-tbh found the way this game understands when to be quiet and sullen and reflexive rlly compelling. like epi2 has a lot of these just silent moments and it rlly builds off of how loud and aggressive that first ep is
-love the way this game handles language if that makes sense. like it’s def it’s own world w it’s own vocab which makes it feel all the more abstract and diff from our own world. like I rlly liked that although the game is about religious fanatics and church organizations there’s a very pointed spelling of christmas as xmas and w that comes its own implications for the characters and the world. there’s also a ton of typos here which could mean anything from the fact that most dialogue is said by children or the idea that most religious fanatics and zealots are commonly seen as less educated but tbh I don’t think that’s the case and rlly hope it isn’t as that’s kind of rooted in classism. or idk maybe it’s a deliberate choice to make the world feel more alien and less like our own or that the writer just accidentally put it through w some typos
-think the wordplay w nb nonbeliever enby is genuinely rlly smart cheeky commentary. all of the writing is rlly clever in regards to how it handles both gender and sexuality and it’s mostly esp subtle which is rlly nice bc I feel like the worst thing about queer art is how much it feels like it’s beating u over the head. this never does except in one moment where the camera focuses in on the word GAY in a paper written about twigs, even that I find ridiculously charming and almost funny. rlly nails down the way that adults speculate on childrens’ orientations and gender expression in a rlly gross way and how that can make ppl feel, enough of the game is about how from the moment ppl see u they’re drawing their own conclusions and perceptions about/around u.
-love the animation here, middle ground between mid 90s early cgi shorts from animation studios that would become established in the coming decades and the video art horror boom of the early 2010s. equal parts cutesy and comfy and creepy. rlly amazed w the cutscenes in epi 2 and how well they’re directed and overall in terms of staging and shooting the scenes and what a step up that is. there’s like a zoom in on the main characters faces in the opening segment of that episode that’s actually so cool and pretty. got the style of like rando mtv oddities frl. the live action moments r so beautiful…
-think it’s cool what and who they do and don’t show. like it’s very much so a point to never show the parents or grandmother, same w the fathers friend during the poker game segment. reminds me a lot of how adults are shown in peanuts, almost like non entities, npc’s if u will. the fact that the only adults we see are the lovecorp employees who look and behave alien and otherworldly but also mostly completely ageless and ethereal.
-one of the only pieces of media to rlly get down the feeling of disassociation. idk spent basically the entirety of my teenage years disassociated and disconnected from my conversations and interactions w other ppl. like Ik I had friends and I talked w them and occasionally talked to my family but I can’t rlly remember what we talked about or what we did bc I was so checked out back then. not even bc I was necessarily uncomfortable w myself but more so bc I was uncomfortable around others and w how my life was panning out. love the scenes of twigs driving w her mother and how checked out she is in those conversations. I one day won’t be able to remember conversations at all or even how ppl that were once kinda close to me looked but I’ll always remember how the roads looked.
-the bonnie coded marcie coded girls r doing yuri/yaoi again