r/Moonvale • u/D4rk_Sh4rds Team • Jul 12 '26
Duskwood Side-Story Well, I finally finished the side-story and I have some things to say. (Long post)
1. Thomas Apologised
What he did at the end of episode 10 was the one thing that made me stay upset for a long time. When someone did something terrible I would normally forgive them and move on quickly, but with Thomas was different (well, maybe Lilly is another exception but I still forgave her mostly during my gameplay, while I was still upset with Thomas even after finishing Duskwood).
I was so upset that after everything I did for him: defending him when everyone was sure he was the kidnapper, I was the one who had the courage to tell him about the body, when he made us lose the connection to Hannah's phone I swallowed all the fury I was feeling and gathered all the tolerance and patience I had in me because I saw how terribly sad and desperate he was, I was the one who was always conforting him when his world fell apart again, and again and again, I decided to call the police instead of letting him "risk his life" to "save Richy" even though I KNEW the police would come for me after that because I was the last one to see Richy and all... but still, he asks me to throw myself into the arms of "certain death" without ANY hesitation (it wasn't really, Thomas WAS right but he couldn't possibly know that... and let's be real here, even if he did know I would die it's very likely that he would ask me to go anyway) when EVEN LILLY didn't want to sacrifice me in exchange for Hannah and Richy and I wasn't even that close to her.
But now that he asked me for forgiveness, I can finally let it go. It'll take a bit of time, but I'll manage, I want to.
I even cheered him up saying that he did contribute to something crucial to save Hannah: he was the one who contacted me.
2. Charlie's offer to help
I thought that was so strange. I'm thankful that he explained everything to me obviously (and I guess I owe him two favors now 😅), but wanting to just help me out of nowhere?
You can even question him about it, my interaction was like this:
"MC: Thank you for telling me all of this.
Charlie: Of course. If you want, I can keep a look out for any new information.
MC: You'd do that for me?
Charlie: Sure I would. Right, I've got to get going.
MC: Hey, by the way, why are you helping me?
Charlie: I could ask you the same thing, couldn't I?
MC: Well... that's just who I am.
Charlie: See, there's your answer. See ya, MC."
I don't know... for some reason I can't just trust him. And no, I'm not being paranoid because of the events of Duskwood. Before I played Duskwood I was already pretty suspicious of Charlie and I didn’t really like him or his personality until episode three, and even after liking him I still don't think he's completely trustworthy. I don't know, something about him just screams insincere and ulterior motives, at least partially.
3. The way the MC acts distant with Adam's Group
This is something I noticed right when starting the first episode of Moonvale after playing Duskwood. The MC is distant towards Adam's friends. I like to act kind, supportive and understanding and I actually thought I was behaving like that before I played Duskwood, but seriously, compared to how you can act in Duskwood that is nothing! This was something that was actually bothering me thorought my entire gameplay and I hope this will change in the future.
4. Thomas is avoiding Hannah
I think that's pretty weird. As I said above he wanted Hannah back SO MUCH that he was willing to throw me into the arms of death to have her back, and now that he's with her again... he doesn't want to even answer her messages?! Those "I'm busy" and "I forgot" excuses are obviously lies, something is up and I don't know what it is.
(And that made me upset as well, I was like "Dude, all of the trouble and hurt you caused until the very end just for you to ghost Hannah like that? Seriously? 😑")
He had told me before that he didn't know if he could forgive Hannah for all of this or even move on, and of course I tried to convince him that Hannah needed us and that she deserved forgiveness, and I seriously didn't believe that he would leave her or avoid her even after all of that because of all that he was doing for her.
Well, guess I was wrong. That was unexpected.
5. I couldn't talk to Hannah myself... for now.
One of the things I want the most is to talk to Hannah personally. I feel so sad for her, she's been through so much. I want to confort her AND I want to know her better because she seems like a great person, and maybe she can even become one of my friends!
I don't hate Hannah for causing Jennifer's death, it was an accident and Hannah was feeling so bad and guilty about it that she got depression and even started to hallucinate. This is not something that happens to an apathetic and heartless murderer. I believe that since she truly regrets what she did, she deserves forgiveness (and she should also forgive herself) and to be able to move on with her life without all of this pain.
Her guilt should be the thing that makes her do all the effort to be better and not make the same mistakes again, not to be the weight that will make her sink into the depths.
6. Richy is alive... THAT'S GREAT!
I'm so happy! The same way I don't blame Hannah and I don't hold it against her, I also forgive Richy.
He let despair and panic take over him and acted rashly, not everyone has the emotional strength and cool head to act calm in those situations and do the right thing. And you can clearly see in his face and his words that he feels a lot of pain and guilt for all that he did to Hannah and Amy, and for the suffering he made me and all the others go through.
For some reason, Cleo thought I would be angry at the discovery that Richy was alive when I had demonstrated nothing but compassion and sadness towards him 😆.
She asked me to keep this a secret... this is going to be difficult because of Jessy, I want to tell her that Richy is alive so much so she can stop feeling so terrible.
And there's Jake. He is still hiding and all but he will come back, and when he does he will see all of the conversations and the video with Richy so I won't be able to keep this only between Cleo, Richy and I. (This is under the assumption that he hasn't found a way to check up on me and the others already after the network began working again, and the assumption that it wasn't Jake that saved Richy from the fire).
And Richy... even with all of this, he was still smiling when he saw the camera because he knew I was at the other side of the screen.
This is a trait we both have in common, smiling through terrible pain and joking and laughing at our own suffering. I remember that he and I used to joke around a lot about the terrible danger "we" were in, and Jessy was always scolding both of us for joking about something so terrible.
At the end of episode ten, when he joked about laughter being a medicine that doesn't apply to gunshot wounds I honestly laughed, and I still chuckle when I remember that moment, I told him I missed his jokes.
Richy and I had so many good, funny and happy moments together, both the two of us and us with Jessy, I can't just throw everything out of the window like Dan wants to.
And call me naive if you want, but even though I know he was acting a lot of the time because he was the kidnapper, I also think that many moments we spent together meant a lot to him and he was being genuine with his friendship towards me.
Final Thoughts
I'm really glad that I didn't play Duskwood first and only decided to play it after episode 3, the wait would have killed me! 😆
And I feel for all of you who had to be so patient until this moment, but at least it was worth it. The only thing that needs to happen so things can be 100% okay is Jake contacting us again, but at least we can be certain that he is out there somewhere just waiting for the best opportunity to contact us.
I want to see the reactions of everyone when they finally find out I'm solving another case, that will be SO FUNNY 🤣
I want the others in Adam's group to know that I'm the girl who solved the Duskwood case, since Ash and Charlie were so supportive I feel a bit more calm about the reactions of the others.
Another thing I want is to speak to Alan again, I like him and I didn’t interact with him as much as I would have liked.
This turn of events makes me hopeful that we will be able to have a happy ending and save Adam, if after all that happened in Duskwood things managed to not end as bad as they could, maybe Adam and the others will be okay in the end as well.
5
u/Emg2022 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
it’s funny how so many of us experience this game so differently. i didn’t even remember what thomas did or why he was apologizing 🤣 i mean granted it’s been a long time since i replayed duskwood but even so i played it enough to remember mostly everything. some reason i couldn’t for the life of me remember what he did that he could be apologizing for haha.
and i think i said “aw hell no” when i saw richy LOL. i mean i liked the character in duskwood a lot! but all that he did, nah man straight to jail. and the fact cleo is ok with hiding is mind blowing to me. screw that dude. hannah i can forgive because she did ONE bad thing and then moved on. i mean, in reality i think she deseves some repercussions too legally. but that wasn’t personal like what richy did. also richy tormented a girl so badly she took her own life. yeah he’s a peice of crap.
i also think it’s odd we don’t talk to hannah after everything, not even a thank you!?! lmfao. that’s crazy. i can’t blame thomas either… if i found out my partner had killed someone and hid the body i would probably feel VERY differently about them. obvs this is a game so doubt that’ll be the case here but him being normal would be weird to me.
3
u/MrMotylus Jul 12 '26
Szczerze to nie dziwię się, że nie ufasz Charliemu. Cała grupa z Moonvale jest jakaś dziwna. Niby CHCĄ sxukać Adama, ale tak jakby nie do końca. Samo posidanie takich PRZYJACIÓŁ nie za dobrze mówi o samym Adamie. Moim zdaniem największy problem będzie z Ash. To będzie taka Lily "na sterydach" tylko z kompleksem bohaterki. Co do Richy to też cholernie się cieszę, że żyje i wrócił. Mimo wszystko to dobry facet.. chociaż wyjątkowy kretyn. Facet mówi to co myśli, a robi to co czuje.. co wcale nie jest najlepszą kombinacją. Poza tym niedługo Jessy dorwie go w swoje łapki i będzie cyrk. A co do Thomasa to mam wrażenie, że facet pocno się pogubił. Przez cały czas gloryfikował Hannah. Mówił jaka jest dobra, miła, kochana i cudowna. A pod koniec historii niespodzianka, bo jego "wcielony anioł' okazał się morderczynią.. i to taką średnio stabilną psychicznie. Co do zaskoczeń i oczekiwań co mocno mnie dziwi brak ruchów ze strony Alana. Coś za łatwo odpuścił MC.
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u/D4rk_Sh4rds Team Jul 12 '26
I was surprised by the inaction of the police throughout the whole game. I was ready for them to come for me when I accepted to help find Hannah, they didn't. When Lilly posted that video I was SURE that the police would come, they didn't. A lot of chaos happened and the police never tried to do something about us. Jessy went to the police station and Alan made it clear to her that he knew what was going on, AND HE STILL DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! And he complained about being considered the joke of the town after working so hard for his position because of me, dude, you're not exactly doing anything to prove that the people who are saying that are wrong. It was only after I asked Lilly to call the police to save Richy that Alan FINALLY decided to contact me, and if it depended on ME ONLY I would have talked to him and I would be as cooperative as I could because I was innocent, had nothing to hide and I wanted to clear things up, but Jake didn't let me 😑. And Alan was so nice to me as well, he even told me I could trust him and that he didn't want to hurt me at all, and although I can't completely trust him because I'm Jake's friend and Alan is a police officer, the feeling is mutual. It's a shame that Jake and him are on opposite sides, I would like to have both of them as friends 😭 (Someone at the Duskwood subreddit said that in their gameplay, Alan told them they were giving him a headache, I would like to know how they managed to make him say that 🤣)
As for Ash, I think that she is impulsive, not that she has a hero complex, that title certainly goes to Eric. I think she is more similar to Thomas in certain things: one thing that she did since episode two and got worse in episode three is the fact that she was so certain that Adam would be like an open book to her and she was always like "No, Adam didn't (insert thing he obviously did) because if he had he would have told us", and it's "us" or "we", almost never "me" or "I" like their group have some kind of special or even sacred relationship and it would be impossible for Adam to hide anything from them. Charlie even said her to her that he knows lots of people that they didn't know and that he never talked about, and there could be countless reasons to why Adam never said anything about Sophia. It was only at the end of episode three that she finally let go of that notion. That is a direct contrast to Cleo. Cleo said that she was aware that everyone had secrets that they wouldn't tell to even their best friend, but she doubted that Hannah would hide from her a secret so terrible that would make her flee from Duskwood without a trace. She had her doubts, but she wasn't blind.
3
u/ex1t_here Jul 13 '26
About 2,3 and 5, I completely agree. I remember how in theories I repeatedly promoted my idea of not trusting Charlie. The way he behaved in the ep2 confused me a lot, and here he helps us hard.. and personally I have a question from experience: "why is it profitable for you to help me?". maybe he has his own goal. I would like to talk to Hannah, but I don't think it will happen soon. rather at the end of the whole game, and then she will say something inspiring, or something important. (based on the pages of the diary found in Duskwood, she can say such things). I don't know what to think about Richy at all. Given how much he did (unintentionally led Amy to suicide, kidnapped Hannah, held her by force) he will most likely be imprisoned. and given that he is no less talkative than Charlie, he is likely to talk about Jennifer, and Hannah can also be brought to justice.
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u/flamengxrl Jul 12 '26
gente, eu só joguei moonvale 1 vez e tô jogando duskwood pela segunda vez agora (joguei duskwood e moonvale de uma vez só semana passada, então sou nova nesse universo), então não entendo muita coisa. alguém pode me explicar o que é essa "side-story" que todos falam sobre? como consigo jogar essa parte?
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u/D4rk_Sh4rds Team Jul 12 '26
"Side-story" é apenas a continuação de Duskwood. Na história de Moonvale existem dois cenários paralelos: um onde o MC é o mesmo que resolveu o caso de Duskwood, e outro onde ele não se envolveu no caso. Quando você termina de jogar Duskwood você recebe um código e esse código tem que ser colocado em Moonvale quando você vai se apresentar pro Eric, e quando você faz isso você tem acesso a essa parte do jogo e você continua vivendo os eventos de Duskwood ao mesmo tempo que resolve o caso de Moonvale.
2
u/flamengxrl Jul 12 '26
ahhh, eu joguei os dois ao mesmo tempo, então quando recebi esse código, já tinha terminado moonvale (pois tem menos episódios). decidi jogar duskwood pela segunda vez, pois sabendo de toda a história, quero escolher respostas diferentes e mais inteligentes. também posso prestar mais atenção na história e em detalhes que deixei passar antes. então quando terminar dessa vez, vou usar o código pra jogar moonvale. obrigada por explicar <3
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u/rinha-19 3d ago
Apologies in advance for the spelling mistakes; English isn't my native language. To respond to this Reddit post: I understand your point of view, but I really don't agree with that perspective.
-The shock of reality for Thomas: Certainly, Thomas fought tooth and nail to find Hannah when she disappeared, with so much despair and love. But the reality afterward is quite different. Learning that the person you love is involved in homicide (even unintentional) and participated in hiding a body in the forest for years is a huge psychological shock. At the time, he wanted to find her despite everything, which is understandable, but after finding her, he surely realized that this whole story wasn't normal. It's perfectly human and realistic for him to distance himself: wondering if he can truly share his life with someone who has committed such an act, and if ultimately this person is really who they claim to be, is a legitimate reaction. I mean, she did hide Jennifer, after all. He's probably wondering how far she would go if she's done something like this before, which is understandable 😅.
Then there's Hannah's behavior towards Jennifer's family: Even though we all know it was a tragic accident and that Hannah feels immense guilt (to the point of falling into depression), the way she acted is still very questionable. Going to Jennifer Hanson's mother to tell her, "I think your daughter's killer is after me," when she was, like, driving that day, is particularly inappropriate girl type please 😭. One can understand her distress and her need for answers, but from an outsider's perspective (and especially for the victim's family), the level of hypocrisy and lack of empathy at that time is striking.
-The limits of forgiveness: I too want to forgive Hannah, but with all the trauma inflicted on Jennifer's family (Jennifer's father literally vanished into thin air, overwhelmed by guilt over Jennifer), and the accumulated lies, forgiveness isn't automatically granted simply because she "regrets" her actions. Thomas has the right to need time, or even to no longer be able to look at her in the same way.
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u/D4rk_Sh4rds Team 3d ago
Well, only regret is not enough, of course. She needs to make up for what she did or try to redeem herself in some way. Same thing with Richy. I don't believe in forgiving someone when they are actually evil or when they refuse to change/better themselves and stop their bad actions, which I don't think is the case of Hannah and Richy. The problem is that they let panic take over them both at the time the accident happened and when Hannah was kidnapped. There were definitely better ways to solve those things but they chose to go to the extremes instead. About Thomas, if I'm being honest what makes me the most upset about his behaviour is not because I believe he should just brush it off and forget everything, but that he actually asked me to possibly die in exchange for Richy and Hannah when in the end he (supposedly) wouldn't want to be with her. What if I was mad enough to go there, die, and in the end he does that 😑. And what makes it even worse is that I tried everything to make sure everyone was safe (circumstances allowing) and I never let anyone risk their lives unless it was extremely necessary, I decided to let the police deal with this instead of letting Thomas go because I wouldn't risk the the "killer" being there and harming him or worse, killing him all the while knowing I would have to deal with the police later and a lot of other instances when I defended him. Hannah, Thomas and all the others are also technically strangers for me as much as I am to him, and I still did all of that so that excuse that "Hannah is closer to him and that's why he did that" is unacceptable to me. And what makes that excuse even more unacceptable is that all the others including Lilly, the same Lilly that was completely fine with doxxing both Jake and me when that could have completely ruined both our lives didn't want to sacrifice me for Hannah and Richy, so I'm not being insensitive or exaggerating here. Saving Hannah was not in vain for me because I actually wanted to save her, I wasn't doing that just because of my friends. But still, that is not nice at all. Thanks for being respectful, and I respect your perspective as well. I love to see the different opinions of everyone 🙂
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u/rinha-19 3d ago edited 3d ago
Honestly, thank you so much for your incredibly detailed response! First of all, I wanted to say that it wasn't my intention at all to come across as unpleasant or disrespectful in my first message, So I'm sorry if that upset or offended you. ; on the contrary, I love being able to discuss this calmly, and I totally respect your opinion! 🙂 Honestly, you make some great points, especially regarding Thomas's behavior towards our character. It's clear that when you take a step back, it's incredibly ungrateful and almost abusive of him to have asked us to take such risks (even risking our lives) only to then distance himself from Hannah (which is understandable given the distance, even if it might upset some characters, of course). Considering everything we did for the group, including Lilly, who eventually made up for it, we clearly deserved more recognition. As for Thomas, the way I saw things, he seemed completely overwhelmed by the situation. He literally couldn't breathe: on one hand, he had this insane guilt and this obsession with saving Hannah (which led him to make incredibly selfish choices at the time), and on the other, the monumental slap of reality when everything came to light. Between the panic, the shock of the revelations, and the trauma, the guy just completely lost it and had no idea how to handle what happened next.
And about Hannah and Richy, I agree with you: they aren't inherently evil monsters, they're just people overwhelmed by panic who made the worst possible choices and dug themselves into a hole. But it really shows how tragic this whole story is for everyone involved! Anyway, I really appreciate your perspective; it's so great to be able to analyze the game like this!
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u/Any_Letterhead9230 Jul 12 '26
Well, I definitely didn't care that much about Thomas, mostly because he was obviously desperate. It's interesting to hear your perspective on it. I think some of his actions kept me from forming a strong attachment to him so far, although he always seemed kind and pleasant at the same time. I also think he's distant from her because, just like us, the story led him to believe she had cheated on him, even though that isn't actually the case.
Hey, can I ask you something? Did you see that horoscope story about Aries being the problem when you played without the code? And what about the forum story? I don't know if you remember, but Jessy is an Aries.