#he’s comfortable around Laios in a very specific way and so is Laios around him

[ciderjacks]

despite Laios low self esteem making him think that if he’d been eaten, Chilchuck and Marcille wouldn’t have helped Falin,

theres a small part of me that thinks the reason Chilchuck stayed with the party and went back in the dungeon in the first place was because he didn’t want to leave Laios alone. That Laios was moreso the reason he stayed.

[ambrosiagourmet]

In chapter 28, Marcille lays out why the journey she's been on has been worth the pain: because they were able to bring Falin back. The injuries, the indignity, and the mess of it all - they are tolerable primarily in context of destination she believes she's reached at this point.

In truth, of course, the story is far from finished. In fact, I would argue that this is actually where hers really starts. This scene holds the seed of the very thing the Winged Lion will exploit to lead Marcille to become the Lord of the Dungeon. After all, with a desire as far reaching and deeply held as Marcille's, if the only acceptable outcome is success, what other choice does she have but to bargain with the infinite?

So let's talk about this idea - where it leads her, how Laios' path intersects with it, and how they both help each other move forward in the face of failure.

First though, I want to step back and talk about something else: the shapeshifter chapters.

With these chapters recently covered by the anime, there has, of course, come plenty of fun discussions about which version of each character belongs which other character's perceptions, and what that means.

One thing I've seen pointed out a few times is the fact that both Laios and Marcille's impressions of each other are based around Falin. Marcille's version of Laios is larger and more masculine, because those are the traits that stuck out to her in contrast to Falin. Laios' version of Marcille was directly inspired by her appearance and demeanor when resurrecting Falin.

So why is this important to a discussion about Marcille being focused on success? Well, it shows us where Laios and Marcille's relationship starts: built primarily around their shared love for Falin. It's from that shared beginning that they begin to learn about each other on their own terms.

And this is true for the whole group, to be clear. They are united by circumstance - love for a lost companion, a sense of responsibility, a desire for freedom - but they all grow and help each other beyond that circumstance. They help Senshi bury the ghosts of his past and eat some Hippogriff stew. They help Izutsumi open up to mutual love and friendship. And they learn so much about each other: about Chilchuck's family and Laios' love of monsters and Marcille's desires to live life alongside others.

In the particular case of Marcille and Laios, understanding each other is what lets them save each other. It is not through Falin that Laios talks Marcille down from the edge the Lion has brought her to, nor is it through her that Marcille comforts Laios after the demon is defeated, when it is still unclear how everything will work out.

In fact, it is very specifically the unknown fate of Falin that Marcille comforts him about.

She is willing to accept the outcome - willing, now, to embrace the journey itself, rather than only accepting it as a means to an end.

This is a lesson she learns from Laios, and it's a lesson we watch Laios learn, too.

Just before making her deal with the Lion, Marcille recalls everything that led her to that moment. She lingers on the pain, recalling the worst of their journey:

She only pushes through by remembering her goals: saving Falin, and equalizing the lifespans of her friends to match her own.

And yet, 10 chapters later, when reflecting on why she actually wants to see her goals through, it is the good parts of that very same journey that shine through.

There's an inherent contradiction here, one which Marcille doesn't know how to face. How can the suffering that she tolerates also be the love that drives her forward? How can the loss that she's worked so hard to reverse also be the very circumstance that created a world she, now, cannot stand to give up?

And Laios confronts her with the truth. Because it just is.

Losing Falin forced him to open up to others in a way he never had. It forced him to choose what he cares about, and in making that choice, it gave him the opportunity to be seen. To connect with others.

He has already had to come to terms with the fact that Falin's death has given him something - he would not have been able to kill her again if he hadn't.

There is something here that is fundamental to Dungeon Meshi's understanding of what life even is. Like, I don't think it's a coincidence that part of Laios' speech to Marcille in chapter 85 is actually first seen in the chapter where they fight off ghosts.

In 'Sorbet,' while possessed , Laios thinks that it would have been better if the dragon had eaten him, instead of Falin. The ghosts make people lose their will to live - they are dragged away from life.

When he's pulled back from that brink, Laios realizes that he can't move forward without accepting that she is gone. He even compares the way he was holding on to her to being possessed: it pulled him away from life, from the present moment.

To carry on, he must accept what has been lost, and focus on protecting the life that they still have.

Like Marcille, he has to accept the contradictions of their journey. That life means eating, and eating requires death. That sometimes one must be selfish in order to be kind, and that selflessness can easily be twisted into to cruelty.

That loss will, inevitably, lead you to find happiness that you may not have found otherwise.

This is how he gets through to Marcille. And I think part of the reason he reaches her with these specific ideas is because those contradictions are baked so thoroughly into their relationship.

Marcille only met Falin after she had been left behind by Laios. Laios was able to reconnect with Falin because she left Marcille. They both met each other through Falin, and yet they only really got to know and care for one another after she died.

And of course, that's why Marcille uses the same ideas to comfort Laios, in the final chapter. It is because of Laios that she is able to accept the journey for itself, and not need the happy ending to justify its meaning to her.

Together, they help each other move forward, and accept that they may not be able to bring Falin back.

Which, if I'm being honest... I think this is the reason Falin can come back, narratively speaking, without the resurrection feeling like it takes away from the themes of the story.

After all, she doesn't do it for Marcille or Laios - she does it for her own sake. Her own hunger and her own desire to eat are the things that lead her back to life.

All three of them, together, end the story like this: not clinging to the things they are afraid to lose, but knowing they can choose to move forward together.

And, importantly, this happy ending is no longer the thing that gives the journey meaning. Rather, it is the privilege of the journey itself that is her happy ending: the chance to walk alongside others in the time they have, to get to know each other, and to eat well.

[tomyo]

Dungeon Meshi perfectly captures love and bonds developed between found families. At the start you expect a bunch of people who mostly reluctantly deal with each other, especially with how much things were falling apart only for the story to slowly tell you these people were once a hugely solid venturing group.

There really is a gentle beauty to the way the story slowly unveils the love they share for each other, Laois often going out of his way to protect Marcille who is one of the most integral people in the party. In another series they’d probably be the ones shipped if it weren’t for the obvious lesbianism. While she’s initially portrayed as whining and high maintenance, as the story goes on she’s very practical and determined to help their chances by teaching Laios magic. There’s also small details at the start like comforting back pats when Laois makes himself ill on bad cooking. A later episode I love is when he willingly ventures into her nightmare to help her from bad nightmares. The show makes a point that being in good condition is tantamount to surviving the dungeon but the motivation obviously lies more around her mental suffering. To me Laios and Marcille are also the standout relationship in the red dragon fight, they act like they have the most tightest bond of the current members. I want to liken them to a lady and her knight but also in how again, the series subverts the obvious dynamic of partners with romantic undertones that usually would get put onto them. Laios deeply cherishes Marcille but in the way one would cherish their sister (fitting since he is an older brother).

Chilchuck stands out as being especially distant and anti social with the others, the most likely to criticize the others. Albeit even before he is clocked as loving his teammates you can see the dad in him pop out at many points, more specifically his girl dad ness rubbing off on his relationship with Marcille. A cute early moment where she tiredly insists to got with him for the water refill but he refuses only then to get in trouble and believe she’ll be no use when in reality she was already waking up the others to find him. The irony is her thinking of him as younger when she really hovers around him like a daughter would around their father. He protects her innocence over the mermaid eggs for instance. A commonly seen spoiler is he is the one to braid her hair when she looses the ability to desire that. You regularly see him being the one to patch gear as well. His moodiness if often attributed to his age but it was mentioned somewhere he intentionally calorie restricts so he doesn’t set off traps and it wouldn’t surprise me if he experiences regular hunger.

Finally when it comes to Laios, I find him surprisingly profoundly sad. Despite being the biggest source of comedic relief, his oddities come with a sense of profound loneliness. It’s natural for a big brother to be determined to save his younger sister but flashbacks often sell me the idea that Falin is the one who truly gets him the most. There’s a higher range of emotions flash back Laois shows, sometimes feeling like a completely different person. A goofy child, a broodish teen, and a cautious young adult, always with Falin alongside him in his memories. But as a full adult he expresses happiness and light levels of sadness but often a lot more subdued contemplation is involved, likely why he is also the presumed party leader. In some ways it can feel like that lack of expression was in part the sense of a neurodivergent beat down into normalcy. Despite his comfort around his party, he never tells them of Kensuke’s nature. But Falin was shown to adore her brother deeply and share interests in dungeon culture with him. They never seemed to fully develop a “I ‘hate’ you” sibling phase. While mostly keeping calm about rescuing her, you can see a desperation suddenly appear when he finally takes on the red dragon.

The loss of Falin clearly has a big effect on all of them as possibly the heart of the group. You first feel it around the ghosts appearing when Chilchuck realizes she isn’t there to protect them. Someone who warded off the mental hardships for her comrades, such as the one to teach Laois about nightmares. Loved by Shuro and considered accepting his proposal despite not sharing his feelings. Loved by Marcille so much that she committed a crime to bring her back even though it lead to them never being able to leave the dungeon. Her return completely takes the edge off the group. It’s the defining jump from silly antics to more tender family moments. The group more or less surrenders their lives above for her sake. There’s something beautiful about that when we see from Marcille’s memories, she was also seen as a bit of a freak by her peers.

On the opposite side, there is Senshi who often exemplifies a lack of familiarity with the group. His relationships are defined as a common interest with Laois, an ignorance for chilchuck’s maturation, and often at odds with Marcille. In a lot of ways he stays an outsider for a long part of the first half of the anime, rarely presenting a character growth moment until the kelpie instance. Despite overall being agreeable, he acted somewhat arrogant over his understanding of the dungeon and his beliefs. One of the few ways he had to grow thus far is accepting his views weren’t always the truth.

The newest member Izutsumi was a great means to display the bond developed thus far, basically creating an outsider view of a family they have yet to belong to. Her story questions the norm we accepted of people who eat together from the vantage of someone who never was in a familial situation but rather a living piece of property. This time Senshi is playing the role of the father, teaching her manners for her food while Chilchuck is a bit of a pissy uncle until they manage to bond over a fight leading to him making her her own bag, and finally Marcille trying to be caring to her needs. What got me the most is what can be said from how in tune they were together with creating a sauna and how comfortable they were being semi nude with each other in a tight space. A different series would have taken the opportunity to exploit Marcille and Izutsumi for a moment of cheesecake. However we never really end up with a lingering shot or a comment on the situation because no one there is sexually interested in each other that way; they are a family after all. Great place to point out the difference in tone compared to Falin and Marcille’s bath scene, two characters considered to be the rare non platonic instance. Beyond that, there is some warmth to the way the all join in with each other for a meal as Izu watches on; Senshi feeding the blind Laois his food while Chilchuck joins his surrogate daughter (Marcille) who smiles at his presence.

I feel like I could go more at some point into ep 20, the overall dynamic, and the sadness of Laois but I’ll falling short rn.

[gallus-rising]

for p1: current favorite ship/first favorite ship and p2 current favorite character/first favorite character. also top 5 pokemon for 3

i'm afraid i can't give you first fav ship/character since my memory is terrible and also i'm probably over thinking it and trying to go too far back 😔 first fav character was assuredly someone from Digimon tho lol

ok under the cut because it got longish lol

current favorite ship: currently suffering from ekumob brainrot 😔

when I started shipping it if I did:

ok their friendship was already very important to me but when the broccoil arc was animated?? idk for some reason that Activated something in me..... there was also this one popular fanartist on twt who's since moved on from mp100 that def contributed. no idea where they are now but i hope they're doing well 🙏

my thoughts:

oh god we'll be here all day. they r. Good

What makes me happy about them:

hhhng human/monster ships always make me happy just because (´ ∀ ` *) but something specific to them is the slowbuild trust between them?? most of my ships are built on canon friendship stuff and mp100's platonic relationships are particularly good. i wouldn't be able to properly describe it w/o going into full series meta lol but this is a good place to start probably

What makes me sad about them:

we all know that mortal/immortal pairings never end well :']

things done in fanfic that annoys me:

there isn't enough fic for them for this to rly be applicable :''']

things I look for in fanfic:

thing i'm desperate for in both fic and art is ghost Dimple. get that claw guy outta here he is a mere means to an end

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: 

ekurei is always fun but Mob is aro to me u-u i'm shipping him in an aro way. i promise it makes since in my head

My happily ever after for them:

just very chill living together. Mob seemingly lives alone and his normal friends feel a lil bad for him and try to set him up w someone every once and a while but Mob always politely declines. when Mob is busy Dimple spends time with the extended S&S crew because those are his fwiends 🥺 sometimes Dimple is gone for a few days but he always comes back home <3

who is the big spoon/little spoon:

depends on whether Dimple is in Big Ghost mode or Little Ghost mode lol but i feel like they both equally enjoy either role

what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

Mob astral projecting so Dimple can possess his body and do the sorts of normal human things he misses. just. small ghost Mob hanging out while Dimple goes on a walk or has dinner or takes a bath or w/e. also. small ghost cuddles 🥺 tiny ghost Mob and tiny ghost Dimple snuggling 🥺🥺 Mob's unconscious body is about 5 feet away ig

current favorite character: bouncing around between various Dungeon Meshi characters atm but let's go with Laois

How I feel about this character:

autism to autism communication

All the people I ship romantically with this character: 

no one. he is aroace to me u-u

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

i don't say this lightly but the Touden party is the found family of all time oh my GOD

My unpopular opinion about this character: 

as an autistic/autistic-coded characters he is ofc subject to Pure Sunshine Syndrome UwU so most of my unpopular opinions are just canon facts lmao. he's very smart and a capable leader, charisma is just his dump stat

also i know someone wrote a meta post explaining this way better but Laios is just so angry. the post was mostly about how in most media the character who is autistic misreads the social situation is always in the wrong. the character must always realize they've committed a horrible social taboo and eventually apologize to everyone for their bad behavior. but Dugeon Meshi lets Laios be angry. like yeah!! why didn't ppl just explain things to him?? he gets mad when other ppl pretend to get along w him but actually dislike him and are waiting for him to get a clue. so yeah, Laios is a chill guy but underneath that he is just so angry at the world all the time. he's pissed off ppl treat him like a freak for acting sincerely, he's pissed off ppl treat his sister like a freak for her natural talents, and Kabru is super valid and right for assuming that Laios hates humanity bc he kinda does a lil (tho not to the extent that Kabru thought ofc)

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

let him have fangs and glowly cat eyes and all that. he needs to live out his furry/otherkin dreams.

my OTP:

N/A

my cross over ship:

you know what???? Venom.

a headcanon fact:

ALMOST ALL DUNGEON MESHI CHARACTERS HAVE SOME KIND OF DISCORDED EATING IN THIS ESSAY I WILL--

top 5 favorite pokemon: hhhhng picking just 5 is v difficult so consider this incomplete. listed in no particular order because i'm bad at that 😔

turtwig line. i yelled when the Big Torts appeared in Detective Pikachu

porygon line. split line evo where you can evolve proygon2 into porygon3 which is stated for Sp. Def vs porygon-z's Sp. Atk WHEN!!!!

pidove line. fav regional bird. unfezant is Peak bird design

smugleaf snivy line. it's a skink that evolves into a legless lizard what's not to love??

klefki. L + Ratio + Prankster + Thunder Wave + Spikes + Dual Screens + Light Clay. Taunt users DNI

[ciderjacks]

Dunmeshi main adventurer gang and the desires they represent

spoilers below rm

Marcille: the desire to avoid death, to keep herself and everyone else alive for millennia. Influenced by her existence as a half-elf. She has great uncertainty around lifespan, she doesn’t want to face death, so she wishes for everyone to have the lifespan she’s been cursed with- the lifespan that her ancestors asked the winged lion for. (side note: this is also why I think that in the end the lifespan thing did get worked out, just in the opposite way marcille wanted it to happen. The elves and dwarves hugely long lifespans arent natural, they’re an old wish the winged lion was upholding since it was made)

Chilchuck: the desire for stability and comfort, over anything. He wants to keep others safe too, but more than that, he wants to be safe himself. This is because his reality as a half-foot has meant constant stress, danger, and instability. On one of his first jobs, he discovered that his existence was reduced to being monster bait, and wouldn’t have survived if his gut hadn’t warned him.

Laios: the desire for knowledge, to know everything about what hes interested in. Hes never satisfied with the knowledge he has, when he reads everything about it, he needs to see it, when he sees everything there is to see on it, he needs to meet it and connect with it, when hes connected with it as much as he can, he needs to taste it. Unlike Chilchuck and Marcille, it wasn’t his race but his proximity to Falin, as well as his trauma from observing how the adults in his life treated her for being different, that probably sparked this need to know everything.

Izutsumi: I was gonna have a big essay for her too but honestly it can be summed up in that izutsumi is a cat

Senshi: Senshi has no specific desires for himself, which makes him a really interesting foil. He wants to help everyone else, but he doesn’t have much regard for his own interests. In fact, I think it’s symbolic that throughout the series desire is represented as hunger, and Senshis role throughout the series has been feeding everyone else in a very selfless manner.

Falin: Falin represents the animalistic desire, combined with a very human desire. Part of her wants nothing more than to eat and be safe, part of her wants nothing more than to see her friends again. Her desires as an individual i think are less explored for a reason in canon.