HEAVY SPOILERS FOR MEDIEVAL COP 10 Part 2, AS WELL AS SOME PREVIOUS EPISODES
Hhhhh okay let’s do this. I’ve been putting this off partly because I had a bunch of tests in the way, and partly because I didn’t know where to start. There’s just…so much to cover. I’ll go down the order of events, and then I’ll have some additional stuff at the end.
The episode begins with Pari’s monologue about the creation of the
universe. It goes “Arcana, a Divine, was sent by the True Divines to create the
universe, but then her despair at what free will did to her beings caused her
to split into Death (the body), Life (the soul), and Ada (the heart). The Heart
had to carry all the despair, and broke into 2 halves. Now, Pari thinks it’s
ready for Arcana to return and take her rightful place.
Divines. This is a little confusing. We had this massive
exposition dump in Part 1 that went like this:
“Once, the Universe experienced a drastic decrease in souls due to
an outside influence which tore time and space and swallowed many of them. …
However, another Universe took notice of the rupture and sealed it. It also
gave our Universe a small amount of souls in order to sustain itself. These
souls, which came from an advanced Universe, quickened the Universe’s recovery,
and thus were given the titles of…Divines.”
In Part 1, it was established that Divines were below Death and Arc – souls from another
universe that accumulated worship (absorbed the life forces of the Original
Souls), split into Gods and Devils, then fought a war and eventually were
imprisoned away from mortals by Angels. The Part One exposition meant that
someone like Draziel would be classified as a Divine. But that’s not the case. Here,
Arcana is a Divine – moreover, there are “True Divines,” which are even higher.
I’d also like to take this moment and question Pari on why she thinks it’s a
good idea for Arcana to come back. It seems she had a pretty good reason to
leave, so…why is she so fixated on her resurrection again? We later see that
Arcana is your standard manchild Karen god, so what benefit does it bring to
Pari?
Moving past the opening, we have Dreggerina’s story. Um…I’m pretty
disappointed with this one, unfortunately. I’m not too stoked on her
personality (or lack of one – it’s more like “oooh look I’m a lady” and nothing
else of substance). I assume her Straw Feminist traits and her “stop flirting
with me” moments are played as jokes, but…it comes off more grating? It’s a
double standard thing, which I’m not a fan of. Here’s another thing: in Part
One, we set had our goals set up. Our timelines diverged after Arc’s death.
Find the main differences between our timeline and OG Dregg’s timeline. There
was this whole meticulous thing where we had to find the difference – and
starting with Dreggerina, it was “yep, butterfly effect.” That’s not a
difference between your timeline and OG Dregg’s timeline, but it still cracked
open the doorway.
Furthermore, in Chronicles 10, Dreggerina introduced the concept
of the “Void Realm,” a mysterious chamber where she (then a he) met a rather
robotic Arc that reset the universe at Dreggerina’s request. From this
interaction, we also inferred that Dreggerina
had a previous life, as a man, where (similar to Asylum Dregg’s timeline) there
were no births. The reset malfunctioned a bit – instead of resetting the
whole thing, it went to right after Arc’s Death. There were new births again,
but it glitched in the reset and the world was genderbent. It is implied that
Heartless went through a similar ordeal (more on that later).
This whole Void Realm and previous life thing went completely
unaddressed in Dreggerina’s story, which were arguably the most intriguing
things about her and gave her something interesting past “haha genderbend.” And
it was dropped.
Cool Dregg’s story is better. I liked the idea of Cool Dregg
martyring a revolution (especially the bit where the atmosphere takes a
complete 180 and we see glimpses of how he got thrown in prison), and I liked
the idea of Chelsea (though this brings up the question of when Dregg can see
ghosts – can he suppress the ability? Does it just happen?) I don’t have much
to say on it because it isn’t really impactful in the long run. Again, in Part
One, we were supposed to find out the special things in OG Dregg’s timeline,
such as Ina and Mina existing, Pari not existing at the same time as Sarah,
Polly being married. And that’s dropped in favor of “these are the lessons to
keep in mind from my backstory,” which is kind of a downgrade. Also, the King
of Suicida is dumber than a bag of rocks. I think I would have preferred if
Arbitia (from MChr 9, fell apart from civil war) got mentioned in Dreggerina’
or Cool Dregg’s backstory instead of making up joke countries like Rebellia and
Suicida. The names aren’t subtle, man.
While Dreggerina’s and Cool Dregg’s stories were somewhat
underdeveloped, Post Officer Dregg got…absolutely nothing! Congratulations, for
affiliating yourself with the Post Office, you get to be reduced to a gag
(coming soon to a Medieval Chronicles near you). Continuing the trend of
learning “lessons” instead of spying differences (yes I am still sour about
that), we get an “as you know,” the worst kind of exposition dump, that the
world is ending due to the accumulation of Sin. And thus, the gate is open, and
we proceed.
I don’t have anything to say on Post Officer Dregg since we know
nothing about what happened to him and how this timeline walked into a food
crisis. However, it was established in Part one that the timelines split off
after Arc’s death, and PO Dregg broke that streak. Even Dreggerina’s gender was
handwaved by Void Realm glitch shenanigans (which were never mentioned again :
/ ). Consistency has been a recurring problem, and it’s a shame that the finale
is where it really, really starts getting on my nerves. Even if he, like
Dreggerina, was also Void Realm’d, how come Dreggerina is the only one who can remember
it?
We take a break to go look at Ada, who is currently murdering her
way up the Scion Palace. Her sclera is black now – I’m not really sure what the
meaning of that is other than angel presence (though we now know that Ada might
predate Angels) and creepiness factor. The whole sequence reminded me a little
bit of YanSim, especially since Ada gets more insane the more she murder. The
last time we saw her, Pari was taking advantage of Ada’s Resonance to quite
literally bring her to her knees. It’s not explained how Ada went from that to
somewhat willingly working for Pari.
Pari remains a mysterious figure. She’s the original Queen of
Rightia – okay. She knows a lot of stuff – like wayyyy too much stuff. How does
she know all this stuff? How did she decide that her path was right? Being
adopted into the Angelheart family gave her a boost, yeah, but we already see
that a lot of the Angelheart library information on, say, Divines, is
incorrect. Just being adopted into the Angelheart library gives you the right
and the information to resurrect the creator of the Universe itself? Where did
she get the idea that Dregg is the Fate Walker? Will Sarah continue Pari’s path
in the OG timeline (given that Pari and Sarah cannot exist at the same time)? There
has to be more going on, but we’re never given anything more on her.
In Part 1, Pari also says "I'm the step-sister to [the
Angelheart family's] only living heir" which led me to believe that there
was a third Angelheart sister somewhere (Arc was long dead at that point,
unless you count her stasis state – and even then, Arc can hardly be the
Angelheart heir like that) and that was never addressed. Yes I know it’s
probably an English mistake, but still.
“Only the Sins committed by this palace is grave enough to help
him” and Dregg later ends up at the Scion palace. So Dregg is a sin magnet, I
guess. Where the most and worst sins are, Dregg follows!
What did Rightia do to get Dregg started within its borders?
Rightia, what are you hiding?
On the other hand it’s very heartwarming that Pari thinks of Tira
and Polly as her children. It’s only slightly diminished by the fact that I
keep spelling “Pari” as “Pair.” Reminds of when I kept typing “Mail” on my
presentation on Mali.
We go back to the Dreggs for a moment. After a brief stint in hell
(hi Beelzebub), they go to a timeline where Dregg does not exist (more
specifically, the entire Moriss bloodline does not exist. Wait, what is so
special about the Moriss bloodline that Dregg had to have been born in there?
Is it the dysfunctionality?) Lucifer is starting an apocalypse…as you do, which
the Dreggs stop.
A few more questions for this section: How come only Asylum Dregg
has a bit of Arc’s soul fragment (aka the ASF)? Wasn’t this implanted in all
the Dreggs? How come it has the ability to become a giant robot thing?
The giant robot sequence is my most disliked part of this episode.
It’s immersion-breakingly anachronistic, and not foreshadowed, and just….not
great? It’s only to get Satan to listen to them, and…I’m sorry, but it looks
really stupid. Willing Suspension of Disbelief only goes so far.
Satan gives us a few pointers. Arcana was in love with someone,
and created the beings for her universe in his image. And then it went wrong,
double heartbreak, oopsie doodle. She “has recovered enough to order a cleanse
of the Universe and free will itself.” Good to know. Good to know. What’s more
interestin is the aftermath: Dregg goes to a specific Alt timeline where Arcana
is, using the Spirit World as a 9 ¾ station. Satan is unaware of who Arc is,
but recognizes her soul fragment. The Spirit Realm calls the ASF “Arcana,” not
“Arc.” Well, Arc is a part of Arcana, so it makes sense, I suppose. The Spirit
Realm is the first wave of souls, conglomerated into a single entity which
hates Arcana. A lot. Dregg is a being made from the “Dark Divine,” from the
“domain of the Conqueror of Death.”
Wait so. Uh. In Mcop 9 it was “oh if you truly master Dimensional Debate
you will never die, a “conqueror of death” so to speak” but here it’s
just…”hey. You’re special. You came from another universe, Mr. Fate Walker.” Is
the Conqueror of Death the Dark Divine? What does this mean for Dregg’s
Dimensional Buster?
Anyway, the Dark Divine is annoyed with Dregg for returning too early,
reminds him of his task to “protect Arcana’s realm from the influence of the
other divines,” and sends him on his way. Mr. DD is part of a group called the
Ascended Divines, characterized by a third eye. The lower Divines think Dregg’s
soul is broken, but it’s actually just different. If Dregg understands the
Cycle of Creation and Destruction after the ASF leaves him, that Death (the
concept) is “simply changing forms,” then he will become the “Conqueror of
Death.” The ASF does heal the soul to an extent.
So the Conqueror of Death is not the Dark Divine. Or is it a title
for the Dark Divine that will one day be bestowed upon Dregg? How come mental
Dregg (in his 30s, I think) is unable to manifest CoD until he confronts
Arcana, while OG Dregg (at around 18) is able to unlock it, at minimum, when he
confronts Ziel?
We get a heartwarming scene with Frake and Pari. They love each
other, and it shows. Warm fuzzies all around – doubly so, since they’re burning
to death.
Too soon? Too soon.
Pari narrates that she wants the Fate Walker to understand the
despair within the Heart, and lift the pain from her. To emphasize with her
pain to stop her anger. That Arc instantly knew to bring Ada and Dregg
together, and to use Pari as a catalyst for their meeting. Pari will inevitably
leave the timeline once the Fate Walker and the Heart are reunited. Their
meeting is the key to have new births again. Pari wants to prove that the
Universe cannot survive without its heart.
Wait, wait. Doesn’t this mean that the other Dreggs have already
met their version of Ada? How come Dreggerina was able to sidestep her entire
issue with no new births by just pulling a Void Realm? Does Pari leave after
the no new births thing is solved in a timeline, or leave when Dregg and Ada
reunite, or both? What does this mean for that one timeline where Dregg doesn’t
exist?
Meanwhile, Ada and Dregg reunite in a touching scene where they
reach for each other. A bit cliché, but it’s nice to imagine. As a side note,
Ada fell with Tira and Polly, but those two are nowhere to be seen. Uh…are they
okay?
They don’t quite meet, and Dregg gets transported to the
mystierous Arcana reality thing Tree of Life uhhhhhh I’m not sure what to call
this one. Arcana’s Domain? Yeah, let’s go with that. Death starts monologuing
about how Arcana will come back.
See, now I’m confused again. Death began as a neutral entity. Then
in Mcop 8-2, Death was against the revival of Arcana, trying to reset the
universe before her return to reach perfection. Dregg was like “Arcana, return
whenever you want.” It’s a complete 180 here! Death very much wants Arcana to
come back, while Dregg is against it. Different Dregg, I know, but Death is the
same guy in the same place. In Mchr 8-2, the splitting of timelines was said to
expand the Tree of Life and improve Arcana's health. But in Mcop 10-2, the splitting of timelines hid the "Heart" and was supposed to prevent Arcana's return.
No, I do not know what is going on anymore. Thank you for asking.
There is of course the possiblilty that Death is being controlled
by Arcana at this point. Death is the body, so maybe he just wouldn’t be able
to resist. Death also mentions Fate Walkers, plural. Dregg is one. Who are some other examples?
Meanwhile, Death sends Asylum Dregg into a weird dimension where
Asylum gets to confront Heartless. Ah, Heartless! You were in the Void Realm,
right? Maybe your monologue can mention – nope. Heartless is employed by Death
to get rid of any stababble obstacles. Death at this point has swung to full-on
evil, as opposed to the neutral being he was before.
Heartless Dregg is from a timeline without Arc (or one where he
never met Arc). Heartless didn’t kill Evelyn, and unwillingly became her
apprentice instead. Ina and Mina exist; Cayla and Vilrole are married. He’s
defeated pretty quickly when he get access to the ASF, which makes him feel
guilt for his hundreds of victims. Idea: Heartless Dregg Death Note AU when?
We were under the impression that Heartless went through the Void Realm, which caused the "glitch" that turned him into a serial killer. Here, Heartless says he is a product of Evelyn's training in a world where Arc never existed. So, what, did the glitch remove Arc from the equation and make him Evelyn's apprentice? Is it possible to glitch a world so Arc doesn't exist even though Arc is required for it to restart and glitch at all? Is all of Medieval Chronicles 10 a red herring? How come Dreggerina can remember her previous life and the Void Realm, but Heartless can't and justifies it as "Evelyn's apprentice all along" and "I have no clue who Arc is"?
Arcana is revived, Divine of the Void, the Creator of Universe
1313131313. Dregg’s very existence, where he kept creating timeline upon
timeline upon timeline, prevented the Heart from being found and Arcana’s resurrection
by extension. Asylum Ada is one half, and it’s heavily implied that OG Ada is
the other one…well, sort of. Um. There’s some really bad timeline shenanigans
going on. Satan’s apocalypse stint brought Asylum Ada to her one way or
another.
So. Arc pulled something that prevented Arcana’s resurrection.
Death was originally against Arcana’s resurrection, but did a 180 this episode.
The Universe itself rejects Arcana’s attempts to go in and reset it. Predictably,
she gets pissed off.
Arcana was originally introduced as a “dark side” to Arc that got
corrupted. She was built up as this tragic figure that needed to see past the
sins of humanity. And here Arcana is your standard manchild God who also
happens to be a Karen. It’s a little unsatisfying.
All Divines are tasked with creating a Universe. Arcana helped out
her ex after his attempt with Free Will backfired… and it backfired on Arcana
too. Dregg tries to help Arcana, even unlocking CoD in the process, but they
eventually fall into the Spirit Realm. The SR, which as you’ll remember is a
collection of souls that are extra pissed at Arcana, retalitliate against her.
Seeing the fury of the first souls of her Universe, Arcana relents and dies,
asking Dregg to use her destruction to create something better for the Universe
– hope.
Dregg is only able to unlock CoD without the ASF holding him back.
So, at what point did OG Dregg lose his ASF? I don’t quite remember, but is
Arcana Ascended? It’s hard to tell since her eyes are covered.
Say hello to Arcana’s ex, an Ascended Divine now wanting to claim
the Universe now that Arcana herself is gone. His name is Void. Dregg tries to
stop him, Void chucks a fireball at him (exactly what he was aiming at) and
says they’ll meet again…in another life, perhaps. The fireball, meanwhile, makes
its way to Aurum, who’s guarding a hell gate, and straight up kills her. The
other angels take notice. It’s unknown whether a fireball gets the others, but
we know that Azure makes her way to Ada one way or another. Void also mentions
the Divine Oath – guess we’ll explore that later.
The timeline is pretty messed up. I think Aurum’s “death” was the
moment she got knocked into Amber, and obviously Beelzebub walks through the
hell gate into Ziel’s body soon after. My guess is that Aurum entered Amber,
stayed dormant, and awakened in MShorts 2. Beezelbub, meanwhile, was more
productive and proceeded to use Draziel to take over OG timeline Scion. Aurum’s
really cool in this scene, by the way
Arcana cannot resurrect again, as she has no body. Uhh…bye Death.
Pari also appears, says “welp, I guess Arcana can’t come back. Shucks.” Then
leaves. Hello? You want to tell us more? How are you alive? How’d you get here?
How do you know all this? Arc asked you to do all this?
What’s with Arc, anyway? First she gives the ASF to Dregg to
prevent Arcana from finding the Heart (well, the main purpose was to prevent Arcana from realizing Dregg is #weird, which ends up Dregg roam free and create new timelines hence obscuring the location of the Heart). Then she tells Pari to find Dregg and
reunite him with Ada. Arc? I have questions for youuuuuu.
The Universe needs a Divine to control the cycle and number of Souls, and Arcana needs a body to come back. So, Ada “eats” the ASF, and with Dregg’s help, Amber is born.
Ah, Amber. Her name is Hope, actually, and turns out she’s the child
of Asylum Dregg and Asylum Ada. A union between the Heart of the Universe, a
Fate Walker from another Universe who’s connected to Death, and a little bit of
Arc’s soul. Hope – Amber – seems to be their plan to bring the second coming of
Arcana. We saw a little glimpse of that in MA 5-1, when Amber rescued Eva as
the Archangel of Hope.
As a side note? I’m pretty sure morning sickness doesn’t start
until…like 4 weeks in.
It’s unknown how time works here. For even the slightest chance of
saving the world, Ada and Dregg have to abandon Amber in OG Dregg’s timeline,
right when small OG Dregg was looking for his kidnapped teacher. Right before
he meets Evelyn. If the origin of the other Angels is also Ada and Dregg, then
those Angels enter the mortal realm at an earlier point in the timeline. The 4
guardians entered into the mortal realm really close to the beginning of the
universe, and have been guarding the Gates for a while. The 4 guardians still
refer to Arc as their sister, as shown by Aurum.
Amber is an Ascended One, but as far as we know, the 4 sisters
aren’t. Ada suggests giving Amber more sisters, but it’s a little unclear who
they are, and if there are any at all. Aurum refers to Amber as the smallest
sister, and Amber is confirmed to be in a separate “batch” of Angels as an Ascended
One. But that aside, it points to the 4 guardians to be Amber’s sisters. Sure, it's implied that the 4 guardians are Amber's sisters, but the other evidence doesn't add up. Maybe
Ada meant it as a joke?
It’s confusing. I already have too many questions. The bottom line
is, Asylum Dregg is able to grow old, return to the other Dreggs (who are in
stasis, I guess?) in the room with the mysterious door, and give them advice on
how to save their universes. Finally, OG Dregg, who Asylum Dregg transfers his
memories into and instructs him how to defeat Draziel and save everything else.
The timeline, at this point, is a pretzel.
This game had a lot of ups and downs. Some things were cool, but
most of the time I could not stop seeing inconsistencies everywhere. It’s
grating how many inconsistencies there are. Hell, in Part 1, Death was the
brain, but in Part 2, Death was retconned into the body. This series keeps
introducing new things and then it never addresses them later. Mchr 10 brought
up the Void Realm....and Dreggerina's story had none of that? Heartless's story
had none of that? Why was Arc acting like a computer? Also, Death's personality
is really inconsistent. Before he was a neutral deity, like "Arc, you have
to come with me now that sin has corrupted you" and then he was like
"I do not want Arc to reawaken into Arcana" and then now he's
"oh boy, I'm all for Arcana awakening again!"
Even in MCop 10-1, it was mentioned that the timelines split off
after Arc's death. Dreggerina's gender was even handwaved into the Void Realm
causing glitches. And then Postman Dregg comes along and he's like "yeah,
from the beginning, I was raised by Diane" and the Void Realm was never
mentioned again. Heartless was like "I never killed Evelyn and became her
apprentice." Then the timeline would have split off before Arc died. Why
were the medallions only in two timelines? The medallions weren’t addressed a
single time, even though MChr 9 was pretty much dedicated to the effects of the
Death Medallion. Heartless also had a previous life that got overridden by the
Void Realm. Why was Heartless given a "broken" set of medallions? How’d
he get them? Pari Angelheart was set up to be this really interesting
character, but then she's "aww my plan failed. Shucks. Bye." You
wanna give us an explanation how you got that information and why you decided
that Arcana's resurrection was a good thing? You wanna explain your sisterly
relationship with Arc? No?
I know it’s a meme to be “haha, every episode keeps creating new questions” but it’s less fun when half of those questions are from things that had no foreshadowing or are there because the creator can’t keep his facts straight. That exposition dump in Part 1, that supposedly came from the Angelheart library, was pretty much completely contradicted by what happened in Part 2. The power levels are also kind of a problem. You have to peak somewhere. It's just...there’s a lot. There’s so much. I never know where to start, and it’s getting a bit frustrating. Most of all, though, I'm numb. So much happened this episode. I think some really good beats were the interaction between Critic and Cool Dregg, and when Dregg and Ada realized they had to let go of Amber. The latter was a really poignant moment, and it was a moment where it was just "oH," the timeline started to click together. The part where Aurum got killed was also an "oH" moment, and I have been waiting for the 4 guardians to get some more focus. They're interesting, especially Azure. She's supposedly the "smart and modest" one, but she's also Ambition, a borderline nephilum, and it's implied she once tried to throw hands with Death? Also she's affiliated with Ada? Hell yeah. I hope all of those don't get dropped.
Let’s hope more questions are answered in Season 2, no? Amber falling into despair from her Grandma’s death is oddly similar to another Divine falling into despair. We’ll have to deal with, at minimum, Draziel, Brokenheart, and Void.
See you next time, and thank you for reading this. No, seriously, I know it's a lot. I type these out in a Word document beforehand, and this one was a little over six pages (on the default setting of Microsoft Word). Actually, now that I'm looking closer it's not that long, especially since it's broken up by the sketches, but I swear it looked a lot longer on the Word doc! Anyway.
A big thanks to KGY 121's youtube channel - he does let's plays of Mcop, and writing these mega-essays would not be possible without his videos. Reviewing footage makes things so much easier. A big thanks to our discord server too, since I end up bouncing some ideas off of them before writing these.
So, yeah. : )
Email: jesfu919@gmail.com
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