Downstairs People Problems

i’m really actually trying to pay attention to all the layers and subplots in this game because I do think it’s really well done. But do we ever get any sort of answer or resolution regarding how the Rutherford and Daddle families acquired the jade carvings and how legitimate it was (the Rutherfords seem pretty sus; I think it was just like her grandfather was at an excavation site or something and snagged it)? Or even the CCCC or the smugglers? Or the one that’s in the packing container at Beech Hill?

At the end there’s -sorta- a come to Jesus moment where Nancy tells Taylor that the documents in the monolith belong in Mexico, so arguably this conveys to the player that Nancy doesn’t agree with everything the Americans are doing in this game. But there’s the portion in the wrap up letter that’s says the Pacal documents were falsified, it’s returned to Mexico, and Mexican officials are so happy that Americans finally did the bare fucking minimum and didn’t literally rob them that it’s starting a new era with Beech Hill and Mexico. And Joanna learned her lesson about doing “shady deals with people like Taylor” as if literally none of this is Joanna’s fault? That just this one deal was sour but the rest were probably fine?

The game is so fascinating to me because it really does feel kind of “woke” considering when it was released (2002 I believe) by introducing young girls to this idea of colonialism and the way that things legitimately being enjoyed in American(not only in this country, but that’s what’s focused on in this game) don’t necessarily help, and usually end up hurting, the country of origin. Alejandro is kind of a dick, or at least when I was younger I thought so, but with further plays and understanding the bigger picture he’s like the only sane person in it? But then HeR doesn’t fully tie it all together with some definitive statement about how messed up the entire chain of possession is with all those other jade pieces and acts almost as if the Pacal is an anomaly, but aren’t we glad we fixed it up? 

CCCC carving - north - part of an exhibit of locally excavated precolombian artifacts. so this one is probably legit, an artifact uncovered in new mexico.

rutherford - south - the article in joanna’s office says prudence’s great-grandfather found it on a dig in ‘the amazon jungle’ in 1898, and that she considers it a 'family heirloom’. sus by modern standards be 19th c archaeological practices are basically always thus, but assuming she can demonstrate it’s been in her family for decades she’s legally in the clear (generally anti-antiquities-trafficking laws only apply to objects removed from their country of origin after the UNESCO convention of 1970).

de landa/museum storage piece - east - henrick’s notes say it was found in cuba in 1652, paper on joanna’s desk says it’s on loan from 'el museo cultural’ in san francisco. so uh… likely looted during the spanish colonial period.

daddle - west - henrik’s notes say it was found in 1753 in costa rica, sold at auction in NYC to shoe polish tycoon H.A. Daddle in 18–.

pacal - king - does not have a documented history pre-1940. also sinclair might have murdered the last owners. i’m not sure how exactly we’re meant to believe that they’re falsified - maybe we’re supposed to understand that lack of pre-1940 documentation as evidence something was hinky? while that’s not exactly true-to-life I can accept that as a basic understanding. (hotchkiss-and-tell points out that the book explicitly said the docs were fake bc they included zip codes that didn’t exist yet, but i don’t think the game ever states this outright. irl art and antiquities with provenance records that begin in the 40s-50s are often sus because of the enormous campaign of looting undertaken by the nazis during wwii, but that usually applies more to pieces that are european in origin).

smugglers - copan fool - found by smugglers on an illegal dig in copan, honduras shortly before the events of the game and then illegally trafficked across borders and into the US. I uh. I kind of really want to know how nancy explains that one. sure, finding the lost scribe’s work might have improved relations with mexico, but nancy might have royally fucked relations with honduras forever?

one thing that the game fails to touch on is that while all collectors are expected to act within the law, private collectors have far less stringent ethical guidelines than museums/institutions do. public collections, by virtue of being, well, public, are exposed to far more scrutiny than those in the hands of private individuals. so prudence can make her carving into a necklace, or poppy can include hers in one of her own works - as the legal owners of the carvings they can do with them as they wish, while museums are required to preserve the artifacts that they house and to make them (and information on them) available to scholars and researchers. i’m surprised that there’s not more scrutiny or denunciation of the ethics of private collections in SSH.

i actually find prudence’s attitude way more odious than poppy’s. prudence’s 'regard’ for the south key is entirely centred on possessing this rare artifact as a status symbol. she brags that it was 'carved by real Maya hands’ but then she ads it to her mother-in-law’s ruby necklace to 'add a piece from [her] own family to balance out the energies and … make it [her] own.’ to prudence the carving is just… a family heirloom, totally removed from it’s real cultural significance.

meanwhile poppy’s point is kind of - entirely critiquing that whole mindset imo. the daddles possessed the west key for about as long as the rutherfords owned the south key, and for that time theirs functioned in the same way - as basically an empty status symbol for wealthy people who hold no connection to it’s history. poppy’s art is entirely about critiquing that ownership/collector mindset - and including the carving in 'deadly midnight snack’ can be read as a furtherance of that critique. she hates when people see art as 'merchandise,’ so she takes the carving, coats it in the shoe polish that allowed her ancestor to purchase it in the first place, and puts it back into the world, now as part of the dialogue about live and dead art and ownership and meaning. we can debate whether poppy is the right person to do this, but the fact is irl artists have done exactly this for at least 100+ years.

           *Warning* I go on a rant after this

What I find really bizarre is the fact that they have a “state of the art Revolve stage” when the museum has only a “tiny pile of money” and most of exhibits are borrowed from other museums. I can only imagine how much money it cost to renovate this old amphitheater and build an entire lift system. You’d think that after spending all this money on building this, they would hire a large crew to handle all the safety checks and make sure the lighting, sound, and other effects are perfect. Do they? Nope. They hire four people- half of which have no acting experience- to be the actors, directors, costume designers, set designers, light crew, set crew, etc. And who exactly is doing what? Xenia is playing the Persephone and directing. Grigor is playing Hermes and doing all the light cues. Niobe is playing Demeter and making all the costumes. Thanos is playing Hades and spending his time lurking around the underworld. I don’t know who made the set and props, but get the feeling it all the work fell to Niobe. On top of all of this, they’re stealing, forging, and smuggling all the artwork. I have no idea how they have the time to do all of this. 

I think HeR wanted to do a game in a museum without making it too much like Secret of the Scarlet Hand. So they thought about Greece. Hmmmm. What’s something very Greek? I know- theater! 

The idea itself isn’t bad, it just conflicts with how these games work. HeR only has enough time and resources to make three to six characters, hence the unrealistically small cast/ crew.  And almost all the games feature secret passage ways and locked off rooms, hence the giant, overly complicated set. 

Nancy: alright dad you got it I’ll try

A Pokemon only counts for itself, not its evolution line.

A Pokemon with multiple forms (like Zygarde) will only be counted for the specified form. A Pokemon with multiple appearances (like Spinda, Vivillon, Sylvally, etc.) count for all their appearances.

It's January 1st 2026, Public Domain Day! it is the day, once a year, in the US where copyright expires! why yes! today every book, movie, art work and musical composition published in 1930 enters the public domain, 95 long long years after it first appeared. Sound recordings are governed by a different law so every sound recording made in 1925, 100 years ago! are also entering the public domain

So whats public today? so glad you asked!

Betty Boop

That's right iconic cartoon sweet heart Betty Boop is joining us out in the public domain. HOWEVER as always, it's important to remember only stories and images of Betty (or any character) published in 1930 are free and she was a little different back then. She was a dog... no I mean the character was originally a human-poodle mix

the owners of Betty Boop, Fleischer Studios, have been very aggressive about letting it be known they feel like the original Betty is totally different and people better not touch their cash cow, so it'll be interesting to see what happens there.

Pluto

Mickey Mouse got a huge amount of attention entering the public domain a few years ago, well now Mickey's dog and the first of his friends, Pluto is joining him in the public domain. But like I said only what same out in 1930 is public. Pluto appeared in two Mickey shorts that year, and in neither was called Pluto. In The Chain Gang he had no name, and in The Picnic he's "Rover" (and Minnie's dog)

Nancy Drew

Oh yes! a few years ago the Hardy Boys came into the public domain and now the girl who's very name, like Sherlock Holmes gets used as short hand for a detective, is entering the public domain. The first 4 Nancy Drew books, The Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase, The Bungalow Mystery, and The Mystery at Lilac Inn are now public. Now! the original Nancy Drew books were all rewritten in the late 1950s and early 1960s, to make Nancy generally nicer and more 1950s suitable (though also to cut some of the 1930s racism out) those versions of the books remain copyrighted so be careful about what details you give Nancy Drew if you add her to a story.

The Three Stooges (but not Curly)

The 1930 film, Soup to Nuts would be the first film appearance by what was at the time knowns as "Ted Healy and His Stooges" They would shortly ditch Healy who kinda becomes the Pete Best of the Stooges. You might think you know The Three Stooges, Larry, Moe and Curly, but thats not the line up thats entering the public domain this year. Now, if you didn't know, Moe and Curly were real life brothers, Moe and Jerome Howard (changed from the "too Jewish" Horwitz, Larry was Larry Fine, also changed to sound less Jewish from Louis Feinberg). At first the Stooges included Moe and Curly's older brother Samuel, known as Shemp. Shemp left the group in 1932 and was replaced by his kid brother Curly. Fans likely know Shemp from his later work with the Stoogles. Curly suffered a major stroke in 1946 and Shemp stepped in and replaced him before his own death in 1955. So Larry, Shemp and Moe are now public domain, but Curly is not.

Miss Marple

Why yes, Agatha Christie's The Murder at the Vicarage the very first appearance of Christie's iconic old maid detective Miss Marple is now public domain. So if you've always dreamed of writing a murder mystery team up book of Nancy Drew and Miss Marple, now is your moment! Though as always remember only what is in The Murder at the Vicarage is public domain. In this first outing Marple is sharper tongued and less kind than later versions of the beloved character.

More Tintin and Mickey Mouse

Last year on Public Domain Day we celebrated the first Tintin comic strips entering the public domain. However it wasn't a complete Tintin story, as Tintin in the Land of the Soviets was published weekly between 1929 and 1930. Now the rest of Land of the Soviets and the start of Tintin in the Congo have entered the public domain. But remember only what was published at the time is free, Hergé wouldn't reissue Tintin in color till the 1940s. It was a very big deal when Mickey Mouse entered the public domain two years ago. However at the time only a very little was entering, last year many more Mickey shorts came into the public domain. This year 9 Mickey shorts (Fiddlin' Around, The Barnyard Concert, The Cactus Kid, The Fire Fighters, The Shindig, The Chain Gang, The Gorilla Mystery, The Picnic, and Pioneer Days) are entering public domain bring many more details of Mickey to the public, like as I mentioned Pluto (or Rover).

What else?

Books

Popular children's book The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper, illustrated by Lois Lenski and William H. Elson's Basic Reader, the book that taught generations of Americans to read with Dick and Jane are now in the public domain. For more grown up literature, The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett parts of the book became public domain last year but now the complete book is in the public domain. William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, and Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Mr Quin and Giant's Bread were all published in 1930 so are free and clear. T.S. Eliot's long form poem Ash Wednesday is entering the public domain. For non-fiction you have Sigmund Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents (in its original German) and the philosopher Bertrand Russell's The Conquest of Happiness. Noël Coward's play Private Lives was also published in 1930. To return to children's books, The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth and illustrated by Lynd Ward, as well as Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome.

Movies

Two Academy Award for Best Picture winners, All Quiet on the Western Front directed by Lewis Milestone and Cimarron directed by Wesley Ruggles. Cimarron was released in 1931 but copyright was filed in 1930 so is now Public Domain. Hell's Angels directed by Howard Hughes the first film to star the original blonde bombshell, Jean Harlow is now Public Domain. Greta Garbo and Buster Keaton's first talkie films, Anna Christie and Free and Easy respectively, were in 1930. John Wayne’s first leading role, The Big Trail, as well as Bing Crosby’s first appearance in a film King of Jazz are public domain. Two Marlene Dietrich pictures both directed by Josef von Sternberg, The Blue Angel in German and Morocco in English where she co-stared with Gary Cooper are now free of copyright. the Marx Brothers' film Animal Crackers is also now public domain. Alfred Hitchcock's Murder! and the film L'Age d'Or directed by Luis Buñuel and co-written by the artist Salvador Dalí are also coming into public ownership.

Songs, Written

Songs composed and published in 1930, but NOT recordings of said songs, are entering the public domain, so you are free to record your versions of the following famous toons. The Jazz standard Body and Soul, I Got Rhythm, I've Got a Crush on You, But Not for Me, and Embraceable You by Ira and George Gershwin, Georgia on My Mind, Dream a Little Dream of Me, Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight, On the Sunny Side of the Street, and You're Driving Me Crazy will all be free for artists to record this year.

TV? TV!

This will likely shock you but the first work of television to enter public domain would happen this year, since it would be almost 20 years before the technology would come into its own. Now this one is really theoretical. In 1930 the BBC made an experimental 30 minute broadcast of a play called The Man With the Flower in His Mouth. Since the broadcast was live and at the time there was no way to record television, there's no copy of it so it's really just in theory that its public domain, but still interesting.

Art

its always difficult to judge when a piece of art was "published" so when its copyright runs out can be tricky however here are some we know for sure

Piet Mondrian's Composition No.II

Theo Van Doesburg's Simultaneous Counter-Composition

Sophie Taeuber-Arp's Composition of Circles and Overlapping Angles

Martin Munkácsi's Three Boys at Lake Tanganyika

Edward Weston's Pepper No. 30 

also the legendary Ansel Adams' photo book Taos Pueblo enters the public domain

undoubtedly the most famous piece of art from 1930, American Gothic by Grant Wood

as well as Prometheus by José Clemente Orozco will not be entering public domain this year.... because they've been in public domain since the 1950s because no one filed for copyright renewal in 1958.

What else?

If you grew up reading Sunday cartoons in the paper like I did you might be happy to hear, the original comic strip version of Blondie and Dagwood from the Blondie comic strip will be entering public domain. Fans of the strip might be shocked to find that when they started Blondie and Dagwood weren't married parents but dating young people, very different from what they'd become over the 95 year life the strip.

Songs, Recorded.

unlike everything else on this list recorded song is governed by a totally different law, so songs recorded in 1925 not 1930 are what is coming into the public domain today. Here's a sampling of the greatest hits of 100 years ago

Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen by Marian Anderson

The St. Louis Blues by Bessie Smith, with Louis Armstrong

Everybody Loves My Baby (but My Baby Don't Love Nobody but Me) by Clarence Williams’ Blue Five (Louis Armstrong on Cornet)

Yes Sir, That's My Baby by Gene Austin

If I Lose, Let me Lose (Mama Don't Mind) by Maggie Jones with Louis Armstrong

You've Been A Good Old Wagon by Bessie Smith

So happy Public Domain Day! if you have a favorite work entering the public domain I didn't mention feel free to reblog with additions

GTH- pretty much every character is unlikeable yet it’s still one of my favorites

DAN- god awful pacing to the point where Nancy ignores the main reason she was hired to investigate a side plot that happens to lead her to her mystery’s solution

SAW- bad voice acting. you know what I’m talking about.

CUR- difficulty, forced to do a puzzle every eight seconds

SEA- illogical puzzles to the point that even the dialogue references how much 2048 or some shit does not fit into electrical mechanics

Penelope Pendrick and the Art of Deceit, released by our wonderful member of the Amelia Darnell team @juliahdcg , is out today! Please, give Julia all your support and play this fantastic game! 💕