Have you seen the new movie? It’s on library. It’s literally on the library. It’s on library without ads. It’s literally on your local public library. You can probably ask for it on your library. Dude it’s on your library. It’s in the original case too. It’s on library. You can watch it at the library. You can go to your local library and watch it. Register onto your local library right now. Go to your library. Dive into your library. You can watch it. It’s on there. Your library has it for you. Your library has it for you.
The things I write on this blog are all things that are personally interesting to me. I want people to read them
(I really want people to read them, if you enjoy reading them consider linking your friends who might enjoy them
too) but I don’t pick topics based on what’s popular or controversial to get views. But I also don’t want to
disappoint people and today I am bending to popular opinion - here’s the blog post I know my subscribers have
really been wanting me to write: An overanalysis of a trailer for an indie visual novel game from 2012.
When the trailer for Long Live the Queen first popped up in my
Facebook feed courtesy of GOG.com I’m not sure why exactly I clicked on it. I don’t think I’d ever bought a
visual novel and I don’t normally bother watching videos on my Facebook feed either. It’s a very good trailer
and it immediately piqued my interest in the game. After checking out a few reviews and one or two snippets from
let’s plays of the game I bought it and quite enjoyed it. But I found myself doing quite odd: A couple of times
I just went back and watched the trailer again.
You might want to watch it before continuing this post.
Now it’s a pretty good trailer just in the simple function of selling the game I think. It gives an informative
broad-strokes idea of how the player can guide Elodie without getting bogged down in the stats-picking. It
manages to present gameplay footage of a visual novel and make it look interesting. That is praiseworthy in
itself! It also gets across the game’s morbid sense of humour. The narrator’s delivery is perfect to the point
to the point where it almost seems a shame he’s not a feature of the game itself. But I think there’s something
else to the trailer - it’s not just showing four possible playthroughs of the game - it’s showing the
metanarrative of a single player making multiple attempts at the game.
We start off with “the fair Princess Elodie” and this is the player’s first time through. They’re probably
picking choices as a matter of taste rather than something that can lead to game-ending consequences down the
line. They make moral decisions rather than political decisions and attempt to play a kind, gentle soul. They
probably even make sure Elodie’s mood is happy all the time. Everything is going well. Elodie is a lovely
princess who everyone adores. And then she takes an arrow in the side and dies. It’s hardly fair but it’s a wake
up call. The player realises that the real goal of the game is not to try and get the princess ready for her
coronation so that she can be the best possible Queen; it’s to survive long enough to get there in the first
place. They readjust their priorities.
And now we have “the agile Princess Elodie.” All decisions have been refocused on survival. Public appearances
are out and social engagements are refused - that’s what got Elodie killed the first time. No more risks of any
kind. Reflexes and Medicine are probably the top priority skills to learn, perhaps with some weapons for self
defence a situation where they are necessary comes about. The sense of security is of course false. Hidden away,
Elodie neglects her duties to the kingdom and it starts to crumble beneath her feet. A rebellion rises up
against monarch-to-be and Elodie is once again killed. “But I was so careful!” cries the poor player.
But they understand this. They know what they did wrong. As a leader you can’t neglect the kingdom. They’ve seen
the skill checks they failed. They’ve taken mental notes. They know what they have to do to stop going to war in
the south. They know how to rule. Presence, Elegance, Royal Demeanor, Novan History and Foreign Intelligence.
These are the keys to politics and rule. We have “clever Princess Elodie” and everything is going fantastically.
Peace reigns as Elodie outmaneuvers her rivals and peers. There’s a tournament being organised this week. “I
wonder if I’ll get the option to give another speech. What’s this? Chocolates. That’s a bit odd. Why did I just
fail three stat checks. No. Stop. Stop eating the fucking chocolates fuck fuck FUCK STOP.” and Elodie is dead
again. And then something snaps. “I did everything right! Why wasn’t there an option to just not eat the fucking
chocolates?! I did everything right.”
“FUCK THIS GAME FUCK EVERYONE FUCK. This time EVERYBODY DIES. Swords, Naval Strategy, Logistics, Death. This is
what we are studying this time Elodie. Peaceful negotiations? No. The south is mine. The kingdom is mine by fire
and blood. I am the heir of a bloodline that has ruled for generations by right and might of the power that
flows through my veins. I can wield a power to level cities and I just fucking blew myself up.”
At this point the player uninstalls the game and never plays it again.
one of the most annoying feelings in ADHD is the can’t-get-started-with-anything feeling. like, your ADHD is screaming you have to do something. you can’t just rest, resting isn’t a thing. even if you are resting, it’s by doing something.
but nothing works.
you try to watch something, it’s not right. you can’t.
read? can’t read right now
play? nah none of these games seem fun
make something? ehh, you’re not feeling any of these projects right now
social media? it’s boring or worse right now, so… find something else
it’s like you’re not moving but it’s because you’re too tense to do anything, just vibrating in place
when i go in a room and forget what i needed i become a point and click protagonist. [water bottle?] that’s not helpful right now. [socks?] i don’t know what to do with that. [charger?] that’s not helpful right now. [scissors?] i can’t do anything with that. [water bottle?] that’s not helpful right now. [lone paperclip?] that’s not helpful right now. [water bottle?]
I think one of the most powerful aspects of Robert W. Chambers's The King in Yellow, and one which sets it apart from a lot of later Weird Fiction about academics who become too invested in the world of the arcane, is the idea that there just isn't anything explainably wrong with the play. People know there's something wrong with it, especially once you get to the second act... but if you just looked at the text itself, you wouldn't find anything.
'No definite principles had been violated in those wicked pages, no doctrine promulgated, no convictions outraged. It could not be judged by any known standard, yet, although it was acknowledged that the supreme note of art had been struck in The King in Yellow, all felt that human nature could not bear the strain, nor thrive on words in which the essence of purest poison lurked.'
The Repairer of Reputations
Despite how central it is, I completely missed it on my first reading (mainly because I was young and grappling with a particularly bad printing of it which made the text really small). I only started to grasp it when I listened to the concept album The King in Yellow by experimental post-rock band "Ah Pook, the Destroyer".
This album is largely inspired by Chamber's work, using that premise - an idea that you can't see but can still cause genuine harm - to talk about the current political climate. Songs touch on a wide array of cults and conspiracies - from the modern-day antisemitic ramblings of Qanon and Lizard People conspiracies to the strong figureheads and interpersonal conflicts of cults like Heaven's Gate. They even find time to touch on the Time Cube somehow, all under the framework of the King in Yellow propagating harmful ideas and bringing about the New Age of Madness.
But it's not as simple as just looking at these people and calling them mad. Okay, sometimes it is that (best exemplified in the gospel stylings of "The Tribulation of Alex Jones"), but there are cases where the characters are presented with genuine empathy, such as in "The Road to Carcosa" where we hear about the life of a man who, through exposure to the Yellow Sign (which here is attached to Right-Wing conspiracy theories) ends up destroying his relationship with his family. The singer gets a moment of lucidity in the refrain "The fall of my life came after; And all of my mind was scattered", though this fades away as we hear the end of this story: Him living alone in a gun-filled squalor.
Another thing that elevates this album is how it turns it all back on the listener. There's obviously a specific audience of Left-leaning listeners a project like this would attract, and those people are very unlikely to also share the beliefs of the average Qanon-minded person, but (much like in the book) it constantly emphasises that the actual specific beliefs don't matter as much as the spread of ideas. This is most visible in the refrain heard throughout the album:
The fall you believe
Is not far as it seems
And the deep can not be so alive
The blithe poison meme
That you did not believe
But you saw and it entered your mind
Belief doesn't matter. Sheer exposure to these toxic ideas means that, in a way, you've already been harmed no matter what you take away from it. This idea is also present in the book, most directly in the story "The Yellow Sign".
In it, Mr. Scott is fully aware of the King in Yellow, but has actively tried to avoid its influence, partially due to the unfortunate fate of Hildred Castaigne (who featured in the story "The Repairer of Reputations" and at the very least wanted to do a monarchist coup of America that would place him as King - all after reading The King in Yellow). By all means, he should be doing the right thing - he has no interest in The King in Yellow and is actively avoiding the play... and it's not like anyone's staging it anymore, so he should be fine... and yet, after strange dreams, an erie watchman, and other bizarre events, he and his model, Tessie, are driven to read it. This is also a story the album quotes right at the start:
'Then, as I fell, I heard Tessie’s soft cry and her spirit fled: and even while falling I longed to follow her, for I knew that the King in Yellow had opened his tattered mantle and there was only God to cry to now.'
The Yellow Sign & Beautitudes
It's an idea I think is also evoked in the structure of the anthology. While the first 4 stories directly feature the King in Yellow in one way or another, the rest are tragic, sometimes supernatural romances with seemingly no connection to the title character, to the point where some reprints just do the first 4 and ignore the rest... though I feel it's deliberate when keeping this idea in mind. While the King is absent, Yellow is a recurring motif throughout the book, often emphasising death or danger, and reminding the reader of that titular presence. You have been exposed to the King in Yellow, and now your mind is his domain.
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