#obey me nighbringer solomon | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

emmys-grimoire · 1 year

Text

Nightbringer - Lesson 1 Summary & Analysis

It turns out I probably won’t get to lesson 10 by the end of the weekend, so I’m getting started on my lesson 1-5 summaries.

I have school throughout the week, but I’m hoping to crank these out every other day until we finally catch up to the current lesson. I’m not used to doing ten lessons all at once! But we’ll get there, eventually.

Also expect fewer screenshots than usual after this summary. The analysis portion will also be lighter until we get to the meat of the story. Lessons 1-3 are pretty light.

Caution: spoilers ahead.

The Story

The game begins with a chatroom with an “unregistered” individual with a demon icon. When you ask who they are, they’re cryptic and don’t give you a straight answer (“Perhaps you know me, perhaps you don’t”) but they make it clear they’re *very* acquainted with you. They claim nothing remains hidden to them and they see everything (whether it’s past, present, or future) and they show you a group picture of the brothers. They ask you if you know them, and you can either confirm or deny you do. If you claim you don’t, they say something must have gone wrong but not to worry, you soon will.

They tell us they’re going “to take you someplace where you’re happy. A place that will bring you more joy than any other”.

They also claim that “time” is like a “dark, heavy mud” to them that sits in a container and swirls around like a vortex. They get all cryptic again and begin asking you questions they know you don’t have the answer to (“Will you be entering your own past?” “Or the past, present, or even future of someone you don’t know?”) before yeeting you back in time.

You wake up in the student council hall much like you do in the OG game. Also like in the OG game, Diavolo is the first to greet you, though this time he’s in his full-fledged demon form and shocked/confused at your sudden appearance. He and the brothers found you knocked out cold and they’re glad you’re finally awake. They just assume you’re a lost demon, but it’s never really elaborated on *how* you look like a demon.

Lucifer asks Diavolo what they’re going to do with you, and Diavolo tells us the facility they’re currently in is still under construction – and they found you there. He wants to know just how you got there, and asks if you’re even from the Devildom, you’re none the wiser. Then character introductions are had! Then your cell phone rings. Those are still apparently a thing.

It’s Solomon. You have a short conversation and he deduces what might have happened.

After the phone call, Diavolo continues the introductions – but you’re interrupted by none other than a near-feral Satan, who at this point is the living manifestation of wrath. We learn he’s so destructive that they had to wrap him in chains and throw him into a locker, but apparently Asmo didn’t make sure the chains were tight enough because he didn’t want to harm his tender hands, so he’s predictably ultra pissy now. You’re still given introductions, but the brothers aren’t allowed to interact with you before Satan threatens to kill everyone. Diavolo is amused more than alarmed.

Satan begins lashing out physically and everyone takes cover. Leviathan asks why he has to be stuck with Satan as a brother, and Asmodeus reveals it’s because the Demon King insisted they do. Lucifer says that they’re new to the Devildom, as because of that, they’re in no position to refuse him. You’re finally allowed to cut in and ask either when the Great Celestial War happened or if you’re in the past.

The answer you get is the same: Mammon is predictably confused about your questions and asks if you got hit in the head during the war, which just concluded. Diavolo asks your name.

Satan interrupts again. You try to use your pact to make him “stay” but it doesn’t work. The brothers are confused and wonder if you were trying to cast a spell. Satan advances and… Ruri-chan suddenly interrupts. It’s your phone again.

Leviathan is enthralled. He tells you that it’s your job to play Ruri Tunes all day every day.

Lucifer tells him to snap out of it, they’re in the middle of being attacked. Suddenly, you “feel a warm light building inside” and your “stay!” actually works this time. The others are shocked when all the brothers suddenly get grounded. Diavolo laughs at all of them. The others are less than amused, but Diavolo concludes *fate* must have brought them all together. In the OG game, Diavolo is a big believer in destiny, so it looks like they’re continuing this trend with him.

He expands on what was said before, and explains that the brothers are former angels who were cast out of the Celestial Realm following the Great Celestial War. He admits things are a bit unstable in the Devildom at the moment.

As a result he hires you as their babysitter attendant. The brothers are less than enthused, Lucifer insists they aren’t children, but whatever Diavolo says goes.

Due to the newness of their friendship, Lucifer isn’t the lapdog he is in the OG game. He complains about and questions Diavolo’s commands more.

He’s also less considerate to technically newborn Satan, but Satan is perpetually trying to murder everyone, so…

You exchange DDD info with Diavolo so you remain in contact. It may be centuries earlier than the present timeline, but cell phones and social media are forever, apparently. Asmo insists on signing you up for everything.

Belphie is getting sleepy, and you can suggest they head back to the House of Lamentation. Diavolo is perplexed at you even knowing what it is because it’s only very recently been built in the Devildom. The brothers are excited to finally have a home of their own. Apparently they were staying at the castle in the interim.

We learn the House of Lamentation still has the cursed history it did in the previous game. You learn Mammon isn’t scared of ghosts at this point. Belphie falls asleep and Lucifer decides it’s finally time to go.

Diavolo forbids you from staying at the House of Lamentation, and seems perplexed to learn you don’t have your own place. He shows you the Wanderer’s Whereabouts app, that you can use to spy on the brothers as though they were ants in an ant farm.

Before he can tell you where you’re going to stay, Solomon drops in! He introduces us as his apprentice. Diavolo is stunned and though Solomon didn’t have any close demon relationships other than Barbatos. You can imply you’re his best apprentice or someone more… intimate.

Diavolo suggests we bunk with Solomon at his place. When you’re finally alone with him, you chat about what happened. You give him the run-down, then he suggests you go home. You’re staying at Cocytus Hall this time.

When you arrive, Solomon explains what happened at length. We just blipped out of existence in the present timeline, apparently. He had to analyze the magical traces our yeeting left behind to deduce where we went, and he asked Barbatos to send him back to that point in time instead of just bringing us back, apparently.

And we can’t send ourselves back yet! Wonderful. Our pacts have weakened in our travel through spacetime and, while not entirely severed, need to be reforged in order to realize their full power again. It is the only way to go back.

Lucifer texts you and tells you to come to the Demon Lord’s Castle tomorrow. Diavolo has something to talk about.

The following morning, Asmo and Mammon arrive to escore you to the castle. Solomons busy in the kitchen fixing breakfast. The two of them are excited to try food prepared by the most famous sorcerer from the human world. Knowingly, you try to escape before it’s too late. Asmo lingers behind and swipes a muffin.

You take a detour and go shopping instead. The brothers haven’t been allowed to go exploring since they fell because they’ve been stuck in the castle up until now. Mammon brandishes Lucifer’s credit card, and Asmo foolishly believes Lucifer must have lended it to him. You can remind them that you’re wanted at the castle, but Mammon brushes you off and calls you a killjoy.

It isn’t long before we get to encounter some good ol’ fantasy racism!

Mammon is kicked out of one of the shops. Since the newly-transformed demons are newcomers and having been out and about their new home yet, they weren’t expecting such a cold reception.

Asmo decides to distract Mammon from his stewing with ice cream. Mammon admits some of the Devildom foods sound gross, but they’re growing on him. He finds something written on his popsicle stick: the word “WINNER”. It activates a gacha and he wins a hostile giant snake.

You flee, but you’re pursued. Asmo doesn’t have his charm powers yet, so you have to settle for lobbing the noxious muffin at it after calling the help hotline printed on the stick fails.

Once you finally get to the castle, you tell Diavolo what happened and he finds it hilarious. Lucifer wants to lecture, but simply confiscates the credit card. You can suggest where he should hide it. Mammon and Asmo leave, and you can finally get back to business.

Diavolo wants to establish RAD, and he wants you and Lucifer to be founding members. This is why they’ll still be in the school uniforms. Lucifer doesn’t trust you and doesn’t believe this is a good decision on Diavolo’s behalf.

What follows is the most Lucifer-esque “but thou must” dialogue choice reactions yet. If you refuse:

Okay man. I was just agreeing with you.

Afterwards, he makes it clear he doesn’t intend on being your friend.

Then the giant snake returns, and he’s forced to ask you for assistance.

Thoughts & Analysis

This was essentially just a re-introduction lesson, but it does set up the background of the situation up nicely. The brothers are newcomers to the Devildom and they're still having trouble adjusting to their new environment... and more importantly, their new environment is reacting to them.

The goal of the first season of Nightbringer is clear: you must reforge your pacts in order to get back to the present timeline, but thankfully it's not just a retread of the OG Season 1. I don't know why we can't just have Barbatos snap his fingers and fix everything like he's done before -- it's clear he can ferry people back and forth (though he claimed it can be imprecise) -- but I've always had a problem with Barbatos's powers and how he's supposed to fit inside the cosmology of the universe. It felt like him being a demon put too much power in the Devildom’s hands, and they had to nerf him later to make things happen even though it doesn’t really make much sense (he gets rid of the dark crevasse in S4 but it’s effects remain for... some reason?)

But now we have *another* entity that can travel through time. Spoiler alert: the demon in the prologue video is not Barbatos, and Mr. Bowlcut is not Solomon. I'll expand on that in the later lessons, but it looks like we might finally have a Big Bad on our hands.

I'm *not* terribly fond of everyone looking exactly the same as they do in the previous game -- and there's no reason for them to don uniforms for a school that still doesn't exist yet -- but whatever.

My opinion on the story has improved as it’s progressed, nitpicks aside. It’s not perfect, but the writing team is trying again.

#obey me #obey me!#obey me nightbringer #obey me! nighbringer #obey me spoilers #om nightbringer #obey me solomon #obey me mammon #obey me lucifer #obey me asmodeus #obey me leviathan #obey me diavolo #commentary #analysis #obey me nightbringer season 1

121 notes · View notes