Fridge Brilliance
- Tragic Vampire Romance Island was made by Fear and Disgust. Take That! to Twilight, right? Maybe, but it's also canon to the movie- in the end, you can see a green/purple core memory, and it's of Riley reading a book.
- In chapter 13, why would Joy ask Fear to bring a watch along rather than all of the others? Because the fear of being late would make Fear far more diligent in keeping track of time than Sadness at losing time or more aggressive Anger or Disgust. And when lucid dreaming still risks the emotions getting stranded in the mind without returning to headquarters, It would make sense that the cautious one would keep track of time rather than all the others.
- Riley lashing out at her parents and friends is in part because she's not wise enough to know proper emotional reaction, hence those around her thinking something is wrong and recognizing some schizophrenia symptoms. But then, why doesn't Riley seem to have that self reflexive worry about this happening to her? Cause she is already dealing with an immediate issue: sleep deprivation. That could provide a simple answer to her anger, mood swings and lack of patience. If she really doesn't get enough sleep when she lucid dreams, then as Disgust points out, that's only around 3 hours. Any child, regardless of if they could hear their emotions would be rough and irritable during the day on that little sleep.
- With Sadness mentioning the Unconscious, it seems the author is trying to split to difference in Freudian and Jungian personal psychology.
- For a quick summary of the Jungian aspect of the Unconscious: The personal unconscious is probably where things like Gloom come from as Sadness explained in chapter 22. It's where Riley's personal complexes is located. The complex being different thoughts, emotions and ideas around a concept. And this is the part of Riley that helps Riley to decide what's a core memory and what's normal, as well as when certain ideas are too important/ingrained to be rid of regardless of contrary emotions. (Hence her rejecting Fear, Anger and Disgust removing the idea to run away, or how her sense of isolation kept that core memory stuck in the holder.)
- However, the Subconscious holding darkest fears (the "troublemakers") is more Freudian in nature. The fact that there's a difference between them suggests either the mind split them up to keep them separate and not effected by one another, or perhaps the unconscious is connected to the other part of Jungian thought:
- And that's the collective unconscious. That part of all humans that we keep together in our minds as part of evolution (think Assassin's Creed). It's possible that's what creeps Fear out about it most. That it's natural, but at the same time unnatural in how it affects humanity.
- The difficulty the other emotions have in removing Isolation Island's core memory makes perfect sense. The emotions within it won't change that feeling. Fear of others, anger and disgust at oneself, sadness at one's situation. It's near impossible to NOT feel isolated with only those feelings surrounding you. And as for Joy, joy is fleeting when you feel isolated from others. But conversely, if you feel enough of it, connected with other parts of your life, then you might eventually feel connected. Hence why removing the memory is hard for Joy, but conversely, she was the only one who could truly do it as well.
- On that note, the 4 other lost core memories make sense in the context of feeling isolated. Joy hadn't really perked Riley out of her despair, and the memories lost reflect that. If you feel isolated, then you might feel disconnected from family, friends, speaking the truth, or those little friends inside your head/any possibility for hope.
- There's a Stealth Pun about what Intercom's all about. This story is about Riley communicating with the little emotions in her head. But there's all kinds of upheavals and second guessing, secrets and problems that result from the story as Riley seeks to better know how to deal with hearing her emotions. So in other words, this story is about Riley getting in touch with her feelings. Rimshot.
Fridge Horror
- As much as Tracey might be a Jerkass, if you look at some of what Riley's been going through since she started hearing the emotions, you can make a compelling argument that Intercom is Inside Out tackling Schizophrenia in a kid friendly way, just as the movie proper is like Pixar's kid friendly way of tackling depression. Look at some of the signs of Schizophrenia, and notice how eerily similar it is. (sourcing is the National Institute of Mental Health)
- "Voices" are the most common type of hallucination in schizophrenia. Many people with the disorder hear voices. The voices may talk to the person about his or her behavior, order the person to do things, or warn the person of danger. Sometimes the voices talk to each other. People with schizophrenia may hear voices for a long time before family and friends notice the problem. Already, the very PREMISE of this fic gives the first symptom of schizophrenia.
- Other types of hallucinations include seeing people or objects that are not there, smelling odors that no one else detects, and feeling things like invisible fingers touching their bodies when no one is near. While she didn't feel or smell different things, Riley's imagination is causing her to see the mind world in her own life, distracting or disappointing her when comparing the two.
- This seems more like she's simply imagining what it would be like, rather than actually hallucinating.
- Thought disorders are unusual or dysfunctional ways of thinking. One form of thought disorder is called "disorganized thinking." This is when a person has trouble organizing his or her thoughts or connecting them logically. This is precisely what Riley's time being Scatterbrained was like.
- Lack of pleasure in everyday life. This was something that came up after the first Mind World trip, where Riley admitted that she missed the Mind world, making the physical world seem dull by comparison.
- Speaking little, even when forced to interact. Riley's mom mentioned during some of this time that Riley is talking a bit less than before.
- Trouble focusing or paying attention. The emotions arguing with each other caused this problem right away.
- Really, it takes what we KNOW is true via our movie goggles, and spits it in our face that it could also be considered insanity if we actually knew what was going on. Heck, Fear even mentioned another aspect of Schizophrenia in "being compelled" to act by their emotions as a reason why the emotions typically don't talk with their people.
- This similarity is mentioned in chapter 19, when Jill mentions (as does her Fear) that she checked the symptoms of schizophrenia and they fit.
- Even Riley herself begins to worry about this in Chapter 21, thinking that she might be mentally ill after all when she realizes schizophrenia symptoms do in fact mirror what she's going through.
- In Chapter 22, it's mentioned that it's a good thing the intercom isn't broken any more than it is, because then Riley might perceive things that aren't even going on in the Mind World. "Like messed up static images and sounds on those old analog TVs." Now that sounds like proper schizophrenia. This could mean Riley is actually on the schizophrenic "spectrum", just at a very high-functioning level that some may even consider preferable to normal mental health.note Of course, the mind workers did say there's no guarantee it still won't break further...
- Now that Riley is aware of how her mind works, and knows what it's like to be "inside" it, it would make sense for her to be able to make changes there by simply visualizing it, without needing to be in an actual dream state. It could even be easier, since unless you have a lot of practice with lucid dreaming, it's generally easier to control something you're visualizing while awake than it is in a lucid dream—the latter is simply preferable in most cases because it's so much more immersive. Sounds pretty useful, right? It certainly could be. But if it's too easy, she might do it by accident—like if she thinks of something that would be a very bad idea, and starts getting curious about what exactly would happen as a result. Or even if she thinks of something that seems like a good idea, but makes the seemingly-wise decision to first consider potential negative consequences it might have. The mere act of thinking about said consequences could cause them to occur, even if she decides not to do what she thought might have those consequences.
- Perhaps even worse, it could potentially also open her up to Mind Manipulation if somebody finds out. If someone presents an idea, and you make the decision that it's something you definitely don't want to think about, the simple act of trying not to think about it can have the opposite effect, as you have to know what it is you're trying not to think about.
- Well, yes and no. On one hand, there's a reference in the mind manuals warning about accidental consciousness tampering. However, I think the one safeguard Riley has to prevent herself from making changes from OUTSIDE her mind world is contained in a location: Imagination Land. Since a lot of what she's doing is imagining, a lot of that would be manifested in imagining visualizing rather than fundamentally altering the mind world.
- Normally that would be the case, but you could say the same thing about dreams: normally dreams, even lucid ones, only take place in the Dream Productions studio. But now that Riley is aware of the existence of her Mental World, she is able to leave the studio in her dreams. Sure, the reality distortion filter also needs to be disabled, but that's simply so she can perceive things accurately, and a filter wouldn't make sense for daydreams anyway. If her dreams can extend outside the studio, wouldn't it make sense for her daydreams to be able to extend outside her imagination as well?
- Riley learns in Chapter 15 there was a huge catastrophe during the move to San Francisco. Imagine a disaster of epic proportions happening in your own mind, and you don't even know it. How would you react?
- If Riley taking control of the emotional console was her "excusable" plan the emotions might be somewhat ok with, and it was that drastic, what in the world does she plan to do as plan B that she knew the emotions wouldn't like?
- Two words. Total Lock-In.
- The mind workers, looking at the intercom after the fact, said that doing any more damage to it might have given Riley genuine schizophrenia because it would cause her to hear and see things that weren't there. Remember back when this all started, Joy saw that she had 3 clear immediate options. 1. Do their work with Sign Language instead. 2. Talk to Riley so she can get use to their chatter in the future. 3. SMASH the intercom to try and shut it out. Thank goodness Joy chose an option that would allow the emotions some measure of control but would be within reason. (Only sadness knew sign language, so sign language was unrealistic) If they'd gone with tear the intercom up, then who knows what might happened to the mind world.
- Then again, if Riley got actual schizophrenia, that would be a bit more conventional situation for all involved. Sure, Riley might have freaked out in ways untold given how much she doesn't like to be called crazy, but at least she'd be forced to be honest with herself rather than thinking she can get away with seeing her emotions all the time. Maybe the emotions could have gotten her to open up to her parents sooner that way, and thus she'd be taking psychosis medication safely within bounds rather than all the secrets going on in the story proper. Even if they all would be uneasy, annoyed and scared of that kind of schizo, there's just no way to be absolutely sure if a little more pressure might have made things easier or harder.
Fridge Logic
- If one reads closely, the idea bulb Joy plugs in to help Riley study is specifically labeled "Use Emotions' Help to Study for Test". The idea bulb does just that, but later, Riley comes up with a new way for her emotions to help her "study". The fact that Riley came up with her idea while the bulb was plugged in could bring up the possibility that the bulb is responsible for Riley coming up with the idea of cheating, backed up by the bulb growing brighter. Also, Joy was the one who plugged it in.
- Riley calls Joy out on this in Chapter 11 but, in a case of My God, What Have I Done?, acknowledges that she was the one to act on it and came up with the idea to cheat in the first place.
- From what we saw in Chapter 10 about the interesting ways people (and their emotions more-so) react to hearing Riley say things that indicate she has knowledge of the Mind World, Riley could probably cause quite a lot of panic in a crowded area very easily, with few if any people actually being able to figure out why everyone is suddenly acting all shocked. Especially considering that everything she's said so far can easily be dismissed as a coincidentally-accurate metaphor. The other characters' emotions even say that if she says something that undoubtedly confirms she has "inside knowledge" it would be a real cause for panic. Though if you think about it, exactly why that would be a cause for panic is unclear. Luckily for them though, she doesn't seem like the kind of person who would intentionally mess with people like that.
- Chapter 11 answers exactly why it would be a cause for panic—emotions fear that humans would Go Mad from the Revelation, with the hypothetical scenario proposed of people committing crimes and claiming their emotions are really at fault.
- When Riley hears her emotions talking about the Memory Dump in Chapter 11, she starts to imagine a Nightmare Fueled version of it as a black hole swallowing her memories. In the next chapter, she wonders what it actually looks like. That's interesting because it means she didn't make the connection with the sprawling chasm surrounding Headquarters yet, despite having to cross it with the Train of Thought to get there from Dream Productions (to be fair with her, during her first lucid dream, she was already busy enough getting the hang of steering the train and taking the sights of the rest of the Mind World not to dwell on the purpose of the great expanse of void below). One may wonder what will be her reaction when she's told that she already got pretty close to the Dump and had no idea of what it actually was.
- Answered in chapter 13. Riley was precisely at the helm of the train when it happened. Let's say that it could have gone better.
- Considering at least one real-world psychological disorder (schizophrenia) has been mentioned in an in-universe context, there are presumably lots of people suffering from mental illness who can't find anything that will help, much like in the real world. In this case, the reason is probably because all the professional therapists base their work on what they don't realize are incorrect facts. Riley has knowledge that can very likely help these people in a way nothing else can. Because of this, one could argue that she almost has a responsibility to share what she's learned.
- There's also people who are of okay mental health but are just very curious about how their minds work, and want more control over it for varying reasons. These people, I'm sure, would be thrilled at such a discovery, and really, if it's their own mind, it's their right to know how it works.
- Some people (like Riley, for the most part) would take the idea of having other sentient beings in their mind pretty well. But these same people, upon learning of their existence, might be very uncomfortable with the idea of them having kept secrets from them, especially if it was because they were worried about how other people might react if they're told about it. Having other sentient beings in one's mind is one thing; for many the uncomfortable part would be finding out they've at times knowingly put something or someone else above their own host's wishes without giving the host any say in the matter.
- If it turns out Psychic Powers (such as mind reading) exist, as has potentially been hinted, this could potentially compound it, once one realizes the many times this could have helped them if their emotions allowed it.
