Before I go I'd like to say ask and anon ask is still open! Feel free to visit my inbox if you don't mind me answering back in like May/June. Ok goodbye everyone, I'll remember you all in therapy!
Update in a couple of hours so I'm listing off questions and see how much the game is going to answer them, for fairness I'm counting the entire 2 beast yeast eps:
1. Who's the veiled figure in Sugarfly's flashback?
2. Why did Silent Salt appears in Smilk's flashback at the end of ep 8?
3. What *does* the Beast Binding Ritual do?
4. How did Elder Faerie got the moonstone? Why did he passed down his powers to Lily (which she asked herself)? What's his relation with Silent Salt? Actually just insert anything Elder Faerie related here.
Lighting round (mysteries that most likely won't be solved this update):
What's Smilk planning with the sour berries?
What's happening to Gingerbrave at the end of ep 10?
What's up with the Ultimate Cookie?
What's up with the Avatar of Destiny?
For that matter what's up with PV appearing in Doughael's flashback??
We're getting off topic, Beast yeast is ending soon, will Carameleon be plot-relevant for once? (probably not)
That haunting chorus of violins that fill the dark, those words– Pure Vanilla looks back over the space and finds exactly what he'd feared. Expected.
There they are, gliding across the void so, so terribly intertwined they almost appeared as one. In some ways, he supposed they were. Pure Vanilla watches himself be led in a dance so improper and aimless and… Had Shadow Milk's expression truly been so… adoring, that day?
Fanart and coincidental birthday gift for the talented off1cially_done who wrote this (the fanfic is pretty heavy, remember to look at the tags before reading!)
Shadowvanilla fanfics are so rare, I gotta show my appreciation for them when I can(!) There was plan to draw a different scene but this chapter was too good, came for the toxic stay for the Eternal Sugar. I refrains from drawing the unreleased beasts in fear of messing up their designs but her depiction in the story was amazing I just had to draw her! Like ughh, pretty pink angel pls be my winglady <333
Also, the dancing scene was my favorite scene in "the light continue". For it to come back and confirm to us that yes this was PV's first spark of love is so aaaa- Anyways, here's something extra!
Okay... Was cleaning up my files and found these veeeery unfinished comic pages of mine, I took some and made 'em into a small collage. It's shadvani because of course. Note, the pages are not in order and uncompleted, the comic was supposed to be around 12-pages. I just chose the cleanest sketches to put in aaaa.
This one's a bit embarrassing to post, but these will just rot in my files otherwise so... I got so many unfinished stuff... May they see the light of day eventually.
The writers know what they were doing when they made this sm's quote. They know.
Alright, it's most likely one of the first 2 options, but it'll be fun if they (the writers) managed to surprise me somehow. It would be fun to hear other's theories too, if anyone have any. The more outlandish the better
If sm really was preferring to pv here, it would have some scary implications. Adjectives aside since we all know sm is more often than not sarcastic when it comes to praises. I can see this line being used for a "Shadow Milk is the Light of Truth" type of reveal, followed by pv’s breakdown upon learning sm’s manipulation of pv and general meddling with his life goes way deeper than he realized
Moving onto something I'm even more curious about. New plot macguffin just dropped
I love how this Binding ritual got name dropped several time and yet we have not a slighest of hint on what it’s about. The most we can gleam from the website is 1. It can stop the Beasts, that's why Gingergang is searching for it in the first place and 2. It’s a super secret ritual with infomation about it maybe existing inside the Tower
Interestingly it’s called a Binding Ritual and is may or may not an entire different thing from the Beast’s sealing. This and the fact that the Silver Tree was around before the Beasts’s “corruption” got me raising my eyebrow at the Witches. They sure got a lot of preparations set up for when their creations goes against their designs hmm...
I still got tons of little crack theories and speculations in me along with one big serious theory regarding all le patterns✨ I've noticed in all the current EPs, but I'm tryna wait it out until more trailers come up to go full on tinfoil hat mode. That is to say I am lapping up all the information that Devsis drip feed to us like a greedy dog everything is so vague it's killing me
So with Ep 10 out what are your thoughts and opinions?
Ep 10 might be the best beast yeast ep ever baring ep 8, I actually can't decide which is my no 1 as they're both absolutely fantastic. Warning: ep10-11 spoilers, the post got way too long so I'm putting undercut, there's also ship talk which um, yup, abandon hope ye who enter:
About ships:
I'm putting this first to get it out of the way... It's canon, it's actually canon guys no more denying it alright. BxA fans keep on winning as always, some joke about it but I seriously won't be surprised if salt does straight up proposed to wl once it's their turn. Honestly I can't believe how blatant they went with it. The pride month post, the costume, everything about esugar and holly's relationship EVERYTHING. Esugar even called holly "my love" several times, as least in her costume if I remember right.
Wedding confirmed, right on time for June too ty devsis!!
Ok ok I jest, still, ppl would argue it's one-sided therefore non canon but I would argue affections being explicitly confirmed in one party is a pretty big deal in of itself. Holly on her part accepted esugar n even agreed to be her other half, now if only esugar agreed to stop trapping ppl in jars.
That said, I'm really hoping players won't go out of their way to scream "fanservice" at the story, I've seen this happen w smilk's update. It's sad seeing fans dismiss good writing as yaoi or yuri bait when the beasts' wish to keep their ancients close play a big role in their characters. That said I don't want non-shipper to feel forced into liking BxA or even admit they're canon, I just want them to leave shippers alone ok since it's clear BxA didn't come outta nowhere, don't dismiss the writing when it's clear the writers DID puts efforts into it.
No more "b-but it make no sense, they only wanted the souljam!" ok it may apply to mflour but esugar does not give a single fuck, she won't take the souljam at least not by force. We have in-game dialogues of her confirming it, I need people to stop saying they only wanted the souljam since that's not only untrue but is an active simplification of their motivations!
About our beast/ancient duo:
A couple of Hollyberry scenes almost make me cry... It's great, it's amazing, beast-yeast partly serve as a revisit to the ancients' characters so having the story digs into her past was everything I needed. Sad dcacao-goldie didn't get the same treatment, we can only hope they get a revisit one day. Dunno if this is controversial but- while the game now confirmed hollyberry does have a drinking problem. I don't want fans to flanderize n make it holly's only trait, we do know she have a problem but we can assume the severity of it does fluctuates, we've seen several instances of holly's drinking n not all of them are shown in a bad light. Compared to, let's say, her Triumph of Sloth costume which arguably is holly at her worst mental-wise n have her dialogues mention drinking several times. In short, I just hope fans would depict these subjects w the nuances they needed. The same thing apply to pv's eating disorder that's, while the game did hint at, is still unconfirmed n only a headcanon as of now. The fandom have a problem with misinformation+taking theory/headcanon as canon in general tbh.
I really enjoyed the revelation about holly's empty heart, the story did touched on the survival-guilt she got after the dark flour war before n I'm so glad it is brought up again. Holly avoiding love in general does track w her attitude toward royal magarine's flirting n her cake hound decor lol. As explained in her awakened's description she cloaked a shield around herself, so much that she didn't noticed the cracks forming within.
Cookie run mostly focused on platonic relationship but this time we got romantic love playing its role as one of the extra themes within the story. Royal berry+jungleberry cookie are one of the few married/explicitly romantic/not one-sided couples within cookie run lore. To get a bit personal here, I find it way too relatable seeing pavlova (being the cookie ver of eros/cupid/romantic love) constantly telling holly she'll be happy once she accepted love into her heart. And the implication that holly is deliberately ignoring the affections of those around her. It's a revelation I find endlessly interesting. Note, despite her Awakening along w accepting pain as something one have to face in life, her "empty heart" has yet to have a 100% resolution. I kinda like how all of the ancients still have unresolved issues despite their Awakening, cacao not yet reuniting w choco, goldie not yet recovering her kingdom, vani and his 99+ problems... And damn what did holly meant by "I've learned from experience"?? My celibate queen who hurt you?...
She's just like me fr
Also, the reveal that hollyberry did resented wl make me tweak. Here we though the ancients sans goldie was too forgiving but turned out the truth is far more complicated. Good stuff. (the gang have no idea how insane I am about this one line)
Weirdly enough I'm not as attached to esugar as I am w the other beasts. Before the update she's my 2nd beast based on design alone but after reading the story, um, she might be my 4th writing-wise. It's a matter of personal opinion, her story is still incredibly well-written all things considered. I just don't vibe w her like I do the rest of the beast ig?? (Current ranking for anyone wondering: 1st mflour; 2nd smilk; 3rd spice; 4th esugar; salt is undecided)
I am thriving so, SO hard w this ep. That scene near the end where we can only hear esugar's voice, the godly choir in the bgm n sugarfly screaming her heart out in terror. Peak, so so PEAK. The "don't leave" scene was sooo fire, someone made a dub compilations of it, my favs are the English n Taiwanese dub. Some of the voice actresses were screaming their lines at the end of it, peak. That one sprite of hers might be the most terrifying thing the artists over at devsis put out yet I need moreeee. Hoping smilk's new sprites (and he WILL get new sprites not even a prophecy we all know he's the game's darling by now-) managed to outdo this cause that one motivated sprite of his doesn't do it for me tbh. The one where he broke his own neck is close but still kinda eh. Do note how exhausted esugar look here.
My preciousss
Spice currently hold the "most sprites that give me the heebie-jeebies" award
I'm kinda sad holly's "ancients psycho-analyze the beasts" speech isn't much of a speech but a couple of short revelations. Esugar's wish to grant cookiekind's happiness is genuine, confirmed, she deluded herself into believing hardship is a unnecessary thing in life, confirmed. Ok it's esugar's reaction to the whole ordeal that's interesting to me. Esugar just zeroing on the fact holly came back for her- will she actually consider the words holly said or not place ur bet now everyone. Esugar being a denial queen does tracks w her theme of sloth, it's running away from pain both physical n mental. Pretending everything is fine (webtoon reference)
I like how at the end esugar insists on decorating her garden for when holly returns despite the garden being the problem in the first place. She's so distracted by her own delusions that she can't recognize pavlova's misery despite him standing right beside her. Not story-related, but another aspect of sloth is when one stopped caring about anything around them, esugar display this aspect in the bond costume. Once she achieved everything she wanted, neither cookies' happiness nor the garden is of any concern to her, all she cares about is staying beside her beloved other half. Did I mentioned she wanted holly? Cuz she wanted that cookie baddd. But it's not just that, holly is the representation of passion. Is it by keeping passion locked within her garden that esugar proved her ideology is the right one. That the happiness she has nurtured for so long is "correct."
>About the supporting cast
Pavlova cookie may ended up being my favorite beast follower, ough, but nutmeg tiger... I can't choose... "Sidekick who's done w their boss' shit" is one of my fav archetype. I'm so glad we got pavlova for that, he's what I expected black sapphire to be tbh. Maybe it's cuz he hits my niche but pavlova's story throughout the ep have been one of the most intensive character development we've got for the beast follower trope. I seriously hope we see more of him, his potential are a-plenty, being the only follower so far who's unhappy w his current disposition. (Current ranking: 1st pavlova/nutmeg I can't decide ok; 2nd the deceitlings; 3rd sugarfly; 4th cloud haetae)
We might see more of sugarfly tho, seeing as she'll be returning to the faerie's kingdom. That scene of her breaking off the sugar coating was beautiful, I like how the game presented it. It's not boom she's able to insta fly again, her wings are permanently messed up after not being in use for so long. There's true beauty in that. Both sugarfly and pavlova ended up going through a transformation in the end. To talk about them though, s*garlova eh? Fitting the update of passion gave us 2 peak af ships, but I only like s*galova as one-sided haha... Let's be real here pavlova treated sugarfly pretty bad😭 He spends all of their interactions pilling his work onto her then/and insulting her for being compliant. It's projections n him secretly being mad she's trapped like him, but feelings are not actions, did he ever do or say anything nice directly to her? Idk. Lil guy just have this love/hate envy/admiration mess of emotions toward sugarfly while my girl be out there living her best life. Again, so much potential here, once they met again they'll be at the opposite side of war. What will their interaction be like?
One of the biggest problems cookie run faced is their large cast. With "large" being an understatement... Most of the time the characters aren't utilized well/ ended up being under-used or misused. Ep 5-6 is the best of the best in term of utilizing characters for reasons I'll elaborate on another day. I'm impressed with how the writers managed to juggles so many characters this time around. Rasberry, wild berry etc etc all got their moments. N the illusion at the end left quite an impact despite holly's loved ones appearing for one dialogue box at most. All in all, I'm quite satisfied with how ep 10 turned out despite tiger lily being the only side cookie that got properly explored imo. My only nitpick is I wish the game presented clearer reasons as to *why* the hollyberians wanted to return to the kingdom. Blueberry wanted to leave cuz the place is gross I think? Funniest thing ever.
Just for fun: cookie run have a thing for yearner x wanderer dynamics. One will just be out there living their life while the other yearns for them, one tend to have some kind of emotional constipation toward the other, they are hinted to may or may not reunite once again. From the top of my head- lord oyster -> black/white pearl (low-tier since one of them is DEAD), pv -> lily, the blue one-> pv, can apply to all BxA ships tbh, sea fairy -> moonlight cookie (the yearning r heavily implied to be mutual in this case), cotton -> sherbet (the yearnings r also heavily mutual, not as much as seam*on tho), now we got pavlova -> sugarfly (New!)
>About... The Azure one...
Actually the smilk cameo wasn't that bad all thing considered. I wish they didn't put him in the title screen though consider he's only in the ep for a single scene, there's some debates on how much smilk's advice played a part in esugar's downfall, but eh. They knew what they were doing putting him there, they managed to pull fans coming in to see smilk so that's a win ig.
Ok I'm hoping it's not pure vanilla for once c'mon. Might have to do a poll on this...
Anyways, IN STORY BEAST INTERACTION IN STORY BEAST INTERACTION AAAA. This lil scene gave us so much tidbits into esugar/smilk's relationship I love it! Esugar appeared very cautious around smilk, yet she never denied her fellow beast the berries. Smilk once again is scheming sth as smilk do. I won't lie I did miss this casually cackling clown. The passive-aggressiveness, smilk giving advice leaving us to wonder if it's sincere or not. Back when the beasts got revealed fans locked in(tm) n shadow-sugar got the most fanart ship or otherwise. It's still unbelievable to me they're the first beasts duo to get an actual direct interaction in-story. I wonder if it's sth that's added in due to the fandom or sth that the writers already planned n the fans r just that in-tuned. I'm willing to bet the former seeing as the sh*dowsugar fans r not, mm, happy w their canon dynamic. Again the amount of "yuri bait"/"they ruined esugar's character" discourse gave me a headache (I have to emphasize some, only SOME shippers do, all the sane sh*dowsugar fans I wish u a very good day). Gang we all know the beasts mostly don't like each other just by their battle dialogue by now. Everyone, ship what u want, I'm just praying we won't have anymore blowups when it turned out... Idk spice doesn't care for smilk or sth along those lines.
Side note: smilk/lady azure casually brought up killing cookies for fun in that scene, I got told some fans r actually shocked about that?? I'm sorry but did we read the same story😭 that mf killed off a named character in the INTRO of beast-yeast. Attempted to murder cookies, some included KIDS, several times. Scratch that it's not even an attempt, smilk *did* pushed the gingergang off the spire just for giggles bro. Ik the fandom woobified the clown but for some to collectively forget his crime(s) is, wow- even when lady azure is just standing there the writers have to drive home the amount of crimes this mf has committed, every new smilk appearance is a new crime added to the list it's so funny asdfghj
I used the jp voice-over for this update, funfact esugar straight up called him "gross" in the dub. Talking about it though, I'm insane absolutely insaneee about the way the jp voice actress managed to replicate Toriumi-san's speech pattern, even his iconic "KHEHEHE" laugh. Her voice was so amazingly, wonderfully deep n villainous it feel like my beloved Beatrice is back by my side again.
>Other miscellaneous thoughts
-Not ep 10 related but I'm seriously insane about the costume, not only is it yuriful but it's the closest we'll ever get to a "beasts win" AU, one let down is we have no intel on the other beasts since the focus is on these two. The story said holly have no foes to protect the garden from so I'm guessing they left the garden alone or is somehow incapacitated. Some of holly's dialogues are so sad, n looking back it's disturbing how many times she mentioned berry juice, also, "her voice… is my paradise" "my heart feels at peace around… her…" bro, bro? Brooo aa aaah hold me bro ough...
-Alongside happiness n love there's also the theme of parenthood, that scene when tiger lily calms her crying dad by giving him berries.. Can make a grown man cry tbh. We were so close to a family reunion, what a fool I am, for thinking the game might finally resolve a plot thread. Truly we're all fools, gotta wait 5+ more years for it.
-Rip "silent salt is elder faerie" theory it was fun while it lasted (or did it...?) So much details in one image. I'll take whatever ef official art I can get. Interestingly enough ef represented the moon here while the guest resemble the sun w their golden halo. Ef have vines n foliage which is wl's motif not his, the foliage here doesn't resemble the silver tree's branches either. Hm... While the guest have three claw marks ripping them apart. Must this be silent salt? The majority of the fandom agreed so. I'm curious what everyone else's theory is.
