Hi everyone, and welcome to my Project Moon theory and analysis blog! You can call me B for Blood (also cuz, you know, B for Benjamin in Lobotomy Corporation). Adult. Use she/her pronouns for me. This is a side blog.
I've completed Lobotomy Corporation (or rather, read the LP here) and I am about 3/4 of the way through Library of Ruina (midway through Star of the City) because I'm a very slow player. I know some spoilers for LOR, but not all, so please do not spoil me on the late game. I only started playing Limbus Company fairly recently, but I am totally caught up with all story content up to Canto 8. Don Quixote is my favorite Sinner and Netzach is my favorite Librarian/Sephirah, but I like all of the characters!
Currently, updates may be a bit slow as I am busy with school and longer posts take a bit to write.
i've seen some people say based off the teaser that ryoshu is actually the daughter, which isn't necessarily incorrect but i think it's misleading: she's the mother and the daughter. and based off her bp ego, maybe a wife too?
she's wearing a shiromuku (traditional japanese wedding dress), as you can see with her hood (which is a placenta).
i've had this theory that maybe ryoshu is the wife(mother)-daughter-servant, and horikawa is the husband-father-master. and to clarify, i don't mean to say that horikawa is her father, i mean to say that he could be the father of her child (literally or figuratively) and her husband (literally or figuratively) but traditionally, in patriarchal cultures a girl was seen as being "owned" by her father, who would then transfer "ownership" to her husband---so the husband takes on the role of the patriarch in lieu of her father. the husband is equal to the father of the wife in terms of power he has over her. and naturally, this makes horikawa ryoshu's master, being that he is literally yoshihide's master in hell screen and it's been alluded to before in limbus that ryoshu may have been in some kind of servant position before joining limbus company. in canto 7, sansón assigns her the role of a servant in his play, and i don't have them on me right now but i think there have been other examples of this as well (like her being a maid in a mirror world)
right now, what's nagging at me the most is just who the HELL horikawa is in limbus? is he one of the finger parents? is he the leader of the house of spiders, and is the house of spiders an entity distinct from the fingers? is he some kind of mediator for them maybe? if he is affiliated with a finger, wouldn't that place an unequal amount of importance on that finger? i think it would make sense if the pinky were treated differently from the rest of the fingers, but the pinky we saw in the trailer was a woman---unless horikawa is a woman? but i feel that making him a woman would diminish his character and it would destroy the basis of my theory. i guess we'll find out soon enough
Given Demians group has the theme of seeing the unseen what if Ryōshū's kid dies by fire and then comes back as one of them. Pheonix child.
I kind of have a feeling that something strange is going on with her child, I've definitely started to adopt the "memory mutilation" theory, which is that Ryoshu's memories have been tampered with in some way especially regarding her child. With that in mind, I also think it's a little strange that someone as obviously well connected as Lei Heng knows that something happened at the House of Spiders but not what though I could be reading too far into it.
For something to happen to Ryoshu's memories where her knowledge/memories of her own child seem so scattershot, something must have happened to that child and not just Ryoshu's perception. Some people have suggested that the concept incinerator could be involved, but I don't think this is the case, because it doesn't seem to be the child themselves who Ryoshu struggles with (i.e the concept of her having a child) but that child's identity. Lei Heng mentioning that Ryoshu has a baby, but not that baby's name, stuck out to me because the game has been very secretive about anything regarding her child's personhood and identity---that was the first confirmation she even has a baby aside from loads of symbolism and foreshadowing. We already don't know much about Ryoshu, but even less about her child, which is a bit weird for a mother (granted, Ryoshu doesn't seem like someone who would volunteer details about her personal life so easily).
I think that the closest approximation of what happened to Ryoshu's child might be something similar to Catherine's situation. They obviously weren't straight up erased from existence, but when the Sinners were at Wuthering Heights Catherine existed in an in-between state of life and death and none of the Sinners (save for Heathcliff and Dante of course) were able to meet and interact with her directly. Meaning, I doubt that the Sinners will be able to directly interact with Ryoshu's child in the flesh, or at least not as their original self before whatever it was that happened at the House of Spiders, because their ties to the material world are probably very tenuous like Catherine.
Alternatively, I've heard some people suggest that the next member of the Blue Man Group will be Song Jiang, the presumed leader of the Pinky, which would make some sense but every member of Demian's group in specific has been individuals who are explicitly non-human (Rim and Sansón) or dubiously human (Demian) yet all were presumably unquestionably human at one point. Which, in my opinion, would make more sense for Ryoshu's child instead of the leader of a Finger but I suppose we'll see about that.
my unpopular opinion is before you post a canto 9 theory you have to sign a contract that says "i understand and acknowledge the narrator of hell screen is an unreliable point of view that has every reason to read yoshihide's actions as self centered and apathetic to yuzuki while at the same time glazing the lord of horikawa constantly and have factored that into how i source my evidence"
hello limbus subreddit theoryposter. in front of you is a copy of ryuunosuke akutagawa's hell screen and a phone with limbus company. your task is to compose a theory as to what will happen to ryoshu during her canto. if you ever imply the events will be because ryoshu will be "humbled" for being an "irredeemable monster", that she willingly sacrificed her daughter and didnt feel bad about it, or that the lord of horikawa killed yuzuki to "punish" yoshihide for his fixation on cruelty the bomb under your seat will go off
so many of my predictions so far have ended up being wrong 😭 but regardless, I wanted to talk about how there seem to be two main theories for what will happen in Canto 9:
The events of Hell Screen have already happened, the incident that Lei Heng referred to was the carriage burning, Ryoshu's child is dead which is what led to her joining Limbus Company. Her sword is inextricably linked to her child in some way, as in the sword is her child.
Ryoshu's child is still alive and the carriage burning will happen during the canto. The incident Lei Heng referred to is the Limbus equivalent of Lord Horikawa attempting to sexually assault Yoshihide's daughter in the story (or was possibly an incident derived from one of Akutagawa's other stories). Ryoshu's sword is the work-in-progress Hell Screen, and the reason she joined Limbus Company was so she could finish it and free herself and her child from Lord Horikawa.
I think there's a stronger case to be made for the first one, but I do think that the sword is both her child and the Hell Screen. The main point of evidence for Ryoshu joining Limbus Company to complete the Hell Screen is that at the turning point in the story, Yoshihide tells Horikawa that he can only paint what he has seen, and depending on what Horikawa requested in Limbus Company, joining Limbus Company may have been Ryoshu's best chance at fulfilling his request and getting him off her back. The other piece of evidence is Lei Heng's ambiguous wording implying that her child might still be at the Spider House. I have a hard time believing that Ryoshu would leave her child in a place with a man who is already severely abusive at best and a rapist at worst, plus I think all the thematic indications so far through E.G.O (especially Ryoshu's base E.G.O) point toward her child already being dead.
As an aside, I think we need to discuss Akutagawa's other works more when speculating about Canto 9 since we have a pretty huge indication that Canto 9 will be drawing from his general body of work, and not just Hell Screen. I'm really wondering how the monkey will appear in Limbus Company since the monkey is one of the most prominent characters and symbols in the story.
I've seen a lot of people (mostly on twitter) talking about how they're disappointed with Project Moon's take on Dream of the Red Chamber which I can't really comment on because I haven't read the book, but I think it's an incredibly premature conclusion because it's still not clear at all where exactly PM is heading yet with this Canto.
With that said though, I think Canto 8 is going to run into the same problem I had with Canto 7 when it comes to adapting the source material in that both books are so long and so full of complex plot points, themes, and topics that condensing them into one three part Canto is inevitably going to lead to there being missed potential and things from the books that were ignored and overlooked.
so many c8 thoughts… the adaptations of character designs from dotrc are really interesting! I’m a little out of practice with my analysis of the original text but in interested to see what they do!
Also. I’m so sorry for people unfamiliar with dotrc this canto is probably overwhelming as hell (or at least that’s the vibe i get? I dunno. it’s kinda hard to get into dotrc without being overwhelming as hell)
(kind of spoilers under cut ?)
also: where is wang xifeng. kjh if you’re reading this she’s all i want. where is my girlboss with a canonical kill count. I saw yuanchun’s design and got so excited bc I thought it was xifeng but nooooo…💔
she’s such a big part of dotrc it’s weird to not see her so i’m curious what’ll happen
The designs for baochai and daiyu are Really Interesting. (rip two in one you will be dearly missed … also rip the beautiful butch baochai from my head. alas)
I honestly think if you found a red chamber fan and showed them the two designs they’d think baochai was daiyu and vice versa (daiyu gets depicted with the lighter colors generally) but i am Interested in what they do with these two. I am eyeing daiyus color scheme so heavily rn. why are you blue. why do the smoke motifs give me reverb ensemble so heavily. I was fully expecting you to be dead or Elsewhere.
Hong Lu things are happening soon and i’m Not emotionally ready for it.thank god they waited til after finals to drop this because I needed that break time. even if I’m not fully back in limbus mode yet there’s a lot of fun and interesting toys here.
it seems like pjm doesn’t like the resolution of the original novel with baoyu being above everything and fucking off to become a monk once he realizes he cannot change anything and is cooking new things in conversation with it. Which is really cool! Because the original novels ending is also frustrating and unsatisfying to me and i am sooo excited for when Hong Lu is forced to confront the fact that his coping mechanisms are fake and suck and he’s hurting and lying to himself :)
Disclaimer, I haven't read DOTRC, but your mention that Daiyu is usually the one associated with a light color palette is interesting because her nameplate in Hong Lu's memory is pink.
I've seen a lot of people (mostly on twitter) talking about how they're disappointed with Project Moon's take on Dream of the Red Chamber which I can't really comment on because I haven't read the book, but I think it's an incredibly premature conclusion because it's still not clear at all where exactly PM is heading yet with this Canto.
What exactly is the two in one theory? I keep seeing it tossed around as a part of canto 8 theories, but I don’t think I’ve ever come across a more focused explanation of what it is
I'm very interested in seeing what the two-in-one theory entails though there's a thought that's been circling around in my head for a while: what do you think of the possibility that Lin Daiyu is Hong Lu's eye?
two in one theory... i am listening very intently if you ever feel up to share it!!
Alright, so this is gonna be... as close to an Abridged explanation of the theory as I can make, because if I went off on everything about it I would end up writing a whole dissertation or five hour video essay script on this shit.
There are gonna be three main sections to this post - Hong Lu's Daiyuisms, Hong Lu's Themes of Identity and how that connects to the concept of Two in One, and the Daiyu-Baoyu theory itself.
Strap in folks.
Hong Lu's Daiyuisms
If you know anything about my theories in the earlier days of Limbus, you might know that I'm one of the very few people who was convinced Hong Lu is actually Daiyu, due to some evidence I found personally compelling. This has not changed, as we've only gotten just as much extra evidence to this as we have to him being Baoyu. So let me just speedrun through some of these points.
The Fucking Jade Eye
Ok hear me out. This is maybe the least important piece of evidence but I can never stop thinking about it. Hong Lu's jade eye? Not actually fully blue! If you look closely on most of his sprites, you can see that he actually has sectoral heterochromia, meaning his jade eye is both blue and black.
Daiyu's name, quite literally, translates to blue-black jade.
Now, you could claim that this is merely meant to be an easter egg reference to her, but... is that really Project Moon's style? After all, when people speculated on Don Quixote being Sancho or a Bloodfiend partially based on her appearance all the way back since near launch, they turned out to be right.
Hong Lu's Father
As of now, there is only one instance of Hong Lu referencing his Father in Limbus, and it's a voiceline from his Base Identity:
Now, if you know anything about DOTRC, this should already be raising some flags, because if Hong Lu was just Baoyu, he would not fucking talk like that about his Father.
In the book, Baoyu is consistently shown to be afraid of his Father, for a good reason mind you, as he's his main abuser. Baoyu would not be looking forward to introducing his friends to that man.
Even if Hong Lu was trying to downplay the abuse he's recieved, this would still not fit his pattern of behavior. When topics that genuinely bother Hong Lu come up, such as what could make him distort or how rich people would enjoy gifts made of humans, he immediately pivots and tries to avoid the topic at all cost. He would not bring up his main abuser in such a lighthearted manner, he would avoid bringing him up at all cost.
However, there is a character in DOTRC which does in fact have a more positive relationship to her Father, and would likely be the one with an opinion such as that - Daiyu. Daiyu loves her Father, and when he dies she completely disappears from the story for a bit to attend his funeral. If there was anyone who would be excited to introduce their friends to their Father, it'd be Daiyu.
Lasso Hong Lu's Corrosion
I made a whole seperate post about this, but I might as well mention it here as well for the sake of completion. The design choices made for Hong Lu which are missing for Faust are very, very Daiyu-coded.
For one, not only does Hong Lu completely turn into a flower, unlike Faust, his horse also gains a flower in its mouth. For those whose knowledge of DOTRC is zero to none, Daiyu is a reincarnation of a Flower given sentience due to being watered by the Jade. I don't think I have to be the one to connect the dots between those two pieces of info for you.
The second is how the halters become a noose for Hong Lu. This, too, is a very Daiyu thing - Rose Hunter as an Abnormality represents the inability to escape one's fate, and Daiyu's fate is to die - the Jia Family arranging a marriage between Baoyu and Baochai leads to Daiyu falling deathly ill, which in itself could be considered a part of her repaying her Debt of Tears - the debt she swore to repay to the Jade/Baoyu when she was still a Flower.
The hilarity of the fact that this E.G.O came out in the same update as Hong Lu being called Baoyu in-story is not lost on me.
Rose Sign Abnormality Log
The third Log for Rose Sign ends in a very peculiar way.
There's multiple ways one can tie Hong Lu's odd reluctance to talk about flowers and the petals. One is the obvious "he's being reminded of Daiyu because she was a Flower" connection, but there's another one.
One of the most commonly potrayed images of Daiyu relates to a scene in DOTRC where she buries fallen flower petals, weeping for and lamenting the mortality of the flowers and herself. Hong Lu's reaction here to his fellow Sinners being reduced to nothing but petals upon Rose Sign's death feels like a notable parallel to Daiyu's flower burial scene.
Like literally everything about Kurokumo Hong Lu
The title for this is a bit of an exaggeration, but at the same time. I'm serious. Kurokumo Hong Lu is perhaps the most Daiyu Identity out of all the Hong Lu Identities we have, and the way he is designed to stand out among them further makes me go insane.
Kurokumo Hong Lu's most defining trait is his attitude - he often complains about his position and how authority treats him, though he doesn't really act out against them in any major way outside of making snarky or sarcastic remarks.
This is, frankly, an extremely Daiyu thing to do. Daiyu is one of the few characters who audibly complains about her treatment in the household. For example she complains about not being given as many opportunities to show off her poetry skills as her male peers are, and she recognises how, when all the girls in the family are given flowers, she's the last one to recieve them and thus is stripped of the ability to pick, being only given the leftovers.
Then there's the whole. Everything about Kurokumo Hong Lu's visual design. Because once you realize just how Daiyu-like the Identity is, you realize just how weird he is compared to other Hong Lu Identities. I mean just look how he compares to his other Identities.
He's the only Hong Lu Identity with a blue tint to his hair in the combat sprite rather than the usual purple.
He's the only Hong Lu Identity whose hairtie is a ribbon rather than a jade ring (Liu Hong Lu technically has the ribbon in his post-uptie art, but he doesn't have it in his combat sprite so I'm not counting him).
He's the only Hong Lu Identity to not be smiling in his combat sprites.
And he's the only Hong Lu Identity (and one of only four Identities in the game) whose Idle sprite has its body facing away from the opponent rather than facing towards them.
All of those combine to make him stand out like a sore thumb in a Hong Lu Identity lineup in a way that makes it feel intentional, especially since he's also the only Hong Lu Identity with that kind of notable attitude towards authority. Other Hong Lu Identities are either obedient, don't express any opinion, or just straight up are the authority.
The Baoyu reveal is framed in a very weird way
This is, admittedly, less of a Daiyuism and more of a not-Baoyuism, but I thought it'd be important to mention nonetheless.
There are a lot of things about Canto 7's reveal of Hong Lu's name being Baoyu that are very strange, especially compared to how the Canto frames Don Quixote's own reveal of actually being Sancho.
For one, the timing itself - why is such an important piece of info being revealed so early? Again, compare to Donqui - she was revealed to be a Bloodfiend in the Intervallo right before Canto 7, and the Sancho reveal only came in the second half of the Canto.
For two, the framing - Donqui's reveals are treated as what they are, Major Reveals. The Baoyu reveal on the other hand happens in a single off-handed line, with nobody reacting to it in any way. Neither Hong Lu nor the other Sinners seem to hear it after all.
And mind you, it's not like Limbus is opposed to giving us important information in off-handed lines - far from it in fact. Project Moon loves shoving little bits of foreshadowing and reveals you don't realize are reveals until way later in these kinds of off-handed lines. But the way those lines are treated is still very different to how the Baoyu reveal is treated.
Usually, when there's foreshadowing in off-handed lines, it's usually either vague enough to be something a character could say regardless of context (see Yi Sang getting hung up on the Sedatives bit in Canto 2 or Ishmael's comment about Syndicates pretending to be Families foreshadowing her own history with the Middle via Queequeg) or something that is in the middle of a scene that distracts from what is actually being said (like Hong Lu's distortion foreshadowing being in the middle of an important infodump or most of everything in Canto 2 being surrounded by a comedic tone).
None of this is present for the Baoyu reveal. There's nothing to distract you from this information, as the scene is already focused on discussing Hong Lu, meaning you're already likely to be paying attention to what is being said about him. There's also no vagueness about it, there's no way you can brush it off since not only are Wei and Xichun newly introduced characters, but it's a whole ass clearcut namedrop.
The only way I can justify that reveal being there in the form it takes is that it in itself is the distraction. Think about it. Didn't I point it out earlier that this reveal came in the same update as the E.G.O with an extremely Daiyu-coded corrosion design? Wouldn't it make sense for that reveal to be there to lower your guard, make you think you resolved that mystery, only to later on reveal it wasn't the whole story after all?
Hong Lu's Themes of Identity
So this section is a bit more vague than the Daiyuism section, because Hong Lu is the type of guy to just Say Shit all the time. It's basically just. Anything that I find relevant to the idea of Hong Lu's Identity being more complex than him just being a random guy using a pseudonym, with some (but maybe not all) of them directly tying to the idea of Two in One.
"Which one is the real you?"
There are currently two seperate scenes where Hong Lu muses on the idea of someone's identity being in some way vague or obscured.
Is Dante the person or the clock? Is the dreamer the one in the dream or the one who wakes from it? Which you is the real you? Does it even matter if that you will flutter away in the end?
This idea of there being one true self. That even if there are two, there is only one of them that is actually you. Curious, right?
Face-changing dance
During the Canto 2 scene where everyone gives their reasons for whether or not they'd be a good pick for being the one to dance, Hong Lu says this.
Bian lian is a kind of dance literally translated as "face-changing". It involves rapid changes between various masks and make-up to represent different emotions or characters.
Now, it's no secret that Hong Lu is a great actor, as we see in Canto 4, and Canto 7 shows how the comparison to theatre and actors can be used to symbolize one's performance of identity, as it does for Sancho and her Don Quixote persona.
Mind you, this reveal comes in the same scene as Sinclair's dance invoking the image of a bonfire burning all through the night according to the Mariachis, a clear foreshadowing to Canto 3 and the Literal burning down of Sinclair's home.
Hong Lu knowing bian lian could be further foreshadowing to his own skills in deception, and how he too is a sort of actor, not unlike Don Quixote. On the other hand however, it could also be a more literal foreshadowing, that he (Baoyu) Quite Literally changed his face. We won't know until Canto 8, but it is an option you know.
The HamHamPangPang dish(es)
For those who don't know, here is a list of the Sinner-themed dishes that were available at HamHamPangPang.
Now, chances are, not all of them have deep meanings. I don't think there's much of a deep meaning to Heathcliff and Ishmael's dishes, I think PJM just legit don't know much about British/American cuisine so they just picked something recogniseable.
However, not all of them are meaningless picks either. Ryoshu, likely a mother, has a meal literally called "parent-and-child donburi". Don Quixote, a Bloodfiend, has a garlic-based dish. These were clearly done on purpose.
So, what does it say that Hong Lu's dish is actually two different dishes? That he's the only one whose dish is two different dishes? And it's not like the two are in some way inherently connected, since they're of completely different cuisines. Japchae is a Korean dish, not Chinese like the Mandarin rolls.
And just in case you weren't convinced that Hong Lu's choice of dishes is purposeful - another name for Mandarin rolls is flower buns, and one of the special occasions japchae is commonly served for is weddings. If you had read through the Daiyuisms section and somehow have no idea what the significance of that is, I don't know what to tell you.
The Daiyu-Baoyu Theory (finally)
So. I gave some evidence for why I think Hong Lu could still be Daiyu despite being revealed as Baoyu. I gave some evidence for why I think Hong Lu could be a Two in One deal, or that at the very least there's something more complex going on with his identity. But let's discuss the theory itself, how it would recontextualize certain things, and why I think it's an extremely fitting an thematically resonant direction for Hong Lu's Canto to go in.
The Theory
Here's what I speculate is going on.
Daiyu, just like in DOTRC, is someone who was taken in into the Jia Household rather than born in it, and who strongly connected with Baoyu upon meeting him. The two would end up forming a bond strong enough that they would be willing to die for one another (or, if they're in particularly argumentative moods, to kill themselves just to force the other to have to live a long life grieving over them - this is an actual argument they have in DOTRC and I pray to god this is adapted into Limbus because it's too fucking funny).
At some point, Baoyu either dies or is brought to near death, likely through the same circumstances as in DOTRC - being beaten by his Father. To save him, his memories and consciousness would be transferred to his eye, a process not dissimilar to the one Xichun brings up in Canto 7, and implanted into Daiyu's body, causing them to become a vessel for Baoyu. This would be how Hong Lu as he is now is created.
All of the above is the main basis for this theory. Everything else that I might speculate about, such as the exact nature of the two's relationship, Daiyu's more exact background and personality, how their pre-reincarnation lives could be adapted - all of those are things that are purely speculative and ones that I don't really expect to be actually fulfilled. The only bits that I am sure are likely to be true is what I laid out above.
So... what does it all mean for the future? I'm glad you asked!
The Recontextualization
Here's a collection of just a couple of things that Hong Lu has said or is depicted as that would be heavily recontextualized if this theory ends up being true.
Hong Lu surviving despite claiming he didn't fight back when his siblings first tried to kill him: With the context that he used to be two seperate people, the answer to how he survived is made very simple. Baoyu is the one who wasn't fighting back. Daiyu, however, could have still protected him in turn.
The red ribbon on Hong Lu's weapon: There is only one other Sinner who has a similar decoration on their weapon - Ryoshu, who also has a red ribbon on her sword, which could be easily connected to Yuzuki and her death. With the context of Hong Lu being Baoyu occupying Daiyu's body and thus effectively rendering their self non-existent, the red ribbon could be a parallel symbol - a symbol of Daiyu and their 'death'.
How Hong Lu treats his weapon in his base E.G.O: The way Hong Lu holds his weapon in the illustration is more like he's cradling another person. This could be a representation of how he feels about Daiyu's situation. Likewise, in the attack animation, he's not really attacking with the weapon itself, is he? He's simply using it to direct a ribbon (which in itself is missing in the illustration), the part that is actually the attack. If the weapon in the base E.G.O represents Daiyu, this could be a parallel to how Baoyu feels like he's merely directing Daiyu's body to attack, rather than being the one actually attacking.
The duality of Hong Lu IDs: There is a notable pattern among Hong Lu IDs, and that is the focus on his attitude to violence. When he's in a situation where he's obedient towards his Family, he's either uninterested in violence, bored of it, or otherwise given no other choice but to use it as a reprieve from boredom. However, when he's in a situation where he's disconnected from his Family or otherwise questioning the status quo, he's shown to not only be much more aggressive and violent, but to outright enjoy it. With the context of Hong Lu being composed of two people, this duality could represent each of his components - the obedient and violence-averse being more Baoyu-like, while the questioning and violence-favoring being more Daiyu-like.
So, there's a bunch of stuff that would be given new meaning under the premise of this theory being true. But now, what about the future? What would this theory mean for the themes and ending of Canto 8?
The Resolution
I believe this is how the Daiyu-Baoyu theory will affect Canto 8.
At some point, whether before or during the Canto, it will be revealed that Hong Lu is both Daiyu and Baoyu. There will be an attempt to seperate the two, perhaps to implant Baoyu into a more fitting, more Jia Family-approved Vessel. Perhaps because the 'arranged marriage' from DOTRC could be adapted into something more... let's say Fear and Hunger kind of marriage rather than traditional marriage.
This will leave Hong Lu to be returned to their state as Daiyu, who will be revealed to be a very different person to what the Sinners knew Hong Lu as. There is a non-zero chance that Daiyu will be unable to hear Dante or be revived by them due to the one who signed the contract being Baoyu, and so they could end up acting as an uncontrollable ally unit not unlike Xichun in Canto 7.
The climax would then be Daiyu and Baoyu reuniting and being unwilling to part with each other again, even for the sake of returning to being the fake persona that is Hong Lu, leading to a potential duo boss fight/distortion boss fight/duo distortion boss fight.
The ending would be the two of them deciding to embrace their new identity as Hong Lu and truly becoming one, discarding their pasts and the selves that had been forced on them by the Jia Family. This ending would have a twofold meaning regarding how it connects to the DOTRC adaptation.
One - it would be a direct parallel to the ending of DOTRC where Baoyu leaves to become a monk. By becoming Hong Lu and discaring his previous identities, he'd be leaving behind the earthly attachments inherent to being Baoyu and Daiyu and become spiritually whole.
Two - it would be a reflection of the major theme of DOTRC, that being "Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true. Real becomes not-real when the unreal's real." Hong Lu, as a person, is a 'fake' persona used by the 'real' Baoyu and Daiyu. However, by discarding those two identities and deciding to just be Hong Lu, the fiction of his existence becomes the truth, while his former real selves become not real.
Conclusion?
I could honestly just keep going with this post, but I think I'm going to stop myself here before I'm forced to find out what tumblr's character limit on posts is. Believe me, I was trying to be brief, and still this post is. This fucking long.
I hope this explains why this theory has been the subject of my brainrot for the past however long, and why I feel like it's surprisingly plausible despite being as deranged as it is.
Godspeed and godbless, I have classes tomorrow and I'm spending my time on this.
as more time passes I'm growing less convinced that Outis is actually going to betray us (well, she still might- she'll do anything she needs to- but I don't think she's actively planning to right now) and I'm starting to see her for what she really is: anxious. Some of the bad shit that happens to the crew in The Odyssey isn't actually Odysseus's fault- it was his crew who released the bag of winds, and it was his crew who ate the cows of Helios when Odysseus TOLD them not to. Outis has never mentally escaped the war OR the Odyssey, she thinks she can't trust anyone but herself, and Dante being her manager back when they were... really bad at their job must've been terrifying. A messy crew is difficult enough, but a leader who can't even handle them? They'll never survive. Her reactions to bloodfiends feel like they're born less out of disgust/hatred and more out of fear. She focuses on how Dante and Faust didn't tell any of them about Don Quixote's true nature, because if they're hiding something that important, what else are they hiding that the knowledge of might be the difference between surviving and not? And then what comes later with her asking Dante if they'd really be willing to extend a hand to someone who's killed so many (she's talking about herself) (she's terrified she won't be forgiven) (she doesn't want to be alone)... ohhh Outis
I finished Canto 7 like 2 hours ago. I cried like a baby. Over the weekend I might make a post summarizing my thoughts and replies to some takes I've seen
