#nnt analysis

[ramjam]

Hi... long time no NnT-Analysis.

I want to talk about Lancelot and Tristan's dynamic. I'll be putting it under a read-more so I don't spam your dashboard.

First, let's take a look at their designs.

Tristan's Signature Color: Blue-ish Teal

Lancelot's Signature Color: Pink-ish Red

According to color theory, these two colors complement one another. Nakaba utilizes complementary colors quite often in his designs. You'll notice this in many of the most important pairs. It's a visual way to emphasize the connection between two people.

The use of complementary colors goes as far as Lancelot's Sin disguise. When he takes that form, he wears a teal collar... Just like how Tristan wears a collar with Lancelot's red.

Both of them also got their hair colors from their mother, while the style is more similar to their fathers. They have what has been described as a "feminine" appearance. Lancelot is incredibly bothered by this, to the extent he tries really hard to present as masculine. Tristan on the other hand doesn't seem to be bothered by it himself.

Their first volume covers also mirror one another.

Their namesakes are pulled from Arthurian mythos. In some of the original stories, Lancelot and Tristan do act similarly as friends who are "two sides of the same coin" in a way. Fated companions who counter one another.

Going into actual plot stuff now. The way their stories are intertwined, the particular tropes their relationship embodies, and why it's important.

The growth of both of their characters is often explored through their connection. For example, Lancelot first learned to read hearts while dueling Tristan.

Ban references the moment Lancelot received his scar here. Tristan was so excited while dueling his friend, that he lost control of himself. The heightened emotions awakened the dark magic in him that he inherited from his father. Tristan blacked out, striking Lancelot.

This was a significant moment for both of them. Tristan and Lancelot both experienced an "awakening" here, which set them down their respective paths and cemented their bond.

Lancelot is quite literally marked by him. With this scar, there will always be apart of him that is irreversible tied to his relationship with Tristan.

Additionally, the fact Tristan had hurt and permanently scarred Lancelot is what triggered Tristan's anxiety about fighting. It affected him so deeply that he began to fear combat, instead wanting to pursue a path of healing. So that it would never happen again.

The bulk of this film takes place when they're both 14. Which is a few years after Lancelot initially went missing. He felt the need to hide his identity, but even in his disguise, he wanted to somehow push Tristan to his peak performance.

This illustrates how Lancelot never once viewed him as a threat. Tristan isn't a monster to him... He wants to see him exercise the strength that Tristan is so terrified of.

(I wish this site had CC, but Lancelot wolf-whistles at him before this line...)

Lancelot knows Tristan well enough to be aware that these fears would hold him back in combat. He takes action when they fight together, pushing and prodding him until he is forced to conquer that fear and act.

Tristan's hesitancy comes from his care for Lancelot. He's terrified at the thought of ever hurting him-- or anyone-- again. Lancelot sees this differently. He views Tristan's attitude as if he's viewing Lancelot as someone weak who needs protection. He has faith in Tristan's strength and never doubts him. But that faith only makes things more complicated when Tristan avoids facing him. Lancelot knows he's capable and he wants to be his equal in that regard.

Earlier, I referenced Ban's comment in the one-shot where he wonders if Lancelot's behavior at that time had to do with this duel. There's an implication that part of why Lancelot felt so restless and inadequate had to do with Tristan's rejection. This was worsened by the fact that Lancelot had learned to read hearts, so he could see what Tristan must've been thinking in that moment. Tristan's concern doesn't come from viewing Lancelot as weak, but that's how Lancelot interpreted his heart and his words.

Between that and being babied by his parents, he lashed out and ran away to "prove himself." Which is how he went missing to begin with.

He didn't want to stop like Tristan did. He wanted to keep going. Tristan's strength motivated him, but Tristan didn't return those feelings because of his own self-loathing.

In the end, Lancelot is the one who convinces Tristan to embrace his power. He vowed to be there to stop Tristan in case things ever go too far.

Lancelot reads Tristan's heart in this moment and smiles to himself.

Lancelot's love for his friend manifests through his desire to propel Tristan to his peak potential. Through Lancelot's affection, Tristan changes forever. His pure faith in Lancelot and his intentions was all he needed to conquer his fears. To him, he doesn't need to be worried about losing himself, because he has Lancelot.

Many years pass since this moment, but Tristan still views Lancelot as that anchor he needs by his side. Tristan's control over his power has grown significantly, but he still fears using it without Lancelot by his side.

Something interesting about their dynamic in the present day is the way the dynamic has flipped. While Tristan respects Lancelot's power, now he is the one feeling weak in comparison. This is also a testament to the strength of their bond. While Tristan feels they're no longer "equal", it doesn't drive a wedge in their relationship. He isn't resentful or jealous, it doesn't push him away from Lancelot. Their bond is too strong for that.

Not to mention, what seems to bother him more than anything else is the fact that Lancelot won't discuss how he gained this new power. He's bothered by the way his friend vanished without a word for so long, and now refuses to talk about what happened.

Regardless, this just means that Tristan trusts Lancelot's abilities without question. The moment he arrives, Tristan believes so strongly in his ability to win above anyone else. If anyone can defeat the King of Camelot, it will be his closest companion.

Circling back to Lancelot being his anchor: This is pretty common in fantasy Shounen. Leading characters who possess dark magic often have a partner who they rely on to bring them back down, or stop them from going too far and losing themself. However, you usually see it between the leading male main character and the female secondary protagonist... In fact, this is the exact dynamic Meliodas and Elizabeth had with each other in the original manga.

This dynamic came up frequently whenever Meliodas went full-demon mode. But this page from the Holy War arc in particular really reminds me of Lancelot's line where he says he'll "beat Tristan into the dirt if he has to."

Considering these two are Tristan's parents, you'd think the parallel with Tristan would be between him and Isolde, or something. But it's not. It's with Lancelot.

Their chemistry is so natural. They spend some time apart, but nothing really changes. The play off of each other so easily and understand each other so deeply.

Lancelot teases him for a lot of things. Being air-headed, being childish around his parents, etc. But it isn't mean-spirited, and Tristan knows that. It's just an aspect of their relationship and one of the ways Lancelot shows affection to people. That's Tristan's best friend who is mean to him, but he still calls him by a cute little nickname ("Lance.")

The implications that Tristan has called Lancelot out for being like his father before is really funny. Quick lines like this convey a lot about a relationship, it demonstrates that familiarity.

I have a lot more I could say about them, but Tumblr apparently has a 30 image limit per-post. I'm just really excited to see what comes next for them in the timeskip. I suspect all of these building themes are going to come together in some pretty important ways the closer that we get to the main conflict of the sequel.

This analysis isn't necessarily meant to be shippy... But I do ship them, lol... ❤️

[winterlogysblog]

So let's talk about Mertyl... again

So... this guy is not escaping the adoption allegations until it's proven. Good lord. Like, this is not even close to the Chion situation back then cause at least Chion looks like his parents. But Mertyl, not even close.

One thing I wanna point out though is this.

I mentioned it before that his issues with Humans makes no sense and I still stand by it.

In this panel he talked about the strife between the Humans, Fairies and Giants and how King and Diane lost some of their close best friends in the process and the panel shows Helbram and Matrona.

One, Matrona is still alive, yes that severe injury is caused by humans but it is also a human who healed her and took care of her, that is same human she ended up living with her together with his two kids who are now currently residing in the Fairy King's Forest with her. She's living her best life.

Two, Uncle Ban is human and Lancelot is half-human and it's canon and pretty obvious that King adores Lancelot.

In this panel, Mertyl threatens the fairy that is responsible for the changeling and said that King already told them to stop and told them not to wreck the relationship between the humans. If Mertyl is not so fond of humans, why would he care.

Now, here's the deal. The Nasiens-is-Kiane's-kid theory is growing strong and I think I found the reason why Mertyl acts the way he does here.

I think Mertyl knows that he's not their real kid and he's trying the best he could to be useful enough for them so he couldn't be disposed of. I don't think he has any particular strife with Humans, he just has issues with Nasiens being there because Nasiens does look like their kid and what he said about his health becoming a lot better during his stay in the fairy realm indicates that he may just be a fairy and Mertyl feels threatened by this, he wants Nasiens out of there before anything can be confirmed so Mertyl could stay there and be their kid still especially now that King and Diane already know something or suspect something about Nasiens.

[overlyimmersed]

So... This has be rattling around in my head for a while... About "Disaster"...

Are we sure that it's supposed to be every Fairy King's shared magical ability? And are we actually sure that it's Gloxinia's?

It's what's listed on the wiki, but if you've seen my posts before you know how much that means to me... There's no citation on the wiki for this being stated as his ability, and he has powers that Harlequin does not.

It occurred to me some time ago that... that's no what Merlin said. She said that Harlequin's power, "Disaster", is "A very fitting power for the Fairy King"(This is the direct quote from the anime), but that doesn't actually mean it's the power of the Fairy King as a rank. Just that it suits the station.

We know now that Nasiens is the next Fairy King, and we know his magical ability isn't "Disaster", it's "Venom Mixing". And we see Sixtus wield his weapon in a similar fashion of how the Fairy Kings wield their Spirit Spears, which doesn't appear to actually have anything to do with "Disaster". So... is "Disaster" truly Gloxinia's ability? What is Dahlia's power? Have we just been assuming this all along?

[jinn-mori]

4KOTA Thoughts

Ok, so the Jericho episode is out.

I haven't watched it but I'll give my two cents regarding that scene. Ya know, the one where we find out that Jericho is a pedo and her main reason for serving Arthur is so she can have the false reality she wants instead of facing the real world and doing what she needs to do, which is get over Lancelot because ma'am that is a child.

This is an instance of show don't tell, where through showing both us and Lancelot Jericho's current state, we learn how Arthur gets people to join his side:

He gives them what they want, not what they need.

In this instance, Jericho wants a world where she can love Lancelot 'as a man' or a world where her love for him is normal. But what she needs is to accept that simply will never happen and get over this love. But going after what you want is a lot easier than admitting and finding what you need. She's back to how she was in the early days of 7DS. Except instead of it being her hating Ban and needing to learn to love herself, she's latching onto an unhealthy love instead of letting it go.

This 'what you want, not what you need' mentality is even reflected with Arthur. He wanted a kingdom where humans could live safely. In theory, that's great. But the way that Arthur puts the theory into practice is where we see a 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions' scenario play out. Arthur isolated Camelot with the use of Chaos to keep humans trapped in a bubble where only humans would be allowed. What Arthur needed to do to keep humans safe was to learn how to work with the other races in a peaceful manner. And given he knows the Sins, he easily could have done that.

Diane and King are the rulers of their respected races, with Meliodas and Elizabeth being real damn high on the pecking order of the Demons and Goddesses. However, because Arthur went after what he wanted rather than what he needed, we currently have the events of 4KOTA.

In a way, he reflects the Sins. But while the Sins overcame their flaws, Arthur is falling further and further into his. How much of this is Arthur and how much of this is Chaos is up for debate, but I am hoping that Nakaba does something interesting with this parallel.

[librathefangirl]

A Libra NNT Analysis: Meliodas' Demon Secret

Masterlist

Part 1: The Start of a Millennia Long Secret (pre-season 1)

Okay, time to finally get this started. And I want to do that by saying what I've said before, and probably will say again: The Seven Deadly Sins is an anime that needs to be watched (at least) twice. It's like Zaratras says:

Looking back, especially at the earlier seasons, so many things get another meaning when you know the whole story. Meliodas' demon secret is no different. The first time around you get to learn about it along with the characters. The second time around you can see the nuances of it, the symbolism and relation between it and the rest of the story. This is why I wanted to do this analysis series in the first place, to look at the earliest episodes with the perspective of knowing exactly who and what Meliodas is, and see how his demon secret is developed - or rather, how it's revealed. This means that yes, there will be angsty ramblings similar to my previous posts on the subject. I mean how could there not, because a) it's me (and if you know me, you know I love angst), and b) Meliodas really hid who he really was from the people closest to him for so long...

But! Before we get into how Meliodas' secret is revealed I want to take a look at how it was formed. Starting with the why.

Actually, first I'm gonna put a read-more because this got long :) Continue reading for: the reason behind Meliodas' secret, 3,000 years of history, the fall of Danafor, and the Seven Deadly Sins knows... what?

Meliodas' demon secret doesn't actually become a secret until after the end of the First Holy War. Before the end of the war, he has no reason to try to hide it. Everybody already knows what and who he is. For those who don't, well, they soon figure it out. He doesn't hide it; he openly uses his demonic powers and shows himself as a demon, because again, he has no reason not to, and he even admits to being a demon when asked about it. This, to me, is especially noteworthy since this is something we're shown repeatedly that he doesn't do after the end of the war.

After Meliodas and Elizabeth's confrontation with their parents, and the following death and cursing, Meliodas wakes up to a new Britannia. A demon-free Britannia. The war has by then ended, leaving the demons sealed away and the goddesses having lost their physical forms. A new era has started in Britannia. An era where the demons are becoming nothing more than a great evil sealed away by the goddesses. The more years that pass, the more solidified this view becomes. The humans who once had encountered demons, all die or are already dead. By the time of the first season, the demons are just monsters of myth. While there are still some people who know about demons, like Gerheade (who lived through the war) and Elaine, we're also shown that most people don't. They struggle with the idea that such beings even exist, or have a very limited knowledge of demons. We can probably also safely assume that nobody is exactly considering the possibility of a "good" demon. After all, that was already a foreign idea back before they were sealed.

So, given everything we know about this new Britannia and how it came to be, it makes sense why Meliodas would choose to hide the fact that he is a demon. He has no reason to believe anyone would accept this about him. While the world before was also filled with hate and fear towards demons, back then he at least had Elizabeth. And his entire race, even if they did hate him too (but not for being a demon). Now he is all alone, stuck trying (and failing) to protect Elizabeth in a world that doesn't understand demons. People knowing he is a demon would also make it a lot harder for him to live among the humans, which we know he has done repeatedly during his attempts to keep Elizabeth safe and in his search for a way to break the curse. So, yeah, it's easy to see why Meliodas' demon secret would come to be.

At the same time, I think it's really interesting to point out that while Meliodas does hide that he is a demon and won't even answer the question when directly asked about, he doesn't really lie about it either. He doesn't say he is a demon, but he also doesn't say he isn't a demon or that he is human.

We don't get to see lot of what happens to Meliodas over the 3,000 years between the start of the curse and his arrival in Liones. What we do see is Meliodas, repeatedly, living human lives with Elizabeth's numerous reincarnations. Because of this, the most significant moment we get during those years in regard to his demon secret is the fall of Danafor.

Danafor is an example of a human life we see Meliodas living with Elizabeth, or Liz in this case. From the flashbacks of his times there, provided by the druids' trial, and his interactions with Cain, it's safe to assume that the people of Danafor saw Meliodas as a fellow human - a stupidly overpowerful human perhaps, but a human nonetheless. When Cain learns that Meliodas is in fact Meliodas (and not his son) he is, understandably, shocked. After all, he clearly expected Meliodas to age like a human would and not still look as young. Danafor, or rather the fall of Danafor, marks the beginning of the unraveling of Meliodas' demon secret. This is the first time in who knows how long that Meliodas uses his demonic powers. It's also the first time he's faced with someone who knows who and what he really is (not counting Merlin and Elizabeth with her memories regained) with the appearance of Fraudrin. Even disregarding Fraudrin's future possession of Dreyfus, the events in Danafor (Meliodas' destruction of it and the Coffin of Eternal Darkness) have significant repercussions for Meliodas going forward.

After Danafor, Meliodas life becomes different. Back in Danafor, he was greatly respected as the leader of the Holy Knights. In Liones, he still has respect and status as the captain of the Seven Deadly Sins, but he (along with the other Sins) is also seen as a criminal and sinner. By then, rumors have also spread about what happened in Danafor and Meliodas' part in its destruction. We don't really know for sure what exactly those rumors entailed or how close to the truth they were (they most likely did not involve "demon" or "demonic powers"), they still told a story of Meliodas being the one, not only to destroy Danafor completely, but also kill its citizens.

So, from what we can see, Meliodas' arrival in Liones comes with a new life and a different role. While he is still mostly seen as human, he is also seen as more of a "monster" than before. Both Zaratras and Hendrickson admit to having sensed Meliodas' true identity during some of their earliest encounters with him.

That brings us to another interesting thing to look at before I get into analyzing the individual episodes: the extent of Meliodas' demon secret. Meliodas is generally seen as a human, but his secret isn't a complete secret. It's not a situation of nobody knows nothing, as seen above. Of course, how much is known depends on who's perspective we are talking about. So, since it's kind of important for these breakdowns, and it intrigues me to talk about, let's end this part with looking at what the fuck do each of the Seven Deadly Sins actually know about Meliodas in regards to his demon secret?

The most obvious (and also easiest) to start with is Merlin. She is the one who knows the most about Meliodas, seeing as she first met him 3,000 years ago before he even betrayed the demons. To her, there isn't really a "demon secret", only a secret he is keeping from everyone else. Merlin knows Meliodas is a demon. She knows what kind of demon he is and was, his past with the demons and Stigma, even about the curse at the hands of the Demon King and Supreme Deity and what it means for him.

I'm gonna try to do these in order of who knows most, so next up is Gowther, who - well, who the hell knows what he actually knows? But he is the one, next after Merlin, who is the most knowledgeable about Meliodas. Technically, he met Meliodas before even Merlin did, since he was (as his creator's proxy) in the Ten Commandments alongside him. It has also been revealed that the original Gowther was one of Meliodas best friends (Q245, Q&A Corner of chapter 234 in the manga). But Gowther also did erase his own memories prior to season 1, after Nadja's death. Despite this, Gowther is still shown to know more about Meliodas' secret than the others. When the group is first reunited with Gowther, he points out to Meliodas that none of them are of the same race, hinting that he knows Meliodas is not human. Though given his powers, to me at least, it's hard telling exactly how much Gowther knows about Meliodas.

Merlin and Gowther are more or less the only Sins with any real knowledge about Meliodas' secret, but that doesn't mean the others don't know anything. In fact, most of them have gotten some hint prior to the events of season 1, proving that Meliodas' demons secret isn't absolute. Among the remaining Sins, Escanor is the one with the biggest reason, I think, to suspect something. Escanor has, after all, seen Meliodas in his demon form. He might not know exactly what Meliodas is, but he should definitely suspect that Meliodas isn't human. The moment I'm talking about happens during the battle between Escanor and Meliodas, when Meliodas is trying to convince him to join the Seven Deadly Sins. During that battle, Meliodas easily defeats Escanor by releasing his Assault Mode. This means that Escanor saw him with his black eyes and demon mark. Like I said, Escanor probably didn't know what it meant at the time, seeing as he hadn't actually met another demon by then, but at the same time, it stands to reason, that Escanor shouldn't be seeing Meliodas as quite as human as the rest of Liones did.

Now let's talk about Ban. The interesting thing about him is that while, out of the last three Sins, Ban is the one who knows the most about demons, he is also probably the last one who would (willingly) suspect Meliodas of being one - something that he shows later in the first season. Ban's knowledge of the demons comes from him encountering and fighting the Red Demon during its attack on the Fairy King's Forest. This means that his knowledge of the demons as a race is very limited compared to Merlin (though to be fair, most people's knowledge is limited compared to Merlin, especially about demons since, well, very few people seem to know what the demons really are anymore). The Red Demon is also a huge part of Ban's struggles with the idea of Meliodas being one, as he obviously can't let himself put Meliodas equal in any way to the monster who killed Elaine. Still, even if he doesn't want to, Ban has reason to suspect it even before season 1, given what happened with Meliodas' dragon handle. When Ban tried to take the dragon handle, Meliodas cuts him with black flames. This is also the one and only time something has managed to leave a permanent scar on Ban's body since becoming immortal. Both of these indicate, if nothing else, that Meliodas isn't as human as he first appears to be.

Between Diane and King it's a little hard to tell who knows most, because let's face it, neither has much knowledge about Meliodas' secret at this point. Though I would probably have to say Diane does - mostly because I've got an issue with King's knowledge, but more about that later, let's talk about Diane first. Diane doesn't have much knowledge about neither demons nor Meliodas' secret, but, like the others, she has some reason to suspect him not being human. Diane was there and saw Meliodas scar Ban, meaning she saw Meliodas with the black flames just as Ban did. Later, during the events of the Vaizel Fighting Festival, she also admits to having seen "that look" on Meliodas, referring to how he looked while defeating Ban. So, yeah, not much knowing but still some hints.

Now then, last but not least, King. Okay, to be fair, he is one of the Sins with the least knowledge about Meliodas' secret. He also, like Diane, lacks the knowledge of demons in general. He wasn't there during the Red Demon's attack in the Fairy King's Forest and has shown himself to not share Elaine's knowledge about demons, given his reaction to seeing the Red Demon's corpse. He even expresses shock that beings like the Red Demon have actually existed in Britannia. As for Meliodas' secret, when King first meet him in the manga, he literally calls him human. By the time of the first season, King is seemingly still holding this view, later expressing his surprise that Meliodas looks exactly the same despite 10 years having passed.

But I did say I had an issue with King's knowledge, didn't I? Well, unfortunately, I do. It comes with that first meeting between King and Meliodas. As much as I love it, it provides some... inconsistencies, especially in regard to the reveal of Meliodas' demon secret - and since that is what this post is about, it's only fair that we address it. Okay, so here's the thing. King was captured 200 years ago. In the manga page above (first panel, lower left corner) you can even see Helbram's dead body still lying on the ground, proving that it was 200 years ago. Now, Meliodas being there when King is arrested by unnamed knights 200 years before he and Merlin decide to form the Seven Deadly Sins, while a coincidence, is not that unimaginable. But King remembers that moment. He references it to Meliodas in the druids' cave and thinks back to it in the fight against Chandler, which means he clearly remembers the Meliodas 200 years ago as Meliodas and not just some random knight. But then when they are reunited after only 10 years he suddenly thinks it's weird that Meliodas remains unchanged? I just- that is what is happening, right?? Anyway, let's just... drop it for now.

Okay!

So what do we start of with when the fist season begins? Meliodas, who has kept the fact that he is a demon a secret for 3,000 years because Britannia is now "demon-free" and demons are seen as ancient evil monsters; Merlin, who knows everything; Gowther, who knows he is not human; and the rest of the Seven Deadly Sins, who still think of him as human(?). At the same time, the events of Danafor's destruction has set the wheels in motion regarding Meliodas' demon secret finally being revealed to everybody.

Coming soon - Part 2: Cracks in the Mask (season 1 part 1)

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Taglist: @zorria

[overlyimmersed]

FAIRIES!!!!

And look how consistent they are. That's unusual!! I haven't gotten to analyzing Fairies in 4kota yet cuz I'm still going through 7ds with a fine-toothed comb, but I did notice this while I was reading!

The Fairies from Echo Gorge are markedly different from the ones in the Fairy King's Forest!

For one thing there's seems to be a higher rate of small body types in Echo Gorge, where as The Fairy King's Forest is mostly mid-sized Fairies.

The common wing configurations also differ! But I'll get more into that eventually. But I will say this, that wing configuration, the one we see on all 5 of the Fairies in the bottom right image, I've never seen that one before.

We're also seeing a higher rate of skin tone variation in these images. There have been examples of darker complexions among Fairies before, but only a handful. like... 5 out of 408 kinds of rare. So that's really neat! Two images is obviously not a great specimen pool, but going off these two strictly, the skin tone ratio is almost 50/50.

EPISODE 4 PREVIEW IMAGES I CANT WAIT FOR MORE NASIENS

[jupitermchai]

Guys… I’ve realized something. Tristan doesn’t hate Meliodas; Tristan is afraid. Let me explain,

I’m watching 4kota cause they came out with more episodes, and Tristan goes into his demon form and kills Melasucla. Before she dies, Melascula goes “That kid is a monster…just like his damn father”. Tristan says, “I hate when people make that comparison, that’s why I’d rather not go all out…”

“What does this mean” you ask? Tristan hates it when people call him a monster, he doesn’t hate Meliodas singularly. If he hates anything about his dad, it’s his past with the demon clan. So, it’s not that Meliodas is a bad father, or that Tristan hates Meliodas (because we see so many instances of Tristan and Meliodas getting along), it’s Meliodas’ power. People fear Meliodas because he was a ruthless demon who once belonged to the Ten Commandments. Even though he has changed, people fear Meliodas due to his past. I’m assuming Tristan sees this, and doesn’t want people to see him as a monster. Due to his dialogue, we can assume Tristan has heard this before, OR/AND he was ostracized for embracing his demonic part.

So to fix the problem, Tristan leans more into Elizabeth’s power because she is a more likable person. She is a goddess: her race was (and still kinda is) worshipped by the people. In conclusion - Meliodas is a GOOD dad. Tristan is just afraid of being seen as a monster.

Will post nnt pride day 6 soon!

[ramjam]

i just know you're cooking up something crazy with the jericho stuff

maybe i will talk about it. i just haven't been too in-depth about my theories because being potentially catastrophically incorrect about this would be SOOOOO embarrassing LOL but i'll put my foot in the ring here. i wanted to wait until i caught up with the new episodes to see how the anime adapted the scenes but i'm bored, so.

the idea that's been floating in my brain almost since those chapters dropped is that she's under some kind of mind-manipulation. we do know arthur has that capability, he's been using it to control the people he makes work for him.

since the main villain is literally "chaos", choosing to use her as a tool in such a traumatic and destructive way like this would just make a lot of sense. and could serve a lot of purposes for arthur. theory is a bit long so it's going under the readmore.

i'm currently under the belief that he warped her mind this way for one (or all) of these possible reasons.

to generally just cause chaos. it's implied that jericho and lancelot were investigating the chaos knights and this would be an insane way to get back at her/mess with her life for it.

to push lancelot away from guinevere. he may be aware that lancelot and guinevere's fates are connected to each other. he wants guinevere for her power, he can't let an opposing force connect with her.

arthur may believe that fighting this lancelot guy is crucial to his own destiny and goals in some way? so he did something to cause him to hate him. he acts quite smug about this when they first meet officially. it seems like he's asking a question he knows the answer to. more-or-less indirectly saying, "yeah. i did something to piss you off."

arthur didn't know that lancelot was one of the four knights, but he recognized his name and had a strong reaction to it. he's also seen his face before, but didn't connect that significant name to this boy. maybe it's because jericho's future vision of lancelot is explicitly really, really feminine (interesting choice, nakaba...) he looks nothing like lancelot, basically.

you could say he's just aware of him because of jericho, but this response comes across like the name has importance to him, and not just simply him recognizing lancelot as jericho's former student. hearing "lancelot" nearly stopped arthur in his tracks. this is before arthur officially abducted guinevere, too.

i'm under the belief that arthur was clued into the fact that guinevere has been searching for lancelot-- she's been doing this for years, investigating at random trying to find him by her own words. if arthur has been tailing her, there's no doubt that he'd have heard lancelot's name come up.

okay please stick with me i have to do a brief analysis on her introduction with guila in order to elaborate on my point here.

something else that i believe supports this is the fact that during guila and jericho's introduction together in the sequel, guila's mini-arc with gowther was brought up for the first time since chapter 168 of the original manga. ie: when she was brainwashed to love gowther for his own selfish experiments/motivations.

throughout the series, guila and jericho tend to parallel each other a lot. even when they're separated, their arcs often coincided. in the end of the original manga, it concluded with their epilogue being "together." their introductory scene in the sequel put heavy focus on the fact that they parallel each other. the way they couldn't land any hits on each other because they know each other's bodies and movements so well.

despite jericho being full villain mode, she still didn't want to hurt guila. there was a softness here. she refused to harm her unless guila did first, she gave her many chances to leave so it didn't have to come to that. jericho is lancelot's teacher, older sister, and supposedly in love with him. but her introduction is all about her fated connections with guila and the care she has for her, even when she has to face her as an enemy.

if jericho's relationship with lancelot was truly meant to be genuine, i feel like nakaba would've introduced jericho in the sequel by fighting lancelot instead, and not guila. but he doesn't. we have this multi-chapter fight with heavy emphasis on her relationship to guila and the way they always find each other again after falling apart.

two sisters-in-arms, fire and ice, forever linked together. her fight with guila is actually a direct callback to her introduction with fighting ban in the prison, too. which is um... an interesting comparison to make, all context considered.

the title of this chapter refers to the sudden reveal that guila managed to master some kind of body horror ability with the latent demon power she has in her. but in my opinion, it refers to both of them. so how has jericho "transformed" in such a way that can be directly compared to guila's shape-shifting?

and despite the significance behind the plot-twist with jericho and lancelot, the databook that released doesn't reflect this at all. jericho's main quote here is when she's speaking to guila. the japanese text is the line she's saying in the panel i'm adding alongside it. the line nakaba chose to represent 4kota-jericho is her telling guila that she'll be forced to kill her if guila isn't backing down. nothing to do with lancelot at all.

(guila's quote on her databook page is when she tells jericho that she has a duty to uphold as a holy knight, so she can't back down. they're directly speaking to each other. just to further emphasize this.)

meanwhile, the panel about loving lancelot is a tiny blurb. not even her personality description mentions it. it's just kind of a side detail. ultimately, she's still being centered around her dynamic with guila, like she always has been. i think this detail is fascinating and important.

anyways, jericho also had a really sudden shift in personality the moment lancelot entered the scene and touched her, like it triggered something. i'm really curious to see how the anime handled her voice-work at this moment.

circling back to the gowther situation being randomly brought up. the fact that jericho was being more like her old self (although a bit villainous, like her arc one personality) with guila and then having a sudden personality change when lancelot engages with her, reminds me a lot of this.

(edit: i'm dying, i forgot the punchline of this scene was that jericho became disturbed since she knows guila has no men in her life besides her little brother and couldn't think of anyone she'd be referring to. more emphasis on how jericho is very much not for predatory behavior.)

in the original series, jericho's presence seemed to have temporarily disrupted gowther's brainwashing, only for guila to suddenly have this insane shift in demeanor the moment gowther appeared again and she was forced to question her memories. this is also the first time the audience is clued into the fact something is deeply wrong here. it's so similar that it's difficult to ignore.

this panel in particular when guila first brings up lancelot reminds me of guila's reaction when jericho questioned her about how she managed to survive unscathed. like their true memories were getting mixed up after suddenly having to question reality.

kudos to my friend ren for this next observation: guila and jericho have also strongly paralleled hendrickson and dreyfus respectively as early as the original manga. guila suddenly having demon powers is a reminder of that. if you recall, an aspect of hendrickson and dreyfus' dynamic is the fact dreyfus ended up being a corrupted figure in power because he was having his mind tampered with in an extremely similar way.

so not only is jericho's current situation possibly reflecting what happened to guila before, it may also be further connected to dreyfus.

in regards to what i mean by the "shift" in personality: before lancelot directly makes contact with her, she's still in her smug-battle state.

the chapter where this reveal drops is called "a burning, freezing heart" which still draws more connection to her dynamic with guila than lancelot. the title is very much a reminder of their relationship-- especially after that huge focus in the battle where jericho froze guila's fire-- and not really necessarily about lancelot at all.

despite lancelot showing up-- this boy she supposedly loves-- her focus here is on guila more than anything else initially. her dialogue here in japanese is less "no hard feelings [from me]" and more her asking guila, "please don't hate me for this." but once he engages with her to save guila's life... something shifts.

there's even this notable focus on her gasping at the contact. all attention on her delicate relationship with her friend and partner shatters in an instant.

nakaba also visualizes this by having lancelot touch where the brand arthur left on her body is. and now all of a sudden, her demeanor became wildly different. it feels unnatural.

especially with the entirety of jericho's character in mind. she's exceptionally good with kids, acts as an older sister to both zeal and lancelot. one of the films also dedicates a scene to how good she is with children, when she's on patrol with guila and they encounter some kids playing in the street. she's an honorable knight with a strong moral code.

the two-parter movies also back this idea up, in my opinion. they take place about a year before the sequel manga begins. jericho is still watching over lancelot from a distance and behaving like her usual self.

nakaba could've used this point in the movie to set-up the whole "secret admirer weirdo" thing, but instead it's just her being the cool level-headed sisterly master that she was to him. sometime between then and now, she was taken in by arthur as a chaos knight and began to act a lot differently.

the one-shot has a moment that i feel serves as a red-herring for this plot point. out of context, you'd think it supports the idea that her words to lancelot are 100% legit and serious. in-context, it's not inherently weird and even elaine says so herself after the fact. she's literally just doting on him. lancelot only initially interpreted it as weird because he was just told the same thing by someone who had ill-intent with him. i think this scene exists to create doubt.

not to mention the fact that if jericho had been harboring these feelings for the three years they were spirited away, lancelot would know. he's a fairy, he can read hearts. he does it a lot, almost constantly using it so he's clued into everything around him. lancelot was doing it in that scene i just posted, too. he would've known. but he had no reason to suspect this was supposedly happening.

because it... probably wasn't! this is likely a new development manufactured by arthur for some villainous motivation, to create tragedy and conflict. this is not jericho's first run-in with being dragged into a cult and manipulated to behave in ways that go against her moral codes. she's a professional at this point.

he reads her heart during their reunion to confirm whether or not her words about loving him are true. in that moment, her heart does match her words. but that doesn't disprove the idea she's operating under this new reality she's been made to believe in.

the reason jericho up and left lancelot (if the version she tells turns out to be a fabrication) remains a mystery. i think it's possible it had something to do with his well-being. especially if she was looking into arthur, and we know arthur was aware this mysterious lancelot guy is a detriment to his goals with guinevere. i think it's possible she also could've made a deal of some kind but things got out of hand and she became a pawn, kind of like what happened to her in the first series.

in retrospect, it's also possible that lancelot wasn't entirely wrong when he assumed jericho left because she was frustrated with having to take care of him. not in a malicious way, but she was essentially parentified because of a mistake she made that allowed them to be spirited away.

during the scene in the two-parter movies i referenced earlier, she's protecting him, because of course she cares for him. but she makes that exasperated comment about how lancelot is being put in her hands again instead of ban's ("honestly... no progress between parent and child.") jericho has her own goals and ambitions. this also sort of puts her in a position that mirrors gustaf! the idea of her running away to take space is classic jericho behavior. and then at some point, she ended up in arthur's hands.

if i'm wrong i'm going to be so embarrassed that i jump into traffic.

[winterlogysblog]

Nasiens and Kiane Parallels

So... there's this post that made me want to reread 7ds and 4kota solely for the purpose of finding parallels between Nasiens and Kiane and I found some.

Popped Collars

This may just be a coincidence since there are multiple characters that has popped collars in their outfit designs but there is something I found interesting here.

There have been four Nasiens drips so far. We have his initial drip, the one that Anne gave them, the one that the crew got from Liones, and his time-skip drip. Out of those four, there are two that have popped collars. His initial design and his time-skip outfit.

We saw him wear this specific design motif in his home and homeland.

Looking back in 7ds, after King got his full wings and his outfit design changed, he has a popped collar. Even in the two different designs Nakaba gave him in 4kota he kept that popped collar

When Diane had her outfit change in Season 3 she wore something with a popped collar and her current outfit has a popped collar as well.

Oh and guess who also has popped collars

The Rock Throwing

Pretty self-explanatory. I don't need to explain

The length of Nasiens' pants

Again... maybe this is just a coincidence.

In a sense, King's pants make sense design-wise. His Sin tattoo is just right above his ankle so in order to show it his pants need to look the way it does.

In total, there have been three instances where Nasiens's pants stops right below his knee, just like King's.

Condensed Power

This is the part where I may just be looking too hard into things but like... the way Nasiens does this just has the same vibes as Condensed Power. You know that thing that King did that one time that essentially thought Meliodas Trillion Dark, yeah that.

Nasiens and King are first introduced with an antagonist-type energy

The first time King shows up is when Gilthunder is talking to him about the other Sin's movements, there's an implication that they are working together and since at the time Gilthunder is already established as an antagonist the idea of King possibly being an antagonist too is placed.

These two panels are the only ones actually shown in the anime. A post-credit scene too and in the manga there's more to it. King seems independent, and he has his own motives and doesn't want anyone getting in his way. If anything this shows King as a potential threat to both the Holy Knights and the Sins.

Then, the first thing King did was try to kill Ban so yeah.

In Nasiens' case, the fairies of the Gorge hyped him up to be a bad guy and his appearance and actions matched this.

We first met Nasiens and Diane in some type of Foresty place

Forest of White Dreams and Echo Gorge

[overlyimmersed]

🎁🎉🎂Happy Birthday Harlequin!🎂🎉🎁

Last year I designed an outfit for him, and I intend to do that this year as well, but since it took me till the 27th to finish Elaine's(her birthdays was the 15th) I'm not super confident that I'll have that finished on time. If I do, you're probably looking at that right now, but if not! Then at least this will be out on time.

Well that didn't work... My sleep schedual betrayed me and I didn't even get this posted on time... I meant to take a nap. I set 3 alarms. Did not work. Slept for 15 hours...

Anyway, this year, along side the outfit design, I'll also be doing an analysis that I've been wanting to do for quite a long while.

A name analysis!

Most of the characters in The Seven Deadly Sins -at least the important ones- have names relating to Arthurian myth, as the story is kind a based in it. But this, oddly enough, doesn't apply to almost any of the Fairies, even Harlequin -AKA "King"- despite him being one of the titular characters.

Meliodas and Ban are the fathers of two of Arthur's knight, Tristian and Lancelot respectively, Merlin is Merlin, iirc there are two different Escanors depending on the story, and Gowther is...apparently Merlin's half-brother according a glance at google... Diane's namesake is a little harder to track down, but she's not directly Arthurian either from what I can gather. As far as I know the only Fairy who does align with Arthurian myth is Elaine, but the Elaine that's Ban's wife is not the only Elaine you'll find in Arthurian stories, it was a common name.

Anyway

Most people know the word "harlequin". Simply put it's a french clown.

-Oh and apparently also a duck XD

BUT

Not everyone who knows that, knows where the word comes from, or what the king of the Fairies would have it for a name.

The origin of the word is actually a lot older than the french clown concept and isn't actually french all the way back. here's what Google has to say;

"late 16th century: from obsolete French, from earlier Herlequin (or Hellequin ), the name of the leader of a legendary troop of demon horsemen; perhaps ultimately related to Old English Herla cyning ‘King Herla’, a mythical figure sometimes identified with Woden."

I actually learned this from a youtube video some years back, by Overly Sarcastic Productions. It's a Halloween episode discussing the concept of the "Wild Hunt". I highly recommend the video and the channel as a whole, they're really great, very funny and you learn a lot. The video is a little under 17 minutes long, though, so if you're only interested in the part relevant this analysis jump to 11:05 in the video.

For anyone who doesn't want to watch that and would rather read me summerize it, in the video it's explained that the Scandinavian version of the Wild Hunt is called "Odin's Hunt" but in Old English it's called "Herlaþing" which means "Herla's Assembly". Herla being a King of the Britons who makes a deal with a dwarf where the two attend each other's weddings. The dwarf is a perfect guest at Herla's wedding and the following year Herla goes to the dwarf kingdom to return the favor. When he leaves the dwarf gives him a hunting dog and warns him not to get off his horse till the dog does. When they get back the dog doesn't get off the horse, Herla asks a random person they pass how his wife is doing only to find out that 3 days in dwarfland = 300 years in humanland. Some of his men are shocked and get off their horses, only to age to dust when they touch the ground, so Herla is stuck riding his horse for eternity.

The concept of an eternal wander was popular and in the 11th century a french monk/chronicler used the phrase "Familia Herlequin" to describe a host of demons pursuing a monk, lead by a masked giant. This masked hunt leader would evolve into the character we now know as a "harlequin", a trickster character is french passion plays.

God, king and trickster presented as a fool, that actually kinda tracks, doesn't it?

And that, is why the king of the Fairies is named Harlequin.

[librathefangirl]

Short, a demon ideal?

Okay this post has been on my mind for a while now. So shout-out to @wow-skylar and @spacehostilityy for putting the idea of Meliodas and Zeldris bullying Estarossa for his height and short being a demon ideal into my head. Now allow me to run wild with it. (Apparently this turned into a whole analysis oops)

I love this because it kinda feels like it'd be a "silly little idea", but it actually makes sense. For starters, let's talk about Meliodas and his own height. Throughout the manga/anime we repeatedly get Meliodas being mistaken for a kid and underestimated because of this and the fact that he is Tiny™

And how does Meliodas react to this? Well, it's Mel, so it's not like he's fazed by these kind of things. But! While we do get him, sometimes repeatedly, stating that he's not a kid (because obviously he's not), we don't really get him protesting about his height/size. Granted, we don't get nearly as much occasions with someone pointing out his size without calling him a kid or such, but let's look at the above scene with Simon. Meliodas isn't just unfazed, he seems surprised that Simon would even be surprised that the captain of the Seven Deadly Sins, the infamous strongest and cruelest order of knights, is someone of his size.

Which brings us to Diane's height. When Gowther reveals that Diane has been lying about her height, Meliodas is confused and doesn't get why it's a big deal actually being 30 rather than 29 feet. Now this is mostly played off like a "boys vs girls" thing, and could just be a Meliodas thing. But why would it be a Meliodas thing? Maybe because he's a demon rather than a giant/human. Like @somthing-lavender said in the original post, this could be the result of demons not actually caring about height.

Okay so - demons don't care about heights is actually something that (to me at least) makes a lot of sense when you think about it. We're shown time and time again that size doesn't matter to demons, it's not a requirement for strength or power. The first demon we meet (that we know is a demon when we do) is the Red Demon. And yeah, at first the red (and also gray) demons seem like these big powerful threats. But, let's face it, it's season 1. A lot of people seemed more powerful back then than in later seasons. And the red and gray demons' power levels lie around 1,000-3,000 - which we now know isn't that much. Something that season 2 (season 3 on Netflix) quickly proves.

Season 2 introduces us a lot more to the demon clan's power levels. Because that's when power levels in general are revealed, but also because we get the Ten Commandments and Meliodas with his power restored. As for the Ten Commandments, we get a first view at their power levels through Galand's, which is 26,000 (with his magic depleted). Now, yes, I'm aware that Galand is also a big demon, but let's make a little comparison, shall we?

According to the wiki, the red demons are 800cm (26'3") tall with a power level of 1,000-1,300 and Galand is 408cm (13'5") tall with a power level of 27,000. This means that while Galand is about half the size of a red demon his power level is still about 27 times bigger. And! Galand is the Commandment with the lowest power level, the others' ranging between 31,000 and 61,000. With the exception of Grayroad and Fraudrin (and Drole, but he's a giant and shouldn't be included in this anyway), the others are also a lot smaller than him.

What's my point with all of this? That, despite the title of this post, demons don't care about height. There isn't some "gotta be big and strong" thing going on among the demons. Because they can just as well be tiny and strong. I mean, before Meliodas' power is restored (when he only has about 10% of his power) his strength still lies at 960, which is slightly above Diane's (a literal giant) 950 in her human size.

The demon clan is just a lot more diverse in that way compared to other races, like humans and giants (who btw kinda must appear to be more or less all the same size to demons?). There are some demons that are really big and powerful like Galand and Fraudrin. But also really short and powerful demons like Meliodas and Zeldris. So, yeah, they don't put the same value in heights like humans do.

Of course ideals don't always have to do with what's actually best. So, let's leave the analysis of canon for a bit and look at the idea that originally inspired this post: short being seen as an ideal for demons.

Now I love the idea that Mel and Zel accidentally creates a beauty standard by being short. And, once again, I have to admit, it kinda makes sense. Because when it comes to beauty standards we tend to look towards celebrities, right? Successful and desirable people? And, I mean, Meliodas and Zeldris are literal princes. They're also both insanely powerful, both successfully led the Ten Commandments at different points, and Meliodas was widely looked at as the one most likely to be the next Demon King. It makes sense that other demons would look at them as being the "ideal demon". It's also not like it would change after the Holy War finally ended because these two short demons (together with their allies) killed the Demon King and Supreme Deity, beings who were seen as gods, and then became kings of Liones and the demon clan respectively. And, yup, still stupidly powerful.

Plus, you could have so much fun with this idea. Like, if being short is the ideal, how do the demons look at tall demons - yeah, he's hot but he's also tall - or big demons - overcompensating much?

I can just imagine the shit Estarossa would have to put up with from his brothers (for example, see post mentioned at the top and reblogs of it). And Galand! I Imagine he would also get bullied by the smaller (and younger) Ten Commandments members (dude even gets bigger when using his power oof). Meliodas and Zeldris probably wouldn't give it too much thought (besides bullying their brother because "why you so tall? you gotta be adopted"), except when it comes to one other thing. The Demon King.

I like the thought about these two having these inside jokes about their father in-between all the trauma and abuse. Like look at that ridiculous size of their father, now that's a demon who is overcompensating XD - Also, how would this ideal affect the rest of the demons' view on the Demon King. Imagine some demons secretly side-eyeing the DK. "Yeah, he's unimaginably powerful and I would never dare say anything, but he's not really attractive, is he?" And "look at that insanely huge and powerful god of the realm, what would he be without his size?"

Idk I'm just messing around at this point. Anyway! I had some Thoughts™ (apparently) :)

[never-goingtopostanything]

Chaos arc fixes

This annoyed me so much because the chaos plot could have been done so much better and all that needed to be done was not have Merlin be in love with Meliodas.

The biggest issue is Merlin's motivation her love for Meliodas, the second biggest issue with Merlin being in love with Meliodas is that there is nothing to even suggest that she has romantic feelings for him apart from 1 OVA that was only realised in japan where it was slightly hinted at it if you squint and look from the side, granted making it more obvious wouldn't have fixed the issue since it's a cheap motivation at best since Meliodas can be replaced with anyone from the cast who doesn't have romantic feelings for Merlin.

There is two solutions to this, the first keeps her motivation the same but changes the person to her dad since we can't really swap him with someone else or the second change her motivation.

For the first solution her motivation needs to be changed from romantic love to fatherly love her dad never loved her, she was nothing more than infinity to him and she wants his love desperately, her backstory doesn't even need to change much, she was born, raised in a lab, ran away and was saved by Meliodas who takes her to the goddess realm, meets Elizabeth, then instead of her loving Meliodas have her realise that she is loveable because Meliodas and Elizabeth love her, but they love her like she wants her dad to so she returns to Belialuin, her dad still doesn't love her and then she learns of chaos and decides to try to revive it in hopes that chaos will be able to make her dad love her.

The second solution is changing her motive and there's already one for her to have, she wants to know everything there is to know. Have her not give a shit about love outside of wanting to know everything she can about it including manipulating it, have her only motivation for reviving chaos be to stick it in a test tube and poke at it to learn all of it's secrets, it might be shallow but so is her original motivation so that's not a issue. her back story could stay the same just remove everything about love and change it so she returns to Belialuin to learn about everything that the wise men knew and were studying, if this was the motive then Merlin could just not give a shit about Arthur dying, the montage of her and Arthur could stay then just have a hard cut to Merlin not caring, maybe have Elizabeth be worried because of how unaffected she is and keep the joke about Merlin having not cried since the frog cake Meliodas made that she tried.

Now the biggest issue about the chaos arc is that there was no build up to it, it feels like a last minute addition, we don't even know chaos exists unless we watched the Prisoners of the sky movie and even then chaos is never named the entire movie as far as we are concerned the old lady who talks about chaos is crazy since we don't know that the chipping of Hawks mum is an outer crust that is given form by chaos we don't care about the light that was shining from and that was one tiny scene from the end of the movie.

This is easy to fix by simply giving a few hints that chaos exists, have Merlin leave a book about chaos open and let us see the book, have Merlin meet with the lady of the lake and have them mention chaos before cutting away to something else, Merlin even be painted as a good guy while doing this, paint her as being worried that the holy knights won't be able to beat the demon race, show the archangels having the same fear, make it feel real that this is something that could happen and that Merlin is trying to do something that will increase the chances of beating the demon race, we would then route for her, we already know the people of Britannia are a lot weaker than their ancestors so it's like her being worried is unrealistic especially when some of the most powerful holy knights struggle with a single grey demon. This would also make Merlin's betrayal hurt more we are routing for her, we think she is trying to increase their chances of winning the 2nd holy war then it's revealed that she's been doing everything for her own selfish goals and motives and that the only thing she cares about is either her fathers love or her pursuit of knowledge. We could predict the previous arcs well enough that we could make theories on them but with the chaos arc there was nothing to hint as to it happening until it started.

Another issue is that we don't care about Merlin until this arc, she doesn't do anything we hardly see her during the first two halves of the series which is when we get invested, she needed to be introduced sooner and have a bigger role, she needed to have hints to her backstory, have her talk about her dad, show her and Meliodas being close, maybe even have him treat her like a little sister and have Elizabeth and the sins minus Gowther think they are sibling because of how close they are, show her relationships with the other sins, have her make Diane her shrink pills out for no reason outside of helping Diane, how are we meant to care that she betrayed the sins when we don't care about who Merlin, when we don't know what her relationships are with the other sins.

The chaos revival arc feels tacked on and not well thought out, there's no build up to it and Merlin's motive is weak, but it could have been good if there was a different motive and we knew that chaos existed in the first place, you don't add a knew character at the end of a story, chaos needed to exist outside of that one scene in the prisoners of the sky movie that not everyone watched.

[overlyimmersed]

Diane did say "Our kid" in the scene, like singular. But Mertyl would have been 9 or 10 by that point... How long do you suppose they waited to have Sixtus? What exactly are the age differences between all these kids? Diane is her regular size at Tristan's 10th birthday, and in Grudge of Edinburgh she mentions having run out of her minimum tablets, which is four years later... I don't know how long giants are pregnant for, but I don't think she could have had 6 kids in 4 years? Even with Zilian and Zana being twins that's still 5 pregnancies in 4 years which does not math if the gestation period is comparable to humans. So at least Sixtus would have had to have been born already by the time Tristan turned 10... Probably Belte and the twins too or else Tioreh is like a year old at best...

...Honestly the longer I try to figure this the worse it gets... The best case scenario or Tioreh's age is 13. But in order for her to even be that old, Diane would have had to be pregnant pretty much constantly for 5 years... In that scenario all of the kids would have already been born by the time Tristan was 10... Unless my math is bad XD

And again, this does hinge on giants have the same pregnancy length as humans, which we don't actually know...

I suppose that line from Diane might have just been comparing kids of the same age, rather than implying Mertyl was an only child as that moment... But even if that's the case, like, I'm sorry. I love Mertyl, I really do, but he is not their cutest kid XD

Also unless I missed a Q&A or something Nasiens hasn't changed his pronouns. Just cuz we didn't know he was androgynous before doesn't actually change anything. He has always known what his body looks like, and still has chosen to go by he/him all his life.

Some four knights rambles

[jinn-mori]

My Thoughts on 4KOTA Guinevere

Ok, so I think a widely hated character in 4KOTA's cast is Guinevere. I think the main reason is Nakaba being weird about pushing for a romantic relationship between Lancelot and Guinevere. Also apparently people find her annoying.

Well, no fucking duh she's going to be annoying. Guin's a kid, more importantly a kid who knows a lot about the future, too much I'd argue for someone of her age. And that's because she shouldn't have to carry a burdening magic like Kaleidoscope.

Speaking of which, she tells Lancelot that she felt would have gone mad from wielding such a magic. But he was her anchor in a sense, him being there even if it was just in visions is what kept her going.

In a way, it parallels with Ban and Elaine. Elaine was Ban's reason to keep going, to be able to see her again someday. In that context, Lancelot is the Elaine to Guinevere's Ban. And Guinevere parallels Elaine due to both of them being isolated because of forces out of their control and being idolized in a sense. Elaine had to look after the Fountain of Youth and was regarded as the Holy Woman of the Fountain of Youth. Guinevere isn't seen as a child; she's seen as another cog in Arthur's machine, only useful for her magic and nothing else.

My personal reading of Guinevere's feelings towards Lancelot is that she believes her feelings for him are romantic, but it's more like a security blanket sort of thing. She loves Lancelot because he sees her as a person, not for her magic. And it definitely feels like Guinevere has a complicated relationship with her magic that I do hope gets explored more.

Guin is simultaneously childish and mature, though I feel like the maturity is more of a resignation to her fate. "But she knows her future so why is she immature?" I think it's in the same vein as watching those videos summarizing games rather than playing them. Yes, she knows such and such will happen but there's a difference between knowing and actually experiencing it. I know that wasps exist and am generally unbothered by that. but I go full Misty when I actually have to deal with the little shits.

As for the kiss, this is not justifying it, but Guin wasn't thinking it through because fitting to her magic and how it revolves around her, she wasn't thinking about how Lancelot would react to it. Again, she's a child and her thought process was probably 'kissing is a thing that lovers do, so I should do it to Lancelot because he's my lover'. It's kind of how in a previous relationship of mine, I thought I was supposed to kiss my boyfriend because that was what couples did (little did Jinn know she was aroace).

Personally, if I were to write them - Lancelot and Guinevere - I would have Guin realize that she didn't have romantic feelings for Lancelot but intense platonic ones akin to a queerplatonic. Also age her up a bit because I find their age gap to be icky.

I might try a redesign of Guinevere at some point.

[hihopelessromantics]

magical balance, anyone ?

another day of fixing Nakba's mistakes ! aka fleshing out the Themes where he didn't

I think each clan’s existence plays a role in maintaining the fabric of reality as it is, and manifesting the magic that exists. Absence or excess causes intense problems and threatens the world. 

As put by my pal @exrolotus!

Goddesses: life 

Demons: death 

Fairies: flora nature

Giants: fauna / tectonic nature 

Human: willpower 

Basic Diagram of Magical Balance

(you can barely see the goddess clan! Just like nakaba!)

The given reason for humanity becoming more magical and the overall magical health of Britannia declining is plot convenience. But this is what I think it should actually be going on there: 

The goddess clan and demon clan both generally exist at a greater distance from humanity compared to the giant and fairy clan, either in another dimension or other place (my mutuals propose, for instance, that the demon realm exists in either Japan or Ireland); this distance representing how they stand on equally powerful and opposite sides of a spectrum. It’s so clear how far apart they are, how clear at first glance the line is between what they represent. I propose that their link to the magical balance between them is more precarious than that between of the giants and fairies, and much more vital to the manifestation of magic itself.

As for the giants and fairies: their clans’ supernatural relationship is easier to understand in that they both have ties to nature. It’s a more tangible concept - how does the environment exist without the earth? Flora without fauna? And when do we ever see fairies and giants going toe-to-toe? 

We see the Giant and Fairy clans join with Diane and King’s marriage. I’m going to dig for meaning and propose that this restored a balance between them that was always meant to be. That, in the same way that Elizabeth and Meliodas met and bonded soul-to-soul, their souls’ union was able to restore an ancient and necessary balance to their own clans. Elizabeth and Meliodas brought the end to an eternal war. I’m gonna say that King and Diane brought an end to an unnatural silence. An absence of a relationship, to parallel the absence of a supernatural union between light and dark, life and death, which, arguably should coexist without a third force (supernatural racism, the goddesses’ genocide agenda, etc.) attempting to eliminate one from existence. 

Drole and Gloxinia’s relationship in canon has mysterious origins. A lot of us seem to be shipping them, and I don’t think they’re wrong from a narrative perspective. Remember the giants’ connection to the earth and the faries’ connection to nature. It makes sense that their clans should have some kind of relationship, instead of not interacting at all. Love between them, whether romantic or platonic, could represent the same thing. I hypothesize that fairies and giants were always close (not necessarily physically!) in ancient times until the Holy War, and upon seeing the devastation and unnecessary death they “split” in order to prevent history from repeating. An angst disagreement, or a solemn and silent withdrawal. Giants, continuing on as some of the greatest warriors in Britannia, overemphasizing it in the hope their strength will continue to protect them and bring them honor and courage. Fairies, isolating themselves from all other interactions, neglecting their warrior skills to the point where they become as they are in nnt, relying on their king to do everything for them and “discarding their honor” in terms of their powers. Unhealthy war, unhealthy peace. 

I propose that the rifts caused by the Holy War are what sapped the magic from Britannia. When the goddesses and demons lose the ability to interact with the world “in-between” them, the magic drains. Etc. Humans, the “odd one out,” adapted. For fun, I think there should be some natural disasters thrown into the mix every now and again, as well as other phenomena which I will describe later. What happens when the ropes on all four sides, holding together the supernatural balance of reality, snap? This whole thing is inspired somewhat by the idea that in a fantasy realm, there is one more sphere of health you have to keep track of. It’s physical health, mental health, and magical health. Neglect your mental health? Uh oh! Neglect your magical health? UH OH. I think that if you’re not in touch with yourself and your powers, well, there are consequences. And something like that on a larger scale is happening to Britannia with two (?) upset balances.  

Thoughts? :D

[ramjam]

Guila's necklace? I don't remember this

classically long-winded kristin answer in-coming.

when dale went missing/was corrupted, he was wearing a necklace that was addressed to guila herself. which suggests she likely gave it to him as a charm, since guila recognized it at first glance (aka: this means it wasn't a gift she never received.)

outside of feeling inadequate about her ability to defend herself and her brother, guila's character draft sheet states that she specifically joined the knights to infiltrate and find out the truth about her father.

jericho was ultimately the one who uncovered this. she became suspicious of helbram when he adamantly refused to send her and guila on the armor giant mission. this pissed her off because, in her own words, she wanted to go together with guila (man whatever.) when she saw guila's disappointment at his rejection, it spurred jericho to disobey his orders and spy on the mission to see what was really going on.

which, of course, ended up being guila's father transformed into a monster as a victim of one of the reactor experiments a decade ago.

there was some focus on the necklace during this arc since it ended up being the catalyst for guila's "redemption." jericho basically handed her the answer. she also avoided guila for a day and withheld this, because she knew it would be a really devastating bombshell.

(love love love those panels focusing on jericho's hesitation in the bottom right. she cares so much for her well-being ughhhhh. MAN WHATEVER.)

just the necklace itself revealed that guila was following the same path as her father and likely would meet the same fate. which means she also realized helbram was using her, just as he used her father. he purposefully hid the answers to all her angst and confusion about her father being an accused traitor.

i feel like people really forget what resurrected helbram did to her, tbh. before jericho brings the necklace to her, helbram had guila unknowingly destroy her father's helmet just for his own cruel entertainment. get a hobby, leave her alone!!!

the last time we see the necklace mentioned is in one of the volume extras. she puts it on before the big battle in the city, when she starts to contemplate turning her back on the order now that she's seen the corruption.

i wanted to get into the full detail to emphasize why it's just been a little odd we haven't seen her wearing it or anything. i've always really liked the detail that her father was wearing her necklace when he was betrayed and corrupted. a hilariously ironic good luck charm, considering the same exact thing ended up happening to her. etc etc.

the re-gifting of it with its message engraved on the back ends up feeling like he's encouraging her to make the right choice.