Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2017-06-01 10:44 am
rionaleonhart) wrote2017-06-01 10:44 am
Entry tags:
What Are You Tweeting? Hashtag There's A Freaking Ghost After Us?
I shouldn't have mentioned Until Dawn in my last entry, because now I've fallen straight back into it! I want to write fanfiction, but I'm completely at a loss for ideas. I've already written 'my favourite character is in love with everyone else' and 'characters are forced to question their perception of reality', which are the things I seem to write in every fandom these days. 'Everyone trains Pokémon' is also a recurring theme in my fanfiction, but I'm not sure that would really suit Until Dawn. I haven't written any Jess/Matt, which I do think is a really cute pairing, but I'm much more invested in Mike and in Mike/Sam than I am in anything else.
I'm just going to talk about some of my favourite moments and aspects of the game, in case it sparks something off. Not including the bear trap moment. I've already talked enough about the bear trap moment.
(I'm sorry, Mike. You just suffer so well. Every so often I check out the Tumblr tag for Until Dawn, and sometimes people are talking about how they always shove Mike's fingers in the bear trap because they hate him. It's so strange to me. I want to see Mike's fingers caught in a bear trap because I love him.)
- My favourite reaction in the game is when Josh goes 'hey, Chris, you might as well let Ashley sleep with Mike' and Mike looks over at Chris in sudden alarm. (Well, my favourite nonverbal reaction, at least, because it takes a lot to beat 'UNDERSTAND THE PALM OF MY HAND, BITCH.')
- It seems a little weird to have a favourite death, but it's when Ashley locks Chris out and leaves him to die if he chose himself over her earlier. It's strange to me that this is, as far as I can recall, the only point at which you can make a choice that will result in a character's death several chapters later. Despite the game's emphasis on the butterfly effect, it doesn't actually explore long-term consequences much; most deaths are the result of making a mistake immediately beforehand. Here, you can make a fatal mistake, and you won't actually know it was fatal until a couple of hours later.
- I also like Ashley locking Chris out because it makes Ashley such an interesting character. Most players won't try to shoot Ashley when Chris is given the 'it's Ashley or yourself' ultimatum - they'll think 'what would Chris do?' and go for the self-sacrificing option, or they'll have found the totem that indicates you shouldn't shoot at all - so they'll never realise what Ashley is capable of. Most players will see her persuading Mike to shoot Emily, but it's possible to miss even that. Different playthroughs can give very different impressions of the characters involved, and I think Ashley is the most dramatic example of that. In a playthrough where Chris doesn't try to shoot Ashley and Emily dies in the mines (or escapes being bitten), Ashley will be perfectly sweet throughout, if understandably panicky, and you'll never know it's possible for her to let one character die and then call for another to be killed.
- Whether Ashley locks Chris out or the player just isn't fast enough on the trigger, I love Mike being gentle with Ashley and leading her away if Chris dies in front of her.
- My second favourite death, inevitably, is when Sam moves at the wrong moment, and Mike runs in front of her so the wendigo will attack him instead of her. Does that count as a death? The attack doesn't actually kill him outright, but it does render him unable to escape the lodge alive, so it's a moment that locks his death in. In any case, Mike can sacrifice himself for Sam and I love it.
- (Seriously, I don't understand why Mike/Sam isn't a more popular pairing. If they both survive, the last shot before the credits is of him holding desperately onto her arm in front of the burning lodge! There's barely any fanart of them and it is TEARING ME APART.)
- Poor Jess is such a wreck by the end of the game, both physically and psychologically. She walks so slowly; she's in so much pain; she seems so lost and defeated. It really tugs at my heart. I was going to say 'I'm so glad Matt is there to look after her' and then remembered that it's entirely possible for Matt to die before then, leaving Jess to wander alone in the mines. As I said, I think Matt/Jess could be a really cute pairing, but Jess is so thoroughly traumatised by the end of the game that it's hard to imagine writing romance involving her.
- It's a shame that you don't get to see Jess and Matt reunited with the others at the end of the game, if they survive. Perhaps there's fanfiction material there? Hmmm. I find myself strangely reluctant to write anything that doesn't focus on Mike suffering. Letting him find out that Jess is actually alive means he suffers less, which goes against everything I stand for. (I'm sorry, Mike. It's tough to be my favourite character.)
Well, I'm not sure this has spawned any inspiration for writing fanfiction, but I enjoy talking about this game anyway. Even if, before I robbed it of the ability to surprise me by spoiling myself for everything, it freaked me out so badly that I had trouble sleeping.
I'm just going to talk about some of my favourite moments and aspects of the game, in case it sparks something off. Not including the bear trap moment. I've already talked enough about the bear trap moment.
(I'm sorry, Mike. You just suffer so well. Every so often I check out the Tumblr tag for Until Dawn, and sometimes people are talking about how they always shove Mike's fingers in the bear trap because they hate him. It's so strange to me. I want to see Mike's fingers caught in a bear trap because I love him.)
- My favourite reaction in the game is when Josh goes 'hey, Chris, you might as well let Ashley sleep with Mike' and Mike looks over at Chris in sudden alarm. (Well, my favourite nonverbal reaction, at least, because it takes a lot to beat 'UNDERSTAND THE PALM OF MY HAND, BITCH.')
- It seems a little weird to have a favourite death, but it's when Ashley locks Chris out and leaves him to die if he chose himself over her earlier. It's strange to me that this is, as far as I can recall, the only point at which you can make a choice that will result in a character's death several chapters later. Despite the game's emphasis on the butterfly effect, it doesn't actually explore long-term consequences much; most deaths are the result of making a mistake immediately beforehand. Here, you can make a fatal mistake, and you won't actually know it was fatal until a couple of hours later.
- I also like Ashley locking Chris out because it makes Ashley such an interesting character. Most players won't try to shoot Ashley when Chris is given the 'it's Ashley or yourself' ultimatum - they'll think 'what would Chris do?' and go for the self-sacrificing option, or they'll have found the totem that indicates you shouldn't shoot at all - so they'll never realise what Ashley is capable of. Most players will see her persuading Mike to shoot Emily, but it's possible to miss even that. Different playthroughs can give very different impressions of the characters involved, and I think Ashley is the most dramatic example of that. In a playthrough where Chris doesn't try to shoot Ashley and Emily dies in the mines (or escapes being bitten), Ashley will be perfectly sweet throughout, if understandably panicky, and you'll never know it's possible for her to let one character die and then call for another to be killed.
- Whether Ashley locks Chris out or the player just isn't fast enough on the trigger, I love Mike being gentle with Ashley and leading her away if Chris dies in front of her.
- My second favourite death, inevitably, is when Sam moves at the wrong moment, and Mike runs in front of her so the wendigo will attack him instead of her. Does that count as a death? The attack doesn't actually kill him outright, but it does render him unable to escape the lodge alive, so it's a moment that locks his death in. In any case, Mike can sacrifice himself for Sam and I love it.
- (Seriously, I don't understand why Mike/Sam isn't a more popular pairing. If they both survive, the last shot before the credits is of him holding desperately onto her arm in front of the burning lodge! There's barely any fanart of them and it is TEARING ME APART.)
- Poor Jess is such a wreck by the end of the game, both physically and psychologically. She walks so slowly; she's in so much pain; she seems so lost and defeated. It really tugs at my heart. I was going to say 'I'm so glad Matt is there to look after her' and then remembered that it's entirely possible for Matt to die before then, leaving Jess to wander alone in the mines. As I said, I think Matt/Jess could be a really cute pairing, but Jess is so thoroughly traumatised by the end of the game that it's hard to imagine writing romance involving her.
- It's a shame that you don't get to see Jess and Matt reunited with the others at the end of the game, if they survive. Perhaps there's fanfiction material there? Hmmm. I find myself strangely reluctant to write anything that doesn't focus on Mike suffering. Letting him find out that Jess is actually alive means he suffers less, which goes against everything I stand for. (I'm sorry, Mike. It's tough to be my favourite character.)
Well, I'm not sure this has spawned any inspiration for writing fanfiction, but I enjoy talking about this game anyway. Even if, before I robbed it of the ability to surprise me by spoiling myself for everything, it freaked me out so badly that I had trouble sleeping.
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