#lewis shadow

What do you mean by that Lewis? It doesn't seem to be a different title since Louise questions it and he uses the great grandfather's actual name in the same sentence. Is shadows house going to become a cosmic horror series?

~Day 9~

( I actually sent those questions few days ago, but it seems like you haven’t received them yet, so I decided to send them again. If you have already received them but still haven’t been able to answer them, yet then… I sincerely do apologize for spaming )

hi! i actually did get your other ask, it just takes me a while to answer sometimes 😭 these last weeks i've had a lot to deal with in general, but dw you're not spamming. i don't have a lot of headcanons about the adults (or headcanons in general), though i CAN talk to you about the reverse unified lewis theory!

i first came up with the theory right after lewis was first introduced. there's a scene where thomas comments on how quickly lewis was able to catch up on facial expressions after having just become an adult, since shadows usually leave those to their living dolls, and edward and co have been adults for a while and their faces are still kinda stiff. this is evidence #1 and yes, this offhand comment was enough for me to come up with a whole theory that lewis is in fact a reverse unified living doll. though in my defense why else would they include that dialogue

evidence #2 (though this is a bit more shaky) arrived when it was revealed that lewis was working with anthony all along. now, as influent as christopher was, and still is, anthony is still human. if lewis is a shadow, anthony would be a faceless doll that isn't even supposed to speak in the first place trying to use christopher's memory to convince him that a system that completely benefits him is wrong. if lewis is human, anthony would be a fellow living doll, somebody he probably talked to before christopher was invited, showing up to save him from the monsters that want to kill him. we've seen that work on maggie before. the reverse unification part of the theory also fits well into this, it would make a lot of sense for lewis to fall into this insane level of devotion if anthony literally saved his life in unification, perhaps showing up midway through the process like lewis himself did with lou and louise

which leads us to evidence #3! before louise gets her monster transformation, lewis word by word tells her that the shadow that was invited with him died in unification, and that he doesn't want that to happen to her. you can certainly read this as "lewis and his living doll were invited together with another, unrelated pair, that failed unification" but, judging by the reactions i've seen, i certainly wasn't the only one to interpret it as the most solid piece of evidence towards reverse unification so far!

oddly enough, if we ever get a reveal that one of the adult characters is a product of "reverse unification" (the living doll survived unification while the shadow died, a popular fan theory), i feel like it will NOT be anthony

if that were to be revealed, i feel like they would have shown it right after he killed maggie, but they didn't, so if they go with this twist now, post chapter 164, it would be too obvious. it's something we'd expect of anthony now. my point is: sure, at this point, reverse unification does sound like something he would do, but just because he would doesn't mean he did (maybe he tried but didn't manage, maybe christopher killed himself to escape this fate, who knows)

however, there are other candidates. firstly, we have edward, eileen and gerald, whose outfits are oddly reminiscent of different living doll uniforms, and who regurlarly call each other by their supposedly deceased living dolls' names as nicknames. besides, in edward's first scene he does introduce himself as "a special living doll who lives in the great grandfather's building". we currently interpret this as a lie, but could also be foreshadowing

secondly, thomas comments on how quickly lewis learned how to emote after becoming an adult, since shadows usually leave their facial expressions to their living dolls as children and struggle with that post invitation. (also, anthony refers to lewis as his "first pupil". if we imagine his situation is similar to maggie's, it would be easier for anthony to manipulate a freshly unbrainwashed living doll into reverse unification and take credit for saving his life than to recruit a unified shadow, even if he used christopher's name)