#cause 'the tour guide' feels. impersonal. and unweildy.

[pinkpuffballdude]

okay I am thinking So intently about the Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity and Mortality, putting this under a cut because it's allllll speculation and BIG spoilers for the second/third season

like. okay. I'm thinking about the man with the voice like honey and chocolate and coffee. I'm thinking about his motivations.

the things I know about him, that he's been involved in are:

the dancing plague/Pied Piper/other mass hysteria thing

the success of Johnny Samuels Bluesmusician

the dreams where he replaces you

the survey Guide did at the end of that one tour where he stole your keys

reuploading Guide as he was after Hours if not Weeks of wandering the museum

things I think he's been involved in:

Jacob and his mirror

the actor and his clones

things Guide thinks he's been involved with:

the lockdown

I don't think he's the cause of the lockdown. Guide said that it looked like the security guard had shot himself, and the man with the voice only showed up three months later, well after his death.

I do think that his showing up in your dream, the nostagic flashback, is... okay, for me it felt very indicative of his character? to recap, the dream was about a more or less mundane moment, eating dinner with your family on some kind of trip, except there is a man there, and you go unnoticed. as soon as you are noticed, everyone acts like you're not supposed to be there, and the man gets up and as he walks closer his face distorts into your face and he says that you're not supposed to be here, this is his life now

and then you wake up.

additionally, the agreement he made with Flatshoe had the condition that he would one day return the favor, no elaboration. the story/ies about mass hysteria had him helping people for no fee, and then welcoming them when they came back. tbh I'd read that as him pulling a first one's free, luring them in so they'd come to rely on him and his song.

all of his stories have him taking advantage of people, of tricking them somehow and letting them play into his hands. but he isn't cruel. it's important, that he doesn't hurt people for the sake of it. he took Johnny too soon, realized his mistake, and gave him a new (and arguably improved) body, letting him roam the earth as some kind of spirit. it's unclear if Johnny will ever be able to fulfill his end of the deal now, due to being. incorpereal, but the man did this anyway. in the dream, he doesn't do anything until your family notices your presence, simply laughing and talking and enjoying their company. he never spoke to Guide, possibly so that he wouldn't clock on to his identity, or maybe to keep him from... hurting him somehow? that's pure speculation, though I like the idea that any recording of the man's voice would drive someone to madness, and since Guide is all recordings, he chose not to take that risk. it's a nice thought.

I don't think he wants people dead, is my point. I don't think he wants power, necessarily, or to destroy the Museum or its people simply because. the only description we have of this man is his voice, nothing of his self, or even his physical apperance, excepting that he's "handsome". he could be anything. his apperance shifts, when it needs to, almost regardless of whether or not he wants it to; he is powerful beyond belief; he is so, so lonely.

I think he wants to be real.