[the following was originally posted as a twitter thread on 1/15/2023. Also I fully acknowledge that the Haunted City fandom is like maybe 10 people, but if this gets at least one person interested I did my job].
Ok. Spoilers up to ep 13.
I need to talk about this show because I feel like no one else is and that's a crime. This is unlike any actual play l've seen in that EVERYTHING is improvised, including character backstories and relationships. This only makes it more impressive when the theme reveals itself:
Haunted City (if you ask me) is about what happens to people when their addictions are no longer available to them/no longer able to help them, and how that hurts both the addicted and those surrounding them.
Juliette is addicted to the idea of Ophelia, but when she finally has her back, she realizes that the person she loved and wanted more than anything is gone. Life can never be normal again. The Ophelia she knew can't be the thing that keeps her moving forward anymore.
But she still goes to her. She can't just go back to life without Ophelia again. She knows this devotion is bad, she sees how it's hurting Ekeprag, but she can't stop it. She doesn't want to.
Valkos is addicted to giving himself to the spirits of Duskvol because it makes him feel alive. He knows it's bad for him, and he does manage to turn it down a few times. He refuses to be Ophelia's vessel not only because it won't help Juliet in her grief, but also because it'll continue to tear him apart. He thinks The Path of Echoes will help him to control and manage this, but they turn him away. He isn't ready. They can't help him feel alive.
So he falls down the hole of The Builder — a being who won't refuse anyone who is willing.
Seliak doesn't start the series with an addiction. If anything, he's the one warning Valkos against it. He doesn't recognize that summoning Ophelia is feeding Juliette’s addiction; he wants to help his friend and a lost ghost. To Seljak, being a servant to the spirits is the greatest thing he could possibly do with his life. He wants to help. In doing so, his faith becomes an addiction and he doesn't even notice.
The Builder is his dream come true: a god who needs him. It doesn't matter that serving The Builder makes all the other ghosts fear him -- this is bigger than all of that. *This* is what he was put on this earth to do.
But when Valkos compares Seljak's devotion to Juliette's, he doesn't deny it. He knows. But it'll lead to freedom eventually, right?
They're trying to make each other understand their perspectives, because they all genuinely care about each other and seek to protect the family they've built, but they've just barely begun to realize that they're going in circles. And Ekeprag suffers as a result.
I can't help but remember how this crew started. Vowing to make towers fall.
And what are they doing now?
Sorry for the longer one, but I have to thank @JCVIM, @rossbryant, and @Abzybabzy for their brilliant storytelling and performances. I can't wait to see where this all goes. (Hopefully somewhere where Ekeprag's okay? Poor guy…)
[I did add to this thread later, but I think I’m gonna post that as a reblog because this is already a longer one]
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