Heres all the information i have gathered about the Keys their whereabouts, and their supposed archetypes to know what role in a story that they play (in Cinderella boy!)
So far we have met 6/12 of the Keys, vaguely learning about how and where the rest of these keys are, as we do not know them.
FIRST OF ALL, I’ll explain the Jungian Archetypes that i believe work for the keys for explanations further into this post, if youre unsure which are which characters are which and their names and everything I’ll explain everything below! so scroll back up for references!
Here i’ve assigned the keys into an Archetype that suits their roles in their stories!
From the Book you see how each key has a opposing key, These first two are confirmed and the other 4 are My assumptions!
1. Hero(Sun)—villain(Moon)
2. Heroine(Rose) —Villainess(Gem)
3. Lover(Heart)—Magician(Star) *assumption
4. Helper(Apple)—Rebel(Mirror) *assumption
5. Explorer(Leaf)—Ruler(Crown) *assumption
6. Jester/Fool(Bell)—Sage(Scale) *assumption
OK NOW THAT YOU’VE SEEN THIS LET ME GET INTO THE NAMES BCS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW THEM!
Back in Little Shadows, (s2 ep17) we got to see what happened to Ex libris and learnt alot about the Keys!
In this backstory sequence 4 character symbols revealed AND 2 characters are seen close up, not confirming a symbol BUT can be implied by their color and symbol
1. Unnamed blue, Star (key unseen)
2. Copper,Mirror (key unseen)
3.Patina(not confirmed in the series), Leaf (key seen in passing)
4.Ruby, Crown (seen key)
AND
5. Unnamed white, symbol is the scale (key has been seen in passing!)
6. Stripes, (grey) and im guessing the bell symbol!(key unseen)
These are the 6 keys yet to be introduced, but IN the recent episode the name “patina” has been introduced to us BUT in the s2ep17 we actually got the reveal of 3 characters names!
And since there are 12 keys total, From the rest that we know,
5. Buddy/Nox-Moon (villain)
4. Goldie-Sun (hero)
1. Silver-Rose (heroine)
3.Violet-Gem/Diamond (villainess)
2. Bronze-Apple (helper)
6. Rose-Heart (lover)
These are the Keys we are familiar with! (numbered by appearance? im not sure if this is right tbh)
Now let me talk about each key in detail, and why i believe these are the Archetypes for the new keys.
Because of the new arc thats coming we’re learning ALOT more about the keys and these characters, along with that i believe that the cast will begin to grow and we’ll be introduced to a new key or two!
Personally my predictions are a key found by another member in chase’s circle, which would be a very intetesting concept to me bcs we are YET to see his friend circle— we’ve gotten little cameos of their boices but never them in person (except later in Off Hours like you see on the cover!) I’d honestly love an addition of Chase’s friends! But anyways thats not important rn let me continue.
In this dialogue, and these panels we learn that the 12 keys were separated to two groups, Ex Libris and the Human who betrayed the group, and we SEE 5 Keys being taken by the Human, so 1 of them is a given assumption!
This tells us which members were left behind at Ex libris, (i’ve underlined the names by their color!) and with simple observations you can basically tell which ones were stolen.
Along with that we can see clearly that 5 keys are TAKEN, with Silver appearing in BOTH panels but Nox states 6 were left at Ex libris, we can assume the 6th one was taken without us seeing the key at all!
(I believe this is bcs Punko hasnt planned to introduce their character anytime soon in this season since we have heard nothing for a few of the keys!)
I’ll start with the ones left at Ex Libris
we only know that Violet and Nox are together hidden in a library of sugar springs, and Rose is at wherever the new Ex libris property is, the other 3 whereabouts are still unknown to us.
Rose, Violet, Nox are also the only characters names we are familiar with, while Stripes, Ruby and Copper are new to us! SO I’ll try to go by the order of familiarity, and state what i assume to be their respective Archetypes AND why!
1. Violet, Villainess key- (Shadow archetype)
The Villainess role can fit into many different Archetypes, which is why I believe it suits The Shadow the most, as it isn’t inherently evil, but contains negative elements; cunning, fanatic, femme fatale all suiting the role of a villainess
Violet in particular is assertive and invested in her appearance, and has a talent for fashion. She is strongly focused on getting her family back together, and evidently dislikes humans.
However for Me, Violet is a little confusing to assign..
2. Nox/Buddy-Villain key- (The Orphan archetype)
Nox stands out as a Key as he is significantly different from the others. From our knowledge The original villain key, Onyx was physically damaged and mended itself with Buddy’s human self.
Buddy himself is hard to place within these archetypes as he defies the core motivations of a villain , he is unfamiliar with his role as the villain playing the part similarly to violet, yet when he is with Violet he doesn’t act anything like a villain would typically act. And Buddy acts differently after his interactions with Chase, i believe this is bcs Chase seems to accepts Buddy whether he chooses to play that villain part or not!
Buddy believes he was chosen to fill the villain key’s place due to his past but i argue that Buddy himself is meant to be The Orphan archetype as it represents a universal theme of abandonment, loss, and the search for belonging, since Buddy desires to be accepted. He finds a family within the keys yet still desires to be human. Buddy is conflicted on where exactly he is meant to belong— therefore falling into The Orphan archetype
3. Rose-Lover key-(The Lover Archetype)
Rose’s Archetype is The Lover; embodies passion, sensuality, connection, and deep emotionality, seeking intimacy and merging with others, focusing on beauty, pleasure, and love in all forms. (this is explained to us by Wave) Rose is seen to have deep appreciation for all beings (and items!) and takes the roles of passionate, creative and empathetic characters, not JUST relationships!
Along with this, The Lover Archetypes direct opposite is The Magician, which i believe to be represented by the star, as his character seems to have a scholar/magician type of look, with a long beard and robes.
4. Stripes-Fool/Comedy key-(The Jester Archetype )
It is safe to assume stripes is the jester and has the bell symbol, thanks to Gold’s conversation with Prunella! plus their design suits their Archetype, i assumed their key is the symbol of the Bell since jesters are associated with bells.
Additionally, according to Gold, Stripes doesn’t talk, they mostly just ‘jingle’. This just further emphasizes my point of Stripes being The jester archetype, andddd we can see that he plays pranks on the Ex libris members from a panel of Nox,Bronze and Stripes in s2ep17 (yes i’m milking information from this ep!)
5. Ruby-Ruler/King Key -(The Ruler Archetype)
Due to His design and symbol, along with Gold’s description of his brother, Ruby can be assumed to be the red key we’ve seen, His design involves a crown, cape and necklace
From the whole royalty look it’s safe to assume he is The ruler archetype, though we do not have lots of information on this character yet!
6. Copper-Thief key-(The Outlaw Archetype)
Copper is a uniquely designed key; dressed like a bandit and an obscured face, his symbol is a mirror/coin and moves carefully from what we’ve seen.
Additionally Copper’s symbol, the mirror/coin opposes Bronze’s symbol, an apple. (also they’re both brown!) As Bronze’s role is The “helper” i believe his Archetype is The Caregiver, embodying loyalty and support. On the other hand The Outlaw tends to work against the norm, and express themselves differently often fighting authority or working by their own rules.
An Archetype that fundamentally opposes The Helper is The Outlaw! we can even see the design of Copper is similar to a bandits, a type of outlaws!
ALSO i did NOT know that the thief key was canon so tyvm for telling me that.. but also the possibility that it could be a coin so thank you for that!
(Heres some images of the 3 new characters Nox and Copper, Stripes and Ruby)
WOW now that we’re done with the keys supposedly AT Ex libris lets quickly recap what we know of the keys right now, beforeee we move on!
-Violet and Nox are the only keys we know of that were left behind at Ex libris, According to Nox, he was contained within the foggy container for as long as it took for the world to change.
-We don’t know how they both got out of there since they have no clue where half their family is, and they seem to be aware that there are keys still in possession at Ex libris.
-From this we can assume that Stripes, Copper and Ruby are still at Ex libris. And Rose is confirmed to being actively being used AT Ex libris, by Wave (his holder who is a college student? or graduate idr lol)
Now lets begin with the keys that were taken by the Human!
In the images we see 6 Keys in total, however Silver appears in both panels. One of them we see Silver, Bronze and Gold, All Characters we are all familiar with. On the other hand we see 2 Keys we have not been introduced to, and 1 missing key we have no clue about but it’s sorta easy to find out who it is..
First lets distinguish the new keys
1.Patina, A green key with wings and a leaf symbol, She is opposing to Ruby, the crown symbol! From what Gold says about a “little sister” who he believes would get along well with Prunella it seems to be that Patina is this little fairy like key!
2.Unknown name, this other key is a vaguely seen with the scale symbol but only one key has that white color! She seems to be an older lady and has a cane and opposes Stripes, the bell symbol
3.Unknown once again.. we have a key we havent seen at all so far in the series, besides a color and symbol we are actually yet to see his face! From zooming in alot we actually get to see a long beard and robes from this Blue Star key! (as this is the only one that hasnt been identified anywhere..)
Personally i hope Patina and Copper will be introduced soon!
Once again i’ll begin with the Characters we are familiar with and then move on to the new ones!
1. Silver-Heroine-(The Innocent archetype)
2. Bronze-Helper-(The Caregiver archetype)
3. Gold-Hero-(The Hero archetype)
4. Patina-Explorer-(The Explorer archetype)
5. Star key-Guide/Healer-(The Magician archetype)
6. White key-Mentor/Judge-(The Sage archetype)
this is getting to long omg i’ll be back 😭
