Vampiric Tendencies

another yap session with @ladysdork has me wanting to make another post about the olly knows theory.

i have a tag olly knows theory for the rest of the posts if you wanna catch up. there are honestly too many at this point lmao so if you want the TLDR: olruggio is lying to qifrey during his whole speech about trading olly's memories for qifrey. there's something off about the seal, the ink, or maybe olly wrote something down for himself. this is a stop gap because he needs to come up with a silvertree cure from scratch and he needs time.

also before we move on for anyone keeping track of my ramblings i am back to thinking olly remembers each memory wipe incident. before i thought that part of the plan was something he didn't consent to, he only consented to the first memory wipe, but @ladysdork pointed out that when qifrey's saying "you offer me the same way back" means the additional memory wipes.

so i wanted to compare the silvertree incident to the chapter 40 incident. we're viewing both through the lens that this is a performance for olruggio. which he's well used to doing. olruggio of the torch is a fake persona he's been doing since he was very small, so he can sell a performance. he's good at it even.

so basically i think the silvertree incident and the chapter 40 incident follow the same script when it comes to olruggio. qifrey explains olruggio's reactions are the same every time something like this happens.

olruggio does the same thing. every time. olruggio is known for taking the path of least resistance (see his glowstone solution for the princess. which is the chapter we read right before ch. 40 btw). and so his performance never changes because it works, it's enough. he's not reinventing the wheel. qifrey's trust in him is absolute, he takes advantage.

qifrey thinks it's olruggio's genuine nature that has him reacting the same way every time, but it's actually part of the act. these three panels from ch. 94 match up to olruggio's actions in chapter 40.

ch. 93.

chapter 40's equivalent:

the bite is coming, but he pulls it back and places blame on himself.

ch. 93:

chapter 40's equivalent: him turning away.

the next panel show's olly fully faces the other way

ch. 93

ch. 40's equivalent:

and then the last step:

ch. 93

chapter 40's equivalent:

comfort:

forgiveness:

the point of all this in chapter 40 from olruggio's perspective is he WANTS to make qifrey feel bad. olly needs to keep that tree at bay for as long as possible so he has the time to finally figure this out. so he picks his words in a way that will hurt qifrey the most. by blaming himself.

and it immediately gets a reaction out of qifrey:

olly always wants evidence before proceeding. after laying out the bait: placing blame on himself so qifrey thinks he hurt olly. he gets his prize: qifrey immediately reacting in distress. it's like when olly sees the leaves fall off the silvertree. he has evidence qifrey is upset so he starts his performance. with the same grandeur he used during the silvertree incident.

in chapter 92 this is olly:

right before olly delivers the idea that keeps the tree away from qifrey.

in chapter 40 he has the same face. eyes closed, mouth open wide:

and the next panels have olly delivering on his idea that will keep the silvertree at bay. tricking qifrey into thinking his actions have hurt olly.

olly's actually laying it on extra thick bc he's like i'm sooo busy being watchful eye and making contraptions and helping people, but that shouldn't stop qifrey from being able to come to him. he's still qifrey's good friend.

remember that olruggio knows how much qifrey hates hurting olruggio. "the truth comes out." it's one of the first things he learns when they're becoming friends.

so what does olruggio do? he hurts qifrey the best way he knows how. by making qifrey think he's hurt olruggio's feelings by not trusting him.

and this is another shot on target for olruggio, qifrey is sad again. yay.

and then look at the handshake panels right?

olruggio reaches his hand out to qifrey both when he's a kid and when he's an adult.

and i didn't clock this the first time, but the hand shake on the right on the panel below is still baby-ruggio and kidfrey. olly's poofy sleeves aren't there. i thought at first that was them starting the handshake as adults and the far left panel is them letting go, but no we're being shown that qifrey doesn't actually take olruggio's hand here. we get an awkward panel of qifrey almost shaking it.

qifrey pulls away. he can't do his special handshake with olruggio when olruggio just said no more hiding the truth. cause qifrey thinks he's hiding the silvertree truth from olly. he can't shake olly's hand knowing he's lying.

and i kinda wonder if the panels where olly's full face isn't in frame are the ones where he's just blatantly lying

and oh! the girls are here here. great opportunity to "wake up"!