Fittingly, the vault named for his pride actually does represent his pride. He's completely unwilling to admit a single shortcoming to anyone, so he took the time and energy to fabricate a layer of his mindscape just to keep up the fascade.
A lot of people don't like to confront their own shortcomings, (no pun intended). In a certain sense, yeah, his pride led him to project an image to everyone else showing what he considered to be the best version of himself. Or what he could have been.
@@GamingUniversityUoG did you notice how long his legs are in his fake memories? right from the start they were hinting that he wasnt what he seemed, love good foreshadowing
@@dj-y7018 i actually look at it and thought he lost his legs in the war, like cotton from king of the hill. he lost his knees in war and thats how he became so short
Something I think is interesting is that you don't see any other soldiers in Oleander's mind other than figments. It's a clue to the truth about him since he was never in the military, he never saw soldiers in action. So both ally and enemy are just figments if his imagination.
That's an interesting point. I didn't think of that. No memories of actual war buddies or soldiers, just fantasies. The set pieces are also so fantastical, charactetures of warfare. Nothing simple like the barracks or basic training.
@@GamingUniversityUoG A lot of the figments have meaning to them, some having more significance than other. Like Milla desire to be on TV but can't due to being an international spy, so she imagines herself being on TV which is why a lot of the figments are of televisions and cameramen. As well as Fred, who I believe he is either just bored of losing so often that he just imagines his own little game to amuse himself like how there are bird soldiers or a fairy in the woods near the carpenter, or this is him filling in the blanks of the table top game like the apples in the orchard. But then there's levels like the Milkman Conspiracy where the figments are just normal everyday things. Since Boyd believes everyone is in on a conspiracy, to him normal people are living imaginary lives to trick him. However there are these birds with cameras on them; which isn't normal at all. I believe this is Boyd's subconscious trying to show that the conspiracy is just all in his head. That it's all imaginary. I've to believe this when you use cheats to get the Confusion Grenade early. If you use them on Boyd, he momentarily become clear headed and starts to think all the talk of the Milkman isn't real for a brief moment until he goes back to mumbling. It's why I love this game so much. The collectables do give some insight on the characters.
Rather than *just* being a fake representation of himself or how he wants to be thought of I think the battle scarred war zone he shows us can be interpreted as how he views the world too. Similar to how boyd's mind represents the world through a lens of twisted thinking, Oleander's mind shows a world that is out to get you, every step you take is one into danger, faced with ruthless punishment from nowhere. He didn't intend on anyone to finish his course because he thinks the world is against him in every way and it won't let him succeed, and he wanted the children to feel that. His own resentment pushed onto those innocent or so to say are lucky to have no idea what pain he feels.
That is a fascinating observation and something I didn't consider. I am 100% on board with that idea because of how well it goes thematically with his world view. Thank you for your comment. I love hearing new perspectives on these topics and games.
Another important aspect to think about are the Censors -- or rather, the lack of them in the battlefield. According to Sasha, the Censors "roam through your psyche, looking for thoughts that don't belong. Hallucinations, manias, waking dreams. The Censors hunt them down, and censor them out." He's letting whatever thoughts he has float to the forefront of his psyche and all he does is run with them.
There might be censors in other parts of his mind, but Basic Braining takes place within his delusions. I think he's erected a barrier between the rational parts of his mind and his deluded sense of self. What we see doesn't comport with reality at all, so if censors were let in they'd censor everything, fundamentally changing his self image.
@@screamingcactus1753 Which would fit well with how Oleander's forte is said to be psychic defense, and how he's the one that provides the Shield ability.
Well , basic braining dosent have censors , but thay dosent mean that morceau dosent have it Let me explain , censors are the equivalents to sanity. They destroy everytingh that dosent belong there , such as delusions or fantazies , coach can separete reality from fiction , unlikey boyd , so is clear that he DOES have censors Where? In the brain tumbler experiment censors atack raz , wich is weird if he is in his own mind , true is , that is coachs psyqhue mixed with others such as loboto , ford , edgar , etc bc of the inconsciente colectivo ( CANT SPELL THAT)
@@lou626 That actually makes a lot of sense. I'm not sure how the Collective Unconscious works in terms of Censors, but in the second game there's a lot of place that have Censors in one part of the mind but not another
It can't have helped Mr. Oleander that his parents named him Morceau, which in French is approximately the same word as morsel. He's a small bit, a piece of the man he should be.
It is seriously depressing for him and only gets worse the more we learn about him. The last level shows us the rest ak I'm looking forward to getting to that point.
Morceau is such an interesting word . It not only means "little picece of something" in french , is also a really lil' cut of meat and a type of poem! In the lipo doc it say that his mother (Midge XD) named him after a poem she read in a newpaper
@@lou626 Fitting that its a small cut of meat, because his insecurities with his height actually go further back to his father butchering a rabbit he liked, saying that it was worthless for anything but meat because it was small.
@@superdaveozy7863 And yet there's a minefield, a machine gun nest and perilous drops everywhere. He blows up one kid right in front of you just make a point, and does the same to two more for the sake of a joke. I don't think he's too concerned with the wellbeing of the children. No, I think it's more that this is a part of his mind that he keeps well guarded against rational thought. None of it comports with reality, so if censors were let in, they'd run amok and erase everything. In a sense, it seems he's used his psychic training to reinforce and enhance his delusions.
I'm curious how much of Oleander influenced Boyd. I know he committed arson before he was institutionalized when he burned down the building he was fired from.
@@GamingUniversityUoG Something interesting to consider which I never knew why that is: Boyd Cooper is the only human Raz can set on fire. Whenever he uses psychokinesis on anyone, they only smolder a bit and then tell Raz off. Boyd on the other hand actually burns both in his mind and in the real world. Any theory on why that is?
@@wjzav1971 it's probably to show how unraveled the man is by his problems. He's so caught up in the fake danger he doesn't even notice the real danger.
Now that i think about it, Oleander kind of remindes me of the soldier from Team Fortress 2, except while Oleander was kicked out for being short, Soldier was kicked out for being dimwitted and insane.
@@GamingUniversityUoG as a psychonauts and tf2 fan i have to say that yes , they are similar The only diferent betwen this two is that i fell like soldier see the war just like fun , a games kid thaht is just there to prove your masculinity Morceau in the other hand , know how painfull war can be (in the lipo document its say that his father was an ex-marine)
Heavy has a doctorate in russian literature you know. He's educated, a weaponary expert and also a serious family man. Mercenary job the line of work he found himself in after escaping the gulag, it just happened to be something he enjoys too much. Edit: Pardon, I was tired while writing this and guess I tought we were talking about Heavy. Soldier is dumb like a pair of dhoes.
You know, thinking back, when I first watched a Let's Play of this game and saw Oleander's Pride, I just thought that he used to be taller, but lost his legs to a war injury and that's why he was training kids at a camp.
I think the term is Confabulation. Basically having a false memory about ones past. Imagining himself as grander than he really was as a fantasy. I'll discuss more of this during Black Velvetopia
This is wonderful! Somehow I never picked up on the longer legs and taller vehicle despite playing through the game loads of times! Didn't even notice the bunny pattern in the white room - just shows how much thought went into all the level and character design
Honestly I didn't notice the bunnies in the white room until someone commented on one of our streams. This game is great about how much they pack into the level design. I'm always learning new stuff! In looking forward to the other levels too.
I always felt Lanky Kongeandor was wrong even when first seeing it. Makes sense that it was never true, rather just Oly saving his buttocks from showing the truth. Oh, and the bunnies in The White Room? I never noticed those, and learning about those being in there after seeing the ending is GENIUS writing!
Oleanders mind isn't just a front. It really is the war torn mind of man waging war on the world. When I first found out he was the bad guy I slapped my head saying "Of course he is! He's mental!" It's right in front of us. We just took the 'Quirky Drill Sargent' trope at face value, and never stopped to question, is this the mind of a healthy socially-adjusted adult? So no, its not just a front, that disastrous warzone really was Oleander's mental state on full display.
I’m very grateful for this series, as a kid playing this game a lot of the symbolism flew over my head and when I got older I learned more that the levels are different mental issues but no one ever talks about it. They talk about milkman conspiracy and I’ve seen one video each form separate channels for Gloria’s Theater and Black Velvetopia so I’m happy I’m now gonna get a full psychological breakdown of each level
This is a wonderful video! I absolutely love Oleander’s character and I’ve been studying Basic Braining for a very long time myself, and this is a fantastic breakdown of his thought process and how it could be applied to real life. I await your next video regarding him to see what you have in store! I am quite literally shaking with excitement to spill my own beans about him, all the little hints and tidbits about him, all the nods to his real story all tucked into every nook and cranny in this fabricated mindscape. But I’ll have to wait for your next video before I do that. I’ve been wanting to make my own video about him, analyzing his whole character. I was working on one, it got an hour long, I wasn’t done, and then everything got erased when my computer broke... I’m just excited to see someone else take an interest in him, psychologically.
That sucks man. I know how much work goes into trying to make these so losing a full hour of content must have been a bad time. I agree there is so much information packed into this level that it would take a long time to fully dissect it. I tried to condense it down to the most important points. I'm going to go in order so the next video will be Sasha's Shooting Galletry then I'll be going one by one. Hopefully by the time I get to the other Oleander world it will be worth the wait!
I absolutely love how every bit is broken down, and I'm happy to see that you are doing all of the stages! I can't wait to see when there's a video for Gloria's Theater!
To this day, I still can't stop thinking about the fact that Oleander's mind (not including Meat Circus) is the only mind in the entire franchise so far (not including RoR) to not have any real enemies at all, and i'm not including the obstacles bc they aren't sentient enemies like censors.
Ok, after 16 yrs or so, I never knew these details when playing the game. I never even knew about him not actually being in the military. Dang this is a lot to take in.
@@GamingUniversityUoG Denied due to his height. I can see why he would mask his true self. But it still doesn't excuse him for the things he caused onto others.
I fully agree. Understanding a person's motivation can allow us to emphasize, but it doesnt excuse behavior. I'm curious if hom being around the Pstinanium motherlode located under Whispering Rocks pushed him over the edge. Agent Crueller did say it can make someone who is already unstable even more so.
@@GamingUniversityUoG See, you have a fair point that could maybe caused CO to lose his mind a bit. Because there is no way he just would attack those around him for no reason. In the first part of the game he seems as though nothing is wrong with him, unless he had his mind in total control during the first half. Then after that, he just lost. Idk if this makes sense, but I believe this could be possible.
Oh yeah that was the Memory Vault Hidden behind the Mental Cobweb. you would have never found it unless you were trying to go for 100% or at the Very least all of the Memory Vaults.
This is a great video. I've always wanted someone to analyze the psychology of Psychonauts and I'm excited to see what you have to say about the rest of the levels. Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much! I've only seen people look at The Milkman Conspiracy and the like but every world deserves special treatment. I'm glad to be able to provide this public service lol.
I might be wrong, but Oleander's mindset reminds me of how the mind of many mid-class men addressing themselves to alt-right ideals work. Coming from complicated family scenarios and usually a lack of healthy emotional growth, these individuals embrace the ideasl of virile strong soldier men that society bombards us with, as a goal they need to aspire to. When those expectactions never really get fulfilled because of the unreal nature of such ideals, or because other barriers put by society, their own environment, their families or themselves, this becomes a perfect fuel for resentment. Instead of going by the path of self-awareness or social awareness, they simply blame everyone but themselves of their misfortunes, and use this dysphoria as an excuse to keep fueling their hatred and resentment, which only leads them to embrace extreme ideas that totally fit that need for anger release. Again, I might be wrong, but I don't see Oleander to be too different from that kind of people.
The only thing I would say to ammend this is that it is a universal character trait. I've seen people of all backgrounds and philosophies engage in this behavior. Once you recognize the pattern it is easy to pick it out in individual cases.
Not just the alt right, any form of political extremism is rooted in this. from the authoritarians who inspire to be rulers, to the leftists who want to be great revolutionaries, to the libertarians who aspire to be the brave militiaman who flips off anyone who dare tells them what to do.
I absolutely love this series and am binging them all currently haha I've been waiting for someone to break down the actual psychological meanings to each mind
This was incredible I truly appreciate the work you put in! I understand that Psychonauts is a niche genre but us fans really are thankful for what you did!!! Superb!!
I truly appreciate it! I've been a huge fan of this game for a while and know there is so much crammed into it that begs to be dissected. I plan to have more to come!
They mean a lot of things : passion , warning , but also death If you take an oleander flower to someone's room , they're gonna be dead by the morning And to add to these , the pousionouns of the flower was first discover in war , by beaing eating with MEAT by soldiers
Really, the simplest way to avoid an identity crisis is to always be aware of oneself, objective but fair, thus avoiding conflict between one's inward and outward selves. I guess that's kinda similar to accepting one's true self, but it's more like prevention, rather than treatment of symptoms.
Seriously I cannot wait to see the minds in the next game. Every one in the original was so well crafted. Exploring who these people are is half the fun.
Its also funny that his name is French, yet he wears a Prussian helmet. A symbol of German militarism and of a country that served as the mortal enemy of France for most of late 19th and early 20th centuries. Maybe that just shows how much he rejects his real self and his own family. That he rejects his own ancestry to the point where he's embraced a symbol that his ancestors would've despised.
Thank you very much! Honestly I didn't notice some until I started making this either. I had no clue those little bunnies were in the white room until one of the community members pointed it out to me. This game has so much packed inside of it. I love it!
@@GamingUniversityUoG Exactly!! It really adds to the game’s charm and I think it’s pretty clear to see that a lot of love and creativity was put into the game. I hope Psychonauts 2 will manage to live up to its standards!
Nice video! I've always been intrigued by the concept of Psychonauts even way back in the day, it was one of those "sounds interesting, I should play that someday" type deals but never actually did. All I can remember from that time period is Halo multiplayer matches lol. Anyway looking forward to your future analyses on this one
Same here! My friends were all about it when I was younger and I didn't get into it until a few years back. I was floored by how well crafted the game, environments, and characters are. The gameplay is a bit dated but besides that it is a classic
I must have played this a half dozen times before sitting down to work on this. Only while writing did I see all the little foreshadowing details. It's nuts
Absolutely! I plan to go through all of the worlds in this style. The one for Sasha Shooting Gallery just went up yesterday! Milla's Dance party will be the next one as I'm going in order.
Ok I gotta mention that Oleander might just be normal hight because last I checked Sasha is canonically 7 feet tall. I could be mistaken but still, food for thought.
It's great going through videos like this because there are so many details in these games, no one person is going to pick out all of them. I never put together the proliferation of cobwebs in the 'award room' implied that it had been disused for so long and that was the reason the white room was accessible. Nor that the white room would be connected to the award room because of the association of minds powerful enough to make it through the course being most suited to man the tanks. Of /course/ those two thoughts would have a direct connection.
Dude i am learning so much from these videos. I started with comptons cookoff and the meat circus before digging into the playlist. That you go into "modern" / western psychology but also shamanistic practice (and compare analogues between them!) is genuinely so cool. It feels like a more complete education.
Thank you so much! I'm really happy that you've found some value in my weird way at looking at this stuff. I enjoy looking at how various traditions and disciplines try to describe the same thing. Shamanism, psychology, theology. It is probably why I enjoy Joseph Cambell so much. My personal opinion is that having a running knowledge of them is like having pieces to the puzzle needed to see the whole picture.
I wanna see more videos about this, you got a subscriber just mind the audio mixing, your voice is kinda too low, I had to turn the volume way up to hear it
I plan yo do a full series for each of the mental words in this style. Yeah there was a couple i didn't keep as close an eye on the audio as i should have. I wish RUclips let us fix it and reload without deleting the data on the original one.
I only found this video because I learned that a character shared my name and wanted to see who it was, but this videos great! Might get into psychonauts now.
I intended to do one large video showing each of them. The idea was use the stuff brought up in the Mental Worlds to relate to the Campers. Crystal & Clem for example have a basis in Nihilism but portray the same smiling depression that Milla deals with. Elka is a precog and her relationship problems are rooted in her trying to defy fate. Stuff like that.
Late to the train but im really loking for you video of meat circus and dr loboto mind in general Something i would like to point too , morry's seems to have some kind of narcissistic disorder
I have a question about this window thing, just to see if I understand it. For someone like Compton, would the blind shot be his biggest window? Seeing as he recognized as a great example for younger psychonauts but doesn't think he can do what they believe?
That would defintly be a big thing for him. Any personality type that can't see their own worth but others see him as a competent and inspirational figure is blind to something all right.
4:48 In real life there's aspects of myself I mask from others, including my autistic traits and symptoms depending on who I am with; with family and friends I don't mask my case of autism. Though there's also other aspects that I mask as well, things like my paraphilias because not everyone understands what that actually means, on the internet however I just simply don't care and express I have these desires; I find romantic feelings for things, I'm not going to specify but I'll say this to give an idea; nick wilde from Zootopia is 100 times cuter as his childhood/cub self. We all have aspects of ourselves we wish didn't exist, there's always going to be that dark part of yourself that you just don't want to be true, don't want to be real; denial and suppression of desires and emotions ain't the solution.
This comment was originally supposed to be a lot more... personal. With how my story fits into this and how a similar thing happened to us... But this can be viewed by anyone, so I'll just say... There's a fourth way to go out on this. When you're trying your hardest to achieve your dreams and fight for everything, but the people around you just... break you and for years you think it's your own fault... So now you're scared to try again. Lying there, hoping that either fate will just... take pity on you or that you'll just perish uncompleted.
Did you know what the little bird said ? "Whatever you do stay in the light " Could you explain it ? Because I don't speak bird language nor do I have CONTROL over it's AWE whatever that means huh ?
Lili is great lol. It is weird, but I don't remember her being a pyro in the original game. That only got brought up in Rhombus of Ruin. I could be wrong though.
Something tells me she may create fire proof plants or plants that are constantly on fire Blueberries would like her considering they are plants that thrive in fire aftermaths
Oleander did serve in the military, but while wearing *stilts.* If you look at his 'Pride' memories, you can see that his thighs bulge in a very weird way, *exactly* where his feet should be. Since one of his abilities is telekinesis, he could've used that to help move and bend his legs realistically. I noticed this when I first played the game fifteen years ago. Even if I'm incorrect, I'm extremely surprised to see that nobody else seems to have noticed it.
Double Fine basically made fake Myspace accounts for all the Campers in the game. The name of the site is Campster but it has been taken down at this point.
@@GamingUniversityUoG Very true, I even see aspects of myself in Raz and his character arc Specifically, the "My Father doesn't approve of _____" thing
Fittingly, the vault named for his pride actually does represent his pride. He's completely unwilling to admit a single shortcoming to anyone, so he took the time and energy to fabricate a layer of his mindscape just to keep up the fascade.
A lot of people don't like to confront their own shortcomings, (no pun intended). In a certain sense, yeah, his pride led him to project an image to everyone else showing what he considered to be the best version of himself. Or what he could have been.
@@GamingUniversityUoG did you notice how long his legs are in his fake memories? right from the start they were hinting that he wasnt what he seemed, love good foreshadowing
@@dj-y7018 his legs are longer then he is in thos memories
@@dj-y7018 and how raised his Jeep is!
@@dj-y7018 i actually look at it and thought he lost his legs in the war, like cotton from king of the hill. he lost his knees in war and thats how he became so short
Something I think is interesting is that you don't see any other soldiers in Oleander's mind other than figments. It's a clue to the truth about him since he was never in the military, he never saw soldiers in action. So both ally and enemy are just figments if his imagination.
That's an interesting point. I didn't think of that. No memories of actual war buddies or soldiers, just fantasies. The set pieces are also so fantastical, charactetures of warfare. Nothing simple like the barracks or basic training.
@@GamingUniversityUoG A lot of the figments have meaning to them, some having more significance than other. Like Milla desire to be on TV but can't due to being an international spy, so she imagines herself being on TV which is why a lot of the figments are of televisions and cameramen. As well as Fred, who I believe he is either just bored of losing so often that he just imagines his own little game to amuse himself like how there are bird soldiers or a fairy in the woods near the carpenter, or this is him filling in the blanks of the table top game like the apples in the orchard.
But then there's levels like the Milkman Conspiracy where the figments are just normal everyday things. Since Boyd believes everyone is in on a conspiracy, to him normal people are living imaginary lives to trick him. However there are these birds with cameras on them; which isn't normal at all. I believe this is Boyd's subconscious trying to show that the conspiracy is just all in his head. That it's all imaginary. I've to believe this when you use cheats to get the Confusion Grenade early. If you use them on Boyd, he momentarily become clear headed and starts to think all the talk of the Milkman isn't real for a brief moment until he goes back to mumbling.
It's why I love this game so much. The collectables do give some insight on the characters.
It is incredible how much detail they put into this game. I can't wait to dive into those later levels when the minds getting really twisted and odd.
Who are you working for!?
@@andreassmed2255
The dairy industry, of course. Duh!
Rather than *just* being a fake representation of himself or how he wants to be thought of I think the battle scarred war zone he shows us can be interpreted as how he views the world too. Similar to how boyd's mind represents the world through a lens of twisted thinking, Oleander's mind shows a world that is out to get you, every step you take is one into danger, faced with ruthless punishment from nowhere. He didn't intend on anyone to finish his course because he thinks the world is against him in every way and it won't let him succeed, and he wanted the children to feel that. His own resentment pushed onto those innocent or so to say are lucky to have no idea what pain he feels.
That is a fascinating observation and something I didn't consider. I am 100% on board with that idea because of how well it goes thematically with his world view.
Thank you for your comment. I love hearing new perspectives on these topics and games.
@@GamingUniversityUoG thank you, for noticing my comment
Mind blown
Another important aspect to think about are the Censors -- or rather, the lack of them in the battlefield. According to Sasha, the Censors "roam through your psyche, looking for thoughts that don't belong. Hallucinations, manias, waking dreams. The Censors hunt them down, and censor them out." He's letting whatever thoughts he has float to the forefront of his psyche and all he does is run with them.
There might be censors in other parts of his mind, but Basic Braining takes place within his delusions. I think he's erected a barrier between the rational parts of his mind and his deluded sense of self. What we see doesn't comport with reality at all, so if censors were let in they'd censor everything, fundamentally changing his self image.
@@screamingcactus1753 Which would fit well with how Oleander's forte is said to be psychic defense, and how he's the one that provides the Shield ability.
Well , basic braining dosent have censors , but thay dosent mean that morceau dosent have it
Let me explain , censors are the equivalents to sanity. They destroy everytingh that dosent belong there , such as delusions or fantazies , coach can separete reality from fiction , unlikey boyd , so is clear that he DOES have censors
Where? In the brain tumbler experiment censors atack raz , wich is weird if he is in his own mind , true is , that is coachs psyqhue mixed with others such as loboto , ford , edgar , etc bc of the inconsciente colectivo ( CANT SPELL THAT)
@@lou626 That actually makes a lot of sense. I'm not sure how the Collective Unconscious works in terms of Censors, but in the second game there's a lot of place that have Censors in one part of the mind but not another
Censors also don’t appear in the milkman conspiracy for the same reasons
It can't have helped Mr. Oleander that his parents named him Morceau, which in French is approximately the same word as morsel. He's a small bit, a piece of the man he should be.
It is seriously depressing for him and only gets worse the more we learn about him. The last level shows us the rest ak I'm looking forward to getting to that point.
Morceau is such an interesting word . It not only means "little picece of something" in french , is also a really lil' cut of meat and a type of poem!
In the lipo doc it say that his mother (Midge XD) named him after a poem she read in a newpaper
A butcher really named his son after food. Now I can see why Morry was so scared of his dad lol.
@@lou626 Fitting that its a small cut of meat, because his insecurities with his height actually go further back to his father butchering a rabbit he liked, saying that it was worthless for anything but meat because it was small.
I think it's worth noting that Oleander's mind is one of the few in which there are no censors.
Him, Linda, and Oleanders false world are the only ones without them.
Its an isolated training course he made. He can control it to where censors don't come out to harm the kids.
@@superdaveozy7863 And yet there's a minefield, a machine gun nest and perilous drops everywhere. He blows up one kid right in front of you just make a point, and does the same to two more for the sake of a joke. I don't think he's too concerned with the wellbeing of the children. No, I think it's more that this is a part of his mind that he keeps well guarded against rational thought. None of it comports with reality, so if censors were let in, they'd run amok and erase everything. In a sense, it seems he's used his psychic training to reinforce and enhance his delusions.
@@screamingcactus1753 he also blows up the guy climb the place aka bobbys hench man becuse i cant remember his name mr big ears
@@andrewaftontheandroidhedge2780 benny
My favorite design detail about Oleander is that his spiked helmet has a cork on it. I like to think Mia put that there.
I think the Milkman learned his pyrotechnics in the war Oleander saw himself in
I'm curious how much of Oleander influenced Boyd. I know he committed arson before he was institutionalized when he burned down the building he was fired from.
I'm pretty sure the milkman just knows about Molotovs since he used them on his work after he was fired
Do you think Boyd served in Korea or Vietnam?
@@GamingUniversityUoG Something interesting to consider which I never knew why that is: Boyd Cooper is the only human Raz can set on fire.
Whenever he uses psychokinesis on anyone, they only smolder a bit and then tell Raz off. Boyd on the other hand actually burns both in his mind and in the real world.
Any theory on why that is?
@@wjzav1971 it's probably to show how unraveled the man is by his problems. He's so caught up in the fake danger he doesn't even notice the real danger.
Now that i think about it, Oleander kind of remindes me of the soldier from Team Fortress 2, except while Oleander was kicked out for being short, Soldier was kicked out for being dimwitted and insane.
My buddy was really big into Team Fortress 2. I'll have to ask him about that character. Sounds very similar though.
@@GamingUniversityUoG as a psychonauts and tf2 fan i have to say that yes , they are similar
The only diferent betwen this two is that i fell like soldier see the war just like fun , a games kid thaht is just there to prove your masculinity
Morceau in the other hand , know how painfull war can be (in the lipo document its say that his father was an ex-marine)
Heavy has a doctorate in russian literature you know. He's educated, a weaponary expert and also a serious family man. Mercenary job the line of work he found himself in after escaping the gulag, it just happened to be something he enjoys too much.
Edit: Pardon, I was tired while writing this and guess I tought we were talking about Heavy. Soldier is dumb like a pair of dhoes.
@@PierogiPerson well thay was in night at the inventory . Its not 100 cannon at all but u have a point
so basically soldier is just oleander but lead-poisoned
You know, thinking back, when I first watched a Let's Play of this game and saw Oleander's Pride, I just thought that he used to be taller, but lost his legs to a war injury and that's why he was training kids at a camp.
I think the term is Confabulation. Basically having a false memory about ones past. Imagining himself as grander than he really was as a fantasy. I'll discuss more of this during Black Velvetopia
This is wonderful! Somehow I never picked up on the longer legs and taller vehicle despite playing through the game loads of times! Didn't even notice the bunny pattern in the white room - just shows how much thought went into all the level and character design
Honestly I didn't notice the bunnies in the white room until someone commented on one of our streams. This game is great about how much they pack into the level design. I'm always learning new stuff! In looking forward to the other levels too.
I always felt Lanky Kongeandor was wrong even when first seeing it. Makes sense that it was never true, rather just Oly saving his buttocks from showing the truth.
Oh, and the bunnies in The White Room? I never noticed those, and learning about those being in there after seeing the ending is GENIUS writing!
Those were pointed out to me during a livestream too. Never noticed them until right before I made this. I love the Foreshadowing here.
It's also emblematic. Follow the white rabbit!
Oleanders mind isn't just a front. It really is the war torn mind of man waging war on the world. When I first found out he was the bad guy I slapped my head saying "Of course he is! He's mental!" It's right in front of us. We just took the 'Quirky Drill Sargent' trope at face value, and never stopped to question, is this the mind of a healthy socially-adjusted adult? So no, its not just a front, that disastrous warzone really was Oleander's mental state on full display.
elton remarks how that starting room looks like a dentists office, quite fitting given how he was working with Loboto.
So random but interesting
I’m very grateful for this series, as a kid playing this game a lot of the symbolism flew over my head and when I got older I learned more that the levels are different mental issues but no one ever talks about it. They talk about milkman conspiracy and I’ve seen one video each form separate channels for Gloria’s Theater and Black Velvetopia so I’m happy I’m now gonna get a full psychological breakdown of each level
What all i learned is that: Oleander should have drink his milk
That he should have
He's so little , like ???? MMMM
i know the game art style is very... lets say unique but damn he has the same eight as Sam
This is a wonderful video! I absolutely love Oleander’s character and I’ve been studying Basic Braining for a very long time myself, and this is a fantastic breakdown of his thought process and how it could be applied to real life. I await your next video regarding him to see what you have in store!
I am quite literally shaking with excitement to spill my own beans about him, all the little hints and tidbits about him, all the nods to his real story all tucked into every nook and cranny in this fabricated mindscape. But I’ll have to wait for your next video before I do that. I’ve been wanting to make my own video about him, analyzing his whole character. I was working on one, it got an hour long, I wasn’t done, and then everything got erased when my computer broke... I’m just excited to see someone else take an interest in him, psychologically.
That sucks man. I know how much work goes into trying to make these so losing a full hour of content must have been a bad time.
I agree there is so much information packed into this level that it would take a long time to fully dissect it. I tried to condense it down to the most important points.
I'm going to go in order so the next video will be Sasha's Shooting Galletry then I'll be going one by one. Hopefully by the time I get to the other Oleander world it will be worth the wait!
I’d definitely be interested in your analysis. Have you wrote it out or redone the video? 🙂
I absolutely love how every bit is broken down, and I'm happy to see that you are doing all of the stages! I can't wait to see when there's a video for Gloria's Theater!
Thanks you so much! It has been fun dissecting all of these worlds. Gloria's Theater will be out some time next month if I keep my schedule.
To this day, I still can't stop thinking about the fact that Oleander's mind (not including Meat Circus) is the only mind in the entire franchise so far (not including RoR) to not have any real enemies at all, and i'm not including the obstacles bc they aren't sentient enemies like censors.
For basic training there are none. I presume because he regulates it so much for appearances but also to make it safe for the Campers. My thoughts.
Ok, after 16 yrs or so, I never knew these details when playing the game. I never even knew about him not actually being in the military. Dang this is a lot to take in.
It is kind of sad. He wanted so bad to serve in the armed forces but was denied.
@@GamingUniversityUoG Denied due to his height. I can see why he would mask his true self. But it still doesn't excuse him for the things he caused onto others.
I fully agree. Understanding a person's motivation can allow us to emphasize, but it doesnt excuse behavior. I'm curious if hom being around the Pstinanium motherlode located under Whispering Rocks pushed him over the edge. Agent Crueller did say it can make someone who is already unstable even more so.
@@GamingUniversityUoG See, you have a fair point that could maybe caused CO to lose his mind a bit. Because there is no way he just would attack those around him for no reason. In the first part of the game he seems as though nothing is wrong with him, unless he had his mind in total control during the first half. Then after that, he just lost. Idk if this makes sense, but I believe this could be possible.
Oh yeah that was the Memory Vault Hidden behind the Mental Cobweb. you would have never found it unless you were trying to go for 100% or at the Very least all of the Memory Vaults.
This is a great video. I've always wanted someone to analyze the psychology of Psychonauts and I'm excited to see what you have to say about the rest of the levels. Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much! I've only seen people look at The Milkman Conspiracy and the like but every world deserves special treatment. I'm glad to be able to provide this public service lol.
I might be wrong, but Oleander's mindset reminds me of how the mind of many mid-class men addressing themselves to alt-right ideals work. Coming from complicated family scenarios and usually a lack of healthy emotional growth, these individuals embrace the ideasl of virile strong soldier men that society bombards us with, as a goal they need to aspire to. When those expectactions never really get fulfilled because of the unreal nature of such ideals, or because other barriers put by society, their own environment, their families or themselves, this becomes a perfect fuel for resentment. Instead of going by the path of self-awareness or social awareness, they simply blame everyone but themselves of their misfortunes, and use this dysphoria as an excuse to keep fueling their hatred and resentment, which only leads them to embrace extreme ideas that totally fit that need for anger release.
Again, I might be wrong, but I don't see Oleander to be too different from that kind of people.
You got a point
The only thing I would say to ammend this is that it is a universal character trait. I've seen people of all backgrounds and philosophies engage in this behavior. Once you recognize the pattern it is easy to pick it out in individual cases.
Not just the alt right, any form of political extremism is rooted in this. from the authoritarians who inspire to be rulers, to the leftists who want to be great revolutionaries, to the libertarians who aspire to be the brave militiaman who flips off anyone who dare tells them what to do.
Nigga what
I absolutely love this series and am binging them all currently haha I've been waiting for someone to break down the actual psychological meanings to each mind
I'm surprised it hasn't been done yet! I've seen a lot on the Milkman Conspiracy but not all of them.
I love the use of Frog’s theme at the end
Thank you for noticing! Yes Frog's Theme is my favorite track on that OST.
@@GamingUniversityUoG I wholly recommend you check out Man on The Internet’s lyrics for it. It’s amazing
This was incredible I truly appreciate the work you put in! I understand that Psychonauts is a niche genre but us fans really are thankful for what you did!!!
Superb!!
I truly appreciate it! I've been a huge fan of this game for a while and know there is so much crammed into it that begs to be dissected.
I plan to have more to come!
Fun fact:Oleander flowers means Warning in Victorian flower language.
Makes sense. Oleander plants are generally poisonous too.
They mean a lot of things : passion , warning , but also death
If you take an oleander flower to someone's room , they're gonna be dead by the morning
And to add to these , the pousionouns of the flower was first discover in war , by beaing eating with MEAT by soldiers
Ironic how Lili's specialty is Herbaphony considering how much she loves burning things to the ground.
I love the psychonauts games it's one of my favorite game series and it's so detailed. I uncover even more details while watching these videos.
Stay tuned we have the next one dropping soon! It's going to be a biggy
Really, the simplest way to avoid an identity crisis is to always be aware of oneself, objective but fair, thus avoiding conflict between one's inward and outward selves.
I guess that's kinda similar to accepting one's true self, but it's more like prevention, rather than treatment of symptoms.
I found something interesting to listen to on my walks now cannot wait to see you doing an alive on the new characters in the next game
Seriously I cannot wait to see the minds in the next game. Every one in the original was so well crafted. Exploring who these people are is half the fun.
Its also funny that his name is French, yet he wears a Prussian helmet. A symbol of German militarism and of a country that served as the mortal enemy of France for most of late 19th and early 20th centuries. Maybe that just shows how much he rejects his real self and his own family. That he rejects his own ancestry to the point where he's embraced a symbol that his ancestors would've despised.
Thats pretty interesting
But the oleander's are not french , his mother just pick the name bc she read it in "The readers digest"
1:32 "Mind fields"
This series is amazing. Rewatching this again just to have something nice in the background
Haha glad you enjoy dude
Really great analysis :D Didn’t even notice some of the details until you mentioned them. I hope more people will get to see this video ^^
Thank you very much! Honestly I didn't notice some until I started making this either. I had no clue those little bunnies were in the white room until one of the community members pointed it out to me.
This game has so much packed inside of it. I love it!
@@GamingUniversityUoG Exactly!! It really adds to the game’s charm and I think it’s pretty clear to see that a lot of love and creativity was put into the game. I hope Psychonauts 2 will manage to live up to its standards!
Fingers crossed! I donated to the kickstarter on the sequel back in the day. I'm hyped to see what Double Fine made.
3:43 - The first time I learned about the Johari Window was when I attended a Summer camp. Sadly we didn’t have psychic adventures.
Nice video! I've always been intrigued by the concept of Psychonauts even way back in the day, it was one of those "sounds interesting, I should play that someday" type deals but never actually did. All I can remember from that time period is Halo multiplayer matches lol. Anyway looking forward to your future analyses on this one
Same here! My friends were all about it when I was younger and I didn't get into it until a few years back. I was floored by how well crafted the game, environments, and characters are.
The gameplay is a bit dated but besides that it is a classic
God damn that control training tape jingle caught me off guard
Haha more or less expected than the Spanish Inquisition?
Good series so far.
Thank you so much!
The foreshadowing in this level when going back to it after Meat Circus is insane
I must have played this a half dozen times before sitting down to work on this. Only while writing did I see all the little foreshadowing details. It's nuts
I absolutely love this series. I'm starting my 3rd listen through of the series and it never gets old. Great job!
Glad you enjoy these! I'll be working on the next one shortly
Wonderful analysis of Morceau
Thanks friend!
Please do the milkman. I love these man
Absolutely! I plan to go through all of the worlds in this style. The one for Sasha Shooting Gallery just went up yesterday! Milla's Dance party will be the next one as I'm going in order.
given the prevalence of cleavers, blood, and rabbits, i'm assuming he actually was a butcher for most of his life, and they mostly processed rabbit.
The last world of the game directly addresses the 'butcher' stuff. We will check these out then
Ok I gotta mention that Oleander might just be normal hight because last I checked Sasha is canonically 7 feet tall. I could be mistaken but still, food for thought.
It's great going through videos like this because there are so many details in these games, no one person is going to pick out all of them. I never put together the proliferation of cobwebs in the 'award room' implied that it had been disused for so long and that was the reason the white room was accessible.
Nor that the white room would be connected to the award room because of the association of minds powerful enough to make it through the course being most suited to man the tanks. Of /course/ those two thoughts would have a direct connection.
Dude i am learning so much from these videos. I started with comptons cookoff and the meat circus before digging into the playlist. That you go into "modern" / western psychology but also shamanistic practice (and compare analogues between them!) is genuinely so cool. It feels like a more complete education.
Thank you so much! I'm really happy that you've found some value in my weird way at looking at this stuff. I enjoy looking at how various traditions and disciplines try to describe the same thing. Shamanism, psychology, theology. It is probably why I enjoy Joseph Cambell so much.
My personal opinion is that having a running knowledge of them is like having pieces to the puzzle needed to see the whole picture.
This comment is to help this channel in the algorithm.
Thank you so much! It really does help.
@@GamingUniversityUoG Are you planning on steaming Psychonauts 2? It is amazing by the way.
I wanna see more videos about this, you got a subscriber
just mind the audio mixing, your voice is kinda too low, I had to turn the volume way up to hear it
I plan yo do a full series for each of the mental words in this style. Yeah there was a couple i didn't keep as close an eye on the audio as i should have. I wish RUclips let us fix it and reload without deleting the data on the original one.
I only found this video because I learned that a character shared my name and wanted to see who it was, but this videos great! Might get into psychonauts now.
Came for knowledge on psychonauts, left with a degree in psychology
can you make a video about the side stories? Specifically the one's about the campers. like what's up with Crystal and Clem???
I intended to do one large video showing each of them. The idea was use the stuff brought up in the Mental Worlds to relate to the Campers. Crystal & Clem for example have a basis in Nihilism but portray the same smiling depression that Milla deals with. Elka is a precog and her relationship problems are rooted in her trying to defy fate. Stuff like that.
Late to the train but im really loking for you video of meat circus and dr loboto mind in general
Something i would like to point too , morry's seems to have some kind of narcissistic disorder
Same here. There is a lot to cover for both of these.
Hey, more of these please.
Absolutely! There will be more to come.
You should make a series talking about the sequel
I'm planning on it as soon as we wrap up the final two worlds from the 1st game.
I just realized something. Oleander's insecurity about his height might be the main reason he based Kochamura on Ultraman in Lungfishopolis.
It is partially that and partially because Lungfish are normally tiny. So they receive humans as bigger than they are in their heads.
3:07 oleander fights fur den kaiser and other stories
This story is kinda sad ngl
Most of the game is about people dealing with sad backstories and trauma.
I have a question about this window thing, just to see if I understand it. For someone like Compton, would the blind shot be his biggest window? Seeing as he recognized as a great example for younger psychonauts but doesn't think he can do what they believe?
That would defintly be a big thing for him. Any personality type that can't see their own worth but others see him as a competent and inspirational figure is blind to something all right.
damn
i feel like i can relate alittle after being seen as mentally unfit to serve
Psychonauts is a brilliant three game series
100% agree
The thumbnail makes it look like oleander has a big ear lol
He's got a tumor growing out of his head!
4:48 In real life there's aspects of myself I mask from others, including my autistic traits and symptoms depending on who I am with; with family and friends I don't mask my case of autism.
Though there's also other aspects that I mask as well, things like my paraphilias because not everyone understands what that actually means, on the internet however I just simply don't care and express I have these desires; I find romantic feelings for things, I'm not going to specify but I'll say this to give an idea; nick wilde from Zootopia is 100 times cuter as his childhood/cub self.
We all have aspects of ourselves we wish didn't exist, there's always going to be that dark part of yourself that you just don't want to be true, don't want to be real; denial and suppression of desires and emotions ain't the solution.
Bruh the soldier from tf2 is exaxtly the same as oleander but show it differently
His Weight also plays a part. in the second vault he is standing on a scale.
Considering his height , he's pretty fat
I guess there a weight limit to enter the military
This comment was originally supposed to be a lot more... personal. With how my story fits into this and how a similar thing happened to us... But this can be viewed by anyone, so I'll just say... There's a fourth way to go out on this. When you're trying your hardest to achieve your dreams and fight for everything, but the people around you just... break you and for years you think it's your own fault... So now you're scared to try again. Lying there, hoping that either fate will just... take pity on you or that you'll just perish uncompleted.
Got rejected by every branch then pretended to be a soldier? Sounds like soldier tf2.
Nice job.
Did you know what the little bird said ? "Whatever you do stay in the light "
Could you explain it ? Because I don't speak bird language nor do I have CONTROL over it's AWE whatever that means huh ?
So Lilli is a pyromaniac and an herbomaniac(?)? Huh. That's kinda funny.
Lili is great lol. It is weird, but I don't remember her being a pyro in the original game. That only got brought up in Rhombus of Ruin. I could be wrong though.
Something tells me she may create fire proof plants or plants that are constantly on fire
Blueberries would like her considering they are plants that thrive in fire aftermaths
Oleander did serve in the military, but while wearing *stilts.* If you look at his 'Pride' memories, you can see that his thighs bulge in a very weird way, *exactly* where his feet should be. Since one of his abilities is telekinesis, he could've used that to help move and bend his legs realistically.
I noticed this when I first played the game fifteen years ago. Even if I'm incorrect, I'm extremely surprised to see that nobody else seems to have noticed it.
So basically He's evil Solder TF2.
I really need to look more into that game. My buddy spent a summer diving into the TF2 lore.
@@GamingUniversityUoG its pretty a joke tbh , but its a fun game!
1:04 campster account? What is that?
Double Fine basically made fake Myspace accounts for all the Campers in the game. The name of the site is Campster but it has been taken down at this point.
how does he get into his car
Levitation probably
Why do I Relate to the Coach
One of those things where we can see little aspects of ourselves in all these characters.
@@GamingUniversityUoG
Very true, I even see aspects of myself in Raz and his character arc
Specifically, the "My Father doesn't approve of _____" thing
Shawty get low.
A soldier
Everything about Basic Braining feels so over the top and artificial.
It basically it
Fish lung
A navel war
Shane
Shark
Or Shame
Mweat
Military