bonsaises
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Latest Posts by bonsaises
All this stuff has been on my mind for a bit so–
I wonder how come Worker Ena doesn't express herself the same way Web Ena does? Because Web Ena could show any emotions from any sides. Both examples from Temptation Stairway, we can hear both the happy side being sad when she says "pay your debts? That sounds awful..." and the sad side being happy when she says "would you kindly reveal the wish you made to me?" But Worker Ena's emotions are limited to her sides. Meanie is always mean or freaking out, and Salesperson is always charming and joyful/theatrical/silly(? dunno how to describe it properly). They don't show any other emotions whatsoever. And I do wonder if this is because we've only seen the first chapter and this will indeed happen later, or because Worker Ena just doesn't do that? We also haven't seen any 'extreme' ends of Worker Ena. We've only seen her sides and her grey hangover state (which btw I also think that it's nice how Web Ena becomes fully polygonal but Worker Ena becomes fully smooth), but never the extreme ends of her sides like Web Ena had, those white faces with the color of the eyes corresponding to the side's color. And also whatever the hell those demon versions of Web Ena were (but those could be exclusive to Web Ena only).
It would be cool to see a third Ena to really set in stone what's exclusive to each one of them and what are the attributes of their species (since I do believe that Ena is a species in some capacity. A species that is treated like a parasite most of the time). But right now we can probabaly safely assume that most often an Ena's right side would be the domineering one, and that said right side is the smooth one, with the other being the polygonal one.
Ohhh yeah to be fair we did see that weird ass Worker Ena, the green one with blue and purple streaks? But that one seems more like the demon versions of Web Ena than her extreme ends. That's not her dying or anything because we've seen that Enas don't really die.
I also saw something about Coral Glasses not being from the world of dbbq but instead from a different game, and when you interact with those corals blocking a path into the building Ena specifically says that they're out of this world or some similar phrasing, which is all the more confirmation that there's going to be more interactions with Coral Glasses later down the line. Maybe she'll take up Froggy's role when we go to the Horse door in the way that she's kinda going to be guiding us through it or hell even go with us.
Anyway I love both Enas and I think that whatever they did should be forgiven immediately. Let my girls go.
I also do find it interesting when people point out that everyone in dbqq treats Ena badly, but the thing is, I think either all Enas are treated this way or the environment in general is very hostile. Because we only really see Enas interacting with others but not said others interacting with each other. Really the only instance I can think of is Coral Glasses interacting with Taski Maiden and Froggy (kind of) interacting with Mr. Dratula. But it could be argued that both Dratula and Taski Maiden are just annoying as hell, hence why the other two treat them kinda mean. I don't remember any two other non-Ena creatures interacting with each other in the series. I suppose there's also the Unforgiven Frank and Theodora refusing to forgive him but we don't really know why Frank is Unforgiven. I think that lady in the exclusive gift shop is best demonstrative of both those ideas: she's in general kind of hostile but she's also specifically hostile to Ena. And this seems to be the case for nearly everybody. Hell even Hoarder Alex and that Watcher kid are also good examples. And also Hoarder Alex seemed kinda annoyed by the witch lady even if she didn't notice it. There's also an npc talking ill about the Shaman, so yeah, in general the world of Ena is a hostile environment, and it also seems like it's especially hostile to Enas.
Or maybe I'm reading something in nothing but yk what? Whatever, I wanna have fun. So really do whatever you will with this of information.
As Elon Musk cements his place in history as a fascist tech overlord and the rest of the world looks at us in horror, I really do want to reiterate what I feel will be lost to the history books
Nearly everyone in america has thought and continues to think that Elon is very cringe.
hey folks if you have an android phone: google shadow installed a "security app".
I had to go and delete it myself this morning.
Dear video essay creators. A video analysis is when you analyze a piece of media. No no look at me. A summary, no matter how thorough, is not an analysis. An analysis requires you to draw conclusions about the media such as authorial intent, real-world parallels, discussion about themes/worldbuilding/character motivation, and so much more. You have to stop summarizing something and saying that’s analysis. The Gaylors are doing more critical analysis than you. Is that who you want to lose to? The gaylors?
I can't believe he died just because he hit the griddy too hard
Make worm funnier by killing off just one character in the whole of the book (everyone else lives)
Mr. Gladly. He dies in the first chapter when Taylor shoves him down some stairs, and she gets arrested for murder. But, if I'm interpreting your ask correctly, no one else dies ever, so they have to release Taylor once they realize that she actually killed the avatar of Death, saving literally everyone
ENA Dream BBQ Analysis
I wanna talk about ENA Dream BBQ, but it’s really hard to do so since it’s so disjointed. It’s difficult to stitch together meaning but I feel like there is meaning there. Since it’s an abstract piece of work it’s not a literal 1:1 metaphor or message, there’s some teasing you need to do to get meaning out of it.
I think ENA Dream BBQ is at its heart about the seemingly pointlessness of life and how we find meaning and ways to go through it anyway. But to explain why I think the best way to analyze this media is to just make some observations and connect a few dots near the end.
ENA’s duality.
Let’s start with ENA herself. She has two conflicting personalities express through her white and red face. A salesperson side and a mean side. Her salesperson side is trying to constantly find opportunities and ways to coax information out of people. While her Meanie side is abrasive and impatient and wants information NOW.
The “BOSS”
ENA is searching for “the boss.” She wants to find the man in charge because she has business with him, and that could literally be a metaphor for someone trying to find meaning in their own life.
In ENA’s goal to find the boss many characters claim to be the boss, but none of them actually are. If we assume that the phrase “the boss” (aka: the man in charge) is a synonym for God, then it becomes interesting who claims to be the boss and who doesn’t.
Finding Fullfilment
Dratula, a coin cat, a hands demon, a wooden horse, and a vending machine all claim to be “the boss.” And each one could represent things that people use to find meaning in their lives. For example: Dratula could represent superstition. The hands demon talks about fame and stalking celebrities. The money cat is originally a piggy bank that breaks and talks about saving up to party irresponsiblely. The wooden horse talks about babies and pets. And the vending machine offers material goods.
But none of these things will offer TRUE fulfillment. They’re more akin to distractions or obligations. They’re optional goals to aspire towards but aren’t necessary for you to be happy. You don’t need money, material goods, children, pets, fame, or a belief in the supernatural to be happy. They can offer you happiness but they aren’t necessities.
Jobs
There’s a strong emphasis on the importance of having a job. Many characters bemoan the loss of a job, are discouraged they can’t fulfill their job, are avoiding their jobs, or are very proud of their job. For example: It’s “sad” that the Taxi driver can’t do his job without his heads. Coral Glasses just wants to do her job without “anxiety.” Taski Maiden is “upset” she’s unemployed. Frog gets “angry” when you skirt your job duties.
Like the various things to fill your life with, having a job can give you a purpose. But again, It’s fleeting. You can lose your job at any time. It’s not really fulfilling either.
I think this is the reason why when ENA finds her way to the bathroom she’s at her lowest point and with a massive hole in her chest. She’s unfulfilled and in a zombie-like sickly trance. She’s tried to do odd jobs to find happiness and achieve her goals, but it hasn’t worked. Or she’s tried to skirt her goals and have fun, but that hasn’t worked either. She needs something to believe in.
Enter: The Bathroom
The bathroom is interesting. It is a daily ritual that everyone engages with and this could be seen as a stand in for religion. Certainly many of the ways characters talk about “going to the bathroom” sounds an awful lot like going to church. It’s also the most difficult route to take in the game, making you complete multiple odd side quests or to attempt to play Frogger to cross the river.
It’s also interesting who does or doesn’t support the bathroom. The Witches are searching for the bathroom. The Shaman Wizard wants to help you too. But Frog dislikes the bathroom because it takes time away from your “job.” Likewise many of the side characters who are kinda just running around aimlessly seem to have mixed feelings on the bathroom, which changes depending on the route you take.
It’s also interesting that ENA does not find salvation in the bathroom. She’s actually shunned from it and the Genie refuses to offer kindness for her, or her friends. The only thing the bathroom does help with is in achieving the goal of turning off the smoke.
If you take the Purge Event route, not only do many of the wayward souls you’ve met along the way go too, but you’ll be berated by Frog for ignoring your duties. ENA herself refers to going to the purge event as “craving freedom.”
Meaning Unfulfilled
And that’s where this all ties back together into trying to find meaning in your life. Everything in the game is trying to give ENA meaning as she searches for “the boss.” But none of it really works. After destroying the smoke she is adrift. It’s curious that NOW is when ENA finds herself in a nostalgic world from all her previous ENA videos. She’s in “Auction Day” again but it’s not the same. It’s just nostalgia for a simpler time. And slowly she starts to falter. Her body overcome by blocky pixels that ultimately consumer her.
The end of the game has her body revert to that of a blank mannequin and she falls into the “holy code.”
ENA Theories
And yet it’s not quite the end… because she comes back. The final post credit cut scene shows ENA resurrected by taking control of a blank mannequin that was lying lifeless at the start of the game in the hub world. This does seem to indicate that all of these blank mannequins lying around were previous forms of ENA. They’re often located around places where you as a player can die easily, like missing a jump or falling from the sky.
I actually dislike the “ENA is actually a species” theory because it feels like it’s trying to objectively explain abstract ideas. Since we see ENA cycle through a host of different forms INCLUDING her original yellow and blue form, I don’t think she’s a literal unique species but just a lost soul trying to find purpose and meaning. As a result her physical appearance and shape changes as she does.
If ENA is a species I don’t think that there are multiple ENA. But rather that ENA can jump from blank body to blank body. That could explain why her search for happiness hasn’t been successful yet and why other characters distrust her.
I also don’t like the “she’s a war criminal” theory either. I know there’s images in the game that hints at this, but I think for an ABSTRACT game that is far too LITERAL of a reading of things. Rather I think they’re suing the imagery of war as a way to show ENA’s emotional turmoil in trying to reach her goal of being fulfilled.
The settings of the game help with that interpretation. For example: The game begins with her in a desolate empty war-torn looking city of endlessly repeating houses. And at the beginning of the game she has no purpose yet. She goes to a casino, that offers cheap thrills and purpose, but it’s short lived and she eventually ventures out into a bigger world to find a purpose. This world is split, like her, into having one where purpose is given, or where you can ignore your purpose. Literally one half of the world is laying on top of the other. The bathroom is sterile and empty and nauseating to get to, but offers no fulfillment either. And finally she ends the game in a nostalgic trip to previous videos right before she “dies.”
There’s probably a lot I’ve missed or glossed over. Nothing in this game is a 1:1 metaphor and there’s likely no real meaning behind a lot of it. Curious that a game about finding meaning in your life is told through the gameplay design of an abstract seemingly random and meaningless story, no?
Not What He Seems
There’s only a few final thoughts that I wasn’t able to fit anywhere else. The more I’ve played the game, the more I’ve come to distrust Frog. He’s one of the few characters who also acknowledges that others “aren’t the boss” and yet he acts like your boss through the entire game. He’s the only character that seems to care about the smoke from the genies, as none of the others mind it at all and some even like it. And the act of destroying the smoke machines feels… wrong. He’s also black and white which is a narrative and stylistic choice that gives me pause. Even Coral Glasses has some color in her Coral. But Frog? He’s black and white. He’s binary. He acts like the boss. He wants you to do something no one else minds or cares about to proceed forward. I do not trust him.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. Does my analysis hold up? Does any of this make sense? Am I completely wrong? What do you think the story of ENA Dream BBQ is about?
So i've been thinking a lot about Sir Frank. He's this guy in the lost village area.
My first few playthroughs, I never really thought much of him? I mean, he was there, allegedly due to being a sinner or outcast, and unlike most other characters he didn't seem to mind ENA's presence. But then on one occasion when I went to do the "raze the roofs" achievement(making every hut vanish except for the correct one), I went to talk to him and found that his dialogue had changed. (contd)
Now, there are a few details i want to point out about this- first, his delivery of these lines is incredibly sincere, I'd go as far as to say even fond. He is literally the only character- aside from maybe Froggy- who ever speaks to ENA this way. Second, he "pronounces" ENA's name correctly. As in, spelling it with the backwards E. Only two other characters do this(to my knowledge), the suspicious man and Theodora. The suspicious man does it, obviously, because he has researched ENA and knows a lot about her. Theodora does it because she is a Genie, and thus probably all-knowing. Frank, however, pronounces it correctly out of respect. He addresses ENA like his equal, and I'm pretty sure he's the only character that does this. Every other character that isn't directly hostile or dismissive towards ENA is at the very least a little backhanded. Even Nonkey Jong of all people says some shit like "Nonkey Jong likes having company, even from ENA" which implies that ENA is like. The bare minimum lmao. Froggy might be an exception to this? But there's a degree of "you're my cool coworker and all but you're also weird and i don't understand you completely" to his interactions. A curious thing I also noticed about Frank's cutscenes is that he's one of the only fully voiced characters that ENA doesn't vocally respond to. I have a couple theories as to why this is- provided it's intentional. which it might not be. but I'm still thinking about it lol When interacting with Theodora after reaching the bathroom, there is an option when she asks for ENA's aspirations to "aspire for Frank's forgiveness". This could be taken one of two ways- either ENA has done something to Frank that she wishes to be forgiven for, or Frank has done something bad that ENA wants to forgive on his behalf. Either way, whatever it is, Theodora doesn't entertain it ENA's silence during Frank's dialogue could simply be that she's shell-shocked at not being treated weirdly. Or it could be that she feels guilty. I've seen a theory floating around that she may have been the one that blinded him?? I wonder if they knew each other before meeting in the lost village? Man idk. I just think it's interesting that he is so friendly. It caught me totally off guard ngl, discovering this about him elevated him to an S tier character for me lmfao
Also, "Outworld Red" (idk if that's the actual name, but it's the name of the ost) is a place i really love in ena dream bbq, everything screams "dream-like" to me.
(Well, even more than the rest of the game i mean .)
It's full of familiarity but oddness all the same. It's an infinite network of streets that are noticeably empty. Or at least, there is no one. The doors are closed, and there is nothing on the stalls. The ambiance is oppressive yet calm at the same time. You can run for as long as you want, you will get nowhere.
If you look up, you won't only see that giant dude swimming in the sky, plane looking shapes will appear at some point
They are recognizable as "plane" looking but they are also "wrong", "odd", as if they were the vague memories of what a plane is supposed to look like
I also found some little details, like the electric wires being "cut" at some points
if like me you like to walk around before "going to bed", you will notice strange shape appearing on the street
If you squint, you can try to recognize some familiar things, like eyes, coral, plants, pieces of machineries, playground.... But like the plane, they are twisted, as if they were memories of things
This whole "town" is like what you feel when you remember what you were dreaming about and try to piece things togheter to "fill" the holes of what was lost to dream-land and it's absurdity, and yet remember how strange it was
I tend to "loose time" to walk around there before taking the bed door. I love the music too (WITH sounds effects, sadly they are absent in YT uploads)
Not that i ever got the "blink and you miss it achievment" even if i keep stalling but hey
If we follow the theory of all Enas being able to be in two places at once, but also in one place at one time, for she would be lost in the other person's mind, and that they're all connected through the mannequins
I kept wondering what the hell she meant by "a giant bathroom, it's not enough for this many bodies" at the end. What bodies? What if she's talking about all the ENAs/mannequins
And the ending at the bottom of the river with the dead Theodora, "i choose to remind you that this place we are in is too far away from your real, physical form. I can only keep you from returning to it", as in, ENA could return to her body all of her own? Another mannequin maybe? And Theodora is the only thing keeping her down in the afterlife?
Then "However, i may make an exception for today. Touch my memories, let me show you a reality, one where you achieved your deepest desire."
First, her memories? So she's actively conscious and aware through all alternative universes?
But most importantly, right after saying that she'll hold ENA's "spirit" here, she says she'll make an exception by showing her memories of an alternative reality. Does that mean she sent this Ena's spirit/consciousness to the one in the universe she succeeded, and the "for he would be lost in the other person's mind" happened and they both "fused"?
And with that ending scene being the exact same as the temptation stairway one. With the code walls, floating mannequins and doors, even flowing bubbles showing that is indeed the same ocean code. Series!Ena glitching in the falling mannequins, and bbq!Ena dropping out of her "skin/shell"
They can't possibly be a hivemind, they'd know too much. But series!Ena glitching in the mannequin for a frame while bbq!Ena is respawning at the post-credit scene, and the other Ena in the cave. They absolutely exist in multiple places at once in some way
Other npcs might be somewhat aware of this, like, they know they can meet multiple times the same Ena, while also meeting them for the first time, because of the whole "two places at once" thing, so they just say "ENA", instead of an ENA, because you never know which one they already met, and which one they haven't met yet, despite them being the same person
And this bit from the horse guy feels way too fitting to be random nothing. Even splitting himself in half like ENAs are
WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BOSS
Pt 3 I am so sane about that polygonal woman and her unborn(?) child
Part 1 Part 2 Speedpaint
ena stop terrorizing the civilians
inspo:
i did this at like 4 am dont judge me
Ena in Dream BBQ and Work Culture
HELLO Dashboard!! Ever since i first played DBBQ i've found the entire game endlessly interesting (as have most people, LOL) But one of the most interesting, and in my opinion, most Potent things, is Ena's character and how she relates to the game's commentary on modern work culture.
So for anyone as much of a #SICKO as me 😭 Here's an embarrassingly long analysis of just that! There's SO much to talk about with this game, and even when I'm trying to focus on one specific idea with this post, I'm sure I'll still miss things, so just stick with me best you can OK? 😭 😭
My aim for this post is to allow you to understand Just how deep in the torment nexus Ena is, and to want to say "she should be at the club" Only to realize she can't even go to the club. She can't even go to the club. Because of Job. (Among other, hopefully more intelligently articulated things!)
SO, Let's just jump right in :D
First, to state the obvious—Ena's literal entire life is her job. The only moods she expresses under normal circumstance are "smooth talking salesperson where every line is about working or trying to sell something" and "Stops keeping up the veneer and gets frustrated and pissed because she hates her stupid job."
This permeates every aspect of her character—I don't think there's a single line in the game so far where she says like, Anything about herself. There's nothing about what she may want or what she may like. It's all about her fuckass job or the fuckass Boss.
And of course, even in gameplay aspects, you literally don't get a chance to choose whether you accept a job or not, like the thought of doing anything besides giving her time and energy for other people or her job's benefit doesn't even occur to her (Or, it can't occur to her—I doubt the Boss would want to allow her reprieve from anything at all, and I'm sure Ena would know this).
(^ Ena's reaction to being told to find a mythical figure that she maybe didn't even know existed cause Froggy sure as hell didn't to do a stupid job for Froggy's stupid ass. Like)
Maybe i'm reaching here, but I even find it interesting how her red hand has no fingers (besides a thumb). I feel like that represents a lack of individuality she has when she's in Salesperson mode, or at least, a lack of individuality she's been allowed. A lack of having a defined being cause it's all about this stupid job.
There's lots of avenues to go from here, but let's start with another big point of the game: Everybody hates her. Except for like, three characters, every NPC in the game either insults her, talks down to her, blatantly doesn't respect her, or Literally tells her nobody should be punished for being born except her. Typical day for Ena.
I'm not going to get into why I think this is—for me there's not enough evidence to speculate with surety right now—but I think this does tie strongly into her commitment to her job. Ena working her ass off in every aspect of her life and earning nothing but disrespect for it is very reminiscent of real life work environments.
Think of how almost every NPC claims they are "the Boss" in such a way that many of them seem to want to be the Boss, like he's some kind of well-known or respected figure. The description for the game on Steam even says as much: "Play as ENA as she searches for the Boss that everyone wants to be."
(eg: "I am the B-O-S-S!"):
People wish they were the Boss, they want to be some kind of rich capitalist with power and fame, but when looking at someone who actually works for him, and probably is the reason the Boss has profit and success in the first place, they insult her and demean her no matter how much she gives herself to them and the Boss. I'm sure you can see the real life parallels here.
It's even possible one of the reasons Ena works so hard in the first place is as an attempt to earn respect from these people, or to make up for whatever everyone thinks she did that made everyone hate her so much. Especially considering...
Our society is one that tells its people that Work is unequivocally Good. Committing yourself to work is what everyone, no matter who they are or what they face, is what you have to do to be a valuable member of society, and to have any respect from other people in the slightest. It tells its people that you only have value as a living human being at all if you give your life to work.
Even though this blatantly isn't true. If people think you're the Wrong type of worker, or if people think your work isn't valuable, helpful, or that it doesn't require skill, you can work as hard as you want but you'll still be treated like shit. But, hey, work is still your duty as a member of society, right? Stop bitching and whining and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, right?
Needless to say, it's easy to see how this whole idea is being represented in DBBQ. She even knows how much she's sold herself to this, she just... Seems to have extremely casually accepted it all LOL, which, I mean... What else does she have the power to do?
This very casual and nonchalant acknowledgement of her lack of autonomy connects to another big point: Ena doesn't value herself, nor does she even know how to exist without being in a constant state of working.
Let's talk about the Purge: There's a LOT to get to here in terms of Ena herself LOL, but the intrigue starts before she even enters the party. Literally Froggy just saying she's about to enter an "Event" stops her in her tracks and worries her. Not to mention the next line...
This feels like an indication that despite how much she commits herself to it, Ena does "crave freedom" from her shitty job, although she can scarcely admit this anywhere else so far. Then, if you talk to this slime guy, you get some strange text.
As far as I know, the text for interacting with things doesn't look like this anywhere else in the game. And given that it looks exactly the same as how Ena's lines do in the Purge, it's seemingly the only peek we get into her internal monologue, and it is. Quite worrying! She literally can climb up a hellish freezing floating mountain and yet this is by far the most freaked out she gets in the entire game.
And then to actually get into the Purge, an Evil eye Ball tells her that she needs to give a literal arm or a leg to get in. And she just does it. Like no hesitation no further questions she just gives it away to the evil eye ball. Presumably for Good? Because the only reason she regains the arm later is because of Genie magic? Like Ena. Girl. Are we gonna talk about this at all.
But so many real life work environments expect you to give every part of yourself in order to be allowed to exist and live in society, including your physical being and critical parts of your personhood at all.
(Let me also say I find it intentional that she gave away her white arm. Whereas her red hand literally doesn't have fingers, the sharp claws she has on her white hand represent the individuality and unique identity she Does have. However, it's also the part of herself that's in conflict with her ability to be a Good Worker, that always does exactly what she's supposed to do, and never complains, and never gets in the way of her duties.)
She was already very distressed here, but it's a clear indication of how little she values herself. It was a motion to lose a part of herself just to reach the Genie, both for her stupid job, and possibly for the possibility of "freedom" from it all. And your average job these days—no matter how important you are to your cause—will drill it into you that your ability to be a good worker is infinitely more important than your existence as a person. It's easy to see how Ena may have internalized that.
And then she goes to the club one time and this happens
I won't get too deep into her dialogue with the NPCs here because I think their intention is pretty clear; Being in a place so antithetical to a work environment, and a place where she's supposed to let loose and have fun, is so distressing and impossible to even fathom for her that This Happens.
(see: "H-How can I leave this stupid event? M-my lame schedule is full,")
Like, everything at the Purge is insane, but this is a particularly heartbreaking line for me. One because of her job's shitty environment that's broken her down so much—do you think she EVER gets a break, because I sure don't—but also because of how it's conditioned her to not even believe she can "afford another minute of joy." Ena :[
Note how she's covered in these branches that started growing during Froggy's phone call, which look very similar to how she looks in this gag with the Shaman—it's literally her nervous system. In her scene with Mitu she even says she's feeling "sick," She's literally freaked out of her flipping Gourd with her goddamn Nerves On The Outside
Hell, even though Meanie's speaking (which, I mean, no shit, in another line she literally describes her job as "deplorable" 😭), these sprites in the files are actually labelled "Anxiety", suggesting that she's SO freaked out by being somewhere supposed to be so opposite to her work she's become another variant of herself, a la Drunk Ena from Season 1.
I won't get much more into this, because @cube-cumb3r has a PHENOMENAL post I'll link in the notes that goes deeper into this stuff from the Purge and the "Anxiety" thing, And also gets more into theory territory than I do here! Please please go read that post, it is so damn good.
In any case, I think the scenes with the Purge NPCs are the biggest examples in the whole game of how much she hates her fuckass job, yet she can't be allowed to be anything besides a wage slave to it. And just as she's internalized everybody in her world's dislike of her, she hates herself for it.
So:
We've established that Ena's shitty job parallels the real life work conditions that plague our world, and that these conditions have caused her to devalue herself and believe she can't have any reprieve from them... but, what even is her job?
Apparently she's a salesperson, but what is she even selling? She tries to offer a "divestment opportunity", and tells the Witches she can show them how to "grow [their] own [boss]" which definitely falls in line with the Sales thing, but besides that it's still not clear, even when she talks to Froggy.
I suppose the "grow their own boss" line does sound a lot like the phrasing used in MLM schemes, with how they lure people in by telling them they can "be their own boss." The Receptionist also calls Ena a scammer and a conman, so maybe she is a sort of scammer, but, I also don't exactly think the Receptionist think she has the most reliable opinions of Ena LOL
She also calls her a "pink-collar slug", pink collar meaning a job traditionally associated with women, which. ??? I don't fully know where to go with that.. like ...Nothing she does harkens to... Any kind of job expected to be done by women, imo?? Um. Yeah idk i just thought that may be significant??/ 😭😭😭😭 Listen man I can't know it all
Anyway. Maybe I'll be proven embarrassingly wrong when we receive more information in future chapters, but I think the lack of clarity on what she's supposed to be is representative of the games themes. The constant disrespect Ena receives makes her seem likely to be a low-tier worker, someone at the bottom of the ladder that people have no problems walking all over.
Because these types of jobs will treat you the same no matter who you are or what you're supposed to be doing. She's doing what the world tells her she needs to do in order to be a respected member of society, and yet she's also someone people feel comfortable treating poorly because she's at the bottom—because has no power of her own. It doesn't matter what she's supposed to be doing, it matters that she's the Wrong type of worker.
And how is she supposed to ever say anything for herself? It seems virtually baked into her Salesperson side to completely ignore past all the rude things these assholes say to her. After all, not only would that probably just make most people ruder to her (and impede her ability to complete jobs for them) isn't the customer always right?
...OK I will say her whole "Understood! Aim for the target!" line DOES seem like her overall job here is to fucking kill the Boss, but this is long enough already and the likely theme of Ena having a violent streak and whatnot is another beast entirely that I am NOT getting into here 😭😭
Besides, maybe she has no clearly defined job because we've already seen exactly what it is. To sell her life, time, and emotions to whatever all these clowns ask of her, and to receive no reward besides another goddamn job to do.
I think future chapters may delve more into Ena's true feelings on her situation, and possibly even how she'll get freedom from it. Allow me to mention the scenes with Theodora, wherein if you try to "aspire to receive a blissful life" Theodora just tells Ena "You can't aspire for more than what you are capable of." (LIKE OKAYYYY.... RUDE MUCH????)
Until, finally:
How is her mind—containing a desire for freedom—supposed to be in harmony with the letters it spits out, when she's been so conditioned that the only thing she's allowed to be is a worker?
Now, even I still have a lot of questions after this. Like: What has happened in Ena's past that made her this way? How and why did she take this job in the first place? What is up with the "Guys wait, I'm not doing what you say I'm doing" scene I literally didn't even mention that once here. Why should nobody be punished for being born except poor damn Ena, and does it relate to any of the themes I just talked about?
I... don't know. Like I actually truly have no idea. But I have confidence, even if it's in a delightfully vague and abstract Ena-typical way, that we'll find out eventually.
I didn't notice this til my billionth playthrough, but both the text that appears when you interact with this Amoeba Guy, and the ellipses that follow any interaction with any of the NPC's in this room is in Meanie's dialogue text color. Girl is freaked out of her flipping marble
I didn't notice this til my billionth playthrough, but both the text that appears when you interact with this Amoeba Guy, and the ellipses that follow any interaction with any of the NPC's in this room is in Meanie's dialogue text color. Girl is freaked out of her flipping marble
I didn't notice this til my billionth playthrough, but both the text that appears when you interact with this Amoeba Guy, and the ellipses that follow any interaction with any of the NPC's in this room is in Meanie's dialogue text color. Girl is freaked out of her flipping marble
Step once: acquire seagulls
Step two: swaddle seagulls in blanket like a baby
Step three: go to a mall and ask someone to hold your baby
Step four: sprint away as you pass the seagull to the victim
Do you do this before or after tequila?
