Horizon Forbidden West and the Shady Lady
Mar. 25th, 2022 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrSo after some time, and seeing other people's opinions, I do have to agree that Horizon: Forbidden West is overall not as fun or interesting a game as Horizon: Zero Dawn. Some things I didn't mention in my review I've seen other people point out are the underwritten AI and simplistic jingoism.
But what I haven't seen people talk about is the VERY PROBLEMATIC FEMSLASHINESS that I QUITE APPRECIATED.
There's no way to talk about it without major spoilers, but I will say before the cut that it's not worth playing the game for, the plot is mostly helping quasi-Aztecs fight robot dinosaurs etc and the main character has no canon romance with anyone. But given that I was playing the game anyway, it was an added bonus.
Content notes: it's hard to explain without spoilers but like...very unhealthy f/f!
MAJOR SPOILERS!
So, in short: the final boss of Horizon Forbidden West is the 20 year old protagonist Aloy's clone-mother's 1000 year old ex-girlfriend, who has decided to kidnap Aloy and take her into space with her while the rest of humanity dies, saying "You'll forgive me in a few centuries".
(Aloy says no and shoots her in the face)
In more depth:
The games are set in the far future, 1000 years after an apocalypse wiped out all of humanity.
The only reason there's any life now is due to the hard work of Elisabet Sobeck, an aloof but doggedly ethical and hard-working scientist who quickly recognised that humanity was doomed and set up cloning facilities etc to repopulate the earth with humans and nature once it was safe. Throughout both games, Elisabet is held up as an icon of decency, intelligence, and determination: humanity at its best.
The protagonist, Aloy, was created 20 years ago when the system Elizabet set up started breaking down after a thousand years, and needed someone with Elisabet's DNA to reset various things.
And then it turns out the REASON things are breaking down is that a bunch of rich people who fucked off into space during the apocalypse have come back, still alive thanks to medical tech, and appear to be planning to kill all human life and terraform Earth into their ideal planet because they broke their own planet.
The rich people made their own teen Elisabet clone, Beta, to unlock everything so they can use the reset button.
Aloy rescues Beta but finds her hard to relate to due to the intense PTSD of being created as a door-unlocker by a bunch of immortal psychopaths having made Beta nervy and depressed. But eventually Aloy realises Beta just needs love and compassion and protection and they form a sweet sisterly bond.
Beta says the only immortal who ever spoke to her like a person was Tilda, who was an old feriend of Elisabet's and created a secret place for them to hang out. Tilda kept inviting her there and wanting her to look at Tilda's collection of 17th century Dutch art. But Beta, being a teenager, was more interested in video games. And then one day Tilda just suddenly stopped showing up, and after that ignored Beta like it never happened.
During a big fight against the immortals, one of Aloy's friends is killed (...the black guy, sigh) and Beta is recaptured. Just as it looks like they're about to kill Aloy, Tilda intervenes and rescues Aloy and flies off with her comatose body.
Aloy wakes in Tilda's house, where Tilda shows her her art collection and plays classical music and sets up this fancy breakfast and starts talking about how Aloy is like Elisabet but better. Once Tilda saw what Aloy was like, she was inspired to switch sides.
Aloy's like...so you were ok with all of humanity being killed before that? Tilda changes the subject and says she loves how Aloy has all of Elisabet's moral core and drive to save humanity. Tilda regrets that she got separated from Elisabet. But now they can work together to fulfil Elisabet's dream!
She eventually admits she and Elisabet dated but Elisabet wasn't able to ever really connect with her, and she's pined for Elisabet ever since. She doesn't SAY she's into Aloy but it is heavily implied. Aloy seems uncomfortable with this but is just as uncomfortable when dudes hit on her.
Tilda cheerfully helps Aloy murder all the other immortals. But Aloy doesn't trust her and gets Beta and her hot female hacker friend Alva to look into things more and discovers the immortals' home planet was destroyed by an AI they created that is coming after them and plans to destroy them AND the Earth.
When confronted, Tilda says well yes, but we can still fulfill Elisabet's dream: you and me go into space and find a new planet and recreate humanity there! It seems harsh but you'll forgive me. I've spent 1000 years wishing things had gone better with Elisabet, and you're like her but even better, not just some failed clone.
Tilda says all this RIGHT IN FRONT OF BETA without even acknowledging she's THERE.
And then she gets into her nano-mecha suit and there's a big fight and Aloy kills her with a souped up bow and arrow. The game ends with Aloy and Beta working together to prepare for the arrival of the evil AI, with Aloy's voice-over happy she's no longer alone. THE END.
It was so delightfully weird!
Especially the long stretch of game where Tilda is just...at your base, another companion to chat to, always friendly but a little off, somehow.
Also looking back and knowing Tilda was like "So we have this 15ish year old clone of my ex-girlfriend with noone else to talk to... I will go befriend her :) Encourage her to grow up right :) ...Oh wait, she's all traumatised and not into art, never mind." *drops Beta like a stone*
Throughout the game Tilda implies she has a conscience but looking back she just thinks excessive cruelty and murder is gauche, and finds other women having a conscience sexy.
Here's the breakfast scene if you want to see the Vibe and hear Carrie Ann Moss play a morally grey yet sparkly immortal queer lady from the future.
I would be more bothered by the Evil Lesbian trope except all the other immortals are even more evil, and the only ones with any lines are white dudes of no specified sexuality (some Asian/Black/female immortals show up briefly in the final battle just to immediately die YAY). Plus it turns out that perfect saintly Elisabet is a wlw as well, even if, like Aloy, she comes across as having been kinda aro (and is also long dead). And there's non-evil wlw: one of the main companions mentions having a girlfriend back home, as does a woman you help with a quest. And of course there's the implication that Aloy herself (plus Beta) is plausibly into women herself, and she's definitely always given off lesbian-leaning wtfromantic vibes to me.
Like, I'm not saying it's GREAT representation but overall, I'm not bothered. It's certainly better than the representation of Indigenous people, phew.
And if you want less messed up shippy f/f dynamics, there's Aloy and Alva, the cute nerdy quasi-Ancient-Chinese scientist who thinks Aloy is the bees knees. Sure, Alva is the companion who mentions having a girlfriend back home but THEY COULD BREAK UP.
Though one of the women Aloy was very shippy with the in last game turns out to be hung up on her previously-unmentioned ex boyfriend. But they DO break up, so! She's single now!
I checked out fic based on the new game on the AO3 and afaict most people ship Aloy with the Hot Noble Warrior Guy Kotallo, who is initially gruffly angsty about losing an arm but develops a very cute comradeship with Aloy that can definitely be read as shippy. But there was some Very Problematic Aloy/Tilda and Beta/Tilda, as well as rather fluffier Tilda/Elisabet. And there is now ONE Aloy/Alva fic, last time I checked there was none.
ANYWAY.
But what I haven't seen people talk about is the VERY PROBLEMATIC FEMSLASHINESS that I QUITE APPRECIATED.
There's no way to talk about it without major spoilers, but I will say before the cut that it's not worth playing the game for, the plot is mostly helping quasi-Aztecs fight robot dinosaurs etc and the main character has no canon romance with anyone. But given that I was playing the game anyway, it was an added bonus.
Content notes: it's hard to explain without spoilers but like...very unhealthy f/f!
MAJOR SPOILERS!
So, in short: the final boss of Horizon Forbidden West is the 20 year old protagonist Aloy's clone-mother's 1000 year old ex-girlfriend, who has decided to kidnap Aloy and take her into space with her while the rest of humanity dies, saying "You'll forgive me in a few centuries".
(Aloy says no and shoots her in the face)
In more depth:
The games are set in the far future, 1000 years after an apocalypse wiped out all of humanity.
The only reason there's any life now is due to the hard work of Elisabet Sobeck, an aloof but doggedly ethical and hard-working scientist who quickly recognised that humanity was doomed and set up cloning facilities etc to repopulate the earth with humans and nature once it was safe. Throughout both games, Elisabet is held up as an icon of decency, intelligence, and determination: humanity at its best.
The protagonist, Aloy, was created 20 years ago when the system Elizabet set up started breaking down after a thousand years, and needed someone with Elisabet's DNA to reset various things.
And then it turns out the REASON things are breaking down is that a bunch of rich people who fucked off into space during the apocalypse have come back, still alive thanks to medical tech, and appear to be planning to kill all human life and terraform Earth into their ideal planet because they broke their own planet.
The rich people made their own teen Elisabet clone, Beta, to unlock everything so they can use the reset button.
Aloy rescues Beta but finds her hard to relate to due to the intense PTSD of being created as a door-unlocker by a bunch of immortal psychopaths having made Beta nervy and depressed. But eventually Aloy realises Beta just needs love and compassion and protection and they form a sweet sisterly bond.
Beta says the only immortal who ever spoke to her like a person was Tilda, who was an old feriend of Elisabet's and created a secret place for them to hang out. Tilda kept inviting her there and wanting her to look at Tilda's collection of 17th century Dutch art. But Beta, being a teenager, was more interested in video games. And then one day Tilda just suddenly stopped showing up, and after that ignored Beta like it never happened.
During a big fight against the immortals, one of Aloy's friends is killed (...the black guy, sigh) and Beta is recaptured. Just as it looks like they're about to kill Aloy, Tilda intervenes and rescues Aloy and flies off with her comatose body.
Aloy wakes in Tilda's house, where Tilda shows her her art collection and plays classical music and sets up this fancy breakfast and starts talking about how Aloy is like Elisabet but better. Once Tilda saw what Aloy was like, she was inspired to switch sides.
Aloy's like...so you were ok with all of humanity being killed before that? Tilda changes the subject and says she loves how Aloy has all of Elisabet's moral core and drive to save humanity. Tilda regrets that she got separated from Elisabet. But now they can work together to fulfil Elisabet's dream!
She eventually admits she and Elisabet dated but Elisabet wasn't able to ever really connect with her, and she's pined for Elisabet ever since. She doesn't SAY she's into Aloy but it is heavily implied. Aloy seems uncomfortable with this but is just as uncomfortable when dudes hit on her.
Tilda cheerfully helps Aloy murder all the other immortals. But Aloy doesn't trust her and gets Beta and her hot female hacker friend Alva to look into things more and discovers the immortals' home planet was destroyed by an AI they created that is coming after them and plans to destroy them AND the Earth.
When confronted, Tilda says well yes, but we can still fulfill Elisabet's dream: you and me go into space and find a new planet and recreate humanity there! It seems harsh but you'll forgive me. I've spent 1000 years wishing things had gone better with Elisabet, and you're like her but even better, not just some failed clone.
Tilda says all this RIGHT IN FRONT OF BETA without even acknowledging she's THERE.
And then she gets into her nano-mecha suit and there's a big fight and Aloy kills her with a souped up bow and arrow. The game ends with Aloy and Beta working together to prepare for the arrival of the evil AI, with Aloy's voice-over happy she's no longer alone. THE END.
It was so delightfully weird!
Especially the long stretch of game where Tilda is just...at your base, another companion to chat to, always friendly but a little off, somehow.
Also looking back and knowing Tilda was like "So we have this 15ish year old clone of my ex-girlfriend with noone else to talk to... I will go befriend her :) Encourage her to grow up right :) ...Oh wait, she's all traumatised and not into art, never mind." *drops Beta like a stone*
Throughout the game Tilda implies she has a conscience but looking back she just thinks excessive cruelty and murder is gauche, and finds other women having a conscience sexy.
Here's the breakfast scene if you want to see the Vibe and hear Carrie Ann Moss play a morally grey yet sparkly immortal queer lady from the future.
I would be more bothered by the Evil Lesbian trope except all the other immortals are even more evil, and the only ones with any lines are white dudes of no specified sexuality (some Asian/Black/female immortals show up briefly in the final battle just to immediately die YAY). Plus it turns out that perfect saintly Elisabet is a wlw as well, even if, like Aloy, she comes across as having been kinda aro (and is also long dead). And there's non-evil wlw: one of the main companions mentions having a girlfriend back home, as does a woman you help with a quest. And of course there's the implication that Aloy herself (plus Beta) is plausibly into women herself, and she's definitely always given off lesbian-leaning wtfromantic vibes to me.
Like, I'm not saying it's GREAT representation but overall, I'm not bothered. It's certainly better than the representation of Indigenous people, phew.
And if you want less messed up shippy f/f dynamics, there's Aloy and Alva, the cute nerdy quasi-Ancient-Chinese scientist who thinks Aloy is the bees knees. Sure, Alva is the companion who mentions having a girlfriend back home but THEY COULD BREAK UP.
Though one of the women Aloy was very shippy with the in last game turns out to be hung up on her previously-unmentioned ex boyfriend. But they DO break up, so! She's single now!
I checked out fic based on the new game on the AO3 and afaict most people ship Aloy with the Hot Noble Warrior Guy Kotallo, who is initially gruffly angsty about losing an arm but develops a very cute comradeship with Aloy that can definitely be read as shippy. But there was some Very Problematic Aloy/Tilda and Beta/Tilda, as well as rather fluffier Tilda/Elisabet. And there is now ONE Aloy/Alva fic, last time I checked there was none.
ANYWAY.
