I love how everybody gushes about how househusband-y Solomon is in NB, but I don't buy it. I've always headcanoned that Solomon is AWFUL at domestic stuff. We're talking about an 800+ year old bachelor who can't tell sugar from arsenic and you want to convince me that he's NOT a complete disaster?? I bet NB MC regularly comes home to CHAOS.
He grocery shops like he's buying potion ingredients, so their cardboards are full of pickled eyes and mermaid scales that MC has to figure out something to do with...
He can't clean a room to save his life. Either all of the junk (mostly his own books and experiments) gets shifted around or he makes a unauthorized hammer space to hide it all. MC regularly opens the towel closet and gets buried by a mountain of papers...
His forgetful ass mixes reds with whites while doing laundry and he folds like a clueless toddler. He keeps his own clothes in piles then uses magic to straighten them out, so why would he ever learn to pack a shirt away?
Either the bed makes itself or somebody else is doing it because he's never once handled a fitted sheet in his life. That matterss is bare and he mostly sleeps at his desk anyway.
Some of his enchanted powders have spilled so the dust bunnies have grown sentience and are negotiating for full control of the attic.
And everytime MC tells him to clean the floors, he somehow lights the broom on fire then has to put it out with the mop bucket.
Disaster. Catastrophe. He sucks at this (but he still tries, so there you go).
We Need To Talk About Nightbringer (the Person, Not the Game)
I'm still scratching my head over what Nightbringer's goal is here... How is MC involved? Why send them back in time? And, of course, who are they??
SPOILERS Up to Lesson 12 Below Cut
The Fuck is the Goal Here??
Sending the MC back just to form pacts makes no goddamn sense. If the MC acquiring pacts was the real aim, then that mission was already accomplished in the present-day. There's something more here.
Why send MC back to RIGHT NOW? What about making pacts AT THIS TIME is desirable to Nightbringer? Is the end game even having the pacts at all...?
I posit that Nightbringer wants war, specifically, another war between angels and demons. The imagery of scales brings to mind the fragile balance of peace that Diavolo was mentioning between the realms before. RAD isn't built yet, his goal to improve relations is still in its infancy, and the times are so tumultuous that MC risks an all out fight starting just being there. So if Nightbringer wants to make things come to blows, then this is the PERFECT time to send them to.
However...
What is this "path to happiness" all about? What does Nightbringer think will make the MC most happy...? And what about THEIR happiness is linked to his? Is he assuming that in a war of the three realms, MC would side with the demons and thus if demons win then MC will be glad? That doesn't really track with the MC as presented in game... They're generally shown as a peacemaker or bridge builder. I don't think a war would make them happy at all!
Ultimately, I don't think we can answer this question in any way that makes sense until we have a better idea of WHO Nightbringer is so....
Who is Nightbringer??
It's Barbs
This goes for any version of Barbs: past, present, future, or even an alternate self I guess. This only makes sense because we're dealing with a demon who does time travel and there's only one demon we know who fits this bill but... why?
I can't imagine any reason why Barbatos would betray Diavolo, at least the one we know. This guy is so loyal to his lord that he's the ONLY character who won't completely kowtow to MC's whims even in the OG game. His true loyalty was always to Diavolo. Not the realm, not demons, DIAVOLO. And if Diavolo seeks peace, then why on earth would Barbs want to cause a war?? Is he more bitter about things than we thought...?
If it's a different version of Barbs, then I guess this goes out the window, but even then what's an alternate Barbs care about this world specifically? What would he hope to gain? MC? Why?? The means are all here, but I just can't figure out the motive, so...
It's Not Barbs, but Connected to Barbs
You know. I've been thinking a lot about this and I've been considering how, thematically, it could be appropriate for Diavolo not to be the only one with a progenitor/parental figure out of commission. We can assume that Daddy Devil must of had an attendant like Barbatos to aid him like Dia has Barbs so...
What if Nightbringer is the old King's previous attendant? And what's more, what if they aren't Barbs but related to Barbs? Like a sibling or parent? It's important to note that Barbs' time capabilities are not INTERNAL to him. It's his room of doorways to other timelines. Presumably, anybody with sufficient knowledge could inherit that room and just take over the role of the Devildom's time lord.
I know it goes against all of our previous notions to think that Barbatos was, at some point, just an everyday demon and not some primordial, OG force of nature but none of that was canon anyway. Something to think about.
It's Michael
I know people keep offering up this one, but I'm really not buying it... Yeah, Michael has always been this looming, shady figure over the OM universe and he's canonically and non-canonically done some eyebrow raising shit, but what's the motive here? Plus, Nightbringer's thematic ties to, well, night really feel more demon than angel... The Celestial Realm is always sunny, the Devildom is always dark. I think it's just a stretch...
Michael wanting another war could be interesting, especially since we've seen far more of angels being actively antagonistic to demons than the other way around, but I don't think that makes him Nightbringer. At most, he could end up being a shadow ally in his plot to bring everything to a head once again.
It's Solomon
In truth, even I don't think Nightbringer is the Solomon we're talking to. But I still think it's suspicious that all of this plays out so perfectly for our present-day Solo-pal... Personally, I take anything this guy tells us directly with a grain of salt since we know he'll lie openly, so here are the facts we're working with:
We are interacting with our present day Solomon (or at least one with knowledge of who we are and our timeline's events).
Solomon is the only one in this current space who knows of our full history in the OG timeline.
This Solomon put himself not only in the position of being the ONLY ONE who knows us that we can interact with, but happily isolated us from the brothers and made himself our main point of contact.
And last (and perhaps most importantly) HE'S STILL TRYING TO MAKE PACTS. He approaches Lucifer about it and successfully makes a pact with Asmo centuries before he's supposed to! If my guy is really from the present, that's like, Changing the Course of History 101! What the hell???
Let me present to you a theory. He is not present-day Solomon, sent back to help MC. He is past-Solomon, caught up to MC's identity through Barbs' time powers and just playing the part of our modern-day buddy. If he's from the past, he doesn't have to worry about changing the present timeline like we do because that ain't even him we've been speaking to. It feels like he has this bet going with Nightbringer... they have some kind of wager and MC is key to it. They're the one who'll tip the scales and Solomon is trying to get us to stay on his side.
It's Not Solomon, but Connected to Solomon
There's something off about Solomon that everybody, LITERALLY everybody, makes comments on: how he doesn't seem human anymore.
The OM timeline introduced the idea that a person can become something else, no matter what they started out as. The brothers were angels, but they fell, so they became demons. Simeon violated angel rules, so he was made into a human. The idea of corruption related to Solomon has always stuck in the back of my mind... The guy has over 70 pacts, he's lived for several centuries at least, and there's just something NOT RIGHT about him...
When Solomon and Nightbringer are speaking to each other, this line stuck out to me.
I find this comment so damn weird. If Nightbringer is a demon and has always been a demon, why would Solomon feel the need to lampshade this? He's pointing it out as if it's meant to get under Nightbringer's skin... Why state the obvious?
What if Nightbringer wasn’t always a demon?
Nightbringer refers to and brings up his demonness as much as Solomon brings up his humanness. That, to me, reeks of insecurity. They may not just be fighting on the lines between demons and humanity, but fighting each other/themselves to prove who's side they're actually on.
What if Nightbringer is a fully-corrupted Solomon? Either a Solomon in the future who's fucking around with the past or a Solomon in this timeline/dimension that's trying to use MC to cause destruction for his world??
..... Okay, I do know this is a bit of a reach. As much as I would love to blame the sorcerer, Nightbringer still seems like a being who's just... been around a while. Far too long to start fucking up shit now. It's possible that if he is from the future and just hopping through time, there's nothing stopping him from going back however far he wants to, but then you could get into the "You are your own grandfather" paradox and the next thing you know we're in another installment of Kingdom Hearts where time is our worst enemy.
HOWEVER, the idea of corruption DOES bring me to my wildest theory yet.
What if Nightbringer wants MC to become a demon...?
Think about it.
It could explain why Solomon is trying so hard to make MC remember and side with their humanity.
It could explain why Nightbringer sent them there under the guise of demon to start with.
It could be why he wants them to make their pacts again. He's trying to seduce them into fully embracing the demonic world through their connection with the brothers.
Humans die, right? Why not be a demon and not have to worry about it?
Throw away the Ring of Light.
Stay by your demons' sides.
Embrace the darkness.
Join the damned.
And when that big'ol battle that he wants happens, he'll have the most powerful sorcerer/sorceress, fully demonized, fighting for his side against God himself.
..... Or that's my spec script anyway. Probably too out there, but man would it be fun...
Can we take a minute to appreciate the fact that in the Nightbringer universe MC cooks for Solomon ❤️ 🥰 ☺️ (and acts like a married couple) and everyone knows it! (And are jealous)
