#whb analysis

[wihellib]

Minhyeok

Compilation of moments that may or may not be important to Minhyeok’s future. With some commentary here and there. And a theory at the end. Lots of spoilers from the Halloween event and the main story, especially Chapter 7. Long post.

A comparison to what Gabriel first says to MC and what he first says to Minhyeok. The last two lines potentially could imply that Gabriel knows Minhyeok in some way.

I find it interesting that Minhyeok doesn’t question the crazy ‘cosplayer’ at all. Also, MC specifically wonders how he knew what was going on. He could have just heard the commotion and is too focused on protecting MC to comment on the weird situation, but I think this interaction is something to be aware of.

So, Minhyeok thought that what happened with Gabriel/MC was a dream. Which was also said in the Halloween event.

But this reinforces that Minhyeok died. He sacrificed his life for MC.

Maybe when Minhyeok died he lost his memories relating to angels and heaven, etc. because of the trauma of dying.

🪽🪽🪽🪽🪽

In the Halloween event, Minhyeok meets the three Seraphim. Minhyeok doesn’t show any recognition of them, but they’re acting a bit oddly towards him.

Michael talks about sorrow, attacks Minhyeok, Leviathan saves him, Michael is about to try again, then stares at Minhyeok’s chest where he was cut by Gabriel, and smiles. He says “Now that I see you, I am no longer in sorrow”. Then he leaves.

Minhyeok sees Raphael, who starts the meeting by saying, “Hey, you’re here. Since you’re here, leave that tasty looking head behind”.

Raphael stomps towards Minhyeok, rips his shirt open, stares at and then places his ear to Minhyeok’s chest. Raphael listens, sniffs and licks at his chest. Then he bursts out laughing and smacks Minhyeok into a wall hard enough to leave a hole. Raphael stares and then leaves.

Gabriel shows up and immediately slashes Minhyeok with his scythe, but Minhyeok was fine. Gabriel stands in front of Minhyeok and says, “Ahh? Aren’t you…? Why are you alive? Did I say? That we’ve met?”

Minhyeok: “You! The angel I saw in my dream!? Wait… that wasn’t a dream!"

Gabriel: “Dream? Ahh, you consider it to be…”

Satan attacks Gabriel, who recognizes the situation is now unfavourable to him. He relaxes and looks at Minhyeok with something like a smile. Gabriel says “Did I say? That I’ve never said anything like this before. See you again”. Then he leaves.

Satan explains Gabriel’s scythe and why Minhyeok didn’t die from being cut by it for a second time. The scythe is bound by a rule of God. Anything that it cuts dies. No exceptions.

MC made a contract with Satan in exchange for Minhyeok being brought back to life. Which falls under another rule of God. The first promise must be kept because God liked miracles.

These two rules of God clashed and created a loophole. Since Gabriel’s scythe never needs to cut something more than once to kill it, any cut past one isn’t included in the rule of God, so it doesn’t result in death.

It’s rare for the Seraphim to show up in Hell, except for Gabriel, and even more rare for all three of them to come at once. So, the fact that they all show up when Minhyeok's there is notable.

So, the question is do the Seraphim know Minhyeok in some way or are they simply reacting to Gabriel's scythe scar on his chest?

🪽🪽🪽🪽🪽

Minhyeok suddenly collapses in Chapter 7. And I find it very notable that it shows what’s happening to MC at that moment. They don’t usually check back in on MC during the Minhyeok side stories. So, the fact that Minhyeok collapsed at the same time MC is being strangled to death is suspicious to me.

Minhyeok seemingly collapsed for no reason. There’s nothing physically wrong with him.

The game specifically makes note that Minhyeok touches the back of his neck for some reason.

Minhyeok calls out to his brother and his brother asks who he is, surprising everyone including himself.

Minhyeok is physically fine, and yet he feels heavy.

Minhyeok touches the back of his neck and feels heavy. This could be connected somehow. Something entered through the back of his neck to make him feel fuller? A different soul? Forgotten memories? Angelic energy?

The crucial thing here is that Minhyeok’s brother doesn’t remember/recognize him for a moment. This could be for several different reasons. Like something has so fundamentally changed about Minhyeok that now his own brother doesn’t recognize him. Or maybe the magic that made Minseok think of Minhyeok as his brother was disrupted for a moment.

Minhyeok is acting much more subdued than usual.

Minhyeok is still acting odd. Sadly mentioning his want for a family and his wish to have grown up faster.

Minhyeok is acting very out of character. He references growing up again, but he seems negative about it this time, not positive.

Minhyeok has a lot he wants to forget. He never discussed anything like this before chapter 7, which leads me to believe that he regained memories or knowledge when he collapsed that he wishes he didn't.

He talks about Fererere being garbage when it's clear he's really talking about himself. So, he has a lot of guilt/regret/self-loathing.

Minhyeok basically flat-out states that he's actually an angel. How exactly he relates to the angelic faction is left for debate. And then, just as Minhyeok is about to open up about himself, he disappears right in front of Ppyong.

MC and their demon comrades have been looking for the Ark of the Covenant, which holds the Tabot in real life (the Ten Commandments inscribed on a stone tablet), but, in WHB, it holds the 'True Seed of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil'. A cursed relic containing the power of the purest good and most chaotic evil, that turns good into evil, evil into good, life into death and death into life. Only God can handle it.

But when they reach the Ark of the Covenant, it's open and nothing's inside. Eventually, they find a human child that resembles Minhyeok in the room that holds the Ark. This happens at the same time Minhyeok disappears from the human world.

The child part is throwing me off. Minhyeok does talk about growing up, but I really don't know how or why he would turn into a child at the same time the Tree Seed went missing. MC didn't open the Ark, someone else did and maybe they did this somehow. But why? And MC is supposed to be the only one who could open the Ark anyways. The only other two should be Solomon and God, and they're gone. So who opened the Ark? The child Minhyeok somehow? Implying the child is somehow related to God?

Maybe this is not the real Minhyeok, but like some kind of manifestation of MC's desires. Or like maybe it's the manifestation of the Tree Seed itself? And the real Minhyeok just got yoinked back to heaven for some reason at the same time.

At the end of the PG13 trailer, Gabriel seems like he's reuniting with a high ranking angel that looks very similar to Minhyeok. The hair is not a one-to-one match, but it is very close, and a specific tuft of hair on the right side of his head is exactly the same. To me, this has to be Minhyeok in some form.

Here's my Minhyeok theory:

Minhyeok is some way related to angels/God, but he also somehow has a human side. I'm not too concerned about the specifics. The important part is that he knows about angels and demons. For some reason, he's near Solomon's Descendant, who he's supposed to hate, but eventually he falls in love with them, and he disguises himself as Minseok's brother to be close to them as a human.

So, Minhyeok saves MC from Gabriel, but when he dies he loses his memories (and maybe angelic powers), so that's why he doesn't know anything about angels or demons in the main story. Something happens when Minhyeok collapses in Chapter 7 and he regains his memories.

Then, at that moment he disappeared, Minhyeok was split in two, his old angel self that despises Solomon's Descendants and his new human self that loves MC, which looks young because it is young compared to his angel self. And the two selves got sent to their most important places respectively: heaven for Angel!Minhyeok and 'wherever MC is' for Human!Minhyeok. Lots of angst ensues!

I don't expect this theory to be true, other than Minhyeok being related to heaven in some way. But I think this concept could be really interesting.

I'm very much looking forward to Chapter 8 and getting some answers.

[luceafarul-de-dimineata]

I think Whb is a very autistic experience, even more than other fandoms. Let me explain.

1. They speak very ackwardly

One of the first things you’ll notice while playing whb is that it is very weirdly translated. It’s like they took the koreean text, put it into google translate and didn’t have anyone edit it. Words are not placed in the correct order, stuff is repeated constantly, everyone (especially the MC) don’t seem to grasp how normal human speech is supposed to sound. What did it for me the first time was the “he scolds me with words” which was so bad it made me take a break from the game.

But it’s voiceacted.

Someone other than the writer (I refuse to believe there’s more than one) had to see the text and read it out loud. Yeah, its in Koreean and maybe the koreean text is better, but still. When you see badly written stuff on the internet, you just assume that said person doesn’t know English, but when it’s voiceacted it wierdly feels like the text is correct or that the error is somehow intentional.

As someone with both dislexia and autism, the way whb is writen makes me feel very seen. Those weird sentences, the internal monolog that does more to confuse than to elucidate are how it feels like to read my writing. I don’t really know how speaking works and putting it in writing adds another challenge to the already difficult task. I trully believe that if only they had one editor to come and look over their stuff it would be more coherent, but it would lose the particular charm I grew fond of…

2. The MC is very clearly autistic

I’m not exactly a conosur (7 years of french and this is still my level) of Preetybusy ips, but I did play a bit of every game they released and I can say that MC being autistic just seems to be a thing they always add.

I think the writer at preetybusy is autistic because I don’t know how else to explain some of these things.

As stated before, Mc in particular gets some of the strangests lines, especially during the nsfw scenes. Does that mean that they have a speech impediment? I sure hope so. The thing is that even when the writing is ackward it still somehow feels like something MC would think.

Secondly, MC is extremely picky with who they talk to and actually engage with. We see that they like Minhyeok because he’s basicly their caretaker, but Minhyeok says that he takes MC out to hang out with other people and they always stay close to him and only him. MC seems incapable of making the type of small talk that is expected at meetings like this… almost like they’re autistic and have a funky way of expressing themselves, leading to people being offput by them. Just saying.

Thirdly, Mc has a special interest in sex. They don’t just watch porn to get off, even when the devils come out with some more niche kinks, MC is just like: “Oh, I know that one” and plays along. I don’t care how kinky you are, there’s no way you would have intimate knowledge on so many fetishes if porn didn’t do a little more than arouse you.

Fourthly, MC is weird. Just fucking deranged, I grow to love them more with every word I type out. We know very little about MC because everytime we learn something new people throw a tantrum over it, but the little with know is just so fucking tragic and funny at the same time. MC is someone that has some out of the box interests and due to that and their speech problems they get isolated and the only time they feel at home is when they get kidnapped to hell where every single character is autistic.

There’s this small scene in I think Levi’s selfie story, where MC is bracing themselves for a social interaction and being anxious about saying or doing something weird and ruining the whole event and it pierced right into my soul. Mc has autism

3. The devils have autism

This one is a lot easier. Usually when writers want to make a species that isn’t quite human they just write someone with autism. Robots, fairies, dragons, ghost, if its not human, then it’s autistic.

The demons have no concept of personal space or boundaries, they have the same weird speech patterns, they’re kink is half their personality, they have two people that they’ll do anything and everything for, they can’t lie, most can’t read social cues, they’re autistic.

And that’s why they fit in with the MC so well. Because as an autistic person, you start realising that in order to get that emotional fullfilment you desire you must stick to other’s that are like you. Not to bring Luceafarul into this, but in order to get that strong meaningful relationship where you both love eachother more than anything else on earth, the love where you feel like being away from that person is a crushing weigh, the love that makes you wish you would sacriface everything just for an hour of spending time with them… you have to do it with another autistic person. You won’t get that from neurotypicals because a relationship means something else to them. They prefere the aesthetics and you have to play this 4d chess with them in order to realise what they want and if you read it incorrectly then you risk that person breaking up with you for seemingly no reason. For them a relationship is simultaniasly mendatory but also something you’re supposed to only enjoy for a little while.

This is a psa to date autistic

In conclusion, I think that whb is autistic and that’s partly why I always find myself coming back to it.

[devilmen-collector]

Time Periods of the Story Events

In this post, I'll be dividing story events into time periods, and give you guys a sense of the timeline of these events chronologically.

I'll be updating this post every time I have read an event.

Also, for now, I'll divide the timeline into three periods, ancient times/long before MC came to Hell, shortly before MC came to Hell, and after MC came to Hell. There will be a fourth category of unknown because I can find no time indicator of the event.

Note: shortly before MC came to Hell has relative meaning. It is the time period much later than ancient times and not necessarily means literally shortly before MC arrives in Hell.

Ancient Times/Long Before MC Came to Hell

The Two Stars that Fell from the Sky

Main characters: Lucifer, Gamigin

Original run: March 20 - April 3, 2024

Reason: I think this is obvious, this event's main setting takes place from the period of Lucifer falling to his two years living with Gamigin as a fallen angel to him being recognized as king and the foundation of Paradise Lost. The time is shortly after the war began and many centuries before MC came to Hell.

Shortly Before MC Came to Hell

Where is Beelzebub?

Main characters: Beelzebub, Andrealphus, the trio Naberius-Amon-Stolas

Original run: December 11-25, 2023

Reason:

In the last part of the story, Beelzebub says that there are things that are going to happen soon but he can't tell them yet. I think what Beelzebub is talking about is MC and other things that will come with their arrival. There are many implied details that Beelzebub knows that the descendant of Solomon will be his destined lover and he has been waiting for them for very long, like that moment in the comic of Beelzebub Attacker

A Life of Investigating Leraye

Main character: Leraye

Original run: April 24 - May 8, 2024

Reason:

The story alternates between the moment in present time and the memories about Leraye. But since it has been made clear from the start that the characters are talking about their memories of Leraye, I'll choose shortly before MC arrives as the standpoint period.

In one scene, Paimon tells Naberius and Stolas he's single, which means he isn't seeing anyone or having feeling for anyone at that moment (which actually makes Naberius irritated because he was actually asking if Paimon was alone in coming to meet them lol). Given the fact that Gehenna devils are romantic, and Paimon has feeling for MC after they arrived in Hell, it must mean that MC hasn't arrived in Hell at the time of the event.

After MC Arrived in Hell

The Guest of the Halloween Eve

Main character: Minhyeok

Original run: October 25 - November 8, 2023

Reason: Another obvious one because MC literally appears in this event.

Requiem of the Survivors

Main characters: Leviathan, Orias

Original run: February 21 - March 7, 2024

Reason:

Well the time indicator of this event is a single sentence that Orias says.

If you have read the Prologue of the Portal Coin Dungeon (where you farm coins that have cat-shape and it's only open during the period of a pass), you will see that MC did appear in that prologue talking with Selaphiel, while the four kings were beside them. (Sadly this prologue can only be read once and I have no screenshot). The fact that Orias mentions the event of that prologue means that the story of this event happens after MC came to Hell, it's just that MC isn't in Hades at the time of the story event.

Unknown Period

Bimet's Rage

Main character: Bimet

Original run: November 17 - December 1, 2023

Reason: there's no time indicator I can find in the event story, it could happen either before or after MC came to Hell.

[rimeiii]

Just watched the gameplay trailer and...

Well, it's a lot like Path to Nowhere. Can't say I'm surprised, considering the unit placement and map layouts from all the trailers we've seen.

(More under the cut because we all know I'm the bitch who's more interested in the gameplay compared to other things-)

Some corrections regarding the symbols:

Angel wings are enemies remaining, paw prints are movement opportunities remaining.

Whatever that last icon is, it's supposed to be is your HP.

Two tilesets is real, but it's only used to indicate pathing.

There doesn't seem to be a distinction between low ground and high ground tiles - it's just the lighter tiles are the enemy paths, and you place units on lighter tiles if you want to block enemies.

The limits of the battlefield are the black picket fences along the edges!

But holy shit some of these abilities sound so fucking broken on paper, but the applications...

Marbas's skill, if handled properly, can act like Bard Supporters in Arknights. However, the healing seems to be very limited, at 1 HP per tick? How would it scale based on skill level and stats? Is 1 HP a lot for friendlies? At least it seems to be an infinite duration skill, so...

Paimon's slow is manual targeting. Personally I'm not a fan, or maybe it's because I think in the realm of tower defense, Suzuran is a slower done right. Or Snow Peas. These sorts of units, in essence, slow enemies down so our units can burst them down easily. Which might be uh...let's just say, underutilized based on the DPS options we have down the line.

At this point, Paimon seems to play a lot like May, and even then May is more effective in slowing down enemies with her first skill.

Anyways, what in the fuck is going on here?

That 'Miss' in blue text. Is that a damage instance miss, an ailment miss, or something else? If it's a damage instance miss (which is what I think it is) then mygod I think I'm actually going to rage while playing this game. That is, unless it's due to a unit's passive - then for my own sanity I won't be using them, ever. Because hey, fellow Arknights players, remember these fuckers?

Yeah. Silence and freeze came in clutch, honestly. There's a reason why a lot of players would rather not deal with dodge enemies and just want to nuke them out of existence with true damage and status effects. Though to be fair it's the Nethersea Brand that makes Stultifera Navis a hard event/Intermezzi...

ANYWAYS! The next skill I'll be looking at is Eligos's skill.

That's a unique skill, honestly! Mechanically, it's most similar to Mlynar's second talent, which gives him innate Taunt (makes enemy ranged attacks target him when he's in their range) - except Mlynar is Broken Like That and has damage reflect while maintaining that the Talent is always active, all with respectable defenses and a sizable HP pool. Like Mlynar, depending on how much damage the enemy does on average and how strong Eligos's shield is, the skill can easily turn into a double-edged sword, however - in a much more dangerous way compared to Mlynar.

Think of it this way. It doesn't seem like WHB has a redeployment mechanic, as a similar "style" of tower defense with Path to Nowhere. Which means, if an ally is dead, then they stay dead for the entirety of the stage.

Compare that with Arknights, which allows retreating and redeployment.

Losing Texas the Omertosa on the battlefield wouldn't matter as much as losing Eligos, because I know I can still use Texas down the line. Plus, the Executor subclass is built around redeployment, making that mechanic necessary to use her properly. Same thing with me retreating Chen - her positioning wasn't the most optimal after clearing the treasure chest, and if the stage went on any longer I'd redeploy her in a more strategic position/direction. But I know this stage's mobs aren't particularly tanky, and Mountain with Sweeping Stance (S2) would be more than enough to hold that lane, with his 2-block + DPS + self-sustain.

These are the words of a chronic IS player.

Meanwhile, if I lost Eligos, then I'd lose a valuable blocker unit. He's a defender in WHB, and he definitely has more tanking capabilities. But that means you'll have to consider adding either a healer to keep him healed up or more DPS to kill off enemies before you lose said defender to continuous attacks.

The final three skills shown in the trailer all fall under the same category: burst damage over an area.

This is where I can say slowers might eventually be underutilized in WHB on launch. They work the best with consistent, large damage sources over a period of time. What do I mean by that? Well, let's take a look at Suzuran - specifically, her second passive.

Suzuran, in my opinion, reflects the most effective way a slower is used in tower defense. Not only does she slow enemies down, she inflicts them with a debuff that makes them take more damage (Fragile). This effect is doubled with her third skill Foxfire Haze, where she stops attacking - but her slow turns into an area of effect deal, heals allies, and has an increased range. She is oftentimes used in conjunction with damage dealers and an extra debuffer (optional, but typically Saria S3) with steady burst damage over a set period of time - SilverAsh, Surtr, Mlynar, Eyjafjalla, Mostima, and Exusiai, just to name a few.

Granted, she is a 6* unit (L rarity in WHB terms would likely be the closest approximation), but even then other Decel Binders (slowers like Suzuran) without the debuff application still has the 80% Slow on all enemies they attack, and has ways to increase their slowing and damage capabilities.

It's hard to see with how the battle is presented, but if Paimon's slow is only on skill proc, then him in conjunction with these DPS options would be the equivalent of using Decel Binders with Chiave/Pinecone - which isn't bad per se (unless you managed to stack charges - then it becomes good) but less effective compared to using, say, Pozëmka/Schwarz. And let's not forget that some of these characters have huge attack ranges (Satan and Gabriel specifically) - making the entire point of slowers more or less moot.

Also, it would seem that skills may inflict status ailments! Stun seems to work like in Arknights (enemy stops attacking and moving for a set period of time), but Bleed I will assume is a damage over time deal. Kinda like Blue Poison and Thorns's passives.

The final and arguably biggest gripe I have with what I see in the trailer, though?

Little to no potential for AFK gaming- //SHOT

[wihellib]

Kings Handwriting Analysis

Just for fun, not to be taken too seriously, here’s some of my short thoughts about the Kings’ handwriting styles. Overall, they seem to be very fitting for the characters.

Satan has a loud, chaotic, and almost violent style. The thick, jagged strokes and sharp angles suggest a strong, passionate, and short tempered personality.

Mammon has a sleek, polished, and casually luxurious style. The long, flowing strokes and balanced spacing suggest a relaxed and naturally confident personality. There’s a complete lack of sharpness or aggression in his handwriting.

It’s notable that Satan’s and Mammon’s signatures contrast each other in style, energy, and execution.

Levi has a dramatic, extravagant, and carefully controlled style. The artistic strokes, elongated letters, and decorative crown suggest a jealous and perfectionist personality.

Beel has a flowing, indulgent, and slightly unstructured style. The casual strokes, soft curves, and various flourishes and inconsistencies suggest a laidback, forgetful, and pleasure-seeking personality.

Lucifer has a refined, graceful, and commanding style. The smooth, deliberate strokes and soft glow give it an ethereal quality and suggest a reserved, sophisticated, and effortlessly dominant personality.

Belphie has a careless, uneven, and low effort style. The messy, disconnected strokes and irregular letters suggest a lazy, informal, and unbothered personality.

Asmo has a lavish, flirty, and deliberately eye-catching style. The dramatic flourishes, wispy strokes, and decorative kisses suggest a romantic, passionate, and unapologetically sensual personality.

[wihellib]

I need to talk about this some more.

I really thought that Beel's forgetfulness was due to his ADHD but was also, in part, due to the fact that he’s an ass. I thought he was being wilfully obtuse and playing up his memory loss to get out of situations he didn't want to deal with. Which is probably still partly true, but his main reason is because the memories are truly gone. This is horrifying.

Think about how awful that would be, to feel pieces of your memory just slipping away from you. Does he ever have a moment of clarity on which memory is being destroyed before it happens? Does he have a chance to think ‘Oh please not that one’ before he loses it forever? Does he ever get deja vu at feeling sad but having no recollection of why and realizing that he lost something precious to him again but will never remember what it was?

And this would happen all the time. We don’t know the exact number, but it’s been implied that he has tons of clones. And he has a huge graveyard for clones that have already died. He also splits himself into flies quite often. Which means that Beel has lost so so much. And, still, he’ll lose so much more. The poor guy.

[wihellib]

I’m guessing the ending stinger of the PC trailer is for a Hades/Foras prequel event or is a main story flashback.

Right before Foras’ head comes off in the trailer, his sprite is slightly different than his normal sprite. He’s missing his face tattoos and his eyes are blank. His horns are cracking for some reason. And he has a different coloured earring. Still wearing a noose though.

So maybe the event/flashback starts after Foras came to Hades, and we follow him as he gets close to Levi and makes a contract with his coffin monster.

[wihellib]

Devils and Reproduction

I am so curious about the incomplete reproductive lore surrounding the devils. It’s all very biologically weird.

They can only have children with other devils when Lilith gets involved. And how exactly does that process work? Do two devils just go to Lilith and ask for a child? Does she have to take devils energy from them to make the child? Is pregnancy involved or does she just hand them a fully formed child? Would it be a baby she hands them or an older child?

Can devils have children with angels with outside intervention? Or is it not possible at all?

Devils can have children with humans, as shown by Asmodeus, but how exactly does that process work? Did Asmo have to do a special ritual with his witch wife to have children with her? Or was it just through sex like it is with normal humans?

Then, that leads into the question of Solomon’s Descendant if they’re female. With how much sex they have, they would have most likely gotten pregnant very quickly, but they haven’t. So, do devils have more control over that aspect than humans do? They can decide if the sex they’re having is baby-making sex or not?

Of course, it’s probably just that you can also be male in this game, so the devs want to be vague about these types of things. But I still think it’s interesting to think about.

Even more questions. Why do devils cum from their horns? It makes no biological sense for them to cum from two places. Is it actually cum, the same as from their penis, or is it just condensed devils energy? Where does the liquid actually come from? Do female devils also leak from their horns or not? So many questions, so few concrete answers.

I guess all the weirdness can be explained because it has been said that God sometimes does things on a whim without really thinking about them. So, it doesn’t have to make sense…but I still want to know!