I wanna talk about Mina the Hollower's ending
Y'know, that's one to really chew on. That's the most mixed I've seen recently. I mean, insofar as these sorts of games. There are plenty that center their narrative and Mina is not one of them. And yet I couldn't help but be swept along anyway. Mina feels like she has a lot of character beyond just Player Mousegirl. You see her go from sleeping soundly after each job well done to staying up all night tired and fretting over the truth of Spark.
It's not a happy ending. The town is in ruins and things have changed that can never be re-obtained. Mina is branded a traitor like Thorne, the townspeople are rioting, it's all-out chaos in the streets but like... What else is supposed to happen? Their entire way of life changed in one night and not enough of them knew or cared they were slowly getting turned into monsters. I think it's a brave enough point to make. Tat sometimes doing the right thing, taking the action to save as many people as you can, wins you no favour when the people you're trying to help will never know the truth.
But with it we see the Bayou healing. The rails on Coltrane Peak are getting rebuilt. The Great Worm is finally at peace, the mining boom is over. The Friendly Crow faction is reclaiming their land and working together with the people about Septemburg. The Astral Orrery has a way to GTFO if that's what people really want, but everywhere you look there are signs of healing. Even though the people of Ossex are now in tumult and witch trials, they are the people who proverbially fattened themselves on the suffering of the surrounding lands.
And Mina loses it all to try and combat that, and their unseen doom. All of her friends, the Hollowers, Cappy, Lionel was lost long ago even though she didn't realize it yet. I find it poignant that her only remaining friend is the beaten, battered Thorne. The two people who saved he land and all they have left is each other.
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