Today we close the book on Strange Men Month by looking at The Hanged Man, the final chapter of the "something-Man" series.
One snowy winter day, 14 year old William Morton walks through the snow accompanied solely by his pet rat, Pop. On his way to meet with a relative, David Hoover, Will is a boy burdened by something, a secret he considers so devastating, it shames and rocks him to his core. Too riddled with guilt and shame to stay with his relative, whom he had hoped to speak to, Will runs away to an old, abandoned, seemingly haunted hospital. There he begins an adventure that will change his life, for better or worse...
Unlike the previous three stories, the Hanged Man isn't about a "hanged man" in a literal sense (though there IS a scene with a man hanging by a rope on his neck, and hanging people is a common unifying symbol in the story) Instead, the title refers to the Tarot Card, the Hanged Man, one of the Main Arcana of Tarot. This is important, and you'll see why in a bit...
The story of The Hanged Man is about a young boy riddled with guilt over something he recently learned. His father, who passed on not too recently, had abandoned his previous family once he got William's mother pregnant with him. Feeling as though he himself was responsible for breaking up a family, he sought to make amends with his older half-brother: David Hoover.
These feelings of guilt, however, send Will running away to an abandoned hospital. There, his pet rat, Pop, runs away, forcing the young boy to look for him. Unbeknown to others, Will is seemingly able to talk to animals, with Pop being what Will considers to be his only friend. Well, his only LIVING friend...
But IS he able to talk to animals? There are some moments in the game that make me question Will's seemingly supernatural abilities. Particularly the ending, which caused me to stop and think about Will's mental state. However, considering that The Sand Man pretty much made the existence of the supernatural a FACT, it's not easy to discard the possibility that Will is FULLY capable of not just speaking to animals, but that he can see and speak to the dead.
As far as protagonists go, I'd say Will is pretty interesting, which is of course a MUST for a game made by Uri. It's not just his abilities that makes him unique, but it's the combination of burgeoning manhood and childlike innocence combined into one. He is very much a child in that he's so attached to his "fantasies" (though if they are so, that's debatable). In many ways, Will's attachment to not just Pop, but to his ghosts as well, are demonstrations of Will hanging onto his childhood.
Will spent most, if not all, of his childhood seeing phantoms and talking to animals. He lost his father at an early age, but the phantoms kept him company. He made friends with a pirate, a crying woman, and a hanged man. That last one was actually the start of his "visitors."
It all began one innocent afternoon. A much younger Will went out to the woods to play, when he encountered a corpse hanging by a rope. The boy began to talk to the corpse, seemingly not understanding he was in the presence of a dead body. He asked "Why do you have a rope around your neck?" And the corpse replied "I'm not hanging because I want to, I was hanged. By all the things in this world..."
You know, far be it for me to judge someone who's in a bad situation, but saying something like THAT to a kid is pretty fucked up. Seriously, I have no other way to express the shock I feel whenever I think about that line.
You know, real talk here: SUICIDE IS NEVER THE ANSWER! Life is tough, that's a given. You'll fail, you'll fall down, you'll get beaten and stepped on. There will always come a time when we feel like ending it all, and most of the time it'll be for the same reason: because we feel there's no other way to escape this torment. And make no mistake, life IS torment. Suicide often feels like a way to "take back control" of our lives; lie going out on our terms. Some people think it takes courage to commit suicide. Those people are stupid. Living, seeking help, admitting to oneself that we're not OK? THAT takes courage!
This is what The Hanged Man is about, actually. It's about seeking help when we're at our lowest point. Will suffers from an enormous guilt, and so he feels he must make amends for it. But because he refuses to seek help for his guilt, it builds up inside of him more and more, to the point that he considers staying in an abandoned, derelict hospital IN THE MIDDLE OF A SNOWSTORM to be a better alternative than...seeking help.
What happens is that this guilt becomes a self destructive tendency, which has already led Will down a harmful road. Will is, little by little, destroying himself. It is only his attachment to the rat Pop that he stays grounded on Earth; when the rat runs away, Will focuses his energies away from his guilt (which would certainly have destroyed him) and unto finding his friend. In this way, Pop saved Will's life.
Will's adventure in the hospital also aided him in an unexpected way. In the hospital he runs into Sophie Grundler and Keith Baring, two individuals who've also had major dealings with "Strange Men." The two give Will some indirect, as well as direct, ways to cope with his guilt. This allows him to grow up as a person, to abandon his dependence on ghosts and animals for companionship, and also to begin his healing process.
In contrast, Ed neither had that luxury, nor did he seek it. Ed is like Will, both physically as well as emotionally. Ed is who Will could well grow up to be had it not been for this adventure: a shut-in of a man with a LOT of buried anger and sadness. Sure Ed had a pretty miserable youth (homelessness, child abuse, abusive father), but was Will's (childhood ostratization, trauma, parental death) that much better? Everyone has their damage, and for many of us it seems like the road to recovery is impossible.
But The Hanged Man, and in turn the entire Strange Men series, teaches us that recovery is always possible, because we ALWAYS have the choice to START. And it's important for us to start, in fact, we have that obligation to ourselves. Not to our loved ones, not the the world, but to US! You owe YOURSELF the chance to get better, because no one, NO ONE deserves to be at that edge, thinking there's no escape, falling down is inevitable, that it's better for everyone to just take that plunge. NOBODY deserves that.
Except nazis, rapists, and pedophiles. Fuck those people.
THIS BLOG IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH IMALIVE.ORG. THAT LINK WAS GIVEN BY MY OWN CHOICE AND RECOMMENDATION.
Unlike the other three Strange Men games, there is a level of symbolism in The Hanged Man's title. The Hanged Man, in Tarot, represents having to break down old habits and whatever restricts you. And really, that's what the game is all about: break out of that which restricts you. For Will, it's his inability to open himself up to people. For Ed, it's his inability to let go of his past. Both characters are forced into a crossroads where their options are clear: either move on to a better road, or follow the road to self destruction.
In the end, the sublte message of The Hanged Man, and in turn for the entire Strange Men saga, is that your life is in YOUR hands. The Crooked Man taught us to accept failure and move on. The Sandman taught us to take care of ourselves. The Boogie Man taught us to acknowledge (and do something about) our pain. And the Hanged Man taught us that we need to break out of bad habits if we are to move on in our lives.
Ultimately, though, the final message one could get from the entire Strange Men saga is that it's OK to be human. It's OK to be flawed, to be imperfect, to be vulnerable. It's OK to feel hurt, to feel as though we are suffering. But it's in OUR HANDS to move onto something better, to find happiness in this life of ours. Accept your failures (Crooked Man), acknowledge your limits (Sandman), your pain (Boogie Man), and that which restricts you (Hanged Man). Once you do, you can let go and find happiness. It's within you, within all of us.
And so I close the book on Strange Men Month as well as 2017. It's been a hell of a year, both good and bad. Here's to a good 2018.
But IS he able to talk to animals? There are some moments in the game that make me question Will's seemingly supernatural abilities. Particularly the ending, which caused me to stop and think about Will's mental state. However, considering that The Sand Man pretty much made the existence of the supernatural a FACT, it's not easy to discard the possibility that Will is FULLY capable of not just speaking to animals, but that he can see and speak to the dead.
As far as protagonists go, I'd say Will is pretty interesting, which is of course a MUST for a game made by Uri. It's not just his abilities that makes him unique, but it's the combination of burgeoning manhood and childlike innocence combined into one. He is very much a child in that he's so attached to his "fantasies" (though if they are so, that's debatable). In many ways, Will's attachment to not just Pop, but to his ghosts as well, are demonstrations of Will hanging onto his childhood.
Will spent most, if not all, of his childhood seeing phantoms and talking to animals. He lost his father at an early age, but the phantoms kept him company. He made friends with a pirate, a crying woman, and a hanged man. That last one was actually the start of his "visitors."
It all began one innocent afternoon. A much younger Will went out to the woods to play, when he encountered a corpse hanging by a rope. The boy began to talk to the corpse, seemingly not understanding he was in the presence of a dead body. He asked "Why do you have a rope around your neck?" And the corpse replied "I'm not hanging because I want to, I was hanged. By all the things in this world..."
You know, far be it for me to judge someone who's in a bad situation, but saying something like THAT to a kid is pretty fucked up. Seriously, I have no other way to express the shock I feel whenever I think about that line.
You know, real talk here: SUICIDE IS NEVER THE ANSWER! Life is tough, that's a given. You'll fail, you'll fall down, you'll get beaten and stepped on. There will always come a time when we feel like ending it all, and most of the time it'll be for the same reason: because we feel there's no other way to escape this torment. And make no mistake, life IS torment. Suicide often feels like a way to "take back control" of our lives; lie going out on our terms. Some people think it takes courage to commit suicide. Those people are stupid. Living, seeking help, admitting to oneself that we're not OK? THAT takes courage!
This is what The Hanged Man is about, actually. It's about seeking help when we're at our lowest point. Will suffers from an enormous guilt, and so he feels he must make amends for it. But because he refuses to seek help for his guilt, it builds up inside of him more and more, to the point that he considers staying in an abandoned, derelict hospital IN THE MIDDLE OF A SNOWSTORM to be a better alternative than...seeking help.
What happens is that this guilt becomes a self destructive tendency, which has already led Will down a harmful road. Will is, little by little, destroying himself. It is only his attachment to the rat Pop that he stays grounded on Earth; when the rat runs away, Will focuses his energies away from his guilt (which would certainly have destroyed him) and unto finding his friend. In this way, Pop saved Will's life.
Will's adventure in the hospital also aided him in an unexpected way. In the hospital he runs into Sophie Grundler and Keith Baring, two individuals who've also had major dealings with "Strange Men." The two give Will some indirect, as well as direct, ways to cope with his guilt. This allows him to grow up as a person, to abandon his dependence on ghosts and animals for companionship, and also to begin his healing process.
In contrast, Ed neither had that luxury, nor did he seek it. Ed is like Will, both physically as well as emotionally. Ed is who Will could well grow up to be had it not been for this adventure: a shut-in of a man with a LOT of buried anger and sadness. Sure Ed had a pretty miserable youth (homelessness, child abuse, abusive father), but was Will's (childhood ostratization, trauma, parental death) that much better? Everyone has their damage, and for many of us it seems like the road to recovery is impossible.
But The Hanged Man, and in turn the entire Strange Men series, teaches us that recovery is always possible, because we ALWAYS have the choice to START. And it's important for us to start, in fact, we have that obligation to ourselves. Not to our loved ones, not the the world, but to US! You owe YOURSELF the chance to get better, because no one, NO ONE deserves to be at that edge, thinking there's no escape, falling down is inevitable, that it's better for everyone to just take that plunge. NOBODY deserves that.
THIS BLOG IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH IMALIVE.ORG. THAT LINK WAS GIVEN BY MY OWN CHOICE AND RECOMMENDATION.
Unlike the other three Strange Men games, there is a level of symbolism in The Hanged Man's title. The Hanged Man, in Tarot, represents having to break down old habits and whatever restricts you. And really, that's what the game is all about: break out of that which restricts you. For Will, it's his inability to open himself up to people. For Ed, it's his inability to let go of his past. Both characters are forced into a crossroads where their options are clear: either move on to a better road, or follow the road to self destruction.
In the end, the sublte message of The Hanged Man, and in turn for the entire Strange Men saga, is that your life is in YOUR hands. The Crooked Man taught us to accept failure and move on. The Sandman taught us to take care of ourselves. The Boogie Man taught us to acknowledge (and do something about) our pain. And the Hanged Man taught us that we need to break out of bad habits if we are to move on in our lives.
Ultimately, though, the final message one could get from the entire Strange Men saga is that it's OK to be human. It's OK to be flawed, to be imperfect, to be vulnerable. It's OK to feel hurt, to feel as though we are suffering. But it's in OUR HANDS to move onto something better, to find happiness in this life of ours. Accept your failures (Crooked Man), acknowledge your limits (Sandman), your pain (Boogie Man), and that which restricts you (Hanged Man). Once you do, you can let go and find happiness. It's within you, within all of us.
And so I close the book on Strange Men Month as well as 2017. It's been a hell of a year, both good and bad. Here's to a good 2018.
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