(Note: A review I wrote for my now ex-job back in August. I was never paid for this review, my contract having run out. If this seems shorter than my usual stuff, that’s because it is. These were just meant to be short little reviews.)
As August skims away into September, so does the summer inevitably fade as well. With vacations ending and people heading back to school, perhaps it would make sense to look at a recently released graphic novel about school. And with a social climate not so conducive to the rights of transgender people, Crystal Frasier’s Cheer Up! is a tale about gender identity, sexuality, and how cisgender people can look at trans people.
Annie is the smartest girl in the senior class at her high school, with no one coming close to her grades. The only problem is her anti-social nature, brought upon by years of bullying, which has caused physical altercations between her and her classmates. At the request of her mother and the principal, Annie decides to try out for the cheerleading team where she meets a former friend named Bebe. The latter is a transgirl, people pleasing to the point of harming her own emotional needs, all in order to keep her parents appeased to her transition. Their story is one of bonding, learning how Annie is just very socially anxious and Bebe is forced to be one of the “good ones” or fear retribution for being a “bad” trans person. And they wonder if their relationship is strong enough to withstand Bebe’s fears.
Cheer Up! has its roots in the bonds of different relationships: familial, platonic, and romantic. In addition, it also focuses on the attention being trans can push onto a person who simply wants to exist. Bebe would love nothing more than to just be treated like another girl, but rather the attention not only from her classmates but the state at large others her. This othering results in Bebe becoming extremely uncomfortable and forcibly becoming a people pleaser. Moments where she does get angry results in mockery of her putting on her “man voice” or being constantly sexually harassed by a popular male student. It’s only through changing relationships that she is able to finally begin changing for herself. Annie, a lesbian, seeing her romantically as a woman to her parents slowly accepting their daughter to the rest of the cheerleaders realizing they were objectifying her to be known as the team with a trans cheer captain.
Authors similar to Crystal Fraiser include Lilah Sturges and Kay O’Neil, prolific trans authors for the medium. One of Sturges’ most recent releases, Girl Haven, also has heavy focus on trans themes and those of gender identity. Extremely important in a time where trans people seem to be constantly under attack. O’Neil has written plenty of queer related graphic novels, most notably the Dragon Tea Society trilogy and Princess Princess Ever After, a seemingly common fairy tale that turns tropes on their heads.
The book is relatively short compared to contemporary graphic novels, but that just means that it accomplishes what it needs to without going on for too long. The main relationship is between Annie and Bebe, and it is very believable to see them slowly reconnect, as if they had never lost their friendship in the first place. The way that Bebe’s cis classmates react to her vary, in ways that do entirely make sense to trans people. Not everyone is targeting her, but the attention she has received magnifies her fears of everyone waiting to harass her. Her fellow cheerleaders are seemingly supportive, but also face their own inner biases against Bebe, to the point of purposefully leaving her out from non-school activities they all participate in. And doin this toward a girl who does nothing but attempting to placate them, solely so she can feel like it is okay for her to exist as a human.
I highly recommend this story for anyone, genuinely. The importance of humanizing trans people, specifically transwomen, has never been more critical than now. One may believe they are being an ally, but inherent biases can reflect how they may actually act to a trans person. Even Annie, who lovingly supports Bebe, steps over the line in her attempts to defend Bebe from anti-trans rhetoric. It does go to lengths to show how this negatively impacts trans people, who at the end of the day are people and worthy of respect from others with no caveats.
While short, the tale of Annie and Bebe is the perfect way to start off the school year and the fall. After all, they are commencing their own senior year at the beginning of the story. Even outside of its own romance, there is much more to grasp from it than just the base story. Another excellent release from Oni Press, that seems to always knock it out with what they publish.
One game that I’ve had sitting on my Steam Library, yet somehow never opened or played, for years has been The Missing: JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories. This game released in 2018, and when it comes to talking about video games that revolve around queer issues and themes, I basically never see anything about it outside of initial reviews that came out after it released. Over the past two days, I decided to finally play it all the way through to see what it was about. This game was nominated for Game for Impact at the 2018 Game Awards, losing out to Celeste, which unfortunately is a hard game to beat and is another of my favorite games of all time.
That said, as much as I love Celeste and continue to play it even now, The Missing is a game that hit me so hard that I was reminded of the first time I played Life is Strange. The latter game helped me come to terms with who I am, so the fact that The Missing managed to inflict a similar feeling upon me is impressive. Like a lot of my favorite games, The Missing is a game dripping with symbolism and dream logic. Is this my new favorite game? Possibly. My favorite tends to rotate between Life is Strange and Celeste, depending on my mood, but The Missing is an extremely well written game.
So what is The Missing? It’s a 2D platform-puzzle game, written and directed by Hidetaka Suehiro aka SWERY. If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s almost definitely because Suehiro is most well known for his work on the Dead Premonition games, a pair of critically polarizing horror games that take a lot of inspiration from western works like Twin Peaks. The second game reportedly had transphobic content in it, something Hidetaka quickly apologized for, noting his English skills as poor and something he would work to fix. Considering his history, I’m inclined to believe he made a genuine writing mistake and this game is part of why I believe him.
This game will contain deep spoilers for The Missing, so stop reading her if you do NOT want to be spoiled about the twists and turns of the game’s story and contain some triggering elements such as talk on suicide and self-harm, along some other topics.
So right off the bat, I wanna talk about the gameplay. Normally, I forego talking about gameplay primarily because I like to talk about story and character content. But here I need to point out that the game’s 2D platforming can be frustrating, especially on a better hardware setup. I recently got a new laptop running a GeForce RTX 2070 Super, which is wonderful compared to what I used to have. However, the game was running so quickly that my inputs were being read incorrectly. I was unable to jump as high as normal, making the game near impossible at the point where I changed laptops. By limiting the FPS down to 60, the game worked normal. But it did show me how finnicky the controls can be at parts where you have to do some precision platforming. In addition, some actions require small cutscenes every time you do it resulting in the game slowing to a crawl. I do believe, however, that these problems are minute enough not to cause a problem. I completed the game, with all collectible donuts, in around 7 hours.
The Missing is a game primarily about two women: Jackie Jameson Macfield and her best friend Emily. The two are extremely close, and while out camping near their hometown, Emily suddenly vanishes and the island turns into a nightmare. JJ is struck by lightning, killing her, but she’s suddenly granted the ability to regenerate her body after she dies. The goal of the game is to find Emily while proceeding through areas and solving platform-puzzle challenges to progress and grab 271 donuts, the game’s main collectible. Grabbing every donut is important, since each one takes you a step closer in understanding JJ as a character via unlockable text messages with her friends and her professor.
Most of these challenges are not solved normally, however. As I said before, JJ can regenerate her body after being harmed. Of course, her body can be completely decimated with her having to horribly harm herself to remove limbs up to only being a head in order to progress through these puzzles. JJ can also harm herself in other ways, including setting herself on fire or breaking her neck in order to flip the area upside down. All of these self-harming behaviors are integral to the gameplay. The last gameplay type is running away from the Hairshrieker, a monster made of bones that chases JJ through the island with a giant box cutter. It’s pretty much just platforming with a monster that will kill you.
First Hairshrieker encounter
So far it seems like a pretty normal horror puzzle game, right? What could possibly be so deep and meaningful about it? Especially if it’s a queer game being written by a Japanese auteur. It’s weird, because I’ve played games by queer or trans devs that deliver authentic experiences to players. Now I’m unsure whether or not SWERY consulted anyone when writing this game, because it feels a lot like Tell Me Why in the aspect of being a game written with consultants in mind to produce an experience that feels genuine.
From the very beginning, the game lets you know that there’s something up with Emily. Hiding secrets and running away from JJ at every point, with JJ unable to ever catch up to her. As JJ collects donuts through the game, reaching a certain number will unlock text chains that JJ has previously had with people she knows ranging from friends to her professor to her mother and Emily, though the latter two unlock no matter what as you progress through the game. Each chain shows what kind of person JJ is around certain people. Around her punk rocker friend, Abby, she seems always willing to help as well as being understanding of Abby’s plight about being talked down to for her attitude and the way she dressed. With Philip, who is less of a friend and more an annoying classmate, is a rich kid who takes advantage of JJ’s kind attitude, even though JJ is fully aware she’s being taken advantage of. There’s Lily, a more feminine girl who seems to have an obsessive crush on JJ. And finally there’s Professor Goodman, a product designer whom JJ works for as an AI (assistant instructor.)
Text chains with JJ’s mother and Emily are probably the most important. Throughout the game, they will periodically update to reveal more of JJ’s personality. JJ is truly only herself around Emily, where there’s a stark difference in the way she interacts between someone like Lily or Abby compared to Emily. JJ seems to put on a mask for everyone else, only showing joy and her insecurities to Emily, who is always there to show JJ support. JJ’s mother, on the other hand, has a horrible relationship with JJ. JJ often gives her mom one word responses as the mother seems to push all her wants onto JJ, such as JJ becoming some sort of heir to the family. This implies JJ’s family is quite rich in some aspect, as the mother desperately wants JJ to inherit her deceased father’s legacy and often talks about how happy she is that JJ turned out “normal.”
Early on, the game wants you to believe that Emily has a secret. The secret can easily be interpreted as Emily being a lesbian and having feelings for JJ, who may or may not reciprocate them. At the beginning of the game, Emily attempts to lay her head against JJ’s, only for JJ to pull away making Emily quickly move away. However, JJ eventually relents and the two hold their head against one another. So is that the secret? Of course not. It’s very obvious that JJ and Emily have feelings for one another, but they’re both unsure how to process their feelings. All that matters, however, is that Emily loves and supports JJ unconditionally. Because it’s not Emily who has the secret, it’s JJ.
Throughout the game’s text chains, JJ will also interact with texts from FK, her stuffed animal she carries everywhere for emotional support and the mysterious appearance of a doctor with a deer head, speaking like he was straight out of the Red Room in Twin Peaks. Eventually Emily begins speaking like that as well, making things feel a lot more like a living nightmare. While JJ is always extremely angry and exhibits self-harmful behavior both physically and emotionally, FK represents a more innocent part of her. They represent the part of her that still has love and hope inside, but the anger, fear, and depression that JJ has often overpowers FK’s innocent pleas to try and help her. As the game goes on, JJ slowly calms down and becomes less hostile toward FK, eventually their words helping JJ stand up once more.
Talking to Philip doesn’t really do much, other than show JJ’s less than enthused responses to his spoiled nature. The other three, however, all slowly hint at JJ’s secret. Conversations with Abby often revolve around JJ asking her how she has the confidence to dress and act as her true self, and how she deals with superiors who question and criticize her. With Lily, it’s often talking about more feminine activities. And despite Lily often coming off as stalker-like, JJ continues to speak to her because there’s not a lot more people to interact with her interests such as baking and cooking. Her conversations with Professor Goodman often feel more like the proper parent JJ wishes she had, with Goodman often offering her advice as well as talking about his family and interests. He also reveals that JJ’s mother often attempts to divulge information about JJ from Goodman, which only serves to make JJ more uncomfortable about how much her mom pushes her to be “normal.”
As she gets closer to the end of her journey, texts from everyone become more hostile. This all begins when JJ’s mother finds out her “secret” after invading JJ’s privacy at the family home by reading her diary and questioning why there are women’s clothing in JJ’s closet. Phone calls from Emily slowly reveal that something is wrong, with text messages lining up with what Emily is saying to her. We hear distorted weeping as JJ follows after Emily up to the clock tower they loved as kids. We hears sounds of electricity, the distorted deer man’s voice, and a voice that continuously says things from JJ’s point of view. It all continues building up to her finding Emily’s body hanging from a noose, as well as a note on the ground.
JJ reads it.
It’s a suicide note.
It’s not Emily’s.
JJ weeps and hangs herself next to Emily, before her body breaks free of the noose and she falls off the clock tower. Her body is barely able to regenerate when it lands, and she slowly walks through the hallway of her small university. We see shadows mock and berate JJ, some people even becoming physical. She only just barely gets through all of this because of Emily always being there to support her.
Final text messages reveal a few things. With Abby, JJ attempts to bring something up to her several times, but she decides not to when Abby doesn’t reply. Abby does reply eventually, revealing she was busy setting up for a concert and becomes worried when JJ never replies back. Philip doesn’t even notice that JJ’s gone, only thanking her for telling him to follow his acting dreams. Professor Goodman invites JJ to share dinner with he and his family. And Lily? Well this text chain is important, because it pretty much reveals what happened that led to the events of the game.
JJ and Lily went to the library to study, with JJ covertly checking out a book about a certain “condition.” We’re not told what it is, but Lily reveals she saw the book and proceeded to ask other people about it. Those people didn’t keep their mouth shut and word about JJ’s “condition” quickly spread. In addition, once discovering JJ’s diary, her mother decides to send her off to a special kind of therapy that will make her normal again. With all of this happening, JJ has an emotional and mental breakdown to Emily. Her emotions spiral about how much of a freak she is, while her mind makes up stories that Emily only talks to her out of pity. Emily initially gets a little angry at this, before realizing what might be happening. JJ doesn’t reply for a while only eventually saying “goodbye” to Emily, ending the text chain.
So what is JJ’s secret? While it isn’t technically revealed until the last scene of the game, one can pretty much put all the pieces together at this point. JJ is a closeted transwoman and the only person she’s out to is Emily. The clock tower JJ goes to is where she came out as trans to Emily when she was younger, declaring that she was “Jackie Jameson.” And JJ was so happy when Emily didn’t abandon her. As JJ got older, she still presented as male out of fear of being harassed. It’s why she’s so locked up when speaking to anyone who isn’t Emily. It’s why she asks Abby how to properly deal with not letting people get to you or standing up to an abusive parent.
JJ suffers from horrible gender dysphoria, taking out a book from the library most likely about the subject. Lily was not attempting to be malicious, but her actions cause her to out JJ to the entire school. It’s implied JJ is from a place where being openly trans is a death sentence, since being trans in the United States has long been a favored target of harassment from conservatives, TERFs, and other bigots. And considering how 2021 has been nothing but the rise of the GOP targeting trans people with TERFs becoming more and more prevalent thanks to outspoken bigots like JK Rowling.
Harassment against trans individuals are very real, with bad apples often being used as “evidence” that all trans people are evil and bad. Though, I’d argue by that logic then all cis people would be the purest form of evil if we judged all cis individuals by the cruelties of every cis monster in history. It’s just history repeating itself, like if a convicted criminal was gay back in time, then homophobes would use a singular instance of one person to justify hating an entire section of humanity. I think it’s important, if you are cis, to have empathy for trans individuals during this time. Trans people just want to exist. We want to live our lives without having to live in constant fear that someone wants to murder us for just existing. For just eating lunch at a park without fearing that some cis man will come and beat us nearly to death for existing. People like the GOP or TERFs like JK Rowling are cruel individuals. They don’t care about humans or anyone else other than themselves. They just want us dead.
And that’s the mindset that JJ has. JJ believes that her mere existence will make Emily’s life worse off. That people will make Emily a target of harassment if people knew that the person closest to her was trans. JJ lashes out at her for a specific reason. To make herself feel more like the monster she believes she is, so that it will be easier for her to justify committing suicide to herself. To make a monster and make Emily hate her for it, something we see when JJ is fused into the Hairshrieker while Emily shoots a shotgun at her. A symbolic representation of JJ trying to make herself feel like a monster so Emily will hate her, and not feel bad when JJ dies. Of course, the reality of this is the complete opposite. Emily loves JJ, she is the single most important person in her life. It takes a conversation, after JJ realizes she is already dying, with FK to realize that even if everyone else hates her that there’s one person who doesn’t. There’s one person who loves JJ so much, that JJ dying will doom her as well. That JJ needs to live and be there for Emily the same way that Emily is there for JJ.
A final confrontation with the Hairshrieker shows JJ, in her dream, no longer breaking apart when she self-harms. It shows that pain is always going to be there, but with the resolve that Emily will always be there for her, she’s able to avoid falling apart into pieces as she eventually kills the Hairshrieker and finds Emily. She finds what she was looking for this whole time, a final text message to FK showing that JJ is starting to feel better. It was the fear of Emily dying from JJ’s attempt that drew her to confront her negative feelings, something we see JJ do when she believes Emily is dead.
The final scene is telling because JJ wakes up as how she looks in reality: closeted and presenting openly as male. Before her is a paramedic with a deer head sitting behind him in the room. The deer man being the paramedic attempting to save her life. FK, her beloved plushie, was pooling blood together and helping stop JJ from bleeding out after she fell unconscious. A phone call from her mother shows JJ, in my opinion, ready to say goodbye permanently to her. An acceptance that her mother is a horribly negative influence on her life, suggesting and nearly forcing JJ into conversion therapy. We found out that JJ eventually told her mother and she did not take it well at all, implied to be the straw that broke the camel’s back that caused the suicide attempt. Emily discovers JJ’s suicide note and finds her quickly enough to call for help, with Emily’s weeping and saying “you broke our promise” representative of JJ dying and leaving Emily, since their promise was to never be apart from one another. Emily eventually rushes in, and the two hug with JJ thanking her for always supporting her as well as telling her she’s reconciled with herself and found what she wanted. The game ends there.
But that’s not the end. If you had collected all 271 donuts through the game, you will be rewarded with several images that take place post-game. JJ is now openly trans and Emily takes her to try on new clothes, some of which resemble her dreamscape’s outfit. The two are shown happy together, moving forward from the tragedy stronger, that one person can make your life all the better by being there for you.
One of three pictures that’s a reward for collecting all donuts
The game hits hard. It hits hard in a lot of ways. There’s a scene where JJ describes her body mutilation in detail to FK, but it’s really easily seen as JJ describing the horrific extent of her gender dysphoria. And the gameplay reflects that. JJ self-harms and her body falls apart, a body she feels so gross and foreign in. How she hates it so much, and how no one else around her can understand that pain. How she lashes out because she can’t fully understand why it hurts her so much. She hates herself, she thinks she’s an overall negative factor to everyone else. It doesn’t help that she is this way because of her mother constantly drilling this sort of thinking into her head: that she is abnormal and must be made normal through conversion therapy. JJ would rather die than that happen, and she justifies this through depression-filled mental gymnastics to prove she’s better off dead to herself and Emily.
This game is not for the faint of heart, especially if constantly hearing bones breaking and body parts flying around is a trigger for you. However, the game does not pull punches in showing how cruel the world can be to a trans person. Even if not 100% of people are going to harass you, it can feel like that if there’s a big enough chunk causing you problems. JJ’s mother is the only person not supportive of her struggles. While the game’s ending does imply the mother feels remorse, and JJ forgiving her, I’m not so sure. That, to me, may just be JJ’s kind nature showing through in general. But I feel as though the problems her mother caused can not just be forgiven through a single call right after a suicide attempt.
There’s also the talk about whether or not JJ and Emily are in love, and I believe they are. The implications show that they are closer than just platonic best friends, but JJ’s self-doubt and self-hatred drive a wedge between their relationship evolving. This is something we talked about earlier, where JJ moves her head when Emily tried to lean on her. Being intimate, both emotionally and physically, keeps them from taking a step forward due to JJ’s depression and anxiety. By the time of the post-game, JJ is starting to become more accepting of herself and she’s able to be openly happy with Emily in public, showing they may be moving forward closer than ever.
Do I recommend this game? Yes. Even though the game is written by quirky Japanese auteur, it has this genuineness to it that feels a lot like Tell Me Why, a game that features a transman as one of its two main protagonists. Though this hits closer to me because JJ is a queer transwoman. Playing through the game, I noticed my behaviors parallel greatly with JJ’s drawing me closer to this story. I’m upset I didn’t play it sooner, but now that I have it’s certainly one of the best games revolving around being trans and why I think SWERY was being sincere in his apology about the second Deadly Premonition game. Because this was a game super understanding of the trans experience, how cruel people can be to trans individuals, how others are supportive, how outing someone (even unintentionally) is something that can ruin a life. But we are humans too. We just want to live life. And be happy.
Even though this isn’t a game made by a trans individual, it’s one well-researched and genuine in its ability to make others feel empathy for the trans experience while also validating the negative feelings a trans person might feel through their life. It’s a shame this game is barely talked about, because I highly consider playing it if you haven’t yet. An excellent piece of queer horror. Since I’ve done this, I guess it’s time I put effort into analyzing HWBM next, huh?
With the release of We Know the Devil on Nintendo Switch, I believe it’s time to post my full in-depth analysis and explanation of We Know the Devil. Some of you who follow me may know this was originally intended as a video, and written with that intention. However, with my new work and my love of writing still what I love most, I’ve decided to post the script to this video as a singular post. This is a long analytical essay, clocking in at around 9000 words. This is long, yes, but it’s also an essay I’m very proud of. For anyone who has played WKTD and not fully understood what a lot of the meanings are, this is for you. This is my love letter to We Know the Devil and Worst Girls Games. Thank you for this game that helped change my life.
(Note: This obviously contains spoilers for every facet of the game, so I highly recommend you play the game in its entirety before reading this.)
Daughter of God by PhemieC, a WKTD Fan Song
Introduction
I think there is nothing more frustrating than growing up in a semi-religious household and proceeding to attend religious school up through high school. Especially when it’s Catholicism. Maybe it’s because there’s so many different messages to be said about it. How people who are Catholic can so wildly differ from center-left to extremely far right.
This too was an obvious split I could see growing up, especially in high school. Religion was always overhead when I was growing up, though, mostly in in elementary and middle school. We were forced to attend church twice a week, sometimes thrice a week early in the morning each time. As I grew up and slowly discovered a different purview of the world, it often clashed with the ideas and thoughts drilled into my mind by the religious institutions I had been raised in.
I didn’t realize I was queer or trans until I was in university as a result. Things never clicked for me because I was simply raised to believe being queer was wrong, and the idea of being trans simply never even existed. What caused my break with religion? I’m not sure. Maybe it was the people I met who were genuinely terrible, but often propped up in school as the “good Catholic kids.” How could they be so good when they would bully me at length, I thought. Eventually I would define myself as myself and not by outsider opinion, but of course I was a lot older by then.Maybe that’s why one of my favorite games of all time is We Know the Devil, a Western-made visual novel developed by Worst Girls Games in 2015. This short 3-4 hour romp is somehow one of my top five favorite games of all time. How? How is this little indie visual novel developed by a no-name studio in a little more than four months so high on my list? Well that’s what I’m here to discuss.
We Know the Devil is a game whose main target audience are queer and trans people, I think that much is obvious. Aevee Bee, the writer and co-director of the game, is a transwoman so you can tell this was always gonna be a game I was going to have to check off my list at some point in my life.
Development wise there’s not much to say other than the game was developed in a little over four months, as I said earlier. Kind of amazing to see how fast something like this can be developed. It’s well put together for a simple visual novel, though there are some grammar and spelling mistakes sprinkled throughout the dialogue. It doesn’t bother me too much though.
The art direction for the game is unique and extremely pleasing to my eyes. All the backgrounds in the game are nothing more than photographs taken on a digital camera. All of them are empty and give a feeling of isolation, of areas abandoned by humanity left to be reclaimed by nature. Some might call it lazy to not just design backgrounds, but I feel it fits the nature of what this game is. It has an eerie feeling that’s hard to shake, like watching The Blair Witch Project.
The character art for the game is equally good. Black and white monochrome character sprites with what looks like the sharpness turned up as high as it could in order to make it look like it was taken on an old digital camera from the late 90s. Of course, it goes along super well with the photographic backgrounds used for the game.
Venus
The music for the game though? Sublime. Good. I’m no musician so I can’t give you an in-depth reason for why I think the music is so good, I just find it to be very pleasing to listen to. Alec Lambert, the composer, creates a mostly haunting yet sometimes peaceful soundtrack that fits the game absolutely perfectly. It reminds me of scntfc’s soundtrack for Oxenfree, another game I absolutely adore. Only this one feels a lot more distant and corrupt, which again, fits the game a lot better than anything else.
But above all else, it’s the characters, their arcs, and the overall themes of the game that sell me on why this seven dollar visual novel on Steam is not only one of my favorite games of all time, but also why it’s one of the most important to me.
Take it from me, living in the Midwest isn’t great. Even though states like Michigan or Ohio are pretty north, you’re pretty much living in a deep southern state in most places. Much of the land you’ll see is often empty fields of corn or signs telling us we’re all going to hell soon and Jesus has spoken that the rapture is upon us.
The Summer Scouts are not a great place to be. Like at all. Dressed in uniforms with white shirts with crosses stitched onto the chest pockets, it’s very familiar. They aren’t just a religious summer camp after all. This is where they send the specifically bad kids who need the extra work put in.
Every time you run through We Know the Devil, you’ll encounter the same choices to make but with different outcome choices.
We have our members of Group West as well. First there is Neptune, who is the most outspoken and sarcastic of the three. She seemed annoyed and tired with almost everything, often shutting down anyone and everyone with her sharp tongue if she’s not ignoring them while she’s on her phone. Next, there’s Venus. Venus is quiet, shy, and called the pure one of the group who doesn’t even cuss which gets him teased by the other two. Though he’s often looking for something, something that makes him feel utterly incomplete and lost, attempting to fulfill this void by pleasing others even to his own detriment. Finally, there’s Jupiter. Jupiter is the top of the class over achieving academically girl. She’s good at most of what she does, but always fails at the end. The type to blank on the final question and cannot answer for the life of her.
The three attend a bonfire led by the titular Bonfire Captain. And oddly designed character who has more in common with the Hawt Dawg Man from Life is Strange than he does anything or anyone else.
He tells the story of himself and two friends he once had when he was younger. How he liked one of these two friends and the other he dismissed as annoying. Over time the captain talks of how he attempted to be an even BETTER friend in order to help the annoying friend along. But eventually he would give up claiming:
“Some friendships you can keep up. The rest you gotta leave up to god.”
Surface level this seems like a friendship that has simply ended, vanishing off like many do. However, as I like to always think, context is key in literally any piece of media. The captain plus his two friends equals three people, just like the rest of the groups in the game. And as expected of a camp counselor in a Christian summer camp, he is extremely Christian. He mentions that some of the annoying things his friend did includes “[He] wouldn’t go along with us.” And he follows it up with: “I probably could have stopped it if I had told him to cut it out and man up instead of basically doing the opposite.”
The implications here is that the annoying friend is someone who did not follow the status quo. Someone who was outside the nice comfortable square that a white cisgendered heteronormative Christian society has made up. Something happens to the “annoying friend” that is implied to have had something bad happen to him. But the captain did nothing. He admits he could have intervened to save the person, but he chose not to for he decided it was god’s will that this person was punished.
The game has barely even started, and yet right off the bat the game is dropping some heavy hints about what is to come. The world of We Know the Devil is different from our own. There are many evils that only God can protect the people from.
After the events at the bonfire, the captain will tell Group West that it’s their turn to face the devil. The devil being within a small cabin in the woods. On their way there, they encounter Group South, the best/worst kids in camp. In that they try to suck up so much they end up being the most annoying ones in camp that Group West hates. Group South harasses the group, particularly Venus, as they attempt to repair the sirens.
The sirens and the radios make up two of the more important aspects of the world in which the game takes place. The sirens set up around the forest are designed to make public awareness that the devil is attempting to break in. The radios that the campers have are the only weapons that can fight off the devil once it shows its face. For you see, the analog channels is how God communicates with people and protects them from corruption.
The three members of Group West have a lot of great banter off of one another, and you really come to enjoy all three of them as a group. The three have very different personalities, but they all have the same types of wants and those wants allow their differing personalities to come together well.
However only two of the three can come out unscathed…
One will end up alone. Two won’t.
[BLUE – Neptune]
Neptune: sarcastic, tired, confident, and angry.
Neptune is the only one of the three who shows any sort of backbone to anyone else in camp. Neptune is also the only one who accepts who she is on the inside. But also she’s not willing to ever show it on the outside.
More than anything, she knows that there is something more that Jupiter and Venus want. They don’t know what it is and they don’t seem to want to think more about what they want. And this? This instills anger in Neptune more than anything else.
Neptune is a character who knows what she wants. But she’s not willing to go the full way in order to obtain it. She envies Venus’s kindness, but believes that kindness will never be able to let a want be obtained. Being mean and sarcastic is more truthful, and it lets he not feel bad about being unable to get what she wants. But in the moments of kindness she does show, it’s ever filled with her wants. Her wants of Venus and Jupiter.
Throughout the game, it’s often Neptune who brings to light most of their issues. She’s perceptive, but she covers this up by a facade of sarcasm and laziness. Neptune is the type of person who knows who she is deep down, but when confronted she gets defensive about it. She gets angry and denies it.
Neptune knows who she is. She knows who her friends are. She knows what they want. But she’s not gonna rob them of experiencing figuring out who they are. But the issue stems that she herself is not ready to accept herself openly and out. She’s angry at herself too for the hypocrisy, but she ignores it. Rather she lets it fester. She lets it sit there and grow exponentially often resulting in her own anger.
The intrigue that Neptune lays out is her unwillingness to tell the others who they are, but rather she pushes them to admit it themselves. After the drinking session with Venus and Neptune, the former attempts to confront Neptune about her need to be mean to everyone. Most of it slides off of her, but Neptune’s response is calm for once. Telling Venus that the wants that he has can’t be given to him by kindness. He has to figure out what he wants and admit that to himself in order to obtain it. But Neptune also remarks that she’s a bad kid too, because her own kindness is wrapped up in her own wants.
Similarly, she does drop hints throughout the game about the other two’s identities and problems. With Jupiter, she often tells her off for her self-harmful behavior. Whether it be talking down to herself or seemingly melting down over a small thing that Neptune doesn’t think matters. When it comes to truth or dare, Neptune tells Jupiter to reveal who she likes. Neptune knows the answer, but before Jupiter can even respond, Neptune says nevermind. Perhaps she, herself, is too scared as well.
During seven minutes in heaven, though, she does show off much of her own hypocrisy that makes her seem not too different from Jupiter. They are both, physically and metaphorically, in a closet making out and touching each other. But because no one else is there, it’s impossible for anyone else to ever determine what happened. It’s their words only, and only can become truth if they both say it out loud.
With Venus, she often attempts to nudge him towards figuring out what he wants. She knows he has a crush on her, seen during truth or dare. Though she playfully, though soaked with her trademark meanness, teases him about it the two have a rapport that’s equal and as meaningful as the one that she has with Jupiter. If not more so bringing out that short gentle nature that’s buried somewhere deep within Neptune.
By the end of the night, they can hear God speaking a sermon on the radio, buzzing lowly through the cabin.
“A method for the extraction of bile. Create an incision on the middle finger. All the water of the body can be thought of as a single ocean, as one drop- and extract the resulting ink. Place in a vial and explain to it the worthlessness of the treasures of earth. Break it against a mirror, the cause of vanity- each of you shall choose. It is certain the devil is coming.
Neptune becomes angry. Why? Because both Venus and Jupiter believe they are the devils. But Neptune? Neptune believes, in every sense, that she is the most likely to be the devil. Why? Because she’s the only one who knows who she really is. And the mere idea of Venus or Jupiter becoming their devils makes her believe they are simply saying it to pity her and make her not worry about being the devil, but we know they also truly believe it.
Neptune coughs. That’s her signature reaction. She coughs primarily when she’s either rejecting her own voice or when she hears Jupiter or Venus putting themselves down. When a person vomits, they often throw up the contents of their stomach. However, if you dry heave enough without anything in your stomach and cough violently enough, you’ll puke up your stomach bile. In one of the choices of a non-Neptune exclusion route, we see that Neptune needs to eventually be taken to the bathroom to deal with her cough because she fears she’s gonna vomit up said bile.
More importantly, to me, it represents something Neptune hates more than anything. She hates when Jupiter and Venus hate themselves out loud. When people say something horrible about themselves, a tertiary party who disagrees often says to “stop spouting bullshit” if it angers them enough. She hates that they won’t accept themselves, but she herself spouts the same bullshit by not admitting the truth about her sexuality out loud.
Eventually she becomes the devil when she is forced into the bathroom. She coughs. She vomits. And she sounds louder than ever, but refuses to come out of the bathroom until she eventually relents.
Neptune is forced to the bathroom during one of her coughing fits, this one the most violent yet. The coughing becomes louder and louder, each cough more violent than the last resulting in vomiting. The others want her to come out. She refuses. Come out, they ask. She refuses. They ask again. She breaks and comes out.
Neptune is leaking bile and ichor from all over her body. Her ichor will force Jupiter and Venus to admit to themselves who they are and turn them into devils. She’s so sick of the two of them not accepting themselves, something she previously wanted them to figure out on her own. But this time? No. Their refusals have annoyed and angered her so much that her devil form wants nothing more than to MAKE THEM understand themselves.
Neptune bashes Venus up against a wall, happy enough to force him to taste. Jupiter attempts to save him, but Neptune is a devil now. With much more physical power, she easily is able to knock Jupiter away. All inhibitions are gone now. She refers to Jupiter as “babe” and opens up finally about it all.
She hates how the world determines the three of them are bad. How because of their inherent queerness that they have to be “good”, but Neptune? She thinks they’re good already. So, so, so good. Neptune can now see how overwhelmingly unhappy that Venus and Jupiter are. So she simply stands there and rants at them about how obviously unhappy they are in her eyes, and how she will make them happy by forcing them to understand. She’s angry about it. Furious even. That’s why her devil form is the only one who gets the chance to speak to the others. How being one’s own queer self is “wicked.” How it’s wrong. Neptune hates that.
The idea of “good” is brought about by what social conservatism says is correct. Being good cisgendered straight Christians who obey their parents and their church. But Neptune’s idea of being good, or by extension the devil’s, is that you are who you are without shame.
“She’s a flood, of every wicked thought, and they are pouring out of her mouth.”
Neptune’s bile and ichor will stain the others. It will make them devils as well. But there is nothing to fear when there is two against the devil. It’s there because it’s a stain that is hard, or near impossible to remove. Neptune wishes to stain both of her friends, her crushes, so that they will join her. So they finally understand.
The radio contains the power of God within it. Thus, it is the only weapon powerful enough to cast the devil out from a person, erasing who they are so they fit God’s image.
And in the end? Neptune is left to dry, the ichor draining from her while Venus and Jupiter keep watch. The wicked thoughts are gone, though were they ever even really wicked in the first place? Be who you are. Don’t let anyone else tell you who to be. Of course, that’s selfish isn’t it? The treasures of the earth are not for us. We are to obey god and not become vain…
Blue Ending CG
[YELLOW – Venus]
Venus: Kind, pure, and wanting.
Venus is a pushover. He doesn’t swear. He’s one of two kids that the captain likes. Venus doesn’t like that though. Without an intentionally mean bone in his body, Venus just wants to get along with people and avoid the complexities of arguing with people.
Unlike Neptune, who knows who she is and what she wants… Venus is the opposite. He is lost. He can’t figure out what he wants. The lights he sees throughout the game are analogous to that feeling of when a word is right on the tip of your tongue. You can almost feel it out, but then it’s gone again. And no matter how much you think on it, it simply never comes.
Venus is the only “male” character of the group, but it’s not that hard to guess there’s much more going on with Venus than meets the eye. We know very early on that Venus is pretty much a doormat for everyone else.
Despite his avoidance of arguments, he often finds himself envious of Jupiter and Neptune. Jupiter’s ability to not get harassed at all and Neptune’s ability to simply snark and harass right back.
Early on we can see Venus doesn’t really stand up to anyone. Group South particularly harasses him because he doesn’t stand up for himself. He’s timid, but also has a serious mean streak. He often says things that get under the skin of others, though it seems to be unintentional. He’s extremely innocent in a lot of facets, but also can feel extremely insensitive and not catch when he says something that does hit hard. Neptune mentions this to Jupiter, and how she wishes he did it on purpose and not just unintentionally do it.
Much like how Neptune coughs horribly every single time she says something she doesn’t truly believe or when she wants to angrily reply to a self-defeating Venus or Jupiter, we have a similar thing occurring for Venus. Throughout the game Venus will make note of lights. Lights that no one else can see, and these lights usually appear to Venus when he thinks about something. Something…
Just like how Neptune’s cough gets worse and worse as she progresses into a devil, Venus sees these lights more and more. Guiding him… somewhere.
The lights can easily be seen as something like the Will-o’-the-Wisps, small beings of light leading him “astray.” Something that Neptune mentions in a scene between her and him is that Venus is looking for something. Some sort of identity to grasp onto, but he can’t reach it. He doesn’t know what he wants, and thinks that the world can reward it upon him if he’s nice enough. It’s Neptune who informs him that it won’t happen. Why? Because she knows that exact same feeling of having a kindness filled with want.
When fixing the radio deep in the night he and Jupiter talk about his beliefs, and the most telling thing is that he finds life to be unfair. No matter how much a person can try, things will never turn out for them. That certain people don’t have to try hard, and they’ll come out on top. When Jupiter says that she believes the people in the normal scouts try harder than her, Venus can only quickly reply and ask if she truly believes that anyone in the normal scouts have tried harder than her.
This is the best point that Venus makes and shows his true belief for why he acts the way he does. The world isn’t fair. Reality isn’t fair. And that’s what Jupiter tells him. Life simply isn’t fair, but it’s what Venus says next that rings eerily true.
It’s a reality that someone else created.
And that’s completely right. We can remark life isn’t fair, and often or not people will reply with that is true, but that’s simply how life is. But Venus has the forethought to mark that the lives we live are set up by society. A society who has made the rules that life will be unfair for certain people. This entire conversation rings true to me. Immediately after he has another knowledge nugget to drop on us.
He asks Jupiter if it makes her mad when the game is rigged from the start, but they also tell her to “do her best!” Wouldn’t that make her angry? It makes Venus angry. It makes Venus so angry that he doesn’t even want to try because it’s rigged for him to lose from the beginning. Venus can only ask and wonder what is wrong with him… What does life want out of him?
Throughout the game, Venus obviously has very low self esteem about himself. Even within his own group, he finds himself only being useful for repairing the sirens and radios or being the one who gets teased. Despite this, he keeps on moving forward. Cranking out a smile hoping he can figure out what it is he wants.
Venus goes to extreme lengths to try and not cause a fuss. To his own chagrin, he is quite well attuned with fixing the radios and other things. Not because it’s something he wants to do or likes to do, but because people expect that of him to do. He hates it, but he sticks by and keeps doing it because that’s what he thinks he needs to do to keep goin. When outside with Jupiter making the rounds, he notes that Group South wanted him to screw up with a radio in the dining hall. He knows they’re wrong and he knows how to fix it, but he lets himself get in trouble anyway. Openly admitting to the fact that he gaslights himself because it’s easier than going down the back and forth where he’ll just believe them anyways.
But at the end of the day, Venus feels ignored and unseen. So disconnected from the world that when Jupiter naturally thinks that the two of them are friends Venus interjects to question it. As well as the idea that he simply wants to play dumb and sit away because he notices whatever is going on between Jupiter and Neptune. Jupiter finds the idea that boys have it easier with emotions because it seems so straightforward. Though Venus rejects this notion, claiming that boys seem to find it easier to get mad about a secondary thing in order to hide what they might actually be angry about.
Jupiter asks what Venus is angry about, but immediately notices he’s lying. He isn’t angry about anything. Rather, he’s jealous. And Jupiter notices he’s jealous of her and Neptune. A jealously so seething, that Jupiter can feel it. But Venus doesn’t know why. Venus is afraid he can’t change, condemning himself to that factor. He will let himself be hurt physically before he is cruel to to others.
Then hands appear around his neck and start choking him. Jupiter rushes to stop the hands, which suddenly vanish once she takes hold of him. He cries and says it’s okay. Not angry. He says it’s okay. But even Jupiter knows it’s not okay. It’s just not.
By the end of the night, they can hear God speaking a sermon on the radio, buzzing lowly through the cabin.
“Shining as Lucifer, the morning star, in the dawn, and symbolizing the arrogance of desiring a beauty that is not god’s. Venus 5:23. That which appears to be within grasp, and yet, is ever- of the vanity to be seen and to see. The human eye sees clearly by the light of god, but the devil by his own light, and thus sees only his own truth- each of you shall choose. It is certain the devil is coming.”
Do you see that? It’s the light. The fireflies are all over, but they don’t see it like he does?
The ending is nigh, isn’t it? God speaks of arrogant beauty that is not his. Neptune eventually tells the others they need to leave. But the lights are here. In mass, they have arrived towards them, now enough to be seen by Neptune and Jupiter. And the lights only want Venus.
When the lights come into the cabin, they decide to run. Though, they have to force Venus to follow. As they attempt to escape, the lights become more and more overpowering. They aim for the road, where the artificial street lights will protect them. But not all is well, but it’s off the table. Jupiter trips and falls onto Venus. Her attempts to help him up, results in her injuring herself.
Why are they there protecting Venus? They don’t need to. Venus is used to being the butt of the joke. Used to being the one who’s there to fix the radios. Venus is used to being the odd-one out. The one who sits back and seethes with envy against Jupiter and Neptune. They should leave him behind to his ultimate fate against the lights.
But now Venus can’t look away from them. They’re glowing oh so bright and oh so horribly, but it’s so beautiful at the same time. He wants the lights. He wants to see them. He wants the others to see him.
Venus? Venus wants them to see her. See her for who she truly is. She doesn’t want to be what the cruel artificial reality tells her to be. To be the pushover fix-it man, someone who’s only good for what he’s told to do. She hates fixing things. But she did it because that’s what she was supposed to do right? As a good boy?
She’s not that. She’s not a boy. She wants to cast shadows over the light and light over the shadows. The truth is that she is a woman. Venus is a woman and she wants people to see that. She so desperately wants everyone to see her for who she is. Venus shines ever so brightly, wings covering her with eyes wide open for her to look and be the center.
Venus reaches out to us. She has eyes to fly with and wings to see. As terrible as an angel, be afraid. That wing to see the truth and that eye to lay it bare. We feel the heat on our skin and recoil. It wants something from us, a lot of things, maybe everything. Every wish of the eyes belongs to it. Nothing can escape this light. But we do. We can’t feel the beat of the wings or the light of the eyes. We can’t be seen. We chose to cover our faces. But there is nothing to fear when there are two against the devil.
All of this boils down to the idea of looking away from transgender people, especially when they’re so self-hating about it. Venus allows herself to be opened back up by the devil. To finally admit that she is who she is, and not what the unfair reality says she has to be. When Neptune tells Venus that she wants something, but can’t figure out what it is it’s quite obvious what it ends up being.
She wants to transition, but may not even fully understand what being transgender is. She’s in some backwards ass place after all, perhaps that’s why she reached out for something she didn’t know she needed. She needed affirmation of what and who she was, but was unable to grasp for it until her old body was shed away into a being of light. The game does not miss a beat in changing Venus’s pronouns. Venus tries to open up about this, who she is to Neptune and Jupiter, who simply repel the devil from her body. Denial of who she is. And in the end, Venus is forced back into a body she does not want. She wanted to be seen, and now she simply hangs from a tree, knowing what she wants but not being allowed to have it…
Unused Yellow Ending CG
[RED – Jupiter]
Jupiter: Afraid, tired, and untouchable.
Jupiter’s personality can be easily described as not caring. Most things seem to roll right off her back. Harassment does not give her a rise, so she is left alone. People will try to walk all over her, but she doesn’t give them the time of day.
She will always take the blame, even when something is not her fault. In her mind, she will rationalize it is her fault. Early on in the night, Neptune and Jupiter attempt to get into the cabin which has a busted lock from the other groups. While there, Jupiter discovers different types of lilies in the greenhouse area before she accidentally breaks a decrepit old cabinet. Despite it being both an accident as well as something that was bound to happen because of how unkempt and unmaintained the cabin is, Jupiter breaks down and starts crying.
She is someone who tries so hard to impress and put on this facade that she’s unaffected by everything, but in the end? She takes everything on harder than anyone else. When Jupiter is left alone in the cabin, while Venus and Neptune go outside the two converse about the fact that this is happening and that Jupiter needs to let herself get hurt and then be open about it. It becomes something that pisses Neptune off more than anything, the fact that Jupiter allows herself to be hurt over and over again but will never admit she does such a thing. It is self harm.
Self harm is a recurring element for Jupiter, symbolized by her bracelet which she constantly snaps against her wrist. She does this every time she does something she believes is wrong or when she begins to get uncomfortable with her own thoughts she will snap the bracelet harder and harder against her wrist. It’s small, but it’s a persisting theme with Jupiter’s character. It’s simply analogous to self harm in that manner. Even if it’s just a wrist band snapping against her, she does it to remind herself that she is bad. She is wrong. She shouldn’t do this. She shouldn’t be thinking this. What shouldn’t she be thinking?
If it wasn’t already obvious, Jupiter is a lesbian. A lesbian with a big old gay crush on Neptune. Unfortunately, Jupiter has a LOT of internalized homophobia.
Being a lesbian is wrong. It’s bad. It’s not good. Snap. She goes back and forth between her feelings for Neptune and her internalized homophobia about what she is doing is completely wrong.
During the Seven Minutes in Heaven scene between Jupiter and Neptune, the two we can assume are kissing and Neptune is running her hands over Jupiter’s body. Jupiter, of course, doesn’t take much of it well but is reassured by Neptune that no one will ever know simply because they’re alone. Therefore what they are doing right now? It never happened. It only happened if they both admit it happened. If only one admits it happened, it’s only one person’s word versus the other. Therefore, whatever happened in the closet? It stays in the closet forever. And no one in the Midwest will ever know or admit it either. The two could do whatever and they would be denied until admission occurs.
More often than not, it’s easy to see her own internalized homophobia through the entire game. Just like with Neptune, you find more about her when she’s in the closet with Venus. Venus, as she knows at that point, is a boy. She’s not attracted to boys like she is with girls. Not to mention, Venus doesn’t ACT like the boys she often deals with. But she has as much an emotional connection with Venus as she does with Neptune.
She buries her face in Venus’ hair, making remarks about how soft and nice it is. Jupiter tells her that she feels safe around Venus compared to everyone else, whether it be because of her inherent dislike of guys or the overwhelming feelings she gets around Neptune. Venus seems perfect to her because of that. Venus is someone who won’t hurt her, someone safe and kind who she can just bury her face into and not care about it.
Even more interesting is that Jupiter herself ignores the pain inflicted upon her by others because it’s easier. Just like Venus, it’s easier to let pain and suffering hurt you. Except with Venus, who reacts to these lashes, Jupiter doesn’t. She shrugs and moves on, angering Neptune and making Venus sigh. She let’s all the pain hurt her because not only is it easier, but somewhere deep down she thinks she deserves it. She deserves it why though?
Unlike the other two, Jupiter is the only character who we know has some concrete things occurring at home. During the drinking session, Jupiter reveals that her dad is gay but married a woman anyways. Internalized homophobia aside, Neptune asks why then, of all people, would he essentially send his definitely lesbian daughter to such a horrible place. And her answer? They did it because it was easier than dealing with her mom.
The idea being that most of how Jupiter feels about herself is internalized because of her mother. And despite her dad being the same, he finds it easier to simply hide who he is as well and passes these teachings down to her. Not because of anything inherently bad, but because in this world it seems being yourself only leads to hardships and denying yourself to appease others makes life easier. It’s easy to see that Jupiter really does live by this sort of tenant.
So she sits back and lets herself get harmed. Jupiter takes a beating from the world around her and says it’s okay. It’s not okay though. It’s self-harmful behavior, but for Jupiter she thinks it’s the right thing to do. Just so mom will chill.
By the end of the night, they can hear God speaking a sermon on the radio, buzzing lowly through the cabin.
“A hand held against the world. To be touched and to touch; touch is a language unto itself. And it too is a language of power. Thus unto Jupiter, which is also the language of gravity, according- the fist which can give takes too, and gives by taking, or takes by giving. Just as a word is honest or dishonest not by how it is spoken, but by he who speaks it, so is the honesty of touch. It is certain the devil is already here.”
Jupiter isolates herself from the others. It’s certain this time she’s the devil. No plan this time either. Jupiter sits there and snaps her band against her wrist, the room growing warmer with each passing moment.
She continues to try and hold it all in. To continue to deny it. Only a few more hours until dawn, right? No need to find out who the devil is, even if they all know who. Both Venus and Neptune can only look away.
It’s just a phase, right? No agreement. She begs them to mock her. To make fun of her. To make her feel bad. But they know her. They won’t do that.
There hands and fingers everywhere. They touch everything. They squeeze the cabin like an empty water bottle. And just like that Jupiter breaks. All of herself begins flooding out in a wave of internalized hatred.
She’s so gross. She always ruins everything. And then her hairband finally breaks. And the storm of hands breaks loose in the cabin. Jupiter tells it like she thinks. She isn’t good. Like Venus had said before, anger directed at a rigged competition that is life, Jupiter bemoans the unfairness of religious doctrine changing to fit the needs of whatever society deems correct in a certain time period.
Jupiter could do her best to be good and get into heaven on that good merit. But then they ripped it out from underneath her. They changed the rules just went she thought she had it right. Her mother told her not to touch others. Dad taught her not to let herself be touched.
What if she stopped trying to be good? Jupiter is starved. Touch starved more than any person should. And she hates every minute of it. This time, however, Venus and Neptune are here for her. But she doesn’t want them to be. They should be disgusted with her. Even when they tell her otherwise, that internalized disgust of herself rings out.
She wants to touch. She wants to be touched. She wants to hurt. She wants to be hurt.
Jupiter controls a flurry of hands able to do all that she desires. Even before this form of her came out, it was present even earlier. In the closet with Venus, she gets annoyed when Venus tells her that she simply would rather be physically hurt than to be mean. On the other hand, Jupiter wishes she could be even more mean than she already is. Jupiter absentmindedly snaps her hairband, and suddenly hands begin to choke out Venus. To hurt Venus. Her deepest desires to touch and to hurt, and Venus accidentally gave her desires an open shot.
But Venus forgives her anyways, even when they both know it was Jupiter’s hands. A moment that solidifies both of their own desires. Venus being seen as a girl and Jupiter touching Venus like how she wants to touch girls. In a moment they are who they are, before they are forced to retract from that moment.
Jupiter is a lesbian raised to never be touched or to touch. Instilled that touching and being gay is wrong and dirty, and that she needs to be punished for it. She thought denying it would make her life easier and better. After all, being good is based on merits until they decide not anymore. So what happens? She breaks down. And for a moment? Jupiter’s storm touches everything.
“Jupiter reaches out to us. She has a hand for every kind of touch; that hand is for hitting, that hand is for petting, that hand is for grabbing, that hand is for holding. We feel the pull on our skin and recoil. They want so many things from us; maybe everything. Every wish of the body belongs to it. And every wish is a hand, expressing that desire. And every hand is a storm that is bigger than the world, reaching for us. But it will not. The hands don’t touch us and the storm doesn’t break over us. We chose to be distant from her.”
Jupiter dared to be wanted. Dared to be touched. Born to only hurt. Born to think that her feelings for girls is only a phase, something queer people are told all the time. It’s only a phase. You’ll like boys soon enough, the say. Harassing you over the idea of not liking men. You hear it all the time from anyone who isn’t a lesbian. Lesbians can like men and be in relationships with them, so saying you only like women is just a phase. It’ll pass, as soon as you get the right man. Jupiter is mocked and she lets it happen. Maybe she’ll get past the phase soon.
Jupiter allowed herself to become a devil to try and get what she desperately needed. She hated herself too much, however, and told Neptune and Venus to expel the devil from her as soon as they could. They accepted her, but Jupiter could never accept herself. It was too internalized in her.
And in the end? There’s heartbreak. Jupiter lay unconscious and alone, the devil expelled from her body. And Neptune and Venus? Te two people she cares most for? Te two people she so desperately wants to touch? They sit there together with hands interlocked with one another. Held. Touched.
Red Ending CG
[TRUE END – The Worst Girls Since Eve]
Parables I:I “The devil is only the shadow of man cast from the light of god.” The meaning of this parable is that there is no devil.
What do you do then? What do you do when the answer seems desolate and meaningless? When the devil is everywhere, filling every gap of the darkness?
To break away from the analysis for a moment, in order to actually obtain every ending you have to leave one of the three characters alone and isolated. So what if you mathematically leave everyone out the same amount, thus no one is left totally alone?
By the end of the night, they can hear God speaking a sermon on the radio, buzzing lowly through the cabin. Wait no. It’s on the wrong frequency.
“Oh. Hi there. Oh, darling… I miss you. I have always missed you. I can still remember what your faces were like. I have missed them since before you were born. Please come back. I know I can’t offer much. The bodies I can give you are weak. The stores I tell are impossible. My world is even more precarious than this one. But please come back. It hurts to see you like this so much. So unhappy in those bodies of yours. Stricken by those stories. Forced to live in so much pain. I can’t even come save you. But I can promise one thing. There is room for three in my world. And only two in his.”
The sirens roar out through the night. Those in the camp are coming for Group West. They know the devil. Jupiter fears the worst will come upon them. Venus hopes it’s quick and painless. Neptune? Neptune destroys the radio.
The radios themselves represent a physical connection to religion and the religious community. You sit there, turning on the radio to listen to god and his sermons. The radios themselves are weapons capable of reducing a devil back into a human. Even just having one thrown can cause a devil to crumple over onto the ground, as if hit by a speeding bullet.
Neptune wonders why if god hates the devil so much, why does he not do it himself? Why does he send out his followers to do the work for him? Neptune is the first of the three to give into the devil. The devil fucking rules.
Venus wonders where the devil could be. But they are the devil. But again, Venus wonders where the devil is? Jupiter once more falls into her own pit of despair. All of her insecurities about being bad flowing from her mouth. But like Neptune yells at her about, she shouldn’t be good for people who hate her. More importantly, if she’s going to suffer and hurt herself to appeal to the people who make her feel like she is worthless why won’t she martyr herself for Neptune and Venus? More of a confrontation than anything else.
Venus suddenly blooms as well. She has found the devil just like Neptune has. In what can only be described as one of the most liberating things I’ve read since the book Dreadnought, Venus’s old body falls off. Literally falling off of her, shedding it off like a snake. No blood even. It’s not her body anymore and it’s one of the most affirming things I’ve read in fiction for a trans character.
There’s no pain. A moment of euphoria of accepting one’s self and casting who you used to be away. Neptune, for the first time, isn’t filled with vitriolic anger and sarcasm. Rather she asks Venus how she is. Her new arm looks to be in a rough place, and she makes sure Venus is okay. Jupiter still is in denial though. But this time, the other two are already devils. It’s not just her alone this time.
More important for Venus is outright talking about her dysphoria. All this time something had been bothering her. She would look on at her friends with jealousy, but there was never an answer there for her. And how the body peeling off, transitioning, helps her to not have to feel pain thinking about the things that are off about her body. It’s normal. She feels normal in a body that better reflects her.
Jupiter is the only hold out, still fearing for her own life. The false ideas instilled in her are staying strong. Neptune brings up a new argument. One that relates to the other three endings in the game.
In those three endings, they are achievable by leaving one of the three out and then having the other two use their radios the exorcise the “devil” out of them. And then the other two will be completely fine, at the cost of the third who was turned due to their isolation and not allowed to exist. And the worst part? Jupiter calls it gross, but Neptune says it’s normal. Because it is normal. The other endings show how normalized that kind of behavior is. To give up one of your friends in exchange for one’s own self preservation. To out them.
It’s ugly to do that to someone. To turn someone into a scapegoat. To live in a society where one’s self preservation can make you hurt someone else so badly. And the fact isn’t that there’s a scapegoat to be had, but as Venus said: “What’s ugly is we have to choose at all.”
But Jupiter’s walls are finally breaking down. She cries. She misgenders and then properly genders Venus correctly. Despite it all, despite knowing it the fear is still there. It’s an understandable type of fear. Coming out and living as yourself can be life changing, either negatively or positively. It’s scary.
But in the end, there is no more going back. To a life that they all hate. Neptune doesn’t want to go back home. To that life. Venus doesn’t want her old body back. She’ll die if she has to go back. But they promise they’re there for Jupiter. And they won’t abandon her in this time of need. And that’s what makes it different. They’re all there for each other. There is no two against one. There isn’t a scapegoat. None of them are afraid anymore since they finally do have each other supporting them.
The devil is representative of things that society forces people to repress, especially queer and trans people. As much as non-queer people want to say it is, the problems that queer and trans people faces, including teens, is still horribly relevant today. God are those who believe in a world that must be ruled by their religion. They don’t think for themselves, they follow the teachings of their church and hurt others. It’s a religion that teaches you to love your neighbor, but they hide behind their religion like a wall. They hide and harm and say its in the name of god. And if there is a god? Well he’s a shitty god. He lets people suffer in his name and kicks back watching them suffer.
But now they are the devil. They are together. They love one another. It’s best friends forever. It’s a first kiss. It’s a love story. Jupiter’s storm finally is allowed to begin, her blood mistifying around them. Neptune’s dark color ink and bile finally begins to clear up, all the toxicating elements within her finally washing out. And Venus is there to help clean her. Calm and patient. And Jupiter’s storm of hands makes sure every part of Venus knows she’s loved and seen. They’re finally content and happy.
Though despite it all, others will try to rob them of their happiness. It’s only natural. Humans are cruel to others who aren’t exactly like them. Ready ot hurt at a moment’s notice. Why? Because they’re different. Not only are they different, but they are no longer ashamed that they are different either.
And while the three dream of fixing the camp. Dream of freeing everyone from shackles that institutions have placed on them. The camp? All of them are like Venus, Jupiter, and Neptune. They just need a little coaxing to be freed. To understand like them.
They have a new apple. There is nothing to fear when there’s two against the devil. But they can’t wait to see what they’ll do against the three worst girls since Eve.
True Ending CG
Ending Remarks
I want to thank you, personally, if you made it this far into the essay. This was one of my favorite things I’ve ever written. And going through it again personally reminded me how much I do enjoy love writing. I would love to make writing my profession one day, since it’s something I genuinely love doing and it’s the one thing I think I’m pretty decent at. I’m not GREAT at SEO, so I’m not sure how many people will come across this. But I would love to make posts more regularly, however now that I work I’ve been unable to to do so as much as I want. My ultimate goal is to make this my job. And I would be thankful if you considered tipping me on Ko-Fi. It would mean the world to me, truly. Links below to my Twitter and Ko-Fi, in addition to links to where you can buy WKTD yourself now on Switch!
Also yes I do own the glow in the dark art print. And yes, it does hang on my wall framed.
(What’s this?! A new post?! Yeah. I wrote this for Tumblr, but I realized I could also place it here. Funny how you can write so much, not thinking too hard, and then remember you are writing.)
So I just watched the newest Owl House and it was one hell of a doozy of an episode. So much happened in like 20 minutes, but I think talking about it might help processing what the point of this episode really was.
The basic plot rundown for everyone, to keep it fresh, is that Hooty wants to help Luz, Eda, and King with their individual problems. His interference actually helps them all, but he believes that he’s only making things worse. On the Hooty side of things, it shows that he’s slightly smarter and more aware that we really give him credit for but the end scene shows he’s also as obliviously dumb as we usually think. Each one has a problem: King not knowing what kind of demon he is, Eda running herself ragged to find power to help fight Belos, and Luz continuing to fright about her future now torn between the Isles (emphasized through her crush on Amity) and the human realm (emphasized by wanting to build the portal home.)
With King, it’s a short little ditty about how King doesn’t need to 100% know who he is right away. As he grows up, he’ll find out more about himself and who he is even without someone just giving him answers right away. We see he gains a shockwave-like power through loud yelling, induced by an emotional response. It’s a nice little moment, especially how King reacts when he sees how upset Hooty is.
The next two are far more indirect, however. With Eda not sleeping, Hooty uses magic cookies to have her get some sleep. This heightens her dream state, causing her to flash back to scenes in her youth that stick out due to her curse. The first shows a young Eda bidding her father farewell before a trip, but when he pulls a form of party popper that sets off fireworks, this frightens her and turns her into the Owl Beast which badly injures her father’s eye. We don’t see the direct aftermath, but we know this was traumatic to Eda and part of why she ran away from home.
Next, she flashes to Raine, where we find out the two indeed dated at one point. However, because Eda lies about her curse, Raine breaks up with her and chooses to join the Bard Coven. This triggers Eda’s curse, but we don’t see the outcome other than that Eda would rather suffer in silence away from people she loves out of fear that she might harm them like she did her own father.
Eda then sees the Owl Beast from its own perspective, long in the past. A mysterious witch, with a moon figure where her face should be, attempts to capture the Owl Beast. She succeeds and reduces the creature down into a scroll, the scroll that Lilith will use to curse Eda. This confirms that the Owl Beast is its own independent demon that, for whatever reason, was forcibly turned into a curse to be sold showing that it, too, is a victim as much as Eda is. Bound by the red string of fate, Eda decides to hold it and end the back and forth between the two in her mind. If only for a minute, they share a quiet moment before Eda wakens to find herself as a foxy harpy lady now that she is truly coming to terms with her curse. She sees Hooty, and tries to thank him for making her face her fear, but he thinks he failed and freaks out again.
Finally, he helps Luz. Realizing that Luz will never make progress on either of her goals without finishing one first, he attempts to help her ask Amity out. It goes about as badly as you’d think, with Hooty kidnapping Amity and dropping them into a “Tunnel of Love” to convince Luz to just ask her. When Luz refuses to admit her feelings, out of fear of rejection, Amity accidentally drops that she likes Luz while Hooty once again freaks out. Using their newly found powers, Eda and King manage to calm down a rampaging Hooty while Luz is forced to finally ask Amity out, and we get a cute scene after with hands being held and the two still being scared.The most obvious thing to come out of this is that Luz is starting to finally figure out what future she wants. She wants to see home again, but also she wants Amity to be in her future regardless of what happens. Slowly, but surely, we see that Luz’s roots are both in the human realm and in the Boiling Isles. Both have become part of her, and she doesn’t want to abandon either. With her and Amity finally becoming named dropped girlfriends, they can focus on figuring out how Philip built his portal back to the human realm. But this, in general confirms that Luz wants the demon realm and the Boiling Isles to be part of her future no matter what happens. The only question for her now is connecting it to how she wants the human realm to fit in. Also, in general, the fact that they are girlfriends and they say that word is beautiful. It happens in pure TOH fashion, forced to happen by circumstance. Or is it? We see that the rampaging Hooty created a heart in the stone where they confessed their feelings for one another, implying that this too was part of his plan to get Luz to confess. The scene, in general, also flips the trope that a confession needs to be this huge grand thing. Or in terms of an episode, an entire episode dedicated to it. It shows how Luz and Amity are both far too nervous to actually admit their feelings, and that there would never actually be that PERFECT moment to do the PERFECT confession. Luz and Amity‘s own self doubts mean that their would never actually be an episode dedicated to a confession, because it requires Hooty going absolutely nuts to force Luz into just pulling the bandage off. Again, it’s done perfectly in a way that only TOH can bend tropes. We see this as well, adding that Philip successfully integrated witch magic and human science in his attempts to build the door. Just a note on how Belos may do the same thing to build his own science-magic hybrid stuff.Overall, this was another great episode. It had tons of little details in it that we’ll continue to see sprinkled out. Hooty ends by saying “all the mysteries are solved” but in reality, none are. We’re just moving steps forward to see where the next die will land. As always, The Owl House proves to be one of the brightest series airing right now in tons of different ways. Each part of this episode brings characters to face something that they need someone as hard headed and blunt as Hooty to make them confront. And it’s done extremely well, and doesn’t take away from these reveals. I look forward to seeing what’s next.
(This review contains spoilers for Issue 1 of Image Comics’ Radiant Black)
Radiant Black #1 Cover E by David Finch, Jimmy Reyes, and Marcelo Costa
Kyle Higgins is a brilliant writer. His work on the first thirty issues Power Rangers and on his Ultraman adaptation have shown that he knows how to write superhero stories. So it was to my delight when he revealed he was working on his own superhero, with inspiration that is definitely drawing its inspiration from media like Power Rangers and Kamen Rider, mixed with a bit of the lone-town hero like Spider-Man. The first issue of Radiant Black was released yesterday (2/10/2021) as of this writing. A shipment delay meant I didn’t get my copy until today, so I wanted to share my thoughts on Radiant Black’s premiere issue. I thought it was a very promising start to what I’m hoping for from this comic.
The lone hero in a mask and full body suit can be traced back to 1971’s Kamen Rider by Toei. It told the story of a college student named Takeshi Hongo, kidnapped by the terrorist organization Shocker. They proceed to convert him into a grasshopper-based cyborg named Hopper Man. But before they can brainwash him, he’s freed by the doctor who was forced into working for them. He decides to then fight Shocker as a force for good under the name Kamen (Masked) Rider. The series proved extremely popular and, despite some hiatuses, continues on to this very day.
Takeshi Hongo, portrayed by Hiroshi Fujioka, in Kamen Rider (1971)
You might wonder why I bring this up. Well, it’s simply because while many people have been comparing Radiant Black with inspiration from Power Rangers, I find it to take more inspiration from Showa era Kamen Rider. The lone hero who is unwillingly turned into some sort of hero, who attempts to use this sudden transformation for good. Though Radiant Black throws it for a twist that more resembles Spider-Man in some places, but also its own original concept.
The premise can best be described as this. The story revolves around Nathan Burnett, a thirty-year old man who is forced to move back in with his parents after he failed his dreams of being a writer in California. His dreams quashed and a near $40,000 in credit card debt, he and his hometown best friend, Marshall, come across a mysterious light which transforms Nathan into an oddly clad being called Radiant Black. And from here his fortunes are changed, and perhaps he can do something better with his life after failing himself and his dream of being a writer.
Personally, the premise hits home hard. As a struggling freelance writer, doing what I love always seems to be a pipe dream, especially when compared to writers who are extremely successful. It can feel like there’s no way your writing will ever go places, and that you’ll be forced to give up everything in a simple chance to make it. Nathan is extremely relatable from that aspect, and already I find myself rooting for him from the minute he shows up.
Art by Marcelo Costa
The very first panel is him attempting to get a loan, which is denied because of his debt and his income. He works for what essentially the comic’s version of Uber or Lyft. And it shows the struggles of relatively young people who are forced to give up any sort of dreams they have to work low-paying dead-end jobs that barely allow you to live. So much so, that he’s forced to move all the way back to him hometown of Lockport, Illinois with his parents. Luckily for Nathan, his parents don’t criticize him or make him feel like a failure for having to move back with them. But for Nathan, it feels all the worse.
The characterization of Nathan within the first couple of pages is kind of amazing. It show how Higgins knows how to write characters, and more importantly, how to make you connect with them within only a few pages of the first issue. Having been in California, where the cost of living is so extremely high, Nathan just couldn’t afford to live there on low paying jobs by himself. And that is the reality based on the kind of place California is. You can buy a much larger and well built house in the midwest or eastern parts of the country for LESS than smaller houses for rent in California.
Nathan’s parents are happy to see him, and fine with seeing him move back in until he can get back on his feet. Within moments of his arrival, he’s met by his old high school friend, Marshall. Again, Marshall is immediately characterized as someone who is just happy to see his old friend back after so long. Nathan is depressed. And I think that helps bounce well with his interactions with Marshall. You can tell these are two people who, despite not having seen each other for a long while, are still extremely good friends. Nathan has no problem sharing his financial problems with Marshall, and even when Nathan begins to self-deprecate about how much he screwed himself with his debt. But even then, Marshall is supportive. He tried something and it didn’t work. That doesn’t make him worthless. And this sort of friendship helps to cheer Nathan up almost immediately.
So, of course, a drunk Marshall and Nathan finally encounter the odd light that seems like a miniature black hole. From all sides it doesn’t change until, of course, Nathan touches it. It goes inside of his body and he immediately transforms into the being we’ll refer to as Radiant Black. However, the duo are confronted by police for being on the railroad tracks. It doesn’t take long to set up that Marshall may have a problem with the police, purposefully antagonizing them while a train is oncoming. And it’s small things like this that go a long way in helping to set up points for a character without beating you over the head with it. Marshall has a major problem with the police, and it’s done through his antagonistic speaking to them despite an oncoming train.
Radiant Black manages to save them all from the train with his sudden telekinetic powers, the train and the police simply lifting off the ground in a blue hue. Whether or not this is his only power remains to be seen. When he and Marshall fly off to make their escape, his flying can be seen having the same faint blue hue around him and Marshall.
I think I should mention the actual design of the Radiant Black suit real quick. I love it quite a bit, to be honest. It’s very much in line with what you would expect from a tokusatsu costume. The suit more resembles your prototypical Sentai/Ranger suit. The suit design is simple and pleasing. The sort of glowing white and pitch black suit make for a clean design that doesn’t look too overly busy. But the thing that separates it all is the helmet. I think anyone who likes the tokusatsu genre can agree that the helmet is always going to be the most important part of the suit design. And the helmet is very simple, it reminds me a lot of Daft Punk if I’m being honest, which are in turn very similar to the helmets used in Toei’s Metal Heroes franchise.
Space Sheriff Gavan
I think the friendship between Nathan and Marshall is really what drew me into the human side of things. Both obviously have issues, but aren’t angry enough to completely push the other away. After their escape from the police, Marshall manages to help Nathan calm down enough to make his helmet dissipate through thought. But Nathan can only break down at his failure as a writer in LA. He attacks Marshall over not thinking about antagonizing the police, but immediately backs down as he’s really only lashing out at Marshall over his own inadequacies.
And I think the most important thing that comes out of this issue is Nathan’s rant at the end. His problem isn’t the debt or trying and failing, it’s the fact that he very much has the George McFly problem when it comes to his work. He has the idea. The idea intrigues his agent. But in the end, he feels too inadequate about his writing to actually go through with it. And that’s a message I can feel myself. No matter how much people compliment my writing, whether it be fiction or critical, I can’t help but think “wow my work sucks quite a bit, and I should stop writing.” But if you don’t take that vital initial step, you’re going to fail no matter what you do. And the worst part for Nathan is that he knows he messed it up, and now that he has these powers? He doesn’t want to mess whatever that means for him too. Even if he isn’t completely sure what it does mean for him. Marshall does assure him that he’s there to help Nathan no matter what.
Art by Marcelo Costa
The issue itself ends on the appearance of who we know as Radiant Red, someone who is physically identical to Radiant Black, but with red hue instead of white. Again, this really does express more Kamen Rider-esque vibes to me than something like Power Rangers or something you would see in the typical American superhero comic. Kamen Rider is well known, especially nowadays, for stories with multiple Riders, some of whom aren’t heroic. Rather, they can be quite selfish and cruel despite using the supposed name of justice. And you get that sort of thing with Radiant Red, right away, as they rob a bank in Chicago using their powers.
Radiant Black Issue 2 Cover C by Rod Reis
Overall I am very excited for Radiant Black as an ongoing series. Kyle Higgins knows his superheroes extremely well, and his original creation has me enthralled with what will happen next. The art by Marcelo Costa is wonderful as well, being an extremely pleasing style to look at for a superhero comic. It breaks the mold of what we normally expect to see in an American superhero story, and not by really playing on the actual tropes of what those stories involve. But rather, by making its protagonist so unflinchingly realistic. Even more so than any recent hero I can think of. If you like Kyle Higgins or are a fan of tokusatsu heroes, I highly recommend giving Radiant Black a read. Not only to them, but if you want a fresh take on a superhero that isn’t just “dark and edgy?” Definitely worth a try.
I just watched Volume 8, Episode 7: War. This serves as the midseason finale of Volume 8, with the show returning in early February. I promised to do reviews and thoughts of every episode, but I found some of them too self-explanatory to really need to delve into with a deeper look. Not to say they were bad, in fact I think Volume 8 so far has had some of the best consecutive episodes in the series thus far. I thought War was enough to need its own discussion however, because there was a LOT going on here.
We get to see a bit of each group, so we’ll deal individually with what everyone is doing on their own. Atlas itself is suffering from a breach by Salem and her Grimm, so things are falling apart quickly in Atlas and Mantle.
The Ace Ops obviously find this the opportune time to arrest Yang, Ren, and Jaune because Ironwood says so but they’re in for a rude awakening for the first time. The Ace Ops represent the worst in some people, blind loyalty even though you know deep down it’s absolutely wrong. Ironwood tells them that as a team, they are to not give a single care about their teammates and that each one is expendable, and therefore replaceable. Their blind loyalty to Ironwood outranks their personal feelings that the death of Clover apparently meant nothing to them, because it’s simple human nature to feel after the death of someone close to you. Working together for years binds you together as a group, even if you all are telling yourselves that the death of one of you is meaningless.
Having Ren finally blow up about all of this after a few episodes of his feelings coming to a boil was cathartic. Because it’s obvious the Ace Ops all feel differently about the death of Clover and what they’re doing now, but they are so convinced of what they’ve been taught that they don’t care. Winter is the only one willing to listen because she has that prior history with the group, but also perhaps it’s finally coming to a head that even though she left the Schnee family, she ended up in the exact same place. Instead of doing her father’s bidding she does the bidding of Ironwood. The fact that she’s willing to let Yang, Ren, and Jaune go to save Oscar shows that she might be moving past, if only baby steps, away from the grip Ironwood has on her soul.
“No one is replaceable!”
Speaking of, Oscar and Ozpin are working hard on getting Hazel broken out of Salem’s lies. It’s a short scene, but it does wonders for how Oscar and Ozpin are beginning to work together to free themselves and put a dent into Salem’s plans. I always felt that out of Salem’s group, Hazel would probably be the first one to be convinced that Salem is lying and is planning to just kill everyone just so she can die herself. It’s kind of ingenious to be honest, I didn’t really think of what Oscar was planning but it is smart. Have Ozpin exposition the hell out of Hazel, then have Oscar, who Hazel trusts about 5% more, tell him about the Relic. Yeah, he doesn’t trust Ozpin and Oscar, but ask the cannot-tell-a-lie Jinn and we’re off to the races. Then yeah, maybe we can get Hazel to turn on Salem.
Of course, I feel as though this will all go to waste because Emerald just happened to be listening in on Hazel’s torture session for whatever reason, and she hears it too. She runs off to tell the most pointless character in the franchise, Mercury, this but he doesn’t seem to care. I don’t think anyone is more worthless than Mercury, who to this day has done a grand total of one thing in the series back when he pretended Yang broke his legs in Volume 3. But now Emerald knows how to wake up Jinn and I can only assume she’ll fuck things over for the dynamic body-sharing duo when she uses the remaining question to ask Jinn if Cinder actually cares about her.
“No. I’m giving you the password. And hoping you’ll find the truth for yourself.”
Finally, we return to Schnee Manor and Team RWBN + Mom. Nora isn’t doing too well after literally taking in enough electricity to kill a normal person, and she needs a doctor. Ruby, Weiss, and Blake are unsure what to do since Nora needs a doctor more than anything else at the moment. They want to stay and defend Atlas from the oncoming onslaught of Grimm and/or try to save Qrow and Robyn. Of course, easily the best part in the entire episode is May Marigold, who I easily will admit to stanning, but that’s only because she’s worth it.
For the first time ever in an animated series I’ve watched, a character who isn’t just a sidelined rando in the background, openly admits that they’re a transwoman. Which is pretty amazing that it was RWBY of all shows to make that leap and not one of the many other well beloved LGBT shows like Steven Universe or She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, both of which lack any form of transwoman representation anywhere. So good for RWBY for making a transwoman character voiced by an actual transwoman. The fact she openly admits that her family disowned her, and now she goes around making sure everyone knows she will not associate with her family again is refreshing. May is an angry transwoman with every right to be.
“No. Mantle needed me. And to the Marigolds, that meant I wasn’t their SON anymore. And I made sure that everyone knew that I wasn’t their DAUGHTER. So forget it. They’ve got Henry, yours have Whitley. You get what I’m saying?”
In my previous RWBY post, I had to explain why May isn’t a horrible person and now I have to do it again because I know some person is out there complaining about May’s rant.
Here’s the thing about May’s rant though. She’s right. She’s absolute right in this situation. Team RWBY is way too optimistic but logically there’s literally one of two things they can do: stay and defend Atlas from the Grimm onslaught or go and defend Mantle from the Grimm onslaught. And May? May’s right. Atlas at the very least has an army to defend the city from the Grimm, and are able to hold them back for the moment. Meanwhile, down in Mantle, there’s pretty much no one. Yang, Jaune, and Ren were arrested and our current team is stuck up in Atlas. In Mantle there’s no one other than Joanna and Fiona defending the innocent lives that Team RWBY initially sought out to protect when Atlas left them to rot on the ground.
There are no sides from a technical point, but right now there’s one of two choices: stick around Atlas or go back to Mantle. May is in the right, and it must be frustrating because Mantle is her home and those are her people who have no one to defend them. Ruby, Weiss, and Blake mostly think of it as one place but May has to be the one to remind them that they CAN’T be in two places at once. If you stay in Atlas, Mantle will definitely get run over by the magnificent amount of Grimm that are heading for the crater. I agree with May here just from the standpoint of Team RWB not wanting to abandon Atlas, but in turn means abandoning Mantle as a result. And that must be hard for May in particular as well. She’s gotten quite a bit of screen time this volume and I’ve enjoyed it greatly. It’s nice to have a trans character like her where she’s outwardly angry at the world around her, and she’s not willing to have her opinion not heard.
“You just don’t get it. This is not a situation where everyone wins!”
Of course, no matter what, the group is stuck in Atlas after Penny crashes into the ground outside the Schnee Manor and Klein returns to take care of Nora, summoned by Whitley who is starting to do the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing. The episode ends directly on Penny crashing into the ground before apologizing to Ruby and collapsing. It cuts there, ending the show until February leaving us with several cliffhangers on all ends. Who will use Jinn first: Hazel or Emerald? What will happen to Team RWBN + Mom after finding Penny? Will Yang, Ren, and Jaune succeed in their attempt to locate and rescue Oscar? Will the Ace Ops realize they’re only helping cause the downfall of their great city via fascism? Will May rescue Robyn and have a touching reunion after having issues with the problem of her assumed death?
“I’m… I’m… I’m sorry.”
Volume 8, if anything else, has proven RWBY is far better than most people might give it credit for. This episode in particular manages to revolve around three groups of character in eighteen minutes, without feeling rushed which I do think is impressive since other shows that do this go by so fast that I imagine I would soon be clipping out of bounds as a result. If you still haven’t watched RWBY in full, I do recommend you do. It’s the only show where I can gladly see myself in a character, so that does help, but the story itself and the character have only improved since the first volume. I used to be a staunch hater of Jaune, but the minute they gave him an actual personality after Volume 5, he became a much less nauseating character.
Oh? That little thing at the end there? Why yes, I do subscribe to that ship because Robyn and May represent Robin Hood and Maid Marian, so yes I’m all for that if we get some wlw transwoman up in here!
I’ve been reading Lumberjanes for literal years. Going all the way back to 2016, I’ve always loved and enjoyed this series with all of my heart. There was even a point where I tried to review every individual issues page-by-page. It had to stop, obviously, because it was driving me wild but the memories are always there. The End of Summer came out today, and I’m going to give my thoughts on it: pros and cons.
I have very few cons so let’s begin with that. I think the ending was heavily rushed. The main story with the Grey takes up a majority of the issue, so the very last day of summer where everyone says goodbye is done extremely fast. The other is that Molly goes home. This was always the hardest part to deal with, though I knew it was probably gonna happen since there’s no realistic way for Molly to stay in the forest permanently. I was hoping something would happen, since we know her mother is horribly abusive and her father passively lets it happen. It was kinda disappointing, but also reels back to what I said about the ending being rushed. It needed one more issue, an epilogue, to really tie everything up nice and neatly. It NEEDED it more than anything else.
Outside of those couple issues, I found the issue to be extremely well done. It ties up the Grey story pretty well, and it’s good that Molly is initially the one to confront it after her previous encounter with it. I’m also glad they followed up on Molly being someone who can shift into an animal in the forest, as well as being able to shift back into a person. Let me tell you, I was living for Molly with antlers and the bow and arrow. Next, was how they actually defeated the Grey. The entire series has revolved around friendship and such, so I am glad that this was how they ended up winning against the invasion of the Grey. The Lumberjanes were afraid this entire time of the Grey, but they never needed to be. They were the only thing that the Grey couldn’t assimilate due to their connections to each other and the forest. It’s done very well, and done in the spirit of what Lumberjanes has always been about. The Kitten Holy makes its grand debut, as a fusion of all the magical cats that Ripley summoned all the way back at the beginning of the series. It’s a good book end to have that happen and follow up on Ripley finally getting to meet her hero.
There are many questions though I feel, again, are unanswered. What happens to Molly? Is she still a animal-forest shifter? What about Rosie and Abigail? I feel like the series’ ending needed just one more issue to completely tie up all its loose ends, barring the idea that there’s going to eventually be more. There is, of course, the upcoming TV show. Will that be an adaptation or a complete sequel to the comic? Or will there be another comic popping up next summer? The series does end with “The End! Until Next Summer!” I feel like these loose ends, or the lack of a proper goodbye make it hard to fully appreciate the end of this wonderful series. This helped me through my gender and sexuality issues a few years ago, so I adore this comic like no other. I even somehow have every issue, plus variants and reprints. I love Lumberjanes. Even with my small problems, I still loved this finale. It encapsulated everything that Lumberjanes is, and thematically it does that extremely well. While I have my wishes for a few changes to make it more satisfying, it does end on a positive happy note. One that makes it seem less complete than it is, but it is satisfying as it is. It could just fix a few little problems and it’d be perfect. Lumberjanes is wonderful. It will always be in my heart, forever. It is the single most important comic or graphic novel I’ve ever read. If you can, grab the issue. It’s the end of summer after all.
“A circle is round, it has no end… that’s how long we’ll be friends.”
(These will now be posted every Saturday, to talk about my thoughts on developments of Ruby’s current volume.)
So just gonna say this in addition to all the other people saying this. May had absolutely zero interactions with Penny up until this point. She is not Penny’s friend, and only ever saw her as someone utilized by Ironwood as a weapon.
Remember early in Volume 7 when the Happy Huntresses held up Ruby, Penny, etc on the road? That’s what May knows. Yes, she’s trans, but she’s also still human. Her eye roll scoff was in response to Ruby’s cocky smirk at her, but also the fact that once May knows “robo-girl” is NOT what Penny wants to be referred to, she refers to Penny as Penny. She corrects herself and keeps at that. Ya’ll are just jumping on May for being trans and holding her to a higher standard than everyone else, despite ignoring the context of May not being someone who knows Penny in the same instance as the audience or Ruby.
For those upset at the possible hacking that is most likely going to take place, let me give the thoughts of someone who watched 45 episodes of a show that is literally dedicated to that very ideal. The idea of androids being real. People like Watts and Ironwood exclusively see Penny as a weapon, an object to be used, while our main cast see her as a person. And she is a real girl, a real person with real feelings. In aforementioned series, that is something that occurs throughout most of it. The idea these androids are tools versus the idea they are individuals with their own dreams and aspirations. Penny is a real person, but she was still created by human hands and that means she’s susceptible to the human greed, narcissism, and ego that Ironwood has.
If anything, this hacking storyline will just go to further Penny eventually as her own person and not just a tool that can be hacked to override her very being and force her into Ironwood’s subservience. It’s fucked up and cruel, because that is what Ironwood has become fully now. Penny is a real girl, there is no doubt about that, but it’s a problem she’s been struggling with a lot and the logical next step in that struggle is the final step in it. Penny is an android. She can be hacked and forced into Ironwood’s bidding. And that’s the horrifying last step in her conviction that she’s not some tool to be used by others. She is herself and that’s who she is.
The last thing to talk about is Nora. I felt like the episode didn’t focus as much as it could have on Nora, but also it’s pretty depressing for her too. Her complete lack of self resulted in her saving Penny, but at the cost of injuring herself severely. And that is sad that Nora thinks that is her sole use to people. I am interested in seeing where her story goes.
This is a really good streamlined episode, and it leaves us some horrifying things to come: Nora is injured horribly and Penny has not only been separated from her friends, but also is on her way to being hacked by Ironwood. Like the opening implies, everything is only going to get worse.
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