Themes of Inherited Abuse and Negativity [Long, spoilers for all LISA games]

[ClariS 🌟]

I'd like to point out one of the more interesting themes (in my opinion) of the LISA series. At it's core, I believe one of the many goals of LISA is to point out how one person's negativity and abuse can affect the people and the world around them, and it's clearly illustrated in each game:

LISA the First: Fairly straightforward. Marty's physical and emotional abuse towards his daughter Lisa cause her to become deeply psychologically scarred. This leads to her corrupting her well-meaning boyfriend Buzzo, and eventually to her suicide.

Lisa the Painful: Similarly to Lisa, Brad was abused by Marty and feels guilt in his failure to help his sister from her tragic fate. He finds redemption and meaning in his life after finding and caring for Buddy, however, not even his greatest second chance would be enough to completely redeem him and purge him of his past regrets. The effects of his abusive childhood aren't something he can escape. Even though he tries to get clean, he winds abusing alcohol and Joy even after finding Buddy, neglecting her, and abusing her. Not in the same way Marty did, but in his own way. Marty's effects are clearly seen here.

Lisa the Joyful: Yado is implied to have a hand in creating Buddy, specifically her personality. He states "I've made her strong...resilient...determined." Once again, a father figure imposes their will on the next generation. Fueled by Joy, Brad's upbringing, and the bleak world around her, Buddy's determined personality warps her into a remorseless, ambitious killer.

There's a lot of things I'm leaving out, such as Buddy's mother and the connection between Marty and Yado. There's also the fact that Brad and Buddy are forced to take Joy whether you want them to or not. These things are tangentially interesting and some of them illustrate this theme further, but the above are the primary plot elements that drive this theme.

Lastly, I'd like to relate this to Rando and the smaller theme of martial arts. Since I know Dingaling is a big martial arts geek, I'm going to treat it with some importance.

When seeing Buddy's ruthless way of killing her enemies, Rando points out that Brad never tought him how to fight like that. The Armstrong style is passed down through generations, just as abuse was, and I'm inclined to believe this is meant to mirror to the other theme of how negativity and abuse are passed down. Martial arts, fighting, and conflict are the primary ways of both abusing people you love, as well as gaining what you want in the world. Ironically, martial arts are primarily intended as means of self-defense and protection, but this isn't what Brad tought Buddy, someone who he knew would need to defend herself from the dangers of the world. He taught her something much more gruesome.

Instead, Rando is the only one who really displays the use of martial abiity for good, and his character serves as a hopeful counterpoint to the rest of the negativity that the characters in the game have thrust upon them. Rando was abused in childhood as well, but never lost sight of himself. Instead of using the Armstrong style to kill anyone in his way, as Brad did, he uses it as a means to achieve his goal of peace. His character is a reminder that even though terrible things can happen to us, sometimes we can still chose whether or not it corrupts us and changes how we interact with the world.

I'm probably overthinking this game, but oh well. Thanks, Dingaling.

[BCawkTTV]

I love Rando/Dusty, he is honestly the shining character in this whole game for me. So selfless while being so powerful, in a way he really is Brad's son. Really the only "minor" character in this whole game who I felt horrible about when they died. Both in Lisa: The Painful RPG and in Joyful.

I think the difference with Buddy is just the circumstances she was in at the time she was born or else Brad would have raised her to be the same as Rando if she was born into an un-afflicted world. Buddy is the creation of Olathe and it's ruthlessness and while Brad taught her to kill, I don't believe it's his blame to carry for her nature; rather it's her surroundings.

Great write up though. Glad to see someone else agrees that Rando is the silver lining in this game as I do.

[Freaky Mutant Man]

I've been having similar thoughts about this, so it's nice to see someone else lay it out like this. Great write-up!

[saturnine]

I don't thinke you're overthinking things at all. The cycle of abuse is a very real problem for abuse victims. Many victims of childhood abuse end up acting as the agressors or abusers later in life, because they either don't understand how the abusive behaviors have become ingrained in their personaility. It is entirely able to break the cycle if a victim is aware of what happened to them and how to change this behavior (as you mentioned with Dusty), but often times abusive traits are passed on from agressor to victim (as we can see in Brad, Lisa, and Buddy... even Buzzo really). The LISA series is arguably one of the best depictions of this, other than the visual novel Umineko no naku koro ni. LISA handles the cycle as one based around unforgiveness and the inability to change. I think what's refreshing about the series is the characters don't feel "fated" to their choices, but rather a more of a "you made your bed now lie in it" situation. I don't think it's correct the way some people are characterizing Lisa as a bad character now or "not innocent" character since it's been revealed the way she treated Buzzo. She (like Brad and Buddy as well) were victims of their circumstances and acted out in ways that they thought would allow them to survive. Not saying abusive behaviors manifest in children in the same ways, but I think it is definitely telling in LISA how abuse has shaped the children into who they are. Buddy no doubt sees aggression as a solution and leading to her freedom because of the "skills" Brad taught her. Brad understands substance abuse will lead to an escape because of Marty's addictions. Lisa knew emotional manipulation would work on Buzzo no doubt because Marty likely did the same to her. I don't think these traits make them bad or good people just victims of their circumstances and how they came to understand survival in an abusive situation.