An infodump on the lastest update of @sparklecarehospital

I really, REALLY love the new update of Sparklecare Hospital.

Before, in the comic, the theme of the corruption in the mental healthcare industry hasn’t quite been apparent. Hell, I didn’t even quite get the theme in the entirety of the preboot; I just thought it was commentary on edgy Mary Sue, early-2000s OCs and stories. However, this update was executed perfectly.

The warnings from the clowns at the Sparklecare Hospital tumblr was not only considerate, but also helped build the tension. The first gory update, I think. What could it be? What could happen? While I did tell my friends that were reading and didn’t have tumblr about the warnings, it also helped to pique my curiosity.

First comes the attitude-shift of the normally cheerful, yet sassy, Nurse Mood. The colors darken as she apologizes to Barry; and the upward angle of Barry’s response really hits this exchange home.

Next, the reveal of Dr. Cuddles himself. Despite his cute and rather small appearance, you can tell he is a bad, bad guy. While he isn’t exactly the main baddie (I would say the main baddie of Sparklecare is money/capitalism), you can see he is not to be taken lightly.

Then, the creepy little song begins. However, I didn’t read it as a song at first. I read it as a poem; similar to how I read a riddle of a bad guy in fantasy novels. Also, Cuddles appearing taller than Barry for the ‘can’t you smell his fear?’ line is flawless.

The colors go dark again, signifying the change in mood. As they suggest different ways to torture him, it reminds me of my time in the hospital. See, like the creator, I went through a traumatic mental hospital experience. The way they casually discuss ways to torture him reminds me of how casually the doctors would casually discuss the patient’s issues with ease and uncaring attitudes, or even the medicines. “Eh, this one could work I guess…” “Yeah, let’s do that. Better than nothing.”

Mood yells that they are making it worse; that Barry needs to be helped with his sickness, not treated like something to toy with. But the others insist this is helping Barry; this is the treatment he needs. This makes me think of how my parents treated taking me to the mental hospital. “This is what’s good for you! This will fix you!” They continue to experiment on Barry, doing whatever they feel like (again, reminding me of the frivolous attitudes of the doctors when it came to medicine, suicide threats from the patients and so forth).

Then there’s imagery of Dr. Cuddles turning off life support; showing how little he cares about whether the patients survive or not. Then they chant about how Barry should abandon the idea of leaving the hospital. “You best give up believing you’ll be leaving” is something very similar to what a doctor told me. They said, I won’t go home to my safe space, or see my friends, until they deem that I am cured and mentally stable. Hell, one even SUGGESTED faking feeling better if I wanted to go home.

Then comes the line, with the smiling faces: “IT NEVER GETS BETTER.” The mental hospital showered us in images of smiling people, happy people, people unlike us. Saying to us, “This is your goal.” But then following that up with, “But you’re mentally unstable, so you can’t REALLY get there.” Surrounded by people with a similar mental state to mine; people older than me, people whose lives are still out of control, people who are on their sixth hospital visit; it really and honestly felt like it would never get better. Like I would be trapped in this hospital for the rest of my life, reaching for something I couldn’t grasp.

And that’s the beauty of Sparklecare Hospital. They talk about something that not many actually do talk about; how fucked up mental hospitals really are, and how damaging, hypocritical, money-grubbing, and utterly corrupt they truly are.

Just like how you shouldn’t be fooled with Sparklecare’s happy, rainbow colors and cute characters, you shouldn’t be fooled with a mental hospital’s claims of helping patients and promises that they won’t keep.