Over the Line: Borderline Traits of Invisigal from Dispatch (Part 2) by Mare Hiles
*spoiler warning*
On the other side of this unstable self-image coin is an air of confidence – and often arrogance – that Visi takes on. It stood out to me that one of her voice lines after a successful SDN mission is, “You can’t say you’re not impressed. I mean, you can, I just won’t believe you.” She seems equally assured in herself after the fight at Granny’s Donuts, to the point that she eventually punches Robert when he tries to (quite poorly, to be fair) explain why he took issue with her unwillingness to follow his directives.
When looking at both sides of this coin, you can see how her eventual decision to go after the pulse by herself is overconfident on the surface, but also the result of an intense need to be seen as good and heroic, to prove her alleged fate and a very belligerently drunk Chase wrong.
Another borderline trait that Invisigal demonstrates is her instability in relationships. Her feelings towards Robert throughout the game oscillate between outright contempt, begrudging friendship, and sexual attraction. She punches him multiple times, belittles his status as a hero, harps on his lack of superpowers, calls him a narc and a pervert and a loser and bad at his dispatching job. She also repeatedly makes sexual comments, “tries on” what it would be like to date him, explains the entire plot of a rom-com to him, and hosts a party at his apartment. If you look at everything all together, you can almost feel the whiplash of these contradictions. Considering how BPD presents, however, a likely core at the center of this issue is an insecurity and jealousy towards Robert, who represents the hero that she believes she can never be, but also longs to be. Visi bounces between idealizing Robert and devaluing him and his desire to be a hero. Not only is her sense of self unsteady, but her feelings towards others – Robert in particular – is as well.
We can also see in Invisigal a sense of impulsivity, which largely manifests through her expression of sexuality. And don’t get me wrong, I recognize that we are lacking in representation of empowered women in games – especially sexually empowered women. But I would argue that Invisigal’s expression of sexuality presents more as hypersexuality, which can be a coping mechanism for trauma and is a common occurrence in folks with BPD.
Roberts’ (and therefore the player’s) first interaction with Visi is her eavesdropping on a private conversation with Blonde Blazer, and then making sexual, as well as negative, comments about her new boss to his face. This is a common theme throughout the game. She sexualizes others – mainly Robert – without their consent and in very public situations, which could be an attempt at feeling temporarily connected or to escape some complicated feelings. After the sex dream that she has about Robert, it seems as though this act – although imagined – is a source of validation for Invisigal; it allows her to imagine herself as a person worthy of being intimate with this hero role model she has made him out to be.
And then there’s the locker room kiss. Visi reveals how she was involved in blowing up the Mecha Man suit, believing this to be the best example yet of how she is evil, unforgiveable, unloveable, undeserving. Yet – depending on what you as the player choose to do – Robert can refuse to confirm her negative beliefs about herself. After all this, after hearing Robert’s defense of her to the Z-Team, hearing his understanding of the true scope of everything that she did, the best way that she can think to express her feelings is through a kiss. It is unfortunately common that people with borderline traits and other survivors of trauma believe that the only value they can provide to people is through their sexuality. As heartbreaking as this thought is, it was the first thing that came to mind when I played through this scene, especially considering Invisigal’s history of hypersexuality throughout the rest of the game. I wanted so badly for her to be able to vocalize her feelings, the romantic ones, the gratitude ones, the fearful ones. But they’re overwhelming and complicated and she probably doesn’t even know how to begin forming the words to make it sound right. Everything she has experienced up to this point tells her that she is bad and messed up and gone over the line far too many times to come back; she desperately wants to believe that Robert is right, but it is so hard to block out that voice in her head that never lets her forget what she’s done. So, she goes for a kiss.
Just like in real life, things in Dispatch are messy and frustrating and don’t always have the resolution that we want. And I encourage you to experience it for yourself, to think critically and with curiosity about these characters and what they can tell us about ourselves. Because there is always more to learn.
A big thank you to Laura Bailey, Critical Role, and the AdHoc Studio team for bringing this game and these amazing characters to life