#I like this scene in theory but I don't like it in the grand scheme of things. do u get it

[cnl0400]

Father's unconditional love

[allpiesforourown]

Thots on cam boy shen yuan?

cam boy shen yuan would be super hot in theory, but in practice he's too rich and thin faced to ever do it.

you know who would ?? binghe. 100%, i will elaborate underneath

alright. you are luo binghe. love of your life shen yuan is obviously physically attracted to you, but you don't know if he realizes it. now how can luo binghe do that?

first, make a sexy calendar for charity or something. tell your buddy shen yuan about it and obviously he buys like 50 to support you, which is perfect because you only made 50. he will put one up and stare at your abs in 'heterosexual admiration for your physique' so this plan isn't for that: it's to give shen yuan your onlyfans account

You see, when shen yuan sees the 'about this model' section in the calander, he'll find out that binghe has his social medias listed, including one that shen yuan doesn't know about??

boom he finds binghe selling nudes or jacking off or whatever. this is all part of the plan. Now shen yuan is in a position where he thinks he knows about something that binghe didn't want him to know about. he fidgets around binghe with guilt for a while until one day he pulls him aside for a talk

He stumbles around the topic with general lines like "you can talk to me about everything" or "there's nothing wrong with asking for help with money" etc etc.

NOW THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART: shyly say actually you've started trying a new way of making money because you don't want to be a burden. this is the one and only shen yuan, so obviously just to help you, he will subscribe to your cam show or whatever and shower you in money

at this point you sort of have him in a trap, because he can't make a straight excuse for paying for his bro's ball pics, but shen yuan often closes your streams halfway (probably out of shame or denial) so you have to make a scheme to make him watch the whole thing. it's easy for binghe to say some shit like "actually guys... lately it feels like no one appreciates the effort i put into jacking off on camera boohoo im so sad.. and shen yuan feels soooo guilty he starts watching the whole videos and the whole time he's blowing up your chatbox saying shit like "youre doing great!" and "wow it's really cool how long you can go"

and now, the end scene, the grand finale: you are hanging out at his place. at this point he has been pavlov'd through the cam videos so when you stub your toe and your groan sounds a little like a moan, shen yuan immediately yells out "YOUR COCK IS GREAT, BINGHE!" and you watch his soul transcend his body as he realizes what he's just done

[cursedmagician]

so. let's talk about that episode shall we?

major ii 17 spoilers under the cut, and lots of theories. read at your own risk.

divider by strangergraphics ✮⋆˙

I have no idea what to even think about that episode. I watched this at about 8 in the morning my time, and now I am in shambles and have been for the last several hours. I'm going to dump all my theories in this one blog post.

my first topic, and the elephant in the room - THIS IS NOT THE LAST ACT. NO WAY.

I've seen people asking if this is the last act and therefore the last ever episode in the series, and to that I say... obviously not. there's still so many plot points to be resolved.

like, for example, why would they add in a scene of the prime shimmers going to the contestant grounds if they weren't going to do something for it later?

yes I know that they were already used as merely a small plot device to allow the episode to progress, but when you think of it in the grand scheme of things there must be something more to it.

also, and - I may be going crazy here - but there might possibly be some sort of parallel of when cobs tells mephone to go "home" with him. we now know that all those previous theories of mephone being made with the shimmer egg are correct, because of fan. since that is the case, I feel like it would make sense for mephone's true home to be with the prime shimmer, right?

I feel like this could be a plot point in the next act. mephone feels more at home with the prime shimmer than he does with cobs (obviously). he would meet them and realise he feels strangely connected to them, and then he figures everything out which leads up to him discovering his true family. and I hope cobs rots and dies FOREVERRR

another point to add onto this is that remember how soap and mic took that photo together in the last episode?

well, soap was going through her recently deleted.

on apple (and I'm assuming meeple as well) devices, it takes 30 days for photos in the recently deleted photo to be fully erased from the device. before that, you can restore and fully erase as many photos as you like.

at the end of this episode when everything created by melife has been erased, baxter is seen walking up to soap's phone here.

in a scene where everything is gone, don't you think this is weirdly symbolic? they didn't have any other reason to show this which leads up to the next theory.

mephone is most likely going to find a way to bring everyone back through some way, and it might be through this system. I'm not saying I know how he's gonna do it, but this will totally be some sort of factor in the next act. hopefully.

second topic - what about bow and bot?

and I know what you all are thinking. I know that bow is definitely not gone, since she obviously isn't supported by melife anymore. (I'm a little curious, bow mentioned that she can't escape the confines of purgatory mansion, but since now that's been deleted, would she be able to roam free? just a thought...)

the same could be said for bot, since they were made by fan and test tube and not by melife. but there's been some speculation going around saying that since bot was made out of materials from test tube's lab, they would be deleted too right?

I actually think that's not necessarily the case.

we have no idea if test tube's materials or her lab was made out of things generated by melife. for all we know, she could have ordered the mechanical parts from overseas. she could have dug up the space she needed for the lab herself.

all we know is that the locations made for the game itself are generated by melife. however, test tube's lab has really nothing to do with the contest because it is its own thing.

so I think this entire theory is genuinely plausible. bot might still be out there somewhere, and I'm not going to say on the invitational island because we don't know if that entire thing was deleted too or just the floor's face. they genuinely might be making their way over to the season 2 grounds right now, wondering what is going on.

which could possibly make way for a bow and bot meeting, AND they might team up too to save the day!! that definitely feels like a direction that adam would be going for, and I personally would totally stand for it.

third topic - can mephone X be avoided or stopped somehow?

here's what I'm thinking.

lightbulb actually managed to dodge mephone X here, and even though yes she did get got in the end, you can at least delay the process or maybe even outrun them altogether.

there must be a reason as to why only the person who is being targeted can see mephone X, but that's a theory for another day.

now, this part is less of a theory and more of an idea - that is supported by numerous twitter posts - but what if you are able to see mephone X with another me device thingy?

think about it, what if taking a picture or just going through the camera app enables others to see them, therefore allowing the contestants to potentially disable mephone X for good?

assuming my theory is correct and they do come back somehow, I doubt that adam forgot about this plothole completely. there must be more significance to this in the future.

we all know how the main writing team writes. they think of everything, down to the small details, and the reference previous things that were thought to be insignificant before!! reminds me of bfdi in a way.

fourth topic - misc stuff/yapping

and well of course I had to dedicate an entire section to just my yapping alone. I know I'm still pretty new to blogging, I don't have many posts yet, but I think it's worth it to just leave my thoughts out here for people to cry over also.

firstly... OJ and paper's last conversation was an argument. lol!! XD!! also it was so funny as to how paper got so ticked off after salt said OJ is her boyfriend. I understand that he might have still felt pretty heated after everything that had been going on, + the argument they had earlier. and I know that OJ is very important to paper. but I still think it was really hilarious. some could say jealous. "he's not your boyfriend he was MINE!!"

ALSO!!! also also also THIS fucking scene...

this is gonna haunt me for the rest of my life man. what the fuck. imagine if slasher movies were like this... like jigsaw or something. if I saw this in a slasher movie I would be terrified for my LIFE (something these contestants don't have).

I really really liked the scene where paintbrush was crying over lightbulb btw. jazzy did an amazing job at that, and they said that they didn't even cry to be able to voice it!! she's a very talented va, I aspire to be like her someday...

another thing I wanted to mention is this tweet made by brian a while ago (screenshot I nabbed from me_phone4 on twitter) yes this is absolutely going to be for inanimate insanity. no questions asked. hope is on the horizon guys.

ok I think that is the end of this post. likes and reblogs are appreciated, and also reblog if you want to add onto my theories later!

for now, signing off!! - CURSED MAGICIAN

[ryuseiired]

"wait, why does jackalope say mikoto is at the top of murders?"

I've seen a lot of people confused about this so I thought I'd make a post on why I personally think this comment makes sense and isn't, like I've seen a few people get worried about, implying anything new or even especially large about his murder count.

My take, heavily influenced by this post, is that Mikoto has killed three people. The post referenced points out that MeMe shows three murder scenes with discrepancies– using the images they do as reference we can see two clear and notable differences in location, and one scene where the outfit has changed and lacks the hoodie.

(As a side note, if we take that post's proposal as to who committed which murders– one by Mikoto and two afterwards by John– I wonder if this shot from Double with two mannequins next to him implies John's actual kill count? Not particularly relevant to the overall point but I thought it was interesting.)

So... three total murders would technically mean the Kayano system meets the criteria of "three or more" murders to be a serial killer. But I don't actually think it's as bad as a lot of people assumed from Jackalope's words. He's not a super prolific serial killer or anything, only just barely meeting the criteria. Three isn't that big a number in the grand scheme of things, it's just that it's large enough to put him at the top of MILGRAM.

Most other prisoners only have one victim. Haruka, excluding what's implied regarding animal death, appears to only have one human victim, that being the little girl who appears in his MVs. Meanwhile Fuuta, Muu, Mahiru, Kazui, and Amane all have made it pretty clear at this point that they have singular victims– Killcheroy, Rei, Mahiru's boyfriend, Hinako, and Amane's mother, respectively.

This leaves only a few others with unclear victim counts.

Yuno isn't clear on how many abortions she's had, only states that it's her crime and that it was the result of "lots of sugar-daddying". Whether or not she actually got pregnant and had an abortion more than once over the course of the compensated dating is left uncertain. She could be among the prisoners with one murder, or could have multiple.

Kotoko could either have one kill or two kills depending on what you believe about Deep Cover. If I remember right the guy she beats up in the alleyway during Harrow doesn't die, we only see a news article saying he's been hospitalized? I can't find the source on where I saw this though so take it with a grain of salt. The fact she did kill the guy in the hoodie, Kaneshiro, is indisputable.

The question becomes, if she was tried and found innocent for it already before being put in Milgram, was that really all she's in for? Most of Deep Cover takes place afterwards. Either believing the theory that she indirectly or accidentally got Lucky killed, or simply using the circumstantial evidence that it seemed like she was going to hunt down someone else towards the end of the MV and the prisoner card doesn't look like the warehouse she killed Kaneshiro in, I personally believe Kotoko has two victims.

Nobody seems to really know how many people Shidou killed, but it's also pretty heavily suggested that it's a lot, judging by how many people and/or organ donor cards we see in Throw Down and Triage. He is usually assumed to have the most murders out of anyone in Milgram, which I personally agree with.

This leaves us with a kill count ranking that looks something like:

Shidou (many, many victims)

Mikoto (three victims)

Kotoko/Yuno? (one or two victims?)

Everyone Else (one victim)

This puts Mikoto, assumedly with three kills, at the second-highest kill count in Milgram, but Jackalope isn't implying an unreasonably high number by pointing out how far up he is. Nothing more than what was already shown to us in MeMe, anyway.

And while I can't speak on this. the exact wording Jackalope uses in Japanese may not imply he has the most or is at the top anyway, just near it. Which would be consistent with him having second most!

[nalyra-dreaming]

I do suspect the eye colour changing thing was literally nothing more than a stylistic decision for the big vampire reveal and nothing more than that. Theories are fun and all but sometimes fandom gives the writers greater intentions than were ever actually there. Like I honestly don’t think Rolin Jones cares less that book Daniel has violet eyes for a start. I don’t think it’s that important.

I do also think Eric’s throwaway comment about falling for Justin Kirk/Raglan James has also been given far more weight than it actually deserves. It wasn’t a spoiler, it was just an actor talking like an actor tbh.

And finally…the whole Daniel body swap thing is such a massive change from the source material that I truly can’t see them going down that route. Changing a characters eye colour is one thing, but to body swap a character such a thing never happens to is a massive rewrite and would be very out of character for the show. Idk, it just would be a huge disrespect to the source material and to a character people love. I get people just don’t want David Talbot in the show, but in all honesty I hope the show never even adapts that particular novel as it’s just not that good.

Raglan James was a character that needed to be introduced, Daniel needed a reason to have come into possession of the trial script. The Talamasca got to edit Daniel’s book and remove anything they didn’t like. I really think that’s all there is to it.

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that the fans will theorise all sorts of grand schemes, but the writers inevitably come up with the simplest, most obvious explanations.

Rolin Jones is on record saying he wants to do TtotBT, and Sam and Jacob have both commented on it.

As such I see it hardly as a far reach that they will go there. And it is a logical step after Akasha, too. I personally like the book a lot, it deals with body dysmorphia, suicide, crippling depression and guilt, so I get it's not for everyone, but it has some incredible Loustat scenes, among other things.

I don't think Raglan James makes much sense if you do NOT want to go there tbh. If they'd just wanted to open the Talamasca connection up, they could have used Aaron Lightner, or even Jesse Reeves.

So. *shrugs*

For now I'm taking it as a hint.

[tonydaddingham]

what does aziraphale know?

i wanted to have another look through the pre-fall scene because there was something that wasn't feeling Quite Right to me about it, and honestly the below is just a stream of consciousness rather than any coherent theory, analysis or otherwise - so read at your own peril.

so the school of thought for many reasons has been that the Angel Who Crowley Was (AWCW) was a powerful angel, and i don't think that can be argued sufficiently given what we have seen so far from s1 and s2. but after rewatching the pre-fall scene i do wonder if crowley's importance in the Grand Scheme of Things has been overestimated, possibly by noone more than AWCW/crowley himself, and if aziraphale was actually the one with status, however quiet and modest.

when we open with the pre-fall scene, we see crowley alone, and he calls at a passing angel for some help with the map/plan. now this angel seems to rocketing past at the literal speed of light, and i cant help but feel that they were actually intending on going somewhere. and at the below specific angle, that angel looks like they were heading in a downward trajectory.

given that AWCW points up when referencing "Upstairs", we can infer that whilst heaven may not be bound by concepts like upstairs or downstairs, it does seem to have a concept of a higher placement for a higher being (ie god). this is also going on the assumption that in this scene, AWCW and the angel are even in heaven-space (which arguably, they're not), but regardless the angel seems to be heading down, indicating that they've just come down from the Up.

in any case, when aziraphale arrives, has helped AWCW with the cranking, he then says, "was that it?". and the way he says it, his body language, indicates to me that he is being polite, but in a perfunctory way. to me, it almost feels like he has things he needs to get on with - not in any frustrated or impatient manner, but just simply, 'is there anything else you need from me?', because he has things To Do.

(gif quality does not display this lmao but it's the impression i got anyway)

but AWCW puts out there that that was just the starting the ignition, and gleefully says that the next bit is where the true magic happens. which, i think is obvious, is where aziraphale actually reacts in any of the same manner - he begins to really smile, and offers up his name, even going so far as to say hi for the first time in the conversation. and i do think this is because he's just gotten a slam dunk of 'oh shit this angel is cute', but that's almost immaterial.

the part of the dialogue that struck me however is that AWCW says, "ive been waiting for this since... well, always!". it's not particularly revelatory, but to me basically says that AWCW has literally been working on this since he was formed from the firmament, having concept and design meetings with god, but this has been his entire "life"'s work, and he has never known anything else. he could just be being hyperbolic and i could be reading into it, but it would make sense for this starmaker to have only ever been a starmaker.

and heaven is certainly portrayed as being the most desolate place ever conceived, whether its in the dreaded High Rise Penthouse office building or in this vast, empty, dark space (presuming of course that the latter is in fact part of heaven, which it may well not be - and instead be in the space between planes before the universe was actually created)

regardless it gives the distinct impression of being very Lonely. so can we surmise from this that AWCW is not only a starmaker, but The Starmaker? working entirely in a team of one (thinking about the ep6 line of a "team... of the two of us") to create this nebula, possibly even most of the universe? crowley is described as being the only demon with an imagination, and his weapon of choice is literally the same instrument with which he cranked up this nebula... was his imagination in heaven also that revered and that's why he was entrusted with this project? and other similar ones? possibly.

but that spells for loneliness - single genius can be lonely. so it stands to reason that AWCW would be eager to have someone around to get dizzy with him about the wonder that is this new nebula and appreciate him for his creation. but it's not out of it being aziraphale being the one to appreciate it - we can surmise that in the way AWCW brushes him off. is this a case of self-importance? feeling he has status and should be recognised for this achievement? i feel like this is potentially a likely scenario.

in any case, AWCW seems pretty set on creating not only for himself, which he evidently finds fun and self-rewarding - going so far as to preen at the heartfelt but small praise that aziraphale gives him, but because its part of gods plan, and he's doing it for her.

he's even given perhaps one of the most famous lines from the bible, "let there be light". do we even trust that in GO it was god that originally said it - was it in fact AWCW? well either way, he completely believes in her vision, as far as he understands her vision to be.

so imagine how it must have felt then, in this instance, to have this stranger angel tell him that hes fairly certain that god is planning to destroy it in the next few millennia. AWCW, who is entrusted with creating parts if not all of her universe, isn't even clued in on the full facts, but aziraphale seems to be.

aziraphale is even seemingly part of the team (or is the whole team?) that seems to be entrusted with the plan of god's ultimate creation - earth and people built in her own image... but in kind doesn't seem to quite understand the true purpose of the nebula AWCW has built, at least according to him.

do we take this as an indication that god doesn't readily share her plans between angels, or that the nebula doesn't actually have as much importance as AWCW believed it to have? in any case, aziraphale seems to have been entrusted with god's plan, and AWCW - a creator whose creation the plan directly threatens - isn't.

aziraphale then goes on to describe the people they are currently designing; if we went with the notion (ie not sure how true this is in GO!verse) that humanity is god's ultimate creation, aziraphale has been trusted to help with that. i can't imagine just any angel would be, so there must be something in aziraphale that god sees as being fundamental in helping her with building them. from what we know of aziraphale's characteristics even this early on in his arc, he seems to be a kind and selfless person, and these may be the qualities that in building humanity god considers instrumental.

when we further consider that aziraphale then ends up being guardian of the eastern gate, and seems to have gone unpunished in giving away his sword (spelling its own implications for humanity as concerns war, cruelty, and death) and lying to her about it, this really does indicate to me that aziraphale is literally one of - if not the - favourite. given his qualities that it seems the other angels seem to lack (yes, even AWCW to a certain extent), it might just be that aziraphale was god's perfect angel. that would make sense.

the other thing that struck me is that aziraphale warns crowley against questioning god. the fall hasn't happened yet, so what gives aziraphale the foreboding sense of doom if crowley were to directly question her and her motives? "if i was the one running it all, id like it if..." strikes me as being the foreshadowing that it's this exact phraseology that AWCW puts before god and spells for disaster; that crowley intimates that if he were in charge, he would do things better. which is eerie when you again take into consideration the bookend that is aziraphale, "if im in charge, i could make a difference".

i would take the context of this being set pre-fall to indicate that there isn't any concept of actual punishment in heaven just yet (other than what a supervisory angel might order another angel to do, or a general reprimand). so what exactly is aziraphale afraid of? why is he scared for AWCW? doesn't he trust god to be understanding and kind if AWCW were to ask questions? what is it that aziraphale knows that AWCW doesn't?

so this is where i come to wondering if crowley was indeed prince of hell (okay yeah, fuck it, this is now a theory). what if it was actually aziraphale? god's perfect angel, entrusted with creating and guarding her ultimate creation? would it really be implausible that aziraphale went back to god and mused on what AWCW had said to him?

that it would perhaps be beneficial to have further input on how things were being created, especially when all the hard work, the creativity and genius, that was going into making her plans a reality, was just going to be wiped out in a snap? AWCW had 'friends' that fanned the flames of questioning god, doubled down on his resolve, and aziraphale tried to forestall the punishment that would inevitably come for him... but in doing so was punished himself?

but because aziraphale is her Favourite, instead of making him fall, she wiped his memory of it? he evidently remembers crowley as an angel, but beyond that? especially his remark that he's never killed anything (when, even if indirectly, aziraphale actually has? s1 with the french guard and the airfield soldier (perhaps not taking book canon into account here re: soldier) and the demons in s2) - does aziraphale not remember being a soldier? had a hard factory reset and is back to the unblemished, untainted angel he was before?

what if crowley did indeed bargain for aziraphale to be spared? that it was his fault that god was going to make him fall, it was his questions not aziraphale's? i think narratively it could make sense in the way that aziraphale and crowley are put as two halves of the same whole; that crowley did a selfless thing and was damned for it, whereas aziraphale wanted something selfish for crowley but was spared from the consequences. it would also go some way to explaining why crowley always has to protect aziraphale - its literally been his way since the beginning, in recompense for what happened to aziraphale?

i realise that this is completely batshit, but i do like the idea (im a huge fan of a bait and switch), and poetically speaking i think it could work - that instead of crowley being the original fallen angel, it was actually aziraphale? borne out of kindness and fondness for his new friend, the friend that actively seemed to welcome his company and wanted to show him the stars, and wanting to make heaven and the world a better place?✨

[waaow]

Warning for a lot of ranting about a specific Deltarune theory topic that will likely have next to no impact on the actual plot of the game at all.

A lot of the time in Deltarune fan content, the creators will have Kris meet a Deltarune version of Frisk, usually as one of Asriel's college buddies or something. I very much hate it (this is an exaggeration its just a thing that commonly happens that I personally dislike and I needed a good way to start the post).

Kris IS the Deltarune version of Frisk. It's been pretty much told to us since Undertale launched (specifically Version 1.001) via Clamgirl.

"My neighbor's daughter looks about your age. Her name is "Suzy." I feel like you two should be friends. Not knowing where I live is no issue. Fate finds a way. In life's grand scheme, she might be why you came here in the first place..."

What does Clamgirl keep talking about? What is the purpose of her dialogue? Foreshadowing Deltarune. Talking to her is what spawns the "Don't Forget" note in Sans' basement. She's the one who went goner mode to break the 4th wall a month before Deltarune launched. Everything she says about Frisk and Suzy foreshadows the relationship between Kris and Susie while also placing a heavy emphasis on the concept of fate, which is a big theme in Deltarune.

Suzy and Frisk are fated to meet each other. In life's grand scheme, Frisk's fall needed to happen for them to meet Suzy, just like how Kris and Susie were fated to meet and become heroes due to the prophecy.

Clamgirl says Frisk and Suzy "should be friends." Just like how Kris and Susie end up as friends extremely quickly. Frisk "looks about" the same age as Suzy, Kris and Susie are in the same class and thus around the same age.

Frisk is just an anagram of Kris plus a single letter Kris -> Risk -> (F)risk. Suzy is phonetically identical to Susie, just with one less letter. They are the only notable characters to have changed names between universes so far. Their UT versions also do not have the anagrams to "Risk" and "Issue," which may actually be important. We also know that "Suzy" isn't an early version of Susie's name, as Susie's name dates back to at least 2013. We can make a solid guess that Frisk's name is derivative of Kris's name due to this.

This isn't even talking about all of Kris and Frisk's numerous other similarities.

They have the EXACT same skin color and hair color.

They also most likely have the same eye color. While red eyes are commonly associated with Chara by the fandom, they only actually have red eyes when possessing Frisk's body in the post-genocide "I want to stay with you" variant of the True Pacifist ending. If we look at the hex codes of the sprites used for the scene, we can see that the sprite used in uses Frisk's color palette. Despite it looking like Chara, it's still Frisk's body, their hair and skin color are the same, so their eye color is also likely the same. Although it could also be that the red eyes are unnatural and caused by possession.

They have similar light world equipment. Both of them wear different types of bandages. Frisk has a stick, while Kris has a pencil, which is a wooden stick-like object.

Their light world item throw-away narration has them performing the same actions to items.

Kris has blue and reddish-magenta themed colors in the dark world, which is just a more vibrant version of Frisk's clothing color scheme in Undertale. Their entire dark world room that Ralsei built for them is in that color scheme. Ralsei knows about Kris and Susie's interests and desires, as their rooms have those design choices things in mind.

They're both flirtatious. Frisk is incredibly apparent with this. You can also flirt with certain enemies as Kris, and Toby has stated that Kris would get accidentally disbarred due to flirting with a witness in an ace attorney setting.

They're both mischievous as well. Kris' pranks are well described by Toriel, Rudy, and Noelle. They can prank Noelle in an incredible amount of ways during chapter 2 and seem to enjoy doing it. Frisk has a general implied goofy demeanor and showcases mischief in a lot of small little moments, especially during ACTs or the hangouts with Papyrus, Undyne, and Alphys. You can also see an example of this when passing items they flatten a cinnabun and pour sea tea under the hotel doors.

They share the "mainchara" designation. Frisk uses it in their sprites and code, while Kris uses it in the code.

They share a role as the main protagonist of the game. Even how we start the game with them is similar. You name the first fallen human ("TrueChara") or the Vessel and than get shoved into jaundice gremlins. Kris is just the natural progression of Frisk. The entire time, you were supposed to believe that you named Frisk, that they were your self insert into the world. That gets mirrored by Flowey, who believes Frisk to be the first fallen human (who you named). The game ends with Asriel and new/unspoiled players realizing that Frisk isn't Chara. In the next game, Kris gets that revealed immediately when they wake up, and they further that development by having their personality a lot more discernible without in-depth analysis.

No other theories talking about Kris' Undertale variant make sense. The Clamgirl lines are too strong. The only one that even comes close is Chara, and the similarities Kris and Chara share aren't as deep as they seem.

The things that Kris and Chara share exhibit far more differently than the things Kris and Frisk share.

Chara has one comment about chocolate that is vague and seems to imply they like it, but they alao ignore the chocolate in Toriel's fridge despite their narration/dialogue already appearing at that point in the genocide route. Kris is extremely fond of chocolate and it is a much bigger part of their character than it ever was for Chara. We never get Frisk's opinion on chocolate.

The weapon that represents Chara is a knife and they seek them out during the genocide route for murder reasons. Kris doesn't use the knife they have as a weapon and seems to enjoy them as a hobby outside of murder. We never get Frisk's opinion on knives, but they are also associated with a slashing weapon.

The big one people like to point to Chara being the adopted child of the Dreemurrs. There are a lot of problems with this.

The first one is that, arguably, so is Frisk. Frisk shows interest in being adopted by Asgore when talking to Gerson in the TP epilogue and CAN be adopted by Toriel/call her mom.

The second is that Chara is distinctly and purposefully separated from the rest of the family every single time any of the Dreemurrs mention them. Asriel always calls them his best friend. In the winter alarm clock dialogue, Toriel talks about them starting with the phrase "a long time ago I knew someone " and, in the same conversation, talks about Asriel and calls him "my son." Asgore only mentions having a single child, a son, at the end of his battle. "I remember the day after my son died. [...] I just want to see my wife, I just want to see my child." He could have easily used the word "children" in either of these two instances, but did not. In the extended spare cutscene where Flowey does not kill Asgore, he again distinguishes Asriel as his child and Chara as someone else. "Young one, when I look at you... I'm reminded of the human that fell here long ago... [...] But I believe your freedom...... is what my son...... what ASRIEL would have wanted." It is only Gerson who calls Chara part of the family. The new home monsters said they were 'like' family specifically.

Kris meanwhile is universally treated as part of the Dreemurr family. Narration, Toriel, and other characters refer to Asriel as their brother. Narration, Asgore, and other characters refer to Toriel as their mother. Narration, Toriel, and other characters call Asgore their father.

Third is that even if Chara is part of the family, they had an entirely different dynamic with UT-Asriel than Kris does with DR-Asriel. UT-Asriel looks up to Chara, while Kris looks up to DR-Asriel. Chara and UT-Asriel are around the same age, with Chara taking the more stereotypically older sibling role. Kris is notably younger than DR-Asriel, and Asriel takes the more stereotypically older sibling role. Kris.

We can reasonably guess that Frisk is also younger than Flowey from a age standpoint. Even if Chara & Asriel were the same age as Frisk when they died, Flowey spent an unknown but long amount of time doing runs before Frisk fell and he directly positions himself as someone who's "grown up" in the winter alarm clock dialogue. Chara and Asriel are around the same age. Frisk and Kris are younger than their respective universe's Asriel.

My final point is that the relative timeline just works better if Kris is Frisk. All the monsters in DR are monsters we know exist/existed in Frisk's time. Even the Holiday family, with the daughters still notably being kids according to WAC-Asgore and DogCasino-Sans, the youngest one (Noelle) likely being Frisk's age like Suzy & MK are.

Kris can be Frisk with a bit of Chara sprinkled on, but even if they are, Clamgirl's dialogue alone confirms that the two of them are alternate universe versions of eachother.

Here's a short follow-up to this covering some goofy arguments I don't consider very convincing.

[andreal831]

Do you have any headcanons/theories on vampire biology in tvdu?

Like in season 1 of tvd Damon tells Elena that if vampires have a steady blood diet then their body functions regularly, meaning they can eat human food, but does vampirism enhance/take away the taste? We know they don’t need to sleep but when they do is it normal sleeping or more comatose? And if they eat human food would they need to go to the bathroom, are their bodies even capable of that?

I’m sorry if this is a weird ask, you don’t have to answer, on an unrelated note I love all of your posts/metas <3

I honestly try not to think too hard about it because it is so inconsistent. Anytime I try to wrap my head around vampire biology in TVDU, I just get more confused.

I do think their bodies work completely normally when they are on a blood diet. They eat, their hearts beat, they breathe, etc. I imagine all of the normal bloodily functions still work as well. They still would need to go to the bathroom, etc. I also think they taste although I don't think it's enhanced. Only their hearing and eye sight seems to be and this was specifically to give them an advantage over the wolves. Taste wouldn't really do anything for them. They still smell normally, only the hybrids/werewolves have enhanced smell.

One gripe I do have is in TVD Season 2 when Elijah "smells" that Elena is human. Was he just doing that to freak her out? How could he tell. We never see another instance of a vampire being able to sense another one. It definitely added to the tension but made no sense in the grand scheme.

I do think they sleep but it is not as required. We know Rebekah falls asleep after her night with Sage and Damon and they get in her mind while she is vulnerable. We also see Elijah watching Hayley sleep in TO or Klaus sleeping next to Cami. It appears to be relatively normal sleep. They all appear to have normal schedules due to sleeping. I don't think they need to sleep as often but I do think they will eventually get tired just not as easily as a human. They are stronger than humans but still require the essentials. Like they can drown because they need to breathe but it's only a temporary death if they don't breathe.

My biggest hang up with honestly with what exactly does "function normally mean." We know that they can't procreate because their bodies are frozen in that state, so one would think they wouldn't function regularly. The show kind of messed itself up with that one. If they can do all of the regular bodily functions, how are they not able to procreate? Why is that the one bodily function stopped by the transformation. If their bodies are frozen in time, wouldn't the rest of their organs? They wouldn't grow hungry or need to breathe because their lungs and stomach would never change.

But also, how do the Originals function? We know they can't be killed in the normal vampire ways, like decapitation or ripping a heart out. Rebekah makes a comment about ripping Klaus' heart out and waiting for it to grow back, but that just seems wild. Does that mean if they are decapitated, their head would grow back?? Could you successfully chop them up into little pieces and burry them around the world to "kill" them? Or would they grow back from one point? I can't imagine no one tried that.

It would have made sense to make them just so strong that no one could physically do it. Like when they tried to burn Elijah and he just wouldn't burn. They should have just made their skin so indestructible that no one was strong enough to pull them apart. But even Gia, a baby vamp, could stick her hand in Elijah's chest. Hayley temporarily kills Elijah with a twig in Season 4. But then when the Detective shoots Elijah, he doesn't even bleed from it. Shouldn't it still kill him temporarily if he was shot in the heart? It was a cool scene but it felt more Superman than The Originals.

So much of the show doesn't make sense and they really just gave up when it came to biology. Nearly as much as they gave up when they dealt with geography.

Thanks for the ask! Sorry that I really don't have any answers for you

[larrythefloridaman]

I am not a prismdani guy in the sense that I dont think that could ever have a happy ending even in theory without altering or disrespecting their characters in some essential way and i dont think a fully tragic and fucked up ending for a character like dani with no light at the end of the tunnel really suits cpuk's tone or themes in the grand scheme of things

but i am in the sense that i understand and am compelled by it in like a horror movie way.

In a 'dear god dani get the hell out of there' way.

In a 'hey that scene in orange looked almost like a date before the arm thing, (the most flagrantly horrifying red flag yet at that point and what made most of us fully turn on her after some hesitation about fully condemning her when she gave cobalt a crisis instead of advice and shoved folk and treuse around before the Kicker that was her killing crimson onstage) that, as a flashback, was immediately preceded by Crimson (literally a walking red flag that somethings deeply wrong in Prism's metaphorical house, Noone Really Acts Like That For No Reason,) asking what Prism's been doing and saying and followed within said flashback by Quadratic (Mr. Character Arc Revolves Around Healing From A Relationship With A Character He Goes On To Explicitly Compare Prism To) carefully soft-confronting Prism so as not to make a scene while checking in with Dani to make sure shes okay and to let Prism know he has his eyes on her and isnt afraid to bluntly and unambiguously leak information to the audience she wants to keep secret while theyre on camera so she better not pull any shit' way.

In a 'the butchest girl twitter can handle without getting scared and me, the sunshiney eccentric femme she serves and obeys onesidedly like a dog, her own character subsumed into an aesthetically cute complimentary nonthreatening opposition to mine :) (dani cannot bring herself to admit shes grown afraid of setting her off or disappointing her or disobeying and being made to feel that oppressive crush of obligation as Prism manipulates her, struggling to realize and process the idea that Prism is a threat to her because an Abuser™️ (as per popular cultural portrayal) is supposed to be an obviously evil physically threatening bastard mcbadguy not a 5'0" nothing bible camp counselor that uses pressure, guilt, information control and other such tactics to creep into your thoughts to rewire your behavior to her liking if you don't have the means to reject what she imposes on you.) look at us we share a character flaw we're foils arent we charming :)' kinda way.

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme Post #9 v2 - LINK - Update

Behold, the grand knowledge bestowed upon me for trying to study retying of the Tied Hands and the activation of the Belt Head.

In the private room scene in episode 1, you never see Crowley's belt...except...this one time...this tiny little bit of it...right...here:

Yup, those are the silly treasures I find with thorough examination, that may or may not lead to understanding things better later.

Anyway, so here is the update for Sideburns Scheme Post #9.

I updated the following from:

There are a number of places where I think the hair is more red and hesitate. In my previous version of this post, I noted more examples than I will in this version. The main place where I think there is a streak, it actually moved to the right side of Crowley's head, like it did when he was driving. It's from the cut when he says, "So did I."

to:

There are a number of places where I think the hair is more red and hesitate, at this point thinking it is largely absent. If it is there, it may have moved to the right side of Crowley's head. Here is an image of what I mean:

Here is the image noted:

...

I updated the following from:

As stated in the last post, my initial streak theory was that the missing streak in that particular cut is a clue that part is Draft #1. It could still be, but I don't know why the streak disappears when it does in other scenes that I don't think are from Draft #1. The pieces don't line up in a way I understand.

to:

My theory goes that the streak is an after-effect of a Big Miracle performed either on Sunday at midnight or a previous timeline. So, this scene could be a mix of both Saturday and Monday or it could be that previous timeline. I still can't quite get the pieces to line up in a way I understand, but that's still my general guess from the story's clues.

And then a whole bunch of stuff was added to the Earthly Objects section.

Here is the stuff:

Edit, addition as of 09/05/2024:

As an addendum some months after making post, I have tried to study retying and the activation of the Belt Head. This scene is well beyond me in that regard, but I have picked up on a few other details I would like to add for the overall log.

Overhead Lights tend to go that left-side Overhead Lights are for demons, and right-side Overhead Lights are for angels. When Crowley and Aziraphale enter, their heads pocket the lights that reverse this understanding. The lights are to Crowley's right and Aziraphale's left. After passing these lights, Aziraphale's hand reflection can be found in the push plate of the door.

Then, during the scene, Overhead Lights for actual heads are avoided. However, there is partially open door with a push plate that sometimes gets visual touches over it during the scene, including the heads sometimes. It's not an Overhead Light, but it seems to serve some function in the mechanics with the lacking Overhead Lights, especially for Crowley's actual head.

Meanwhile, Crowley's belt is hidden for almost the entire scene. The top of the Belt Head can be found early in this one particular cut:

It's easy to miss. I only caught it because of how thorough I am being overall in my notes.

That cut is also the first of when the unlit lamp to Crowley's left is showing its pole stand that has a mildly reflective surface.

This lamp seems to act as the Belt Head's Overhead Light in a scene that very much avoids Overhead Lights for Crowley's actual head.

For the part where I said I thought Crowley's left hand and watch were up to something, I suspect that is a retying. I'm a little unsure due to how the thumb joints are managed, but various little clues still suggest that to be the case, especially with the watch and left index finger being so overt in action.

[spaceorphan18]

Not the OP but I imagine that last ask was re the fact they talked about The Box Scene in today's podcast episode and said they can understand why it was cut because it was 'lackluster'. 🙄

Nonny #2 - Sorry second nonny, I didn't realize I copied and pasted wrong, and deleted your message before adding it correctly. <3

@wowbright says : In case you didn't have this context, and the latest episode apparently they said that the box scene was probably cut because it was "lackluster" and "not very good." That has set people off. (And personally I think it's a weird opinion. Like, it was probably cut for time because of less relevance to the rest of the episode?)

I'm going to kind of hit all of this at once. Because I have some thoughts.

First of all, about the actual scene, while I understand why it was cut - in that there were time constraints and, no, it isn't pushing the story forward, it is a cute little scene that reestablishes where their relationship is in the grand scheme of things. And you know what? They made it canon at the end, so there's that.

It's not a bad scene, nor is it lackluster. It's of equal value, honestly, as the Santa Baby scene.

Secondly, that's a shame they downplayed what it did for charity. That's a huge deal, it's a shame they can't recognize the significance of a fandom movement -- especially as they raise money for things like Snixxmas and Alexandria House.

My third point is of two parts….

A) Kevin and Jenna do not know (or care) how to be objective. They just don't. They've proven time after time that they're watching things they like and do not care about the rest of it. It doesn't make me want to listen to it, and it's a shame they can't muster enough professionalism to try, but it's their podcast, and at the end of the day I can't change that.

B) You guys keep acting as if there's some big conspiracy theory as to their reasonings and at the end of the day -- more so going back to my original Nonny from earlier today -- they just do not care about Klaine. They think about Klaine in the way that I think about Jarley. They're there -- they take up screen time that I wish was given to other things -- and it's not something I particularly enjoy sitting through.

[But as an aside - I like to think I can be objective enough to admit when something is written or done well. And going back to point A, Kevin and Jenna don't know how or don't care to even put the work in on that.]

It is not about Chris. It is not about Darren. (And the speculation is a little odd there -- but we don't know them, maybe they do hate Darren (doubtful guys) but either way, I really, really do not think it has to do with this.)

And interestingly, I don't necessarily think it's solely a dislike of Blaine either. I know they praise Chris a lot, but they really skip over some great Kurt things, too, that aren't related to Klaine.

And yes, it really is about Naya and Cory and themselves. They are more personally invested in those stories and those people and that is going to color how they see the show. It just is. It's how people work.

Going back to point B - the reason it hits hard for us is that for them (like how I feel about Jarley) it's not personal and it doesn't mean much. It's just kind of there. But for us, it is personal. We do see all the good things (along with the bad) and it has meant a lot -- it's been a personal love -- it has meant very deep things to people.

And what may hit hard for people -- and what Kevin and Jenna are completely missing because they're really not good at the objectivity or the looking at the big picture -- is the fact that when you disregard the thing, it feels like a personal judgment on /you/.

And guys - it's not. They just happen to dislike/not be invested in a thing we really love, and that's kind of it. I find it unfortunate. I am kind of disappointed in their lack of understanding I really have stopped listening to the show other than interviews I want to listen to. I wish there was a way that I could explain that to them - but I don't really know how.

I don't really have any answers other than that guys. :/

It'll be interesting to see how they handle Seasons 4-6, where Artie is almost a prop, Tina goes crazy, and there is a fuckton of Blaine, Kurt, and Klaine.

Or maybe they'll end it at Season 3. Who knows. shrugs

[staceymcgillicuddy]

annual writing self-evaluation

Thanks to @astorytotellyourfriends for the tag - I didn't do this last year!

1. List of works published this year (in the order that they were posted):

If She Lived in Space, Man, I'd Build A Plane crimson & clover pulling overtime model citizen; zero discipline what you give just serves me right two jack trippers and a chrissy perception check all my kinktober fills a hollow tree

2. Work you are most proud of (and why):

Gosh, that's hard. I'm proud of all of them for different reasons, and I have issues with all of them for different reasons. I guess I would say "what you give just serves me right" makes me happy, and was something I had to push myself to do, but I was pleased with how it turned out in the end.

3. Work you are least proud of (and why):

I hate that I have two fics out that I haven't updated in ages! I am not proud of that! And there are a few things in all of them that I'd tweak.

4. A favorite excerpt of your writing:

Oh golly. Alright, from a hollow tree, which was my Halloween fic featuring Lilith!succubus!Chrissy:

Fog slips into the van when he opens the door. A mist so thick it’s disorienting as he drops to the ground, and the shape of a girl forms itself out of the gloom.

5. Share or describe a favorite comment you received:

Almost every single regular commenter on Soul makes my heart sing and my panties drop, and I'm so sorry my brain is being stupid right now.

6. A time when writing was really, really hard:

Right goddamn now. It's like squeezing blood from a fucking stone, and I have no idea why, but everything comes out strained and blechy and I hate it, and I refuse to inflict it on anyone else so I'll just sit like a lump, churning out crap and never showing it to anyone.

7. A scene or character that you wrote that surprised you:

Genuinely did not think that I would get so into the Hopper/Chrissy/Eddie dynamic as I did when I wrote it as a crackship as part of kinktober. But, like, I could get DOWN with that shit.

Also, Hellcheerington surprised me. Oh, and writing Eddie's dad for Soul was weirdly cathartic? I was determined to make him a person and not a collection of cliches, which was easier said than done. I think I got there, in the end. Hope so, anyway!

8. How did you grow as a writer this year:

I didn't, I fucking regressed. Or, no, not really. I pushed myself a bit, tried to get sharper and cleaner with some prose. Read some theory books, worked on my rhetorical devices, forced myself to kill a couple darlings along the way (but not all the darlings, god damn it).

I also published a book, so yay?

9. How do you hope to grow next year:

I'd like to get back to writing original fiction. I've been in a slump with that, too, because it doesn't have the instantaneous feedback that fanfic does. I want to split my time between fic and pro writing stuff, and I want to be very realistic about how much mental energy my real job takes up. When I used to write like a madwoman, I didn't have the role I currently do, which is a senior project manager leading a team, working mostly with executive-level staff. Don't get me wrong, my job pisses me off a lot, and stresses me out, too, but it pays well and we live in a shithole of a society where money matters in the grand scheme of things.

So, like, I guess I hope to grow as a writer in writing even when my brain doesn't want me to, or it doesn't feel great to do so.

10. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc):

Freaking Shirley Jackson, man. That bitch can write.

11. Anything in your real life show up in your writing this year:

I'm always putting kinky shit I see or experience at the bdsm club into my fic. I am as God made me.

12. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers:

Everything is made up and the points don't matter. Stop comparing yourself to other authors. Turn off stats on your AO3. Write what you fucking want and quit worrying if other people are going to like it.

13. Any new projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year:

I'm going to be so, so glad when Soul is done because I love it so much but it is also the millstone around my neck.

14. Tag three writers/artists whose answers you’d like to read:

@binickandros, @pipergirl17 and @phoenixwrites please!

[infini-tree]

ok. assorted kfp4 thoughts.

i still don't think there's any reason why po can't be both oogway's successor and the dragon warrior even after watching the movie.

and here's the big fish to fry: the pacing. i know i've previously said that kfp3's pacing was rushed but kfp4 felt like it was speedrunning its own plot. by the time they got to the juniper palace i was baffled because the duo barely had a moment in the city and they were suddenly going to face the main villain?

a lot of it was left up to exposition about the characters' deal at you to try and make up for it. which made the big character twist suffer. and i do like the character twist! in theory,

so: basically zhen was initially founded/raised by thieves and criminals (and considered han her "old mentor"), and then was later raised by the chameleon after zhen showed a similar ruthlessness in her after trying to steal from her.

the underground criminals were mostly sidelined as a joke but the additional pacing issues doesn't really give you time to dwell on zhen and han's whole deal. and then suddenly you get an expository flashback later on, but there's not a lot of an emotional gutpunch to any of these reveals due to said pacing issues and han is relegated to being part of the crime comedy squad. he can do devastated dad figure! let him lean into waymond eeaao!

now for the rest of my thoughts on other minor stuff:

insert obligatory annoyance about the five being relegated to being non-speaking cameos in the credits. frankly i'm neutral about it in the grand scheme of the movie (there's bigger fish to fry as seen above), but they made me pay attention to that fact by doing that little lampshading joke in the beginning so i got a little irrationally ticked off by that line. you know i'm kind of glad they were off doing something else for this one.

li and ping were fun in this movie, don't get me wrong. but also they contributed to the weird pacing in this movie because instead of dealing with the main plot, we have to watch their sideplot of catching up to the main plot?

the staff mechanics of 'you can only use its powers if someone willingly gives you the staff'. also strange, but not in a way i can articulate. like, i guess it ties back to kfp3 and how oogway describes qi manipulation as 'giving/taking'?

chameleon's motivations re: being rejected to train in kung fu in every training hall because she was so small and feeble is... strange to me, seeing as mantis exists. who is an objectively smaller creature. maybe there's a level of her being an unreliable narrator (like how shen views that his parents never loved him), but that's not how they play that out so it just feels like a weird plot hole if you think about it too much.

surprisingly not as annoyed about po not being recognized. listen, china is a big place and news does not travel fast, i figure. i already had similar headcanons, but applied to oogway so this isn't as large of a leap of logic for me.

this is a nothingburger thought to add but: once again baffled by the concept of predation in this world. from the bunny sitting in a broth he has to stir(???) in the bar scene, to the fish living in his adopted pelican mom's mouth. its weird! i don't like thinking about how meat eaters work in this world!

[cherryys]

i don't really dislike Hana, hell i actually find her crush kinda cute even if i don't ship her with Megumi. What makes her moment with Megumi feel like a slap in the face is that I would have rather gotten his thoughts on what has happened so far or have him talk to Tsumiki's grave or even just have any sort of meaningful conversation with a more...relevant, character.

On it's own, it's not really a bad Megumi moment, it's a little sad that he feels responsible for what happened to Hana enough that he would want to "take responsibility" (whatever the hell that means, go with her to all her missions? idk), but it's also almost kinda sweet that he is trying his best to make things right with her. But Hana is, like, barely a character, and it's hard to care about this moment with her.

I just would rather see Megumi do pretty much anything else. It's just frustrating.

no I feel you. the hana moment works in theory, but with it being the only thing megumi's acknowledges and not the death of his sister or mentor just makes it lose impact. Hana doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, nor does she really matter to him because they don't know each other well enough for that, so the focus on her missing arm and not the missing lives of the people he knew since he was young is just frustrating. and the fact the moment was reduced to a comedic scene of "haha girl has crush on guy not interested isn't she embarrasing" just makes the moment lose its weight more. I really don't know why gege refuses to address anything about megumi's character after he's gone through such a traumatic time. he just reverted him back to before the showdown but it's worse because the entire cast developed character-wise and power-wise and he didn't 😭😭

[meimi-haneoka]

Hello! Almost all clear cards appeared in Clockland, except Record, Rewind, and Time. As such, readers have theorized that these 3 cards will play important roles in the climax / resolution in the last chapters. We can pretty much guess what roles Record and Rewind could have, but Time card is still mysterious. We still don't know what power that card has, and we haven't seen Sakura ever using it. Logically, some time after the creation (when she was feeling better), Sakura would have tried that card out to see what it can do, but so far there is no scene that suggested she has done that or not. Maybe we readers are not shown this to keep the suspense going, or maybe she just forgot. Nadeshiko's clock stopped time, so maybe that is the power the Time card has, but there is possibility that it can also manipulate time in other ways, like rewinding time or facilitating time travel to the past. Now I wonder if the real identity of MCF could be young Lilie or young Kaito, if there is time travel. Another curious thing is that in the anime, they changed Nadeshiko's clock to a key. It would be interesting to see the differences in plot points in the anime that would result from that change.

Helloooo dear! 😊 Thank you for sending me this ask! Indeed, indeed, the three cards that haven't appeared in the climax yet are under scrutiny by everyone, because almost certainly they'll play a big role in the final chapters. They are all somehow related to time. I can try to imagine Record will be used by Sakura to uncover all the "old memories" that were rewritten by Kaito (as they are events that Record could reproduce without problems), while for Rewind and Time the usage might be a little bit broader. Especially considering that the Cards' function can change depending on Sakura's wishes. I....really don't have a precise idea of how Sakura will use them, however I do think that at least one of those might be used to contribute to save Kaito and bring things back to normal. Because of course she'd never leave someone like him behind, someone who's the most important person of someone she cherishes and who basically acted out of love. We'll just need to see how she'll use them to achieve that goal! Also, your theory that MCF might be young Lilie or young Kaito is really interesting. I've thought it could be Kaito myself, but I never saw anyone considering Lilie... Also yes, the change of the pendant watch into a key in the anime version is still something that puzzles me to this day. Surely they made that change with a plan in mind. Is it supposed to turn into a staff, in the anime (since keys usually turn into staffs???)? Seriously, the more I think about this, the more I can't imagine them producing the Clear Card anime without having plans for a second season. Otherwise why making these arbitrary changes.... I'm sure there's a grand scheme behind this.

[aknolan]

Okay so, one thing to consider: what if Jaune's Semblance is what allowed Penny's consciousness to hang around to have that conversation with Winter, and Penny's thoughts drifted to Ruby during that conversation, while she was passing the powers to Winter?

So the caveat for Penny's return is that it only worked because she had the Maiden Powers when she died (allowing Jaune to use his Semblance to boost that piece of Ozma's soul within the Maiden Powers and temporarily afflict Penny with his curse), but the mechanics of what happened AFTER she dies means that she no longer has that piece of Ozpin's soul?

Like, while returning in Volume 9 might be a bit too soon, Ruby needing to exploit the strange properties of the Ever After to extract Penny's soul and place it in a new body would possibly add to the whole "The events that lead to this resurrection can never be reproduced and so Penny needs to REALLY be careful this time", albeit at the cost of the Aura Transfer machine being rendered kinda useless in the grand scheme of things.

These are three different things, and I have three different opinions on them.

First is the idea that Jaune's semblance has something to do with Penny hanging around, which, yeah, it absolutely does. Jaune's aura colour was in the maiden transfer scene and that makes exactly 0 sense unless something special happened there that involved Jaune's semblance. Maybe she would have been able to talk to Winter either way, but Jaune's semblance did something. And who knows, maybe Penny did think of Ruby then and that also did something.

The second is assuming that a piece of Ozma's soul is with the maiden powers which... why? That's one hell of an assumption to make, and as far as I know it's not something that's implied in the show. And if that's automatically part of the maiden powers 1. that's weird and 2. Penny would get that back again if she gets part of the winter maiden power again (which I think she will). I just don't like this idea because that means all the maidens have a little bit of Ozma's soul in them and besides the fact that the pieces would then "want" to return to Ozma, that's just a weird idea that I don't like thinking about.

The third point, I actually don't think returning in v9 is too soon. It's hard to get that working with the theory that part of Penny is with Winter, but if she's not... there's really no reason it's too soon. Because the thing is, if Penny comes back in v9, that will be because that's part of the point of v9. It will be because v9 is in no small part about Ruby's grief for Penny and what she does with that. And Penny coming back would be a valid resolution to the volume's arc, if that is the case.

As far as using the Ever After goes, I don't really think that's... what they would use from the Ever After? Extracting a soul and placing it into a new body is something they can do on Remnant, whatever they get from the Ever After must be unique to the Ever After. It must be both required, and impossible to find a substitute for on Remnant.

So basically yes Jaune's semblance did something that kept Penny around, no I don't think the maidens have fragments of Ozma's soul, no I don't think they would get an impromptu aura transfer machine in the Ever After but whatever they do get is impossible to repeat because they won't be able to return to the Ever After to do it again.