#DGM 251

[nekusakuraba]

all along, i've been so scared.

[halcyonfiction]

UMMM if the theory that apocryphos merged old Allen and old bookman junior is true, that would make present Allen a bookman, exorcist, AND a Noah. Both sides of the holy war AND the supposedly neutral party all trapped in one person. TRULY the most morally ambiguous character…….dare I say the gray man………hoshino you madwoman

[amipenthe]

jk one more theory before I go lol

The more I think about the past!Lavi becoming crown clown theory the more sense it makes.

1. At first, Allen couldn’t even move his innocence hand (as if it were a prosthetic added onto his body). Then, after he activated his innocence, it was incredibly unstable until he decided to stop fighting to die and start living for people and akuma, AKA he decided to start fighting to live period. After he made that declaration, he aligned more directly with his innocence’s wishes—Past Lavi’s wish for him to live! So his synchro rate increased.

2. Lucia mentioned that Past Lavi had shimmering silver hair just like our Allen’s. Our Allen mentioned his hair was chestnut until he activated his innocence. In a komui’s corner, Timothy explained after his hair turned green once his innocence activated, Allen told him his also changed color and he once tried to dye it, but it just changed back to silver—the same color as Past lavi’s!

3. Crown clown is unique in the ways it’s a defensive and offensive innocence. It has a white cape that wraps itself around Allen to protect him just like past!lavi once did for past!allen.

4. Of course, this is the most obvious point and one many have mentioned—crown clown actively protects Allen. It mended his heart post-Tyki and it plugged the wound Allen got from Kanda. Aka, it does everything it can to protect Allen.

Now I’m super on board with this idea. Especially because it also explains why Neah may have thought of past lavi when he saw Allen’s reflection for the first time AND why he seemed so bugged out by it. Aside from the whole Allen being young thing, since Allen has Past Lavi’s hair, his reflection likely gave Neah quite the jump-scare since our Allen looks like Past Lavi and Past Allen put together. And the last time Neah saw them both he probably saw them off before they traveled together. Which is also why he may have figured Allen had been reformed by apo!

[cinammonelles]

I want to talk about this page in particular because the implications here are so riveting.

Lavi is currently 19. Allen is believed to be 16.

Which means that either

The Bookmen are lying

Bookman Jr. did die then and Allen either didn't age the first few years or his age got fucked up multiple times before he met Mana

The first seems highly improbable at this point tbh. If the Bookmen were planning to make Allen take the poison to make him remember his past then lying about when Past!Junior (presumably) died seems counterintuitive and would only make Allen mistrust them more once he was in full possession of his memories.

It doesn't seem like Allen de-aged to an infant. He says his earliest memories are from when he was in the circus. Even if he did age back to an infant, he would've needed caretakers and nothing in the story suggests he had any.

(Note how little Allen doesn't have his Innocence in the last panel. What the fuck does this mean Hoshino.)

Allen looks perhaps 4-5 in both of these panels. If Past!Junior died over 19 years ago and Allen aged linearly since then, then he would have to be 23+ by now. Even considering the possibility that he aged back to an infant, he he should be 19+ by now and he looks barely over 17.

We can assume that he must've aged in a somewhat even fashion once he joined the circus because otherwise the performers would've commented on it at some point of time.

What happened in the years between Junior dying and little Allen getting into the circus? Was he in a child's body till he acquired his Innocence? How did he even acquire his Innocence in the first place?

There's also a final possibility that came to me while I was writing this post— Lavi was born while Past!Junior was still alive. He was born with the 'mark' because Past!Junior was no longer fit to be a Junior. I genuinely have no idea how Hoshino will explain this. Will it be some sort of corruption? Memory loss? Chronic illness?

All of them seem equally unlikely options at this point. But so did the possibility of Allen and Bookman Jr. being different people before this chapter :)

Either ways, this was a very intriguing chapter and I'm looking forward to whatever Hoshino has in store for us.

[pastaallen14]

This had me roaring with laughter! Hoshino is so real for her response 😂

[isthenextchapterofdgmoutyet]

(Drive)

[allenwalkerbitch]

It's genuinely going to be so hard to get out of the habit of calling the former Bookman Junior "Pasta"

[wanietheworld]

now, when Bookman told Lavi to not get attached it wasn't only because a bookman must not get involve....I get it now I get it.

[freckledlavi]

so uhhh, about all that bookman lore that dropped in this chapter, huh?

[elys-chan]

Me last chapter: Noooo Allen baby why did you cut your hair ?! It's like every chapter give me something to grieve ToT ...

Me now : ...

(goodbye theories and AUs)

[metiredlr]

Dear DGM fandom I've actually gone insane after 251 I never thought we'd get anything Bookman Clan related this soon

[echothagram]

Visual representation of me knowing we’ll have to wait another 3 months before the next dgm chapter

251 was WOW. Like WOW. So much new information and so many previous conceptions completely shattered (@_@). I have a lot of thoughts but I’m just gonna end this post right here

[amipenthe]

Okay, okay….I still don’t think Cross and past!bookman jr/Lavi are the same person. Mostly because of the different ways Lavi the first and Cross talk about Neah. Lavi the first seemed very enamored with Neah. He was unsure if they were friends but seemed to deeply wish they were. He was even willing to die to protect rando Allen the host and seemed upset he wasn’t chosen as Neah’s host after offering himself.

In contrast, Cross is frustrated by Neah which seems to indicate he was either much closer to Neah (the way old friends are able to speak freely with each other) or the two were more distant, kind of like colleagues by need (either could be the case, because after Link pointed out Neah worked with Cross, Neah very frustratedly said that was unavoidable, indicating they either had no choice but to work with each other out of circumstance or knew each other before Neah became a Noah OR Cross had a relationship of some kind with Mana outside of Neah’s wishes). And least we forget, Neah himself talked about bookman jr fondly while cussed at Cross about what he was doing when he needed him after reawakening lmao. Which indciates they are different people.

I know it can be argued that Cross is old Lavi, haunted and burned out, but I don’t believe that—the above reasons seem to indicate to me that Lavi the first was really, really concerned about Neah and not at all connected to Mana where Cross seemed more concerned with Mana than Neah. He was told by Neah to protect Mana and took that seriously to the point his ferocity over taking care of Mana may have had more to it than just an oath to Neah. He also seemed to know Mana personally and fondly. He mentioned to mother post-Allen being adopted by him as an apprentice that after Mana died Allen was acting just like him. Which really seemed to bother Cross. A LOT. I mean, to the point it seemed he had apprehensions on allowing Allen to be overtaken by Neah. Because, remember, mother even said, “That’s okay isn’t it?” And then Cross drank and said you’re probably right like it didn’t bother him. He even reminded Allen of what Mana used to say and was the one to tell him he’d have to kill someone he loves (aka Mana). Which is likely something Cross said to himself.

All that to say, I really like the concept that past!bookman jr was all in it for Neah and Cross was all in it for Mana. It makes the story more interesting and complicated…also it makes the dynamic between Neah and Cross a whole lot funnier lmao

[haine-kleine]

Not 10 years worth of fanon backstory for Pasta shattering by this one chapter revealing past Allen was in fact not Pasta but this whole different guy.

and Pasta was actually Cross

[reloaderror]

I need everyone to have another look at the cover of volume 13 in light of what we’ve just learned 

[prime-adeptus]

your honour I love them