Like the post said, it’s the opposite. The closest thing is that your cop partner Kim is awesome (not you though), really patient considering the BS he watches you do, and part of the homosexual underground. And you can (sort of) specialise in reading his and the few other cops’ thoughts.
Some people think it does fetishize communism, but I think it critiques enough too.
Playing a fascism playthrough is also an excellent indictment of Kim. He’s still there. Sure he might tell you off, but he’s still there. He doesn’t stop you, he doesn’t stop being a cop. If you shoot cunoesse, Kim lets you.
I haven’t done the fascist playthrough, but I heard Kim ends that quest by telling you that you’re fucking stupid, which is good enough. He’s not gonna drop the case because his temporary partner turns out to be facist, and if he decides to trust you anyway, that’s probably by you being good otherwise.
Same with rolling his eyes over you becoming racist, but, at least you are helpful? Better than the unhelpful racist.
Shooting Cunoesse is stupid, and could be meant as Kim also being a bastard cop in the end (more than bribes), but I’m blaming the game railroading him into being with you, since he’s crucial.
Kim telling you you are fucking stupid, which is good enough.
One of the other questlines ends with the government disappearing you. That Kim can barely muster up some disagreement is not good enough. The fascist playthrough is such a great showing of “there are no good cops”. And when I say fascist I don’t just mean the ideological quest, I mean playing the game as a fascist piece of shit.
I’m mainly paraphrasing some long essay I read about it a while ago, but that’s the point - Kim calls you out, but he doesn’t change anything. He’s basically the guy looking on sadly as the other cop chokes out George Floyd. Marginally better. I’ll see if I can find it, it’s really thought provoking.
Same with rolling his eyes over you becoming racist, but, at least you are helpful?
Rolling your eyes at your racist colleague does nothing. Letting your racist colleague spend three days being a drunken oaf and not stepping in…
He wouldn’t have to drop the case, he could reach out to either precinct about your massive misconduct. Instead he will support you, pay your rent and so on - when he could have gotten someone else sent out instead… These things are indictments. He will shake his head, he will tell you off, but that’s all he will do. He’ll still stand by your side.
Kim is only as good as you are. If you play a “realistic” cop, then he is shown for the moralist that he is - or can be, depending on the story.
I personally have a lot of faith in the games writing, so that when he doesn’t stop you from killing cunoesse or doesn’t give you a game over elsewhere, that’s not an accident. That’s on purpose. Shooting cunoesse is a game over, it could just as easily have ended with Kim stepping in.
Kim is meant to be a likeable character but he’s definitely not praise of the police. He’s written to be at least complicit in the various crimes of the police.
Sure. I personally read him as intended to convey that even the “good cops” are bastards. I’m personally of the philosophy that things don’t need to be handed to the player/reader/etc on a plate—depending on the degree to which you agree, one might think that Kim should’ve been more clearly/explicitly a bastard, but like, imo the game is from a cop’s pov and from the pov of a character who has a good relationship with Kim, and what the game does with writing him as a bastard whilst still being personally likeable from the pov of the protagonist is well-done.
Like the post said, it’s the opposite. The closest thing is that your cop partner Kim is awesome (not you though), really patient considering the BS he watches you do, and part of the homosexual underground. And you can (sort of) specialise in reading his and the few other cops’ thoughts.
Some people think it does fetishize communism, but I think it critiques enough too.
Playing a fascism playthrough is also an excellent indictment of Kim. He’s still there. Sure he might tell you off, but he’s still there. He doesn’t stop you, he doesn’t stop being a cop. If you shoot cunoesse, Kim lets you.
I haven’t done the fascist playthrough, but I heard Kim ends that quest by telling you that you’re fucking stupid, which is good enough. He’s not gonna drop the case because his temporary partner turns out to be facist, and if he decides to trust you anyway, that’s probably by you being good otherwise.
Same with rolling his eyes over you becoming racist, but, at least you are helpful? Better than the unhelpful racist.
Shooting Cunoesse is stupid, and could be meant as Kim also being a bastard cop in the end (more than bribes), but I’m blaming the game railroading him into being with you, since he’s crucial.
One of the other questlines ends with the government disappearing you. That Kim can barely muster up some disagreement is not good enough. The fascist playthrough is such a great showing of “there are no good cops”. And when I say fascist I don’t just mean the ideological quest, I mean playing the game as a fascist piece of shit.
I’m mainly paraphrasing some long essay I read about it a while ago, but that’s the point - Kim calls you out, but he doesn’t change anything. He’s basically the guy looking on sadly as the other cop chokes out George Floyd. Marginally better. I’ll see if I can find it, it’s really thought provoking.
Rolling your eyes at your racist colleague does nothing. Letting your racist colleague spend three days being a drunken oaf and not stepping in…
He wouldn’t have to drop the case, he could reach out to either precinct about your massive misconduct. Instead he will support you, pay your rent and so on - when he could have gotten someone else sent out instead… These things are indictments. He will shake his head, he will tell you off, but that’s all he will do. He’ll still stand by your side.
Kim is only as good as you are. If you play a “realistic” cop, then he is shown for the moralist that he is - or can be, depending on the story.
I personally have a lot of faith in the games writing, so that when he doesn’t stop you from killing cunoesse or doesn’t give you a game over elsewhere, that’s not an accident. That’s on purpose. Shooting cunoesse is a game over, it could just as easily have ended with Kim stepping in.
Is it though? That’s like a fascist complaining their partner is a dumb kind of fascist.
Kim is meant to be a likeable character but he’s definitely not praise of the police. He’s written to be at least complicit in the various crimes of the police.
But not really past the point of what you get from a lot of copaganda.
Sure. I personally read him as intended to convey that even the “good cops” are bastards. I’m personally of the philosophy that things don’t need to be handed to the player/reader/etc on a plate—depending on the degree to which you agree, one might think that Kim should’ve been more clearly/explicitly a bastard, but like, imo the game is from a cop’s pov and from the pov of a character who has a good relationship with Kim, and what the game does with writing him as a bastard whilst still being personally likeable from the pov of the protagonist is well-done.
Disco Elysium’s writing is not subtle.
the devs are communists tbf, the game’s just very “nobody can tear you down like your own friends can” about it