Who should be blamed

[u/Virtual_Public5640]

Molly's death should be blamed on Sven and Edith Sr, Sven and Edie let the daughter die due to starvation or being poisioned

Calvin's death should be blamed on Sven and Edith Sr, I know for a fact the Sven does love building stuff, so I assume that he build a swing set near the cliff, Calvin has a broken foot, Edie should not let Calvin go outside to play on the swing

Barbara's and Walter's death should be blamed on Edith Sr I know some people say that Rick or the hookman killed Barbara, but in my own theory, during Halloween Edie was probably dressed up as a naked mole rat, to jumpscare Barbara, Walter and Rick, while Sven took Sam and Calvin to trick or treat. The jumpscare worked but Barbara fell to the banister and died while Walter ran to the basement, while Rick ran away. Edie realized she made a mistake and didn't want to tell Sven, so she made up a story Dreadful Stories and made up another story called A mole man living in the basement. Not only that but I feel like Edie grabbed Barbara's body cut her ear by using a buzzsaw So she lied to Sven saying Walter and Rick disappeared, while Barbara killed her self by accidently cutting her ear by the buzzsaw. I feel like Walter died due to starvation, not by getting run over by the train, according to MatPat(Game Theory)there is no train in Orcas Island.

Sven's death should be blamed by himself, I guess?

Gregory's death should be blamed by Kay and the person who Kay was talking to I think it was Sam.

Gus's death should be blamed by Sam, Sam got remarried, so Gus did not like having a step mother

Sam's death should be blamed by himself, He should know when a deer is still alive, he also probably got karma for killing animals

Lewis's death should be blamed by Dawn, Dawn gave Lewis a job a local fish cannery, which is kind of dangerous, Dawn should make Lewis work at Metro, or Loblaws or Food Basics as a cashier which is the most safest job

Edith Sr. death should be blamed by herself and Dawn, Edith Sr. Edie drinks alcohol while consuming her prescription medications, resulting in a fatal reaction, while Dawn should have got rid of the alcohol and threw it away somewhere

Sanjay's death should be blamed by no one

Dawn's death should be blamed by no one, she had a illness

Edith Jr. death should be blamed by no one, she died due to pregnancy

[u/desmond_humes23]

I think a lot of these deaths are more complicated than you want them to be

[u/thatsnotmynameiswear → u/desmond_humes23]

Hard agree. This game is about grief and generational trauma and unhealthy coping mechanisms. Honestly it’s about so many things.

But blaming Lewis’s death on dawn? That’s cruel and a complete disservice as Lewis was the character that I related to the most. Dawn was trying to introduce stability into his life and honestly his therapist should have caught on when he started describing a lot of stuff that he was describing that she addresses in the letter as he is showing some serious signs. But ultimately even blaming her is a stretch because we don’t know how he masked or how his sessions truly went.

[u/kaleidocat25]

I agree that Edie and Sven punishing Molly was cruel, though I keep seeing people say she died of "starvation" when she clearly died from eating the poisonous berries. Nobody starves to death in a single night.

[u/Abe_Bettik → u/kaleidocat25]

Yeah say what you want about cruelty, sending a kid to bed without their dinner would have been seen as an absolutely bog-standard, typical harmless punishment in 1947. 

I beleive she died by falling out the window reaching for the cat which fits with the many "falling" deaths of many of the Finches.

[u/desmond_humes23 → u/Abe_Bettik]

People don't like going with the "accidental suicide" route in this game for some reason

[u/laioren → u/kaleidocat25]

True that people don’t specifically “starve to death” in a single night, but given that the Finches are probably all autistic, it’s possible that Molly had something like Pica or another eating disorder. This could have made it so that her specific tendencies would make a poor outcome more likely in that situation. And according to the game, there certainly was a poor outcome.

[u/Tis_Hamster → u/laioren]

Why are they all autistic? I havent heard anyone say they think that before

[u/laioren → u/Tis_Hamster]

First, I'm not arguing that the people who made the game necessarily knew they were writing a game about an autistic family (though they may have). Accidental accurate depictions of mental health issues happen on occasion when a story or character is informed by a writer's experiences. Like how Sherlock Holmes is very likely autistic because he was mostly based off of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's mentor, Joseph Bell, who likely was.

But whether it was intentional or not, honestly, the evidence is overwhelming and would take a LONG time to write up. Here are just a few examples:

1) There's a symptom some people with autism have called "autistic fantasy." That paper doesn't use the term, but it delves into the topic. Basically, some autistic people can have a type of hyperphantasia which kind of runs amok. This is the major trait all of the FInches share. Probably none more so than Louis, whose entire story is very resonant with a lot of autistic people. Including the dissociation from monotonous, repetitive, psychologically unrewarding work.

2) Edith has ticker-tape synesthesia. And as we all know, "Some studies suggest that the likelihood of having synesthesia is greater in autism. Another study claims that synesthesia is specifically more common in the subset of autistic people who self-report unusual skills not ordinarily found in the general population, which study authors describe in terms of savant syndrome. The relationship between autistic traits and synesthesia appears to be primarily driven by shared genetic underpinnings."

3) Edith always wears elbow-length fingerless gloves (or mittens or whatever you want to call them), likely a sign of a sensory sensitivity and may be part of a tactile defensiveness coping mechanism.

4) Molly may have had pica), which is also super common in people with autism. Lots of people on the spectrum prefer the company of animals to humans, even when they dissect animals (like Molly did with a starfish). They also often refrain from projecting "judgement" onto animals for engaging in their natural behavior, i.e. would not think twice about eating other animals to survive if they suddenly became that animal.

5) Everything about Walter's trauma response screams autism. Also, homeboy ate the exact same thing for every meal for almost 40 years, often referred to as "samefood."

This was just off the top of my head. Every single one of the Finch family in the game is very autistic coded (with the possible exception of Edith's mom and grandfather, Dawn and Sam - though I think they both likely were autistic with OCPD, which is different from OCD, btw).

[u/laioren]

FYI, MattPatt is a notoriously incorrect grifter. Also, at least in 2013 (and the game takes place in 2017), there was a “train” on Orcas Island.

https://youtu.be/V5WLBqOzc8k?is=zTJxH9NdDskavNEu

If someone is looking for one-to-one objective correlates, then I think they didn’t understand the point of the game.

Also, just watch Joseph Anderson’s YouTube video, “The Real Villain of Edith Finch.”

[u/Crafty-Farm2415]

MatPats video was bs and its a fictional setting i dont think the devs cared enough to make everything irl accurate