#i dont trust YT comments to be civil about DID. anyway!

[killer-wizard]

my mini fuckin essay apparently. this is about rapid eyes! go watch it here. tw for mental health problems, amnesia, death and loss, suicide mentions, ect. also a long ass post!

this is about the main character of rapid eyes being a system. maybe not canonly but. i see some parallels between my system and the player <3

ahh okay i have an interpretation of this series.

as a system, i see a lot of parallels to a system in this character and game. in a previous episode (#6?) red eyes refers to the player as "they" and while i am all for the player being nonbinary or using they/them, i do personally think it could also be the plural they/them, and our main character is a system.

the way red eyes acts, is very much a persecutor move, being rude or self-destructive in the way a verbally abusive person is. (sometimes introjects of abusers repeat the abuse out of a trauma reaction or other fear) i think red eyes showing up first in the forest where the player grew up, maybe they represent a childhood trauma, like an abusive parent, or maybe an outside person hurting the player. i saw another system say they didn't like the "evil alter" trope, but honestly? i think, if this is a system character, then it's done pretty well, as this character is just self destructive and not harming outside people. sort of like, a representation of how OCD/PTSD can make you spiral and think about it uncontrollably, and how people can beat themselves up about loss like this.

i totally respect if it makes other systems uncomfortable though!! anyway.

radio comes off as very genuinely kind and sweet, only trying to help and reassure the player. sort of like an emotional protector. she reminds me of some of our child alters, she's so silly. i love her. she's silly and lighthearted but clearly is a traumaholder, or at least aware of the trauma.

the game represents an inner world, something many systems develop as a coping mechanism. these can look like anything. the game (and in our case) has many different popular places from various horror games, but also from their real life. the scary "slenderman" woods (which the player says they lived near when they were a child), the backrooms, the school (based off of their old school), the boardwalk, the parking lot (player says they were afraid of them as a child). it's all familiar to our player, and so was put in their inner world as to make sense of the scary reality they were living in. (a little funny, but our headspace has a part of an among us map in it lol)

to add to this, the constant, changing nature of the game is reminiscent of an inner world of a system. ours changes mildly often, and who can or cant access parts of the inner world also changes, which explains radio being unable to contact the player in places red eyes controls (like the backrooms, and this cave).

now, DID (and other dissociative disorders) has amnesia attached to it. the fact that the player seems unable to remember that they made rapid eyes, is very in line with DID (i have a lot of art we've made that i have no memory of making.) but also kind of implies that the game was worked on by the other characters. the boardwalk changes, the parking lot changes, and we can assume that the player didn't do that (it implied they gave on the game entirely).

also, the name. "rapid eyes". it reminds me of looking around quickly out of terror or fear, but i also saw someone mention REM sleep (RAPID EYE movement) also being a meaning, which i think makes much more sense.

now, episode #11. radio breaking because of the fall, representing how kind words don't help when youre in the pits of your mental illness. or at least, not as much as they would if you had heard them in a better state. the nooses, the notes, the ruined lockers, it's all memories and urges, traumatic and otherwise coming together when you're at your worst and trying to stop ruminating on the past.

and the phone call: this teal character (who i'll just call static for now) has called before, when radio was out for a second to take care of something. they clearly have a lot of suicidal ideation and worthlessness related thoughts. i don't really know if static is the player, or another part of them, or what, but we've only just met them, so maybe we'll find out later?

in the phone call, they talk to their grandmother, who says their dad is sick. the player reacts very instantly to this, as if remember the phone call with terror. static plays the concern off, saying he was fine and just taking a nap. the player is audibly crying now, though it's quiet and horrifyingly sad. the acting in this part is insanely good and i love it. anyway,

"i should have called someone" (responded with "yeah, you think?" which is another example of the player constantly using humor to cope) clearly, this character and the player share guilt. over their father's death, presumably. the player begs to be left alone, maybe to red eyes, who is implied to be torturing the player.

a note for this scene is, someone in the comments mentions the "as above, so below" note, and how that is the title of a movie in which a character misses a phone call right before her father commits suicide. it lines up pretty well, and can be assumed to be a reference.

episode #11 is the final episode as of now, and is very interesting. i'll be watching for more! anyway.

disclaimer: this is my opinion, and is probably not canon. pls take what i say with a bit of salt.

OKAY wall of text over. i might be overthinking this and this is the most ive ever talked about having DID online. good lord.