So, I read the Kingdom of the Cursed bonus chapters from the B&N exclusive edition and I have some THEORIES!!! Spoilers for KotW, KotC, and the bonus chapters below. Also, this is another longgg theory post from me ๐
The B&N exclusive has three mini chapters from Wrath's POV from KotW era and they are actually quite informative for the KotC plot and are starting to tie things together.
The first of the three is a chapter that takes place at Pride's estate, where Wrath and Pride talk about the murders and Wrath offers to go and escort the last one to hell personally.
We learn that the brides all have to fit a certain description and come from a certain bloodline.
They must have dark hair, dark eyes, and a heart-shaped face (hmmmm wonder who fits that description). This betrothal is part of Pride's plan to undo the curse, which he had been tasked with researching for god knows how long. But, as we have learned in KotC, curses have many threads, and they have to be careful and specific with how they snip them.
We also learn that there is a time limit here for at least the part of the curse that relates to Wrath - Wrath has "6 months to secure his house" which does not sound good and we have heard before. So, first of all, what exactly does it mean to "secure his house"? We get some more hints at this in this chapter, where it almost sounds like he's not going to be around anymore. That he basically needs to get everything figured out so he can leave it in good hands. But there is some mix here with the I-need-to-collect-one-more-soul-for-my-freedom plotline as well. It seems like by collecting that last soul, he gets a little bit more wiggle room, some sort of freedom, but it is hard to say what that means.
The most helpful bit of new knowledge here, to me, is that we learn that Pride's murdered wife had a sister.
Interesting. And that when both the wife and sister were murdered, the devil rampaged through Hell, destroying large swaths of land in his brother's territories whom he thought might be responsible, and threatening his brother's themselves. This passage is written to make you think it is Pride who rampaged. But we know who the devil really is now, don't we?
Wrath comes back later after he discovers Vittoria and has his run-in with Emilia from KotW, and he says this to Pride:
Why would the woman being a twin be an important "secret" to disclose, or to let Pride know he now knows? It must be meaningful - it must signal something. Like, maybe Pride's wife didn't just have a normal sister - she had a twin. This ties into the seeming reincarnation theory. Once Wrath comes back to Hell to confront Pride, he thinks this:
Sounds like she sticks with him. Haunts him, even.
Then we learn he left his dagger with her on purpose. He wanted her to summon him. And once he is summoned as he was in KotW, we get these tidbits:
HE WONDERS IF HIS TATTOO SPARKS A MEMORY. A. MEMORY. And then he realized her magic isn't as blocked as he first thought. Hmmmmmm.
We know from KotC that Emilia starts to have visions of her own that are almost surely old memories resurfacing. Memories of her and Wrath in... passionate situations.
Based on all this, I think Emilia and Vittoria are the Wife and the Sister reincarnated. Vittoria was Pride's wife, Emilia was the sister, and Wrath was in love with the sister, which explains his rampage when he heard they were both dead. But who are they, really, in the lore of the world?
The prologue showed us the original curse that then turned into a bargain between the First Witch and Wrath. The readers are lead to believe that potentially Emilia is the First Witch, cursed to forget her memories as the cost of her dark magic in creating the curse. But this doesn't make much sense to me. What did she want vengeance for? Maybe her sister, Pride's consort, was killed before her, and she wanted Wrath to intervene but then he refused? I can see her love of her sister being greater than her love for Wrath and that driving the wedge between them, but it almost seems like the wife and sister died at the same time. And when the First Witch tried to seduce him initially, he didn't seem even remotely interested or affected. If the First Witch was his one love, I feel as though he would've been at least a little impacted by that. Additionally, the Crone says Emilia is not the First Witch. Sure, she could be twisting her words, meaning that Emilia is the First Witch, but really isn't because she is her own person, but I don't think she had a reason to lie.
This may seem a little far fetched, but I think Nonna is actually the First Witch, and Emilia and Vittoria were once the Maiden and the Mother, respectively, or at least tied directly to them in some way. Everything that is associated with the Maiden is associated with Emilia - the crescent moon, Daughter of the Moon, her aesthetic, her suite at Wrath's estate, her silver cornicello to Vittoria's golden one. The Maiden is also associated with the mortal world, and Emilia is constantly talking about trying to save it, trying to protect it. Whereas Vittoria forfeited her "mortal" life, but has been reborn. She looks like a goddess now, an angel of death. A being fit for the heavens, as the Mother is. And maybe the "Mother" isn't just a moniker - what if she really was a mother. It is said that the First Witch was born to a goddess and a Demon. Maybe to the Mother and Pride? Perhaps Nonna was trying to avenge her mother and aunt's death, and this is what happened. Emilia said Nonna liked Vittoria more in KotW - maybe thats because she knew she was her mother, reborn, and was thus more drawn to her?
Hard to say. There are soooo many possibilities, but this is what I think is happening based on what we know right now. Regardless, some sort of reincarnation trope is coming, y'all.
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