Mythic Mind Games

Watch the video:https://youtu.be/Jlc-KB1Oa2kVideo games do not merely distract from sorrow. Through time spent with characters, player agency, and participation in sub-creation, they can become a unique art form for facing grief, mortality, and what loss teaches the soul.In this fellowship conversation, Dr. Andrew Snyder and guests ask why games are especially suited to sorrow: long attachment to characters, choices that feel like your own, and stories that turn grief toward wisdom rather than mere amusement. The panel moves through Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Trails of the Sky, Lost Odyssey, GRIS, The Last of Us, BioShock, Horizon Zero Dawn, Final Fantasy IV, Red Dead Redemption 2, Final Fantasy VII, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Final Fantasy VI. Along the way it draws on Tolkien's idea of sub-creation, C. S. Lewis's A Grief Observed, and the image of grief as waves that still come but change over time, before closing with 007 First Light on refusing to let grief harden the moral self.Chapters:00:00 Why video games can bear the weight of grief08:22 Ocarina of Time: lost time and subtle sorrow17:41 Majora's Mask and memento mori21:13 Kingdom Come: Deliverance, revenge, and reconstruction30:12 Trails of the Sky and Lost Odyssey37:27 The Last of Us and the cost of vengeance44:54 Apocalyptic logs: BioShock and Horizon Zero Dawn47:05 Final Fantasy IV and confronting the self48:11 Red Dead Redemption 2 and Arthur Morgan's mortality50:48 A Grief Observed and beauty amid loss52:49 Final Fantasy VII, Expedition 33, and moving on58:33 Counseling grief, meaning, and the waves01:06:55 007 First Light: do not let grief change you01:11:14 Closing: from amusement to musingJoin the Mythic Mind Fellowship: https://mythicmindfellowship.comRelated episodes:Expedition 33: Art, Grief, and Sub-Creation (Mythic Mind Games, ep. 41) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfOFa9eOnsgFacing Fate in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Mythic Mind Games, ep. 51) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi0kgEKEEmgFinal Fantasy VI and the Will to Meaning (Mythic Mind Games, ep. 21) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d44YewC12wListen to and watch Mythic Mind podcasts:- Mythic Mind- Mythic Mind Games- Mythic Mind Movies & Shows#MythicMind #MythicMindGames #VideoGames #Grief #Philosophy

Video games are not only amusement. They are structured existential experiences: forks that press agency, anxiety, identity, desire, and failure on a real self, whether the world on screen is "primary" or secondary.In this Mythic Mind Games season opener for Exploring the Psyche, Dr. Andrew Snyder (professor of philosophy and theology) makes the case for approaching games with seriousness and discernment. Drawing on Tolkien's fairy-stories (escape, consolation, recovery), C.S. Lewis and Kierkegaard on living other lives through story, and Kierkegaard's vertigo of freedom, he asks what play does to attention and desire: if games can deform the self, they can also upbuild it when wisdom is what we seek in the marketplace.Topics include choice practiced vs choice observed, embodied attention, character archetypes as self-revelation, noble goals vs grind, failure and grit (including Clair Obscur), and why "sticky" decisions make play feel moral. A first season conversation on grief in video games is teased.Join us for our season of "Exploring the Psyche" at https://mythicmindfellowship.comYouTube Link: https://youtu.be/-BS688rdNW8

In this presentation, originally made for my Elder Scrolls & Philosophy study, I discuss some of the northern mythological inspirations for Skyrim.Watch the video for this episode and subscribe to my YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/C907wJJN8l8Tolkien and the Long Defeat: https://youtu.be/zQZuCpAd8t8?si=A8w-Mu_k4IXpz657 Beowulf & Boethius Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1Ayf0uZnOZGm3sKsYH7pMx5cNJUDJoplBecome a patron at patreon.com/mythicmindListen to all THREE Mythic Mind podcasts:Mythic MindMythic Mind GamesMythic Mind Movies & Shows(Or become a patron and get all three shows early and ad-free in a single feed.)Become a Tier 3 patron to participate in the upcoming Silmarillion study!

Oblivion's Shivering Isles splits madness into Mania and Dementia. Kierkegaard's The Sickness unto Death names those poles as despair of infinitude and despair of finitude, then diagnoses Sheogorath's defiance as the self that will not be itself.In this Elder Scrolls & Philosophy talk, Dr. Andrew Snyder reads Bliss and Crucible, Thadon and Syl, Jyggalag and Sheogorath through Christian existential psychology: why unchecked possibility and hyper-limitation both destroy the self, and how the Champion of Cyrodiil integrates finitude and infinitude in a leap of faith toward an authentic whole. Along the way: Chesterton on sane insanity, Nietzsche's madman, Augustine on the tyrant as slave, and a closing line from Fear and Trembling.Related: Mythic Mind Games ep. 33 (Story of Oblivion: Shivering Isles) and ep. 30 (Oblivion and the Knight of Faith).Watch the video for this episode and subscribe to my YouTube channel here:https://youtu.be/BZUgEUzaBXUJoin the Mythic Mind Fellowship:https://mythicmindfellowship.comListen to all THREE Mythic Mind podcasts:• Mythic Mind• Mythic Mind Games• Mythic Mind Movies & Shows

Ben Shapiro critiqued clips from the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 soundtrack with obvious knowledge of music theory, but he still missed what makes the score work.In this Mythic Mind Games episode I argue:• Technical analysis without the game’s dramatic context is the wrong framework• Why these tracks feel “meandering” if you only hear isolated clips• What Clair Obscur’s music is for, and why that changes how we judge itWatch the video for this episode and subscribe to my YouTube channel here:https://youtu.be/46pwQFBEosoFull conversation on Expedition 33 (art, grief, sub-creation):https://youtu.be/nfOFa9eOnsgJoin the Mythic Mind Fellowship:https://mythicmindfellowship.comListen to all THREE Mythic Mind podcasts:• Mythic Mind• Mythic Mind Games• Mythic Mind Movies & ShowsBen Shapiro critiqued clips from the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 soundtrack with obvious knowledge of music theory, but he still missed what makes the score work.In this Mythic Mind Games episode I argue: Technical analysis without the game’s dramatic context is the wrong framework• Why these tracks feel “meandering if you only hear isolated clips What Clair Obscur’s music is for, and why that changes how we judge itWatch the video for this episode and subscribe to my YouTube channel here:https://youtu.be/46pwQFBEosoFull conversation on Expedition 33 (art, grief, sub-creation):https://youtu.be/nfOFa9eOnsgJoin the Mythic Mind Fellowship:https://mythicmindfellowship.comListen to all THREE Mythic Mind podcasts: Mythic Mind• Mythic Mind Games• Mythic Mind Movies & Shows

In this lecture, originally made for the Elder Scrolls & Philosophy study, I read The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion alongside Søren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling.We look at: • Why Oblivion breaks the “chosen one” pattern of Morrowind and Skyrim — and centers Martin Septim instead • True heroism that is not concerned with being seen as heroic • The knight of infinite resignation vs the knight of faith • Sacrifice, Abraham and Isaac, and what it means to enter Oblivion willinglyWatch the video for this episode and subscribe to my YouTube channel here:https://youtu.be/9XUuJ7vLw1EJoin the Mythic Mind Fellowship:https://mythicmindfellowship.comListen to all THREE Mythic Mind podcasts:• Mythic Mind• Mythic Mind Games• Mythic Mind Movies & Shows