I was trying to pin down why this particular Cookie run update had me in the throes of fixation so heavily again and I realized it's cuz it's a full circle reminiscence of the Truth & Deceit story that got me back into cookie run again for the first time in years. Timekeeper cookie is the major key to Shadow Milk's minor key. She's got that same kind of divine power/knowledge and theatrical curiosity to her just put into a more benevolent practice. It's possible Timekeeper dealing with time in itself had her accept early on that events and cookies are unpredictable, and knowing or not knowing how things will go is all part of the fun in seeing the unique paths that develop. They also get the luxury of, even with their control over it, time not encapsulating the worth of their life and being more so a force they work with. And on top of that she has an entire department of cookies that deal with the same thing as companions to understand and lean on should she need it. While Shadow Milk was created with the sole purpose of being the one and only Fount of Knowledge to ALL cookie kind and therefore expected to always have omnipotent answers that (in their eyes) he couldn't sufficiently provide. And with that he lacked not only the community of those who could understand his plights personally, (Cuz while the beasts relate to the overall dreary conclusions they reached they all have vastly different roles that put them apart) but also couldn't even consult the only benevolent being he knew COULD understand him when the witches went MIA. He was left truly and utterly alone to spiral into what he is now.
Pure Vanilla mirrors Shadow Milk in a very deep two halves of the same whole way but it's so interesting how while Pure Vanilla more so encapsulates the hope and "naivety" of who he used to be, who is still is at his core, Timekeeper is more a 'what if?' his circumstances had been tweaked just a little to the left.
They both represent what Shadow Milk COULD have been, could've continued to be, had he had a proper support structure in his time of need and had just a little of that weight lifted from his shoulders. How he could've kept this grandiose nature to him as we know it with a positive helpful attitude had he been accepted as is and not had such a deep seeded betrayal planted in him so early.
