Two Timeline Ending Theory

[quaint granite]

I've been thinking a lot about City Walls being the final part of the lore, and trying to reconcile how it could introduce the idea of the Nova Bishop without feeling too rushed or ending on a purely bad note.

I think it might split into two timelines in this video, one which shows the cycle continued and another which shows it broken. In the cycle timeline, we'll probably see Clancy overcome by the corruption of his powers, and he'll defeat Nico and the other bishops, and take over as the Nova Bishop, basically becoming the new Nico. There's a lot of hints tying Clancy to the bishops, so I do think he's the most likely one to be the Nova Bishop.

In the other timeline, I think we'll see something more similar to the 2011 performance with the bishops. Clancy doesn't give into his corruption, Nico (and potentially the others) start to win, and then TB and the other Banditos come in and rescue him, ultimately letting him escape. This is probably where we see Dema on fire, but I think the bishops won't be truly permanently defeated in this timeline.

This would be a nice way to tangibly show both the outcomes of Clancy rejecting and accepting the support of those around him and make for an ending that is satisfying, but not too straightforward, with some room for ambiguity on either side.

[quasi verge]

alright yall i have a crack theory so listen up

so if we’re still on the theory that torchbearer represents jesus, guiding us with light, i think the identity of nova bishop is absolutely torchbearer. hear me out

from a psychological perspective the two sides of tyler he illustrates through DEMA are from the perspectives of clancy and nico, the protagonist/antagonist. nico is up in his tower with full reign over DEMA while clancy is a citizen, playing cat and mouse by escaping to trench and being brought back. even when he’s in the limelight (SAI) he isn’t in control and gets even worse. the bishops are still above him in a sense. the first instance we see of clancy taking control of the bishops is through seizing from ned, controlling keons to betray the bishops. however once he gets to the tower in paladin strait, he has lost his weapon of seizing (dropped), lost faith in his friend torchbearer who wasn’t physically present, and has started being much more aggressive with his approach, hence the red. i think clancy will try to eliminate nico by killing him, and in the first few cycles succeeds, becoming dark clancy aka keons while banishing TB. then the cycle repeats with a new clancy, until he gets to city walls again where he decides to make a different decision of sparing nico, and banishing him beyond DEMA into trench. then TB and the banditos become the new nova bishop. the difference here is that nico is still out there, but it’s no longer him that has control. TB does and clancy needs to trust that as things will not go well if clancy lets his own darkness consume him. i also think that would be a great opportunity to tear down DEMA’s walls and allow for free roam between dema and trench without fear of getting lost. of course nico is still there but it is no longer him at the top. in the same way Jesus would be the one we keep on the pedestal and have full focus on, which will then lead us in the right direction. we cannot do that on our own

had this in another thread, ties to what you said i think the 2 endings thing could be represented by an additional cycle then breaking out of that.

[quaint granite]

I see two possibilities

One is that Clancy escaping while Dema remains in place is the "cycle broken" ending. In this case, I think Clancy would become the Nova Bishop.

The other is that defeating the current system in Dema is the "cycle broken" ending, in which case I think TB will become the Nova Bishop and basically renew Dema

I could see it going both ways personally. I think Tyler's faith will come into play here, but I do think it will be ambiguous enough to not be overtly about that and to still resonate with other parts of the fanbase

[unique turret]

i think this but nova bishop is reformed (good) dema and dark clancy is him becoming more like the bishops

[quasi verge]

yeah like the bishop is now the good one and clancy is now the antagonist