Vella is born in a world where she's expected to have this terrible thing happen to her. She's supposed to treat it like an honor because she's a young pretty girl, and that's what the prettiest young girl's do.

Shay is born into a world that coddles him. like all good people he wants to help others, but his way of living is so far removed that when he gets the chance we discover that what he was being led to believe was "helping" is actually this terrible thing.

I really don't think it's a coincidence that Shay is a white male and Vella is a black female.

I could be over-thinking this, but I really started to believe it when I found I could really identify with Shay. (Especially after so many years of being essentially a shut in.) when I "got out" it really surprised me to find out hardships people went through that I hadn't even thought about, and how I was inadvertently making things worse for some people because of what things in society led me to believe about my role in life.

Vella isn't really black. She has an indigenous look. She could very easily be a South American girl. During the production of the game the Backers got a chance to vote several times (we were presented with various options and we wrote what design we liked in the private forums) on her design and she looks like the final options that made it through the voting process.

Are you trying to make me not play this game? Like, I know that's almost certainly not a theme they're going for, but hearing you talk like that about it triggers some kind of Pavlovian avoidance response.

@towersixteen: I'd say that it's just the op is an 18-25 year old white male indulging in some good ol' liberal white guilt the same way any white male in that age group who was raised comfortably will tend to do (guilty as charged)

I'd say that he's projecting heavily on the story where two seperate protagonists learn their way in life and what's expected of them, instead of realising they both learn something the op is looking at it as being directed solely at the white male broadening his horizons and understanding how he must help the poor downtrodden non white minority rather than how these two individuals have their seperate problems and will deal with them.

The idea that they intended a "get it? they're different because one of them isn't white!" seems ridiculous, I just can't see double fine making a game with such out of tune and misplaced exclusionary undertones so I wouldn't worry.

I'm pretty sure one of the Backer documentary vids showed that Tim's toddler daughter, Lili, chose the design for Vella out of the final ones considered.

Sorry to bump an old thread but I just finished playing through the game (cool stuff!) and found this interpretation pretty interesting. I'm not sure if Double Fine was exactly going that but it's something to think about, for sure.

Also, I found it pretty lame how the OP got shamed with some "liberal guilt" bullshit, just for having an opinion. Probably no surprise why he/she never posted here again.

I've never played Broken Age and don't really know anything about the subject, but I'd just like to reply to the last part by saying, that (at least) during the last two years or so there has been a whole lot of new users posting just one reply/thread and then never coming back to it. Sometimes it's just something odd, sometimes a snarky and "witty" reply to a thread where the last reply before that was posted five years ago and sometimes it's even something seemingly smart and interesting, but the OP will still make another post about the subject. Don't really know what's about. Guess some just like to get something off their chests or feel like they've said everything they wanted in their post or...I don't know, I'm starting to ramble, blame sundays.

I'd be surprised if the OP's reading was what DF were going for, but I thought the maidens going along cheerfully with absurd dressup rituals pettily competing to see who would eaten first probably was intended as a commentary of sorts