Interlinked Villains? (spoilers for the series)

[crimsoncantata]

So, at the end of Deception, G gets disintegrated. Just before that , he shows that he's able to derive energy from consuming souls.

In Epiphany, every soul that disintegrates is because of M, and M claims she is nourished by their destruction. Did M tear apart G (she had just returned from banishment, and he was apparently just sloshing with excess energy)? Perhaps more intriguingly (and haphazardly), did M teach the energy vampires how to eat souls in the first place?

We think of M as not having turned to evil before being banished to the void, but maybe that was just a game attempt at reform, or another layer of deception. G said he was about 200 years old, and M's clothes indicate that she's been spirit guiding for longer than that, and her comments suggest that many hosts have wished to be rid of her in the past.  Perhaps the soul-eaters were an early attempt to end her own existence, or make the Bestowers and their guides unnecessary (no more lost souls to shepard, they've all been eaten). It might even explain how G recognized the threshold of infinity, if Madeline had another brainwashable host when she was first teaching the soul-eaters their tricks.

Or maybe not. If M could figure out the energy-draining trick, perhaps someone else did too, and while no hellspawn have showed up since Legacy, it does seem to be a universe where you could literally make a deal with the devil.

Anyway. Food for thought.

[DaveGilbert]

Gavin was definitely destroyed by Madeline.

[crimsoncantata]

         Many thanks! And apologies if you've already covered that before; I'm still wending my way through the commentaries, and haven't made it all the way through the series yet. I suppose I should hold off on wild suppositions until I do, but after the thrill of finally playing Epiphany, my mind is alight with all things Blackwell. Which I suppose is to say thanks again, for creating such a captivating world.

[Lyrisath]

Perhaps the soul-eaters were an early attempt to end her own existence, or make the Bestowers and their guides unnecessary (no more lost souls to shepard, they've all been eaten).

If there was any truth to this, it was a failure. In Deception it very pointedly created more miserable ghosts for Bestowers to save.

It's an interesting area to think about, though. I always assumed that Maddy was sincerely well-intentioned until she got trapped, but that's perhaps not a given.

[crimsoncantata]

         Good point about the ghost surplus. Though I admit, as I'm going through the games again, I've started to wonder (in an utterly idle, tongue-in-cheek fashion) how necessary the Bestowers are at all. Gavin describes them as 'A spiritual quirk. Something that was never supposed to exist.' In his centuries of life, during which he (a) kept close tabs on the 'psychic' community, and (b) must have have left a trail of unhappy ghosts behind him like protoplasmic breadcrumbs, he's only encountered one other Bestower (and my guess is that Bestower is linked to how he got his powers, rather than one that hunted him down for using them). His organization, which is hinted to be powerful and widespread, also seems to have encountered almost none- if there are other Bestowers in the world (something I don't think is ever confirmed), they must be few and far between. When was the last time someone went to save the lost souls of Trenton, or Duluth, or Nome?

       For that matter, Joey was out of action for 25 years, New York left Bestowerless while Lauren was in Bellevue, but Rosa rarely encounters a ghost more than a few weeks or months old (the Deacon being something of a special case, and Madeline being a guide rather than a run-of-the-mill spirit). Is it possible they just fade away if not rescued? What is the half-life of a restless spook?

       Which is not to say the Bestowers aren't heroes- I imagine a spirit fading away is denied eternity in the same way that a soul ripped apart by Madeline is (and besides, Joey, Rosa, and Dave Gilbert consider the work important, and I trust their judgment). But I don't know if a lack of Bestowers would quite be the end of the world.

      Except in Epiphany of, course, but you could argue that was a problem started by a Bestower in the first place