​Propaganda is a core theme in Blood and Brood, shaping both the atmosphere and the player’s experience. The game immerses players in a relentless stream of cable television and football programming, echoing the dominance of a select few conservative media outlets.
At the center of this is the television—an ever-present force in the antagonist’s home. Nearly always on, it fills the space with a constant barrage of noise: American football, news cycles, and talk shows by night; bleak, numbing daytime television when the house is empty. The screen becomes more than background—it is a symbol of distraction, indoctrination, and decay, saturating the environment with a never-ending hum of influence.
Keep Away
The "Keep Away" storyline unfolds through James, the main antagonist, who spends his weekends in a recliner, drunk and glued to football.
On the day the player-mosquito first emerges into his living room, a college team debuts a radical new strategy under a Pakistani immigrant coach that abandons traditional play for endurance-based constant lateral passes, turning football into a drawn-out game of possession they coin "keep away."
Initially, the strategy fails spectacularly, prompting James to mock and rail against the "woke" coach, but as the game progresses, the strategy takes shape, an they mount an improbable comeback.
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This first game sets off a domino effect of sweeping strategic changes in the way American Football is played stunning and infuriated crowds, especially James.
The sports channels endlessly loop and deconstruct the strategy igniting national debate about whether this represents genius or disgrace, and to James, it becomes proof of everything he hates: immigrants, progress, and change. For the player, it serves as atmospheric background—football as propaganda and a metaphor for swarm endurance, survival, and the disruption of tradition.
Faux and Friends
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Faux and Friends is a parody of right-wing daytime talk shows, modeled directly after Fox & Friends. It appears on the constantly blaring television inside James’ house which is the central environment of Blood and Brood. The program is intentionally exaggerated and grotesque: three chirpy hosts, dressed in patriotic colors, banter about politics, sports, immigration, and climate change, but their language is laced with dehumanization (“illegals”), climate denial, conspiracy theories, and cheerleading for authoritarianism. Segments are presented with forced smiles, cheap graphics, and a perpetual undercurrent of hostility disguised as folksy charm.
Relationship to the Story
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The television is always on, pumping Faux and Friends (and similar propaganda) into James’ home and eroding his mind even further
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It provides environmental storytelling: the mosquito player never hears “objective news,” only the warped reality that James lives inside.
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As the mosquito population grows and spreads disease, the show mirrors real-world denialism: first mocking or ignoring the parasitic outbreak, then panicking, and finally calling for accountability and violent countermeasures.
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This evolving media arc parallels the stages of human reaction to the player’s growing impact.
Relationship to James (the Character)
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James is glued to his recliner, drinking, eating, and absorbing Faux and Friends as background radiation.
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The show shapes his worldview: his denial of reality, his anger at “outsiders,” and his refusal to act even as his body fails.
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His physical decline (illness, fatigue, paranoia) is mirrored by the show’s changing tone from mocking amusement to panicked rants that fuel his fear.
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For the mosquito, James is both one of the key blood meals and decaying host, while the propaganda he consumes provides a psychological map of the outside human world the player never sees directly.
Faux and Friends is not just parody filler — it’s a diegetic lens. It shows how James’ environment is poisoned not only by disease but by the propaganda machine, turning his house into both a biological breeding ground and an ideological echo chamber.