Isaac Does Subvert A Lot Of The Regular Macho Hero Type Tropes, But One Of The More Subtle Things About

Isaac does subvert a lot of the regular macho hero type tropes, but one of the more subtle things about his particular skill set is that pretty much everything he’s able to do requires a pound of flesh to put into practice.

Like Isaac can read marker script. He can interpret an alien language and communicate that to others, something only a handful of other people can do because everyone else has lost their mind or died. And it’s the reason he’s called to action in the third game, but they never talk about what it does to him specifically, which was (among many other things about DS3) a huge disappointment.

So I guess the thing I was hoping for was for it to cost him something to do. Make it an arduous, mentally horrific process that takes a long time. Make it distort his ability to read regular human language. Make it exhausting and nauseating and addictive like everything else that’s associated with contact with the markers.