What's up with Dismal Island?

[M.DOMO]

I honestly found this one of the most disturbing scenes in the entire game, especially Jonathan's unexplainable appearence and just.. The whole thing was unsettling. Any theories on what went down, or is it just another one of LISA's unexplainable mysteries?

[macmc]

This might break your immersion, but Dismal Island is a tribute to the late Dismal Jesters Podcast, starring Jim Sterling, Jonathon Holmes and Conrad Zimmerman. Jim Sterling kickstarted a (presumably) good portion of the LISA kickstarter, and was able to get in the game along with the rest of the crew.

He appears in the form of Slave Lord Jim, of course, with Conrad as the mustached man (go show Conrad). Jonathon is probably the joy mutant, however, in promotional images advertising the game's cameos (seen here http://i.imgur.com/7D8QEoo.jpg), Jonathon could actually be the guy you meet by the barrel bros, and his dialogue references this ("my pal Jim told me to stand here and stare at the sun for a while") so the other Jonathon could just be coincidence or his appearance is a continuity error.

The whole sequence just kinda lines up with Jim's IRL personality, being bisexual and polyamorous and all, wanting "sexy boys" really isn't out of the ordinary for him.


Now, as for in-game lore, I definitely found this the most ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up part of the game. Without the backstory I view it as an independent slice of the world as an insight to depravity and insanity. Like in apocalypse / horror shows where they find an insane guy alone in his cabin. He doesn't do much for the story, but he's there to show you how in isolated incidents spread across the world, just how ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up the whole situation is.

[M.DOMO]

Pfft. No worries about breaking immersion. It's all cool. I saw some stuff about the Dismal Jesters podcast and the island, but never really go the lowdown on their connection with the whole thing, just saw their sprites and the logo. Thanks for clearing it up!

As for it's actual In-Game apearence, I feel like a lot of it is only in their to make connection to the jesters, but MOTHER OF GOD how unnerved I was during the entire mini-quest line... And when Jonathan made his debue I got the heebie jeebies for about a week. It really pushes the message of how far isolation can drive someone out of their mind, especially when that isolation is filled with silent hyper-mustached men and joy mutants. I have to agree with you, he has nothing to do with the story, and I think those kind of isolated expierances and unconected bits of the game make it what it is. Incredible.