#the realm analysis

[milk459]

Tr! Lukey in the middle of Ranting at Pangi about Pili threatening his life today just Casually dropping that he kept his last life for him 😭 Pangi was Gagged

Pangi just promised to Protect him with his life

The Contrast between tr! Pili 1 willingly ending his last life despite tr! Pangis pleas

And tr! Lukey holding on to his last life specifically for tr! Pangi

Man…

[devildomwriter]

Simeon’s Journey

Simeon was introduced to us as an angel, not just any angel but an archangel; A warrior angel in charge of legions of angels.

From season one we immediately learn not everything is as it seems with Simeon. Simeon tends to bend the rules, be more relaxed, and was mentioned as having once been a Seraph, the highest rank of angel in the Celestial Realm.

In the Celestial Realm Simeon was a brother to Lucifer. He was given a rose garden by his Father and watched it diligently while having a great interest in a book of prophecy, one that foretold he’d one day lose his wings. Although this concerned Mammon, Simeon wasn’t particularly bothered.

When the war broke out, Simeon tried to cover for the brothers, and for this, he was demoted to Archangel, a busy position where his job was to defend the realm from the frontlines. Gone were the days of rest and relaxation with his family and two close remaining friends, Raphael and Michael.

To cope with the loss of the brothers, Simeon began to write about them, likely using the book of prophecy as a reference since most of his books reflected what would eventually become reality, with the main protagonist, Henry, replacing MC. These books would eventually be published but upon visiting the Devildom and discovering the brothers were so different from how he remembered he became disheartened and didn’t continue his work until Season Four of the game.

Upon coming to the Devildom in season one Simeon was guarded against Diavolo and didn’t particularly like him. He enjoyed scaring Luke, befriended Solomon, and acted as a messenger for Michael.

In season two things take a turn with Simeon. He’s more relaxed and adjusted to the Devildom and doesn’t hide his secretly stern behavior, even bringing Mammon to tears when put in charge of a play he’d write.

When everyone learned MC would likely die from their abundance of uncontrolled power, the ring of light was given up as an option because it was lost in the war. Simeon keeps quiet but immediately leaves to steal the ring from the celestial realm to save MC’s life.

These actions closely resemble Lilith’s choice which started the war with similar results.

Lilith directly altered a human's lifespan which is forbidden, by offering him stolen fruit from the Celestial Realm.

Simeon more or less altered MC’s lifespan by bringing them the one object that could keep them alive. If MC hadn’t died, Lucifer would have, Lucifer who although forgiven, was still a traitor to the realm.

The final chat of season two is Michael asking to speak with Simeon. It’s clear he’s in trouble for what he’s done.

In season three we aren’t shown anything is too different with Simeon although the brothers find it weird that he’s in the human world as it’s not an archangel's job. During his time at the cafe, Simeon meets with Raphael on multiple occasions who is checking on how he is doing as a human.

In season four Simeon comes back to the Devildom, this time as a human exchange student though this fact is only known by Solomon, Raphael, Diavolo, Barbatos, and Lucifer who keep an eye on him to make sure he is safe from other demons.

Now in the Devildom, it’s clear how powerless Simeon is. Unable to protect himself or his loved ones with an angelic blessing, everyone learns the truth. With the truth revealed and his closest friends there to support him, Simeon finally takes the steps towards accepting his new life as a human and even begins to wear his old celestial realm clothing.

But things don’t end there. Despite his newfound confidence, no more than a few weeks later he becomes sick and unsettled, even missing part of the RAD Science Fair to stay home.

While observing Simeon one day, Lucifer notices his aura has changed and when he confronts Solomon, Solomon reveals that Simeon is turning into a demon and he has been since the human world.

Moments we can see this too in the human world were Simeon’s teasing in the “Celestial Realm”, his threats to the brothers in the cafe, and his confession to Lucifer that he feared his own Father or an aspect of him.

Simeon may not understand what’s happening to him, although he knows his magic is stronger and applauds MC for noticing in chapter 47. Simeon is now forced to make another huge adjustment by becoming a demon, and it’s difficult for the people around him too—after learning Raphael was found staring into space and incorrectly answering questions, even struggling to drink Demonus, which he loves. Michael has been pestering Luke for updates on Simeon, and Luke is now concerned about his condition again.

This will only go a few different ways. Simeon becomes a demon, demon form and all, and perhaps reunites as brother with the other seven, or he’s going to fight against the change to become an angel again as even Raphael states he believes Simeon is better at his “job” than he used to be.

Depending on how Simeon copes with this change, it’s either a tragedy or a new beginning. Simeon has always been disillusioned with his job, even telling MC he believed angels couldn’t have dreams of what they wanted to do, and drunkenly sobbing to Lucifer that he’s now more of a middle management type.

Either way, for Simeon and everyone around him, it’s hardly the ending.

[wallacepolsom]

Wallace Polsom, The Realm of Freedom vs. The Sphere of Necessity (27 Feb 2025), paper collage, 25.3 x 20.7 cm.

[torglives]

the parallels between ros and pangi make me want to chew off my own arm. like what do you mean they both lost the person they loved the most. what do you mean they're both under the wing of their faction leader, essentially the "apprentices" (for lack of a better word) of people who will find eachother in every life. what do you mean they're on opposing factions. what do you mean they started off kind and have slowly been hardened by the world around them. what do you mean ros has gotten a chance at redemption and pangi has been scorned. what do you mean ros has been favoured by the keepers while pangi has been discarded. what do you mean pangi has a few people who are all dear to him, and ros has many people who refuse to understand her. what do you mean their factions have opposite values. what do you mean they're both everything the other could've been. what do you mean they turned out the same either way--alone, suffering. what do you mean none of it mattered in the end. like what do you mean. what do y

[thepenguisalive7]

Tr!bbh trying to make sure tr!Ros doesn’t self-isolate and spiral thinking their worth ends in what they can provide to people. Because he knows what happens when you do that. And for some reason he cares enough that he doesn’t want tr!Ros to go through the same pain. Baffling.

The only person other than tr!Tina, where he encourages her to stay in the Kingdom, or at least hints to going to purple in the worst case scenario. Telling her she needs to come visit the castle, to visit foolish and that tr!Tina would understand

His only reasoning why he’s kind of relieved she left Yellow? So he doesn’t have to worry about accidentally killing her from traps. I think that’s crazy. He was ordered to kill tr!ros, and in lore, he is unable to deny an order to kill.

But when faced with the actual thing, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He hesitated, asking Ros first if she was okay with it, and when she said no, he completely abandoned the order and tried to loophole it under “I’m killing her with kindness” and set the death date to February the 34th… 10000 years into the future. He has gained a soft spot and he’s still trying to deny it, and he can’t understand why. Cause he has nothing to gain from everything he’s doing for tr!Ros. He’s openly honest and giving genuine advice, and it baffles him.

If only tr!Ros realised she has two of the most high leveled players on the server wrapped around her finger. Tr!Clown who has claimed her as a best friend, and tr!bbh is who against all odds, genuinely wants the best for her and can’t bring himself to hurt her. But her self worth is so low, she doesn’t realise how many people would do anything for her. It’s so sad to me

[blackstar-liveblogs]

Last time I did this it was a year ago, but a cubito has reached blorbo status after so long + he's barely talked about on the maintag along most of the Teal Titans. Here I come with blue faction rep.

It's time for a tr!Scott BIG ramble, more under the cut.

I got myself on a mission recently, the mission to watch Scott's POV of The Realm, and I just got done with all the available VODs today (if he was present in-character on more VODs from other streamers while off-stream, I have no clue which ones specifically).

From the get go, tr!Scott's lore is very interesting. He was established as someone who just spawned in, as a giant snail, and according to his own words (paraphrased): ''It's all very cloudy, I know that I felt a strong will to kill you, but strangely the need to distract you with baby sensory games at the same time.''

The three hours of scuffed snail fight with the Teal Titans were applied into his first memories. They bonded over that and he acted upon that since.

Plus, the entire cloudy and mixed feelings/wills during this fight sparked the headcanon/theory of mine that goes: The Keepers brought the people that fought as the snails to the Realm and applied some sort of magic that turned them hostile and willing to kill their opponents. But Scott was able to kinda get through some of that magic, for reasons unknown, which allowed him to bond while that will to murder was not 100% disappearing.

Again, this is not canon nor confirmed, it's my interpretation until proven differently by the lore, if this ever gets brought up again at all. It's a theory based off the books tr!Bekyamon found too and I highly recommend to read them.

Back to Scott, he was automatically sorted to the Hostile Faction aka the Reds. But from his very first day after the snail fight, he was making very clear statements that he had no allegiances at all with the red faction and he felt more comfortable with the blue faction thanks to those hours of bonding they went through. He did not care if people called him unloyal to the Reds or if they pointed out that he spent most of his time with the Teal Titans, because he knew all of this very well himself and was not bothered at all by it.

''In everything but the tab list, I'm blue,'' he repeated many times.

He heard some stuff about the people around him during those first days. When he first met Pili, he pointed out that he committed many murders and crimes, but not in a judgamental way. Scott clarified right there that he only said it as an observation and facts, and Pili did not deny it was true after that.

I noticed that Scott tends to go after the facts of what happened and what people did, instead of buying the first biases he receives at face value. There was some discussion in the game chat back when Krow stole the Kingdom's bell and was killed; people said that Scott was antagonizing his own faction members then (when he still was Red), but I looked at it now and I think: Not really? In the sense of, the intention was not to antagonize specifically?

He wasn't saying stuff out of malice, he was staying the facts as he perceived them: A very important bell was stolen, Krow got killed as a consequence and now responsability was refused to be taken. Scott had no interest in taking the Kingdom's side, as he said himself during this: ''I didn't say anything that wasn't true.''

Of course, stating that someone is not taking responsability for their actions and that the consequences were expected to come with the context provided can come out as antagonizing, so any perception like that is also valid. I only want to point out that the way Scott perceives it it's very interesting.

To add to this, later he heard criticism about the Kingdom having an object that important right there in the open, ready to be stolen, and he agreed to it. At the same time, he didn't understand why other factions cared so much about the Kingdom's bussines, because he doesn't care himself to get involved in those dramas.

Scott wanted to be part of the blue faction and follow his Supreme Leader. Those were his own words. That was the only thing he actually cared about.

The Teal Titans had no trouble to treat him as one of them either. Scott was called an honorary Blue and even participated in their faction-only meetings days before they knew if he was even able to switch.

At the time, Tubbo was not around during those meetings. There was one when Aimsey announced that he was going to arrange a way to invite Scott to the faction, and even a Keeper was involved.

Tubbo wasn't there until the day many Keepers surrounded Scott and gave him a mission to get a Conduit on his own to join Blue.

The chaos of this day was hilarious on his POV:

He could finally switch factions. One person that does not show up often from the faction shows discontent for reasons that he didn't know at all, so he was just confused while Aimsey reassured him to ''not listen to the voices in the back.'' He went all chill on his own to find a map, find the Heart of the Sea, come back and fish. He saw Tubbo and Bad with TNT Minecarts in the distance, tried to eavesdrop, but they were in a group, so he backed away to fish. Both him and CPK decided to go together to see what was up once Tubbo and Bad called everyone over, Tubbo was under his own TNT trap calling for an ultimatum and talking about stuff Scott had no idea about. He watched the situation unfold, until CPK ended up exploding Tubbo and both with Bekyamon went to tell Aimsey what happened. Scott remained very confused.

Back to fishing. He got to make the Conduit, waited with Aimsey for the Keepers and then succesfully joined the Teal Titans.

This day had the positives of showing more sides of Scott's character. He usually acted unsurprised but polite around the Keepers, which started a pattern of him saying that from the moment he spawned in as a giant snail, nothing surprised him anymore and did not want to understand all the unusual things, just go along with the fact that they exist.

He also was trying to read Tubbo's reasonings and emotions to reach the conclusion that he didn't feel him specifically joining the faction was the issue, but that there were a lot of underlying issues that were brought up with this whole situation. In other words, Scott did not feel resentful towards Tubbo, he was trying to make sense of his actions, with other suggestions like maybe Tubbo did not care about his inclusion until it was a potential problem for himself, among others.

Scott got what he wanted, he was part of the Teal Titans. Now he was able to build and chill, or so he thought.

Stuff kept happening on the server, which brought up more about him and his deal.

First, the Pili vs Clown fight. I was interested to watch this from Scott's POV, since I remember reading a lot that Pangi was claiming Scott was making fun of Pili during it, and therefore, wanted to kill him. I had all this previous information of Scott not caring to get involved in the other factions' dramas, not having any intention to pick sides related to that, and only wanted to watch with everyone else. With that context, Scott making fun of Pili, the same way Kingdom members did, did not make sense to me.

Then, I watched how Scott was joking around with everyone else that the fight was taking too long. After the extra hour of waiting for Pili to show up, most of the audience was not willing to take the fight itself seriously past the 30 minutes (and more) it kept going for. Scott did not see anything wrong with this, because everyone else was doing it and he was not making fun of either fighter, but fun of the fight itself taking so long to be done.

In fact, the last words Scott said to Pili were genuine praise for his resilience and that he would have not done what he did himself, which he pointed out as something impressive in a positive way. Pili even thanked him.

He also showed disapproval at the fact that people looted Pili's stuff once he died. Stating that only Fit doing it he would let it pass since he is homeless. Then, quickly decided to leave before any drama could potentially happen after the fight.

He's truly a drama between factions that are not his own avoider. He is not getting in the middle of them.

Then imagine his confusion upon finding a sign with a threat inside his house next time he logged on. He joked around interpreting ''count your days'' literally and questioning how much he had to count, but he overall was very confused and asking what the heck did he do.

I noticed he used to talk with Owen more out of other Kingdom members. Owen acted relatively normal from this POV, up until a certain point.

The day after, Aimsey died and Scott got the intel from Owen, but a very incomplete version + Owen's slip ups allowed him to notice his red flags and did not take his words as the facts until doing some questioning and investigation.

Owen almost said ''anyone who doesn't worship Foolish'' instead of ''serve under him'', and Scott made an uncomfortable/disapproving sound for a second, which is telling of his own opinions about this kind of mindsets + one of the red flags he noticed during the conversation. This kind of opinion is very on-brand of Teal Titans members, he truly fits in.

He questioned how Owen stated his assumption that Ros killed Aimsey, so he went to check the cementary, where all blue members register their deaths, and thanks to Ros, it said that they died by a Keeper of the Realm.

And exactly there a Keeper appeared behind him, jumpscare style. He immediately wanted to ask about it, but the Keeper disappeared before he had a chance.

All of these interactions reflect the pattern of Scott wanting to have the facts of what happened and what people did before reaching his own conclusions. And he holds those facts in a way that he perceives himself as an unbiased party and states the truth of the situations.

Speaking of Aimsey, once he knew, he said to himself that he did not know how to feel about it. On one hand, he had only met Aimsey three weeks ago, on the other, they were a big factor of why he could join blue.

I'm sure there was a bit more there. Scott interacted with Aimsey the most those days and seemed to get along really well. But, at the same time, Scott is a cubito that recently spawned in with no memories prior to giant snail. As CC!Scott said (paraphrased): ''tr!Scott is a very laid back guy. Not in an evil or malicious way, but more like a chill way and slow to make any emotional attachments, since he showed up one day suddenly, like someone being born as an adult.''

The character himself accepted there was nothing he could do about it and it was only a matter of waiting for Aimsey to revive.

If I remember correctly, this same day, Scott was the first one to see the giant eye replacing the moon! And the Observers teleporting around him too! The cubito tries to avoid the horrors, but the horrors find him.

The Observers and the Eye Moon actually got him nervous. First, he made fun of the giant eye, since he could just sleep to get rid of it for the day, but eventually, with the Observers constantly on him, he either tried to ignore them (while being clearly on-edge) or he snapped at them once or twice.

''What do you want?! Make me go crazy?! Is that what you want to do?!''

It was the first time I saw this character react this way, instead of brushing off the situation or acting indifferent. Scott was trying really hard to ignore it and it wasn't working.

Good to know the character is not immune to get affected by the horrors 👍.

A bit after, Scott found Tubbo again, and despite the tension he was displaying, Scott ignored it for the sake of keeping Tubbo company and check the tasks together. He was even joking around with him, and again, was not resentful for what happened before.

Tubbo was surprised that Scott was genuinely helping to complete one of the tasks before he had to be absent for a couple of weeks. Scott made it more than clear that he always had the intention to help the faction with the tasks, and with that Tubbo seemingly accepted him, or at least was chill with his company. To the point of agreeing that, while Scott did not understand why the other factions were so adamant to mess with the Kingdom's stuff, Tubbo replied that the Kingdom has that kind of retaliation coming for them, and Scott gave him the point.

Aimsey returned that day too, and Scott received him in a very positive note, not treating them any differently. But he wasn't oblivious to the changes in behaviour, as proven when later he talked with Ros and admitted that Aimsey was acting more cheerful than usual. Also agreed to keep an eye on him just in case.

Scott did not point it out then, but he did tell himself that he also noticed Ros was very sad during that conversation, which made Owen's statement not add-up even more. So another point for this cube's ability to read people's emotions and actions.

Aimsey confirmed his suspicions that Owen was not telling the truth and Ros did not kill them. Then, Scott moved on to help with the task.

With all of this, it's worth to mention, Scott admitted to himself that he was not willing to grind levels like everyone else to get stronger. Instead, he wants to play the social game, so people are no interested in killing him.

He showed these social skills rather recently, when Freddie showed up to his house, talked about plans to steal from everyone, then found out quickly that his fastest horse was stolen.

Before finding out about the stolen horse, Scott pitched the idea that Freddie could pretend to ''find'' the stolen stuff and return it, instead of stealing it and give more bad fame to the Reds than they already have. He phrased it as a way to get more points in everyone's books by doing something ''good.''

When Freddie left, Scott admitted that he was manipulating him so everyone got their stuff back. He noticed that Freddie was trying to manipulate *him*, but Scott basically uno reverse'd.

Shortly, he realized his horse was stolen.

Scott sneaked around and listened to Freddie saying that, indeed, the horse was there.

Scott went around the Kingdom's chest and his own faction's chests, all to find an Invis potion to steal and get his horse back. He did take a Swift potion, which he quickly used once he realized Freddie was at the tavern to steal from Tubbo, so it was his chance to get his horse back. That mission was succesfull and he went back to building.

The last thing to point out, it's that Scott has a soft spot, or at least a will to help, the people who were giant snails like him. He emphatizes with them, to a degree, but does call them ''giant snail buddies'' with a bit of affection. As shown previously, this does not make him biased towards them, but it does make him find himself assisting them once and again.

What does this left us about tr!Scott as a character so far?

Most of the time he's chill and very laid back, but not with malicious intent. He's slow to make emotional attachments as result of having no memory prior to him spawning into the Realm. He does his best to look for the facts of a situation and a person's actions/emotions, which he uses these truths to remain unbiased or state them as they are.

He's only not unbiased regarding his own faction and if it's involved. Scott is loyal to the Teal Titans, spends most of his time with them and does his best to help them and make them feel comfortable, while also wanting help from them (with items stuff) if he needs it. There's care for them, but has yet to develop deep attachments.

He plays the social game instead of the violence game, this mainly for the sake of survival. His morals are not beyond manipulation to get to the outcome he thinks it would be best or to steal to get what he wants. He does draw the line at some other actions or mindsets that he's not personally comfortable with or approving of.

He's not immune to the horrors, the horrors will find him and he will be unsettled and nervous about them. There will be attempts to ignore them and shut them down.

He's good at reading people whenever he needs it and acts accordingly.

There's a little soft spot for the people who were giant snails like him and he can help them if he's able to.

Most of the time, he's either vibing building or very confused.

In short: He's a complicated cube! And I sure do love those.

This is why he has reached blorbo status, and I wanted to publish this before CC!Scott's subbathon starts and there's more Realm content. Plus, I'm very interested to see if Aimsey's lore gets to affect him in any way.

He does not worry about the beef between the other factions and does not want to be involved, but he can get concerned about the horrors that can affect everyone and himself. I'm very very interested to see how this character will develop from here and if he ever will grow those emotional attachments, and what would he do in that case.

In other news, I finish with more tr!Scott pics.

[capitalistboyhalo]

its 2 am hello so is tr!bad's whole character a reference to revelation 9? i didnt pay attention in sunday school so anyone who did help me out here...

bad's already referenced revelation 9:14, of the angels bound under the euphrates river, one of which was bad. freshly fallen, we can assume. revelation 9:15 then continues: "and the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind."

so we have demons released by god, basically bringing torment and death to those who have not repented. quite literally divine judgement.

while the chapter mentions a darkening sky, im well aware that the the starless sky bad talks about may not be biblical in nature at all, because he recalls seeing it before. this may imply he's talking shortly after the big bang, when he was an angel and the universe was just in creation.

a rudimentary google search did bring up isaiah 13:10 ("for the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light"), which references once again god's judgement. interesting to note, but again bad wouldn't have seen this before.

(which, as a sidenote, makes me wonder about the timeline. it's stated bad "arrived" in 9600 BCE aka during meltwater pulse 1b, which also coincides with the theorized/fictional date of the sinking of atlantis. this ties into the story bad talked about, of a demon being summoned to a city and causing its destruction. is this how he "broke free" of the euphrates? is he only now bringing his divine judgement down on earth, after meeting heaven once more in qsmp?)

[shyjusticewarrior]

Love how Tim tells Jason his presence is what indicates they're in a nightmare, then the nightmare realm contradicts this by separating them.

[soleilestrela]

tr!tina and tr!bbh relationship (tr!somniaduo) is already so special to me:

tr!bbh is VERY hostile and has his weapons and stuff out at all times. hes always ready for a fight, even with his allies. he has even predicted an ally betraying him. there is no one on the server he mainly kept weapons off for. Except tr!tina. with tina, he only held food or 'his toys' as she put it (his totems). you could say its because he thinks she isnt a threat, but that just isnt true tbh, he holds out weapons for everyone, even people he views/underestimates to be weaker, example being tr!ros. he thinks he could still beat her, yet he keeps his weapons out for her. He also is very paranoid as he said to Chip (due to QSMP) he only hit her once when trying to fire and ender arrow, and since his bow has flame, she got set on fire. he quickly placed water and didnt get out his bow i think for the rest of the time.

Not to mention he is just flat out honest to her in ways he isnt with ANYONE. with her, he told the full truth on the foolish situation. no lies, no deception, no twists, just flat out how it went. he also offered to give her the will, which i dont think he did to anyone else except his allies. He even called foolish a good king, something he probably wouldnt admit even at gunpoint.

Furthermore, he very insistently gave her stuff. Early into her joining, she refused to take armor/weapons from him when he attempted to flat out give it to her, so he created a treasure hunt so she could more feel she earnt it. he also gave her stuff like food with no hesitation, and im pretty sure made a qsmp reference of her always taking stuff from him/him always giving her stuff. he shows a side to specifically her that is much more gentle and caring then how he is to anyone, and makes it very obvious that he cares for her, and is shown protective to her many times.

Finally, tr!bbh actively tried to push her from joining a faction. i think he doesnt want her trapped in conflict she doesnt understand, and also wants her to just relax and not be attacked. he even pushed her away from hostile faction, giving reasons why purple (Factionless) was so much better.

p.s. i discussed this w some friends before even making this analysis and some of their points are here so credits to Jey and Tincan for some of the points here :DD

p.p.s. this is likely just me being delusional if im being real bc im obsessed w somniaduo in every universe so if this doesnt make sense thats why

[kadextra]

this is about !bad and his mission

AHHH WHAT IS IT

what we factually know is that

it requires chaos & conflict

he’s unable to see his kids again until its completed

which implies it’s ordered by heaven since they have the power to cast him out. if that’s true it raises questions of what sort of place this heaven even is to begin with, and what their morals (or lack thereof) are like to want this to happen. conflict as a catalyst for growth?

it could possibly be 4th horseman related like ppl have theorized. or maybe a form of punishment for !bad specifically? idk I just wonder if there are stakes to this, like they might be holding his kids over his head. “we have something so dear to him— perfect to use as a reason to send the guy out to work!!” that kinda thing? but it could also be self-imposed mission, maybe one as simple as him heading back down to continue being the embodiment of death among mortals.

the titanic story from the other day got me thinking about all that again… him who just so happened to be laying on the iceberg that caused the crash, him summoned into Atlantis which sunk it, being there during the plague, him as the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs- !foolish is right to say death follows wherever he goes. !bad causes disasters even if it’s not in his intentions to. mr grim reaper over here built a cathedral that isn’t even a place of worship, its to bury the dead. you gotta wonder if he was born with this grand purpose or it was acquired after he fell

but anyways yeah he’s SO confident he will succeed. he’s intentionally making bold/blatant moves rn to push it along, nothing is personal, it’s a means to an end, down every path he sees himself winning. death does lie at the end of every mortal path after all so he isn’t wrong...

he regards this mission as so important above basically all other things. really makes me wonder, would a hitch to it cause him to crash out fr? could anything be considered as *against* the mission? can he get too overconfident and slip up…? so many questions

[totem-but-shark]

Well, Foolish just retconned about half of his characters preestablished backstory lore from his continuous canon between servers, just to spite Bad because of course he did.

The original lore he established years ago being that totems were an ancient species that during childhood would fuse with another animal or even element, for example him being a totem person that was fused with a shark. He is now claiming that he had a totem father and shark mother which brings up a landslide of questions like how does he have regular parents but used to be a god? Were his parents deities too and made a godly baby? If they weren't gods was he then born a god or did he have to ascend? Were they humanoid hybrid people like him or did a regular shark and a totem somehow get freaky???

The funniest outcome would be that if c!/q!/tr! foolish was just bullshitting both times and making up his supposed backstory as he goes along, perhaps he himself no longer remembers his true origins. Or maybe he just thinks it's funny to say something different every time (me when i'm in an unreliable narrator competition and my opponent is Foolishs characters)

There goes a whole year of speculative analysis and theorisation straight out the window /lh but anyways congratulations to Foolish for retconning that totem parents throw their young into volcanoes that was probably a good call actually

[milk459]

Pili2 Lore Yapping after todays Orangecat events and the soon end of the Jester ( 😭😭😫😫😫🥲🥲🥲) :

The king and Owen were 2 of the only ones to truly get and accept Pili2, when the Jester leaves and something happens to the king, regardless of if it’s successful or not, the King and kingdom members might loose trust in Pili. Or he might feel more isolated from the kingdom even though he just got in. I can’t imagine what he will do next. He’s been so silly with a level of careless ness to everything he’s done on the server so far, and hasn’t felt any true heartbreak or pain here yet. Almost as if what was here on the server didn’t matter because it’s not permanent, it’s not his home. But after this and realizing that he actually did care about some one here and actually got hurt here for once I feel like his character will fundamentally change… 🥲💔

What if Pili2 finally starts to have some unwanted sympathy towards pangis former situation because now they have both experienced accidentally falling for some one who was destined to leave them behind 🫠😀…

What if he starts to regret how harsh he was, and starts to understand Pangis former pain but now it’s too late. 😀😀😀😀

This frikin cat bro 🥲

[bisclavret]

like many who have suffered at the hands of bbc merlin before me, i recently indulged in a thought experiment in which i outlined my own version of seasons 3-5 that stay thematically and tonally in line with the show (except they're less fucking stupid). but then i quickly realized that focusing on details is pointless: all you need is to solve the one Big Problem the show has, and the rest will follow. the problem in question? ✨morgana✨

i like the first two seasons. s1 achieves what it sets out to do and has fun while doing it, and s2, while flawed, sets up a ton of potential that the following seasons unfortunately squander, beginning with the insidious season 3. you can only distract me with cute knights and goblins and fart jokes for so long before i start seeing through you, evil, evil season of television.

my hypothesis is that if the writers had crafted s3 morgana into anything more sympathetic than a violent half-alive poltergeist that can never be reasoned with because she's suddenly terminally off her rocker, everything would've fallen into place. a sympathetic morgana would've made real, valid arguments against uther (and arthur) that wouldn't just be the ramblings of a woman possessed. her betrayal of arthur would have stemmed from her feeling increasingly morally superior to him because of his complacency in the face of their father's tyranny. under morgause's guidance she would stop believing that arthur is capable of change, and the whole point would be that she might actually be right. arthur would have to actively try and prove her wrong, instead of getting praised for doing the bare minimum because the bar is on the floor.

furthermore, morgana's prophetic dream about arthur and gwen becoming king and queen and her decision to prevent this however she can is a direct parallel to merlin learning about that same prophecy and making it happen by any means necessary. merlin's desires about his and arthur's futures are subtextually fueled by gay love and devotion, so why couldn't morgana's be? why couldn't she properly express her bitterness that arthur gets to be with gwen in a way she can't "took gwen away" from her, instead of suddenly declaring that gwen is nothing more than a servant, after two seasons of demonstrating again and again that she loves, values, and respects gwen more than anyone else in that godforsaken castle?

following this, an angry and emotionally volatile but still sensible morgana asking gwen to stay by her side during the coup of the castle in the s3 finale and gwen going behind her back to help arthur and the knights would've hurt like a bitch. double-sided betrayal! gwen having a real plot! the proper beginnings of a toxic yuri that would shape a generation!

then there's the utter hubris of having morgana shoot arrows at the same civilians she worried herself sick over for 2 seasons — even morgan, her medieval counterpart that was rooted in every sexist trope in existence, doesn't just go around killing senselessly but instead has (often petty!) personal vendettas against gwen, arthur, and the knights. morgana had every right to be sick of the pretensions around chivalry in camelot (she was always quick to mock it, even in s1), and to lash out at the knights and soldiers after years of feeling powerless in a castle full of armed men that blindly followed her oppressor. the show conveniently forgets that morgana was victimized as a woman as well as a sorcerer those first 2 seasons.

but like i said, this is not just about morgana. allowing her to remain a real and multifaceted character even as she betrays everyone in pursuit of her ambitions would've given the rest of the core four more interesting conflict to work with: merlin because he would have to experience real consequences to his actions, arthur because he would watch his sister go against his father (and his knights, and his birthright) and experience some actual internal dilemmas about it, and gwen because she would be forced to choose between morgana and arthur without the pretense that it's an obvious or easy choice for her to make.

even morgause and gaius would come off more interesting as mentors: neither one inherently evil or inherently good, both jaded by events that happened before our protagonists were even born, both heavily influencing morgana and merlin into fulfilling roles that they think are appropriate, but that morgana and merlin may not have chosen for themselves had they not been under their care.

you get the gist. if the show followed its own setup, morgana's mistakes wouldn't lie in cheap and senseless acts of violence but in alienating the people she loves because she is too hurt and jaded to trust them. meanwhile, everybody else would feel guilt over "failing" her and yet they would be too caught up in their own (sometimes flawed!) beliefs of right and wrong to truly see her point of view.

arthur would convince himself it was sorcery that corrupted her. merlin would know that isn't true but he wouldn't be able to argue without confessing everything, which is the defining conflict between him and morgana and it's cheapened when she's just an evil witch caricature and merlin is framed as inherently virtuous in contrast. gwen, too, would become a more active participant in her own life by choosing arthur over morgana and choosing to rule camelot with him instead of just waiting politely to see where things go.

and, of course, uther's downfall and death would be quick, final, and completely earned — when and why did the show even decide he of all people was the sympathetic villain, anyway?

lastly, and perhaps controversially, i think morgana should've learned merlin's true identity by season 4. her being the first of the main characters to find out makes perfect sense considering their shared history and their interconnected and mirrored arcs. even the show seems to agree, considering she does find out a little before arthur. but the narrative itself tried pointing flashing neon arrows towards this way earlier — there is a whole entire episode in s4 where merlin being emrys is repeatedly spelled out for morgana and she still isn't allowed to see it. that episode makes her look like the stupidest person to ever live, which is pretty funny im not gonna lie, but also another frustrating thing in the endless string of frustrating things that make up this show.

morgana learning that merlin has magic would've transformed the source of merlin's anxiety from a crippling fear of being outed someday to the crippling fear of knowing she could out him at any moment. this would make him want to beat her to the punch (perhaps he'd consider killing her for a minute and decide against it because she isn't a cartoonishly insane evil person in my version of events) and maybe he would even feel some tentative excitement at the idea of coming clean, now that it seems inevitable. after all, he always intended to tell arthur eventually! and i think gaius would have to admit outright that he does not want merlin to tell arthur he has magic because he, gaius, simply cannot risk such a gamble. it would be so interesting to see gaius and merlin clash and disagree once it becomes obvious that it's not merlin that isn't ready for the reveal, it's gaius. delicious!

with morgana's knowledge looming, things would inevitably spiral into a magic reveal by the end of season 4. i picture this season as an absolute mess of miscommunication between everyone at camelot, which is, y'know, canon. growing increasingly cunning and vengeful, morgana would use this tension to her advantage, destabilizing the court from the outside while she creates alliances with other sorcerers outside of camelot (instead of living alone in a hovel for no reason — morgana le fay i'm sorry i'm so sorry they gave you agravaine instead of your all-female entourage oh my god).

and here's where the events would change beyond recognition (aka here's where the meta becomes the fanfic i refuse to write). picture it with me: a militia of sorcerers infiltrates camelot and arthur and gwen have to set aside their differences (assuming gwen kissing lancelot and arthur overreacting happens, which it should) for the good of the kingdom as well as for love. picture high priestess morgana in her element, side by side with a bunch of misfit sorcerers that aren't so easily vilified, chopping down camelot's soldiers and knights and assuredly making their way to the newly-minted king.

then, just as it starts to seem that all hope is lost, in swoops merlin (the actual merlin, not his old fart disguise) on dragonback (kilgharrah hates morgana so much i know his sexist ass would stoop to anything to stop her)!!! imagine merlin showing off the extent of his powers in front of everyone and preventing the sorcerers from getting any further, declaring loud and clear that camelot is protected by him, by emrys. imagine that display of power alone being enough to send everyone home.

imagine the loyalties clearly drawn: merlin on arthur's side, morgana on the sorcerers'. imagine arthur, feeling confused and betrayed by everyone at this point, banishing merlin despite everything he's done for him in the angstiest, most emotionally dysregulated scene the show had ever put to screen. imagine merlin starting season 5 free at last but very lonesome, an embittered dragonlord like his father. imagine the absolute mess camelot would become without him, even with gwen — now queen guinevere — there to pick up the slack. imagine arthur actually earning merlin back, finally growing into his role as king as he does so. imagine the reunion.

all this and more could've been not just possible but inevitable if morgana was allowed to remain a complex character that is neither inherently good nor inherently evil: it was undeniably the biased and one-note treatment of morgana's downfall by the writers that set the precedent for literally everything else that happened after merlin chose to poison her. the show wouldn't have even had to jeopardize its tone or the monster-of-the-week vibe, all it would've had to do is admit that even the "good guys" are capable of mistakes and what makes them good is the ability to feel remorse and change for the better. (as opposed to uther, who was miles beyond redemption since way before the pilot and deserved to lose everything and die alone. OBVIOUSLY???)

in a world where morgana remains multifaceted and sympathetic, mordred would get a better arc as well, so if we really wanted to, we could still end on the same tragic note that the show ended on. with so much harm inflicted onto so many innocent people by the pendragons for so long (including mordred and the many druids and sorcerers that raised him), it could realistically end up being a little too late for anything more than one shining glimpse of king arthur and the sorcerer merlin's short-lived golden age before fate catches up to them. glimpsing that reality just to immediately lose it would've been far more satisfying and far more tragic than whatever the writers thought they were doing with all that pointless carrot-dangling.

and finally, an ending in line with morgana's new and improved arc. in this version, rather than bleeding out on the forest floor alone, she would channel the morgan le fay we know from the legends: sobered up by the reality of her brother dying, she would use her high priestess status (and perhaps also her pendragon status) to be granted passage over to avalon alongside arthur on the boat — a one-way ride — just to make sure he gets there safely. this is her penance for the harm she has caused, the same way arthur's penance is to die and leave the true ruler of camelot (gwen) behind to achieve everything he was too slow and indecisive to build while he still had time.

merlin's penance, then, would be to stay behind and watch them cross over without him, waiting and waiting and waiting until they come back or until he can finally join them. which is a bit fucking harsh if i'm honest, so i'd at least make it slightly more faithful to the legends by having him return as an old man and letting him take a long nap under a tree by the shore, his body slowly enveloped by vines like the cobwebbed fisher king in 3x08, never fully sure if he's dreaming or if there really are strange shapes fading in and out of the fog over the lake. still tragic, but nevertheless a little more open-ended and whimsical than [TRUCK NOISES] THE END!

[svtskneecaps]

honestly foolish's character walking the slightly meta line of "oo this'll be fun content" makes him feel like that marvel immortal character who is only immortal as long as he doesn't get bored (and was played by jeff goldblum in the movies). like idk why but the more i see of foolish's rp the more solidified the comparison gets in my mind.

like it's kinda cool for a headcanon ngl and also it means i'm not really surprised pikachu-ing when, say, he flips a coin to decide whether to rat out his son-in-law, or climbs into an incubator of corruption crystals, or doesn't ENTIRELY kick owen out of the kingdom. it's not that he doesn't CARE, but..... well, wouldn't it be interesting? don't you want to know what would happen?

[ultra-raging-ghost]

my neurons are trying to connect im not a Ros viewer but in my mind its like. BBH supports her endeavors* at the cost of her life. Clown supports her endeavors while trying to keep her alive. Aimsey doesn't support her endeavors because he's trying to keep her alive. Pili doesn't support her endeavors because shes trying to die and he's the one shes trying to die by but he'll still kill her when she doesn't fight back. Does anyone get the vision. Do u see the chart

*ros's endeavors are Self-Destructive violence

[inhuman-obey-me]

Power + Control: Lessons 55/56

As the main story of Nightbringer has been announced to be coming to an end, there is a lot for the writers to try to wrap up! Plus, we're approaching what is probably the climax of the season, which means shit's getting serious again.

Naturally, this means there's also a lot going on. Shall we get into it?

(spoilers up to Nightbringer Lessons 55 + 56)

MC and Their Power

In Lesson 55, we find ourselves back at the Sorcerer's Society, this time with Mammon and Satan in tow. When the two brothers question why they need to be there, Solomon explains that it helps solidify MC's reputation, as the spotlight has been on them for a while now. The Sorcerer's Society has been keeping a wary eye on MC for a while -- and we wonder if that might be since OG Season 2, when MC's powers were destabilizing the Three Realms. But they seem to be keeping an eye on them not only for their power, but also because of concerns that MC's loyalties could shift due to their close relationships with everyone, thus endangering the human world.

The actual reason for their visit, however, is that Solomon wants to use a device the Society has to measure MC's powers. On the initial reading, it doesn't seem like MC's powers have gotten particularly stronger, much to everyone's confusion.

Solomon then decides to test a theory (without warning, of course) and sends an attack spell in Mammon's direction. This, like before, triggers MC's magic to defend Mammon -- and causes the instrument used for reading magical power to break. Solomon mentions that the only time it's broken before was because of him, but he reinforced it when he repaired it. So, for a brief moment, MC had even surpassed Solomon in magical power.

We speculated a bit about MC's powers in our last lesson post, and Lesson 55 proved us right on the theory that this growth in power is due to now having two pacts with each of the brothers. This is also allowing MC to generate magical power, which is rare. We have to keep quiet about it, though, because otherwise we risk messing up the space-time continuum if others were to know of our trip to the past and all that occurred. (Though, one would think it would be safe to talk about it with Barbatos, who would probably also be more knowledgeable...)

However, there's no time to worry about any of that time travel shenanigan nonsense in depth, because *drumroll*...

The Angels Are Troubled

When we get back, we learn that Raphael has been acting very strangely since the Devildom Math finals. Mephisto, being his boyfriend a concerned fellow student, notes that he hasn't been to school at all in a while, and it turns out that he has holed himself up in his room pretty much ever since the Devildom Math finals, when he overheard Diavolo and Lucifer talking about Simeon's little turning-demon situation. And hey, speaking of Raphael acting weird, it seemed like Lesson 55 opened with some kind of prophetic vision of him having an emotional breakdown...??

Anyway, so MC and the brothers make a plan to visit him after school, loaded up with treats and Raphael's favorite demonus, courtesy of his boyfriend Mephisto, who would never himself go visit an angel at home for any reason... However, when they arrive, it turns out that Raphael is not actually home. And, at around the same time, Simeon is out walking with Lucifer and gets a text from Michael saying that Raphael went up to the Celestial Realm, though he leaves the reason for the visit cryptically vague -- though, Simeon suspects Michael just couldn't be bothered to explain. About what we should expect from the one Raphael called socially inept weirdo, we guess?

As Simeon and Lucifer get back to Purgatory Hall, where everyone else is deciding what to do about Raphael, suddenly the ground shakes, and next thing we know, everyone is in Babel again!

Confused and quite literally shaken, everyone tries to figure out what caused them to suddenly be transported to Babel. Both Simeon and Lucifer suspect it has something to do with Raphael -- especially as the brothers take on their angel forms soon after arriving. We end up finding Raphael fast asleep, which further confirms Lucifer's and Simeon's suspicions.

When Raphael wakes up, however, he can't actually remember how he got there -- he remembers he went to visit Michael to talk to him about something, but can't remember what happened after he passed through the Celestial Gates on his way back to the Devildom. After some coaxing and interrogating, Raphael confesses why he went to speak to Michael, and it was to beg him to speak to God aka Father and convince him to forgive Simeon, as Raphael believes he has been punished enough.

Luke apologizes to Simeon, thinking he hasn't nearly done enough in comparison to Raphael to help him. They all have a heartwarming discussion of just how much Simeon is loved, but there are still questions to be answered.

Lucifer asks Raphael if he's responsible for all that's happening, seemingly determined to goad Raphael into some kind of realization that the seraph is too distressed to confront, even as the others try to stop him. Solomon makes a desperate move to come help, which has the more-than-geriatric human sorcerer showing up absolutely exhausted -- with a little anime-style help from all the demons left behind back in the Devildom!

After catching his breath, Solomon says he understands everyone wants to protect Raphael, but that this conversation needs to happen. Lucifer, now backed up by Solomon, again coaxes Raphael to think about what he wanted in that moment, saying it's important (more on this later). On that question, Raphael begins breaking down, much like we saw in that earlier vision, and losing control of his power.

Amidst the shaking and panic, Solomon takes a moment to explain that Raphael's power is probably what pulled them all there to Babel, and Simeon in particular remarks that Raphael's feelings of wanting to live peacefully with everyone are probably the reason that the brothers were in their angel forms.

But now, as Raphael unfurls while acknowledging what he wanted, the entirety of Babel starts to collapse.

OM's #1 (Deadbeat) Dad

So now, of course, the big question is what did Raphael think and feel in that moment, which is causing him so much distress? And the answer, it seems, may be that he disagrees with God.

We've seen time and time again that the Celestial Realm is one of extreme obedience, shown more recently by the entire situation with Simeon. So, Raphael trying to make an appeal to God takes the brothers by surprise. Leviathan in particular says he can't believe that Raphael would do something like that, "knowing it might make Father mad" -- with Asmodeus and the others agreeing but admiring him for it. After all, the brothers became fallen angels for rebelling against God themselves.

Lucifer in particular probably sees the way Raphael's actions and feelings mirror his own old feelings -- he thought the way Lilith was being punished wasn't right and wanted God to change his mind and see reason. He too tried to appeal to God to change Lilith's punishment, and encountered the same obstinate refusal to listen. Those feelings led to him starting the Great Celestial War, which resulted in him and his brothers all being the demons they are now. And now, Raphael is experiencing something similar with Simeon, someone who he admires and is considered his mentor.

If so, that's certainly a very troubling track record for the Celestial Realm. Of the four angels we know of who have been seraphs, we have Lucifer (fallen), Simeon (demoted-about-to-become-demon), Raphael (now questioning), and Michael (...socially inept weirdo).

And yet, is it any wonder? The idea of even questioning Father is seen as blasphemous. With such authoritarian absolutism in place, of course those at the next tier of power might begin to wonder as their own loved ones face these overly harsh punishments. And as a seraph whose loyalties are otherwise so unwavering towards the Celestial Realm and the other angels, it's no wonder his magic is getting unstable as Raphael comes to terms with these feelings. He already went through the loss of Lucifer and the brothers, and being faced with losing Simeon after Simeon's already been "punished enough" drives him over the edge.

In his breakdown, which parallels MC's prophetic dream from the start of Lesson 55, Raphael says he's never felt so alone and miserable and he just can't take it.

Gee, good job Michael.

Now, we've long held a theory that God is just...not around. From a practical narrative sense, the devs have said that their original plan to have Diavolo himself be the Demon King felt like it made him too intimidating, and when they changed it to Crown Prince instead, they probably wanted to try and make things more "equal" between the Devildom and Celestial Realm. Thus, we have Diavolo and Michael as the acting leaders instead of the Demon King and, well, God.

But it's interesting because way back in OG Season 3, Simeon mentions that he hasn't seen Father in an extremely long time, even though we know he'd already received his "human" punishment by that time. Now, Raphael mentions that he's been unable to get an audience with Father. In fact, it seems like Michael is the only one who might be able to, and when Raphael says he pleaded with him to do so, it seems that Michael denied him -- in spite of the fact that, according to past speculation from Lucifer, Michael is also very worried about Simeon and was said to probably be trying to work out a way for him to come back! Though, by the way, the thing that got Simeon punished with human status was stealing from Michael, not the Celestial Realm itself, which itself is quite interesting. But even Michael has never been outright mentioned to be in contact with Father, as far as we've ever heard.

So...where the fuck is he??