#dark scroll

[missnight0wl]

Y7Ch47:

Y7Ch34:

Y7Ch46:

Yes, Penny. They don’t have the Dark Scroll. The Dark Scroll is perfectly safe.

There’s no need to be suspicious.

There’s nothing to worry about.

[missnight0wl]

Idk why, but I get the feeling that Mahoutokoro and Hogwarts have beef

You know, it actually makes some sense. Admittedly, I don’t really see solid evidence for this claim, but at the same time, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the case.

One thing that comes to my mind is this part from our conversation with Dumbledore:

Now, while Dumbledore is a manipulative bastard, he’s not really a fan of Dark Arts, so it might imply that the Headmaster of Hogwarts and the Headmaster of Mahoutokoro have a bit different worldview. However, to be completely honest, I’m pretty sure that JC didn’t think this whole story about the Headmaster through. I mean, it’d be a bit odd, in my opinion, that students get expelled from Mahoutokoro for “betraying the Japanese wizard's code or practising Dark Arts”, yet the current Headmaster is apparently known for liking a very powerful DARK charm. And even if that’s the case, I suppose the beef would be rather between the Headmasters, not the schools per se.

No, but seriously, I think the writers just wanted to create a quick connection: “Jacob's burns – Protego Diabolica – Mahoutokoro – Dai Ryusaki and the Dark Scroll”, so I wouldn’t look too deep into that. Still, there might be something going on when it comes to Ryusaki himself.

Alright, so Ryusaki was allegedly a professor at Mahoutokoro, right? I think it’s safe to assume then that he was a student there as well. Either way, he was connected with the place. Yet, for some reason, it seems like he might’ve hidden his precious Dark Scroll at Hogwarts. Why?

Also, disclaimer: I still believe that the Dark Scroll was originally supposed to be in the final Cursed Vault. I’m sorry, but it’s just stupid that we’ve spent six years on them, and then we simply said: “Oh, stupid R, they thought that the Dark Scroll was in the Cursed Vaults, but it was somewhere else all that time”. No, I don’t buy it. JC had to change it recently. To be fair, we technically still can return to the Sunken Vault, and so it can still be a plot twist (that the second half of the Scroll is there, for example), but… I don’t have hope anymore.

Anyway, I do think that the Dark Scroll and the Cursed Vaults were connected, which could’ve been the potential reason for the beef you’re talking about. Maybe Mahoutokoro felt betrayed by Ryusaki? Maybe they thought that Hogwarts forced Ryusaki to hide the Scroll here? But… was he really? Or did he choose this place, as I suggested above? And again, if so… why?

Like, I just don’t understand why Mahoutokoro was ever included in this story, y’know. If Dai Ryusaki was a British wizard, if Shiratori was expelled from Hogwarts… would it really change anything? I don’t think so. At the same time though, I can’t help but feel that it was supposed to be much more relevant. I just don’t know how. Maybe it was simply about including more elements of the wizarding world. But then again, I think there were easier ways to do it.

[missnight0wl]

Let’s talk about the Cabal. The Rogues theory update

First things first: whenever I talk about “the Cabal”, I do not mean R. I always refer to the Cabal Jacob mentioned in his notebook in Y5Ch15. I explained in detail why he had to mean some other organisation then: here. I really recommend checking it before you continue reading this post below as it’s a relatively short analysis, and it’ll help us get on the same page.

Furthermore, I concluded that the Cabal is probably dedicated to protecting the Cursed Vaults, and that’s why they wanted to kill the siblings. I believe that the siblings are necessary to open the final Vault, so if they’re dead, the treasure should theoretically be safe forever. Also, since they want to protect the treasure, they probably wouldn’t like R who wants the power for themselves.

I know the game keeps using “R” and “a cabal”/“the cabal”/“the Cabal” interchangeably, but for the longest time, I thought it’s either misdirection or Jam City simply changed their original plans once again. I started leaning towards the second option, especially after coming up with “the Rogues theory”, but I’ve been thinking about it lately, and I realised that... the Cabal and the Rogues might be one and the same group.

Now, if you’re not familiar with the Rogues theory, I encourage you to read this post. This one, however, is much longer, so I understand if you want to skip it, and therefore, I’ll give you a summary:

“The Rogues” is the name I gave to a group of three people: Rakepick, the Wizard in White, and Verucca. In my theory, they don’t work for R, or at least they’re not loyal to them. Their real goal is to make sure MC KNOWS R is evil and won’t be swayed if R tried using any kind of manipulation to make MC join them. Now, Merula is truly the mole, and she wanted to join R to be a double agent or some shit. However, the Rogues are aware that she’s just a stupid kid who’d get killed right away, so they staged the meeting in Y6Ch45 to expose Merula. Therefore, Merula has to focus on MC knowing that she “betrayed them” instead of trying to play a hero with R.

Also, Rowan is alive.

And just to be clear, we’re talking about these people:

(Did I simply want an excuse to use this gif again? Maybe.)

Alright, so having these two pictures, you can see they have one thing in common: they don’t like R. Unfortunately, there’s one big difference between them, too: the Cabal wanted to kill the siblings while the Rogues are rather helping them (or at least MC). So, how they could be the same? Well, we just have to assume that something changed in their approach at some point. And the person behind it was probably…

MEPHISTO!

Just kidding. It’s Rakepick. Of course it’s gonna be about Rakepick. Spoilers up to Y7Ch29.

Alright, so here’s the thing about Rakepick: she’s an anarchist. No, really, even Snape called her that after Rowan was put under the Imperius Curse:

More seriously though, when you look at the beginning of Y4 when Rakepick was introduced, we heard quite a bit about her being a rebellious student.

Y4Ch1:

Y4Ch2:

She doesn’t really show much respect to the authorities.

Y4Ch1:

Y5Ch10:

And she doesn’t really like the Ministry.

 Y5Ch1:

Y5Ch2:

Sure, in the last example, she has a good reason to doubt the Ministry might be successful, but she also still sounds like she doesn’t think highly of them in general, especially considering the previous scene.

In other words: if I told you that Rakepick wears the “Fuck the system” T-shirt after hours, would it really be that hard to believe?

The problem is that we don’t see much of that rebellious Rakepick later in the story. In fact, I’d say it’s almost the opposite – and I’m thinking mostly about her involvement with R. Moody told us at the beginning of Y6 that she’s a minor member, and we’re supposed to believe that she’s the one at least since Jacob’s time, but… it doesn’t make much sense. Like, am I really supposed to believe that this rebellious and insanely ambitious woman just stays obediently at the very bottom of this silly organisation?

Moreover, I don’t even see why would she want to join R. It’s still the system. And sure, you could say it’s beneficial for her, but… HOW? R didn’t help her get back to Hogwarts – it was Dumbledore himself who wanted her to come. Nothing suggests that R was helping her later on. She did it all on her own, including creating her small army of apprentices. Why the fuck would she need R? Not to mention that it’s just bizarre that R would want to keep her around… I mean, she totally screwed up with Jacob. Why didn’t they eliminate her then?

Now, as you might know, I believe that Rakepick joined R only around Y5Ch20 and a big part of her story presented in the Portrait Vault was a lie. And while it explains some things I pointed out in the previous paragraph, we still don’t really see the rebellious Rakepick. Right? Unless… Patricia rebelled against her family – and it had an enormous impact on the story.

The Eye of Ra and the Rakepick family

So… I know the idea of the Eye of Ra being the symbol of R got pretty popular in the fandom, but… it just doesn’t make much sense. Sorry. I explained it properly in this post (it’s a rather short one again, so I recommend checking it out). In a nutshell, though: there’s enough evidence to believe that Rakepick wasn’t a member of R in Y4, so why would she wear their symbol then?

On top of that, in my opinion, it’d be a bit messy writing decision, to be honest. I mean, we have the Cursed Vaults located at Hogwarts, in Scotland. We have the Dark Scroll connected to Japan. And now the main evil organisation would originate from Egypt? Sure, it is possible. I just feel it’d make more sense to keep things more cohesive. Of course, this one is quite subjective, and my main arguments in this discussion are still the ones in the post linked above.

Anyway, I do believe that the Eye of Ra is connected to the Rakepick family only, seeing that both Patricia and Verucca wear the pin with this symbol. And it means that yes, I assume that they are related. Personally, I think that Verucca looks a bit too old to be Patricia’s mother, and my bet is rather on great-aunt, but it’s not super relevant. The relevant part is that they both belong to the Cabal. And that’s quite important because that’d also explain why Rakepick became a member despite her rebellious nature – because she was born into it. Alright, so what about that rebellion?

A bit earlier, I said that the Cabal wants to keep the Cursed Vaults safe by killing the siblings, right? Well, I believe it might be a fairly recent approach. I assume that at first, they were supposed to protect the Cursed Vaults and everyone involved with them. And by “everyone”, I mean families like Torvus’s who had the arrow to the Forest Vault as an heirloom for generations. Another family could be responsible for keeping the vault portrait etc. The point is that eventually, someone from the Cabal was like: “Hey, instead of protecting them, let’s kill them. They’re gonna be dead, but the Cursed Vaults will be safe forever”. And honestly, I suppose it could’ve been Verucca herself who came up with this idea some years ago. However, Patricia had a different vision…

I never was convinced by Rakepick wanting to get the treasure, so I don’t think it’s as simple as that. But in my own story, she actually wants to destroy the Cursed Vaults, and it can be applied in this theory as well. For her, it’d be a challenge. Still, I imagine that she needs to reach the final Vault to do that, so she’d need the siblings. And this is where her cooperation with Jacob might’ve started. Rakepick needed Jacob to reach the final Vault to destroy it. Jacob, on the other hand, would agree to work with her because no Cursed Vaults means that nobody would try to use him or his little sibling in the future. Sounds pretty fair, doesn’t it? 

Of course, the problem was with the Cabal because Verucca wanted to kill Jacob... So, what now? Well, let me remind you of one important line from Jacob’s notebook:

What if Rakepick wasn’t afraid but rather worried – because she didn’t know if Verucca would agree to her plan? Jacob might’ve misinterpreted her emotions. And here’s the thing: you might be a fearless Curse-Breaker, dealing with Manticores, Sphinxes, and whatnot. But standing up to your family? That might be intimidating. Now, I don’t want to compare it to Encanto…. but it’s kind of like Encanto. It might’ve taken years before anybody got the courage to tell Abuela Verucca that she’s not doing the best job. Apparently though, Patricia had to convince her somehow in the end, seeing that MC is still alive (I’m not so sure about Jacob, but I assume it wouldn’t be the Cabal’s fault…).

Oh, and I want to point out that Rakepick being connected to the Cabal would explain even better why R didn’t want her to get involved.

Y4Ch3:

Y4Ch5:

It’d possibly even explain Dumbledore’s claims:

The Cabal and the Cursed Vaults

Let’s move to an explanation of how the Cabal might be connected to Dai Ryusaki. And to put it shortly: very closely. 

See, I actually believe that Dai Ryusaki wasn’t that bad at all and that he wanted to protect the wizarding world from his Dark Scroll. That he recognised how dangerous it is and that nobody should use it. I also assume that it is in fact in the final Cursed Vault, we just didn’t deal with it properly at the end of Y6 (so we’re probably gonna return there before the end of the game). Why I believe Ryusaki was innocent, though? Because, like I said before and I’ll keep saying, that’s basically the theme of the story.

I guess that the best example to illustrate this is actually Jacob. At the very beginning, we were told that he was obsessed with finding the Cursed Vaults. Only later, we started slowly learning that he was worried about students getting hurt. That R was manipulating him, threatening him with hurting his loved ones, and basically forcing him to do all of that. Jacob wasn’t a madman with dangerous obsession – he was a victim, and he was trying to protect other people.

We can also kind of see it with Ben in Y4 when the game tries for the whole year to make him look suspicious, only to reveal that he was controlled. We hear it almost all the time in Y7: things are not what they seem to be. Corey was introduced with the story about Emeric the Evil about how people might do bad things for various reasons – not always bad morally.

Moreover, I believe that it could’ve been very similar with the Wizard in White. Ever since we heard about him for the first time in Y5, he was presented as someone dangerous, attacking Mundungus with some unknown incantations and whatnot. Then, we learnt about him being expelled for using Dark Magic. And… doesn’t it sound like the beginning of Jacob’s story?

On top of that, I wouldn’t be surprised if the WIW is somehow related to Dai Ryusaki. I mean, if the only reason for making him a former Mahoutokoro student was to say: “Oh, he got expelled because he was looking for the Dark Scroll”… it’d be rather disappointing. But if the WIW is related to Ryusaki, it totally makes sense that he’d be a part of the Cabal now. And that the Cabal continues Ryusaki’s mission: to protect the world from the Dark Scroll.

It’s all about protection

Let me ask you something. What was the very first thing Rakepick did when she was alone with MC in Y4Ch1? She taught us Protego.

Moving on…

Y4Ch14:

Y5Ch10:

I’m not gonna talk here about saving us from Ben in Y4 or saving us in Knockturn Alley in Y5 because my point is rather about preparing MC to defend themselves. Even breaking our wand was sort of a part of it because MC needed that damn new wand. And I’ll use here a comparison from my old analysis as I still think it explains my point well:

Imagine that magic skills are similar to drawing skills. You go to school, you get a pen, a pencil, maybe some crayons. You learn to make some simple patterns, to write, sometimes you draw. And every now and then, there will be a person who’s particularly good at drawing. They will practice, they will get better, and especially if they have talent, they’ll be able to create amazing art, even if only with a ballpen. And for most people, the basic school supplies will be enough. Even our artists can do well just with that. But they can also become better by getting better supplies, by learning new media etc. It will take more time at first for sure, but the end result will be more impressive.

The basic supplies are obviously MC’s first wand. It doesn’t mean there was something wrong with it, and it had to be changed. If you give just a simple pencil to an artist and to a “regular” person, the first one will still create something better. But then came Rakepick, and she recognised that MC can do more. That not only they went through a lot of changes and a different wand might be more suitable for their personality now, but most importantly that they have extra potential to improve. This was ultimately a good thing for MC.

And what about the other members of the Rogues/the Cabal? Well, one of my theories as to why the WIW “attacked” us in Y6 is that he was trying to protect MC from someone else’s attack. You know, just like MC did during “The Quibbler” TLSQ to protect Chiara from Ismelda’s attack:

And yeah, I still insist that the WIW’s real intention back then was to talk to MC. It wasn’t about kidnapping MC and that whole leader bullshit because the WIW doesn’t even work for R.

Now, I don’t have much for Verucca, but I do want to talk more about Burke. A while ago, I gathered all of our interactions with Healer Burke at St Mungo’s. Please, take a moment to check it here because if you really look at it, Burke was like… the sweetest person ever. And something very prominent about him is phrases like: “Try not to worry”, “Don’t worry, we have it under control” etc. Burke was quite literally trying to protect MC’s mental health. Sure, you can say that it’s just an act. But that’s not all I have to say about Burke.

In Y7Ch29, Burke had that mysterious line about “coming home”, right?

I know people assume that it’s a reference to the whole leader thing, but I still think it makes no sense. I explained it already here. However, I have a bit different interpretation for you instead.

If the Cabal was always about the protection, it’d make sense that some members (like Burke, for example) weren’t fully supportive of Verucca’s decision to kill the siblings. After all, they were supposed to protect both the Cursed Vaults and the families connected to them. In a way, they could see the siblings almost like the Cabal’s family. They don’t have to be all literally related – it’s more about… community, I guess. You know what I mean? In such a case, it’d make sense that Burke talked about home. Because “home” is a very emotional word that makes you think about safety. And that’s what the Cabal originally was about.

Another thing that might prove that Burke wasn’t talking about R is R’s letter they sent to Jacob after Duncan’s death.

So… R’s mentality is that “there are no friends”, but then Burke suddenly talks about “HOME”...? Yes, because Burke belongs to a totally different organisation that has an entirely different mentality. R is corrupted, and they care only about power and the treasure. That’s why there are no friends for them. Emotional attachments make them weaker. But for the Cabal, a more emotional approach helps them stay true to their mission of protection.

Oh, and I keep using “the Cabal”, but to be fair, I assume they might have a different name – Jacob just didn’t know it when he wrote about them in his notebook. In fact, I believe that R and the Cabal might’ve been one organisation once, but they got separated at some point because of different views. So, technically, they both might have the same name.

One last problem…

One of my main assumptions in the Rogues theory was that the Rogues acts against R, and they want to make sure MC knows R is evil. That’s why Rakepick made it absolutely clear that Rowan is dead because R wanted it (while they wanted to have nothing to do with Duncan’s death – even though we know it’s ALSO their fault). And that’s why the WIW was so off-putting when telling us that R doesn’t give a fuck about what MC wants, and we’re gonna be their leader no matter what. However… wouldn’t R realise by now that someone gives them a bad rap?

Well, yeah, they would. In fact, I suspect they already did. I think that the Cabal got compromised after Y6Ch35 when they staged the meeting for MC to learn that R has a mole at Hogwarts. That’s why Merula was surprised to see Rakepick in the Sunken Vault. Rakepick was hiding from R at the time, so R couldn’t tell Merula they’re sending her to the Vault – because they didn’t send her. Moreover, if I’m right about the WIW and Victor being related (which would be another parallel between Jacob and the WIW), I suspect that R might be behind turning Victor into a vampire as a punishment for the WIW.

The conclusion

So, yeah… that’s pretty much it! As always, do I think it’s too complicated for Jam City? Absolutely yes! Do I care? Not at all! I believe it might be what was planned in the original story, though. My goal at this point is basically to explain the plot holes in the simplest way possible without ignoring things, even if I’m aware that JC won’t address these issues properly. Therefore, if you see some inconsistencies or something isn’t clear – feel free to hit me up!

Oh, and one more thing… While you might say that having two groups is too complicated and whatnot, the idea of “R and someone else” is not entirely new for the game.

Y3Ch6:

Y4Ch4:

Y4Ch10:

Of course, it might be viewed as an early foreshadowing for the reveal that R is a secret group… But what if there’s even more to that?

[missnight0wl]

It may sound insane. But imagine if Olivia's playing with us. Imagine she's putting on a show playing the victim but dropping some hints for MC at the same time. Imagine she said these things as hints: Y7C40P5_outro14:"Now, some of you may be wondering if I'm 'secretly evil'..."

Y7C40P5_outro19:"My Defence Against the Dark Arts experience was also a bit... uneven, shall we say?"

Y7C40P5_outro20:"But you have no reason to fear. I've had years of practice, and you're in capable hands..." (Also I'll link this to this:

Y7C43P5_intro11:"Is there something funny?"

Y7C43P5_intro12:"Just a little Department of Mysteries joke."

Y7C43P5_intro13:"You worked for the Department of Mysteries?"

Y7C43P5_intro14:"I can neither confirm nor deny that."

Y7C43P5_intro15:"I... What?"

Y7C43P5_intro16:"Really, I can't speak about my former job."

Y7C43P5_intro17:"Speak'...? Were you an Unspeakable?" Interesting, Olivia. If you can't really talk about your former job then why are you hinting to us that you worked there? Do you want MC to know that you worked there? So she practised the dark arts or defence against the dark arts for years and she worked at the ministry in the department of mysteries . I wonder what her job was.)

Y7C40P5_outro29:"You never know what darkness is lurking just around the corner..." Imagine she didn't put higher security in her office because she wanted MC to get in, to discover the memories that maybe she planted there. Imagine she wants MC to view her memories so that she can show them that Peregrine isn't to be trusted. Or maybe the only way to break MC from Peregrine's mind-controlling legilimency is to show them directly who he truly is. There is more clues ingame if you're over thinkingly looking for them but imagine that this happened.

While I was searching the datamine for Olivia's dialogue lines I remembered this post:

https://at.tumblr.com/missnight0wl/so-i-talked-quite-a-bit-about-peregrine-lately/g02e26mz8til

A PROPHECY YOU SAY AND WHERE ARE PROPHECIES STORED??

Department of mysteries.

Ohohoho I'm gonna have so much fun. IMAGINE that Olivia is playing the long revenge game while she's protecting us at the same time. She knows that Peregrine is trying to kidnap MC and Jacob. She knows Peregrine wants to get his hand on that prophecy and he needs to make MC or Jacob get it for him. Jacob is already a lost cause. He's fully under Peregrine's control. Duncan's dead. Olivia can't face R on her own, at least not directly. Not to mention that after Jacob dies (yes our real brother is dead, there's no way that [in your words] fugly slut is our bro. Vault!Jacob's hand in hand with Peregrine and helping to manipulate MC) Peregrine disappeared. She knows that she can't fight R by hunting them down one agent at a time, they'll just crawl deeper and deeper into their hiding hole. So she has to wait for Peregrine to slither out of his hole once again so that she can strike him and end it once and for all. She has to be patient to get revenge. It's crucial that the prophecy is safe. Peregrine is really desperate to get his hands on it, so it must be important. She works for the department of mysteries in order to protect it and waits for the right moment.

And Olivia knew that MC isn't in real danger, yet. There's no way that the vault of ice. An ancient structure that is cursed with magic so old and ancient that is older than THE FOUNDERS. Is broken by A SECOND YEAR STUDENT.

Is there a chance that maybe perhaps the vaults were weakened by a certain someone in order to give MC false confidence and determination to find their dead brother so that later they can be manipulated? Were these vaults already broken but were repaired to serve as an impersonation of the actual vaults for another purpose? Am I possibly overlooking something big? That can be the case too, but let's go with the first option.

So finally in year 7, Peregrine shows up. And this is Olivia's chance to get him and also defend MC because she knows Peregrine will want to take MC by force.

It's very possible that Dumbledore is working with Olivia to take Peregrine down! Aaaandddd I have to leave :( But I still think this would be a nice storyline and a fine plot twist. Even if it doesn't make a lot of sense... Also what do you think Peregrine's patronus is? A DAMN LETHIFOLD?!

If it is the same as our MC. I swear to GOD

I agree that it’d be an interesting storyline. However, I doubt it’s what actually happens in the game, to be honest. And the main reason for that is Olivia’s reaction when she catches us in her office in one of the future chapters. I mean, she seems genuinely pissed off, with the whole: “we’re not on a first-name basis, it’s Professor Green for you!”, taking us to Dumbledore and whatnot. Like, it’s a bit too overdramatic if it was just an act. Don’t get me wrong, I see where you’re coming from. But if she was really pretending, I think she’d be rather like: “Oh, silly MC! Got caught so easily! You should’ve been more careful! But THIS TIME, I’ll let you go free! *wink wink*”.

That being said, I agree that Olivia’s former job at the Department of Mysteries got too much attention to be a coincidence. The difference is that my take on it is kind of the opposite of yours. I suspect it was R who wanted to have Olivia work there. Perhaps she wasn’t even aware of that or maybe it’s another thing that was erased from her memory. But you skipped one line which seems potentially important here, in my opinion.

Hm, I wonder if she knows also a thing or two about mind-enhancing potions… Or Dai Ryusaki and his Dark Scroll.

Here’s what I’m thinking. R might have two reasons to infiltrate the Department of Mysteries.

The first one is obviously connected to minds and the whole “enhancing”, so it goes along very nicely with the plotline of the Dark Scroll. Personally, I believe that Peregrine might want to enhance his Legilimency and use it to gain power. I talked about it in this post, for example.

The second reason is the Veil, and it’s connected to my theory that R’s official goal is to bring people back from the dead. You can read this theory here.

Either way, R might’ve used Olivia for this infiltration. Again, it’s very possible that her participation wasn't voluntary. I’m not sure why R wouldn’t remove Olivia’s memories of the Ministry entirely, but now that I think about it, there actually was one line Y7Ch42 that might be connected to that:

Perhaps she was simply not allowed to create any records of her work as an Unspeakable, or… it’s also a convenient cover for R for removing some information. Like, nobody (including Olivia) will ask why some things are missing from Olivia’s records if it’s just the nature of this job.

Now, the idea with the prophecy is quite interesting, but I have to admit that it was a very random thought on my part. I don’t think we really have anything solid to believe that there is any prophecy. So… I don’t know. I guess it just makes more sense to me to focus on the mind-enhancing aspect. But hey, maybe I’m wrong!

So yeah… I sadly think that Olivia is more of R’s victim than an active player against them. At least for now, because it might change.

As for the difficulty of the Cursed Vaults, I actually always thought that it’s an intentional design: that they become harder and harder. Imagine that you learn that there is some treasure, and you want to get it. You get through the first, second, and third Cursed Vault. It’s fairly easy, so the idea of the treasure becomes even more tempting. It’ll be yours without problems! But then, you get to the Portrait Vault… First of all, good luck getting inside! Oh, you managed that? Cool, now fight the dragon! You somehow got passed it? Well, what a shame that you’re so blinded by getting to the treasure because now you’re trapped in the portrait… Assuming that you even get through the Legilimency door, of course. If not, I guess there’s no way out of the Vault, so you die there eventually.

In general, your ideas do make sense. I just don’t think they could work in the game in its current state.

Finally, I have no idea what Peregrine’s Patronus could be. I actually call bullshit on him being even able to conjure one. If I had to choose something though, I suppose it could be a Snake for deceit? But knowing Jam City, it seems likely that it’ll be the same as MC’s :(

Edit: Peregrine’s Patronus should be Maggots, so he could end like Riczidian.

[missnight0wl]

Let's forget about angy lumpy lookin Papa Lastname who is probably already getting disowned by 99.9% of this community. Are you going to discuss Rakepick's branching-but-technically-not-branching path? It's kinda heavy, but kinda stupid. It don't make a lot of sense.

Because why the fuck would people feel sorry for leaving her in the Vault if they were angry enough to leave her there in the first place?

except me. I'd be sorry but I didn't leave her. I lives to be a disappointment.

The writers made MC feel sorry for two reasons:

1) To stress how terrible Rakepick’s state is.

2) To stress that MC has a pure heart no matter what because they’ll always find compassion even for their worst enemy. MC’s “pure heart” will definitely play a big role in the future, considering that even Rakepick herself talked about it before our goodbye.

Actually, I’m suspecting it for quite a while now. I mentioned it in the context of Protego Diabolica, for example. I believe that Dai Ryusaki wasn’t evil at all. He recognised that his Dark Scroll is dangerous, and that’s why he hid it – to protect the world, not the Scroll itself. If that’s the case, it’d make sense that only someone of a pure heart could be able to cross the fire. Because the fire would be harmful only to an enemy of Dai Ryusaki. And Dai Ryusaki would be enemies with anyone who wants to use his Dark Scroll and create the potion. But someone of a pure heart – someone like MC – probably would be safe. It’s basically a similar idea to the Philosopher’s Stone and the Mirror of Erised. It might come back during retrieving the second half of the Scroll or something.

Moreover, I remember discussing with my friend forever ago a possibility that you have to have a pure heart to even findany Cursed Vault. It was based on the fact that in Y3, we heard Merula complaining to Barnaby and Ismelda that they couldn’t find anything, even though they searched everywhere. Of course, it might mean that they’re simply very bad at searching. But if a pure heart really plays a factor here… well, Merula’s heart isn’t the purest. She might not be entirely bad, but still. And yes, I know she could conjure a smug of a Patronus, but I think it’s telling it wasn’t a full Patronus. And while you might argue that MC’s heart isn’t entirely pure either, it’s surely purer than Merula’s.

You know, the idea of a pure heart would actually explain why we never could be truly mean or bad. Why we didn’t get the option to tell Rakepick that we want to learn the Cruciatus Curse. Why we didn’t use it on her later, even though the foreshadowing for MC using Crucioon Rakepick is very heavy. The writers might’ve realised in the last moment that it’d make it harder to say later that MC has a pure heart.

Anyway, MC feeling sorry for insane Rakepick is probably one of the more reasonable things, in my opinion. What makes absolutely no sense, though, is that insane Rakepick is still able to cast her Patronus. I mean, she basically lost her mind. There’s no way she’d be successful with this charm. It only further proves that Jam City wasn’t really planning on trapping Rakepick in the Vault. They needed her in Azkaban, and they need her capable of casting Patronus – trapping her makes both these things problematic. But they also wanted to appease a part of the playerbase, so they give them the option which simply doesn’t exactly work story-wise.

[missnight0wl]

Here’s a sad thought: Rowan never met Jacob. I mean, vault!Jacob is a piece of shit, so perhaps that’s actually for the good. But still.

Anyway, let’s move on.  Another rant post!

Um, Corey... I don’t know how to tell you that, but... this is not even close to the story of my brother.

Jacob was blackmailed into working for R and threatened with the lives of his loved ones. He didn’t fucking turn to any dark side. Therefore, he also didn’t see the error of his ways - BECAUSE HE DID NOTHING WRONG! Being a scared teenager who wants to protect people is not a crime!

Seriously though, it doesn’t even make sense when you look at that bullshit story vault!Jacob told us.

Like... did he know that Rakepick (allegedly) was a member of R then? Did he CHOSE to work for R? I mean, then it makes him even more pathetic than he already is. Dude, you worked with Rakepick knowing that she’s a criminal, you power-hungry prick, and then you cry because she left you in the Vault? You stupid bitch, what did you expect? “Oh, Rakepick is evil!”. Because what? She didn’t trap you - she left you! If you knew she’s a criminal, you shouldn’t expect a lot of empathy from her.

I hate him so much, I swear...

Still, I’m hella confused about what officially happened between Jacob and R. Did I miss something? Or it’s just Jam City screwing up?

Corey... The Cursed Vaults in general were believed to be “just a legend”. What’s your fucking point?

Let me guess. Is it under your pillow? -_-

At first, I thought that it’s so stupid that I’m not even gonna comment on that.

But I’m gonna comment on that.

Nobody gives a fuck about the Circle of Khanna. It’s Merula you should be worried about. Merula knows that MC and Corey have been spying on her. I know that they don’t know that she knows, but Corey said they’re suspecting that Merula is suspecting them. THAT SHOULD BE MORE THAN ENOUGH NOT TO GIVE COREY THE SCROLL. I grantee you that Merula pays close attention to Corey, meaning that she can easily discover that they have the Scroll.

Y’know, I don’t like Corey, but I swear what’s I’m gonna say is not personal. I hope that Corey will get hurt because of the Scroll. I hope it happens, so MC feels incredibly guilty because this level of stupidity deserves suffering. It probably won’t happen, especially considering that Jacob’s half of the Scroll might be simply fake - just like Jacob himself. Still, I just wish MC’s decisions would finally bite their dumb ass.

[missnight0wl]

Disclaimer: This is probably really stupid Hi, I'm the "hogwarts and mahoutokoro conflict" anon! I still think that it's weird that the history of mahoutokoro is in the restricted section?! Even Liv comments on this in chapter 22 year 7... Listen, I get that maybe Dumbledore doesn't like the Mahoutokoro headmaster(which is fair tbh, if protego diabolica is indeed his favourite spell, then he is a MASSIVE hypocrite)... but don't do that! One more thing, the cover of the mahoutokoro history book has a flame on it. Maybe it means that the Mahoutokoro school is linked with fire, so that's why the headmaster's favourite spell is protego diabolica!(yes i do know that it has a flame on it in canon so that Liv can have an excuse to pick it up but c'mon) Perhaps fire played a deeper role in this school's history and this dark charm may have a more complex history and this is why it's the headmaster's favourite spell. Not to mention that this dark charm can be similar to the robe system(i'm talking about how if you practice dark magic your robes turn white) if you look at it in a certain way. Both are related to punishment of disloyalty. "When cast, Protego Diabolica created a protective ring of black fire around the caster. It was possible to walk through the flames unharmed, as demonstrated by Vinda Rosier, Credence Barebone, Queenie Goldstein and Abernathy amongst others, only if they were loyal to the caster and meant them no harm." - Quote from the Protego Diabolica wiki "Any student who betrayed the Japanese wizard's code or practised Dark Arts would result in their uniform turning white" - Quote from the Mahoutokoro wiki Am I reading into this too much? Absolutely. But does it have more potential than the canon storyline? Anything is better than canon sooooo

And yea yea I know that Jam City could've never came up with THIS but it's a fun thought even though it may be a little weird

This is not stupid at all. In fact, I like your observation about the parallel between Protego Diabolica and the uniforms system. Still, I’m gonna start with a couple of things I can’t agree with.

See, the thing is that my mind simply refuses that accept that there even is the Headmaster whose favourite spell is Protego Diabolica. First of all, the only canon example of this charm is Grindelwald in The Crimes of Grindelwald. In fact, the use of this spell in the movie is so specific that I personally got the impression that Grindelwald himself might’ve invented it for this very situation. He had just given his big speech, and he knew that people will be choosing whether or not they wanted to join him. Moreover, if I recall correctly, he actually suspected that some of his people are not truly devoted to him. So yeah, of course he’d want to test their loyalty. Therefore, it seems reasonable that he’d come up with Protego Diabolica because of that. And if that’s the case… how the Mahoutokoro Headmaster would learn it? It’s not impossible – but it’s kind of unlikely, if you ask me.

Of course, it’s also possible that Grindelwald didn’t invent the charm, and there was another way for the Headmaster to learn it. Still, as I said, the use of Protego Diabolica is VERY specific – so, don’t you think that it’s a rather odd choice of a favourite spell? Like… how many times did he even have a chance to use it? It’s not really a spell you’d use during a duel or something. The Headmaster might like it – but to call it a favourite? You know what I mean?

I don’t know, it just feels very strange to me, and I simply believe that Jam City didn’t think it through, and they were lazy about making a connection between Protego Diabolica – Mahoutokoro – Dai Ryusaki. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s also why the book about Mahoutokoro is in the Restricted Section. Because I agree with you that it doesn’t really make sense. It makes sense that information about Dai Ryusaki is in the Restricted Section, but not about the school in general. And honestly, there’s a pretty easy fix for it, as usual. Just put the information about Ryusaki in the book The most dangerous Dark Wizards of Asia (or something like that), and then, make Dumbledore confirm that connection by saying that according to the legend, Ryusaki liked to use Protego Diabolica. I mean, doesn’t it make a little more sense?

That being said, I do like the use of Protego Diabolica in the story in general. Moreover, I think it could be used for a very cool plot twist. Because while Dumbledore said it’s a Dark charm… I wouldn’t really call it that. Imagine that it was used by Harry Potter, for example. Since the spell recognises loyalty to the caster, it wouldn’t harm people like Ron or Hermione, but it would hurt Death Eaters. So… does it really sound like “a Dark charm”? I’d argue that it’s simply a very powerful protective charm. It’s quite violent, sure, so I suppose this part could count as Dark magic, but still. It could be used against “bad guys”, in my opinion.

With that in mind, we could have a plot twist where Dai Ryusaki is not a Dark wizard after all. He was a very powerful wizard, yes, but he was connected to the school which is strongly against Dark Arts (to the point where they came up with the system marking those who dishonoured their values), and so he took this value system as his own. I think it’s also interesting that honour is important in Japanese culture in general, so I’d say it’s totally believable that once Ryusaki recognised that his potion might be used for evil, he felt responsible for protecting it from people with bad intentions. Therefore, he used Protego Diabolica – the difference is that the charm would let in only a person loyal to Ryusaki’s real belief, and that belief was that the Dark Scroll can’t be used for evil. That would be a pretty perfect explanation for why R is so obsessed with MC: because they’re simply a good person. MC’s writing is pretty shitty since Y6, but I still believe that the original idea was to present MC as someone of a pure heart. And if that’s the case, they’d be able to safely retrieve the Dark Scroll.

So yeah. I’m not sure if Protego Diabolica and the uniforms system are just "similar" as you’re proposing. I think it’s possible they both come basically from the exact same starting point.

[missnight0wl]

There’s absolutely nothing to discuss.

JUST. GIVE. IT. TO...

DUMBLEDORE!!!