An Essay about Nils Lutefisk From Psychonauts, and How Jokes and Stereotypes Can Hide Horror.
@how-good-day
Well. Here's the essay that I've been thinking about in my brain, ever since I've thought about Nils Lutefisk in a deeper way.
(TW: Yes, this post is rated mature, and I plan to talk about violence and sexual themes with a character who is a minor. This is something that has been in my brain that I don't think a lot people realize about the character and his implications and bothers me.)
(Sources I will be using - Psychonauts, and myself who has been a summer Camp Counselor for 7 years.)
I will be jumping straight into my thesis so anyone who feels uncomfortable with ANY of the above, skip to the next post.
I fully believe that Nils Lutefisk is a caricature of a kid who has gone through SA.
Number 1. Why do I use the word "caricature?" Well, DoubleFine made a lot of the kids based on stereotypes for kids they didn't have backstories for. J.T.'s a cowboy, Chops is Canadian, Quentin is a chill guy who everyone likes, Franke is a mean girl's inexperienced BFF. Characters not given full backstories are caricatures of kids who you probably knew when you're growing up, some with different flavors. Nils Lutefisk is supposed to be a caricature of a kid who believes they are more mature for their age cause they know about sex. ... The thing is: Kids usually DON'T know about sex, or have sexual urges UNLESS there is something more going on.
Number 2. Do you think Nils is a caricature of a SPECIFIC kid that people on the DoubleFine team knew? No, absolutely not. I think they took the ideas of kids that they knew and were maybe even friends with. Kids they thought were a little weird or neat. But that doesn't mean campers match up with specific kids they knew. Still, the fact that Nils acts the way he does and the fact that these are signs, leads me to believe that the kid, especially if someone were to write fanfiction focusing on him, has probably gone through way worse than most of the fandom realizes.
Number 3. Why do you think this is the case? Just using in-game scenes, we have him trying to peep on the girls twice, him and Elka arguing about their "new relationships," him flirting with Chloe, his rebraining where he tries to find girls who want to makeout, and his resolution with Elka. Just from the interaction of him seeking the sight of the girls raises several questions for me as a camp counselor. I have dealt with kids of all ages who have had unfortunate circumstances, and this is certainly a big one. If kids are showing this type of interest, especially pre-puberty, we are told in training that these are likely signs of SA and we need to keep an eye on and ear out for if a kid like this talks about that. This is highly the case for Nils given the only info we have on his age is his campster which puts him at 9. This character, who is supposed to be 9, has way too much interest in this type of thing for his age.
Number 4. Well, Psychonauts said Nils was just influenced by media he saw! That may be the case for the in canon explanation for the character, but Psychonauts doing this really neglects what is actually going on. Kids can be exposed to these movies and can be influenced by them, but when it comes to actually wanting to see it physically instead of just on a screen leans more towards darker implications. Going back to my work of Camp Counseling, kids who barely know what adult type things are and who learn a little bit, tend to gossip about it. Nils doesn't. Nils specifically tries to keep other kids away from what he's doing cause he knows it's wrong. He is isolating himself, possibly because someone else influenced him to make that choice.
Number 5. Do you REALLY think DoubleFine thought that this kid would go through that?! No. I don't believe that DoubleFine wrote this character with that in mind. However, given my own experience with kids, all points seem to lead to my conclusion. I really feel uncomfortable, and yet sad around Nils Lutefisk. Every interaction that's supposed to be a "haha gotcha, he's so silly, liking girls so much," becomes something incredibly uncomfortable for me for someone who has seen kids suffer repercussions once they've understood what they went through.
Number 6. Why bring this up at all? I started writing this essay around the time where people went from hating Dion, to vehemently defending him. And at the same time I didn't see the same for Nils Lutefisk. Nils had been recontextualized, sure, but no one really went into the fact that there's a lot of dark themes in Psychonauts, and reforming a character who in context I think has less defense for his actions. It felt bad to me cause... Nils was kind of a character who the more I watched the more I felt for. To see him used as a simple gag, made me realize that not a lot of people know the signs of these actions until it is too late.
To reiterate my points, I believe that Nils Lutefisk's writing points to the caricature of a kid going through SA and I find it scary that I feel like I'm the only one who sees this because of my work and that no one in the fandom seems to acknowledge this, let alone the games using it for humor. I think it's something that should at some point, allow people to realize: "hey wait this is actually a really destructive behavior and it's NOT just because the kid watched R rated movies. There's something that leans towards worse going on." This writing leans towards things that are signs in the real world that people just don't see. Or worse, refuse to acknowledge for fear of repercussions.
