Jumping ahead of the curve to deliver what I think Cinderella Boy's ending is gonna be. Please don't read beyond this point if you aren't caught up with Season 2, Episode 18 (the episode that went free Sept 29th).
Okay, so. I know we all love theorizing sad stuff (or at least I do), but obviously Cinderella Boy is an all-ages comedy, and Punko has told us that Myra is going to survive the story and that there is going to be a happy ending, but we don't know how that comes to be yet.
Since I managed to Apollo-dodgeball-360-no-scope Nox being a thieving orphan from the 1800s, I wanted to throw my hat into the ring for my next prediction on how CB is going to end. Many thanks to the fast-pass spoiler chat in the Punko server (specifically, The Arcane Sage, Jay, Pumkin, and Wistalia for triggering the thought connections for this).
I want to propose the Perception Ending Theory:
Nox will change back into a human when he genuinely believes that he's no longer a villain.
The theory popped into being when Jay and Pumkin were answering Sage's question:
The Arcane Sage: "Why [was] Buddy [chosen to be the villain key] when there was all of Ex Libris?"
Jay: "I think it's because Buddy sees himself as a villain. The Ex Libris people think they're in the right. The key needed to fuse with someone who thinks they fit the archetype."
Pumkin: "Well, that's the question. Buddy thinks it's because he had a 'villainous' soul or something. We don't know yet."
Jai: "Is it possible that Nox's running-out-of-time may be tied to him slowly believing that he may be less of a villain than he thought himself as in the past? He's slowly unintentionally uncoupling his identity from the villain key? What if when Nox no longer feels like a villain, his tie to the villain key will break, and he'll be human again?"
Wistalia: "I mean.... Chase did get Dracifer to change his mind so much that he became the hero...."
Excellent point. Dracifer's development could have been foreshadowing Nox warming up to Chase and Nox's eventual uncoupling from the villain key.
Nox (as far as he believes) only became the villain key because he was "the right man for the job" (Season 2, Episode 18). The fusion between Nox and the villain key happened without a wish while Nox was doing a villainous action (stealing from the Grand Library) and while Nox believed himself to be a selfish, thieving survivor, and the keys (when trying to find a role in a book) can make even the slightest lean toward their archetype work (ex. the cousin in Beach Boys thinks about double-crossing the heroine, a cat in Chase's Party Crashers story swats at another cat, etc.). With Nox's perception of himself, the villain key had ample villainous traits to work with.
As long as Nox believes he's a villainous person, he'll remain the villain key. With Chase's influence, Nox must face his actions (also going off of the siphoning-narratonin-from-Chase theory), ask forgiveness, and grow. He's already seen how his actions affect those around him (Still Waters, how Chase finally shows how hurt he is by Buddy constantly calling him a stupid idiot), and he's apologized, pushing his character closer and closer to seeing himself differently (cursed and bad, but still differently). As Nox's perception of himself changes, Nox's time dwindles down for potentially related reasons (hasn't been proven, just a hopeful assumption). When he finally reaches the moment of seeing himself as no longer a villain, Nox will turn human again.
I believe that Nox will eventually find out that Chase intends to use his wish to wish Myra's cancer away (which will give him plenty of guilt, no doubt), and he will sacrifice what narratonin he and Violet have siphoned from Chase (again, if siphoning-narratonin-from-Chase theory is true). Nox will have to lay down and participate in the wish ritual (and if he must be in key form to do it, he will be willingly facing the horror of being trapped and unmoving in key form). Chase will be able to wish Myra's cancer away, and the heroic act may finally be enough to allow Nox to see himself as (if not a hero) more nuanced and no longer a villain, and since this action is heroic in nature, the villain key may no longer see a place to keep a foothold on Nox's body, allowing them both to release each other and allowing Nox to take human form again.
Additionally, this theory allows Chase to wish Myra's cancer away, we still get Buddy thinking that he may be running out of time, and Buddy can still be saved without a wish. (He became the villain key without a wish, so why does he need a wish to get out again?) Solves all the story problems of keeping stakes intact, having a happy ending, and having the characters taking everything seriously.
Bonus Points: it's an ending that gels with Cinderella Boy's all-ages comedy light-hearted genre.
Nox can believe he's dying and have that be his struggle/stakes, but I wanna see him breathe out a sigh of teary relief upon seeing that believing that he's not just scum saves him not just emotionally but physically as well. Nox can believe that the villain key is dying and Nox can only be saved with a wish, which leaves Chase is a rough spot. He has to find a way to somehow both save Buddy and Myra, so Nox's stakes and struggle can still be that steep.
Additionally, overcoming internal conflict and perspective seems like it'd really fit Buddy's character, it's more narratively compelling, and it adds a deeper layer to the story-telling, and I feel like we've all read enough CB to know that Punko's way of story-telling is very creative and narratively satisfying.
janainaart
theartofmadeline
baratheonpilled
ellievsbear
2087
