Discriminated people on the daily fight to be perceived as normal just to do their job like their normative peers. That is, essentially, a job that is not paid, extra work that in the end is never aknowledged. And so, more exhaustion is always guaranteed on This Worker:
This title card in the trailer, has always picked at my attention for how vague it is, particularly because the wording seems to recall on a philosophical or theatrical archetype. But also it seems to spike a question: what is ƎNA's job? It is never mentioned but its presence in the story is overwhelming and causing her and perhaps other characters huge amounts of distress.
My theory is due to her belonging in one if not several discriminated communities, she has this extra job that is constantly fighting other people's bigotry to just get to experience a regular day of work. The game is ONLY about this "job", about how these tasks to be on the nice side of people and of deserving the category of "normal" and therefore "lovable" consume her and her life.
I believe an intersectional analysis of ƎNA and her behavior would be at the very least interesting. Like, looking at how she behaves and the motifs in her story she has been speculated that she could fit in several minority groups:
-Woman/female-presenting: prominent hips and chest and what is usually seen as a feminine haircut.
-Japanese ancestry: her name is Japanese, many symbols in the game are Japanese (design of the Red Outworld, temple roofs, shide, her harisen tool she uses against the Smoke Machine, small toilet shrine...). There have also been theories of her being mixed with indigenous Peruvian but I don't quite know the details exactly other than the creator being also Peruvian and Perú having quite a big community of mixed Japanese and Peruvian ancestry (or Nikkei)
-Queer (be it due to her s3xual attraction or gender presentation): we see her biggest desire is shown in the shape of a female/feminine character asking her for a dance, at the same time her conversation with Coral Glasses appears to lean on the suggestive more than otherwise. Her gender presentation appears more masculine or neutral when she seems to want to appear attractive, no matter how expressive she is.
-Neurodivergent: autism, adhd, ocd... repetitive and quirky behaviors, she twists her language beyond how any other character does, she seems to obsess over issues that don't matter to others...
-Poor: her behavior seems to be driven by desperation as many deem her untrustworthy/scammer (these could also be tied to regular Asian discrimination) and is told that she "don't even make cents".
I also want to talk about how there's numerous mentions of addictive substances/experiences, be it: cigarettes, drinking/alcohol, slot machines, the s3xual/predatory/cultist concept of the Purge Event, and a future form of hers named "workaholic". They may not be explicitly tied to her but their strong and reiterative presence seem to point at her addictive personality.
Her surface goal, defeating her loneliness (as we see how she ventures into the Lonely Door first thing) seems to take her places where she behaves desperately. She probably arrived at the PE with the yearning of being heard and understood but when she arrives nobody cares for it. Sadly, by then she can't allow herself to leave, she has sacrificed so much of her time and effort, she'd feel ridiculous if she did.
Perhaps she is feeling so starved for affection she needs to believe anything or anyone will do. So she tries to dip herself in delusion and just follow the "whistle" and the "dancing eyes"... and that will come from anyone who will be willing to look at her.
She knew all the people in that party had looked at her and her desperation in disdain; and, in that environment and state, she can only attract the worst entities.
She is so hungry but can't help being the one to be consumed.
The "looping predicament" Froggy speaks of could be of her attempting over and over to be liked and pushing through the bigotry and microagressions or by trying different coping mechanisms.
In the end it only harms her, and I believe the why is said pretty succinctly by this guy:
Perhaps replaying the game while noticing her corporate/work-related vocabulary with this new outlook on it can help descipher more easily what she is doing and her intentions. Like a "fellow entrepreneur" could be someone who struggles socially for similar reasons to her and might be trying to push through it.
I think Froggy's referring to shogi here, plus Japanese chess has... an interesting dynamic:
And this is what's on the floor of the hub after ENA returns (first image courtesy of zagrayden on twitter 🫶)
It resembles a Western chess board instead of a Japanese one but there's more. Here's all I found:
The Western Chess structure
Dynamic of "rebirth" like in shogi (in which ENA is rebirthed back into the board)
Peruvian/Incan inspirations, specifically on a tunic AND a funerary mantle. One of them seems to be a double-headed...snake?*
*About the double-headed "snake" I found a Paracas funerary mantle on the Museo Larco website with very similar imagery and it describes it as such:
More depictions I found of Incan funerary mantles... the second one is quite interesting since it resembles this chess-like disposition.
The game possibly simplified the depiction of this symbol but the parallels are undeniable.
On the other hand, the imagery that they ended up using was instead of a tupa/t'oqapu, which was worn by the living...
So, what is depicted in the hub?
A game that parallels social classes (chess), contains rebirth dynamics (Japanese chess), the imagery depicted is worn by the living (Incan) but with a structure more typical to be worn by the dead as funerary mantles (also Incan).
The only different motive from the tupa I showed seem to be the coral pants character which seems to be implying that they're: trapped in this class game, as literal NPCs, as living dead, fit for this status quo.
Now the real characters we see in the hub all stand AROUND the board and not in it, and with chess being a game depicting social class it could very clearly insinuate that they're all outcasts in this system, unable to game in the social ladder.
...But what about ENA?
She seems to have the freedom to move herself around the entire board and outside with no problem, as if implying that she can act as a chameleon, successfully masking in between normative society while belonging outside.
The term of "masking" is used to describe the act of trying to pass as fitting in a society by people who generally don't (be it bc they're neurodivergent, queer, immigrants...). And one of the first things we see her do when she enters the hub is literally drop the nice (salesperson) mask.
And so ENA walks the path of the outcasts (Lonely Door) but has the possibility to use the social ladder and ascend (with Ascension Route)... but both the paths depicted make her terribly lonely (with the spiritually draining crowd in the Purge Event versus the cold loneliness of Ascension) and ultimately consume her and make her into her Hangover form.
Guilt is generally an emotion felt on the stomach which makes people feel nauseous so I'm inclined to think the depiction of hangover is related. Following this interpretation she feels guilty, perhaps for abandoning her fellow outcasts, who know she knows their pain and can't follow her while she successfully masks to climb the social ladder. At the same time this guilt/class traitor sentiment is intensified by the empty feeling of being alone at the top: we see how hangover ENA is depicted with golden motives (expensive, materially rich)... while still wearing her workers' uniform. She will never be understood by the top class (bourgeoisie), she's forever perceived as a glorified Worker. Alienating her from both classes.
Forever outcasted, forever lonely inside and out as her path is never comprehended, her ascension and effort never aknowledged, her fellows abandoned and her guilt eating away at her. "Worker" being the only role she fits. And detests.
Guilt only amplifies with time as she moves as a masking living dead on the board.
So she asks for forgiveness from Theodora, a divine figure doubly represented by the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (representing the human who ascended to divinity but decided to stay among the living as a show of mercy to guide them to said Enlightenment/Nirvana...) and a Nazcan figurine representing feminine fertility. ENA is also guided/possessed by four angels or venuses from different cultures; they're all feminine characters just like her, all showing a clear role social path on the game of society for women: having children.
[This is a screenshot from the ENA wiki]
Maybe she will fit there and finally renounce that Worker role she despises... but to her all her achievements are jobs, all items, literal stepping stools for her to ascend: the mother card (motherboard), the creating-and-raising-a-human card (humanboard).
Her heart is not in it, she's possessed by the angels (faith guides in Christianity) of compulsory womanhood while still being eaten away by her class traitor guilt, queer guilt... an amalgamation of different survivor's guilt as the outcast who managed to ascend in the social ladder by abandoning everybody.
And Theodora can see all those feelings, that lack of faith, lack of heart, Theodora will never be the divinity for her. ENA will never truly understand this role so she can never be forgiven, she's a heathen, this new role she opted (womanhood) is forever unattainable.
She was always acting and lying to herself and others and she will never find spiritual wholeness in the spotlight. She needs to stop running away.
Your mind seems to be in conflict with the letters it spits out. Worries and fears will only betray your true goals, ƎNA.
But in failure there's always learning, so Theodora guides her away and into her real wish or dream. Away from acting, away from roleplaying as the only way to live.
Remember ƎNA: "All it takes is a place and the right food"
"Food" here likely refers to spiritual food, feeling whole and socially meaningful. It tells her to just find a place with what she likes instead of molding herself around preconceived roles.
And barbecues happen to be social events molded around their food.
"To heal yourself you will have to find what you like and you will find your people there."
It has been revealed that there's an intentional timeline (Temptation Stairway–> Dating Oblivion–> EDBBQ) so I want to talk about PoP as sort of a disconnected prologue to present the themes in EDBBQ. Meaning:
Following what I theorized to be the internalized male gaze of EDBBQ, it could've been preluded by the looming strong presence of patriarchal oppression in previous ENA episodes, as particularly shown in Power of Potluck.
I wrote an analysis of the animation from this perspective under the cut.
This animation stands out for it's very bared structure in 5 named acts and point-and-click game style of subtitles and frame. This style of literal framing gives off a sense of oppressiveness together with the birdseye POV (as if we're watching her from someone else's eyes) compared to prior animations. But, as you probably know, it's not there for the entire animation, only appearing when she's in the house surrounded by those that know more than her. I also wanna mention how several of the settings are reminiscent of several human organs, in which ENA would be travelling through them.
DESCRIPTION
ENA rings the doorbell of a turtle-shaped house and is immediately thrown into a literal gutsy journey. On a dirty corridor carpeted in red and flanked by taped-up metal doors we meet Ivy, a literally split-in-half feminine character that rushes ENA into the performance; not before judging her for not enjoying herself enough.
We follow ENA through several rooms in a backward journey from what was the anus/urethra, bypassing the intestines to what we could assume to be the stomach.
This place contains several feminine figures hurting, who yet claim that their tears are of joy. Their vulnerable positions and entrapment could lead to several sinister readings to it but I want to call attention to the effort they make to deliver their words. A growth covers the original mouth with a new one and then projects two new sets of lips forcefully detached from them... all as if to seem like these aren't their words, their truth, they're passing onto ENA. And just like the figures have their two degrees of separation, ENA has her sad mask of deluding happiness.
In the "stomach", the tears pool on the ground and sink down the drain as if to parallel the idiom of "swallowing one's tears".
And so they guide ENA to the source of their joy (?) and that'd be entering the performance aka walking through the red curtain to Act 2 or The Rising.
ENA appears to be observed by masculine-coded strangers in a dark street and does not find this ("element of womanhood") amusing at all. We could say the title of this act equates male attention with a "rising" or "ascension" into more (more human, more value, more responsibilities, more attractiveness...) but she seems to denounce the perceived positivity in this situation.
With acts 3 and 4 we are presented with the most cryptic of acts: Crescendo of a Descent. In it, ENA searches for an explanation for her discomfort and is only shown vague gestures and emotions while being asked to take part in. It ends with ENA rebelling against the situation for having been thrown into stage and not being given enough of a justification for it. Basically we can see how they're all manipulating and messing around with her.
Before tackling act 5 I want to talk about the naming of the acts, or rather, the artifical structure permeating the entire narration.
STRUCTURE BREAKDOWN
Here's what we're shown, with the actual traditional names of a 5-Act structure in parenthesis:
Act 1: Display ("Exposition")
Act 2: The Rising ("Rising Action")
Act 3 and 4: Crescendo of a Descent ("Climax" and "Falling Action")
Act 5: Therapy ("Resolution" –> actually namedropped by the therapist. It is also the only actually named act, the ending, the lesson. ENA's struggle is of no matter to the creator of the structure.)
We can see a lack of interest in allowing them to have a more descriptive name or appear in logical points; rather, it just feels as if they just act as a constrain to the story, a constrain to ENA's story/existence. In the same manner, acts 3 and 4 appear to have been "rushed" by whoever seeks to pressure ENA since they are presented together instead of separately.
The meaningless names of the acts, their random appearance and the rushedness of "Crescendo of a Descent" all point to a sense of irritation from the "narrator" itself. We increasingly get the sense that someone has been injecting these acts onto ENA's life. After all, it is right at the moment where ENA seems to start to show anger, rebel and oppose this strange atmosphere that act 3-4 is finished. And so we get to...
ACT 5: THERAPY
It being named "Therapy" seems to want to convince us that there's some kind of healing understanding from the part of the therapist when it literally starts with a roaring patronizing outburst:
Perhaps this phrasing feels more familiar:
"You will understand when you're older".
A closed argument. According to this one sentence there is no other way for her life to evolve, her fate has already been written (by him).
[I also want to mention the title for the EDBBQ track used in this trailer:
anemoia (noun): nostalgia for a time or a place one has never known.
Which, if we take it to mean what's referred to be her struggle in PoP, it makes it feel like perhaps it's just a joy she'll never experience.]
Back to PoP, whether that be having your period, having a child or being a servile wife, the patriarchal figure wants no discussion and cuts the rebellious thinking. Even if seemingly delivered in kindness, these are the only words exchanged before she's basically kicked out:
💀: Because it's a joy you still don't understand.
So... tell me... what's the flavour of today's voyage?
I feel this is lightly sarcastic, "Why are you here again?", "What's the matter with you now?" but ENA doesn't seem to catch it or doesn't care. She needs answers.
🎭: Abysmal! Tastes like I'm in a real cosmic stew.
These words betray a painful feeling of existential dread, of her sense of self being slowly boiled-eroded into the oblivion of the cosmos
💀: I sense that there might be a touch of exaggeration in your joy.
She was not expressing joy in her words, and her tone was expressing sarcasm. Being in a "cosmic stew" could not be anything positive. This figure doesn't seem to listen to her words.
🎭: Well, the timeless journeys through these play(s) always are familiar. Everytime, I aknowledged the enjoyment and pleasure... and all I got were incomprehensible feelings... and this lousy mask."
She refers to what she calls "enjoyment and pleasure" except we know she never liked it. She calls it that only in the presence of the therapist, too. It's as if her feelings had been redefined by him to the point she lacks the words to call her pain as pain. And so we could interpret that she is speaking of self-repression and feeling excluded due to her "incorrect" feelings.
💀: You've been coming here persistently– over and over. The truth is, though, you will never find fun in this place.
We see a concession from the therapist, perhaps in the hope that ENA will stop questioning. The response to ENA's repression is validation and the aknowledgement of who she is as essentialy clashing against "this place", or rather, "this path chosen for her". If we follow my theory that'd be the path chosen for her by the patriarchal expectations.
🎭: Perhaps you have other suggestions?
💀: Fun is quite the elusive varmint– isn't it? But remember: it is never lost forever. Often, the greatest of fun can be found in the little moments.
Literally saying "Happiness is in the little things". He eludes the question with an empty platitude that could even imply that she has no option but hang onto the little moments of the only viable path. Even if true it completely disregards ENA and her current questioning. He threw in a little validation, a little happiness, enough to immediately attempt to move her thoughts away from her will to question.
🎭: *sniff* like... how little they are?!
She speaks of few/short fun moments and yet tries to find them adorable for its lack-there-of. Essentially, romanticizing having a starved spirit. Fittingly enough, the ENA in DBBQ seems to find fun in her exploration escapades, the way she interacts with the world and petting all manner of creatures in between the many interactions that demean her.
💀: You need not return here anymore. This is your Resolution.
Namedrop of the traditional name for the last act, practically showcasing to us the control this patriarchal figure has been holding over ENA. This constraining structure looming over her thoughts essentially kicks her out of creating more dissent inside his literal frame.
In addition, the phrasing of "here's your Resolution" sounds less like a therapy session and more like a court ruling a sentence on her.
WOMANHOOD AS AN ASCENSION INTO SUBMISSION
I want to point these other imagery elements that point at the nucleus of her troubles radicating on a recent rise into "womanhood", a label that is socially-understood to be when an afab person gets their first period:
The "entrance" (from what looks like the urethra) into her questioning is a red carpet.
On act 1, she appears rubbing her back/lower back (a common painful spot during menstruation) as she complains about not recognizing this strain of "joy".
When someone gets their period, a lot of hormonal changes and neural connections occur, and it can cause sudden and intense mood swings together with bursts and plummets of energy. ENA speaks of "Connections and bonds (...)" likely quoting people who may have shown joy at seeing her with these new predicaments while she does not find any joy in her situation.
The exploration of the innards of a physical body (as shown within the first act) might indicate that Ena is trying to go to the root of her discomfort and understand why adults are happy while she has to act as if she understands and isn't in pain and/or discomfort.
Many cultures celebrate when girls get their period because it "makes them into women," as they now can have children and continue the family legacy just like they did. This puts a lot of pressure to perform happiness or look for it by these confused children, as adults claim motherhood as the most important life mission for a woman. At the same time, it seeks to dissuade any questioning regarding the dangers/responsibility/morality of imposing said motherhood. Essentially, we are talking of a socially-enforced grooming into desiring a patriarchal cisheteronormative life.
After all this, she exits from where she entered, in which ENA is confronted by Moony and this new character she drags around like a backpack performing masculinity... perhaps for ENA? In which it proves completely useless as we see it lose its appearance to reveal some pathetic businessman that Moony immediately chooses to hide.
I feel the social conditioning of womanhood equating bodily changes to maturity has pressured Moony into acting more mature than her age so she just kidnapped a guy (?) off the road to be her romantic labubu. Then, said guy attempts to perform masculinity for ENA as his own version of maturity for a few seconds until he gives up. The result is the dissonance of what feels like a trio of early teens trying to act like what they think adults all are while still playing ring rong run.
My initial hypothesis was that what I interpreted as internalized misogyny in EDBBQ could've been foreshadowed by PoP. And seeing how ENA had "been coming here persistently" she could very well have been trying to fight it the only way she knew: relying on knowledgeable adults to guide her towards better alternatives.
But, of course, we know those were precisely the ones vouching for that lifestyle as the only correct one.
