Years down the line, Will Byers will pick up a book from his local library's 'Up and Coming Featured Authors' section. He's not quite sure why, but something draws him in. After checking it out and taking it home, he briefly skims the pages before settling down to read for the night.
The writing style feels so familiar. Not only that, but the story, too. Something fuzzy and soft, memories bitten at the corners and left for scraps. It regales the tale of two boys, nerdy and geeky and together in their little isolated bubble of a town.
Will knows this story. Of course he does. It's his. It's his, and it's Mikes.
But why, why would Mike write this? Not even under his own name, nonetheless. The pen name reads M. Hart. Hardly something he'd ever glance twice at.
Page by page, Will sees his childhood unfold on paper from the perspective of the boy he once loved. Cold, frost bitten fingers clenching tight onto swing set handles. The knot in Mike's heart that never quite left after he saw Will's body, sopping wet and lifeless by the quarry. A boy, haloed in light as he hands over a painting, a silent confession. More, more, more. Every second of everything Will has tried to forget since he left so long ago.
Eyes bleary, Will finally reaches the last few pages. His heart aches as the desolate, grey radio tower is described.
"Friends?"
His brain freezes. Will he go through this again? Will he go through the pain and solitude Mikes words left him feeling one more time?
Will breathes shakily, and flips the page.
"You know we've never been just friends."
Will and Mike- or as the book states, William and Michael (Real classy, Mike.) gently kiss, and Will slams the book closed.
What is this? What is this?
Is this really what he thought it was?
Confused and hurt and hopeful, Will's eyes dart with rapid speed down the final pages.
Love, Mike.
He sobs, heart catching on his throat as his fingers gently brush the two words. One more chance.
Will is on a plane back to Hawkins before the sun rises.
Before reading this, I suggest taking a look at this post, which contains the Fount's entire corruption cutscenes, and this post analyzing the (then) leaked fount sprites. If you want stupid Shadow Milk essays, look through 'the essay' s tag on my page to find stuff about his totally canon pet rabbits, what horse breed him and all the beasts would be..
i do so much silly shit dude
ANYWAY!
NOW!!!!! MY ESSAY ON SHADOW MILK'S CORRUPTION!!!
note: this is far more disjointed then my usual essays because I am actively vibrating and this did take me quite awhile so we loose the plot a few times.
1) The Milk Of Truth Lake
Now, a long, long time ago (last month), I said in my essay talking about the Fount leaks that, as we can see, Shadow Milk's skin tone changes drastically- he goes from a natural looking blue that is, quite literally, a usual cookie skin tone colorshfited to be blue to NEON FUCKING CYAN.
The theory I proposed for this insane switch is rather simple- in corrupting, Shadow Milk spoiled. Spoiling has negative connotations, etcetera etcetera, Shadow Milk is now evil, the connection is quite clear.
Similarly, the Milk of Truth lake/river appears to be the original form of the Yogurt River of Rebirth- take for example, the mirroring (which I'll talk about later). We know that the Fount was dragged/pulled to the depths of the lake by gravity (after jumping in?) and that he had a big revelation while down there and appears to have come out reborn.
Similarly, Truthless goes into the Yogurt River of Rebirth and has his evil i must Deceit now revelation.
I think the Milk lake and the Yogurt river are the same entity (hence why Shadow Milk forced Truthless into it, hoping he'd turn to deceit and the "to float, all you need to do is to embrace deceit") and I think this is another case of the milk 'spoiling' with corruption. Cause. That's how you get yogurt. that's
that's how
Also, I think Shadow Milk tried to kill himself. According to the story, cookie kind was turning violent against Shadow Milk and he had reached a sort of breaking point- he knew the witches were gone and decided they had abandoned him to the wretched wiles of the evil population, he had decided his job was pointless, and he seems genuinely depressed.
It makes sense that, paralleling Truthless falling off the fucking building, Shadow Milk would take a swan dive into the lake to try and die. Hence why he gets to the depths with no resistance. Even if he can't drown, the milk itself should be able to turn his dough so soggy he just kinda melts.
Obviously, he doesn't succeed. I'll expand on what I think happens after that fact, but let's move on for now.
2) The Light of Deceit's Involvement (spoiler: I don't think it's their fault for corruption)
Okay.
Okay.
A lot of people seem to think that the Light of Deceit is manipulating Fount here into corruption and that it's their fault and I am here to say no that is INCORRECT!!
From the start of the fourth wall break to Shadow Milk saying he abandoned the mantle, I do not think we are seeing the real Fount anymore. It's incredibly in character for Shadow Milk to avoid showing the actual moment of vulnerability, where the Fount corrupts, and is further supported by Deceit telling the Fount about how they "saved him" and are the main source of power for him.
If he were still the Fount here, this would be incorrect. While you might be saying "yeah its the light of deceit", the Fount had been openly hostile up to this point and made it clear he can see through Deceit's tricks and is on the verge of fist fighting it. hence why I don't think we're looking at fount.
Expanding on my earlier point, it also makes sense that Shadow Milk would specifically be avoiding showing the true cause/moment of his corruption, as that's vulnerable and terrible and he knows who we are. This could also be why Shadow Milk shows such aggression towards Deceit by the end of it- Deceit was an actor by this point, because showing us his real memories there would be Dangerous, and now Shadow Milk wants nothing to do with it. Not typically the behavior towards someone who's supposedly turned you and 'opened' your eyes, huh?
okay, okay, sooo much talk about deceit, you might be saying, so let's move onto it's opposite.. truth!!
3) Mirroring with Truthless/Awakened Pure Vanilla/Beast Yeast Ep. 8 analysis
(the analysis was accidental btw idk how i got there)
So, obviously, there's the shared trait of being peer pressured to jump into lakes that make you suddenly really accepting of deceit, and there's also the visual similarities- Pure Vanilla has the milk crown patterning and the scroll pieces of his outfit, although his scrolls more-so resemble half corrupted Shadow Milk, PV has the key and starburst markings everywhere...
Let's go over some funner similarities!
Through most of Truthless' existence, a point of focus by Shadow Milk is his potential loneliness. He threatens his friends. In Chess II, he talks about how White Lily has abandoned him multiple times as part of her free spirit personality. In Chess II, he also talks about how little Truthless knows of DE's revival and what really happened to White Lily. Now that we've seen Shadow Milk's perpetually lonely existence as Fount and seen the lack of people willing to ask him.. just how he was doing or any sort of question he could find actually engaging, he was treated more like ChatGPT or google and his own personal struggles/interests were ignored.
Here, I think he is comparing Truthless to all of the terrible people who hurt him, which probably has a low effect on Truthless but shows Shadow Milk's interesting frustrations with anyone who embodies truth or moral values, especially a (once) mortal like Pure Vanilla.
He also says, and I quote, "If you really had what it takes, you wouldn't have ended up here, now would you?" which also appears to be his line of thinking as the fount to some extent, leading to the possible/inferenced suicide attempt. Said line is also followed by "If the so-called 'truth' were the only right thing, it would've granted you the power to overcome all the odds you've been up against!"
..
projecting much?
"Cookies fear what they don't understand. Always so quick to fill that void with the first thing that fits their belief system! Anything, really." Jesus christ, I'm starting to think I'm blind as hell. How did I not notice.. any of this foreshadowing earlier...?
Anyway, an interesting quote from Truthless in reference to Shadow Milk during 'Pure Vanilla the Liar' is "My story is different from his.. I simply let go of everything I once believed in."
Which is, infact, his first lie! As we can be told by the actual story of his corruption, the Fount did give up in everything he once believed in- the natural good of cookies & the witches and his ability to do some of that good. Pure Vanilla and the Fount are, corruption wise, kindof one in the same- faced by the evilness of humanity and themselves (although the fount's was more-so being violently harassed over his perceived evilness), they chose violence.
Okay, okay, talking more seriously about their awakening/corruption, I think Pure Vanilla's awakening tells us a lot more of the visual details of what happened to Shadow Milk.
In it, he evolves through the years and he crashes past through the Yogurt river of Rebirth, finding himself among the stars and with true truth. Since Shadow Milk found full deceit, reasonably, he crashes through the Milk lake (which we know happens), he disregards the stars and atmosphere (which we KNOW happens because of the sprite where his little planetary ring lays crumbled and he is above it, like how he is now above the mortal realm, etc.). Pure Vanilla ends with the baby nilla sheep memory, SHADOW MILK STARTS WITH IT!!!!!!!!! They're reverses of eachother. They're the same, in the end. Reverse either one of their corruption/awakenings to get the other's!!!!! That's so neat!!
and wonderful!!
SPEAKING OF SPRITES, THOUGH!!
4) THE WITCHES !!!!!!!!!!!
In my essay on the sprite leaks, an interesting trait I noted was the fact Shadow Milk is riding his key-staff like a witch's broom. At the time, I said that he was trying to subconsciously make himself more witch-like, more powerful. I still believe this.
Even better is the new information about his relationship with the Witches! It seems to be kind of parasocial bullshit. At some time during his reign, Fount decided that cookie kind was evil and bullshit and that his job was stupid.
As we know, he has an infinite amount of knowledge that appears to apply to the Human World. It makes sense that he, upon deciding this world sucks ass and he should leave, would attach himself to the idea of the Witches in a more aggressive manner- they're his virtuous creators, they belong to a world of insane knowledge and virtue and goodness (because his creators are good). It's unfair, it's a punishment that he's left down here to answer questions about crushes. He's smart! He deserves to be with them! Fount also probably had quite the attachment to him- he's not shown to talk to. literally anyone, and his association with stars- with being the on the edge of the boundary to the human world- probably means he was the primary virtue the witches talked to.
His original hatred of the Witches probably stems from that sort of mentality- especially when the Witches dipped out by being brutally murdered (presumably..? i dont remember what happens to the first cookies but im pretty sure they all die horrifically), it makes sense he would take this as a severe rejection from like the two people in the entire world he talks to, AND it's trapping him down here. With the idiots. Who now want to commit violent acts against him.
I would also be mad. And act out to desperately try to be freed of this horrific world.
Anyway, it makes the fact he subconsciously postures himself like a witch even funnier- he's the fate maker, he has the world at his fingertips; he's the creator, he crafts rumors and he can craft cookies like Candy Apple or the Dough trio. When he originally corrupted, he seemed to be abandoning his stars- visually breaking free of the atmosphere, exiting the cookie world, entering the human one. He's like a toddler having a tantrum, but in a I have No Mouth And I Must Scream type of way.
5) What I think happened over the full story
chat i've been writing for an hour and a half now
i think
ANYWAY!
The beginning of his descent starts with the way he's treated- used as google and ignored by everyone around him, being endlessly bored and taunted with these annoying questions. Even better, when not given a desired answer, these cookies slander his name- and even when given the desired answer, they continue to commit violent acts. Fundamentally, he is a bystander, a tool.
This is where he starts getting the mindset of cookie kind being pre-set to be evil. If they were good and virtuous, afterall, wouldn't they atleast bother to say 'hey should i go beat these people up' and get told they should not, in fact, beat those people up? And take that advice?
This sets the stage for most of Shadow Milk's later behavior. I define that idea via the 'Cycle', which is a circle that begins with 'cookie kind is evil' -> 'i need to punish cookie kind (partially to continue making my life and anger justified)' -> 'cookie kind believes lies/punishment' -> 'cookie kind is evil'.
Anyway, eventually, it reaches the point where he is asking the Witches to get his ass out of there, to which he receives no answer. This sets the stage for his hatred of the witches later.
The cookie's behavior escalates, turning against the Fount, and, in the wake of the Witches death, he tries to... probably kill himself by willingly diving into the Milk Lake of Truth. Within the lake, he is either talked to and yells at the light of Deceit, or he reemerges living and decides he has to do something worse. Take revenge, drag the witches here and force them to free him from this wretched world.
From there, we get a natural progression into the comfortable sadism of Shadow Milk, the Silver Tree adds more hatred of the Witches, DE gives him a chance to truly cause some damage, and we get to where we currently are.
good job folks, you have made it to the end
i'm so very sorry if this was incoherent babbling and made no sense. i swear that wasn't the intent but my tendency to go on side rants gets overwhelming on topics i like.
I like to use this blog to archive venti content and spread news about him/Mondstadt, but that just gets hard with the username since it tends to rub people off in the wrong way and they end up blocking me even if I never interacted with them before. Or they could be blocking me for the occasional/rare mature/smut post, which is valid tbh.
Sooo if you see a really cool venti post and I didn't reblog it, it's probably because op has me blocked.
Finishing Veilguard has left me so strung out. Will I draw about it? Will I write about it? Or will Solas and Aura just be banging pots and pans around every corner of my brain while I stare at my living room walls??
