Noooooooooooo!! >-<
I don't really have any new original ideas but i think when Mary sucks our blood it kinda feels like an sa scene. Im kinda happy there isnt a happy ending with them together, as much as id like it i dont think they could ever have a healthy relationship. At first i was surprised but after playing it again i realized that Mary HAS been acting off and it wouldnt have worked out
!SPOILERS!
1: That's what my friend said during that scene too!! I think it makes a lot of sense, especially as Hazel's trauma resurfaces because of it.
2: I agree!! They are so extremely doomed, and even if Hazel were not to die in ending #3 (where Mary is arguably the nicest to Hazel), Mary would still have been the same controlling and manipulative character we see more clearly in the other endings. I like that Mary is depicted as abusive yet still acts loving and apologetic in other moments, and even what could feel like most instances. It makes her seem more real, more nuanced and complex. I also really like how they wrote her backstory. I wrote about that in my other reply written in strikethrough, but in short: Hazel is at least the second person Mary has taken in, and from this, and the slightly subtextual way Mary speaks as though she's afraid of Hazel abandoning her like the others did when they had to escape her. It just all fits together so nicely and I like when stories are thought-out so cleanly :D
* I also think cinnamew made a reply to someone clarifying how they thought out ending 2 that confirms this?... anyway I hope you have a nice day!
uhh last regards, right. so: if you don't have that many new ideas, no worries! how about this: do you have any questions? or just topics, really.. i just like having an opportunity to analyze media i like, so anything goes, really!
Sorry for the late reply; I don't log on very often :p
Content warnings for this comment: spoilers, mentions of: SA, injury, trauma, amnesia, vomiting, self-harm
I agree with your assumption! It's very heavily implied that Hazel has trauma from multiple instances of past SA and injury. The content warnings also likely confirm this. When I was watching my friend play, I took note of the line about how the Duke would often pull Hazel's hair out, implying more constant abuse. I also like how Mary offers to trim her hair, sort of as a sign of moving on from her trauma. The comfort makes things hurt more as the plot progresses imo. (side-note, I really like the character designs cinnamew's games have! they're so thought-out and themed really elegantly!)
Furthermore, Hazel's amnesic trauma response and overall fawning characterize her as someone trying to internalize her interpersonal trauma. We also see her making an effort to avoid her traumas and live normally in spite of them, something the plot repeatedly forces her to confront.
After the scene where Hazel's traumas resurface, we see her vomit as her memory comes back; vomiting is a response to extreme disgust, and is not uncommon among those facing the disgust of sexual trauma and abuse. In terms of what Hazel does during the time she loses her memory, it's ambiguous whether she vomits involuntarily or not. The vomiting can be self-inflicted as a way to cope, akin to how self-harm is used to cope, or it can be a response to the disgust itself.
