I just completed South of Midnight and man...
The game could have easily turned Bunny into some mustache twirling villain but they gave her the same depth as every other person you encounter along the way. This woman went through one of the most painful losses a parent could ever endure and, like Catfish said at the start, it ripped up something in her so badly it was all she ever knew. She forgot what it was like to be whole in the first place.
Bunny's trauma and grief drove her to the unthinkable and when she realized there was nothing she could do to bring back her baby, she took the next best thing, an illusion provided to her by Roux where she might be able to experience having her baby again even if its not really her anymore.
This game is not just a love letter to southern culture and its people, but a gripping story about the different ways trauma can tear a person apart. Bunny may have done terrible things, she may have played favorites, and what she did was inexcusable, but at the same time there are countless others like her who are never able to let go and who's pain becomes a weapon they use to lash out against those around them.
Hazel says it best in the end. Bunny just can't move on. Her grief is too powerful and she would rather stay forever with the memory of a daughter she lost than look forward and appreciate the granddaughter she has now. She is a flawed woman, but a woman so trapped in a pain some people may never experience that she just can't see the light anymore.
