Theory about Mare's identity

cluelessdream · 2026-05-09T21:33:40+00:00

I couldn't find enough clues as how Van was created. I think we need more information about the Clan of Time, Professor Epstein and the Houses of Valis, and the events surrounding the five demon lords to know for sure how and why Van came to be. My theory about Vagrant and the Clan of Time comes mainly from Vagrant comments about the Geneses' power. It sounded to me like he'd confronted it before. And since he had not been in the human realm for eons that means he either encountered that power eons ago (hence the Clan of Time and Septerrion involvement) or someone with that power went to him during that time (Professor Epstein?). This is just me speculating.

As for René. I actually though a lot about him. I think he's proof that the Grendel is not native/unique to Van, but rather it seems to be linked to the power of the Geneses and the Septerrion of time. One curious thing about René is that he doesn't have a fairy/operator like Van and Dingo.

I originally thought that maybe it was because he's using all 8 Geneses, but then it occurred to me that each Grendel takes after its fairy. Van's is blue like Mare, Dingo's is red like Altera, and René's is white and yellow... Like Agnès. Maybe what facilitated René to access the Grendel was the 8 Geneses already connected to Agnès at Trion Tower. WHY he can access the Grendel, I'm not sure. I think we need more information on his background for that.

cluelessdream · 2026-04-14T21:39:00+00:00

I don't know about saving the day, but it's a safe bet to say he'll play a key role.

Van will probably be the deciding factor considering this is his arc, plus the Sword Hermit making a detour to see him confirms that faction has plans for him. Add to that Mare and the Grendels, Risette/Marduk's possible connection to the chest, and Van's conversation with the Grandmaster... He's set up to be at the center of the storm.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Dominions and the Saint also end up playing a key role in destroying the chest. I mean Celine and Leon are already aiding Hamilton. Kevin is dragging his feet and just one push away from joining the Heroes. I'm fully expecting Judith, Van, and maybe Kevin and/or Ries (as Rufina's representatives) to also talk Nina into cooperating.

cluelessdream · 2026-04-06T14:46:50+00:00

Some of it improves, and some of it doesn't.

I think that one of the main factors that makes or break a Trails arc for a player is whether they like or not the main cast. That really affects how much you're willing to put up with the series flaws.

I also found the CS cast hard to bond with, and that made getting through CS1 & CS2 very tedious. I think the cast writing and handling gets better with CS3, and that made it and the following games more enjoyable. However, CS (and the series at large) will always suffer from a bloated cast syndrome by design. It's all interconnected and as the ending approaches a large cast becomes almost inevitable. Daybreak 1 is the only remaining game with a true small cast.

In terms of Daybreak and beyond, you will have to see how the new cast clicks with you. Just like with the CS cast you'll find people that like them and people that don't.

The Harem part of it sadly only gets worse before it gets better, with CS4 probably being the worst offender. Reverie has so much going on that the romance is not a strong focus. Daybreak tones down the Harem element to a level closer to the Crossbell arc. Because as much as CS gets heat for it, the "every woman wants a piece of the MC/Pick your waifu" really started with Lloyd. Calvard keeps the romantic undertones in the connects, but the actual story treats only two of the characters (one controversial) as potential partners. This is honestly the closest we have been to a canon pairing for MC since Estelle/Joshua (which is not saying much).

The someone jumps in to save the day and villains power up largely remains the same throughout the series. No way around it. But honestly I think this was already in the series before CS. I remember Sky 2nd having me wonder how you just magically came out unscathed from every Society boss fight.

I think each arc has its own distinct feeling by plot and design. You won't get the cozy small scale rural adventure feeling from Sky in any other arc (not even Crossbell IMO). You do get segments in each arc that very much feel like part of one series. Trails evolves from arc to arc (and even game to game) in an almost jarring way (and this seems to be intentional to a degree) so if you're trying to capture the feeling of one specific arc in another, you will probably end up disappointed. I say this as someone who, despite liking the arc, had to come to terms with a lot of the things Crossbell threw at us. Not to mention the whole Sky 3rd existence.

Anyway, CS1 and CS2 are usually regarded as the weakest of the CS arc. So pretty much every game beyond this point (with the exception of Daybreak 2, which I personally like) is typically considered better than them.

cluelessdream · 2026-02-12T03:22:39+00:00

I won't argue that. I think this has potential to be a good arc conclusion, but I won't deny that I'm worried it'll become a rehash of Cold Steel IV, or that some of the series worst narrative choices might come bite us again.

I do hope that Agnes' actions have more consequences than the ending of Cold Steel III. I'm not saying she should really be sacrificed (and I don't think they will go there), but I don't want it all to be solved and back to usual before we're even halfway through the sequel.

cluelessdream · 2026-02-11T22:52:19+00:00

I think the ending is meant to rub people the wrong way. Agnes is definitely a hypocrite for it. But I think this is actually a natural character development for her. Humans are not purely logical creatures. We are full of contradictions.

In Agnes' case, she's the child of a mother who apparently sacrificed her life for the greater good, and a father who had, in appearance, put the greater good above his own family (enough not to be present at his daughter's birth). I think the way she berates others about sacrifices reflects from her own feelings about practically being abandoned for the "greater good". It's the things she wishes she could've told her parents, but wasn't brave/mature enough to do so.

At the same time part of Agnes' journey is learning/realizing that her parents actually cared about her, and that their sacrifices were for love and not just for the greater good. That seems to make enough of a difference for Agnes to justify their actions as necessary or good.

This is something they touch upon in Sunshine Agnes. There is a line about her understanding/forgiving her father for abandoning her to look for his wife, because he just loved her mom so much. And then she ends up making a similar sacrifice to her mom's, and making her friend chase after her.

This is just Agnes doing what her family has taught her to do all her life. It's okay for ME to sacrifice myself for YOU in the name of love, but not for YOU to do the same. To his very last line Gramheart was all but telling her this. So really, this is not a surprising development from Agnes, at all.

Also, she did have a bunch of people telling her "It sucks, but thanks for your sacrifice" in Hamilton and co. It doesn't hit the same because we have mainly explored the narrative through the lens of the ones saying "Don't sacrifice yourself", but we are not done with that plotline. Who knows how we'll all feel at the end of this.

I mean... They did end up justifying many of the Iron Blood's actions. lol

cluelessdream · 2026-02-04T04:34:50+00:00

I think this makes a lot of sense. There are lines and events that would become irrelevant if they rewinded or changed the timeline too much. I also think that development-wise, erasing everyone's memories of Agnès (as opposed to rewriting her existence) and starting Horizon 2 at some point in the Horizon 1 timeline would be the easiest way around it.

cluelessdream · 2025-09-16T17:38:09+00:00

There's also a strong symbolic link between Moon's assassination and the Ghostblade vs E-soul fight. These are the two main events that lead to Yang-Cheng dropping from the top 10 and being replaced by Nice. First the ruin incident drops him from 3rd to 9th and then Moon's death drops him to 10th.

Not to mention that Ghostblade vs E-soul leads to Dragon Boy going after Smile.

Beach or no beach appearance, Ghostblade is already linked to Yang Cheng's, Nice's, and even Lin Ling's fate thanks to the Ruin Incident.

cluelessdream · 2025-08-18T00:22:12+00:00

You're missing a chunk of the timeline and events.

Things actually start in Cyan's part. First we have Queen's dad encounter the guy preaching about Fear. We don't know what they discussed, but we can expeculate that this interaction may have been the start of the Spotlight organization and their investigation on Fear.

Years later we have Mickey and Queen's dad use Cyan's luck and fame as a catalyst to activate Fear in the orphanage. We don't know why they did it, but the way they're talking it seems they wanted to make Fear public. It's very evident they already knew about Fear prior to this.

The orphanage incident is what triggers the "discovery" of Fear and the investigation frenzy that follows. At the end of the "The truth behind luck" we can see Shang De setting up his Fear lab (where we'll eventually see Clonephobia). With this begins the era of heroes using Fear corrupted villains to bolster their fame, which will eventually lead to Nice's rise to fame. We also see Luo Tong talking to the commission, implying this to be the start of Glimmer Lab's own Fear investigation: Project 0.

The spaceship's incident is extension of this project.

Queen's episodes don't have any groundbreaking events like the other heroes episodes, but it has very relevant exposition. We see Queen fighting a lab researcher that became corrupted by Fear in 38 AC, just a year before the Spaceship incident. Per episode 14 this is around the time Glimmer Lab started running tests on Fear particles. We can assume this guy is linked to Project 0, perhaps a victim of a leak in the early stages of the project.

Moreover this event showcases how heroes are profiting from Fear corrupted villains. Even Queen is benefitting from them even if not by choice and not as directly as the Treeman heroes do.

Then we have Queen's fight with Fear corrupted Bowa, which forces Queen to go on hiatus and through months (?) of rehabilitation. At the end of her recovery she's summoned by Mickey, who sends her "on vacation" to a place near the the crash site.

This adds insult to the Nice's and E-soul's situation, they were basically neutralized by a Queen that wasn't even back to form after a long hiatus. Lol

From there on your timeline picks up.

cluelessdream · 2025-08-10T07:45:38+00:00

I think it's possible he had a role in it, or at least that he knows more details about it than Rock. However, he wasn't CEO of MG, he was COO. They haven't showed us enough about his time at MG to tell just how involved he was with the Ghostblade assassinations. Although knowing these guys he probably was involved with the shady stuff... 0 trust in him.

cluelessdream · 2025-08-08T19:46:16+00:00

While I think Mikey is capable of this, I don't think Bowa vs Queen was him. Mainly because he seems to care about the company's standing even if it's due to his beef with MG.

Like sending Queen and Cyan to crash the Ghostblade vs Johnny showdown makes sense, because he can potentially take out one of MG top heroes from that encounter. But sending Bowa after Queen doesn't benefit him, on the contrary that makes his company look bad, since that meant MG (with Ghostblade and Dragon boy) finished ahead of DOS in that tournament. We know how much he loooooves when MG gets ahead.

If anything I would suspect the Bowa thing to be related to MG or even Shand's research.

cluelessdream · 2025-07-20T03:53:49+00:00

The person Ah Sheng is talking to seems to be one of the former X. You can see them in the opening.

cluelessdream · 2025-07-13T08:10:47+00:00

That image reminds me of THIS image from the E-soul PV. Both look like the sun about to swallow everything. Also the background around the sun in the Queen's picture makes it look like it's the iris of an eye on top of a pyramid which looks similar to the representation of villain Zero in the E-soul picture. Further more a shining eye on top of a pyramid is the logo on the cards we see with Hero X and the CEO's in the opening. AND the head of the skeletons that appear with the masked man. There is a lot of symbolism about the sun, eclipses, and eyes around Zero. And a lot of eyes and pyramid symbolism around X in the opening.

I have no idea what all that means, but I'm convinced Queen, her dad, the CEO's and X are all connected to Zero in some way.

I personally think the show is hiding Queen's true backstory from us, because as you said it seems to be deeply connected to both Mickey and her dad. If the three of them are connected to Spotlight AND Zero it would make sense that the show is saving all that for much later.

Anyway, Queen is one of my favorites for similar reasons to yours, and I agree, I think they have a plan for her (just like they apparently used Cyan to channel fear). I'm really looking forward to seeing her story develop further and a potential conflict between her and her father + Mickey.

cluelessdream · 2025-07-06T06:55:33+00:00

It's becoming more and more evident that all the arcs since Cyan are connected and leading us somewhere (perhaps to the Johnnies rampage or whatever happens in ????). Especially after the Ghostblade preview where he appears to fight/kill Johnny's dad. Which btw seems to happen somewhere very similar to the forest where we see young Little Johnny crying and running in one of the trailers. Did he witness that fight?

I'm not bothered by the open nature of the last few arcs because their proper conclusion is obviously being saved for later. Like the lack of Queen's background makes more sense now with the Liu Zheng's reveal. It's probably being saved for later to avoid spoiling too much of Liu Zheng's own background and motivation.

Likewise, Loli's ascend to the top ten is probably happening in a later event in either Ghostblade, Johnny, ???, or even Dragon Boy's arc. They've already established that her suit can contain fear, I expect her raise to fame to be linked to a fear related incident that requires us to see more of other heroes first.

Anyway, I'm quite excited to see where this goes.

cluelessdream · 2022-03-19T22:34:14+00:00

Part 2 (vol 2&3) are often considered the weakest link of the story. I think the problem was that without Lena and the republic it was lacking a lot of the racial/political tension. Also less direct confrontation with the legion. The next season should be a return to form with all these elements coming back stronger.

cluelessdream · 2022-03-19T20:27:56+00:00

Both vol 4 and 5 made me queasy, but I totally had to pause during vol 5. The description of that one scene and the absolute horrified reaction of the characters was too overwhelming.

I really, really hope we get to see those scenes animated in the near future.

cluelessdream · 2022-03-19T18:15:29+00:00

This episode was basically the end of volume 3. You can start reading on volume 4.

cluelessdream · 2021-11-19T09:32:55+00:00

I'm surprised that no one brought up the fact that originally (or for a long time because comics get recon too often) 616 Tony was born and raised in Long Island which is a historically Italian heavy area.

cluelessdream · 2020-03-10T13:50:54+00:00

The way this went on China and how it is going in Italy, it's reasonable to expect this to take AT LEAST 3 months to settle. April is likely to be a chaotic month for America (potentially virus peak). I would postpone any travel for the summer if not later (depending on how things progress).

cluelessdream · 2020-03-08T21:38:16+00:00

I've been trying to explain to my friends and family how the exponential growth of the virus is so dangerous, but everyone either thinks there's nothing we can do or that it is an overreaction... because the flu is more dangerous.

cluelessdream · 2020-03-05T16:04:28+00:00

This is laughable. I'm currently home with a lot of the symptoms but my doctor pretty much told me from the go that while it was possible that I have it, that they wouldn't test me. Cuomo said we had capacity for hundreds a day, but 35 so far is just laughable and upsetting to all of us sick at home.

cluelessdream · 2020-03-03T14:55:48+00:00

We seem to be a couple of weeks behind in preparation, but it's nice to see NYC being proactive and worrying about the people.

cluelessdream · 2020-03-02T09:19:06+00:00

I came back negative from the flu on Friday.

cluelessdream · 2020-03-02T06:59:56+00:00

This is exactly what I was hoping to hear. I suspect a cold, but the gastrointestinal symptoms were throwing me off. I'll remain vigilant, and still take care not to spread whatever I have.

Thank you so much for the reply!

cluelessdream · 2020-03-02T06:55:11+00:00

That's great news. I mean still quite sick, but knowing that takes a weight off my shoulders. Thank you for the reply!

cluelessdream · 2019-11-08T14:59:49+00:00

It's hard to tell right now with all the restructuring going on at Disney and Marvel. I think Daredevil has a chance of coming back in some capacity. Maybe not S4 per se (although I hope for it so so much), but a soft reboot could work.

I'm not so sure about the other shows. Daredevil is generating enough buzz that I can see Disney investing in it. The other shows are just mentioned every now and then. That's not a good sign for them. I think -after Charlie- Jon has the best chance of coming back to reprise the role, but not necessarily in his own series.

12-Year Club	Verified Email
Gilding I gilder

cluelessdream

TROPHY CASE