#Jacob and Nick are the only two alive (Caleb is as well. but playables Jacob and Nick made it)

[seaofashes]

When the run is going a little too beautifully and then almost everyone dies the last two chapters

[elffees]

probably one of my favorite aspects about The Quarry are how the “villains” are handled. even saying “villains” feels ill fitting, they all just feel like separate factions with different (but similar) goals.

THE COUNSELORS

“how are the counselors villains” you ask? ill tell you. theyre not villains in that theyre purposely antagonizing the Hacketts, but they are obstacles. the Hacketts have had a solid routine for about 6 years. go out to look for Silas in the desperate hope to cure their family members. and on the one night they decide to take a risk and let their werewolf relatives loose, hoping theyd lead the human Hacketts to Silas, these young clueless teens not only stay seated right in the line of fire, but proceed to have a very loud party in the middle of the damn woods.

they are obstacles in that now instead of aimlessly scouring through the woods, the werewolf Hacketts have just been handed a campfire-shaped-coupon to an all-you-can-eat-buffet. not only is this fucking up the entire plan, but now theres the danger of these counselors possibly getting infected and creating even more werewolves!

with this said, The Counselors arent only obstacles tho. theyre just unaware! Jacob had no idea about the werewolves when he sabotaged the car, nor did Dylan when he suggested a party, and neither did Laura and Max when they kept going to the quarry in the prologue. this group is not outwardly malicious or purposely trying to be obnoxious. they just dont know theres real actual monsters out there. who would?!

THE WEREWOLVES

how the werewolves are antagonists is pretty obvious i think.

but how they arent, isnt! even tho im neutral on their design, the writing behind the werewolves is amongst my favorite out of all the creatures Supermassive has written about so far. theyre mindless creatures with no recollection of their human selves. Nick could damn well be in love with Abi, doesnt matter bc if you miss that shot, hes going to rip her head off. the wolves are a legitimate danger, one you have no control over, but despite that, you dont want to kill them bc fuck theyre your FRIENDS and you know theres a way to change them back!

i dont want to compare but for example, in Until Dawn, there is no way to save Hannah, girl has just got to go. in Man of Medan, 90% of your attackers are the other playable characters, so just choose to chill out and youll be fine. in The Quarry, neither apply to the werewolves. your loved ones will attack you and you must defend yourself, but how far will you go to do so? will you kill them with silver to permanently end the threat? even tho they wouldve been back to normal by morning and couldve even been cured? or will you go easy on them, but risk getting infected yourself, or even worse, eaten alive?

its just so COMPLEX! you want to protect your loved ones, but the “loved one in danger” is constantly changing depending on which person a wolf is hunting down and which wolf is being hunted down. god, its one of my favorite things about the game!!

THE HACKETTS

how the Hacketts are antagonists is pretty simple. theyre trying to attack your ass. Bobby stabs Ryan and he must become infected to survive. Travis can murder Laura out of revenge, and Constance can shoot Laura out of annoyance. Chris and Caleb are werewolves who if you dont kill, will kill you (or just die in Caleb’s case). and this family has a bizarre tendency to just kidnap ppl without a word! Travis kept Laura and Max locked up for two months and barely told them anything! not until Laura “proved” her loyalty and intelligence. Bobby and Jed kidnap Jacob also without a word, not giving a shit about his pleas.

i mean ffs its their fault werewolves are even a danger in the first place. they burned down the Harum Scarum Traveling Show and let Silas loose. the Hacketts are major assholes.

how the Hacketts arent just antagonists are where things get complicated. for starters, yes the Traveling Show burning down is their fault. but if you have Laura and Travis survive to the end, you learn that it was done out of child-like ignorance. Kaylee and Caleb were young and didnt approve of Silas’ treatment, so they came up with the well intended plan to start a fire and help him escape. unaware of how quickly a fire spreads or that a bite from Silas would ruin their fucking lives.

in the present day, the Hacketts kidnap the counselors to either protect them or just get them out of the way (or both). they go about it in a really fucked up way, but theyre not trying to hurt them, quite the opposite, they just have the worst social skills in the gotdamn world. the Hacketts only turn outwardly aggressive after Laura kills Kaylee. the family feels immense grief and officially stops giving a shit, wanting to make Laura suffer as much as possible, especially as shes infected and trying to kill Chris.

the Hacketts are assholes, but they werent always like this and dont want to be like this.

everyone in the game just wants to move on with their lives, but they all have different ways of going about it and a lot of them directly conflict with one another. “whos the villain” changes depending on which pov youre looking through. its so interesting and so well done, and i love it a lot.