A Psychological Analysis of Fran Bow

Fran bow is like if Narnia was written by a surviving Lobotomy patient

What do you think?
Theory: aunt and dad had a affair and mom kills them after drugging Fran killing the cat ...deere (moms lover) takes her to the asylum...the pills let her see a alternate reality that does exist (misfortune) ....at the end she attacks mom who is posing as the aunt...Oswald who had a previous relationship with mom and aunt and just wants another test subject shoots her...deere had been drugged and electrocuted making him able to help temporarily before being freed....I suspect Edward could have been the dad's soul from beyond the grave trying to help his daughter, this could also have been why he was killed if he learned what was going on in the asylum from the aunt in the affair and was trying to help save the kids causing mom Oswald and deere to plan and commit the crime.

What do you think?

Theory: aunt and dad had a affair and mom kills them after drugging Fran killing the cat ...deere (moms lover) takes her to the asylum...the pills let her see a alternate reality that does exist (misfortune) ....at the end she attacks mom who is posing as the aunt...Oswald who had a previous relationship with mom and aunt and just wants another test subject shoots her...deere had been drugged and electrocuted making him able to help temporarily before being freed....I suspect Edward could have been the dad's soul from beyond the grave trying to help his daughter, this could also have been why he was killed if he learned what was going on in the asylum from the aunt in the affair and was trying to help save the kids causing mom Oswald and deere to plan and commit the crime.

This game was way ahead of its time

i really think that the game is set in sweden because the architechure is very swedish (im from sweden) also sweden was very very into eugenics in the 1940s

9:49

i love this game but the part in chapter 4 where itward goes to an arm wrestling competition and loses every match was a little weird

how is nobody talking about how denmark is missing on the europe map in 10:44

Just to make it clear it’s confirmed everything Fran experienced was real by little misfortune. Where we see the mention of the five realities and see itward.

The symbolism is intention but just because something is symbolic doesn’t mean it’s fake.
As regarding Remor it’s like 80% likely bet he just possessed Fran and made her kill her parents Oswald, kind of confirms it . Fran isn’t to blame for the death appearances as she lost her agency.

didnt expect my uni to be mentioned. big up mcgill!!

When I was younger I always thought this game was based off an old cartoon show which I mean maybe it is but it’s art style is so close to it. I can’t remember it name but it had a very similar name, that show was also very very weird lol

Her disturbingly cute humour was probably the best part of the game, Fran Bows is a sweet gentle curious little girl who values her empathy for others above all the evil she faces even after discovering she is the killer. The hopelessness really sets in at every chapter even in her relm of healing, it's something we all feel deep down about death itself and the way those tree people described death was really touching and its what makes us brave enough to cross that bridge which was destroyed from under her feet.
I haven't played little misfortune but I think I will.

As much as I value the effort, this is all over the place XD. Sorry but the FACT is that all of it is real. It is so interesting how after 8 years no one and I mean NO ONE has pointed out or even bothered to look up for the pineal gland phenomena. The pine cones representations are all around the game as well as a photo explaining how Fran Bow was actually a special kid according to the Oswald Research Facility. All is in the Ektoplomatin medication which is supplied to Fran. Both files ending in 915000 match between the one in the basement confirming expermiental subject having the pineal gland active and the one close to Fran's bed.

We never needed for Little Miss Fortune to let us know this was real. The answer was there all along. Your knowledge is superb but unfortunely wrongly focused. No one seemed to even try tranlsating Itherstian which in English does give even more context to certain things.

I encourage you to EXAMINE the evidence and COMBINE it. That way you will be able to USE it in order to find the truth.

Regards from Mexico.

15:16 Oh finally, here's the theories that i actually came here for... You didn't really have to spend three fifths of the video reciting your dogma.

20:38 Wow, that was short, straight back into the dogma.

11:24 it's always so frustrating to hear this stuff, not only because we all think it's bad, those hospitals were ill equipped to deal with the problem, but the patients were incapable of living in society, they had to go somewhere. Your "modern solution" of dumping them as medicated violent bums on the street is working out so much better. If our society had an integrity, we would reinstitute the looney bins, as private businesses and attempt to treat these people with modern medice and Christian theology.

You are the type of psychologists that would be pushing for it all over again. You talk about "informed consent" yet i have no doubt that you are explicitly For pre-adult tr@n$g3nd3r surgeries.

A younf sounding psychologist like yourself just got out of college and have no experience and are just repeating what you are told. Not to mention the majority of psychologists are already "mentally ill" are using psychology to try to figure out what's wrong with themselves, rather than trusting a "doctor" because they are also narcissists.

All mental illnesses are just demonic possession, but ill still watch your video, but you psychologists are insufferably smug.

great video, but it seems that you used some chatGPT to write the script and didn’t alter it! words like “notion” and “underscores” are GPT trademarks

This is not a psychological analysis. It’s primarily just a summary of the whole game. Only saying that cause I wanted to use this as a source for an essay.

Gotta admit, I wish there were more games like this. This game is something I remember when I’m not feeling well mentally, it just… it comforts me and disturbs me, and yet it comes to a sort of bittersweet ending. It doesn’t leave you crying, nor does it leave you afraid, somehow. I dunno why, the game is both frightening yet comforting. I wish more games approached mental illness and struggles like this, instead of using it for shock value or an accessory that is resolved in the end, instead of being something that you can’t escape, but learn to work with, and get treatment for. It’s scary, but it’s apart of an experience, not an enemy to fight, if that makes sense.

Such a timeless game

If the monster who killed her parents was so strong…
Why was there a knife at the scene?….
I feel like it wasn’t a monster, it was a murderer.

for my own mental health, i choose to believe this little girl who experienced horrific trauma was not just dreaming of a better life while being stuck in an abusive asylum. rather that somehow her body and spirit went someone better and happier with mr. midnight.

In a way, I like to think of some of the other realities as forms of an afterlife, which is further emphasized by the premise of Little Misfortune. I'm honestly looking forward to seeing this concept expanded upon in future games.

when I first played this game I was still a kid entering teenage years and now I'm 21 and recently I decided to replay Fran Bow. I've noticed a lot of things I've missed on my first play. It felt so comforting yet I kinda felt like this game traumatized me when I was a kid. I definetely can tell I had same themed nightmares with bloody horror before. I don't know. Fran Bow just really hit close to home

Try checking lucid dreams

If u spare me the background loud music … without the beat is fine , but the trance idk hon ,… other than that i love ur channel keep up 🎉❤

You can still get ECT. Luckily they sedate you first. I woke up during one of my multiple sessions. I couldn't move and thought the doctors wouldn't notice before they continued. Luckily one of them noticed because my heart rate went up and put me back under. When i woke back up i freaked out and thought i was being kidnapped. After i got home as soon as I got near my couch i collapsed and nearly fell on my face on the hardwood floor

My personal theory about the otherworld after having played Little Misfortune is that it‘s neither a hallucination, nor a different kind of illusion. A lot of the otherworld feels like something there to give these victimized characters a sanctuary that elevates them through meaningful trials kinda like therapy does as well. This lead me to believe that especially thanks to the „game“ 4th wall break mentioned over and over in the sequel, that it‘s almost a manifestation of art being what gets people through these things. And these game‘s old world settings also seem to add to this idea that the real world doesn‘t often do enough but art still can heal in ways no kind of health path really can. I mean I‘ve reached personal breakthroughs thanks to therapy but also thanks to art. And I think that‘s really valuable.

And it also kind of makes all of this so much more personal too. Since the games literally imply that you as the gamer are part patient but also guide. As an artist it‘s also been really encuraging. I‘m still not ready to write my own experience based magnum opus because I wanna be able to do it without having a constant mental breakdown but seeing people resonate with this does mean a lot to me. Art can help you cope and also give you the same emotional power the games give the characters especially in this game series. And I do love the uplifting aspects of it too. I love the cat lady point and click horror game but it‘s very dark and stays dark until the end at least in it‘s aesthetic. I still love these games but I also appreciate fran bow for focusing on the healing part within a less grizzly and depressing world.

Even with little misfortune I was kind of worried having only seen clips of it that it‘d be this silly kinda adult humor satire game that didn‘t mean as much as fran bow did, but playing it myself it did still make me feel as emotional as fran bow did.

So yeah. Long story short, to me the other world is art because it‘s a sanctuary made by people who know what it‘s like to their core and offering a helping hand through showing you how they handled things wich ofc also echoes the intent behind the game since the dev said herself that it was her experience with trauma made into art to show ppl how she handled it, how she felt and how she learned to heal. And that‘s also why I like the concept of the otherworld. It‘s strange, personal, absurd and far away from what we see as reality. But it‘s still so meaningful because art is so flexible and personal. No other thing in life is like it really. And that‘s also what makes it special. I love these games, i love their Journey and their messaging and I love the compfort they give. Struggling with trauma is never easy or helpful in life. But we give meaning to anything by using it to make something actually meaningful to us. Fran bow is part of that. And I love and adore it for this reason alone.

Things this series made me think of:
Coraline (movie)
The Uninvited (movie)
Alice Madness Returns (game)
Pans Labyrinth (movie)
Silent Hill (movie/game)
The Haunting of Hill House (show)

I thoroughly enjoy psychological horror

Regarding your point about cruel medical treatments back then: I think it's important to point out that ECT (electro-convulsive therapy) is still in use today and a very important and useful tool in the medical toolkit. It is performed very differently, though, under anesthesia and muscle relaxation. Its history and the way media portray it makes many patients who'd really benefit from ECT extremely hesitant, though.

I am pretty sure this is just an alternative universe to the nazi experiments in the 40s, a world where children have higher beings protecting them

Dr hebb looks so much like dr deern

I've never believed Fran killed her own parents, i mostly think she blames herself for it because it fits better with the themes of the story. Grief is a very powerful process that can change us in many ways and children specifically feel this process much stronger. This means the normal grieving process of blaming oneself might show up in a child much stronger than in an adult and in the grieving mind, that is what happened. Fran thinks she killed her parents, because to her she did, she blames herself, but that isnt the truth, she probably wasn't able to save them or help them, but she takes that as murdering them herself

Lol every time she said Ithersta the captions said Bethesda😂 “embarking on a journey through Bethesda”😂

I am so happy people are covering this!! Fran Bow has been one of my favourite games for years :)

I always tought it was set in Germany because of Fran's last names, the twins experiments and, ofc, the year.

absolutely amazing analysis. great watch and high quality, look forward to more of your stuff❤️❤️