#lis2

[hawtdawg2000]

a little seanxfinn comic i doodled in my sketchbook.

(transcript below. sorry for my handwritting.)

f: sean- you wanna come to my tent? you know, later tonight?

s: eh?

f: i'm just kidding. relax, man

f: i don't think i could help myself if we were alone together.

[masentickless]

i needed some serotonin...

[rottenfishhh]

I was born something

What could I be?

[eclrrtwo]

[xxx-ang3l-w1th-a-sh0tgun-xxx]

[basilosu]

hes so cute i want to throw rocks at him

[worseforwarren]

the beauty of life is strange

[thealexchen]

anything/one you consider underrated about the LIS franchise and specially anything from the individual games? And separately Bloom and Rage/Tell me why?

I’ve thought this over for awhile, and one aspect about Dontnod’s games in particular that I haven’t seen discussed is how well they romanticize the mundane parts of life. I’d make a whole video essay on this if I knew how to edit.

On the subreddit, there have been discussions about how the franchise brought people out of depression, helped them discover their queerness, become more in tune with their emotions, motivated them to reconnect or connect with others, and even small things like introducing them to new music artists. But honestly, Dontnod is the only company I know besides Studio Ghibli that captures the beauty in the everyday so well.

If you watch any Ghibli movie, you’ll see how their films include slow scenes to give room the viewer to breathe. There’s a quiet celebration of good food, good company, simple contentment, and love throughout their catalog. Their films are still a breath of fresh air when modern animated movies are overstimulating, 90-minute Tiktoks nowadays. But Ghibli movies also romanticize a tranquil, pastoral past that isn’t accessible to a lot of viewers. After all, we can’t all be Kiki in charming seaside town or meet Totoro in a beautiful, secluded forest. That’s why Dontnod games are so remarkable in how well they romanticize boring, old American suburbia.

So much of gaming is about colorful, fantastical landscapes for kids (most Nintendo games) or gritty, violent, hyperrealistic worlds for adults, all with complex mechanics and fast pacing. So Dontnod games are extra unique in how they almost exclusively feature regular, young protagonists (besides the superpowers, of course) in regular places you could imagine in the real world. Their environmental storytelling builds a believable history and world around them. They go to school, they use social media, they have friends and lives before the events of the game. The “moments of calm” are the game equivalent of those slow moments in Ghibli movies. But it’s obvious Dontnod doesn’t just pull inspiration from anime, they’re also inspired by American games, shows, books, and movies. So this isn’t just the devs’ nostalgia for 80s and 90s media, it’s their love for American pop culture.

How often do you see a positive, romanticized, progressive depiction of America by people outside of the U.S.? Hollywood makes enough movies set in the U.S., and the other examples are right-leaning, patriotic garbage. It’s so rare and almost charming to see that European touch on an American setting. Essentially, seeing the devs marvel at our little American quirks that we take for granted or complain about. Instead of Ghibli’s flower fields and endless rural hills, we get teenage bedrooms and rebellion. Only Dontnod would romanticize train tracks, high school hallways, gas stations, junkyards, the local diner, yellow school buses, dead-end towns, and American suburbia, while also featuring queer characters, POC, and sensitive social issues. Even in LiS2, where Dontnod is more critical of modern day race issues in the U.S., the entire game is still told through the narrative trope of the Great American Road Trip!

After all this time, I have to admit how endearing all of it is, even when it’s inaccurate or lacks subtlety. It makes me appreciate cross-cultural media more, and the LiS franchise and Dontnod’s similar games are a rare depiction of characters from marginalized backgrounds who get to be the heroes in regular old small town America.

Thank you for asking!

[frwalkwithme]

Idk if anyone's pointed these parallels out yet so I decided I will

[kirsssche]

summer days

[illegitmate-son-of-god]

[ponyayr]

love my problematic king🫶🫶

[kaytee111]

i drew sean diaz

[gawr1ckk]

fav duo

[phelpscott]

i’m posting this very late in the month but it still counts so HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!!!! these couples both mean the world to me and i am so thankful to dontnod for creating such beautiful queer love stories <3

[sunnyxdani]

there’s a lack of understanding about the point of life is strange 2

i don’t know if this is an unpopular opinion but it just makes me chuckle a bit when people talk about how much they hate every ending and how there should be an ending where their charges are dropped. like, yes, we all wish sean and daniel could’ve gotten justice like they deserved. but, as a black person playing this game, not once did i ever legitimately expect that to be the outcome.

there isn’t a happily ever after to this story and that’s quite literally the entire point. the game is about how fucked up the system is against people of color, specifically how it affected mexicans in that point in time with trump being in the picture.

i don’t know, i just find it funny how it truly feels like a lot of white people played this game and were like “:000 what????? you mean sean either ends up in prison for 15 years, dead, or is left to defend himself in another country????? but that’s SO unfair!” yeah. exactly. glad you’re caught up on what institutional racism is? like idk what to tell you girl

like, please open a news app or something because this shouldn’t be surprising. and the cherry on top is that this rage is generally exclusive to these two fictional characters lmao, cases happen similar to this one irl (without the powers involved obviously) and the same people won’t blink an eye. go to a protest or call your representatives if you’re so damn mad about the wolf brothers