Day 2: Neurons

I know, I know 😔I just couldn't help but yap about contreversial theories. /lh

Wont be the last one either more than likely seethe and cope😈/lh j

I'm still catching up with what the fandom consensus on things are so they might not be truly hot takes, but I definitely think my hunter doesn't have rot has to be up there. I'm glad my theory was insightful tho! One for sure is I really hate scavengers. On a conceptual and character level I adore them, they're very cute. In game tho? No. I've had so many good cycles ruined by them without any good reason that it's hard for me to like them at all. Their AI despite what people say, being really deep and intricate, is so inconsistent. I could do all the trading and safeguards for them to not be scared of me and like me and the second i dare to move a single pixel I get a spear to my head. Their aim is on a cheating level sometimes. I'll have them somehow manage to spear me mid jump or know exactly where I'll land, or just decide to be able to 1 shot me from the other side of the room. Probably on the lower scale but I also think the Watcher is amazing dlc so far and has to be one of my single favourite campaigns, even tho it has it's flaws for sure. And I'm sure the story when it's fully finished will be amazing. I've seen some people say Spearmasters not fun to play but they're personally one of my favourite Downpour slugcats it's super fun getting to dual wield the spears even with the no mouth restrictions. On that note I don't think Artis campaign is that bad in all honesty. The boss fight is definitely lacking but overall I don't think it's bad by any means, just a little lacking in diversity, but she only really has 1 goal can't expect too much else. I think gourmand is way worse. His quest although endearing to me is not fun at all with how he plays. I hate having to constantly stop doing anything just to be able to walk, let alone how much food you need to stock up on. I also don't see the appeal to him that much beyond 'silly round thing' which is completely valid! I just never got that attached and would skip his playthrough if you didn't need him to unlock slugpups/that karma gate.

Spoilers for Hunter / Survivor / Monk / Watcher

Just to clarify before even going into this I’ll be treating Downpour as it’s own separate universe thus not making it cannon to Vanilla. This is in no way to discredit Downpours story (I love it myself, I think it's a really powerful narrative) But considering it was not written by the Vanilla team I’d prefer looking at it as an AU for my Vanilla analysis ! This also leads me to treating Watcher more cannon than Downpour since it was written by the original team, but it will only be used to reinforce smaller points.

Now with that said despite Downpour popularizing the idea that Hunter has rot Vanilla in no way supports this. The reasoning is quite simple there's no mention of it whatsoever beyond pebbles making a remark of “We both have something... unfortunate growing in us.” which if you want to interpet as we have the same thing growing in us you could say he has the rot, but this is a sympathetic statement. Pebbles is simply (for once) empathizing with something for having a similar-ish experience that is some form of disease spreading in them respectively. But Hunter is a normal animal he is much more likely to have a normal disease like cancer / tumour. 

Where would have Hunter even gotten the rot from? By Downpour standards the rot does not survive outside of Pebbles. He also for all we know is not from anywhere near Moon / Pebbles having been sent by NSH / Pebbles not seeming to recognize him either. We’ve also never seen an example of rot taking over a creature anywhere in Vanilla, not even in Downpour (ignoring Hunter ofc) If the rot was powerful enough to infect animals already there is no reason most creatures around Pebbles should be as healthy as they are. We’ve only seen creatures be infected in the Watcher which also shows insight into what it would look like.

All rot Hunter depictions have the rot be his fur color / generally blend into his body seamlessly that we see in the Watcher would not be the case. The rot well, rots the animals it infects distorting their colours and malforming them. The inner cores glowing the colour of the rot since it is a foreign object consuming them rather than a part of that creature. Even in different regions the rot stays black with only the inner core of it changing colour. The single evidence I’ve seen of Vanilla Hunter having rot is his sleeping sprite which I’ll break down why I do not believe is rot with an anatomy breakdown.

Their body is one big banana shape with limbs attached on top of it.

Tho sometimes drawn as a ‘single toe’ we could safely say that is for simplifying the drawing process.

Why are these important?

Apologies for messy visuals. But what people interpret as a rot cyst on Hunter's back is in fact just his hind leg with some unfortunate perspective. What Hunter does when sleeping is curl their tail all the way below their chin while laying down flat on their stomach which is bound to contart their body in funny ways leaving their leg to really only do 1 of 2 things, be smushed under his tail (what Survivor and Monk does) or above his tail that he does in his prite. 

If that’s not enough we also never see hunter with any sort of cysts on his back any any other art of him. But we do see 1 other art of him have scars on his hind legs.

Considering his eye scar is depicted everywhere since it is a big part of his design (even really fainting on the last pick it’s more visible on the other ones tho) A less reliable but worth to mention thing too his eye scar is visible in every merch (again it’s his main design beyond being red) yet he has not even a scar on his back since it was uneseceary detail (one of the poster arts does have him with an x scar on his side tho without cysts as per usual) If he truly had rot I don’t see why such a huge detail would not be included in multiple sprites of him and even as a small detail on his merch (remeber they have all of spearmasters tail holes embodered / inv's sketchy eyes being kept they don't cheap out on details) So in short. We have no reason to believe normal rot we see in Vanilla can infect creatures like the sentient rot in Watcher. We also do not have real evidence of him visually having rot for the only depiction in my opinion is just confusing a sprite of his for something it is not (some of the what seems to be early art can be a little janky since they were still figuring out how to draw slugcats) We also know for a fact he is not from near Pebbles thus not having a real way of catching rot unless the sentient rot has spread in the world already.

Worthy mentions I couldn't fit neatly anywhere else: - I’m aware that in the last slide him is having his illnes disolved out of him but just before that he's simply seen swimming without anything affecting him and we do not see any growths on his back. which would've been a perfect placement to show it be removed from him. - his death sprite also doesn’t have any rot sprouting out from him which would be very important if he did have it. - This isn’t to say I don’t like the Hunter rot theory but to me it’s just a really popular fannon that got slightly out of hand to the point people think it’s fully cannon. - I also think the hunter rot theory is really cool to explain how he can have extra spears. I’ll admit I have no idea how he does that without having rot. Maybe his fur is just so thick it gets stuck in it /hj 

My next ramble might be slightly controversial but it's just my own interpretation of the story.

This is a short ramble but I've seen some people act like slucats are but simple rodents. I heavily disagree with this statement and not quite sure where it came from beyond them looking like it. Simple facts are we seem them even just in Monk's and Survivor's cutscenes to be at least emotionally intelligent enough to have families (reaffirmed in watcher) Not even mentioning downpour if you take it cannon. They have an entire communal society in downpour cannon. The only other intelligent creatures the scavengers have a lot in common with slugcats even gameplay wise. Both being in upright positions being able to use items (hold spears/throw rocks/carry pearls and deliver them) Just like scavangers slugcats can also make the connection to bring things to the iterators (debatable if as gifts or to purposefully be read off) They're also capable of understanding overseer instructions/recieve taskes once the mark of communication has been granted.

I'd like to make a quick theory breakdown because I've enjoyed thinking about the watcher. And I personally haven't seen anyone really point this out yet. Let's get started by breaking down base/downpour endings. Ofc major spoilers for both base game/downpour/the watcher. Vanilla endings: Ascention (arguably the main theme of the game) There really is no other real ending in vanilla rainworld that isn't ascension. The only other ending is by Hunter running out of cycles. Both of these endings will reward you with the final point tally and you'll start in your last shelter/restart in hunter (if you ran out of cycles)

a piece made for a friend :D @japawiw

bonus timelapse too bc i happen to record it