The Path: Psychological Horror In The Woods 

what the hell were people expecting with the full version of the graveyard? Powerups?

idk... I never really viewed the game's message as "pain is necessary". To me it was more like "pain is inevitable". None of the girls can stop what happened to them. It acknowledges the pain and the fact that it's always going to be part of them (all of the final rooms being present in the house at then end) but they still keep their desire to keep going (the girl's dress is stained, but not completely red). The wolf doesn't make them learn and grow, it just happens. Wolves are a part of the forest. That's how I always saw it lol

I find it really interesting that Grandma has her own wolf, and it's a stuffed one. I think this has some interesting implications, like perhaps her own trauma is long dead and conquered, but she keeps it as a trophy. Perhaps it's even a reference to how some people always carry their trauma with them, almost regarding it like an old friend or companion in their old age, since it has always been with them, and always will be.

i think the fact that scarlett is not just playing the piano but being mentored may point to a feeling of wishing she had a parental figure to take her burdens and/or teach her how to properly raise her sisters while taking care of herself in the process

That image of Scarlet at 53:30 is sad, even beyond the puppet idea. The fact that only her limbs are clear while the rest of her body is faded out is like only being seen for your "usefulness." Cooking, cleaning, stuff like that.

Rather than purity and innocence, the girl in white seems to represent more order and safety, what you're "supposed to do", so to speak. Her being dirtied with red, but her original white still visible could represent the triumph of safety or security, knowing the world isn't perfect, but that you can navigate it. Similarly, the girl in red could represet chaos and change, both in general and in the girl's story specifically.

Something I just realized: players have previously pointed out the paradox of Ruby being the fastest runner out of the six girls despite her leg injury. But if travelling down the path represents life then it makes sense; Ruby is the most self-destructive/eager to die (compared to the rest) and doesn’t mind reaching the end sooner. Anyway, THANK YOU for making this video! The Path is such a gem and so worth a deep-dive analysis. It had such an impact on me as a teen when I first played it and has lived in my head rent-free ever since.

Ginger's picture of her knees with barbed wire covering them makes me think of discomfort with attraction/arousal. I interpret her path to be a realization of sexuality, if that makes sense. Realizing that you like someone a lot more than you're "supposed to". In her case, the girl in red. Barbed wire typically shows that something is not meant to be accessed, that it's forbidden. I saw her path as her realizing that she liked another girl and the internal conflict that comes with realizing you're not ""normal"". I really hope this is coming off correctly because I'm not the best writer

In my personal opinion, Carmen's story is more important than a lot of people give it credit for. I believe just saying she was assaulted and leaving it at that is leaving out important parts of her story, missing the lesson and the point. In her dialogue and her blurb, she seems eager, almost desperate to experience physical intimacy and the attention that comes along with it. It very much reads like Robin's story: toying with things you don't understand. Even though I'm a male, I personally identify with Carmen a lot. I was like that as a teenager. It's an important life lesson to learn that even if you think you know better and you're ready to handle something, you may not be, and you may end up scarring yourself in pursuit of these things.

I think something that resonated with me through Scarlet's story is guilt. To me the green represents guilt. Once she starts to feel happiness (with the wolf and the music) she immediately feels guilty and as though she has made a mistake. The fact that there is missing furniture from the house, in the end, could represent how Scarlet fears if she doesn't provide for her family and forgo her own happiness, that her family will lack the things they need.

This might get drowned in the comments, but here's my interpretation: I think maybe the traumatising things that happened to the girls is something that has already occurred before the game even starts. The 'path' represents their journey to heal from it. If they stay on the path and head straight to grandma's, they fail, because this represents them ignoring their trauma and bottling it up. Perhaps the grandma was like this, the stuffed wolf in her room represents how she couldn't let go of her trauma, like how a grieving person might taxidermy a beloved pet in order to keep them in some form (nothing against anyone who does this, this is just my interpretation). They can only win by going into the forest and encountering their wolf. This is because the only way to heal from their trauma, is to confront it, even if it's not pleasant. The girl in white keeps trying to drag the girls back on the path and sometimes distracts them (playing, hugging etc). She represents the girls desire to ignore and block out their trauma. She has good intentions but it's not what the girls need. We see at the end the sisters are fine, but the girl in white is bloodied. This shows that while they have healed from their trauma, it's never going to fully go away, they'll always be damaged by it, but they can move forward from it now. Sorry for the long comment.

I feel like it’s important to talk about Carmen’s name sake. Her name stood out to me, because in first glance it doesn’t seem like her name references anything red, unlike all the other girls we see in the game. However, I think she’s a reference to the play “Carmen”. In the play the titular Carmen is often seen dressed in a deep seductive red. In this play Carmen goes out of her way to seduce a young man which eventually leads to his downfall. I think this is really important to the Carmen from the game. Carmen sees herself as flirtatious and seductive just like Carmen from the play. I think this ties into a big problem for SA survivors, particularly with victim blaming. I think Carmen in game was probably told stuff like it was her fault for the SA, despite being innocent. In her final shots, she was marked by the woodsman. He is the one who chose to hurt her, but she got all the blame for it because she “did something wrong”. I think this also ties in to her quote about men who are saviors also being the one to hurt you. Carmen was traumatized by this woodsman, but to everyone else he appeared as a hard working man tending to the forest. Carmen could have told people who he really was, but they will always perceive it as her fault. Carmen was severely taken advantage of by a trusted member of society, but no matter what she tells others it’ll always be “her fault”.

I think the stories’ messages are less “it was *necessary* to grow/learn” and more “it caused her to grow and learn” No one *needs* trauma to grow and learn, but it happens anyway. For example, Carmen’s story SA is *not* necessary to grow or to learn, but it can cause someone to because it’s a very traumatizing experience. For Carmen, I think hers specifically relates to realizing the actual predatory nature of the men interested in her. She trusts the woodsman because she thinks she’s “mature for her age” and he appeals to this by treating her like an ‘adult’ (offering her beer, specifically). She thinks she’ll enjoy the experience of sex (“femme fatale” seems to imply this) until it’s in front of her and she realizes it’s not what she wants and that the woodsman doesn’t care if she does or not. He assaults her, forcing her to rethink her relationship with him, a man she trusted who was just preying on her. Her assault was not *necessary* for her to learn, but it causes her to anyway because it’s an experience that severely influences her view of herself and the world around her.

idea: the woodsman is opposite to the wolf in the fairy tale. if wolves are the things that are necessary to development, the woodsman is the thing which stops that development from happening and hinders moving forward.

I don't usually comment before finishing a video, but I think there's something to be said how Rose seems to be a protector, trying to control the knives, needles, and really drive to help others. Her wolf, despite being white and fluffy, appears to be a literal storm, a chaotic entity that she just has no hope of controlling. Her lesson probably is that sometimes no matter how hard you try, things just go wrong for no real reason.

Small notices “The man who would save us is our destroyer” is also fascinating because The Woodsman is often the “hero” of little red interpretations, but he’s also murdering a wolf and causing destruction. I wonder if that’s related to the interpretation Also I thought the carpet the Charming Wolf drags was in the shed when I looked at it??? Might be wrong, but very cool if it is

Can we just have a moment of silence for the madlad that played "the Graveyard" for 313 hours on record?

This is probably a stretch, but revisiting this video, I see Rose's story as a representation of growing up autistic. She has a strong sense of justice and cares more for animals than people. She is considered mature for her age because she dresses and speaks strangely for an 11 yr old. I see her rooms in grandma's house as representations of sensory overload and Rose realizing that situations that are perfectly normal for most people are always going to be overwhelming and scary for her. The bathroom specifically connected with me as toilets are loud and the harsh lighting of public bathrooms are often a struggle for me. The desk with the bird cage shows the struggle of being autistic in a school setting. While autistic kids are often considered "gifted" and do well grade wise, school feels like a cage. Rose doesn't fit in at school and often feels trapped because she can't be herself around other people. Her wolf appears quite friendly, and I sort of see her encounter with it as Rose being told that the way she acts is unnatural and potentially even dangerous, despite the fact that to her its prurely who she is. I don't know how much of that made sense, but I wanted to share even if I didn't quite have the words to describe how I connected to Rose's story

will never understand how ppl can hate on "bad" graphics in games like this. i think its so charming

Carmen and Ginger’s stories are the most troubling and relatable to me. Young girls are often overly sexual used and shamed for their experiences in puberty and I’m glad the game touched on that. It’s nice to see themes women go through in a game that are based in reality.

About Rose's wolf: I think she stumbled upon a corpse. That floating mist-man is someone wo drowned in the swamp, or maybe hanged himself. That's how she learned the immorality of the world.

I think the bathroom in grandma's house for Rose symbolises a flashback, specifically because of the sound of running water from the taps. if she did almost drown, this sound could be very triggering for her, and the impossibly long bathroom as she tries to leave seems very similar to that feeling of trying to escape a trauma trigger but not being able to.

"the man who would save us is the destroyer" is an interesting line considering Carmen's wolf is the woodsman, because in red riding hood (or at least the version I was told) the woodsman saves both riding hood and the grandmother who were eaten by the wolf by chopping open the wolf's stomach, freeing them- but for Carmen, he harms her. there's obviously a deeper meaning to that line, but I think it could also be a little nod to this version of the story as well.

I have theories about Rose. She's told she's mature for her age, so the birdcage above a desk could imply she feels trapped in peoples' expectations of her, particularly in regards to schooling. It could be symbolising the gifted & talented child struggling to keep up with the achievements of her childhood. I think the fog and floating could also represent daydreaming ("head in the clouds") or dissociation, as for some, dissociating feels hazy, like looking through a fog, or like you're suspended in air. The light hallway and fog/cloud man could also represent her youthful optimism within these struggles - "the light at the end of the tunnel" and "every cloud has a silver lining".

Here's my theory: The girl in white *IS* the grandmother. The reason she can collect all the items and see every girl's room is because she's been through similar experiences before, and she wants to help the girls avoid mistakes, but clearly she's failed at that. The reason why she appears as a little girl has many reasons. Firstly, the girls likely find someone their own age more understanding and accepting. This can symbolize how younger people don't always go to older people for advice. It also represents that the Grandmother was also a little girl once. "No body is born old" can be a strange concept to children. The idea that their old and dying Grandmother was once like them and one day they'll be just like her can be hard to grasp at their age. It can also represent that while old, the grandmother still sees herself as youthful in her and with so much life to live but with a dying body. Grandma is literally the last girl you play as because she is the last stage of life. I just had a Grandmother die 2 months ago, so of course I'd focus on her.

Something really interesting about this game that you might not know; if you find all the specific items for the girls but ignore their wolves and keep them on the path as usual, there are unique versions of their grandmother house visits. For example, in Carmen's Wolf ending, there's a room with a pool and a green, cut-down tree in it. In the no-wolf version, the tree is huge and fills up the room. It adds a lot to exploring the metaphors in each of the girl's stories.

From the way Scarlets blurb says "she'll take her secrets to her grave, sooner than she may expect" (or something to that effect), as well as the sickly green colors in the forest at the theater and in Grandmother's house during her playthrough, it makes me think she could be suffering from some kind of terminal illness, which could explain her obsession with cleanliness. Idk though maybe I'm just reaching lol

Carmen's quote of "the man who would save us is our destroyer" really struck a deep cord within me, because I was molested by my dad. It's WAY too often the exact men we trust to take care of us and protect us, who betray and hurt us in the worst way possible.

I feel like its a missed opportunity to mention the overt imagery of general relationship abuse for the woodsman. Like, chairs being underwater showing a sense of drowning in a relationship. The red x being on Carmen's face marking a target for his violence, striking her like a tree. Carmen crawling on her knees like she's trying to escape something. It feels like this realization that a desire for fiery romance has turned into this uncontrollable situation that involves the overt sexual violence as well. The perpetrator being a middle-aged guy who's life obviously isn't together if he's getting involved with a minor feels like a good embodiment of that since it's guys like that who target and idealize minors who are trying to build up their sexual maturity, and who butter girls up with words about how they're so mature for their age. So I guess read that way, it's less the sexual violence that seems like a way of growing up, but rather perhaps the realization that what we feel is exciting may not be healthy, or may turn into a trap when it comes to intimate relationships. Not in a "Its her fault for wanting this" sort of way, but moreso playing off the naivity of not being able to see red flags in the first place, much like the others didn't see red flags in the things they were doing.

I think another take away was that grandma is dying. All the girls go to see her for the last time and this is the moment the littlest sister must face the death of a loved one. The missing and covered furniture for scarlet and her having to cleanup the grandmothers possessions after her passing since she is made to take care of everyone. The whole premise is about getting older and grandma represents the end of life stage each girl may not be able to cope with. Maybe grandma was a confidant for all the girls and without her they feel alone in their individualized pain.

Carmen's story is not just about SA in my opinion but the idea of being groomed by an older man to that scary point. So many girls get manipulated by older men because being seen as grown up by adults seems to be an ideal when you're young.

I don't know if this is a coincidence, but the green hue in Scarlet's run combined with the theater reminds me of how you aren't supposed to wear green during a play because it brings bad luck to the performance (at least in my country).

I see a lot of people talking about Grandma's wolf as a non healed trauma, but I genuinely believe it's the opposite: her trauma is in form of a stuffed animal, it's a healed trauma; it's there, but it can't hurt you anymore. Like many bad experiences in life! We can't forget them, but after healing them don't hurt us anymore. Great video btw!

A theory I have for Carmen is that all the X's in grandma's house and the fact that her wolf chops down trees symbolize the older man continually cutting her down. Whether it be physically or verbal, the older man continues to hack at Carmen, chipping away at her until she falls. This idea is also aided by one of the final images being Carmen with an X on her face. The deer head in grandma's house is perhaps how the older man sees/treats Carmen, like a trophy to show off. I'm not sure about the fire stuff though. Perhaps it's supposed to represent a relationship or Carmen herself going down in flames?

I've always thought that the girl in white was The Woodcutter. I think in a more abstract sense she really does just represent a friend or even a stranger, just trying to look out for these girls. But, that is exactly the role of The Woodcutter takes in the Little Red Riding Hood story. She is trying to protect the girls from the wolf, just like The Woodcutter did. And in the end, she's covered in blood and this is exactly what happens to The Woodcutter when he cuts the wolf open. In the original story, The Wolf had eaten Red and her grandmother, who pop out of the Wolf's stomach after being cut open. In the game, this is shown by all of the girls coming back into the room. I would like to think that this shows that all these girls had someone there, helping them through their difficulties, helping them resume their lives after what they go through.

carmen’s story resonates a lot to me. i think this game doesn’t represent how people SHOULD grow but rather in carmen’s story it critiques the world around us and how this is how many women “learn” the dangers of expressing sexuality as a young woman. teenage sexuality is healthy and normal, what’s not is the worlds reaction.

One thing I really love about this game is how the girl in the white dress is black. A lot of times black girls are sexualized or given a mature look in both media and fiction. A common example of this is the news referring to black girls as black women, devoiding the fact that they're still children. It's really dehumanizing in a way where the media portrays us as a sexual object even when we're children. I like how the girl in the white dress is allowed to be child and that she portrays innocence. It's a nice unique look compared to how society treats us

I think Rose’s arc is simply about the realization that there is no deeper meaning or order to life. When people realize this, they either turn to spirituality to assign the randomness meaning, or they embrace the unpredictable and unexplainable nature of the world

I have to say the details in the girls animation for such janky graphics is impressive. They even have different animations of opening and closing the door to their apartment, showing their different personalities. Pretty lingers at the door, tomboy slams it shut behind her, strict rushes to take the phone, etc. I think it's also interesting how each interact with grandma when they get there, like how goth will lay next to her, while tomboy will lounge with her hands behind her back, one of them just sits, the youngest throws herself happily and looks up to grandma with a smile. Aside from the obvious way they interact with the same items and objects in different ways, its little details like this that make it apparent they put thought into these characters to make them more believable

Okay so here's a thought. In the original little red riding hood story the woodsman kills the wolf. Let's assume that every wolf in the game represents an experience necessary for growth, but the woodsman isn't a wolf. The woodsman is the enemy of the wolf. He's the opposite. So maybe in Carmen's story the woodsman represents an experience that isn't necessary for growth and in fact represents a slight regression. Carmen's confidence was likely heavily diminished by a traumatic experience like this so maybe that's how her story fits in. Edit to clarify: I was kind of only calling them "necessary" because that's the way Izzy worded it. I don't actually think those are necessary to the growing process. I kind of meant it more like the wolves are experiencess that the girls went through and grew from, but perhaps Carmen's was the opposite of a growing experience.

ginger lying down in a bed of flowers with the girl in red immediately struck me as the feeling of security and euphoria i felt when coming to terms with my identity as a lesbian. the use of barbed wire imagery by extension is the concept of being closeted and/or ashamed of your changing body (particularly if you are a girl, and your sexuality is demonized), while the blood stained mattresses and clenched knees are pretty plainly symbols for puberty itself. the end sequence of her story was like a punch to the gut when i first viewed it.

As someone with chronic pain, I think Ruby's story shoes the vicious cycle of depression and chronic pain/disability. She mourns the loss of her physical ability, she looks at the school gym from the sideline because she can't take part in sports anymore. Emotional stress is often a trigger for flare ups in chronic pain, Ruby's disability and depression are constantly at odds with each other, making the other worse. I think she met her wolf before the injury, was in a car crash due to him getting her high but continues to meet him and take drugs as a way to numb both her emotional and physical pain. She knows she can't break the cycle but drugs give her a temporary out, one that isn't as drastic as death. She thinks about death a lot, it would end her pain forever and that tempts her. But she doesn't really want to die, it's more of an ideation. Perhaps she thinks she's suffered too much to give up.

(WARNING: theories regarding heinous acts towards children, pls don't read if that sounds distressing) The minute Rose was describes as charming and mature for her age and yet still innocent, paired with the fact that she appears to be a hopeless romantic my heart dropped a little because my interpretation of her story is one that genuinely breaks my heart. The developers said they were specifically fascinated with the growing up process of young girls, so immediately when Rose's story began unfolding, and ESPECIALLY when her wolf was revealed to be a chaotically moving naked man, my mind immediately thought "sexual abuse victim". It might be a reach, but the language used to describe Rose has extremely concerning parralelles with language often used by groomers, especially towards young girls. Praising them for acting older than they are and convincing them that they are mature, when in actuality they are completely naive to the situation they are actually in. The fact that she's chased down by this man and then is seen left very hurt, is significant. I also think that possibly, the bathroom imagery is to depict the stress of possibly getting your first period and knowing that after that you can in fact fall pregnant and may become very dependent on the older man grooming you. It's dark and it could be a reach, but it's immediately where my head went and it's tragic.

I have a feeling that Scarlet’s wolf may represent a parent figure. Long and white hair can represent wisdom and being older and more experienced in life than scarlet so they can always help her and give her an advice. They also look androgynous so it can be the fact that she wishes not just for a man or mother that can care for her but anyone Also the wolf kinda looks like grandma so maybe it may mean that scarlet already accepted herself as an old lady who’s only duty is her (grand)children

I love this emo-early 2000s aesthetic this game has. For Rose, based on her room my first initial thought was puberty, the long line of bathrooms the.. bloody cloth weirdly shown at one point. She’s barely a teenager and sees the world with rose colored glasses but her perspective will change, just like her body as she grows up. The creepy fog man looking like an anatomy diagram also weirdly helps with this theory.

My theory for Robin's story is this: She was given a dog for her birthday since she's always wanted one, explained the presents and candles in Grandma's house. However, in caring for it she failed to remember that it was a living creature with its own feelings, treating it poorly for her own amusement. (Scratch marks on walls, etc, signs of a neglected or disgruntled pet), finally one day as she was trying to play with it, it retaliated, injuring her and putting it her in the hospital and resulting in the dog being put down (bullets).

I think Ruby may partly represent Disabled youth. School being hell for most of us and an early death being seen as an inevitability.

I also misinterpreted the "Charming Wolf" as being an abusive older man who sexually assaulted and physically abused Ruby, so I'm honestly hugely relieved to see all the evidence pointed out in this video about how it was a car crash instead, and he just represents peer pressure to do dangerous self-harming stuff. Obviously, both things are still absolutely horrible things to happen to a young teenager, but sexual assault is the more viscerally terrifying one to see represented in a game. I feel like I was probably a bit too dumb to catch all these metaphors, for some reason I assumed all the wolves represented a literal person in each character's life except the one that was obviously a tornado...

I thought the girl in white was also The Huntsman, from the original fairytale. That she gets to the house in the end, and goes through all wolf/nightmares, and ends up with blood on her - is the huntsman slaying the wolf. So metaphorically, she can also be referencing healing from trauma: as the six girls all comes out of grandma's door afterwards.

My interpretation of Carmen is not so much saying that sexual assault is necessary for growth, but rather, getting past the Youth Stage where romance means a superman shows up and makes your life better forever. A lot of her dialogue seems to be that she'll marry a rich man who'll make her happy forever, she'll never be lonely again, etc...which is a very childish view of relationships, and it's a mindset that can get people into some very toxic and dangerous relationships. "The man who would save us is our destroyer." In the same way that the game isn't saying "falling off a boat and almost drowning is necessary to growth" or "trying to hug a wolf and getting mauled is necessary to growth," but rather using those experiences as representations of/possible, realistic, but not necessarily certain means of losing innocence, I think Carmen is realizing that romance is not as simple as flirting until one perfect man shows up and makes you happy forever. It's more complex and messy and not always happy, and you have to be aware of this to keep yourself safe.

If I had to choose only one... Ginger is the one that resonated with me the most. When I was a kid (and even kinda now) I hated girly stuff and how girls were supposed to behave. I hate the stereotypes and how my male friends find me boring just because I'm a girl. Most of my friends were boys growing up and I remember one of them had a laser tag birthday party and none of the boys never wanted to team with me because I'm a girl. Then when I got the high score they also got pissed at me. Or the time when I had friends (different group) over to play video games some of my male friends would log on to my accounts to sabotage my high scores because I was better than all of them at Mortal Kombat. I even started losing on purpose so they wouldn't rage at me and break my controllers. So yeah... I always hate how girls are discriminated against in both small and big ways which became a deep seated insecurity that I try not to act stereotypical feminine even now. Whether they assume I'm not good at things just because I'm a girl or they feel insecure because I'm better at stereotypical male stuff... I just can't win either way.

Okay, so my Ruby theory is this: she's bullied at school and thinks herself #deep and mature. She meets an older creep who offers her a cigarette, which sastisfies two of her self-perceptions: that she is mature and nihilistic. But she still coughs, because as much as she wants to be these things she still just a child who values her life on at least some level. From there, she and the Wolf keep hanging out and he introduces her to alcohol and sex, even though she's too young to be drinking or having sex with someone his age. This eventually culminates in them getting into a horrible car accident because he was driving them while he was drunk since he doesn't actually care about her wellbeing. She is injured (whether this causes the leg brace or is a new injury, idk), which "shatters" her prior self-perception: she does not want to die because she's still just a 15 year old girl. Some other clues: upside down bouquets in the first room (bouquets representing romance, but in the reverse position indicating romance gone wrong,) the beer cans, car, and school imagery (obviously), the bed with sheet metal impaling it (possibly representing the violating nature of any sex she had with this man would have been statutory rape), and him dragging the body into the woods right before meeting her. I don't think it means he literally killed someone, but more as a representation of the fact that he has done this before: he has preyed on underage girls, used them up, and left them broken before moving on to the next many time before, and for creeps like this IRL, it's always a pattern.

I feel like Ruby is dealing with depression, cause she's with a abusive guy who peer pressures her into doing things. Doing drugs, drinking, and driving recklessly. Also it's alarming the way she shows up on the bridge, legs spread open. Definitely one of the more darker subjects in this game.

I strongly believe the jar segment of Scarlet's house..tour thingy represents the meaning of "walking on eggshells". She felt pressured to take care of her sisters.

My theory for rose: Rose is 11, presumably starting middle/secondary school. She is experiencing the fact that people, and nature, aren't nice. The bathroom could represent self realization of the fact that she is experiencing something negative, looking at her body and criticizing it.(i speak from experience there) Now, the bird cage & desk could represent how school feels entrapping, and how it feels like your in a cage, stuck. Thoughts? editing for my full theory, officially re-watching this all: my theory on how she gets to the house: the boat is representing her traveling from her picture perfect world to the true, dark world. her wolf represents the true and dark world Now, for the house: - the bathroom hallway: Due to it being red, this could represent how having your first period feels unnatural, uncomfortable, downright wrong. It could also represent how you gain heavier body image issues then - the desk and bird cage: School feels entrapping, and she’s rather be in nature and free. she feels like a caged bird - the greenhouse: nature, finding that peace within wherever she can, gripping to those last drips of the old world, but her old views are drowning - the hallway: how life feels like there are to many options, overwhelmingly so - the spinning bedroom: her finally learning how nature is chaotic, constantly changing, spinning always

I see the events that happen to the girls being less “necessary” and more of “things that can happen”. Going off the beaten path in life comes with it’s ricks and rewards. And sometimes bad things happen, even the worst of the worst. This makes Carmen’s event, with it being a possible sexual assault and at worse rape, being seen as something that can happen and not something she needed to go through to mature. The younger girls get events that every child goes through, while the older girls get events that can possibly happen to everyone. Not every eldest child is trapped in domesticity, not every edgy teenager falls into self-destructive behavior, but young AFAB people will always get their period, and every child will eventually learn about death. I hope that made sense.

Ginger's story being about puberty, gender, AND sexuality is just *chef's kiss* to me. Just love it. The blood, seeing the barbed wire as what's trapping her in that situation and maybe this image of the legs with barbed wire drawing on the idea of menstruation related dysphoria?? Or the barbed wire around the knees symbolizing pain in regards to physiological responses she doesn't want to have (i.e., feeling attraction to women or someone she is scared to). So so so so many possibilities o love!!!!

When I was a similar age to ginger, I had a phase of “pink, dresses and general femininity is gross and fake”, I’m over it now and I’m very glad, I now dress masculinely and femininely, but I think it’s probably linked to that as many of my friends also went through a phase like that, it’s some internalised sexism, but it was definitely a part of my growing up

The first time I saw The Path, I wasn't sure what to make of Rose's path either. But since then, I have experienced the terrors of tornadoes and flash flooding; a lot of people I knew ended up unemployed or homeless from natural disasters. With my newly biased perspective, I see Rose's journey about coming to terms not with the danger of the world, but coping with helplessness in the face of external dangers you can do nothing against. She tries her best to ward away danger and keep harmful objects away from people, but sometimes all you can do is float along helplessly like you're in a rowboat with no oars, as what seems like the gods themselves tear apart the community around you.

Your quote about Ruby really hits home “not young enough to be blissfully ignorant about the dark aspects of life, but not old enough to cope with them”. I’ve been feeling like that lately, it makes me anxious

For me, the desk and birdcage were the most obvious symbol for Rose. She's about to go through that phase of her education where suddenly it goes from "having fun, being a kid, and learning the basics" to "your education is very serious and your life is now all about study and grades and textbooks and don't you dare have an independent thought we're not teaching you from this biased source" where you feel chained to a desk for hours. The difference in tone between primary school and high school is a huge shift and can often feel like you're trapped and that school will never end because it's all you know at that point.

I'm beyond late but I'm 99% sure that Carmen's line about "giving in" is a reference to a famous collection of feminist short stories based on fairy tales called "The Bloody Chamber an Other Stories" , namely the story "A Company of Wolves" which explores concepts of sexual and partner abuse via a motif of the red riding hood story. With the Carmen equivalent character deluding herself into believing that not only is the violence she is about to experience her own choice but actually good and liberating. All well the grabdma equivalent warns her to run and get away despite the fact that there is no real escape. A chilling story that ends on a kind of bizarre attempt to reframe the experience so as to avoid the horror of it. There's some parallels to a few different characters in this game within the collection that I can't help but feel they are an inspiration.

I think Ginger's wolf might represent a realisation that she is attracted to women. Ginger's story is heavily tied to puberty - lots of body hair, gender and period imagery - and a big part of puberty is sexuality. I think Ginger's wolf being the only encounter framed as a pretty positive experience lines up pretty well with how having your first real love/crush is a pretty euphoric experience, feeling those more mature feelings of romantic love and lust for the very first time is an intense experience for a young teenager, and even if the situation isn't perfect, the feeling is still inherently positive what with the chemicals that they produce in the brain. The wolf being identical to the girl in white, just now in a red dress makes me think this was actually a close childhood friend of Ginger's who has been growing up alongside her, and who has already gone through a lot of the changes that come with puberty, and Ginger has started to perceive her friend as a more physically mature girl who has become attractive to her. However, after the fade to black, even though all we saw was a positive experience, Ginger still wakes up injured, which I think may represent how this event marked a turn in their relationship that then ended badly. The girl in red falls into the grass at the end of their game, and then pulls Ginger down with her, which I think represents how she commits to following these feelings and confessing her attraction, which then leads to a whole lot of troubles. The imagery at the end of Ginger's story that caught my eye was actually the image of her wolf with her hands and barbed wire over her mouth. I think that may actually show that Ginger's feelings were reciprocated, but the girl wanted to keep their relationship a secret (hands over her mouth), because she was scared of them being discriminated against or hurt (barbed wired over the hands). I think Ginger was also trying to keep a lot of the changes she was going through a secret as well - the barbed wire over her clenched knees for example - because she was scared and ashamed of them, possibly because she was dealing with gender dysphoria, something that puberty and periods can bring to light for the first time. Personally, I was absolutely terrified to tell anyone I had my first period for a reason I didn't really know at the time, but I now know was because I hated the idea of anyone thinking of me as "female". I know a lot of trans people tend to go into intense denial and secrecy when puberty starts to really hit hard. Unfortunately though, I think the stress of dealing with all of these internal changes by herself, in addition to her wolf not wanting anyone to know about them being together, eventually led to their relationship breaking down and the girl in red either physically assaulting her, or psychologically abusing her. The reason I think the girl in red hurt her and not a third party who maybe discovered them is that I think the rest of the game tries to imply that the wolves specifically are the ones responsible for the girls getting hurt, and I think that even if the girl in red was well intentioned and kind at the beginning, she's still young and struggling with her own changes after all, and she doesn't seem to be taking Ginger's comfort levels seriously into account (she did physically pull Ginger down into the grass after all, maybe before she was ready to handle it). Anyways, that's my in-depth queer analysis of a character's storyline in a game I've never played!!! hope you liked it Izzy lmao (Oh and a bonus thought: I think it's definitely possible that the barbed wire over her knees represents a discomfort with periods, but something I haven't really seen mentioned much is that it could also represent a discomfort with masturbation/sexual arousal. masturbation is another key part of puberty that is EXTREMELY uncomfortable to talk about, especially for kids, and can also be extremely difficult for non-cis kids to deal with as it can trigger some serious genital dysphoria, and it might be your first time ever experiencing that)

I don't know if the carmen story is saying that sexual assault is 'necessary' in a young woman's life, i think it's suggesting that an understanding of these dangers is an unfortunate - but I believe, necessary - part of growing up. even if you yourself are not a victim, you will hear stories from your friends, your sisters or cousins, and learn to take care of yourself and look out for other girls. i wonder what a version of this game would look like if it was about brothers?

Worth noting about Robin, I think the egg in the crib is meant to reinforce how the "werewolf" incident makes her aware of her own mortality. It's a reprisal of the imagery of the dead baby bird, and now the symbol of it's nest has fused with the symbol of her "nest". Robin is finally able to empathize with and image herself as the dead bird.

After years of thinking about Rose I think the religion and spiritually thing is correct, where her story is about her being introduced to existential dread and depression for the first time and doubting more childlike, innocent things she was brought up on, while turning more to reality. Sadly the livejournals of these girls are gone now, but they told us a lot back in the day. I remember Rose's livejournal in particular had a lot of religious themes including that her avatar was of an angel statue. There was a very interesting entry she made where she told her sisters she could see a cloud in the pond, but none of her sisters except Robin could see it, and Robin is a year below her. That means beyond Robin and Rose's age, the sisters no longer have their childlike beliefs. This is even supported by in-game canon where if Robin goes to the lake, she says "I see a cloud howling at the moon!" Which means she's able to see Rose's wolf, but the canoe doesn't appear to her because she has no interest in questioning this. I think Rose is right at that age where she's interested in seeing what cloud wolf is really about, and she gets a world-shattering realization that he's not as people say he is and can cause bad things to happen without bias. Hence that's the death of Rose, who represents that sort of childlike innocence that will disappear to allow growth. Another thing to note is that cloud wolf being a godlike entity is supported by when tale of tales did a blog entry called Making of Cloud Wolf. It mentioned his and Rose's story was inspired by a story of Zeus turning into a cloud to kiss and seduce a mortal maiden. He was basically inspired by the character of Zeus, which also makes sense as he throws around thunder so much. That makes me see him as a representation of a God.

1:05:15 it's interesting Ruby's disability/trauma prevents her from interacting w the innocent childrens playset. seems like the only thing she can interact with in that scene is the charming wolf

Ohhh, the thing about Rose being told she's mature because she's responsible and well-spoken hit home. I interpreted the images at the end of her route as like, representations of Rose falling, or perhaps plunging into something. Maybe the hallway and bathroom represent like, a hospital? Which is associated with unnatural sterility, so like, right after her almost drowning, she was immediately taken away from the natural environments she loved into a place that's basically the opposite, where she could stew on how dangerous nature could be.

I think the x's in Carmen's secret rooms represent how the woodsman has "marked" her. That's such a scary thing to think about and the fact that people actually have to go through that kind of stuff is terrible.

carmens story really hit hard for me, coming to terms with sexuality and feeling infallible, finally feeling desired, only to get hurt and destroyed by people who know better. i really like the line “the man who would save us is the destroyer”, maybe the abuser was a family friend or was someone the family had come to trust, who then would destroy carmen. but also if she was once ruby, he may have saved her from depression and given her a reason to hold on, feeling like she owes him her life though he had later destroyed it

My very simple interpretations of each girl: *Robin:* Learning about death by getting too close to it *Rose:* The struggles of a "gifted" child who goes on to struggle to meet expectations *Ginger:* Struggles with gender identity and sexuality and how physical and mental development affects these aspects of your life *Ruby:* Trying to be cool and grown-up when your really still just a child leading you to getting hurt by older people *Carmen:* A young woman simply trying to express herself and her femininity being assaulted by some man in a position of power over her that she trusted (a father, for example) *Scarlet:* Giving up your own personal dreams in favor of responsibility I don't think the events that happen to these girls are _necessary_ evils, but rather straight-up evils that are unfortunately common. Sure, Robin needs to learn about death, but she doesn't need to be seriously hurt to learn that. Rose needs to work hard, but not drown in it. Ginger needs to grow up, but she shouldn't have to do it alone. Ruby needs to learn not to fall in with awful people, but she doesn't need to be mistreated and use substances to do so. Carmen needs to explore herself but doesn't need to be raped. Scarlet needs to embrace responsibility, but she shouldn't _have_ to give up her dreams. Bad things happened to these girls, but the world frames them as normal. I think the girl in white is _trying_ to help by keeping the girls away from their trauma, but ultimately harms them since they are then unable to face what happened to them. They don't get closure. That's why not exploring the horrors that meet these girls is a failure.

I'm pretty sure part of Rose's story is about getting her first attraction and experiencing her first period. Basically, she's "blossoming" into a young woman. It makes the flooding, pond turning to blood, and bathrooms imagery make a lot more sense. Edit: I'm thinking Ginger's, the girl Izzy identified as having a menstruation based story arch, was more about the first sexual encounter, and the bloody imagery in her tale symbolizes the "hymnal blood" being spilled for the first time. Without this explanation, we go straight from virgin getting their first period to hypersexual permiscuity with no in-between. This explanation gives a much clearer line of "normal" progression and makes a lot more sense to me.

With Carmen's story, the group of chairs at the bottom of the water reminded me of a SA survivor meeting. Especially since they kinda faced each other in a circle.

as the eldest sibling of 3 younger sisters, i resonate with scarlet a lot :') a lot of us oldest daughters have to grow up too soon because often we are told "you're a big sister now and it's your responsibility to protect your little sisters". aside from taking care of your younger siblings, you also have to appear the most stable one in the family so your siblings and parents would have someone to lean onto when they need to talk to someone. when it showed the part where scarlet had to give up her own hopes and dreams, i realized how alike we are because i, too, have to give up on my own dream career because my family expects me to become the most successful one in terms of money. i also wanted a course that involved arts but because arts are often viewed as "useless" i cannot go after my dreams of pursuing a career that focuses on arts :') the part where they mentioned how scarlet feels so lonely? that hit home for me i almost cried. i feel like even though their house is full of her siblings, scarlet still obviously yearns for someone who she can share her burdens with, like she mentioned a soulmate. it's like being in a house full of people but having no one to talk to about your own worries because you must appear as the strongest one so your siblings would look up to you. hearing scarlet's story is so sad. i wish i could jump into the game and hug her and tell her i can empathize with her experiences T___T shouldering everything by herself must be so suffocating n i wish she'd find time and motivation to work on her passion once again :

i think sexual assault is sadly a common experience shared between young women. whether it’s cat calling, an uncomfortable situation or a physical altercation. i personally appreciate that they included carmen’s story though i can definitely see why people could see it as problematic.

I think Carmen's story is more about the time in a girl's life when they are able to have a good amount of adult freedom but is still open to manipulation by those around her. It reminds me of when I was younger and my friends would brag about dating men WAY older than they were and we all thought it was cool and mature. But as we know, power dynamics exist and the woodsman knew exactly what he was doing when he manipulated and sexually abused Carmen. I didn't think it was portrayed as a "necessary experience for growth", just like how ruby's experience wasn't necessary to grow up but it's just a very common occurrence that happens to a majority of young women.

I honestly thought at first that the fae-wolf for scarlet was a longing for a caretaker or parent to properly take care of her, she longed to be cared for like a child again and since she had to grow up so quickly and the mother isnt around a lot, she did not get to have that before. I saw the fae-wolf as a warm kinda of presence like a parent would, teaching you how to play piano or help you.

46:42 I feel like the idea is that Carmen didn't realize that she was being assaulted by a predator until she was older and realized she was groomed.

I didn't get the idea that the wolf was symbolic of some necessary negative experience for women/girls to go through to grow as a person, but an idea of a common adversary of women/girls of certain ages to watch out for. I doubt the message was "you need to be sexually assaulted to grow" it was more like "as you're growing, you may be more vulnerable to sexual assault when you feel like Carmen does."

The girl in white can be interpreted in so many ways. Innocence, our inner child, but I like to think she's also hope. The hope that always exists, somewhere off screen waiting to sprint into view, to guide us back to the path when we're stuck in the dark.

I’ve never played The Path-but this was such an interesting video! One thing I noticed for Robin was that you didn’t mention the room with the birthday cake all that much. I find it interesting because birthdays are a celebration of getting and the next year of your life. Fits in with Robin’s story with learning about death

I'm starting to think Rose's story is about coming to terms with the unknown; she's been told that she's gifted and mature for her age, and has a set moralistic worldview, but there's still so much in life that she hasn't learned about compared to the other older girls, and the weird abstract nature of her wolf could be symbolic of her realization that her growing up will not be a pre-set and easy path, but something full of unknown fears and dangers she previously didn't know existed.

Part of me wonders if there’s a connection between Robin’s distorted legs in that one image and Ruby’s leg brace. Robin’s story is about learning about death as a child, and Ruby’s story is about self-destructively running towards death as a young adult. Both girls throw themselves towards danger but for different reasons and both have their legs injured. I don’t know whether that connection is intentional, but it’s a neat parallel. Lovely video as always!

Ruby's car imagery speaks to me about cars being a symbol of freedom. 15 year olds dream of having their own wheels, to go where they want where they want, but it's also a very dangerous mode of transportation. Freedom can also be dangerous in that it allows one to make bad choices, and to live with the consequences. The leg brace as an physical injury is one thing, but the leg brace as a symbol of consequences is bigger than that. The fact that she can run faster than the other girls to me says that the injury is more psychological than physical.

Also with ginger I noticed there’s butterflies everywhere, something heavily connected with transformation or growing up, being trans, or any of those other interpretations. Thought it was a cool detail!

I saw Carmen's story as being less about assault making someone stronger, and more about being wary of attention from older people. She clearly is pretty sexually submissive, and seems to want a dominant man to take care of her - I saw it as a cautionary tale that not every dominant looking older man is going to protect you. She thinks he cuts down trees (a typically masculine, protective thing to do - gathering firewood) and ends up metaphorically cutting down her (hence the X on her face, the X being where you'd mark a tree before cutting). Basically, beware of fake doms and older dudes trying to swoop in to 'save' you.

Fun facts about the path! (i have not watched the video yet i am just excited to share my general knowledge with this game) -The game was originally supposed to be called 144 because you collect 144 flowers in the game -All the girls were molded after manikins and dolls -Robin's outfit was taken from inspiration by one of the creator's friend's daughter who came into the studio one day wearing the same outfit that robin wears but just blue -Ruby was originally supposed to have tattoos -Ginger and Rose were originally supposed to be twins -Ginger is jealous of rose because shes taller than her -Rose's dress was originally supposed to be shorter -The game creator's was mostly thinking about Lydia from the movie Beetlejuice while they were making Ruby -Ginger's character was taken interpretation by the character Mathtilda from the movie Leon the Professional -The woodsman wolf (carmen's wolf) was the first wolf made in the game -The charming wolf (Ruby's wolf) and ruby knew each other prior (thats why she was comfortable with him) -Rose's hair was taken interpretation from Lain Iwakura from the anime Serial Experiments Lain because the creator fell in the love with the anime -Ginger's original character model was supposed to be more boyish -The creators' favorite character is Ginger because they feel like she was the only one programmed right -The creators' states that Ginger doesn't realize her own beauty -Carmen and Ruby actually shares a relationship -Carmen thinks that Ruby could get all the boys if she wasn't so emo -Ginger hates wubby dubby love stuff -Ginger thinks carmen is pretty (she guesses, she says, in her bio) -Robin states her favorite sister is Ginger -Ginger is the one that actually tells Scarlet that theres a theater in the woods -All the girls have livejorunals, the one that doesnt speak the most in hers is Ginger (shocker) -Ruby was originally supposed to be 13 while Ginger 15 -Ruby states her original hair color is green -The one thats signing all the songs in the game is the grandmother -Funnily, the song that Ginger hates the most that grandmother sings is supposedly her theme song -Robin was the easiest character to make in the game -Its supposedly said Carmen was one of the hardest characters to make in the game -The making of the game was first started in a hotel in San Francisco -The girls live in a apartment -There was a weird sub plot in their live journals that people kept coming into their house to look at the girls and Robin thought that Mother was giving them away -Rose is the only character weirded out by that every time she goes into grandmother's house, no matter how early she arrives, its always night time when she gets there. -The girls think its weird that mother always send them to go to grandmother's house one by one -There was actually a time where Ginger and Robin was supposed to go together to grandmother's house, but Ginger ditched robin to play in the woods -Robin was apparently the first girl to meet the girl in white as said in her live journal, stating that "she made a new friend on the path but she doesn't talk much" -The girl in white hides behind a tree when she sees ruby sometimes, scared of her -All the live journals events happens prior to the actual game -The girl in white was a originally a unused model for a game that the creator's were making called "The deaf mute girl in the pretty white dress" -The girl in white's original character model was suppose to have longer hair -The girl in white's character was modeled after young Ruby Bridges -Ruby had said that Carmen has a good body -Carmen wishes her family were richer -Rose actually takes music classes, so it seems Scarlet is probably kinda envious of that -It is a possibility that the girls' their last name COULD be red, because contrast from her other sister's using usernames, she could have possibility used her full name, "Rose Red" -Scarlet mentioned that her sisters are funny, because when she had said she was using livejournal they all started doing it too. -Scarlet is trying to make grandmother move into the city with them -Scarlet is actually the one that brought the toy car for Robin, (the toy you see her playing with in the character selection screen) -Ginger doesn't like celebrating her birthday, while Ruby agrees with that she thinks it'll be cool to celebrate a death day when people die, as Rose responds with "You're just looking for attention Ruby." as said in the livejournal -Ginger's profile picture for live journal is actually the main character from a game called Ico -When it had hit Carmen's birthday, she had said "the cake is a lie. The cake is a lie" in her livejournal, reference to the game Portal, which scarlet got mad at her saying "No, we're having cake!" -In carmen's live journal she had said when she goes out for a walk in the woods it feels like someone is watching her all the time -Ginger's main interests is playing video games -The characters, had asked questions to a Japanese artist called Fuco Ueda, one of the main artistic inspirations for the creators' games -one of the creator's friend's daughter (the one that was inspiration for robin's character) got a free hands made remade barbie doll to look more like ruby, and a ruby poster for being such a inspiration for the game -There was a meetup where a person cosplayed as robin and the creator's took pictures of the cosplayer -Ruby is interestingly the one that talks the most in her livejorunals -Ruby is not a christian, but only on sundays she is one -Ginger is most likely the one that made robin intrigued to go off the path because she said she heard howlings of a wolf in the woods -Ruby's style is modeled by early 2000's Japanese goth girls -All of the sister's names means something red and thats all i have! Just some fun facts! :)

I'm 30 and Scarlet's story legit made me tear up. Trading in the things you're passionate about for the things you need to do to survive (e.g. work 40 hours a week), to the point that you have neither time nor energy for what you're still incredibly passionate about, is definitely a part of growing up for most people. It makes it feel childish to even have a passion for art and self-expression, and adult to be jaded and cynical, just waiting to die. This is my favorite video of yours and Scarlet's story being such a succint narrativization of my whole post early 20s life definitely helped.

I totally respect your interpretation of the way Carmen's path frames SA as inevitable, I think that the inevitability applies more to the broad truths that every person has to learn in some way, but it roots that truth in an SA story because of how prevalent it is. Like Robin's path isn't trying to imply that all children need to be attacked by a dog to grow up, but does say that learning about death and further understanding that it can happen to you are inevitable traumas of growing up, and frames that lesson around a real trauma some people experience. The truth Carmen learns in my interpretation is that all people who show you attention that feels positive don't necessarily have good intentions towards you, which is something universal to growing up in my opinion. Carmen's path is her discovering that truth in a way that a lot of people do, by having a negative sexual experience, but the specifics of her experience isn't as important to the themes of the game as the broader sense that trauma and difficulties in childhood informing the way we see the world.

my jaw actually dropped when you started talking about the endless forest, it unlocked a deeply hidden memory omfg those faces on the deer

42:44 that looks like the rug Charming Wolf was dragging. Maybe Carmen being unable to open the shed means she can't see the red flags this man has? If Ruby's wolf represents self-destructive behavior then she would still be aware of the rug (which just represents danger), but if Carmen can't see the rug then she is unaware of the danger that might happen if she interacts with her wolf? i havent played the game so im defiently missing some pieces, though.

"I was angry at them at seventeen. I feel sorry for them at thirty-seven." He said after writing an angry "review" devoid of any self awareness or empathy. Sad to see that throughout all of these years he still resent teenagers.

Fae are ALSO known in a lot of lore to love music as well. The fae wolf being Scarlets tutor/love interest? Makes more sense simply with the fact that he is part of a species that loves music lol

"the man who would save us is the destroyer" -- possibly referencing the woodsman from the original fairy tale, who comes into grandma's house to chop up the wolf and pull grandma from its stomach. in the old story he was a hero, but in this one he is "the destroyer". I interpret the line after that to be... her giving herself up to protect her siblings from him, maybe? Pretty dark...

Tale of Tales were cool people to me. I used to cover games, and was writing an article on the company and their titles. I reached out to them, and they provided me codes for their entire back catalogue, along with files on a bunch of unreleased projects and demos used just as little projects for them. Some they were happy to let me speak on, others more as a gift they just wanted to show me. They even said if I hated pretty much everything they made, please say as much in the article. They were all about the art of it all, and they realize art is subjective and certain pieces are not for everyone. They've acted out a lot, but were genuinely really cool and down to earth with me.

I believe that Carmen's wolf, as well as representing a negative sexual experience, may represent not being able to set personal boundaries. The blurb on the website stated she was looking for attention and never went past "harmless flirting", but I think she believed it was harmless even though other people around her might mistake it as something more and take advantage of her being naive, as that is a common theme in this game

holy fuck i never thought anyone would make an actual modern in depth video about this ive been scouring the web since i was a tween for just any smidgen of people that wanted to discuss the game. ive just recently started watching you and i felt a sense of kinship, now even more so. you rock

I remember when I got my first period. I was happy because "I'm growing up!" and then later, crying my eyes out that day because I knew I was about to not be a kid anymore. The representation of Ginger's wolf really matches my experience so I think you hit the nail on the head. My period surprised me, wasn't unwelcome, but hit me hard when I realized what it meant in my life.

I've haven't seen people talk about how Rose's imagery depicted tornados and flooding. The cloudy wolf guy spinning like a tornado, bad weather etc. The fact that Rose thinks that nature is a beautiful thing contras the danger of natural disasters. The tornado are like a good breaking point to show how the world isn't as black and white as she thinks, nature ain't as pretty. Now this isn't really that much as a concrete theory but the imagery is there. I think its not a one side thing either so hey it could be something else..

I think it's interesting looking at how each respective girl behaves when they finally go see grandmother. Carmen just sorta nonchalantly lies next to her in a relaxed pose with her hands behind her head. Ruby lies down next to her as if she were sleeping next to her. Scarlet, instead of lying down, sits down on the side of the bed in a pose that reminds me of how a mom sits on the side of their kid's bed. While you didn't show it here, Ginger sits next to her with her legs crossed and quietly places a hand on her. I just think it's a neat little way of showing more of their personalities through their actions and how they behave around this person that more than likely means a lot to them.