Tessa & Uzi as narrative parallels - how their environments & rooms reflect this
A character's room is usually akin to a direct look into their mind life, interests, what they like, etc. We get such a glimpse at Tessa's & Uzi's. Though, we get to know uzi through the show- her personality, her identity, her presence, her values are LOUD in a way you cannot deny due to her rebel nature.
However we don't get to know Tessa in that same exact sense, not purely because of lack of screentime- but because of her living conditions, in a stuffed abusive mansion where she couldn't really be her true authentic self freely. So our biggest glimpses at who Tessa James Elliott was: the moments of her we do get to see, her interactions with her drones, and, her room.
Tessa was clearly one weird girl, this is not just presented through the literal skulls, potion bottles, occult-like imagery & pentagrams scattered throughout her room- she directly says to J "there's huuuumans coming" like she isn't a human herself, & she barely has a concept of "proper" social behavior among other people. While this must be partially contributed to her parents' abuse & neglect, one thing for sure is that Tessa is fucking weird. She clearly has an interest in the dead that doesn't only extend to digging graves, but also fixing busted-up drones & taking them in as her friends.
All this- Tessa's knack for collecting & digging graves, Uzi's room plastered in posters & her own collections, Uzi going to the corpse spire to pick up parts for her railgun, her engineering skills. Painted skulls on both of their walls, in different styles- Tessa's more traditional & occult-like, while Uzi's more futuristic & sharp, reflecting their personalities, interests, living environments & differences along with the similarities. I think people underestimate the importance of environmental design in world-building & characterization, because again, for as little as we directly knew Tessa we can tell so much about her & her life from her room alone, it is a direct look into who she was as a person, & the fact it heavily parallels Uzi's- the main character, reads to me as a very intentional choice that showcases Tessa's importance in the overall lore/narrative.
There are so many details you can pin as parallels between Uzi's & Tessa's rooms. The muted yellow/greenish hues contrast with Uzi's bright purple. Tessa's symbols & pentagrams, Uzi's blueprints & drawings of the solver/her ramblings, the pinned papers on the wall, the skulls, tally marks, their rooms being their personalized spaces in homes that never truly felt like their own.
Uzi drives the force of events of the present story we're given on copper-9, while Tessa's actions in the past are what kickstart the events back on earth- she's reason any of the drones & cyn were there in the first place. Tessa is not only simliar to Uzi for the sake of character + story parallels it's because she is also an integral part of the narrative & this is reflected through many things down to the designs of their rooms
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