Popular Culture Review Volume 29, Number 2, Summer 2018 | Page 78

The Dishonored Series as Environmental and Social Commentary
lie can convince Daud to speak The Outsider ’ s name , 16 and by having his name returned , The Outsider is finally freed . 17
Whether he is the protector or a god of the whales or , intriguingly , perhaps something akin to the biblical Leviathan 18 are all fascinating possibilities , but they remain hypotheses . What is clear is that The Outsider figuratively walks the earth , appearing to some and marking others , and shrines dedicated to him exist throughout the kingdom despite their having been outlawed by the new and now dominant religion The Abbey of the Everyman , a direct result of Dunwall ’ s and Karnaca ’ s ecological disasters . The Abbey perceives the worship of The Outsider as a grave threat to order and stability , and they routinely burn his adherents at the stake . They also inundate the cities with propaganda designed to instill fear of him and his radical potential for change . In their own words , the Abbey “ teaches that The Outsider preys on weakness .” Where the Abbey of the Everyman attempts to use fear to prevent the worship of The Outsider , the Eyeless 19 fetishize him and nurse an unhealthy obsession with the occult , more
16 Daud , who died earlier in the game , must speak The Outsider ’ s name to him . He does so by whispering it into The Outsider ’ s ear , so the player never hears this ancient lost language spoken aloud . The narrative indicates that only a spirit trapped with The Outsider in the Void can serve to free him .
17 On being freed , The Outsider takes on corporeal form to match the young man that he has always appeared as throughout the series , implying he receives the chance to live out a human life . If he did indeed originate as a whale , the implication here is that his death wrought something so catastrophic that it allowed him a transformation of form . The player embodying Billie can also opt to kill The Outsider using the ceremonial blade .
18 The specific possibilities and reasons for The Outsider being an iteration of the Leviathan are explored further on .
19 The narrative implies that the Eyeless have existed for some time , but the group first appears in Dishonored : The Death of The Outsider .
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