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fullscoreshenanigans · 4 months

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If I were greedy…

I spend a disproportionate amount of time appreciating the addition of these four simple words to the "I really wanted to develop these myself…" line in the manga side scene with how much insight they provide the audience into Ray's mindset during this arc.

Greedy people don't pull off successful escapes. Greedy people risk getting their friends killed. Greedy people end up losing everything.

(Chapter 181.1 | Chapter 4)

It's a layered message to Isabella as well.

You've known what I've wanted for a long time now. None of those three things have changed. You don't have to worry about me betraying you.

The way he looks at her when he says it, too; tries to make himself both nonthreatening to not invoke her ire or suspicion, yet aware enough to convey he can still competently complete his side of their agreement (along with a bit of pettiness, wanting to believe he has more control of the situation and not wanting to let it seem like she can pull a fast one on him. Knowing what's to come in less than 48 hours is heartbreaking), all while having the most subtle sad and tired tinge to his eyes and subdued grin to mask it.

(Because what if things were different for the two of them. For all of them.)

He already believes he's asking for so much, and yet…

(Chapter 181.1 | Chapter 93)

They're worth it.

#The Promised Neverland #Yakusoku no Neverland #TPN #FSS Chatter #TPN S1 #TPN S1e07 #TPN Ray #Ray #Isabella #Norrayemma #Noremray #Full Score Trio #Emma #Norman #Isabella and Ray's Incredibly Fraught and Complicated Relationship Tag #TPN 181.1 #TPN 004 #TPN 093 #Pre-Canon #Introduction Arc #Escape Arc #Goldy Pond Battle Arc #just scrolling through all my drafts here waiting for food to cook like #god i might be tempted to make a REN moodboard edit with him and that caption in the center surrounded by Emma and Norman panels #just need one of him where you can't see his eyes but he's got a tiny smile on or smth #child thinking he's greedy for loving his friends and wanting them to survive a dystopic hell world m'boy's got all the issues 🖤🖤#but that fierce determination and loyalty to see this through #is what makes him being able to grow and see beyond said mindset all the more rewarding and endearing

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fullscoreshenanigans · 2 months

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hello, i was late to the fandom so i might have missed out on this discourse but do we ever find out the real content of Ray's letter to Isabella? Is it something of a plot point the author hasn't developed in canon? If so, what would the plot be you think? Thank you so much!!

Same hat, anon 😎🤝😎 (coming up on my third anniversary of first discovering the series just this month)

Shirai has never officially, explicitly stated in an interview what's in the letter Ray writes in chapter 22/S1 episode 7, but I've talked about this before and personally find it funny how he made a big deal out of the mystery surrounding it back in a 2019 Jump interview (translated here):

When I feel most people’s first guess as to what was in it after the escape arc concluded was eventually confirmed in December 2020 with the release of chapter 181.3:

A farewell letter from a son to his mother that reveals their biological connection when headquarters purposely kept it a secret.

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 2)

It's meant to be such a huge revelation it stops Krone in her tracks and deters her from digging around in Ray's room further to discover the rewards he's been receiving for six years and the lighter fluid he's been stockpiling for five.

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 1 Q& A | Chapter 22; Krone evens whips out records she brought along in her suitcase from headquarters to corroborate what she's read.)

I've also talked before about how Ray's retaliation was threefold in its pettiness, and this letter falls into points 2 & 3. After years of bottling up his anger and resentment toward her, he wanted to incriminate her by implicating she at very least knew about the escape, potentially that she even helped with it, all because she knew of their biological connection and wanted him to survive (the same thing he wished she would have said to him back on his sixth birthday at the gate):

(Chapter 181.1)

He found it sickening how she could choose to prolong her own life by sacrificing all his siblings over the course of her tenure at Grace Field. With this, he thought he would seal her death at the hands of the demons she groveled before like a dog, while he would die on his own terms as a human.

(Chapter 14)

What he didn't count on was Isabella's prioritizing results over rules was something that was enabled by her mother, to the point they were willing to remove Krone from plant no.3 altogether.

(Chapter 23 | Chapter 181.3)

Ray assumed Krone did not have the means to contact headquarters like Isabella did, so she would keep the bait and bide her time until presented with the opportunity to reveal it to someone higher in the chain of command. Ray assumed Krone would still be at Grace Field at the time of the escape, and that after he was dead and the four other oldest kids were gone and headquarters was looking for an explanation for how a blunder of this magnitude could have possibly happened, Krone would show her hand to usurp Isabella's position.

It's why he's so caught off-guard when Isabella reveals she made a move first.

(Chapter 24)

As for why Shirai gave conflicting information about this, I'm assuming he wanted to leave the door open for multiple possibilities before his health tanked and he began aggressively cutting off story branches so he could still complete the series under his own power and maintain his sense of artistic integrity.

(October 2020 Series Completion Interview)

And that's how we arrive at the contents of the letter being what a lot of fans suspected from the jump.

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fullscoreshenanigans · 8 months

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Imagine if Krone had mocking Isabella's fate during his discussion with Emma and Norman?

Like telling them that ALL the sisters have to had children, the only difference is that the ones becoming mama (like Isabella) can have only one

(i headcanon that the Sisters in the Headquarter have generally maybe two or three kids, maybe more for some… …considering that there are 5 houses at Grace Field …and 1 child shipped every 2 months by house. It mean 6 by house every year. So the whole Grace Field facility ship more or less 30 children by year. …so yeah i really think that some sisters have to had more than one child, especially considering how the Sisters Formation is hard and that not a lot sucess)

And then Krone would mocking Isabella like "Her child must be almost 12 now…hum if they have not been shipped yet, they'll be very soon, i wonder how she felt about it, not knowing her baby's fate since six years." in a kind of "lol"

(also because her own child is probably too young to be shipped since she is only 26 and so her child can only be younger than 6. She thinks that, unlike Isabella, SHE is sure that her child is alive)

Norman would maybe feel some little sympathy for Isabella, even if feeling stil betrayed and angry toward her. And he wouldn't like that Krone finds hilarous the idea of Isabella not knowing her child's fate.

Emma would wonder how a mother can do that. And wouldn't like that Krone finds that funny too.

Krone would be like "you really think we have the choice? that's cute" because a part of her doesn't like the way Emma judge her. Like she would say to her that it's easy to judge when she has not been at her place.

And later, Norman and Emma speak about it with Ray and is internally panicking. He's also kinda pissed that Krone finds that funny and hopes that Isabella suffers because of it. How petty this woman is to hope that? (for real, a part of him also hope that Isabella suffers at the idea to ship him because a part of him hope that she loves him but he's kinda in denial about it)

I wonder if Krone's child is at Grace Firld. what if it's Chamberlain?

Isabella is an anomaly when it comes to Moms in that she's the youngest one to ever be selected in the history of at least the current incarnation of Grace Field that's been around for roughly 400 years.

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 1 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 181.2 | Chapter 181.3)

Her excellent test scores at the farm and later at headquarters combined with favoritism from Sarah led to her placement being expedited. With there being an extremely limited number of Mom positions, most Sisters (because they're all Sisters first, Isabella being the exception and not the rule) are left waiting for years, and this is what results in them having multiple children if they don't retrain for another path, not that Moms are limited to having a single child. If anything, you'd think they'd want more children bred from those who reach that position, so the time spent waiting for spots to open up would be beneficial for the demons. Sarah had enough sway to persuade those in charge to get a recent graduate of the Sister training in there, though, so Isabella was able to skip to the front of the wait list.

I'm not entirely sure what Krone would gain from mocking Isabella in this manner? There's the melodrama for the readers who are aware of her connection with Ray and then later seeing his reaction to it, but it seems counterproductive in how it not only generates sympathy for Isabella when Krone wants the children on her side, but also, and the more important reason, it's being done at the expense of an innocent child. She's openly reveling in the demise of a child for the perceived harm it does to Isabella and her reputation. The being petty part in itself is fine and serves as commentary on infighting being used by oppressors as a means to prevent class solidarity and systemic change, but it seems like a disservice to Krone's character that she'd indulge in it in front of the people she's trying to form an alliance with when she knows her being a Sister and what that says about her is already upsetting to them.

(Chapter 20)

And then on the meta front, it would be too direct in hinting at the Isabella-Ray connection with how forward it is in reminding the audience Isabella was required to have a child to become a Mom instead of leaving it as a thread lingering in the background.

(Chapter 31)

Isabella talks with Emma about becoming a Mom after having a child in what is one of the most harrowing moments of the series for me (the way she so calmly and casually tells this eleven-year-old to submit to systemic medical rape, to surrender her child to the same system and perpetuate the cycle of cruelty and violence, because she genuinely believes it's the best path for her, wrecks me on so many levels), and the imagery of a pregnant Isabella is there for the reader, but she never explicitly mentions her own biological child. The in-universe reasons for why are up for debate, but the meta one is to not be any more obvious about her connection to Ray than what's already been implied with the lullaby, their shared physical traits, and the spy arrangement.

It is interesting how Krone never spares a thought for her child during all the time the reader has with her, but that might be a nod to the compartmentalizing all Sisters and Moms do in order to avoid cognitive dissonance.

Definitely agree about the conflicting feelings Ray has toward Isabella and the self-loathing he holds for caring when he knows logically nothing good can come of it.

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fullscoreshenanigans · 2 years

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Forever obsessed with and contemplating what’s going through their heads during this scene in S1e07. My go-to example for what I mentioned in my previous post about Isabella repeatedly oscillating between a tainted affection and deep loathing for Ray.

Any time she would find herself falling into the former, forgetting the circumstances of their relationship, him being the living, breathing reminder of one of the worst things HQ forced her to endure would resurface and how they chose to put him in her plant as if to silently mock her and unknowingly rub in how pitiful the life of a Mom would always be under this system. To openly love him would be one step further in giving in than she’d already done by accepting the Mom position and loving all the other cattle children she raised for slaughter, and she hated to give that much more of herself than she already had when she wasn’t aware of his origins.

It’s debatable how much of this is feigned interest on Ray’s part to throw her off to his true intentions, but based on his history of disassembling machines (per Shirai in the Mystic Code Book) and because I like to think both of them let their masks slip here, I’m going with this being a few brief seconds of genuine curiosity and delight at his final reward, all while Isabella observes with a neutral expression before breaking her gaze and turning away. One of what I imagine to be many twinges of authentic motherly affection and pride she experienced over the near six years she knew of his parentage, but it ends just as quickly as it began as she instantly dons the cool and collected yet deceptively guarded façade she began cultivating when she was in her teens.

As soon as Ray leaves, she lets the mask slip again (though not fully; that’s reserved for when she first learns of their connection, for when she discovers Ray and Emma are still alive after the house is in flames, and in the anime for when she confronts Emma on the wall; she’s still trying to maintain some semblance of composure. Even if her only audience is herself, there’s some pretenses she refuses to break under normal circumstances), tensing and drawing her arms ever so slightly closer to herself in ire and disdain as the shot hones in on the photograph he left behind with a foreboding musical accompaniment.

A second after she lays her hand upon it, we’re treated to the first of twelve tocks from the clock signaling that it’s midnight on November 2nd, 2045, but only the first one is heard on the final portion of this shot before transitioning to the chimes of the hallway clock that Ray looks at (an excellent directorial touch).

It’s really interesting considering what they chose to expand upon and omit from this side scene at the end of Ch22.

What I choose to view as their initial mask slippage isn’t there, and Ray looks decidedly more languid and nonchalant as it’s more sketchy in nature and Demizu was at this point still in the dark as to his ultimate fate, but it does include Isabella flipping over the photograph because she doesn’t want to confront how much she’s changed and yet how much has stayed the same at plant #3 since she took over, can’t bear to think of what she’s become and what her eleven-year-old self would think of her now, or perhaps it’s that and specifically because it was Ray who left it for her that rubs the salt even further into the wound. A reminder of why she never gave into those maternal feelings after the reveal and why she cannot give in now when she’s so close to shipping him out maturely as far as his records are concerned (I assume his actual birthday is in December or February and January was selected to throw Isabella off enough if she did begin to suspect something on her own, but maybe it was late November, who knows besides Shirai.)

“Where has the time gone, and what will I do with him no longer at my side...?” The comfort of the familiar, the security that came from having a spy among the children, and the many aforementioned twinges of affection, she might even miss him.

vs “finally, finally I will no longer be burdened with this painful reminder; I have endured, and I have come out the victor.” With Norman gone and not viewing Emma by herself as a threat, especially when she saw herself in Emma at that age, filled with despair upon realizing the true nature of Grace Field and feeling utterly alone in the world, Ray was probably always the final hurdle in her mind to obtaining her deluded vision of freedom within the confines of the farm system; the question never coming down to trying to save her son from his fate, but how upset she should feel about his inevitable demise.

#The Promised Neverland #Yakusoku no Neverland #TPN #TPN Isabella #TPN Ray #YnN Isabella #YnN Ray #Isabella 73584 #Ray 81194 #TPN S1 #TPN S1e07 #Escape Arc #Isabella #Ray #Isabella and Ray's Incredibly Fraught and Complicated Relationship Tag #Photographer Ray Tag #FSS Chatter #Video #me the first time i watched this scene as someone introduced to the series through the anime: ooo what mystery and intrigue is going on here #me every single subsequent time i rewatch it‚ internally crying: i am in pain. i am in muted physical agony.#debated sticking this on the tail end of my previous post but i wanted to include the dub clip because Laura Stahl sounds adorable #the balance of keeping it externally cool so your six-year plan isn't thrown awry #while internally resenting the woman before you who brought you into this nightmare and sacrificed dozens of children #and repeatedly berating yourself for still craving her affection #Isabella is such a complicated character that I feel placing her firmly on either end of the extremes is disingenuous #though with the route the manga took it I also feel people are more inclined to absolve her of many of her heinous actions #because the Grace Field kids (conveniently) do too #me living in my Isabella replaces Andrew AU that S2e04 gave me brainworms over #as a quick means to facilitate all the GF escapees to talk about their shared trauma regarding this woman #and finagling Ray's parentage reveal in there too because extremely self-indulgent ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

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fullscoreshenanigans · 1 year

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WHERE are you reading the light novels ohmigoodness

In addition to sound dramas and links I mentioned in this post, @1000sunnygo has graciously compiled what I believe is the most extensive master list of TPN material in the English-speaking fandom: https://1000sunnygo.blogspot.com/2021/10/the-promised-neverland-masterlist.html

Love the symmetry of these covers.

I already touched on what can be found in A Letter from Norman, and Sunny already outlined what can be found in the fourth one, so I’ll just briefly go over the second and even more briefly touch on the third since I haven’t read it in its entirety yet. (gotta savor the content 👌😩)

☆ The second light novel, Moms’ Song of Remembrance, released in January 2019, is split into two stories:

1. “The Starry Sky and Leslie’s List” (translated by c72684 here)

Isabella remembers helping Leslie with a list of goals he set out to accomplish before leaving Grace Field two days before he’s shipped out. It’s book-ended by segments set on January 15, 2046, where Isabella briefly chats with Phil, reflects on her relationship with Ray, and finds new purpose now that her children have proven she was wrong about escape being impossible.

(It’s roughly 52 pages in Word at 12 point Times New Roman font single spaced if one is wondering about the time commitment.)

2. “Searching for the Skies of Freedom” (translated by @standreamy and 14thNeah; many thanks!) (It’s roughly 64 pages in Word using the aforementioned standard)

This was eventually turned into chapter 181.2 that features Krone during her first month of training to be a sister candidate where she reunites with her elder sister Cecile. The gist of the story is kept the same, however, the novel also:

Confirms sister candidates have the electronic chip surgery the day they arrive at HQ.

Expands upon the training sister candidates go through, specifically incorporating scenes of self-defense training and one on medical training. It’s also noted that cooking is not a priority for sisters during their first regiment of training; that’s only if they retrain to become one of the kitchen staff, which is one path of retraining they can take in the event they can’t secure a sister position at one of the plants. Others are teachers, child caretakers, and doctors/surgeons. (The better to keep them stratified and make it more difficult to fight the system.)

Has more scenes between Krone and Cecile.

Briefly looks into Grandma’s thoughts during the panel where she holds the embroidery with the map of HQ on it as a trophy.

Briefly features the scene in chapter 23/S1e07 where Smee gives Krone the Minerva pen.

☆ The third light novel, Records of Comrades, released in October 2020, is split into a prologue and three stories:

1. “Two Paths”: A story about Yugo and Lucas’ time at Glory Bell. 2. “Two Wills”: The story of Nigel and Gillian’s first few days at Goldy Pond. Nigel’s sister, Lala, and Gillian’s sister, Emilia, who are both briefly shown in chapter 77 are featured in here.

3. “Two Destinies”: The story of how Sonju and Mujika first met. Legravalima, Leuvis, and Yverk also appear in here.

(The document I have is 133 pages in Word at 14 point Verdana font single spaced.)

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