And The Universe Said I Love You Because You Are Love

A comic redraw of one of my favorite moominvalley strips. I love them sm ;-;

Thread from my twitter about this official art because it’s one of my favorite official anime art. This is actually part 1 because alot of people wanted a soukoku specific/Dazai focused part. So will post that here as well.

Starting off:

They’re gorgeous here but what I really love is the detail of the red thread of fate. More specifically how & where the thread is wrapped for skk & sskk + Kyoka. I’ll start with skk.

When it comes to Soukoku, my loves, Dazai has the thread wrapped around his neck. Chuuya has one end & it’s wrapped around his wrist (the one with the scar that proves he’s human btw), that seems to symbolize he's holding Dazai's life in his hands, at least partially. That's no surprise we all know they're inexplicably linked and fated etc.

Chuuya is always there to save Dazai & Asagiri said he’s the only one who truly understands Dazai. But it's super interesting the other half of Dazai's string that’s wrapped around his neck is first wrapped around his own wrist, before continuing to Aku. This essentially saying Dazai holds his own life in his hands.

Which obviously seems super accurate since we know his is biggest enemy is often his own mind & the hole inside his chest that he has a hard time filling. It’s where his suicidal tendencies come from. But essentially, it seems like Dazai's life is held only by Chuuya & then himself and I love that detail.

This is in contrast to Atsushi, Akutagawa, & Kyoka. The thread is wrapped around Atsushi's throat & Aku & Kyoka both have it around their wrists. Essentially symbolizing *both* Aku & Kyoka have Atsushi’s life in their hands. This seems to showcase both of their importances in Atsushi’s life.

Also other than dead apple, given recent events with Kyoka saving Atsushi in the beginning of the DOA arc & Akutagawa's sacrifice for him later, that red thread being held by them continues making sense.

Also Aku's sacrifice was massive for his development & I hope it is our universes Aku at the end of episode 11 so we can continue exploring that development for himself & his relationship with Atsushi.

The red thread itself is typically to symbolizes those who are destined to be together, regardless of place or time. Which naturally makes sense for soukoku & their “two bodies one soul” situation lol It’s interesting that Atsushi has both Aku & Kyoka linked to him in this sense.

That’s just my take on the art & why it’s one of my favorites.

hc that Dazai made a point of calling Chuuya small when they met because Dazai was used to being the small one.

like, finally there was someone shorter than him. because let’s be real, Dazai was barely taller than Chuuya in Fifteen.

i think people forget how small Dazai was too— not just in height, but also in weight. He was underweight in Dark Era, but in Fifteen & even at present he's barely within the healthy weight range for his height. he was constantly described as a twig in Fifteen, and almost every time he's introduced in the light novels he's called lanky, slender, etc.

Ignore Little My it was my first time drawing her!!

Revisiting the Scratchansniff-Warners relationship, Part 2: The positives, where it all went wrong, and what it all means

Welcome to part 2 of part 4 of Overanalyzing the Warners. Here's a link to part 1.

In the first part, I focused on Scratchansniff as a character and why he was a terrible fit as the Warners' psychiatrist. In this part, I'll look at the other side of it: the almost fatherly relationship he developed with them over time, and how it all suddenly came crashing down.

Warning: This post is extremely long. I've said previous posts of mine were long, but this is several times longer than those- it's 4576 words. You may want to set aside some time for this or break it up into parts to read at different times.

I've talked about this topic in great length, and this post is meant to be the culmination of all of it. So, in addition to reading part 1 of this 2 part analysis, I would encourage you to read my other two important posts about Scratchansniff and his relationship with the Warners:

In this post, I did an episode-by-episode analysis of Scratchansniff's relationship with the Warners and marveled about how it all went wrong.

In this post, I went in-depth in analyzing Episode 5 of the original series, "Taming of the Screwy", taking a look at a pivotal point in the Warners' character development and their relationship with their p-sychiatrist.

In general, Scratchansniff's relationship with the Warners can be broken down into three phases.

Phase 1: Episodes 1-53 of the original series. Scratchansniff first establishes a relationship with the Warners and they get to know each other better in an up-and-down process where they sometimes act as allies and sometimes as foes.

Phase 2: Episodes 65-82 of the original series. Having warmed up greatly to the Warners, Scratchansniff becomes somewhat of a father figure to them, taking them out on trips and having almost entirely positive encounters with them overall.

Phase 3: Episode 87 of the original series and everything since. The relationship suddenly and inexplicably goes downhill, with the Warners and Scratchansniff mutually seeming to not like each other much at all. This continues into the reboot, with Scratchansniff acting antagonistic to the Warners and the Warners seeming unenthusiastic in their helping of him in season 1. In season 2, the Warners seem to trust him as a father figure again, but he's only pretending to like them in what is actually part of a scheme to get his stuff back.

Phase 1 is what I've already covered most extensively, so I won't talk about it as much in this post. Besides the two episodes that I already covered in-depth, Episodes 1 and 5, there isn't much of great impact to discuss here. The Warners have their usual hijinks. Sometimes they interact positively with Scratchansniff, such as when they get him a present for his birthday seemingly unprompted, and other times they pester him unnecessarily, such as when they ruin his date in Episode 53, "Drive Insane".

It can't really be said that Scratchansniff is the bad guy in any of these interactions. I mean, the guy was just trying to have a good date, and, even though the Warners arguably improved it, never really did anything to deserve them showing up and deliberately trying to ruin everything. Well, he didn't do anything in that episode to deserve it. This still does take place after he betrayed their trust in Taming of the Screwy, so it makes sense why the Warners would be antagonistic to him sometimes. I would describe this phase overall as the "rebuilding trust" phase. Scratchansniff blew his chance to meaningfully help the Warners in a therapeutic sense, but that doesn't mean his relationship with them is forever dead. Quite the opposite.

Phase 2 begins in Episode 65, the Warners' 65th Anniversary Special. While that episode is packed with Warners lore items, the only thing relevant to this topic is how Scratchansniff chaperones them at the event. This is the first instance of him acting fatherly to them.

Episodes 69, 71, 79, and 82 show the same. In 69, he takes them out to the carnival. In 71, Wakko approaches him because he wants to participate in his bingo game, which no one else attended. It could be argued either that Wakko just really wanted to spend time with Scratchansniff or that this was his subtle way of making the doctor feel better about no one attending his bingo game, or both. In any case, it's clear that Wakko genuinely likes being around Scratchansniff by this point. In 79, the Warners invite Scratchansniff to their party, and he both shows up and has a decent time. In 82, he takes them out for another trip and has a great time singing Wakko's two-note song.

Now, hold on a minute. Where did all of this come from? Why are the Warners and Scratchansniff suddenly all buddy-buddy, after spending half the series antagonizing each other? How did Scratchansniff regain their trust even after betraying them? I think it might be rather simple. The Warners took a liking to Scratchansniff simply because they were able to spend a lot of time with him, and he didn't always completely hate their guts while they did so.

That's sad, isn't it? It's a really low bar to friendship. By all normal metrics of trust, Scratchansniff never did a single thing to deserve the Warners' admiration. But you have to look at what the Warners have been through. From the moment of their creation, everyone around them hated them with a burning passion. Their creator went crazy in the process. Their main director, Weed Memlo, despised them from the start. Plotz and other studio leadership always saw them as a nuisance at best and a cataclysmic, terrifying force of nature at worst. Their co-star Buddy hated them so much he tried to kill them 65 years later. People literally screamed and fled at the mere sight of them on the lot. This was years before the creation of other famous toons like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck who might have been their allies. They had literally not one person to trust or like or have any sort of positive relationship with, except each other.

All the while, they seem somewhat oblivious to this total mistreatment, because it's the only thing they've ever known. In their childlike naivety, they thought this was just how it was supposed to go. They thought that the people who clearly hated and feared them actually liked them, because they never saw any example of a person who truly did. This explains a lot of their behavior then and later on. They pester everyone, including those they like, because they think it's an expression of fondness. If the Warners truly dislike someone, they just avoid them. And it takes a lot to get the Warners to truly dislike someone. Even people who they legitimately should dislike, who were never anything but mean to them like Plotz, they still eventually take a liking to.

So then they meet someone like Scratchansniff, who still dislikes them but doesn't outright hate them or flee when he sees them, because his job forces him to interact with them. Compared to everyone else the Warners have ever met, well, he's a saint! Of course they would take a liking to him. A similar process happened to Scratchansniff on the other end. Forced to interact with them often because of his job, he eventually became familiar with them. Scratchansniff is quite a lonely guy as well. He doesn't seem to have any family or friends, and even his dates dislike him. By being around the Warners, he came to realize that they were good kids at heart, as much as he didn't want to admit it to himself. This is when he embraced them on his end of things, and that's when he became a father figure. He couldn't commit completely, though. Deep down, he became aware of the inequities that molded the Warners into what they were. However, surrounded by people who didn't, and still being a stubborn old man, he knew that if he admitted to himself the awful treatment the Warners had always received, he would come to despise himself for his part in it. So, he didn't admit it fully. But he still felt bad for them, and that's why I believe he did things such as take them out to the carnival, for no reason other than to make them happy. It can also be noted that Scratchansniff takes them out for his own enjoyment- he takes them to a wrestling show, something that he is very passionate about but the Warners don't like. They're so embarrassed to be there that they put bags over their heads, but they still went. The Warners are Scratchansniff's only real friends that he can take with him to events he enjoys.

On that note, this is another important reason I believe the Warners formed such a bond with Scratchansniff. In all the phase 2 episodes, you can see one thing being consistently implied: the only time the Warners are officially allowed off the lot is when they're accompanied by Scratchansniff.

In other words, Scratchansniff is their only legitimate ticket to freedom. Now, why would it matter to them whether they can get off the lot legitimately or not? They do it all the time regardless. That's exactly the point, and how I inferred something critical about the Warners' characters: they want to be officially included. During the events of the series, they are able to consistently escape the tower and go absolutely anywhere they want whenever they want. Despite this, every single time there's an opportunity afforded to them to do things the right way and be included without breaking the rules, they take it. The only way this would make sense is if they have a personal desire to be able to do things without breaking the rules, and the only reason they do break the rules so often is because there are almost no situations where they're included within the rules. All that to say- being able to go off the lot without being relentlessly chased is important to them, and the only way they can do that is if they go with Scratchansniff.

The point is, the relationship between Scratchansniff and the Warners was forged from unwilling familiarity. The Warners have almost no friends, Scratchansniff has almost no friends, and so, when they're forced to spend a lot of time around each other, they naturally become fond. Wow, that was a much more concise way of stating everything I wrote in the massive block of text above.

What is the relationship actually, really like at this point? Do the Warners regard Scratchansniff as a true father figure? Does he look at them almost like his kids? I've always hesitated to call him a true father figure to the Warners because of how large a part he played in their unfair treatment by the studio, even during Phase 2. How can a man who truly loves them not do more to break them out of that horrible cycle of abuse?

On a meta level, though, that is the part Scratchansniff is meant to play. He's inserted as a parental figure in episodes where either the Warners need to be placed in a situation more relatable to the normal kids watching the show, or when they need to show more traditional childlike traits than they usually do when they're on their own. "I'm Mad" is a great example of this. The Warners need to go on a roadtrip for the plot to work. It's a very relatable plotline for the kids watching, but the Warners would never end up in that situation without an adult father figure to take them somewhere. That's Scratchansniff.

Also in that segment, the Warners can be seen acting much more like regular siblings to each other than they usually do. Basically, when the Warners need to be portrayed more like actual kids, that's when Scratchansniff is inserted as their parental figure. But I don't think that was initially meant to imply the existence of a strong father-child bond between Scratchansniff and the Warners. When writing, the creators of the show may have been just as surprised as the characters themselves that this relationship seemed to be forming so naturally. Just like in-universe, it may truly have been a relationship formed out of circumstance.

I'd be remiss if I didn't spend at least one paragraph highlighting Wakko's especially close relationship with Scratchansniff. From the segment "Ups and Downs", which is actually in Phase 1, he seems to regard Scratchansniff as a really close friend, despite the doctor's lack of reciprocation. I think this is just due to Wakko's nature. Unlike his siblings, he isn't really out to cause any trouble or mischief. He's just kind of flowing along with the current of life. And because of his status as the wacky one, he tends to see crazy things as normal while being very fascinated with the mundane. Scratchansniff is very mundane. Wakko seemingly goes out of his way to spend alone time with Scratchansniff, such as at the bingo game. In that situation, with Wakko as the only patron at the event, Scratchansniff could have very easily closed up shop and said no to letting Wakko play. He decided to go through with it anyway. It's possible that Wakko becoming close with Scratchansniff first was the opening needed for all three Warners becoming close with him.

By the events of Episode 82, "Wakko's Two-Note Song", everything seems to be going swimmingly. The Warners like Scratchansniff and he clearly likes them. Going out on trips with each other seems to have become routine. There are no hints at any cracks in their relationship at all- if anything, it seems like it's just becoming stronger and stronger. Oh, how I wish it had just ended with this episode. Then, maybe, by the time of the reboot we'd see that the Warners have embraced Scratchansniff as their true father figure, he's officially adopted them, and they live a nice family life in a real home. It didn't end there.

Phase 3 starts with Episode 87. I'll be honest, it's a little weird to call this a "phase" at all. That's because, instead of following the logical progression it had been to this point, this is where it completely goes off the rails. It goes from a strong relationship to almost no relationship. Imagine if Wreck-it Ralph 2 had started with Ralph and Felix being at odds again, with absolutely no explanation given as to why. Imagine if Star Wars Episode 5 had started with Luke back on Tatooine living as a regular farmboy. That's what happened here. You have a very consistently followed, logical development of a relationship over 80+ episodes of a TV show, but then in Episode 87 it just all goes away.

As with all the segments and episodes I'm mentioning, I'd suggest you just go watch "Anchors-a-Warners" yourself to get what I mean. But if you need a summary, Scratchansniff tries to go on a cruise to get away from the Warners, but is horrified and legitimately terrified to see that they've followed him on board.

They do everything they can to harass him and ruin his life in the meanest ways possible, for no reason that was ever shown. Scratchansniff did nothing to deserve it. It's the Warners at their worst, written so poorly that they just straight-up seem like the antagonists. Usually they seem like kids just out to have some harmless fun. In this episode they feel malicious. There's a few poorly written episodes like that in the original series, but this one is so much worse because of who they do it to. Because of how it tanked what was previously a thriving relationship with no reason given, reversing all character development both Scratchansniff and the Warners had received over the many episodes of Animaniacs before this. It feels like a bad episode from season 1 that they inserted into season 4. In fact, it's my theory that this is exactly what it is. By this point Animaniacs was nearing the end of production, and it's known that they used some scrapped scripts from the earlier seasons to fill out the last. I think they took this one, which was rightfully rejected years earlier, and made it into an episode for season 4 without much thought.

It wouldn't be so bad if it was followed up by... well, anything. This is the last major interaction the Warners have with Scratchansniff in the original series. Wakko's Wish isn't canon, but even there they don't seem to be close with him at all. Let me reiterate that the building of the Scratchansniff-Warners relationship isn't just a piece of crazy fan headcanon. It's very obviously and deliberately built up. In Phase 1, you kind of alternate between episodes where the Warners antagonize Scratchansniff and episodes where they're more friendly with each other. In Phase 2, though, there isn't a single negative interaction between them. That's why Anchors-a-Warners is so jarring.

Fans were disappointed by Scratchansniff's portrayal in the reboot, as they wanted to see a resumption of the wholesome relationship they had been building before and not see the doctor brought back as your run-of-the-mill cartoon antagonist. I certainly share those desires, but is it really hard to understand why the reboot writers wrote it the way they did? If you watch the original series and assume that every episode happens in chronological order, that is where the relationship left off. Not as family, but as enemies. We can only hope that they redevelop it in the future to leave it on a good note in the end.

So, why do I think it was left off like that? I think it can be attributed to the rocky end of Animaniacs. The network was dissatisfied with their product, which was attracting too many adults, and was relatively expensive to produce. The number of Animaniacs staff working on the show was cut significantly in the later seasons. I think, being slowly forced out like that, Tom Ruegger and other writers probably lost passion for the story they had been trying to tell. It's a huge shame that we never got to see a real conclusion, with Scratchansniff embracing the Warners as true family. I think that's the way it was intended to end up.

In-universe, though, what happened? Are there any hints that might tell us how the relationship went sour? I think there might be one. At the end of "Wakko's Two-Note Song", Scratchansniff has embraced Wakko's way of making music and is trying to make a song by honking his car horn. Mr. Plotz hears this and remarks that "the poor guy's finally lost his noodle."

Perhaps Plotz believes that the psychiatrist spending so much time with the Warners has, instead of taming the Warners, actually made Scratchansniff insane. So, the next time he sees him, Plotz chews him out for failing to do his job and orders him to go see a psychiatrist of his own to bring him back up to level. In the midst of this humiliation, Scratchansniff became paranoid that Plotz was actually right, remembering how he used to be and believing that the Warners made him insane. This caused him to try to cut off close contact with the Warners, becoming cold to them the next time they met. The Warners, hurt and confused by the sudden rejection, became angry and got their revenge by picking on Scratchansniff like the old days, only increasing Scratchansniff's bitterness towards them and sending the relationship plummeting back to how it was before. This is why they're so hostile to him in Anchors-a-Warners. None of that is rooted in canon besides the one moment I showed above. It's all speculation, but it's the best answer I can come up with.

That's the end of my in-universe speculation. I'd like to touch upon the greater societal impact that Scratchansniff may have had. Before Dr. Scratchansniff, there were no or almost no reoccurring, seriously taken psychiatrist characters in cartoons. You wouldn't see Bugs Bunny sitting on a therapy couch for anything other than a quick gag. I won't pretend like Scratchansniff's character is meant to be taken very seriously or that any of his therapeutic interactions with the Warners were much more than jokes. However, it was a long-lasting, mostly positive relationship between doctor and patient that was thoroughly explored. Imagine being a kid in the 90's who has to go to psychotherapy. You probably feel ostracized, probably bullied if anyone knows about it. Then a new super popular cartoon comes on the scene where the main characters regularly go to therapy and have a long-lasting relationship with their psychiatrist. Maybe it made it a little better.

And maybe that's what this is all about. If I were to distill Animaniacs down to one statement, I'd say it's meant to show the perspective of the little guy. It shows the world from the perspective of kids, from the perspective of pets, lab mice, the neurodivergent, the flame on a candle.

Before I started writing this post, I was under the impression I usually am with these kinds of things- everything I'm talking about is fan theory, and the creators probably didn't intend more than half of it. Fans, especially fans who look as deeply into things as I do, tend to go way overboard, finding meaning where none was ever meant to exist. I very much do not think the English teacher overanalysis of every little detail in every creative work is generally the most correct way to look at things, from the point of view of what the creator intended. I do it for fun, of course, but as an author I know that most of the most profound symbolism and hidden meanings in my works are things that were completely unintentional, that I only find after I reread them several times. That's especially true in a silly comedy cartoon like Animaniacs, right?

As I got deeper into writing this, though, I realized that there might be more there than I first thought. Mental illness, or "insanity", is a consistently reoccurring theme in this show. The first segment in the first episode starts with the Warners getting acquainted with their psychiatrist. Their psychiatrist is their closest ally and favorite enemy, the one that around 10% of the episodes in the series focus on. A psychiatry office is one of the default settings for the show.

Insanity is mentioned in the intro to every episode (totally insaney!). Before most episodes, the Warners' backstory is shown in Newsreel of the Stars. In their expanded backstory shown in certain episodes, it's revealed that their animator went insane creating them.

Everyone else, at least the adults, around the Warners call them destructive and insane, ostracizing them from society. To anyone with half a brain watching, though, it's immensely clear that the Warners aren't anything more than hyperactive children with no strong adult guidance, using the god powers they never asked for to act out for extremely understandable reasons. The show consistently shows instead that the adults around them, the stuffy business types calling them insane, are the true unstable ones. They're blinded by prejudice, trying the same thing over and over, banging their heads against the wall trying everything to solve the "issue" of the Warners, except the solution that was extremely obvious the entire time. The Warners just need someone to care for them. Even the one who's supposed to be the expert in the field of mental health can't figure out this very basic idea.

Think back on the history of how we as a society have treated mental health issues. First, hundreds of years ago, we tried to lock the crazies away in asylums. Get them away from society so they can't harm us and we don't have to think of them. Then things progressed to aggressively trying to treat these mental disorders, with lobotomies and shock therapy and every horrible thing in between. We became obsessed with trying to take the neurodivergent and make them "normal."

What happened to the Warners? First, they were locked away, separated from society. Then, they were aggressively treated with the explicit aim of making them "normal." Their psychiatrist, as I covered in part 1, probably got his degree around the 1930's or 40's, using extremely outdated tactics that inevitably would fail to give the Warners any real help. You can see the parallels.

The Warners live in a world where it's extremely clear how everyone mistreats them, yet they're always made out to be the crazy ones. Animaniacs shows it for what it really is, from the perspective of the marginalized, from the perspective of those who were driven mad by the environment they were born into. Even though the truth is extremely obvious to them, no one can ever see their side. Animaniacs is meant to show how treating mental illness with the intent of making the patient normal is nothing more than banging your head against the wall. It will never help them or you. If you truly want to get them help, then help them. Help them exist in society the best they can, and only then will you start to see some of the improvement you hoped for in the first place. Like I said in the last part- the Warners could have been tamed, but if you want to do that, taming them cannot be your primary goal.

This is one of the few things I've spoken on in my overanalysis series that I believe has a strong chance to be fully intentional. In fact, now that I've laid it out for myself, the symbolism of Animaniacs seems kind of obvious. We've grown as a society recently, getting on the path to accepting mental illness and neurodivergency for what it is instead of jumping right to ostracizing it (though there's still a ways to go). Animaniacs, on the other hand, was trying to get this in our heads 30 years ago.

Bringing this back around to the main topic, I'll say something I've said many times before- I hope the Warners get a happy ending. I hope they embrace Scratchansniff truly and he embraces them. I hope they get out of the tower for good and can live the lives they want. It doesn't have to be the focus of an episode or anything. Just, to end the reboot off, show a 30 second scene of them being happy and free. That's all I want.

And so, finally, mercifully, that's all I have to say on this topic. At least until I think of more in a year from now. The next installment in Overanalyzing the Warners will focus on the Warners themselves, specifically their sibling relationship. That won't be out for a long while, though.

If you have anything you want to add, comment on, correct, or say about this post, don't hesitate to leave a reply or send in an ask. In any case, thank you for reading all of that. It continues to surprise me how much support I receive for these insane lore ramblings about this children's comedy cartoon. Thank you.

Aaaaand decided to post at least one wip! Maybe I’ll post more. I did this in early spring because there’s nothing like celebrating Snufkin’s arrival to MoominValley like…. Doing moominvalley in November stuff I guess. Lol

also as I was posting this I saw this in one of the frames and adsgddsfsdsd

Me waiting for fanfic updates like a 1920s woman waiting for her husband to come back from the war.

Cheng Xiaoshi's Death Analysis — PART 1: Cheng Xiaoshi's Character Analysis

Why is Lu Guang so desperate to save him? Let's analyze!

I think it’s Lu Guang himself who killed Cheng Xiaoshi in the original timeline.

⚠️ Part 2 here ; Part 3 here [note: you can skip to part 3 if you want me to get to the point]

Why do I think that?

Starting off with season 2:

let’s begin with the part where Cheng Xiaoshi is informed by the officer that Lu Guang’s rescue failed, he died.

(now this will be a bit long since i'll be contrasting their personalities, so please bear with me. if you want me to get to the point then skip to part 3)

Cheng Xiaoshi, after breaking down in tears, seemed to have been struck by the same exact idea as that of Lu Guang — to go back in time and save him.

However, the difference between Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi in this case (where the thought processed was awfully similar) is that Cheng Xiaoshi did not execute this plan/idea of his.

I know you’re aware of all what I’m saying right now but hear me out…

isn’t it very odd?

now I’m sure you guys might say/think: “we already know that.” “that’s because they’re so attached to each other!” “Link Click is full of plot twists! So it’s not odd for them to surprise us!” “Lu Guang’s got feelings too y’know?!” “Maybe Lu Guang really just does care.”

Wait. Listen.

I’m not trying to imply that Lu Guang doesn’t have feelings, that he doesn’t have a heart — of course he does, he’s a human. But compared to Cheng Xiaoshi, he’s less emotional.

Cheng Xiaoshi is known to be the more sentimental, sensitive, and selfless one of the two. He usually allows his emotions to control him. He wears his heart on his sleeve. (at least that's what the donghua shows us)

But, somehow, he was able to restrain himself from letting his emotions take over him and dive back in time (all because a glimpse of Lu Guang, reciting the rule, flashed before his eyes)

He, Cheng Xiaoshi, the so very attached to Lu Guang Cheng Xiaoshi, was able to restrain.

And please do keep in mind that the emotions he experienced when he discovered Lu Guang’s death must have been unbelievably strong and unbearable; overwhelming beyond words because it’s like losing a source of happiness in your life.

He must have been so scared because he’s already experienced the horror of being abandoned by the most valuable people in his life such as his very own parents — and I bet he doesn’t wanna re-experience it.

Despite all that, he was able to restrain.

But Lu Guang couldn’t.

⚠️ continue in PART 2 here.

[keep in mind that these are just mere conclusions drawn from close observations, assumptions, and theories. i can be wrong too since sgdlr loves surprising us with plot twists! so feel free to express your opinion in the comments!]

Hey hey hey! I'm not sure if no one has mentioned this, but I haven't personally seen this kind of thing, so here you go just my random ideas regarding the twins.

What drives me so crazy is the fact that in chapter 81, Tsukasa says after Yashiro returns, " Nene-chan and I are the same! ". I know that Tsukasa probably said that because Nene said he liked Amane, but for some reason I want to believe that there's more to that phrase than just sympathy for Amane. For example: In chapter 15, after Tsukasa's first appearance, Hanako emotionally pins Nane to the floor, but after a couple of seconds, he gets scared and recoils, apologizing. And for some reason, it seemed to me that by pinning Nene to the floor, Hanako felt that he was in the same position that he was in when he killed Tsukasa, which is why he was so scared and depressed.

Those are two little moments that I noticed, and in fact, after that I started to think that maybe the incident and the reason for killing Tsukasa would be revealed directly through Hanako and Nene's interactions, and Idk why, but it just inspired me.

Also, before I get it out of my head. When Amane gets sick, Tsukasa turns to the monster under their house, sacrificing the beasts to get what he wants. The monster or demon, whatever, acts just like Hanako-san, and I'd venture to guess that it was the very first form of Hanako-san even before the ghosts became more human (in terms of something along the lines of the devils that were in the village in the no.6 mystery arc), but my main association was that Tsukasa also begins to adopt the trappings of the no.7 mystery. He also offers to grant Amane his wishes, just as the creature under his house offered to grant Tsukasa's wishes, and it seems to me that if Amane wasn't meant to become the no.7 mystery, then Tsukasa was originally destined to become the no.7 mystery, while Amane committing suicide inadvertently ascribed such a fate to himself? Also, Tsukasa disappeared for an indefinite period of time on Amane's birthday, so I think the fact that he's been living and raised in a circle of baddies for a while could also explain his behavior now.

That's all I wanted to say for sure now. If it was inappropriate, just ignore it, pls.

This phrase from Tsukasa is a mystery to many people. I've seen some people saying that Tsukasa compared himself to Nene because he also loved him "romantically" - when they talked a lot about the theory of the abuse that Hanako suffered from his brother. (one of the old hypotheses)

Hanako is a very emotional boy, despite not saying how he feels he shows it a lot (even against his will) and that's exactly what happened. Hanako killed Tsukasa in that position (apparently) so when Tsukasa reappeared for the first time on the roof, Amane reacted desperately, he was sweating cold, his eyes were petrified, he swallowed hard and started crying. This boy was panicking, I wanted to hear his thoughts at that moment.

He remained motionless and didn't react when Tsukasa appeared, Yashiro threw herself forward to defend Hanako, when Tsukasa left Hanako finally reacted. He didn't see Yashiro there, he saw Tsukasa. Then he pulled her hard and threw her against the ground thinking it was Tsukasa. When Yashiro talks to him, Hanako realizes that she wasn't his younger brother, so he apologizes and leaves.

Apparently, Hanako hadn't seen Tsukasa in a long time, so when he reappeared he simply panicked. He didn't expect and didn't want to meet Tsukasa again, he killed his younger brother, and what does he do when he meets him again? Attacks in the same way as the first time. The problem is that he was so shocked that he didn't react immediately, he reacted later. If he had had an instant reaction, he would have thrown Tsukasa against the ground and they probably would have spoken, although Hanako made this sudden movement, he didn't attack using the knife, he kept looking at Yashiro (imagining it to be Tsukasa) while crying.

So you're right, Hanako reacted that way thinking it was Tsukasa (this just shows us how traumatized he is, because every time he meets Tsukasa he's still in shock, even if it's not the same as the first time he finds him again) Even Kou noticed this.

So let's compare.

Interesting, isn't it? Another interesting thing about this position is that Hanako uses it frequently with Yashiro, did you notice?

If you pay attention to this scene in chapter 39, you will notice that he did the same thing

So we return to Tsukasa's phrase "we are equal" this phrase was not thrown around for nothing. I've seen some people saying that Nene would have the same ending as Tsukasa because they two are really similar. Tsukasa and Yashiro have a very similar behavior pattern in some ways, so this sentence scares me a little. What if Hanako who loved his little brother so much and killed him, did the same for the girl he loves so much? The big question is, why?

So you suspecting that interactions between Yashiro and Hanako might reveal why he killed his younger brother makes sense. The problem is that if you really follow this path, it means that Yashiro will have the same ending as Tsukasa (maybe?)

WOOOOOOOOW I LIKE THIS HYPOTHESIS SO HARD XD

What if Tsukasa was the one who was supposed to become Hanako-san? This is perfect. We don't know what the creature looks like, even if it doesn't have a human appearance, generally it should have a shape, but it seems it doesn't. That's because she was inside Tsukasa, and apparently she also lives inside Amane.

There is a bond between the three, we know that the twins were ordinary humans, and the creature beneath the house (and the abyss) is seen as a God, as it grants wishes. But let's talk about Hanako-san from the legends.

The legend of Hanako-san has several stories about how she died and how she appears when summoned. I did a little research on this, although this legend is very similar to the legend that exists here in my country (almost identical) I noticed that some things could match your theory.

Let's skip the details that you already know about Hanako-san, so they say she could have died from taking her own life, from murder, a bomb, or from being sexually abused before she died.

Taking your own life fits with Hanako-kun's story, ok, let's continue, of all the ways it can be invoked, there is one that matches your hypothesis.

"Hanako-san, after being summoned, can respond with a hoarse voice, as if she were possessed by a demon, because in fact it is not a girl, but a supernatural person who tries to deceive you with the voice of a child, and she says "I'm here" and when you open the door you are faced with a monstrous creature"

If we combine these two parts of the legend "he took his own life" and "whoever opens the door is a demon" this theory makes sense. Hanako-san is a legend that changes over the years, so I can't know for sure if this is the most popular version (because I found many, many)

And the wishes, Hanako-san doesn't grant wishes in any version. The authors are intelligent, and they wouldn't use the legend for nothing to make it easier to predict hahaha

But don't worry, JSHK is like that, you fit a piece here and realize that it doesn't fit right with other pieces of the story. Remember that we are dealing with temporal paradox so this is common.

The twins' connection with Hanako-san is mysterious. It's true that it's possible that other supernaturals could take the 7 Mysteries' place by defeating them, but no one talks about the original Hanako-san. Kou already knew that it wasn't a girl and he also doesn't say if there was another one before Amane. He is from a family of exorcists, even if he wasn't born at the time, family members would mention it, right?

So we have Hanako-san and the God under the house. Are they the same creature? It's a possibility. But if Amane took Tsukasa's place, why does the legend of Hanako-san as a girl still exist? Amane has lived with this creature since he was 4 years old, if he had become Hanako-san from the legends, it wouldn't be Hanako-san, it would be Hanako-kun. Yashiro is surprised to discover that Hanako-san is a boy, which means that the information does not match.

But calm down, don't rule out the hypothesis yet, what if God used someone else? A girl, Hanako-san, and then for some reason Amane took her place?

This is very interesting.

We don't know if Tsukasa would be Hanako-san, the only thing we know is that he was going to stay in the red house and he only came back when he found out about his tragic future, so why would he become Hanako-san? He did not intend to return.

So even if Amane stayed alive and became an adult, Tsukasa wouldn't come back. He said that, he said he knew how to go back but he didn't want to. He only came back because Kou and Nene said that Amane was going to kill him in the future.

Tsukasa was in the red house with the creature and other supernaturals for 6 months, then he returned home. (These 6 months were outside the house, we don't know how time moves inside the red house)

So Tsukasa was missing for six months after his and Amane's anniversary before deciding to return.

Hanako-san probably has a more direct connection with Amane than with Tsukasa. We don't know the relationship Amane has with the creature, your hypothesis remains valid because of this point.

What if the God is Hanako-san and Amane joined him and became Hanako-kun for some specific purpose (because he grants wishes like the creature, I mean, almost) We don't really know how Amane grants wishes, he and Tsukasa don't seem to use the same method as God. The creature magically does what you want instantly and charges a life for it.

Not the twins, they do it on their own, and there is not always the possibility of them being able to do it (even using supernatural abilities). What they ask for in return is random, meaning they don't ask for anyone's life.

You remembered Aoi, didn't you? Yashiro's wished to extend her life, that power is not in Amane's hands, but who can accomplish this? God, of course, which is why Aoi is used as a sacrifice.

It's no wonder that number 6 was doing the same ritual that he did in the village that sacrificed young girls, they sacrificed directly to God. Amane accompanied Aoi on the train, he wanted to take her to the other side since number 6 couldn't.

So Amane asked God to fulfill Yashiro's wish (it's a hypothesis)

It's very interesting to think about the possibility of the God being Hanako-san, but we still need more information to be able to better fit this theory. We know that mysteries change with rumors, so this could have happened to Hanako-san too, but don't you find it curious that the rumor about Hanako is that he is a girl and even though he has this rumor he is still a boy?

Because you know, when a rumor changes, the supernatural is forced to change, whether it's their personality or appearance. Why was it different with Hanako? Why didn't he become a girl?

It's an interesting question.

So, I think your theory is very good! I really liked it and I will remember it! For now it's difficult to fit her into the story now, but we don't know in the future! Never discard a hypothesis until it is proven to be invalid. Let's wait for more information to arrive before we can draw more conclusions.

I'm still going to evaluate your theory further, so I may develop it better in the future and talk about it again. If you find more evidence in the future, you can share it with me if you want :3

I hope you liked it, thanks for the aks!

The Dinner Table Bargain:

Two Virginians and an immigrant walk into a room…