[Divinity: Original Sin] It hits harder, when you had a good laugh before
This is the second of four articles, I plan to write about the Video Game „Divinity: Original Sin“, the fifth game in the entire „Divinity“-Franchise by the belgish developer Larian Studios. The maintopic of the articles will be the writing of the game, but I also try to implement the gameplay, if it is possible. I’m talking about the original game and the „Enhaced Edition“ from last year. Every article will be written in english.
I wrote in my first article, that the more silly aspects of a world can help to make it more believable. I used the talking Shell Ishmashell as an example and will use another concrete example for this article to discuss, how humor can lead to more darker, more hardhitting situations.
By the way: SPOILERS AHEAD. If you haven’t play the game, play it now, if you want to experience the story unspoiled.
Good humor is as hard to write, as good drama. Escpecially if the joke has also to fit the tone of the game. Humor is also a good souce of sympathy. If we can laugh about somebodys joke, we think more fondly of this person. A good example for tone and sympathy in „Original Sin“ is the Source Hunter Madora.
Madora is a possible companion and at first seems to be just a crazy old lady, that makes paranoid assumptions about everyone. Humans, Orcs cats, nobody is safe. I don’t think, that most player take her seriously through their first playthrough. Even in the game she is treated more like an eccentric aunt by characters like Bairdotir, another possible cvompanion. You can talk about her prejudices and call her out on it and still don’t take her seriously, because this is „Divinity: Original Sin“, a lighthearted game. Every one is a bit crazy. Talking shells and all that, remember? Then we get into the last area of the game: Hunters Edge.
Hunter’s Edge was once a small village, whose inhabitants were killed by Orcs. Madora hates Orcs and at Hunter’s Edge we learn why: she was alsmost killed by them and could only rescue herself thorugh dark magic. But on our travels, we met at least two nice Orcs and since this is an RPG, we still can heal her from her hate. Because this is a Video Games, traumas can be shrugged of in five minutes of dialogue. No biggy.
When you arrive at Hunters Edge, the mood of the game has finally changed. What once was an murder mystery at the beginning, may become now a personal quest for redemption, for your characters, the world or even the antagonist (more on that, in the next article). The „Enhanced Edition“ made an better job on this point than the original and became a way more darker story and it also made an better job on the resolution of Madoras personal Quest.
What is this personal quest? Killing the Orc, who almost killed her. His name is Norok and you can find him alone in the inn of Hunter’s Edge. Then it gets complicated. Norok is not only big and strong, he’s also mentally handicapped. He was it even before the fight with Madora. He killed a lot of people, but he considered it „playing“ with new friends, without meaning harm to anyone, Madora included. After talking Shells and Madoras „funny“ ramblings about evil cats, we are confronted with a really difficult situation, were it is not clear what to do. The game has a lot of quests, were right and wrong are not clearly defined, but in this case it’s especially hard, because Norok did horrible things, because his leader, who is also his mother and queen, made him do it. Can he really be responsible for his deeds? Personally, I think not and I would like to think, that most players decided that killing him would be wrong. But since he is a very deadly opponent it is still understandable to kill him.
For this article it is important to take a closer look, how Madora reacts to him. And now we come to the hardhitting part. Like I’ve written, there a lot of jokes in this game. Some are smart, some are really silly, but the feel of the game is still lighthearted and you can convince Madora to let him live. This is a mechanical thing, Madora just has to be everywhere where you talk about mercy and sparing orcs. But it is also possible for Madora to agree with you … and still kill Norok! In the „Enhanced Edition“ he cries a lot and is calling for his mother, the matriarch, when you fight him. Besides some experience points, you get no rewards for the deed ( no reward I can remember).
This became the most memorable moment of the game for me, when I played the „Enhanced Edition“ last year. I felt so bad about it, I reloaded the fight and did it again. We still killed the Norok. I felt really depressed through the rest of the game and it fit the mood of it’s last third. On a mechanical level, it happened because I missed to carry Madora to another scene, were she could have learned about the benefits of forgiveness. But narrativewise it makes so much sence for her character, that this became one of my favorite examples for good writing in „Original Sin“.
It hits hard not only because we know now the source of Madoras „laughable“ quirks, but because we learned to like her through this quirks. Her killing Norok shows how badly hurt she really is, even if she believes that redemption is possible. But not this time, she argues. Even if she doesn’t kill Norok for revenge, he may kill again, even without the orders of his mother. Because he doesn’t know what he is doing. Madora was hurt that much by this experience, that she can’t let him live. And we may still don’t agree with her on this, but we know now where she comes from. Even when we laughed about it, her pain was real. The world of Divinity may be a more fantastical place, but the people in it suffer as much, as the people on earth. It makes them more believable and in this case, it hits hard, when we understand, that this “funny” character was maybe scared forever by this experience. Maybe it isn’t so funny anymore, when we start another playthrough and Madora is rambling on about the dangers of the world again.
She knows what she is talking about.
Next time, I will write more about the actual story of „Original Sin“ and how it and the „Enhanced Edition“ tell completely different stories, while following the same script.
