Well I added something but it got deleted by accident
I was reading the comments and I wanna add things to my theory with @gg_253 theory (ily, you payed attention to dreadful night's class(づ￣ ³￣)づ)
The theory of the scenarios its really genious, but it still doesn't fit for me. Because there are more tapes than scenarios till now, but maybe we will be given an explanation later, and it would make sense. There are places where they can't enter yet.
So we know Bada can't kill the killer but Doha can. So I split two theories from here
Doha its some kind of bug in the game or his playable self is bugged
OR, every character has a special ability.
We still have no idea why Doha killed that npc villager back in the first chapter AND we don't know if he had any memories there.
Im adding things to what @gg_253 said about glasses. I agree with them, now that I understand that part, glasses was awake and purposefully staying "invisible" for Bada and Doha, until Doha discovered him.
This fits with my theory that somenthing happened between them and someone fucked with the tapes. Now we have a suspect: glasses.
I think Bada its in his right to be in love with Doha and defend him, I don't think he's dumb, he was alone for a long time and Doha protects and cares about him, in a... peculiar way (?.
And that change wasn't overnight, if he wasn't having feelings for him, he wouldn't have that talk with that npc before.
Also, it would make less sense if he trusts one of the guys who suddenly awoke, just because he said they were best friends. He has more history (that he remembers) with Doha and he IS his mate and companion.
I think Doha its not trying to keep Bada in the game forever (yet) but trying to make progress on his own so he can know first and make a decision without Bada trying to do things by himself. I find it cute and yandere, he doesn't want to be left alone.
But there will be a fight because of that in the future when everything comes out of the closet.
Even more if im guessing right, and Doha was a bad guy in the past
(I apologise for my grammar, English is not my first language)
My theory is basically the same, except that I didn’t think about the aspect that tapes can be erased, but that makes a lot of sense. I made a rough timeline of the events, that have happened in the Manhwa and have happened in the past.
What I noticed is that we have a severe lack of information on Seo Jaeseob, which is kind of weird seeing as we now have information about everyone except him. I think he is either a player without his tape or possibly has his own goals. He could also hide a big secret, because the author is making him as invisible as possible, which is quite suspicious.
Nam Doha is also extremely suspicious due to his memories. In chapter 1 we see Doha kills an Outsider who comes to help, yet Bada seems to have never seen Doha do something like this. Before that Bada says he’s been playing alone for a long time, and I think it wasn’t his first time in the attic. If Bada has been playing alone for so long, it is even weirder that Doha has never acted „out of character“ before, which makes me think Doha has some of his memories and has been hiding that from Bada, looking for a chance to test him. Cue the torture scene.
In chapter 43 Park Yongtaek mentions how Doha is an imposter, which makes me believe he was never a part from the original group, but I’m still working on theories what or who he is if he’s not with the group.
Pi Seungchan is also more important than Bada assumes. When I made my timeline, I noticed that Pi Seongchans appearances in the past, which Yongtaek told us about, are longer than expected. Yongtaek says that Bada and Seungchan played together, possibly without him and also before he became aware. Meaning there is a period in the beginning where Bada and Seungchan team up and play alone and Yongtaek joins later on and together they solve the mountain shelter. After Yongtaeks memories cut of, Seungchan still seemed to keep his, as Yongtaek tries to start a conversation with him, just to notice he’s an NPC now. Meaning Seungchan is probably the character with the most coherent knowledge about everybody and their situation.
Seungchan is also the only one to actually warn about Doha. Yongtaek only seems to know that Doha is dangerous because Seungchan tells him that, and he sees Doha kill Seungchan only now.
Bada has trouble with his memories and seems to be missing a huge chunk of it, like a big part of my timeline where Bada is involved which he has forgotten. He doesn’t recall Doha from before the start of our Manhwa, but he’s aware that Doha is quite dangerous, yet trusts him because of his recent actions.
To get to the point, Seungchan knows something about Doha, which no one else remembers, which is why we will probably get to know more about him soon.
My theory to the circumstances surrounding the horror game is that it is either a timeloop or something like jumanji. Your bodies are in the real world and you enter a game and get stuck in it and you have to solve it to get out. Where Doha comes in again as the imposter. The five players enter the game, meaning Bada, Seungchan, Yongtaek, Hyungshin and Jaeseob, and Doha appears as an unknown sixth player. Basically the plot surrounding jumanji: welcome to the jungle.
Based on this every player was self aware in the beginning of the game, but due to accidents or internal conflicts they start losing their memories, because they become unable to save them. Here Bada, Doha and Seungchan come into play. Doha probably kept his memories, as he is maybe the cause of internal conflicts. Either Bada or Seungchan stays self aware, and wakes the others back up. My guess is that this is Seungchan who is up against Doha, which is why he warns the other to be aware of him.
Another interesting detail is that as you mentioned the car tape is Seungchans. During the period where Hyungshin is half aware in the Manhwa, there is the possibility that Seungchan is completely aware, because he also touches the car tape. The car tape only works well for Seungchan and not Hyungshin, because it is not Hyungshin but Seungchans tape.
Which means when Seungchan suddenly starts acting „weird“ and the „DLC“ unlocks, it maybe is just Seungchan who regained his memories and is avoiding Doha, maybe even trying to split up Bada and Doha. Another possibility is that „let’s go explore the abandoned house“ was a code to see if Bada remembers him, just like the code between Seungchan and Yongtaek.
Ok, That would be all.
For whoever reads all this, thank you for your interest in my rambling!^^
just here to add that a normal tape recorder will not simply erase the information on the casette and leave it blank but will override it with a new recording
them overriding their own saves and thus memory loss happening seems more casette and gameplay like (to me) than erasing their last plays but who knows
ps: doha was a cutie to bada and made him (secret code?) noodles, dude ain't that bad haha
Hi!!! Thank you for taking the time, you are a genious too, im adding all you said to my theory (sorry Im not good at korean names, I just remember bada and doha cuz i love them, but I made nicknames that were funny and I had read from other comments for the rest of them)
I have a little twist with your theory about Doha. I didn't realised redhead said imposter. I read the chapter again, and you were right.
BUT, maybe its not an imposter like, outside the game itself, but its his npc role, like all the other characters has theirs, maybe Bada just didn't notice it before (just like Doha says, he's careless). Maybe Doha's original role its to "betray" his pals, or to do "unmoral" desicions (Bada talks about this on the first chapter, that Doha's moral compass is broken) and that's the reason why he can killl the killer!!!!
Let's give Doha a little credit too, because yes, he killed the villager, but later we saw that the villagers try to kill the people they encounter, like Bada.
So we don't know if Doha did it in self defense or if he alredy knew about that fact.
I don't really think he's lying about his memories because of the chat he had with glasses. The author made that scene on porpuse. Nothing is done "just because" in a work, and this work its really good too.
OMG YOU ARE RIGHT ABOUT GLASSES. But lets not forget that he talks bad about Bada too, so there's definetely something shady there.
I forgot to mention what you said about blue hair, it totally makes sense with the explanation you did. Because it wasn't his tape.
And finally, I think the same about sassy guy (blue haired bf (?) But I didn't mention it because I think we are still far from that part. But definetely he is going to be important later on. Plus, his temperament could be very interesting with the plus of being "awake"
Oh thank you! You are right, I didn't get to use tapes, I learnt it from my parents so I didn't remember it worked that way. It definetely makes sense too! We are adding it to the main theory hahah
I completely agree! I think the most suspicious characters till now are Doha and Seungchan (Glasses), because their motives are still very unclear.
I love this story so much and I love even more that there are people with theories just as crazy as mine^^
I love your take on Doha, I didn’t even think of it that way, but it’s totally possible.
OMG I WAS RIGHTTTTT AND THERE'S MORE. (I don't know how to see my previous comments on old chapters, but I will continue).
Well, well, well... I was fucking right with being one tape for each character, and their personalities reflecting on the drawings in the tapes.
Im very worried about our lovebirds Bada and Doha. Mostly for Doha, cuz what im about to say right now will left him in a really bad position.
Here I go...
Well, now we know that if you stop the tape, or you take it out of the tapeplayer, in the next session, the character who that tape belonged, will not remember anything and will turn to an npc.
The weird thing is, redhead remembered everything when they replayed his tape... strange.. right?
THIS IS NOT CANNON but, what I roughly know about tapes and tapeplayers, is that there are buttons for play, stop, record, rewind and ERASE.
Bada till now only played or stopped them, but nothing more.
So, following this rules, it would make sense to think someone erased Bada's memories and when he restarted he thought he was playing alone.
So what im theorizing is that, redhead, glasses and Bada were a team, Bada started alone and discovered little by little how to "awake" the rest of his partners.
They played together and acomplished a lot of missions. BUT something went wrong.
Redhead and glasses said in the present that Doha is a dangerous guy, but we don't know exactly what happened yet. If they say it because of his "peculiar" personality and ways of solving things, or if they actually interacted with the "awaken" Doha.
What we know is that if Doha had any memories before, if he was a playable character like redhead, galsses and Bada, then someone ERASED his memories, because, when Bada awoke him at the begging of the story, he genuenly didn't remember anything, and we confirm it with the conversation he has with glasses a few chapters ago.
So something happened between the four of them... someone started to mess with the tapes. Redhead said that for a long time, Bada's memory was fuzzy so glasses and redhead played alone
But at one point, one or more of them, messed up the tapes and they ended like this, when the story in the present starts:
-Bada:
Tape: common grey (?
Memory erased: Yes.
Tape status: playing
-Doha:
Tape: black
Memory erased: Yes.
Tape status: stopped (until Bada or someone plays it at the begging of the story, and then Doha keeps played his own tape, so now he remembers the present things he lived with Bada)
-Redhead:
Tape: Smiley faces and word "end"
Memory erased: No
Tape status: stopped (until Bada played it two chapter ago)
-Glasses:
Tape: car tape
Memory erased: im not sure, I would say no
Tape status: stopped
So im sure there was an incident between the four (even the six) of them, and that was the result. Im afraid that maybe Doha was a really bad guy, and we can consider the posibility of Bada being the one who erased Doha's memories (this is my dramatic doomed yaoi parasite taking wild guesses though). Or maybe Doha erasing Bada's memory and someone else "avanged" him by erasing Doha's.
Tell me what you think in the comments, Im excited, maybe one of you remembers more details (I just read the story one time and im following the updates)