Interpreting the Main Four’s dreams, pt. 3: Black Widow 🖌

Hello and welcome to a third dream interpretation! (If you haven’t already, you can check out the previous installments in this series here and here.)

In this post, I’ll be exploring the dream world of the crafty art thief Black Widow. Let’s pop into it!

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Overall, there’s not a ton of material to work with in this dream. While the player enters stolen paintings and cleans up graffiti, the Black Widow herself mostly stands around and watches. The setting isn’t particularly interesting either, seeing as she spends a good deal of her waking life inside art museums; it’s likely just a reflection of her life and isn’t meant to represent anything.

With that being said, this dream isn’t useless. Not at all. For one thing, it gives us a new look into Black Widow’s shining personality, something we didn’t get to see much of in Counterfeit Island alone.

Her dream suggests that she’s a bold, fierce villain with a fiery temper and a disregard for hesitation, as shown when she chases and attacks you with nothing but her own two fists! (In a dream, attacking someone might represent confrontation against a threat or a defensive attitude.) And when she’s called out for her villainy, Black Widow refuses to listen and keeps focusing on her goals–traits she might share with the Binary Bard.

Another key part of this dream is the destruction of Black Widow’s own portrait. Dreams about any sort of damage and destruction could represent a number of things: guilt, failed expectations, hopelessness, or, most interestingly, a ruined relationship.

Remind you of anything?

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The Strange Man (also known as the Brown Recluse) fits this interpretation perfectly. Throughout the happenings of Counterfeit Island, the Strange Man works as Black Widow’s right-hand man; until for reasons best known to herself, Black Widow betrays him, leaving him tied to a chair alongside the player in her underground lair. The Strange Man proceeds to side with the player and ends the Black Widow’s art-stealing career once and for all.

Could it be that Black Widow’s reflecting on this dismissal? From what I can tell, her betraying the Strange Man was entirely unprovoked, but then again, they don’t call her the Black Widow for nothing…

Looking closer at Black Widow’s attack, a final point I’ll bring up is her chasing the player to reach them, which could represent an attempt to be in control or get ahold of something.

Here’s what I’ve gathered based off of these hints: Black Widow is missing her right-hand man, but is trying to act as though she isn’t, hence the defensiveness suggested by her attacking the player. After all, she’s a solitary being akin to the spider she’s named for; she uses someone for what she needs them for and then lets them go. She’s the opposite of loyal.

But why? Pretending to trust someone only to betray them will only turn them against her, as shown when her entire villainous career slips down the drain thanks to the Strange Man. Wouldn’t it be more useful to have kept her servant instead of creating another enemy? The confrontation against a threat also suggested by her attack could add to this. As for trying to assert control over a situation, well, maybe she’s just frustrated that she’s hopelessly trapped inside a cryotube in Erewhon Prison instead of out resurrecting her art-stealing life. 🕷️

That’s it for today, everyone. I’ll see you for my next but possibly not last post in this series, highlighting the Binary Bard and his spectacular dream! Pop on,

~💜