Latest / Replay Reviews / Wait… the Bird is Blue? - Heavy Rain - Summary

Transcript

Wait… the Bird is Blue? - Heavy Rain - Summary · Replay Reviews

0:00
Thank you for coming back from our replay reviews.
0:04
My name is Leah.
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And my name is Cathy.
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We are two friends who are here to replay, review, and analyze your favorite video games.
0:11
And since Cathy has never seen the games before, it helps me view them through her fresh eyes,
0:15
almost like I'm discovering them again for the first time.
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We hope it will be a similar experience for you.
0:27
Before we start on our first topic, I just need to ask you, do you have any conversations
0:33
regarding Merlin that you want to discuss?
0:36
Yeah, uh, why the heck did he die?
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What was the purpose of it?
0:41
Okay, I don't know if that's gonna be a long conversation or not, but the reason I asked
0:45
you is because I realized something.
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I don't think Merlin is a canary.
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Merlin is blue.
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Is it Merlin yellow?
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No, Merlin is blue.
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I went back and I looked.
1:02
Look at your face.
1:05
How is he not?
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I thought he was...
1:07
What?
1:08
Our whole tagline is a lie.
1:11
We've been lying to ourselves.
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My canary in a coal mine theory is shot.
1:17
This changes everything.
1:19
Oh, okay.
1:22
So as I was looking up, he's blue slash gray, I don't know why we thought he was freaking
1:28
yellow.
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The background of the photo of Merlin is yellow, so maybe we got that confused.
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Besides the coloring, he very much resembles a canary, but not the one thing that really
1:39
identifies a bird as a canary.
1:42
We have colors named after this bird, canary yellow, and we still looked at a blue bird
1:47
and said, you know what, that's a canary.
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I had to call us out.
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We have to correct this.
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And don't defend us by thinking that we're colorblind, because I don't think we are.
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We just strictly just thought he was yellow.
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What color is this?
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It's blue.
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Okay, I think we're both good.
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Yeah.
2:08
I think we're good.
2:10
I want to confess right here that as I was looking at photos, I saw a sentence saying
2:16
why Merlin had to die and the symbolism, so I can't really claim it.
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It's mine.
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I just saw it and I'm just going to read it.
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I'm going to cite my sources and this is heavyrain.fandom.com slash vicki slash Merlin.
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All the slashes.
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What the symbolism for Merlin's death is that it one, foreshadows the death of Jason, and
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two, it has the parallelism of Sean saying that he would do anything for Merlin to come
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back to life is equivalent to Ethan, who's going to do whatever he needs to do to save
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Sean, which is completing the trials of the origami killer's games.
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And so that's just the symbolism is that do whatever it takes.
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Well, okay.
3:07
Yeah.
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This is not my theory though.
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I want to say that this is someone's theory and so I can't claim it, but my own personal
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thought was that it was a completely useless kind of scene and it is just to tug our emotions
3:22
of like, oh no, a bird died.
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Yes.
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Which I know it is sad in some cases.
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It's equivalent of movies saying that the dog died just to tug people's emotions.
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I think it's just them, their first attempt at trying to make us feel something.
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Yeah, I agree.
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It feels pointless, which is why I don't think they're wrong about the symbolism, but I don't
3:40
want to think that that is the extent of Merlin because it feels very, very out of place and
3:45
unnecessary, which is why I cling to the theory of Sean saying I would do anything to bring
3:51
him back to life and they're, you know, following that is Jason's death.
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I feel like he sort of blames himself and that adds to his character and what his character
4:02
is feeling and going through, which in turn affects Ethan.
4:05
But again, we don't know what happened to Merlin.
4:08
Did we ever do a So Long for Merlin?
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I feel like at this point we need to do a special summary episode, So Long, for this
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not canary bird.
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We'll just say Mother Respector because I mean, he did no wrong.
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He did no wrong.
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So Long Mother Respector by Merlin.
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Okay.
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Should we actually get into the actual outline for this episode?
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Yeah.
4:34
So for our first topic is our burning questions and we really can sum it down to two main
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questions.
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And so the first question is why are there so many connections between Ethan and the
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origami killer?
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So yeah, let's discuss some of these connections.
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We have the blackouts on the killing nights.
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We have the origamis in his hand and the fact that he wakes up at Carnaby's corner north.
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The question is why, if he's not the killer, where the heck do these connections come from?
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Could it be that he just has knowledge of the origami killer from reading newspapers
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and stuff?
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But would he have learned how to make an origami dog off of that?
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Would he know where this death occurred based off of that?
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Because I don't think anyone knew the origins of the origami killer.
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My only potential theory at this point, there's more that I'll talk about in one of our other
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topics but for now, the only thing I can see is that he just read about it in the newspaper.
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Because if he's not involved, how else would this be happening?
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And the fact that even if Ethan reads things about it, he also isn't doing anything about
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it.
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I want to cite one example is when he receives a letter about the church.
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The quote is, when the parents came home from church, all their children were gone.
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They searched and called for him.
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They cried and begged, but it was all to no avail.
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Ethan does nothing with that though.
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And there is not much of a reason for that either.
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So I feel like our point of saying that Ethan being interested in picking up how to do origami
6:20
isn't really a valid reasoning because we see him who gets these letters and he just
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goes like, cool, I'm gonna go shoot some hoops.
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He has very odd reactions to things and very conveniently timed blackouts.
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It's suspicious.
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In my reasoning, why they made there be so many connections is that it was trying to
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make Ethan look suspicious, who else better than the main character to pretty much gaslight
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himself into thinking that he might be the killer.
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With Ethan, you also see him killing Brad and that also does make him a killer in some
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way, not an origami killer who's notoriously famous for being a serial killer.
7:03
But we also do see that Ethan is capable of murder and he probably is capable of doing
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more murders.
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For whatever reason, just this time when you said origami, it made me think of something.
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So I replayed a couple of chapters of the game today to look at alternate choices.
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And when the game is loading, it gives you little instructions that you might have missed
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at other times.
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And one of them was like, when you see this symbol, unfold it slowly.
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That's why the controls are so weird.
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They're trying to mimic origami folds.
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I've never noticed that.
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And so maybe we move on to the next burning question.
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And it is what happens to the fathers that quit the trials that decided, you know what,
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it's too difficult.
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I'm just going to let my child die.
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I think the main thing is that Scott just leaves them to hopefully die from guilt.
8:02
It doesn't do anything to pursue it.
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He just gets confirmation that they truly are bad fathers.
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And I actually coming at it from a different perspective, I actually think that the reason
8:12
why Scott is letting these dads survive and their children die is that Scott just wants
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confirmation that these are bad people.
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I feel like he just wants confirmation that fathers are terrible.
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And I think that's a bit of a PTSD.
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And that's how he grew up seeing his own dad just not care.
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That makes me think that, do you think that Scott left his own dad alive or dead?
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I have no research on this topic, but this is my immediate thoughts.
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He was still a young child when all this occurred and was taken away and adopted fairly quickly.
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I think most likely his father was probably arrested for like negligence, maybe even child
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endangerment or died of alcohol poisoning.
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I don't think that this man lasted very long.
9:04
So I don't know.
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But maybe that's part of what you're saying.
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Maybe he would have liked to punish his father, but he couldn't.
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So now he's punishing other fathers.
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That's really similar to what I thought too, is that the reason why these trials are so
9:19
challenging is that he's almost in a way thinking of these fathers as his own fathers and in
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a way trying to punish them because he couldn't do that.
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So with his own father, and it's just this twisted way of coping with everything that
9:33
happened.
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The only note I put on this is still unanswered from what I saw of the alternate choices.
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So we're gonna dive into those, which is topic number two alternate choices.
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So we're first gonna analyze what happens basically if you abandon the trials or fail
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the trials.
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For the first trial for the driving one, I basically tried to fail it.
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So I delayed it as long as I could by listening to every single one of Ethan's thoughts, and
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then just ignoring all the QTEs and crashing into everyone.
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And basically time just runs out and he crashes sooner and limps away from the car without
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getting the letters.
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And the second one, which is the the coward door, right?
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He walks out the door and just says, this is it for me.
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It's over.
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And then it cuts away.
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And then if you don't take the poison, you just walk out, turn around, leave.
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He's not necessarily punished for failing these trials or abandoning these trials.
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He just has fewer letters.
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I can't remember, do we need the letters in order to go to it?
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Or was Ethan still able to guess what the letters are without getting the letters?
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Yeah, so in our gameplay video, he got all the letters.
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And when I replayed and failed a few of the trials, he had enough to make a guess.
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And there was three options.
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I purposefully chose one that I knew wasn't it.
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And he gets so he's like, no, it's a restaurant.
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I was wrong.
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So what happens when you show up at the wrong restaurant?
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He doesn't find Sean, so you better hope someone else does.
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But I will say, so everyone has like multiple potential deaths, right?
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And for Ethan, I believe all but one of his deaths are suicide.
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I guess that's the effects of failing these trials and not saving Sean.
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Does Ethan just commit suicide before finding Sean or does he get Sean's body through the
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mail or like, I guess, you know what I mean?
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Does he get confirmation that Sean truly is in the water?
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You know what?
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You're dying right now.
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No pun intended.
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I'm sorry, you said does he get Sean's body through the mail?
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You said that, right?
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Yeah.
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Like, I'm thinking like chopped up in pieces or something.
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Like my overactive imagination.
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Oh, between that and the skin sliding off.
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We're gonna get censored.
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I don't know how to answer your question because I haven't seen all of these endings.
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All I know is I think if you fail to save Sean, I think in most situations where he
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kills himself, Sean's probably dead.
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Where that's taking me is, is this what happens to the fathers?
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Are they so active guilt that a lot of them end up committing suicide?
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Or do they just run away because they still feel like the ones that are missing, if they're
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dead, someone's gonna find them at some point, right?
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And then news is gonna travel back to their widows.
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Most likely at least one of them is gonna be found, but we never hear anything about
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that, so maybe they just run away.
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But I guess what is the competency level of the police department if they never even resolved
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Brad's death or Manfred's death?
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And I will say that in Brad's case, there's like a whole pile of vomit that's all Ethan's
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DNA.
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I don't know if we know that they haven't solved those cases.
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Oh, okay, that's true.
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I just don't think they're important enough for the screen time.
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Because they did arrest Scott for Manfred's death initially.
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So he was at least a person of interest.
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So second alternate choice is the finger cutting tools.
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We mentioned in that episode, what would happen if you picked the worst things?
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And we decided that the scissors and the saw would be the worst.
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And I think the developers agreed because there is a trophy called Butcher.
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And it's using the saw or the scissors to cut off your finger.
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So I'm guessing the animations are fairly similar.
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I ended up using the saw after some deliberation.
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I don't know if you want to see it.
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If you couldn't handle the cleaver, you're not gonna be able to handle this.
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It takes some more effort, I'll tell you that.
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So he does the initial like, I'm gonna try to chop it off with a saw because I'm a dumbass.
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And then he goes, I need to saw it because it's a saw.
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And then so much pain, he falls to the floor.
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It's not gone yet.
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So he has to do one more swoosh with the saw to get rid of it.
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Can you tell I'm making a face right now?
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I'm sure that it'll be in our video episode though on YouTube.
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Oh, yeah, I don't want to review it.
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Alright alternate choice number three, taking versus not taking the trypto.
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Did you have any notes before I tell you the truth, according to Heavy Rain Wiki?
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I was gonna say that if he doesn't take the trypto, he's not gonna be able to function
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enough to solve the case.
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And so I think that not taking the trypto is going to lead to not arresting the origami
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killer.
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No.
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Huh.
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I think it should have.
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The way that they put on these choices where you have to take it or not take it, it makes
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it seem very important.
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But according to Heavy Rain Wiki, I keep almost saying Yakuza Wiki because I'm so used to
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saying it.
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It says that the choices surrounding taking trypto do not change any of the outcome in
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the game.
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However, there is a potential epilogue where Jaiden dies of a trypto overdose.
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What?
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Did we not see the overdose scene?
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No, because in ours he flushed it.
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Oh, yeah.
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Do we know if trypto affects the ability to use RE?
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From what other people are saying, it's pretty similar to what we were thinking.
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RE causes trouble.
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And we've seen that with the blurring, the mixing of reality and the VR.
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And the trypto is the medication for that to stop that.
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He has withdrawals from it.
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And so he is addicted to it.
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And we discussed this a lot in the last episode, so I don't want to get too deep into it.
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But yes, he's addicted to it.
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If you take it too much, I think that's probably where you get the epilogue of him overdosing.
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But as far as the decisions in game, it doesn't change the storyline.
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I think this is our most exciting topic that we are excited to talk about.
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I could have said that a lot better.
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I sound like a two-year-old.
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Topic number three is discussing the therapist.
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Because we both agree, I believe, I think.
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He would have been a way better killer in this game than Shelby.
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But the more I think about this, the crazier my theory is, is that I believe the therapist
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should have been the killer because the therapist could be the reason why Ethan gets his blackouts.
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The therapist is either doing some kind of hypnotizing therapy or something that is causing
16:53
him to have these blackouts.
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Or maybe he helps Scott Shelby throw Ethan in the trunk and move him from point A to
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point B. And he's the reason why there's an origami in his hand.
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The therapist is probably there to shove that origami into his hands and into all the other
17:12
victims and to be pretty much Scott Shelby's alibi.
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And I also do think that Scott isn't capable of doing all this by himself.
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I think he needed an accomplice.
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Yeah, the doctor should have been the killer.
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It makes more sense.
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He's a Warnocky in the making.
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He is.
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Mine differs from yours a little bit, but let's just start from the beginning.
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So like point one for me, he could have put these ideas in Ethan's mind.
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The visions of drowning bodies, the location of Carnaby Corner North.
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And then he says that the visions of drowning bodies are a result of his trauma surrounding
17:52
Jason and potential brain damage.
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Brain damage makes you think that could be anything.
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That could do anything to your brain.
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Okay.
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But that's pretty coincidental that it's drowning bodies and it has nothing to do with
18:03
the trauma that he experienced with Jason.
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So that to me is a red flag.
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And it would explain why Ethan knows the location of the incident that took place with Scott
18:14
and John.
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Point number two, he could be causing the blackouts that we still don't understand.
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Like you said, hypnosis, anything like that.
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He could easily do that.
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And is this a great way to ensure that Ethan does not have an alibi?
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Point three, I think he's been waiting for his perfect fall guy and Ethan is just sick
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enough to be able to convince him or put ideas in his head and not only control him in this
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way, but also get him to actually believe that he is a killer.
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Even Ethan cannot see another explanation other than him being the killer.
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He believes he is a killer for a long time.
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And again, this also helps explain why the doctor refused to talk to Jayden and Blake
18:59
about Ethan while he was being physically assaulted, only to tell them everything and
19:04
implicate Ethan when there was no direct threat against him.
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I just think that the doctor would be a better killer.
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I think it fills in a lot of these plot holes that we've been discussing.
19:17
Whereas Scott Shelby is just maybe a more interesting killer because he's one of the
19:21
main characters.
19:23
I agree too.
19:24
I guess it has to be Scott Shelby because when we play as his character, I mean, how
19:29
often do you get to play as the serial killer?
19:32
And also he seems like a good guy helping all these families when in fact he's just
19:38
destroying evidence.
19:39
My other take of this and in a way a tangent.
19:44
If this was the therapist being the actual killer, I think that could tie back to the
19:50
letter that Ethan got about when the parents came home from church.
19:53
And the reason why I'm saying this is because this office of where the therapy sessions
19:58
are they're staying class and I associate that with churches.
20:01
And so when the parents came home from church, church being his therapy office is, all their
20:06
children were gone.
20:07
And in that case, the therapist probably had someone helping him kidnap all these children.
20:13
They search and call for them.
20:14
So the parents are trying to find their kids and they cried and begged.
20:18
But it just that I feel like everything fits better with that letter because right now
20:22
we're doing nothing with the letter.
20:24
And if I was the game creator, I would have made the therapist a killer and this letter
20:29
would have made a lot more sense.
20:30
But I think we're going to, well, we are going to post about this in Reddit because I think
20:37
it warrants a discussion.
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So if you have thoughts on this, go find our Reddit.
20:41
It will be linked.
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However, as we've been discussing, especially around this therapist, there's a lot of unanswered
20:47
questions and that's where we're going to watch Cutting Room Floor, which and I quote,
20:53
addresses some of the development history of Heavy Rain explaining plot holes, as well
20:58
as some small informational extras.
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So maybe this will fill in a lot of these questions for us.
21:05
So we're going to go ahead and watch this now.
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It's only like five minutes long.
21:10
Okay, I'm excited to watch it.
21:32
In the original version of the game, Shelby entered Anne Shepard's hospital room just
21:37
after Madison.
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He hugged her in his arms and then smothered her with a pillow.
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God damn.
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What?
21:44
This just started so hard.
21:55
It's very intense.
21:57
And I don't know if you'd have to be the one controlling the act of killing your mother.
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I feel like this should come with trigger warnings.
22:03
My goodness.
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Oh my God.
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Oh my God.
22:35
What?
22:49
What?
22:53
came upon the body of the child, the victim of the origami.
22:57
What?
22:58
What?
22:59
He would then wake up, as in the final version,
23:02
in Carnaby Square, with an origami figure in his hand.
23:06
The first blackout takes place after Ethan puts
23:09
his son, Sean, to bed.
23:10
Once Sean is asleep, Ethan goes back downstairs.
23:14
But when he reaches the bottom of the stairs,
23:16
he sees water on the floor at the front door.
23:19
He turns around and sees water coming down the stairs
23:21
behind him. The water continues to rise.
23:25
Looking out the windows, we realize that the water outside
23:28
is already higher than the house.
23:30
Ethan runs toward the front door of the house.
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When he gets there, the door literally explodes,
23:35
and an enormous quantity of water submerges Ethan.
23:39
The second blackout, which is much more spectacular,
23:41
happens when Ethan loses Sean in the park.
23:44
The camera started to tremble more and more,
23:47
and a tsunami suddenly submerged
23:50
that whole part of the city.
23:54
Then we found Ethan underwater, as in the previous blackout.
23:57
Two similar elements for a paranormal explanation.
24:02
Shelby was present at the time of Ethan's accident,
24:05
and a special bond was forged between them.
24:07
From then on, Ethan accessed Shelby's mind
24:10
whenever he killed children.
24:11
What?
24:12
Are you f***ing kidding me?
24:15
What?
24:16
There's no f***ing way.
24:17
I'm sorry.
24:18
Access, close mind.
24:19
I'm sorry.
24:21
So you're telling me the explanation for their blackouts
24:24
is that their minds melded?
24:28
What?
24:29
F*** off.
24:30
F*** off, David Cage.
24:33
I'm specious right now, so let's keep going.
24:35
But what the absolute heck is going on?
24:38
Corresponding to the times when Ethan found himself
24:40
in the house underwater filled with Shelby's-
24:43
What?
24:44
The water is the metaphorical representation
24:46
of the killer's mind.
24:48
During his blackouts, Ethan goes to Carnaby Square,
24:51
the place where Shelby's brother died,
24:54
and he makes an origami figure at the same time
24:56
as the killer makes one to leave in the hands of the victim.
25:00
These scenes were not retained in the end
25:02
because they made the story too complex and-
25:04
What's it complex?
25:05
What's it stupid?
25:06
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
25:08
They made the story too complex?
25:10
No.
25:11
If this had been part of the game from the get-go
25:14
and there was a paranormal aspect to it,
25:18
number one, that could explain Merlin a little bit better,
25:20
which by the way, Merlin was like a medieval warlock
25:23
or something, so another connection there.
25:25
But if this had been included, it fills in a plot hole,
25:30
which is what the hell is going on with these blackouts,
25:32
and why does Ethan have so many connections
25:34
to the origami killer?
25:36
Two of our biggest questions that we have,
25:39
they can be explained by this.
25:41
I don't like it, but if this was part of the game
25:44
and if a more of a paranormal aspect was included
25:47
in the game as a whole, I would be into this.
25:51
I would rather have this than have plot holes,
25:55
and I hate it when games say the audience is too stupid
25:58
to understand because that's essentially
25:59
what they just told us.
26:01
Or was it that they recognize how stupid it is
26:04
that they cut, but here's the-
26:05
Okay, no hate towards game creators,
26:10
but my thoughts is that if you're gonna cut
26:13
all these blackouts, why didn't you cut everything?
26:16
Why did you still leave some blackouts
26:19
and some conversations of it
26:21
when you don't really do anything with it?
26:23
Why not just cut it more?
26:24
Don't do it for the sake of dragging out time,
26:26
because I think this is complete and utter bull crap.
26:29
I think that if you are gonna leave blackout scenes in it,
26:33
leave everything, or don't leave it at all.
26:35
Don't just leave a few things and say that,
26:37
oh, the game player is gonna be too stupid to understand.
26:40
100%, it's like they took away the cause,
26:42
but left the effect.
26:43
You can't have effect without the cause
26:45
and not have the audience be confused.
26:47
I'd rather see the cause and be like, huh,
26:50
I don't really understand what's going on,
26:51
but it seems to affect this.
26:54
But they took the cause away and left us with only the effect,
26:57
which leaves us extremely confused and full of plot holes.
27:00
Well, the thing is that the-
27:01
Like a Swiss cheese.
27:02
The effect was even isolated.
27:03
I feel like the effect should have been taken away,
27:06
because it doesn't really do much to it.
27:08
It doesn't add value, it only adds confusion.
27:10
And I think if you ever get a scene
27:12
that adds confusion instead of value,
27:14
then maybe you need to consider not putting it in.
27:17
Sorry, I'm just so frustrated and heated right now.
27:20
Well, I could have even cut these scenes,
27:22
but added in a few things of like,
27:25
Ethan having weird flashes of someone else's memories.
27:28
You know what I mean?
27:28
Any small clue, subtle hints,
27:32
or even him saying to his therapist,
27:33
I'm having flashbacks of like things
27:36
that I don't remember living.
27:37
It's like I'm seeing someone else's memories.
27:39
Two lines and you have it.
27:41
I'm not confused anymore.
27:43
I'm intrigued.
27:44
Okay, we're mad.
27:46
I pause at 312.
27:48
Pause at 312, we're gonna continue.
27:50
We decided to remove them a few months
27:52
before the end of development,
27:54
particularly in order to speed up the start of the game,
27:56
recenter the narration and anchor the story in reality.
28:02
This scene shows us Ethan getting out of bed in the morning.
28:06
He goes to wake up Sean to take him to school.
28:09
The scene is redundant
28:10
because of the father and son scene.
28:12
However, this part of the game was not without interest.
28:15
It placed the player in the role of a responsible father,
28:18
looking after his son and himself.
28:22
As he passes near the letter box,
28:24
Ethan notices the origami killer's letter
28:27
that informs him that his son will soon disappear.
28:32
Of course, it is a touching scene,
28:34
but too close to the father and son and the birthday scene
28:38
for it to have any real existence of its own.
28:40
We therefore decided to include the letter
28:44
in the father and son scene and to get rid of this scene.
28:49
That one actually made sense.
28:51
Okay.
28:52
Madison is the most enigmatic character in the game.
28:55
Debatable.
28:57
Debatable.
28:59
It's like they listened to us
29:02
or just yanking our chain right now.
29:04
Oh my goodness gracious.
29:07
Okay, here we go, 420.
29:09
Okay.
29:10
We know very little about her,
29:11
an insomniac journalist investigating the origami killer.
29:15
In one of the first versions of the game design,
29:17
Madison went to her newspaper office several times.
29:20
At the American Tribune, she could conduct research
29:23
to find possible suspects, speak with her boss,
29:26
and write articles after her missions.
29:28
In the same way, Madison's apartment
29:30
was different in the beginning.
29:32
It was in the process of being redecorated.
29:34
One of the player's first tasks was to repaint
29:37
and change the layout of the apartment
29:40
in order to personalize it.
29:42
This was an interesting characterization process
29:44
for a character who still remains quite mysterious.
29:47
We never learned in the game
29:49
why Madison suffers from insomnia.
29:52
In reality, it stems from her past.
29:55
As a journalist, she was a war correspondent
29:57
during the armed conflict in Iraq.
30:02
Okay, okay.
30:04
What?
30:05
I don't know how we got there.
30:09
Well, that doesn't explain anything about her weird dream
30:12
about getting her neck sliced, right?
30:16
I don't know, unless she was like, saw something like that.
30:20
Well, okay, if that's not the case,
30:21
then why didn't they take out the entire first scene
30:24
of when we meet Madison
30:25
and then we didn't have to make a shower
30:26
in some stupid pointless showering scene?
30:29
Well, Kathy, they had to leave in the boob break.
30:32
Ugh.
30:33
Remember, every game needs a boob break.
30:35
Okay, so doesn't answer questions for us.
30:39
Yes, but not that we like.
30:43
I think they made a mistake removing those scenes
30:45
and then not having a replacement for them
30:48
because it takes away the whole explanation
30:51
for what's happening in Ethan's life,
30:52
and instead it leaves it looking like
30:54
they're just trying to make Ethan
30:55
this really big red herring, and there's no reason to it.
31:00
I mean, they don't care what we think,
31:01
but that's my opinion.
31:04
Yeah, I'm just-
31:05
Wow.
31:07
I'm annoyed.
31:08
I'm annoyed at...
31:10
I feel like you making me watch this video
31:12
makes me even a bit more annoyed
31:14
about this game than I was.
31:16
See, I knew it included some information on the blackouts,
31:19
and I can tell you that that's the last thing I expected.
31:22
The absolute last thing.
31:24
100% our theory for who the killer should have been is better.
31:28
It's better.
31:29
I like the mind meld theory if it had been, like I said,
31:36
explored in the story other than just in those blackouts.
31:39
I think that would have been cool.
31:40
That would have added a whole new element to the story.
31:43
Instead, we are just angry.
31:45
I guess they could have done a better job
31:46
of even hinting that there's an ability to do so.
31:50
There's some mysterious elements to this
31:53
from sorcery, everything.
31:55
Maybe they're able to do some like
31:57
live switching and fate switching with Merlin and everything
32:00
just to kind of show that this isn't about a realistic game
32:03
of what happens in reality.
32:04
This is a game with some magical elements in it
32:07
and some mind swapping or mind accessing parts to it.
32:13
Yeah, I agree.
32:14
And I know that they cut these just a few months
32:16
before launch, so they wouldn't have a lot of time
32:18
to replace it with things, but...
32:19
Then maybe don't launch the game.
32:21
Right.
32:22
If they had just a scene with, oh look, Merlin's alive now,
32:25
after Jason's death, gives you some more of that
32:27
supernatural aspect.
32:29
And instead of him going to the psychologist,
32:31
have him go to like a palm reader or a medium
32:34
and be like, I have these weird visions
32:37
that are not from my life.
32:39
Should we move on to topic number five?
32:41
Mm-hmm.
32:42
It is the KFC section.
32:45
Kathy's favorite character, which led us into a weird
32:50
Kentucky Fried Chicken theme, I guess.
32:53
So of course we had to order KFC for dinner
32:56
and I'm still sipping on that sweet lightning.
32:57
Again, we are not sponsored.
33:00
I would like for a KFC, if you could send me though,
33:02
one of your food warming game consoles.
33:06
That's all I ask for in exchange for this free advertisement.
33:10
Please?
33:12
Are you ready to tell me who the KFC is?
33:14
I was actually gonna give you my top few choices
33:17
and maybe you wanna choose.
33:19
So for nominations for the KFC, we have Merlin.
33:23
Who's the reason why we started with some crazy theories
33:28
and everything, even though we thought he was yellow
33:30
and he's actually gray slash blue.
33:33
Manfred, who did nothing wrong.
33:34
He was just there trying to help.
33:36
And he's just this kind of cute little dude
33:38
who really seems to be an honest dude.
33:42
Jaden, who, I mean, obviously solves the case.
33:45
So we've got to nominate him.
33:48
Ari slash the butler.
33:50
I don't know if they're the same person,
33:52
but I'm just gonna say them together.
33:54
It's really the real reason why Jaden
33:56
was able to solve the case.
33:58
And then we have Sean, who's cool calm collected
34:01
despite drowning, shows no signs of PTSD,
34:04
even though he has plenty of reason to do so.
34:07
And he doesn't blame his dad for being kidnapped
34:09
and for taking so long.
34:11
So with that being said, I guess between Merlin,
34:14
Manfred, Jaden, butler slash Ari and Sean,
34:19
who do you think was my KFC pick?
34:22
Let me test my psychology muscles.
34:25
I am not involved in psychology in any way.
34:27
So don't take that too literally.
34:30
I'm gonna say it's either Manfred or the Ari butler
34:33
because for some reason, those two characters
34:35
have a very similar feel to me.
34:37
And none of the other characters are related in any way.
34:40
So I feel like you put one of them in there to throw me off.
34:42
And I'm gonna say it's Manfred
34:45
because he's a sweet old man.
34:46
Then he shared his bottle of scotch.
34:49
Oh, so close.
34:50
It was Ari and the butler.
34:52
Damn.
34:54
And I think really, I mean, Manfred was a really good guest.
34:58
He probably is my second favorite character.
35:00
And the real reason why in addition to Ari being,
35:04
the sole reason why Jaden's able to do his police work
35:07
is that he does try to keep Jaden on the up and up
35:10
of not being an addict.
35:11
He pretty much just tells Jaden that I'm like,
35:14
hey, gotta be careful.
35:16
And then he also brings vodka, which I know you're,
35:20
there's so much question around that.
35:22
But I thought it would be kind of fun to explore that option.
35:26
Yes.
35:27
Well, post on Reddit and not only about the psychologist
35:30
but also about the vodka.
35:32
I think those are our two remaining burning questions.
35:36
All right, Kathy.
35:37
As you know, I checked the menu today at KFC.
35:42
They no longer have the Kentucky Scorcher.
35:45
It's just called the Spicy Chicken Sandwich,
35:48
but we're not gonna change our category.
35:51
So you gotta tell me who's the Kentucky Scorcher?
35:53
Who is the hottest, the spiciest character?
35:58
I feel like I don't have much choice
36:00
and for humans I'd say Jaden.
36:03
What do you mean for humans?
36:04
There's one bird in the can, what am I?
36:07
It would have been the bird.
36:07
What are you talking about?
36:09
What the hell are you talking about?
36:11
I really didn't, I mean, like, by looks, sure Jaden,
36:15
but I also feel like, what do you expect me to say?
36:17
A negligent father or a murder?
36:19
Or a child who's not even 18, like,
36:21
what do you want me to say?
36:24
Not even eight.
36:28
I'm glad you brought that aspect of it up
36:30
because as you know, at the end of last season,
36:33
we discussed that as women,
36:35
it's very hard to judge physical hotness
36:39
when you know personality and characteristics
36:43
of the people and so this season, to negate that,
36:49
I sent you a slideshow for every game
36:52
with the most prominent characters,
36:54
a handful of the most prominent characters in each game
36:56
and had you select without knowing anything
36:58
about these characters,
37:00
which one is the most physically attractive?
37:03
And you left some notes.
37:05
I thought that would be fun,
37:06
make first reactions to all these
37:08
and tell me how right or wrong they are,
37:10
but now I cannot remember what I said
37:12
and now I'm wondering if I'm gonna hate old Kathy
37:15
for saying some of this stuff.
37:17
So I'll include the image of the slide
37:20
in the video episode on YouTube.
37:23
Gosh.
37:24
Oh my gosh. I hope I didn't say Brad.
37:25
I've been holding onto this.
37:27
I have been holding onto this.
37:29
I hate.
37:30
Since I sent this out to you
37:31
and you gave me your responses.
37:33
So I'm extremely excited right now to be doing this.
37:37
I'm extremely nervous.
37:39
So here it is.
37:40
Here's the thing that you received.
37:44
Oh my God.
37:45
Okay.
37:46
So I'm now gonna read to you what you said.
37:49
We're gonna start from number one,
37:50
which is a picture of Charles Kramer.
37:54
And here's what you said.
37:56
Looks like he starts as a good guy,
37:58
but turns out that he's betraying people.
38:01
You got half of that right.
38:04
Moving on to number two, who is Mad Jack.
38:06
You said, looks like he's the muscle,
38:09
but not the main character.
38:10
Close enough, we'll give you that.
38:12
Number three, who is Scott Shelby.
38:15
You said, looks like he's an old vet
38:18
in a team of people who are on a heist.
38:21
And that's when the notes started to take a turn.
38:30
I noticed.
38:31
Number four is Norman Jaden.
38:33
And about him, you said,
38:35
looks like the corporate finance bro,
38:37
who will betray people.
38:39
Wrong there.
38:40
Number five is Lieutenant Carter Blake.
38:44
And of him, you said,
38:45
looks like he's the villain and head of a mafia.
38:48
And then six, which is Ethan, you said,
38:50
looks like five's right-hand man.
38:53
Oh.
38:54
No.
38:55
Um.
38:56
And then.
38:59
I know what the second is. Number seven.
39:01
Number seven is Gordie Kramer,
39:04
who you said, looks like an undercover dude
39:07
from five's rival clan.
39:10
Which I don't understand,
39:12
because there's no clans in the mafia.
39:16
But here was your pick.
39:20
Are you ready?
39:20
Oh God, I hope I said two or four.
39:25
Well, you didn't.
39:27
Oh God, I hope I didn't say seven or five.
39:30
You said, based on no context of the game
39:34
and only in terms of looks, I'm gonna say seven.
39:38
He's pale as crap, man.
39:40
In terms of looks.
39:41
And then you said, but he's very pasty white,
39:44
to which I took great offense.
39:46
And I have to tell you that we prefer the term porcelain.
39:50
Okay.
39:52
When I looked at your comments,
39:54
when you returned this to me,
39:57
I was astonished.
39:59
You picked Gordie Kramer.
40:02
I am shocked too.
40:04
You didn't pick Norman Jaden?
40:06
What's wrong with that picture of him?
40:08
I don't know how to defend myself.
40:13
You can't, there is no defending yourself.
40:16
I just didn't, maybe I don't like the looks of Jaden.
40:20
I don't know.
40:21
I mean, I would pick Jaden right now, but I-
40:25
Or that's because you know he's a good guy.
40:28
Hence why we did this.
40:30
Oh, this was the best idea that we've had.
40:31
I know.
40:32
I'm slightly embarrassed right now.
40:34
Pasty white, how dare you?
40:38
Why me?
40:39
At least you have something lush going on.
40:41
He was like straight up pale white,
40:43
or pasty, or not pasty, porcelain.
40:46
He was straight up porcelain.
40:48
Vampire like.
40:49
Thank you.
40:49
He was like, for those of you who still haven't looked
40:54
at the gameplay and only just listening,
40:56
imagine him looking like Jasper from Twilight.
40:59
Just pure porcelain skin tone.
41:03
Or the sections of my body that don't ever see the sun.
41:08
We should do a stale biscuit version of this for next season.
41:14
We should.
41:15
Great segue, by the way.
41:17
Who is the stale biscuit?
41:18
Which of course, I don't think it really needs
41:21
any explanation, but the biggest just douche, idiot,
41:27
whatever expletive you want to use.
41:29
That's what the stale biscuit is.
41:30
So let me hear it.
41:32
And I will preface this,
41:33
stale biscuits has nothing to do with looks.
41:36
It is character personalities, right?
41:38
It is a nomination.
41:40
So you guess who you think I chose.
41:42
I don't have a quick sentence explaining it.
41:46
Madison Page.
41:47
Oh, I'm going to read off all the things.
41:51
So you have Scott Shelby, who is a murderer and can't cook.
41:55
Madison Page, who is someone who butts
41:58
into people's businesses and withholds evidence.
42:01
Literally butts into it.
42:03
Oh God, Leah.
42:05
The zebra guy, which I already forgot his name, but.
42:07
Paco.
42:08
Yeah, Paco.
42:09
He is slimy and pretty much probably,
42:13
I wouldn't be surprised if he's
42:15
into the sex trafficking business.
42:17
Ethan, a man who lost not one, but two kids,
42:21
and he never seeked actual help for his issues.
42:25
So you have Scott Madison, Paco, Ethan.
42:31
It's going to be between Madison and Paco, I think.
42:34
I have to stick with Madison based off of,
42:36
not all of it even made it into the final cut.
42:39
I cut a lot of Madison rants from you.
42:42
So I have to say Madison.
42:44
Yeah, I mean, you already know.
42:46
I mean, you've been,
42:48
y'all have been listening to me for the last six episodes
42:52
and you know how much rage I have.
42:55
And I have a list of reasons
42:57
and I'm going to keep these short and quick.
42:59
One, she was irritating me to no end since the beginning.
43:03
Six, she's nosing as F.
43:13
Seven, she's stupid as F.
43:18
Where am I?
43:18
I don't know, nine, she's absolutely reckless
43:21
with the motorcycle.
43:22
You're on point number nine?
43:23
Yeah, she's absolutely reckless
43:25
with her motorcycle driving skills,
43:27
which just swings it at the police.
43:29
Lady driver.
43:30
Right?
43:33
It's just.
43:33
Go watch trial and error.
43:34
Yes.
43:55
Sorry, that was a massive rant.
43:57
We're going to have to cut some parts down.
43:57
I was going to say, you're like,
43:59
this is going to be quick.
44:00
I've been watching the clock since you said that.
44:03
It's been four minutes.
44:04
Sorry.
44:05
I just, it's been four minutes.
44:09
It's just such a missed opportunity
44:11
for making a smart, strong female character
44:14
and they completely missed it.
44:16
And it makes me angry.
44:17
They almost had it.
44:19
They almost had it.
44:20
Did they though?
44:21
They just, they did it a little too much with the butt.
44:26
They.
44:27
The nudity.
44:28
I could, I see, they think they accomplished it.
44:31
And I see why they think that, but they're wrong.
44:35
I'll end it.
44:35
I'll end the rant there.
44:37
Keep my lips kind of sealed
44:38
because I could go on for another 20 minutes.
44:41
Oh, oh, I know.
44:43
I could about 20 minutes out of the last episode.
44:45
Oh.
44:46
Yes.
44:50
Should we wrap this up with telling me the final,
44:54
the whole game QTE percentage
44:56
and tell me if I was right in my guess?
44:58
Yeah.
44:59
So we're going to quickly go over.
45:00
Your guess was 94.2.
45:03
My guess was 97.
45:04
The average is 92.
45:08
So you're closer to it.
45:09
It's pretty low.
45:10
But in my defense, it was just me being confident in you
45:13
and your hand yoga and ability to be awesome at QTEs
45:19
for ridiculous things like panel playing.
45:22
Yeah, that one got me.
45:24
I still like that you can see when I started to panic.
45:30
You can visually see it.
45:31
Same as when Madison's getting attacked.
45:34
There's a moment of no return.
45:37
Well, I don't know if I can call that a victory.
45:39
I was closest, but it was lower.
45:41
So I feel like we both lose in that.
45:46
So we've mentioned the Reddit a few times.
45:48
We're going to post a couple topics in there.
45:51
So if you have anything to add to what we've been discussing,
45:54
do not hesitate, go hop on in there.
45:57
It'll be in the heavy rain one,
45:58
but you can just go to our Reddit,
45:59
which will be linked below,
46:00
but it is just replay reviews pod.
46:03
We've also launched a Twitter at the start of the season.
46:06
So this might be the first time you're hearing about it.
46:10
So we're doing a new thing.
46:11
We used to play a little bit of the soundtrack,
46:13
but in an abundance of caution to not get copyrighted.
46:18
And also it just is a little more fun.
46:21
We're going to use a quote,
46:23
an obscure quote from the next game.
46:25
This one might be a little easy
46:26
because there might not be any English to choose from,
46:30
but we will post it on our Instagram
46:32
and probably on our Twitter.
46:33
So if you can guess which game we're playing next,
46:36
I don't know if you'll win anything, maybe.
46:38
Are we going to have prizes?
46:40
That'll be easy though.
46:41
I'll tell you that now,
46:43
but you will learn how it works
46:44
and the next one will be more challenging.
46:46
I just want to quickly again,
46:54
thank everyone who listens to us.
46:57
Again, this is not something we're professionals at.
46:59
This is really out of our pure enjoyment
47:02
of being able to talk about storylines
47:04
and the fact that you've listened to us.
47:07
The last six episodes, we appreciate it.
47:10
We hear you, we see you, and we're thankful for you.
47:14
Absolutely, and again, special shout out to everyone
47:17
who's been here since day one when we really,
47:21
really sucked.
47:22
A huge thank you coming from us for that,
47:26
but we appreciate all of you
47:28
and we'll see you in the next game.
47:30
You want to count us off?
47:31
Yes, Adacity on one, three, two, one.
47:36
Thank you for listening
47:37
and don't forget to send in any questions,
47:39
comments, or game suggestions.
47:40
You can find all our contact info on our website,
47:43
replayreviewspod.com,
47:44
or contact us directly through our site.
47:46
Do we completely miss something?
47:48
Are we way off the mark?
47:49
Or do you just want us to take a deeper look
47:51
at anything from the game?
47:52
We'll tackle any topics you all want to hear
47:54
in our season wrap-up episode.
47:56
We also have a Reddit where we discuss
47:58
anything we're curious about.
47:59
Go take a look and let us know what you're thinking.
48:02
Our theme music is Condemned by Eggy Toast.
48:04
They'll play you out and we'll be back next week.
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FTES happy music
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you