u/Comprehensive_Put277

I just did an analysis on how the Body Swap April Fools could be interpreted as the vulnerabilities and repressed traits Dante sees in each Sinner.

I’ve still got momentum, so why not analyze the more recent April Fools?

As I rewatched it with the mindset of “The Sinners acting this way might represent something.” It hit me.

Each “Sinnerling” might represent a trait Dante wants to nurture in the respective Sinner, hence the whole Kindergarten theming.

Outis is still very much her kiss up self, praising Dante and referring to them as a superior. Dante wants to nurture Outis to do things not because she believes they’ll impress them or gain their trust, but because she herself wants to. They want to nurture Outis’ self-determination.

Rodya accidentally was mean to Gregor and tried giving food to apologize. Later she’s eating all the food because she thinks she’ll starve to death. Dante wants Rodya to stop reflecting herself upon others and understand that she doesn’t have to be important to be loved. Dante wants to nurture Rodya’s selflessness and lessen her somewhat self centered attitude.

Gregor started bawling after Rodya called bugs “gross” because he thought she was calling him gross and doesn’t want to be called “buggy”. Dante wants Gregor to stop being so disgusted with himself, as well as become less ashamed about his arm. They want to nurture Gregor’s self-worth and help him overcome his trauma.

Meursault, unlike the other Sinnerlings, still had his normal voice, to the point Dante confused him for another teacher. Dante wants Meursault to be able to express himself more, enjoy himself, and more openly interact with the Sinners without constantly feeling like he needs to step up or be responsible. They want to nurture Meursault‘s inner child.

Heathcliff acts like an idiot and a kid his age with too much energy. Heathcliff, for all the slack everyone gives him, is actually pretty smart. The problem is he’s impulsive and many times acts before he thinks. He didn’t stop to hear the entire conversation between Cathy and Nelly and just assumed she hated him, Erlking Heathcliff just instantly assumed every Heathcliff makes Catherine miserable, and the entire tragedy of Canto 6 could’ve been easily avoided if Heathcliff and Catherine had just talked to each other just once. Dante wants to nurture Heathcliff’s rationality and patience.

Ishmael buts heads with Heathcliff often, and is obsessed with being the Leader instead of Yi Sang. Ishmael does do this often, she’s known to casually insult the other sinners, and many times is trying to get the other sinners to see her way. Dante wants to nurture Ishmael’s kindness, patience with others and her willingness to follow sometimes instead of lead.

Yi Sang is the most rational and calm, representing how he’s one of the most successfully improved in Dante’s eyes. However, he quickly bursts into tears after his hard work was accidentally destroyed. What Dante wants to nurture in Yi Sang is his ability to deal with failure, especially those he shouldn’t blame himself for.

Sinclair looks up to Yi Sang and praises him a lot, he additionally has a short trigger to silent anger and a hint of prejudice. While Dante doesnt seem to have that much of an issue with these in particular, they do feel that Sinclair is a bit unstable and wants him to reconcile these disparate parts of himself. They want to nurture Sinclair’s self reflection, inner balance, and stability.

Faust is seemingly still connected to the other Fausts, but is dumbing down her words because she worries her friends won’t like her. She also ignores the actual cooking project in order to study the Bongies weapons. Dante wants her to stop prioritzing research and knowledge over her connections with others and leisure activities. They also want her to stop withholding information from the other sinners. Dante seeks to nurture her Honesty towards her inner self and others, and her willingness to simply live.

Ryoshu is the least talkative and also curses and calls Dante names. Dante wants Ryoshu to be more considerate and respectful of others. This is especially important since Ryoshu might be starting a new Ring movement, and the reason the biggest tragedy in Canto 9 happened is because she didn’t consider that Araya may be effected differently by the Safe. Nor did she consider what might have happened to Araya, and now she keeps using Arayashiki without consideration as to the consequences of it. Dante wants to nurture Ryoshu’s responsibility and her decision making.

Hong Lu is careful and Kind, like Yi Sang, he’s a success in Dante’s eyes, being the one to care that Don’s getting dirty, and trying to help clean her. Unlike the others, this isn‘t exactly a flaw in Dante’s eyes. Dante is perfectly happy and willing to further nurture Hong Lu’s kindness. What is a flaw is how he sometimes over compensates, and sometimes in trying to be kind he's actually being rude. He still is trying to regain his other emotions besides that smile, and Dante wants to help that.

And then there’s Don. Oh sweet little Don, constantly going on about “Jussis!”. However it’s revealed this is just a persona, with Sancho very much being awake, but even after, she tries to pretend it didn’t happen. Dante wants Don Quixote to reconcile her 2 selves, they don’t want her to feel obligated to put on the mask. Dante wants to nurture the gap between Don Quixote and Sancho, and have Don be more honest with herself.

Something I’ve realized about the April Fools event where all the Sinners body swapped, was that Each Sinner swapped almost seemed to be Dante’s view of that Sinner’s internal vulnerability.

Heathcliff in Sinclair‘s body was extremely angry and gruff. Sinclair himself despite his meekness, represses a very violent and aggressive side of himself, one we’ve seen many times before and since.

Sinclair in Heathcliff’s Body was meek and worried. Heathcliff, despite his tough exterior, hides a very vulnerable inner self, like his love for Cathy, his heartbreak, his rough childhood, and his self guilt.

Hong Lu in Ryoshu’s body was childlike, compassionate and happy go lucky. Since Canto 9, we’ve learned the care and compassion Ryoshu had for Araya, the terrible childhood that somewhat stunted and corroded her mental growth, as well as the yearning to be in the past before her trauma, similar to Hong Lu.

Ryoshu in Hong Lu’s Body was Rough and Contemptuous. Hong Lu represses a lot of his emotions, even after Canto 8. More than any of those, however, is his anger and sorrow. One of the only IDs Hong Lu has that even has a wrath skill is R Corp Hong Lu, and that’s only because of the incredible mental agony the horns cause, leaving him unable to repress his emotions any longer.

Meursault in Rodya’s Body was cold, emotionless and analytical. Rodya herself, despite her many tries to unthaw her heart, it’s still left in the cold, a fact she hides beneath her cheerfulness. Unlike Meursault, who seemingly resents being gazed at, Rodya wants to be seen as important. Many people misunderstand Rodya as her wanting to be “Special”, but that’s not really the case. She doesn’t want to be special per se, she wants to make a difference in the City and be appreciated for it. To be “Loved”.

Which brings us to Rodya in Meursault‘s body. Out of all the Sinners, his character is the most mysterious, even Outis we have a rough idea of what her conflict might be. But Meursault, pardon the pun, is a stranger who has kept every card to his chest. So if we go by the pattern I’ve been setting up, what might this imply about Meursault? My theory? He can’t truly express himself and wishes to do so without judgement. Think about it, in Le’tranger Meursault is externally quite similar in nature to PM’s version, however there we can see his inner thoughts, and they are somewhat different to his outer expressions. He gets horny, he has problems expressing grief, he feels awful when a dog is abused, he just describes these emotions as unattached as the way he expresses them. Many people have pointed out how similar this is to autism, and as someone on the spectrum myself, I can see it. I also have problems really expressing how I feel, I’ve been described as detatched and sorrowful even when I’m just thinking on a car ride instead of speaking. So this being Meursault’s desire to truly express himself without judgement makes the most sense to me.

Tangent over.

Don Quixote in Fausts body is also quite childish and innocent in her ignorance. Compare this with Faust, who is inquisitive and curious when disconnected from the other Fausts. She’s been described by the other Fausts as “stupid” just for asking questions and talked down to by them despite her previously having had a leadership role among them. One could also tie in her obedience to the Fausts as similar to the obedience Bloodfiends must have to their Higher Kindred.

Meanwhile, Faust in Don’s body is calm and calculating. Despite her cheeriness, Don Quixote is still that same Sancho, and it’s a mask she now willingly wears. We’ve seen that mask slip since Canto 7, during her recognizing the smell of Sweeper Blood being like a Bloodfiend’s, or when she described how a Bloodfiend’s immortality is not truly a blessing nor is it truly immortality. Despite everything, that mask of Cheery Justice is now one that is hiding her original, cold, rational and calm demeanor.

Yi Sang in Outis’ body is gloomy yet calm, melancholic in their expression. While we don’t have much on what Outis did during the Smoke War, its pretty obvious she has a lot of guilt about, possibly even more than Gregor, since she didn’t even try to confront her trauma by entering Valencia’s door like Gregor did in Twining Threads. Whatever caused her over 10,000 body count, it’s something that clings to her and brings her a lot of sorrow, similar to Yi Sang’s guilt over the dissolving of his friend group in the Original League of Nine.

Meanwhile Outis in Yi Sang’s body in forceful and authoritative. Something that many people don’t realize about Yi Sang is that despite his gloomy exterior, he can be incredibly bossy and stuck in his way when he wants. There have been many times he has immediately tried to intervene and forcefully break things up when the Sinners start fighting amongst one another, like in SEA, after Heathcliff and Ishmael were fighting, or during our battle with Sancho, where he was one of the first to speak up and say he hated this and didn’t want this to ruin the Sinner’s friendship. In the most recent April Fools, he’s even the leader of his Kindergarten group, despite Ishmael’s insistence she should be the leader. Speaking of which…

Ishmael in Gregor’s body is extremely uncomfortable about the Bug arm. I don’t think I need to tell you how that relates to Gregor’s own disgust with his body and its transformations. He’s someone who underneath that casual exterior, is someone extremely uncomfortable and disgusted with himself, from his actions during the smoke war, to him having basically gotten a slap on the wrist compared to his compatriots who were reduced to homeless vermin, to even his own biology that he can’t control, a disgust that was definitely a lot worse after the events of Canto 9.

Gregor in Ishmael’s Body, on the other hand, is uncaringly caring, casually rude, yet ultimately lazy. In this way, one can draw parallels in the fact that for the most part, Ishmael is currently the most content of the Sinners with her life. Her entire arc is seemingly complete, she’s gotten her revenge without obsession consuming her, she said her goodbyes to Queequeg, and she’s sailing on her own path now. Notice how I said “seemingly” complete. Because she’s also gotten somewhat complacent and purposeless following her Canto. And considering where we’re going next, that’s definitely going to come to a head in a “Titanic hitting the Iceberg due to mismanagement and complacency” way. Her learning Ahab’s not only alive, but working for N Corp and planning on doing even worse things is definitely going to hit her confidence like the Evergiven in the Suez Canal.

Ive been typing for an hour by now, and I really don’t have the energy to try and theorize what Charon and Vergillius swapping could theoretically say about their characters.

Now that we know that Refractrials are going to be a permanent addition, it hit me how perfect of an opportunity it is.

A lot of people have complained about how Erlking Heathcliff has a lower level than a Training Dummy…

Why don’t we fix that? Refractrial Boss Fights against previous Canto Bosses that now bring in modern mechanics.

Farmwatch Dongrang with Unbreakables and modernized skills.

Gasharpoon Ahab with Unbreakables and more interesting Mechanics, plus a continuous hp bar.

Erlking Heathcliff and Every Catherine with newer mechanics like Clashable Guards and Unbreakables.

It really could act like the Minstral’s Ballad Trials in FF14, being far stronger versions of Canto Bosses that bring new mechanics and might even have changes from the original fight’s story.