#originally this was gonna be abt the boiadeiros but i couldn't generate anything interesting so it ended up being abt spaghettis instead

[kenobihater]

so we all know how disco elysium pays homage to the noir genre through its premise and tone, right? but have you thought about how it also hits a lot of the same plot beats as a spaghetti western? there's a lot of overlap between de and spaghetti westerns, so just stick with me babe, okay? firstly, the morality of the game is anything but clean cut. you can have harry do some fucked up shit because you're playing a cop and the game wants to hit home that legality and morality are not synonymous. harry just needs to do his job for the plot to progress. he doesn't have to be a good person to finish the game. next, alcoholism features heavily as a plot point. alcohol was everywhere in spaghetti westerns, and characters often struggle with alcohol addiction, though it's rare for the protagonist to be an alcoholic. a relatively surface level similarity is the fact that guns are present in both spaghetti westerns and de. then there's the fact that harry is a lawman. spaghettis feature lawman main characters often, if not in title then in spirit. even if a spaghetti doesn't explicitly name the progonist as a sheriff, he often fills the role of a peacekeeper or lawman through his persecution of the villains. also, martinaise is a great stand in for the common spagetti setting of a run down railroad town. practically all of the industry has left or been quashed out, leaving a town that's filled with the past and well on its way to becoming a ghost town (the fishing village especially). and another thing, babe - the townsfolk are (rightfully) hostile towards harry and kim, which is another common trope in spaghettis, a trope that's exacerbated not only by their status as lawmen, but by their status as outsiders (harry could even be called a drifter, if you play him as a hobocop). but one of the biggest similarities between de and the spaghetti western genre is the climatic shootout, right? you see, it's the culmination of the mounting tension weaved throughout the entire game. it takes place in the town square, and features most of the main players in the game. no matter what you say, it always ends in bullets and blood because that's the genre standard. you can't talk your way out of a standoff, in de or in a spaghetti western. the bad guys die, but so do some good guys, and you learn to live with it. then here's the big thing, so listen up: the number one similarity between spaghettis and de in my mind is the sense of time they both give you in their setting. spaghettis often deconstruct the concept of 'the wild west' by taking place in the twilight years of the west and showing the metaphorical death of the cowboy, or by showing a wild west that is bloody and cruel rather than whitewashed and hays-code friendly like the hollywood westerns were. de does both of these things - it's set after the revolution fails during a time of decline and failure, and it also doesn't shy away from the violence and death that comes with such a setting. so, even though it isn't a deliberate homage, i think de is a great example of a- oh shit, they're selling peanuts over there, babe, i'm gonna go get some, brb

#len's meta #disco elysium #disco elysium meta #i'm obsessed with this trend going around of meta posts accompanied by this picture soni decided to do my own #originally this was gonna be abt the boiadeiros but i couldn't generate anything interesting so it ended up being abt spaghettis instead