GAME ANALYSIS - Does Fran Bow have a Mental Illness?

hey everyone pushing up roses here and today we're going to be taking a look at the indie adventure game Fran bow and determining whether the lead character has a mental illness and if she does which illness it resembles the most and also just how mental illness is portrayed throughout the game one might call this video a Fran theory now this title is meant to be analyzed it's full of symbolism and metaphors so this is going to be a huge speculation on my part the game has a very ambiguous ending that is very much meant to be discussed and since I myself suffer from a chronic mental illness I figured this kind of dissection might be a cool thing for me to do or it could just be really depressing it could go either way really if you haven't played Fran bow this might be a smidge confusing I did do a review on this game not too long ago so if you want to check that out first go right ahead otherwise consider this your spoiler warning Fran bow is a really interesting character when you play her you get an extreme sense of naivety and innocence but at the same time there is something morbid about her thought process your first experience with Fran is in a psychiatric facility where she's being treated for having gruesome visions after she witnessed the murder of her parents to help her get through her journey of escaping the mental institution and finding the truth about her parents demise Fran takes these red pills that seemingly alter the appearance of reality into something ghastly now there are theories that Fran doesn't suffer from a mental illness at all I can see some merit to this idea since technically Fran experiences the worst hallucinations after she takes a red pill so it's very plausible that her lapse of reality is caused by medication but I don't quite buy it and I'll tell you why it's because the description on the website clearly says this yeah this is kind of cheating but the devs do explicitly state that Fran is struggling with a mental disorder though what exactly she is struggling with is vague I believe that the red pill she takes exasperates her existing illness and also serves as a visual cue for the player trying to illustrate the picture of her particular illness in a way that the player can see and feel it after all things are still weird for her even in the normal world she doesn't always need the pills to see bizarre things they're simply more gruesome with the pills the most common fan theory I see for this particular topic is that Fran is suffering from dissociate identity disorder previously known as multiple personality disorder there is some value to that notion though I don't think it's the perfect fit there are a lot of references to sets of two in this game and I think some people may be confusing its use of duality for dissociation sets of twins for example Fran's mom and aunt are twins and there's also another set of twins in the game that were sewn together into the same body for DNA experimentation two brains two minds two personalities there's also of course the two realities normal and distorted I do not think these metaphors in the game represent dissociative identity disorder this illness is distinguished by the presence of two or more distinct personalities which controlled a person's behavior Fran wouldn't be able to see the personalities as physical people in front of her they would instead use her body as a vessel per se and would be able to switch between each other though sometimes they can communicate at the same time within the same body though Fran does communicate with other characters that are insinuated to be make-believe like her imaginary friend Edward who helps her along in the game there is never a time where Fran's personality changes into completely discrete characters Fran can see and communicate with these other characters and they never act as a host to Fran's body which control her actions these separate personalities are referred to as alters and they can be any race age gender species and they usually have their own way of communicating with people they meet but Fran basically stays Fran the whole time and there isn't anything that implies dissociation the only time this could be the case is if you believe Fran was manipulated into murdering her parents but there is still no suggestion of her being controlled by another discernible personality the character remor whom I believe represents another aspect of depression tries to convince her that she murdered her parents and simply doesn't remember if that is the case I don't think it was the result of dissociation and I don't think remor as one of her personalities because she can see him very clearly I view this as a reality lapse and not an instance of switching which is the term for when different alters reveal themselves and I personally rule it out because I think remor who resembles something evil with the traditional goat horns and black body is meant to represent lies and deception so I don't really buy his story of Fran murdering her parents in the first place remoras agenda basically boils down to trying to coax fran into committing suicide by making her feel crazy and worthless and that to me sounds a lot like good old depression there are plenty of other symptoms that relate to this illness that Fran might struggle with but those symptoms are also present in other illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder I think more accurately Fran has symptoms of schizophrenia this is traditionally defined as a chronic brain disorder which causes psychosis strange behavior delusions paranoia auditory and sometimes visual hallucinations as well as fluctuations in personality schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder do have some overlapping symptoms and the two are actually commonly confused for each other but people who suffer from schizophrenia do not have multiple personalities the most notable symptom of schizophrenia is an altered perception of reality which is how I view the hallucinations Fran sees throughout the game I think the pills trigger psychotic episodes causing Fran to completely lose touch with reality altogether Fran experiences both visual and auditory hallucinations I think the sharp whispery sound designed during these episodes is really on point in representing the auditory hallucinations and very clearly this is not reality now it is sometimes hard to say whether Fran has these episodes without the assistance of the red pills if that's the case she doesn't necessarily suffer with anything beyond an overactive imagination but the game implies Fran had been having visions before being given this new medication in the beginning of the game and there's also a part where Fran supposedly travels through time to see her younger self in the same mental institution she doesn't recall being in the institution which to me justifies symptoms of delusions and forgetfulness my theory is that she has always been in and out of this psychiatric facility but doesn't remember it that way because her thought process isn't right and even without the pills I think Fran is still experiencing hallucinations even in the real world she is still seeing gigantic ants and fantastical creatures and she's constantly talking to her cat mr. midnight whom she believes understands her another implication is the scene where she digs up her parents graves and their skeletons are intact this would not be the case due to how they were dismembered in Fran's vision shown in the introduction of this game so it makes me wonder how out of touch with reality she is this discrepancy in the murder of her parents can mean that her previous vision had been imagined as a result of schizophrenia these symptoms are referred to as positive symptoms and no that does not mean they are good it means that they are not present in those without schizophrenia negative symptoms include things like low energy indifference and social problems catatonia is a positive symptom alongside hallucinations and delusions and though you don't necessarily see Fran become a mobile there are times where she is said to have been unresponsive like when she slept for three days straight after having a vision perhaps that can imply a catatonic state the nature of this game reminds me a lot of another point-and-click adventure game called sanitarium there are many parallels especially in regards to distorted reality and psychosis there's a very specific part in that game where an orderly tells max the lead character that he distorts reality in a way that allows him to get through difficult situations and overcome obstacles so that he can keep moving I think that maybe your mind couldn't handle the thought of you abandoning those who needed help so you constructed a world to hide him inside your mind until it was safe to come back but it all seems so real your mind is capable of wondrous things max in your head it was real I think this idea really applies to Fran in regards to imagining a setting differently so that it's easier for her to comprehend the biggest instance of this is being in it words flying machine which is steered via this bike the bike can be seen earlier in the less demonic world completely intact then in the flying machine controlled by it word then later can be seen here crashed and crumpled onto the ground I don't believe Fran was actually in the flying machine she was actually just biking through the woods but what she imagined was far more complex maybe she was just using her imagination as she went on this journey but she doesn't seem to know that they're not based in reality her fantasies seem real to her another interesting thing I've noticed is Fran's nonchalance to the horrific and weird imagery she witnesses I think any other ten-year-old child would be terrified but Fran's reactions make me believe that she's seen them before which ties into my theory that she has always struggled I think another very obvious symbol in this game is depression being shown as these black shadows in the first chapter of this game you are in the psychiatric facility with other children also bring from illnesses and disorders and being treated with medicine and therapy if you take a pill in this setting you will see these black shadows especially around each of the children some of them are even talking to the children chanting lies and horrible things one of the black shadows seems to be consoling one of the children which i think is so poignant how can depression be comforting well it's weird in that way depression can deceive you into thinking that you cannot be yourself without it some people feel that depression is simply a part of who they are and that they need it in a way because it's such a dominating feeling and it's all they know I have felt this way on many occasion and I think the presence of the black shadows as depression is very accurate it does feel like this dark blob feeding you manipulating thoughts and hanging around like an unwelcome friend it's dark and it's portrayed in a very dark way now because the developers intent is not directly known it's very possible that mental illness is not a theme at all and it's simply grounded in complete fantasy but I think there are too many things placed in this game that suggest otherwise especially the amount of items you can find throughout the game that talked about the development of the brain and the importance of how it relates to human behavior like this for example pretty blatant I would say I think the game isn't just relying on a mental illness theme though I actually think there's a decent blend of many components including things like fantasy and sci-fi it is tough to know what's actually real to Fran and what isn't and what's real in the game and what's supposed to be fantasy but despite not being entirely certain of the creator's intent I do think mental illness is addressed and is one of the main variables in this story it is a very raw interpretation to visualize depression as something evil and organic using you as a puppet in a way mental illness can get to those levels of severity and I think the game does a fantastic job of giving something you can't really see a very disturbing visual that you can interact with I think these things I touched on in this video make up for just one part out of many regarding the story and I think there are so many things to analyze so I highly recommend playing the game and coming up with your own theories which may or may not vary from my own these are the ideas I took away personally from my gameplay experience with Rambo and even if I am just completely off I still think the game is brilliant and it's one of the most enjoyable games to really dive into and stuff hey everyone thanks for watching my fan theory on Fran bow I hope you found it stimulating and if you have theories of your own I would love to hear them trust me I obsessed over this game after I played it so I am not opposed to discussing it even further I talked about this game with my friends so much I'm fairly sure they got sick of me if you would like to see my review of Fran bow I did link it in the annotations enjoy and as always I'll see you guys in the next one

Channel: PushingUpRoses

Views: 113,431

Rating: 4.9302039 out of 5

Keywords: pushinguproses, pushinguproses review, DOS, gameplay, walkthrough, game footage, video game review, review, commentary, Fran Bow, Fran Bow game, Indie game, Fran Bow Review, Fran Bow fan theory, Analysis, Mental illness, Fran Bow mental illness, Schizophrenia (Disease Or Medical Condition), Dissociative Identity Disorder (Disease Or Medical Condition), Mental illness in video games, Mental Illness (Disease Or Medical Condition), game theory, female game reviewer

Id: LDo9Tno4XB8

Length: 11min 58sec (718 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 04 2015