Anyone who has played Sons of the Forest knows Virginia. Daughter of Edward and Barbara Puffton, she’s the one nice mutant you run into on the island.
Shy and nervous at first, Virginia slowly warms up to the player, bringing food and eventually spending her time at your encampment. She’ll even help to defend the encampment if given weapons and will warn of hostiles (cannibals and mutants alike).
There are also clothes around the island that you can give her as she originally starts out in a swimsuit. Though exploration reveals a room in the compound and a bit more information on her love of ballet and some of her relationship with her parents, she’s mainly a mystery, and why she hasn’t turned violent like the rest of the inhabitants of the island never gets explained.
Overall, she’s a cool character, and she can be an extremely effective ally, but her ending absolutely sucks.
Helping her get off the island? Good.
Having her panic and be absolutely terrified as she’s rushed into surgery, so it seems like she has no idea what’s happening to her and hasn’t been able to consent? Absolutely disgusting.
She’s functioned without an issue with her extra limbs, so there’s no reason that she couldn’t go through therapy before surgery. If we saw her calmly going into surgery, that would be one thing, but she’s still in her swimsuit, so it seems like that’s the first thing that happens to her when they arrive on the mainland.
The fact that Virginia can be seen fighting and panicked only makes the later scene with her pregnancy all the more concerning. A wealthy heiress goes missing, undergoes significant trauma, gets forced to have a surgery that she seems to be resisting, and then ends up pregnant by her rescuer.
Could they have trauma bonded? Yes. Clearly, a trauma bond formed, but that makes the lack of therapy all the more concerning.
Would it have been less concerning if we saw a glimpse of Virgnia in control and consenting prior to the pregnancy? Yes!
There could’ve been a healthy way to show the budding of a romantic relationship, but five months later isn’t nearly enough time. Could she have gotten pregnant on the island? Plenty of forums argue yes based on the size of her bump, but that just makes the surgery scene worse. This is an extremely vulnerable woman, and rushing into a relationship after trauma rarely ends well.
Maybe Endnight Games thought it would be too sad to see our player drive off into the sunset alone, but they could’ve easily had Kelvin and the player attend a dance recital for Virginia, showing connection and support while giving her personhood. I would’ve loved a scene showing Virginia teaching Kelvin some ballet as part of their recovery because losing a limb (even with magical minerals) takes time to adjust to as does recovering from brain damage, or even simply expand the timeline to “2 Years Later” rather than 5 Months!
Continuing the relationship dynamic that was on the island just isn’t healthy. Her ending left a nasty taste in my mouth, and frankly, it ruined my enjoyment of the game as a whole. Virginia deserved better.
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Featured Image: Endnight Games
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