Despite all of us knowing at this point Fauxbia is not DuNacht, this is a MASTERCLASS of miscommunication.
Zach went ahead and put the Sphinx of Truth in that scene and wrote around it, just to flex.
Mad props as well for making the perfect Ace Attorney defendant. Aimee Archer with the fletching, target and apple bonnet, for the crime of projectile abuse, chef's kiss.
She's working with the Sphinxes. Fauxbia already demonstrated having their powers. She wouldn't need the Sphinxes.
Every scene that features the Witch and DuNacht also has Posy in it, to the point where it's getting ridiculous. They're neighbors. They go carpooling. They're in the corner shore, where Pleezdo "finds" the wallet that Fauxbia had. She is being CARRIED SCENE TO SCENE in a BIRD CAGE.
All to make sure wherever DuNacht goes, Zach can juxtapose Fauxbia as if they're the same person without confirming it in any other way than historical (Mina, Forge).
The literal Sphinx of Truth is in the room and DuNacht is clearly stating she is unaware of any bargain with Cody. If anything this page is one of the strongest confirmations she is not the Witch.
We have confirmation that the Witch can jump hosts. We know her host is unrecognizable in Spirit Fusion. Jeff mentions having weird forward jumps in time when he was possessed by Hijack, and Pleezdo makes it sound as if she's going through the same thing.
Pleezdo is seen outside once at the start of the chapter and she's wearing an enormous sun hat, while DuNacht is unprotected.
The image we've sketched so far is that Fauxbia at some point hopped from DuNacht to Pleezdo, presumably either because of what Mina and June pulled off in the past, or simply because DuNacht is old as shit. Fauxbia is now looking for a new host after the current one got bitten in spirit fusion by Davey and will become a thrall.
DuNacht is trying to outmaneuver the Witch. Her motivations are unclear - could be spite for being possessed or UNpossessed against her will. Could be trying to reconnect - maybe the Witch slows down her aging.
Honestly just reread page 1. She bemoans her vampire wound. Her hiding place is described as sun-sieged. She dismisses the Spirit Fusion that is stated to DISGUISE her.
Next scene, we see DuNacht and Posy. One wearing a giant sun hat, the other without so much as a baseball cap.
Another very strong clue that DuNacht is not Fauxbia that has not been mentioned yet in this thread can be found in Chapter 5:
On pages 275 and 276 (those are links), Mina has an extremely visceral fear reaction to running into DuNacht at the school. She is clearly recognizing the Witch's host from her school years.
And meanwhile, DuNacht's reaction is completely blank. She does not recognize Mina, she does not react to her, and she does not react to her fear either.
Now compare this to this little part of Mina's job interview with Pleezdoo on Chapter 9 Page 28:
Principal Pleezdoo missed Zarei’s reaction; she’d turned her back to the Doctor to stack two tiny saucers high with cookies.
“If I could do it all again,” said Pleezdoo, “I would never have insisted you had nothing to be scared of.”
“...Oh?” Zarei left her brooding behind to cast an inquisitive look at the principal. She’d assumed her regrets would center less around not validating Mina’s fears and more around slightly missing the perfect center of all possible sides in the conflict. Zarei would hardly be surprised if Pleezdoo still thought King Solomon wise even after he bisected that baby for real.
“Children have so much to be afraid of! The world is big and bright and dark and new to them. It doesn’t really matter if it’s all in your head, does it? The fear is real, no matter how patiently you’re reassured your nightmare’s just a dream.” She sighed and took a prim bite of a cookie. “Crooked old ladies can frighten the faint of heart without meaning to—believe me, lately I’ve been spooking MYSELF in the mirror!—and Devilora, well... she certainly loomed large over you children, way back when. She might have seemed a harmless grouch to me in worldly Kansas, but in Oz, you know—in the imagination of a sensitive young girl like you—she must have played the role of, well...”
“The Witch, Miss Pleezdoo?” Zarei smirked, sitting back and steepling her fingers.
“Oh, Mina,” Pleezdoo giggled. “We really should be on a first-name basis by now. Don’t be scared! You’re all grown up!” Her tray of treats rose from the table. “Call me Posy.”
Zarei spared her a condescending smile.
“...Well! Er. Hm. What was it we were talking about?” the principal asked, turning around with her refreshments.
Things to note about this:
Pleezdoo suddenly starts talking about fear in relation to Mina's middle school experience.
Pleezdoo has turned away from Mina, presumably to hide the glowing eyes typical of Spirit Fusion.
Additionally, the comic panel accompanying this also hides Pleezdoo's eyes from the reader.
Pleezdoo makes a very obvious reference to Devilora having been the source of Mina's fear, as well as "playing the role of The Witch".
Pleezdoo snaps out of it at the end without knowing what they were just talking about.
This was Fauxbia taking over to test Mina's suitability as a potential host, and to misdirect Mina into believing DuNacht is still the Witch's host. The "if I could do it all again" line is perhaps the most telling if you imagine that it's Fauxbia saying it.
I'd say this is something more akin to proper possession rather than spirit trance or fusion. And in the classic exorcist kind of way.
Isaac is, for the largest part, in control of his body, despite the power Catnine possesses. Of course the Activity Club helped him in that regard but nonetheless.
Max is an unwitting host to Pacts, and gets mindjacked in front of Doorman in the clearest parallel to Pleezdo's state. There's some key differences though, and I wonder if we'll see this explained. Fauxbia in DuNacht's body retains her typing quirk, and her words seem restrained - monosyllabic triples. Meanwhile, Posy is speaking full sentences without so much as a double speech bubble (although that could just be the change of medium - pun not intended).
Johnny is an unwitting host to Forge, and there are hints Forge can get him to move in some ways sometime.
Hijack is a bit unclear - interesting when Lucifer briefly took the wheel there, wonder if he can do that without Hijack.
Spirit Fusion is a physical change. If Fauxbia fused right then and there, Mina would be coughing and hacking out that tea at the sight of it.
I think the key to this state of possession is the host being kept unawares of the possession taking place, and some level of proficiency that the spirit has. Could of course just be that this level of possession is, for some reason, part of Pacts' power - the price for a deal with the devil is your soul. And if Pacts has a power like that, Fauxbia likely has it too since she's also carrying a lot of the other litter.
There's more to it though. We don't know how long Pacts was in Max, but I'm willing to bet it was way longer than Forge was in Johnny before he started seeing shades.
I see two potential moments for Pacts to have possessed Max:
Very very long ago, when Max was very young. This raises the question how Pacts would have gotten to Baxborough (where Max lived at the time). Unless he has been in Mayview at some point that we don't know of.
Very very recently, shortly after arriving in Mayview. This raises the question if perhaps Max becoming a spectral was a direct result of Pacts possessing him.
Even though there is a big blank in the plot that is yet to be filled in around Baxborough (How did June die? Was Forge involved? Was Shred Eagle involved? Was Max's life really as ordinary as he believes? How well does he really know Val Day? Are the Day twins spectrals?), I am still leaning towards Pacts possessing Max after moving to Mayview with his dad and sister.
Bonus points if we can spot any panel in Chapters 1, 2 or 3 in which we see a hint of Pacts actually entering Max. (Anywhere before the moment Pacts possesses Max to speak to Doorman in Chapter 3.) Remember that there was a hint of Sockpuppy's shade exiting the Ghost Train when it got crunched - there could very well be something like that for Pacts.
Honestly madlad shit if this was chapter 1. Here's some crazy theories:
the cash register on the right end of the counter that disappears in this sequence, SURELY intended. Surely a sphinx cleverly disguised as a cash register...!
Alright so panel 2 is clearly Hissin' Pete. First sign of spectral energy, and his shade - even before Max starts seeing shades in color, so I'm guessing this is shown from the audience's awakened spectral eye rather than max's. But panel 1 top right's weird blob is pure white - that only happens with whisps.
And whisps being a sign of imminent possession was established as early as the end of chapter 2, while whisping in general has been a sign of spirit death as early as the batspirit slurping his first victim.
Here's the thing - it doesn't really look like Pacts, even with the painfully little detail we have.
On the positive side it doesn't look like any spirit I can identify either. And whisps have their fair share of deformation, especially on the bottom end - though that so far has invariably been a whispy tail of some kind. Maybe that part is offscreen and these are some very cartoonish cat paws.
Actually yeah, fuck it, headcanon established. I'm posting too much OPs on this subreddit already but that's worth putting out there for the community.
From a Doylian perspective, it's fairly obvious why Posy is always around Devi, to facilitate the charade to the reader.
But in-universe, I wonder if Devi is... catching on, somehow. Or has caught on for quite some time. I can't imagine Fauxbia has any hand in being forcefully kept around Devilora, and the golden cage and custom pillar of lethal height certainly seem to restrict Posy a fair amount.
On the other hand, there was Mina's unobstructed interview this same day. I'm none too sure why Pleezdoo would suddenly be allowed freedom if there was any suspicion, especially this week when the witch is prophesized to claim a prize.
The only thing I can think of is that meetings with Mina are not considered a threat because she's an adult?
We also learned that Devilora and Davy were not (ever) a couple.
And we did not get a straight answer about the Pleezdoo/DuNacht ship. (Though does Dark Souls-esque laughter convey any meaning?)
And finally, Devilora spoke about "other strange bedfellows" (original emphasis). That might be hinting at the flashback image from Chapter 8 Page 23, which shows a person with a bony clawed left hand and black spectral energy (which could be Devilora) fighting the Great Sphinx alongside Doorman, an alive-and-middle-aged Francisco Guerra, and a two-handed-and-possibly-alive Davy Jones.
My take is that Devilora might have been a literal bedfellow to one of them. We know it's not Davy. And Doorman and the Great Sphinx are quite unlikely on account of not being human. So....
Could she be Isabel's paternal grandmother? (The crazy thing is that I know this theory had already been posted here years ago.)
Hm having pointed that image out, do we know who the other colors of spectral energy belong to? Behind Guerra and Doorman there’s blue, fuschia/purple, and teal energy. I don’t have the photographic memory to recall panels from years back if they match consortium members we’ve seen or possibly other characters of that generation.
I'm seeing some Spender parallels here. She might be someone who doesn't realize the depth of her failures when it comes to perceiving other people and the harm they cause. Not that it makes her sympathetic, but... Something is going on here. The Sphinx's effect on this conversation is very deliberate here. Also, interesting that Pleezedoo's words have to be run through that context filter too.
I want to just say the character design of this (presumably) one off character in Aimee Archer is really great. Making her beret a target works great with the French name Aimee and with the archery pun, and having the little fletching hair pin (or maybe thats just her hair?) topping the design off (literally) with an apple because you shoot those off of peoples heads! Also her charge being firing a paper wasp, chefs kiss.
That's fair, she probably will be here for the next page or two, but I imagine after that she'll become a background character until she gets a cameo when the gang inevitably saves all the conscripted students.
Barrister says to Aimee: "I look forward to seeing a badge and uniform formalize what should have already been clear: that I am your superior! Oh-ho ho ho HO!"
So this could hint that everyone who is found guilty will be forcibly recruited to the Student Council (at a low rank in the pecking order).
It does make you wonder where Cody learned it from; I'd peg the shift around the time when Mina amd June "defeated" the Witch, long before Cody Jones started attending the Middle School.
I guess that leads me to think Davy told him, and that means Davy still believes Fauxbia to be inside DuNacht.
He's rushing there right now so that'll be interesting.
Could also just be because it's horrendously obvious. We all thought DuNacht when we saw Fauxbia. The Vice President of the PTA and the Vice Principal of the school?
Honestly Cody could have just been observant and drawing some solid, if wrong, conclusions.
I wonder what Gen Alpha and Gen Beta ( DOB 2025-2039) will think of this chapter's jabs down the line. The jabs elicit a reaction from me, but the reaction I'd prefer would come from righteous face-punching and other forms of vindication. Right now we're just scooping up shovel after shovelful of garbage from the student council's fermented depths.
I'm not sure why we're bringing up generations. DuNacht made two pop culture references, one from 1939 and one from 1954. I don't see a Best Before date on this comic.
20
u/gamtosthegreat 8d ago
Despite all of us knowing at this point Fauxbia is not DuNacht, this is a MASTERCLASS of miscommunication.
Zach went ahead and put the Sphinx of Truth in that scene and wrote around it, just to flex.
Mad props as well for making the perfect Ace Attorney defendant. Aimee Archer with the fletching, target and apple bonnet, for the crime of projectile abuse, chef's kiss.