Quinn
Registered: 07/14/08
Posts: 21
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Reply with quote | #1 |
This has been bugging me a bit, so I thought it'd be interesting to hear everyone's thoughts on the subject. What's the deal with "sprouting?" Why do flowers effectively re-kill people who are already dead? Why does Lola disintegrate completely when everyone else who gets sprouted just becomes a stationary garden? And does sprouting ever wear off or do these poor souls just cease to exist, never to reach the ninth underworld?
OK, I know that the real reason the game has sprouting is to give the characters something to fear; if they were just invincible souls, there'd be no sense of risk. But the sprouting concept seems like a particularly odd choice for the writers, so I'm wondering if there's something more clever going on here that I might be missing.
Also, I'm still on year 3, so if this gets more fully explained later in the game, please give spoiler warnings.
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sparky
Registered: 07/14/08
Posts: 115
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Reply with quote | #2 |
Well, I think sprouting is used sloppily mostly because the developers used each instance for maximum dramatic effect (like vanishing/not vanishing dead Jedi in Star Wars). Lola's disintegration was great drama, and other persisting bodies were necessary to gameplay. I suppose you could come up with a bunch of prettified explanations (Lola dissolved because of: a stiff sea breeze / fast-acting sproutella / she used to be a florist / the developers don't like The Kinks), but it isn't necessary. The game doesn't give you enough explanation of the mechanics of sprouting to really object.
I thought the sprouting itself was a great juxtaposition: in the land of the dead, living is the only death. Perhaps "sprouting" just means a soul is sent back to earth (to life), rather than onward to paradise.
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Marchantia
Registered: 09/20/09
Posts: 1
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Reply with quote | #3 |
I just discovered this forum, so please excuse that I'm obviously late ...
The "sprouting" in GF always reminded me of Boris Vian's "Froth on the Daydream", in which a young woman has to die because of a lily that grows in her chest. The only way to slow down the process is to cover her home in flowers. A very intense novel!
Flowers and death are closely related motives in art, since flowers are symbols of fertility and life itself. A lot of well smelling flowers have always been planted on cementries to cover the "scent of death".
I really love how GF uses this tradition in it's game play.
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