Thoughts on the Ending and Theories on the Unexplained Stuff

[Vikenti Awaits]

I really enjoyed this game. I really liked the character of Mo. I liked that initial moment in the uncle's house, where Mo pointed out the years of unopened letters and how she could relate to that. After that point, there were several other points where Mo described someone else's actions, and I always added "and Mo can relate to that". The story itself was pretty bleak, between Mo's insistence on isolating herself from her family for years to focus on her archipelago-saving tasks, and the ultimate realization that her tasks are impossible.

First, we have her uncle wanting to sit down and share some wine. She almost goes for it, but then puts the bottle back at the last second because her tasks are more important. I was really hoping that after the first giant was safe, we would be able to go back and spend time with him, but we were not.

Second, we have her sister, Miri, who wants to sit down and have some stew. They argue, as usual about how Mo has become like a machine, and how she spends far too much time focusing on her work and ignoring her family. It's clear that Miri is terrified that Mo will go down into the depths and never come back, since she has the doll of remembrance already made while her sister is still alive. I knew that by the time Mo was done saving the second giant, Miri would have left the island for real. However, it still hurt to go back for that stew and find her letter. You could tell that it hurt Mo, since she couldn't bear to read the letter, and she already knew what it said.

And then, we meet Mo's grandmother. She's the only person so far to get Mo to turn aside from her path, either due to Mo "liking her too much", or because Mo had regrets after refusing Miri and having her leave. It was good to see Mo turn away from her quest to put the remembrance statues in the crypt and sit down and enjoy the wind and waves, even for a minute. It makes you wonder how long it has been since she last did that.

It's made clear from the beginning that while this is the first time all four giants have stopped turning their cranks at once, this is not the first time that Mo has had to run through the fungus spores to save one or more of them. The system had been running for centuries, the giants were old and weak, and the system-wide collapse was inevitable.

Mo gave everything she had. She sacrificed her mental and physical health with the constant exposure to the poison. Even if she tried to play it off as nothing, she is clearly worried that the number and frequency of the visions had gotten worse. She also isolated herself from everyone around her, and worked herself to exhaustion. However, sometimes giving everything you have just isn't enough. The giants also isolated themselves from each other, locked themselves in tombs below the surface, and devoted 100% of themselves to their job. They couldn't keep the system together, and neither could she.

We then have the moment where Mo crosses the event despair horizon and attacks Fenja. She refuses to go along with the plan for the ark, which had clearly been in the works for some time, as she still believe in her quest to keep the giants and their machines working.

And then, Mo finally realizes that it is over, and she must give up her hopeless quest, rejoin her family, and try to mend things. We see her set Safan free in a very emotional moment, after which the credits show that she set the other giants free as well. The archipelago is lost, and Mo sets sail with her family in the final exodus.

Unexplained item #1:
Why did the system collapse right before the events of the game?

My theory for #1:
We already know that the system was strained. The giants were all very old, and they were exhausted from centuries of toil. I believe that the giants were only barely alive at this point, mainly just souls fused to machinery. I believe that they were using either some portion of the power from their cranking or the emergency power system to keep themselves just alive enough to keep cranking the wheels. The system was on its last legs, and it would only take one final push to bring the whole thing down.

When we see Alfa, the fourth giant, his room is flooded, and half of his jaw is skeletal. I believe that he drowned shortly before the events of the game. The giants had sealed themselves into their rooms, and he had nowhere to go. I imagine that he kept cranking the machine right to the end. With him no longer providing one-fourth of the power, this led to a cascading failure. It could be that the additional strain on each giant caused the emergency power system to fail, which would explain the unseated fuses. And then, without the emergency power to sustain them, the exhausted giants collapsed. Maybe Safan, the weakest giant, collapsed first. Maybe Ande, the oldest giant, collapsed first. Maybe Bergen was the first to fall. In any case, once Alfa died, that was the beginning of the end for the archipelago.

Unexplained item #2:
Who was Miri's other remembrance doll for?

My theory for #2:
When I first heard that line about preparing a remembrance doll, I assumed the doll was prepared in advance for Mo, since Miri was always worried that Mo would go down under the islands and never come out. However, it was then revealed that Miri did have a separate doll for Mo. Miri makes it clear that it is a recent addition, and that she won't tell Mo who it was. It's obviously something very personal, and she doesn't feel close enough to Mo to tell her.

The identity probably isn't as important as the fact that she is estranged enough from Mo to not want to share her sorrows with her. We don't hear about any other family members beyond Mo, Miri, the uncle, and the grandmother, so I don't think it was a dead family member. Also, since the exodus happened,we were down to Mo's family, Fenja, and the Lightkeeper. No other remaining inhabitants are ever mentioned, so I don't think it was another dead islander. I suspect that it may have been a memorial to her own lost arm. The game isn't clear on how long ago Miri lost her arm, though she did have time to re-learn the cello, so the loss itself wasn't recent. However, that sort of loss never leaves you, so this could be a recent coping mechanism. Alternatively, it could be a memorial for one of her chickens.

Unexplained item #3:
Why did Mo never wear a mask?

My theory for #3:
While she saw the spores and their debilitating effects on her family and the local wildlife, she stopped caring about her own needs (mental health, physical health, bonds with others). She started to view herself as less of a person and more of a machine whose only purpose was to keep the islands running. At one point, she states that time doesn't exist in the world that the spores take her to. Therefore, they would not be delaying her in her work. Since they didn't impact her job, she knew how to get out of that world to return to her job, and she threw 100% of herself into her job, she stopped being bothered when the spores took her to the other world.

Additionally, she also mentions using this other world as a place to rest for a moment, since time doesn't flow there. So, she may have used the spores almost like recreational drugs as a way to take a break without impacting her tasking.

I believe a similar thing happened to the giants themselves, as they seemed to no longer have a purpose beyond sitting in their tombs turning the cranks for centuries. They isolated themselves from each other, and they started to see themselves as part of a machine with no regard for their own needs.

Unexplained item #4:
What on Earth was that giant dead(?) Mo in that one dream?

My theory for #4:
Originally, I combined that with the Mo's earlier vision of the dead giant. I assumed that Mo would discover that one of the giants had died, and that the Omni-switch would allow her to transform herself into a giant to take its place. That would complete Mo's arc, as she would cut off her family entirely, seal herself underground forever, and devote all of her time to turning the crank for the rest of her life. That's not what happened, and I like the actual ending better.

I think the main point of that vision was for Mo to see that she was slowly becoming more like the giants. She had thrown herself 100% into her work at that point, isolated herself from her loving family, and given no thought to her own needs and well-being. She wanted to be part of the perfect machine, dutifully performing her tasks to keep the island alive, no matter the cost.

[2pi360]

There are couple of questions and observations

1) Safan (the first giant, right) head is decorated with two seeberry branches. Was it Mo who decorated him?

2) There is an old machine crank lying on the last island (under the ark). How did it went there?

3) After Mo "releases" Safan, it turns into a skeleton immediately. Ok, turning into a skeleton in a second is a common fantasy trope, but it turned out Safan's already have some fungal growth on its skull. How did it happened? Was he already infected? Was he already dead?

[2pi360]

Comment on #4
In this hallucination sequence, Mo does not look like a dead giant, rather like a dead whale

[MissNoobzor]

What a thoughtful post! I really enjoyed your analysis of the game and theories. I also feel like the memories progressively got more depressing and ridden with anxiety as the game progressed, mirroring Mo’s mental state.