#misc might also be going slightly insane but that is unrelated I swear

[misc-obeyme]

OKAY I’m back on my theory bullshit. Spoilers for all the things below.

I was thinking about this post I wrote forever ago about how I thought we were dealing with past!Solomon rather than present!Solomon.

I also had a theory that there were two Solomons since he seemed to be inexplicably changing his outfits for no reason. (I didn't put that one in the masterlist and I admit that I didn't go looking for it lol. It's on my blog somewhere, possibly in one of my lesson related rants.)

And THEN I was thinking nah it has to be that these are all the same characters from the present & they’ve just had their memories erased.

Barbatos knows what’s going on. That seems plain enough to me.

Isn’t it possible that being eighth on the list was just an excuse? Because he can’t tell MC the true reason for his anger. So he's doing it for MC's sake and to keep up appearances? It doesn't really matter, though, 'cause this post ain't about him lol.

I still think my original theory about Solomon might be right, but there are a couple other things I think might be happening.

MASSIVE DISCLAIMER: I love Solomon. I always have, I always will. I don't mind if other people don't like him, I totally get it. We all have characters we don't like. But I just wanted to be clear, it's all good either way and I think everyone's opinion is valid. <3

Scenario One: We really did go back in time and this really is a past version of all the characters. Events are now being changed due to MC's presence.

Scenario Two: We're in a simulation of the past, these are all the same present characters, but with their memories wiped. This is why events are happening differently than how they did before.

Scenario Three: None of the characters are real and the whole thing is a simulation and MC has been in a coma all along.

I don't really think it's that last one, but man if that turns out to be it, I will be so angry.

Anyway, I think we're either dealing with past!Solomon who knows stuff because he knows Nightbringer and/or because he used Barb's powers to look into the future to learn about MC (see my original post for more about that) OR we're dealing with someone disguising themselves as Solomon part of the time (thus the changing outfits).

There has to be a reason why they showed us that hard lesson where Michael took on Raphael's entire appearance to travel to the Devildom himself. (Though I admit the reason could just have been about Michael and nothing to do with trying to showcase how identities can be misleading.)

If characters can do that, who's to say that isn't what Nightbringer's been doing all along?

And I can't imagine who Nightbringer would pretend to be other than Solomon, the one who knows the most about what's happening, the one who's currently closest to MC, the one who could actually influence how things go at this point.

I'M JUST SAYING.

This nonsense has been stewing in my brain since April. I'm so annoyed, I just wanna know what happens so I don't have to think about it anymore, even if it's a terrible resolution that I hate lol.

Anyway, that's it. I just needed to rant about it for a minute. I'm gonna go back to fic writing now. It's much healthier for my mental state.