I LOVE MOUTHWASHING!!!!

I genuinely love this game so much, possibly to the extent I love Telltale's Walking Dead series. Seeing a game write compelling, ACTUALLY morally grey characters is very refreshing. A lot of horror games recently don't really delve into their characters like Mouthwashing does (not saying that's a bad thing at all). 

I think that Anya is an amazing representation of assault victims and the treatment we face, amplified by Jimmy's unreliable retelling of the situation. I adore her characterization and the attention the devs put into accurately representing our triggers and trauma responses. Seeing how the devs portray our silencing and stereotype of being quiet and timid through Jimmy's warped view feels vindicating in a way. 

I love how Daisuke seems like the happy go lucky dumb character, but isn't just his persona, seeing a character like him admit their real feelings and show a scared, vulnerable side is so refreshing, as well as his relationship with Swansea. Swansea comes off as the antagonist who doesn't care for his shipmates and seeing his final monologue where he finally admits his plan to save the pod for Daisuke out of care for him was heartbreaking. 

I personally really like how Curly can be applied to so many metaphors and I really enjoy how he's both a victim and enabler of Jimmy. He's very obviously in an incredibly toxic friendship with Jimmy, but protects him at every turn, unknowingly allowing him to keep harming both Curly and the rest of the crew. I think it's interesting that Jimmy views him as an inanimate object for the majority of the game until the ending, I think it says a lot about Jimmy as a character. 

Jimmy is possibly one of the best unreliable narrators and villains I've seen in a while. At first, you see him as the only competent member of the crew and the "hero" until you realize how much he's warped the story in his head in order to make himself both the savior and the victim. Seeing how he views the crew and turns them into stereotypes in order to fuel his own delusions and savior complex is so interesting and fun to analyze, as well as his "sacrifice" in the end, genuinely thinking he's righted his wrongs after downplaying them so much in his own mind. 

I could make this rant so much longer to express how I fully feel, but I feel like making separate analysis posts for each character would be better than adding onto my already very long rambles. If you are in the mental headspace to watch or play Mouthwashing, I would highly recommend it.