#the massive mid-series art shift is real and could have garbled some details

[holdharmonysacred]

Been in a Pandora Hearts mood and something I’m wondering now is like. How much of Pandora Hearts actually IS a mindscrew confusing nightmare to read, and how much is actually perfectly comprehensible and people just need to learn to read? I tried explaining the plot to a friend earlier and they thought the summary of the early series sounded unfocused, and i’m wondering if there genuinely are focus issues or if I’m just that bad at summarizing.

Like. Obviously there are parts that are completely impossible to guess in advance, like the plushie part of The Bunny Twist is iconic to me BECAUSE on paper it’s so goddamn absurd even if the actual important part of the twist is possible to cotton on to. But then also like. I did a reread a couple years back, and I want to reread it again, and I cannot stress enough the sheer VOLUME of foreshadowing in the first half of the series that lays the groundwork for the chapters 70-75 hell gauntlet that everyone just collectively yeeted past. It feels like a careful reader should still be able to catch on to the core of the twists - like “x character is sus” or “something’s up with the b-rabbit situation” - even if the specifics are unguessable.

Is it an anime thing? I have to confess that I never watched the anime, for all I know maybe the anime just cut all the relevant Chekhov’s Guns compared to the manga. Or is it just a “most people Can’t Read and can’t pick up important flags” kind of situation? Or am I overestimating the series’s comprehensibility becquae I also know all the answers and can reverse engineer the foreshadowing as I reread? Is it all of the above? Who knows!