JACKPOT CRASH COURSE SPOILERS BELOW. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
This post may not be anything new to anyone who's played through the full JCC chapter. However, I still want to put it in writing for people, like me, who took a minute to realize the whole point of the show and the way the environment is set up. But also this has been ROTTING my BRAIN since last night! So, without further ado...
Here's how I see Bet & Forgive; It's basically one big game of (un)ethical torture for anyone on the show. This is not forgiveness. This is pretty much mass propaganda. (Also I think Cupid and Vick are victims of this even if they suck as people. TWO THINGS CAN BE TRUE AT ONCE)
Just saying it like that doesn't surprise anyone. Of course it is, it's a death game! But I'm sure everyone's noticed the tone here is significantly different than those that came before- And this is coming from someone whose seen quite a few. Projects before this like Danganronpa (& its numerous fangames) or Your Turn To Die, both of which I've personally invested time into at some point, very much play into the theme of it being a game. Making it bright and flashy, adding in comedy and overdramatization of death & gore to the point it looks and sounds absurd enough to know it's fiction. Over-the-top designs, very straightforward personalities, making it more of a cat-and-mouse rather than just showcasing brutality. I've seen this common representation so often even outside of these big titles. I already knew the moment this was announced as a death game, a duo like Rach & Rix would address this in a vastly different way, but I want to especially point out how much EFFORT there is behind the way the show works. Especially to make it as dehumanizing as it can for these criminals so they feel like they deserve whatever's coming to them. Even someone as (Arguably) stupid as Benny was able to sort of put himself on the right track; Outside of the obvious demon/devil/sin & gambling themes, they intentionally make the setting itself contrast the name of the game. It's bright, inviting, overly friendly and kind to the criminals participating. It gives them opportunities to do whatever they want, be whatever they want, like kids on a playground. But all of that, like the flashy costumes, names, hosts, games, uniforms, food, alcohol- That's an intentional tactic by the makers OF the show to lure the participants into a false sense of comfort/security REGARDLESS of if they're aware of it or not. Even Vick falters with how the setting shifts, getting far too trusting with someone he would have every reason not to trust. The way he reacts to Poppy's deceit is not something you do when you're gambling with your life. Not when you hosted the game before.
Humans are their own kind of animal. Influencing them through their environment is easy if you know what to do. Bet & Forgive by all accounts is VERY aware of this. I'm sure a lot of people thought the void-like environment in the first game they play was just an easy way to get CGs done quicker, but I don't even think that was all that was happening here. A unrecognizable pit with only one way out isolates them completely from the environment they've been used to while also being flashy enough not to really register to the viewers that they are stranded. Chained. Collared. Treated like dogs, just like Sandbag had pointed out. Easy to toss around, drag, push, pull, kill. That in combination with antagonizing them, ripping choice away from them while establishing very little rules (And also a LOT at the same time + a very short timeframe) , withholding information, depriving them of sleep and a sense of time... It piles up to strip the humanity (Like remorse and their overall sense of self) they have down to survival instincts, so viewers see the worst parts of them and thus make it easier for them not to see how incredibly unfair this game (And by extension the entire system the world is built on as it stands) really is. C.D. is just one of many that most likely realizes this system is so horribly corrupt it needs to be torn down from the inside out. Justice was never the point, obviously.
What other hope really is there if they can't stop a live broadcast of human torture? Something that people are so desensitized to that they don't even care a seventeen year old, a completely uneducated and UNDESERVING child is brutally killed in front of them by the very adults that failed him from the beginning?
Whether everyone dies or not, this environment very well may make them completely unfit to return to society as they knew it. I think everyone here is fucked regardless, ESPECIALLY Eddie who still thinks there's a chance he could be something other than a brutal bull. Just food for thought. Overall I'm a VERY big fan of their portrayal here all around. The characters & environments are well executed and thought out. They aren't just fodder to feed into the plot. I really hope this game gets the popularity it deserves and gets people to think more critically about the thought that's put behind these games.
