Everyone go play Who's Lila RIGHT NOW before I spoil sizable portions of it in the next however many words. Its really good if you like psychological horror, spooky creepy mysteries, making funny faces, and being pretentious about obscure media (like me). Reading this won't give everything away, but the game is good enough for me to recommend playing it yourself rather than reading whatever nonsense I have to say here.
Okay thank youuuuu
While I am not at liberty to divulge too much about the character of Lila from the titular Who's Lila, I find her concept and portrayal sooo incredibly interesting and very well executed. In brief, and for the sake of contextualizing this blog post, Lila is a malicious thoughtform-esque sort of entity who inhabits -- and occasionally controls/speaks through -- the game's protagonist.
Who's Lila actively draws parallels between the character of Lila and the figure/archetype of Lilith. Aside from the overt references to Lilith in game -- including both the representation of the iconic Collier painting as well as the symbol of Lilith -- there are more subtle connections as well. For instance, Lila's violence and manipulation has a pseudosexual component; She coerces the main character into an abusive and imbalanced relationship, forcibly inhabits his body without his consent, and uses it to murder his female classmates (describing one of them as a 'bad girl'). Lila is characterized as a figure of innate evil in the feminine, which brings to mind her portrayal in Kabbalah tradition, something the game also bolsters with some slightly-too-elaborate-jungian interpretations of anthropology and psychology which I am neither smart enough to explain nor understand.
But I can pretend that I get it enough to say that its fun !
The game also contains a couple other references to concepts we've seen in class so far, including downloadable content titled 'DAEMON' with which players can reveal hidden secrets within the game's content.
I'm not saying anything else go play it !!
DAEMON ATTACK!!
(~330 words)
Not going to lie, that final pic freaked me out when I first openned the blog!!! Nice work.
ReplyDeleteWho's Lila is such a fascinating game!!! From the tarot endings to the DAEMON to the Jungian psychology and Twin Peaks references! It was such an experience in a way a lot of games aren't?? It feels more connected to the player in a way that emphasizes many of the game's ideas about what makes something "real," and the idea that belief makes reality. Such a game and I need everyone to play it or at least watch a seven hour analysis of it (which isn't nearly enough time)
ReplyDeleteYOU GET IT shoutout Flaw Peacock 👏
ReplyDeleteYesss! please chat Flaw Peacock with me best youtuber.
DeleteI had never heard of this game before, but it sounds really cool! The way you worded it, as innate evil in the feminine, reminded me of the movie Jennifer's Body. While Jennifer was sacrificed as they thought she was a virgin, then they continued to eat her classmates through luring them with her sexuality, the concept of a woman seducing men as evil to lead to the murder of classmates seemed kinda familiar.
ReplyDeleteAgain I love when modern adaptations arise. Before this class I was surprisingly unfamiliar with Lilith and all the lore surrounding her and now I see just how deep that lore goes. I was quite intrigued by the story in the first place and I think games like this are exactly what keeps people curiosity going and it adds a fun element to it as well. I’m kind of curious if you knew about this game prior to the course and if so how did you discover it? Also I believe keeping certain traditional traits of Lilith the same was definitely a smart move on their behalf as far as game set up goes.
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