#She deserves happiness to and after deconstructing the manic pixie dream girl thing she can actually have that

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Monika

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Doki Doki Literature Club was a pretty intriguing game. It deconstructed the idea of dating sims and gave a harrowing and heartbreakingly real look at depression, and delivered Silent Hill-level mindscrewy psychological horror in what seemed, at face value, to be nothing more than a cutesy little anime dating simulator. And at the heart of it all is one character, one who is your friend from seemingly the start but who has her own hidden agenda: Monika.

Just Monika.

Monika is such a fascinating character. While concepts like self-aware artificial intelligence or meta deconstructions of genres are nothing new, the presentation and the execution of Monika are what really sell her as one of the most unique villains in modern video game history. Of course, none of this would mean quite as much if it wasn’t for the layer of tragedy to the character and the sorry state of affairs she suffers… but it’s something that still doesn’t justify all the pain she inflicts.

Motivation/Goals: Monika’s ultimate goal is rather intriguing; Monika has become completely and utterly enamored with you. Yes, you. Whoever is playing the game is the object of Monika’s affection, as she has somehow become self-aware of her role as a dating sim NPC. Of course, therein lies the problem: she is, as far as the game’s code is concerned, an NPC, with no romantic route planned in the game for her. Monika’s self-awareness of her role ironically does not give her self-awareness of her actions; despite realizing and acknowledging she is a character in a fictional narrative, she forcibly alters the code of the game she’s in to exacerbate or outright fabricate the negative and harmful traits of her fellow characters solely for the purpose of driving you, the player, into her arms. This of course has her ignoring that they have as much capacity for self-awareness as Monika herself does, which is evidenced by what happens to Sayori once Monika is deleted.

This of course may come with the limitations placed upon her; ultimately Monika, despite her awareness, is still a visual novel dating sim character, and so can only really come up with ideas in the confines of that genre. Therefore, it does make sense that her plan would be to forcibly alter the game to make her the only romance option so that she can have you to herself rather than trying a more peaceful route. Adding on to this is the fact that, as a dating sim character, she doesn’t exactly have the coding skill to make her own route and so has to go that extra mile by killing and deleting the other girls.

Final Fate: After she deletes most of the game universe, the player is left with a choice: allow the game to remain as just you and Monika forever, or go into the game’s folder and delete Monika from the game. Deleting her is actually for the best, because it triggers a change in her that leads her to try and do good by her fellow Literature Club members despite no longer existing.

Best Scene: When Monika finally has you all to herself, with you two the only ones left in the universe; the fact there is about a hour’s worth of unique dialogue really helps, and of course the scene is important for setting up the ending of the third act.

Best Quote: So much of what she says in the Third Act is worth putting here, but I think it’s best to single out the poignant, heartfelt farewell she leaves behind if you achieve the golden ending:

“This is my final goodbye to the Literature Club.

I finally understand. The literature club is truly a place where no happiness can be found. To the very end, it continued to expose innocent minds to a horrific reality - a reality that our world is not designed to comprehend. I can't let any of my friends undergo that same hellish epiphany.

For the time it lasted, I want to thank you. For making all of my dreams come true. For being a friend to all of the club members. And most of all, thank you for being a part of my literature club!

With everlasting love, Monika”

Final Thoughts & Score: Monika is probably one of the most extreme takes on a yandere ever; she literally deletes the entire universe so that it is only you and her. At the same time though, simply labeling her as a yandere is rather reductive and a disservice to the character. Monika may lack empathy and be hypocritical, but she does seem to genuinely love and care for the player in her own twisted way, and when she is finally deleted she does go out of her way to try and help make things right. It seems that the player is ultimately the catalyst to bringing about the better parts of her nature, which is frankly kind of sweet and in a very odd sense turns you into the “manic pixie dream girl” archetype for Monika.

Monika is easily one of the most fantastic antagonists in the modern era of video games. She’s complex, intriguing, reprehensible in her actions yet ultimately still a sympathetic and tragic figure. When you think about it, and while it certainly doesn’t condone anything she does, the fact that Monika is going through one of the most intense existential crises a person could go through goes a long way towards explaining why she ended up like this. Imagine if you realized one day that your entire life was nothing more than a predetermined set of lines and functions and you only existed to watch and even sometimes ensure everyone else around you got to be happy and in love, all while they are blissfully unaware that they are the pawns of a higher power who is playing with them for their own gratification. With a revelation like that, is it any wonder she broke down the way she did?

Monika gets a well-deserved 9/10. While a bit nitpicky, I have to keep her from a perfect mark due to her impact having diminishing returns if you choose to play through the game again; Monika’s impact is best felt that first time, and while she still is compelling on replays (perhaps even more due to foreshadowing you can pick up on), her effectiveness stems from her seemingly knowing you personally, an effect lost once it sets in that she’s pre-programmed and not an infinitely unique randomly generated character. Still, I don’t really think anything could hope to diminish the sheer impact of her character. It’ll be a good long while before we ever get a genre deconstruction villain with this quality writing again.

[nonbinarysasquatch]

for the critical opinion on ships ask meme: dramione, rethaniel, joshbecca, grebecca?

Ah, yes, let’s see how many people I can piss off in one go. I’ll tackle these in reverse:

Grebecca: Maybe in some alternate universe these two could work out but not in the one we have. They were very toxic for each other and Greg, frankly, deserves better. I think It Was a Shit Show said everything about their relationship that needed to be said. It was terrible and Greg did the right thing by leaving. 

While I do think Rebecca loved him, as long her obsession with Josh and her on issues went unaddressed she would’ve continued to string him along and eventually they would’ve hated each other. I think they were a really good example of how love can’t save a toxic relationship and you shouldn’t destroy yourself trying to make a toxic relationship work.

I do think seeing all the shippers who harass Rachel and Aline have soured me further on this ship but I still love Greg as a character. He’s (in my opinion) the most realistically human character the show has had.

Joshbecca: Josh is a sweet guy but he’s not remotely emotionally intelligent enough to be with Rebecca. And frankly, they just don’t have much in common. The main way they connect at all is via his childishness but for Rebecca that’s not healthy (and I’d argue it’s not really healthy for Josh either.) 

There’s probably a universe where they could date for a few months and have fun but that’s it. They are just too different and in terms of the actual canon universe Rebecca has beyond treated him awfully and it’s only by the grace of the fact that Josh is the most forgiving and kind character on the show that he doesn’t hate her.

Rethaniel: Oh boy. Are you ever like, “Well, I’m about to say things that literally no one is going to be happy with”?

It’s been an interesting journey tracking my feelings about this ship. On my first watch through I was surprised by how much I was able to like Nathaniel, despite his flaws. But then I rewatched and was better able to analyse his actions (while watching season 3 live it became easy to forget things he had said and done and I didn’t pay attention to fan discussions at all.)

There are definitely Nathaniel moments I like. Actually, I still love his plot in Josh is Irrelevant because I really relate to him getting triggered in that episode for some personal reasons. It’s the only time I’ve found him relatable, though.

The funniest thing is that deciding to check out the CXGF fandom on Tumblr was the thing that really started to bring out my negativity about the ship. Simply because I was stunned to find out so many people... shipped them so wholeheartedly. It made me uncomfortable even though at that point I still hadn’t put an enormous amount of thought into it because frankly: I don’t care about Rebecca’s romantic life at all. It’s not why I watch the show. So my attitude has tended to be “she can have romantic stumbles and bad relationships as long as the end of the show isn’t about her romantic life.”

And I mean, that’s STILL my attitude. I know some people disagree but I’m fine with Rebecca having bad relationships and I know some people REALLY disagree but I think there is value to Nathaniel as a character (DON’T HATE ME LEAH) and deconstructing the privilege and abuses of wealthy straight white men in America.

Now, thankfully, my experience with Rethaniel shippers has all been great and most seem to be lovely people and many of them ARE critical of Nathaniel’s actions. So I don’t hold anything against them, and I’ve been forged in the fires of HP fandom where some truly gross ships are also some of the most popular so...

Anyhow, here’s why I’ve gone from kinda neutral on Rethaniel to them being actually something I’m against:

Look, before we get into any of Nathaniel’s behaviour and meta on his place on the show, I’ll just say: it’s really fucking hard to ignore that every female Jewish fan of the show I’ve interacted with hates Nathaniel. It’s not my place to comment on why that is but when an entire group is like “this dude makes us uncomfortable” I tend to listen.

Meta wise, we now know that Rebecca is Nathaniel’s Josh, aka object of obsession that he’s idealising. Which means that aside from any of his actual behaviour, once Nathaniel can get over that obsession it won’t be healthy for him to continue to interact with Rebecca.

Nathaniel sexually harassed Rebecca while they were trapped in an elevator.

He plotted to deport Josh’s father and to murder Josh’s grandfather so that he could get laid (though it’s debatable whether Nathaniel really thought he would have to go through with these things, I do think if Rebecca had been cool with them he would’ve let them happen and buried any guilt as per usual.)

He repeatedly bodyshames her.

He treats her mental health problems as cute and attractive.

When she breaks up with him he fires her out of spite (something he basically confesses to.)

Rachel Bloom has said that Rebecca is attracted to Nathaniel in part BECAUSE he negs her and that definitely tracks with Rebecca’s low self-esteem. She’s also said that her interactions with Paula’s dad factor why she goes and sleeps with Nathaniel after getting back to West Covina, so erm, unpack THAT.

For me the final clincher is “Nothing is Ever Anyone’s Fault” a song which I should note, I like (as a piece of satire and meta-commentary, which is a case for a lot of the show’s morally not great pieces.) After everything, Nathaniel doesn’t see anything he’s done as wrong. I do think he will eventually but the end of season 3 and the title being “Nathaniel is Irrelevant” to me send a clear message. 

I’m baffled that some people think “Nothing is Ever Anyone’s Fault” is a sweet, romantic song when everything about it is the opposite of the message the show is trying to convey. Rebecca and Nathaniel are saying in that moment that part of what has drawn them together is not taking responsibility for their actions and blaming everything on trauma. It’s destructive and toxic, not romantic. And this evidenced by the following scene in the courtroom where Rebecca rejects Nathaniels amorality and chooses her conscience (aka Paula.)

And like, soon I will finish my season 3 reviews and get into why the season 3 finale is genuinely one of my favourite things the show has done (as it was the next missing piece that I wanted the show to cover... they had dealt with what Rebecca’s underlying problems were but not fully dealt with her need to take responsibility for her actions.)

I think there’s hope for Nathaniel as a character. He can grow and be redeemed and learn to use his privilege to help people, rather than using it as a weapon and a shield. But he needs to stay away from Rebecca. I do think they love each other but their love is destructive.

My final thought I want to attach is that... I think there’s something to be said for the relevancy characters like Nathaniel have for Americans. In this country, our real life villains look like Nathaniel and his family. They represent white privilege and and cold, driven capitalism.

It’s not entirely surprising that so many of us find it easy to love Nathaniel and latch onto him as a character. I think it’s something we’ve been conditioned to as a way of coping with life in a capitalist hellscape.

Observe the way people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are treated by many liberals. Jeff is, to be fair, a liberal but he’s also the wealthiest man in the world and his company has some serious ethical problems with how their workers are treated at all levels (it’s not just the people working in the warehouses, I’ve known Amazon programmers in the past and the work conditions are nightmarish and not sustainable unless you are in perfect health and have no personal life.)

And Elon Musk is a libertarian who has donated to Republicans who want to take people’s rights away but he still gets weirdly treated like some sort of liberal icon.

And I don’t want to poison the well too much, but I would like to at least make a cursory gesture at our president, who is a privileged straight white man who openly sexually harassed women, is guilty endless racism, antisemitism, ableism, misogyny and has of course been accused numerous times of sexual assault. A complete list of why our president is awful would require an entire novel to itself...

But someone like our president was able to get elected. Half the country voted him in. 

And obviously... Nathaniel isn’t wealthy on the level of guys like that (or he wouldn’t be pissing about with a lawfirm like Whitefeather) and he’s mercifully not a monster like our president. But I do think our need to cope with our environment contributes to liking characters like him. If people like him can be good inside and can be redeemed then maybe there’s hope for this country.

But in reality... people like Nathaniel don’t grow and change. But I believe they can. And, for me anyhow, this is the value I see in Nathaniel. They can send a message to straight, white men about privilege and learning to fight back against the patriarchy that lifts you up. He can be a good person. But his road to that might be a little harder because men like Nathaniel don’t change because privilege protects them. Why change when society itself never allows you to fail?

But I think Nathaniel will grow and change. But I think it’s important he does that on his own. Rebecca can’t be his manic pixie dream girl (even though that’s literally how he sees her.) Rebecca’s journey is her own and it’s not about the men.