I've been thinking about the story of the Psychic 7 more and the world of Psychonauts, and I think part of the reason why it just stuck so intensely in my brain is because of the little glimpses we get of their past, and how towards the end of the game, after everything that's happened, the group is reunited. Yes, there's things to work out, things they have to talk about (primarily looking at you, Ford), but despite everything, they're all together again.
Let me explain. (Also, please keep in mind I haven't played the game in almost 2 years and I only recently started rereading things for the games, I could miss some details).
In the world of Psychonauts, the world is not kind to psychics.
We're told this right away in the beginning of the first game. When Raz is reciting the text from the pamphlet for the summer camp, he has these lines:
Raz: You were born with a special gift but the people around you treat it like a curse. Your mother is afraid of you and your father looks at you with shame in his eyes. Come to Whispering Rock psychic summer camp and you can show them all! Back home your powers make you a loner, an outcast, a circus freak, but in this dojo in this psychic dojo they make you a hero.
As they show different campers in this scene, we know that these words hit home for them. They can all relate to the words Raz is reciting. Even by Raz's time, even after there's been a Psychic organization helping people for years, psychics aren't fully accepted.
To anyone that's ever felt othered, felt like they didn't belong somewhere, these words are relatable. We instantly relate to our main character, and potentially to the other psychic characters we meet. We know what their struggle is like.
Now like I said, this was in Raz's time. But back in the Psychic 7's time? There wasn't an organization like the Psychonauts. Back then there would have been even less reason for them to be accepted, so I think things were potentially even worse back then. There was far less known about how psychic powers worked since Otto and the others were the ones to do the research, and no doubt people were probably more afraid of psychics then.
However, despite living in a world that was even less accepting of psychics, the Psychic 7 still found each other. They still found each other, found others just like them, and they basically formed this little family.
Personally, what makes this hit even harder is the fact that none of them were exactly young when they all found each other, they were all adults and well into adulthood. They all had different backgrounds, different experiences. Lucy had already married and lost a husband, Bob had already lost both parents, Helmut was a struggling performer, Cassie escaped a dangerous environment, and more. They were all adults with different lives and came from different places, but they still found each other. Making friends as an adult is hard, but they still found each other and not only became friends, but became a little family.
And then, after Maligula, after losing Helmut, after being separated for so long, once they all see Lucy, they hug. They're back together again. They're not missing any members of their family again.
So that's what really makes it Hit Different for me. The fact that, despite the world they all lived in at the time, the Psychic 7 found and made their little family, and even after so much time and tragedy and separation, they came back together.
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Me when the first coherent thought I have in the morning is that Grim was either abandoned or his biological parents died and the only family he has ever known are three ghosts everyone was afraid of so everybody left them alone for centuries and a human who doesn't belong who doesn't entirely fit there just like them so they were all alone until they found each other.
Ghosts tied to a space which is unsure whether they can leave or not and a human who may have somebody waiting them back home and may leave with no chance of return. Who can't take Grim with them because where they come from things such as fantasy creatures and magic only exist in fairytales so he'd either live hidden from the world or in danger of being treated as a monster and experimented on because when faced with what it's new and different the world reacts with anger and fear and want to control it and tear it apart until nothing it was before is left.
He doesn't know or understand this but MC does and that's why they would have to leave him behind. His dream of studying magic and be the greatest mage wouldn't come true on Earth, that's the reason they would tell him. It's true even though it's not the main reason why. But Grim would understand they just don't want to stay with him and prefer to leave and forget him because if they did love him they would stay.
Then again he could try to dig up in his origins and find his first family but what if time travel exists and MC from a previous timeline was who gave him the ribbon, his first gift and only possession before arriving at NRC? Meaning MC was the person his world revolved around before he even knew who they were and there was no other family he had.
Doubting the trouble squad has ever have a heart to heart conversation about Grim and MC's fates if or when they depart either because they have forgotten or pretend they aren't aware but deep down Ace and Deuce and all of MC friends know but prefer to keep ignoring it instead of confront their feelings. Grim and Malleus being the only ones who may have never think of it until the moment arrives nor accept it. Just like young children who believe their parents, their pillars, their everything that makes them feel safe, would always be there until death knocks at their door. Because MC have friends and a home in Twisted Wonderland and they need them so why would they leave?
They know MC keeps searching a way home and wondering if their loved ones misses them as much as they do and how much time have passed on their planet without knowing MC wishes they could have it all so they didn't have to choose between their previous family and the one they found there. And neither Grim or Malleus won't admit they know because thinking of it brings back the feeling of abandonment and losing everything that make them feel completed.
But the prince will have both Silver and Sebek and his grandmother for the rest of their lives with him once he returns home, people who was there from the beginning. Time to grow with them and accept they'll leave too. Everyone will graduate and go home and except special occasions each one will go their own path.
Grim will stay with somebody else but it won't be the same for him because he already had a family he wanted to keep together and failed to do so and without the dorm ghosts and MC the only thing left for him is the wound he carried before finding them opened once again that will remember him that nobody in this world can stay by his side forever so he'll stay and search a way to reunite with MC again and wonder if they miss him as much as he does and wishing MC have had everyone they loved in twst so they didn't have to choose or if they had to they had chosen him instead in the end and thinking of how all the future plans they shared and promises they made of growing old together were empty and the words that made him happy about how they loved him now hurt and they failed him and he failed to have everything he wanted and they left they left and he's thinking of them even after promising himself he wouldn't anymore a lie just like theirs and he's crying again and it hurts it hurts and
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