"Mazes and Labyrinths" Q&A, Interview Compendium!

This is the compendium of all of the interviews in "Mazes and Labyrinths," my Q&A series with speedrunners and Twitch streamers. I ask them about disempowerment inside Metroidvania and survival horror games, specifically how mazes and labyrinths, along and their historically "heavy" contents, are used to disempower players. 

Update, 1/4/2025: I've decided to release the entirety of my work on Metroidvania in one single place: "From Master's to PhD (and Beyond): My Entire Work on Metroidvania" (2025). This includes my master's thesis and early postgraduate work (re: "Mazes and Labyrinths"), my PhD (released in 2023), further essays released after my postgraduate work in my larger book series, Sex Positivity. You can also ask me questions about Metroidvania on the r/Metroidvania subreddit: "From Master's to PhD (and Beyond): My Entire Work on Metroidvania" (2025).

This post contains all of the interviews for the series. For more information on my exact research goals for the series, and on Metroidvania and survivor horror and what they are as genres, please refer to the series abstract.

The Interviews

CScottyW: A speedrunner with world records in Metroid 1, Fusion and Zero Mission. Read our interview here.

Behemoth87: A speedrunner with world records in Metroid II, and previous records in Super Metroid. Read our interview here.

ShinyZeni: A speedrunner with previous records in Super Metroid. Read our interview here.

SBDWolf: A speedrunner with world records in Castlevania 1, Donkey Kong Country 2, and Cuphead. [interview coming soon]

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Persephone van der Waard is the author of the multi-volume, non-profit book series, Sex Positivity—its art director, sole invigilator, illustrator and primary editor (the other co-writer/co-editor being Bay Ryan). Persephone has her independent PhD in Gothic poetics and ludo-Gothic BDSM (focusing on partially on Metroidvania), and is a MtF trans woman, anti-fascist, atheist/Satanist, poly/pan kinkster, erotic artist/pornographer and anarcho-Communist with two partners. Including multiple playmates/friends and collaborators, Persephone and her many muses work/play together on Sex Positivity and on her artwork at large as a sex-positive force. That being said, she still occasionally writes reviews, Gothic analyses, and interviews for fun on her old blog (and makes YouTube videos talking about politics). To learn more about Persephone's academic/activist work and larger portfolio, go to her About the Author page. To purchase illustrated or written material from Persephone (thus support the work she does), please refer to her commissions page for more information. Any money Persephone earns through commissions goes towards helping sex workers through the Sex Positivity project; i.e., by paying costs and funding shoots, therefore raising awareness. Likewise, Persephone accepts donations for the project, which you can send directly to her PayPal,  Ko-Fi, Patreon or CashApp. Every bit helps!