[DATABASE ACCESS: GRANTED]

This will be updated as canon develops and as my headcanons develop, and will be supplied with links, etc, where necessary. Consider this a living post. Hopefully eventually, I’ll organise all info and posts I have to do with my headcanons into this post.

Without further ado -

Concise Lore summary, useful links, etcetera

Actual canonical information [outdated, but here for archive purposes]

Getting into Alton Towers Lore, and why everything here is a biased opinion

Smiler Announcements Transcript

——-

Proposed History

How long they’ve been interested in the Towers

Number patterns

The Facility Underneath X-Sector - Theming Evidence

X-Sector rides and the Ministry of Joy

Government controlled Ministry

Funding and open houses

Eyecon Security [linked to the funding ramble above]

Chelsea Smiles, Joy Serum, and Giggler Gas

Regarding Morals

Festival of Thrills - The Smiler is Sentient and Disagrees with the Ministry’s Idea of Happiness

The 2023 Fireworks - Ministry of Joy Retrospective

The Lord of Darkness

Oblivion lore and the potential retcon/cover up

Security, Surveillance, “Experiment Status”, Manual Marmalisation, the Council, Advocates Who Can’t Leave, and more on Non-Euclidian Effects of the Oblivion portal

The Sanctuary Staff’s Opinion of The Smiler

Submission and Enterprise (generator Oblivion theory)

The Power of the Towers

The Power of the Towers - when they were created, ride connections, and more from the 2021 Fireworks

Mardi Gras theming - DNA as an X-Sector motif

Rivalries; the Beornen vs the Ministry (mainly if the Wickerman or the Marmaliser would win in a fight)

Supercomputer Marmaliser theory - a ramble on processing power

Supercomputer Marmaliser theory - AMENDMENT/ADDITION to the above ramble on processing power

The Marmaliser - Data storage and host theory

Sentient Marmaliser theory - voicelines, videos, used and unused

Sentient Marmaliser theory - what happens if it disobeys the Ministry?

Can the Marmaliser be Marmalised?

The Correctional Process as carried out on the Smiler - order of elements and explanation

The Modern Correctional Process

Advocate Recruitment - the Process, and Potential Marmaliser Involvement

How they hire people

The Smiler and Memories

Regaining Memories and Deprogramming from Correction

What happens to Advocates who slip through the cracks?

The Oblivion Generator

The Smiler - Seperate from the Marmaliser? With discussion of the sixth and seventh Correctional elements

Christmas at the Ministry of Joy

Why it’s “You Belong To The Smiler” not “You Belong To the Ministry”

The facility underneath X-Sector - personal headcanons, advocates, and living conditions

Brief ramble about the Marmaliser from my personal headcanon verse

The Smiler Room - Signage

A Minister of Joy?

So! I was going through the video of the marmaliser screen by themeparkcollective on YouTube and I discovered some things. First of all we have a documented date of the sanctuary being in function!!!!

While it's said that the sanctuary had closed down around the 60s-70s, here we have a documented experiment from 26 April, 1982! The experiments were obviously done in secret but this little tidbit of lore is so interesting to me!

The other thing I wanna say is my theory about eyecon might have been right!!! (the theory was that the ministry is using eyecon security, a puppet company of theirs first seen in the smiler app game, to spy on people. They sell the cameras and through them they spy on the world)

@cablestwisted has a post on the lore masterpost (also doc sorry if you don't like being tagged and sorry for tagging you a lot lately, but since the lore is your special interest I think you'd like to hear this!) In the marmaliser screen we see camera footage shown multiple times and most importantly, a lot of it isn't from the UK! You can see that both from the background and from the locations being stated next to the footage.

Now, take a look at the screenshot I attached showing the American locations. Next to them is a picture of a yellow camera! Now, where have we seen a specific brand of camera associated with the moj (with a similar shape too??) the app game! (and on the smiler itself but those cameras aren't branded with the eyecon logo I think)

You can also see it in the textures. (another thanks to doc, aka cablestwisted, for that)

The textures are pretty low quality but you can kinda make the word "eyecon" out.

Technical Difficulties: "Excuse me, this is an important announcement. I am sorry to announce that we are experiencing technical difficulties at present, and as a result, your progress will be delayed. Further information will be relayed when available, and I apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Technical Difficulties [alternative/shorter]: "We apologise for the delay. Please remain seated and follow any instructions given to you by the Smile Assistants."

Weather Warning: "Excuse me, your attention is mandatory. Due to the current weather conditions, it may be uncomfortable to ride. If you do not wish to ride at this time, please stand aside and let others through. Should the weather continue to deteriorate, we may be forced to cease operation."

Weather Delay: "Excuse me. Your attention is mandatory. Due to the adverse weather conditions, we have ceased operation. Once the conditions improve, we hope to be back in operation."

Recommencement: "I am happy to announce that our ride is ready to recommence, and all frowns will be turned upside down by proxy. Your happiness is guaranteed."

Technical difficulties ["unused"]: “Excuse me, your attention to this message is mandatory. Our correctional devices are currently experiencing a back-log due to an earlier violation, and as a result your correction process will be delayed. However, our correctional scanners are still in operation and I am still analysing you - so please remain upright with a smile to avoid auto-correction on recommencement of the correctional devices.”

Please do not tag every response to an ask with the main Alton Towers tags or ride tags. It clogs the tags to the point where more and more people now just block gimmick blogs and ask blogs on sight so the tags can be useable.

This has been a problem for years but it's getting so genuinely bad right now and I'm not sure what else to do except put the request out there - please do not spam the tags, for the sake of the entire community.

I was right about them sedating Nemesis which.... Holy shit lmao. That suddenly gives my "the moj and Phalanx have an agreement" theories a bit more credit..

Phalanx were corrupt, have been corrupt for years, they planned to use the baby Nemesi - FIRST TIME THEY'VE ACTUALLY BEEN PROPERLY ACKNOWLEDGED BTW THEY KEEP BEING BRUSHED OVER - as weapons, secret weapons specifically, to contain more threats. Gives more explanation as to how a Nemesi ended up in Thorpe Park too. This is an absolutely unprecedented lore drop that gives way for so much fandom creativity. We already know they can adapt to their surroundings! Binesis, the magic hq Nemesis, the minigolf Nemesis, the pumpkin Nemesis, it's all connected and explained and shows you can go wild with the designs.

Go check out Nemesis's page - they've added her lore to it!

But.

Focusing only on the dark side of things? No, thats not very Smiler. The Smiler has a certain facade of everything all being hunky dory and that is very, very, VERY important to maintain, otherwise it loses that spark.

Focusing only on the good side of things? Also not great, feeds into the fnafification of the Smiler, but it's absolutely understandable to mainly focus on this part and I would never hold it against anyone, we're past shaming people for that.

I think Nemesis has a three part brain. You know how sharks and other sea creatures sleep with one side of their brain active at a time? I think she's got three parts.

One - active during sleep. Still feeds, etc, as stated or implied in lore on adrenaline and mineral deposits, but isn't fully conscious of what's going on. Passive mind manipulation and behavioural changes to creatures around her still happens but it's passive, with barely any intent except for defending and helping her.

Two - Still a dormant phase, how she's been over the past year or so - focusing more on actively controlling people's behaviour and on organising, on making sure things are working on her favour

Three - Active phase. Fully conscious and actively hunting. Actively dangerous and actively bending wills to her own, so what we see in the comics, adverts, and the new stuff right now.

So this is a fun one... Aaand a good two months overdue, my apologies! I've been super caught up with life and it's taken over my ability to create, but I hope to be making more things in the new year.

The 2023 Fireworks were fascinating in many regards and I do hope to make a post hoping to cover some of the theories surrounding its lore, as while it wasn't as lore heavy as other years the implications and reinforcement of existing theories and lore points has me really intrigued. More and more I've been focusing on the lore of the entire park and I really should write more about it but for now this is just about the X-Sector segment of the 2023 fireworks!

Some Backstory

The Ministry of Joy truly had their claws in the 2023 season, because the 2023 fireworks had some truly fascinating lore tidbits about them that were a continuation from the Smiler Takeover event earlier in the season. The shadowy organisation, formerly lurking in the wings, has let themselves be a little more at the forefront in The Smiler's tenth year of operation.

I do adore the new lore additions despite being quiet on them. Far from being too gaudy as I initially feared, it really showed the sinister side of the Ministry while still keeping it quite lighthearted. But my opinion isn't what we're here for!

Wait, was that not The Smiler?

"Welcome advocates to the laughter laboratory! It's time to receive your daily dose of Ministry of Joy approved happiness. A whizzing, spinning, topsy turvy, rib-tickling test drive of your funny bone to make your senses soar!"

The 2023 Fireworks' X-Sector segment was run by the Ministry of Joy, rather than The Smiler! It's something we've seen before to an extent - with the 2022 Festival of Thrills Fireworks' Smiler segment being presented by the Ministry despite using The Smiler's music taste, but this year the music was hugely associated with the different facets of the MoJ.

It seems we're in a bit of a Thrills arc at the moment. Festival of Thrills has been going on for the past 2 years as a continuation of the Powers of the Towers arc that's currently ongoing, and over the course of the events we've seen a lot of new lore implementations and confirmations of fanon. It's certainly an interesting direction and I love the new emphasis on the groups of the park. If we're doing group things, Towers.. Can we bring Galactica as a whole and specifically the Galactanauts back? Rita's racing team maybe?

It's all Festival of Thrills, All the Way Down

The three segments of the X-Sector section of the Fireworks for 2023 was likely based on the three shows of Festival of Thrills.

Celebration of Happiness

The Fear Lab

and Meet The Ministry!

Overall the songs of the sections fit this theory very well. From celebratory and maybe a bit cheesy, straight into thrilling and dark, and finally to mysterious and a bit wacky. It encompasses the themes and motifs of the Ministry of Joy coherently, but also touches on the three shows specifically very nicely!

But it's not just that, there is.. Even more to this rabbit hole of a segment and I won't be able to commentate on all of it today so I'll leave it at just a few more points. This is a far cry from where we were even just four years ago, sitting on lore that hadn't been explored for far too long, and now we're even deeper into the veritable warren of untouched lore potential.

So.. About That Narrator.

This is a bit of a weird one and I'll admit that immediately. He speaks.. Strangely. It's as though he's upturning the ends of every word, creating an almost "uncanny valley" way of speaking, that speaks [no pun intended] to the nature of the Ministry of Joy. It's compelling, a jarring contrast to the narrator of the Katanga Canyon segment that came before it.

It sounds like this person is the voice of a Ministry of Joy announcement, maybe a start of day announcement, or something done intermittently within the facility to remind Advocates to Smile. Always. Certainly it's not the first evidence we'd have of this, looking back at Festival of Thrills.

It's nice to have some more information about life within the Ministry of Joy's main facility. I talked more about it in a post about Festival of Thrills in general, but I do need to talk even more about it because the entire event is again just.. Such a rabbit hole and I'm honoured to have been able to go so many times. Sidenote, I apologise for linking so many of my videos, but I did a lot of lore documentation work during the event that I'm super proud of and it's all on my youtube channel and some of it is very compelling, like the whole spider thing. I will write about that soon I promise.

All Good Things Must Come To An End..

This likely won't be the last post about the 2023 Fireworks nor indeed about the Ministry of Joy lore from the past year or so. There's a lot to cover, and while I've been covering a lot of it in my videos I definitely need to put more stock into writing down what I'm thinking and amending previous theories with current knowledge. Maintaining the Masterpost is a lot of work and it takes me many many hours every time I alter anything within it or even just add a new post. That said.. Happy holidays. I hope you have a good one, and I wish you all the best possible time.

Oh! If this is about the old Smiler website.. Unfortunately we can't access the Advocate Test at the moment, and haven't been able to since it was taken offline. I've heard rumours of a copy floating around but as of yet the search for this has proven fruitless.

During Festival of Thrills, some interesting things were revealed that I can't not talk about.

The Smiler is shown to fundamentally disagree with the Ministry on what levels of happiness are ok. Higher-ups aren't in full control of advocates, and the Smiler has programmed its Advocates to regularly reach levels of happiness deemed Anarchic... To the extent that they've had to put up scanners and warnings should anarchic levels of happiness be detected.

It's ideas of social compliance differ to the Ministry's. In their eyes, social compliance is a happy medium - being so happy you comply because you have nothing to complain about, but absolutely not the levels of happiness that causes unruly behavior. Like Felix E-Lated standing up on the bars of the celebration stage and Scientist Gladwell yelling at him to get down [observed firsthand during the event.]

This further confirms various theories I made a while ago. One, that the Smiler is sentient and has it's own ideas about what being a Smiling Advocate is about... two, that it has the capability to disagree and react according to its wishes. It's heavily implied that the Smiler is in control of the backing music of Felix E. Lated's show - I mean just look at the backing footage, that's Marmaliser screen footage - and if this is the case, then it turns the pace of the music up against the Ministry's wishes.

During Festival of Thrills, some interesting things were revealed that I can't not talk about.

The Smiler is shown to fundamentally disagree with the Ministry on what levels of happiness are ok. Higher-ups aren't in full control of Advocates, and the Smiler has programmed its Advocates to regularly reach levels of happiness deemed Anarchic... To the extent that they've had to put up scanners and warnings should anarchic levels of happiness be detected.

It's ideas of social compliance differ to the Ministry's. In their eyes, social compliance is a happy medium - being so happy you comply because you have nothing to complain about, but absolutely not the levels of happiness that causes unruly behavior. Like Felix E-Lated standing up on the bars of the celebration stage and Scientist Gladwell yelling at him to get down [observed firsthand during the event.]

This further confirms various theories I made a while ago. One, that the Smiler is sentient and has it's own ideas about what being a Smiling Advocate is about... two, that it has the capability to disagree and react according to its wishes. It's heavily implied that the Smiler is in control of the backing music of Felix E. Lated's show - I mean just look at the backing footage, that's Marmaliser screen footage - and if this is the case, then it turns the pace of the music up against the Ministry's wishes.

Thank you so much for your question!

I'll write up proper lore things about Festival of Thrills Smiler Takeover soon, with sources, and I do plan to go and do a photography day asap where I'll record all the shows - but we've had a lot of new concepts show up and it's fascinating. They're really feeding into lore and giving us an idea of what the MoJ is like!

It's never stated what the Joy Division is, but it is running experiments on riders using each of the rides right now.

I'll have to record each of the announcements asap. They're kinda hard to time when they'll play but it seems to be every 5, 10 minutes, they'll play an announcement...

What this implies, though - is that the Ministry is split up into various Divisions, with various projects under those divisions run by various staff. For example - Agent Joytide is the Head of Control and Communications, and Gladwill is the Chief Neural Cortex Reprogramming Officer.

It's all super interesting. I'll keep you updated where I can.

The Nemesis announcements and new track design.

Was on park just before the announcements and actually got to see the first bit of track just after it was installed..

This? Phenomenal. I'll admit, I was skeptical of the colour choice at first, not wanting it to look too clean or depart from the original lore of the track being Nemesis's tentacles... But this? Perfect. And it actually ties back into the original lore too.

The track reveal video also confirms something that's been a hot debate in the community for a while -

The track is indeed her tentacles.

Here's both videos for your viewing pleasure.

I'd also just like to note that as you walk onto the observation platform the "phalanx guard" runs you through a safety spiel... Roughly -

Violence ask game - 18: "it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on..."

The ATTP. THEYRE WONDERFUL. Please, we need more fanart etc!! And I feel like there's a lot of theorycrafting that could come from this too. They're here to ensure guests are safe entering and leaving the park.. Personally I think they have something to do with the Powers