Debut for Persephone's 2025 Metroidvania Corpus!

I've just released Persephone's 2025 Metroidvania Corpus as a PDF! I did this to allow for easier accessibility using Adobe's bookmark system and in-text hyperlinks. The new corpus combines the "From Master's to PhD" catalog and earlier postgrad work on Metroidvania, "Mazes and Labyrinths," into a single, larger document (originally 108 pages, v1.0; currently 140 pages, v1.17a). The blogpost, below, has my editor's notes, which—apart from giving a download link—also describe the PDF's contents (which are SFW/only about Metroidvania). Patch notes for the most current edition are located below the editor's notes.

If you want to ask Persephone a question about any of this material, you can do so on the r/Metroidvania Reddit page promoting this post.

For a spoken summary of the corpus, refer to its partner YouTube video, "Persephone's Metroidvania Series #4," which discusses the 2025 Metroidvania Corpus and its contents; i.e., the title page, patch notes, table of contents, note to Jeremy Parish, several excerpts, and the Further Reading page. Please note: the video was a live-reading of  the corpus' first edition, hence is quite outdated!

Editor's notes, 1/6/2025: As stated above, Persephone's 2025 Metroidvania Corpus has been edited and assembled as "SFW" (no nudity), and combines everything from "From Master's to PhD" and "Mazes and Labyrinths" into one handy place. You can download newer editions of the PDF for free on my 18+ website's one-page book promo (at the top of the page); if you want to download the corpus without going onto my website, click on this download link for v1.17a to access it directly.

As part of Persephone's Metroidvania Corpus, I've made updates to the original "From Master's to PhD." Said changes include: a full-fledged table of contents with section summaries, a whole new subsection ("Persephone's History of Formulating Metroidvania"), a compendium for my Tolkien scholarship (which shares the same performative space*), multiple visual aids, and several new entries to my "Further Reading" subsection on Metroidvania, in particular. While there's lots of theories and ideas being discussed, here, this survey will gloss over most of them (the ones closest to Metroidvania will get the most focus, of course; refer to the Paratextual Documents page on my website for a broader theoretical/exhibitory outline). The new corpus also contains excerpts from "What I Learned Mastering Metroidvania" (2024), my critique of Jeremy Parish from "Modularity and Class" (2024), and a final written response to Jeremy Parish.

*I.e., the cartographic refrain, my work critiquing capital through its routine, neoliberal (videogame) abuse of monomyth police violence occurring inside spaces of play where the player(s) can routinely map out and conquer, ad infinitum: Tolkien's refrain (the High Fantasy treasure map) gentrifying war, and Cameron's refrain (the Metroidvania/shooter) ringing a call-to-arms through neo-conservative revenge fantasy. We won't have time to unpack that here, however. For a good summary of it, refer to "A Note About Canonical Essentialism" (2024). See, also: "Goblins, Anti-Semitism and Monster-Fucking" (2024) for a more recent interrogation of the idea, through Tolkien's work. —Perse

Patch Notes

v1.17a (3/27/2025): Added some additional definitions to "Persephone's Academic History": "the euthanasia effect (rabid token Amazons)," "mirror syndrome," "Amazonomachia (Amazon pastiche, subjugated/subversive)."

v1.17 (3/23/2025) – Expanded on "Summarizing Persephone's Metroidvania Praxis" in "From Master's to PhD"; i.e., to feature "ludo-Gothic BDSM," but also to discuss more of the history that occurred for Persephone between 2018 and 2023. Includes new interview portions with Scott Sharkey. Also added new essential glossary terms to "Persephone's Academic History." Not all mention specifically in this corpus, but do relate to my Metroidvania work as a sex-positive device, post-PhD; i.e., regarding my activism surrounding the universal liberation of sex work (thus all work) using Metroidvania as a holistic and flexible teaching device.

v1.16 (1/15/2025) - Recorded a live reading for "Doom Eternal (2020) Review: No Girls or Trans People Allowed," but also respond to the years' worth of transphobic hate mail that review received: "Persephone's Metroidvania Series #6" (2025). Added the links in this corpus. Some small typo fixes and corrections.

v1.15a " - Recorded a live reading for "Those Who Walk Away…" and added the links in this corpus. I did so because the reading also includes a full response to speedrunner Karl Jobst's old pick-up artist video; i.e., by breaking it down and critiquing his bad dating advice, sleazy antics and predator grifter behavior: "Persephone's Metroidvania Series #5" (2025).

v1.15 (1/13/2025) - Added "Those Who Walk Away from Speedrunning" (and its historical 2020 companion piece, "Postcolonialism in Doom") to address how speedrunning—although still important to my work—is something I, a trans woman an-Com, ultimately walked away from; i.e., while keeping my interest for Metroidvania (vis-à-vis ludo-Gothic BDSM) largely intact.

v1.1 (1/7/2025) - Expanded "Persephone's Further Reading (on Metroidvania)" to include ancillary research to her Metroidvania work, namely on FPS games. Includes reviews and on write-ups on Ion Fury, Blood and Doom Eternal (among others), but also additional interviews with game devs (e.g., James Towne and Yellow Swerve), filmmakers (e.g., the cast and crew of "Alien: Ore") and world-class speedrunners (e.g., FrostyXen, CScottyW and King Dime). Full changes are under "Further Reading."

v1.0 (1/6/2025) - vanilla release

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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!