#astralad | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

reikiajakoiranruohoja · 1 year

Text

PSN2: How to write a mature narrative

In this age of progressive content and boundary-pushing, there is still something missing. Most of the boundary-pushing media is made for children and the media trying to be adult tends to sadly fall into the South Park trap of excess.

Enter Psychonauts 2 and I’d say one of the most mature story arcs I have ever seen depicted. Especially as this story arc has no right answer or an easy solution.

The Maligula story from start to finish has this feeling of regret and every character (minus poor Helmut) messed up in it.

To start with Lucrecia opened her mind and destroyed most of the mechanisms protecting it. That isn't bad, it was a time of experimentation. But when her country was invaded and her husband was killed? She left without rebuilding her mental defences. Yet the most important part of this is that she left at all, considering she must have known Grulovia was a shithole. Lucrecia could have taken her sister and her spouse from the country and emigrated to America.

She didn't, though. Because as flawed as it was, Grulovia was her home. Her family had lived there for generations, they had a history there. So she rushed back home to defend it. Being one of the foremost experts in her field, she became a great asset in the war. Which eventually netted her a high political position, because dystopias are nothing if not pragmatic. Morally speaking, this was not a good choice. Lucrecia was supporting a tyranny as its punishing arm. Yet, this is a choice people often make in situations like this. Grulovia was invaded once, it could be invaded again. People who have faced a defensive war often feel the need to be on their toes, even generations later.

Lucrecia ending up murdering her sister adds to the moral greyness. She did not want to do it, it was an accident. But by that point, her choices had let her into a mental state that was just waiting to explode. Maligula choosing to just drown the whole country makes a twisted amount of sense. The Gzar's orders led to the death of her sister, the country was not getting better.

So screw everyone equally, they deserve to drown.

This alone is a very mature storyline, as it showcases how a person can end up the way Lucrecia did. Many have ended up becoming monsters in similar situations in real life. Minus the psychic powers of course.

Then we come to the fallout of Maligula and how it hurt her friends. How Ford, in a desperate attempt to 'fix' things, ended up creating a massive lie and something that would affect Lucrecia's family generations later. The Hand of Galochio serves as a great stand-in for generational trauma.

He ended up hurting Helmut too since he left the poor guy's brain chilling in the Astralade without even a note stating it was Helmut's brain.

The narrative lets Ford's actions stand for themselves. Was he in the right? Was there another way? The game does not say, because to offer a solution would undermine the story's point. Sometimes, people do awful things with good intentions. Sometimes, there is no right choice but a bunch of bad ones and you must choose one.

Sometimes, people cannot recover from such trauma. Compton was already a nervous wreck, seeing his friend become a monster was the last straw for him. Bob lost his husband and was already self-medicating with alcohol. Cassie could not figure out the role she should play. Ford destroyed his mind from the shame. Otto was the only one who kept on going, I guess he had better coping mechanisms than his friends.

On top of all of this, the person who ended up rekindling the conflict? A spoiled rotten rich boy who could not accept even a little loss of status.

The maturity of this storyline shows up in all its aspects. The choices the characters make and why they make them are sadly very realistic. The fact that the team split up and could not cope is sad but it happens. The complete lack of any 'golden ending' or an easy way out for the characters shows how intentional this was.

This is how to do a mature narrative right.

#psychonauts 2 spoilers #psychonauts #psychic 7

24 notes · View notes