I was listening to Clue Crew Podcast today and in the SEA episode, it was explained how the theme of the game was loneliness, and how every character in that game has lost somebody, via breakup, divorce, death, and along that theme, Nancy and Ned have also had relationship trouble and were arguing, even getting close to Nancy making the future of the relationship uncertain.
And I realized that this is not only true for Sea of Darkness, now that I think back on it, Nancy and Ned's dynamics have consistently been in theme for every single game. Remember in Captive Curse, how annoyed we all were that they were constantly arguing and getting angry at each other and making drama, interrupting our play? That was a clue. It was a clue that the theme was breakup and revenge, it was showing us that the culprit was someone who held a grudge against their relationship partner. I think the game was hinting at how badly a relationship could go and Nancy and Ned have managed to evade the disastrous outcome by making peace and finding a way to work thru their issues.
And then think of every other game where Nancy and Ned have been arguing and it fit the theme perfectly. And then think of every game that they were pointedly not arguing; remember the Castle Malloy where Ned was stuck at a party, unable to escape but loyal to Nancy to a fault and completely dedicated to her to the point where he didn't even want to speak about how inconvenienced he was. It was a metaphor for Matt! Who was stuck but still completely loyal to Kyler! We could have figured out that they would have stayed together just looking at Nancy/Ned dynamics in the game!
That kind of hint is so subtle I've never realized it before. Seriously, these games, there's never an end to realizations.
