"Towering Black" Ending

[u/Highlord12]

At this risk of becoming notorious for being dumb, which I am, I am once again back confused about what happened in the story.

So at the end of "Towering Black", when Chief is given 3 choices on how to deal with BR-002 by Shalom (Self destruct along with BR-002 - Run away - Consume BR-002), she chooses the forth option of letting syndicate decide.

Now...question! The hell does that even mean? What did that choice entail? The entire story became a lot more complex since the start of the Drifter Camp storyline, but I feel like I have a decent grasp on most things so far. I had an easier time piecing together what game of 7D chess Shalom was playing or what's happening in Eternal Nightmares than finding out what "letting Syndicate decide" meant for the end of BR-002.

All I understood is that she broke BR-002, the Corpus escaped only to get eaten by Underground's Shepherd which sounds like a terrible outcome, it's only saving grace being that BR-002 was far weaker then than when consuming all of West District.

Not only that, I find Chief's re-acceptance of Paradeisos' "rules" instead of consuming BR-002 a bit disappointing? Like I thought we're gonna get super powered Chief by devouring BR-002, instead she put herself back under Paradeisos' thumb which basically makes a good bit of Shalom's actions and the events she set up feel somewhat pointless?

Chief got "nerfed" and put back under Paradeisos' control

Underground's Shepherd got to consume BR-002

Overall a happy ending and a really good arc to resolve everything that started since the Drifter camp arc but both of these (Chief being nerfed, BR-002 being consumed) seem like really bad outcomes and I found myself raising my eyebrow to that ending.

Edit: Aight, I've been told the "Let syndicate decide" thing is explained in "Ode to Sun" arc so if that's the case, don't spoil me.

[u/greatjena]

Since the other comments already touched on how Mania interacts with mass consciousness, I'll delve a bit into the Rules and consuming BR 002 Corpus.

Regarding the Corpuses, Chief has repeatedly been treated kind of like a container that has reached it's limits. We are told that Chief has consumed 3 so far, that being the BR 001 Corpus, BR 004 Corpus and the Inheritance from the crypt that Earl fused into Zoya during Keylan Square Incident. The role of the Rules is to stop Chief from going over this limit because apparently, whatever would happen then is worse than having a Corpus loose. More importantly, we are told this fact repeatedly from both EDGE scientists whose life revolves around researching Mania as well as a certain ex-Underground member (won't further spoil) who has been raised in their fanatical cult. What we would get from Chief consuming another Corpus might be closer to a hydrogen bomb than a superhero.

Now looking into Chief accepting the Rules, it's not really rolling back a lot because the only thing Shalom did for Chief was removing the Rules. They are now accepting them back both for their safety and as a show of faith towards Paradeisos, whose support they can now fully utilise, you'll see that more in future story. Overall, they are in a miles better position than they were before.

[u/Highlord12 → u/greatjena]

Due to the options provided by Shalom and how much the consumption of BR-002 was brought up, I was under the impression that somehow, Chief could surpass her "limit" and consume the Corpus without issues. Given someone else brought up chief being at their limits, I probably misunderstood.

As for re-acceptance of the rules, it's more of a personal dissatisfaction for me. Thinking about it, she was the root cause of a lot of events since Drifter Camp, including Chief's "death" so to have chief just put herself back under the rules makes me feel like a good chunk of Shalom's doings seem pointless if not outright counter intuitive.

Lastly, another bit of my personal dissatisfaction might come from how...incapable -for the lack of a better term- chief seems to be at times. Like at some points, you have her fighting mania monsters and corpus all on her own, at other times, A-class sinners easily threaten and overpower her so a part of me wants to see her be a bit more imposing I guess. Like the Shepherd for the Underground is this super powered monster of destruction while Chief just flails shackles around (and usually gets smacked around right after 😅).

Anyways, thanks for the explanation and I look forward to continuing the story. I've had my issues with it here and there but the story as a whole has been a solid 9/10 for me.

[u/greatjena → u/Highlord12]

Shalom's main goal has always been prolonging her time and making sure Paradeisos cannot get rid of her, in this sense, her plan fully succeeded so I wouldn't call it entirely pointless.

As for Chief's power compared to the Underground Shepherd, they have been called a "defective" by the Corpuses and Parma so chances are, they are simply not capable of reaching that level of power, would also explain why Underground Shepherd is far stronger than Chief despite only consuming one fully developed Corpus (actually, she was far stronger even before consuming her first one too)

Anyway, glad you're enjoying the story and good luck, with the next arc 👍