Lunar and Shadow Skins

[EthanTheMime]

So here's my reasoning; the Shadow collection was meant to portray an alternate universe version of each survivor where they were able to complete Adventure Mode and succeed Maxwell on the Nightmare Throne. This made sense to me given the name "The Triumphant" as well as Maxwell's "Untriumphant" just being a past version of himself--William Carter. I believe these skins were released alongside Don't Starve Together and were even revealed in the game's trailer prior to launch, when Wilson's brush with the Nightmare Throne was still fresh in the mind. I'm sure I'm the only person to have come to this conclusion.

Not sure if I was alone in this assumption, but the recent addition of the Moonbound collection as well as alignments has me thinking twice. The Shadow collection definitely makes more sense now as a counterpart to the Moonbound set. Not to mention, some of the newer survivors came after the events of Don't Starve, although it seems like the writers have taken the "time doesn't work in the Constant" route so, really, anything goes.

But yeah, are these skins just meant to portray aligned characters? This would still make sense with Maxwell's Untriumphant set (taking him being Shadow-aligned as a given) however, that doesn't necessarily explain Wormwood still getting his own Moonbound set when he is a Lunar-aligned character. What do you guys think? Am I dumb? Crazy? Both?

[Auth]

21 minutes ago, EthanTheMime said:

the Shadow collection was meant to portray an alternate universe version of each survivor where they were able to complete Adventure Mode and succeed Maxwell on the Nightmare Throne.

That was really more of an explanation of the aesthetic of the skins. For example Wilson never got his nightmare suit on the throne even though he very clearly did get to plop his keester on it.

22 minutes ago, EthanTheMime said:

But yeah, are these skins just meant to portray aligned characters? This would still make sense with Maxwell's Untriumphant set (taking him being Shadow-aligned as a given) however, that doesn't necessarily explain Wormwood still getting his own Moonbound set when he is a Lunar-aligned character.

I believe this is more of a "Well, this already existed, and I guess it fits for this purpose" situation. And as for why Wormwood got one; his normal form, despite being from the moon, is aesthetically dramatically different from everything else that was added later. I feel it's just that the artists wanted to make a more moon-y wormwood.

[cropo]

The way I see it the triumphant skins are simply the nightmare fuel benefiting the person using it. Before Maxwell was on the throne, he got a huge update in his looks and appearance compared to his wimpy looking form before just by using the codex. We even see it with Wolfgang when Maxwell gives him shadow power by increasing his muscles a massive amount. 

 

There is pretty consistent imagry even after the developers changed. Human survivors, and machines get a huge confidence boost and upgrade. Native, monster types become more aggressive and feral (Webber, Wurt, Splemunkeys, Nightmare Werepig, Ancient Guardian.)

 

I don't know about Wortox, he seems to be affected like the other humans. 

 

Maxwells ''triumphant'' skin reverses the effects of nightmare fuel, turning him back into his goofy self. That's how he looks when the nightmare fuel is not influencing him.

 

Wormwood completely rots and decays, it's not a happy transformation. The flavor text states that he's poisonous to the touch and spreads it by just moving. It's not a happy transformation, it's polluting him. Look at the official portrait of the skin, he's limping in pain with a sad expression. He's not compatible with it.

[EthanTheMime]

19 hours ago, Auth said:

That was really more of an explanation of the aesthetic of the skins. For example Wilson never got his nightmare suit on the throne even though he very clearly did get to plop his keester on it.

I think the explanation for this would be that he appears to have literally just sat down prior to "A New Reign" only for Charlie to arrive and immediately take him off of it. I always just assumed that They hadn't really communicated with Wilson yet--he didn't look tortured or even remotely affected by whatever had grasped Maxwell.

19 hours ago, Auth said:

And as for why Wormwood got one; his normal form, despite being from the moon, is aesthetically dramatically different from everything else that was added later. I feel it's just that the artists wanted to make a more moon-y wormwood.

I'm inclined to agree--I'm probably looking a bit too far into it. I definitely prefer what we ended up with over an "Un-Moonbound" skin.

6 hours ago, cropo said:

The way I see it the triumphant skins are simply the nightmare fuel benefiting the person using it. Before Maxwell was on the throne, he got a huge update in his looks and appearance compared to his wimpy looking form before just by using the codex.

This makes a lot of sense--I hadn't really considered how Maxwell was already given that look before he actually became king. Then again, his normal appearance honestly doesn't really line up with the look of the Triumphant skins, although I'm sure there's an innumerous amount of explanations.

7 hours ago, cropo said:

Wormwood completely rots and decays, it's not a happy transformation. The flavor text states that he's poisonous to the touch and spreads it by just moving. It's not a happy transformation, it's polluting him. Look at the official portrait of the skin, he's limping in pain with a sad expression. He's not compatible with it.

I always really enjoyed this skin for this reason. Before the beta was released, I always wondered if certain characters would be locked into their alignments and Wormwood was someone I had in mind, specifically due to the stark contrast between his Moonbound and Triumphant skins.

[Dr.Webber]

2 hours ago, EthanTheMime said:

21 hours ago, Auth said:

 

I'm inclined to agree--I'm probably looking a bit too far into it. I definitely prefer what we ended up with over an "Un-Moonbound" skin.

I wonder what an unmoonbound skin would look like for wormwood would it be just a pile of vines or maybe an unraveled version of wormwood but keeping it’s general shape 

also is wormwood the Crystal or did it just give him sentience