✨ CEO of the Sunflower Sibs ✨

I honestly don't really know,

I felt the need to wait to see the story start to unfold, and honestly it's not exactly looking good or bad for him.

the story is currently setting up reasons we'll have to be pretty up and personal with Shadow Milk and his backstory. So if there's any room for any sort of redemption for him now, it's probably going to be shown during that period of understanding the "three components"

If you'd like my personal opinion, I do really want a redemption arc for Shadow Milk and the other beasts. Or at least something close to it. If a redemption were to happen, I feel like it'd have to be initiated by him and him only.

The sad thing I realize is that Shadow Milk is not genderfluid, just because he can shapeshift his form. That's just a surface reason.

They are called that because no one gave a damn about their identity at all. He's not called it because of pronouns but because he was an object, a tool, someTHING to answer cookiekind's questions.

Even Sage of Truth, the "good" path, mentions that even he still isn't acknowledged as a cookie to cookiekind. Just a means to get knowledge and have their questions answered.

So why bother remembering a name or pronoun if nobody really cares?

No one cares about his identity; that's why it was so easy to change his form, and no one really noticed it was him.

It was simple to "play a role" that everyone wanted. They wanted a godly being to grant all knowledge? Fount of Knowledge.

They wanted the truth even when it can be cruel? Sage of Truth. They wanted to hear sweet lies cuz the truth hurts or is inconvenient? Shadow Milk Cookie.

Apparently there's a new Smc cookiechat convo out here.

“I’m sick and tired of being used like in the old days.”

Like damnn 😭 He has carried that burden from the moment he existed. Cookies used him, betrayed him, demanded things from him, and treated him like a tool instead of a person.

So now, in his mind, every cookie is a threat.

I won’t lie I still see “Sage of Truth” as a bit of a bad ending for Shadow Milk Cookie/The Fount of Knowledge because he’s still rejecting half of the Light of Knowledge at the end of the day. It’s just that instead of rejecting Truth, he’s rejecting Deceit and not realizing the biggest part of the Soul Jams that they themselves apparently don’t get: there isn’t a “Good” or “Bad” side of their aspects per-say, just that they can turn “bad” or “chaotic” if pushed to a particular extreme.

Heck we could even see that with the Light of Change itself with its two holders, Burning Spice Cookie and Golden Cheese Cookie. Burning Spice gave into grief of losing everything he has cared for and as a result, opted to destroy everything so that he wouldn’t form any attachments to others. Golden Cheese, after going through the exact same thing though, went on the complete other side of the scale and decided to dig her heels in, rejecting even the concept of death and hoarding all that was “Hers” and, had things done differently she could have been the Beast of Greed or something else with an overly large amount of Abundance.

We could see the same thing with Hollyberry Cookie and Dark Cacao, with Hollyberry drowning herself with juice and adventures and neglecting her responsibilities (which she still would have been doing if Pure Vanilla hadn’t sent her a letter), and Dark Cacao cookie being so staunch in his resolution that he was beginning to get tunnel vision against the Licorice Sea and neglecting the welfare of his other cookies at the beginning.

Going back to the Sage of Truth I could honestly see a similar thing happening. He understands why every other version of himself turned to deceit and even explaining the logic of him discarding what gives him pain (in most cases the cookies). But… he did the same thing in that Timeline as well, and there’s a bit of a tipping point between what is truth for being honest, and what is truth for cruelty’s sake, and Sage of Truth is ok that razor’s edge, looking at some of his quotes in game, his lines, while being truthful, still can carry a hostile edge at times:

“Why does everyone try so hard to hide their ignorance? Tsk.”

“Do I really need to spell out everything? Come on, think!”

“Ugh, come on! Why do you refuse enlightenment?!”

“Admitting your ignorance is the first step towards the Truth!”

All this to say the Sage of Truth still has just as much of a chance corrupting as the rest of the Founts, just that his corruption would look vastly different from the other versions of the Founts. Heck, it wouldn’t surprise me if the reason he was so nice to Timekeeper Cookie was because he saw them as an equal or of higher status/intelligence to himself based off of the nature of their time traveling abilities.

I like this ship when they're both fucking each other up. I don't want wholesomeness. I don't want pre corrupt wholesome Shadowsalt. I want post by 15 Shadowsalt. I want toxicity strong enough to kill people. I want these two to fucking kill each other. Let me have doom and gloom dammit

So I'm gonna get this off my chest.

The Ancients aren't stronger than the Beasts, not by a long shot. We can’t deny it and no amount of bias can change it because even Devsis showed throughout Beast Yeast and even in Act 2. 

Each episode of Beast Yeast from the first to the last of Episode 15 showed that the Ancients, even after awakening still pale in comparison to the power of the Beast Cookies. Literally the first half of each Beast’s episode is the Ancients getting mollywhopped by said Beasts. Who I must remind y’all are weakened and are in false bodies. 

Literally Burning Spice ripped Golden Cheese’s wings and threw her into a gosh darn cell.

Even in the last three episodes of Beast Yeast (13,14, and 15), the Ancients were at an disadvantage with each encounter with the Beasts. Pure Vanilla was about to get another despresso cup with decaf (mind you even the other Ancients went down when Shadow Milk pulled up with his Kaledoscope of the Void), Dark Cacao was trapped and about to get Thanos slapped, Hollyberry Cookie was about enter the sequel of Doki Doki Literature Club- HELL, Burning Spice Cookie was dominating the battlefield when they reached him and Golden Cheese had an army AND Hollyberry Cookie with her. 

In Act 2, Future Timekeeper had to come tell her other self that nobody was beated Corrupted Shadow Milk in every timeline he destroyed that wasn’t “perfect”. She had to go find Sage of Truth to understand how Shadow Milk Cookie works cuz she wasn’t gonna get that cheat sheet from the Ancients (sorry Pure Vanilla fans but he really needs a cheat book everytime).  

The Ancients only had one saving grace. The element of surprise, them getting caught off guard. “Cheap tricks” and probably (pfft probably) plot armor. 

Shadow Milk was busting their doughs as a SPIRIT when they were in the Faerie Kingdom and if he didn’t play with his prey they would have been crumbs. White Lily caught him off guard when she resealed the tree instead the two choices (what good that girl? “You” aka Dark Enchantress still busted them out in the end). 

Mystic Flour was caught by surprise when Dark Cacao awakened with the dragons and called out her view of the world. Mystic Flour saw him being a stubborn rebellious pupil. 

Burning Spice was caught off guard with Golden Cheese’s awakening but let’s be honestly brother did not care about her fancy upgrade. He wanted a challenge and she caved his temple on him which he laughed about. 

Pure Vanilla had to tap into deceit himself and lie to Shadow Milk to get his souljam back. Brother literally took a peek of Shadow Milk’s therapy files and said it out loud. He caught Shadow Milk by surprise. Plus dude really hit Shadow Milk with a whole damn ship and still said he wants to understand him. Yeah, no, spend the beginning of your existence being worth how much you provide cookiekind for eons first with no sense of self and freedom of choice THEN maybe you can talk.

Eternal Sugar was caught off because she thought Hollyberry would submit to sloth and run from everything after biting the fruit from her tree that made witness and feel pain from other cookies. Instead Hollyberry awakened and still wanted to leave. Honestly, I would book Eternal Sugar a ticket to the nearest psych ward but that’s probably Hollyberry’s saving grace at the same time. ANYWAYS- 

I’m not gonna go deep into White Lily and Silent Salt cuz everyone and their mama knew Silent Salt could have easily dusted White Lily if he didn’t put her trial. She caught him off guard too but honestly ain’t that deep. A lot of people were theorizing either he was gonna put her on a t-shirt or he wasn’t fully corrupted like the other Beasts were. Still think he should have smack her at least once with his sword. 

Now let’s go back to episodes 13, 14, and 15. Now I know y’all saw put cheap tricks in quotations. That’s because the Ancients didn’t really have a hand in the cheap tricks but it was still coming from their side of battlefield. Like I said, the Ancients and co were getting their doughs handed back to them on a silver platter. The ONLY, and I mean only, reason they made to Dark Entrantress’s castle was due to the Guardians of Nature joining the fray. 

When the Beast Cookies’ guards were focused on the Ancients. Which the Guardians probably shouldn’t have joined because their powers were one of the MAIN (weakened btw) foundation for the cookie world. Weakened because other foundation being the Souljams but then it was someone’s (*cough* screw those rocks *coughs*) bright idea to split the souljams and weaken said foundation already. 

Ya know, the irony that ambushing was from the heroes side when the Beasts were fighting head on with their own powers instead of trickery.

Pure Vanilla was gonna lose if Wind Archer Cookie didn’t step in and brought out the lawnblower. Literally had to put distance so Pure Vanilla can escape.

Dark Cacao was gonna lose if Stormbringer Cookie didn’t serve the electric chair to Mystic Flour Thor style. Really shocked her from that ambush.

Burning Spice was BUSTING their doughs on that battlefield! They were not getting past him at all. Golden Cheese was getting humbled and Hollyberry was being put in a crater from him bashing her shield with just sheer strength. Moonlight Cookie literally had to snipe Burning Spice with gas bomb of Bernadryl mixed Vics Nyquil just so they book it out of there, not win, and even that didn’t hold him for long. 

Fire Spirit Cookie roasted Eternal Sugar like a sugared smore so Hollyberry and co could escape from being swallowed by literal giant mouths. 

Hell, they couldn’t even get to the darn island without Millennial Tree Cookie breaking the dang barrier surrounding Dark Enchantress Cookie’s stronghold. With Sea Fairy Cookie speeding up their travel with a watery speed boost. 

They weren’t winning with Silent Salt Cookie. The dude with the most experience of combat under his belt ain’t losing to the Ancients, with his loyal, disciplined knights too. That’s like ChiChi from Dragon Ball beating Storm from Marvel.

The Beasts were certainly caught off guard when Silent Salt was revealed to have betrayed them and was the real culprit behind their sealing in the Sacred Seal Tree. I guess that was also their saving grace cuz they weren’t getting past Silent Salt at all if he was actually on the Beasts’ side. 

So yes, the Ancients are powerful, make no mistake, especially together, but even Devsis showed the power scale difference in the end. 

In Percy Jackson and the Greek Heroes, the Oracle is stated to speak with Apollo’s voice and his words only.

Here’s the proof btw

However throughout PJO, HOO and TOA, Rachel consistently speaks in her own voice with Apollo acting as a bystander. He acts more as a guardian of the prophecy with the Pythia being the mouthpiece but ultimately he is not controlling it any longer.

Another way this is implied is when Zeus blames Apollo for what came out of the Oracle’s mouth even though Apollo stated multiple times he had no control over it. However, because he did control it at some point, Zeus decided that Apollo once again used that control, making his reasons more justifiable to the other gods.

We’ve also seen Apollo take control of his own future throughout Tower of Nero.

And yeah you could say the evidence I gave above was bullshit because Percy Jackson and the Greek Heroes is narrated by Percy who is very unreliable, something I myself pointed out in a previous post. But there was this one line in Tower of Nero that basically cemented my theory.

Rachel spoke in Python’s voice rather than her own when Python had control over Delphi. He was also controlling the future at this point which stands to reason that Apollo can do the same. He just doesn’t.

Why? He gave a reason for that in The Burning Maze when he told Jason that nobody should be able to dictate your future other than you. There is always a loophole and nothing is ever as it seems, ultimately leaving fate up to you.

I also found Apollo’s prophecies much more cryptic compared to Python’s, which leaves a lot more up to debate in the former with a bunch of loopholes to be found.

So this fits with the idea that Apollo’s arc in TOA isn’t about learning that he should wield his power responsibly – he’d already done that in the thousands of years prior – but about learning to own and openly embrace his already established character growth as something to be proud of. It’s also easy to explain why Apollo never mentions this in TOA, as it’s his habit to never acknowledge, let alone give himself credit, for having done actual self improvement work prior to TOA.

What he does tend to do, though, is acknowledge when his own past bad behaviors are comparable to those of the present day villains. He does it all throughout the 5 books. “Those bastards,” he thinks, and then “but didn’t I use to do the same? Yes I did.” He does this quite often so I’m sure I don’t need to pull up a quote. In this light, when Python takes over Rachel’s body and speaks with her mouth, I would expect Apollo to similarly comment that he used to do the same, and berate himself for it. I would expect him to at least apologize to the Pythias of old, in a book where he makes a point to apologize to his literal underwear. But he doesn’t.

This discrepancy alone could be handwaved, but there’s also something else that I think points to Apollo not ever having taken control of fate to this extent. When Python does it, we are told, he’s actively impeding the Fates’ work. He’s shutting them out of the fate making process.

‘Whatever the case,’ Zeus grumbled, ‘it does appear that after two weeks, Apollo’s fix is permanent. Python is truly gone. The Oracles are free. The Fates are once again able to spin their thread without encumbrance.’ Those words settled over me like Vesuvian ashes. The Fates’ thread. How had I not considered this before? The three eternal sisters used their loom to spin the lifespans of both gods and mortals. They snipped the cord of destiny whenever it was time for someone to die. They were higher and greater than any Oracle. Greater even than the Olympians. Apparently, Python’s poison had done more than simply strangle prophecies. If he could interfere with the Fates’ weaving as well, the reptile could have ended or prolonged lives as he saw fit. The implications were horrifying.

Now we could argue that Apollo, unlike Python, was just controlling the future and not people’s lifespans, but I find that a weak argument. There’s no such thing as “just” controlling the future. That’s an immense, insane level of power to have. I find it hard to imagine that, at some point in the past, both Zeus and the Fates were fine with Apollo wielding it. Maybe the Fates like and trust Apollo *that* much, but if that were the case the power dynamics that rest at the very foundation of the TOA story as is would be upended. Zeus would be… the underdog, almost. Apollo would have spent the whole series warning people of the danger of Python acquiring the same kind of power he once wielded and chose to relinquish, without the fact that he once wielded it and chose to relinquish it ever being addressed, despite how crucially it affects the narrative.

But I’m not trying to read against the text, and I don’t get the impression that this was OP's intention either, so I propose a small tweak to the theory.

It’s heavily implied that Apollo was Percy’s main source for both the Greek gods and Greek Heroes booklets. Apollo’s main act before the start of TOA was Dumb Evil Guy Who Boasts about Being More Powerful & Competent Than He Actually Is. I propose Apollo told Percy to write the Pythia scene like that for the same reason he told him to write that he flayed Marsyas alive, that he loved killing people, that all of his seemingly selfless and well intentioned acts had a darker motive, that he was the biggest baddest cruelest of the gods bar none. Because it fits the Act.

⚠️ FLASH WARNING

“FountRPG”

the fount of knowledge was considered infallible because he was sent by the gods. he was named after his profession. a title that reflected what he did, but not who he was.

shadow milk fits whatever position others believe him to be. when he was the fount, his self-image revolved around his ability to teach. so when he was called a liar, he became a liar. he doesn't know who he is and has hated every role he's played.

he’s unsympathetic to the worries of mortals because he doesn't know a life outside of divinity. his subjects put his role above his selfhood, because a being that doesn't struggle like a mortal might as well be perfect.

the fount focused on existential questions surrounding their purpose, while his subjects were concerned about present matters of survival, gratification, and status. so while the fount looked to the future, his subjects looked at him. what he’d see was too much for his eyes to behold and his hands to touch, and his subjects grew restless when he didn’t fit the image they had in mind.

neither party understood what the other needed. his subjects thought that because the fount didn't share their problems it meant he had none at all, and the fount thought that a problem he couldn’t relate to wasn’t worth the time to solve. what bred a lack of critical thought in his subjects was how power distance made them believe the fount’s opinions were more valuable than theirs.

a paralogism is a false statement someone believes is true, but isn't intentionally spread to deceive. the belief that the fount knew everything is a paralogism. the fount looked to the gods when he didn’t know something, similar to how his subjects looked to him. it was just a part of himself he hid away.