The Politics of Final Fantasy 7's Architecture 

To see a full director's commentary on this video, including some infuriatingly relevant studies that came out after finishing it, join my Patreon at www.patreon.com/JacobGeller

This is quite ironic, viewing poverty as a zoo. It’s happening now, in South Korea. When Parasite came out, tourists came to gawk at the sub-basement apartments used in the movie on official tours. The people who were and are still living there resented being treated by these tours as zoo animals, without even benefiting from the capital generated from them.

While the English westernization of Kurosawa's film may be "High and Low," I think the original Japanese is a bit more telling of just how big the difference between the two parties portrayed is: "Heaven and Hell."

The picture shown at 5:34 is from São Paulo Brasil, a neihborhood called "Paraisópolis" known as "the most unequal neighborhood in the world" Less than a year ago, In 2019, a funk music festival gathered over 5000 people. The poor cant have their own culture and festivals, so of course, the police made a move. Using war tactics against their own people, they surrounded the event, caused panic, and funneled 5000 people out of there. 9 people were stomped in the chaos and died. Their excuse was that 2 drug dealers moved into the crowd fleeing from the police. there are videos of the sheer panic and screams that sends shivers down my spine. Any attempt from the poor to show that they are alive is met with military grade repression from the estate. There are also news coverage of the policeman right after this event, and you can see their disgust for their own people. As you masterfully said, we really cant goodwill out of it Ill leave you with one example of cowardice: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SSK0Cm7nGMk.html

the glass ceiling becoming steel and concrete

I want to add a small point about Midgar’s etymology, as it’s named after the realm of Midgard from Norse Mythology. Midgard was created from the slain corpse of the first being in existence, the giant Ymir. The gods killed him, and Midgard’s inhabitants live off his remains. Not that different from Midgar ripping energy from a dying planet.

The best part? As someone who is a die-hard fan of the original game, I can testify that even though the message isn't as clear-cut in the rest of Final Fantasy VII's original version, it's still there. It's there in Kalm, the first village you come across, a solidly middle-class town where people swallow Shinra's propaganda like so much Kool-Aid, calling Midgar things like "The Floating City"...a name which in and of itself speaks volumes about Shinra. It's there in Fort Condor, a Mako Reactor that the residents of the surrounding area have to constantly defend against full-scale military assaults...simply because an endangered bird is perched atop the Reactor, incubating her egg. It's there in Junon, a coastal fishing village that can't fish anymore because Shinra built a military complex and city over it, a kind of 'Midgar, Jr.", and the Mako runoff has mutated the fish into terrifying creatures. It also has a massive cannon on the front of the city, because Shinra has to be the biggest dick. It's there in the Gold Saucer, the FF7 world's equivalent to Disneyland, being built on the ruins of a town Shinra themselves burnt to the ground (and now uses as a prison), and the only way to get to the Gold Saucer being to go through the literal tent city that the survivors now call home. It's there in Gongaga, a small town that reaped the benefits of a Mako Reactor until it exploded violently (and not due to an ecoterrorism), and now lives in a perpetual state of mourning for those who were lost while Shinra makes no attempt at recompense. It's there in Nibelheim...but to say more about that would be giving away a story element that I feel people need to experience for themselves. You see the effects of this inequality in Wutai, in Icicle Inn. In fact, the only places where Shinra's corrupting influence isn't felt are Cosmo Canyon (the place for which Tifa's oddly-colored drink is named) because they never gained a foothold there. For obvious reasons, I cannot wait to play the rest of this Remake. They hit it so far out of the park in regards to the game's core theme that it's given me hope that each and every one of thee scenarios will be played to the hilt...if not to the letter of the old game, then at least in spirit, which arguably matters more.

I like how at 11:17 Jacob says “Could you imagine being poor?” and cuts to a black screen to show your reflection

“Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.“ -Herman Melville

When you showed the area surrounding the plant in Port Arthur I got literal fucking chills that was such a hard hitting moment in the video

"Could you imagine being poor?" is honestly a hard question for me, because... I don't know. Not only am I not poor by any real standart, but I live in Denmark, where we have a giant middle class, and very little poverty. There is an under class and some people living on the street, but we don't have any slums or any real visual way to see or understand them. All that is great - don't get me wrong. If the rest of the world was like here, that would be amazing... but it isn't. Just because we can't see crushing poverty outside our doors, doesn't mean our society isn't build on top of it. It's just very far away. I mean... who makes our clothes, and our phones, and our tons of plastic - not anyone near Denmark that's for sure. We are just build so far over and on top of the slums of our making, that we litterally can't see that we have any connection to them at all... It's pretty terrifying.

That zoom out to the neighborhoods in Port Arthur filled me with more dread and horror than just about any horror game/movie I've ever seen. Christ.

This is the closest I've come to crying at one of your videos since the beauty of Shadow of Colossus. I've been homeless twice, and even before that I lived in Poland with the rest of my poor farming family in our poor farming village. I've learned that poverty doesn't make people lively, its literally something we do out of necessity, as a fight for our right to survive and exist. It's our own way of throwing oppression and life a big middle finger and making us at least feel a bit better about all the shit everywhere else. All the beauty from meager livings may be nice and quaint to look upon, especially for people who have never experienced the sort of closeness that hardship brings, but all it does is make people bitter. Id know, I'm probably the angriest person I know outside of my grandmother, who lived through the German occupation, and my now deceased grandfather, who fought in the war. The only thing I learned from my family was "Survival of the Fittest." You step on everyone just for a breath of fresh air, a moment away from the crushing weight of every other societal responsibility put before your survival. Family is no exception. It was succinctly said, like animals in a zoo. Let me tell you a story. My grandfather left a considerable amount of land, once he died, to my mother and her siblings. My mother was discontent to continue living in her village, marrying some guy she might be distantly related to and having 6 kids, so she left to go get an education and a life in the city. Didn't really work, since most colleges wouldn't let her attain her dream of being a nurse because she was from said poor farming village. Because her family was poor, regardless of her intelligence or grades. She ended up going somewhere absolutely unmemorable and got a degree in business. She had me, a literal birthday present, an object to remind her that something was worth fighting for, and won a lotto, only then considering maybe she should leave the country. For my sake, she said. When she did, her youngest sister, who had been exported from the US and was angry that my mother was successful, took the remaining land and sold it for her own sums of money. While one of her siblings was still living in the house on the property. She also married and divorced several men for their money and properties as well. Poverty doesn't teach people to enjoy what they have. It teaches people to be bitter about it. Only the best of people will realize that its no way to live life and maybe throw a considerable enough fuss to actually change something. Most of the time, we sit and fester like a rotting carcass on the side of the road, forgotten and only remembered with distaste when the smell wafts over.

I’m so glad you started to go into the issues with environmental racism with Port Arthur. Once you start realizing where all of these power plants and factories and refineries that produce so much pollution are - next to or in low-income black/brown communities - it’s so hard to ignore that environmentalism and institutional racism are so connected. No social issue exists in a vacuum!

My city here in Brazil is very poor and LITERALLY built in a giant depression, and to the rich districts you have to climb out of the hole, with a highway, of course I live in the fucken capital of Brazil btw

Great production my guy. The most refreshing part of the analysis was pointing out how the tone of midgar's poor doesn't sentimentalize their struggle, but confronts the shocking reality of class oppression. It seems to me that most popular expression of class consciousness these days is too ironic and fatalist to actually galvanize the appropriate anger to fight back

Most gamers: here's why FF's gameplay is great isn't it so great? Jacob Geller: here's the message of the story, why it's important, what it makes me feel, and why it's actual art

Ah, that bit about your favourite moment being the emergence into the slums hits hard. In the five years between reveal and release, it didn't set in for me that 7 Remake was actually A Thing That Was Coming Out until I saw some preview footage that was just Tifa and Cloud in the slums, the gargantuan plate overhead, other people milling about their daily lives beneath it. That was when I finally understood. Jason Schreier's on a similar page too; all he's said about it on twitter since his review went up was just sharing two clips of people-watching in the slums. And this, this is why I'm excited for the rest of the remake. They wrote this game with so much reverence for the themes and characters that I have some pretty strong faith they're going to continue on with the rest of them, instead of put it all aside for what people have (quite fairly, I concede) called 'Kingdom Hearts Bullshit'. I want to see the effect Shinra have had on Wutai and Cosmo Canyon fleshed out. And...well, yeah. I want to experience some hope in this crapsack world that's becoming more and more like the one Shinra wants to see.

I love how Jacob rarely swears, so when he does, it HITS. The line at 16:13 sent chills through my whole body.

I love how this video veers from a nice video essay about a video game to "the upper class is literally murdering us in our sleep with toxic waste," and it's scary how true it is...

Here in Texas we call it the Carcinogenic Coast

I knew where this would go and I'm still pissed about it. No one should ever choose their livelihood over their health, and yet here we are. FF7, and the remake, are more relevant than ever.

This is absolutely some of Geller's best work, it's paced so intentionally and contextualized so concretely! I can't wait for the next one but I'll return to this in the meantime.

I've lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for many years. It's so much worse than what's reported. Mississippi Phosphorous was a company that committed many, many atrocities. Our cancer rates are so high.

FF7: Corporations and the state work together to crush both the planet and the working class. The only ethical response to such oppression is doing everything necessary to overthrow those in power, as well as the institutions that perpetuate and legitimize that power Me: FF7 is about the consequences of capitalism My friends: whY aRE YoU lEfTIstS ALwaYs mAKiNg EVerYthING sO pOLiTicaL

I just want to make a small appreciation comment about 3:17 I usually have long essay vids in the background so I often miss little references because I'm not looking at the screen. But even without looking at it, the music cue let me know what game you were talking about without you having to mention Mirror's Edge by name. It's a small detail, but us alt-tabbers really appreciate it!!

Yes, Geller's finally getting into class commentary! Everyone always does here on RU-vid, and I'm here for it. Also, yeah, this was my first experience with Midgar too and it was breathtaking.

I feel like this game has a lot in common with the 1927 movie "Metropolis." The wealthy live above ground in an electric-light filled utopia, while the workers making all that electricity possible live underground and in poverty.

Jacob is a Tifa man, confirmed. A man of culture

There is an art to critique and critique in art and you've struck a wonderful balance with your videos

"The rich live up, the poor live down" like the opposite of Fallout

Yuh Yuh something to listen to while I paint let's get it

Every time I watch one of your videos I feel like I'm hitting the jackpot yet again. I've been devouring your content since the Super Mario Galaxy video you put out, and you have hit each and every video before and since then out of the park!

I've lived my life. Going back and forth between Two Reservations. One of them, is Pine Ridge. The difference between the rich ranchers, and my poor aunties. Was quite, quite stark. My aunties houses were barely held together, by constant maintenance, and hard work she and her children would put into it. But if a Tornado ever went through town? That would be the end of that The rancher? Six cars, seven million different types of trucks and equipment. With a nice yard, and plenty of guns to "keep the drunk injuns out" But yet. That land, my families land. I absolutely breath taking. It's pure, untouched prairie. That's never been developed, never been lived on in the whytte man's way. It's a dream, of a long forgotten life. That my people once had But all people will respond with, is: "you've lost, get over it" At least my people weren't the ones destroying the planet soooooo

There's a moment about half way through Parasite that perfectly accentuates just how wide the divide is between rich and poor. When the Kim family are fleeing the Parks' house and they descend flight of steps after flight of steps in the pouring rain, sinking deeper and deeper into the city.

*Jacob:* Could you imagine being poor? *Characters:* Wait, poor people exist?

The rich's height may have them looking down upon you, but it also gives them a vantage point of all the pain and suffering. It seems to me the refusal to look down is the biggest crime they commit.

I credit the summer I spent playing the original game at 15 with saving me from becoming a 4chan libertarian. Not actually because of the explicit anti-capitalist politics of the game (I was already kinda there for a wide variety of reasons), but because the inhabitants of Midgar and especially Cloud's personal journey made me realize I shouldn't continue the absurd power fantasy of the Just World Fallacy and of humans each having total, perfect sovereignty over our own lives and the course we can steer them on. My mom had kept trying to get me to understand this but it didn't sink in until I had to actively engage with such a story and see it demonstrated in front of me by characters I was invested in, and in a way that made recognition of that kind of inherent human vulnerability seem cool and admirable instead of "for the weak." (I know what you're thinking, but ironically this was not toxic masculinity as it was actually coded as a departure from and rejection of conventional machismo-It's complicated, my upbringing was weird, it's why I needed a dang video game to show me how to be normal). After that summer, when 10th grade started, I began going to parties & dances and playing sports, and working on being a better friend and not being so alienating and weird, consciously aspiring to the kind of healed and transformed relationships with others and himself Cloud had at the end of the story. Now 20 years later I have a wide, fulfilling, and supportive network of friends and am engaged in all kinds of creative enterprises with them that we love doing together. I want to believe some other experience would have come along shortly and performed the same function, and it's possible I was already evolving and am just attributing extra significance to this because it's a concrete thing to point at, but there's a terrifying possibility that if I hadn't played this game as a teenager, I'd have continued down the arrogantly alienated and deluded emotional path I was on and today would be a friendless reactionary virgin seething in some low-level STEM job, wondering why my chance to be a Radian master of my existence never comes and heaping scorn on anyone who has an unlucky break for not being prepared. It turns out that sometimes you really _can_ get off of the train you're on.

To me FF7 always had a cyberpunk feeling. You have a megacorporation that has became it's own goverment and people use materia to augment themselves.

I live off the gulf coast of Texas, not far from Arthur, and to never realize they've a production plant placed right on top of their livelihoods is infuriating. Down where I live, all plants are tossed off towards the far side of the city, towards open area and state roads, well known to be a hazard for a number of reasons - benzene included. It seemed so impossible to have such an obvious danger placed right in the way of people's lives, it's a shell shock to see it so close to home. Hopefully time will bring positive change towards them with this spotlight and more understanding on the terrors it brings, I know I'll seek to make what change I can for the future. Thank you lots, Jacob, you do amazing work.

It's amazing how a story from the 90's and what it was trying to say, has a lot more relavence today, some 20 years later...and is...depressingly accurate to real life.

FFVII turned a lot of people onto ecology. I kinda hope this remake will make people look further than Extinction Rebellion.

who tf disliking the video before it even starts :L

I noticed this was the first time that you didn't have a title card until the very end of the video, I think anyway. Makes sense too, the video had a lot of momentum to it after all. I really need to watch an LP of the game soon! Finding out about Edinborough's basement streets was fasinating too - certainly something new I learnt today. And of course I should have expected a video on Midgar to show up at some point - it's one of gaming's most well known architectural structures, and resurrected for the current year too! (Incidentally, I would love a video on the Combine structures and the Citadel of Half-Life 2 for the same reason)

Thank you for putting to words what I've struggled to for over 20 FREAKING years It's incredibly cathartic seeing it so perfectly articulated.

“There are some ways that being poor is just a fucking death sentence” I’m crying thank u

This is one of the best game commentaries I've ever seen. I adore the fact that you brought up real world environmental issues in order to draw parallels to Midgar. Fucking phenomenal

You've exactly captured everything I love about this game and have loved about this game since I first played it many years ago now. I hope more people playing the Remake will see the game for exactly what it is, I've had too many conversations with gross people who have flat out denied and rejected any and all analysis about the politics and social commentary within the game and written off people talking about it as "SJW leftists". They're always like "Shut up have you even played the game?" Yes, like, my guy, have YOU played the game???? AVALANCHE is LITERALLY an eco-terrorist group. I swear. Watching new people find love in the series and all it stands for gives me so much absolute fucking joy.

“The steel sky is the limit.” Fuck. That was such a good line.

Your best of 2020 video was right. This is one of your best works and it's criminally unnoticed.

I remember driving home from kemah boardwalk with some friends a few year ago. We passed through pasadena, TX and the first thing you notice is the smell, second is the oil refineries that look like absolute nightmares in the middle of the night on the right and third thing is just nothing but houses to the left. I remember thinking "this is what death looks like" so yup ff7r has really struck a chord for me

Jacob, you are exactly what the video essay community needs - a honest and personal insight into one's own experience with art.

I’m from Texas City, TX which is on that list you shared. We call it Toxic Shitty and I have left that town. There are people who work at the refineries their whole lives and never leave. Surprise surprise a ton of those people have major health problems later in life. It’s scary to think that so many people from that area feel like they can never leave and have to work there. The idea of being trapped under Midgar reminds me of what I see in that town.

Can't say anything that others haven't already said about this video, save perhaps... thanks for introducing me to that dreamy song you used for the credits. It's mesmerizing and reminds me of some of my favorite childhood songs. My parents struggled a lot with poverty when I was a child, and the place we lived rained most of the time, so it's an odd coincidence. Made me tear up a bit.

As a resident of Edinburgh and a fan of the Witcher games, I just loved that bit on Mary King's close !!!

Your video has actually pointed me to a really good case study (i.e Port Arthur Texas) for my socioeconomics essay! Turns out hours of watching video essays helps with academics as well, haha. Thanks man :)

those packed-in shacks in midgar reminded me viscerally of the rowhouses i grew up in. sometimes they're called trinity houses-- three rooms stacked on top of each other, sharing walls and stoops with the neighbors. they're almost universally rotting, foundations sinking into the ground and the colorful paint on the facades chipping off. the tourists like to take pictures of them, because they're pretty, brightly colored and decorated with wooden molding. both of my siblings and i had lead poisoning as babies and ongoing respiratory issues from black mold.

Superb writing. From the story taking place in Edinburgh that's finally over, to the story in America, the richest country in the world, that's still ongoing. To take the metaphor of the game and show us exactly how relevant it is was fantastic- sickening, but necessary. I think you might be my favourite RU-vidr right now, I've noticed I make your videos a priority every time I see an upload, and for good reason. I'm sure whatever you try to tackle next will be fantastic, but I love these heavy hitting topics, and would love for you to share more of your knowledge and insights with us.

I live in Groves, Texas, and i live in a house a literal street away from Port Arthur.... Man was that bit accurate. When i was younger, i was never allowed to go to the Port Arthur side of the street because of the far worse conditions due to crime rate and just pure lack of income it experienced compared to the Groves side. Not that Groves is a rich town by any means but it is way better off than Port Arthur is. With that said however, my high school is neighbors to a very large refinery. A refinery that blew up, spewing dangerous chemicals into the air last Thanksgiving. Twice. So yeah, this area isnt in the best spot.

I'm from Port Arthur and have worked in the very plant as a contractor. And allot of other plants in the area.

Great video! Glad you recommended it in the 2020 games of the year video the comments here offer things i didnt know and discussion as well i think ill be visiting weeks after i finish fully watching as well

Benzene is really cool from a chemistry perspective. We use it for *everything* because it's a *really* rigid circle of carbon. This structure makes it a really useful base from which we can build more complex molecules, such as plastics. Keep it out of your body, because it's quite toxic. I don't know why I'm saying this stuff. I'm doing organic chemistry right now and I'm really enjoying it. I hope you enjoyed my info dump.

I’m born and raised in la porte tx just a bit of a drive from port Arthur and having even more chemical plants. Currently coughing my lungs out due to asthma I’ve had since a kid. Last year we had two explosions that released benzine. My friends father in law was on site for one of them and a friends brother for the second. I delivered to locations where accidents/deaths occurred shortly after prob a dozen times for a job that pays 9/hr Hey at least we’re going the route of cool technocratic dystopia

A beautiful video essay about living in the shadows of Midgar. The undercity forgotten, half the resident of the city just “invisible”. Wow, that gave me chills.

I've never played Final Fantasy but the SECOND you talked about a town on top of a town I thought of Edinburgh and I am so glad you did not disapoint

I purposely avoided this when I first saw it because I had just finished the FF7 Remake. The game really connected with me, but a lot of the videos I saw from other creators were negative and they didn’t seem to be interested in talking about anything beyond surface level details. Now that I’ve finally watched this, I’m so glad that I did! I really appreciate all the work that you put into this!

You know, there are people out there that are extremely against nuclear power. They say things like "Well if something goes wrong, then the area will be uninhabitable forever because it won't be safe to live there". Well first there's only been 3 major disasters at nuclear power plants, all of them being extremely old plants, 2 of which caused almost no deaths or even major radiation of the surrounding area. There are still plenty of people living around 3-mile island and Fukushima without much health impacts. The inherent safety features of modern nuclear plants make them pretty much impossible to ever have another chernobyl incident, with future reactors designs being even safer. The fear is that "What if something goes wrong, then people can't live there" yet here is a oil refinery working f*cking *right* and it's killing people in the surrounding area. I'd much rather take "if something goes wrong, people *may* die" over "if its working as intended, people *will* die", especially when "wrong" has occurred only 3 times since 1977. I know there's also concern about what to do with the waste products of nuclear power, but even that tends to overblown. Light-water reactors produce the most waste, but they're also a very old design. Modern designs produce significantly less waste than that. Future designs such as the molten salt reactor are also being created to be able to re-use nuclear waste, including waste from older reactor designs which significantly cut down on the waste that already exists without producing more.

That benzine graph. "of course, texas hah... wait." sees my city (philadelphia) at the top "....oof"

Your channel is the most fascinating random channel I've ever stumbled across. This is largely in part to your fascination with the depths and caves and how it that fascination seemingly suffuses all the videos you produce. Thanks for teaching me about the underground town.

Every single video on this channel is amazing. With ADD it's not many videos this long that can keep my focus, but this sure does. wow.

I really, really enjoy your audio essays. They're always so thoughtfully planned out and executed.

Some how every one of your videos make me cry and smile and feel so much. Sometimes it's all the emotion I get in a day. Thank you

I love your content Jacob. Some of the best video essays I’ve ever seen on youtube, and they just seem to be getting better and better the more of them you do. One of my favorites channels right now, kudos to you!

Legit goosebumps when you pan out from the oil refinery to show the town of Port Arthur. Amazing video dude, the way your content intertwines gaming with informative research on topics like history, society, etc. is perfect. The choice of music and visuals paired with the editing always complementing the discussion as well. I look forward to even more!!

The opening scene of the bombing mission was incredible. Midgar blew me away some twenty years ago... Probably the only city I ever "felt" in any videogame., apart from Martinaise maybe. And Uematsus score was perfect, making the city so much more credible and menacing.The finger snipping of the Turks theme, the ominous, metallic bare rhythm of Shinras theme, goddamn

Great video, just want to say I really appreciate the rigor put in to make a video essay about games that doesn't only cite games but pulls in other media from other mediums, history, and of course, brutal truths from real life. Keep up the excellent work!

You’re videos are so put together and shows that you like sharing you’re passion with others.

Awww, it's such a joy to devour your videos. It's more comprehensive talk than most educational videos and since it using pop cultures and history i loved it more.

for a recent fan you speak so beautifully and fondly of this game, a joy to watch, for an old fan

I live in Contra Costa County, across the bay from San Francisco. The northern coast of the county is home to several oil refineries. The cancer rate in the county is significantly higher than the national average. The areas near the refineries are poorer, and often browner/blacker than the rest of the county. Meanwhile, more and more people move out here as they get priced out of living in San Francisco proper. The whole section on Port Arthur sounded *really familiar*. It's not a giant metal mushroom. But it sure feels like Midgar.

I can't explain how your videos make me feel, but I can't help but watch them as soon as I see them pop up. Please never stop making content sir

I was so glad to see your spoiler free analysis pop up today! (I have 5 chapters to go before I'm done with Remake and never played the original either.) I love how you pointed out those two girls dancing on the roof. I kept waiting for them to be part of a side quest, but they're just there for flavor. Such detail just to enrich our experience with the game.

Your writing is remarkable. It gives such a great take on videogame and how they make you feel besides just how the gameplay and overall story. You go deeper. You go to the meat of things and show us what we might not have seen or know we had felt. Thank you for this

Your roller coaster video showed up in my recommended feed, and you earned my interest. This video was suggested at the end, and after watching it, you've earned my subscription. My dude, you are an INCREDIBLE documentarian, and I am going to bomb your entire back catlogue. I am so legitimately impressed.

Wish I had known that you were in Edinburgh, would have bought you a beer to say thanks for all the insightful videos over the years.

Man, your writing is emotive, informative, and inspiring. Love what you do, keep it up.

I don't even play video games but your channel is one of my favorites. Your analysis are so thoughtful and relevant, it's hard not to relate to the themes you talk about. I also love the way you phrase your sentences, literally could listen to you talk all day. Thank you for the awesome work!

Jacob geller at it again creating some of the best content on youtube

I’m always so sad when these videos are over, I wish they kept going.

These videos are truly fantastic. I could go into details describing why but I think it's just evident by watching. Thank you for the content.

My FAVORITE video of yours so far. Absolutely beautiful

Just discovered this channel. Honestly one of my best youtube discoveries in a long time

I absolutely trusted your no spoilers notice at the beginning, but I've put of watching this video until I'd played through most of the remake myself. I really wanted to form my own opinions before jumping into this beautifully paced, writer and presented video essay.

this is an amazing video. your ability to find humanity, resonance, and meaning in so many disparate things is truly incredible. the bits about eco-terrorism were especially stunning, and the eloquence with which you describe the complexity of the relationship between the truth of opression and the spirit of resistance is magnificent. rock on man.

I don't know how it took me this long to watch this video, but I really want to say that it was a deeply beautiful and touching watch. Just amazing work as always, jacob!

Hey, just want you to know you're my favorite RU-vid person right now, I love how you're able to weave together art critique and political analysis in such a gripping way. Thanks for what you do

This was really good. Thank you for presenting these ideas so well and thoughtfully.

Working through your catalog now and this is definitely your most underappreciated video

Another brilliant essay Jacob. Love your work

I live in Groves, Texas (next to Port Arthur) and decided to try to find which plant was being shown at 15:50. I realized when you zoomed out I lived so close that you could see my house. The worst part is that the plant is in the backyard of the elementary school I went to, Taft Elementary. 3 out of the 5 schools I have attended have been within walking distance of one of those plants, and yes they are all pumping noxious fumes into children's lungs. A part of me wishes this video was released after TPC's Port Neches wing exploded, because it works even better to illustrate just how little they care about our health. When I heard TPC port neches exploded I was genuinely afraid that my grandparents were dead because they weren't answering their phones after the blast. Unfortunately one man actually did die, and who knows how many were poisoned, and driving past those fallen, blackened towers every day is a painful reminder of how little I can do about it.