Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 3 is all about good vibes and celebrating the apparent defeat of the Imagined Order, as we saw in the Chapter 3, Season 2 finale, Collision. Right out of the gate, the island has taken on a whole new vibe. The party atmosphere is a new look for the island, which is so often under duress that loopers may not know what to do with themselves this season--take our suggestion: Ride the roller coster.

　　While it's all fun and games for now, don't expect it to last. Through teases in the finale event, as well as the introduction to the new season, it seems we already have several things to start worrying about for the foreseeable future. Get that coaster ride in now; it may not be long for the island. Here are three new mysteries in Fortnite keeping players up at night.

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Is Slone dead?

I could almost answer this one in a word--"no"--because I strongly believe she isn't. Part of why I think that is because she's the best and I don't want her to be gone. But more importantly, a close look at the sequence of events leading to her supposed death suggests she may have narrowly escaped. Therefore, I find the more interesting mystery is not whether she survived, but how will she resurface?

　　It feels like Epic is putting the Imagined Order in the rear-view, like a comic arc that wraps up and sends the superhero down another path clashing with a new enemy (who we'll get to in a moment). I tend to anticipate the IO, or at least Slone, will come surging back to the island sometime soon. Will she be reformed, dejected, or perhaps just as hellbent on grabbing power for herself as ever before?

　　

Who--or what--is Geno, really?

After years of rumors and namedrops, we finally saw a glimpse of Geno (pronounced "jen-oh") in the Season 2 finale event. We learned that he is the true leader of the IO, not Slone--which I and others have theorized--but that simple fact hardly clarified anything because the glimpse we got of him only left things more confusing. He didn't appear human, but neither did he exactly look like one of the alien-like characters we've seen before, such as The Origin or the Cube Queen. Is he part of a new, previously unseen race? Does he even have a physical body, or is he perhaps some sort of computer program? If it's him we see Slone talking to in her revealing loading screen, it's odd that his first two scenes in-game come as holograms.

　　Bonus question: Isn't anyone worried that the Zero Point is just sort of... floating there?This figures to be one of the longest-running mysteries in the game, so don't expect an answer here for another year or two, perhaps not until Chapter 4, currently expected to arrive in December 2023.

　　

Who is the flowery spectator watching over the island?

With Slone out of the picture (for now anyway), the story needs a new Big Bad. Epic may be hinting at just that character at the end of the Chapter 3, Season 3 story trailer (embedded above). While the mysterious character has no official name yet, one popular lore theorist, Ako, has taken to calling her the Bloomwatcher, given that she was both watching over the island and resembles Bloom, the alien fauna character that sort of looks like an off-world Bushranger.

　　This is the grandest mystery of them all, in my opinion, because the fan theories are all over the place. One prominent theory says Bloomwatcher is actually the Cube Queen, who seemed to die by drowning at the end of Chapter 2 when the island flipped and crushed her below. Their evidence: They look alike, with both characters featuring pink hair (or a hair-like substance anyway), both have striking blue eyes, and it could be argued that Bloomwatcher looks like a blend of coral and seaweed, like somehow the Cube Queen morphed into this hybrid oceanic alien-looking creature upon her demise.

　　Is this shot meant to be symbolic or does the Bloomwatcher literally watch over Reality Zero (the Fortnite island) somehow?There are a lot of holes in that theory, though, namely that the character seems to already have a better-fitting origin story, as told by Ako. According to them, the Bloomwatcher may come from wherever Bloom comes from, which in-game is described as "a mysterious forest." It seems as though the new locale, Reality Falls, is actually this same forest now spreading across the island, perhaps deliberately.

　　We also know from in-game details on Bloom's cosmetic set that he's a "Pluxarian," which seems to be the name of his alien race. Perhaps Bloomwatcher is also Pluxarian as the two characters resemble each other quite closely. It's my theory that the Pluxarians were invaded by The Last Reality (the Cube Queen's army, basically) while she was out colonizing new universes. This was also her intent when she arrived in Reality Zero, to take over the Fortnite island--but she failed.

　　To put it all together, I believe Bloomwatcher is Pluxarian, her people were overtaken by The Last Reality, and now that The Last Reality and the Cube Queen have been defeated, Bloomwatcher is adrift in the omniverse and looking to resettle on Fortnite's island. This would make her like Slone--a somewhat misunderstood and arguably tragic villain. She seems to have ill intentions given the mood shift of the trailer when she comes on screen, but as a survivor of violent colonization, she may be acting out of desperation as she lingers over (or somewhere on?) the island.

　　There's so much more to learn, but this is the best I've got in terms of theory-crafting for now. Thanks to Ako and others in the Fortnite community, as always, for helping me make sense of another dizzying story development.

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