#bes fan theory

[lillymakesart]

to eiji, mizu is synonymous with the space rock. the rock, like mizu, crashed into eiji's life and stayed in his hut for many years. the rock, like mizu, transformed and left eiji behind on a quest for revenge. the rock, like mizu, was shattered to pieces and came back to eiji, asking for space to heal and be fixed.

mizu may have left japan, but in her heart she is still in eiji's hut, still held by his hands, still protected under his care send post

[eggsistential-breakdown]

[thebaldursmouthgazette]

Another thing I see is people acting like the lore stuff in veilguard was made new for veilguard

Guys there’s stuff in origins that hints to the revelations in veilguard. There’s stuff in the original two books

The lore nerds had like 90% of that figured out before veilguard came out

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Dungeon Meshi: The RPG

[ckducky]

Fallen Angel Carmilla Carmine

[beargregor]

wait i'm curious, what makes you say that gregor doesn't like everyone else (if i read that post right)? just curious since i've never seen anyone else say that

i don't necessarily think gregor dislikes everyone else at lcb but i do think that gregor is an incredibly petty person that isn't nearly as close to the rest of the sinners and even outright dislikes some of them cough cough rodya cough cough which a lot of people just Refuse to see because he's as much of a doormat as he is. there's several examples i could get into to try and prove my point however i'll just focus on what i personally think to be the biggest ones.

additionally, this is going to be kind of long, so i'm adding a read more. read more! read it. sorry for being so wordy. i have several diseases.

Pt1. gregor is the type to try and get along at least decently with everyone, especially if he gets a good first impression from them.

this is less a point in favor of gregor's distance w/ the rest of the sinners and more just a contributing factor to it. once again there's several examples i could point to here but i think the most in your face one happened in canto I with yuri, as several people have pointed out. even before gregor comes clean about growing attached to her as quickly as he did because she reminds him of his sister, we get this interaction.

i'll go ahead and make the disclaimer now that i don't necessarily think gregor is the most reliable of narrators, especially when it comes to his feelings and interactions with most people, but from the way he acts when the topic of yuri comes up (and the way we still see him act even all the way up to c7, nearly a whole year after yuri's death) i don't see reason to question his sentiment here. gregor immediately got that aya and yuri were close, potentially even taking note of their traded belts, and went out of his way to get something nice for yuri despite hardly knowing her.

i feel like a lot of people have forgotten as much, especially since it's been so long since c1, but gregor actually spent a good bit of season 1 doing the exact same thing with the other sinners! gregor reads a connection between him and ishmael pretty quickly despite getting off to a rocky start

mostly because gregor can tell that ishmael is pretty sardonic in a very similar way to him. there's been multiple instances where ishmael and gregor have essentially expressed the same sentiment at different moments, most notably gregor's little argument after ishmael got shot with a decay ampule in c4

and ishmael's response to pilot talking about self-sacrifice in c5

i could go ahead and pull up more examples, but in general pm has gone out of their way to show us that gregor and ishmael are pretty similar, so it makes sense for gregor to assume that they're friends, right?

this will be pushpin 1. keep note of this for Later.

ishmael's only the first sinner we see gregor trying to do this with in s1, we also see him try it out with heathcliff, sinclair, and ryoushuu

he's tried to get along with charon, being one of very few sinners that we've seen actually try to establish a connection with her at all

even rodya, despite my insistence that gregor doesn't like her nearly as much as the fandom thinks he does

all of these seem pretty fine and dandy, right? sure it frequently leans towards self-degradation, micromanaging, and commiseration, but gregor can at least be pretty chummy with most of the sinners, can't he?

Pt2. hell's chicken was more than just comic relief guys please

i'm fully aware that this is quite the hot take, but i think hell's chicken deserves a lot more credit for character writing than the fandom gives it. hell's chicken gave us foreshadowing for several events, such as the donqui bloodfiend reveal

heathcliff's distortion in c6 (as well as hong lu's highly speculated distortion at some point in the future)

and ryoushuu and sinclair's continued connection by making him the odd one out on her team

which, hey! that implies something about gregor's odd one out, don quixote, too, doesn't it? yes. yes it does. that's pushpin 2. keep note of that for later.

speaking of pushpins, hey! that's pushpin 1!

splitting into teams is one of the major events in hell's chicken, and most of the sinner's choices are either motivated by very little, backhanded, or motivated primarily by not wanting to be on the opposite leader's side. i didn't include all of the picks, just because i feel like including most of them already gets this across, but i think gregor took one major thing from this: most of the sinners, when push comes to shove, will only side with gregor when they refuse to or can't take his opponent's side.

now, don't get me wrong, i'm fully aware that this is primarily intended to be comedic relief, but when gregor is being described as having his trust broken by ishmael or nearly crying because no one on his team properly sided with him for him, i feel like it's pretty fair to read into this.

something that i think is pretty important to remember in conjunction with this is that we know that gregor is the type to hold a grudge, both from his general attitude towards the G corp soldiers in c1 as well as his continued distaste for vergilius

even beyond the splitting into teams of hell's chicken, the sinners have given gregor plenty of reasons to feel bitter. i feel like this is something people have noticed but haven't really put a finger on, but it's kind of wild just how often the rest of the sinners make gregor the butt of the joke

and sure, we could argue that a fair few of these aren't really made with any ill intent. quite a bit of it could have been meant as harmless teasing, but with gregor being more sensitive than most, it coming from nearly all sides, and as often as it does? yeah, i think he's prone to taking it a bit personally.

Pt3. yes i do still think gregor was the third most important character in canto VII you guys gotta hear me out okay

of course, all of this leads up to the bit of the story i highlighted, doesn't it? c7? i totally get why people haven't really picked up on all the gregor things i did in it, seeing as they were mostly not *directly* said about him or by him.

personally, i think that gregor's distaste for talking about himself on any serious level and thus leading to him getting sort of "sidelined" narratively (which i take issue with that claim, but still. it's effective for getting what i mean across atm) is supposed to lead players to take a deeper look at the times gregor gets held up to other characters and compare and contrast what's being said about them by the matchup. as i showed earlier with his immediate latching onto ishmael, i think this is something gregor himself is at least partially aware of too.

so, that begs the question, who was gregor compared to in canto VII that makes me think it's one of the most critical pieces in understanding his character?

really, i'd like to avoid getting too lost in the analysis of this canto specifically, since i'd like to do a proper post about this later, but i figure i can bury the lede a little before doing it properly.

c7 features several characters being made to perform in sansón's play, acting out the relevant backstory for this segment of the plot. a lot of these characters have rather direct, degrading reasons for playing the roles they do.

outis, a character with an inflated ego who wants her journey to have a purpose, is made to play an aimlessly wandering villager with a single line.

hong lu and ryoushuu, two characters for whom families and the expectations placed upon them are likely going to play a major role, are made to play bloodfiends.

rodya, a character who resents her lot in life and is constantly shown to be eager to leave her destitution behind her and become someone special, is made to play a helpless villager that's too poor to even offer any money to the hero that saves her.

heathcliff, a character that has spent most of his life getting dehumanized by comparing him to beastly animals, is made to play a literal bear whose sole purpose in the plot is to get beat up and then quickly left by the wayside.

sinclair, a character that has two opposed parties essentially treating him as a macguffin to procure for their side, is made to play the character who was arguably the catalyst for this entire canto, not to mention playing a decently major role in ruina.

our star don quixote is made to play her father, the first kindred, but there's someone by their side the entire time, isn't there? don quixote's dear, steadfastly loyal companion. a character which don quixote has tasked themself with getting to come out of their shell?

hello again, pushpin 2.

gregor has been made to play our unreachable star, sancho. someone had to, of course. you can't really tell a story without it's main character, now can you?

now, i should once again give a disclaimer. i am not trying to say that i think adapting what happens to donqui/sancho in c7 to gregor is the road pm is going to take here, not only would that toe a bit past the line of foreshadowing, but it'd also just amount to rehashing that plotline again, which i don't think would make for a particularly exciting story.

what i DO think is that we can take a lot of the things that are said to either directly be the case for sancho and use them to inform how we see gregor.

and god, does playing sancho have some fucking implications for our favorite ossan archetype.

starting off, the earliest moment we get to see of sancho is quite literally her just waiting for death to take her in a pile of ashes.

which, i should remind everyone, is actually pretty damn close to what happens to gregor's literary counterpart at the end of the metamorphosis. gregor samsa experiences one final breaking point that pushes him over the edge and makes him decide to just wait for starvation to take him.

gregor and sancho both consider themselves to no longer be human, something which sancho goes out of her way to highlight repeatedly throughout the canto and gregor is quick to get defensive on her behalf for when outis starts really tearing into her

sancho spends quite a lot of this story denying herself the joys of community and friendship, despite knowing that, even with the rest of the sinners frequently making jokes at her expense and outright insulting her, they were things that she desperately craved.

and, while this is getting into my "outis is a red herring meant to distract us from gregor's eventual betrayal" theorizing, i also think it's worth noting for this discussion that sancho's fellow kindreds, her family, all seem to be under the impression that she dislikes them and ultimately her departure was an act of betrayal

and that, despite gregor being one of LCB's resident mood makers and attempted conflict de-escalators, one of the sinners that's most prone to making appeals to the bonds they've all forged together, only him and faust remained silent during everyone's speech

so yeah, i think there's quite a lot of little details and hints building up to the reveal that gregor's not quite as fond of everyone as he presents himself to be. i do think a lot of this ultimately comes down to gregor getting in the way of his own happiness, similarly to donqui, particularly because he's been frequently portrayed as something of a self fulfilling prophecy, especially by giving him as many christ allegories as they have by way of priest and garden of thorns. gregor is convinced that the rest of the sinners don't like him because he's not convinced anyone could like him, so he convinces himself that he hates them because why should he care if someone that he hates hates him too?

a lot of this ultimately ties back to my personal interpretation of what happens in the metamorphosis as well as my own theories regarding all the times gregor has made weird callbacks and references to lobcorp and ruina, but yeah. i think about this guy and his deeper characterization a fairly normal amount, i think.

to end this off i'll highlight one of my favorite little "gregor is fucking seething and trying so hard to keep it cool" moments, in the credits CG for c7 we see rodya teasing him by drawing a little horse on his window and actively pointing and laughing at it, which gregor really doesn't seem all too pleased about.

i personally think this ties into the other cruel part of sansón forcing gregor to play rocinante, which is the more literal "he's actually just straight up playing rocinante" side of things. gregor was quite literally made to play something less than human, less than even animal really, as he was reduced to nothing more than the shoes don quixote wore as she got to play the leading role. sansón directly makes jokes about gregor being nothing more than shoes in the play twice, which adds to this reading, i think.

this, imo, really plays into the adaptation of the metamorphosis! i've seen a lot of readings for the book that posit that, despite being the protagonist, gregor samsa can't really be considered the main character due to nearly everything he experiences in it being used to further his family's character development at his expense, which i think fits nicely with limbus gregor seemingly having the most said about him through indirect means by holding him up to other characters. also it's rodya carelessly making fun of His Big Major Insecurities™ again like she did in c1 which i always find fun. rodya i love you but god you're the worst.

[violentdelightshavevioletends]

"You sure I shouldn't ask Cuir or Chradh—"

"No." I start down the stairs. There's only one other person besides Bodhi and Garrick I can trust to prioritize Xaden's best interests, only one other person who can know the truth in its entirety. "Tell Glane I need Imogen."

— Violet Sorrengail, in the Onyx Storm prologue

"What did you do?" My head snaps toward Imogen, and a deep sense of foreboding takes root in my chest.

She slowly lifts her gaze to mine. "What you asked me to."

— Violet Sorrengail to Imogen Cardulo, during Chapter 66 of Onyx Storm

[rugwurm]

you are the one who took my place

warning for doodliest doodles ever

[obsidianbit]

I love this gay ass show with its literally life ending injuries that heal immediately, but only when convenient to the plot, and its ridiculous use of modern phrases, and its laughing in the face of historical accuracy, and its kissing the face of the fans instead of trying to outwit them, and the way everyone involved in the show seem to go 'I KNOW RIGHT! I'M EXCITED TOO!' instead of mocking the fans

[pissboy-pi]

Okay y'all, let's have a talk about our good buddy Porcino.

Now we expect that he will joining the 'Tectives, living on their persons, being an asset, moving up down and flipping all around, in every screen from here on out.

So let's take a look at his involvement in the vandalism of the Skeet Autobahn Exhibit at the Midnight Alley Art Gallery:

Porcino is either an employee of the gallery itself or of Skeet Autobahn (unclear) but is clearly treated poorly, to the point of abuse, by his direct superior; Skeet Autobahn.

His job parameters we know of are; he is expected to remain in the back room, and perform tasks such as 'Cleaning the Easels'

His outfit/uniform, a direct replica of Skeet Autobahn's preffered attire and is poorly maintained, with his hat being for special occasions only.

Given that Skeet seems unaware that his preferred subject, Rats, are not in fact marsupials, and his general lack of working memory or evident talent, it is possible that he is taking credit for the work of others, namley Porcino.

We see here when Porcino reaches out to indicate the wallet in Skeet's dufflebag, that he has a smattering of orange paint on his shoulder, under his turtleneck, visible through the break in the stitching.

Meaning he got the paint on him before putting his turtleneck on.

The remaining piece of art on the wall vandalized by the snake is a portrait of a rat with a similar haircut and profile, but a different colouring, to Porcino. Done in spray paint over a backing of newspapers bemoaning the state of modern art, possibly the art of Skeet in particular.

The vandalism on this piece is intentional, crossing out the body and eyes of the subject, with no slashes in the canvas.

In contrast, the other orange vandalism is random, messy, with no clear artistic intention, it damages the pieces, runs off the sides of the canvases and onto the wall.

I am near certain that the former was done by Porcino and the latter by Skeet.

The question is why Porcino vandalized this piece, given the paint splatter on the floor, we know it was done in the gallery proper, however Porcino is not tall enough to reach the painting on his own.

I postulate that this was actually an intentional artistic addition to the piece, likely with the assistance of Skeet, indicating that The Artist, referred to in the newspaper articles and featured in his re-coloured self portrait, is not seen and dismissed.

Given this piece was marked down in price three times since it's original completion, we can assume that Skeet's true motivation for the vandalism was monetary rather than political, and that Porcino was press ganged into helping.

It is unclear if the Snake's Vandalism happened before or after, but as Skeet is a hack, it was most likely beforehand and Skeet took the idea and ran with it.

In conclusion,

Our little buddy Porcino is an Orange Herring.

He may be an accomplice, but the only crime he's guilty of is radical artistic expression.

posts used in constructing this theory:

x/x/x

[lillymakesart]

mizu's origin story in ep5 can have multiple interpretations

mama and mikio betrayed her - this is the one that the writers are pushing, and it's honestly already great. mizu's turmoil is grounded in internal chaos and her immediate connections. her onryo is fueled by self hatred and the reality of the world that she will never be accepted, not even by the only two people closest to her that know her as her full self. she has no paths left here. her only path is violent revenge and self annhilation.

mama betrayed her and mikio is innocent - this one fuels her onryo via external influences. mama's only M.O. is her opium addiction, which was introduced by the white men that poisoned the country with their opium imports. it shows that even here, in the countryside, away from everything and everyone that would hate her as a half breed, bridled next to her first love whose relationship is only just beginning, even here she cannot escape the white man's influence. her onryo is fueled by hatred of the white men that ruined her life so thoroughly and completely, even when all odds were in her favor.

mikio betrayed her and mama is innocent - this one fuels her onryo via self hatred. mikio, her first true love and guardian of her trust, tosses her aside and means to kill her after seeing the last facet of her identity as a warrior. here, she has failed so astronomically as a woman that it brings her life to ruin, shattering her heart into pieces and leaving nothing left of her. she hates herself, hates that she was born this way, and embarks on a grandiose suicide mission to end the white men that created her, but the underlying motive is simply self destruction (but make it fashion)

bonus interpretation:

mama and mikio are both innocent, but both are useless in her time of need - maybe a passing messenger saw her and took the opportunity to turn her in for a quick buck. the experience is traumatic, but no one is helping her. mikio runs because he is a coward, mama can only think of herself because she is narcissistic and can't spare any empathy. they are both squabble among themselves but no one is raising a hand to hold her, love her, care for her in the way she needs to be cared for. her onryo is fueled by nihilism and silent betrayal. what's the point of living when this is as good as it gets? why play into the charade of society when there is simply nothing left for her? might as well exercise her artistic capability to its highest form of expression (fighting, killing, exacting revenge) and call it here.

every interpretation is sad, there's no respite anywhere for our mizu send post

[happypeachsludgeflower]

Modern day YouTube au where Xie Lian is infamous on the internet for his catastrophic cooking channel.

[greenleaf4stuff]

I cannot get over the little detail of Adar actually releasing Elrond's hand in that scene. (We can see some of it at the bottom left corner of the 1st gif, his grip is already loosening after Elrond drops his weapon; see the 2nd gif for comparison.)

My interpretation is that he is so sure of his greater strength and advantage, and that Elrond doesn't have the ability to fight back/no more knives up his sleeve (so to speak), that he lets Elrond have full autonomy of both of his hands. Mind you, Adar hasn't even lifted Elrond up yet and Elrond could have still fought back multiple ways (using his legs to struggle etc) at this point.

And then Adar proceeds to lift him up, hold him up, choke him and throw him aside like it is nothing. One-handed. Showcasing his physical strength but also retaining the ability to defend himself should Elrond suddenly manage to fight back.

imo, this and his fight with Arondir really show what a unit he is in battle. And that he is aware of it.

[cliffs-sniperrifle]

GUYS

NAME REVEALS NAME REVEALS IM SICKKKK

[devicecontact]

text from A Short History of Nearly Everything

non pixelated:

[doubletroubletag]

i got almost all the next month's updates sketched! i'm not doing the last one simply because i am feeling the burn out of composing these pages. (each have at least 6 pages, a good amount have the max 12!)

that said, these are all just sketched. i want to do it in this order: backgrounds -> lineart -> transcript. i got other projects i need to work on (winning hat and NightFell) so I can't really guarantee when Tag will start to update again.