Psycholonials 9/10 I highly recommend that you go play this game yourself
Especially if you love socialist clown Yuri revolution
if Homestuck was somewhat of a product of the time it was made in that being 2009 then Psycholonials is unabashedly reflective of 2020-21 like in its first chapter it makes it abundantly clear with the way it portrays fandom culture & the current social media landscape with Zhen’s introduction and how a large part of the story is focused on her rise as an influencer in followers & reach but also in her past with her being canceled & the whole thing about “antis”.
In an odd way the clown revolution is somewhat meant to be like a huge fandom but also symbolized later as an endless stream internet drama that just wears down a person’s mental health which would sorta explain the visual style psycholonials regarding the main character’s mental state(also the coronavirus and how that plays into the story)
side note but it feels like Hussie wanted to expand on the rage aspect without like the Homestuck name dropping and I think you get a better understanding of what it is about as it does fit the description in the extended zodiac.
As I said in my thoughts of whistles:tsc clowns are a recurring theme in Hussie’s work as they are shown to be a symbol of rebellion & revolution but they can also be the ones to perpetuate harmful systems.
And that is a MAJOR theme of pyscholonials as the major turning point starts when Zhen rightfully defends herself from a dumb cop her RAGE is emboldened as the injustices of America & capitalism
are there in plain view. But as the story goes on this revolution starts showing it cracks as Abby notes how the moment is slowly turning away from the point it was trying to make like targeting the injustice of the police’s racism to just being aimless in their goals. Later a coup is stage on her turf which Zhen had to defend but it shows how this would later evolve in the credits where it turns into a never ending stream of backing stabbing & conquest.
Later Zhen is compared to Stalin & other authoritarian dictatorships by Abby & she has an entire inner talk with diotus about the nature of colonialism which is a part of the games title & how Zhen rightfully points out that likes awful and later she gets that wake up call that shes already doing the colonizing thing with how she took away the whole island from its residents which wasnt even her homeland.
So when America does fall due to Zhen’s speech & she flees shes given the “choice” of picking either sword or crown which basically is either freedom from the role of the queen of the clown fandom to live out her life with Abby but live in fear as the consequences may bite you in the ass or go back & become the clown king & become a clown god head in the pantheon with others like you. Literally had Zhen chosen crown (which she wouldn’t) she would’ve gotten killed as I said before about the clown constant back stabbing credit slideshow which mind you they uses photos of real dictators like Stalin but as a clown to show the full corruption of the movement. But I must preface that Zhen’s total revolution clown takedown of America was not wrong the story itself supports this as america as it was had it coming it just that it got so out of hand that eventually it was going veer off course of it’s original meaning.
By it’s near conclusion a common through line with how Hussie does their endings is that the characters just leave the places that were holding them down & making them miserable in the first place as the revolution has taken its toll on Zhen’s mental health it has become too much to handle not to mention it has become undoubtedly corrupt and the only way for Zhen to get a happy ending was to simply leave with Abby as through out this story has been associated with freedom fittingly she provides Zhen the means of escaping this harsh, draining and suffocating place.
plus with how social media is like major theme & both of her and Abby did loved the attention that it provided for them it made sense that in order for Zhen to reach fulfillment was to destroy her access to it by chucking her phone into the ocean to get away from its madness & not checking on the news (similarly June does the same thing with destroying her phone in the credits) for the sake of her mental health
I like how small the cast is here as it leads to them being much more tightly written and especially with the emotional core of its story relies on its two protagonist’s relationship with each other it needed it as without I think the story would fall apart
Zhen in the beginning of her story is someone who is desperate for a form of a deep connection with someone & stemming from the lack of attention or love she had from childhood (like she sincerely believes that the ghost of her mom wants to her kill & also missed that her mom has been dead 7 weeks) and Zhen is desperate for it they want to be cherished as her name translates to “precious treasure”.
This is seen in how she’s always trying to form a “brand” because to her any kind of attention is good attention (vriska 👀) which leads to her getting cancelled and gathering “Simps”(she has comphet) who want her for superficially reasons but both of these don’t bring Zhen any kind of fulfillment and really it feels like a form of a self hatred & self punishment. Another form of self hatred that pops in is that Zhen “understands ” that a person is simply an illusion that they are simply neurons at works to put in the algorithm but I think that belief was towards herself (and strangers) like she is discrediting her own individuality or that shes even a real person
because if she truly believed in that then she would not have cared about Abby at all & simply have seen her as akin to a tool but she doesn’t, she sees Abby as a person perhaps in her own mindset Abby is possibly the most realest person there is in the world (so it baffles Zhen that Abby tries so hard to help a “fake” person like her) & tries to keep her best interests at heart which makes it all the more worse when Zhen does break her heart. When her RAGE starts it’s something she simply cannot back down from & when she sees America for what it is she simply couldn’t go back to the way she was living before to her she had to do something about it which is why the clown revolution happened. And once it started Zhen just couldn’t stop because it gave her some semblance of control over her life even when clearly thay it’s getting way out of hand with her constantly fighting to survive until to brought her to several breaking points in the narrative.
in some other tweet I compared to her having components of June & Gamzee (him being inspired by Icp & juggalos and how after seeing the truth he simply couldn’t go back to being that old person again & lashes out his anger onto the narrative)
especially in her introduction however one of the biggest thing I can point out about both June & Zhen are their feelings of aimlessness of not knowing what they want to do with themselves and this leads to their self isolating depression especially with Zhen just going through the motions and ever present emptiness (like void) that both try to fill up with media & such, later this gets both of them to be controlled by external forces that try to take away their agency & autonomy.
Dissociation comes in the form of how these 2 see the world around them it explains psycholonials visuals with being pixelated as hell & how she sees people & how she doesn’t refer to herself with her real name just calling herself z for most of the game and June having constant episodes of depersonalization in the Candy epilogue time jumping in multiple years. Abby:
Abby is someone who is carefree, easy going & has a very big heart & but most of all a very earnest person tho at the same times can be like very unfazed by things that anyone else would’ve given a much different reaction.
Something I want to note is how much Abby is associated with freedom & how without her Zhen wouldve gotten caught by the police the entire clown revolution relied on Abby’s compassionate heart to even start. Abby gave Zhen the freedom to make her choices to do what she wanted and she would give Zhen her full support she was the first to recognize that to get better you need to tune yourself off from the internet & start focusing on own your well being. When Zhen does into a big mental breakdown she's goes on how she feel she can't breath & who is there to provide her breath? Abby. And even when Abby had lost everything & left Zhen she came back for her cuz she can’t bring herself to leave Zhen behind to such a miserable fate in that island.
One thing I appreciate about Abby is that she is able to see through Zhen for who they are as person &
even when they do objectively awful things she couldn’t bring herself to hate Zhen because she knows Zhen is not some irredeemable monster they are an emotional stunted & troubled person that there is something to be cherished about Zhen that Abby just wants to her see to get better & become a happier person and that is seen in how she provides for Zhen like paying her rent so that she doesn’t have to look for a job or trying to help her out in her depressive state (this is a trait June Egbert has as well & why she didn’t bring herself to hate Karkat, Terezi or Vriska even when they were like an asshole or got her killed & it’s because of her easy going nature that allows them to open up to her about their issues and while they may not give out the best answers both Abby & June are good listeners & sounding board). it’s because of this Abby is able to see that Zhen is losing her grasp & way too over her head with this movement and has to be the one give her a wake up call that she doesn’t know what she doing at all.
Tho something unique that the game tackled is how Abby is complicit of the evils of the system simply because she was born an heiress to rich family & thus a persons of privilege and how that brings her guilt & shame.
I know I said Zhen has some June in her but I really feel that Abby takes on the full essence of June Egbert as the scene that convinced me of this was the barn scene & how the two were involving Percy into their plans really reminded me a lot of spider breath’s dynamic especially how Zhen was afraid of Abby’s reaction and how that would change her view of her & especially if she was angry with her while Abby was apprehensive about it she was still understanding & supporting and in the commentary Hussie gave June flacked for how nonchalant she was wit in the commentary Hussie gave June flacked for how nonchalant she was with Vriska's crimes on alternia well that is tackled here with Zhen giving Abby flack for how....
"Uncaring" she is about framing a guy with murder or like the entire revolution with Abby ignoring the moral dilemmas & how they would even run a county and after they escape Zhen gives Abby flack for how patience & compassionate she is with her when to Zhen they think she is simply not worth this trouble at all (Vriska shows up so much in Zhen’s character). It’s simply because she was having too much fun with Zhen & Abby cares a lot about Zhen as a person for her to ever leave her behind like that & I truly think that had Abby not come back I think Zhen would’ve died alone & scared on that island.
its such a strange case that he’s a part of the main cast like he wasnt some friend of the main characters he was just some random guy that Zhen had impulsively dragged in due to her fear at the time.
And it’s clear that both Abby & ESPECIALLY Zhen feel guilty how they dragged this guy to his death (like they name a horse after him) but at the same time Zhen doesn’t truly see him as a real person as he’s always pixelated and he never speaks when he gets on the island just a total lack of agency or relevance and the one time he isn’t drawn like that when Zhen sees him as a real person is when he is dying in front of her eyes.
And honestly the way Zhen treated Percy feels like she was like projecting her romantic feelings of Abby onto him because Zhen is afraid of losing her closest & only connection she has and Zhen doesn’t want to see Abby like a tool to be used.
There is probably more I could say but at this point I’m just tired
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