OPINION: The Skull Merchant’s lore is sloppy
I want to emphasize that what I’m about to express isn’t intended to come across as mean or disrespectful, but I am a believer in brutal honesty and constructive criticism.
After reading the killer’s lore I was absolutely surprised at how generic The Skull Merchant’s lore is, but if generic was simply the only issue I could’ve let it slide. However, not only is the story generic, but the character’s don’t make any sense and had a lot of missed opportunities for good story.
The killer’s motivation for why they do what they do and why they are the way they are just makes no sense. Its not believable or relatable. Even the way the style is written just reads…off. It feels more like a fan fiction rather than a professionally written story.
Now if it were up to me I wouldn’t scrap everything about the story. As I said it has potential, there were just many missed/underutilized opportunities. If I had to come up with a fix off the top of my head, I would have had the story play out in a way where the killer pulls her family out of poverty, nearly graduates from a prestigious academy, and yet she still doesn’t get the love/recognition she craves from her family. Her innovation is driven by a desire for recognition from her loved ones.
They could have done something with the story where The Skull Merchant becomes a self made billionaire and is incredibly intelligent, yet her father doesn’t even recognize her accomplishments. Never once did he ever tell her “I’m proud of you” or even a “good job”. Choosing to focus on his manga and other hobbies. Making her think she just isn’t good enough for the family despite all of her deeds in pretty much carrying the family on her shoulders. Thrusting her insecurity and self-esteem into madness. Pushing herself into literally trying to “fix” herself by doing technological/mechanical implants.
Heck, they could have swapped the father figure for an older brother. Playing on the theme that the two survivor’s we got are siblings.
I am by no means a professional writer or even a skilled one, but I think every individual here could have come up with better lore in less than 24 hrs then what we ended up getting.
I know you can come up with some amazing stories BHVR. You guys are the ones who made stories for Oni, Plague, Ghostface (DBD), and Doctor. You guys have the potential in your writing team! I know you can be better! Which is why I am so bamboozled by what we have just recently gotten in terms of lore.
Maybe I’m alone on this, but it definitely sucks we’ll have to wait for another tome just to see if this lore can be polished. A real shame man.
Comments
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I have to say, I strongly disagree.
Your proposed change up there takes away the strongest facet of this killer's lore- she's not a tragic victim, there's nothing pushing her to be this way, she's just a serial killer. A sadistic billionaire hunting people down for sport, getting a taste for it after furiously murdering someone who just blocked one of her corporate acquisitions. It's good for the game to have more uncomplicated villains, pure slashers who are hunting people for the sole reason that it gives them grim satisfaction and thrill.
I kind of get a Most Dangerous Game vibe from her, in a sense. The villain of that story hunts people simply because he's run out of challenging prey anywhere else, and he's portrayed straightforwardly as a sick, vile person with dehumanising and horrifying views towards the world. Adriana Imai isn't quite that far, but the idea of a rich person who gets off on hurting other people is a very classic horror concept- taking that away from her would make her fit less into the game, and that'd be a shame considering how well she fits as-is.
Not every killer has to be sympathetic, and I think honestly too many of them are at this point. Between Skull Merchant, Knight, and Dredge, I'm glad we're back to getting some just straight-up monsters to really excel in the Entity's realm.
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I think I understand your point. Though I feel like we already have a killer that performs well in that kind of story. That killer being the Doctor. A remorseless psycho who is only interested in progress and experimentation. With no boundaries.
In terms of a killer that hunts for sport I’ve always seen DBD’s Ghostface already fitting into those shoes as well, and I think both Doctor and Ghostface’s stories are written well for the type of killer they’re supposed to be.
I also wouldn’t mind if The Skull Merchant was just a straight up serial killer. No explanation or clear motive. However, even her being that kind of killer the lore she has right now just doesn’t fit. Especially all of the manga stuff. In my opinion.
I’m glad you enjoyed her lore though. I would have loved a scenario where we could all enjoy it together.
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Well, she is just a serial killer. They all have some superficial motivation- hers started with furthering her corporate agenda, and then she just straightforwardly enjoyed it and sought a challenge from it.
I think the manga stuff really tripped a lot of people up. Far as I can tell, that's there for two reasons- first just to give her a little more flavour, a bit of personality in that she designed her equipment around something she remembers her father by, and second to sort of acknowledge and play off the fact that manga's a big thing in Brazil. It's not a core part of her character, just a neat detail in her lore.
I do see parts of where you're coming from, though, I've always found the way these lore things are written to be kind of weirdly paced. I don't think this one's any worse than the norm, but it is like, a thing that tends to be true of DBD's lore segments.
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My issue isn't that she's evil or anything. My issue is that she was motivated by her dad's manga. That's the most goofy fanfiction-tier Reddit nonsense I've ever heard in my entire life. Out of all of the possible motivations she could've had for being a murderer, and you make her an obsessed weeaboo? That's so silly.
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Personally, I just think it feels inconsistent, like they tried to splice three separate concepts into one. They wanted the evil millionaire hunter, someone leaning into their father's fiction, and a tech-focused drown user...
But they aren't really supporting one another at all. The second one is barely relevant flavour, and the wealth has nothing to do with tech businesses or using said wealth for R&D for more toys. By all implications she just bought the stuff she used more than anything. It's all very... inconsistent.
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I agree but moat people can look past lore
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I don't feel the character needs to have some sympathetic reasoning. We don't need her to have some clear "and she became bad because her parents didn't love her..." thing. Some people are just sociopathic and enjoy hurting others for pleasure. I don't see an issue with a killer like that. Especially after every singular female killer in the game has a sympathetic sort of backstory. It's refreshing to see one who just enjoys hunting and killing people instead of doing it due to some trauma/necessity.
I still feel her lore is sloppy. So much isn't explained. What's with the drones? Why are they so integral to her that they are her power? Why do they even have skulls in them? Do they even say where the skulls come from or are we left to assume? Why is she even called the Skull Merchant aside from a really vague tie in to a manga? She doesn't seem to be a merchant. Why does she have a fascination with skulls?
There's a lot where they make an implication of something cool or interesting, yet don't elaborate. I feel a lore tome could help her a lot. She needs her story and personality greatly expanded. There's something good there, but it's unfinished. I'd honestly prefer she get a tome sooner than later, just so she can have a more complete story.
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And she got shoes. 😳
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Of course it is.. It was an excuse to cover up the chapter we were originally going to get.. You don't accidentally make "lore" that bad for a character unless you are like 12 years old.. This is just another BHVR scenario where they couldn't hide the mess that was made behind the scenes..
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There's also a big Lore problem that doesn't make any sense. The realms are created by the entity using the memories of the killers, but somehow the SM's memories are superimposed on those of Evan McMillan (Trapper) as his "base of operations" is located in Shelter Woods which, in fact, does part of the Trapper's realm. This doesn't make any sense and it's a huge mistake by Lore. Why did the entity recreate a specific part of a specific realm using the memories of a killer who was never there? What connection does SM have with the Trapper? Although the Lore of DbD is not perfect and has some holes, it is all in all usual and I have always found it pleasant to read here this modification to the map to add this killer and force the lore in a completely unnatural way is just the umpteenth piece of how badly this chapter is done
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Temple of Purgation and Father Campbell’s Chapel have done this already.
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They addressed this in the behind the scenes, though for the record this isn't the first time a new killer has had elements put into a different realm- Clown and Plague both share a realm.
Anyway, the idea is that Adriana's travelling camp is just that- a travelling camp. It goes wherever she goes, to support her hunt- it's supposed to be in an environment that isn't hers, it's part of her vibe as a predatory stalker.
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For Father Campbell there was an explaination in the Lore, Clown reach that location while travelling and being there really, that's why Maurice is real and not just a memory
For the Temple of Purgation i remeber i have read an explaination but to be honest i'm not sure
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Her back story has quite a few unnecessary elements that detract from what the stated focus is.
If the goal was to craft a predator that enjoyed the challenge of stalking and killing the family elements, and manga elements, should go as unnecessary distractions with no potential payoffs.
The wealthy immoral predator set up might be better supported via the cruel aloof capitalist aspects of her story and her origins in poverty. So maybe a little of her family stuff could fit in that area.
Her physical design that is supposed to work with written and the set elements to get the audience to suspend disbelief just don't do the work they need to.
To be blunt, while trying not to be rude, I see a 160 pound female with 100 pounds of gear strapped to one side of her body, with no counter weight. I'm not buying that she can maintain standard moving speed, let alone manipulate that mass on her arm to impale someone like David King. It just doesn't work for me. And if can't suspend disbelief, I can't feel anything from the story elements(text or visual).
They could have knitted all that exoskeleton into her chest mass and dragged it down into her hips and I would have been starting to buy it. But this would have messed up the conflicting elements of her apex social predator stuff.
I suppose they could solve all these issues via a new tome that expands the written and a skin or two that try a little harder to show me the predator instead of forcing it on me.
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Her lore has lots of problems.
Being a self-made billionaire means she won't be any relatable, but that alone is not a problem, some characters aren't supposed to be relatable, just perverse (I guess the only positive part about her lore is we finally have a woman with that trait). The Trickster, the Clown, the Doctor and Ghostface are all good examples of that. But you see, every single one of them have better writing, with better explanations to who they are.
The Clown: always showed signs of psychopathy. As a child he killed birds and colelcted their feathers.
Doctor: obsessed with experimenting on the human mind, regardless of the damage done to the subjects.
Ghostface: a psycopath obsessed with murders, who makes killing his art and turns it into thrilling stories.
Trickster: a psycopath with clear traces of narcisism who started killing after noticing how much he enjoyed watching his bandmates die.
Skull Merchant: well... at some point, businessmen begun to stand in her way, so she killed them with a drone and a mechanical arm, for some reason, when a gun or knife would have done it just fine and actually have been more discreet. She also doesn't collect skulls. The only explanation given for her mask, claws and skulls was "she got inspiration from her father's manga", but it is that vague, never described beyond that. Even funnier, her father's manga was also inspired by visions of her on the Entity's realm. Her relation to technology is never explained either, barely mentioned. We only know she is smart, but she is never said to have studied engineering, only economics.
Why is technology barely mentioned in her lore, since it's her main theme? Why does she use a mechanical arm at all? Maybe her inovative technology was what made her company grow so much? Nope, the only explanation given for her fortune is "she had a manga website and studied about investment".
Her lore, just like her power, emphatizes her ability to lurk stealthily and strike from the shadows, but you see, her outfit doesn't look made for stealth, not in the slightest. She dresses in white and wears a shiny mask. And she is supposed to be a genius apex predator according to the devs.
Well, she definitively has room for improvement, as some killers have pretty meh bios but outstanding memories in tomes, so maybe a future tome can fill some of these gaps. Still, it would be better if her lore was good from the start. And tomes don't always improve a killer's lore, that's not garanteed: just look at poor Hag. Her bio had some issues, but her tome was far worse.
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