The Batter's Goals in OFF
Doing a quick write-up here because OFF is a game I am very passionate about, and I wanted to talk about it.
[This will contain spoilers, and assumes you know the world of OFF]
I personally feel like The Batter is one of the most commonly misunderstood and misrepresented characters in modern games. Take one look at tags related to this character, and you will find tons of fan art portraying him as a sadistic and maniacally evil character. I want to talk about why that is, why I feel it is incorrect, and what I feel the truth of this character is.
Why do People see The Batter that way?
The first reason is easy. Throughout the game, the Batter basically destroys the world, and does so in a fairly violent way. He destroys anything that gets in his way with an air of fervor and indifference. At the end of the game, he kills a small child and ends the world. Usually this would indeed be the mark of a very evil character, and these actions would be unforgivable, but the world of OFF is quite unique and misshapen in its own way.
The second reason is not talked about as much, The Judge.
The Judge appears at the end of the game, accusing the Batter of being a dark evil incarnation, and attempts to stop the Batter from ending the world. The Judge is a rather eloquent character, and people mostly take his word at face value here. They see what the Judge says and say "Oh yeah, I guess the Batter was truly evil all along!" However, I feel that this misses something important about the Judge, something I rarely see people point out.
I don't mean this as an insult, but as a direct demonstrable fact. The Judge is consistently unaware of the workings of this world, and is usually blissfully unaware of what is even going on in front of him.
In the new OF comic by Mortis Ghost, we see a scene in which The Judge speaks to his brother Valerie about the Queen and her Guardians. The Judge is immediately sold by the Queen's promises and immediately charmed by the world she envisions. Valerie, on the other hand, is less convinced. He identifies the Queen and her followers as a cult, and decides to stay away.
Valerie is completely correct in his assessment, and it is tragic to think he would eventually meet his end at the hands of one of the Queen's followers he warned his brother about.
Here we see the Judge is easily convinced of what people want him to see, and is ironically, not very apt in his Judgments. It would not surprise me if he was given the title of "The Judge" by the Queen herself.
Hell, at the beginning of the game, The Judge thinks that The Batter is simply a figment of his own imagination for like five minutes before realizing he is actually real. He is later unable to identify Japhet puppeting his brother's corpse, and only realizes what has happened after Japhet literally explodes out of his brother.
Simply put, the Judge is a rube. He is not very perceptive, he has very little understanding of the workings of the world, and he quickly convinced by people who want to manipulate him. Frankly, I do not find it surprising in the slightest that he would have no idea what is happening at the end of the game. His speech he gives to the Batter is simply his own opinion given what little he knows, and should be taken that way.
Why did Hugo create The Batter?
The Batter, like the Queen, is a sort of tulpa, created by the powerful child Hugo. Hugo, as stated by Mortis Ghost, is a psionic child who was experimented on in a lab after some sort of apocalypse ended the world. He has the ability to create physical material from his thoughts, and acts as a living engine to the new world. Hugo had a strained relationship with his Mother and Father, often not seeing his mother, and feeling afraid of his stern and cold Father. Hugo is responsible for creating the world that OFF exists in. So why would he create The Batter, a being whose sole purpose appears to be destroying this world he created?
Before the new world, Hugo lost track of his parents. They are most likely dead, but this left Hugo completely alone. In his loneliness, Hugo created the Queen, a tulpa inspired by his Mother, to take care of him. Hugo also met three individuals, Dedan, Japhet, and Enoch, three men who would eventually become the Guardians of the new world. The three men speak to Hugo about their vision of a new world, one where they all rule together. Hugo sees these three as his friends, and their vision of Utopia is implanted into his mind.
Almost immediately, the Queen leaves to start creating the new world, in the vision of the three Guardians. To create the world, the Queen and the Guardians harness the powers of Hugo's body and mind, stretching him to his absolute limits. Once the world is finished, Hugo is left to languish, left alone in a small room as the new world subsists upon and parasitizes his brain.
It would be no exaggeration to say that the Guardians, and perhaps the Queen as well, only ever saw Hugo as a means to an end. As soon as he had given them their world to rule, he was discarded and promptly forgotten. Even the Judge, who promised to be Hugo's friend, has all but forgotten about him by the time of OFF.
Left again to suffer in his illness and sadness, Hugo has reached his breaking point. He has been betrayed by all those who said they would care for him, all of his heroes. His vision of his mother has been twisted. In this moment of darkness, Hugo can no longer believe a hero will come to save him, and so he creates a Villain.
The Batter is born, created from the memories of Hugo's father, and a villain who appeared in a comic book that Hugo's father gave to him. A dark savior who will stop at nothing to put an end to Hugo's suffering, who will punish those who have betrayed him, and who will destroy the false world they have created within him.
When The Batter finally reaches Hugo's Room, he simply says "I'm here." A bitter bit of reassurance. Hugo has been expecting him.
In the final act of Hugo's Wish, the Batter kills him. Before Hugo dies, he confesses to the Batter that he is still afraid to die.
"I am afraid of the Dark."
The Batter replies, reassuring him.
"From now on, there will be no more darkness."
This is rare for the Batter. He almost never reassures any of those destroyed along the way. He doesn't care at all for the death of Valerie or any of the plight of the many clones of Elsen. It's quite clear that Hugo is the only character in this world that the Batter cares for. He tears into the Queen for her treatment of Hugo, and is disgusted by the world that has been created through Hugo's abuse. Yet at the end, he can never save Hugo, only destroy him, as that is Hugo's final wish. As the Batter puts it:
"Escaping from your purpose is impossible."
The Batter ends the world, shutting down the machine that feasts on Hugo's body, finally giving peace to the child that brought him into this world.
Ultimately, the Batter's actions are up for you to interpret. Was it the right thing to do? Maybe. Maybe there was another way.
However, the Batter was not Sadistic. He did not take any pleasure in this mission. Whether you think the Batter was right or wrong, there's no doubt that he is far more in depth and intentional than the raving evil lunatic he is so often portrayed as.
Side note: the Queen and the Batter
I'm putting this here because it didn't fit neatly up above. Another common misconception with the Batter is caused by the interactions between the Queen and the Batter in their final confrontation. The Queen's speech seems to imply some familiarity or home life with the Batter, which people have also taken at face value. Simply put, I do not think the Batter existed before you pressed new game. The interactions with the Queen having a familiarity is caused by bother characters being tulpas based on Hugo's parents, leading to those residual memories surfacing as the Queen dies. In truth, I do not believe the Queen and the Batter have ever met before the moment of their confrontation.
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