I commissioned the wonderfully amazing and amazingly wonderful @aerequets to draw this photo of baby Anya and her mom for chapter 15 of Take Your Niece to Work Day and it's so perfect I'm gonna cry
TYNtWD 15 is now up and running. Franky POV. (part 1!)
Spy x Family Is Hiding a Bigger Plot, and the Animals Are the Key
So I’ve mentioned this before, but the connection between Eden, Garden, and Project Apple can’t just be a coincidence. There’s way too much biblical symbolism going on.
Here’s what I’ve pieced together: We first hear about Project Apple back in Chapter 19. It was a secret research initiative under the previous Ostanian regime (the National Unity Party, which is led by Donovan Desmond, who may be a telepath himself). The project aimed to create highly intelligent animals for military purposes. It’s suggested that some of the experiments did succeed, but the project was shut down, so there was no public confirmation.
We already know Bond (Subject 8) came from this project, and so did Aaron. But what really stood out to me was the glimpse we got of other animals in the lab: one was clearly a dolphin (so sea creatures were not exempted from the experiment), and another looked like a winged creature, probably a bird.
That’s where things get interesting.
Director Wilkins recently mentioned Belle to Shopkeeper (the seal from chapter 103), and then there’s Kee Kee, the falcon used by Matthew. Kee Kee isn’t just a pet, she’s clearly intelligent. She tracks poachers, annoys hemlock, and honestly shows more tactical awareness than should be normal for an average bird. So if Belle and Kee Kee are both enhanced animals... that would mean Garden knows about Project Apple. And not just that, they’re using these animals. Whether Garden inherited the project, absorbed it after the regime change, or has some kind of backdoor access to its results, it’s clear there’s a connection. Which opens up a lot of questions:
Is Garden more intertwined with the National Unity Party than we thought? did they have a fallout? (I have the impression that Garden is loyal to the past empire and see all political parties as temporary).
Are there more Apple subjects out there, working under the radar?
Was Anya herself a part of this program, or something adjacent? Does the Garden know about her and Bond?
The idea that these three institutions, Eden, Garden, and Apple, are thematically and literally connected is starting to feel less like a theory and more like a reveal waiting to happen.
WHY THE FUCK THERE IS SO MUCH I MISSED AND I DONT SEE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THESE SCENES FROM PAST CHAPTERS!?!?
Frankie has a war trauma, Anya didnt know that her name is spelled Anya not Ania and she is just accepting that?? Loid asking her about her past!?!? I didnt find it, but the old neigbour knowing what project apple is and that anya may knew how to read minds!???
Been seeing posts about the latest SxF chapter, about Anya's birth mother, about the relationship between Yor and Anya, about Yor's mental image of Anya's mother, and it got me thinking, what if Yor was the first person to discover Anya's powers? People usually focus on Twilight discovering her powers, because he would have the most feelings™ about it, but let's be honest, Twilight just isn't in the headspace to handle that information yet. But Yor, while she'd obviously be freaked out, her love of Anya comes before all else, so I think she'd be able to adapt to her new reality without it hurting her relationship with Anya.
Consider: Thorn Princess gets sent to kill some people who worked on project apple, and she knocks over some files and sees a picture of little baby Anya. And there's a file on Anya's mother too, but it's all so heavily redacted that she can't work out anything other than the fact that they were test subjects, and she can't ask the project apple guys cause she just killed them all. So now Yor, who has no intelligence gathering skills whatsoever, has to investigate this all on her own without tipping off Loid or Garden.
Maybe Yor's mind cooks up a story about Dr. Loid Forger, a scientist working on project apple, falling in love with a test subject and having a child with her, and that woman sacrificing herself so their daughter could have a normal, happy childhood. And this all just further lionizes Loid and Anya's mother in Yor's mind, making her feel more inadequate.
Maybe Yor learns everything, and ends up knowing more about Anya's mother than Loid or even Anya herself does. And Anya's powers become a special little secret shared between mother and daughter, the way Anya and Loid have shared the secret of Anya's adoption all this time. (I have this image of Yor purposefully thinking of silly things to amuse Anya, and Loid from the outside ruminating on how the two have grown so close that Yor can make Anya laugh with just a smile.)
It would also test Yor's relationship with Loid. So far, Yor has more or less trusted Loid completely, barring some concerns about her place in the family. She's never had any reason to suspect that Loid wasn't who he says he is, but no matter what, she's not going to find any link between Dr. Forger and project apple, because Dr. Forger didn't exist until recently. And whatever story Anya feeds her to fill in the gaps will have to be vague enough to avoid revealing anything about agent Twilight or the mission, make papa look as good as possible so mama doesn't want to kill him, and also make clear that Loid doesn't know about Anya's past or powers so that Yor doesn't end up revealing the truth to him accidentally. Yor would have to grapple with the fact that Loid has been lying to her from the start, and she doesn't know what his real motivations are, and she just has to trust him anyways, because Anya trusts him, and she'd know better than anyone who to trust, right?
Everything we know about Project Apple (and, by extension, Anya's past) thus far
thought i'd compile all of that now while endo's on break Just In Case the next chapter happens to start anya's backstory (i don't Think it will but endo likes surprising us LSDFKLFS)
important disclaimer that project apple and the organization in charge of anya's experiments have not been confirmed to be related! there's evidence that they have things in common, in particular employees, but that's our only real connection between the two thus far. still! worth looking into
more under the cut!
so, starting very strongly with the very first mention of anything related to the project: anya's introduction in chapter 1
despite her being a main character, we know very little about her past at the moment, and this little blurb at the beginning makes up a very big portion of what we know.
things to note here:
as an experiment, her name was "Test Subject 007". important to note that the notation differs between her and bond: she was Test Subject 007, bond was Subject 8, no zeroes in there;
she had been made thus by accident, the phrasing itself implying quite heavily that she was just a normal child before said accident (but this is the translation! i don't know japanese so i can't cross-reference with the raws to clarify if the phrasing changes anything, but the fanbook uses the word "gained" to describe her powers too);
because her mind-reading is an unintended consequence, that means the scientists were presumably not, at least initially, trying to achieve cognitive enhancements in humans, and were instead trying to achieve something else, whatever that might've been;
she escaped from the facility and then moved from institution to institution, looking for a family.
so, crucially, through this little introduction we learn that there is an organization, government-funded or otherwise, that is or was conducting human experiments for unknown purposes. we also learn that whatever family anya had prior to being involved in the experiments is more than likely unreachable, at least as far as she knows, and so she has settled for finding a new family to take care of her instead.
in terms of the facility itself, here we see they clearly drilled it into her that she can't ever reveal her secret (and the darn plush is there too -- in the anime it's even more emphasized, as you can see in the gif i made)
through her reminiscing though, we get our very first look at the scientists that were in charge of her! they're in the gif above but here they are in the manga too. it's so interesting that the anime actually shows their eyes behind the glasses though, fascinating choice.
the insistence on world peace is important, as it explains her own personal obsession with it and shows that it's not just because of twilight's own focus on preserving the peace. i also don't think twilight ever really talks about "world peace," only about "preserving the current peace between westalis and ostania" -- anya seems to be the only one talking about WORLD peace (even in the very first scene where either of them mention it in proximity to each other in ch 1, loid says "understanding the other party is the first step towards peace" and anya's interpretation is "understanding me makes world peace?") but take this with a grain of salt because i might be wrong! going through every single mention of peace in the story just to fact check this one little trivia fact is a bit much i think so i'm not doing it JSDFKLSD
but yes
remember mr hair strand and baldy, we'll see them again. not her though, ig she wasn't in charge of bond
now, fast-forwarding to chapter 19, we finally get a name and a premise for the experiments:
"but oana," you might say, "this is talking about animals only! how do we know it's the same project as anya's, which involved human experimentation?"
i don't think it is, is the thing! i think it's related to the experiments anya was a part of, which is evidenced by the same scientists being featured in project apple too, but there's more going on that we don't know about. there wouldn't be such adamancy on keeping the two separate in every official mention of them if they were just the same thing, imo!
back to the evidence, we learn that the project, conducted and funded by the previous ostanian regime (meaning donovan's related to it one way or another, since he was prime minister), was marked by franticness and desperation -- a prime place for accidents like anya's telepathy and bond's future vision.
we also learn that the project was sacked by the new administration and that the former test subjects ended up on the black market.
(this makes it very important, imo, to learn when anya escaped the facility vs. when the project was sacked. it's clearly no longer in function, but while we've heard nothing from them thus far, i'm willing to bet the shady dealings around the desmond group are NOT related to the war, as W.I.S.E. has been led to believe, but rather to reignite project apple. that is speculation however so i'm going to refrain from theorising much on why the desmond group is focused on acquiring pharmaceutical companies!!)
ok speculation tangent over, back on track
so, that's already a decent amount of info! but moving to chapter 22, when bond is finally home, and we finally see some familiar faces
behold! baldy and mr hair strand!
and 2 other guys we don't know but will see again in another bond flashback!
that's 2 out of the 3 scientists we've seen thus far from anya's own time as subject 007, confirming that there IS a connection between anya and bond's experiments, regardless of whatever the project anya was a part of might've been named.
this is also the chapter in which we learn that bond himself was subject 8 (or, if we take it from the fanbook, subject #8. still, diff notation from anya!)
in chapter 31, we learn an interesting tiny piece of trivia. we don't get any further info on it, but it IS mentioned as something that is known by W.I.S.E.:
ostania is rumoured to have done human experimentation! and W.I.S.E., and by extension loid, are aware of that.
do i know how them knowing may be important later? not really!
the next droplet of info we get is in chapter 40. we see that project apple had collaborators that are still functioning unhindered.
of course, born industries is only rumoured to have been involved with project apple, but regardless of whether or not they actually were, the rumour itself implies that the project likely pulled scientists from various other companies' R&D departments.
(this makes the desmond group's acquisition of glooman pharmaceuticals shadier, but anyway)
as a side note, twilight is emoting so much at just his wrong assumption that bond is seeking revenge against the scientists. imagine how he's going to react when he finds out about anya JKSDFKLFSD
and now aaaaall the way in chapter 58, we see the bald guy who anya also knows, the two scientists from bond's previous flashback, and one whole new guy!
and thus ends our current knowledge of it all!
the only other thing worth discussing is anya's knowledge of classical language
but plenty people have already discussed these scenes, especially recently, so here are some links: 1 | 2 | 3
the only thing i can add is that i'm fairly certain that classical language is a lot more likely to be latin than old english, because it's a very common language to learn in school (in europe at least, and ostania is based on east germany so it makes sense to me. i learned mandatory latin in school for a few good years too, even if i wasn't that good at it lol) and because one of the most common modern usages of latin are in medicine and science, it would make sense that she'd be better at it due to exposure.
a possibility is also that the scientists would think in latin to conceal their thoughts from her, and that's how she ended up learning so much. she's not fluent in latin, she's just well acquainted and that cicumstance would explain the how.
BUT THAT'S SPECULATIONNN
also i don't think "ANIA" is an acronym, nor do i think anya's been misspelling her own name out of lack of knowledge. "ania" is a polish diminutive of anna and an alternate transcription of Аня, so i think it's far more likely that anya isn't ostanian or westalian than it is that her name comes from an acronym.
now,
TL;DR!
what we know about project apple (and the "mysterious organization"):
project apple was funded and conducted by what appears to have been donovan's regime and, from what W.I.S.E. knows, aimed to create highly intelligent animals for military purposes;
W.I.S.E. is aware that ostania is at the very least rumoured to have dabbled in human experimentation;
the project is presumably no longer on-going, though it is likely there are efforts behind the scenes to revive it;
it is rumoured but not confirmed that project apple had collaborating companies that are still functioning perfectly fine;
the same scientists who were in charge of bond were also in charge of anya, signalling that there is a very significant connection between project apple and the "mysterious organization;"
based on what they were telling anya, they were/are very focused on "world peace";
their experimentation methods include but likely aren't limited to electrocution.
and what we (vaguely) know about anya that relates to this:
she is at the youngest, 4 years old, and at the oldest, 5 nearing 6. we don't know her real age, all we know is she definitely lied about being 6;
she is very fixated on specifically world peace while twilight is focused on peace between ostania and westalis. the scientists are the very first we see talking about this, so it's likely their fault;
she is unreasonably well acquainted with classical language;
she has escaped the facility at LEAST 1 year ago;
and, one tidbit from the fanbook (page 29): "Anya has been reading minds for as long as she can remember," implying that her memory of a life before the lab is muddy at best and absent at worst.
that's all we know that i know of!!
if you got this far, thank you for reading :D hope any of this was interesting or sparked any theories >:] have a good day!
Thoughts about Donovan? I know a lot of people have been speculating that he has telepathic ability like Anya, but for some reason I’m not convinced. It just seems too redundant. Although I suppose it would be the most exciting in terms of plot because Loid would be in a lot of danger.
I wonder if he does have experimentation capabilities related to the mind, but it’s NOT telepathy. For instance, he can read someone’s past, present, or future, or determine if someone is lying/telling the truth. This would still put Loid in a lot of peril from his first contact with Donovan.
