#marcille answers

[ask-the-dunmeshi-biologists]

What roles does everyone on the team have?

Marcille: Here's the link for convenience!

We're all very excited to share with you all about what we do. Hopefully we'll have found enough data soon to cover the creature we'll be focusing on first. We will all be going into detail about this animal in the context of our respective fields.

Our askbox is open!

[whiskersoup]

whag would you do if farcille……

[wintergrofyuri]

marcimede. halcille.

[orchiro]

farcille doodles for my soul

(i hc that falin takes care of marcille's hair everyday and comforts her when she's feeling like shit about the whole spoiler situation <3 <3)

Full doodle page under the cut

[sabertoothwalrus]

something I love about dungeon meshi is that the yuri ship is by far the most popular ship (and well-deserved)

on the other hand. why in god’s name are people shipping chilchuck and laios.

why is one of the most popular ships chilchuck and MARCILLE??!!!??!!!?!?!??!!!!!!!?!!

[tofixtheshadows]

Hello, op! While I do find your reading of Kabru’s self sacrifice and how little he eats really good, im curious why you consider him the deuteragonist? He is a foil to the protagonist yes, but still a supporting character.

I think its pretty clear Marcille is the second most important character in DM, and her story has much more weight than Kabru’s.

Hello! I've mentioned this on my blog before, but I actually consider Marcille and Kabru to both be deuteragonists to Laios's protagonist. I just wasn't talking about Marcille in that post.

Technically this term is meant to be used in playwriting, and the Greek tradition at that, so I'm playing a little loosey goosey with semantics and my argument would sound different if I were writing an academic paper. But this is tumblr dot edu and I'm trying to get a point across on my little blog, and part of the idea of a deuteragonist is that they support the protagonist. "Secondary main character who has their own importance in the narrative while bolstering the protagonist" works well enough for my purposes.

I think Marcille and Kabru are both playing specific and complementary roles to Laios. Marcille is at his side, facilitating the A plot: namely, "save Falin", which requires Marcille's magic, and then Marcille's method of resurrection ropes Thistle in, so the continuation of "save Falin" necessitates confronting the Dungeon Lord and conquering the dungeon (the B plot).

Kabru only intersects with Laios, but he is tied from the beginning to the B plot- and with dragging basically everyone else into it. Actually, the fact that he brings in this extremely loaded B plot despite only having brief face time with the protagonist should be seen as significant. In a sense, Kabru represents the surface world and all its concerns.

Before I talk about that more, I want to continue with the complementary line of thinking and point out that Kabru and Marcille have very similar background motivations.

Laios wants to save his sister first and foremost, and it's only along the way that he starts to consider what he'd do with the responsibility of Dungeon Lord. Coming to the conclusion that he wants to create a home for disparate peoples to live in harmony has connective tissue to both Kabru and Marcille's desires.

Marcille is the only one in their party who starts out with a greater motivation other than saving Falin (Izutsumi is a special case, but she's ultimately along for the ride), one that she keeps hidden for a long time. Because she is a mage, and because she is driven by a very personal tragedy (my dad died; I am terrified of outliving everyone), she is looking for a miracle to bring the different races closer together.

Kabru comes from a background of personal tragedy as well, but it's also a far greater, more political tragedy than just the death of a parent. It is not a coincidence that Kabru is a brown boy from an exploited region that suffered despite and because of military intervention from a first-world power, nor that he was adopted by a white woman whose coddling/dehumanization of him represents the paternalistic oversight of these world powers.

Thus, Kabru's motivations are both personal and political: if they, the short-lived races, can finally access the secrets of the dungeons, then not only can they have agency in stopping tragedies like Utaya's, but it will also give them a greater power of self-determination.

Marcille and Kabru have both correctly identified and set themselves against a problem that is greater than saving the life of one girl, greater even than sealing this one dungeon.

Despite Marcille's hopes, there is no grand magic solution to this. Only small, slow, backbreaking, ordinary solutions, the kind you labor over in kitchens and bedrooms and throne rooms and meeting houses and hearths and negotiation tables. The kind you run a kingdom with.

There is a reason why Dungeon Meshi ends with Marcille and Kabru on either side of Laios's throne.

Okay: back to Kabru (under the cut).

I've talked about this a little before, but I'll reiterate here: I consider Kabru to be the counterweight to the back half of the story. In a very literal sense too, as he pulls the focus up from the depths to the surface not once, but twice. Dungeon Meshi builds itself on the premise that the traditional "dungeon" must function as an actual ecosystem, and the monsters in it are biological actors in that ecosystem and not merely magical obstacles independent of their environment. The first couple dozen chapters are focused on this. Like regular animals, monsters have needs and instincts and unique behaviors, and they can be killed and consumed as part of a food chain.

And then Kabru comes along and he reminds us that humans are also part of their own special ecosystem, with their own needs and instincts and unique behaviors, and that beyond the biological drive of the literal food chain there are also complex social issues influencing these behaviors (like capitalism). Tansu's visit with the governor introduced us to these ideas, but Kabru is the one who carries them.

The way he and his party break down Laios's party also serves an important function. I think most readers are so busy being shocked that Kabru is "so wrong" about our goofy boy Laios that they don't realize that he isn't actually wrong about anything (he's only missing the context of what drives Laios, which he admits to and is part of the reason why he pursues him). We've gotten only Laios's view of things so far, and Laios is pretty tunnel-visioned. The narrative, through Kabru, is telling the reader this is how our protagonist actually comes across to his community.

We like Laios because we are following his story from his inner circle. We know he's naive and struggles with people but that he has a good heart and is ultimately just a big silly guy who won't harm anybody if he can help it. But we only know that because we're seeing him with his inner circle, in his environment. Outside of the dungeon, Laios is anti-social to the point of rudeness; he misreads situations and misjudges people, he acts in ways that cause friction, and he accidentally aligns himself with people who make his whole enterprise look suspicious: a prominent half-foot community leader, a mysterious foreigner literally surrounded by spies, the disgraced daughter of a criminal who now has to shoulder the burden of her father's reputation, and an elf in a land where there are no elves. And they seem to be very good at what they're doing. Yet this whole time, Laios acts as if he doesn't care about profit or taking the kingdom, the only logical reasons why anyone on the Island would gather up such a party and throw themselves into this death pit day after day.

Yeah of course Kabru finds this suspicious and interesting. Of course people don't know what to make of Laios. This all reiterates the question that Zon the orc already raised: What will you do, Laios, if you defeat the Mad Mage? If you gain control of all of this? Can you be a leader? Laios himself doesn't know yet.

This is all necessary context for our protagonist and the journey he has to go on, and it's fittingly brought up by the most socially adept character, who is so concerned with human ecosystems and the bigger picture of the dungeon. There is a reason why Kabru, as a character, is connected to large webs of people as he moves throughout the narrative: his own party, Toshiro's party, the Canaries, the denizens of the first floor of the dungeon.

Kabru is responsible for bringing Toshiro down to Laios's party. Toshiro is not a big mover and shaker in the story itself, but his confrontation with Laios is a huge part of Laios's character arc. His detour down to the lower levels also allows Izutsumi to escape and join Laios's party later.

We also have this very important moment:

It shows the first inkling- to the audience, to Kabru, and to Laios himself- that Laios is willing to do a painful, necessary thing to protect other people, that he won't just allow them to become collateral for his sister/monsters. That he can listen, and that he can assess a situation beyond his personal feelings. Again, fittingly, big-picture-thinker Kabru is the catalyst for this.

And then, not content to leave him as merely a device for Laios's character growth, the focus slingshots back up to the surface, and we follow Kabru.

The Canaries were going to go into the dungeon soon anyway, and they were always going to stir up the crowd in order to lure Thistle to them. Unless Thistle had given up right then and managed to slip away, the story could have very easily ended here:

Falin, immobilized and surrounded by Canaries, would have certainly been killed, and there would have been no way to ever resurrect her. Thistle would have been neutralized. The dungeon would have been taken by the elves, and anyone they could get their hands on would have been imprisoned at best. And maybe the dungeon would have been managed safely ... or maybe something would have gone wrong, and more lives would have been lost. Remember: the Canaries arrived in Utaya one year before the tragedy.

This is a huge moment that changes Laios's life forever, and he doesn't even know it. Kabru single-handedly keeps the story on course by sabotaging the Canaries, and he does it not just for Laios's sake, but for everyone's sake. For his friends and companions in the dungeon and everyone else outside it. Laios is a part of his motivation, a key player in Kabru's hopes, but Kabru has his own desires, his own agenda. He's trying to change the world. In a way, he succeeds. And while the Canaries might wish it were otherwise, as an entity in the narrative they are always anchored to Kabru's character. The two forces collide because of Kabru. The unsealing of the Winged Lion and Marcille's emergency ascension to Dungeon Lord happen indirectly because of Kabru.

While I have talked so much already that I don't want to give a detailed breakdown of it, I do want to mention Kabru's unique interiority as a character. That is to say: we see the inside of Kabru's head more than anyone else. Every character in the main ensemble gets their own moments of inner monologues or fifteen minutes in the limelight, but for Kabru, it's constant. He's always thinking, talking, narrating. His POV chapters always stand out for how first-person they feel compared to most others.

Notably, the only other character I could compare that to is Marcille, specifically during the dungeon rabbit debacle and her ascension afterward, which is when she really takes center stage as a character.

I hope I've explained my reasoning without becoming too insufferable.

To cap off my thoughts with a nod to my original post, I cannot stress enough how significant it is, thematically, that Kabru's relationship with food is the inverse of Laios's. It isn't just that Laios is the main character in a story about cooking monsters and Kabru happens to be his monster-hating foil. The artistic choice to deny the reader the visual of this character ever enjoying food, and only ever putting it in his mouth in situations where it hurts him, in a manga that gives so much attention to eating and the pleasures of meals, cannot be understated.

[possamble]

In one of the extra comics Marcille mentions that elves don't have body hair, her included. So Falin staring at a naked pussy is Canon

I mean, I hear what you're saying but...

To be 100% honest, this feels really ambiguous. She's a little too worked up in that second panel. Like, a lot of people have interpreted it as her being defensive and self-conscious about the fact that she shaves and waxes religiously (especially in the context of a trans headcanon) and that feels more right to me?

My personal interpretation is that she really doesn't grow little facial hairs (partially bc we've seen Senshi's huge beard turn into a tiny little elf stache so there is some real evidence for that). But then she doesn't actually know if she has peach fuzz or not and gets REALLY flustered about being scrutinized before she can check for herself and shave off anything she doesn't like.

But either way, my point is that I don't think we're meant to take Marcille's words here at 100% face value and consider it evidence for elf physiology.

And listen. I think Marcille should have a bald pussy in the bath scene bc rule of funny. But beyond that, I want to believe elves can grow pubic hair. I want to believe in the postcanon blondie bush. She's exponentially cuter with it, and I don't want Falin to have to eat bald pussy for the rest of her life. I'm only half joking when I say I want it as a part of her character growth. At the end of the story, Marcille Donato accepts that she is a living, breathing animal that eats and will be eaten and sweats and shits and grows hair all over her body. She learns to accept mortality, starts to reconcile with the inherent grotesqueness of being alive, and most importantly, lets her bush grow out for the first time in her life. And it's beautiful.

[askmarcille]

Old 🫵

Can an old person do this?

[dunmeshistash]

Is there any info about the main party's love lives/sexuality? More to the point, is Laios asexual? The way he wasn't initially affected by the succubus when they were super effective against eyery one else, and hasn't shown any sexual/romantic interest in anyone (except possibly orcs) makes me think he is.

Well, he did kinda fall for the charms of one of their past teammates seduction.

But this might just be because he's a pushover, he did similar stuff for the gold stripping teammates.

The other argument I can see it's here where he says he'd marry Shuro if he was Falin. But this also could just be Laios simping for his bestie

The succubus probably didn't work right away cause Laios had a more complex fantasy to be fulfilled, but you can argue she picked Marcille's appearance instead of one of the guys for a reason. Also Senshi aparently also saw his mother or someone from his past too even tho he's an adult

And Marcille's showed up as a character from her favorite novel

I think the succubus becomes whatever is more likely to convince the person to let them feed and Marcille is the one he's the closest with from the group

That is all to say! I think there's a good argument for ace Laios, there's not much romance in Dungeon Meshi but Laios seems especially uninterested in the subject. The orc thing might have been just aesthetic since he likes demi-humans and the times he seems embarrassed near Marcille (like when he touches her ear and today when he apologized for touching senshi's thigh thinking it was Marcille) is probably more cause of awareness that's not socially acceptable.

For the others I think Chilchuck could bi cause he thinks senshi is hot, Marcille is probably a closeted lesbian, Senshi has to a job (feeding the kids) so he cant think about that right now and I think Izutsumi is Izutsumi

And just to be clear with this I just meant to point out what could possibly deny an ace Laios interpretation and how else you could see those scenes to argue for ace Laios. Headcanons are fun tho so I'd just say run with it even if there's no proof! Dungeon Meshi not giving us much canon about relationships is a treat for the imagination.

[illusioncanthurtme--art]

I feel like you would like Delicious in Dungeon! If you don't, tho that's cool too!

I do!! I started reading the manga a couple weeks ago and I'm really enjoying it so far!! I have some leftover sticker paper I've been making little handmade stickers on, and I made some for the main four. I sold senshi and marcille at the con I tabled at last saturday, but I shared them to my IG story and forgot to share here. Here's how they all turned out:

I drew chilchuck first because he's my favorite...... none of you are surprised.

[nomgeonmunchie]

[ask-the-dunmeshi-biologists]

What are y'alls favorite ecosystems?

Laios: The Australian Outback is full of some of the most amazing and deadly species on the planet, with unique adaptations that are rare to find anywhere else on earth. It has some of the most incredible views, and the arid environment is always persevering and thriving in the most unexpected ways. The outback is a place of constant wonder and nostalgia for me. Ever since I was a kid, and up until recently really, I always struggled to find a place where I could fit in and be myself. Me and Falin grew up on a small Emu farm in the bush, so I spent a lot of time on the outskirts of the outback, sticking to the same paths so that I wouldn't get lost, and despite it being dangerous, as long as I was careful, it ended up providing a safe haven for me until I saved up enough to leave the country and forge my own path in the world.

Falin: Definitely Tropical Rainforests, they hold the largest number of insect species on the planet (2.5 million in the Amazon Rainforest alone!) and are endless in their importance. There are so many things left to discover in them, from hundreds of hidden cave systems, around 80,000 plant species and, along with the ocean, they act almost as the lungs of the earth, providing most of the oxygen we need to survive. Last year, Marcille and I worked with SPUN trying to map as many mychorrzial fungi as possible, in several tropical forests of South America, Africa and Australia. After a year spent buried in the undergrowth, among the ferns, moss and mulch, it's like you can feel Earth's beating heart. I would love to return to one of them soon.

Marcille: Archipelagos. Groups of islands, both tropical and temperate are my favourite places of study. Every island has it's own unique ecosystem and these multitudes of them contain the secrets of evolution, genetics and cultural changes throughout history. From animals adapting to each island and forming new species, to ethnobotany and traditions that change and adapt, stemming from when people first took to the sea, and the legacies they leave behind to this day.

Chilchuck: The Irish Countryside. Valleys, Vales or Dales, whatever you wanna call them, there's nowhere I like being more. Despite having travelled the world with Laios, Falin, Marcille, and later Senshi, there isn't much that compares to the rolling hills of home.

Senshi: Microbiomes of all habitats. People often overlook the importance of the little things, and all the good they do for us in return for leaving them be. Macrophotography has always been a large passion of mine, and I'm fortunate enough to have landed a career in capturing the beauty of it all.

[alittleplaytime]

Marcille Donato Agere Stimboard!!

🥧 📜 🌱 | 🥧 📜 🌱 | 🥧 📜 🌱

🌼 media: dungeon meshi

🐝 age appropriate? a lot of people are rating it for above 13 or MA but for the most part it isn't a very bad anime gore or sexual wise, especially compared to a lot of other popular animes atm, just be sure to double check any given warnings as always and remember it's okay to turn anything off if it isn't for you <3.

🍯 rqd by: @honeyhalcyon

🌻 note: i feel like marcille would have a very soft regression due to all the stress of the dungeons and her dislike for most of the things pertaining to it. she'd probably bake with senshi a lot but refuse to do any sort of cooking and is always asking chilchuck to help her braid her hair. someone free this girl of any stress!!!! (i can't stop giggling at the pumpkin in the image)

[the-southern-cereal-king]

Ok I’m really not sure if this is a translation thing or what, but the manga for Dungeon Meshi has ketchup as a condiment for the basilisk and mandrake omelet.

Now I have questions about this. Do they eat modern day tomato ketchup? Does senshi just have ketchup loos in his pack somewhere, because it’s a time consuming dish to make by hand as I understand it. Is it some kind of version of ketchup based on historical ketchup where it could also be made from mushrooms? I need answers, because it’s so astonishing that in the dungeon, of all things, ketchup would be readily available

Like, at first I thought they just meant maybe tomato paste or sauce or something, but no, it’s supposed to be ketchup I think

[dungeon-dishes-zine]

🍗Q&A PART 2🍗

🍳And here ends all the questions from the Interest Check!🍳

⚔️You can still ask us in our retrospring (link in Carrd)⚔️

✨Only 2 days until we open de Cotributor apps!✨

[its-hai-time]

may i humbly request izutsumi in scene clothes .............. <3

humble request ANSWERED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111!!

here she is :3