What is this, clarification city!? *READ THIS BEFORE COMMENTING PLEASE :)* - I KNOW that Calla Lillies are traditional funeral flowers, what I meant in the video is that they likely have a DEEPER MEANING than just that. Its likely that they are meant to show *rebirth*, which would make a lot of sense considering how Edith rebirths the curse through her book. - I KNOW ABOUT THE UNFINISHED SWAN PLEASE DON'T SPOIL IT ANY MORE THAN YOU ALREADY HAVE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA - The reason I believe Edie stopped bringing walter food was because in the final part of his section, his routine of eating peaches for every meal is interrupted because he doesn't have any in front of him. Combined with this, he says that "he's going to enjoy every minute of it (freedom), especially the food." Implying he didn't have access to much food or at least good food. - Its clear to me now that there is an idea that Edith's child actually did the right thing and laid the stories to rest as they can be seen leaving the journal and the flowers at Edith's grave. A surprisingly good ending to the story. I will likely add to this in the future if more common notes come up in the comments, for now, a big thanks for the support on this video! I really thought it would do poorly due to being almost 8 years old now, but yall proved that wrong. Idk what game I plan to tackle next, but I have some obligations with the main game I do on my channel, Risk of Rain 2, to do first. I think I'm going to do something smaller scale just for a breather, but i'll def be doing more analyses in the future. Love you all to bits!
I would like to correct you on Gus’s death he didn’t die from the tent if you turn around you will see a totem pole when you walk by the bitch while visiting the graveyard you will see the totem pole destroyed on the beach the totem pole was knocked over by the strong winds crushing Gus to death
@@SocksNeedsHelp By the beach I mean when you walk by the beach you see a broken totem pole when it used to be on the cliff if you turn around as Gus you will see the totem pole falling over right onto Gus it even states in the Edith Finch wiki he died from being crushed by a totem pole
To be honest, I think in some of the deaths you're over thinking or making it out more complicated than it needs to be. For example : It's obvious Molly's death is just a person hallucinating while she's slowly dies from food poisoning. I don't think it was some deep metaphor related to generational trauma. And with Barbara and it is very obvious that the boyfriend killed her since he also disappeared.
This is kind of a small thing, but the flowers growing around Edith's grave look to be foxgloves, which are an incredibly deadly and toxic flower. I think this could symbolize how Edith continues to spread the poison of the family's trauma by telling the stories to her child, with poison literally growing out of her grave as they visit it. There's probably a lot more that could be theorized from it, but I thought it was interesting to point out.
Fun fact: foxgloves have been associated with magic and fairies in folklore! But in some cultures it’s considered a symbol of insincerity and deceit! Take that as you like :D
I think she could die because of serological conflict. She seems to be reckless and walk into that dangerous house while begin in second trymester of pregnancy. Maybe Edith's death could have been avoided too. Making Dawn's death the onlz natural death in this family. Sience Edie died probably due to mixing her medication with wine.
I think the problem is that even when we interpret what would have 'really' happened we're *still* sensationalizing things. For example everyone always theorises that Molly poisoned herself, but that completely overlooks Molly's arms were covered in spots: she was sick. That explains the vivid dreams, why her room was locked (she was being kept away from her siblings while she was contagious). It might have even been why she didn't get dinner - the phrase "starve a cold" was because that was thought to help some illnesses, if only so that the child didn't choke to death on their own vomit in the night. A lot of what happened was bad luck and carelessness; but we look for patterns, we look to blame someone or create a mastermind instead of saying "people react to tragedy differently", and in doing that we're creating a story too.
I wholeheartedly disagree with all of that but well said nonetheless. And also, people can notice patterns of pregnant women climbing trees, putting swingsets on the edge of cliffs, and leaving literal babies in a bath unattended and ALSO say, "hey, Grief's a hellofathing." In regards to how this curse was brought up and passed down at all. In fact, Joseph Anderson, (I think that's his name) did a video on it and he said both of the things you see in opposition. They can and do exist at the same time when people talk about this game, wondering if there really *was* a curse. I also think Molly's end not being clear-cut is kind of the point. To speculate about what actually happened to her. I also don't think anyone is saying edith murdered her daughter, only that she died due to negligence. Locking a child away with no dinner is bad parenting. You're speculating just as much as we are, but going so far as to "sensationlize" when people are simply favoring one cause of death over the other. (Even so, I think this is simply people not even realizing molly was sick at all, I didn't even notice it, I thought she had freckles) Even YOU are speculating that she was locked away becuase she was sick and they also chose not to feed her because of the superstition you spoke about, both of which are far more "speculative" (in ways of evidence) than people assuming she got poisoned from a combination of stuff we as players have her eat as we play as her. Nobody is saying Edie caused all of these deaths, only that she fed into the fear that kept the family from fully taking responsibility for the scenarios surrounding them due to her grief. She's not some mastermind, but an old lady stuck on a curse as she's brought down by grief again and again. And that carelessness part is exactly the taking responsibility bit I was talking about. They shouldn't have built a swing set on the edge of a cliff, Sam should've been looking after his son better during a storm after the wedding. Adding everything up to a curse just keeps from realizing the circumstances surrounding the family's losses. Edith Finch is a woman who reveled in the spotlight regarding the curse and her family, The entire mole man story included. But also the guy I mentioned earlier also talked about the music box and how it had information about the house only someone in the house would know, like edie. Now, this could've been just a game play thing, but nothing else in the fame is like that. This is speculation as well, but it's not to be ignored. It seems weird that you want to boil down this wonderful game to "it really was carelessness and freak accidents, what a shame this family was plagued by such unfortunate circumstances" when many of the deaths were nothing of the sort. A character getting struck by lightning or dying from something only less than 1% of people dying from would feel better here, but that's not what we have.
I think blaming the curse on edie is just not the right way to interpret this story, or calling her a mastermind, or even thinking that she might have murdered her daughter is an option, edie definitely benefitted from the deaths but I don't think she wanted people to die, more so she embraced death, and throughout this video she is brought up a lot as the main reason for alot of these deaths but I think it's important to note that the whole family was irresponsible and perpetuated the curse
I’m pretty sure the spots on Molly’s arms are just freckles. Walter and Lewis have the same spots on their arms and Edith and Barbara have freckles in their journal portraits, so they seem to run in the family.
Something that shook me regarding this game is when Edith was reading the story Edie left for her at the end, I found that I got sucked into the story SO fast and I was also frustrated when Dawn interrupted. It made me realize I would have been totally susceptible to a family member like Edie. She was charismatic and a fantastic storyteller, and that combination is powerful.
if only she hadn't gotten so fixated on the curse she might have gotten the attention she so desperately sought after in the form of becoming a famous author or something
I think the implication of the final scene is that the cycle of trauma is finally broken and dies with edith. Edith's child does not feel the need to break open the old stories and give them life as far as we know . They are able to leave the book and the flowers with their mom and finally let them rest.
True, but an interesting detail is that he has a cast. He already was reckless enough to break a bone, imitating his family’s negligence. He might be trying to let go, but the stories already reached him, already affected his life.
@@lizetblatnik149 well, that really goes without saying, don't it? but a cast isn't a symbol of injury, but of a healing. it isn't an arm the kid's lost, even through the trauma he's inherited from his bloodline is clearly showing its mark. it's something he'll have to live with for a good while longer, and maybe he'll be left with some unsightly scars, or maybe a bone won't set quite right, or maybe some irreparable damage to the nerves will keep him from moving it as well as he used to - maybe, no matter what form it takes, maybe he'll never truly escape the influence of a great-great-grandma he never even met. but he can leave enough of it behind, on the grave of his mother who couldn't do so herself, and move towards a finch family detached enough from its curse to not perpetuate it and maybe that's still not enough for a truly happy ending, not for the kid or his kids or his kids' kids, because just as it takes far more time to mend a bone than it took to break it, trauma deep enough to span generations will take many more to heal. but a bone will never heal right on its own, and setting the limb in a cast shows that effort has been made to prevent the trauma of the past from denying the potential of the future
Maybe Milton going missing and the game showing there’s a possibility he’s still alive is supposed to signify when people have to cut their family off for their own sake, but still have a deep caring for them and wish they could rekindle whatever they had.
The idea that Milton ran away and is living a different life far away is a bit of a comfort. Showing that it's possible to get out of bad situations feels important in this story.
@@katofphats3689 It's confirmed that game "The unfinished Swan" is canon in "What remainds of Edith Finch" and that Milton is the king. So maybe he's still alive and went back. (him or his sons) and they took care of Edith's son. At least I hope so.
Ediths child breaks the cycle due to not growing up surrounded by it. They most likely only read the book to see what his mother may be like, and when they read the stories, they probably thought what we think now. They did not grow up in a world of fantasy and death but of one of reality. Edith most likely died in childbirth. She stressed her body, exploring that house. It was old and rotting, most likely filled with toxic paints and even more toxic materials. Her death was the best thing to happen to that child. They do not know this family. This family is nothing more than a stranger to them, a toxic stranger. They return to that island to stand at his mkthers grave to place that book so it will end with her. They have an outsiders perspective, and they are us, the player. They can see what Edith cannot. They represent us as we play, while we might not see them for more than a moment. They play the game, they read the stories and see what it for what it truly is. So, in order to remain, they got off everything about that family. They are what remains of Edith Finch.
We dont see their journey, but it's entirely possible edith's kid didnt go through the same experiences as Edith with the house and simple walked to the graveyard, put the book and flowers down, and left. Id like to think theres a possibility of edith living and carrying on past the curse, but it may have been inevitable. I dont think we should speculate about her death like that, though. It is likely she died in childbirth, yes, but it isn't concrete.
@@SocksNeedsHelpI think it’s a very common conclusion when a child is born and a mother dies in the same year that the culprit is likely childbirth or a complication during the birth. This doesn’t of course mean it’s always the case, but the second you mentioned the year being the same it is the first thing my brain went to and I thought of. With theories and analysis of games like this it is all up to speculation and personal interpretation. Everything is painted by our own personal experiences and two people could have entirely different conclusions. There is of course artistic intent but what a story is or means often breaks those bounds and goes well beyond just what the artist thought or wanted to portray. Although it would be nice to think of the grave stone and death as more of a metaphorical one than a literal one :)
I actually always interpreted that what Lewis had was Maladaptive Daydreaming. As a person who has it due to ADHD, it hits very close to home, the whole 'he knew it wasn't real, but it was so much more interesting than his true reality' is the part that feels the truest. When you have maladaptive daydreaming, you know that those things aren't real, but you control their directions, the things that happen, you have a say in it. Reality becomes boring in contrast to the incredible things you can do with the power of your own mind, especially in an ambient that provides nothing for you to distract yourself with. It can be addicting, and sometimes, it can get out of control.
I developed Maladaptive Daydreaming as a response to C-PTSD and this is so accurate. It's especially easy to fall into daydreams when you're doing a monotonous task that doesn't take a lot of brain function, like say, cutting the heads off of fish. I could definetly see maladaptive Daydreaming combined with severe depression and a lack of intervention causing Lewis to do what he did. The daydreams are so much more comforting and entertaining than real life, it's hard to fight that desire to live in them forever when you have nothing tying you to the real world
Same, I have ADHD and had a really rough few years as a teenager where I can vividly recall the imaginary world I built, but have very little memory of my actual irl life. I knew it wasn't real, but it was so much more important that it's all I remember.
I developed something similar in elementary school, and I still have “episodes” sometimes as an adult. It’s rough, and it can be scary. It even becomes involuntary after a while because you’re so used to it.
I related to that section the most. I use the tragedy and story to shape my life in a way where I want to be in the real world too because it can be just as bright and fun as my daydreams. Even though at the end of the day. It will be my escape.
it's almost certain that's the case, but I didn't want to assume because I don't like playing guessing games with people's mental disorders. none of us are doctors and we don't know so it feels wrong, yknow? not saying you're wrong for thinking this or anything just why I didn't talk about it.
I always loved the symbolism of the actual book Edith is writing in. Through Edith's eyes we are constantly opening and closing the book, to write in and look at it, but her unnamed child at the end is only seen opening it once and closing it once, possibly symbolizing that while the stories have now been told, they don't have to keep being told over and over again. It's important to me that the child is never seen entering the house, and the last shot is of them at the grave, not the house. It's possible that they didn't enter the house, but left, as the stories are already written and the tree of their family drawn for them instead of shown. I like to think that Edith's child honored her death by leaving the stories behind without fully forgetting them, just like children who leave and break free from generations of trauma but still acknowledge and respect what caused the layers of it.
This is really interesting. How Edith's kid only opens and closes the book once. Ive seen theories about her kid being the one to end the curse and this would definitely support that.
@@TerminalNostalgia Sure, but a cast is more symbol of healing than it is about "Continuing" the trauma. A cast is after an accident, and rather than ignoring the broken bone, it is a sign of attending to and properly doing a better job than what humans USED to have to do with broken limbs before we had better medicine and xray technology. The kid may not be able to control the genetics of being a clumsy or accident prone person, but a cast is the bare minimum of trying to heal in a better way. They could have given the kid scars, bruises, or damage. Instead, the cast looks clean and tidy. To me, that reads like a lack of denial, or of confronting reality & approaching damage in a more straightforward way.
Very interesting analysis! One thing I don't see people comment is that the patriarch of the family is named Odin -- a god often associated with wisdom, but he is also a god of death (specifically *violent* death) and madness (specifically, the bloody madness of war -- the bloodlust that craves destruction). He's the lord of Valhalla, after all, where warriors go to die over and over again in eternal war, to be revived and die again the next day, where their names would be celebrated. It's a common theme in Norse sagas that drawing the attention of the gods, and especially Odin, never ends well. I find it a neat little detail that Edie is the daughter of Odin, because she revels in the "glorious" deaths of her family members, memorializes and commemorates them. The house is her Valhalla. She, as Odin himself, is the psychopomp remembering the glorious dead as she guides them to their death.
The Norse religion definitely glorified manliness in the form of pain and suffering. Odin denied himself sustence to gain power and forbidden knowledge. That's a really salient point. I forget how he also lost one eye, but that idea of being half-blinded to reality, and i think the loss of an eye was suppose to be symbolic of gaining a fantasy power. Interesting stuff.
A common theory is that Molly died from a combination of food poisoning and actual poisoning, as the pet food wouldn't have been safe to eat, the holly berries are lethal in large amounts but can cause noticeable symptoms after only a few and Molly had very plump holly berries, and that the toothpaste at the time was apparently dangerous if swallowed - and Molly intentionally ate the entire remaining tube. Each thing individually would likely not have killed her, but when she had ingested all of them together and was unable to get help from her parents due to being locked in her room and may not have been expecting anyone to answer if she called for help due to being rejected already then it would have been easy for the combination to be fatal. It would have been slow and Edith would have found her morning, and Molly would not have been in good condition. Maybe she was in the bed, having choked in her sleep on her own sick, maybe she'd have dragged herself to the door trying to get help while hallucinating and collapsed on the floor. Edith would have known it was her own fault, and it would have destroyed any chance she had of healing from her father's death and not becoming the curse.
I sort of suspect a combination of eating all those things, combined with measles. A fever can produce some vivid hallucinations or dreams. Her hands are spotty all over, though you don't see them for very long.
I think at least some of it is either Mollys imagination or a reference to it told by Edie, when I watched it it felt like Molly had an obsession with animals, not to an unhealthy degree or anything but more in the way that there are horse girls, she has a gerbil names the bird and what it’s doing, specifies that it’s a mama rabbit, etc. I think that some part of the hallucinations or Edie’s recounting of them involved animals because that’s what Molly was into at the time
With the last big talk taking place during a sort-of birth scene and Edith's death year being the same as her kid's birth, I'm pretty convinced that Edith died during labour.
It interesting that you bring up Edie’s coping turned obsession. That’s exactly how her last victim died. Lewis was using his imagination as a coping mechanism until it turned into an obsession. Much like Edies grief lead her to coping with stories. Molly being in the dream sequence makes sense as we see much of Edie’s character through Mollys eyes.
i always had a theory that perhaps Barbara's story was more bleak than we thought symbolised by the monsters being the ones to kill her, i theorised that her fame literally consumed her, and her loss of fame had a more dramatic effect on her mental health culminating in a possible suicide. then Walter in trying to escape the same monster that killed Barbara was killed by it.
That's....an intersting theory. Most say the boyfriend or a burglar killed her. But I never saw it as a potential suicide. Or perhaps an accidental death
I just realized, most of these stories never really talk about any of the Finch's friends, anyone outside of their family. I mean, yeah, usually your friends likely won't be there when you die, but what if all it takes to avoid this "curse" is a little outside intervention? To get help and support somewhere else? Everyone seemed kinda isolated and alone, with only the family for company
I mean yeah, in the start with the woods section and how edith says that the woods always felt like they had something to say but never spoke really speaks to the finch family friends' reactions to the story
the forest around the house probably isolated them from the rest of the island. plus edith and her siblings were homeschooled so they probably didn’t have many friends
I think its interesting that Edie's final interrupted story was seemingly the story of how she found herself in front of the old house. Much like how Edith spends the game exploring her old family house. It really does highlight how, much like her great-grandma, she willingly propagated the curse to a generation that would've been completely ignorant of it.
Literally. A lot of people have pointed out how edie wasnt the start of this "curse" and i totally agree. The family curse just needed someone like edith or edie to fall to curiousity through the blindfold of "just writing stories"
One of my favorite things about this game is how it has somehow combined realism and surrealism seamlessly. A house built vertically over sealed bedrooms of its dead inhabitants - this is the language of surrealism. But, nothing happens in this game that is not physically possible (save for Milton's disappearance, which makes it stand out) and the characters behave in ways that make sense to them and they remind us of people we know. This is the language of realism. Absolute genius.
@@SocksNeedsHelp i'm talking more about genre structure than "Was it real?". Of course it was real. I'm talking about how smoothly the creative team used the proverbial 'languages' of both surrealism and realism to tell a powerful story. I'm talking about genre conventions. Structure, tones, etc. The process of making and experiencing.Worldbuilding in the delivery sense. Not "what happens" in a plot and events sense, but "how are the creatives telling a complex story". A realistic, grounded story with touches of beautiful surrealism to make the storytelling bright, vibrant, and easy to emotionally connect.
One thing I think I took away differently than most people is that I believe the game isn't trying to convince us the curse is real, but to convey just how much the family believed it was, even Dawn to a degree as much as she denied it. I think Edith in a way is breaking the curse by being more honest in what she leaves her child, the stories yes, but also Edith's own words and feelings on how she thinks the family made the curse real themselves. It feels more like she's cautioning her child while not letting the family members who died be forgotten. To me it felt like Edith was trying in her own way to add her thoughts on what really happened to kind of demystify them and ground them more in reality as her attempt of 'breaking the curse' so to speak. I also don't feel like Edie had as active a role as people tend to give her. I think her biggest contribution is how much she believed them and forced that belief on others. I don't think she ever tried to orchestrate any of these deaths, at least not consciously, but as you said, the family just doesn't ever seem to think about the risks. She was so casual with her family because she believed they were all going to die horribly anyway so why bother trying to protect them. This was a great video and really had me thinking about what I took away from this game and put it into words for the first time.
Also those bird cages show that Edie, although not maliciously, caused suffering to those she didn't mean to. Those are some old vintage cages, the kind that do not provide enough space or entertainment for a tiny bird, leading a lot of birds to fall into depression and stress, and pass away
Sanjay was killed in a disaster relief building collapse I believe. There is a news paper article in the classroom behind the desk. Turn right instead of walking out the door and you’ll see it. You can also see his vest and badge in dawns closet.
@ possibly another metaphor for escaping generational trauma. having someone around who was healthier and when that support system goes their forced back to where everything began
Calla Lilies have a bit more than just innocence and purity going on for them! It can also symbolize faith and devotion in Christian contexts or rebirth and resurrection from Greek myth. It's commonly used in wedding bouquets to symbolize purity and commitment, but it's *also* used frequently in funerals to symbolize the resurrection of the departed and their new beginnings in the afterlife. I personally think you were right to catch on to the significance of the flowers. I personally think they're representative of how Edith is basically bringing the stories of the departed back to life through her dedication to learning about and finding them. Really looking forward to watching the rest of the analysis. Just wanted to pitch in with one of my special interests! Hope it was helpful.
I always read that this family was very neglectful and didn't prioritise health of any kind and used the curse as a way to deflect guilt and responsibility. As someone who grew up in a similar environment that was 'good on paper' but not in reality I found this game very emotional and relatable unfortunately.
My theory on Barbara is that her desire for fame (to appease her mother) led her down a dark path and she mixed with a bad crowd. I think of the whole story as like a euphemism. Her boyfriend was more of a "handler" of sorts to get her ready for "the next step in her film career"... adult films. They had a disagreement, and she kicked him out, but he came back with his producers, and those monsters "ate" her. And that was what Walter had heard as he hid under his bed. Those people killed and took advantage of his sister, and Edie thought, "This is gonna be great for my memoirs." 😭 I also think Edith did die during childbirth by virtue of 17 being so young to have a baby + that ending sequence being her child's birth and we don't see her even get to hold them after, which leads me to believe that she never got to. I also agree with your Milton theory!! Thanks for the video, it was really great! And I love your channel icon, I love baydews' art
That's a very morbid idea but I don't see why it's wrong. I mean, either way she was still eaten up by the film industry and the entertainment was what killed her. yeah its the most likely cause. I love baydews!!! I want to commission more of his art but its so expensive lmao
I love that everyone who plays agrees that the curse isnt supernatural in nature. Also something interesting about the color white in flower language typically has a few meanings that I noticed. Its mainly about purity, commitment, love that is pure like how a preacher should love his flock. White in flowers is about how this love, this commitment has no ill will behind it and is pure like the love of the lord. (A lot of western flower language stuff also has cross over with normally understood color language.) there's also the fact that the greeks believed that those lillies were cursed by Aphrodite. Those flowers were cursed by the goddess of multiple forms of love, including motherly love. Fitting/forbodding with this family being kinda poisoned down the line by the matriarch. Also! Look at how young the kid is. For some reason, it seems like hes alone on this ride. Look at his cast. Perhaps the guy who is the father of this kid (or the foster parents) has a similar issue of a family curse. Maybe even without meaning, Edith continues the passing of trauma just because bad luck (or the fact that the foster care system is hellish from what I hear) of who is taking care of her kid that chose to give him the book despite the fact that Edith is unsure about even writing down everything and we know that because she had to write that for us to know that thought in the game.
Ive heard theories that whoever edith's kid's father is left after the pregnancy. idk if it really matters tho cuz he's not present and for the same reason as dawn, after their partner died, she came back to the house.
One thing I always found interesting from the moment I started this game was just how many books were in the house. Of course there was the library, but shelves crossed every hallway and room outside of the bedrooms, books even started piling up outside of the shelves when there wasn’t enough space. I think this talks about how the finch’s life’s were always surrounded by fiction and story, even Edie, though she creates a lot of the death stories in the game, she herself is surrounded by this reality. The books in the house are just a physical reminder and representation of the cluttered and disorganized reality this family was living in. As the player, we only only ever read some of the books, we open locks with others, but even the books littering the house we interact with, as we have to walk around them to find our way through. The finch’s had to do the same, finding their way through a family history of fiction to find what was truly important.
Yeah, that's a good point. I always love derails like this that are both surface level: "they have a lot of books because the family is old and they've just acrewed a bunch over time" and deeper like you said.
Loving this essay! Just a quick thing I thought of that may be a technological misunderstanding with Gregory: First, full agree that leaving a baby who is nearly two years old in a bathtub unattended was a neglectful mistake. I have toddler who just turned two, and they know how to operate the tub faucet. Very ambulatory and a climber. However, you made a comment about not needing to take a phone call in the room so he couldn’t hear a conversation he wouldn’t understand-potential language development aside as a point, Gregory died in the 1970s. Cordless phones did not become more widespread in U.S. homes until the 80s. Heck I was born in 91, and I remember my childhood home had a phone hanging on the wall with its curly beige cord. Corded phones had to be plugged into a phone jack in the wall to maintain a connection. I imagine the phone was likely far enough away that the phone receiver cord could not stretch into the bathroom. An electrician probably would have made sure to keep all that as far from the bathroom as possible, since water and humidity and circuits are a terrible mix. But Kay should have said “Gregory is in the bath, I will call you back later.” Leaving Gregory alone for 30 seconds to say that probably would not have been fatal. I could see a freak accident where he slipped in the tub, but he wouldn’t have drowned. Instead it sounds like she got wrapped up in the argument, on the other side of the room in the adjoining room, and did not realize anything was up until she heard the bathtub overflowing and saw Gregory had drowned. She would’ve had to left him unattended for MINUTES and with a toddler, that’s unacceptable.
It’s been a while since I’ve watched a playthrough so I forgot about that line. Thanks for that clarification, oops. There is something to say about childhood development where even if they don’t understand all of the words, they are still impacted by tone of voice. Arguing around babies and toddlers can negatively impact emotional development. And around two is when toddlers are starting to use two-word phrases consistently to indicate wants/needs. (Except mine who has a ‘speech delay’ and is going to be seen by specialists soon. They are probably neurodivergent like I am ngl. I’ve caught the booger toe-walking for no reason, they’ve been a confident walker for close to a year now.) I just finished the video, and it was great! Very well done. I do think your aside of your own experience is relevant-art has impact because of how it relates to us in our own lives. I had watched the game’s play through in the past, before I had my little one, and had always been meaning to pick it up and play myself. I think Gregory’s story in particular would keep me from it for a while now because the horror of his death is a lowkey constant fear of mine nowadays. Toddlers are learning, exploring machines with no concept of their mortality and are only beginning to learn cause and effect. It’s terrifying lol
I think what happened to Barbara is pretty close to what is in the comic book (to a point). After her boyfriend tried to scare her, she threw him out, and he returned with a few friends to really scare her this time, as revenge. And they succeeded, she was scared, and she ran up the stairs, tripped on her roller skates, and fell to her death. It's possible that the boys panicked and tried to make it look like a murder (depending on if we believe that the story about the ear is real). They could've tried to disappear her body, leaving her ear behind, to make it more plausible that the serial killer from the news got to her. Or maybe everything from the moment they scared her and she fell to her death is made up. Either way, I don't think Rick literally disappeared. Maybe he got into trouble for causing her death (especially if he and his friends tried to cover it up), and/or his family simply moved away. That's my head canon about it, at least.
Really nice video, very thorough! I think that I see it less as Edith perpetuating Edie's stories, and more that you can't escape every aspect of family trauma. Even though Milton got away, even he still came back to the house. I think that the book Edith writes shows in a literal sense what parts of the family trauma stayed with her and got passed down. And the fact that she could have stayed at the house but didn't shows that she has made efforts to let the past go.
@raveniires thanks! Idk about this. She didnt chose to leave and I see it more as edith being stubborn and falling to that weakness of not seeing your family abusers as they are. She only left because she had too and came back the instant she could
@@SocksNeedsHelp I can certainly understand that view. It's really a testament to game's craftmanship and story that details that may be small can lead to pretty different interpretations.
she also says "i was the last finch alive until you were born" which could both mean that there were 2 finches left as well as still 1 finch left but it being the kid now
@@CastorCas With how much activity Edith did while pregnant, it's possible that she pushed herself too far while recovering (especially since we don't know if she had any outside support).
Molly killed by neglected, she may had poisoning from everything she eaten, but if she wasn't neglected (found on time or didn't fear of calling for help) she would've been saved. Nothing she eaten is poisonous enough for fast death
Given that she ate holly, toothpaste and hermenting carrot from a dirty bowl, it's safe to say that she probably died of food poisoning, as at the very least the first two are poisonous
@@iAstra reason of her death is def poisoning, but if she wasn't neglected she could've recovered. People recover from worse poisoning if they get help in time
If you look closely at her hands, they are covered with spots. This may have been a hallucination from a fever, maybe from measles, which can definitely kill. A few holly berries wouldn't be enough to cause death even in a small person, and toothpaste didn't contain fluoride yet in those days. Even all together, it wouldn't usually be enough to lethally poison a child. But really, I think the game developers meant for Molly's cause of death to be ambiguous
Well ok, there might have been at one point because those tracks are there irl and its possible to have a domestic train on the island, but given he died in 2005 just 12 years before the events of the game, its very unlikely that the tracks had been swept up in that time
This game gave me peace. My own family is in its own cycle of horror stories. Between moving away by chance and therapy, I realized how horrible things were. Every interaction with my own mother was laden with abuse and manipulation. I finally cut contact. I'm the Milton of my family, and I have often worried that I made the wrong decision. However, an abusive letter I got full of weird guilt tripping and toxic assumptions about myself made me realize that my family was actually worse than I remembered. Seeing the perspective of "you need to leave the dead buried in order to heal" helps me. My own family is alive, but they still tell the stories of every little fault. I grew up on stories of why my older sister was horrible. My sister and I have an 11 year age gap, and my sister has gone through events that needed therapy and understanding. Instead, my parents tell over and over again the stories of her faults. Of her going out and drinking, having sex, and joy riding the family car. All these stories were both sensationalized and exactly what you expect from a TEENAGER. Especially one who had gone through what my sister had. But my parents warped her image into something horrible. Memorialized her mistakes just as the Finch family memorialized death. My mom did the same to her siblings and parents. Talking about their mistakes until they became lore to my brother and I. We grew up on these stories as our own family curse. The curse being that unless we are perfect, we would end up a "disappointment" like the rest of the family. My family curse was bitterness and a lack of forgiveness. In her 30's, my sister still had to hear the stories of herself as a teenager as if they were still representative of her. Now that I'm in my 30's, I feel freer and happier than I ever was dragging myself into contact with my family, watching them beat down my voice when I noticed the wrongs. My generational trauma is still here. I still feel the hurt of not being able to talk to them, of catching myself holding the same petty grudges. But instead of pretending that I've fixed it all by cutting contact, I've been working on healing my wounds. Of challenging my own thoughts and feelings that were formed by them when I was a child. This game struck a chord with me, but I didn't really put words to it as to why until I saw your video. I'm sorry for your own loss. Games like this really hit harder than you expect them to. Thank you for covering it, though. I feel like I was able to reframe some of my own thoughts through your analysis.
I appreciate the comment. These kinds of media are always really important for self reflection and I think that's what creates healthy people. I dont want to profile anyone but simply watching sports and action movies exclusively wont really open you up to that same amount of understanding. If you watch my mouthwashing video, i talk about how it helped me come to terms with my sexual assault and it isnt alone in media that's changed me. It's honestly a very wholesome human thing to understand ourselves through the art other people make.
You know, I've watched almost every video on this game that I've come across and it just hit me that Lewis' death could really have been an accident as much as it could have been self-inflicted. If he didn't leave the cannery, he could have fallen asleep on the job and wound up in front of the slicer, and gotten pushed into it by backed up fish. Not saying that's exactly how it could have happened or how it did happen, just that that's what my brain came up with after this realization. Though I'm sure the therapist is more on the nose with the depression and escapism possibly leading to his own self-destruction in the form of a suspiciously ominously shaped place to accept a crown.
Yeah it for sure hinted towards an accident with how it gets harder to focus on the game and the fish in the section. Feels like it was only a matter of tkme before he shoved his hand in there.
In my opinion, there was a curse. Edie Finch was the Finch family curse. She set so many of the deaths in motion, either through her own inaction, negligence, or due to her seeking attention for her family through sensationalism. She put this idea in her children’s heads that they would all die horribly from this ‘curse’, from a young age, and so they grew up reckless, living fast and happily, and dying due to carelessness or negligence that could have been avoided. The final argument in the house on one of the last nights of Edie’s life really cemented this fact for me. Even as Dawn is literally begging her grandmother to give up on the idea of this curse, and to let it die with the memories in this old house, Edie is sneakily trying to perpetuate the cycle with Edith, sneakily sending her away to a private locked study to read more about her ancient family’s curse and all the misfortune that befell them in the old country. Dawn had every right to be angry. Her grandmother had set all of this tragedy into motion, from the very beginning. So many of the deaths of her own children and grandchildren were caused by her not raising them to be attentive to their surroundings, or through downright neglect and abuse at her hands. Edie was the curse.
This will likely be deleted after a bit, but if you are wondering why your comment isn't getting a response, it's because I am recovering from wisdom teeth surgery and am not able to give level headed answers. I will respond to everyone as soon as I am smart enough to do so. Thank you for the support on the video!
Heads up for your Molly piece, I dont think she ate mistletoe berries but rather Holly berries, as mistletoe has white berries and a rounder leaf shape. Holly species has red berries and those leaves match up with a common Holly species.
Right away, the fact that Dawn kept going back to the house and getting the mail is tear-jerking As much as I love Joseph Anderson's analysis of this game, you've done a much better job of contextualizing Edie as something other than a "villain." It's like how people complain that Encanto doesn't have a villain, so they don't like it. Not every story needs a schemer, a usurper, or a murderer. Sometimes stories are just about hurt people who would otherwise be good if they didn't allow destruction for their own reasons. I don't think the game takes place in Washington, since the house that was "sailed over" is visible in all planes of reality, even slightly. I think it has to be on the east coast somewhere.
@@violet7773there’s a difference between a villain and an antagonist And antagonist provides conflict for the protagonist to go against, whether the protagonist is in the right or not, and either on accident or on purpose A villain actively has malicious intent and schemes to create problems for the protagonist The key thing here is the action and intent With Abuela and Edie, neither of them were malicious in their actions, and instead believed in something supernatural that was unavoidable In this game, the curse is Edie’s (and we can gather, the entire Finch family’s) manifestation of tragedy and trauma Edie doesn’t see an issue with it, because it helps her to cope with the loss and make herself feel better She definitely gets lost in it and starts to perpetuate the curse, which is why it’s not a healthy coping mechanism and instead starts being this “monster” or unavoidable obstacle in the life of the family, which combined with the losses in the past, doesn’t really give them a reason to try and be safe, or strive for more than being a member of the Finch family It’s why Edie’s an antagonist and not a villain, she’s not doing this with malicious intent, but instead through her own really negative coping mechanism In Encanto, Abuela was given a literal supernatural gift, which came as a result of her husband’s death and sacrifice She was already going through a lot with having to flee her home with three babies, and her husband was killed right in front of her She clings to this remnant of him, the gift, and treats Mirabel like she was scorned by Casita (and potentially her husband, but that’s a theory) for not getting a gift We see Abuela through Mirabel’s perspective, and while she’s definitely an antagonist, I wouldn’t say she’s actively at a villain level She’s a more active antagonist, but not quite a villain But generational trauma makes it a really sticky situation Because in both of these stories, no one is trying to be malicious They’re just hurting and trying to cope with their own trauma, while either causing or continuing trauma for their kids and grandchildren
He, of course, was the "Moleman". Edith says that Dawn got upset about that interview when you walk by the framed article about it, if I remember correctly. She'd probably figured out where her uncle went and that Edie had used his paranoia to gain more notoriety as the woman with the cursed house/family instead of, you know, letting things be.
@@radioactiveferrets ya I kind of misunderstood stood when sock said that Edie was probably useing the stories of the mole man to scare Walter. I didn't consider she could do both tell the rest of the family and people out side the family "oh we have a mole man" AND tell Walter "you know the mole man could get you" I kind of misunderstood and thought socks missed the fact he is. Sorry socks
@SocksNeedsHelp it was a job I left due to it being completely brain numbing, and I moved right into a crafting job that engaged my mind as much as my hands.
My interpretation of all the deaths... and look this comment is just gonna have spoilers. I'll space it down if people don't want to read it yet. Molly: Definitely neglect, and I do have to wonder how often she went to bed hungry to resort to eating whatever she could find, but I feel like the diary entry might be the only 'real' thing. It's certainly the most likely, because Edie hadn't been making up stories at that point, or at least not to the level she gets to later. I think that between the toothpaste (at least, I was always told not to eat it because it could make you sick), the old, possibly moldy carrot she fishes out of her hamster cage, and the almost-definitely-poisonous berries, she hallucinated the whole thing as she was laying in bed, dying. Did she have the presence of mind to write it down? Eh, idk. Artistic liberties lol. Calvin: Definitely childish rebellion mixed with an adventurous spirit, but he wouldn't have died (that way, at least) if that swing hadn't been on a fricking cliff. What the heck, Edie/Sven?? Barbara: I have heard the boyfriend murderer theory a lot, but I don't think I ever heard this theory told quite this way before. But I think you're bang-on the money. Instead of being terrified of a murderer, Walter was hiding in the basement out of guilt for causing his sister's death. Poor guy. Walter: I honestly don't know how to interpret this, other than the train cannot possibly be real. This death kinda baffles me. Maybe he's still alive somewhere, or he got to live free for a little while... Sam: A real tragedy, but it definitely is one of the many things that really shows how careless this family is. He should have made sure the deer was dead before he did that, Dawn could have easily been hurt as well. Instead, he prioritized the picture (the *story*) over his family (his daughter's concerns.) Gregory: This death is absolutely the most tragic and should have been the most avoidable. I have no words, it's just sad. Even if the tap hadn't been turned on, the kid could have drowned in that small amount of water she left him in at first. I'm just glad she's not a real person and I will judge her as much as I like. Gus: I'm guessing that Sam was trying to give Gus a dose of the silent treatment like Gus was ignoring Sam's wishes. Which is terrible parenting, but this whole video is a showcase of many different kinds of parental neglect in this family, so that's just par for the course lol. The death is as fantastical and overblown as ever, so we will probably never find out how he really died. Milton: Other than the link to the other game, The Unfinished Swan, I have no idea what to make of this 'death' beyond the point you made that Milton probably came back to the house later, implying that he isn't actually dead. He managed to escape the house and the curse, and hopefully he's still out there, somewhere. Maybe he changed his name, effectively escaping the curse forever by not being a Finch anymore. (Maybe he became a Swan, lol) Lewis: He definitely got lost in the stories, wishing for a more exciting life. And... well, I work in a factory, as well as briefly training to be an EMT. My teacher told us stories. I have also watched a lot of tragic videos about deaths, some of which take place in factories. It would be incredibly easy to decide to do something... permanent, shall we say, with factory equipment. Especially a factory that deals with incredibly sharp knives. I have always interpreted Lewis' story as him doing something to himself, because of Edie's stories, especially with Dawn's evocative comment. Dawn: Not sure what to make of this beyond how she withered away once taken away from the house, which could be a metaphor for how she needed the stories as much as Edie did, no matter what she claimed. Edie: Okay when the van came to pick her up, I always interpreted that 'she was already gone' comment as in she literally died that very night. I think this was also a death that she inflicted on herself, which is a nice metaphor for when she ran out of people to hurt, she hurt the only one left--herself. I have reached this conclusion after watching other videos, but she was drinking wine and Dawn expressed concern over mixing wine with her pills... which means that Dawn could easily have gone back at some point, leaving Edith somewhere or doing it while she was at school, to build Edie's grave. Edith: I also interpret that as her dying in childbirth. The fact that we never see her interacting with the kid is pretty ominous if nothing else, not even post birth. You never explained what you were implying with the alleged poems. Did I miss something, or was I meant to read between the lines that Edie wrote them? Great video either way.
Pretty sure the implication behind the poem is that they were written by Edie, who then claimed they were written by another family member. They were another way of her pulling her family into 'the curse', whether they wanted to or not.
Molly - also likely had sickness involved due to the spots on her arms and being locked in her room calvin - yeah carpenter or not, that's insane swing placement barbara - Im surprised so many people are supporting my idea here. I thought I was reaching walter - maybe the fact he lived so long and edie got so impatient that his story was a complete mess sam - yeah exactly that gregory - irl his death might be grounds for legal action tbh gus - I feel like gus' death is the most straightforward, no? I dont see why the tent breaking off and killing him wasn't reality. especially since dawn wrote his story. milton - I dont have much to say about him until I play that game so... meh lewis - Ive seen a lot of people talk about how he likely had MADD (maladaptive day dreaming) that caused him to get into an accident at his work Dawn - her death was... "boring" compared to the rest, which makes a lot of sense seeing as how she treated the family stories Edie - I believe I said this, no? Edie saw dawn taking the last of her family away as the final straw and insisted on making her own story then and there. she also likely made her own gravestone before she died edith - yeah she did die the same year the kid was born so it's really all we have to go off of I've gone through wisdom teeth surgery since this video and I unfortunately have no idea what you're refering too here thanks!
Excited to watch this, as someone who absolutely adores this game (it’s one of my all time favorites), I’m so happy that people are still making videos about it 7 years after its release :)
Maybe it's just me, but I think Lewis' story is one that's only complicated if you don't know, intimately, what Maladaptive Daydreaming does to the brain. If you do know, it makes the whole thing feel so...familiar, in a way. Daydreaming like this starts out really innocent, playing pretend to avoid boredom or dread (or, in the case of Lewis, possibly both). But then you realize that this fantasy is...better than your lived reality. You withdraw farther into it, isolating yourself. But at some point, you realize it isn't real, it never will be, and you *need* real people to connect with. But...real people, and their problems, are scary and complicated. Daydreams are neither. So back you go. Many people with MADD will just flip back and forth like this until something breaks. Maybe the illusion breaks and someone is there at the right time for the person to latch onto, to start finding good things in reality to latch onto. But sometimes...sometimes there isn't. And sometimes there are people like Lewis, for whom the fantasy is the better option in the end. I managed mine by turning it into a tool to aid my writing (and for connecting to my plurality), and I do encourage others with similar issues to try and do the same if possible. You already have so much experience talking to people who aren't there and building worlds in your head - use that to your advantage!
to be fair, I think it's fair to say that not a lot of people know what that's like. because of that I can't say it's guaranteed? not that you're wrong, but I feel like the confusing part isnt the MADD, its how it connects to the story that is so complicated. If I took the time Im sure I could get it and i dont think sympathy is necessary for his story. I do agree that it certainly helps
I’m not sure if you mentioned this anywhere in your video, but the closer Edith gets to her story and the higher she goes, the more dingy and crude the house becomes. The base of the house is sturdy, and despite the families issues, held strong enough to not “break” this illusion of family love and acceptance. As Edith nears her room, the house looks like it’s about to collapse. After generations of death and trauma, the base of lies becomes strained and the effects of this manifest figuratively in the house’s design.
I did, i believe in the earlier sections i said something along the lines of "the contrast of the early game's relatively normal kitchen and living room to the twisted upper sections is important" tho i dont have a time stamp
I have found the "curse" to be flimsy. Because when it comes down to it, what is the curse at it's core? It's death. But death happens to literally everyone. Is every death the curse? Where is the line between the curse and the inevitable? In reality death is mundane. It happens no matter what you do, and I feel like the curse was Edie's coping or avoiding her survivor's guilt. She didn't want to face reality, so of course it wasn't her fault, it was the curse. The real curse is of course the idea of the curse, the fantasy that death is more than just that. More than an accident or a suicide. We all want our lives to have meaning, but Edie took that meaning and put it all on their deaths. It didn't matter how they lived, it only mattered how they died. Also, I honestly never considered Milton returning home to paint the graffiti, I figured it was all done before hand. Edith didn't believe her brother telling her about the secret tunnels, but Milton definitely could have, maybe after everyone had passed or left.
I don't know if the curse was death but instead generational trauma. Death is unavoidable for everyone but in this story, the curse is manufactured i think. i do like your final sentence in this paragraph though, Edie didn't care for her surviving family. that's possible but Edith does say that "it's clear he'd been back" implying they werent there before they left
this is a really good video! I love What Remains of Edith Finch, and your insights are really well articulated. I’ve always understood this game as an exploration of the obsession with death and how unhealthy that can be. by presenting us with a family who are followed by tragedy, the game shows us the ways we try to cope with being faced with our mortality. the finches as a whole are all reckless with themselves and with each other, because death is so expected, it’s as if they all have mourned each other even before they’re gone. edie especially copes with the incessant death by trying to immortalize her family members, sensationalizing them more and more in (what I see as) a desperate attempt to keep them alive in some way. in her desire to immortalize her family, to keep them alive after death, she neglects to treasure them while they ARE alive, and that, ironically, leads to many of their deaths, starting the awful cycle over again. dawn is the narrative opposite of her as she wants to bury and forget the deaths entirely- but is that really better? to forget our loved ones might spare us the pain of losing them, but remembering them and passing down their stories is the only way to cherish them once they’re gone. edith’s motives, to keep the family history alive, is one that might perpetuate that curse, and the broken arm on her child does suggest that it will, but what’s the alternative? to let these stories die with her? those stories are of edith’s siblings, her aunts and uncles. more than that, they’re her stories. what remains of edith finch after she dies? only her stories, only her memories. her child will grow up without ever meeting her, but in that book they’ll have some piece of her with them, even if those stories don’t have happy endings, or only fortell misery. and perhaps knowing the history of the family curse, they can manage to avoid it, learning from their family’s past mistakes.
Thank you for the comment! I agree with everything here. It's a good way to interpret the title like a question like you did i think. the only thing left of the family members was whatever edie wanted them to be
@@SocksNeedsHelpwell turns out he became a unsuccessful artist who made up with his son on his deathbed (son is the character you play as) that’s what I think of that game
@ryanlozano9086 why would you just say that? It’s pretty clear they haven’t played the game. Like what does spoiling it do for them??? They even specifically say they don’t want to know????
@@EspeonMistress00 You know that it's the journey that counts, not the destination, right? Knowing how something ends doesn't mean you can't enjoy it. That's like saying nobody should ever play Romeo & Juliet on stage, or Macbeth, or Hamlet, because "I know they die at the end so it's ruined"
You stated that what Sam was telling Dawn was "important for survival" wasn't important, but there's important historical context to remember: Sam lived during the Cold War his entire life from birth to death (as the Cold War officially ended in 1991 and he died in 1983) where up until the end, there were movies and films and other materials talking about what to do in the case of nuclear war with Russia, one of which would require self-sufficency in hunting and fishing and other "outdoorsy" activities for "survival." It is reasonable to assume that Sam believed that he was helping prepare his remaining children for what he believed was inevitable war with the Warsaw Pact countries. It doesn't justify his actions, but it does put that important piece into context considering that he would have also fought in Vietnam as well considering if many of us are in our twenties or thirties, our parents and grandparents would have lived through similar talks as well but clearly not to the same degree of "obsession" as Sam did with Dawn.
i think this is one of the best analysis videos i've seen on this game, great job! it's so devastating how preventable all the deaths were. it really shows how the finches are careless in nature
I think Sam wanted to stay out of the camera so he couldn’t be memorized like the others, you can see that Edie uses photos as references when painting the pictures but even if she didn’t need that I think Sam valued the cameras influence maybe more then he should have and thought that if there were no good photos of him maybe some of this wouldn’t have happened I also think it’s worth noting how Edie drinks wine even though that could cause problems due to her medication. While I’m all for elderly and chronically ill people getting to decide how and when they die, drinking wine you know your granddaughter would be upset at while an 11 year old sits at the table is a weird way to end it. I think Edie didn’t drink the wine with the intention of death but rather because now that everyone’s left the only spectacle will be herself.
This is an amazing and impressive analysis, with the depth of the story really being shown through your findings, and the length of time you probably spent making this. I love to see smaller creators taking the time to make video essays and analyses, as well as show their own creativity and passion through them. I can't wait to see more in the future. Keep it up!!!
1:59 I’m sure there are multiple meanings to Calla Lilies (the double “L” is pronounced as you would with jello and not vowelized into a “y”, so same as the first two syllables of California) but as a florist I was told to Only use them in funeral or memorial arrangements. White will traditionally be a color for innocence, non romantic love, and also as a memorial used in remembrance. Very traditional flower for a child in mourning to bring. Also about as toxic as you can get for pets and no picnic for humans either
I rarely comment, but the talk about your mom compelled me. My mom passed after nearly 5 years fighting cancer. Getting better then worse in a cycle. That game line hit me hard too. Im sorry for your loss. Im sure she was an amazing woman to raise such a brilliant woman. ❤
This video caught me so off guard man it perfectly fits the topics that have been on my mind lately it's insane, plus I'm literally ashamed I didn't spot the deeper meaning of the game earlier even though I played it like four times. Love your interpretation and love this essay, something I really didn't know I needed
You might not see this, but White Calla lilies can be seen as a foreshadowing that Edith has died. Calla lilies are often called "funeral flowers" where I'm from because they are extremely common for funerals. So him holding calla lilies in the beginning shows us that the person is going to a funeral, grave or memorial. It makes sense because she (Edith) speaks of her mother's recent death even though its Edith's death that we're actually going to memoralize. Also, him reading Ediths diary while holding those flowers is another hint because Edith doesn't need to read her own diary while going to a home that her mother never wanted to go back to. But who did? Edith. So her offspring (the last Finch and the person who'd read to learn more about their lineage) has to be the one to read it.
I believe i say most of this in the video, no? We're playing as edith's kid in the opening cutscene, lol. I know that calla lillies are funeral flowers, and I am definitely regretting not saying that in the video now since everyone wants to let me know haha.
Personally I have what I consider a much more fitting end to Barbara. she ran away. Child actors are notoriously under alot of stress, and Barbara would be under an extreme ammount of stress with her mother and boyfriend constantly trying to get her to reclaim the glory days of acting, so i dont think its too wild an idea that after her mother left for the hospital and she kicked her boyfriend out that she had a moment of clarity and decided to leave. This would even line up with the police not finding her body, because there wasnt one as well as allowing for her mother to make up a fantastical tale about how she died without anyone being able to just point to a mortuary report. hells maybe she even left with her boyfriend and thats why he disappeared as well?
Maybe...? Idk that wouldnt make sense because the banister is still broken in real life and walter wouldnt have been traumatized by barbara simply running away
While I think it’s kinda unlikely that she did run away, that does leave a little bit of a happy ending for potentially three of the Finch family members Barbra could’ve run away, and staged a disaster (which accidentally ended up traumatizing Walter) Walter could’ve been killed at the end of his story, but it’s a little open ended and there’s a chance he got away and didn’t die (again, kinda unlikely but it’s nice to think about) And Milton is the most likely to still be alive, having run away and cut off his whole family, coming back on occasion to check in because he still cares about them despite knowing it’s better for him to be out of their lives
This has been one of my favorite games since it released. The stories have stuck with me for years. I think of baby Gregory just about every time i put my own children in the bath. I loved your analysis and definitely agree that Edie was the curse.
@MorningStar426 im sure thats a pretty scary thought but remember, as long as you're paying attention to your kid you're doing leagues better than this family haha, which Im sure you are. Thank you!
I really like your interpretation of Barbara's story. It's noting grand , or fantastical and thus would make sence that Eddie saved the most rediculus interpretation.
This is a great video all the way through but I want to give a special shoutout to the Barbara section because I hadn't thought about that possibility, but it's so simple that it seems almost obviously true now that you've said it. (No spoilers in this comment, of course).
Thank you for making this video. This is highly fascinating, but I just know I could have never handled playing the game in my own. In a weird way, but when I was obsessed with Hello Neighbor lore videos, before the full game came out, this is what I thought that game would be. I’m glad someone made this game
@@SocksNeedsHelp omg I was not expecting a response! Hey! So not really, Edith Finch has been my favorite indie game for a while now and a brief hyperfixation so I tried looking for content on RUclips and other places but most videos were shorter around the 20 minute mark there is a really amazing essay by Joseph Anderson posted quite a few years ago but other than that not much content for this game which is a shame : ( the game did get a game theory episode but those can be hit and miss It's a very niche game despite how amazing it is, it makes me happy as a long term fan to see people talking about it again!! So instant subscribe from me this essay will be amazing background to a drawing session, I'm locked in 🙏🙏
This was a great video! I've seen many essays breaking down What Remains of Edith Finch, but they all focused more on their own reactions to the game. This video reminded me very much of the papers I would write in college -- identifying an overarching theme and then viewing every aspect of the game through that lens with an eye for intentional and potentially unintentional symbolism. In a media landscape which has dissected this game ad nauseum, it's really nice to see one which takes a different approach. Fantastic work!
Thank you for this. Everything you said was everything I had been thinking when learning about this lore. My heart goes out to you about your mom. May she rest easy.
I came back to this after watching your playthrough; specifically the part with the cannery. There's some subtle details that tell me how his life ended. And by subtle, I mean 'staring me in the face'. When he kneels down to accept the crown, the thing he is kneeling before is a guillotine. There is a flash, right at the end, of him look at the end of the table, where the fish-heads go; where heads have been going, to be discarded, the entire segment. ...I think. He kneeled in front of the chopping machine. And bowed his head.
I kind of feel like you are giving Edie too much credit in terms of Walter. She may have spread word of a moleman, but it was Walter's trauma alone that kept him from going back to the home he witnessed his sister die, and he still had plenty of food. He only decided to leave when he realized the shaking hadn't happened at the normal time and thought that "the monster" was gone, when it was just that the train was late. All Edie did was capitalize on it, but she was not the one who killed him and she certainly didn't stop giving him food.
@@SocksNeedsHelp If he went into hiding because of the comic book at all, it was only because people harassed him for him to tell the story from his point of view because, as it stated, he witnessed everything.
As for Barbara, we can only be sure that it was she who fell from the balcony, and her scream was the last thing she did before she fell, and the monsters were the result of her escaping consciousness. Of course, since the only witness did not want to talk, we will never know the whole story, and it could have been an accident caused by Barbara herself, or by her boyfriend, with whom she could have started arguing, to be pushed by him, to fall on a roller skate, to die from the fall. I also wonder what this "curse" looked like when the Finches were still living in Norway, judging by the fact that this "curse" supposedly existed before Odin left for America. As for Milton, outside of the Unfinished Swan game, I think he either got lost exploring tunnels in walls that were strong enough to cover up the smell and traces of rotting flesh, or as you say, he ran away from home. Molly could probably also sense the poison growing in her insides, anticipating that it would eventually eat her from the inside, while hallucinating from the poisoning. 22:05 It looks like a father playing with his sons and encouraging them to look for secret passages Swen hid around the house. 36:20 We also don't know when the game takes place, so at that time the sea could have destroyed the rocks under the tracks because why the hell build tracks unless they are used or are a fraud. (I doubt that in the States is something like a Five-Year Plan.)
it's also possible the boyfriend pushed her i think. i love how ambiguous this story is tbh i imagine it's just the same game but translated into norwegian haha he almost certainly ran away. from what I know of the unfinished swan, he had a son. yeah for sure, the poisoning made a huge difference i think as a lot of people have said how missing 1 meal wouldn't have killed her. cute but a bit concerning. kinda like pointing them into Edie's stories the game takes place in 2017, the year it came out. it is unlikely that the waves had washed away an entire chunk of the island in just 12 years.
@@SocksNeedsHelp As for the tracks, as I wrote, what would be their purpose other than being for transport. Moreover, we do not know how damaged the rocks were at the time of death.
I love this game! I've played it a few times. The game reminds me of my family. We also have a "curse." My great grandma lost her son and her husband, my grandma lost 3 daughters and 2 husbands, one of my aunts lost a child and a husband, and my other aunt lost 2 kids and a husband. And i think all my grandma's (female) cousins and aunts ended up being widows. All passed at different ages and for varying reasons, ranging from m*rder, accidents, illness. Rarely anyone passed from old age.
ditto oml. We used to have one where one son from every generation would die in a car accident before their 21st birthday. My brother broke that one though. Mom used to be so nervous whenever he drove because her cousin was the last person who died in one and she blamed herself for a long time because he was coming to see her. I mostly blame that on recklessness but also general poor roads.
@dx.feelgood5825 I'm sure it must have been tough for your mom to live with the guilt and worry. For a few years, I lived on edge just waiting for the next death. After one cousin died from a work accident in 2015 and another cousin died in 2016 also from a work accident, he was driving an 18-wheeler and a drunk driver swerved in front of him.
Beautiful analysis! I've loved this game since I watched a Let's Play forever ago and I'm glad people are still talking about it. I will say I don't view Odin's death as unavoidable, the dude decided to sail a house. That's just asking for a shipwreck even in calm seas, and he made it even more dangerous by deciding to stay in the house on the cargo barge rather than in the tugboat where it would have been safer (I'm assuming the depiction is accurate, even if it isn't the whole affair was asking for trouble). Edie definitely exacerbated the issue but the Finch family had a sort of martyr complex about their 'curse' long before, needing dramatic gestures to leave a mark on the world before their 'destined' death. One other thing I got from the ending was they'd been trying so hard to leave a mark on the world with their stories and dramatics that they gave up on leaving marks on people in their lives. What remains of Edith Finch isn't just a collection of horror stories, but a child who was abandoned because of those stories.
@@SocksNeedsHelp Definitely not. I do wonder if Odin had his own 'Edie' who got him hooked on the curse, it's funny that Edie never tells any stories about the family before they came to their current home for all she was happy to talk about the hereditary curse they were escaping.
I’m sorry to hear about your mom. I just lost mine this year in a very similar way. I think that was a beautiful way to bookend the video and an amazing analysis in general.
Wow, amazing video! I think that the way that you described your opinion was very good. I have loved What Remains Of Edith Finch. And always will. It has a special place in my heart. That I just can't tell why. But it reminds me to appreciate life and all it has to offer. Because maybe at any moment. Our final moments could be one of Edie's stories.
This is a beautiful game and a wonderful analysis. Thank you for showing off this story, as I had never actually heard about this game beforehand. I really enjoy how you encourage your audience to talk about this game more and more in the comments. Maybe Edie would have liked that.
I know this probably sounds nit picky but i feel its important to note that the case of Barbaras comic, those facts in it about the home are things Eddie (because who else( had to have told the creators of the comic. Such as the way to get down to the basment work area which even we didnt know until after. In a way hinting at how much she loved the attention Barbs death got her. As for Walter he clearly hadnt run out of food, we see so much of it simply left down there to go to waste either on purpose by Eddie or simply to help paint the picture of Walters life down there.
I think Edie faked the amount of food in walter's room tbh. I can't stand on this for certain, but it looks like the food was newer than the rest of the room.
I've loved this game for years since the game came out even and you did such a good job retelling and detailing it, bringing the game a new light. Loved this too bad
I absolutely love this game not only for its great storytelling but on a personal level as well. Bad things particularly always happened to my family that ended with death, which made me believe there was a curse at play. My aunt, who never smoked, never drank alcohol or ate unhealthy, was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer. My cousin was shot to death while visiting family. My uncle was murdered outside his own home, taking out the trash. My sister inlaw was tied and left to burn by burglars robbing her house. My brother in law took his own life a year ago and so on. Having your family pass away in strange tragic ways from my experience really does start to make you think that there really is a curse going on so i completely understand how some members of the finch family really just let the idea of the curse consume them when they really just needed therapy, to move on from that house and Edie.
I'm very sorry to hear about that. Im glad this game could give you a better perspective on your experience, if nothing else. Mouthwashing did a very similar thing for me and my sexual assault so I kind of get where you're coming from.
I’ve always interpreted edie’s death as being one that happened on her own terms. I think that being so tried and lonely, plus aware of the fact that she likely didn’t have long left anyway, she chose to walk down to her old home under the stars and let the sea rise back over her. whether I view this delayed death in the house that logically should’ve killed her almost a century earlier as a taciturn acknowledgment that the curse was never real in the first place or as a desperate last ditch attempt to make it all true via forcing it upon herself depends almost entirely on how I’m feeling that day, but the belief that it was edie’s choice will always remain consistent. my own grandmother did something similar, for the same sort of reason - sometimes people aren’t particularly depressed or self loathing, they’re just tired from living long, exhausting lives. looking at edie, I think that more than anything she was tired.
Oh yeah for sure. I think she likely jumped into the sea or something like that but regardless, it was all an attempt to be the one to write her own story
Man, can I stop finding these stories concerningly relatable? First Swansea now this? Christ. Either way, excellent analysis as always! Never stop reading into things too far, best to get the most out of life that we can eh?
@SocksNeedsHelp Yeah the whole bitter, well intentioned blue collar guy has been where I ended up. I dodged being an alcoholic at least, but only because alcohol poisoning kinda forced me to. No kids but im my siblings guardian now so basically got one of the hardest parts of parenting, the funding the first car, starting their lives part. But is what it is, always liked being a cog in the machine, even if it sucks sometimes. Gives me some kind of purpose I guess.
I love this video, the insight you gave on each story is amazing, and ngl, your voice is nice to listen to. I cant wait to hear more of your thoughts on stuff! Also, it seems like The Unfinished Swan is part of Milton's story
This is a lovely video! I just wanted to share my two cents about what was mentioned around 44:42 -- When I first saw that part of the game, my guess was that the calls came in on a landline house phone; one of those older ones with a cord, which would require Kay to leave the room. Since Gregory passed in 1977, this was definitely the case! So, she didn't leave the room for "privacy", but rather necessity. Doesn't make it any better, it's still a tragedy, I just felt the need to clarify :>
@noxiovsfvmes so I can understand this... however she literally says "i dont want gregory to hear this" and closes the bathroom and shower door on him. I see what you mean but i dont think it changes anything
2:30 7 years earlier was when Edie died not Dawn. 7 years earlier was when Dawn took Edith away from the house and Edie was supposed to go to the retirement home but died overnight. Edie died in 2010 and Dawn (Edith's mother) died in 2017 and left the house to Edith triggering the start of the game.
I'm sorry if im misremembering, but i don't believe Walter ever mentioned not having food? There was a line when he leaves about how he's "gonna apreciate all of it especialy the food" but i think that is more about how he'd like to eat something other that canned or preserved goods, since he basicaly only ate that. I don't think that he literaly only survived on peaches. Edith also says she saw Eddie cary packeges down to the basement. I always assumed that was her bringing Walter all his nessesities. When you look at his desk you can also see postcards from all over the world. My interpritation is that he had penpals because that was the only way how he interacted with the outside world, that and the radio.
I added a bit about this in the pinned comment. It's a bit of a conspiracy on my part but the combination of dawn taking her family out of the house, leaving a long time of dead air without deaths for edie to torment walter in and the fact he is seen without food at the last day of his section makes me thing it may have been part of it.
Okay, so I do agree with you that the curse doesn't exist. As does most anyone who's seen the game really, but that just proves how spot on that is. What I don't agree with is the depiction of Edie here. The curse existed long before Edie. The family had believed in it for generations prior. When Edie learned about her father's death, it would have been explained as being the curse that caused it. She was born into this cycle and believing it became a way to cope with the death of so many of her family, as it likely was for every generation that came before her. While it's true that in come cases, Edie did end up related to her children's deaths, Molly being a prime example, I believe that she never intentionally harmed her family at any point. Not feeding children dinner when they misbehaved was a common punishment as recently as several decades back and was likely considered kinder than going out and getting a stick to spank the child with. It's more likely her husband built that swing than Edie herself, and children weren't as heavily protected when she'd have been raising her kids, so the idea of Calvin being out and playing with a broken arm in a cast wouldn't be that strange. Time period and the moral values of that time are important to keep in mind. As for the later deaths, and the stories and memorials? While many might seem wrong but I don't think she meant harm. I think that was her way of processing the grief, rather than an addiction. The comic book is probably the worst of it, but I personally think that story was likely the story Walter told as a traumatized child. I also do kind of believe your first theory about the boyfriend being a stalker actually who ended up killing Barbara in retaliation for kicking him out like that. Walter didn't know how to process any of it and likely ended up saying that a monster or monsters killed his sister. Maybe Edie made the comic book for him in the same way she made the memorials for herself? And that would more explain why Walter thought the train was a monster. Edie didn't discourage that way of thinking, so he believed monsters were real. And I could see the lack of food to Walter coming down to Edie's old age meaning she couldn't get food down to his bunker so easily anymore, and possibly Dawn thinking Walter wasn't there anymore, assuming she ever really believed he was there when she got older, after 30 years of nothing from him at all. Edie made a lot of mistakes, but I don't think they were ever malicious. To me, she was as caught up in the curse as the rest of the family, and just as reckless for the same reason.
I dont agree in the idea that she is an innocent bystander to this. Edie was past making mistakes. she was propagating the stories and made it so that her and her children were neglectful parents and emotionally distant from their family. everyone was lonely. I think part of Edie's experience was unavoidable, but she could have stopped things and made the family's relationship with death much more healthy.
I watched this video right after your Mouthwashing one. I love how you make these! You have a way of captivating who's listening, in my opinion. I love this game a lot, I've watched countless essays and theories about it and it's amazing to still see people interested in it, and even more seeing fresh new takes on it! I personally agreed with pretty much everything you theorized. Even though I feel like, with a game like this one, it's very hard to have only one single view of it. I'll definitely subscribe and I can't wait to watch more of your content! ✨️
As someone who has quite severe maladaptive daydreaming (due to CPTSD, Depression, and a variety of other stuff) ... I can say that I have been in a similar situation to Lewis' mentality, especially when in a repeditive, menial workplace. When the best part of your life, the section you don't deliberately compartmentalise and forget, is only the parts you imagine and make up - yeah ... the thought that "Well, life is less bearable than what's in my head, so why not end that part and stop the pain" was a thought I did deal with for a while. If he was lucid of that decision or not, it's hard to truly say, but I can say that it is very possible that he knew what he was doing, where he was going, with that final decision. Anyway this was a really good video, thank you for posting, it was very tasty yes yes.
Giant Sparrow has confirmed that Milton is the king in The Unfinished Swan, so it's very interesting to play it as well and find out more about him and what happened afterwards
@@SocksNeedsHelpthat's so sad people spoiled it. If you can get your hands in it, it's a good puzzle game. I'd say the environmental puzzles are creative and fun and worth playing the game for. But I can see why you wouldn't sense people ruined the story aspects for you
@SocksNeedsHelp yeah ofc, I really like watching these analysis videos and getting a deeper understanding of their storys. And I like hearing your take on them.
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What is this, clarification city!? *READ THIS BEFORE COMMENTING PLEASE :)*
- I KNOW that Calla Lillies are traditional funeral flowers, what I meant in the video is that they likely have a DEEPER MEANING than just that. Its likely that they are meant to show *rebirth*, which would make a lot of sense considering how Edith rebirths the curse through her book.
- I KNOW ABOUT THE UNFINISHED SWAN PLEASE DON'T SPOIL IT ANY MORE THAN YOU ALREADY HAVE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
- The reason I believe Edie stopped bringing walter food was because in the final part of his section, his routine of eating peaches for every meal is interrupted because he doesn't have any in front of him. Combined with this, he says that "he's going to enjoy every minute of it (freedom), especially the food." Implying he didn't have access to much food or at least good food.
- Its clear to me now that there is an idea that Edith's child actually did the right thing and laid the stories to rest as they can be seen leaving the journal and the flowers at Edith's grave. A surprisingly good ending to the story.
I will likely add to this in the future if more common notes come up in the comments, for now, a big thanks for the support on this video! I really thought it would do poorly due to being almost 8 years old now, but yall proved that wrong. Idk what game I plan to tackle next, but I have some obligations with the main game I do on my channel, Risk of Rain 2, to do first. I think I'm going to do something smaller scale just for a breather, but i'll def be doing more analyses in the future. Love you all to bits!
I really hope the things stated in the video are why they were my parents wedding flowers and not the funeral bit
I would like to correct you on Gus’s death he didn’t die from the tent if you turn around you will see a totem pole when you walk by the bitch while visiting the graveyard you will see the totem pole destroyed on the beach the totem pole was knocked over by the strong winds crushing Gus to death
there is no proof other than the totem pole being knocked over that this happened I believe.
When you walk by the what
@@SocksNeedsHelp By the beach I mean when you walk by the beach you see a broken totem pole when it used to be on the cliff if you turn around as Gus you will see the totem pole falling over right onto Gus it even states in the Edith Finch wiki he died from being crushed by a totem pole
To be honest, I think in some of the deaths you're over thinking or making it out more complicated than it needs to be. For example : It's obvious Molly's death is just a person hallucinating while she's slowly dies from food poisoning. I don't think it was some deep metaphor related to generational trauma. And with Barbara and it is very obvious that the boyfriend killed her since he also disappeared.
This is kind of a small thing, but the flowers growing around Edith's grave look to be foxgloves, which are an incredibly deadly and toxic flower. I think this could symbolize how Edith continues to spread the poison of the family's trauma by telling the stories to her child, with poison literally growing out of her grave as they visit it. There's probably a lot more that could be theorized from it, but I thought it was interesting to point out.
Wow yeah thats really interesting
Fun fact: foxgloves have been associated with magic and fairies in folklore! But in some cultures it’s considered a symbol of insincerity and deceit! Take that as you like :D
@@teaplant4582 combined, it'd be like the danger of keeping things hidden away through the deceit of a supposed "curse"
oh cool!
I think she could die because of serological conflict. She seems to be reckless and walk into that dangerous house while begin in second trymester of pregnancy. Maybe Edith's death could have been avoided too. Making Dawn's death the onlz natural death in this family. Sience Edie died probably due to mixing her medication with wine.
I think the problem is that even when we interpret what would have 'really' happened we're *still* sensationalizing things.
For example everyone always theorises that Molly poisoned herself, but that completely overlooks Molly's arms were covered in spots: she was sick. That explains the vivid dreams, why her room was locked (she was being kept away from her siblings while she was contagious). It might have even been why she didn't get dinner - the phrase "starve a cold" was because that was thought to help some illnesses, if only so that the child didn't choke to death on their own vomit in the night. A lot of what happened was bad luck and carelessness; but we look for patterns, we look to blame someone or create a mastermind instead of saying "people react to tragedy differently", and in doing that we're creating a story too.
Such a great reading, similar to mine. A lot of stories are reactions to difficult situations, and sometimes they hurt as much as they can help
I wholeheartedly disagree with all of that but well said nonetheless. And also, people can notice patterns of pregnant women climbing trees, putting swingsets on the edge of cliffs, and leaving literal babies in a bath unattended and ALSO say, "hey, Grief's a hellofathing." In regards to how this curse was brought up and passed down at all. In fact, Joseph Anderson, (I think that's his name) did a video on it and he said both of the things you see in opposition. They can and do exist at the same time when people talk about this game, wondering if there really *was* a curse.
I also think Molly's end not being clear-cut is kind of the point. To speculate about what actually happened to her. I also don't think anyone is saying edith murdered her daughter, only that she died due to negligence. Locking a child away with no dinner is bad parenting. You're speculating just as much as we are, but going so far as to "sensationlize" when people are simply favoring one cause of death over the other. (Even so, I think this is simply people not even realizing molly was sick at all, I didn't even notice it, I thought she had freckles) Even YOU are speculating that she was locked away becuase she was sick and they also chose not to feed her because of the superstition you spoke about, both of which are far more "speculative" (in ways of evidence) than people assuming she got poisoned from a combination of stuff we as players have her eat as we play as her.
Nobody is saying Edie caused all of these deaths, only that she fed into the fear that kept the family from fully taking responsibility for the scenarios surrounding them due to her grief. She's not some mastermind, but an old lady stuck on a curse as she's brought down by grief again and again.
And that carelessness part is exactly the taking responsibility bit I was talking about. They shouldn't have built a swing set on the edge of a cliff, Sam should've been looking after his son better during a storm after the wedding. Adding everything up to a curse just keeps from realizing the circumstances surrounding the family's losses. Edith Finch is a woman who reveled in the spotlight regarding the curse and her family, The entire mole man story included. But also the guy I mentioned earlier also talked about the music box and how it had information about the house only someone in the house would know, like edie. Now, this could've been just a game play thing, but nothing else in the fame is like that. This is speculation as well, but it's not to be ignored.
It seems weird that you want to boil down this wonderful game to "it really was carelessness and freak accidents, what a shame this family was plagued by such unfortunate circumstances" when many of the deaths were nothing of the sort. A character getting struck by lightning or dying from something only less than 1% of people dying from would feel better here, but that's not what we have.
I think blaming the curse on edie is just not the right way to interpret this story, or calling her a mastermind, or even thinking that she might have murdered her daughter is an option, edie definitely benefitted from the deaths but I don't think she wanted people to die, more so she embraced death, and throughout this video she is brought up a lot as the main reason for alot of these deaths but I think it's important to note that the whole family was irresponsible and perpetuated the curse
true but like... i mean... it *is* a story so... i feel like it's fine if we do it here. I do get your point though
I’m pretty sure the spots on Molly’s arms are just freckles. Walter and Lewis have the same spots on their arms and Edith and Barbara have freckles in their journal portraits, so they seem to run in the family.
Something that shook me regarding this game is when Edith was reading the story Edie left for her at the end, I found that I got sucked into the story SO fast and I was also frustrated when Dawn interrupted. It made me realize I would have been totally susceptible to a family member like Edie. She was charismatic and a fantastic storyteller, and that combination is powerful.
if only she hadn't gotten so fixated on the curse she might have gotten the attention she so desperately sought after in the form of becoming a famous author or something
I think the implication of the final scene is that the cycle of trauma is finally broken and dies with edith. Edith's child does not feel the need to break open the old stories and give them life as far as we know . They are able to leave the book and the flowers with their mom and finally let them rest.
Thats an interesting idea that I kind of like, but who knows, maybe they'll come back later
True, but an interesting detail is that he has a cast. He already was reckless enough to break a bone, imitating his family’s negligence. He might be trying to let go, but the stories already reached him, already affected his life.
@@lizetblatnik149 well, that really goes without saying, don't it?
but a cast isn't a symbol of injury, but of a healing. it isn't an arm the kid's lost, even through the trauma he's inherited from his bloodline is clearly showing its mark. it's something he'll have to live with for a good while longer, and maybe he'll be left with some unsightly scars, or maybe a bone won't set quite right, or maybe some irreparable damage to the nerves will keep him from moving it as well as he used to - maybe, no matter what form it takes, maybe he'll never truly escape the influence of a great-great-grandma he never even met. but he can leave enough of it behind, on the grave of his mother who couldn't do so herself, and move towards a finch family detached enough from its curse to not perpetuate it
and maybe that's still not enough for a truly happy ending, not for the kid or his kids or his kids' kids, because just as it takes far more time to mend a bone than it took to break it, trauma deep enough to span generations will take many more to heal. but a bone will never heal right on its own, and setting the limb in a cast shows that effort has been made to prevent the trauma of the past from denying the potential of the future
@@hi-i-am-atan Beautifully said
Maybe Milton going missing and the game showing there’s a possibility he’s still alive is supposed to signify when people have to cut their family off for their own sake, but still have a deep caring for them and wish they could rekindle whatever they had.
This is my thought about it as well
The idea that Milton ran away and is living a different life far away is a bit of a comfort. Showing that it's possible to get out of bad situations feels important in this story.
@@katofphats3689 It's confirmed that game "The unfinished Swan" is canon in "What remainds of Edith Finch" and that Milton is the king. So maybe he's still alive and went back. (him or his sons) and they took care of Edith's son. At least I hope so.
The Unfinished Swan.
Ediths child breaks the cycle due to not growing up surrounded by it. They most likely only read the book to see what his mother may be like, and when they read the stories, they probably thought what we think now. They did not grow up in a world of fantasy and death but of one of reality.
Edith most likely died in childbirth. She stressed her body, exploring that house. It was old and rotting, most likely filled with toxic paints and even more toxic materials.
Her death was the best thing to happen to that child. They do not know this family. This family is nothing more than a stranger to them, a toxic stranger. They return to that island to stand at his mkthers grave to place that book so it will end with her.
They have an outsiders perspective, and they are us, the player. They can see what Edith cannot. They represent us as we play, while we might not see them for more than a moment. They play the game, they read the stories and see what it for what it truly is. So, in order to remain, they got off everything about that family.
They are what remains of Edith Finch.
We dont see their journey, but it's entirely possible edith's kid didnt go through the same experiences as Edith with the house and simple walked to the graveyard, put the book and flowers down, and left. Id like to think theres a possibility of edith living and carrying on past the curse, but it may have been inevitable. I dont think we should speculate about her death like that, though. It is likely she died in childbirth, yes, but it isn't concrete.
@@SocksNeedsHelpI think it’s a very common conclusion when a child is born and a mother dies in the same year that the culprit is likely childbirth or a complication during the birth. This doesn’t of course mean it’s always the case, but the second you mentioned the year being the same it is the first thing my brain went to and I thought of. With theories and analysis of games like this it is all up to speculation and personal interpretation. Everything is painted by our own personal experiences and two people could have entirely different conclusions. There is of course artistic intent but what a story is or means often breaks those bounds and goes well beyond just what the artist thought or wanted to portray.
Although it would be nice to think of the grave stone and death as more of a metaphorical one than a literal one :)
Plus, that bathroom carpet HAD to have had black mold in it 🤢
I actually always interpreted that what Lewis had was Maladaptive Daydreaming. As a person who has it due to ADHD, it hits very close to home, the whole 'he knew it wasn't real, but it was so much more interesting than his true reality' is the part that feels the truest. When you have maladaptive daydreaming, you know that those things aren't real, but you control their directions, the things that happen, you have a say in it. Reality becomes boring in contrast to the incredible things you can do with the power of your own mind, especially in an ambient that provides nothing for you to distract yourself with. It can be addicting, and sometimes, it can get out of control.
I developed Maladaptive Daydreaming as a response to C-PTSD and this is so accurate. It's especially easy to fall into daydreams when you're doing a monotonous task that doesn't take a lot of brain function, like say, cutting the heads off of fish. I could definetly see maladaptive Daydreaming combined with severe depression and a lack of intervention causing Lewis to do what he did. The daydreams are so much more comforting and entertaining than real life, it's hard to fight that desire to live in them forever when you have nothing tying you to the real world
Same, I have ADHD and had a really rough few years as a teenager where I can vividly recall the imaginary world I built, but have very little memory of my actual irl life. I knew it wasn't real, but it was so much more important that it's all I remember.
I developed something similar in elementary school, and I still have “episodes” sometimes as an adult. It’s rough, and it can be scary. It even becomes involuntary after a while because you’re so used to it.
I related to that section the most. I use the tragedy and story to shape my life in a way where I want to be in the real world too because it can be just as bright and fun as my daydreams. Even though at the end of the day. It will be my escape.
it's almost certain that's the case, but I didn't want to assume because I don't like playing guessing games with people's mental disorders. none of us are doctors and we don't know so it feels wrong, yknow? not saying you're wrong for thinking this or anything just why I didn't talk about it.
I always loved the symbolism of the actual book Edith is writing in. Through Edith's eyes we are constantly opening and closing the book, to write in and look at it, but her unnamed child at the end is only seen opening it once and closing it once, possibly symbolizing that while the stories have now been told, they don't have to keep being told over and over again. It's important to me that the child is never seen entering the house, and the last shot is of them at the grave, not the house. It's possible that they didn't enter the house, but left, as the stories are already written and the tree of their family drawn for them instead of shown. I like to think that Edith's child honored her death by leaving the stories behind without fully forgetting them, just like children who leave and break free from generations of trauma but still acknowledge and respect what caused the layers of it.
This is really interesting. How Edith's kid only opens and closes the book once. Ive seen theories about her kid being the one to end the curse and this would definitely support that.
@@SocksNeedsHelp To me, the fact that the child is shown with a cast on their arm hints at the "curse" continuing.
@@TerminalNostalgia Sure, but a cast is more symbol of healing than it is about "Continuing" the trauma. A cast is after an accident, and rather than ignoring the broken bone, it is a sign of attending to and properly doing a better job than what humans USED to have to do with broken limbs before we had better medicine and xray technology. The kid may not be able to control the genetics of being a clumsy or accident prone person, but a cast is the bare minimum of trying to heal in a better way. They could have given the kid scars, bruises, or damage. Instead, the cast looks clean and tidy. To me, that reads like a lack of denial, or of confronting reality & approaching damage in a more straightforward way.
Very interesting analysis!
One thing I don't see people comment is that the patriarch of the family is named Odin -- a god often associated with wisdom, but he is also a god of death (specifically *violent* death) and madness (specifically, the bloody madness of war -- the bloodlust that craves destruction). He's the lord of Valhalla, after all, where warriors go to die over and over again in eternal war, to be revived and die again the next day, where their names would be celebrated. It's a common theme in Norse sagas that drawing the attention of the gods, and especially Odin, never ends well.
I find it a neat little detail that Edie is the daughter of Odin, because she revels in the "glorious" deaths of her family members, memorializes and commemorates them. The house is her Valhalla. She, as Odin himself, is the psychopomp remembering the glorious dead as she guides them to their death.
thanks!
yeah I knew this and should have said something about it.
i think my brain is just too smooth for norse mythology
The Norse religion definitely glorified manliness in the form of pain and suffering. Odin denied himself sustence to gain power and forbidden knowledge. That's a really salient point. I forget how he also lost one eye, but that idea of being half-blinded to reality, and i think the loss of an eye was suppose to be symbolic of gaining a fantasy power. Interesting stuff.
A common theory is that Molly died from a combination of food poisoning and actual poisoning, as the pet food wouldn't have been safe to eat, the holly berries are lethal in large amounts but can cause noticeable symptoms after only a few and Molly had very plump holly berries, and that the toothpaste at the time was apparently dangerous if swallowed - and Molly intentionally ate the entire remaining tube.
Each thing individually would likely not have killed her, but when she had ingested all of them together and was unable to get help from her parents due to being locked in her room and may not have been expecting anyone to answer if she called for help due to being rejected already then it would have been easy for the combination to be fatal. It would have been slow and Edith would have found her morning, and Molly would not have been in good condition. Maybe she was in the bed, having choked in her sleep on her own sick, maybe she'd have dragged herself to the door trying to get help while hallucinating and collapsed on the floor.
Edith would have known it was her own fault, and it would have destroyed any chance she had of healing from her father's death and not becoming the curse.
I sort of suspect a combination of eating all those things, combined with measles. A fever can produce some vivid hallucinations or dreams. Her hands are spotty all over, though you don't see them for very long.
Also note the pet food was near droppings
I think at least some of it is either Mollys imagination or a reference to it told by Edie, when I watched it it felt like Molly had an obsession with animals, not to an unhealthy degree or anything but more in the way that there are horse girls, she has a gerbil names the bird and what it’s doing, specifies that it’s a mama rabbit, etc. I think that some part of the hallucinations or Edie’s recounting of them involved animals because that’s what Molly was into at the time
it is also likely she was sick seeing as her door was locked, likely to keep her from spreading the sickness.
I wish I caught this before making this video cuz it changes a lot
With the last big talk taking place during a sort-of birth scene and Edith's death year being the same as her kid's birth, I'm pretty convinced that Edith died during labour.
yeah its pretty likely
I always assumed that. That's why we get the story from her journal. It always felt like this was the only connection between them.
Yep. Also, i dont know if this has any realtion child labor dearh, but she was climbing around the whole house, i mean.
@o.neutronstar.o and she was only 17, too
It interesting that you bring up Edie’s coping turned obsession. That’s exactly how her last victim died. Lewis was using his imagination as a coping mechanism until it turned into an obsession. Much like Edies grief lead her to coping with stories. Molly being in the dream sequence makes sense as we see much of Edie’s character through Mollys eyes.
Thats a really interesting connection
i always had a theory that perhaps Barbara's story was more bleak than we thought symbolised by the monsters being the ones to kill her, i theorised that her fame literally consumed her, and her loss of fame had a more dramatic effect on her mental health culminating in a possible suicide. then Walter in trying to escape the same monster that killed Barbara was killed by it.
That is incredibly grim but unfortunately not impossible which scares me.
That's....an intersting theory. Most say the boyfriend or a burglar killed her. But I never saw it as a potential suicide. Or perhaps an accidental death
@@chrisdiokno5600She could even just tripped on one of her roller skates and fell over the railing.
One theory I believe was she and her boyfriend got into an altercation and he pushed her over the railing. To a void trouble he ran away and hid.
I just realized, most of these stories never really talk about any of the Finch's friends, anyone outside of their family. I mean, yeah, usually your friends likely won't be there when you die, but what if all it takes to avoid this "curse" is a little outside intervention? To get help and support somewhere else? Everyone seemed kinda isolated and alone, with only the family for company
I wonder how many even address it
I mean yeah, in the start with the woods section and how edith says that the woods always felt like they had something to say but never spoke really speaks to the finch family friends' reactions to the story
the forest around the house probably isolated them from the rest of the island. plus edith and her siblings were homeschooled so they probably didn’t have many friends
Yeah. Like, the maniacs kept on building upon the house so the family could just stay put and never leave. That's insane.
I think its interesting that Edie's final interrupted story was seemingly the story of how she found herself in front of the old house. Much like how Edith spends the game exploring her old family house. It really does highlight how, much like her great-grandma, she willingly propagated the curse to a generation that would've been completely ignorant of it.
Literally. A lot of people have pointed out how edie wasnt the start of this "curse" and i totally agree. The family curse just needed someone like edith or edie to fall to curiousity through the blindfold of "just writing stories"
One of my favorite things about this game is how it has somehow combined realism and surrealism seamlessly. A house built vertically over sealed bedrooms of its dead inhabitants - this is the language of surrealism. But, nothing happens in this game that is not physically possible (save for Milton's disappearance, which makes it stand out) and the characters behave in ways that make sense to them and they remind us of people we know. This is the language of realism.
Absolute genius.
Why wouldnt milton's dissapearance be possible?
@@SocksNeedsHelp It could! I just mean that it's the part of the story that feels the closest to have actual supernatural/magical elements to it.
i think theres a lot more supporting it being reality than not
@@SocksNeedsHelp i'm talking more about genre structure than "Was it real?". Of course it was real.
I'm talking about how smoothly the creative team used the proverbial 'languages' of both surrealism and realism to tell a powerful story.
I'm talking about genre conventions. Structure, tones, etc. The process of making and experiencing.Worldbuilding in the delivery sense.
Not "what happens" in a plot and events sense, but "how are the creatives telling a complex story".
A realistic, grounded story with touches of beautiful surrealism to make the storytelling bright, vibrant, and easy to emotionally connect.
One thing I think I took away differently than most people is that I believe the game isn't trying to convince us the curse is real, but to convey just how much the family believed it was, even Dawn to a degree as much as she denied it. I think Edith in a way is breaking the curse by being more honest in what she leaves her child, the stories yes, but also Edith's own words and feelings on how she thinks the family made the curse real themselves. It feels more like she's cautioning her child while not letting the family members who died be forgotten. To me it felt like Edith was trying in her own way to add her thoughts on what really happened to kind of demystify them and ground them more in reality as her attempt of 'breaking the curse' so to speak.
I also don't feel like Edie had as active a role as people tend to give her. I think her biggest contribution is how much she believed them and forced that belief on others. I don't think she ever tried to orchestrate any of these deaths, at least not consciously, but as you said, the family just doesn't ever seem to think about the risks. She was so casual with her family because she believed they were all going to die horribly anyway so why bother trying to protect them.
This was a great video and really had me thinking about what I took away from this game and put it into words for the first time.
They idea of belief in the curse making her careless with her family’s safety is actually pretty terrifying, but also makes so much sense… 😮
Also those bird cages show that Edie, although not maliciously, caused suffering to those she didn't mean to.
Those are some old vintage cages, the kind that do not provide enough space or entertainment for a tiny bird, leading a lot of birds to fall into depression and stress, and pass away
much like she did her family :/
Sanjay was killed in a disaster relief building collapse I believe. There is a news paper article in the classroom behind the desk. Turn right instead of walking out the door and you’ll see it. You can also see his vest and badge in dawns closet.
That would make a lot of sense. Very interesting that no one died while he was alive
@ possibly another metaphor for escaping generational trauma. having someone around who was healthier and when that support system goes their forced back to where everything began
Calla Lilies have a bit more than just innocence and purity going on for them! It can also symbolize faith and devotion in Christian contexts or rebirth and resurrection from Greek myth.
It's commonly used in wedding bouquets to symbolize purity and commitment, but it's *also* used frequently in funerals to symbolize the resurrection of the departed and their new beginnings in the afterlife.
I personally think you were right to catch on to the significance of the flowers. I personally think they're representative of how Edith is basically bringing the stories of the departed back to life through her dedication to learning about and finding them.
Really looking forward to watching the rest of the analysis. Just wanted to pitch in with one of my special interests! Hope it was helpful.
Yeah i figured there was something there but just couldnt see it. Thanks
Calla lilies are also poisonous, though it's to a lesser extent than a lot of other lilies. Idk if this means anything, but figured it's worth nothing
I always read that this family was very neglectful and didn't prioritise health of any kind and used the curse as a way to deflect guilt and responsibility. As someone who grew up in a similar environment that was 'good on paper' but not in reality I found this game very emotional and relatable unfortunately.
@@cdawg9218 thats about the gist of it yeah
My theory on Barbara is that her desire for fame (to appease her mother) led her down a dark path and she mixed with a bad crowd. I think of the whole story as like a euphemism. Her boyfriend was more of a "handler" of sorts to get her ready for "the next step in her film career"... adult films. They had a disagreement, and she kicked him out, but he came back with his producers, and those monsters "ate" her. And that was what Walter had heard as he hid under his bed. Those people killed and took advantage of his sister, and Edie thought, "This is gonna be great for my memoirs." 😭
I also think Edith did die during childbirth by virtue of 17 being so young to have a baby + that ending sequence being her child's birth and we don't see her even get to hold them after, which leads me to believe that she never got to.
I also agree with your Milton theory!! Thanks for the video, it was really great! And I love your channel icon, I love baydews' art
That's a very morbid idea but I don't see why it's wrong. I mean, either way she was still eaten up by the film industry and the entertainment was what killed her.
yeah its the most likely cause.
I love baydews!!! I want to commission more of his art but its so expensive lmao
That gives a whole new creepy layer about her scream. Because adult stars need to be noisy, yanno?
The unfinished swan.
Girl was 16! That film industry was frikkin GROSS then! 😡🤮🚓🚩 And for her to be taken out like THAT?! 😰
I love that everyone who plays agrees that the curse isnt supernatural in nature. Also something interesting about the color white in flower language typically has a few meanings that I noticed. Its mainly about purity, commitment, love that is pure like how a preacher should love his flock. White in flowers is about how this love, this commitment has no ill will behind it and is pure like the love of the lord. (A lot of western flower language stuff also has cross over with normally understood color language.) there's also the fact that the greeks believed that those lillies were cursed by Aphrodite. Those flowers were cursed by the goddess of multiple forms of love, including motherly love. Fitting/forbodding with this family being kinda poisoned down the line by the matriarch.
Also! Look at how young the kid is. For some reason, it seems like hes alone on this ride. Look at his cast. Perhaps the guy who is the father of this kid (or the foster parents) has a similar issue of a family curse. Maybe even without meaning, Edith continues the passing of trauma just because bad luck (or the fact that the foster care system is hellish from what I hear) of who is taking care of her kid that chose to give him the book despite the fact that Edith is unsure about even writing down everything and we know that because she had to write that for us to know that thought in the game.
Ive heard theories that whoever edith's kid's father is left after the pregnancy. idk if it really matters tho cuz he's not present and for the same reason as dawn, after their partner died, she came back to the house.
One thing I always found interesting from the moment I started this game was just how many books were in the house. Of course there was the library, but shelves crossed every hallway and room outside of the bedrooms, books even started piling up outside of the shelves when there wasn’t enough space. I think this talks about how the finch’s life’s were always surrounded by fiction and story, even Edie, though she creates a lot of the death stories in the game, she herself is surrounded by this reality. The books in the house are just a physical reminder and representation of the cluttered and disorganized reality this family was living in. As the player, we only only ever read some of the books, we open locks with others, but even the books littering the house we interact with, as we have to walk around them to find our way through. The finch’s had to do the same, finding their way through a family history of fiction to find what was truly important.
Yeah, that's a good point. I always love derails like this that are both surface level: "they have a lot of books because the family is old and they've just acrewed a bunch over time" and deeper like you said.
Loving this essay! Just a quick thing I thought of that may be a technological misunderstanding with Gregory:
First, full agree that leaving a baby who is nearly two years old in a bathtub unattended was a neglectful mistake. I have toddler who just turned two, and they know how to operate the tub faucet. Very ambulatory and a climber.
However, you made a comment about not needing to take a phone call in the room so he couldn’t hear a conversation he wouldn’t understand-potential language development aside as a point, Gregory died in the 1970s. Cordless phones did not become more widespread in U.S. homes until the 80s. Heck I was born in 91, and I remember my childhood home had a phone hanging on the wall with its curly beige cord. Corded phones had to be plugged into a phone jack in the wall to maintain a connection. I imagine the phone was likely far enough away that the phone receiver cord could not stretch into the bathroom. An electrician probably would have made sure to keep all that as far from the bathroom as possible, since water and humidity and circuits are a terrible mix.
But Kay should have said “Gregory is in the bath, I will call you back later.” Leaving Gregory alone for 30 seconds to say that probably would not have been fatal. I could see a freak accident where he slipped in the tub, but he wouldn’t have drowned. Instead it sounds like she got wrapped up in the argument, on the other side of the room in the adjoining room, and did not realize anything was up until she heard the bathtub overflowing and saw Gregory had drowned. She would’ve had to left him unattended for MINUTES and with a toddler, that’s unacceptable.
Thank you!
So id like to agree with you here but she literally says "hold on, i don't want gregory to hear this".
It’s been a while since I’ve watched a playthrough so I forgot about that line. Thanks for that clarification, oops.
There is something to say about childhood development where even if they don’t understand all of the words, they are still impacted by tone of voice. Arguing around babies and toddlers can negatively impact emotional development. And around two is when toddlers are starting to use two-word phrases consistently to indicate wants/needs. (Except mine who has a ‘speech delay’ and is going to be seen by specialists soon. They are probably neurodivergent like I am ngl. I’ve caught the booger toe-walking for no reason, they’ve been a confident walker for close to a year now.)
I just finished the video, and it was great! Very well done. I do think your aside of your own experience is relevant-art has impact because of how it relates to us in our own lives. I had watched the game’s play through in the past, before I had my little one, and had always been meaning to pick it up and play myself. I think Gregory’s story in particular would keep me from it for a while now because the horror of his death is a lowkey constant fear of mine nowadays. Toddlers are learning, exploring machines with no concept of their mortality and are only beginning to learn cause and effect. It’s terrifying lol
I think what happened to Barbara is pretty close to what is in the comic book (to a point). After her boyfriend tried to scare her, she threw him out, and he returned with a few friends to really scare her this time, as revenge. And they succeeded, she was scared, and she ran up the stairs, tripped on her roller skates, and fell to her death. It's possible that the boys panicked and tried to make it look like a murder (depending on if we believe that the story about the ear is real). They could've tried to disappear her body, leaving her ear behind, to make it more plausible that the serial killer from the news got to her. Or maybe everything from the moment they scared her and she fell to her death is made up. Either way, I don't think Rick literally disappeared. Maybe he got into trouble for causing her death (especially if he and his friends tried to cover it up), and/or his family simply moved away.
That's my head canon about it, at least.
Really nice video, very thorough!
I think that I see it less as Edith perpetuating Edie's stories, and more that you can't escape every aspect of family trauma. Even though Milton got away, even he still came back to the house. I think that the book Edith writes shows in a literal sense what parts of the family trauma stayed with her and got passed down. And the fact that she could have stayed at the house but didn't shows that she has made efforts to let the past go.
@raveniires thanks!
Idk about this. She didnt chose to leave and I see it more as edith being stubborn and falling to that weakness of not seeing your family abusers as they are. She only left because she had too and came back the instant she could
@@SocksNeedsHelp I can certainly understand that view. It's really a testament to game's craftmanship and story that details that may be small can lead to pretty different interpretations.
The fact that i’ve been around for both mouthwashing and this game’s release and now i’m hearing them compared… it’s surreal
Right? I cant wait for more stuff cuz this, to me is peak gaming format. Basically a book in a game lol
I think the reason most assume Edith died in child birth is because of the birth imagery and the fact she died the same year he was born
she also says "i was the last finch alive until you were born" which could both mean that there were 2 finches left as well as still 1 finch left but it being the kid now
True but then idk what would have killed her
I guess it could still be birth complications that just killed her later on
@@CastorCas or some post-partum depression wrecking her mental- then physical- health or something
@@CastorCas With how much activity Edith did while pregnant, it's possible that she pushed herself too far while recovering (especially since we don't know if she had any outside support).
Molly killed by neglected, she may had poisoning from everything she eaten, but if she wasn't neglected (found on time or didn't fear of calling for help) she would've been saved. Nothing she eaten is poisonous enough for fast death
For sure. Though it likely didnt help with her physical state
Given that she ate holly, toothpaste and hermenting carrot from a dirty bowl, it's safe to say that she probably died of food poisoning, as at the very least the first two are poisonous
@@iAstra reason of her death is def poisoning, but if she wasn't neglected she could've recovered. People recover from worse poisoning if they get help in time
If you look closely at her hands, they are covered with spots. This may have been a hallucination from a fever, maybe from measles, which can definitely kill. A few holly berries wouldn't be enough to cause death even in a small person, and toothpaste didn't contain fluoride yet in those days. Even all together, it wouldn't usually be enough to lethally poison a child. But really, I think the game developers meant for Molly's cause of death to be ambiguous
I'm pretty sure she died in her sleep from the poisoning.
Thank you for offering something other than a train for Walter's cause of death. There have never been trains on Orcas, it's an island.
Well ok, there might have been at one point because those tracks are there irl and its possible to have a domestic train on the island, but given he died in 2005 just 12 years before the events of the game, its very unlikely that the tracks had been swept up in that time
This game gave me peace. My own family is in its own cycle of horror stories. Between moving away by chance and therapy, I realized how horrible things were. Every interaction with my own mother was laden with abuse and manipulation. I finally cut contact. I'm the Milton of my family, and I have often worried that I made the wrong decision. However, an abusive letter I got full of weird guilt tripping and toxic assumptions about myself made me realize that my family was actually worse than I remembered.
Seeing the perspective of "you need to leave the dead buried in order to heal" helps me. My own family is alive, but they still tell the stories of every little fault. I grew up on stories of why my older sister was horrible. My sister and I have an 11 year age gap, and my sister has gone through events that needed therapy and understanding. Instead, my parents tell over and over again the stories of her faults. Of her going out and drinking, having sex, and joy riding the family car. All these stories were both sensationalized and exactly what you expect from a TEENAGER. Especially one who had gone through what my sister had. But my parents warped her image into something horrible. Memorialized her mistakes just as the Finch family memorialized death. My mom did the same to her siblings and parents. Talking about their mistakes until they became lore to my brother and I. We grew up on these stories as our own family curse. The curse being that unless we are perfect, we would end up a "disappointment" like the rest of the family. My family curse was bitterness and a lack of forgiveness. In her 30's, my sister still had to hear the stories of herself as a teenager as if they were still representative of her.
Now that I'm in my 30's, I feel freer and happier than I ever was dragging myself into contact with my family, watching them beat down my voice when I noticed the wrongs.
My generational trauma is still here. I still feel the hurt of not being able to talk to them, of catching myself holding the same petty grudges. But instead of pretending that I've fixed it all by cutting contact, I've been working on healing my wounds. Of challenging my own thoughts and feelings that were formed by them when I was a child.
This game struck a chord with me, but I didn't really put words to it as to why until I saw your video. I'm sorry for your own loss. Games like this really hit harder than you expect them to. Thank you for covering it, though. I feel like I was able to reframe some of my own thoughts through your analysis.
I appreciate the comment. These kinds of media are always really important for self reflection and I think that's what creates healthy people. I dont want to profile anyone but simply watching sports and action movies exclusively wont really open you up to that same amount of understanding. If you watch my mouthwashing video, i talk about how it helped me come to terms with my sexual assault and it isnt alone in media that's changed me. It's honestly a very wholesome human thing to understand ourselves through the art other people make.
You know, I've watched almost every video on this game that I've come across and it just hit me that Lewis' death could really have been an accident as much as it could have been self-inflicted. If he didn't leave the cannery, he could have fallen asleep on the job and wound up in front of the slicer, and gotten pushed into it by backed up fish. Not saying that's exactly how it could have happened or how it did happen, just that that's what my brain came up with after this realization. Though I'm sure the therapist is more on the nose with the depression and escapism possibly leading to his own self-destruction in the form of a suspiciously ominously shaped place to accept a crown.
Yeah it for sure hinted towards an accident with how it gets harder to focus on the game and the fish in the section. Feels like it was only a matter of tkme before he shoved his hand in there.
When I first was watching the game I actually did think that he died from a more accidental way of
In my opinion, there was a curse.
Edie Finch was the Finch family curse.
She set so many of the deaths in motion, either through her own inaction, negligence, or due to her seeking attention for her family through sensationalism.
She put this idea in her children’s heads that they would all die horribly from this ‘curse’, from a young age, and so they grew up reckless, living fast and happily, and dying due to carelessness or negligence that could have been avoided.
The final argument in the house on one of the last nights of Edie’s life really cemented this fact for me. Even as Dawn is literally begging her grandmother to give up on the idea of this curse, and to let it die with the memories in this old house, Edie is sneakily trying to perpetuate the cycle with Edith, sneakily sending her away to a private locked study to read more about her ancient family’s curse and all the misfortune that befell them in the old country.
Dawn had every right to be angry. Her grandmother had set all of this tragedy into motion, from the very beginning.
So many of the deaths of her own children and grandchildren were caused by her not raising them to be attentive to their surroundings, or through downright neglect and abuse at her hands.
Edie was the curse.
i think that's the point. the point is more that the curse wasn't supernatural in nature, but all too real and propagated by Edie.
This will likely be deleted after a bit, but if you are wondering why your comment isn't getting a response, it's because I am recovering from wisdom teeth surgery and am not able to give level headed answers. I will respond to everyone as soon as I am smart enough to do so. Thank you for the support on the video!
HAVE A SWIFT RECOVERY!! and get lots of rest!
@spiddo8202 thanks! You too!... wait...
Omg I had that a month back! Take care and don't push yourself
Heads up for your Molly piece, I dont think she ate mistletoe berries but rather Holly berries, as mistletoe has white berries and a rounder leaf shape. Holly species has red berries and those leaves match up with a common Holly species.
Right away, the fact that Dawn kept going back to the house and getting the mail is tear-jerking
As much as I love Joseph Anderson's analysis of this game, you've done a much better job of contextualizing Edie as something other than a "villain." It's like how people complain that Encanto doesn't have a villain, so they don't like it. Not every story needs a schemer, a usurper, or a murderer. Sometimes stories are just about hurt people who would otherwise be good if they didn't allow destruction for their own reasons.
I don't think the game takes place in Washington, since the house that was "sailed over" is visible in all planes of reality, even slightly. I think it has to be on the east coast somewhere.
Something about her obligation to keep caring for it hurts a lot to see yeah
Abuela in Encanto is absolutely a villain lol
@@violet7773there’s a difference between a villain and an antagonist
And antagonist provides conflict for the protagonist to go against, whether the protagonist is in the right or not, and either on accident or on purpose
A villain actively has malicious intent and schemes to create problems for the protagonist
The key thing here is the action and intent
With Abuela and Edie, neither of them were malicious in their actions, and instead believed in something supernatural that was unavoidable
In this game, the curse is Edie’s (and we can gather, the entire Finch family’s) manifestation of tragedy and trauma
Edie doesn’t see an issue with it, because it helps her to cope with the loss and make herself feel better
She definitely gets lost in it and starts to perpetuate the curse, which is why it’s not a healthy coping mechanism and instead starts being this “monster” or unavoidable obstacle in the life of the family, which combined with the losses in the past, doesn’t really give them a reason to try and be safe, or strive for more than being a member of the Finch family
It’s why Edie’s an antagonist and not a villain, she’s not doing this with malicious intent, but instead through her own really negative coping mechanism
In Encanto, Abuela was given a literal supernatural gift, which came as a result of her husband’s death and sacrifice
She was already going through a lot with having to flee her home with three babies, and her husband was killed right in front of her
She clings to this remnant of him, the gift, and treats Mirabel like she was scorned by Casita (and potentially her husband, but that’s a theory) for not getting a gift
We see Abuela through Mirabel’s perspective, and while she’s definitely an antagonist, I wouldn’t say she’s actively at a villain level
She’s a more active antagonist, but not quite a villain
But generational trauma makes it a really sticky situation
Because in both of these stories, no one is trying to be malicious
They’re just hurting and trying to cope with their own trauma, while either causing or continuing trauma for their kids and grandchildren
i thought Edie used the story of walter disapearing under the house AS the mole man story. as Walter was the "mole man"
yeah of course lol
He, of course, was the "Moleman". Edith says that Dawn got upset about that interview when you walk by the framed article about it, if I remember correctly. She'd probably figured out where her uncle went and that Edie had used his paranoia to gain more notoriety as the woman with the cursed house/family instead of, you know, letting things be.
@@radioactiveferrets ya I kind of misunderstood stood when sock said that Edie was probably useing the stories of the mole man to scare Walter. I didn't consider she could do both tell the rest of the family and people out side the family "oh we have a mole man" AND tell Walter "you know the mole man could get you" I kind of misunderstood and thought socks missed the fact he is. Sorry socks
did I say that she was using the stories to scare him? the stories were to get stuff out of him because he wouldnt die
Louis's story always hit me most as i could relate to mundane jobs being a breeding ground for daydreaming as the task leaves little for mental task.
@@seanrea550 monotony is the greatest cause of depression or something like that
@SocksNeedsHelp it was a job I left due to it being completely brain numbing, and I moved right into a crafting job that engaged my mind as much as my hands.
My interpretation of all the deaths... and look this comment is just gonna have spoilers. I'll space it down if people don't want to read it yet.
Molly: Definitely neglect, and I do have to wonder how often she went to bed hungry to resort to eating whatever she could find, but I feel like the diary entry might be the only 'real' thing. It's certainly the most likely, because Edie hadn't been making up stories at that point, or at least not to the level she gets to later. I think that between the toothpaste (at least, I was always told not to eat it because it could make you sick), the old, possibly moldy carrot she fishes out of her hamster cage, and the almost-definitely-poisonous berries, she hallucinated the whole thing as she was laying in bed, dying. Did she have the presence of mind to write it down? Eh, idk. Artistic liberties lol.
Calvin: Definitely childish rebellion mixed with an adventurous spirit, but he wouldn't have died (that way, at least) if that swing hadn't been on a fricking cliff. What the heck, Edie/Sven??
Barbara: I have heard the boyfriend murderer theory a lot, but I don't think I ever heard this theory told quite this way before. But I think you're bang-on the money. Instead of being terrified of a murderer, Walter was hiding in the basement out of guilt for causing his sister's death. Poor guy.
Walter: I honestly don't know how to interpret this, other than the train cannot possibly be real. This death kinda baffles me. Maybe he's still alive somewhere, or he got to live free for a little while...
Sam: A real tragedy, but it definitely is one of the many things that really shows how careless this family is. He should have made sure the deer was dead before he did that, Dawn could have easily been hurt as well. Instead, he prioritized the picture (the *story*) over his family (his daughter's concerns.)
Gregory: This death is absolutely the most tragic and should have been the most avoidable. I have no words, it's just sad. Even if the tap hadn't been turned on, the kid could have drowned in that small amount of water she left him in at first. I'm just glad she's not a real person and I will judge her as much as I like.
Gus: I'm guessing that Sam was trying to give Gus a dose of the silent treatment like Gus was ignoring Sam's wishes. Which is terrible parenting, but this whole video is a showcase of many different kinds of parental neglect in this family, so that's just par for the course lol. The death is as fantastical and overblown as ever, so we will probably never find out how he really died.
Milton: Other than the link to the other game, The Unfinished Swan, I have no idea what to make of this 'death' beyond the point you made that Milton probably came back to the house later, implying that he isn't actually dead. He managed to escape the house and the curse, and hopefully he's still out there, somewhere. Maybe he changed his name, effectively escaping the curse forever by not being a Finch anymore. (Maybe he became a Swan, lol)
Lewis: He definitely got lost in the stories, wishing for a more exciting life. And... well, I work in a factory, as well as briefly training to be an EMT. My teacher told us stories. I have also watched a lot of tragic videos about deaths, some of which take place in factories. It would be incredibly easy to decide to do something... permanent, shall we say, with factory equipment. Especially a factory that deals with incredibly sharp knives. I have always interpreted Lewis' story as him doing something to himself, because of Edie's stories, especially with Dawn's evocative comment.
Dawn: Not sure what to make of this beyond how she withered away once taken away from the house, which could be a metaphor for how she needed the stories as much as Edie did, no matter what she claimed.
Edie: Okay when the van came to pick her up, I always interpreted that 'she was already gone' comment as in she literally died that very night. I think this was also a death that she inflicted on herself, which is a nice metaphor for when she ran out of people to hurt, she hurt the only one left--herself. I have reached this conclusion after watching other videos, but she was drinking wine and Dawn expressed concern over mixing wine with her pills... which means that Dawn could easily have gone back at some point, leaving Edith somewhere or doing it while she was at school, to build Edie's grave.
Edith: I also interpret that as her dying in childbirth. The fact that we never see her interacting with the kid is pretty ominous if nothing else, not even post birth.
You never explained what you were implying with the alleged poems. Did I miss something, or was I meant to read between the lines that Edie wrote them?
Great video either way.
Pretty sure the implication behind the poem is that they were written by Edie, who then claimed they were written by another family member. They were another way of her pulling her family into 'the curse', whether they wanted to or not.
Molly - also likely had sickness involved due to the spots on her arms and being locked in her room
calvin - yeah carpenter or not, that's insane swing placement
barbara - Im surprised so many people are supporting my idea here. I thought I was reaching
walter - maybe the fact he lived so long and edie got so impatient that his story was a complete mess
sam - yeah exactly that
gregory - irl his death might be grounds for legal action tbh
gus - I feel like gus' death is the most straightforward, no? I dont see why the tent breaking off and killing him wasn't reality. especially since dawn wrote his story.
milton - I dont have much to say about him until I play that game so... meh
lewis - Ive seen a lot of people talk about how he likely had MADD (maladaptive day dreaming) that caused him to get into an accident at his work
Dawn - her death was... "boring" compared to the rest, which makes a lot of sense seeing as how she treated the family stories
Edie - I believe I said this, no? Edie saw dawn taking the last of her family away as the final straw and insisted on making her own story then and there. she also likely made her own gravestone before she died
edith - yeah she did die the same year the kid was born so it's really all we have to go off of
I've gone through wisdom teeth surgery since this video and I unfortunately have no idea what you're refering too here
thanks!
This game is so good and I love the analysis. 100% agree with the fact that the curse isn't real.
Im glad you liked it!
Excited to watch this, as someone who absolutely adores this game (it’s one of my all time favorites), I’m so happy that people are still making videos about it 7 years after its release :)
I hope you enjoy(ed) it!
Maybe it's just me, but I think Lewis' story is one that's only complicated if you don't know, intimately, what Maladaptive Daydreaming does to the brain. If you do know, it makes the whole thing feel so...familiar, in a way.
Daydreaming like this starts out really innocent, playing pretend to avoid boredom or dread (or, in the case of Lewis, possibly both). But then you realize that this fantasy is...better than your lived reality. You withdraw farther into it, isolating yourself. But at some point, you realize it isn't real, it never will be, and you *need* real people to connect with. But...real people, and their problems, are scary and complicated. Daydreams are neither. So back you go.
Many people with MADD will just flip back and forth like this until something breaks. Maybe the illusion breaks and someone is there at the right time for the person to latch onto, to start finding good things in reality to latch onto. But sometimes...sometimes there isn't. And sometimes there are people like Lewis, for whom the fantasy is the better option in the end.
I managed mine by turning it into a tool to aid my writing (and for connecting to my plurality), and I do encourage others with similar issues to try and do the same if possible. You already have so much experience talking to people who aren't there and building worlds in your head - use that to your advantage!
to be fair, I think it's fair to say that not a lot of people know what that's like. because of that I can't say it's guaranteed? not that you're wrong, but I feel like the confusing part isnt the MADD, its how it connects to the story that is so complicated. If I took the time Im sure I could get it and i dont think sympathy is necessary for his story. I do agree that it certainly helps
I’m not sure if you mentioned this anywhere in your video, but the closer Edith gets to her story and the higher she goes, the more dingy and crude the house becomes. The base of the house is sturdy, and despite the families issues, held strong enough to not “break” this illusion of family love and acceptance. As Edith nears her room, the house looks like it’s about to collapse. After generations of death and trauma, the base of lies becomes strained and the effects of this manifest figuratively in the house’s design.
I did, i believe in the earlier sections i said something along the lines of "the contrast of the early game's relatively normal kitchen and living room to the twisted upper sections is important" tho i dont have a time stamp
I have found the "curse" to be flimsy. Because when it comes down to it, what is the curse at it's core? It's death. But death happens to literally everyone. Is every death the curse? Where is the line between the curse and the inevitable? In reality death is mundane. It happens no matter what you do, and I feel like the curse was Edie's coping or avoiding her survivor's guilt. She didn't want to face reality, so of course it wasn't her fault, it was the curse. The real curse is of course the idea of the curse, the fantasy that death is more than just that. More than an accident or a suicide. We all want our lives to have meaning, but Edie took that meaning and put it all on their deaths. It didn't matter how they lived, it only mattered how they died.
Also, I honestly never considered Milton returning home to paint the graffiti, I figured it was all done before hand. Edith didn't believe her brother telling her about the secret tunnels, but Milton definitely could have, maybe after everyone had passed or left.
This comment is great omg
I don't know if the curse was death but instead generational trauma. Death is unavoidable for everyone but in this story, the curse is manufactured i think. i do like your final sentence in this paragraph though, Edie didn't care for her surviving family.
that's possible but Edith does say that "it's clear he'd been back" implying they werent there before they left
this is a really good video! I love What Remains of Edith Finch, and your insights are really well articulated. I’ve always understood this game as an exploration of the obsession with death and how unhealthy that can be. by presenting us with a family who are followed by tragedy, the game shows us the ways we try to cope with being faced with our mortality. the finches as a whole are all reckless with themselves and with each other, because death is so expected, it’s as if they all have mourned each other even before they’re gone. edie especially copes with the incessant death by trying to immortalize her family members, sensationalizing them more and more in (what I see as) a desperate attempt to keep them alive in some way. in her desire to immortalize her family, to keep them alive after death, she neglects to treasure them while they ARE alive, and that, ironically, leads to many of their deaths, starting the awful cycle over again. dawn is the narrative opposite of her as she wants to bury and forget the deaths entirely- but is that really better? to forget our loved ones might spare us the pain of losing them, but remembering them and passing down their stories is the only way to cherish them once they’re gone. edith’s motives, to keep the family history alive, is one that might perpetuate that curse, and the broken arm on her child does suggest that it will, but what’s the alternative? to let these stories die with her? those stories are of edith’s siblings, her aunts and uncles. more than that, they’re her stories. what remains of edith finch after she dies? only her stories, only her memories. her child will grow up without ever meeting her, but in that book they’ll have some piece of her with them, even if those stories don’t have happy endings, or only fortell misery. and perhaps knowing the history of the family curse, they can manage to avoid it, learning from their family’s past mistakes.
Thank you for the comment! I agree with everything here. It's a good way to interpret the title like a question like you did i think. the only thing left of the family members was whatever edie wanted them to be
I remember it being mention by the creators, Giant Sparrow, that Milton finch fate is in The Unfinished Swan another game they made.
@Maplearchive62 i saw that and i def wanna look at it. Its funny i kinda prefer not knowing yknow? Removes him from the story and such
@@SocksNeedsHelpwell turns out he became a unsuccessful artist who made up with his son on his deathbed (son is the character you play as) that’s what I think of that game
@ryanlozano9086 why would you just say that? It’s pretty clear they haven’t played the game. Like what does spoiling it do for them??? They even specifically say they don’t want to know????
@@ryanlozano9086BRO I KNOW IT'S BEEN YEARS BUT PLEASE PUT A SPOILER WARNING WTF?
I wanted to ply the game and you ruined it
Thanks bud
@@EspeonMistress00 You know that it's the journey that counts, not the destination, right? Knowing how something ends doesn't mean you can't enjoy it. That's like saying nobody should ever play Romeo & Juliet on stage, or Macbeth, or Hamlet, because "I know they die at the end so it's ruined"
You stated that what Sam was telling Dawn was "important for survival" wasn't important, but there's important historical context to remember: Sam lived during the Cold War his entire life from birth to death (as the Cold War officially ended in 1991 and he died in 1983) where up until the end, there were movies and films and other materials talking about what to do in the case of nuclear war with Russia, one of which would require self-sufficency in hunting and fishing and other "outdoorsy" activities for "survival." It is reasonable to assume that Sam believed that he was helping prepare his remaining children for what he believed was inevitable war with the Warsaw Pact countries. It doesn't justify his actions, but it does put that important piece into context considering that he would have also fought in Vietnam as well considering if many of us are in our twenties or thirties, our parents and grandparents would have lived through similar talks as well but clearly not to the same degree of "obsession" as Sam did with Dawn.
Sure but I think this statement was more saying how Sam's practice of propagating the deaths was necessary in his eyes.
i think this is one of the best analysis videos i've seen on this game, great job! it's so devastating how preventable all the deaths were. it really shows how the finches are careless in nature
thank you!
I think Sam wanted to stay out of the camera so he couldn’t be memorized like the others, you can see that Edie uses photos as references when painting the pictures but even if she didn’t need that I think Sam valued the cameras influence maybe more then he should have and thought that if there were no good photos of him maybe some of this wouldn’t have happened
I also think it’s worth noting how Edie drinks wine even though that could cause problems due to her medication. While I’m all for elderly and chronically ill people getting to decide how and when they die, drinking wine you know your granddaughter would be upset at while an 11 year old sits at the table is a weird way to end it. I think Edie didn’t drink the wine with the intention of death but rather because now that everyone’s left the only spectacle will be herself.
This would make a ton of sense yeah. he enabled edie because he thought doing that could let him get out
So glad you decided to talk about Edith Finch! It was definitely my number one Gtlive video, and the creators are excellent storytellers.
thanks!
I've always thought that the only "curse" in this family is neglect, with the exception of Dawn and Edith, all the deaths have a common thread.
Yeah for sure
@SocksNeedsHelp Everyone in the family's death (again, except for Dawn and Edith) is due to irresponsibility, either their own or someone else's.
This is an amazing and impressive analysis, with the depth of the story really being shown through your findings, and the length of time you probably spent making this. I love to see smaller creators taking the time to make video essays and analyses, as well as show their own creativity and passion through them. I can't wait to see more in the future. Keep it up!!!
Thank you. I hope i can make something like this soon. Gonna be looking at a smaller game, though, because these really kick my ass
1:59 I’m sure there are multiple meanings to Calla Lilies (the double “L” is pronounced as you would with jello and not vowelized into a “y”, so same as the first two syllables of California) but as a florist I was told to Only use them in funeral or memorial arrangements. White will traditionally be a color for innocence, non romantic love, and also as a memorial used in remembrance. Very traditional flower for a child in mourning to bring. Also about as toxic as you can get for pets and no picnic for humans either
I rarely comment, but the talk about your mom compelled me. My mom passed after nearly 5 years fighting cancer. Getting better then worse in a cycle. That game line hit me hard too. Im sorry for your loss. Im sure she was an amazing woman to raise such a brilliant woman. ❤
@@tiacamp9349 thank you.
RETURN OF EDITH FINCH LETS GOO!!! Love the mouthwashing references and comparisons it helped alot!
Hey if you liked this, i also made an analysis on mouthwashing :) thanks!
@@SocksNeedsHelp :OO TY ILL GET TO IT
I'm so glad people are still talking about this game! It's such an interesting story that has stuck with me ever since it first came out
This video caught me so off guard man it perfectly fits the topics that have been on my mind lately it's insane, plus I'm literally ashamed I didn't spot the deeper meaning of the game earlier even though I played it like four times. Love your interpretation and love this essay, something I really didn't know I needed
@robynnd4 thank you! Im glad you liked it
You might not see this, but White Calla lilies can be seen as a foreshadowing that Edith has died. Calla lilies are often called "funeral flowers" where I'm from because they are extremely common for funerals. So him holding calla lilies in the beginning shows us that the person is going to a funeral, grave or memorial. It makes sense because she (Edith) speaks of her mother's recent death even though its Edith's death that we're actually going to memoralize. Also, him reading Ediths diary while holding those flowers is another hint because Edith doesn't need to read her own diary while going to a home that her mother never wanted to go back to. But who did? Edith. So her offspring (the last Finch and the person who'd read to learn more about their lineage) has to be the one to read it.
I believe i say most of this in the video, no? We're playing as edith's kid in the opening cutscene, lol. I know that calla lillies are funeral flowers, and I am definitely regretting not saying that in the video now since everyone wants to let me know haha.
@SocksNeedsHelp oh, sorry. I commented this like a few minutes into the video. Perhaps I should have watched longer 😅
you're far from the only one to do stuff like this haha, you're alright
Personally I have what I consider a much more fitting end to Barbara.
she ran away.
Child actors are notoriously under alot of stress, and Barbara would be under an extreme ammount of stress with her mother and boyfriend constantly trying to get her to reclaim the glory days of acting, so i dont think its too wild an idea that after her mother left for the hospital and she kicked her boyfriend out that she had a moment of clarity and decided to leave.
This would even line up with the police not finding her body, because there wasnt one as well as allowing for her mother to make up a fantastical tale about how she died without anyone being able to just point to a mortuary report.
hells maybe she even left with her boyfriend and thats why he disappeared as well?
Maybe...? Idk that wouldnt make sense because the banister is still broken in real life and walter wouldnt have been traumatized by barbara simply running away
While I think it’s kinda unlikely that she did run away, that does leave a little bit of a happy ending for potentially three of the Finch family members
Barbra could’ve run away, and staged a disaster (which accidentally ended up traumatizing Walter)
Walter could’ve been killed at the end of his story, but it’s a little open ended and there’s a chance he got away and didn’t die (again, kinda unlikely but it’s nice to think about)
And Milton is the most likely to still be alive, having run away and cut off his whole family, coming back on occasion to check in because he still cares about them despite knowing it’s better for him to be out of their lives
this game was such an awesome play through also your analysis is so well spoken and explained immediately subscribed
thanks!
This has been one of my favorite games since it released. The stories have stuck with me for years. I think of baby Gregory just about every time i put my own children in the bath. I loved your analysis and definitely agree that Edie was the curse.
@MorningStar426 im sure thats a pretty scary thought but remember, as long as you're paying attention to your kid you're doing leagues better than this family haha, which Im sure you are. Thank you!
I really like your interpretation of Barbara's story. It's noting grand , or fantastical and thus would make sence that Eddie saved the most rediculus interpretation.
@@sofia-th2bs thank you!
This is a great video all the way through but I want to give a special shoutout to the Barbara section because I hadn't thought about that possibility, but it's so simple that it seems almost obviously true now that you've said it. (No spoilers in this comment, of course).
Thank you! I feel like a conspiracisn bc of it, but i still like the idea
Thank you for making this video. This is highly fascinating, but I just know I could have never handled playing the game in my own. In a weird way, but when I was obsessed with Hello Neighbor lore videos, before the full game came out, this is what I thought that game would be. I’m glad someone made this game
god could you imagine if they chose this story and hello neighbor's art style to combine lmao
FINALLY A LONG FORM ESSAY ABOUT MY FAVORITE GAME !!
Really? there aren't more of these?
@@SocksNeedsHelp omg I was not expecting a response! Hey! So not really, Edith Finch has been my favorite indie game for a while now and a brief hyperfixation so I tried looking for content on RUclips and other places but most videos were shorter around the 20 minute mark there is a really amazing essay by Joseph Anderson posted quite a few years ago but other than that not much content for this game which is a shame : ( the game did get a game theory episode but those can be hit and miss
It's a very niche game despite how amazing it is, it makes me happy as a long term fan to see people talking about it again!! So instant subscribe from me this essay will be amazing background to a drawing session, I'm locked in 🙏🙏
game theory vids are.... yikes imo. way too surface level or way too in depth in all the wrong ways imo.
This was a great video! I've seen many essays breaking down What Remains of Edith Finch, but they all focused more on their own reactions to the game. This video reminded me very much of the papers I would write in college -- identifying an overarching theme and then viewing every aspect of the game through that lens with an eye for intentional and potentially unintentional symbolism. In a media landscape which has dissected this game ad nauseum, it's really nice to see one which takes a different approach. Fantastic work!
@@Ficus1493 im glad you liked it! Thanks!
Thank you for this. Everything you said was everything I had been thinking when learning about this lore. My heart goes out to you about your mom. May she rest easy.
Thank you!
I came back to this after watching your playthrough; specifically the part with the cannery.
There's some subtle details that tell me how his life ended. And by subtle, I mean 'staring me in the face'.
When he kneels down to accept the crown, the thing he is kneeling before is a guillotine. There is a flash, right at the end, of him look at the end of the table, where the fish-heads go; where heads have been going, to be discarded, the entire segment.
...I think. He kneeled in front of the chopping machine.
And bowed his head.
I kind of feel like you are giving Edie too much credit in terms of Walter. She may have spread word of a moleman, but it was Walter's trauma alone that kept him from going back to the home he witnessed his sister die, and he still had plenty of food. He only decided to leave when he realized the shaking hadn't happened at the normal time and thought that "the monster" was gone, when it was just that the train was late. All Edie did was capitalize on it, but she was not the one who killed him and she certainly didn't stop giving him food.
Sure, but i think it was edie's bastardization of events that really helped him stay hidden
@@SocksNeedsHelp If he went into hiding because of the comic book at all, it was only because people harassed him for him to tell the story from his point of view because, as it stated, he witnessed everything.
As for Barbara, we can only be sure that it was she who fell from the balcony, and her scream was the last thing she did before she fell, and the monsters were the result of her escaping consciousness. Of course, since the only witness did not want to talk, we will never know the whole story, and it could have been an accident caused by Barbara herself, or by her boyfriend, with whom she could have started arguing, to be pushed by him, to fall on a roller skate, to die from the fall.
I also wonder what this "curse" looked like when the Finches were still living in Norway, judging by the fact that this "curse" supposedly existed before Odin left for America.
As for Milton, outside of the Unfinished Swan game, I think he either got lost exploring tunnels in walls that were strong enough to cover up the smell and traces of rotting flesh, or as you say, he ran away from home.
Molly could probably also sense the poison growing in her insides, anticipating that it would eventually eat her from the inside, while hallucinating from the poisoning.
22:05 It looks like a father playing with his sons and encouraging them to look for secret passages Swen hid around the house.
36:20 We also don't know when the game takes place, so at that time the sea could have destroyed the rocks under the tracks because why the hell build tracks unless they are used or are a fraud. (I doubt that in the States is something like a Five-Year Plan.)
it's also possible the boyfriend pushed her i think. i love how ambiguous this story is tbh
i imagine it's just the same game but translated into norwegian haha
he almost certainly ran away. from what I know of the unfinished swan, he had a son.
yeah for sure, the poisoning made a huge difference i think as a lot of people have said how missing 1 meal wouldn't have killed her.
cute but a bit concerning. kinda like pointing them into Edie's stories
the game takes place in 2017, the year it came out. it is unlikely that the waves had washed away an entire chunk of the island in just 12 years.
@@SocksNeedsHelp As for the tracks, as I wrote, what would be their purpose other than being for transport. Moreover, we do not know how damaged the rocks were at the time of death.
I love this game! I've played it a few times. The game reminds me of my family. We also have a "curse." My great grandma lost her son and her husband, my grandma lost 3 daughters and 2 husbands, one of my aunts lost a child and a husband, and my other aunt lost 2 kids and a husband. And i think all my grandma's (female) cousins and aunts ended up being widows. All passed at different ages and for varying reasons, ranging from m*rder, accidents, illness. Rarely anyone passed from old age.
Wow. You should right a book about that... or wait... no dont actually...
ditto oml. We used to have one where one son from every generation would die in a car accident before their 21st birthday. My brother broke that one though. Mom used to be so nervous whenever he drove because her cousin was the last person who died in one and she blamed herself for a long time because he was coming to see her.
I mostly blame that on recklessness but also general poor roads.
@dx.feelgood5825 I'm sure it must have been tough for your mom to live with the guilt and worry. For a few years, I lived on edge just waiting for the next death. After one cousin died from a work accident in 2015 and another cousin died in 2016 also from a work accident, he was driving an 18-wheeler and a drunk driver swerved in front of him.
Beautiful analysis! I've loved this game since I watched a Let's Play forever ago and I'm glad people are still talking about it. I will say I don't view Odin's death as unavoidable, the dude decided to sail a house. That's just asking for a shipwreck even in calm seas, and he made it even more dangerous by deciding to stay in the house on the cargo barge rather than in the tugboat where it would have been safer (I'm assuming the depiction is accurate, even if it isn't the whole affair was asking for trouble). Edie definitely exacerbated the issue but the Finch family had a sort of martyr complex about their 'curse' long before, needing dramatic gestures to leave a mark on the world before their 'destined' death.
One other thing I got from the ending was they'd been trying so hard to leave a mark on the world with their stories and dramatics that they gave up on leaving marks on people in their lives. What remains of Edith Finch isn't just a collection of horror stories, but a child who was abandoned because of those stories.
I dont think odin's death was anavoidable either, but i do think it had nothing to do with Edie.
@@SocksNeedsHelp Definitely not. I do wonder if Odin had his own 'Edie' who got him hooked on the curse, it's funny that Edie never tells any stories about the family before they came to their current home for all she was happy to talk about the hereditary curse they were escaping.
love the games visuals, growing up in the pacific northwest its so homey and something about the way they did foxglove is just so beautiful
yeah its done really well. my only experience of the pacific northwest is seattle and portland so i haven't gotten this but it's definitely close
I’m sorry to hear about your mom. I just lost mine this year in a very similar way. I think that was a beautiful way to bookend the video and an amazing analysis in general.
Thank you. This game means a lot to me
Wow, amazing video! I think that the way that you described your opinion was very good. I have loved What Remains Of Edith Finch. And always will. It has a special place in my heart. That I just can't tell why. But it reminds me to appreciate life and all it has to offer. Because maybe at any moment. Our final moments could be one of Edie's stories.
Thanks
The fact that only Barbara's ear was the last piece remaining of her still lingers in my head.
@ColorHeartCarlie42 i still dont fully understand that but it is very
Ear-ie
This is a beautiful game and a wonderful analysis. Thank you for showing off this story, as I had never actually heard about this game beforehand. I really enjoy how you encourage your audience to talk about this game more and more in the comments. Maybe Edie would have liked that.
Yeah well, edie doesn't exist so I don't mind spreading her stories. i think a lot of people have learned about themselves through games like this
I know this probably sounds nit picky but i feel its important to note that the case of Barbaras comic, those facts in it about the home are things Eddie (because who else( had to have told the creators of the comic. Such as the way to get down to the basment work area which even we didnt know until after. In a way hinting at how much she loved the attention Barbs death got her. As for Walter he clearly hadnt run out of food, we see so much of it simply left down there to go to waste either on purpose by Eddie or simply to help paint the picture of Walters life down there.
I think Edie faked the amount of food in walter's room tbh. I can't stand on this for certain, but it looks like the food was newer than the rest of the room.
@SocksNeedsHelp that's fair and now seeing how many comment about it your getting wanna apologize cause yikes😬
lil its alright. its not as bad as the people who comment about the flower meanings
Unrelated to the game, but your voice is so calming and nice to listen to
Ive been told that a few times, im glad you like it!
I've loved this game for years since the game came out even and you did such a good job retelling and detailing it, bringing the game a new light. Loved this too bad
Thank you!
I absolutely love this game not only for its great storytelling but on a personal level as well. Bad things particularly always happened to my family that ended with death, which made me believe there was a curse at play. My aunt, who never smoked, never drank alcohol or ate unhealthy, was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer. My cousin was shot to death while visiting family. My uncle was murdered outside his own home, taking out the trash. My sister inlaw was tied and left to burn by burglars robbing her house. My brother in law took his own life a year ago and so on. Having your family pass away in strange tragic ways from my experience really does start to make you think that there really is a curse going on so i completely understand how some members of the finch family really just let the idea of the curse consume them when they really just needed therapy, to move on from that house and Edie.
I'm very sorry to hear about that. Im glad this game could give you a better perspective on your experience, if nothing else. Mouthwashing did a very similar thing for me and my sexual assault so I kind of get where you're coming from.
So nostalgic about this game even though it's not that long yet, has been like 7 years and the game still get mentioned every once in a while
I mean it's worth it. Its a great game
Your content is criminally underated
Yeah! Someone SHOULD go to jail over this!
I’ve always interpreted edie’s death as being one that happened on her own terms. I think that being so tried and lonely, plus aware of the fact that she likely didn’t have long left anyway, she chose to walk down to her old home under the stars and let the sea rise back over her. whether I view this delayed death in the house that logically should’ve killed her almost a century earlier as a taciturn acknowledgment that the curse was never real in the first place or as a desperate last ditch attempt to make it all true via forcing it upon herself depends almost entirely on how I’m feeling that day, but the belief that it was edie’s choice will always remain consistent. my own grandmother did something similar, for the same sort of reason - sometimes people aren’t particularly depressed or self loathing, they’re just tired from living long, exhausting lives. looking at edie, I think that more than anything she was tired.
Oh yeah for sure. I think she likely jumped into the sea or something like that but regardless, it was all an attempt to be the one to write her own story
i started watching this channel for risk of rain content but i'm so glad that led to me watching this. 11/11 video
Hey thanks!
Man, can I stop finding these stories concerningly relatable? First Swansea now this? Christ.
Either way, excellent analysis as always! Never stop reading into things too far, best to get the most out of life that we can eh?
... you found swansea relatable?...
Thanks!
@SocksNeedsHelp Yeah the whole bitter, well intentioned blue collar guy has been where I ended up. I dodged being an alcoholic at least, but only because alcohol poisoning kinda forced me to. No kids but im my siblings guardian now so basically got one of the hardest parts of parenting, the funding the first car, starting their lives part.
But is what it is, always liked being a cog in the machine, even if it sucks sometimes. Gives me some kind of purpose I guess.
This is an excellent analysis. I'm truly shocked you don't have more subscribers! Great work.
Thank you!
I love this video, the insight you gave on each story is amazing, and ngl, your voice is nice to listen to. I cant wait to hear more of your thoughts on stuff!
Also, it seems like The Unfinished Swan is part of Milton's story
Im sorry, i wrote this before the end (only a few minutes) and I'm sorry for your loss, my condolences
Thanks!
This is a lovely video! I just wanted to share my two cents about what was mentioned around 44:42 -- When I first saw that part of the game, my guess was that the calls came in on a landline house phone; one of those older ones with a cord, which would require Kay to leave the room. Since Gregory passed in 1977, this was definitely the case! So, she didn't leave the room for "privacy", but rather necessity. Doesn't make it any better, it's still a tragedy, I just felt the need to clarify :>
@noxiovsfvmes so I can understand this... however she literally says "i dont want gregory to hear this" and closes the bathroom and shower door on him. I see what you mean but i dont think it changes anything
@@SocksNeedsHelp Ah, fair! It's been a while since I've watched/played the game, so I forgot about that line! But yeah, it doesn't change much
I have nothing to add, but I just wanted to say that this video was very well done!
Thank you!
2:30
7 years earlier was when Edie died not Dawn. 7 years earlier was when Dawn took Edith away from the house and Edie was supposed to go to the retirement home but died overnight.
Edie died in 2010 and Dawn (Edith's mother) died in 2017 and left the house to Edith triggering the start of the game.
I'm sorry if im misremembering, but i don't believe Walter ever mentioned not having food? There was a line when he leaves about how he's "gonna apreciate all of it especialy the food" but i think that is more about how he'd like to eat something other that canned or preserved goods, since he basicaly only ate that. I don't think that he literaly only survived on peaches.
Edith also says she saw Eddie cary packeges down to the basement. I always assumed that was her bringing Walter all his nessesities. When you look at his desk you can also see postcards from all over the world. My interpritation is that he had penpals because that was the only way how he interacted with the outside world, that and the radio.
I added a bit about this in the pinned comment. It's a bit of a conspiracy on my part but the combination of dawn taking her family out of the house, leaving a long time of dead air without deaths for edie to torment walter in and the fact he is seen without food at the last day of his section makes me thing it may have been part of it.
Okay, so I do agree with you that the curse doesn't exist. As does most anyone who's seen the game really, but that just proves how spot on that is. What I don't agree with is the depiction of Edie here.
The curse existed long before Edie. The family had believed in it for generations prior. When Edie learned about her father's death, it would have been explained as being the curse that caused it. She was born into this cycle and believing it became a way to cope with the death of so many of her family, as it likely was for every generation that came before her. While it's true that in come cases, Edie did end up related to her children's deaths, Molly being a prime example, I believe that she never intentionally harmed her family at any point. Not feeding children dinner when they misbehaved was a common punishment as recently as several decades back and was likely considered kinder than going out and getting a stick to spank the child with. It's more likely her husband built that swing than Edie herself, and children weren't as heavily protected when she'd have been raising her kids, so the idea of Calvin being out and playing with a broken arm in a cast wouldn't be that strange. Time period and the moral values of that time are important to keep in mind.
As for the later deaths, and the stories and memorials? While many might seem wrong but I don't think she meant harm. I think that was her way of processing the grief, rather than an addiction. The comic book is probably the worst of it, but I personally think that story was likely the story Walter told as a traumatized child. I also do kind of believe your first theory about the boyfriend being a stalker actually who ended up killing Barbara in retaliation for kicking him out like that. Walter didn't know how to process any of it and likely ended up saying that a monster or monsters killed his sister. Maybe Edie made the comic book for him in the same way she made the memorials for herself? And that would more explain why Walter thought the train was a monster. Edie didn't discourage that way of thinking, so he believed monsters were real. And I could see the lack of food to Walter coming down to Edie's old age meaning she couldn't get food down to his bunker so easily anymore, and possibly Dawn thinking Walter wasn't there anymore, assuming she ever really believed he was there when she got older, after 30 years of nothing from him at all.
Edie made a lot of mistakes, but I don't think they were ever malicious. To me, she was as caught up in the curse as the rest of the family, and just as reckless for the same reason.
I dont agree in the idea that she is an innocent bystander to this. Edie was past making mistakes. she was propagating the stories and made it so that her and her children were neglectful parents and emotionally distant from their family. everyone was lonely. I think part of Edie's experience was unavoidable, but she could have stopped things and made the family's relationship with death much more healthy.
I watched this video right after your Mouthwashing one. I love how you make these! You have a way of captivating who's listening, in my opinion.
I love this game a lot, I've watched countless essays and theories about it and it's amazing to still see people interested in it, and even more seeing fresh new takes on it! I personally agreed with pretty much everything you theorized. Even though I feel like, with a game like this one, it's very hard to have only one single view of it.
I'll definitely subscribe and I can't wait to watch more of your content! ✨️
Thank you!!
As someone who has quite severe maladaptive daydreaming (due to CPTSD, Depression, and a variety of other stuff) ... I can say that I have been in a similar situation to Lewis' mentality, especially when in a repeditive, menial workplace. When the best part of your life, the section you don't deliberately compartmentalise and forget, is only the parts you imagine and make up - yeah ... the thought that "Well, life is less bearable than what's in my head, so why not end that part and stop the pain" was a thought I did deal with for a while.
If he was lucid of that decision or not, it's hard to truly say, but I can say that it is very possible that he knew what he was doing, where he was going, with that final decision.
Anyway this was a really good video, thank you for posting, it was very tasty yes yes.
Thank you for sharing.
Dont est my video :/
Giant Sparrow has confirmed that Milton is the king in The Unfinished Swan, so it's very interesting to play it as well and find out more about him and what happened afterwards
@@ntellaS2 i know and so many people here have spoiled that game for .e
@@SocksNeedsHelpthat's so sad people spoiled it. If you can get your hands in it, it's a good puzzle game. I'd say the environmental puzzles are creative and fun and worth playing the game for. But I can see why you wouldn't sense people ruined the story aspects for you
Wooo another analysis video, i will be watching this while i eat dinner.
@@ItsT1G im glad some people are watching it haha
@SocksNeedsHelp yeah ofc, I really like watching these analysis videos and getting a deeper understanding of their storys. And I like hearing your take on them.
I would also like to add, with how you mention Molly's growing hatred, how the animals she turns into grow more and more violent, as do the deaths
in a way, sure, but it's kind of hard to compare causes of death