Yaana

We moved on from this too fast

Bam! Shadow Enchantress jumpscare! 

The first crk analysis I’ve posted was about Shadow Milk, but I heavily focused on the many parallels and similarities he has with Dark Enchantress. That ramble was more of a defence of Shadow Milk being the main antagonist of Act 2, and his character in general (all my analysis serve as a defence of aspects of crk’s story that I’ve seen people be stupid about) 

However since then I haven't really discussed much about the actual relationship between Shadow Milk and Dark Enchantress within Act 1. Which has fascinated me ever since I got to my introduction in Beast Yeast episode 2. Shadow Mik is the only beast cookie with an actual relationship with her, and while these two only directly interact in Grand Dusk hotel episode (and Beast Yeast episode 14) we get to see a good bit of their thoughts and opinions on each other.

Despite the little we have of them their dynamic is quite interesting. As well as the feedback loop of despair they have put each other in. directly fueling each other’s villainy and affirming each other’s toxic beliefs and values.  

Note: this analysis is a follow up to my PureDarkness one, however it will be more disorganized than that one but be sure to check it out as well 

The relationship between Dark Enchantress and Shadow Milk cookies can be essentially: two puppets trying to pull each other's strings. Both of them see each other as simply tools to be used in their grand scheme, perhaps a hint of respect, a handful of fascination but ultimately just tools to use and discard later. 

It's weird how balanced this relationship is, sure Shadow Milk is the one still left standing but it's only thanks to Dark Enchatress’s work, which will eventually destroy him in his Divine conquest for control.   Both of them are so interactively similar on a fundamental level, creating this weird back and forth in their efforts to control each other. 

Even beyond the grave ShadowMilk is still her puppet in a sense, being consumed by the ultimate dough and creating a new world like she desired. The difference is Dark Enchantress intended to liberate cookies (by putting them deeper in the cycle of consumption baked oppression) Shadow Milk’s goal is oppression, “free? more like under new management” by becoming the witch, the god and still intending to grab their attention. 

Not necessarily what she wants, but still consuming her plan of “creating a new world” and “Making the Witches pay”. 

But how the fuck did we get here?

How Shadow Milk molded Dark Enchantress

While I already knew before the new episode, Shadow Milk directly made Dark Enchantress who she was.

It was his Ultimate cookie recipes book that Little Lily found that gave her the fixation on creating cookies herself (and the Ultimate cookie of course) It was his Knowledge on to All book that gave White Lily the existentialism that compelled her to find the answer to cookie creation. All which drove White Lily to the witches banquet, where Dark enchantress was born out of an anger towards the Witches and a desire for revenge

While Pure Vanilla wasn’ t in the right headspace while asking this, he raises a good question. How aware was Shadow Milk about his influence on Dark Enchantress? 

I doubt that he planned any of this, but had to know of the academy’s fall due to Nilla’s memories. He knows Dark Enchantress has seen the truth of the world, her intention and motives. But it would be interesting to know how aware he was of his role. 

Because he knows Dark Enchantress's goals and his alien life, perhaps it adds to why he doesn't take her seriously, beyond his hubris. He believes he can control her, because in a way, he always has had influence over. 

It's interesting how Shadow Milk is actively sabotaging her by exposing her secrets to the Heroes on a whim, but also working with her to create the ultimate cookie as per her plans. 

However it becomes increasingly clear throughout Beast Yeast that she has the real control over him.  

How Dark Enchantress Molded Shadow Milk cookie 

I wonder how much help Shadow Milk really was in the creation of the Ultimate cookie? Did both of them agree to this favor, or was it left unspoken? Either way It's interesting just how much smarter Dark Enchantress was in this partnership. Shadow Milk’s a smart cookie, he knows the insides and outs of any individual he comes across with, Dark Enchantress is likely no exception. 

However Dark Enchantress seems to know Shadow Milk just as well, specifically his nature, what makes him tick and how to get him to comply with her plans. She might not know the full history behind his mask, but she knows what he wants and how to use it him to get what she wants. 

It's a consistent flaw within Shadow Milk, he can know everything about a person, know how to bring them to their knees, yet he never accurately assesses their capabilities. 

Which she exploits to hell and back, she lets him know what she wants him to know, gives him the freedom to poke and prod and go about the deal any way he likes, while ensuring that he does exactly what she needs him to do. 

I love One of Darkness absolute because even though it seemed like Dark Enchantress was at a disadvantage against the 5 great Beasts he tamed their asses so easily it's impressive. Completely calm and collected against their crazy asses. 

And it's interesting how she had Shadow Milk completely wrapped around her finger 

*feels the aura* the way he was stunned when she started reciting the cookie bible, he probably looked back on that as Ultimate Shadow Milk and was like “hold on… wait I got an Idea!”

Like he folded so quickly, she revealed the extent of her power, relating to him using the power of the witches. But unlike the other beasts who agreed due to the magnitude of her power, Shadow agreed because of the genuine common interest in his emotional attachment to the witches. 

Also What tf was the tension here? the fucking giggles bro!

The “fuck em Witches!” duo

The most blatant commonality between these two is that both of them hate the Witches so much they make it literally every one’s problem.

Which is why they are so drawn to each other, they share the same underlying motivation. 

Shadow milk had a more personal relationship with the witches, they gave him a vague purpose that he struggles to understand. So he dedicated likely eons to search for them, to find his answers, his purpose and identity. 

The search never ended and became increasingly insane, unstable and bitter as a result. 

Dark Enchantress was born out of Lily's trauma at the witches' banquet. Looking for a purpose, a solution to her feelings of weakness and to find freedom for the world she arrived at her answer after likely centuries. 

The answer she found was that witches created cookies to suffer, to be weak and tasty for consumption. Becoming bitter, insane and unstable as a result. 

Both have the witches at the center of their problem, and they believe that in order to solve it, they must become the solution. The God, the Witch that will transform the cookie world while believing they are above cookie kind. 

The wannabe Witches 

I already said it, but Dark Enchantress plan was honestly brilliant in how simple yet thematically perfect it was

Dark Enchantress internalized the whole witches eating cookies revelation so much, that her solution was to create a cookie powerful enough to eat the witches. Power to her, is defined by one's ability to destroy and consume another, so she makes herself a witch for the practical reason of being able to bake the ultimate cookie, and the emotional thrill of feeling powerful. 

She became the very thing she swore to destroy, but she was always above cookie kind since her creation. 

Dark Enchantress is an ultimate cookie, White Lily fell into the ultimate dough and she was baked out of not only her will, but the will of thousands of souls within her own dough. Dark Enchantress is not simply White Lily's despair but the despair of hundreds of other poor cookie souls. 

Which makes sense why she's so stupidly powerful. She was able to 1 v 4 (or 5 but that makes no sense) the ancients and hold her own easily against the beasts. 

Shadow Milk’s reaction to her transformation, is honestly my favorite moment in Beast Yeast episode 15 (Despite the first half being much better than the second) 

(I forgot tumblr won't let me add more than one video, so I'll link it in another post)

There's so much to unpack here, the genuine horror at the sight, then manic laughter during his realization. The fact that he had the capacity to applaud her for her efforts yet still hold deep resentment for her using him as an ingredient. Everything here is perfect, and it's at this moment where I looked at Shadow Milk and started to be genuinely fascinated. 

I think this sight held almost as much psychological damage to him as Silent Salt’s judgment. The idea that now at all times, at his most powerless would the creators arrive is too much for him to bear. He knew Dark Enchantress wanted to be a witch, but he didn't believe she would actually come this close. 

I find it perfect for Shadow Milk to become a ultimate cookie. He collaborated with Dark Enchantress on this little science project, and basically gave her the idea (She could have come to the idea at the banquet though). 

Did he donate some of his own life powder to this thing? Because this one to one. The quote seems more than a symbolic parallel between him and the ultimate cookie. 

I will always defend the role/character direction of his character in Episode 15 and onwards, he is directly carrying the torch of Dark Enchantress's plans, being the bridge between old plot points (The Witches, the ultimate oven, cookie, blueberry academy, Beast Yeast) and new (The dragons, time balance department, Tartarus, SCOOP) 

The way this relationship comes full circle with Shadow Milk creating Dark Enchantress and Dark Enchantress recreating Shadow Milk, though their shared hatred for the creators and descent into divinity through the ultimate dough. 

Shadow Milk using everything she left behind and applying it on a larger scale all in spite of the creators just as she did, is just perfect! 

Their actual relationship does fascinate me though, because both seem to enjoy eachother's antics and are impressed by eachother's capabilities. But they are ultimately just an end to a means to each other. Both were plotting to betray each other and while Enchantress beats Shadow Milk to the chase, he ends up having the last laugh. 

Dark Moon

Framless vers undercut

has white lily cookie actually, undeniably shown any romantic interest in pure vanilla? can someone tell me? because I have no idea why people say she has and am genuinely confused as to why we are saying p*relily is fully canon now. this is a genuine question, and I want answers.

I can also argue that Pure Vanilla hasn't shown romantic interest in her, as his personality is extremely loving (his letter to Dark Cacao seems quite romantic despite these two being simply friends in canon) Lily being his best friend, and him being in constant state of grief has made him more yearning towards her even though its purely platonic

As for Lily though the story makes it evident that Pure Vanilla is the person she cherishes most:

Even before she can remember anything about her past Pure Vanilla is the first person she remembers (him protecting her) she can't remember why, but she feels guilt but also a need to talk to him again.

She holds him dear as her only friend during school and the only one who managed to forgive her for the accident

And throughout Beast Yeast episode 11 and 12 there is a clear admiration for him. She uses the memories she's made with him to overcome her insecurities and pass the trials. It was his support that he relied on to give her the courage to keep going in her darkest moments. Lily relies on Pure Vanilla a lot for a sense of stability and hope for herself.

As she says he's a light in the darkness, a shooting star. Stronging admiring him as compassionate and bright

but there's also an edge of guilt with her outlook on Pure Vanilla. She clearly feels guilty for not only hurting him, but the fact that he's able to forgive her when she can't forgive herself makes her feel like she doesn't deserve his friendship. And thus while she admires, appreciates and holds him dear, she isolates herself out of shame.

Even Dark Enchantress has conflicting feelings about Pure Vanilla cookies, which seems like pure cold hatred at first. But there too is a guilt, which diminishes as she becomes more wicked throughout ACT 1

To me, Lily isn't a very romantic person. Or at least, if she has romantic feelings she couldn't express it in the way one's typically expected to. I like to think that whatever feeling Pure Vanilla has towards her She does mutually. Both of them harbour deep guilt and shame. But both of them find each other inspiring and a "shining star".

White Lily has but a faction of screentime that Pure Vanilla does, we get to see his side of the story significantly more. Plus his entire self worth and faith is based on his relationships compared to Lily who's based in her knowledge and capabilities. I personally disagree with the friendship being onesided, as they cope with the same feelings differently.

Then write a cute short mini comic where he's called to the headmaster's office at right at the end of his lecture where he and the headmaster have a secret consensual workplace relationship.

Seriously, they're codependent af and I love it!

It's heavily implied that Pure Vanilla Cookie and White Lily Cookie are mutual emotional crutches, in consequence to the unadressed trauma of the incident at Blueberry academy. Pure Vanilla Cookie kept White Lily Cookie from losing herself in her guilt and despair, taking care of her and urging her to survive. Meanwhile, looking after White Lily Cookie kept Pure Vanilla Cookie's mind too busy to think about what happened, but let's remember he was young enough his voice hadn't even yet cracked (at least in the ENG dub); that level of repression isn't healthy. It's also implied that his attempts at understanding White Lily Cookie were more about unveiling the truth of that day in order to find closure, without actually confronting her and risking reopening the wound for her. It's also possible that, thanks to Nether Queen Cookie erasing her memories, White Lily Cookie doesn't remember exactly what happened, only that she did it.

Over time, White Lily Cookie distanced from Pure Vanilla Cookie in order to find her Soul Jam, and later on continue her research, while he shepherded a flock of followers and later on founded a kingdom. White Lily Cookie met new Cookies, while I can imagine Pure Vanilla Cookie constantly thought about her but his kingdom kept him busy. When she disappeared and Dark Enchantress Cookie appeared, I'm sure Pure Vanilla Cookie thought DEC did something to her and was out to avenge her...until he found out they were the same Cookie. Imagine the level of guilt he must've felt during those seconds before losing his memories. Seriously, PVC's time as Healer Cookie was a blessing in disguise: he formed a new community without the weight of trauma, and even if he held responsibility for the Raisin village's wellbeing, he shared it with Black Raisin Cookie. When his memories returned, must've been doubly traumatic for the poor old man; no wonder when he discovered an uncorrupted version of her emotional crutch could be brought back, he was willing to give half his life at his own detriment. It was something natural for him after years of doing so.

In the end, White Lily Cookie broke this codependency. She understood, and accepted, that the price to atone for her mistake(s) was too big to pay in life, performing an heroic sacrifice to stop herself. Pure Vanilla Cookie, on the contrary, sunk deeper in his fixation to look after White Lily Cookie due to his survivor's guilt and ingrained need to look after her, even to the point of risking his life, demostrating he needs her more than she needs him.

If I may add though, on Lily's end she kind of puts Pure Vanilla on a pedestal. In her mind he's this beacon of kindness and compassion which gives her the courage to keep going, as shown in Beast Yeast episode 11 and 12 she relies on the memories she has made with her to snap out of her spirals and find answers to her predicament. 

But the guilt is mutual, as  White Lily believes she doesn't deserve the unconditional love and kindness he gives her. How she unintentionally hurts him she believes that she's taking advantage of his kindness and therefore doesn't deserve him. 

White Lily didn't just distance herself from Pure Vanilla only because of her prioritizing her goals over her friends, but because she felt guilty and undeserving of their friendship. It's why even as Dark Enchantress she's doing everything in her power to be rid of him, because he reminds her just how far she's fallen. And to feel guilt would have weakness. 

fire place

Rest of the incompleted peice undercut