...

So, funny thing: I was originally gonna title this post "ISAT and queerness." Because ISAT markets itself as a game with queer characters, even though that's not part of the main narrative. And while that is true... I feel like it's not a faithful representation of how queerness is depicted in this game. This sort of statement makes it sound like if you removed all the queer elements from ISAT, you would still get the same story. And that is false. Mirabelle and Isabeau, most notably, would be WILDLY different characters (or at least have completely different arcs) if they were allocishet. ISAT isn't just a game with queer characters; it is, very much, a game about being queer- not as in being trans or gay or ace, but as in being someone that goes against the societal norms of what gender, relationships, and people should be like.

But at the same time... this isn't just a game about being queer. I could use those exact same arguments to say that ISAT is a game about being mixed and/or a 2nd generation immigrant. I could say this is a game about being an Outsider, then- but Bonnie and Isabeau don't quite fit that theme, at least not in the way Mirabelle/Odile/Siffrin do. I could say "this post is about ISAT and diversity," but since I'm not gonna touch on how ISAT deals with the topic of disability here, I'm gonna tentatively go for "ISAT and culture."

Anyways. Art often tackles multiple themes at once. But if I had to pick one and say "yes, this is what ISAT is about"... Well okay I'd say it's a game about self-love and reaching out to others. It's not very subtle on that part. But if I got to pick ANOTHER theme, I'd say it's a game about culture, and how it affects the people in it.

Bonnie is very much our baseline of how a ""normal"" person would think about their culture; by which I mean, they don't. Because well, most people don't have in-depth thoughts on their own cultures on the go. They'd just consider it a normal thing "everyone does" and not consider that it might, in fact, be a bit odd for an outsider. Bonnie thinks crabs are gross but doesn't know why. Bonnie thinks fish heads are tasty and doesn't for a second consider that it might be weird af to anyone else. Bonnie knows the basics of the Change religion, though they don't seem to partake in it or care much for it.

Isabeau is in a similar boat, though he is an exemple of people BALLING in their own culture. The Change belief works super well for someone who is actively trying to figure out who he's comfortable being!

And on the opposite side, you've got Mirabelle, who is the one the most invested in the Change religion, but also the one who is struggling the most with her culture. It just doesn't fit her. When you're told "this is what you must do this is what we consider right and virtuous" and you can't do it, what do you do then? What impact does it leave on you? How does it affect your actions, your vision of yourself? (It can make you Go Through It, essentially.)

You probably don't need me to tell you how Odile fits in this, her quest is much more explicitly about culture than the others. Odile's role in this theme isn't to present us how her culture affected her growing up (we as players don't know jack shit about Ka Bue and never will) but to present how that nebulous "culture" thing can affect people who have a history a bit more complicated than just "I've been here my whole life and everyone around me is the same".

And finally, Siffrin. Once again, see Odile's quest: Siffrin is a whole bag of issues, and it is impossible to know how much of him is him, and how much of them is the result of their culture. When Siffrin obsesses over how they need a lead on how to get out of a time loop lest he'll go insane, is it because he's in an extremely stressful situation and the idea of "fucking around aimlessly to see if it works" is alien to them? Or is it because the Universe belief has such an emphasis on "the Universe leads, we can only follow" ? We don't know! Neither does Siffrin. And unlike the Vaugardian trio, who can compare notes of "oh you guys do x too so this is a culture thing," Siffrin has no point of reference. In a game about how culture impacts people, Siffrin is the one character whose culture you have to reverse engineer based on the person, rather than the other way around.

TL;DR: In Stars and Time is a game about the ties between people and their culture; whether that tie has a positive impact (Isabeau) a negative one (Mirabelle) a neutral one (Bonnie) or is defined by its absence rather than its presence (Odile, Siffrin). It takes a very nuanced and realistic approach to that topic, which is rad as hell.

Anyways, did you guys know that samossas are a staple food where I'm from? This is unrelated to the point of this post, but it IS a post about culture, so I'm justified in claiming Bonnie as french creole representation here. God knows I never see these in media ever.