ILITW and the problem with episode 16
*I would like to start off by saying these are just my opinions. You do not have to agree or disagree. If our don't like what I am saying that is perfectly fine but please keep all negative opinions to yourself. Thank you!*
Before Pixelberry fell to the AI waste side, Choices was pumping out incredible stories, Desire and Decorum, Hero, Elementalists. I loved all these stories, but still to this day, my favorite series has always remained the It lives trilogy. I've play both It Lives in the Woods and It Lives Beneath and played It Lives Within multiple times, and I am utterly obsessed with all three books. However, It Lives in the Woods has a special place in my heart, as being the first book in the series and what got me obsessed with it in the first place.
But, another thing has also remained over the years and that is my utter dislike for the ending of ILITW. In my route I was able to save all of my friends, sacrificed myself to become the new monster, and Noah ended up as a fugitive on the run. The final episode of the series takes place a year after the end events of the year before, and after Jane defeat. There is a memorial for those who got hurt or died during the incident upon the town.
The episode starts nicely and shows us what all the character's have been up to and it seems their living their best lives, (except Noah. Obviously). My issue starts at the very beginning of the memorial service when Mayor Green comes up to Connor and asks him if he wants to make the speech since none of ILITW's MC's friends wanted to. Okay? I can understand this, their trying to move on and probably don't want to speak on what happened, makes sense. However, I find it super weird that they at least don't want to talk about the MC. You know, their supposed friend who sacrificed themself to save them all, who not 5 chapter's ago they all claimed was the glue of the group and the one who spent the entirety of the book being the group therapist. They don't even need to speak on what happened, they could just have said a nice few words about the MC and that would have been fine.
And I'm sorry, but your asking Connor of all people to give the speech. Why? If you don't go the love interest route with Connor, this decision makes even less sense. Because he literally had nothing to do with the story up until the last few chapters and he spent the rest of the book being out of the loop with everything or just not being there. He's not even mentioned unless he's on screen, no one gives him a single thought outside of his onscreen appearances. Perhaps by this point Choices was already setting Connor on a bigger path to eventually take the helm and be the one to lead the big fight against the Power like they had originally planned. I still think this was a weird choice.
But you know what's even weirder. The fact that MC's own PARENTS didn't speak at the memorial. I honestly think this was a really bad writing choice and it literally makes no sense. There's no reason MC's parents shouldn't have been present at the memorial, and it makes even less sense that they wouldn't say anything. My only guess as to why Choices made this weird decision is because they didn't want to create sprites for MC's parents. But even this doesn't make sense, I don't know why they didn't just re-use sprites from another story, it's not like they've never done it before. At the very least if they weren't going to have MC's parents appear on screen they could have at least had Connor mention that MC's parents would be coming up to make a speech after him and have the screen fade to black before hand, leaving the implication there. Or have Connor comment on the fact that they didn't want to attend the ceremony as it would be too painful. At least have SOMETHING. Honestly this is all connected to another argument regarding MC's character but that's another discussion for another day.
Another gripe I have with this scene is Connor's actual speech. He starts of by talking about Cora and it's very sweet and he speaks very fondly of her despite never actually getting to meet her. And yet when it comes down to talking about the MC, someone he's known since he was a kid, his speech is incredibly hollow. He doesn't speak on MC's sacrifice, he doesn't say anything sentimental about them, in fact he speaks more about himself then the MC. He speaks about his point of view, his feeling's, what he should or shouldn't have done during the night of the attack. The whole scene feel's like such a derailment to both his and the MC's character and doesn't paint him in a very flattering light. And this also just proves why he shouldn't have given the speech. His emotional connection to the MC, in a non romance route specifically, is non existent, he's not their friend, (there is a difference in being friendly to someone and being their friend), the two rarely interact, in fact you literally have to pay diamonds to interact with him more beyond a few surface level conversations you guys have. He has no real attachment to the MC beyond being the big brother of one of their friends and his only attachment to the overall story is due to being the big brother of said friend.
At the end of the ceremony, all our friends (save Noah. Again, obviously) sit around and promise to stay in touch with one another. This honestly would have been a great moment for them to have their own, quiet service and talk about the MC and their own feelings about them. And...they don't. Dan says that he misses "them". But who is this them? Because it's not the MC, within the story you can only choose he/him pronouns or she/her pronouns. Is he referring to the other people that were killed off during the attack at homecoming? It's hinted that some people died during the attack. Like, bystanders who we never even see. This may sound harsh, but why would they care about a bunch of random ass people who they don't even know? Why don't they just say they miss the MC, again, their FRIEND. This was a weird line. And then when they do mention the MC it's only as a "gee, I wonder what happened to them after they friken died, wonder if their a power hungry monster now? Ah well."
This leads into another issue. No offence, but, are our friends just stupid? Did they learn nothing? Like they know what happens now when they play the game. Someone gets killed off and becomes the new monster. And when they do, the utter isolation and Power warps their brain and turns them into an actual monster. Now fair enough, they didn't know about this with Jane, so their not at fault for not doing more about that as they were kids, and weren't even aware that she was the new monster and therefore didn't help her and stop her from being corrupted. But now they do know. And their still choosing to ignore the issue. They know that the MC is most likely the new monster now. I get that they don't want to dredge up old wounds and trauma. But none of that will matter if the MC falls to the same downward mental spiral that Redfield and Jane went down that led to them becoming so malicious and just repeats the cycle of pain, torment and horror another 10 years into the future. All because they left their friend, who I shall remind you again, sacrificed themselves so they could live, to rot in the woods with nothing but the power and vague, painful memories that will slowly fade until they turn into exactly what their predecessor's became. And they only didn't fall off the deep end because the guy the friends now hate, who tried to kill them all to save the previous monster, returned to a town where he's wanted for murder all to keep the MC's sanity intact.
I feel the whole finale was a mess and was not handled with the care it should have been. It was very surface level and should have focused more on the MC, especially in the latter half during the memorial. May I just say, thank god for ILW because I feel that was the only saving grace for that horrid finale. And it wasn't even made by Pixelberry.
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