#platonic between her and laios but marcille and laios are part of it

[roomba-mangga]

not "farcille and also laios is there" to me it's marcille x toudens family sandwich peace and love on planet earth

[grimrester]

i love farcille but i have Thoughts

i don't think marcille is even close to accepting any romantic feelings towards OR from falin by the end of the manga, or even in the supplemental comics set after the manga.

marcille has huge issues and misconceptions around age. part of her still sees falin as the young girl she met in school. when she hears about falin and laios's parents' age, she immediately calls them "those kids." she's objectively wrong here, but her perception of time and maturity is totally warped. she uses her own numerical age as a benchmark for maturity - with her own current age representing "totally 100% mature." anyone younger than her is "a kid." this is completely flawed thinking in two ways. firstly, half-elves age differently and inconsistently, so her numerical benchmarks don't make sense for literally any other race. secondly, marcille is NOT MATURE.

she spends half the manga whining about what she has to eat to survive. she repeatedly endangers her teammates to selfishly prove her worth. she clings to doing things by the book to the detriment of her own growth and her relationships with other people. she pouts when people don't want to do things her way. hell, just in day-to-day personal interactions, falin is more mature than marcille by a long shot. and yet she sees herself as more "adult" than falin.

falin, who understood early on that her parents did their best to protect her with the resources they had, even if they didn't always communicate it well. falin, who rejects shuro's second attempt at a proposal with such nuance, kindness, and grace that he smiles afterwards. falin, who withstood bullying from her peers at school and from adults in her village for years and came out of it with kindness that can exorcize zombies with a hug.

in order to accept any feelings she has for falin or vice versa, marcille would first have to recognize that falin is not a child compared to her. and there are times she comes close. falin, in her eyes, is almost superhumanly kind to the point of near worship. but she still sees falin as silly or childish because falin doesn't make the same practical choices that marcille would. ironically, those choices are typically driven by falin's kindness or love of all things living. and falin is too conflict-avoidant to tell marcille directly that she's wrong.

i don't think that a romance is impossible between them, though. i think it'd just take either emotional growth on marcille's part, or possibly even growth on falin's. while falin canonically doesn't push back on marcille's assumptions at all, she's also not so passive that she couldn't ever push back. we see pretty early on in the story that she's willing to hurt others if it means protecting her friends, she'd just prefer not to. i could see a situation arising where marcille makes selfish or damaging choices and falin has to put her in her place about it, and marcille finally comes to a revelation about her own or falin's maturity.

from there i think would essentially be an emotional floodgate. the groundwork for her having feelings is there, as they're obviously very affectionate with each other, but the revelation "falin is not an ickle babby i have to look out for" would have her recontextualizing a lot of their interactions. marcille would have to spend a while wrestling with suddenly feeling "wrong" about sharing a bed with falin, something she used to do easily. when falin gets cuddly, she'd struggle with the feeling of "this used to seem platonic to me but now it doesn't."

actually, it'd probably be a lot like realizing you're a lesbian and that your relationship with a friend was kind of weirdly homoerotic, and not knowing if that was "okay" or not.

[mossy-green-aka-ferrythem]

Watched more Dungeon Meshi. The shapeshifter episode, while very interesting and worthwhile, laying down many necessary things, isn't really an episode I have many thoughts on sadly, as it's not really my favorite. That part about Laios and dogs is probably one of my favorite parts of the entire series though.

But man... Izutsumi... I already adore this character. It's hard to articulate but everything about her just makes me feel like. Fuck yeah girl GO DO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IN ORDER TO MAKE A BETTER LIFE FOR YOURSELF! BE RUDE BE MEAN IDGAF YOU DESERVE IT!

Also just... Senshi being so kind as always... I adore Senshi in so many ways... it's amazing how everyone in the main crew feels like glue that holds the entire narrative together.

Also, the nightmares... god this is so fucking deep with the Nightmares... so much I can say about how the reflections on those dreams say so much about Laios, Marcille, and their relationship with eachother.

Do keep in mind Laios and Marcille's relationship is one that I believe is quite strictly platonic. I also do think that many people tend to misconstrue their dynamic as one that isn't friendship when really. You can see that Marcille did care only about Falin from the start, but as the journey goes on, you can see her heart open up to Laios, willfully listening to how passionate he is about monsters, even excitedly answering back his little tidbits when he hands them out! And she's enjoying the food a lot more now! And most of all... although I don't think I can give my full thoughts on how the nightmare hits deep in this post, I can say this, Marcille describing her dream just perfectly symbolizes the sort of relationship between Marcille and Laios, boiled down to it's bare essentials, with Marcille as a little girl, and Laios jumping in as a big goofy dog and accompanying her, keeping her company, and keeping her safe and happy.

[lewisshipsthings]

Dungeon Meshi Sexuality Headcanons

Pre-warnings:

—SPOILERS FOR THE MANGA. I’ve finished reading the whole thing, and I’m not gonna worry about censoring. Read at your own peril!

—I multiship sometimes, and in a similar vein, I have multiple sexuality headcanons. These are the just the main vibes they give me currently.

THIS IS BY NO MEANS meant to be an objective thing. I am *totally* fine with people having different headcanons. The series ended with no sexualities confirmed, and there’s room for different headcanons even IF there were confirmed sexualities. Stories are not meant to be exclusive.

—I’m using the term pansexual to mean interest in all genders, with gender not really making a difference; and bisexual to mean interest in all genders, but gender does make a difference. I have heard this as a definition, but I’m sure not everyone uses it this way. I’m sorry if I got something wrong.

—I’m queer myself, but that doesn’t prevent me from making mistakes, so I’m really sorry if I worded something weirdly. I’m very open to corrections.

Laios: aroace spectrum, straight

I see him as mostly totally aro, and still on the ace spectrum but just a bit higher (or is it lower?). Partly this is based on the succubus scene. Partly this is just vibes.

I can see him deciding as a king that marrying and having heirs is important, and so marrying a woman who is independent enough that she would be ok with a mostly platonic relationship. He’d probably really enjoy infrequent sex with her, and they’d be best friends who each had their own stuff going on.

I’m not entirely sure why he seems on the straight side to me, but he does.

(I recently read someone on Reddit talking about how Laios marrying the orc woman would be cool, and I now have a new rarepair. I know the orc woman wasn’t into it, but maybe if she could maintain her independence, she’d enjoy it.)

Falin: gay

Partly based on her resolute rejection of Shuro, who is quite a handsome fellow. (Obviously rejecting a handsome man doesn’t make you gay. It’s just one of the things that gives her a gay vibe to me.) Partly it’s her attitude towards Marcille. Although she isn’t my favourite character, I do see a fair bit of myself in Falin, so her being queer makes sense to me.

Chilchuck: straight

I quite like the Chilchuck/Senshi ship as well, so sometimes I like to headcanon him as bi. But honestly, most of the time he seems like an ordinary straight dude to me, especially in the succubus scene with the never ending stream of hot blondes.

Marcille: bisexual

There’s her succubus (a man) and her attitude towards Falin (a woman). I actually kind of think she leans straight, but if the right woman comes along (*cough* Falin), she’d fall deeply.

Senshi: demisexual, pansexual

He’s a tough one for me. I feel like he has the potential for a deep, slow relationship with the right person, but he’d mostly be ok without that. The pansexual part is mostly coming from some Lord of the Rings fanfics I read cantering around dwarves, where gender expression is pretty identical between male and female dwarves, and gender doesn’t seem to matter for most of them. I know this isn’t the world of Dungeon Meshi, but some of that seems to have crept into my imagination, because it influenced my headcanon of Senshi. Partly because of this, and partly because of the boob touching scene, I sometimes have a trans headcanon for him as well.

Izutsumi: aroace (with a straight cat side)

Her succubus scene seemed to say that her cat side had sexual attraction and her human side didn’t. But I think she’s too human to actually want to be with a total cat, and I think even another half beast person would be utterly uninteresting for her human side.

But for some reason, the cat that the succubus disguised itself as seemed male to me (did it actually specify? I don’t remember), so there’s like, the tiniest hint of straightness in her.

Kabru: bisexual

I see him charming the pants off both men and women and enjoying both equally. I don’t think he would go at it the same way with different genders though, and don’t see him as pan. I think he has a great capacity for friendship too, though. I mean, all the characters do. It’s a really important part of the manga. But there’s something about Kabru that I can’t quite articulate, in how I see romance, sex, and friendship interacting for him. (Maybe one day I’ll figure out how to articulate it and edit this post.)

Mithrun: past bisexual, current demisexual and pansexual

He’s an interesting case. I believe that when he lost his desires, he lost his general desires for sex and romance, just like he lost his general desire for food/sleep/etc. However, just like it’s inferred he can grow new desires for specific foods like noodles, I believe he could grow specific desires for specific people now. But he’d never be attracted to someone right off the bat, without getting attached to them slowly. Basically the textbook definition of demi. And pansexual just in the sense that he lost any gender-specific desires. Some of that could grow a bit, though, if he fell for someone.

I have no reason for thinking past Mithrun was bi, it’s just vibes, and I like the headcanon.

Minor characters:

—Shuro: straight

Because of his interest in Falin, and he just seems straight to me. I enjoy shipping him with Laios sometimes, though. Every character has potential for hidden bisexuality, for me. :)

—Namari: gay

I think she’s cool and I’d like her to be gay, plus I like the ship with her and Kiki.

—Lycion: bi

He seems jealous of Kabru with Mithrun, and calls Mithrun handsome. I could see just gay as well. But I like the ship with him and Fleki, and bi would fit well. I also feel like the body dysmorphia stuff he has going on would fit well with being trans.

—Cithis: gay

No good reason. Just selfish. She’s super hot and I want her to be gay. I don’t think she’d have an aversion to sex with men, though. It just wouldn’t be her preference.

If anyone wants to share their headcanons, feel free to reblog with them! I’d love to hear other perspectives!!

[roolsilver]

I also appreciate how they treat the love between Marcille and Laios without making it romantic. The Autism in this hits close to home too. It isn't always easy to be casual friends with an autistic person, sometimes you have to lay down layers of trust before you even get to really know them.

I'm the beginning, Laios was just Marcille's friend's brother, and she reacted to him in much the same way as their previousparty members. Falin was the glue that kept Laios with other people. Throughout the quest to save Falin, Laios was forced to trust his party with the parts of him that he knew people found off-putting. He no longer had a choice.

Chillchuck is basically middle-aged for a half-foot. He's more mature in general, and he's willing to roll with most things, as long as he knows he's not getting poisoned. Senshi, who seems to have his life together, is the first person(besides his sister) to tell Laios that the things he thinks about aren't really that strange in the grand scheme of things. It's not something he needs to be ashamed of. Marcille is the one that's really concerned with what's 'normal'. She's so caught up in trying to force the party into normality that she hinders the quest several times, but also ends up saving them several times. And it comes out that Marcille herself is abnormal.

Marcille has spent her entire life trying to make herself normal, and failing. She's the oldest in the party, but also the one least mature for her race. She's so obsessed with her own differences, with hating them, that Laios' differentness seems like a threat to her.

And then they find another group of people, another elf obsessed with controlling the differences between themself and others, and Marcille sees herself. She sees herself, and Laios doesn't see a monster in that. And finally, Marcille can start to trust Laios, the way that Laios has been forced to trust Marcille and the others.

Once they really become open and trust eachother, the quest progresses quickly. There are still a few slips along the way, but they aren't slowing eachother down anymore. Their relationship is no longer dependent only on Falin, they care about and value eachother directly, are friends in their own right.

I love that the relationship between Marcille and Laios stays platonic. Even when Laios is attacked by the succubus, his first thought is confusion, and it's not effective. It's a Perry the Platypus situation. "Marcille!? WTF?"🤨 "Marcille offering me my Special Interest WITH ALL MY FRIENDS!?"😃.

Okay I'm doing it. I'm chapter 96 posting.

This is not meant to be a big analysis post this is mostly just me sharing all the little moments that Marcille & Laios show their care for each other because they are SO beloved to me. Join me on the journey if you wish.

(but also the above statement may be a lie. I do have a point here, it turns out, and the point gets at some of my Big Feelings of what Dungeon Meshi has to say about the nature of friendship & living in the world)

So, first of all, the conversation about Laios being king at the start of the chapter. Just in general Laios insisting on presenting himself in his own way here is so good. Character development!!

Before the events of the story he hadn't shared his inner world with anyone but Falin. Now he's like Actually I'm gonna dress up in the discarded remains of my monstersona and that's just how it is.

And even though there are a LOT of parts of the story and bits of character growth that go into this, I think it specifically highlights some interactions from a few chapters ago.

After all, his initial reaction to having been in that monster form & coming out of it was trying to hide from everyone.

And I think everyone helping him put things in perspective here contributes to how he is able to present himself as king. They assure him that he is accepted, despite having just been seen by EVERYONE at his Peak "Weird Monster Guy" mode.

Highlighting what Marcille says here especially:

Going out to "face them with a smile" is EXACTLY what he does. Not right away. He's still pretty stressed in the following scene in this chapter. But he is able to face the crowds with a smile, eventually...

As king. Dressed in the memory of his most vulnerable moments, the most honest expression of his desire.

BUT I'M GETTING A LITTLE AHEAD OF MYSELF. Before the King Laios speech, there's a little moment with Marcille I want to highlight, because...

Did y'all know that by the end of the manga, Marcille isn't like... grossed out by eating monsters any more? Or at least, she's definitely changed her reaction to it. It's Namari who makes the "yeah it smells good despite what it is" comment, not Marcille.

We even get shots later of Tansu, Shuro, and Kabru being kinda grossed out by - but still going ahead and eating - the different Falin foods. Chilchuck also throws out a line about it being surprised that it's good.

But there's no disparaging comment from Marcille, despite the Everything of the situation. I just think that's also a nice little detail. She may not be as far in the monster eating game as Laios, but she's more willing to roll with the weirdness.

So after this little moment, this is when Laios comes out in his new regal outfit. And first of all...

This is such a good contrast to the moment when the group goes to save Marcille in chapter 84. The monsters had stopped attacking, and everyone's reactions to Laios and the others framed him as unsettling. Creepy. Maybe even traitors.

They even use some of the same labels (lord of the monsters/lord of the dungeon, dark lord/demon king)., but the context is that they are disgusted. The parallels in this manga....

Have a tendency to destroy me. What a difference in reception.

Anyway, after this moment, Laios stops to talk to the group... and I'd like to point out again: MARCILLE ISN'T FLIPPANT HERE EITHER!!

Chilchuck is still Chilchuck, of course, and I want to be clear I love that, too. Chilchuck is who he is to his core. His little jabs are very affectionate in this chapter.

But Marcille... Marcille only points to the Winged Lion symbol as being weird, not the monster bits. And like, considering what she's just been through with the lion, being skeptical of that part is... fair.

(don't get me wrong, her "that's fine and all" isn't exactly excitement. BUT the point I'm trying to make is less about her completely changing her feelings & preferences. It's more about how she expresses them, and how she treats Laios and HIS feelings & preferences)

And she continues to be so encouraging!! Wah!! Like, despite, all four of these people definitely caring about Laios, it's Marcille specifically who tells him to relax and just be honest. And you know what? I think that's what Falin would have said, too.

Please also note how cute everyone's little faces are in the crowd:

(see, Chilchuck loves him too!! Look at that fond face, and the cheer. and Senshi! and Namari! They really are such a family)

Laios' short speech actually has a little bit I'd like to highlight as well, since I think it is a nice little reflection of his choice to keep the lion insignia on his new outfit:

"Eat to your heart's content," he says. Not just "enjoy," or "let's eat."

Dunmeshi does such a wonderful job of framing so much about the Winged Lion with nuance, and this is a good example of that. Desire is not bad! Craving and consuming is beautiful. As Laios says when explaining the lion insignia...

It's not just something to get rid of.

So then... on to the feast!

And not only does Marcille not express any grossed out feelings, as I mentioned before... she even helps to gross out Chilchuck!!

Her weird girl powers are only just in their infancy. She will only grow more powerful in time...

As the feast goes on of course we get the group's realization about her hair, and I'd like to point out:

I really feel like they have such similar reactions to finding out about how the other has been affected by the Winged Lion

Just... the quiet concern. Not making a huge fuss, but... worried. Understanding. A little heartbroken for each other.

SPEAKING OF HEARTBROKEN REACTIONS THOUGH. WHAT COMES NEXT REALLY GETS ME.

After Chilchuck braids Marcille's hair for her, the topic of her needing to leave everyone comes up and...

God, these expressions. Every Time I see these panels I think about about what Laios saw in her nightmare. Her fears. The weight of inevitable loneliness, and the way it has marked her. As much as Marcille tries to keep things light when talking about it, he knows what this means to her. And it HURTS.

So he doesn't accept it. But do you notice how he frames this. Do you see. Not "do you want me to fix this." Not "hey I have an idea."

"Would you be willing to stay."

He doesn't know whether she will accept. Whether she will hate the idea, actually, of staying here with him. He's putting himself out there fully prepared for rejection & dismissal, as he has faced many times before.

But his pitch, his proposal to her, it's not JUST an excuse to ask her to stay, either. He's put thought into this. Into what Marcille could mean and do here. Not just to and for him, but for the people of this area. The place he has taken responsibility for.

He's also thinking about Falin. And about all the other little girls, the people of all sorts, just like her. He's thinking about the people who have been killed (burned at the stake???), hurt, shunned. About the people who have been abandoned. The people who are still alone.

He's not just offering Marcille an out from her isolation, he's offering her a new purpose. A new way to continue her work, to do the things she cares about. He SEES her! he understands her.

BUT ALSO HE'S SO NERVOUS OUGH. FIDDLING WITH THE PLATE. UNSURE IF SHE WILL CARE. UNSURE IF HE HAS IT RIGHT.

HE'S NOT GOOD WITH PEOPLE HE'S NOT GOOD AT THIS.

BUT THEY UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER. AND SHE WANTS THIS LIFE HE'S OFFERING HER.

Still... it's not that simple for her, even if for a moment she is swept up in how much she wants this.

Again here, Marcille is working so hard to be chill about the whole 'going west with the elves' thing. She looks absolutely devastated in the first panel, but puts on a smile in the second.

Maybe she doesn't want to bring down the mood. Maybe she doesn't want to burden everyone with what seems like the only option she has. Maybe she had already accepted the cost that might come with bringing Falin back. Maybe after everything with the Winged Lion, she doesn't want to risk letting herself fight for her desires too hard.

But hey. Desires aren't always bad. They aren't something to just get rid of.

A small bit of visual storytelling here... I love that Marcille is confined by the panel, but Laios is stepping outside of it. He's literally pulling her outside of the box she feels trapped in.

Also, I love that his first acts as king are:

1) welcome everyone to a big feast

2) stand by his friend and help her find happiness

It's great stuff and it's so Laios.

In addition to that, I love how this whole act actually plays out. I love that, while getting the elves to let Marcille go, he gets to be extremely cool and protective...

but also like. Not THAT cool and protective.

No really, I mean it! I think it's important! It's important that cool 'suave king guy Laios' is a front he puts up when he needs to deal with these strangers, and one that he completely drops once it's just him and Marcille.

He's not trying to impress her, or convince her he's cool and suave. Why would he? He trusts that she's okay with the messy, often unimpressive, sometimes kinda gross reality of who he is.

And isn't that what Dungeon Meshi is all about? Messy, unimpressive, gross reality. And how beautiful, how wonderful, how very precious it is

Especially when you get to share it with your friends.