Thistle - Blog Posts

Thistle merch tour? :0 what's handmade? :]

my ita bag is finally finished, so i can answer this!

although the photocards are handmade, the rest of my merch has been bought off of lovely artists on etsy (please feel free to ask for the shops specifically if you'd like to support them!)

i take my ita bag with me everywhere so thistle is always with me and always loved! i take his photocard stand out to sit with me at meals too ^^

Hi there~

The way his hair is tucked behind his ear though. Thistle probably did that. I'm gonna throw up that's so sad ☹️ he wants his little brother home

overripe fruit

i dont think ppl understand that thistle is a good example of the “1000 year old kid” trope. it was used right, it makes such a good allegory to the adultification that happens with brown kids. everyone around him ASSUMED he was an adult and gave him adult responsibilities, and it backfired tremendously. but the thing is people in this fandom are so ship brained it flies past people’s heads so they do shit like ship him with an adult like laios or his brother.

he’s not a *literal* child but there is a reason why kui has deliberately drawn him several years younger than his first appearance lol. even his tallman form looks like a child, whereas short elves like fleki and otta look like adults as tallmen

remember, wrt full-blooded elf aging 80 year olds are equivalent to 16. if thistle was brought into the castle when he was 20, and delgal was 40 by the time the dungeon was made, he’d be 60 at most

Every time I revisit chapter 86 and the events right after the group talks Marcille down, I'm always struck by this bit here:

In particular, how similar it is to this:

The Winged Lion ate the same desire in both of them, more or less (I'm sure there are some nuances in both flavor and intent, but they are clearly similar things here). The Lion basically used this technique to kill Thistle, and for Marcille it was... not insignificant, but something she and her friends overcame without even fully realizing it was an obstacle.

I feel like this is another small piece of the story that shows how important support and love are - in navigating mental illness, in dealing with abuse or addiction, or in working through any other similar struggle that can be read into the Lion and his eating of desires.

It almost feels like Marcille was able to borrow the desires of her friends. She loves them and she trusts them, so even when she didn't have a desire to free herself from the Lion, the care they had for her well being still mattered to her.

It's the same thing later, with her hair.

She isn't able to notice the way her messy hair is making things harder, let alone do anything about it. But when Chilchuck points it out and then braids it back for her...

It's better. She likes it, things are easier now. Even though it isn't a desire she can feel for herself, it's not something that doesn't effect her. And because her friends care - because they know her well enough to notice the difference - she is given the chance to have a preference and to ask for their help.

We can obviously see some parallel ideas here with Mithrun and Kabru as well, but I'd also like to point out that Thistle gets this grace, too. Thistle, who had no one to help him up once he lost his will to resist, or to encourage him to find new desires once the Lion ate them all.

Thistle says he doesn't need anything, anymore...

But he is given an apology anyways.

It is not a kindness he desires. It is not a kindness he is able to ask for.

But it is a kindness that helps. It is a kindness that matters.

plays a funky tune that is so captivating and endearing that i permanently embed myself into the fabric of the kingdom

Every week now I see this and I go 😭😭😭.

you are the first person that comes to mind when i think of delgal and thistle so… the song passerine with them?? (thinking of delgal pov specifically)

Honored. Thank you. I LOOOOOVE THIS FOR THEM!

The chorus especially - it's about someone who defines and illuminates the narrator's life, but that importance doesn't stop the narrator from hurting them. If that isn't Thistle and Delgal, I don't know what is...

Cause you were the song that I'd always sing You were the light that the fire would bring But I can't shake this feeling that I was only Pushing the spear into your side again

I see Delgal during the dungeon years as someone who was crushed under a huge burden of self-imposed and unrealized guilt. According to Yaad, Delgal blamed himself for making Thistle use dark magic, and yes! He is guilty for that in a general sense, but Thistle had already been researching the dungeon before the pivotal moment when Delgal's begging made him decide to take the plunge. Guilt about that one moment doesn't address the root of the issue which is that Thistle's treatment by the Melini family, starting with Delgal's father acquiring him on a whim like a christmas puppy, turned Thistle into someone so wholly devoted & bereft of identity outside of them that he would do literally anything for his chosen family.

Did Delgal ever realize the scope of what they'd done to Thistle? Did he just take it for granted until suddenly Thistle wasn't doing exactly what Delgal wanted anymore and he had to start re-evaluating his relationship to Thistle? "I can't shake this feeling that I was only pushing the spear into your side again."

When he comes a knocking at my door What am I to do, What am I to do, oh lord When the cold wind rolls in form the north What am I to do, What am I to do, oh lord

made a few dungeon meshi photocards, having a lot of fun just putting mithrun in situations

yaad keeping thistle around like one of those crusty old chihuahuas that has every health issue known to man but won't die

Today’s Thistle is: angy piggyback….

thistle portrait keychain ft. thistle beer

plus the various other thistle ideas,,

⚠️DUNGEON MESHI MANGA SPOILERS

The demon

Song: LUNCH by Billie Eilish

Thistle I love u thistle

FAMILICIDE

based off an idea i've had for a few months but didn't feel skilled enough to depict until now - what if delgal had a delayed reaction to thistle essentially killing his son? what would that look like?

also, when he's saying "forgive me" at the end, those words are for both thistle and eodio.

//DUNGEON MESHI SPOILERS, chapter 55 (and a few thistle panels, no dialogue just art)

thistles expression..his eyes..aaghh

this brief second where we see thistles eyes clear up, aagh,, a bit ago i saw somebody talk about how different he looks compared to scenes from when he first became the lord of the dungeon just makes me very sad

the way he really did just try his best for the ones he cared about the most aahhh...

the mad magician

is wet&wild liquid eyeliner part of the male dungeongoer starter kit or something

i don't blame anyone for not knowing that Thistle was Literally Trafficked and that Freinag's advisors bought him and presented him as a gift because Freinag threw a baby tantrum because he wanted an elven servant as a living conversation piece, and that from the very beginning Thistle's purpose in the Melini court was "cute exotic pet for Freinag to show off"

because it's all in supplemental material. because the only person in the comic who knows this for sure is Thistle.

we can't completely assume that what Yaad tells Laios and co is 100% of what he's been told by Delgal, and that he isn't leaving things out or massaging the story into a convenient shape to position Thistle as an antagonist who must be stopped, because he's certainly canny enough to do that

but i think we can pretty comfortably imagine that it could be everything Yaad knows, and that if it's not, it's still probably pretty close to the story Delgal has told him. and it's fairly clear that Delgal has presented things in a certain light, characterized Thistle in a certain way, and from there we have to wonder: how much of that is on purpose?

certainly some of it is, because Delgal is very avoidant and the actual truth of the matter is that he shares a significant portion of the blame here, but all of it? i could very easily see Delgal not knowing that his father bought and owns Thistle. from his perspective, Thistle's just been there since before he was born and was a constant and loving companion - and confidante and caretaker - throughout his life.

so if Delgal doesn't know, then how could Yaad? and how could anyone else know if Thistle isn't going to tell them, and why would he?

the comic about how Thistle came to court and the elf cake comic are, i think, two of the most crucial pieces to understanding Thistle, because when you take them together, what you get is:

Thistle was abandoned at birth. between his birth and when Freinag's advisors bought him, someone raised him, fed him, clothed him, taught him to speak, and taught him how to play a couple of instruments well enough that he could entertain a king. whoever did that then - after twenty-odd years of being the closest thing he had to a family following the separation from his birth parent, something which he wouldn't be able to consciously remember but which would nonetheless have left him with a visceral and entirely subconscious belief that He Can Be Abandoned At Any Time And If That Happens He Will Die, because that's what happens to babies that are left alone - sold him.

so by the time he was the human equivalent of 5 or 6, he'd been taught that nothing is permanent, no one loves him enough to keep him, he will be abandoned, and that ultimately he is both a commodity and a curiosity, and any hope of having a home or being cared for depends on pleasing whoever owns him.

to make matters worse, Freinag didn't even like him at first. he scowled and sulked and the advisors, over Thistle's head, told Freinag that they needed to make sure he was harmless, that he was a perfectly impressive status symbol, and to just make sure he didn't get too attached. and Freinag proceeded to sulk for at least a couple of days (two different outfits on Thistle) before deciding he liked him.

Thistle didn't even have a name when he was bought. what did he spend the last 20-odd years of his life being called? how long did it take for Freinag to warm up enough to give him the cat-you-found-in-a-dumpster-ass name he ended up giving him?

no fucking wonder he latched onto the Melinis as hard as he did. no wonder he was so obsessively devoted to Delgal, the closest thing he had to a friend or someone who treated him as an equal. he was abandoned, bought and sold as a status symbol, told quite explicitly that he would only be tolerated as long as he was harmless and entertaining, and loved like a pet until Freinag had a real son.

no wonder he was so eager to prove himself. no wonder he would have done anything Delgal said. no wonder that he rewrote reality itself to try to keep Delgal safe and happy. no wonder he's so scared all the time - he has to have been scared his whole life, desperate to belong and horribly aware of just how easily he could be discarded, starving for love to fill the gaping primal wound in him from the kind of abandonment he experienced.

no wonder his idea of love is to keep people smothered and trapped, like birds in a cage. that's the only kind of love anyone ever showed him.

//DUNGEON MESHI SPOILERS, chapter 71

this scene!! it makes me very surprised that i havent seen it talked about yet, backpack thistle is so fun but what about laios sharing facts to thistle???

i think the fact that thistles way of thinking and decision making is similar to the one of a child is such an important part of his character and this scene just shows that off so well, he really just wanted to be able to be with everyone and have all of them be happy and healthy so he tried his very best to do exactly that,

deciding to just seal everyone up is, like i said, a solution that shows off his childishness, if you dont leave the dungeon you wont be harmed, so why not just close the exit?

in this scene it still shows that, he still just thinks that way and is interested in what laios is sharing because, well, interesting facts, but also its useful information to better the dungeon

i really love how laios chose to reason with thistle and explain how his actions are causing pain to the ones hes trying to protect and this isnt exactly resulting in what he hoped for but instead just making everyone miserable and thistle takes the time to understand and think of another solution

buuut,, well, doesnt go as planned, but again this just even further shows that thistle just very much has the mindset similar to one of a childs, taking the most direct and somewhat rash approach for a solution,

this is all over the place but i really just wanted to share this scene since it stood out a lot to me and is so far my favorite; ive seen a lot of people dislike him for his actions but really i just think that with his childishness (or rather age? he would be older than marcille but to me very much acts like a teenager at the oldest,,) combined with his desire and the whole situation,, i really just,, aahhhhh, i really like thistles character

Part of why I’m so defensive of the name Thistle is that I just think it fits him so perfectly and has some really interesting meaning you can assign to it outside of it just being his eye color.

Where I come from, thistles are considered a nuisance species. They have massive taproots that burrow deep underground, so once one pops up in your garden or yard you’re going to have a hell of a time removing it. The scotch thistle, like above, is considered invasive and listed as a noxious weed, and though there are many native thistle species they all tend to get lumped together by the average person.

And yet, thistles are incredibly important to their local ecosystem. They provide food and shelter for many species, especially pollinators, and are hardy survivalists. In some places they’re seen very favorably, such as being the symbol of Scotland. Their prickly nature means that few people are likely to mess with them, which makes them an effective symbol of resilience and protection.

But, despite this, to many they are just weeds. A nuisance, to be tolerated at best and exterminated with little prejudice if the wrong kind is in the wrong place to the point that it draws attention. Despite the fact that ultimately it is us humans who brought them to these new locations. I think there is no malice in simply trying to be alive.

Sweet dreams

has ryoko kui ever drawn Thistle in modern clothing?

Here's the ones I remember from the daydream hour, not many!

these two have the hardest most unbreakable grip on me.. a little exclamation mark appears inside my head and i react like how a dog does when it hears the word treat

hey does this make sense? am i reaching?

Today’s Thistle is: Combin’ out his hair

i just noticed this in the opening oh my GOD

in due time.