What Good Looks Like: Trans and Queer Representation in Video Games
DONTNOD’s “Tell Me Why” is a powerful example for the rest of the game industry
DONTNOD’s newest tale tells the story of twins’ past trauma experienced through a clouded lens affected by said trauma. We follow Tyler and Alyson as they uncover the dark past of their mother and the mystery surrounding her death. In the first of three episodes, we’re led to believe that Tyler killed their mother, Mary Ann, in an act of self-defense. He fears she was angry because he was beginning his transition.
If DONTNOD was going for stereotypical tropes, it would’ve cast Tyler as the sibling with poor mental stability as the one who transitioned, thus forcing him to face untraditional elements of life like transphobia from his peers. But Tyler seems far more comfortable in his own skin than his sister; his anger and confusion are only truly ignited when confounding facts about their mother’s death fly out of left field. Even when facing Sam’s inappropriate comments: “I just didn’t know they could make a woman look so much like a man.” Tyler is able to stay calm, albeit a bit guarded.
It’s clear that Mary Ann was a troubled person, needing help that her peers were unable to deliver and resulting in a horrible breakdown moments before her death. But what caused this breakdown? Tyler’s always thought it was due to the first step in his transition: cutting off his hair. While at juvenile hall up in Fireweed for the murder of their mother, he was able to get professional help so that, by the time he reached adulthood, he would come to complete terms with who he is and his life.
But Alyson isn’t quite in the same boat. Of course, this is due to the revelation that she was actually the sibling who stabbed their mother, not Tyler. Tyler only covered it up to save Alyson, and she continued to live with the guilt over the next ten years. As Tyler wants to hunt for answers, Alyson drops hints that the investigation makes her uneasy, that she doesn’t want to “dig up that nightmare for no reason.” While Tyler wants to openly communicate with his sister about the issues of the past, Alyson is quick to respond by suppressing those memories. Tyler is straightforward with Alyson, while she sometimes passive-aggressively projects her anger onto Tyler.
She’s rightfully angry and, at times, unstable about many of the different issues currently upending her life. Of course, to start, whether or not killing their mother was the right choice. But she’s also confused about her relationship with Tyler over the last several years. Though Tyler had graduated from Fireweed, he never visited her nor invited his sister to visit him. Instead of reaching out to her brother for answers beforehand or talking to a professional about it, bottling up her feelings causes her to close off and boil unnecessary fears. She feels that she’s taken Tyler’s life away from him, while in reality, her brother doesn’t feel this way at all. And it doesn’t help that Eddy, her father figure, denied her acceptance letter to a fine arts education behind her back. She goes on to believe she simply didn’t get accepted, thus making her believe that she’s “wasting her life,” she says to Tyler. What could’ve been a great opportunity further sent her into a downward mental spiral, because she didn’t receive the same therapy that Tyler had.
It’s her suppression of memories and feelings that can change the direction of the game. As Alyson slowly becomes more unhinged as the game moves forward, we see her second-guess memories and information because of the trauma she’s endured without help for so many years. Oftentimes, states of intense stress or fear can result in either more intensely vivid memories, or in Tell Me Why’s case, impaired memories. The player is given a hint that this is the case when Alyson tries to navigate Tyler underneath their house but ends up pointing him in the wrong direction.
In the third act, we’re shown Alyson’s real struggle with anxiety implode due to the twins' need to revisit the mystery of their mother and father. Confronting past trauma is never easy, and although Tyler may get worked up or confused at times, Alyson has panic attacks, surfacing terrifying fears surfacing and presenting themselves almost like real memories. Her best friend Michael steps in at this point to ask her — in the perfect way that a friend should — if Alyson has ever considered seeing a therapist without any kind of judgment. It opens up the organic conversation that she should see someone about what she’s struggling with while still being a supportive friend. Though Tyler doesn’t directly tell her to see a professional, he implies this as well by explaining how the staff at Fireweed helped him come to terms with himself.
Whether or not Alyson overcomes her overwhelming anxiety depends on how we play the twins’ relationship throughout Tell Me Why, but both endings support the same message: that getting the help you need will benefit your wellbeing.
Though only a small percentage of players receive this ending, according to Tell Me Why’s decision statistics at the end of the chapter, if Tyler and Alyson’s bond has been weakened enough, we play the final ending as Alyson, alone in their mother’s house while Tyler is living happily in Juneau. She’s struggling to get regular tasks or work done and she’s seemingly shutting out those close to her, like Sam and Eddy. She still holds resentment in her heart towards those around her, including her mother. We see that Alyson has taken over her mom’s mental illness. She no longer sleeps in the twins’ bedroom upstairs. Rather, she has taken over Mary Ann’s bedroom, symbolizing that she’s taken over Mary Ann’s unhinged lifestyle. “Once upon a time, in an ancient and deep forest, there lived a solitary goblin in a big, wooden house,” the final lines of the game will say.
But in a much happier spin of events, if the twins’ bond has been supported throughout the game, Alyson will stop the cycle put in place by their mother and Mary Ann’s mother. Rather than struggling mentally any longer, we play as Tyler and learn that Alyson is thriving in Juneau. She’s so enraptured with her new job that she doesn’t have time to help Tyler move out of the house, but he’s happy to support her and do it himself. This happens because Alyson has been seeing a therapist, we learn. According to her, she’s enjoying seeing Gail and is actively participating in the personal work she’s been assigned, seeing the improvements it’s making in her life.
DONTNOD excels in progressive narratives. By working with GLAAD to make sure it hit the mark on its accurate portrayals of transgender and queer men, Tell Me Why was able to support Tyler’s journey wholeheartedly. And by once again working with mental health professionals as DONTNOD has in the past, Alyson gives us a message that many players may need to hear.
