INSIDE & LIMBO • Abstract vs Literal Art 

the character in the game inside continuously go down throughout the entire game. The final scene where u come back outside? It cannot be outside.

as a college freshman who feels like life is coming at them fast, this video was incredible to watch

So this is probably just my own brain's quirks, but I very rarely see the worlds in games as anything but literal, unless the metaphor is really, really anvil-droppingly obvious. That was the case for both Limbo and Inside for me, though the ending of Limbo did finally force me to try and figure out a more abstract interpretation after the literal ending happened so suddenly and vaguely. I guess I just like to take these game worlds at their own face value, rather than drag in reality's baggage more than is needed to understand the world. Sure, things can still be all the metaphors they like, but when I'm experiencing a game for the first time at least, that's not usually what I am focused on. Cool video for sure though, even if I would never come to the same conclusions about Inside as you did. :P Good work!

What about Inside's secret ending? Also could you possibly look into CARRION's ending?

The tagline of Limbo is "Incertain of his SISTER fate, a boy enters limbo". I wonder if there is a clue here to who is the little girl ?

I'm drunk as fyck and this video feels really personal now. Ive always loved.both Limbo and Inside, theyre probably ones of my most favoruite games, they feel really.personal to me. My interpretation of Inside is very similar to yours, but my inteprratiotns of Limbo is very different. Either way, thank you very much for this video, i think im gonna puke now, but you gave me a little bit of comfort in all of this loneliness that is killing me. Thabks leadhead

To me, I always thought INSIDE was about martyrdom of the self to the will of society and the majority, but that there wasn't really any individual in the beginning. A symbol appears throughout the game a few times in the chickens, in the miners at the door, and in the upside down bodies; that of a group alive while one has stopped moving. Finally, it comes full circle when we find the little boy merging with the blob, and dying in the process, though in this case he doesn't lose his life, but his individuality. Several times throughout the game one was sacrificed or left behind to further progress, progress being represented literally by our character's movement from left to right throughout the length of the game. The ending sections might seem as if they are triumphant for the eventual societal mass, finally breaking the shackles of their birth, but eventually we realize that everything from the beginning to now has been constructed, and the blob simply dies at the end on a fake beach, surrounded by fake trees and fake earth, underneath a fake sky. Nothing changed. Everything was put in place to ensure that the individual was sacrificed to society, and it worked wonderfully. But at the same time, the game seems to warn us of this danger, as shown by the fact that not only the martyr die, but the flock.

A really interesting video, I think your way off the mark on the Inside analysis but that's just me and it was still an interesting take regardless. Also I'm not letting that Pink Floyd's The Wall reference slip by, I think it would be really cool to see you do an analysis of the movie version of The Wall. Very few people have ever actually made a good video about it which is criminal cause that movie is amazing.

I love inside. It's so confusing but so meaningful. It tells so much but says so little. It's awesome.

This interpretation gives a very dark explanation for that secret near the beginning where you can shut off the switch and crumpled to the ground. I could be seen as something akin to suicide. The only winning move, is not to play

Not so keen on this one actually. I fear you've gone off the deep-end based on first impressions and personal projections, rather than delving in and exploring all the themes and angles. The circular nature of both games, the rotting corpses on the intro screen of Limbo (mirroring the game's conclusion), and INSIDE's secret ending are all major elements which have been neglected. Also, it's quite apparent that the water-creature murders you. The little boy drowns, rather than being liberated. From then on, it could be construed that every action is being directed by the Blob, through the player. Mind control is the primary theme.

I too fear the thought of naked art students attacking me and pulling me down into a large body of water and giving me a magic sea star that allows me to breath underwater

An interesting interpretation. I'm not sure if it fits into it but theres a detail I've noticed that I haven't seen any of the theory videos on inside talking about. There are various parts where you need to guide NPCs around to solve the puzzle. And in every instance of this type of puzzle one of the NPCs either dies, or is dead. One chick dies from the impact, one of the mindless drone humans is dead from the start and you need to drag it out etc.

This is a very unique take on this. Well done.

One of the few RU-vidrs who I don't skip to the end then rewatch.

that inside metaphor is actually fantastic

you earned bonus brownie points from me for all the pink floyd references :P they are my favorite band of all time. and i actually played through limbo to dark side of the moon it was really fun. great video. it would be a crime to not upvote it considering the love poured into this video :)

I feel..... depressed from this.

This interpretation hit straight in the feels. Thanks for the video!

Absolutely love this one

I like the use of graphic

Happy birthday 🎉

I don't know if this is real or not but I think I heard something from the developers that inside was a metaphor for human reproduction. You're basically playing as a sperm evading the immune system and the blob at the end being made of human parts represents the egg and its potential to become anything like a whole bunch of different cells. The diorama and the encouragement you get from the staff shows that this is what the body as a whole wanted all along even if it fought you along the way. the beach was a plan destination and they were just waiting for someone to start the processes. when you finally get the blob to the beach its not dead just implanted in the womb and while you as an individual may not exist anymore you've initiated the growth of something bigger than yourself

I discovered your channel about 5 hours ago and have done nothing but binge your content since then. You tickle that part of my brain that wants analysis and content like this that most can't deliver. You cover the games that have impacted me the most in terms of artistic evaluation, you approach each game and topic with such.. comprehensive breadth in terms of accounting for all the subtleties hiding on the surface or deep within a game's design or effect. Thanks for what you do

The "in-universe" explanation for the diorama and the beach is that it's just another part of the facility. Why it exists, I dunno - maybe for the same reason they have artificial forests full of capsules to test the capsules in the real forest. I don't know that you getting there was "planned", though. The diorama just exists to reinforce that you never actually reach the "outside" - you're still deep, deep underground in this mysterious lab.

This video is now one of my favorites from your channel, this video-essay made me see both of these games with a completely new view, i never stopped to ask myself what it all meant metaphorically, i only wanted the answers to the literal story. Thank you, also Happy birthday Leadhead. :)

Wow thanks for not showing me this video when it came out RU-vid, I would’ve liked to see it sooner!! This is my jam

I've been binging these videos since I've found this channel a few days ago. What a fabulous find! Outrageously good content!

I think the ending of Limbo is terribly depressing. You finally get to your sister, and if you look, only one of you is going to be able to get up the ladder with the help of the other. So you sit there forever, or you leave her again.

Dude, how can I give more love to this video than just a like? Cuz all your videos just make me think more. Not only by your perspective but also mine. It is so good to understand or at least try to get other people points and perspectives. I just love it! Keep doing what you love and we’ll always support you. Thx for the great piece of thoughts and pure art!

Happy Birthday!

This channel is sooooo goood. Keep the good quality content. This channel deserves more recognition. You gained a new subscriber.

I love the videos you upload. They're awesome. Keep up the great work!

the timer at the start is brilliant and thoughtfull. Thank you.

You should experience the secret ending and then consider what *it* means.

Thanks Leadhead, I truly needed this video.

This is the best interpretation of Inside I've seen so far. Thank you for the great content, Leadhead!

Happy birthday Leadhead! Another great video

I actually really liked the graph visual, it helped me understand your point better

Happy birthday >:3 this was a good video

The quality increase in the microphone is really nice. Keep up the good work.

Wonderful as always. Best of luck in the future.

dude, this is the explaination of playdeads works i needed, not the theroies blah blah blah, but how you put it, makes 100% sense to me, i love it, keep up the great work! much love from northern ireland!

Happy birthday Lead

it's so nice to see this video pop up after finishing limbo for the 29104030th time yesterday, and checking the latest news on playdead's new 3rd game. THANK YOU.

I fail to see anything when I play games. Your channel helps immensely in understanding metaphors and the world that surrounds me. Thanks.

I was excited to see this video arrive.

I love your channel and how your mind works. I thought I analyzed things too deeply but it’s nice to know other people consider so many facets of a given piece of media. I remember finding Limbo on 360 a few days before it came out I was so drawn to it. I wish you included the audio of Limbo in the factory with gravity switches. The sound off the game made me feel how tragic and mysterious the boy’s world was. How was he separated from his sister. Will he just die again? Was she crying when we pulled up? Looking forward to the next one leadboi!

One thing that I'm interested in is what about the super-secret ending in inside, where you pull the plug on whatever is really controlling you. I think your mic sounds good as well

What I love most with this video is how it carries across the message that a less abstract piece of art can make you think not more but deeper

Happy Birthday! Hope it is as good as your content bro.

Dude, thank you for the content, Godspeed

LIMBO gives you no room to take things literally, INSIDE gives you no time to take things figuratively.

Happy bday!

I think limbo is about a kid in limbo after he fell from the ladder and the girl crying is his sister. The beginning of the game also starts near a very similar ladder with you waking up, as if you fell.

There's a few other points in game where the metaphor merges into the narrative. Especially if you seek out the hidden mechanisms.

Happy birthday!!

no one has ever been able to give me a theory that makes sense about inside until now. thank you, my friend

bro you deserve more subs and views. i'm going through all of ur videos. they are good af, and seems like a lot effort was put into them :d

You know you're still a part of the system even if you're a "creative."

happy birthday to you :3

This was an interesting interpretation, though some of the leaps you made were a bridge too far for me. Here's my own interpretation of Inside, which I wrote a few years ago when I played it. I think this game is ultimately about free will, but to get there, the game uses the recurring paradigm of CONTROL: - the masked dudes in the game supposedly control the "zombies" by means of the fancy headgear; - the worm controls the pig by means of... well, being a brain parasite; - the blob controls the kid by means of the player; - even the player controls the kid by means of their computer; - finally, the secret ending adds a "meta" layer on top: the developers control the player by means of the game. So the player is at the same time in control, being controlled and being an instrument of control. Once you take this view and play again, you start to notice things. For instance, you may now see the game's utter linearity as an intended feature rather than a limitation. Or have you found it a bit frustrating, on occasion, that you can only move left or right, while if you could move just a tiny bit sideways, you'd reach a platform (or hanging rope) that would make the level so much easier? I think this is actually intended - as the developers are touting their control over you - the player. With this interpretation, the secret ending is actually the player escaping the control of the game. (while the "normal" victory is the blob escaping the control of the weird dudes with masks) The game's other major theme, though still connected to the first, is hinted at by the title. A lot of the time you don't know whether you're inside or outside. At the end, the diorama being the same as the hillside the blob topples down, you're again left wondering if you've made it out. Like a Russian nesting doll, you never know when you're really "out", just like you never really know if you're at the top of the control chain. What if there's someone else pulling your strings, a la Matrix? Going a step deeper, both of these themes point in essence to the same idea: the inability of a conscious agent to know its real position (in space or in the control chain respectively) because it can never know if the reference systems that it perceives are fixed or not. More broadly it's the old idea that we cannot know if we have free will, because that's something that can only be determined from outside the system. This is what the game tells you with the hill and the diorama: you can see it's a model when you're outside, but when you're inside of one, there's no way to tell.

I saw the girl as a sisterly figure, and the boy someone who can barely survive the world let alone be strong enough to save his sister.

The ending gave me so much chills!!!

Happy birthday!

Awesome video, as usual

My interpretation of Inside has always been a more literal one. And even though it differs greatly from Yours, I still appreciate that view. For me Inside was always about someone becoming whole, even if it would make them grotesque to onlookers. To start off with, my interpretation assumes that the player character is the final amalgam of bodies and spirits that we witness at the end, as well as knowing what the secret ending entails (even though I had assumed as much already). It's a person, carrying with them all of their experiences and memories without trying to hide any of them - And at the end is joined by another piece and ready to move forward. We're broken, unwelcome accumulation of pieces of those we loved, hated and forgot and live much of our life hiding most of who we are. Everyone has secrets, here they are just laid bare. Spoiler Talk: I don't really go into a game or anything really, trying to interpret everything, there is really no point. That is to say, while I myself interpret it, I know that it will most likely not reflect the intended narrative accurately. Interpretations change drastically depending on the environment you grew up in and spend your life with and more often than not most everyone can come to similar conclusions, and yet things still differ. We use established motifs to convey taught meaning, but for someone who has never encountered it before, it is an open interpretation that relies on context and something completely different can manifest. I agree that metaphors are a great thing, and so are their interpretations, but they are never precise. For example I believe that the boy that we play as is just another part of a machine, it's an entity, almost a mechanical piece with a purpose and goal that is being controlled by the creature, we discover to be ourselves at the end. Another established metaphor would be the ray of light at the end. White fades are usually used in media to indicate a future, something beyond the current setting. While it can indicate death, it seems not likely, the entity is moving, bathing in light for the first time in god knows how long. Naturally a bleaker interpretation would be, that the creature is realising that it still has not reached the outside and like the diorama this is just a larger prison, an illusion of free will. Denying it of it's accomplishments and yet, it still has managed to achieve something. Inherently I believe the ending is ambiguous as it is, precisely to be open for interpretation. I, at the end, do not actually believe that the entity ceases to exist, a white light can represent many things and I think in this case it's finally a piece of natural (possibly) light, a piece of light You do not have to hide from - A piece of light so far off in the distance that it may as well be a ray of the sun (It being shown in the diorama does not mean that it is artificial, a diorama is used to display an area and that may as well be a light fixture that represents a hole to the outside world), a reprise, a place to stand still for a moment and just breathe, a place to look towards the sun, and maybe see a way forward, before planning your next step... Even if that next step occurs in a predetermined environment. So at the end, I simply think that what we saw was a single journey, a part of life and now we are ready to move on to the next, and while we somewhat know what we can expect from the future (diorama seen shortly before the end), it may hold surprises yet.

I wasn't prepared for that many spoilers with no warning

ey this is really well done

Great work!

I realized it was probably also worth noting that the submarine is propelled with the same air you breathe. Just another subtle layer of symbolism.

Great video dude

Love the outro that gave time to think with the thematic music playing very spicy my boy

It's important to realize that when making a game (or a book or a film etc), the "meaning" is not necessarily one thing. I'm sure the developers were aware of - the growing up metaphor - the sperm metaphor - the meta player mind control metaphor And probably many more. "The correct interpretation" doesn't exist.

Dang, this really fuels my cynicism. But it also makes me feel more free.

All in all, we're just bricks in the wall. F

This is fun to think about

Happy Belated Birthday!! I'll bake ya a cake and eat it myself in your honor!

Truly fascinating read of Inside. Have you seen the secret ending stuff? I wonder what it looks like under that lens...

I could smell that last "inside" word from a distance

I like the interpretation of the game you have, even though I don't subscribe to it. As a 21 year old film student is weird but at the same time compelling to hear that for you limbo is a metaphor for modern life lol. Far fetched in some areas for me, but hey, that's exactly what's so good about art, people can have all sorts of interesting interpretations that can fit so well with the art piece in question.

This one was really good!

Man, these interpretations are more of a stretch than me at the gym.

My own metaphors are more about the science and trying to link the two games together. Also, what's your take on the secret endings, IIRC, there's one for Inside AND there's one for Limbo as well, though arguably Limbo's is harder to get. I see Inside as happening first between the two of them, detailing some strange discovery that people made, allowing them to craft the world in some new and inexplicable way, something that alters what reality even is. This creates horrific booms that rock and instantly kill you if you're directly exposed to them. But, under more controlled circumstances, also allow for the zombification and amalgamation that we see happening, and society is quickly changing to not only reproduce, but MASS produce these results. With Limbo we see a society that has already been destroyed, with the few people that still exist reduced to a primitive and paranoid state, attacking and then running away from you as you approach. There are zombie-worms that attach to you but there are also predatory worm-eaters that always live nearby, forming a complete ecosystem, with yourself as the vector delivering worm meals to their predators. The world is broken but we can see some of the effects of the lost technologies, including weather-manipulation, impossible water flows, giant spiders and even artificial gravity. This is a society that, although powerful, collapsed under it's own weight, until barely any of it's once great civilization exists, and even less of it's powerful technology still even works anymore. It's possible that Limbo is entirely a dream, a dream held by a little boy controlled by... who knows what, stuck on the inside while outside your body is controlled like some kind of puppet. I'm not sure which is worse, the thought that it might be true, or the idea that these Limbo-dreams might be shared by everyone in such a state, of which you meet quite a few along the way in Inside.

This is a very cool analysis. I'd love to see you have an analysis of a different rebellion against the system and if it was futile or sensible. The game I'm recommending for it is "else Heart.Break()", it's about seeing the possibilities around you and the most important progression that widens your possibilities is understanding of mechanics.

Leadhead is an EXTRAORDINARILY Awesome creator and I absolutely LOVE his content and analysis'. So why he only have roughly 140k subscribers? WTF?! Can we all please help this man out because he really deserves it. He puts in a lot of work into each of his videos, and videos that I've seen from him he has written multi-page ESSAYS for them! When I originally started watching his TOP TIER content I assumed he was massively popular because of the amount of effort he put in and the way he structured his videos so perfectly. Also, forgive me for my terrible structure of this comment. I'm nowhere near Leadhead's amazing English skills.

I've seen this used with negative xp music before lol

Condenser mic! yes!

These games are amazing

Fascinating

You should make a video/play The Talos Principle, one of the best games almost nobody played.

This video is very interesting and has as usual made me think and ponder about the games you talked about. Keep up the good work. Also just as a question to people who read this. I am going to get Outer Wilds soon, but just want reassurance that if I go in not completely blind it will still be good. I know what the main mechanics of the planets are, and a bit about the story. I am definitely going to get it but the fact that all the reviews say to go in completely blind has made me a bit nervous.

Both some of my favorite games!

This is alot to take in, adds alot of stuff to worry about. After graduating i kept wondering why everything came rushing to me so fast, as if im being pushed off the cliff to fall into the same order of wake up , work, sleep. I dont know what kind of adventures uni has got for me or even if they are adventures but i know that im gonna be just another stone on the shore. People around me seem shells and creatures that i think are beautiful, while im being tossed into the abyssial depth of the ocean on the other hand. I dont know how much of anything there will be, but its comforting to see that other people understand what it feels aswell and with other people we can form into a blob of monstrocity to hopefully change something, if not then just being a blob of abomination with others is just enough to feel fullfilled on this pointless sphere of suffering. I have no talents. Im waiting for something, or just sleeping myself to death.

boy another video that i put on my watchlist becuase i haven't played the games yet

Those credits were amazing

Your interpretation of inside is fucking great.

I guess you could say it’s time to rage against the machine

That payoff at the end made me cry

...did you not realize that Limbo is, y'know, a journey through the afterlife? The boy and his sister are dead. That's the whole deal with the treehouse.