#disco elysium analysis

[estherax]

Generating plasm and stacking matchboxes: how to build a better future through collective consciousness.

Alternatively - Steban and Ulixes were building Tatlin's Tower so I have to talk about the symbolism or I will explode!!

While completing the communist vision quest you get an opportunity to build a model of "The Tower of History", depicted on the last page of "A Brief Look at Infra-Materialism": a leaning tower wrapped in a dramatic helix. The scale model you make is a mirror image of Tatlin's Tower - a design for a grand monumental building to the Third International: the government organization advocating for world communism.

The main idea of the monument was to produce a new type of structure, uniting a purely creative form with a utilitarian form. Meaning it would function as an office building while also serving as a symbol of cultural significance. And let me tell you, this bad boy can fit so much symbolism in it.

Tatlin was commissioned to develop a design in 1919, after the 1917 February Revolution - a parallel to Disco Elysium's Insulinde we're witnessing post-Antecentennial Revolution.

Tatlin's work was inspired by high revolutionary goals, which are evident in the visual direction of the tower as well, expressing the ideological strive for achieving something that has never been done before, overcoming the odds. The structure "oscillates like a steel snake, constrained and organized by the one general movement of all the parts, to raise itself above the earth. The form wants to overcome the material and the force of gravity..."

The tower has meaning packed even in the materials. For example, the glass structures (marked A, B, C on the architectural rendering) were meant to serve legislative, executive and informative initiatives while rotating around their axes at different speeds. The material signified the purity of initiatives, their liberation from material constraints and their ideal qualities.

But here's the best part. The spirals.

"The spiral is the movement of liberated humanity. The spiral is the ideal expression of liberation: with its base set in the earth, it flees from the ground and becomes a symbol of the suspension of all (...) earthy interests." They are "the most elastic and rapid lines which the world knows" that represent movement and aspiration, continuing the themes of progress and freedom, but they also refer to something else.

In the process of building the matchbox model Rhetoric points out: "It's almost exactly as Nilsen's sketch imagined, a physical manifestation of the dialectical spiral of history."

The shape of the tower is a representation of dialectical development of history, first visualized as a spiral by G. W. F. Hegel. He pictured transformational change as "both linear and circular in order to be short-term responsive, i.e. possibly negating itself, and long-term strategic, i.e. a process of development."

Hegel's dialectics would later be reinterpreted through the prism of materialism by Marx and Engels to create dialectical materialism - the basis for historical materialism.

"Still, this idea, as formulated by Marx and Engels on the basis of Hegels’ philosophy, is far more comprehensive and far richer in content than the current idea of evolution is. A development that repeats, as it were, stages that have already been passed, but repeats them in a different way, on a higher basis, (...) a development, so to speak, that proceeds in spirals, not in a straight line; a development by leaps, catastrophes, and revolutions; (...) the interdependence and the closest and indissoluble connection between all aspects of any phenomenon (history constantly revealing ever new aspects), a connection that provides a uniform, and universal process of motion, one that follows definite laws - these are some of the features of dialectics as a doctrine of development that is richer than the conventional one."

The tower embodies progress in materialist understanding of history while also indicating the connection to ideological plasm, a manifestation of "the proletariat's embrace of historical materialism", necessary to create a better future.

According to Nilsen, the proletariat of a revolutionary state can generate enough plasm to create extra-physical architecture that "disregards the laws of 'bourgeois physics' and instead relies on the revolutionary faith of the people for structural integrity."

This function of plasm implies that The Tower of History can be created only under revolutionary circumstances - without a sufficient amount of plasm even the matchbox model didn't stay up. The exact same sentiment is expressed about Tatlin's Tower: "We maintain that only the full power of the multimillion strong proletarian consciousness could bring into the world the idea of this monument and its forms. The monument must be realized by the muscles of this power, because we have an ideal, living and classical expression the pure and creative form of the international union of the workers of the whole world."

Nilsen called it "the highest expression of Communist principles, a society whose literal foundation is the faith of its people."

Tatlin's Tower was a symbol of faith in the revolutionary future, the global triumph of Marxist socialism. A monument "made of iron, glass and revolution."

It was never built in real life, and neither was The Tower of History in the world of Elysium.

But you can try to see if there's enough plasm between the three of you. And the matchbox tower stays up for a long moment, quivering with an improbable energy. You believe it can say up - and it does.

So you have to believe; whether it's for collective action or generating ideological plasm. Then, together, maybe you'll be able to build as much as 0.0002% of communism.

#i tricked myself into reading leftist theory for disco elysium #never thought i would be reading Lenin to write about videogame worldbuilding #tower related quotes are from ''The monument to the Third International'' by Nikolai Punin #infra-materialism #disco elysium #de #de meta #disco elysium analysis #disco elysium spoilers #disco elysium meta

[scoutpologist]

i wanted to take a brief moment to look at jean and kim's portraits and how they show the difference in how harry views the two. here i'm going to be operating on the theory that the portraits are how harry in particular views the world and aren't objective descriptions.

[ID: A portrait of Jean Vicquemare from Disco Elysium. The portrait has a painterly style, with large brushstrokes. The colors are all black-and-white, spare for his skin, which is pale and cool-toned with hints of red. Half his face is obscured in black shadow. Behind him, a square, black halo frames his head. End ID.]

one of the most notable details here is that jean has a square halo. according to this article here, square halos are a rare piece of christian iconography to distinguish a living, regular person from a saint. in other words, this halo carries "no implication of sanctity".

[ID: A portrait of Kim Kitsuragi from Disco Elysium. Compared to the previous, the painting is noticeably more detailed, though still carries a traditional texture. The colors are warm, orange and red in tone, besides the skin, which has a slight cool tone. A pure white halo is positioned behind his head. End ID.]

meanwhile we get the classic circle halo in kim's portrait. not only that, but the details in kim's portrait are much sharper - we can see most of his face, and there are clear lines as opposed to jean's more broad strokes. round halos "indicate holy or sacred figures", according to the wikipedia page on the subject.

side note: dolores dei (both as dora and not) does not have a halo of any sort. she does have a crown, but only in the sprite - harry does not see it on either the glass window or in his dream.

that's not even getting into the differences in color scheme. jean's portrait is dark and moody, with a very "noir detective" type of color scheme. the colors are almost entirely devoid of pigment. kim's portrait, however, is bursting with color and warmth. there's a nearly egregious use of red that, from a distance, looks like blood or bruising. the background is a black tinged with red. his jacket is bright orange.

it's just. so. interesting. because every little detail (down to HOW MANY DETAILS THERE ARE), is an indication of how harry feels about the character.

#op #disco elysium analysis #kim kitsuragi #jean vicquemare

[nonbinaryeye]

I do not understand how some people can genuinely think that Jean hates or does not care about Harry. Because Jean cares about Harry more than any past or present of version of him deserves.

He tells Jules to treat Harry's call regarding missing badge and gun as prank so he has enough time to "pull his shit together".

He comes back to Martinaise with a stupid joke which is supposed to be kind of peace offering even though by all means Harry is the one who really should apologise as he was the one who drive Jean, Judit and Trant away in the first place.

And he's ten years younger than Harry, Harry is his superior, he is the one who should have his shit together. But he has not. Jean should not have technical rank of the lieutenant yet, he should not be dealing with all the responsibilities, he should not be in charge of the task force his partner is incapable of leading.

All the damage control Kim is trying to do after half of Harry's statements he can say during the game? That is usually Jean doing it.

I mean, yes, he must hate him a bit after all they've been through after all Harry has put him through. But also he still cares so much for him. And just because he has seen him fail to get better way too many times does not mean he would not want him to get better he just does not dare to hope anymore.

And even though in the end he is the one making the judgement over taking Harry back you have to fail on so many levels for him to actually just finally give up on him and leave him there.

#disco elysium #jean vicquemare #harry du bois #disco elysium analysis #mEye post

[keymintt]

i’m sure this has been at least mentioned before but one of the things that’s so fucking funny to me abt kim is that, for all the shit he gives you (harry) when you try to get him to dance or wear the piss jacket, he actually wants to do those things to some extent

over the course of the game you can’t get him (or other characters for that matter) to do things he doesn’t want to do. disco elysium isn’t a power fantasy game like that. don’t get me wrong some things he needs to be convinced/challenged for, but he can and does outright Refuse things at times like when you suggest getting on the kineema and cutting the body down from there, not going into the tent with the ravers, or not climbing up the shitty feld building ladder, etc. and there are also definitely moments when he reluctantly puts up with harry/the player’s antics bc harry’s persistent and it’ll just put a quicker end to things to be like, “yeah sure fine i’ll eat the sandwich“ or, “i'll spare you another *20 hour mind-project*— yes, i am”

when you really badger him into dancing in the church and pass the authority check, he of course puts up some resistance but then goes, “now check *this* shit out!“ and starts busting it down! if he was reluctant to dance, he’d totally just do some stupid lil shimmy to appease harry with the same enthusiasm of, “oh god more cryptids” but no! he starts “heel kick[ing] the church floor with such intensity, it’s reasonable to fear he’ll kick a hole right through it“ he had those moves Locked And Loaded, but it’s not like he was gonna bust them out oh god no, then harry pulls his rank on him and he thinks “well everyone else here can see that the guy making a bigger fool of himself is ordering me to do it so i guess it’s okay for me to“

(thinking abt that, there’s prolly something to also say there abt music being a sort of outlet for kim. in my brain the anodic dance music and the shit speedfreaks fm plays have more in common than not, but kim also strikes me as somewhat of a music snob about that sort of stuff so. i dunno)

and then the pissfaggot jacket! when you’re trying to convince him to put it on he essentially says “you’re gonna keep bothering me about this no matter what“ but at the end of the interaction he still puts the jacket on and keeps it on! “the first chance i get, this thing’s coming off“ yeah right, the first chance he had was immediately after putting it on, harry clearly doesn’t give a shit if kim leaves him hanging fashion-wise, he’s the one who puts on the fuck the world jacket first! and once harry takes off the fuck jacket, the piss jacket is gone too, so it basically boils down to “as long as i’m following around this guy who’s making a bigger fool of himself, i can do this thing that i wanted to do got coerced into going along with“ 

kim’s also like “it really *does* look cool to have both of these jackets on right now“ once he puts it on like who are you kidding bro. your lame ass wanted this. sure he wanted to be a jackass and take the jackets but he also confiscated those hubcaps because they were cool and he was gonna eventually install them, was he not gonna steal the jacket to wear it?

he has his pristine little Image to uphold so he’ll only do things he wants to do if it looks like he’s being forced to and/or he won’t be the biggest fool in the room because god forbid he expresses himself. there’s plenty of deeper analysis here in conjunction with how he relishes in having control over his desires and how harry’s someone who can get him to break his rigid self-control and let loose a bit, but for me it just boils down to:

he’s so fucking lame and it’s so fucking funny

#he has things wrong with him <3 #disco elysium #kim kitsuragi #kim disco elysium #i hope this like. makes sense. i'm more of a fanart guy i don't ever really write out the analytical thoughts i have hkfghls #IF this even counts as analysis either #but nevertheless i had an Impulse #feel free to add to this too or like. debate it idc i'm interested #also hi. i'm talking on here actually #no i won't shut up #<talking tag #greatest hits

[gazorninplat]

As much as I love Disco Elysium, I think I was not prepared for Sacred and Terrible Air. Of course, I was expecting to know more about the world of Elysium as a whole, and Robert Kurvitz is a very good writer, but the thesis of the novel (and how it makes its points) flash-banged me.

Disco Elysium this is not, and it wasn’t supposed to be, but I think I can understand better now what the team at ZA/UM was getting at with this specific setting, and these specific narrative angles. Kinda messy, because it’s been a week since I finished it, but here are some things I’d like to highlight: 

1. The pedophilia. I surely wasn’t expecting this to be such a central theme of the novel, but a lot of its main points revolve around it. The most interesting use of this, as a narrative device, is how the girlfriend of Jesper basically accuses him of being a pedophile because he cannot relate to the adults around him. He’s still obsessed with a girl he met when he was 13 years old, and fetishizes a scrunchie he stole from her bag two decades ago. Yeah, I guess Jesper, well into his thirties, is still in love with a 13 year old girl. His girlfriend is almost half his age, and they started dating when she was 15 years old and a lingerie model (!). Zigi mentions how pedophilia was a bougie disease, and well… That idea went right into my thought cabinet (I call it “Bougie Babies for Sale).

Still processing it.

Now, let’s go back to the rest of the main characters. With all this in mind, a pedophilic overtone covers their interest in these four missing girls, but Jasper is the only one who acts on it, sort of. Khan remains in a sort of arrested development (he still uses a shirt he had when he was 13), foregoing normal adult relationships, and Tereesz joins the police as an investigator with the idea of still finding them some day (essentially letting these eternally prepubescent girls define his entire existence), leading him to a very dark path. I wonder if the brutality they afford to the “actual” pedophiles in the story (Vidkun Hird and the Linoleum Salesman) comes from the realization that they are not that different?

2. Obviously, though, this fetishization of the Lund sisters is also a fetishization of the past. The novel states it in the first few pages; they disappeared twenty years ago, in a time that most conservative people remember as the “good old days”. Basically their version of the American Fifties. Now, being obsessed with the past is a running theme in both SaTA and DE, but the angle here is different.

I already said it: the past is not remembered, is fetishized with an almost sexual yearning by a lot of the male characters of the book. They want to be consumed by it (and lucky them! It will) and do nothing more than serve it. It reminds me of a poem by Yamil Nardil Sadek, which, translated to the best of my ability, goes like: 

She awaits me

sitting on the bed,

wearing leather,

and armed to the teeth,

the Memory.

Yeah, that sums up Sacred and Terrible Air pretty well. Everyone is being consumed by the past, bite by bite, and enjoying it. Vidkun Hird, by the mythologized version of his tribe’s history; Sarjan Ambartsumjan, by a miniature ship model that requires constant, devoted thought or else it will disappear, the three main characters by the memory of that summer with the Lund girls. Even the Linoleum Salesman is being haunted and consumed, of sorts, by his sickness and dementia that only sometimes let him take a peek of the past. Beyond that, there are very few characters that do not spend time being followed by relentless ghosts. Literally, in the case of Zigi. Which brings me to…

3. The Pale. It was a really cool concept in Disco Elysium, and it’s an existential nightmare in Sacred and Terrible Air. It always was, really. But here it lets you take a look into it in a way that’s applicable in real life. The Pale is a metaphor for many things, but actually for a single one: A world where our current Capitalist reality facilitates both apathy and yearning for better days, often idealized in our collective pasts.

My favorite scene, one that was incredibly puzzling but so obvious in retrospect, is a beautiful speech by the ghost (?) of Ignus Nilsen to Zigi. I will just paste it here:

“I said terrible things, yes! I stood on a white horse, in a blizzard, and gave speeches. In the mountains, on the construction site… I swung my sword, with silver sunbeams on the hilt. And all around me fluttered white flags, crests of crowned horns made with silver thread, a pentagon between the prongs of the horns, the branches raised to heaven. Everyone who came here with me became happy, Zigi! Communism is powerful! Believe in Communism, it’s a burst of enthusiasm! I promise! It’s beautiful when you believe in a person, but without it…!”

“Without it, there is nothing.”

“Nothing. It was a blizzard, but it was bright, it was morning. Communism is white, it sparkles! Communism is the morning, it is a jubilation!” 

The Pale begins to recede dangerously around the entroponaut.

The fucking Pale recedes with talk of Communism! At first it might appear a little heavy handed (yeah, Communism, by itself, could save the world). But then I got into how Communism could be a solution to the antipathy and chronic nostalgia that sustain Capitalism, and then it hit me. Nilsen, a literal ghost from the past, is talking about a future that could have been. That he wanted to accomplish. That people, probably, can still achieve. The Pale is not eternal, it can be pushed back. Because the Pale seems to subsist on the past, it abhors any talk of the future. A better future. That’s how we solve things, and for a central thesis, is not bad at all.

With that being said, and because I’m just rambling here while pretending I’m working, there are also some things that I just didn’t understand, but maybe it was because of the translation. The original novel is written in a very poetic style, and some of that is still here, but I still need to untangle…

1. The Man. It is said that the day the Lund girls disappeared, they were joined by a mysterious Man that nobody seemed to remember correctly. A character even suspects that she was remembering wrong. Now, the Pale erases people and memories retroactively, so maybe it had something to do with it, but… Who was that? Is there any theory about that Man, or I just missed something? Some scenes and narrations were tough to parse for me (my primary language is not English).

2. Was Malin Lund pregnant? That flash with the fetus was sudden and weird.

3. What was the significance of the three meat piroshkis? They mention that it was unusual that the girls bought them (and if you do the math, you can realize early on that they were not planning to get back home. That purchase didn’t leave them enough money for the bus fare back), but that’s it. Were they for the Man? Also, the narration mentions that Lund girls’ picnic basket contained “the kind of things girls like to eat”, so maybe they were planning to see the boys and bring them the kind of things boys eat? I’m overthinking that? The chapter actually titled “Three Meat Piroshkis” just left me even more confused.

4. I don’t understand how Khan’s pen works at all. The one he brought to the school reunion. That was the part I re-read the most. Anyway, even with that, I loved Sacred and Terrible Air. Definitely one of the most enthralling reads I had, with or without the background of Disco Elysium. I’d still like an official translation that could potentially solve the issues I had, but for now, a Top 10 Book for me.

Go for it now.

#disco elysium #sacred and terrible air #robert kurvitz #literary analysis #random thoughts #book quotes

[effen-draws]

OKAY it's going to take a while to get to the point with this one but-- de meta time. You see I realised just now that the skua which is referenced throughout the game is a y'know a skua. Like Great Skua skua, like Stercorarius Skua.

And ALRIGHT that might be my bilingual brain that's slow on the uptake (all my bird knowledge is in Danish so forgive me) because perception literally points it out:

BUT HEY. HEY. I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY OF YOU KNOW WHAT THE GREAT SKUA'S WHOLE DEAL IS BUT IT IS NOT NICE. SO LET ME TELL YOU A LITTLE ABOUT THEM BEFORE I GET INTO THE MEAT OF THIS META:

Skuas are a type of predatory bird that primarily lives off of stealing other marine bird's food. Basically they're very good at outmanouvering and bullying other birds until the unsuspecting gull or tern (for an example) drops the fish it had caught. But The Great Skua takes that a step further as the largest of its kind. Becuase it will straight up kill to rob another bird, while also consequently getting the other bird as a meal in the process. Like, killing gulls and puffins are just a regular part of its diet along with the theft.

AND IN CASE THIS ISN'T ALREADY OBVIOUS: THE GREAT SKUA IS AN INSANE BIRD TO HAVE AS A HERALDIC/SYMBOLIC BIRD.

But then I thought; well yes of course the first bird that the nations of Mundi would find as a proof of reality would be the Great Skua. Of course the colonisers would have their first proof of discovering "the New New World" be this bird. Of course the people who after seeing this skua, this living proof that there was more out there to exploit, would then go to other isolas to steal and kill to sustain themselves. Of course the people that established the Suzerain of Revachol, which was (to quote Joyce) "the greatest concentration of wealth mankind has ever seen", would be justified by a Great Skua.

Of course the future foundations of the capitalist world in Elysium would see a skua, the bird that lives of off kelptoparasitism, as their proof of a New New World and new new oppertunities.

And then it only makes sense that The Great Skua became the symbol of the discovery of Insulinde; Mundi's most "promising" steal.

#Was this the intention of the writers? #eh maybe #but I think it's a neat bit of analysis #also the fact that Harry breaks the Whirling's taxidermied skua #and says “fuck that bird” and all #that Harry (as a man that has suffered so much under capitalism) breaks the skua #something something analysis that I'm just going to leave in the tags #disco elysium #disco elysium meta #de #de meta #can't believe my bird knowledge came in handy

[halluciniwaynia]

when disco elysium was discussing the deeply contradictory heart of communism and its associated political practitionists it was not speaking to the idea that communism is doomed or that humanity itself is doomed to perpetuate capitalism until societal collapse. it was speaking to a larger more fundamental truth of humanity that the systems we put in place are social, based around sociality and interaction and who we see as the other and we see as not. it was discussing the ways that individuality and collectivism are two halves of a paradox which cannot be solved in a utopian sense and that any ideology which seeks to better humanity and free itself from subjugation will inevitably be prone to cannibalism before it can even start. not by some force of nature or economic system that is in place, but because the human soul itself is imperfect and any attempt we can ever make at bettering ourselves comes both at the cost of the self and the collective, a paradox of schismed consciousnesses which make up who we are but asks all of us to face truths which naturally we wish to run away from. in the end, it is a capitalistic society’s fault we lack the ability to change ourselves without access to the resources to do so, but even if we had those resources there is something base and beastial about the way humans cannot act to completely solve their own cognitive dissonances

#disco elysium #that’s all the analysis I have on the game rn wrapping my head around the complexity of its narrative and themes has been. Wooooo boy #personal post

[mrtequilasunset]

One thing I don’t see people talk about a lot is that “Sunrise, Parabellum” wasn’t original to Kim, it’s actually engraved on Harry’s gun and I like to think about the idea of Kim waking up after being knocked out by De Paule and still having the gun in his hand and the engraving being the first thing he really focuses in on and it just sort of sticks with him, so much so that he decides it should be the first thing Harry hears when he wakes up too, and I just think that’s kinda neat.

#kim kitsuragi #harry du bois #sunrise parabellum #disco elysium #A brief little moment of empathy from Kim too #auhghghg analysis is not my strong suit so this is really janky but prbrbrrrr yknow #tequila sunrise

[sygneth]

allright i have few thoughts about Jules Pidieu and yall need to listen

He is old. Probably good 10-15 years older than most of his colleagues. Maybe more. From guys like Jean, Chester, Torson, definitely more. He has to deal with a bunch of guys with unsophisticated sense of humor all the time. The talks with Harry makes absolutely no impression on him, he is used to that kind of shit. It may seem that he is tired of it, dealing with drunk officers on duty, with their stupid jokes and using him to banter with one another via official channels. He tries to stay professional. And yet still plays the game and passes all the messages, even not the relevant ones. And even though he seems reluctant, it doesn't take much to convince him to pass even the extreme ones. In his own manner, but he will.

Heck, if Harry will refer to himself as "Firewalker" in the first conversation, Jules will go along with that too, if you call the precinct more than once (well, right after he told Jean that Harry refers to himself as *firewater* and I refuse to belive he didn't do that on purpose as he literally said that right a statement before)

But there is another thing. There is constantly someone in the comms besides him. The rest of the precinct, or at least the C-wing seem to hang out in there all the time. He is a man that others like to have around. What is more, if Harry will ask him for the details of his personal life, what Jules says, suggests he and Harry have been talking quite a lot too. "You're not really keen on mentioning your home life, so I've always assumed things weren't that good on that front" - is what he says.

Yeah, we may assume that Harry is rather keen on talking to people and also talking about himself, though one still needs to talk to another person quite a time to notice which topics they'd rather avoid.

Another thing is, that Jules seems to have heard about Harry's life before the RCM, it's just that the question takes him off guard and then Jean appears and cuts it short.

Even if he looks like he's done TM with the shit he has to deal with, I think he finds some satisfaction in it. He will never admit it, because what he does is sigh and probably roll his eyes while lighting another cigarette, but he actually likes the fact that people come gossip to him, that he is in possession of most of the precinct's secrets, that there won't be a drama he will miss. He wouldn't go into all this if there wasn't a part of him that liked it. He is just very subtle showing this.

#disco talking #but also #echoes talking #yes this is EoE lore now #jules pidieu #disco elysium #deep analysis

[linisiane]

I’ve seen that post on here that’s like “What did they put in this game to make us all Like That,” and I think we’re all Like That about Disco Elysium bc we’re all hyperfixating on it because it surprisingly speaks to the chaos of living with ADHD. And we SEE that and feel seen.

- First of all, Harry Du Bois Adhd headcanons pop off hard, especially with the whole “I do speed to do detective work,” aka I need stimulants to focus, aka unintentional self-medication. Also the poor impulse control, emotional disregulation. And the voices remind me of the way my brain jumps topic to topic so I have like 4 ongoing topics going at once. Stereo investigations, thoughts in the thought cabinet, if you will.

- Additionally, a lot of interactions surrounding Harry’s memory loss even feel very ADHD. ADHD is a problem with working memory (attention/focus), which cascades into causing problems with encoding memories for long term storage. You can’t remember what you never even focused on. Because of this, being forgetful of things that seemed basic or obvious or easy to remember for other people is a staple problem for people with ADHD, and while the game is obviously much more extreme with total retrograde amnesia, I find that the game’s demonstration of “the people being frustrated or confused by basic things you’ve forgotten or misplaced” (and this being taken seriously as a Big Issue affecting your life, even if the others don’t take it seriously/brush it off) is very relatable and almost cathartic. Even if the only reason why it’s taken so seriously in the game is because you’ve just literally lost all your memory… and your gun lol

- Harry doing buck wild things to get results based on the conversations going on inside his head, which don’t get read to the outside world, is very relatable. Again, my brain jumps topic to topic so much that it’s almost hard to track the logical thread connecting the thoughts internally, much less explain them to another person at the same time. The “how did we get here, what exactly brought you to this course of action? This seems unrelated, detective” is very much a conversation I experience on the daily, whether with myself or the people around me.

- Kim Kitsuragi is the ADHD fantasy. @snowberry-pie’s got in one. He’s perfect for fighting off that executive dysfunction by helping you actually get shit done while not being suffocating/controlling/shaming about it. He sorta takes responsibility of you to help you take responsibility of yourself. He’s a body double, your partner in it with you. Lets you go on your barely related stereo investigations and indulges your inexplicable actions instead of controlling you, trusting that it’s part of the process lol. Offers positive reinforcement instead of using shame (like calling Harry a burden) to get Harry to focus on the case.

Disco Elysium has lots to say about how disability is exacerbated/unsupported by the system for a lot of characters, including Harry. Adhd fits right into that, especially with the ways an ADHD!Harry interpretation would highlight the understandable nature of his drug addiction (not only was it a way to cope with chronic pain that no one was treating him for, but also a way to cope with unmedicated ADHD).

Anyways I wrote this instead of writing my paper.

#my thoughts #adhd #harry du bois #harrier du bois #disco elysium #de #“Perseveration” officer? How about we “persevere” in writing that paper? #Kim being like “you lost your memory? You still gotta do your job tho” is me to myself everyday. ಥ_ಥ #Shout out to the opening scene of eeaao for also capturing the experience of living with ADHD subtle-ly #meta #metas #kim kitsuragi #literary analysis

[bluastro-yellow]

I thought Kim's portrait looking a little like the Rising Moon Hanafuda card was just a neat coincidence but I actually like the idea of Kim symbolising a moonrise instead of a sunrise. the Sun is the brightest star in the sky and when it's gone the Moon keeps reflecting its light. what if (if you play him as a huge communard) Harry dies just like Mazov and Kim becomes the "echo maker", the one who spreads his message

#I'm just saying words and blathering because I'm waiting for something and I need to distract myself #I like putting ideas out I don't know if they make sense #in the hanafuda card the moon is rising at sunset 🎴. they meet for a moment #disco elysium #pointless microblogging #if moralism is the blue sky communism is the night sky no? #disco elysium spoilers #sort of #let kim fix the fucking tiptop analysis he needs to do it #even if it's right because he might love machines but you can't deny he craves violence in some complex way #he needs to sit down and write his thoughts on the subject so he can think about it

[ikeameatballspoisonedme]

HEARTBREAKING: James Somerton DID plan to make a Disco Elysium video for his "fall" release

#Look I was bored during food poisoning recovery era so I looked at James Somerton reupload #I watched this plan cuz his Utena video was an utter disaster and I was curious of what other disaster he was cooking #And then. Harry Du Bois. #My life flashed before my eyes. #I JOKED ON TWITTER ABOUT A HYPOTHETICAL JAMES SOMERTON DE VIDEO I DIDNT KNOW ABOUT THIS #I JOKED ABOUT HIS POSSIBLE BAD KLAASJERUBY TAKE #I JOKED ABOUT HIS PLAGIARIZED HARRYKIM TAKES #I DIDNT KNOW IT WAS ALREADY IN THE WORKS #I'm sorry women. #disco elysium #james somerton #EDIT: It's a patreon only vid but omg imagine if hbomb hasn't exposed him and you had to watch his plagiarized PAYWALLED DE takes #I can get high quality poetic Harrykim analysis on Tumblr Dot Com for free thank you!!!!!!!!!! #Anyway I'm lowkey sad that no one archived his stream because according to Lady Emily he streamed the timeline for this #She only shared the Eva one that 2 weeks prior to the expose he HASN'T WATCHED #THE DOCS JUST SAID 'It's a lot 😃😃😃' #I wonder how far the DE plagiarization machine has went through

[the1sammie]

what instantly struck me as my favorite thing about disco elysium (and continues to be especially as I look at fandom content) is how so many of its characters are so insanely filled with depth. it was hard for me to concretely dislike any of the characters (the mercenaries are the only characters I just despise, and the racist lorry driver and gary but even then they got me to laugh at their absurdity). Even when their actions disgusted me or the way they spoke was indecent and cruel, they would do something to remind me of the humanity in them that I love. And the oppisite would happen, too, where the nicest, digestable characters end up rubbing me the wrong way, yet I cannot shake off their inviting persona. They all reflect human nature nearly perfectly imo. If I meet half these characters irl I'd probably hate them or at least dislike them to an extent, but from this third person perspective we have as the gamer I appreciate every detail given to the characters.

#disco elysium #character analysis kinda #characters i thought of specifically are: #joyce #klaasje #dora #jean #evrart #the hardie boys #losef #even kim disappoints me several times but i love him nontheless #rené

[nonbinaryeye]

One thing I really love about Disco Elysium is how it subverts your expectations based on stereotypes and clichés you've learnt to expect from media.

There are the Hardie boys. Obvious first suspects and vigilanties given questionable authority by the Union and what more do they appear at the first glance than some mean boys gang. Except they *are* trying to make Martinaise better and safer place and they are willing to help their neighbours and people who seek refugee there - that's what the arranged lynching was about in the end. And yes their remarks are still sexist, they do not hesitate to use brutal force (I was testing what if I chose the worst option and they killed me and Kim on like three separate occasions). But also they could quite easily be abusing the power they have.

There is Evrat Claire fitting into evil fat ceo stereotype and you expect to learn that he does not really care about his workers and that the whole Union strike and getting benefits for the workers is some evil scheme but no! Turns out he really wants the Union to work out and he fights for his workers. He is using his influence to prevent organized crime and build up infrastructure and he cares about people of Martinaise - enough to create superficial job for René, enough to fund education for Elizabeth. And he is still not a best person. He is trying to bribe Harry. He does not hesitate to get rid of threats to his goals. His plans for Fishing village are not good either. And his refusal to acknowledge the danger mercenaries poses is questionable at best.

There is Cuno, delinquent kid screaming slurs at you and you expect him to be more of one gimmick character that is there just to make place feel more alive but you can actually bond with him and learn not only about his life and domestic abuse but also about his hobbies and you would not expect him to be your companion but there he can be if you fail to save Kim and you can recruit him to RCM.

There is Insulindian Phasmid. Mythical creature that is obviously fake and how ridiculous would it be to really believe in its existence? You expect all the mission surrounding it to be just a treasure hunt in vain that is really not about the Phasmid and more about relantionship of Lena and Morrell but no. The Phasmid is very much real and you can encounter it and it is much bigger and smarter than you would expect even if you did believe in its existence.

And then there is of course Kim Kitsuragi, your partner from precinct 57 and where can one even begin to describe all the contradictions Kim is? He just fits into that boring and very serious cop who is there to serve as your foil and hold you back and guide you and who will always be polite and kind. But no, he is genuinely funny and mean. He will not coddle you he just wants to do his job. He will not hesitate to call you on your bullshit but also he can play along with whatever scheme you are attempting. And he is actually very competitive and he can be silly and he is willing to agree even to some of your straight out crazy ideas. But he does care about you and he is quite amused by some of your stereo investigations. And when you learn about his past you understand why he always tris to keep up his perfect composure. And I will rather stop here because there is just so much to say about Kim.

I could go on and on I do not even know where to begin with our player character Harry and the journey of discovering who he is, who he was and who he could be. I could just keep listing characters and what are you supposed to notice about them at first and who you are supposed to assume they are in contrast what you can actually learn about them as you progress. And, yes, sometimes things are as they appear and the Racist Lorry Driver is just a racist and a lorry driver.

The point is you should never judge others based on the first impression even if they are just video game characters who appear to be cardboard cutout of overused cliché.

#disco elysium #disco elysium meta #disco elysium analysis #kim kitsuragi #insulindian phasmid #Hardie boy #Evrat Claire #cuno de ruyter #disco elysium spoilers #mEye post

[violentlydefending]

Why The Dance Club Is The Best Part Of Disco Elysium

a quick little video essay i made on the anodic dance club a while back that i figured i may as well share here--if you end up checking it out, i hope you enjoy!!

#AAAA WHATEVER here it is AAAAA #new year no fear #sorry for my voice. and for my editing. and for my analysis. sorry for all of it #anyway hi. ily #contra.txt #disco elysium #Youtube #video essay #acele berger #noid #pete andre #egghead #karl holtzmann #q

[truevvamp]

Dora's and Harry's relationship are representation of the past mistakes and how they could haunt a person for a really long time. it's about how nostalgia slowly pollutes your soul and makes you more self destructive.

on the other hand we have Kim's and Harry's relationship which represents hope for future and mutual healing (Harry helps Kim to open up and be less repressed person. and Kim also helps Harry by telling him to get his shit together and supporting him throughout the game)

#disco elysium #harry du bois #dora ingerlund #kim kitsuragi #i need to make more detailed analysis on harry's and Dora's relationship...