Enemies now.

Harry is a certified Superstar Sandwich™ 🕺🥪

Hey, did you know that preorders for my Disco Elysium memo pads and charms are live right now? It ends on March 1st! You can buy them on my Ko-fi store, where I’ll also be bringing back the rest of my store merch with leftover stock from an upcoming convention I’ll be attending in March ;)

If you’re within Malaysia, you can preorder via this form instead, which also provides options for pick-up!

Disco Elysium (2019) - The Final Cut (2021)

Zedbot in Revachol doodles For an unknown terrible reason, they joined the RCM like a sucker

One thing that I think a lot of Disco Elysium meta misses (likely because a lot of it is very clearly written by young Americans writing from an intensely American-centric cultural perspective without even really realizing it) is that one of the singular and central themes of the game is massive-scale generational trauma in a home that is economically collapsing as its resources and people are being drained by an occupation.  People have noted that no one tries to help Harry, despite the fact his mental illness is incredibly obvious to everyone around him.  He tells Kim that he completely lost his memory, and Kim politely asks him to focus on the work.  He tells Gottlieb that he had a heart attack, and Gottlieb tells him that if he’s still alive it couldn’t have been that bad.  That he’ll drop dead sooner or later, but then so does everyone.

And that’s the most important thing: so does everyone.  Look at Martinaise.  Look at the world in which Harry lives.  It is not our own, but it is adjacent to ours.  More specifically, it is clearly adjacent to the states of the Eastern Bloc: overtaken and occupied by a faraway government that clearly doesn’t care about Revachol or its people.  And that is obvious in every tired face, every defeated citizen, everyone trying to eke out a little happiness or meaning in spite of the overwhelming trauma and damage around them.  The buildings are still half-destroyed.  The bullet holes are still in the walls.  The revolution was decades before, but it still feels to the people there like a fresh wound.  The number of men of Harry’s generation who are not alcoholic or otherwise deeply fucked up are very few.  Some, like Kim, hide it better, but the deeper you dig into his history, the more you realize how damaged Kim is.  He’s more than a little trigger happy, and hates that about himself, but he is a product of his environment: Kim’s entire life is seeing people he cared about shot and killed, so his instinct now is to shoot first himself, to protect those few people left who still matter to him.

Harry is not unique in his trauma.  He is a distillation of an entire culture of people who tried to rise up and make something beautiful, and were instead routed and occupied.  He is trapped between the occupation and the people on the ground, along with all the rest of the RCM.  Their authority comes from the occupying government, but it is implied that they were formed out of the remnants of the citizens militia which sprung up from Revachol itself as a way to try to mitigate some of the horrors being committed on its streets.  The Moralintern sure as hell wasn’t going to get their hands dirty, so they happily conscripted (and therefore could better control) this group, who are only recognized in certain places, and whose authority mostly amounts to giving out fines.  The RCM is corrupt, but it is corrupt in the same way its culture is.  Bribes are considered standard with them, not a moral failing, but a necessity, so long as those bribes are correctly logged as ‘donations’.  It’s how the RCM stays afloat, and the rest of Revachol completely understands that.  Everyone would take a bribe if it meant they kept eating.  Everyone would take a little under-the-table money if it meant keeping a roof over their heads.  The officersof the RCM certainly don’t make enough to see a doctor.  They have an in-house lazarus, and if he can’t fix them they just die.  Mental health care?  What mental health care?  Harry doesn’t get it for the same reason no one else does: it doesn’t really seem to exist.  There are no counselors, no psychologists, no psychiatrists.  How would they even start?  If the world is what is broken, if everyone is suffering a similar catastrophic amount, it makes sense that Harry’s trauma would simply get rolled up with all the rest.  Kim asks him to get on with the job because Harry’s suffering is not remarkable in Revachol.  He is one of an entire generation who have an astronomical number of orphans from the revolution, and so many younger people are left more or less orphans as their parents drink themselves into oblivion like Cuno’s father.  So Harry’s truly unique attribute is embodying all that trauma, having it all inside of him, filling him to bursting.

To really engage with the themes of the game, engaging first and foremost with the reality of Revachol is imperative.  Imposing our own reality onto Revachol, particularly if coming from an American perspective (which tend to have the habit of both viewing the world through an American lens and not realizing they’re doing it because they’ve never experienced a different lens), will always feel shallow to me because of this.

All that is to say, I would love to hear some more explicitly European meta about this game, and especially Eastern European meta.  If anyone can point me to some good, juicy essays from that perspective, I would be grateful!

JUNIOR OFFICER OF THE REVACHOL CITIZENS MILITIA | handsome young man!

-Twitter (X) https://twitter.com/mongravi

That's a real nice kineema you've got there, Lieutenant Kitsuragi; had one meself before I drove it into the ocean. Trouble is, your rims are just... bland. A bit pedestrian for someone who likes motor carriages.

You 'aren't that into them'? Oh, well then, I guess they suit you fine.

Oh, just one more thing. I couldn't help but notice your radio was tuned to uhh, what was it... SpeedFreaks FM?

And y'know, I couldn't help myself, being what with the glinting and all, but my eyes stumbled across that set of spinners you've got there in the back seat... certainly not police issue, are they? I find myself askin'- how'd a member of the Citizen's Militia of Revachol such as your self come into possession of such fine rims? *vibraphone glissando*

Okay so I got this Columbo ass shirt/jacket for the ridiculous price of 10k vnd (about 50 cents)

Reason is:

Which I'm gonna fix by slapping a big white patch on it, disco elisco lieutenant style

But I gotta put something on it bc it looks plain as fuck

Lt. Kitsuragi and Patrol Officer Minot in pursuit.

ok building on the idea that's circulating of dora actually being an incarnation of dolores dei

i think that the RCM are the main parallel to the therriers in the game's current century

the therriers guarded the body of the innocence. the RCM uphold the remnants of dolores dei's rule in revachol (the authority of the moralintern)

presumably, the therriers had their own version of esprit de corps (we know that esprit de corps is a skill that does not belong exclusively to cops)

a therrier assassinated dolores dei; the RCM are implied to have the potential to bring about the downfall of the moralintern in revachol. (Harry: But who am *I*? Why are you taling to me? Shivers: "YOU ARE AN OFFICER OF THE CITIZENS MILITIA. *AGENTES IN REBUS*, WHEN YOU WEAR YOUR COAT, YOU WEAR MY SOUL.")

the therrier assassin's battle cry "we were supposed to come up with this ourselves!" is connected to the question of the RCM's origins: were they appointed by the coalition or the people? if the RCM defies the moralintern, this could be a step toward self-determination and self-rule, taking back power for the people (if we characterize the RCM's intentions as "good"; i honestly think this question is not helpful, because the RCM is a huge organization that cannot have a single intention. captain pryce's intentions, which seem dubious based on the text, do not equal the RCM's intentions; le retour would be a group movement if it got off the ground, more important for what it manages to accomplish rather than the goals of its assumed masterminds)

if we think of harry as a reincarnation of the therrier who killed dolores dei (as suggested by @palin-tropos), that could suggest that harry (and possibly precinct 41 as a whole) have a particular role to play in le retour, for better or worse

Precinct 57’s finest ✨

Talking to Joyce

So wait. Is she implying the RCM has more power then it realizes and could overthrough the Moralintern control of Revachol? Is Harry secretly the head of the RCM? Is Harry a secret Moralintern spy and NOT and RCM officer? Or does this imply that Harry is the true *CITIZENS* Militia because he works for the people and not the RCM or the Moralintern? Hmm...

Disco Elysium (2019)

Who is Angus to Evrart?

full dialogue of the scene that line is from:

You - "Tell me about Titus Hardie and his crew."

Evrart Claire - "Oh, they are simply fine young men -- all seven of them! Exemplary Union members. Always working to advance their position in the local socialist-democratic movement. Core members."

Evrart Claire - "Old Theo used to run them, but things really *kicked into gear* when Titus took the reins and named the group after himself." He starts laughing. "Gotta love his initiative." You - "What more can you tell me? Who's second in command? Who's the most violent?"

Evrart Claire - "Harry, they're almost all of them *great* guys, born leaders. Whatever happened, I'm sure they only had the best interests of Revachol in mind."

Evrart Claire - "Work with them -- hell, interview them! But don't fight them. They really are just like you -- men who like beer, women, and some *order* on the streets."

Half Light - Separate one from the herd. You - "So let me ask you this... Which one of Hardie's boys is your least favourite?"

Evrart Claire - "Oh, that would definitely be Fat Angus. His feet smell from a city-block away and he's always having noisy stomach troubles. Horrible, revolting guy."

You - "So let's say something happens to Fat Angus... let's say a citizen's arrest..."

Evrart Claire - "You would die, Harry," he says, grinning. "You would die and in the process start a bloody and completely unnecessary war between the Débardeurs' Union and the Citizens Militia."

Evrart Claire - "Angus, his ever-growling stomach, and his smelly feet are all part of the Union. You have as much right to *arrest* him as he has to arrest you... "

Evrart Claire - "...actually less, because it's his home and his backyard. You are a guest here, Harry. Please remember that."

Evrart Claire - "Oh Harry..." He starts laughing. "This is getting real grim and there's no need for that. We are friends." He sits back and looks you in the eye with a wide smile.

i love thinking about this dialogue in comparison to when you get his real opinion on the hardies:

Evrart Claire - "Harry, I bugged her cabin. I bugged her whole boat. I had cameras surveying her boat. Hell I even wanted to bug that thermal cup, but my boys advised against it."

Savoir Faire - They must have done it while Joyce was busy questioning the locals. You - "So you've been listening to our conversations all the time?"

Evrart Claire - "Not me personally..." he stretches his arms like a discus thrower. "I had guys recording and processing this information for me." You - "The Hardie boys?"

Evrart Claire - "Hell no!" he exclaims. "They'd fuck it up. They can't do anything right. I mean my *real* boys. My special task force boys."

Kim Kitsuragi - "Where are these boys?"

Evrart Claire - "They sure as hell aren't hanging out in the open with beers in their hands for the cops to question." He bursts out laughing. "They're pros, Mr. Kitsuragi."

he doesn't like angus & doesn't even like or trust the hardies as it turns out! and yet i do 100% believe that he meant it when he said harry would die & it would start a war between the rcm and the union. not because he really cares about the hardies personally but because it would reaffirm the union's power/obviously they would have to respond to something like that. but finding knowing his true thoughts about the hardies casts an interesting light on this convo:

You - "The remaining mercenaries are organizing a tribunal to take on the Hardies."

Evrart Claire - "Tribunal?" He appears aghast. "That sounds *serious* Harry. We Union men should be *shitting* ourselves..." He rubs his chin and smiles suddenly: "I wish you hadn't told me that. I'm gonna lose *sleep* over this. Let's change the subject."

Empathy - He's clearly happy about the tribunal.

You - "You don't *seem* too worried about it." Evrart Claire - "Oh, Harry, what do I *really* think about the tribunal? You're trying to climb to second base with old Evrart before you've even courted him properly."

obviously he's happy about the tribunal because his end goal is to start a war with wild pines but there's a total lack of concern for the hardies both here where they come up specifically or for the union in general when discussing the prospect of a war with harry:

You - "Have you ever heard what two Giant Seraise Hornets can do to an entire colony of bees? They destroy it."

Evrart Claire - "I have. It's a great story, Harry." He nods. "Did you also know how the bee colony kills the giant hornet? They swarm and blanket it entirely, until it suffers a *massive heat stroke* and dies." Empathy - He crosses his hands, contently, thinking of the interior temperature of the wasp rising. Endurance - They cook it alive in its exoskeleton.

Evrart Claire - "Harry, we outnumber them fifteen hundred to one. And that's just Martinaise. With all the unions in Revachol -- and with public opinion on our side -- we can hold off two men. Or fifteen men. Or even fifty men."

Evrart Claire - "The more they send, the worse it's going to look for them. They made a *huge* mistake hiring those guys. *No one* likes foreign mercenaries. The leftists hate them, the fascists hate them, even the moralists think they're *in bad taste*."

is he really just that confident in the union? does he view the hardies specifically as expendable because he doesn't have much faith in them? or are his real thoughts more along the lines of "yeah people are probably gonna die but if that's what it takes then so be it"? we already know he's willing to kill if need be but i'd imagine he'd view tiphaine holly (an ineffective leader who's his direct opponent) differently from the members of the union he's supposed to be looking out for... we can never get his opinion on the tribunal after it happens (screams cries throws up) but i could see him being overall satisfied with the outcome.

Evrart Claire - "What was always going to happen. We take the harbour and she fucks off to Ozonne, uncorks a bottle of wine, calls her partners and says they need to distance themselves from this nasty business before the big shit spinner splashes everyone."

Evrart Claire - "Only difference is the Union doesn't have to lose 2,000 men to machine gun fire."

like, 3-7 deaths compared to 2,000? anyways this is so much more than the question you actually asked i just love to think about my fucked up little guy.