When I wrote my Psychonauts (2005) article, I didn't get to go into much of the symbolism behind the game's design, so for my first issue of Bonus Content, I am going to be revisiting the game to discuss symbolic imagery in each character's mind.
Coach Oleander
Coach Oleander is the main antagonist of Psychonauts, and the head of the camp. He wants to take over the world by stealing the most powerful brains in the world and combining them to make psychically-fueled weapons. Since he was an army general in the past, his mind is appropriately enough, a battlefield, with the segments floating in space. You actually enter his mind twice during Psychonauts, once for Basic Braining, and again at the end, then Raz's and his minds combine.
In Basic Braining, he pulls you into his mind, so he has complete control over where you go. There is no way to see his nasty secrets until you get the mental cobweb duster, which will allow you to go to areas he has blocked off. Once you have, you find out that he was booted out of the army for some kind of war crime. One piece of foreshadowing that I adore in this area is the bunnies scattered about on certain battlefields. More on them later.
At the end of the game, Oleander and Raz combine brains, which forms a meat circus, a conglomeration of their childhoods. You must defeat the ghosts of both of their fathers. Raz's dad is a trapeze artist who supposedly looks down at Raz for his psychic powers (a psychic cursed their whole family to die in water). Oleander's father was a butcher, and you find out that when Oleander was a boy, he found a bunch of cages full of bunnies, which he tired to free, but his dad caught him and then slaughtered the bunnies to make meat. This traumatic moment led to his evil tendencies.
Milla Vodello
Upon your first playthrough, you may miss an important piece of information about Agent Vodello's past. The inside of her mind is a dance party, and it is very easy not to notice a dark little room off to the side, which contains only a vault and a toy chest. If you go in there, Milla's voice will warn you to stay out ("The party is out here, Raz!") The vault will reveal that Milla used to volunteer at an orphanage, and one day she arrived to find the building on fire. Ever since, she has had nightmares about the children burning alive. If you go inside of the toy chest, you will enter this nightmare. You will be barred in while the nightmares, shadowy monsters with many arms and antlers, make screams of anguish at you ("Why didn't you try to save us, Milla?" "It's so hot! I'm burning!"). Milla assures you that she has her nightmares under control, but the party atmosphere of her mind gives the impression that she is just in denial.
Edgar
In the real world, Edgar is trying desperately to paint a portrait, but always ends up painting a bull. When you go into his mind, he is trying to assemble a huge pyramid of cards, and a bull named El Odeo is disrupting his task. So Raz has to go around the city streets and collect cards in wrestling matches. You learn that Edgar had a girlfriend who was stolen from him by a sinister bullfighter. Raz tries to convince said bullfighter to confront El Odeo. Everything is not as it seems, for when you go down into the sewers of the city, they resemble an ordinary high school (flooded with neon water, mind you). As it turns out, the city and tragic love triangle story is a facade for the truth. The bullfighter is actually a football player who stole the cheerleader Edgar had a crush on in High School, and El Odeo represents Edgar's rage and jealousy, which has been holding him back ever since.
Gloria
First I need to say that Gloria's Theater is one of the most brilliant uses of not just video game storytelling, but expository storytelling in general. In Psychonauts, some things are handed out in simple exposition, but in this level, it is all symbolism. Gloria is a burnt-out actor living at the insane asylum, and the inside of her mind is a stage. Gloria's persona is unable to perform due to the frequent attacks of "the phantom," and the scathing remarks of the critic. Instead, an elementary-school level play rehearses indefinitely, and you get to play director. By changing the mood lighting and stage props, you get to witness the story of Gloria's childhood. She was abandoned as a child by her mother, who dumped her off at an orphanage to run off with her new boyfriend. Gloria endured years of cold and painful scrutiny from the headmistresses, until she finally got her escape through stage acting. Just as she found her early success and critical acclaim, however, she finds out that her mother died. Now in severe depression, her career quickly deteriorates, as does her psyche. As it turns out, the critic is the phantom in disguise, and by defeating him, Gloria can finally shine.
I feel so bad that we havent had enough time to read all of these, we are both working full time and barely can even get through all of our subscriptions videos D: But you really did a good job with this, its interesting looking into stuff like this
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