#eileen shadow

[dearlybelovedemilyko]

something i really enjoyed about chapter 224 is the contrast between edward, eileen and gerald going from villains who endanger children on the daily with no hesitation to relatively normal people helping save a village within like. a month outside the manor

specially with edward's line saying "coming to this village changed my way of thinking. villagers have families, and lives. they're alive"

it really drives home that the manor is a toxic environment, and the impacts it can have on someone. i bet it's easier to be act as they used to when humans are just "dolls", nobody dies, they get "disposed of", and everyone's already supposed to be so cutthroat anyways

on the same note, i also like how they managed to present this without making it into some black and white "the manor is the source of all evil and nobody would do the shit they do had they not grown up there" situation. anthony came from this exact same village and he was already up and killing pre selection, but one point doesn't negate the other

[sunnysunsins]

~Day 12~

Birdie in her comfy nest

[dearlybelovedemilyko]

everytime edward, eileen and gerald show up i'm more convinced the three of them are married like "WE have been exiled"

[dearlybelovedemilyko]

on the "reverse unification" theory

oddly enough, if we ever get a reveal that one of the adult characters is a product of "reverse unification" (the living doll survived unification while the shadow died, a popular fan theory), i feel like it will NOT be anthony

if that were to be revealed, i feel like they would have shown it right after he killed maggie, but they didn't, so if they go with this twist now, post chapter 164, it would be too obvious. it's something we'd expect of anthony now. my point is: sure, at this point, reverse unification does sound like something he would do, but just because he would doesn't mean he did (maybe he tried but didn't manage, maybe christopher killed himself to escape this fate, who knows)

however, there are other candidates. firstly, we have edward, eileen and gerald, whose outfits are oddly reminiscent of different living doll uniforms, and who regurlarly call each other by their supposedly deceased living dolls' names as nicknames. besides, in edward's first scene he does introduce himself as "a special living doll who lives in the great grandfather's building". we currently interpret this as a lie, but could also be foreshadowing

secondly, thomas comments on how quickly lewis learned how to emote after becoming an adult, since shadows usually leave their facial expressions to their living dolls as children and struggle with that post invitation. (also, anthony refers to lewis as his "first pupil". if we imagine his situation is similar to maggie's, it would be easier for anthony to manipulate a freshly unbrainwashed living doll into reverse unification and take credit for saving his life than to recruit a unified shadow, even if he used christopher's name)

even if the evidence i pointed out turns out to have absolutely nothing to do with the reverse unification theory, it's still there, and i don't think it's for no reason. so i felt the need to point it out even if it turns out to be buildup for something else entirely