#ata fandom

[thebekashow]

YOU BEGIN TO LOSE YOURSELF, AS YOU LAY INSIDE YOUR OWN MIND.

cw: eye strain!

I really love Rebeccas adult design, and I just know this poor kids gonna have identity issues and body dismorphia...

my poor baby :[

[cctypical]

BREAKING FUCKING NEWS - ATA CONTENT REAL? ATA ISNT DEAD??? WOOLYMANDA INTERACTION REAL? CHICKENSCRATCH COMEBACK REAL???

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD

THE WAY HIS LIL EARS FLOP DOWN OMG

IM TWEAKING LIKE AMANDA WOOLY WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE SHOULDNT YOU BE DROWNING IN A SEWER THE FUCK THE FUCK /ref

IM SO HAPPY ATA CONTENT REAL WOOLYMANDA INTERACTION REAL MY FUCKING SHAYLAS THEYRE ALL HERE OMG

[fnaffanaticstar]

Amanda The Adventurer 3 Rant (SPOILERS)

okay LISTEN. I have been thinking about the Marcus/Wooly situation for DAYS and the more I think about it the more unhinged I become. SO Amanda the Adventurer 3 had that whole reveal that Wooly is actually Marcus, like a 30-ish white dude, and I have been rotating this in my brain NONSTOP because the way they handled it is… so weirdly noncommittal

Like. They reveal Wooly is Marcus (a whole grown adult man) and then proceed to do NOTHING with the implications of that. NOTHING. It’s like they dropped a bomb and then walked away whistling. The reveal SHOULD recontextualize everything.That’s the kind of twist where you go back to the earlier games and suddenly everything clicks into place. Except… it doesn’t. At all.

it feels like the writing is stuck between two completely different interpretations and refuses to fully pick one:

either Marcus is a guy who got manipulated by Hameln, didn’t understand what he was signing up for, and is now stuck trying (badly) to keep things under control

OR it also wants him to be a grown man who knowingly entered this situation and is now weirdly, uncomfortably fixated on a little girl

And the game???

REFUSES TO PICK ONE.

They CONFIRM he signed up for it.

They CONFIRM he knew what he was doing.

But then they STILL frame him like a tragic, sympathetic “handler” who’s just trying his best.

like I’m sorry but WHAT adult insists they are a child’s “best friend” like that??? that is not normal behavior. that is not something you just do

and it gets even messier when you go back to the earlier games because NONE of that intent is clearly seeded. if this was always the plan, they should’ve made it WAY more obvious that something was off about Wooly. like, lean into the discomfort. let the player feel that something isn’t right with how he and Amanda interact.

instead we get this version of him where:

- he’s not clearly being threatened by Hameln (as far as we know)

- he’s EXTREMELY insistent on keeping Amanda isolated

- but there’s no strong, explicit reason for why he’s acting like that (at least until the very end)

so his behavior lands in this awkward space where it’s like “okay I can kind of see what they were going for” but also “this does not fully make sense”

AND THEN there’s the whole Jordan situation

Jordan (Chickenscratch) is clearly another victim. He can barely communicate, he’s glitchy, he’s trying to help the player, and Amanda likes him. There's a level of trust there.

and Wooly HATES him

which like—on one hand, yeah, I get it. Jordan is unpredictable, weird, probably messes with whatever “order” Wooly is trying to maintain. from a control perspective, sure, he’s a problem

BUT ON THE OTHER HAND???

Marcus is a full grown adult.

Jordan is a CHILD. a scared, hurt, barely-able-to-speak child

why is a 30-year-old man acting THREATENED by him??

that is such a wild dynamic and the game just… doesn’t dig into it enough. because that could say SO much about Marcus:

- is he afraid of losing control?

- is he worried Jordan will help Amanda break free?

- is it jealousy over Amanda trusting someone else?

- or is it just that Jordan represents everything he failed to contain?

like there is SO MUCH there and it just kind of sits on the surface. Like yes a lot of it is implied but??

AND THEN HAMELN IS JUST. GONE.

Their warehouse? Abandoned.

Their staff? Missing.

Their system? Still running.

Which means Marcus was NOT being actively forced to be controlling in the original timeline. (As far as we know)

So if he’s a grown man… yikes.

ALSO the implication that when Amanda leaves the tapes, Wooly/Marcus basically ceases to exist because his real body is gone???

that is SUCH a horrifying concept. like he is literally dependent on the system AND on Amanda’s presence to continue existing

and they barely expand on it. they don’t fully state it. it’s just kind of… there

Which is why the whole thing would make SO much more sense if Marcus wasn’t a 30-year-old man at all, but a teen or young adult who got in way over his head. Like imagine he learned too much, Hameln cornered him, and they basically took his physical body or consciousness hostage. They shoved him into the system as Wooly and told him Amanda’s body was unsalvageable. So from HIS perspective, if Amanda leaves the tapes, she dies. If HE leaves the tapes, he dies. The system is the only thing keeping them alive. Suddenly his controlling behavior isn’t creepy, it’s fear. His hostility toward Jordan isn’t jealousy, it’s panic. His “best friend” script isn’t obsession, it’s a coping mechanism. He becomes a reluctant caretaker, a kid who made a terrible choice under pressure and is now trapped in a role he never wanted.

And because Hameln is gone, he has no one left to tell him the truth. No one to tell him Amanda CAN be saved. No one to tell him the system is failing. He dies (or gets erased) still believing the lie. THAT version of Marcus is tragic, coherent, and emotionally rich. The canon version is just… confused.

honestly I feel like they should’ve just picked a lane and committed:

A) make Marcus/Wooly clearly unstable, obsessive, and controlling. lean fully into that discomfort and make the player question every interaction from the start

OR

B) make Wooly a teen/young adult who is actively being pressured by Hameln, someone who is also a victim and is trying (and failing) to manage Amanda while being controlled himself

because right now it feels like they wanted the implications of both without fully committing to either, and it leaves his character in this weird in-between space where his actions are both understandable and completely off

ANYWAY sorry for the essay I am currently obsessed with this game and the kidnapped kids lore and I need to draw all of them immediately

[azural83]

Amanda the adventurer 2...

[seasonalmoss]

I’m going to quickly explain why I need Wooly to be a kid so bad, and why it’s genuinely so important and the best route to take,

Because we need representation on how trauma impacts children differently, on how children behave differently due to the same trauma. We need a deeply nuanced take about these kind of situations, why? Because BARELY ANYTHING ELSE FOCUSES ON CHILDREN, TRAUMATIZED CHILDREN!

Growing up as a troubled child I had absolutely no representation, and all I did have never showed the nuances of it, never was actually truly about the trauma, was always always very very adult centric. I needed a nuanced take, representation on how the same trauma can impact someone differently then someone else, because that was exactly what was happening with me. I have four other siblings, and they all responded to the same environment we grew up in differently, my twin who’s been by my side, been doing everything with me, has the same opinions, interests and everything! Had such a largely different response in how he handled the trauma that it actually damaged our relationship a lot!

My point is, not a lot of things already like to focus on the nuances of Trauma, Abuse, anything like that! But when they do, it’s always always about adults, or, if it was about a child, say, in Steven Universe, it was only one child, and you didn’t get to see any other child!

But the reality is, Children are one of the most vulnerable groups out there! They are so incredibly powerless! And are often the first victims to societies systematic problems! Especially if, as you see in ATA, they aren’t white! Overall, this society isn’t made for developing brains either! So many people are so willing to hit their child, because they genuinely think that’s the way for discipline! There’s so so so many abusive behaviors thats never recognized in parenting, or teaching or anything that revolves around a child that it’s left many traumatized children wondering “what’s wrong with me?” Because they can’t understand that they were traumatized by those adults! So even if you aren’t a minority of some kind, as a child, you can still easily get traumatized due to how this society treats children! They don’t treat children like people, but objects and the adults material possessions! This leads to a lot of exploitation, and non white children, disabled children, or anything like that are more likely to be abused, because those groups of people are already often treated as lesser, it only stacks up! children aren’t treated with the same worth as adults, non white, neurodivergent, and disabled people also aren’t treated with the same worth as white, neurotypical, able bodied people, and people are more likely to get away with that abuse for those exact reasons!

Children also just have such such such fragile minds! The seemingly smallest of things can traumatize a child especially the younger they are!!

So, it’s crazy to me, that nothing has that type of representation! Because it’s so so common but it’s so important for to have it! People not only need to be represented, but people also need to be aware of this!

Amanda the Adventurer is setting itself up to be just that! We see three children who seem to behave towards their trauma largely in different ways: Amanda, Wooly, and Chickenscratch. They are getting traumatized by the same thing! but still react to it very differently! It shows how easily children are exploited, how easy it is to get away with it if the children aren’t white. they can have such a wonderfully complex and beautiful game that says something, that barely any other game likes to touch on! If Wooly is a child!

Especially if he is Marcus! And if he was raised in the cult! Then it has a chance to show how being raised in abuse can affect you! It has the chance to be nuanced with it! To accurately show something that’s especially never touched on!

But if he was just- to be evil? Then a lot of that would go in the drain!

It’s important for Wooly to be a child, because we see him especially interact with Amanda! We see him and Amanda have a complex iffy relationship because they seemingly have different trauma responses! Especially when it comes to those two, I think it’s very very important for both to be children!

Ata has a chance to do something not much other games has done, or fiction overall! And if they went this route, then so far, it’s written really well!

I’m sure other games have done something similar, but a lot of the times, especially for mascot horror, the trauma of the children isn’t the main point, the interpersonal relationships due to that trauma isn’t the point either! It’s usually something different, and to be completely honest, something a lot more lackluster and boring. And if it does do it! Then it’s almost always strangely very very adult focused. That or it’s never really nuanced!

The only ever game, that tackles these exact themes, tackles child abuse and how children behave differently? is very very child centric and incredibly incredibly nuanced? Would be Little Nightmares!

And for that it’s very important to me, but it’s only one other game! And there’s so many different ways you’re can tackled this!

I want a difference for once, I don’t want another boring “he’s evil the whole time” or anything like that. I want something that’s deeply nuanced, that’s actually focusing on mainly just the children, I want to be represented.

[shadowpupartz]

These are my versions of Riley & Joanne

[theeddyinbetween]

quickly colored-in wooly doodle i forgot i had been working on:

free him, all he wanted was to be whimsical, he did nothing wrong (besides the child imprisonment)

[saltypearl712]

Have I ever mentioned here that I’m a big fan of Amanda the Adventurer?? Well in case I haven’t here’s some old and new art of her :3

Girl who did nothing wrong