Game Analysis - Tumblr Posts
Wuthering waves came out and I gotta say, it’s a good game. I won’t deny that it’s rlly and I mean RLLY similar to genshin in terms of game mechanics, main character backstory (no twin as far as I’ve played), enemies, etc.
although it has a lot more character animation and…revealing outfits. I’m still getting a hang on the controls cuz it’s small asf and my iPhone can’t handle the graphics, it’s best if you have a device suited for this game.
It’s still in its early development, I’ve received this game just today while others earlier this month. I hope I can see more of it!!!
8/10
Here’s some pics that I’ve took!
Footnote: This look familiar? Or want more? This is my new blog! Due to some technical issues with the old one, I will be rblging the original MMM and CFF posts on this account, as well as continuing the future rambles!
Media Marvel Monday, #3:
Covetous, it’s the Name of the Game
There’s a lot of reasons I love games you can finish in their entirety in 5-30 minute sit downs. Usually, they’re extremely affordable. They’ll typically run fine even on old garbage computers. They’ve very characteristic of host sites that make great breeding grounds for original and extremely creative forms of storytelling (newgrounds and Itchio come to mind. They’re often browser games that don’t make me have to go through any middlemen of downloads or extra set up. My diagnosed ADHD really likes that one in particular. You get going, you get the idea, you move on. (Or obsessively gnaw over it here and there for the next few years until you make sure you’ve introduced it to everyun who cares to listen, heh~)
It’s the kind of format that may have a low barrier to entry (relative to game design as a whole) but what it really strains a creator for, what it demands out of them in return, if it wants to be seen and remembered out of a sea of other 3 minute indie titles, is a remarkable craftiness at presenting its “gist” well. Where content’s quantity is lacking, quality better not be damned.
Few things to me are more impressive than an artist of any medium being able to show off just how little room they need to knock it out of the park with a premise. You may guess this might also be what I love so much about flipnote animation, about short stories and creepypastas the same. Have no doubt it’ll be a recurring theme in this series.
Now, of all the works to spotlight after this sort of introduction, where does Covetous exactly slot in, and why? For one, it’s as short and bare bones as a finished narrative can get. The controls are limited to arrow/WASD keys, the soundtrack a minimal and repetitive handful of notes, and the visuals boiled down to a vague and pixelated art style. Short game too. Two possible endings, and you can easily get through both of them in about the time it takes to eat lunch. Getting through Covetous feels a little less like gameplay and a lot more like progressing through a tone poem, and that has to do with the background of how this golden nugget came to be.
Austin Breed is a prop and background designer who’s dabbled about in sketch artistry, animation, and pixel/flash art games. Covetous was released on July 18th, 2010 as his personal entry into the Ludum Mini-Dare 20. For context, you can basically think of Ludum Dare as the indie game developer equivalent of those little writers’ boot camp events and competitions- an online jamboree that challenges programmers to scratch-bake entire games within a single weekend, centered around a chosen theme. And the theme selected for the Mini-Dare 20 was greed.
That’s the main tone of this poem alright, but it’s not the only one, and it’s not in the way you’re thinking for sure. This tale is about the greed of a parasite. Of a cancer. It doesn’t yearn but for one primitive wish.
"I never desired wealth or status. Just existence."
The story’s unsettling approach on the concept of greed is hinted at from the title right out. To “greed” is to crave more than what you already have without being filled. “covetousness” is more specific: a desire to take what someone else has for yourself. What does it look like to covet existence? Breed’s answer comes inspired from a little bit of medical nightmare fuel wrapped in a healthy dose of body horror.
You may have heard of the term “parasitic” or vestigial twin before. Take two siblings in the womb, they develop conjoined in a way where one survives and grows fine, but the other one kind of gets stunted as a hanger-on clump of extra meat that can’t survive on its own, but it’s not in any way really conscious.
Fetus in Fetu describes a complication on another level of rarity where the embryotic parasitic twin becomes absorbed into the host body, and it remains enveloped in their tissues or organs, possibly for years before its ever even detected. In such cases the partially formed twin is more comparable to a tumor than an actual, living fetus, usually first mistaken for cysts or malignant teratomas when they cause problems for their host. The phenomenon is freaky enough on the face of the matter, and Covetous takes the concept to a further leap of disturbing.
Players begin the game upon a single line of text, delivered to them by our arguably villainous protagonist:
"By some kind of miracle, I was given another chance of life."
They are immediately treated to the graphic of their play area: the pixel body of a smiling human. A few curious taps of the arrow keys will lead to figuring out that you play as a single flashing pixel, with the goal of moving towards the few green pixels within reach, apparently consuming them. The next line from our character elaborates.
"I was the forgotten cell, left to die in the flesh of my brother."
The first sequence of play repeats, except now our single red/white pixel has grown into a larger clump, with much more "food" around to eat. And again, and again, each time with the narrator giving another card of its thoughts, and eventually showing the human's face turning into that of a frown. The confirmation could not be clear enough that you are playing as an intelligent Fetus in Fetu teratoma, aware of its circumstances and bitterly envious of its healthy sibling's survival. It's like Cain and Abel meeting the aesthetic of the Alien franchise and the utterly raw dialogue, overwhelming flashes and sirens, and medical inspiration only coalesque together to make the brief experience one that has kept its players up at night and unable to forget what they just saw.
The creature's own tale ultimately ends in one of two ways, determined by the player in a timed button-mashing final scene. This is the point where I would REALLY recommend playing Covetous for yourself, especially because I would hate to spoil something you can churn through in literally less time than it takes to read this far anyway, but major epilepsy/sensitivity warning as well, there is a lot of bright flashing and unpleasant audio involved near the end.
In the first ending, the protagonist violently erupts through the body of his brother, killing him and taking its first breath of life beyond the prison of its host. In the second, curiously, the creature seems to give up the effort and allows itself to shrivel and die instead, the final thought reading:
"In the end, I couldn't do it. I couldn't put myself to steal from another what was once stolen from me."
I love this hidden gem for scaring the shit out of me when I was younger. It was creative, unique, but most of all, it was effective in getting across exactly what it wanted to even with it's 48 hour production. There's what I wanna call a media marvel.
I just really wanted to talk about VS yourself from the Hit Single Real mod of Friday Night Funkin.
It does a great job of communicating the essentials of its story through the way the song is presented. At first, boyfriend is meant by a creepy figure, which players would assume is some kind of evil doppelganger, but as the song progresses, you start to connect with yourself and eventually come to understand what he really wants as the song reaches its climax. Everyone of course talks about the amazing vocal part, but i think an underrated part of the songs are those brief but very hype segments where Yourself and Boyfriend begin singing and moving in sync. It's an obvious fit for the mirror imagery but i think it's also a great way to symbolize Yourself and Boyfriend managing to connect for a moment. Knowing the lore of Yourself definitely adds to the experience, but i think the essential part of the story is perfectly communicated through the song itself. Simply someone reaching out to an alternate version of themselves, seeking to find a voice that can empathize and relate to his pain and allow him to feel understood...
The "Amy likes spiders" poem in doki doki literature club (Natsuki's second poem) just makes me think of being closeted with internalized homophobia and I think it works really well for her
There's the poem if you haven't seen it!
(This is just me analyzing the poem and it's probably my longest post yet. I've been overanalyzing all the poems but this is the only one I've typed out atm lol)
It specifically makes me think of four things - Yuri liking different things and her disliking her for it, Natsuki being so far in the closet that she'll take any excuse to avoid the pretty girl™, Natsuki's self projection onto "Amy" and most importantly internalized homophobia, like I said earlier
It generally makes me think natsuri but I'll get to that later. So if we go from the internalized homophobia + closeted perspective (more like raised homophobic and doesn't know she's gay but ykwim), it reads as "a girl I know is a lesbian and Im meant to hate her for it. She's pretty and she makes me feel things but I can't be friends with her because she's a lesbian"
'The narrator' (Natsuki) heard a rumor that a girl, "Amy" (the lesbian), apparently likes 'spiders' (girls) and is repulsed. And that's why she isn't friends with her.
"Amy" sings the narrator's favorite love song, her voice is cute and it's making her heart pound. But she still likes 'spiders', so she can't be her friend.
She hurts her leg and "Amy" helped her get to the nurse. She tried to avoid touching her because her hands might be gross due to touching 'spiders', so she still can't be her friend.
"Amy" is very popular, but "she probably talks about spiders" (being gay). "What if her friends start to like spiders too?" (This entire verse rlly speaks for itself)
The next verse is shortest and even more repetitive than the rest of the poem (to emphasize her point) "it doesn't matter if she has other hobbies, it doesn't matter is she keeps it private, it doesn't matter if it doesn't hurt anyone" because to the narrator - she can't be "Amy's" friend, no matter how bad she wants to, because she's always going to be a 'spider lover' (lesbian) and she won't be able to ignore that.
And then the final nail to seal shut the door to the closet - "it's gross, she's gross, the world is better off without spider lovers. And I'm gonna tell everyone" because she needs everyone to know she hates 'spider lovers' to make sure no one knows she is also one. It's so gross because she was taught it was and now she can't stop thinking it's gross, no matter how nice/pretty/kind "Amy" is.
Onto the natsuri part so if you don't like that ship feel free to skip the rest of this (if you're still here lol)
Yuri and Natsuki like such different things (creepy and complex vs cute and simple) and they reach the point where they've argued so much that Natsuki doesn't want to admit she doesn't dislike Yuri. Even if she likes her poems, she'd never tell her because she feels like she can't at this point.
Natsuki couldn't see past their differences for a while, when she finally does, she's too embarrassed to apologize and too uncomfortable to befriend her without apologizing.
Nearly every verse of the poem will talk about how great the girl is. How she has a cute voice, she helped her, she has lots of friends, she makes her heart pound. But every verse she will still come back to "but she likes spiders. That's why I'm not friends with her". It feels like her gradually warming up to Yuri but still reminding herself that she can't be her friend, they're too different, Yuri likes creepy things (Yuri probably does like spiders so that's a bit more literal but it's also that spiders seem to symbolise everything she likes that Natsuki doesn't) and she couldn't be friends with someone so different.
And lastly, Natsuki's self projection (this is what the meaning is said to be in-game), meaning "Amy" is Natsuki herself. Natsuki likes manga and her friends won't believe it counts as literature. Her manga is the spider in this interpretation, she doesn't want people to judge her based on what she likes. She's had to be so defensive about what she likes, she may even judge herself for liking it at this point. She doesn't want people to judge people by their interests.
I keep seeing people say that Amy is a real person but that's one of the only interpretations that makes no sense to me. Because Natsuki may be a bit judgemental but even she wouldn't make an entire poem about disliking her classmate's love of spiders. She said herself that anyone that agrees with the narrator in the poem is a bad person. It's far more likely that "Amy" is a made up idea, she's barely even shown as a person. She's seemingly meant to be symbolic of Natsuki's flaws and insecurities, whatever you perceive those insecurities to be.
Portraying Amy as an actual person kinda cheapens the poem, at least in my opinion, because she was talking about how people should be given a chance no matter what (or who) they like and if Amy was a person it wouldn't make sense
Edit bc I only just finished that scene (I was busy this weekend) -
There's a transcript bc it's hard to read but I stuck it under the cut bc it's kinda long
This doesn't really add anything to my interpretation but it rlly reinforces it right? Closeted Natsuki is so canon to me
Transcript :
Natsuki - "Like, anyone would agree that the subject of this poem is an ignorant jerk..."
MC - "Do you know people like that?"
Natsuki - "Of course. It's about how everyone thinks my-"
Natsuki - "That doesn't matter! It can be about anything!"
Natsuki - "I wrote it to be easy to relate to..."
Natsuki - "Everyone has some kind of weird hobby, or a guilty pleasure."
Natsuki - "Something that you're afraid if people find out, they'd make fun of you or think less of you."
Natsuki - "... But that just makes people stupid!"
Natsuki - "Who cares what someone likes, as long as they're not hurting anyone, and it makes them happy?"
Natsuki - "I think people really need to learn to respect others for liking weird things..."
The "Amy likes spiders" poem in doki doki literature club (Natsuki's second poem) just makes me think of being closeted with internalized homophobia and I think it works really well for her
There's the poem if you haven't seen it!
(This is just me analyzing the poem and it's probably my longest post yet. I've been overanalyzing all the poems but this is the only one I've typed out atm lol)
It specifically makes me think of four things - Yuri liking different things and her disliking her for it, Natsuki being so far in the closet that she'll take any excuse to avoid the pretty girl™, Natsuki's self projection onto "Amy" and most importantly internalized homophobia, like I said earlier
It generally makes me think natsuri but I'll get to that later. So if we go from the internalized homophobia + closeted perspective (more like raised homophobic and doesn't know she's gay but ykwim), it reads as "a girl I know is a lesbian and Im meant to hate her for it. She's pretty and she makes me feel things but I can't be friends with her because she's a lesbian"
'The narrator' (Natsuki) heard a rumor that a girl, "Amy" (the lesbian), apparently likes 'spiders' (girls) and is repulsed. And that's why she isn't friends with her.
"Amy" sings the narrator's favorite love song, her voice is cute and it's making her heart pound. But she still likes 'spiders', so she can't be her friend.
She hurts her leg and "Amy" helped her get to the nurse. She tried to avoid touching her because her hands might be gross due to touching 'spiders', so she still can't be her friend.
"Amy" is very popular, but "she probably talks about spiders" (being gay). "What if her friends start to like spiders too?" (This entire verse rlly speaks for itself)
The next verse is shortest and even more repetitive than the rest of the poem (to emphasize her point) "it doesn't matter if she has other hobbies, it doesn't matter is she keeps it private, it doesn't matter if it doesn't hurt anyone" because to the narrator - she can't be "Amy's" friend, no matter how bad she wants to, because she's always going to be a 'spider lover' (lesbian) and she won't be able to ignore that.
And then the final nail to seal shut the door to the closet - "it's gross, she's gross, the world is better off without spider lovers. And I'm gonna tell everyone" because she needs everyone to know she hates 'spider lovers' to make sure no one knows she is also one. It's so gross because she was taught it was and now she can't stop thinking it's gross, no matter how nice/pretty/kind "Amy" is.
Onto the natsuri part so if you don't like that ship feel free to skip the rest of this (if you're still here lol)
Yuri and Natsuki like such different things (creepy and complex vs cute and simple) and they reach the point where they've argued so much that Natsuki doesn't want to admit she doesn't dislike Yuri. Even if she likes her poems, she'd never tell her because she feels like she can't at this point.
Natsuki couldn't see past their differences for a while, when she finally does, she's too embarrassed to apologize and too uncomfortable to befriend her without apologizing.
Nearly every verse of the poem will talk about how great the girl is. How she has a cute voice, she helped her, she has lots of friends, she makes her heart pound. But every verse she will still come back to "but she likes spiders. That's why I'm not friends with her". It feels like her gradually warming up to Yuri but still reminding herself that she can't be her friend, they're too different, Yuri likes creepy things (Yuri probably does like spiders so that's a bit more literal but it's also that spiders seem to symbolise everything she likes that Natsuki doesn't) and she couldn't be friends with someone so different.
And lastly, Natsuki's self projection (this is what the meaning is said to be in-game), meaning "Amy" is Natsuki herself. Natsuki likes manga and her friends won't believe it counts as literature. Her manga is the spider in this interpretation, she doesn't want people to judge her based on what she likes. She's had to be so defensive about what she likes, she may even judge herself for liking it at this point. She doesn't want people to judge people by their interests.
I keep seeing people say that Amy is a real person but that's one of the only interpretations that makes no sense to me. Because Natsuki may be a bit judgemental but even she wouldn't make an entire poem about disliking her classmate's love of spiders. She said herself that anyone that agrees with the narrator in the poem is a bad person. It's far more likely that "Amy" is a made up idea, she's barely even shown as a person. She's seemingly meant to be symbolic of Natsuki's flaws and insecurities, whatever you perceive those insecurities to be.
Portraying Amy as an actual person kinda cheapens the poem, at least in my opinion, because she was talking about how people should be given a chance no matter what (or who) they like and if Amy was a person it wouldn't make sense
OCD in Hello Charlotte 3, or why Charles Eyler doesn't (necessarily) have Dissociative Identity Disorder
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR HELLO CHARLOTTE 3
CONTENT WARNING: Discussions of severe mental illness, including intrusive thoughts and psychosis. Please be warned if this may cause you to spiral out of control, and take care of yourself.
DISCLAIMER: A lot of this is coming from my personal experience and understanding of OCD. While I do not experience DID, I don't really focus much on it in this, more reframing Scarlett Eyler as a character. You can take Charles' experiences however you feel is accurate.
I feel like the fandom gets tripped up when Charles calls Scarlett Eyler a tulpa.
I've seen a lot of people state that this quote directly implies Charles has DID, and that's therefore canon. But I'd actually like to propose a different take, that Scarlett is a physical manifestation of Charles' intrusive thoughts.
First of all, a tulpa implies a sense of desire - it is willingly created through spiritual meditation. Scarlett is, in no way, a desired existence that haunts Charles. There is some debate as to whether or not the game was originally in Russian or English, but regardless, tulpa just may be what Charles refers to the phenomenon as. It's not as if this directly confirms anything, as we know in-game Charles is only diagnosed with autism, and takes medication for psychosis.
Charles experiences many symptoms of OCD, contamination OCD in particular. He is intensely preoccupied with purity and disease, insisting that the majority of the population has a "parasite", aside from a select few people (Vincent being one of them, and by the end, the only one).
OCD and psychosis have several unique overlaps when acting as comorbid conditions. It has a relatively high comorbidity, due to both conditions often suffering with heightened paranoia. I couldn't find any research which suggests it can cause the hallucination of intrusive thoughts, but OCD does make people more susceptible to hallucinatory disorders, and vice versa.
Many people with OCD, especially those who have experienced symptoms since being a child, start to conceptualise these thoughts as a being - appearing as imaginary friends which act and react negatively. It definitely happened to me - I genuinely thought I had DID for a year or so of my life, because I had this voice in my head that hated me, and it didn't feel like myself. As a child, it just felt like my own mind was trying to bully me, and I didn't understand why.
We know that Scarlett Eyler is the instigator of "punishment" for Charles' actions...
This sort of "punishing" is very reminiscent of OCD. The rule-breaking itself is confusing to an outsiders, and the punishments even more so. However, I find this rule-and-punishment system very relatable, and I'd argue that some people with OCD might have even more confusing rules and punishments - for example, I can't watch very specific youtube videos, I can't explain what the rules I have surrounding them are, and I have strange punishments for this (that which I will not disclose).
Scarlett also doesn't exhibit typical alter behaviour. She never takes over, Charles doesn't seem to lose time, she does little more than act as a harsh observer, and also physically threaten Charles. She seems very real to him, aside from the fact that he knows taking pills will make her "disappear".
For Charles, Scarlett is simply a being who threatens and instigates intrusive thoughts, but in a particular way. Charles still experiences other intrusive thoughts - Scarlett never discusses the parasites, even though that's a very prevalent fear of Charles'.
Scarlett is the manifestation of intrusive thought that Charles is a failure, rather than being a separate existence to Charles.
my little rat analysis lmaoooo. this was my first hello charlotte one, i've always loved charles, he's just peak gender in so many ways, incredibly relatable.
hope your little polycule goes well salutes
car crashes and windmills, or why supernaturality is just an excuse for the events of Petscop
CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSIONS OF DEATH, CAR ACCIDENTS, KIDNAPPING AND CHILD ABUSE
READING-THIS WARNING: THROUGHOUT THIS, THERE IS AN ASSUMPTION YOU HAVE SOME IDEA OF RELEVANT PETSCOP THEORIES. IF ANYTHING DOESN'T MAKE SENSE, YOU'LL PROBABLY FIND A WRITE-UP OF THE THEORY ON REDDIT. ALSO, I'M BAD AND MAY MINSINTERPRET OR NOT FULLY UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING.
READING-THIS WARNING 2: THIS IS VERY RAMBLY. LIKE, SUPER RAMBLY. SORRY.
Alright. Petscop. That's a dead kid.
I've spent about two days running down a rabbithole with this series, trying to ignore the sheer horror of it all. It's fascinating in the way it captures this despite being so metaphorical - it reminds me of Yume Nikki and Chapter 12 of Dreamscape, which as we already know, I love and understand very well.
Anyway, I've been reading nonstop theories about this game for some time, trying my best to make sense of it all. And after a few sleepless nights, I think I'm ready to get into analytical about Petscop.
What better way to get rid of that sinking feeling of horror than to write about it?
I don't believe in the supernatural - I probably never will - but instead I believe in the power of coincidence. It's very probable that strange things happen sometimes, but they can all be explained, and we have a tendency to see patterns in the chaos. Things are often more simple than they seem.
Obviously, because Petscop and the world surrounding it are fictitious, the potential that something irrational or out-of-this-world occurred is much higher. However, I want to demonstrate that the idea that it is all reality is far more horrifying than pretending it's all a few ghosts and time travel.
The series clearly draws on the idea that Paul knows (some of) the people mentioned within the game, and is even implied to be a part of the family himself.
If it's not ghosts and time travel... then what's the point of Petscop?
evaluating some petscop theories that imply reality
Paul alludes several times to the game being haunted, or at least it trying to trick him into thinking it's haunted, but he seems unconvinced. He also alludes to the possibility of AI within the game, which is likely too complicated for the game being developed in ~1995-6.
What is a more likely theory surrounding both of these is that a singular game can be accessed from multiple consoles by multiple players, which also explains the prevalence of DEMO recordings and the interactions between Marvin/Belle/the Pink TOOL and Paul. The Pink TOOL is not literally the ghost of Mike trying to communicate with Paul, but rather Belle (considering the handwriting's similarities to Draw Mode) communicating with Paul.
Paul could potentially be Care, but is suffering amnesia as a result of trauma inflicted on him, where the goal of the game (from Rainer's perspective) is to help Paul uncover the truth of his past. There's plenty of debate surrounding the "trans theory" that I'm not really interested in getting into, but the game definitely links Paul and Care, particularly in the "Care-with-Mike's-Eyebrows" room, as well as events in the house aligning with events Paul states he has experienced, and their exact same birthday. I don't know if I agree with the twin theory, but that itself is more plausible than other proposed supernatural theories linking the two.
Both Belle and Care are implied to have been kidnapped (by Marvin?) and forced to undergo some sort of rebirthing therapy (potentially involving the Needles Piano) inside an abandoned elementary school. The rebirthing is implied to be Marvin's attempt to bring back the late Lina, It's possible that the DEMO recordings of Belle are taken during her kidnapping, as the game has reportedly been left on for ~17 years.
Much of the confusion surrounding Lina's death is related to the windmill - how did it and Lina simply disappear, and why is she "unable to be seen"? However, the game makes regular references to car accidents, and Lina's grave says "They didn't see her", which suggests that perhaps she was hit by a car, unseen by the driver, and buried in an unmarked grave (possibly by Marvin, since he knows where it is). Alternatively, the idea that Lina died stuck in a machine within the windmill still alludes to reality.
The game itself is very deliberate, and after Mike dies in 1995, it seems as though Rainer continued it to expose Marvin ("I started it in 1996, for Marvin"). If we consider the possibility that multiple players can access the game from differing perspectives, and the game can track their movements, then Rainer had different purposes for each player. It's suggested that the game reflects real world places, so taking that into account, we can try to determine the purpose of these.
During the segment where Marvin is given a speed boost, it seems as though Rainer wants to know the location of Lina's grave, and perhaps expose Marvin for his kidnapping and child abuse. He also provides deliberate messages to Belle during her demo sections, seemingly trying to break her out of the Newmaker Plane. Paul's journey also seems to surround exposing what Marvin has done, or at least trying to highlight what is in the School and what happened to Care (who may be Paul himself). These goals may correspond with the 'cycles' that were noted in the Comprehensive Progress Document.
The game is also implied to be an elaborate suicide note - the Pet description for Care A ends with, "Fuck you all, and fuck me as well. Merry Christmas. Check your bathroom now.", which is signed by Rainer. This, along with some events in the House, suggest this game might be an exploration of Rainer's guilt over working with Marvin on the rebirthing process.
Time is particularly prevalent during the game - the colours of the calendars representing different years, for example - but it is still distinguished, which is to note. This suggests that time travel isn't necessarily occurring.
reality as a pathway to trauma procession
Allusions to reality in texts can act as a path for characters to begin trauma procession, which may be the intentions of deliberately connecting Paul and Care within Petscop. The idea of things being realistic is infinitely more horrifying that unrealism, because unrealism forces a disconnection between the viewer and the events unfolding.
This is actually the reason why I really dislike the idea that Basil was dream-sharing with Sunny, or Spirit Mari is literally Mari's spirit trying to communicate with Sunny - it's because it misses the presentation of forgiveness, abandonment and regret in the text. Stranger is a representation of guilt over leaving Basil behind, and Spirit Mari is a representation of Sunny's hidden desire for forgiveness.
Taking things as the supernatural in this type of game tends to make you overlook the purpose of their existence. For example, blankly taking the Pink TOOL's words as Mike from the grave misses the discovery that they are Belle's previous attempts to connect with the outside world.
It's easy to miss the finer details this way, which is why I've always disliked these theories. There's more to it, keep digging!
special thanks to the giant document on the Petscop reddit that details everything.
i'll admit it, this was just a big excuse for me to write about what i think petscop is about... jhshjsjhshjs.
song i listened to while writing this: YY by 23.exe.
i'm such a pussy that i need to blast upbeat vocaloid music when thinking about Petscop. isn't it so weird that i absolutely adore psychological horror but i'm a massive wimp who can barely sit through it?
tomorrow won't come for those without, or exploring disconnection in the procession of mental illness and trauma
SPOILER? WARNING: This analysis assumes you have played the game's noise ending at least once. I'll provide screengrabs of things where I can. I do believe it's a masterpiece of a game, and would highly recommend it.
CONTENT WARNING: Discussions and allusions to suicide, severe mental illness, grief and religious trauma/criticisms of religion.
Tomorrow won't come for those without (TWC for short) is really... confusing. To the extent where I've got a notebook with pasted cut-outs of dialogue and imagery simply to try and... understand it.
As with much of the things I write about, I don't think it's designed to be understood - etherane's work often revolves around very personal and complex depictions of mental illness, as is evident from the hello charlotte series, so this is to be expected.
I want to discuss Rem, celestials and the Dithyrambs in this, saving conversations of Mari and the Choir for when I better understand it.
Rem is not human, he's a celestial - this is revealed in the noise ending, where he melts into his true form. We can also determine what type of celestial Rem is, from the way his form manifests.
Domain: Shadow; The Eldest. Distorts continuity, converting affected areas into liminal spaces.
Now, at first, I spent much of my time trying to associate these cards (and as such, the Celestials) to specific mental illnesses, but I realised it didn't work. While 'Domain: Post-Truth' (Card Type 3) could be associated with PTSD and 'Domain: Thighs' (Card Type 12) could be associated with body dysmorphia, many cards do not fit a specific mental illness, and much of them instead reference dissociation or other specific symptoms. It's somewhat implied Mari had the celestial present in Card Type 12.
It makes sense for a different universe to identify mental illness in a different way, considering there's little evidence that the characters have information on "pre-humanity". Instead of our current system surrounding mental health, the Choir demonises Celestials, and attempts to 'purify' them.
One particular line during the noise ending stands out to me.
"Tell me, how do I stop the noise in my head?"
Ori is not, by any means, a stable character. That's not to say Rem is stable, but Ori is somewhat less rational, losing his mind over the Choir and his Rosary. He devotedly follows the Conductor up until the noise ending, where he loses his grip on purity and reality, wanting to stay in the 'Dark' and '...play in the forest', rejecting the suppression of creativity by the Conductor.
The Dithyrambs is the noise in Ori's head - somewhat implied to be caused by the celestial. When Ori first wakes up, the Rosary insists that he must "...find the source of the Dithyrambs," perhaps implying that the Rosary is corrupt in the same way Ori and the Choir are, although it does not state to destroy the source. This noise causes Ori a lot of pain.
Alright. That is my discussion of the actual evidence present in the game. The next section is going to be a lot of personal speculation, on what I feel the game is representing.
I compare the relationship between Ori and Rem to that of Charles and Scarlett in Hello Charlotte 3, although it is framed differently. Instead of Rem being portrayed as horrific and irrational, Rem is scared, small; humanised, distrustful.
I believe that Scarlett Eyler and Rem represent fundamentally the same thing - intrusive thoughts, anxiety and OCD. Unlike Scarlett, who is fixated on tormenting Charles, Rem's representation of this manifests toward himself, and his desire to be caged for safety.
Fundamentally, OCD is a disorder surrounding fear. As much as it feels like your brain just, absolutely fucking hates you, it's as scared as you are. In a similar way, Rem is terrified of the liminal hotel that he and Ori reside in, and he's terrified of the outside world. He responds by shutting himself away - rather than Ori's desire to reach the end of the veils, Rem begins the game locked in a bathroom, and must be coaxed out.
Rem is incredibly "human" for a nonhuman being. Humanisation of intrusive thoughts is an interesting concept, especially considering the demon Scarlett Eyler was in HC3. Rem is far more disconnected from Ori, far more skeptical of the world around them. Rem isn't there to punish, but more to question and doubt, contrasting with Ori's inherently trusting nature.
Hmm. I feel like I haven't properly explained it, but I hope it somewhat makes sense.
Despite that, this is just my own interpretation of it, and I don't feel it really aligns with the game, necessarily. It's just me. lol.
song i listened to while writing:
I enjoy playing TWC with the BGM turned down and this song playing. It makes me feel pure, like my regrets can be washed off. I suppose that's not the point of TWC LMAOO.
sobs because i am so guilty of this as an artist
this is why i love the game and the narrator so much. he’s trying to do what he sees other people do, he’s trying his hardest, he is an artist and as such a cruel god
the game is so obviously a self projection and one time where he really does focus on stanley’s own troubles (the insanity/mariella ending) it feels so genuine that you could separate the dialogue from the context (that one line where he’s screaming “PLEASE SOMEONE TELL ME I’M REAL I MUST BE”) and it feels like it’s just his emotions because it is. he’s so terrified of not being real that he created something to prove that he could put things out into the world, and it failed miserably, so who is he really? he’s speaking for stanley, but since he doesn’t know anyone outside of himself, he doesn’t know anything but his own feelings. the one time that stanley actually feels something, it’s just an extension of his creator.
and this concludes my essay of why the insanity ending is the true saddest ending in the game /j
everyone sympathizes with the narrator especially during the zending but like every single ending that is bad he uses language that makes him the point of interest. like “dont do this to ME” and like “do you hate MY game this much.” he is indeed manipulating you to feel bad for him