{"id":9860,"date":"2012-02-22T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T09:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/?p=9860"},"modified":"2012-02-22T09:00:19","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T09:00:19","slug":"gamer-diary-isaacs-lament-treacherous-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badreputation.org.uk\/2012\/02\/22\/gamer-diary-isaacs-lament-treacherous-women\/","title":{"rendered":"[Gamer Diary] Isaac’s Lament: Treacherous Women"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

Isaac doesn't like Spoilers either<\/p><\/div>\n

Before you go any further, I’m going to issue you all with a SPOILER WARNING<\/strong> for both Dead Space<\/strong> and Dead Space 2<\/strong>.\u00a0 Although neither of these are new releases, we all know that not everyone plays a game as soon as it hits the market. \u00a0If you have intentions of playing either game and don\u2019t want to know what happens\u2026 quickly click this link<\/a> to escape to the relative safety of some pictures of baby rabbits.\u00a0 Go now, and never look back!<\/p>\n

For those of you who aren\u2019t familiar with the Dead Space<\/strong><\/a> franchise, it’s a horror\/sci-fi universe that spans more than just games \u2013 there are also animated films that tell us parts of the story.\u00a0 I\u2019m just going to look at the games, though, which focus on our protagonist Isaac Clarke in our two space vessel settings: the USG Ishimura vessel and the Sprawl<\/a>.\u00a0 In the first game, the Ishimura drops out of contact with, well, everyone – and nobody knows why.\u00a0 Isaac and his shipmates are sent on a rescue mission as it is believed the Ishimura crew have just had a bit of damage to their communications array or somesuch.<\/p>\n

Not so.\u00a0 Long story cut very over-simplistically short, all the crew have either a) gone loopy, b) been killed, or c) turned into necromorphs<\/em>.\u00a0 These are horrible scary alien things that loosely resemble what might once have been human.\u00a0 Isaac gets separated from his crew, who promptly start dying off while he tries to find out what\u2019s going on and how to escape.\u00a0 Moving towards the end, there\u2019s three of Isaac\u2019s team left (himself included)\u2026 then there are two.\u00a0 Isaac and his female crewmate Kendra Daniels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s been helping to guide him on all his trekking about the Ishimura as they try to deal with the shitstorm of scary things.\u00a0 They discover this thing called the Marker<\/em> has been causing all the bad stuff and have to transport it back to the planet below for any hope of survival.\u00a0 BUT THEN<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Kendra betrays you.\u00a0 She’s actually intending to take the Marker back to civilisation for the government and the Church of Unitology (who seem to think the Marker will raise them up\u2026 or something).\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry though; she dies. It\u2019s OK, the nasty traitorous lady gets splattered by a giant alien.\u00a0 So, you know, she deserved it.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to Dead Space 2<\/a><\/strong> and now we\u2019re in the Sprawl.\u00a0 Isaac is being held in some description of government institution for the psychologically unstable.\u00a0 After a traumatic session, in your little cell, in your straight jacket: something is wrong!\u00a0 Someone bursts in and tries to free you, but his head gets skewered from behind \u2013 NECROMORPHS EVERYWHERE.\u00a0 You run around in your straight jacket for a while until you are sliced free.<\/p>\n

Over the comms comes a woman\u2019s voice, saying she\u2019ll help you escape the necromorph threat if you follow her instructions.\u00a0 Super, right?\u00a0 A nice kindly person wants to help you not get dead.\u00a0 Realistically, Isaac should\u2019ve gotten suspicious as soon as she led him through an infested Unitologist Church\u2026 you\u2019ve guessed it!\u00a0 She too is a treacherous baddie!<\/p>\n

Now, I hope you can forgive me for not really explaining the story properly, but what I wanted you to know was that Isaac really seems to have terrible luck when it comes to trusting people.\u00a0 Or, more importantly: trusting women<\/em>.\u00a0 I find it a bit more serious than an unfortunate coincidence that the two people who most obviously betray him are women.\u00a0 Surely this concept is a bit tired by now?<\/p>\n

This ridiculous notion that \u2018we must not trust the womens or they will betray us and bad things will happen\u2019<\/em> has been around for thousands of years and yet here we are in the 21st<\/sup> century still being subjected to it.\u00a0 Why is that?<\/p>\n

Let’s look into the past.\u00a0 If we consider the medium of \u2018a game\u2019 to be a new way of storytelling, perhaps we’re experiencing old tropes that are merely being reimagined into this burgeoning format.\u00a0 If we look back, a long way into history, at Clytemnestra<\/a> and Helen<\/a> (of Troy fame), these two women were, in certain versions of their tales, manipulative, deceitful and traitorous.\u00a0 What happened as a result of their treachery?\u00a0 Bad things<\/strong>, that\u2019s what.<\/p>\n

Through the centuries storytelling has evolved but often still has its roots in these ancient tales \u2013 in more ways than just this example \u2013 so why should games be different?<\/p>\n

Another way to view these female characters and their actions plays out in a more positive light:\u00a0they are ‘strong women’ with important roles, independently-minded enough to choose their own paths, which also involves being smarter than all the men around them in order to remain trusted or to be able to give the orders.<\/p>\n

So how should we see it?\u00a0 Archaic retelling of worn-out old storylines, casting women as dubious, underhanded Judases or powerful, intelligent and self-assured women who just happen to be baddies?<\/p>\n

Or does it even matter, seeing as they both end up dead anyway?<\/p>\n