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joyflameball · 4 months

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*Please* tell me what don't starve is about I wasn't even aware it had characters

OH GOOD I GET TO EXPLAIN THIS TO YOU. YOU WILL REGRET THIS

let me be clear upfront: i don't know everything. i'm just neurodivergent as fuck please correct me on any misinformation. And any DST fans in the tag right now, hi prepare to see me infodump about Don't Starve lore and I am so sorry this is so long

So lemme start at the very beginning. The year? 1901. The man? William Carter. Moving from Liverpool (becuase of course there's a british man named william in an indie game who does crimes against nature) to New York City. He's doing magician shows and he just he sucks so bad at it. No one visits his magic shows. He's in literal debt. He gets no wins. He was born in a wet cardboard box all alone etc etc

Anyway in 1904 Willy Boy tries to go to Cali gets in a train accident and dies. WHOOPS the end

Okay that's a lie. He did not in fact die unfortunately (/j). However, he did get in a train crash and was pinned under a train car, but was saved in part by a strongman named Wolfgang, who really desperately wants to be the strongest he can be (he'd recently had an embarrassing failure at the circus).

But, well... I say "in part." For there's more to how Wolfgang saved him.

See, somewhere around this time, William had found a book. The Codex Umbra. This book was filled with secrets about a land known as The Constant. And more than that, it allowed William to use magic. Not the cheap magic tricks he'd been doing up to this point, the ones that'd given him nothing. Real, actual, tangible magic. Summoning shadows creatures from this mystical realm, ones that would linger for a moment before vanishing.

This was power. True, actual power. And to a man as rejected as William had been by the world, a man as desperate for fame, attention, power... well, who wouldn't be bitter? Spiteful? Who wouldn't be tempted by the allure of unfathomable knowledge?

Of unknowable, uncontrollable power?

What'd happened during the train accident was William had briefly imbued Wolfgang with strength from dark magic, allowing him to throw the train car off of him. William had fled with the Codex Umbra shortly afterwards, and was presumed dead. However, he wrote a letter to his brother, Jack Carter, basically saying "Hey, I'm alive, I found this weird book, I'll cya soon."

(Side note, Jack Carter has two daughters, Wendy and Abigail Carter. We'll revisit them soon.)

William continued deciphering the Codex Umbra, learning more shadow magic. And in San Francisco, he reentered showbiz, reinventing himself into someone new. A new act, and a new name. The Amazing Maxwell.

This time, his shows were appreciated. Adored. His magic acts were magnetic, and horrifying, and beautiful. After all that failure, he had finally managed to get something for himself.

(additional note: maxwell really likes referring to people as "pal." this will be important remember this)

Around this time, he put out an ad to hire a lady assistant for his magician shows, wanting someone with "a curious demeanor and a keen interest in the mysteries of the universe."

And he got her.

Let us snap our attention now to two sisters in the dreadful state of Ohio- Winona and Charlie. Winona was, to at least my knowledge, a fairly tough little girl who was always a bit boyish (take with a grain of salt i'm a bit silly). She loved tinkering from a young age, and she loved her little sister intensely- maybe too intensely.

There's a thing in the game I'll go into more later that shows Charlie's perspective on everything, and from it we can glean that Charlie felt like Winona was, to use a metaphor Charlie uses herself, putting Charlie into an unbreakable suit of armor so heavy she was unable to move. Overprotective to a suffocating degree.

We're not completely certain on that, but it's quite likely and incredibly interesting.

And Charlie... we know painfully little about her. Most likely she fit the description Maxwell wanted. She'd go camping with her sister. She may have been annoying, as a lotta little siblings are. She had a flair for the dramatic. There's a line implying she used to playfight with Winona. And Charlie loved roses.

Charlie was scared of the dark.

So Charlie became Maxwell's assistant. And they were more than coworkers, they were also good friends. They'd hang out and laugh together. Charlie at least may have had a crush on Maxwell, as in her letter to him she writes a heart after her name, and she always calls him "Maxy." Maxwell cared a lot about Charlie- I don't personally see it as romantic on his end, due to my epic aroace swag and belief in the importance of deep platonic bonds, but he did care for her, deeply. They had a sweet friendship, both caring about each other intensely.

But of course, it couldn't last. It never could.

It's 1906 and Maxwell's doing fantastic mentally. Just kidding he's losing his fucking mind

Maxwell was losing control. The Codex Umbra was driving him insane, little by little. He was losing control over the book, over the powers of the Constant. It was growing too powerful, too angry. He was taking too much from it, and it wanted something back. He started pulling away from Charlie, growing snippier with her. And fucking understandably, she was concerned.

One night, after she hadn't seen him in days, she visited his apartment to get his costume for their last performance. He wasn't there at the time. So she investigated, desperate for an answer as to why her friend was drawing away from her.

She discovered a secret room in Maxwell's apartment- the room in the image above. With all those scrawls. And... we think she discovered something else.

I personally think she discovered Them.

I'll explain Them later.

She was terrified, and fled the apartment. Maxwell later discovered she'd been there, and was clearly fucked up over it. Evidently, he didn't want Charlie to discover all this.

She left him a letter, basically begging him to communicate with her. Saying they could take a break after their final show, her older sister had a cabin they could go to if they wanted to get away. Charlie wanted answers, and she wanted them to take a break.

They never got that, though.

April 17th. 1906. The Amazing Maxwell had his final show.

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Maxwell's final act was meant to be pulling shadows out of the Codex Umbra. It was meant to be simple. A last trick before they take a break. Neither of them expected it to go this horribly wrong. I don't see how either of them could have. Especially not her.

Maxwell reached into the book. Something reached back. They reached back.

They tried to grab him, tried to drag him into the Codex Umbra. He fought back though, for a moment, clearly weakened by it. Charlie tried to help him, to ask if he was okay, not understanding what was going on, desperate to help, to know how she could help.

She couldn't.

Shadowy hands erupted from the book, grabbing them, pulling them in, and Charlie and Maxwell were gone.

Let's snap our focus away for a while. We're remaining in the real world for now. Don't worry, we'll come back to them.

In due time.

Let me introduce to you a hugely important player to the plot, Robert Wagstaff. Now he's frustrating, because we (or at least I) know very little about Robert Wagstaff. He was studying the Constant, he founded Voxola and created these radios that Maxwell later communicates through (i'll explain later), he bears a suspicious resemblance to Wilson, he may have met Maxwell at some point, and he may have intentionally sent himself to the Constant to investigate it. He's currently a hologram and may be SOMEWHERE. God knows where.

Anyway forget about him because it's time for MY FAVORITE NONBINARY ROBOT WITH REPRESSED TRAUMA AND EVIL PLANS

Meet WX-78, an automaton with a fairly vague backstory who I love so so dearly. They're evil. They're canonically nonbinary (Maxwell even refers to them as "Mx" which makes me very joyful). They lack empathy. They love bees. They love the moon. And somewhere in like the very early 20th century they became a robot and chose NONBINARY VIOLENCE

What exactly happened to WX is left vague, but here's what I believe happened. WX and Wagstaff were working on a consciousness transference experiment, which turned out to be successful. WX transferred their consciousness into a robotic body. Yaaaaaaay :D

Well hold your horses there, not "yay" yet. Because it turns out transferring your whole mind into a robotic body has negative side effects. Namely, the way WX sees themself has become... fractured. Sometimes they see themself as who they were before, their human self, but sometimes they see themself as what they are now, their robotic form. A comment under the short described it as their entire body being basically a phantom limb.

WX started wanting to create more automatons, possibly roboticize humanity, but without the heart (it's called an empathy module in canon but i'm calling it a heart because it's designed with a heart on it, and it hits harder if i call it that). The heart, where WX's memories as a human reside, where hypothetically their emotions are. Take that out, there's no pain related to once being one, right?

Wagstaff was completely against this. Consciousness transference for a single scientist is one thing, but this? To roboticize everyone in the world and take out their heart, their memories, their humanity? Absolutely not. It'd be too dangerous. Leaving humanity as cold intellectual machines would destroy everything, removing a beautiful piece of humankind. He and WX had a fight over this, and Wagstaff ended up burning all of WX's research and sending them into the Constant.

Somehow after that, WX's heart module was disconnected, and the memories were gone. They became a spectacular evil little gremlin of a thing and I love them so much

This whole explanation comes from this excellent comment under the short:

I usually resent these sorts of "explanation comments," since they try to intellectualize horror, but this one doesn't it centers it all on the EMOTIONS and also is correct

And by the way, the short where this is revealed is SO UNBELIEVABLY DISTRESSING TO WATCH (POSITIVE). See, Winona repairs the wiring to WX's heart module, causing WX to suddenly remember everything, having flashbacks to what all happened, and it's horrifying. WX flashing between who they were as a human and who they are now, the snippets of whatever happened, the vagueness, the BANGER MUSIC, it's all so hard to watch, and yet so hard to look away.

And at the end of it, after remembering Wagstaff sending them into the Constant, WX lets out this agonized wail and RIPS OUT THEIR FUCKING HEART, before they just SHATTER IT IN THEIR HANDS. They fucking HATED remembering what happened, hated it so much that they RIPPED THEIR HEART OUT AND BROKE IT so they could STOP FEELING. Whatever exactly happened HURT and they didn't want to FEEL.

And evidently, IT DIDN'T WORK. Wagstaff appears as an NPC later in Don't Starve Together, and every single quote WX has related to him is full of this raw, painful, intense rage. It's genuinely heartbreaking.

WX fucking DESPISES Wagstaff for what he did to them. For sending them to the Constant. And like- they say a LOT they have no emotions. But very clearly, THAT IS A LIE. IT'S FUCKED UP. IT'S HORRIFYING.

It's the opposite of so many robot emotion narratives- a robot who wants to feel real emotions, who wants to be human. But with WX, that is the last thing they want. They're illustrated to have at least had distaste for organic life before their roboticization, they don't want to be human. And very obviously, they don't want to feel real emotions. They don't want emotions.

They hate being human so much, they hate the connection to human pain so much, they hate their memories of being human so fucking much, that they rip out their FUCKING HEART and SHATTER IT just so they can shut off the painful emotions of their repressed memories. They don't want to be human, they want to be a cold unfeeling machine, but they clearly can't be that even though they're trying because despite everything there's a part of them that's clearly human and just- JUST WATCH THIS SHORT IT'S SO HORRIFIC

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GOD I LOVE EVIL NONBINARY AUTISTIC ROBOTS WITH REPRESSED TRAUMA

Aside from that horrorshow of a backstory WX is very silly. They love bees and the moon. They hate humanity and all organic life. They say shit like "NOW THE OUTSIDE MATCHES THE INSIDE. EVIL" and "[name] IS CAUSING NEEDLESS DESTRUCTION. GOOD." I love them so much I can't believe I just slept on how funny they are when I was a young lad hyperfixated on DST

Okay let's go down the list of characters. Remember I mentioned Jack Carter has two daughters, Wendy and Abigail? Let's focus on them.

Wendy was more cautious than Abby was, preferring to live in the world of books and fantasies. Meanwhile Abigail was an adventurer, loving to spend her days climbing rocks and jumping around. Despite their differences, the twins were inseparable. The best of friends, with a love so strong it could transcend death.

And it did.

We're not quite sure how it happened. It doesn't really matter. What matters is that somehow, one day, Abigail died. And this death absolutely shattered Wendy. She became morbidly depressed, obsessed with death and tragedy. She refused to move on from her sister, believing if she did, her memory would fade. (There's specifically a few lines that really fuck me up /pos but it may be triggering so i won't bring em up.)

Wendy turned to the occult to try and get Abigail back. To try and at least talk to her. She tried everything to communicate with her again, and nothing was working. And she was just about to throw in the towel, to give up, to accept that maybe she would never see her beloved sister again, to fall into complete, total despair, when...

A ragtime tune started playing, and a voice on the radio began to talk to her.

Meanwhile let's snap our attention to WILLOWWWWW WILLOWWWWWWWW MY GIRL MY BELOVED I LOVE HER SO MUCH SHE"S INSANE AND I LOVE HER

Willow had a rather difficult life. Her parents either died or left when she was incredibly young, and she was left in a cruel orphanage with caregivers who hated and mistreated her. And understandably, this took a toll on her mental state, and this attracted shadow creatures.

What exactly shadow creatures are is unknown- they're what Maxwell was pulling out of the book and using for his magic tricks, and they appear in game when your sanity is low, so my personal hypothesis is that shadow creatures are drawn to misery, insanity, or in Wanda's case, Women's Wrongs. also misuse of magic

Anyway, when Willow was a little girl, shadow creatures fucking wanted to kill her, drawn to her declining mental state. Willow took comfort in her teddy bear Bernie, the only thing that seemed to drive the shadows away. But one night, after being nearly killed by one of those things, her caregivers, upset at her being awake in the middle of the night, confiscated Bernie and locked Willow in a closet.

And while she was trapped in there, shadow creatures approached again, with the intent to kill her. Willow was backed into a corner, about to die, with no defenses...

Except for a lighter.

That night, Willow burnt down the entire orphanage, managing to save herself, and left with just her lighter and her Bernie.

This moment defined every fibre of her being. From that day on, Willow became completely obsessed with fire. Flames became calming for her, letting her breathe and relax. She's burnt her life down to begin again more than once, like a phoenix with more collateral damage. Fire protects her from the monsters in the dark, lets her stay sane. And- there's this one line from her that implies she's embraced a type of nihilism.

"Why worry about the past or future? It'll all go up in flames eventually."

That quote's actually really interesting to me you could use this for a character arc about her learning to embrace one place/one group as home and her accepting that unfortunately the survivors are her found family and she loves them and- GOD I love her so much she's a menace

Alright, who's next? Ah yes, Wigfrid. This one's really tragic.

Wigfrid was an actress whose debut role was as a noble badass Valkyrie warrior, slaying monstrous beings, being a true hero. And she embodied the role, capturing the public, being launched to stardom with just that.

But after that? Nothing she did seemed to capture anyone like the Valkyrie had. Every performance she had after that fell flat. She was completely rejected by the public.

(this could be a maxwell parallel oh my god)

And so, she retreated into that role- the role of the Valkyrie. She fled into fantasies of being her, taking comfort in them. It consumed her life, her very being. Whoever she was before was destroyed, completely lost. She would give anything to be the Valkyrie Wigfrid again.

And one night, a shadowy figure told her she could get to be that role. Forever. Her name in the newspapers again. Everything she'd ever wanted.

"What do you say, pal?"

...A few weeks later, she was in the newspapers as the latest in a string of disappearances.

Who next? Ah yes- Webber. THIS ONE FUCKS ME UP.

So when Webber was a little lad, his father, a scientist, received a gift from Wagstaff, something for his experiments. And whatever it was, Webber's dad was incredibly fascinated with experimenting on it.

But as a result, he sorta started... neglecting Webber. Webber wanted his dad's attention, wanted his dad to spend time with him and play with him, but his dad just... wouldn't. He was completely absorbed in his work.

Over time, Webber became furious that his dad was ignoring him. He started acting out, trying to get his father's attention in any way he could.

And one night, Webber broke into his dad's workshop, again trying to act out for his dad's attention. And when there, he tipped over the glass case holding whatever his father was experimenting on, shattering it on the ground.

But as it turned out, this thing was a spider- a massive one too, one from the Constant. And it was radiating with dark energy from its experiments, and it lunged at Webber to eat him.

But he survived.

Instead of being devoured by the spider, Webber was fused to it. Its consciousness may be in there somewhere (#system), but Webber's definitely is. But he's been turned into a humanoid spider thing.

This is the most fucked part to me. When his dad saw him, he didn't recognize him as his son. Why would he? As far as he knew, the spider had mutated. So his dad fucking chased his own son out into the night, under the assumption that he was a monster.

In the middle of the night, in the pouring rain, Webber (who btw is like ten) broke down sobbing, promised he'd be a good kid, and desperately wanted something to fix it, no matter the price.

That was when the shadowy figure started talking to him.

ANYWAY TIME FOR WOMEN'S WRONGS WITH WANDA

Wanda is an INCREDIBLY interesting character to me. Her whole conflict is basically- do you ever think about the fact that everyone is going to die one day? That no matter what we do, the passage of time will storm on, and eventually everyone you know and everyone you love will just die? That even if you don't get killed in an accident or by medical problems or through society's neglect, your body will eventually fail and crumble away? That time will eventually claim you, as it claims everyone, and you can do nothing to prevent it? That everyone and everything is already running out of time?

Sorry for giving you that existential crisis! Because Wanda's CONSTANTLY going through that. She's been running from her future for god knows how long, creating timepieces to make herself younger and prevent herself from dying of old age, and doing. Legitimate time travel!! Good for her!!

However, this doesn't come without a price. See, we've learned from Maxwell that toying with dark magic will get the Shadow Creatures hunting your gay ass down. And with how much Wanda fucks with time, she is CONSTANTLY being hunted by shadow creatures that want to kill her and take her away, to the point that her death animation has her body be pulled into the ground by shadow hands.

And one day, she was cornered. One of her timepieces was broken, the others recharging, she couldn't get away. And so she made a split second decision, trying to on the fly repair it, and what did this result in?

SHE BROKE THE SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM AND WAS SUCKED IN TO THE CONSTANT

(and the music in her short at that moment gives me chills don't starve together's music is so banging)

Wanda is a rare case of someone being sucked into the Constant not through someone/something tricking her or dragging her in, but through her own actions. From what we know, only one other person has done that. And he did it intentionally. But Wanda did it by complete mistake.

And her mistake resulted in her past starting to "catch up to her." Thanks to her time fuckery, she now ages twelve years every single day, and has to constantly fuck with time and deage herself in order to stay alive. She's spent years most likely terrified of the idea of aging and dying, and now she's been cursed with aging at a horrifically fast rate. It's incredibly interesting. God I love her so much she can do anything she could commit war crimes and I'd support her. Wanda Did Nothing Wrong

WANDA ALSO HAPPENS TO BE REALLY REALLY HOT LIKE UNBELIEVABLY GORGEOUS

HNHGNHBHGHBGHHHH PLEASE GOD JUST GIVE ME ONE CHANCE I WOULD TREAT HER RIGHT

Anyway who's next to talk about? Ah yes IT'S WORTOX TIME

Note, I'm gonna kinda start going through these faster because I'm close to the image limit and wanna tell you everything

Wortox is actually FROM the Constant. He's basically a little imp man who was best friends with. uhm. Krampus. And they'd go around playing silly pranks together! However eventually, Wortox started to realize that. Hm. Krampus's pranks are actually kinda mean. Like genuinely malicious at times. And Wortox really didn't wanna be mean, didn't wanna hurt anyone. He just wants to be silly and goofy. The prank's no fun if it actually hurts someone. So he tried to put his foot down and stop Krampus, but ended up whoopsiedaisy taking his soul and fully becoming an imp. And now he eats souls and is still silly but has just. Guilt. So much guilt.

Next up: WURT! Wurt, too, is from the Constant, and SHE'S JUST A LITTLE BABYYYYYY. SHE'S ADORABLE. I LOVE HER. She's a little Merm (fishy creature from the constant) and is pretty small and scrappy, and she hates pigs, and is vegetarian, and loves the swamp, and loves candy, and loves fairy tales, and wants to be a Merm princess. I love her she's adorable my beloved little guye

And now, WORMWOOD! Wormwood is basically a piece of rock fell down from the moon and gave a bundle of plants and vines life and he's the cutest little plant ever. He's ADORABLE. I LOVE him.

That's everyone FROM the Constant. Now let's speedrun through those who aren't from the Constant!

WICKERBOTTOM: To be completely honest she doesn't interest me that much lol. She's basically a librarian with a lotta knowledge, including knowledge of the CONSTANT, which she REALLY SHOULDN'T HAVE. Anyway Willow burned down her library at the request of the Nightmare King and Wickerbottom got pulled into the Constant. By the Nightmare King

WOLFGANG: Brought him up earlier- we're not sure how exactly he got into the Constant, but he's just. He is a himbo. The quintessential himbo. He's a silly man. He loves his friends so much. He has the brawn, but no brains. No thoughts. Head empty. Pure of heart, dumb of ass. I love him.

WARLY: ohhh boy more tragedy. Cw for this point: dementia. yeah. Warly's mom had dementia, and she didn't recognize him most days. So he'd play her favorite music and cook her favorite foods in hopes that she'd recognize him. And she did, occasionally. But only occasionally. And he was so desperate for her to just know him, to remember him, to get that spark of recognition in her eyes... And around that time, he started to hear the voice on the radio.

WALTER: BABYYYY HE'S JUST A BABY HE'S JUST A LITTLE GUY AND HE HAS A DOGGY AND A SLINGSHOT AND IS ALLERGIC TO BEES AND DOESN'T CARE ABOUT FASHION AND I LOVE HIM SO SO MUCH

WOODIE: Woodie is an enigma. He's Canadian. He has a curse. He turns into a goose sometimes. He was forced to eat logs when he was 32. His beard might not be hair. He's canon objectum and is in a loving and healthy relationship with his axe Lucy. I love him.

here is him and lucy he goes with stanley and the bucket for number one objectum couples

If you're noticing a theme with the names: Congratulations! We've noticed it too. We have no fucking idea what it means either. Charlie's last name might start with W. Maxwell's name starts with M (upside down W) and his previous name was William. If you have a name that starts with W in the DST world you're completely fucked lmao

Anyway thatsss everyone! So I think we can move on and cover the plot! I mean, surely there's not someone I'm leaving out. Surely I have covered everyone. Surely I've talked about everyone. Surely we can move on and have full context. Surely this is not an overly long gag in order to make the inevitable person I'm leaving out's reveal hit harder.

Yyyyeah let's talk about Winona.

On April 17th, 1906, Winona's little sister Charlie vanished off the face of the planet, along with the man she was working with, the mysterious Maxwell. And Winona is three things: stubborn, determined, and willing to do anything for her family.

And so she searched for her. She refused to let Charlie's mysterious disappearance fade into obscurity, to let Charlie just vanish without a trace. She searched everywhere for her. She pulled on every thread. Tracked down every tiny clue. Questioned anyone who may have the smallest connection to the case.

For over ten years.

Finally, it started coming together. Everything was pointing to Voxola and its secretive, genius founder, Robert Wagstaff. If anyone would know anything about whatever had happened to her sister, it'd be him. So she started working there.

But not for long. Fairly soon after she did, an accident happened at the factory- a fire breaking out, and a malfunctioning portal. Wagstaff vanished that day, vanished into the Constant.

Winona refused to let him. She had searched for over a fuckin' decade for someone who could have a connection to Charlie's disappearance, and her biggest lead was right there, and she was not gonna let him just vanish like that. So armed with duct tape and her knowledge of engineering, she singlehandedly managed to repair the portal, turning it on, and-

...Whose face would appear but her beloved sister's?

Barely aged a day. Drenched in shadows. A rose in her curls.

She was disappearing into the portal, but Winona grabbed her hand, started trying to pull her back, trying to save her. She had been searching for over ten fucking years for her baby sister, and she wouldn't let her go now, refused to let her go.

But... Charlie was different. Horrifically different. And something took over her. Something with ink-black eyes and hair that moved like a shadowy flame. The monster of the night.

She pulled Winona into the Constant. The portal fell apart. Winona was presumed dead.

...

And now. I will answer a question you must've had for a while.

What the hell happened to Charlie and Maxwell?

In 1906, they were pulled into the Constant by the Codex Umbra. And Maxwell was placed on The Nightmare Throne, and given full power over the Constant. He became the Nightmare King, all-powerful ruler, chess master of the world.

Whether he wanted it or not.

Once he was sat on the Nightmare Throne, he was trapped. He couldn't get up, couldn't move from the throne, couldn't move to turn off the gramophone sitting so close to him.

He was simply sitting on the throne. Unable to be free. For eternity.

In his final speech in Adventure Mode, Maxwell says there was barely anything there when he arrived. "Just dust. And the void. And Them."

What exactly "Them" is is unknown. My personal theory, given a play telling the story from Charlie's perspective, is that "Them" is the power of the Constant. And Maxwell constantly using that power for himself angered Them. So They pulled him in, and imprisoned him on the throne. He took from Them. And in return, They now trap him.

From there, the throne- or maybe Them, or maybe the Constant itself- compelled Maxwell to pull more people into the Constant. Trap them, use them as playthings, force them to go through the wringer of everything the Constant had to offer, and eventually watch them break under its barrage of dangers and finally die.

That's what happened to everyone. How they got into the Constant. Maxwell's strategy was to communicate with someone in the real world, usually through a Voxola radio, and make a deal with them so they are dragged in. Usually they're at a low point in their life and desperate for a solution to their issues, and he gives them that.

(Interestingly, he does follow through with his promises. Just neglects to mention the whole getting-dragged-into-Constant part.)

And everyone he drags in serves their purpose, they all serve as fun playthings for a while, providing him some level of entertainment.

But he's not happy. How can he be? He's trapped in an eternal game that he cannot end. Bound by its rules that he can't bend or break. He's tried everything. Nothing has ever worked. He's trapped, for eternity. In his own words, "Even a King is bound to the board."

The Constant demands a ruler.

And he serves that role. He must drag more people into this world's trap, let it spiral in on itself forever and ever. He can't put the game to an end. He can't get off the Nightmare Throne. He can't even turn off the gramophone right next to him.

All Maxwell can do is sit on his throne, and observe whatever survivors remain, and listen to that little ragtime ditty. Forever, and ever, and ever.

And Charlie...

God. Charlie.

One heartbreaking thing about what happened to Charlie is that we still don't know exactly how it happened. With Maxwell, we can make a very strong guess- he was stuck on the Nightmare Throne, and became king of the Constant, and dragged people down with him from the real world.

But with Charlie... we know how her fate ended up. We know what she became after that. But we don't know how she went from the sweet young woman she was to... to that.

From how she tells it (in her biased view, but it's all we've got), after being dragged into the Constant, she was either grievously injured or straight-up died. But she was brought back by Them. Back to life, but not as herself.

There was something new inside her.

Now, the way canon has it, it's a split personality pop-culture-Jekyll-And-Hyde thing. However, that's fucking dumb and pretty ableist. So here, my explanation diverges from canon, because I feel it's better, and stronger writing-wise, and I am better than Klei. Here's how I personally see what happened to Charlie.

It was like a garden being taken over and destroyed by an invasive species. Like black ink seeping into a bright and colorful shirt, spreading outwards, hiding- no, destroying the colors underneath.

They gave Charlie immense power, but at a great cost. Something dark grew inside of Charlie, transforming her from the sweet young woman she'd been, into something... monstrous.

The way I see it, it wasn't a split personality thing. It was more like a virus, infecting every cell of the body and multiplying into infinity until there's nothing left. Slowly erasing who she was before, destroying her humanity and turning her into something else.

Something more.

More powerful than Charlie had ever been, than she could've ever dreamed.

In every dark shadow, Charlie is there. In every pitch-black cave, she watches you. When dusk falls, she begins to awaken. And when the moon has risen, when the stars are out, when you can barely see your own hands in the dark, she is there. Everpresent. Watching. Waiting for you to walk into her arms.

There are shadow monsters all around the Constant. But most of them can only hurt you when you've lost your mind. Charlie, though, Charlie is different. No matter how much of a grasp on yourself you have, no matter how much sanity you've held onto, she will still be able to kill you, if you're outside at night with no way to see her.

Charlie is the most powerful shadow monster of all. She is everywhere. She has been everywhere. She can be anywhere. After all, there is nowhere the dark will not eventually be. And where the dark is, she is.

Charlie is the night.

Charlie is the darkness.

Able to kill a human with a few swift blows. Unfathomably strong, unfathomably dangerous, unfathomably powerful. It's hard to believe her humanity has held on this long, considering her omnipresence. It's incredible that her mind hasn't collapsed yet.

Because her humanity has held on. The virus in her mind has consumed so much of her, yes. But she's held on. Her humanity is surviving.

However long that lasts.

You wanted to know what happened to Maxwell and Charlie.

This. This is what happened.

Maxwell was imprisoned on the Nightmare Throne. Charlie was turned into the Night Monster. Both gained unfathomable power.

And both are trapped by it.

AND NOW. AFTER ALL OF THAT. WE FINALLY GET TO THE ACTUAL PLOT OF THE FUCKING GAME.

The year? Somewhere in the 1920s. The man? Wilson Percival Higgsbury. Lover of puns. Hater of spiders. Has a skeleton under his floorboards for some reason (skeleton might be wx-78's old body). Guy with the weirdest hair ever. Wannabe scientist who's terrible at science. The very first shot we see him in he blows himself up

He's a complete dumbass and he has stupid hair and he makes dumb puns and he's pathetic and he's in his thirties and he knows how to do amputations (according to him). What more could one want in a man. He's insanely confident in himself and has this attitude where he can do anything, when really he's kinda in over his head. He's a bit of a fool and he's got a good heart and a cheerful spirit. Not to mention he's wearing a vest, which in the rule of fiction means he's trans according to me and me alone.

So he's sad about his experiments always going wrong and he also sits down on a chair that looks like a throne hope that's not foreshadowing anything. Anyway Wilson's just like "Oh Voxola radio I'm just feeling real low" and his Voxola radio is like "SAY PAL I CAN GIVE FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE" and Wilson's like "Oh shit for real???" This is exactly what happened don't fact check this

So Maxwell hijacks his Voxola radio to be like "Hey hey hey you wanna do science shit right. Well guess what I can give you knowledge if you think you're ready." Wilson, of course, jumps at the chance, and Maxwell instructs him to create a machine of sorts. And Wilson works tirelessly away at it for some time, including SLICING HIS WHOLE HAND OPEN TO GET ONE DROP OF BLOOD, BECAUSE HE'S SO UNBELIEVABLY DRAMATIC I LOVE HIM

Anyway, Wilson throws the switch, thunder crashes, Maxwell laughs evilly, and

OH NOW YOU'RE JUST SHOWING OFF ANIMATORS

(seriously the don't starve animation and artstyle is so charming i love it. i think the framerate of the characters' animation should be lower again and the sketchiness should be more visible tho it was so much more charming than ultra smooth in my opinion)

Anyways, Wilson gets dragged into the Constant and cements himself as the greatest isekai protagonist of them all. Somehow he keeps his fairly cheerful attitude even when going through The Horrors, which is so very silly of him. He makes dumbass puns. He calls evergreen trees "piney." He hates spiders. His one perk is growing a magnificent beard. I love him. So much. He's not the deepest character, but god DAMN if he isn't endearing and lovable and so very silly.

So that- ALL OF THAT- is the setup to Don't Starve. From there on out, the plot goeth thusly:

CHAPTER ZERO, SANDBOX MODE. Maxwell greets Wilson like "Say, pal, you don't look so good," and proceeds to fuck off to watch Wilson go through it. Wilson however is a stubborn bastard who refuses to die and will literally make meat effigies of himself to not do so.

...actually that's really interesting. Hey wait that's really interesting. HEY DST FANFIC WRITERS ARE YOU UTILIZING WILSON'S STUBBORNNESS TO NOT GET KILLED TO THE POINT WHERE HE BUILDS EFFIGIES OF HIMSELF TO REVIVE HIMSELF IN YOUR FANFICTIONS BECAUSE THAT'S REALLY INTERESTING. "BUT IT REFUSED" LOOKIN ASS

UHHHH ANYWAY. THAT'S A PRETTY INTERESTING INSIGHT INTO WILSON I JUST FIGURED OUT. GO USE IT WRITERS.

So eventually, Wilson finds the scattered pieces of a portal Maxwell has, and activates it, getting dragged into Adventure Mode. LET'S GOOOOO

CHAPTER ONE, A COLD RECEPTION. And I should note here- the chapters are not in order, the order can get shuffled around. I'm gonna present them all though because it's funny.

So Maxwell is like "Wow :/ you're a dumbass :/ you REALLY think you woulda learned your lesson about activating mysterious portals :/ Anyway the seasons will be changing very fast now good luck" which is prrobably a nightmare for the ecosystem but what ever Anyway Wilson's stubborn ass doesn't die.

CHAPTER TWO, KING OF WINTER. Maxwell sends Wilson into eternal winter because he's being annoying. However, Wilson's stubborn ass STILL REFUSES TO DIE. And thus he continues.

CHAPTER THREE, THE GAME IS AFOOT! Maxwell is like "Uhm. Pal. Buddy. Why are you still alive. Please stop going onwards" and tries to feed Wilson to hounds. Wilson's silly ass is not fed to the hounds though because he is too silly.

Now. In Chapter Three, there's a chance you may find a strange setpiece, where there are these clockwork statues, trapping a strange mime. Creatures and gentlemen, allow me introduce you to the FUNNIEST FUCKING CHARACTER in Don't Starve. Wes.

Now, where do we begin with Wes? Well, let us begin with his backstory. His whole life has been plagued by a hilarious string of bad luck. He's French. He has the worst luck. He would get pied in the face. When he bites into a crepe all the filling falls out. He was born in a wet cardboard box all alone. He is a silly and sad clown mime man. And yet, he simply dedicates himself to making everyone happy.

Now, how would a silly little failure such as Wes get into the Constant? Hilariously, of course. You see, he was buying a crepe one day and gave half of it to a silly monkey guye when he saw a little girl drop her doll from a window and tried to return it to her with a balloon but the wind blew the balloon away and he chased it all throughout the town and saw it'd gotten stuck on a clothesline and managed to balance on the clothesline to get it but unfortunately the clothesline snapped and Wes fell down though he managed to grab the balloon and save a falling nest of eggs and was chased by crows while trying to get the girl's doll to her and he ran into an alleyway where he accidentally knocked someone else out of the way of getting dragged into the Constant and Maxwell accidentally getting Wes pissed him off SO MUCH that he put him in a special prison just for him and Waxwell's quote upon seeing the imprisoned Wes is "He displeased me."

I mean it when I say that Wes is one of the funniest characters in the entire game. In fact, you go through all the trouble of saving him from the prison, and when you do, he immediately DIES, and you unlock him as a character, and he has the WORST STATS IN THE GAME. His hunger drains hilariously fast. His attacks are laughably weak. His only special power is balloons that do nothing but cost him sanity. He was born in a wet cardboard box all alone

okay anyway you free wes and go onwards

CHAPTER FOUR, ARCHIPELAGO. Maxwell is like "UM. BITCH. PAL. TURN BACK. OR I MAY HAVE TO MURDER YOU TO DEATH EVEN MORE." However Maxwell has clearly not realized that Wilson is so stubborn that he will BUILD MEAT EFFIGIES OF HIMSELF SO THAT HE'LL JUST REVIVE FROM THE DEAD. GOD THAT'S SUCH A FASCINATING INSIGHT INTO HIS CHARACTER MAN JUST REFUSES TO DIE

Anyway Wilson goes onwards. CHATER FIVE, TWO WORLDS. Maxwell's actually nice to Wilson for a sec like "Heyyy :) Say pal :) Friend :) My best friend Wilson Percival Higgsbury :) Let's make a deal :) Here :) I made you a lovely little island :) Special for you :) It's got food :) And pigs :) And gold :) And whatever you need :) You can settle down here :) Have a life :) Just PLEASE :)) you ANNOYING BITCH :)) can you GIMME A TRUCE :)) and PLEASE :))) STOP :))) GOING :))) ONWARDS :))) I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD :))) :)))"

Wilson does not stop going onwards

CHAPTER SIX. DARKNESS. Maxwell is PIIIIIIISSED, like "BITCH. YOU BITCH. YOU TINY PITIFUL INSIGNIFICANT BITCH. I AM GOD. PLEASE DIE." And so he sends Wilson into a world he will surely not survive- a world of eternal night. Surely, with Charlie all around, with Charlie being the literal night monster who I feel an immense sense of grief over, surely Wilson will not survive this. Surely Wilson will die of darkness. Surely.

But as I have been stressing, Wilson is stubborn. He refused to give up on his dream of doing science even when it was clear he was bad at it. He refused to sit back and let Maxwell win by staying in the world Max made for him. He is so stubborn he refuses to die, making effigies of himself so he can resurrect from death. Wilson is the most stubborn bastard you've ever fucking met.

If Wilson decides that he will make it through something, then by god, he will make it through.

And he does.

Epilogue: Checkmate.

After all his struggle, Wilson finally, finally gets to Maxwell, to the man who's tormented him this whole time.

Only to discover him. Trapped on the throne. The all-powerful king, and he is weak. Pitiful. Listening to a hellish ragtime melody that won't stop repeating, over, and over, and over.

You can turn off the gramophone. He thanks you, saying he's been listening to that song for an eternity.

Maxwell has this honestly excellent speech about what happened to him. How They changed him over time. How he's completely powerless, despite being in control of everything. He mentions how time moves differently in the Constant, which is a really nice touch- it's not specified how it moves differently, letting the soft magic of the Constant stay soft. We just know it moves differently. How so is left up to us.

Wilson takes pity on the Nightmare King, and unlocks the Nightmare Throne. And Maxwell stands up, stands for the first time in an eternity, pure happiness on his face, free of the Nightmare Throne, getting up for the first time in god knows how long-

...And he screams, his body rotting away into a skeleton, before he crumbles to dust.

After everything, he just fucking dies.

...The Constant demands a ruler. And well, it's got a lovely candidate right there.

Shadowy hands erupt from the ground, grabbing Wilson. Lightning strikes where the Nightmare Throne was, building a new one, and Wilson is dragged onto it as the gramophone resumes. The new Nightmare King of the Constant.

Ruler of everything, trapped forever, with no control, listening to that hellish song.

Honestly, watch this playthrough of Checkmate. It really captures how just amazing this end is. (amazing = horribly fucked)

youtube

There's something so utterly horrific about how Wilson is dragged onto the throne after watching Maxwell rot into a skeleton and turn to dust, only for the ragtime melody to resume.

This end is already horrifying to watch. But the music resuming, refusing to stop, is what turns it into a pure nightmare for me.

A melody of eternal torment, never to break. No matter what.

The cycle continues. More will be dragged into this trap, right? And Wilson has become trapped. He can't move. Can't turn off that stupid fucking gramophone.

Doomed to the same fate as Maxwell. To sit there for god knows how long, as They watch him, until someone else frees him and he dies, trapping them.

Right?

..................

SO TURNS OUT YOUR BODY ROTTING AWAY INTO A SKELETON AND TURNING TO DUST IS LESS DEADLY THAN ONE MAY HAVE THOUGHT, BECAUSE MAXWELL IS STILL ALIVE. SOMEHOW. APPARENTLY.

Anyway so Maxwell's alive. Falls out of the sky into the Constant, still got the Codex Umbra, but is no longer all powerful. He learns this upon getting ambushed by a gang of Creatures and realizes he is powerless, and immediately does the brave thing and runs away like a little baby

Anyway night is FALLING and Charlie will wake up soon. And Charlie fucking HAAAATES Maxwell. She HATES him. DESPISES him. And honestly? GIRL'S VALID. Maxwell turned her into The Shadow Creature, hating him is completely fair. And yeah Maxwell's got guilt over the fact that he did that to her. BUT LIKE. HE STILL DID DO THAT TO HER.

Anyways, Maxwell sees smoke in the distance. And where there be smoke, there be fire, which he needs if he is to Not Die. And so he makes his way over.

btw this part is told through a fantastic comic here it is

So he gets to the fire and OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE

BITCH JUST. DOES NOT DIE. MAN GOT OFF THE NIGHTMARE THRONE. SOMEHOW. STUBBORN FUCKING BASTARD. THIS GUY MADE MEAT EFFIGIES TO CHEAT DEATH, PERSISTED PAST SEVERAL HORRIBLE TRIALS TO TRY AND GET TO MAXWELL, GOT STUCK ON THE NIGHTMARE THRONE, AND IS STILL KICKING. KING SHIT. FRISK KINNIE. DETERMINATION SOUL. UNDERTALE

Anyway Maxwell is like hmmm maybe it is best to not approach the guy i tried to feed to hounds and tries to leave but the idiot steps on a branch because of course he does. Wilson assumes it is a Creature and grabs his axe to Kill, only to discover it is not a creature and is instead Maxwell. (who ig is a type of creature)

AND UPON DISCOVERING IT IS MAXWELL, HE ROLLS UP HIS SLEEVES AND STARTS TO BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF HIM. WHICH IS HILARIOUS GOOD FOR HIM GO WHITE BOY GO KILL HIM

Anyway shadow hands put out Wilson's fire which freaks him out because of The Creature (charlie), so they run over and get the fire started up again. And unfortunately, the two must team up in order to not die. Look how thrilled they are about this arrangement

Anyway there's these panels that together are absolutely HILARIOUS of Maxwell and Wilson just sitting there glaring at the firepit over several time periods. I understand it's probably meant to show several days passing, however I find it funny to interpret it as "they just sat there glaring at the firepit not saying anything to each other for a whole day" because it's objectively hilarious.

Anyway Wilson offers Maxwell food since they're stuck together they should make sure neither of them die and he's like "Hey didn't you Die. You Died. Like turned to dust. In front of me. I saw it" AND MAXWELL'S PRETTY MUCH LIKE "death is a social construct. how did you get freed from the scary throne and how come i didn't think of it sooner"

And so Wilson explains. See, Wilson was freed from the Nightmare Throne, but he didn't manage to get off of the throne through his own sheer force of will (shockingly enough for this stubborn bitch).

He was freed by Charlie.

For her own reasons, she let Wilson out of the throne and let him free. But she also took all the powers he might have had as the Nightmare King, rendering him the ordinary survivor he was before he was trapped (though many people give him claws and/or blackened hands as a result of the nightmare throne which i find to be very cool and awesome). Charlie sent Wilson back to the Constant and Definitely Nothing Happened With Her And The Throne Afterwards Please Believe Me I Would Never Lie About Anything

So a little bit later, Wilson and Maxwell start trying to build a portal, most likely to actually get out of the Constant, since GOOD FUCKING LORD. That, or to connect to the other survivors in the Constant, which also makes sense! Pooling together the knowledge from the Codex Umbra and Wilson's own blueprints, they manage to build said portal.

The survivors manage to get to them.

Before the portal is destroyed and reshaped.

Shadow hands erupt out of the ground, pulling pieces of it into the ground, black thorny vines wrap around it, the wood is replaced with marble, shadowy flames erupt out of it, red curtains on top, making it resemble a stage.

And all around it grow roses.

The Florid Pastern is created, and above all of them, they see a strange apparition in the sky.

The Constant demands a ruler.

And Charlie, absorbing Wilson's power as the Nightmare King, became that. The monstrous part of her, the part that is cruel and dark, the shadow monster of the night that demands to be fed with hot blood and flesh, fused itself with whatever scraps of her humanity and kindness that'd not been fully consumed.

She became the virus in her mind, fused with it, merged into a whole being, rather than a fractured one.

The Shadow Queen of the Constant.

also here's an exhausted looking Wilson good lord when was the last time he SLEPT

ALSO. BEFORE I FINISH OFF. LET ME TALK ABOUT CHARLIE'S SILLY PLAY.

In Don't Starve Together, you can find a stage, with costumes for you to act in. If you put on the right costumes and choose to start acting, shadow hands briefly control you, and you start acting out a story that is pretty obviously a thinly veiled allegory for the events of Don't Starve.

Charlie is cast in the role of the Doll, and later The Queen. Winona is in the role of the Blacksmith. Maxwell is cast in the role of the King. We THINK that Them is cast in the role of the Mirror. And Wilson- I'LL GET TO WILSON.

What's interesting about this play is how obviously biased it is. The King is cast as an obviously evil man, hoarding magic to himself, shattering the Mirror and taking its power away. I mentioned this earlier- the Blacksmith loves the Doll dearly, but loves her too much, and puts her in a suit of armor that is protective, yes, but is so heavy she can't move, which god damn if that's not an effective metaphor for overcontrolling overprotective siblings.

The insight into Charlie's motives is also interesting- it's shown that the reason she didn't take Maxwell off the throne (aside from maybe spite and wanting to see him hurt which good for her) was because she legitimately didn't know where he was. And she sorta followed Wilson as he traveled so she could find the throne.

And more interestingly- Charlie is an unreliable narrator here, so her perspective is to be taken with a grain of salt, but- according to her, Charlie's motivations are to heal Them. They're broken currently, according to her, and They gave her the power she has now. And she wants to repay Them for what They've given her. Which is INCREDIBLY interesting.

AND. THE FUNNIEST PART ABOUT THIS PLAY. IS WILSON.

So, everyone's cast in different roles, right? Charlie's the Doll, Winona's the Blacksmith, Maxwell's the King, and the Mirror is probably Them, right?

WELL. WILSON. IS CAST IN THE ROLE OF "THE FOOL." HE'S CAST AS SOME FUCKIN DUMBASS WHO ACCIDENTALLY KNOCKS THE KING OFF HIS THRONE AND KILLS HIM BY MISTAKE. AND IT'S ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS.

What's funnier is that WILSON HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT. Winona comments on the scene where Charlie casts her as suffocatingly overprotective, saying "Is there something you wanna tell me, sis?" Maxwell comments on the scene where the Doll finds the Mirror, asking if this is how she really sees him and remembers what happened.

BUT WILSON. HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SAY ABOUT BEING CAST AS "THE FUCKING IDIOT DUMBASS WHO TRIPPED OVER HIMSELF AND KILLED THE KING ON ACCIDENT WITH HIS MERRY FOOLERY." Meaning either he DOESN'T realize that's meant to be him, he DOES realize and is just silently fuming, or he DOES realize and just ACCEPTS IT. Like "okay yeah fair." No matter how you slice it, HILARIOUS.

Anyway, here's the play, it's an interesting watch and the video's only 15 minutes long.

youtube

god the fool costume even looks like wilson if his hair was looser

Aaaaand that's the lore thus far! There's other stuff that's happened- Charlie got a new outfit and became EVEN MORE beautiful, Wagstaff is a hologram, Maxwell teamed up with Charlie as a double agent which I think was a stupid writing decision because I don't feel it makes sense for Charlie but Fine Whatever I don't care Encore isn't canon to me I'm resisting a full rant about this, Wilson has a skeleton under his floorboards, something else may be trying to get people into the Constant, Wilson looks tired as shit, WX ripped out their heart because feeling emotions was painful I'm not over that short I'll never be over it ever and don't get me started on how Don't Starve feels like it has this intense unending grief woven throughout it and

Uhm. Anyway. I'm normal. I'm SO sorry this got this long my beams got me. This is 8k words long and I spent the whole time listening to Ragtime (the song that plays on the gramophone that maxwell had to listen to for eternity)

#asks #dst #don't starve #long post #cassie rambles #i did not mean for thsi post to get THIS LONG good jesus christ

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