Latest / The Autistic Mile / The Ideal-ist: Episode 11 (The Backwards House)
Transcript
- Shane: Hello everyone. Welcome to the Autistic Mile. My name is Shane Gaffney, and this is episode 11 of The Ideal-ist. And today we'll be taking a bit of a departure, in that this will be the first episode where I'll talk about a series rather than a character, to switch things up in light of the fact we've recently completed our tenth episode. And the series I'll talk about today is one that I am personally very passionate about and very excited to see more content from, and that would be "The Backwards House". Now The Backwards House is a sort of YouTube series, but it's also primarily an online comic. And I will address the elephant in a room that yeah, I am talking about a series made by traditional artists in my own series that uses AI art in order to get my point across. That apparent contradiction is not lost on me. I do not pick a side in this AI versus traditional art thing. It's more that this is the simplest way for me to bring my ideas to life. And so that's how I choose to do it. It's nothing personal against anyone else. And the people behind this project have my undying respect, which is part of the reason why I wanted to make this video, in order to bring more publicity to their work. But if that comes off more as an excuse, you could just feel free to rag on me about it in the comments. Either way, The Backwards House is a psychological horror series. And you would not be able to tell that just by looking at it, because on the outside, it looks like a fairly wholesome and kid-friendly friendly series. And that is actually part of the charm in that this series touches upon a theme that I'm highly gravitated towards, as you can imagine if you've seen the patterns in my previous videos, but that theme would be fantasy vs reality. Is it better to accept something that's fake but pleasant? Or real but grueling? And I can highly imagine that you already know where I fall on that spectrum, but as for what the series is about, it's about a bunch of kids who end up getting pulled into this TV world. Where they live out this idyllic house life as cartoon animals looked after by some woman who only calls herself "Mother". And ordinary life there in the Backwards House is actually fairly normal and appealing. Nothing but your average childlike antics and tasty meals cooked by Mother, and occasionally getting on each other's nerves, but ultimately still being friendly with each other deep down as one surrogate family of sorts. As far as horror shows go, it's actually fairly tame, relatively. It's not full of jumpscares scares. It's not full of gore or upsetting imagery. Yet it's also something I wouldn't advise to say children, because it does delve into more disturbing matters, just in a more psychological sense. Namely, in the catch that comes with being in the Backwards House: when you arrive there, you lose all memory of your past life and identity. And unless you can recall what your real name is, then it'll stay forgotten. And all the while your real body is still out there in the real world, slowly just draining away without any food or sleep or anything like that. And even if your real body does kick the bucket, then you'll still be alive in the Backwards House, just living out a life of blissful ignorance. Kinda reminds you of Cypher from the Matrix, if you think about it. But that's where the central conflict of the story comes in, because Mother will do anything and everything to try and keep anyone from leaving, determined to try and keep them there forever, in this happy paradise of hers, and to a lot of people, including the main character of "Curious Cat", or Catie as their real name is, she seems like some Coraline, "Other Mother"-style evil villain who just likes to keep people here just because that's a cruel thing to do. But her motives, while we don't know at the time of recording this what they are, only Volume 1 has been finished, but from what could be implied, her reasons for doing this are more tragic. My personal theory is that at some point in the past she ended up losing her own child due to tragic circumstances she couldn't control, and therefore created this entire world as a sort of coping mechanism to try and redeem herself in her own mind for failing to provide the protection that she believes her child should have had. And so that's why she's so unhinged and unstable. So unwilling to let anyone leave, even if it means keeping them there by force. 'Cause grief can do some very nasty things to people if it's allowed to fester for long enough. And it's actually that moral grayness that draws me to this series in that this isn't presented as some black and white issue like a lot of media does. It shows that there are two sides to this argument, even if the main character happens to be on the side of escaping for reasons of wanting to get back to reality and their old life. It treats its characters with sympathy and dignity. And these various characters are all very diverse and interesting, all having their own different personalities and quirks. And it's implied through some of the material that's been released that they all have their own dark secrets and inner demons to work through. Which I imagine will be explored as the story goes on. I actually happened to make a character of my own, who is very much based off of my own personality of seeking comfort and being an introvert and generally liking to be in a situation where you can live under a benevolent authority figure and as long as you follow the rules and stay in their good graces, everything will go swimmingly. As for my favorite character, I'm actually not sure if I have one. There are so many different diverse characters with all their own pros and cons that it's hard to really pin down for sure which one I would really say I like the most. But I imagine that will become more clear as we see more chapters come forth. And just as a bit of personal speculation here on my part, I would say that there is a certain direction I would find very intriguing for this story to take regarding its main character of Catie, because Catie is obviously the hero of the story. They obviously have good intentions. And I do sympathize with their struggles because I do get that this is basically paradise for me, but for others, obviously they have different priorities, different values, so I do get that it's not everyone's cup of tea, and not everyone is content with simply just staying here forever and going with the flow. But with Catie, there have been scenes showing that they're reckless, prone to sort of improvising their plans as they go, and generally being guided more by passion than by practicality, and that often lands them in more danger than is otherwise necessary. And that's not to say that they're a bad character, far from it. They're very easy to root for. And these are just subtle cracks in their armor. Stuff that hints that there might be a deeper tension underneath, but nothing major, at least not yet. But something I would like from the series, personally, is a character arc where Catie pulls into themselves trying to get everyone on the bandwagon of escaping and returning to reality, and learning the unfortunate truth that not everyone wants that. And Initially being frustrated and trying to sort of "you don't know what you want, I do." their way out of the situation. But eventually needing to face the fact that deciding for other people that they should return to their old lives is no better than Mother deciding that everyone should stay here against their will. Because regardless of your ideals, even if you're fighting for the status quo, it still doesn't really give you a right to say or you know what other people should want more than they do. That's just not how it works. And that would personally be a very huge breath of fresh air regarding this sort of protagonist, because that's a caveat that's rarely ever brought up in these sorts of stories. Usually they just sort of fold to whatever the protagonist wants and never brings up these uncomfortable questions because then that would jeopardize the entire pure good and evil framing of the story. But yeah, this is definitely a story that is very great. Very worth checking out if you think that it might be the sort of content that you're into. They definitely deserve more fans than they already have, which isn't to say that they're doing bad. I would say they're doing pretty well. It's more that you can never have too much support. And to get a little personal, I feel that as children, we don't really get a chance to understand how good we have it until it's too late. Because when you're a kid, all you really know is the boundaries that are placed upon you that you can't pass yet because you're too young. You think about how you can't drive a car, how you can't go on the big kid rides, how you're made to go to school and to do homework and all this stuff. And so through that lens, you start to think that when you become an adult, everything will just magically fix itself, and life will just be overall better. And that can be the case for some, but I find that it's a very good sentiment to appreciate being young while you can, because though you may take it for granted now, once those training wheels comes off, It really hits you like a truck that you're all on your own. Not in a literal sense, obviously. There are still gonna be people who are supporting you and helping you establish those necessary steps to really get where you want to go. But The more freedom you have, the more responsibility it comes with. There's a lot of ways you could easily screw things up if you don't know what you're doing, or if you think you know what you're doing, but you end up overestimating something in the variables and it all just goes down the drain. I myself had a sort of Peter Pan Syndrome as a kid because when I was young, I thought that being an adult was all about giving up the things you enjoy and just doing boring stuff and not being able to be happy because that's what a lot of media for children paints it out to be. Which is true to some extent, but it's not something that you're forced to choose, it's more that you have to balance your responsibilities and obligations with your hobbies and your passions. But back then I didn't know that, and so I sort of spent a large chunk of my childhood just dreading the day where I would have to cross that threshold instead of properly enjoying the wonders that being a kid came with. And so eventually I didn't know what I had until it was gone. So being able to watch a show like this, to some degree it allows me to sort of live out the picturesque childhood I never got to have. I always remember my childhood as the happiest time of my life, but on some level I know that's more nostalgia than anything else, because my childhood was far from perfect. I argued constantly with my siblings. There were all kinds of stressors and roadblocks that cropped up along the way. And I also up until middle school had this weird thing where I had these debilitating nightmares every night, so much so that I would try my hardest to stay awake for as long as possible every night, and of course eventually failing every time. But I look back on all that as more positive than it actually was because on some level I have to believe that I have happy memories back then, that there was some point in my life where everything was so wonderful and magical. Even if I know at the end of the day it's confabulation. It still helps me move forward in my darkest moments. Overall though, Backwards House definitely Gave those "dark whimsy" vibes for as I'm choosing to call it. All that wholesomeness and enchantment, but with a touch of reality and morbidity to really keep it from looking too good to be true, in a sense. Really helps it avoid that trap of making everything in life look more perfect than it is. And losing its sense of authenticity because of it. You know, when you look at everything through rose-tinted day glasses, all the red flags just sort of look like flags, to put it one way. And that's about all I have to say about the Backwards House. Feel free to check it out on YouTube if you feel interested. Be sure to like this video, comment, and subscribe, and I will see you next time. Thank you.