gloom

burning spice's interaction with nutmeg makes it fairly obvious they are all tormented by past memories. i believe we owe it to shadow milk to see him as more than just a silly little jester.

shadow milk is the most deceptive towards himself. for if he was not, he'd suffocate under his own trauma and would hardly be able to function. he's a workaholic, constantly putting on shows to distract himself and others from the pain underneath.

anyway, to keep this thread short, shadow milk is tormented. he's a lost soul who pushes memories away because it reminds him of what he lost. he puts on a show because, as is obvious by hollyberry, the deepest pains are hardest to see in those that try not to make it obvious.

shadow milk knows this, and that is why he torments pure vanilla. if pure vanilla suceeds to any extent, he will be far more worthy of knowledge that shadow milk ever was. his ego, his performance, his facade - all of it is on the line of this one cookie falling.

shadow milk channeled his own magic, but unlike pure vanilla, had a heart capable of being corrupted. his virtue was not like pure vanilla's soul jam, and was tainted by the dark magic. by extension, he himself was tainted. he overthought himself into the abyss, and was unable to climb out.

pure vanilla and shadow milk faced what was, essentially, the same problem. pure vanilla channeled everything he had into shielding his friends, and became the blind hermit in black raisin's village with amnesia as a result.

however, it may not be as drastic as it seems, if his whole psyche was distorted as a means of saving his friends. and in that perspective, we reach what split the virtue of knowledge into truth and deceit.

think for a moment just how drastic of a change his thematics are between pre-fall and post-fall. a scholar to a jester. it's jarring in comparison to the designs of the other beasts.

it is my belief that the dark side of the moon was the (forbidden) magic that milk perhaps channeled into in order to try to save his friends, the other beasts, from falling, and in doing so, sealed his own fate.

there exists a point of too much knowledge. particularly in mental health, when someone has far too much awareness, they become wrapped in existential dread and an inability to move forward beyond it.

we've also seen in wind archer's story that he is capable of astral projecting his soul away from his body, most likely using dark moon magic to achieve this. he is familiar with traveling this plane of existence, and refers to it as the "other space."

and we're just getting started. milk's "dark side of the moon" appears to be unique to him. at first, i wondered if the other beasts were capable of speaking to their ancient counterparts in the same way, but strangely, we haven't seen that in either mystic flour or burning spice.

even deeper beyond. a magician's tricks rely on the magician's sleight of hand. in other words, their ability to deceive the audience. what if milk had even INTENDED to lose, and was merely an act of misdirection so that the beasts could be released?

milk stated himself at the end of theater of lies that he had been waiting for that moment for "so long." he had planned everything, even the possibility that he could lose.

i'd even take it a step further and say that he planned to lose against elder faerie in the first place. i mean, think about it, he had an entire second act prepared, fit with the puppets necessary.

knowledge is not just asking a question, it is also the skill to acquire the answer. that is why in theater of lies, milk is seen using the scientific method. asking questions, weighing options, and acting on hypotheses.

knowledge is still deeply embedded into him, and a jester is simply the form that deceit took. it does not mean he has forgotten his humility; if anything, his ability to tamper with the cognition and emotions of others relies on his ability to read people.

to succeed in his position, you must be a cunning mastermind, 900 steps ahead of everyone else. silly little jesters, to a certain extent, would not be able to achieve this. it is because the memories of the beasts were not erased that he is capable of doing so.

shadow milk cookie, as many have grasped, is a silly little jester. however, i have reason to believe that, due to his fall, it is more of a facade than anything else.

🧵 for #shadowmilkcookie, in regards to his personality.

this will touch on all of the beasts to an extent, and i hope it inspires others to see them in a different light.

crosspost from twt. my design theories for eternal sugar cookie.
#eternalsugarcookie #cookierunkingdom