terrorblade
“Fear he who fears nothing.”
do you ever go about your day as usual, following
your familiar set of rituals and routines,
almost like a passenger in your own body,
content - not happy nor misreable - at least
not consciously - only to suddenly while catching
a glimpse of your reflection in the mirror,
get thrown into a deep contemplation and self
psycho analysation, confronting how messed
up you are and questioning everything youre
doing and how you even got here? just me?
well at least terrorblade is…
KIND of similar.
terrorblade the demon marauder is basically
the spirit animal of everyone who had an edgy
emo phase in middle school.
If you want to know every detail about demons
as a kind, and the seven hells, i have a video
about it in the top right corner.
TB is like coldsteel the hedgehog, but of
the demon world in dota 2.
He is a mischeavous, rebellious demon, so
frightening even the inhabitants of hell fear
him.
He is an edgy anarchist who takes pleasure
in messing with authority and anything sacred,
which resulted in him stealing from the demon
lords, ignoring the rituals and breaking every
rule of the seven hells. after a bloody trial
with many casualties on all sides, he was
sentenced to be punished in the hell of hell
- foulfell.
Foulfell is a prison where demons who dont
oblige by the diabolic rules go.
But its no regular prison, wher eyou get a
cell to spend a set amount of time in, or
even get tortured by someone else.
instead, the punishment you recieve depends
only on how twisted the demon who goes there
is, its their inner self which determines
the punishment, and thus fair consequence
follows your crimes.
Foulfell is a dark mirror of reality, where
the inmates gaze eternally into their own
reflection.
But its no normal mirror showing your outward
appearance, its instead reflecting the worst
parts of your soul.
For most demons, this is an agonizing and
brutal punishment, trapping them in a horrifying
limbo of terrible self reflection.
But terrorblade instead mastered his inner
demon, because he never cared about hiding
who he was anyways.
He never had an ounce of pretentioussness
and actively opposed those who tried to control
him.
He never virtue signaled to anyone, and never
claimed to be morally superior to others.
Hes a piece of shit and he knew that.
This grotesque, wild, thieving inner demon,
instead of becoming his tormenter, became
a new form for terrorblade, which he used
to break free from foulfell and was now set
free to unleash even worse, even more terrible
things upon the world.
And you might be thinking: okay so hes the
worst.
hes literaly the embodiment of chaotic evil,
hes a static, one dimensional, shallow character
that just wants to watch the world burn.
right?
well yeah kinda, but actually, no.
There are many hints as to why he is actually
not really a bad guy.
The most obvious sign would be how he is a
demon that opposes demons.
Since double negative makes positive, doesnt
it? demons and hell are inherently evil, so
if he is rebelling against and opposing that,
doesnt that kinda make him good? and yes - he
is known to extort others and take pleasure
in killing, but he also shows a kind of sweet
concern for innosence and genuine goodness.
Lets look at his relationships.
Abaddon says this when meeting TB as an ally:
“Come, friend, let us fill their souls with
terror.”, showing that heroes do in fact
consider him a friend.
Even if its abaddon, whos not necesarily a
good guy.
There is also a minor hint in pudge’s arcana
voice lines, where he thinks TBs flesh tastes
sweet.
curiously specific.
“Tastes surprisingly sweet.”
He is also concerned with and opposed to other
heroes than unleash terrible things upon innocents,
like undying and necrohos.
“You were a lost soul.”
“Necrophos, your disease has run its course.”
You can learn more about them in my undead
video, in the top right corner.
And despite him being an anti-demon demon,
he is mad at warlock for enslaving demons.
“Warlock, you've enslaved your last demon.”
“Warlock, now the mages can summon you from
hell.”
And of course, he is opposed to any authority,
and controlling or manipulative hero.
“Your voice captivates no more, Siren.”
“ I ruled in the hell of Foulfell.
Why did you think I'd bow to you?”
“You are no king of mine.”
But one hero interaction in particular is
very interesting, and thats with timbersaw.
when killing him, tb says this: “Timbersaw,
I put an end to your madness.” and when
meeting him as an ally, he says this: “Timbersaw,
what the hell is wrong with you anyway.”
“Hey Timbersaw, look out, a tree!
Heyah, heh, hah.”
“Timbersaw, please shut up about the trees.
Seriously, you need help.”
now you might just say hes making fun of him
for being mentally ill, but i cant help but
pick up on a sort of concern and worry, hidden
behind mischief.
Another interesting relationship, is with
skywrath mage. when meeting him, tb mistakes
him for an angel, which disquiets him.
And then proceeds to note skywrath would make
a fine demon.
Perhaps alluding to luficer the doom being
a fallen angel, like satan in IRL christianity.
“Are you an angel?”
“Skywrath, your form disquiets me.”
“Skywrath, what a fine demon you would make.”
Something strange that i cant really make
sense of, is that TB really respects dragons.
He says this to dragon knight, jakiro and
winter wyvern: “I'm always glad to have
a dragon by my side.”
As you would maybe guess based on him not
just being a demon, but also hating sacred
things and authority, he directly opposes
any hero that blindly follows their god, like
for example chen and omniknight.
“Chen, I wearied of your sanctimony.”
“Healer, your hypocrisy knew no bounds.”
This is something he also talks about a lot
in his other voice lines, not directed at
any hero in particular.
“The self-righteous shall choke on their
sanctimony.”
He hates anyone who claims to be morally superior
to others, especially because those who preach
that often arent - especially in the religions
inspired by our own abrahamic religions like
christianity.
And lastly, the biggest hint to terrorblade
actually not being such a bad guy, is this
voice line to enchantress.
“I'm every demon's worst nightmare, but
I'm your best friend.”
sholars debate exactly what he means by this,
but in my interpretation, he is basically
saying what i mentioned before.
He is only a major asshole to other demons
- the most vile, evil creatures.
But innosence, nature, selflessness and kindness
which ench embodies, he would never hurt.
I ship it.
Terrorblades spells are very interesting because
they bring what he learned while imprisoned.
Reflection lets him cause the opponent to
hit themselves, like he was meant to suffer
in foulfell.
“Your own worst enemy.”
Metamorphsis is actualy the form he saw in
his own reflection, the darkest most terrible
part of his soul that he mastered.
“Fear what you will never understand.”
He hints here that maybe what seperates him
from others seeing their inner self, is that
he didnt mind his flaws.
He knew hes no saint, and doesnt pretend or
lie to himself about being morally superior.
But if someone like for example omniknight,
who has slain thousands of innocents in the
name of his god, were to see HIS reflection,
he would be terrified.
Among all his interesting voice lines, this
one in particular is very profound: “In
war, gods favor the sharper blade.”
He is basically saying that if there is a
god, they do not care to, or dont have the
power to, help you out.
Its all in your own hands - cus whoever has
the sharper blade wins.
Did you know?
In dota 1, terrorblade and antimage were brothers,
and the dota 2 devs were actually planning
on continuing that relationship at first.
Theres many unused voice lines that proove
this.
He was also meant to take souls kinda similarily
to sf, but that too they abandoned at his
release.
In underlords he is currently a demon and
a hunter, but as with many other heroes in
underlords, his lore hasnt really been expanded
upon.
He is not in artifact.
now, before we end the video, we have one
more thing to discuss.
As monkey king has pointed out: “Why do
you spend so much time in your lesser form,
Terrorblade?”
And he has a point.
Most of the game, youre just running around
farming with your illusions, only popping
metamorphsis while pushing a tower or fighting.
So terrorblade only takes on his dark, twisted,
more powerful form when he needs to, and actually
seems to prefer his weaker regular form otherwise.
If he really accepts his inner demon, then
how does that make sense?
Well, maybe whats written between the lines,
alludes to how we, you and me, also have an
inner demon that you only sometimes let out.
When in flight or fight mode, when under a
lot of stress, or when youre witnessing injustice,
its not uncommon to change behavior slightly.
You get more blunt, more emotional, less empathetic,
more selfish, and even you have special traits
that only apply to your personal inner demon.
And while it might from a survival standpoint
make sense for that to leak out in those pressed
situations, i think most of the time its better
not to metamorph.
TB doesnt care that the dark part of his soul
is this horrible creature.
It doesnt upset him at all.
But that doesnt mean he prefers it to his
more chill regular form.
Another explanation, is that terrorblades
“weak” form, is actually his strong form.
In the foulfell prison, he mastered his reflection.
Maybe its because his weaker form was already
much worse than what he saw in the mirror?
I dont know.
But what i do know is, despite terrorblade
being this demonic stereotypical evil thing,
he is not much worse than the angelic, divine
looking omniknight.
They both kill a lot of people, the difference
is what kind of people and for what reason.
If you put it this way, the virtuouos one
is actually terrorblade.
He is the best friend of the innocent, and
targets terrible things like other demons.
And he doesnt claim he is doing it because
hes better than them, or he is somehow morally
superior in any way.
Omniknight on the other hand, as well as chen
and the rumusque faithful, DO kill innocents,
and they have even convinced themselves its
because their god is superior and knows best,
and that the sacrifice is justified.
so yeah.
terrorblade is not so bad. and neither are
you.
be kind and forgiving to yourself.
be the person you want to be, not the one
you think others want you to be.
keep it real or terrorblade will kill you
for being a pretentious maliscious pushover.
So thats it for this video!
Thank you so much to slacks for the shoutout!!
since then we have reached not just 4k, but
5k subscribers.
I almost dont believe the numbers, thank you
so much for checking me out.
Will hopefully start uploading regularily
again now, so hope to see you around.
PEACEE!
