Film Theory: Who’s REALLY in Control?! (DHMIS) 

it’s very nice to watch matpat bring in a smaller creator instead of repeating their theory. big respect matpat

MASSIVE respect for not only watching Rem's videos, but opting to INVITE HIM TO COLLABORATE rather than just rehashing his own theories.

Rem got the highest honor : getting to say the end line with MatPat he seemed so excited completely valid, i would've died on the spot

My Theory: The items represent what each of the characters want in some way. And to take it 1 step further, Red Guy represents the future, duck is the present and yellow guy is the past (more below): Yellow Guy: Wants to understand what is going on and what had happened before. Also, tying in the above video, he's the dead son of Leslie and is what keeps her stuck in the past, he's a physical manifestation of that past. He's stuck trying to piece together what had happened to bring us here, and he needs the batteries to do this. Duck: He is in the present and always is content to just be present with the current status quo. He wants the Cheddar Dollops and to share them with his current community or family. He's happy to be stuck in this loop and doesn't want for things to change, he is here for the now. Red Guy: He most wants to break the cycle. He wants out, wants tomorrow. Even if that means he has to die. In the death episode he fetishized death the whole episode, because it represents an escape from their current nightmare. He is ready to escape, even if escape means dying.

Something I just realized is that in the death episode, red guy thinks he should be the one who’s dead instead of duck. And then in the family episode, duck is so sure that he should be able to open the chips. Maybe then being confident in what should be is another sign of how things should happen for the story to free them.

i love how matpat doesn’t colonize ideas and allows those who came up with these theories vocalize it for themselves

One thing that supports the loop theory is there are several periods where the characters regain some level of consciousness about the correct order of events, but once they've happened there's nothing they can do. Like the, now heavily memed, clip of Red saying "I'm more the kind of person who should be dead". He's recognizing that he was supposed to be selected to die, but he wasn't.

Can we acknowledge the other popular theory for the RU-vid series for a sec? The theory that the series is about people refusing to grow up, then finally putting down their toys and giving in. It's interesting that not only did David not grow up, but when Yellow climbs the stairs, he's essentially doing just that, going from a big boy to a bigger boy qnd then continuing to the next stage. It's only when yellow reaches this stage, when he's grown up, that Lesley realises he's not her son. Because he's done the one thing her son couldn't.

I love seeing smaller creators like Film Theory getting the recognition they deserve

I feel that Leslie (being a screenwriter) is writing for the DHMIS Show but after her accident that killed her son her writing has been drastically affected by it. She has an idea for the show but dealing with her grief makes it nearly impossible to write out a full story which is why she constantly has to "reset" the story and start new.

I think we get some insight into the intended lesson order in the end credits of episode 2. During the credits, Duck is singing a song where each line goes, "When you meet a ___, you must shake him by the hand." The blank is filled in with the following people: Businessman Family man Choo-choo man Friendly fellow Plug-in man These correspond with the briefcase, Lily and Todney, the train, Warren the Eagle, and Electracy. The casket may not be in the line up, since it's the credits for the episode featuring him. If we don't consider the casket, the rest of them are in order, except two: the train and Warren. Given this, it seems like the transport lesson should have come before the anti-bullying lesson. I think this is backed up by the presentation of these teachers as well. Warren has a rather immature attitude when it comes to friendships. There's also the fact that he said that his wings are taking longer to sprout, implying that he's not yet fully developed. The train, by comparison, is old, confused, sickly, and dies of exhaustion before the episode is over. I think this is evidence that their episode orders are flipped. Warren is too young at the time he shows up, because his episode was supposed to have happened later, when he would have been older. Contrarily, the train is too old at the time he shows up, because his episode was supposed to have happened earlier, when he would have been younger. I think this info aligns with this theory, and that the incorrect order is either something that the main three should have made happen, or is a result of a bad timeline due to their incorrect actions.

It's weird how invested I can get in a series I've never watched and don't expect to ever watch.

I love how Leslie isn’t a villain She’s just a woman in grief ANF trying to build her family back

I love seeing all the new people matpat is inviting to his videos and his team, they’re so talented and definitely deserve a place at the theorist table

Yeah the idea is basically that they're getting it wrong a lot of the time. (IE: Red was supposed to rescue Duck in the events of death or at least process his passing, but instead he forced Stain into being duck and probably got the real one killed. Duck was supposed to accept his group as a family of sorts, but instead he had the most toxic view of the 3 and fell into loathing. That's also why Duck got a coin in Episode 1, he successfully realized they were doing it wrong and broke out)

Remgames deserves to be on the theory team in my opinion. His videos were one of the whole reasons the video turned out so well, and he got along very nicely and acted like he always belonged on the channel. I think he deserves to join.

Editors deserve a lot of credit for these videos featuring guests. Using their unique style to adapt between Mat's cadence and Remy's cadence to deliver an excellent visual story is just so masterful.

Game theory and MatPat has entered the decade where they start to promote even more creators and small theories that get a chance to shine. I'm all for it!

One correction courtesy of Inside a Mind: the picture on top of the stairs does not show Yellow Guy one scene earlier. It doesn’t show him in the picture until he is in the process of walking up the stairs. It may not be that he’s done it before, but that the pictures adapt to what is happening.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="26">0:26</a> literally the most disturbing and scariest scene in dhmis. that was truly a jumpscare.

I'm so glad you're still covering DHMIS because the show deserves every bit of attention it can get and I hope more than anything that it gets a season 2. It seriously blows my mind how much effort and passion went into it. It's hilarious, it's unsettling, and it stays true to the original series' tone while also fleshing out all of the wonderful characters we've grown to love.

It's fun seeing videos like this with a guest, especially with how excited most of them are to say the "but hey, that's just a theory" line. It's just adorable

Matpat never disappointed us, it’s nice for him to bring in another small creator, and gave him the boost that he deserved. 😀👍

Fact For Matpat:In episode 4 when the first rewind is rewinding you can see someone get into reds costume

I think all the items in the windows in Leslie's room actually stand for what each character wants/needs to be happy. The chuddle dollops represent family, and Duck is clearly shown in the family episode to want a family. Red guy was jealous of duck in the death episode because red really really wanted to be dead, so the shovel represents death. Yellow guy wants the truth, knowledge, etc and the batteries are the only thing that allows him to learn and be his real self, so they're in his window. I agree with the different iterations theory, but I don't think it applies to Leslie's windows. I feel that it's what each character wants the most from their lives Edit: I typed yellow guy instead of duck in one sentence by accident Another edit: maybe it's possible that the characters all need to be happy/be satisfied/accomplish their goals to break the cycle too and matpat was still right about the items, idk I guess it's possible

I was actually worried Rem's work would be missed or only briefly mentioned as inspiration but inviting him in is a HUGE win for a budding theorist channel! This is the Theorist crew I subscribe to (I mean, I've been subscribed but... you get it) Incredible collab!

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="568">9:28</a> It is true that Red Guy (aka Mop) Never used the shovel, Duck never opening the bag, but here's the thing: Yellow Guy (aka Puppet David) Wasn't the one to put in the batteries, It was duck who put those things in the slots.

Even the clothing that Lesley wears is like pieces of their adventures to one big puzzle

"Because of course there are dead children, we have our standards after all." Best Line 2022 *This comment has more likes than I do subscribers XD*

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="546">9:06</a> "I guess we could share... I WANT BOTH!!!" Lmao.

They gave Remy a little png of himself just like MatPat ❤ <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="458">7:38</a>

when you mentioned that there may be a level above the producers being the audience who are willing to watch the same thing over and over again that reminded me of in episode 11 when duck is watching Grolton & hovris it turns off and he wanted to know if grolton made the appointment and red guy said "he always makes the appointment and the next episode starts back at home" implying all the episodes are the same to some extent and play out like there world how they always start back at home.

Well, first off, the thing is that I love how Lesley's not an antagonist. Especially in the DHMIS universe. Like imagine the action that would go down for the entire Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared conspiracy and Yellow Guy himself, and second off, I can see both MatPat and Rem solving mysteries over a couple of books and some strange, gory lore behind it in the hands. Plus, I find it fun that whenever a new video comes out you just have this new, special guest featured in it.

The dynamic between having two hosts back-and-forth exposition where you flow off of each others points, is surprisingly REALLY entertaining, you should definitely experiment more with in the future

One thing I noticed is how patchy their knowledge of their existence is. Red guy knows that they do the same thing every day but to an extent. In episode 2, death. We see memories of things Duck did. Red and yellow guy say that he never did any of those things, but that’s incorrect. He didn’t do any of those things but 1. It’s Duck in the construction fit from episode 1, jobs.

This Collab was really dope! Absolutely loved it. Both made excellent points. I’ll definitely be checking out rem games since I’ve exhausted all the DHMIS videos here. Awesome work guys 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾🔥🔥🔥

I have to comment just to say I am ABSOLUTELY LOVING THIS FORMAT! Having a guest theorist come on and making the lore analysis into more of a conversation is just wonderful

Matpat has never missed a fandom

I loved this back and forth, these two theorists make a great partnership. They explain things very clearly and keep you engaged

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="585">9:45</a> “Where do you think you’re going?!”

I always thought that the other room would be some sort of symbolism of guilt, regret, or trauma of her son dying. I think the entire reason that this show is going on is because it’s driven by Leslie’s urge to teach her “son” lessons that she would’ve taught him I’d he hadn’t died. I think the show is how she copes with the trauma

It's so sweet watching MatPat collab with other creators

Theory: ITS ALL A DREAM-Specifically Lesley’s dream.

I love the interactions with other theorists. I think the content and theories are better when everyone works together. I’m an artist and after working on something for a long time you get tunnel vision. It’s hard to see mistakes. It’s helpful for me to turn the work upside down, but I often will ask others if they see any mistakes as well. Fresh eyes and different perspectives…

It''s very nice to watch RemGames bring in a small creator instead of repeating their theory. Big respect RemGames.

If its true that Leslie is yellow guys mum, could the repetitions or resets be Leslie attempting to avoid yellow guys death. She keeps playing out the events that lead to the car crash in regret, maybe trying to find a series that would have kept him alive. That makes sense to me anyway. Then perhaps instead of there being a right order of things to happen that Leslie already knows, the book lists all of the failed loops, helping the 3 characters to try a new one. There are only 3 windows in leslies room, maybe these are the parts she has worked out, but she hasn’t found the perfect list of events that leads to her son surviving

Started following Rem because of this video , becoming a huge fan of his channel now. Delighted this video made me aware of him.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS DUO! Their energy and vibes were awesome. Please do another theory together one day. 🙏🏽

Dang, Remgames is actually super underappreciated! Let's give this man the support he deserves!

Actually I think the items represent what the characters crave the most. Duck obviously wants family, thus he gets the item from that episode. From episode 2, we know Red guy really wants to die, hence the shovel and Yellow guy needs batteries to reach his true form, cuz his own batteries are old and don't show his full potential!

Idk if u guys noticed but the book on time <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="145">2:25</a> has the clock on the book. And it’s when matpat edits the book going up I think that’s a bit of something? Maybe the book belonged to the clock then soon after it got stolen by Lesley/Leslie

The synced "But hey, that's just a theory." at the end was spectacular.

seeing matpat bring in smaller creators and giving them credit makes my heart happy

Another thing I've noticed about the show is that on the first episode where the suitcase calls in his brother Unemployed Brendon he asks Red Guy if he would like to publish his novel which is called the Ultimate Forgiveness. Which means that Leslie has thought about forgiving herself but is in too much pain and can't do it. Which would explain why Brendon is unemployed Edit: I know it's not really important to solving the lore, Im just throwing it out there

WHY IS THERE 3 DIFFERENT PEOPLE SAYING ONE OF THE SYMBOLS IS amongus AT THE SAME TIME Edit: And of course it’s at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="260">4:20</a>

I think the book says "Don't Hug Me I'm Sca Red" (going from top left to top right, then center left, then center right, etc) Yellow guy's symbol is "Don't" which is maybe what he meant when he said his name has a hyphen (maybe he meant apostrophe) Duck's symbol is "Me" which in the show's intro, when it says "There's him and you and me" when it says "me" it shows Duck. Red's symbol is on "Red" for obvious reasons.

The symbol for Yellow Guy makes sense because he removes batteries from himself in the season finale. The symbol looks like batteries.

Can I just say how much of a production this channel has been doing for their intros?? They ALWAYS never fail to amaze me.

I really like Matt and Remi's vibe in this video! i think they should def collab again i would love to see them tackle more theories together even if it's not DHMIS.

this is awesome! love that you're collabing with someone for dhmis! always increases the quality of a video! Just a note though, with mentioning child deaths and car crashes, it would be really cool if you had a content warning in the description! It would help people like me who are triggered by that sort of thing to mentally prepare and I would feel a lot better while watching your videos ❤

I love seeing MatPat work with and show off smaller theory channels and creators. As someone who watched both Rem and RyeToast I was super excited to see them on your channels!!!

Matpat has never missed a fandom. I respect that

Fun fact in the transportation song lesley is a repeating name meaning she could be reading "the book" and send out people to "teach them" about the universe and the symbols on the book could also be encoded symbols from other languages as when you run it through a computer it show archived books with veryy similar symbols

I also thought of a small theory about the talking objects being the spirits of the past dhmis members that got offed at any point and then replaced with Lesley's 'backups' since the lamp also explained how there's some people who believe the dead come back as their favourite objects

I noticed that the Yellow guy might have been a smoker (or a second hand smoker). During the first episode, one the items Yellow guy gets for lunch is a cigarette. During the roadtrip episode, Yellow guy finds a cigar trey filled with cigarette butts that he calls "raisins" while feeding them to the car.

The way Mat Pat takes the time and actually honors the creators and contributions to the content he covers in his theory videos (to the extent of even bringing them on, in a format that does the work they do justice like in this video) genuinely makes me feel like there is good in all people that most definitely can be tapped into~♥️ I am grateful for this video in more ways than one. It may seem small.. and maybe it may not seem significant to everyone, but this was beautiful in a very simple way 🌊

i had a very specific dream where red guy made me complete a puzzle-esque quiz form that eventually led to him revealing his name to me. the name that appeared at the end of the puzzle quiz was raymond. in my dreams red guy's name is raymond.

I realized something when I was rewatching DHMIS. On episode 3 ( families), on the bit when they are about to do a family game time, on the game board it had those symbols on it. I hope this was helpful.

The most wholesome crossover I’ve seen this month! Great job Remgames and matpat

I hope Matt adds Rem to the team the way he uncovers mystery and explains it was so simple I understood it immediately

this is the most enjoyable theory i've watched in awhile by far. the synergy between these two was great.

Hey Matpat. I dont know If you will see this or not but I have a theory to present to you. I believe that Leslie was in a car crash that potentially killed her family. Here's the evidence I have so far. 1: The scars on her face. 2: Her name is on the license plate. 3: The fact that she screams at yellow guy for not being her son. 4: The old car guy and his medicine. 5: Yellow guy getting hit by a car while Leslie screams in horror. My theory is that the old car guy represents her husband while yellow guy represents her son. I believe the car crash happened as a result of her husband not taking his "medicine" which helped get rid of his dizziness. While he was driving he got dizzy and lost control of the wheel. In the ensuing accident Leslie's son died upon impact while her husband only looked like he was dead. Explained by the car guy coming back to life in the episode only to die again. So her son and husband are now dead and the crash explaines all the cuts and stitches she has in the show. Fast forward in time to the show itself and we can now understand a few strange occurrences. Why leslie screams and yellow guy when he gets hit by the car and when in her attic. Yellow guy reminds her of her son. Seeing him get hit by the car brought back the horrifying memories of her accident. While when yellow guy is in the attic she gets mad because yellow guy is not him. He reminds her of what she lost. I'm sorry if what I'm saying doesnt make sense. It's currently midnight while I'm typing this. I was wondering if mabey you could test my theory and see if you could make more sense of it. My name is Kirk Bruckhart and Merry Christmas to you. Good night.

This is probably the coolest film theory’s I’ve ever seen, I love how these series is so unique from other horror shows.

I think Yellow Guy's symbol is the circle with the lines coming out of it, not the one you guys deduced. The fact that the symbol is on the yellow book in the intro makes more sense as a hint. Also that the symbols look like simplified versions of the characters in question. The one for Red guy has two circles for eyes and squiggles for hair, and Duck's has the square as the eye and the P with the dot in it being his beak. That would make Yellow Guy's symbol be the circle with a smaller circle inside it representing his head and nose. These would make the symbols much more akin to hieroglyphics. I could even take it one step further and speculate what the other symbols mean by associating them with the characters. The one you guys associate with Yellow guy isn't his name, it's how he died. The symbol looks like a simplification of a car, the rectangle being the body and the two dots being the headlights, with the looping arrow pointing down meaning under, under the car. Red guy's could also be guessed, as we heard in the show that he drowns. The symbol associated with him, Zigzags with a line and a dot, could represent this, depending on the direction it's facing. With the zigzags horizontal, they look a bit like waves, the dot could be either a sun or someone below the waves, depending on the direction. Alternatively, if the zigzag is vertical, the line through it could represent decent or sinking, sinking below the waves. Duck's symbol is hard to discern, as he's died multiple times across the series. He's sort of died by not drinking enough water, and by being decapitated by his double. If we consider the later, the symbol if turned on it's side could be seen as sort of a gemini symbol, with the square representing the true duck's head and the other being the copy. He died and was replaced.

Idea!: the other side of the windows could be how the loop actually happened! It starts here <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="504">8:24</a>

i watched rems videos when the episodes dropped, so nice to see you both working together :)))

I actually watched each one of RemGames' DHMIS videos (in addition to a couple others) when they first came out. Seeing him not only getting noticed for it but getting onto Film Theory to talk about it is amazing. So I just want to say congrats RemGames, cause you totally deserve it.

You guys bringing in guys like Remy and john is super awesome! Shoutouts to you guys keep highlighting smaller theorist channels like this, super awesome stuff!

Part of me wonders if the Council and Leslie live in a Threads*-like world, and Leslie's puppetry works could be a way for audiences to deal with things via escapism. Part of why her face has boils or something and why the MCs ended up in what looks like a post-apocalyptic world. *For anyone that doesn't know what Threads is, it's a horror movie about what would happen if a nuke dropped on Britain and it's infamous for being extremely dark/depressing. 0_0

I think yellow guys name is one the yellow book only because the other two's names are usually next to their given color. The thing about typing yellow guys name can be applied to that symbol as well.

Dhis is such an interesting show, started off as one episode with no expectations to take off or to make any more and years later thousands of people are watching the TV show and over analyzing everything. Interesting beginnings with interesting ends

I do like how MatPat invited the new theorist to share his theory in this video. It's nice to see that Loved the little bit at the end too at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="984">16:24</a>

Theory time! I noticed that, on the book cover that, (predominantly at the timestamp <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="740">12:20</a>, that's where I noticed at least) if u look at the symbols for Yellow Guy and Duck's severed heads at the top, they curve in a line and meet at the top center in such a fashion that strongly represents Red Guy's eyes... I feel like Red Guy's intended purpose with the shovel could be something far worse than what can easily be interpreted as him wanting to die or something in episode 2. Could be the syntax of the book or some fancy design though, idk.

I noticed how you didn't talk about the two eyes on the top of the book, or the picture of the clock teacher on the bottom. I focused more on the eyes and noticed that the lines that go around the whole book form the head of red guy at the top of the book if you look at how the lines go with the eyes.

Matpat is amazing. He gives us so many videos at an amazing pace.

This episode was actually very refreshing! It feels different, but good different, and big props to the theorist team for inviting the original theorist on instead of just repeating the theory. Also, the "is... Is this where we get to say the thing?" was delightfully adorable. Everyone wants to say the thing. RemGames is definitely on my radar now

i think something to consider is the end of episode 2 in the credits where they sing the song. that could be the correct order for the loop

honestly i just thought that "david" was the name of the little claymation replacement for duck guy because the pictures of "david" looked just like duck guy, and red guy comments how "he never did any of those things" and i thought that david was supposed to be a lookalike. plus, near the end of the death episode red guy completely sculpts the clay thing to look like duck guy so? idk

The episode we didn’t know we needed, but definitely wanted 😌

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="650">10:50</a> why is roy in the background tho 🤔🤔

Amazing theory, nice. You did it again guys

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="595">9:55</a> Never gets old. 🤣

I love when matpat brings in other theorists to the channel seeing there thoughts on it and trying to make a perfect theory.

I’ve actually noticed something regarding the symbols which mostly relates to yellow guy, on the book the symbol we believe is his name is linked with an odd circle looking shape and that same circle is on the x-ray he gets in episode 4 so that can mean the circle shape is actually his name or linked to him or his name in other ways

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="498">8:18</a> I got a theory, A FILM THEORY! I think we all know that game everyone played as little kids, trying to fit the blocks in the right holes. How is this related to dhmis season2? Verry easy! Just take a closer look on the chips packet (on wiki, in the show...), do you notice red guys symbol under the orange chip? I think this is a hint for where it bellongs. It belongs in the red diamond shape. And the shovel in the green squere, becouse yellows batteries are in the correct shape and color. So to escape or for something to change they have to put everything in the right place like the blocks in the right hole or to switch the color of the squere and diamond shape. But remember, this is just a theory, A FILM THEORY!

Probably one of my favorite Film Theory eps. MattPat collaborating and showcasing other talent is just the absolute best! As we get older, helping new talent grow and even evolve is how real community happens. Someone who wants to be the center of attention their entire career is how we get fallen and corrupted leaders. Matt! keep up the great work.

I'm surprised no one looked at the symbols and thought of alchemy. Most of the smaller parts of the symbols (like the triangle with a line through it) are from alchemy, and mean something different depending on which way its facing. I also think the larger symbols resemble the sigils associated with demons of the Ars Goetia.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="544">9:04</a> Red guy: I guess we can share Duck: I WANT THOSE

Hi matpat, I’ve noticed two things that could be important and/or interesting. The first is when the introduction in episode 3 is playing you can see yellow guys dad (i think he's called roy?) looking through a crack in the wall. The second is in the family episode, the game board their playing on is the same symbol as what you think is red guys name. This is probably going to be buried but thought it was interesting.

When matpat makes a dhmis theory, you know the creators will prove him wrong at least 8 years later with new episodes.