Popular Culture Review Volume 29, Number 2, Summer 2018 | Page 68

The Dishonored Series as Environmental and Social Commentary
and film , have a unique ability to consider ecological issues . Louise Westling argues of these types of stories , although not specifically of storytelling in video games , “ They can project possible futures based on present science ; they can dramatise ecological dangers only beginning to be glimpsed in contemporary research projects ” ( 82 ). While the Heart hints at a possible “ enchanted ” nature to the whales , as it is never clear whether this is a metaphor or some deeper insight into these creatures , Dishonored ’ s whales are easily recognizable . Although their appearance is not identical to that of real-word whales�they have more sets of flippers , for example�it is clear that the pervasive issue of whale hunting is designed to ask players to think about its existence in the modern world .
Although the Dishonored series is not without depictions of violence and cruelty�all the more so should the player opt for a High Chaos playthrough�its depictions of the whaling industry are bloody and wholly unpleasant . The player can find a review of a book called The Leviathan ’ s Sorrow . It says in part : “ Drivel on the ‘ aesthetic wonder ’ of what is , in reality , the great and terrible Ocean that ever-threatens to swallow us . Includes arguments on the ‘ gentle nature ’ of the brutes , a notion refuted by seamen who return to shore , wide-eyed with tales of the whales ’ savagery .” These words sound above all like a convenient set of theories used to justify the slaughter , but they also mirror modern conversations about the inherent right of existence for nonhuman species . The review also stands in direct conflict to the idea that “ many environmentalists argue that we need to develop a value system which takes the intrinsic or inherent value of nature as its starting point ” ( Garrard 18 ). In the game series , common citizens prove as complicit as their superiors and oppressors at exploiting the natural environment . Those who rely on whaling for money or for oil to power many of their everyday conve-
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