Unpopular opinion time. I wasn't going to make one of these about The Batter, but after expounding upon my interpretation, I feel the proper way to end is back at the beginning, as opposed to randomly with Japhet.
Now the most prevailant and popular read on The Batter is how The Judge sees him. Most of the fandom(at least back in the day)takes The Judge's word as law (although its objectively false) and portray The Batter as a zealous monster that destroys the world with a single minded drive.
I don't mind this interpretation and the art for it is cool, but I do personally disagree. Tumblr disclaimer here : I am not saying this take is wrong or needs to stop. I am only saying I disagree.
To my joy, I did see a post of someone finally pointing out that we can't take The Judge for his word. (But I couldn't find it for this post(◞‸◟）
When confronting The Batter in the ending, he accuses Batter of killing his wife and child and at the time, the player is still in shock after fighting Hugo and easily believe him as they believe that's what happened.
And they seemed to have forgotten everything the Queen and Batter said to each other.
They are not Hugo's parents. They are his creation. They were made in the IMAGE of his parents.
The Judge is emotionally compromised, just as the player is, after seeing The Batter mercilessly cut down Japhet who stood in the place of his brother Valerie.
We are positioned at the start to put more weight into The Judge's role in the story and his judgement by his title alone, although talking to Zacharie we find that's not even his name. He's a cat named Pablo and he, like everything else we see, is merely a creation of Hugo's.
I get it though, people WANT The Batter to be the bad guy and when you fight him as The Judge, you get the monster you wanted to see but I had a feeling all the way back then, and I still have it now, that the whole thing was meant to mislead.
So what about The Batter then?
Keep in mind this is my interpretation, I am not pressing this as canon or the "right" way to see him and this will rub a lot of you all the wrong way. I do believe in The Batter. I believe his form is of Hugo's making, but from the conversation we have at the very start of the game, it's safe to assume something from the outside stepped in. Us, and whatever The Batter truly "is".
The remaster has provided a nice, neat word for it. Seraphic. There are new bosses added in the game, and scanning them reveals they are "Seraphic" entities.
Angels.
These bosses are optional, and each time you find one you are asked whether you truly want to engage with them, the first achievement you get for killing one even says "What are you doing?" (Although this could be only in reference to the boss's own dialogue I admit)
The best evidence I have to back up my take is the little eyeball fella who echoes everything The Batter has been saying. He must purify the zone, he must defeat the specters, and his reflection in the water is huge and monstrous, just like the "Bad" Batter.
He's another one. Perhaps a rogue, perhaps just out of the loop, but that little fella has come to do the same thing the Batter is doing. Could it even be, that if The Batter failed his mission, another would simply take his place?
***Now, I have seen on the wiki that since this little fella is typed as "reflexive", it could be merely "reflecting" The Batter's persona and to that I will say, in a slightly cheeky manner : It would be spelled Reflective, not Reflexive. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I digress. My point being, The Batter is both an outsider to this world but made from this world. I believe the outsider aspect, the spirit inhabiting this "puppet" that we are also bond to, is ultimately a force of good.
I know that's not a popular take. The Batter has a very rigid, narrow minded manner about him that makes him hard to get along with, let alone sympathize with, but I do believe in his mission. I feel like The Judge's ending was a misdirection. Too much about it contradicts things we have heard stated before.
Thus ends my little interpretation of OFF's world and story. It's the Wizard of Oz with Hugo in the place of Dorothy. Dedan, Japhet and Enoch are the scarecrow, tinman and lion, but instead of fighting any sort of witch, Hugo is kept cradled in his slowly decaying dream by the Witch in the form of the Queen.
The Player is an outside force given control of another in the form of The Batter to destroy this dream and wake Hugo before he succumbs to death.
Again, absolutely no proof this is canon and I am not pushing it as such. I just wanted to share my thoughts on the manner.
Thanks for reading. Here are the links to all my rambles. Sorry for the typos and the frantic pacing of them.
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I'm sort of out of the loop on the trend of Dess guitar darkner designs, but I'm really loving that it seems like a lot of them are making them look like The Batter from OFF
Everything seems mostly normal to him, since he doesn’t speak in battle anyway (aside from with Enoch, who doesn’t inflict Muted).
However, he’s somewhat disappointed that he can’t use his competences, since that makes the battle take longer than it might have done otherwise.
He’s trying his best to shake off the effect, but if you use Omega’s curative ability on him, he’ll be both silently grateful and secretly a bit apologetic for the inconvenience, especially if you seem frustrated.
If you express specifically that you’re frustrated that he had to experience that, though, he might feel a little flustered. Your concern for his well-being is always meaningful to him, since it’s superfluous when it comes to the mission but feels good nonetheless.
xXx
Outside of battle (if he gets inflicted right as the enemy is defeated):
He still doesn’t speak very often, so it shouldn’t be a huge impediment, but somehow being unable to do so bothers him more than he expected.
He’ll probably try to wait it out, but if you’re embodied and not just a voice in his head, he might linger a bit closer to you.
However, if you try to have him examine something or if there’s someone he needs to talk to, he’ll feel a little embarrassed at his lack of speech. Again, it’s an extra inconvenience for both him and you when your only conduit in the world can’t even communicate your intent!
If you’re embodied, he might catch the sleeve of your shirt and signal to you that he can’t speak (possibly by drawing an X in the air over his mouth or throat), all while working very hard to keep his face flat and not display his awkwardness at having to ask for help.
If you’re not embodied, he’ll try to think very hard at you and see if that makes anything pop up on your screen. If not, he’ll cover his mouth to try and show you what’s going on.
Either way, once you give him some Belial’s Meat, he feels the block in his throat dissipate and can’t help a brief sigh of relief.
He’ll say something like “That’s much better.” followed, perhaps, by a quieter “Thank you.”
If you tell him you’re glad to hear his voice again, his mouth will close tightly and he’ll pull the brim of his baseball cap down to hide the slight flush on his face.
Bonus: if you happen to have the Friday and put it on him after this, he’ll fight even harder in the next battle because he has a little bit more confidence.
xXx
Disclaimer: this is not intended to be a commentary on actual nonverbal people or their experiences!
