WMG / Bug Fables

Deep Lore Guessing

Seedlings are an invasive species native to the Eastern Lands, and began spreading throughout Bugaria due to a bug bringing a Tangy Berry through the Dead Lands and trying to grow more.

Evidence:

• No Seedling species were known during Leif’s time.
• Seedlings have since spread across all Bugaria, even extending to Kabbu’s homeland, and evolved multiple regional variations.
• Seedlings are at this point in time considered common pests.
• Seedlings can reproduce from Tangy Berries, which grow on King Seedlings and Golden Seedlings. Any variant may be produced by the King Seedling regardless of the current climate.
• The Tangy Berry is considered a non-native fruit to Bugaria, with the only stocked merchant being a native of the mysterious Eastern Kingdom( the front yard). However, they can be farmed from rare Golden Seedlings.

The Mother Crystal fell at an angle, and its impact crater is in the Eastern Lands

Dead Lander Omega was mutated by crystal energy

If Omega really is a mutated giant then they could have been mutated by some form of magic in the crystals.

The Dead Landers don't actually want to fight, but they don't have a choice.

Word of God confirms that α, β, and γ are terrified of Ω. They're Trapped in Villainy — if they don't keep Ω entertained by doing their bidding, then Ω will keep themself occupied by tormenting them. And Ω at the very least sees γ as its plaything with how casually they drop them wherever.α, β, and γ can't help that they're disgusting mutants and probably aren't even physically capable of communication; the only thing they want is to not die. They're probably starving as well, which is why they go after Roy the Roach when he wants to plant crops; he has food. As well as why they go after any travelers unfortunate enough to enter their territory; they are food.

The Everlasting Sapling itself is parasitic.

We're never told how the Sapling came to be in the first place. The seed that the Wasp King ate sprouted inside of him and ate him from the inside out, with all of the life energy he spent in the battle giving it a veritable feast that accelerated its growth. His desperation attack was the last bit of energy it needed to fully mature.

Sequel Guesses

The rebuilt Wasp Kingdom will either be the hub town or an early area

If so, Fast Travel may involve Wasps setting up a flying transportation service

The sequel will begin in Kabbu’s homeland and travel to the Eastern Lands(front yard)

Monsieur Scarlet will be a party member or assist character

Alternatively, he could appear as a boss again.

More party members will be useable

The plot will concern the Giants and their disappearance

And maybe even their return.

The Ten Sorcerors will play a role in a sequel

Based on The Law of Conservation of Detail, the game seems to be setting something up about this. Kabbu mentions at the beginning that only ten known bugs in history have used magic, so we have a specific number. This comes up again in an out of the way side area when meeting the Spider Wizard, who Kabbu believes is one of the Ten. Leif also notes that he doesn't feel any crystal magic from him, suggesting that his powers are something different. All of this looks like something set to be explored more in a sequel, maybe involving finding the other nine Sorcerors and getting them to team up to stop some apocalyptic event. After all, nine makes a very Plot Coupon-y number, especially if that's lowered with things like two Sorcerors being found in one chapter, one of them being the Big Bad for said sequel, Hoaxe having already been one of the Ten, etc.

Mars (or Pluto) will be the Big Bad of a future game

A hidden room in Upper Snakemouth shows that Venus has at least two "siblings," Pluto and Mars, both of which are "stable." While Venus, the benevolent goddess, is named after the goddess of beauty, it's reasonable to think that the one named after the god of war won't be so friendly. The game could even have a Bait-and-Switch that's the reverse of what happened in Chapter 2: Venus was "hinted at" to be some creepy venus fly trap monster before turning out to be Good All Along (see Bait-and-Switch on the main page); what if the game presents Mars as a kindhearted god, before he turns out to be Evil All Along? He at least has good publicity, assuming that the Eastern Doll is in his image.

Pluto could also be the villain, if Mars — the oldest of the three and the one with the name more directly linked to "violence" — would be too obvious. Or both or neither.

Team Snakemouth will not be the main characters if there's a next game.

Their character arcs are complete. The secrets of their pasts have been explored, and their development has closure. Either they'll still be present as major NPCs, with a legendary status similar to Maki's, or the next game will be a prequel.

Other

The title of the final boss theme is meant to represent what the main party could have become/how they're different from the Wasp King

The final boss theme is named "Transcending, Overpowering, Everlasting", mirroring the three members of the party:

Vi was initially teased for wanting to be an explorer instead of working in the Hive, and initially refused to apologize to Jaune because she thought her sister had it coming. Dialogue from her sister and factory workers while in the Hive illustrates it: Vi broke with tradition and was summarily ostracized, though not to the degree Vi claims. Had the rest of Team Snakemouth not called her out on her pettiness and generally acted as a moderating influence on her worst impulses, it's entirely possible she would have continued to try and prove herself better than all the bugs back in the Bee Kingdom, on the basis that art and science were inherently worse professions to pursue than her exploring. Her parallels to the Wasp King are most explicit; without her friends, Vi could have easily become just like him, throwing people away in pursuit of an artifact that would let her get back at the bugs who had "wronged" her. With the help of her friends, Vi swallows her pride and apologizes to her sister, transcending their rivalry.

Kabbu was handed a crippling case of survivor's guilt due to The Beast killing his mentor and his friend, and throughout the game he channels a lot of his feelings over it into protecting Team Snakemouth, serving as their tank in battle and the moral center outside of it. Had the team not formed, he would have channeled his sense of guilt into trying to achieve his vengeance. However, he ultimately only defeats The Beast because he stops being reckless after it endangers Leif and Vi; while he may have eventually overpowered it through brute force anyway, it would mean he wouldn't have gotten as much closure. He would have defined himself through his search for power instead of being able to grow as a person (well, bug) thanks to his new friends. This parallels Hoaxe's search for the Everlasting Sapling, which was for him a search to gain the power to wreak vengeance on those he had been tormented and wronged by. Kabbu ultimately defeats the Beast, overpowering it not only because he's avenging his old team, but is also determined to save his new friends.

Leif's primary issue was that of identity, struggling with the idea that he was an experimented-upon cordyceps fungus with the actual Leif's memories, and that he was just puppeteering around a corpse. He has a pretty big crisis upon finding out the truth, but is reassured by the rest of the team that even if he's not the actual Leif, the connections he made with people during the time he believed himself to be were real. He is reassured by his team that the best way to honor the original Leif is to explore as he would have. Assuming Leif somehow escaped Spuder's web alone, he would have most likely remained ignorant of the truth for much longer and taken the reveal much harder. Without encouragement from his friends, he might have been prompted to search for the Everlasting Sapling to use it selfishly. This parallels Hoaxe's search for the Sapling as a way to obtain immortality, also for selfish reasons. However, while Hoaxe's drive to obtain immortality ruins the lives of countless bugs and ultimately becomes his downfall, Leif uses the new "life" from the cordyceps absorbing Leif's memories and personality to bring closure to his host's descendants. Even though the original Leif is dead, in a way he's been granted everlasting life from our Leif's efforts to honor him and his loved ones.

Something happened in the author of Axis Invert's personal life during its writing.

The first two Bad Books have very common mistakes taken to an extreme. But based on what Reeves describes about the last of them, making him draw the line between invokedSo Bad, It's Good and just plain bad in-universe, it goes beyond what's typical of even an Audience Alienating Sudden Downer Ending. An ending like that after such a solid story only comes out of a creator suddenly deciding to throw it all away.

Zasp is so loyal to Mothiva because she helped him sneak out of the Wasp Kingdom.

As a celebrity, it's possible that Mothiva's career took her to the Wasp Kingdom on a tour. Hoaxe's plan was already underway, but wasn't widely known yet. Zasp approached her after one of her concerts and, immune to the brainwashing magic that had already taken root in everyone else due to his damaged antennae, alerted her that the situation in the kingdom was about to turn very bad, and he needed out fast. Agreeing with him that something was up, not to mention seeing an opportunity to have a lackey under her heel, she agreed to disguise him as one of her staff on her way out. The two have been inseparable since.

Why Vi left the Hive

From Tatters on Something Awful:

...I have a theory as to why Vi is so disdainful of The Hive and the Bee way of life.

See, in real bees there's a thing called Colony Collapse Disorder, which causes them to stop acting as a cohesive unit.

I think Vi is patient zero of a CCD outbreak and saved the hive by going off to become an adventurer.

Kabbu lost his family in the Northern Kingdom

A huge part of Kabbu's identity is defined by loss and after Leif barely survives the Dune Scorpion attack, he confesses that he's lost so many already so he didn't want to lose Leif too, and 'many' implies more than just his friend Bit and his master. And while Vi has her sister and her mother the Queen (and technically the whole Hive), and Leif has his descendants while also occasionally bringing up his parents in optional conversations, Kabbu never once mentions anything about his own family, despite how keen he is to help Leif and Vi with their family problems – or alternatively, it's because of his loss that he's so keen to help out. Given how it is known that the Northern Kingdom is often subject to attacks by Dead Landers, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that Kabbu lost his parents or other family members to such creatures and he simply doesn't bring it up during the game because the event took place years ago and even he can't blame himself for it, and he sees no reason to mention it now and doesn't want pity from it.