Thinking about River. (spoiler inside)

[Medieval Tavern]

Am I the only one here found River is the most pitiful charater in game. For all her life time, everything she does because she wants Johnny to remember their childhood's memories. The blue and yellow rabbit - the blue is the sky and yellow is the moon. Just like the place where they sat and watched the sky. She keep the platypus which Jonny gave her to the end of her life. Oh god...i tear again now :'(
Sorry for my english.

[Kef-Meister]

No, I fully understand - both your post and the message. River is definitely the most tragic character in the entire game. At the end of it all, River has died, and her husband never actually remembered the first time they met, he never remembered the special moment they had that night and he never understood what Anja really meant to River.

Remembering those things is enough to make me cry, too.

[Medieval Tavern]

Originally posted by Kef-Meister:

No, I fully understand - both your post and the message. River is definitely the most tragic character in the entire game. At the end of it all, River has died, and her husband never actually remembered the first time they met, he never remembered the special moment they had that night and he never understood what Anja really meant to River.

Remembering those things is enough to make me cry, too.

Yes, she spends all her life trying to make John remember. She sacrifices her life to keep the Anya with hope that John will remember some day. But till the day she gone, John never understood what her feeling, why she sacrifices everything for Anya. :((

[iburpoften]

It makes you wonder why she never just told him out right?

Also when she asks john to throw the the bag off the cliff is she testing to see what he'd do? to see if he remembers giving it to her?

[Tilen]

Originally posted by iburpoften:

It makes you wonder why she never just told him out right?

Also when she asks john to throw the the bag off the cliff is she testing to see what he'd do? to see if he remembers giving it to her?

I think she never told him because she had a psychological condition that somewhat impedes her ability to express herself "normally" (forgive my lack of English vocabulary at the moment).
The other reason could have been that she wanted HIM to remember.

And yes, that's why she almost falls of the cliff, chasing it and Johnny is stupified by her actions.
It's sort of a culmination of the depiction their relationship throughout the game in a single scene.

I also think that the general... "moral" of the story is that in the end they both got to meet on the Moon, each from their perspective. And that it doesn't really matter whether he remembered or not in the end. That's why the lighthouse and the house were so important to her. It was her one guarantee that they would meet again on the designated place, The Moon, the lighthouse in the sky, and she got her wish.

[Saraneth]

Originally posted by Artyom the potato peeler:

Originally posted by iburpoften:

It makes you wonder why she never just told him out right?

Also when she asks john to throw the the bag off the cliff is she testing to see what he'd do? to see if he remembers giving it to her?

I think she never told him because she had a psychological condition that somewhat impedes her ability to express herself "normally".

You are correct. We are all but told outright that River has Asperger's Syndrome, or at least sits near the "high-functioning" end of the autism spectrum. She is therefore unable to express her emotions "normally", especially having been diagnosed so late in her life. In contrast, Izzy, who shares the same condition, can express herself more comfortably, having received an early diagnosis and therapy at a young age.

River uses the hackysack and the rabbits to try to communicate in the same way we might use a metaphor or an idiom to convey a very particular idea or emotion.

[Medieval Tavern]

Originally posted by bviking78:

Sorry for the late reply but, well, I just played the game.

Anyway yes I have to agree with you.

What's even more painful for me is that you cannot even blame Johnny because, if you follow the timeline, he met River before Joey died and so before being given the beta blockers. But I do really hope that she was happy with him anyway, even if he couldn't remember the meaning of the rabbit, the platypus, ecc.. After all I really think that he really loved her, even without remembering that first time, and she managed to befriend a lighthouse too! (T_T)

It's been 2 years. I almost forgot most parts of the story but i'm pretty sure River was happy with him. No matter how happy you are, keep something like that inside for forever and build up a hopeless hope, you won't be able to live a complete life thou!

[MatroVska]

this thread made me crying reading the comments

[Kolvarg]

Originally posted by It's kind of a...funny story?:

Yes, she spends all her life trying to make John remember. She sacrifices her life to keep the Anya with hope that John will remember some day. But till the day she gone, John never understood what her feeling, why she sacrifices everything for Anya. :((

The beauty of it is, despite not understanding her exactly, he still respects her will and honors her request, finishes building the house and lives there the rest of his life. And despite her getting worse and more distant because of him not remembering in the last part of her life, he still genuinely believes in her and that she cared deeply for him - otherwise, the "memory River" wouldn't end up in Nasa as well - she did it for the same reason as him: to meet him at the moon.