Angel With The Scabbed Wings
The last chapter of the Triptych symbolizes the transition of Omega to the Wormboy and then finally into Antichrist Superstar.
To preserve the continuity of the series Adam never really leaves prison. He's still in the psychiatric ward as he progressively regained consciousness and began to realize he is actually mentally ill. Coma White is gone, everyone he thought would help him is miles away and everything else is in his head.
Feeling nothing but hate he still nurtures the idea of becoming a rockstar and break free just to take out all his internal rage against the world.
The declaration of his feelings lies in the first track "Irresponsible Hate Anthem"
The next track "The Beautiful People" is reminiscent of that forgotten city of Holywood and once again Adam travels only in his visions to the outside and wishes to take out all his rage on them, like a vengeance.
"There's not time to discriminate, hate every motherf***** that's in your
way."
..."if you live with apes, man it's hard to be clean..."
His fantasy concludes with a visit to his prison cell from a girl she sees as a
groupie/whore, another broken woman just like him.
This is followed by the tracks "Dried Up and Dead To The World" and "Tourniquet". As if he still has hope to find a last chance for filling the void in his heart that could no longer be filled with Coma White or any other drug available
..."she's made up of hair and bone and little teeth, and things I cannot speak..."
Surprisingly the next day he receives a visit from a familiar face; this time it's for real. It was Eve White, from back home.After she lost Adam she dedicated herself to help him by helping out other damaged minds and became a criminal psychiatrist. The ambient now reminds us pretty much now of that of Clarice Starling and Hannibal Lecter.
However, this time Evie is more prudent and approaches Adam with the words he always wanted to hear. Apparently she has always been the answer to the question that's been written on his walls; "who am I?" She is determined to heal him and get him out so that he have a brand new beginning.
All of this sounds too promising and too beautiful, but Adam has changed a lot. So he declares in his sessions with Evie in the tracks "Little Horn" and "Wormboy"
"everyone will suffer now...save yourself from this..." a strong warning is given
A glimpse of his lucidity is there as well:
"I know I'm slipping, I know I'm slipping away..."
The transformation from the Worm into the Antichrist is described in "Cryptorchid"
..."when a boy is still a worm it's hard to learn the number 7"
Regarding Marilyn Manson's strong passion for numerology 7 has been associated to good luck, perfection, even in some cases cleanliness opposed to 6 which is imperfect hence the 666 was believed to be the number of the beast.
"Prick your finger, it is done, the Moon has now eclipsed the Sun, the angel has spread its wings, the time has come for bitter things..."
"The Angel With the Scabbed Wings" can be also a loose reference to the Fallen Angel or in the Kabbalah Samael; the Angel of Death.
Ignoring how potentially dangerous Adam's new persona is Evie is still tempted to help him escape and fulfill his dreams. She also declares she's always been her biggest follower since day one, as in "Mr. Superstar" and "Deformography":
..."you're such a dirty, dirty rockstar, yeah!"
..."I know that I could turn you on, I wish I could just turn you off, I never wanted this."
The scene that follows is Evie preparing Adam with a new look.
The next track "Kinderfeld" presumably evokes a passage from Marilyn Manson's own past as he was
growing up with his sinister grandfather. In "Antichrist Superstar" this explains the origin of Adam's dark side responsible for all his pain:
..."he lives inside my mouth, he tells me what to say..."
"tell me something beautiful,
tell me something free,
tell me something beautiful
and i wish that i could be"
Adam says.
"this is what you should fear, you are what you should fear..."
The dark side emerged from a amily member (in my interpretation it's the father) who instilled fear into him saying that he would become exactly like him; history would repeat itself. However, the father left a long time ago. This is the first time Adam dares to speak about his own childhood. Since then his other self has become his companion, but also his victimizer. This is why it had different identities along these series.
The next tracks are the beginning of a new cycle. In the cover art of Antichrist Superstar you see several cycles, pretty much like the ones in life, or the phases of the Moon hence the lyrics:
"Prick your finger, it is done, the Moon has now eclipsed the Sun, the angel ha spread its wings, the time has come for bitter things..." and these lines are reprised in "Antichrist Superstar"
However, getting back to the story the authorities discover that Evie was Adam's former girlfriend so they decide to suspend this project completely. Before Evie is sent back she she shouts at Adam, "you can still get out, get out while you still can!"
Instead Adam creates a riot in prison and convinces everyone that he is the Antichrist:
..."the time has come, it is quite clear, our Antichrist is almost here!"
All Hell breaks loose, the most deranged minds follow the Disentegrator with the track "1996".
"Anti-people, now you've gone too far, here's your Antichrist Superstar!"
Again Adam addresses what's left of the remains of Holywood. After the damage had been done he looks back and contemplates:
..."there's not much left to love, too tired today to hate...I feel the empty, I
feel the minute of decay..."
Although Evie is around and it seems that everything is good now for a new beginning
, he continues sadly:
"I'm on my way now, I'd like to take you with me..."
The next lyrics take us back to the song of Holywood "Coma Black"
..."I would have told her then she was the only thing that I could love in this
dying world but the simple word of love itself already died and went away..."
Horrified by the Antichrist the people of Holywood decide to give death to the beast.
The ending tracks "The Reflecting God" and "Man That You Fear" helps us illustrate that. Evie knows that Adam is gone and dead to her and has no other option but to prepare him for his final sentence.
A similar scene is shown in "The Man That You Fear" video.
"...pray until you're number, asleep from all your pain..."
He knows he is about to be condemned and addresses Evie:
"...the boy that you loved is the man that you fear..."
"pray your life was just a dream, that cut that never heals..."
If only this was just a dream....
All dressed in black as if they were going to a funeral, Evie is forced to throw the first stone but she hesitates. The voice of a child is heard through the desert:
..."when all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed..."
In this last part Evie demands for this to be stopped. Adam continues and begs to be killed. Trying to contact her minds he tells her to continue, everything will be alright now. Encouraged by the crowd she throws the stone while her deranged lover looks to the sky for forgiveness...is this all over?
Of course not. You see, one of the many interpretations I found on the Triptych so far is that "Holywood" addressed the issues on Adam's mind. In "Mechanical Animals" it was all about the body, and finally "Antichrist Superstar" was all about the soul.
In this final "chapter" the soul ends and in the next scene, Evie wakes up still in the futuristic city of Holywood and finds Adam still trapped in a state of a coma. As he slowly regains consciousness with her in the final scene they're back home again, in the Valley of Death.
However, Adam wakes up exactly where he began. As he stares at the walls in his room he realizes that all this time he has been projecting his biggest fears and is now relieved.
Outside there is a little girl playing in the street singing, "row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily , merrily, merrily , life is but a dream..."
Adam smiles and decides to repaint his walls as a sign for a new chapter in his life with the help of Evie. One last song remains on the top of his head:
"when one world ends, something else begins but without a scream, just to whisper because we just started over again..."
He still has a mission. The city his lives in can still be improved as well as everything else around them. There's still a chance for a revolution.
This concludes the story behind Marilyn Manson's Triptych albums. Other people may have their own version but this is what I discovered so far.
