Waddup, y'all! I'm sure you don't know me, but I'll just get right into things here- I'm not much for lengthy introductions. At this point, I'm sure we all know about that weird missing phase 2 and unused Devil animation for the intro to the final phase.We don't have all the clues we need yet, but let's just guess- it's fun to guess and come up with fanon, right?
First, let's take a look at the unused animation:
Middle one was photoshopped a little- I couldn't find an adequate picture directly from the files.
Now, let's think. What could he be doing? At first, I thought he held out his hands to catch the brothers as they fell.
A problem with this arises, however, when you realize that he can be seen in a similar position in his final phase death screen (or "mugshot," as they're referred to in the files).
Mugshot may look a tad low-quality when scaled up this size- I tried to keep the animation the same resolution as the original file.
The idea that he was going to catch them from their fall is still noteworthy, however. As you can see in the animation, he starts out with his eyes closed, his head bowed slightly, and his hands out, almost like he was asleep or meditating.
It even almost looks like he fell asleep waiting for them to get down here..? (More on that later.)
Anyway, when the boys fall, he suddenly cocks his head up and opens his eyes, with a very stern look on his face.
Two theories come to my mind:
- He's slightly mad because he was meditating and the boys interrupted him.
- He's tired because he just woke up from the nap he took while he waited for the boys to get down to him.
Either way, he seems to remember that he was going to fight them and begins to resume his normal final phase position.
Now, referring back to when I mentioned him possibly falling asleep waiting for them... what could have kept him waiting? The phase transition? The boys dawdling in his throne room? Or possibly, the missing Phase 2?
Here's the underground beneath The Devil's throne room, as seen when the boys fall down:
Notice the cave near the top. Before I began extensive research, I thought perhaps the unused Demon Bat would've been fought here; of course, now I know that's completely incorrect- the Demon Bat had its own boss completely seperate from The Devil's. So what could've happened here? Well, I think The Devil's skeleton had more to it at one time than simply leading the way to Hell. I mean, why'd he go to the trouble of taking his skeleton out and going underground when he just resumed his normal form with flesh and fur? I think perhaps his skeleton would fall down here and continue to fight them in this cave. Eventually, he would leave a few minions or something for them to continue fighting, and go down to Hell to wait for them, where he fell asleep with his hands out. The boys would finally fall down, The Devil would wake up and he would initiate the final phase.
My above theory fits perfectly with some of the music heard in-game and unused. First, take the unused OST "Ominous Interlude" between Admission to Perdition and One (Heck) of a Time. It is not heard in-game when the duo fall, and Admission to Perdition continues to play. And while I don't know exactly where, it probably would've been heard some time before or during Phase 2.
Furthur evidence of a possible Phase 2 with The Devil's skeleton is MUS_Intro_DontDealWithTheDevil_Vocal_666.wav (the title theme that plays when you've pirated the game). When viewing it through a spectrogram, creepily the the spectrum waves that appear can be made out to resemble The Devil in his throne room, him in the final phase, and him as a skeleton. You'd think these are supposed to represent his three phases, right? Perhaps this sound file was created and made to give this spectrogram output before The Devil's fight was finalized? Who knows?
Finally, in the in-game version of the OST One (Heck) of a Time, whenever the brothers fall to the platforms below, a musical-sounding "ploing" is heard, and then a trumpet blast. The ploing and trumpet blast match up perfectly to The Devil's unused animation- the ploing happening when he realizes the brothers and look up, and then the trumpet blast when he resumes his final phase position behind the platforms. Unfortunately, however, this animation is unused, and those noises serve no real purpose.
Aaaaaand that's all I've got for now. Please leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments! I'll edit this post if any of my sources are updated or if one of y'all gives me a good enough contradiction.
G'day!
Note: While the Demon Bat is currently coded to play in his own, seperate boss, perhaps at one time he WAS going to be phase 2, but then the creators decided against it for some reason and made him his own boss; then they ditched that as well, and he went unused entirely. Maybe- it's still possible, especially considering Admission to Perdition was his theme.