One person’s ending is another person’s beginning, true both in the fight of the every day, and the absurdity of what constitutes the reality of virtual battlefields.


What I imagine most Silksong bosses eat for breakfast every morning

And…credit roll…

Fully aware I still have yet another full act of content to see before the “true ending” is unlocked, I do not dismiss or discount the appearance of the credits after the “last boss” is downed in any title, Silksong not withstanding. Always an excellently bittersweet moment, the kind that I feel as if is the Pashford vibe incarnate; a fleeting fancy of woeful satisfaction, followed by the somber acknowledgement of curious conclusion that is never quite thus. This is the way of life: coming face to face with what one is working towards, only to realize that it was never the finality that mattered, but the process of becoming that permeates the whole endeavor.

Putting aside my waxing poetical for a moment, while I look forward to exploring the content beyond the credits of Silksong, true ending and the etc beyond that awaits me, in all of its harrowing glory, I chuckle slightly at my delayed sense of completion, as a misreading of a late game prompt had me completely misunderstand the assignment, delaying me reaching the first round of credits by several days. My excited miscomprehension is our gain, however, as some of my most inspired writing happened after this nonsense, hence the articles would not have occurred, had I reached the “conclusion” any sooner, which is my favorite way for things to buff out.

While it is true that my time with Silksong is coming to a close, at least in terms of everyday write-ups are considered, I have a few more articles of reflection, wrap up, and epilogue within me, though I will not detail my moments with the post-credits content, as I have already written an absurdist amount of articles involving Silksong, quite frankly, and I must stand impressed at my level of engagement with a title I wasn’t even thinking about a little over three weeks ago. I don’t mind at all that this incidentally turned out to be “Silksong September”, as the game ended up being worthy of conversation in oh so many ways, and brought to a head many topics that have haunted both my mind and the gaming industry for a spell, and will continue to pervade the realm for an eon hence forth, I imagine.

Strangely enough, though I have ideas for some of the last articles detailing the waning days of my time writing about Silksong, I don’t necessarily want those ideas in this particular piece. They’re stuck in their own moment in time, readying themselves for their own relevant temporal happening, waiting eagerly in the lurch of the spacetime continuum. I must respect the distant relations within this metaphysical observation, and focus my energies elsewhere in the dimension of the creative space.

I suppose the most immediate fixation I desire to address at the current moment, while leaving me to dwell on thoughts involving an “in summation” with which to roll out for Silksong in general (keep in mind I only just watched the credits roll about twenty minutes ago, give me some time to formulate, dammit), would be looking at some of the articles I did write, in reference to breakdowns or realities centered around Silksong itself. In trying to keep myself honest, I always approach my work with as much rationality as I can…I was about to say objectivity in mind, but that kind of acknowledgement is a bit too paradoxical for my tastes, so we shall leave it be.

But yes, when I look at articles I’ve written about Silksong, whether they are detailing applying theories of psychoanalysis to player engagement, the ideas behind difficulty, Marxist alienation inherent in game design, the ideas of constantly “becoming” one’s self through play, and how we consume in the everyday, I do attempt to put myself in the shoes of a reader who may engage with the ideas, and ask aloud: but why? Why break this stuff down, what do these ideas matter in the grand scheme of things? How is understanding how ideology may be relevant in the design of Silksong, or attempting to understand “the other” and how that relates to game design itself important? Ultimately, I don’t think there has to be any “real reason why”, which I think is equal parts frustrating for people to hear as it often ends up being the case with major elements of our own understanding of reality at large. I think too many people think there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, in some sick delusion that there must be more worth in a rainbow beyond how it makes us feel, and that there has to be some grander meaning, or tangible value, or greater truth behind its appearance, or what is beyond it, even.

The truth is…there is nothing beyond the rainbow, and for some, that is hard to believe.

I’ll let you be the judge of what to make of that.

~Pashford