Discussion YMMV / NightInTheWoods

Seeing how I made the original post, I suppose I should give my perspective.

To clarify, the three entities you speak of are the Astral Cat, the Black Goat/Void, and the janitor? If I recall, the game heavily implies that the Astral Cat was the game's "God", when Mae flat-out says that it's what others call God to Karen, and continue to call it so later. Angus is portrayed as unassuming and thoughtful, while Pastor K's religion, aside from being impotent, is also shallow and vague. But there are the other scenes and characters to consider, along with various interpretations on the entities, so I'm probably wrong.

As for capitalism... ugh. I hardly even know what "capitalism" and "socialism" are anymore, so I don't know why I'm talking. But I'll take a crack at it. The game had already seemed to be showing a left-wing slant, but nothing irregular. But having the only outspoken conservatives be the villains, a person-sacrificing cult that goes into a motive rant about government regulations, immigrants and "lazy people" pushed it over the edge for me. Bea even gets to call them out on being well off, despite neither she or the player even knowing exactly who they are.

But I guess any work about "capitalism" would be divisive. Maybe add a note about how the cult pushed it too far?

Firstly: Thanks for fixing the commenting out. ^_^

There's nothing to suggest that the Cat is actually the god of the setting's main religion (it could easily be the Janitor, with the Cat being a Demiurge sort of figure). The game's also very much an existentialist/absurdist story; the point isn't "there's no God, lol"; it's "the universe is a cold place and a god may not exist, but belief in a god can still be meaningful".

And, TBH, I think the fact that we can have this discussion proves that the execution has too much subtly to be anvilicious, whether or not you like that concept.

As for its economic policy; it's a game made by people from, and about the decline of rust belt towns. There's repeated mentions of the importance of unions, the damage corrupt capitalists (NB; I'm using this in the sense of "someone who actually owns mines, factories and other important infrastructure they make money off", not just "someone who likes capitalism as a system") do (and how unions oppose that).

The whole point of their motive rant, IMO, is that they have a very shallow understanding of the problems at hand (hence why they scapegoat immigrants, etc; which ties into why they're happy to murder people they thing don't matter). Not "conservative views are bad".

Yeah, I think I understand what you're saying. I still find the cult jarring, especially their rant. Is immigration even a prominent political topic in the Rust Belt? I think it deserves a mention, but I won't die on this hill.

I'll die anywhere else.

10/10 reference.

They literally mention immigrants once, in their motive rant. It's fairly clear it's just another scapegoat they're throwing in (the whole false community thing ties nicely into the cast being friends despite their flaws and occasional strain on their relationships).

In that case, I'll let it be.

I removed the Anvilicious entries and moved the quote to the Acceptable Political Targets. Does it look fine?

Fine by me.