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Cosplay from our first day at NYCC! So many great costumes–can’t wait to see what’s in store for us today! Pics by @samriedel.
Of the many false constructs in fairy tales (beauty=goodness, mothers=saints, stepmothers=sociopaths), the way that class is so easily obliterated may speak to the deepest wish at the heart of these makeovers. In the pseudo-medieval era of most fairytales (as well as in Victorian England and 18th Century France when many of these stories were retold and codified), class was everything. A pretty girl attracting the notice of a powerful man could be a very dangerous and complicated thing. You might end up as a mistress, but you might just as likely end up on your back with nothing to say about it and no means of protest or retribution. You definitely didn’t end up as a princess. So, in the elevation of Eliza and Cinderella we see the most radical kind of magic: one that transgresses class.
I’ve been itching to share this for a while now. My last project was Cinderella, and since there’s already one version of Cinderella for Far Faria, I decided to do a Filipino version version just to mix it up.
There are few things I love more in a game than player-controlled branching storylines (okay, rocket launchers, too, but that’s a different article). It’s one thing to consider the moral implications of a character’s actions in a book or movie, but the emotional punch increases exponentially when you’re the one choosing those actions. When you’ve got your hand on the trigger, the choice becomes less about how you want the story to play about, and more about what values you personally adhere to. This sort of introspective experience is heavily present in Cinders, a new visual novel by indie developer MoaCube. The game asks the player two fundamental questions: How do you define independence, and what are you willing to do to get it? In a somewhat brilliant move, these questions are posed within the unlikely framework of a mature, pensive retelling of Cinderella. According to the devs, the moral of the original story is “be a good girl and learn to take abuse quietly, then maybe you’ll find a rich husband.” I can’t argue there, though you could also say that the tale is a fable about reaping what you sow. Good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people, so long as you stick it out long enough. Thankfully, neither of these themes are to be found here.
