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ENA Dream BBQ Analysis

I wanna talk about ENA Dream BBQ, but it’s really hard to do so since it’s so disjointed. It’s difficult to stitch together meaning but I feel like there is meaning there. Since it’s an abstract piece of work it’s not a literal 1:1 metaphor or message, there’s some teasing you need to do to get meaning out of it.

I think ENA Dream BBQ is at its heart about the seemingly pointlessness of life and how we find meaning and ways to go through it anyway. But to explain why I think the best way to analyze this media is to just make some observations and connect a few dots near the end.

ENA’s duality.

Let’s start with ENA herself. She has two conflicting personalities express through her white and red face. A salesperson side and a mean side. Her salesperson side is trying to constantly find opportunities and ways to coax information out of people. While her Meanie side is abrasive and impatient and wants information NOW.

The “BOSS”

ENA is searching for “the boss.” She wants to find the man in charge because she has business with him, and that could literally be a metaphor for someone trying to find meaning in their own life.

In ENA’s goal to find the boss many characters claim to be the boss, but none of them actually are. If we assume that the phrase “the boss” (aka: the man in charge) is a synonym for God, then it becomes interesting who claims to be the boss and who doesn’t.

Finding Fullfilment

Dratula, a coin cat, a hands demon, a wooden horse, and a vending machine all claim to be “the boss.” And each one could represent things that people use to find meaning in their lives. For example: Dratula could represent superstition. The hands demon talks about fame and stalking celebrities. The money cat is originally a piggy bank that breaks and talks about saving up to party irresponsiblely. The wooden horse talks about babies and pets. And the vending machine offers material goods.

But none of these things will offer TRUE fulfillment. They’re more akin to distractions or obligations. They’re optional goals to aspire towards but aren’t necessary for you to be happy. You don’t need money, material goods, children, pets, fame, or a belief in the supernatural to be happy. They can offer you happiness but they aren’t necessities.

Jobs

There’s a strong emphasis on the importance of having a job. Many characters bemoan the loss of a job, are discouraged they can’t fulfill their job, are avoiding their jobs, or are very proud of their job. For example: It’s “sad” that the Taxi driver can’t do his job without his heads. Coral Glasses just wants to do her job without “anxiety.” Taski Maiden is “upset” she’s unemployed. Frog gets “angry” when you skirt your job duties.

Like the various things to fill your life with, having a job can give you a purpose. But again, It’s fleeting. You can lose your job at any time. It’s not really fulfilling either.

I think this is the reason why when ENA finds her way to the bathroom she’s at her lowest point and with a massive hole in her chest. She’s unfulfilled and in a zombie-like sickly trance. She’s tried to do odd jobs to find happiness and achieve her goals, but it hasn’t worked. Or she’s tried to skirt her goals and have fun, but that hasn’t worked either. She needs something to believe in.

Enter: The Bathroom

The bathroom is interesting. It is a daily ritual that everyone engages with and this could be seen as a stand in for religion. Certainly many of the ways characters talk about “going to the bathroom” sounds an awful lot like going to church. It’s also the most difficult route to take in the game, making you complete multiple odd side quests or to attempt to play Frogger to cross the river.

It’s also interesting who does or doesn’t support the bathroom. The Witches are searching for the bathroom. The Shaman Wizard wants to help you too. But Frog dislikes the bathroom because it takes time away from your “job.” Likewise many of the side characters who are kinda just running around aimlessly seem to have mixed feelings on the bathroom, which changes depending on the route you take.

It’s also interesting that ENA does not find salvation in the bathroom. She’s actually shunned from it and the Genie refuses to offer kindness for her, or her friends. The only thing the bathroom does help with is in achieving the goal of turning off the smoke.

If you take the Purge Event route, not only do many of the wayward souls you’ve met along the way go too, but you’ll be berated by Frog for ignoring your duties. ENA herself refers to going to the purge event as “craving freedom.”

Meaning Unfulfilled

And that’s where this all ties back together into trying to find meaning in your life. Everything in the game is trying to give ENA meaning as she searches for “the boss.” But none of it really works. After destroying the smoke she is adrift. It’s curious that NOW is when ENA finds herself in a nostalgic world from all her previous ENA videos. She’s in “Auction Day” again but it’s not the same. It’s just nostalgia for a simpler time. And slowly she starts to falter. Her body overcome by blocky pixels that ultimately consumer her.

The end of the game has her body revert to that of a blank mannequin and she falls into the “holy code.”

ENA Theories

And yet it’s not quite the end… because she comes back. The final post credit cut scene shows ENA resurrected by taking control of a blank mannequin that was lying lifeless at the start of the game in the hub world. This does seem to indicate that all of these blank mannequins lying around were previous forms of ENA. They’re often located around places where you as a player can die easily, like missing a jump or falling from the sky.

I actually dislike the “ENA is actually a species” theory because it feels like it’s trying to objectively explain abstract ideas. Since we see ENA cycle through a host of different forms INCLUDING her original yellow and blue form, I don’t think she’s a literal unique species but just a lost soul trying to find purpose and meaning. As a result her physical appearance and shape changes as she does.

If ENA is a species I don’t think that there are multiple ENA. But rather that ENA can jump from blank body to blank body. That could explain why her search for happiness hasn’t been successful yet and why other characters distrust her.

I also don’t like the “she’s a war criminal” theory either. I know there’s images in the game that hints at this, but I think for an ABSTRACT game that is far too LITERAL of a reading of things. Rather I think they’re suing the imagery of war as a way to show ENA’s emotional turmoil in trying to reach her goal of being fulfilled.

The settings of the game help with that interpretation. For example: The game begins with her in a desolate empty war-torn looking city of endlessly repeating houses. And at the beginning of the game she has no purpose yet. She goes to a casino, that offers cheap thrills and purpose, but it’s short lived and she eventually ventures out into a bigger world to find a purpose. This world is split, like her, into having one where purpose is given, or where you can ignore your purpose. Literally one half of the world is laying on top of the other. The bathroom is sterile and empty and nauseating to get to, but offers no fulfillment either. And finally she ends the game in a nostalgic trip to previous videos right before she “dies.”

There’s probably a lot I’ve missed or glossed over. Nothing in this game is a 1:1 metaphor and there’s likely no real meaning behind a lot of it. Curious that a game about finding meaning in your life is told through the gameplay design of an abstract seemingly random and meaningless story, no?

Not What He Seems

There’s only a few final thoughts that I wasn’t able to fit anywhere else. The more I’ve played the game, the more I’ve come to distrust Frog. He’s one of the few characters who also acknowledges that others “aren’t the boss” and yet he acts like your boss through the entire game. He’s the only character that seems to care about the smoke from the genies, as none of the others mind it at all and some even like it. And the act of destroying the smoke machines feels… wrong. He’s also black and white which is a narrative and stylistic choice that gives me pause. Even Coral Glasses has some color in her Coral. But Frog? He’s black and white. He’s binary. He acts like the boss. He wants you to do something no one else minds or cares about to proceed forward. I do not trust him.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Does my analysis hold up? Does any of this make sense? Am I completely wrong? What do you think the story of ENA Dream BBQ is about?

I didn't notice this til my billionth playthrough, but both the text that appears when you interact with this Amoeba Guy, and the ellipses that follow any interaction with any of the NPC's in this room is in Meanie's dialogue text color. Girl is freaked out of her flipping marble

Step once: acquire seagulls

Step two: swaddle seagulls in blanket like a baby

Step three: go to a mall and ask someone to hold your baby

Step four: sprint away as you pass the seagull to the victim

So i've been thinking a lot about Sir Frank. He's this guy in the lost village area.

My first few playthroughs, I never really thought much of him? I mean, he was there, allegedly due to being a sinner or outcast, and unlike most other characters he didn't seem to mind ENA's presence. But then on one occasion when I went to do the "raze the roofs" achievement(making every hut vanish except for the correct one), I went to talk to him and found that his dialogue had changed. (contd)

Now, there are a few details i want to point out about this- first, his delivery of these lines is incredibly sincere, I'd go as far as to say even fond. He is literally the only character- aside from maybe Froggy- who ever speaks to ENA this way. Second, he "pronounces" ENA's name correctly. As in, spelling it with the backwards E. Only two other characters do this(to my knowledge), the suspicious man and Theodora. The suspicious man does it, obviously, because he has researched ENA and knows a lot about her. Theodora does it because she is a Genie, and thus probably all-knowing. Frank, however, pronounces it correctly out of respect. He addresses ENA like his equal, and I'm pretty sure he's the only character that does this. Every other character that isn't directly hostile or dismissive towards ENA is at the very least a little backhanded. Even Nonkey Jong of all people says some shit like "Nonkey Jong likes having company, even from ENA" which implies that ENA is like. The bare minimum lmao. Froggy might be an exception to this? But there's a degree of "you're my cool coworker and all but you're also weird and i don't understand you completely" to his interactions. A curious thing I also noticed about Frank's cutscenes is that he's one of the only fully voiced characters that ENA doesn't vocally respond to. I have a couple theories as to why this is- provided it's intentional. which it might not be. but I'm still thinking about it lol When interacting with Theodora after reaching the bathroom, there is an option when she asks for ENA's aspirations to "aspire for Frank's forgiveness". This could be taken one of two ways- either ENA has done something to Frank that she wishes to be forgiven for, or Frank has done something bad that ENA wants to forgive on his behalf. Either way, whatever it is, Theodora doesn't entertain it ENA's silence during Frank's dialogue could simply be that she's shell-shocked at not being treated weirdly. Or it could be that she feels guilty. I've seen a theory floating around that she may have been the one that blinded him?? I wonder if they knew each other before meeting in the lost village? Man idk. I just think it's interesting that he is so friendly. It caught me totally off guard ngl, discovering this about him elevated him to an S tier character for me lmfao

Do you do this before or after tequila?

No one:

Taylor Hebert to a group of impressionable twelve-year-olds

WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BOSS

I didn't notice this til my billionth playthrough, but both the text that appears when you interact with this Amoeba Guy, and the ellipses that follow any interaction with any of the NPC's in this room is in Meanie's dialogue text color. Girl is freaked out of her flipping marble

All this stuff has been on my mind for a bit so–

I wonder how come Worker Ena doesn't express herself the same way Web Ena does? Because Web Ena could show any emotions from any sides. Both examples from Temptation Stairway, we can hear both the happy side being sad when she says "pay your debts? That sounds awful..." and the sad side being happy when she says "would you kindly reveal the wish you made to me?" But Worker Ena's emotions are limited to her sides. Meanie is always mean or freaking out, and Salesperson is always charming and joyful/theatrical/silly(? dunno how to describe it properly). They don't show any other emotions whatsoever. And I do wonder if this is because we've only seen the first chapter and this will indeed happen later, or because Worker Ena just doesn't do that? We also haven't seen any 'extreme' ends of Worker Ena. We've only seen her sides and her grey hangover state (which btw I also think that it's nice how Web Ena becomes fully polygonal but Worker Ena becomes fully smooth), but never the extreme ends of her sides like Web Ena had, those white faces with the color of the eyes corresponding to the side's color. And also whatever the hell those demon versions of Web Ena were (but those could be exclusive to Web Ena only).

It would be cool to see a third Ena to really set in stone what's exclusive to each one of them and what are the attributes of their species (since I do believe that Ena is a species in some capacity. A species that is treated like a parasite most of the time). But right now we can probabaly safely assume that most often an Ena's right side would be the domineering one, and that said right side is the smooth one, with the other being the polygonal one.

Ohhh yeah to be fair we did see that weird ass Worker Ena, the green one with blue and purple streaks? But that one seems more like the demon versions of Web Ena than her extreme ends. That's not her dying or anything because we've seen that Enas don't really die.

I also saw something about Coral Glasses not being from the world of dbbq but instead from a different game, and when you interact with those corals blocking a path into the building Ena specifically says that they're out of this world or some similar phrasing, which is all the more confirmation that there's going to be more interactions with Coral Glasses later down the line. Maybe she'll take up Froggy's role when we go to the Horse door in the way that she's kinda going to be guiding us through it or hell even go with us.

Anyway I love both Enas and I think that whatever they did should be forgiven immediately. Let my girls go.

I also do find it interesting when people point out that everyone in dbqq treats Ena badly, but the thing is, I think either all Enas are treated this way or the environment in general is very hostile. Because we only really see Enas interacting with others but not said others interacting with each other. Really the only instance I can think of is Coral Glasses interacting with Taski Maiden and Froggy (kind of) interacting with Mr. Dratula. But it could be argued that both Dratula and Taski Maiden are just annoying as hell, hence why the other two treat them kinda mean. I don't remember any two other non-Ena creatures interacting with each other in the series. I suppose there's also the Unforgiven Frank and Theodora refusing to forgive him but we don't really know why Frank is Unforgiven. I think that lady in the exclusive gift shop is best demonstrative of both those ideas: she's in general kind of hostile but she's also specifically hostile to Ena. And this seems to be the case for nearly everybody. Hell even Hoarder Alex and that Watcher kid are also good examples. And also Hoarder Alex seemed kinda annoyed by the witch lady even if she didn't notice it. There's also an npc talking ill about the Shaman, so yeah, in general the world of Ena is a hostile environment, and it also seems like it's especially hostile to Enas.

Or maybe I'm reading something in nothing but yk what? Whatever, I wanna have fun. So really do whatever you will with this of information.

I didn't notice this til my billionth playthrough, but both the text that appears when you interact with this Amoeba Guy, and the ellipses that follow any interaction with any of the NPC's in this room is in Meanie's dialogue text color. Girl is freaked out of her flipping marble