The Sims and being goth go together like bread and butter. Like chocolate and peanut butter. Like My Chemical Romance and emo Sims 2 machinimas.
We all know about Bella Goth, with her iconic red dress and alien abduction in the Sims 2. She is possibly the most popular character from the franchise and a gothic legend. But the Sims franchise is actually rife with alternative ladies that deserve a moment in the spotlight. If you like goths, emos, punks, or straight up spooky girls then this will be right up your alley!
Cassandra Goth
What better way to start than with the Goth family’s eldest child, Cassandra.
In her first appearance in the Sims, she is the child of Bella and Mortimer Goth, known mostly for her glasses and pigtails. According to the Sims Wiki, “She likes to play with her toys, play the piano, feed the fish and mourn at the tombstones.” The Goth family does not play around when it comes to the aesthetic — they get started early. Cassandra later appears as a teenager in the Sims 4 where she is an aspiring musician and has the creative and gloomy traits.
In the Sims 2 (Don’t worry about the confusing Sims timeline) she appears as an adult with her own lore. Cassandra is engaged to the heartbreaker Don Lothario (who is cheating on her with several other women) and she is unaware that her neighbor Darren Dreamer is secretly in love with her. Oh, the drama! Also, it should be noted that even in adulthood she continues to wear her recognizable pigtails. You may see it as a fashion faux-pas but I appreciate her commitment to the brand.
Lilith Pleasant
Lilith is a classic “bad” twin. She’s a D student, wears dark clothes and spiked cuffs, and has a dark gothic bedroom, while her twin sister Angela wears a floral sundress and has a bright pink bedroom. Lilith’s memories, and the fact that she was not taught skills as a child but Angela was, imply that her parents favored Angela over her and she holds a grudge for it.
The Pleasant twins seem like polar opposites, but they are actually more similar than you might think, as they both have the Popularity aspiration, implying they both want to be liked but go about it in different ways. It is my full belief that Lilith is not a bad apple, just misunderstood, which makes her a much more interesting character to play.
An older (and I personally think less interesting) version of Lilith and her sister appear in the Sims 4 within the Discover University pack in Britechester. Here the twins are living together and trying to overcome their differences while getting their respective degrees — , Angela in Art History and Lilith in Villainy (I swear, she’s not evil she’s just emo).
Bonehilda
You know her, you love her, it’s Bonehilda! She first appeared in the Sims: Making Magic as an NPC. If you buy Bonehilda’s closet you can summon her to do chores around the house. In the Sims 4 she can be summoned through a seance table.
What I love about Bonehilda is that she’s a working class woman; she cooks, cleans, and even takes care of the kids. Bonehilda is on the 9-5, but when she is done she just disappears off the lot (which is also what I do when my shift is done). And besides the fact that a skeleton maid is the ideal Halloween costume, I also love seeing her interact with my Sims. Perhaps I’m a bit sadistic but I love watching the normal maids freak out and have existential crises when they see her. Bonehilda is invited to my house all year long, not just for Halloween.
Ava Cadavra
As a youth, I was introduced to Ava Cadavra through the Sims 2DS game, which was a weird hotel simulator based in the franchise’s recurring Strangetown location. And boy, does she have a story.
Ava shows up to your hotel mysteriously and asks you to build a shrine to a bovine god called the Prime Heifer in the conference room. Later she starts up a cult with three other residents of Strangetown and attempts to bring the Prime Heifer into the physical world. In the end you shatter the bovine statue to stop her. This causes Ava to leave the hotel, but not before setting your penthouse on fire.
God, I love an unhinged woman. What’s even funnier is that after all of that she comes back and tries to check in to your hotel, but promises to not cause any trouble. As someone who plans on dyeing purple streaks in their hair, I can say that Ava Cadavra was a formative goth girl for me.
Hayley Williams
While doing research for this article I realized that Paramore recorded a version of Pressure for the Sims 2DS all in Simlish. This both produced the funniest lyric video I’ve ever seen and makes it so Hayley Williams is canonically a Sims girl. Good thing too, what on earth would I do if my emo Sims couldn’t listen to Paramore?
The Sims has always been a playground for self expression. Hell, when I was a kid I was giving my Sims fun dyed hair and kissing girls because I couldn’t do that in real life. If you’re considering your next goth phase,you can look at these digital alt babes for inspiration, or even try it yourself with your own Sim. Now, if you excuse me I have more emo Sims machinimas to watch.
Featured image source: The Sims 4, via The Sims wikia.
