#razlili

Another interesting detail in Psychonauts 2 is that towards the end, there’s a “reversal from the last game”, put under a Keep Reading due to plot spoilers:

In the original Psychonauts, Lili gets captured by Linda, and Raz has to save her from Dr. Loboto along with the other Whispering Rock campers.

In Psychonauts 2, Lili doesn’t get captured; Raz does, because Gristol Malik sets off a trap that immobilizes Raz with puppet strings. He has to slow down a fan with Time Bubble, but after that, Lili’s the one who bursts into the room to save her boyfriend by beating up Gristol with a metal-case-holding doll.

So the roles are reversed from the last game.

I post on my blog infrequently, but I’m making a Psychonauts 2 post, as now that Psychonauts 2 is out, I was curious as to how Lili would see Raz.

In the original Psychonauts, if Razputin uses Clairvoyance on Lili, she sees him as a “Prince Charming”-type figure holding a red rose in his hand, because she has a crush on him, and they become boyfriend and girlfriend at the end of the original Psychonauts.

I wanted to find out if Lili still sees Raz the same way in Psychonauts 2, so I’ve been looking at a video by a Youtube user named Kakuchopurei, who’s uploaded a video of Clairvoyance clips from Psychonauts 2. The video is called “Psychonauts 2: Raz in the eyes of others | Clairvoyance easter eggs (SPOILERS)”, and Lili and Truman’s views of Raz begin at 4:25 (Truman’s Clairvoyance is shown first, and then Lili’s).

I’ll put it under a Keep Reading due to spoilers:

Lili no longer sees Raz as a “Prince Charming”; instead, she sees him as “just himself in his ordinary clothes”, but without the goggles on his head (admittedly the Clairvoyance’s hair color is black, while the real Raz’s hair color is burgundy, but that could be an error).

Lili now seeing her boyfriend as his real self is an interesting touch.

EDIT: tiamatsan has informed me that there are a couple of other changes to Lili’s Clairvoyance of Raz: he’s “shinier”, and he has sparkles around him. So according to tiamatsan, Lili sees Raz as a better version of himself.

So this could mean that Lili wants her boyfriend to be the best person he can be.

SECOND EDIT: tiamatsan has messaged me clarifying their original intent; they meant to say that Lili once saw Raz as a Prince Charming, but now sees Raz as his real self, and Lili thinks Raz’s real self is even better than the Prince Charming she originally thought he was, which is why the Clairvoyance is a shining, better version of Raz’s real self.

THIRD EDIT: nightofnetter has informed me that “Raz as a shiny version of his real self” is what he looks like to Lili if you use Clairvoyance on Lili AFTER you talk to her and cheer her up. If you use Clairvoyance on Lili BEFORE you talk to her and cheer her up, she sees Raz as a judge, because she still thinks she’s a terrible daughter to Truman Zanotto. But if you cheer Lili up and then use Clairvoyance, she sees Raz as a “shining version of his real self”.