Okay I already made one post but I feel I gotta make another just for myself and cause like. I'm gonna keep talking about and enjoying the fuck out of Disco Elysium.
I adore this game, I love the things it has to say. It's doing all sorts of processes to my brain, and it doesn't get there with never showing anything that's objectionable or upsetting.
That said! I'm really fucking pissed about the fatphobia. I'm really not convinced it's in the game with any purpose but *fatphobia*. Like the other bigotries in the game come off as being for verisimilitude and commentary. Your interacting with people with these beliefs, your looking at them ideologically, factionally, systemically. You can *choose* to ascribe yourself for or against them.
But Evrart Claire is just a Fat Man. And you can comment on his fatness. The game sure will. You can even ask him why he's fat. And he's as nonchalant about that as literally anything else you ask him. He is not a man who would tell you you've offended him really. And yeah it's pretty much just a corruptness=fatness symbolism. Great. Whatever.
Why I really felt the need to say this point again, more formally. Is the last thing I played was essentially beefing it real bad at several important skill checks. Which is kind of fun in a game like this. But as a result of that a fat character died. This is not the problem. The problem is how I was told he died. I can't easily pull up the dialogue somewhere, nor did I document it myself cause I was too busy rolling my eyes into the stratosphere. But if I recall. Kim says something like "[character name] died. I think that was their name. The fat one. They got shot. A lot". Like. You know??? Cause they're fat. A bigger person is just gonna get so many more bullets in them!!! Obviously.
And I just. It's the grosses fucking thing to me. This character died. And you can't even bother to identify them any other way than their fatness. And it comes from Kim, who I don't want to say can't have flaws and biases of his own. He admits himself he names his cases in glib ways, and he hopes the loved ones of the deceased don't ever find out. You know, fair enough, when you see a lot of dead people in your line of work.
But basically. I just keep thinking it. I keep thinking about as if it's some sort of nonidealogic matter of course thing. I keep thinking about it in relation how the game censors the word faggot. I think about it cause there doesn't seem to be any person or moment to push against this framing of fat bodies.
I don't have a conclusion. Part of my struggle is I just don't know what to make of it. I still like the game. I'm still gonna play it and talk about it and gladly let work it's way into my every thought, for a while at least. I'll also just. Hate this part. Hate all further parts like them. Whose to say.