While she has promise as an interesting character, she is underutilized throughout Outlast 2‘s narrative. A spindly blonde transgender woman who delights in sexual promiscuity, she was once a dedicated servant of Knoth who defected, starting her own heretical cult with the intent of bringing about the antichrist. Val, as a character, is similarly lacking in any character depth. To find a deeper meaning, we need to talk about Val. But merely examining Knoth’s place in this story is to ignore the larger picture Outlast 2 paints of how sex and gender are regarded in Christian America.
In constructing such a sleazy, cartoonish figurehead to lead Outlast 2‘s doomsday cult, the game directly invites comparisons to real-world conservative Christianity in America, thinly veiling its contempt for modern religious hypocrisy with all the subtlety of a nail to the groin. When someone else has sex and gets an abortion, they’re morally reprehensible. They resemble the “do as I say, not as I do” mindset that seems so commonplace in the hierarchies of modern Christianity (and, by extension, Catholocism), whether it be abortion scandals or church cover-ups for pedophilia.
Both the wonton sexual depravity Knoth engages in and his ordering the death of children are stains upon his character. It wasn’t until it affected him that abortion stopped being a sin and became a necessity to survive. Before this revelation, abortion was a sin in the cult Knoth even encouraged sex as a way to grow the flock. When Knoth learns that the antichrist is to be born from his flock, he orders every baby murdered. I’m specifically talking about sex in a broader sense here, particularly as it pertains to cisgendered women and their reproductive organs. Thanks to in-game documents we know that Knoth slovenly takes part in both consensual sex and rape of vulnerable female cult members, despite decrying the sexually immoral. This is not strictly in the coital sense. More than that, though, Sullivan Knoth represents modern Conservative Christianity’s views on sex. There are coincidental alignments with self-forgiving conservative-leaning ‘Christians’ in America who somehow shrug off their support of people who bomb civilians or separate children from their mothers every Sunday. He turns a blind eye to his prejudices and sins, justifying them because - as the sole appointed - he alone is “truly forgiven.” Any mayhem or violence his sect causes to others is for the greater good, to protect the flock, and maintain his interests. In many ways, Knoth could be perceived as a thin parody of modern Conservative American Christianity. He bends the words of the peaceful Jesus Christ into fear-mongering messages of hate, preparing his “flock” for the apocalypse and keeping a watchful eye for the Antichrist who heralds its arrival. Knoth is given almost no depth as a character a purulent caricature of religious hypocrisy, he uses his post to manipulate his followers into heeding his every want, including copulation.
Blake’s search for his wife leads him to uncover the religious cult of self-appointed prophet Sullivan Knoth, and the conflict between Knoth and a rebelling satanic cult led by a woman named Val. Outlast 2 is a bit of a mess with its themes, but that doesn’t deprive them of depth.
The entwined stories of a journalist rescuing his wife from a doomsday cult interspersed with flashbacks of a childhood tragedy he witnessed at a parochial school struck a chord with me. When I finally got around to playing Outlast 2 late last year, I was pleasantly surprised to find that, not only was the game a finely crafted adventure that fixed many of my complaints with the original Outlast, but that it also packed a hefty narrative punch.
0 kommentar(er)
