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The Short Lived Villain Arc and Subsequent Character Destruction of Duncan Grimwater
Some background, we are going to be talking about two very distinct versions of Duncan in this piece. One who existed PRE “First Time User Experience” (noted as “FTUE” from here on) Update, and one who existed after. To people who started playing the game after July of 2021 will be more familiar with the latter than the former. Though it is worth noting that Duncan’s appearance in Mirage during Arc 3 were put in place LONG BEFORE (2016) the beginning of the game changed his personality.
So, lets begin.
Pre and Post FTUE changes Duncan will haunt me forever, especially given the fact that his return in arc 3 comes BEFORE the FTUE change and as a result still handle his interactions with a level of gravity that is...missing. At current.
We are presented with two mostly distinct versions of Duncan Grimwater.
Pre-FTUE + Mirage
and Post-FTUE + arc 5 (and a dash of arc 4 but he has no speaking lines at the summit so we are going to hand wave that).
Original WC Duncan is distinctly meaner, and also intelligent in a less grating way. He is genuinely willing to help search for Artur (despite thinking there's probably nothing wrong and Artur is just a coward), and seems to do some of the research on that front on his own while he sends the wizard to runaround doing his homework.
The dialogue implies Ambrose sent him (along with Suzie and Artur) to research what’s going on with the undead on Triton. Suzie and Artur first, Duncan after them, and he assumes (semi-correctly) that the Young Wizard is the latest in the line of students dispatched to help out.
He's presented as incredibly independent (Suzie remarks he has never asked for her help/and somewhat implies he rarely if ever asks for help from anyone) and good at thinking on his feet. Learns the undead are using storm magic, is incredibly confused by it, and yet has a plan on how to determine where that power is originating not ten minutes and a single duel later.
He's able to channel the storm magic from the medallions into the crystals created by the triton mill to create a vision showing him where Artur is (kidnapped, hi Artur) and that's the end of it.
Aside from this offhand little quest (and im blatantly thieving the screenshots from @shining-scion because i swear to fuck i cannot find the quest page anymore)
(putting those side by side really does throw the skin color change into SHARP relief that is unnecessary levels of fucking lighter KI, come on now)
Duncan is ambitious and confident despite the fact that he is being dissuaded from continuing to learn his chosen magic, despite the fact that his perceived place as the best student of Necromancy is obviously patently a false one given Malorn's position as interim/acting professor. But this kid does not give up.
This quest is important too because it is a reminder that Duncan is used to being counted as a favorite of Malistaire's. He doesn't just look up to this man for no reason, he was clearly praised and doing well in his classes and took pride in that.
And that is the last we see of him until his unceremonious return in arc 3.
But lets pause for a second.
Imagine you are about fourteen years old.
You are intelligent and an enthusiastic student and a bit of a dick but you are fourteen and who isn't a bit of a dick at fourteen.
Imagine you are fourteen years old and the man who has been your mentor and icon and who DOES consider you one of his favorite students blows up your school.
Pre-update, you know he's alive, you know this, and yet for reasons no adult around you will properly explain your professor is now the PARAMOUNT EVIL in the world. And you, understandably, do not believe this. Because why would you. What reason could you possibly have for believing the man who taught you and your friends' magic is suddenly trying to kill you all (and this post is not about Malistaire Drake but we cannot talk about Duncan without him so alas here we are). Multiple classmates and friends are missing (Artur has been kidnapped, Marla has been MIA since the school went down, teachers and guards are half relying on students to do legwork because there is too much chaos) and you are trying to determine the source of misplaced magic on your home street.
In walks some prodigal fucking twelve year old happily on board the Malistaire is evil boat because well he supposedly attacked them in golem tower. You find your school again, but things are still broken, your professor is still gone, and that is TWO professors the school has lost in a short frame of time (Sylvia has been dead, what, a maximum of likely half a year by this point?) the headmaster thinks you should try and look into different schools of magic, he thinly implies you are conspiring (along with your friend Malorn--your friend who is now a professor, interim, acting, whatever, does it matter? he is above you now, he is more important now, so why should you bother) with Malistaire on the grounds that you were close, and suddenly other students have wary eyes on you, on your classmates, on the new girl from Marleybone (Hi Penny) who just seems not to notice.
But life goes on. You do not abandon your chosen school because how could you, you may not be the best--but who could blame you when you no longer have a competent teacher--who could blame you for the upheaval--and all the while you hear little whispers about the kid who came flying in out of nowhere, gaining title after title and never actually bothering to show up to class until:
...they killed him.
That stupid kid who showed up so eager to help is, with the help of Ambrose, with the help of the other Professors, with the help of countless adults, is responsible for—what you have little information to believe as more than outright— murdering someone who was integral to your teaching, your life, someone who made you feel proud of what you were capable of, someone whose memory it seems just gets more and more twisted as the years go on—
—he is dead, and the kid is praised for it.
And how are you meant to be anything but angry and confused?
Years go by. You continue your studies. You draw away from your peers. Ravenwood and as an extension Wizard City are tight knit by design, they are insular and SAFE. But you start to lose faith in the adults around you with more and more speed. Your friends and classmates seem to move forward. You need answers and nobody seems willing or able to give them. It's fine though, you don't need any of them. You are smart enough to handle this on your own.
And here we have to get into conjecture.
Because there is no perfect example to point to saying "This is how Gretta got Duncan involved in the Doomsday Cult." there just isn't. The content isn't there and it will never be there so we just have to connect dots and make shit up.
But how do you take a disillusioned teenager/young adult (personal timelines depending) and convince him that the world he knows has been lying to him?
You prey on the things he is already wary of.
In addition, you push on what you know will draw him.
Praise him.
Offer him answers. About Malistaire, about the Wizard, about the things happening in the wider Spiral that the adults around him do not seem willing to share.
Offer him the idea that he is uniquely suited to help.
Offer a kind of magic he cannot learn anywhere else.
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective—the schism, or more specifically Gretta, do not particularly want or like Duncan. He is a warm body in the pile, he is a voice among their masses, and little else. Cog in the machine.
But he fights to be there. Pushes himself, proves himself able to learn and wield Shadow, and proves to be an apt choice both when you want to acquire something, and when you want to get rid of him. Because what is it to send someone after the Wizard if not to send them to inevitable defeat?
And why wouldnt he agree? Why WOULDNT he want to face off against the thing that killed his mentor. Against the person he has likely been fed lie after lie about saying they are a dangerous threat to the world in which he lives. A pawn for Ambrose and nothing more. Delaying the inevitable return of the paradise the schism touts the First World as being, or else a danger to the Spiral as a whole.
So he shows up with his new gear and his newfound power and still holding that same arrogant confidence we see when we first meet him.
We joke about Duncan being a frankly terrible boss set up, but from the perspective of knowing THIS IS ANOTHER STUDENT OF RAVENWOOD, that he has likely been training for far less time and KNOWING he has less experience than the wizard—his abilities, his actions, it’s impressive. That fight can be tricky if you aren’t set up right, when the cheats functioned properly (prior to the Shadow update that broke essentially every Shadow cheat in Polaris and Mirage…) It continues the through line that he WANTS to be the best he can be, he works HARD for the shit he manages to achieve and it SHOWS.
And despite the fact that he loses he doesn’t GIVE UP. Despite losing his shot at joining the schism he continues to try. After Gretta denounces him as a “dingbat” after admitting that he is all but entirely alienated from both sides in a Spiral he currently believes to be doomed—
—he still maintains some aspect of his old self. He LAUGHS (dialogue tag says pshah, listen to the line and it's distinctly a laugh) at the wizard for having even considered him as the schisms agent that they are after when they confront him looking for the real one. And while he lets slip who that is—it doesn’t seem to bother him any.
But that too I think is a deliberate choice. If he believes the Spiral is doomed, if he believes he has lost his place among Spider’s “favored” or whatever bullshit the schism decided to lie about in order to keep their underlings a mixed amount of both fearful and believed protected. Who better to get him back OUT of that situation? Who better to send running to stop the end of the world than the same stupid lucky kid who managed it the first time.
So his “slip” of firecat alley. Is more a deliberate sell out. To me. Does it do him harm in the long run? Absolutely, the person we see at the beginning of SL and the person we see during Mirage are NOT the same and I wholeheartedly am going to take the route that the schism was cruel and humiliatory in their secondary (tertiary?) recruitment of him that leads to where we find him at present. Had the schism plotlines not been so scattered in Arc 4 seeing him return as a repeat enemy might have been an interesting take.
But that doesn't happen.
And who we see in Selenopolis is another person entirely.
So let’s talk about the updated FTUE.
We start. Similarly. With a missing Gryphonbane. Why we swapped from Artur to Suzie I will pretend not to know. If Mike and Sam have no haters I am dead in the dirt.
But here we see an immediate change.
Artur doesn’t ask for Duncan’s help. Duncan, rather annoyingly intruding, offers it with a backhand of calling both Artur and the Wizard stupid. He knows magic we couldn’t possibly fathom! He can track an aura via Suzie’s wand! All we have to do is the grunt work, he will handle the thinking.
It isn’t too far off, he’s still intelligent. Still mean. But it’s DIFFERENT. it’s a JOKE. He is a nerd turned playground bully and it bleeds through every word out of his mouth.
He is also, somewhat strangely, obsessed with Malistaire in a way his original counterpart was NOT. What was genuine grief and confusion and admiration is played for a laugh here. Both Artur AND Suzie dismiss him when he tries to speak of Malistaire, Ambrose has that fucking “ode to” piece around his desk.
The one instance of genuine grief we see is within the haunted cave quest, Duncan is at a loss. But even so his belief, his understanding that the Malistaire HE KNEW—that all the death students were familiar with—wouldnt do this, is shockingly unpresent.
In its place we get a strange fanboy attitude and all the weight of someone crying over their favorite television character turning out to be played by a shitty actor.
While I LIKE what his new side quest offers, it feels deeply dissonant to him as a character. His faith in Malistaire in the original WC quests isn’t blind, and his reactions are far more subtle, as like everyone else in wizard city, he is trying to deal with the fallout knowing there are bigger issues at hand.
While it seems like they were trying to make the grounds for his inevitable turn more obvious, all they did was turn the dial too far and further cement the idea that if Duncan had ever had an inkling that the schism set Malistaire on his path to the Titan—he would never have given them a second glance.
Before we get into Arc 5 I want to touch briefly on Shadow Magic and Duncan’s use of it. Because he shows up in Mirage with a grasp of not one but TWO of the more advanced (at that time, based on the game mechanics) Shadow forms: The Shepherd and the Fiend. Both said to take more effort, more power, and more control than the initial forms like Shrike, Seraph, and Sentinel. And back then, more actual innate Shadow magic as well (more pips/more power).
We have no information covering how or when his training began, but we can reasonably suspect it was WELL AFTER the Wizard learning on Khrysalis. And he seems to have a very firm grasp on it in addition to his own school of magic.
This isn’t strictly necessary as important, but I think it’s worth noting when talking about him as a character because it DOES show that he is capable of some rather intense magic that for the longest time was touted as something only the very powerful or very driven could manage to learn and control.
So. That all brings me to Arc 5. We will gloss over the abject irritation of a white man poorly voicing a character of color with the same knockoff joker voice he has given to everyone he has voiced since the quizzler (I mean it, listen to the evolution of the Divine Schismist’s voice from KM to NV to the Polaris Raid. Listen to the change in Sinbads voice.) Because even on a rewrite of this I do not have the energy to get into that shit. But Mike Sears. You and I have PROBLEMS.
Duncan is. Very nearly unrecognizable if you place him beside his pre-FTUE self. The self important arrogance is played so high it is grating, and his awareness of that is nonexistent. While it alone is upsetting to see him still with the schism after what he said during mirage (that we ruined his chances of joining? Do any of you read your own lore???) it is worse to see that this character. This fellow child turned solider who mirrors the wizard in SO MANY WAYS has been turned into nothing more than comic relief. We’ve taken what is genuinely and unconditionally a cult survivor and played his experience for LAUGHS.
Now, am I expecting KI to admit that the way they built the schism and the way Duncan was brought into it was undoubtedly cult adjacent and really fucking unsettling if you look at it for more than five minutes? Especially considering his sidelong statement of “After my third initiation” which is, a level of desperation to join these people that is alarming. Do I expect them to address it? No. But I think he deserves more than to be turned into a joke.
There are a handful of shining lights in arc 5 thus far though.
His quests offered if you play as a necromancer being paramount to these. The initial one for Selenopolis is a little lower on the scale, he talks over Qismah a lot, she is VERY irritated with him. But it shows there is still a presence and eagerness to learn that we know is integral to him as a person. Great, good, bare minimum work guys.
But I want to talk about the Darkmoor pre-quest for a minute.
So we see Duncan pretty consistantly here. He is present for our induction as a Scholar, which shows a little return to form in his attitude though it’s rather, still, I think off the mark. His little “Just me? I hate you all.” quip is admittedly much better than what we get with Query in the pre for Selenopolis. But it’s after that where I think we get some really intriguing and telling lines.
His conversation with Judge Veg in the entrance to the library. The fact that he seems genuinely concerned that remnants from the schism might be at fault for whatever is happening here and a sort of guilt around it. “Are you sure this isn’t us?”
Duncan is, by all rights, still very new to the Arcanum as all the old schismists are. But he is right into doing what he can and following Ione’s orders. She sends him to the Bridge to ensure Miranda cannot reach it while she, Baba Yaga, and the Wizard attempt to confront Miranda where they think she is: the cursed repository.
They are wrong however.
Duncan is sent to the bridge alone.
Where Miranda Briar already is.
Duncan’s purpose goes from “Reach the bridge, make sure the Arcanum can safeguard it” to without anyone knowing but him— “Make taking the bridge cost Miranda too much time.”
Based on the time we spend with Mr. Stone, when he was sent off, and when we return to find him unconscious on the ground outside the lift, having by all assumable intent tried to follow Miranda after facing off with her, he had to have delayed her a significant amount. Enough that she was forced to change tactics. She says as much before destroying Sybil. That she didn’t want to do this part, that she was going to take the bridge and the whole arcanum, but things changed, and the wizard would have caught up.
The only thing that changed, was that Duncan was in her way.
But what do we get out of this implication?
A hundred thousand shots of Duncan on the floor with that fucking Moans caption. Which is a larger issue with the fandom’s view of him I’ll get to when we finish.
The Darkmoor Necromancy Quest is the closest we have seen to Duncan’s original personality since Mirage. Play it with the sound off and you can almost pretend those are the same character. He is confident, sharp, a touch dismissive and self assured. And above that, he knows who he is dealing with. I’m gonna paste some dialogue for those who haven’t seen it. But this is THE closest we have had to an accurat write of his character in quite literally a decade.
And it’s something you only get to see if you play as a necromancer. Which, admittedly a large chunk of the player base do, because it’s an easy solo school. But still. For someone who is, by all narrative rights, an old classmate, I think his quests shouldn’t be school locked.
I don’t know if he will continue to appear throughout arc 5, if the trend continues I would say yes. I hope if I ever expand on this post it is in a positive light.
Before I let you go I want to touch on how the fandom outside wizblr treats Duncan Grimwater. The consistency of jokes about him wanting to be sexually involved with Malistaire make me want to eat fucking GLASS. I shouldn’t be able to find so many within MINUTES. I have left spaces over the frequency of shit like this. And this isn’t even on a “don’t like don’t read” / “Ship and let ship” level. People aren’t doing this in seriousness. People aren’t doing this because they find an interesting dynamic at play. They are doing it because haha the fanboy has a hard on for his evil professor. Because that is how the FTUE portrays his view of Malistaire. And like everything else, they boil him down to a joke.
Yes, I know we all like the game of bully Duncan Grimwater. I am no different. Because it’s easy. Because LOOK at him. Look at what he came from. Tell me there wasnt a good portion of the student body who would readily call him pathetic. But the character we STARTED with. And frankly the one we maintain in Mirage. Is genuinely SO interesting and such a good look into how young people can be alienated and preyed upon by those around them in power. How a desire for knowledge and answers and STABILITY can be used against you. It HURTS.
What he goes through runs side along with so much of what happens to the wizard, is it any WONDER Ambrose suggests with those initials that he might be the schism agent? If he has had to default to a child savior and child soldier mindset—Why should he assume any better of the villains? Why shouldnt they too have had their own errand dog passing notes to the powerful?
Anyways.
ANY WAYS.
Duncan Grimwater. The man you are. You deserve better and canon is dead to me. I really hope you keep cropping up, but I hope more than that for any further returns to be handled with more of the weight deserving of a character who, while not by design, builds such a good narrative mirror to the player.
celebrating my friendships i've made from wizblr over the last few years and drawing my FAVORITE THING: oc ships. in order of where their wizzy appear, i am so happy to call the following people my friends:
