Playwright
| NPC | Enemy |
The Playwright is an NPC in Arknights. He is mentioned in Phantom & Crimson Solitaire on the descriptions of several Collectibles before appearing as Crimson Solitaire's true main antagonist in its Expansion II.
Background
The enigmatic "Playwright" is the Crimson Troupe's principal scriptwriter, as his title suggests, and responsible for devising many of the Troupe's dastard "plays". He is seemingly able to bend reality to his whim; anything that the Playwright writes will happen exactly as what he wrote, though this uncanny trait is unreliable at times. This is likely done by him penning his own works in his own blood.[1]
The Playwright also had thought of a fitting ending for himself, where he met his demise in "a sea of flames".[1]
At some point the Playwright expresses his disapproval over some of the Troupe's shows directed by the Troupe Mouthpiece.[2]
The Playwright do not personally appear prior to his introduction, but the young man who gave R.I. 
Useless Scissors after getting past a swarm of living dolls attempting to tear apart the 
Worn-out Puppet is implied to be the Playwright.[3] After Phantom defeats the Mouthpiece, the "playwright" (who may or may not be the Playwright himself) is among the fallen Troupe members who were brought back to live by an unseen force and resumes his duty.[4]
Rhodes Island runs into the Playwright after recovering 
Dance of the Condemned from psychotic captives in a dungeon while he is writing a script, oblivious to R.I.'s presence. If R.I. decides to take a peek, the Playwright suddenly vanished after bursting into flames, exactly re-enacting the ending he had devised for himself,[1][5] and watches over R.I. fighting off madmen that ambushes them from thin air to figure out their motivation and reaction to such situation.[6] Otherwise the Playwright stops writing and leaves, never to be seen again.[5]
Should R.I. managed to triumph, they recover 
Act 1 – the Playwright's ink which reveals that his own ending actually marks the end of a story arc, and R.I. are now forced to act accordingly to the Playwright's "script", eventually encountering the man himself after rescuing Phantom who derided R.I. for interfering with his "grand drama" and forces them to return into their roles.[7]
However, R.I. managed to overpower the Playwright and leave the castle with Phantom in tow. Unbeknownst to them, the Playwright revealed that the "grand drama" is messed up thanks to the Mouthpiece's "ad-lib" (referring to the other endings) and decides to write a brand new story where Phantom is rescued, but within his heart, a "dark seed" will someday "sprouts and blooms" to give birth to a new tragedy that the Troupe has always pursued with no one's the wiser, asking the Troupe Master himself of his opinion about the revised script.[8]
References
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