saw this on the tl and boy oh boy do i have opinions 🥱
Okay so firstly I'm quite curious what OP thinks "his story guarantees" because past the tragedy of his fall that I really don't see as anything more unique or harmful than the rest of the Beasts' I don't know what sympathy the narrative owes him. I see this a lot and I genuinely don't see what makes Fount uniquely tragic? I feel like the hurt of believing in something that betrays you is worse than having your low expectations be proven right. All of the virtues were betrayed both by the Witches and Cookiekind and I think to only look at Fount's suffering is a bit disingenuous. (Obviously you're allowed to have favorite characters but when you say shit about the whole narrative and then aren't looking at that narrative it sounds a bit silly, I fear)
First point is just stating the obvious, but we spend the most time with Shadow Milk Cookie compared to the rest of the Beasts. The screen time I feel like kinda de facto lends itself to more sympathy for him, deserved or not. Get the most of his thoughts and his feelings. I mean just for a brief look at it because I'm not going to go look through the whole game, but his Dominion of the Beasts cutscene was around six minutes while everyone else's was around two, and for the most part (especially with Mystic Flour and Burning Spice) they were reiterating things we already knew while Shadow Milk's added new perspective on his character and mindset. Compared to everyone else in Beast-Yeast episode 14 he once again gets way more screen time and an animated cutscene.
Speaking of BY-14, he also got the mini Fount simulator with Pure Vanilla Cookie. Nobody else got one of those! (Which I'm still really upset about because it would've been a really good chance for all of the Ancients to see their Beasts' plight, ESPECIALLY now after Timeline of Fate 8 where it implies the Beasts have to return 🥹) To the whole overly sympathetic thing, because nobody else got one of these it once again prioritizes Shadow Milk over everyone else, and focuses on his struggle alone. Which I always find so interesting because does Mystic Flour not also suffer the same thing?? She also has to deal with cookies demanding her for things but, especially now, she's more innocent than Shadow Milk. And maybe it's personal opinion but I feel like Fount's tragedy isn't as great as the other Beasts'? He didn't really seem that concerned with the affairs of Cookiekind and just wanted his answers. Which obviously yeah having a job you don't want sucks but assuming everyone else was always peachy with their roles as Virtues is silly and another consequence of the story's fixation with Shadow Milk.
To something more recent, the way they're writing him with the Ultimate Dough seems like it's going in a direction that blames the Ultimate Dough more than Shadow Milk Cookie willingly taking it. The fandom most certainly does, if I see "Ultimilk" one more time I might have a coronary, he's not acting as different as you think he is, I promise.
He takes it, careless of the consequences. Yet the way they portray his struggling with the consequences of his actions seems to be more focused on the Ultimate Dough being evil and not Shadow Milk. And even if it is more of a fandom related issue, Devsisters clearly isn't doing the best job writing it if it's read in a way where Shadow Milk is the victim of the Ultimate Dough and not his own actions.
And I sincerely hope my fears with the next bit are wrong but I would be lying through my teeth if I didn't think it was a possibility. Out of every character in Kingdom, Shadow Milk's actions have put the world in the most danger. He's messing with forces he doesn't comprehend, creating imbalances in the timelines and seemingly just doing it for the love of the game. However, especially with the heavy comparisons between White Lily Cookie and Shadow Milk Cookie in Timeline of Fate 7/8 it feels like there's a very large possibility of Pure Vanilla Cookie seeing Shadow Milk again and trying to once again talk him out of his destruction. Shadow Milk has made it clear he has no interest, yet Devsis keeps dangling this "Ooh will he get better this time?" over our heads. Which again, makes the viewers feel sympathetic, like there's still some good left inside of him, like there is a genuine chance he'll be redeemed*. Yet with the resolution between Pure Vanilla and White Lily it feels like we're going to go right back to the "Let me understand you Shadow Milk Cookie!", friendship is magic-esque narrative that Shadow Milk's current sins greatly exceeds and has outgrown. You wouldn't "This isn't you!" a dictator (i know they're not real people btw don't even) and Shadow Milk is currently worse than that but still shaping out to get sympathy.
On the note of ToF, we get the glimpse into the First Headmaster, which again is more Fount content when we've barely gotten anything with the rest of the Beasts pre-corruption. (Now hopefully they rectify this with 11/12 but we only have one image from that and I really am not sure what the logistics of Golden Cheese being so young in what looks like Burning Spice's kingdom is?? And again that's also only one of them, and when our only teaser for 9/10 so far has been that unfinished SCOOP image I'm skeptical.) And that time with the Headmaster with everything else seems to be a "Hey he WAS good guys 🥺 He can still be nice trust 🥺" Obviously it's also finding out White Lily's reasons for her whole search for the Witches, and I find the Serpent and Eve symbolism between SM and WL interesting (especially when Eve is blamed for the problems all the time and not the Devil hm interesting 🤔🤔). I don't think Fount was some evil guy for the record but I would be lying if First Headmaster wasn't at least a little bit more of sympathy-milking from the audience.
Dark Enchantress is dead. Completely gone. In ToF 8 her memories are one of the first things White Lily casts away, and yet Dark Enchantress herself is nowhere, so she's either merged back into White Lily Cookie or succumbed to the River of Oblivion. Either way, the main antagonist of Act 1 is gone. She had no chance for redemption and very little sympathy from the narrative. However comparing her to Shadow Milk her actions were still more noble than his. Her goal was just even if her methods were far from good. *Shadow Milk, whose only motivations seem to be power and spiting the Witches however is still alive, with no signs of dying. Not only that but he's being written in a way that seems to hint at a redemption he has currently done nothing to deserve and seemingly doesn't want. He's put more lives in jeopardy than Dark Enchantress has, yet after ToF 8 it seems to imply his redemption is not only a potential but a necessity for the stability of the Core Timeline along with the other Beasts. They've made it so he CAN'T die without ruining everything. His sins are greater than any other character's and yet he'll almost inevitably get a good ending despite his insane actions that quite literally nothing could rectify.
And looking away from the game and Devsis for a second so much of the fandom is ridiculously sympathetic to him and babies him so hard and I genuinely don't understand it. Like so many people will have him as their pfp, have him as their favorite character and yet I feel like they have no understanding of what he is at all. The favoritism is okay because "he makes the devs money." Even when there's a whole other cast of characters who also deserve attention?? Devsisters' financial problems are just like actually not our business nor does it mean they need to continually shoehorn Shadow Milk into everything? Prior to BY-15, I personally thought that all the Beasts would serve as antagonists in Act 2 and when it was just Shadow Milk alone it felt ridiculous. People don't hate Shadow Milk because he's your popular little blorbo. I find him fascinating, but between the fandom's bastardization of his character into Pure Vanilla Cookie's tsundere angsty enemies to lovers boyfriend, and the way Devsisters shoves him into everything ever it's almost impossible not to be a little iffed when he shows up. Not that any of this is a point to this tweet in specific but I love fandom slander because some of the things I see genuinely make me feel like I'm playing a completely different game.
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