Popular Culture Review 29.2
it was too late . The New Bedford National Park ’ s historical documents regarding whaling and whale hunts describe how “ when the whale tired from towing the boat and loss of blood , the men would pull themselves up to the whale ’ s back , the officer and boat steerer would exchange places , and the officer would kill the whale by puncturing its lung with a long iron lance ” ( 4 ). Exhausted and hounded , the whale would eventually succumb to its harpoon wounds in a manner analogous to The Outsider ’ s description of fighting to escape , failing , then dying when his throat was slit . David Dowling writes of the continuously perpetuated myth of the aggressive , violent whale , like Moby Dick , noting the “ public perceptions of the whale as a vicious beast , a nefarious sea monster like those storied mythical creatures in the popular press . Inoffensive and timid animals of course do not make formidable foes in romantic hunting narratives whether on land or on the high seas ” ( 260 ). The Outsider ’ s account drains all sense of adventure or conflict and instead renders the event for what it was : the slaughter of a creature unable to effectively fight against harpoons and steel .
Dishonored : The Death of The Outsider provides two important narrative clues supporting the interpretation that The Outsider was once a whale and thus closely tied both to the ecology of the games ’ world and to its ruination at human hands . The first clue proves a bit circumstantial , but is nonetheless intriguing . Billie Lurk must retrieve a specific , special blade before she can kill The Outsider . It is the same blade that had been used in the rite in which he was killed and remade . Of the twin-bladed weapon , Billie comments that it “ turned a boy into a god ,” but that reflects her repetition of the story The Outsider has told about himself and is not otherwise grounded in any other verifiable source . Furthermore , the knife , less a dagger than a short sword , bears more than
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