Highlights
- Freddie is a high-energy, quirky character in Stray Gods who constantly reminds Grace that they are best friends.
- Freddie's backstory with Grace is revealed through exposition, which is not the most immersive storytelling tool.
- Despite the forced friendship situation, Freddie is a resourceful and likable character.
In Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, Freddie is one of the first characters we meet. She's the high-energy, quirky, fun founder and drummer of Grace's band, and the only person who even seems to want to be there. The game opens up on auditions for new band members—Grace's opening narration explains that they weren't looking for anything specific; they just needed a change. But when no one with even a note of musical talent shows up, and Grace slumps in her chair clouded in ennui, it's Freddie who comes to the rescue, lightening the mood by sharing a humorous dream she had about turning up to these auditions naked, and checking in with Grace one on one to see if there's anything she can do you help.
Well of course she wants to help! She's your best friend! And she'll remind you of that fact throughout the game, over and over.
That's kind of where the problem with Freddie lies—she comes into this story having a long history with Grace. And, for the purposes of this game, I am Grace. But before this band audition, I wasn't Grace. Grace and Freddie have a long history together, which we get to know about through Freddie providing exposition (which is kind of her M.O.). Asked by Grace what she did to deserve a friend like her, Freddie simply replies, "You sat next to me at lunch." It's nice that they have a close bond, but it's not the most immersive storytelling tool in Stray Gods, because I wasn't there for it. This person is a best friend to Grace but a stranger to me. Taking a page out of musical theater, it's like how in The Book of Mormon, Elder Cunningham keeps insisting that he and Elder Price are best friends as son as they're paired together. Except here, it's not played for laughs.
Contrast that with the three other romanceable options in Stray Gods, all of whom you meet for the first time during one crazy day in which a charming stranger you just met shows up at your apartment with a stab wound and promptly dies in the middle of your floor, you become a functionally immortal god with persuasive musical superpowers, and you find out you have one week to live. I appreciate the appeal of meaningful relationships being built up over years of little shared moments, but I wasn't actually there for any of that, and Freddie's constant cries for me to remember all we've been through don't do anything for the memories I don't have.
You know what I do remember? I remember the look of shock on Athena's face when Apollo dared to publicly disagree with her for sentencing me to immediate death. I remember the nightclub stage where Persephone and I worked through her anger over Calliope's death and eventually stopped blaming me for it. I remember Pan showing up to teach me how to use my powers to solve this murder mystery and save my own skin. And I remember you, Freddie, getting jealous and defensive when he did that. You're my best friend! I should brush off any help offered by the all-powerful gods and instead rely on you, my very-much human roommate ... who, if I choose her, immediately flakes out on me when it's time to start the investigation.
I should take this opportunity to note that while I'm certainly no fan of gender stereotypes, I grew up in a biologically male body, so I may not be 100% qualified to talk about that last point. I actually appreciate the versions of Pan's introductory song in which Grace sticks close to Freddie, as the ladies team up to accuse his offer of help of actually being an attempt to cause her harm. "Lost girls, lost girls, you all love your lost girls," the sing at him. It turns out they're wrong about Pan, but sometimes it's better to be safe than sorry, and I can appreciate that, even if I can't fully comprehend it.
Also, I don't want any of my complaining about the forced friendship situation to seem like I don't like Freddie as a character, because I do. Once she finds her gumption, she actually does turn out to be pretty capable. Side with Pan, and he saves you from Medusa's bite by entrancing her with his legendary magical flute. Freddie brings a lighter and a can of hairspray (which considering that Medusa's hair is her most monstrous feature, probably deals both fire and emotional damage, so well-played.) And if I choose to give up my godhood to bring her soul back from the realm of Hades, it offers such a different experience than going into the climactic trial as the last muse, causing me to face insurmountable odds as a puny, powerless mortal against the most powerful remaining Idol of them all.
So, no, the forced friendship didn't ruin the story at all. What it did do, however, was make me save Freddie for last. Well, save her for fourth anyway. But who knows; maybe that was by design.There are so many combinations of choices and consequences in this game that I'm far from done with it, and once I ran through the more exciting options, it was a nice change of pace to finally settle in with my best friend turned goddess turned girlfriend. It just took a lot of settling in to get there.