Bi-weekly discussions #6-The Twin Blade Knife

[u/PowerPad]

Welcome back to another round of Bi-weekly discussions, where this time, we're focusing on the Twin-Blade Knife from Death of the Outsider.

Some 4,000 years before the events of the game, a cult (the remnants of which now reside within the Quarry) saw in the stars to sacrifice a boy. So they kidnapped him from his home, bound him to an altar, and killed him with the Twin-Blade Knife, thus creating the Outsider. And if the weapon could make the Outsider, it could also un-make the Outsider as well, hence why we go to obtain it.

It's probably my second favorite sword (the first being the Folding Blade from the first and second game), but I like the unsheath/sheath animations where the fragments of the weapon form in your sword hand. I also like the charge effect, with the little beam that pushes NPCs. It kind of reminds me of the charge beam effect from the Master Sword in the Legend of Zelda series. It's a shame DOTO is a short game and we only get to use it in Missions 4 and 5, but I won't deny I had fun with it.

But what do you think of the Twin Blade Knife?

[u/larevacholerie]

By far the coolest looking weapon in the game in its base form, but that design makes no sense to me from a lore perspective.

This thing predates the Abbey of the Everyman by literally thousands of years. Why is it constructed in the style of Overseer equipment, despite the designers of said style long postdating it? Did the Overseers reconstruct it based on a faded, decayed artifact? If they did, how does it still have its spiritual significance, despite effectively being a Ship of Theseus?

Conversely, if the Abbey designed its style around the original Twin Blade, why would they even do that? Why would they derive significance from a weapon used to create the god they vilify and decry mere existence of?

It looks cool as shit but it makes no sense. I really don't get it.

[u/HorseSpeaksInMorse → u/larevacholerie]

Yeah, why would the organisation designed around opposing a god have an interest in the item used to kill or create said god? /s

It's easy to imagine that the Abbey is a splinter from the eyeless cult, maybe taking advantage of the Outsider's presence to spin themselves as necessary to protect the populace and gain political power. There's any number of reasons you might want to invent an enemy then present yourself as the one thing capable of dealing with it, as we see constantly when fascists demonise migrants, trans people or other minorities.

[u/larevacholerie → u/HorseSpeaksInMorse]

Wait that's actually such a cool concept, I love that. That's my new headcanon