Among all the unique and lovable characters inNight in the Woods,Mae Borowskimight just be one of the most beloved and relatable. As the feline protagonist, the player sees most of the events ofthe autumn-set indie gamethrough her eyes, hearing her thoughts and witty remarks about the people around her and their day-to-day lives in Possum Springs.
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Although the player hears a vast majority of the internal thoughts brewing inside of Mae, facts about her as a person (well, a cat) are revealed slowly, allowing the player to get to know her over time. Certain lines of dialogue, events, and actions throughoutNight in the Woodscan trigger Mae to talk about herself, but unfortunately, some of these facts are revealed in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fashion.
10Low Alcohol Tolerance
One of the very first scenes the player is introduced to shortly after Mae’s arrival back in Possum Springs is a good old-fashioned party in the woods. With any good party in the woods, there’s watered-down beer sitting in a keg just by the fire. It only takes Mae three cups of this watered-down beer to get so drunk that she spouts off on a rant that dramatically ends with her vomiting at her ex-boyfriend’s feet. Yikes, right?
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This wasn’t just a one-off incident, as it’s revealed afterward that Maeknowsshe has a low alcohol tolerance (and, for that matter, hates beer). She even claims that drinking cough syrup is enough to make her woozy.
9Stop-&-Go Shoplifting Schemes
ThroughoutNight in the Woods,the player has a myriad of opportunities for Mae to shoplift or steal from certain businesses. While it’s notable that Mae enjoys the act of shoplifting (mostly for the purpose of helping out or providing something for others, like the pretzels she would steal for her “rat babies”), she also has a unique method of doing so.
Mae believes that our eyes have evolved to detect movement. Thus, if she stops moving while shoplifting she can completely avoid the detection of employees. This method is practiced in all theshoplifting mini-gamesand is even explained to Bea before stealing a belt buckle from the fictional store URevolution.
8Mae Can’t Drive
There are limited modes of transportation inNight in the Woods.Mae jogs around her town, walks on power lines, and runs across the roofs of buildings to get wherever she needs to go. Mae is never seen driving a car, not even in the scene where she and her friends drive down to the party in the woods.
She reveals in a brief conversation with the four teenagers that hang out in the underground tunnel that the reason for this is simple: she can’t drive.
7Mae Appears InLongest Night&Lost Constellation
Years before therelease of the stand-aloneNight in the Woods,Infinite Fall (the developers of all three games) released two supplementary games to expand on the lore and mythology ofNight in the Woods.These two games were titledLost ConstellationandLongest Night.
Mae appears in both games,Longest Nightfeatures the feline protagonist sitting with three familiar faces, Gregg, Bea, and Angus as the group points out and discusses the constellations as well as the mythology behind them.Lost Constellationfollows a young Mae being told the story of Adina Astra, an astronomer, as she encounters thick forests and supernatural figures on her way to the Frozen Lake.
6Canonically Pansexual
Mae’s gender identity and sexuality were a subject of debate until Scott Benson, one of the game writers forNight in the Woods,confirmed in a now-deleted post on his Curious Cat page thatMae is canonically pansexual.
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This is supported further by a couple of events and lines of dialogue in-game. Mae is open about her previous relationship with a male raccoon named Cole, but she openly flirts with a female bear named Bombshell at a party that she attends with Bea. When asked about her dream date, Mae responds: “Wrestling. I don’t care if it’s a guy or girl, but they’d have to be like grrr. Because I don’t even want to date someone who’s not grrr.”
5Vast Knowledge Of Fish
Fittingly, the feline protagonist ofNight in the Woodshas a very prominent knowledge of fish. In a file located on Steam,Mae Borowski’s Guide to the Sky,Mae goes through each of the constellations featured in the game and retells her understanding of their stories.
Mae notes quite a few times that Mundy, the whale constellation dubbed “the world fish” due to the greenery and life it carries on its back, is “not a fish.” She writes: “The world fish. A whale – named as such back when people were wicked stupid and thought whales were fish.”
4Canonically A Virgin
There’s a point in the game where Mae and Bea traverse to a graveyard in order to find the grave of Joe Shade. But, to get through to the graveyard the pair must answer the weirdly-invasive questions of three shady teenagers “guarding” the graveyard’s front gate.
Among those questions is the inevitable “have you ever doneit?“The player is presented with a yes/no option, but regardless of which answer is chosen, Mae is canonically a virgin. The truthful option is no, to which Mae tells the teenagers that she “never got around to it.”
3Her Star Sign Is Mundy
Night in the Woodspresents a fictional star sign system, as well as mythology to go along with each of them. Mundy, the above-mentioned “world fish,” was revealed to be Mae’s star sign after she states so inMae Borowski’s Guide to the Sky.At the end of her blurb about the world fish (or whale, as she notes) she says: “Mundy is my sign.”
In this same guide, she reveals the star signs of each of her friends, including Gregg and Angus.
2Phobia Of Elevators
Mae and Gregg banter back and forth with increasingly threatening and graphic (yet friendly and playful) depictions of how they of the other should, or could, have died in a particular scenario. This theme runs throughoutNight in the Woodsand is one of the manydisplays of a real friendshipbetween the two.
At one point, Gregg makes a joke about being crushed in his apartment’s elevator. Mae retorts, stating that she has a phobia of elevators. This phobia is likely why the player is forced to play a mini-game where they must coordinate the pair carrying a box containing the animatronic they stole from the abandoned supermarket up a flight of stairs, as opposed to using the elevator.
1Voiced By Em Halberstadt
While there notably isn’t any actual voice acting inNight in the Woods,Mae audibly grunts both when she’s about to go to sleep, and after she’s jumped three times.
The voice for these grunts was done by the game’s sound designer, Em Halberstadt. Mae is the only one out of the four main characters to receive voice acting, even if just for her little grunts. That said, the lack of voice acting makes for a more personalized experience, with players being able to imagine or create their own voices for the characters in their playthrough.
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