Calvin and Sam’s deaths are so interesting to me. They’re the only set of twins on the family tree and the only two Finches who died the same way. They both fell from cliffs.
Aside from Milton being a reference, it’s speculated that he actually got stuck in the walls. In the tunnels, you can see his paintings and art supplies.
that actually makes a lot of sense, i’ve always wondered about milton because they left it so open ended and the unfinished swan never made much sense to me
one theory ive heard about Molly’s story is that shes having fever dreams, holly berries are toxic or poisonous and that on top of all the other stuff she ate on an empty stomach is probably what made her sick
noooo surely a 10 year old eating 2 different types of poison and hamster food after she was clearly neglected for a while has a sound and strong body to fight off any issues
the Berries were probably plastic (as it was 1947) but even back then some people use to hang real holly and holly berries around their house during christmas (assuming it was that time of year?) and by looks the house is in middle of no where-
Kevin you missed Odin's story it was in Grandma Edie's room. It says that he travelled with his daughter Edie (the grandma), her husband Sven and their first daughter Molly to America by literally transporting their entire house on the water. Off the coast of Orcas Island they hit storms and Odin went down with the original house, which is why it can still be seen poking out the water, while Edie, Sven and Molly escaped on a small boat and started to build the new house from scratch. It also says that he did this after he'd just lost his wife Ingeborg and baby son Johann as "the newest victims of the family curse", implying that the Finches have had a bloody history for a long time. It gives you a lot of the context you were missing for the history of the family.
I wonder if the family are suppose to come from Sweden or Norway, or any of the other scandinavian countries, cuz the names sounds like they come from here.🤔
This reminds me so much of that film about a family going through very unfortunate events, good ending, but some sad deaths, i wonder if it was an ispiration
@@-callmecrazy-5859 nordic and norwegian are 2 different things. yes, norway is a nordic country, but so is sweden, so unless you know which nordic flag, that doesn't really say much, but i assume you meant the norwegian flag? i haven't gone back in the video and checked the flag myself, as a norwegian i would certainly know it if i saw it
I love the idea of the curse originally starting as a cooping mechanism that Edie started to deal with the terrible loses of her home and young children. And instead of mourning the loses of her family as tragedies, I feel Edie almost started to idolize them and played up the mystical stories of their deaths. (Including a distasteful retelling of her daughter, Barbara's murder with evidence only a family member would know in it) As Dawn got older she realized how this negatively affected the family with her children seeking out these mystical stories for themselves first with the disappearance of Milton who was looking for adventure, then Lewis who took his life after not finding worth in reality. So that's why Dawn was so mad when Edie had wrote another mystical story to Edith. Dawn wanted the stories to stop, because she finally saw the negative affect it had on the family.
Looking back a lot of these deaths can be attributed to negligence. Molly and Calvin both died due to their parents not really paying attention to what they were doing (sending a kid to bed hungry and placing a fecking swing right next to a cliff is hugely irresponsible) and Gus's story blatantly tells you that it was because they barely even noticed Gus was missing. Other deaths can be attributed to dumb decisions (like the deer death, Odin's death for trying to sail the sea with his house, and Sven's death from a slide that was not structurally sound). Edith's death, and Walter's, and Lewis's death stuck out to me the most. Walter's death is directly tied to the curse and his belief, in it whereas Lewis's death came from his dissatisfaction at the job and poor mental health, showing how improper care can still lead to disastrous results. Edith herself was more unlucky and BArbara was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is an argument to be made how Edie herself is a more villainous figure in this because she is very prone to magical thinking and she built the entire house as less of a monument to the ones she lost but more of a museum for the curse that she herself made up. Lewis's death is portrayed in a way that it could have easily broken Edith's mother since she didn't want her son to be another spectacle dedicated to the curse. Because that's what all these deaths and tragedies turned out to be. Spectacles for Edie to show around and glamourize their death. This is particularly shown in Barbara's death where her gruesome murder (or maybe an accident) is shown as if it were just a spooooky tale from Tales from the Crypt-like show. It can be quite distasteful and worse it propagates fear and distress in the family members (hell poor Walter's life was dedicated to running away from this curse). That's why Edith's mother didn't want Edith to know the 'stories' because that's what they were. Stories and myths about real deaths and tragedies. Generational trauma and tragedy are presented as fantastical scenes from a children's picture book. God this game was fantastic and I am really glad Kevin got to play it and really give it such a fun playthrough.
Oh for sure, that whole family line seems like mindless (as in paying no mind) idiots, who refuse to learn from accidents. At least the last generation was creative as well, but still lacked that sense of self-preservation. This family wins a Darwin Award. It is impressive that Lewis managed to not cut-off a finger, while not paying attention. That is by far the more common accident in a plant like this.
Actually, I do not think, Lewis killed himself because of poor mental health. I used to work in a similar job, where you don't need to use your brain, you just have to move your hands and work. Without thinking. Without existing. Without being anyone. Without being important. I started to listen to music to get my mind off this. I even danced along, anything better than doing this mindless, soulless work. But I have to admit, I only worked there for a few months and I thought to myself, if I drive into THAT wall, I don't have to get back to that place tomorrow. It has nothing to do with poor mental health. If you're stuck in a job, that doesn't need you to use your brain, you become depressed... I'm actually not surprised Lewis ended up that way. The same thing might have happened to anyone...
If I was to guess at the overall theme, I'd say the "curse" is a metaphor for generational trauma- the collapsed house in the ocean representing Edie's traumatic past and the ocean itself represting her repression of her memories and emotions, externalising her memory through memorials and mementos rather than dealing with them internally. As a result of the lingering trauma haunting the entire household, a vicious cycle emerged in which poor mental health leads to bad choices which lead to further deterioration in mental health. Edith herself seems to have been trapped in the same cycle, having only just barely become an adult and being pregnant without any family support. The ending is ambiguous as to whether Edith's death represents a clean break for her child or if he internalises the "curse" himself. Atleast that's how I interpret it, it seems like there's a lot you could read into this game, really fascinating.
i think you may read it as breaking the cycle because edith tells him all these stories while she didn't know them in her childhood. which is a very common theme with trauma, like, you don't talk about it, just keep all these family secrets and tragedies away from children while it still has an impact on them. so edith chose to break at least this the cycle.
This plays into a theory I read where the person said that because of their belief in the curse, they failed to take true responsibility for their own actions, leading the cycle to continue. For example, leaving a swing in such an unsafe place, not ensuring everyone was safe from the storm, not paying attention to the baby in the tub, not feeding Molly leading her to poison herself, etc. Because their constant insistence of a curse, the only person who tries to stop this is Edie's mother. But big Edie's influence is still there. I mean look at little Edie, a pregnant woman climbing trees without thinking about the danger of it, pushed on by the story of the curse.
I agree. The combination of generational trauma, poor choices, fear of the curse, social shame from being known as cursed and internalized constant fear of death can create deep rooted mental health issues from a young age, as well as neglect and carelessness that increases everyone's risks. I really loved this time game and thank Kevin for playing it
this reminds me of the chain of depression in my family. my grandma tried to unalive herself when she was in her twenties, my dad has experienced the same, i've also been close, and earlier this year my brother died in what is suspected to be su1cide. i can relate to that at least
@@ps1hagridoufofcharacter Sorry to hear that. I have had my own troubles with that. They say you're more likely to do it if a parent does it unfortunately, which is why it's so important to take away mental health stigma so people feel comfortable asking for help and we start to break those cycles.
Back again crying. Lewis is also a huge tragedy and I think a big tear jerker. Edith dying in childbirth (presumably as we are seeing the kid being born during her narration) and not getting to meet him. Him putting flowers on the grave. I'm just utterly devastated at the thought of my kid having nothing of me but a journal and not getting to properly meet them. I do think its a self-fulfilling prophecy. A lot of bad luck and a lot of carelessness that caused even more accidents. Like, Lewis clearly should have been made to quit his job when his maladaptive daydreaming progressed to psychosis (?)/delusions. Gregory shouldn't have been left alone in a bathtub. That swingset shouldn't have been on a cliff. Holly berries shouldn't have been around for a kid to eat. Etc.
They even kept the swingset. Like you'd probably remove it after one of your children dies because of it. Maybe if Edie fed Molly that night, this whole event of generational trauma - Edie thinking it's a curse and therefore shifting blame away, convincing every family member that their family line is cursed and causing dozens of self-fulfilling prophecies ending in tragedy - would have never happened. Or at least not as much. This house is still a danger in itself
@@riverbord5353 I doubt it. in edie's room, you can find a newspaper describing a "curse" on the family after edie's parents and brother died. most likely she internalized the trauma of losing her entire birth family by believing in the sensationalized family curse everyone was talking about. I think by molly's time it was already too late.
Another video I saw on this game also pointed out that the house and pretty much the entire property is surrounded by a poisonous plant. It's everywhere! I think it was even in some of the plant pots implying that they were purposefully planted there. Like bruh.
Wasn't Edie Molly's mother? She and Sven sent her to starve. No reason given. We don't know how long she was there and clearly wasn't given any instruction or reassurance of any kind.
@@NanaNaima1 i think he believed that if he offed himself then he would be in that world he created after he died. there’s been a lot of cases like that in real life.
as someone with maladaptive daydreaming the part of Lewis just making another world in his head and it becoming so real and superior that you lose all will to live is extremely relatable
I haven't lost my will to live yet. I felt that if I die, my stories are over and there's no one who'd know about my stories. But then again, the whole maladaptive daydreaming Lewis had experienced was very relatable.
@@tigridia6178 oh yes same, i'm only still living on because dying would be killing my world too, it's so odd how it's both killing me and also my only reason to live.
Ayy, another person with Maladaptive Daydreaming, feels like it's becoming more common to find others. Years ago I couldn't find anything about it even online, figured I was just messed up in the head. Now it seems like it's not that uncommon. Hope you're doing okay
BTW, here is how the first house sank: Basically the Finches come from Norway. After Odin's wife and child died, he decided to take Edie, Edie's husband (Sven) and Molly to the United States so they could escape from the curse. Instead of getting into the US and building/buying a new house, Odin thought that sailing the house from Norway, through the Atlantic and into the US was a better idea, he did that but ended up sinking just before they arrived, that's how Odin died and that's why Edie decided to build the cemetery before they built the house
This is my favorite genre of Kevin videos: earnestly playing a game but making it funny. I think most people prefer pure chaos vids but I absolutely adore those
Agreed! I love all of Kevin’s vids, but I think this may be my fav so far because he was still funny, but also genuinely got into the game and was absorbed in the story. This is one of my favorite games, so that also helped. 😊
It is not bad but it's annoying me that he not even pays attention to the story and talks while Edith ect talking about the story.... He need defo replay it never watch anyone play what remains of Edith finch that non stop talk while story is told
Your idea of their curse being a self fulfilling prophecy is spot on. Edith says herself, they wanted to believe in a curse so much that they made it real. Something to explain away the tragedies that befell this perpetually unlucky family.
Lewis was so familiar to me... I used to daydream near constantly, performing tasks but not really being there. Customers would annoy me because they would pull me from my fantasies. It never got to the point where I resented my real self for not being as powerful or charismatic as my fictional selves, but it did cause some confusion about what traits I actually held, and what traits I had created. I'm a lot better now, therapy helped a lot, and though I still daydream, I think I'm a lot more grounded now.
I’m a writer and I def feel this way when I’m trying to finish a book. So hard to stay grounded and do anything but create when your mind is lost in a story.
I always tear up at Lewis' story. And her drawing him with a fish doesn't help, he was so low working at the cannery and now that's all people will remember
@@jdphillips7539 I feel this way when I read books. I get so pulled into the story that it feels real until it's over, then it's a bit of a jolt back to reality
Lewis had by far the best vignette. It was very sad, and very well done. The idea of doing a repetitive task while also day dreaming was extremely well executed.
that ending paragraph, "it's a lot to ask, but i don't want you to be sad that i'm gone. i want you to be amazed that any of us ever had a chance to be here at all." it gets me every time, like a punch to the chest. this is still one of my favorite games of all time, it's so incredibly made. it tells you just enough, while leaving the things you want to know most in the dark forever. most mysteries of the finch family, we don't even have enough information to theorize about. and the game is completely unapologetic about that. is there a curse? or is it just a whimsical but toxic family dynamic that leads to all of this tragedy? does it matter? is that not a curse in and of itself? i just love this game so much.
Definitely agree that the family kinda became a self-fulfilling prophecy, and I think it's pretty commonly agreed that most of that is because of Edie even if it was never her intention. She's the one who has been so insistent upon making everything a memorial and kinda glorifying this tragedy, refusing to clean out any of the old rooms and keeping tasteless media about the deaths of her family members. Even insisting that Sven was "killed by a dragon" instead of saying he died in a construction accident. And the whole family starts to use it as an excuse for their reckless actions, like leaving so many children unattended in dangerous situations. Even Edith herself does that, climbing around in a clearly unsafe house when she's visibly pregnant. Edie refuses to let the past die, and people suspect that she's the one who told the comic writer family secrets or told the news about the "mole man" living under the house. Super tragic story, but told very beautifully.
I saw it as the consequences of untreated mental ilness, leading to a cycle of neglect. But yeah, the fetishizing of death and stories is probably both a symptom and a causel.
She had to be the one who told the story to the comic book. No one outside the family would’ve known all those details about the house and I can’t see anyone but her thinking the comic would be a good idea. And I totally agree with your take on it. Grandma Edie was the villain whether she meant to be or not.
I think it’s also really fascinating how Edith’s mom tried to save her by basically going the opposite way and kind of sealing everything up. It feels like neither is a good way to cope but does reflect how a lot of people deal with trauma by either leaning into it more or trying to seal off that part of their history
@@pepperedpapaya4666 If not sealing it up, trying to remove her only surviving child from the great grandmother, so she's not filled with these tales of how it's all not their fault, it's the curse. That baby wasn't accidentally neglected and drowned himself, it was the curse. Molly wasn't neglected(sent to bed without eating anything at all) and ate poison berries that cause her to see stuff before she died, it was the curse.
That is something another comment pointed out, that most of these deaths have occurred because of neglect. Building a swing near a cliff is ridiculously dangerous, leaving a child alone in their room with no food is extremely stupid, but they’ve then been excused for their actions because of the so called curse.
Some people think Barbara was killed by a serial killer and other think she was killed by her boyfriend but I think neither of those things happened. The boyfriend is definitely dead too, one of his crutch was in the house and the other in the river, how would he have escaped a manhunt while barely able to walk? No, I think the comic showed us exactly what happened up until the end. The boyfriend wanted to scare her to ''help her'' get a good scream again so he disguised himself as a murderer. Barbara, not knowing it was him, hit him with a crutch and he fell off the balcony, killing him. Once she realized that she went mad and started screaming which traumatized the hiding Walter since he thought he was hearing his sister being murdered. The ear is the reason why I firmly believe all of this, she's the one who cut off her ear, to me that's a reference to Van Gogh doing the same thing when he went crazy. Van Gogh also committed suicide which I believe Barbara did after she disposed of her boyfriend's body. There are plenty of cliffs overlooking the sea around the house, so you'd never find her body.
Same. It hit me and my brother really hard because we both have really bad depression and have been hospitalized more than once for suicidal ideation. It hit me in a way I've never felt in a game before. Really good story telling
Feels, im an ex-cannery worker who def wudnt be able to cope with that shit again nowadays, esp as i use cannabis regularly nowadays and tryin to cope with the cannery monotony without that after havin that wud make shit worse... But yea, back when i worked at a cannery i spent the whole shift just daydreamin and in my head distractin myself bcuz otherwise idve truly not coped well with that monotony. And i was lucky, i changed jobs at that cannery quite often so the monotony rarely lasted more than a month before bein changed up... But yeah, save for that sorta stuff idve probs rly started to lose myself workin there. Rly hate that his cannabis use was seen as a bad thing when no doubt its all that was keepin him from a deep well of depression at all that unendin monotony... And yea, on the whole sui* ideation stuff... That stuff hit me at later pts and truly one of the only things that kept me from rly hatin life was bein able to smoke with my friends. But still, at my worst moments of dealin with all the monotony of life... I gave up on the idea of tryin to live. I didnt act on tryin not to live, but i didnt make much in terms of plans and treated things as if it didnt matter what the long term results were for i was in such a pit of despair i didnt see a way out for me Nowadays, im happily out, livin as my truest self, and livin with my fiance and metamour and have spent the last nearly five yrs seein my life improve immensely as ive come to understand myself and what i wanted and that i neednt stick to the monotony even if it made others happy... That part, the makin others happy part, thats what rly made it hardest to not just conform and to let myself enjoy what i wanted and not just be that good little worker drone any longer if it was gonna keep hurtin me. Now im livin at a pt in my life i nvr imagined id make it to and instd of daydreamin to break up the monotony; im livin out the daydreams and enjoyin every last bit of life
No. Those berries were from Holly plant, which has poisonous berries that can kill children. In addition with toothpaste, that back in those days most likely had more fluoride than there is nowadays, would cause acute poisoning. She didn't hallucinate, but imagined/dreamed the entire situation.
@@Ozku9 Yeah, they're both poisonous, but dont cause you to hallucinate. Just make you very ill and die. Likely more of a: Ate them, felt like absolute shit, mom didn't believe her, thinking she was faking to get out of the punishment, and was left alone for a long while because of the 'you're not getting any food until you stop being such a brat about it', which lead her to spiral down and get too sick before the parents noticed she was actually very sick. And either had a level of fever-dreams, or the rest was just added as a poetic story with a child's imagination
@@Ozku9 Even if she didnt hallucinate as a result of something she ate, near death experiences often do cause hallucinations. However, I choose to believe Molly actually realized the nature of the universe, **the snake eats its own tail** thereby Zero summed and merged into every other living thing.
@@Arkimedus If you choose to believe the "extraordinary" version of the character's deaths, then you're missing the entire point of the game. Molly didn't realise anything. She's just a little girl who ate poison and died.
I like how open the game is for the player to decide if they believe in the curse or not. Like it’s really up to your interpretation. At the very least we can say the family is unlucky. A lot of the deaths though are just negligence and I think the curse is used to shift blame a lot. You’d think a family that believes they’re cursed would be more careful but they were the opposite. Like after a kid died on a dangerous swing next to a cliff, you should probably get rid of the swing, but they just left it up and continued to let kids use it. It isn’t that surprising people keep dying at that point.
Yeah exactly! And the baby in the tub, why leave it all alone in there 2+ times, especially when there are TWO parents at home? It takes a while to fill the tub fully usually. And Walter… why the hell no one cared about the traumatised child and how he’s been doing? Also not caring about a strong wind, a hurricane almost? Forget about one specific person being outside is one thing, but anyone would check outside anyway, like if ANYONE’s there, any of the guests, etc… If that’s how they all treat their family members, I don’t wanna know about all the pets’ fate😅
@@pb542 One parent. The phone call she receives is from her husband so he wasn't home, they were on a break. The relationship was already strained and Gregory's death finished destroying it, leading to a divorce.
This is my favorite game too. Lewis’s story especially has stuck with me. Even though it’s basically just a walking sim, the all the creative ways that the narration is integrated into the surroundings and the gameplay being tweaked for each story makes it stand out. More than anything, though, I love the emotion and the depth of the stories. I think Kevin hit it on the nose with the self-fulfilling prophecy, and the deeper I dive into the game the more I love it. Mad props to Giant Sparrow for creating this masterpiece
my favorite thing about this is how if you go a little off path, take note of things, you can see how the family died in the other stories. Molly talks about how a monster is going eating her, but when you go into her room in Barbra's story you see her toy squid still on the bed. Walter talks about hearing a train, but when Edith goes through it, it just goes off a cliff. Barbra had a whole thing with the fridge, and we see that Walter internalized that. Milton escaped into a door in his paintings, but throughout everything else, we find his drawings all over the passages--included locked passages. With Gus' we see his kite fly by the teepee, but then we also see the peices scattered in the basement. The swing is still up, but broken when Edith walks past it. everything is connected and just shows how the whole family is literally surrounded by death and remidners of 'the curse'.
They never threw anything away, never cleared out rooms to reuse them, and never took responsibility for the neglect or mistakes they made (until Edith's mom left the house) because the "stories" made it sound like the family was cursed and couldn't help it. It's like that one story, I forget the origin of it, but a wizard curses a family that every man in it will die by adulthood. Then he snuck into the house every time a male in the family hit a certain age, and shot them. It's sad to think how the Finch's could've lived longer lives, had they taken time to reflect and change to correct their mistakes...
I don’t think the house was real but a visual structure built to tell the story. Edith needing passages to enter the rooms were a metaphor for the fact there were no direct answers for the different family members passing but an interpretation of having to find the answers of what happened to them. After all Edith’s entire journey was a story to her child whom she never got to tell them to.
Being ill, the last part really got me. On a bad day, I do need to remind myself of how lucky we are to even be here and to make the most of it That being binge wathcing Kevin's long plays and feeling somehow less alone in at all. Thank you so much for this!
He said "the longest in 30 years" so I think that it had been late or even missed days before, but this time it had been a few days (a week maybe?) of it just not coming at all. It wasn't super clear in the vignette what happened and Kevin cut some out and talked over some of it.
I dunno, it may be because Kevins making it more light hearted, but it seems surprisingly humoristic at times. Not a comedy by any means, but still, its prety unexpected. You know, for a story thats otherwise spectaculary tragic.
Idk, I think he over did the jokes, or at least timed them badly, sometimes I was wanting to hear what the characters were saying but he was talking still.
@rafaelalodio5116 that's kind of his thing though, right? I mean, generally Kevin is the reason we're all here consistently...and it's just his style, lol
Thats the Kevin paradox for you; he absorbs the little details quickly and naturally, but he cant tell that is the son, not the mother, who works at a cannery until the game explicitly tells him so. Hes as observant as hes scatterbrained.
Also I hate how Kevin didn't miss a beat in a SINGLE BB reference, the "maybe I'm the one who knocks" one just send me over the edge in so many ways, I love this goofy guy
Since you asked for the interpretations, how each person died below (Spoilers): Molly: Died from eating berries and toothpaste when sent to bed hungry. Poisoned. Calvin: Fell off a cliff while swinging Barbara: Home invasion murder or murdered by her boyfriend Walter: Hit by train after stepping onto tracks after living in a bunker for fear of the curse. Gregory: Drowned in bathtub Gus: Killed by flying debris in a storm Milton: He didn't actually die here. He leaves and appears in another game by the same dev, The Unfinished Swan... Where he dies. Odin: Dies while attempting to sail his house across the ocean and sinks Sven: Fell to his death after the slide he was building collapses Sam: Knocked off a cliff by the deer Lewis: Industrial accident with a fish de-header (Possibly purposeful) Edie: Old age or suicide Edith Finch: Childbirth complications.
The "curse" in the game isn't really a curse. In almost each instance, the death can be explained: Odin - drowned Molly - poisoned by eating mistletoe Barbara - murdered by fans Calvin - fell off the swing right by a cliff Sven - crushed by unsafe construction Greg - baby left alone in a tub, what could go wrong? Gus - killed by flying debris in a storm after he was left outside Sam - the deer knocked him off the cliff Walter -hit by a train (the overarching idea being untreated childhood trauma) Lewis - decapitated (untreated mental illness) Edie - mixed pills and alcohol Dawn - terminal illness (probably cancer) And finally Edith, who died in childbirth. In nearly all these cases, the death was caused by negligence, mental illness, or natural causes. There is no true "curse" or "villain" in this family, although Edie spinning all of the deaths into these whimsical tales and blaming them on a curse doesn't help, especially in the case of Lewis. It was obvious Dawn saw past all of the stories and that's why she wanted to leave, but her kids, understandably, wanted to stay with grandma, either out of fear of the "curse". This is just my theory at least. The environmental storytelling seems to point in this direction, at least to me
I mostly agree, except it shows that when Edith went through the tunnel, it became a cliff, and it'd be weird to have a train going by so close to the house. So, I think Walter died from walking off a cliff. I mean, you stay in pretty dark environments for that long, you're going to be so blind when you go out again
I genuinely didn’t know much about this game before and now I realise it’s basically just a montage of people dying in absolutely insane ways that your parents would probably use to scare you out of doing something like oh no you shouldn’t drink water because there was this one kid who went to turn the tap on and caused an entire tsunami killing three thousand people!
I'd say the baby in the tub or Molly are some of the better examples. "He died because the toys turned the water back on." and "She died because a monster came into her room after devouring a boat's crew." Clearly ignoring the fact both deaths were caused by the parents being neglectful of the child, leading to their tragic deaths.
I'd love to see you play the Unfinished Swan now that you've done Edith Finch. I wanna rewatch someone play that game but I think most of the playthroughs are pretty old and also pretty long. These sorts of videos are way easier for me to digest lmao
This was SO good. While Kevin is an unrivalled comedy genius, I absolutely adore watching him play these types of more serious narrative games and giving us his theories and reactions in long form. Thank you Kevin!
what remains of edith finch is easily one of the most beautiful games i've ever had the opportunity to play. i cried a lot while playing it. it's truly incredible, just a gorgeous game.
Is it just me or are a lot of stories related to food? Molly was starved, Calvin died right after his mom called him to dinner, Barbara fought a cannibal after her bf jumped at her from the fridge and it sounds like she was eaten by monsters, Walter was trapped with canned food for many years...
I feel like the ending could be seen in two ways depending on whether you believe or not that Edie was involved in their deaths somehow (or at least the stories about their deaths) SPOILERS With the death of Edith, who was also the last person of the family to know Edie, a new cycle begins in the family and Christopher (Edith's son) "breaks" the curse. Or Christopher just ends up carrying on the curse.
Honestly edie has to be the villain of this story Like she's the reason why the house is the most way it is (all the empty rooms, secret passages etc etc) She writes fantastical stories about her family's deaths and displays them like they're artifacts in a museum She even gives details that only she would know on Barbara's death to that comic book I don't know if she believes if the curse is truly real but god
this is bringing back that 2017 nostalgia...watching jack play this game after a hard day at college. love the longer videos, kevin, they really help me relax after work :)
I love it, from beginning to end, it always makes me tear up too, maybe it's the thought of death, family, or all the possibilities you'll never get to see because of dying. I like to think the stories were real, that molly really lived as many creatures and barbara really saw monsters that night, it makes for a less sad tale than the alternatives and removes a bit of the unfairness to it, but maybe that's what they intended, to divide realistic people and those lost in imagination that just want a crumb of hope, me being the latter I just can't help but break down entirely at the end because there really isn't anything else than death, Edith passed, her child probably never got to meet her, all that's left of someone that could tell these stories is in a book and imagining how lonely it must feel to be there is just depressing, but again that sweet bliss of ignorance and imagination where maybe this magical story will turn around and give at least one person a happy conclusion makes me just a bit glad to have experienced it
Kevin caught on to it by the end, but there was never a curse to begin with. Every death that befell the Finchs can be explained by neglect, and the more they believed in the curse, the more it became a self fufilling prophecy. I would highly recommend anyone that enjoyed this video to play the game for themselves as Kevin did leave out some of the details that help give the story more context, such as the house and the impact of Edie's "story telling".
This game makes me cry every time. It's really powerful if you experienced loss in childhood, I know it doesn't resonate with everybody but I find a lot of meaning in it.
I love when games does this. Not tell you the story straight out, and instead let you figure it out, and Lewis's part was ingenous, though it me very close to home as I do a lot of maladaptive daydreaming. Thankfully, I've now managed to use that for something good, as a way to develop stories I plan to write or am writing, rather than let it take me down a dark path.
My personal favorite theory about this game is everything after Edith opens the fridge is unreliable narration. Assumedly, when she opened the fridge, she may have found the bodies of Barb and Rick, and instead of putting them in the book, she started to make things up. Hence why we see lit lightbulbs and lights on in/outside the house through the rest of game when it was stated the house had no power. Her narration also changes from "This is great nostalgia, let's keep going" to "I shouldn't have come here, this was a mistake." Further evidence of this is that it would have been impossible for a train to run so close to the house, thus Walter's death shouldn't have been possible.
I'm pretty sure Molly ate something she wasn't supposed to eat and went on a bad trip, where she imagined herself as various hungry animals instead of herself, then died from eating toxic things. She was aware she was dying, probably felt awful and was vomiting, and wrote her bad trip down before dying from the toxicity.
thing is, people call this a walking simulator, or a movie, but this story will NEVER work in any other format except games. A similar story that is my favourite game of all time is Outer Wilds (not outer worlds). It can never work in anything but video game format.
Kevin I think everyone lied to you. It isn't the most interesting game ever made, it is the most tragic and sad. Great game but holy crap. Even your excellent commentary couldn't stop me from getting super sad multiple times. The baby got me the most since I have an over 2 and a half year old nephew and a niece on the way. Watching a story about someone leaving a baby unattended in a bath just made me so mad and that picture they picked for the baby just so full of happiness. I'm starting to cry just thinking about it again.
Just letting kevin know, since I've only seen up to just after the Molly section (where she becomes a cat and stuff) we see her eating three holly berries before the whole "eating everythinh" thing started, but children have gone so far as to get extremely ill/near death from as little as two, as they are poisonous to humans and some animals, so chances are she just got poisoned, hallucinated, and died... major skill issue ngl
Grandma Edie's biggest skill issue was not feeding Molly before bed tbf. Wtf did she expect. I assume that's where her "curse" trauma began, trying desperately to shift away the blame, causing more and more self-fulfilling prophecies. I feel bad for her. She was the unfortunate villain of the story, whether she wanted to or not.
*Molly:* Molly was Edie's and Sven's first child. She was locked in her room without food for misbehaving, and when bed time came around she couldn't sleep due to her hunger. Starving, Molly desperately looked around for something to eat. First she ate contaminated gerbil food. Then she ate a whole tube of toothpaste (Which, considering this happened in 1947, was likely filled with fluoride. Fluoride is poisonous) Finally she ate some holly barriers, they might have been plastic but either way it's not safe to eat. After that she went to bed and had an absolute fever dream, she woke up in cold sweat, delirious and certain a monster was going to eat her. So, thinking she was going to die, she took her note book and wrote down what had happened, believing her dream had actually happened, before passing out. She was found dead in her room the next morning. Killed by all the toxic stuff she consumed while on an empty stomach. I think that her being the monster represents how she "ate her self to death" so to speak. *Barbara:* Barbara was Edie's and Sven's second child. It seems as if she had been killed by a home intruder or maybe even her boyfriend. It's clear Edie sold publishers info about the house and her death, giving them permission to publish very bizzare comics about how her own daughter died. This is something she does a lot and it's not a good look. *Calvin:* Calvin was Edie's and Sven's third child, alongside his twin brother Sam. Calvin died after falling of the cliff the house was set on while playing on a swing. This was just textbook child endangerment. Why on earth would you build a swing there???? What did you think would happen???? *Sam:* Sam was Edie's and Sven's third child, alongside his twin brother Calvin. He was also the only one to *actually* make it to adulthood, all of his siblings died young. His death is pretty self explanatory. He died in a hunting accident which his daughter Dawn (Edith's mom) saw happen. Interestingly enough, Dawn never actually told Edith about what happened to her grandfather. Another interesting thing about Sam was that he and Calvin shared a room, even after Calvin died. Calvin's side of the room was remained completely untouched after he died, leaving Sam to grow up on his side, forced to share a room with his dead brother. This was very traumatizing. *Walter:* Walter was the fourth and final child of Edie and Sven. Three of his siblings had died young. He even witnessed the death of his sister Barbara. This, along side his mothers tales of death and a family curse, was very traumatizing. So when Sam, his final sibling, died. He barricaded himself in the basement/bunker, convinced he was next on the chopping block. He stayed down there for 30 years before deciding that he had to get out. That even if it did kill him, it'd at least be better then being stuck in a bunker for the rest of his days. So he left and was immediately hit by a train. *Dawn:* Dawn was the first child of Sam and Kay. She's the protagonist mother who died due to an unknown illness. *Gus:* Gus was the second child of Sam and Kay. His parents had gotten divorced and now his father was re-marrying. He was not happy about this, so when the wedding came around he stood aside, away from everyone else, and played with his kite. As the party continued it started to get quite windy so the guests went inside, having completely forgotten about Gus. The wind turned into a storm causing a wooden pole/statue to fall on Gus, killing him. It wasn't until next morning that they realized Gus was missing, and later that day, they found his body. *Gregory:* Gregory was the third and final child of Sam and Kay. His mother was giving him a bath. After bathtime was over she turned the water of and drained the tub, but before she could get Gregory out of the bath the phone rang. Being the neglectful mother she was, she left her baby alone in the bath while shewent to the other room to answer the phone. Gregory manged to turn the water back on and drowned in the tub. This ordeal caused the already rocky relationship between Sam and Kay to break, and they got a divorce not long after. *Lewis:* Lewis was the first child of Dawn and Sanjay. I don't really want to go over this one as it is very triggering. It just hits WAY to close to home as I'm in therapy for very similar reasons. Long story short, after completely losing touch with reality, living life in his own imaginary world, he grew to resent the real him. So he abandoned his real life and killed himself. *Milton:* Milton was the second child of Dawn and Sanjay. This one is very confusing. Did he run away? Did he get trapped in the walls? Did he get washed out to sea? Who knows, I don't really have an opinion on the matter either way. I don't believe it to be anything super natural though. *Edith:* The third and final child of Dawn and Sanjay. She became pregnant at 18 years old and unfortunately passed away while giving birth. Although, her baby did survive.
Milton is the protagonist of the other game by the same developers, The Unfinished Swan. They explain what happened to him in that game. It actually was supernatural...or maybe it wasn't and he was just imagining things like Molly and Lewis did. Who knows.
@@giantWario Yeah I know. I played the game awhile back. I don't think it's literal. Not in the context of this game anyway. Maybe it is, but I think that would kinda ruin the plot of this game idk
@@marianemarangao2840 it's in Eddie's room! There is an old picture toy that is on a desk. It's pretty cool! You hold the held up to your eyes, when you click it it changes the picture. It's tells the story about how the finch family sailed the house from their home country (I think Denmark or Norway) to where it is now, Eddie's father, Odin, went down with the original house just a bit off from the shore I found it my second time playing and was just like oh dang, that's uuuh pretty important information xD
This was really good to watch, I missed it back when it came out and only really saw the odd clip here and there. The part with Lewis was especially captivating.
The curse itself was the fear of dying in such imaginary and dumbfounded ways. Thus, constantly worrying about their deaths manifested their demise. The mother hid the facts of their deaths from Edith to try and spare her the "curse".
1) the being birthed scene was cool as heck but unexpected to experience (I love it! Rip Edith though), 2) some of those were pure darwin awards. 3) this reminded me of stuff like the ABCs of Death or that song "A Gory Demise". Overall this was a really awesome game and they might want to find Madame Zeroni to carry her up the mountain (or whatever magical force they angered lol)
@@lylahsworld3930 the tunnel at the end (the purple-ish one with the slightly oblong opening) if isn't directly meant to be, is, at least for me, reminiscent of being birthed/birth canal tropes. There was also to me an implication that Edith might have died in child birth (between that tunnel scene where you're suddenly the next Finch in line/being the kid kid at her grave, and the diary stopping right before but not seeming to imply she was around after). It's possibly mostly how i interpreted it, but felt like "being birthed and mom died" for me. (Hopefully I'm getting the names, etc right. It's been a while since I watched this 😅)
@@lylahsworld3930 I think (if I understood?), it's implied you were actually this kid the whole time and exploring the house through a new diary created by Edith/the mom when the original one was destroyed. Or this is how I interpreted it. It might be that the tunnel was actually a transition from being Edith to the child, so I'm not entirely sure
I hate how disturbing it makes me feel when someone dies. Like it's really... normal, something that could just happen (in most cases) Seems like a great game 10/10
my favorite part of this video is when Kevin was goanna get sad at the end thinking it might be based on a true story, he's got real heart and I was right there with him for a sec
I have yet to get through a playthrough of this game - whether I'm playing or watching - and maintain dry eyes the whole way through. This is just one of those games that, even though it's whimsical and fantastical, really speaks to the tragedies life throws our way. And just, gd, it's done so well. The whimsy and genuine fun of that swing mixed with the foreboding sense of what's gonna happen to Calvin. Same with Gregory in the bath. Such well done mix of emotion. And Lewis xC Gah this game is good
Omg thanks for listening to our suggestions and playing this kevin! I absolutely love this game and I've been watching jacksepticeye's playthrough like 100 times and im happy i have another one I'll be watching repeatedly. Just wish your commentary at the end was longer and in depth bc this feels like an adventure you and us went through together and I'd rly love to hear your thoughts on each character's stories.
I don't get why you enjoy this commentary... it's just constant sarcasm and never-ending attempts at being funny. He just keeps talking over the amazing voice acting and doesn't take it seriously at all. I don't get why that's enjoyable to watch, it completely ruins the experience of it. There's zero impact in this playthrough
@@babyblue_22 yeah i get what you mean..that's just Kevin's gameplay style I guess. If this was the 1st playthrough I've seen of the game i wouldn'tve appreciate it as much, but since I've seen jack's which is a lot more serious and immersive, I think of this one as a lighthearted watch. He did sound very impressed with the game in the end which is an opinion I also share so I appreciate that
@ansyzzz that's an excellent point. One picks up on his style pretty quick; if it's not for that particular viewer, but they stay & complain... I am not quite sure what is wrong with them. Masochism? idk - there's other LPs to watch.
This game has me crying every single time. It's just so well written and designed and just wow. It's so sad really. The reveal at the end is so hard hitting. The swing with Calvin, it's all so beautiful
Definitely self fulfilling. =/ They left a baby alone in a bath tub. Forgot a child in a storm. They put a swing up over a cliff. The other ones, maybe could see accidental.
Were your dreams this morbid? Cause even A Series of Unfortunate Events, with all those deaths and attempted child murder, is way more light hearted than this.
I never thought I'd enjoy watching you play this game. I thought about it, reading all the comments that begged you to play it and again, when I saw the upload. I really love this game, how it deals with death and loss has helped me navigate my own grief. But I am so, SO glad you played this for us now. You didn't go at it with too much or to less humor and just helped me through the sad emotions with something to make me chuckle at. I am once again reminded how much I love this game. Thank you, Kevin
I know there's supposedly a family curse killing off all of these Finch family members, but it really feels like the absolute nightmarishly-not-up-to-code house and locale that killed off a vast VAST majority of these people.
Kevin playing one of my favourite games of all time? What a dream come true. I remember when I first played this game and when I finished Lewis' and Sams part I legit had to stop and breathe for awhile. Lewis reminded me of myself and although Kev made fun of Sams story, when i was a kid my Dad broke his back and nearly died from falling from a height like that and I was too slow to catch him so it really hit close to home. Thanks for playing this amazing game and exposing it to the world Kevin.
What I think happened with Edith's brother (the one with the art stuff I forgot his name) is he ran away and might still be alive and they just assumed he died
my theory abt barbara's death is that she slipped on the skates that walter left out! theres evidence that the bannister was broken at some point, and the entire comic is based on Halloween, the beginning of which involves Michael Myers killing his sister
There's another game in this series called "the unfinished swan" or something like that. I'd love to see him check that out next Edit: I made this comment at the start and hadn't seen he got to it, but I still think he should play it. P.s. This is probably the best walking simulator game that's ever been made.
Lewis and me having the same symptoms of daydreaming to escape reality hits too close to home. I do imagine Lewing having some kind of severe aspergers or autism, which can make reality awfully hard to come to terms with at times. Note to self: never work in a cannery.
Likely mixed with some extra things to enhance the disassociation. And the Therapist mis-reading the signs and encouraging it. Likely leading it to develop into some intense disassociating or Schizophrenia, starting to see his fantasy as reality. And, again, the Therapist and his boss seeing it as just a way to take the mind away from the monotony of the job. Nobody seeing the signs until he went to go to the reality he preferred Probably just generally a good rule of thumb to avoid sharp objects in places where you disassociate from reality
@@waterbottle9021 how is aspergers offensive? just because it is technically still just part of the autism spectrum? to be clear, i'm being completely earnest here. I myself am on the spectrum, and my mom works in special ed, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone refer to "Asperger's" as being offensive as opposed to just an outdated term (but, also, I know there are a lot of people who were originally diagnosed as Asperger's who still refer to themselves as such because you get used to what you get used to).
@Water Bottle ??? I have Aspergers. How is that offensive? Also, "severe autism" isn't offensive either unless you deliberately use it to offend someone. That wasn't the case here. In the context of the story, though, I don't think autism played a significant role here. More something like dissociative personality disorder or something like that
This is so awesome to see! I've been interested in this game but haven't watched a playthrough and don't have access to playing it myself so I'm glad it's Kevin that finally allows me to experience this game :) Edit: Watched it all and here's my thoughts. First of all, a lot of this is relatable. Won't go into too much detail, but I come from a neglectful/abusive household and have had friends in the same position. And this strikes it as that. Walter is relatable as well because I have a few phobias from traumatic incidents as well. And Lewis is definitely maladaptive daydreaming along with some neurodivergence imo. Cause I've been there myself and it's how I got through school when I was at my worst points. I mean, the baby was left in a bathtub alone, of course that is the parent's fault. But overall, as Kevin said, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. They believe in a curse when it's just a string of bad luck and neglect. A lot of these deaths could have been so easily prevented. And instead of accepting the deaths, they either don't want to take blame or try to make it more whimsical with the idea of a curse to make it seem less real, as if it's not their fault. I agree Milton's story is kinda poor since it's a tie in to the Unfinished Swan (though I love that game. I've played the demo we had many many times.) However, as others have pointed out, he seemingly got lost or trapped within the walls and tunnels so I think even if he is mostly a tie in to the other game, it can just have a more "real" explanation. Overall, I genuinely cried many times watching this. I'm a pretty traumatized person and I've experienced many of these things in different ways within my own life and even been suicidal since elementary school. I'm okay now, I'm doing well and working on self care especially as I have physical disabilities as well. But being the person I am, it made this experience a lot more emotional. I'm really glad Kevin playing it was my first experience with the game (since I can't get it myself) and I did laugh a few times as well through this. I loved seeing Kevin go through it and kind of learning as well. I really enjoyed this playthrough. Great work Kevin, you made a fantastic video! :)
i saw a really good theory that basically, molly ate the poisonous holly berries and started getting sick, maybe had a nightmare. then died. and edie would rather believe that her family was cursed than admit she had been a negligent mother, so she hyped up the idea that they were all doomed, basically. it was easier for her to process. and then because she hyped it all up so much, the family was just...predisposed to do risky and/or negligent things. so one by one. they died. in ways that were almost all easily preventable there was never a curse. there was just a grieving woman incapable of acknowledging her own fault in her daughter's death, and the resulting mindset in future generations that there wasnt a point in preventing such things its a grim theory, but i feel like it makes sense to a certain extent
fuck. we got to gregory and i started crying its like okay i can handle every other death in this game when separated from each other some of them make me really fucking sad, but i can handle them gregory is the one that makes me cry on its own the others slowly wear me down more and more as the game progresses, of course, but gregory is the one that fucks me up the most he was just a baby you dont leave babies unattended in bathtubs, even if theyre empty, *specifically* because something might happen and the bathtub could *stop* being empty if theres some sort of accident *he was just a baby*
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Calvin and Sam’s deaths are so interesting to me. They’re the only set of twins on the family tree and the only two Finches who died the same way. They both fell from cliffs.
Aside from Milton being a reference, it’s speculated that he actually got stuck in the walls. In the tunnels, you can see his paintings and art supplies.
So a mole person from his sims series
that actually makes a lot of sense, i’ve always wondered about milton because they left it so open ended and the unfinished swan never made much sense to me
Hey Milton, is Mole available to talk?
What.. I'm so confused.
Oh that makes more sense, for some reason I stupidly thought it just meant he opened the "door" painting and just fell out over the balcony
one theory ive heard about Molly’s story is that shes having fever dreams, holly berries are toxic or poisonous and that on top of all the other stuff she ate on an empty stomach is probably what made her sick
And the toothpaste back then wasn’t really the best
I thought they were plastic berries, which are equally not good to eat lol
@@aceisawesome_ same
noooo surely a 10 year old eating 2 different types of poison and hamster food after she was clearly neglected for a while has a sound and strong body to fight off any issues
the Berries were probably plastic (as it was 1947) but even back then some people use to hang real holly and holly berries around their house during christmas (assuming it was that time of year?) and by looks the house is in middle of no where-
Kevin you missed Odin's story it was in Grandma Edie's room. It says that he travelled with his daughter Edie (the grandma), her husband Sven and their first daughter Molly to America by literally transporting their entire house on the water. Off the coast of Orcas Island they hit storms and Odin went down with the original house, which is why it can still be seen poking out the water, while Edie, Sven and Molly escaped on a small boat and started to build the new house from scratch.
It also says that he did this after he'd just lost his wife Ingeborg and baby son Johann as "the newest victims of the family curse", implying that the Finches have had a bloody history for a long time. It gives you a lot of the context you were missing for the history of the family.
I wonder if the family are suppose to come from Sweden or Norway, or any of the other scandinavian countries, cuz the names sounds like they come from here.🤔
@@Emsev100 I think it's Norway because the shrine to Sven has a little Nordic flag on it if I remember correctly
This reminds me so much of that film about a family going through very unfortunate events, good ending, but some sad deaths, i wonder if it was an ispiration
Thank you for writing this. I was a bit confused myself in all honesty. Been a while since I watched this game
@@-callmecrazy-5859 nordic and norwegian are 2 different things. yes, norway is a nordic country, but so is sweden, so unless you know which nordic flag, that doesn't really say much, but i assume you meant the norwegian flag? i haven't gone back in the video and checked the flag myself, as a norwegian i would certainly know it if i saw it
I love the idea of the curse originally starting as a cooping mechanism that Edie started to deal with the terrible loses of her home and young children. And instead of mourning the loses of her family as tragedies, I feel Edie almost started to idolize them and played up the mystical stories of their deaths. (Including a distasteful retelling of her daughter, Barbara's murder with evidence only a family member would know in it) As Dawn got older she realized how this negatively affected the family with her children seeking out these mystical stories for themselves first with the disappearance of Milton who was looking for adventure, then Lewis who took his life after not finding worth in reality. So that's why Dawn was so mad when Edie had wrote another mystical story to Edith. Dawn wanted the stories to stop, because she finally saw the negative affect it had on the family.
Looking back a lot of these deaths can be attributed to negligence. Molly and Calvin both died due to their parents not really paying attention to what they were doing (sending a kid to bed hungry and placing a fecking swing right next to a cliff is hugely irresponsible) and Gus's story blatantly tells you that it was because they barely even noticed Gus was missing. Other deaths can be attributed to dumb decisions (like the deer death, Odin's death for trying to sail the sea with his house, and Sven's death from a slide that was not structurally sound). Edith's death, and Walter's, and Lewis's death stuck out to me the most. Walter's death is directly tied to the curse and his belief, in it whereas Lewis's death came from his dissatisfaction at the job and poor mental health, showing how improper care can still lead to disastrous results. Edith herself was more unlucky and BArbara was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
There is an argument to be made how Edie herself is a more villainous figure in this because she is very prone to magical thinking and she built the entire house as less of a monument to the ones she lost but more of a museum for the curse that she herself made up. Lewis's death is portrayed in a way that it could have easily broken Edith's mother since she didn't want her son to be another spectacle dedicated to the curse. Because that's what all these deaths and tragedies turned out to be. Spectacles for Edie to show around and glamourize their death. This is particularly shown in Barbara's death where her gruesome murder (or maybe an accident) is shown as if it were just a spooooky tale from Tales from the Crypt-like show.
It can be quite distasteful and worse it propagates fear and distress in the family members (hell poor Walter's life was dedicated to running away from this curse). That's why Edith's mother didn't want Edith to know the 'stories' because that's what they were. Stories and myths about real deaths and tragedies. Generational trauma and tragedy are presented as fantastical scenes from a children's picture book. God this game was fantastic and I am really glad Kevin got to play it and really give it such a fun playthrough.
this is my favorite comment so far
not even mentioning gregory, who leaves a 1 year old unattended in an adult size bathtub??
Oh for sure, that whole family line seems like mindless (as in paying no mind) idiots, who refuse to learn from accidents. At least the last generation was creative as well, but still lacked that sense of self-preservation. This family wins a Darwin Award. It is impressive that Lewis managed to not cut-off a finger, while not paying attention. That is by far the more common accident in a plant like this.
Actually, I do not think, Lewis killed himself because of poor mental health. I used to work in a similar job, where you don't need to use your brain, you just have to move your hands and work. Without thinking. Without existing. Without being anyone. Without being important. I started to listen to music to get my mind off this. I even danced along, anything better than doing this mindless, soulless work. But I have to admit, I only worked there for a few months and I thought to myself, if I drive into THAT wall, I don't have to get back to that place tomorrow. It has nothing to do with poor mental health. If you're stuck in a job, that doesn't need you to use your brain, you become depressed... I'm actually not surprised Lewis ended up that way. The same thing might have happened to anyone...
Of all the theories I’ve read in this comment section, yours feels most logical and real.
If I was to guess at the overall theme, I'd say the "curse" is a metaphor for generational trauma- the collapsed house in the ocean representing Edie's traumatic past and the ocean itself represting her repression of her memories and emotions, externalising her memory through memorials and mementos rather than dealing with them internally.
As a result of the lingering trauma haunting the entire household, a vicious cycle emerged in which poor mental health leads to bad choices which lead to further deterioration in mental health.
Edith herself seems to have been trapped in the same cycle, having only just barely become an adult and being pregnant without any family support. The ending is ambiguous as to whether Edith's death represents a clean break for her child or if he internalises the "curse" himself.
Atleast that's how I interpret it, it seems like there's a lot you could read into this game, really fascinating.
i think you may read it as breaking the cycle because edith tells him all these stories while she didn't know them in her childhood. which is a very common theme with trauma, like, you don't talk about it, just keep all these family secrets and tragedies away from children while it still has an impact on them. so edith chose to break at least this the cycle.
This plays into a theory I read where the person said that because of their belief in the curse, they failed to take true responsibility for their own actions, leading the cycle to continue. For example, leaving a swing in such an unsafe place, not ensuring everyone was safe from the storm, not paying attention to the baby in the tub, not feeding Molly leading her to poison herself, etc.
Because their constant insistence of a curse, the only person who tries to stop this is Edie's mother. But big Edie's influence is still there. I mean look at little Edie, a pregnant woman climbing trees without thinking about the danger of it, pushed on by the story of the curse.
I agree. The combination of generational trauma, poor choices, fear of the curse, social shame from being known as cursed and internalized constant fear of death can create deep rooted mental health issues from a young age, as well as neglect and carelessness that increases everyone's risks. I really loved this time game and thank Kevin for playing it
this reminds me of the chain of depression in my family. my grandma tried to unalive herself when she was in her twenties, my dad has experienced the same, i've also been close, and earlier this year my brother died in what is suspected to be su1cide. i can relate to that at least
@@ps1hagridoufofcharacter Sorry to hear that. I have had my own troubles with that. They say you're more likely to do it if a parent does it unfortunately, which is why it's so important to take away mental health stigma so people feel comfortable asking for help and we start to break those cycles.
Back again crying. Lewis is also a huge tragedy and I think a big tear jerker. Edith dying in childbirth (presumably as we are seeing the kid being born during her narration) and not getting to meet him. Him putting flowers on the grave.
I'm just utterly devastated at the thought of my kid having nothing of me but a journal and not getting to properly meet them.
I do think its a self-fulfilling prophecy. A lot of bad luck and a lot of carelessness that caused even more accidents. Like, Lewis clearly should have been made to quit his job when his maladaptive daydreaming progressed to psychosis (?)/delusions. Gregory shouldn't have been left alone in a bathtub. That swingset shouldn't have been on a cliff. Holly berries shouldn't have been around for a kid to eat. Etc.
They even kept the swingset. Like you'd probably remove it after one of your children dies because of it. Maybe if Edie fed Molly that night, this whole event of generational trauma - Edie thinking it's a curse and therefore shifting blame away, convincing every family member that their family line is cursed and causing dozens of self-fulfilling prophecies ending in tragedy - would have never happened. Or at least not as much. This house is still a danger in itself
@@riverbord5353 I doubt it. in edie's room, you can find a newspaper describing a "curse" on the family after edie's parents and brother died. most likely she internalized the trauma of losing her entire birth family by believing in the sensationalized family curse everyone was talking about. I think by molly's time it was already too late.
Another video I saw on this game also pointed out that the house and pretty much the entire property is surrounded by a poisonous plant. It's everywhere! I think it was even in some of the plant pots implying that they were purposefully planted there. Like bruh.
Wasn't Edie Molly's mother? She and Sven sent her to starve. No reason given. We don't know how long she was there and clearly wasn't given any instruction or reassurance of any kind.
I was so incredibly anxious when Lewis's daydreaming covered the entire screen. I thought he was going to chop off his hand.
yep, but it's even worse. :(
@@pochiche6398 Couldn't take the real world anymore... so he committed suicide, gaining a crown in his own world.
@@daefaron i don't think he knew the difference between reality and his imagination, probably didn't off himself on purpose
@@NanaNaima1 i think he believed that if he offed himself then he would be in that world he created after he died. there’s been a lot of cases like that in real life.
Right idea,
Wrong extremity.
as someone with maladaptive daydreaming the part of Lewis just making another world in his head and it becoming so real and superior that you lose all will to live is extremely relatable
I haven't lost my will to live yet. I felt that if I die, my stories are over and there's no one who'd know about my stories. But then again, the whole maladaptive daydreaming Lewis had experienced was very relatable.
@@tigridia6178 oh yes same, i'm only still living on because dying would be killing my world too, it's so odd how it's both killing me and also my only reason to live.
This game saved my life. Lewis' story made me get help
Ayy, another person with Maladaptive Daydreaming, feels like it's becoming more common to find others. Years ago I couldn't find anything about it even online, figured I was just messed up in the head. Now it seems like it's not that uncommon. Hope you're doing okay
@@Brendo2386 I’m so glad you’re getting help and I’m wishing you well, even though I’m just a stranger on the internet 😅
BTW, here is how the first house sank:
Basically the Finches come from Norway. After Odin's wife and child died, he decided to take Edie, Edie's husband (Sven) and Molly to the United States so they could escape from the curse. Instead of getting into the US and building/buying a new house, Odin thought that sailing the house from Norway, through the Atlantic and into the US was a better idea, he did that but ended up sinking just before they arrived, that's how Odin died and that's why Edie decided to build the cemetery before they built the house
This is my favorite genre of Kevin videos: earnestly playing a game but making it funny. I think most people prefer pure chaos vids but I absolutely adore those
Agreed, I love chaos Kev, but watching him really get actually absorbed into a game and the plight of the characters is so much fun
Agreed! I love all of Kevin’s vids, but I think this may be my fav so far because he was still funny, but also genuinely got into the game and was absorbed in the story. This is one of my favorite games, so that also helped. 😊
I fully agree! I love the absolute chaos videos but this genre of Kevin videos just has such a cozy feeling for me and i love that!
It is not bad but it's annoying me that he not even pays attention to the story and talks while Edith ect talking about the story.... He need defo replay it never watch anyone play what remains of Edith finch that non stop talk while story is told
I prefer games where Kevin gets to socially interact with randoms
Your idea of their curse being a self fulfilling prophecy is spot on. Edith says herself, they wanted to believe in a curse so much that they made it real. Something to explain away the tragedies that befell this perpetually unlucky family.
Lewis was so familiar to me... I used to daydream near constantly, performing tasks but not really being there. Customers would annoy me because they would pull me from my fantasies. It never got to the point where I resented my real self for not being as powerful or charismatic as my fictional selves, but it did cause some confusion about what traits I actually held, and what traits I had created.
I'm a lot better now, therapy helped a lot, and though I still daydream, I think I'm a lot more grounded now.
I’m a writer and I def feel this way when I’m trying to finish a book. So hard to stay grounded and do anything but create when your mind is lost in a story.
I always tear up at Lewis' story. And her drawing him with a fish doesn't help, he was so low working at the cannery and now that's all people will remember
Anthony Padilla did an episode about this kind of dreaming. I don't remember what it's called but you should look it up.
I'm glad you're doing better and I hope you continue to be better, too.
@@jdphillips7539 I feel this way when I read books. I get so pulled into the story that it feels real until it's over, then it's a bit of a jolt back to reality
Lewis had by far the best vignette.
It was very sad, and very well done. The idea of doing a repetitive task while also day dreaming was extremely well executed.
that ending paragraph, "it's a lot to ask, but i don't want you to be sad that i'm gone. i want you to be amazed that any of us ever had a chance to be here at all." it gets me every time, like a punch to the chest.
this is still one of my favorite games of all time, it's so incredibly made. it tells you just enough, while leaving the things you want to know most in the dark forever. most mysteries of the finch family, we don't even have enough information to theorize about. and the game is completely unapologetic about that. is there a curse? or is it just a whimsical but toxic family dynamic that leads to all of this tragedy? does it matter? is that not a curse in and of itself? i just love this game so much.
Definitely agree that the family kinda became a self-fulfilling prophecy, and I think it's pretty commonly agreed that most of that is because of Edie even if it was never her intention. She's the one who has been so insistent upon making everything a memorial and kinda glorifying this tragedy, refusing to clean out any of the old rooms and keeping tasteless media about the deaths of her family members. Even insisting that Sven was "killed by a dragon" instead of saying he died in a construction accident. And the whole family starts to use it as an excuse for their reckless actions, like leaving so many children unattended in dangerous situations. Even Edith herself does that, climbing around in a clearly unsafe house when she's visibly pregnant. Edie refuses to let the past die, and people suspect that she's the one who told the comic writer family secrets or told the news about the "mole man" living under the house. Super tragic story, but told very beautifully.
I saw it as the consequences of untreated mental ilness, leading to a cycle of neglect. But yeah, the fetishizing of death and stories is probably both a symptom and a causel.
She had to be the one who told the story to the comic book. No one outside the family would’ve known all those details about the house and I can’t see anyone but her thinking the comic would be a good idea.
And I totally agree with your take on it. Grandma Edie was the villain whether she meant to be or not.
I think it’s also really fascinating how Edith’s mom tried to save her by basically going the opposite way and kind of sealing everything up. It feels like neither is a good way to cope but does reflect how a lot of people deal with trauma by either leaning into it more or trying to seal off that part of their history
@@pepperedpapaya4666 If not sealing it up, trying to remove her only surviving child from the great grandmother, so she's not filled with these tales of how it's all not their fault, it's the curse.
That baby wasn't accidentally neglected and drowned himself, it was the curse. Molly wasn't neglected(sent to bed without eating anything at all) and ate poison berries that cause her to see stuff before she died, it was the curse.
That is something another comment pointed out, that most of these deaths have occurred because of neglect. Building a swing near a cliff is ridiculously dangerous, leaving a child alone in their room with no food is extremely stupid, but they’ve then been excused for their actions because of the so called curse.
This game is such a hidden gem and talks about death in such a beautiful way.
eat the hamster! eat the hamster!
I wouldn't really say it tell a colourfull story about death when someone ears is the only left bits of their body
Some people think Barbara was killed by a serial killer and other think she was killed by her boyfriend but I think neither of those things happened. The boyfriend is definitely dead too, one of his crutch was in the house and the other in the river, how would he have escaped a manhunt while barely able to walk? No, I think the comic showed us exactly what happened up until the end. The boyfriend wanted to scare her to ''help her'' get a good scream again so he disguised himself as a murderer. Barbara, not knowing it was him, hit him with a crutch and he fell off the balcony, killing him. Once she realized that she went mad and started screaming which traumatized the hiding Walter since he thought he was hearing his sister being murdered. The ear is the reason why I firmly believe all of this, she's the one who cut off her ear, to me that's a reference to Van Gogh doing the same thing when he went crazy. Van Gogh also committed suicide which I believe Barbara did after she disposed of her boyfriend's body. There are plenty of cliffs overlooking the sea around the house, so you'd never find her body.
It was the grandma, in my cannon
I thought Van Gogh was shot
this was relaly smart and really, really scary
Barbara was killed by cannibals actually
she was eaten by cannibals :(
Lewis's story hits way too close to home for me. I literally had to stop playing for the day when I played his section
Jesus I don't know what happened but whatever happened I hope things have at least gotten better for you.
Same. It hit me and my brother really hard because we both have really bad depression and have been hospitalized more than once for suicidal ideation. It hit me in a way I've never felt in a game before. Really good story telling
Feels, im an ex-cannery worker who def wudnt be able to cope with that shit again nowadays, esp as i use cannabis regularly nowadays and tryin to cope with the cannery monotony without that after havin that wud make shit worse...
But yea, back when i worked at a cannery i spent the whole shift just daydreamin and in my head distractin myself bcuz otherwise idve truly not coped well with that monotony.
And i was lucky, i changed jobs at that cannery quite often so the monotony rarely lasted more than a month before bein changed up... But yeah, save for that sorta stuff idve probs rly started to lose myself workin there.
Rly hate that his cannabis use was seen as a bad thing when no doubt its all that was keepin him from a deep well of depression at all that unendin monotony...
And yea, on the whole sui* ideation stuff... That stuff hit me at later pts and truly one of the only things that kept me from rly hatin life was bein able to smoke with my friends. But still, at my worst moments of dealin with all the monotony of life... I gave up on the idea of tryin to live. I didnt act on tryin not to live, but i didnt make much in terms of plans and treated things as if it didnt matter what the long term results were for i was in such a pit of despair i didnt see a way out for me
Nowadays, im happily out, livin as my truest self, and livin with my fiance and metamour and have spent the last nearly five yrs seein my life improve immensely as ive come to understand myself and what i wanted and that i neednt stick to the monotony even if it made others happy...
That part, the makin others happy part, thats what rly made it hardest to not just conform and to let myself enjoy what i wanted and not just be that good little worker drone any longer if it was gonna keep hurtin me.
Now im livin at a pt in my life i nvr imagined id make it to and instd of daydreamin to break up the monotony; im livin out the daydreams and enjoyin every last bit of life
I was just sitting there covering my mouth with my hand when Kevin reached that bit. I feel so shaken
Ono we found a cannery worker
On Mollys death, those berries that she ate mixed with something that is/was in toothpaste make a hallucinatory poison.
Doesnt need to be mixed with anything holly berries are stright up toxic
No. Those berries were from Holly plant, which has poisonous berries that can kill children. In addition with toothpaste, that back in those days most likely had more fluoride than there is nowadays, would cause acute poisoning. She didn't hallucinate, but imagined/dreamed the entire situation.
@@Ozku9 Yeah, they're both poisonous, but dont cause you to hallucinate. Just make you very ill and die.
Likely more of a: Ate them, felt like absolute shit, mom didn't believe her, thinking she was faking to get out of the punishment, and was left alone for a long while because of the 'you're not getting any food until you stop being such a brat about it', which lead her to spiral down and get too sick before the parents noticed she was actually very sick.
And either had a level of fever-dreams, or the rest was just added as a poetic story with a child's imagination
@@Ozku9 Even if she didnt hallucinate as a result of something she ate, near death experiences often do cause hallucinations.
However, I choose to believe Molly actually realized the nature of the universe, **the snake eats its own tail** thereby Zero summed and merged into every other living thing.
@@Arkimedus If you choose to believe the "extraordinary" version of the character's deaths, then you're missing the entire point of the game. Molly didn't realise anything. She's just a little girl who ate poison and died.
I like how open the game is for the player to decide if they believe in the curse or not. Like it’s really up to your interpretation.
At the very least we can say the family is unlucky. A lot of the deaths though are just negligence and I think the curse is used to shift blame a lot. You’d think a family that believes they’re cursed would be more careful but they were the opposite. Like after a kid died on a dangerous swing next to a cliff, you should probably get rid of the swing, but they just left it up and continued to let kids use it. It isn’t that surprising people keep dying at that point.
Yeah exactly! And the baby in the tub, why leave it all alone in there 2+ times, especially when there are TWO parents at home? It takes a while to fill the tub fully usually. And Walter… why the hell no one cared about the traumatised child and how he’s been doing? Also not caring about a strong wind, a hurricane almost? Forget about one specific person being outside is one thing, but anyone would check outside anyway, like if ANYONE’s there, any of the guests, etc… If that’s how they all treat their family members, I don’t wanna know about all the pets’ fate😅
@@pb542 yeah and the plug was pulled out too, so it'd take many times as long. Though the foam is also a thing
@@pb542 One parent. The phone call she receives is from her husband so he wasn't home, they were on a break. The relationship was already strained and Gregory's death finished destroying it, leading to a divorce.
Seeing Kevin play my favourite game of all time gives me a level of comfort I didn't know I needed. Thank you Kevin :D
It's like hearing the directors commentary after you finish the game and the director has dementia and is constantly confused ❤
I loved this game so much.
This is my favorite game too. Lewis’s story especially has stuck with me. Even though it’s basically just a walking sim, the all the creative ways that the narration is integrated into the surroundings and the gameplay being tweaked for each story makes it stand out. More than anything, though, I love the emotion and the depth of the stories. I think Kevin hit it on the nose with the self-fulfilling prophecy, and the deeper I dive into the game the more I love it. Mad props to Giant Sparrow for creating this masterpiece
A real masterpieceofshit
my favorite thing about this is how if you go a little off path, take note of things, you can see how the family died in the other stories. Molly talks about how a monster is going eating her, but when you go into her room in Barbra's story you see her toy squid still on the bed. Walter talks about hearing a train, but when Edith goes through it, it just goes off a cliff. Barbra had a whole thing with the fridge, and we see that Walter internalized that. Milton escaped into a door in his paintings, but throughout everything else, we find his drawings all over the passages--included locked passages. With Gus' we see his kite fly by the teepee, but then we also see the peices scattered in the basement. The swing is still up, but broken when Edith walks past it.
everything is connected and just shows how the whole family is literally surrounded by death and remidners of 'the curse'.
They never threw anything away, never cleared out rooms to reuse them, and never took responsibility for the neglect or mistakes they made (until Edith's mom left the house) because the "stories" made it sound like the family was cursed and couldn't help it.
It's like that one story, I forget the origin of it, but a wizard curses a family that every man in it will die by adulthood. Then he snuck into the house every time a male in the family hit a certain age, and shot them.
It's sad to think how the Finch's could've lived longer lives, had they taken time to reflect and change to correct their mistakes...
Ah, the HP Lovecraft story where the “wizard” makes a potion of life and only uses it to kill this one guy’s family.
I don’t think the house was real but a visual structure built to tell the story. Edith needing passages to enter the rooms were a metaphor for the fact there were no direct answers for the different family members passing but an interpretation of having to find the answers of what happened to them. After all Edith’s entire journey was a story to her child whom she never got to tell them to.
I think the house is real, though maybe not so structurally... insane as it is here. But with a lot of sealed rooms and hidden passeges.
Being ill, the last part really got me. On a bad day, I do need to remind myself of how lucky we are to even be here and to make the most of it That being binge wathcing Kevin's long plays and feeling somehow less alone in at all.
Thank you so much for this!
I wish you the best ❤️
similar situation and it's really nice to have the longer videos and more variety.
And how lucky are we to be alive at a time where Kevin is making content.
Stay strong, guys.
The most unbelievable part of the entire story is that the train was only late once in 30 years.
He said "the longest in 30 years" so I think that it had been late or even missed days before, but this time it had been a few days (a week maybe?) of it just not coming at all. It wasn't super clear in the vignette what happened and Kevin cut some out and talked over some of it.
Kevin's playthrough is my first experience with this game. Shame it doesn't come with his jokes when you play it on your own.
Not with that attitude it doesn't.
the part with sam and the photos was killing me
I dunno, it may be because Kevins making it more light hearted, but it seems surprisingly humoristic at times. Not a comedy by any means, but still, its prety unexpected. You know, for a story thats otherwise spectaculary tragic.
Idk, I think he over did the jokes, or at least timed them badly, sometimes I was wanting to hear what the characters were saying but he was talking still.
@rafaelalodio5116 that's kind of his thing though, right? I mean, generally Kevin is the reason we're all here consistently...and it's just his style, lol
kevin's so smart and observant tbh, a lot of the stuff he said was stuff i didn't catch until i saw an edith finch theory vid
Thats the Kevin paradox for you; he absorbs the little details quickly and naturally, but he cant tell that is the son, not the mother, who works at a cannery until the game explicitly tells him so. Hes as observant as hes scatterbrained.
Also I hate how Kevin didn't miss a beat in a SINGLE BB reference, the "maybe I'm the one who knocks" one just send me over the edge in so many ways, I love this goofy guy
Since you asked for the interpretations, how each person died below (Spoilers):
Molly: Died from eating berries and toothpaste when sent to bed hungry. Poisoned.
Calvin: Fell off a cliff while swinging
Barbara: Home invasion murder or murdered by her boyfriend
Walter: Hit by train after stepping onto tracks after living in a bunker for fear of the curse.
Gregory: Drowned in bathtub
Gus: Killed by flying debris in a storm
Milton: He didn't actually die here. He leaves and appears in another game by the same dev, The Unfinished Swan... Where he dies.
Odin: Dies while attempting to sail his house across the ocean and sinks
Sven: Fell to his death after the slide he was building collapses
Sam: Knocked off a cliff by the deer
Lewis: Industrial accident with a fish de-header (Possibly purposeful)
Edie: Old age or suicide
Edith Finch: Childbirth complications.
Thank you for this.
Edie died from taking alcohol with her medication the night they left, which was either negligence or suicide
Watch the game theory video on this game
Family is cursed
i dont get how she finds secrets in the house despite her living in it all her childhood. do you know how good children are at finding shit?
The "curse" in the game isn't really a curse. In almost each instance, the death can be explained:
Odin - drowned
Molly - poisoned by eating mistletoe
Barbara - murdered by fans
Calvin - fell off the swing right by a cliff
Sven - crushed by unsafe construction
Greg - baby left alone in a tub, what could go wrong?
Gus - killed by flying debris in a storm after he was left outside
Sam - the deer knocked him off the cliff
Walter -hit by a train (the overarching idea being untreated childhood trauma)
Lewis - decapitated (untreated mental illness)
Edie - mixed pills and alcohol
Dawn - terminal illness (probably cancer)
And finally Edith, who died in childbirth.
In nearly all these cases, the death was caused by negligence, mental illness, or natural causes. There is no true "curse" or "villain" in this family, although Edie spinning all of the deaths into these whimsical tales and blaming them on a curse doesn't help, especially in the case of Lewis. It was obvious Dawn saw past all of the stories and that's why she wanted to leave, but her kids, understandably, wanted to stay with grandma, either out of fear of the "curse".
This is just my theory at least. The environmental storytelling seems to point in this direction, at least to me
I mostly agree, except it shows that when Edith went through the tunnel, it became a cliff, and it'd be weird to have a train going by so close to the house. So, I think Walter died from walking off a cliff. I mean, you stay in pretty dark environments for that long, you're going to be so blind when you go out again
I genuinely didn’t know much about this game before and now I realise it’s basically just a montage of people dying in absolutely insane ways that your parents would probably use to scare you out of doing something like oh no you shouldn’t drink water because there was this one kid who went to turn the tap on and caused an entire tsunami killing three thousand people!
More like "son, you shouldn't swing to hard because you might fall off your imaginary cliff_
i burst out laughing thats the best description ever.
@@Fraser142 to be fair it’s just brutally honest still glad you liked it 👍
@Jack murphy thanks I made it myself a long time ago but I still vividly remember it for some reason.
I'd say the baby in the tub or Molly are some of the better examples. "He died because the toys turned the water back on." and "She died because a monster came into her room after devouring a boat's crew."
Clearly ignoring the fact both deaths were caused by the parents being neglectful of the child, leading to their tragic deaths.
I'd love to see you play the Unfinished Swan now that you've done Edith Finch. I wanna rewatch someone play that game but I think most of the playthroughs are pretty old and also pretty long. These sorts of videos are way easier for me to digest lmao
I hope he does!
This was SO good. While Kevin is an unrivalled comedy genius, I absolutely adore watching him play these types of more serious narrative games and giving us his theories and reactions in long form. Thank you Kevin!
what remains of edith finch is easily one of the most beautiful games i've ever had the opportunity to play. i cried a lot while playing it. it's truly incredible, just a gorgeous game.
Kevin picked up on a lot of subtilities and implied things very quickly, I'm impressed, one of my favorite playthrouth of this game i've seen :)
"worse than I thought, someone in the family is very into finger painting" Kevin get out too scary
Is it just me or are a lot of stories related to food?
Molly was starved, Calvin died right after his mom called him to dinner, Barbara fought a cannibal after her bf jumped at her from the fridge and it sounds like she was eaten by monsters, Walter was trapped with canned food for many years...
Lewis died in a canning food factory
You'd say it's almost as if there's often food around people
At this point I'm just so happy at Kevin's doing our long videos it's amazing
I feel like the ending could be seen in two ways depending on whether you believe or not that Edie was involved in their deaths somehow (or at least the stories about their deaths)
SPOILERS
With the death of Edith, who was also the last person of the family to know Edie, a new cycle begins in the family and Christopher (Edith's son) "breaks" the curse.
Or Christopher just ends up carrying on the curse.
neah he broke the curse also Milton broked the curse theres a game with Milton made by same developer
Honestly edie has to be the villain of this story
Like she's the reason why the house is the most way it is (all the empty rooms, secret passages etc etc)
She writes fantastical stories about her family's deaths and displays them like they're artifacts in a museum
She even gives details that only she would know on Barbara's death to that comic book
I don't know if she believes if the curse is truly real but god
i love ur pfp!! i love night in the woods
@@madi5194 thanks, night in the woods is awesome..
maybe one day we’ll get to see Kev play it :)
@@madi5194 that would be cool...
this is bringing back that 2017 nostalgia...watching jack play this game after a hard day at college. love the longer videos, kevin, they really help me relax after work :)
Did you graduate? If so congrats! If not, then I hope you found the thing that was really meant for you.
@@rock4glory713 oh, yes I did thankyou! I meant college as in the uk, so I'm currently doing my masters degree at university! :)
Same
I love it, from beginning to end, it always makes me tear up too, maybe it's the thought of death, family, or all the possibilities you'll never get to see because of dying. I like to think the stories were real, that molly really lived as many creatures and barbara really saw monsters that night, it makes for a less sad tale than the alternatives and removes a bit of the unfairness to it, but maybe that's what they intended, to divide realistic people and those lost in imagination that just want a crumb of hope, me being the latter I just can't help but break down entirely at the end because there really isn't anything else than death, Edith passed, her child probably never got to meet her, all that's left of someone that could tell these stories is in a book and imagining how lonely it must feel to be there is just depressing, but again that sweet bliss of ignorance and imagination where maybe this magical story will turn around and give at least one person a happy conclusion makes me just a bit glad to have experienced it
Kevin caught on to it by the end, but there was never a curse to begin with. Every death that befell the Finchs can be explained by neglect, and the more they believed in the curse, the more it became a self fufilling prophecy.
I would highly recommend anyone that enjoyed this video to play the game for themselves as Kevin did leave out some of the details that help give the story more context, such as the house and the impact of Edie's "story telling".
This game makes me cry every time. It's really powerful if you experienced loss in childhood, I know it doesn't resonate with everybody but I find a lot of meaning in it.
I love when games does this. Not tell you the story straight out, and instead let you figure it out, and Lewis's part was ingenous, though it me very close to home as I do a lot of maladaptive daydreaming. Thankfully, I've now managed to use that for something good, as a way to develop stories I plan to write or am writing, rather than let it take me down a dark path.
Lewis story really got me to tears, such a great game im really happy youve played it.
That character really shows the ascent to and beyond insanity well.
My personal favorite theory about this game is everything after Edith opens the fridge is unreliable narration. Assumedly, when she opened the fridge, she may have found the bodies of Barb and Rick, and instead of putting them in the book, she started to make things up. Hence why we see lit lightbulbs and lights on in/outside the house through the rest of game when it was stated the house had no power. Her narration also changes from "This is great nostalgia, let's keep going" to "I shouldn't have come here, this was a mistake." Further evidence of this is that it would have been impossible for a train to run so close to the house, thus Walter's death shouldn't have been possible.
didn't even think of that, wow.
that makes legit no sense tf
Yes! An hour of Kevin's shenanigans
I'm pretty sure Molly ate something she wasn't supposed to eat and went on a bad trip, where she imagined herself as various hungry animals instead of herself, then died from eating toxic things. She was aware she was dying, probably felt awful and was vomiting, and wrote her bad trip down before dying from the toxicity.
She ate holly and/or mistletoe, which is poisonous and mixed with toothpaste made for a hell of a death trip
Almost more of an interactive story than a game. Love the creativity and how each story was told using a different mechanic.
thing is, people call this a walking simulator, or a movie, but this story will NEVER work in any other format except games. A similar story that is my favourite game of all time is Outer Wilds (not outer worlds). It can never work in anything but video game format.
Kevin I think everyone lied to you. It isn't the most interesting game ever made, it is the most tragic and sad. Great game but holy crap. Even your excellent commentary couldn't stop me from getting super sad multiple times. The baby got me the most since I have an over 2 and a half year old nephew and a niece on the way. Watching a story about someone leaving a baby unattended in a bath just made me so mad and that picture they picked for the baby just so full of happiness. I'm starting to cry just thinking about it again.
Lewis' story actually helped me get help for my own maladaptive daydreaming. thabkyou Lewis.
Just letting kevin know, since I've only seen up to just after the Molly section (where she becomes a cat and stuff) we see her eating three holly berries before the whole "eating everythinh" thing started, but children have gone so far as to get extremely ill/near death from as little as two, as they are poisonous to humans and some animals, so chances are she just got poisoned, hallucinated, and died... major skill issue ngl
Grandma Edie's biggest skill issue was not feeding Molly before bed tbf. Wtf did she expect. I assume that's where her "curse" trauma began, trying desperately to shift away the blame, causing more and more self-fulfilling prophecies. I feel bad for her. She was the unfortunate villain of the story, whether she wanted to or not.
*Molly:* Molly was Edie's and Sven's first child. She was locked in her room without food for misbehaving, and when bed time came around she couldn't sleep due to her hunger. Starving, Molly desperately looked around for something to eat. First she ate contaminated gerbil food. Then she ate a whole tube of toothpaste (Which, considering this happened in 1947, was likely filled with fluoride. Fluoride is poisonous) Finally she ate some holly barriers, they might have been plastic but either way it's not safe to eat. After that she went to bed and had an absolute fever dream, she woke up in cold sweat, delirious and certain a monster was going to eat her. So, thinking she was going to die, she took her note book and wrote down what had happened, believing her dream had actually happened, before passing out. She was found dead in her room the next morning. Killed by all the toxic stuff she consumed while on an empty stomach.
I think that her being the monster represents how she "ate her self to death" so to speak.
*Barbara:* Barbara was Edie's and Sven's second child. It seems as if she had been killed by a home intruder or maybe even her boyfriend. It's clear Edie sold publishers info about the house and her death, giving them permission to publish very bizzare comics about how her own daughter died. This is something she does a lot and it's not a good look.
*Calvin:* Calvin was Edie's and Sven's third child, alongside his twin brother Sam. Calvin died after falling of the cliff the house was set on while playing on a swing. This was just textbook child endangerment. Why on earth would you build a swing there???? What did you think would happen????
*Sam:* Sam was Edie's and Sven's third child, alongside his twin brother Calvin. He was also the only one to *actually* make it to adulthood, all of his siblings died young. His death is pretty self explanatory. He died in a hunting accident which his daughter Dawn (Edith's mom) saw happen. Interestingly enough, Dawn never actually told Edith about what happened to her grandfather. Another interesting thing about Sam was that he and Calvin shared a room, even after Calvin died. Calvin's side of the room was remained completely untouched after he died, leaving Sam to grow up on his side, forced to share a room with his dead brother. This was very traumatizing.
*Walter:* Walter was the fourth and final child of Edie and Sven. Three of his siblings had died young. He even witnessed the death of his sister Barbara. This, along side his mothers tales of death and a family curse, was very traumatizing. So when Sam, his final sibling, died. He barricaded himself in the basement/bunker, convinced he was next on the chopping block. He stayed down there for 30 years before deciding that he had to get out. That even if it did kill him, it'd at least be better then being stuck in a bunker for the rest of his days. So he left and was immediately hit by a train.
*Dawn:* Dawn was the first child of Sam and Kay. She's the protagonist mother who died due to an unknown illness.
*Gus:* Gus was the second child of Sam and Kay. His parents had gotten divorced and now his father was re-marrying. He was not happy about this, so when the wedding came around he stood aside, away from everyone else, and played with his kite. As the party continued it started to get quite windy so the guests went inside, having completely forgotten about Gus. The wind turned into a storm causing a wooden pole/statue to fall on Gus, killing him. It wasn't until next morning that they realized Gus was missing, and later that day, they found his body.
*Gregory:* Gregory was the third and final child of Sam and Kay. His mother was giving him a bath. After bathtime was over she turned the water of and drained the tub, but before she could get Gregory out of the bath the phone rang. Being the neglectful mother she was, she left her baby alone in the bath while shewent to the other room to answer the phone. Gregory manged to turn the water back on and drowned in the tub. This ordeal caused the already rocky relationship between Sam and Kay to break, and they got a divorce not long after.
*Lewis:* Lewis was the first child of Dawn and Sanjay. I don't really want to go over this one as it is very triggering. It just hits WAY to close to home as I'm in therapy for very similar reasons. Long story short, after completely losing touch with reality, living life in his own imaginary world, he grew to resent the real him. So he abandoned his real life and killed himself.
*Milton:* Milton was the second child of Dawn and Sanjay. This one is very confusing. Did he run away? Did he get trapped in the walls? Did he get washed out to sea? Who knows, I don't really have an opinion on the matter either way. I don't believe it to be anything super natural though.
*Edith:* The third and final child of Dawn and Sanjay. She became pregnant at 18 years old and unfortunately passed away while giving birth. Although, her baby did survive.
Milton is the protagonist of the other game by the same developers, The Unfinished Swan. They explain what happened to him in that game. It actually was supernatural...or maybe it wasn't and he was just imagining things like Molly and Lewis did. Who knows.
@@giantWario Yeah I know. I played the game awhile back. I don't think it's literal. Not in the context of this game anyway. Maybe it is, but I think that would kinda ruin the plot of this game idk
Kevin missing the lore of the sinking house was what I did too my first playthrough lmao
Wait. I totally missed it too, I remember watching Matpat playing it, and I don't remember if he got it either. What was it?
@@marianemarangao2840 it's in Eddie's room! There is an old picture toy that is on a desk. It's pretty cool! You hold the held up to your eyes, when you click it it changes the picture. It's tells the story about how the finch family sailed the house from their home country (I think Denmark or Norway) to where it is now, Eddie's father, Odin, went down with the original house just a bit off from the shore
I found it my second time playing and was just like oh dang, that's uuuh pretty important information xD
@@lest8838 Oooooh now I remember it, Matpat played that part!! I thought it was edited out for some reason, didn't notice Kevin didn't get to see it.
This was really good to watch, I missed it back when it came out and only really saw the odd clip here and there. The part with Lewis was especially captivating.
The curse itself was the fear of dying in such imaginary and dumbfounded ways. Thus, constantly worrying about their deaths manifested their demise. The mother hid the facts of their deaths from Edith to try and spare her the "curse".
I like Kevins progression from Goofing around to actual getting pulled into the story :)
1) the being birthed scene was cool as heck but unexpected to experience (I love it! Rip Edith though), 2) some of those were pure darwin awards. 3) this reminded me of stuff like the ABCs of Death or that song "A Gory Demise". Overall this was a really awesome game and they might want to find Madame Zeroni to carry her up the mountain (or whatever magical force they angered lol)
What "being birthed" scene
@@lylahsworld3930 the tunnel at the end (the purple-ish one with the slightly oblong opening) if isn't directly meant to be, is, at least for me, reminiscent of being birthed/birth canal tropes. There was also to me an implication that Edith might have died in child birth (between that tunnel scene where you're suddenly the next Finch in line/being the kid kid at her grave, and the diary stopping right before but not seeming to imply she was around after). It's possibly mostly how i interpreted it, but felt like "being birthed and mom died" for me.
(Hopefully I'm getting the names, etc right. It's been a while since I watched this 😅)
@@floram9481 Wait, is Kevin playing as edith? Or edith's kid?
@@lylahsworld3930 I think (if I understood?), it's implied you were actually this kid the whole time and exploring the house through a new diary created by Edith/the mom when the original one was destroyed. Or this is how I interpreted it. It might be that the tunnel was actually a transition from being Edith to the child, so I'm not entirely sure
@@floram9481 Could be, you are definitely going more into this than I am
This game still makes me cry even after all these years, I hope you enjoyed playing it :D
THIS IS LITERALLY ONE OF MU FAVORITE GAMES OF ALL TIME!! Thank you so so much for playing this kevo 🙏😊hope you enjoyed!
I hate how disturbing it makes me feel when someone dies. Like it's really... normal, something that could just happen (in most cases)
Seems like a great game 10/10
this game was so beautiful and Kevin making jokes made it so less traumatizingly sad
my favorite part of this video is when Kevin was goanna get sad at the end thinking it might be based on a true story, he's got real heart and I was right there with him for a sec
I really needed a Kevin video today; I was laid off from a job I loved and am not handling it well. Thank you for the smiles and laughs.
best of luck to you! Brighter future ahead!
I have yet to get through a playthrough of this game - whether I'm playing or watching - and maintain dry eyes the whole way through.
This is just one of those games that, even though it's whimsical and fantastical, really speaks to the tragedies life throws our way.
And just, gd, it's done so well. The whimsy and genuine fun of that swing mixed with the foreboding sense of what's gonna happen to Calvin. Same with Gregory in the bath. Such well done mix of emotion.
And Lewis xC
Gah this game is good
Omg thanks for listening to our suggestions and playing this kevin! I absolutely love this game and I've been watching jacksepticeye's playthrough like 100 times and im happy i have another one I'll be watching repeatedly. Just wish your commentary at the end was longer and in depth bc this feels like an adventure you and us went through together and I'd rly love to hear your thoughts on each character's stories.
I don't get why you enjoy this commentary... it's just constant sarcasm and never-ending attempts at being funny. He just keeps talking over the amazing voice acting and doesn't take it seriously at all. I don't get why that's enjoyable to watch, it completely ruins the experience of it. There's zero impact in this playthrough
@@babyblue_22 yeah i get what you mean..that's just Kevin's gameplay style I guess. If this was the 1st playthrough I've seen of the game i wouldn'tve appreciate it as much, but since I've seen jack's which is a lot more serious and immersive, I think of this one as a lighthearted watch. He did sound very impressed with the game in the end which is an opinion I also share so I appreciate that
@ansyzzz that's an excellent point. One picks up on his style pretty quick; if it's not for that particular viewer, but they stay & complain... I am not quite sure what is wrong with them. Masochism? idk - there's other LPs to watch.
This game has me crying every single time. It's just so well written and designed and just wow. It's so sad really. The reveal at the end is so hard hitting. The swing with Calvin, it's all so beautiful
55:33 “Goodbye Lewis, it’s been real!”
…Kevin 😭😂
Definitely self fulfilling. =/ They left a baby alone in a bath tub. Forgot a child in a storm. They put a swing up over a cliff. The other ones, maybe could see accidental.
An HOUR of Kevin? Truly live, laugh, love + blessed
Kevin finally played Edith Finch, I’m so happy to see it!
This game always makes me think of the song "Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men
I can definitely see that.
Really didn’t expect Kevin to play this game but I’m very pleased he has!
A series of unfortunate events and all my dreams I've ever had about houses like this....that's what this is. Insanely cool
Were your dreams this morbid? Cause even A Series of Unfortunate Events, with all those deaths and attempted child murder, is way more light hearted than this.
Lewis' story at the cannery, started out as "oh ok, that seems reasonable" and quickly went down hill from there.
fr didnt think that shit was gonna hit that hard at the start of it
I never thought I'd enjoy watching you play this game. I thought about it, reading all the comments that begged you to play it and again, when I saw the upload. I really love this game, how it deals with death and loss has helped me navigate my own grief. But I am so, SO glad you played this for us now. You didn't go at it with too much or to less humor and just helped me through the sad emotions with something to make me chuckle at. I am once again reminded how much I love this game. Thank you, Kevin
Day 328 of asking Kevin to play Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey
Brooo that's close to a year
ANSWER THIS PERSON KEEEVVVVEEENNNNNN
Come on Kevin
Keep going on this campaign. I wanna see this count hit a year at least
I don't wanna see the streak break but I need him to play it
I know there's supposedly a family curse killing off all of these Finch family members, but it really feels like the absolute nightmarishly-not-up-to-code house and locale that killed off a vast VAST majority of these people.
Your hour of content is a saving grace to the many many hours I spend depressed. Thank you so much!
Literally just played this game for a class (on game narratives, I swear). Kevin's got impeccable timing 🍀
Kevin playing one of my favourite games of all time? What a dream come true. I remember when I first played this game and when I finished Lewis' and Sams part I legit had to stop and breathe for awhile. Lewis reminded me of myself and although Kev made fun of Sams story, when i was a kid my Dad broke his back and nearly died from falling from a height like that and I was too slow to catch him so it really hit close to home. Thanks for playing this amazing game and exposing it to the world Kevin.
I never thought 'What Remains of Edith Finch' could actually be funny but Kevin, you magnificent bastard you've done it again!
What I think happened with Edith's brother (the one with the art stuff I forgot his name) is he ran away and might still be alive and they just assumed he died
my theory abt barbara's death is that she slipped on the skates that walter left out! theres evidence that the bannister was broken at some point, and the entire comic is based on Halloween, the beginning of which involves Michael Myers killing his sister
Kevin spending this much time scanning the horizons before finding the bird in focus heals my soul.
I am absolutly loving the longer content, making sure to like each 40min+ video cause i love em so much
The, uh, the one with the baby. Kevin, somehow, even in the worst, tragic circumstances, makes me laugh like a feckin lunatic.
There's another game in this series called "the unfinished swan" or something like that. I'd love to see him check that out next
Edit: I made this comment at the start and hadn't seen he got to it, but I still think he should play it.
P.s. This is probably the best walking simulator game that's ever been made.
Lewis and me having the same symptoms of daydreaming to escape reality hits too close to home. I do imagine Lewing having some kind of severe aspergers or autism, which can make reality awfully hard to come to terms with at times.
Note to self: never work in a cannery.
Likely mixed with some extra things to enhance the disassociation. And the Therapist mis-reading the signs and encouraging it.
Likely leading it to develop into some intense disassociating or Schizophrenia, starting to see his fantasy as reality.
And, again, the Therapist and his boss seeing it as just a way to take the mind away from the monotony of the job. Nobody seeing the signs until he went to go to the reality he preferred
Probably just generally a good rule of thumb to avoid sharp objects in places where you disassociate from reality
it feels like always being 10 years behind
Understand you mean well but both "aspergers" and "severe autism" are offensive and should not be said when referring to autism and autistic people.
@@waterbottle9021 how is aspergers offensive? just because it is technically still just part of the autism spectrum? to be clear, i'm being completely earnest here. I myself am on the spectrum, and my mom works in special ed, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone refer to "Asperger's" as being offensive as opposed to just an outdated term (but, also, I know there are a lot of people who were originally diagnosed as Asperger's who still refer to themselves as such because you get used to what you get used to).
@Water Bottle ??? I have Aspergers. How is that offensive? Also, "severe autism" isn't offensive either unless you deliberately use it to offend someone. That wasn't the case here.
In the context of the story, though, I don't think autism played a significant role here. More something like dissociative personality disorder or something like that
19:12 The Halloween theme with the guy dancing in the background, ur boi was getting it 🤣🤣
Kevin thank you for always lifting my spirits and making things better in the crazy land of Ohio.
Stop making places up
Ohio? Whats that?
Ohio... people just make up words at this point
I thought Ohio got eliminated
35:13 this joke was both so brillant and so unnecessary that I smilingly shook my head to it and I absolutely loved it.
Literally played and finished it today after holding out on it for four years. What a coincidence ❤️
This is so awesome to see! I've been interested in this game but haven't watched a playthrough and don't have access to playing it myself so I'm glad it's Kevin that finally allows me to experience this game :)
Edit: Watched it all and here's my thoughts. First of all, a lot of this is relatable. Won't go into too much detail, but I come from a neglectful/abusive household and have had friends in the same position. And this strikes it as that. Walter is relatable as well because I have a few phobias from traumatic incidents as well. And Lewis is definitely maladaptive daydreaming along with some neurodivergence imo. Cause I've been there myself and it's how I got through school when I was at my worst points. I mean, the baby was left in a bathtub alone, of course that is the parent's fault.
But overall, as Kevin said, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. They believe in a curse when it's just a string of bad luck and neglect. A lot of these deaths could have been so easily prevented. And instead of accepting the deaths, they either don't want to take blame or try to make it more whimsical with the idea of a curse to make it seem less real, as if it's not their fault. I agree Milton's story is kinda poor since it's a tie in to the Unfinished Swan (though I love that game. I've played the demo we had many many times.) However, as others have pointed out, he seemingly got lost or trapped within the walls and tunnels so I think even if he is mostly a tie in to the other game, it can just have a more "real" explanation.
Overall, I genuinely cried many times watching this. I'm a pretty traumatized person and I've experienced many of these things in different ways within my own life and even been suicidal since elementary school. I'm okay now, I'm doing well and working on self care especially as I have physical disabilities as well. But being the person I am, it made this experience a lot more emotional. I'm really glad Kevin playing it was my first experience with the game (since I can't get it myself) and I did laugh a few times as well through this. I loved seeing Kevin go through it and kind of learning as well. I really enjoyed this playthrough. Great work Kevin, you made a fantastic video! :)
i saw a really good theory that basically, molly ate the poisonous holly berries and started getting sick, maybe had a nightmare. then died. and edie would rather believe that her family was cursed than admit she had been a negligent mother, so she hyped up the idea that they were all doomed, basically. it was easier for her to process. and then because she hyped it all up so much, the family was just...predisposed to do risky and/or negligent things. so one by one. they died. in ways that were almost all easily preventable
there was never a curse. there was just a grieving woman incapable of acknowledging her own fault in her daughter's death, and the resulting mindset in future generations that there wasnt a point in preventing such things
its a grim theory, but i feel like it makes sense to a certain extent
fuck. we got to gregory and i started crying
its like
okay
i can handle every other death in this game when separated from each other
some of them make me really fucking sad, but i can handle them
gregory is the one that makes me cry on its own
the others slowly wear me down more and more as the game progresses, of course, but gregory is the one that fucks me up the most
he was just a baby
you dont leave babies unattended in bathtubs, even if theyre empty, *specifically* because something might happen and the bathtub could *stop* being empty if theres some sort of accident
*he was just a baby*
35:04 I was watching this late at night and each photo felt like a flashbang
Ah, that's unfortunate. Here's hoping you turned down the brightness of w/e screen you were watching, eventually...
💥📸💥〰️🤚😳🤚