Okay so the Weibo version of Hernando's video is out. English shout be out later, but I want to note some of the thoughts that immediately came to mind watching his video.
Hernando lost his father to the bullfighting ring, the same ring he would enter. This lines up with matador lineages and ties Hernando to the theme of parents placing burdens on their children.
Hernando appears to have been forced to kill a bull he had grown attached to, possibly by his own father. I suspect a similar twisted relationship as previous characters haunted by their fathers, such as Mike Morton.
Due to the trauma of the two events above, it appears Hernando has increasingly developed an association between death and self-worth, until, eventually, the applause of the ring was not enough.
As a result, it appears Hernando became an underground fighter, to put his life on the line against fellow men.
Sadly not confirmed he's related to Richard like my initial suspicions. However, I cannot rule it out until we have more information, but I am exploring other options.
I initially assumed he would be tied to Richard, but I'm also curious if he could be tied to Game 9-2, due to William occasionally being associated with bulls. William might be getting a Hunter so, assuming Bane didn't secretly release him, Hernando could be placed in contrast with William. Hernando followed bullfighting as his father was one, while Will became an athlete against his father's desires.
Interestingly, Hernando appears to have arrived to Oletus not for something material, but for the thrill of the danger itself. This places him as one of the few interested in such a desire, such as Edgar, Tracy, and possibly Frederick Kreiburg. Curiously, two of these three are associated with red.
Will think about historical details later but hmmm. Carmen.
An impromptu analysis of William's Seventh Letter, what it reveals, what it implies, and what it means for the story.
Trying to get back into writing a few of these per month so I don't have an inevitable backlog. It'll still be rougher than my usual essays.
This letter is an exploration of Williams days at the Rugby School, his infamous incident where another student's leg was broken, and what actually happened that.
Alice goes to Rugby School after talking to William's brother to learn about William's brief career, and she has to attend in-person to see the records.
What the hullabaloo about the leg injury left out was William's own injuries. Before the incident, William already had old injuries to his ankle and to his back, tied to his childhood.
Mr. Smith (from William's Sixth Letter), who doesn't know about this, attributes these injuries to William's "recklessness" on the field. He saw William as being over competitive, headstrong, and willing to do anything to win. He is the one to bring up the infamous leg incident, where a tackle from William fractured the tibia of another student, and in the photograph of the incident afterward, he seem transfixed on the crowd, rather than helping the student. He sees William as reckless, bullheaded, and callous, but recommends Alice meets Clement, a fellow student who was close to William.
Clement is now the owner of a sporting goods store, but keeps a photo of his old team, William included. The picture Clement paints of William is vastly different than that of Mr. Smith's. He is disappointed, but unsurprised at Mr. Smith's hostility towards William.
Clement instead highlights William was erased from his own story, from the Father of Rugby to merely "a student."
William was bold, yes, and competitive, Clement explains. But that boldness is necessary to pioneer. But others viewed William as having an unfair advantage, a cheater, rather than an inventor. The subtext of William's race hangs heavy.
The real reason why William didn't help the other player was because of his ankle. It was already damaged from his childhood and when he did that tackle, it had torn. He couldn't move either. Merely stand and stare at the crowd.
Clement then discusses how rugby, as it increased in popularity, was claimed by the spirit of amateurism, which caused its abandonment by anyone without the generational wealth, including Clement. Except William, who, even without the support of his family, continued to play against the odds. These were the pressures that lead to William charging so recklessly. It was not a game to him.
Clement recalled how he tried to aid William after his ankle had torn, but William assured he was fine. Clement muses on how William is both a single-minded and naive young man, who would charge any barrier, no matter the odds, in the hopes it would someday break. We saw how Willam became this way, sacrificing his own perception to protect his younger brother, and we see at how it lead him to be the innocent survivor of Oletus.
Here, we see more exploration of the great contradiction between William's character, and part of why he is suspected for an Identity Swap. William, externally, is always seen as a reckless, bold, and intimidating man. Internally, William is the closest both in and outside of story to a Survivor not being a horrible person, one whose inclusion in Game Nine marks the point where Orpheus' clinging onto the Manor Games as a coping mechanism had lost their original intention of vengeance. He is naive, altruistic, and trusting. He is a character defined by innocence.
We learn here, that William's great "mistake," one that implicitly was cause for his inclusion in the Manor Games, wasn't even foul play. It was an accident, much like Luca Balsa's explosion. William himself was injured in it and that his inability to help was due to said injuries. Not that anyone else, barring Clement, cared. From both those in charge of the school, to the press, all positive qualities of William were removed, including his name and identity. Even when looked at from a neutral lens, William couldn't be blamed for the injury. Accidents happen. But not when it's William.
I was surprised to see the discussion of amateurism versus compensation in sports. For those curious, the concept of "amateurism" and playing sport for the sake of sport, and the obsession with being a "good sport," is heavily tied to class, colonialism, and race. Upper/upper-middle class white Englishmen in the 19th century encouraged "sport for the sake of sport" as an expression of gentleman etiquette, and the idea of seeing sport as a means of gain, which was more likely in disadvantaged communities, was dishonorable.
This extended to attempts to "civilize" colonial subjects such as with cricket in India (hello, Ganji). The only right way to play sports was the amateur way. William's struggle to cling onto his sport he pioneered was an attempt to swim against the current of 19th/20th-century politics, one that consumed many sports before it, and one that still affects sport to this day.
That leads to the subject of race in William's Seventh Letter. In context, all of William's actions during his career were understandable. He was struggling to obtain recognition in a sport, after protecting his brother (who was notably, lighter-skinned than William and is seen as more respectable by others) for years from a father who expressed tough love through physical punishment. He was constantly seen as a problem, as a player who was unfairly advantaged, and a risk to other, more "respectable" players who played for the sake of sport. We're not given descriptors as to what Clement and Mr. Smith looked like, but I will note that in previous artwork, such as the Manor Scary Story event, we've seen William was one of the only Black members of his team.
Considering IDV has grown more afraid to confront race as its popularity has grown (compare William's First Letter to any of his later ones), and there haven't been a character of color since Qi Shiyi, seeing some subtext is a bittersweet moment. Bitter in it is a reminder of how much it has been lost, but sweet, in a swan song way, to see it glimmer faintly. After all, it's impossible to talk about Game Nine with it.
If you're curious as to some reasons why: Idv grew in increasing popularity in a post-pandemic world that's trended towards increased conservatism and nationalism, China included. At the same time, China-USA tensions have worsened so, combined with nationalism, there's the idea that being worried about said subjects is catering to foreigners (Chinese women married to Black men have had awful things said about them), and there is a significant issue on Weibo where racist posts aren't moderated. Combine all of this with gacha gamers in East Asia being more like Gamersā¢ in western gaming communities (while in western gaming communities, barring harem games, gacha gamers are usually seen as a separate group), and you get a significant portion of the audience who will lash out at a game they perceive as being concerned about racial justice.
You can see how NIKKE self-censored with its dark-skinned characters and Joker Studios growing more and more subtextual with racial problems as an example of this (or ceasing rectification of whitewashing, which they used to do such as with the horoscope avatars), while other games like R1999 and Dislyte have braved the gamer blowback, or Arknights loopholed by making some dark-skinned characters meta to make them impossible to complain about. All of this considered, I am not generous towards Joker Studios' increasingly frustrating handling of race starting in 2023-24, especially when I have witnessed them do better in earlier years.
**As to why I'm including Shiyi, even though IDV is created by a Chinese studio and aimed primarily at Chinese (and East Asian) audiences: there is pressure for Chinese characters to represent China well, which leads to tension in how these characters can be depicted. Qi is subject to these pressures. Given current political circumstances, it's unlikely we'll get another East Asian, and even less likely other Asian characters either.
I'm very curious as to where we're going from here. We've covered both William's childhood and school years, and we also discussed his career after school, so the letters are running out of subjects to cover. I'm curious if we're going to meet other players from William's career instead. Ones who may have different views on William himself.
Alternatively, will we seek out the brief moment between William being excised from rugby and accepting his invitation to Oletus Manor, as seen in William's First Letter.
We could also see Alice seeking out the former Mrs. Ellis, who was divorced after the deaths of the elder Ellis children when Mrs. Ellis took them outside to play. Given Thomas' age, he was likely not the best expositor on the subject, and it would be interesting to hear her own perspective of what happened.
William, being one of the oldest IDV characters, is a mess of lore contradictions, but the theme of innocence has remained strong from the moment his lore started taking shape, and I'm curious to see where it goes next, in spite my bitterness.
A huge thank you to my friend who shared screenshots of Andrew's portrait to me. Friends make up for the birthday token-consuming consequences of hiatus.
Analysis below.
The Portrait
Andrew is positioned praying beneath a spotlight, angled so that it looks like a ray of light from heaven. Fluttering down from said spotlight are iris petals.
The first thing I want to note is that there are two different kinds of ominous shadows in Andrew's portrait. In the lower half of the portrait we see that Andrew is surrounded by headstones. These likely represent the Game 3-2 players, including Andrew himself.
On the upper portion, though, we can faintly see a "blood" splatter to the right of Andrew's head. To the left, the patterning looks similar to a cue stick. Marcus is said to have backstabbed Andrew. I do want to note it's implied that Marcus, in a post-resurrection smashed the skull of his creator/father Whittaker with his cue stick. It looks like Andrew might've met the same fate.
Whether that was the end of Andrew is another story.
The Clues
"Under the spotlight, he looks up, offering the final prayer before the game begins."
I find it interesting that this clarifies Andrew's last prayer might be before the game. We also see a conflation between religion and performance akin, with Andrew looking up towards the spotlight invoking Andrew looking towards Heaven.
2. "Purple iris petals drift down from above, just like those he once planted in the graveyard."
The petals of the irises are falling from above, near the spotlight. This calls to mind both the effect of a curtain call and the audience throwing bouquets at the performs, but also flowers falling from heaven. Andrew is heavily tied to irises, planting them at graveyards and featuring them heavily in his artwork. Irises are associated with holiness, tying into Andrew's Catholic trauma. He constantly acts for a holiness he believes he is rejected from due to his albinism.
3. "His white curls gleam under the light, a constant reminder of the "identity" he longs to shed."
Here, we learn that Andrew wants to leave his identity as the man with albinism behind. This may be metaphorical, but I wonder if this ties into the belief that the righteous are healed from "disease." Does Andrew believe that he will no longer have albinism in the afterlife? If so, it highlights how warped Andrew's perception of his skin condition is, due to the prejudice he experienced.
The mention of "identity," too, implies the possibility he may have an IDENTITY Swap. Game 3-3 has a strong likelihood of featuring Survivor Swaps, due to having three Hunters, but, given Andrew's a member of the Manor Staff, there is also the likelihood he will obtain a Hunter Identity. Using some of the motifs here, we can develop a guess over what the theme would be.
4. "Hands crossed over his chest, he prays earnestly for the self yet to come: to live in sunlight, and return to the "Temple."
I find it interesting that Andrew's ideal self lives in sunlight. While this is expected due to the discomfort his skin condition, this is also due to the prejudice he experienced in the daytime. He no longer lives in fear of others. Nighttime brings isolation, but also comfort.
The "Temple" refers to the Laz Church Cementary that Andrew longs to return to. This references Andrew's hope that if he does what is required, he will be able to return to his beloved cemetery, where he himself may be buried after a long life. His ONCE skin Epitaph reveals a timeline where he was not cast out of the cemetery and he grew into a gentle shepherd to the afterlife. Andrew's desire to return to a place that cast him out brings to mind some of his parallels like Frederick Kreiburg as well. It also sets up a portion of himself to realize he cannot return and the identity crisis that follows.
5. "On the wall, the faint shadow of a headstone emerges. It's a place he yearns for, and the resting ground he has prepared for the other participants."
Andrew's own gravestone is among the shadows, alongside those of the Game 3-2 Hunters. Andrew wishes to be remembered in death as a faithful, humble leader, to be welcomed in a world without prejudice after he fought against prejudice. A shame this is not the world that awaits him and, instead, he becomes a psychopomp to Oletus' underworld.
The Message
"Beneath the falling iris petals, the devout makes his last prayer. The words never change, nor are they extravagant: to return to the Temple, become its guide, be recognized as virtuous, and claim a single epitaph among the countless graves."
Andrew's divergent identity between the guide of the Temple and the psychopomp of Oletus Manor are highlighted here.
The "last prayer" part interests me since it has two potential meanings. It could refer to a literal last prayer, due to Andrew being backstabbed by Marcus. However, it could also refer to a last prayer before a loss of faith. Losing one's faith, falling into despair, these are tied to the IDV Abyss, and the breaking point where someone embraces a Hunter Identity. While not undeniably confirmed like with a Hunter Silhouette, he certainly has some of the warning signs.
Given Andrew has a supportable possibility for an IDENTITY Swap, I would like to propose that, all together, Andrew's invoking the imagery of the pop culture vampire. Combined with how he's sometimes depicted as vampire in merchandise and I would not be surprised if they leaned into the direction, or of another non-skeletal undead.
But for now, Andrew joins the club of characters with unusual portraits, such as Luca Balsa, Vera Nair, Ann, and Galatea Claude.
You know what? This blog isn't controversial enough, so time to throw a grenade in the water.
I find it very fascinating how, and this isn't exclusive to IDV, readings of IDV often feature what I like to call "Systemic Scapegoat Syndrome," where one character is declared the enactor of all bad deeds, so that the reader doesn't have to confront the idea that their favorite character is capable of systemic harm, or that harm is not always intentional and individual.
You can see this very well with characters such as Philippe, Orpheus, Keigan, and others unmentioned. Notably characters who often look "unattractive" as Hunters because The Halo Effect never dies. The individual actions of these characters (Philippe's physiognomy and its effects on Patricia, Luca, and Amanda/Dogma; Keigan's corruption of the justice system; Orpheus' vengeance quest) outweigh any commentary the text is trying to offer on the systems that hardened such characters in the first place.
What is the reason for highlighting Philippe's mother was likely killed by Richard Sterling, an attractive changeling in a wealthy white household, but Philippe focused on crimes supposedly conducted by poc and disabled people? What is the reason why Keigan felt the only way to retain power in society was disfigurement and corruption, and why is she placed in opposition to Edmund Reed? What are the systemic circumstances that lead Orpheus to having such a cynical outlook on the nature of humanity?
But assuming that a character like Orpheus' biases are the source of discomfort is much more palatable than admitting, say, that Mike Morton is enacting misogyny towards Margaretha Zelle.
From a horror perspective, itās a shame. Gothic is so interested in the horrors of system, while cosmic fears an uncaring system, and for neither to be acknowledged is lacking. I suspect this is the source of the common complaint that āthereās no focus on horrorā in IDV. Itās not bloody, but itās much more disturbing.
But these readers want to be scared, not uncomfortable.
Impromptu: Frederick's Third Letter (What the FUCK Is Your Deal)
An analysis of Frederick's Third Birthday Letter, what it means, what it implies, and what we can speculate on.
Somehow, in spite barely reveals anything, the letter has the implications of an earthquake.
This wlill be another glimpse into the madness that propels me regarding Frederick Kreiburg.
The letter is sent from none other than Frederick himself to his mother, Amalia Kreiburg. He wishes her well, before explaining that Mrs. Nicholas had invited him to a book club, where the "hostess" gave him an antique tuning fork, pulled from the Mediterranean Sea.
The tuning fork is near-identical to one from Frederick's childhood, one that his father, Lord Kreiburg owned, down to its ornamentation. Whether it's the same tuning fork or its twin is left ambiguous. However, the "hostess" warns the fork was permanently altered by its drowning, and there is a ghostly tone beneath its fundamental.
I say "hostess" because, given the circumstances of its delivery to me, the pronoun translation is iffy. At one point, the "hostess" is referred to as she, at other points, he. If the "hostess" is a mistranslation of "host," there is a significant probability it's none other than Orpheus DeRoss, which would align with Frederick's Ninth Deduction. It doesn't seem to be Mrs. Nicholas, though, given Frederick doesn't refer to them by name. I'll have to look at the Chinese to speculate, but from the text I was delivered by my little bird, either option is valid interception.
Frederick finds this distorted, additional tone akin to the "Voice" in his head. This voice is always there, causing distress, until Lord Kreiburg raised his baton and conducted the Kreiburg orchestra.
He thought that this first silence saved him. So did Lord Kreiburg, who personally instructed Frederick on music theory, all obeying a central dogma: noise is the enemy, Anything superfluous melody must be removed.
Frederick did exactly that and he was criticized for it. He was mediocre, repetitive, not very Kreiburg. He felt abandoned by the Muse.
But Frederick doubts that.
Frederick discusses his psychasthenia with the "hostess," and how he only felt silence at that orchestra when he was seven. Or did he? Perhaps the sound never left, the "hostess" offers. The vibration of a sound covers another frequency, but doesn't destroy it. It's still there, waiting. When the louder sound weakens, it will overtake it.
The "hostess" asks Frederick a question he had never considered: was the Voice bad? Why not listen to it again, learn its true nature. Frederick counters, saying the Voice is noise, not music. "How could you know?" the "hostess" replies. "You have never allowed it to emerge."
When Frederick returns to his residence, he plays the tuning fork again, and embraces its distorted tone. He listens to the Voice for the first time. It is beautiful.
Frederick ends his letter, saying that he finally understood his father, that he was right. It is the composer's job to destroy noise.
But Lord Kreiburg was wrong on what constitutes noise.
So, where to begin?
By far the biggest, most concerning implication offered in the letter is that the Kreiburg Family is somehow aligned with the Mediterranean Deal. The undersea expedition is implied to be none other than the recovery of the Parthenope's bounty, as it had sunk while transporting goods for Vilhelm Lamb, and its previous excursions into the Mediterannean, and Jose Baden's association with Sam Bourbon, imply it had been doing so for much longer.
This aligns with the comment that Lord Kreiburg was a friend of Mrs. DeRoss in AOM 1, during Frederick's first scene. It also aligns with the Truth and Inference parallel of the Chausson family betrayed by the other eight families, and how the nobles of the Mediterranean Deal, at the very least, were not alarmed at the annihilation of the DeRosses beyond the survival of their biological daughter and adoptive son. Still it leads to the question of what degree of participation the Kreiburgs have had in Delphi and, if so, why were they willing to feud with Orpheus DeRoss over White Steed of Death. There are more questions than answers.
The letter's tone is both ominous and somber. It feels like a farewell letter. We know from Frederick's Seventh Deduction that the Kreiburgs never opened the rest of Frederick's letters. In spite this, Frederick knows the health of his mother. Whether this is being informed by someone else, or Amalia defying her husband to reply to her son is unclear. It's likely Frederick knew he would never receive a response, which is part of why I suspect, given the content matter, Frederick is writing his goodbye to his family, though he still loves his mother.
Frederick's acceptance, then ultimate rejection of Lord Kreiburg's advice, feels as though he is finally letting go of the desire to be a Kreiburg. He will continue to destroy noise, to compose, but he has listen far too long for what the Kreiburgs believed was good composition. He has learned from others, including Mrs. Nicholas, and likely Orpheus, that the talent within him already existed. He just needed to listen.
How cruel it would be, then, if Frederick's Hunter is themed around conducting. Frederick the Survivor represents the rejection of the Kreiburg "survival of the fittest." As his shadow self, Frederick's Hunter might embrace some of the ruthlessness he rejected.
It also provides evidence, implied by both Umber Frederick and Cage of Yesteryear Frederick, that Frederick doesn't desire to return to the Kreiburg household. He sees the Kreiburgs for what they are and begins to embrace his unknown psychological condition, rather than shun it. They do not provide what he desires.
We receive some insight into Frederick's psychasthenia, particularly the Voice in Frederick's head. It remains unclear whether this tone is one of psychotic origin, dissociated origin, tinnitus, or another condition. However, we see a new perspective on it: it's not inherently malevolent, or even distressing. Frederick perceived it as malevolent because he lived in a eugenicist noble family that saw his distress as a burden, rather than truly investigating the source. Whatever psychologist they hired for Frederick's Third Deduction seemed more interested in reassuring the Kreiburgs than Frederick. In contrast to their support of pressure, or masking the problem, Frederick chooses to investigate himself, and learns it may not have been evil at all.
I can see why Frederick was given Blueberick, akin not only to Mary's mirror, but Villain Charm constantly being associated with blue. Like Villain Charm, while Blueberick is colder, more talented, more cruel than Rederick Frederick, he may not be evil, whatever he is.
Frederick's embrace of the unknown, choosing to cast off restraint, brings to mind characters who either embraced or are learning to embrace their "shadow" selves. Luchino no longer fearing his transformation, but embracing it. Detective Orpheus learning to communicate with Villain Charm. The Luchino parallel is particularly interesting, since Frederick possibly shares Luchino's connection to Yidhra, the Dream Witch. Yidhra and the Black Goat share multiple parallels, such as an association with fire and desire, and we still don't know why Yidhra is tied to the Darkwoods, or what happened with Frederick during the Final Game. It also brings to mind the possibility whether Frederick's Hunter will have traits similar to Luchino or Yidhra, particularly animalistic traits.
There is also the unanswered question of what is Frederick's relationship to Oletus Manor?
We now know his family is tied to the Mediterranean Deal in some form, we know he's seemingly interested in the supernatural aspects of the world, we know he has some kind of close relationship to Orpheus, and we know he's seemingly visited Oletus Manor multiple times.
Is he the enigmatic Dotdot from Orpheus' Third and Fourth Letters? The timing would be very close, given Mary's Sixth Letter implies Orpheus and Frederick met around or shortly after Game 0, due to Roy disappearing at the first chapters of White Steed published, but we do know that Roy assisted in the writing of White Steed of Death due to Mary's Second Letter. There are also some writing differences between this letter and Orpheus' Fourth Letter, but it's difficult to say if it's because there's two different writers, or Frederick would be gentler when writing to Amalia than Orpheus. It's already known that Frederick's tone with Orpheus was a mixture of affectionate and smug, calling him an "idiot" in Frederick's Ninth Deduction. At the very least, Frederick still remains the best known candidate for Dotdot.
Perhaps we'll get some answers with the summer update promising the return of Frederick, but the silence compared to the previous Da Capos is ominous.
I have been thinking about this due to the surprise usage of DID in Truth and Inference, but I really hope that because of the greater attention to the intentionality of the writers and artists of IDV (because of the acknowledgement Joker Studios =/= NetEase), the fandom will also start to reflect on how it reconstructs ableism.
The majority of my discussion regarding uncomfortable topics revolves around the story, but I did want to briefly touch upon this.
Since the early days of the fandom, I've noticed a trend that disability (particularly mental illness or brain trauma) is treated with extremes. Mental illness is either ignored or softened to be a source of angst to be comforted about, or it is overblown into exaggerated stereotypes as a form of conflict.
Unlike the internal writing of IDV, this trend hasn't experienced major changes over the years. Emma, Kurt, Naib, Luca, Andrew, Orpheus, Frederick, Lily, and others have experienced this characterization.
Since his release, Luca's brain damage has been either used to portray him as ditzy, impulsive, and forgetful, rather than the uncomfortable side effects it has on him in the story. He's bitter, sarcastic, and reflective. Alternatively, it's used to portray him as unstable and mad, rather than how it's implied it was used as justification for medical torture in prison. It's not a part of him but a set of symptoms to exaggerate or remove depending on intent.
Lily and Emma usually feature the "quirky illness" version, particularly Lily. She's treated as being silly or completely out of touch with reality, rather than examining the intersection between domestic abuse, mental illness, and why Lily chose to listen to Galatea's advice. Emma usually has her mental illness removed entirely, alongside any traits of hers seen as "uncomfortable," such as her vengeance. This is a common plight of female characters.
I watched a small but notable shift in the perception of Frederick as his psychasthenic symptoms intensified from '"the voices" as an indistinguishable concept to the "Blueberick" of Frederick's Concerto, with intense internal criticism, anger-based anxiety (alongside Andrew), and possible disassociation. Curiously, I also notice this intensification the same time Ode to the Eternal Night and Cage of Yesteryear reveled Frederick left his family rather than direct disownment. I think it's possible there is an unconscious belief the ableism he faced is less meaningful if he chose to remove himself from it.
The most upsetting cases I've seen have involved Orpheus, due to his position as the Baron being a morally ambiguous one that places him in opposition with numerous other characters. He has DID, a highly stigmatized, misunderstood dissociative disorder, and was (mis)diagnosed in an early IDV text with BPD, another stigmatized disorder.
I've seen fanfics where Orpheus being institutionalized or arrested was treated as a positive fate for himself and others. Sometimes there was justification that it was a "humane" institute at the time, other times there wasn't. I've seen Orpheus be called "psycho," described as faking his disorder, and portraying some of his suicidal symptoms/actions as the beneficial outcome for himself and others. I've even seen more compassion for the Blanches ("poor Mr. Blanche wanted to save his wife") and that it was Orpheus' fault for not handling his trauma in the "right" way. Never-mind this is the exact, faulty logic he believes about others due to said trauma.
I don't believe these were written malevolently, nor do know if anyone who created these will read this, but I do want to emphasize it's tasteless in a story so interested with systemic ableism. While some places have progressed since the days of Blackwell's Island, to say the systemic abuses are gone is ignorant. I've had loved ones who have suffered from said system. It's worse if you live somewhere psychiatric healthcare is unregulated. Exhausted staff in a position of power combined with patients (possibly without families) who are unable to speak out creates a system primed for abuse, and the abuse compounds with minority status (poc, physically disabled, queer, etc). While many characters in IDV often feature flanderization of their characters to wholly sympathetic or demonized, it intersects with an ignorance about systemic ableism.
Orpheus doesn't feel anything. He's a fictional character. But his reception as a fictional character is impacted by the real stigmas disorders like DID and BPD have (and, as Detective, possible brain trauma). I have witnessed these stigmas firsthand, how they damage people, and how they disrupt living with these disorders. A person with one of these disorders could be reading your fanfic.
When IDV is very interesting in criticizing this system (and not the patients), treating being placed in these systems as a punishment regarding a "dislikable" character with mental illness is frustrating.
I believe part of this is caused by the belief that there wasn't intentionality within the IDV text. If there isn't intentionality, you can just "play will dolls" and remain above what you're implying with your reconstruction. This is, of course, baseless. Whether you agree with the subtext or not, the writers/artists were intending many forms of subtext, and the audience engages in an act of creation by interpreting this subtext. Likewise, the audience to your creation is capable of interpreting and criticizing it, just as they can with the subtext itself.
It becomes more frustrating with the aforementioned changes to how IDV handles disability, particularly mental illness, over the years. We've gone from Kurt's delusions being treated as a twist to a systemic evaluation of how the insights of the mentally ill are disregarded. We've seen characters whose shocking depiction of mental illness have either been downplayed (Jack) or recontextualized with nuance (Emma). The treatment of Lord Lumien's DID feels like a pinnacle. We started with DID being treated with ominous mystery, Villain Charm set up as an enemy within. Now, we see Unidentified Phenomena and Black Vulture are parts of Lord Luminen. They are not the source of his choices, but not disconnected from them either. The writers have improved.
There's no grand solution to this. The most I can say is consider what do you think about mental illnesses such as DID, BPD, and symptoms such as dissociation, anger-based anxiety, or psychosis. Ask yourself if portraying characters with these disorders/symptoms as yanderes, liars, psychos, or incapable of love or deserving of abandonment to a system is less a commentary on the moral ambiguity of a character, but an extension of stereotypes.
Always remember someone with one of these disorders could be reading. How you address mental illness could be read by someone who's hurt by what you say. You, the reader, are always one bad accident away from suffering brain damage and/or developing a mental illness. There is no such thing as ordinary people.
If the writers could do it, I hope the fandom can as well.
So the Weibo and Twitter released Cleo's Backstory and uh. Funniest fucking possible character connection.
Cleo is shown performing on a stage, before being trapped into a box of her own creation. She looks terrified, contained on a stage she wishes to free herself from. She breaks down in tears. But the crowd applauds.
We cut to the same stage, but made of childish drawings and filled with amateur scribbles. She open her hands and butterflies fly out. We return to a past, perhaps real, perhaps imagined, where Cleo creates butterflies while surrounded by other children, including none other an a positively tiny Andrew.
Adults, though, view Cleo's antics differently. In her mind, she is climbing a whimsical tower, but in reality, she is being yelled at in her parents' grocery store. She hugs her mother goodbye and departs.
We continue to see a contrast between the dim real world and Cleo's world of imagination, wishing her a happy farewell. She grows older. The children depart, then little Andrew, and a young Cleo is now on the verge of crying as a man we previous saw in her performance glares at her.
Then, out of nowhere, we see a body bag being opened by Cleo, and she welcomes the unseen body (assuming they are deceased) with earnestness, the word "friendship" faintly appearing. She appears again in front of her parents' grocery store, now derelict, and her world of childhood imagination now strings up her old friends like puppets.
According to her Weibo Backstory, Cleo was a strange child who preferred to express herself through acting rather than words. This made her popular as an older sister figure among the children, including, and most notably, the lonely Andrew Kreiss.
Cleo left home after her parents could no longer tolerate her antics or were affected by it. She was taken in by a professional actor, the man in the seat, who exploited her for performances. Cleo then escaped afterward, but she had changed. Her friends, her grocery store, it was all gone. And she would do anything to get it back.
I'm betting she has a killcount of several. I've seen enough clowns in IDV to know the silly performers draw blood.
Cleo immediately has the "performance" archetype other characters such as Mike Morton, Violetta, the Game 3-2 characters, Hernando Romero, Frederick Kreiburg, and even characters that aren't performers such as Florian Brand and Norton Campbell feature. Given all members of both versions of Game 3 have this archetype, I am curious if she could be a member of Game 3-3.
I suspect Cleo could be autistic, since she prefers to communicate with expressions rather than words, and her fondness for Andrew Kreiss is unique. Andrew himself is described as autistic in some translations of his Character File, notably the Chinese translation. The ableism autistic people face is a common subject in Identity V, with all the Game 3-1 participants either being confirmed or implied to be autistic, and some other characters such as Frederick Kreiburg being speculated on.
I'm curious who is the person inside the body bag. Is it Andrew Kreiss and, if so, is he actually deceased, or did he cheat death to finish his Christ parallel? Or is it another one of Cleo's childhood companions and death will not be a barrier to her reunion.
Lastly, I'm interested in Cleo having some Alice DeRoss parallels. Like Alice, she seems to be motivated by finding a missing friend/family member who became a Manor Staffer (joining Demi Bourbon too), and both were also exploited by an older man who took them in, as was fellow Alice parallel Mike Morton. I'm curious as to why Alice receives so many performers as character parallels, especially since Cleo seems to be a somewhat nefarious figure compared to Demi and, to a lesser degree, Mike.
Hernando's design notes dropped onto Weibo, and I recommend you read or translate for yourself, but I want note some details I found interesting below.
Hernando's inspirations were his multi and creating a survivor with wide versatility and skill ceiling.
Hernando is supposed to highlight both the spectacle and glory of bullfighting and the cruelty and brutality of the sport.
Hernando's life experience is typical among matadors, but his reaction is unusual. Rather than grow more cautious towards death, he obsesses over it, constantly chasing the high that leads him to the fight club and, eventually, Oletus Manor.
The source of Hernado's obsession is that his present identity is a violent, forced distortion of the gentle, emotional child he was once. Like the "war of attrition" applied in his deductions, he didn't transform so much as he was destroyed. This disruption destroyed a healthy relationship with death, turning him into a person who only finds life in destruction to himself and others.
The question is proposed how much of the Hernando we see is the true Hernando, with the scarring on his lip providing a hint.
I do think it's interesting that they gave him some meteor/shooting star imagery, since I've noticed there is an associated between stars, recklessness, and optimism. Mike Morton and Alice DeRoss are the most notable examples. I think Hernando is a "combination" parallel for Orpheus and Alice (and Bane), but this may tip the scales more towards Alice.
Because of all this, I am curious whether or not he will experience an IDENTITY Swap, or be placed in conversation with another Swap. In time we will learn.
