What Happened To Milton?!?!? What Remains of Edith Finch - Game Theory

Enjoy :)
Gameplay credits go to these guys down below. I used their footage as an overlay and I'm thankful for their content. Due to time limitations, I was not able to record a full walkthrough myself but in the future, I'm going to try my best to upload only my own recordings.
Tiago Julio: • What Remains Of Edith ...
VivixGames: • The Unfinished Swan - ...

[@spikelink2]

The storm that moved the furniture actually happened. you can see chairs hanging from the trees in the beach. I can't believe people keep missing this. gus got killed by something being carried by the wind.

[@DeathnoteBB]

Spike Link Yeah the tent, right?

[@JJSoule]

Spike Link yh he let out a fat fart which took the tent and the tent squashed him

[@ratman6754]

He might have drowned after being knocked into the ocean though.

[@breadpriest]

I think gus got killed by the totem after the tent pushed it

[@hosannapyles8201]

Yeah, the storm hit him with the tent. That scene was probably meant to show the growing storm from the kid's perspective as his kite was drawn to the storm and it appeared he controlled the storm to him, up until the tent hit him and that caused his death, in one way or another.

[@BradenKennelly]

I think Milton creating the door is him finding the secret passages throughout the house, and I think he may have gotten trapped in one and suffocated, that would provide pretty good reasoning for why dawn sealed the doors a few months after his death because she didn't want Edith or lewis to suffer the same fate.

[@indigomoore493]

"It's like the house just swallowed him up." The true answer was there all along, and it's one of the first lines in the game.

[@windandcloudshadow158]

So the curse is inescapable thats pretty cool.

[@auggiemain]

I dont agree. I think if he suffocated in the house, Dawn wouldve found the body before sealing them up. And if she found the body she wouldve left earlier. With Milton being missing, instead of dead, it gives Dawn a reason to stay at the house, she has hope that Milton will come back. Until Lewis dies, then she accepts the death of both her sons and takes Edith away to keep her safe.

[@littlewatermelongirl6756]

yeah, also, if you look in all of the crawlspaces and secret passages, a lot of them have drawings signed by Milton.

[@ivanavrbaski8614]

@@auggiemain i dissagree with you on that one bc at the end of the game, when Dawn was yelling at Edith she said ,,My children are dead bc of your stories” she never said that Milton was missing, so maybe she found out that he died inside the house they found him but Dawn kept it a secret from everyone bc she didnt want Edith or Lewis to end up like him. As one of the previous comments said. And that also explains why in one of the passages there is a drawing of a cat that Millton drew. You may be right but this is just my opinion

[@liamdownes]

Milton also goes missing the same year “The Unfinished Swan” was released

[@easternchatter]

Yo, this.

[@rikixiduenodelmalianteo]

Liam Downes what age has milton when he dissapear?

[@artmy3045]

Will it be the unfinished swan were just milton's dream while he is missing/coma?

[@kylehickey9705]

How?

[@zowcygan9616]

@@kylehickey9705 somehow

[@alex.a6035]

Omg, or the sand castle is symbolic for their old house that was washed away, and that’s why he hates the ocean

[@KnucklesUp]

#DEEEEEP

[@ali9012]

Ally l cHoKeS

[@jimm.127]

The old house washed away far before he was born.

[@shauntaal]

DotDotDot reincarnation maybe ?? 👀

[@BallyBoy95]

@@jimm.127 It would still make him mad surely, given all of the family history and efforts taken in ensuring they could bring it to America, all the way from Norway, thousands of kilometers away. Only to fail, just when... they're less than 200m from the house? Or so it looks.

[@careerwoman]

After playing the game I immediately thought that the “family curse” represented mental illness. It makes a lot of sense because of the nature of all of the deaths, and the fact that the “curse” is carried throughout so many generations- mental illness is hereditary. God this game is genius.

[@goldenhd9656]

And when the grandmother told her daugther or eddies mom she says she has to know the truth maybe the truth is that they have something wrong in their genes or they suffer from that

[@ildathet]

i prefer the interpretation that it's only the neglect of the children, the dull old "life" that killed them all. Children are left unnatended, children are exposed to horrible truths and want to escape. Nothing unordinary, just a lot of coincidence and a repeating pattern of lack of therapy

[@caramel9154]

mental illness alone wont cause this much damage though, you'd have to willingly neglect children for this to happen which is something called the cycle of abuse and is typically hereditary too

[@rx500android]

@@ildathet agreed. The two theories can go hand in hand

[@WhitneyDahlin]

I really like that interpretation. I firmly believe family curses are real. For example in real life children who grow up with an abusive parent or toxic parent are much more likely to perpetuate this cycle and become a toxic or abusive parent themselves (or they CHOOSE to have children with someone who is abusive or toxic because that's what feels like love to them). Which then causes their child to grow up and become toxic. It's a never-ending cycle. Of course growing up with terrible parents isn't an excuse to be terrible yourself but it happens extremely often. Hurt people, hurt people. We grow up learning toxic and unhealthy behaviors from our parents and that gets imprinted in our brains and sometimes you don't even realize what you're doing is unhealthy or you do realize it but it's takes so much work to change that you don't. There are definitely patterns within families and that may include mental illness but not always. For example addiction really tends to run in families. You can inherit a tendency to get easily addicted which wouldn't ruin your life if you grew up with good parents. But if you have that tendency AND you have parents who do to and who are addicts you're probably going to become one yourself. Not always. There are always brave people who break their families curse and refuse to perpetuate the behavior. Which is what I think Milton's disappearance symbolizes. I don't think there's anything supernatural going on in Edith Finch. I believe Milton escaped the curse. He broke the family curse by getting himself out of that environment. But I believe curses exist in real life. And it has nothing to do with supernatural phenomenon

[@jonathanb1406]

I think when Edith says Edie was "already gone" when the nursing home people showed up, she means she was dead, not that she'd disappeared.

[@cozyskyjurnee]

Same here. People use the word "gone" when people die all of the time.

[@simona7069]

I like to think she tried to swim to the old house cuz she would rather die with her stories and history(and father)

[@Oecobius33]

Some of the family members definitely had a few screws loose. But schizophrenia does not just mean "dissociating from reality," it's one of many mental conditions that can have that effect. It's kinda ignorant to throw around the term schizophrenic for anyone who has delusions.

[@cummybongwater3458]

i agree

[@dearbird1794]

fr all the research and statistics he mentioned yet this dude's understanding of schizophrenia is very very flawed

[@cozyskyjurnee]

I couldn't agree more.

[@rx500android]

I agree

[@MILLLLAYYYYY]

I agree, however everyone's perspective of schizophrenia is different, it IS a main symptom, to be dissociated from reality, including hallucinations and I'm sure that he didn't mean that schizophrenia was just that. He was only pointing out a symptom and going into depth on the hereditary side of schizophrenia delusions. Also not having delusions does not mean you dont have schizophrenia, it is different for everyone sometimes its personality switches and even schizoid personality disorder which can occur, and do not forget about the trauma development of schizophrenia, its extremely interesting and I recommend you do some research! Absolutely no hate whatsoever, but I dont think he meant it in a harmful way, have a amazing day!

[@Kamishi845]

The main issue I have with this argument is that you seem to misunderstand how schizophrenia actually works. Yes, people with schizophrenia cannot tell reality from fantasy, but the worse the schizophrenia becomes, the more the person ceases to normally function. Anyone can instantly tell that something is off as they talk about things that don't make sense, stop to physically take care of themselves etc. The most common type of schizophrenia is also paranoid schizophrenia, and in all of the cases you presented, the only characters that could even possibly have paranoid schizophrenia are Odin and Edie. Even then, if their paranoia was in fact paranoia, they would do anything to counter the source of the fear i.e. the curse. And while this could perhaps be seen in Odin, no such thing is seen in Edie. On the contrary, she seems to embrace the idea and attempts to even perpetuate it. Regardless, the curse does not seem to bother her in the least. Your weakest argument however, is Lewis. This foregoes the fact that there are more mental health disorders that cause the person to want to ignore lived reality over fantasy, and the strongest argument against Lewis having schizophrenia is that he is actually aware of the fact that his fantasy world *is* fantasy. Schizophrenics cannot tell reality from fantasy, but a claim "my imagination is as real as my body" still suggests that he understands it's just his imagination. He however defies the fact that it's not felt as real i.e. has less meaning/impact than what's happening in the real world. There's another much more fitting diagnosis for Lewis, which is maladaptive daydreaming. An excerpt with a summary below: A person who is purported to have maladaptive daydreaming may have one or more symptoms of the disorder, but not necessarily all of them. Common symptoms include: extremely vivid daydreams with their own characters, settings, plots, and other detailed, story-like features daydreams triggered by real-life events difficulty completing everyday tasks difficulty sleeping at night an overwhelming desire to continue daydreaming performing repetitive movements while daydreaming making facial expressions while daydreaming whispering and talking while daydreaming daydreaming for lengthy periods (many minutes to hours) These all perfectly describe Lewis' condition, especially as Lewis does not fit any clear criterion for schizophrenia i.e. hallucinations. I think you are here mistaking dissociative acts with outright hallucinations. The defining aspect of a hallucination is the inability to distinguish it from reality. All of the storytelling you see in the game are dissociative, but they are not hallucinations. What they do fall into are extremely vivid and complex daydreams. A great example of schizophrenia accurately portrayed in fiction is the movie a Beautiful Mind with Russell Crowe. I'd recommend that you watch it so you'll understand the difference, especially as it portrays paranoid schizophrenia. I absolutely agree with that the Finch family suffers from mental health issues, but I don't think it's schizophrenia being the cause. Furthermore, it's officially stated by the studio that the two games are connected and what happens in The Unfinished Swan is actually real. He really did find a magic brush and entered a different dinension.

[@horseluver2509]

I also don’t super appreciate the implication that schizophrenia makes someone a bad person when he said “the sweet, lovable granny isn’t all that innocent”. Maybe he didn’t mean it that way (Grandma Edie is genuinely a twisted, not-good person in a lot of ways) but it felt like he was putting all of her toxic behaviour on schizophrenia. I definitely think that the family has a history of mental health problems, but I think most of them probably sprout from trauma. Also, many medications have instructions not to be taken with alcohol.

[@mareikeg15]

I totally agree with the point you make, however I think for myself I choose to believe that he did actually run off into the woods and died because I think it fits a into the story better. All the other deaths in the family can be explained in other ways that make sense (i.e. Molly eating a stale carrot, poisonous berries and a whole tube of toothpaste) and the stories are there to mask the reality. The reasoning with magic doesn't really fit in with that which makes Milton's death/disappearance vastly different than the other ones and even if he didn't have schizophrenia he might very well have had a different mental disorder that may have caused him to hallucinate/daydream his way too far out into the forest, maybe in search of his kingdom.

[@PrimaryOctopus]

I completely agree- I have maladaptive daydreaming and Lewis' sequence was downright chilling when I first saw it.

[@vampylolita]

I suffer from maladaptive daydreaming, others shits like Evitative personality and borderline. and Lewis is like watching me a few years ago

[@bobbertbobby3975]

also and I may be wrong about this but...many of the stories in game talk as if the children had schizophrenia and even gregorys story came across as such...but that is very rare for children under the age of 13 to develope schitzophrenia. In clinical diagnostic books under the age of 13 thats a VERY rare diagnosis. And having been in the mental health system...its more commonly known for late teen early twenties to develop sudden onset schizophrenia. And by sudden I mean a few years of onset. So this curse might very well be some sort of genetic mental illness or brian defect...but I dont think they are limiting themselves to one diagnosis.

[@CrimsonAlice]

I liked your arguments presented here, very well done. I would probably throw in, a bit of the fantastical nature of some of the "stories" grandma edie told was probably in some part a justification of sorts for the absolute carelessness or neglect that is sometimes presented in that game that causes or at least contributes to the deaths of her kids. Believing in a "curse" is probably easier for her than admitting locking her daughter up without dinner sent her looking for nourishment that was poisoned, or that setting up a swing overlooking a fricken cliff was perhaps a bad idea...

[@HectorHernandez-rl5lz]

I thought it was a good idea

[@bizzleblue38]

Don't forget leaving your baby in a bathtub, even its just a couple inches of water is and never will be a good idea

[@theelitegenius2212]

I mean that would be an awesome place to swing

[@pugassassin5591]

@@bizzleblue38 that was kay

[@LadyoftheDreamless14]

to be fair, when you live in what appears to be a steep and hilly forest, you kinda cant avoid a drop off like that. Not to mention that it is a pretty sick place to swing.

[@chovek8956]

i think the reason behind edie's way she tells things is she tries to make them sound more sugar coated i guess.

[@KnucklesUp]

Perhaps!

[@murlokabram8380]

Edie killed her own daughter. Of course she wanted to sugar coat it.

[@elderwolves]

@@murlokabram8380 I once asked what kind of treatment would lead to Molly's almost obsessive eating behavior. Starvation. Frequent starvation. And she got locked into her room. None of that is normal, Norway OR US. Plus her taking advantage of her OWN SON under the house to do a moleman story..... Her eagerness to practically diefy her dead decendents..... It gets worse when you realize our ability to READ Sam's heartfelt letter to Kay means Kay never got it. A box of things for Kay is in Sam's room. I can only assume Edie stole it to put on Gregory's memorial- probably only after Sam died to prevent his reaction. She even has notebooks in her room dedicated to how she wants to plan her family's memorials. Like she's some sort of wedding planner. And the last time Edith was in her room, Edie was PAINTING HER PORTRAIT. "My children are dead because of your stories", indeed. I have every belief that Edie was planning on Edith leaving them very soon. I don't know if Edie had schizophrenia or what- but she's no innocent little granny with fantastical ideas, in my opinion. She was just subtle. A child falling to their death after jumping off a swing ON A CLIFF surrounded by sharp tipped picket fence. If her kids jumped off high- the cliff will get them. If they jumped off low- the fence. Either way- what a tragic accident. Best have those wood slabs ready.

[@goldenhd9656]

Yeah because she is bad from the head most likely

[@silvialettierilauro3761]

Watching the painting of the house from the Unfinished Swan I came up with a theroy: if you remember, quite at the beginning of the exploration of the house, Edith talks about the fireplace. She says Edie knows a story about it but never told us. Later in the game, Edith asks herself what her mother and greatgrandmother had found in the house... well, I think Milton wandered around the house walls, in the secret passages... maybe there's one that involves the cimney of the fireplace. When you pass through the house walls, you can see Milton had been there and painted his mark. I think Milton died in the house, they say no one had aver gone very far, stuck in between the walls. Maybe years later Edie and Dawn found his body but never reported it. It does also explain the "entering the painted black door" symbolism in his story, that can be a realistic explanation! (excuse my english there may be errors :p)

[@auggiemain]

I think if Dawn found Milton's body she wouldnt have stayed at the house. I think she only decided to stay because she had hope that Milton would come back. When Lewis dies, she accepts the death of both of her sons and takes Edith away to keep her safe.

[@hotdadlovrgabby828]

Wouldn’t they have smelled the rotting corpse too?

[@missclawsomecatlm1866]

@@hotdadlovrgabby828 not necessarily, Walter lived under the house for many years and probably accumulated a lot of waste that smelled pretty bad, but Edith had no idea. Maybe it did smell but he was deep enough in the house that no one knew about it.

[@Teeplesexe]

personally i think milton realized that edie is at least partially responsible for everyone's deaths and so he ran away

[@Infinitis]

Where Edie embellished stories, Milton created his own and escaped the “curse” that way. I’d prefer to think of it that way, though it is nonsensical. It’s happier.

[@rustyfisher2081]

I really really doubt it, but that is definitely an interesting take

[@cristinaestrella]

I love hearing about people’s different takes on this game it’s so interesting like the theory on how Edie was the villain in the story who neglected her children or the one on how it was an actual curse but this takes a whole new light on it

[@zakonkrzacki8990]

@@xyhc-cnc Holy damn you Theory is sick and even though I am a fan of everyone died by accident or due to neglect then your theory has a special place in my heart

[@xyhc-cnc]

@@zakonkrzacki8990 lol it sounds ridiculous but I’m glad you liked it!

[@zakonkrzacki8990]

@@xyhc-cnc anything with superpower or superheros is for some reason really cool to me and hypes me up thats why i like it so much

[@nagisashiota4601]

so.... what youre saying is... milton went turbo.....

[@lilyapok6176]

Omg 😂

[@luciomartinez6668]

LMAOOOOOOO

[@ElmoElmoSWAZILAND]

TURBO TASTIC

[@Funware.mp3]

Ok, that fits way too well 😂

[@unslaadkrosis9435]

This game is reverse Hereditary for me. I love it. It wasnt some helpless curse. It was mental health issues, neglect, isolation. Real curses we face growing up. Sad af but kinda eye opening

[@BK-ph8cq]

*refers to self as doctor knuckles in project for class* Best part is when he gets interrupted by what I assume is his parents lol

[@blepbloopbleeplop9966]

Edith had a kid at 17, and was engaging in high physical exertion at 22 weeks pregnant. I think that her son was born premature. That's probably why she died. Also, that Milton and Edith both had children is a sign of hope that the Finch family curse is wearing thin.

[@Lealooney42]

Milton had children?

[@gagejohnathan9641]

@@Lealooney42 the creators confirmed that Milton's story was in fact, reality, he found a magical paintbrush, and likely wanting an out from his inevitable doom, created the flipbook to explain his disappearance, and escaped into his creation.

[@-._.-KRiS-._.-]

Perhaps you haven't met many pregnant women. I worked a manual labor job (10 hours a night) up until the week I gave birth. Women who are 5 months pregnant aren't frail and incapable unless they need to be bedridden because of complications like preeclampsia. There's no indication in the game that Edith had any pregnancy complications and there's no way a preterm 22-week old fetus would survive outside the womb without medical intervention, especially if Edith died at the house with no one around for miles. She clearly didn't give birth at her old house, she finished her journal then made her way back to her real life to wait another 18 weeks before giving birth.

[@abyssalblackflame9051]

@@-._.-KRiS-._.- everyones different

[@Miramiyami]

@@gagejohnathan9641 huh. that lowkey makes me kinda happy for him.

[@Rafa1589]

Screw Milton or even the possibility that the Finches are prone to suffer from mental health disorders. I want to know what Edie wanted to show to Edith. I wanna know what Edie experienced that one night when the tides turned, what she found in that house and why she wanted Edith to know about it.

[@PanicGiraffe]

The way to break the curse

[@esmegoodwin2301]

Yeah me too!!!

[@unhandyfive0069]

Esme Goodwin I think the point is that nothing happened that night, and it was all fabricated by edie

[@esmegoodwin2301]

Thanks. I’m pretty clueless sometimes

[@RedZeshinX]

Here are some clues for you to ponder. Remember when Edith first returns to the house, she sees a deer on the trail that, when approached, vanishes into the forest. When she enters the house through the pet door, she tries to turn on a light but finds the power is out. HOWEVER, at the end of her trip through the house you see that in her room the lights are somehow on, and the light is casting shadows of letters on the walls. Now look at what happens with great-grandma Edie. When she crosses into the waterbed towards the house what does she first see in the fog? A deer that comes into view and vanishes, just like with Edith. And when she arrives at the house that seems to be crumbled it is somehow magically whole again... and despite the rest of the house appearing to be dead there is ONE light in the window that suddenly turns on. And notice how for both Edith and Edie, these journeys into their respective "homes" culminates in a book chronicling their findings to be passed down. These aren't coincidental mirrors, and speak greatly to the true nature of the house and what each room compartmentalizing the existence of each family member, their longings and random deaths, actually represents.

[@that.one_person616]

I havent finished this video yet but I did read that the creator came out and said that yes Milton, after finding a maguc paintbrush, created the flip book and went into the door he painted in his room and well became the king in the Unfinished Swan.

[@Sleeprocket1]

Didnt the king in Unfinished Swan make the paintbrush way after the fact for his wife ?

[@leafygreen460]

thats dumb in my opinion, they ruined some great storytelling

[@pennywang6461]

Actually I only believe the part the creator said this two games are linked. The rest could be anything with deep meanings behind

[@howdytherepardner318]

God, I hate that. Completely ruins Milton's story. I choose to believe that Milton created an outlet through painting and ran away. Much better that way.

[@caramel9154]

@@howdytherepardner318 He can do both though? I think the creators confirmed in an AMA that Milton didn't instantly go to the Unfinished Swan so it'd be plausible he ran away but his creative outlet eventually lead to the unfinished swan. That being said, the unfinished swan seems to have a lot of symbolism behind it too so it might not be literal

[@bonniemareeburke7750]

has anyone noticed in the secret passages Milton has drawn symbols that represent the stories of Molly #1(cat), Calvin #2(swing), #3 Barbara (pumpkin) iv'e looked everywhere and no one has pointed it out. I think Milton has at least read about all those 3 stories. SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME THEY HAVE POINTED IT OUT TOOO its driving me crazy lmao

[@Los_HermanitosCruz]

Huh

[@cassiephillips9487]

I noticed to. Well, I saw the pumpkin. I was so confused, like "why is this here?" 🤣

[@Lealooney42]

I saw this too, but I didn't have a grasp on who Milton was at that point so I hadn't really thought about why this boy knew this random crap. This game really messed with me

[@bow865]

Damn maybe he was close to grandma edie, she would have told him stories and the history of there family, maybe both of em were pretty close because they both share the same interest and imagination, I figure it was a pretty sweet and wholesome relationship just like how my brother is with my grandma lol Maybe both him and edie painted together and maybe edie has paintings that Milton or both of em drew together in her room? Edith and her siblings were also close to edie now that I think of it, all of em like to tell stories through something like how Mylton paints pictures, the other one possibly writes stories, and Edith with a combination of both, this family is very creative and talented and it shows just by looking at there house!

[@abyssalblackflame9051]

they had an actual cat named molly so its not like he thinks she turned into a cat(she also wore cat ears as shown on her wood portrait), calvin died on a swing, barbara starred on horror movies which are associated with halloween. he was drawing to remember his family who had recently died

[@juawannabarron6509]

Schizophrenia was definitely a theory of mine, but I don't think it applies to all or even MOST of the Fitch family. More than likely, it was just the stories themselves that were the real "curse" of the family. As Edith herself said, they believed in it so much that they made it real, and that's not something that is exclusive to schizophrenics, or even mentally ill people. Our minds are hardwired to recognize patterns, so when we see a bunch of things, we sometimes connect them, even though there's connection to be had. Not to mention this "family curse" story has been fed into each Fitches' head since they were a child, it is EXTREMELY easy for them to believe.

[@juawannabarron6509]

At worst, I think most of the family are simply escapists, Edie and Lewis being the biggest ones. Edie chooses whole-heartedly to believe these stories because she can't face the fact that a lot of them (at least passively) was her fault. In fact, she has a sick fascination with it illustrated by her not only choosing to keep them alive and pass them on, but the fact that she turned the house into basically a mausoleum. Edith even mentions that she started painting the kids' portraits long before they died, not to mention the number of newspaper articles around the house. (There's a vid here on YT called "The Villain of What Remains of Edith Fitch" that makes a VERY strong case about this.) For Lewis, Edith plainly states that after Milton disappeared that Lewis blamed himself and THAT'S when he started to retreat into himself. He tried to drown out his grief with drugs and when he was forced to get sober, still couldn't face reality so he created a fantasy world. Walter, I don't think he had schizophrenia at all. He was suffering from PTSD from Barbara being murdered and butchered, made worse from the stories his family has been feeding him since he was young. Same could be said Odin. We don't know much about him except that he also believed in the family curse and tried to escape it....stubbornly so that, like Walter, it caused his death. For Molly, her hallucinations simply could be attributed to all the poison she consumed. This is a very good theory, however, and I had NO idea about the game that came before this one! I had wondered at Milton's appearance and the crown and mustache. So, the theory that this game is a prequel to that one is extremely sound! Though, something gives me pause... In "What Remains...", Edith said her mom found something and then locked Milton's room with Edith remarking "she wanted to keep whatever she found from getting out". So, I wonder what it was exactly that she found. Dawn also remarks that "[her] children are dead because of [Edie's] stories".

[@twischta]

@@juawannabarron6509 Regarding Lewis: Refusing his only way of coping with his grief by taking away the drugs and having a totally mind-numbing job, it is no surprise he tries to escape into some sort of fantasy world when the real world is too bleak and dreary to live in. It's called depression and a pretty hefty one at that. It is even pretty much implicated by his psychiatrist (at least that is how I understand her letter). Looking at his room I think he was still smoking weed, not really a good idea with depression, as THC usually amplifies your mood. If you feel down already you care even less under the influence, combine that with his day-dreaming to get through his job... recipe for disaster. Edith: You answered your own question what Dawn is trying to lock up in the rooms. She is trying to keep the stories locked away that Edith Sr. made up to be able to blame a curse for all the deaths instead of facing the reality that it mostly was stupidity, recklessness or simply neglect that caused all of them. Talk about a whole family worthy of a Darwin-Award. Milton disappeared when Edith Jr. was 4, so she couldn't have read the stories at the time. Milton and certainly Lewis would have known about them and the alleged curse. Edith Jr. was practically the only one left who wasn't tainted by the superstition which was nurtured by Edith Sr. all the time. So Dawn sealed the doors to the shrines of the dead to prevent Edith Jr. to be poisoned, too. My guess is when she sealed the doors she finally realized how harmful this superstitious nonsense really was and how much it influenced rational thinking and behavior.

[@m_-.430]

They basically believed in a curse that wasn't real and in the end they all ended up dead because of it

[@supotter377]

Yeah I really don’t like the trend of theories that just boil down to “this person has whatever mental illness so nothing is real” it makes the story sound boring and this guy sounds like he read a couple definitions of schizophrenia on google and diagnosed a character with it with some pretty shit evidence.

[@centy2490]

I think Milton got killed at the sea. Think about it. In the ending of The Unfinished Swan, you go to a king-shaped tower, and that tower is almost certainly his perception of the distant broken building out at sea, visible from his room. A red light flashes on both scenes, and it was the final area in his perception of events. From the whole ending of that game, it was from a scary forest (likely the outside woods infront of the house) leading to that tower by boat, and then when you get there it collapses, which makes sense since it should be old and broken down. Maybe that's how he got killed.

[@vilchenburgbodesky1]

Maybe edie (grandma) found milton in the washed out house at sea and that was what she was going to write in the journal

[@hotdadlovrgabby828]

@@vilchenburgbodesky1 that can’t be right. Because when Edie went out to the old house it was 1999. Milton went missing in 2003.

[@benjilinus5963]

Even Gregory could have it. It can start in a very young age. His father was concerned about how detached he was.

[@yurionagony7782]

Calvin and Molly also might have it

[@k4rec4]

You nailed it. Probably.

[@k4rec4]

@@Athermostar Yep. Can't help, it's kinda sticked into my mind. 😅 Often I caught myself wondering about what really happened there. 🤔

[@donttrythisathome2690]

@@yurionagony7782 I don't think Molly could have it. Molly died in her sleep due to poisoning from eating the berries in her room because Edie deprived her of dinner despite her being really hungry to where she even contemplated eating her goldfish, the adventures of Molly were from dream and imagination.

[@jasminesoto9854]

@@donttrythisathome2690 I actually believe she ate her goldfish. When you go to the pet sematerey it says Christopher died the same year she did. Ofc this could be because she wasn't feeding him anymore or something like that but I noticed that when playing the game for the second time.

[@lizziemarie7877]

It also says when they leave the house that when the van from the nursing home arrived “She (Edie) was already gone...” possibly she died after consuming alcohol with her pills ?

[@nealmccorkle3681]

that is how I interpret it too....suicide when she couldn't talk Edie Jr.'s mom out of leaving.

[@toby2617]

I had been considering several similar things, I thought about schizophrenia affecting the family, but one small thing i felt compelled to mention. Is yes its a realistic game but when Edith was reading the stories it was just storytelling, I do believe schizophrenia was apart of this story, but not with Edith. I believe it was simply storytelling by the authors.

[@KnucklesUp]

Fair enough! A counter that you should consider is the detail within the stories and how Edith comprehends it. What I mean is that I do not see how Edith could get some of the deats simply by reading the artifacts. I understand that the devs had to do some story telling, but the game is Edith's reimaginations of the deaths, as opposed to an outside force showing us. In addition, I recently spoke with a psychologist who said that schizophrenia must be triggered, but can be done in numerous different ways. Perhaps Edith came back to her old house and that caused a ripple. Something to consider. :)

[@emilyruegge9291]

What's schizoprdhhjfvfwwxhdgjsjwsq?

[@toby2617]

Emily Ruegge schizophrenia is a mental disorder that causes hallucinations, voices, figures, paranoia etc

[@emilyruegge9291]

x.negative one.x Ah. But if that was the case, then how would they have died?

[@KnucklesUp]

I'm making the case that the family had a history of it. We've seen in the game that no one directly dies from it, except Lewis potentially and Milton. I'm not saying people die from it in the family, and schizophrenia can't kill you directly (to my knowledge), but the potential of a family history having it makes it more likley that Milton has it and thus, my theory more believable.

[@TheLurkerFox]

Huh, I thought Lewis may have had also maladaptive daydreaming disorder... Those with this disorder tend to zone out and repeat simply keep going on autopilot while their minds wander. Many writers have that issue, hell the times I near walked out in front of a car coz I was writing up a story in my head and stopped focusing on what's around me for a sec. At some point I simply described my walks and such as mechanical actions - I know which roads I take, which streetlights activate first, which next, and would often take late night walks so I can focus on making a story in my head, when I got sick to the teeth of staring at a blank document for hours. It's easier to take a take-out coffee at the local gas-station and wander around at night than sit cooped up in a room with messenger notifications going off coz all your American friends came online (I see I went on a tangent and I apologize.) And well possibly a case of major depressive disorder. His uncle he never knew just died, his brother just up and gone, and he is working a dead end job cutting fish, and smoked weed to relax and let his mind off of the latest tragedies. Eventually he keeps escaping into his mind as his job is so monotonous and mechanical that any creative person would rather quit than keep doing (Again, I know that feeling, depression plus retail is a nightmare, add creative drive and the wish to just doodle up a full notebook to skip over the day is HUGE) until - the fated scene where he walks out of his fantasy and the door slams shut behind him. He sees his reality. A dingy job he hates and will be doomed to work in (at least maximalist teens his age with depression only see the now and have a hard time seeing things CAN change) and he finds it easier to just kill himself, possibly escaping into his fantasy one last time to not be so scared doing so as the fear of death is a purely human instinct. I dunno, maybe I am a liiiiiiittle self-projecting here (or a lot, shush don't judge me) but it also fits his bill. AAAAND Regarding Edith Junior having schizophrenia - I doubt it... She is a creative and imaginative girl who probably heard descriptions of everyone's deaths at some point being discussed. Wild imagination plus reading and going off the emotions people conveyed in their writing prolly helped her imagine it that way. And - my man, she has been jumping and climbing and running through all of that while 22 weeks pregnant, I would not be surprised she at any point got sick while roaming in the cold, or strained herself while jumping - complications during childbirth were a BIG probability! Again - anecdotal example, me and mom BOTH coulda died when she gave birth to me coz of her chronically high blood-pressure, she even told the doctors to save me and focus on me surviving. Luckily grandpa got to the hospital and knew the doctor and somehow figured out together how to save my mom too.

[@Raisinsins]

Im 5 years late to this comment, but yes he definitely had maladaptive Daydreaming disorder & not schizophrenia. What i also found interesting is some streamers i watched had hard time handling both tasks simultaneously ( The fish and wandering in his world) while for me it was easy. The hand controlling the fish was on autopilot and i was focused on his world, i realised it was easy for me because this is how i live my life, parts of me are on autopilot while i Daydream. And i have had dayd where i became extremely suicidal after i snapped from my Daydreaming because i didn't like my reality, his story hit home and is too familiar for me too so i dont think you are projecting. And ironically my ex insisted i had schizophrenia because of my Daydreaming and he never understood the difference, just like people theorising on this game

[@MDMMaster1]

I think lewis is suffering from maladaptive daydreaming. He states over and over he knows they're not real.

[@adhunikmanav2638]

KnucklesUp: "We need to know is who is milton? Drax: "I'll do you one better. Why is Milton?"

[@KnucklesUp]

lmaooooo

[@redguywithatophat1900]

@kyle brovfloski how is Milton?

[@redguywithatophat1900]

@kyle brovfloski where is Milton?

[@F1areon]

@@redguywithatophat1900 What is Milton?

[@HeavensMemory]

While I do think, that "the unfinished Swan" represents Milton's dreamworld, it is not necessarily a sign for a mental disorder. I mean, he always heard those fantastical stories from his grandmother and lived in a pretty unusual "fantasic" house. We don't know to much about him, but as he liked to paint, be was probably spending most of his time alone with his hobby. He also discovered the crawl spaces and secret passages before Edith. I think, he was so fascinated by the idea of creating a door to another world and adventuring through out the house, that he might got stuck in a place, that no one knew about. So he never left the house but found himself unable to get out of the spaces between the walls/floors. If he got caught up in a pretty tight spot, it would explain, why he couldn't call for help and make his position known.

[@thomaskirkness-little5809]

I loved this game, but I have to say that if they hadn't been killed the way they had, those buggers would've all died because that house was a god-damned deathtrap. One slip, trip or stumble and splat!

[@VivianKurayami]

Another thing related to Edie is Edith mentioning that she told a story to newspapers of a “mole man” living under the house...and Edie was also the one sneaking things down to the basement to give to Walter.

[@aidenkolesnikoff7928]

Can we pause for a minute and realise that the old house was being transported when it got trashed so why would there even be a fence lol

[@snowd_nia]

Also photos of the old house in the new house show a cul-de-sac in front and not a gate..

[@fullmetallovr21]

It always seemed like Lewis had some sort of dissociative disorder to me.

[@fullmetallovr21]

Also if we're talking mental disorders Molly could have had Pica, where a person craves and eats things that are not meant to be eaten so when she was sent to her room she ate all those things, got sick, had a hallucination or fever dream and then wrote about it before succumbing to an illness from the stuff she ate.

[@KnucklesUp]

Something to consider is her age. How I see it is she is a very young kid who doesn't know better. Eating those berries/toothpaste/carrot next to feces can't be good, no dispute there! That said, I had a friend when I was 8 who at toothpaste as a joke, and he had to get his stomach pumped. We laugh about it now, but what I'm saying is that for the most part, kids are idiots, in a sense that they are still figuring out a lot of stuff about this world. If Molly was older, I'd agree with you regarding Pica. That's interesting to think about!

[@fullmetallovr21]

That is true, but not just eating things that aren't meant to be eaten, its that during her dream sequence (which could be taken as she was eating other things she found around her room that aren't edible) she literally never stopped being hungry which (If im remembering correctly from a documentary I watched a while ago) is a thing with people with pica. And yeah the toothpaste might be a common kid mistake, but considering eating a gold fish and an old carrot sitting next to hamster poop is a little extreme even for being a kid. Though yeah the age thing puts a hole in that theory. I don't exactly know when people start to develop/show symptoms of pica.

[@helenanilsson5666]

fullmetallovr21 The hunger in the dream is PROBABLY because she was locked into her room without dinner. She was literally denied food by her mother. Because she was very young and very hungry, she ate things that she shouldn't have eaten, but it was waaaaay too little to do anything about her hunger. Hence, she was still hungry during her hallucinations and dreamed about eating things. Because that's what you do when you go to bed hungry, you think about how much you want to eat something, anything. (footnote: parents, this is why you should not deny your children proper meals. It's a method of punishment that can seriously harm your children both physically and mentally. Don't be Edie Finch/Petunia Dusley)

[@That_Ozian]

I agree that Lewis more than likely had a dissociative disorder. My theory is that he had false self, maladaptive daydreaming, and/or straight up dissociation. I think a mix of the three. That mix would have symptoms similar to schizophrenia, but it’s still not quite schizophrenia. The quote of: “my imagination is just as real as my body” shows that there’s still distinction in his head between what he’s imagined and what’s really real. When hallucinating, people can’t really tell. They just think oh this is what’s happening. With those dissociative disorders, the person is aware that they’re drifting away from reality. They know their new reality is imaginary, but their perception is skewed to let them believe that it’s just as real as anything else. They’re more self aware and their delusions are less direct. I’m not entirely sure I explained that at all well, but I have a lot of thoughts that aren’t at all organized, sorry.

[@pickleman4876]

I've always thought that Milton must have fallen from his tower and either crawled to the beach and was washed away, or wandered into the woods and died from the elements. He was probably driven by delusion or imagination to wander away; he was an artist, thought he was king of his castle. Milton had grown up with Edie's fantastical stories about death, and came to view death as building his own world. The flipbook was his suicide note. Walter was allowed to live under the house, in his own world. Why shouldn't Milton?

[@markellii3093]

The sand castle is the old finch home

[@jonahkey9313]

You played a game in a literature class? That's the most interesting class I've ever heard of.

[@KnucklesUp]

Jonah Key my favourite class in high school for sure. Unreal stuff, honestly!

[@johncollins1255]

Edie is the only one I have a problem with, if you watch Joseph Anderson's review of the game (which you definitely should) Edie is a storyteller and takes full advantage of the deaths of her loved ones.

[@willhamilton297]

Dude this is barely a theory this is practically fact. This is so well written and puts so much context in this game I just played, and I love this so much man. Very VERY well done

[@RedZeshinX]

The game is using magic realism to explore the relationship between longing, identity, mortality and the intractable, chaotic nature of the universe. The fantasy elements employed throughout aren't meant to signify literal mental disorder in the family but are rather metaphorical illustrations of the archetypal struggle to realize meaning in the midst of meaninglessness, to impose a sense of order upon disorder, often through the use of words as a tool. Notice how every character dies in the midst of great longing/yearning, how the wild deer both approachable and mysteriously beguiling yet nevertheless wild and unpredictable appears and vanishes 3 times in the story (on the trail when Edith first arrives at the house, on the cliff when Dawn's father is knocked off, and in the fog when grandma Edie arrives at her old house in the seabed), how despite the power being out in the Finch home there is still somehow a light on specifically in Edith's room casting shadows of scrambled letters upon the wall (mirroring when grandma Edie steps out into the ocean bed, there shouldn't be any electricity running to a house in the middle of the sea yet when the fog clears and the house appears whole again there is somehow one light turned on inside, most likely signifying and corresponding to Edie's room). There's a reason both grandma Edie and Edith share not only the same name but a mirrored experience, going on a journey into their respective "old family homes" to explore the past and chronicle the connections made there into a journal passed on to a younger succeeding generation. It's about trying to understand and accept reality on its own terms despite fears that there is no meaning in any of it.

[@MelodicaDude]

I know im 2 years late but i really just found out about this game. An interesting thing you may add is that the mom of the child in the Unfinished Swan paints things that are unfinished, and Edie paints the family members who all have premature deaths. In a sense, they the family members that are painted so beautifully are unfinished, because those family members died part-way through their life and development.

[@Happy-to3tf]

I’m a personal fan of the “Edie” is a huge lier theory as opposed to your schizophrenia theory

[@xAMARtheKINGx]

Just replayed the game 4 years later and it´s incredible how many new things I discovered. For example I realized that in Edie´s story, when she is approaching the old house from afar, you see its ruins and that it is visibly destroyed. But after opening the gate, when you look up, it looks intact. (Maybe it´s just me, but I didnt catch onto that at first)

[@harryliang4743]

I don't need sleep, I need answers

[@losersinc]

I was with you up until you said Lewis was schizophrenic. He wasn’t really hallucinating, he was just daydreaming. He was completely sober at that point and in therapy, and finally coming to the realization that his life compared to the amazing lives of his family members in the stories that Edie told him made him very depressed. Remember, Dawn didn’t seal off the rooms until Milton disappeared so Lewis had plenty of time to get a house tour from Edie, and at that point who knows how embellished those stories had become. So in response he created a world for himself that he felt was owed to him because of his family name, eventually getting so engrossed in it he retreats from reality, mindlessly working at the cannery, not listening to his mother when she begs him to come home. He completely separates himself from the cannery worker Lewis and king Lewis so much that he thinks the only way to fully become his best self is to commit suicide. Disassociating from reality can be a symptom of many disorders, like maladaptive daydreaming, which is more likely to be what Lewis had. The logic that you used to define schizophrenia is very flawed if I’m being honest.

[@shaiapouf6252]

the soundtrack of milton "miltons tower" is almost the same as the one of the menu in the unfinished swan

[@artisallthat]

I knew someone with schizophrenia. He didn't like taking the medicine because it made him gain weight and be sluggish. Before he told me that, I knew something was off but not exactly what. He thought that others were calling up the places he applied to for work, and told them not to hire him. It was difficult to know whether he was lying (because he admitted that he had) or whether he truly believed the stories he told me. As far as what Edith did in response to family dying, imagine what creepieness you would feel by seeing dead children immortalized with paintings and belongings. That would have to work on you mentally. It could even cause you to feel a sense of doom. Milton does stand out because the game makes it seem like he was the only one that escaped. No morbid story but a clever disappearing act. Poor Lewis desperate to escape. I know what imagination can do. You can imagine vividly and well, so that you can experience deep feelings. You may even have to catch yourself before you relate it as something that really happened. That is why this game provokes videos such as this. It works by tantalizing you with unfinished mysteries that spark your imagination.

[@meepdoesedits5631]

Not me keeping my dead dog’s collar and her ashes while reading this and pretending I don’t do that stuff. like, pfft, who would do that?!

[@miaalamaras6393]

holy shit the game theory part scared me *so* bad

[@truvy_5544]

Bruh why the grandmother look like that pumpkin from Barbara story 😭😭😭

[@KnucklesUp]

lmao this killed me

[@KazzKobb]

Maybe she killed Barbara lol

[@m_-.430]

@@KazzKobb I actually wouldn't be surprised and it makes total sense

[@not_yet701]

The grandma was at the hospital with Sven because he fell into a saw blade. Its quite possible a serial killer killed Barbara and her boyfriend because he disappeared also. Or he could have killed her because of the argument.

[@iangelix]

LMAO

[@Michipicoten]

-what remains of Edith finch- dumb ways to die 3

[@verbodonotaku916]

I know I'm late, I just found What Remains of Edith Finch, but here is something, the developers have said that Milton is Monroe's father. Milton couldn't have died when he was still a child. Schizophrenia is an interesting argument, and could answer many questions regarding Monroe and the unfinished swan as well as Edith Finch. By extension, it also means there's two Finches left.

[@pennywang6461]

Actually the term “father” could be anything, if Monroe is just a character in Milton’ story, they can say Milton is Monroe’s father

[@gradeequality4099]

Glad it was free for ps plus. Brilliant game.

[@bobbiebeyond5173]

This is the most fascinating analysis of the game I've heard.... Although, lets not forget all the books in the house and throughout all the passageways traversing the game. Let's also not forget Ediths grave... Random letters floating about. The lady was but a storyteller, as are most elders. Nuff said.

[@KnucklesUp]

Thanks for the support!!

[@kooodny]

wasn't Milton confirmed to be the king XD

[@KnucklesUp]

By Giant Sparrow??

[@KnucklesUp]

If so I had no idea lol, but that helps my vid :)

[@kooodny]

yea i saw it today in a treescicle video they had a clip of one of staff saying hes the king

[@KnucklesUp]

Just looked it up... That's good to hear! Means I'm right on that side of things hahahaha

[@jedimb9829]

Wow, this is a lot more thought. I just thought Milton disappeared in general, that or jumped out the window and they just didn't find their body.

[@bloohazze]

It was told from “the perspective” of Edith finch. It was seen through the eyes of her son. That’s why edith’s door is locked with a peep hole, the son read her book as all the doors were locked with a peep hole. It wouldn’t make sense but that’s the son’s point of few.

[@NemFX]

Hey. I commented forever ago, but I noticed something. Edith Finch committed suicide. Listen to her speech at dinner. To quote "To our FINAL night together. And all our FINAL nights apart." This is a lady who has watched most of her family tree die. She lives in a mausoleum of her own design. Her daughter is trying to put her in a retirement home. Edith isn't going. This is her house. There's only one way you're making her leave; over her cold dead body. So she toasts them, flipping off her daughter one last time. "You caused this Dawn, and if you were smarter, if you listened, you would have seen it coming, but you're too busy thinking you know it all, that's why you became a teacher." .. not said in the game, but I think it's a reasonable speculation

[@auggiemain]

Eh, I just think shes saying that because they're planning to leave

[@NemFX]

@@auggiemain you don't think it's slightly coincidental that she happens to die that same night?

[@auggiemain]

@@NemFX no? She's careless, and mixing alcohol with her meds. I think shes the type of person to want a fantastical death like the rest of her family got but exemplified. I dont think itd be like her to end her own life, let alone in such a, for lack of a better word, "boring" way. She thrives off the curse and the stories it creates.

[@SleepyCrumpet]

I absolutely loved the unfinished swan when I was younger and have always considered it one of my favourite games. I recognised the music instantly when walking into his room!! I was so excited, I didn’t notice they were the same game company! It’s such a cool idea to merge the stories

[@KnucklesUp]

Thanks to all of you for the great support. Check out my updated version if you haven't (where I talked with an actual psychologist!)

[@KatherinaBathory]

Looking for it right now... (Yay)

[@MegaBearsFan]

Does Edith Finch ever establish that Milton's mom paints? Also, I never got the impression that the fantastical nature of the vignettes was a symptom of the characters being schizophrenic, but rather the result of accounts coming from unreliable narrators. Not saying that your interpretation of schizophrenia is wrong; I'm just not sure that I buy into it wholesale.

[@KnucklesUp]

I see where you're coming from. On the first point, I'd assume Dawn paints because I saw a video a month ago where the devs confirmed that Milton is the king. If that's true it would make sense for Dawn painting to be true as well... I see what you're saying regarding the vignettes, but who's the narrator? The game plays out where Edith is the narrator. Are you saying someone else is narrating the story?

[@CrimsonAlice]

Even if dawn doesn't paint, we see clearly that Edith senior does in her portraits. So the art talent is there. Some parts of the story point of view do get taken over by separate characters though: Molly describes her death as she sees it (assuming its hallucinations or disturbing dreams as her body shuts down from the toothpaste and holly berries), I'd assume the grandmother kept the comic book because she enjoyed that version of monsters eating her than the more likely tale of her boyfriend murdering her and taking off...that woman I swear seems to bask in attention-grabbing if the news clips are any evidence...

[@rubbish_mentality]

MegaBearsFan I know this is a bit late but *Monroe’s* mother paints (Monroe is the main character from TUS) Milton (although technically dead) is Monroe’s father who loved to paint. He then created a wife (pretty much a female version of himself) and the wife loved to paint. Milton’s wife is Monroe’s mother who painted. oKaY I pUt wAY toO muCh efForT inTo tHIs aNd iM nOT eVeN SuRe iF Im riGhT

[@ThePoetUnderTheFall]

@@rubbish_mentality this is even later but Milton was confirmed to be the king in The Unfinished Swan by the devs

[@a_cep]

the line about Edie being pleased to "finally" have another artist in the family when Milton was born seems to confirm that Dawn didn't paint

[@shiiiidk601]

“I’m recording for my media studies”

[@carter9861]

The drawing of the Kings first house wouldn’t have been of the finch house. It would have been of the house Sanjay and dawn lived in before Sanjays death. After Sanjay died, dawn took her kids and moved back in to the finch house. Milton was around 7 or 8 when this happened.

[@Kelmat_]

- Doctor, my shoulder is in pain, what should I do? - The diagnosis is schizophrenia Jokes aside, i think just claiming everyone in the family has schizophrenia is taking it too far. I think the story the game tells you is about an old lady too obsessed with stories and fantasy. She is so obsessed with this that she influences the rest of the family, many of them children with vivid imagination. This, added to an unpleasent reality that they want to escape, plus (as someone said in another comment) neglect and lack of therapy, led to kids having terrible accidents because they were too absorbed in their own imagination. These tragedies were in part responsible for the unpleasent reality mentioned before, which makes everything kind of a vicious cycle. Walter even believed in the story of a monster living in the house and was so scared of it that he prefered living completely isolated just to be safe. Dawn even says at the end of the game "My children are dead because of your stories". I do however like the theory that Milton wandered off to the woods as he imagined being the king and creating his castle and house, before drowning. We can see at the end of The unfinished Swan that the whole level where the king is sleeping gets flooded, so that could mean he drowned.

[@veru6907]

The King stands on an island in an identical position as Odin on his drowning house

[@CommanderCodyChipless]

When I saw Milton's room I immediately got a Hereditary vibe

[@UnderscoreYourWorld]

Best video I’ve seen on the topic thus far.

[@jonmv]

Man, I literally wasn't "prepared" to this game!! I didn't figure how deep this game could be!! And now watching this video e discovering conections to other games (Milton)... Incredible, amazing game!! By the way, great video and analysis... really logical and profound!!

[@noahpoops7140]

Good theory but I'ma believe was so batshit crazy he crossed into another dimension with his magic paint brush. The swan on the top, the symbology and artistry from the unfinished swan, the name, the flip book showing him walk through the painted door, and the painted door itself with footprints leading into it and none coming out. No body, the mom actually put forth a effort even though Edith states she never put forth effort into much means she didn't find a body or Milton and eventually gave up. So.. he did disappear and if everyone dies it would suck ass. I came to the same conclusion about them being scitzo but it erked me that there was no solid resolution to Miltons disappearance nor the curse. Want to get Edith the 1sts journal and finish the read...

[@jackathy]

The Unfinished Swan is such an amazing game. I was pretty young when I first saw it so I like going back every now and then and it brings me back.

[@jayredila7244]

I *knew* that there had to be more of a connection to the two games as soon as I saw Miltons room

[@medival9860]

My theories on how they all died: Odin: Drowned Calvin: Suicide Barbara: Murdered (By her boyfriend Rick) Gregory: Drowned Walter: Hit by a train Eddie: Not quite sure..maybe old age??? Sam: Fell off a clif Edith: Childbirth (Just moments after) Lewis: Suicide Molly: Maybe poison (from the berries?or she died in her sleep? Gus: Crushed by the totem Milton: Ran away from home because he wanted to get away from it all.

[@cassietregenza5251]

I'm pretty sure Eddie died from mixing her meds and alcohol since Dawn warns her not to do it at dinner the night they leave

[@medival9860]

@@cassietregenza5251 Yeah that makes a lot of sense actually. Good thinking

[@Teeplesexe]

i wouldn't say calvin committed suicide, it was an accident. as for barbara, i think edie accidentally killed her, so walter decided to live under the house to avoid edie. edie died from mixing pills and alcohol, so suicide, molly i think fell out of her window either running from the monster under the bed or looking for more food or both. either that, or edie fabricated her journal and molly died of starvation or poison by edie. i think milton ran away, but specifically because he realized edie is the one causing all these deaths directly or not and so he ran to save himself from her

[@billybigbone]

I completely read the game in a different way. Makes both the game and your video even more interesting. Thank you.

[@desiredmilan]

The game developers confirmed that Milton was the king

[@rookholgado2966]

I’m so surprised at many of these explanation videos of this game and their comments with the poisoning, she’s eating what looks like mistletoe which is very poisonous in and of itself, plus toothpaste which can poison you as well... otherwise they tell the story and the lore well

[@zacharybedair4280]

Also another thing that basically confirms that Milton is the king is that the ship with the 2 balloons attached is in his castle room

[@lavenderpants8695]

I dealt with one of my direct reports developing schizophrenia over the past year and he has now left my employment. When I was playing this game today there were so many instances that reminded me of him and his mindset. He constantly struggled with extreme disorganization and constant clutter, and the second I stepped foot into the Finch house it was like I was stepping right back into his office. It was literally my first thought. The biggest one for me is what Edith says right at Walters death, about believing the curse to be true so much it became true. That's so hallmark of his entire experience at work. He would believe in certain delusions so much he almost willed them into existence. For instance, he was constantly paranoid about security watching him "because they had it out for his job". This delusion became so extreme that security eventually became alarmed and concerned about what he could possibly be hiding to be so paranoid about them watching him. So what did they do? They started watching him and monitoring his every move. He literally made his paranoia turn real. There is so many more comparisons to really list here, but for sure I think Edie certainly suffered from the illness.

[@TheAbyssoftheMind]

While watching a playthrough of this game, I actually came to suspect that the finch family had some kind of hereditary dissociative disorder. I saw it in molly (though that could have been the poison?) maybe gregory (though who knows, as he was an infant), and lewis. I didn't really do research into this possibility and I don't know much about schizophrenia, but it's good to see someone else come to a similar conclusion independently.

[@KnucklesUp]

Glad to hear. Thanks for commenting

[@kinzoadolpha9195]

So did Molly have schizophrenia because if what Edith read in her journal was actually written by Molly, I think she did. After all she wrote that she turned into a cat, an owl, a shark, a sea monster, and something else that slithers with many stomach before turning back to herself.

[@kimberlyclark2879]

Great video, put together well and great theory!! This needs more views!! c:

[@cameronlane3567]

It killed me when I played and when I was playing Gregory's story when the water went over his head and he "changed" into a frog. I knew that this baby had died and we were seeing his afterlife through his eyes.

[@hannamartin1356]

That’s actually a pretty solid theory. I think molly also has schizophrenia because of her little animal adventures.

[@michellehhope]

They were hallucinations caused by being poisoned and bc she ate the toothpaste which was not good to swallow at the time added to the berries but Holly berries cause hallucinations, poisoning and death

[@Teeplesexe]

personally, i think that edie is at least partially responsible for all the family members deaths. it says that milton had explored the house and "found something", i think he realized that edie is responsible for many of these deaths and out of fear he ran away, and had monroe prompting the events of unfinished swan

[@jordanc1803]

Lewis was unhappy with himself. Could "Milton" be a young, alter ego of Lewis? Maybe he created "Milton" when he was young, but grew out of it after a while. Milton disappears behind a door which could be a metaphor for Lewis locking him away or repressing his illness. It would explain why he went away without a logical explanation. If the entire family was sick, they may have entertained the idea of Milton and fed into Lewis's schizophrenia. Detaching him and themselves even further from reality. Maybe that's why the family held on to the hope that Milton was just "missing," but not dead. He can't die because he isn't real. He was able to do everything Lewis couldn't. He will forever be unfinished. The family couldn't cope with the reality of Lewis's death. Lewis couldn't cope with the reality that was his life. Just a thought.

[@darsargent2458]

Now that's what I call a good creative theory!

[@jordanc1803]

Dar Sargent Thank you!

[@SoraAoi95]

Dissociative Identity Disorder develops only with serious childhood trauma (usually sexual and physical abuse). Now it's possible that Lewis develops it (due to unknown trauma, but I feel like that would be touched on in the game) but people with DID rarely have just two alters (Milton and Lewis in this case, although one could argue I suppose that the fantasy prince could be another alter but that's still only three). Frankly, Lewis has very few symptoms associated with DID that we can tell and I feel like the therapist would have mentioned something about it in her letter. It just sounds more likely that Lewis was depressed and a habitual drug user.

[@hotdadlovrgabby828]

But Milton was real, there’s pictures of him and traces he left behind how could he have been part of lewis’ “schizophrenia”?

[@losersinc]

Would’ve made a good theory except that Milton is a real child and that is glaringly obvious when Edith speaks about him and when her mother and Edie argue at the end. Specifically when Dawn says “two of my children are dead because of your stories”. If it was only Edith and Lewis, then who is she talking about?

[@Lovienn1ys]

what i think happened is that even if Milton had schizophrenia (mind you that i dont know directly what it means) or he had hallucinations or just a strong imagination, i think that becouse the two stories are (maybe) mixed together, that in both stries there were doors that were painted and led to another world/place. Like if you look in Miltons room you see there is an unfinished painting of what looks to be a door, i think that Milton was imagining himself being like a king or something and walking through the door (his real door) and falling to his death. I think that this could be a possibility as when you first open the door to go to Miltons castle like room a strong wind flies at you. The wind is so strong that the character (Edith) her self had to hold n to not fall off. From this i think that a wind blew really hard that day and Milton not paying to his surrundings lost balance while walking through the bridge and fell to his death, and his body culdnt be found as he could of fallen to a high bushed area. With that his mother (Dawn) and the others couldnt find his body becouse he was i like some bushes or smth like that and pronounced him missing. so to sumerise this for you- Milton was imagining himself being a king of some sort and walking through a magic door that would lead him to another world. But in reality he was just walking out of his room. A strong wind picked up and Milton not paying attention to his surrundings, lost balance on the bridge and fell to his death. Becouse there was a big ammount of bushes and trees below, nobody could find his body, therefor pronoucing him as missing. His mother not wanting to believe her son was dead kept telling herself that Milton would come back home one day, becouse of this she didnt want to move out. But after lewis's death she realised that Milton was indeed never coming back and neither is Lewis. So to protect her daughter Edith more then she protected her sons decided to move away.

[@vvitchmist4856]

I actually like this theory. It makes sense, and give a the game some weight to it.

[@lukapasalic651]

When I heard his story in the game I saw the huge door painting and I actually tried to enter the door bc I thought he was that

[@bq419]

I don't think that Edie has it, the fact that the fence is not affected by the water its just a symbol, a way to make the experience more entertaining and meaningful, it didint matter if it was realistic. Plus, in my opinion she sees the light in the window just because it's actually Edith that's reading the story and the mother interrupts her turning on the light.

[@KnucklesUp]

If it's just a symbol what is it symbolic of? That last point though is definitely valid and something I never thought of.

[@bq419]

KnucklesUp I would say of her finally coming back. Or maybe she's dreaming of it, that's why it's not realistic, but I wouldn't say she's delusional. She probably knows it's not real so she pictures her return how she wanted it to be.

[@KnucklesUp]

Fair point

[@bq419]

KnucklesUp thanks for the response man

[@KnucklesUp]

No problemo! I love the discourse this video has created :)

[@alexafischer4651]

why do you have so little followers??? this video is EVERYTHING, please keep updating!!!

[@KnucklesUp]

Hahaha I wonder the same thing myself dude!! Thanks :)

[@Midnight_Lime]

i can MAYBE give you edie as being schizophrenic, but i think lewis had something closer to maladaptive daydreaming, it's a trauma response to feeling like you have no control in your life and alot of people do monotonous tasks like pacing, washing dishes, or in lewis' case, chopping fish. Given lewis' life with the stories of the curse and his little brother going missing, i think it's much more likely than schizophrenia Edit: after two years i had completely forgotten about this video but somehow found it again. i was projecting onto lewis. I'm surprised to not see molly involved in this theory now based on her last journal entry. I'll edit this comment again after watching the update video. Edit 2: the video did not go into Molly as i would've liked. she could've just had an over-active imagination,but i have a two theories about her. 1, she wrote down a story to try and distract herself from her real hunger and fall asleep, but it wasn't enough 2, she had a nightmare that scared her so bad she thought it was real (maybe due to mental illness) both end the same, she goes out of the window either in an attempt to get into the house and then kitchen to eat something, or out of fear to escape but she died from the fall

[@notdarknebula67]

That Pitbull joke was enough to get my subscription 😂

[@salma4193]

I think it’s more their flaws than hints at schizophrenia

[@naitch5365]

That game theory bit near the end was a jump scare for me...nearly shit my pants. Well thought out video, I just completed the game tonight. Very tragic tale.

[@Rissa_1322]

If people with limited to no experience with mental illness could maybe quit throwing around armchair diagnoses as theory fillers, I would LOVE that! Milton went missing at age 11. Schizophrenia in children under 13 is extraordinarily rare. Like, almost-nonexistent rare. But even if we were to say he is one of those rare cases just to allow your theory to go on, you have f-all in the way of actual proof. In neither game is Milton talked about as exhibiting any actual symptom of childhood onset schizophrenia. Ever. If that was it, do you not think they would've told us? They basically tell us how Molly died. You're not left to GUESS that she poisoned herself on accident, you're told she scarfed down a bunch of mistletoe berries, a decaying carrot and a tube of toothpaste on an empty stomach. You just needed something that loosely fits the bill, something to make it so Milton couldn't differentiate reality from fantasy or fiction. So I have another interesting piece of information for you: people with disorders the symptoms of which include delusions and hallucinations are actually not as terrible as telling when something isn't quite real as you think. They struggle with it. A lot. But they are not outright incapable, and therapy exists for this. Now, yes, because the villain of this game is Edith Finch the elder, and she more or less caused all these deaths through neglect, it's not unbelievable that if Milton WERE schizophrenic she simply would've seen it as An Artists' Thing and encouraged him towards behaviors that led to him coping worse, not better, but I still think we'd be better off if people stopped throwing together mental-illness-based theories with as little information as you seem to have.

[@talentedbutnotskilled-agni7798]

Someone’s big mad

[@friendswithbenedicts9753]

@@talentedbutnotskilled-agni7798 they're right though

[@theflea9091]

thank you so much for putting this into words

[@howdytherepardner318]

Yeah Milton most definitely doesn't seem schizophrenic. Seems like maybe he just saw too many deaths and found a way to cope.

[@Rissa_1322]

@@talentedbutnotskilled-agni7798 and I can admit to that. Doesn't make me wrong by default.

[@iheartnishikiyamaakira]

I remember watching this video years ago by Stampylonghead and for a long time I forgot the name of it. Luckily, I stumbled upon this video. Great content and keep it up!

[@drowsydane]

I enjoyed your video! I do want to point something out about Milton's disappearance and a few things about the possibilities of other family members being schizophrenic. I believe that his total disappearance is what brings the idea of schizophrenia into question. It doesn't rule it out, but a few things to consider. All in all, I enjoyed your video, and I think you've got a good brain on your shoulders. My comment may come across as word vomit, but take from it what you will. :) For Milton, I live in Washington State, where Orcas Island is, the location of game. I believe he made it off of the island entirely, and probably just ran away from home. His and Lewis's story are ones about escape, but the both did it in very different methods. Milton, I think, managed to succeed. I think this because it would be very difficult for a young boy to get off the island while on a schizophrenic hallucination. I mean, you actually need to use a ferry, which would be hard to do. If he never made it off of the island, well, a few hounds would be able to find him in fairly quick time. but maybe he drowned? I think it very unlikely his body wouldn't wash up on the island, or one of the many other islands surrounding Orcas. As for Milton's demeanor, I think he was acting like a normal non-extroverted artsy type kid who also has a lot of loss in his family. I've spent countless hours by myself just drawing away happily. It's been an escape for me and I suspect for Milton as well. As far as the rest of the family goes with having schizophrenia, I think the only viable option is Grandma Edie, but even then I'm not wholly convinced. Lewis is hallucinating, but not exactly. He may have delved so far into his other world that ultimately killed himself, but that doesn't make him schizophrenic. Schizophrenics cannot differentiate between reality and fiction, and believe that everything that they sense is reality. That being said, Lewis himself understands that this other world he has created is his imagination, which is something a schizophrenic couldn't do. This is my understanding because of when the psychologist quotes him saying that his "imagination is as real as his body." He fully commits to the idea that it IS his imagination, but the problem that gets him killed is that he believes his imagination holds that same validity as reality does, which is why the psychologist doesn't know how to argue with him. He doesn't believe his world is a part of the real world, rather that it is a better and completely different one. I think that Lewis's and Milton's stories are meant to be two solutions to one goal, which is escape. I believe that Milton succeeded with his life and Lewis obviously didn't. To be fair to Odin, there isn't a whole lot of information on him, and believing in curses isn't necessarily delusional. The reason is because a delusion is when you believe something even in the face of evidence that clearly disproves it, and for the family the curse is nowhere near being disproved. They are dying young or in crazy ways, which IS abnormal. They are justified, to a point, to believe in the curse. The curse would be a delusion if Odin had come up with it himself willy-nilly, but the family's belief in a curse goes back further than him. This all being said, fleeing makes sense to Odin, and If I believed in such a curse, I would probably flee too. "Something has to drastically change for the curse to be lifted, and nothing will change if I stay in Norway." is probably the mentality Odin held. As for Grandma Edie and her hallucinations, walking in the fog can easily cause you to think you see things without hallucinating. In all likely-hood, she probably got lost walking on the beach, and walked to someone's beachfront property where she had never been before, and they turned a light on because an old lady had shown up out of nowhere in their front lawn. Unfortunately, we don't get the rest of the story of her time in the fog, but its a common occurrence for people to get lost and see things. Still, her insistence on telling stories in a specific way that makes them seem mystical and as if she believes them in the same as way she tells them is something that could point toward schizophrenia. The only issue I have with that is that we are never given a reason as to why she tells her stories that way, and we are being told about them thru the lens of her granddaughter who now understands how she could have said things, but how she chose not to. All this being said, Edith's mom was right to be Angery at Grandma Edie, because the stories were most likely perpetuating the kids into a form of hysteria that caused many of the deaths that we witness in the game. As for Walt, he's scared boy that probably witnessed his sister die and developed PTSD and OCD. A strict routine everyday, scared of the "monster" that killed his sister and was after him too. He denied the outside to be let in, but he knew it existed. The outside was dangerous, but it was real, and so was the murderer. Walt was a poor boy who never got the treatment he desperately needed, but not that that would have saved him necessarily. After all, Lewis was not saved from the treatment he received. He lived in fear but his fear was justified because there WAS an actual attacker, and he didn't hallucinate that death at all. If his sister had died from falling off of the stairs with no one around, he probably wouldn't have believed in a monster. But if her boyfriend had killed her, even by accident, while wearing a literal monster mask, boy is that going to cause trauma in a young boy. Gus is just being a typically stubborn rebellious child. Cliche, but that's what he is. His dad is marrying a new mom he doesn't like, his baby brother drowned in the bathtub, and he's a little pissed off. There's not too much to go off of for Gus for me. Lastly, Edith doesn't seem show what she believes. Her story is about her asking why and finding answers that necessarily suffice. As for reliving people's deaths in that vivid of a way, I wouldn't count it as sign of abnormalness. The reason is because imagination is wild and its easy to start creating a story when given a prompt, especially if you and your entire family are a bunch of creatives. Imagination also comes to life experiences, and people who read lots tend to have very vivid imaginations. She does die young, and mother's don't die in childbirth very often, but it still does happen. For people like you and me, we don't believe in curses, but their validity is actually up for debate unfortunately. The family may very well be cursed, but maybe not... I don't think so. There are a plethora of reasons why a mother might die in birth, but I personally believe that Edith's son is supposed to symbolize that the family is finally getting a fresh start. Again, maybe not. :) Bonus! If we pull in the Unfinished Swan game, I think it further supports that Milton survived for at least a decade longer. The King is definitely Milton, but the king talks about his past, and he gives a time frame for himself for how long it is since he built his Kingdom. Its been quite sometime, and The Unfinished Swan is his life. The devs say that he literally went into his paintings, but if we throw that out as a creative liberty and place it back into the laws of our reality, then I think it comes out as a biography for the time he lived away from home. Another note is that the king is actually old in the end of the game, which indicates that he may have simply died from old age. He does say that he built his kingdom only ten years ago, but that wouldn't line up with how he had aged. Plot hole? Probably not, and I'm just reading too much into it. lol An interesting side note to me is that the main character in The Unfinished Swan is a blond haired boy that looks somewhat similar to Edith's son, which makes me think that the boy found Milton or at least attended Milton's funeral. This last idea is based purely on looks, but its fun to think about. If you've made it this far, wow! I wouldn't expect that, but I appreciate it! All in all, great video!

[@KnucklesUp]

Great comment and interesting ideas! Love the discussion. Thanks for the support

[@dolfylmao]

I had theorized that Milton either wandered while he was hallucinating and drowned in the sea, or that he actually went inside of the wall and died because he was smothered.

[@kenbarnes9599]

I'M RECORDING A PODCAST MOM

[@cook_2024]

This video is really old but this game is so scary in the sense that it’s realistic. Like these people all died before they even lived. Most of them were children! Another reason this game is so scary is that it’s true that life could end at any moment and you can never have the same moment twice. You don’t really get second chances in the real world. I feel that’s the scariest part of all.

[@cleit1802]

Well it's confirmed that he is in the game "The unfinished swan" his son appears. So edith's nephew

[@fish8101]

As Milton's paintings are all around the face and in the hidden passages, some often reflecting on what happened to the family members, I thought he read all about what happened and realised he needed to leave before it happened to him, but an eleven year old kid thinking and acting that way is a bit strange.

[@maggit3715]

Milton tower/ Milton theme. This song is a variation of the unfinished swan!! Listen to them!!!!

[@DeanoWheels]

Check out the top of Milton's room known as the Castle. There is a Swan Wind Vine.