one of bliss smp’s central shared narratives is that every character is in a constant pursuit of happiness/safety/power, often interlinked—their own definition of ‘bliss’. even the prophet itself is pursuing his own definition of bliss, because the prophet’s purpose in this world is to reach the state of true bliss, which I believe is a state wherein everyone on the server reaches their own state of bliss (one of the lines prophet whispered to quakitus reminds me a lot of this idea; “greatness isn’t just a contest… it’s like a constellation, many points make one shape, and if you remove one, the pattern is gone.”)
something that interests me in particular is that in the season trailer for s2, the cycles of the server, the seasons, are presented as trials. tests. experiments, maybe. bliss smp’s cyclical nature is the server constantly reinventing itself in pursuit of the state of true bliss facilitated by the prophet, who always shows up near the end of the season to ‘test’ the server. to see if this trial was successful, and if not, well, they’ll have to try it all over again.
(this next part is gonna get a little meta but frankly ignoring bliss’s metanarrative is a disservice considering how interlinked it is with the main narrative LOL)
the thing is, the state of true bliss is. kind of unobtainable? atleast, unobtainable for as long as people want to keep playing the server. the antithesis to the state of true bliss is content and entertainment, and the prophet’s thematic opposite is the manifestation, who I personally believe to be the embodiment of this. she’s talked a decent amount about doing things interestingly, about leaving a mark, having fun with it! (she also notably called prophet a buzzkill once which is really funny).
bliss is, fundamentally, a content server. and for everyone to get exactly what they want (this is impossible on its own too lowk), for everyone’s characters to reach their resolution, there would simply be no more content to make. to reach the state of true bliss (and for that to actually mean something), the server would end.
ironically, prophet claims to want to save the server, while pursuing something that ultimately means its true end. and by mani facilitating the end of the season in such a destructive manner, making it end in calamity, she’s ensuring that the cycles keep spinning.
