Watch For: flowers, roses in particular, mysterious hands, ribbons, pearls, chains, cages, feathers, wings, butterflies, skulls, crowns, crosses, chessboards, curtains, stars, rabbits, mirrors, earrings, colors. Speaking of crowns, there is a masculine-looking hand reaching for the black King on this chessboard: .

The crown of the King chess piece looks very similar to the two Glen crowns. The chessboard theme of alternating color polarity is very prevalent in Pandora Hearts. The floor in Alice's room in Sablier and Alyss' room in the Abyss is also in a chessboard pattern, emphasizing her duality. Given the context of a chess game, it could also be interpreted as standing for two sides in a strategic conflict. If Glen (now Leo) is the black King, then the black chess pieces might represent the Baskervilles and, sure enough, both Gilbert and Vincent are leaning against black chess pieces. Break, on the other hand, is the white Knight, representing both being on the other side of the conflict and alluding to his original illegally-contracted chain (also White Knight). He holds a black chess piece in his hand, possibly representing Gilbert as his pawn. Or are the chess pieces being played by someone else? The chessboard is coming apart to reveal what looks like Barma historic records underneath. Could the Barmas be using everyone in their political games? Or are these the torn pieces of Alice's memories? Both the hand reaching for the King of the Baskervilles and Break holding a Baskerville piece in his hand helps to illustrate the theme of hands as symbolic of connection, influence, and manipulation. Some of these hands even hold strings, hinting at a puppeteering role. More on that later. The full picture has Oz in the foreground, somberly holding some dark flowers that I can't identify. But here a further division between sides becomes apparent: the tears in the chessboard are forming islands that separate characters from each other. Break and Oz are on the same island of chessboard, Gil and Vince are on another, and the Baskerville King is on yet another. There could be at least three sides: Pandora, Vince/Gil, Baskervilles... and Barmas? Of course, we already know that Vincent has always stood a step apart from both Glen and Pandora (even 100 years ago when he tried to sabotage Glen's plans for Gil's sake), and that Gil has always stood by him when push comes to shove. Perhaps they are a kind of wild card and have more latitude in their loyalty between Glen and Pandora. .

Oz has a pair of hands hovering behind him here. There are blue roses in the foreground and yellow roses in the background. There are also curtains and pearls. More on all of these later. Anyway, they seem to be masculine hands, and the left hand has a ring on its index finger. Could these be Jack's hands, symbolic of him having an influence over Oz? Yellow roses are heavily associated with the Vessalius dukedom, and Jack in particular. Yet we haven't seen Jack wear a ring, have we? Note that Oz's eyes are blue... o.o ...blond hair/blue eyes are Nightray colors. Zai had worked with Duke Nightray, and had taken baby Oz someplace right after he was born. Okay, I'm not going there. And no, I haven't seen Zai wear a ring. Oscar does wear a ring on his left hand, but it's not on his index finger. Hrm... Well, with how screwed up everyone else in the series is, Oscar's apparent inconspicuousness IS kinda suspicious. "Blue Oz" appears again, this time with what is clearly Jack's left hand reaching for him. It has no ring. The ambiance here is entirely Jack's: turquoise (as opposed to plain blue) and aquatic. Oz is passively flirting with the idea of getting pulled into Jack's crystal clear waters, or perhaps into the flow of the Abyss' currents. Lilies of purity float in the depths. Are they symbolic of Jack's "twisted" purity, or of Lacie herself? Oz is studying the Lacie melody. The Lacie melody and ringed hand appears again here (hover your mouse over either Oz or Jack for more detail):

This one also has a "dark" Jack with black roses, and Oz with white roses. Despite the black and white chessboard theme of apparent conflict, I think that ultimately the black and white polarities in Pandora Hearts are destined for integration. This picture in particular looks like an elaborate Yin (dark/Jack) Yang (light/Oz) symbol with both polarities having a bit of the other and connected by a common flow. Just like Black Rabbit and White Rabbit may be Twins, in apparent opposition, but are also One, and ultimately want the same thing. Jack here is caressing a feminine hand. Is it Lacie's? Alice's? Alyss'? I think it's Lacie's since the gold watch and the Lacie melody are so dominant in the background - which could be an indication of how much influence she has over all this. .

Gilbert has a mysterious hand reaching for him too. It's a female hand, so could be symbolic of some influence on Gil by one of the Alices? It's a black-gloved hand, so perhaps dark Alice? Vincent did say that "everyone became weird because of Alice," and he specified Gil by name. There is an instance in chapter 8 where, while trying to entice Oz as if he were Jack, the White Rabbit doll manifested a human hand which freaked out Oz. This shows that at least the Will - one of the Alices - is able to reach out to reach out to people in this manner.

<<< Examples of Foreshadowing HOME Roses & Butterflies >>> DISCLAIMER: Pandora Hearts and all the characters, story, and art therein is copyright Jun Mochizuki. No copyright infringement is intended, and I hope that this essay inspires more people to read/watch Pandora Hearts! Translations are by Yen Press and Fallen Syndicate. Visit the Thanks page to see who else helped!