https://ko-fi.com/boiraplena miri ☘️ | 27yo | n1 coralena freak | I may post nsfw🔞 content here but it'll be under a read more (and reblogs will be tagged as nsfw or suggestive)
It has been revealed that there's an intentional timeline (Temptation Stairway–> Dating Oblivion–> EDBBQ) so I want to talk about PoP as sort of a disconnected prologue to present the themes in EDBBQ. Meaning:
Following what I theorized to be the internalized male gaze of EDBBQ, it could've been preluded by the looming strong presence of patriarchal oppression in previous ENA episodes, as particularly shown in Power of Potluck.
I wrote an analysis of the animation from this perspective under the cut.
This animation stands out for it's very bared structure in 5 named acts and point-and-click game style of subtitles and frame. This style of literal framing gives off a sense of oppressiveness together with the birdseye POV (as if we're watching her from someone else's eyes) compared to prior animations. But, as you probably know, it's not there for the entire animation, only appearing when she's in the house surrounded by those that know more than her. I also wanna mention how several of the settings are reminiscent of several human organs, in which ENA would be travelling through them.
DESCRIPTION
ENA rings the doorbell of a turtle-shaped house and is immediately thrown into a literal gutsy journey. On a dirty corridor carpeted in red and flanked by taped-up metal doors we meet Ivy, a literally split-in-half feminine character that rushes ENA into the performance; not before judging her for not enjoying herself enough.
We follow ENA through several rooms in a backward journey from what was the anus/urethra, bypassing the intestines to what we could assume to be the stomach.
This place contains several feminine figures hurting, who yet claim that their tears are of joy. Their vulnerable positions and entrapment could lead to several sinister readings to it but I want to call attention to the effort they make to deliver their words. A growth covers the original mouth with a new one and then projects two new sets of lips forcefully detached from them... all as if to seem like these aren't their words, their truth, they're passing onto ENA. And just like the figures have their two degrees of separation, ENA has her sad mask of deluding happiness.
In the "stomach", the tears pool on the ground and sink down the drain as if to parallel the idiom of "swallowing one's tears".
And so they guide ENA to the source of their joy (?) and that'd be entering the performance aka walking through the red curtain to Act 2 or The Rising.
ENA appears to be observed by masculine-coded strangers in a dark street and does not find this ("element of womanhood") amusing at all. We could say the title of this act equates male attention with a "rising" or "ascension" into more (more human, more value, more responsibilities, more attractiveness...) but she seems to denounce the perceived positivity in this situation.
With acts 3 and 4 we are presented with the most cryptic of acts: Crescendo of a Descent. In it, ENA searches for an explanation for her discomfort and is only shown vague gestures and emotions while being asked to take part in. It ends with ENA rebelling against the situation for having been thrown into stage and not being given enough of a justification for it. Basically we can see how they're all manipulating and messing around with her.
Before tackling act 5 I want to talk about the naming of the acts, or rather, the artifical structure permeating the entire narration.
STRUCTURE BREAKDOWN
Here's what we're shown, with the actual traditional names of a 5-Act structure in parenthesis:
Act 1: Display ("Exposition")
Act 2: The Rising ("Rising Action")
Act 3 and 4: Crescendo of a Descent ("Climax" and "Falling Action")
Act 5: Therapy ("Resolution" –> actually namedropped by the therapist. It is also the only actually named act, the ending, the lesson. ENA's struggle is of no matter to the creator of the structure.)
We can see a lack of interest in allowing them to have a more descriptive name or appear in logical points; rather, it just feels as if they just act as a constrain to the story, a constrain to ENA's story/existence. In the same manner, acts 3 and 4 appear to have been "rushed" by whoever seeks to pressure ENA since they are presented together instead of separately.
The meaningless names of the acts, their random appearance and the rushedness of "Crescendo of a Descent" all point to a sense of irritation from the "narrator" itself. We increasingly get the sense that someone has been injecting these acts onto ENA's life. After all, it is right at the moment where ENA seems to start to show anger, rebel and oppose this strange atmosphere that act 3-4 is finished. And so we get to...
ACT 5: THERAPY
It being named "Therapy" seems to want to convince us that there's some kind of healing understanding from the part of the therapist when it literally starts with a roaring patronizing outburst:
Perhaps this phrasing feels more familiar:
"You will understand when you're older".
A closed argument. According to this one sentence there is no other way for her life to evolve, her fate has already been written (by him).
[I also want to mention the title for the EDBBQ track used in this trailer:
anemoia (noun): nostalgia for a time or a place one has never known.
Which, if we take it to mean what's referred to be her struggle in PoP, it makes it feel like perhaps it's just a joy she'll never experience.]
Back to PoP, whether that be having your period, having a child or being a servile wife, the patriarchal figure wants no discussion and cuts the rebellious thinking. Even if seemingly delivered in kindness, these are the only words exchanged before she's basically kicked out:
💀: Because it's a joy you still don't understand.
So... tell me... what's the flavour of today's voyage?
I feel this is lightly sarcastic, "Why are you here again?", "What's the matter with you now?" but ENA doesn't seem to catch it or doesn't care. She needs answers.
🎭: Abysmal! Tastes like I'm in a real cosmic stew.
These words betray a painful feeling of existential dread, of her sense of self being slowly boiled-eroded into the oblivion of the cosmos
💀: I sense that there might be a touch of exaggeration in your joy.
She was not expressing joy in her words, and her tone was expressing sarcasm. Being in a "cosmic stew" could not be anything positive. This figure doesn't seem to listen to her words.
🎭: Well, the timeless journeys through these play(s) always are familiar. Everytime, I aknowledged the enjoyment and pleasure... and all I got were incomprehensible feelings... and this lousy mask."
She refers to what she calls "enjoyment and pleasure" except we know she never liked it. She calls it that only in the presence of the therapist, too. It's as if her feelings had been redefined by him to the point she lacks the words to call her pain as pain. And so we could interpret that she is speaking of self-repression and feeling excluded due to her "incorrect" feelings.
💀: You've been coming here persistently– over and over. The truth is, though, you will never find fun in this place.
We see a concession from the therapist, perhaps in the hope that ENA will stop questioning. The response to ENA's repression is validation and the aknowledgement of who she is as essentialy clashing against "this place", or rather, "this path chosen for her". If we follow my theory that'd be the path chosen for her by the patriarchal expectations.
🎭: Perhaps you have other suggestions?
💀: Fun is quite the elusive varmint– isn't it? But remember: it is never lost forever. Often, the greatest of fun can be found in the little moments.
Literally saying "Happiness is in the little things". He eludes the question with an empty platitude that could even imply that she has no option but hang onto the little moments of the only viable path. Even if true it completely disregards ENA and her current questioning. He threw in a little validation, a little happiness, enough to immediately attempt to move her thoughts away from her will to question.
🎭: *sniff* like... how little they are?!
She speaks of few/short fun moments and yet tries to find them adorable for its lack-there-of. Essentially, romanticizing having a starved spirit. Fittingly enough, the ENA in DBBQ seems to find fun in her exploration escapades, the way she interacts with the world and petting all manner of creatures in between the many interactions that demean her.
💀: You need not return here anymore. This is your Resolution.
Namedrop of the traditional name for the last act, practically showcasing to us the control this patriarchal figure has been holding over ENA. This constraining structure looming over her thoughts essentially kicks her out of creating more dissent inside his literal frame.
In addition, the phrasing of "here's your Resolution" sounds less like a therapy session and more like a court ruling a sentence on her.
WOMANHOOD AS AN ASCENSION INTO SUBMISSION
I want to point these other imagery elements that point at the nucleus of her troubles radicating on a recent rise into "womanhood", a label that is socially-understood to be when an afab person gets their first period:
The "entrance" (from what looks like the urethra) into her questioning is a red carpet.
On act 1, she appears rubbing her back/lower back (a common painful spot during menstruation) as she complains about not recognizing this strain of "joy".
When someone gets their period, a lot of hormonal changes and neural connections occur, and it can cause sudden and intense mood swings together with bursts and plummets of energy. ENA speaks of "Connections and bonds (...)" likely quoting people who may have shown joy at seeing her with these new predicaments while she does not find any joy in her situation.
The exploration of the innards of a physical body (as shown within the first act) might indicate that Ena is trying to go to the root of her discomfort and understand why adults are happy while she has to act as if she understands and isn't in pain and/or discomfort.
Many cultures celebrate when girls get their period because it "makes them into women," as they now can have children and continue the family legacy just like they did. This puts a lot of pressure to perform happiness or look for it by these confused children, as adults claim motherhood as the most important life mission for a woman. At the same time, it seeks to dissuade any questioning regarding the dangers/responsibility/morality of imposing said motherhood. Essentially, we are talking of a socially-enforced grooming into desiring a patriarchal cisheteronormative life.
After all this, she exits from where she entered, in which ENA is confronted by Moony and this new character she drags around like a backpack performing masculinity... perhaps for ENA? In which it proves completely useless as we see it lose its appearance to reveal some pathetic businessman that Moony immediately chooses to hide.
I feel the social conditioning of womanhood equating bodily changes to maturity has pressured Moony into acting more mature than her age so she just kidnapped a guy (?) off the road to be her romantic labubu. Then, said guy attempts to perform masculinity for ENA as his own version of maturity for a few seconds until he gives up. The result is the dissonance of what feels like a trio of early teens trying to act like what they think adults all are while still playing ring rong run.
My initial hypothesis was that what I interpreted as internalized misogyny in EDBBQ could've been foreshadowed by PoP. And seeing how ENA had "been coming here persistently" she could very well have been trying to fight it the only way she knew: relying on knowledgeable adults to guide her towards better alternatives.
But, of course, we know those were precisely the ones vouching for that lifestyle as the only correct one.
Ruthlessly dunking on TADC under the read more, DON'T LIKE DON'T READ.
And also don't send me asks abt it, I just want to vent. If you liked it (or didn't) then that's that, don't let me steal your enjoyment of it.
Also when I say ruthless I mean it, last warning.
The animation was really good and the VA work was mostly fine (even if several VAs are just not my taste). I want to say the Caine song was fun but also I was quite out of it by then due to the dialogue and whatever that atrocious un-nuanced breakdown was. The animation couldn't stick to a general mood/palette/light which was quite jarring but I'd call that part of the lack of a general direction (in the rhythm/pace department) not the fault of the animators. I'm not going to pin this on one person either since there's so much proofreading done by many people but anyway...
The dialogue was a redditor's wet dream of straight-forward edgy nerd, the lore was pure predictive text levels of uninspired, the pace was frenetic and there was no sense to it and; since there's practically no human mystery bc of the unrealistic presence of an omniscient narrator, there's no feeling of existentialism anymore... even though that promised to be the biggest theme.
In terms of genre it feels like TADC can't decide whether it wants to be a thriller with cartoon characters designed for children or a human drama about existentialism, living in a surveillance state and the inherently dangerous nature of living in a society and having to trust others... With this I mean it fails at the initial dystopian image of "seems for children but is not" most basic levels of premise for this "adult animation with adult characters". It can't settle on being the "boring" story, there's gotta be big dramatic fights with the AI, there's gotta be 3 heart to hearts per episode, we have to know everyone's feelings so they remain good and easily understandable and therefore forgivable; there's no stakes/struggle/friction, no sense of immersion. The prospect of us having to take seriously cartoon characters designed for toddlers and kids no longer applying made it catastrophic levels of failure in tone and direction.
You may think I'm exaggerating with my dunking on the writing but with each new word that was said I was torn between feeling mortified or baffled by how bad it could get... an episode is not just written by one person in this case, there's so many people that will look at it and be like "ah yes this is good, this has never been done before in this way, this is bringing to light important current issues"... but it feels like they just did a brainstorming session and decided to include everything on the board and just workshop it enough to fill the episode.
I also don't care for Caine idk why we have been given so much insight into him, why all the sympathy, he's just an AI, just a program... it feels that knowing about him is purely for dramatic purpose of the audience and takes away so much seriousness/mystery from the issue (human struggle! Being constantly observed by an unpredictable unfeeling entity! Panopticon prison! Panem et circenses! And if he's actually human we should still be kept in the dark; fuck— apply this to everyone, we should only be knowing about Pomni and her POV since there's no other sense of realism/immersion to draw from)
Oof and the IHNMAIMS references were so meme-like... it was so cringeworthy with its unsubtlety, many of that derivative reading should be the job of the audience. And it just makes me so disappointed and heartbroken (but idk I guess I'm also happy I finally figured out what had been bugging me for so long).
There's probably so many cool lore details I missed but, as of right now, I have lost so much interest in TADC and its fandom due to everyone's lack of expectations/loyalty/care/respect for the concept of having a vision and sticking to the premise... I was never really devoted on finding details out but if just the general look I get on it is this unplanned I don't know why I'm supposed to care for it.
I do remember watching the pilot for TADC and being like "please stop beating me over the head with the themes, I get the gist" but since the pilot for KOG was also just as unsubtletly terrible I just assumed that was just the Glitch filter.
Like wow sex jokes, existentialism and blood do not a good mature story make.
The next episodes of TADC also had really interesting moments but I couldn't help but feel I was watching fireworks (all vibes, no real substance) which is fine if you want to make the build-up subtle but it seems they have solved all human problems so there is no tension except the big baddie's... and now there's no big baddie? So I'm unsure of what to expect. I do feel next episode will be better but there's so much this story didn't need and so much it needed... I also wanted them to enjoy the digital world more, this and other episodes should've been more of that. Let them enjoy but also let them feel drained by feeling constantly observed even if they're happy.
Like, it's an AI, it "looks" and it "knows" even if it doesn't fully comprehend human nuances.
Another thing is that I wish the author would stop interacting with the fandom and explaining this or that, in a let the story speak for you way. And also they're all mentally ill teens with a parasocial obsession, please protect yourself...
Sorry, I don't want to put any more energy into talking about it if people don't agree in the extent of how bad it failed at being itself. I also don't want to rant any more so please no comments...
This was cute though, I love u pimpom...
If you read this far I hope you have a good day. And now I'm going to sleep for 2 weeks, thanks.
Discriminated people on the daily fight to be perceived as normal just to do their job like their normative peers. That is, essentially, a job that is not paid, extra work that in the end is never aknowledged. And so, more exhaustion is always guaranteed on This Worker:
This title card in the trailer, has always picked at my attention for how vague it is, particularly because the wording seems to recall on a philosophical or theatrical archetype. But also it seems to spike a question: what is ƎNA's job? It is never mentioned but its presence in the story is overwhelming and causing her and perhaps other characters huge amounts of distress.
My theory is due to her belonging in one if not several discriminated communities, she has this extra job that is constantly fighting other people's bigotry to just get to experience a regular day of work. The game is ONLY about this "job", about how these tasks to be on the nice side of people and of deserving the category of "normal" and therefore "lovable" consume her and her life.
I believe an intersectional analysis of ƎNA and her behavior would be at the very least interesting. Like, looking at how she behaves and the motifs in her story she has been speculated that she could fit in several minority groups:
-Woman/female-presenting: prominent hips and chest and what is usually seen as a feminine haircut.
-Japanese ancestry: her name is Japanese, many symbols in the game are Japanese (design of the Red Outworld, temple roofs, shide, her harisen tool she uses against the Smoke Machine, small toilet shrine...). There have also been theories of her being mixed with indigenous Peruvian but I don't quite know the details exactly other than the creator being also Peruvian and Perú having quite a big community of mixed Japanese and Peruvian ancestry (or Nikkei)
-Queer (be it due to her s3xual attraction or gender presentation): we see her biggest desire is shown in the shape of a female/feminine character asking her for a dance, at the same time her conversation with Coral Glasses appears to lean on the suggestive more than otherwise. Her gender presentation appears more masculine or neutral when she seems to want to appear attractive, no matter how expressive she is.
-Neurodivergent: autism, adhd, ocd... repetitive and quirky behaviors, she twists her language beyond how any other character does, she seems to obsess over issues that don't matter to others...
-Poor: her behavior seems to be driven by desperation as many deem her untrustworthy/scammer (these could also be tied to regular Asian discrimination) and is told that she "don't even make cents".
I also want to talk about how there's numerous mentions of addictive substances/experiences, be it: cigarettes, drinking/alcohol, slot machines, the s3xual/predatory/cultist concept of the Purge Event, and a future form of hers named "workaholic". They may not be explicitly tied to her but their strong and reiterative presence seem to point at her addictive personality.
Her surface goal, defeating her loneliness (as we see how she ventures into the Lonely Door first thing) seems to take her places where she behaves desperately. She probably arrived at the PE with the yearning of being heard and understood but when she arrives nobody cares for it. Sadly, by then she can't allow herself to leave, she has sacrificed so much of her time and effort, she'd feel ridiculous if she did.
Perhaps she is feeling so starved for affection she needs to believe anything or anyone will do. So she tries to dip herself in delusion and just follow the "whistle" and the "dancing eyes"... and that will come from anyone who will be willing to look at her.
She knew all the people in that party had looked at her and her desperation in disdain; and, in that environment and state, she can only attract the worst entities.
She is so hungry but can't help being the one to be consumed.
The "looping predicament" Froggy speaks of could be of her attempting over and over to be liked and pushing through the bigotry and microagressions or by trying different coping mechanisms.
In the end it only harms her, and I believe the why is said pretty succinctly by this guy:
Perhaps replaying the game while noticing her corporate/work-related vocabulary with this new outlook on it can help descipher more easily what she is doing and her intentions. Like a "fellow entrepreneur" could be someone who struggles socially for similar reasons to her and might be trying to push through it.
ƎNA is told she'll be shown a reality where her deepest desires come true only to then be put into the perspective of one of the headtombs overlooking at what could be a theatric display/movie. This "screen" is blue, has two muscled arms protruding on the side and is constantly flexing and there's an eye/target symbol right at the center of it. Almost as if her deepest desires are to exit the male gaze. To get it off her mind. Not have it dictate/torment each one of her choices.
This setting we see is grey and dull and everyone appears "dead" (inside) since having achieved her deepest desires none of them/their thoughts/their feelings would matter to her anymore. The imagery shows how ENA would have achieved a new way to see her life free of the weight patriarchy put on her. Idealization and romaticization seem to be wiped off the map
It's not a beautiful, hopeful idea: it's a cryptic, dull, dooming response to her lifetime of pain, exhaustion and rejection. Perhaps a big hint for ƎNA to search for happiness away from there, to leave, she will not find what she yearns for in there. Away from that gaze, the barrenness of that world loses its weight and meaning and what kept her trapped in the Lonely Door ceases to exist. Therefore the door ceases to make sense that it exists, in that reality she would not be lonely, she would not be in the world that makes her lonely.
"Crack the egg (Theodora) to release the yolk (fetus)" this imagery seems to parallel ƎNA being consumed by the fetus at the end of Ascension route. Just like in PE: she's dutied with feeding someone, serving someone. This golden fetus particularly is shaped like a man... Elvis Presley, specifically (yes, I'm going somewhere with this).
@indigogalaxia spoke a while ago of how when attacking the Smoke Machine the text "It no longer moves" seems to bring to mind an abortion. A smoke machine also could allude to the idiom of a "smokescreen", used to hide the unsightly, perfect food for denial.
They also mention this:
The smoke machine being shaped like a woman who *might* be pregnant rubbing her belly is probably not a coincidence.
They also mentioned the "pets" being shaped like embryos together with their bloody trail. Which when we see how many surround the big egg in the sky (together with the fertility guardians possessing ENA every once in a while) we can perhaps think of them as the imagery for (purposeful or not) abortions and Smoke Machine as the machine idealizing motherhood/pregnancy, the origin of the smokescreen.
These two imageries seem to parallel each other too (notice the bloody pets in pic 1 and the broken dummies in the background of the 2nd pic).
So, regarding the golden fetus being a man: it recalls the patriarchal form of control of making women's reason to exist to have children. Regardless of the gender of the fetus, ENA would've still been burdened to have and take care of it, likely on her own, likely for being perceived as a woman. The consequences of taking on this social burden disguised as an innate desire are shown to eat her alive.
And now the question of the century: why Elvis Presley:
-He was a man.
-He was a huge mysoginist and abuser who'd dictate how her wife should dress and behave while she'd feel forced to do all the caring of the baby. (She, Priscilla Wagner then Presley was also 14 and he was 24 when they met so he was also a pedo, and a cheater, in between other things.)
-He died on the toilet/bathroom. (–> this is true and now you have to laugh because it's objectively a hysterical reference to put there)
Yeah so guys I can't believe ƎNA from hit game ƎNA: Dream BBQ literally aborted Elvis Presley.
...*ehem*
In summary, ENA fights for the acceptance of (patriarchal) society through conforming to 2 expectations. Both lead to her being consumed no matter how much thought and care (Ascension) or how much of a compulsive people-pleaser (Purge Event) she becomes. Both radicate in patriarchal ideals that seek to subjugate her, as we see how she is always eaten at the end.
romaincrisis
snowghoul
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pixelskylines
