ISAT under the lens of identity fictionalism

brewing my own philosophy here, give me some space to mess things up. required reading: /garden/fiction.

this is a theme analysis of In Stars and Time, a game that is very good, and is very sensitive to spoilers. beware, and please play the damn game. if you really don’t have the money then just like pirate it or something just play it please.

---

what’s ISAT about? siffrin. siffrin is a fateful he/they that gets stuck in time because he’s scared of the future, where their friends leave him. yes i am going to switch pronouns every time i mention them.

siffrin lives in a world where these things are true: magic is real, anyone can do magic, gods are real, but not much. it’s a world where, if you believe hard enough, the universe will listen, and stop time for you.

wish craft is essentially reinforcing something: if you believe hard enough (and know the rituals, or get your country to join in with you) you can make things happen. this is a powerful, and generally useful lesson.

Change

The House of Change is a religion, and a strange one. change believers want change, and strive to make changes within themselves.

isabeau has undergone a large change. a common reading of this is: isabeau is transmasc. but i think that doesn’t– it’s a reach. the fiction of gender, transgender, etc, are very heavily wrapped up in our society, our world, and i think it is unhelpful to think of it in this way. isabeau changes, from being an extremely smart and shy person, to a buff jock. isabeau’s identity change is very interesting to me. it’s clear that he still wants to be, something better? he starts with this identity, fiction of self, that he is smart, shy, unable to be buff, strong, confident, dependable. then – he loses faith in this fiction of self. he changes. he has a new fiction, one that he reinforces though his presentation, and therefore allows to become real. but he’s not satisfied fully with his self, he wants to be a clothing designer, he wants to be smart and buff.

Yeah, I feel like I can never do things right. Yeah, I keep changing personalities like clothes, because it’s easier than learning to like myself.

what’s “learning to like myself” here? what is authenticity? the fiction of self is a thing that we learn to build over time. it’s a lifelong creative work, perhaps the most important one. it’s clear that isabeau is working on his fiction, refining it. he’s tried some extremes, and is going to maybe reach a happy medium in the future, maybe keep iterating forever. is that so bad? i see much change in his future.

i think we can take something from this: if identity is fiction, working on it is good. it’s change, and change is good! well, it’s distance, at least. it’s growth.

GROWTH.

the two forces at play in the story of ISAT is Growth and Stagnation. Let’s outline some more growth:

during the friend-quests, siffrin is Growing his friendships, they’re learning to understand his friends better, open up about things, share their opinions, etc.

loop Grows during the story. loop essentially dies because of wish craft. loop wishes their own death, and they receive it. but they don’t experience loss of life! they are gifted a new identity, a new body, a new world, and they are challenged to navigate it.

ISAT conflates identity and body. your identity is something that you get to choose, and your body follows suit (as long as you go to the right house.) but this isn’t universal! this is unlike the real world, where changing ones body is much harder. but this creates a thematic link between these two concepts.

STAGNATION.

Ka Bue is where odile is born, and where she gets half of her nationality from. Ka Bue notably does not permit body craft. it’s illegal. what does this tell us about Ka Bue?

we can make assumptions of its culture. perhaps, it’s not a place where change is accepted? where one’s identity is dictated by societal pressures? perhaps it has rigid social structures, where ones outcomes in society are largely based on external factors, instead of allowing an individual to grow and figure things out on their own. how interesting!

otherwise in stagnation: the king is an important factor, and his whole gimmick too. freezing people in time is a very direct way to talk about stagnation. the king is a character wracked with grief, of a lost country, and instead of moving on he gets stuck. he can’t move on.

what’s interesting is that his body changes as he goes through this transformation into the king. involuntarily, by accident. what does this mean? well, it’s a commentary on his identity: he believes that he is a very important person, so it becomes true.

mirabelle notably does not change much, during the events of the game. why? well, she’s a true believer! she believes in the change belief, fights for it, even! as a housemaiden of change, she helps others change. she kills a guy who very much does not like change! she’s at a very self-actualised point in her life! but she still struggles with things: principly, her aromanticism. her belief system, her fiction, dictates to her that she must find a life partner and do the icky stuff. but she doesn’t want it! her need for change is not directed towards an inward fiction, it’s dictated outwards. she’s a warrior for change, she doesn’t change herself, she’s a perfect little fighter.

for completeness, bonnie is a child. they have not changed too much much because they are a child. they are working on it. good bonnie have a samosa with potatoes but no cheese.

aand siffrin. we know a lot about his identity (we live in it for 25 hours), but we can maybe look at their body to find more about his fiction. firstly: they’re beat up. he wears an eyepatch (from battling). secondly: they cover their body with loose fitting, comfortable clothes. his large hat covers him from any adverse weather, and their cloak is comfortable no matter the temperature. siffrin is a person who is very… comfortable. no– protected. a very closed-off person.

so, siffrin is beat up and closed off. makes sense. but: siffrin is small! too! can’t forget about that. what does this say? we can read into this, maybe, as siffrin thinking of himself as small. unimportant. don’t worry about me.

when siffrin loses their hat, what does this say about him? it’s to show you that siffrin has opened up a bit! they’re not so scared of sharing his fiction anymore!

maybe i could just look at their hair, too? it’s white at the front, and black at the back. perhaps: it’s showing that he has something behind them, like, a subtle hint at the traumas? the history? just a thing to throw in there.

clothes?

perhaps we can get more from the clothes too.

mirabelle wears symbols of change, front and center. she’s also obligated to change her clothing style often! so maybe we can’t derive too much from that, or maybe it ties into her ever-changing personality somehow (though i don’t think so). she has a cute bow!!!! i want one. she’s also quite small, like siffrin, which maybe reflects her inner insecurities and shyness.

odile is tall! it’s awesome! she’s awesome! odile is a very confident person, at least on the outside. she’s a great comfort to her friends, though she stays at a distance. she covers a lot of her body, wearing flowing clothes, a tight collar, and even covering her hands a bit! it’s very distinctive, but it signals her being more of a closed-off person. she’s confident, yes, but she can’t let people get too close.

isabeau is showing off those guns!! wowie! ww–wait that’s not! those are sleeves, damn.

loop is fucking NAKED. i don’t know what that means. loop is also very closed off, like siffrin, but in a very vulnerable position as a newly recreated starperson. maybe that’s symbolism?

yeah maybe this is a bit of a dead-end.

quick change topics.

eh i got nothing

that’s about all i can manage in this writing session. maybe i’ll part two this in the future, if i come up with new thoughts. this is not the first or last time i write about isat. thanks for watching my dream.