#pathologic 2 spoilers

[snapshotsfromgorkhon]

I'll marry Caspar. The Kains and the Olgimskys will unite. The Polyhedron, the Bull Enterprise... those were all cruel machines geared to produce utopias. Factories that processed people into ideas. But we'll make a world where people's bones aren't crushed under lofty words.

capella and khan; day 12, diurnal ending

#pathologic #pathologic 2 #diurnal ending #pathologic 2 spoilers #capella #capella olgimskaya #khan #caspar kain #characters #day 12

[averagepathologicenjoyer]

Pathologic 2, imo, has one of the best openings I have ever played in a game. Setting you up by having this wacky looking guy talk to you in this theatre setting about trying again, and not screwing things up this time, giving you another chance (a chance at what?) and your character appearing to know what he's referencing even though you the player know absolutely nothing about what's going on but understanding that something bad must have happened. Then the theatre turns into a makeshift hospital and this sense of dread starts to set in. You can hear people suffering somewhere and you can feel and see that this place is full of death. The few characters that are there talk as though all is lost (what is lost?) and you're told you need to go to the cathedral. You look at your map and inventory. You have barely anything and you're hated everywhere, even from just looking at the map you can feel that this is not what it should look like, it looks wrong.

The red light shows you the exit but...whats outside? If this place is full of suffering and death then how could the outside possibly be any better?

You step outside.

'Day 12, The Last One'

Army tents everywhere, armed guards, crying and screaming in the distance, and the start of a foreboding soundtrack greet you, and you have to get to the cathedral. Moving your way through a destroyed, burning town where the dead line the streets and people are shot and burned in front of you. You talk to Aspity who your character is surprised to see and she seems...disappointed in you.

Is this your fault? Did you cause this? But you've never been here before, you don't know this place, don't know what's going on. You the player are placed into a world that has had everything happen without you and now you are told that you have another chance to do things differently, but all you can do is walk to the cathedral where the 'decision' will be made.

You talk to the Commander and the Inquisitor and there is mention of disease, and that you're a doctor, and there's a bombardment about to happen. You only had 12 days. The decision was made without you.

Then you're on a train, on your way to try again. You haven't even started the game yet, but you already know how it could end.

-

It truly is a masterpiece of an opening and sets the tone for what is to come very well. I knew what was coming and it still made an impact on me and there are few other games that leave that much of an lasting impression on you the first time you play them.

#pathologic 2 #pathologic #pathologic 2 spoilers #god i love these games so much

[mirroredsea]

#inconvenienced myself to get this thought bubble but it was worth it. murky i would die for you but most importantly i would live for you #pathologic 2 spoilers #personal

[thebestpartofwakingup]

My favorite (in this waking moment) aspect of pathologic 2 is Artemy and Rubin’s shared insistence that Isidor was a great teacher but also that he taught them , personally, jack shit —— leading to them both arguing that the other MUST have been taught more because THEY personally don’t know shit and Isidor is such a good teacher that it must be because he was busy teaching THE OTHER BOY so soooo much

#pathologic 2 spoilers #pathologic 2

[9th-nueves]

I dont think any game has managed to freak me out more than Artemy's first entrance to the Termitary in Pathologic 2. I genuinely had to pause the game and stare at the wall for a little bit after talking with Aglaya: i couldnt believe the sheer horror of it all and i had already known why the Termitary was locked.

The Termitary looked fucked up in Patho classic already, with the rusty iron bars, infected people simply waiting to die, the worms and butchers pacing around frantically but almost aimlessly, and the visual and visceral lack of care about anything that happened inside from the rest of the town. They barely had doors; the entire building is a literal block of decrepit cement with all the uncomfortable visuals of a people left to rot far longer than the plague has been in town. Every time i went there i would wince with the reminder that yeah it has the same vibes as the apartment complexes in the poorest zones of my city, and i think pretty intentionally too. Even with the limitations of the era IPL managed to capture what i believe to be a pretty universal image of poverty, and more generally, of marginalization. The Kin very much are the lowest rung of society in Town-On-Gorkhon and nobody has to tell you that if you give a single look to the Termitary. And yet? i can't say i was too shocked when i entered the place. I got a bit uncomfortable with the information given about the situation, but entering the Termitary in Pathologic 2 was -in comparison- a punch to the gut. The sound design of the game in general is extremely good, but the choice to make the OST of the entire place literal screaming and coughing is... something else. It's not even a subtle motif in an actual theme, or a distant scream here and there like in classic, but the ever-present and deafening evidence of what exactly is happening every second you stand inside this place: it drives the horror of it all home with uncanny precision and never lets you, for a single moment, forget what has happened. It's viscerally effective in its simplicity and horribly terrifying in its implications. The Termitary itself looks a bit cleaner to match the general aesthetic of the game, but it doesnt miss the mark with it's visual design either, and i would say the cleanliness of it works to deliver the impact of the sound better. One doesnt exactly expect to enter what looks like a brutishly simple yet not that bad building and be met with the agonized screams of the dying. It even manages to recontextualize the graffiti, which i think normally would be a sign of life and culture trying to persevere even in such terrible conditions (pre-plague), but it becomes terribly morbid with the addition of not only the screaming but the corpses and will-be corpses around the Termitary. It makes them look like the bloody scratches of the desperate at first glance... and perhaps they might be, in part.

#god this part of the game made me feel a little sick actually #its so fucked up i had zero qualms about sending vlad to his death right after #why would anyone want to keep both of those bastards alive is beyond me #i just realized Taya had to live there for DAYS and she's like. 5. #even if they didnt let her get out of the room you can still hear everything its SO messed up what the fuck #pathologic #pathologic 2 #pathologic 2 spoilers

[vampireghostlawyer]

i know there are a lot of theories about the footsteps you hear in isidor's house in patho 2, but does anyone know what the footsteps are in the stillwater when you go looking for dankovsky? like the part where you don't believe eva that he's not upstairs because you hear him, but then when you get there, there's nothing there. who/what was making noises ???

#clem.txt #pathologic 2 #pathologic 2 spoilers #pathologic

[slime-water-shrew]

I just found out what you guys were on about when you mentioned the hug moment (or lack there of) in Pathologic 2. Man, this game has got hands

#pathologic #pathologic spoilers #pathologic2 #pathologic 2 spoilers

[talltarakona]

Day 11 - At The Shelter

#pathologic #pathologic 2 #мор утопия #lara ravel #artemy burakh #pathologic 2 spoilers #tw suicide #tw suicide mention #finally completed a lara hug % run #was so so disappointed at her block plot line but THIS part #this part was good #also her I’m having such anguish getting her reflection to spawn #as much as I love you lara you are keeping me at 95% trophy completion here

[non-threatening-feminist-boy]

I think the best part about showing my friend Pathologic 2 by letting them play the first day, was the part where you go to patch Piecework back together. They were kinda confused with how to do the operation, so I wanted to help by pointing out that you need to remove the "stuff (meaning the lockpick, but i had forgotten the word) he doesn't need anymore" from his body, like Grief said.

Well. They removed the "stuff". As in the lockpick.

And then, before I could say anything, also his liver and brain (which, to be fair, he then didn't need anymore, as correctly pointed out by Artemy). Oh well, happens to the best surgeons, lmao.

(After we we finished laughing we reloaded the last save, so Piecework didn't have to live up to his name more than he already has)

#pathologic #pathologic 2 #no pieceworks were harmed in the making of this post #or at least almost no pieceworks #I'm still laughing at the absurdity of that situation #if you decide to kill him that's fine #but that was not my friends Intention #just looking over at the screen and going #“...don't you think he may still need his liver and brain?” #pathologic spoilers #pathologic 2 spoilers

[greenleaf4stuff]

Incorrect Pathologic #20

Bad Grief (about the dynamite): Why buy that? I can make that at home for half that price.

Artemy: Yeah, but will you?

(Source: @incorrectquoteprompts)

#pathologic #pathologic 2 #pathologic spoilers #pathologic 2 spoilers #incorrect quote #incorrect quotes #incorrect pathologic #incorrect pathologic 2 #bad grief #grigory filin #artemy burakh #the haruspex #grieftemy #(if you squint) #mine

[audipiu]

thinking about how even if you play your cards right, totally, completely, and manage to keep every character alive and infection free by day 12 you still cannot save everyone.

that's what's so compelling about it to me, it's a thankless situation and offers very little closure. you don't know what's going to happen beyond, you don't really know if you made the right choice, and you don't even understand what the hell happened during those 11 days

#pathologic 2 spoilers #just in case #im so obsessed with thid game rn i can't think abt anything else

[snapshotsfromgorkhon]

I've been accused of all sorts of crimes - but I was innocent. There were rumors that I was a looter, that I walked around with a revolver killing people. I guess... I had to prove them right.

day 11; the shelter

#pathologic #pathologic 2 #pathologic 2 spoilers #daniil dankovsky #lara ravel #soldier npc #crow npc #townsfolk #characters #day 11 #the shelter #the town #the flank

[morigory]

So in the Marble nest (Pathologic 2) … Come around the end of day graves with bells and string attached start appearing. I believe they indicate ‚safety coffin.‘ - (as it was pointed out on the wiki page).

There were some other theories yes, but I wanted to focus on how the ‚safety coffins‘ were made to assuage victorian fear of being buried alive. Even if statistically speaking the chance of accidental burial was very slim, some victorians felt compelled enough to create such mechanism - so that the buried could have the option of signaling „not yet“

I felt the many graves with chiming bells echoed with Daniil‘s fear of death. Not wanting to be buried. Being scared of ending up locked up in his demise.

Walking in his coma dream he hears the signaling of unfortunate ones buried too soon. By the end of the day the graves pervade the streets- sound of the bells filling up the town. The hundred ringings of ‚Not yet‘

And it is after walking past resounding chimes can he finally come to accepting ultimatum. The silence of the great beyond.

#pathologic 2 #the marble nest #daniil dankovsky #pathologic 2 spoilers

[mmmthornton]

Thinking about abortion access - specifically how blatant it is that its the only medical procedure to be SO culturally and politically stigmatized - because how could you not right now. Also thinking about Pathologic 2 - specifically the Kin mythology and the Town's superstitions - because I am insane. There's probably a lot that could be done in that setting about bodily autonomy and (spoilers warning for diurnal ending), how Artemy saves the town by destroying the Polyhedron that was connected umbilical-like to the earth AND how that lets the udurgh itself bleed out from the body / town in the process. I think even Yulia has some voice lines in Classic about the nature of the body along those lines, which is why ultimately she's a Humble. Lots to think about, and imo you can tell women were in the writing room for some of these choices.

#pathologic #pathologic 2 spoilers

[thebestpartofwakingup]

Pathologic 2 is so funny because absolutely none of this would be happening if Artemy’s dad didn’t fuck a clearly evil wizard

#pathologic #pathologic 2 spoilers #pathologic 2

[9th-nueves]

After ranting to my friends while streaming day 10 of Pathologic 2 for their confused entertainment, i think i have finally cracked the code regarding why the "Escape with Aglaya" quest always felt so... odd, to me. Like one of those obviously stupid answers in RPGs, in which a character has no reason to pick them, yet the choice is very much still there.

The quest feels, on a fundamental level, like something that can only be chosen out of *spite* and nothing else. Aglaya offers it to you as a way off the railroad of fate, but unlike the fourth wall break ending of Marble Nest, in which the outcome is —if perhaps a bit too meta to draw true conclusions about Daniil's fate— very much a win against Death in Dankovsky's book, this quest feels to me more like... Daniil's spiral into revenge and spite at the end of his route.

Sure, he's going against the wishes of the Powers That Be —and so is Artemy going against the wishes of the Play—, and in doing so, he exercises his freedom of choice in spite of the will of Powers That Be... but is the choice made a *good choice*, just because it's opposite to the desires of his enemy? I don't think so. Daniil very clearly loses in his own ending, when he lets himself be guided by that need to work against the PTB and Aglaya, even if it means fucking himself (and everyone not allied with the utopians) over.

Aglaya's quest in P2 has the *exact* same logic to me. Even putting aside the concerns about Artemy's characterization in that moment, the choice to abandon TOG with Aglaya is an act of free will going against the wishes of the Play, yes, but... is that a good thing, inherently? Aglaya seems to think so, willing to throw away her chance at guaranteeing the destruction of the Polyhedron just for the *chance* of escaping (And, in P1 at least, willing to destroy the Polyhedron in the first place; at the cost of, quite literally, her own life.)

Artemy, however, can say that he cares not if someone else uses his actions to their own purposes, for they are *his* first and foremost. Escaping the Town would make a mockery of fate, yes, but it would also shoot himself in the foot: Burakh would leave his *entire life* behind just... because he can? He certaintly should not, after all: he has kids to care, friends he loves, a plague to cure. Is it worth it to do the wrong thing just because it will hurt your enemy?

I would say Pathologic says "no" to that question. In P2, Aglaya dies in the end, making the whole thing useless, and in the P1 Bachelor Route, Daniil Dankovsky is no more. The path of defiance is presented pretty universally as one of self destruction first, with any actual harm done to the "enemy" very much secondary.

Honestly, i'm starting to see Aglaya's quest as far more significant narratively when you refuse to help her at all. The player *needs* to see this side of Artemy, the one who will stand his ground and do what he believes to be right even if it aligns with the wishes of his greatest foes, be it the Plague, or just the inescapable Fate that binds him to the world of the Town.

#and that's so weird!! videogames dont work like that normally!! #accepting a quest is almost ALWAYS better than refusing one #If nothing else because you will see more #But here taking the quest feels like. Losing. #i used to be very confused at the mere presence of this quest but i really appreciate it now i think #artemy burakh's tormentous nightmare 2.0 #pathologic 2 spoilers #pathologic 2 #pathologic