its canon
wisp smp slushly genuinely experiences hallucinations and dissociates and thats a part of his character
like before this latest episode (i revived my best friend in hardcore minecraft) we did see a circumstance where he hallucinated and dissociated but it was unclear if that was due to "special unexplainable magic" by pootoot or if it was straight up actual hallucination
this makes me veer to the opinion that pootoot was never real, and was always a sort of evil foil made by slushly who manifests when he is in significant stress so that slushly can have a single person to pin the blame. as a sort of coping mechanism.
while there are some counterpoints to this interpretation (existance of abovetrain who acknowledges pootoot), i think its true because the fact that pootoot's only goal was to make slushly develop as a character.
the whole episode of hunting a player that doesn't exist calls slushly's perception into question, raising themes of reality (and fiction) and good vs evil. it takes a very meta approach to understanding slushly's conflict, using pootoot's storybook approach to life.
i love how this episode had slushly's hallucination be more comforting than scary, to fit the tone of the scene and his mental state. his brain gave what he needed at that moment: gentle, true guidance by the one who calls herself his eyes. cute!
very looking forward to seeing how slushly handles his mental state in coming episodes. does he learn to manage the hallucinations? does he confide in people? much to anticipate
