u/_Ryloren_

In case you don't know, this is that dark comedy/psychological horror indie game for a few years back that had a bunch of people online freak out over the fact that incest was one of the core themes of the story.

Now, my first thought has always been: In a game that includes topics like murder, child murder, child abuse/neglect, cannibalism, cannibalism of ones own parents, selling your kids lives for cash and much more, why is incest the one you'd be morally outraged over? Like I feel like it's not even in the top 5 of morally bad things that this game covers.

But more importantly, the fact this is y'know, fiction. It's not real. Why would you get outraged over a theme in a story in the first place, regardless of what it is? I'm a writer, so the concept of not being allowed to handle certain themes because people think they're "gross" is infuriating to me. My stance has always been that any theme is allowed, as long as the execution is done well. The execution is the only thing that should be worth talking about, and in Coffins case, I think it handles it well.

That being said, I've seen some of the people who try to virtue signal over this game claim that it "glorifies incest," "is just a porn game," or "uses incest just for shock value." Anyone who says this has never played the game or thinks watching a video is like playing the game, because anyone who has actually played the game knows none of that is true. There's no explicit material, nearly all characters in the game react with disgust to the incest (even Andrew in a way) and Ashley only wants it as a tool to keep Andrew close, it's hinted at throughout the game and plays a key part in it's narrative. Incest isn't really treated as anything different than any of the other bad things the two do. Yes, it's hinted at that it can lead to them being happy (but also is showcased to result in them getting the worst ending possible, either hating each others guts or suicide), but considering how bad these two people actually are, isn't them being happy in the first place a bad thing? At best you could say that Coffin is neutral on incest. It doesn't present as either good or bad, just another complex aspect of the lifes of these two people who's lives are filled with complex aspects.

I think one of the problems is the fact that people think there's some kind of message to be found in Coffin. And yeah, technically there is, like don't neglect your kids. But I think Coffins main goal is just to say "Alright, here's these two characters, here's why they're all fucked up, let's see how this goes." It's not telling you that incest is good. At best it's saying that for these two people to make the best out of their horrid situation is to accept how they feel about each other. Is that morally right? No, but neither is anything else they've done up until that point. They're horrible people, their happiness isn't gonna be magically normal when their entire journey up until that point has been the exact opposite of normal. Either way, if this qualifies as the game treating incest as something good, then by that logic the game also treats the other vile shit they do as good, yet I never hear Coffin being called as a "child murder glorification game"

If you're not interested because it grosses you out, there's nothing wrong with that. I tend to not handle rape well in stories, so I tend to avoid stories that have rape. But getting morally outraged and trying to virtue signal a story, especially a dark psychological horror story over what you can and can't handle in fictional media? Yeah nah

Can't believe liking this game has gotten me harassed numerous times man

 

I've had it happens a few times.

First time was when I posted something to r/creepypms, as soome dude was being weird in my DMs because I posted my face. Someone then left a comment saying something among the lines of like "Hey everyone just to let you know OP likes TCOAAL so obviously they don't deserve to get harassed just bare that in mind," which y'know, has some weird implications.

Second time was when I made a post of an trans anime girl with the caption if these looks are promised to me when I get HRT (this post was a joke mostly btw). Someone then replied by asking me if my mom was hot (because apperantly E makes you look like your mom which doesn't make a lot of sense to me but whatever). When I expressed discomfort at that question, someone hit me with the "ur pfp is from the incest game" gotcha, which may have been a joke tbf, but a lot of the replies werent. People genuinely thought it was absurd that I feel less uncomfortable with fictional media and their themes than with the question if my very real mom is "hot."

Beyond that it was just weak gotchas from people who don't have anything else to say back to me.