Alright, it's time for a thread of all the deaths in @ThunderLotus' #Spiritfarer, ranked by how sad they are. Naturally, spoilers abound. You have been warned! Of course, as with any thread ranking events by emotion, everything I say is pure, objective fact.

THREAD:

#10: Elena

I actually didn't hate her, though I know a lot of people do. I just... didn't care when she left. It wasn't because she was mean (though she was) or because she wouldn't let you hug her (though she wouldn't). She just enters the game super late.

Unless you miss a party member earlier (and they're hard to miss), you'll pick her up last. By that point you are likely almost finished with the game. Not only that, but you finish her quest line quickly, so you won't get a lot of time to know her. She's in and out.

9: Giovanni

This is another case of not really getting to know the guy. Maybe I missed a quest that would give me more character information, but the vast, vast majority you're likely to see of Giovanni is negative, especially his relationship with Astrid.

So while I enjoyed his presence on my boat, I didn't really miss him once he left. It was like losing touch with an old friend who wasn't that close in the first place. An "oh yeah, that guy - he was fun, huh" sort of emotion.

8: Mickey

Another character that many people dislike, but I found he (and Bruce) really grew on me. In a game full of great character writing, Bruce and Mickey stood out. Here, let me explain a bit for the people who didn't play the game and yet are purposefully reading all these spoilers:

Bruce and Mickey are brothers. Mickey is the big bull, while Bruce is the hummingbird. Mickey was hospitalized with a brain injury and is, basically, a vegetable. Bruce, however, can't accept it and keeps trying to get you to do things for him.

Both of them were (most likely) in the mob in life, so Bruce puts on a tough-guy exterior to hide the real emotions he feels fighting the fact his brother is never going to be the same again. When the duo leaves your boat, it's only really Mickey leaving.

Bruce just has to come to terms with the fact that his closest friend and anchor in a chaotic, violent world is now gone and he's alone. He feels weak and stupid and projects that onto you when he verbally insults you and the other crew since he can't handle his own feelings.

I was surprised to feel anything at all for the character, but I did. Bruce/Mickey was the only person (two people I guess) who just couldn't accept the inevitability of death. This felt more real to me than most everyone else being totally fearless in the face of it.

Okay, now we get to some more bittersweet deaths -

7: Summer

One issue I had with Summer is that she annoyed me, personally, because she was hard to feed (though not as bad as Elena). Also when she didn't want a hug she'd talk about her chakras not being in alignment and my eyes can only roll so hard.

But she's so into life and cultivating nature. While on your boat, she helps grow food with you. And in "real life" she suffered a sickness that is hinted at being caused by proximity to harmful chemicals encountered at her job.

Perhaps she turned to naturopathic solutions as a result, feeling distrustful of any manmade remedies. However, that just worsened her condition until she finally succumbed, feeling like she failed her departed wife/lover (?) for not being strong-willed enough to face her death.

I would have felt more emotional but her serenity once she accepts it's time to go had a calming effect on me. Summer was so blithe in the face of death that you couldn't help but feel the same way in response. All things end, indeed.

6: Gustav

I get some *major* "Sunday in the Park With George" vibes from this guy. He's an artist and materialist who sees meaning as something we create that outlasts us, in our art. So he's strangely cheerful, even as he deteriorates.

Life has dealt him a rough hand, as he is an invalid for the latter part of it (if not a majority - hard to tell). But his body is just a shell. The things he creates will outlast him and be a testament to his mind and personality, things that were not hindered in life.

Gustav has a sense of purpose moreso than the other characters, who generally despair at the thought of missed opportunities. His questline is less about letting him have one last great meal or one last great cruise, but about allowing him to create one last work of art.

It's not to say his view of death is very different from everyone else on the boat. But he handles his fear differently. He fears less being dead as much as being forgotten.

Yeah, he's a bit of a pretentious weirdo, but I like that. That's why I listen to Sondheim and play Jonathan Blow games. He doesn't feel the need to change who he is to please anyone else. He only has the one shot to make his life count, so he's going to make it count.

Okay, I'm going to add more to this thread in a sec here. Twitter only lets me do so many at once.

5: Gwen

She's the first character you get and consequently the one you get to know early on. Gwen helps you learn how the game works and guides you throughout the early portions. You are also forced to let her go to the other side first. (I tried to do anyone else first but you can't.)

Consequently her departure marks the moment in the game where you feel truly on your own. Your mentor, essentially, has left you. Well, if she behaved like a mentor, perhaps her departure would not have been so bittersweet.

Under all her dialogue is a current of bitterness. Gwen's life was full of riches (her family was wealthy) but very short on love. She knew Stella - your character - personally since childhood and it seems like you were the closest, and maybe only, friend to her.

Like a couple other characters, Gwen dies of cancer. Toward the end of her quest line, she suddenly becomes evasive and won't speak with anyone. Then, she's gone. Not dead yet, just left the boat, and she hasn't told anyone where she went.

You find her at her childhood home. There she admits she couldn't handle dying a slow and natural death and intended to commit suicide in a more familiar place, but you have apparently talked her out of it.

Frankly, this is the most powerful moment of her story - not her actual death scene. But even there she reflects that despite everything she had in life she was mostly miserable. The only thing that she treasured anymore was the presence of her friend, Stella.

She seems to regret that it took her so long to realize that Stella's friendship was her greatest treasure. As soon as she admits that realization, she's gone, another constellation in the sky.

Okay, now we get to the *actually* very sad deaths.

4: Stanley

This is an eight year old boy.

Is that enough? Okay, Stanley is a child suffering from an unmentioned disease and it's terminal. He knows something is wrong but doesn't understand what's happening to him. Throughout his time on your boat he's blissfully ignorant and unceasingly cheerful.

Little hints are dropped that his home life wasn't the best, but he doesn't even understand *that*. He's just a kid doing kid things and having a good time. And now he's dying.

It's rare to see a game try to handle the death of a child, and this may be the only one I've seen that centers the kid's own experiences with it. In the end you watch Stanley try to explain to you what he is feeling as he passes. How can you not feel something there?

3: Atul

Oh man, I loved this guy. He's relentlessly chipper and uplifting to everyone and super helpful. It's almost 100% certain you meet him as the second spirit and you have him almost the whole game, as it's hard to skip him or get rid of him early.

Consequently, you grow very, very attached. He's also the easiest to feed and the happiest when you give him food and hugs, so that helps. He seems to genuinely enjoy your company and everyone else on the boat. Most of his quests involve you building him things or giving him food

Towards the end of his quest line, he asks you to throw a big dinner party with your closest friends. The dinner itself is a pretty mundane affair - you "invite" a few others on the boat, go to a village, and read a few lines of dialogue.

Normally, when you finish a character's quest line, they tell you they are ready to go to the "Everdoor," or pass on. You then personally take them and watch them pass through. Afterwards, you receive a spirit flower and see a constellation in the sky in their image.

Not with Atul. The next morning, he's gone and in his room is his spirit flower - proof he passed on. He disappeared without telling anyone, and you will never find him except in his constellation, which has suddenly appeared.

Easily the most shocking death, as you don't get to mentally and emotionally prepare yourself. You don't get to say goodbye. You don't get to choose when he goes. He chooses. It's the old "Irish Goodbye."

Some people suggest that Atul's death in-game represents a sudden death or disappearance, as if he didn't mean to go so soon. But more likely, Atul couldn't bear the thought of saying goodbye to you. This is perfectly in line with his character.

Throughout the whole game he is unrealistically happy, as if he's living his best life. Every once in a while, he'll drop a hint of something - a dead relative he misses, a lost relationship - but he quickly shakes it off and becomes his chipper self again.

He'd always fought off the hard emotional conversations by fronting a cheerful attitude. He knows if he said goodbye like everyone else, he'd never be able to emotionally handle it. But in handling his death his way, he robs you of your chance to deal with it emotionally.

One day he's there and the next day he's not, and your boat is much, much quieter. It's eerie. There is a marked difference in the game post-Atul.

Geez, this is long. I don't have nearly enough followers to do this. Oh well.

#2: Astrid

I don't know if I have a "logical" explanation why her death hits harder than most. Like Atul, she is one of the earlier spirits you find (potentially), and you are forced to keep her around for a long time. So you get to know her very well.

She's also very outspoken with several contradictory personality traits - obsessed with being plain and ordinary, not making a fuss, but also being an insufferable gossip; being a champion of the working class while also looking down on people who lead less glamorous lives.

Consequently, she's also very memorable. Astrid also has the best hug animation. Fight me, in real life.

You're likely to trigger her break-up with Giovanni in the mid/mid-to-late game. It's a bit of a mess. Afterward, though, she seems to brighten up. She's living her best life now. You see her happier than she ever was.

And then, suddenly, she declares it's time to go. She's tired - and tired of life. Suddenly you see that all that happiness wasn't enough to cover the deep cynicism and bitterness inside, the weariness of constantly being abused and betrayed.

She wanted so much for herself and her comrades in life and never managed to achieve any of it. On her "deathbed" she complains some more, even as she says her memories are starting to fade to gray.

At the very last she begs you not to forget her. Despite telling you she's through with life, that she hated it, that she wants out - despite all that, she's afraid to go and is reaching out desperately as if something can save her.

But that's somehow not the saddest death. If you played this game at all, you knew from the start who was going to win this, and it wasn't going to be close:

1: Alice

What the fuck, Thunder Lotus

Why you gotta make me like this old grandma so much and then do that to her. I just can't.

Alice physically deteriorates in front of you. With everyone else, it's implied (as the world is somewhat metaphorical), but Alice literally gets weaker, to the point she cannot walk around without you holding her.

Oh, and she has Alzheimer's. Did I mention she has Alzheimer's? Because she has Alzheimer's and forgets who you are. The only way to convince her to go to the Everdoor is to *dress up as her daughter* long enough to convince her that she knows you and is willing to follow.

In her final scene, she has a brief moment where she realizes you're not her daughter, but she doesn't remember who you really are. And at the very last, she mentally slips away again and cannot remember you. Her final words are asking about her husband (who is already dead).

I'm not really a crying guy but this one got me waaaaay harder than the others... combined. Thanks, Thunder Lotus, for killing my favorite grandma.

Also buy #Spiritfarer because it is one of the best games of the entire year. Even though I just spoiled all of it.

It's well worth the price and there's a lot of other stuff I didn't spoil, I promise. Plus, the animation style and music are delicious. The track when you go to the Everdoor each time is especially good.

That is all.

END THREAD