It’s DEF the whole toxic/red flag/star crossed lovers thing. 💀💀💀 A lot of us are messed up. Than again, it depends how you write Adler x Bell as well. When did their romance/attraction start? How unethical would the different stages be for Adler to actually grow to like Bell, is it different shades of gray if it started during the torture, the brainwashing process, the successful brainwashed Bell, or after Bell finds out the truth? As you can see, all of these have different shades of gray—obviously some darker than others. Depends how dark you’re writing Adler. And how one sees Bell to be treated depending on how you write Adler.

There’s some dark fics out there(I’m guilty of reading them) where let’s face it—it’s assault and no one should go through that. (We as a fandom I hope are in an agreement that this is messed up and shouldn’t happen in real life.) Depends where the line is on an Adler x Bell fic. I prefer the ones where Bell is actually treated more as a person and less than a pet personally. I have a soft heart 🥲 But I appreciate those who can write red flag/toxic Adler so well. I like fics where you actually can’t tell if Adler is being genuine or lying. THOSE are the best.

Honestly you can do SO MUCH with these two. The possibilities are endless. 💗💗💗 They’re so malleable. Yes. You too, Adler.

Thanks for the ask!

Maybe this is just me, but it's interesting that Bell and Adler almost always contrast and complement each other in every way and this is why I find their dynamic (and ship if Adler's redeemed) to be one of my all time faves. 👉🏻👈🏻

I agree to an extent!

It really depends on how someone wishes to view Bell. Whether the Bell before the brainwashing or the Bell afterwords.

Is the Bell before that drastically different to the one after?

Because remember, Bell was an amazing soldier/agent for Perseus. Experienced in killing, linguistics, and coding despite the fact that they are young. Young to the others within the safehouse anyways. To be a successful agent means being at least having some rein on your emotions—therefore facial expressions. Of course, Bell in Agent Mode may be different to someone who knew Bell in a personal level. So there’s no way to say really.

But if Adler brainwashed Bell to be more open as an added benefit for him and the others, who’s to say? They brainwashed Bell’s desire to smoke after all. They could’ve rewired other parts of Bell’s brain to keep the perfect agent yet let them be naive and open for them so they can find the Red Door easier.

Of course, people can write the Bell Before as naive as well. Or just blindly loyal to Perseus which can be seen as naive depending how they got involved with him in the first place. A Perfect Agent when it comes to missions, but can be naive to the ones that Bell chooses to follow and the reasons as to why. And Bell is young, so yes. They can be naive. And impulsive. And reckless at times. It would fit.

Just like how maybe it does fit the reason Bell may wear a mask is because they are more expressive with their face. While the other side of the coin with Adler is that he wears shades to hide his more expressive eyes. Hiding the chance that maybe his eyes even through his shades can be seen by Bell.

He even turns his head away at one point when Bell tells Adler about the Lubyanka mission that he can count on them.

“Mmhmm”

I believe this is the only time he actually looks away from Bell before he answers. A simple hum too in fact. Can’t say because he took a drag, he’s taken drags before and he wouldn’t have to turn away to do that. Just to blow away from their face. Fully turned his head to the side too, almost to look over his shoulder to make sure Bell doesn’t see his eyes.

He really didn’t want to risk it there for some reason. Guess he felt himself have more emotion than necessary and probably chose to take a drag at that exact moment too to control his expression.

He gave such a bland answer too. 💀 “Mmhmm” like uh? Okay? Why didn’t he just say “I know, kid.” or whatever? 💀 Seems he knew it wouldn’t come off as genuine in his tone or some reason. I don’t know. When I first played it and was ignorant about everything, the bland answer did slightly hurt my feelings.💀 I don’t know about ya’ll, but that’s how I felt.

In all though, it’s truly what people think of how Bell was Before and After. And the good thing with Bell, is that you can do anything you want with them~! And it’ll fit, because well, they’re whatever we want them to be!

And whoever you want them to be, it usually matches with Adler. They’re just amazing together💗 Two sides of the same coin indeed.

This became a sort of an excited rant, I’m sorry 💀 I also found another gif where Adler nods at you so I’m kinda freaking out

No.......okay

~so is there anyone out there who wishes to be friends with me?~

The guy I was watching was talking about how the tunnels are basically like portals, and each one leads to another piece of Adler's mind. The evidence board is there, but also a lot of run down homes, indicating maybe we can see where Adler grew up?

I don't know what Galaxy Recon is, but it exists near the Vietnam set so... correlation? Maybe a cigarette company since it's right across the sign that says "No Smoking" which I think is hilarious.

We finally know Adler's from the 13th Marine Regiment. Cool!

I love the portal and red door part!

The four clocks, I can't remember if they're the times the missions were on, but they say 11:50, 12:50, 7:50, and 12:00. No idea if it's AM or PM.

Is that a Jackie Chan movie?

That's about as much as I can draw out of.

Yello!

And yup! This map is Adler’s mind—quite intricate with all the details from his past(and present). It’s a map I am still analyzing with all the details(and yes I will analyze that movie poster too 💀)

And Galaxy Recon actually has to do with the Arcade Room in his mind! That’s a whole other analysis I have to do as well with the certain arcade games within.

The whole map is basically his time in Vietnam however! Just mixing between the lab he tortured/brainwashed Bell as well as where he got tortured/brainwashed by Stitch.

There’s actually a lot of signs of No Smoking, so I don’t know if Stitch beat it out of him with the smoking like Adler did Bell.

I sadly have no idea about the clocks or their significance 😭 It probably has to do with the different time zones from the States and the one in Vietnam.

Helicopter Analysis Below