This was an attempt by Skeet to promote his message that rats deserve citizenship– if he is to be believed.

3. Midnight Alley Theft and Vandalism (episode 2/3, resolved): The Snake. Used to inform the Drawtectives about the snake's successful theft of the rat king valve– though, why did they decide to share this? Speaking of–

4. Theft of the Rat King Valve (episode 3/4, unresolved): The Snake. Motive Currently Unknown.

5. Theft of the Scuttle Bud (episode 4, resolved): Ace Bovrel and Bug Bites. Ace wanted to take it on a date, presumably like in their fanfictions. It was likely delivered to Bug Bites, who were incidental in the crime due to their immediate willingness to return it.

6. Burning of the Head of The Snake (episode 4, unresolved): Unknown. WHAT

....

all this to say. this is a lot of crime to happen in one night. Are the 'Tectives going to be solving a crime an episode while trying to reach the valve and the Snake? Is there a reason these are all happening tonight– is there a through line, or is it just coincidence because these are the Tectives and Scenarios follow them everywhere?

[pissboy-pi]

OH I totally forgot I have a VERY evil drawtectives theory if anyone is interested

ok so in episode 4 of midnight alley the drawtectives specifically mention that The Snake seems to be “toying with” them. giving them clues about where to go next, leaving messages, etc., when they could’ve just stolen the valve and bounced with no one the wiser.

so uh. who at the start of this season literally organized a mystery for the drawtectives to solve? because they hadn’t had a case in a while?

JANCY.

as sweet as she is, there seems to be parts of her past in midnight alley that remain a mystery. why did she leave? why hasn’t she visited? she seems to have been an influential member of the community (a lot of NPCs in midnight alley know her, she was potentially involved in designing the keeper’s guild logo), so why hasn’t she come back?

maybe there’s more to the story of jancy being “a misfit among misfits” in midnight alley

but also julia please tell me I’m wrong my heart cannot take a jancy villain arc

[pissboy-pi]

i will. i will say. i understand that eugene ducked out this episode and it looks very suspicious and it IS but also i will be the one to point out*: this is a thing julia did with jancy in season one! she did this in season one so she didn't have to animate an extra character! his exit hasn't been acknowledged in universe so i can't bring myself to suspect my poor boy yet :(

* i don't want to suspect him eugene's a darling character to me :(

[pissboy-pi]

Consider:

The Snake may be doing this to bring attention to this very issue.

'What are you gonna do if someone steals the Valve?'

'oh no one would be stupid enough to do that'

'wanna bet?'

no one in this fucking alley cares about safety plans

[pissboy-pi]

Y'all make an excellent point.

While I'd say he's probably just a Green Herring as two times does not a pattern make, if he goes off screen during another Snake Action™️?

He's gonna receive an official Suspect™️ tag.

drawtectives s3 ep3 spoilers! You know me, I’m theorizin.

this could mean nothing, obviously, but it’s a little strange to me that The Snake’s color palette seems to be bright green and black.

now. This is barely a connection but you know who’s ALSO green and black?

eugene my boy are you the main suspect again. really…..

I mean, on one hand his green is bluer and less neon and he has absolutely no motive to commit this crime. On the other hand he doesn’t actually have an alibi for when the theft took place? He wasn’t with the drawtectives… did he really stay at the front desk this whole time?

There IS that art julia did with three rats and a snake. Is he the snake???? I hope not but. Hm

[pissboy-pi]

The moment he does I shall move him to the 'Tectives section, but I'm afraid until it's stated in cannon he must remain under the Gallery section.

Although I am pleased that he (by word of god) has not slunk away, never to have his (potential) crimes (that he is innocent of) addressed by the story.

Post E4 update, I feel like I'm missing something?

I mean there's always more to add, but I feel there's something obvious I'm missing here.

And yes i did add the location stings just to have more string on the board, can't blame a guy for liking string can ya?

closups under the cut

Small update to The Gallery, Porcino's suspicious paint stain has been added.

Alas it seems I was right to hold off moving him to the 'tectives section, as he is not yet accompanying them.

Polaroids for all talking people as per usu, but I included a printout of the staff list just in case, and the list of items currently in repair, the audio logs seem irrelevant for now though.

That eye-rat can be seen prominently above the keepers guild sign and scribbled throughout the building, I'm unclear on if it's the symbol of the guild or the Neighbourhood Watch.

The rat king is an artist rendition since technically the 'tectives haven't seen it diagetically yet.

If you wanna better look at the map you can find it and screenshots of Juila's original here: …⁠ᘛ⁠⁐̤⁠ᕐ⁠ᐷ

No zoom ins on the other sections because they've had no relevant updates, but if you want them they're here with the previous board: ฅ⁠^⁠•⁠ﻌ⁠•⁠^⁠ฅ

[pissboy-pi]

I assume it's to denote which side to open the cabinet from when accessing the animatronics? Since there's a mirrored stain pattern on Blanch's side.

also was anyone else going absolutely nuts about this not being addressed??? the WHOLE TIME I was sitting there yelling at them to ask about the arrow!!! is it just to denote the dirt?? is it secrets? we may never know 😫

[pissboy-pi]

okay okay okay, SO

First up I think maybe the snake's delightful sweater as shown in the screenshot is what caught on fire, it looks both delightful and flammable.

Second, YES, EXCELLENT POINT, Mysterious statue put-upperer (snake) = Mysterious Vandel (snake)

Snake=Snake makes perfect sense

BUT, it got me thinking

Fleur said the guys from DIG had to go to the "Southeastern part" of the city, which means the rat king valve is likely located here.

and on Julia's snake map we can see that the statue is implied to continue running underground via these dashes:

SO, IF WE CONTINUE THE PART OF THE TAIL THAT RUNS INTO THE WATER.

There's a chance it intersects with the valve

So snake=snake could actually be an INSANE long play by whomever this Guerilla Artist is, how'd they build the statue underground/under the sea with no one noticing? I dunno how'd Eugene build a whole city in space with ethical labour practices? That's not the point.

Good theory op, you really sent me spinning.

Okay so I wanna talk about that big snake statue from the new drawtectives ep because I feel like it was kinda glossed over and will probably be important for next ep (if the warning they got at the end is about it, which... it has to be about that, right?)

(Long post, so it's under a cut)

So, first a cool detail I noticed that I don't wanna shoehorn into the end:

This snake statue was actually first shown in episode 2, during the midnight alley opening ceremony.

It looks so cool! Although it looks like metal or something, so how the hell did it catch on fire? I have no ideas for that, plz sound off in the replies. This is also a much closer look at it than the one we get in episode 4, which is nice. It's cool to finally know (some) of what the deal is with this statue, it kinda stuck out to me back when I first watched episode 2. Although the info we got only really gave me more questions.. cause like...the statue just showed up one day??? How???? It's so big! Also no one knows who made it? There's gotta be some crazy conspiracy videos on Bootube about it I just know it.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about this because I feel like maybe the creator of this statue and our elusive snake are one in the same.

Here's my evidence

1) snake motif (duh). But really, sea snakes were released into a flooded midnight alley at some point in the past to literally hunt people down, I imagine the citizens of midnight alley don't like them very much... The snake using that as their alias obviously shows how they're an antagonist to midnight alley (..cause they wanna flood it) but also kinda sticks out. Maybe they just chose it on purpose to be scary and like... reference the alley's history but idk, there could be more there

2) art motif. This might take some explaining but hear me out. In the art gallery, the snake not only vandalized Skeet's paintings but also drew a big snake on the wall.

They also wrote these sort of.. riddles? I guess? Maybe poems? Idk.. but those are also art! I had a theory after episode 3 that maybe the snake was some kind of disgruntled artist who was like, mad that Skeet got a spot in the gallery and they didn't, which maybe holds less water now but I still think it could be on the right track. Also, Fleur notably says the statue was 'installed' one day, like an art installation. Lots of art installations (especially the... less legal ones) just kinda show up overnight, so it being viewed as some art installation by the people of midnight alley makes sense. Anyway I mostly just wanted to say this cause I think the idea of the snake being an artist is REALLY compelling. It gives them a cool contrast/maybe even like a foil dynamic with the drawtectives, ik the drawtectives arent like, career artists in universe but they are good at art and they keep having to draw to solve mysteries so... they count. Also, it provides a sick as hell opportunity for some social commentary on the art industry or the art world or whatever which would RULE, that's the thing I most want to be right about with this theory haha

Anyway if I think of anything to add I'll put it in a reblog, thanks for reading my rambling lol

[pissboy-pi]

Post E4 update, I feel like I'm missing something?

I mean there's always more to add, but I feel there's something obvious I'm missing here.

And yes i did add the location stings just to have more string on the board, can't blame a guy for liking string can ya?

closups under the cut

Small update to The Gallery, Porcino's suspicious paint stain has been added.

Alas it seems I was right to hold off moving him to the 'tectives section, as he is not yet accompanying them.

Polaroids for all talking people as per usu, but I included a printout of the staff list just in case, and the list of items currently in repair, the audio logs seem irrelevant for now though.

That eye-rat can be seen prominently above the keepers guild sign and scribbled throughout the building, I'm unclear on if it's the symbol of the guild or the Neighbourhood Watch.

The rat king is an artist rendition since technically the 'tectives haven't seen it diagetically yet.

If you wanna better look at the map you can find it and screenshots of Juila's original here: …⁠ᘛ⁠⁐̤⁠ᕐ⁠ᐷ

No zoom ins on the other sections because they've had no relevant updates, but if you want them they're here with the previous board: ฅ⁠^⁠•⁠ﻌ⁠•⁠^⁠ฅ

[pissboy-pi]

Welcome, step in to my (shared) Office.

Here to unravel the Mysteries of Drawtectives Season 3?

Find the most recent update to the Conspiracy Board here: ฅ⁠^⁠•⁠ﻌ⁠•⁠^⁠ฅ

Other fan theorys? This tag: …⁠ᘛ⁠⁐̤⁠ᕐ⁠ᐷ

or the work of the lovely DT Transcripts here: ʋ(°▾°)ʋ

And as always, feel free to ask about my theories or share your own, a Detective is not an Island. (for starters they're spelled differently)

[pissboy-pi]

So obviously I need a copy of the map for the board, but 15 screenshots of Julia's beautifully rendered map is a bit much, space wise.

So I created this mess!!

(all traced from Julia's beautiful original maps obv)

Edit: added Papa's Pizza and Night Owl Books as suggested by @spectros, although building breaks on the map don't line up super well with what we actually see on the street, so I've split the sticky for now.

Edit 2: added Ruth's Appliances as suggested by @discocandles, as well as Alley Records, 'SAP' and 'FIRE'

relevent screenshots and rambling under cut

minus the snake cause I'm not on PC rip

Also I think I got Brigstoc's location correct, but do tell if you think otherwise.

Cool things I noticed while tracing this out:

The call that the snake is on fire came from Lost Orc, meaning it is probably the head that is on fire, the head is directly over "Cave Square" which is a little concerning if anyone was in there at the time.

Echo eyewear is on Echo Lane but Echo Drugs is not, this suggests they're owned by the same people but E. Eyewear (the smaller of the two) is the original location.

There's a building labeled "The Art League" wonder what they think of Skeet?

Two buildings next to each other belong to "Mountain Goats" and "Woodworms", and while it's most likely these belong to groups dedicated to those creatures, I prefer to think they're music fanatics dedicated to The Mountain Goats and Will Wood, and they have debates over which is better every Tuesday.

The convenience store "Clock Corner" doesn't have a clear sight line to the Clock Tower.

One special interest location is "Steamed Trains" I assume this is a gourmand society, and I wonder how Ogalvy feels about it.

Psychics are considered a service.

How the heck did someone put up the Snake statue with no one noticing?!?! IT'S HUGE!!!!

In E2 the exit from Cave Square Labels itself as to "Clock Tower Alley" which is not labelled on the map, we can probably safely assume this is the original name of Main Street.

With every edit I make to this map I am blown away by the scope of Julia's world building.

[pissboy-pi]

Unsure if anyone else has said this yet, but the owner of the Scuttle Buds sign is L. Imulidae, and limulidae is the family that horseshoe crabs are a part of!

[pissboy-pi]

There's..... So much to look through in the new episode, and i look forward to doing so.

....but flooding a section of the city to kill the working class is some Ayn Rand level evil capitalist dumbassery.

[pissboy-pi]

Julia says tomorrows drawtectives ep is her most labor intensive episode and it's also lore heavy so. Gnawing and scratching at my enclosure

[pissboy-pi]

Was watching Nathan Longs' ep3 breakdown and got distracted from his complementation of Julia's Graphic design skills by this;

The Ace is in lower case for some reason.

Like yeah it's a cool Ratpack of cards with a Rat King and Snoker (Snake Joker), but this just stood out to me for some reason?!??!?

Does this mean something? ¯⁠\⁠(⁠◉w◉⁠)⁠/⁠¯

Probably not.

[pissboy-pi]

Okay y'all, let's have a talk about our good buddy Porcino.

Now we expect that he will joining the 'Tectives, living on their persons, being an asset, moving up down and flipping all around, in every screen from here on out.

So let's take a look at his involvement in the vandalism of the Skeet Autobahn Exhibit at the Midnight Alley Art Gallery:

Porcino is either an employee of the gallery itself or of Skeet Autobahn (unclear) but is clearly treated poorly, to the point of abuse, by his direct superior; Skeet Autobahn.

His job parameters we know of are; he is expected to remain in the back room, and perform tasks such as 'Cleaning the Easels'

His outfit/uniform, a direct replica of Skeet Autobahn's preffered attire and is poorly maintained, with his hat being for special occasions only.

Given that Skeet seems unaware that his preferred subject, Rats, are not in fact marsupials, and his general lack of working memory or evident talent, it is possible that he is taking credit for the work of others, namley Porcino.

We see here when Porcino reaches out to indicate the wallet in Skeet's dufflebag, that he has a smattering of orange paint on his shoulder, under his turtleneck, visible through the break in the stitching.

Meaning he got the paint on him before putting his turtleneck on.

The remaining piece of art on the wall vandalized by the snake is a portrait of a rat with a similar haircut and profile, but a different colouring, to Porcino. Done in spray paint over a backing of newspapers bemoaning the state of modern art, possibly the art of Skeet in particular.

The vandalism on this piece is intentional, crossing out the body and eyes of the subject, with no slashes in the canvas.

In contrast, the other orange vandalism is random, messy, with no clear artistic intention, it damages the pieces, runs off the sides of the canvases and onto the wall.

I am near certain that the former was done by Porcino and the latter by Skeet.

The question is why Porcino vandalized this piece, given the paint splatter on the floor, we know it was done in the gallery proper, however Porcino is not tall enough to reach the painting on his own.

I postulate that this was actually an intentional artistic addition to the piece, likely with the assistance of Skeet, indicating that The Artist, referred to in the newspaper articles and featured in his re-coloured self portrait, is not seen and dismissed.

Given this piece was marked down in price three times since it's original completion, we can assume that Skeet's true motivation for the vandalism was monetary rather than political, and that Porcino was press ganged into helping.

It is unclear if the Snake's Vandalism happened before or after, but as Skeet is a hack, it was most likely beforehand and Skeet took the idea and ran with it.

In conclusion,

Our little buddy Porcino is an Orange Herring.

He may be an accomplice, but the only crime he's guilty of is radical artistic expression.

posts used in constructing this theory:

x/x/x