Shadows House (Official Colored) - Ch. 197 - Anthony

[Mitsu13]

if I understand correctly so both of them have the same mission? But Anthony trying to fulfill the mission in the wrong way. Although with how cunning their enemy is I guess it will be difficult to avoid using the wrong way

 

[hgpnguyen]

if I understand correctly so both of them have the same mission? But Anthony trying to fulfill the mission in the wrong way. Although with how cunning their enemy is I guess it will be difficult to avoid using the wrong way

More like irredeemable. It is understandable if he just angry and want to take revenge at Shadow alone, even including the children Shadow. However, Anthony has killed a child and used her corpse for his plan. This means that Anthony is willing to use even the live of all the normal living children to take revenge. This is unacceptable.

 

[Clover_Zero]

MY JAW DROPPED. HOLY SHIT, WHAT A TWIST. I didn't see that coming at all!! But it's nice to see another Mirror house's descendant.
It's interesting how the half-siblings share the same goal/mission, yet go about it in wildly different ways. Anthony is far more ruthless, indeed, using everything and anything he can. He must be thinking that the end justify the means.
Thanks Anthony for confirming all of his plans so far so we don't have to speculate lol.

 

[ilusatus]

That twist is not so convincing.
Its too convienent, more like it just happen for the sake of being edgy.

 

[hgpnguyen]

So what will he do if Kate choose to just live happily somewhere far away, never been there in the first place?
If even with Kate it take him a long time to get there, will he just die waiting in old age hoping a correct person to move his plan?
How can he even tell Kate is Kate, his half sister, in the first place?

The twist is not so convincing.
I hope theres a really good explanation eventually.

His plan is created after he know about Kate so we don't know about his original plan where Kate doesn't exist. He may has an entirely different plan if there are no Kate. Of course, the problem here is when and how he know about the true identity of Kate.

 

[Redice]

When the almost nonexistent character suddenly pops in the open as a villain and says all the chapters up till now was all according to their plan, lol.
Probably my most disliked villain trope, tbh.

 

[nhansieu1]

that just got a lot more complicated.
But Kate was born only 50 years later. Does that mean Anthony is also old asf?

 

[Admmi]

That twist is not so convincing.
Its too convienent, more like it just happen for the sake of being edgy.

I mean, how else would he be able to plan everything? He needed to know and being a child of the mirror house makes sense.

 

[Admmi]

I wonder how she is going to change things around, unless he fumbles he basically already won

 

[Swagner]

Hmm.. i still don't get how to calculate kate's real age. Anthony should be as old as edward right?

So, wait, did Kate stop aging when she turned into a "shadow"?

 

[Ghost_Shogun]

I really hope you people won't start saying that Kate is 63 years old just because she stayed in the womb for 50 years (if we assume a year has not passed since Kate infiltrated the mansion, since she went there when she was 13).
Sure, she was conceived way, way before Anthony, but was born after.

Also, Anthony being a descendent of the Mirror's house explain him knowing about the whole incident, but that doesn't really extend to knowing about Kate's existence and situation, does it? Or was he listening when Kate explained her background to Emiliko?

 

[zanonyn]

Great banger chapter, thanks for the TL! There was plenty of speculation about potential for foreign agents and so on, but this was simultaneously built up to pretty well while still being a genuine surprise that explains a lot. And Anthony's strategic options here are brutal but extremely clever subversions of the Shadow House symptom that I didn't see coming. "How to combat the adults" has always been one of the core dilemmas given the enormous disparity in power. But it's been well established that the whole complex system is necessary in part because Shadows do not have any sort of intrinsic motivation or control, the brainwashing happens for them via mimicry and human implantation. The idea of mass producing expendable Shadow soldiers, "Combat Dolls" one might say, is brilliant if ruthless, and kind of anathema to Kate's feelings. That combined with sabotage and surprise (ambushing adults out on the island say) to whittle down their forces initially, any intel Anthony has gathered on the Adults' true powers, might have a real chance.

Also, Anthony being a descendent of the Mirror's house explain him knowing about the whole incident, but that doesn't really extend to knowing about Kate's existence and situation, does it? Or was he listening when Kate explained her background to Emiliko?

He'd be able to infer quite a bit from what he's seen and heard so far. Kate is clearly a very unusual existence if you know what to look for. Remember, a few chapters ago in 194 Joseph revealed he had Kate's suitcase, and said "A once in a lifetime chance... Catherine". If he passed that on to Anthony, or Anthony found out some other way, that'd easily be the final clue: Kate is a unified being with a strong interest in things who asked about Mirrors that came from beyond the Shadow's House. There really is only a single possible candidate for that right? They'd be able to guess about the rest.

Or for that matter, they might even have been able to send an agent to find Kate's house and ask in person if they've maintained their own secret network on the island.

 

[Curetwinkle]

Hmm.. i still don't get how to calculate kate's real age. Anthony should be as old as edward right?

Edward and Anthony are for sure close in age. They were debutantes together with Gerald and Aileen.

It's more likely that Alfred, in his old age, knocked up some young girl to conceive Anthony. But lets say Alfred was in his early 20s when the Mirror's house got taken over. add the 50+ years, since thats how long it took for Kate to finally be born from her mothers shadow stasis, and you get an old guy who was in his 70s when he sired Anthony. Major ick. Anthony is biologically OLDER than Kate (he was probably born a few years before she officially came out), however chronologically he was (at least) the second child to be conceived by Alfred. I say at least because I suspect there are more half-siblings (it just makes sense if they're trying to keep their family numbers going to do a take over one day) but currently these hypothetical siblings don't matter. What matters is, Kate is chronologically and biologically ~13yo. Even if you count her being inside her mom's womb as part of her chronological age, it doesn't change the fact that Kate is ~13yo. That's how she biologically and chronologically aged once she was actually born. She's not a child with an adult mind. She IS a child.

BUT what makes this intriguing is how Anthony knows this at all. Like ok, his family are also the true heirs of Mirrors house and they've been bidding their time. But how were they certain KATE was Catherine's daughter by Alfred. That's still a leap in logic. Cuz for all Alfred's faction knew, Catherine escaped and died with child. Or if the child was born, said child would be in her 50s. This is where our theorizing about the right hand man of Great Grandfather comes in, the enigmatic Joseph who up to this point had not been a real player in the story UNTIL he grabbed the suitcase of clothes (which would be recognizable to someone from the og Mirrors house that was close to Catherine) that Edward found, and then name dropped Catherine himself. So I'm thinking Anthony had been able to hide as well as he did bc he did have help from the adult wing through Joseph. Otherwise, how would Anthony be so sure Kate is Catherine's daughter. The only tell would have been the clothes and the nickname "Kate" would have confirmed it. But then WHO is Joseph? Alfred's brother?? Catherine's brother?? The plot thickens.

I'm just really excited because this makes sense when looking back at Anthony's previous actions. His "golden age" for the Children's wing with Christopher was his long game and it worked especially well with Lewis and ofc Barbara. I'm still curious about his relationship with the original Christopher behind the scenes. Did he convince Christopher, or was it like Sara and Mia's relationship. I laughed when Anthony basically said "yeah i know how to get Edward to do exactly what I want." He WANTS Edward to figure out it's Anthony; he said he left Edward a hint, which is interesting. Specifically also because of the way Anthony said he left the mangled bodies inside the unification chamber WERE the hint for Edward. I wonder who Anthony murdered in the past to pull off his own "death" lol. Everyday we get closer to the Edward Group/Anthony reunion and I want to see if there's any drama there. The fact that Anthony WANTS Edward to figure it out at all makes me wonder what kind of rivals they were. What was their history....

Just questions I have now: In the case that Alfred and co. sired more kids over the years, did he and his group send them to the Shadows house on purpose every few decades to try to gather intel on the Shadows house? Are there more family members among the adult wing who are waiting for Anthony's signal? Although they wouldn't have been able to leave at first, recall that some adult shadows DO get to live outside with regular humans. The human wouldn't have made it but a well convinced shadow might have reported back to the family upon making it outside. I dunno, I just wonder how involved this operation was over the decades. Anthony played the long game well but he had to learn to do all that carefully from somewhere. He had orders.

 

[asianlatinboi]

now I'm more convincing that anthony kill Christopher during reunification

 

[recklessribbon]

Thanks for the translation!

 

[AAA1]

Edward and Anthony are for sure close in age. They were debutantes together with Gerald and Aileen.

It's more likely that Alfred, in his old age, knocked up some young girl to conceive Anthony. But lets say Alfred was in his early 20s when the Mirror's house got taken over. add the 50+ years, since thats how long it took for Kate to finally be born from her mothers shadow stasis, and you get an old guy who was in his 70s when he sired Anthony. Major ick. Anthony is biologically OLDER than Kate (he was probably born a few years before she officially came out), however chronologically he was (at least) the second child to be conceived by Alfred. I say at least because I suspect there are more half-siblings (it just makes sense if they're trying to keep their family numbers going to do a take over one day) but currently these hypothetical siblings don't matter. What matters is, Kate is chronologically and biologically ~13yo. Even if you count her being inside her mom's womb as part of her chronological age, it doesn't change the fact that Kate is ~13yo. That's how she biologically and chronologically aged once she was actually born. She's not a child with an adult mind. She IS a child.

BUT what makes this intriguing is how Anthony knows this at all. Like ok, his family are also the true heirs of Mirrors house and they've been bidding their time. But how were they certain KATE was Catherine's daughter by Alfred. That's still a leap in logic. Cuz for all Alfred's faction knew, Catherine escaped and died with child. Or if the child was born, said child would be in her 50s. This is where our theorizing about the right hand man of Great Grandfather comes in, the enigmatic Joseph who up to this point had not been a real player in the story UNTIL he grabbed the suitcase of clothes (which would be recognizable to someone from the og Mirrors house that was close to Catherine) that Edward found, and then name dropped Catherine himself. So I'm thinking Anthony had been able to hide as well as he did bc he did have help from the adult wing through Joseph. Otherwise, how would Anthony be so sure Kate is Catherine's daughter. The only tell would have been the clothes and the nickname "Kate" would have confirmed it. But then WHO is Joseph? Alfred's brother?? Catherine's brother?? The plot thickens.

I'm just really excited because this makes sense when looking back at Anthony's previous actions. His "golden age" for the Children's wing with Christopher was his long game and it worked especially well with Lewis and ofc Barbara. I'm still curious about his relationship with the original Christopher behind the scenes. Did he convince Christopher, or was it like Sara and Mia's relationship. I laughed when Anthony basically said "yeah i know how to get Edward to do exactly what I want." He WANTS Edward to figure out it's Anthony; he said he left Edward a hint, which is interesting. Specifically also because of the way Anthony said he left the mangled bodies inside the unification chamber WERE the hint for Edward. I wonder who Anthony murdered in the past to pull off his own "death" lol. Everyday we get closer to the Edward Group/Anthony reunion and I want to see if there's any drama there. The fact that Anthony WANTS Edward to figure it out at all makes me wonder what kind of rivals they were. What was their history....

Just questions I have now: In the case that Alfred and co. sired more kids over the years, did he and his group send them to the Shadows house on purpose every few decades to try to gather intel on the Shadows house? Are there more family members among the adult wing who are waiting for Anthony's signal? Although they wouldn't have been able to leave at first, recall that some adult shadows DO get to live outside with regular humans. The human wouldn't have made it but a well convinced shadow might have reported back to the family upon making it outside. I dunno, I just wonder how involved this operation was over the decades. Anthony played the long game well but he had to learn to do all that carefully from somewhere. He had orders.

Flawless explanation. I just wonder where do you get 50 years, is this mentioned in the chapter?

 

[Curetwinkle]

if I understand correctly so both of them have the same mission? But Anthony trying to fulfill the mission in the wrong way. Although with how cunning their enemy is I guess it will be difficult to avoid using the wrong way

Not exactly imo. Both groups started out with the same goal, but differentiated significantly so now they're goals are just similar. "Taking back the Mirror house" would be the original same goal. Kate, upon entering the island, and then seeing that human children are being kidnapped, brainwashed, and killed + shadow children were being created, sacrificed, and sometimes killed; decided she wanted to take back the Mirrors house AND liberate all the children. Both human and shadow. She sees the shadow children as allies and the adult shadows as the obstacles in her way to take back the manor.

Now, we don't know too much about Anthony's specific goals imo. Yes, his family from the sound of it also operates on the "take back the mirrors house" goal. But we also know Anthony is getting to this goal by building a new cult of personality around himself via Christopher. In my opinion, it remains to be seen whether the cult of personality aspect was part of the plan his family laid out or not. I suspect he's gone rogue for one, and I think it's because when he got to the mansion as a young child he REALLY liked soot abilities and wanted to use that power for himself. Unlike Kate, he doesn't care about protecting or liberating the human children and shadow children. He sees them all as tools, stepping stones, for his ascension. For Anthony, they are the means to his end. That's why he murdered Maggie even though she was already going to be his devout follower. He knew the next stage was the children banding together to save Lou from unification, a turn of events which he also orchestrated, and he simply needed a child's body to play up his role in the next phase.

All of this isn't true for Kate. In other words, Kate's mission is not "taking back the Mirror house" and using the liberation of the children as a means to that end. To me there's two missions/goals that directly relate to each other, so to me for Kate it's "taking back the Mirror house AND saving all the children from the Shadow house" with her means being forming alliances and friendships among the children to build her support base. Unlike Anthony, she doesn't see the children as tools for her ascension. She genuinely cares about both human and shadow children. She decided it's not a real win to just take back the house if children have to be sacrificed. So that's why she goes out of her way to do her best to help them even when it's not in her best interest sometimes cuz the child is shitty (ie Sara and Mia, previously Doug and Douglas lol).

 

[AAA1]

When the almost nonexistent character suddenly pops in the open as a villain and says all the chapters up till now was all according to their plan, lol.
Probably my most disliked villain trope, tbh.

it can be pretty frustrating like kaguya otsutsuki but this is not the end of this series. Think of this as just the next level challenge to main character. Dragon ball and bleach use this trope too but it's long forgotten because newer series haven't using this lately

 

[Ranzo]

I gotta say having it all revealed this way feels I dunno, a little cheap?
Like there's been so much mystery about all these events and just to have everything be monologued to you is pretty underwhelming

 

[Pagemistress]

...all I am hearing is that we need to ask Kate's permission before we punch Anthony in the face. Does that sound like what he said to anyone else?