Blake: Pro tip: Instead of having feelings, try being dead inside. Everything is still horrible but you will not care at all.
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[I still absolutely hate that Red Barrels responded to that question about Val’s gender on their twitter with “Val is Val.” Why stand by making a canonically trans character when you could be wishy washy about it instead?
Like, her canon character arc has her being referred to as he/him by the religious cult she was raised by, then physically modifying her body with mud to have breasts and appear feminine while talking about how that’s her true face/true self. She very clearly identifies as a woman and very clearly was assigned male at birth but people are still like “Val is a cis man” and it makes me roll my eyes that Red Barrels is just like “hmm! Well! That’s one interpretation!” instead of confirming one way or the other.
I’ve seen two different theories for why Val would be presenting as female in her Final Boss Form if she didn’t actually identify as female and neither of them really make any sense to me in context.
The popular one is that she doesn’t have breasts formed out of mud at all and that Blake is hallucinating what her body looks like. Which is a reach imo. He’s been shown hallucinating about Jessica through out the game and the hallucinations were always more explicit than this. He’s been seeing Jessica in various places up until this point. Jessica herself, not just Val with boobs who looks absolutely nothing like Jessica outside of them both being women. There’s absolutely no in game reason for his hallucinations to be getting more subtle rather than less and the similarities between Val and Jessica are virtually non-existent.
I’ve also seen some people who read her appearance as more of a costume, which I feel is a little more valid of an interpretation than Blake hallucinating, at least. The heretics worship of the Walrider is very much based around childbirth and motherhood and I can see why some people would view Val’s end game appearance as a ritualistic representation of the mother of the antichrist rather than her true identity.
Except! She literally says with her words that this is her true identity. She puts so much emphasis on honesty and vulnerability in this scene and in the overall themes of the heretic belief system. The heretics are nude for a reason, and she goes on to specifically state that she is nude to welcome the antichrist “hiding nothing.” There is an honesty in being stripped down to the bare essentials. The heretics are all about being themselves and acting on their urges and being genuine. Putting on a mask or a costume feels antithetical to their belief system. She repeatedly states that her appearance in this scene is her removing her mask to show her true face.
I think it’s a big stretch to imply that the body Val has in this scene isn’t the body she wants, and I think it fits beautifully with her character arc for her to have rejected the identity Knoth wanted for her and built her own identity out of the dirt.]
14Blake: I think I’m having two mental breakdowns at the same time and they’re cancelling each other out.
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Kind of in an art block rn, so I’m resorting to posting old drawings. I made a very wise choice of not using a reference for this, as shown by my ~inCreDiBlE aCcUrAcY~
28Miles: I concede that I was wrong about the thing.
Lynn: good.
Miles: however-
Lynn: no. no however. just stand there in your wrongness and be wrong and get used to it.
26Shiggi: Marta, stay away from me and my wiggly noodle, for it does not belong to you or your flat ass, you Oikawa kinnie.
2Lynn: did you know jellyfish have existed for millions of years without a brain?
Miles: a ray of hope for our supervisors
38Blake: listen, I know you think my judgement is clouded because I kind of like Lynn-
Miles: kind of like her? dude you drew your wedding invitations.
Blake: those aren’t wedding invitations, that’s our joint tombstone.
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