#cw hunger

[justredthingsblog]

This tea might just be too hot

Some thoughts on the conclusion of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, class, humanism and personal experience. Before I say anything else, I want to say that my thoughts and feelings on this topic are not any more "right" or justified than anyone else's and that I deeply appreciate however each person has experienced this story. Heavy spoiler warning for everything I am going to say, and a warning for heavy themes relating to both the game and the real world.

The game begins with us getting to know the people of Lumiere, a civilization of orphans trying to farm and survive for a little while longer in the bombed ruins of their home town. We see death and devastation, but we also see solidarity and hope shining through. Our main characters are farmer, a farmer-researcher, another researcher, and an orphaned child working as a courier. Our main characters are facing despair, disadvantaged by their situation, coping with physical disability as well as emotional turmoil. We also see the support and the healing a collective can offer. While we, the players, are not people of Lumiere, we can empathize with their plight. We, too, must live with uncertainty and fear, often under forces uncontrollable to us that shape our daily lives, be that illness, war, oppression or poverty. We toil and oppose the despair everyday, not just for our own gain but for the well-being of our families and communities, our friends, environment and the future. For those who come after. When we get deeper into the world, we meet two more benign peoples facing devastation and genocide. We also learn they have their own beautiful cultures, their unique beliefs and a will to survive. We are united in the struggle for survival and grow an ever larger understanding of the collective we are fighting for. Even our most common opponent, the Nevrons, don't appear as an oppressor as much as a people enslaved to fight a war that does not serve their own interest. On occassion, we meet a Nevron who's broken these chains and pursued another meaning, and none of these Nevrons exhibit unprompted aggression, instead seeking connection and fullfillment. Later on, we are joined by a single father and his son, Noco, who in the process of the story is lost, not even as an active participant but as a bystander, collateral damage. Renoir, who fails to even take proper notice of the loss he has caused, sees no significance in the life of a child to whom personhood does not in his view apply. To us, the players, Noco was as real as all the people in the story, though. We saw him with his family, we saw his hopes and dreams, in many ways Noco was more of a person to us than the blurred out images children in the news as their lifeless bodies are carried out from the ruins of their bombed out homes. At no point in the story is there a clear distinction between who is "really real" in a way we could tell. Both the people of the canvas and the Dessendres are shown to have their motivations and this is carried out all the way to the end where Verso clearly has the ability to defy the "creators" of his world. It might even be interpreted from the text of the story that the "writers" responsible for Verso's death and Alicia's disability are in fact the writers of the game, making the life of the Dessendres in par with the peoples of the canvas even within the context of the story.

... and then some time later we find out about the Dessendre family, their loss and struggles and that they are high class mansion owners. The complex feelings of this dysfunctional family of four are the determining factor that drives the destructive, genocidal events in a world scale. To the Dessendres, though, this is not a question of genocide or planetary destruction. The peoples of the Canvas world are not real people like them, with real feelings and real motivations. They are but a cog in a machine that has stopped serving the interests of the Dessendres, an item that can be discarded. This would not be anywhere near so disheartening if this was not the exact reasoning that has allowed so much war, oppression and genocide in our world. Who is human enough, worthy of whole personhood, is twisted and molded depending on the needs of the powerful. The people of the canvas are spontaneous, living in the moment, people farming the land and living in huts and having crass, at times brutal, simple lives. They dance and they have sex, they love, they play, they lose, they imagine and hope. No people in the canvas own mansions, though. They do not go to the university. They are not eloquent in their speech and highly trained in their art. They do not have the luxury to remain home to grieve or to recover. Once they become disabled, orphaned, widowed, once death looms right ahead, they adapt and drag themselves right back to work because they must, for their families and communities. For the vast majority of people of our world too, this is the reality of life, and for this, our lives are considered worth less and our humanity minimized. I'm sorry to say this, but at this point in the game I became so much less invested with the whole story. Suddenly I am asked to empathize with a couple of mansion owners and conclude that there are two equally bad and bittersweet options: either four people's lives must be inconvenienced so that a world with it's civilizations can survive and rebuild OR that it is an acceptable trade-off to destroy a world to make four really wealthy people feel better and deal with their maladaptive coping strategies. As much as I have enjoyed Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and as much as I love the characters, the story and the heart put into all of it, the ending can not stop bothering me, and NOT because it was bittersweet or dark, but because it felt a little too much like how the people in power in my world must see my life and the life of my family, my friends, my community, and millions of people and communities just like mine around the world: I've had to flee persecution and endure hunger and systemic violence. I've lost friends and family members to illness and despair. I've fed my child queuing in the bread line, I've begged for medicine from the church, I've done things you would not like to even imagine to keep a roof above my family's head. Insurance denied and disability benefits withheld, I go to work and face physical violence on a constant basis. It is my daily wish for my family and friends to stay fed and sheltered and that we would not face war or persecution. I have more in common with the peoples of the canvas than I will ever have in common with the Dessendre family, and this applies to a lot of people, maybe you too.

There is no brilliant way to end this ramble. It is overly personal, it is biased, and maybe it is taking a role-playing game intended for refreshment way too seriously. In the event that this resonated with you, though, or you have something to share in the spirit of a friendly exchange, please feel free to do so.

It is my most sincere intent to keep this positive. Let us play, create and share. Let us cry together. Let us hope and believe in a better future. No matter how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 ends, that is not how we end. Let's go forward together, for us, and for all those who come after. Please take care of yourself and others and know you are precious.

[robotslenderman]

it's weird. without meds I don't have much of an appetite; with ADHD meds it's even worse. I could be starving but if I don't feel like eating the food in front of me I just won't eat it. ADHD meds got rid of hunger too, but appetite was reduced even further. I may as well be starving and only have cardboard in front of me. people say if you're hungry enough you'll eat anything but I've never been able to relate to that.

my new psychiatrist told me that the new meds would make me hungrier. she was wrong. I'm not hungrier at all. I just want to eat more often, even when I'm not hungry at all. and it just made me wonder if I'm weird because I've always been able to tell the difference between hunger and appetite. my hunger hasn't changed at all.

[sleepsentry]

Un-pixeled peice + artist's notes under the cut:

⚠️CW: Discussion of digestion/eating issues. Not graphic just mentions.

This is a peice I made months ago to illustrate intense, gut wrenching, feelings of pressure and stress.

My digestion is heavily influenced by my anxiety disorder so I've had pretty terrible tummy issues my whole life. It's gotten much better these past two years as I finally finished school. It's been a big relief! ^^

I also have trouble remembering to eat and letting myself go hungry because of my executive dysfunction and sensory processing issues.

I think this captures that scraping, cavernous, tension of an empty stomach.

Something about simultaneously feeling crushed by overwhelming squishy suffocating weight and like a husk being scraped at the edges....

I'm fine btw I've been working towards getting better. I don't want to worry anyone unnecessarily. ^^

This illustration is really cool, shame I never posted it before, guesse it felt too personal back then.

[the-bibrarian]

Why does being hungry always makes me nauseous? My body is so stupid 🥲

[awetfrog]

girls night out

[ariiiloves]

I WANT A BURGER SO BAD

[corn-cardigan]

happy (late) anniversary to funger! you weird, wonderful game I can never recommend to a majority of people.

[steadypet101]

CW: Hunger mention if you don't want to read this small note.

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I also wonder if Igor can get a bit hungry in the middle of the night? Just imagine feeling empty and wanting to snack on something, but you can't because you will ruin your appetite. You'd be feeling hungry while your stomach would grumble just for a bit until you eventually forget about it and fall into a deep slumber💤

[varoness]

Radiant. CW body horror

[foxdoodles]

“you believe me like a god / i’ll destroy you like i am”

— i’m your man, Mitski

[fungerisms]

hello funger tumblr no time no see

[aziidaa]

wyd when u see the ghosts of ur situationships waltz together

[awetfrog]

bro can't comprehend

[mitchelf-citadel]

Mechanical Dance

Why did she have to give up the greater part of herself?

I guess it never really was her choice to begin with, was it...

...Will you dance with her, even now?

Certified Termina moment

Fear & Hunger: Termina

[corn-cardigan]

i cant believe they managed to kill several gods together

[teal-fiend]

pred who was trapped away for centuries, hunger only building and festering over the years