It reminds me of the creator of final fantasy’s favorite final fantasy game, I forgot the number but it’s the one that covers death and ways people handle it, it’s a lot about existentialism and acceptance of said existentialism and how as much as we’d like, the fact we aren’t in control makes us just as human as the control we exert.
I heard someone interpretating it like the curse was the feat of dead (i know these seems wrong with sam's twin but theres an actual explanation, he being afraid of any day being his last)
I love how in the game there’s a slow realization that the grandma had a small part in every single death because of her paranoia over the family curse. It was quite insidious
I didn't get the impression that she was paranoid, it felt more like she used the curse as a way to profit off of her family's deaths. Think about it she's lived longer than anyone else in her family and she actively wants everyone to know her family dies a lot but always makes their deaths out to be extraordinary or fantastical her husband, for example, was crushed by a fake dragon but she said he died fighting a dragon. Edith's mother must have realized this because she kept on trying to tell her mother to just clean the dead kids rooms instead of turning them into what are essentially tourist attractions with props and a story of how each of the kids died and to stop expanding the house to the point where just living there is a hazard, and out of the entire family the ones who live the longest are the ones that stayed away from grandma Edith and grandma Edith herself. Grandma Edith selling the stories was also something that lead me to believe she was just fantasizing and intentionally making the house hazardous to make more money.
@@demothiguillermo2059 FR.... Realizing that Barbara's comic talks specifically about the music box and how it works means that someone in the family provided information for the retelling of this poor girl's death hurt me. If there's any bad thing haunting the family its the stories that old lady told.
@@spooked1938 There's also the fact that she tells the newspaper that she's not going to evacuate when a forest fire happens near the house, along with the story of the mole people living underneath her house, which is of course just her traumatized son, Walter
@@thunderbird3304 yes! Like other people have mentioned, she sensationalizes her relatives DEATHS more than their life. Barbara is shown holding a crutch in many occasions...a crutch that didn't even belong to her but that was linked to her death. In her memorial portrait, on the totem pole, heck there's even one in her room iirc. There's a crown placed on Lewis's grave, a swing on Calvin's totem pole section. Not to mention the embellishing of the two examples you brought up with sven and Walter. Honestly kinda gross that she was so focused on their deaths as opposed to their lives...
I have always believed that the curse was mostly bad parenting habits passed down. But no one wanted to admit it because that's how they were raised. It's super common with the older generation. The addition of some bad luck and grief made it all look like a curse
The biggest thing is that they let the one year old drown. It's the reason I haven't actually played the game. I think that Edith Sr. Was a bad person too obsessed with the curse to actually care about anything else.
@@nikoaugustine5415 she thought she drained the water but she still left a baby alone in the tub. They can accidentally turn the water on, climb adnd fall etc.
One of the horrifying things about these deaths is thinking about the aftermath; a little boy who flew off a cliff, a little girl who died to poisoning, a teenager probably killed by her boyfriend during an argument; imagine the people who found them.
I fully believe Rick, being Barbara's biggest fan, genuinely wanted to hear her scream or just tried to scare her because it was Halloween. Walter probably saw Rick in the costume and thought it was a real monster (since Walter was a little kid) and ran to hide. Rick probably did scare Barbara, and she accidentally fell off of the railing, killing her. Rick ran away because he didnt want people to think he purposefully killed her, and Walter became convinced that a real monster killed his sister. A simple, unfortunate Halloween accident that was dramatised for a comic.
@@melinadlugaygonzalez9288 I believe that the convention was cancelled because of her father being injured, so there's no way a fan could've followed her home from it. It could be that an obsessed fan did hunt her down, but I can't see someone who likes her killing her...not on purpose, at least.
The story that makes the most sense to me is that there were masked bandits who broke into their home, killed Barbara and attempted to kill Walter. I think this is also made very clear by the fact that sometime in the comic the radio went off saying that there were masked bandits in the area and it told people to be cautious. That easily explains what happened to Barbara, and possibly explains what happened to Rick. It also is a good explanation for Walter's fear of "monsters." His paranoia seems to have convinced him that its also what killed his other siblings, Molly and Calvin.
Something I noticed while watching this video was how even with all the death surrounding the Finches. One of each generation is left alive to continue the bloodline. Basically, no matter how many family members die, the Finch bloodline will continue. Meaning that even though Edith only had one child before her death, the future is looking hopeful for that kid.
@@monmondi4259 Maybe they can keep their kids away from the family so they don't end up dying. Who knows because Dawn and Edith died away from the house. But maybe they were already doomed.
Well yes, but no. If what happened in the Last Swing is exactly what happened to Milton after he ran away, then there are 2 finches remaining ("The King" had a son and died 9 years later), so one of them will die young.
What always struck me was that Edith was still a child. The face slap at the end where we see her grave and she passed just a month before her 18th birthday is still such a shock to me. And from the looks, her child is probably around the same age or younger. This is still one of my favorite games to hear about and I love hearing other people's interpretations of everything. It still makes me cry. I can't wait for the next game the developers create. So far they've been fantastic stories.
it makes the mystery of who the childs father is and the circumstances of his birth yet another mystery. If Edith was going to the house alone, putting herself in risky situations while 22 months pregnant (as she herself states) I'd guess, very rightfully true, that it wasn't a planned pregnancy with a partner who would be there for the child and her. I could, in completely honesty, see her going here in a weird state of depression, feeling that if something were to happy, it were to happen. She wanted to preserve her families tragic story even if that meant ending it for both her and her child. Instead, she survived walking over the tree and everything else in the house, and even though she died young in childbirth, her son will still know about her, and the rest of his family
the ear in the music box imagery might be a hint towards walter not being involved at all in her death, but still hearing everything go down, and how that trauma and survivor's guilt sticks with him. just like he was hiding under his bed, the ear was hiding in the music box, which is an auditory toy, so i think its meant to parallel their relationship. he's used to hearing her scream as a performance, like a music box's tune, so he might not think anything bad really happened when he hears her screaming for real, but little did he know his sister is dead. like the comic, he has no way of knowing if someone pushed her or if she fell, but if he had done something he might have at least been able to stop it.
Something that wasn't mentioned is the fact that Barbara's mother collaborated in writting the story of the comic. She wanted to push the narrative of the curse to everyone that will read the comic, the same way she did on every child in the family. She glamorizes their deaths and presents them as stories rather than the tragedies they actually are. Another thing that showsthis is the fact when Sven died in the paper,by her request, the headline was "Sven Finch killed by a dragon" rather than specifying it was a slide that collapsed in him.
"Oh no me family is cursed. Let's live on a cliff, build our continuously growing house near the edge of it, close to live train tracks and also furnish the outside with equipment our daredevilish children can play on."
@@L3meon_z3st "Even though I married into a family known for unfortunate deaths, I am going to leave my infant son alone in the bath with the plug in!"
@@elisaguab5573 “Let’s put a swing right here on the edge of this cliff overlooking the rocky ocean shoreline! if we put a rickety *sharp* wooden fence in front of it that’s much shorter than the actual swing i’m sure it’ll be fine!!!”
What Remains of Edith Finch is one of my favorite games of all time! The artistic way they tell each person's story makes this game such a unique experience
It's so good! I can't wait to see what the studio's next project is, imagine what this studio can do with 2023 graphics if Edith Finch is the quality they were producing 6 years ago
I understand Sam's desire to ease Kay of the blame for Gregory's death, but he was no way he could've known his wife would be so careless with a baby. All she had to do was not pick up the phone if she didn't want to talk to Sam in the first place
She didn’t even have to do that. She could’ve pulled the plug up and then answered the phone. Instead of dead stopping in her tracks and turning around, carried on with the motion she was already doing.
@@aduckofsomesort The story is told from the perspective of Sam, so the visual of Kay stopping after hearing the phone ringing is likely just symbolism from his own perceived guilt. For all we know, Kay could've drowned the baby herself and then blamed him for it because of the phone call(unlikely).
I haven't played the game in a while but didn't she pause the call to pull the plug out? It just so happened that the baby got the plug back in the drain and managed to turn the tap on again, never underestimate the ability babies have to mimic those around them. Or find a way to put these into mortal danger. The mother should taken the baby out of the tub completely but didn't think he was in any danger because she drained the tub.
@@lozzipop4025 Yes, but at first she intentionally leaves the baby in there alone with the water, which is where you first understand what is going to happen. The mom eventually coming back to drain the water instills this huge wave of relief while you play it, even though you know how every story ends, because in your mind now, at least it's not watching a baby drown due to negligence. And then he turns the tap back on, and the dread crashes back in. An emotional rollercoaster. We don't actually know for certain if these details are how it really went down, though.
She’s a single mother during a divorce. I’m saying it as a feminist: usually women get temporarily (!) “dumber” after giving birth and taking care of a child. Because their hormones are messed up and they are tired from not sleeping properly. Also producing milk takes a lot of energy and vitamins right out of women body. So it’s harder for them to needs to work properly. Now add to that the fact that her husband is divorcing her and they are constantly arguing. Aka additional stress to already exhausted body. It wasn’t his fault he called. But it maybe wasn’t even her fault she forgot to unplug the drain. Her baby is able to sit up so he probably was 3 months old or older. So his mother probably still didn’t fully recovered from childbirth and taking care of small child alone is still exhausting.
I love that the right side of the controller is used for work and the left for imagination. A subtle nod to the left and right side of the brain and how they work.
@@smithbob2168i noticed that! maybe it’s because he’s almost having an out of body experience, and when you look at someone, the sides are switched for you.
@@smithbob2168 the left sphere controls right side of the body when the right sphere controls left side of the body. Right sphere is about imagination, left sphere is more about tangible processes.
The kid at the end is clearly as "cursed" as the rest of the family. This curse appears to be a mix between intense creativity and daring that often leads to disaster, alongside the typical bad luck. At the end, the kid has a broken arm, which almost certainly comes from him doing something risky.
I dont think so. There are many ways you can break your bones, not only because you were being reckless (for example i broke my arm because i slipped when i was walking).
@@ALIEN-DUDE I'd say it's all of these things. Generational trauma can not only be passed down by bad/traumatized parenting and upbringing, but genes. The intensive imagination and risk-taking behavior could be genetically passed down, maybe even through something like ADHD, or it could be trauma responses, or most likely, both. The obsessive and anxious behaviors are easily caused by the upbringing and knowledge of the curse, but also likely again genetic as well considering these behaviors impact the physical brain and do pass on genetically even if the original source wasn't. The identification of the cause of the "curse" is essentially a "did the chicken or the egg come first?" dilemma; their genetics, or the things that happens to them? At this point, it's both, but considering the "curse" is 500 years old, we don't really know how it started.
@DUDEThe curse was the belief in the curse itself, thus relieving everyone of responsibility for each death. The vast majority of these deaths were preventable, but it is easier to be flippant and believe your family is the target of a curse rather than acknowledging you're being reckless. Since there is a curse, nobody has to change or be better. There's a thing in China where the number 4 is associated with death. On the 4th day of each month, you are statistically more likely to die in China. Despite this "curse", every other culture is doing fine on their 4ths. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Tiny things lead people to die more frequently because they already believe it's a cursed day, so why bother preparing or behaving normally? The stress in itself could be killing them, or the anxiety leading them to dangerous decisions. Neglect killed most of these people, but it's easier to say a curse did than the fact you neglected to feed a child, or put a swing in a safer area, or professionally help a traumatized child after they nearly witnessed the death of their sister. It's a miracle the damn house didn't kill anyone with its shoddy construction, more proof of the grandparents' neglecting safety. Edie was a terrible grandma more obsessed with immortalizing death than nurturing life.
@@o.neutronstar.o many of the characters have injuries that came from recklessness. For Calvin you can see that his leg is in a cast when he's on the swing. With how hopeful the ending is, I think I want to agree with you, that it's just a coincidence. Maybe recklessness is in a gene that runs in the family, but whoever is taking care of Chris made sure he grows up in a safe place where he's able to make mistakes without consequences that are too severe, which is the mistake the finches made.
I love your guess on the true story of Milton as it feels so right. I like the idea of him running away because we can assume he's the one who drew the flipbook. He saw his leaving of the Finch family as a new beginning. He wasn't scared. He accepted the past with a bow and closed the door to bright things ahead. It makes a lot of sense. And then Edie can take the flipbook he made and the drawings in the passages and simply say he's still here, he's still connected. Just lost in the walls. Ugh I love this game and your breakthrough of it is incredible.
Theres a reddit AMA from 7 years ago on the PS4 subreddit where the studio confirms that Milton is the king in unfinished swan! Its really beautiful the way they put these stories together
The whole "self fulfilling prophecy" hits real hard, stories about bringing on your own demise because you expect it so much you don't try to prevent it, or try to prevent it to crazy degrees.. idk it just hits me. Calvin hit me especially, how he made up his mind to fly just stuck
Lewis story had always stuck to me, ever since I first saw it when the game came out. I was only a teenager and something about the daydreaming and mundane tasks stuck with me. I related to lewis so much. I have maladaptive daydreaming disorder along with some others that don't really make me have a good grip on reality. I actually didn't even know it wasn't normal until i saw this game. To this day i still think about it often, Whenever i see a new doctor or therapist i show them or tell them about the story of lewis finch so they can understand what i feel like
I know you have a disorder, and mean no disrespect to you, but I find myself desperately wanting to escape reality. I often see creatures and figures and hear distinct voices and I can't tell if it's all real or not. But sometimes I don't care. I would stay in my head forever if I could. If I could just disappear from my home and this world I would in a heartbeat.
@@SquishyTheVampire hi if you are having a lot of issues telling ur daydreams from reality, it's time to seek professional help. maladaptive daydreams are often strong and feel real in the moment but once u get out, you normally know that it isn't real. at the end of ur comment u also hint that you may be having thoughts about ending ur life and u want to urge u strongly to find support from anyone (family, friends, teachers, work colleagues, doctors). I know mental health is truly intimidating and often feels really hard to open up about but I wanna make it super clear that so many people will have had similar experiences to you. they won't have the exact same but different people will have different patches of ur experience. ur not alone. 🤍
Quick correction about Milton: It was Dawn who insisted on his memorial in the graveyard to not have a death date on it, and insisted on it being a memorial, not a grave like Eddie intended on it being
There is a theory that Molly didn't hallucinate at all, she eat what she did and went to bed, dying in her sleep. It was her mother who wrote all the extra stuff on her diary, to make it all fantastical and her saying " I'll be gone soon" is VERY convenient. It's as if Edie wanted to hide away her child neglect that was the true reason for Molly's death
I also saw an idea that she choked to death on her own vomit after getting ill from everything she ate (since it was mentioned in the owl section that she was choking on the rabbit)
To me, when I was first watching this all the way when matpat played the game, I thought her death was her hallucinating and falling out of the window when she started thinking she was animals. I don't think she could have known she was dying, nor could she have written that note so calmly while doing so or in the midst of her hallucinations
One detail about Barbara's story is that if you look in Edie's room, you'll drafts for her story. Meaning it was Edie who helped with the comic book in order to get her daughter remembered. A very twisted form of love.
52:32 Sam's death is kinda interesting because it fits in both of the themes of the Finches being bad parents and being reckless. Generally when hunting, the very first thing a person is supposed to do with their kill is make sure the thing is actually dead. You do not start dressing it, you do not take pictures with it, you do not pass go, you do not collect $200, you do not handle that thing in any way until you're certain that it no longer has the faculties to kick you, bite you, or gore you on its antlers. Sam not only failed to do so, he took his kill to the edge of a cliff. What happened was just one of several ways his actions could've killed him and/or Dawn.
I grew up in southern Texas. A place where hunting season is practically an excused school holiday. I’m not a hunter, but A LOT of the people I grew up with came from hunting families. Here are some of the rules: 1) ALWAYS treat a gun as if it’s loaded. 2) DO NOT point a gun at something you don’t FULLY intend to shoot. 3) Make sure the thing is dead before approaching. Animals can go into shock and essentially ’play possum’ for a bit. It will seem like it’s dead, but it’s not. Always finish it off. Sounds cruel, but it avoids the hunter getting hurt by a scared and probably pissed animal, and ends the animals suffering. Sam, as an experienced hunter, should’ve known better. He was lucky it wasn’t DAWN that got hurt or killed as well.
1:30:25 And a middle ground was exactly the point that needed to be reached. That was the problem with Edie and Dawn - they were on two extreme sides on a spectrum, just Calvin and Walter were. Edie was obsessed with death and the dead. She made every moment of her life about it, and about fantastical stories and reminiscing. There was no room for reality, or for the present there at all. And Dawn wanted to lock it all away. She wanted it to be unseen, unheard, unspoken of. She never told her children about their grandfather. She didn't leave room for imagination or the past in her life. Neither of those extremes were good for them or their families, and they both added to the "family curse" in some way, even though neither of them had malicious intent. They were just two people trying to cope with an unimaginable level of loss and grief, and they didn't get it right, because people rarely do. That's the real tragedy of the Finch family - that none of them ever learned to truly accept and overcome their grief, and that grief kept leading to more grief. An endless cycle that Christopher can only break by coming to terms with his mother's death, and not letting it haunt him.
I've always found it interesting, too, that Dawn wasn't as serious or as detached from the family mythos as it seems like she wanted to think she was. Edith talks a lot about how her mother was serious and intense, how she boarded up all the doors and didn't like Edie's stories. But she also tells us that Dawn was the one who named their cat Molly, and when Dawn married Sanjay, she kept the Finch surname. She was still deeply attached to her family, still affected by its stories, and just didn't want to face it.
the actual most heartbreaking thing for me is the realization that granny saw all of the family members die. Literally she was the oldest of them all and saw all of the young peers dying while she was old and "healthy"
A factoid for you. A lot of medications especially related to blood pressure, do not react well with alcohol at all. Ideally if you're fast the person can be rescued, but Edie was left alone and...well you get it.
@@anonymousanonymous3012 most likely, and she knew it would happen but she did it anyway since she knew after this night nothing would ever be the same again. She more or less took her own life…
I can't help but relate to Dawn and the circumstances that led to her leaving. Already she's had to deal with the death of her husband and child and the disappearance of another, but both her little brothers -one being a baby mind you- died premature and watched her own father fall to his death, so I can see why she fears Edith ending up the same. I would do the exact same in her place, even if it did mean being a little cruel.
I think I like Dawn's view on death a lot more than Edie's. She recognizes that it's unnecessary and even harmful to be so obsessive with family members' death by creating shrines in their rooms and never repurposing them even when its necessary. But Dawn does still honor the dead. We see this in the poem she wrote for Gus, how she considered naming Edith Gus if she were a boy, and that she named her cat Molly. She does think its important to remember and honor the dead, but just not to the obsessive extent that Edie does.
It's been 6 years since Edith Finch came out. It's been 5 years since the day that I first realized that didn't want to die any more. That cannery scene was terrifying. I hate jump scares and almost didn't play this game for fear of it. The tension in that cannery scene kept building and building and instead of a loud noise or scary image it was just the lockers at the cannery. That was more terrifying than anything I could have seen because that was the moment I realized this story was very similar to my own. He began to despise [Lewis the cannery worker] with a royal contempt. I recognized that cruelty in myself. That line stuck with me. After that I realized that none of my daydreams were about me. I didn't daydream about how my life could be better because I didn't want to be me. So I made a conscious decision to spend some time imagining how my life might get better. I guess it made a difference.
If you listen closely, right before Lewis is…’crowned’…the cheers turn into SCREAMS. It kinda blends into the sound of the blade, but if you listen closely, I think you’ll be able to hear it. As someone who’s been suicidal, Lewis struck a cord within me. I don’t have substance abuse, but I did escape into my mind a lot too.
I had a very similar experience, and Lewis' story changed my life for the better as well. I cut off maladaptive daydreaming the night I played this game and I haven't let it take over my life since Cheers to you man, and to this game
I think Walter’s story made me the most sad, because he was talking about everything he hoped to do now that he was free, and then he dies right as he’s about to start living again
to be fair it's a bit of a skill issue not to put two (loud rumbling noise at 12 o' clock every day) and two (train tracks right outside of your bunker) together
This game is the first one that ever made me cry. It holds such a special place in my heart and Edie definitely needed a good ass slap in the face back to reality. This poor family had to deal with so much trauma that could have been avoided all because of her.
walter's death always hit hardest for me because he didn't even have a chance to see what he'd been missing. he was so close to living the life he wanted to live after overcoming his fears and it was violently ripped away from him.
My wife and I had our son six months before I had played this game. I had just made it to the Gregory portion of the game. She walked in on me playing, and I was sobbing. Uncontrollable tears. Crying in a way that she had never seen me cry before. She just held me as I sobbed and sobbed, grieving the death of a fictional character, one that I didn’t even know all that well, because it just hit me so incredibly hard. I love this game. It’s poetic, and beautiful, and does amazing things with the video game genre that I have never seen before, and I never want to play it again.
I was scrolling looking for someone to mention Gregory, I've been around young kids my whole life with my parents running a daycare, and no game has made me cry as hard as his death, it hits home in such a specific way. its so much worse that he has no idea whats going on and thinks he's only having fun with his toys. and yeah. as much as I love this game I never want to play it again,, I fully agree
There are a lot of impactful deaths, but oddly enough, the one that stuck with me was Gus'. Just imagine your teenage son dying on your wedding day. Especially when it could have been EASILY avoided.
Just for more clarification, the Washington they land in is Washington state, not DC. Orcas Island is a small community in the pacific that's only really accessible by ferry.
Yep, hopped in to make sure somebody had mentioned this. It's on the other side of the country and the ocean in question is the Pacific, not the Atlantic.
They did a really good job with the location design. I'm from that area of Washington, and it is done so well! I felt right at home, which just heightened the horror of this game later.
This game is the epitomy of gothic ambience and themes. The fears of death and the fearlessness of living, the coping, the grief... Gosh, i love it so much. It's such a cautionary tale about how we deal with our grief and how we view death and loved ones passing
@@anubis7457 and why did she eat those berries, food that was meant for her pet, and an entire tube of toothpaste? she was starving. While yes, starving wasn't what killed her, the comment is still technically correct in saying she was starved to death. She was starved, and that led to her death.
I honestly doubt the story is that she starved to death and I don’t think it was poison either I think it’s something darker like her choking on her vomit from eating bad food something that wouldn’t kill her
Lewis has always been my favorite, as someone who struggles w maladaptive daydreaming disorder. That feeling of slipping from reality and being engulfed into your mind, into your own imagination, it’s debilitating, but it’s oh so satisfying. You want to stay there forever. The real world is so mundane but at the same time so unpredictable. You just want out.
8:30 I don’t know if anyone else has brought this up, but I wonder if Odin’s role in the story is a reference to the mythological Odin’s role in Ragnarok, where he gets a prophecy that leads him to try and stop it in any way possible, but only leading him to create the powerful beings that would lead to destruction
I am so happy you mentioned The Unfinished Swan for Milton’s story. That game is so good, just as good as Edith Finch imho, and it kinda makes Milton’s story my favorite as well.
Finally someone sees Lewis' death the same as I do, a suicide. I've been fighting on this hill since I discovered the game, everyone around me would tell me "Uh no he didn't mean to die, he just bent down because he couldn't tell the difference between dream and reality" FAM. It LITERALLY said he thought the real Lewis was the prince. He wanted rid of the cannery worker. His story has always been my favourite cause I can relate to him, and hearing people telling me I'M the one who misunderstood that story was so frustrating
There's also the fact that the guillotine is to his right, plus he would've had to step onto the belt and stuck his head under the blade; if it really was an accident the guillotine would've been in front of him, not to his side, but it isn't; I'll be honest, I never thought of him having committed suicide because I just thought he was lost in his daydreams, but I think this interpretation makes more sense
@@waddledee8387 you wouldn't believe how much relief I felt watching this part of the video, and reading your comment, at long last I know I'm not crazy 😭
There could be 2 things that happened to Barbra that were realistic and taken from the story: #1 fan turned boyfriend became violent and pushed he over the railing, killing her, like was said OR, more similar to the comic (which is why that one was kept) the bf did try to scare her to get tge scream back, got kicked out, and an obesessed fan in a costume broke in, traumatized her brother, she thought it was her bf again, they got into a struggle, she pushed him through the railing, went to finish him off (or kick him out again), but then she got kidnapped (and murdered after) by a gang of obsessed fans in constumes that came with the guy who broke into the house. It isn't exactly unheard of for people to kidnap and murder former child stars they have a twisted obsession with. The ear in the music box could be a sign that it was done for randsome money too, and the bf being blamed could be due to both the bf and the intruder being in costumes interacting with Barbra before she went missing.
It says this at some point in the game I belive, but Eddie sr. named the cat after Molly (presumably after having read Molly’s diary as it would have been on the bed beside her when she was found dead, which is pretty twisted)
@@pocketfullofbees7071Actually, Dawn was the one to name the cat Molly! Edith comments on this because it was unusual for her mother to pay this kind of homage to their dead family members. Honestly, I think that all these videos about how Edie is the true villain of the game has retroactively made people attribute a lot of events of the story to her... Which makes me a little sad. Watering her character down to just a bad mother takes away from the nuance of the Finches.
Personally one of my favourite little headcanons is that the family "curse" was always characterized by there being only one child of each generation to carry on the bloodline. But if you choose to believe the unfinished swan is, at least to a point, Milton's story, then that means Christopher and Monroe Finch are cousins, not siblings, both alive, symbolizing the break of the curse (That and Edie's, the last person from Sweden, death)
I will honestly never forget playing for the first time. Id been relaxed and sort of confused up until the swing.. The feeling in my gut the higher up we got... The dread and realization of what this game was becoming and what was about to happen.. It always stuck with me.
To me, the curse of the finch family is a mix of vivid imaginations, reckless behaviors and a bit of bad luck. The way they died just all seems to boil down to tragedy and bad life decisions. Molly- Dies via ingesting food she wasn't supposed to. She was hungry enough to eat toothpaste, a contaminated carrot and holly berries (which potentially weren't even organic but were plastic) and I theorize she didn't die on the same day she ate all that stuff, empty stomach plus poisonous foods are bound to cause rapid deterioration of health, she says she ate a bunch of stuff "that night" implying she ate it some time before and could have died from illness and lack of nutrients to combat the potential poisoning she gave herself a day or so later. Calvin- Dies from swinging around a rickety branch. He was lucky the branch his swing was on could hold his weight to begin with but we can see he's a reckless child even before his death due to the cast and black eye. He had no business even being by that cliff but due to his parent's horrible planning, he flew right over the equally crudely made fence and plummeted to his death. Barbara- One who wasn't offed by her own bad decisions but her ending still came from her parent's poor choices, turning their daughter into a child star and then just leaving her and her brother alone in their house with Barbara's boyfriend (who already sounds like he was only dating her for her status). Like Wave said, odds are the bf killed her. I think they got into a spat, he pushed her through the railing and she died, her ear was severed in the fall onto the glass and in a panic the bf got some of his friends (the monsters) to help him dump her body somewhere, not realizing they left the ear. Walter- Dies by walking on train tracks...pretty self explanatory how horrible of an idea that was. He may not have realized that the sound was a train going over his head, but when he disappeared surely he had to know what a train was? Did he not think being on tracks was dangerous? Or perhaps the train wasn't there when he went into hiding and only showed up soon after. Even so, tracks plus loud train rumbling should mean a working train system and that in turn should mean, DON'T STAND ON THE TRACKS. Sam- A skilled hunter who...didn't check to make sure the animal his daughter shot was dead? I get he was excited for Dawn's first kill (so much so he just ignores his daughter's distress...way to pull a Edie there Sam) but what if Dawn had been up there by herself after it came to? She could have been killed instead, showing even more reckless parents potentially effecting their kids. Thankfully Dawn wasn't directly hurt by Sam's awful choices (unlike her brother Gus and ya know...Sam himself) but even putting her in that situation shows he's very similar to his mother in lack of awareness and hindsight to keep their kids safe. Gregory- Literally a baby, he didn't know any better when he accidentally drowned himself. But you know who should of known better? His mother, Kay. She, just like her ex-husband, was incompetent and reckless with the life of her barely year old son. Everyone knows you NEVER leave an infant in a tub of water alone. Worst of all when we first saw through Gregory's eyes, she had the tub's door closed with him in there BY HIMSELF. Sam may try to ease her guilt and say she wasn't to blame but she absolutely was for what happened to that baby. She not only left him in the tub once, but three damn times. Idc if a hurricane is about to hit the house, you never leave a baby in a tub with any amount of water, they can and will drown. She could have and should have let that phone ring, period. Gus- A death that was actually the consequences of Sam's awful parenting. Simply, Gus should have been inside with the others...when the storm hit, Sam left his child outside in high winds with objects that can easily be swept away in a storm. Sam cared so little about his son that he let him stay outside in that weather, drowned the sounds out with music and didn't even notice he was gone until they no doubt found his body either in the ocean or crushed under the totem pole. Sam's neglect killed Gus and Gus' poor decision to stay out in the storm killed himself. Milton- Managed to seemingly escape with his life, unsure if he ran away or did just get sent to another realm but I hope he's doing okay. Lewis- Took himself out, perhaps he did it on purpose to escape or perhaps he was so far deep in his imagination he truly didn't know where he was or what he was doing when he put his head into the guillotine. It's hard to say if being forced to be sober is was set him off, or he was just extremely suicidal since the start and used snoops smoke stick to get through it all, realized it wasn't healthy and got therapy but I think Dawn was the one who made him get sober and go to therapy. Despite her best efforts to break the cycle, she couldn't save Lewis even though she, unlike the parents before her, tried to see her son's pain and help him heal from it. Dawn- Another of the finches who was taken via circumstances and not so much bad parenting or luck or recklessness. Dawn just died of sickness, nothing could be done about it. Edie Sr.- Reckless mixing of her meds and alcohol or just old age taking her, yet I do find it strange she died literally the night her daughter and granddaughter left. It's hard to say what killed Edie for all we knew it could have been heartbreak after realizing she chased away the last of her family but who is to really say. Edith- Let's see, besides her just reckless behavior all throughout the game, climbing on branches that may not support her weight, going into an old house that may or may not have mold due to most of the food and drinks being out for years after her great-grandmother died, oh and of course getting pregnant at 17...Edith, while not nearly as bad as some on the finches on this list, truly continued to cycle of bad choice after bad choice. It's safe to assume the death of Dawn is what caused Edith to look for comfort in another, unfortunately that lead to her falling pregnant at too young of an age which caused her untimely death in child birth. Legit showing that even after everything the finches main problem is horrible decision making that leads to someone's death, either their own or one of their loved ones. And we see with Christopher, he's also showing the Finch signature, he's already got a cast on his hand, implying he's already hurt himself doing god knows what. What reminds of Edith Finch, is a game I adore so much and keep replaying over and over it's so good. I just can't help but to feel the curse is just a bunch of really dumb choices that killed off this family, knowing some of them may have lived to have kids of their own had the others around them (mainly their parents) not dropped the ball and allowed for half of the things that happened to happen. Had they not built a swing literally kissing the edge of a cliff, Calvin would still be around, had Edie not starved Molly, she'd never have been poisoned, had Sam not been so careless he would have been there to see his son and daughter grow up. All these deaths and more could have been avoided had they just been more careful, more self aware, less callous with the lives of their loved ones. Truly a heartbreaking game.
You know I didn't even think of Barbara's ear potentially being sliced off by the glass table but it does make a lot of sense. I sincerely doubt she was killed by cannibalistic serial killers
Yeah, a lot of the people, if not all of them, who are scared of the curse, eventually stop being scared, making them lose all sense of fear surrounding death. That will make a person reckless
The thing about Walter is that the train wasn't supposed to be here. The noise stopped for a week, the train should have been gone. He had no reason to be worried about it that's why he even left in the first place.
There is so much attention to detal: Lewis' portrait is the only unfinished one, because Edie (which was the one that made them) died before she could finish it Like it's so morbid when you think about it but so cool at the same time
I replayed the game yesterday, and it occurred to me just how little we know about certain characters. Gus for instance is NEVER mentioned until his death. What were his hobbies, his interests? Did he have any fears? We don't know. There's a few hints, but that's it. He's just "the kid that died by flying his kite". Or how the pet cemetery has graves for several pets, including DOGS. Dogs lived in that house at one point? When? We never even see a food bowl or a water dish! The only time we hear about a character is when they've died, and that's just so GRIM. We don't even know much Edith and what she was like. Apparently she really liked writing, drawing and crafting, but we only piece that together from context clues. Like... damn.
Holy crap. Lewis’s story is absolutely brilliant. This whole story and game is really well done but that is definitely my favorite story. That something I think a lot of people can relate to.
Bird at the end looks like a crane to me. Or a stork, which does feature heavily in old cartoons, like Disney's Dumbo, and is associated with family, a recurring theme in giant sparrow's games
Looking back you can see that a lot of these deaths were preventable. Also that the grandma had a part to play in all of them. It seems the mum knew what was going on and that’s why she left because of how the grandma made these deaths seem whimsical when some of these were due to neglect and were preventable
Something that strikes me about this game is the avoidance of moving on. Building so many memorials and continuing to live there is not moving on. Conversely, burying the past completely is not moving on. The Finches take two different stances on the past, but there needs to be a middle ground. I think Edith is doing the right thing by telling the stories, and not having her child grow up in that house. They're going to visit, yes, but the important thing is they can leave. They can move on. I think that's important. Facing the past while still walking toward the future, and accepting that there was nothing to be done.
It's been so long I was waiting for someone to actually take a deep dive and appreciate all the secrets and intricacies of this wonderfully written game I literally jumped of excitement out of this, and adding as a bonus that it was made by you makes me even happier because I know I won't be disappointed, thank you 💖
So I played this game for the first time while I was really high and it was truly life changing. I remember getting really genuinely scared going through Molly's story. And with Lewis it was just so deeply immersive and I felt like I was really in his headspace playing it. I still stand by when I said that Lewis's segment was the most interesting gameplay mechanic I've ever seen. It's truly an amazing game.
@@silentskyrimMe neither but this game was so compelling I would have still played it in one go even if it had been twice as long, which I wish it had been.
And Edith’s dad died too, it was mentioned that just marrying into the family can be a death sentence. I don’t know about Dawns step mom but Kay left the family so it seems denouncing the family name might be a solution of sorts
Honestly I think one theory about Lewis but more prominently Milton would make sense, the schizophrenia theory, its pretty self explanatory but the theory goes like this: Milton always struggled with undiagnosed schizophrenia, but one day he had a particularly bad episode, and wandered into the forest, never to be seen again, there is evidence in this in Lewis's story, and i feel like it would just make sense, aside from the aspects of "wouldn't someone find him?"
He could have wandered off too far. Or he could have seen his family as a threat due to these episodes and hidden. Schizophrenia based on believing in the curse and thinking escaping his family would get rid of it.
This game was so beautiful and melancholic, and it astounds me that I would've missed out on this if it weren't for this video. Thank you for this! And I hope the next game by Sparrow will be a hit since they really do deserve it. Can't wait for their next game. ❤
Yeah, this game is a really interesting experience despite its fundamentally sad and depressing premise. The fishery sequence actually hit me surprisingly hard considering I've daydreamed that hard too, ADHD and depression being a hell of a combination when it comes to escapism, and I'm always afraid of something like that happening because I'm not paying attention. If you haven't played it, Everybody's Gone To The Rapture might be something you'd enjoy exploring. Only downside is it has a pretty slow walking speed but that can be fixed via mods on PC I'm sure. Also, just because I was impressed with the performance of it, the game has a really good Nintendo Switch port. There's a few blurry moments but it runs pretty well and is almost native resolution for the majority of the time.
I loved this game and I'm so glad you covered it. I've always had a fear of death so when I watched a lets play of this game idk it made me kinda accept it. It's a beautifully structured story that is so bittersweet but hopeful. Also LOVE your commentary vids~
I think it's interesting that Milton was the only Finch to run away not out of fear, but curiosity. Because fear and recklessness didn't follow him, Milton is quite possibly alive and escaped the family curse of paranoia.
It always struck me as eerie how all these rooms that hadn’t been touched in decades were perfect and free of dust/cobwebs/disrepair. But then, when you realize Edith is writing the details down for her son, it adds another layer of removal from the truth.
I think that Edie is the main cause of the family deaths. because she let things let those things happen it first started with her sending molly to her room without dinner. Plus don't you think it's weird that she was the only one who made it to their 90s? Because Odin died in his 50s at 57, Molly died at 10, Barbra at 16, Calvin at 11, Sam at 33, Walter at 53, Gus at 12, Gregory at 1, Lewis at 22, Edith died at 17 about to be 18 and we don't know about Milton. did anyone else notice this?
I do NOT regret buying WROEF; it’s a sad yet enlightening story, which makes you grieve for the lost finches and learning their stories as a way to carry their memory
It took me a few play throughs for it to really click for me, that the reason the comic book has so many accurate details like what the house looks like and the music box, is because Edie probably gave an interview or even a press tour
You're right omg It would totally make sense, given the fact that she'd also been in the newspaper when Sven was crushed by the slide so I wouldn't put it behind her. Also her keeping the comic book out of all other ways to tell the story of Barbara's death makes total sense as well since she chose to also give the story that Sven was killed by a dragon, and not crushed by a slide themed after one. It's like she uses the stories as a form of escapism from all of the deaths she's witnessed
I think that Edie always knew everyone would die. That's why she twisted the stories. She wanted her family to be remembered even after they were gone. But hey! That's just a theory.
As someone who has dealt with maladaptive behaviours since I was a child. I really appreciate how it’s not demonized. It’s something I would rely on to get through the day. I have huge gaps in my life because I would imagine a better version of myself. Even simple tasks could be the same but I look different. I’ll only come out when the schedule has ended.
Ive been avoiding this video because i couldnt handle seeing Lewis's story again. Playing through the game, i got to that point and it was like seeing myself, it was surreal. Same age, same kind of job (repetitive blue collar), the marijuana addiction, the maladaptive daydreaming, and the suicidal ideation. It kind of woke me up, and it kind of killed me. I saw what i would end up like, i saw my future and it destroyed me, i was afraid. Ive recently been working to be sober. Im not entirely there yet and i still struggle sometimes, i still fall into the daydreams that hurt me once i wake up. But im moving on amd i can feel it. Im moving out next week and it feels like a huge step towards my future. This game is a beautiful work of art, and Lewis's story i can say has helped me immensely. I am thankful for this story, and thank you for this video.
A bit late to reply, but I just wanted to say that I relayed a lot to Lewis too. Mostly I wanted to say good luck with getting sober! You can do it, I believe in you!
A funny detail about Odin's story is that his destination of Orcas Island is on the pacific coast of america, almost the exact opposite end of the world from sweden. He would've needed to cross several oceans over potentially years, all just for his vessel to sink right at the finish line.
1:27:10 I think I know how Edith died. She was on oxygen. If they cut power on the night they left, her oxygen machine would have failed and she would have died. It fits with the clues, the power being cut, the oxygen device in the dining room, and her death that night.
My version of events for Barbara is that she tripped and went through the railing of her own accord. No one actually shoved her. Walter was asleep in bed, only awaking at the crash of his sister smashing her face into the coffee table. He saw absolutely nothing except for her lifeless body. It fits neatly with all the real world evidence and ignoring the obviously sensationalized comic book, which might have been influenced by bad media coverage at the time. The music box not being confiscated, the broken railing, the fact Walter says "Whatever killed Barbara." meaning he probably doesn't actually know her COD, and the real lack of evidence of any murder taking place. She likely was leaving Walter's room after tucking him into bed to go downstairs and relax when she fell.
I honestly find Lewis' passing as exceptionally relatable. I have smaller signs of maladaptive daydreams (I call them hallucinatory daydreams personally). And it also lends itself into sleep addiction and a lot of other issues, including the severe dissociative episode we see from Lewis. But it does feel a lot like that - ahh, small daydream. Monotony. "Okay well I can autopilot this stuff, so let go into the daydream" And it does become an overwhelming situation. Luckily I can usually catch it, or have almost hypnogogic jerks (I'll respond to the daydream physically, say I daydream a fight, I'll wake up because my arm jerked to reel for a punch) It's... honestly a bit scary, because with how it ties in to a dissociative disorder, I often find I've blanked out a lot of stuff. (Say, I'll have walked a mile past my destination and have 0 recollection of what happened during the walk) But it's the one that *REALLY* stuck out to me. Including Molly, who was absolutely being neglected, and on a regular basis, it feels.
seeing people still talk about this game makes me incredibly happy, it’s really one of my all time favorite games-the storytelling is both devastating and interesting all at once.
You know what always made me super sad and ended up being really morbid when I ended up thinking about it about Gregory‘s death babies I don’t know for how long maybe it’s a case by a case but babies when they’re put in water and they go under they instinctively hold their breath until a certain age, where they kinda unlearn it, and they have to relearn it when they’re older so we’ll never know but you can only imagine with that context how long was Kay in the other room arguing with Sam, how long did it take for the poor baby to drown because they can only hold their breath for so long but how long did it actually take and it just the long you think about it this Saturday Isbecause he didn’t know any better and it’s just sad
I remember seeing a video about this game a long time ago that went over each of the stories and proposed the idea that edie was the villain of the finchs stories since it seems like alot of the deaths were caused by these stories being told and almost glorified
I didn't like that theory very much because it seemed to blame the family even though a few deaths were completely out of their control. Even when the mom blamed the grandmother and left it didn't stop her or her daughter from dying young. It just seemed to me that they both had different coping methods for the tragedies around them but now everyone just talks about how it's the grandma's fault even though we're told the family misfortune was happening before she was in charge and continued to happen after she died.
@@blissfulrain The family is famous for this bad luck. It means the stories themselves aren't solely with Grandma. They started with whoever told her all about them. And then whoever told that family member about them, etc. until we reach whoever decided it was a good idea to first start telling all their relatives about how they all will die young. Edie was just the one who was keeping it up in the present day instead of breaking the cycle. And the mom and daughter leaving doesn't mean it stopped the obsessing about it. They had already been influenced by her by the time they left - being tired of hearing about it doesn't mean you will forget about it all. It's a story about generational trauma. Trauma doesn't vanish just because you leave the immediate source of it.
@@prettyevil6662000 However, Edith Finch (The main character) Didn't die due to a story -- she died in childbirth. There's no way the story could cause the death. She just got pregnant and her body was unable to go through with the birth.
Oh Lewis… I have ADHD and get lost in my mind far too often. Living with anxiety and depression makes it hard to tolerate reality so isolation and daydreaming is preferred. I have a character in my mind that’s always been with me that I wish so much to be but reality has it’s limitations. I can’t be her but I am her to an extent. If I were stuck in a factory like that I’d probably be in the same shoes. The boredom would drive me insane alone.
i seriously did not expect this story to have the effect on me that it did, i am 20 minutes in with tears in my eyes. the pure shock i felt hearing this little girl read out the line “i will be delicious” was truly inexplicably chilling. what an interestingly heartbreaking story this is. truly amazing..
The first time I played Lewis’s story I had to take a break before I could continue. You really know this game is art when it makes people stop so they can think about things. I love this game, probably in my top 5 video games I’ve played.
What Remains of Edith Finch is one of my favorite games of all time. This is story telling on such a grade A level imo - making you basically participate in the deaths of all of your family members in these unique, fantastical ways, symbolically explaining what actually happened to all of these poor people. The grandmother being slowly revealed as such a toxic person is also a good touch
Not many games have managed to hold such a lasting impact on me like What Remains of Edith Finch. For years I have found myself going through the story again and again. It’s a game unlike any other I’d seen before. I have always been one to get lost in stories, of far away places, full of magic and wonder. That has continued with me to adulthood and I resonate with it in this game, learning about my own family history, the sadness and joy of my relatives’ lives, all of the stories that have been passed down and of trying to think of the best way of passing those stories down to my children if I ever have any. Life is hard, the mundane things can eat away at you, the stress and the fear of the unknown that lies ahead can feel like a black hole that’s come to swallow you whole but I try to live life, quite similarly to how Edith said with wonder and the amazing fact of knowing that I’ve gotten to have this life even with all of its up and downs.
What Remains of Edith Finch was one of my favorite games for such a long time and I still love it even now. It’s gorgeous; it’s tragic and melancholy. The slow realization both Edith and the player come to over time is heartbreaking. The writers of this game did such an amazing job.
55:47 "and Barbara's because it reveals the hidden key" Me who always explores every inch of the areas of a game and discovered the music box key before I played out ANY of the stories:
I watched a play through of What remains of Edith Finch when I was in grade 7 and even now in my first year of university it is still probably my favourite game. I’ve been looking for something like it since I found it and haven’t found anything that does quite what it does. Love your channel and im excited to watch this video!
So I really love this game. It's been a game I've held dear to me since first seeing it and I'm so happy that you've covered it and the analysis you made is just wonderful but I can't help but love one part more than the rest. Your theory for Milton is just amazing. Most people who talk about this game tend to brush off the Unfinished Swan or say that tying to What Remains of Edith Finch just ruins his story but I love that you put them together and gave Milton a happier ending. One where maybe he was able to escape and live a free, more joy filled life. A great take and even greater video.
The first time I played this I missed Gus' story, and I was going through it and was like "I wonder when we will see Gus?" And when I was done, I had thought "oh they must have not made it and just wanted to show another family member. I was so shocked when I found it.
I feel like Walter was responsible for Barbara’s death. She tried to scare Barbara which made her slipped through the rails, and that made Walter hide under his bed. Maybe that explains the ear part on the music box plus finding the key in it to Walter’s place. Maybe it symbolizes “Who Barbara heard last and the key to Barbara’s death” is Walter. When he said, “Whatever killed Barabara” is just like him dis social himself because he believes that it was an accident. I feel like Walter is the biggest fan of Barbara, and while it was well intentioned jump scare, it led somewhere he didn’t wish to happen at all. I think the guilt ate him up that’s why he couldn’t go out at all.
54:30 I swear everytime i hear this story or remember it i start to feel a nasty, quite disgusting feeling in my stomach, it aches my heart so bad, he was only one years old, a happy little baby with nothing to worry about, and he dies in such a painful slow cruel death, this game is one of my least and favorite games because of the way it makes you feel, the many cruel and unfortunate ways those poor people get to die ranging from a 10 year old girl who poisons herself unintentionally to a 1 year old little baby drowning in the warm and clean supposedly comforting water, its so tragic and painful you can't help but be surprised and amused by it
An interesting take on the story that some people believe is that Edie is the true villain of the story. Though some of the deaths have to be blamed on purely tragic accidents, others could have been easily avoided. For instance, Calvin’s death was preventable and Molly’s death was neglect. Another clue to this theory are the books in Edie’s room titled “Molly Concepts” and “Barbara Concepts”, seemingly showing that Edie was more obsessed with the fame and stories surrounding the family curse than the actual tragedies they were. Once Edith and Dawn left the household, they died natural (still unlucky) deaths. The seemingly impossible deaths just seem to follow Edie around. As Matpat says, “At best she was a terrible mother, at worst she actively murdering her children for a chance in the spotlight.”
Quest reward:
*_Depression_*
It reminds me of the creator of final fantasy’s favorite final fantasy game, I forgot the number but it’s the one that covers death and ways people handle it, it’s a lot about existentialism and acceptance of said existentialism and how as much as we’d like, the fact we aren’t in control makes us just as human as the control we exert.
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Oh
A bit like Disco Elysium 🕺
The real curse is the generational trauma we suffered and perpetuated along the way
I heard someone interpretating it like the curse was the feat of dead (i know these seems wrong with sam's twin but theres an actual explanation, he being afraid of any day being his last)
Truly inspirational ☺
Yep
The real generational curse is the friends we made along the way
Yay varily
I love how in the game there’s a slow realization that the grandma had a small part in every single death because of her paranoia over the family curse. It was quite insidious
I didn't get the impression that she was paranoid, it felt more like she used the curse as a way to profit off of her family's deaths. Think about it she's lived longer than anyone else in her family and she actively wants everyone to know her family dies a lot but always makes their deaths out to be extraordinary or fantastical her husband, for example, was crushed by a fake dragon but she said he died fighting a dragon. Edith's mother must have realized this because she kept on trying to tell her mother to just clean the dead kids rooms instead of turning them into what are essentially tourist attractions with props and a story of how each of the kids died and to stop expanding the house to the point where just living there is a hazard, and out of the entire family the ones who live the longest are the ones that stayed away from grandma Edith and grandma Edith herself. Grandma Edith selling the stories was also something that lead me to believe she was just fantasizing and intentionally making the house hazardous to make more money.
@@demothiguillermo2059 FR.... Realizing that Barbara's comic talks specifically about the music box and how it works means that someone in the family provided information for the retelling of this poor girl's death hurt me. If there's any bad thing haunting the family its the stories that old lady told.
it's more like Edie is the OG clout chaser lavishing in her family's deaths since they'll be featured on the papers like going viral back in the day
@@spooked1938 There's also the fact that she tells the newspaper that she's not going to evacuate when a forest fire happens near the house, along with the story of the mole people living underneath her house, which is of course just her traumatized son, Walter
@@thunderbird3304 yes! Like other people have mentioned, she sensationalizes her relatives DEATHS more than their life. Barbara is shown holding a crutch in many occasions...a crutch that didn't even belong to her but that was linked to her death. In her memorial portrait, on the totem pole, heck there's even one in her room iirc. There's a crown placed on Lewis's grave, a swing on Calvin's totem pole section. Not to mention the embellishing of the two examples you brought up with sven and Walter. Honestly kinda gross that she was so focused on their deaths as opposed to their lives...
I have always believed that the curse was mostly bad parenting habits passed down. But no one wanted to admit it because that's how they were raised. It's super common with the older generation. The addition of some bad luck and grief made it all look like a curse
The biggest thing is that they let the one year old drown. It's the reason I haven't actually played the game. I think that Edith Sr. Was a bad person too obsessed with the curse to actually care about anything else.
That was on the babies parents, neither of which was Edith Sr.@@MysticMorigan1998
@@MysticMorigan1998Game Theory:The Curse Is A Lie(What Remains Of Edith Finch)
@@MysticMorigan1998the one year old was an accident though wasn’t it? She drained the water didn’t she?
@@nikoaugustine5415 she thought she drained the water but she still left a baby alone in the tub. They can accidentally turn the water on, climb adnd fall etc.
One of the horrifying things about these deaths is thinking about the aftermath; a little boy who flew off a cliff, a little girl who died to poisoning, a teenager probably killed by her boyfriend during an argument; imagine the people who found them.
A drowning baby, a dude that splattered all over a train.
@@ChangedMyNameFinally69A man who's head was cut off.
@@voicetale Though I always found that one hard to believe, he probably got his major arteries and brainstem cut into though
@@ChangedMyNameFinally69imagine the cutting sensor going off over and over
@@elephorofonius I feel the blade would get stuck in his neck considering how strong human spines are.
I fully believe Rick, being Barbara's biggest fan, genuinely wanted to hear her scream or just tried to scare her because it was Halloween. Walter probably saw Rick in the costume and thought it was a real monster (since Walter was a little kid) and ran to hide. Rick probably did scare Barbara, and she accidentally fell off of the railing, killing her. Rick ran away because he didnt want people to think he purposefully killed her, and Walter became convinced that a real monster killed his sister. A simple, unfortunate Halloween accident that was dramatised for a comic.
I never thought of that. That's actually a pretty good depiction of what may have occured
I think she may have been killed by an obsessed fan that followed her home after the convention.
@@melinadlugaygonzalez9288 I believe that the convention was cancelled because of her father being injured, so there's no way a fan could've followed her home from it. It could be that an obsessed fan did hunt her down, but I can't see someone who likes her killing her...not on purpose, at least.
The story that makes the most sense to me is that there were masked bandits who broke into their home, killed Barbara and attempted to kill Walter. I think this is also made very clear by the fact that sometime in the comic the radio went off saying that there were masked bandits in the area and it told people to be cautious. That easily explains what happened to Barbara, and possibly explains what happened to Rick. It also is a good explanation for Walter's fear of "monsters." His paranoia seems to have convinced him that its also what killed his other siblings, Molly and Calvin.
@@JackHallowLantern Actually, obsessed fans will do anything to the stars they like if they feel like they were wrong.
Something I noticed while watching this video was how even with all the death surrounding the Finches. One of each generation is left alive to continue the bloodline. Basically, no matter how many family members die, the Finch bloodline will continue. Meaning that even though Edith only had one child before her death, the future is looking hopeful for that kid.
Maybe it would be better if the bloodline dies out though
Sorry what’s hopeful about that?
@@monmondi4259 Maybe they can keep their kids away from the family so they don't end up dying. Who knows because Dawn and Edith died away from the house. But maybe they were already doomed.
Well yes, but no. If what happened in the Last Swing is exactly what happened to Milton after he ran away, then there are 2 finches remaining ("The King" had a son and died 9 years later), so one of them will die young.
Well, hopeful until he has a kid at least. Seems like the solution to this story is to be asexual?
What always struck me was that Edith was still a child. The face slap at the end where we see her grave and she passed just a month before her 18th birthday is still such a shock to me. And from the looks, her child is probably around the same age or younger. This is still one of my favorite games to hear about and I love hearing other people's interpretations of everything. It still makes me cry. I can't wait for the next game the developers create. So far they've been fantastic stories.
it makes the mystery of who the childs father is and the circumstances of his birth yet another mystery. If Edith was going to the house alone, putting herself in risky situations while 22 months pregnant (as she herself states) I'd guess, very rightfully true, that it wasn't a planned pregnancy with a partner who would be there for the child and her. I could, in completely honesty, see her going here in a weird state of depression, feeling that if something were to happy, it were to happen. She wanted to preserve her families tragic story even if that meant ending it for both her and her child. Instead, she survived walking over the tree and everything else in the house, and even though she died young in childbirth, her son will still know about her, and the rest of his family
the ear in the music box imagery might be a hint towards walter not being involved at all in her death, but still hearing everything go down, and how that trauma and survivor's guilt sticks with him. just like he was hiding under his bed, the ear was hiding in the music box, which is an auditory toy, so i think its meant to parallel their relationship. he's used to hearing her scream as a performance, like a music box's tune, so he might not think anything bad really happened when he hears her screaming for real, but little did he know his sister is dead. like the comic, he has no way of knowing if someone pushed her or if she fell, but if he had done something he might have at least been able to stop it.
This is a good ass theory
Props to you!!!
@@mckenziemiracle9467 thanks :D
I *LOVE* THIS THEORY!!!
@@Kelaiah01 thanks!! walter's trauma is the most interesting part of this game imo
@@2cat4life Welcome, and yeah, you have a good point.
Something that wasn't mentioned is the fact that Barbara's mother collaborated in writting the story of the comic. She wanted to push the narrative of the curse to everyone that will read the comic, the same way she did on every child in the family. She glamorizes their deaths and presents them as stories rather than the tragedies they actually are. Another thing that showsthis is the fact when Sven died in the paper,by her request, the headline was "Sven Finch killed by a dragon" rather than specifying it was a slide that collapsed in him.
😅😮😮😅 to
And she has people calling Walter a freaking mole man, knowing damn well that's her mentally ill, agoraphobic son
I wonder if it was to cope.
There's a great TH-cam vid called "the real villain of Edith Finch" which suggests that older Edie was the root of all problems - poor ol gal 😔
@@cleeks5549 Was it made by MatPat? If so, I have seen it.
"Oh no me family is cursed. Let's live on a cliff, build our continuously growing house near the edge of it, close to live train tracks and also furnish the outside with equipment our daredevilish children can play on."
"Let's also let foxglove, a toxic plant, grow wild all around said precarious home! I'm sure nothing bad will come of this! Damn curse tho..."
@@JackHallowLantern "And we should make sure we don't accidentally build the railing of the stairs with really weak wood! That would be horrible."
@@L3meon_z3st "Even though I married into a family known for unfortunate deaths, I am going to leave my infant son alone in the bath with the plug in!"
@@destroyerofeps2714 "Let's leave poisonous hollyberries in the room of our starving child, it's not like they'll be desperate enough to eat them!"
@@elisaguab5573 “Let’s put a swing right here on the edge of this cliff overlooking the rocky ocean shoreline! if we put a rickety *sharp* wooden fence in front of it that’s much shorter than the actual swing i’m sure it’ll be fine!!!”
What Remains of Edith Finch is one of my favorite games of all time! The artistic way they tell each person's story makes this game such a unique experience
It's so good! I can't wait to see what the studio's next project is, imagine what this studio can do with 2023 graphics if Edith Finch is the quality they were producing 6 years ago
I understand Sam's desire to ease Kay of the blame for Gregory's death, but he was no way he could've known his wife would be so careless with a baby. All she had to do was not pick up the phone if she didn't want to talk to Sam in the first place
She didn’t even have to do that. She could’ve pulled the plug up and then answered the phone. Instead of dead stopping in her tracks and turning around, carried on with the motion she was already doing.
@@aduckofsomesort The story is told from the perspective of Sam, so the visual of Kay stopping after hearing the phone ringing is likely just symbolism from his own perceived guilt. For all we know, Kay could've drowned the baby herself and then blamed him for it because of the phone call(unlikely).
I haven't played the game in a while but didn't she pause the call to pull the plug out? It just so happened that the baby got the plug back in the drain and managed to turn the tap on again, never underestimate the ability babies have to mimic those around them. Or find a way to put these into mortal danger. The mother should taken the baby out of the tub completely but didn't think he was in any danger because she drained the tub.
@@lozzipop4025 Yes, but at first she intentionally leaves the baby in there alone with the water, which is where you first understand what is going to happen. The mom eventually coming back to drain the water instills this huge wave of relief while you play it, even though you know how every story ends, because in your mind now, at least it's not watching a baby drown due to negligence. And then he turns the tap back on, and the dread crashes back in. An emotional rollercoaster. We don't actually know for certain if these details are how it really went down, though.
She’s a single mother during a divorce.
I’m saying it as a feminist: usually women get temporarily (!) “dumber” after giving birth and taking care of a child. Because their hormones are messed up and they are tired from not sleeping properly. Also producing milk takes a lot of energy and vitamins right out of women body. So it’s harder for them to needs to work properly.
Now add to that the fact that her husband is divorcing her and they are constantly arguing. Aka additional stress to already exhausted body.
It wasn’t his fault he called. But it maybe wasn’t even her fault she forgot to unplug the drain.
Her baby is able to sit up so he probably was 3 months old or older. So his mother probably still didn’t fully recovered from childbirth and taking care of small child alone is still exhausting.
I love that the right side of the controller is used for work and the left for imagination. A subtle nod to the left and right side of the brain and how they work.
it's the opposite but ye that was nice
The "left side/right side" brain theory has been debunked for ages by neurologists
That's not how the left and right sides of the brain work, that's a complete myth.
@@smithbob2168i noticed that! maybe it’s because he’s almost having an out of body experience, and when you look at someone, the sides are switched for you.
@@smithbob2168 the left sphere controls right side of the body when the right sphere controls left side of the body. Right sphere is about imagination, left sphere is more about tangible processes.
The kid at the end is clearly as "cursed" as the rest of the family. This curse appears to be a mix between intense creativity and daring that often leads to disaster, alongside the typical bad luck. At the end, the kid has a broken arm, which almost certainly comes from him doing something risky.
I dont think so. There are many ways you can break your bones, not only because you were being reckless (for example i broke my arm because i slipped when i was walking).
The curse was an obsession with preventing it from happening, therefore making it happen
@@ALIEN-DUDE I'd say it's all of these things. Generational trauma can not only be passed down by bad/traumatized parenting and upbringing, but genes. The intensive imagination and risk-taking behavior could be genetically passed down, maybe even through something like ADHD, or it could be trauma responses, or most likely, both. The obsessive and anxious behaviors are easily caused by the upbringing and knowledge of the curse, but also likely again genetic as well considering these behaviors impact the physical brain and do pass on genetically even if the original source wasn't. The identification of the cause of the "curse" is essentially a "did the chicken or the egg come first?" dilemma; their genetics, or the things that happens to them? At this point, it's both, but considering the "curse" is 500 years old, we don't really know how it started.
@DUDEThe curse was the belief in the curse itself, thus relieving everyone of responsibility for each death. The vast majority of these deaths were preventable, but it is easier to be flippant and believe your family is the target of a curse rather than acknowledging you're being reckless. Since there is a curse, nobody has to change or be better.
There's a thing in China where the number 4 is associated with death. On the 4th day of each month, you are statistically more likely to die in China. Despite this "curse", every other culture is doing fine on their 4ths. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Tiny things lead people to die more frequently because they already believe it's a cursed day, so why bother preparing or behaving normally? The stress in itself could be killing them, or the anxiety leading them to dangerous decisions.
Neglect killed most of these people, but it's easier to say a curse did than the fact you neglected to feed a child, or put a swing in a safer area, or professionally help a traumatized child after they nearly witnessed the death of their sister. It's a miracle the damn house didn't kill anyone with its shoddy construction, more proof of the grandparents' neglecting safety. Edie was a terrible grandma more obsessed with immortalizing death than nurturing life.
@@o.neutronstar.o many of the characters have injuries that came from recklessness. For Calvin you can see that his leg is in a cast when he's on the swing. With how hopeful the ending is, I think I want to agree with you, that it's just a coincidence. Maybe recklessness is in a gene that runs in the family, but whoever is taking care of Chris made sure he grows up in a safe place where he's able to make mistakes without consequences that are too severe, which is the mistake the finches made.
i have been calling this channel water dave for too long , i need glasses
It might be time to change the channel name. Water dave sounds better
Mood
Dave is a hydrated boy ❤
I thought so too
Whoa I thought it was water Dave also UNTIL I just read your comment and looked at the name of the Chanel again!!!
I love your guess on the true story of Milton as it feels so right. I like the idea of him running away because we can assume he's the one who drew the flipbook. He saw his leaving of the Finch family as a new beginning. He wasn't scared. He accepted the past with a bow and closed the door to bright things ahead. It makes a lot of sense. And then Edie can take the flipbook he made and the drawings in the passages and simply say he's still here, he's still connected. Just lost in the walls. Ugh I love this game and your breakthrough of it is incredible.
Theres a reddit AMA from 7 years ago on the PS4 subreddit where the studio confirms that Milton is the king in unfinished swan! Its really beautiful the way they put these stories together
@@lauren8152 is there a link to this or something?
The whole "self fulfilling prophecy" hits real hard, stories about bringing on your own demise because you expect it so much you don't try to prevent it, or try to prevent it to crazy degrees.. idk it just hits me. Calvin hit me especially, how he made up his mind to fly just stuck
Lewis story had always stuck to me, ever since I first saw it when the game came out. I was only a teenager and something about the daydreaming and mundane tasks stuck with me. I related to lewis so much. I have maladaptive daydreaming disorder along with some others that don't really make me have a good grip on reality. I actually didn't even know it wasn't normal until i saw this game. To this day i still think about it often, Whenever i see a new doctor or therapist i show them or tell them about the story of lewis finch so they can understand what i feel like
I know you have a disorder, and mean no disrespect to you, but I find myself desperately wanting to escape reality. I often see creatures and figures and hear distinct voices and I can't tell if it's all real or not. But sometimes I don't care. I would stay in my head forever if I could. If I could just disappear from my home and this world I would in a heartbeat.
@@SquishyTheVampire hi if you are having a lot of issues telling ur daydreams from reality, it's time to seek professional help. maladaptive daydreams are often strong and feel real in the moment but once u get out, you normally know that it isn't real. at the end of ur comment u also hint that you may be having thoughts about ending ur life and u want to urge u strongly to find support from anyone (family, friends, teachers, work colleagues, doctors). I know mental health is truly intimidating and often feels really hard to open up about but I wanna make it super clear that so many people will have had similar experiences to you. they won't have the exact same but different people will have different patches of ur experience. ur not alone. 🤍
@FanFav101 Me too!😊
exactly!
@@SquishyTheVampireare you doing any better now? I hope you don’t feel the need to escape constantly. It gets better.
Quick correction about Milton: It was Dawn who insisted on his memorial in the graveyard to not have a death date on it, and insisted on it being a memorial, not a grave like Eddie intended on it being
There is a theory that Molly didn't hallucinate at all, she eat what she did and went to bed, dying in her sleep. It was her mother who wrote all the extra stuff on her diary, to make it all fantastical and her saying " I'll be gone soon" is VERY convenient. It's as if Edie wanted to hide away her child neglect that was the true reason for Molly's death
This seems believable because how on earth is this kids handwriting and spelling so good that young?
@@monoduckit looks about the same as mine did at that age. And it does stay consistent, generally people have a hard time mimicking handwriting
I also saw an idea that she choked to death on her own vomit after getting ill from everything she ate (since it was mentioned in the owl section that she was choking on the rabbit)
To me, when I was first watching this all the way when matpat played the game, I thought her death was her hallucinating and falling out of the window when she started thinking she was animals. I don't think she could have known she was dying, nor could she have written that note so calmly while doing so or in the midst of her hallucinations
Did anyone else notice Molly had spots all over her hands? What if that whole chapter was a measles-induced fever dream?
One detail about Barbara's story is that if you look in Edie's room, you'll drafts for her story. Meaning it was Edie who helped with the comic book in order to get her daughter remembered. A very twisted form of love.
52:32 Sam's death is kinda interesting because it fits in both of the themes of the Finches being bad parents and being reckless.
Generally when hunting, the very first thing a person is supposed to do with their kill is make sure the thing is actually dead. You do not start dressing it, you do not take pictures with it, you do not pass go, you do not collect $200, you do not handle that thing in any way until you're certain that it no longer has the faculties to kick you, bite you, or gore you on its antlers. Sam not only failed to do so, he took his kill to the edge of a cliff. What happened was just one of several ways his actions could've killed him and/or Dawn.
I grew up in southern Texas. A place where hunting season is practically an excused school holiday.
I’m not a hunter, but A LOT of the people I grew up with came from hunting families.
Here are some of the rules:
1) ALWAYS treat a gun as if it’s loaded.
2) DO NOT point a gun at something you don’t FULLY intend to shoot.
3) Make sure the thing is dead before approaching.
Animals can go into shock and essentially ’play possum’ for a bit. It will seem like it’s dead, but it’s not.
Always finish it off. Sounds cruel, but it avoids the hunter getting hurt by a scared and probably pissed animal, and ends the animals suffering.
Sam, as an experienced hunter, should’ve known better. He was lucky it wasn’t DAWN that got hurt or killed as well.
So the same rule of horror stories that Barbara in the comic forgot about.
1:30:25 And a middle ground was exactly the point that needed to be reached. That was the problem with Edie and Dawn - they were on two extreme sides on a spectrum, just Calvin and Walter were.
Edie was obsessed with death and the dead. She made every moment of her life about it, and about fantastical stories and reminiscing. There was no room for reality, or for the present there at all. And Dawn wanted to lock it all away. She wanted it to be unseen, unheard, unspoken of. She never told her children about their grandfather. She didn't leave room for imagination or the past in her life.
Neither of those extremes were good for them or their families, and they both added to the "family curse" in some way, even though neither of them had malicious intent. They were just two people trying to cope with an unimaginable level of loss and grief, and they didn't get it right, because people rarely do.
That's the real tragedy of the Finch family - that none of them ever learned to truly accept and overcome their grief, and that grief kept leading to more grief. An endless cycle that Christopher can only break by coming to terms with his mother's death, and not letting it haunt him.
I've always found it interesting, too, that Dawn wasn't as serious or as detached from the family mythos as it seems like she wanted to think she was.
Edith talks a lot about how her mother was serious and intense, how she boarded up all the doors and didn't like Edie's stories. But she also tells us that Dawn was the one who named their cat Molly, and when Dawn married Sanjay, she kept the Finch surname. She was still deeply attached to her family, still affected by its stories, and just didn't want to face it.
I wonder if Edith became mentally ill from the loss and her mind made up the curse or the ways they died to cope
Nah. Dawn figured out that Edie's romanticizing of the curse was toxic and poisoning the family.
The finches: "Family curse!!"
Me: "family neglect yall. Go to therapy"
They can't go to therapy because their dead
@@MayonnaiseWithoutMayonnaiseghost therapy
The title had me wondering what new game I'd discover today, but as soon as he said "Edith Finch" I was already in tears
I can definitely see where the Mom was coming from, it's not exactly a good idea to always talk about dead relatives and how you're going to die.
the actual most heartbreaking thing for me is the realization that granny saw all of the family members die. Literally she was the oldest of them all and saw all of the young peers dying while she was old and "healthy"
A factoid for you. A lot of medications especially related to blood pressure, do not react well with alcohol at all. Ideally if you're fast the person can be rescued, but Edie was left alone and...well you get it.
So, Edith maybe died from a reaction to the medicine.
@@anonymousanonymous3012 most likely, and she knew it would happen but she did it anyway since she knew after this night nothing would ever be the same again. She more or less took her own life…
I can't help but relate to Dawn and the circumstances that led to her leaving. Already she's had to deal with the death of her husband and child and the disappearance of another, but both her little brothers -one being a baby mind you- died premature and watched her own father fall to his death, so I can see why she fears Edith ending up the same. I would do the exact same in her place, even if it did mean being a little cruel.
I think I like Dawn's view on death a lot more than Edie's. She recognizes that it's unnecessary and even harmful to be so obsessive with family members' death by creating shrines in their rooms and never repurposing them even when its necessary. But Dawn does still honor the dead. We see this in the poem she wrote for Gus, how she considered naming Edith Gus if she were a boy, and that she named her cat Molly. She does think its important to remember and honor the dead, but just not to the obsessive extent that Edie does.
It's been 6 years since Edith Finch came out. It's been 5 years since the day that I first realized that didn't want to die any more.
That cannery scene was terrifying. I hate jump scares and almost didn't play this game for fear of it. The tension in that cannery scene kept building and building and instead of a loud noise or scary image it was just the lockers at the cannery. That was more terrifying than anything I could have seen because that was the moment I realized this story was very similar to my own.
He began to despise [Lewis the cannery worker] with a royal contempt. I recognized that cruelty in myself. That line stuck with me. After that I realized that none of my daydreams were about me. I didn't daydream about how my life could be better because I didn't want to be me. So I made a conscious decision to spend some time imagining how my life might get better. I guess it made a difference.
I hope you are doing much better now 🫂❤️
I am happy you are better
Dude I’m giving you a tight and big hug, F*CKING PROUD!
May life be kind to you, because you will live it full.
If you listen closely, right before Lewis is…’crowned’…the cheers turn into SCREAMS.
It kinda blends into the sound of the blade, but if you listen closely, I think you’ll be able to hear it.
As someone who’s been suicidal, Lewis struck a cord within me. I don’t have substance abuse, but I did escape into my mind a lot too.
I had a very similar experience, and Lewis' story changed my life for the better as well. I cut off maladaptive daydreaming the night I played this game and I haven't let it take over my life since
Cheers to you man, and to this game
I think Walter’s story made me the most sad, because he was talking about everything he hoped to do now that he was free, and then he dies right as he’s about to start living again
to be fair it's a bit of a skill issue not to put two (loud rumbling noise at 12 o' clock every day) and two (train tracks right outside of your bunker) together
This game is the first one that ever made me cry. It holds such a special place in my heart and Edie definitely needed a good ass slap in the face back to reality. This poor family had to deal with so much trauma that could have been avoided all because of her.
walter's death always hit hardest for me because he didn't even have a chance to see what he'd been missing. he was so close to living the life he wanted to live after overcoming his fears and it was violently ripped away from him.
My wife and I had our son six months before I had played this game.
I had just made it to the Gregory portion of the game.
She walked in on me playing, and I was sobbing. Uncontrollable tears. Crying in a way that she had never seen me cry before. She just held me as I sobbed and sobbed, grieving the death of a fictional character, one that I didn’t even know all that well, because it just hit me so incredibly hard.
I love this game. It’s poetic, and beautiful, and does amazing things with the video game genre that I have never seen before, and I never want to play it again.
I was scrolling looking for someone to mention Gregory, I've been around young kids my whole life with my parents running a daycare, and no game has made me cry as hard as his death, it hits home in such a specific way. its so much worse that he has no idea whats going on and thinks he's only having fun with his toys. and yeah. as much as I love this game I never want to play it again,, I fully agree
There are a lot of impactful deaths, but oddly enough, the one that stuck with me was Gus'. Just imagine your teenage son dying on your wedding day. Especially when it could have been EASILY avoided.
Just for more clarification, the Washington they land in is Washington state, not DC. Orcas Island is a small community in the pacific that's only really accessible by ferry.
Yep, hopped in to make sure somebody had mentioned this. It's on the other side of the country and the ocean in question is the Pacific, not the Atlantic.
They did a really good job with the location design. I'm from that area of Washington, and it is done so well! I felt right at home, which just heightened the horror of this game later.
This game is the epitomy of gothic ambience and themes. The fears of death and the fearlessness of living, the coping, the grief... Gosh, i love it so much. It's such a cautionary tale about how we deal with our grief and how we view death and loved ones passing
I can see why you're into Gothic stuff haha
Milton’s story gave me chills for some weird reason. His story just sticks out more to me & the daughter who was starved to death (Molly).
milton is actually the king in the unfinished swan game, he ended up having a family in his new world
@@tristand1031yea we saw the video😭
Molly didn’t starve to death, she was hungry and ate poisonous berries.
@@anubis7457 and why did she eat those berries, food that was meant for her pet, and an entire tube of toothpaste? she was starving. While yes, starving wasn't what killed her, the comment is still technically correct in saying she was starved to death. She was starved, and that led to her death.
I honestly doubt the story is that she starved to death and I don’t think it was poison either I think it’s something darker like her choking on her vomit from eating bad food something that wouldn’t kill her
Lewis has always been my favorite, as someone who struggles w maladaptive daydreaming disorder. That feeling of slipping from reality and being engulfed into your mind, into your own imagination, it’s debilitating, but it’s oh so satisfying. You want to stay there forever. The real world is so mundane but at the same time so unpredictable. You just want out.
8:30 I don’t know if anyone else has brought this up, but I wonder if Odin’s role in the story is a reference to the mythological Odin’s role in Ragnarok, where he gets a prophecy that leads him to try and stop it in any way possible, but only leading him to create the powerful beings that would lead to destruction
Just realized the parallel between The Finches and the Galapagos finches. Very clever...
I am so happy you mentioned The Unfinished Swan for Milton’s story. That game is so good, just as good as Edith Finch imho, and it kinda makes Milton’s story my favorite as well.
It's also kinda essential to understanding Edith Finch. Hoping their next game is part of the same universe somehow
Finally someone sees Lewis' death the same as I do, a suicide. I've been fighting on this hill since I discovered the game, everyone around me would tell me "Uh no he didn't mean to die, he just bent down because he couldn't tell the difference between dream and reality" FAM. It LITERALLY said he thought the real Lewis was the prince. He wanted rid of the cannery worker. His story has always been my favourite cause I can relate to him, and hearing people telling me I'M the one who misunderstood that story was so frustrating
There's also the fact that the guillotine is to his right, plus he would've had to step onto the belt and stuck his head under the blade; if it really was an accident the guillotine would've been in front of him, not to his side, but it isn't; I'll be honest, I never thought of him having committed suicide because I just thought he was lost in his daydreams, but I think this interpretation makes more sense
@@waddledee8387 you wouldn't believe how much relief I felt watching this part of the video, and reading your comment, at long last I know I'm not crazy 😭
@@owo_xanax5200 I'm really glad I could help! Keep holding the line!
There could be 2 things that happened to Barbra that were realistic and taken from the story: #1 fan turned boyfriend became violent and pushed he over the railing, killing her, like was said OR, more similar to the comic (which is why that one was kept) the bf did try to scare her to get tge scream back, got kicked out, and an obesessed fan in a costume broke in, traumatized her brother, she thought it was her bf again, they got into a struggle, she pushed him through the railing, went to finish him off (or kick him out again), but then she got kidnapped (and murdered after) by a gang of obsessed fans in constumes that came with the guy who broke into the house. It isn't exactly unheard of for people to kidnap and murder former child stars they have a twisted obsession with. The ear in the music box could be a sign that it was done for randsome money too, and the bf being blamed could be due to both the bf and the intruder being in costumes interacting with Barbra before she went missing.
I think Edie kept that one because of how she embellishes the stories, it was definitely something more mundane
Did anyone notice that the main character said her cat's name was Molly and then Molly dressed as a cat as well?
It says this at some point in the game I belive, but Eddie sr. named the cat after Molly (presumably after having read Molly’s diary as it would have been on the bed beside her when she was found dead, which is pretty twisted)
@@pocketfullofbees7071Actually, Dawn was the one to name the cat Molly! Edith comments on this because it was unusual for her mother to pay this kind of homage to their dead family members. Honestly, I think that all these videos about how Edie is the true villain of the game has retroactively made people attribute a lot of events of the story to her... Which makes me a little sad. Watering her character down to just a bad mother takes away from the nuance of the Finches.
Personally one of my favourite little headcanons is that the family "curse" was always characterized by there being only one child of each generation to carry on the bloodline. But if you choose to believe the unfinished swan is, at least to a point, Milton's story, then that means Christopher and Monroe Finch are cousins, not siblings, both alive, symbolizing the break of the curse (That and Edie's, the last person from Sweden, death)
I will honestly never forget playing for the first time. Id been relaxed and sort of confused up until the swing.. The feeling in my gut the higher up we got... The dread and realization of what this game was becoming and what was about to happen.. It always stuck with me.
To me, the curse of the finch family is a mix of vivid imaginations, reckless behaviors and a bit of bad luck. The way they died just all seems to boil down to tragedy and bad life decisions.
Molly- Dies via ingesting food she wasn't supposed to. She was hungry enough to eat toothpaste, a contaminated carrot and holly berries (which potentially weren't even organic but were plastic) and I theorize she didn't die on the same day she ate all that stuff, empty stomach plus poisonous foods are bound to cause rapid deterioration of health, she says she ate a bunch of stuff "that night" implying she ate it some time before and could have died from illness and lack of nutrients to combat the potential poisoning she gave herself a day or so later.
Calvin- Dies from swinging around a rickety branch. He was lucky the branch his swing was on could hold his weight to begin with but we can see he's a reckless child even before his death due to the cast and black eye. He had no business even being by that cliff but due to his parent's horrible planning, he flew right over the equally crudely made fence and plummeted to his death.
Barbara- One who wasn't offed by her own bad decisions but her ending still came from her parent's poor choices, turning their daughter into a child star and then just leaving her and her brother alone in their house with Barbara's boyfriend (who already sounds like he was only dating her for her status). Like Wave said, odds are the bf killed her. I think they got into a spat, he pushed her through the railing and she died, her ear was severed in the fall onto the glass and in a panic the bf got some of his friends (the monsters) to help him dump her body somewhere, not realizing they left the ear.
Walter- Dies by walking on train tracks...pretty self explanatory how horrible of an idea that was. He may not have realized that the sound was a train going over his head, but when he disappeared surely he had to know what a train was? Did he not think being on tracks was dangerous? Or perhaps the train wasn't there when he went into hiding and only showed up soon after. Even so, tracks plus loud train rumbling should mean a working train system and that in turn should mean, DON'T STAND ON THE TRACKS.
Sam- A skilled hunter who...didn't check to make sure the animal his daughter shot was dead? I get he was excited for Dawn's first kill (so much so he just ignores his daughter's distress...way to pull a Edie there Sam) but what if Dawn had been up there by herself after it came to? She could have been killed instead, showing even more reckless parents potentially effecting their kids. Thankfully Dawn wasn't directly hurt by Sam's awful choices (unlike her brother Gus and ya know...Sam himself) but even putting her in that situation shows he's very similar to his mother in lack of awareness and hindsight to keep their kids safe.
Gregory- Literally a baby, he didn't know any better when he accidentally drowned himself. But you know who should of known better? His mother, Kay. She, just like her ex-husband, was incompetent and reckless with the life of her barely year old son. Everyone knows you NEVER leave an infant in a tub of water alone. Worst of all when we first saw through Gregory's eyes, she had the tub's door closed with him in there BY HIMSELF. Sam may try to ease her guilt and say she wasn't to blame but she absolutely was for what happened to that baby. She not only left him in the tub once, but three damn times. Idc if a hurricane is about to hit the house, you never leave a baby in a tub with any amount of water, they can and will drown. She could have and should have let that phone ring, period.
Gus- A death that was actually the consequences of Sam's awful parenting. Simply, Gus should have been inside with the others...when the storm hit, Sam left his child outside in high winds with objects that can easily be swept away in a storm. Sam cared so little about his son that he let him stay outside in that weather, drowned the sounds out with music and didn't even notice he was gone until they no doubt found his body either in the ocean or crushed under the totem pole. Sam's neglect killed Gus and Gus' poor decision to stay out in the storm killed himself.
Milton- Managed to seemingly escape with his life, unsure if he ran away or did just get sent to another realm but I hope he's doing okay.
Lewis- Took himself out, perhaps he did it on purpose to escape or perhaps he was so far deep in his imagination he truly didn't know where he was or what he was doing when he put his head into the guillotine. It's hard to say if being forced to be sober is was set him off, or he was just extremely suicidal since the start and used snoops smoke stick to get through it all, realized it wasn't healthy and got therapy but I think Dawn was the one who made him get sober and go to therapy. Despite her best efforts to break the cycle, she couldn't save Lewis even though she, unlike the parents before her, tried to see her son's pain and help him heal from it.
Dawn- Another of the finches who was taken via circumstances and not so much bad parenting or luck or recklessness. Dawn just died of sickness, nothing could be done about it.
Edie Sr.- Reckless mixing of her meds and alcohol or just old age taking her, yet I do find it strange she died literally the night her daughter and granddaughter left. It's hard to say what killed Edie for all we knew it could have been heartbreak after realizing she chased away the last of her family but who is to really say.
Edith- Let's see, besides her just reckless behavior all throughout the game, climbing on branches that may not support her weight, going into an old house that may or may not have mold due to most of the food and drinks being out for years after her great-grandmother died, oh and of course getting pregnant at 17...Edith, while not nearly as bad as some on the finches on this list, truly continued to cycle of bad choice after bad choice. It's safe to assume the death of Dawn is what caused Edith to look for comfort in another, unfortunately that lead to her falling pregnant at too young of an age which caused her untimely death in child birth. Legit showing that even after everything the finches main problem is horrible decision making that leads to someone's death, either their own or one of their loved ones.
And we see with Christopher, he's also showing the Finch signature, he's already got a cast on his hand, implying he's already hurt himself doing god knows what.
What reminds of Edith Finch, is a game I adore so much and keep replaying over and over it's so good. I just can't help but to feel the curse is just a bunch of really dumb choices that killed off this family, knowing some of them may have lived to have kids of their own had the others around them (mainly their parents) not dropped the ball and allowed for half of the things that happened to happen. Had they not built a swing literally kissing the edge of a cliff, Calvin would still be around, had Edie not starved Molly, she'd never have been poisoned, had Sam not been so careless he would have been there to see his son and daughter grow up. All these deaths and more could have been avoided had they just been more careful, more self aware, less callous with the lives of their loved ones.
Truly a heartbreaking game.
You know I didn't even think of Barbara's ear potentially being sliced off by the glass table but it does make a lot of sense. I sincerely doubt she was killed by cannibalistic serial killers
Yeah, a lot of the people, if not all of them, who are scared of the curse, eventually stop being scared, making them lose all sense of fear surrounding death. That will make a person reckless
Y'know there's a certain saying that children sometimes reflection of their parents and learn from their examples
The thing about Walter is that the train wasn't supposed to be here. The noise stopped for a week, the train should have been gone. He had no reason to be worried about it that's why he even left in the first place.
There is so much attention to detal: Lewis' portrait is the only unfinished one, because Edie (which was the one that made them) died before she could finish it
Like it's so morbid when you think about it but so cool at the same time
I replayed the game yesterday, and it occurred to me just how little we know about certain characters. Gus for instance is NEVER mentioned until his death. What were his hobbies, his interests? Did he have any fears? We don't know. There's a few hints, but that's it. He's just "the kid that died by flying his kite".
Or how the pet cemetery has graves for several pets, including DOGS. Dogs lived in that house at one point? When? We never even see a food bowl or a water dish!
The only time we hear about a character is when they've died, and that's just so GRIM. We don't even know much Edith and what she was like. Apparently she really liked writing, drawing and crafting, but we only piece that together from context clues. Like... damn.
Holy crap. Lewis’s story is absolutely brilliant. This whole story and game is really well done but that is definitely my favorite story. That something I think a lot of people can relate to.
Bird at the end looks like a crane to me. Or a stork, which does feature heavily in old cartoons, like Disney's Dumbo, and is associated with family, a recurring theme in giant sparrow's games
I thought it was a heron. But those two were also on my mind, so it could be any of those really
@@topomeranian I think it's a heron too
Why didn't they make it a sparrow.
@@topomeranian It was a RED heron
Looking back you can see that a lot of these deaths were preventable. Also that the grandma had a part to play in all of them. It seems the mum knew what was going on and that’s why she left because of how the grandma made these deaths seem whimsical when some of these were due to neglect and were preventable
Something that strikes me about this game is the avoidance of moving on. Building so many memorials and continuing to live there is not moving on. Conversely, burying the past completely is not moving on. The Finches take two different stances on the past, but there needs to be a middle ground. I think Edith is doing the right thing by telling the stories, and not having her child grow up in that house. They're going to visit, yes, but the important thing is they can leave. They can move on. I think that's important. Facing the past while still walking toward the future, and accepting that there was nothing to be done.
Sam's saying his son isnt dead, just went to play actually made me cry
It's been so long I was waiting for someone to actually take a deep dive and appreciate all the secrets and intricacies of this wonderfully written game
I literally jumped of excitement out of this, and adding as a bonus that it was made by you makes me even happier because I know I won't be disappointed, thank you 💖
So I played this game for the first time while I was really high and it was truly life changing. I remember getting really genuinely scared going through Molly's story. And with Lewis it was just so deeply immersive and I felt like I was really in his headspace playing it. I still stand by when I said that Lewis's segment was the most interesting gameplay mechanic I've ever seen. It's truly an amazing game.
When I first got this game I sat down and played the whole thing in one sitting with no breaks or stops because I was so captivated by it
I almost never do this even with short games
@@silentskyrimMe neither but this game was so compelling I would have still played it in one go even if it had been twice as long, which I wish it had been.
And Edith’s dad died too, it was mentioned that just marrying into the family can be a death sentence. I don’t know about Dawns step mom but Kay left the family so it seems denouncing the family name might be a solution of sorts
Honestly I think one theory about Lewis but more prominently Milton would make sense, the schizophrenia theory, its pretty self explanatory but the theory goes like this: Milton always struggled with undiagnosed schizophrenia, but one day he had a particularly bad episode, and wandered into the forest, never to be seen again, there is evidence in this in Lewis's story, and i feel like it would just make sense, aside from the aspects of "wouldn't someone find him?"
I think Edith may have had a mental illness due to her imagination and deaths in the family, it may have led to her stories.
He could have wandered off too far. Or he could have seen his family as a threat due to these episodes and hidden. Schizophrenia based on believing in the curse and thinking escaping his family would get rid of it.
This game was so beautiful and melancholic, and it astounds me that I would've missed out on this if it weren't for this video. Thank you for this! And I hope the next game by Sparrow will be a hit since they really do deserve it. Can't wait for their next game. ❤
Yeah, this game is a really interesting experience despite its fundamentally sad and depressing premise. The fishery sequence actually hit me surprisingly hard considering I've daydreamed that hard too, ADHD and depression being a hell of a combination when it comes to escapism, and I'm always afraid of something like that happening because I'm not paying attention. If you haven't played it, Everybody's Gone To The Rapture might be something you'd enjoy exploring. Only downside is it has a pretty slow walking speed but that can be fixed via mods on PC I'm sure.
Also, just because I was impressed with the performance of it, the game has a really good Nintendo Switch port. There's a few blurry moments but it runs pretty well and is almost native resolution for the majority of the time.
I loved this game and I'm so glad you covered it. I've always had a fear of death so when I watched a lets play of this game idk it made me kinda accept it. It's a beautifully structured story that is so bittersweet but hopeful. Also LOVE your commentary vids~
I think it's interesting that Milton was the only Finch to run away not out of fear, but curiosity. Because fear and recklessness didn't follow him, Milton is quite possibly alive and escaped the family curse of paranoia.
It always struck me as eerie how all these rooms that hadn’t been touched in decades were perfect and free of dust/cobwebs/disrepair. But then, when you realize Edith is writing the details down for her son, it adds another layer of removal from the truth.
What Remains of Edith Finch is one of the few examples of a walking simulator done right.
I think that Edie is the main cause of the family deaths. because she let things let those things happen it first started with her sending molly to her room without dinner. Plus don't you think it's weird that she was the only one who made it to their 90s? Because Odin died in his 50s at 57, Molly died at 10, Barbra at 16, Calvin at 11, Sam at 33, Walter at 53, Gus at 12, Gregory at 1, Lewis at 22, Edith died at 17 about to be 18 and we don't know about Milton. did anyone else notice this?
I do NOT regret buying WROEF; it’s a sad yet enlightening story, which makes you grieve for the lost finches and learning their stories as a way to carry their memory
It took me a few play throughs for it to really click for me, that the reason the comic book has so many accurate details like what the house looks like and the music box, is because Edie probably gave an interview or even a press tour
You're right omg
It would totally make sense, given the fact that she'd also been in the newspaper when Sven was crushed by the slide so I wouldn't put it behind her. Also her keeping the comic book out of all other ways to tell the story of Barbara's death makes total sense as well since she chose to also give the story that Sven was killed by a dragon, and not crushed by a slide themed after one. It's like she uses the stories as a form of escapism from all of the deaths she's witnessed
I think that Edie always knew everyone would die. That's why she twisted the stories. She wanted her family to be remembered even after they were gone. But hey! That's just a theory.
As someone who has dealt with maladaptive behaviours since I was a child. I really appreciate how it’s not demonized. It’s something I would rely on to get through the day. I have huge gaps in my life because I would imagine a better version of myself. Even simple tasks could be the same but I look different. I’ll only come out when the schedule has ended.
Ive been avoiding this video because i couldnt handle seeing Lewis's story again. Playing through the game, i got to that point and it was like seeing myself, it was surreal. Same age, same kind of job (repetitive blue collar), the marijuana addiction, the maladaptive daydreaming, and the suicidal ideation. It kind of woke me up, and it kind of killed me. I saw what i would end up like, i saw my future and it destroyed me, i was afraid. Ive recently been working to be sober. Im not entirely there yet and i still struggle sometimes, i still fall into the daydreams that hurt me once i wake up. But im moving on amd i can feel it. Im moving out next week and it feels like a huge step towards my future. This game is a beautiful work of art, and Lewis's story i can say has helped me immensely. I am thankful for this story, and thank you for this video.
A bit late to reply, but I just wanted to say that I relayed a lot to Lewis too. Mostly I wanted to say good luck with getting sober! You can do it, I believe in you!
A funny detail about Odin's story is that his destination of Orcas Island is on the pacific coast of america, almost the exact opposite end of the world from sweden. He would've needed to cross several oceans over potentially years, all just for his vessel to sink right at the finish line.
That's rough, Buddy
1:27:10
I think I know how Edith died.
She was on oxygen. If they cut power on the night they left, her oxygen machine would have failed and she would have died.
It fits with the clues, the power being cut, the oxygen device in the dining room, and her death that night.
There’s one in her room too and it’s plugged in. So, odds are, her oxygen device lost power and she suffocated in the night.
My version of events for Barbara is that she tripped and went through the railing of her own accord. No one actually shoved her. Walter was asleep in bed, only awaking at the crash of his sister smashing her face into the coffee table. He saw absolutely nothing except for her lifeless body. It fits neatly with all the real world evidence and ignoring the obviously sensationalized comic book, which might have been influenced by bad media coverage at the time. The music box not being confiscated, the broken railing, the fact Walter says "Whatever killed Barbara." meaning he probably doesn't actually know her COD, and the real lack of evidence of any murder taking place.
She likely was leaving Walter's room after tucking him into bed to go downstairs and relax when she fell.
I honestly find Lewis' passing as exceptionally relatable.
I have smaller signs of maladaptive daydreams (I call them hallucinatory daydreams personally).
And it also lends itself into sleep addiction and a lot of other issues, including the severe dissociative episode we see from Lewis.
But it does feel a lot like that - ahh, small daydream.
Monotony.
"Okay well I can autopilot this stuff, so let go into the daydream"
And it does become an overwhelming situation.
Luckily I can usually catch it, or have almost hypnogogic jerks (I'll respond to the daydream physically, say I daydream a fight, I'll wake up because my arm jerked to reel for a punch)
It's... honestly a bit scary, because with how it ties in to a dissociative disorder, I often find I've blanked out a lot of stuff. (Say, I'll have walked a mile past my destination and have 0 recollection of what happened during the walk)
But it's the one that *REALLY* stuck out to me. Including Molly, who was absolutely being neglected, and on a regular basis, it feels.
seeing people still talk about this game makes me incredibly happy, it’s really one of my all time favorite games-the storytelling is both devastating and interesting all at once.
Dude, I love the idea that Milton has a son and just lived a somewhat normal life
You know what always made me super sad and ended up being really morbid when I ended up thinking about it about Gregory‘s death babies I don’t know for how long maybe it’s a case by a case but babies when they’re put in water and they go under they instinctively hold their breath until a certain age, where they kinda unlearn it, and they have to relearn it when they’re older so we’ll never know but you can only imagine with that context how long was Kay in the other room arguing with Sam, how long did it take for the poor baby to drown because they can only hold their breath for so long but how long did it actually take and it just the long you think about it this Saturday Isbecause he didn’t know any better and it’s just sad
I remember seeing a video about this game a long time ago that went over each of the stories and proposed the idea that edie was the villain of the finchs stories since it seems like alot of the deaths were caused by these stories being told and almost glorified
I think the video you are referring to is by Joseph Anderson "the villain of Edith Finch". It is very well made indeed🥰
I didn't like that theory very much because it seemed to blame the family even though a few deaths were completely out of their control. Even when the mom blamed the grandmother and left it didn't stop her or her daughter from dying young. It just seemed to me that they both had different coping methods for the tragedies around them but now everyone just talks about how it's the grandma's fault even though we're told the family misfortune was happening before she was in charge and continued to happen after she died.
@@blissfulrain The family is famous for this bad luck. It means the stories themselves aren't solely with Grandma. They started with whoever told her all about them. And then whoever told that family member about them, etc. until we reach whoever decided it was a good idea to first start telling all their relatives about how they all will die young. Edie was just the one who was keeping it up in the present day instead of breaking the cycle.
And the mom and daughter leaving doesn't mean it stopped the obsessing about it. They had already been influenced by her by the time they left - being tired of hearing about it doesn't mean you will forget about it all. It's a story about generational trauma. Trauma doesn't vanish just because you leave the immediate source of it.
@@blissfulrainI mean Edie killed her daughter idk how you put it she killed molly
@@prettyevil6662000 However, Edith Finch (The main character) Didn't die due to a story -- she died in childbirth. There's no way the story could cause the death. She just got pregnant and her body was unable to go through with the birth.
Oh Lewis…
I have ADHD and get lost in my mind far too often. Living with anxiety and depression makes it hard to tolerate reality so isolation and daydreaming is preferred. I have a character in my mind that’s always been with me that I wish so much to be but reality has it’s limitations. I can’t be her but I am her to an extent. If I were stuck in a factory like that I’d probably be in the same shoes. The boredom would drive me insane alone.
"What do you want out of a game?
(shows Sanic Ballz)
That's all I want. Right there.
this game was so perfect. I still think about it all the time. It definitely made me cry more than once.
i seriously did not expect this story to have the effect on me that it did, i am 20 minutes in with tears in my eyes. the pure shock i felt hearing this little girl read out the line “i will be delicious” was truly inexplicably chilling. what an interestingly heartbreaking story this is. truly amazing..
You know the Finch's came from Norway, theres a Norwegian flag in grandma's room, and in Odin's story the camera says "famous throughout *Norway* "
The first time I played Lewis’s story I had to take a break before I could continue. You really know this game is art when it makes people stop so they can think about things. I love this game, probably in my top 5 video games I’ve played.
What Remains of Edith Finch is one of my favorite games of all time. This is story telling on such a grade A level imo - making you basically participate in the deaths of all of your family members in these unique, fantastical ways, symbolically explaining what actually happened to all of these poor people. The grandmother being slowly revealed as such a toxic person is also a good touch
Not many games have managed to hold such a lasting impact on me like What Remains of Edith Finch. For years I have found myself going through the story again and again. It’s a game unlike any other I’d seen before. I have always been one to get lost in stories, of far away places, full of magic and wonder. That has continued with me to adulthood and I resonate with it in this game, learning about my own family history, the sadness and joy of my relatives’ lives, all of the stories that have been passed down and of trying to think of the best way of passing those stories down to my children if I ever have any. Life is hard, the mundane things can eat away at you, the stress and the fear of the unknown that lies ahead can feel like a black hole that’s come to swallow you whole but I try to live life, quite similarly to how Edith said with wonder and the amazing fact of knowing that I’ve gotten to have this life even with all of its up and downs.
OH MY GOD I DID NOT EXPECT YOU TO BRING UO THE UNFINISHED SWAN, UT IS SO NOSTALGIC FOR ME AND THE MILTON PART DID KINDA REMIND ME OF IT
What Remains of Edith Finch was one of my favorite games for such a long time and I still love it even now. It’s gorgeous; it’s tragic and melancholy. The slow realization both Edith and the player come to over time is heartbreaking. The writers of this game did such an amazing job.
55:47 "and Barbara's because it reveals the hidden key"
Me who always explores every inch of the areas of a game and discovered the music box key before I played out ANY of the stories:
The scariest part of this story is Gregory, like if that baby grew up he'd be a horror movie acotr, smile just too wide, death just too random.
Milton's song always brings tears to my eyes. I found an hr long version (just basically on repeat) here on YT and I play it now and then.
I watched a play through of What remains of Edith Finch when I was in grade 7 and even now in my first year of university it is still probably my favourite game. I’ve been looking for something like it since I found it and haven’t found anything that does quite what it does. Love your channel and im excited to watch this video!
So I really love this game. It's been a game I've held dear to me since first seeing it and I'm so happy that you've covered it and the analysis you made is just wonderful but I can't help but love one part more than the rest. Your theory for Milton is just amazing. Most people who talk about this game tend to brush off the Unfinished Swan or say that tying to What Remains of Edith Finch just ruins his story but I love that you put them together and gave Milton a happier ending. One where maybe he was able to escape and live a free, more joy filled life. A great take and even greater video.
While watching Lewis’ story I was always concerned about his hand hitting the chopping board
The first time I played this I missed Gus' story, and I was going through it and was like "I wonder when we will see Gus?" And when I was done, I had thought "oh they must have not made it and just wanted to show another family member. I was so shocked when I found it.
I feel like Walter was responsible for Barbara’s death. She tried to scare Barbara which made her slipped through the rails, and that made Walter hide under his bed. Maybe that explains the ear part on the music box plus finding the key in it to Walter’s place. Maybe it symbolizes “Who Barbara heard last and the key to Barbara’s death” is Walter.
When he said, “Whatever killed Barabara” is just like him dis social himself because he believes that it was an accident. I feel like Walter is the biggest fan of Barbara, and while it was well intentioned jump scare, it led somewhere he didn’t wish to happen at all.
I think the guilt ate him up that’s why he couldn’t go out at all.
"Who Barbara heard last and the key to Barbara’s death is Walter"
Brilliant idea!
54:30
I swear everytime i hear this story or remember it i start to feel a nasty, quite disgusting feeling in my stomach, it aches my heart so bad, he was only one years old, a happy little baby with nothing to worry about, and he dies in such a painful slow cruel death, this game is one of my least and favorite games because of the way it makes you feel, the many cruel and unfortunate ways those poor people get to die ranging from a 10 year old girl who poisons herself unintentionally to a 1 year old little baby drowning in the warm and clean supposedly comforting water, its so tragic and painful you can't help but be surprised and amused by it
An interesting take on the story that some people believe is that Edie is the true villain of the story. Though some of the deaths have to be blamed on purely tragic accidents, others could have been easily avoided. For instance, Calvin’s death was preventable and Molly’s death was neglect. Another clue to this theory are the books in Edie’s room titled “Molly Concepts” and “Barbara Concepts”, seemingly showing that Edie was more obsessed with the fame and stories surrounding the family curse than the actual tragedies they were. Once Edith and Dawn left the household, they died natural (still unlucky) deaths. The seemingly impossible deaths just seem to follow Edie around. As Matpat says, “At best she was a terrible mother, at worst she actively murdering her children for a chance in the spotlight.”