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But like. Functionally it serves as a way for live experience testing to be done on a game. It’s a way to dial it in on what people want, and on how to best make the game.

This means that, stars above, you don’t need to fucking review bomb it the second there’s a problem, you have avenues for giving feedback, stop saying the game is doomed because there’s been one bad update ffs

Like during the Sus event, when he told Odile to not confront Siffrin until after the King? So once she finally confronts Siffrin, it is too late and he loops!

I know Isabeau could not have known, but still! And I wholly believe he helped convince Mirabelle and Bonnie that Siffrin doesn't like to be touched! With him being the most physically affectionate party member, I feel he would have run into Siffrin jumping sooner than our lovely, nervous Mirabelle.

I also don't think he is the type of person to assume one event is a pattern, but if Siffrin jumped at his and Mirabelle's touch, then I think he would have talked to her and Odile about it to try and be helpful, but Change forbid he ask Siffrin if that is true! I mean, he was just trying to be considerate, but damn boy, sometimes you have to talk to people! Even if they are avoiding talking about things!

But as soon as Siffrin calls him out, he just replies "NUH UH" and ends the conversation immediately. Despite seeing the deflection tactic for what it is, he's unwilling to push any further.

This goes even further, though. If you look at Isabeau's sprites, you'll notice a pattern: he won't make eye contact when feeling any negative emotion (embarrassed, upset, angry). There are two* exceptions to this: sad5 and angry3.

*Technically three with the sad4 sprite, but that's only used when emotions of others are high, not his own. To list some examples: Mira's 3rd floor breakdown, talking to Sif right after Kingquest, Memory of Ghosts/Puns, and most of Act 5.

These sprites are only used twice and thrice, respectively, and the latter is exclusive to Act 5. And while the "sad" one doesn't actually seem all that sad, it's only used in two VERY emotional situations.

(Notably, before Act 5, Isabeau IMMEDIATELY tries to deflect away his genuine expression of emotion by putting on a smile. Look at my Fighter y'all we are NOT attaining healthy emotional regulation.)

Performative self-flagellation over being white is not a substitute for doing serious introspection about the ways you have been complicit in or rewarded by a white-supremacist society, nor doing the work to dismantle white supremacy.

Many of us playing the game/watching a Lets Play learned as children that stars were big balls of light and gas and that the stars are still out at night but we just can't see them. So to us, when Odile, who we know as being so intelligent, shuts Siffrin down for "telling lies," it's jarring, even if we've learned by then that hardly anyone in this world seems to know what stars are.

And this being common knowledge to many players makes it clearer that we're to side with Siffrin. Bcoz if this conversation took place with the party being dismissive about a Wish Craft ritual, even if it was a ritual that many players might know, many of us would see it as possibly nostalgic, like if it was about blowing dandelion seeds to make a Wish, but the dismissal of the party wouldn't stand out the same way as it does here. Alot of players would go "ah yeah it does sound silly, huh?"

And while the party reacting that way after being told about a Wish Craft ritual would still Not Be Good, bcoz they would still be calling something from Siffrin's culture and religion nonsense, bcoz this dialogue happens talking about stars, bcoz this is common knowledge -- the truth, objective reality -- the party dismissing Siffrin's statents as lies helps put us more into his shoes. Along with Siffrin, we are dealing with having something we Know To Be Correct treated as ridiculous.