Disco Elysium’s Final Lore Drop

00:00 Intro
00:23 Scene 1: Royal Dragoons
01:41 Scene 2: Commune of Revachol
02:36 Scene 3: Development Doom Spiral
03:57 Scene 4: Copiоid Antagonists
08:15 On Lore
13:07 Canon?

CC available

The Lore of Disco Elysium:
On Disco Elysium 2 and the ZA/UM situation:
"Sacred and Terrible Air" fan translation by Group Ibex:

[JamrockHobo]

After making the video in somewhat of a disillusioned mood I want to emphasize that none of the writers & artists involved with the scenes did bad work. I think that the scenes lack the spirit of the base game, but not because of a lack of artistic talent but due to the circumstances of their creation. I assume that questions regarding canon have become as difficult for them as they are for us. I also don’t know what restraints were given regarding story progression, foreshadowing etc, and I surely don’t blame anyone who has been made complicit in a project of damage control.

[Rupiee]

The scenes to me seemed like a flat, safe mimicry of critique, one that can be sold to shareholders without offending them.

[ciau]

-1 Hand/Eye Coordination: Hands shake from anger how shit it all is

[bogdanbogdanovich]

It really is insane how much soul the disco devs put into the game. In contrast to the scenes, the 4 lines shivers said was enough to put me to tears. They just don't got it without the people they've fired.

[littleeusbee]

The last two are depressing in a way that Disco Elysium isn't. Revachol was in a depressing state, but it was ALIVE, squirming with characters. The final two scenes seem more like some dying Rust Belt locale while the game feels more like bustling Victorian Era slums.

[thegreatzinetar]

Disco created its world from a million smaller pieces. These collages suffer from their scale

[Wormcasts]

I wrote an essay about this game that highlighted the uncertainty of the future as one of the game’s greatest assets. The hope that fills the entire game despite everything is what makes me love it. I definitely agree that these scenes subtract from the game, not cause they’re bad, just cause they’re unnecessary

[JoseRS]

The lore dump in this collage has some strong "Dumbledore was gay" energy.

[Daskuria]

So the suits didn't stop the release of the game mode that says "it's bad when a thing with a soul and potential turns into a corporate wasteland" after turning their own studio into one. It's either an absolute irony, or such blatant indifference towards their situation, given their circumstances and mistakes, that words elude me.
If that is their damage control, that sure is an interesting tactic. Like an open cannibal going around eating people, but then saying "Eating people is bad, you know", to somehow cover his own crimes.

[EyeoftheU]

I think more that the future scenes depict are actually _possible_ futures.

The game has a rather well-hidden plot point about how the course of history can be changed and redirected in both subtle and obvious ways.

[silentobserver]

Bro this makes me want to cry just from the title. Ive kept this close to my chest for over a year now but Ive been working with the narrator of Disco Elysium on my first novel. Its a fantasy series I have been world building since 2012. Essentially without disco I would of never known of him. Disco forever will remain the greatest written video game i've experienced as an adult, and I will add Elden Ring impacted me as well. The world building of Disco is so amazing, I wanted more, so much more. I hope Robert keeps going.

[bearlogg]

Bless the ZA/UM devs that managed to put this in the expansion before being body snatched by corperate

[kibell]

Living in a post-Soviet country, I can relate to some of these scenes.
I even believe they were based on the original authors' unfinished materials.

After the collapse of the USSR, an unrestrained wild capitalism flooded its former territory.
At some point, malls and other businesses began to grow everywhere, burying the history and integrity of the urban landscape under concrete and ads.

The corrupt government didn't care about the demolition of a park or a historical building. Sometimes, to justify themselves, they simply stuck an ugly youth center in a random place and called it a day.

Many places that once felt like they belonged to the people and were filled with little things with their own history are now just plain.

So, I believe this is what the author intended for Revachol.

[rattled]

Horse back flamethrowers are the only thing I like about this. They are wacky

[sarasPP]

The scenes look like something you would see in a history book

[NubileReptile]

Someone posted these scenes on YouTube almost a year ago and I left a comment suggesting that whoever wrote them felt like they were mimicking the Disco Elysium writing style without really grasping the nuance and subtlety of what they were imitating.

I still feel like the writing is off, but in retrospect, I regret that comment; there's a real possibility whoever wrote it was capable of better, but was simply demoralized into indifference by the state of the company at that time or had to submit their writing to clueless superiors who were the real ones responsible for what was now allowed in the game.

Basically, Argo Tuulik's line about the 'fish rotting from the head' made me feel like I don't want to crap all over the writers at ZA/UM post-Kurvitz when they may be quite talented, but simply falling victim to a lousy work environment.

[LastMinuteEssays]

Even without the context behind when these were created, it all feels...I dunno, basic. Like a first draft that is supposed to give a visual and text guideline to further writing. Like, I like the idea of seeing the fishing village before the Commune, or the statue of Frissel being replaced with a literal cardboard cutout in a gentrified Martinaise. But there's just no follow-up to those hooks.

[coolfish]

It feels like someone colouring between the lines of work that never called for it. 'Kitsch' is a great descriptor. I do like the red metal horse replacing the old statue, though.

[HeronHero]

I don't hate these new scenes exactly, especially not the first two, which just restate the general history, but I feel you've hit the nail regarding the latter two. Revachol's story, if this is canon, ends sadly and predictably. Everything in the game pointed to The Return as being the Event that would remake or destroy the world. A future where it doesn't even register as important enough to comment on is frankly a-canonical in my mind, it's missed the point of the game and world's storytelling, because the promise that a Future exists is the entire premise of Harry's character arc, of the case, of the city itself. Even a failed Return would be better than none. To deny it any place at all is to deny the foundations of Elysium as a setting.

[AtomicRiftYT]

Man, the Disco Elysium community is so beautiful. Never before have I seen a community so critical in just the right ways-- so spiritually expressive and diverse. Never before have I seen a community so full of visionaries with, in the words of my friend Inland Empire, vast, oceanic souls. Disco Elysium *can't* die when so many people hold it so dearly in their hearts and actually understand what it stands for.