#mimic analysis

[kathegoose]

Mimic gyat level?

he would be flat if it wasn't for this elevated area, so I'd say level 1 gyatt!

tailbone does not count into the equation so don't try anything funny.

[fumifooms]

do you happen to have that page that talks about the beauty standards of each race?

Yeah sure. While scavenging pics for this I found this neat reddit compilation & chart & theory talk too. I had um, way more to say than I anticipated (I know you only wanted the one page. I have nothing to say for myself. Like most topics in Dunmeshi things snowball because they’re so interconnected. Mercy…) so, many races and observations are only mentioned near the bottom.

Beauty standards and race in Dungeon Meshi

Not pictured there’s also how elven society is harsh on visibly disabled people, and how the demon took away Mithrun’s silver eyes and ears to take away his pride. There’s also how Senshi might have fit in with the orcs more easily because of the dwarven wide body shape, and how they tend to have more body hair too I suppose. In the extra on orcs we see Senshi living with the orcs and he gets judged because of the hierarchy rather than his looks.

What is fashionable also differs from culture to culture, and there’s how tattoos only seem common with elves, though dwarves and others do also sometimes have some. They seem to not raise much brows, which makes sense since for many essentially they’re for professional (magical) purposes especially with elves. Gender roles also differ in type and importance, but generally they are similar to irl ones for the races we see. Elven society seems to be the least gendered, which would be an unsurprising logical outcome of having lesser sexual dimorphism aka they look more androgynous. Comparing fashions and gender roles and how they affect beauty standards would be a whole other compilation and conversation. Kui has great worldbuilding partially because she’s got such a good grasp on sociopolitics and geopolitics. History affects cultures and beauty standards greatly. Kui’s oneshot Distant Utopia was very eye opening on her way to worldbuild and the consideration she gives these things, I do really recommend reading it.

Out of the big 5, we know the least about gnomes, but their sheet does say both culture and region are similar to dwarves’ and they end up being confused together often, so we can imagine the beauty standards are similar to dwarves’ as well.

I wanted to touch on this in a post eventually, but how one daydream hour page said half-foots tended to be curvaceous like in the artwork below puzzled me for a long time, all the half-foot characters we see during canon are rather slender and lanky after all, Chil’s succubi also being more curvy than plump. Economics are for sure a factor in that I imagine, the half-foots characters we see are all implied to be some flavor of poor or malnourished, as are half-foots depicted as empoverished oppressed minorities in general. Even comparing the artwork with the half-foot sheet’s depicted average half-foot, the ones on the left seem bigger. Wouldn’t it make sense though, if unlike dwarves half-foots don’t have similar naturally wide bodies, yet due to idolizing dwarves they work towards having a similar body shape/type to emulate them?

It’s said half-foots tend to stick to pretty ethnically homogeneous regions (aka half-foots-only communities) unless they move to the big city with ambition to try and make it big (like Chilchuck and his wife & kids did), and that’s interesting imo because then that would mean that in a ton of half-foot communities, they rarely see or interact with dwarves whom they try to emulate. Of course, one thing about beauty standards is that when they get adopted, at one point it stops being "this is how dwarves look and so this is how half-foots should look" and just becomes "this is how half-foots should look", most people feel as though beauty standards aren’t learned but innate, so I figure the half-foots wouldn’t have any problem still seeking dwarvish traits when there are no dwarves around.

There’s also stuff you can glean here and there if you want to extrapolate more. Like how in the race swap artworks, Mickbell is only smiling in the dwarf portrait, and Rin’s elven portrait looks very close to her elven one- Rin who is stated to be beautiful in her profile blurb. Benichidori’s extra does teach us tallmen can definitely have harsh beauty standards, but also since the text portrays her as very dysmorphic that’s likely reflected in her thoughts to a much more intense degree than is common, not an accurate strict baseline to go off. Ah, Kabru’s blue eyes are also why he and his mother lived a rough life in Kabru’s hometown, but that seems to be regional. Good post here on the topic of Kabru’s blue eyes and ties to irl history. There’s a lot to be said about Kabru being a man that in many ways is close to elven beauty standards, and how that might have affected or been affected by his upbringing with elves + his persona as someone that can effortlessly charm most people. Marcille’s section here in this essay also goes into Marcille’s struggles to fit in with the ideal image of an elf.

Looking human

Also notable are beastkins and demihumans: Demihumans are all dehumanized which makes people treat them worse. So if you differ from the visual idea of "human" (an in-world subjective categorizatiom just as much as demihuman is) most people do judge you negatively. Elves and dwarves get to fight about which type of human is considered the prettiest, but demihumans are below tallmen and half-foots, they are considered as simply below the beauty contest, incompatible with it.

Onis are perhaps the demihuman people we know of with the least cultural influence on the dunmeshi world, and with less intensely different appearances than other demihumans, but even them are treated as lesser than human, treated as beasts to slain for reputation points or useful strength to have around and command. It’s said their "magnificient horns" and fangs are often shaven off when the oni lives in tallman towns, so you could easily make the argument that onis are denied the right to have their own beauty standards, having to conform to other people’s and going through mutilation to take away features they might otherwise have taken pride in. Inutade was bought by the Nakamotos from a dangerous sumo fighting ring that got one of Inutade’s tooth broken on her first and only fight. Remember when I said different fashions existed in dunmeshi and how those could also affect beauty standatds? Like the elves, if you look at the portraits pages that include a lot of characters that aren’t in the story you can see distinct cultures within the same races, for example one young elf is bald which is in sharp contrast with usual elven long luscious hairstyles, and that’s especially true for onis I think. Maybe not only from different regions but different eras as well… They have a bit of population in the very north of the western continent, so I like to think some of the ogres live in very cold, maybe even subarctic conditions. The point I’m getting at here is that within a race, culture/ethnicity like with Kabru as well will also influence them, different communities will have differing beauty standards. The oni history blurb and third row first collumn portrait remind me of Mongolia (which historically was a lot of different nomadic communities with different cultural identities as well. Something something, the oni empire experienced a decline and then tallmen overpowered them, and now they’re governed and split apart by stronger social classes & slavers and the richness of culture was hurt for it), but obviously many of them are dressed and look rather japanese, makes sense considering living in/close to Wa, and first row second collumn portrait reminds me of ainus which again would be logical considering geographical placement, though I’m far from an expert. Interestingly, ainus are indigenous people both in Japan and Russia- Perhaps the northern western continent ogres are meant to be closer to Russia than Canada like I imagined? Ok tangent over.

The kobold sheet says they’re especially sought after as slaves because they’re "adorable", but locally in the western continent they’re repeatedly said to be seen more as ferocious and dangerous. The dehumanization is most apparent in the first comic below. The language barrier and conflicts no doubt worsen this by a lot, but I think it’d be hard to deny that their canine appearance makes the dehumanization worse. "They’re ferocious beasts, they’re demihumans, they can’t be communicated with". Most characters in Dungeon Meshi’s world are desensitized to slavery and most characters are prejudiced one way or another. Point being, kobolds are fully removed from human beauty standards, but no doubt for kobolds, other kobolds are more beautiful than humans are. They’re assumed to be an uncivilized bunch, but just like any other people they like to aforn themselves with nice clothes and jewelry and keep themselves clean and groomed; they too take care of their appearance and take pride in it.

And the orcs! This one we have the most contact with in canon, with not only there being foreigner characters from the ethnicity or hearsay of their homelands and culture but full on contact with a community. We get to see up close what they’re like and what they think, and of course in turn they’re our introduction to how demihumans are harshly looked down upon and seen as inferior, less human and thus less worth valuing and less dignified. It’s text that orcs are ugly to most humans and humans are ugly to most orcs. Since I judged they didn’t need accompanying explanation the pictures showing this are in the pictures dump at the top.

God forbid you sell vegetables to orcs my god- but then again they do basically mandate adventurers to kill any orcs they come across so yeah the world isn’t above that even a bit.

So yes, my main point here is simply that orcs are yet another evidence of the physical ideal of "human" being an important beauty standard for human societies globally.

Izutsumi is our glimpse at how beastkins are treated in the world, and in Wa at least that’s ending up being caged and mistreated as part of a freak show. Izutsumi hates her appearance and wishes she could leave the feline part of herself behind to only be human. Interestingly, not that we have a lot of info on them so this is very much a take with a grain of salt situation, but there seems to be less stigma around artificial beastmen, those who can shapeshift at will. The main difference is of course appearance, that most of the time they simply look like average tattooed humans. Artificially creating humans is an illegal practice, and no doubt it’s not well regarded, but being able to hide that makes them less likely to be discriminated at any moment, or even just discriminated less intensely. Again, looking human is important, not only for belonging but for safety’s sake. Beauty standards rule the world with harsh hands.

Mermaids and fishmen

Ok we’re done now right? Right-! But wait… Wait…! Mermaids and fishmen are said to be demihumans too, special separate cases to the main three demihuman species however, which is also represented by how mermaids and fishmen both are in the Adventurer’s Bible chapter Monsters meanwhile ogres, kobolds and orcs are in the chapter World. They’re an interesting topic because they directly tackle this topic, not only in a meta way for the readers but also making characters themselves struggle to quantify their humanity with the goal of knowing wether they should be eaten or not, especially Chilchuck. Chilchuck’s "is it really just a matter of feelings?" mini arc.

The party asking themselves "Should we eat this?" is very common, and often they end up playing a little loose on morality, like eating the red dragon’s meat despite it having digested Falin. Not unsimilarly Marcille freaks out a little over the vegetables they harvested having been grown with fertilizer, aka largely human poo. Half of the motivation of "should we eat this perhaps sentient creature" is out of consideration and compassion, but more strongly and more often, the characters struggle with a sense of taboo at eating something too closely related to humans. Even, feel uncomfortable because of the deepseated impression that eating it would dirty them in some way. Cannibalism is an interesting and relevant topic in many ways, but what I want to mention is how there’s the more or less universal belief that committing cannibalism inherently taints you as a person and turns you more monstrous, morally but also literally depending on some myths such as w*ndigos and onis in some cases, like in Touge Oni. Marcille and Izutsumi both express a fear of eating monsters turning them monstrous. Maybe this is part of what Laios was hoping for, honestly. There are two fears here, if eating a demihuman monster constitutes as cannibalism or not, and so, will eating it taint you because it’s a human, or will eating it taint you because it’s a monster? You are what you eat, until it’s a little too literal. You morally are the means by which you get your food, and you physically are the result of your nutrition. Dungeon meshi manages to mix an exploration of humanity with the theme of food because our relationship to food is very deep and complex, psychological as much as physiological.

In the end, the characters sort of shrug and accept that they’ll never quite understand the world of mermaids and fishmen and how they operate, and what that means about them. Laios is the one always challenging these notions other characters take for granted, it’s not obvious to Laios why people are softer on mammals than other animals and plants, it’s not obvious to Laios why people would be afraid of eating a monster just because it’s a monster, it’s not obvious to Laios why some food is gross to Marcille but not fish testicles, it’s not obvious to Laios why you should immediately regard orcs and kobolds badly.

"Cows are probably closer to humans [aka closer to being human] than fishmen, though they’re clearly intelligent", dehumanization to lessen empathy towards them to be able to eat them. Meanwhile, mermaids seemingly have a less noticeable "civilization" or intelligence, they hunt in groups like fishmen, but they don’t use tools and such, they feel more primal and similarly instinct driven, and yet… Do they attract sympathy more? Mammals, humans, is it because of their nature or because of their appearance?

Both the nature and appearance of fish are ones people don’t typically sympathize with. "Fish don’t feel pain", "goldfish only have 5 seconds of memory", "it’s okay to keep fish in completely empty bowls too small for them until they die from it", so many lies and misconceptions exist that make people less considerate of them. The average lifespan of a goldfish is 10-15 years, the record is 43, but they’re not seen as lives that really matter, so a lot of goldfish die in a few weeks of bad aquarium conditions. There’s a lot of research on animals evolving to look cute and appealing to make some predators want to kill them less and parents want to care for them more, including humans. First good google research result gave me this credible short article on the topic. In Chilchuck’s weighing wether a fishman is far enough from being human or not to eat, "face is 100% fish" is his biggest argument for it being more acceptable. The face, the most important thing for empathy and recognition. The face, the decapitated fishman one that falls into his hands next chapter.

To quote @room-surprise: "Chilchuck can't explain why it's wrong to eat the merpeople, even though it's NOT complicated. But the problem is Chilchuck would have to accept and acknowledge that the merpeople might be people? And that's outside of the worldview he passively believes, so he can't just say that, because he doesn't think that's true. But that IS why he "feels" it's wrong. And it's all you'd need to say for Laios to understand! But it would require acknowledging that maybe the way they're treating and talking about the merpeople is wrong."

The idea of Chil not being able to grapple with how maybe some monsters are more humans than they seem, him who had been an advocate of half-foots rights, half-foots who get undermined and treated as inconsequential sacrifices… Grappling with how he could relate to the merpeople’s situation almost, and pulling away because it’s so existentially horrifying. I do not want to see myself into an hostile fish-faced warrior I can’t communicate with. In a way this also relates to Chilchuck being the only party member who doesn’t see Izutsumi as a cat in the relationship chart, the only one to treat her with full human dignity. He knows the struggle to be taken seriously, he knows being infantilized and he knows what it’s like to be treated as less than human.

Below, you will see Chilchuck draws the line of where they become not okay to eat as when "they already look like mermaids". Above, there’s speculation that the algae hair is partly to mimic "the mermaids’ beautiful female form". Is it because mermaids are their enemies and the ambiguity might give them extra seconds to attack or flee? Is it to trick adventurers instead? It’s striking to me that this is what works, with the adventurers. Sure the fishmen are intelligent, but explicitly here, what makes them no longer acceptable prey to Chilchuck is that they look close enough to a mermaid, close enough to human. Mermaids who of course themselves have this form to entice and seduce and charm the adventurers they prey on. Chilchuck considers the intelligence due to the tridents, but most of his internal debate centers around their appearance, and the image of a fishman skewered sickens him. The power of mimicry… Mimic being a beautiful human woman. Mimic being cute, babies being wired to make us feel protective and softened. Half-foots, sometimes pretending to be children for scams or help or avoiding trouble.

The mermaids are only concerned by their differences and not their similarities, and have no trouble treating the fishmen as food rather than peers. To an outside perspective like us, the audience, all these categorization of "more human" and "less human" between onis and orcs and elves and tallmen etc seem stupid and unfounded, but to the people living in Dungeon Meshi’s world, elves may as well be mermaids while onis are fishmen, not alike at all, unworthy of empathy and thus fine to eat.

Ultimately, Dungeon Meshi promotes unity. It’s about seeking to understand the unknown and the misunderstood, the dehumanized and the inhuman. It shows the good that comes from seeking to understand what you do not, even when that’s one another.

[nightmare-foundation]

ok enlighten me what is your glitchtrap michael theory . i’ve NEVER seen anyone else say this im so curious, i gotta hear the reasoning

Okay sorry this took a while to answer, I needed to put together my thoughts on this

Basically where I started with the 'Michael is Glitchtrap' theory is basically like. Process of elimination kinda?

I noticed that Glitchtrap didn't fit either William OR the Mimic. Glitchtrap is, well, not robotic from my perspective. He's sentimental for one (putting together the staffbots to look like the Aftons, the SL living room, Vanessa and Gregory directly referencing and paralleling Elizabeth and CC, etc), and doesn't really act like an ai program built to mimic things, unlike the Mimic seen in Ruin.

On top of that, Glitchtrap holds back. He has explicit rules; you have to find him, put his tapes together, and consent to merging with him (this is important). If this was William, he wouldn't bother putting together all these rules. Not only that, but Vanessa, Gregory, and Cassie are all still alive. And Glitchtraps appearance too- he's a costume, not a springlock suit. William always explicitly associated himself with spring Bonnie. Not the character, but the actual springlock suit itself.

Also, Glitchtrap knows things neither William nor the mimic WOULD know. The biggest clue is the Exotic Butters- how would William, and thus the Mimic, know about something only Michael would know?? And it goes deeper.

The color theory doesn't match up, either. William went from yellow (Midnight Motorist) -> purple (fnaf 2 and 3 minigames) -> yellow (springtrap). It's pretty clear that after William dies, he's associated with YELLOW now. His story is also over too, this was established with UCN.

Michael is sort of the opposite. The first time we see him, if you don't count fnaf 4, he's wearing purple. The next time in ffps, he's wearing yellow and blue. The natural next step is that he'd be associated with purple again. There's a LOT going on with the color theory too (yellow can mean both royalty and sickness, purple can Also be royalty and corruption, etc), in a way that connects to their stories.

Glitchtrap is purple; or, at least, his true form seen in PQ is. He's depicted as a costume deliberately; the yellow throws you off, it's not the truth. But take it off and you get a big black and purple blob. Not only that, it's a COSTUME. Michael has always, always been associated with masks, which are a part of costumes. William is associated with springlock animatronics, not costumes, even if they double as one, which says a lot to his own character.

Not only THAT, but everything since Help Wanted 1 and even the AR game has been referencing Sister Location, fnaf 4, and FFPS. Michael is the certain protagonist of ALL of these games, both directly confirmed or hinted at (yes fnaf 4 is Michael's nightmares after he actually got tortured by William post CC death, you'll have to tear this out of my cold dead hands). Michael is also repeatedly referenced in Security Breach, with the constant references to butters in sticky notes, again, only something he would know.

Also, of the main cast, Foxy is the only one that's missing. Foxy is VERY important to Michael and his character, and the different iterations of Foxy, especially Funtime Foxy and Ringmaster Foxy, are especially important. Yes I do think that each of the Funtimes represent the Aftons, and FT Foxy represents Michael. So we can gleam that Michael, similarly to his father, is a performer. He's the leader; the captain, the ringmaster, the older brother. This is hammered in with his monologue and the Security Logbook. This fits in exactly with Glitchtrap. He's theatrical, he performs, he pretends.

As for HOW Michael would've become Glitchtrap, I believe the circuit boards FazEnt got were from the computer in the ffps office. William is trapped in UCN, the Mimic was still trapped behind the wall in Ruin, and I don't think the mimic1 program existed at the time (not to mention Glitchtraps behavior doesn't fit mimic1).

Michael easily could've possessed those circuit boards on accident. You might be asking- well, Michael was dead, all of his Remnant would've burned up. And, honestly, I don't think he actually DID die at the end of SL.

Baby explicitly says "You won't die". The Scooper also injects Remnant into you, which is known to keep you alive and heal you. As for the rotting, that can easily be explained away as Michael literally being one giant walking infected wound. The scooper tore him apart stomach to throat, and Ennard went inside, tearing him apart internally. When wounds are bad enough, they rot, especially when they're left to fester and get infected. Besides, it would've been impossible to possess his own corpse. Remnant is best conducted by metal, not rotting flesh. And I doubt Ennard would've left enough of itself behind for Michael to actually control his own body.

So, Michael was likely actually alive and fully healed by FFPS. Thus, when he burned to death, he would've ended up possessing the nearest electronic things- the circuit boards in the computer. Whether or not he actually wanted to die (I don't think he did) matters; he possessed it anyways.

As for why he's now the main antagonist of the new games- well, I don't think he's evil. I think he's being affected by Agony.

Since the blob is one massive ball of leftover Agony from the rest of the animatronics, I think it's possible Glitchtrap has his own Agony too, especially if it's true that Remnant turns into Agony when burned up like I think it does. It'd explain why he's all black and goopy, since I believe Agony is described as a black, tar-like substance.

Some of Glitchtraps appearance would also be explained by Michael being him, such as the tears that are on the suit and his true form. Usually, lost souls are what have those tear tracks, like the dead kids. William has never been depicted with those same marks, EVER.

A lot of the above also explains why I don't think Glitchtrap is evil. I don't think Michael is fully sane, and Glitchtrap has a duality theme going on (purple and green are opposites on the digital spectrum). Plus, as I said, he actively holds back. He's cruel yes, and he's killed a fuck ton of people, but he sets rules and let's Vanessa, Gregory, Cassie, and for a time, Cassies dad, all live.

Also, he's a WAY more successful killer than William. He's smart, and while I wouldn't call William an idiot, he's not exactly good at hiding things. He's arrogant, believes he'll never die ("I always come back!"), he's theatrical to his own detriment, etc. Even in SL it was extremely obvious he was already being questioned, and was nearly caught and jailed. He died to CHILD GHOSTS. And Vanessa and Glitchtrap have never been suspected, not ONCE.

People really like to act like Michael is stupid, but he's FAR from it. He knew what was happening in SL, and pieced things together Really Fucking Quickly (in less than a WEEK). He also likely suspected Williams crimes beforehand, and if he hadn't in fnaf 1, he definitely figured it out in SL. He also very likely created fnaf 3; the building matches ffps's confusing labyrinth layout, clearly set up to burn down, the collection of Fazbear stuff, the audio lures, and the "to you, from working architect" in the security logbook. And then he helped Henry with the FFPS location, and possibly built the Rockstar animatronics (I say this bc it's a mix of Williams and Henry's styles of animatronics; the hard outer casing, extra abilities i.e. Freddy's coin thing, but they're cute, like Henry's, BUT the Michael thing is that they're.. well, Rockstars. I also think Michael made the plans for the Glamrocks but FazEnt stole them for these reasons lmao). Michael is far, FAR from an idiot, and all of these show he's actually REALLY fucking smart, likely smart enough that William felt threatened by him (part of why he was likely sent to the SL bunker). Glitchtrap is also clearly Very Intelligent.

Another part is that Glitchtrap doesn't hurt children. In one of the SB endings, on the newspaper it says 'missing locals', not missing children. Gregory and Cassie were never directly harmed by him either. Cassie was completely safe in the mall pre-Ruin, and Gregory seemed fine too, if possessed by Glitchtrap. It's never stated that CHILDREN are hurt, only the staff.

Also Glitchtrap is,, very sentimental. Neither William nor the Mimic would be sentimental about the Aftons, but Michael WOULD. He cares deeply about his family if SL is any indication, and would explain his favoritism towards Gregory, the CC lookalike.

Glitchtrap being Michael would ALSO explain why Cassies dad (aka bonniebro) was spared, long enough for the spirits in the staffbots to get JEALOUS. After all, what exactly makes him so special? He's Michael's old friend. Neither William nor the Mimic would care.

Also springtrap is consistently depicted as terrifying and beastly. Especially in hw2, where the place burns down and Springtrap hunts you down. William would've shown himself as the pinnacle of his inventions, not a nightmarish monster.

Oh, and another note, but almost every time William is in the game, whether in the background or not, Golden Freddy aka Cassidy is always there. Fnaf 1, 2, and 3 ('shadow freddy') follow this formula, but she's not there in fnaf 4, or SL, though I imagine she's not there in FFPS because William is already trapped, and for good this time.

The same goes for Michael and the Puppet/Charlie. Charlie is in fnaf 1 (implied in fnaf 2), fnaf 2 (the party Jeremy got bit at was for Michael), fnaf 3, fnaf 4, and FFPS. The exception is SL, but I believe it's because William is dead by then.

Notice how Cassidy doesn't show up past fnaf 3, but Charlie keeps showing up as the plushies. There's near constant references to her in every. Single. Steel Wool game. It's hard to NOT see it it's so often. So it's very likely Michael is still around, and only hammers in that he's likely Glitchtrap.

Also, writing-wise, it makes sense for him to become the new antagonist since FNAF was soft-rebooted. Typically the old protagonist is still important in soft reboots, whether that's as an important historical figure or the next games/series/movies antagonist, or a driving point for the next protagonist (think Peter Parker and Tony Stark). It also fits thematically, since it'd be a really weird spin around for the new villain to be an AI (doesn't fit fnafs formula) and having William be the villain Again would just be lazy writing.

Collapses. Okay I probably missed some things BUT. That's my main points. There's WAY more that goes into a much bigger theory (like PQ is Obviously Vanessa being freed from Glitchtrap, fnafs timeline, the ghost kids are back and are wanting to free Michael, the SW games are based on I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, etc), but that's mostly what I have for Glitchtrap Michael.

Feel free to look up everything I'm talking about, I haven't bothered to put anything up but I have all of my facts straight. I've considered pretty much every other option in order to TRY to disprove my own theory, but every single new game and book only keeps proving me right unfortunately LMAO.

I've had this theory since like... before Ruin. I've had So much time to get everything straight. I'm sad no one else sees what I see lol.

Have fun with this :3

[silver-the-hedgeblog]

Let's talk about how Silver is a detective. Searching for truth has been a constant theme for him since 06.

Life is a struggle. and people live without hope. How did this happen? No one will answer me directly. But they always point... to the flames.

The start of Silver's story shows that he questioned how the world was destroyed his whole life, he tried to investigate the cause of the disaster but no one could answer him. (until he met Mephiles who gave him a false answer and then Shadow who gave him the real answer)

A lot of Silver's Town Missions in 06 wouldn't be out of place as jobs for the Chaotix. In Town Mission 13 the Rimlight corporation asks him to investigate rumors of something stealing things from their warehouses which turns out to be infested with monsters. He gets hired as a detective and solves a case by himself here.

Silver then spends the Sonic Rivals games uncovering Eggman NEGA's identity and schemes. He can see through NEGA's disguises and has foiled who knows how many of NEGA's plans in the future.

Silver with Blaze and Vector spends most of Team Sonic Racing investigating Dodon Pa's Grand Prix and Eggman's involvement with it.

Every time Silver has a main role in a game it involves him uncovering some secret or plot. He's always solving mysteries and rewriting history (Woo-oo). Silver may be bad at lying but he is good at truth-ing.

[roxtron]

Anyone ever think about the idea that the mimic is mimicking what it did to gregory before being trapped?

probably, I'm sure I'm not the only person to think about this. but am I going to talk about it anyway? absolutely. Okay so basically.. a couple of the mimic's voicelines are copy-pasted from Security Breach, right? While this is the first time we've seen the mimic copy anyone before, I believe most of his voicelines do come from somewhere. Sorry, that sounds vague. What I mean by that is I don't believe everything the mimic says is 100% a lie it created. For example a lot of people joke about the mimic being more whiny when pretending to be Gregory. Joking about how it's the biggest red flag because Gregory was never really that scared in Security Breach. But did it really just come up with that on its own? What if it's mimicking Gregory in the state he was in when he left? What if Gregory was that scared when dealing with the mimic? And it's not just that, I think some voicelines actually give a bit of hint to this too.

"Help! Something grabbed me! It won't let me go!" I feel like this line and others like it may actually describe what the mimic did. The way Gregory refers to the mimic as "that thing," and the only other 'thing' it could be pretending to be afraid of is the blob, which already tunneled out by the time Cassie gets here. And while the mimic isn't the best at keeping its story straight.. (Claiming to be running/hiding from Roxy while it's trapped under the sinkhole, though I believe that could be him trying to cover up the real Gregory attempting to speak to her, regaining control of the situation. After all if that voice line was the mimic why would Roxy run in the opposite direction of the walkie talkie to go chase him?) I feel like if the mimic was pretending it was the blob that grabbed him, he wouldn't also admit that it tunneled out later on. (I'll get to that don't worry.) Sure, this is a fabricated lie to lure Cassie, but my point is, what story is the mimic trying to create here? What is the mimic trying to claim happened to it/Gregory? I was going to bring these screenshots up later, but..

(Original screenshot + edited version to see the handprint better.) The handprint on the vent outside where the mimic is trapped, with Gregory's backpack underneath it, if you haven't seen theories about it already it seems to clearly imply Gregory lured the mimic in through the vent, that's his handprint. Why I'm bringing this up here though, that handprint looks bloody, doesn't it? Maybe it's just me, maybe it's just the lighting, but I feel like that looks more like a bloody/liquid stain smear than a smear of dust or something. So what if what happened was what the mimic described? It grabbed Gregory, and didn't let him go, causing his arms to get stabbed through and bleed after he escaped through the vent. (If you can't picture what I'm saying or just want a cool visual of this happening, go see this post it's cool and basically shows what I'm talking about, I only thought of this detail because of their post, also the art is cool.)

Anyway, moving on..

"That thing is here again. I gotta hide. Save me."

What if getting the mimic to that specific room wasn't all of the luring Gregory had to do? What if he periodically had to deal with being chased/hunted by the mimic while trying to get it to follow him to that area of the pizzaplex? (This is probably the most speculation, there's not a lot you can get from this line, but it's still a cool idea I think.) OR, an alternate take.. The mimic is being interrupted by the real Gregory's attempts to reach Cassie, and the mimic is using this opportunity as an excuse while it attempts to block his signal. (I've theorized about the differences between each speaking a bit before, but basically, I find it notable that the only times the real Gregory seems to get through to Cassie is when the mimic is busy/distracted/unavailable. So the mimic likely has to make an active effort to block his attempts, hence why he ends up using other signals to try to reach her, like the hacked staff bot. Again this is heavy speculation, but I find it interesting if he's basically telling the story in real-time and sort of swapping him and Gregory.)

Overall there's not a lot you can gather out of this line that I haven't already mentioned in the previous one, so let's move on.

"Something tunneled out.. broke everything. Now I'm stuck here!"

Before I go over this, take it with a grain of salt. Yes I think this is him referring to the blob tunneling out, causing the 'earthquake' that broke the pizzaplex to the state it's in when Cassie arrives. Considering the tunnel in the sinkhole and seeing the blob in a tunnel early in the game, this adds up. However.. I think there might be a double meaning here. It's a bit of a reach, but what if it's also referring to Gregory a bit here? "Something tunneled out," it's implied Gregory used the vent (sort of a tunnel) to escape the room the mimic is trapped in. "Broke everything," ruined the mimic's plans. "Now I'm stuck here," well, that's self explanitory. Gregory used the vent to escape, ruined the mimic's plans, and trapped it there. I also find it interesting this seems to be the final time the mimic mentions something else down there with it. (Even during its final pleas in Roxy Raceway, it only says "Save me, it's so dark down here." Nothing about that "thing" putting him in danger.) Do I think this line is specifically the mimic talking about Gregory? No, I think its main purpose is to explain where the blob went. But I do think it's possible there's a double meaning to it, intentional or not..

Like I said that's the last line of dialogue where the mimic mentions something else down there with it, so there's not a lot more to talk about. My biggest points and evidence were in the beginning tbh, it probably would've been best to cover it at the end of this post but I wanted to go over the voice lines in chronological order to when they appear in-game. I know some of the stuff I said is reaching a bit, I'm not 100% confident that'd be the correct interpretation.. but it's something to think about, that's my point. Whether I'm right or wrong I think the theory is worth considering. If you read this far, that's cool, I hope this was entertaining or had some kind of value to you. I like writing analysis stuff like this so it's always nice when other people enjoy it too. :)

[horsegirl]

omfg listened to a jordan peterson discussion w dawkins after avoiding him for years because of his anti trans rhetoric and its so obvious now that hes a self-hating postmodernist. he should be talking to old french guys about literary theory not fucking richard dawkins on the ontology of the bible

[selfindulgentraptor]

Yooo new Sir Pen teaser dropped

LOL JK, this is a style study I made in a day and a half! See my process below

I started by just redrawing a TON of screenshots from the pilot while updating them to the new design:

Honestly for the screentime he had he got SO MUCH FUN POSES auggg I can't get over it. After all this I could successfully draw him by memory:

I mapped out a simple take and did a tiedown/cleanup. Tried to capture that signature snappiness Hazbin has, took awhile to get the timing right but was made a lot easier by studying the pilot frame-by-frame.

Finally, I made a background based on the hotel balcony. I threw it all on After Effects and added some dust particles, highlight masks and a little zoom out:

And that's that (the .mp4 is a lot smoother than the gif mind you)! Was a lot of fun, I wouldn't mind doing more animation style studies

[im-wide-asleep]

Species Anomaly Report - Why this episode of Vita Carnis is so frightening.

-Spoilers, if you haven’t watched Vita Carnis and plan to, there’s gonna be spoilers up in this thing. I do highly recommend the series, it’s one of my favorite analog horrors, though definitely mind the trigger warnings. Speaking of triggers, this post is gonna mention the following: Child death, death in general, gore and the likes. If you think this needs more warnings, just ask, okay?-

I always see people talking about how much this video scares them, but never see anyone talking much about why.

Vita Carnis is already a pretty “efficient” series. It doesn’t rely much on jumpscares, which is great, seeing as they’re normally used just to get a reaction from the audience. The only actual jumpscare I’ve noticed people talking about is the cabinet scene in the mimic documentary episode. Even then, it’s done pretty well. The slow buildup and the fact that it’s not as passive as a lot of others does make it frightening enough for people to recognize it. However, Species Anomaly Report does this without any of that.

If you’ve seen the episode, you’re probably remembering the audio most of all. Now, people scream a lot. Particularly children. The sound of people just screaming isn’t something most people would find that disturbing on its own. That’s where the story really comes in. You already have the background of the family hiking in the woods, you have the information on how the harvester functions, but now, everything is blending together in a way that hits people right in the psyche. First off, the child. Humans have an instinct to protect children. This is super obvious in parents and such, but child death and harm is rightfully uncomfortable for just about everyone. Even in lots of horror media, child death is skirted around. Of course, it happens, but it’s usually relegated to backstory, or it’s something that is more often avoided. Even if a child is placed in danger, they’re usually safe by the end. Species Anomaly Report plainly does not do this. The boy dies, in terror and agony. This, placed on top of the fact that we know the explicit details of how the Harvester goes about killing him, combined with the audio, gets viewers right in the instincts. It doesn’t stop there. The Harvester acquired a second victim, the boy’s mother.

The mother’s death brings a specific hopelessness to the narrative. Her child is suffering a horrible death that she is forced helplessly to witness, and she suffers the same end. The audience, who either consciously or subconsciously shares the mother’s desire to protect the child, will also share the hopelessness that comes with knowing it’s impossible. What truly makes this episode harrowing is that fear, topped with the horrible sinking sensation of hopelessness. The viewer is trapped along with the mother, watching a child die all whilst knowing there is nothing that can be done.

The other carnis are definitely disturbing, (but not the trimmings. No. 1 trimmings fan.) but the harvester didn’t carry some of the same fear as the humanoid figures of the mimic, hosts, etc. What made this facet of the narrative so innately horrifying is how it targets the instinctual desire to protect those more vulnerable, yet instantly snatches it away, holding it out of reach as you succumb to the hopelessness and terror.

[fazar234]

Understanding Lanolin

(First time doing an analysis, so I hope y’all like it!)

Hey all, it’s been a minute hasn’t it?

With Issues 63 and 64 of the IDW comics for the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise having released, it’s caused quite a lot of division amongst the Sonic fanbase, in regard to one new character in particular: Lanolin the Sheep.

And hoo boy, it has not been pretty.

A while back, I sent an ask to a user by the name of @molinaskies (btw go check her out if you’re into analyses of Sonic’s character and Sonamy fanfics!) about her thoughts on Lanolin, and she replied with a post stating why she wasn’t a fan of her character.

Now, I believe that everyone has the right to like, dislike, or be neutral towards whatever or whoever they want, including Sonic characters. If you don’t like Lanolin, that’s totally fine by me and I respect your opinion.

However, due to all the ridiculous hate she has been receiving lately, I feel obligated as a Lanolin fan to state my own reasoning and analysis behind her character. As such, this post will be meant to serve as an understanding towards Lanolin and her character.

Now, before we go any further…

This is not meant to come off as forcing my opinion onto molinaskyes or anyone else! We all have the right to our own opinions, and we should all be allowed to like/dislike whatever characters we want to! This is just a post stating my opinion and reasoning behind Lanolin, nothing more, nothing less!

Alright, with that out of the way, let’s begin!

Who is Lanolin?

To put it short, she’s a sheep from the IDW comics who started out as a background character in the form of another Restoration volunteer and eventually worked her way up to the rank of a primary protagonist in Issue #57, taking on the role as leader of the Restoration’s new task force, the Diamond Cutters.

Her first ever appearance in the comics is Issue #2, where Sonic and Amy are doing a formidable job defending Riverside Village (Lanolin’s hometown), which is being hoarded by badniks, until Lanolin runs in, informing them of an incoming army from the west. She’d then help evacuate the citizens into the bunker and assist in taking down the army.

Since then, she’s made plenty of background appearances throughout the comics, helping citizens, taking care of various tasks at Restoration HQ, or just chilling (which, given her character, is pretty rare).

Lanolin’s Flaw

Fast-forward all the way to Issue #57, where Lanolin gets her chance in the spotlight, and from there, along with further issues, we get a better look at her character.

She gets startled quite easily, doesn’t approve of recklessness, and prefers to operate with a proper plan. She also has a more stoic and serious personality compared to the other characters, which I feel is a nice change of pace, and can come off as bossy to others (which I’ll dive more into later.)

She wasn’t like this in her previous appearances before 57, and I believe the reason can be attributed to the trauma the Metal Virus, as well as other minor disasters seen in the comics had on her. She doesn’t want anyone to feel scared and helpless again, which is why she formed the Diamond Cutters, and why she doesn’t seem to take well to things going wrong.

In Issue #58, she looked defeated because of the scouting of Eggperial City going wrong, and in Issue #63, she snapped at Sliver because of the training mission getting out of hand with the boulder incident (more on that in a second.)

Lanolin doesn’t know how to adapt to the unexpected, and it’s a flaw she’ll need to overcome in the future, or she may meet the same fate as a certain platypus.

Lanolin’s Perspective

Now then, onto what I’ve been wanting to talk about most: her actions and perspective in 63 and 64.

In the past three issues that have released thus far, we, the readers, have full knowledge of everything that’s been happening.

We know that Mimic has joined Clutch and disguised himself as Duo the Cat to infiltrate the Restoration and join the Diamond Cutters, so that he could get close enough to get revenge on Tangle and Whisper. We know that he sabotaged the team’s training session by kicking Silver (which Whisper managed to notice) and causing the boulders and the flood. And we know that he made Silver look bad by falling off the chair he was controlling and made it look like he had attacked him.

But Lanolin doesn’t.

From her perspective, Duo is just a new recruit who wants to make a difference and is expected to make a few mistakes. She sees him as someone she used to be. It’s why she took Duo’s side in Issue 63, when Silver accused Duo of ditching him while he was struggling to restrain the Giant Chopper from consuming him whole, because to her, Duo had only been to overwhelmed by the situation to do anything, and from her view, Silver was the one responsible for the accident, someone she had expected better control from, given his experience.

Now before you all go “OH WHAT DOES LANOLIN KNOW?! SHE’S JUST A NEWBIE AND SILVER’S THE EXPERT ON PSYCHOKINESIS! HE SAVED THE WORLD MULTIPLE TIMES!” Yes, we know he’s more talented than everyone gives him credit for. But Lanolin doesn’t. She doesn’t share the same history with him that everyone else does. If she did, she’d know that Silver would never lose control that easily unless something (or in this case, someone) sabotaged him, thus leading her to also suspect Duo.

And the same applies to 64. Lanolin asked Silver and Whisper for proof, they only responded by trying to assault who to her, was just an innocent individual who felt helpless and scared, something she never wanted anyone to feel. From her perspective, a powerful psychic and an experienced mercenary were accusing a new recruit of being some shapeshifting murderer, without even bothering so much as to offer a tad smidge of evidence that Duo was indeed a shapeshifting murderer.

And before you go: “WELL THAT DOESN’T EXCUSE HER ATTACKING WHISPER AND HER ATTITUDE!” Whisper literally made the first move by grabbing Lanolin’s arm! She was simply trying to defend herself and be rational, stating that they needed to talk about her problem as a team! As for her remark calling herself a soldier, this is one of her flaws, her bossiness, coming into play here! She’s not a perfect person, none of them are! She’s a flawed character, who’s experienced in certain aspects of leadership, but is still new to being a hero.

Silver accusing people at random isn’t anything new; we’ve seen it before in Sonic 06 and the Traitor Arc in the Archie Comics (which I personally haven’t read myself), and the reason why Whisper was too quick to act was because this is Mimic, the guy that killed the closest thing she had to a family! You really think she was just going to stand there and let him do it again? Yes, she should have acted reasonably but she let her emotions get the better of her. And it’s because of that that Duo was able to remove any suspicion.

And before you ask “WELL WHY DID LANOLIN VOTE TO KICK SILVER OUT BUT NOT WHISPER?! SHE ACCUSED DUO TOO!”, I beckon you all to look at this scene here.

Duo tricked everyone into thinking that Silver was the one who attacked him, not Whisper. Had Whisper been with Silver, it’s likely she would’ve been kicked out as well.

A villain’s plan to manipulate can only work if someone’s fallen for the bait, and Lanolin is indeed one of those people. I imagine once he gets caught, Lanolin’s gonna learn from this and she and Silver will make up and all will be good.

Lanolin and Tangle

One more thing that people’s miscomprehension has annoyed me about: the dynamic between Lanolin and Tangle.

In @molinaskies' post on Lanolin, she stated that Lanolin has an objective problem with Tangle and would go as far as to replace her. And I’m going to try to not sound too harsh here, but NO? SHE DOES NOT??

In Issue #58, Tangle was the one to comfort Lanolin when she felt defeated during the Eggperial City mission, and in Issue #59, Lanolin nearly sacrificed herself to save Tangle from the dimensional traps! And that whole gag with the pong-pong ball and Lanolin swatting it away in Issue #62 was literally just that: a gag! Lanolin definitely gets irritated by Tangle, but she doesn’t outright hate her! Would someone who wants to replace a teammate nearly get themselves killed to save said teammate?!

Conclusion

Wow, that was longer than I imagined.

I’m sorry if I ever came off as harsh during my analysis, but it just irks me that most of the fanbase won’t bother trying to see scenes from different perspectives, and it feels like they don’t tolerate flawed characters at all.

In the end, though, you’re all free to like or dislike Lanolin if you want. Everyone has the right to their own opinion. But at the very least, you should learn to properly comprehend perspectives and realize that none of these characters are perfect.

I hope my analysis brought you all some insight, and I’ll catch you all later.

[star-critter]

In honor of A Few Bad Men turning 4 years old, let's put some Spotlight on Everhold Prison! Today, I'll be taking a moment to discuss the Security Staff of Everhold Prison, their Wispons and Wisps

But first, a quick exposition! Everhold Prison is a highly-secured prison that was introduced in issue one of the Sonic IDW Bad Guys Mini series, A Few Bad Men. This is the prison where Starline formed the Deadly Four with Zavok, Mimic, Rough & Tumble while causing a mass firery jailbreak in the process. We can basically compare it to a Maximum Security Prison without Deathrow.

Everhold Prison is run by The Warden. A fluffy dog man who would have his life screwed over by Starline (twice), but this post isn't about him. This post is about the guards, most of which seem to be some non-specified mammalian species.

All the guards share sevral things in common : Design, Purpose, Wisps, & Wispons

I am here to discuss their Wisps & Wispons. All the prison guards use Hover Wispons, which are powered by Green Hover Wisps. For a long time, I never questioned why they all used this particular weaponry until today, and I think I've figured out the background behind this little detail.

We know by default that the Hover Wispons can launch shockwaves of air when triggered. In Sonic Forces, our avatars used this to send badniks flying and knock them out. Knowing these devices can take down large tons of metal mass, the idea of what it can do to an organic being is intriguing to think about. If you triggered the Hover Wispon upon an organic being, it would send them launching back by an impressive distance. Especially considering that Mobians are (usually) smaller than Eggpawns.

Having a device this powerful as a prison guard would be VERY beneficial. One trigger of the button, and you can break up fights, part crowds, and put rowdy troublemakers back in line. Now, the shockwave receivers may suffer some physical pain if they get sent into a wall or door so we can take this as a sign that the guards would ONLY use these wispons of absolutely necessary.

The fact that these guards even have weapons in pretty lucky. Some Max Security Prisons won't allow guards to carry weaponry because if a prisoner gets a hold of it, it's going to be a bad time for everyone involved. We actually witness an example of this when Mimic transforms into the Warden and "borrows" a guard's wispon. The wisp inside wasn't conscious/aware of who was welding them until it was too late.

So Everhold Prison must be holding some really dangerous nasties outside of our well-known villains to constantly be this on guard. Especially considering the risk that shines when these Wispons are stolen. Thankfully, once a Green Wisp leaves the wispon and gets a glance of who's welding it, they'll refuse to get back in. We saw something similar happen in issue 3 of Sonic IDW.

But being taken advantage of isn't the only risk with the Hover Wispons. Wispons are not EM-sheilded, meaning they can easily be manipulated by Zeti. We see this happen when Zavok manipulates a hall's worth of Hover Wispons, causing a mass bouncy-ball-esc panic for the guards.

What surprises me about this, is we witness two Green Wisps leave their wispons after Zavok takes control of them, and they're dizzy. And likely uneasy.

This could imply that being manipulated by Zeti not only affects the device but its power source, in this case, the wisps. This makes me wonder if the little animals inside of Eggman's Badniks also become dizzy from Zeti control.

But to conclude this analysis : Everhold Prison is full of horrible and dangerous mobians that perform as a constant threat to their guards, resulting in them being heavily armed with alien guns- I mean wispons. Also, the guards did NOT have a good time the day A Few Bad Men took place.

[hand-stuck-in-shredder]

So while I think maybe Gortash wouldn't exactly have a natural garden (at least one he's actually enthused about keeping/is interested in himself, I think he'd have one in the sense of being able to say he does-- Like "I'm Balduran nobility, of course I have people tending to a garden." re: keeping up appearances) I DO think he'd instead have a "garden" made of metal and the like, somewhere. Why spend so much time, so much hard work on something that can be so easily ruined by weather out of one's control? Something that will wilt, that you cannot truly control and might not even fit your vision? It needs so much time to just keep things orderly, time which he doesn't really have to be spending on hobbies. So, over the course of many years, an hour spent here cutting and molding petals, an hour there making vines, eventually a picturesque work of art manifests.

A small field of delicately and intricately made metal flowers, thin and sharp blades of silvery grass, and like some sort of fucked up bonsai project the centerpiece of the garden would be a massive work-in-progress tree with twisted together metal to mimic the look of bark. You don't have to obsess over a disease plaguing plants, insects marring once-perfect leaves or other maintenance of the like, because everything is perfectly in place as it should be. Anything that changes in the garden is because Gortash made it so, it's like playing God on a budget. It's perfect for this control freak. He makes it thrive. He's solely responsible for all this beauty.

[kathegoose]

THE BOT NOGGIN!!! ...or the boggin if you will. i love mimic

full body measurements

[sableeira]

okay but ada dazai is so pretty princess vibe and prison dazai is so cat vibe. pre-dark era dazai is also cat vibe but not in the silly way but in the haunted way. dark era and beast dazai are both bastard vibe but in a tragic way and in the most affectionate way possible. the peak of dazai’s pretty princess vibe was during dead apple.

[nightmare-foundation]

Slaps table. Something JUST clicked for me

Glitchtrap literally HANDS YOU the keys to defeating him in the 'vanny squishes Glitchtrap' ending

Like. It still follows his rules; you have to actively Look for it and do specific things before you get those plushes

But like. He's HANDING YOU the keys needed to 'kill' him. Bc if you don't have the plushes I don't think you can get that ending

As I keep saying. If this was William OR the Mimic, they wouldn't be giving you what's needed to defeat them

[angie-starz]

I can't be the only one who was offended that Horikoshi didn't include a "the face's" sketch for Mimic, Chrono, and the OG Shie Hassaikai boss? Right? TELL ME ITS NOT JUST ME

[astronomicalunit32]

In my motivic analysis phase. When did we decide to stop listening to the hamilton soundtrack.