#ever red

So to recap, in the second part of episode two, we learned about the Illusory SEEDS and Merold's true intentions, how while those stories that were told about Merold and his abilities were indeed a lie, he is still the strongest, not in terms of physical strength, but rather in terms of how he carries himself, his words, his wits his smarts. And it indeed worked because My Melody's kingdom grew to be one of the strongest within the Red Continent.

This is what chivalry means to him, what made him want to become a knight; do whatever he can to protect the ones who are dear to him despite having him to "Tell as many lies and use as many underhanded tricks as I need to. Go ahead and call me a fraud. That means nothing of me. Not if it means I can keep Melody and her kingdom out of danger with these unworthy hands of mine.". Sounds familiar?

Quote from Your Melody: "It's okay to deceive with an outright lie... because within it lingers a quiet love." — "If I were to stain your smile, then I would do away with this heart of mine." — "Even with this fragile heart, above all else, you are my dearest. (Tell me, tell me why.) These overwhelming feelings are a MELODY for you. (Tell me, tell me why.)"

Merold knows that what he's doing isn't the best, even going out to admit they were merely "lies" and "underhanded tricks", and that they would bring disdain, fear and anxiety across the world of Fragaria, but he doesn't care because he's doing all of this to protect Melody. That, and he's already too far within his own illusion.

You see, Merold and the SEEDS aren't too different, really.

Quote from episode 2, part 1 (Merold): "These SEEDS and the oh-so-terrible "greatest knight" might just have something in common."

Besides, have you noticed that both MELODY (representing Merold) and SEEDS are both in all caps?

This is because they have similar forms of attack; by spreading fear and anxiety through lies or "illusions". The SEEDS' lie being their illusions to cause harm, and Merold's lie being his facade to protect the ones who are dear to him.

You see, this is actually not the first time we talked about the SEEDS and illusions all in the same sentence, or, paragraph rather.

In all of my theories, me and my friend concluded that the SEEDS take on various forms to create illusions to trap the knights. (The ribbons in Ever Red. The mansion in Your Melody. And the neon lights in Charcoal White.)

We figured that if the SEEDS can take into various forms to create illusions, it'll be easier to lure the knights in unnoticed, especially when the forms they take are what the knights' wants, but always at a cost.

In Ever Red, the ribbons tie everyone together — symbolizing Hallritt's want for all of them to come and work together as one, in exchange, he's being held back, tied down, pulled into the abyss of those fragmented memories as if he's being tied on a leash. And is now stuck in this loop of anxious torment. — They overpower the knights.

In Your Melody, the mansion is beautiful, peaceful, safe — symbolizing Merold's want for a peaceful life, one where he can keep everyone who he holds dear safe. In exchange, he became so fixated on this illusion that he cannot see any other way other than this. He knows that this is safe, he knows that he can protect them like this, but in the long run he will fail. — They overpower the meadow, the knights.

In Charcoal White, the neon lights are the ones that "paint the city" — symbolizing Chaco's want to be seen, but in return, he lost sight of who he truly is, now struggling with the fact whether or not he is authentic. Is he true self even "true"? — They over power the graffiti, the knights.

Now, "Seeds correlating to missing cases where they can make people disappear aligns with anxiety. Our first perception of seeds were that they're anxiety. It aligns because when you're anxious, you'd just want the ground to swallow you whole and disappear forever, hence the missing cases? I'm thinking that when someone is anxious caused by the seeds, it would soon consume them and then they'll "disappear"." — @c h a m a l a m.

"I'd like to think of these as different stages. Stage/act I: Anxiety. Stage/act II: Vanish. I could say that there'd be a third stage/act because it could fit well with the Fragaria 3: bouquets and timelines." — @c h a m a l a m.

So you see here, like what my best friend said said, it aligns because when you're anxious, you'd just want the ground to swallow you whole and disappear, that is what Merold thought of and incorporated when he lied about being the "strongest knight", to cause fear and make people think twice about making an enemy of him.

But this is where he will meet his downfall because I believe his plan would backfire. Going with the Your Melody theme, we have this line:

Quote: "The signals from our talks that made my heart flutter... are now sinking down my ordinary wish to the bottom"

Back then, I wrote how this "ordinary wish" of his is the want to continue living this "peaceful life because this is where it is "safe", but the more Hallritt protests, the more they talk.. he slowly began to realize just how this can be incredibly crucial to the story, that's why he began listening to Hallritt.

Now, have you guys realized that during Merold's little speech about what chivalry means to him and the mirror scene from Your Melody resembles each other?

Well, I believe this is because this is where he began sinking and got sucked into the broken mirror, where he began to lose the important parts of himself for the sake of protecting Melody. His actions were a double edge sword, causing anxiety and fear to bring peace and security.

This is also why Hallritt was serious–looking in the album cover and during the majority of the mv. He didn't like how he was told he was unfitting for a knight, how, when he asked Merold about the fault in wanting to be idealistic, he was told "All I'm hearing is 'let's work together' this, 'let's learn from Red Bouquet' that, 'I want to be this kind of knight'... It's all about you and your ideals. But for all your pretty words, in reality you were fooled by a single SEEDS and you achieved nothing.".

He became tense and distant towards Merold because he still sees Merold as a fraud and he even declares how he hated people like Merold, he even attempted to fight him a couple of times already. Hallritt's purity and innocence mixed in with the love and passion he's feeling has caused the predicament they were once and currently in.

All this negative energy won't do them any good, especially if they want to go against the SEEDS who literally thrives off of negativity. So, what should they do? SUMMON THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP, BECAUSE FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC. (jk).

In my Charcoal White post, me and my bestfriend theorized how in the song, they realized that going in headfirst while desperately trying to eliminate every single SEED they encounter wouldn't work, so what they did is take a strategic form of attack and will infiltrate the SEEDS at it's source. And it seems like we was right because that was what Merold and Romarriche did in the episode.