#she starts off lawful good...goes through the ENTIRE neutral spectrum...

[direwombat]

Emo about syb's slow moral trasition from being lawful good to lawful evil

[violetosprey]

TDDUP My thoughts on Aria

Doing one of these for each of the 5 stars in TDDUP (yes, even the ladies).  This is incredibly subjective, so I decided not to call this a review.  Rant sounds too negative to me, it’s more a mix of gushing and analysis here.  Anyways, MAJOR SPOILERS ahead because I may talk about stuff not revealed until the very end of a play through.  In fact I’m probably going to talk in a way that just assumes the person reading this has completed TDDUP.  Kinda like, “Oh I won’t give the whole story of this scene because you know what I’m talking about.”  Without delay, let’s talk about Aria.

Alright, I’ll get right to the point on this one:  Aria scares me.  In the BTD series and TDDUP, there are a lot of scary characters who do horrible things.  And honestly, I’ve been pretty good with all the characters.  I kind of think of it at times like when I went to see the new 2017 “It” movie.  The only thing that scared me in that film were the brief jump scares.  The rest of the time, it was just exciting to watch (gets your adrenaline pumping).  I loved the movie!  I definitely would not categorize it as anything but horror, but I was having fun watching the events unfold.  It’s not like the subject matter is light-hearted either.  So I guess I kind of always thought of the BTD and TDDUP characters like that.

You know that disclaimer about the beginning of these games though?  The one that mentions “This game was built to thrill,” and “If you’re feeling overwhelmed, close the game and take a break?”  Aria is the ONLY character in the entire series the made me physically take a break from the game to get my composure back.  I could not go back to her route or the game at all for several hours (and this was when I was all hyped up after the release).  These games are a choice to do and I really encourage people to take their time and not push their boundaries to an area that’s beyond their comfort level.

I did manage to recover and actually got all of Aria’s endings.  But I don’t think I will ever be able to play her route again.  It’s funny, we’ve had endings and characters involving snuff films, getting your head sawed off, being burned alive, getting ripped apart, having your soul stolen, getting turned into a living doll, getting shot, being dismembered, being left to die alone in a creepy forest, being forced to eat yourself, getting eaten (which happens more often than you think in these games), being boiled alive, being beaten to death, being chained up, being forced to observe necrophilia, being mind broken, being caged, and having insects put in your ears just to name a few.  All that stuff?  Been fine with.  The endings for me have ranged from being “meh” to “oooh that was so dark I love it.”  Not to mention I start to embarrassingly even gush over some characters (especially a certain yandere *sweats*).

But go figure that the one person to freak me out, is not only one of the completely human characters, but probably the one who...is the least threating honestly.  There is no way Aria could take on ANY of the other cast with the exception of maybe Ellen (only because...I don’t know who’d win in a fight, they’re really different).

First off, I guess I need to say what DOESN’T bother me about Aria before anyone starts to think anything: the incest angle.  To be perfectly honest, I feel pretty neutral about her having feelings for her brother.  Actually from a story standpoint it kind of helps a little better for her to have that to explain why she goes so far.  Because when I think about it, if she didn’t have those forbidden feelings, she’d come off as overprotective of her brother still yes...but I think this gives her character a better dark edge believe it or not.  Incest in real life, not a fan of.  Incest in fiction though I have a different view entirely.  I have both shipped incest pairings, as well as cringed and nearly vomited at them in fiction.  The problem is I can’t distinguish what causes me exactly to ship or hate an incest pairing.  I’ve tried to write the notes down, but there’s really no consistent criteria.  All I know is it STRICTLY depends on the the characters themselves and I think how it affects the story.  In this case, I don’t really feel like Aria and Chris would make a good pair, but I think Aria having feelings for Chris gives her more character.

So then what does bother me?  One ending.  ONE ending out of all five shook my core and made me legitimately afraid of this character:  “Aria walled you in.”

It’s weird because I’m not claustrophobic, though I do cringe at the thought of someone sewing a person’s mouth shut.  But this ending really managed to get under my skin and I had to think for awhile why exactly.  Horror is indeed meant to scare you, and I finally found something that did scare me in these games.  But it not only scared me, but disturbed me.

I think the key here is the entire scenario for the route.  Remember, the MC in Chris’s path is a verbally abusive spouse, and Aria is a VERY mad sister-in-law.  She’s there to give you your comeuppance.  So while Chris was violent, Aria tortures you while keeping you in her basement.  MC starts to realize towards the end of the path that what they’ve done to Chris is wrong, and they want to make things right.  The thing is though when you look at all of Aria’s endings...she never planned to let you redeem yourself from the very start.  The only ending where she doesn’t kill you...she sells you (fun fact: I actually liked this ending because it’s a tie in to Gurobob’s “The Hunt” game for the future- so cool!).  Chris in his endings, if he doesn’t get furious and kill you...either leaves you alone (sometimes even turns HIMSELF in) or you compromise.  This is what makes Chris a good person (just the violent snap was a bad decision).

However, I think the kicker with the ending where Aria walls you in, is the fact that you hear Chris and her talking upstairs.  You’re listening to him moving on without you and the two of them laughing happily.  Meanwhile, your mouth is sewed up, and you’re left trapped in the walls of the basement.  Aria’s not coming back to torture you.  As far as she’s concerned, it’s better if you just disappear.  So you have to spend the rest of your days, unable to scream, unable to move, listening to Chris and Aria live happily without you there.  You can never apologize to Chris.  Inevitably you’ll die of starvation and/or dehydration.

This ending doesn’t just scare me for the claustrophobia and the “I have no mouth but I must scream” trope; It’s disturbing because it’s also very sad.  Someone finally told you off for your behavior all those years, gave you your punishment, and then you are left to die.  And this is where you have to ask the question:  Did the MC indeed deserve this fate?  It’s actually a question that scares me to think about because I’m not sure I know the answer to it.  Is it pretentious to think that I as the MC would be entitled to fix my mistakes after years of abuse to Chris?  Or is there indeed a limit to how far a person like Aria should go when someone has hurt their loved one?

I think the key here is WHO is giving you punishment: Chris vs. Aria.  You have Chris, who has been the victim in all of this and is a very sweet guy.  He gets violent when he snaps, but can realize his mistake later.  Aria is not the direct victim here but a sister who cares very deeply to her brother (too deeply even).  Of course most people like Aria would want to smack Chris’s spouse in the face.  But is she entitled to kidnap and torture you?  I don’t know...The problem here is I actually don’t know all that much about Aria as a character.  She loves her brother a lot, and she helped Marcus out with his divorce because he was a friend of Chris’s.  So she’s good and loyal to some.  She’s also incredibly smart.  Beyond that though, how does Aria even act around the average every day person?  Is she like Marcus, who is “generally” a good person and a good cop, just one minor flaw (his obsessive love with MC).  Or is Aria actually more of a cruel, even sadistic, person naturally?  That’s not stuff we learn about, so it really makes me wonder if she’s the type of character that deserves to torture you.

When all is said and done though, I need to thank ElectricPuke here.  Of course Aria scares me legitimately and she’s my least favorite character in the series because of it.  But I’m really glad she’s there actually.  Listen, these are all FICTIONAL characters.  No one needs to really get up in arms about who likes what kind of dark material as long as it’s enjoyed in a safe manner (and the atrocities are not replicated in real life).  As long as people know their own boundaries and don’t push others into something they don’t enjoy, everyone can coexist peacefully.  Creating a villain character doesn’t making you a villain either (If it does, we might need to keep an eye on Stephen King :P).  There was a tiny part of me going through these games though that wondered “Gee, there’s a lot I let slide in fiction.  Is this still sane or healthy?”  So when Aria actually spooked me, I felt better.  It’s good to know that yes, I do have limitations.  They’re not easily apparent, and this game caught me off guard by the scenario.  But it’s nice to see I can recognize a stopping point for myself.

Please be respectful then to people who say “Character A in TDDUP I love, but I’m afraid of Character B.”  Everyone has their own tastes and their own thresholds.  Sometimes for reasons they can’t even explain.  By the way, I’d bet good money that Jack freaked out the most people for his hobby :P

So yeah if you read this post vs. the one I wrote about Marcus...completely opposite ends of the spectrum here, haha.  Also like Marcus, I’m not sure if I can probably judge if Aria is a good character or not because I’m so afraid of her.  I don’t hear people talk about Aria or Ellen as much as the guys, so I don’t know what the general public thinks either.  I’d be curious if people actually liked Aria and thought she stuck it to the MC well, or if people got creeped out like I did.

For any future games likes these, just remember to watch the warnings guys!  Enjoy yourself, but don’t push yourself.  I’m still looking forward to more of Puke’s character’s for sure.

Only one more character to go now!