Hear me out! Whalepunk. 🐳
Within those (potential) punk genres I listed a couple of weeks ago, there is one that absolutely fascinates me, even though it does not yet exist, if we are totally honest. The stuff I made up last week is partly more of a thing yet, than this specific one, though the name/idea is a bit older. As far as I can tell, it went something like this: "Yo, Dishonored feels kinda like a punk thing, right? And it runs on whale oil. So, like... Whalepunk? 😉" And given that there is a subreddit on it, there were definitely folks who really took to it. Yet, nothing much came from it. While I will argue that Dredge is also now part of that genre... That's it. Three games. Dishonored, Dishonored 2 and Dredge.
But I am super fascinated by the potential of this genre and now I am going to tell you why.
So, the entire Whale Oil thing predated the wide steam adaption by a bit. But of course it never got used in the way we see it used within Dishonored either way. For all intents and purposes, the whale oil in Dishonored might as well be called "magic whale goo", because it functions less as the oil and more as "energy source, but it is important it comes from whales". Because Dishonored brings in one other aspect: Some strange, almost eldritsch mysticism that is connected to the whales. And it is this, what makes the potential of the genre so interesting.
See, the thing about Whalepunk to me is, that there are three interesting things to explore within this genre.
The Whaling Industry as it existed was very cut throat and as basically the fishing industry still is today, there was ton of abuse going on. Because, duh, industries. Which would give an interesting start for the "punk" part to happen. Just explore people somehow surviving the life was a whaler and also... struggling with it. Because of their own misery, yes, but also because...
Whales are intelligent creatures. They are really, really intelligent. They are so intelligent that cultures living from fishing at times were able to co-work with the whales. So one can really work with the idea of "killing a being, that is almost human like in its intelligence" and how that might play out. And that would leave interesting places to explore. (Also: A story from the perspective of the whales?)
There is also the aspect of the ocean as this strange and unpredictable place. The one thing that to this day humanity is completely unable to tame. And the mysteries of the deep ocean. The same deep oceans the whales so often visit. Which is why this invites lovecraftian ideas so easily.
Between other people, who are interested in the punk genre, I always have heard: "But whalepunk is icky, because the poor whales." While I am sitting there like: "Whalepunk is interesting, because of that!" Because this senseless slaughter of another intelligent species can wonderfully play into the punk ideas.
And I don't know. I think this is neat. I think this genre would have a real potential on the basis of "the dependence on the ocean" vs "the unpredictability of the ocean". And I would love to see that explored a bit.
Again, so far there is not a lot within the genre. But man, I see some neet storytelling opportunities there.
