fishbonesandknights

[fishbonesandknights]

me vs the human that hides under my bed

[fishbonesandknights]

not an artfight attack but look! my blorbos!! i love them so much may nothing bad or traumatizing ever happen to them

[fishbonesandknights]

fourth day, fourth attack! i see a hollow knight oc, i attack lmao this is zeralok made by @kittblush

[fishbonesandknights]

artfight attack of the day, LOOK AT THIS FUNKY GUY i love him that's toivo from a webcomic called ingress adventuring company, it's made by @pronglesart and i love the comic

[fishbonesandknights]

first attack this year! wahoo the cute and amazing bow by @finnthistle

[fishbonesandknights]

face study featuring the beloved fencer guy

after tracing like 6 of these low poly human heads (you probably know the one) i drew a face, then i went to sleep and drew another one on the next day, and WOAW. IMPROVEMENT. never forget to sleep when you study guys, let your brain devour the knowledge in peace

[fishbonesandknights]

drawing random stuff on magma

btw i'm on artfight just to let you know, the user is inkyfishy

[fishbonesandknights]

love that guy

[fishbonesandknights]

this is how i cope with the death of my favourite character

[fishbonesandknights]

fucked up knights my beloved

[fishbonesandknights]

hollow knight fans wake up it's time to draw another fucked up knight, this one roars

[fishbonesandknights]

why did i forget to post this

[fishbonesandknights]

Outer Wilds, Death, and the Unknown

WARNING! The following rambling contains heavy spoilers for both Outer Wilds, and the Echoes of the Eye DLC

GO PLAY THE GAME BEFORE READING THIS PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ITS SO GOOD

Also everything I say here is just several years of brain rumination rolled into one post so if its REALLY LONG and nonsensical and dumb whoops there ya go that's what you signed up for I guess

Outer Wilds is a strange game. At its core, there is a story about exploration, about memories, but fundamentally about one thing:

Learning to let go.

While everyone's experience with the game will be different as they weave together more of the past and learn more both about the nomai and the universe, there are always a few key moments that I think stand out to most players.

The first realisation, that being that the sun will always explode, and everyone will die. But we, within the loop, can prevent this.

The second realisation, that being that the nomai are the reason that we keep looping, and the sun station is likely the cause of the sun's explosion.

And the third realisation. Or, well, series of realisations.

The realisation that the sun station failed, that this disaster is not something we can prevent. The realisation that there was no experiment gone wrong that wiped out the nomai, they just... died. And the realisation that there's nowhere to run.

The universe is dying, and there's no way to prevent it.

But once the player learns to let go...

I'm getting ahead of myself here. The first thing I really wanted to talk about was the hearthians, and the nomai.

One thing that's made very clear to the player from the very first time they open their eyes at the campfire, and make their way through Timber Hearth talking to people, is this strange outlook that the hearthians have on death and danger.

People seem quite... not exactly ignorant to it? People wish you luck on your journey, and tell you to remain safe, but many of the hearthians acknowledge the potential danger of your journey, and encourage you to go anyway.

From various mentions of the unwieldy nature of your ship and the launch pad, to the kids asking if you'll be lost in space like Feldspar, or even from the player's own dialogue choices.

"I'm ready to die in space."

To the hearthians, the prospect of adventure, of discovery, is greater than any potential fear of death.

The nomai have a similar yet slightly different viewpoint. You can see it in their haste to warp to the eye's signal, without taking any precaution or informing anyone else. There is knowledge to be found, and so they go.

It is the same thing with the sun station. If they managed to power it, but the ATP failed somehow, then they and all life in the solar system would die. But still, the science is sound, and if it worked... they'd find the eye. Again, their hunger for knowledge is greater than any fear of death. Even after experiencing consequence for this, being stranded in the solar system, the nomai treat this as just another step in their journey than as a tragedy.

Now all of this loops back around to my real, main point. How the themes of Outer Wilds are echoed in its gameplay.

Everyone's experience playing Outer Wilds is different. But many people will have the same initial kind of feelings. Something both reflected in games, and in our real lives, is the fear of death. Of course in real life its a bit more permanent, but in games, death means a loss of progress, a setback.

And initially, this might be reflected in how you play Outer Wilds, as well. If you die, be it from walking into ghost matter, getting crushed under between rising sand and a rock, or even just falling from a great height... It's frustrating.

You're under a time limit, and this added setback means that you have to start your journey all over again, fly back to where you want to go, traverse an unknown planet.

Yet as you play, more and more, you learn more about the nomai. You start to think more like a hearthian. You meet all these travellers on your journey, read about all these people from a past civilisation...

And you learn to stop fearing death.

Embracing their philosophies, you leap a chasm to see what's on the other side. You sprint through caves, barely making it, just to know what lies beyond. You fall into a black hole on purpose, because someone else has before you, and you want to know what they found.

And finally, when you reach the eye, you look into an endless whirlpool, and dive in without a second thought.

You learn to let go of the world around you, of the people you've found on your journey, on these worlds that once you might have cling so dearly to.

You learn to let go of your life, but in doing so, you give life to the next universe, to the next set of creatures.

I feel a similar way about the DLC, about the Owlks and their story, and how that too is mirrored in gameplay. While the initial exploration of the Stranger is very similar to that of the base game, as soon as you enter the simulation, or the dream world, or whatever you want to call it, everything changes. Darkness surrounds you, lights in the fog echo company, and danger. Strange noises haunt your surroundings, and all that you have to accompany you is a single light.

When the Owlks first learned of the eye, they acted as the nomai did. They stopped everything, and travelled to follow the signal. Yet when they finally gained knowledge...

They didn't understand what they saw. It frightened them. The visions of death and rebirth were enough to cause them to shun the eye completely, to burn their temples to the ground, to destroy any and all records of what they had found, so that no one else could reach this horrible entity, and cause what they had seen in their visions.

But the Owlks could not let go. Even with all of this damage done, they could not let go of what they once had. They could not let go of their home planet. They could not let go of their memories.

They burnt all the slide reels, but kept a copy of every one, locked away in vaults. They destroyed their home planet, but made a recreation, idealised, yet flawed. They clung to life, and feared the unknown.

And this is how Echoes of the Eye mirrors its themes in its gameplay. Much as the base game becomes easier once you learn to no longer fear death, the DLC truly opens up when you learn to no longer fear the unknown.

Once you stop hiding from the lights in the darkness and approach them, you learn how they act. You learn how to avoid them. The 'horror' sections turn to much more simple stealth sections, baiting the Owlks to one area and running to the next. Embracing the unknown, and not letting that fear control you, is how you eventually learn to traverse the dreamscape, and find the answers you are looking for.

[fishbonesandknights]

more silly doodles bcuz i thought this fit these two

original post

[fishbonesandknights]

until you find me hiding

[fishbonesandknights]

just a Gabbro pondering as the new day approaches. Oughhh

recently gifted Outer Wilds to a friend, i miss this game so much.

[fishbonesandknights]