Putting the term "Catholic guilt" on a high shelf where fandom can't reach it until everyone learns how to identify characters who are very very clearly coded as Protestant.
Sorry, not sorry about all of the TWRP if you're scrolling my blog :3 on a side note I am a super new fan, so if anyone wants to come into my inbox and info dump I would legitimately enjoy that
explain the lore in excruciating detail? oho... ohohoho!!
hello there my name is Jim I've been in the fandom for about a year and I know waaay too much ab this band, so here's an infodump.
Most TWRP lore is split between the individual characters, their backstories, what happens during their time as a band (like social media posts n whatnot), and then post 2022 they get into some more explicitly lore-type nonsense. for that reason its a lot easier to talk ab it like its an in-universe timeline so forgive me if this is confusing.
Mr. Doctor Samuel Sung (yes that is his full in-character name) is a 5th dimensional cyclops born at the time of the big bang. his parents died of sadness when he was very young and that sent him down the path of science, with the goal to end sadness, boredom, and oppression. He invented "groove", a magical property which causes "dancing" and can cure boredom. he set off with the goal of spreading groove across the cosmos but needed to find a group of intergalactic superstars in order to accomplish this. It's unclear when these happened but Sung also acquired a 69th level blackbelt in Keytar, as well as a blackbelt in the martial art he created after being rejected from all others, atomic karate. He also had a doctorate in experimental high kicks and learned necromancy/technomancy.
here's where timeline stuff gets tricky - as a general rule, anything before 2012 is considered non-canon. Problem with that is that it all did in fact still happen, so whenever something is concurrent with pre-Device lore I will specify (imo it all works together better with some amount of pre-device lore? so).
the first two members of the band aside from Sung himself were Stone LaChismo (bassist) and Havve Hogan.
Stone is himself also an extradimensional being who can't breathe in too much oxygen, and is also Sung's real life brother (its been implied in recent years that they're supposed to be brothers in canon as well but it seems initially it was never explored). [pre-2012]
Havve Hogan has had two separate versions of his lore, one from 2010 which I will link here,
and one that's been fairly consistent from about 2015. the 2015+ lore is far more widely accepted and actually lets him yknow like. be a robot.
the TWRP wikia makes the claim that Havve Hogan and Doctor Sung have a psychic link which allows them to communicate, which I believe may be canon, however no sources are linked and I can't find any (if anyone has a link to that claim please send it to me) so take that with a grain of salt. Havve Hogan is also supposedly the author of the Murderbot Diaries book series.
There's two other ex-members than Stone LaChismo, their names are Bombus Tron (guitarist) and Atomicawk Startrotter (bassist). their lore is REALLY thin the only stuff I have on Bombus is... [pre-2012]
...whatever this is, and Atomicawk's is actually right here on Tumblr! [technically not pre-2012 but Atomicawk is never mentioned in modern lore at all so iunno] I have no idea if he has more lore frankly I don't think so.
Commander Meouch and Lord Phobos joined the band at around the same time and their lore is also incredibly intertwined, both being from the future..
Meouch is supposedly from Planet Bass (I also have no idea if this is canon but its on the wikia), and was also a space pirate and funk smuggler, apparently in the future funk is an illegal substance. He's been playing bass since he was "8 months old (in cat years)".
Phobos is from an unnamed planet, however his people were incredibly technologically and biologically advanced. He himself was a "philosophical rocketeer," and when Meouch smuggled funk to his planet it caused some sort of calamity and seemingly wiped all of them out. rightfully being pissed about this Phobos followed Meouch out to space and attempted to kill him in revenge, but was stopped when Doctor Sung appeared out of a nearby wormhole and recruited both of them into his band. from this moment onward (until 2020) Phobos took on a vow of silence in respect for his people.
in 2012 they went on a hunt for The Device, which seems to be some sort of magical macguffin which is a glowing blue rectangle that acts as a mysterious power source. (bonus lore! a comic was made around this time by a fan about The Device. its only two pages and is kind of just silly, but I do actually recommend checking it out just for fandom's sake)
There's also the Discocalypse/Disco War which is unassigned on the timeline but has been referenced at least twice, initially being brought up in their old no longer publicly available album, Poised to Dominate (2010).
in 2016 they release the EP Guardians of the Zone which is the first mention of The Zone (this will be relevant later).
in 2017 they release the EP Ladyworld which introduces... Ladyworld, a resort planet where everything is free and relaxation is the main goal, its always depicted with two moons and often depicted with big fluffy clouds. Ladyworld is the location depicted in the album art for Return to Wherever, The Longest Weekend, and possibly Together Through Time (debatable). It is also connected with Planet Bass.
in 2020 they started a live stream series called "The TWRP Show" where they'd play games, answer questions, rate pets, show fanart, etc. etc. in Season 2, they begin to promote their donations as the key to the "Ladders of Ascension" representing ascension to The Zone (told you it'd come back). These also revealed that The Zone is heavily associated with the imagery of the cone, which Doctor Sung claims is the reasoning for his conical helmet. This is contradictory with Sung's earlier claims that his helmet was a "mojo inhibitor" which prevented him from destroying the world with a single pelvic thrust.
this was also the year that Phobos II started (technically 2019 I think but ssshshshhhhh ssssshhhhhhhh) and since you specifically asked about it, here's the very disappointing answer. we really don't know what their deal is. there's no real explanation for why they're different people, and differing answers have been given before. Phobos II at one point calls Phobos I his "past self" though? so I guess there's that. They also are separate entities who exist at the same time since they call on the phone (either that or Phobos' phone can bend spacetime which. is equally likely. tbh.)
in 2021 it was revealed that Doctor Sung had not only lost his doctorate (he high kicked too close to the sun. literally.) but also that Meouch is currently a part of the Royal Ladyworld Imperial Navy. for 6 whole minutes he was promoted to Admiral, before being swiftly demoted back down to Commander for talking shit to his higher-ups
in 2023 they released an EP called Friends of the Blues and as much as I would LOVE to describe the lore on this one, I genuinely think that the best way to absorb it is through the Have You Heard music video and Friendsoftheblues.org it's a great time, heavily recommend.
that same year they went on the International Business Tour and Synth Force 7 tour (both collaborations with Jazz Emu and Magic Sword respectively) which introduced International Business Systems (IBS. a shitty tech startup company that is, and this is a theory, seemingly a cover company for the friends of the blues. my opinion.) and their AI assistant, Grobb (Good ROBot Boy).
yet again in the same year (busy year for lore I know!) Doctor Sung independently released the EP Cosmic Horror under the name Groove Crusader. along with the purchase of the CD you would get a short story written by him and Stone, in which Sung accompanied by his 'best friend' explore an abandoned old ship in deep space. when they explore, they discover that the ship was abandoned because it was taken over by a cult thats main goal was "descension." in order to do this they would pluck out their own eyes. for whatever reason Sung had a sense of connection to this ship that wasn't broken until after he learned the full story. he later went on to say that the EP was "based on a true story"
in 2024 they released the album Digital Nightmare which firmly cemented IBS in canon, and also went on the Digital Nightmare tour. within the tour TWRP was being sponsored by IBS in order to promote their new app, IBX, and their cryptocurrency grobbcoin. throughout the show Sung shows everyone the app, and has to continue the set by giving grobbcoin, until eventually running out. he transfers all his money into grobbcoin and is hated by the people of IBX for being poor. at the end of the show the audience is given the option to either fire sung from his job at IBS, or promote him to CEO. like 80% of all shows chose to fire him and in that ending he becomes homeless and returns onstage in garbage. the canon ending appears to be promotion, however. as far as I've found there is VERY little footage of this ending, but in it Sung becomes CEO, gets framed for fraud, put in jail, escapes jail, and then comes back for the encore. if anyone has any more info on promotion I'd love to hear it because there are some gifs I straight up cannot explain but seem to be part of promotion. (here's my two main vids for DN! Dallas and Chicago)
TLW TOUR SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT!
The Longest Weekend (2025) is IBS giving TWRP a retreat vacation into the wilderness. In the tour Grobb is given the role of being both the sun and the moon (Sung is very bitchy about him the whole show it was very funny). Sung gets hungry so Meouch fires up the grill and cooks up some hot dogs, which Sung mistakes for being 'dog meat' and gets disgusted with and refuses to eat. the group gets introduced to a random screen character named "forest ranger randall" who talks about birdwatching and warns the crew of "beef-foot" which scares Sung for the rest of the night. eventually he gets so hungry that grobb suggests he should forage to which he finds a mushroom, licks it, and hallucinates beef-foot who gives him life advice and also informs him that hot dogs are not made of dog meat. he eats one, goes to sleep, everyone leaves. then for the encore Phobos comes back out claiming he cant sleep, tells a spooky story, and when Sung wakes up they all do the encore songs.
as far as I know this is most major twrp lore. there are some details and whatnot that are missing but holy shit do you see the size of this thing?? LMAO anyways. yeah. twrp lore is crazy. here's my very unfinished lore sources doc in case you want it, its got some more niche shit on there and video interviews and whatnot which should be fun to sort through
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