Why Disco Elysium Is The Most Hopeful Game I've Ever Played (Feat. Laborkyle)

[@drakeafletcher]

Another great way to know this game was written by communists is the fact that you can spend the entire game saying the most communist thing possible in every single dialogue, read communist books, show sympathy for the revolution, etc. and when you finally meet the most communist person in the game he just calls you a liberal

[@januszkurahenowski2860]

A liberal and a pedophile, thing you're very likely to be called by another communists on twitter. They are very familiar with those relations lol

[@ceruleansuit]

FR LMAO

[@Jessie_Helms]

How it felt to be a (sincere) Libertarian for a long time. “You’re a socialist, a communist, a liberal!” -Right Wing “You’re a fascist, a hater, an Uber conservative!” -Left wing. Sincere as in I truly believed the, “let the mixed race gay couple protect their pot plants with AR-15’s. Government provide courts, a military for defense, and provide basic rights, that’s it.” For a long time. Of course, supporting gays, other races, and pot makes you a liberal. Supporting gun rights and small government makes you a fascist conservative.

[@safe-keeper1042]

LOL

[@kyleleehufnagel]

I’ve only succeeded in making myself sad.

[@ImVeryOriginal]

The phasmid at the end immediately struck me as a symbol of hope - living in the present even in the face of ever expanding nothingness and horror that humanity brought into the world. But I started wondering: what does that say about the Deserter, who at the same time couldn't see it and was addicted to it, its pheromones animating him but also draining and posioning him. He hoped for a better world as a young man and saw that hope get crushed, but instead of mourning it and moving on, he clung to it, turning it into an undead, unhealthy obsession. It's the same thing Harry does with the "ex-something"/Dolores Dei - trying to somehow win her back in his dreams even though it can clearly never happen. So in a way, I think the game might be saying that hope is a double-edged sword - a living hope rooted in the present is necessary to fully function as a human being, but clinging to a hope from the past that will never come to pass can slowly devour you from the inside. It's not about keeping hope alive at all costs, sometimes you have to be ready to accept that hope has died and needs to be properly mourned so a new one can be found. "After life - death, after death - life again. After the world - the pale, after the pale - the world again."

[@christianscipa06]

I love this interpretation. I have to play this game again soon.

[@CatgirlNixon]

I like that read. The deserter is such an odd paradox. The last Real Communist... who is a hermit...

[@boxtupos7718]

@@CatgirlNixon Holy shit, I never thought of that. I really love how this super communist, accidentally started a "revolution" because of an apolitical reason; He was just jealous that the girl he lusted on was fucking someone else. Then he went through hoops justifying his action. I see people mad about how the Deserter feels so random and how the ending sucks; But it ties into the games themes very well.

[@893loses]

yeah this is all true, but the deserter isn't a detective. Harry is. His job and our job is to find out what the fuck happened. That's why he can talk to the phasmid. no matter what horrible failures he's endured, the phasmid has always been there, watching him, rooting for him

[@hallowedfool]

I would read it a bit differently. Overall, the game to me is about hope and carrying on trying even when it all seems pointless and irreparable. The deserter for me is the way he is precisely because he doesn't have hope and I think his dialogue really hammers home how much he doesn't think anything is going to improve which makes all his continued action inherently flawed. He continued fighting out of a refusal or inability to move on and keep truly trying, he's just going through the motions as a form of self-flagellation because he abandoned genuine hope for a better world when the rest of the communists were killed.

[@aworldtowin955]

I love how the one who’s called an “ultraliberal” in the game looks like Margaret thatcher

[@randomstranger623]

I just noticed that, lmao.

[@vetonrecica5558]

Everyone: talking about politics in DE Me: I'm learning through Harry how to be less self-destructive

[@Dreamfillah]

I always preferred the personal tragedy angle of not being able to let go of the past in this game, too. Glad people are analyzing the politics of it, too!

[@vetonrecica5558]

@@Dreamfillah I'm happy that a game like DE has so many different angles to look from.

[@АнтонДегидонов]

Why can't there be both? For me, the theme of the impossibility of coming to terms with the past is common both for Harry and for almost all factions and the world, is the main one in the game.

[@lucianojordao9012]

you even look like Harry, hope you are not drinking yourself to oblivion like him (and me)

[@joekreissl4499]

@@Dreamfillah theyre one in the same comrade, they have the same themes deep down

[@elsanto2401]

In an interview on Gamesradar theres a quote about the sort of beginning that really inspires me. 'My friend, we failed at so many things. Let us also fail at making a video game.'"

[@NickHchaos]

I’ve been quoting that to my partner lately, we’re both creatives.

[@FirestormMk3]

If you have certain conversations with her long enough, Joyce seems to be someone who was more idealistic in her youth. She knows exactly what she is because she wanted people like her to be toppled when she was young, but she succumbed to the dreaded line by Thatcher, "There is no alternative." She doesn't seem to be someone who just says got mine f you, not someone who is simply greedy and glad she won, but something both more depressing and more insidious: an educated and politically aware person who used to be principled but was eventually convinced by the world around her that pragmatism meant abandoning those principles.

[@MrMeatballYT]

And that's why I feel so bad for her, even with her wealth. She sold her soul to live a good life within her means.

[@nico6143]

I kinda enjoy how miserable she is. It goes to show you that even with all the money in the world, even she can't be happy in this world.

[@DepressedHandsomeSpaceCop]

Her misery is feigned. She is so powerful and wealthy that she can afford to try to make you feel that the class arrangement is inevitable.

[@TitoMcFadden]

People are forgetting that she's dying. Too many trips through the pale. She is lamenting her past misdeeds because she is on borrowed time. I doubt she would be introspective enough to even be remorseful if it wasn't for that.

[@WheretheWillowsGrow]

@@TitoMcFaddenshe seems like someone who is on their deathbed, resenting their live choices. Too late to make amends or change the past. Nothing left to do but keel over and die Kind of depressing when you thing about it. Even the rich suffer to an extent

[@Thatll_Do_Pig_]

This is likely my favorite game of all time at this point but I think a lot of people overlook how hopeful it is. Say for example how you get to meet the Cryptid at the end of the game. Almost all week you are performing this task that Kim constantly says is childish and a waste of time. And yet you keep doing parts of the quest line. Running back and forth. Doing this lovely pointless task that you are constantly reminded by the moralist is a silly endeavor. And yet at the end you find Out, YES the Cryptid exists. You were right to keep looking for this wistful thing out of pure fool's hope. Because despite Kim's focus only on what he can see, there are ideas which you may not fully understand yet, and may never actually see the product of but are still worth fighting for. I found a lot of hope in the conclusion of this game. The devestating history of the deserter his thought spiral is immediately overshadowed by this just surreal beautiful creature that you worked for to please a lovely elderly couple.

[@NickHchaos]

Good real life lessons.

[@dr-skelebones]

I was not sure how to read the phasmid's meaning in the game - I originally thought that it was like an interruption of the divine into the game, the uncontrollable force of hope that contrasts the false hope of the Innocent worship. The kind of hope that can't be expressed in the value propositions or technocratic measures of capitalism, interrupting into the world in the most bleak and unlikely place like the Incarnation did. But it could also be nature itself - sheer life that refuses to be controlled or quantified or destroyed by the logics of capitalism either. The way that it seems to read your mind and the transcendent nature of the experience made me settle more on the first option, but it could be either or both.

[@NickHchaos]

@@dr-skelebones i think that’s all an excellent reading and summary!

[@Thatll_Do_Pig_]

@@dr-skelebones Wow I really like your second interpretation!! Thats a super interesting way to consider the phasmid. For sure youre right in that there isn't one true way to interpret the creature, but Ill try and hold both in my next playthrough

[@ImVeryOriginal]

@@dr-skelebones I read it as an indomitable, joyous, pure affirmation of life and existence. It lives in the present, accepts that an end (of itself, of its species, of the universe) will come but doesn't concern itself with it too much. I don't think "divine vs. natural" is a meaningful distinction here, the natural IS divine here. It is all you said. But notice how at the same time, over a long period of time, the phasmid slowly destroys the Deserter. I think that's because he clung to a dead hope, refusing to accept its passing, turning it into a resentment that at the same time animated and destroyed him from within, as well as making him blind to the actual, living, transient nature of hope - the phasmid.

[@beansfebreeze]

I'll never get tired of discussion about this game.

[@Guruc13]

Ditto

[@smokyondagrass2353]

Same

[@ejynk]

i'm here a year later as evidence of that haha. there's so much content and meaning in every corner of this damn game and i feel like i'll always come back to it.

[@SepticToxicShark]

Harry: All I ever wanted was to live with dignity -- to die with honour. (Sticks his thumb up his ass) Kim: WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! Harry: I am honouring myself, lieutenant.

[@masteroftheart5548]

Where others saw this game as an void which sucked out all hope I see an expanse ready for our hope to grow and flourish in. To quote Fisher “the long, dark night at the end of history has to be grasped as an enormous opportunity.”

[@bl0ndi550]

I disagree. I think the best metaphor or emblem of Disco Elysium's theme is the pale spot in the church, this idea that the beautiful gleaming city of Revachol, the centre of the world who's history is humanity's will inevitably be wiped away in only a matter of decades; all that beauty, that history to be wiped away with it. Hope does not grow into anything, it is pushed against. Hope is the default, the constant form of the human mind, that is corrupted exponentially by the weight of our collective experience. The revolutionaries die for nothing, their faded memory carried forward by a sputtering, failing machine of a man who lost his mind decades ago and the bullets holes and craters scattered around Martinaise, and they're the lucky ones; remember the anarchistes? Neither do I. The people of Revachol are not wallowing in their own pity however, they dance and sing and drink and argue and fight, they live, often joyously, because they aren't worrying about dying for some cause. That was Rene's failure if you can recall what Gaston said, that he was too concerned with dying for some cause rather than just being happy with Jeanne-Marie. “The millions of human beings who were shot, tortured, starved, treated like animals and made the object of a conspiracy of ridicule, can sleep in peace in their communal graves, for at least the struggle in which they died has enabled their descendants, isolated in their air-conditioned apartments, to believe, on the strength of their daily dose of television, that they are happy and free. The Communards went down, fighting to the last, so that you too could qualify for a Caribbean cruise.” ~ Raoul Vaneigem

[@grndmst9]

I also think though that the game can affect each individual differently, especially if you're someone like me, a broken man that has had a true battle with drug addiction/dependency. Much like Harry...This game during it's more true and confronting moments, brought me to many tears.

[@grantus_pax]

"Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair": the video game

[@tetrahedron_in_space]

To your point about the ex-something being personified by Dolores Dei and all the symbolism / extended metaphor that she entails, it's also equally important to note that Harry CONSTANTLY notices that he shares a likeness to Kras Mazov throughout the game, even going so far as to suggest that he is Mazov reborn. The ideological identities of the two figures, them especially being counter opposites, is personified in Harry and Dora.

[@sir.morris]

Being from ex-ussr I was stunned by Disco Elysium and it's world and it gave me back some hope for positive change in my country (Ukraine), thanks Kay and Skittles

[@smokyondagrass2353]

Isn't there fighting in the Ukraine still

[@chcknpie04]

You must have some crazy stories

[@castillogrande8926]

Vive Nestor Makhno!

[@lanagievski1540]

I’m from the Balkans and I can honestly find a similar sentiment in my own experience with this game

[@smokyondagrass2353]

@@lanagievski1540 Tito is based

[@SJKlapecki]

"Tomorrow the revolution will rise up again, clashing its weapons, and to your horror it will proclaim with trumpets blazing: I was, I am, I shall be!" - Rosa Luxemberg's last known written words Great fuckin' video, Kay

[@taveshii]

Wow. The pale allegory went right over my head *precisely* because of how blunt the rest of the game is. After seeing this, i would argue the phasmid sidestory could also be seen as an allegory

[@KayAndSkittles]

Absolutely!

[@pyrefly7575]

The phasmid is DEFINTIELY an allegory. Its an allegory of miracles. No one thinks there could possibly exist a phasmid, no one thinks Harrier can really get his shit together and solve the case but they do!! Its a miracle. In the same way the old man doesnt believe communism can come back, but it will, miracles happen. Thats my takeaway on it, at least. The game wants to give us hope

[@juliagoetia]

@@pyrefly7575 And this is precisely why the Phasmid says that The Deserter cannot/will not stay away from it, and that by not doing so he is "destroying himself". This is reflective of his experience witnessing the revolution, that glorious and *miraculous* moment of hope and beauty. And his not being able to move on from it, being so consumed with his idealized memory of it and the pain of it's loss that he loses himself in it (like Harry losing himself in his simultaneously deified and demonized relationship with Dora). Hollowing out from the inside until he's nothing but a bitter lonely traumatized old man acting on vulgar impulses with no hope, no joy and nobody left to care. Nothing but hate and grief.

[@JacktheRah]

I personally don't necessarily agree with the Pale allegory. It is more than that. It is a literal force in the universe. It is eating up the world bit by bit and it is destroying humanity. On the one hand it doesn't matter what you do because in the end they all die to the Pale. But on the other hand that means that now is the time to move on and make the best out of life and create the best and most fair system, live a good life in the time that you are given.

[@laurenbastin8849]

this game is absolutely insane and it’s great to see people still talking about it, I do think it is truly hopeful in many ways and it’s honestly be quite annoying seeing so many people write it off as nihilistic, even when attempting to praise the game.

[@alexarviso6836]

12:12 "Made to think nobody in the world thinks like you do" this made me ugly cry so hard...

[@HeronHero]

It's been a while since I last played but IIRC the Phasmid also says humans are scary because they *all* have their brains on fire, with multiple thoughts going through their heads. Harry's thoughts are his primary way of interacting with the world mechanically, but saying human minds are on fire makes me think about Cindy's last message, on fire, for all of Revachol and the Coalition to see.

[@KarimElHayawan]

"Marxist critiques on "Disco Elysium"" is the only category of KZbin that is only full of absolute bangers every single time.

[@briarbird3145]

Any recommendations?

[@KarimElHayawan]

@@briarbird3145 look up the videos on the game from the following chanels: Curio, Renegade Cut, Jacob Geller, Kybitzed, Leadhead.

[@WheretheWillowsGrow]

⁠@@KarimElHayawanis Jacob geller a Marxist?

[@plastiquemonk]

@@WheretheWillowsGrow it's quite likely that he is, but most of his work is not as direct and upfront as this video is about it

[@TheNostalgiafan88]

This is more than video of the year material, this is a declaration of how there is still hope that we can come together, someday, to make a world better than the one we’ve always known. I’ll more than likely have days of hopelessness in my future, but this reminds of why I still have days of hopefulness against the odds. Lovely work Kay, Kyle.

[@januszkurahenowski2860]

I love that no two essays on disco elysium are the same, each one of them talks about different things. Some talk more about the game and the RPG systems, other talk about the philosophy of it, others about the politics of it, some discuss the ideology and politics in more abstract way or within the universe and some extrapolate it onto our reality. It's very fun and I'm basically binging these videos getting different experience from each one of them

[@Molly-ml1wn]

Sorry Detective Skittles, I'm gunna have to add this one to the watch later. My Raphael Ambrosius Costeau refuses to make the 2 meter jump to his police blazer.

[@Molly-ml1wn]

I've finished my first playthrough finally :) Thank you for your perspective Lieutenant Double Yefreitor Skittles!

[@christurcotte4035]

The "mask of humanity" quote always gets me, I think about nearly everyday as I drive to work and listen to the news

[@richard.n9000]

You know the person that says that quote is made out by the game to be a raving narssistic lunatic right?

[@SnaccHBG]

​@@richard.n9000even a broken clock is right twice a day

[@CraigNull]

@@SnaccHBG And that lunatic has no comment about atrocities of the commune. What of the humanity of the communards who killed the Feld engineers

[@joaquinvideo2959]

​@@CraigNullEven Joyce has some good quotes and she literally owns wild pines and was completely complicit in sending the mercenaries! So what? Maybe you don't want him to be right this time...

[@CraigNull]

@@joaquinvideo2959 I'm not sure what your point is. Forget what any character claims, which faction demonstrably acts with their humanity intact? The world isn't exactly overflowing with promising candidates but it's certainly not the communards. They're the only one the game's lore depicts as committing atrocities. So the game is self-aware as to the hypocrisy when the most communist character opining about the humanity of his adversaries You seem to be under the impression Joyce wanted the mercenaries to slaughter the dockworkers. Meanwhile, you can't say those FELD engineers were accidentally executed. The disparity is right there in the text

[@JRWall-hf9mq]

Cuno's Dad is on a speed crash, not a drunken stupor. If you play your cards right, you can steal Cuno's Dad speed and give it to Cuno so he can get high off it. --- I really loved this game. Looking at the themes of the game, I think it could have only been made by Eastern Europeans who's most formative years were spent in the USSR and their following childhood years spent in the '90s. The '90s in the Eastern Europe was best explained as anti-communist lustration by a minority of the population against a protesting majority, forced-liberalisation and mass-privatisation, and a shock-economy; that's got to be traumatic. This perfectly describes the life and experiences of Disco Elysium designer, Robert Kurvitz. This game is an extension of their real world experiences.

[@АнтонДегидонов]

My thoughts exactly. Playing the game, it was by a reliable reflection of reality (and especially the atmosphere itself) that I guessed where the developers were from, before I really Googled it. I am Russian myself and I can say for sure that such feelings are very widespread among a huge number of people, regardless of their views on life. It is not surprising that such games as Disco Elysium, Stalker (many here also see this game as an allusion to the 90s). fallout (up to the third part), Atom rpg is so popular in this part of the world.

[@evangomez7156]

absolutely lovely video!! my favorite part of this game was the cryptid encounter, especially in relation to hopefulness- it embodies the existence of something sneered at and thought impossible.

[@agrainofsun]

"Turn from the ruin. Turn and go forward. Do it for the working class." ~ The Insulindian Phasmid

[@samuelc6246]

The most important character is indeed met on the island where you meet the killer, but it's not him. Your skin is crawling, suddenly...

[@regret9423]

That scene and a few others from this game will forever remain in my mind, they are just so emotional and powerful and just amazing. SPOILERS: The scene near the end when you go to sleep on the island, and talk to your ex, God what a powerful and gut-punching moment. I truly saw some parallels between Harrys life and my own, especially as a warning of what I could become if I continued down a certain path. Just so powerful

[@IsThatEtchas]

It's so weird to hear about "The Pale" as a metaphor cause I'm from the literal Pale where the saying comes from lol

[@KayAndSkittles]

:o

[@Desi-qw9fc]

As an aside, I loved the idea of the how you travel through the Pale, by basically shooting your ship at it and then just coasting, not be able to steer again until you get to the other side of it. Not only is it a nice metaphor for how grand historic events seem in retrospect, but it is also a cool transport system that is very videogamey and I’d like to see more of it.

[@kladbische]

"Why Disco Elysium Is The Most Hopeful Game I've Ever Played" -- "Because there is Kim Kitsuragi in it", period XD

[@theredscience1764]

OH! It's cyber-punk Paris in the late 1800s, after the Paris Commune was crushed! I'll have to play this now.

[@TomSketchit]

Just finished the game yesterday, and during the end had an Espirit de Corps check that I'd never heard anyone bring up or seen in any playthrough, one where you get a vision of your police captain planning out who on his staff would be on his side for bringing about The Return, with him especially singling out you as being able to get your shit together and stand with him when the time comes. And that was just such a beautiful moment to me, the one surprise I had since I had spoiled myself on most of the big moments and aspects of the game with videos like this.

[@EmonWBKstudios]

This video healed my moral by 2 points

[@larsthedude1984]

I do come back to this video when I need a healing of moral

[@ruplayinggame3080]

Loved the video and I totally agree that it is a very hopeful game, with a lot of catharsis on the way. I'm totally curious what your take on the cryptid is. Because to me, the cryptid is *the* hope in the game. But the metaphor seems a bit weirdly drawn? The deserter was *infected* by it and kept alive by it and he had no idea that it was actually there. But then Harry (in some cases) gets to take its picture and then show it to other people, thus spreading the hope.

[@KayAndSkittles]

I treat the cryptid as representing something truly beyond the pale, beyond our accepted range of "possible things" so I do think it's significant that it's what kept this revolutionary alive even while it drove him mad, in a way it's like the future he caught a glimpse of that never got to be born. I ended up not talking about it for time and besides even though I spoil everything else in this video I just want people to have that moment when you meet it to themselves. There's something powerful about it that I don't think words fully do justice to. A true look beyond what's "possible"

[@niro8125]

@@KayAndSkittlesDisco Elysium is a metamodern masterpiece. The message of hope and the struggle, more and more complex the further you dig. Bouncing between polarities and transcending expectations and possibilities. The cryptid is that transcendence

[@wesamc9333]

The scene where you construct the matchbox tower made me feel a way that I haven't felt in any video game ever.

[@jmh8817]

God. That final paragraph about Cindy's last act is some powerful shit.

[@sophiathekitty]

It's so awesome that this game got voice over. It sounded interesting when I first saw reviews. But at the time it was just text.... And that wasn't going to be accessable for me.

[@Kimbie]

Giving the ideas in the game a voice, literally and I guess in turn figuratively, was such a good decision.

[@cassidygruver840]

Finished the game yesterday, have not stopped thinking about it since. Saw this video, gave me absolute chills. Incredible work.

[@baaaldur]

I've been waiting for this one for a long time, and I am not disappointed. I swear, Disco Elysium is a blessing. I'm kind of astonished it even exists.

[@Beesativity]

I've almost finished the game myself, and I was thinking, "I wish more people were making videos about this game." Great video, and Skittles is as adorable as ever. Oh, I came upon this dialogue in the game and jotted it down in my notes: "Let's try building communism *twice*. If it doesn't work, let's abandon it and be slaves forever instead?" Something I found particularly interesting was that "twice" was in asterisks and that the second phrase ends in a question mark.

[@Guruc13]

Loved this tidbit. Thank you

[@alexarviso6836]

Have you seen renegade cuts video? Its really good as well.

[@Beesativity]

@@alexarviso6836 I honestly love Renegade Cut and had forgotten that they made a video about Disco Elysium.

[@spiritwolf963]

I do kinda wish you had touched a little more on the two students, as that quest is what really made it click for me, but I get you couldn't touch on everything. Amazing video, all in all, got me all tearing up

[@batmeme7486]

Holy shit that was beautiful. The connection of the Innocences and the Pale to Great Man theory and the march of history was wonderfully inspired. Best video essay I've seen on DE, and there are a lot of them out there!

[@discodetectiive]

i absolutely adore this game, and im so excited to hear you talk about it! cheers!

[@seem_okay_studio]

I always think it's funny that saying "You play as Harry Dubois" is already a spoiler.

[@vitorperroni976]

Man, finding your channel recently was one of the best things that ever happened to me on the internet. All your videos are amazing. Keep doing that. Cheers from Brazil! (sorry for my english btw)

[@Aloemancer]

Your English is excellent, don’t worry about it!

[@jprnn]

I've played through this game twice, and this makes me want to play it again. This game is like a great book, one that you can visit again and again, like an old friend who reminds you that there is hope.

[@Azne1]

This goes well with Curio and Renegade Cut's videos on this game. Thanks for making this!

[@evangomez7156]

this is crazy i legit just finished my first ever playthrough earlier this week

[@thepopulargirl1784]

Just got this game, can't wait to play it.

[@ameliainazawa1166]

Thank you! I clicked on your video somewhat randomly because I didn't know the game and it had the word HOPE in the title. The tidbits of text you show made my eyes go round. I had no idea such a game even existed. Now, after days spent engrossed in its world I feel hungover, or more likely sleep deprived, and wistful now that it's over. It felt like a feverish reflection on life. Thank you again!

[@richardellinghaus7752]

Finally a piece of commentary on this game that actually makes me want to play more than 20 minutes.

[@tara2611]

Martin Martinaise Voice: Beautiful.

[@GoobleDip]

This video gave me hope. Jesus, it's so good. This game is so good. Discussion around it never ends, it continuaslly brings new perspectives. Thank you for this video, it's beautiful.

[@larsthedude1984]

Having hope is… refreshing.

[@charlieni645]

This is phenomenal work. I think unfortunately we have a lot of deserters in leftist space who I agree with on most issues and are genuine in their anger and hopeless but also hopelessly unapproachable and even treat anyone not as left as them as centrists. I think the game is rather reserved in being hopeful though. The Pale is a metaphor for an inevitability but also an analogy for climate change imo. The status quo indeed can't go on forever, but the hopefulness becomes moot if civilizations come to an end before that.

[@sleepinthemorningcalm]

13:54 “all he has managed to do is make himself sad” That made me laugh so hard. Too relatable

[@ThatDangDad]

Phenomenal video about my favorite video game of all time. I have the Mazovian star and antlers tattooed on my arm as kind of an "anti-blackpill" sigil quite in line with your interpretation here

[@KayAndSkittles]

OH that's such a good tattoo idea!

[@josephinevanrooy7874]

Every video about this game focuses on a different angle of it. It’s amazing how complex it is, and I am learning so much more about it on my final cut play through. Anyways, amazing video!

[@schmoo1507]

Every single video essay I've seen on this game has great original takes and everyone has great analysis, which I think says what a perfect game it is, excellent video both

[@bareakon]

Who is Harry? I played as Raphael Ambrosius Costeau.

[@madmorgo6233]

This video made me both laugh and cry at least half as hard as the game did... that's still nearly (2x) twice as hard as any other game I've played or 8x as hard as any movie. Bloody nice work there

[@madmorgo6233]

Thanks for bringing me back! I'm subscribed. And watching again. This sent me down a rabbit hole - I'm about to meet the Deserter in my own game, and this was the first time I'd dared to watch past any point labelled as "spoilers" Your rant (?) as him was... shivering... goosebump-inspiring. High quality. You found the nail and hit it HARD on its head! And that final few minutes of this video... I remember screenshotting that moment. You explained it to me, something that might take me years to stumble across (or less likely, figure out for myself), the layers there... absolutely beautiful. These guys did an amazing job, and so did you with this video. Can't wait to watch some more!! Hope you have a good one, boss!

[@rango3874]

"You say you don't give a fuck about bugs, then you go build a whole bug town" ~ Harry, To Cuno

[@tyronechillifoot5573]

I recommend looking into breath of fire 5 dragon quarter it has themes of Classism Eugenics Environmentalism And anti cop themes

[@alexarviso6836]

I lived this game back in 2010. Well i loved all the breath of fires but there was always something about 5 that i loved. After reading your comment i realized i was the class themes.

[@im19ice3]

it took me several sittings to finish this video, and i did cry, however whats most important is how successfully it has fed my inner drive to keep going, and i'm grateful for that.

[@lurox5183]

Thank you for satisfying my needs for more high quality Disco Elysium content. A sequel to this game set in Jamrock would be INCREDIBLE, please ZAUM. I am on my 5th play through now and STILL discovering new dialogue and options.

[@doranl1358]

I don't know if anyone will ever read this comment, but I feel compelled to write this here; I once considered my central political alignment to be Radical Centrism. This ideology advocates for radical change and measures while neither aligning or being discernible as Left-wing or Right-Wing. The essence of Radical Centrism can be described as believing that all ideologies (usually within the status quo, of course) have "some good ideas." Therefore, an excellent state's job is to pick out the good ideas and not pick the bad ones from the various ideologies in a vein that balances into the center. But playing Disco Elysium for the first time, choosing the moderate options that advocate for gradual reform, I was suddenly faced with the possibility that I was making things in Martinaise WORSE. I was making things for Harry Du Bois WORSE. Centrism, even Radical Centrism, is founded on compromise and being empathetic to other humans. But for an ideology that I was encouraged to adapt to by Harry's empathy, the Moralists in the game (Kim, the Sunday Freind) showed a shocking absence of sympathy towards those suffering. It wouldn't be until the Final Cut with the Moralist Vision Quest that I finally picked up what those wacky Estonian game developers were putting down: Centrism only cares about the Status Quo. Centrists are okay with unions because they don't upset the Status Quo. Centrists are okay with free speech except when it's 'dangerous'. Centrists only regulate companies when things get out of control. They sound practical; they sound like the people who make these policies are on your side, but when Coalition Warship Archer demanded me to end the game early for the sake of the 'greater good', I realized they were accountable to no one but themselves. Disco Elysium didn't turn me into a communist...however, it did catalyze by descent away from the lofty perch atop the political fence and finally picked a side - which just so happened to be to the left. I guess I call myself now on the border between Social Democracy and Democratic Socialism, if only because I'm still pretty overwhelmed by all this information I was sheltering myself away from finally coming into my head (I was raised in a somewhat conservative family and was taught to believe anything to the left was stupid and evil), but I don't think I'm leaving anytime soon. I'm a dues-paying member of the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America), and I'm trying to teach myself more about Scientific Communism for the conference call next friday. If anyone is reading this, please wish me luck!

[@c.b.3234]

What a read..... Hopefully you can convert more people.

[@Omnicide101]

Hope the meeting went well, and welcome aboard the left!

[@caramel7050]

socdems are still centrists. keep reading! don't stick to reactionary imperialism

[@sapphic_sleeper]

@@caramel7050 well said

[@dragosg4258]

If you actually lived in communism or a post-commie country, you wouldn't have that kind of thinking. This is classic west. Communism will never work with humans, because they are way too greedy. Capitalism lets people be greedy without being dictators. Communism lets the 1% be greedy and kill whoever the fuck they want. That's what communism is. Nothing more, nothing less.

[@heladodevainiya344]

Thank you so much for making this video. You put into words the way I've felt for so long... I'm gonna come back to this piece of art again

[@andersdscott5944]

Kim /is/ a wonderful and reliable friend who has never done anything wrong, yes. The entirety of this video is more intelligent than any comment I could add. It was a good watch, thank you

[@thebighurt2495]

Kim was a key part of the game. For how crazy, weird and yet painfully real the game could be, it still needed a sensible, functioning person to serve as an anchor for the wacky protagonist to use as a lifeline to sanity. It wouldn't have been the same without him.

[@stainSqaud]

This game literally made me stop being a centrist. Things are not okay and I’m not going to be complicit in that .

[@SuperFranzs]

I'm a radical centrist!

[@xxXXRAPXXxx]

I mean with the presented options i do not see anything else enticing. As a Polish man options of being a commie or a fascist could not even exist for me (because we still and forever will be living through effects both of those had on our land and people. Also i think contrary to marx that working people only give fuel to preserve humanity long enough for someone special to push humanity [i mean fuck marx but he was special and his views had affected millions of people, kinda invalidated his own point but whatever.Also there is hope in that there is a possibility that you are special too, you just need the correct impulse to act.]) ultra liberal here is capitalist and im broke in game and irl. So i finished the game twice and i got the same apocalyptic cop thats centrist because fuck other options the world is ending anyway.

[@tibiademon9157]

@@xxXXRAPXXxx If the only options you can see are soviet-style socialism (authoritarian), fascism (authoritarian), and capitalism (authoritarian), I say refusing to choose one is the most human response.

[@berilsevvalbekret772]

@@xxXXRAPXXxx then you learned nothing. I wonder have you ever read Marx? Or just listened or lived in soviet/Stalin USSR?

[@krofgninut5984]

So youve decided to stop doing nothing. So, what is the something you do now?

[@rrrrthats4rs]

goddamn I knew when I saw that oil text, in the moment that it was the most important moment of the game, and that even if I hadn't solved the mystery I had seen, the Thing. Then of course, by the end I forgot it, in favor of other Things, including The Really Crazy Thing. But this video did a wonderful job of situating everything around Cindy the Skull's message and that works so great

[@begelzim]

Hey just wanted to say, I absolutely love this video - it helped me come up with the topic of my capstone for my MA historiography paper. I got a perfect mark, so thank you for your work and inspiration.

[@BillMayonaise]

As long as the material conditions that first birthed the revolution go unaddressed, the revolution will never truly die. You're right, that is pretty hopeful.

[@lactarius7781]

Disco Elysium videos are one of my favourite things. Everything everyone says about it is so interesting and insightful. I love that

[@jacobmoore756]

Incredible video. What an incredible game that transcends the medium itself

[@GrandArchPriestOfTheAlgorithm]

As a priest in the Church of the Algorithm, I bless this video with a comment.

[@azliaheaven]

the description of innocences is the best mocking of both religious and enligthment figures since that rethoric of the great man is trashed when is put before the "they only accelerated things that would had happened anyway" not for nothing dolores had the lungs of fire as depiction since the lungs is what process the source of life, air, but they don't produce it, in the same way that she was imposing the rules of life, of the new order, the fundamentals of the moralitmen that rule the world with her civilizacing and the fire of her armies, regulating it but not being able to define it to their pleasure. is not coincidence that the phasmid is on martinese and on the island that as joyce mentions doesn't had bloodshed during the conquest because there was no man there, in other words, was never civilized, and on the specific archipelago were the soldiers never accepted defeat. The event on the island with the phasmid and the real last communist not being able to see it has for me different symbolism, him clearly blinded by hate and ideology at the past to the point of repeating several times that he is an ideological officer, his position is due to the injustices and the cruel reality of the world after "history ended", that supression of colective will that he could not retaliate against drove him to the point of not having joy or being able to let others have joy like his hate for the girl enjoying with the merc or the brothers for not changing things immediately even if they clearly had the strike plan for years in the making to exporpiate the port. in the exact moment when you are forced to see what appears a depressing description of a permanent reality by him you see the phasmid, a magical moment that shouldn't exist, a proof that surprises still occur that his analysis is fault that "life gets hard but we go oonnn, baby" a proof of the wonders of life that can still be experienced no matter how fucked it is, or put in philosophical terms harry faces the Nietzschean last man in that last communist living by choice alone, in hate, exile and misery. harry with his lost memory, is like the phasmids, doesn't have a reason for hate, he is able to experience the world without the bonds of morality, of history or shame he experiences joy and anger, experimentation and defeat until ot completes the journey to become the übermensch when he manages to talk to the phasmid, other being with similar conditions to harry current life, that event with him only being able to talk to the creature since kim can't listen the conversation for me was a methapor that one needs to let behind the past and the hate its consequences cause and act with joy, only that way one can overcome everything no matter from what side it cames, is not coincidence that those like mañana and gaston who are the most joyful and non align but neither centrist figures share the same technic and lighting in their portrait paintings that the phasmid does. the message was clear that we need to move on, to embrace life and to find new ways to struggle and face the injustices of moralitmen because otherwise we end like that deserster on the island.,Another proof of this is that if you directly antagonize joyce with mazovian rethoric and not help evart because you consider him a revisionist you miss the only path to convince joyce to surrender the port to the workers union, if one gets fixated on the past and rescenment one loses the opportunity for the future, to avoid what will be a losing war against the company and help the workers. the conditions for change are always there because life is change itself, but that movement for change cannot be any of the ideas of the past, none of them had the might necessary to defeat the moralitmen airships or artillery in past and they have far less now, it also cannot be inaction. it needs to be what harry becomes when it loses his identity, past, memory, moralism and experiences, life without preconceived ideas, with childlike wonder. a new kind of man. a übermench

[@TudorC]

I can't articulate how much I love this video. Thank you for this analysis.

[@chohouse711]

Thank you for this, especially the ending.

[@gimpscam9976]

This game is so beautiful, whenever I first beat it, I couldn’t wrap my head around somethings. I remember whenever I got that reality check with Joyce, I was stunned myself. Idk why I was so blown away by it. The world is so interesting and expansive. I also have come to my own conclusive that Harry himself is his own man and you as the player can’t change that as much as you try, just point him in the right direction per say. It has a special place in my heart.

[@antareklause8779]

I can't stop thinking about how "Martinaise" sounds like "malaise." Which is absolutely what I would say is the feeling permeating the city.

[@lokp7]

We had such similar experiences with the game that is kinda funny, I guess our ideological bg must be similar. Now, about us reconquering the possibility of different futures, I think Ranciere's theory is the one I relate to the most, but I think that for this game the more utopic leftists that inspire surrealism might be worth looking into. I say that because of the Phasmid at the end of the game; I think they are kinda vouching for an experience of the fantastical (read as the absurd) as a way to get away from "reactions, reactions everywhere". It's almost supposed to be a spiritual experience (the encounter with the phasmid), transcendental but still inside materiality, therefore I think this game is also very Nietzschean actually, left-wing Nietzschean if we want to put it in a box (Harrier's personal journey is pretty much about remembering so he can then "actively forget"). The phasmid tells Harrier that humans dig their own grave with this stuff, the cosmos wouldn't have cared if they had chosen something else, they are just the end of all things, be it communism or capitalism or whatever. Unfortunately, that would kinda break your theory that they wrote this game as communists, as I think they are inside this headspace but they are not traditionally communists, they have a new-left, post-left, very secular sensibility (maybe post-Deleuzian, whatever that means?). I would call this position communism, seeing that it has, for all purposes, the same ideal, but it's also not strictly tied to Marxism-Leninism.

[@lathalassa]

thank you so much for this video. i am crying rn. so often i feel like the deserter, but this video, it helps me feel slightly better. Thank you

[@nelsonaraujo86]

Excelente video. Muchas gracias !! Me diste esperanza

[@alvaroignacioriquelmezamud7417]

I finished the game on high volition, no drugs or cigars in the playthrough, the story becomes quite empowering, everyone lives in this hellhole of a place, politics is a dead language and instead everyone turns to having their own Phylosofies of life, because we are all controlled by a massive multi-national government and there's no point in focusing in political forms, Revachol is an open wound that is intentionally left to fester, the government keeps is as a memento to inform other people what happens to those who revolt against them, the deserter and Rene embody that, two combatants that haven't let go of the war and have had their lives stagnated because of it. And then there's you, Harrier Du Bois in many ways you mirror Revachol, you also suffer from an open wound and refuse to acknowledge it, better to try and mask it with Disco and party, while Revachol has craters from the high ordnance as a memory of the damage you have the bloat of your face from the alcohol, you're a 45 year old man but Kim can't come to grips with the idea that you aren't 60 atleast. The murder investigation is trivial through the course of the game, there's only one ending and it's solving the case, the important things is the morality that you choose to give Harry, does he go off the deep end back into his narcissistic drug addled antics or he pulls himself together to abandon his vices, Do you personally asses the crime of a poor drunk that hit his head on a bench or tell other less important people to do it for you? do you even care that much? depends on the player if harry cares enough to go and tell the wife what happened. The game throws subtle hints that the worst waste of your time is to engage with political ideologies(In the thought cabinet), no one will take you seriously on them, the easy ones to single out is Comunism and Fascism but even if you go for something as inocuosly called as ''Moralist'' the game goes to length to show you that harry is not taking this route of thought to ''Do good for my fellow man'' but to try and hide his fault by becoming a protocol freak and ''Dividing Responsabilitae'' in a committee so that the blame is never fully on him, and if you take that route to it's logical ending, the moral intern even makes you disappear once you report them about the ''hole in the world'' in the church. when you reach the end of the game, Rene has died from a heart attack and the deserter will be sent to prison, finally the last combatants of the war of revolution are gone and perhaps now Revachol may heal and that ties nicely with Harry's story, when you return to be judged by the three cops harry has that opportunity, he might finally start to heal from the wound left by his wife's departure, he might finally leave the alcoholism behind, and realize that there's people in the world that care for him, Jean Vic even after he thrash talks you during the whole game still deeply cares about you, even if you get the worst ending he's sad because he misses his best bud ''*If* you make it -- If you've been sober for 10 months -- Tell us. I'll work with you again. But not like this. Never like this again. This is over'' be mindful that's the worst possible ending, where you are a drunk drug addict that got kim shot and rejected Cuno's help, after you come out raving about how there was a cryptid that did the murder and you failed any redeeming acts, even then you have someone that yearns for harry's friendship. My favorite ending is doing the volition run with Cuno as a detective, you have pulled yourself out of the gutter and found a gem in the bottom, you left behind your vices and you acknowledge that you were hurt, and as the morning rises on the horizon, your best friend and partner beckons you to get on the car, cuno is filled with joy and wonder for the tomorrow to come and what this new life will bring and in a way harry is too.

[@blueroman5538]

The quote “this is the end of history” used to scare me so bad. I had bought into the idea that nothing can or ever will change. But now I realize, as long as people exist so will history, so will the want, the need for change and freedom. And as long the ideas of change and freedom exsit so will the revolution

[@Vivec]

Was just wondering what your next video is and then I see this gem get dropped, nice work my man

[@sleepingdogpro]

"We are alone, and we're all we've got." Nail on the head.

[@silverthered]

"I gave my life to the revolution, to the people. I saw hope and joy, I saw young people looking to the future and actually SEEING a future, I saw a world that didn't make me want to drown myself in the goddamn sea. I saw what capital's agents do to people who dream. I saw what they do to people who resist, who stand for something. I saw young men blown to pieces, I saw bodies piled up in the streets. **I saw the mask slip.** The mask of humanity fall from capital. It has to take it off, to kill everyone- everything you love, all the hope and tenderness in the world. It has to take it off, just for one second. To do the deed. ...And then you see it. As it strangles and beats your friends to death... the sweetest, most courageous people in the world. You see the fear and power in it's eyes. Then you *know*. That the bourgeois are not human. ... Now all I see is The Shit. Rock and roll music is shit. My gun is shit. This world is shit. Counter-revolutionary, apathetic, suicidal garbage. Shit. We died for this? The material basis for an uprising has eroded, the working class has betrayed mankind and themselves... The historic oppurtuntiy has passed. It will not come back anymore, however hard I try, whatever I do."

[@BraUnY74]

For me, Disco Elysium is full of a lot of familiar things, because I live in Russia, a country full of the wounds and graces, left by the communist regime, for better or worse. From my point of view, Kras Mazov is not just Karl Marx. By being an active participant of the Revolution, he takes a lot of traits, I'd seen akin to how Russians talk about Lenin. Since the writers are from Estonia, I won't be surprised, if Mazov takes a lot from the ideas around leaders of Bolshevik Revolution. Another point is that in Russian translation, the writers of the original proposed to call the Pale "Serost' ", which means "grayness", and also describes things, like "boring, uninspired person", kind of having the connotations of dying without doing anything substiantial. So I think, it's more than just capitalism, or climate crisis, as a lot of people read it, but this sense of existential dread, when you deal with all those things, the horror of the unability to change them. As for the themes of hope, I'd say, they put a lot of hope in the young and artistic people, because I mean, Cindy. But also, you can give The Deserter a bit of hope, if you picked up the Art Cop thought. You can tell him, that the statue, he hates for being degenerate glorification of the fascist monarchy is in fact a pro-revolutionary piece now, that it depicts not how the statue was, but the moment it was blown up, symbolizing the fight against the monarchy. You can earn a bit of respect from him, by showing him, how the moment of his glory is not defied, but immortalized in this grotesque sculpture.

[@АнтонДегидонов]

Привет соотечественик, а я уж думал я один на таком малоизвестном для русского иностранном канале сижу =))) Тем более не ожидал что кто то будет игру(а до этого легенду о Коре) с точки зрения марксизма рассматривать на западе. Но как видно такие вещи тоже случаются =))))

[@Moosemoose1]

Yo Kay, this video is probably the absolute best description and political analysis of Disco Elysium on KZbin, thank you for making this! Keep making these game and film analyses, they're excellent!

[@ladymercury05]

Finished my first Disco Elysium run in a 5-day haze back in May and I know for the first time what gameworld withdrawal feels like. I keep returning to Martinaise in my dreams.

[@Nomadith]

I know I'm a year late to this party, but it's fascinating and really beautifully articulated to see a review of DE looking at its themes more than the story (at least to the degree that they're so beautifully interwoven). Your focus on realising its materialist theory and outlook is making me want to play it all over again. But all the same, it speaks volumes of the game that despite there being a plethora of video essays and reviews on it, every one of them has had a different talking point - everyone overlaps to degrees, but the game beautifully allows you, skittles and others to have their own takes and still NOT cancel out or oppose one another, they're all valid. Thank you Kay, some really beautiful work you did here. 💙

[@gatorguard5931]

I waited a while to play this game, so I've only just watched your video now. I really appreciate the way you break media down and give it a cogent narrative that (to my mind) accurately reflects the thoughts of the authors. Beautiful summation of a beautiful game.

[@Roxton13-13]

That's it, I'm starting the second playthrough

[@MatauReviews]

always spectacular kay. will be sharing this with my loved ones

[@zelda6600]

Thank you for your work, an absolutely wonderful piece of video with sharp comments and beautiful wordings. It indeed gives a sense of hope, when I see the promised order collapsed in the area I live in, when I’m frustrating about where we are all heading to… it is nice to realize that something is changing, one day it will come back to us….

[@MegaLozenge]

Nice video. For me, the phasmid that Not Affiliated mentioned below was like the coming of "The New," or at least a taste of it. Think I might have cried at the moment.

[@allmightybison5629]

There are definitely layers of irony within each ideology. However, it's important to state the boundless self reflections regarding our providence & behavior towards each individual (or collectives). The MC hit the reset button & has to gather his thoughts on what is more important in his past, how he's going to manage his present & drive closer to a hopeful cause, lest the game ends in realizing one must move forward despite all hardships.

[@obonkey]

As a brazilian I gotta say. Disco Elysium is about Brazil

[@Laezar1]

My interpretation of the pale is that it's meant to represent the anthropocene. It can be easily viewed as being a representation of climate change, human activity expanding it's reach as it engulfs everything, the fact that it started existing because of humanity further emphasizes that (also the fact that it became an opportunity for capitalist to expand their reach which is all too real). But I like your interpretation and it's not necessarily in conflict. If the pale is the unknown of the future that human will bring about then it could be a self destructive future or it could be something we're incapable of imagining and that frightens us because it's unknown. That's actually very interesting that I immediately associated the pale with something bad because I was told it's bad, it's unknown, it's scary, and while I definitely didn't adhere to the status quo while playing the game I was definitely replaying the patterns of failed revolution of the past, in some way repeating the mistakes of the past is also playing along the comfort of status quo.

[@marxistopiateaddict]

wait oh my god you're right

[@TheOneTrueAnthemis]

Just the title of this video is enough to push me over the edge to finally buy it

[@TheOneTrueAnthemis]

Also please go play Outer Wilds

[@baaaldur]

oh my god, dude, please play it. you will not regret it. i wish i could experience it again for the first time.

[@artyrak4]

So.. how did it went?

[@TheOneTrueAnthemis]

@artyrak4 it was amazing But while I have you here, you should also go play outer wilds

[@zameking]

picked this up for 10 bucks last week and finished it. it is my favorite game of the last 10 years for sure....thanks!!!!!

[@zameking]

probably ever! i remember vaguely when this video first came out and have saved to watch it completely til now !!!! great work