A Dream of Wargs
A meditation on queering the monstrous, through the lens of J.R.R. Tolkien's writings. Press arrow keys to navigate!
Huge inspiration from "The Seam of Skin and Scales" by Elena Rose/little light
Made in Bitsy for the Essay Jam. Small graphical hacks implemented via Borksy.
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
i... i realized now why i too, identified with monsters and villains. i already feel quite subhuman at times for reasons I'd rather not specify here, but oh, now I see... it's both a confidence boost of the dramatic and enigmatic, but also an acceptance, how, even if I am the nice, incompetent sort of "villain" there will always be a "hero" trying to fight me... it's no wonder why I idealize the villain-villain rivalry over the hero-villain one.
and it's no wonder why i always play a reptile or robot or shadowy abyss when i can.
i... i too, am monsterous, am evil
but also, i am not
i am pure evil, i am pure and evil
i am what i am
Thank you. I've only seen the films but it was nice to read about this missing story.
And wow, that poem. It feels so good to be queer. x
YES! I love that poem and want the whole world to experience it.
great visuals, and excellent essay. despite being a quite goodboy, i've always preferred villains over heroes—the latter are usually just so milquetoast. villains not only have more personality, but they're often sexier to me—no surprise that i love gay bears. give me bowser, rocksteady, bluto anyday over their boring rivals~
Haha, yes! Tho I'm more of a Bebop gal myself ;)
I think the fact that villains are sexier has to do with how sexuality is itself vilified. Heroes, and particularly heroines, are supposed to be naive, innocent, pure. So especially in kids media it's only villains who are *permitted* to be sexy. Add to that the queer coding of villains going back decades, and you've got a perfect recipy for crushing on all the baddies.
Right. (sigh)
I'm actually working on a Quake map where the monsters are good :OP
Nice
Wow, this is so good. Great essay. The art reminded me of the ZX Spectrum Hobbit game, which was very fitting.
That's a great comparison! I haven't thought about that game in awhile, but I'm proud to be in its graphical company.
This is incredible, I love the message and the subtle use of color hacks
thank you! I'm extremely proud of a single tile (the apex of the path where the two hills meet). I'm glad someone noticed :D
awesome essay! i love seeing sympathetic readings of monsters (insert "of course you do you idiot you're queer!!" meme here) and this was a very lovely read
I'm so glad. 🌈💖
I always found the way wargs were described in-text as sentient and speaking languages fascinating, too; great essay and set of thoughts on them.
Thank you!