my first actual contribution. hello mouthwashers

There's something to be said about how Pony Express enables rape culture and negligence within the story of Mouthwashing. I've seen a lot of analysis on Jimmy and Curly and how they are both complicit in what happened to Anya, but it's scarily accurate how the company neglects their workers so poorly that it played a part in encouraging the events of the game too.

The lack of locks on the sleeping quarters, but only on rooms that the company sees as valuable to their own profits (the cockpit and medbay). How HR complaints about harassment or discomfort in a crew means everyone gets punished, even the one who reported the complaint. How nurses aren't given any psych evaluations or safety nets. Punishment for sleeping over five hours and leaving the crew sleep deprived and less aware of their surroundings. The lack of safety protocols for leaving one person in the cockpit alone with complete access to turning off auto-pilot while the captain isn't around. No emergency plan for Curly if any threats or disturbances happen on the ship, and only given a gun, which is going to escalate things even quicker into violence and panic compared to a containment cell. No way for Anya or any of the crew, excluding the captain, to personally protect themselves from internal threats, either.

You can see how these lack of regulations affects the way the crew engage with one another. How Swansea tries to tell Anya to hold on for a little longer rather than choosing to commit violence on Jimmy at the spot, how Anya is disillusioned by Curly being able to help her to begin with despite his captain status, and how Curly's fear of Jimmy doing something drastic enough to hurt other people leads him to not rock the boat rather than choose the safety of the person who needs it the most.

Pony Express as a company doesn't care about its workers, we know this, but every lack of security, policy, and guideline actively encourages people like Jimmy to continue abusing others, and for higher-ups like Curly to decide indecision rather than protecting loved ones

Posts this and runs away really fast

STOP babying and objectifying Daisuke

STOP making anya a perpetual forever doting victim

STOP making swansea this hotheaded gaurd dog

STOP babying and objectifying and being ableist to curly and removing autonomy

STOP ignoring the complex themes of jimmys character just to mischaracterize and to dunk on your idea of him and, therefore, ignoring the themes of the story

Stop ignoring the complexities of their characters please and thank you

AAAAAA OK MOUTHWASHING SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT. DONT READ IF YOU WANT TO PLAY IT, I MEAN IT!!!!!!

i have many thoughts on how Mouthwashing handles the themes of abuse and the symbolism around it especially as a survivor ... im not gnna hold back so -

poor you. caged and misunderstood.

Happy Anya Yippie! ^_^

Check this out Captain

break time!!

ref under the cut

Curly Talks: To Anya

'curlys lack of proper intervention enabled jimmy to continue his abuse towards anya and the rest of the crew and his character is a showcase of how men refuse to acknowledge the issue and take it seriously when their friends turn out to be predators. his inaction becoming the initial cause of everyones demise in the end is part of the games commentary on rape culture and how it affects the victims and everyone around them'

and

'curly isnt an inherently evil person but in fact a very human and relatable character who was genuinely upset with wht jimmy did but didnt want to take drastic measures in tht very moment to avoid causing more harm to anyone bcuz he knew jimmy was unpredictable and prone to becoming aggressive and he tried to handle the situation carefully (altho failed to do so in the end)'

r 2 statements tht can coexist btw

NOTHING STOPS THE SWANTRAIN

Thank you, Swansea.

Poor Curly my beloved 🥹🥩

A captain and his crew