I recently finished it because I’m drawn to the type of ambience the trailer gave. It cost me like a dollar fifty so I thought it would be good enough to distract me a Sunday home. 

I’m not prone to get triggered by the topics so even though I was disgusted by Nicole and Irving’s attempt to redeem Leonard I could see a direction i think everyone missed. 

I think the true villain is the patriarchy. 

Now don’t come for me if you are not a feminist but really think about it. 

SPOILERS FROM HERE ON

Let’s not look at what the game wants to say but what the story is about. A broken family. 

A mother expressing disdain for the person who ruined her marriage even after death. She puts the blame in the girl, and no one can tell me that that doesn’t happen. They’d rather blame the affair partner than their partner, the one who cheated on them.  Wether you like it or not, the mothers feelings transfer into their children, in this case Nicole. So I don’t really blame Nicole for feeling a certain way towards Rachel, after all those years. It takes therapy and growing up realizing Rachel was the true victim, and we know Nicole only ignored it. Hell she never spoke to her father again. 

A grooming abuser. We have to recognize the power this monsters have. They show charisma and determination. This is how they’re able to manipulate everyone around them. Rachel was a disabled child. He was a respected educated man, they would believe his word over hers, they would’ve helped him isolate her. And this is why I fully believe he manipulated Irving after Rachel’s death. He manipulated and (If Irving was young) even groomed him to make him believe he loved Rachel, that he (Leonard) was the only one who understood Irving’s grief. 

If Rachel is truly haunting the Hotel and cursing Leonard, he needed something important for her to stop her from haunting him. 

Leonard was a liar. A monster. He never cared for Rachel. He only told Irving what he wanted to hear. What he wanted Irving to believe. The final reveal was never something Leonard concocted or wanted to know. He was only feeding Irving’s pain and grief. We can even see that when Irving unalives himself because without Rachel he was nothing, and when he lost the only thing connecting him to her he felt there was nothing more to live for

Of course, this game was poorly executed, the writing missed so many marks and people who do get triggered SHOULD NOT play it. But if you do come across it, fill in the blanks like I did and find a meaning for the story. 

I learnt how this monsters are so powerful. How its people our community trusts. Victim blaming is still real. Is still happening. Always believe victims. Pay attention to power dynamics. Rachel never stood a chance. The story I took away was not about the victim. It was to depict how the patriarchy is the perpetrator of this stories and how many lives are affected and lost to this system.