🍦Batlin official kisser

it’s a shame especially since this is going to be at least someone’s first exposure to metaphor. the pacing of the manga is rough af and it’s clear based on the marketing highlighting it being a “reimagining” of sorts (aka whoever wrote it never experienced the game-) that the work was intended for those who already played the game/watched a playthrough/whatever. that would be fine if this was a fanfic, as people who read fanfiction are those who are fans of the source material or at least have had some experience with it.

official media doesn’t have the liberty of pre existing fans being the readers unless it explicitly states it’s a sequel or that you need to know the source material to understand it. to have as it does doom other things marketing themselves as a remaster of sorts for example, ff7r. as good as it may be, has the labeling of “remake,” with the expansions to it requiring the first part to be played to understand what’s going on. the name is inherently going to make people who haven’t played the og try 7r first, and because the remake isn’t even finished yet and has a lot of nods/story aspects that are heavily impacted by if you’ve played og 7 first, newcomers are not going to like it. many are going to think it’s poorly written. they’re going to think the og was that bad and won’t give it a shot because they’re being told this is how the original game was paced and played out.

for the metaphor manga, it’s going to be the same. newcomers aren’t going to like the writing at least because of the pacing and aren’t going to try the game because they think that’s how it’s written.

for people who are actually familiar with the source material, it’s arguably worse because of just how badly the characters are done. pacing is one thing, but the interpretation of a character not only matters on a storytelling standpoint but especially for a game with heavy political theming, it can be harmful when it comes to actual literacy.

will and neuras aren’t saints or whatever but they’re strangely mean spirited. hulkenberg is a pushover as opposed to how a knight directly serving the prince would likely behave. strohl has yet to really falter because the manga glossed over his entire backstory, but he does feel a little off. gallica’s becoming a tsundere. zorba feels off too, aka less insane? more just there? hard to explain. louis is the same but he’s a bigger fucking idiot than he should be because let’s be real there’s a reason he didn’t let zorba resurrect a human in front of literally everyone in the capital. the one convo between bas and del is cute but it still didn’t get the dynamic down.

the characterization issues isn’t exclusive to the metaphor manga—even the game has some stuff it overlooks (particularly with eupha (as much as i love her she was absolutely wasted potential especially since the game sorta just forgot she had no life outside of being a sacrifice until the gang arrived????)) all official media is doomed to this sort of thing because they have a lot more restraints holding it back. don’t get me started on the fandom scene because imo there’s one specific side of the fanbase that didn’t understand the game at all or at least not the characters (something about main antagonists make people lose their media literacy i stg). i’m not surprised there are flubs. i’m not saying there’s a perfect interpretation. there are objectively wrong ones, but there’ll always be ooc moments somewhere somehow. of course depending on the subject, writing someone ooc just to serve a purpose that betrays the character (be it hooking up with one character they wouldn’t otherwise or just as a prop) can be insanely harmful. ao3 and young adult fiction has a massive issue regarding effective, non-romanticized depictions of serious real world subjects. you can write it, but you need to be careful or else someone might think that the behavior is okay or isn’t an issue.

let’s ignore how badly done metaphor’s characters are for a moment. it’s more relevant now than ever, tackling themes that range from discrimination to ethics regarding technology to religious corruption to politics including how a government should ideally run. the tribal discrimination is important but is just one piece. that isn’t all there is to it, and even then, the examples of discrimination go beyond the stereotypical outward aggression. there’s microaggressions, abuse and manipulation, etc. tribes are more than a metaphor for race, being for groups as a whole. the characters serve as an extension of those themes. their designs, backstories, even at points names are integral to the overarching messages involving the complexities of the world, so to cut even one out means dismantling the point of it all. the manga has only displayed surface level discrimination, anything else that might be present is a footnote. that just makes it seem like there’s not only an obvious solution (there is none, life is complex, yada yada) but it’s as simple as “just don’t say anything.” in fact, i’d argue the mentality of not allowing for thoughtful discussion surrounding differing beliefs is what got us into the current political hellscape because it was molded into making others feel silenced. there was no trying to teach others to understand an issue, rather “here’s a new thing immediately accept it” and that does feel like an attack. people are understandably more conservative, defensive, etc. because there was no unlearning discrimination. there was no growth. their fears were just confirmed and they feel the only way to be heard is to be destructive.

in general media needs to stop black-and-white exploitations of basic bitch ethics and politics because that’s what made things worse.

metaphor did an excellent job at handling its themes and set a bar for other stories covering those subjects. the manga betrays all of that and the importance of media literacy while simultaneously pushing away potential fans. that’s why i fucking despise it.

at least we got hector

this is the best written character in the manga because you can’t fuck him up no matter how hard you try