As I said in the tags of the original, the iceberg I made was a meme consisting of both real theories and satire/parodies/fandom memes. If anyone is interested, I can work on an unironic version that only has real theories.
Buckle in because this post is LONG and heavily saturated with lore and information.
Actual theories
Parallel universe 1960s where the world wars didn’t happen. There’s an unused file in Curious Village that shows the year as 1960 and the time machine from UF is set to 1973, ten years into the future. The series canonically takes place in an undefined time period (hence the technological inaccuracies and fantasy elements), but it’s based off the 60s. There’s more evidence but we don’t have time to go over every little thing. I linked my “no wars” theory below but TL;DR the outdated airplanes and underdeveloped medicine in the Layton series imply that the world wars may never have happened. https://cayenne-twilight.tumblr.com/post/632205992162099200/outofcontextdiscord-timegearremix-zonosils-war
The real meaning behind the statue in Future London. In UF, the purpose of the statue is to spark Layton and Luke’s conversation about their friendship. Luke is stressing out about moving overseas and sees himself and the professor in the story behind the statue, but in the bigger picture, Clive must have been the one to commission it. Some theorize that the little boy is Clive and the man is either his father or the professor. One idea I’ve seen is that Clive wishes he could be Luke for real, while another is that he wishes he died ten years ago, and another is that he’s literally terminally ill explaining why he doesn’t care about consequence. Personally, I think “the boy succumbed to his illness” refers to his mental illness seeing as he wanted the professor to save him from his madness as he saved him all those years ago.
True location of Monte D’Or. there are no deserts on the British isles to my knowledge, so it makes the most sense for Monte D’Or to be in Southwest USA where English is the default language, they have a desert, and there exists a city famous for flashy hotels, casinos, and entertainment. What makes it odd is that nobody ever mentions overseas travel, and all the major characters are from England.
Loosha’s origins are not explicitly explained if I remember correctly, but the implication was that her prehistoric (supposedly) species was sealed away along with the garden, allowing them to survive all the way to the time of LS until Loosha was the only one left. The garden provided a good habitat and protection from predators, and it’s logical that they’d slowly die out anyways, but there’s no explanation of any specific factors that led to Loosha being the last.
Beasley is not a bee I wrotea post about this one as well, but TL;DR Beasly lacks several defining bee traits whilst having several human ones. He is not human, yet, by definition, not a bee. It’s possible that he is the result of Dimitri’s testing, but whatever his untold story is, he remains an enigma of nature. https://cayenne-twilight.tumblr.com/post/632381715250282496/theory-beasly-isnt-a-bee
Subject 2’s identity is currently unknown. There is a subject one (parrot) and subject 3 (rabbit) so there has to be a second. For a long time, people suspected Beasly to be him seeing as he’s a bit of an amalgamation and definitely not a regular bee (see above). After the release of LMJ, though, people began to suspect Sherl, the intelligent hound who could speak to certain people but not others. That being said, it’s possible for one to be subject 4. Sherl’s memory of a bright flash matches up with subject 3’s memory of being electrocuted. They never explain why the animals were being experimented on, but it was probably Dimitri making sure the conditions of his machine were safe for humans before reliving the incident from ten years ago.
Lady Violet died from the plague from DB. There’s no evidence for this or anything, it’s just an idea. People say she died from the flu but I don’t remember them saying that in the game, at least the US version. Extending off my “no war” theory: it’s theorized that the Spanish Flu was spread by the travlelling soldiers, so if that’s true, it’s possible for the epidemic to have been averted for some decades. Maybe the Spanish Flu reached England later than in real life. The hole in this is that DB’s plague must’ve been close in time to 1918 while Violet’s death was much later, so it would’ve had to stick around.
Bill Hawks is working with Targent and Arthur Cantabella. There was a force in the shadows buying the time machine technology from Bill. Someone with a ton of money who helped him cover up a freak accident and get away with it completely, a feat that involved shady means like violence by hired thugs. Some theorize that it was Targent, seeking power over time in exchange for a little mafia magic. The Labarynthia project was sponsored by the UK government, so as the PM, Bill must’ve known about it. He probably supported dubiously ethical, high stakes (witch pun) psychological experiments like Cantabella’s and helped him stay in the shadows.
All the NPCs in St. Mystere and Folsense are dead. I make fun of this type of theory later, but they’re admittedly captivating. I’m pretty sure the canon in CV is that the villagers are Bruno and Augustus’s OCs that they made robots of and built a town around, but it’s more interesting to think that the village was there before, and the townspeople died of a plague and were replaced like Lady Violet. In Folsense, there really was a plague and they never explain the NPCs there. They’re either real people who appear way younger than they are due to hallucinations (even the ones who already look old ?), or they don’t exist at all, which is pretty spooky. This part of the story is a gaping plot hole. In a similar vein to CV, the edgy yet plausible theory is that they used to live in Folsense but died of the plague and now live on as hallucinations.
Hershel seeing everything as a puzzle is a coping mechanism for all his trauma. This was a joke but I thought about it for more than five seconds and it makes way too much sense.
Plot holes and unexplained questions that we like to overthink because it’s fun
The downfall of the Azran was vaguely explained in canon by people being so greedy that it lead to the civilization collapsing. It’s not a stretch to imagine that happening, but it would’ve been more interesting with a little more detail.
Layton and Luke are programmed to routinely forget how to walk. I didn’t know whether to list this in the joke section or not, but it’s odd that the characters actively participate in the walking tutorial (as opposed to showing a little memo to the player) as if they didn’t know how to before, especially when they go through this several times a year.
The truth behind Pavel. He’s simply a joke character who teleports, is a polyglot (sort of, at least he wants us to think he is) and is mega confused all the time. He’s a fun character to make crack theories about because of his cryptic nature that even he doesn’t seem to understand.
Miracle Mask deleted scenes. The first trailer for MM featured animations that were not in the final game. One was the Randall falling scene, except in a slightly different style than the one we know. Others were completely foreign, like Layton and Luke pacing across a theatre stage as if Layton’s about to expose someone with a dramatic point. Cut content and “could’ve beens” are always curious to think about.
Evan Barde: secret mastermind. Arianna and Tony’s dad is a mysterious character who died under mysterious circumstances. I think the canon is that his death was a genuine accident, but concept art of him making a creepy evil face suggests that maybe he originally had a larger role in the first drafts of LS than the finished game.
The secret to how Paul and Des pull off their disguises is unclear and will remain unclear. There is no plausible explanation for their shape shifting. Unless Paul is just a little dude wearing a human suit like that one Wizard of Oz species and Des is the best quick-changer ever and hides his naturally feminine legs under his cloak.
Alfendi’s mom. When LBMR came out people scrambled to piece together who Hershel had a kid with, but there’s no way alfendi is his biological son. This happened with Kat as well and her biological parents turned out to be brand new characters, so I’m sure Al will get an adoption backstory if his arc continues, be his parents old major characters or nameless, faceless NPCs.
Granny Riddleton and Stachenscarfen are omnipotent deities. Idk which section this fits best under, but these two characters have some serious power. At first introduction, they’re implied to be robots, but they appear everywhere in later games. They follow the Professor wherever he goes and assist him on his adventures, GR collecting puzzles and housing them by some odd magic, and Stachen teaches you how to walk. They both introduce and supervise the gameplay. By extension, I guess this idea could apply to Albus as well in the prequels. GR and Stachen even had the power to appear in LMJ, something no major character could do. I consider them akin to the velvet room attendants from the Persona games.
Clive’s kill count is a vague subject in the game for the sake of keeping it PG. I don’t know if anyone’s ever mathematically estimated the damage he caused, and I sure don’t want to try, but the game appears to push the idea that he didn’t kill anyone at all, saying they stopped him in the nick of time and things like that, even though we watch him raze the city. If they ever want to bring him back post-time skip, I can see them twisting it so that the mobile fortress cutscene wasn’t a linear sequence of events, but instead a compilation of scenes over the course of hours so that London neighborhoods around him could be evacuated and have it make sense. Knowing Level-5, it’s more likely that they wouldn’t think this deep and do something more lazy, though.
Memes and references
Post-time skip Flora is real references the famous L is real theory from Super Mario 64. Like Luigi in SM64, Flora was also a highly anticipated character who didn’t appear in a new game, in this case LMJ or LMDA. In the end, Luigi did become real in the DS port so hopefully Flora is real will be realized as well.
Hershel can’t read is a veteran fandom meme referring to how in the first few games, especially Curious Village, Layton asks Luke to read every document out loud for him. Perhaps this was an exercise to improve Luke’s reading skills and independent thinking, or perhaps he was just too lazy or preoccupied to do it himself, but this grew into the joke that our genius Professor was actually illiterate this whole time.
Layton’s smash invitation is hidden in PLvsAA. It’s no secret that the fandom would kill a man to get the Professor into the smash brothers franchise. In PLvsAA one of the puzzle artworks features a goat eating a familiar white envelope with a red stamp, sparking the joke that either Layton or Wright got the invitation their respective fans desired, but it got lost along the way.
The science board is the mysteriously vague organization Don Paolo got kicked out of for the crime of being evil. It’s the epitome of liberal arts majors and art school graduates trying to bs their way around not knowing any science and failing miserably. “He was very good at all the sciences, but then the CEO of science told him to stop because he was using the power of science for evil science”. They do this again when “Dr. Stahngun” describes his time machine what with the soolha coils and whatnot.
Hoogland is death cult initiation is a parody of “Mario 64 is Freemason initiation” which is ridiculous, just like the creepy human sacrifice subplot of AL.
You can see the reflection of someone watching you in Aurora’s eye references the famous, creepy Talking Angela theory. In retrospect it would’ve been funnier if I said Angela instead of Aurora.
Every copy of Professor Layton is personalized references the famous “every copy of Super Mario 64 is personalized”
Clive’s fat ass in HD is a meme that originated from the announcement of UFHD, saying that half of the excited fans wanted to cry again while the other half were simply attracted to Clive. If we want to enter real bottom-section-of-the-iceberg-chart territory then let’s say Clive’s character has some sort of psychological siren properties that draw people to him like a magnet and/or Harry Styles.
Things I pulled out of my ass for shits and giggles
Infinite hint coin hack: I’m sure a tech savvy cheater could hack the game for infinite hint coins, but there’s no easy or interesting way. I don’t know why someone would do that though, considering a lot of the hints suck and there are puzzle guides on the internet.
Cringy, unused Randall villain monologue. This joke is derived from the actual scrapped MM content as well as deleted content being a popular element of iceberg charts, but it’s sadly not real. Would’ve been hilarious, though.
Last Specter Puzzle 031: Light Height tracks and records children’s intelligence level. It doesn’t, but it’s always fun to make fun of arguably THE most ridiculously difficult puzzle in the franchise. (Seriously, do they expect 7+ year olds to know trigonometry???)
Hershel struggles with tea addiction. Hershel from the games drinks tea in moderation, but the manga begs to differ. He has a tea set in the Laytonmobile, and an attempt at teatime while driving causes him to crash.
Folsense is a metaphor for Alzheimer’s. This is inspired by those edgy kids’ show theories where everyone’s in hell or something, but nobody has ever said this.
London Life is reality and the plot of the games is all in Luke’s head. That’s one way to fill every plot hole. How funny would it be if Luke made up crazy characters and stories based off his fellow townspeople Sharkboy and Lavagirl style. “This dude who lives in a castle and asks people to give him all their money for nothing in return is a vampire from 50 years ago involved in a tragic love story”.
Secret ending encoded into Tago’s Head Gymnastics. It’d be crazy if there was, and Dimitri would hound Tago for the secret to time travel. If you didn’t know, the Layton games started as an adaption of Akira Tago’s puzzle series, except they decided to add a story to make it more interesting and marketable.
Daily puzzles datamine your DS. I’m bad with technology but is it even possible to datamine a DS??? Idk, but I think my DS lite from 2008 is safe.
boutta go into the deep dark and see if the warden is good.
will come back with results
“<Warden Draws Near>”
excuse me captions,
huh?
FUCK I STEPPED ON A SHRIEKER
OH GOD HE’S HERE
ohp hold on how to move a screenshot to my phone?
ok ive got it. back to the expedition
Ok I lost him. Look at that dude. He kept making this weird sandy noise that I didn’t recognize and that wasn’t showing up in the captions. I’ll have to look into this.
So far I’ve found exactly one chest and the only thing of note it had was some amethyst. I’ll keep going deeper.
WHY IS HE STILL COMING TOWARD ME
Hoping I lost him for real this time, but I’ve gotta keep moving to ensure it never smells me again.
Unfortunately, now my night vision is running low, and I’m nearly out of wool. I may have been ill-prepared for this excursion, but that won’t deter me. I’ll make do with what I have. The floors are woolen, I can take some of that wool for my own.
I fell and made a sound, which gave me a mini heart attack, but luckily it didn’t alert the warden, or any sensors. Time to start ripping up these floors.
Oh god, I just heard it slink back into the sludge, and that sound was disgusting. I feel tingly, in a bad, miserable way, from that sound.
Turns out there’s two layers of wool in the floor, which is very helpful. However, when obtaining the wool from eye level, you can’t see if there are veins growing on top of it. I learned that the hard way when I removed some wool and, in the process, severed the veins on top of it and alerted a sensor. Fortunately, there were no shriekers nearby, but I’ll need to be careful.
Wait, my shears are about to break. Does that make noise?
I’m going to stop just in case. Got over two stacks of wool, hopefully that will last me a little while.
Well, that looks promising.
Ok.
Pros and cons of being up here.
CONS:
• There’s nothing up here
PROS:
• There’s nothing up here
Good place to take stock I suppose. Thinking I’ll drink another night vision potion now that nothing can hear me, and use this high-up place as a vantage point to figure out where to go next. Be back in a bit.
i fell
What is this? I’ve never seen this before. I assume these will activate some sort of door or something.
TRAP, IT’S A TRAP, WHY IS IT A TRAP
As soon as I stepped on that pressure plate it made so many sounds the captions stretched as high up as they possibly could have, activating multiple shriekers at once and summoning the warden instantly. Why the hell is that a thing.
lol stupid idiot. he stepped on the pressure plate and now he has no idea what to do
Still not over that leaving sound.
Oh god. I’m gonna have to go over there, aren’t I?
Wish me luck.
There’s a bat over here! Fly away little guy, it’s not safe here!
It keeps activating the sensors. Fortunately bats can’t activate shriekers.
Just saw the sculk catalyst activate.
What happened to that bat?
I got two echo shards and three disc fragments. Six more fragments to go. I’ve spotted another spot with loot; I’ll go there next.
Something is still activating the sensors.
Found four more fragments at the second location. There was another once of those icy trapped places, so I decided to investigate and figure out what the deal is.
I made a very bad decision and was rewarded! I dug into the side of the structure and found a chest. I know there’s some sort of mechanism in here that summons the warden instantly, though, so I have to be very careful.
It was just survival supplies, though pretty useful ones - golden carrots, stew, and snowballs. Also some ice. Why were they storing carrots in the cold storage?
There’s also a lever down here, though. It would be against my better judgement to flip it.
I’m going to flip it.
It was very anticlimactic. It just opened a door. I guess I just got really unlucky earlier and it wasn’t actually a trap.
I’m out of that building now and just had a hearty scare. Didn’t see anything dangerous around me, so I placed a torch, only to be greeted by the sounds of not one, not two, but six sculk sensors. No shriekers around though! Still standing strong!
Only two more disc fragments left to find, and I think I’m about to find them. Then, I’m going for the middle.
OH GOD I SUMMONED IT. I GOT TOO GREEDY AND PLACED A TORCH WITHOUT CHECKING MY SURROUNDINGS. I AM IN A NARROW HALLWAY. I HAVE FIVE WOOL LEFT. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW I WILL SURVIVE THIS SITUATION BUT I WILL
Not sure if you can see it in this picture, but it’s there.
I’m out of its range but a bat keeps provoking it and it is in rage mode. The bat is leading it toward me. It’s a lot closer than I’d like, and I have nowhere to go. I just have to hope it doesn’t get any closer.
Ok, it’s gone now, thank god.
Unfortunately, though, I didn’t get the treasure, so I’m gonna have to go right back over there…
Still hate that sound, by the way. No matter how much relief it brings me.
I’ve just alerted it for what I think will be the last time.
I couldn’t see anything, I couldn’t rely on any of my senses to know my surroundings. I was running blindly, and I fell into a hole.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t escape. I couldn’t muffle my sounds with wool to give me an opportunity to break away. All I could do was listen.
I heard its sniffing stop when it took notice of me. I heard its heartbeat get faster. I heard its whines turn into roars. And then I saw it.
I see no possible way I could escape this situation. I am going to die.
I will not complete the disc. I will not reach the middle.
Darn.
CONCLUSION
The Deep Dark is pretty cool! Very tense. You should definitely come well-prepared.
The Warden isn’t as much of a “oops, you let go of [LSHIFT], now you die!” as I had thought. Turns out the sense of smell was a pretty good addition. It’s really scary, just as it should be. I think it should make a sad noise or something when it can’t find you and decides to dig back into the earth, to make it clear that that’s it giving up and leaving rather than some other slimy action.
The loot in the deep dark is pretty “meh” to be honest. Hoping in future updates they add more stuff of worth, because right now it’s just Disc 5 and Echo Shards, which are only used to craft the Recovery Compass.
I think it’s a pretty bizarre decision to have the compass that tells you where you last died be in the most dangerous place in the entire game. The type of player who survives the deep dark and manages to obtain the Recovery Compass is not the type of player who will need the Recovery Compass. The people who would benefit the most from such an item are those who die a lot, and they would be unlikely to acquire it.
Disc 5 is cool, but it doesn’t have any functional use, so when it’s the only other unique loot you can find here, that means there needs to be more. Hopefully more things to craft with Echo Shards.
I saw a really good idea on the minecraft suggestions subreddit - being able to store sounds inside of Echo Shards, and play them by putting the shard in a dispenser. Here’s that post if you want to read it!
Oh, right, there’s also Swift Sneak, which is useful for… getting more of the other loot. And I guess there’s the sculk items, but those you can get without going to the ancient city, you can just find them in the normal Deep Dark. Speaking of which, when you’re not in a city, the Deep Dark… sucks. There’s no loot that you couldn’t find in a city. There’s nothing of worth, it is just danger. I feel that they should bring back those old campouts that were shown in the original showcase of the warden.
Can’t think of anything else to say. In conclusion It’s a fun experience, but the risk is not worth the reward, and I don’t see that changing in this update, as we’ve reached the phase of small tweaks and new commands with no significant new features being added. Hopefully they add more in future updates.
