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macksmediadiary · 1 year

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The Banner Saga 1-3 (2014, 2016, 2018) - 6/6

#video game #strategy #story game #nordic fantasy #dark fantasy

As I just wrote on my main blog: The Banner Saga is a lot of things but at its core it is a story about how our unelected leaders will drain all life from the earth and stoke genocidal war to protect their place in it, but putting our trust in ordinary people against all reason can still save us.

The first game is primarily a statement on how to do "choices matter" in a game, which it does perfectly. There's that little bit of ludonarrative clash as a good player is going to crack the combat and end up with time split between crushing their enemies beneath their heel and navigating a bleak and desperate race to save a growing community. On the other hand, the combat is likely meant to be punishing, and for a long time for most people it will be, in which case it can do a lot to add to that desperation. This aside, it achieves what no other game really has in presenting really engaging choices to the player. The famous first real choice you have to make is how to react to a big stone monster running to kill your daughter - do you call out a warning, fire a warning shot to scare it off, or take a shot yourself hoping against hope to fell it in time? These things are horrifying and utterly alien, they were supposed to be all gone before you were born, can one arrow do anything? But if you do not choose this option, and then double down on it, a young man with a stout heart and shield arm dies protecting your daughter for you, and you miss out on one of many well-written characters for the next three games (and among the strongest combat units especially in game 1). I failed this test the first time, and it took me some time to learn the game's first lesson - in desperate times, any measures less than desperate are pointless.

The choices are mostly of this nature. There is something you clearly and unambiguously want, which is generally to protect your caravan and most importantly your family (which for some reason includes a gentle giant with huge horns who doesn't seem to like anyone else, and may include a well-spoken widow and said stout-hearted boy), but it is unclear how best to do this. With one important exception, there is no "press x to kill the orphan, o to save them" moment; in my first couple playthroughs I had to pause on many choices and mull them over for a long time, unsure what I thought was most practical, or for that matter moral. The Dredge are going to tear through this farm, but does that entitle you to take its supplies by force on your way through first? These people have nowhere to go but to you, but that's because they're outlaws who may be dangerous to your caravan, is that reason enough to condemn them to certain death? After all you've done? The man who betrayed you in the last town has thrown down his weapon and put himself at your mercy, so do you have more mercy or caution within you?

Importantly, the game is smart about how the choices pay off. The outcomes are not predictable per se, but they always feel like logical conclusions from the choices, while serving a thematic purpose. If you just blindly let everyone join your caravan you will get hurt bad, but you will also have a large loyal caravan and ultimately save more people than if you turned everyone away, at great cost. Fiercely protecting your in-group will keep them safe, but the cost, even to them, may be even greater. And trying to do good or be greedy for their own sake can create terrible outcomes for everyone if not thought out well. The theme communicated feels very pragmatic, that being a good leader necessitates great sacrifices, some moral, and that true leadership is a burden that no sane person would want, and no person is clever enough to get right all of the time.

Importantly, Rook and Hakon, the leaders of both caravans, do not seek out leadership, but have it thrust upon them by being trusted by their communities, Rook due to his proximity to the mayor's family and the town's only Varl (aforementioned horned giant, they are very important), and Hakon because of his deep kinship with the previous king of the Varl (while this is mostly a sort of brotherly love, Varl are all men, and the game does not shy away from this type of relationship being the Varl stand-in for romance - I told you, they're important, more below). They do their best throughout, and frequently lament their station. In contrast, the biggest villains in the game's narrative, the governor of Boersgard and fiction's worst brother-in-law, are people who do not have the trust of others, but seek to accumulate power underneath them through coersion and subterfuge. The game is already planting seeds for the overarching theme the latter games will explore in more depths here.

Now, what's with the Varl and Dredge? TBS's Nordic fantasy setting has the absolute best fantacy race dynamics of anything I've ever seen. Humans and Varl are opposed by humanity having women, and therefore a way to reproduce, while Varl have to be created one by one by a God who has died long ago, but live indefinitely. This is already fascinating. The writing goes deep into this divide - almost every disagreement between any Varl and Human comes down to the differences in what kind of legacy are possible for these people, and indeed Varl conflicts like that between Iver and Jorundr are mostly down to disagreements on what the best kind of legacy is, Iver wanting his legacy to be in the people whose lives he touches and Jorundr in the wonders his people built and protected (spoiler: the narrative pushes Iver's view, I think correctly). And while the depth of this divide is never lost, the two are closely connected allies because of how alien the Dredge are. Created by yet another God, the Dredge do not speak as Humans and Varl do, and all we know about them at first is how their fearsome warmongering forced the other races together against them, and now they are conquering the entire world after being quiet for a hundred years... at least in the first game. It already starts to show you the initial narration was unreliable when you encounter that x/o choice I mentioned, a dead Dredge cradling her living infant. While I love that the dialogue if you kill or leave the baby gives you a bit of an out that these things are horrible aliens as far as you know, the rest of the dialogue in this scene is so effective at humanizing stone people called "Dredge" you've been killing for 10+ hours.

In games 2 and 3 the focus is still Iver trying to redeem what he sees as a tainted personal legacy having killed another Dredge infant a century prior, and the other protagonists trying to survive an apocalypse, while villains who seek to hold to or create hierarchies stand as much in their way as the crumbling earth. But adding onto this are some more serious explorations of the evils of hierarchy and xenophobia.

The big reveal is that Eyvind, the helpful demigod-level wizard you've brought to every combat the game lets you, is the game's ultimate antagonist. This is not a "my machinations lay undetected for years" moment, it is more, "I knew this guy had problems but I didn't realize ALL of the problems were his problems!" Trying to save his fellow demigod after she is put to death for trying to control others' minds directly with magic, Eyvind summoned forth this inky blackness and now everyone has to die about it. The answer to "should people have so much power that they can end all of creation over natural consequences for trying to push their already total control over others even further?" is an emphatic "no."

The climate change metaphor isn't central at all, but it's there. While the creators say their chief influence here is Neverending Story, which tracks as the darkness comes from a broken egg for the being that is supposed to swallow the world when it dies so that creation can start again, the corrupting darkness coming from under the earth is very oily, and there is heat beating down from an unmoving sun. This makes the menders big oil, or a group so unnaturally and openly powerful that governors allow them to run the show because to oppose them would be folly. This isn't the primary interpretation, but it fits a lot better than Neverending Story's dulling imagination.

Back to xenophobia. At first it seems like the Dredge are like Card's varelse, beings with minds so alien to Varl and Human that their coexistence is impossible. However, it eventually becomes clear that they are almost closer to humans than Varl, with their ability to reproduce, their similar magic, and, crucially, their language that select humans know how to speak. To me this is a bigger reveal - menders, yes them again, have always been able to negotiate with the similar leaders of the Dredge, but the two groups chose an arrangement of permanent complete segregation and war, and when one Human ruined it for everyone, the Human menders gave no quarter to the Dredge, and let everyone believe they were more stone than person, in hopes that they, and their secrets, would just die first. This arrangement is business as usual. Complete disregard for another kind of person was the motivation the first time, and it's the motivation at the end of the world. I'm not a Dredge. Fuck 'em.

It is up to the protagonists to right this. If you save the Dredge baby, it can be used as a show of goodwill, and you can bring the Dredge refugees - which they always were by the way, refugees of Eyvind's oil spill rather than invaders - into the last city that has any hope of holding back the darkness while Iver brings Eyvind to the scene of the crime in hopes of reversing things.

This is how this game's themes are interwoven. People who try to create and enforce artificial hierarchies through coercive force are evil and people who trust each other despite reasons to fear each other are good. The evil people use xenophobia to commit atrocities, but the good people are able to extend the olive branch and stop them, although it won't always be pretty.

Now of course the games have problems. The Varl are asexual, so it's weird that they all identify as "men." The Horseborn read very "noble savage." Eyvind is written in such a way that a little meow-meow reading is more possible than it should be. But these problems are miniscule compared to its triumphs. The way it communicates its themes is incredible, and it has the most inventive worldbuilding I've ever seen. These are some of the best games ever made.

Now back to my fifth playthrough for that pesky last BS2 achievement!

#the banner saga

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violintrees · 2 years

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Fanfic Writer Appreciation Week

Day 2:

Gen -

The Cotton Candy Incident by @cdarkheartzero - A lot of the IZ cast, Post Florpus, OCs, Multichapter, In Progress

Delightful, fun, intense, well done fic with a lot of good twists and turns and great OCs. Also comes with a bunch of amazing art by the author! Very excited to see where things go next.

Gift of Peace by spaceliquid - The Banner Saga, Post Canon, Three shot

LOOK I finished all 3 long ass Banner Saga games in like 4 days, the story SLAPS & there are so few fics. This author gave EXACTLY what I wanted several times but this is my fav. Its such a sweet and wonderful epilogue. Game spoilers in the tags if you want some context.

Domestic -

Trust Me by Anon - Zadf/r, so much fluff, One shot

DELIGHTFUL short one shot by a mutual who is no longer online. And yes it is set in a hotel which is not exactly domestic but also its my list so I do what I want. Consensual Pak removal and taking care of your partner. So soft.

Smeet Army AU by @palenoface - Zadf to Zadr, Zadr Smeets, READ THE TAGS OF EACH FIC, There are some explicit, but I am still linking to it, Fic Series, In Progress

This series is not all domestic stuff, but again I recommend the entire thing. GREAT disaster domestic family life. Everyone is some flavor of neurodivergent or disabled in this house but they all CARE so much and it SO GOOD. The Zadr is also delightful and goes through a lot of development. Fantastic read.

Pre Canon -

Tales from the Irken empire (and also some other planets) by @myrskytuuli - Tallest Miyuki, Tallests Red and Purple, Zim and Dib, Prof Membrane, Lard Nar, In Progress

Not all pre-canon but again I highly recommend this whole series. I love how this author writes the Irken empire. It feels very alive and takes things from our world while making them fit in this one. I also highly recommend their other IZ fic for similar reasons, though it is Zadr and explicit. Excellent stuff.

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6

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