my interpretation of dream bbq is mostly focused on the bathroom/genie storyline, and explores themes of sin, religion and guilt.
in dream bbq there's a theme of ena being unforgiven, yet faithful, we don't know where her faith comes from and what it is focused on but she makes references in her dialogue to god, ALOT.
this is interesting in contrast to how she is treated throughout the game, most of the insults aimed at her are focused more on who she is rather than what she did.
which is something i want to bring up in a later blog hehe, i have many theories about her sins.
ena seems to have faith in her work, at least in my opinion and theory, she constantly blesses people for their business, her persona is literally a bad cop good cop type salesperson/worker and she is shown to have a talent for tricking people with her sales tactics.
she reminds a friend of mine specifically of a missionary. which i agree with, she seems to force her beliefs surrounding work onto others, no matter the consequences.
this is often also seen in her inner dialogue when you inspect things,
very first corridor you find yourself in, with closed shops is interactable and all ena will say is "every good business should be open all hours"
as well as "it's much better when it's working"
her relationship to work and her faith in it however is much more strained when you actually pay attention to some of her meanie sides statements.
"you kidding!? i hate this stupid job!"
or "regrettably, i am very hard working-"
she is referred to as an over worker by other characters and npcs within the game, and is proven to do anything possible to get a job done. (proven by the fact she literally destroys the lonely door's realm by turning off the smoke)
now to the bathroom bits, what's the deal with the bathroom?
in my head the bathroom has always had a dual metaphor (one metaphor for two things)
and those would be
bathroom means break from work, skipping, overworking and stress
or
bathroom means clearing yourself of sin, purity, and repenting
two VERY different meanings but i'll try to explain both
in the case of the first scenario, it's pretty obvious, as soon as ena enters the lonely door and tells froggy she'll find the genie, her speech is distorted to say bathroom, resulting in froggy telling her she may go, however, not to use the bathroom to skip work, "i know that trick!"
this is further supported by froggy constantly misunderstanding ena.
if she's skipping work or not, froggy wouldn't know, and as soon as he points out that she's partying mid work in the purge event route, she breaks down. i feel like this interpretation is more focused on her not wanting to be perceived as someone who skips work, even if she tries her hardest to get the job done, she will always be perceived as someone who won't do their best.
the second scenario is also pretty obvious, less so, but definetly not a reach, the bathroom is seen as a place of purity, clearing yourself of a sin, in this case. possibly vomit, something you subjected yourself to but that you shall repent for. which is hinted at when you reach the bathroom, and ena states that she hates herself shortly before barfing.
not only is this interesting because ena is unforgiven! but also because apparently everyone in the uncanny streets is reaching for this bathroom, to clear their sins, to repent and "have the truth revealed" to them, ena and a different character (that i'll mention in a theory post) are both the only ones who are completely unforgiven as stated by theodora.
a few other details that support this religious take on the bathroom, is that the bathroom stalls upon reaching it, are built like confessional booths, lined up next to eachother, whispers filling the area, of perhaps the past people who had repented in this very room.
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