#s!mine

Ok, so, I wanted to get on s!Dappleduo theories and questions. 

Quick note : through this post I’ll stick with “s!Dapper” and “s!Pomme'' to make it easier. But just so you know, in general, I use Shade and Dapper, and Lumi and Pomme interchangeably, and still refer to the same characters. 

First of all some basics : 

It is confirmed Shelter is a place where people were all brought by the tree, besides of a few possible exceptions, and came from different minecraft universes. The kind of the universes can be really diverse going from one character to another : other dimensions ? made up minecraft universes ? Or even, already existing minecraft universes. 

I’ve been getting into figuring out where everyone came from, why and how they came to the Shelter. A lot of hints made me think some characters could have died before being resurrected by the tree, thus reincarnated. And surely there is something that all of them must have in common to be chosen by the tree, but we can't confirm yet the process is the same for everyone. So for now I think the "death and reincarnated" scenario is only "one way” possible among others. 

Going onto s!Dappleduo’s case. My first and biggest interrogation was whether or not s!Dapper and s!Pomme, and q!Dapper and q!Pomme, were the same characters.

I know in /meta, they rp and act the same, but the real question was to know if lorewise, the 2 versions of their characters have a shared backstory, thus meaning s!Dapper and s!Pomme were actually the continuation of q!Pomme and q!Dapper ?

A quick /meta note on this : I wanted to get into s!Dappleduo’s lore for a while. But I had a lot of hesitation because I was debating whether or not everything was just /meta references, and if there was even a lore talk to have to begin with. But then we had more lore, thus more hints to make up my mind.  

Now, I think the answer is yes. 

Recently, s!Pomme heavily hinted she came from the QSMP’s universe, and that she misses people from there, during her dialogue with s!Mine.

And both s!Pomme and s!Dapper referenced the events they went through in QSMP during Shelter's /rp moments, meaning it actually happened to their current characters and they remember it :

s!Dapper referencing the punch card and the free cookie jar xD

Their character seems to be basically the same, altho a bit different. s!Pomme hinted a lot this idea of a new chapter, of a “rebirth”. 

And I think the same goes for s!Dapper, as I consider s!Dappleduo siblings to have shared lore in general.

I see all of this as hinting they went through reincarnation, after all didn’t they have a parent who used to reincarnate over and over again ?

They still seem to have memories of their "previous life", altho it's not sure yet they fully remember everything. They’re still the same, but not completely. And they both came from the tree. 

Thing is, they’re not the only one hinted to be “reincarnated” from the tree. s!Ryan, s!Luh and s!Heiwa's hints mostly, made me think their characters were reincarnated from the tree after “dying”. Did s!Dapper and s!Pomme died aswell and were reincarnated in Shelter ? 

That's where having the confirmation that q!Dappleduo and s!Dappleduo are the same makes a whole difference : Dappleduo had 2 lives before.

q!Dappleduo came up to life with the constant threat of perma death upon them, making it an essential part of how they grew and evolved as characters. Especially for q!Pomme ! Her being the only one with 2 lives, growing up stronger to fight for her life and those she cares about, is one of the most fundamental element of her character. 

But now, both of them ended up in Shelter, and are now immortal. But still, their character backstory is still based on them having only 2 lives and struggling to stay alive. My point being, if they canonically had 2 lives, why not anymore ?

And as much as there is an obvious /meta reason why it's this way, lorewise, I think we can still ask ourselves how come they did get rid of the 2 lives limitations ? In general, how did they came from one state to another ?

Could q!Pomme and q!Dapper have died, and been reincarnated by the tree ? But if so, how did they die ? Last thing we know, they both still had 2 lives, what could have killed them both twice ? And was the reincarnation itself enough to get them rid of the 2 lives limitation, or is there even more to it ?

There's still an unknown timeline gap between q!Pomme and q!Dapper having both of their life and still no official death/reason for their death, and current s!Dapper and s!Pomme being immortal. And as much as I think reincarnation occured here, I’m still not 100% sure they had to die for it. Well, let’s say something is still strange about this. 

Another element I had, but was kinda cautious to use since I wasn’t sure how much "in character" it was (but that I’m now using, you’ll see why) : it is said that s!Dapper one of the first residents along with s!Jean and s!Ana. Meaning that s!Pomme came after ? And if so, why did they come separately ?

That’s all we had for s!Dappleduo for a while. But recently, more came to it.

During the conversation between s!Mine and s!Pomme, s!Pomme said she didn't know how she came here (surely no memory loss has ever happened to her before) but was glad s!Dapper "found" her.

And when s!Mine asked if they both came from the same tree, or just ended up finding each other (the exact same interrogation I had about them), s!Pomme answer was that s!Dapper has "his own ways" of doing stuff, that he is a creative fella and has a lot of tricks.

That’s all, she didn’t explain more after.

What "trick" from s!Dapper is she referring to right there ? Is that "trick" the whole reason why they found each other ? Could it imply they were not supposed to be together at first if it wasn't for s!Dapper ? And if so, why ?

The fact that it is implied they went through seperate ways before coming here is really intriguing. Why was s!Dapper the first one (apparently) and what did he do, both to get there at first and then to "find" Pomme ? That’s the reason why I’m not entirely sure they died. As much as it is possible, it looks like there is even more to it, especially about s!Dapper whole involvment in this process. After all, the Halo family is known to have this habit of playing with life and death’s rules, right ? 

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And I kinda covered everything I wanted to say. Again, not so much happened, and we're still in the dark. It's still just some questions and comments here and there.

Ok, so…I’m kinda nervous about this xD

I’ve been wanting for a while to share my thoughts and analysis about the lore, and what I think will actually happen. This is always the part I enjoy the most, connecting the dots, interpreting a driving direction and thus giving the whole sense to the events occurring in the story. So...

Beings above

From what we know for now, Shelter is under the control/supervision (?) of some entities, I straight up call them gods xD It's mainly because s!Artea’s straight up used this term and referred to this idea. In general, there is a recurring theme of religion within this universe. 

I also think that the gods are common knowledge for everyone, and we, the audience, are the only ones left out about indepth details about them and their nature. They seem to have great power over everything. For me, they’re in this kind of neutral-bad area, as the control they have over this world is not something we could call…legit. 

They don’t seem to be the kind of superior beings granted with perfect moral standing and act upon a greater good. They’re straight up doing what they want, based on their own rules, and get away with this only because THEY are the superior beings. And how much they’re a big deal to you depends on how much you oppose their rules. 

That's why a lot of characters can actually have a chill life under them, as they either don’t have any reason to oppose them, don’t care, are fine living here as it is implied some came from worst places, and so and so. The “before Shelter” of the characters is something interesting to figure out for me, in order to understand everyone’s position and personnal struggles. 

For now i’d say :

s!Shade and s!Elk are chilling and the gods aren’t a big deal to them, at least not yet.

s!Hoot, s!Sweev, s!Ram, and maybe s!Heiwa, were in such a bad spot before coming in the Shelter, they just love being here despite everything.

s!Hayden and s!Luh have their own personal struggles to deal with for now. Maybe sAmora and s!Veni as well ? There are small moments where they seem to have things going on in their life, but we didn't see much yet.

s!Forest and s!Void, when they talked about it, seemed rather skeptical about the god situation, but just made the best of it without making trouble. 

In between, some of them seem to have a personal struggle related to the gods. The obvious one is s!Artea, I also kinda think there is something up with s!Miel and s!Void and their relationships with god entities that are still unknown. s!Lea seemed to have kind of an involvement with the magic gods altho it’s still mysterious. And finally, s!Mine didn’t get involved with gods yet, but some hints could make us think she’s a goddess. 

Safe or fair ?

The only one for now who seemed to straight up oppose to the gods is s!Cherry, thus showing us that this opposition have consequences. And the said consequences seems to also have collateral damage sometimes. That’s why gods’ opposition seems to be a collective deal : if you get in trouble, there is a chance you’re not the only one who will suffer from it.

Actually, there is also a chance that s!Ana is the one containing them, preventing them to go even harder on people. As if the “gold sacrifice” was a ritual that allowed the good to be less likely to lash out on people. 

In general, everyone is having a rather nice life, this world is still described as “safe” and a place you can enjoy living in. BUT it may not have always been that way, because some conversation give this sort of impression that work have been done in order to make it the way it is now. Again, I think it’s greatly linked to s!Ana.

If this world is peaceful, this world doesn’t seem fair. It can become an issue when, in parallel with this overall god situation, the members have their own backstories and motives. At the end, some people are in a fairer situation than others. Clearly s!Cherry is not happy with her current situation. And some people seem in a tougher spots than others. Altho we need more details, I think it could be the case for : s!Miel, s!Lea, s!Hayden, s!Luh, recently s!Void etc. 

It’s where stand the dilemma of choosing between doing things in order maintain  peace, or doing things in order to make things right. And I IMMEDIATELY thought about s!Pomme involvement in the story. s!Pomme has the goal to keep everyone safe, and surely will make actions in order to keep everyone peaceful, I think she’ll likely side with s!Ana. But s!Pomme has also this side of her who can’t stand unfairness, who doesn't accept abiding to the will of selfish beings and their arbitrary rules, who wants to burn everything. But would she risk to put danger upon her and her friends for this ? 

Losing battle

And we finally get to s!Ana’s case. I really see s!Ana as the driving force of the story. Her goal is to keep everyone safe and peaceful, in order to do so she both have to deal with satisfying the gods and preventing them to come after them, and with the member’s personal struggle when the said struggles can be a threat to the peace. 

s!Ana is a good soul and she cares for the well being of her found family. But I also feel like she worked so hard to keep things the way they are for her efforts to be wasted. She’s currently submitting 100% to the gods, she’s doing actions for everyone's common well being. It’s such a huge burden she have to carry when she’s only one person who doesn’t always know best.While I still have not listened to the playlist, I saw that a lot of the songs allude to her not feeling adequate or strong enough. But she’s also driven by love for her family.

This being said, I think I already see how flawed her character is even if her goal is really fair, and why it seems like it’ll be the main source of challenges in the story : s!Ana is in a situation where she’s imposing this “ideal” of peace to everyone, and wants to keep the status quo. But she's not taking into consideration that the “status quo” is not ideal for everyone. And sometimes her ideal can directly conflict other’s, again s!Cherry who will really find happiness through freedom and not submission. 

She also wants to get rid of conflicts and make sure everyone reach a mutual agreement. But on hand, she’s fighting a losing battle, as she could never end up satisfying everyone, and will always end up feeling like a failure. On the other hand, I also feel like thinking too much about “solving” a conflict is ending up neglecting the reason why there was conflict in the first place, and preventing people from expressing and working out deeper issues and feelings who are the cause of the occuring tensions.  

It seems like there are a lot of communication issues in general, and people don’t get to share their struggles with others, outside of some really close relationships case, like s!Ryan and s!Miel seem to be. Again, I think this is one of the main element that will push the story forward.

I'll quickly mention s!Shade, what I find interesting is that as much as not involved they are for now with the god situation, it seem they're the most strong and loyal ally to s!Ana, along with s!Lumi. He's one of the less likely to be a threat to the peace as they're not really opposing anyone nor going through big struggles that s!Ana would have to deal with, he's mostly doing his things and minding his own business. And he seems to be in agreement with s!Ana's goals and acting to serve her best interests.

Villains

I think we're in the story where there isn't really "antagonistic" character, but rather character that have antagonistic “potential” for some arcs. We have the morally gray characters who only plays by their own rules, I’m thinking about s!Pancks and s!Bipeo, both really interesting to me.

More about s!Bipeo :

More about s!Pancks :

On a quick note, s!Pomme is already upset with s!Pancks actions when he killed the children, I think it may come up later.

Going into antagonistic potential, we have s!Jean and his hot tempered actions, but I don’t see him as a “long term” villain. Just putting here my previous analysis about s!Jean for more details :

There is s!Ryan who is in my opinion the main antagonist of this arc, she’s a slow paced villain as she’s carefully planning everything. I really love her character because her actions are driven in my opinion by inner scars. She feels really deeply human, embracing the “villainess” role in order to not be hurt anymore.

More about s!Jean and s!Ryan as villains here :

I suspect s!Miel, while not having hostile attention, being a potential chaos element bringing mayhem all around. And finally, I think s!Ana has the great potential of being both the hero/main character, both the villain in someone else’s story. 

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Kamiya Hiroshi @ KAmiYU in Wonderland 3.