The thing I might have missed this whole time is just how tragic this whole cutesy world is. I'm thinking "Song of Ice and Fire" tragic. The good guys are bad guys, and everyone dies. That sort of thing. And, naturally, the real force for good (Parson) isn't such a force for good after all (not that Parson was all that good to begin with, in a moral sense, but I saw him that way for a long time).