Among the numerous fascinating secondary characters that enrich the beautiful story of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the fearless history lover Epizelos is definitely one of the most memorable that our lead hero has the chance to meet along the way. Epizelos - Eppie for his close friends - is a young man from Boeotia whom Alexios comes across while visiting the region, either in the course of a main quest, or for exploration purposes. It turns out that he has a huge love for history, myths and ancestral treasures, something that quickly attracts our lead hero's interest and he agrees to help Eppie in his quests.

The first meeting between Alexios and Eppie is quite intense: Alexios finds Eppie lying wounded on the ground at the side of the road of a rather dangerous area, surrounded by hungry wolves that are about to tear him to pieces. Wolves, however, are not the only hazard in the area: not far from the spot where he is, is a small sanctuary occupied by fierce hunters; and sometimes Deianeira, the fearsome champion and Cultist, can be seen passing along the road with her equally fearsome cousin Astra. After being saved from a certain death by Alexios, and although he does look quite exhausted and weak because of his struggle to survive the wild animals' attack prior to Alexios finding him, Eppie quickly manages to pull himself together and make his aquaintance: although not a professional archaeologist or historian, he had always been fascinated by the past and had been studying ancient history and exploring sites of interest ever since he was able to go out in the world on his own. A slim and delicate young man with black hair and piercing dark eyes, Eppie doesn't have the appearance of someone who is into sports or training. Both activities could be rather useful in his risky quests, but his lack of such experience never stopped him from traveling around Greece, looking for hidden treasures in sites of worship, many of which definitely would have been riddled with all sorts of danger.

Being a mercenary by trade, Alexios gets immediately interested when Eppie asks him to help him recover precious treasures connected to the Mycenaean civilization. Eppie's deep faith that something important is about to be revealed is based on the fact that he has already found a piece of a stele which has some mysterious writings on it. He further establishes Alexios's aid by playfully indicating that their paths crossing was actually a work of the Fates. Regardless, Alexios and Eppie seem to have a connection from the start, although, on first look, they don't have much in common as far as their characters, temperaments and interests are concerned. It gradually becomes obvious however that, aside from his interest in finding precious treasures, Alexios gets genuinely moved by Eppie's love for history and his contagious enthusiasm everytime a discovery is about to be made.

Eppie leads Alexios to a nearby cave which turns out to be an important Oracle. Inside the cave, there is some kind of shrine, and there are several people praying, although Eppie claims that they can't possibly know about the Mycenaean connections to the site. Proving him right, Alexios finds a secret passage leading to the tomb of a Mycenaean warrior which is cleverly hidden behind uninteresting corridors and dusty anterooms, a section of the cave that apparently the worshippers outside and the local residents had no idea about. There is a sarcophagus in the tomb with a piece of an armor inside it, and Eppie's stele piece can be placed on a wall made with similar pieces, some of which are missing, with a strange and unreadable inscription on it.

Alexios then agrees to go on a series of quests to recover the missing stele pieces. Along with each piece, he finds another piece of the warrior's armor. With every new stele piece that is placed on the wall, the inscription becomes more and more readable, as Eppie, with his vast knowledge, is able to go through it and decipher it. In short intervals between the quests, Alexios has some quite interesting discussions with his new friend, in which it is revealed that Eppie has a hard time getting along with his peers because they can neither understand nor empathize with him. It becomes clear that, when it comes to his environment, he is completely alone in his quest for more knowledge of the ancients, and his passion for exploration and history is most probably frowned upon by his family and friends. 

There is a strange mystery surrounding Eppie's discovery, as it is unclear why the missing armor's pieces have been scattered around, and there is always a stele piece with each one of them. Eppie suspects that the message that the inscription conveys must be very important, which is why it was partly destroyed, so that it could not be easily discovered by explorers or random passers-by. As he slowly deciphers a new part of the inscription, he finds out that it speaks of a ritual which, once completed, will activate something. Little by little, Alexios follows the clues given by Eppie and manages to recover all the missing stele pieces and all the pieces of the warrior's armor, at which point the full inscription becomes readable. Eppie reads out the full message and all of a sudden the inscription wall becomes illuminated, with Isu-like symbols projecting from it. Alexios stands watching it in awe, but soon realizes that Eppie cannot see any of this impressive stuff. He can only see a plain version of the inscription, just a wall stele with writings on it. The reason why this happens is because the activation of the stele was to be seen only by the Isu and their kin, and since Alexios was half Isu, he was able to witness it. Eppie being a mortal, was deprived of this privilege, but the point is that it was his, a humble human's research, that led to the solution of this centuries-old riddle. 

Secretly acknowledging this, and seeing how disappointed Eppie is with this outcome, Alexios pretends that he sees nothing special either, which lifts his friend's spirits a bit. Alexios then encourages Eppie to never stop his studies and his research, and asks him to join him on his ship as a lieutenant. Although Eppie has his doubts, because like we said earlier, he is not the athletic type, accepts the offer because this will mean he will be able to widen both his knowledge and his exploration horizons by traveling. It is interesting to note that if Alexios makes the mistake to point out to Eppie that there is indeed something in front of his eyes and he simply cannot see it, he will leave in a fury, and unfortunately we won't be able to see him again. There is no reason to make such a bad choice, however, because after bonding with Eppie so much during the course of his quests, it's a shame to trash everything on a whim. Not to mention that Eppie, being a golden lieutanant, is one of the best high-ranked crew members that you can get in the whole game, and it is clear that he will be your second best buddy after Barnabas.

Although Eppie is an amateur researcher, he can be viewed as an early colleague of Lara Croft and a tomb raider of the ancient world. His story is one of the most fascinating secondary questlines in Odyssey, not only thanks to him being such a charming and likeable protagonist, but also because it is closely connected to the backdrop of Alexios's story. The discoveries that Eppie's clues bring to the light prove that, in the game's lore, the Mycenaeans were part of the Isu heritage, and obviously whoever scattered the armor and stele pieces around, did so to protect the untimely revelation of such a knowledge. Random explorers that would stumble upon the warrior's tomb in the depths of the Oracle would simply note it down as a great discovery and probably stop there. Eppie's desire for further enlightenment led him to keep searching, ignoring all dangers and surpassing all obstacles, and maybe it was indeed fatal for Alexios to come to his rescue at that specific point in time, because he was the one to be able to witness the activation of the stele, as he was among the very few people in position to actually see it happen. 

At some point during his quests, and as it becomes obvious that the full revelation is about to happen, Eppie has a moment of doubt, where he expresses his fear that he may not be worthy of this discovery. This may foreshadow the outcome of the story, since he is not able to witness the activation of the stele because he is mortal, but being worthy has nothing to do with it. He is more than worthy because it was his restless spirit and fascination with primordial history that led to this discovery. When he expresses his doubts, Alexios manages to raise his spirit by encouraging him to look forward to the full discovery no matter what. We could say that Eppie sort of represents all historians, professional or not, and all explorers who bring secrets of the past to the light; sometimes these secrets are treasures, other times they are relics or items of worship; they can also be lost texts or other kinds of knowledge that many times can be put to use in each era's contemporary world. Eppie might have been living in the ancient times, but there were already centuries of history before him, and a vast mythology which he longed to explore and delve deeper into.

»A Life's Dedication (Eppie's Story)

The Son of The Revolution

Just like the exquisite gem Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (an article about this one is also in the works), Assassin's Creed: Unity can also be considered a cultish treasure already, albeit for different  reasons. I know, because I initially had this impression myself, that Unity can feel confusing and infuriating when you start playing it for the first time, what with its exhaustingly frustrating map, its weirdly designed gameplay and its problematic combat system. But once you get to know it better, and believe me, it's all worth the while, it rewards you with a brilliant story and some of the most memorable characters that you will ever come across in video games of this kind.

Assassin's Creed: Unity takes place during the years that preceded and followed the French Revolution, focusing on Arno Dorian, a young man whose evolution as an Assassin is anything but conventional. Arno was born in a noble family but he was doomed to carry a heavy load from a very tender age, after witnessing his father's shocking murder. On the same day, he met Elise, a girl of his age, with whom he connected instantly and who was destined to become his childhood companion and his love interest later on, as her father, Francois de la Serre, took him under his protection and raised him alongside his daughter as his own son. What Arno didn't know was that Elise's father was the Grand Master of the Templar Order and since his own father had been an Assassin in life, theoretically they were enemies. De La Serre, however, was a fair and open-minded man, in spite of his status, and he even considered truce with the Assassin Brotherhood, something that was extremely frowned upon within the Templar Order. Although de la Serre knew who Arno's father was, this did not prevent him from taking the little boy under his wing and offering him protection and education without ever attempting to convert Arno into a Templar, instead encouraging the boy's freedom of will. 

At an important soirée in Versailles, de La Serre is killed by two mysterious men and Arno, who happens to witness the crime, gets unjustly accused of the murder. He is sent to the Bastille, a literal Hell on earth during those times, where he comes across Pierre Bellec, a fellow prisoner and Master Assassin, who used to be a close friend and mentor of Arno's father. Arno had not been aware of his own special traits until then (namely his eagle vision and high intelligence) and it is Bellec who, after an eventful first meeting, makes him realise the truth about himself.

Coming across Bellec looks like a blessing for Arno, as when the Revolution breaks and they manage to escape, he is accepted in the Paris Brotherhood thanks to his new friend who also becomes his mentor. As it turns out in due course, however, Bellec has a very specific view on how the Brotherhood should function, which comes to direct conflict with the late de La Serre's wish for truce. Fearing that Elise, being her father's successor in the Templar Order, would possibly follow along the same philosophy as him, and, most importantly, being horrified by the sentimental influence that she might have on Arno, he goes as far as to attempt to frame Elise for the murder of Mirabeau, the leader of the Brotherhood, whom Bellec himself poisoned because he shared de la Serre's radical views. This is a very crucial plot point, because after the events take this dramatic turn, Arno is forced to kill Bellec, essentially against his own wishes, and from that moment and on, he finds himself constantly facing the Brotherhood Masters who had always been sceptical about him, but Bellec's trust in the boy worked as a guarantee for Arno towards them. With Bellec gone, Arno becomes more responsible for his own actions and decisions, which, albeit not being always the right ones, nonetheless bring him each time closer to a higher level of emotional and spiritual maturity.

Such Bildungsroman elements are not uncommon in story-rich video games; and Arno seems to be a character who, by definition, would be an ideal protagonist in a tale like the one that Unity narrates. Arno's activity is set in an environment that originates in the epic novels of Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas, something that is evident not only in the most obvious aspect - the setting - but also in its story and, most importantly, its characters, both main and secondary. Le Roi des Thunes, Aloys La Touche, Marie Levesque, Frederic Rouille, carry this fascinating heritage of literary heroes who were born from the inspiration of those classic novelists and everything about their appearance, attitude and development is directly connected to it. 

 

 

Cunning criminals (the dreaded King of Beggars with the painted face) or individuals who were either deceived and were forced to abandon a decent life for the sake of a much more esteemed position in the underworld of Paris (ex tax assessor La Touche who became a cruel, pitiful  henchman), or who slyly threaded their way in high society so as to gain money and status (the cold and ruthless Marie Levesque), or who were disappointed by those whom they thought friends and resorted to extremities so as to establish themselves as saviours of the people (the murderous and bloodthirsty Rouille), these characters form a sensational background for the story that unfolds at the forefront. Historical figures like Maximilien Robespierre, Napoleon Bonaparte, Comte de Mirabeau, Louis Michel le Peletier, le Marquis de Sade, play important roles in the story, their real-life actions cleverly blended with fiction, as is always the case with the Assassin's Creed games.

There is something brilliantly twisted about the story of Unity and its development, and this is directly connected to its protagonist - it even seems to stem from him. Arno combines the charm of an unpretentious carelessness with a deep and conscious sense of altruism and a constant longing for happiness in life. He is also very adaptive, and can cleverly thread his way when needed, but at the same time his sentimentality can sometimes cost him a lot. This combination of opposite elements that shape him as a character somehow define and determine not only the development of the story but also the reactions of the people he deals with. We can see how Bellec is instantly attracted to Arno - on a metaphorical, symbolic level - the first time he sets eyes on him in the prison cell. Bellec is much older, far more experienced, has been through thick and thin in his life, but Arno's social innocence captivates him so much that he finds himself forced to progressively tone down his aggressive attitude for the sake of a more appropriate fatherly approach towards the boy. Arno's instinct assures him that Bellec's aggressiveness is nothing more than a not so well-covered expression of love and caring, which is why he never talks back to the man and just obeys him with respect. This lack of an equally aggressive response from Arno's part is subconsciously interpreted by Bellec as a weakness and a sign of a potential future sentimental and practical submission, leading to him softening his own manner towards the boy, but at the same time giving him too much self-confidence when the time comes to demand from Arno to choose sides. 

Arno is an open book; he never hides his feelings and is always sincere and honest. Him being a bit too emotional is quickly balanced by his thoughtfulness and sense of justice. With the bright red, dark blue and glorious white colors almost constantly on his outfits, he is essentially representing the free spirit of France which is always attractive and sensational. Superior forms of all kinds want to conquer it and suppress it, and Bellec, having a higher rank in the Brotherhood than Arno, is one of them. Arno is pure, honest and unaffected by the evil around him, something that captivates Bellec partly because it reminds him of his own younger self, but also because he sees in Arno someone whom he can shape and educate through a fascinating emotional growth. Arno's passion can never be tamed, but his insight guides him to employ it only to do good. Bellec, on the other hand, although equally passionate and devoted to his cause, seems to have been unable to resist a fair share of brainwashing and corruption that led to him to progressively see himself as the Brotherhood's saviour. In his mission to clean the Assassin ranks, he wants Arno to accompany him, essentially demanding that he renounces everything and everyone and join him without having second thoughts.

Although technically on the side of Good, Bellec is however the kind of person who will easily resort to violence and will not hesitate to put anyone whom he considers dangerous for the brotherhood's cause out of the picture, no matter the means. Killing Mirabeau is a great example of this, but framing Elise is the most characteristic and extreme. On a allegorical level, Bellec yearns for Arno and by extension for what he stands for: the ever-charming, free-spirited and proud people of France. There is a subtle hint of physical attraction from his part as well, if you notice certain nuances in his speech and his eyes on specific occasions while he is talking to Arno, something that works symbolically to further highlight Bellec's urge to have his way because he believes that it is the best for the Brotherhood and France. Both on a personal and a symbolic level, he longs to conquer Arno's free spirit and own control over it, by attempting to make him succumb. Bellec is a very interesting, multi-levelled character who may be essentially Arno's mentor and guardian, but at the same time he is trying to patronize him and make him reject whomever diverts him from his course, essentially Elise. In Bellec's eyes, Elise, being a Templar, is an enemy by default but mainly she is the only one capable of taking Arno away from him. And this is exactly where Bellec makes the biggest mistake, when he attempts to turn Arno against Elise and when this fails, he even goes as far as to threaten to kill her before Arno's eyes, not taking into consideration that Elise is a person not only very dear to Arno but she also grew up with him and they learned to love and care for each other with a very special bond which cannot be easily broken, and which essentially goes beyond the two of them belonging to opposite sides.

If Arno represents the spirit of France, Elise stands for France as a notion, nodding to Marianne, the symbol of the French democracy. Regardless, being a Templar, Elise is considered an enemy because France has many times sided with not so good forces for a purpose. As an individual, she is somewhat frivolous, and even got to the point when she consciously cheated on Arno. Arno, as the people, is always pure and faithful to her - and, by extension, to his homeland - and will choose to consciously forgive her unfaithfulness. Just like Kyra in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Elise is on the hunt for the man who harmed her family and she is driven by her desire for revenge. But unlike with Kyra's case, which is very personal, in Elise's case things are far more complex. In the end, Elise leaves Arno to die so as to kill Germain, the silversmith who was revealed to be the Grand Master of the Templars and also the man who had her father murdered, and Arno is saved only thanks to his will to rush and help her. Because people are always ready to die for their homeland, but the homeland does not always  appreciate this sacrifice. Being an allegory of France both as physical presence and spirit, Elise cannot exist without Arno, therefore the people of France; when during the dramatic finale of the story Elise decides to act alone, her fatal choice leads to her brutal and untimely death. While Arno - the people, therefore the spirit and soul of the nation - manages to survive and subsequently move on.

But Elise had shown signs of controlled cruelty before, when during hers and Arno's encounter with Robespierre she did not hesitate to heavily wound the latter by shooting him in the face, resulting in him being unable to defend himself and subsequently getting arrested. We know that this is something that Arno would never do, but this spot-on scene is exactly and essentially where we clearly see the line that is drawn between the Templars and the Assassins in the saga's lore. No matter how fair and just De La Serre was, no matter how well he raised Elise, both he and his daughter never ceased to be Templars. As an Assassin, Arno would have resorted to less violent means to extract the truth from Robespierre, more so since they needed him alive in order to be able to give them the information they were seeking.

Unity is very unique in its universe because it takes place during a particularly dark and grim period of history, and this is something that, although it had potential to have been explored even more thoroughly in the game, is still a well-depicted element that exists both in the story and the overall atmosphere, hovering like an ominous aura. The overcrowded streets of Paris look stressing and painful to navigate, especially when you are in a hurry, but at the same time this feature highlights the tension, anguish and excitement of the revolution, additionally giving off a constant feeling that things can very well shoot up to extremes at any given moment. There is an overwhelming uneasiness in the central streets, coming to contrast with individual scenes of leisure in high-class cafes and forgotten secluded suburb yards, all this accentuated by the constant presence of swarming crowds around crucial areas of political and social interest, with random scenes of high society citizens getting abruptly arrested by extreme patriots, civilians carrying heads on pikes and parading in the streets, soldiers in panic trying to restore a long-lost order the idea of which has already become too complex and vague, as Arno wanders around a Paris that never ceased to be battered by a succession of extremities - first an absolute, relentless and cruel monarchy, then the explosion of the Revolution and its unavoidable aftermath, followed by the bleak, gloomy years of Robespierre's Reign of Terror.

Philosophy In Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Philosophy is a recurring subject that is explored extensively in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, as well as its eclectic relations with science and religion, all three being essential parts of not only the intellectual circles, but also everyday citizens in Ancient Greece. The protagonist of the game has the chance to meet several real-life philosophers, artists and thinkers of that time, as well as imaginary characters who also belong, directly or indirectly, to such groups and discuss with them issues related to various aspects of social, political, religious and artistic life.

Sokrates naturally has the lion's share in the philosophical part of the game, providing his sometimes cryptical input in situations where decisions make a critical difference and they may even have unpleasant outcomes. The essence of Sokrates's philosophy lies in self-awareness and perception as individual traits that a person should have and cultivate as means to understand and interpret the world around them. Sokrates doesn't really have any doubts - or, at least, expressing them openly is not his priority. He uses doubt as a vehicle in order to make people consider things and reach conclusions based on their own way of thinking. The first time that Alexios meets Sokrates is in Athens, where our hero had previously been sent by Perikles to rig a vote in order to change its outcome. Surprisingly enough, this action proves to not be in favor of the man who was being judged, because Perikles wanted his friend to be exiled in order to keep him away from imminent danger. Sokrates arrives to watch the announcement of the vote's result and poses us a series of questions about the limits of responsibility between the perpetrator and the abettor of an action. The interesting thing about Sokrates's dialectic method is that he never seems to agree with what Alexios replies to him, or that at least he finds new subjects for discussion with every answer that he gets. What he does in fact is that he tries to plant ideas in his conversator's mind, because, for him, ideas and thoughts are essential for the development of the person overall.

Later on, during Perikles's symposium, Alexios meets Sokrates again. This time, the philosopher brings about the subjects of leadership and justice, and aptly so since the setting is the villa of the city's leader. Sokrates wonders if ruling is an art, making Alexios - and us - consider to what extend real rulers and leaders are just in their decisions and whether their actions are for the benefit of the common good or they simply serve their own ambitions and personal plans.

At the same symposium, Alexios has a brief chat with the existentialist Protagoras. The sophist answers every question by doubting the existence of everything, wondering constantly whether what we see with our own eyes is truly there. Although the conversation with him naturally does not bring any fruit, since he seems to doubt the existence of everything and everyone around him, it still brings a very interesting issue into matter: our perception of things may not necessarily correspond fully to how things truly are. Each person has a unique way of seeing and perceiving everything around them, and this perception is the result of a series of experiences, thoughts, conclusions, activities that, for every person, form what we call "life experience". So two people may be looking at the same thing and still see something different.

Alexios comes across Sokrates again later, during specific quests, where critical decisions are connected with questions of morality. At some point, Alkibiades sends Alexios on a series of tasks in order to forge the name of a friend of his on the Athens citizenship list and make sure a witness will testify that said friend is indeed an Athenian citizen. It turns out that person is a traitor, and the question that arises is whether he deserves to become an Athenian citizen, albeit illegally. Sokrates is there of course, to wonder whether we should only judge people based on their past actions or we could offer them a second chance, posing a moral dilemma that cannot be easily or straightforwardly answered. Usually people never fully change, this is a trait of all living beings after all. In some cases, people who have done bad things in the past, eventually come to a point where they have their regrets, and this may lead them to change path in their life. But the contrary can also happen: a good person may become bad due to factors like circumstance or misfortune. For this reason, each case should be considered separately, and there is not a universal rule or strategy that can be applied to everyone.

While Alexios is on the hunt for an Athenian Cultist, who also happens to be a writer, Sokrates intervenes with a series of questions concerning freedom of speech and its potential limits. He wonders whether it is fair to shut people up, in cases where said people have extreme or dangerous opinions; a situation that cannot always have an easy or straightforward solution. Living in a state of Democracy, naturally the person in question has every right to express their opinion, no matter how ugly or threatening it may be. On the other hand, people with such extreme or dangerous opinions are usually enemies of Democracy, so the regime should, in theory at least, be protected somehow. Then again, if said enemies of Democracy are given the freedom to express themselves, their dangerous opinions are being made known to the public, therefore it is easier to keep an eye on them and take action against them if and when it becomes necessary. It is a matter than cannot be easily answered, and its handling depends on several other factors.

A bit later, another issue shows up, as Sokrates seems to have been somehow involved in the theft of a horse from the farm of a wealthy man. Apparently the philosopher learned about this matter and, digging deeper into it, found out that it was not one of a typical theft. The person who stole the horse was a poor farmer who had no means to support his family. He took a desperate decision and stole the horse from the rich man, intending to work with it and provide for his people. Subsequently, he was arrested. Sokrates poses a moral question to Alexios, concerning the degree to which the motive behind an action that is considered bad or illegal should or should not be taken into account when deciding about the culprit's fate. With this case as a starting point, Sokrates moves on to express more universal questions. Should every crime have consequences? And what about cases when a "crime" is for the benefit of the common good?

These questions are also connected to the next situation where Sokrates gets involved while Alexios is just about to locate one more Cultist, a ruthless slave owner. The "Master", as they call him, has tricked one of his slaves into believing that he is going to give him his freedom which the poor man has managed to buy by saving money. However when the time comes, the Master refuses to set the man free. When Alexios offers to help the slave by talking to the Master, the latter agrees to offer the slave his freedom if Alexios accepts to kill someone for him. At this point, Sokrates intervenes, essentially stressing the weight of the moral dilemma that rises for our hero, as he is called to decide upon the fate of a man by sacrificing another person's life. Sokrates sees this case as the perfect chance to discuss with Alexios about equality between people and its potential limits. The clue in this case, however, is that the moral dilemma in question is a fake one. The Master may be a wealthy man, and he may be the "owner" of the slave, but in fact he has no real influence over anyone because he is no position to exert power that goes beyond his domain. So he may be the slave's master, but he cannot really decide about the fate of people that do not "belong" to him, therefore he is in no position to blackmail Alexios in order to make him kill someone who is a free person and is not under his command. Moreover, the slave has already bought back his freedom, which makes the Master's refusal to set him free blatantly illegal. 

On the idyllic island of Delos, Alexios bumps one more time onto Sokrates who again is found in the heart of a tumultuous case that seems to have caused a commotion among the locals. A rebel stole from the sanctuary, and while he was being arrested, he killed one of the guards. The man then was going to be executed but since death of any kind on Delos was forbidden, he had been imprisoned, waiting to be transported to Mykonos for his execution. Sokrates calls Alexios to decide whether the man should be saved from his fate, considering that his initial motive was for a good cause: he stole from the Delian sanctuary in order to help the rebellion against Podarkes, the cruel leader of the Silver Islands. When Alexios goes to talk to the man, however, he finds out that his mindset is rather extreme and in reality his actions, instead of helping the rebellion, could seriously harm it. In the long run, if Alexios frees the man by sending him on his way, it is a decision that may have tragic consequences. This is something that is impossible to know beforehand, so our hero is called to consider all possibilities and take a hard decision by killing the man himself in cold blood, something that, in the end, will prove to be for the best of all parties involved. This also goes to show that morality can sometimes be fluid, especially when important values are endangered.

In Achaia, Alexios meets Demokritos, whose philosophical questions are the most cryptic and complex, being also connected to physics and mathematics. Demokritos sends Alexios on a quest to find three theorems that, according to him, are essential for understanding how the universe works. The Golden Ratio, Zeno's paradox and the Pythagorean theorem may seem like they are much different on first look, but they all prove that everything around us is relative and that the universe is infinite. 

What Demokritos describes seems to nod to quantum physics and the Dirac equation. According to quantum physics, everything that exists in the universe acts and reacts both as a particle and as a set of waves. These two elements, however, are opposites: the waves can expand to many places around them, while the particles can only be limited to one place. Moreover, the way that the waves react with each other is very different from the way that particles react with each other. The Dirac equation is based on the claim that if two different systems keep reacting with each other for a set period of time and then are separated, from that point and on they can still be seen as two different systems, but at the same time they will have already been united in one new system with a new form of matter. Because of this, the initial two systems will still be in position to affect each other, no matter how much the distance between them is. Since they connected with each other at a certain point, they remain united forever even if they are miles apart now. Something like this happens when two people fall in love with each other and they get separated (although this applies not only to erotic love, but also to friendly love or whatever similar human connection). Love brings people together, and when they are separated, the same element of love is what keeps them connected, diminishing the distance between them on an unseen level. These connections resemble those between the planets and stars that exist in the universe thanks to the law of gravitation.

 

 

In a similar way, Philosophy and Poetry are connected with each other because they are parts of Life. In this context, Life is the force that brings and keeps them together because all three have a common axon: the human being. Between Philosophy and Poetry, there is a void filled by Love which, again, is the deepest of the human expressions. Demokritos then narrates a sad story about how he was in love with a poet in his youth, but never got to confess his feelings to her. Encouraged by Alexios, he decides to do it now, but in a tragic twist of fate he arrives at her home just seconds after she had been attacked and killed by bandits. Now this can be interpreted in both a realistic and an allegorical way: the realistic interpretation is that you should almost never leave for later something that you feel you need to do, because you may have only one chance to do it and once this chance passes by, there will be no other. The allegorical interpretation is that Philosophy (represented by Demokritos) and Poetry (represented by the poet) can never be fully united because they are notions that most of the times conflict each other. Philosophy, like Science, tends to research and analyze things according to theorems, observation and experiments, while Poetry interprets the world in a way that sometimes may even reverse and rebut the philosophical theories. On a different level, however, the Poet could also represent how Demokritos viewed Philosophy: as his ideal love which he admired and researched about but felt too intimidated to approach more. The fact that the woman died before he had the chance to express her feelings to her implies that no matter how much a philosopher searches and researches things, Philosophy as a notion, just like the mechanism of the Universe, will constantly be a step forward, always almost impossible to reach and fully comprehend.           

 

In Korinth, Alexios meets a strange woman who sends him on a series of quests, all of which have a fair share of philosophical extensions. The woman shows up in a busy park and seems to know very well who Alexios is and what his accomplishments are. There are several tasks that Alexios is called to take, which start with investigating two graves: the man buried in the first grave died at sea, while the other was killed by lions. After Alexios comes back from the graveyard, the woman asks him to decide which God is the most dangerous: Apollo or Poseidon. Depending on our choice, Alexios then will visit two different places and the stories of those involved will test his faith in humanity and how well he can judge people's characters and trust them. The questions that arise during these quests also have to do with how much people's actions affect each other and to what degree the so-called divine intervention can be blamed for the outcome of actions that, in fact, are human. Is revenge the right path for justice? Or humans in fact commit hubris when they take justice in their own hands?

On a less philosophical path, but still related is the story with the sculptor Polykleitos in Elis. Alexios comes across Polykleitos on his way to Olympia, and the sculptor invites him to a farm nearby where the residents have hired him to build for them a statue of the Eagle Bearer. Alexios becomes particularly curious since the matter is directly related to him and subsequently he gets acquainted with the people living in the farm, who all seem to have fallen in strange misfortunes. As it turns out, a cunning group of priestesses have taken advantage of Alexios's fame, and managed to convince this group of gullible farmers that the Eagle Bearer speaks through them. This way, they have made a small fortune by collecting valuable items and money from the people in the farm, supposedly to be offered as gifts to the Eagle Bearer. This story is connected to the previous one since it also explores the limits of faith, and additionally it goes beyond that, hinting at a case of mass manipulation. The farmers fell victims to their own faith, and let themselves be tricked by people who took advantage of this, which turned out to be their weak point. Lack of further and deeper thought was essentially what led these people to be so evilly manipulated, as they accepted the lies that the priestesses served them without questioning them. The exact opposite of Sokrates, that is, who questions and doubts everything.

And speaking of Sokrates, there is one more story with philosophical extensions where he not only makes an appearance, but he is also the protagonist. In Phokis, Alexios meets Sokrates's wife, Xanthippe, and the two of them find out that the philosopher had been arrested and imprisoned. Based on Sokrates's real story, this mission explores a series of themes that seem to have been of interest or related to him and his philosophical queries all along. Sokrates was imprisoned because he expressed an opinion that apparently was considered too radical. Meanwhile, the Pythia had told Socrates that he is the wisest man. This was done deliberately from her part, because, from the privileged position that she held, she wanted to open the people's eyes and stop them from being manipulated by the Cult. Since Sokrates, like all people, believed that she spoke the words of gods, she hoped that, because Sokrates did not think that he was indeed the wisest man, she would make him doubt her credibility and thus consider that maybe it was not the gods who directed her, and subsequently make the people realize that as well and stop blindly following her advice and, eventually, the words of the Cult. 

On his quest to set Sokrates free, Alexios goes to a symposium in Delphi where he succeeds in convincing a few other philosophers to support Sokrates's right to freely express his opinion, even if they themselves disagree with him. Therefore freedom of speech comes to the foreground again, as one of the most important values in social life, being also one of the first matters that Sokrates posed to Alexios during their initial meetings. In the conclusion of this story, Sokrates narrates a myth to Alexios which is an allegory for the freedom of speech and the need for people to speak for themselves and not through the words and quotes of others. Something that Philosophy, in its essence, values as equally important as well.

Mechanisms of Desire

Continuing on the spicy path that this blog has taken lately, today I am going to elaborate a bit on the dark romantic aspect of relationships between characters, something that, surprisingly, is not a new thing in video games. As early as in 1995, Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within was maybe the first game to include such an element in its plot, which back then was particularly radical and innovative, given that the technical means were very few, and the ways to accompany a game with cutscenes were also rather limited. Regardless this didn't prevent the game's developing team to come up with a captivating story involving characters that since became iconic. The element of desire is quite prominent in the story, as I will analyze in a bit, and in a rather complex form, for that matter. I have also picked a few more select cases of characters who, like Gabriel, are not simply involved in the theme of desire, but are also deeply and dramatically affected by it in their attitude and mentality.

Desire disguised as confusion (Gabriel Knight in Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within)

Like I mentioned above, Gabriel's case can be considered an archetypical story involving the theme of desire, as it belongs to a video game that was most probably the first one to address such a subject and in such a radical way. Gabriel is a consciously straight ladies' man, and his self-confidence on that matter is particularly high. All this is doomed to change when, while investigating of a series of murders, he meets the charming and mysterious Friedrich Von Glower, typically a Baron but in reality a werewolf of more than one hundred years old. Friedrich is instantly attracted by Gabriel who initially seems to be unaware of the situation, but as the story progresses, he gets smitten with Friedrich although this is something that he cannot even acknowledge at first.

At a crucial turning point, however, he comes across Baron Von Zell, Friedrich's ex-lover whom Friedrich had turned into a werewolf during a moment of passion. Von Zell is the one responsible for the aforementioned murders, and while being hunted by Gabriel and Friedrich, he is shot dead, but not before managing to attack and bite Gabriel. Soon after, Gabriel starts to feel the effects, as he is slowly turning into a werewolf himself, something that he realizes and tries very hard to control and suppress. In a rather revealing scene, we can see him struggling with himself in physical and emotional pain as his inner werewolf struggles to prevail as well. In reality, what Gabriel is truly trying to suppress is the desire that he is actually developing towards Friedrich which, allegorically, found a way to the surface after Friedrich's ex bit him. Gabriel is in deep confusion because he is unable to admit and accept this unprecedented feeling, which also happens to be very strong and difficult to handle. Gabriel's inner struggle is in fact a battle with his own feelings and that part of himself that has awakened all of a sudden without him being able to control it at all. At the same time, however, he is struggling to persuade himself that all this turmoil has to do with him slowly becoming a werewolf, but in his attempt to focus on that, he is merely highlighting more what is truly going on inside him.

Desire suppressed by denial (Jill Valentine in Resident Evil 3 Remake)

The romantic aspect may not be particularly present in Resident Evil 3, but there still is a degree of electricity between Jill and Carlos, mostly filtered through admiration from his part, while Jill is rather prejudiced at first because Carlos belongs to a company that she knows is evil. As the story progresses, however, it becomes quite clear that Jill and Carlos are attracted to each other, something that Carlos shows almost directly, what with his attitude towards Jill and his choice of words when it comes to flirting her, albeit a bit awkwardly, and also given the tense circumstances they find themselves in. But for Jill, things are not that simple; although Jill is a very "raw" character, in that she is honest, sincere and crystal-clear, she is quite secretive when it comes to expressing her feelings. As the events in the story develop and she starts to see that Carlos is honest and she actually begins to like him, it is not very easy for her to admit it, let alone express it with words to him. Moreover, Jill is a person who puts duty above all and who values her partners very highly; this is something that becomes very clear during her brief dialogue with Carlos after she leaves the power plant, when Carlos calls her "partner" and she replies with a rather bitter and cold "Not your partner", because, for her, comradeship is something sacred. Carlos, on the other hand, is always laid back, and doesn't seem to take anything else into account except for the fact that he likes her, and he is very specific and clear about this. After Jill witnesses Nikolai betraying his team and leaving Mikhail and her to die, her prejudice against Carlos disappears completely and it slowly becomes clear that she does care for him. Chances are, if she didn't know that he was a soldier of Umbrella, she would have allowed herself to realize that she actually did like him from the beginning, both as a person and as a man. 

Even after all this happens, however, she is still in denial; being faithful to her mission and because her priority is the elimination of evil, she refuses to give room to her feelings while, subconsciously, trying to control them. After she is treated with the antidote and just as she is about to wake up, she has a nightmare during which Carlos gets in her room to inform her that everything is fine, but just then he begins to turn and he asks her to kill him. Jill cannot do it, of course, and a zombified Carlos attacks her, which is when she abruptly wakes up in anguish and confusion. The fact that, among all the people that she met in the course of the story, her subconscious decided to make Carlos attack her in a zombified state in her dream, can have a dual interpretation: on the one hand, being forced to work with Carlos had brought her closer to him, putting him inevitably in the position of a temporary partner, and subsequently someone whom she could trust, at least to a degree. The fear of losing a partner, and more so in such a violent way, had been with Jill from the start of the story, after the unfortunate incident with Brad; so now her nightmare reminds her that fear by presenting Carlos as a victim with Brad's fate. On the other hand, however, this subconscious choice indicates that Jill is attracted to Carlos but she refuses to allow herself the luxury of enjoying this feeling because if she does so, she will betray her mission. Her subconscious puts the man that she likes in the position of a dangerous enemy because she feels both enchanted and threatened by his presence.

Desire masked as guilt (Joseph Oda in The Evil Within)

Joseph's case is quite similar to that of Gabriel Knight in that, for both of them, desire takes the form of something considered forbidden and subsequently both of them experience a devastating inner struggle with their wild, primitive self through which they channel that feeling. But whereas for Gabriel all this was mainly due to confusion (Gabriel found himself in a situation that was unexpected and unfamiliar, and which he was unable to handle), for Joseph everything is pretty clear and conscious, which is why he is primarily led by guilt for what he experiences. Joseph is emotionally vulnerable, which is why being trapped in Ruvik's memories affects him so much. After unwillingly entering the STEM system, Joseph comes face to face with his most secret and suppressed fears and emotions, something that weakens his will and his resistances and results in him not being able to control himself and thus turning into a Haunted.

Soon after Sebastian finds him in STEM, Joseph experiences his first transformation during which he violently attacks Sebastian while struggling to take control of his monstrous self. The fact that this first transformation happens while he is with Sebastian is not random; since Sebastian is, unbeknownst to him, the receiver of Joseph's forbidden feelings. The next time he turns is when, due to Ruvik's control of his mind, he instinctively catches that Juli's presence is threatening, since in reality she is there as a spy on behalf of Mobius, and he attacks her in an attempt to push her out of the way and, eventually, to prevent her from affecting Sebastian. Later on, while still with Sebastian, he attempts to kill himself because he realizes that not only he is unable to control this transformation, but moreover a part of himself yearns to become a Haunted. Part of himself, that is, is ready to accept and embrace the feeling of that forbidden desire, but his conscious self, most probably having grown up in a strict, heavily traditional environment that forced him to follow all the expected norms and stereotypes, brings forward the feeling of guilt in order to make him suppress whatever it is that makes him revolt both emotionally and physically. Joseph becoming a Haunted then reverting back to his human form with even more guilt each time stands as an allegory for his struggle to come to terms with himself and break the restrains that keep him imprisoned.

Desire leading to self-destruction (Derek Simmons in Resident Evil 6)

Derek Simmons expresses probably one of the most straightforward forms of desire, given that he is not particularly complex himself, at least at the beginning. Originally the typical power-hungry villain with a Messiah complex, he developed an obsessive paranoia after falling in love with Ada. Of course for a man like him, "love" is not exactly the word we should use; he clearly cannot feel anything positive for anyone but himself, and what truly pushes him to extremes is not so much his feelings for Ada, but the fact that she rejected him. By rejecting him, Ada in fact challenged his power, something that, for him, is impossible to accept. After Derek crossed the line by coming up with the idea to create Ada's clone, his mania grew bigger, and his malicious acts shifted from general to very specific. At this point, it was desire that drove his actions, but also blinded him so much that he didn't realize that, by succumbing to this feeling and letting it take control, he got tangled in a peculiar and marginally twisted triangle, with two depictions of the same woman at its two points: Ada, the real one, and Carla, her clone. Subsequently, Derek's actions caused Carla's actions because she, in turn, realized that he had turned her into a lab rat when it was already too late for her to reverse the effects, while at the same time she felt deeply betrayed, not only as a scientist but also as a woman. It is hinted that the real Carla, for her part, had feelings for Derek but he would only see a potential Ada in her, so the realization of this added more fuel to Carla's already unstable psyche.

When Carla took her revenge on Derek by turning him into a monster, Derek's inner monstrosity also came to the surface and literally found a face. Not only he lost any sense of humanity but he also lost himself, and this was a path that he had in fact taken much earlier, when he first came up with the idea to create Ada's clone because he could not have the real one. His paranoia grew stronger after the clone was actually created, when he began to refer to and address the clone as if she was the real Ada. Such a sick situation, of course, could not drag on for too long, and would inevitably lead to his own destruction, aided also by Carla's thirst for revenge. From the moment when Derek was transformed into a monster, and seeing, in his paranoia, how powerful he could actually be in that state, he literally killed his human self, giving room to his inner monster.

Desire as obsession (Stefano Valentini in The Evil Within 2)

Although Stefano's murderous instincts can easily be mistaken for those of a typical serial killer, in fact they have much more depth, like he does as well, both as a character overall and specifically as an artist. Stefano's psyche is in turmoil, but there are two main conflicting emotions inside him: the extreme love that he feels for his own creations, and the venomous hate that he directs towards every other living soul around him. In fact Stefano is obsessed with his art, in a most twisted and unhealthy manner, and views everyone and everything through the distorted prism of his camera's eye. Stefano has given life to his camera by creating the hideous monster Obscura, which is also the depiction of his inner, normally unperceivable self. Moreover, Obscura represents his own feminine side, which he has embraced to a degree but still resents and feels contempt for. Stefano could be easily labelled a killer of women, but this would only be a shallow and superficial characterization for such a complex mentality. In reality he hates all human beings, independently of sex or age. In the real world, he started killing female models because, as a fashion photographer, he could very easily approach them as potential victims. Progressively, killing women became some kind of ritual, as through them he would every time attempt to eliminate his female side. In the reality of STEM, however, where he could act completely out of control, his "gallery" of victims grew bigger and richer. Male citizens and soldiers were also "honored" to become part of his installations, with some of them even getting to have their own personal exhibition room, like Turner, Hayes and Baker, and of course Sebastian for whom Stefano had prearranged a dedicated gallery hall in order to place the installation that he had conceived and which would feature him as a "protagonist".

For Stefano, desire is a very complex, dark feeling and notion; he hates Sebastian on the surface, but in the essence he yearns for that aspect of his that Stefano feels will make him an ideal model / victim. Sebastian combines two things that Stefano seems to deem as essential for the creation of his morbid art: innocence and sexual appeal. In his artwork, Stefano always depicts these two elements together, either directly or through symbols. Although he sees Lily as the ideal "blank canvas" for his future inspirations due to her innocence, he would still need victims to actually create art. Sebastian has Lily's pure heart, but he also has the sexuality that Stefano seeks so ardently for his disturbing creations. The sequence where Sebastian confronts and finally kills Stefano looks and feels like a twisted sex hunt, which becomes more than evident in case Stefano manages to catch Sebastian and stab him with lustful rage. At this stage, Stefano's obsession with his own art identifies both with the attraction that he feels for Sebastian on a physical level, and his desire to create "his masterpiece" which will incorporate all the perfection that he believes he has achieved: the perfect canvas, which is Lily, the perfect human material that would be Sebastian, and the perfect concept, which however he eventually lost the chance to create.

 

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Special thanks to afterdarkmysweet for providing info for Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within.

The Psychosexual Subtext of Resident Evil: Village

 

Resident Evil: Village is centered around Ethan Winters's nightmarish journey to find his abducted daughter Rosemary, however there are several other themes explored in the game on a secondary level that, however, add a lot to the story and the development of its characters. While Mother Miranda is the prominent evil mastermind, her four "children", the four lords of the village, are in fact the characters who give the tone of the adventure and the ones who, in the end, are the most memorable. When it comes to sexual imagery in particular, the obvious thought would be Alcina Dimitrescu, but in fact she is a red herring on the matter, as the essence of this subject lies somewhere else.

As Ethan is about to enter the Castle Dimitrescu, he is captured by Carl Heisenberg and brought to a peculiar council consisting of Miranda and her four children. It is the only time when he has the chance to see all the villains gathered together, and moreover while they are arguing about who is going to be the one to carry out his execution. Sounds like an evil child's game, which isn't random if we consider that Miranda, by having condemned these four individuals to be a part of her experiments, she has essentially shattered their personality and their own free will, and while they feel super powerful thanks to their unusual abilities, in fact they are just puppets in the hands of their "mother".

The whole scene looks like a grotesque act performed by a circus of freaks, and it would have been marginally hilarious if it wasn't so chillingly creepy. Alcina and Heisenberg are the most loud; each one of them makes it very clear that they want to be the one to kill Ethan. Their over-confidence is more than obvious and they feel much superior to their other two siblings. The badly disfigured Salvatore Moreau limits himself to getting close to Ethan to have a better look at his potential prey while whimpering like a whiny baby. And then there is Donna Beneviento. She can be seen sitting in a corner, her face covered with a black veil, never speaking a word while her creepy puppet Angie, controlled by her, rushes forward to have a look at Ethan as well, in a bold, unafraid and sadistic way. Donna looks like a silent stalker, patiently waiting for her prey to fall in her hands.

Donna Beneviento is an extremely intriguing character, one that definitely deserved more game time and more details revealed about her past and her family. But even what we do know about her and, mainly, what we see, understand and decipher as the story unfolds, is enough to make her stand out among the villains and end up being one of the most iconic characters in the Resident Evil saga. On first look, she is not easy to read. In her notes, Miranda characterizes Donna as mentally underdeveloped, which is the main reason why she could not be a good host for her daughter, Eva. Donna has the appearance of a grown woman, but mentally and sentimentally she is still a child. An insecure, lonely child, but at the same time a child with vicious, twisted instincts. Donna's backstory is a tragedy, something that can be reflected in her overall appearance and attitude. Born an aristocrat, she lost her parents at a very tender age, when they both committed suicide. Her mental health issues prevented her from becoming more social in her teen and early adult years, finding solace strictly in making dolls, a craft that she had learned from her father. Her only companion was a girl named Claudia, who belonged to Donna's bloodline but no one knew for sure whether she was Donna's sister or maybe her daughter, most probably an illegitimate one, if this was indeed the case. Claudia is buried in the Beneviento Flowerbed, a private cemetery just outside the entrance to the grounds of the residence.

Growing up, Donna's obsession with dolls and doll-making became even stronger. She also studied a lot in her mansion's rich library, and she became an expert on the local plants and flowers, learning to locate those that were poisonous, and use them to create mixtures that caused heavy hallucinations. As a side-effect of Miranda's experiments on her, she developed the ability to control inanimate objects with her mind, something that she took advantage of in order to manipulate her dolls around. She especially became attached to Angie, a very special puppet / doll, which looked like a skeletal figure, was dressed in bridal rags and the architecture of her face resembled a lot the Beneviento family's crest, the sun / moon complex. 

Donna's obsession with dolls is a major element of her character and an axis around which her whole personality revolves. According to Sigmund Freud, children subconsciously use the dolls as a means to indirectly express erotic and aggressive fantasies. The doll is a small object, therefore is much closer, as an image, to what the child sees in the mirror and, subsequently, much easier to identify with. With the dolls, children create an imaginary world where they hope to feel satisfied and happy, while at the same time attempting to explore aspects of the adult world. According to Rainer Maria Rilke, however, the doll acts as a safety belt for the child who would feel lost and alone if cast out in the wild world. But exactly because the doll is an object with which the child can easily familiarize, their identities get mixed and the erotic element becomes prominent again. Sometimes children treat dolls with viciousness and this, from the aspect of psychoanalysis, is an aftereffect of the subconscious, premature yearning for a sexual partner. Donna's attitude reflects all this, adding a most powerful sexual imagery in the story. Alcina and her daughters may look promiscuous and revealing with their seemingly saucy attitude towards Ethan, but in reality they only want blood. Donna, on the other hand, neither speaks nor moves, but the way she traps Ethan in her twisted, morbid game is overloaded with psychosexual nuances.

Dolls were prominent in yet one more Resident Evil game, where again they were linked to a disturbing sexual behavior: Alfred Ashford in Code Veronica had his secret palace filled with vintage dolls, plus one giant and very creepy dismembered one hanging from the ceiling at the entrance hall. Although the house used to be inhabited by a girl as well in the past - Alfred's twin sister Alexia - it is rather clear that, now at least, it is Alfred who is obsessed with dolls, given how he keeps them around the rooms standing like silent guardians: seemingly harmless but not the least terrifying. Being very close to his sister as a young boy, he developed an unhealthy obsession with her as a teenager. After her supposed death, Alfred took on the habit of wearing her dresses and a wig that resembled her hair and strolling around the house pretending to be Alexia. To be more precise, he did not only pretend to be his sister, but he would actually "become" her when in female disguise. The dolls kind of substituted her actual presence in the house, while at the same time they maybe signified Alfred's hidden desire to have his sister as a living doll instead of her obviously being the dominant and omnipotent twin when she was alive.

Being Donna's literal creation, Angie is a medium that is used to express her master's mood and feelings. While Donna is silent and motionless, Angie is talkative, sassy and restless. Here we have a peculiar inversion: the puppet acts like a living person, while the human adapts the attributes of a doll. Donna identifies with Angie on multiple levels and the way that she chooses to express herself through the doll is different every time. For Donna, Angie mainly acts as a substitute for Claudia but on a second - and maybe much stronger - level, the doll represents a complex combination of Donna's primitive maternal instinct and her carnal attraction to the opposite sex. The most obvious manifestation of the combination of these two symbolic attributes in Angie is the doll's appearance: she looks like a little kid, but she wears a grown woman's bridal gown.

In the secluded and spooky Beneviento residence, Ethan becomes the forbidden fruit. He is pretty much like McBurney in the iconic movie The Beguiled (Don Siegel, 1971). Deprived of his weapons, he becomes a victim to whatever sick plans Donna has in mind. She begins by trapping him in her workshop, in the basement of the mansion, and there she creates a haunting string of hallucinations where Ethan's wife, Mia, appears as a giant wooden doll with several items hidden in parts of her body. Ethan hears Mia crying or talking to him, he finds her wedding ring, the music box that was a gift from a relative for their wedding, a photographic film including snapshots connected to his family life, then a baby's cradle, which subsequently breaks, hidden even deeper at the bottom of a well in a second basement. Donna attempts to sentimentally and psychologically break him by bringing up painful memories connected to his family, while at the same time she makes sure that the atmosphere in the house is scary enough to keep him under control. Eventually she creates the hallucination of a giant, cannibalistic embryo, a morbid and horrifying mockery of Rosemary, which is chasing Ethan around the house threatening to kill him. 

And this is when Donna shows up and it's the one and only time when she speaks to Ethan directly, telling him that she can't let him leave. At this point, she still appears with her head covered, although she is on her own grounds and there is a portrait on a wall depicting her holding Angie, where her face fully shows. By choosing to appear like this in front of Ethan, she avoids eye-contact with him which would possibly lead to her not feeling secure enough to go on with her game. Determined to keep him there, she makes him chase her in the residence's rooms, although Ethan is actually seeing Angie floating around and hiding in several places in the mansion, forcing him to take part in a morbid hide-and-seek game. The only thing that Ethan can do to attempt to defeat Donna is to stab Angie with a pair of scissors; but in reality, he is actually chasing and stabbing Donna herself.

 

 

The scissors is again a strong sexual symbol with many nuances and Ethan's action of using it as a tool to overpower Donna works, for her, as a substitute for the sexual act. This sequence can potentially become even more intense if Ethan fails to find Angie in time; if this happens, the dolls around him grow blades which make them look like mechanical spiders, and stab him with mania, and of course it is in fact Donna again who attacks and stabs him, once more creating a hallucination involving the dolls. Notably, the first time that Ethan finds and stabs Angie, the doll bites him. Knowing that it is actually Donna who does this, the whole scene takes a completely different perspective, seen through the prism of Freud's theory about children using the dolls to express aggressive erotic fantasies. Donna may not be technically a child anymore, but her psyche is stuck in a problematic and sad childhood, something that obviously keeps defining her actions even in her adult life.

Up to the point where Ethan arrives at Donna's house and after he escapes from there, his role is standard and specific: he is the protective father figure and Rosemary's rescuer. But for the time that he spends inside the Beneviento mansion, his role changes dramatically. He becomes a potential game partner for Donna who, due to her emotional clinging to childhood, employs childish tricks (the hide-and-seek game) and objects (the dolls) in order to lure him towards her, which subsequently leads to Ethan acquiring one more role: that of the object of Donna's sexual desires. Donna's sick inner child views Rosemary as an antagonist, something that is intensified by Angie's reactions every time that Ethan grabs her and stabs her, but Donna as a grown woman also views Mia as an antagonist, and this is manifested mainly in the way that she chose, in the workshop hallucination, to present Mia as a grotesque giant puppet. After Ethan kills Donna by stabbing Angie with the scissors and all hallucinations are gone both inside and around the Beneviento estate, the basement of the mansion still remains off-limits to him. From a freudian aspect, the basement represents the memory storage: a place where past images are stacked and remain there abandoned and seemingly forgotten but still affecting the person involved.

The whole stage that takes place in the Beneviento residence is on a much different pace from the  rest of the game, and it is several levels creepier and scarier because it is built around psychological horror. It is pretty similar to The Evil Within's chapter "The Cruelest Intentions", not only as far as its atmosphere and setting are concerned but also because in both cases the memories of the protagonists are mixed with those of their stalkers. This is a feature that is always present in The Evil Within, but in that specific chapter it reaches its climax because memories become more personal for the stalker, just as is the case with Donna in Village. Story-wise, Donna  has many things in common with Ruben Victoriano, Sebastian's stalker in The Evil Within. She is playing with Ethan's memories by infiltrating them and placing herself in them by force. By presenting to him the human-sized Mia doll, it is as if she is implying that she, being a doll-maker, actually created Mia for him, and because it was her (Donna) who, as the creator, would breathe life into the doll, she would turn Mia into a host for her own manifestation and, indirectly, her own suppressed and undeveloped sexuality. From the moment when Donna appears in front of Ethan and establishes her own role as Angie's puppet master and, in a wider sense, as the one who pulls the strings in her domain, the child's play begins to transform to a sexual game, at which point Ethan stops being Donna's game partner and his role as the object of her sexual desire is the one that prevails in the end.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Uncanny Dolls: Images of Death in Rilke and Freud