#i might give more theories later as i play and overanalyze everything that happens and each weird little quirk that was quietly placed in a

[why-no-names-left]

theoryyyyyyyy

i love it

(sorry about the lots of tags i had a lot to say)

little nightmares 2, the time loop within the pale city, the ending explained, a collection of analysis and theories from the community part 6, part 1,2,3,4,5,7 link is below (updated again)

what is going on with the time loop occurring in the pale city?

Near the end of little nightmares 2, it is revealed that mono has become the thin man and has essential restored the tower to its functioning state as his power is used by the eye/tower to once again send out its transmission to expose the world to its hypnotic spell. Now, whether mono has always been the thin man or if mono is simply taking the place of the old thin man is still debated on, however, what many do seem to agree on is that the tower has used the thin mans powers to salvage his life and keep him in an endless time loop. There are many ideas on how it is that this loop is occurring, here is what the community has come up with so far:

1. The thin man was a different person who was used by the tower until mono appeared and defeated him. Once mono had obtained the powers of the thin man, the tower called to him. Mono might have already stopped the signal long before ever meeting six, unfortunately, despite his victory, the tower had tricked him by trapping him within its walls and turning him into the new signal provider. This fate forced mono to relive his life in an endless loop in order to be salvaged by the tower and have his power always available for the tower to use . However, due to the fact that time and space are messed up within the tower, Mono only grows old once he is trapped within the towers walls. Once he is near the end of his life, the thin man is forced to reappear outside the tower in his younger age in order to be used by the eye entity all over again.

2.mono is being kept in a dream loop, not a time loop. The tower has used its hypnotic spell to leave monos mind in a dream like state in order to prevent him from fighting back. In his dream, mono thinks about everything that lead up to him sitting on the chair, however, due to his desire to end the signal, the boy also dreams about warning or even stopping himself  from reaching the tower. The thin man he sees in this dream is actually the manifestation of his greatest fears brought to life by the eye entity. 

Throughout the game it is noted how there are constant references to chairs and just how much they are hated. In the school, we see chairs with pictures of dogs urinating on them, while other chairs are locked away in secret rooms in order to prevent mono from finding them, possibly implying to us that mono dreams of his hatred and regret for sitting on the chair. Mono now sits in the tower trapped within this dream like state, waiting for someone to free him.

Keep reading

[iceflowerglow]

Somebody who'd chase Simba up a tree

"So you found yourself somebody who'd chase Simba up a tree?" - "I'll do it for you, Mother!"

Yes, it's that scene. I love how many parallels there are in this movie, and here, the title and the drawing refer to a tragic parallel between "My Lullaby" and Nuka's death scene. This particular parallel also prompted me to come up with a fan theory. In a sense, I had this theory for a long time, but only now connected it into one piece. So, if you like overanalyzing animated movies as much as I do, you might enjoy reading this long and rather convoluted theory that I call...

Nuka, king of foreshadowing? A few months ago, I saw a post on the Disney Reddit titled "A character in The Lion King 2 predicts his own death". And while I've noticed this parallel before, it got me thinking: there was more, and it goes full circle. There are so many scenes in the movie where Nuka in some way foreshadows something that happens later, it's just a matter of interpretation of how aware he is of it in each of these instances.  The one mentioned above is, of course, during "My Lullaby", where Nuka sings "So you've found yourself somebody who'd chase Simba up a tree?", to which Zira cups his chin and replies "Oh, the battle may be bloody, but that kind of works for me", and callously pushes Nuka off a cliff. This is a clear parallel to Nuka's death scene, where he chases Simba up the log dam ("trees"), falls, and Zira comforts him at his dying breath by cupping his chin.

But there also seems to be an overarching storyline with Nuka foreshadowing a very important plot point. Namely, there are many hints scattered throughout the movie that Nuka expects Kovu to betray the Outsiders. He even tries to warn Zira and Vitani about this in a roundabout way, but they don't take him seriously, so he's basically suffering from Cassandra's curse because of how he's perceived. The way Nuka smiles during the ambush scene when Zira says "Get him, Kovu" suggests that in that moment, he's certain that Kovu won't attack Simba, thus allowing Nuka to get his chance to show what he's capable of. But this happens after Vitani brings the news about Kovu failing to attack Simba, so the possibility of Kovu's betrayal is already 'public knowledge', so to speak. It could be said that Nuka is just hopeful for a desired outcome... Except, Nuka has been dropping hints that he expected Kovu to betray them for a long time beforehand.

It looks like in a way Nuka's suspicions have started early, when Kovu was still a cub. The first time we see Nuka in the movie, he is complaining about Kovu getting so much 'undeserved' attention as the so-called 'chosen one'. Nuka's nickname for Kovu is "little termite", and Nuka himself is suffering from a termite infection, so he essentially likens Kovu to a parasite, who gets all the praise, all the best things and food in their starving pride, but doesn't do anything for them in return. Nuka seems to be suggesting that Kovu doesn't truly value his pride and family, and can't relate to their stuggles, because he's handed everything on a silver platter at everyone else's expense. It's likely that the real reson why Nuka considers himself to be the better option is because he's much more loyal. "If she'd just give me a chance!" And if Nuka doesn't yet expect Kovu to betray them in this scene (it's not impossible that he does), he probably starts to after the next scene, where Zira berates Kovu for playing with Kiara. Kovu says that he thought they could be friends, and Zira finishes that thought with a sarcastic remark about Simba "welcoming Kovu with open arms" if Kovu becomes friends with his daughter. This, I think, is the moment when Nuka gets a clear idea of what might happen, if he didn't have it before.

Later on, as an adult, Nuka expresses the same sentiment. "If Kovu is so special, why does he need us?" Nuka is bitter that his and Vitani's efforts are taken for granted, when Kovu is held in such high regard for something he hasn't even done yet, and all the groundwork for his mission has been laid by others. Vitani, like everyone else, is certain that Kovu will finish his mission, and therefore, she sees their roles and Kovu's value as a given. Nuka's outlook is completely different, he serves as a reminder that Kovu's success is not guaranteed, and his role is not set in stone. "I never even had a chance!", laments Nuka once again, in foreshadowing of Simba's "if given the chance" conversation with Kovu, one of the things that has set off Kovu's change of heart. The next scene with Nuka is even more telling. Not only is Nuka more direct about his suspicions, it also seems that Nuka makes a (correct) guess as to why Kovu will betray them. When he and Zira are watching Kovu's progress in the Pridelands, Nuka makes a big show of hinting to Zira that if Kovu was so good at his mission, he would have attacked Kiara. It's a clumsy attempt, and Nuka definitely knows that Kiara isn't their main target, and if Kovu attacks her, he won't be able to get to Simba. Of course, it can be argued that Nuka is not very smart, his emotions get the better of him, and he doesn't think through what he's saying. This is all true to some degree, but I'm certain he at least understands the basics of the plan. So, why this? Why Kiara? I suspect it's because Nuka is convinced that Kovu feels something for her, or will start feeling something for her later. Which is not entirely implausible, because Kovu might have mentioned Kiara to his siblings throughout the years (he did, if you consider TLG canon to the movies), and Nuka caught on to that. And given that the plan apparently included Kovu trying to seduce Kiara to get to Simba, it would be easy for Nuka to take this a step further and suspect that Kovu would fall in love with her for real. Could it be that Nuka was weirdly observant and could foresee what even Rafiki couldn't?

And then there is also Vitani, who is strangely so ready to believe in Kovu's sudden betrayal when she's spying in the Pridelands, even though, like many people have pointed out, it's not the best time for him to attack. But Vitani no doubt had to listen to Nuka's constant muttering about how Kovu doesn't care about his pride, how he doesn't deserve the attention he gets, and maybe even saying outright that he will betray them. She likely dismissed it as Nuka's typical obsessive mumbling, but it still would have planted a seed in her mind, and after she saw Kovu not attack Simba with her own eyes... The realization has set in that maybe, her bitter, obsessive older brother was right.

But after Kovu doesn't attack Simba and Vitani sees it, it gets even more interesting. While this is not in the movie, at some point there was clearly the idea that Nuka was the one who suggested the ambush, illustrated in the comic novelization of Simba's Pride. Nuka doesn't look even remotely surprised in this page that Kovu betrayed them, just happy that he finally got his chance. And the next thing he does is suggest that, oh no, Mother, he must be still loyal, it was probably not a good moment for him to attack, we just have to assist him to make sure! So Zira decides to ambush Simba (and thinks it was her idea), still apparently convinced that if they come to "assist" Kovu, he will definitely be on their side, and finish Simba off. It will be so easy!

Except Nuka knows that Kovu is no longer loyal.  And Vitani knows, though she doesn't entirely want to believe it (she still takes a precaution by knocking Kovu out when he tries to help Simba at first). Here, the entire battle scene is curious, because nearly all of the crucial moves were made by Nuka, and in a way that would be beneficial to Nuka, specifically. Nuka knows that about the only location where he would have an advantage over Simba is the log dam. Tiny, malnourished Nuka is obviously no match for big, muscular Simba, but on the log dam, it's the other way around. So when Simba is attacked, Nuka leaps forward first, growls at Simba but does nothing, gets hit by Simba, and is out of the fight. That until there are enough lionesses attacking Simba, and all that's left for Nuka is to jump on Simba's back to make him fall down to the gorge. Zira announces that they have Simba cornered, and now, his only way out is the log dam. Where Nuka can get to him, which he does very quickly.

If only Nuka realized that the moment he grabs Simba's leg, the weight will get redistributed, and the log under Nuka's hind paw will break. One wrong move... And how tragic it is that everything that Nuka has foreseen and expected led to this. But then again, Nuka knew there was a risk, didn't he? And he was still trying to get his mother's attention, no matter the cost.

But there is, perhaps, a bit of consolation in what can be another (subtle) parallel. This might sound a bit outlandish (see what I did there?), but when Nuka says: "This is my moment of glory!", he might be kind of right. In the ending of the movie, the Outsiders get accepted into Simba's pride, after Vitani refuses to fight. This war has taken the life of her older brother, and all Zira did was use his death as fuel for more indoctrination. Vitani doesn't want to lose anyone else. But Zira doesn't care, and threatens to kill her remaining children. Everyone realizes that Zira cared about revenge more than she cared about anyone's well-being, something they might have got a glimpse of before with her treatment of Nuka. And she didn't even warn him to be careful when he went after Simba... So, it's likely that to a significant extent, Nuka's death saved many lives, on both sides. He wanted to be a hero who saved his pride, and he sort of became one, albeit in a very indirect way.

So while some of this might sound rather far-fetched, it could be that Nuka really did "predict" his own death. And Kovu's betrayal. And Kovu falling in love with Kiara. And even orchestrated the log dam chase itself. And I personally think it would be brilliant if that was intention behind the writing in this movie. But Disney was absolutely ruthless with Nuka's character, that's for sure.

[theangryjikooker]

UDA is having thoughts again. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I just read what you wrote about plausible deniability and I feel exactly the same way. Jikook are just doing their thing and seemingly not giving a shit about how it looks like. If they are/we're dating it's probably brought them tons of problems already and I doubt they want even more people to scrutinize their relationship. It doesn't make sense. I can think of a few moments that were really questionable, like jimin saying on TV (I think it was live?) he was with jungkook at 4am on his birthday. This one is hard to explain away, if not impossible at all. But I think that most of the moments when they're ~loud~ are them actually teasing each other. Like an inside joke. They have so many of those, it wouldn't be that much of a reach.

Take the vminkook vlive by example. When they were playing the 007 game or whatever that's called, jungkook made sure jimin would lose. A few moments later, jimin comes up with a new TMI out of the blue saying that Jungkook basically can't leave him alone. Jungkook then says that it's just because Jimin's room is the nearest. That's teasing 101. I think Jimin might have decided to embarrass Jungkook as a revenge, because there's really no other reason to bring out that matter. It's the conclusion my confused brain came up with, i don't assume it to be the truth. But it makes sense to me.

I've noticed that they are very poker-faced, both of them (the gimbap vlive is fascinating because they keep teasing each other and it barely shows on their faces, you have to really be paying attention) and they move on very fast from such moments, as if nothing happened. So maybe what some shippers see as them being in a glass closet is just them having their own kind of jikook fun and not taking us along at all. And we're just left behind wondering what the hell happened, trying to give sense to what they do 🤷🏻‍♀️ If they're really as close that we suspect them to be, then almost all their on cam interactions come in a context that we have no insight on, only guesses and theories. We can't get it, we don't have the full story. That's precisely why it's so interesting to watch them interact.

Those were a few morning thoughts. I have a lot of debates in my head over... literally everything. Including jikook. So I might change my mind later and come up with something new but for now it's my take on the matter.

- UDA

Hi, UDA!

Like you said, I do think that Jikook are just doing their thing. I frankly don't think there's very much to read into a lot of the time because what you see is what you get. There are very few instances that get me chin-tapping and wondering.

I really like what you said here: "If they're really as close that we suspect them to be, then almost all their on cam interactions come in a context that we have no insight on, only guesses and theories. We can't get it, we don't have the full story. That's precisely why it's so interesting to watch them interact."

I talked about this briefly when sharing what I thought about Vmin, but unlike Vmin where we understand what kind of people they are and how verbally loud they are regarding their affections for one another, Jikook and Taekook have Jungkook, who isn't like either of them at all. It presents interesting scenarios that can be overanalyzed because of how reserved but considerate a person he is. I think there are plenty of moments where he's being considerate but it gets mistaken as a romantic gesture, and people just use the narrative that best suits them and their ship.

[codylabs]

Having the Time of My Life Overanalyzing Voltron Science, A Visual Novel

The team’s little mantra in the original show was “ Activate interlock! Dynotherms connected! Infracells up! Mega thrusters are go! Let’s go Voltron Force!” And they said this each and every single time their 5 lions formed together into the combined robot.

In today’s essay I will be deeply examining and wildly speculating about what exactly interlocks, dynatherms, infracells, and mega thrusters are, why it’s entirely crucial that these 4 items be part of the Voltron preflight checklist, and explaining why (or at least inferring that) you should take it all seriously.

Interlock

The Interlock is easy. It’s probably whatever system is used to attach the 5 lions together. So what are they? Magnets? Docking rings like on spacecraft? Just mechanical latches? Hard to say. But something as simple as a mechanical latch isn’t something you’d have to ‘activate’ or actively call out during pre-flight, so I would suspect ‘interlock’ is likely a catch-all term for not only the mechanical attachments, but also the control circuit used to synchronize the computers onboard all 5 lions. It would be a complex integrated system within the black lion, which also explains why they refer to it in the singular instead of plural.

Without the interlock, Voltron would just be the 5 lion with their individual brains tied together like duct-taped dogs. The interlock synchronizes them into a common intelligence, under the direction of the centralized black lion.

I don’t know what the mechanical structure of the interlocks would be. Conventional material science would suggest that a robot as large as Voltron wouldn’t be able to even stand, let alone run and jump and fight, so even if we assume nearly-indestructible exotic alien materials, I think you would still want something more than hooks and pins to connect the various pieces together. It would be best if the actual structural elements could somehow fuse at the molecular level. Welding is the most obvious method for that, but there’s also Vaan-Der-Waals forces, which could bond together flat surfaces that could then be slid apart. And maybe if you had superconducting cables running between the elements and then ran a ton of current through them, then you could use magnetic binding? I’m not sure if that would work, but it sounds futuristic enough to be true. IDK.

Dynatherms

I can’t tell if this is ‘dynatherms’ or ‘dinotherms’, but the first sounds less prehistoric, so I’ll go with that. So it sounds like pieces of the words ‘dynamic’ and ‘thermal’ mashed together, which don’t really mean anything except in the context of thermodynamics, so.... What is this? A reactor? A steam engine?

Of all the various components this one puzzled me longest, but I think I’ve got it.

The dynatherms are the cooling system, meant to radiate away the massive amounts of heat its engines and motors would generate. Most spacecraft, heck most vehicles in general, have a system analogous to this. Here’s the one the ISS uses:

Voltron doesn’t have any weird extendo-wings like this, but it’s conceivable that they could be built directly into the outer layer of its armor. The black lion’s little red wings are likely a part of the system too. If you ask me, the surface area of its armor isn’t nearly enough to dissipate enough heat to keep a thing like this cool, but I think I can ignore that.

So anyway. At first this explanation doesn’t seem to fit, since they say ‘dynatherms connected’, not ‘coolant pumps started’ or ‘refrigerant levels maximum’ or something. You don’t ‘connect’ the heat radiators, they’re always connected. You just pump water through them. Right?

Wrong! Here’s my sufficiently futuristic explanation: Voltron’s cooling system doesn’t use coolant and pumps or any type of conventional refrigeration at all! Instead, the ‘dynatherms’ are a network of thermally superconductive cables connecting all its motors and engines to radiative armor panels on the exterior. Thermal superconductivity is a concept I learned from Star Wars and later found out is a real-ish thing. Basically any vibrations in any part of a thermally-superconductive material can frictionlessly travel to any other part of the material. Since temperature is based on vibrations, this means that if a hot thing touches one part of the material, everything else touching the material can instantly feel that heat, and even dissipate that heat. You can think of it as Marvel vibranium or as warmth communism.

Since there’s no fluid flow, the only way to control this cooling system or increase or decrease its dissipation is to connect and disconnect individual cables. Hence why they would have to connect the dynatherms before forming Voltron; combat in combined robot mode is one of the most taxing conditions of the machine’s operation, so they need all the cooling they can get.

Infracells

Now HERE’S where it starts to get interesting. ‘Infra’ roughly means ‘below’. To take the most common example, take ‘infrared’ light, that is, light existing at frequencies lower red light, which is itself the lowest frequency in the visible spectrum. Infrared is invisible, so the only way to describe its color is ‘somewhere below red’.

So as far as I can tell, ‘infracells’ could mean one of three things. They could be some kind of infrared light sensors, like FLIR imagers used for night vision and targeting on modern military equipment (which I consider unlikely, since that’s not the type of thing you would specifically call out during the preflight, or something intrinsically useful to the Voltron assembly process.) Or it could be an armor layer consisting of some kind of cells literally ‘below’ the rest of the armor (which I also consider unlikely, because why would that be important to the Voltron assembly either? You wouldn’t need to even worry about it until you take damage to the outer armor layer, right?) Or, finally and most interestingly, it could have something to do with lower frequencies or lower speeds in general.

Here’s my theory:

The infracells cause time itself to run differently. You all saw the movie Interstellar, where time aboard the spacecraft passed slower for the crew whenever they were inside powerful gravity wells. If you had high buildups of negative energy within cells inside Voltron, it would produce the opposite effect, causing time to move faster inside the cells than outside. Anything inside would experience the rest of the universe in slower motion, meaning lower acceleration, lower forces, and lower stress.

Therefore, if such ‘infracells’ were installed around Voltron’s skeletal frame and motors, it may explain the machine’s great strength and indestructibility. And it would make sense that this would be the type of thing they would call out during the pre-flight, as even one down infracell could spell disaster once that section of the frame is attempting to support the entire weight of the robot; it would buckle and break. Every infracell needs to be up before forming Voltron.

Mega thrusters

Now, this just sounds silly. They’re likely the engines that Voltron uses to fly, but the show creators put ‘mega’ in front of the name to sound cool. Might as well call them ‘super rockets’ or ‘the ultra drive’, right? But mega is an interesting word, as it’s actually a scientific term in the metric system meaning to multiply by a million. Like a kilometer is a thousand meters and a kilogram is a thousand grams, a megameter is a million meters, and a megagram is a 1000 kilograms. You may have heard of ‘megaton’ when referring to nuclear explosives; a three-megaton bomb is a bomb with the explosive yield equivalent to three million tons of TNT. A lot.

So, uh,

Why would you call a thruster a ‘mega thruster’, then?

Well, I know approximately jack-diddly about the original show, but I know that in the newer show, most large spacecraft in the universe get their energy not from nuclear reactors or solar cells, but rather from Balmeran crystals. The crystals are able to produce apparently infinite energy so long as you don’t damage them or overtax them. I don’t know where the crystals get their infinite energy, but that’s not what I’m here to speculate about, so I’ll just treat that as one of the universe’s rules, like bending in Avatar.

So! How do you set that up to make an engine? Well, infinite power is good! Higher power to the engine means hotter, faster exhaust, and hotter, faster exhaust means higher fuel efficiency and higher thrust. So the question becomes, how do you get the most power in the safest and most efficient way possible?

For the sake of some rules, let’s say that you need to give the crystals a little bit of stimulating energy to make them produce energy. That seems fair, I think. Let’s say they produce 5 times the energy they absorb.

So you give a crystal 1 watt, you get 5. That’s great; that means if we need 50 billion watts to run the thruster, we just need to get a big crystal, and feed it 10 billion watts. However! Where do we get that initial 10 billion watts?  Well we could just take a portion of the crystal’s own output and cycle it back around to the input, but that’s a dangerous game to play, since if the percentage you cycle around is even slightly more than 20%, you could create a “positive feedback loop” where more input means more output, which leads to greater input which leads to even greater output, and so on and so on until the crystal breaks or the ship blows up or something generally unfavorable happens. This is approximately the experience of the people at Chernobyl, and is not recommended.

So instead of having crystals feed themselves, you’d instead want them to be fed exclusively by an external source, like a battery or an entirely separate smaller crystal. So the initial crystal would feed larger ones, which would feed larger ones, and so on, each stage in the chain becoming more powerful, but always stable and dependent on some initial external input, so as to never go out of control.

And now, I’m thinking it would be nice from an engineering perspective to have all the crystals together in one shielded location. And from a tactical perspective, it would be nice not to have a bunch of bulky, vulnerable, high-energy cables running around the entire vehicle. So, you would want as many crystal stages as possible in the places where the power is needed most. Namely, the engines.

Therefore, a big part of the engines would be made of armored shells to contain dozens of stacks of crystal beds. They would accept a small amount of power at the top, and multiply it internally to get enormous output at the bottom. Hence, ‘mega’ thruster. It multiplies input by a million.

Boom.

Done.

Headcanon deployed.

So now the next time you’re watching some stupid show and think that something doesn’t make sense, pause to consider that maybe you’re just not using enough imagination, or else I will be with you in spirit to wrong-shame you.

(If you use your imagination and it still doesn’t make sense, then don’t worry. This means that the show is trash and you are right.)

Now go to bed.

[monstercupcake61176]

Conspiracy Theory!!!!

This is a little theory I had about the recently released “Don’t Make Me” music video featuring two of the best people on the planet, Malinda Kathleen Reese and Thomas Sanders.  Seriously if you haven’t watched it yet please do it’s a work of art and the song is catchy as heck even if I still don’t know all the lyrics... 

Also there will be SPOILERS in this theory so if you don’t wanna be spoiled, go watch the video, then come back.

Did you watch the video? Good. 

Okay, here’s my theory I like to title as: “The Twisted Version of the Story Theory”

Or the “One-Sided” theory if you prefer that...

@hitmewiththatfanart33 you wanted conspiracy theories so here you go!

Okay so if you’ve seen the video you know the main gist of the story. A prince and princess get married, everything seems perfect, until we learn that this happily ever after is about to be ruined by the prince hatching a plot to kill his newlywed wife. She finds out about the plot just in the nick of time to hatch a plan to save herself and hurls the evil prince off the castle wall to his supposed death. Finally, a happy ending! 

Except it’s not. 

Something that really confused me about this video was why the princess (who I will now refer to as Malinda because I’m going to get tired of typing out “the princess” every time I refer to the character) considered herself to be the bad guy for defending herself against someone who was literally trying to kill her. 

Like, I’m pretty sure that’s self-defense. One could make the argument that she had truly loved the prince (who I will now refer to as Thomas for the same reason stated earlier) and was torn between saving her own life and sparing his. Cue the “Don’t make me be the bad guy” chorus. 

Now, this would make sense, if she actually felt remorse about her actions.

I mean, it’s obvious that this video is a flashback of previous events. But for someone who’s adamant about not being made into the “bad guy” Malinda doesn’t seem too bothered by what she has to do. 

Also, just look at some of the lines in this song:  Turning the other cheek to see you less 

All of our friends are my army, yeah 

Let's say it right: not my fault you got regrets

Can I offer you a little salt for that wound?

And might I add my favorite line to overanalyze: 

Never was built to be this way

But turns out the villain is fun to play

There’s a lot more to unpack here, and eventually, I’m gonna go through the whole song and break it down. But for now let’s get back on track.

This continued to bother me for a while, along with the random tone shifts throughout the video. For such a serious plot, there’s some pretty goofy moments going on. 

For one thing, the entire scene where Malinda finds out about the threat on her life. We see Thomas standing around a table with two guards, and on that table is a pretty childish drawing of the queen being killed. 

Um, okay? I get it if you’re not a good artist but like, you know you could have just told the guards to get your point across instead of leaving evidence out in the open like this.

And then there’s this moment...

Like, dude. Is this some kinda sick joke to you? Which if it is then I am disturbed. But the reason I bring this up is that this moment clashes with how Thomas has acted throughout the video so far.

He’s been calm, elegant, poised, kingly, regal, confident, charming, handsome, and I’m running out of things to say-

So seeing him act like this is kinda weird, right? Especially considering how no one else acts like this. His two guards are pretty emotionless. The only other time something similar to this happens with another character is later during the sword fight, which I’ll get to in a moment.

So after this scene Malinda runs off in again, what I found to be kind of a weird editing choice. She’s sped up while running, proceeds to run into a maid, then drags said maid behind her all while being put on a fast forward. Something in editing that is normally used for comedic purposes. 

Two other tone shifts that I can remember are near the beginning when Malinda notices Thomas’ eyes glowing red she gives an awkward reaction that I first found comedic. Then later during that sword fight scene, after Thomas runs off, she rolls her eyes before following.

Okay first of all: I thought this was a serious issue. You were panicking lady! And now all of a sudden you’re gonna roll your eyes because he’s fleeing for his life? Unless you just got super confident all of a sudden and recognize him for the coward he is in which case, good for you girl! 

But again I had to wonder, why these random tone shifts? One could say that this was just Malinda’s way of lightening up the video. Both her and Thomas have been known to make silly content, while both being able to mix the silly stuff with more serious story elements. 

However, what if these random moments weren’t random at all? What if they were intentional?

Backing up a bit, we know that things are being told from Malinda’s perspective. She’s the one singing the song, she’s the one we see in present-day after the video’s events, and she’s the one whose point of view we get. 

So Malinda is established as our narrator after the first narrator lady who established the setting (sorta) and who our main characters were was cut off after saying that the two would live happily ever after. As Malinda spoils for us later:

The ending ain’t happy

Now here’s the thing about narrators, they have the most power in a story. They’re the windows to the outside world that the viewers are looking through. One could say this whole video is Malinda explaining what happened to others, while also stating that she didn’t want to be the “bad guy” but just look at her in that above shot! Does that look like someone who doesn’t want to be the villain? I daresay she’s enjoying her new role! Heck she says it herself, playing the villain is fun. 

So what I’m getting at is this: What if Malinda in being an unreliable narrator? What if we’re not getting the full story here? 

So far, Malinda is our only window into this world. We don’t get to see Thomas’ perspective or those of the maids or guards. Speaking of these side characters, notice how the guards are blank slates. Sure, one is seen smiling during the wedding, but during the scenes where they’re alone with the prince? Nothing. 

Now the maids, they’re more expressive. But they too act somewhat cartoony. During the fight, the two manage to take out both guards, unarmed. (Although one does end up acquiring a knife) but it seems highly unlikely that two untrained maids would be able to take on two armed guards with years of fighting experience. 

Also Malinda suddenly being able to use a sword out of the blue is rather suspicious, unless she (and possibly her “Maids”) have had training before. Those two could have actually been her bodyguards posing as maids, but if they were then why wouldn’t they have weapons on them? And again, the prince’s soldiers are taken out quite easily, and again in a rather comedic fashion. 

Even Thomas’ character seems inconsistent. Being all regal and serious one minute then goofy and cowardly the next. Something isn’t adding up here.

Almost like someone isn’t getting their story straight, or should I say, her story straight. After all, it is her story right? She’s the one telling us what really happened. Or is she? 

What if the real villain of this story isn’t Thomas, but Malinda? And the entire song and the video itself, is her fabrication of the events that took place. So if Malinda is the villain, does that make Thomas the hero? The one who’s trying to protect his kingdom? 

Well, I don’t really have an answer for that. There are some scenes that make me question his credibility as a villain, which I’ll probably cover in another theory since this one is getting WAY too long. 

But I’ll close off with this: Remember Thomas’ “death” at the end? He’s pushed off the roof and we’re led to assume he’s dead. But we never actually see his body. We see those of the two guards, but never Thomas. 

Maybe this is implying a possible sequel? Will Thomas come back to get revenge?

Or maybe this time, we’ll get to see his side of the story.

But hey, that’s just a theory! 

A... 

theory theory! 

(Honestly none of this is to be taken as fact this is just speculation and me overanalyzing a three minute video and not having anything better to do with my life) 

[kitsunebishake]

Why Hríd is such an amazing character who just got done wrong during his “character arc” (SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE BOOK II AND FORGING BONDS)

WARMING: THIS IS JUST ONE LONG ASS LOVEMAIL POST FOR HRÍD

this was originally written as a thread on twitter but i’ll try my best to put it all here because someone asked for it some time ago

I’m putting it here because @chascah suggested i uploaded it here as well for those people who actually appreciate the icy boy

this is basically an analysis to most if not every quote from hríd, also adding some translations and little details from the japanese quotes (and some lore behind the whole idea of hríd’s new year alt)

let’s start then!

lemme start with the fact that hríd only appeared in 3 out of 13 chapters, yet is the character that caught my interest the most (funny because i already had a crush on alfonse, then i saw hríd and was like "oh, hello there")

hríd arrived like a half-dead yet somehow composed prince who somehow (x2) survived by himself in múspell for weeks (maybe even months, there's no exact timeline but it is canon that alfonse and the others spent some weeks in nifl, it probably also took them a while to navigate through múspell until loki arrived as ylgr)

he served as some kind of excuse to not put bruno too much with the main characters, practically a messenger only despite this guy being alive with burns and a broken sword (the crack on gjöll's blade hurts bc he couldve actually lost his sword and ended up defenseless in battle oof)

so, there was no really much use of his character other than being a magical solution for everything

he even helped unmask loki (though they never explain why hríd suspected of ylgr, we only know loki's own take)

btw, can we talk about the fact he probably outsmarted loki while the others weren't yet in múspell? he terrorized surtr's army and even outsmarted laegjarn and laevatein

and since he survived for so long i believe most of his wounds were made by surtr himself

they never really say whether he actually managed to kill surtr or not, but let's say yes just to add up on all of the things hríd does just in the story

at first glance it looks like he's doing nothing, but reading further into it and applying some logic

hríd's... he's pretty impressive for a prince so young

gotta also add how hríd appears less impulsive in japanese than in english

when "alfonse" blames him for being a traitor, hríd gets to the defensive immediately in english

in japanese, he's more in shock, probably because after all he's tried, he's being doubted by his allies (which shows a lot how much he cares about being perceived as perfect, something i'll get on to later if i have enough time)

I added this part in the middle of the whole thing because it was a different thread so excuse the sudden change of topic, kinda. It’s supposed to be from the last conversation in Book 2, where Fjorm tells Hríd she’s going to stay in Askr despite her “condition”.

"I understand your feelings, Sister. By all means, go. I will pray for your safety."

this is one of the quotes i'd like to put in that one hríd character thread i want to make

the feeling behind this quote got completely lost in translation, as there's no way to translate it properly

in japanese, hríd uses a pecular way of speech to refer to his sister here he says "... I get it. If that is what you wish, it's alright to go. I'll pray for your safety." the peculiar part, aside from hríds "..." is where he refers to fjorm, the "you"

hríd normally uses "kimi" to refer to people, which is like a more... gentle? way of speaking? men usually use it towards women bc they want to treat them nicely, and jps in general use it with people they don't know (it's that, or "anata" or "[name]-san")

yet here, hríd decides to use "omae" to refer to fjorm, which is more informal and even rude (specially for someone who normally uses "kimi", it means he wanted to express some kind of anger or frustration about fjorm's decision without saying it directly,,,,,,,,,,,,,which is very japanese to do so,,,,,, *looks into the distant "most japanese people i've known don't directly say 'no' and instead go 'hmmmmmm' '*very indirectly rejects*' and it's probably a fact*)

it feels like instead of being supportive, hríd just understood there was no way of convincing fjorm to stay with them

so he gave up and felt hurt by that

please protect hríd

Back to the rest of the analysis.

now let's talk about forging bonds, in the wiki there's only the opening part transcribed in japanese, the rest is only on english (i curse not having started playing 3 months earlier orz)

the first thing you can notice in the japanese version is how informal hríd is when he's stressed

while he speaks in an usually softer manner, here, he doesn't even greet ylgr and gunnthrá, he goes directly to "gunnthrá... ah, ylgr is here too" (he kinda does the same in the mainstory, where he just says “ah, fjorm, you’re okay... ylgr too :)”)

AND IMMEDIATELY, HIS NEXT TEXT IS HIM CALLING GUNNTHRÁ WITH "OMAE”

ALREADY DEEP INTO THE STRESS OF MÚSPELL INVADING THEM

this shows how easily stressed hríd gets and how much he lets his emotions dirve his attitude and actions (which makes sense with the part where he tells fjorm she should be the one wielding leiptr and not him, he's too emotional despite how much he tries not to be)

in these parts we also see some level of deattachment from gunnthrá, on english he goes "sister..." by the end of the opening conversation

in the jp, however, he stays silent, he doesn't even call her name

idk if it's just me overanalyzing it, but from my experience with animoo and vidya, it feels a little weird that he says nothing there, like he's thinking (this is probably foreshadowing hríd's inner feelings oof)

something that i particularily like about this event is that hríd seems so at ease when he's on the dreams, even in the english translation it seems like that he mentions it might be because he feels at ease with kiran but i feel like it also has to do with the fact they're just a dream, it's not the real world, there's nothing to worry in a world where there's no war

at least, that's the feeling his dialogues give me

the closest thing to that hríd is his lvl40 speech and ny hríd (who's happier)

the only quote where hríd mentions some type of concern for his mother btw

from here on it only gets worse when it comes to hríd, though

he speaks about the invasion and such he talks in a way that implies he's probably taking the role of a commander (same as how it is implied he trains the soldier, or that he trains with them, though since he's been training alone with fjorm for so long, it's most likely the former) aside from that, he's weighting on himself the responsibility of what happens to nifl and what happens to his family

and since he's doing so, here's when it comes the part of hríd not being able to care about himself

this young man is carrying a heavy weight, the hopes and dreams and lives of many innocent and PEACEFUL people who barely even know how to fight, on top of those of his loved ones

it doesn't seem like anyone asked him to, not even his mother or sisters

he just decided it on his own that he needed to be "the perfect prince/king" in order to "protect" them

/even if it costs him his life/

he prepared his sisters for that moment (which, might give an insight that hríd knew more than he says, but let's leave my conspiracy theories aside lol)

and to THAT PART, we can add this from the mainstory

in english, when he's rescued, he thanks them for doing so

but in the jp text he actually apologizes for it

not sure how to exactly translate it, but it's something along the lines of "my apologies...for having to be saved..."

idk you guys, but it sounds like what someone who just failed to commit suicide would say, instead of someone who's grateful to be alive

and it makes sense, with how obsessed hríd seems to be about "dying for his loved ones" despite it not being entirely necessary

i mean, look at that, he survived surtr and was aided by bruno as he escaped (probably? they never say what exactly happened, but since they're looking for hríd and not for bruno, it's most likely that they just found each other by accident)

and yes, even though he seems to calm down with those thoughts during the sequence, it is only a dream and we know he has no recolection of them

he forgets completely about that motivation to keep living, which leads him into further down the path of death  (whichinnorsemythologymightbecalledhríd,,,,,,orgjöll,,,ykow?)

im still not done, havent even gotten to his unit quotes lmao

hríd still did his best to survive for as long as he could, but it feels more like his strategic "i'm making time for fjorm and the askrans to make their moves" purely, out of the fact he didn't seem too happy to survive until he saw fjorm and ylgr

hat's all of hríd's quotes from that event, i can finally move on to his unit quotes

let's start with this one, luckily it is practically the same quote in both languages

this immediatelly counters any "hríd is boring" comment

though that is subjective, in my case what drove me even further into loving hríd was how different he was from usual characters related to ice

he might come off as cold sometimes, but it's purely because he's actually really dense/has a really bad sense of humor

in jp he tries to make an ice joke, but says "it's not suitable for him" (which is funny because in english he does have ice puns and i hate it)

1. he doesn't mention his mother 2. hríd blaming himself and being kinda gloomy part 1 

"I should have protected my people and sisters, I couldn't play that role... I can never forget that." 

this part hurts a lot (it's a little more poetic than the og one, i like it lol)

he could be talking about himself, about his sisters, his people, or all together, since the four of them have expressed desire for peace, and all four ended hurt by such thing

this part is scary, though it's not as much in english

NOT BECAUSE OF THE TRANSLATION, but because of his battle lines in eng (i'll get to that first and then come back to this one)

the most shockingly different skill trigger is the second one

the first one is exactly the same the third one in jp is "this is the last blow" (or smth like that) the fourth one is a little weird to translate (ice upon you works, but "freeze your life" sounds a little scary??)

OKAY BUT THE SECOND ONE ALONG WITH THE VOICE CLIP

IT KINDA SCARES ME A LITTLE FOR MY CUTE SWEET MOCHI BOY

it literally says "no mercy for the enemy"

IT'S LITERALLY SUGAR COATED, hríd went from a gentle giant to a merciless killer (who knows how many muspellians he's killed???) thanks to surtr and his fucking ass

hríd blaming himself and being gloomy part 2

the fact that he has not one, not two, not three, but about 5 to 6 lines that imply he's still dueling over everything that happened during the war is hurtful, he really can't forgive himself for that

he also sounds a little dead to me here (it’s one of the voiced quotes from his status page!)

which brings me back to the initial scary one

hríd is obsessed with earning his peace no matter what

and for that, he wants to get stronger

for that, he's willing to even perish, for everyone's sake

it's so sickening for me since i can kinda relate???? it reminds me a lot of the kind of wording they use for depression-themed japanese works, with the "peace" part and his willingness to just die anytime (which, is actually pretty normal for a warrior outside of FE. outside)

iT MAKES ME FEEL BAD BUT AT THE SAME TIME i kinda like he's written this way

AND EVEN WHEN HE'S LIKE THAT, hríd is still a gentle sweetheart who speaks so kindly you kinda forgets how merciless he is in the battlefield

like, the audio where he holds kiran's hands???? where he speaks about how the order of heroes saved nifl????? EVEN WHEN HE GETS STARTLED

he's always such a gentle and kind person

it makes me hate surtr even more because they didn't deserve this

hríd didn't deserve going through all of this fucking shit HE. DESERVED. HAPPINESS. AND PEACE.

then there's the ny hríd

he's an angel

a happy angel who makes me a little sad bc og hríd is not as happy

From here on everything was written like 2 weeks after the previous stuff :’) i’m sowwy

he's a resolute prince, he has the resolution of saving even at least one person,,,,,instead of being a "king", instead of being a "brother", or a "prince", he just wants to be "a hero",,,

hello, this is my opening statement of why ny hríd makes me cry with just existing

welcome

let us start with something that makes his quotes even better, particularily the previous quote and his lvl40 speech, which is the powerful meaning of this alt itself for a character such as hríd

in japan, new year used to be celebrated not at the end of the year, but at the end of winter, which is where geishun comes into the scheme, as it currently means "new years greetings" but in those old times, it was actually "welcoming spring" (or something along those lines i suck for precise translations)

and that's where our next quote comes into the picture

hríd speaks about nifl's winter, about how it practically symbolizes the nifleans' strength and will power

the alt itself is a more positive hríd, one who's willing to try his hardest for everyone, who doesn't regret his past, but looks into the future and has the purpose of being even better than before

of course, this hríd didn't suffer the same fate as the OG hríd, as he still has all 3 sisters (i want to believe ylgr was with them, just not shown bc of the lack of space for a sixth character) and now also 2 new allies to power their search for peace and strength to defend that peace

so, while our normal hríd is desparate to become stronger and suffers, this hríd is like his pole opposite, it's like the sun and the moon (too bad this hríd has no default special, sol would've fit him so well)

can we talk about how he feels so comfortable wearing the celebratory outfit?

the obi (the.....thing that acts as a belt) should be tied strongly enough so the hakama (the pants) doesnt fall down while he fights, yet he feels comfortable with it

i mean, it isn't as constrictive as a kimono as it doesn't prevent him from moving around freely, but he still shouldn't normally feel as comfortable with it as he is, he's never even worn something like that (it is implied, at least) yet he's loving it, isn't it adorable???

one time i joked about hríd being able to feel when winter is coming or when snow will start falling but

i think this quote pretty much confirmed it (YOU CAN'T SAY IT'S BECAUSE IT'S WARM, IT DOES SNOW IN ASKR WE'VE SEEN IT)

blessed boy munchs a whole fucking piece of mixed flour with FOUR HUNDRED GRAMS OF FUCKING SUGAR 

he's got a sweet tooth i know it, i know my people when i see them

it's just that he doesn't seem disgusted, and he also only mentions the mochi so we can assume he didn't drink sake or matcha with it

he ate the fucking thing alone and apparently liked it

we have a sweet angel, guys

i just think this quote is cute, he loves cold just as much as i love him

t HIS IS SUCH AN IMPROVEMENT FROM OUR NORMAL HRÍD HE'S SO POSITIVE AND DETERMINED I LOVE HIM SO MUCH

though in japanese, the last quote is a little more gloomy

im not entirely sure of how to properly translate it *looks at the jisho page of the kanji he cant understand* it's certainly a word

but it could be something like "to be in such a predicament from so early in the year... I'm unable to say it's pathetic..."

i???? imagine he says he "can't say it" because he's trying to be positive?????? or something along those lines, but saying it proves he's taking it way to the extreme

nasakenai can also be shameful or miserable, pitable, disgraceful stuff like that

i'm not sure how to describe this quote?

this time it's the english localisation that kinda throws me off, i don't understand what he's trying to say lmao

in japenese he's saying something about having been graced this early in the new year

7 years speaking english and i still can't break down complex phrases the only reason i've survived this long is through the power of deduction abilities

pray for me

u know hríd's damaged quotes in english are all grunts, right?

in japanese, this hríd has a peculiar quote i find adorable when he gets damaged

he says "as expected from you...!"

hE'S COMPLIMENTING HIS ENEMY, THIS IS THE SAME MAN WHO SAYS NO MERCY AS HE KILLS THE FOE

btw listening to his english quotes is so funny

he sounds so damn cool in japanese and in english he

he sounds like a fucking nerd

I THINK IM TAKING A LIKING TO HIS ENGLISH VOICE ACTING PURELY BECAUSE HE SOUNDS STUPID

compare this (JP) https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/feheroes_gamepedia_en/1/12/VOICE_Hr%C3%ADd_Resolute_Prince_SKILL_2_jp.wav

to this (ENG) https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/feheroes_gamepedia_en/6/6a/VOICE_Hr%C3%ADd_Resolute_Prince_SKILL_2.wav

it's the exact same quote by the two different VAs

HE SOUNDS LIKE A NERD IN THE ENGLISH VERSION I CAN'T

back to translations and analysis

i hate this one

his eng quote is more positive while the japanese one is something along the lines of "I was useless... I'm sorry..."

I

HATE

IT

look, say whatever you want, but hríd is such a sweet man

he cares for people and he tries his best to be the perfect prince everyone thinks he is

AND FOR HIS *MORE POSITIVE VERSION* TO SAY THIS AS HE IS DEFEATED IS JUST

WHAT DID HE DO TO U INTSYS TO MAKE HIM SUFFER THIS MUCH??

despite how "im so useless...!" his japanese version is

he way he says these two quotes sounds way more positive in japanese lmao it's the same translation, only that he's more "I'll repay you!!!!!!" in jp ( https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/feheroes_gamepedia_en/3/34/VOICE_Hr%C3%ADd_Resolute_Prince_MAP_3_jp.wav )

adorable

can’t use emojis on this pc so i’ll just leave the whole screenshot here

you see this quote here?

this is what it actually says

I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY CHANGED IT BUT I THINK IT'S CUTE BECAUSE I THINK HE DIDN'T JUST SWALLOW THE WHOLE MOCHI

HE ATE IT NORMALLY AND THINKS HE'S GOT SOME ON HIS CLOTHES BC PEOPLE ARE LOOKING AT HIM LGHDSKLGSDFKS

why are u so cute aaaaaaa///////////

this is probably the translation of hríd's quotes i hate the most  in english it just...sounds so rude

in japanese it's more like "could you please tell me if i'm wearing these clothes wrong? i'll fix it fast"

he's trying to be respectful to the hoshidans sobs

THESE TWO QUOTES ARE SO DIFFERENT BUT SO EQUALLY ADORABLE AND POWERFUL

THIS 180~195CM OR SO MAN IS THE MOST ADORABLE PERSON IN THIS WHOLE PUTRID PLANET AND IM GOING TO TELL YOU WHY

first, this is my fave quote on english

he sounds so confused as to why people think the hoshidan clothes suit him

HE'S. NOT. AWARE. OF HOW FUCKING GOOD HE LOOKS.

TELL ME THAT'S NOT THE CUTEST SHIT EVER HE JUST DOESN'T GET IT

to make it more adorable, in japanese, the original quote is something like "I wonder what makes a type of clothing 'suit' you..."

HE'S GOING ALL PHYLOSOFICAL ON THAT SHIT probably because people keep telling him he looks good in that kind of clothing

this man's density is so powerful that he can't even begin to understand people find him attractive and that the attire literally makes him go from a 10 to a 1000000000000000000

he doesn't get it and he wants to know if it's really true so he goes out of his way TO ASK KIRAN

i love hríd so much he's so adorabl e

i want to give him a hug

with this i finish my thread for now

for now

hopefully we will get another alt for hríd and i can come back to spam about how adorable his quotes are

please stan hríd he's literally an angel