#not theory just analysis

[stil-lindigo]

the vulture.

a comic about cycles.

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[strawberrybyers]

the outfit parallels to season 1 are going to put me in a god damn coma,, if you hear nervous laughing sorry that’s just me because WHAT THE FUCK

[anyfire]

still thinking about the two realities conversation between mari and ben and how it works into the ongoing "debate" on whether or not the supernatural stuff is real, or if it's all just happening in their heads. to me the show is at its best when it's saying two things at once, ie "we brought it back with us". "it" being It, but also "it" being trauma. like, "two versions of reality" is an inherently supernatural statement. but it's also a very real one.

it comes after ben detailing his life as a "completely normal guy" before the crash, and how in a world where the crash never happened or he never got on the plane, he would still be that guy. we've already seen glimpses of what that life could have looked like when ben dissociates, and we see it for the girls when lottie hallucinates the shopping mall. we also see versions of "different realities" in jackie's death dream, as well as the dream shauna has after giving birth. and all of these visions and dreams become more warped/horrifying the longer they continue -- cabin guy in jackie's dream, ben's final vision being in the cabin with paul leaving, the snow coming down on lottie in the middle of the food court, and finally the rest of the team eating shauna's baby. the other reality, the "bad" one, the one infected by the wilderness and everything that's come about because of it, just "hiding, or waiting".

mari also talks about watching a cartoon in the hospital room when her cousin dies, and going out into the waiting room afterwards where the same cartoon is playing. to me, those are two different realities as well. but the world where her cousin just died next to her and the world where she's just in a hospital waiting room, as if it never happened, are tethered. sometimes only your world ends, and for everyone else it's just another day. we also see THIS echoed in the adult lives of all the survivors. they're paranoid, misunderstood, violent, strange. they're utterly disconnected from everyone but each other. the world ended for them, but it didn't for anyone else. they came back, but they can't ever really leave.

there's a reality where shauna really did go outside and get jackie. there's a reality where the team really is eating chinese food in a shopping mall food court. there's a reality where none of them survived the plane crash to begin with. there's a reality where jackie drinks hot chocolate. there's a reality where MARI drinks hot chocolate. there's allie's reality, where she was SUPPOSED to be on the plane that day. maybe theres a reality where they take a bus instead. but all of them, in one way or another, are real.

i don't know, i just really love it. i love how it plays into the ideas of fate and regret and doom and self fulfilling prophecies and how it reinforces the one true "villain" in the show being the plane crash itself, because all the tragedy that comes about because of it would never have happened. it's a conversation about "what if's" just as much as it's a conversation about the dream realm and the visions and all the other freaky shit going on out there. 10/10.

[evilherehotel]

one is a very interesting character to me. with most of the lore still up in the air as of the time this is written, it's hard to be sure who exactly she is; or, who she was. today, i want to take a closer look at what we have her character and try to figure out what that "was" could've looked like.

first, i'll start with what we know.

above all else, one is controlling. whether that be in a literal sense, when one influences the world and events around her, or in an emotional sense, when it comes to manipulating others in order to get them to agree to her deals.

in tpot 13, she tells basketball that something they have in common is not liking when things don't go their way. this makes sense for one; every little thing she does is planned, prepared, controlled. she knows the steps people will take before they even take them, she knows every move she needs to make to get under people's skin, and she knows how to make everything go according to plan.

but what about when it doesn't?

in tpot 17, it's as though that control slips. things don't go her way. she isn't nearly as put-together, nor is she calculative or patient enough to even try putting up her persona and coaxing donut in the same way she has with her other signatories. her room seems to reflect her state of mind, scattered and disorganized. she's not stable enough to think of a way to convince him, or even think to hold him down, and her lack of control in the situation gives donut more free will, the ability to reject her deal, and, more importantly, the ability to fight back.

this act is something so spontaneous, so unpredictable, that it causes one to snap and immediately try to grab this control back. she becomes blinded by rage and attacks him, yet her scare tactic only shows more of her weakness: one can't handle feeling powerless.

although she's stronger than donut and was more than willing to show him that, her behavior also seems to stem from a point of insecurity. being disobeyed, treated not as an all-powerful being but instead an equal - or even a lesser - is her breaking point. obviously anybody would be mad over getting kicked, but it's clear something deeper must've been triggered in one in order to get her that manically angry.

where did this need for control come from? how does this tie into her past?

to know this, we should first look at another key detail of her character: her deals.

on first glance, one's signatories don't have much in common. they're easy targets, people with weaknesses that one can easily find and exploit, with not much other correlation. but upon closer inspection, a pattern makes itself clear in every single person that one took into her room.

when fanny joined death pact again, she was taught to abandon her own beliefs and objectives and instead prioritize preventing death. for a while, she obliges by this, even as it causes them to lose challenges and causes her friends to drop out of the game like flies, until she decides she has enough of it and rebels against the others and their beliefs.

ice cube was used as a pawn of sorts by freesmart, a replacement for members that were held to more respect and value than her. her and the others always did what they were told for the alliance, and when she eventually splits off from freesmart, she is almost immediately coddled and controlled by book, still completely unable to speak or think for herself before she eventually snaps at book and leaves altogether.

basketball was completely complacent in bfb, her only feature outside of her loyalty to 8-ball being her empathy for others. this shines through in tpot when, even despite their differences in personality or team, basketball looks out for others more than herself, but nobody else listens to her when she tries to voice the problems she's seeing. this complete disregard for basketball and what she cares about is what causes a downward spiral of events beyond anybody's control.

gaty and two became attached to eachother very quickly, becoming almost codependent in a sense. gaty gives everything she has to two, and her willingness to stay in the hotel with them, to keep them happy - their willingness to keep her there because of their attachment - only puts her in more danger, and ends in them being separated for good.

it's stated outright by one that donut puts others over himself, even people like pencil and their mess of a team. he chooses to be selfless, a voice of reason, a leader that holds the team together despite the chaos it always brings in its wake.

her deals that weren't shown to us onscreen tie into this as well:

bomby, since his debut on bfdi, has been used as a weapon or tool by all of the people around him, mistreated and hurt and never taken seriously despite the fact that he tries to be strong and independent in the later seasons.

bell's privacy is treated as a joke by both the narrative and the others, and struggles to be left alone without help, help that more often than not isn't provided to her.

needle spent so much of her time in bfdia trying to appease others, which led to her being easy to take advantage of. she literally played on two teams at the same time in order to make everyone happy with her, but she eventually decided that she was tired of being used and left these groups, turning against them and deciding to win for herself.

barf bag's autonomy being tampered with started an apocalypse that changed the way she viewed herself and caused her to avoid her team for a brief period of time because she didn't want to be seen as a monster. in that same episode, her nightmare involved people doing things that she couldn't control and influencing her in ways that she couldn't stop.

what do you notice about all of these characters? all of them were overshadowed by others, either by prioritizing them over themselves or by being taken advantage of. all of them want to be recognized, respected, and heard, and despite that, all of them lacked one thing: control. if they wanted control in their lives, they'd have to fight for it, if they wanted power in their lives, they'd have to snap to get people to see that they deserved it. and if that weren't the case, the world around them would snap for them.

one seems to be very, very familiar with this kind of person. familiar enough for them to be her only targets, familiar enough for her to know exactly what to give them and exactly what they want to hear, familiar enough to suggest that this kind of person is much closer to her than just a means to executing her plan.

familiar enough that it could also very well suggest that this kind of person was one herself.

now, we really have no idea what one's past looked like, but we do have a crucial detail given to us by six in tpot 17: she was supposed to be gone.

this implies that one must've done something, something so bad that it made the other algebraliens decide to get rid of her for good. could this have been something ongoing until they decided enough was enough, or was it something bigger than that? had one, perhaps, snapped, the same way we saw her do when she was tested in tpot 17, the same way we saw multiple of her signatories do when they were tired of being pushed aside and looked down on?

in tpot 13, one expresses that she does have power, "but not enough." while this could easily be read in reference to her plan, it also hints at how she looks at herself: her power is not enough. one is not enough.

she needs two's power because she can't reach her goal without it. she needs to become something bigger, something more, in order for her to feel like that's enough for her. being obeyed and looked up to by her victims makes her feel powerful, like she's more, like she's enough, having constant control makes her feel like she's enough, having everything she wants handed to her makes her feel like she's enough, because maybe, she never had that.

maybe, one was just like her targets, selfless and almost complacent at times, observant enough to spot the issues others were having, even if she was the only person who did, even if none of the others took her seriously, even if they pitied her, treated her as a lesser, and acted as though she had no power in her own life.

and all of that lasted until she decided that everyone deserved to be a little selfish - it's only fair.

she became tired of giving herself and not getting anything back. she became tired of being looked down on, tired of not having control - all one wanted was control for once, and she would get that whether they liked it or not.

and that frustration was enough to make one snap and do something that earned her imprisonment in the moon, which only served as a painful and enraging reminder of how they saw her.

she was going to get out, and she was going to make sure that nobody ever looked down on her again.

for now, this is all theories, and it's a bit rough, but i appreciate you guys for sticking around this long !! lets see how well these theories hold up.. if they do.. at all.. um

[justcallmesakira]

I love how the bsd fandom was celebrating chuuyas birthday being happy, joyful, a bit of angsty JUST yesterday and then fyodor just comes to ruin the party like that one auntie that no one of the family likes.

[alicentsgf]

Whats interesting is whilst Shauna was gleeful at Mari being chosen in the hunt, im not 100% sure she would have been capable of killing her if she'd actually caught up to her. butchering a dead body, shooting at someone indirectly, cohercing others into violence, its not quite the same thing. like Shauna delights in violence, but Lotties the only one we've seen actively kill someone in the teen timeline (and that happens during a psychotic episode). the only person we've seen Shauna kill is Adam and that was on impulse when she felt threatened.

Has Shauna reached a point yet where she could actually take someones life in a premeditated way? because i dont think so, and im not sure she ever will reach it. Shaunas all desire, impulse, fear, and instinct. its very animalistic, and it seems like this is why Lottie sees so much of "the wilderness" in her. so yes clearly Shauna can kill when threatened or desperate, but can she kill just for the hell of it? because she hasnt yet, and it arguably goes against her nature to do so. its perhaps part of the reason why the incident with bruce the goat at Lotties compound effects her so much. she has no drive to kill him, theres no threat to trigger a violent response from her.

Shauna is always outward-looking, struggling to self-reflect or make sense of herself, but it also means she sees the world very simply. shes matter-of-fact, the only one who never truly believes on any level in "the wilderness" belief system (though she might pretend to for the sake of control). its another way in which shes almost animal-like in her approach to the world. animals dont need belief systems or stories and they adapt to their enviroment, becoming feral and reactive if thats what it takes to keep them alive.

It'll be interesting next season to see if Shauna gets the opportunity to kill in a more premeditated way, and doesnt take it. cant go through with it the way she thought she'd be able to. I think its why Callie is "her, but more", like Lottie says. because Callie can. Callie did. Lotties death happened on impulse but it wasnt an accident, we see Callie decide to push her, and Lottie wasnt a true threat in the way Shauna believed Adam to be. I think Lottie has perhaps seen Shauna's limits in a way the audience hasn't yet, and is referencing that. Shauna puts on a facade so she can rule through fear because she needs to feel powerful, clinging to it like a life raft, but she perhaps isnt as capable of murder as she wants everyone to think.

[fumifooms]

Rin, smiling, and nagging

Rinsha Fana’s character is summarized in a couple facts thrown here and there. Because she worries for him, she follows Kabru to help his cause and protect him, and to nag him. She’s a grumpy angry tsundere, but it seems not only rooted in her attitude but on a deep rooted physical level, to the point where any intense emotion she feels will make her frown and scowl even if it’s genuine joy. Her childhood was half spent ostracized in the tallman community her family lived in and half with the elves, where she’s said to have been treated like an animal.

We don’t know how she was raised exactly or who it even was, but knowing she was "treated like an animal" by the elves taking care of her…

Elves are shown to have a highly hierarchical society, not only with their concern with status such as nobility and the purity of bloodlines but also reflected by its social culture imo. They have high society and etiquette, upmost devotion to the queen, very role-oriented, like cogs in a machine, and as such, it’s a bit skewed since most of what we see of the elves is in a military context with military people but they seem to value having emotions under lock and key to be efficient and not bring dishonor, Flamela is an interesting character on this. Don’t be a bother and do your job until you’re called on, fulfill your role, everything else is extra at best inconvenient at worst.

Personally I do think the canaries kept Rin, it’d make sense that whichever canaries got stuck with the job at the headquarters would be barebones with her and treat her like an ‘impounded article’, they couldn’t find another place for her and this way they can get her report on the events whenever she can speak again in however many years, and this way it makes sense that she could keep in touch with Kabru too. They’re used to prisoners, not kids. Being raised in a military context rather than at some orphanage would shape her further.

All of this to say…

She’d already seen the world’s harshness to those who don’t conform in her hometown, but with the elves? Her disdain for those who had formal education at a magic school?

Wouldn’t she become very concerned with proving she is not an animal, proving that she’s smart and skilled in her own right on her own merit, even without schooling. And to do this she nitpicks and nitpicks, because even being pristine isn’t enough to be respected, but at least it’s not giving others reasons to disrespect and dehumanize her. Learning to school her emotions, to scowl as a defense mechanism because anything else makes her vulnerable, because they don’t care about her as a person with feelings, because showing other expressions was dangerous or punished in some way: because it was fit in or don’t fit in and that’s the difference between having your house burnt down and being tolerated, between getting her food or having her questions answered and being yelled at to shut up… Because all her life she’s been surviving in hostile social environments and at the mercy of others, but unlike Kabru she doesn’t become a people pleaser but becomes very self-reliant and wary of socializing.

So she nitpicks and nitpicks and nags, because she’s worried. Because flaws are dangerous. So she has a hard time smiling and laughing, because it’s dangerous to allow yourself to feel safe in being authentic.

It would be nice…

Is my red, red enough? I'm waiting for your teeth at my throat. It’s only good manners. -Stephanie Valente 

[iamespecter]

GAHHHHHH CAN I JUST SAY IT REALLY PISSES ME OFF WHEN PEOPLE SAY THIS END SCREEN OF LN1 MEANS THAT ANOTHER SHIP IS COMING???? TERICHO NEEDS TO STOP PROMOTING THIS THEORY ISTG

NO, THE FOGHORN THAT SOUNDS WHEN YOU PRESS ENTER DOES NOT MEAN THERE'S ANOTHER SHIP!!!! BECAUSE THE MAW IS FULLY SUBMERGED IN THIS!!!! THE FOGHORN IMPLIED THAT THE SHIP THAT WAS DELIVERING GUESTS ON BOARD JUST LEFT!!!! STOP SAYING THIS IS ANOTHER SHIP!!!!! RAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

I HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR LITERAL YEARS AND EVERYTIME, IT FEELS LIKE I'M SCREAMING AT A BRICK WALL!!!

If you *critically* think about it, it ABSOLUTELY MAKES NO SENSE THAT IT WOULD BE ANOTHER SHIP THAT'S ARRIVING.

Because:

The Maw is fully submerged at this point.

We are very much shown that The Maw ONLY accepts Guests WHEN the top part/the "mouth" has emerged. As shown in this sequence of the game, and in the concept art.

It's stated that The Maw "arrives" ONCE a year. NEVER in the same place, but ALWAYS at the same time. SO NO, IT'S *NOT* ACCEPTING GUESTS OVER BECAUSE IT'S CLEARLY FULLY SETTLED BACK DOWN AGAIN. WHY WOULD IT WASTE RESOURCES TO SUBMERGE ITSELF IF IT WAS GOING TO RE-EMERGE AGAIN MOMENTS LATER.

The door Six exits out of is likely a maintenance door; for cleaning the Chimney in case of blockage. Especially because of the fact that there is a visible staircase that leads up to the smokestack. PLUS, IF IT WERE FOR THE GUESTS TO COME THROUGH; WHY IS IT A SLIM ENTRANCE UNLIKE THE ACTUAL ENTRANCE OF THE MAW? BECAUSE IT'S ONLY MEANT FOR WORKERS LIKE ROGER/THE JANITOR.

It's heavily implied that while Six and The Lady aren't related, nor are they stuck in a time-loop-- coughcoughlikeMonoandtheThinManCOUGH-- it's still possible that Six is intended to be The Next Lady of the Maw. Mostly because of the whole boss fight that doesn't really resemble a fight, but moreso a ritualistic passing of the torch. And the implications of multiple Ladies existing throughout the millenia.

To be clear; I don't think Six will be stuck inside The Maw for long. As her description states, she belongs elsewhere.

Which could mean that my girl *might* make a comeback for LN3, but I wouldn't hold it against Supermassive Games if LN3 doesn't even make a single cameo towards Six/making her appear. Because either way, I fully understand each outcome.

[rainbow-sunshine-unicorn]

I’m still thinking about how particularly poignant it was for Kate to say this to Anthony

Especially when you juxtapose it against this

Here is a man who believes that the family he loves, and has devoted his life’s work to, doesn’t love him back. That they, in fact, despise him. Every single one of his siblings, and the only living parent he has left, all of them hate him.

It’s just so bleak, because he’s not just saying that they don’t love him, but also because he implies that they don’t understand the way he loves, the way he has devoted himself to them and he doesn’t know how else to love.

Then you have Kate telling him that she loves him so very much that she cannot bear it.

And she says this immediately after he expresses his love in a way he knows how to. Not as an “I love you” in words, but in saying that her home is also their child’s home, her culture is also his culture. That he’ll learn, that he wants to spend time and effort to learn about her home and history and teach it to their child. It’s very much an act of devotion.

Kate understands this. She understands how much he loves her. His way of loving is easy for her to understand.

And, she loves him back. She appreciates the way he loves her, it makes her love him even more, till it’s almost too much to bear.

Can you imagine what such a declaration means to a man who believed that he was doomed to be despised by the very people he loves because of the way he loves. He believed that his expression would go not just unreturned but unnoticed because he didn’t know how to translate it to his family.

And here comes Kate, who shows him that he doesn’t have to translate anything, because she speaks the same language. She understands the love he’s expressing and she returns it.

To be truly loved is to be known and no one knows or loves Anthony better than Kate.

[beargregor]

wait i'm curious, what makes you say that gregor doesn't like everyone else (if i read that post right)? just curious since i've never seen anyone else say that

i don't necessarily think gregor dislikes everyone else at lcb but i do think that gregor is an incredibly petty person that isn't nearly as close to the rest of the sinners and even outright dislikes some of them cough cough rodya cough cough which a lot of people just Refuse to see because he's as much of a doormat as he is. there's several examples i could get into to try and prove my point however i'll just focus on what i personally think to be the biggest ones.

additionally, this is going to be kind of long, so i'm adding a read more. read more! read it. sorry for being so wordy. i have several diseases.

Pt1. gregor is the type to try and get along at least decently with everyone, especially if he gets a good first impression from them.

this is less a point in favor of gregor's distance w/ the rest of the sinners and more just a contributing factor to it. once again there's several examples i could point to here but i think the most in your face one happened in canto I with yuri, as several people have pointed out. even before gregor comes clean about growing attached to her as quickly as he did because she reminds him of his sister, we get this interaction.

i'll go ahead and make the disclaimer now that i don't necessarily think gregor is the most reliable of narrators, especially when it comes to his feelings and interactions with most people, but from the way he acts when the topic of yuri comes up (and the way we still see him act even all the way up to c7, nearly a whole year after yuri's death) i don't see reason to question his sentiment here. gregor immediately got that aya and yuri were close, potentially even taking note of their traded belts, and went out of his way to get something nice for yuri despite hardly knowing her.

i feel like a lot of people have forgotten as much, especially since it's been so long since c1, but gregor actually spent a good bit of season 1 doing the exact same thing with the other sinners! gregor reads a connection between him and ishmael pretty quickly despite getting off to a rocky start

mostly because gregor can tell that ishmael is pretty sardonic in a very similar way to him. there's been multiple instances where ishmael and gregor have essentially expressed the same sentiment at different moments, most notably gregor's little argument after ishmael got shot with a decay ampule in c4

and ishmael's response to pilot talking about self-sacrifice in c5

i could go ahead and pull up more examples, but in general pm has gone out of their way to show us that gregor and ishmael are pretty similar, so it makes sense for gregor to assume that they're friends, right?

this will be pushpin 1. keep note of this for Later.

ishmael's only the first sinner we see gregor trying to do this with in s1, we also see him try it out with heathcliff, sinclair, and ryoushuu

he's tried to get along with charon, being one of very few sinners that we've seen actually try to establish a connection with her at all

even rodya, despite my insistence that gregor doesn't like her nearly as much as the fandom thinks he does

all of these seem pretty fine and dandy, right? sure it frequently leans towards self-degradation, micromanaging, and commiseration, but gregor can at least be pretty chummy with most of the sinners, can't he?

Pt2. hell's chicken was more than just comic relief guys please

i'm fully aware that this is quite the hot take, but i think hell's chicken deserves a lot more credit for character writing than the fandom gives it. hell's chicken gave us foreshadowing for several events, such as the donqui bloodfiend reveal

heathcliff's distortion in c6 (as well as hong lu's highly speculated distortion at some point in the future)

and ryoushuu and sinclair's continued connection by making him the odd one out on her team

which, hey! that implies something about gregor's odd one out, don quixote, too, doesn't it? yes. yes it does. that's pushpin 2. keep note of that for later.

speaking of pushpins, hey! that's pushpin 1!

splitting into teams is one of the major events in hell's chicken, and most of the sinner's choices are either motivated by very little, backhanded, or motivated primarily by not wanting to be on the opposite leader's side. i didn't include all of the picks, just because i feel like including most of them already gets this across, but i think gregor took one major thing from this: most of the sinners, when push comes to shove, will only side with gregor when they refuse to or can't take his opponent's side.

now, don't get me wrong, i'm fully aware that this is primarily intended to be comedic relief, but when gregor is being described as having his trust broken by ishmael or nearly crying because no one on his team properly sided with him for him, i feel like it's pretty fair to read into this.

something that i think is pretty important to remember in conjunction with this is that we know that gregor is the type to hold a grudge, both from his general attitude towards the G corp soldiers in c1 as well as his continued distaste for vergilius

even beyond the splitting into teams of hell's chicken, the sinners have given gregor plenty of reasons to feel bitter. i feel like this is something people have noticed but haven't really put a finger on, but it's kind of wild just how often the rest of the sinners make gregor the butt of the joke

and sure, we could argue that a fair few of these aren't really made with any ill intent. quite a bit of it could have been meant as harmless teasing, but with gregor being more sensitive than most, it coming from nearly all sides, and as often as it does? yeah, i think he's prone to taking it a bit personally.

Pt3. yes i do still think gregor was the third most important character in canto VII you guys gotta hear me out okay

of course, all of this leads up to the bit of the story i highlighted, doesn't it? c7? i totally get why people haven't really picked up on all the gregor things i did in it, seeing as they were mostly not *directly* said about him or by him.

personally, i think that gregor's distaste for talking about himself on any serious level and thus leading to him getting sort of "sidelined" narratively (which i take issue with that claim, but still. it's effective for getting what i mean across atm) is supposed to lead players to take a deeper look at the times gregor gets held up to other characters and compare and contrast what's being said about them by the matchup. as i showed earlier with his immediate latching onto ishmael, i think this is something gregor himself is at least partially aware of too.

so, that begs the question, who was gregor compared to in canto VII that makes me think it's one of the most critical pieces in understanding his character?

really, i'd like to avoid getting too lost in the analysis of this canto specifically, since i'd like to do a proper post about this later, but i figure i can bury the lede a little before doing it properly.

c7 features several characters being made to perform in sansón's play, acting out the relevant backstory for this segment of the plot. a lot of these characters have rather direct, degrading reasons for playing the roles they do.

outis, a character with an inflated ego who wants her journey to have a purpose, is made to play an aimlessly wandering villager with a single line.

hong lu and ryoushuu, two characters for whom families and the expectations placed upon them are likely going to play a major role, are made to play bloodfiends.

rodya, a character who resents her lot in life and is constantly shown to be eager to leave her destitution behind her and become someone special, is made to play a helpless villager that's too poor to even offer any money to the hero that saves her.

heathcliff, a character that has spent most of his life getting dehumanized by comparing him to beastly animals, is made to play a literal bear whose sole purpose in the plot is to get beat up and then quickly left by the wayside.

sinclair, a character that has two opposed parties essentially treating him as a macguffin to procure for their side, is made to play the character who was arguably the catalyst for this entire canto, not to mention playing a decently major role in ruina.

our star don quixote is made to play her father, the first kindred, but there's someone by their side the entire time, isn't there? don quixote's dear, steadfastly loyal companion. a character which don quixote has tasked themself with getting to come out of their shell?

hello again, pushpin 2.

gregor has been made to play our unreachable star, sancho. someone had to, of course. you can't really tell a story without it's main character, now can you?

now, i should once again give a disclaimer. i am not trying to say that i think adapting what happens to donqui/sancho in c7 to gregor is the road pm is going to take here, not only would that toe a bit past the line of foreshadowing, but it'd also just amount to rehashing that plotline again, which i don't think would make for a particularly exciting story.

what i DO think is that we can take a lot of the things that are said to either directly be the case for sancho and use them to inform how we see gregor.

and god, does playing sancho have some fucking implications for our favorite ossan archetype.

starting off, the earliest moment we get to see of sancho is quite literally her just waiting for death to take her in a pile of ashes.

which, i should remind everyone, is actually pretty damn close to what happens to gregor's literary counterpart at the end of the metamorphosis. gregor samsa experiences one final breaking point that pushes him over the edge and makes him decide to just wait for starvation to take him.

gregor and sancho both consider themselves to no longer be human, something which sancho goes out of her way to highlight repeatedly throughout the canto and gregor is quick to get defensive on her behalf for when outis starts really tearing into her

sancho spends quite a lot of this story denying herself the joys of community and friendship, despite knowing that, even with the rest of the sinners frequently making jokes at her expense and outright insulting her, they were things that she desperately craved.

and, while this is getting into my "outis is a red herring meant to distract us from gregor's eventual betrayal" theorizing, i also think it's worth noting for this discussion that sancho's fellow kindreds, her family, all seem to be under the impression that she dislikes them and ultimately her departure was an act of betrayal

and that, despite gregor being one of LCB's resident mood makers and attempted conflict de-escalators, one of the sinners that's most prone to making appeals to the bonds they've all forged together, only him and faust remained silent during everyone's speech

so yeah, i think there's quite a lot of little details and hints building up to the reveal that gregor's not quite as fond of everyone as he presents himself to be. i do think a lot of this ultimately comes down to gregor getting in the way of his own happiness, similarly to donqui, particularly because he's been frequently portrayed as something of a self fulfilling prophecy, especially by giving him as many christ allegories as they have by way of priest and garden of thorns. gregor is convinced that the rest of the sinners don't like him because he's not convinced anyone could like him, so he convinces himself that he hates them because why should he care if someone that he hates hates him too?

a lot of this ultimately ties back to my personal interpretation of what happens in the metamorphosis as well as my own theories regarding all the times gregor has made weird callbacks and references to lobcorp and ruina, but yeah. i think about this guy and his deeper characterization a fairly normal amount, i think.

to end this off i'll highlight one of my favorite little "gregor is fucking seething and trying so hard to keep it cool" moments, in the credits CG for c7 we see rodya teasing him by drawing a little horse on his window and actively pointing and laughing at it, which gregor really doesn't seem all too pleased about.

i personally think this ties into the other cruel part of sansón forcing gregor to play rocinante, which is the more literal "he's actually just straight up playing rocinante" side of things. gregor was quite literally made to play something less than human, less than even animal really, as he was reduced to nothing more than the shoes don quixote wore as she got to play the leading role. sansón directly makes jokes about gregor being nothing more than shoes in the play twice, which adds to this reading, i think.

this, imo, really plays into the adaptation of the metamorphosis! i've seen a lot of readings for the book that posit that, despite being the protagonist, gregor samsa can't really be considered the main character due to nearly everything he experiences in it being used to further his family's character development at his expense, which i think fits nicely with limbus gregor seemingly having the most said about him through indirect means by holding him up to other characters. also it's rodya carelessly making fun of His Big Major Insecurities™ again like she did in c1 which i always find fun. rodya i love you but god you're the worst.

[bad-system]

hansry/isterik theory #47: —"...and I'll rip out his heart!"

what if we interpreted the "heart ripping" as not literal in the sense of murder, but in the way that he'll rip out henry's 'heart' aka hans capon.

what if, in the end, erik gets his revenge in 1419. at the battle of Živohošť because hear me out: revenge is a dish best served cold

[jambalaya-enthusiast]

Theory/Headcannon: Since Daisuke's parents are rich, they ARE going to insist for a recovery mission for the tulpar. So Curly might in fact get rescued.

After Curly gets rescued, judging by his state of being, it's obviously concluded that shit went down on the ship and curly wasn't a perpetrator.

After that he gets physical,mental and speech therapy. He talks about everything that happened, to the press.

That's when workplace abuse, and corporate manipulation starts being taken into consideration. Curly sues pony express and wins a 5 billion€ cheque.

During therapy he meets a doctor who falls in love with him. With his s/o's support, Curly gains confidence, and sort of becomes an activist and philanthropist.

And while a lot of people headcanon curly killing himself due to his own grief, I like to believe he lives on to tell his story and keep everybody else's legacy on that ship alive.

He talks about corporate negligence, mental health abuse, and outright subpar human conditions that they were left to.

Maybe THIS was curly's REDEMPTION after all, him being the catalyst for the starting of workplace misdemeanor being taken seriously This is the life he wanted, this is the life he doesn't wanna run away from all the time.

[bkdk-bylerthings]

Mike Wheeler is a Gay mess

MY THOUGHTS ON REPRESENTATION/SYMBOLISM ABOUT THAT AWKWARD KISS SCENE AT THE END OF SEASON 3

As we all know Mike Wheeler did not kiss El back, he stood there with his eyes open, arms at his side and then is left there looking more confused then ever.

Want I want to look at in the scene is the Closet and Bear

Let’s talk about the Closet first:

El and Mike are standing infront of the closet, which I find really interesting for them to be placed there.

First we have El, not being able to use her powers to reach the teddy bear so Mike steps and grabs it for her.

Right, he’s the one to reach into the closet. Which now could be the beginning of something, that something of him taking a step into the closet. If you understand what I’m saying here.

…

Then after the awkward kiss, El walks away, leaving Mike near the closest, making no steps to move at all.

He realized he didn’t like that kiss, now questioning something about himself.

So since he didn’t move my point is that he’s now in the closet— and backing that up is what I said before of him reaching into the closet, grabbing what was in the closet.

For that - he doesn’t love El romantically and is starting to realize he has feelings for someone else…

Now to add to all that - The representation of the Teddy bear:

I think the bear could represent Mike’s love and for who he thinks he loves (cough cough El)

As we know El couldn’t reach the bear in the first place bc she wasn’t tall enough, so tries with her powers— this represents and foreshadowing season 4 of her trying to reach (in this case) for Mike’s love for her.

Since she couldn’t reach it, Mike does. Mike hands her his love or this case his actually love of Will, since this bear came from the closet. He is able to reach into the closet bc that is where his Love lies, not El, bc he doesn’t love her like that and El can’t make Mike love her, she can’t force him like she tried to force the bear down—

—like in season 4, questioning Mike if he still loves her.

“But you don’t love me anymore?”

To put it as simply as I can:

The bear represents Mike’s love but a love he put into the wrong hands bc actually he (for the time being) should have left it where it was. His love for Will is in the closet, his feelings for Will are hidden away… for now. He doesn’t quite understand what to do with this thing called Love so he gives it to El while he shouldn’t be.

And so after he stands there confused, he realizes ‘I gave my love to the wrong person’ leaving him standing next to the closet after that realization. He’s almost, confused, sad, in the dark now about his feelings since there is no more light coming from the closet.

I don’t think this is truly what the show wants you to get at here, I just love reaching, and over analyzing things bc it’s fun.

[scribbsrambling]

Anyone wanna tell me why this lemur only ever gives herself 3 seconds to feel sad before shoving it away?

You could easily argue that this is Tangle being mature. Putting aside how she feels, stopping herself from dwelling about the past for too long. Which is a noble trait to have to an extent.

Like, those were both instances where she saw people die (only supposedly in issue 60’s case but still). Yes, good for her that she’s pushing herself to focus on her task at hand, but like, Tangle, no one was gonna penalize you for taking 57 more seconds to cry😭

As I’ve said before, it really depends on how frequently she does this to determine how good or bad this behavior is for her.

Another thing, Tangle is known for being a very expressive, very emotional and emotionally-driven character. It’s interesting that she can also be so eager to gulp it back down when the big sad feels come up. And do it so quickly.

Although, it makes sense too. Someone who is more emotional/empathetic would have probably had to learn to reel it in sometimes after being “too dramatic”

Hopefully after all the crap she went through in Urban Warfare, she took time to talk to someone.

However, while Tangle is often interpreted as a very “wears her heart on her sleeve” type of character, she’s shown to not be incapable of keeping things to herself.

She even seemed to be embarrassed to talk about how she’s feeling with Jewel, her best friend, in front of others,

but she’s comfortable to open up when it’s just the two of them.

people with low-self esteem either crave to be the center of attention to feel validated or hate it because they feel undeserving of it but that’s for another rant

[cheshirecat-syndrome]

[alicentsgf]

the soccer team element of the show actually adds such a fun layer and if you know soccer the little interplays are so interesting so im gonna share.

overwhelmingly their positions on the field mirror their personalities, roles, and relationships off of it. 11 players in a normal line up (8 positions with 3 duplicates) and we only know who played 7 = 8 survivors but we only know 7. or perhaps this doesnt represent the 8th survivor, but wilderness as the invisible playmaker. after all, the jersey numbers tell us whos missing - the attacking playmaker that normally links the attack to the midfield. the person making all the attacking decisions for the team, a mirror to the wilderness deciding who lives and dies. the way this would foreshadow jackies isolation (as the attacking playmaker stands between her and everyone else) and all the attackers missing or dead as though the wilderness is pulling out the teams teeth.

the #6 and #9 dichotomy of jackie and shauna. shauna as the silent playmaker. jackie as the golden girl goalscorer. and then van ? the symbolism of her being a keeper. always touched by death but never dying, parrying a ball away at the very last moment. lottie as her defender, stood between van and the opposition. and then laura lee as lotties fullback, positioned at her right hand with all the biblical allusions that brings. and then tai and shauna as the central playmakers, working in tandem, making decisions for the group.

the way the hierarchy of the team, the starters and the reserves, remains exactly that, even in the wilderness. with misty, who has no position, always being the outsider. picking up after them as she always has and never appreciated. ofc she gravitates towards nat, a winger, naturally on the outskirts. though always typically the player called upon to play centrally in the absence of the #9 (Jackie). as we see nat shoulder jackies leadership role after her death. the necklace becoming a symbol of leadership as well as sacrifice, passed down the ranks like the passing of the armband when a captain leaves the field.

and then you have the mindset of the game itself "what happens on the field stays on the field" being applied to the wilderness, as they try to make sense of the two realities they're living in. the different rules for each. one thats ruthless, alongside the one of comeraderie, just like soccer. because on the field your best friend can kick out your legs and elbow you in the face, but once you step back over the white line its over. its how they comparmentalise. so is it any wonder they couldnt kill each other without making it into a sport.