I would have wiSSSShed... what is missing from SSSS?

[thorny]

I think more burned than just the factory (if it was the factory.) Doesn't Emil say something to Lalli, when Lalli first comes into his dream, about 'don't worry, the fire never gets this far in the dream' -- thereby implying that in real life it did get to Emil's house?

found it!
http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=810
and the actual line's even clearer:
"this dream always ends long before the fire spreads here".

[White_Tiger]

I think the order is slightly different.  It burned, they hit rock bottom, Emil couldn't have his useless tutors anymore and therefore went to school for two years, then he joined the Cleansers for two years before joining the expedition.  So he didn't drop out of school because they hit rock bottom; instead, he went to school because they hit rock bottom.

Ah yeah, makes sense. I kinda forgot free school was a thing for some reason lol. Explains why he does know things you wouldn't pick up normally in year 90, but his knowledge is still fragmented (I mean, he knows such a thing as a gramophone exists, even if he confuses CDs for them).

[White_Tiger]

I think more burned than just the factory (if it was the factory.) Doesn't Emil say something to Lalli, when Lalli first comes into his dream, about 'don't worry, the fire never gets this far in the dream' -- thereby implying that in real life it did get to Emil's house?

found it!
http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=810
and the actual line's even clearer:
"this dream always ends long before the fire spreads here".

I totally forgot that, yeah! I mean, sure if the family business was lost things would be tight, but it wouldn't make sense to hit rock bottom so fast unless the they lost pretty much everything, right? And having the house literally burn down around him would explain his pyromania a bit - though usually that would leave someone a tad wary of fire. I wonder why Emil was different.

[tehta]

Minna's explanation -- that the fire had been set by Emil's mother -- sort of implied that maybe he got his pyromania from her, at least to me.

[thorny]

Do we know whether Emil's parents are still alive? I can't remember if there's been any reference to them outside that dream.

[tehta]

Minna answered some questions about Emil's parents during a livestream this year. The details are here, but the overall gist was that she had not decided on the details, but his mother died when he was little and his dad is still alive. (That's also when she added the bit about the mom being the one setting the fire.)

[dmeck7755]

Minna answered some questions about Emil's parents during a livestream this year. The details are here, but the overall gist was that she had not decided on the details, but his mother died when he was little and his dad is still alive. (That's also when she added the bit about the mom being the one setting the fire.)

I may be way off on this, but I was under the impression that Emil's mom suffered from depression (Maybe postpartum?)

[thorny]

Minna answered some questions about Emil's parents during a livestream this year. The details are here, but the overall gist was that she had not decided on the details, but his mother died when he was little and his dad is still alive. (That's also when she added the bit about the mom being the one setting the fire.)

Thanks.

So the fire would have been also when he was little. That doesn't match very well with only two years of school afterwards before he became a Cleanser, does it? especially with only two years as cleanser before he joins the expedition as an adult. Maybe Minna doesn't mean the same thing by "really young" in the context of a parent dying that I would; but it also reads as if she was just making up things on the fly in that chat without thinking about whether they actually fit with anything shown earlier.

[lwise]

Thanks.

So the fire would have been also when he was little. That doesn't match very well with only two years of school afterwards before he became a Cleanser, does it? especially with only two years as cleanser before he joins the expedition as an adult. Maybe Minna doesn't mean the same thing by "really young" in the context of a parent dying that I would; but it also reads as if she was just making up things on the fly in that chat without thinking about whether they actually fit with anything shown earlier.

Also, as you yourself pointed out in the "Loose ends and other questions and Minna’s answers" thread, his behavior doesn't make sense if the fire and the subsequent poverty came when Emil was really young. 

In addition, if they'd become poor when he was a small child, then he'd have grown up being poor; it wouldn't have come as a shock to him, and he'd have learned the habits mostly of poor people, not of rich ones (though his parents might have kept some of the habits of rich people, which might still have affected him. But his mother's habits couldn't have continued to affect him if she was already dead --)

[Jitter]

And BAM lwise please proceed to the celebrations thread for non-poor cake!

[Jitter]

About the fire and Emil’s mum: Minna was definitely making it up on the fly that it was the mum who started the fire. I’m really not going to consider it canon, she was joking about it first and then the scenario got so weird that she laughingly said “you know what, I’m going to call this canon”. Before this, she had explained that she hadn’t planned how the mum had died but it had happened when Emil was small.

Someone else, probably in that same discussion, suggested that perhaps that fire caused Emil to become pyromaniac because the aftermath was the first time in years his father was interested in his well-being. Or maybe it was Torb and Siv, or just anyone who wasn’t paid to be. So kid Emil learns to connect fire wirh human warmth. A very sad scenario, but could fit with the absent father and related atmosphere that Lalli shrewdly deducted to mean Emil was raised in an orphanage.

[White_Tiger]

Yeah, that sounds like a good headcanon to me. On other things I wish we'd explored, Mikkel and his backstory. Would've loved some character development for the big guy. 

[JoB]

Minna was definitely making it up on the fly that it was the mum who started the fire. I’m really not going to consider it canon, she was joking about it first and then the scenario got so weird that she laughingly said “you know what, I’m going to call this canon”.

... what, was she imagining Molotov Mum dousing herself with gasoline and YOLOing through the entire Flammable Preciouses Storage on her way out?

[dmeck7755]

Maybe Emil's mom had pyrotechnic leanings.  This was how Emil acquired the talent?

[Jitter]

... what, was she imagining Molotov Mum dousing herself with gasoline and YOLOing through the entire Flammable Preciouses Storage on her way out?

Not quite but close. She said first that the mum had died when Emil was little, of something fairly non-dramatic such as slipping on ice, and that she definitely did not die in the fire. Then, if I recall correctly, there was some talk about earlier fan speculations that she had died in that fire (which she had just said was not the case). And then for reasons I don’t remember exactly, but it had to do with several of us viewers commenting and her spinning just for the heck of it, she came up with a story that the mum had been fed up with the father always working, and therefore she caused the fire to get her husband back at least for a while. But, fleeing the scene of the fire she then slipped and died like was just earlier suggested. I think the mum was supposedly a pyromaniac here so Emil inherited it from her.

This case actually put me off asking some of my questions. I would love to know what she had or has had properly planned (she has said she has forgotten some), but I don’t want her to just whip up something because of being asked, and then call it canon. In this case it was clear she was just throwing this together there and then, and I took the liberty to disregard her “establishing” it into canon, but in some other case she might do the same, just not aloud. Especially the magic system - it’s quite easy to mess it up if not considering properly. It appears she hasn’t really planned it thoroughly but rather considered each new thing or element when it’s needed. So she wouldn’t necessarily have an answer when asked, but might come up with one right there. And that wouldn’t necessarily work at all.

One of the more interesting point in the entire mum / great fire discussion was that Minna mentioned that “the research facility” was burned. What research facility? Did we know of this?? Hmmm? Hmmmmmmm?