#it's Disco Elysiuming for sure

[argrtagrhrgrggrgrgr]

Virtual insanity (specifically MS Paint)

#Disco Elysium #it's Disco Elysiuming for sure #Kim Kitsuragi #Harrier Du Bois #kimharry #I guess

[indigo6f00ff]

need to share an experience i had 30 minutes ago

(edit: thanks to @walks-the-ages for providing and reminding me to put alt text, sorry it slips my mind alot lol)

#my hands are still shaking to be quite honest i could not put a lot of effort into this. #but like. brain. why did you do that #literally i have been like hopelessly obsessed with de nonstop thinking abt it for the past couple of days it is Scaring me #it is terminal its soooo fucking chronic #disco elysium #kim kitsuragi #for anyone who wants to know i bumped into some guys car that was stopped for a school bus. i think my brain errored and thought #my foot was fully pressing down on the brake pedal but it wasnt. #i am like 99.99 percent sure neither of us had any major damage to our cars but we still filed a police report just in case #because insurance do be a bitch. dudes back bumper was scratched lightly and my front license plate has a dent now #also literally my first ever car accident that ive had ever yippee yay

[pisscreant]

had a vivid dream where there was a "play as Kim" mod and I was super excited

after like 2 mins gameplay Harry just turned around looking scandalised and was like "Ohgod... It's me, Kim. *I'm* Grandpa Piss!"

he refused to elaborate even after I savescummed and exhausted all dialogue options

then a notification flashed like "THOUGHT GAINED: GRANDPA PISS" and I went to the thought cabinet screen. all it said was "What the fuck does he mean by that."

#disco elysium #this wasnt just a dream... this was a Vision #I am 80% sure “grandpa piss” is a meme from somewhere but I'm too weak to google it #(do you think he could tell I was savescumming? #imagine if this was actually a game mode and Harry broke the fourth wall to call the player out for it #I'd wet myself from the terror..... then *I'd* be Grandpa Piss.......) #shitposting tag

[birdmenmanga]

I think there's no greater indication that disco elysium is sympathetic towards communism when it literally says "communism is failure" and then the literal gameplay itself rewards trying and failing. The most obvious one being the Shivers check at the FELD mural, which is an Impossible 20 check BUT opens itself up again and again the longer you spend in the world doing things, but even just looking at sheer probabilities, for any given white check, rolling first and THEN putting a point into that skill upon failure is more likely to grant you success than putting a point first and then rolling, but that would require failing first.

Other things too: Precarious world saying you'll 100% fail red checks no matter what (not necessarily a bad thing, btw!! throwing the boule into the sea is a success but like. in some other ways one would want a perfect petanque throw instead. but people wouldn't typically assume that failure is desirable sometimes from the start) persuading you to accept that you'll fail some things that is irrevocable, for a world where everything is just a tiny bit easier.

The faux game over screen when you faint after reading Dora's letter— emulating a sense of failure on the scale of the entire game. When it rolls up most people go "What?? Game over?? No way, what did I do wrong!!" and waking up after that, with no huge or lasting impact on Harry's health or morale really tells the player, "Sometimes things will seem so bad that it all seems like it's coming to an end, but it's not the end, it's really not the end, go drink so water, you can still go on despite this failure"

I'm sure there are other things as well that are eluding me but like. The literal gameplay rewards failing and succeeding far more so than simply succeeding every single time, and I think you get a fuller experience of Elysium that way too

#just thinking thoughts... #disco elysium #idk man when did we get so scared of failing!! #people never want to speak in class because 'what if I'm wrong :(((' #well then you are wrong... that is okay... it's normal to fail... sometimes saying the wrong thing is a great way to jumpstart a topic... #'getting a good grade in X is both normal to want and possible to achieve' #okay sure but have you made peace with the fact that getting a BAD grade in X isn't a bad thing? #a bad grade in being friends... okay... so you didn't check up on someone in 3 months... you failed... that's fine... #you can learn from it!! you can learn how to keep in touch with people. how to take care of them when they're sick. #how to resolve a dispute. how to communicate and compromise. these are all things you are not born with #and will fail first before succeeding at #Like yes I get that in the age of surveillance your failures may be recorded and preserved forever and that's not great #but if we don't normalize failure I really think we'll just suffocate and die

[kaijukebox]

GET HIS ASS

#Jean is about to break a pillow over Harry lmao… #god I love and miss them. #disco elysium #harry du bois #kim kitsuragi #jean vicquemare #I have a ref for this I just can’t find it… #I’m sure if I typed in ‘pillow fight meme’ it would pop right up #but alas I am so tired…going back to bed for a moment lmao..

[macbethz]

suburbia; or the sad, quiet horror of getting everything you ever wanted

"No Surprises," Radiohead // Safe (1995) // Kingdom Come, J.G. Ballard // Blue Velvet (1986) // "Once in a Lifetime," Talking Heads // Little Shop of Horrors (1986) // Jon Ware on I Am In Eskew // Vivarium (2019) // "His 'n' Hers," Pulp // The Truman Show (1998) // White Noise, Don DeLillo // Supergod, Warren Ellis and Garrie Gastonny // 17776, Jon Bois // photograph of 1970s Las Vegas underground Cold War bunker // Disco Elysium, ZA/UM

#web weaving #lots of movies in this one can't help being a film student #also appreciate my sexy ass color gradient #i recommend all these media in full btw they all explore it more than i can demonstrate w a screencap #im sure im missing stuff. aaa. but this is long #web weave #radiohead #blue velvet #talking heads #little shop of horrors #vivarium #pulp #the truman show #supergod #disco elysium #i am in eskew #17776 #warlock wartalks

[charminglyantiquated]

#as far as I can tell this is an original quote? #thank you mr bagel for your bleak words #I literally doubled back to get a picture of this bc I wasn’t sure I’d read it right #disco elysium ass sign #photo #op

[call-of-the-ocean]

Perception (Sight)

#disco elysium #harry du bois #my art #listening to in the sunshine by jonathan bree on repeat and making this #not sure if it's a wip or finished but i'm calling it finished #disco elysium fanart #harrier du bois #disco elysium harry #harry du bois fanart #de fanart #i hope that's a correct tag... #anyway #finished the game and am rotating everything in my head #BUT ALSO I MISSED SO MANY THINGS

[visismu]

Liz nation, where are you??!!!

#I wanted to draw my favorite Disco Elysium side character!!! #<3 My love<3 #not too sure of this new art style...oh well #disco elysium #elizabeth beaufort

[zionmantis]

sneaky peek

sneaky peek

i started this project weeks ago as a collage (only showing this part) to get out some of my random sketches without taking so long to render (ha)

you can see how well that went.

experimenting with a lot of more traditional-style digital brushes like watercolors and whatnot (clip studio)

#critique welcome #disco elysium #disco elysium fanart #harry du bois #harry dubois #bisexual disaster man #he might be too young looking idk #much may change #or not #not even sure what that face is #HDB

[woellow]

Who sleeps in the middle?

#disco elysium #kim kitsuragi #jean vicquemare #harry du bois #kimharry #harryjean #kimjean #drawing #eepy #please do tell me #like im sure we ALL have opinions about this

[twink-with-an-agenda]

Okay but. Something about Dora Ingerlund not being allowed to just be a human person. Because we see her through Harry's eyes, she is always either deified or demonised. Which is how women are often seen - either a perfect pure angel, or the evil bitch who ruined you. And in Dora's case, this harmful mindset is depicted perfectly. She's never just a woman, just some person, a human trying to make it through life. She is either Dolores Dei, a holy figure, resplendent and untouchable, or she's the ex-something, the shadow looming over you, the damn woman-thing who tore your heart out. Never just Dora. It's so fucked up, but so well done.

#this. came to me so randomly but now I'm thinking about it and i cant stop #I'm sure smarter people have written about this already #de #disco elysium #dora ingerlund #harry du bois #harrier du bois #dolores dei #disco elysium meta

[gonnahaveabigtalklater]

the world of Disco Elysium is bleak and unyielding and this is reflected in the artwork. each character, in their headshot portrait, faces the viewer directly. their expressions are neutral, exhausted, unsmiling. sure klaasje has a faint humorless smirk, and evrart a wide smug grin, but both are obviously carefully-chosen armor against the soul-crushing grind of Late-Stage Capitalism.

not trant though! he's doing a cutesy little over-the-shoulder glamor pose and he is Legitimately Thrilled to be talking to you. this man did NOT understand the genre of the game at ALL.

#disco elysium #trant heidelstam #I thought this man was gonna be either evil or a cryptid for sure when I first met him #I was like 'nobody in this universe is actually happy so this smiling man is Up To Something' #turned out what he was Up To was infodumping and lowkey trying to dad everyone he meets. #sorry mr heidelstam sorry for thinking you were the Insulindian Phasmid in disguise (I still think that would have been cool though)

[ph-cutie]

trustworthy interviewees

nonshiny version belowcut

#these were gonna be little doodles for a bigger project but then i got turbofocused you know how it is. #disco elysium #evrart claire #joyce messier #my art #wahhh. im still not sure i chose a forgivable shade of orange for the background #again yeah you cantell these were meant to be complementary to something else but i like little demon ev too much to keep him in drafts #theyy do need more polish but if i leave this file another day itll start rotting. you understand

[fuffy2002]

#im sure someones made this joke bedore #idc #disco elysium #harry du bois #jean vicquemare #kim kitsuragi #kimharry #Ok bye. #art

[stressfulsloth]

I've seen a couple of takes about Disco Elysium being copaganda going around recently, and beyond the fact that DE is relentlessly critical of the police force in general and makes explicit reference to the failures of the system that allow the officers in game to abuse their power, I also think it's important to note that there very literally is an in-world version of copaganda that the writers of the game use to parody that romanticised view of the brutality of policing. The RCM at their inception were structurally inspired by in-world copaganda- their culture, their "fashions, even weapon preferences, borrow heavily from classic Vespertine cop shows." Every investigation is it's own little drama, every officer imagining themselves to be the bad-ass hero of their own crime serial. Detectives name their cases like they're naming episodes of a TV series in a "robust but literary system"; a title that "draws inspiration from snoop fiction and Vespertine cop show staples". They give themselves nicknames to sound like cool, suave fictional officers- Ace, Dick Mullen, etc.- from the cool, suave world of copaganda.

The legend of the RCM's inception, the "point of contention" over its uncertain origins, is even an extention of that; the whole organisation is shrouded in this self-fictionalising mythos that allows for distance that in turn obfuscates much of its violence to the officers that participate in it. They get to convince themselves that they're not abusing their power; they're the hero of the story! The dichotomy of "good guy" taking out the "baddies," a manifestation of the libertarian fantasy of the "good guy with a gun" who does what it takes, just like in Annette's detective novels, and at the same time who rails against oversight bodies like Internal Affairs/'the rat squad' because due process slows down the immediate satisfaction of Swift Justice, despite Internal Affairs existing to protect the citizens from overreach on behalf of the police. "Wanton brutality" from police in their real world is a cold bitter reality but Dick Mullen was "made to crack skulls," "bend the rules and solve cases no one else can," and which version of that story is more comforting to the overworked, underfunded officers of the RCM?

The level of fantasy and detachment required for the cops to still see themselves as the good guys after everything that they do in the line of duty mimics The Pigs and her breakdown too; she parallels Harry so clearly. Both "did right by the kids" in the past, hoping for a better future- Marianne (The Pigs) by looking out for Titus and the Hardy boys when they were young, Harry in his role as a gym teacher. Both abandoned and left behind by the system that the RCM uphold- a brutal capitalist landscape with no safety nets. Both turning the source of their trauma into a costume, a performance, a shield, shaped by "radio waves and cop shows." The Pigs uses RCM items scavenged from the Esperance where they'd been thrown away, while Harry uses the Dick Mullen hat that Annette gives him but both are essentially in costume.

Harry identifies himself with the fictional detective as a kind of wish fulfilment; Dick Mullen is "wicked smart." He doesn't fuck up his cases and when he's sad it's not pathetic; it's effortlessly cool brooding and everyone sympathises. Everyone loves him. His violence- "skull crack[ing]"- is justified because he's a "good guy" enacting that violence against the victims of police brutality sorry "bad guys". He doesn't ever face repercussions; "Dick Mullen won't be sent to the clink for the sake of some legal niceties!" So if Harry is Dick Mullen then his failures, his breakdown, they're all just a part of being a "bad-ass, on-the-edge disco cop." He's not wrong, he's a hero! This idealised fictionalised idea of the police force, this "new, sadly better, reality" that both Harry and The Pigs cling to is "escapist stuff," "receed[ing] into a ludicrous fantasy world," so far removed from the brutal material reality that they're in.

My point is, idk. Disco Elysium is so far from being copaganda. It is a multi-million word long dissection of it, of the purpose of policing, of state sanctioned violence and its interaction with capital and the fallout experienced within the wider community as well as the trauma cycle created for individual officers. A dissection of how copaganda interacts with RCM culture and perception, and by extension how we interact with irl perceptions of police through that lens.

#ouaghhhhhhh disclaimer; i am bad with words and im not sure that i've properly expressed what i'm trying to say but this is getting so long #the cops are not meant to be the good guys #if you think i've missed something here pls let me know!! #disco elysium #harry du bois #DE rambling #marianne leplante #the pigs #actually just one last note- this isnt in response to any one particular thing ive seen but a few different posts comments and articles