I'm gonna hazard a guess- Was the thought process of the Homestuck reference born from drawing paralells between the poster for BFDIA 23- Shattered, and the Homestuck logo?
BFDIA FINALIST SPOILERS
Or was it one of the other parallels?
(Also peak choice to pick Jade for Leafy- given her co-existing with her kernalsprite clone/grimbark version like with Leafy and Evil Leafy)
not really the bfdia 23 - shattered poster, since i've had this homestuck x bfdi au in mind for a few months now,
but the leafy as jade because they both have like "other versions" of themselves was part of my thought process!!
i mostly made this for fun because i like both franchises and wanted to do something with both so the parallels with the main characters aren't *super* thought out, but i really love your observations!! ^u^
i love thinking about taking cabby to a bookstore. and we just get whatever she finds interesting. she doesnt have to worry about being too much. or like she shouldn't be taking these. she's allowed! because i love her and i want her to have good things.
suitcase flower symbolism......... sunflowers & the blue flowers from s2e4........... blue flowers symbolizing her people-pleaser behavior and how her failing to stand up for herself is making her feel invisible and hopeless........ sunflowers symbolizing her more positive outlook she gains in late s2 and how she feels much better about herself after learning the importance of being assertive.......... do you get it.......
[ID: An uncolored sketch of Cabby from Inanimate Insanity. She has fangs and glasses added to her design. She is hugging herself, appearing very saddened. There is an arrow from above pointing down at her. There is text labeling the arrow saying, "Lonely", with a frowny face. End ID.]
[ID: An uncolored sketch of Cabby from Inanimate Insanity. She has fangs and glasses added to her design. She is hugging herself, appearing very saddened. There is an arrow from above pointing down at her. There is text labeling the arrow saying, "Lonely", with a frowny face. End ID.]
I got permission from the wonderful and SO skilled @pankiepoo to draw his adorable furry cabby with a little matching drawey :33 i thought she was just so beautiful and REALLY wanted to smooch her i HAD TO ASK... ouguhh shes so wonderfulll
[ID: A colored sketch of Cabby and Clover from Inanimate Insanity, meant to appear similar to the scene in Tragedy at 60 Feet where Cabby points out that Clover is lucky. Cabby has fangs and turquoise glasses added to her design.
Appearing concerned, Cabby is gesturing over to Clover to the right behind her. Clover appears upset, staring down at the floor. There are faked captions for Cabby's dialogue reading:
"I... don't think she's lucky anymore??"
The background appears ambiguously grassy and green, though without much detail. End ID.]
I remember seeing a post (thank you to that person for making it) around when the first S4 episode came out speculating that Clover lost her luck, and now that the first two episodes have been out for long enough to settle in, I think there's enough to settle in this theory as surprisingly likely based off current information. I would also like to thank my friends who have also contributed with various observations of their own!! It helps a lot with this and also shows further how plausible this is.
So! It's time to jump right in and get started with...
Present-Day Examples of Luck
There aren't any!
So instead, this section will be used to talk about examples of a lack of luck.
[ID: A screenshot of Baseball and Clover from Inanimate Insanity during the episode The Future Is Today. Clover is driving the tour bus while Baseball is in the front seat next to her; various characters are in the background. Baseball appears worried, while Clover appears more shocked with her mouth agape. End ID.]
I think the most notable example is when Clover ran over Lifering. This is an objectively bad thing that happened to somebody else and it is undeniably caused by Clover herself. She clearly didn't want to do this, either, as she seems upset by what she just did.
[ID: A screenshot of Baseball and Clover from Inanimate Insanity during the episode The Future Is Today. Clover is driving the tour bus while Baseball is in the front seat next to her; various characters are in the background. Baseball worriedly looks over to Clover, who is nervously smiling as she speaks. The captions read:
"Don't worry. The hospital was our next stop anyway."
End ID.]
I think her justification here is also really interesting, because it feels like a way to try to connect it back to her supposed luck and make it seem intentional. As if this is just a normal way to get on over to the hospital part of the tour.
[ID: A screenshot of Clover from Inanimate Insanity during the episode The Future Is Today. She is driving the tour bus, seeming distressed with eyebags as she continues to smile. End ID.]
It feels like she's just... holding things together. This isn't something she wants, but she must pretend that it is.
[ID: A screenshot of Baseball and Clover from Inanimate Insanity during the episode The Future Is Today. Baseball is talking to Clover, appearing skeptical, as Clover shrugs.
The captions for Taco's offscreen dialogue read:
"Candle can handle that."
The captions for Baseball's dialogue read:
"Do they even have a reservation?"
End ID.]
Something else notable to me is that Clover's supposed luck did not stop Pencil from writing in her own reservation, leaving the newbies to get the unlit table instead. Things are not going right for her or the people she is meant to help. She then goes on to call it "fair is fair", again blowing off the situation similar to before.
I think both of these pale in comparison to probably the worst example of this happening thus far.
[ID: A screenshot of Poppy and Clover from Inanimate Insanity during the episode Cob Mentality. Both Poppy and Clover look shocked by what just happened; Clover has an eyebag. There are various other characters similarly shocked behind them, though they are not fully shown. End ID.]
She didn't seem to be too far from them, and while there had been moments in S3 where somebody had gotten injured or worse while near Clover, it was always something that somehow "benefitted" her one way or another. There is nothing about this situation that benefits Clover whatsoever.
I think there's other things to note here, such as that Poppy would've been the target otherwise, and yet they were able to dodge. While I doubt Clover wanted Poppy to get injured, it would've at least been closer to her desires than Bot doing so.
So, two of these incidents resulted in injury, one of these injuries being quite serious. Bad things, or at least sub-optimal things, keep happening around her, and there's no real sign that she is bringing good things into the atmosphere just by existing like before. Very suspicious, but pondering this theory at all brings up an important question.
Why Did She Lose It?
I was originally more hesitant to be so confident in this, because maybe these could just be coincidences? I wasn't sure what the reason would be for her losing her luck... that was, until I realized something pretty important both to this theory and to Clover.
[ID: A screenshot of Clover and her butterflies from Inanimate Insanity during the episode Out of Body Experience. Clover appears happy as her butterflies each grab onto her. End ID.]
Her butterflies.
We have not seen Clover's butterflies in either of the two episodes from what I've noticed, despite her being important to both of them and a prominent character throughout the first one. Her luck is tied to them, and there suspiciously have not been any lucky things happening around her like before, which makes me more hesitant to believe they've simply been offscreen like some S3 episodes.
The biggest thing to me, the thing that settles this all in the most, is that Clover's butterflies would be connected to MeLife and thus wiped during II2E17. They are separate entities to Clover and I don't think they would've automatically gotten revived just because she did. On top of this, I question a lot how aware they would've even been about the need to escape, let alone how to accomplish doing so. I don't think they would've had the awareness or the means to do so; this gets even worse knowing that there's more complicated challenges like basketball now. Making it worse, I don't think it'd be very feasible for little butterflies to do so if Bell couldn't, and it's impossible to tell if they already would've tried to take the risk at all.
Clover's luck is tied to her butterflies, but we haven't seen any sign of them. She hasn't shown any signs of luck, instead having bad things happen around her. There is an incredibly plausible reason for the butterflies to be missing. Even with what little information that's there, it's enough for me to be greatly suspicious of what's going on and thus make this post. By this point, it'd be fair to wonder...
How Does She Feel About This?
Unsurprisingly, she seems a lot more anxious. Knowing how quick she realized the difference in Out of Body Experience, I feel as if Clover already knows for sure she lost her luck, or at least heavily suspects it.
I think Clover has been largely covering up any potential anxiety by her typical happy-go-lucky nature, even playing off some bad things as somehow beneficial to avoid suspicion, though cracks are evidently forming in that.
[ID: A screenshot of Clover and Baseball from Inanimate Insanity during the episode The Future Is Today. Both of them appear happy as Clover speaks. The captions read:
"Hi everyone. I'm Clover. I'm so excited to meet you all."
End ID.]
She still appears happy a lot of the time, she still introduces herself normally, I think her mask appears to be working well enough to those paying less attention to her, and even then, general nervousness could otherwise be chalked up to how the flawed society has been going.
[ID: A screenshot of Baseball, Clover, Lifering, Box, Paintbrush, and MeTag from Inanimate Insanity during the episode The Future Is Today. Both Baseball and Clover appear shocked in the tour bus after being stopped by the latter four, who are angry and halting the bus by pushing their hands forward. End ID.]
She seems more uncertain with surprising events than she was before, like there's far more of a fear of things going wrong.
[ID: Two screenshots of Clover from Inanimate Insanity during the episode The Future Is Today. She has a similar worried expression in both; she shifts and looks away in the second image. End ID.]
When Lifering explains to her what's going on, she seems even more nervous as he highlights that she could've ran them over (particularly interesting knowing what happens shortly after), and she doesn't provide any sort of defense on the situation. No nonchalant smile, no assumption that this won't happen because of her luck, not even saying that she wouldn't be able to do so. It's a very real possibility now that literally comes to fruition moments later.
[ID: A screenshot of Teddy Bear and Clover from Inanimate Insanity during the episode The Future Is Today. Teddy Bear has her arms crossed and appears angry as she speaks, while Clover looks off to the side. The captions read:
"Oh, yes. And getting sicker by the minute."
End ID.]
As another example, she's more uncertain when talking to Teddy Bear. It's clear she finds it hard to be as welcoming as she maybe could otherwise as a tour guide.
Things get a lot more interesting by Episode 2, and it gives a much greater indicator as to why she would be hiding something as big as this.
[ID: Two screenshots of Clover and OJ from Inanimate Insanity during the episode Cob Mentality. Clover appears anxious and OJ appears angered in both images.
In the first image, Clover's expression, while very nervous, doesn't seem as tense. OJ is standing firmly as he looks off to the side.
In the second screenshot, OJ points to Clover as he speaks, causing her to get notably more tense and raise her arms. The captions read:
"Everyone get behind Clover."
End ID.]
She is a major part of the society's safety plan.
It doesn't seem as if the others are aware that Clover may not be lucky anymore, instead still viewing her as a lucky forcefield to keep everyone safe. This would put an unimaginable pressure onto her to keep this hidden, because without this placebo of protection, all the objects would feel even more scared in a newly dangerous world.
I feel as if this is likely to be the reason she is assigned as one of the tour guides as well. Running under the assumption she's lucky, she can easily keep the newbies safe as they explore the world for the first time, and her sweet, friendly nature is a nice bonus to that. It even explains why she is the bus driver, as she would presumably be unable to get into any accidents or hurt others in doing so... yeah, that doesn't seem to be working out well.
[ID: A screenshot of Clover, Poppy, Nickel, and Floory from Inanimate Insanity during the episode Cob Mentality.
Clover appears angry, standing in front of Nickel and Floory with her arms spread out. Poppy appears worried, holding a hand up to their face as they stare at them. There are various other objects in the background running around scared. End ID.]
I think without all this context, it appears unusual for Clover to jump to being so angry at someone who hasn't done anything wrong.
With this context, it becomes clear that Clover is overcompensating because she does not have a safety net in the case she misjudges the danger.
Without her luck, Clover is not a very strong object. She is a pretty lightweight plant who can get carried by the wind. There is no way for her to defend herself against a threat besides to make said threat think that she can. This is not much different from a declawed cat fluffing up as much as possible and hoping you won't notice that it can't actually defend itself.
[ID: A screenshot of Clover, Poppy, and Bot from Inanimate Insanity during the episode Cob Mentality. Clover is watching Poppy fix up Bot with one of their leaves from a distance, seeming concerned. End ID.]
She even gets a bit closer to watch what Poppy does to Bot, but she can't leave her role protecting the crowd. She can't even be there to help someone who'd been there for her in the past.
[ID: Two screenshots of Clover from Inanimate Insanity during the episode Cob Mentality. Both show her flapping her arms and cheering. Her eyes appear more scrunched up in the second image. There are various objects in both backgrounds. End ID.]
Again, it offers a new context to what would normally be at least a little bit unusual of a reaction for her (though maybe not the most unusual given she laughed at Silver popping Balloon before) when she cheers for Poppy getting detained, even despite them helping Bot moments before. Now there's no worry to be wrong because the threat is nullified, and she doesn't have to put up as much of a mask while pretending to be a lucky forcefield.
[ID: A screenshot of Clover from Inanimate Insanity during the episode Cob Mentality. She appears saddened as she looks off to the side. There are various objects in the background. End ID.]
It's very evident that she's still conflict avoidant, as once arguments about the game sprout up, she goes quiet and sadly watches.
I think there's other things I could potentially get into, but this is already very speculative and anything I'd point out would be even moreso. Perhaps best to save that for another post. Now, onto the next bit...
Where Could They Go With This?
If this theory is true, I think this is an extremely interesting place to take Clover's arc, providing an interesting parallel to S3 where a more mature Clover is without her luck. There's even the connection of her losing her luck from dying.
For one, it's clear Clover is not taking this as an opportunity to fully evade responsibility like she may have before, as she's come a long way since then. She is still working hard to help the society how she can and trying desperately to still pass as lucky and happy. This is a double-edged sword; while it does show how she's grown into a more mature person, I think it's an extension of unhealthy behavior I began noticing later into S3, in which Clover seems to think she needs to dedicate her life into helping others so she can make up for her inherent luckiness. If she really is luckless, and she is aware of this, she is continuing to have this mentality even after losing her luck. There is something deeply concerning about how much she thinks she needs to make up for having had any luck at all, if this is the case.
I think it also shows how conflict avoidant she can be, now evading responsibility in a far subtler way. I don't think she wants the fallout of everyone being more fearful without her "protection", and I definitely don't think she wants to face the inevitable anger at her having lied for so long. I think this can provide a pretty interesting and nuanced conflict, raising questions on how reasonable it is for Clover to hide this if the others are the ones placing expectations on her just for something they assume she has.
I think the fallout would be tamer if Clover either confesses to it herself or if others figure out what's up before something even worse happens. I am less certain on who Clover would feel comfortable confessing to knowing the stakes, so instead I will list my top candidates for who could figure it out organically.
Cabby. I think Cabby would be a really interesting candidate to realize this. Cabby is an incredibly perceptive person and is in fact the one who first realized that Clover was lucky at all, and her then realizing Clover is luckless would make this come full circle. She would also have reason to be around Clover often enough to do so, as she represents Cooperation and has been putting in a lot of effort into overseeing as many people as possible. I think it also builds on nicely to the amount of interactions they had throughout S3 that don't feel quite capitalized on. I would love for these two to interact more and I think Cabby realizing would be one of the kinder resolutions of such a situation.
Baseball. Knowing that they work together, I think Baseball makes a lot of sense to be someone who'd eventually realize something's up. He's even already often seemed unsure himself throughout the first episode, and while this could simply just be because of his own feelings about what goes on, I think it would be a really nice marker of his development in paying attention to others for him to realize what's up with Clover. What I don't know is if Baseball would prefer to keep this information quiet or if he'd try to encourage Clover to tell the others. Both have really interesting implications on both their developments and how the others could react if this information comes out.
Fan. He is the host of the current gameshow, and he may be wanting more reinforcement to keep him and his loved ones safe after what happened in Cob Mentality. As he is also incredibly observant like Cabby is, I think he could also eventually pick up on Clover's lucklessness once he spends enough time with her, though I don't know exactly how he'd react. I think there's also a lot of interesting potential for Clover to project onto Fan in a similar way she did Nickel; someone more self-centered trying not to be and trying to help others, using a flawed teaching tool that isn't exactly tailored to who he's helping. Overall a very interesting place to take things.
I think there's other potential candidates, though they all have something about them that make them less likely to me. Test Tube and Clover for example have enough ties in S3 for there to be interesting buildup from her realizing, though I can't imagine Test Tube would be in a state to want to notice these things, and even if she did, I think she'd just be so scared about the fact that she got lied to. Bot and Clover could maybe work, but similar to Test Tube, I think Bot would be too dissociated to notice these types of things, especially when they aren't actually all that observant at times. Goo maybe could if he starts interacting with Clover again when he's not focused on the competition, that could be sweet. It'd be really interesting if someone like OJ realized from things like this going wrong, though I'm unsure how likely he'd be to tie things together without an event even more serious than Cob Mentality. Suitcase may be checking in more after the events of that episode given she runs the safety side of things. Maybe Nickel could notice because of his own experience with the luck and his connection to Clover. There's a lot of options.
Even a newbie like Poppy or Tapey could be interesting, but it'd be a newer connection established, and so I find it less likely and harder to theorize about.
If the others don't find out organically from more innocent causes, I feel like they will find out if it's much clearer that Clover is unable to save someone from getting severely injured again, especially if they die from it. I think Clover would have very bad survivor's guilt if that were to happen, but it would be a very interesting way to go about the consequences of hiding something as serious as this.
Maybe Clover herself could get seriously injured, or even die herself, though I will say I'm not keen on the idea of her dying. Maybe they would do this, but I don't currently think it would be satisfying for a character like her to die, so I won't analyze the possibility of that particularly. It'd be nice if a non-fatal injury led to her getting the help she needs, though, both physically and mentally.
I think there's also space to explore how she would've mourned her butterflies for so long in secret. She loved them so dearly and if this is all true, I can't imagine how hard that would've been for her. It'd be cathartic for her to have space to talk about that.
Overall, lots to explore, and if this is the path they are taking, I am very excited for how this could impact her.
Closing Thoughts
This theory has been driving me insane ever since I thought about it enough and it's nice to get to share what I've analyzed of it. It's very possible that this all will turn out to be false, possibly even disproven as soon as the next episode haha, but there's enough evidence for something to be up with Clover at least, and I'm excited to see what they're cooking with her!! I don't think they'd be giving her so much importance in the first couple of episodes for no reason, so even if she still has her luck, I think there's plenty of interesting places to take that, too.
I really like the fact that Cabby was the first one to try and defend Poppy,,, she knows what it feels like to be judged because of bad first impressions and I love how much effort she puts into trying to make people feel more comfortable in their new society <3
i don't think it's very fair to be demonizing the osc for creating a false utopia btw. i think the whole point is they don't know how else to build a community because they've been secluded from the rest of the world and don't know any better
in the same manner i don't think fan should be demonized either because he was also kept away from the world by the show and is regressing back into it because it's all he's ever known. and as we all know he responds very poorly to change
iiiv in general is set up in a way that requires every former contestant to have to not just figure out, but come to terms with themselves, and grapple with the fact that just because they're free of the show doesn't immediately mean that everything's okay . both the osc AND fan need to learn this and i'm sure it's bound to be an overarching theme
no one's in the right here but no one's in the wrong either. everyone is deeply traumatized by the show and they're all just responding to it differently. you're meant to sympathize with the characters in this regard, not pick a side as to who's right and who's wrong
