Gorogoa and The Nature of Time

[@CornOfTheBreads]

Reminds me of the Picasso quote "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."

[@alfiedaley9959]

Damn how he paint like a turtle

[@confus.d]

Like a ninja durdle

[@SandJosieph]

Reminds me of the quote: "It takes many years of experience for a girl to kiss like an amateur…".

[@SugarRot]

This channels emotional mix of passionate lifelong gaming, great taste in literature, and the quality way you tip old arguments on their head is really really refreshing in this era of video game journalism.

[@gaminggeckos4388]

Wow, this is like the only video I’ve found that explains Gorogoa’s story. Good job.

[@raph2550]

Note that this is an interpretation, not an explanation

[@gab7081]

There's a brazilian youtuber who made a magnific video about this game, his name is Cellbit, I bet you'll like it, I think it has eng subtitles

[@powerjbn9283]

@@gab7081 it doesn’t :(

[@LOWBORN-the-LOATHSOME]

The picture in the boy's book at the start of the game depicted the offering of the five fruits to the lionfish/dragon-like Gorogoa showed both a boy and an old man holding the bowl up. The literal fall from grace the boy experiences is reminiscent of the game's mechanics: you need to construct the picture, make it match up right, to get forward. Mathematically boy =/= boy and old man. (It was the sin of vanity, or perhaps childlike ignorance, that caused the boy to fall- he wasn't worthy, yet.) -I don't think the Gorogoa is evil. The boy's first encounter with it, his fall and the events in his life after (bound in a wheelchair, in crutches during wartime, studies in astronomy during reconstruction, finding faith as a man, old age) weren't caused by it, but the absence of the Gorogoa was what motivated him through it. But why would the boy be so obsessed with making the right offering to this beast, that inadvertently hurt him the first time? Well, why was the moth drawn to the flame? -The Gorogoa is a direct herald of the divine, something so otherworldly, so beautiful, it inspires childlike wonder and fails to be contained by science (or religion for that matter). The boy went through/is going through/will go through an alchemist's journey, a mystic's journey to reconnect with the divine. He needed to progress in his life, to experience his adventures in non-Euclidean space and non-linear time, to wander like Alice in Wonderland in search of lost time in a tapestry reminiscent of Rene Magritte, to become "worthy". At the end, visiting the tower again, making the offering for a second time, he HAD become so; it was his memories of boyhood that he brought with him that completed the picture in the book from the beginning. Again, mathematically, him as an old man with his childlike wonder regained and his memories of boyhood = boy AND old man.

[@johann-sebastianflachland5424]

Wow suddenly it seems so obvious - the exam you failed on the first try, the person you wanted to date as a teenager but who comes to find you again as an adult, ending up as your spouse, the painting you wanted to get done at a certain date, but really, as you finish it much later, you find you can make it much more beautiful than you would have been able to, before. It's all incomprehensible failure and repetition and yet echoes and ripples going through your life. As a metaphore for life, this game seems to be spot on

[@NareKICK]

Really interesting analysis. Found your video by looking up Gorogoa analysis, and you are the only one that is not simply mesmerized by its beauty. I really like the simultaneity of time in this game, and you do a great job of pointing this out. Really interested to hear what you have to say about the way your analysis of the narrative works with the game's mechanics.

[@JacobGeller]

Thank you Marc! I think Gorogoa is so gorgeous that it can actually be hard to look past just how pretty it is- but if one does, there's a ton of substance beneath the aesthetic. I think the gameplay is what gets us to understand how interlinked everything in life is. Just being told "oh, his research helped him" isn't nearly as powerful as putting together all the pieces ourselves.

[@3CallMeTheCaptain]

Your pitch for Gorogoa in the first two minutes was so good I paused the video, bought the game, and played it before finishing this essay. What an incredible game -- thank you!

[@AnnekeOosterink]

One of the pictures that keeps coming back is the bowl, with the fruits, offered by both a boy AND an old man. The game quite literally tells us why it was rejected, there was no old man at the first offering ;) Anyway, you can look at the dragon as depression, as the recovery from depression, as death or acceptance of death, as a destructive evil force that breeds conflict or as a peace restoring entity and now also as work ethic and the rewards current work might bring in the future :P

[@HxH2011DRA]

"Getting on a table is not enough to touch the gods. But even a kid can look down on Rome, if he has the courage to take the first step!"- Ad Astra, Hannibal Barca

[@subprogram32]

I personally interpreted it more in a 'eternal cycle' sorta way - when i saw the end cutscene, i took that as the old man *becoming* the Gorogoa, and what we are seeing is both the beginning and end of a non-linear being's life. The Gorogoa exists across all time and space, and the only time it is absent is the small gap in our perception between the first and second offerings, as we go through the history of that single offering tower. The Gorogoa and the human are one and the same being, just at different stages of their existance like with every other part of the game.

[@mechsistah2395]

I really loved the game, and found it inexplicably heartbreaking... but I didn't have a real understanding of it's ultimate message. The analysis here broadens my views; I don't know it it's THE message, but I can add it to my interpretation to gain a larger picture. That's why I like this channel. Thanks for posting this, always thought Gorogoa deserved more in-depth editorials.

[@creatornat]

Could this be an analogy for youth, glibly attempting to gain deeper answers in life, which the the young can never achieve? That is to say, what if the true reward is gained by time, and lessons learned throughout one's life, so a complete and full perspective, and thus, true achievement can be gained? The character experiences some deep physical and emotional suffering, and appears to be returning again and again to under the 'why's' of it all. Later, he delves into the spiritual, and pays pilgrimage in distant lands(the bell ringing and stair climbing, washing-cooling himself along the way). I think, for my interpretation, it is when he fully comes to terms with each stage of his life, and sees it's purpose of value, instead of focusing on the 'hows and the why's', he finally 'let's go'. And, in the 'letting go', he is finally free of his obsession, and can join God in the heavenly realm.

[@dezarla]

I think you hit the nail on the head here. Though I'd like to add that each of offerings represents some quality that their puzzle involves and that the man gets a deeper understanding of at different parts of his life (IE the red one being physical hardship and he understands it directly following being cast down by Gorogoa)

[@TheFutura]

Found this 5 years after you uploaded. Glad I'm seeing it now.

[@Samuel-od2fl]

Jacob, I cannot begin to thank you enough for all you do. Your work inspires me to demand more from myself and the world around me because you have shown me how beautiful existence and expression can be. Most importantly however, you've deepened the connection between myself and my parents. Godspeed.

[@martoknoll5256]

I just finished the game, I bought it because of a tiktok in which a man solves a puzzle and I liked the mecanic. When I finished the game I didn't understood what the story was so I came to your video. I love all your videos so when i saw that you made one of this game i had to watch it. I'm finishing university right now and I'm really struggling to understand what to do with my life, what was all that I learned for. Listening you, a journalist that I adore and that inspires me in every video say what you said at the end was reconforting, I'm holding my tears right now. Thank you Jacob for being such an amazing creator. Saludos de Argentina

[@Beeritk]

Played this game twice without understanding any of this. Now that I've seen this video, it's become one of my favorite works of art of any genre. Thank you.

[@lorettabes4553]

I love this puzzle game. His life's work brought him all the way to the real offering. Both his young self and his old self completed the offering.

[@jewthulhu]

Watching your stuff from the start and while the depth of your later work is notably greater, the quality has apparently just *always* been that good

[@unsungscandal9576]

Reminded me a little of that book “The Alchemist” where the journey makes the reward.

[@CoriolisEffect1]

Oh damn other people read that series?

[@Qwertype315]

I think it is normal to feel that there is some great enigmatic beast loose in the world, some beast that renders your ability to understand and shape the world inert, and that if you could just understand it you would be free. Whether that beast is human nature, god, or some living creature that lives in all of us, i think we have a feeling that we will somehow understand it, right before the end. As for the time skips and teleportation, it reminded me more of how we tend to remember our past, and connect disparate concepts to better understand the world. Definitely a game with a multitude of interpretations

[@yuureina]

Fantastic essay as always, I had to get past the algorithm to watch, but I'm glad I did. This story is incredibly beautiful, and it says so much about lifelong devotion without saying anything. I like to think that the offering was rejected, in part, to inspire the man's devotion. It's only once the offering has been made a second time, by both a young boy and an old man, that Gorogoa can find its peace, like the picture says from the start. I hope the old man found his peace too. I bought this game before watching this video three weeks ago and beat it in one night. Now, I hold the world record for its speedrun just because I couldn't get enough. Thanks so much, Jacob. Really.

[@raisklose6785]

Ahh, really wish this video was longer and went more in-depth on particular frames. This game deserves so much more exposure. Glad it was recognized at the game awards a few years ago!

[@Smilephile]

I played this game a few years ago and i never picked up on any of this. Fantastic video

[@Limetines]

Immediately recognized that World of Goo music, a beautiful fit!

[@Philosophicalpaperti]

My interpretation is that everything that happens in your life has a purpose… but then, I’m a Jungian. 😄 Everything the boy went through was necessary for him to find the Gorogoa. From the first, the picture shows both the boy *and* the old man. The apparent rejection by the creature, his depression, the years of wandering in the desert, were all necessary for the totality of his life, represented by the magical Gorogoa. I’ve been going through some hard times lately, and this interpretation really touched a chord in me. 🙁

[@CorpseTongji]

hhow have i been sleeping on your video essays theyre so good also shout out to the world of goo ost

[@wombat7961]

This game is extraordinary. This video is brilliant. My play-through although a year ago, is complete today.

[@AidanCooperSolomon]

This is a wonderful and thoughtful video. You just got yourself a new subscriber!

[@SocraTetris]

Viewfinder was a 3D Gorogoa. Gorogoa is a 4D Viewfinder.

[@AssasinZorro]

Thank you for making a video about this game. It was a joy to revisit it long after I completed the game itself.

[@jaxonrohrer]

Even though the video was seven minutes, this made me think for so damn long. How do you do this.

[@TomorrowWeLive]

One night the moths gathered together, tormented by the desire to unite themselves with the candle. All of them said: “We must find one who can give us some news of that for which we seek so earnestly.” One of the moths went to a candle afar off and saw within the light of a candle. He came back and told the others what he had seen, and began to describe the candle as intelligently as he was able to do. But the wise moth, who was chief of their assembly, observed: “He has no real information to give us of the candle.” Another moth visited the candle. He passed close to the light and drew near to it. With his wings, he touched the flames of that which he desired; the heat of the candle drove him back and he was vanquished. He also returned, and revealed something of the mystery, in explaining a little of what union with the candle meant, but the wise moth said to him: “Thine explanation is of no more real worth than that of thy comrade.” A third moth rose up, intoxicated with love, to hurl himself violently into the flame of the candle. He threw himself forward and stretched out his antennae toward the flame. As he entered completely into its embrace, his members became red like the flame itself. When the wise moth saw from afar that the candle had identifed the moth with itself, and had given to it its own light, he said: “This moth has accomplished his desire; but he alone comprehends that to which he has attained. None others knows it, and that is all.” For me this game was clearly a religious metaphor, based on the perennial spiritual truth that is found in all the great religions, must most prominently in the religions of the East. The premise is a boy catching sight of a mysterious, magical creature and spends the rest of his life trying to catch another glimpse. While you could ascribe all sorts of meaning to this quest, and make all sorts of associations as to what the being represents, for myself, it reminded me of C.S Lewis' Pilgrim's Regress, and his notion of Joy as a piercing unnameable desire which one dedicate's one's entire existence to pursuing - 'an unsatisfied longing which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction.' 'Gorogoa' for him is God, but it also means ultimate truth, beauty, transcendence, enlightenment. For me this was brought home most clearly in the sequence with the moth and the candle, a clear reference to the Sufi parable which I put at the beginning of my comment. The boy tries to reach this knowledge through various means, including scientific study and religious ritual, but in the end "there is no way of knowing the Ultimate Truth, except through experiencing it by becoming one with it, no way of knowing God except through experiencing him by becoming one with Him." But in order to find this out, he had to try all the other ways first, and have his offering rejected. Only when you have come to the end of study and supplication do you see that all the God wanted of you was yourself, for that is, ultimately, all you have to offer Him. Thus, the moth who was in love with the candle foreshadows the ending of Gorogoa, when, like the moth becoming one with the candeflame, the boy-become-man at last achieves the object of his quest--that unity with the Divine which is the extinction of the Ego, the Self. I really wish I could see someone like Jordan Peterson do an analysis of it.

[@jaxsofspades]

There is one much more grim way to take this games plot. The old mans reward from goragoa is ascension. Which visually is depicted a lot like death (hes literally amoung the clouds at the end). Perhaps what the boy was asking for initially was the same thing, ascension and death. Maybe he threw himself from the tower, but his life, his offering to Goragoa was incomplete, so he was cursed and sent back. Only when he was aged, and his lifes purpose complete, would goragoa grant him death.

[@PforPanthera]

Every time this guy brings up a game I end up wanting to buy it. I can't for like a year or so but man they always sound so rad.

[@criticalposts3143]

I have now watched every one of your videos. keep up the outstanding work

[@theflyingcrud]

If you haven't played this you really should. It's an amazing experience.

[@im19ice3]

i am very confused by this media and how tf its supposed to work but i understood the story to be about religion as a means to find purpose, from your video only since i dont really play videogames, and i think that initial rejection from the deity was to give the protagonist a drive in his life, all the loss of control that is inherent to participating in life isn't meaningless just because it's hard to understand, the proportion of such things isn't meant to be a weight that stops you and pulls you down but an inspiration that moves you forward, bad things happen, weird things go unexplained, but at the end of life you will have lived fully and invested your energy and time with sincerity, that is the real gift, not to understand the ways of the cosmos, though those ways exist and you can trust them, but to be so devoted to your own journey that time slips by like sand, it all making sense is a bonus to what may ultimately be a complex lesson in mindfulness, no moment in your life should trap you, letting it flow freely best grounds you in the now whatever specific now that might be

[@TheFallorn]

An underrated Jacob Geller video tbh

[@savant4646]

It's so weird, I always watch your videos to pass time, thinking that i've finally seen all of your content when out of nowhere, a furtive video, easily shadowed by the your other, grander pieces, appears in my feed. I'm pretty lucky today

[@lynettesovol38]

Now this is something truly incredible.

[@soulmechanics7946]

I think that he can see It, this guy. 😎

[@boradmay]

Well written essay. Thanks.

[@bandidocavalier]

i played this game while very high at my dads girlfriends house, not remembering the name, the visuals, anything. I always thought it was another thing that poped in my mind from the acid. Ive been consuming your content and somehow i never got to this video, but now im mindblown by this. Wonderful video, thank you so much

[@omniscientomnipresent5500]

This cool game subtile is and really well lovely put together

[@cynicshminic]

Whoa this rules! I was so proud of beating this one without a walkthrough. Playing games like this must be how people who like games like Myst feel, except way more streamlined so even impatient people like me can enjoy it.

[@zakethekid1333]

QUALITY CONTENT OMG

[@shanedixon5845]

Jacob Geller your videos are quite literally the greatest things on KZbin by an exponential amount, but I will never forgive you for using OXENFREE music and not talking about it

[@rafaela00002]

rewatching this video after finally playing this game

[@QtheLaserDude]

I know this is four years late, but I just recently had an existential crisis about death and a possible cancer diagnosis, and then I listened to this video about an old man getting old and having anxiety and for whatever reason it set me off again 😂

[@willdeeep]

Incredible, can't wait to play it!

[@capncack]

Lol wasn't expecting the Oxenfree soundtrack to be in there

[@cinnamon9390]

So cool to go back and see your origins

[@MaxG628]

Fascinating! I interpreted it completely differently, the Gorogoa was always malicious, Quetzalcoatl meets Godzilla. And the fruit were always a way to defeat it and meant to be destroyed in the process. The result is tragedy both personal and national, with the city destroyed and rebuilt much like WWII Europe.

[@AnnekeOosterink]

The dragon is really ambiguous, it can be malicious (destroying a city/causing a war when not being offered something in the correct way) or good, the conflict stems from its' absence and he was the one keeping the peace all along. Or the dragon is depression/recovery from depression (the dragon/depression causes the boy to fall/jump from the tower, he recovers and in the end makes peace with his suicide attempt) or death/the acceptance of death (the boy does not understand death or does not accept death, he studies, he follows religious rituals, the candle lighting, the bell ringing, in the end as an old man he finally understands and death reveals itself, or he accepts his mortality and death shows itself, and he dies.) So many different ways of looking at it, I just never saw the creature as bad, although it could be, I always thought of it as a neutral or even good entity (perhaps a reflection of how our society views death, as bad, evil, needs to be stopped, while death just is.)

[@indigosstabby9596]

Okay, I know this video had to of existed before but... I just, never saw it. But honestly? Im glad, really... really glad. I needed the message this video tries to show, While I never saw it before, i find it kind of funny I seen it now, So Thanks for making this video

[@luckyluc009]

Love the Oxenfree soundtrack

[@obviouslykaleb7998]

Perhaps it’s about how retrospective is the only way to figure out just WHY

[@williambarnes5023]

I hear that World of Goo soundtrack. Don't think I don't.

[@Spellweaver5]

It sounds to me like the game's about the achievemnts of the young standing on the shoulders of the older generations. And we don't start to value their work until we're old ourselves.

[@timlampers8610]

6:02 Why are you assuming that the God rejected YOUR hard work? As a child. the boy didn't have to do anything at all. From his perspective, the fruit 'literally falls into his hands' as you put it. All he had to do was walk from place to place. However, as an adult, he actually had to put in effort whereas the player barely had to do anything at all in order to get the last offerings.

[@R1ckr011]

You're being cynical and naïve. The effort comes from the effortless, and the effort gives Rise to the effortlessness. We "stand on the shoulders of giants": knowledge and dedication are the real offering. The fruits themselves are just a silly contrivance, good manners. Knowledge is Itself timeless. History produces itself over and over again and yet never repeats. Living is a pointless process of chaotic, perpetual futility against death, but life Itself never dies.

[@xxx1x47x41x3]

yeah things are gonna work out for you man good video as always

[@BoWeava]

Q: Hey, what time is it? A: Always never now... 😅

[@Holktube]

The read that I had was that a life lived in service to an unknowable diety is a life wasted.

[@MrSwac31]

dunning Krueger effect

[@marcy_law]

Does anyone know about the background music? I want to hear this choral soundtrack but I can't seem to find it anywhere!

[@Vigilance_Coin]

It's Goragoa OST.

[@ShadeMeadows]

So Gorogoa is an Eldritch god of... time?

[@EpicVideoMaster11]

What’s the theme playing towards the end? Like at 7:11

[@CarlSchneemann]

That's an OST from World of Goo called "Are you coming home, Love Mom" - maybe you already have figured it out, but just in case ;)

[@madnessends2477]

What did you study?

[@alexgoodisman7552]

You think you can sleep World of Goo music past me? I hear you... Can we expect a World of Goo video? It seems to touch on themes you'd be interested in: interpersonality, capitalism, and the Internet.

[@noahandrews6534]

hey man, i don't know if you'll ever see this or if you even check the comments of videos as old as this, but i've been watching you for few days, and by a few days, i mean a few days relentlessly, to the point where i've watched most of what you've made on this channel. sorry, i'm rambling. my dad mentioned you at dinner tonight, id told him about a few of your videos, (designed for violence, fascism and modern art, that one that in forgetting the title of but thats about that aryan looking jew fighting the nazis,) so he asked me what you name was. i told him, and then he started talking about how someone wrote about you in some literary substriction that i'm forgetting the name of's newsletter. they were talking about how what you make, the way you talk about games is on par with people discuss film and books, and i just thought that was well, super fucking cool and he seemed really proud of me for finding your art, your video essays and i guess i want to say thank you? thank you for sharing your mind and doing all of this awesome shit and letting me have your words fill my brain while i build brutalist megastructures in minecraft, thank you. it means so much to me. when i first heard you were jewish, it made me so fucking happy. this guy, that over a few days i've grown to look up to and admire, a jew? like me? there aren't too many of us, and shit man. it means a lot. thank you again, for teaching me, for sharing, for making me so obsessed with iko i want to buy a ps2 just to experience it, thank you for making my father think im not just wasting my time on the internet, and most of all for bringing art and games together, and reminding me how fucking cool all of this is. you've inspired and encouraged me a lot recently. so yeah. i've said thank you a lot, and this is weird and parasocial, but what you've done has done so much for me and made such an impact on me. thank you.

[@GrimmDelightsDice]

Have you ever played Avalon Code?

[@GrimmDelightsDice]

I come back to this comment a year later: I've watched every one of your videos at least twice and I still think you could seriously find value in Avalon Code. I have an original copy if they're impossible to get anymore, and as much as it would rend me in two to lose it, I'd send it if it meant someone else might have it dwell in their mind like I do.

[@junyan2811]

lol I have this game, and me and my mom got stuck on level 5.

[@KevIn-ns4jw]

Oxenfree fan I see.

[@captaintreeko3188]

What's your degree in?

[@Silent_Idris_09]

I'll suggest Rusty Lake's Cube Escape Series. That game is a puzzle and it's also good. And Also Monument Valley.

[@zupzipzoo9879]

Madoka Magica vibes

[@jayk3548]

Seems like someone took an intro to metaphysics class and was exposed to the space-time theory of time ;)

[@RaymondtheHon]

Job the game

[@nietzschean3138]

Now isn't an arbitrary concept. It's the only moment that actually exists, in which you can choose.

[@Ho11ow661]

I've been watching these videos and I feel like you either probably live s very similar life or you've been narrating it. 😐

[@8blademaster]

Hey Jacob, I really liked this video and I hate to nit pick, but please don't use the word cripple in that context.