one of my biggest qualms with vg’s handling of its spirit characters (namely spite and manfred) is the infantilization wrt the lack of ability to articulate themselves in full sentences. the portrayal harkens back to cole’s autistic-coding in dai but in a way that mashes it with whatever the fuck da2 did with sandal. this character is meant to be childish and funny because they cannot express themselves verbally. it’s comic relief for 90% of the game. they’re treated more like pets and silly running gags than characters with will and personality of their own. they’re on the same level of characterization as assan.
but it’s okay because spite can speak in full sentences in the fade, and manfred learns to speak properly after he’s resurrected! they become humanized by their ability to communicate verbally! it’s clear that they were only seen as inhuman and unworthy of their needs being respected when they were nonverbal or less articulate! the devs can claim they dislike what happened with sandal in hindsight but they did not stop doing it at all, they only moved their ridicule to spirits, which again looking at cole are already often considered to have autistic coding. which definitely does not make it better.
I'm always thinking about Avery being chosen in place of The Entity during chapter 3 and what the implications could mean for that.
Because, of course, its the nearest grab for the closest match. But there's a reason Kaneeka was chosen to be the witch. There's a reason Stella was the lover.
Of course, the simplest thing is that Avery is considered an outsider, and the nearest grab there
But one thing about Avery that I've noted when analyzing dialogue is their tendancy to talk around things. Information is layered between half-admittances, reframes instead of denials, the full of their background and self still remaining a fair amount of mystery as of now.
Who else is talking to us in half truths that we don't really know the full information of, hm?
One thing I'm curious on for the final chapters is if we're going to see Avery interact with The Entity, and what their final read on the situation is going to be. Because the way i'm kinda seeing things right now is there's 'sides' and the non-plot causing characters are leaned up to endorse one way or another based on how their storylines go. And i'm left wondering which characters will lean more sympathetic towards its plight.
And.... this is Avery. Extremely chill about the supernatural and beings being created in harmful ways Avery. The person who's incredibly sympathetic towards the monstrous. Avery who played the role of it in Charlie's memories. Avery is smart, they can recognize manipulation. But they seem very willing to extend personhood to things other people would write off.
When you go to talk to Avery during their route in chapter 5, they are solidly focusing on their putting together that Tabitha intended to harm you, and figuring out how to get you to safety.
you can ask their opinion just slightly and though they talk around their opinions like always....
"So you trust Wayne."
''I didn't say that. But even if I did, it sounds like there's a lot of evidence in his favor. And there's a lot of evidence stacking up against your cousin.'
Which rejects the binary [hah] of a yes or no answer there. Entertaining a hypothetical of that endorsment without comitting.
So i'm curious what their reaction will be when all things are reveal in the final chapters,
I feel like they're the most likely to be most interested in why the Entity became what it is. To encourage listening and sympathizing with its side of the story... i'm very curious. and of course, all of that will largely be impacted on how the rest of their story goes
If the Tailypo/Entity theory is correct, and if Oscar is saying that the Entity is a colony creature that was separated, and if "Wayne" is the Throne seal that represents consciousness, and if the MC is special in a way the other characters aren't....
the way wayne stops his little song early in the stellamance route is so fucking funny to me. this was supposed to be his moment with mc!! he's been rehearsing since monday!! its not meant for her ears!! how could you mc!!
I'd also love to know what Mary-Belle's whole situation was honeslty. The last of Edwardine's surviving children, who was taken so young. Who's sister went 'missing'. Who never got to know her own children.
I can't help but wonder, did she know? Did she know the horrors that went on her home? Of what happened to her sister? Of what potential fate she could be leaving her kids, when just a kid herself?
So much of what we know now puts so much of Mary-Belle's situation under suspicion. Was it something worse, or was it truly just a tragic situation.
Who could she have been, if she had been able to live to adulthood, outside of that family and its weight. Who was she at all, outside of another tragic daughter, outside of the lives she gave life to?
Do you think Sam Wayne and Isaacs's opinions of MC are going to be entirely their own or influenced by their connection to the Entity? Say the entity is romantically interested in MC, does that affect how they also view the MC? I hope chapters 6-7 end up answering this👀
That's a good fucking question, honestly! I like to think if Isaacs is there with Sam they'll have their own personal opinions of MC, which will vary depending on MC's relationship with the Entity - something tells me the friendlier MC is with the Entity, the less Isaacs and Sam will respect them, because, well... Entie is kind of a cunt, isn't it? Although I think it would be hilarious if Isaacs gets along with the Entity better than Sam did, wouldn't that be fucking precious.
If Wayne is alone in there, though... harder to say. I think there might be a point, and this point might have started already in Episode 5, where the Entity and Sam Wayne kinda start converging into the same thing, so whatever the Entity feels becomes what Sam feels, too. Or maybe Sam Wayne starts "sharing" the Entity's fondness for the MC as a way of coping with his miserable situation, deluding himself that the MC cares about him when is the Entity they are truly bonding with, who knows! Oh, maybe if you're invested in the Sam Wayne mystery, the Entity will take note, and if MC manages to talk to the real Sam Wayne in some way, he'll feel grateful, perhaps even touched, that there were people out there willing to go so far to see what happened to him.
A pity we'll have to wait a while to know what happens.
I think one of the funniest shit a romanced Wayne should pull on the MC is revealing he thinks humans are actually kinda ugly, but that despite that he still likes us a lot. I imagine a Hot MC having an aneurysm hearing that.
Starting to think all of these characters lack self awareness.
Excuse me sir, you literally played a piano as a way to lure the MC to you so you could explain everything the Scarlet's did to you. Namely locking you up in a tiny room with a piss bucket for a century.
Not that I blame the Entity for being upset with that situation; but it always acts like its above everyone's flaws....
I'm kinda unable to move past the implication that Edwardine's illegitimate baby, Andrew Charles Scarlet, was used to house The Entity. [Reported at stillborn, noted as suspicious -> the boy in the wall -> the box of boys clothes in edwardines room -> the flashback with enoch and the witch and edwardines baby. yknow]
Just like. the functions of that.
I mean was it done right after the baby was born? Would the baby still have to be cared for while possessed??? How much of the person that the child would be could be formed while being inhabited? The writing in blood in the box of boys clothes could imply something? Unles that was a trap, given the interesting implications from Alexandras book and her conversations with the boy and the wall. And we know The Entity implies to take on things from the people it possesses - what impact would possessing a baby take on ?
Theres just so many specific things from this specific scenario that hounds my mind
#we were talking about this on the server the other day #like i find it really suspicious that enoch thought a helpless newborn would somehow 'placate' the entity that wants freedom so bad #i think the entity's mind might get a bit scrambled when it changes hosts and enoch knew this #maybe it can't really make sense of what is 'host' and what is 'itself' for a while (makes me think of the wild from slay the princess) #and giving it a baby may lead the confusion to get worse #i also was playing with a very sad possibility: that the entity was not really manipulating alexandra out of malice #that maybe because it was in andrew's body edwardine was allowed to take care of the boy and the entity thought it was cared for too #so the entity might have truly thought that if alexandra who he took a fondness for wanted to be loved she should be his host #and then both of them would be taken care of too #but edwardine didn't love alexandra as she did andrew so that... didn't happen #i don't know; enoch's comment about not imagining 'something like that would be so opinionated' could be seen as just him being arrogant #but it could also mean the entity's mind works - or used to work - so differently from your normal human logic #that enoch thought it would be a 'blind idiot god' situation; a being so removed from mortality and humanity that being stuck inside #a broken body in a filthy room would not even compute to it #unfortunately the entity is a certified hater and complainer (via cymatile)
Entityposting yet again— but I am enthralled with how the hosts of the Entity are defined solely by their use. The Entity is a being with a will and personality of its own, but above that, it is useful to Enoch Scarlet.
The disabled man was no longer useful to his family, so he was discarded as a host so he could be useful again. The bastard infant was not useful as a member of the family, so he was discarded as a host so he could be useful at all. The little girl was not useful to her mother (did not have her affection, was not needed as an incubator because she had a sister), so she was discarded as a host so she could be useful to her family.
The Cousin was not raised in Scarlet Hollow and does not know how to run the mines, so they will be discarded so that they may be made useful as a body to work them instead.
…In a way, what Tabitha is doing to them is not any different from tossing a person down to work in the mines without teaching them how to. It's dangerous and they won't know what to do, what areas (or people, if you've got bad superiors) that they can trust in an underground, loud environment. An enclosed environment without much natural light, barely any space to stretch depending on where you work…
The hosts of the Entity are boiled down to their use in the same way that the employees of the mine are. Who cares what they want so long as they provide for the town's economy to keep running around? Who cares about their safety? Tabitha says she does, but with the way she's treating the Cousin, her ace-in-the-hole ‘employee’, that's hard to believe.
And that's all without the horrific realization that Pearlanne used her daughter to use the miners. Tabitha was made to engage in relationships so that they could use their employees even further; a pregnancy would guarantee a few more years for the mines. Exploiting their own family to exploit their town just that tad bit more is the Scarlet M.O.
(At this point the family hole is just the mine itself, isn't it? Won't ever dry up as long as your resource stays put in there!)
This whole tirade of mine is really just to say that the line above haunts me. It is the Entity possessing the body of an exploited worker, dead at the hands of a Scarlet family member. A physical manifestation of what will happen to the Cousin. Standing and telling them that it thought it would be best to let them piece things together, to make a choice about where they'll go and why, about what use there might be in following it.
Of course it thinks you'll choose its goals for the town before anyone else's. It's useful to you, a stubborn Cousin Scarlet, as you'll be useful to it. A better path forward than the single-way use of the cousin that everyone else seems to present as the only path forward, right?
