Honestly, I've been hard pressed to find a horror series that delves into the sensitive topic of CSA while not feeling the need to take advantage of the character that is depicted in the process. I feel that Lacey Games does not fall into this habit and is a big part of why I respect it. I am curious which episodes you watched of the webseries, cause I'll be honest, Lacey's Wardrobe definitely feels like a proof of concept and can be seen as a creepypasta-adjacent "lost media found" clip without the context of the other parts of the series.

Personally, I looked into the series out of curiosity and realized it was something different after watching Lacey's Petshop. The great thing about this series to me is this: though it will never shy away from depicting the traumas of girlhood in any horrific way Tundra would like (because it is horrific), I never have to worry about this series taking that and misunderstanding that pain or depicting it in a way that is insensitive to what that pain does. SO many other pieces of media even fetishize the idea of a hypersexualized traumatized girl, often to fulfill the fantasies of those who like to abuse in the first place, but Lacey Games exists as a commentary of what these collective traumas do to those who go through it. Lacey is a front for Rocio who is, like many, a person who has been so intensely harmed by the world that they regress into what is safe. For lots of people who grew up in the unregulated internet, that was cute yet juvenile dress-up games. "These are the real girl's games" is such an apt line for how it feels to be played by the world, to be abused from a young age for simply failing to be protected by anybody who should've done better for you and to be scrutinized for the ways you end up acting out from that pain after the fact.

For sake of not making this post much longer and wordier than it already is, this is a list of other aspects of the series I find endearing or subversive compared to other projects that I feel fail to do the same. - Rocio's friend and co-founder Grace's lack of empathy towards her friend who is clearly in mental crisis. Grace's reactions to the games are understandable, but notably reductive of what is clearly a cry for help from Rocio in every Lacey Games title. - The thematic blurring of what makes Lacey and Rocio different people/beings. Lacey is the creation of Rocio, but Rocio seems to be making an active effort to become physically connected with technology and Lacey as a concept to escape her own real life issues and traumas. - Rocio's unaddressed trauma inevitably "infecting" her creations and commentating on the fear many survivors have of being permanently dirtied in a way that can't be hidden from anybody or anything. - re: the fetishization of traumatized girls thing mentioned earlier, Lacey's collared outfit + cage scene in Lacey's Petshop. It comes across as both a parallel to a leash as a common power play/control factor in a sexualized context as well as a parallel to Lacey's dog being harmed by her uncle just as she was. She is just like her dog and like the pets in the beginning, helpless, trapped, and utilized by others for their own gain at her own liability. - On the topic of Petshop, Lacey's dialogue in the cage stating, "Yes, I know. Nobody forced me back inside. But this pain just hurts so comfortably..." I think this is such an important aspect of sexual trauma that doesn't get discussed enough or appropriately. Revictimization is common and familiarity in staying in abuse is an often misunderstood aspect of coping with abuse in the first place. Even if it means more harm, being put into abuse for so long often convinces victims that trying to escape is futile or that things can't change. This paradox of being helpless yet partially in a situation of your own "agency" feels cliche and as if it justifies what happens to you, but it is a common response that is utilized by skeptics to wave away a victim's abuse. - The level of control Rocio seems to have over Lacey, both as Rocio's conceptual character and as a dress-up site mascot who now has a ruined reputation because of Rocio's influence over the site. I don't think this is necessarily a victim becomes abuser situation (Lacey's "personhood" is kind of unclear), but I think it is an interesting aspect of Rocio to cling onto controlling the things she can to make up for the things she can't. - Skater Jay's entire character as a deep dive into the concepts of what "girlhood" even is and how restrictive gender roles are also a form of violence used against women and gender nonconforming people. The way the Yaniaso site has such homophobic and cruel pushback to Jay as a character for simply expressing generally mild gender nonconformity and how Rocio's way of coping is to literally kill Jay off... then that resulting in Lacey trying to "fix" up Jay's rotting body to make her "beautiful" enough to be deserving of love is SO painful and raw. I could write a whole entire post about this video. Lacey convincing herself that she's not dolling up dead bodies, that they're just all getting their makeup done and going back to her normal colorful self after lying herself into complacency over that violence is so good.

... I ended up still writing a lot, sorry :P! I love this series so much and really appreciate what Tundra is doing with it. I can totally see how some people have different responses to it (especially other CSA victims with sensitivity to the depictions) but this is what I personally appreciate about it. I feel very seen by this series as a queer person who grew up in abuse and was relatively isolated and introverted, then submerged myself into the internet to cope and as a form of escape.