Master of the Wind

Once more, I wasn't aware just how much some scenes in this game had a basis in your own experiences. Even though I'm so many years late, I still want to say I'm very sorry about what happened to your sister. I know that's not very helpful or original, but I really mean it.

Regarding the graveyard scene, I once again can only share your astonishment about some people's reactions to it. Obviously, the scene itself is pretty heavy-handed and full of quite loaded images and topics. But I don't understand how showing someone being challenged in their faith and struggling with difficult questions of their religion equals treating religion unfairly, especially considering how Laurel's personality develops over the course of the rest of the game. For me personally, I mentioned before that playing Master of the Wind helped me to connect to religious people more, not less. In fact, I talked about this same question to a very religious friend - who I originally got to know because of Master of the Wind - and she pretty much had the same view as you in that God doesn't micromanage the entire world, because that would make everyone's actions and decisions utterly meaningless. But that also means horrible things can happen, and she found it's perfectly understandable for people to go through crises of faith over these kinds of dilemmas, just as Laurel does.
In short, I don't think Master of the Wind in general or this scene in particular treat religion unfairly at all. The game only rejects certain naive or dangerous interpretations of religion that can do a lot of harm, but can also be counterbalanced by more developed and self-aware forms of faith.


Unrelated to all of that, I definitely agree that Solik's lab is one of the best dungeons in the game. It's got really good puzzles, minigames, and just general dungeon design, plus the first real meeting with one of the most fascinating antagonists. Besides, you can never go wrong with some skull puns, even though with Stoic this is always a bone of contention.

(Sorry for the late post, by the way. I've hardly been able to do stuff on RMN recently, and somehow missed this episode when it came out.)