[Spoiler] So now to kill the Time Keeper?

[Marcus101RR]

SPOILERS!

Christ, whats the lore here...everything making it sound like the Dead Cell guy is the bad one?

The Giant mentions this, and apparently only triggers after first killing the king.

The Collector, of all things, I knew he was going to be the bad guy next, just didn't know the cells were going to be on his part.

But, the time Keeper was my main concern from the beginning, since obviously the whole Time-Loop concept remained. We could say that you just decide to go through the fountain and go through it again, but even that doesn't explain why it all resets.

Even the Dead Cells after the king goes "Nothing changed".

Now the timer keeper sent us in the time loop again, only this time, everything that is supposedly changed or dead is distorted by time.

So implying that the next big DLC will focus on breaking that loop once and for all. That just leaves with the origins of the Malaise (I keep thinking Mayo). As well who our Dead Cells guy really is, if he really is the problem.

[SilkySmooth]

would you want me to tell you who the dead cells guy is?

[FlintX]

I guess we are in the right way to unfold the truth. This is a theory I came with sometime ago, a very plausible one I may say:

The protagonist is the King, there are several things in the game that hints that. Just pay attention in the game and you will notice it too. My though was the same when I beat the game the first time. The only thing that is unclear is why he journeys to kills himself. Maybe an attempt to free himself from immortality, who knows.

#1 First of all you have the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ attitude of the protagonist. He/it doesn't give a damn about anything than himself. Like when he kicks the Knight dead body to get the broadsword, or gives a middle finger to things, there are also those dark humor jokes he makes all the time. He is a complete jerk. Thats matches exactly with the personality of "The King". We learn through the game that The King was by no means a good person, he was hated by many, if not by everyone.

#2 The protagonist wears royal clothes. Clothes very similiar to the ones that "The Hand of the King" wears. We also learn at the start of the game that we were executed because of "some crime". Probably by the remaining revolted population that discovered that we were in fact The King. But what this "Crime" would be?

#3 The other fact that make it kinda obvious is that "The Alchemist" was experimenting human/plant crossings under the protection of The King as a mean to "cure" the Malaise. The notes found in the castle says: The latest crossbreading produced no results: the extracts administered to the volunteer produced a shapeless monstrosity ... half-man. half-plant. The subject failed to survive".
People might think that The Alchemist was reffering to the "Thorny" enemy that appears across the game, but there are plenty of alive Thornies in the game. Which indicates that The Alchemist was possible reffering to "The Beheaded" (the protagonist) instead. A shapeless monstrosity is pretty much what we are. He thought that his last experiment, we, died, but in truth it needed a host or a resource in onder to survive, which would be the Cells we collect in the game.

Conclusion: The King was getting old and in order to find a way to gain immortality he putted The Alchemist in charge of a research to somehow achieve this immortality. Then he found a plant along with a substance at Slumbering Sanctuary that could possible aid his reseach. The Alchemist brought it back and started to experimenting with it in order to create some kind of magical elixir or some other thing that would grant The King immortality, and of course he would need subjects for his reaseach. So yes, the prisoners pretty much were all subjects for the research. The failed experiments of The Alchemist gave origin to the Malaise. They eventually would need to get rid of the failed experiments, so The King ordered those prisioners to be send to places like "Promenade of the Condemned" and other places alike to die. The prisoners who tried to escape through the sewers probably ended up contaminating the entire water network with the Malaise, ultimate infecting Stilt Village in the process. At some point things went off control and the Malaise spreads throught the entire Island. The Alchemist continues his research for the imortality elixir while also trying to find a cure for the Malaise at the same time. The people finds out that The King is responsible for the plague. The King barricade himself at the Castle with The Alchemist as a last effort to complete the reaseach. The entire population mutates into monsters. The King manages to achieve his immortality at the end, but not the way he was expecting. His consciousness (mind, soul or whatever) now lies within the last of The Alchemist experiment, the shapeless plant creature/thing that absorbed The King body cells and became a sentient being.

So you see, the crime for what the protagonist was executed for is pretty much the Malaise disaster. We are in fact The King after he "drinks his immortality elixir" or at least what remained from him, his Cells! When we find The King's body at the Throne Room he is on vegetative state with some kind of liquid dripping from his mouth, just a carcass. Maybe animated by magic or something. And when we kills him he maybe triggers the The Time Keeper's final spell. The infinite temporal loop. Some things also can hint that The King was never worried about curing the Malaise anyways, he just wanted his immortality. The fact that the The Hand of the King can summon the infected mutants in battle and also the mutated tree with eyes in the room all indicates that The King knew all along he was dealing with some ill force. He simply sacrificed everything to get his ♥♥♥♥ing immortality.

Oiginal post: https://steamcommunity.com/app/588650/discussions/0/1741106440024551780/

[Marcus101RR]

This whole time, I was the king turned into an immortal-ass-gas-body-takeover state, running through levels, that explains why the giant says "Destroyed your body, my king...you..." its all part of one.

[Demonmax]

Originally posted by FlintX:

...

Actually, this explanation supports pretty well the new lore added into DC since v1.2. And in the end (the trust ending) the King (you) becomes immortal it seems.

SPOILERS AHEAD:
First thing, The Alchemist is also The Collector in this explanation.

That being said, after realizing you become such an idiot as The Beheaded, Time Keeper and The Alchemist work together trying to save the island from the malaise. For that, Alchemist start working on a possible cure that requires Cells to work, and he acquire those from you during your runs in exchange for equipment and even some Malaise Cure attempts (potions). However, since he needs A LOT to make a proper attempt, Time Keeper cast a spell so after The Beheaded "kills" his body (The King), he would always return to the beginning of his journey, thus giving The Alchemist endless Cells, allowing a cure to be develop eventually.

Meanwhile, during the events of The King turning into The Beheaded, HotK and The Giant fought (they never liked each other) because Giant didn't knew the reason The King had died. Giant naturally accused HotK since he was the King's guard. HotK even tried to explain to Giant that it was an act leaded by the King himself and was ignored. They fought, Giant stole a key from HotK in the process, but he lost the combat. Giant (his body) was thrown in the Prison left to disintegrate entirely.

However, when The Beheaded destroys his body and Time Keeper's spell works, the Giant end up reviving and goes back to his place (Caverns). When The Beheaded reaches The Giant for the first time, Giant seems to figure that it's actually The King, and being confused, sad and mad because of his recent actions (trying to become immortal and spreading malaise in the process) he attacks The King.

After being defeated, Giant gave the key he stole from HotK to The Beheaded, since he couldn't use it anyway.

The Beheaded reaches HotK as expected and defeats him, but now that he carries the key, he uses it to open The Astrolab and meets The Alchemist at Observatory. Noticing that he didn't had any alternative instead of fighting since The Beheaded would attack him eventually, The Alchemist desperately drinks the malaise cure he develop (Panacea) which gives him a lot of power, and they fight. Unfortunately, The Beheaded manages to get the Panacea and drink it, which increases his power a lot. He won again and he simple kills The Alchemist, but the Panacea seems to have collateral effects which disintegrate his body, leaving only his head left and returns to the beginning again.

Knowing that her plan have failed and the only person trying to solve the malaise is now dead, Time Keeper tries to go back in time again, but now to the very beginning, where The Beheaded didn't destroyed King's body yet and Alchemist was still alive.

Unfortunately this was a mistake, because now The Beheaded has much more control over his "possess" ability, and when he reaches and defeats HotK again and sees The King's body on the throne, he possesses the body and immediately connects perfect with it. He even has muscle memories from the time he was The King!

Now, The Beheaded in his own body goes to Observatory again and fight against The Alchemist, who notices he is on his original body. King won again and drinks the Panacea, but this time, since he is possessing his own body, the drink fuses both together.

The King has achieve what he desired, immortality, and even got other powers in the process (his runes [i.e. Spider Rune etc.]). The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ actually gets what he desired.

The last scene from the game shows The King, now fused with The Beheaded, drinking wine in his throne alone (because he killed everyone to get there) not giving a damn for what he has done to the island, the people and the malaise spread because of his desire to be immortal.

[Demonmax]

PS: I really hope one day MTwin releases something explaining the whole story and universe they've created.

[Spitfyre37]

I have a question, (also SPOILERS!): I've beaten 5BC and gotten the true ending where the Beheaded repossesses the King's body and eventually ends with a fight against a looped version of himself. I understand all that, except for one thing: Is the Beheaded actually the King, or has the spirit of the King just taken over the Beheaded's homunculus?

I understand that the Beheaded and the King share a lot of similarities in terms of personality, but also I thought the Beheaded didn't really know the King at all, or what he was like, due to certain lines he has regarding the statues and lore rooms around the game. His comments about the statues like "how can he see anything in that helmet?" and his questions about the King's intentions with the crystals from the Caverns, where the Beheaded wonders if maybe the King just likes pretty rocks.

Additionally, certain reactions to dialogue make me wonder if the Beheaded isn't actually the King. Specifically, he seems rather confused by the Giant's lines about "you've even managed to destroy your own body."

My headcanon is that the Beheaded and the King are two separate characters, and when the Beheaded possesses the King's body, the King's spirit takes control of the Beheaded's homunculus, and essentially possesses the Beheaded right back.