So I'm a Spider, So What? - Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?

[Kraco]

I think you're jumping to conclusions to think that her current point is STILL 15 years in the past. As she lives and grows in the cave, a lot more time could be passing than we realize.

Yeah, the point where the egg was taken was 15 years before where the kids are. But for all we know, this fight with the dragon could be taking place 5 years later. The White Spider fighting the Hero could be her 10 years later. And the Demon Lord could be her 15 years later.

I most certainly haven't got a feeling of such major time jumps at any point of the story. Her life has been very hectic the vast majority of the time, which means it's going from hour to hour, from day to day at most, as far as I can see.

I'm pretty sure the hero big brother was on the trip to hunt the white spider for all the episodes so far, with the little brother missing his big bro and talking about him until the other students' ears started falling off. Now the big bro came back, briefly, and they met. However, the hero had to leave immediately again. In the demon lord's meeting we got two days of time before a war begins. I'd assume the hero didn't last too many days after that.

[DarthEnderX]

It really does bug me that her 4th mind is just magic again. Her split minds basically allowed her to be an entire JRPG party unto itself. But now her party is like, a Monk, a Scholar, and 2 Black Mages. That's a poorly balanced party!

They could have at least made, like, one a Mage and the other a Cleric.

I most certainly haven't got a feeling of such major time jumps at any point of the story.

I hadn't gotten the feeling that that we were jumping around between time periods either until this episode happened. But we were doing in the whole time.

They're apparently intentionally obfuscating how time is passing, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if she's been living in that cave for years already, and we're just getting the highlights of her leveling up and learning new skills.

[Munsu]

I think you're jumping to conclusions to think that her current point is STILL 15 years in the past. As she lives and grows in the cave, a lot more time could be passing than we realize.

Yeah, the point where the egg was taken was 15 years before where the kids are. But for all we know, this fight with the dragon could be taking place 5 years later. The White Spider fighting the Hero could be her 10 years later. And the Demon Lord could be her 15 years later.

I don't know, I think her life and story to this point has been very straightforward to believe her plotline has seen any sort of time jump.

The fight with the hero was indeed in the future, but that's about it. And sure, the Demon Lord scenes are in the future... but when we've seen the Kumoko scenes, there has been no indication of a time lapse.

[DarthEnderX]

Okay, lot to unpack there. The two storylines AREN'T synced up, because that scene with the egg happened long before the human part of the storyline(and means dragon girl and Kumiko spawned in the same place). Also, when viewed from the human perspective, Kumiko doesn't have her chibi face. She looks like a normal taratect.

Which means, maybe the White Spider WAS Kumiko. Since her story isn't up to that part in the timeline.

Also maybe dragon girl can't speak afterall? She didn't speak at all to when the brother was talking about her. Has she just been talking to herself this whole time? They made that very confusing if that's the case. Kumiko speaks, but doesn't know the language.


2 of the brains are magic? That's not very interesting... But maybe it means she can cast 2 spells at once.

Isn't that the answer already? "Also"? Think closer. That demon lord even used threads like ... spider threads. Kumoko evolving for 15 years and going the demon lord route? I have no doubt she'd end up looking human, that's how it goes, see the lizard girl in Slime Tensei that evolved into a human.

Agreed. Since there's little indication of what's happening when, the Demon Lord might ALSO be Kumiko. Girl, silk and Abyss powers, knows a Japanese guy, met the dark knight guy a "long time ago"...it all fits.

She seems pretty evil now though if that's her. That's too bad.

Pretty nuts episode.

Timeline wise, it means Kumoko and the rest of the class were born around the same time, 15 years prior to the current school timeline. No idea what it means for their teacher or the demon chick that recruited the asshole guy.
It also means that Fei is the youngest or even the last student to be reincarnated.

Here's what I'm wondering though, if the characters were reincarnated based on their old ages. All the students were roughly the same ages, so they reincarnated at about the same time.

But their teacher, if she was, say, 10 years older than her students, maybe she was reincarnated 10 years earlier. Which would explain why she knows so much more than them.

[MFauli]

OR (combining theories):

Kumoko *was* the white spider. Either it was her degenerated form, a consequence of the taboo level (raise it too quickly and your turn into a beast) OR she actually didn't die there and just escaped, leaving a perfect kagebunshin to deceive the hero party.

That's why demon lord Kumoko holds a grudge against the hero.

An alternative theory, that incorporates the different voice: White spider was degenerated Kumoko, same as above. BUT: she had laid eggs at that point and the demon lord girl is her offspring. Basically she gave birth to a high-level white spider baby with human intelligence, except that baby would be careful not to raise the taboo level too much, thus keeping her intelligence and using all the years to become a spider demon lord.

[David75]

Demon Lord could be Kumoko ? BTW I kept watching, gets better...
After reading the comments here I rewatched the sequence:
-earrings could be some of her eyes
-eye lashes spikes when she faces you
-the thread she uses and how it snaps feels spider.
-her voice is different except the Juuncho line has intonations that feel almost the same
-when she talks with that guy in armor, she mentions a meeting long in the past. There's no doubt it's the guy that teleported to the cave to check that dragon's death
-she's from the same class as the others, she knows the soon to be dead hero's little brother former world name

The teacher told the others Wakaba is dead because after all she's the last boss. The Human society is built around that: they have to kill the Demon Lord. They are students at a school where they learn how to kill monsters and eventually the Demon Lord.
It's logical to tell them she's dead, in their best interrest.

Also, administrator D set the world that way because after all having former classmates fight to death is a lot more fun.

Now I do not have the will to check if their classroom exploded or something similar happened. Maybe it was only a fade to white.
Then we don't know what kind of collective state can bring so many minds in sync in a videogame like world that still feels real and slow like a real world, but in a fantasy setting.

[Ryllharu]

Removing this content, giving away too much info.

[MFauli]

Thx Munsu, and guys, is it REALLY that hard not to spoil things when you've already read the source material? Come on. :/

[Munsu]

Thx Munsu, and guys, is it REALLY that hard not to spoil things when you've already read the source material? Come on. :/

It wasn't a source material issue, but it contained info that would ruin speculations outside of what shown in the anime itself and using outside sources. So didn't see it prudent. To be clear, he didn't spoil anything from sources outside of anime... it was in a gray area, kinda like spoiling things from a next episode preview, but going a step further than that. And in general, I thought it would ruin the discussion for you guys. That's all I'll say on that matter.

[Ryllharu]

I'm fine with that decision. The anime itself is loaded with spoilers.

The Opening has showed Julius dying this entire time, ffs.

It's not extremely difficult to put some of this shit together with the school half being shown.

[Munsu]

The Opening has showed Julius dying this entire time, ffs.

Too busy listening to the song to actually watch what's going on in the video LOL.

It's not extremely difficult to put some of this shit together with the school half being shown.

I haven't read the manga, but in regards the different plotlines (school vs Kumoko), I felt that the LN did a better job with it. But I think part of the decision of what was decided to do with the anime was heavily influenced by the time constraint of fitting things into a 24 episode season. So in that regard, have little to complaint while still retaining some of the desired effects. But won't say much more on this particular aspect in case some things are yet to be revealed.

[DarthEnderX]

I'm fine with that decision. The anime itself is loaded with spoilers.

The Opening has showed Julius dying this entire time, ffs.

It's not extremely difficult to put some of this shit together with the school half being shown.

I find most of it goes by too fast to parse. I got more spoilers out of the ED than the OP. As it gives a lot of focus to Kumiko's current form, and the 4 Kumikos.

Though, I originally assumed the 4 Kumikos was going to be her making up personalities to talk to out of solitude induced madness.

[Ryllharu]

Bottom line, do not watch the OP/ED closely after episodes 8 & 9.

[shinta|hikari]

Kumoko is being misspelled here more than Eren (Erin) in the Attack on Titan thread.

Kumo = Spider
Ko = Child, but in this case it's a common suffix for female Japanese names, like Hanako, etc.

[MFauli]

Kumoko is being misspelled here more than Eren (Erin) in the Attack on Titan thread.

Kumo = Spider
Ko = Child, but in this case it's a common suffix for female Japanese names, like Hanako, etc.

thank you. The "Erin" especially is driving me insane, lol.

[DarthEnderX]

...

Arin.

[neflight86]

Just caught up on 8-9. Finally, finally, this story is becoming interesting. I know it was building to something. The drop of the 15 year async was a good twist, as was Kumoko's NPC model in the flashback. I felt tipped off that she was the Demon Lord when she mentioned using 'abyss' magic- the magic we just saw her learn/use- to reign in the squabbling generals on top of spider silk. That plus the time gap made for a satisfying 'aha' moment. The following dialogue with horn-dude and I was convinced she is the demon lord- no doubt in my mind.

The language suggests she may be warring on the humans because she feels, left to their own devices, they will genocide monsters, which she has no choice but to be, so an extension of self preservation. She probably had no special love for her classmates who bullied her or turned a blind eye to the same, so becoming the demon lord isn't so far fetched.

Now I'm going to be even more checked out when she is staring at text walls of skills; knowing there is a more juicy plot further down the road.

[Buffalobiian]

If we're saying Kumoko is the demon lord, then we're saying she killed that spider back a few episodes ago because it was "getting ahead of itself" or something.

The girl who was the 10th group sounded kind of like D.

[Munsu]

If we're saying Kumoko is the demon lord, then we're saying she killed that spider back a few episodes ago because it was "getting ahead of itself" or something.

Could be a red herring, since she seemed to be far away... so she might've been talking about a totally unrelated incident.

[DarthEnderX]

Could be a red herring, since she seemed to be far away... so she might've been talking about a totally unrelated incident.

This. Since things aren't happening chronologically, it could be a misdirect to make us think they're different characters.

If the Demon Lord isn't Kumoko, the writers at least want us to think she is.