I WANT ON THE GHOST TRAIN

He’s a dickhead but he clearly cares for his friends (specifically, Solo and Ana). When the train crashes he looks after Ana while she’s unconscious and then helps her down the stairs. He supports Solo and tries to help him with Kohno. He gets upset a few times because he is worried about Solo. I was genuinely a little caught off guard by the band breaking up because as rude as Jelvis was these were clearly his friends whom he cared for.

It made me really compelled to learn about him after his argument and the band splitting up. I wasn’t surprised he was a jerk, but there was clearly more going on and I was curious what the game would do. I’m glad the game didn’t justify his actions but did explain why he was like this and remind us that he is worthy of pity. I find a lot of people think you can’t feel bad for someone if they’ve hurt someone but that’s not true at all. Suffering does not cancel out suffering. Jelvis died before he could grow up, and given he was a child star I doubt he had much of a proper childhood either, so he basically didn’t get a life. That sucks. It also sucks that he is a bully. He terrorizes the living for fun and that’s not okay but he still deserves empathy. He is deeply complex and I love it

It discusses the importance of humanity and death. Displays moral complexities I have seen so many struggle with. It is amazing at showing instead of telling with its characters. Not a single character is good or evil, they are all nuanced like real people. It didn’t show a single battlefield and I still felt the horrors of war that game was communicating. It is about grief, love, community, and moving on. We go to a school, get told bullying is wrong, and then reminded that the bully like everyone other kid in the school didn’t get to die of old age and that is unfortunate.