VN Dark Dimensions: A Spiritual Successor - Game Discussion

[mare222]

Oh yeah, I call that the Butch Bullshit Retcon because according to him all the "human ghosts" are are in fact just interdimensional monsters with eighth-grader syndrome, not the spirits of humans who passed on and became ghosts be they benevolent or malignant.

I'd say the only thing missing are the eyepatches, but Youngblood covered that base when he wanted to be a pirate due to misunderstanding the concept of Ember's pirate radio scheme.

does that also explain embers pirate outfit?

 

[gemini20xx]

does that also explain embers pirate outfit?

does that also explain embers pirate outfit?

Maybe? All I remember is she hypnotises all of the adults to power his ship, and that Star works her cheerleading routine into fighting ghosts.

 

[Knight]

Oh yeah, I call that the Butch Bullshit Retcon because according to him all the "human ghosts" are are in fact just interdimensional monsters with eighth-grader syndrome, not the spirits of humans who passed on and became ghosts be they benevolent or malignant.

I'd say the only thing missing are the eyepatches, but Youngblood covered that base when he wanted to be a pirate due to misunderstanding the concept of Ember's pirate radio scheme.

This.
I don't get why he couldn't just stick to his guns, even as a kid it was obvious to me that they were people who died tragic deaths from which they weren't able to move on. Most of the ghosts made overt cultural references to their time alive and some even had flashacks of them alive (like Desiree), Poindexter was straight out of the 50's, Desiree is a ancient Arabian harem girl, Ember was from the 70's, and so on.



There is nothing wrong with SOME ghosts being ancient eldritch monsters or gods but there should be a clear separation. I was disappointed Danny never tried to help the ghosts find peace so they could move on, they almost did it with the ghost dog but that never went anywhere; many of ghosts had clear motivations around what kept them as ghosts, Ember never felt acknowledged, Desiree never found love, Kidd never had a childhood, and so on.

 

[gemini20xx]

I actually agree with most of these, except for Sidney, Skulker and Youngblood.

Sidney in my mind died from bullying gone wrong, most likely went over a railing and landed neck first on the stairs breaking it. It was a graduation requirement to torment him, after all. Skulker and Youngblood I'm going with being manifestations - the hunt and childhood respectively.

I also see everone's favourite ghost here being crushed by a falling shipping container... the ultimate box!

 

[Knight]

I actually agree with most of these, except for Sidney, Skulker and Youngblood.

Sidney in my mind died from bullying gone wrong, most likely went over a railing and landed neck first on the stairs breaking it. It was a graduation requirement to torment him, after all. Skulker and Youngblood I'm going with being manifestations - the hunt and childhood respectively.

I also see everone's favourite ghost here being crushed by a falling shipping container... the ultimate box!

Counter point, ghosts powers manifest based off of their social malfunction, what they are is given away by how they act. For example Embers hair and fire grows bigger and stronger the more people call out her name. She isn't manifesting some aspect of humanity, her motivations are deeply personal and self centered.

Skulker is a tiny man inside a big suit, combine that with his desire to hunt and it's clear he's a man trying to compensate for personal insecurities through the bravado of trapping and killing powerful beings. If he was just a hunter without the tiny man with insecurities bit I could agree with you but he is shown to be petty and thin skinned, something a manifestation of the hunt wouldn't be.



I can get behind Youngblood though, he just wants to play out a childhood fantasy and isn't vindictive so I can see it from your point of view even though I still think he is a dead kid.

A manifestation would be the embodiment of some base collective desire of a subsection of mankind, something like greed, anger, or even a thirst for knowledge. It wouldn't take things personally but simply be a physical embodiment of a concept.
Clockwork is a good example, he doesn't have a personal vendeta or is trying to compensate for something, he's a time-lord and all his motivations are around that.

 

[Ratnedalu]

Counter point, ghosts powers manifest based off of their social malfunction, what they are is given away by how they act. For example Embers hair and fire grows bigger and stronger the more people call out her name. She isn't manifesting some aspect of humanity, her motivations are deeply personal and self centered.

Skulker is a tiny man inside a big suit, combine that with his desire to hunt and it's clear he's a man trying to compensate for personal insecurities through the bravado of trapping and killing powerful beings. If he was just a hunter without the tiny man with insecurities bit I could agree with you but he is shown to be petty and thin skinned, something a manifestation of the hunt wouldn't be.

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I can get behind Youngblood though, he just wants to play out a childhood fantasy and isn't vindictive so I can see it from your point of view even though I still think he is a dead kid.

A manifestation would be the embodiment of some base collective desire of a subsection of mankind, something like greed, anger, or even a thirst for knowledge. It wouldn't take things personally but simply be a physical embodiment of a concept.
Clockwork is a good example, he doesn't have a personal vendeta or is trying to compensate for something, he's a time-lord and all his motivations are around that.

View attachment 4495889

Which is kinda what the wiki said-- Undergrowth, Nocturne, Clockwork-- all the big, inhuman ones are manifestations, whereas the human-backstoried ones are human. I, personally, also feel like Youngblood could go either way.

 

[Morah SDG]

I actually agree with most of these, except for Sidney, Skulker and Youngblood.

Sidney in my mind died from bullying gone wrong, most likely went over a railing and landed neck first on the stairs breaking it. It was a graduation requirement to torment him, after all. Skulker and Youngblood I'm going with being manifestations - the hunt and childhood respectively.

I also see everone's favourite ghost here being crushed by a falling shipping container... the ultimate box!

My pitch is that Sidney was shoved in a locker over a holiday weekend, and that Skulker and Youngblood were also people, but I don’t wanna spoil what I plan for their origins.

 

[gemini20xx]

My pitch is that Sidney was shoved in a locker over a holiday weekend.

Ouch. That's pretty brutal, that means he would've died of thirst.

 

[Knight]

Ouch. That's pretty brutal, that means he would've died of thirst.

I still think it was suicide in the original lore, if it was murder he would be a lot more vicious and likely to respond with lethal force when he got the chance. He tries to steal Danny's life and then used his powers to acquire popularity, not kill the type of people who bullied him; that says to me he still wanted to fit in, something a murder victim would be far less likely to do.

 

[Morah SDG]

I still think it was suicide in the original lore, if it was murder he would be a lot more vicious and likely to respond with lethal force when he got the chance. He tries to steal Danny's life and then used his powers to acquire popularity, not kill the type of people who who bullied him; that says to me he still wanted to fit in, something a murder victim would be far less likely to do.

I don’t think it was murder, it was probably an accident by a bully not really thinking about the weekend. Poindexter probably got bullied every day.

 

[bigwillystyle]

Which is kinda what the wiki said-- Undergrowth, Nocturne, Clockwork-- all the big, inhuman ones are manifestations, whereas the human-backstoried ones are human. I, personally, also feel like Youngblood could go either way.

I feel like Dora, her brother, Pandora, the Yeti tribe, the Fright Knight, and of course, the Ghost King are natural denizens. Most of the other ghost seem to cede to them as if they were natural powers. There even seems to be a line of succession between Dora and her brother too which implies a natural hierarchy based on life-cycle.

I always thought it was a good divide that made those places feel 'out of the norm' on the occasions they pop up.

 

[gemini20xx]

I don’t think it was murder, it was probably an accident by a bully not really thinking about the weekend. Poindexter probably got bullied every day.

Exactly. I always imagined it happening with him getting treated like a hot potato by jocks or greasers on a upstairs balcony, it got a little too enthusiastic... one too-forceful shove later, and over the railing poor Sidney goes. Nothing genuinely malicious or with any harmful intent, just bullying that got out of hand and went the wrong way.

Traumatic doesn't necessary require malice, it can be simply bad luck combined with being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[TheDevian]

Exactly. I always imagined it happening with him getting treated like a hot potato by jocks or greasers on a upstairs balcony, it got a little too enthusiastic... one too-forceful shove later, and over the railing poor Sidney goes. Nothing genuinely malicious or with any harmful intent, just bullying that got out of hand and went the wrong way.

Traumatic doesn't necessary require malice, it can be simply bad luck combined with being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

To be fair, bullying, from shoving someone around, to locking them in a locker, is malicious, even if you are laughing while doing it. It's always 'traumatic' to the one being bullied.

 

[Ratnedalu]

I feel like Dora, her brother, Pandora, the Yeti tribe, the Fright Knight, and of course, the Ghost King are natural denizens. Most of the other ghost seem to cede to them as if they were natural powers. There even seems to be a line of succession between Dora and her brother too which implies a natural hierarchy based on life-cycle.

I always thought it was a good divide that made those places feel 'out of the norm' on the occasions they pop up.

Dora has an origin story--a human past-- so she's probably human. If we're talking the dragon lady.

 

[Karnewarrior]

Dora and her brother definitely strike me as Human at one point. Presumably the late medieval period, given their whole aesthetic. I'd wager they died in the 1300's or 1400's. Their lack of ruffled collar suggests it was before 1500, at least.

 

[Knight]

I don’t think it was murder, it was probably an accident by a bully not really thinking about the weekend. Poindexter probably got bullied every day.

That's still murder though...
Manslaughter (the legal term for what you are arguing for) is when the accident was the result of outside forces, like a car crash caused by improper vehicle maintenance. Murder is when the direct actions of an individual doing harm caused death, even what you are describing would still be considered AT LEAST second degree murder by just about any honest court in the USA.

Getting stuffed in a locker and dying due to dehydration or asphyxiation is the legal equivalent of drowning someone. Just to make my point, a swirly was a common bullying method of the time period, but there were multiple instances where some kids drowned in the toilet or had a seizure as a result, this was treated as 1st & 2nd degree murder by US courts and many of the teens that did it were trialed as adults due to the severity of the infraction.

 

[dokodesuka]

View attachment 4092372

Yo, who created that amazing animated GIF?

 

[Morah SDG]

Yo, who created that amazing animated GIF?

Artwork itself was done by our amazing artist Psymind and animation technique was done by the mistro

You must be registered to see the links

afterwards!

 

[gemini20xx]

Artwork itself was done by our amazing artist Psymind and animation technique was done by the mistro

You must be registered to see the links

afterwards!

And when the game's released, this is what the artwork will do to us.

 

[Morah SDG]

And when the game's released, this is what the artwork will do to us.
View attachment 4511064

Ayooo, who made that Vlad gif??