#and a whooooole lot of speculation

[tobuo]

hey so !!!! @mstalltale your point is really interesting and got me thinking so i wanted to add it on to this post. hope you don't mind! i still don't think they're going to bring him back as was, or at least, i'll be really disappointed if they do for the reasons i touched on in my original post, and a few more here, because i think it would cheapen the sacrifice BUT this whole bit of lore is really interesting and touches on a whooooole bunch of other lore i enjoy....... so now im speculating for fun tehehe

SPOILERS FOR OCHKANATLAN, 5.3 ARCHON QUEST & MAUVIKA'S STORY QUEST + SPECULATION ABOUT CAPITANO, XBALANQUE & THE PYRO SOVEREIGN UNDER THE CUT.

FIRSTLY im not sure his lack of face reveal means much. i think it was probably hoyo wanting to let the player know just how horrifying the curse is by explaining capitano as being eroded/rotted beyond recognition... but feeling it might be too graphic to show. but i could be wrong!

as for the crucifixion nails in his symbol, for me that kind of alludes to the fact that capitano died for someone else's sins. mauvika was the one who used the ruler of death's power, she was the one who committed that "sin" and whose life should have been forfeit as a result, but capitano took her place and i guess, in turn, resurrected the lord of the night/the night kingdom that wouldn't have survived if not??? maybe?? you could also say he died for all the other souls that were with him too, to grant them peace they otherwise wouldn't have been given

that said, i definitely think it's interesting that hoyo went the route of having his body remain rather than doing what they did with signora lol. i don't think you're wrong that it's intentional and i DO have a few different thoughts on this sjkdfhsdf. the first is what i believe is most likely, but your comment got me thinking about the others just for fun lol. either way tho, i don't see capitano coming back.... but thats just me

SPECULATION #1 - NATURE OF NIGHT KINGDOM

my main theory would be because the basis of the night kingdom is as a kind of..... liminal space for souls to exist? "between body and mind, life and death" in the words of the genshin wiki, so it makes sense that capitano's death was a spiritual one rather than a physical one, especially considering his curse and that he kinda merged with the lord of the night who rules over the night kingdom. mauvika also mentions that for those afflicted with the curse of immortality that being removed from the physical plane is a kind of peace... i cant remember/find her exact words here im sorry to me that implies that he, and other khaenri'ahns, can't physically die... but that their souls... can? or at least can transcend to some other place where they might escape the curse. if we then also assume this means the khaenri'ahn curse is a physical affliction it makes sense that his body would remain since ronova "upheld" the rules and the curse. that's the whole paradox and this is partly what makes me think he isn't going to be "resurrected". the whole point is that his curse/body/life force is what's sustaining the lord of the night.... him coming back.... would undo that..... his cursed body is the thing sustaining the lord of the night, so it has to remain there. THAT SAID i am definitely interested to know how much of capitano/thrain remains, if any, since he transferred his life force to the lord of the night. she says to mauvika not to seek traces of him... but does that mean his soul is gone completely? WHO KNOWS!!! i'm also SUPER interested to know what this situation will mean if the traveller/their sibling ends the curse of immortality too

SPECULATION #2 - VESSEL FOR XBALANQUE

this is a bit more out there skdjfhsdf but...... the crucifixion nails in his symbol.... which then leads to the idea of resurrection. BUT DOES IT HAVE TO BE CAPITANO'S? there are a LOT of mentions of xbalanque, and he even "appears" in mauvika's story quest. temporarily. he himself says the body he appears in he's "only possessing [it] temporarily" and that the borrowed body is "a bit lacking when it comes to exercise, and hasn't really trained any aspect" but that he has "[his] own plans". AND WHO JUST HAPPENS TO HAVE A FREE BODY RIGHT NOW POTENTIALLY? PRIME REAL ESTATE. MY MAN IS EMPTY one of the main things we also know about xbalanque is that when he killed xiuhcoatl (the pyro sovereign), xbalanque was "revived from the flames". there's a lot of mentions throughout ochkanatlan especially about the everlasting flame of life/primal flame. when the traveller awakens to the pyro element, we even make offerings of burning flint which has a "fiery pulse" to capitano on the throne of primal fire. in ochkanatlan??? i know mauvika's story quest kind of presents it that this one day trip was xbalanque's reward for the "bet" he made with ronova and that he's not planning to return because he "gave" the rest of the "life force" ronova granted him to mauvika after their duel so its highly unlikely but......... the possibility is out there....... especially since, as you said, death isn't an absolute in natlan and the ode of resurrection does still exist in some capacity. maybe the throne of primal fire works as another kind of ode of resurrection??? i definitely think it's intentional that we offer those things to capitano's body/the throne. okay SO maybe i just want playable xbalanque because his lore is SO INTERESTING TO ME and he seems so funny but this is a fun theory all the same

SPECULATION #3 - VESSEL FOR PYRO SOVEREIGN/XIUHCOATL

even more out there...... but this speculation involves much of the same ideas as xbalanque being ressurcted using capitano. some ppl in natlan do think xiuhcoatl is still in the volcano, just in some kind of statis/hibernation or that a husk of him remains after xbalanque killed him but............. again........ if the primal flame/sacred flame/flame of everlasting life etc. has the power to resurrect....... who's to say it's not possible to reawaken the pyro sovereign this way..................... using the throne of primal fire....... ESPECIALLY SINCE THE ARCHON'S SEAT WHOSE POWER COMES FROM THE SOVEREIGNS IS THEIR "DIVINE THRONE".......... lol i don't think this one is super likely, i tend to lean more towards the idea that our little saurian companion will somehow be related to or become the vessel for the pyro sovereign (they are "the chosen of dragons" and have the "flamelord's blessing" after all) BUT we do know from neuvillette that the sovereigns can be reborn in human form............ and its just a fun theory to imagine lol

anyway if anyone has thoughts on this, i'd love to chat about it more!!!!!!

ppl complaining abt capitano ~dying~ like it isn't the most thematically appropriate end to his story. none of the actions we've ever seen from him have been for personal glory or gain. it's perfectly in keeping with who he is to sacrifice himself for a cause like this. it was his choice, on his terms, with the added poetic justice of spitting in the face of the very being who cursed him and all the other khaenri'ahns after suffering for hundreds of years.

like............. yeah it's sad that he's likely never gonna be playable, but honestly i think his storyline was so narratively satisfying and a really gorgeous, fitting end for a really interesting character

[ryouverua]

Flashback light! Flashback light!

I just love the animated sequence a lot okay

Aaaw Tsumugi don’t ruin my fun D: Besides, we already missed out on the last one! Which... actually raises an interesting question. If these are being released sequentially, are we going to have a weird gap in our memories because the last one was broken? I guess it depends on how it works - maybe it’ll just bring back the memories that were next in line to be released anyway...

Well, I wonder if Tsumugi has a valid point though. 8′D The flashback lights are probably double-edged swords if Monokuma is giving them out like candy.

... With that said I guess I’m still wondering if all of the memories are theirs? I’ve played around with the ‘they’re regular high-school students who’ve had their memories written over/modified with the memories/identities of Ultimate students who died in the past’ - could at least make a decent jab at the somewhat ‘cyclical’ vibe I’m getting along with the life-and-death/resurrection and escapism theme... And considering there was that ‘Ultimate Hunt’ that showed them being hunted down by an unknown group and that Rantaro seems to have done this before.

Actually with that said, with the reveal of Kaito being sick - that actually... maybe fits in with this a bit. They would do a whole medical exam before accepting someone into astronaut training (forged papers aside lol) and considering the game we’re in, I’d be pretty surprised if this wasn’t a terminal disease he had. So how could he still be the Ultimate Astronaut without a clean bill of health? Well, if they picked up some random kid off the street and gave him the memories of the Ultimate Astronaut without checking for something like that, something that he clearly doesn’t remember - that would make quite a bit of sense, wouldn’t it?

But enough speculating, we have a return guest!

............. Hm.

That is.......... probably a lie, huh.

Damnit Miu, why have we been on the same wavelength so much recently?!

Oh come on, there’s no way that’s going to work -

KAITO I LOVE YOU BUT YOU GOTTA PUT YOUR GREY MATTER TO GOOD USE OUTSIDE OF SPACE TRAVEL

I just have this image of Kokichi with the controller just pressing ‘fast forward’ on the normal pre-flashback light dialogue -

“Come ooooon guys I get it! Blah blah blah dangerous blah blah blah memories blah blah! SHOW ME THOSE SWEET CHEEKS, SWEET CHEEKS!”

Remembered.....?!?!

Unrelated but did he just say talkin’ omg...

YEAH I’M PRETTY SURE THAT’S A BAD THING

So these were definitely the meteorites brought up in Kirumi’s video. And everyone watched that, right? So this shouldn’t be huge news to anyone but uh, apparently it is! Okay! Shit that’s one way to move past the first two games A BIT DRASTIC BUT OKAY

Oh that is not good. We... just got our first glimpse of the mastermind’s potential motive, huh?

THERE IS NO FUCKING WAY THINGS ENDED WELL YOU SWEET SUMMER CHILD

Oooh, new yellow text!

Which I suppose Kirumi would have been helping with...

Could it be because.... the plan required 16 Ultimate talent students? Maybe? but then the ‘Ultimate Hunt’ happened and those students were killed, hence the group funeral? Maybe??? Which is why we have 16 students that may have had to become the original group chosen to save everyone?? I am cramming my square peg theory into a round hole AND IDGAF ANYMORE

Oh fuck we’re not going to find out Miu is part of that cult are we - like it triggered our memories of the world-ending cult for us in general, but she’ll have some sort of connection to it and basically unlock a whole different set of memories for her - ?!

PSYCHE

.... was that just a red herring or is that actually foreshadowing 8′\ Gonta isn’t the only one waving red flags this chapter...

Himiko’s got her priorities straight.

Yeah, see, this is where I’m stuck too. I have theories on all this stuff but they don’t... really... fit together? False memories/identities of dead students (and perhaps them even attending the funeral of the actual students they’re imitating??) - that fits up to the whole ‘getting talents at the beginning of the game/funeral scene, and that feeling I can’t shake about how random/unwanted their talents are to most of them. It can even work with the Ultimate Hunt!

But then the meteors/them being in space or on a spaceship right now, and them being isolated from the outside world makes sense when you consider the meteorites and Kirumi talking about a terrible event she needed to escape to take care of, to protect the citizens of her country. It also makes sense about having the ‘Prime Minister’, an astronaut, an anthropologist, an inventor, a robot and even an artist and musician, along with all of those libraries and other areas containing information/things of human historical significance. You want to have not just kids with potential for a space mission/leadership (... I guess Supreme Leader can technically go there too??) but students representing arts and technology, who can keep those things going. With that said... the only way I can mash that together with the first idea is that the original set of talented children died? Maybe hunted down, aka the Ultimate Hunt, so they found these kids instead??? But even then, some of the talents get a major side-eye like... cosplayer can maybe work as seamstress and I suppose an assassin works as someone cool under pressure/willing to do things that need to be done, but a magician? Really? 

I’m definitely still missing some pieces of the puzzle, and that piece is definitely the mastermind’s role in this. .. Are we going the route of ‘the mastermind is part of the world-ending cult’ then? How very VLR of you

Ah right, that’s true... Ultimate Academy, and not Hope’s Peak, right?

Anyway, at least we’re only in Chapter 4. oTL It’s not like I’m out of ideas or anything - I’d hardly call the rambling from earlier being stumped - but nothing is clicking quite... right for me yet.

Man as much as I joke that I relate to Tsumugi and Shuichi, Kokichi and I have been on a bit of a similar wavelength too. 8′D That’s something I never thought I’d say, and yet here we are...

Hm... is that a good or bad thing?

Anyway, Kokichi seems hell-bent on pissing Kaito off. Which does make sense, actually! They’re officially the strongest personalities in the room and definitely have the most leadership potential. 

Kokichi why are you calling me out like this

RADICAL-9 OR HINAMIZAWA SYNDROME

............ OKAY KODAKA I GET IT YOU’RE FRIENDS WITH THE CREATOR OF THE ZERO ESCAPE SERIES

Kaito stop smashing the 4th wall open

FUCKING LMAO THAT’S THE MOST PRESSING ISSUE YOU HAVE KAITO?!

Oooh, looks like we still have shades of Angie’s council left over. That... could be a hint, maybe? About susceptibility to cults? It could turn out that someone who was willing to go along with Angie’s council was just as easily swayed by the world-ending cult...

[pintobordeaux]

Okay okay okay. I’ve seen this post several times and every time I stared in curiosity and horror at it instead of writing a response. Well not today!

Firstly, I should preface this with the fact that I have a lot of experience in cadaver labs. As in I have personally helped dissect and teach (somewhere in the range of 75-100 different bodies) level of experience. And also - I fully understand that this was drawn by the artist for fun and does not need human medical anatomical accuracy. Everything below here is a shitpost for my own analytical amusement.

Okay now that’s out of the way - the anatomical drawings here are bonkers. Every time I look further there’s more that makes me audibly say What. The. Fuck. Is. That!??!? My first question is unequivocally - Bruce how in the fuck do you have any idea of what Clark's internal gross anatomy looks like? If this is speculation then What.Are.Those? And why the choices that were made? It's all vaguely reminiscent of a human, but all the pieces are just slightly wrong and there's no explanation for why. I've added a few choice notes of initial thoughts.

For instance a human femur has a little nubbin called the lesser trochanter. (The blue bitch in the image below)

This seems silly of our bones to need these stupid little chunks but it's really important to make sure you can flex your thighs - ie: how you walk. Or sit down. Or just any big lower limb movements. And a whooooole lot of these bones are missing pieces like that. OR the muscles that should connect to them are there but not connected or literally facing the wrong way.

But that's the small stuff. The 'I'm being petty and pedantic about the small stuff' aspects of these. A bunch of other stuff falls into this category. And I'm already overexplaining my reaction to these in this long post.

But the big stuff?

That's absolutely the organs.

Bruce. Bruce my dude. My buddy. My pal. What are these supposed to be? Why are they lumpy like a salivary gland, or fat, or even your pancreas? What function does that serve? Why are they in so many random places?? Usually organs (excluding skin) are deep in your body because they're all nice and protected by bones and cushioned by the everything else filling up the space. But these buggers? Organs of...some function - they're in the abdomen AND just hanging out in his arm. Where anyone can come along and just punch 'em.

Why do you think it hurts so much to hit your elbow on something? It's because you have a nerve that's waaaaay too close to the outside of your body vs nice and protected deep within. Human's are put together kinda stupid. Evolution said "good enough" and we've been stuck with it ever since. And Clark is just cruising along here with arm organs.

And the eye drawing - Why is everything grey? At least with the mystery abdominal organs they're nice and purple like your spleen. Isn't is canonical that Clark's blood is red? If his blood is red then why is his eyeball organ grey like it's not receiving any arterial supply whatsoever?!? The proper hypothetical color I would accept is green for the Kryptonian photosynthesizing theory. But if he's photosynthesizing within his body why is so much soft and squishy? Animal cells are soft and squishy. If he were taking after earth plants then it'd be hard like a plant with double walled cells. But alas - alien biology can break all known scientific reasoning.

He's also got what I can only hope is dark matter in his legs. I truly love that fictional addition. I will adopt that one into headcannon to explain away his ability to land without suffering consequences from the impact surging through his body and causing damage.

Bruce idk how to tell you this but waxing poetic about/obsessively studying someone and their biology is not a normal way to flirt

- from “Anatomy Of A Metahuman”