Intent vs. Execution (game 5 has flaws)
Sometimes I see ppl bring up how positive dynamics between Patricia with Chloe or Jose feel kinda weird cause of the lore which is completely valid, buuuuut… I hope y’all know there’s a very high chance Netease is gonna brush past that later down the line in order to make them work together, and also get ready to have even more uncomfortable conversations about how idv writes racism.
The best way I can explain how it feels to me would be author’s intent vs. author’s execution. The intent would be for the characters to grow past their prejudices & allow them to work as one by unifying under the fact that they’re all humans who make mistakes. The execution of this idea becomes a problem because the prejudice they chose (most specifically for Jose) was race. A prejudice which is layered much deeper than a little bad faith assumption like say what Chloe did to Vera & with much harsher connotations. I think the intent was to make the poison feel like Chloe killing Vera. However, like I said before racial prejudice comes with a lot more baggage than an interpersonal prejudice. This writing decision ends up undermining the actual weight of racism & makes it seem as though it’s a mentality that can be easily fixed like if it were interpersonal. Long story short, idv shows its ass yet again when it comes to discussing race when it pertains to darker skinned characters by skimming over the oppression they face to harmonize their narratives with their white counterparts even when its unreasonable to do so. And this could have been avoided: could’ve picked a different basis for prejudice not tied to her ethnic identity for one, but ofc idv does what idv does 🫠
For me, I tend to just remind myself what I’m playing. I don’t expect idv to have well nuanced conversations about race, racism, of the systemic prejudice poc face. A game with a skin like brave & whitewashes their darker skinned characters could never offer me that. So I separate the two in my mind by appreciating the intent, but remembering to criticize the execution where necessary. Kind of a habit you have to build if you wanna do anything literary since the literary canon is rife with problematic undertones in well respected & well written stories (oh picture of Dorian Gray, why must you randomly be super anti-Semitic for no reason other than shits and giggles?)
