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Something is interesting to me about the fact that he is likened to the broken compass. The one that goes haywire in part because of the mermaid, the one that hides the necklace key in plain sight for the entire game. Like it symbolizes Godrik's own skewed moral compass, disrupted completely by his singular need to see the mermaid again. Making immoral choices.
And then, right when I assume he already knew he would accomplish that goal, when he (weirdly?) Takes his time to give everyone closure in some way, when he reassures symmetry it wasn't her fault— he fixes the compass. He leaves them a way back home right before he dissappears.
The description of the issue with the compass in question being momentary overwhelm... and considering the compass is likened to Gripp himself, I wonder if it's meant to convey that he got his hold on himself back somewhat right near the end.
That when he felt assured that he would see her again his overwhelm waned enough for his own compass to be fixed. Just briefly.
Beautiful animation from The Mermaid Mask (spoilers ahead):
Gotta love how Gripp fully reveals himself as he stares directly at the screen. At the player.
He spent the game being silly with his vacant stare, but when he uses it to focus on something, especially with how heavy his eyebags look... he's downright creepy...
He doesn't even look evil... rather, he looks haunted, numb.
It's like there's no life behind those eyes, like Gripp has been reduced to a mere husk of a once eccentric but somewhat meek man who's still in there, somewhere...
I loved Tangle Tower, but man are the new characters in Mermaid Mask engrossing as hell. I really like the way the devs play with character archetypes here.
Like, Symmetry sometimes drops the Woebegone Haunted Victorian Orphan schtick to talk normally, usually to hilarious effect. In a more spoilery post I mentioned that I assumed at first that Zephyr was a scammer, but he is making an effort to be recognized as a legitimate scientist, even if his methodology gets pretty out there. Dirk has the energy of a bonafide Himbo, but he's exceptionally insightful at turns - and no-thoughts-head-empty at others (I was also watching an LP where the streamer mentioned you could meet 5 guys just like Dirk if you spent a few minutes in LA).
And particularly, I'm thinking right now of Wirman, who has the initial vibe of a gloomy, sarcastic shut-in Artiste - and he does have some of those traits - but there's more to him than that. For one thing, he's currently under a lot of external pressure to do something that he doesn't really want to be doing, and we don't know how long that's been going on. He's tired. He's burnt out and nursing a chronic migraine from the sound of things.
And while he's certainly sassy, genre-aware, and occasionally very cutting, that's not his entire personality. He can and does sincerely compliment other people's skills and efforts. He enjoyed Symmetry's act when he saw it as a journalist, he compliments Sally on being eloquent if you show him a particular clue, and while he certainly appears to be rather exasperated with life in general, he doesn't take it out on other people. I also like his dynamic with Dirk - they're a classic sunshine-raincloud duo, but Wirman seems to genuinely like Dirk and think at least somewhat well of him. Hell, he makes an effort to give a tactful answer when Sally asks if he thought Dirk was a good fit for Mordoom - maybe not as nice as it could be, but it's also a sensitive subject.
Anyways, this kind of character construction makes interacting with the Mermaid Mask cast so engaging and delightful, it's a wonderful game.
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Although there were a good deal of things I enjoyed about the new Avatar movie, the biggest reason I didn't love it as much as I wanted to because it passed up so many opportunities to develop its characters, and Sokka is the one I think who got done the dirtiest.
Like, come on, people! One of the main antagonists is a RADICAL GROUP OF NON-BENDERS! You don't think the only non-bender member of the Gaang (excluding Suki) would have something to say about what they're doing and how he feels about their cause?! Wouldn't he perhaps be at odds with the benders in the Gaang, probably because he feels more sympathetic about them due to being a nonbender himself and due to how he's been treated, like in the scene above?
And on top of that, wouldn't it have made for compelling conflict if Tagah offered to give him airbending with the staff and his friends and family debated what to do with Tagah's offer? And wouldn't it have made for a very heartwarming message if he chose not to give up being a non-bender because he's proud of it (just as I wouldn't want to give up being autistic)?
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idk man sometimes i like it when video game writers are allowed to plan a series of events that happen in a specific order and affect each other in turn to become an overarching narrative, and i don’t mind trusting those writers to take me through those events in the order that is emotionally effective. i don’t really care if a game forces me to go through the forest area first before i can attempt the icy area because maybe there’s things that happen in the forest area that inform later scenes in the icy area. maybe we don't need more superficial player choice open world concepts if it comes at the cost of the ability to write a story with actual significant plot events and character development in each section
That lock of hair that gives the illusion that Gripp's face is broken in half. And it constantly stays in place, even when he shifts into a different position.
And BOOOOOOOY is he falling apart! In his psyche, his heart, his mind....
You, sir, are a sad, broken individual, and you have my pity.
Thinking about the ending again (MAJOR ENDING SPOILERS FOR MERMAID MASK)
Do you think Gripp maybe... wanted to get caught?
Idk. The compass - he put the Necklace Key in there on purpose. He even tells the team that he put it in plain sight so Sinthia (or other people) could see that he was 'working on it'.
When you do his Suspicion segment, he says he's been looking forward to this part, and is disappointed that the team has decided to grill him over his cane, of all things.
When the complete Mermaid's Tongue is placed on the table, he has a perfect opportunity to hit the lights and run before he's outed. But he waits for the team to put everything together - encourages them to keep probing, keep going. He admits motive and answers questions.
(And the compass at the end... oogh, it makes me so emotional. Something about the service sticker in particular really hit me hard. And he encourages the team to keep putting answers together so that everyone has as much closure as possible, tells Symmetry to put aside her anguish, before he goes. For all his anger and bad choices and manipulation, there is in Godrik Gripp still someone who cares about other people, the people on that submarine.)
I can't bring any other immediate evidence to mind but I do feel like he went out of his way to make his guilt more obvious. Whether he was hoping someone would bring it up and he could steer the conversation towards the location of the Mermaid's Tongue, or if he just felt guilty, or both... I dunno.
EDIT: Ty @finalvortex for reminding me that Gripp points the Necklace Fragment out when you show him the Iron Bell, that's probably the biggest point so far!
EDIT 2: Gripp is also the one to suggest that Mortuga kept the then-unknown object locked in the Cauldron out of a sense of selflessness, which is really interesting given how driven he is about getting in there and how mad he was about Mortuga lying to him - even in his mania, Gripp understood that Magnus was trying to protect him and others from what the Mermaid's Tongue does to people.
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It's pretty interesting to pit Mortuga vs Gripp, because they are foils to each other in a lot of ways.
A comment on the last stream I watched of it pointed out that Mortuga always had his Fingerprint uncovered - as Sinthia says, it caused him pain - but Gripp's is under his clothes until the finale. This implies that Mortuga was open about his pain, while Gripp hid his - and let it fester. And I think this mirrors some of their core traits.
There's only so much we can learn now that Mortuga's dead (and only so much we can learn about a fictional character to begin with), but reports from the other submarine occupants tend to agree that he was terse, moody, but generally a really good guy.
Gripp, on the other hand, is acknowledged as having a persona by several people, but nobody seems to have a grasp on who he is without the persona. He hides his real motives, feelings, and intelligence from everyone up until the reveal - and, depending on how you read his final act(s) of the game, maybe even further. Even people who shared a living space with him for an unclear number of years had no idea what he wanted or what he was willing to do to get it.
Mortuga's legacy is a shipful of people he cared for and about. Depending on your read of the situation, his very last act - the thing he was killed for -was an attempt to protect them. Meanwhile, Gripp's motives are selfish and, ultimately, deadly for Mortuga.
(I think it's notable that while Mortuga surrounded himself, intentionally or no, with real people with whom he forged connections, Gripp was surrounded by fake people - the cane, the cutouts, his own persona - even though he could have made an effort to reach out to the others. I think part of it is the fact that his entire presence there was a stack of lies, but it feels meaningful. Gripp always intended to disappear into the sea as soon as possible, but Mortuga probably would have been able to go on after learning about Felicia's death. Not happily, but he had a support structure that Gripp denied himself.)
And yet... the last thing Gripp does before Communing is return the fixed compass. There's a service record on it, totally filled out - this wasn't just a last-minute whim. He leaves everything and everyone behind - everyone in the submarine, Cornelius Cane (I saw someone point out just what it meant for him to leave the cane behind after directly stating its purpose was to make him remember he wanted to live, to see the sun), but he doesn't want to leave them stranded. He takes the time to make sure everyone's misunderstandings and messes are sorted out, to reassure Symmetry that she shouldn't feel guilty about her accidentally making Mortuga think about death right after his friend died.
I've said before that Gripp could have taken the mask and ran as soon as the team completed it, but he stayed and explained himself beforehand, made sure every loose end possible was tied up, first. I feel like if their roles had been reversed, Mortuga might have done something similar - maybe not as dialogue-heavy, as he's stated over and over to be a pretty stoic guy (though Gripp got quieter post-reveal, to be sure), but I can see him wanting to make sure nobody else blamed themselves for his choices.
I also wonder about the method - Gripp could have bided his time and possibly killed Mortuga actively, or opened up the floor and opened the Cauldron himself right then (he presumably could have at least guessed how it worked and where it would go). But he chose to set up a passive method that placed Mortuga's unknowning hands on the trigger mechanism. It feels like Gripp didn't want him dead more than he just wanted the mask, but he was, at that point, too okay with Mortuga dying to care.
I don't have a snappy conclusion, it's just interesting to compare and contrast two very different characters who, nonetheless, have some things in common.
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