Quote Originally Posted by Tubercular Ox View Post
The Monster in the Dark needs three things to be self sufficient (meaning it works even if you’ve never heard of what it is).

1. Importance in the plot
2. A reason why we were not allowed to know what was revealed beforehand.
3. A reason it had to be in the story before the reveal.

So, for example
1. Both the Snarl and every FBS monster has symptoms of Cosmic Horror, and Snarl Jr. was a thing even without that. What if the Monster in the Dark has a role in finishing the Snarl’s subplot?
2. What if the Monster in the Dark is drawn Snarled in some way? It does weird things to the Circus Scene, but it establishes that Rich could not have revealed it before he actually did.
3. What if the important thing is the Monster in the Dark's relationship to O-Chul? That establishes that it had to be in the story from early on.

I’m not against criticism of my example, but I put a lot of work into making it a template for other ideas to follow, so I’d like to request we move on to other ideas at some point.
To those questioning where certain things were stated regarding MitD's role/purpose, there was some discussion starting here. It's on the 4th page of this thread, post 105.

I do seem to recall there being other discourse later on, but I am not about to read through +25 pages.

I honestly thought it was a given that MitD's story may not have any huge conclusion because it isn't a main character.