#I think I've seen someone theorize before that whatever he's referring to here has something to do with him threatening to quit

[neversetyoufree]

Gnawing at the bars of my cage wondering what personal hatred Olivier is referring to here.

Does he mean hatred is "the reason he's standing here now" as in it's the reason he's reached his current point in life? The reason he's stayed with the chasseurs and become a paladin? Or does he mean "the reason he's standing here now" as in the reason he's still alive?

He brings up his own relationship to hatred in the context of people clinging to it for their very survival, but he also dismisses his own feelings as "trivial," so I can see an argument for either way.

Olivier sees himself in pre-trauma Astolfo, which means he must have grown up relatively privileged and comfortable. The tiny glimpse we've seen of his childhood seems to support that. What desperate straits did he end up in that forced him to rely on hatred? Was it despite or because of that privilege? Despite or because of his involvement with the chasseurs? He doesn't seem that intense in his hatred for vampires (not relative to some other chasseurs, anyway), and we've yet to see him express particular dislike for anyone besides when he got into a fight with Gano over cruelty to Astolfo, so it could be almost anyone that he's talking about here.

I was never that interested in Olivier before these chapters came out, but MAN I'm curious about his history now.

[doomzday-zone]

I don't know if you're like Joking about the Midnight Motorist being about Into The Pit because if you have Genuine theories I want to hear it 👁️👁️

Also I don't get why people keep saying it's an ~unsolved mystery~ it's William Afton right? Am I just as confused as everyone in the FNAF community rn?

I've heard multiple theories about the midnight motorist, one that the Mustard man is in fact william afton and one that hes someone else entirely, and to that i say: both can be right!

we know that in ITP the rabbit isnt *exactly* william afton, but moreso a reflection of him and the horrors that happened at the freddy fazbears pizzeria years before. which would explain why the sprite is a decidedly yellow colour instead of Wills usual purple, and the fact that the rabbit disguises itself as oswalds father also explaining why the sprite is in the shape of a human man instead of a man sized rabbit.

The car being driven by the Mustard man in the game is a dark purple, in the ITP novel the colour of oswalds car isnt specified but in the game it is red </3 a possible explanation for this being that the car looks purple because its dark which is slightly less believable than the alternative, being the colour of the car is more symbolic 😌 calling back to William afton, which isnt completely unprecedented in the fnafverse generally if something is purple its expected to be connected the aftons in some way(for instance michael aftons corpse sprite being purple etc.)

Now.... Jr's. what could this possibly mean for into the pit? i need you to remember there are multiple endings in the game, ill come back to this in a second, in the game files the lore parts of the midnight motorist is called Later That Night. implying this is something we havent seen yet or possibly a different perspective on something we have seen- SO this COULD be either a) a continuation of something we saw in ITP or b) something entirely new. which brings me back to Jr's- you can remember the multiple game endings now<33

in the novel oswald and his dad dont Actually leave Jeffs Pizza, this could imply that something bad will happen again after the events of the story. and adding the game endings what ACTUALLY happened after everything is extremely vague. i propose that the events of MM happen later after the main events of ITP, and given that oswalds dad only wakes up in the pit After the death of the rabbit and since i already established earlier the rabbit is still alive, i also propose that oswalds father is most likely dead. now HERE IS WHERE JR'S COMES IN W THE IRON CHAIR IM SERIOUS THIS TIME:

Jr's is referenced as a restaurant from one source, but also theorized to be a bar, i dont think the distinction is super important but, the interaction with the green fella is mighty interesting "You're not allowed here, dont make this harder then it has to be" in this context this could be in reference to the scene at the house, the disguised rabbit is no longer allowed into the nearby establishments due to its reputation. 'dont make this harder then it has to be' is SUCH an interesting line too, not only implying that the Mustard man knows exactly why hes no longer allowed here, but also the subtle accusing tone and implying that the reason is not only a burden for the Mustard man to carry but that it also weighs pretty hard on the speaker. whatever it was, its serious.

"You know what you are. dont make this harder than it has to be"

Finally, the scene of the home. with the Mustard man identified as the Rabbit, the person sitting in front of the tv would be oswalds mother. we know from ITP based on how many times its mentioned and such that family tv time is SPECIFICALLY very important for them, so the fact we see her here now alone is very telling.

the Rabbit goes to the other room, the door is closed and cannot be opened, this is the only other room in the home that is accessible.(remember that oswald is an only child) the messages that play out when repeatedly going to the door are in reference to the Act revealed a little later but also symbolic of the thematic relevance of child abuse/abusive and controlling parental figures and dynamics in ITP. at the back of the house the window to the locked room is broken and there are footprints leading into the surrounding woods that being a persons footprints and larger set of what seem to be animatronic footprints, paired with the message "he ran off to that place again, when he gets back he'll be sorry" <- this is the Rabbit referring to the pit, and the boys eventual fate.

Lastly the empty lot and the mound are then symbolic of Jeffs Pizza an empty shadow of the former freddy fazbears pizzeria establishment, the pit itself, and what ended up happening to oswald. giving dual imagery for a rabbit burrow and an unmarked grave. Oswald is dead.

To wrap this all up, a summary: The Mustard man is the ITP Rabbit in a human disguise, after the events of the ITP novel oswalds dad is dead, cue the drive through the woods. at the house oswalds mother sits at the family television alone, talking to ghosts.(realistically you would probably hear your sons rooms window breaking regardless of whether or not its raining *which is still a possibility but just hear me out okay lol*, by the time the rabbit gets back to the home oswald is already dead and his mother knows it) oswalds rooms door is closed and cannot be open, he is not there. at the other end of the house there are a broken window and footprints, that of a child and an animatronic. at the empty lot there is a mound of dirt, cue the bad ending of ITP, the rabbit kills oswald, its over. the rabbit is no longer allowed in the nearby establishments, and most likely just like William afton before him nothing was done about the deaths.(also note the callback to the theme of a broken community and communal isolation in ITP, the community just goes about their normal activities *notice the decently full parking lot at Jr's* simply shunning the rabbit and wishing to forget *now think about the 'dont make this harder than it has to be line, this specific community has seen this tragedy before*)

((ALSO ‼️ dont have the energy to make a whole Bit abt it rn but obv this is all connected to Pizzeria Simulator by the ball pits.

and its lore relevant bc william is supposed to DIE in that game but comes back, which is made clear by the rabbit being in midnight motorist/its story implications n whatever u GET it yeehaw !!!))

but hey....... thats just a theory😏

[janus-stanus]

4 theories on who's telling the story of ISWM

I wasn't planning to make any more In Space With Markiplier posts before Sunday's explanation stream, even though I've now seen everything in both parts (pretty sure anyway). But I started typing this out when I was supposed to be writing something else, and at a certain point it felt like a shame not to finish and share it, so, here.

The main things I'm looking for each of these theories to address:

The storyteller’s motive for:

- Telling a story with Mark and Y/N - Making Mark be the bad guy while Y/N takes so much of the blame for most of it - Having choices that in some places repeat / are meaningless and all ultimately lead to one happy ending

Implications for Mark’s apology (is it genuine? is it coming from Actor!Mark or just Engineer!Mark?)

Why Dark isn’t here, but Celine / Ms. Whitacre is

None of the theories are bulletproof - in fact, each features questions without definitive answers. It's just meant to get ya thinking.

Before we start, two assumptions all of these theories are making:

That this is all still happening inside the Manor or the Manor dimension or whatever. If not, then I don't see how anyone could be "telling the story" as it were.

As alluded to above, that Ms. Whitacre is Celine. Between their similar costumes, Dorene referring to previously being married, and her almost calling Damien her brother... that's either Celine or someone impersonating her. It raises a lot of questions, which some of these theories will have to tackle, but I feel like it's safe to assume. This is about as direct as Mark's hints get.

With that established, let's get to it (beneath a read more, cause boy is this long)!

1. The manor entity itself

It has the power for that

It’s making Mark the “hero” but also torturing him, which sounds like what this demonic entity would do

It’s also doing the same thing to us, because we’re its new favorite, or at least someone new to manipulate who literally can’t leave

The spooky voice behind the door has been theorized to be the house, and this makes that easy

Dark’s absence would presumably be because he left the manor, in which case, good for him

Why would it revive Celine / invent Ms. Whitacre as a character? No clear answer.

The house’s opinion on giving choices is also not something we can easily determine, considering all three projects take different approaches to it

This theory would mean that Mark probably didn’t stage his apology… but would the house let him have that genuine realization and reconcile with Y/N? It def fucks with his mental state via thousands of years worth of anger turning to guilt, so maybe.

Why does it give a happy ending? Does it know that Dark is gonna use the crystal to start Heist and rip away that ending? Was it planning to rip that ending away anyway, to tell a new story?

2. Actor!Mark

The assumed answer, for good reason (we see him behind the scenes in part 1, his whole stated goal in Damien is that he gets to be part of endless stories where he’s the hero, and he is also the fictional version of the guy who’s actually telling the stories)

This is also the only option that really explains the times where Mark serves as narrator for the slideshow endings (the ones leading into go to the light + the Mack “ending”)

Would he make himself the bad guy in order to give himself a redemption arc? Does that mean he actually feels bad for what happened in WKM/Damien and this is his way to deal with it? Or is he just giving us what he thinks we want to see? Or, is this what he thinks he needs to be freed from the house? I mean, that’s how parole works, right? You need to show good behavior?

For someone who wanted Dark to be the villain to his hero, he sure did leave Dark out of this one entirely. Then again, his appearances in both heist and date were without Actor’s consent either, so while it’s a question worth asking, it’s not an inconsistency.

On the other hand, there sure is a version of Celine here. My initial Celci theory was that she was a manifestation of Mark’s feelings about Celine generated by the good old house while Ms. Whitacre was actually Celine, but I’m convinced now that Celci and Ms. Whitacre are both actually Celine, largely because of how they’re specifically given the same eye makeup, so… why would Mark include the person who, last he saw her, axed him in the chest, in a prominent and neutral to positive role? Is it a way to subdue her? How did he manage to grab her and not the rest of Dark?

3. Darkiplier (Damien)

We see him outside of the story in the post-credits scene, so it makes sense on that front while explaining why he isn’t there for the rest of it (though otherwise he may just have seen how many the universe was gonna end and said "fuck this"). He also exists on a level above the story in Heist with how he inserts the codes into other videos

That being said, he also says in Heist (which is post-this for Dark) that games aren’t his thing. So why would he tell this story, one where Y/N and Mark are partners? To give us a chance to torture Mark? …or, he just lied about the games thing. He is, let’s not forget, evil.

Only giving the illusion of choice is consistent with him in Date

Is Ms. Whitacre meant to be an avatar for him, injecting himself into the story? If so, why appear as an old lady who’s pretty obviously Celine, and not have any kind of Damien analog? Otherwise, I guess she just showed up on her own accord… which is more believable if Dark’s involved in the fabric of this story than, say, Actor!Mark. Speaking of…

Why have Mark, or a version of him, give a seemingly genuine apology? Just to see if we’ll fall for it? To force Mark to feel guilt? Or does Mark (this version of him) break the script with this apology?

The happy ending also feels very out of character for Dark to give us. Unless, like I mentioned in the house section, he’s letting it happen just to rip it away.

4. Celine / Ms. Whitacre

I don’t think this is the most likely, but right now it’s my favorite

So the idea is either that she’s telling this story while “asleep” (subconsciously accessing the manor's power), or she got booted out of Dark somehow and left in the manor (like us) and is doing this in the meantime (cause if Actor!Mark can manipulate the manor’s power for that, she sure as hell can)

Sure does explain why she’s here. Dark presumably chose not to meddle, or wherever she’s at he can’t access.

All the stuff she does that breaks the rules of the universe / makes her out of place (appearing where she shouldn’t, having new voiceover dialogue in the beginning of part 2) makes total sense if she’s the one telling it

(also means she’s almost certainly the one who tells us “don’t give up” in part 1)

It’s in character for Celine to offer “choices” that aren’t really choices (consider WKM, where we had the choice to be either brought back to life or stuck in limbo, which the Celci ending is a thematic variant of)

Def makes sense that she’d have Mark be the cause of all the problems but be too arrogant/ignorant to realize it for most of the duration, and also that there are so many endings where he perishes/suffers

But, would she have (or allow for) Mark to give a genuine apology, and then have a happy ending for him and Y/N? Well, if we look at Ms. Whitacre and how her perspective has changed from the Celine we knew, to the point where both she and Old Man Mark say similar things in part 2… I think it’s possible that, in the long time this story loop has been playing out, she’s gotten over her desire for revenge, and this story of hers has kind of morphed into a what-if redemption story (with her change in perspective shown by there being both Celci and Dorene as her avatars). Like, the kind of ending she’d like to believe is possible, where Mark realizes his fault and apologizes, and Y/N gets to have a life

(this works whether Engineer!Mark is Actor!Mark being pushed to this point or a nicer version of Mark invented by her for this story, which is nice)

(and it gives extra weight to him quoting her when he realizes he was in the wrong)

If this is Celine’s story where she gets her closure, then that explains why we never see her in future stuff

The main question this one raises is why she includes Y/N and has them take the blame for what Mark caused for so much of the adventure. Maybe she’s trying to turn us against Mark? But if this is shortly post-Damien for her, which occurs right at the end of WKM, then she should feel safe to assume that we also hate him. Is it meant to put us in her shoes, to help us understand her perspective? To teach us something?

Bonus point 1: I saw someone point out that, in Let Go, there's a moment where you can see she has the #1 Captain mug that the Captain gets given in Hold On (the one she actually gives you here is the buh-bye! mug, and hers has a Bandit quote on it). If she's the storyteller, I like to think of it as her having had the prompt on hand for you to get in the good ending.

Bonus point 2: Most of the significant new characters in this story that exist in multiple timelines and aren't a part of the Invincible Crew are women (or assumed to be). There's "Lady", the Bandit, and even the Wug that works with "Lady". Now, tell me, who's more likely to tell a story with multiple strong female characters who are ultimately sympathetic taking the spotlight: Actor!Mark, or Celine? (Yes Heist has the Scientist, but it also has all those other characters Mark plays, and the Hermit, and etc. etc.)

Bonus point 3: funny coincidence that Celci’s name is an anagram of the name of the narrator character played by Arin (Cecil). Like I know he had his name first and she’s named after Celsius, but, still.

That's all I've got! I'd love to hear y'all's thoughts on these theories :)

...

Except, that's not it. Because I gave it a day and had two new thoughts. One short and probably insignificant, one... Not.

First - there is one more potential candidate you could argue for being the storyteller: Wilford. Based on a) the power he demonstrates over the wormholes (even those his are a different color) and b) the computer the universe seems to run on using "Warstache OS". That being said, there is, like, no other evidence for this, and, more importantly to me, it really doesn't add anything to the story. Actor!Mark, Dark, or Celine being the storyteller all have implications for their characters. Wilford, on the other hand, is at this point defined by his consistent brand of apathetic chaos in the face of the constantly shifting madness of the universe, and telling a whole sprawling narrative like this with a clear ending and lesson/moral doesn't line up with what we've seen from him. So, while I'm bringing it up for the sake of completeness, I don't think it's a genuine option.

Now, for the actually plausible thing:

5. Celine theory v2

Last night, I was thinking about Damien (the video) again, as ya do, and two things in it got me thinking.

A) When Celine says in Damien that she’s done some horrible shit and used people to keep Damien alive... what could she possibly be referring to, considering all of Damien happens while they (in our body) are still in the manor?

B) I had the random realization that both Damien and Space have crossover with WMW - in Space we get to see why the second Wilford was there in the background of that one shot, while in Damien it’s the pink flower and the quotes from a little later in WMW that cues Damien off to things repeating. So, while I'm at the point where I firmly believe there is no one true "timeline", only each character's perspective on the series of events... it does seem that, from a certain angle, WMW, Damien, and Space are happening around the same time.

So. What if, instead of Celine telling the events of Space post-Damien when she's supposed to be asleep...

She's telling it during Damien? And, to tie it to observation A, her telling of this story is what’s somehow keeping Damien “alive”? With the infinitely dying colonists and crew* being the people she claims responsibility for "killing", and us (and Mark?) being the ones she "used"?

*(Consider that the bodies in the water in Damien could be the same as the corpses in Space - the house reusing “actors” for Space).

Your first question in response to that is probably, how does this keep Damien alive? Well. We could say that. Maybe, just maybe... MatPat was right actually.

Or, since he's not, and DA has to factor in somewhere as long as we’re still pre the very very ending of WKM...

Maybe focusing the manor's power to tell a story centered on Mark and the DA allowed Damien to slip under the radar… until Actor!Mark burst in.

(Also, since Celine keeping Damien safe is framed as her keeping him "asleep" while she's forced to stay "awake", consider that part 2 of Space literally finding a story to tell to help us go back to sleep.)

And then the endings of Damien and Space happen at the same time or one right after the other, meaning that, potentially, Mark and Celine both say their "I'm tired" lines at the same time. And then the cabin floods as the universe explodes for the last time, and the DA gets to smile at the big glass window that takes up the whole frame showing the new planet, while they’re being kicked out of their body into the glass mirror that takes up the whole frame. And, hey, maybe the reason Dark/Damien even kicks us out is because we became pals with Mark when he wasn't looking.

This does mean that there are 3 distinct Celines existing at the same point in time (Celine, Celci, Dorene)*. It also raises questions about Actor!Mark and Engineer!Mark re: what Actor!Mark was up to in Damien. Maybe the Actor!Mark who talks to Damien is only the embodiment of the worst of him while the rest is Engineer!Mark; or maybe Engineer!Mark started as just a role but developed as his own character to the point that he existed on his own and Actor!Mark could no longer play him; or maybe that Actor!Mark is an illusion by the house; or, maybe, something else.

*And I think there's another character here who, while not another part of / version of Celine, would, in this context, be meant to parallel her: The "Lady". Not just because they're associated with red lighting, but because they are the primary "antagonist" for most of Heist, hunting us and Mark down with her (space) gun. And what Celine lead Damien to think she's doing while she's out of the cabin? Hunting. Mark, presumably.

Some miscellaneous things about this version of the theory being true that would drive me insane:

1) Mark has poked fun at how people cry Darkiplier at any and all instances of red and/or cyan coloring in Space. And that's totally fair of him... Unless this is all actually happening mid-Damien, while we're still, on some level, inside Dark. Then it's fucked.

2) Who else remembers the bit in Damien where Damien looks to Celine and says "Aye aye captain"? Cause I did, in the days after space Part 1 came out, and I waited to see if that would mean anything. If Damien is saying that to Celine while she’s telling currently doing Space? That's, Something, all right. Especially when Cloak is currently selling a mug with the text "The Captain needs their rest" written in red.

3) The metaphor for Damien waking up in Damien (Mark why did you name the video just Damien) is winter ending and spring coming. What's the American tradition for finding out when that happens? When the groundhog comes out and isn't scared by its shadow. The ship the Captain arrives on is named the Shuttle Marmota. "Marmota" is part of the scientific name for groundhogs. On its own? Funny Groundhog Day reference (cause loop). In light of Damien? aaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Now, personally, I would prefer it I think if Space is a story Celine is telling post-Damien, because I think it works better for her character development and her getting closure that way. That being said, the likeliness of this second version of the theory both concerns ad intrigues me. A story taking place within Damien, which is taking place within WKM, in a multiverse where time is totally fucked anyway. Why not?

I'm going to cut myself off now before I start thinking about something even crazier to tie into Space being a story told by Celine, like, uh, Bandit / Wilford parallels.

...oh no. Oh No.

[lizzybeth1986]

Quick Thoughts on TRR Book 3 Chapter 11

• Again, fam, I'm not entirely sure I'll have this QT out in time but I hope I will. My surgery has been fixed for next Thursday, and I'd like to finish whatever I can before I leave for hospital. It's going to be hard, but fingers crossed I can get it done.

Here is Part 2 of Chapter 11's Quick Thoughts once you're through with this one!

• I'm noticing a narrative pattern here! Whenever something devastating is happening right in front of us (like the two attacks in the palace) they immediately pick up from where they left off in the previous chapter, bring that portion to its dramatic conclusion, and then play the opening theme (in this case, it's the sad version of the TRR title track). They used a similar narrative format in Chapter 1 of this book.

• This is also the third time the sad TRR track plays in the book. The only time it was played sans the narrative style of Chapter 1 and Chapter 10's openings, was in Chapter 6, after the orchard at Applewood was burned. All at points of time when all hope seems to be lost, before our lead characters get up, dust themselves off, and resolve to keep going despite everything and everyone against them.

• It was pretty clear that Constantine would sacrifice his life in this chapter, given the way he was talking at the end of the last one. It's the kind of symbolic send-off one tends to write for a character one knows will die sooner than he anticipates. Which is why even though I'm kinda pissed that Leo comes now when everything seems safe, I understand why having him there is so important. In the narrative, Leo is an important part of the closure that comes before Constantine's demise.

•

A few notes on Constantine's demise:

1. He's right about one thing: it definitely is a better end for him. He dies a hero. Cordonia never finds out that he was going to die anyway. No one gets to know what he did to the future Queen/newest Duchess either. I'm still going to be unhappy about this because it's a way better end than the man deserves.

2. I know I would find it disturbing if the man who arranged for me to be harmed in multiple ways in his own house was hailed a hero during his funeral, with only me and a handful of other people knowing he had done, and without the option of ever opening up about who was really behind it. I don't know about you, but my MC Esther would definitely feel conflicted about that.

3. Also..."everything I did, it was for you...whether or not it was right". Sorry Constantine, but that's a load of bullshit. After all this time, this man is still making excuses just before he dies. Liam answered this brilliantly in the last book - Constantine had a choice. He always had a choice. There were other, better ways of getting the MC out of the competition if that was his goal but no, his mind went straight to privacy violations and assault.

4. Also, while he pledged to help us under pressure from Liam, the fact remains that the brunt of his actions were borne by other people. The MC's name was dragged into the mud and SHE had to run around and make all the effort of setting it right. Liam was forced into a loveless match that would have culminated in a disastrous marriage had Tariq not cooperated, and he had to work on figuring out who was behind this not knowing his own family was involved. In all this, Constantine did all the work of making his own home as unsafe for his guest as it could possibly get, and very little of the work in restoring her reputation in the eyes of all of Cordonia. Did he apologize? Sure he did. But that doesn't change a damned thing. It doesn't change the fact that he sowed evil and left it for other people to reap.

5. I find his last line to Liam quite poignant though. "You are Cordonia". That's a very loaded statement, and a very accurate one. And I think if there is anything that can keep Liam strong and carry him forward, it's that. No one in this book is as immersed in the culture, history and spirit of Cordonia as Liam is - which is why he makes the best king for the nation. Because he knows it intimately and cares for it, he knows what this country needs so it can heal. Even if it takes a while for Liam to realize that himself.

6. So long, old man.

• Title: Cold Fire. Kinda fitting, considering our tour has now moved to Lythikos, but the 'heat' of the tensions within the court have turned up several notches. It could also refer to that sick, sick burn Drake delivered to Madeleine today though 😂😂😂

• Alternative titles:

Drink What Everyone Else Is Drinking. Good For Health.

Drake Doesn't Need A Sword to Slay Assholes. Nor Does Olivia, Apparently.

@callmetippytumbles suggested a shorter and better alternative title to that one, and it's: Drake Roasts And Gets Roasted.

• I was hoping we would spend at least a chapter in the Capitol and, yknow, actually help Liam work through his grief, but nope. Flash-forward it is.

• Bastien is in hospital now, with injuries sustained from escorting people out of the palace, so Mara (who apparently hasn't been sleeping since the attack) is the one doing the debriefing on his behalf.

• It's clear to Liam and our friends NOW that whoever has been conspiring against us was a part of the Unity Tour and working from the inside (bruh, I could have told you that long ago). I'm thinking now that if Neville is part of this plan, perhaps the duel was meant to serve as a distraction so arrangements could be made within the time that the entire court was out in the courtyard. Just a theory.

• This was also alluded to in Perfect Match, when one of Nadia's alternative identities is Steel, a guest in the 'royal's tour who is actually an assassin.

•

This is perhaps the closest we get to Liam confessing how much all this has been affecting him, and sadly enough, he doesn't have enough time to really work through his grief. The suggestion to continue to Lythikos and get their answers there comes from Liam, and he speaks of it as something Constantine would have wanted. It isn't entirely healthy, but I think this is the way Liam has been brought up and it's hard for him to give himself time to be vulnerable, to give himself the space to grieve properly. Because now more than ever he has an entire country depending on him, and the royal family is known for projecting displays of strength and stoicism even if they don't feel it. It's not a good way of working through one's issues, but it's probably the only way Liam knows to deal with his trauma. I feel like in a lot of ways he's reliving especially the assassination attempt that happened earlier, but worse because someone he loved actually died this time. I'd definitely see some signs of PTSD at work here, even if it's suppressed. Particularly given that he speaks of feeling empty.

•

Waitaminute...are you telling me that Esther, the future Queen of Cordonia, is going to attend a Ball, her fiancé's father's funeral, a meeting, and an entire trip to Lythikos in this fever dream of a costume???

Fine. Fine, Esther, I give up. Fanta bottle inspired Stephanie Seymour gown it is 🙄

• What Madeleine says about the effect the MC has (particularly if the MC chooses all the right options during the tour) on people is very very similar to the last thing Constantine said before he died:

I'm guessing in a lot of ways this is seen as the MC's personal victory. Constantine and Madeleine were the two people who believed least that the MC had anything of value to give if she became Queen or a person of power in Cordonian politics. It was a long hard road to achieving this level of confidence even in her naysayers, so in a lot of ways the MC now truly is a unifying factor. Which makes me wonder what they say if you do a gag-run instead where the MC fails miserably during the tour. I know @boneandfur is doing such a playthrough as of now, but I don't know exactly if Madeleine and Constantine's words to her change in such an eventuality.

•

OMG. The design team is KILLING IT with the OOTD this week! It's gorgeous, and it tells us plenty about the Lythikos duchy and the Nevrakis House! For those of you who haven't read my House Sigils essay, I theorized that red was one of the house tinctures (colours), and that the sigil was either a sword or a spider. The flaming sword is attached to the gown (possibly as a brooch pin). @i-dream-so-i-write and I discussed this, and it was she who pointed out that Diavolos signature weapon was the flaming sword, as can be seen from the above picture. I'm not sure which metallic colour would form the second colour/tincture, but evidence seems to be learning more towards silver (there is a little gold on the brooch-sword, so it could be either). Tldr: I love this gown. It has that grace and effortless style that I've come to associate with Nevrakis fashion.

• Olivia is wearing the gown she wore for her Coronation. Come to think of it, the Scarlet Duchess moniker that Olivia got would refer to way more than her fashion. Given that it's one of her house colours and she was proud to be a Nevrakis especially at the time, Scarlet Duchess would mean so much to her. So much.

• So we're seated in the front and served fresh, piping hot food. SWEET! XD This time we get to order stuff. Maxwell gets fondue, Hana gets glazed salmon and Drake has ordered for ribs.

• Olivia: I had to request a few changes for your more...rustic palette.

Drake: Are you expecting a thanks? Because you're not getting one.

You're in for the meal of your life, Walker 😂

•

If you've never liked Olivia at all before? This scene in reason enough 😂😂😂

• Lucretia drops by to make more heavy hints about marriage prospects for Olivia (including relief that her niece wasn't scarred from rubble. How...caring).

• Olivia and Liam then perform the opening dance (like they did during the social season) and Liam takes this opportunity to find out what she knows. He gets little, beyond her worries about having to marry someone Lucretia will pick for her. Hana points out that perhaps "one has to wonder who Lucretia wants Olivia to marry". Good question.

• But before that, Kiara comes up to the MC to tell her she will be withdrawing from court after the Winter Festival ends. Kiara's argument is sound - she had already extended her public support and seems to be attending the wedding. But now is a dangerous time to be a part of the court, and Kiara's doing what she can to stay safe. Remember, she was the only noblewoman in court injured during the attack at Homecoming Ball, a fact that was given hardly a minute of consideration before the MC "convinced" her to join them again.

• Hana mentions that perhaps they can speak to her before she returns. I hope this means we will FINALLY address what happened to Kiara and look into possible - very valid - concerns about her safety. This is something we SHOULD have been talking about when we meet her at Castelserraillian, but no. PB decided to create a whole new character instead just so Kiara wouldn't get the attention she deserved as a character.

• Then again, she is seen as a suspect in a way none of the other court ladies (besides Olivia, and she's only viewed as such because of her family history) are. Sigh. The MC gets the option to speculate that she "knows something" and Drake gets to answer that "we must suspect everyone". DRAKE. Who ALSO got wounded at the same Ball that she was wounded in. Ugh. I mean I shouldn't be surprised considering he gets angry about people not supporting Liam barely hours after he got shot, but he's friends with the King. Kiara is not, and if she gets wounded again wouldn't it be their fault for not addressing the concerns she and her family had in the first place? Apparently Penelope's and Madeleine's concerns should be given ample consideration, but Kiara? Kiara who?? Oh right, Penelope's love interest's sister 😠 While we're at it, let's just make her suspicious for no reason!

• CONGRATULATIONS MAXWELL STANS on getting your first character development scene! There isn't a lot of overt character development but the scene does show us how observant and resourceful Maxwell is, pointing out the hole in the armoury wall that will allow us to overhear people's conversations and give us a better idea of who we should suspect. It does this while still establishing him as goofy, fun-living and always ready to live life king-size.

• Maxwell and the MC engage in what is known in European folklore as an apple-shot (Apfelschuss in German. The most popular folk tale involving this feat of archery is that of William Tell, a Swiss folk hero, who was ordered to shoot an apple from the top of his son's head by a cruel nobleman named Albrecht Gessler. Thankfully, he succeeded).

• Oooh now comes my favourite part: the weapons!

• This is an amazing Easter Egg in two ways if you're a TCaTF fan. One is that it reminds me SO MUCH of when Val gets to be the narrator, which is ALWAYS fun! Case in point are the names she gives the Iron Empire soldiers at Ennan: Pointy, Mr Fancy, Birdface, Grumpy and That Other Guy. Here, the MC gives names to all the weapons.

• So if you're someone who has played TCaTF and forgotten the weapons, no problem! I'm here to list out what these weapons are actually called, where they originated from and how Kenna (if the reader pays) gets them!

• The Weirdly Fancy Dagger is the Black Asps Dagger (which I think might be venom-tipped, like Adder's Fang) which Raydan gets from a Black Asp agent when he is imprisoned under Azura's orders. I see this weapon as being associated most with Abanthus/Lythikos in this list of weapons, because it comes from Adder's team of Lykos spies and assassins, and eventually (if Kenna chooses so) Adder can get to rule over this kingdom either alone or alongside Princess Zenobia (or not at all).

The Dragon Face Hammer! is actually the famous Wave Hammer, made by Kailani Keawe of Ebrimel - a fierce warrior and a skilled craftswoman - from Heart Oak Wood sneaked in from Thorngate. Heart Oak has all the appearance of wood with all the strength of metal, and makes for an amazing secret weapon.

The Ram Head Thing is Crown Guardian Leon Stirling's signature weapon - The Ram's Head Mace. This is a weapon clearly associated with Stormholt as Queen Adriana bequeathed it to him. Leon gets to pass it down to Kenna upon his death, if she so chooses. This mace is strong enough to crush armour, and Leon won the tournament at Ducitora with it before Azura killed him.

The Skull...Flail? is Val Greaves' signature weapon, The Deadman's Flail, which is powerful enough to crush armour. Kenna can use this weapon in her fight against Severin Cale, Leader of the Mercenaries. Val herself uses it often in battle.

The polo mallet is just...there.

• Ooh finally! It's time to investigative.

1. Madeleine approaching a man the MC has rejected in favour of her current fiancé. If you're marrying Liam, this man is Drake and he gets to roast Madeleine like she's never been roasted before ("Liam does get what he wants. That means he also gets to throw away what he doesn't want"). If you're marrying Drake, Hana or Maxwell, she is talking to Liam, addressing the king-sized elephant in the room. Liam doesn't pull any extra punches - he just looks extra annoyed and tells her he's "had other matters to attend to". It may seem like a weak defense in comparison to Drake's explosive comeback, but to be fair the man is going through some crazy shit here, and I don't think anyone in that state can actually expand enough thought to form a rebuttal at all. I doubt he'd have either the inclination or energy to actually respond with more than "I've had other matters to attend to". It's particularly awkward if your LI is Maxwell because he is standing right next to you hearing all this, but that hardly reflects in his dialogue. Basically, I view this sequence as telling us more about Madeleine than about the men: she may have changed a tiny bit, but she's still just a huge shit-stirrer.

Possibly, this might be set up for the apology that will ensue if we save Madeleine's backstabbing ass next chapter. It'll be something along the lines of "oh forgive me, I was so wrong, what I did was so wrong, I'll never do that again" etc etc yadda yadda getouttamyfaceyoufakeassbitch.

Also, I believe that the part of the reason Drake delivered that zinger to Madeleine was because he was still stinging from Olivia's burn at dinner 😂

2. While there are very few differences between the first and last conversations, the second conversation changes drastically depending on who your LI is.

a. If your LI is Liam, Hakim comes up to Liam, gives him his condolences for Constantine's death, and then comments positively on Esther and the upcoming wedding, which leads to a discussion between the MC and Maxwell about wedding preparations. I think this is mostly because Kiara never really interacts with Liam, so they got Hakim to do the honors. Over here though, Hakim and Liam's conversation about the wedding forms only a tiny portion of the conversation, as opposed to the entire thing.

b. If your LI is Hana, Kiara and Hana have a lovely, lighthearted conversation about the latter's upcoming wedding. Kiara expresses great happiness at Hana getting married to the MC, and Hana confesses to being so nervous she constantly dreams about it. I love the way Hana and Kiara's friendship is written here: how open Hana is with Kiara and how encouraging and supportive Kiara is towards Hana. I think it's so beautiful to see 😭

c. If your LI is Maxwell? It's Hana and Kiara again, this time speculating what the MC's wedding to Maxwell will be like. Kiara confesses that she plans to skip a cousin's reception on the same day by pretending to be ill, just so she can attend their reception instead. Together they discuss what surprises the Beaumonts might spring during the reception - from dance-offs to ball pits to hot air balloons filled with kittens. Here too, it's a lovely moment - two of the smartest court members having fun talking about weddings.

d. If your LI is Drake, Kiara talks to him instead. First about the offerings at the dessert buffet, then about the wedding. Kiara is overly chirpy and happy and excited about the wedding, and Drake tenses up when she turns the topic towards the wedding preparations, because those are "complicated". Of course, if you do the LI scene with him at the ice palace, you will find out that he doesn't like talking about it because he would rather keep things simple and focus on his bride, and the nobility is all about perfection and elaborate preparations. Very possibly the Kiara-Drake conversation was written this way as a lead-up to his conversation with the MC at the snow palace. (and perhaps also to dissuade people who would like to ship Drake and Kiara, especially given the backlash Kiara got from fans just for having a crush on the man).

The main focus of this conversation of course is to give out the message that the MC's upcoming wedding is something that still excites people, and that even people afraid of staying in court don't want to miss it.

3. The third conversation between Olivia and Lucretia is given the suspicious sounding music from ES, and begins with Lucretia trying to find out more about the MC. Olivia doesn't tell her much beyond what everyone else knows, and Lucretia leaves her with this cryptic statement:

I feel we're going to have a Big Reveal about what actually happened to the Nevrakises and whether they really were traitors or not.

• With that we finish our little stint at investigation, and in comes our next chance to spend diamonds on our respective LIs!

• I love how Liam's outdoor kink has been referenced two chapters in a row now 😂

•

(Screenshots: @kennaxval for Hana, @mariamatsuo for Drake and the Vika Avey YouTube channel for Maxwell).

Again, like the previous scene, the LIs have their own individual stamp over their ice palace scene. The beauty of it is not just that they all seem different in the way they make love to the MC, but that their reactions to the ice palace itself vary from LI to LI.

Liam gives us a legend. He tells us about the prevalent pre-wedding tradition in Lythikos, where an engaged couple would have their village build them an ice palace the following winter. Kind of like a seasonal barn-raising, which also involves a community coming together to build something for the couple. It says plenty about Lythikos and its people (I won't elaborate because at some point I'm going to be writing essays again). But it also confirms for us how immersed in Cordonian culture Liam is, and how much his Queen will learn when she is with him.

Hana gives us a fairytale. She tells us a story her mother used to read to her at night, about a frozen kingdom, an ice palace and a princess with a frozen heart, which thawed the moment she found true love. The fairytale Hana tells us bears similarities to Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen", and more to the film it inspired, Frozen. But snow maidens are a staple of certain European cultures (particularly Norwegian and Slavic legend), so it could be a mix of many stories. It's fitting that Hana relates the ice palace to a story, connected as she is to literature and folklore and romance. In a lot of ways, hidden beneath the fable of the ice princess is Hana's own story.

Drake gives us a memory. As a follow-through to the conversation between him and Kiara in Maxwell's armoury scene if the reader bought it (unbeknownst to him, because he doesn't know the MC was overhearing them) he gets to be more open about not being very interested in planning weddings. His ideal would have been to take his bride to his mother's ranch in Texas for a wedding very reminiscent of his parents' union, and were Cordonia not in this condition that's exactly what he would have done. It's very like Drake, whose most powerful emotional associations are connected to his once-happy childhood and his memories of his parents, particularly his father.

Maxwell gives us an gift, made with his own hands. When he brings the MC to the ice palace, he suggests creating ice sculptures, and both make one of each other. It's a sweet, funny and affectionate scene, with both of them exchanging cute banter about Maxwell's "secret affair" with "Ice MC" and his tongue getting stuck in ice while pretending to kiss her 😂 It's very Maxwell. He's very hands-on, likes to do fun things, likes to entertain. And that's exactly the vibe I'm getting here.

The love scenes are tender and sweet and hot, and I think each of these scenes is worth the diamonds you'll spend. The scenes are tailored perfectly to fit the personalities of each LI. This is exactly what I hoped to see with scenes like the bathtub scene at the beginning of the book, and the spa scene. If they continue with this kind of quality content going forward, then I'm really really glad they took that hiatus.

• Okay we're back to the ballroom now. With Madeleine super drunk on...um...some pineapple drink.

• Madeleine is the only person to have the pineapple drink, and she seems to have an affinity for pineapple's since Maxwell offered her that Pineapple Paradise Punch in Fydelia. Everyone else is drinking Lythikos Nog.

• Madeleine collapses in the middle of Olivia's speech!

• The security detail uses "Code Locusta" to refer to poisons. Which is fitting, because Locusta was a very notorious maker of poisons during the time of Claudius and Nero (around AD 54 was when she contributed to the assassination of Emperor Claudius, and his son Brittanicus a year later). She was not only someone who was an expert on poisons and hired for that purpose, but also someone who used her skills to bring down royalty at the behest of their enemies. This could be a bit of a stretch, but I think this ties in symbolically with the plot of the movie scene in Liam's playthrough, where the enemy of the throne is someone who also can claim to be a royal. Especially considering poisons have been used to kill Liam's mother, and now to kill a supporter of the Crown and the MC, and a member of a very powerful Cordonian noble house. And yet...the other noble house - the Nevrakis family of Lythikos - stays untouched.

• The last time I recall "Locusta" being used in literature was in Alexandre Dumas' (père) The Count of Monte Cristo. A chapter of this book, in which a woman attempts to poison her stepdaughter so the family fortune could be passed on to her son, was titled Locusta as well.

• Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, folks. Or should I say, in the Kingdom of. Cordonia?

• Can I just say I love the parallels between Lythikos in Book 1 and now? We learned a little about Olivia's past in passing from Liam here, and now it will hit us in full force in the form of Lucretia. Constantine didn't seem to be in Lythikos, and returned to tell Liam that he was going to die soon, and now we visit the same estate after he has given his life to save his son.

Olivia gave us the worst place and the worst treatment then, and the best now. We convinced Kiara to support us in this very ballroom, and perhaps we might have to do so now too. It was here that Madeleine proudly claimed she was neither unrefined or insecure...but now she doesn't care about propriety.

I recall it was here for the first time that Maxwell stans were given the chance to express affection towards him, and it's here that they now get his first character development scene in Book 3. Most of all...it was here that the initial 3 LIs started to open up to us, in different ways, (if we paid) and now we return...an engaged couple - shedding all our layers and keeping each other warm in the cold (again, if we pay). I have many fond memories of Lythikos, and this chapter definitely brought me back there xD

• Tumblr isn't allowing me to write further for this post, so I will be writing my theories and who I believe is involved in the next post.