#askbox cleaned! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

themissingnumbers · 14 days ago

Note

Hello, you wonderful people! I'm back, so you know what that means ;) It's everybody's favorite time—Theory Time! (More like me yapping about little things my brain hyperfocused on and wouldn't let me stop thinking about but I digress-) You all know how I function by now. I write things down in the order I think of them, so things are probably gonna be really scattered (also I'm writing this at 2:30 in the morning), but if you can look past all of that, then I hope you enjoy my ramblings.

In this Special Edition of The New Yap Times: More on the References, some Observations, and Assorted Theories.

Hoo-boy. Where do I even start? I never even know if my thoughts make sense before I write them down, so I guess we'll see where this goes lmao. Okay-

Talking Point 1: Fire.

Thoughts—I have many thoughts—so let's get started. Let's go over the flavor text in Fire's Reference first. That stuff gives me bad vibes. I don't like the way it makes me feel because I don't feel like it's Fire saying any of it. It's like a third party (Arceus?) trying to warn us using the reference as a medium. But, in the same breath, I'd also say that it sounds like a plea, or potentially a taunt. And maybe it's just me who feels like the flavor text over the spoiler guards is a taunt, because for me, whoever is speaking is right! Whoever is speaking is absolutely right about me—I would never hurt him, not intentionally at the very least—but don't tell me what I'm gonna do or what I'm thinking!

Okay, hear me out. I'm on the train of "If learning something about a character hurts them, then I'm okay not knowing", but I know that a lot of people aren't riding the same train as me. And that's exactly why the whole "You'd never hurt him like that. Of this, I am sure." line bothers me so much. I know players—nay—I know humans, and if anyone takes it as a taunt as I did initially, or, god forbid, as a challenge, then this whole thing could end in catastrophe for Fire. If whoever-the-fuck is writing/speaking the flavor text over the spoilers is using it as an elaborate plan to make us "betray" Fire and to make him trust people less when someone inevitably pushes things too far then I swear- Listen, and I hate using this phrase, but it's giving manipulation and I don't fuck with that. (<- is all of this Paranoia? Am I just being Paranoid? I think I may be Paranoid. I need to calm down-) (My brain goes in strange directions sometimes. I believe this is one of those times, but I still wrote it down anyway.)

OKAY, BUT ALSO- Why is Fire's base blacked out? Like, the only parts we can see are what I'm assuming are his Casual and his Trainer/Legendary clothes, and I can understand why the Soul form would be blacked out, but why the base? I'm just assuming that something in his design changed a lot, like his scars or something, so they blacked it out for a big reveal later down the line, but it still bugs me. Why would the most "vulnerable" and "real" parts of him be blacked out when it isn't for anyone else? Leaf, Blue, and Red all have their bases revealed with scars and all, but not Fire. Is the veil hiding some sort of vulnerability, and that's why it's in place? To keep Fire looking strong and like the "very best" that he's supposed to be? I'm not gonna point any fingers but, uh, I find it very suspicious that we're only seeing the perfect and put-together "Fire" Red that Arceus wants the world to see.

The second thing I wanna talk about is the fact that Fire is Friendless. Like, for a man of such status, surely he has some friends, right? Well, no... Not anymore at least. I know this sounds weird, and that my brain does odd things, but let me tell you why I'm pointing this out. Let's go over Fire's friends list real quick. I think we got: Blue, Leaf, and Gold. Some of you may say that Leaf doesn't count, and that's okay, but I say she does. And Red isn't on this list because I don't think they've ever met face-to-face in canon before. Anyways, let's go over those three relationships, shall we? While I'm not 100% sure about most of these, I'm going to describe what I've picked up about their relationships and how I see them.

Blue/Fire: Complicated. That's all I can really say about these two, is that it's complicated. If my memory serves, I think that complicated is how Starry described their relationship too, so I can't call them enemies, but I definitely can't call them friends either.

Leaf/Fire: Strained. While it's probably not as complicated as whatever the fuck Blue and Fire have going on, it's definitely complex. It's not a friendship with these two, it's a familial relationship, and that's what makes it difficult. I'm sure that, deep inside somewhere, both Leaf and Fire still love each other—they're siblings after all—but that all of the stuff that's happened in their lives has opened up a giant ravine between them that neither of them knows how to bridge. They can't close that gap, so their relationship is strained. They love each other, but the tension between them is palpable. There's bitterness, there's anger, there's resentment, there's regret and sadness, and maybe if you look hard enough—there might just be a flicker of longing in both of them to repair their relationship. But for now, they're miles apart, and it doesn't look like they're getting closer any time soon. I wouldn't call those two friends.

Gold/Fire: We'll... I'm sure that these two were good friends at one point. Fire still thinks about him, and even seems to miss him or grieve him. But unfortunately, Gold is Dead, so we'll never truly know unless Fire decides to confide in us about it.

Now, it just seems like Fire really doesn't have any friends. And I would have let all of this slide had it not been for ONE THING. The Espeon. Fire's Espeon was always a point of interest for me because I wondered where it went and what the Missing Numbers creators were going to do with the missing Pokémon. As it turns out, the Espeon is now in Leaf's possession. Initially, I was like "Oh okay that's kinda cool" but now I'm like "WAIT-! SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THIS!" Why is it that the only Pokémon in Fire's Team to Evolve via Friendship was removed from his party? Had this just been either the Espeon or the strained/distant relationships, I wouldn't have noticed anything, but this cannot be a coincidence. Nothing is a coincidence in Missing Numbers. With how the universe keeps removing friends from his life, it's like he's purposefully being Isolated to an extreme degree. Like something or someone wants him to be completely alone...

AND THE LAST THING ABOUT FIRE- (I'm so sorry for yapping about Fire this much, I swear. I told you I had a lot of thoughts, and there's still more after this.) That section in his new Bio/Description saying "But every time he vanishes and appears again, it's always from that same mountain, his gaze duller at every return." gave me an entire theory all on its own. What if all of the isolation is intentional? What if Arceus is intentionally ruining all of Fire's relationships, killing his friends and pulling him away from his family, isolating him from the world at the top of a freezing-cold mountain (I'm assuming with the help of Leaf under the guise of "protecting him") where none of his Pokémon can safely exit their Pokéballs without risking death? We know that Fire is a pretty warm individual beneath that cold exterior—he's a sweetheart—and Arceus doesn't want him to be. What if Arceus is trying to (no pun intended) ice out what little bit of emotional warmth and personality that Fire has left in him, and is slowly succeeding? Like, he's trying to snuff out the real Fire and leave behind the Red husk that he wants as his perfect protagonist.

Jesus Christ, finally- Talking Point 2: Red. (I know, we're going right back to a Red. But these next parts are going to be smaller than Fire's don't worry-)

Man, this weirdo... Where do I even start with him? First things first, let's lock in on that skin of his bruh. WHY does he look like that??? The only time I've ever seen any person with skin even remotely like his is when looking at people with Albinism, and even they aren't that white. Red is like... ghostly white. White as a sheet. Dead as a damn Doornail white. I don't know how to describe him other than the fact that he looks dead! Genuinely! I guess that my current running theory is still kinda similar to the Parasite one I made a while back, but like... worse??? (I've been at this for 5 hours straight. Can you tell I'm running out of steam?) I feel like I don't know enough to make a proper theory about him yet; like I need to reevaluate everything I've been seeing this far like I did with Fire. Is Red really Red? Is it just a small part of him that's there? Is it MissingNo in Red's body, using his memories to try and trick us? He kept mentioning "the right opportunity" back when we were talking with him. When is that opportunity? What does it look like? How much has changed behind the scenes? And how is that one little "Hey. That's private. :/" thing a secret when he LITERALLY spilled his guts not even two inches to the left? I don't know! There are too many questions and I'm too tired to answer them myself this time. :|

Talking Point 3: Something much smaller this time :]

Okay, I guess I'll throw in some of the random bits and things I thought of that didn't really get a whole spot. (This is already too long-)

Is it just me, or does the flavor text kinda read like an automated voice message? Like "Sorry! The number you have dialed has been disconnected or is no longer in service." type stuff, which kinda fits with the theme of Blue being a busybody and always doing something, or that's what I get from his new Bio at least. To me, Leaf's flavor text kinda reads as bitter. You already know what I think about Fire's flavor text, and Red's is... Yeah, that's just him talking.

Also, Green is hella cool! That mask is sick! (Psst! Mod Hells! Hey, you make a cool ass character homie. I like their mysteriousness and look forward to seeing more of them. Keep it up!)

And, closing statements time! Jesus, I'm gonna apologize again for how long this is. I didn't mean to make it super messy like this but it's currently 7 something in the morning for me and my brain shut off halfway through writing this, so... whoops :/ Anyway, funny story really quick! Starry, I know you had no idea you even did this, so I gotta tell you. The day after I posted that Character Reference Analysis thingy, I ended up getting sick and was messed up for a couple of days, but then you posted that drawing of Aster and I swear to you it was like you shocked my body back into being healthy because 24 hours later I'm damn near over the sickness and am phasing out the last of my symptoms as I write this. So, I know you didn't mean to, but thanks anyway! :D

Okay! And with that out of the way, I think that's all, folks! I hope you enjoyed this odd edition of my thoughts. Until next time. Thank you for reading The New Yap Times!

#MN Theories #{This one got a bit buried- apologies!}#{I'm currently cleaning out our askbox a bit ^-^}

7 notes · View notes