Anxiety and Judgement: A Dive into a ‘Psychonauts 2’ World
Psychonauts was a masterclass in probing the depths of the mind, and its sequel is no different. Every world takes a look at a different individual character, showcasing their mental struggles and traumatic past through intriguing metaphors that really warrant a second look to unpack everything going on. Some worlds mean more to different individuals depending on their own prior experiences. For me personally, what stuck out the most was Compton Boole and his mental world known as “Compton’s Cookoff.”
Basic Braining
Throughout Psychonauts 2’s worlds, there are common elements meant to reflect the fundamental pieces that can be present in any person. The most common are “figments of imagination,” a subtle representation of what is going on in the character’s mind in relation to where it is found. In addition, there is emotional baggage (suitcases that are usually tucked away somewhere out of sight), half-a-minds (literal halves of a brain), and nuggets of wisdom (little golden trinkets usually placed in hard-to-reach locations). In some minds there are also stray thoughts, little white bubbles that can be connected to in order to reach new areas. Most importantly, above all of the above, are memory vaults, creatures that hold a slide reel inside detailing an important moment in that person’s life.
These elements include not just physical objects, but most of the enemies who appear throughout Psychonauts 2 as well. The most common enemy is the Censor, something present in the mind of any sane individual, created in order to literally stamp out thoughts that don’t belong. Another fairly frequent enemy is the Regret, a meek little flying thing that carries a weight, implying that regrets weigh the individual down. Doubts manifest as purple sludge monsters, which can be purged more easily by giving them a little push — a spark, if you will (which is taken literally as Doubts are weak to fire). The final enemy type found early on in Psychonauts 2 is the Bad Idea, a strange purple rabbit that throws exploding projectiles, showing how bad ideas can quite literally explode in your face. There are other enemies present in Psychonauts 2, but these are all of the ones introduced before Compton’s world.
To Be A Boole
Compton Boole is introduced in the first Psychonauts as one of the “psychic six,” a group of powerful psychics that formed the group known as the Psychonauts. Throughout Psychonauts 2, each of the psychic six are re-introduced as shadows of their former selves, having never recovered from an event referred to as the “Deluge of Grulovia.” When the seventh member, Lucrecia Mux, caused a flood killing many Grulovians, the psychic six went to stop her, resulting in a fierce battle and the supposed death of one of their comrades, Helmut Fullbear.
Each of the psychic six dealt with this loss in a different way. For Compton in particular, we can glean some insight from his memory vaults. Outwardly, he tried to keep it together, having a blank expression for years; internally, however, he was suffering some kind of post-traumatic stress disorder. When his rock and best friend, Cassie O’Pia, another of the psychic six, had her own breakdown and left to be on her own, Compton internalized all of his anxiety in the form of judgement – that is, believing that he was at fault for many things that happened, and that everyone else was judging him for it.
The Boole family was also introduced in the first Psychonauts through the character Dogen, and again in Psychonauts 2 with Sam. Both of these characters are quirky and memorable in their own way, perhaps due to inherited traits from their grandfather. Of particular note is that the Boole family can all speak to animals, though each interprets the animal communication in a different way. Dogen believes that squirrels are out to get him, blowing them up in the process, while Sam bosses around and torments the animals around her, oblivious to their suffering.
Everyone else in the Psychonauts world seems to believe that all Booles love animals. For a family that supposedly loves animals, Dogen and Sam have done a surprisingly large amount of harm to them. This actually also happened to Compton himself, and is the reason he was recruited to become part of the Psychonauts themselves.
At some point in his adult life, Compton went into a dog kennel with the goal of setting them all free. The dogs all immediately jumped Compton afterwards, showering him in affection. The sudden sensory overload due to actually being able to hear the dogs triggers Compton to involuntarily lash out, turning all of the dogs to ash — a traumatic event for anyone, and one that seems to imply that all of the Boole family has trouble filtering outside voices. This trauma explains why Dogen wears a literal tinfoil hat all the time, and perhaps Sam’s method of bullying the poor animals into silence as a way to avoid any accidental incineration.
Peer Judgement
When we first meet Compton, he has locked himself away in psychoisolation, a special place that is designed to reduce psychic input. He only has a small rat as a companion, a singular voice that he can comfortably speak to. It’s clear that Compton is trying to keep himself together, and realizes that extra voices cause him torment. When Raz, the player character, attempts to talk to him, he quickly asks Raz to leave. Compton quickly changes his mind, however, when he realizes that Raz could help him procure a bee to help him find Cassie. Raz ends up bringing back three bees instead, which triggers Compton to have a breakdown.
Whenever there is too much external stimuli, Compton loses control, resorting to a fetal position to avoid any undue harm. The reason for this connection becomes clear when we enter Compton’s mental world. The first thing that appears is the inside of a large bell, which Compton begs Raz not to touch as it signals dinner. He is not afraid of being on the menu, though; what he fears most is judgement. This is represented physically by an actual court judge manifesting as a mini-boss fight.
Upon the judge’s defeat, the veil of the bell is lifted, revealing the set of a cooking show, complete with a live audience and ‘celebrity’ judges. The absurd setup is played for laughs, but actually is a very good representation of Compton’s psyche. This is essentially what Compton views the world as, a never-ending show in which he has to put on an act for all to judge him by. Most important are the actual judges, depicted as sock puppets that resemble the leaders of the Psychonauts, indicating theirs as the most important opinions to Compton.
It’s not hard to relate to Compton and his fear of judgement. There are always eyes on whatever you do, especially in today’s world of social media. We can take this a step further and look at both ourselves and the Epilogue Gaming site, in which we constantly put out new articles and await judgement by our peers. Like Compton, there are those whose opinion matters most; in my case, that ends up being my fellow staff members, who will rightly critique my writing before it goes out to the audience.
Traumatic Dishes
To please the celebrity judges, Compton and Raz are tasked with creating three dishes utilizing various ingredients and performing certain actions with each ingredient. A tight time limit is implemented, which when combined with the multiple tasks being given at once, promotes the exact feeling of anxiety that Compton deals with on a regular basis. This discomfort is such a brilliant way of merging the gameplay with the mental state of the current world.
Each dish represents an important part of the Deluge of Grulovia, made clear by the first of these dishes, a “Grulovian Drowned Egg.” The name immediately calls back to the Deluge in which many Grulovians drowned in the flood. The ingredients include a boiled egg, representing the people who died by physically dunking the egg in water, and a chopped onion, the obvious metaphor for sadness. Compton was understandably upset by the deaths of the Grulovian people.
The second dish is a “Strawberry Jam Croque Madame,” a very subtle allegory for Lucrecia herself. Once again a boiled egg is part of the dish, representing how Lucrecia drowned her own people. Also included is some chopped and fried bread – the best comparison I could come up with is how Compton himself was involved in the battle, utilizing the local wildlife (perhaps thorough-breads?) who were inevitably fried during the battle. I believe the ‘frying’ is actually not a literal frying, but is another metaphor instead for a mass freezing that occurred during the battle, mentioned in later segments of Psychonauts 2. The final ingredient is a blended strawberry, which represents Lucrecia herself and how her memory was scrambled after the battle in order to keep her dark side at bay. The cooking show host asks Compton to show the audience his ‘best madame,’ alluding to how Lucrecia used to be a good person. Of interesting note is how Raz comments on this dish in particular having a ‘dash of regret,’ showcasing how Compton feels about Lucrecia’s downfall.
The third and final dish is the “Honey Pepper Pancake Stacker,” described as Ford Cruller’s favorite, the leader of the Psychonauts and another of the psychic six. It seems reasonable to then extrapolate that the ingredients this time will all be representative of the psychic six. The fried egg refers to Helmut, who died after being frozen during the Deluge. The chopped and fried pig probably refers to Otto Mentallis, the mastermind behind the freezing contraption and aligns with the freezing metaphor in the previous dish. There is also a boiled beehive, which Compton associates with Cassie. The final ingredient is a blended watermelon, which refers to Ford himself and how he scrambled his own mind after taking care of Lucrecia.
Serving Up Character Growth
In the world prior to Compton’s Cookoff, Raz tries to create change within someone by force, leading to disastrous results. From that point onward, Raz takes it upon himself to coerce any mental changes naturally by having the character whose mind he’s in try to learn and grow. Compton needs to grow into his own person, not have a switch flipped that magically makes things better. This is showcased as early as returning to Compton with the bees, as Raz asks nicely if he can go inside Compton’s mind rather than simply diving in.
Early on, Compton struggles to do much of anything, letting Raz take care of the ingredient preparations as well as telling the celebrity judges about the dishes. The vast majority of the figments present in Compton’s mind are all food related, indicating that he is distracted by the current situation and unable to focus on anything else. As the world progresses, Compton slowly becomes more confident, taking after Raz and trying to describe the dishes. This is an important part of the recovery process, letting Compton think for himself and become, in his mind, “surprisingly acceptable!”
In Compton’s mind, there are uncharacteristically very few enemies; they only appear during these comercial side segments unrelated to the main tasks at hand, indicating that he is not in a very sane state and only becomes lucid when he isn’t distracted by his anxiety. Even more-so, there are no Doubts or Bad Ideas present at all. For someone so plagued by his own insecurities, the lack of Doubts seems to show that, when he is in the right state of mind, he is actually quite stable in how he handles things.
Personal Judgement
Unfortunately for Compton, the growth he attained when working on the dishes with Raz wasn’t enough. Instead of internalizing all of the hard work put into the dishes as his own doing, he believed that Raz was the one responsible. This is the same kind of codependency he experienced with Cassie, in which he needs a strong rock to keep him from going off the deep end. Panic ensues when Compton is thrown into a bonus round, in which he has to prepare the dishes himself while Raz faces a boss encounter with the sock puppet judges.
The three dishes present here are a Vegetable Medley, Royal Borscht, and Jam Tarts. All three of these are representative of Compton’s frenetic, anxiety-fueled mind, being a hastily thrown-together combination of ingredients. The Jam Tarts in particular are a pretty clear indication of his mind being jammed.
This boss fight forces Compton to be able to fend for himself, with the only input Raz having being the ingredients. As the fight progresses, each puppet is taken down, revealing a physical hand under it. Thus, this segment is all about Compton’s most critical voice — his own — and learning to push past it. After the final sock puppet is taken down, Compton pulls it off of his hand, revealing that his insecurities were being projected as other people’s judgement, even though they were purely his own thoughts the entire time.
Kitchen Cleanup
After coming to terms with his own insecurities, Compton is finally able to deal with multiple external voices without having a breakdown. He leaves psychoisolation in search of Cassie. Compton’s life would be improved by Cassie being there, but now he knows he no longer needs Cassie to survive. Their reunion in the endgame comes as a sweet moment, having helped both of them come to terms with their own issues.
Throughout Compton’s Cookoff, Compton manages to find his own footing, growing into his own person. I can feel his insecurities come forth, as I have plenty of my own. Seeing Compton deal with his own personal judgement and struggle to deal with too many things at once meant a lot to me, as someone who also struggles with many of the same things. Psychonauts 2 opens with a statement that the game as a whole is about empathy and healing, and I can think of no better example of this than Compton Boole.
Of course, mental illness in the real world is rarely solved so simply. Mental health isn’t a cartoon and should be taken seriously. If you feel yourself experiencing any kind of negative reaction to this article, you should take it upon yourself to look into getting help. You are never alone; each and every one of you is special and worth the effort it takes to get better.
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