u/throwsawayes

ic; ivan and andrew standing facing away from each other, but both looking over their shoulders to gaze at each other. on their respective sides, ivan has four pictures; chocolate, someone spraying pesticides in a field, a bonfire, and clorox bleach. on adnrew's side is a dog, flowers, a moth, and ammonia. in the background, the words \"i forgive you\" is repeated 7 times.

this piece took me about 2 hours! my tumblr is @ rhyth55 and my twitter is @ rhyth55_ ! haven't posted this anywhere but here yet :D

i finally replayed the game after a while and this game has made a huge impact on me again. i relate very very heavily to andrew and i love the way this game portrays abuse and just how well it makes you feel for both of the characters. as someone who's been in a situation adjacent to andrew's, i love love how it doesn't just explore his perspective.

one thing i think a lot of abuse stories try not to touch on is the perspective of the abuser out of fear of making them seem more "relatable" or understandable, but that's always the main issue with stories like that. people like ivan could be quite literally anybody you know, and i think Bad Things does a fantastic job at portraying that. ivan and andrew's varying perspectives of the situation are both balanced in ways that doesn't prioritize one over the other, and ivan's perspective is very, very well done, and even makes you feel bad for just playing the game as him at times. (which is something not a lot of games manage to do!)

this isn't to say (obviously) that ivan is by any means a good or entirely understandable person. in fact, i think that people give him a little too much credit and feel a little too bad for him when it comes to any form of analyses of his character. he directly placed himself in a situation that the game makes clear is his fault, but i feel like a lot of people miss this point, especially with his suicide at the end of the game. ivan does have comprehensible motivations, but the game doesn't treat them as good or empathetic. there is a very cut and dry difference between comprehensive and empathetic, and Bad Things hits this difference nearly perfectly.

i just love this game a normal amount. i could go on and on about my own analysis about both ivan and andrew, but i think i'd rather make that it's own post in the future ^_^ feel free to respond with your own thoughts! i love hearing other people's interpretations of their relationship and how the game treats them.

bonus doodle for reading to the end;

ic; colorless drawing of andrew and ivan lying next to each other in a field under a starry sky, ivan holding an axe and andrew with a wound in his head. inside of the wound looks like cake. ivan asks him \"do u like the stars andrew?\" and andrew doesn't respond.