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Psychology of Psychonauts | Hollis' Hot Streak
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- čas přidán 17. 10. 2022
- Good day everyone!
Psychonauts 2 introduces a series of new characters. The first of which is Hollis Forsythe, the Second Head of the Psychonauts. With Truman Zanato incapacitated, she is running the show at the Motherlobe.
After the other interns convince Raz to alter her mind through use of Mental Connection, a gambling addiction is formed in her head. At the Lady Lucktopus Casino, Sasha and Milla are running blind when Hollis runs out to gamble away the Psychonauts funding. Raz sneaks into her head and attempts to undo the damage he caused.
In this episode of Psychology of Psychonauts, we will explore the mind of Hollis more and the methods used to get her mind to fix itself.
As always, free discussion is encouraged in the comments!
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Episode: Psychology of Psychonauts | Hollis' Classroom
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Love how Sasha also gives Raz a stern fatherly talking to since he thought Hollis was too easy on him. It’s a good relationship the two have.
Despite not getting a lot if screen time Sasha is still my favorite. No joke he reminds me of my dad. Even down to the UFO obsession Haha.
Minus the smoking lol
Still trying to figure out how he handed Raz the salts in the mind scrape.
@@timezerohour8864 idk the details of Rhombus but logically Raz should probably have the smelling salts from camp, maybe he's just reminding him to use them like that.
I like Sasha and Milla equally, as Augustus and Freesie, even Lilly. Raz really have great support. Even Ford, for his errors all came out of boundless love, and is now clearly aware of how dangerous boundless is.
@@mackthisarrowhearth295 am a big fan of Ford, the best Psychonaut!
One interesting thing about Hollis as it relates to the Maternity Ward in her mind- if you go to talk to her in the Nerve Center after Raz's family shows up and try to apologize for the ruckus, her immediate response is something along the lines of "No need to explain, Razputin, I understand. Family is horrible." Seems like she's soured to the idea of having a family entirely.
I wonder if her own parents were like the rich couple, wanting a baby just for their own gain
@@nathanblackburn1193 considering how stressed she looked in the memory vault I would guess that her parents pushed her into becoming a doctor.
Considering one of her possible connections implies she has a husband (specifically shocks and sandals ) or at least wouldn't be apposed to having one , I think she just means her birth family
@@maverickdarkrath4780 One important thing you're forgetting though, having a spouse doesn't automatically mean the 2.5 kids and a picket fence comes after.
It's not unusual for childcare workers, maternity nurses, educators, and au pairs to have few (1 or 2) to no kids in response to being around them and the things kids end up having to deal with all day.
I’m pretty sure the implication in there is definitely that her parents did not have her for the right reasons. “Family is horrible” implies a first hand experience with it, most likely through nuclear family. Combine that with the general attitude of the maternity ward patients being either “life is horrible and kids shouldn’t be in it” or “i want kids to solve my own problems” makes me think that Hollis was treated like that by her own parents. It’s also worth noting that both psychonauts games have a running theme of family and parenting. Almost every mind you enter in both games have issues related to parents, children, or other family relations - yet hollis’ mind is suspiciously missing any mention of her family. There are hints, but she never talks about them directly, and it certainly makes me think Hollis does not have a good relationship with her family.
I thought it was an interesting detail to have Hollis specifically say "We're not here to 'fix' peopl;e" Only for 'Zanoto' to tell Raz he needs to "Fix" Cruller, and that made me immediately suspicious of Zanoto.
I missed that detail entirely. Yeah just as we hear we're not supposed to do 'X' the leader tells us to do 'X'. Red flag 3 in that scene.
That's actually a bit hypocritical on Double Fine's part ngl
@@KaminoKatie it was to draw suspicion. [Spoiler] That Zanoto wasn't who he claimed to be, so it was an intentional line to make us suspicious of him.
@@Nicooriia It's still hypocritical all the same
@@KaminoKatie not really that zanoto was a imposter that wasn't a member if a actual member of the pschonauts said this then yes it would be but it wasn't
Hollis: "Family is horrible"
This line that Hollis tell Razputin in a later dialogue made me think more about the Maternity Ward. I doubt she had an happy childhood or a healty relationship with her parents (think about the Rich Couple!).
I think this bad ideas about maternity were already there before Razputin's action.
Actually, many of the bad ideas we see in this level ("Defiance is useless", "I must hide my feelings" and "Help = losing") were very likely already there before Raz altered her mental connection. He doesn't simply restore Hollis'mind to the previous state.
Agreed that her mental connections were there prior. Her behavior before this world says as much. Considering this series has a long history of showcasing dysfunctional families, it wouldn't surprise me if she had a rough childhood.
I love how it’s been pointed out that Raz kind of *starts* learning the lesson he learns from Hollis back in Psy1. He’s impatient and mocking towards Boyd while in his mind, just treating him as an obstacle he’s got to get through to enter the asylum, but after being visibly disturbed and worried by the release of “the Milkman”, he switching things up to being really friendly toward Gloria, Fred, and Edgar and taking an interest in learning about them as people. That said, well, he’s still not all that respectful of their autonomy, as he still springs entering their minds at all on them and doesn’t seem to have much of a game plan besides “just poke around in there, see if I can help them sort out these problems they look like they’re having and if that gets them to give me the items I need from them”. Hollis’s mind seems to bring him more full circle on actually working *with* his “patients” rather than acting *upon* them and getting by on good intentions.
also, i dont think raz just tosses the psycho portal when the enters a mind in psy2
@@connordanielson8833 yep he asks politely to enter their minds
You are so underrated
Oh yeah he just throws the portal at someone and jumps into their mind. But in Psy 2, he asks first before doing that. That's nice character development there.
A note to remember though, the Psychonaughts are a spy organization. Acting upon a target is an acceptable thing. As long as they are the target. Laboto definitely did not consent to the trap construct in the opening of the game.
Talking about Hollis' opinions on children, I'm reminded of something-- She's INCREDIBLY protective of the interns, refusing to let them out on a mission, acting almost cagey about it. If you use clairvoyance on her, she views Raz as a baby chick still in its egg.
I suspect she may not want children because she knows she would be incredibly anxious about keeping the child safe and happy, she may feel she's not 'good enough' to take care of them properly, or she just knows it would take time away from the career she's spent so much time on, because she knows a child would become her world, possibly.
I like the ending subtly revealing that Razputin actually fixed more than his mistakes here.
Throughout and before Psychonauts 2, Hollis is stretching herself thin with work, hiding her emotions about this, and avoiding asking for help.
After you beat the game, Hollis tells Truman outright that she's stressed out from working too hard and takes a vacation.
What's interesting about fighting the Lady Lucktopus, and subsequently other bosses, is that she's actively giving you the thing you need to fight her, the lightbulbs. I believe this is representing self destructive behaviors. The gambling addiction, as we can see by the bad idea bulbs, is one GIANT bad idea, but ultimately it's the thing that ends up blowing up in it's own face. Lucky didn't care that she was essentially killing herself in the fight, she thought using the bulbs was too worth the risk. Something interesting
You got a crack an egg to make an omelette
Lose some to Win some
Lady luck knows this more than anyone
well all of the bosses are manifestations of mental problems, and the mind, even in a bad state, wants to be fine. all the bosses having a weakness and being beatable comes from the mind itself making it that way, the subconscious of your patient has your back.
I have a theory about the maternity wing. Psychics seem to almost all have family issues (I'm thinking of Oleander, Dr Loboto and most of the kids in camp) Hollis is in charge of the interns, so she must've seen A BUNCH of kids with bad parents. So maybe, trought out years, she came to think all parents are just the worst !
Could also be she fears she could end up being a bad parent
@@TheRealNekora Or a bad mentor, like the one she had.
Or both.
I wouldn't be surprised if she got the impression that psychics were more likely to have bad parents than good ones, honestly. That would sour anyone's opinion on the matter.
That's very possible. Pretty much every one of the characters came from a shattered home from the ones we see the backstory on
Eh, who doesn't have family issues. Usually not this bad but everyone has something.
Hell, how do we know hers is that bad anyway.
What I always found so fascinating and terrifying about this sequence is that it demonstrates just how much power a psychonaut can have over someone. An untrained amatuer like Raz can, with a barely understood and ultimately mislearned technique, completely devastate a person's mind on accident. *Imagine what a fully trained professional could do to someone on purpose.* If the psychonauts weren't the good guys, they'd be absolutely terrifying.
If we get a third game, I hope we get s more global conflict. Like well trained baddies who go on global mental control. Just to showcase how dangerous this world can be. Like sleeper agents, betrayals, entire cities being mentally altered, etc.
@@GamingUniversityUoG I honestly hope they don't do that. Continually raising the stakes is the sort of thing that can kill a franchise. The whole game has been incredibly thoughtful so far, it'd be a shame to lose that to spectacularity.
Did you play this game? The stuff Ford does to Raz is so bad it's hard to think of him as a good guy.
The same is true of a lot of the rest of the founders, just to lesser degrees. Think about the torture going on with the complete lack of interaction those stored brains are getting. It's like solitary confinement to an absurd degree and everyone there agrees to do it, and thinks it's fine.
The rest of the older psychonauts seemed to decide they're too much of a danger to the outside world to take an active role in it's formation.
Aaaaaand there's Lucy.
@@codatheseus5060 In fairness, I’m pretty sure Otto said those brains were from dead Psychonauts and weren’t actually thinking anymore. (Obviously, Helmut’s was a special case.)
The one spin-off I want from Psychonauts is one where you play as a team of bad guys. It would be interesting and horrifying to see the flipside to what the Psychonauts do.
When you spoke about the maternity ward - I thought that Hollis may have been exposed to them as memorable former patients.
The hospital she worked out of specialized in neurology I believe. But I suppose they accept anyone. Thats a possibility
@@GamingUniversityUoG According to my relatives who are doctors, its common to go though rotation, aka learning about all parts of the hospital before choosing a speicalsation. AKA Residency. This makes sense, if there is an emergancy here and now in maternity, you need all hands on deck, even if you are speicalised in neurology. Hence it make sense to train the docters in being competent in all areas.
Hence, these are some people she might have met during her time there.
@@RedGunnerguy I also wondered thos, or if talking amongst medical crew in passing she's heard stories from maternity ward doctors/nurses and that affected her view on prospective parents.
I like how the Pachinko part is called Pillinko
Combining the theme of Gambling and the Hospital well
Casinos and the American Healthcare System: they win and you always get f*cked!
Mmm. . . That's good satire.
Weirdly enough I recorded this saying Pachinko until I saw the game itself in the level design is labelled Pilinko. Didn't know this but those are two different but similar games. So there I'd a difference.
I noticed something about the bad ideas: they look similar to the memory vaults. And memory vaults are sometimes shown to be repressed memories of bad things that happened in their lives with one exception being Milla though even she had that one infamous memory. Makes you wonder.
I noticed the wiki site made this comparison as well. Didn't know what to make of it honestly.
@@GamingUniversityUoG my guess would be that there are good ideas and bad ideas and they all become memory vaults eventually to remind themselves: don’t do this again/this was nice. Also with bad ideas and enemies going forward: all the bosses save for 2 of them could be enemy types blown up and morphed into these creatures. More subtle here but Compton cook off does this in spades.
One thing to consider, especially when it comes to the patience in the asylum in the first game,
Was that Raz, kind of does changes methodology a little bit.
When dealing with Boyd,
He did charge through without really thinking, the same way he did in Lungfishopolis.
And that led to a potential disaster, but fortunately did not go the way the villain intended.
But, when it came to the other three patients. Raz’s approach, with more helping them with whatever their issue was.
He stopped the internal critic that was way out of control.
He helped Fred realize she actually wanted to win,
And though he did come close to screwing up again in the black velvet world, he did ultimately help the man realize the truth that he had been repressing.
But I think one of the main reasons why in the first game, he doesn’t stop to question himself after the milkman misstep, was most likely, because there was a mission and lives on the line if he stopped or waited too long.
But with Miss foresight even before he changed her thought processes initially.
He was concerned that he could be screwing up.
HOW Did I miss Lucky's symbolism and the Bad Ideas crown??? CONNECTED TO THE HEART??
They really went all out for the imagery here. Glad the boss battles stuck around.
My take on the dark thoughts that lead to the nugget of wisdom ties the emotional theming of the area with the attempted rewrite from Hollis' pre-Psychonauts days, in that while catharsis can reduce feelings of anger and envy, care must be taken to ensure others aren't caught in the blast zone. If I had to give the nugget a voice line to go with it, I'd write "Revenge might feel good in the moment, but it always comes with a high price. True justice is a group effort."
You had me laughing at the CBT part when tells us to get our minds out of the gutter
Editor knows what you're all thinking lmao
I wouldn't call thinking about CBT as your mind being in the gutter, compared to what most gutterminded thoughts are about XD
@@FerreTrip It kinda still IS a gutterminded thought, if you know what that type of CBT entails.
@@AnthonyMtheGamerArtist I don't think being stoned counts as gutterminded, compared to what usual gutter thoughts are. Then again, I might have a skewed perception on what's "gutterminded", given I'm a furry....
@@FerreTrip Sometimes, life is just cock and ball torture without the cock and balls
Combining pharmacy-theme and casino-theme is one scary concept.
The quote at 18:08 struck hard
I wouldn't say Raz didn't learn *anything* from his experience with Boyd. I could be off-base, but it always seemed to me that after Boyd, Raz was a lot less indifferent/snarky to the other patients, and more willing to hear out and sympathize with them. The problem is that was just one early episode in a *very* eventful few days where lessons and experiences have been thrown at him thick and fast, and at the end of the day, Raz is a 10 year old. Even *adults* often forget lessons they've already learned and repeat mistakes they'd thought they'd never make again, much less a child.
That's why it was so important that Hollis and Sasha both made sure to impress on him what he'd done wrong and how he needs to change in the future; to make sure the lesson sticks this time.
I think The Lady Lucktapus has one of the best boss fight intros ever. Imagine that you've decided to knuckle down and fix your life. You soul search and meditate on your character flaws, you work hard to rectify and make amends for your mistakes, and you make a lot of progress. Suddenly, you see it. The one decision that sent you down the bad paths you took. The biggest mistake of your life, spelled out clearly in front of you. Then, in the blink of an eye, that mistake is literally looking down at you and asking, nay, demanding:
*Who you callin' a Bad Idea?!*
Kinda gives me chills.
2:37
That's an interesting observation. I guess in a healthy mind, the Censors would be fighting Bad Ideas.
There's a difference between Bad Ideas and thoughts that outright don't belong I would presume depending on a persons personality and thoughts and desires. Some things would make sense but be considered undesirable and actively repressed while others are potentially unreasonable but have a twisted sense of logic.
@@ChaseSP1 Honestly, that makes more sense than my observation.
Yeah censors are mainly for things that dont belong. Foreign minds, manias, and abnormal complexes
@@GamingUniversityUoG Antivirus software won’t debug your code for you.
Something interesting. A critizisim of Hollis Forsythe
is how easily Raz managed to get past her defenses and into the deeper parts of her mind to link money and risk.
However, if you think about it, that is only because of the ability PSI blast , something none of the other interns posses. Its very possible that Forzyte never thought she have an intern who already had mastered Psi Blast to break her defenses. For most interns, this is their first job. Raz has already saved the world.
Good luck with The Kid Cook's Mind that one is a RABBIT hole of WTF'S lol.
Luckily I've partially written that one already. Did a guest episode for max Derrat last year on Compton so I can transfer some of the ideas over.
Damn, this might be one of your best videos. I didn't think about whether the maternity ward might reflect Hollis' potential inability to have children.
Thank you so much! Yeah I'm trying to decide my opinion on all these voices in maternity. That's one I considered but haven't settled on.
@@GamingUniversityUoG I think both explanations could potentially be right. Hollis is definitely disillusioned by the realities of the healthcare system, and her newfound association with risk and money definitely seems to bring that to the forefront. So I do think these voices might be actual things she's seen/heard during her time as a doctor/psychonaut, if somewhat exaggerated.
But I also do think it's very possible that these voices are being repurposed to by Hollis convince herself that she's fine with not having children. Because that would fit with the pattern with the other two sections. If it was jsut a twisted reflection of her experience as a healthcare worker, it would be the only section where the behavior of the NPCs found in the section didn't reflect the negative association Hollis has hidden in that section.
I also liked how Lucky's "heart" is found in her head in place of her brain. Because Hollis is, again, irrational at this point. She's driven entirely by her emotions.
Personally I always thought Hollis was lily’s mother do to them looking alike
I saw this part That the NPC’s are actually reflections of people that Hollister had met when she was a doctor
@@Birthday888 Plus an octopus' heart is in its head.
you know, I didn't even notice until you pointed it out that in all of the other worlds in psychonauts 2, except for maybe grulovia himself, raz is actively working with the host, which is in sharp contrast to psychonauts 1 where he is simply seeing and manipulating, rather than actively engaging. I think the closest he gets to checking in on and engaging properly with the host prior to this point is with fred bonaparte, where he is acting like a middleman between the pieces on the board and the bonaparte in the drivers seat, and even then he is doing most of the work himself; in psychonauts 2, the first thing to greet him in most worlds seems to be the host mind itself, at least, in some form or other.
He also attempts to do this by talking to Bonita Soleil and trying to ease Gloria's anxiety by relating to her as a fellow performer. It doesn't quite work out in that case though, and he falls back on the active manipulating approach.
Come to think of it, him helping El Odio Edgar defeat the matador could also be seen as an attempt of guidance, albeit a very rough one that's still based on manipulation. Maybe if you string them all together it shows the start of his journey getting to the proper way, after his first screw-up with Boyd. He's slowly getting there, but doesn't quite make it yet.
As always GU excellent ways of describing the way a single change in a person's mind can spiral out of control into....well Hollies mind
This one was a doozy. And this has cut content dust to time lol
I'm still frustrated by this level. While the entire idea is to show why mental connections being changed are bad, this level and the previous showed off a really neat mechanic, and once you stop connecting actual thoughts, Mental Connection is reduced to nothing more than dull sequence-platforming.
I understand the frustration but I think it goes with the theme. From herr on Raz asks permission before entering a mind. Also he uses mental connection but doesn't link thoughts together anymore.
@@GamingUniversityUoG agreed. It's an important moment showing consent in these activities and razs growth as a psychonaut for the concern of the mental wellbeing of those he interacts with
I mean, that's true of most story mechanics in the game. Panic Attack, anyone?
@@RayneGrimm1 The only problem is, while he messed up this time, Hollis' statements don't really ring true.
She says that they're not there to fix people, but that's exactly what Truman did to Potts. She talks about how bad it is to use the powers that way, but she only got her job because of it - and a high-ranking job no less. A high rank she is now using to tell him what not to do. Hell, Sasha's allowed to run amok doing whatever weird experiments he wants on people with no real oversight. That's to say nothing of later events of the game where Holis' advice is once again proven wrong with other characters. Actually, just Loboto's Labyrinth discredits her claims when you consider the agency was more than happy to "change" him in order to try and extract the information they wanted.
In essence, everything Hollis says is sound advice ordinarily, but the entire psychonauts agency is clearly far too hypocritical to take the points seriously.
@@MrJoeyWheeler i mean i get where you're coming from but the only made a mental construct in Loboto's mind then temporarily altered some memories with no intention to have it stay like that. Raz tried to permanently alter Hollis' while all the psyconauts did was make a small illusion that maligula broke not even 2 minutes later.
(p.s i'm not trying to argue just letting you know)
You know examining this portion of the game to the second half of the first game, it really seems like raz needed to learn this lesson and hollis understood that after all she doesn't overly punish Rasputin and I think its because she was made aware of the previous adventure, apart from a hiccup with Boyd, his actions in thorny towers helped the patients in the long run , so of course raz would assume the same would happen with hollis , raz didn't have enough time to fully learn what it meant to be a psychonaut as his time at camp was ultimately cut short by oleander and later laboto, meaning neither shasa or milla had the time to teach him what hollis would later teach him. And he does learn after all , from this point on (with on exception ) raz always asked for concent before going into someone's mind.
Something you didn't mention but I think is important is how the ending of the level mirrors how Hollis joined the Psychonauts in the first place. We see in a memory vault that after the Doctor was fixed, Hollis was off by herself. It's unclear if she was fired or if she just needed a moment alone. Even so, Truman comes up to her with a pamphlet for the Psychonauts. The look on his face shows one of understanding rather than anger. He knows she missed up and just needed a chance to prove she could do better. When Hollis gets mad at Raz for messing with her mind, the intern is sorry for what he did and that makes her remember what happened with Truman. That makes her change her tone and take on the voice of understanding like Truman did for her. She understood that Raz made a mistake and now is going to give him a chance to prove he could do better.
I’m so excited about the cook off level episode! It was my favorite level cause of how accurate it felt to represent anxiety (and as someone with general anxiety it felt spot on!)
Good to hear you found it accurate! I'll do my best to do my job right and represent it well as well
@@GamingUniversityUoG I’m sure you will :)
@@GamingUniversityUoG I do wonder if you'll also see if there was a narrative reason why they left the level so compact. It's literally the smallest level in the game in terms of places to go. I'm pretty sure it was small to begin with because I think it was made for a game jam or something, but the fact they kept it small after all the dev time is interesting to me.
i tihnk it was probably the most accurate representation of anxiety because it literally gives you a bit of anxiety throughout the level, it rushes you to finish the dish in time so the judges can tell you its only barely decent
and i dont know if its intentional or not, but also it doesnt really Matter if you finish the dish in time or take longer too so maybe they even tried to imply how sometimes things can be stressful when they really dont need to be
It would be an interesting discussion on Raz's actions in the two games. At least in regards to the latter half of the first game. He is messing with the minds and mental states of others in a bid to stop a mad doctor, but was he doing the right thing? With Fred he forced himself into the mental War. Fred wasn't exactly wanting help with his defeatist mindset. For Edger and Gloria he was helping them deal with their problems.
Boyd is the odd one out as all Raz wanted was the location of the Milkman. Not realizing he was releasing a kill switch for the whole building he was about to enter.
He never asked if they wanted the help, which is a huge difference even if it is such a small action. They weren't getting the help they actually needed with the only doctor on duty more interested in making people sneeze out their brains. One has to wonder if Raz was partially acting out a Hero Fantasy. He was trying to save people's lives, but he invaded the minds of others without permission. Just look at the difference with entering minds between the two games. The first had the Psi Portal as a simple item, and in the second you can't use it until a specific prompt comes up. And you need to use the Brain Tumbler to revisit minds as you can't just use the Psi Portal on the person.
>One has to wonder if Raz was partially acting out a Hero Fantasy.
I disagree.
I think he was ENTIRELY acting out a hero fantasy.
I mean, he *did* need the items they had to get past Crispin to save the campers' brains, and he could easily have just taken them if he really wanted to rather than go through the whole song and dance of trying to help them. Was there an element of "This is what a Psychonaut would do, and I want to be a Psychonaut?" Sure. But Raz is still someone who wants to help people at heart, it's just that he's a *ten-year-old* with the ability to enter peoples' minds and mess around in there. It would strain disbelief if he *never* messed up and made things worse or did something selfish at least once or twice.
@@UrLeingod You make a good point. I sometimes forget that he's 10.
Considering he grew up reading adventure stories of the Psychonauts in 'True Psychic Tales' he probably does have this adventure fantasy in his head.
I recently played Control, so now that musical sting at the beginning of the videos elicits a very different response.
Also, fun fact: the heart in the Luctopus's head is in the correct place for an octupus's heart.
Cool fact
That seems like something Hollis might reasonably know.
Also you've given us a new tool introduced in the game but with a world application. The concept of mental connection and your description on the practice of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as an interesting connection in an of itself. Assuming a similar connection can be made of the triangle of thought---behavior---emotion and the nodes of thoughts and memories in the neural web.
Something of note, in ALL minds Razputin has explored (beyond Sasha’s construct in Loboto’s Mind which had a different goal and was up against another’s manipulations) to find out what he Should do, he usually finds someone who looks like they need help and try’s to help this mental construct.
In Psychonauts, this usually was a construct of the person’s waking mind (waking, not rational, as evidenced by Boyd in particular), or a construct in some position of authority (The Rebel leaders in Lungfishopolis, and the Stage Manager).
hell, in psychonauts, people put stuff in his mind too.
In the Pharmacy, the Desk, is in the shape/style of Female Birth Control. Which leans into that motif of Pregnancy. It's also prescribed by a Doctor. Which, also is a Pharmacy thing.
I like how you framed life as a multiplayer game that Holis is trying to play as a single player. I know personally I've been caught up in that mind set and that's a good way to depict it and the fallacy of doing so.
I'm guilty as well. For me it is due to trust issues. When I get help others tend to fail and make me work harder to cover them. But I am working to get better at that.
something i noticed, because i've been in and out of hospitals all my life, and worked as a tech: hollis very clearly has longstanding cynicism with the healthcare system as a whole, and it shows through a lot of the design. the records area is a long, dark, confusing place, reflecting the difficulty in navigating the system's underbelly. the xray segment displays the neglect and malpractice that's often found from people who give care to the hurt, and is further echoed through the casino staff who are flippant and sarcastic towards any show of optimism. the maternity ward is FULL of metaphor about how the rich can easily afford the care, and the poor are constantly on edge about the process. when through the eyes of someone who got stung once by the system in a significant way, you start to harbour grudges, and workers get hit with the fatigue the most.
Good luck with PSI-King's Sensorium!, it looks really trippy!
That's going to be a big one!
Love having you back, it's always a better day when you come around.
Thank you so much!
I love this series, they give me an insight in my own thought process and even help me get over a few things that have bothered me consciously or unconsciously
even if I have never even played or watched psychonauts, there's so much to learn from this game
I'm really trying to use this series tos hed light on some common struggles we all have. Easy to recognize it in others first before us. But once we figure out the patterns we can look at ourselves and hopefully do some good there.
You know, gambling is really just a fifty-fifty shot every time, you either win or you lose. And remember you've gotta win eventual. Right?
I'd talk to Hollis about those odds lol. But do the wins make up for the losses? The house always wins.
Sounds like me in a Gacha game
@@GamingUniversityUoG See that's the trick, if you double your bet every tie you'll break even. Then you can try again back at square one, it's foolproof!
@@drakofox1362 1% odds for a 5-star pull, are better then 0% odds for a 5-star pull, so you basically have 30% odds for a 5-star pull, and let's just round that figure to a nice 50% odds for a 5-star pull, which is all honesty might as well be 100% guarantee for a 5-star pull.
Might as well go for the 10 pack, am I right?
@@cannonballking7 you have a problem
Nice that you mentioned Bob Zanotto...Though even I haven't seen it in game..He acts like a person with a bad drinking problem due to his regrets of losing Helmutt Fulbear
My favorite thing is people who clearly didn't play the first game getting literally triggered because the game dares to ask permission to go into peoples brain, like literally calling the game woke for asking for consent, hilarious.
Don't ask me. Consent for something that is otherwise a huge violation is very reasonable. Especially in response to how Raz was in the first game. I'm definitely going to bring this up for each mind moving forward.
Eh. I played the first game. It's...only slightly odd that nearly every Mental World in 2 is accessed now by a Dialogue Prompt to ask the question to do so.
It's faster in 1 when you just threw the Psycho Portal at most of the serious Level's heads (Boyd, Gloria, Fred, Edgar). But its not game breaking to not have that. Not a hill to die on.
@@mitchellalexander9162 for me, it shows raz growing. he is learning how to be a phyconaut, and careing about consent about littraly altering someones mind seems like a big thing.
plus, hollis and boyd show the disastrous consequences of messing up in someones head.
the act of compassion is "woke" these days. Older media still obviously contains "woke" ideas when not viewed through camouflage-tinted glasses.
@@mkgaca8721I'm honestly surprised that Raz didn't learn fully with Boyd the first time around, considering how close Boyd got to burning Raz and everyone else in the Asylum to ash from Raz's meddling.
I can fully admit that I partake in legal recreational herbs on a somewhat regular basis, atleast I can take solace in the fact that I'm self aware enough to know when it's time for a break. Because when I gave it up for lent, I did it because I chose too and also to prove to myself I can do it, and I did! I just remember the connections raz made particularly in the pharmacy section: like wisdom---decisions, judgment----quitting, and victory----moderation: being the true path to victory.
Also thinking right now: I admit to having a ton of bad ideas in the past, but with this information I think alot of people including myself have passive bad idea's.
We all have these passover bad ideas. They just become ways we deal with every day life. They reduce stress so we keep doing them regardless. I'm guilty on this like everyone else.
@@GamingUniversityUoG I'm not guilty over it because in the big game: it's not the worst thing out there. Also I'm not entirely religious, it was more of a test for myself.
But I do fully admit I still have bad idea's that tend to pop up and in my everyday life, because I know one outcome is bad idea's can also lead to regrets as well as bad moods.
That chain reaction could really only become a problem in an environment already on the brink.
There were 3 bad connections he had nothing to do with, but managed to realign, in order to get too the problem he did cause, but Hollis had to open that door first.
Excellent analysis as always! As someone who pours over the details of this game, I was pleasantly surprised by how many connections you made that made me stop and think- "okay how did I miss that?!" It's awesome stuff my friend, and a true testament to your research. Keep em coming!
Glad you enjoyed and thank you so much! Looking forward to work on more as well.
Dark Thoughts in my opinion, are symbolism of "thoughts that one hasn't had in a long time". Notice the lack of cobwebs we can interact with in this game? I think dark thoughts replace this, and at the time, Raz can't connect to them because the user of these thoughts don't even know they exist. As Raz gets stronger, he can connect to them because his powers are strong enough to force these connections, despite the user still not remembering these thoughts. I wish when we are able to connect to them we get some sort of primal thought to support this theory of mine, but sadly all it is currently is thus.
Alternate take: Dark Thoughts are the thoughts someone has when evil is dreamed up and goes against our moral compass. Holis has one because she saw her work being stolen and the dark thought was born to alter the mind of someone else. Each character you see with one or more of these kinda supports this idea more than my original take as something bad did happen to them, a dark thought was created, they enacted on this dark thought, and then left there as a sort of dark stain. Usually those of victims will have these too as whatever triggers whatever happened to them will bring back these thoughts, usually those that are victims of abuse, bullying, or other crimes that they live though. Meanwhile people who are less on the moral compass, tend not to have many of these because, well, they were the cause of these thoughts. To them, it was a "good thing" that they did something horrible to someone else. Which is why I don't think you see any in one of the later levels (not listing for spoiler reasons) because mostly all thoughts back then were wiped.
Conversely - What if dark thoughts are... well.. Dark thoughts?
I'd like to remind you, they show up in the pharmacy department - as in the area where we learn about her bottled up emotions. A dark thought - to many of us who struggle with depression - could be thinking everything is hopeless, nobody cares about us, everyone will leave eventually, we can't fix anything... Mental connections that are entirely wrong when looked on with a rational mind (My psychiatrist pointed it out, that I had somehow created a separation between Rational and Emotional, and although the Emotional is louder half the time, when the Rational kicks in, I myself can see the connections being misfired and wrong).
So perhaps these dark thoughts are small, lingering bad connections, that you don't have concrete proof of and are rooted purely in negative emotions? Ones that Hollis in any state understand are irrational (thusly they are tiny and don't connect to anything else) but still fester deep down there and cluttering up the place?
One's you can't re-wire because, they may be true in some cases (e.g. "Nobody cares about me" - it's false that it is NOBODY in the entire world, but some random person all the way in China who doesn't know you even exist probably doesn't. Or "Everyone will leave eventually" - Life happens, and I mean we all die eventually so even if someone sticks with you through thick and thin, time is forever marching on and none of us are immortal yet.). You can't rewire them, coz there is no "Correct" answer, you can't just replace "nobody" with "everybody", and you can't exactly prove that that "Somebody" truly cares and isn't acting out of social/moral obligation (See flustered man in Maternity for that example).
No less, with how much stress she is under? I think we have a classic case of very well controlled anxiety. So those dark thoughts may be also impossible to re-wire, because RSD might kick in, or you will over-think a situation, or come up with some ridiculous situation that will never probably happen and stress yourself out with it and that "wrong" connection will re-connect again. Even medication can't block that one out - it happens to Neuro-typicals and Neuro-divergents alike, it's just an unfortunate side-effect of human brains being "pattern seeking", so when something happens, we will remember that it happened before somewhere and boom, we are back to square one. (e.g. "My friends before abandoning me, slowly started phasing me out of conversations and plans, and talked over me, so now that I have new friends, if they make plans without me or talk over me, they are planning to ditch me!"
I've been loving this series, and it's been giving me small tips on how to better understand my problems and some problems of others. Thank you for all the work you do, GU.
Absolutely! That wasn't the goal I set out for for the series but after seeing your responses I'm really trying to make this series as helpful as possible.
Great video! Waiting eagerly for Bob's episode.
That's going to be a tear jerker for sure.
When it's you explaining the levels, it feels much more clearer and I can better understand what's going on with these people tenfold.
Keep going as always, GU!
Glad to help! Will do. Next one coming shortly.
6:40
That's a rather unfortunate acronym
It really is lol. No joke I didn't understand all the comments when I mentioned this in part one until I googled it lmao.
Something I'm surprised you didn't address: in the maternity ward, there's Dark Thoughts leading to Emotional Baggage behind the roulette wheel (you can see the baggage in question at 7:40). I have two thoughts about this:
1) Hollis has some trauma related to the loss of a child; maybe not her own, but maybe she worked in the maternity ward briefly and experienced situations such as stillbirths or severe birth defects that make her reluctant to have children?
2) Hollis believes she'd be a bad mother because she's afraid that she would use mental connection to alter her child's behavior if they acted out.
The dark thoughts in Pharmacy are pretty simple to guess. When we hide our feelings, we can often start thinking about themes of depression due to the added weight of the emotions we hide. This can go in several ways though... but one of them is getting wiser from the experience.
I'm sure this has been said before, but even though many people consider this a "kids game", the knowledge behind it is absolutely genius.
I have a theory on dark thoughts!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe thoughts and ideas are roughly the same - thoughts are concepts and ideas are actions.
These concepts can evolve into action, so thoughts can be light sources for ideas.
Therefore, dark thoughts could be the light source for bad ideas.
I'm betting at some point you'll be covering the mechanics and symbolism of Raz being able to navigate and travel over Dark Thoughts. Considering that you need to be at least level 30 to connect to them it shows that Raz needs to develop a sense of maturity and experience in order to navigate Dark Thoughts safely. In the example with Hollis I'd theorize that at some point she had to experience some dark thoughts of her own before she came to a well learned lesson aka a Nugget of Wisdom, namely her dark thoughts about rearranging the cognition of Dr Pots which eventually lead to Truman giving her a second chance with the Psychonauts, the light at the end of a dark tunnel if you will. Another example being the areas and figments that can only be obtained via Dark Thoughts, looking forward to Bob's Bottles in that case because HOOO BOY is that a dark thought.
This series is why I finally picked up Psychonauts 2. Needed more understanding of my broken mind as well as something to watch as I progress through the story. (I'm on the edge of the third Ford Cruller mission.)
"Not the cbt you're thinking of" lmao
This level has some of my favorite small details in the game. Like how when Raz is riding the ambulance to the casino, a die is at the wheel, showing how gambling is driving her thought process. Another is the Lady Luctopus' crown. I've noticed people calling it a bad idea crown, but those bulbs up there are yellow. Since bad idea bulbs are red, that leads me to believe them to be GOOD idea bulbs. Cuz, y'know...gambling addiction. This adds to how you fight it by throwing bad idea bulbs into the empty sockets. You weaken it by enforcing that gambling is a bad idea.
Nobody can give your life fulfillment, only you can.
It comes from inside first. 100%
I wonder if betting on hearts is a literal thing she did while a doctor.
All of this content just goes to show how incredible the game is
'not the cat you're thinking of get your mind out of the gutter'
Shh no gutter
When you started talking about feeling self worth in relation to others, and explosions, you made a mental connection to Bakugo from My Hero Academia for me.
I am loving every second of these videos.
Thank you so much!
The change in his approach afterwards even shows up in the gameplay, since after this world all of the mental connection nodes he uses are the smaller in-between ones that aren't developed enough to cause long-term effects.
I swear, I end-up missing some-of these symbols, because I'm too busy trying to collect everything! Lol.
I like the interpretation that lay lucktopus is a bad idea enemy inflated to extreme proportions.
It seems like there's a recurring theme of hopelessness while dealing with a flawed system in these games. We saw it in Psychonauts 1 and in another game created by Tim Schafer called Grim Fandango.
"or CBT"
me: Wow that sure is a coincide-
"Not the CBT you're thinking about, get your mind out of the gutter"
OH NO HE IS ONTO ME
I see you there 🧐
@@GamingUniversityUoG ABORT THE MISSION D:
Thanks for the video
You got it!
I really appreciate your insights and illustrations.
Thank you! Yeah and our editor does a great job making these videos that much better with all the animations
@@GamingUniversityUoG agreed
Can I ask for the theme(s) you use in this video? They're really good. Really amazing video btw.
Below the plinko board behind the person who gives you the gazillion coin the lighting looks like a circular birth control case, add that to the maternity ward section Hollis seems to have kids on the mind even subconsciously
There is a lot pointing to that idea with her. Very subjective how we want to look at it.
Lady Lucktapus is essentially a glorified bad idea. That's good.
That's basically it.
Who you calling a bad idea
I struggle with accepting help. It comes from a flawed idea that needing help makes you weak.
That, combined with the other things we learn about Hollis in this level, makes me think her parents were emotionally abusive. They wanted her for their own gain, instilled the ideas that she needs to hide her feelings, and that she can't defy the system. Not only that, but quite possibly that people who defy a system, like ones in her family, are useless. Also, they possibly told her that you can only get anywhere by herself, and that if you need help, you're unsuccessful, or even useless. There seems to be an association in her brain that success equals achieving specific goals, and that getting help with these goals invalidates the success.
This is also partially due to the 'system' you mentioned is the medical field that took advantage of her. When she did present her own work it was stolen. So getting help risks that theft again.
Personally, I have difficulty asking for help as well. I tend to be a micro manager and control freak during my day job. But that is mostly due to some of my own associations. More often than not, when I delegate tasks the individual messes it up or fails to do it at all. Easier to do it myself. Since I learned this lesson way too many times I became a micro manager.
But even though I understand this is a fallacy, it's hard to break the habit. Law of associations is hard to break.
It’s called hiding away your feelings, but when you take away hiding, it’s called sharing your feelings with someone
Great video as always, can't wait for the next one! (PS: any plans post-psychonauts?)
Thank you! Yeah the two big series that I know have an expedition date are Psychonauts and Hellblade. Once those are both done I'm planning to go into reviews more but also either Silent Hill or Persona.
@@GamingUniversityUoG Definitely agree on The Persona series, like a deep-dive into Palaces and the like?
5:12 I LOVE CBT!!!!!!!!!
Lmao. This was so not intended
Considering the dark thoughts that lead to a nugget of wisdom are located in the "bottling emotions" section, I imagine it's probably something along the lines of a series of traumatic experiences in the hospital teaching her that healthcare doesn't wait for you to finish your mental breakdown, people are dying out here. So her nugget of wisdom would be something like "You can't solve your problems by crying at them. Save the emotions for when your business is done." Not always a bad thing, but difficult to adhere to when your proverbial problems are a bit more existential or long term.
Looking REAL forward to you going throu Fod Crullers level/levels and the final mind
Should be fun to hit all of these in a row
ah, yes, CBT. arguably one of the best therapies out there, functional for all sorts of acquired issues.
I swear this will never be let down lmao. I was a sweet summer child and didnt know what that was until the comment section gave me a raised eyebrow.
Rasputin turn Hollis' mine into Las Vegas
Perfectly stated lol
Hey, I do want to note that the Bad Idea enemy is somewhat similar in form to the Memory Vaults.
I dunno what it means, it's just something I noticed.
Love this game, love these videos!
Glad you enjoy them! Love these games too
@@GamingUniversityUoG your channel is badass! If for some reason you ever need some gaming based trap-y music, lemme knoooooooow hahahaha. Most of my music is available for use on YT copyright free.
A question. Bad Ideas look STRIKINGLY similar to Memory Vaults, almost like some sort of demonic version of it. Do you think there is any sort of connection or is purely coicidence?
Can’t wait for the anxiety that is Compton!
Sounds like you're... 'hungry' for more :D
Okay I'm sorry about that one
@@GamingUniversityUoG 🫰👉👉Aeeee.
@@GamingUniversityUoG Sounds like you’ve got… a lot on your plate?
10:07 something important to understand is that hollis might have intentionally did some more severe damage to her boss due to resentment to him as well since as we can see with hollis a simple mental reconnection like what Raz did doesn’t seem to cause the insanity the doctor had but instead lead to a notable change in behaviour and altitude due to that mental rewiring. If hollis has only wanted to stop him from plagarising it would not have caused it to this extent but would definitely alter the doctor’s mind in unforseen ways. It also kinda turns the whole bit as a “getting what you give” to hollis. She learnt her lesson but never experienced what the doctor did due to what Raz did she is now forced to face just how wrong she was in her actions in a more personal level. Not saying she didn’t regret what she did, she most certainly did but when resentment and anger go uncontrolled it leads us to doing destructive actions
Also all of the levels in this area are a critique on the general medical apparatus.
Honestly nobody even ask about how insanely young I look at the casino anymore, also: the reason I'll never gamble my own money away like this is because I know the games are statistically rigged in the houses favor. Plus, if I'm gonna choose to spend or waste money, I'm gonna make sure I get something out of it in exchange like something to eat or something cool to wear or hang on my walls, just ridiculous to try and make more my risk and luck which if you think about it: are both constructs that imprisons us.
Same here. I've never gone to a casino or anything of the like. The one and only time I gambled is because I was bored in a Paris, France airport with my high school class and needed something to do. If I want to play for fun I play with poker chips. No real money involved
@@GamingUniversityUoG now if I go with someone and they give me money, that's it. If I win a bit more great, if I lose it, it sucks, but if you ever hit a few big bucks, do yourself a favor and stop.
Amazing. ❤️
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
has this on in the background until i hear “CBT”
Lmao! Would you believe me if I didn't know what else that acronym stood for until the comments came in?
I love these videos, but I noticed a few things in this one that I noticed you never brought up
1. to along with the idea of not needing help the lady lucktopus takes the interns away as the mind is explored leaving raz on his own for the boss and also the definition of the boss says she is holding all the cards which can be interpreted as the fact that she literally is holding all the cards running the psychonauts as acting head
2. There are two other rooms in the mind that have no significance but do hold a vault and some figments if i remember correctly (It has been a bit) if i remember correctly the vault is actually the story of Dr. Potts which may be a calling from Hollis' inner consciousness to tell Raz the consequences of what he did
Yeah both vaults were addressed in part 1 of Hollis' Classroom since it fit better with the theme of that video.
Side note: Octopus hearts are actually located in their heads. I wonder what came first - did they think up the symbol and then look for an animal that matched the description, or learn that about octopuses and then thought of a way to work it in as a symbol?
Honestly, didn't know that. It makes how they designed the boss even better!
Damn he called me out when he said cbt
I see you there lmao
Raz in the entirety of the first game and before Hollis' Mindscape is... people like me. We wish we could just go in and help them fight their demons. But... at the end of the day, that's not what we need to be doing as friends. As loved ones. We should offer help, offer to be a shoulder to lean on, and ready to help when THEY are ready. And Raz takes that lesson to heart, because with every member of the psychic six save for Otto and Ford, they have to solve their own problems. Raz simply lends aid and a bit of mental fortitude.
But that ended being hypocritical given that we did actually fixed someone in the second game despite the Psychonauts' notion of not fixing people
@@KaminoKatie you mean with Ford? I think that was an exception to the case because of the plot and the trickery from the Gzar. But yes, it was a very big exception
@@deucesommerfeld1248 I still found it hypocritical all the same
@@KaminoKatie I will not refute that. I apologize if it was coming off as defensive, but I just thought it was neat
Yeah with Ford he is actively asking not to put the mirror back together. Raz idolizes Truman so he kind of just went along with it. In the others ones you have the real person there and Raz is kind of playing backup. Guiding them rather than smashing through like in the first game.
I guess I'll put my two cents in and assume that the dark thoughts are just thoughts that are routinely pushed back to the corners of the mind by censors. It's likely that they turn into the bad moods from bob's mind onward considering their similar color scheme(although, I personally think those dark thoughts may also turn into some sort of hypothetical "intrusive thought" enemy that has been head cannoned by everyone in the fandom and their mother at this point).
But I also have a question, how do you feel about the personal demons from the first game? They were annoying as heck to fight sometimes but also made larger enemy swarms easier, do you think that they could return to a potential future installment of the series if they were reworked? Also, how do you feel about their spiritual successor the bad idea in terms of gameplay?
Man, CBT is pretty awesome 😎👍
That it is... wait are we talking about the same thing? 🤔
Personally, though this isn't really related to the video, I think that Fred and Hollis have a lot in common.
Both of them were in the medical field and had someone who deeply hurt them (Potts and Crispin) so in return, they did something or had something happen to them. Both have an inability to take a break-- Fred because of Napoleon, Hollis because of herself. Both are stuck playing games they know they'll never win, but they don't really have a choice but to try another round, another roll, another desperate attempt to get through, but the house always wins.
(Also I just think that they'd be friends if they ever met, but that's me just wanting Hollis and Fred to both have friends, since they definitely could use someone to talk to.)
God knows they both need a friend. Luckily they seem to be friendly with a few others, Fred with the other inmates and Hollis with her coworkers.
Place your bets on the table now, let's see how the good doctor will say about this next case!