Feelings about the Archives

VolantConch1719

I don't know whether this should be here or in Off-Topic, but since it deals with the Archives, I'm putting it here.

With the second Tome done and the third one, Escalation, on the way, I think we understand what to expect from them. So, I just want to speak about how I personally feel about them, individually. I will be ignoring both Revelations and Observations because, to me, they just feel like filler. Don't get me wrong, they help develop the lore, but they just feel hollow at the same time. Oh yeah, there'll be spoilers throughout this whole thing. If you haven't completed them and care about the lore but want to get it yourself, you have been warned.

The Hunger aligned nicely with the Hallowed Blight event, giving us insight to the mindset of The Alchemist. We see that he is willing to do anything to get a flower, which he is trying to find for reasons that he doesn't quite understand. I enjoyed listening to this one, and am curious as to WHO the Alchemist truly is. For now, we can only speculate, but here are some things that seem to stand out: He was once a Survivor who found some way to capture the Killers (Doctor is mentioned) and was performing experiments on them. It looks like he tried to fight back against the Entity using a serum from the flowers, but we can only guess that he lost and was turned into a Killer due to his desire for flowers.

Claudette's 8th Birthday was another really good Archive, but I feel as though it was a bit too predictable. If you couldn't see that she was going to get the science kit, you're blind. It's even one of the few things her old backstory mentioned. However, the character building that happened was amazing. Claudette is clearly somewhere on the heavy end of the Autism spectrum, and her mannerisms remind a lot of one of my friends. I'll be honest, I didn't have high hopes for the Archives at first, but this one made me rethink that.

Blood, Brass, and Grit makes Evan MacMillan, the Trapper, a far more sympathetic character, and I enjoyed listening to his descent to the dark side. It also gave us a few twists that I wasn't expecting. The fact that it takes place in Seattle instead of Pennsylvania (that caught me by surprise), his father beating him, Evan's friends selling him out: all of these were pretty good.

The Entity is mostly an introduction to the Observer, but it also tells us a few things about how the Entity works. We learn that it's an Ancient One, one of the original beings in the multiverse. We also learn that the Survivors and Killers are from all over the place, not just in the timeline, but in the multiverse. As much as I dislike this idea, and would prefer they all came from the same reality, the facts are there now. Ultimately, The Entity is a nice addition to the tomes, but it wasn't on the level of the others.

All the World a Stage... existed, I guess. This is so far the only real miss that the Archives delivered. Maybe I just don't care for Jane that much, or maybe it was the insanity of the challenges, with the last two being locked behind the "Escape through the hatch with a Key 2 times" challenge (let's be honest, how many ACTUALLY completed that one?) I don't know why this one didn't stick with me... OH WAIT! YEAH I DO! I DON'T LIKE BEING FORCE FED SJW PROPAGANDA! WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT THIS WAS! Seriously, I used to put Jane in my bottom three Survivors, but now she's rock bottom. Anyway, the tome talks about her struggles as an actress to get a role that doesn't have her be a stereotypical Latina woman. Which makes no sense, as if she had talent, her ethnicity wouldn't matter in reality. The fact that she was only getting sideshow stereotypes tells me one of two things. 1. She's not a good actress and just doesn't want to admit it, or 2. her agent is purposefully sabotaging her. They did ALMOST make up for it by tying into her original backstory as going into Quick Talk, but it was too little, too late. Honestly, the best part of the whole thing was the honest truth that Dwayne was speaking about with cheap hacks doing minority films to get famous, because that is actually believable.

Manchester Mash-Up was better than Jane's Archive in every way. It gave an explanation to David's aggressiveness (even if it was a little out of nowhere), made him much more sympathetic than I originally believed him to be, and didn't delve into any major political themes. It also had a good amount of gore in that last scene, which I did NOT expect from a Survivor backstory. The one issue I do have with it is it contradicts his previously established lore. I mean, I guess it never said he kept all of his money, but his constant hangout at pubs implied that he kept his money. Instead, he was cut off and living on nothing for a while. It does establish his debt collector job, I guess, but nothing ever said he was part of the mob. A welcome change from Claudette's being way too predictable, but it's a bit TOO much of a change.

Ascendance is my favorite Archive. I honestly don't know where to begin. It was a compelling narrative, let us dive into the mind of someone completely opposite from Evan in terms of sanity, was filled with dark humor and had enough implied gore to keep the sadistic side of me (that I think might need help) satisfied. We also see exactly how he was inducted into Léry's Memorial Institute, in a way that I did not see coming. I honestly thought he would get away with it and get put in as the only one left. Instead, he was being taped the whole time, and he did exactly what was wanted from him. We also see him in a brief moment of helplessness, which shows that, despite his serious god-complex, Herman is still human.

Steeped in Blood was a great story ruined by one thing. What the actual hell was this pronunciation? I want to compliment this Archive, but the guy behind the lines couldn't get the names right. The names that a simple Google search can help you pronounce. You know what, here's your pronunciation right now. Instead of "Rihn Yah-mah-ohk-ah," her name is pronounced "Rene Yah-mow-kah." While we're at it, let's fix "Kuh-zan" to "Kah-zahn." I have nothinf against the guy who voices the Observer, but it hurt to listen to this abysmal pronunciation, and I have no confidence in him doing Feng Min (Foong Min, as described by my friend who's first language IS Chinese), Yui Kimura (Yoo-ee Keme-uhr-uh) or Kazan Yamaoka any justice. Okay, rant over. Rin's Archive was... pretty great. It established that her rage was growing from a young age, she knows how to actually fight (which makes her wielding a katana more believable), and showed that the Entity has been trying to reach her father for a long time. I do have a small issue with the portrayal of the boys in the story, as they seem to be a bit TOO misogynistic, but what do I know about Japanese culture? Maybe that was perfectly acceptable during her time. They also seem to be in a gang, so there's that.

These were just my personal feelings about the current Archives. Maybe I'll update this as more come out, but I just wanted to get this off my chest before the next one comes out.

MerGirl2003

“The Hunger”: I was pretty indifferent to this one at first, mostly because I wasn’t caught up on the Hallowed Blight lore at the time so I didn’t really have much idea what was going on. Since reading about it more thought it has grown on me. I found it particularly interesting that we now have a somewhat detailed description of the void.

“Claudette’s Eighth Birthday” is my personal favourite, partially from bias as a Claudette main and partially because I related to it on a personal level. I am on the autism spectrum(Aspergers specifically) and in school my breakdowns and anxiety attacks were often mislabeled as excuses to get out of doing work, or simply me being stupid, similarly to how Claudette was believed to simply “have her head in the clouds”. It’s also nice to be represented by a much more empathetic person on the spectrum, as it pains me a lot that self-centered characters like Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory have become the pop-culture poster child of autism. I will admit that the story is somewhat predictable and repetitive, but the positives far outweigh the negatives in my opinion.

“Blood, Brass and Grit” was also pretty great. I don’t have as much to say about this one, but I like how they made Evan a sympathetic character without making him seem like too much of a helpless victim. His father definitely had a hand in shaping him, but it seems like Evan at least had a sadistic streak regardless.

I didn’t really read “The Entity” so I can’t say much on it.

”All The World A Stage” was just disappointing. I was excited for this one the most when I found out Jane was in Tome II. I was hoping we would get more information about Jane’s mother, or her abandonment issues, or something like that. Instead I spent weeks suffering through the open the hatch with a key challenge for forced SJW garbage.

I haven’t really read “Manchester Mash-Up” or “Ascendance” yet so I don’t have much to say on those two.

”Steeped In Blood” is probably my second favourite, seeing as Spirit is my favourite killer. I like we get to see much more of Rin before she became a killer, seeing as her original lore didn’t give her much characterization beyond “university student with part time job”. I don’t know much about Japanese so I didn’t really know the pronunciation was wrong, but I usually read the archives with the narration turned off anyway. I also never really looked at the bullies as “too misogynistic” as I never saw their torment of Rin as being motivated by her gender, more so as that she doesn’t live up to her family legacy. And when a bully is beaten by the person they’ve been bullying, they probably won’t take it lying down.

Overall I think the Archives have been a pretty good addition so far, if not for a few misfires such as Jane’s social justice extravaganza, sub-par writing and voice acting (in my opinion) and some poorly designed challenges (the key escape and unhook in endgame collapse challenges in particular made me want to die). I think at this point there’s nowhere to go but up and I am quite excited to see what Tome III brings.