new idea: in order to prevent treefrey, olly creates a suit of ice cold water to wrap around qifrey’s neck so that he’s chronically cold and their bed is a weird water bed with bumps so that qifrey can never be comfortable. with this, qifrey is never fully confortable enough to tree-ify
i would like to start off by saying that i am not on twitter or tiktok so idk what the popular theory manifesting right now is
with that said, here is my theorycraft on how iguin is olruggio’s memories/qifreys guilt/debatably not qifrey
theory one: he’s qifrey’s guilt
first, the picture evidence. we see over the course of the manga that iguin’s ribbon has grown over time. it starts with two beads (ties?) when iguin is first introduced and gradually grows to have four beads in the most recent appearance.
iguin has three in the dragon labyrinth arc (chapter 8) and four in the aftermath of the silver eve arc (chapter 88). interestingly, he has five when confronting qifrey about the twin pots (chapter 15).
iguin’s ribbon seems to gain more beads whenever qifrey is being deceptive. coco is young when we see iguin’s first appearance and yet he already has two beads, the second tying off a shorter tassel. if we’re running with this theory, the beads could be to signify qifrey’s initial lie to olruggio about not wanting to be his friend and then a second for his tree-ification-memory thing
however, as time passes, the ribbon grows longer and qifrey is lying (by omission) to olruggio about taking in an outsider to the atelier. olruggio forces qifrey to promise that he isn’t prioritizing his own brimhat chasing over coco’s health, except for the fact that qifrey does exactly that by trying to extract a known dangerous object INSIDE his atelier. when iguin shows up again, his ribbon has five beads — qifrey lying to coco about the ink and to olruggio about protecting his kids
then, time passes, qifrey erases olruggio’s memory and tells coco the truth about his identity — iguin is back down to four beads
i’m still fleshing this one out
SECOND THEORY
iguin is qifrey’s memories of olruggio. while iguin and qifrey share several motifs (cyclops, tassels/ribbons), i would say that iguin and olruggio share more.
olly and iguin have very similar palettes and match acessories more than qifrey and iguin do. tbf, i haven’t spent a crazy amount of time analyizng qifrey and iguin so there at 100% things im missing but i do think that olly and iguin share more either way.
it could also go to explain why iguin specifically tortures qifrey with his existence. iguin has been keeping an eye on coco since day one. there’s no way in hell he didnt clock her casting forbidden spells in her room in chapter one — if coco was his final goal, he could have nabbed her right then and there and promised to return her mother to normal. or, he could have stopped her during her flight test and told her then.
that’s not what he did though. instead, he creates an elaborate plan to take her through a labyrinth, allows qifrey to locate the girls, then tampers with coco’s inkpot KNOWING she wouldn’t understand what was happening. who would know? qifrey.
iguin talks about his plant sprouting while looking at coco but i wonder if his master plan was to purposely send qifrey another apprentice, one that was so perfect for his atelier, to turn him into a tree. after all, what better way to prove an experiment than to see it come to fruition? his use of olruggio’s motifs was a way to further not trigger his fighting instinct. even subconsciously, most people would not want to punch someone that looked like a friend. the same thing could be true here
good morning after four hours of sleep i am refreshed with more theory and GET THIS
iguin’s first appearance is with coco, sitting down in the floor of a cellar. fine, if he’s to play the part of friendly to a child, maybe he needs to get down low…except
every. single. point. after this, he is depicted as floating, flying, or standing on a hill. he is never equal level with the other characters on the ground, he imposed over them. while it could be an intimidation technique for us, i would imagine that it’s less intimidating knowing that you go could get on the same exact level by simply putting your feet together. better techniques could be go into his dragon form/use his dragon as a third party communicator (scary!!) or get up close and personal. but he doesn’t do that. why?
again, his real goal is qifrey, not coco. and if i ran with the olruggio-manifestation idea, his refusal to be grounded is because qifrey things of olruggio as “the sky’s kindest, most radiant star”
stars are not touchable, they do not ground, in a sense, they are unattainable. much like olruggio, they burn hot — when the coolness of water can cause them to extinguish. that’s exactly what qifrey thinks of olruggio because qifrey cannot have him in a world where he isn’t dead. qifrey can only hold onto this star when the star is cool to the touch, when his water magic has cooled olruggio’s fire.
qifrey knows this, subconsciously and maybe consciously. that’s why he’s never been able to make physical contact with iguin — iguin is a star to him because olly is a star to him.
it would also be another explanation for iguin’s colour palette. a black and blue night sky (coat) contrasted by the sparkling white star (hat, mask)
(found this when searching for proof. qifrey’s cloak is smoke, olruggio’s is sky, and they live in a place where ash dragons cross the night sky)
IGUIN USES A DRAGON (I said that and then DIDNT THINK MORE ON IT) but guess who else LOVES DRAGONS??? Qifrey is a dragon fan — Iguin uses dragons to his advantage….he is absolutely just targetting Qifrey and not Coco
dear arkansas daughter except its custas and tartah where custas is dark curls, tartah is watercolour eyes, and custas is teeth with every smile except its specifically the panel of him smiling with dagda and then its him with his tree legs
I have been waiting for this since I first heard the title song 5 years ago, it is so fucking good. This is made for all the current and former gifted kids who staked their entire identity on their grades. The twist at the end is absolutely devastating, you need to see this!
i would like to start off by saying that i am not on twitter or tiktok so idk what the popular theory manifesting right now is
with that said, here is my theorycraft on how iguin is olruggio’s memories/qifreys guilt/debatably not qifrey
theory one: he’s qifrey’s guilt
first, the picture evidence. we see over the course of the manga that iguin’s ribbon has grown over time. it starts with two beads (ties?) when iguin is first introduced and gradually grows to have four beads in the most recent appearance.
iguin has three in the dragon labyrinth arc (chapter 8) and four in the aftermath of the silver eve arc (chapter 88). interestingly, he has five when confronting qifrey about the twin pots (chapter 15).
iguin’s ribbon seems to gain more beads whenever qifrey is being deceptive. coco is young when we see iguin’s first appearance and yet he already has two beads, the second tying off a shorter tassel. if we’re running with this theory, the beads could be to signify qifrey’s initial lie to olruggio about not wanting to be his friend and then a second for his tree-ification-memory thing
however, as time passes, the ribbon grows longer and qifrey is lying (by omission) to olruggio about taking in an outsider to the atelier. olruggio forces qifrey to promise that he isn’t prioritizing his own brimhat chasing over coco’s health, except for the fact that qifrey does exactly that by trying to extract a known dangerous object INSIDE his atelier. when iguin shows up again, his ribbon has five beads — qifrey lying to coco about the ink and to olruggio about protecting his kids
then, time passes, qifrey erases olruggio’s memory and tells coco the truth about his identity — iguin is back down to four beads
i’m still fleshing this one out
SECOND THEORY
iguin is qifrey’s memories of olruggio. while iguin and qifrey share several motifs (cyclops, tassels/ribbons), i would say that iguin and olruggio share more.
olly and iguin have very similar palettes and match acessories more than qifrey and iguin do. tbf, i haven’t spent a crazy amount of time analyizng qifrey and iguin so there at 100% things im missing but i do think that olly and iguin share more either way.
it could also go to explain why iguin specifically tortures qifrey with his existence. iguin has been keeping an eye on coco since day one. there’s no way in hell he didnt clock her casting forbidden spells in her room in chapter one — if coco was his final goal, he could have nabbed her right then and there and promised to return her mother to normal. or, he could have stopped her during her flight test and told her then.
that’s not what he did though. instead, he creates an elaborate plan to take her through a labyrinth, allows qifrey to locate the girls, then tampers with coco’s inkpot KNOWING she wouldn’t understand what was happening. who would know? qifrey.
iguin talks about his plant sprouting while looking at coco but i wonder if his master plan was to purposely send qifrey another apprentice, one that was so perfect for his atelier, to turn him into a tree. after all, what better way to prove an experiment than to see it come to fruition? his use of olruggio’s motifs was a way to further not trigger his fighting instinct. even subconsciously, most people would not want to punch someone that looked like a friend. the same thing could be true here
good morning after four hours of sleep i am refreshed with more theory and GET THIS
iguin’s first appearance is with coco, sitting down in the floor of a cellar. fine, if he’s to play the part of friendly to a child, maybe he needs to get down low…except
every. single. point. after this, he is depicted as floating, flying, or standing on a hill. he is never equal level with the other characters on the ground, he imposed over them. while it could be an intimidation technique for us, i would imagine that it’s less intimidating knowing that you go could get on the same exact level by simply putting your feet together. better techniques could be go into his dragon form/use his dragon as a third party communicator (scary!!) or get up close and personal. but he doesn’t do that. why?
again, his real goal is qifrey, not coco. and if i ran with the olruggio-manifestation idea, his refusal to be grounded is because qifrey things of olruggio as “the sky’s kindest, most radiant star”
stars are not touchable, they do not ground, in a sense, they are unattainable. much like olruggio, they burn hot — when the coolness of water can cause them to extinguish. that’s exactly what qifrey thinks of olruggio because qifrey cannot have him in a world where he isn’t dead. qifrey can only hold onto this star when the star is cool to the touch, when his water magic has cooled olruggio’s fire.
qifrey knows this, subconsciously and maybe consciously. that’s why he’s never been able to make physical contact with iguin — iguin is a star to him because olly is a star to him.
it would also be another explanation for iguin’s colour palette. a black and blue night sky (coat) contrasted by the sparkling white star (hat, mask)
(found this when searching for proof. qifrey’s cloak is smoke, olruggio’s is sky, and they live in a place where ash dragons cross the night sky)
i would like to start off by saying that i am not on twitter or tiktok so idk what the popular theory manifesting right now is
with that said, here is my theorycraft on how iguin is olruggio’s memories/qifreys guilt/debatably not qifrey
theory one: he’s qifrey’s guilt
first, the picture evidence. we see over the course of the manga that iguin’s ribbon has grown over time. it starts with two beads (ties?) when iguin is first introduced and gradually grows to have four beads in the most recent appearance.
iguin has three in the dragon labyrinth arc (chapter 8) and four in the aftermath of the silver eve arc (chapter 88). interestingly, he has five when confronting qifrey about the twin pots (chapter 15).
iguin’s ribbon seems to gain more beads whenever qifrey is being deceptive. coco is young when we see iguin’s first appearance and yet he already has two beads, the second tying off a shorter tassel. if we’re running with this theory, the beads could be to signify qifrey’s initial lie to olruggio about not wanting to be his friend and then a second for his tree-ification-memory thing
however, as time passes, the ribbon grows longer and qifrey is lying (by omission) to olruggio about taking in an outsider to the atelier. olruggio forces qifrey to promise that he isn’t prioritizing his own brimhat chasing over coco’s health, except for the fact that qifrey does exactly that by trying to extract a known dangerous object INSIDE his atelier. when iguin shows up again, his ribbon has five beads — qifrey lying to coco about the ink and to olruggio about protecting his kids
then, time passes, qifrey erases olruggio’s memory and tells coco the truth about his identity — iguin is back down to four beads
i’m still fleshing this one out
SECOND THEORY
iguin is qifrey’s memories of olruggio. while iguin and qifrey share several motifs (cyclops, tassels/ribbons), i would say that iguin and olruggio share more.
olly and iguin have very similar palettes and match acessories more than qifrey and iguin do. tbf, i haven’t spent a crazy amount of time analyizng qifrey and iguin so there at 100% things im missing but i do think that olly and iguin share more either way.
it could also go to explain why iguin specifically tortures qifrey with his existence. iguin has been keeping an eye on coco since day one. there’s no way in hell he didnt clock her casting forbidden spells in her room in chapter one — if coco was his final goal, he could have nabbed her right then and there and promised to return her mother to normal. or, he could have stopped her during her flight test and told her then.
that’s not what he did though. instead, he creates an elaborate plan to take her through a labyrinth, allows qifrey to locate the girls, then tampers with coco’s inkpot KNOWING she wouldn’t understand what was happening. who would know? qifrey.
iguin talks about his plant sprouting while looking at coco but i wonder if his master plan was to purposely send qifrey another apprentice, one that was so perfect for his atelier, to turn him into a tree. after all, what better way to prove an experiment than to see it come to fruition? his use of olruggio’s motifs was a way to further not trigger his fighting instinct. even subconsciously, most people would not want to punch someone that looked like a friend. the same thing could be true here
i would like to start off by saying that i am not on twitter or tiktok so idk what the popular theory manifesting right now is
with that said, here is my theorycraft on how iguin is olruggio’s memories/qifreys guilt/debatably not qifrey
theory one: he’s qifrey’s guilt
first, the picture evidence. we see over the course of the manga that iguin’s ribbon has grown over time. it starts with two beads (ties?) when iguin is first introduced and gradually grows to have four beads in the most recent appearance.
iguin has three in the dragon labyrinth arc (chapter 8) and four in the aftermath of the silver eve arc (chapter 88). interestingly, he has five when confronting qifrey about the twin pots (chapter 15).
iguin’s ribbon seems to gain more beads whenever qifrey is being deceptive. coco is young when we see iguin’s first appearance and yet he already has two beads, the second tying off a shorter tassel. if we’re running with this theory, the beads could be to signify qifrey’s initial lie to olruggio about not wanting to be his friend and then a second for his tree-ification-memory thing
however, as time passes, the ribbon grows longer and qifrey is lying (by omission) to olruggio about taking in an outsider to the atelier. olruggio forces qifrey to promise that he isn’t prioritizing his own brimhat chasing over coco’s health, except for the fact that qifrey does exactly that by trying to extract a known dangerous object INSIDE his atelier. when iguin shows up again, his ribbon has five beads — qifrey lying to coco about the ink and to olruggio about protecting his kids
then, time passes, qifrey erases olruggio’s memory and tells coco the truth about his identity — iguin is back down to four beads
i’m still fleshing this one out
SECOND THEORY
iguin is qifrey’s memories of olruggio. while iguin and qifrey share several motifs (cyclops, tassels/ribbons), i would say that iguin and olruggio share more.
olly and iguin have very similar palettes and match acessories more than qifrey and iguin do. tbf, i haven’t spent a crazy amount of time analyizng qifrey and iguin so there at 100% things im missing but i do think that olly and iguin share more either way.
it could also go to explain why iguin specifically tortures qifrey with his existence. iguin has been keeping an eye on coco since day one. there’s no way in hell he didnt clock her casting forbidden spells in her room in chapter one — if coco was his final goal, he could have nabbed her right then and there and promised to return her mother to normal. or, he could have stopped her during her flight test and told her then.
that’s not what he did though. instead, he creates an elaborate plan to take her through a labyrinth, allows qifrey to locate the girls, then tampers with coco’s inkpot KNOWING she wouldn’t understand what was happening. who would know? qifrey.
iguin talks about his plant sprouting while looking at coco but i wonder if his master plan was to purposely send qifrey another apprentice, one that was so perfect for his atelier, to turn him into a tree. after all, what better way to prove an experiment than to see it come to fruition? his use of olruggio’s motifs was a way to further not trigger his fighting instinct. even subconsciously, most people would not want to punch someone that looked like a friend. the same thing could be true here
guys im starting to think the heavenly principles are dead and have been dead since the archon war or smth
what if…hear me out…the twin is the heavenly principle. not considered a descender by the fatui because they were already counted as the heavenly principles? or a star of the heavenly principles or whatever. like, the heavenly principles used up their power to create the twin and the abyss is the resulting negative energy from the what ifs casted aside during their birth.
what if they arent actually twins. traveled the universe together, sure, but whats their history? do they explicitly talk about growing up together as infants and as children?
the original cutscene shows two stars while nod krai reveals that they arrived in a space ship. the traveler ends up on a beach in mondstat despite the ship being located in nod krai. inconsistencies that come from hoyo? i think not.
Here’s my theory, using Lumine as the traveler and Aether as the twin because I chose Lumine.
Aether is a product of the Heavenly Principles, an experiment to see how far their powers could go in terms of creation. However, it becomes clear that he is far too powerful to stay in teyvat, having the potential to eradicate the Heavenly Principles themselves. In an attempt to circumvent this, he is sent to live at the original planet of the heavenly principles. this creation will blend in with society as the twin of a preexisting human.
However, their plan backfires again when the two “twins” become adventurers. In classic Heavenly Principles fashion, they learn to traverse the universe. Except, Aether feels pulled to Teyavt and they crash land as stars.
Immediately, Aether can tell something is off because he can feel a certain gravitation toward Teyvat. the Heavenly Principles can sense his presence and summon him. Aether traps Lumine in the spaceship to keep her undetected by the Heavenly Principles.
Aether, under the watchful eye of the Principles, assumes rulership of Khaenri’ah. That is where he is meant to stay, placiated, until Khaenri’agh goes against the Heavenly Principles. Then, Khaenri’ah is destroyed. Aether turns toward the abyss, furious at the lost of his kingdom, and that is where he learn of his origins. The abyss follow Aether for a reason — they are made from the same coin, just different sides. They naturally belong together.
In the wake of this destruction, Aether tries to destroy the Heavenly Principles. It doesn’t work, but it puts them into a cryonic state, much like what he did with Lumine. That’s why they haven’t responded to anything, they can’t. They’re frozen in a state of inaction.
The tearing of the false sky might give them the energy shift they need to come out of this state. The real moon is still not all powerful but combined with their power, they might be able to break the seal.
Lumine naturally taps into Teyvat’s elemental power. Thus is because they originate from the same place the elements originate from, the home of the Heavenly Principles.
The cutscenes we see are not Lumine’s memories but Aether’s. The border of Teyvat is in disarray from Dottore but also because the Heavenly Principles are trying to destroy whatever curse Aether placed on them.
Paimon? She’s an artificial intelligence created by the Heavenly Principles to monitor Aether. She was his retainer in Khaenri’ah, who became a ‘friend’ of his by coincidence. Aether was furious when she was revealed to be a spy but he reworked her to spy on Lumine. Why does he always know where she is? Paimon. Paimon doesn’t know that she’s a spy, it’s not ingrained into her consciousness.
My prediction is that this is what Sneznaya with be about. Alice and Nicole come to realize that Lumine has a strange command on the border, being able to manipulate it slightly. The Heavenly Principles awaken, learning of her presence. They won’t act immediately, they have to kill Aether first.
The Tsaritsa will have an inkling about all of this. She’s as old as Khaenri’ah and has an established vendetta against the Principles. We will assume the role of the mysterious 10th harbinger.
coco x agott this, brimhat coco x librarian agott that, i bring you:
Seamstress Coco who never saw Qifrey draw his spell, who subsequently gave up on magic to persue a life of quiet sewing for the local townspeople and who quietly threw her book away because she was too devastated to look at it x Atelier Agott who never fully developed her love for magic and instead turned into a brimhat when she came across Coco’s discarded book with magic that was so intensely more powerful than her own. She’s taken as Iguin’s apprentice and his prized student.
Both Coco and Agott feel wronged by magic — for Coco, it’s a long built resentment for not being born special. For Agott, it’s the curse of never being good enough and the fear that, had she been born an unknowing, her life would have been hers to fulfill instead of chasing her mother
They both want what the other has and yet they don’t. They meet somehow, someway in a field and Agott immediately tries to kill Coco. It doesn’t work but Coco begins to hate witches (one just tried to kill her!). It spirals from there, continuous meetings that feel like they happen somehow, someway, until Agott learns that their reunions have been carefully planned by Iguin.
She begins to hate Coco even more now — she CHOSE to become a brimhat and, yet, she is still NOT GOOD ENOUGH for Iguin. Coco is Iguin’s prized possession, not Agott. Coco abandoned Iguin’s “blessing” and Agott chose to follow it but COCO is the one who gets the attention. It isn’t fair.
It spirals from there, Agott chasing Coco, trying to kill her for stealing the spotlight again. It never works and eventually results in her memory being erased by the brimhats.
Years pass, Agott and Coco find themselves meeting again. Agott doesn’t remember her but feels viscerally drawn to her, Coco cannot stand her but doesn’t understand why Agott feels different. Coco takes her home, because Agott is acting so so strange. Agott is in love with her, and her walls are gone now that her mother is also forgotten. It’s clear that Agott doesn’t know who she is.
Until, she does. It’s raining and Agott is sitting by the window staring at a large magnolia tree — not silverwood but the rain jogs her memory and the images of Tetia and Richeh and Olruggio and Qifrey (poor Qifrey, who cried and cried when Tetia and Richeh finally passed their last test, who sprouted roots when they became independent, who sits at the base of the atelier quietly basking in the sun) come back to her. She’s been feeling a tightness in her chest recently and maybe that’s what these memories are.
Suddenly, the months Agott and Coco have spent together become muddied with Agott’s feelings. She knows Coco and yet, she really doesn’t. Why does Iguin want her? Does she know Iguin wants her? What the hell has led any of this to occur?
Coco can tell something has shifted in Agott. She’s acting different — shadier, more faded. They stay in limbo for a week before Coco outright asks. Agott tells her the truth — she’s ostracized by witch society anyway, what does it matter? She tells Coco about her past, about her mother, and about the brimhats. She tells Coco about magic.
Coco nods, is quiet and attentive like she usually is. When Agott finishes, Coco asks about a sigil that has looks like the greek letter psi and what it means when combined with an upside down arrow and two dots. Agott doesn’t know so Coco draws it for her — regular ink doesn’t cast the spell anyways.
Agott doesn’t recognize it and mulls over it for a week, then two, then six. It hits her after a while — it’s the sigil she found marked into the ground where Qifrey was. It’s the silverwood sigil. Agott asks quietly where she saw it and Coco says —
“— Your back. It’s been etched into the skin since I found you after you lost your memory. What does it mean?”
me when im secretly a tree and my best friend knows except he kinda doesnt because he sacrifices his memory every time to make sure i dont tree-ify but also hes only a friend and nothing more guys shut up
ellievsbear
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