#Not even a mention of Wortox. I'm proud of myself

[luseda1]

Some more update thoughts: who is responsible and why? I propose an alternative reason to the one that I feel is most obvious.

Spoilers below the cut...

Admittedly, this may be my saying out loud the obvious thing everyone is assuming, but I think it's likely that Charlie is the one who chained the werepig and sicced the parasites on him. Whoever did this has some serious shadow power at their disposal and there aren't too many candidates.

I'm inclined to think Maxwell had nothing to do with it (could be a sign that Charlie isn't telling him everything despite teaming up with him- not too much of a surprise there). He seems like he has a better guess at what happened than the other survivors do, but he doesn't know quite what's going on either. One could argue his line about the chained werepig is him feigning ignorance, but I don't think so. If he had done this, I would expect him to try and stop the others from freeing the pig. Would anyone hearing Maxwell say, "No don't do the compassionate thing; it's a bad idea" actually change their mind? I doubt it, but it'd be worth a try.

"They" could maybe have done it, but I'm not sure we've seen Them act outside of Charlie's interventions on their behalf and trying to possess Maxwell.

So yeah, I think it's probably Charlie. I think the werepig found a way to steal some extra potent nightmare fuel that buffed him massively (but may have nasty side effects). Going by his Gollum-like complaints that he found the power, it seems like he thought the fuel was his to take. He might thoroughly resent being punished as if he were a thief. Being so harshly punished might also have given him the message that he had something incredibly valuable.

But speaking of harsh punishments, yeaaaah being chained up and made immobile while being attacked by shadows monsters and left like that indefinitely is pretty awful. If Charlie did this, it's probably her darkest move to date. She attacks the Survivors in the dark (still not sure quite what she wants to achieve with that) and sends hounds after them for stealing her spotlight so she's not entirely innocent, but she seems to think of herself as a just ruler. I suppose that could imply her perception of herself is just wrong (fair enough), or that things aren't what they seem.

Like is this meant to be a punishment? What if it were a harsh way to get the power back and return the werepig to the way he was before? Using the extra nasty nightmare fuel seems like playing with fire and purging it from the werepig could be (or at least seem) better for him in the long run. I could see Charlie doing that to someone while still considering herself just.

There is a chance I'm being too charitable tho. "Be grateful that you've yet to face the Queen of Shadows' ire" and all. Maybe we've just gotten a glimpse of just how cruel her idea of justice can be and it raises the stakes for the Survivors.