#cheritz theories

[kusukixcrystal]

Zen & Rika are Trapped in The MM World Part 1

I’m splitting this into 2 parts because it would just be too long. This is sort of a continuation of my “Zen is A Prince From Grass” theory and “Saeran/Ray created Another Story” posts. In one of them, I suggested the possibility that Zen is a bunny prince who is trapped in the Mystic Messenger world. In the other, I do talk about Saeran, but I added a follow-up delving into Rika, Saeyoung, and V and how Rika is trapped in the MM world, too.

In this post, I will focus mainly on establishing background information.

Pocket Universes/Dimensions

First, I have to establish that I believe that the world of MM is a pocket universe. Basically, it's a new universe completely different from a real universe. For example, characters from Nameless and Dandelion all live in a real universe. Dandelion is where the term ‘pocket universe’ first comes up in the franchise, and refers to a new universe created by The Wizard by using a large amount of his power. He did this because he wanted to be with a woman named Heejung, but couldn’t descend to Earth because he couldn’t leave his dimension. So, he created a pocket universe where he can enter it and brought Heejung along.

So, why do I think MM is a pocket universe? Well, basically pocket universes don’t operate under the same rules as a real universe. See the example I gave above with The Wizard and Heejung. In a real universe, The Wizard couldn’t physically be in her presence. In this pocket universe, it's different. Because he made it and probably established the laws of how this universe works, he physically can be with Heejung.

In my previous posts, I mention off-handedly how the MM world is ‘fabricated’ or ‘fake’. This is what I mean. It's not a ‘real universe’ but a ‘pocket universe’, operating under different rules and created by wizards.

I hope that makes sense. Now let’s get into all the signs of why MM seems to be a pocket universe.

These signs mostly manifest as the 4th wall breaks or references we see throughout the whole game. It’s not just a “hehe haha this is a videogame” thing from Cheritz. It's diegetic. No, it’s the characters literally realizing that they are living in a pocket universe. As for the references, I will go deeper into their relevance. First I will list the most relevant of these instances, and then break down why it's all important in part 2.

I won’t list all examples of 4th wall breaks, but here are some big examples:

1. Casual Story Common Route Bad-ending (4th Wall Break)

I discussed this ending extensively in another post, so I won’t get into too much detail. Basically, this ending shows how the RFA members might be machines, following an algorithm/script, and being controlled by V and Saeyoung. Yoosung says that the messenger is fake and that their only purpose is to hold the RFA parties. I also talked about how I think that V and Saeyoung are wizards who created this pocket universe. 

Just a tiny addition to this point is that Jaehee breaks the 4th wall in this ending as well. After Zen and Jaehee visit Yoosung, worried about him after he started raving about how they are machines. In the screenshot above, at first, Jaehee treated Yoosung like he was delusional, and sent him to get a mental health examination. Despite saying this, her last 3 messages indicate her true thoughts. She believes him and chastises the MC/player for getting this ending. You only get this bad ending if you either don’t participate in enough chats or don’t get enough hearts to get into a character route. Jaehee is directly telling the MC/player to choose a route next time. Some people can get this ending if they try to balance getting hearts with characters, too. That’s actually how I got this ending originally because I was indecisive and kinda wanted to see what would happen.

2. Another Story Common Route Bad-ending (4th Wall Break)

I went into detail about this one in my Saeran/Ray made Another Story post. In this ending, Saeran says that the RFA are AIs. In the surface story, this turns out to be a lie. Here in this bad ending, though, Ray talks about the RFA as if they actually are AI, even going as far as to mention Saeyoung (’that redhead’), asking if we played ‘his version’. I speculated that what he means by this is the Casual and Deep stories.

3. Dandelion and Nameless (References)

The first screenshot is from day 3 of the Casual story common route, the next 2 are from the April Fool’s DLC. 

Zen is dressed up as Jisoo from Dandelion in the first ss, which is apparently a play that is being adapted from a book. The other reference to Dandelion is in the 2nd ss, an animal hospital named Dandelion is mentioned by Jumin and Jaehee. The characters from that game were part cat/rabbits, so this ref goes deeper than just a name drop.

Nameless: The One Thing You Must Recall is referenced too. Tei’s Tea Leaf is one of the plays Zen starred in. This is a reference to Tei from Nameless, Cheritz’s game before this. (I don’t know where this is mentioned in the game). Another example is in the last screenshot, the password that Jaehee mentions is from the title of the game. There is also a big reference to Nameless in Deep Story that another Tumblr user named smol-grey-tea has brought to my attention.

The story that Jumin reads to MC directly references Nameless’ backstory, which is revealed in the true route in secret ending 2. Nameless is the character pictured above as ‘???’ and he is a stuffed bear. The scene that Jumin reads is when Eri’s grandfather buys Nameless for Eri. The person who gave this book to Jumin is Rika. I will talk about the significance of this later.

EDIT: Here’s part 2 btw

[smol-grey-tea]

Can you explain more on who Angel is? I don't know much about Ssum.

Hello Anon!!! I'm not the most knowledgeable on Ssum either 🤔ᴴᴹ but your local Cheritz enthusiast is on the case!! Here's what I know!! ^^

Angel is not actually called Angel but 1004!! The number translates to that name in Korean, which is why we call him Angel. He is a most mysterious fellow who has, to my knowledge, only appeared twice in Harry's route, changing the chatroom's background to a series of ones and zeroes, similar to how Unknown did in the MM prologue

Angel's role in Ssum involved being able to hack somehow into the chatroom and offer the player the option to either view a good future of Harry or a bad one. In Angel's second appearance, I believe he only gave a bad future?

This is all I can gather about Angel in regards to the Ssum. In regards to Cheritz's other games though....

I've gathered that, first of all, Angel's way of speaking seems to resemble Seven's? It might be possible that Angel is Seven, considering:

The aforementioned similarities in speech

Seven's 1st appearance in MM after the prologue is a chatroom at 10:04

Hacking the app

Having a number as a name

And this is only a theory (though a very strong one) but Seven is most likely a Wizard, and Angel possesses the power to show the player the future, something that probably wouldn't be possible for a normal person

Also the fact that we already know that MM and Ssum take place within the same universe/pocket dimension

Idk if Angel is Seven idk. But it seems way too similar to not at least be a reference to Seven

The references to Angel don't stop at MM tho. The number 1004 is seen in Nameless at least once

1004. The main character's address. The rest of the address lines are references to both Cheritz and Crobidoll, which leads me to suspect that the number 8282 might also have significance somewhere else, altho idk where I'd look to find that out

Idk if there are any Angel references in Dandelion ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ummmm but that's all I know. Idk if Angel is Seven, it seems quite likely, but if the person in the teaser Cheritz showed is Angel, I don't think the face looks like Seven tbh. Different face shape. Tho I kinda agree with ppl about the use of the character wearing a cloak similar to those worn by Mint Eye followers. That's an interesting addition

There may be other ppl who are a bit more qualified to answer this ask than me idk. When I'm browsing on Tumblr, I only check out the Cheritz tag and Nameless The One Thing You Must Recall tag so I only looked at The Ssum tag today to do a bit more research on this.. I've never even played Harry's route and I was playing June's but recently uninstalled the game again because, even with June, it's still god damn boring and I hate the gameplay of it

I will reblog the posts I used to research this immediately after posting this tho. But. There's this one really good post I saw where I first learned about Angel and I can't find it for the god damn life of me. I believe it's on @natsuneages blog and the title is Cheritz Boys with Red Eyes Have Powers, and @zealousfanprunewolf commented on it about Angel but I can't god damn find it guys aaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!

[cheritzheadcanonz]

Jaehee scholds Yoosung for his gaming habits bc there was a time when she developed a slight addiction to dating simulation games and ended up spending a little more money and time than she should have. She discovered Dandelion this way. But she felt embarrassed and decided to stop.

She will never admit this to anyone and is trying to forget about this.

[cherrychipheart]

We're back!

After a whole year and a bit, I've decided the blog should be kept up~

Also, a small confession...

....

...

..

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I've never actually played Dandelion AND Nameless myself this whole time until now 🤪 (was a bit young and didn't have the means to purchase them if there were walkthroughs I could just refer to on Youtube haha). Just bought Dandelion a month ago and have just finished Jiwoo's route + bad end and now on Jiyeon's route~

Therefore, I'm thinking of streaming gameplay on this discord server down below:

So everyone and anyone is free to join! I'm planning on streaming from 6-9am Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in GST, so hope to see some of you there and enjoy watching and playing Dandelion with me 🥰

-cherrychipheart

[annbourbon]

The Ssum Timeline

Before The Ssum:

♡ Zen. It is said during Teo route that we dated Zen sometime ago. But this is weird for many people if they don't know or forgot about Zen saying that the last time he dated someone was 5 years ago. Mystic Messenger is set in 2016.

2016 - 5 = 2011

So Zen was our first boyfriend according to this tl. Probably will not remember us because of the Reset Theory. It does have some flaws. I admit. Because of his dreams, be might as well remember us. But what if he doesn't remember us at the very beginning? Like, what if by the time he remembers we're already in another route so he doesn't always gets the chance to be with us unless we're in his route?

In some routes like Jumin he does say to have a dream about a cage (in a call) and tried his best to warn us. Not to mention that he's always dreaming about something happening to us as MC basically the day after we enter a route. Which would obviously leads into this theory that he does remembers but only when it's too late so he instead chooses to let us be happy. TBH I feel like he's also trapped. In a different way but, he is.

⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆

During The Ssum:

* The Ssum seems to be set between the last months of 2011 and during 2012 extending its timeline till MC disappears in Another Story. Another Story is set 2 years before Mystic Messenger Casual Events.

2016 - 2 = 2014

This sets The Ssum In Between. From 2011 till the end of 2013. Perhaps beginning of 2014.

Around that time Rika disappears (commits "suicide" and "creates Mint Eye" but as I said before, she creates Mint Eye before the RFA. The Ssum is exposing how Mint Eye becomes a huge power behind the scenes during the first or second year of creating Mint Eye. And the beginnings of the RFA.) which also explains why Henri and June routes are so short. There's a lot of things going on in between.

⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆

Now let's start with The Ssum Events:

♡ Dating Teo. 200 days.

This is around 6 months and a half. Let's say Teo Route starts between the lasts months of 2011 and by the time MOM is happening we're on Spring of 2012 (spring is often related to love season~)

♡ During this route it is said that we do not know who Harry is. Right? Then the right route and the first one to play is Teo.

♡ Jaehee, Mint Eye and even Elizabeth the 3rd are making their appearances every now and then.

♡ The cult ( Mint Eye) it's say to be around but it's barely starting so that's why we see them trying to reclute some people. I guess we can say even Rika had a hard time starting. And that it's difficult to start lol sometimes we have the opportunity to make fun of it. But they tried to have Teo in their lines. And apparently some other characters.

♡ You "accidentally" send him to Mint Eye after he gets a mail.

♡ Dating June?

The reason I believe June is first than Harry. At least the first season, it's because we start strong now cause thanks to June, we meet more of Jumin's world. And we even have some pics with Rika and V.

Please take into account that what I've been saying it's only without playing his whole route yet. I have at most one or maybe 2 weeks of game in his route. But I saw a lot of spoilers and people saying that the timeline is ruined or stuff so in a way I wanted to talk about my theory since some interactions are really interesting there, and I feel we as players have another look onto it. I might be wrong.

It's quite obvious Jumin hasn't reach his peak years yet but there are already a lot of people calling him a promise~ nothing but the best for him. Why then he doesn't mentioned to us his brother? I have 2 theories. The most simple one is June is a difficult topic to touch considering South Korea approach to people who are different, crazy or out of norm. Like, just having a wheel chair or a baby sets you aside. Let's not talk about being always sick or mentally ill, much less neurodivergency. They don't fit and they are treated as nothing. And maybe MC is not gonna talk bad about his brother, but there was a lot of drama in every route, please take into account that even though we play the game (Mystic Messenger) there might be even more content we are unaware of. If anything, it's great to have more of this world. (I don't approve what Cheritz is doing about AI and as a company, but that is that and this is this~)

♡ During June's Route, in an attempt to befriend his brother, June talks to Jumin and congratulates him on the charity work. Jumin explicitly says that the RFA is still a work in progress. That ties with the Cheritzverse timeline I'm working~

♡ Close Encounter with The Angel

It just not that, but we also begin to get closer and closer to Mystic Messenger Events. Yes, I believe it's the same MC. We don't date the angel. But we do have a close encounter with them (as far as I know) Maybe it's here were the Bad Ending of Another Route takes place? (The one with MC reporting the incident to the police)

Something that confirmed this was Jumin Han saying during the wedding in June's Route (first 20 days~) that the RFA is still a work in progress. This sets the Timeline around the second year of my Mystic Messenger timeline. If you're curious~ check it out!

♡ Date Harry. 200 Days.

After that close encounter, we meet Harry. We know him when he's quitting his career. He's also going to MOM but I really need to understand that part. I have yet to finish his route.

And then a couple of months pass by, we get information that might seem unimportant byt ties to other things:

♡ Harry's parents were pretty much involved in laundering money through art. Keep in mind that MC is close to Harry and knows the whole thing. That puts her in danger. Harry's parents do seem the kind of people that make others disappear if you're in the way. And MC seems to have been meddling in a lot if things. Plus if y'all remember~ V father is also art related. It goes beyond that however, it's implied Saejoong Choi (In this moment future Prime Minister and father of the twins) is friends with V father and Chairman Han. I need to find the screenshots.

This would set a momentum for Another Story Part 1 Events to eventually take place. Just not right now lolol And would tie it to MM Deep Story. After Jumin's route, Seven is photographed. But since things take time, Another Story Part 2 takes place here~

However I think Jumin's route sets in motion what happens in Saeran's AE, in which events lead to capture Seven, and in an attempt to eliminate both twins. Saejoong Choi is truly despicable.

Actually, art seems to be a theme in both games. Or if we go deeper~ the 4 games. Which is one of the reasons I had to come back to all that since inside the community there are a lot of things like gossips, secrets and stories. Anyway, back to V's father, and V of course~ this connects them with:

Keep in mind this has not yet happened. I'm just tying up knots. We first need to have Ray kidnapping MC via playing a game lol

Anyways the whole thing makes me think that MC is either way younger than the characters in The Ssum. It is heavily implied to be the same age as Zen though. Which is why when doing the timeline I looked up for Zen's age and not Jumin. Zen is also one of the characters that are most mentioned throughout the Cheritzverse. And rven if she did time travelled, her age seems close to Zen. After all the spaceship is there. And there's a couple of choices you can come with where it implies that MC is indeed a time traveller. I had some notes where I used the calendar to make sure the timeline fit but I lost them lololol so I'll update this as soon as I can with those notes and the rest of my theory♡ it's a promise!

So let's go back to Harry's route, ohh wait lol he breaks up with you so you start dating Henri.

♡ Dating Henri: 30 days. A month.

I swear I had the whole thing planned on and I even had how many days approximately he would have but beats me. I lost the paper where I wrote my timeline. Anyways~ we now have someone who knows Jumin and doesn't like him because he doesn't know him. It is said that his route begins after June's first season. I took the time to see everything, date included and it does match! Besides, Jumin gets Elizabeth the 3rd during his route. And The Second Season of June's. There are some discrepancies but I'm working around them. I'll show you as soon as I can get my notes back♡

Notes:

* Jumin goes back to mainland for Elizabeth The 3rd.

* June falls ill around D-42 (June, Season 2)

* Henri is contacted by Jumin D-14 because of his cat (Henri Route, The Day The Camel's Back Broke)

* And goes to the island on D-15 (The Island needs a doctor)

This will give you a very good idea of how timelines work with these three characters (June, Jumin, Henri) and an approximate of how Rika works behind the scenes with Mint Eye. Especially important because this island holds many secrets. I'll talk about this later~ but for more info on the drugs Mint Eye is developing, please check my post on Unicorn Drugs.

Then during those days it becomes a situationship: June AND Henri. Remember how one of the options inside Harry's route talks about MC trying to live in a polyamory situation? It connects with Henri's route and one of its endings. So I don't think I'm on the wrong track. MC dates Henri right after Harry breakup with us.

♡ We come back to Harry

(I have yet to play this but spoilers here and there let me know that around Day 245 or something?) However your discoveries keep playing a big role for you, so you tie everything up but eventually get kidnapped lol and who knows? Harry, Henri~ anyone!!! :'(( send help!

lololol

btw~ I have to confess lol

I haven't cheated on Harry. As soon as he asked me to be official, I stopped playing June's, Teo's and Henri's. As soon as he broke up with me, I took the storylines again lololol

So even the Angel cannot say anything about it :'(

My idea and first suspects are Harry's parents~

What do I mean with this? The entire game is set as a minesweeper lolol from drugs to art, cults, stalkers and embezzlement. Pick your poison~ you're gonna end in Mystic Messenger anyways♡

♡ The Angel comes back

I don't believe for one second that that guy is the Angel. Like, it doesn't fit at all cause we don't have interaction with anyone outside the chat. So I believe there's only one answer~

Finally Another Story (part 1)

It just not that, but we also begin to get closer and closer to Mystic Messenger Events. Yes, I believe it's the same MC. We don't date the angel. But we do have a close encounter with them (as far as I know) Maybe it's here were the Bad Ending of Another Route takes place? (The one with MC reporting the incident to the police)

⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆⋆ ₊ ﾟ ☽ * ₊ ⋆˚₊·—̳͟͞͞♡

See also:

♡ Cheritzverse Timeline

♡ Connecting MM & The Ssum

♡ MM Timeline

♡ Teo is the rabbit~ follow the rabbit

♡ Tracking Drugs inside the Cheritzverse

[outofcontextcheritz]

It's me again your fav mod ORANGECATZ advertising my discord server about Otome Games and CHERITZ! Come on in!

Also my other blogs:

@cheritzheadcanonz

@cheritz-shitposting (modWiz is my friend)

@otomegameconfessions

@natsuneages (my personal blog)

[natsuneages]

LET'S TALK ABOUT CHERITZVERSE PART 2

"The 'magical' beings":

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Dandelion:

The Wizard: He is the more power being in all games. He is omnipresent and omniscient, he can do any wish come true trading your memories. Can travel in any dimension or time etc... But he can't come to our world in person. No one knows what he is even he doesn't know.

We also have all the pets with the power of shape-shifting and Jieun with his power to see the future.

NAMELESS:

All dolls are magical, all them have mystical powers like being alive even being dolls, they have a soul.

Yuri makes everyone fall for him

Yeonho has sensitive powers, can see spirits, can talk with animals, can see the future with cards and make the women feels very protective around him

Lance is very smart I guess :)

Tei can make people trust in him NO MATTER WHAT!!

Red can feel his owner feelings

Nameless is a living bear too. I guess he was alive. But how?

And to special mention SHINBI: She looks pretty sensitive like Yeonho.

(WHY WE CANT DATE HEEER?!)

MYSTIC MESSENGER:

Mysme looks like a very normal game until you realize ZEN CAN HAVE DREAMS THAT SHOWS THE FUTURE

BUUUT there are someone as powerful as wizard. THE MC!!! She can saw everything, read their minds, go back and go to the time, reset the game etc.

(Do your theories about her and send to my blog "@cheritzheadcanonz ")

AND SPECIAL MENTION TO THE TWINS!!!

Saeran wishes to be a Wizard in secret ending 2 and Seven and Him looks knows too much like they know nothing is real. Seven also said he was a Wizard. Who knows?

THE SSUM:

I tried playing, I'm sorry... I can't like it. So someone help me with that please.

We have Piu-Piu the AI. I don't think Piu-Piu is a simple AI.

There some people in those planets too. I don't know who they are, but their chibis are cute.

And some kind of being in Harry's route.

That's all I can remember!! So help me to share it and say if I did any mistake.

[one-hell-of-otaku-is-here]

Now this is very interesting from pov of someone who played mysme and is now playing the ssum... connection between two goes deeper than I initially thought...

For the context here - June, Jumin's half brother was moved to Jumin's inslad (we all know very well from Mysme btw). Jumin have decided to have his friends aka V and Rika to visit June because June is a talented painter (and if you know you know V used to be painter too). Since V and Rika are still together this all makes me believe this all takes place some time before Mysme but what's most interesting is Piu Piu content on "you must be connected to lab's founder"

For those who played Harry's route (which is a must, it'sonly finished route and despite being long it was... interesting), we have seen silluete of this founder, the one WHO MADE THE SSUM IN THE FIRST PLACE, but we know nothing about him. Yet the fact HE IS CONNECTED TO V AND SO TO MYSME AS A WHOLE is very interesting... ofc I don't think the founder is 707 but I do think he's someone connected to him and ofc to V

Aaand if you've been here since 2016 or played Cheritz first two Pc games you'd know of existence of wizards and since app as a whole can 1) take satellites photos and 2) do deep analysis on what Voice on chats should and shouldn’t be shown for the sake of LI's relationship with MC I wouldn’t be suprised if he was more than just some dude (especially since we know June had to wait a long time for his match unlike for example Henri which makes me believe LI has to be at certain state of mind to be able to get their perfect match... and our founder of Ssum isn't going to do anything less than wholeheartedly...

Bonus - Cheritz isn't even trying to be subtle they want me to call out MY DEEP LOVE FOR V AAAA WDYM HE'S WAITING IN ANOTHER WORLD???!?!?! (V WIZARD CONFIMED OR WTF IS PIU PIU TO BE ABLE TO CONNECT IN ANOTHER WORLD??)

[dandelions-brought-to-you]

That message that pops up when we click on the bed to sleep has always bothered me a bit. It doesn't make sense! We can only do one activity per day, everything skips to the next day. I used to think my game had bugs, but I soon understood that this is how it worked for everyone.

Well, I was going through the game files as always, and noitced this:

I believe their initial idea was to allow more than one activity per day, depending on Heejung's schedule. But that would probably make the game longer.

[marshmallowprotection]

the previous question about photography and Saeran got me thinking all day and i dont really have time to replay the game myself so i would like to ask you - and the kind people in your comments

☆ has Saeran ever mentioned being into other forms of art? i personally think he (ge?) would love painting and sketching landscapes/plants he saw outside. Also, ive seen quite a lot of fanarts with him playing the piano or the violin. Im not sure if baking is considered art or if he personally considers his desserts as a form of it, but theres that too.

thank you for answering (◜ᴗ◝)

Yes! A common theme with Saeran is drawing and doodling. His diary is bonus material that you can purchase from the Cheritz Market in the Special Believer Box, and in it, he uses a mixture of drawing and writing to put down entries when he's a little boy. He also uses little doodles to represent the entire honeymoon journey in the Passport Package!

I assume it's because it's easier for him to draw than it is to write since it would have taken him a while to learn how to write properly. It became a habit for him. Kids tend to find ways to express themselves even if you don't teach them how, and for Saeran, it seemed to be his perfect outlet was drawing. It helped him show what he wanted to say but couldn't. This is something he's continued to do later in life, and it's been shown in subsequent material that he likes to draw for himself.

Saeyoung would've been the one teaching him how to read and write since he couldn't attend church, after all. A baby teaching another baby would take a lot of time and care, and Saeran's penmanship as a kid does express that difficulty to learn how to write. That's why we put so much emphasis on fine motor skills when kids are just getting into school, people. They have to be taught how to grip things, be it a pencil, or a pair of scissors!

As far as violin or piano fanart goes, there's no canon basis for it, I'm afraid. That's tied into the themes for Saeran and Mint Eye, and how so many fans love the idea of Ray or Suit Saeran playing the game ost! Personally, I subscribe to the violin theory. I like to think about how it also ties them to V's mother in a tragic sort of way when I'm writing different AUs.

Baking and Cooking count in my opinion! It started as a means to impress the player, but it turned into a passion. GE Saeran's love language is acts of service, quality time, and words of affirmation. Love and time goes into learning how to make a new dish. That's something that Ray, Suit Saeran, and GE Saeran share. There are plenty of game CGs and supplementary material that support this!

[louve-nephtali]

Henri day 19

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I was so ready to tell him I'm pan 😂

I have a theory about Henri, and about how Cheritz denied his sexuality.

They simply don't wanted to spoil us.

It's more and more clear that Henri is bi/pan. The moment in the jungle with Minha make it even more evident. But Henri is not ready yet to unveil this part of him in front of MC. So Cheritz confirming it by a mail or whatever would have been a bad move for Henri development.

[kusukixcrystal]

Zen & Rika are Trapped in The MM World Part 2

Now that I established all of the 4th wall breaks and references to previous Cheritz games, we can now get into Zen, Rika and the April Fool’s DLC in more detail, and how all of this ties together.

Let’s start by discussing these references. I think they are also diegetic, like the 4th wall breaks. If MM is a pocket universe created by Saeyoung and V, then of course they would know about the events of Dandelion and Nameless. Why? Because those events inspired them to create the MM pocket universe. They saw The Wizard host these games and meddle in the lives of mortals. He not only accumulates a lot of power by hosting these games but also ends up with Heejung in the end. I talked about how I think V wants to be with Rika, paralleling The Wizard and Heejung’s situation.

What Saeyoung gets out of this is 2 things: 

1. Creating a ‘videogame/pocket universe’ because he enjoys it.

2. Get more memories to fuel his power by getting the MC/player to play through the routes.

I can imagine Saeyoung throwing in references to Dandelion and Nameless as a homage to his inspiration for creating this pocket universe, just like how game developers irl reference their own inspirations/previous works. This is really meta, I know. It’s amazing.

The laws of how this pocket universe seems to work are like a videogame. People are machines/AI/robots. They have to follow a set algorithm/script. The only way we can interact with the characters is through the messenger and VN scenes that only show certain locations. 

This is how I interpret all of the weirdness in Mystic Messenger, while also connecting it to information we have about wizards.

Rika is Trapped:

I discussed in a follow-up to my Saeran/Ray Another Story post that Rika may actually be trapped in the MM pocket universe too, along with Zen. Though in her case, she finds out this truth and seems to want to get it out. I suggested that this is part of why she created Mint Eye, to get away from V and find a way out of the pocket universe. 

1. Rika was the one who told Yoosung that everyone in the RFA are machines in the CS common route bad ending. I talked way more about this in the Saeran/Ray follow-up post.

2. Let’s elaborate on Jumin’s story:

This friend that Jumin is talking about is Rika. For her to want Jumin to read this book, that coincidentally is about the origins of Nameless... I have a feeling that she knows this book’s contents are based on actual events, and that she wants to tell Jumin the truth of their universe, but had to start small.

On that note, Jaehee, Yoosung, and Jumin all seem to understand on some level that their world is fabricated. This is extremely evident in the April Fool’s DLC.

Zen is Trapped:

Here we go. This one is gonna have way too many screenshots:

I can not understate how bonkers this DLC is when it comes to the deeper lore of this game. It took the bad endings, 4th wall breaks, and references, and blows it all out of the water. It feels like all of it has led up to this: a scenario in which Zen realizes he is living in a pocket universe. This crack started in the CS common route bad ending, but we don’t actually see him believe Yoosung.

In this DLC it is Zen’s birthday, and he found himself unable to leave the RFA chat and remains logged in the entire day. I believe that this is because the messenger is the main way characters can communicate in this pocket universe, and if characters are not on screen then they... might be in stasis? Or something similar? In any case, keeping Zen in the chat like this forces him to exist and remain present the entire time.

In the screenshots above, Jaehee clearly understands something that Zen doesn’t. She gives him hints on how to ‘become like them’. In this DLC everyone is an inanimate object: 707 is cardboard, Yoosung is an omelet, Jumin is a cat, and Jaehee is a coffee maker. She doesn’t directly spell it out for him. If Zen does what she says, and acts as bizarre as them, essentially blending into the ‘normal’ of this world, then he turns into an inanimate object too in a bad ending. Can you see the double meaning here? This is a microcosm of what living in the usual (CS, DS, AS) MM pocket universe is like. Act like everyone else. If you don’t, it can lead to suffering (see CS common route bad ending).

Let's ask. Why is this DLC so bizarre anyway? Why did the laws of the pocket universe change? Well, our answer is from dear old Saeyoung the wizard.

This is what he does at the end of the DLC if you get the good ending, where Zen ‘wakes up from his dream’ and has his B-day party. We literally witness Saeyoung state that he needs to change the messenger back to normal. He talks about it in terms of doing magic as a wizard.

Anyway, let’s get back to Zen being trapped. The following screenshots is Zen realizing that he is in a pocket universe. Buckle in it's a doozy:

I mentioned in the past how I think Zen is a prince from Grass. I bring up multiple possibilities for how he got to the MM universe, and I think the most likely one is that he was trapped here, whether he wanted to be here originally or not. He seems to have either been here since he was a child, or his childhood memories were fabricated by Saeyoung. In any case, this dream he had when he was younger may have potentially been him seeing the future. Because he had it when he was younger, it may be further back in the timeline from what we play through in the MM routes. So, seeing us, the real us beyond the screen is predicting the future. It predicted that Zen will find out that we are an entity in another dimension/universe. 

I talk about MC and the player interchangeably, and that’s not an accident. I mentioned in a past post that I believe that this time around, we the player are the MC. The avatar with the long brown hair we see in pictures throughout the game is just a vessel for us to interact with the MM pocket universe. This is why she is a blank slate with little personality outside of predetermined options. This is why the MC this time has no personality while in Dandelion and Nameless, Eri and Heejung were fully fleshed-out characters.

I talked in more detail about how we, the player, have been established as an in-universe character way back in Nameless, too.

This doesn’t sound good... this sounds like a man who has fallen into despair. Zen says he has come to terms with it, but he also told us to "use me". He is trapped here, but hey, at least he has some entity in another dimension/universe that he can talk to. Even if that entity is restricted with limited dialogue options! At least a real person knows he’s there, and he asks us to come and see him any time... 

Mystic Messenger’s hidden story is messed up. 

It’s probably a better outcome to get the good ending in this DLC, where Zen celebrates his birthday with the RFA, his fellow prisoners (if Yoosung is to be believed about them being real people at some point). Maybe ignorance is bliss in this case?

Now let’s think about why Saeyoung or V would want Zen to be here. Maybe both Rika AND Zen made a desperate wish. Maybe Zen made this wish to either V or Saeyoung, not The Wizard from Dandelion. 

Perhaps Zen wanted to get away from Grass, for reasons I mentioned in my previous posts? And they technically grant it by sending him here to the MM pocket universe. His memories of Grass may have been the price for this wish, thus why he doesn’t remember his old life as a prince.

As for Rika she probably still led a tragic life, not dissimilar to her backstory from RAS. It seems like she made this desperate wish to a wizard we have never seen before. We even SEE this happen with her in V’s after ending, where Rika is seen in a dimension eerily similar to where The Wizard and other wizards are known to reside.

The background is a sea of stars. They aren’t identical but keep in mind that Dandelion was made in 2012, and V after the story was made in like 2018. In RAS we see this location again, along with it we hear a song from Dandelion play called “Ra rochu ra no so - In a Frozen Dream”.

It’s the same song. The wizard speaking to Rika has a female voice and seems to be much gentler. I think that besides V and Saeyoung there are definitely way more wizards involved in all of this.

TL;DR: Mystic Messenger is a pocket universe created by Saeyoung and V. Their goal differs. V wants to be with Rika and Saeyoung wants memories/fun. Rika and Zen both had desperate wishes. Zen to leave Grass and Rika to realize she is the sun. Zen made his wish to either V or Saeyoung, and they grant it by sending him to the MM universe. Rika made it to an unknown wizard but is whisked away by V because he became obsessed with her. He tries to become her ‘sun’. This doesn’t work out.

[cheritzheadcanonz]

That's make me sad. Cheritz could make a shared universe to make all fandoms united to resolve their theories and saw old characters or just giving us more content.

I miss new PC games...

That's upsetting.

I cannot fucking deal with the lack of Nameless content rn,,, Mystic Messenger gets a million dlcs, routes for 2 characters who weren't planned to get routes in the first place and still has merch on the website. Ssum has over 200 hours of playing time. Nameless has what??? Where's the Soi and Shinbi routes?? Where's the after ending dlcs??? Where's the webcomic???? Where's the fucking sequel???????

I rly appreciate that the game has commentary for all the main characters' voice actors but none of it is translated. Why can't I understand them and all the stuff they say about what went into making the game. I need access to all the merch that was originally released. I need the behind the scenes the deleted content the concept art everything. Where is it.

[cheritzheadcanonz]

"Rika was the first MC who tried to help RFA, but all power consumed her at the point she lose her power of reset and now she is trapped in a Bad Ending.

The MC is the another plauer in this game to fill up this role. That's why they (even Rika) says we are like her and when we do BE we got traped in this same circle until another player cames out. That's why we have so many MCs but only ONE won the game."

[cherrychipheart]

Update

Heya~ It’s been a while. 5 years

First off... I’m genuinely surprised that my dead blog still gets likes and reblogs occasionally. During the course of time, a lot of asks were sent, and I’m really sorry for having left you guys hanging. At that time, high school grades were a priority ;; Now that I’ve been free from all that for a while, at the very least, an update was necessary. 

1. Updating blog theme

There were concerns that the blog was hard to navigate and to add, also lead to external links. I’m incredibly sorry to those who experienced this. The blog has now reverted back to the vanilla tumblr theme. 

2. Back to being active?

I’m afraid that I have lost all motivation to continue this blog. There are 15 drafts/unposted theories that were left sitting there, and when I look at those posts, I think man, what was I thinking? As of right now, I’ve forgotten 80% of what my theories were originally about, that I’ve had to reread them over and over ; And it’s unlikely I’ll ever get back on track. So with that, I’m afraid that I won’t be able to answer all of the asks, since the part of my brain concerning itself with Cheritz has been collecting webs and dust 😞

3. The future of this blog    

I’ve considered deleting this blog for some time. It’s pretty much dead, but I’m still conflicted over whether I should or not. It’s actually my very first and only tumblr blog...  

4. Moving on

Part of what made this fun were some online friends I made along the way in creating these seemingly wild theories. I’ve lost touch with them overtime, but its a part of growing up in general, moving on with life. I’ve had so much fun also looking at others’ theories and looking at the asks. In fact, there were some that were like a revelation o.o, things that I had never considered. There was one ask which talked about how some of the organisations making contact with the RFA sounded like they were making desperate wishes 😮

Anyway, I’ve moved on. From Mystic Messenger. From Nameless, Dandelion. All of Cheritz I’m afraid. I was never interested in The Ssum from right when it was announced back in 2017, because first, it came out of nowhere, and I had doubt that it was connected to the previous games. Turns out... 

I’ll leave that there for you to figure out (don’t wanna risk spoilers haha).

But the biggest demotivator for dropping my blog has to be...

5. Cheritz’s declaration that the story of Mystic Messenger was up to interpretation

That particular post shook me. Starting from Nameless, Cheritz had established that their future games were truly something to look forward to, at least for me. It’s not just throwbacks or cameos, it’s within the same universe. The announcement of MysMe and introduction of Jumin’s character hooked me in right from the start. It was very exciting back in the past. But now, it’s just... eh. Cheritz appears to want to please everyone. Apparently, the Mysme fandom that hadn’t played Dandelion or Nameless were angry that they had to check out the two to understand the story of Mysme which was why Cheritz had made that post (don’t quote me, even I’m unsure of whether this is true or not 😶 But if Cheritz had to make a post like that, it must mean something)

Ultimately, I actually hadn’t even started V’s route nor got a satisfactory ending with Saeran. Their routes were a big surprise, and I felt it got messy quick. When I looked at the story of Mysme at face value (so looking at it independently without any connection to the other games) and paired with other people’s perspectives of Saeran’s and V’s routes based off screenshots, I found there were some inconsistencies regarding the characters and their point of views of events. And if that’s at face value, then there’s just no way I’ll be able to, well, make connections between the games. And the fact that Jumin’s got a route based off a bad ending... well, more profit is good I guess? They are a company after all  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Ultimately, if there are inconsistencies, paired with the fact that Cheritz says that the game is up to interpretation... what, then, is considered canon or a theory?  

If you’ve read this far... nah, there’s no way haha.

6. Just some rambling (my own thoughts, feel free to disagree of course)

I feel like Cheritz has made a mistake. By saying that Mysme can be interpreted in any way, only to connect the Ssum back to Mysme, and killing Lynn Project. Dandelion and Nameless had a clear direction. Lynn Project could’ve had a direction, who knows? Both Mysme (any additional content after the main story, new routes etc) and the Ssum don’t feel like they have a clear direction, with how they’ve had to develop these two within either a tight time frame, or lacking storytelling and anticipation. 

Anyway, I’m not sure if people are still interested in the theories surrounding Cheritz games. If so, it’s really impressive their brains haven’t fallen out. Mine fell out a long time ago. Looking back at my theories, I have now understood how crazy I must’ve sounded to others haha. 

7. So what am I doing now?

At the moment, it’s still unclear on whether I should keep this blog up or not. It all depends. Although I doubt there are others following this blog to begin with (like, is there even a discord server for Cheritz fans on theories and headcanons?)

I’ve moved onto other things at this point: working for a living, learning art, checking out other otome games, Kdramas, and so on.           

Peace~ 

-cherrychipheart   

[annbourbon]

The Procedure

🍒

Okay~ hear me out I'm gonna use the following labels which are losely based on the Scientific Method to create better theories for the Cheritzverse. So from now on from now on for everything I post under the cheritzverse will follow this pattern which let's be honest it's been kind of like it. But now it'll be more specific and strict. You can use them too if you like~

Canon: Confirmed by Cheritz. Either during one of the games or inside their merch, or in any other way. If Cheritz says so, it's canon. But if you're gonna use it for your theories and claim it as canon then it needs to be backed up by pictures and screenshots.

Headcanon: Theories or beliefs that are not officially confirmed by Cheritz. Open to interpretation, it can go from minor details to major plot points. But mostly acknowledged as speculations and imagination.

Random Fact: Piece of information not connected to a specific topic or context. Although they do not contribute specifically to the theories, they do add some credibility. But, yeah, they're just, random.

Theory: A well-substantiated explanation based on facts, evidence and a logical reasoning process. It also needs to be backed with pictures, screenshots. Needs to be clear from which point, hour, chat room in Mystic Messenger, month in The Ssum and Dandelion. And which route. We need to connect and explain "why" we think a certain theory is possible.

Soft Thread: *I just created this term cause we need something in between headcanon, random fact and an actual theory. Like, a theory it's something that comes with at least 2 hypotheses to reach a conclusion. But a Soft Thread needs "more" to become a Theory.

However a Soft Thread it's going to be something where you can have facts, evidence and logic but unlike theories, there's no conclusive point that has been reached yet. Hence~ it's like a bridge that's still mid·construction.