Mae is one of my favorite video game protags. She always read as someone who desperately needs help and has no idea how to get it, and as someone who has mental health issues, mae is someone I can see myself in. Mae's a good kid, she just doesn't know how to cope with adulthood yet. With everyone moving on around her, she's scared of being left behind, and scared of growing up. God, this kid needs therapy.
She's in a very small and run-down town where the closest thing they have to therapy is just "IDK, write in a journal or something." I feel really bad for Mae, she doesn't even have the vocabulary to explain what's wrong with her so she just comes off as lazy and ignorant.
I mean, I was critical of her when I played with friends too, but I was also a dumb kid adult needing therapy. People can be a little rude because she's not real, and also they relate a lot to the rude stuff she says... Someone can have mental issues and also be really super insensitive to others with mental health issues. @@acetheposs9009
Fun Fact: the song Rät by Penelope Scott has a reference to night in the woods, in one of the lyrics it says "And I hope someday Selmers rides her fucking train" Referencing Selmer's poem about silicon valley and billionaires
Poor Mae. Inconsistent eating habits, sleeping to much, felt out of place in college and couldn’t make friends. She sounds wicked depressed and in denial about it.
Can I just say I love Will's Chazokov voice? He sounds like a grandpa in a golden age disney movie that gives exposition on the awesome shit thats coming up.
I would love to see them do all of Mae's embarrasing stories. The first one is pretty horrible, but both the second and third one give more important info about Mae's life
I love how the mom realizes how she was being a piece of crap and reacts the correct way after the bad interaction with her daughter, *like no mom ever does*
Omg true! Once this is all over I really hope somebody makes an edit of all of Mr. Chazokov's stories (if nobody else does, I might take matters into my own hands)
One thing that makes nitw's story intriguing is that, while we do play as her, mae is not a "player character". She says things we wouldn't say and does things we wouldn't do. And the story has the balls to have the people around her call her out on her bs.
1:00:29 Queer History fact! Back when formal wear was more common than casual clothing, queer men would have “cruise” around town with a red tie (or other bright color) and a hankie in the pocket; this later inspired colored bandanas in the back left (top) and right (bottom) pockets. They then would approach one another and either ask them to light a match or the time; friendly conversation would strike if they were queer. Why? Because if someone was ever queer and the town somehow guessed they were - rumors would go fucking everywhere about a queer person. So many straight people assumed one was queer if they wore patterned and/or mismatched clothes, since they assumed it was showing non-monotone colors that was queer. At least, in religious areas anyways. With the game being based in western PA, aka Pennsyltucky, then that is likely the case. TL;DR: Magazine is implying YOUR kids are queer, therefore inappropriate somehow, for wearing color or mismatched clothing; and if you’re good parents, you should steer them on the good, and moral path heterosexuality and bland fashion standards. Ain’t no hate like a Christian’s love 😊
the pathologic references are driving me INSANEEE two of my favorite niche topics in one im bouta watch this series even more than i've rewatched hbombs videos
It's a little sad how you guys interpret Mae exacly like all the other characters do. A good for nothing, inconsiderate brat who never grew up. When it seems like she's more of a deeply troubled girl who never found a way to manage her problems and stopped caring about anything. She hates herself, her body, doesn’t eat, doesn’t shower, is easiely distracted and never goes into depth about any of anything that's troubling her. Being angry at her is a tried and tested method of dealing with her and it never worked.
I love the comedic DNA between Germ and Crap Gorps of "goofy lil guy" that is just an infinite well of hilarious bits, the eternal shackles thing destroyed me Side note, I love the symbolism of Mr Salvi talking about the river, with people "not being ready" for the river to change course when they'd just been used to how it always was
spoilers ahead.... 33:00 i haaaaate this conversation. this breaks me dude. This game is so good it makes me feel super sad over a death of a character that doesn´t even appear in the game.
57:25 If you go into the crawl space in the house, and use the code you found from a book on the bookshelf, you will find a tooth I remember watching Jacksepticeye's playthrough of this, and wondering why there was a tooth
i rly like your playthrough and voice acting and i hope the criticism isn’t grating, but man does it kinda bum me out how you guys talk about mae sometimes. yes she has habits + mannerisms that are “rude” or perhaps annoying, but she is literally written to be a character struggling w mental illness and highly coded to be neurodivergent. yall saying shes doing nothing to help her family comes off as very weird considering a major plot point hinges on the fact that mae has severe issues she has not addressed yet. i choose to believe this is just because the VAs did not yet know that was the course the game would take. just my two cents.
Germ's voice reminds me of Slappy from the original Goosebumps show! I'm imagining him as a haunted puppet now. Also Jello, as a grocery stooge, I love when customers want to bag their own stuff
I LOVE THIS PLAYTHROUGH you guys are doing a great job voice acting all the characters it's been super fun getting to experience NITW again through these streams!
how come people are being harsh with Mae?? I get that she dropped out of college and doesn't have her life together but that's literally the point. I even see people saying she's a horrible and selfish friend??? I don't get it.
I find it cool how there's an animal in Mae's dreams for each of her friends. Bear - Angus Squirrel - Gregg Crocodile - Bea Heron - Germ Cat - Mae, obviously
As much as I like the content, and I do love the personality everyone gives the characters, Mae does not really deserve this level of bashing. This wasn't really fair to her.
Especially with insight that the game later gives as to her detail. She's deeply in need of mental health help that is straight up unavaliable in this town, and I do not mean that as an insult. She's not a bad person, she just says the wrong thing sometimes. Like all of us do. Hell, even her talk with Bea last episode just seemed like it was from a place of being horrified at Bea's life situation and not knowing what to actually do about it. Doesn't mean she didn't fuck up the conversation, but none of it was out of meanspiritedness. Meanwhile, some of the bashing Mae gets from the voice actors here, as much as I love them, seems like, way too severe.
@@renzalwyvern9976 As much as I love this crew of VAs, Jello especially but all of them to some degree are pretty judgmental. Yam (is that how you spell it?) and Siv I think are the most level headed, Will seems to just go along with things that he thinks is funny, but Jello is so quick to judgement and opinionated that the more level-headed responses tend to get drowned out or begrudgingly acknowledged.
@@EmileeAria413 I think I'm beginning to understand why a lot of the So This Is Basically... series kind of always rubbed me the wrong way. Like, to be clear, it was mostly very good! But there were a lot of points where it just felt needlessly judgmental in a way I just couldn't relate to.
@@renzalwyvern9976 Mae is a deeply troubled person who is clearly having a mental health crisis, who needs support that she does not know how to access, and is sympathetic and compelling. She is also an absolute trashfire of a person who puts her foot in her mouth constantly and seems basically determined not to grow up while the rest of her friends struggle with real adult problems and lives that she doesn't even try to see the nuance of. She is selfish, and she is sympathetic. She's doing her best, and she's also kind of a jerk. Both can be true :)
I found epithet after watching these streams, and rewatching them now after watching epithet erased makes it even better because I understand a lot of the jokes
This whole game was giving me Stephen King vibes and the newspaper clippings reminded me of why I thought that. Possum Springs just reminds me of Derry.
I like how part of the chat the time of the teeth story is appalled meanwhile Will is going "That's awesome!" Me is just sitting going "Worker solidarity comrades!"
So... Uhh... Anyone wanna unpack the cat thing? Or distract from it with dream interpretation? Like, 1: Jello did a very good reading of that thing, but also, haag. That's a *lot* to deal with when the rest of the game has been existential rather than eldritch horror, and I've never been that great at making sense of the symbolism in the other dreams.
The cat claims to not be God, because it has searched for the God described and cannot find it, so my guess is that the cat is one of 2 things 1) it is the universe, as it is a being that was both just created and timeless and dying at the same time, it is a being that does not love and does not hate, an ambivalent being of creation and death simultaneously 2) a 4th dimensional creature that has seen the birth and death of countless universes
I think the Cat represents meaningless of existense in the face of death, and the Black Goat - trying to postpone death (of a town, or an individual) / hang onto dead memories of the good old times. So, the game really does not stop being existential horror IMO
Its an interesting combo tbh. Eldrich stuff is just a type of existential horror to me- it gets me to the same feel-bad headspace. The things beyond the stars are very Lovecraft tribute in origin- things that you can't comprehend beyond the stars or beyond our universe who notice us once we can finally see them etc. I think the vast difference in style gives them the otherworldly feeling. Down here in case I wander into any spoilers inadvertently. The giant animals feel connected to but also seperate from the giant cat. To me, esp with some of the in game dialouge and with each unique setting related to the town, they make me think of them being old gods of the land, or if you want to lean away from supernatural, symbols of the land itself, different aspects. They are either being seen and seeing Mae themselves- or they are leaving. The cat itself seems to be different- maybe even helpful in its way if it is closing the tear in the sky behind it- and again no matter the interpretation of real being or not, the conversation is just as upsetting. It is a great picture of what happens to some of us when we start to ask why we exist, what the purpose of it all is and only find an uncaring universe and the unknown, far beyond us out there. Sort of a literal illustration of Nietzsche's abyss staring back at us, staring back at Mae.
God Mae is just the worst sometimes, it’s amazing. Like, Bea is literally being so kind to her constantly, but Mae completely misreads it comically badly and gets all cranky, and I’m just sitting wondering how Bea can be so nice to her 5 seconds after. I get that Mae is a good kid, and definitely cares about everyone and whatnot, but it gives me whiplash every time istg
![Night in the Woods (Fully Voice-Acted) - [PART 4]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DUSvAA0-H8s/mqdefault.jpg)
![Night in the Woods (Fully Voice-Acted) - [PART 4]](/img/tr.png)
Mae is one of my favorite video game protags. She always read as someone who desperately needs help and has no idea how to get it, and as someone who has mental health issues, mae is someone I can see myself in. Mae's a good kid, she just doesn't know how to cope with adulthood yet. With everyone moving on around her, she's scared of being left behind, and scared of growing up. God, this kid needs therapy.
Yeah, it also felt really crappy to see 'em talk shit about her like that
@@acetheposs9009 same, it made me feel bad.
She needs a *good* therapist.
She's in a very small and run-down town where the closest thing they have to therapy is just "IDK, write in a journal or something." I feel really bad for Mae, she doesn't even have the vocabulary to explain what's wrong with her so she just comes off as lazy and ignorant.
I mean, I was critical of her when I played with friends too, but I was also a dumb kid adult needing therapy. People can be a little rude because she's not real, and also they relate a lot to the rude stuff she says... Someone can have mental issues and also be really super insensitive to others with mental health issues. @@acetheposs9009
Fun Fact: the song Rät by Penelope Scott has a reference to night in the woods, in one of the lyrics it says "And I hope someday Selmers rides her fucking train" Referencing Selmer's poem about silicon valley and billionaires
Im OBSESSED with that song and every time I hear that line I think of Selmers. Thanks!! :)
I... I always wondered who that was about and just... never made the connection holy shit
OMG I finally once in my life get a reference that is so cool!
dang
I always wondered what that line was about... that's so cool!
"Please don't sacrifice Bruce to keep the town alive"
Must be the effects of the Foreshadowing Cliff
Actual unintended foreshadowing related to Bruce was the PERFECT way for them to complete the cliff joke
Poor Mae. Inconsistent eating habits, sleeping to much, felt out of place in college and couldn’t make friends. She sounds wicked depressed and in denial about it.
1:32:54 i love how Dani uses any chance she gets to pull out her "Oof!" it's so good
I've watched three of these thus far and my favorite joke hAS to be "Foreshadow cliff" Will just goes ALL. FREAKING. IN I LOVE IT.
Can I just say I love Will's Chazokov voice? He sounds like a grandpa in a golden age disney movie that gives exposition on the awesome shit thats coming up.
I would love to see them do all of Mae's embarrasing stories. The first one is pretty horrible, but both the second and third one give more important info about Mae's life
I love how the mom realizes how she was being a piece of crap and reacts the correct way after the bad interaction with her daughter, *like no mom ever does*
I could listen to Will's Mr. Chazokov tell me bedtime stories every night 💙
Omg true! Once this is all over I really hope somebody makes an edit of all of Mr. Chazokov's stories
(if nobody else does, I might take matters into my own hands)
@@sommeone I second this!
@@sommeone i would kill for this
@@juncodraws big brain
I know, right?
I don't think anything has brought me more joy than Mr. Chazakov's laugh.
I fucking WISH I could do that laugh.
Love the experience of getting to hear four separate people yell at Mae for doing what she does, cathartic in a way
I dunno about you but I don't find someone joking about mae ending up in jail humorous
@@jonathanredacted3245 very specific joke, not what I was referring to. I was referring to them yelling at her for saying dumb shit
One thing that makes nitw's story intriguing is that, while we do play as her, mae is not a "player character". She says things we wouldn't say and does things we wouldn't do. And the story has the balls to have the people around her call her out on her bs.
1:00:29 Queer History fact! Back when formal wear was more common than casual clothing, queer men would have “cruise” around town with a red tie (or other bright color) and a hankie in the pocket; this later inspired colored bandanas in the back left (top) and right (bottom) pockets. They then would approach one another and either ask them to light a match or the time; friendly conversation would strike if they were queer. Why? Because if someone was ever queer and the town somehow guessed they were - rumors would go fucking everywhere about a queer person. So many straight people assumed one was queer if they wore patterned and/or mismatched clothes, since they assumed it was showing non-monotone colors that was queer. At least, in religious areas anyways. With the game being based in western PA, aka Pennsyltucky, then that is likely the case.
TL;DR: Magazine is implying YOUR kids are queer, therefore inappropriate somehow, for wearing color or mismatched clothing; and if you’re good parents, you should steer them on the good, and moral path heterosexuality and bland fashion standards. Ain’t no hate like a Christian’s love 😊
"There is a hole at the center of everything"
Yep, there it is. That funny feeling. Dread.
I think Mae has only eaten tacos and mall food so far. She's probably starving.
Oh yeah huh. She like never eats
I think its implied she has disordered eating? Like, she said “God, I need to stop eating everything ever”
@@peeweepissman
She also referenced something similar when she talked about why she left college,
"I either didn't eat or ate entire pizzas at once"
And pizza from the diner
the pathologic references are driving me INSANEEE two of my favorite niche topics in one im bouta watch this series even more than i've rewatched hbombs videos
It's a little sad how you guys interpret Mae exacly like all the other characters do. A good for nothing, inconsiderate brat who never grew up.
When it seems like she's more of a deeply troubled girl who never found a way to manage her problems and stopped caring about anything. She hates herself, her body, doesn’t eat, doesn’t shower, is easiely distracted and never goes into depth about any of anything that's troubling her.
Being angry at her is a tried and tested method of dealing with her and it never worked.
I did NOT expect existential cosmic horror
I can just _see_ Jello's face when one of the band makes a joke remark about where the story is going and actually guesses part of the ending.
3:04:29 Quite possibly one to the coolest in game interactions I've ever seen...and you interpreted it just as I imagined it
I love the comedic DNA between Germ and Crap Gorps of "goofy lil guy" that is just an infinite well of hilarious bits, the eternal shackles thing destroyed me
Side note, I love the symbolism of Mr Salvi talking about the river, with people "not being ready" for the river to change course when they'd just been used to how it always was
i adore everyone’s reads on the characters
the smelters is my favorite anime
spoilers ahead....
33:00 i haaaaate this conversation. this breaks me dude. This game is so good it makes me feel super sad over a death of a character that doesn´t even appear in the game.
57:25
If you go into the crawl space in the house, and use the code you found from a book on the bookshelf, you will find a tooth
I remember watching Jacksepticeye's playthrough of this, and wondering why there was a tooth
i rly like your playthrough and voice acting and i hope the criticism isn’t grating, but man does it kinda bum me out how you guys talk about mae sometimes. yes she has habits + mannerisms that are “rude” or perhaps annoying, but she is literally written to be a character struggling w mental illness and highly coded to be neurodivergent. yall saying shes doing nothing to help her family comes off as very weird considering a major plot point hinges on the fact that mae has severe issues she has not addressed yet. i choose to believe this is just because the VAs did not yet know that was the course the game would take. just my two cents.
The voice acting is amazing as always!!
_Go Selmers!_
Germ's voice reminds me of Slappy from the original Goosebumps show! I'm imagining him as a haunted puppet now.
Also Jello, as a grocery stooge, I love when customers want to bag their own stuff
I like how everyone makes Germ nasally; I guess it's a combination of him being a teenager and a bird?
I LOVE THIS PLAYTHROUGH
you guys are doing a great job voice acting all the characters
it's been super fun getting to experience NITW again through these streams!
how come people are being harsh with Mae?? I get that she dropped out of college and doesn't have her life together but that's literally the point. I even see people saying she's a horrible and selfish friend??? I don't get it.
My own ending for Selmers Poem:
"They say "it works" but every word is deception.
Becuase I'm still waving my phone
And I have No Reception"
I find it cool how there's an animal in Mae's dreams for each of her friends.
Bear - Angus
Squirrel - Gregg
Crocodile - Bea
Heron - Germ
Cat - Mae, obviously
or the drummer
As much as I like the content, and I do love the personality everyone gives the characters, Mae does not really deserve this level of bashing. This wasn't really fair to her.
Especially with insight that the game later gives as to her detail. She's deeply in need of mental health help that is straight up unavaliable in this town, and I do not mean that as an insult. She's not a bad person, she just says the wrong thing sometimes. Like all of us do. Hell, even her talk with Bea last episode just seemed like it was from a place of being horrified at Bea's life situation and not knowing what to actually do about it. Doesn't mean she didn't fuck up the conversation, but none of it was out of meanspiritedness. Meanwhile, some of the bashing Mae gets from the voice actors here, as much as I love them, seems like, way too severe.
@@renzalwyvern9976 As much as I love this crew of VAs, Jello especially but all of them to some degree are pretty judgmental. Yam (is that how you spell it?) and Siv I think are the most level headed, Will seems to just go along with things that he thinks is funny, but Jello is so quick to judgement and opinionated that the more level-headed responses tend to get drowned out or begrudgingly acknowledged.
@@EmileeAria413 I think I'm beginning to understand why a lot of the So This Is Basically... series kind of always rubbed me the wrong way. Like, to be clear, it was mostly very good! But there were a lot of points where it just felt needlessly judgmental in a way I just couldn't relate to.
@@renzalwyvern9976Mae still does some pretty stupid shit without taking into account conversations.
@@renzalwyvern9976 Mae is a deeply troubled person who is clearly having a mental health crisis, who needs support that she does not know how to access, and is sympathetic and compelling. She is also an absolute trashfire of a person who puts her foot in her mouth constantly and seems basically determined not to grow up while the rest of her friends struggle with real adult problems and lives that she doesn't even try to see the nuance of. She is selfish, and she is sympathetic. She's doing her best, and she's also kind of a jerk. Both can be true :)
43:51 germ has inhibitor rings like shadow the hedgehog. We are only seeing a portion of his power
You picked a perfect cast for these characters.
how on EARTH did it take THIS LONG for me to figure out these are the voice actors for epithet oh my god
I found epithet after watching these streams, and rewatching them now after watching epithet erased makes it even better because I understand a lot of the jokes
This whole game was giving me Stephen King vibes and the newspaper clippings reminded me of why I thought that. Possum Springs just reminds me of Derry.
I guess you could call Mae a “Phantom Detective”
go smelters!!! //violent gay kissing noises//
I really don't like the fact that I'm recognising a bunch of similarities between my life and Mae's.
Minus the ghosts.
I like how part of the chat the time of the teeth story is appalled meanwhile Will is going "That's awesome!"
Me is just sitting going "Worker solidarity comrades!"
As a Person from Russian heritage and culture I can confirm that Chazokovs accent is spectacular and a perfect fucking fit
2:18:16 favorite bit, love seeing a bit come from y’all’s names, especially silly ones like this
I hope y'all know you are now forever ingrained in my head as the canon voices of these characters. Thank you.
1:04:52 yooo the medieval english peasant voice is so underrated
Been watching this with my gf and we both love you guys. Can't wait for episode 4.
"Options... its good!" Oh, Dr. Hank. Grammar is a good thing to fix in your motivational screens.
1:13:55 it's the jewish way of writing out god! uncapitalized and with the hyphen, g-d
Of course Will got to read the "Pie piracy" article.
So... Uhh... Anyone wanna unpack the cat thing? Or distract from it with dream interpretation?
Like, 1: Jello did a very good reading of that thing, but also, haag.
That's a *lot* to deal with when the rest of the game has been existential rather than eldritch horror, and I've never been that great at making sense of the symbolism in the other dreams.
The cat claims to not be God, because it has searched for the God described and cannot find it, so my guess is that the cat is one of 2 things
1) it is the universe, as it is a being that was both just created and timeless and dying at the same time, it is a being that does not love and does not hate, an ambivalent being of creation and death simultaneously
2) a 4th dimensional creature that has seen the birth and death of countless universes
I think the Cat represents meaningless of existense in the face of death, and the Black Goat - trying to postpone death (of a town, or an individual) / hang onto dead memories of the good old times. So, the game really does not stop being existential horror IMO
Both reasonable!
Though in this case I was talking about the environments in general and the space fleas!
(Thanks for the responses though)
Its an interesting combo tbh. Eldrich stuff is just a type of existential horror to me- it gets me to the same feel-bad headspace. The things beyond the stars are very Lovecraft tribute in origin- things that you can't comprehend beyond the stars or beyond our universe who notice us once we can finally see them etc. I think the vast difference in style gives them the otherworldly feeling.
Down here in case I wander into any spoilers inadvertently. The giant animals feel connected to but also seperate from the giant cat. To me, esp with some of the in game dialouge and with each unique setting related to the town, they make me think of them being old gods of the land, or if you want to lean away from supernatural, symbols of the land itself, different aspects. They are either being seen and seeing Mae themselves- or they are leaving. The cat itself seems to be different- maybe even helpful in its way if it is closing the tear in the sky behind it- and again no matter the interpretation of real being or not, the conversation is just as upsetting. It is a great picture of what happens to some of us when we start to ask why we exist, what the purpose of it all is and only find an uncaring universe and the unknown, far beyond us out there. Sort of a literal illustration of Nietzsche's abyss staring back at us, staring back at Mae.
I mean, the kidnapper could've simply *thrown* the teen over the fence if they, say, didn't have any care for the wellbeing of their prey
How strong would you have to be??? O_o
2:45:57 i like to imagine this is an in-universe thing, like they didn’t have enough time to rehearse
Go smelters!
3:01:00 I’ve played this game like 15 times and this was the first time I got shivers during the god cat scene. UGH THIS LP IS SO GOOD
very expcited to see that youre continuing this series!
I always thought a group of rats was called a horde. Or maybe Redwall just popularized people calling a group of rats a horde.
SPOILERS! MAYBE?
25:15 hold- hOLD ON- *HOLD ON-* *_HOW DO YOU KNOW-_*
even if the voice of jack sceptic eye in engrave on the character for me
they really sound like how I have imagine their voices
I'm really sad that this only streams when it's like 2 AM in my timezone.
I need to stop being British, fast.
i love will’s chazokov
14:50 ghost trick spoilers
Omg its yomiel
Ok Mae is my new bicon
3:04:23 Changed my life when I first played through it. Amazing performance holy shit
47:43 lmao, dumb reference love it
Man they really hate this cat.
I can't remember when Proximity happens but I really hope they didn't miss it by going to gregg that day. It's easily my favorite scene
25:15 the accidental foreshadowing is unreal
SMH my head at Rat Abandoner Jello over here
Anyone taking bets on one of those charrity bearity books having the solution to the ghost issue?
This was amazing. Thank you 😊
Mae could use some Interpersonal Communication classes.
God Mae is just the worst sometimes, it’s amazing. Like, Bea is literally being so kind to her constantly, but Mae completely misreads it comically badly and gets all cranky, and I’m just sitting wondering how Bea can be so nice to her 5 seconds after. I get that Mae is a good kid, and definitely cares about everyone and whatnot, but it gives me whiplash every time istg
53:52 This could be the backstory for a spooky's jumpscare mansion specimen
oh, so _that's_ a morbit
I never knew that there was a room in that rat attic! That staircase is seriously invisible
Good stuff!
A group of rats can also be called a plague which is very silly
I *want* to catch these live but UA-cam won't recommend them when they're live!
i NEED to know what Will looks like irl
2:30:00 nice hbomber impression
54:40 omg this sounds like the scene in the reverent hill trailer
1:55:20 I made that exact same 1D joke when playing the game, not a single original thought
30:28
1:17:48
2:18:20
loving this
its not a possum... north America only has opossums. possums live in Australia
YAM RIOT!!!!
the speed of the text is giving me anxiety
2:20:12 Jesus CHRIST Why did that HURT SO MUCH T_T
2:18:19 I'll just leave this here
pie piracy,, pie smell
1:32:53 oof
PART 3!!!
Fun fact the democratic party does know where you live :)
What's the deal with Yam?
YOOOOO
44:40
2:37:20
222nd like heheeheyehe
Mae's embarrassing stories explain a lot about why she is the way she is...