This is hands-down my favorite Tell Me Why screenshot out of the thousands of Tell Me Why screenshots I've taken. The perfect juxtaposition of Tyler's (justified) rage and Alyson's latent-but-awakening anxiety with the Bond icon showing up like a Sims -- in the corner just gets me laughing every time.
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Sooo, are so gonna talk how 0% was affected by Tom's words and 100% believed the Twins' testimony? I was in that 0% and like, huh? Sure, Tom is an asshole and a coward, but:
The room above, meant for the kids to eventually find it and learn her secret.
The devs' message at the end of the game that if you or any of your loved once suffer from suicides thoughts, reach out for help which basically says that Mary-Ann was going to kill herself.
Sure, she was unstable, but she had the book on how to raise a transgender kid. She named Tyler Ollie, his first name and not dead name, because she cared. Even Tessa said that Mary-Ann believed in her kids being perfect and deserving the entire world. Plus, after Mary-Ann lost her firstborn, I doubt she'd go with a gun at one of her children.
I'm still a bit confused on what actually happened, but the game made a point of "believe of what you want to believe" so I guess there is not much to do about it. It's sad that Mary-Anne drowned and that Alyson stabbed her because of how scared she was for Tyler and after she heard how her mom threatened to shoot Tom. There were definitely issues there, her mood swings, maybe some visions even maybe (bipolar? schizophrenia? just long term depression and anxiety that got triggered after everything that happened to her?). But still. It seemed like she loved her kids more than anything and was just seriously struggling mentally. Unless she was violent (or her mental illness was), I really don't think she pointed a gun at Tyler bc she got so mad at him for cutting his hair.
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So, this is going to be a post about Tell Me Why.
Spoilers for all of the game, but especially the end of it (Chapter 3, to be clear, not just Chapter 1).
At the end of the game, I chose to believe that Mary-Ann, Tyler and Alyson's mom, was not threatening Tyler. I was surprised to find out that I'm in the whopping 0% of people that chose that. So, I'd like to explain my thoughts on it:
I have not chosen it because I believed Tom. He's awful, and there is no reason to believe any word of what he says, ever. But I've gone through the entire game waiting for Mary-Ann's actions to make sense and that's when they did. I don't believe she ever meant Tyler any harm and, to me, it makes sense that she was never threatening him. I think that to believe otherwise is a disservice to her, to the twins, and to the journey they've gone through.
Let's take it back.
We start the game believing that Mary-Ann threatened Tyler and he killed her in self-defense. We're led to believe, because this is what the twins believe, that she did so in an act of transphobic anger. But the whole game is about learning that things are not what they seem.
We learn in the very first episode that Mary-Ann had a book on accepting a trans child and that she had an argument with Tessa. Furthermore, Tessa had suggested a conversion camp for Tyler, which Mary-Ann did not accept. We learn that the conversion camp pamphlet Mary-Ann had, she only had because Tessa had given her, not because she was considering it. We also learn that Mary-Ann is going through something, although nothing is very clear.
In the second episode, we find out that the family was going through tough times, and that Tessa had called CPS on Mary-Ann. We learn too that Eddy had told Mary-Ann about the call and that she was less than happy about it. We also learn that Mary-Ann had an argument with the twins' biological father and threatened to kill him. And then we learn that the twins' Voice can blend things together (Tyler projecting on Alyson what he said to Eddy, without meaning to).
We learn in the third episode that Mary-Ann lived a tough life at home. She had gone through abuse from the hands of her parents and never got to experience any kind of small freedom. We learn that she lost people precious to her. She also had a child, who died as a baby.
Now, I got through all of the chapters analyzing all of this thoroughly as I played, and, for the love of me, I could not understand Mary-Ann's actions. She was depicted as a stern - abusive or near so - mother in the twins' recollections. But she was loved by many, and we see over and over again in memories and snippets of their lives that she cared deeply about them. They have many, many happy memories. If the goblin stories are to be believed somewhat, they did have some freedoms - more than Mary-Ann ever had growing up. Yes, none of that negates the possibility of her being abusive, but my perception of her after all of it was of an overprotective and a bit overbearing mother, full of worries and anxieties. Taking into account the premature death of her first child, she had good reason to be so.
Mary-Ann had lost one child already - after losing her parents for that child’s sake. She gave up one family to start another one, alone, and then she lost that one too. Then, she had the twins. She had to deal with their father pushing her to have an abortion, only for her to find out years later: She was going to lose her children. Again.
When you go into the attic and you open the box, there is a letter addressed to Alyson and Ollie and Tyler says, "She noticed. I was her son."
I believe she loved her children. I believe she had gone through the trauma of losing one already, and that she would do anything to cherish and keep the two she still had safe. I believe we have proof over and over again of that through the many memories we see. I believe she made that attic for the twins to find one day, so they could understand her - why else leave a letter addressed to them otherwise? - and I believe that she supported Tyler.
I believe she was troubled, but that she could never harm her children. I believe she wanted the best for them. She couldn't bear to lose them, but never at the expense of their own safety and/or lives.
I believe it is dismissive of all she'd done for them to believe she could threaten Tyler. It is dismissive of the growth she had to force herself to go through, of the things she'd prepared for them, of the lengths she'd go to for them.
She wanted them to have a good life. And she wanted them to find that attic.
And I think believing otherwise is dismissive not only of her character, but of the journey Tyler and Alyson went through for answers.
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