You Wake Up in a Room: The Creative Roots of Identiteaze

[@JessieGender1]

Ahh Steve, I'm so honored you would make this video about IDENTITEAZE

[@laikapupkino1767]

Two of my favorite youtubers coming together in a delicious synergy like peanut butter and chocolate (I leave it to you to figure out which of you is which). Maybe I shouldn't have learned the resolution of IDENTITEAZE before seeing the film itself (I was warned) but it sounds far more relevant to me than any of the prior examples of this trope Steve mentioned. I thought the story's denouement was gonna turn out to be one person integrating their male and female sides, I was wrong but not completely wrong.

[@pyRoy6]

So did y'all talk about it? Or did you just make Steve watch the BTS? He went in COLD.

[@SteveShives]

@@pyRoy6 We didn't talk about it until our livestream shortly before it released on Nebula, and I didn't know anything more about the movie than anyone else in Jessie's general audience before I watched it.

[@pyRoy6]

@@SteveShives I mean now, after you put this video out!

[@Islandmidfielder]

You are both good for society🎉. Well done being good humans.😊

[@searchingfororion]

As someone who became disabled in their mid twenties, is now wheelchair bound and had no change in daily existence from lockdown and now *does* live in the same isolation environment I watched so many people have tremendous difficulties with (what I could through a screen) when it had long become my "normal" - though I did offer support and was surprised to see return interaction come back from some during that time, yet unfortunately fleeting once the shared experiences were no longer mandatory - this video is a balm and reminder that I appreciate and needed right now Steve. Circumstances and a system have *literally* put me in a room that I do or cannot leave for many reasons, but I refuse to forget who I am - and I *absolutely* do not submit to the concept that anyone deserves to submit to such a system. I continue to fight like hell for anyone who is subjected to such by all possible means. Because for too many, they can't. (And vote people. Otherwise my version of social interaction and activity will seem enviable to the average individual. If not for your ideal, to aid those whom have most to lose. I've met them. I know simply being able to share this is more than others can.) Again, thanks for reminding me that regardless of my current situation *I choose* - and this was the reminder that the only futility is in surrender and all I do is with intent to empower.

[@elisabeth5111]

The, "you wake up in a room" trope is a particularly good representation of life in general. We all wake up in this existence trying to make sense of it, perhaps that's why it resonates so well.

[@JanetDax]

For some of us, life is knowing "something" is wrong, but being unable to discover what. When I discovered the what, the wrongness disappeared.

[@GSBarlev]

I remember Jessie saying that _Cube_ was one of her direct inspirations, so thanks for the reminder to find a copy to watch. Honestly, y'all had me at Nicole deBoer.

[@Guttermaiden]

I hadn't heard that, but "this feels like Cube" was the first thing that popped into my head when I watched. Glad to know that was intentional!

[@krisztianunpronounceable]

CUBE is one of my top 5 favourite sci-fi movies. Shoutout to David Hewlett!

[@SoldierofPlenty]

I made sure to advise Steve of his omission as well haha

[@steveschmaling8217]

The "wake up in a room" trope appears a lot in some form or another and sometimes it goes all in on the premise and sometimes it is just to help set up the main plot. Star Trek TNG did it in an episode, and the movie Predators did it as well. Clue kind of did it as well, except everyone entered the mansion or "room" willingly instead of finding themselves there

[@iainhewitt]

I am surprised that Picard's trip into this particular trope (more than once, now I think about it - both in Allegiance and The Inner Light) didn't get a mention

[@whoistechcmty]

I love how you can casually Vulcan salute with both hands. I can remember being a young nerd practicing too.❤

[@brian.the.archivist]

I love Jesse's works on KZbin and look forward to watching this someday. A motivator to get nebula. Cube is a great movie What's interesting in the recurring theme part of storytelling is when someone is completely ignorant that a similar thing has been done before, so it's more convergent ideas vs drawing inspiration from

[@thishandleistacken]

Absolutely going to check this out! I've never seen trans affirming media that can appeal to gender-fluid/non-binary trans people (if you have examples please leave a comment!). I often feel "left out" by a lot of trans identity media because of me not being someone who feels like I should be either a man or a woman and commit to one or the other. Thanks for highlighting this

[@DawnDavidson]

OT: I am grinning at your bright green “brat” lights in the background.

[@jrsydvl7218]

These were no where near the times I woke up in a locked room with several people. But I had a drinking problem at the time.

[@amybrown9539]

One of my favorite examples of this trope is The Circle.

[@CorwinFound]

"You wake up in a room" is a trope that we experience all the time... through video games. We regularly have a character that wakes up as a fully grown adult and usually the first choice is male or female. Interestingly, this video game dilemma is also a trans trope, of people before they come out exploring gender via games. Until recently non-binary hasn't been an option although now some "woke" games (ie ones that want to make money from as broad an audience as possible) do offer that in their character builds. The reality is that "male" or "female" with usually no enby option is a decision we make all the time in real life. Walking into a clothing store, filling out a form, public bathrooms. Even binary trans folk like myself have to think about it and experience repercussions, sometimes negative, over those choices. As an example, on a medical form, am I male or female? Does this issue relate to my sex based biology or gender affirming medical care? And any caveats that I apply to that choice will need to be explained and qualified to every medical professional I encounter. Even if I break my arm I need to decide, am I a male with a broken arm or a female with a broken arm? Should it matter? No. Does it? Yes, yes it does.

[@veronicabrown2328]

Neat! I definitely fell out of Jessi's algorithm so it's good to know that her movie is out and I'm looking forward to it!

[@poigntless]

I do love this trope. Identiteaze and Jim Henson's "The Cube" going on the list.

[@robertsouth6971]

"You wake in a room" is an analogy for life, but the endings don't do it right. Children are in the mode of learning who they are and where they are. Adults take all that for granted as a starting point and switch to the mode of creating. We are no longer passively unboxing a gift. We switch to making ourselves, and remaking our environments. The set pieces obscure this option. Given the things we cannot change, we change those we can. When options are restricted, we change what we obviously can just to have some kind of agency. But we often overlook less obvious ways of finding agency.

[@bryangillis1362]

It's one of my favourite tropes as well - the movie had me immediately hooked by starting with it, and I loved piecing things together with the characters.

[@lasseehrenreich5502]

it was amazing and now because of IDENTITEAZE I know Aron can be spelled with both an A or E - didn't know that before

[@OGdadpool]

Aaron and Erin

[@GSBarlev]

​@@OGdadpoolAnd Aerin, of course!

[@Seal0626]

Aaron, Aeryn, and Erin are all names. To me they're also all pronounced completely differently to each other, but that's an issue of accent.

[@searchingfororion]

Fun fact: Jessie mentioned on her channel that a large amount of her cast and crew were coincidentally named some version of Erin/Aaron ect. (They had to use last initals, nicknames, or other identifiers for clarity). I recommend that video. It's immensely full of joy and also gives some great acknowledgement to folks behind the scenes.

[@djkittycat]

@@marieroberts5664 They can...only in certain accents. My accent pronounces them differently.

[@CerexFlikex]

I got Nebula just to watch the film. Was worth it for sure. I appreciate this video

[@stevegrist9413]

This has happened to me on many an occasion, although the answer to the conundrum was invariably found in the empty bottle laying on the floor near an overflowing ashtray. My memory usually came back after a black coffee or two. Great vid Steve 😁

[@Frosted_Moontips]

So glad ya mentioned the Cube franchise, it ain't perfect but I love the tone of the original and the nuttiness of Hypercube X3

[@samwill7259]

I'd make a joke about Aron but something about Steve makes me imagine he's not enough of a Pokemon fan to get it

[@jonathantonner4263]

Elite 4 member or pokemon?

[@KoRntech]

Cool premise and a nice reminder.

[@tiyenin]

This is a bit pedantic, even for linguistics, but I've always wondered how common it is in various English dialects for "Aaron" and "Erin" to be homophones. It's the difference in vowel between Pan + Pen to me (that's called a minimum pair: a sound change that leads to a change in meaning. Very much language/accent/dialect specific. A racist example is the East Asian L/R confusion. A more American example is (if there even is a different vowel sound to most Yanks) caught/cot. Many of us hear these two very slightly differently voweled words as homophones [for those playing from home, British accents generally discern between these two words and their subtly differing pronunciations, like I do with Erin/Aaron]). So anyhow, yeah, Arin/Erin is a minimum pair to me. @game_grumps

[@CulturePhilter]

Yeah I definitley think it’s an American English thing. I’d province the two names differently. I think it’s the name phenomenon where Americans pounce the name Craig to rhyme with Greg.

[@just_gut]

Just to add to the list of excellent "You Wake Up in a Room" works, I quite like Circle (a movie from 2015) and Severance (an Apple TV show going into its second season.)

[@gracekinsley3142]

what a great analysis, thank you Steve, you always impress me

[@vine1313]

While I know you said there were so many variations of this that you were not going to go over all of them, I was surprised that you didnt touch on the TNG episode that explores this story beat...

[@ShadSterling]

It's like if Tuvok and Neelix woke up in a room, and came out as Tuvix

[@SoldierofPlenty]

Cmon Steve, you recognized Dax but not Rodney McKay, one of the best characters from the best Stargate??!! Also, new subscriber here. Algorithm randomly found me one of your vids tonight. Beau is my fav of all time but after checking you out, besides the Star Trek stuff, the Quiet Part out loud about Repubs and Israel is what really got me. Props!

[@nivaldowesley666]

what could be a horror movie ends with a message of hope. sounds interesting!

[@johnburns9634]

Interesting. You wake up on a Spaceship: The Creative Roots of Dark Matter.

[@Takillas149]

The first work that came to mind when you mentioned this trope for me was the videogame Portal. I'm not sure how well this applies though...

[@GrannyGamer1]

Oh, good. I'm very curious about the film, but subscription services are way beyond my budget. As much as Nebula tries to be inclusive, the voices and experiences of people in poverty are shut out. So, thanks for a really in depth explanation of the trope and analysis of the film. And thanks for not fawning over Snappy. That's Jessie's garage, she says. Maybe one day Nebula will agree to allow Jessie to put it on her channel and i can see it.

[@FTLNewsFeed]

Capt. Janeway seethes.

[@rudylikestowatch]

I was just thinking that "the administrator" did a Janeway when splitting up Aerin.

[@GrandpaCremate]

Sort of like the crystal gems

[@harrybehemoth2751]

Did you know that Nicole DeBoer makes several appearances on The Kids In The Hall (including their movie Brain Candy).

[@insanitysportal6692]

How could you mention Ezri Dax, but not Rodney McKay?!?!?

[@SoldierofPlenty]

I have also corrected Steve’s omission, hopefully others will continue to set him straight haha

[@darkhalf75]

surprised you didn't mention John De Lancie's role

[@UnKnown-xs7jt]

Excellent!!

[@austinluther5825]

Engagement!

[@maxpeterson8616]

I have no memory of that Twilight Zone episode.

[@lkeke35]

I am always noticing the "you wake up in a room" motif, from series like Farscape, to movies like Oldboy, and one of CJ Tudor's most recent short stories. I can identify and understand the motif but sometimes movies like Cube and Saw just give me anxiety, and are absolutely not "fun" to watch at all.

[@tjzambonischwartz]

I'm surprised you didn't bring up the TNG episode "Allegiance."

[@ZombieFarmboy666]

I thought that was Maggie Mae Fish!

[@Tykoon22]

“Remember who you are.“ -- Steve Shives, KZbin (2024) -- Mufasa, The Lion King (1994) No further credence necessary. 📹🦁✅

[@jamesevarts3]

same as st tng allegiance

[@knitcrochettiger361]

i love the overall tjheme of Identatiteaze....."No matter how strict the rules seam to be....you DO NOT have be stuck as what others define you as....you can define yourself!"

[@KendelFargo]

Tuvix

[@K3M15A]

Cube

[@debbiebannister32]

wouldn't you like to see Trump in one with no exit

[@johnfairhall6480]

I made a conscious decision to avoid any story that starts with an amnesiac protagonist. Just so lazy and completely overdone.

[@jan-rs6im]

congratulations to Jessie!

[@TheThunderbirdRising]

Ngl listening to the plot of this, it sounds obnoxiously on the nose

[@justsignmeup911]

Black Mirror killed this trope for me by having every other episode be a bad version of it.

[@joehopfield]

The amazing TV production of steam bath in 1973 blew my teenager mind. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steambath_(play) I wnjoyed identiteeze, well executed. but few surprises knowing the players and the trope.