to understand why the ending to bloober team's 'the medium' is so bad and deeply irresponsible, you need to know the story first. this thread's going to be long but i'll try my best to be as concise as i can. spoilers ahead
trigger warnings for: child molestation, rape, the holocaust, murder, and suicide
'the medium' is a story about marianne, a woman with psychic powers who exists simultaneously in the real world and another world - an alternate reality where people's emotions manifest
throughout the game you're attacked by a creature named "the maw" - the main antagonist who the game eventually reveals was created as a result of marianne's sister, lily, being molested by her father's former mentor, richard, when she was a child
richard is revealed to have a monster of his own - "the childeater" - which was a result of trauma he experienced as a child. richard's segment is where the vast majority of trigger warnings for this game come from and plays like edgelords attempting to one-up themselves
when richard was a child his father died in world war 2. when nazis occupied poland, richard's family began hiding jewish people in their home. richard befriended a girl they were hiding named rose, and around this time richard's mom married a new man
this man became abusive and raped richard's mother, the audio of which is played automatically in the game for the player to experience. it is awful and gratuitous. richard's mother calls the nazis to save herself, resulting in the jewish family being found
the step-father is killed for being a collaborator, while rose and the rest of the jewish family are executed. this causes richard to create "the childeater" - the monster that makes him draw inappropriate images of, and eventually molest, lily
the trauma that lily experiences due to richard then creates "the maw" - a monster that eventually runs amok and possesses several people nearby lily, who then go on rampages and murder indiscriminately
pausing for a moment here: i want to point out that bloober team are attempting a "trauma begets trauma" narrative - richard's trauma (the childeater) has created lily's trauma (the maw). the game also frames the maw as specifically lily's fault
the finale of 'the medium' occurs when marianne and lily reunite. lily explains that as long as she's alive the maw is too, and the only way to stop it is for lily to die. she then begs marianne to shoot her. lily says she can't kill herself because she's "not strong enough"
marianne refuses initially, buying time by threatening to kill herself instead because the maw wants to possess her due to her strong connection with the spirit world. this connection would allow the maw to possess her for a much longer time than other people
ultimately, as marianne struggles with lily's request, something her father's spirit said earlier in the game comes back to her: "you can't always save everyone, butterfly". the game cuts to black, and ends with the sound of a gunshot
obviously there are two ways to interpret this - that marianne shot herself or lily, but either result wouldn't make the game any less problematic considering the maw is ultimately tied to lily, and the phrase "you can't always save everyone" is intended to resonate thematically
i mean, the achievement you get when you beat the game is "can't always save everyone". the game itself considers lily a lost cause - the victim of trauma that was not in any way her fault but regarded as cyclical and stopped by nothing short of a bullet to her head
the implications of this are dire. bloober team has made a game that actively promotes indifference toward people dealing with trauma, plain and simple. and that's the charitable read. the uncharitable one is that bloober team thinks people with trauma shouldn't exist
please, anyone dealing with trauma: do not listen to bloober team. you are not a lost cause. you are not predestined to perpetuate the pain you've experienced in your life. you are not weak, and it is a fundamentally good thing that you are here so you may feel better someday
it's almost funny that a developer who got a patent for displaying two worlds at once has made so strikingly obvious the fundamental split between how we interface with games: those who thoughtlessly consume, and those who don't
engaging with games as purely escapism isn't necessarily a bad thing until you have one that actively promotes apathy towards victims of abuse and is given a pass. i say this because thinking gamers actually agreed with this message is too iced up to take in right now
of course i'm just naïve. this isn't even the first time bloober's displayed indifference toward people suffering from trauma. 'blair witch' is similarly dismissive of people with ptsd, and 'layers of fear 2' implies those with chronic medical conditions are inherently suicidal
considering this you may ask why i seem to care so much about 'the medium' when this has been a consistent problem. to that i say: this is the first time bloober team's barely even tried to hide their apathy for trauma victims behind interpretation
'the medium' crossed a line because there really isn't any other way to interpret a woman suffering from child abuse asking you to kill her and the game popping a cheevo that reads "eh, might as well" while overtly stating she'll perpetuate trauma as long as she's alive
it's also worth noting that 'the medium' doesn't even handle trigger warnings properly - opting for an overly generalized warning. bloober team place importance on not spoiling their game's story over the health and wellbeing of the players who may be negatively affected by it
The Warning Screen for The Medium trauma victims consistently deal with this lack of empathy in general and 'the medium' is just that apathy manifesting itself in a shaming horror game, but we have an opportunity here to vocalize a disgust for that apathy in a way that may help people not feel so fudgy alone
so. fudge bloober team. fudge their exploitation of trauma victims. fudge their apathy. fudge their farming of mental health issues for horror game fodder. if you're suffering, please don't listen to this awful game. you deserve every opportunity in life to feel better.
