The Genius of Disco Elysium's Portraits

- SPOILER - One thing I skipped: Kim's portrait is Harry's perspective on him from when he wakes up from a specific event later in the game: "*Sunrise, parabellum*," the lieutenant says. He's in the middle of a freshly cleaned room, with the fan above his head like a halo. His face is covered in bruises."

Haha that Kim portrait in the background on the news is like a pleasant jumpscare

Kim's portrait burned a shadow image on my monitor and even now, years after, i can still see the ghostly white circle that surrounds his head and just quite make out the frame of his glasses.

I think I might be an idiot, I never realized Measurehead's Babe had Measurehead in the background

I like the fact that Cuno and Half Light have the same pose. Likewise Titus and Authority. You can probably find more similarities.

Harry shaved and not smiling is honestly kind of harrowing

Tiktok playing subway surfer to give more visual stimuli to occupy viewers: Dumb. Jamrock Hobo putting litterall jingling keys on screen: Based.

One neat thing about Jean's portrait is that his face's details are also blurred slightly, which ties into Harry not recognizing him for 90% of the game.

00:32 Sarah Zhang is the wife of Justin Keenan, one of Disco Elysium's writers. So that might be why there's his picture in their home :) iirc there was an interview here on Youtube where one of the interviewers told him there was Kim's portrait on TV and he answered that it's because that was his wife on TV

Having a portrait of Kim hanging on the wall as a Saint icon to protect the area is such a funny yet cool and kinda accurate thing to do

I love how your own portrait can change throughout the game

The fact that the art doesn't only act as set dressing for the game, but it is such an essential element of Disco Elysium really got me. I first discovered DE because of the ridiculously beautiful fan art I've seen of it, and after playing the game as an artist myself I understood why. It's really not a hyperbole when I say DE changed the way I make art and living life in general. It is screaming at you that art is what's moving the world forward despite everything.

Measurehead's portrait might be my favorite because it's so abstract and uncanny, like you approach this wall of a man and instantly know at some level that he is NOT human. He is purely a threat, an obstacle. Don't expect to reason with him or extract useful information.

i love how you describe the three portraits the intellectual harry is isolated from the world. He knows but does not feel it. the sensitive harry is the opposite, he's extremely connected. he doesn't know much but he feels a lot. physical is once again completely unique. He's neither isolated nor connect, but he emenates into the world. He doesn't know but he makes himself known, he doesn't feel but he makes himself felt. You can even see this in the general gameplay, intellectual and sensitive harry interact with the world by observing and judging it, either the hard reality or the complex social world it contains, physical harry however progresses not by observing but interacting with the world.

One portrait I really like is the one of the girl who works at the convenience store. She has these completely blurred out eyes that seem obscured by her hat. It reminds me of when I used to be a teenage store clerk. Much of the time my personality was completely surpressed by an impersonal professional mask. But behind the yellow blending you can see one eye, sharp and observant. Observing, judging, but not caring. Also the yellow from her hat that is obscuring her eyes is also forming what looks like a wisp of smoke coming from the top of her head. Maybe this yellow is like Roy's yellow, and she's high at work? It would certainly explain the covered eyes. I remember being stoned as a store clerk, I'd hide my eyes too out of fear that the redness would alert everyone that I was stoned lol. Maybe I'm projecting too much but that's what I think of it anyway. Great video btw Hobo

One thing I've noticed that I don't see a lot of people talking about is how yes, all of the union men have the white and red portrait background, however, Evrart's portrait has the white and red flipped. I'm fairly certain this signifies him being on top of everyone else in the organisation, setting himself above and apart from the average member of the unwashed masses but still being a clearly marked and proud part of their organisation

5:35 The colors on Dolores Dei’s portrait- the purple, yellow, red, and blue- are all taken from the colors of Harry’s skills. It’s part of showing that she is just another weapon his mind is using against itself- having overwrote her, betrayed her, and become all the more powerful for it.

About Jean portret. There are square halos in some regious depictions. Jean's halo became black, full with bad thoughts, it's is still a halo. While Jeand indeed more edgier, he still cares deeply about Harry. He was with Harry for a long time and it left a mark.

Encyclopedia (Challenging: Success): Dolores Dei 5:18 . Her lungs are visible. Incredibly intimate. today not so much since the invention of the x-ray; During the Victorian times having a picture of your insides taken was exposing you in a way that was worse than being naked on a busy street. I think the writers where inspired by the novel "The Holy Mountain". Trapped in a clinic in the mountains for tuberculosis, a love interest gives the protagonist - despite its rational purpose - a picture of her lungs, revealing her flesh to a man who cannot treat her medically.

I love Egghead and Tiago the most. Egghead with his goofy expression, his nonsensical phrases, his boundless hope and genuine love for his crew are perfectly present in his portrait. Tiago the Crab Man looks mysterious, his body looks as if it has become one with the wooden beams of the church itself, which he very well may have with how weird the universe of Elysium truly is.