Sasha Nein

Mr. Cruller, there's a big mess that you gotta help me clean up!

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“Sometimes, isolation is a good thing. It can lead to important discoveries.”

Sasha Nein is a famous Psychonaut agent. He works with fellow Psychonaut Milla Vodello on many missions. In Psychonauts, he helps at Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, running underground tests of questionable moral status, brought up due to the campers having such negative (and in a few cases, traumatic) opinions on the idea.

Background

“World famous super agent, the cold and logical Sasha is constantly striving to uncover the mysteries of the human psyche through science. He is so focused on his studies that he doesn't have the time to realize that he is a celebrity and hero to the thousands of kids that read True Psychic Tales magazine, like Raz.”

–Character blurb from the original Psychonauts website.

Sasha came from an undisclosed location either in Austria or Germany (Although not confirmed, he has a fairly strong German accent, and he is referred to as "that German fellow" by Ranger Cruller while looking for his underground chamber), working as a shoemaker with his father. Sasha never knew his mother due to her death from an unexplained illness when Sasha was a baby. When Sasha asked his father about his mother, he wouldn't tell Sasha. So when Sasha's powers manifested, he used his telepathy to see his mother's face from his father's memories. This turned out to be a big mistake, as he discovered a naughty memory of his wife, Sasha's mom. Seeing as he was at a young age, this event presumably disturbed Sasha enough to run away from his home.

Events after this are unknown, such as how he became a Psychonaut, how he became partnered with Agent Milla Vodello, etc.

Psychonauts

Sasha's Mind

Main article: Sasha's Shooting Gallery

Sasha's mind is a large white cube drawing inspiration from the sharp, monochrome 1960s brutalism/minimalism aesthetic popular in mid-century German gothic design (as opposed to Milla's 1960's British psychedelic mod leanings). Sasha says that he can manage to keep his mind under control. Hidden inside the cube are various parts of Sasha's mind, each section hinting about his life (like the large bed and crib about his mother and the shoeboxes and tape-measurer about his father), shown when Raz sets the dial that releases the Censors to the highest setting. After fighting the Mega Censor, Sasha gives Raz his Marksmanship badge, telling him that they will never speak of what happened in his mind again. The music in his Shooting Gallery is a remix of Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik", which is an indication that he comes from Austria if not Germany. Upon re-entering the mind, it is revealed that the censor leak was in actuality a set-up to make Raz a marksman.

Psychonauts: In The Rhombus Of Ruin

Directly after the ending of Psychonauts, Sasha is seen riding on the jet heading to the Rhombus Of Ruin. After crashing and landing in the Rhombus, Sasha is thrown into a hallucination due to the Psylirium deposit beneath him. His hallucination consists of him believing he has met aliens and attempting to communicate with them. Raz frees him from his hallucination by playing a phonograph record of a song his mother used to sing.

Psychonauts 2

Sasha will appear in Psychonauts 2.

Psychic Abilities

Telekinesis- Used it to smoke a cigarette.
Markmanship- Taught the power to Raz. His Psi-blast color is blue.
Levitation- Floats off the platform after giving Raz the button.
Second Sight- Seen in his memory vault.

Trivia

"Nein" is German for "No", which may be referenced by the large quantity of Censors in his mind.

Sasha is voiced by Stephen Stanton, who also voiced Bonita Soleil.

In the German version of the game, Sasha has an Austrian accent which is another indication for him coming from Austria.

Sasha drives a passionate hate towards tacky lamps, which at one point he had to make as a job. He refers to them as "something hideous and horrible, something so disgusting that it simply must die," and their destruction he calls "making the world a better place."
- Tim and Scott later state that the reason he hates such lamps is because as seen in the Memory Vault, Sasha's First Loss, his Mom died right next to a lamp like the one in the gallery.

If the player uses Clairvoyance on Sasha, Raz's appearance changes to that of a mini-version of him. This implies that he sees a good deal of himself in Raz.

His glasses actually change size slightly with his expression.

Sasha has had 'The Nein family haircut' since he was born. (Shown in a memory vault.)

The character's name may be a reference to Alexander Shulgin (nicknamed "Sasha"), a chemist known as a pioneer of psychonautics and for researching the use of psychedelics in psychotherapy.

He smokes cigarettes, as seen in the cutscene when he approaches Raz for advanced training.
- This is also proven in Sasha's Shooting gallery during the Mega Censor fight. When Raz is stamped a few times, Sasha asks Raz if he could reach into his pocket and pull out his cigarettes for him.
- If you use Telekinesis on him, he will respond by saying "Yes, now release!"