Okay, bear with me: I have a dumb theory about Dungeon Meshi and nobody I know has actually read it.Ā So, Iām posting it here.
Uhhā¦ Is it possible Marcille is a half-elf?Ā Because Iām starting to think Marcille might be a half-elf??
One of the most distinctive parts of Marcilleās design is her ears ā unlike most elf characters out there, theyāre rounded rather than pointy.Ā At first I kind of assumed this was a stylistic choice on Kuiās part, (Iāve always been fond of it, theyāre very charming) and because there have been so few elves in the story until recently, there hasnāt really been much reason to assume otherwise.Ā I do actually think it was a stylistic choice at first ā Fionil (The elf mage from ch.3) and Marcilleās mother, characters only seen in Chapter 3, both have rounded ear tips:
This was early enough into the series that Kui probably hadnāt fully fleshed out the details of the setting and characters, though.Ā But there is another, more recent drawing Kuiās made of Marcilleās mother in āDaydream Hour 2ā³, and interestingly enoughā¦ her ears are pointy there.
In fact, every elf weāve seen since then has been pointier than Marcille.Ā Take a look at the Mad Sorcerer, Elf Senshi, and the Canaries:
Aside from the Canary whoās ears are lopped off (which I definitely have questions about), all of their ears are pointed at the tip.Ā This also applies not only to Senshi, but the entire rest of the main party when redesigned as elves in the most recent chapter title illustration:
All of them are significantly more angular all around, even Izutsumi, despite the cat part muddying the differences.Ā Meanwhile, take a look at Marcilleās human design side by side with her normal oneā¦
Theyāre much more similar than any other redesign on the page, ear length and nose shape being the only significant differences.Ā All of her features are also much more rounded in her normal design than any other party memberās elf design in general, or any other elf at all.Ā Which, if maybe sheās half-humanā¦ might make sense.Ā Also, this is tenuous, but Marcille is the only member of the party whoās transformation is given an unsure tone:
Sheās āa halfling?ā, not āa halfling.āĀ Super minor, but itās still an odd question mark in comparison to the rest, especially considering ākobold with cat earsā is way more unclear than Marcilleās transformation.
Marcille also doesnāt seem to hang out much with elves in general ā there were none at the magic academy (just humans and gnomes), none in her party, few around in general andā¦ well, sheās obviously not psyched about potentially running into the Canaries, as seen in the previous chapter:
Traditional D&D talks about half-elves not being particularly accepted among elf societies, so I wouldnāt really be surprised if that was the case here, too, and thatās whatās making her apprehensive about potentially having to mediate with the elves.
This is all mostly based on the most recent chapters, but the thing that really got me first wondering was the Nightmare chapter:
Marcilleās father, who we have never seen on-panel, is dead.Ā While we donāt really know how old Marcille is, he most likely died during her childhood.Ā This really made me stop and ask myself what could have happened when I read it.Ā Laius assumes he died young, but what Marcilleās mother told her afterwards paints a different picture to me: Sheās talking about Marcilleās long lifespan in comparison to the people around her, including her father.Ā That seems like it means something.Ā Likeā¦ maybe he had a signficantly shorter lifespan than Marcille or her mother. He could have been human.
I donāt know.Ā A lot of this is admittedly flimsy.Ā Mostly, I think itās starting to seem kind of strange how different Marcille is from virtually every other elf in the manga currently.Ā That, combined with some of these other details is making me wonder.Ā If I am right, though, I think itās definitely going to come up whenever the Canaries catch up with the party.
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