#the tools and knickknacks found by the farmers getting left in piles makes me so sad every time

[armed-aphrodite]

Pentiment is rightly praised for how it shows its history's foundations, but what it does best is show you how history is corrupted. In tracking a town for 25 years, you get to see how decisions change the town over time. But you also get to see how down the line, nobody agrees on why those decisions were important, how they should be remembered and depicted.

It's most tangible with regard to the events of the town, the murders and the Event toward the end of Act 2. You get to take part in these, see exactly what happens, decide to some degree the fate of the town. And then when you paint the murals, you see the disparate ways different people remember, want to remember, and want to be remembered the events you've seen. You send letters to people in far off places for whom these events are distant memories because they're! somehow! the! best! source of information for events in the town you are in at the time!

It's most impactful though in the history of the town. The Pagans, the Romans, the Christianization, all exist in half-remembered stories and myths that come to you naturally, but it's hard to remember (until the fantastic end) that they are these half-remembered bastardizations. Keeping them in memory is difficult in itself; if you don't manage to convince Ursula to remember the old ways as a child, nobody will keep the Pagan rituals and myths alive.

And the act of painting of the murals in Act 3, seemingly an excuse to get you to investigate, are really an opportunity for you to do just what those older civilizations did. Like the Pagan art that is Roman, the Roman art that is Christian, the Christian art that is Modern, the murals that you paint will be interpreted and misinterpreted and coopted by whoever comes next. You get to take part in the same awkward act of creation. I think the Roman ruins are the best metaphor: the future won't live in the home you built, but will use the stone to make a home for themselves.