#obsession theory

[robzombies-hotwife]

I have a theory that the One Wish Willow actually CAN be cancelled by the company, but Bear demanding that the wish be "altered" so he could still keep Nikki and generally being a rude and entitled asshole on the phone made the customer service rep decide the world would be a better place if he just killed himself.

[biblioflyer]

If not Possession, why Possession shaped?

A metaphysical and armchair psychological attempt to reconcile knee jerk reactions to Obsession with director's commentary.

Spoilers for the film Obsession (2026)

Right from the start, I do want to clarify that I am not going to be snooty about why people experience Obsession as a demonic possession story.

"Wish Nikki" behaves in such a way that one could quickly make assumptions that this is demonic. The rapid escalation from love bombing to feeding Bear his cat, to creating a shrine with the rest of the cat's remains, to the creepy walking, and the rest of her bizarre behavior creates confusion because this doesn't seem like how someone would behave if they love someone more than anyone else in the world. This just seems unnecessary, willfully cruel even.

Then when you throw in the phone call with customer support where Nikki is screaming as if in agony, it sure seems like she might be experiencing some sort of supernatural torture.

I get it! The idea that Nikki's body has been infested with a demon feels apt for the genre.

However, we have it directly from the director in multiple statements that this is not possession.

So then what is it?

If not possession, why possession shaped?

A more helpful reference point might be Dissociative Identity Disorder. Now contrary to the way its normally presented in pop culture, as its understood clinically* different personalities aren't always completely isolated, they can experience varying degrees of awareness of what is happening even if they aren't operating the meat mech right now.

What I propose is that at the moment Bear makes his wish, what happens is that a new personality emerges that is largely unaware of the original personality and is mostly in control of Nikki's body. Like DID, this is something that looks and acts a lot like possession but this isn't something you can fix with an old priest and a young priest.

Critically, this new personality seems to have Nikki's memories but doesn't seem to act as if it has experienced those memories first hand. It has an intellectual understanding of how to be a person but no real context for any of it to steer its behavior going forward. In some sense, this is a being who was "born" in the moment of Bear's wish, has some vague notes on being a person, an overriding compulsion to love Bear more than anyone in the world, and crucially: no real sense of self except in reference to Bear.

The increasingly "demonic" behavior I attribute to Wish Nikki's mental integrity rapidly breaking under the strain of violently needing to please Bear while not not having a clear understanding of what actually pleases him. Wish Nikki loves Bear more than anyone else in the universe, including herself, and also clearly needs for him to show love back. When he is put off by the duct taped door and enraged by the cat sandwich, these are devastating experiences for Wish Nikki because she's only days old with an extremely unsophisticated understanding of love and the only thing that matters to her is Bear being happy. If he's not happy, she's not fulfilling her purpose: to love Bear more than anyone else in the universe.

When Bear yells at her to be normal, Wish Nikki experiences a momentary break where she begins sobbing because she's failed again and Bear has asked her to do something she clearly does not understand how to do: be normal. Even when you have the average degree of socialization you ought to have as a person in your 20s, "be normal" is an ambiguous command. When you're days old and your only reference point for anything is whether it makes Bear happy, its practically cruel.

Which brings me to my grand theory of why Wish Nikki presents as demonic: she is ALSO suffering.

Her suffering is different from Nikki Prime** who is watching helplessly as her body is used to violate her will in increasingly disturbing ways, but Wish Nikki IS suffering. She is suffering because she is existing and trying to make do with a life that has one overriding purpose: love Bear. And it starts becoming more and more obvious that she is failing, the more she tries to fix things the worse it gets, and if she doesn't have Bear she quite literally has nothing. No purpose, no reason to live. Nothing matters except loving Bear.

And on some level, the firewall between Nikki Prime and Wish Nikki is not absolute. When she is watching Bear sleep, Wish Nikki comments that her dreams make her uncomfortable. Its implicit then that when she's asleep, Wish Nikki is confronted with thoughts and feelings she cannot reconcile with who she is as a person who is defined only by loving Bear: what if part of her, a VERY angry part of her does not love Bear? I think we pretty much get confirmation of this later on when Nikki Prime is able to speak when Wish Nikki is asleep.

I could be mistaken, but I think its also strongly implied that Wish Nikki is conscious when Nikki Prime is able to take control for brief moments and is terrified, if not by the sudden and inexplicable loss of control, then by the idea that something is causing her to take drastic actions that displease Bear - not even mistakes like cooking the cat, but full blown incidents that Wish Nikki is not responsible for.

For her part, I think Nikki Prime's primal scream when on the phone with Bear is perfectly explainable by means other than having been consigned to some sort of Hell where she is actively being tortured. Her present existence of having no control over her body and being witness to her body being used to do things she vehemently does not consent to IS the torture.

So I read this scene as Prime Nikki not having the bandwidth to speak to Bear. This experience is still fairly new and she is likely still very confused and very angry. By the time she is talking to Bear while Wish Nikki is asleep, Prime Nikki seems to understand what has happened in supernatural terms and that it can't be undone except through her death, but as of the phone call, it seems like Prime Nikki hasn't had anyone explain what has happened. Customer Service can have her "speak" to Bear, but hasn't really bothered to try talking to her it seems, or if they did, she wasn't in a receptive mood.

Later, Prime Nikki seems to have been quietly building her strength and working to understand what is happening and thus figures out she can speak to Bear when Wish Nikki is sleeping and is able to marshal some potency to break through and self harm at a moment when there are the most witnesses and thus the most consequences. I understand this as Prime Nikki having acclimated to her new reality up to a point, perhaps you could say she's moved through the stages of grief from anger to bargaining to a kind of acceptance that is actually more like a cold fury capable of some calculation rather than an uncontrolled rage.

And that's basically it. Not a capital P Possession, but a split personality where both are actually experiencing suffering, and the one you probably assume is being driven insane is actually slowly pulling herself back together to wage war for her body and the one you think is "stable" but evil is being driven insane by the impossibility of ever truly fulfilling her only and most important command: to love Bear more than anyone in the universe - and in every sense of the word.

In the end, Wish Nikki can't allow others to compete for his affection, and she must also love him more than anyone else as a verb, but also seems to have a deficit of reference points for what is "normal" and the more her behavior frightens and disgusts Bear, the more her sense of self crumbles. Its not active, conscious cruelty, its violent jealousy born of a profoundly insecure attachment style and an implicit interpretation that Bear can have no others before her.

*And even the clinical understanding of DID is a giant kettle of fish with a lot of consternation and accusations of misleading data and professional malpractice flying both ways across the proverbial battle line. However, this is not the essay for adjudicating between the different sides when it comes to the science and the pros and cons of encouraging or scolding self diagnosis. I do think its important that people know these conflicts exist though and engage with them thoughtfully and without unnecessary venom for whichever side you think is "wrong."

**Based on how I'm thinking about them, while I've used the terminology "Real Nikki" I'm coming to feel as if this minimizes the ways in which Wish Nikki, while clearly dangerous and with a severely warped moral compass, is no less a human being than someone who suffers from a non-magical extreme mental illness. Such a person may have severely limited or compromised agency with reference to objective reality or the median of society, but they still experience pain, fear, and the rest of the human experience and that matters.

[thegreygale]

Okay so small Danny Phantom headcannon that someone else might have said at some point: Vlad’s obsession is Maddie.

I mean think about it: he was just about to ask her out when the ghost portal prototype exploded in his face, he has spent basically every single moment either hating and trying to kill Jack Fenton for “stealing” her from him, and he’s spent basically every OTHER moment trying to impress Maddie with his wealth and power so he can steal her back.

Not to mention the dude has like a million holograms designed to look and sound like her all of which are programmed to act like they’re in love with him(which might I say is very much “ew” and truly obsessive) and the dude NAMED HIS FREAKING CAT AFTER HER!!!! I don’t know about anyone else but I genuinely believe that naming your cat after someone is either creepy obsession or true love.

[averykedavra]

So each of the Dark Sides/Others introduce their names in a different way, right? Janus took a while to reveal his and did it very dramatically in a moment of honesty. Remus revealed his in the same episode as he appeared, partly to gloat over Virgil.

If there’s a third Dark Side? What would that side do?

The obvious answer is--they would reveal their name before their function. They would introduce themself with their true name and hide their job from the others.

Why would a Side do that? Well, I’ve been reading this post and I have a theory.

Let’s start with a few basic ideas. This Dark Side will probably act differently than every other character, because Thomas always creates diversity of characters. It would fill a hole in the Sides’ dynamic. We can safely assume this new character will have a different personality than any others.

Also, the Rule of Three and basic storytelling rules implies that this side will be a ‘final boss’ of sorts. Deceit was sneaky and lying, but kind of funny. Remus is shocking but ultimately harmless. Both of them are hilarious and amiable in the right situations, bad but not truly evil. And, as we’ve already seen, Janus has been almost accepted into the Light Sides and Remus will probably follow.

So. It would make sense, narratively, for the final dark side to be far more intimidating and powerful than the first two. This would also fit with the first idea of gaining a character who’s different than every other one. All the Sides have their intimidating moments, like when Logan gets angry or Virgil uses his tempest tongue, but we don’t have a Side that actually elicits fear from the AUDIENCE.

The third idea? If this next Side is Logan’s Dark Side, it might be a side that’s opposite to Logan in a lot of ways. Logan is calm, rational, collected, and serious. He hardly ever smiles and is in some ways the most mature of the group, although he does have a temper and some self-esteem issues.

The fourth idea is the color theory and some ideas from the Obsession post linked above. The color theory states that this side will have an orange color scheme, in order to fill out the rainbow. @strickenwithclairvoyance writes:

“Generally, however, the color orange is to be associated to be youthful, energetic, excited, and creative. Take fandoms. Widely considered to be an “obsession” of sorts (to which we have all fallen victim, if you’re reading this), it is considered a childish thing to be a part of, yet inspires a lot of excitement and creativity. Any kind of obsession can do this, even and especially in extreme cases.”

@dragonsaphirareads adds:

“Obsession is dangerous because unlike intrusive thoughts, it isn’t immediately alarming. The Duke is dangerous because of the core four’s fear. Deceit is dangerous because he has the power to hide things and keep Thomas in the dark. Obsession is dangerous because it approaches you like a friend, and you don’t realize that you’re caught in its trap until it’s already too late.”

So let’s combine all of these and I’ll give you my theory--Logan’s Dark Side, whether Obsession or not, is intimidating, powerful...and probably acts a lot like Patton.

Hear me out. Logan and Patton are some of the most polar opposites. As early as The Mind vs. The Heart they’ve been arguing, and although they never reached that level of discord again, they still snap at each other from time to time. Logan is frustrated by Patton’s puns, childishness, and general “naivete”.

What if the third Dark Side, Logan’s counterpart, acts much the same way? A sweet, maybe even shy, childish type who loves meeting people and is always cracking jokes?

At least, on the surface.

But there’s ugliness beneath that. That smile is fake and that sugary-sweetness disguises a complete lack of empathy. Dark Sides aren’t the complete opposite of their corresponding Light Sides. Morality and Deceit oppose each other, but they both like an argument and make some wonderful puns. And the two Creativities are like mirror images. So Logan’s Dark Side, despite its demeanor, isn’t completely alien from him.

Logan says he doesn’t have emotions, but he does. He just acts like he doesn’t.

Maybe his Dark Side is the inverse of that. Acts like he has emotions...but doesn’t. He seems to be well-adjusted and sweet, but lures you in and sends things spiraling downhill.

Another thing to consider is the dynamic between the two of them. Roman and Remus hate each other. Patton and Janus go from cordial enemies to cordial semi-friends. We’ve never seen a dynamic where one side is afraid of their counterpart.

Maybe Logan is afraid of this Side. Maybe he’s afraid of his ability to socialize, to make friends, to be likable, even without emotions. And he’s always believed he doesn’t have emotions, being logic. This Side, in a way, is everything he wants to be--emotionless but able to get people listening anyway. Maybe he’s insecure that his Dark Side will replace him, be more liked than him, or is just better. Maybe he fears his Dark Side’s power. Maybe he never brings his Dark Side up in conversation, preferring to pretend he doesn’t exist at all.

And maybe, one day, he pops up with a wave and says hello.

There are so many possibilities for this! Patton and the new side might get along well, Roman might be okay with them, Remus would get a kick out of them, even Thomas might be open to getting to know them. But Janus, Logan and Virgil are wary. Maybe even scared.

Maybe this is the Dark Side that even Janus is afraid of.

And maybe they get called “paranoid.” “judgmental.” Other words. Maybe nobody trusts them and they get shunted to the sidelines. They’re unable to warn Thomas of the danger, and they can’t help but wonder...maybe he has changed? Maybe they are being paranoid? He really doesn’t seem too bad...

The only thing that makes Thomas a little worried? This side only goes by their name. They refuse to share what their job is. They crack jokes, smile widely, and seem childishly excited about everything, but there’s a glint of mischief in their eyes. And maybe it’s Virgil’s influence, but something just seems off about them. The more Thomas talks to them, the more nervous he feels.

Finally, someone says that they really need to go, that it’s been nice talking to this Side, but they have an issue to work out and they need to focus.

And the Side just smiles wider and says, “Oh, you’re not leaving.”

The entire room starts to shake, to glow. To do whatever Thomas has the budget for. The smile slides off Roman’s face, Patton’s, Thomas’s. Deceit and Virgil look terrified. Only Logan looks resigned. He knows exactly what’s happening.

“Who are you?” Thomas asks.

Logan’s Dark Side gives him a big smile. His eyes crinkle, but they’re empty of any sort of real happiness.

“Obsession.”

And that’s the name reveal. Not his true name. Not a display of honesty or forthrightness. Not a mark of how far a Side has come and how much they trust the others. This Side doesn’t need to worry about sharing their real name, because they have nothing to lose.

Their human, personal name isn’t the big reveal.

The reveal is that beneath the personable facade, they aren’t human at all.

[tinyratdeer]

Orange side design/ideas

I was inspired by this post (from @averykedavra​) to create my own design of the orange side! He turned out really cute to me. I decided to write out my thoughts while designing this and some ideas for him. Keep in mind I don’t think this design will be the canon design or anything I say here will be canon, I just really like the ideas.

Well, lets start with the color palette. The main idea with most of the colors was I feel like obsession would try to look like a light side in order for other sides and Thomas who doesn’t know better to trust them. Which is why I used white and more lighter, reddish colors. I also used white because Logan wears far more darker colors like black and blue. 

The clothes themselves were pretty easy to pick, as I wanted them to look proper as to match Logan. A bow tie rather than a tie, long sleeves instead of short, stuff like that. The suspenders with skirt was just to add to the softness of the outfit without taking away from the proper look. And lastly, I added the painted cheeks to keep the makeup theme that all the dark sides seem to have. 

Now! here are a bunch of random ideas for him. I think he might be able to use ribbons to grab and tie things up, as all the dark sides seem to have something like this (E.g Virgil’s webs, Remus’s tentacles, and Janus’s multiple hands or snakes). For the symbol/animal I picked a sheep, I feel like it fits because sheep are thought of as sweet and soft. Plus it fits with the idea of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, which I think is perfect for him.

Last thing, a name theory. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile and I’ve thought of two different directions you could go with them. 

Venus for a name I think is a good pick. She’s a roman goddess that is a major part of the The Aeneid by Virgil. Her son, Aeneas was also the ancestor of Romulus and Remus according to Virgil. She is the goddess of beauty which fits the idea of Obsession being something that looks harmless at first. She is also the mother of Timor, personification of fear and Metus, the personification of terror. Also, Venus matches the pattern of ‘us’ at the end of each dark side’s name.

The two things that bother about the name is the fact that one, it starts with an ‘V’ which is the same as Virgil (thought Roman and Remus share a first letter too) and two, that it doesn’t connect to Logan’s name in anyways. Another name idea could be it has something to do with ethos as both Logan and Patton are named after logos and pathos. Ethos is about convincing others that you are to be trusted, that you know what you’re talking about and have good morals. This is exactly what Orange would be trying to do, be trusted by Thomas so he can finally show up. Ethan could fit but that’s more of a shot in the dark so if anyone has a better name ideas let me know.

Personally, I’m leaning more towards some form of Ethos but who knows! All I know is I really hope we get a cool new side! 

[kibfpatiyxparagpsiqa]

goodness fucking gracious.

(i’m frustrated in a way that does pertain to the content here.)

why did obsession theory get so big?

not even big, like, actually ubiquitous. i can’t remember the last time i saw someone who didn’t just scatter it into everything like a pepper grinder.

it’s like it’s a given.

it’s an interesting way to read it, but seriously, is there any reason it seems to be universally accepted? it’s not like it even perfectly encapsulates the behaviour of every ghost in the show, it’s an explanation that takes some work to fit some examples into. why?

that is a sincere question. if anybody knows why and how this happened i’d love to know.

it’s possible this is because of something mentioned in the show. actually, pretty sure it’s not that. maybe something elmer earl suggested? again, interesting idea, but other readings are valid under dota.

i just don’t get it! people will reference obsession theory in works where it’s entirely irrelevant, too, just to establish they agree with it i guess? to the point where it doesn’t add anything.

for that matter sometimes all it ‘adds’ to a work is plot holes that could have been avoided by just not adhering to this one theory!

why is it literally everywhere?

i’m peeved.

[baekhyunhands]

My theory about OBSESSION

X-EXO are their idol personas (heavy makeup, show a lot of skin, flashy clothes and jewelry), while EXO are their true selfs. In the begining X-EXO looks like in a stage, and the lights seem like puppet strings, thats how they are used by the music industry.  Baekhyun is on a fight, with people watching him, people who doesnt really care about his well being, they just want to be entertained.  Sehun tried to kill his persona and be himself, but he's trapped, an idol can't ever show their true self without getting hated, thats why the arrow gets him, the arrow represents midia/fan hate. Notice how many arrows are around his persona, they don’t touch him, just the real Sehun is affected.  Suho (being the masterpiece he is) is surrounded by art. Just like paintings, idols are told to be there just to be appreciated, they can't  show ugly things about themselves.  Kai is on a motorcycle, but he moves as a bull, even the persona has this blanket and does torero movements. Again, both will get hurt, ‘cause this is a bull fight, and the bull (real Jongin) has more chances to get hurt than torero.  Chen was playing chess, he seems invested on the game, while his persona sits careless, the persona KNOWS theres no winners here. And they didnt go through the end, the chess board is a mess in the end and Chen is not in the room, for me it seems Chen and his persona just end up in an agreement and Chen run away, he embrace the fact that he can't overcome his idol persona (he is still being watched by the cameras though, showing how the enemy isnt X-EXO). Chanyeol? I really don’t have a clue, but his shots were the best ones along the MV. The song has this "i want you" lines being played many times, those can be their fans voice mixed with music industry, they want EXO, they want to suck everyting they can from them, they want to see the stage personas, and for EXO give it to them, they have to sacrifice themselves. Music industry and fans know that.  That's my view, I know EXO has the power concept since debut, but I think  this is just a plot for talking about real life problems, their title track songs constantly talk about toxic relationships, in MVs EXO is always trapped (music industry) and always trying to escape (idol culture), but they can't and they are aware of their fate.