Do You Remember The Panel In Which Himiko Bites Her Wrist While She Sleeps?

Do you remember the panel in which Himiko bites her wrist while she sleeps?

It turns out that this panel occurs right after, here Himiko's parents saw how their daughter woke up after biting her wrist in her sleep but instead of showing concern for their daughter's well-being, they took her to a doctor to treat her bite wound or try to heal it themselves, or even ask "are you okay?", "what happened to you?" or "how and/or why did you do that to yourself?", they simply say that she's rotten to the core, leaving Himiko's physical or emotional well-being aside. And the fact that Himiko biting her wrist in her sleep is an analogy to self-harm makes this situation and the behavior of Himiko's parents and the upbringing they gave her that much worse.

This shows once again that Himiko's parents never cared for her daughter to the point that they saw her as a monster as an excuse for their psychological abuse and neglect of her emotional and physical well-being and that all they care about are appearances.

And the worst thing is that Belos was always obsessed with Luz and wanted to force her to be on his side, acting like a groomer which made it even more creepy so it's satisfying to see how Luz is supported by all those she helped before, showing to Belos that he no longer has control over her.

            It genuinely discomforts me how many times Luz is forced to be alone with Belos… It genuinely adds to the isolating, horrific nature of their meetings, and Belos himself. He’s a horror movie villain in a kids’ show, quite frankly; Like being trapped in the house with the murderer (Belos is a canonical serial killer who stabbed his brother to death), and at best you have the fading static of your friends trying to contact you as you explain what’s going on, which DOES happen in Hollow Mind, fittingly. 

        Luz has nobody to back her up, no support, nothing. The power imbalance just lends to the tenseness and uncertainty, that sense of Luz just barely surviving, even when Belos doesn’t WANT to kill her… But he totally can. He’s personally killed many people, and even does kill Luz. Belos’ introduction, the first time Luz sees him devouring a palisman, really does color how he (literally!) scars and haunts and changes her life. Belos is just straight up Luz’s abuser and gleefully knows it, and tbh I feel like people overlook this when discussing Hunter’s abuse (both are valid, discuss both please).

         Now there are a few exceptions to the isolation in Luz and Belos’ encounters, such as Lilith or Hunter, the Hexsquad in Thanks to Them; But when these two talk and interact, any friends Luz may have are usually absent or even put out of the picture by Belos. Like when Lilith is attacked by the Stonesleeper, and for a brief bit it’s just Luz having to confront the real Philip, not the kindly façade he’s put up. Or Belos drowning Hunter in his mind.

         Again, the isolating nature of these conversations makes the trauma and gaslighting by Belos so much more potent; There isn’t someone there to see what he’s saying and immediately refute it, to stand by Luz’s side. So try as she might to call Belos out, there’s always that little part of Luz that asks, What if I’m wrong? What if he’s right? And she doesn’t have any support in that moment, when she really needs it, to reassure her; Only afterwards, and that’s assuming if she explains it to the others.

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Basically what Neo really wants is this:

I wouldn't be surprised if Neo ever had a scene like this:

Taking over the world was never Neo's wish. It was always Roman's. She sees no pride in conquering the Ever After or anything, she was only following him. She only wanted a family, friends, a place to belong.

The only thing I've ever really wanted, was to be understood.

Can we remember that Neo has always struggled to express her thoughts, to be heard and understood by others, and to be free?

After everything she has done it is quite ironic that she is possessed by Curious Cat, going against everything Neo fought for. After getting her revenge she has no one left, she realizes that no matter how powerful she becomes or if she eliminates her enemies Roman (the person who listened to her, understood and respected her for being her herself) will not return. Now that Cat has possessed her, Neo's worst nightmare has come true: not having control over herself and having no way to express what she thinks.

Neo clung to Roman, thinking that only he could understand her and respect her freedom, but she ended up isolating herself from others and hurting others, and now she is receiving the punishment of losing all the autonomy for which she has fought all her life.

I've seen a pretty interesting theory that Imu is actually a child. If this theory turned out to be true it would not only be an interesting plot-twist but would also be an interesting foil for Luffy.

Luffy is a boy who is growing up to become a man (in the Pirate King), his Gear 5 form represents the limitless imagination, joy and freedom of a child and has an optimistic point of view of life. Imu, on the other hand, could be an adult trapped in the body of a child who has lived for 800 years, rules the world from the shadows and does so with a system that oppresses others, his powers seem to represent terror and nightmares, and could also have a cruel or indifferent point of view of life.

Luffy, the boy who, despite becoming a man, retains his inner child. Imu, who despite being in the body of a child, is an adult who has lived so long that he lost his inner child.

We know that Griffith is possessing Moonlight Boy's body and it has been pointed out to us that the World Tree is very important so I have been thinking of a theory on how Moonlight Boy can be freed from Griffith's possession.

In RWBY during volume 9 we are shown the existence of Ever After and the Great Tree, being a tree with magical properties that allows afterans to ascend and acquire a new physical form. Later in the story when Curious Cat possesses Neo and proceeds to fight Jaune, Blake, Weiss and Yang, during the fight Jaune discovers that the smoke from the leaves of the Great Tree can cause the emotions of others to emerge and decides to convince his companions to burn the leaves and the smoke awakes Neo's emotions, which overwhelms Curious Cat causing him to leave his body.

The situation of Neo being possessed by Curious Cat reminded me a lot of the situation of Moonlight Boy possessed by Griffith which made me think that the World Tree could be the key to free Moonlight Boy just as Neo was freed by smelling the smoke from the leaves of the Great Tree. Perhaps the way Moonlight Boy is released from Griffith's possession is that the World Tree is burned (either a piece of wood or its leaves) and for the smoke awakes Moonlight Boy's emotions (and perhaps the repressed emotions of Griffith) and having said emotions overwhelm Griffith so much that he is forced out of Moonlight Boy's body.