general-brain-rot - Tumblr blog

general-brain-rot · 7 days ago

Text

The Great Big Sally Face Appreciation Essay (at least the first one-)

Sally Face is the best game I can’t recommend to anybody. This is mostly because I would have to sit the recomendee down, pull out my whiteboard, and explain how this brutally nuanced story was an extremely healing game for me to play back when it first released while showing them an apparition of a woman woven into the bed springs of a mattress. I would also have to try and articulate how the protagonist, Sal Fisher, became a fan-wide comfort character while also showing the recomendee screengrabs of said character covered in blood and strapped to an electric chair. This game is brutal visually, auditorily, and thematically, and because of this it relieved my emotionally dysregulated teen-self, and I can see that it continues to serve that purpose for others. I won’t summarize the game because there are countless videos that do that already, so this will just be a ramshackle collection of parts of the game that feel important to me, so there will be crazy spoilers frequently! Be forewarned! So, in my endless suffering of not being able to recommend really good media to people lest I be dragged into an intervention by my ankles, let’s work together to figure out why exactly this game is as important and comforting as it is considering said brutality.

Major Spoilers Ahead, I Basically Spoil The Whole Game Also, This Is Very Long, Just Be Aware Of That Lmao

The Comfort in Seeing Something Horrible

Let’s first just brief the genre and visuals, since those are the most immediately striking parts of the game experience. “Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable” is a quote by Cesar A. Cruz that I love using in contexts like these that will make the next descriptions hold a bit more merit, because this game has enough content warnings in it to fill a library, and I mean that as a compliment. Alongside every disturbing body horror moment is a deeply human struggle being painted in the fitting shades of brutality, one such moment is when your surrogate brother figure is softly crying into your arms about being abandoned by his father at a young age after having just used a literal flash grenade on a red-eyed demon that erupted from the body of a man hanged in an abandoned apartment’s walls. This situation, for all intents and purposes, is in equal measures comically absurd and dreadfully harrowing. Not only was the protagonist almost just another casualty of this demonic entity (we know Luke killed his wife and daughter under the influence of the demon already from the Gearboy game) but we get to walk out of that event thanks to Larry and his supernatural flashbang taken from Todd’s genius, before then embracing Larry when he realizes that said demon wasn’t the reason for his father abandoning them and rapidly coming to terms with the fact that his dad is just gone, simple as that (not simple but they don’t know that yet-). This is one of many, many such scenes in the entire story where horrifying situations bring extra emotional clarity to more common, less supernaturally charged human struggles. In this case, the red-eyed demon’s overbearing influence on Larry’s psyche acts as a physical manifestation of his depression and grief stagnating before the demon is temporarily banished and Larry is allowed to heal a little bit and take another step forward finally after years of denial. All of the horror elements are in fact really happening in universe (there’s none of that “oh man wasn’t that crazy, it was all in your head” rhetoric) so these demons, ghosts, cultists, and apocalyptic gods are all real threats that instill real fear in the player which then forces us to empathize with the characters in these situations. We may not always be able to pinpoint exactly what we’re feeling or exactly why certain spooks hit harder than others, but the important part is that you’re feeling at all when playing through this game, it doesn’t matter if you can articulate what is a symbol for depression or not.

For every visceral visual there is also a young man struggling with survivors guilt and barely holding it together, for every cannibalistic crisis there is also a greasy teen crying in a bathroom thinking his burgeoning homosexuality will damn him to hell, and for every comically large pile of bones (there are many) there is also a sacred promise for a gaggle of weirdo kids to look out for each other like family. As a genre, horror allows people to work through their more harrowing and jagged sensations in a safe space, that’s a huge part of the draw to the spooky and scary. When you feel like the world is falling apart around you, it can be cathartic to let it all fall apart in the company of a good horror flick, or horror game in this case. Every gorey detail acts as more emotional immersion for the player to connect to the game’s characters, better understand their struggles and our own, and tap into the catharsis of harder themes. The characters in Sally Face are troubled, awkward, sincere, silly, passionate, exciting and familiar, they look like us and/or our friends old and new, and there’s a unique comfort in the horror of the familiar. Whether through bloody metaphors of depression and guilt or, with most of the scenes of nightmares and flashbacks the protagonist experiences, literal representations of intrusive thoughts and the fallout of divorce, Sally Face and its creator Steve Gabry offer familiarity with fear to an audience just as troubled at its characters and an opportunity to be seen.

Veering away from the genre talk, the visual style of the game is reminiscent of late 90s cartoons, so these heavy scenes are expressed in nostalgic semi-muted color palettes with an unmistakable visual grit to them. Sally Face is absolutely one of those unmistakable in the indie scene when it comes to style in this way, everything down to the idle animations and mildly grotesque cast that you can’t help but love stands out among other games with similar themes, truly the most similar of which being Fran Bow, and even then the two pieces of media put together have significant differences. I mostly point out the style as much as I do because a lot of the initial draw to this game for me was from aesthetics before I learned it was a psychological horror game and then had to play it. Sure, the bright-blue pigtailed lad with the porcelain face on the home screen was one hell of a hook, but the aesthetic just kept going strong as the game progressed and left me fascinated at subtle wall stains and squashed cardboard boxes. This aesthetic paired with the genre is the foundation for the game’s beyond satisfactory execution, where the music, themes, and mysteries only serve to add delight to an already fabulous experience. Now that we’ve got the fundamentals out of the way, let’s talk about metal.

Metal Music and the Comfort of Hell

The power the Sally Face soundtrack has over its story and character relationships is crucial to its core themes. The background music for the entire game is soaked with gritty rock-flavored guitar riffs that feel like the sound is itching to rattle your bones around as you play. I had the soundtrack running through my shitty 2-inch-tall Bluetooth speaker when I was first playing through Episode 2 of the game and I could feel the music in the backs of my legs that were propped up on my desk, and that feeling is projected into the gameplay perfectly well. While you are puzzle-solving your way through the stained and haunted halls of your decrepit apartment building, having that buzzy electric guitar playing behind you makes you feel like one hell of a teen on a mission, and when the music gets slower and the sound grows heavier tonally in Episodes 4 and 5 when Sally is an adult, that feeling slows the player down too. If I were a student of music still, I might be able to make more proper observations on the soundtrack, but any player will just feel the softly inspiring and greatly immersive soundtrack as they take on the world at large as Sal.

One of the core pairs of characters, Sally and Larry, bond immediately over a love for an in-universe metal band by the name of Sanitys Fall when Larry first introduces us to the song “Singular”. Now while the song’s lyrics act as crazy foreshadowing for the final episode of the game, the genre alone is incredibly impactful for the story. The Sally Face canon takes place around the 1980s to early 2000s in the U.S. which coincides with the nation’s rise in conservative leadership from Reagan’s presidency and the growing threat of what was referred to as the “Satanic Panic”. This social tension set up a massive amount of fear and pressure on young people and against alternate self-expression in the name of a majority Christian belief, like how Dungeons and Dragons was condemned as devil worship and the new explosion of metal music was feared to inspire cultish ritual abuse in the youth of America. This communal tension was the gasoline to the fire that was metal since popularity and production of the music entered a golden age during this time period and, with civil distrust of the government still high from the economic and political issues from the 1960/70s, became a total hit with the younger generation of Americans exploring their sense of identity. Metal stands for unabashed self-expression, loud independence, and encourages questioning authority at every turn. So, when I was given two clearly alt teens in episode one that bond over their shared love of metal music in the basement room of one of said teens, the walls covered in posters for bands with bloody imagery and paintings from their loved and well-stained easel in the corner, before running off with walkie talkies to solve mysteries together, I was beyond emotionally invested in these little weirdos. For a game that preaches connecting and empathizing with your community, facing your demons (real or symbolic) alongside your friends, and combatting the darkness at every turn without letting defeat be an option, metal is the perfect music to bring these ideas together. Something else I’ll try and articulate better later is the symbolism of the Devourers of God, Nockfell’s cult that I keep mentioning, for now though, I’ll treat it literally as the religious influence over the town as it is. The “Satanic Panic” is never mentioned by name in-universe but considering the type of bullying present in episode 3 towards the central group from one very conservative Travis Phelps, its presence doesn’t need to be spelled out to know that it is extremely relevant. One of the core staples of the town’s geography even is the massive ministry on the hill overlooking Nockfell literally highlighting the religious watch over the residents in the town, inciting a familiar feeling in anyone who has ever felt personally oppressed by forced religious ideologies in their community. When a communal oppression masquerades as being for the best, it can feel healing to escape that by diving into the polar opposite of what you’re used to, in the case of the “Satanic Panic” many people embraced the devilish nature of the music in stride if not only just for the catharsis of being free from common conservative ideologies. Metal is fundamentally the sound of freedom in not only Sally Face, but for the people who grew up during the time period the game takes place in, and that anchor into reality for a new generation of people playing in 2016 and being introduced to metal through a similar lens of liberation from oppressive forces is a super cool thing.

The Four Horsemen of the Anti-Apocalypse

There is a core quartet throughout the story of Sally Face that ushers in each new story beat with passion, intrigue, and a forged-family energy that really makes the story something unique. I’ll do a quick rundown of each of said quartet members and why I love them and their role in the story:

Sal Fisher

Sal Fisher, or the titular Sally Face, is the protagonist of the game and the perspective of the player. Considering that some of the major themes explored by the game’s story are pursuing individuality against forces of oppression and seeking genuine connections between people to overpower sources of evil, this kid is the walking embodiment of those ideas. Already walking in, Sal is unapologetically gender nonconforming and this is brought up multiple times in game, such as in episode 1 when Sally is talking to Megan and saying that “I like pigs too” when in reference to his pigtail hairstyle being “for girls silly” as Megan puts it or all the times Rosenberg calls Sally a “young girl” and he doesn’t correct her for what is implied to be equal parts convenience of conversation and nonchalance. His alternative style of presentation throughout the game and general comfortability with himself considering the trauma he’s endured/continues to endure (trauma that is in this case another layer of oppressive force) is inspiring to see as a player and clearly inspires his friends as he quickly becomes the heart piece of the four horsemen group. Through Sal being unapologetically himself, he becomes brothers with Larry, he gives Todd an outlet for his supernatural curiosities, and he gives Ashley a stable shoulder to lean on. Not including the core group of friends, Sal also:

+helps Mr. Addison find some of his humanity he lost to The Endless One

+frees the ghosts of the apartments from the Red Eyed Demon’s influence

+gives Megan her necklace back and becomes her friend

+comforts Travis and encourages him to be himself

+brings warmth to the heart of the lunch lady (I love you Kim <3)

and all of this is only possible because he remains a bright spot burning in the face of the darkness, darkness that looks like trauma and grief and depression and survivor’s guilt and demons and bullying and cults, and the people around him share in that light and face the darkness alongside him. Sal’s empathy towards people and ghosts alike, his constant efforts to be there emotionally and physically for the people he cares for no matter how long he’s known them for, and his constant strive to present himself however he wants without letting anyone else get in his way make him an inspiring protagonist that leaves the player rooting for him even when all the chips are down (and boy do the chips fall FAR, but I think his ending is still a hopeful one).

Larry Johnson

Larry is the stoner kid in the basement when we first meet him, but he immediately warms up to Sal quickly cementing himself as his brother and future right hand of the friend group. With all the silly plotting that Sal and Larry get up to, walkie talkies over murder cases and secret snack runs and metal concerts, it really feels like Larry is the catalyst for getting Sal to find a real home in Nockfell as the two share vulnerable moments with each other, support each other through their dense fears, and protect each other from the nefarious forces at play. He’s got a lot of love to give the team, sticking up for Sal and exploring the arts with Ashley and encouraging Todd, he’s like an endless fountain of camaraderie and energy to the team while also remaining an emotional voice of reason when things start to get intense. His font of affection is a direct mirror to the intense depression he faces throughout the story that complicates every joyful moment we see from him, knowing with hindsight that he’s nearly drowning in loneliness every time we see him. It’s this complication that makes me care about him as a player so much, we get to see how hard he fights to pursue a shining life against the cataclysmic odds against him and his friends and what he has left of his family. We see this fight even in his death when he persists in the Void to help save Todd in the final fight of episode 5. Even more tragic is that he can’t see how fervently the others love him back, Sal embracing him after they realize that Jim isn’t coming back and Ashley taking pictures of them together to remember their good times and Todd never underestimating him with even the more complicated logistics of ghost hunting. What also hurts my soul if I think about it a bit too much is the multiple times in episode 4 while exploring the apartments and working through the tooth puzzle where Sal will have his short blackouts while Larry starts talking about something, only coming to after Larry has already had what was essentially a full conversation with himself. While not ignoring Larry on purpose, considering the mindset we all know he’s in I can’t help but recoil a little on replays knowing that he’s likely interpreting it that way, especially since earlier in that same episode no matter if Sal tells Larry the truth about his dad or not he isn’t believed to be transparent with his brother and that adds another thorn sticking into Larry’s heart. I think Larry is one of my favorites because he’s constantly the embodiment of the idea that people hurt each other the most when they don’t mean to, when it’s all a complete accident and not even realized by the other party that whatever just happened has shaken the world for the other person involved. Despite all the times he’s been hurt when it wasn’t intended to hit so hard, he still pursues light and love for his friends and his mom, and my god if that isn’t some of the most inspiring stuff ever. If Sal is the shining beacon of light for the group, then Larry is the battery powering it, but batteries will eventually run out.

Ashley Campbell

Ashley Campbell is the prettiest girl around (save for Maple the softest goth I’ve ever seen the sweetie) and the team’s skeptic up until she snaps that photo of ghost-Larry at the end of episode 4. She is the ultimate ride-or-die for her loved ones, even in the beginning when investigating Mrs. Packerton’s apartment when Ashley walks into what is essentially a horror show, scares Larry and Sally half to death, and continues helping them with their investigation like this isn’t the craziest thing she’s ever have seen. Oh yeah and she falls down a trash chute into the temple beneath the apartments and still stays lifelong friends with the group after that. It’s because it doesn’t matter as much to her why this is all happening or what it all means, what matters is that she’s there for her friends when they need her, and she’ll get into any amount of trouble to make that happen. This is only further proven in future episodes when she testifies against Sal in an effort to save him from capital punishment knowing full-well how difficult that will be for both of them, when she teams up with Neil to continue the work everyone was doing on dismantling the cult, and when she sacrifices her life in order to bring Sal back so that he can fulfill the prophecy. Ashley proves over and over that there is no upper limit on the effort she’ll put into ensuring the best possible outcome for her loved ones, even at her own expense, because the future she sees is one where Sal can overcome his trauma and live carefree, where Larry beats back his depression and can indulge in life again, where Todd succeeds in his studies and pursues that future with Neil. There’s a point in the Void in episode 5 from Sal’s perspective right before the big boss fight where he’s going through some important memories about his friends from his past and when he gets to Ashley’s memory, he grieves over the fact that she can’t see herself the way he and the rest of the group see her, as this beacon of light who lifts them all up and ties the group together, this force of relentless creativity and inspiration for everyone who never diminishes their work. Ashley spends the entirety of the endgame berating herself for her perceived shortcomings, her perceived unforgivable failures to her loved ones, and her perceived weakness in the face of this conspiracy, yet nobody else sees her in this way. Sal thinks the world of her and let her tend to a wound of his in episode 3 despite his reservations about his face, Larry was her friend for such a long time before the group formed and they shared photos and art with each other and she encouraged him to continue to be rambunctious and hopeful, Todd tutored her for the majority of high school and she always respected and appreciated his passion for academia and helped him wherever she could. She’s the team canon, an unstoppable force when it comes to being there for the ones she cares about ready to shatter any barrier put in her way, as long as it’s for them, no matter the cost.

Todd Morrison

Everything Todd does, he does with purpose, and as the player, once you learn that you pay attention to him whenever he’s doing anything. Todd’s influence on the story is immediately crucial since he is shown to be the key to success when it comes to ghost hunting equipment (i.e. the Gearboy in episode 2) and gathering information on the real reach of the cult in Nockfell, but he’s also the team’s rock when all the chaos gets out of hand. He’s also the most obviously reserved out of the group but these friends of his are his entire world and he shows it in how much effort he puts into knowing everything he can to keep them and his home safe, with extensive corkboards full of information and experimental tech that his friends can wield in the face of the horrors from beyond that we see in episodes 3 and 4 mostly. The air of calm he maintains in stressful situations is honestly baffling, like his coherent explanations to Sal in episode 4 while the red eyed demon is currently inhabiting him or when he’s the first one to bring up the real possibility of a conspiracy when he looks at Charlie-but-not-Charlie’s mugshot in episode 2. I frequently see characters like Todd who have the genius and the willpower but also this sense of separated arrogance or a deep underlying insecurity with themselves, but Todd has neither of those extra traits, his friends never take him for granted and he never underestimates them, he trusts his own knowledge and he holds strong to the confidence he has in his loved ones. I’d wager that because of all of this, Todd is more so the spine of the team rather than just the brain, he acts as their stability as well as the key to having a real chance against the cult. That stability also applies to the less threatening situations the group finds themselves in, like how he tutors Ashley for the majority of high school while she helps him with art, and like how him and Larry are often on the same page even when it comes to agreeing that maybe they should just kill Mrs. Packerton (which was hilarious I love them, dear god), and like all the times him and Sal encourage each other’s curiosity on the paranormal and endless strides to protect the world they love so much with the people they love inside. Not to even mention that Todd and Neil are the sweetest ever and further embody the running message of the story to always pursue love and light in the face of darkness and oppressive forces, especially since we get hints in episode 4 that Todd doesn’t even talk about the cult stuff with Neil in order to protect him and make good on the promise that the friend group made at the end of episode 3, where I have to remind people that the timeskip between those two episodes is a couple of years. Todd’s sharp and stable mind paired with his calm but strong love for his friends and his boyfriend make him the final stabilizing piece to the whirlwind of chaotic affection that is the rest of his friends.

Honorable Mention for Travis Phelps

I want to talk about Travis so so so badly but this is getting long so perhaps he will get his own little essay because I have complicated feelings about Travis “D.O.G.M.A double agent because something important happens between episodes 3 and 5 to endear him to the group and mostly Sal” Phelps, but for now just remember that he’s there and it saddens me to know that only 15.6% of players get the ‘Atonement’ achievement.

Schadenfreude, but the Real Horror is in the Normal Parts

Ghosts and cannibals are scary, but seeing your loved ones hurt is scarier, watching them fall into despair and suffering and being unable to reach them in time is scarier. Sally Face gives the player so many impossible things to face like cultists controlling the government, the police force, the prisons, and the schools, like ghosts and demons roaming free and suffering in their shadowy limbo, like eldritch horrors literally leaking through the walls and pipes of your home, like actual alien refugees with knowledge of an endless darkness that hungers for all light and life and now that darkness has its eyes set upon our planet. With all of these impossible things and indominable challenges for these children to face, the scariest parts of the game were never actually these moments. I never suffered a cold sweat facing down The Endless One, but I did when we realized that Travis was being abused by his father and lashing out in the name of religious trauma and despite doing our best as Sal to reach out to him, still couldn’t bring him anywhere safe. I never got jittery or short of breath when we discovered that there’s an ancient cult temple beneath our apartment filled with an uncountable number of bones and blood stains from centuries of torment, but I did feel that way when we learned that a real suspect of a recent murder just next door to our new apartment was one of our neighbors, and that it was up to us at such a young age to convict him lest we live with that constant stress. I never had to get up and walk away from the game to relax seeing the liquid darkness spill from the mouths and eyes of the shells of our loved ones, but I did have to walk away when Larry didn’t pick up the phone to answer us knowing full well what he had done before even running to the treehouse. My point being, the game’s eccentric supernatural horror elements are nothing compared to the true horror of acute human despair, and the fact that those two facets of horror are in constant symbiosis throughout the entire story only serves to strengthen both and make their shared message that much more potent. That is that the game looks to the player in recognition of the difficulties of being alive and striving to maintain light in a world that is constantly flooding with darkness, that yes the cyclical nature of light and dark is exhausting and tragic but will still always ensure that light at least remains. The corridors in the Void of episode 5 wax poetic about it constantly. Sally Face shows you what you believe to be the darkness at first, cultists and ghosts and murderers and cannibals, but then it gives you something to really be scared of, school bullies and Larry’s depression and Ash’s sacrifices and Neil’s stress over Todd and Henry’s alcoholism and the weight of killing your friends and family for the greater good. Then, once all the darkness has been laid out and threatens to overwhelm the player and swallow them whole, the game refuses to let you turn away until you also acknowledge that there is light. There is light in the power of the Gearboy and Sal’s guitar and the amulet Larry uses and Ash’s arm and Travis’s sword, there is real light being shared amongst these characters constantly, with Sal’s reassurances to Larry about how he is loved and vice versa and with Ashley’s constant encouragement to the friend group to pursue what makes them happy even if they aren’t good at whatever that is and with the pure love shared by Todd and Neil and with the healing from past love with Henry and Lisa. This game is relentless in showing us all that Light persists just as feverishly as Darkness, supernatural or not.

Welcome to the End Beloved Reader!

Congratulations on making it to the end of my rambles! This game is baby’s first hyperfixation and while all of my appreciations may not be articulated properly here, I sure hope this is a decent start. Now whenever I start frothing at the mouth knowing I can’t get any of my friends to play this game I can just send them this! And it will have to be enough! Steve Gabry has made a wonderful game and I’m stoked for whatever Sally Face 2 brings, from whatever perspective we get.

#MausMusings #sally face #sally face spoilers #sally fisher #larry johnson #ashley campbell #todd morrison #sallyface

1 note · View note

general-brain-rot · 7 days ago

Text

Finally, the Master Post

If I'm gonna keep writing here I might as well make a masterpost if for nothing more than my own convenience, so welcome to the hub for all of my ramblings about media I enjoy! Introductions: Hi Hello you can refer to me as Krieg (phonetically kreeg) and use she/they pronouns. I like writing about things in semi-coherent ways mostly because I cannot talk about my fixations with people in my day-to-day, so now I am here and no longer lurking! Huzzah!

Tag Guide: #MausMusings will be my rants, rambles, essays, and whatnot #DragonsHoard will be knowledge that I steal from others and love #GenderEnvy will be for the posts that make me do pushups

-wait I should probably explain that one, okay, so...I made a bet to myself that every time I feel gender envy on the internet for the beautiful art people make that I'll do one (1) pushup and uhhh, as you can likely guess I have been doing a lot of pushups, so that tag is mostly just art appreciation but a little funnier so that the OP knows I had to drop and do a pushup

0 notes

general-brain-rot · 1 month ago

Text

The Soul and that time you first googled “what is depression?”

I think what I’m really enjoying about the course of Deltarune so far has been my interpretation of the relationship between Kris, the protagonist, and the Soul, the embodiment of the player. The two entities are independent of each other yet inextricably linked through some Gaster mumbo-jumbo or just some greater plot we aren’t aware of at this time, but what’s important is that basically two sets of personalities are residing inside one body and that is causing, uhhhh, problems for everyone involved. Kris often tears us out of their own chest in obvious pain to seek out surprisingly mundane things without our watchful gaze and consuming control, like downing an entire warm pie left in the kitchen or absolutely demolishing multiple glasses of chocolate milk (or it’s pilk because I think that little weirdo would absolutely do that, or the far more evil option is that was alcohol and our local enby teen is in worse shape than we thought-) or playing the piano. This is a seemingly desperate bid for autonomy from the player that both breaks my heart when I think about it too hard and also intrigues me deeply considering I don’t think I’ve ever played a game with this much confusing animosity between player action and a playable character’s life. And while I’ve had a ball seeing other artists, authors, creators of all kinds expand upon the in-game Soul and Kris dynamic in ways like making ‘soul-sonas’ which are all so adorable/funny I love them, I still haven’t seen anyone discuss the potential of a metaphorical interpretation of that bond (bear in mind I may be grasping at straws in an unfinished story to reach) about the concept of having a piece of your identity directly in conflict with the rest of itself. I absolutely acknowledge that while the Soul that the player guides is *not* Kris but its own entity entirely, there’s something to be said about the commentary that this relationship gives, so without further ado…

Being a teen and trying to figure out what your deal is:

It’s unclear whether or not Kris needs the Soul to survive, but they keep us nonetheless for reasons relatively unknown to us (we’ll get to the cage stuff later), and seeing the pain they put themselves through to separate us for even a short time is hauntingly relatable. I feel as though it’s hardly a stretch to say that the majority of the people who resonate with Toby Fox’s work also have experience with challenges to their mental health, I know that I absolutely fall into that category, and Toby is just one of those creators that can articulate a lot of the nuance that comes with enjoying being alive but having to fight to stay that way. Kris’s story, while only halfway realized at the point of writing this essay, has resonated deeply with me and I think I can finally start to articulate why: the Soul feels like a physical manifestation of the parts of Kris that they feel in direct opposition with, like if all the intrusive thoughts you have and bad habits you’ve relied on and social masks you’ve manufactured and can no longer let go of had a physical presence within you instead of just being woven into your psyche.

Whether it’s chronic pain or insomnia or uncontrollable dissociation or any other plethora of things, a lot of us have some aspect of ourselves that are fundamental to our existence yet are also hostile towards ourselves, pieces of us that we are in constant battle with just because we are simply alive. And when you’ve dealt with your own mind/body/soul fighting against you for long enough, the fantasy of being “rid” of the very things that ail you become increasingly enticing. I imagine that I could probably become the most powerful person on Earth if only I could remove my dissociative habits under stress, for instance. The birdcage at the foot of their bed leaking old blood out onto the carpet serves as a stark reminder of every painful strategy both Kris and any potential player has ever used to try to free themselves from their own overbearing pieces. The Soul, the part of each of us that is sharp and intertwined in our most heavy memories and guides every customer service voiced de-escalation or white lie for the sake of comfort or tight lipped smile when all we want to do is crawl into a dark place for a while, stakes its claim over Kris in a similar yet literal way to how we on the outside of the game are familiar with the feelings. Kris removing the Soul feels like a literal representation of someone like, fighting with their brain to do something they think is fun even if they’re bad at it while their brain yells at them for being bad at the thing. It’s that type of energy to me, going to drastic and self-damaging lengths to allow other parts of your own personality to get the chance to exist past the ever-present fog of your own psyche.

It reminds me of the strategies other games like Omori use to get a wider player base to understand a particular feeling. Case-in-point, Omori forces even the most neurotypical of people to face what it feels like to make any mistake and feel like it’s impossible to forgive yourself for it, which is something many people with depression and other adjacent mental issues deal with in their lives. The game does this by forcing the player to face a seemingly unforgivable act so intense that most anybody would struggle to forgive themselves for letting it happen and convince them to forgive themselves anyway. While the game provides an extreme example to showcase it’s point, the more common instances that the game comments on are times where you may say something accidentally insensitive in conversation and tear yourself down for having said it, or if you’ve broken something precious to someone on accident and can’t bring yourself to look them in the eyes after, or literally any other accidental blunder that you feel like you need to be killed with hammers about. Even if it’s something small, the weight of their mistakes weighs as heavy on them as something catastrophic as depicted in game. It’s exaggerated symbolism, and it’s extremely effective. I think that, while maybe not the point, Deltarune is doing a fantastic job of allowing the Soul to act as that exaggerated symbolism for the struggles of navigating a contradictory and at times hostile sense of self.

Told you I’d talk about the cage stuff later, well, later is *now*:

If the in-game prophecy explored a bit in chapter 4 of the game is to be believed at face value, then Kris being described as “The Cage, with human soul and parts” paints a bleak picture of their situation but may also play into this idea of the metaphor of The Soul. If Kris is a “cage” for something, said something assumed to be the Soul, then their fate as stated directly is to not let the Soul out of their control by trapping it in a sense. By extension, to go to any length to manufacture a personality and body that will jail the Soul (a manifestation of the hostile parts of all of our own minds), which feels so similar to the experience many young adults can call back to when they were first learning about mental illnesses during their teenage years. It’s as a teen that we are first exposed to the raw world of psychology at large and can actually start to see patterns in our own behavior and begin to navigate them, and that early exploration of the self often feels a bit like losing control over our own life. One day you wake up and learn that there’s a part of yourself that you don’t fully understand but now are equipped with the knowledge that it can be detrimental to not only your own wellbeing but the wellbeing of the loved ones you surround yourself with, and all you can think to do is immediately try and trap and control that possible beast in your mind. For Kris it looks like changing their tone of voice when the words coming out aren’t exactly right, or yawning in the middle of a hurtful phrase to cut themselves off, or covering their mouth with their hand to muffle the sound of things they don’t want to speak out loud (or in Weird Route cases, biting their hand hard enough to bruise). I’ve mentioned the birdcage above but all the imagery of cages throughout the game thus far adds depth to the idea that something (like the Soul) untamed, potentially dangerous, and relatively unknown, must be contained despite how integral it is to the game, how integral it is to Kris. While perhaps not integral to survival considering how they absolutely beat the hell out of us with that hockey stick or in the continued Weird Route when they pummel us in the trashcan, they’re obviously keeping the Soul around for some necessary reason or else why stick through all the pain we’re causing them? That is likely a deeply story-entwined answer that we won’t be getting anytime soon but thinking about it through the lens of our working metaphor, it could be because Kris can’t just throw out part of their personality so simply like that. If we could just cut out the habits spawned by mental illnesses, then therapy bills would be way cheaper and look more like visits to wreck rooms rather than patient and long-term work. But that’s unfortunately not how it works and Kris, like us, has to figure out how to tame the hostile parts of themselves, because keeping it caged forever is both not sustainable and not healthy for anybody long-term.

Grats on making it to the end of my musings! Here have some mac n cheese for your efforts, we also have vegan mac n cheese if that’s your style. I like reading way too far into metaphors that may or may not exist in media I enjoy based on vibes, so if anybody else has fun thoughts on Deltarune’s many metaphors (I skipped over the big ones like freedom, hope, resilience, and teen spirit because those are already being fleshed out and are fantastic to read about) please please please share! the delicious! thoughts!!!

#deltarune spoilers #deltarune #deltarune chapter 4 spoilers #musings #mild omori spoilers? I guess #kris deltarune #MausMusings

21 notes · View notes

general-brain-rot · 2 months ago

Text

Ralsei has known what's been going on with Kris the ENTIRE time, and once you realise that, EVERYTHING he says and does around them makes a thousand times more sense. And you realise that, far from dismissing Kris's "true" self in favour of a copy, he has been working tirelessly to prop them up, to validate their most basic and fundamental choices, to keep them from the brink of despair, and perhaps even death.

We always thought it was strange, how Ralsei seems to baby Kris at times - how he offers heaps of praise upon them for performing the simplest of tasks, how he lets them express themself through violence while chastising Susie for the same thing, how at every turn he puts so much emphasis on Kris's choices, their talents, their intrinsic personhood, almost above the very prophecy he serves. We thought him mollycoddling and completely out-of-touch at best, and downright malicious at worst. We presumed he was encouraging the player to keep playing, and was in fact speaking over Kris's head directly at us. We presumed that the prophecy was all he cared about, and him encouraging Kris was simply a means to that end.

And we were wrong about all of it. Because we didn't know what Kris was truly going through until now. We thought that our possession was the worst thing that was happening to them, and that he was complicit in their suffering by trying to downplay it.

But Ralsei knew. Because Ralsei knows Kris better than anyone else - better than Susie, better than Noelle, and certainly far better than us.

Kris is hopelessly trapped, at all times. There is no hope for them, they cannot see a way to escape their bonds... not alive, in any case. Their suffering is so great, the pressures upon them so immense, that they have been hollowed out into a catatonic shell of their former self - unable to move except through great effort, unable to speak except through stilted phrases. They don't sleep or eat well at all. They don't try at school. They cannot tell anyone about what's happening, and they cannot make friends because of it. For all intents and purposes, they have given up.

But it's worse than that, because they KNOW that what they're being made to do is wrong. They don't want to do any of it, and yet they feel they cannot refuse. That knowledge eats away at them, to the point where they feel like they are inherently Bad, because only Bad people do Bad things, and they're doing Bad things all the time. They don't feel like they deserve the good things in their life because of it. They feel like they're living a lie. And no-one else knows - no-one else can possibly know.

But Ralsei knows.

Why does Ralsei go to the trouble of arranging a tutorial battle for Kris, when they've already demonstrated their capabilities fighting against Lancer? Because Kris doesn't know what they're doing during that fight. They're issuing commands, fighting alongside Susie, and they don't know how or why. They're scared, they don't know where they are, and the one other person they knew from school just ditched them. Through the tutorial, Ralsei breaks down each combat function step-by-step, walking Kris through each one with patience and restraint. And he lets them go off-piste up to a point - he'll let them attack his mannequin and say it's alright if they want to hit him too, he'll let them hug him several times throughout the tutorial, and he will show remarkable restraint throughout the entire endeavour, despite his obvious frustration at their uncooperativeness.

Seen this way, the Tutorial becomes less about the GAME teaching the PLAYER how to battle, and more about RALSEI providing to KRIS some semblance of structure and context to a new and frightening world. Both of them are literally starting at Zero, and have to establish the basics before anything further can happen.

This in turn establishes the framework for their relationship - not an annoying tutorial fairy lecturing an experienced player on things they already know, but a kindly tutor gently guiding a broken teen, one tiny step at a time. Not lashing out at mistakes, not admonishing when they try to assert themself against the established framework - he will let them fight, and let them command him to fight as well, because his desire to help Kris find themself again means he has to provide leeway for if they "misbehave". There have to be bounds, but they must feel like the choices they make matter - even if they actually don't.

When you're drowning in a world that has seemingly conspired to take your agency from you, and break you down into nothing more than a pawn that does what it's told and nothing else... even the illusion of choice is a life-preserver that you'll cling onto for dear life. The support Ralsei provides Kris in this capacity is what gives them the drive to protect Susie from King's attack - to make a choice to protect their friend, even if it wouldn't have meaningfully changed anything.

It explains his secret conversations with Kris too - while we are busy watching Susie, Ralsei is free to let Kris know that despite being literally controlled, the one controlling them is on their side, and that we will help them break free from the more insidious influence of the Knight. He has to tell them to trust in us, trust that we will do right by them to the best of our abilities. And indeed, by Chapter 2, they have become more willing to express themself through their tone of voice, through how they choose to interpret the instructions given to us, either to play pranks or to show their appreciation for the people who, despite everything, still care for them.

And even Ralsei's apparent dismissive attitude to Spamton NEO's effect on Kris can be explained through this prism. Kris is very very slowly starting to recover from the trauma of their situation, and literally EVERYTHING about Spamton is a huge trigger for them. It's not farfetched to say that Kris sees in Spamton a cautionary tale of how they will end up - used up, cast aside, wretched and desperate and bitter and broken. All of Ralsei's work building Kris back up could be undone in an instant, and so he has to tread extremely carefully - downplay its significance, offer nonthreatening proximity (he will hug Kris, but only if they hugged him on the boat ride prior to this), distract them from the immediate trauma with very basic "nice" thinks like cake, and warm/soft things. It seems dismissive at the time because we don't yet know what Spamton truly represents to Kris - not just the fear of being controlled against your will, but of being used up and broken down, and then tossed away like an unloved toy. It's only when we have that additional context that all of Ralsei's actions towards them start to make sense - not only make sense, but also show a level of care and tact that we did not previously assume him capable of.

And I suppose the last question is: why does Ralsei do any of this in the first place? Why go to this trouble when he knows he'll just be left behind, when he knows that if he succeeds, Kris will go back to the light world and live a full life without him? Well... look at the colour of his horns. If Ralsei is the horned headband, and Kris wore him for months, he would have borne witness to Kris's deepest, darkest fears about themself. It's possible that he might have seen the inciting incident that led Kris down this unfortunate path. Either way, he would have been so close to them that he'd almost be like an extension of them.

So, again - why does he do this? Because his purpose was always to guide them back to themself - first as a pair of horns to better fit in with their family, and then as a physical manifestation of those same horns to help them overcome the terrible harm that has been wrought upon them.

But more than this, I think it's because he loves them - the same way that they would have loved him when they wore him all those years ago. And isn't that what you do for the people you love - help them when they're struggling, comfort them when they're sad, gently challenge them to expand their window of tolerance, give them the tools they need to return to the light, to heal and grow back into themselves?

Ralsei knows Kris better than anyone else. And maybe we should start listening to him.

#I'm in love with your musings #I have been itching to dissect everything about Ralsei after the new chapters and this is delicious analysis #On top of the extension of Kris idea (which I absolutely love holy moly-)#It also ties into Ralsei's identity struggles being shown off more #Because they're struggles shared by Kris #Adopted back before right at the start and left dormant for the sake of saving Kris first #But now that we're making progress #And Kris is healing more noticably now #Those feelings that ralsei has are starting to creep in too #Like their developments of character in either direction are mirrored! I'm incomprehensible OP your brain is incredible #deltarune spoilers #deltarune #DragonsHoard

3K notes · View notes

general-brain-rot · 2 months ago

Text

Holy WOW.

Like, you think you know how badly Kris's life sucks. Divorced parents, brother off to college, no friends, some strange higher power hijacking their body and going off on adventures without them... but hey, at least they're able to take some control back from us sometimes! At least they can go off and eat all the pie in peace! At least they can open a dark fountain in their home so they can spend more time with their cool friend Susie! Yay! I'm sure they're just leaving the door open for the cops to get in so they can save the day!

And then. AND THEN. Chapter 4... happens. And everything we thought we knew about Kris crumbles to dust before our very eyes.

Those snatched moments from the player? They weren't the triumphant grasp at freedom we thought, but another, yet more insidious layer of control that has been exerted upon them. Because for the end of Chapter 3 to have happened, a few things had to be prepared - the TV had to be plugged in, Susie had to come over, the tires had to be slashed so the police would be called, and the door had to be left open so that the Knight could gain entry - not the police, but The Roaring Knight. The Enemy.

And make no mistake - they didn't want to do ANY of it. Drinking in the Holidays' kitchen... the way their head turns whenever Susie or Noelle mentions them... Carol's ice-cold hand on their shoulder ("in the shadow of the Knight's hand")... do any of these things indicate Kris as a willing co-conspirator? Or rather, a child who has fallen into the clutches of a very manipulative - and very real - authority figure, who is being groomed and coerced into performing dangerous acts that threaten the lives of not just their friends, but their family, their town, and quite possibly the whole world?

We knew that Kris Dreemurr's life sucked before this. But we could never have anticipated just how badly it sucked, just how little control and agency they truly have, in any aspect of their life. This situation has been going on for MUCH longer than we've been around - you can tell that much from the birdcage. Their situation is so utterly, catastrophically FUCKED that death seems the most preferable outcome for them.

Remember Susie noting how Kris responds to Queen's offer to "Perish" with enthusiasm?

Remember the way they crumple onto the floor when Spamton NEO is about to kill them and take their SOUL, not even attempting to fight back?

Remember them whispering in Susie's ear in "the_newest_girl_girl"?

...yeah. It's THAT bad.

And you have to wonder... if we were never shunted into Kris's body... if we didn't literally FORCE Kris to move, to go to the dark world, to Fight and Spare enemies - to FORCE them to play at being a hero, in spite of their situation... What would have happened?

Would Kris even be alive now, if not for us?

#Ohhh my god #This is put into words what I've been freaking out about since finishing the chapters #The times where in the past we've seen Kris totally give up in dangerous situations #Paired with seeing them start to be a little more expressive #And showing a little more fight against the soul at least #Makes their situation feel hopeful considering how awful it is already #Deltarune and your commentary on freedom oh how I love you #deltarune spoilers #deltarune #DragonsHoard

4K notes · View notes

general-brain-rot · 2 months ago

Text

The dog metaphor makes me ill in the best way-

Now that we’ve gotten two more chapters and are effectively at the halfway point of the game, I’ve gotta talk about the constant association between Kris and dogs. Ahead are spoilers so be forewarned children!

From the first chapters I believe the only real instance of any dog related associations was this sprite from the tasque manager fight in chapter 2, but since then we’ve gotten a few more mentions of it in chapters 3 and 4. If people want to go hunting for every instance, a lot of these happen when Kris and Susie are hanging out, off the top of my head I remember Kris “howling” like a dog in chapter 3 talking with Susie about how she’s doing after the second board. I know it happens in chapter 4 too, I just don’t remember exactly where because a lot of my playthroughs happened in the dead of night, and I didn’t take screenshots like a fool.

So how does this help us better understand Kris and their whole situation? Well in general, dogs often symbolize both loyalty and being controlled in equal measures, and after watching chapter 4 that even when Kris is free of the soul puppeteering them that they still answer the whims of someone over the phone, the control part is more relevant than ever. Even without the soul, Kris isn’t free, they are still kept on a tight leash that we can’t even see. We don’t yet know to what end Kris is “caging” the soul of the player, or to what lengths they have to go to for the person over the phone because they “promised” something, but we get the vibe that Kris is being forced to reach an outcome that is likely not wanted by their fellow party members. Something that even Carol is in on to some extent, which just makes this entire situation worse. This is the dang mayor of the very small town they live in, literal neighbors with the Dreemurrs, employs their dad and keeps his business going, and goes to church with their mom. There is no escaping for Kris, not even in the Darkworlds anymore now that the Roaring Knight is causing trouble. Also, any talk about other characters not having autonomy has a noticeable effect on Kris in these chapters. From chapter 3, when the cast change controllers around and let Ralsei play as Kris’s character, encouraging it to happen lets Ralsei muse about how fun it is just to have the autonomy to walk around and make decisions saying he’s “not used to being player 1”. In chapter 4, later dialogue where Ralsei questions if he should be becoming his own person outside of any desire to just be useful to Lightners has Kris in support of his growth, even if the player picks options that seem like they’ll dissuade Ralsei from becoming more independent are changed by Kris on delivery. Case in point, in Ralsei’s room if you pick the option “of course not”, then Kris will force a yawn to cover the “not” part and assure Ralsei by just nodding that he isn’t doing anything wrong. Another instance I’m going to count is near the end when Ralsei breaks down over how much he knows about the prophecy after Susie shattered it. He tries to stay smiling before we can let Kris lean down and hug him and tell him that “it’s okay not to smile”. Kris is doing everything they can in their limited scope of freedom to make sure that none of their friends are leashed by the supposed rules that have them already caught.

On the topic of the loyalty side of the metaphor though, boy do we have a lot. For starters, it was a joy to see just how expressive Kris is without the soul influencing them, blushing in embarrassment at least twice from comments about first how good they are at flirting and second about the knife they always carry with them. These are just a few moments that prove how endeared Kris is to their friends and, despite the tight leash they’re on from the soul and whatever Carol’s whole deal is, they care enough to defy that control in their friend’s favor when at all possible, or at least freely express it when they think no one can see them clearly. Whether it’s keeping Susie company and listening to her when they think something is wrong or if they’re encouraging Ralsei to start becoming his own person and freeing himself from this whole “darkner purpose” talk. It’s noteworthy to mention that dogs can also be pretty ferocious when either they are threatened or their companion(s) are threatened, and we see a bit of that too. Some examples of Kris going to great physical lengths to protect/help their friends:

+If we remember in chapter 1 when, outside of player control during the boss fight with the King, Kris gets up and shields Susie from an attack.

+Kris only goes against Susie’s plan to wait outside the church for the Knight because they think their mom is in there, which is an immediate way to jeopardize any semblance of a plan but that’s their freaking mom dude-

+Taking the lead in the path to the Knight with their soul lighting the way through in chapter 4, fully planning on walking until the swords dropped them to zero HP until Susie and Ralsei both help tank hits.

+To end the Titan fight, Susie has a plan but needs Kris to literally “put [their] life in [her] hands” and without question, Kris does in fact put their life in her hands.

+In the weird route for chapter 4, after the soul takes over and hurts Noelle again, Kris slinks off to the bathroom to rip the soul out, throws it in the trash, and absolutely pummels it until the can is beyond dented.

These are just the big ones I remember, but there are smaller acts of service and care performed by Kris when they can throughout all the chapters, never straying too far from their party members or if they do, becoming severely uncomfortable when harm befalls them in Kris’s absence. Such as in the arcade game from chapter 3 when you can slash at your companions for XP and Kris turns away from the screen and flinches. Or in chapter 4 listening to Susie talk about the piano she tried to play and Kris can encourage her to play again. There is so much loyalty from Kris to these other kids in unfortunate circumstances it kinda makes my heart hurt a bit, they’re such a good kid. Kris does what they can to keep their friends in good spirits, howling like a dog to make Susie laugh and encouraging Ralsei’s independence when they can and putting themselves in harms way even though they have to follow the prophecy, even though they are being controlled on multiple fronts, even though all they want to do is play the piano themselves when nobody else can watch or control them. Thinking really hard about how important the piano is to them, and how impacted they must’ve felt when both Susie and Ralsei complimented and encouraged them to play, not the player, Kris, to play.

#deltarune spoilers #deltarune #this metaphor has me in shambles I am so excited to read about other theories #I have so many thoughts about it #MausMusings

30 notes · View notes

general-brain-rot · 2 months ago

Text

I'VE BEEN SPEECH BUBBLED AGAIN, HECK (guys I laughed so hard hahaha)

It's Beebo time again, this time Haunted House flavored!

I love dissecting how magic systems and worldbuilding shenanigans happen, so imagine the catnip of a story I was given when I got to figure out the Detective Beebo timeloop mechanics and some larger possible implications,,,,,,I am in shambles thank you Bwob, anyway, here are some ramblings about the first “organic” timeloop I’ve seen in media as well as what I think the deal is with the haunted houses!

The Natural Volatility of a Haunted House:

While I’m sure the biggest factor for dialogue changing between loops is to give the player more stuff to read/interact with, it is INCREDIBLY interesting just what all of it changes to!

Here’s a list of some noteworthy stuff that changes just from the first to second loops:

+ Right after the first loop, if you interact with the alcohol on the table in the main room Beebo says “I don’t think this is the best place to get trashed”, which is EXACTLY what Angel says after the shared drink in the first loop.

+Beebo suddenly has commentary on the paintings in the main room that he didn’t before, like in ‘Endless Decay’ where he thinks about the cycle of life and death (very on the mind if you just freaking died) where before he just said he wasn’t into it all that much.

+ When Angel bursts in and we get our first taste of what the timeloop has to offer, Beebo remarks that Angel “does seem familiar” thinking they maybe have “talked once or twice”.

+ We get to talk to Coli a little bit in this loop and Beebo immediately thinks “…Why do I feel uneasy?” and while he chalks it up to the class difference, the player knows that it’s likely because he just got dang murdered.

+ When Vivi gets back into the hallway with the switch for the electricity, her new commentary on the windowless room is that it’s “eerie and dreadful” as opposed to how she actually claimed to like the aesthetic the first time around.

+and finally,

the all constant post-loop ghost pain. I’m very normal about this one I prommy.

It’s all of this little stuff that shows even more in depth how volatile the Haunted House is! During Beebo’s deduction in loop 5, he figures it’s because of Ángel “glitching” the loop by being outside when the loop starts at 8pm, but inside the house when someone dies and forces a reset. Ángel keeps his memories and other party goer’s subconscious memories involving him in any capacity start to bleed through to them. Of course, we learn later that touching Vivi’s photobook can return people their memories in their entirety, giving the whole debacle another huge loophole (haha, get it?) for our cast! We also get some indicators, mostly from how loop 4 ends and ending 5’s dialogue, that intense emotions allow fragments of memories to remain in the victim’s minds, such as how Mari and Nina confessing their love for each other made them think to try to find each other in the next loop, or in ending 5 when we see that those who died from Coli have new fears that seemingly sprung up out of nowhere. These are all indicative of what I’ll call an organic timeloop from here out, because from what we learn later about the biology of the house, it’s pretty accurate. The organic timeloop's existence is actually the entire reason this is about to go off the rails about the existence of haunted houses! Speaking of, hey why are the walls breathing?

Biology of the House:

At the end of loop 4, we finally get to the anatomy of the House of Vera as told to us through Nadia, Beebo’s traumatic flashback, and the piecing together of information during loop 5 from Ángel and Beebo together before we mess with the endings. Nadia talks to us about how a house can live, can breathe through its ventilation, can eat those who wander into its doors, can fall ill and can age and can get hungry, has bones and muscle and skin as scaffolding and walls and paint. Once eaten by a house, you can become part of it, and we see this happen in a few different ways throughout the game. With the case of “purpose”, we have Dr. Diaz writing about his senses melding with the house from when he was alive or in endings 9/10 when Beebo gives the House of Vera a new purpose and experiences the same thing. With the case of people being “eaten” by the houses, we see this in Beebo’s flashback to getting trapped in the gallery and we see it now with getting trapped in the House’s organic timeloop. Nadia compares those who reside in a haunted house as “Its cells”, extremely reminiscent of how mitochondria work, having once been their own single celled organism and were eaten by another single celled organism a long time ago, but for symbiotic need the two entities combined and now suddenly you have multicellular life (thank you Lynn Margulis <3). This idea is further strengthened by ending 10 titled “Endosymbiotic Theory” which is the theory that simple prokaryotic cells evolved into more complex eukaryotic cells (essentially the same situation). Nadia goes on to make the comparison to how DNA can tell an organism what to do/be, and that people can give that to a haunted house too, can provide it with a “purpose” with enough emotion. In endings 9/10, we learn that the emotion the haunted houses feed on is grief.

This grief is applied to a “heart”, an object within the house that structures the purpose and maintains whatever supernatural ability it has. The House of Vera had two hearts before, first a shield mantle on the wall to ensure it wouldn’t be destroyed or damaged, then the grandfather clock in the hall to ensure that everything within the house would reset once the clock struck 8pm. If the heart is destroyed then the house can no longer read its purpose properly, but interestingly it doesn’t quite die. If you get endings 9/10 then Beebo can give the house a third heart to bring back Ángel and keep him safe, happy, and alive. A haunted house can get another heart and come back with a new purpose. If we want to think about it in organic terms, it’s most likely akin to a heart transplant. We don’t know if there is a time limit between when a heart is destroyed and when the haunted house dies for good since we don’t get to see that explored much in game, but if we assume that there is a time limit given the organic nature of haunted houses, then this fits perfectly with how we already know them to function! A haunted house could survive for a little while without a purpose but would eventually officially “die” if left without that purpose, that heart, for too long.

Another fun thing is that haunted houses lure people in, we’ve seen it with both houses! Now, the art gallery was far more subtle but flashback-Beebo does think about how he “needs to get in already” and is so curious, like a sudden wash of curiosity. Not of needing to find the missing cat he’s being paid to look for, El Wiwi isn’t mentioned at all once he’s at the door, it’s this curiosity instead. For the House of Vera, it’s unsettling how much Beebo’s inner dialogue is about how warm it is inside and how cold it is outside and that he “needs to get inside”, either if you interact with the door to the house or the lamppost outside, he is insistent on going through that door. Both dialogue prompts are laced with this “need”, and the biggest question is why? Well, I’ve got two ideas. My first inclination is that a haunted house might behave like a fruiting plant does, luring a creature to come and eat a sweet fruit for the purpose of spreading its seeds and making more of itself. The other option is acting more like an angler fish would, luring in prey with a bright light or something else prey wants so that the organism can feed itself. I provide these two options because they imply different things, that haunted houses could be either utilitarian or predatory, trying to survive for natural selection purposes or trying to survive out of an active hunger. The first option is much less terrifying than the second, but both are pretty grounded when looking at haunted house behavior. (we'll figure out which one I think it is soon)

For the utilitarian argument, we’ve got some dialogue to work with. Though, we need to take Coli’s arguments with a grain of salt because his pride has overshadowed a lot of the house’s actual mechanics, like how he isn’t actually aware of the memory loophole or what happens in other edge case conditions with people dying on the property. It’s mostly his assumption, but he has been experimenting with this haunted house, so maybe he has some knowledge that the investigations didn’t reveal from firsthand experience.

There are some interesting things that feed a bit into the predator idea though. If the artist from the gallery wanted people to “never want to leave after seeing how amazing their art could be”, then the house could’ve gone about any manner of ways of persuasion to get people to stay and maintain the means of fulfilling its purpose. If everyone dies, then no one gets to see the art, and it feels a little counterintuitive and suboptimal for the organism to just trap them until they die in around four days due to lack of water. For the House of Vera, why does the house claim the inhabitants’ memories when they die instead of leaving them with the knowledge to defend themselves in the future? Wouldn’t that seem like a far more utilitarian and logical thing for the house, with the purpose of giving people another chance to live through lethal events, to accomplish? Well, it would be if all the haunted houses need to do is fulfill their purpose like a script, and not like a life cycle. If it were predatory instead, and it needed to take something from those it ate to maintain itself, then it stops looking like a flowering plant and starts looking more like a venus fly trap, more like a real threat.

Speaking of threatening, I’ve gotta talk about the eyes. Now, the eye imagery could just be for spook points which is already an amazing thing and the effect lands incredibly well, but this gaze feels a bit more important than that. It’s the connection to the divine that intrigues me the most, because we don’t actually know why the hell haunted houses are a thing, the game doesn’t go into it and leaves it vague for the audience to explore. And while the argument could be made that they are some creations born from eldritch means, that’s not what I think is happening. What I think is that this feeling of “divinity” is just an energy so tense, heavy, and powerful that it feels like being hunted by something far stronger than you that you cannot hope to escape unscathed. The connection to the divine is just how the people involved interpret it and it’s not necessarily an accurate reflection of what is really happening. Someone isolated and deeply afraid could look into the eyes of a tiger and think it divine if only for the sheer force of emotion they are feeling in that moment. Also, I think Oliver only makes the “divine” comment because that’s how the doctor described it and he’s grasping for any logic he can in this moment. We never get to see the birth of a haunted house, only the continued existence of two, but we established earlier that a heart is given to a house in moments of intense grief, which may imply that every house is inert in some way and just needs to be woken up somehow. It’s what Coli believes is happening considering the lengths he went to with his factory in order to manufacture a haunted house and considering the research he put in prior to the game’s events, his plan in theory could be feasible. It’s more of a Frankenstein’s monster idea rather than some divine birthing situation, but Coli wouldn’t have gone to such lengths in his factory if he had reason to believe that he could’ve instead prayed to a deity to bring a house to life, he went full mad scientist speedrunner instead because that had to have been what his research had shown him could work. He’s a prideful idiot, but if he’s been using Nadia as his personal diary for his findings for her entire 17 years of life, he’s got at least 17 years of knowledge in this topic to fall back on, and there’s some merit to that.

So, if the house is a predatory entity, then luring people into its walls must do something helpful for its continued existence, and it clearly needs to eat. This is shown by seeing how ruined the art gallery was in the flashback since considering how decently far from civilization it was, there likely wouldn’t be too many people wandering around close enough to even realize it was there. The gallery looks abandoned and trashed, almost emaciated, but not dead. The House of Vera is in great condition though, and it could be because of how popular the house is despite the surrounding village’s low population. This house is a notorious landmark, essentially having been the main hospital for the area for around a century while Dr. Diaz was still around, so the house would have plenty of people to “eat” to keep itself going. But they’re not eating the people really I don’t think, the houses not only need grief to manifest properly, but they also need it to continue to exist. The reason the art gallery doesn’t use any other method of keeping people inside its walls is because while the “purpose” of a house tells it how to be (like DNA), that doesn’t feed it. The house puts the people who go inside under extreme amounts of stress, exhaustion, and hopelessness as dictated by its purpose in order to increase the amount of grief those people feel in order to feed itself on that. The House of Vera doesn’t let anybody keep their memories in order to outsmart any dangers they might be subject to because as long as they keep dying for the first time within its walls, and never get used to the idea of dying, then it can keep feeding on the most intense version of their grief as possible.

The haunted houses are predators, not plants. They may not be able to feel, but they behave in ways dictated solely by the purpose their heart has, and that purpose gives them the means to feed on other people’s grief as long as they are within its walls, as long as the cells continue to produce what it needs to continue living.

So, to recap: While there is evidence for haunted houses to be either more plant-like or predator-like, I’m firm in my belief that it leans more predatory considering that the houses need to eat to survive somehow, they get their “food” by luring people inside using some freaky house magic inclination, and that they get their nutrients from the grief of people that get trapped inside. The people act as its cells and those cells provide sustenance akin to how mitochondria work, the heart and “purpose” tell the house how to behave like how DNA would. The organic timeloop is so volatile because not only are the people exceptionally random variables in this house’s system, but the house is also a complicated living predator that goes to great lengths to maintain itself. The fact that the organic timeloop exists at all is irrefutable proof that the haunted house is what’s alive here. The birth of these predators is extremely up for interpretation, but I believe that Coli must’ve had some reasonable (kinda) idea of how to birth a haunted house through essentially waking up a normal house with intense human grief. Any connections made to “the divine” are just made to truly represent how oppressive the force of the haunted house feels rather than actually being linked to any godly entity.

Aaaaaand that’s the end of my speculation! The haunted houses are fascinating and once I got thinking about why the timeloop even exists if it’s so organic and error-prone, then I got so far in the weeds about the haunted houses themselves that I ended up with like, 3k words of speculation by the end that I needed to make sense of haha. I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts about the houses and I’m excited to see if the currently in-progress train comic that’s being worked on ends up having any commentary on that. If it does and my ideas become definitively incorrect then,,,,,,I will just have to deal with that when it comes.

54 notes · View notes

general-brain-rot · 2 months ago

Text

It's Beebo time again, this time Haunted House flavored!

The Natural Volatility of a Haunted House:

While I’m sure the biggest factor for dialogue changing between loops is to give the player more stuff to read/interact with, it is INCREDIBLY interesting just what all of it changes to!

Here’s a list of some noteworthy stuff that changes just from the first to second loops:

+ When Angel bursts in and we get our first taste of what the timeloop has to offer, Beebo remarks that Angel “does seem familiar” thinking they maybe have “talked once or twice”.

+and finally,

the all constant post-loop ghost pain. I’m very normal about this one I prommy.

Biology of the House:

#detective beebo #detective beebo spoilers #if haunted houses were real I'd keep one as a pet #MausMusings

54 notes · View notes

general-brain-rot · 2 months ago

Text

BEEBO PLAYLIST FINISHED!!! at least as of now i'm very satisfied with it :]

(in both spotify and youtube flavors :>)

elaboration under the cut!! warning its Long lol

1–5: just kinda the first loop obviously, nothing really special yet. i had to put Stal because 1 similar vibes to Serious Detective Office, 2 its a little sillay with it, and 3 its a nod to beebo flirting via minecraft in the comic. :3 is there for the Vibe, its lighthearted and silly and i like it next question. Go Back (Death's Theme) is a given

6–11: The Ángel Songs, pt. 1. i could probably make a whole separate playlist just for him tbh. shoutout to my friend jon for recommending This Boy :D. Someone To Spend Time With is for the convo with oliver on the balcony in loop 2. A Mask of My Own Face is just like. a given. blah blah the different roles ángel takes during the loops.

Little Lion Man and The Scientist were just like. i was listening to shit and thinking about the characters and i was like ooooohhhh Fuck this fits:

Ángel "blames himself for things outside his control" Valdivia also time loop

just gestures vaguely at this one

12–17: house songs :) Labyrinth my beloved. most of these are just for The Vibe i will be honest. hi lemon demon. fun fact Scattered and Lost, for those of you who don't play Celeste, plays when you're in a haunted house (or haunted Hotel whatever). lol

18–19: um. ok eugenes segment is a little lacking because i moved people eater later on but. its fine ok. Had Enough is because eugene is an angy angy man who feels like everyone has wronged him

20–23: the endings 1/2 branch aka The Ángel Songs, pt. 2. uhhhhh i'll be honest Yellow is mostly there for these lines

Ángel Para Un Final is. the obvious. next

24–26: ending 2 songs aka The Ángel Songs, pt. 3. i thought about adding I WONT LET YOU GO HOME instead of Game Over - DLMAH because i think it fits better lorewise, but the actual songs vibe didn't really fit the vibe for ending 2 so i went with the next best thing

Ghost On The Dance Floor:

ough. Kiss Goodnight is mostly the vibe not any particular lyric

i was also tempted to add Starjump from the Celeste OST because of the sheer feeling of Anxiety it gives you (definitely give it a listen and you'll see what i mean). i ultimately decided there were too many ending 2 songs (and Game Over kinda already fills the space i would have Starjump at) but honestly i might silently add it later if i feel like it

27–29: endings 4, 5, and 6. The Villain I Appear to Be and People Eater are both givens. Bleed Magic is there because like. oughh the eugene vibes manipulating oliver. god hes such an asshole i hate him

"who would want to hire a shivering mess like me" eugene coli when i fucking Get You

30–33: and of course, endings 9 & 10 :) (mostly ending 10). you're at the party is like. well 1 its my favorite lemon demon song and 2 just Look At It. The Vibes. No Heart To Speak Of is also like just Look At It that's ending 10. that's ending 10. he misses ángel. Ghosting i was resisting adding because i thought it'd be too low hanging fruit but like. yeag.

escapism sat there at the very end since the First iteration of the playlist which only had 15 songs back then. most of the songs here were added just in the last like. week lol. i'm normal and sane

also!! i know there's a lot of regular beebo ost in there but it was nice to have as both a marker of where in the story it is and Also a kinda transition of vibe. also its just nice :]

ANYWAYS throws this out into the wild like a bird i'm releasing. be free my playlist hope u enjoy :3

#detective beebo #detective beebo spoilers #isat spoilers #I love it when people do playlists like this #some of those song choices I was like “oh my god you're so right”#-1 HP -1 HP -1 HP -1 HP #will be listening to this with an unrestrained smile on my face

26 notes · View notes

general-brain-rot · 2 months ago

Text

Ángel Valdivia, the saddest, wettest cat with incredible characterization

So, Ángel really likes building facades for Beebo to get to know doesn't he? He takes on a new role every loop, and while it's a fantastic way for Bwob to show us aspects of Ángel's character since we (the player) remember events between loops, it's also characterization within characterization as we start figuring out why he relies on masks to deal with literally every single situation in game rather than just being genuine (we do get to see a few unabashedly genuine moments in different endings specifically, don't worry we'll get there guys <3). Between the curious flirt, then the old college friend, then the dashing criminal rival, then the fellow detective, how Ángel interacts with Beebo between loops to try and save everyone at this traumatizing dinner party is some of the most fun dissection of personality to sift through for him, so lets do just that!

(This is longer than I thought it would be, be warned lmao)

(also, spoilers, obviously >:3)

I LOVE when characters are given facades as means of giving them depth, especially when those facades are meant to be dismantled by the audience, like a series of porcelain masks we have to cycle through to see all the aspects of a character, all of their contradictions. The interesting part about Ángel is that, while most fictional characters are given one or maybe two faces to establish themselves, Ángel picks a new one every. single. loop. and even more exciting is that he fully commits to the bit every time! The masks he use all work together to give him an incredible amount of depth told through what is essentially another puzzle for the audience to figure out, so let's run through each major facade he uses and break his character down into contradictions, consistencies, and traits.

Loop 1, the Mysterious Flirt:

The first loop really just establishes that 1) Ángel is interested in Oliver, 2) that Coli may not have invited all these party guests for the best reasons if Ángel is to be believed with the "hunt us for sport" comment, and 3) that he's more than financially stable enough to afford to be a bit reckless with his life. It gives the player a decent baseline for this rich playboy persona we're introduced to and only just begins to complicate with the playful nature between him and Vivi to show the player that he actually does have some soft spots for his friends and a healthy amount of curiosity. He makes a few jokes, helps Oliver feel a bit more safe in the house when he starts to feel uneasy about the rooms, and continues to give off sly-cat energy up until the end of the loop. The last we see of him is crying over a dying Oliver in his arms before we close our eyes and-

Loop 2, the Charming College Friend:

Here's where it starts to get interesting! Oliver doesn't even get to make it out of the main room's doorway before the front door slams open, revealing a far more disheveled Ángel than who we first met out in the snow, cigarette half hanging from his mouth and tears fresh in his eyes. Obviously, watching both Vivi (his since high school friend) and Oliver (his new friend/romantic interest) die in front of him has affected him badly, but even still he is quick to set aside his own panic in favor of trying to look for them and/or Coli to kick his teeth in. We'll see some more of this intensely selfless behavior as time goes on, but for now we get to see him overjoyed to see Oliver alive actually, and close enough to hug! Physical touch love language Ángel you can all pry from my cold, dead hands, this guy needs to have contact or he will wither and die and this is the very first instance we see of that trait peeking through. Later when we see Ángel grab Oliver's hand to get him away from the clock, that's more of the same too, he can calm himself and keep his Beebster safe as long as he's got his hand in his own. Another noteworthy thing is that Ángel is quick to spin up a lie and a new persona once he realizes Oliver doesn't recognize him somehow, even though this situation is absolutely bonkers. While charming to us since the player does retain memory of past loops even if Oliver doesn't, it also makes you think just how easy it was for Ángel to commit to a really good lie, all while he's still actively panicking over watching two of his friends die right in front of him, and might make you wonder if he was even spinning a facade for us in the first loop when we met (spoilers, he was). This is hard proof for both Ángel's social awareness and skill with being able to manipulate himself into anywhere he may need to be, as well as his more emotional side watching him openly crying to handle the pain and go to great lengths to not waste a second chance at keeping his beloved friends safe. Before the loop ends, he admits to Oliver that he isn't so good at communicating after telling him about the fast life he used to live, never quite finding the sense of connection he was yearning for. Connection, a role even Vivi doesn't quite seem to fill, here it's revealed that Ángel harbors a deep sense of loneliness that he just can't seem to shake, likely because he can't seem to bring himself to be truly genuine with anyone he doesn't know inside and out (like Vivi), but is willing to try to find that connection with Oliver. Though, before he gets the chance, that one moment of safety is blown to pieces along with Oliver, always just out of reach of Ángel, always just a little too late to save him before-

Loop 3, the Endearing Ex-Criminal:

Ángel is running out of sanity and energy and finally gives into a bit of his anger. The past two facades were masks for him to both hide behind and blend in with, but until he can equip this next one to start actively trying to solve this situation instead of doing it reactively, he's gonna be a bit of a mess. He's still unafraid to show how he's feeling more honestly while around Oliver, seeing as he is now seriously considering killing Coli himself with a knife he just keeps on his person?? even though he doesn't know how the timeloop works and has no idea if Coli will just come back as well. I cannot stress this enough, he doesn't know, and doesn't seem to care or even think about that possibility while he's blinded by a mixture of exhausted rage and protective care. The next facade of leaning completely into the Dominion persona comes from Oliver this time around revealing him, but that doesn't mean he won't give it his all to play cops and criminals with Oliver as long as he gets to stay by his side the entire loop. Ángel makes a point to mention that Oliver will have to follow his "every move" to keep him out of trouble, which is 100% a scheme to keep Oliver exactly where he can see him and keep him safe. Something else discussed with Oliver that will get expanded upon in the next loop is this line from Ángel about the cigarettes killing him, mentioning that "something has too". It's a heavy melancholy, it's an admission of guilt cloaked in self-punishment for his perceived failures of losing Vivi's photobook and letting his friends die twice, even though those events were out of his control. I'll talk more about it in loop 4 but for now, keep paying attention to these seeds of blighted sadness when it comes to Ángel. Him and Oliver wander all throughout the house, learning it's name and some old inhabitants and more of the party guests, all culminating in Oliver checking out the shed in the yard. Though to do that, Oliver needs to trick Ángel into staying inside the house, and away from where he's going. He obviously doesn't react well, putting up the sad cat energy and starts showing his newly strengthened separation anxiety. This anxiety's true root is that protective nature revealed in previous loops being challenged by his continued failures in actually protecting anything/anyone thus far. This is the point in the game where the loops are affecting each other in tangible ways for Ángel's character, taking traits of his revealed in loops 1/2 and twisting them into warped versions of themselves in loop 3 and soon to be loop 4 from the trauma he's collecting. Protective care turning into separation anxiety and rage towards Coli, loneliness and social self-doubt turning into more intense facades and loss of care for his own safety, bordering on suicidal ideation, to atone for his self-proclaimed sins. Of course, the next time Ángel sees Oliver he's bleeding out in the snow, dying again the moment he left Oliver's side and while he's blaming himself, something finally changes. Oliver remembers the past loops because of the photobook he found in the shed, and renews Ángel's hope that they might be able to make it through this. Oliver dies slowly in the hands of his guardian angel who is finally starting to come up with a plan to save them all, and-

Loop 4, the Desperate Detective:

This is the fastest that Ángel has come up with a facade, and while it's shaky to us, it's more than convincing enough for Oliver. This is also the loop where Ángel admits he finally understands how scary it is to give your all for someone when interacting with the portrait 'My Heart and Soul', adding into the personality cocktail mix of mischief, empathy, loneliness, care, and adaptability, some good old devotion. This loop also gives Ángel more of his mischievous nature back because of the spark of hope Oliver gave him at the end of the last loop, so he seems to be having a bit more fun and falling easier into his detective facade this time around since he's more comfortable. While he still is urgent about talking to Oliver about what he knows about the house, he still can't help himself to some fun quality time with Oliver, case in point asking him about what he thinks each painting means and I mean each painting, even the dang fish tank! He's planning carnival dates, poking fun at his companion, engaging in banter with every object! He even jokes about the "maniac" coming to kill them when talking about being a father with Oliver, literally poking fun at being legit hunted for sport. It's a bit of a breath of relief before he starts to spiral again, seeing that Ángel isn't completely shattered from the loops and even realizing just how attached he is to Oliver and how good that attachment is for him. We saw earlier how much more emotionally honest Ángel is when around his detective companion, and he's only sharing more and more as the night trudges on, even revealing that a lot of the movies on the shelves he's cried to (like the Bee Movie, again showing just how deeply Ángel cares about everything around him in more ways than one, from art analysis to manipulating the laws he deems as unfair to openly weeping at most any film). Then, we get the emotional pinnacle for Ángel's character from the loops, the discussion in the R-1 bedroom. He mentions that "so many loved people, smart people, capable people" go about their lives as usual, speak with him, and then die just like that. He doesn't feel as loved/smart/capable as these people he's thinking of, he doesn't feel like he's worthy to remember them while they are gone, while he gets a chance at a life that they didn't. He thinks it's his fault, like he's some omen or active influence in the suffering of those around him, and that he should be punished in some way for being that. Ángel's perception of himself is so severely warped and has only gotten worse by being in the house, and now we get to see it on full display. The melancholy, twinges of hopelessness coming through, so much doubt, and he keeps smoking knowing full well that it's hurting him, that it's killing him. He's betting on it. When you're in a situation like his with the background of essentially neglectful parents, a fast and crime-filled lifestyle up until his late 20s, and now this timeloop where only he gets to remember the suffering that's happening to these people he sees as loved/smart/capable when compared with himself, of course he would feel responsible, he would feel awful, and nobody is primed to handle that emotionally. He feels so real, has complications and troubles like a real person does like real people I've met and cherished, and that's the mark of an incredibly well written character. The buildup through the loops revealed him to us, and now, we've got the homestretch-

Loop 5, The Six of Spades and the Truth:

Fun fact, did you know that the Six of Spades card can mean that you're moving somewhere either literally or metaphorically with a goal? that there's a solution close by?? moving on and letting go of the past??? This is the card you draw if you interact with the game table in the bar, I love foreshadowing. As the final stretch of the game commences and we are faced with choices that will determine our ending, Ángel and Oliver draw this card together right before it all goes down, it's a symbol that the end is in sight.

(tangent) This is also where we get the confirmation that Ángel was disowned by his father! And that as Dominion he made sure that his father's will gave everything to him! In the will labeling himself as "the bastard son" is an interesting choice of words especially since we know by now how socially aware Ángel is, which means he wrote that for maximum accuracy to read like his father would write it (everybody in this game got daddy issues damn- tangent over).

Since this is already incredibly long (whoops) I'm going to talk about his characterization in the endings in a separate post, but by this point we've gotten everything out of all of his facades and are able to put all the pieces together of this careful, empathetic, and terrified wet cat man.

From the start, Ángel was putting up the facades he usually does when interacting with new people, if possibly with a bit more tact considering how he thinks the night will go for him. It's his way of integrating himself into any environment and protecting his highly empathetic true self with a bit of armor. It readily establishes his mischievous nature, his inclination for a faster lifestyle (in asking Oliver to share a drink having known him for all of a single minute), and his social charm. Each of these facets is expanded upon after the first loop is done, with his mischief being painted with anxiety, with his urge to live fast fueled by attempting to evade his ever-growing loneliness, and with his social charm developed as a means to make it through today and see tomorrow (or so he hopes). As his fear grows, so too do his primary motivations: the need to protect those he loves and his fear of them going too far from his reach. He thrives under physical contact and overall closeness with those he loves, and he loves so intensely. This is most readily shown in how he cries at most media (even if it isn't saddening in any way) and puts a lot of thought into art that may not actually have a deeper meaning (like a simply broken fish tank). Everything he feels, he feels intensely, and everything he comes to loves he also comes to cherish like a fresh bloom, and that love grows thorns of fear that prick him constantly but he will never let go of that bloom of affection. The only thing that could take it from him is death itself, and it follows him everywhere. So much so, that he blames himself for things out of his control, that he yearns to atone for this curse of survivors guilt and his perceived uselessness. He smokes, because something has to kill him, a small part of him wants Coli to kill him because he thinks it might make up for his assumed wrongs. When in reality he's just been unlucky and afraid, and he hasn't had anyone to comfort him the way he needs and start to absolve him of the sins he sees himself to have. That is, until detective Oliver Beebo comes into the picture and makes him finally finally start to understand that maybe he isn't to blame, maybe he can find connection, and maybe this fear will become more manageable with time, and with some good company. This comes to more fruition in the true ending of the game, but we'll get there in due time. For now, celebrate naives,

FOR I AM FINALLY DONE WRITING THIS PART (lets ignore the fact that the ending's analysis will likely be this long-)

This creature haunts me, lives in my mind rent free even though I know he's rich enough to pay, that little freak. I hope my ramblings were enjoyable! I like this game a lot,,,,,,thank you Bwob for sharing your little fellas with us. I do have other things in the works to be written, but that will be some time yet.

#detective beebo #detective beebo spoilers #angel you've gotta stop being so relatable you're breaking my heart #character analysis #MausMusings

48 notes · View notes