me: The villain of What Remains of Edith Finch? Wouldn't call it a "villain" personally, but in the sense that it's the source of the tragic events of the story I'd say it's intergenerational trauma, interlinked with mental illness. Though obviously certain characters make bad, often neglectful decisions which cause harm, I feel it would be callous and mistaken to call any of them a "villain". The developers walk a fine line of weaving into each family tragedy both their virtues and their weaknesses/blind spots to create a sense of ironic inevitability, conveying to the audience each family member's individual experience trying to process and overcome their cumulative grief/psychosis before succumbing to it. Situating Edith (at the tip of the nearly-dead family tree and the only hope for it to continue) as the player character tasked with interpreting or reinterpreting each story (which are often conveyed through second- or third-hand accounts that naturally invite skepticism and critical reading) forces us to confront the familial fear that one's fate is predestined, while allowing relative detachment from which she/we hope to find some lasting healing for herself and her child. If anything, the attempt to identify a culpable villain is a trap the game seems to hope Edith avoids: there is no silver bullet for personal demons, no solution from without to solve any one person's inherited trauma and self-destructive patterns. Convincing yourself that someone else or a family curse is the sole cause of your tragic circumstances can cause you to neglect your own capacity and responsibility (obviously excepting systemic social issues here, this isn't some conservative "don't blame other people for your failures" argument). Though we may understandably lash out in blame at those who seem to pull us in and perpetuate these tragic cycles--and it may be necessary to cut off those whose coping mechanisms perpetuate the inherited trauma, as Edith's mother does for her and her children's sake--we must recognize they are also suffering and also coping and also deserve our sympathy. That the Finches and Edie in particular are often irrational (sometimes ridiculously, Gashlycrumb Tinies-ly so) does not speak to villainy, it speaks to the central metaphor and family dynamic being explored and the style being adopted.

a video essay with 4.5 million views: the villain is the old lady, that attention-craving bitch

(edit: 5 million views)