there were multiple dynasties of bishops before clancy and nico

[subtle laurel]

hiii first lore post

you may have noticed how bishop clancy has a different smear mark from the previous nine, instead of it taking up half his face it only goes up to his lips.

i think this may be a symbol of progression, like even though clancy didnt break the cycle, he got a bit better. he's probably a better ruler over dema than nico but still isnt fully. like. how the banditos want him. yknow

if this is true, what about nico's half-face? does that imply someone came before him who had more than half smeared?
this leads to my theory:
what if there were generations (or dynasties or whatever) of bishops prior to nico, and generations of multiple people who represent clancy, and the events of the dema storyline and the city walls mv kept on repeating (LIKE A CYCLE OMG!!), with each clancy who defeated the previous bishops replacing them, but also getting a bit better? so the smear gets smaller and smaller and takes up less of the face/body.

this also raises questions about pre-bishop clancy's smear soo i'll leave that up to another person

also hc: the first bishops, the ones who originally hijacked vialism, in my mind they wore fully opaque veils or something, just to avoid them doing uhh.. the thing... you know 😭

[native heron]

well, theres the contract's glowing eyes that might be the previous nico/clancy cycles

[subtle laurel]

also some symbolism and stuff: if this theory is true then the story is basically about how yeah, our mental health is all cycles and is constantly repeating itself, but every time it does, we get a bit better. we learn something new every time and eventually we'll get way better. even though it might never truly end theres always hope 🤑🤑

[raven salmon]

i mean i think this is the most accepted take of the whoel trench saga no???

[fervent ibex]

Drum show thumbnail has Josh driving and red eyes where Tyler sits

[rancid arch]

Yeah I think the bridge of the nose is about as far as you can get before it’s blackface

[subtle laurel]

i wasnt around for trench 😔😔 didnt know this

[raven salmon]

trench saga is the name for the whole story as named via the new dr

[subtle laurel]

ohhh

[silk pike]

i think so, 100%. even in hds, we know that nico is the one driving clancy but we can't ever see his face clearly. at that point it comes to question whether his face was completely smeared at that point, and i believe it is.
it's never specifically mentioned when the previous clancy before tyclancy fails but sai is the anagram for clancy is dead, right? thus the smear digresses again in trench with the current nico.
then city walls, tyclancy fails and becomes a bishop, furthering the disappearance of the smear.

one thing to actually uphold my thought even if the timeline wouldn't match up with the sai/trench clancy failure is that in the first minute of city walls, you see how nico has a hold of tyclancy, and at one point the smear goes even farther up his neck and almost wraps around the frame of his head. ill get a ss real quick

cycle 1 hds; full face smear
cycle 2 natn; up to nose smear
cycle 3: city walls; up to chin smear

another weird thing i noticed is that nico can't see himself in the review mirror in hds maybe it's a smear thing idk but i thought that was also something to note