[SPOILERS] Answers to unresponded questions about the Lore (Please help me)

[WarriorMongoose]

I’ve EDITED this post according some responses in the comments and recent research of the lore (mostly based on the ‘Theory of the Double Dream’). Be aware that these are just my ‘thoughts’ initially based on the diaries and notes ingame and the trivia on the net (that logically i won’t transcript all), otherwise they are just crazy ‘speculations’ of mine. (Feel free to correct me).

Achtung!! THIS POST CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS

I just finished the game. It was awesome. Mi head exploded. I'm still looking for some pieces of my brain that gone missing. But i have so many questions that i couldn't find any answer. Can someone please help me and tell me if I'm wrong???

To put it simply:

1) Lilith Itou probably was Elster-512's Gestalt. And Alina Seo was her partner/couple during that time in Vineta planet. We can see both in a photo at the end (the same at the beginning of the game).

2) Lilith was wounded in the eye (like Elster-512 and Isa Itou at the end of the game). [EDITED] Also was from the 5th Vinetan battalion and nº 12 = “512”

3) [EDITED] Eventually Lilith became Elster-512 and Maybe It’s more accurate to say that Elster-512 remembered some memories from the original Litith due to the intervention of Ariane during the journey at Penrose program and later ingame.

4) Alina Seo was reassigned at S-23 Sierpinski Facility [EDITED] A mining facility but also for re-education according to some notes ingame. (Some people theorize about being also a place to use individuals for future Replikas) and probably died from the epidemic illness. (Because she said in her diary there that she was sick).

5) Ariane Yeong looked much like Alina but they were completely different. Ariane was a Bioresonant (she had mental powers, sort of).

6) Ariane was friends with Isa and Erika (Itou sisters). Erika was sent S-23 Sierpinski (re-education facility) "probably" as a punishment for helping Ariane at school. Ariane avoided that enlisting at the Penrose program.

7) Ariane and Elster meet at Penrose-512 and fell in love. After 3000 cycles (8 years approx.) the ship begun to fail, Elster reached the end of her operational lifetime and died. [EDITED] Ariane reaches the Oort Cloud (that is like the border limits of our Galaxy.

8) Ariane stays alone at the ship during more cycles and gets ill by radiation and other problems. At some point she gets in a cryo-chamber (with the previous aid of LSTR or without her).

9) At some point the Penrose-512 ship crashes at planet Leng (near the S-23 Sierpinski Facility ???¿¿¿ (i don't fricking know...)
[EDITED] No. Apparently this is the “Changing point” when the story ends being real and starts being half real and half dream. [Explanation/Speculation: My guess is that Ariane (maybe without knowing it) was successful in the mission of Penrose Program (that is the finding of other lifeforms or worlds) because when she got to some place at the Oort Cloud there was some sort of god entity that we indentify as the “Red Eye” that is at least powerfull in bioresonance too.
Anyway Ariane starts sleeping while inside the Cryopod. She dreams about her desire of Elster accomplishing the Promise and her past at Leng, Rotfront and school; but she never was at Sierpisnki so that place isn’t dreamed by her but by Falke (look Point nº 17). The events at Sierpinski really happened until they found the Red Gate at the bottom of the mines and Falke passed through. Then Sierpinski joined the dream.
So, the two dreamers (Ariane & Falke) and the two places (Oort cloud (snowy place resembling Leng) & Sierpinski) are connected by the respective Gates at the snow and the bottom of the mine. And that is possible because of the Red Eye that exists also in another 3rd place that is the red desert / world of Nowhere. [Speculations!]

10) At S-23 Sierpinski, Commander Falke goes to the Mines and cross the red gate in eternity. There she's inflicted with Ariane Yeong's bioresonant abilities, which cause her to inherit the memories of her lover, Elster-512, along with an unknown disease (but unknown cause exactly). So Falke stays comatose and infected, also thinking she is Elster and not Falke and becoming crazy by time.

11) Later at the end, we are told by diaries that in Rotfront planet there is some kind of "red climate anomaly" (anticyclonic storm) called "the red eye".

12) Isa went to S-23 Sierpinski Facility to find her sister Erika, but the complex is ruined by the unknown disease. (Erika is probably dead already by the infection along with the other gestalts). [EDITED] I think that Isa really went to Sierpinski, but by the look of her school uniform and because we see two mortuary/funeral photos of her and Erika at the end of chapter 3, now I support the Theory of Double Dream that explains that Isa was also dead and the one we see is just a manifestation of Ariane. Remember that Isa saw Ariane being bullied and never helped her. Isa felt guilty for not doing anything to help and Ariane could be seeing her looking and doing nothing.

13) At some point all the original human/gestalts at S-23 Sierpinski are dead and almost all the Replika/Protektor are gone mad.

14) Adler is in "love" with Falke. He goes to her room where she sleeps in coma and kisses her, infecting himself with the unknown disease in the process.

15) Elster wakes up in the crashed Penrose-512 (confused or amnesic) and starts looking for her partner Alina Seo of her past life as gestalt (the girl in the photo at the beginning), instead of looking for her last love Ariane.
[EDITED] That’s because Ariane was “reckless” for treating Elster not as a Replika but as a Gestalt (i can't blame her, 8 years lost in space and alone can change one's perspectives). That made awake Elster’s human instincts or memories of when she was at Vineta with Alina and gets confused.
At this point the ship crash is real, Sierpinski facility were also real at first, the pain of Ariane’s illness is real too. But all the events happening as we start playing are part of a Dream, a dream that is also real (as something dreamt by someone)... because it is the way to ensure that Elster can fulfill her promise. Because Elster was dead at 3000 cycles and now, by de power of bioresonance, the Gates and the Red Eye, Ariane is dreaming her way to resurrect Elster to fulfill the promise by making a one day loop (according Adler diary) that repeats constantly until Elster reaches her and ends her sleep..

16) Later, Elster remembers her promise to Ariane (kill her to spare the pain) and realises that she has to find Ariane.

17) At this point there are 2 dreamers: Falke and Ariane. But Ariane is the one creating a loop time (we don’t really know if she really did the disease too). As long as she lives (Ariane) the story never ends, because Ariane is calling Elster and bringing her back by bioresonance to fulfil her promise.
[EDITED] Also, Ariane is the main dreamer. Falke didn’t know what was exactly happening, when she passed through the Gate at the mines she got connected to Ariane by the Red Eye and then Falke started the dream at Sierpinski that joined the main dream of Ariane, as the second dreamer. (We can see that cinematic and the red desert where Falke is at the line of multiple Arianes (where is also one Alina) that turn to Elster when she says Ariane’s name).

18) Elster find many dead LSTR models in her way down. Probably all the previous failed attempts to achieve the fulfilling of 'the promise'. [So... Ariane is bringing Elster back to life everytime with her bioresonant power... is this possible? has any sense???].
[EDITED] Yes. According this Theory that appears the be the case. We can see also that the LSTR in white who Elster takes her armor is the one at Memory Ending that couldn't finish Arianes life and then she converted in a flesh mass. And the same goes for the LSTRs at the bottom of the elevator, they are the ones Adler always push down the hole...

19) Finally comes the end of the game. Adler loses his mind, Isa dies because of the disease (that kills humans/Gestalts, but not Replikas), Elster kills Commander Falke, etc. And now there's nothing or anyone that can stop Elster from reaching Ariane (unlike the other previous attempts).

20) So there are 2 big mysteries: 1- The range of Ariane’s bioresonant powers; and 2- The willing of the Red Eye power (artifact ending).
[EDITED] Ariane is dreaming about Penrose, Leng, Rotfront and the school (places she knew); and Falke dreams about Sierpinski. The Nowhere and red desert places might be the places where Red Eye lives or has direct influence (i don't know... or maybe are just nightmares too).
I’m speculating, but it is generally accepted in the Net that all the flesh represents the illness of Ariane caused by radiation. She’s dreaming and, possibly unconsciously, is generating the ingame world by bioresonance (a technology poorly known according to the notes ingame) also maybe aided by the Red Eye who stays at the borders of the galaxy.
The Red Eye is “the real” ‘god’, not Falke when she says that ‘this god won’t forgive you’ (she/Falke). Some people think that the Red Eye is the real representation of the ‘yellow king’ fictional character (who watch aside at the other characters play their parts). Besides Falke is always reacting to Ariane’s dream until the point of wanting Ariane for her and having LSTRs memories and not knowing how or why, succumbing to the disease as other Replikas did.


I have read all the notes and diaries ingame; checked all the trivia on the Net. But I’ve still many doubts about questions without any answers. Such as:

21) If S-23 Sierpinski Facility and Penrose-512 are at planet Leng, WHY do we end at planet Rotfront with the red gate and the anticyclonic red storm called "red eye"?
[EDITED] All of these can be explained with the "Theory of Double Dream", if not i don't know the reason yet...

22) The main story and the disease initially take place at S-23 Sierpinski Facility (planet Leng), but later we see Replikas also infected at places from planet Rotfront. HOW? WHY? (please don't tell me that’s because it was a memory/dream/alienation)
[EDITED] Again, the "Theory of Double Dream",...

23) What is exactly the "king in yellow" book? (the game talks about a ritual related with the book, so isn't just political propaganda.)
[EDITED] In "realistic/not dreams" terms ingame, that book was used for some people to encrypt/unencrypt messages probably from the empire such as Ariane’s mother. In the game is told that there is at least one spy from the empire, so it could be related.
Also, in terms of “unreal events”, the king in yellow could refer to the character of the ‘mastermind/ Big brother’ such as the Red Eye (Speculations).

24) Who is the OTHER person in orange spacesuit? (Adler says in his diaries that problems came when someone with orange spacesuit arrived. Certainly Elster-512 used one to get inside S-23 Sierpinski Facility after leaving Penrose, but in the ship was a second place for another spacesuit that was empty. Elster tells that when you interact with it in the tutorial.)
[EDITED] Well in fact, Adler refers to that as someone with an 'orange armor chest' such as Elster's. So could be her at the first time she arrived at Sierpisnki.

25) Who the hell really caused the unknown disease??? Ariane by using her bioresonance with Falke? Or the bizarre Red Eye of the planet when Falke reached the red gate in eternity at the bottom of the mines??
[EDITED] In fact the disease resembles very much at the symptoms of radiation contamination, so Ariane could be transmitting her illness by bioresonance using the frequencies as she transmits her signals.

26) Elster-512 crosses the red gate at the beginning but covered in snow (S-23 Sierpinski/planet Leng!!), the same gate of the eternity zone at endgame (planet Rotfront!!), just after leaving Penrose and before entering the first Hole. And she doesn’t reach the end of the game by crossing it. Why? It’s because that’s a memory? Different timeline?
[EDITED] No. Yet agains this can be explained with the "Theory of Double Dream", if not i don't know the reason yet...

27) Did Elster forgot that Ariane was in the fricking crashed Penrose-512??? (make sense as long as she's searching Alina Seo and not Ariane Yeong. But still...)
[EDITED] Not sure, could be. What seems to be sure is that the Penrose Ship at Promise ending is REALLY the true spaceship and Ariane achieved to get Elster there to assist her.

28) Why there was a photo of Alina at the Penrose-512? (supposedly she was forgotten by LSTR, did she get confused by looking a photo of Ariane?)
[EDITED] My guess is that at that moment Elster was based on Gestalt memories but not on the memories of the Penrose trip, se she whached the photo and asumed it was Alina by mistake (see point nº 15). Remember that game tells us that both Ariane and Alina look much alike.

29) Was Elster dead all the time? (The diaries say that "third phase" of the Penrose program is at 3000 cycles and by that LSTR-512 is about to reach the end of her operational lifetime. And we know that Ariane lasts a lot more cycles and alone. So... Did Elster-512 really die?)
[EDITED] Yes, according the Theory she died at 3000 cycles. Ariane brought her back by
a powerful biaresonance and i guess that Red Eye was involved somehow (speculation!).

30) Lastly... What in the holy hell is the giant red eye of the Artifact ending? That’s not an anticyclonic red storm... And what is the Red Gate?
[EDITED] My guess is that it was found at the borders of the galaxy, at Oort Cloud, by the penrose spaceship (see points 9 and 20). Red eye might be an entity that our culture could call it as 'god' even if it's just an old and powerful being. The gates could be Red Eye's doing o possibly rests of and older civilization (i think WE WON'T NEVER KNOW until Devs tell us, so... never.)

31) almost forgot: If Ariane has super mental powers granted by bioresonance (that allow her to manipulate space or even life itself), why didn't she use it to escape from Penrose alive or not die? It's because the Red eye had something to do with it?
[EDITED] My guess is between two possibilities: 1) She didn’t know how to use the bioresonance at that level. 2) She wasn’t that powerful, but now that Red Eye had influenced her (or had took part in this) she can do more powerful things unconsciously while dreaming.

For god's sake I hope there are real answers to these questions. If there are I’m sure that we'll find them.
It would kill me that Devs use the "It's up to whatever each person prefers to believe" Card... Or, the "A mage did that" Card.
So... Can anyone tell me if 1 to 20 are "right" or "wrong"? Can someone please explain something from 21 to 31???

Thank you for reading all this.

[Summoner]

I don't think it's an infectious disease but rather a powerful bioresonant field that is altering all other bioresonant fields in it (gestalt and replika brains). The source of this is Ariane, maybe or maybe not with the aid of a powerful cosmic horror entity. Ariane is dreaming in the pod and the bioresonant field she produces or the entity around her produces is warping the physical reality in the solar system. The Penrose 512 ship is not on Leng. The mining facility merely uncovered a portal to another place or dimension in the universe, a place where Penrose 512 ended at after its few years of sailing through space.

As for the LSTR units in the elevator, they are all real units that abandoned their posts in the solar system after the bioresonant push from Ariane rewrote their own bioresonant fields. They all came to Sierpinski to find Ariane, only to be killed by Adler, or dying right before the ship, or in the ship, their parts repurposed by other LSTRs on their journey. There is no time travel. Adler remembers the "loops" as the bioresonance from Ariane is turning Sierpinski 23 into a total hell. I think Isa Itou is just a physical recreation from Ariane's memories and she disintegrates as Ariane's mind wanders off to different ideas. The entire incident at Sierpinski 23 is really a recreation of her life.

That's my interpretation anyway.

[:bestgamerchina#1最好的中國]

Write in google "SIGNALIS dream theory" if You want the most cohesive and most likely right explanation. No other theory makes as much sense as this one.
Eventually You might try "Realities entangled theory" (dont remember right name for this one). For sure its not as You might think at first: Penrose 512 somehow goes back a full circle to Leng, and crashes there.

Straight crash at Leng and reality theory by itself makes little to no sense as it creates few major questions, wich breaks the illusion.
1)How would other LSTR units possess spacecrafts required for them to travel to Sierpinski facility?
2)How would disease get to different planets of the solar system, if Sierpinski was sealed off?
3)How Penrose512 somehow managed to go full circle in space and crash on Leng if it was 8 years away from border of its solar system?
4)How our LSTR-512 woke up after years of decomission and is perfectly fine?
5)Why Ariene's room is on Sierpinski?
and more.

I wont spoil You the revelations here, it has much bigger impact once You read or watch something cohesive and well written.
This is the best deep dive into the game and its story, I've found. There might be one that is better, but this one blew my mind, back when I kept looking for answers to my own questions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1Gv8yjEXw8&ab_channel=IndieXplorer

[Original Cast Recording]

A stray observation: If the red eye denotes bioresonance (with or without the involvement of another unknown cosmic entity), I think it's worth considering the times when a crimson glint clearly appears in the eyes of the replikas, they themselves being products of the mysterious force.

[Original Cast Recording]

Also, I'm inclined not to think there's any true "time travel," but I do think it's possible far more time has elapsed between events shown in the game than some people seem to.

[WarriorMongoose]

Thanks everyone for your responses. That helped.

Originally posted by Summoner:

The mining facility merely uncovered a portal to another place or dimension in the universe, a place where Penrose 512 ended at after its few years of sailing through space.

So, it is possible that there may be other doors in other worlds and that they are connected. That could explain "scientifically" why Elster manages to reach Sierpinski being so far away from there at the Oort cloud.

Originally posted by Decoy:

Write in google "SIGNALIS dream theory" if You want the most cohesive and most likely right explanation. No other theory makes as much sense as this one.
This is the best deep dive into the game and its story, I've found. There might be one that is better, but this one blew my mind, back when I kept looking for answers to my own questions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1Gv8yjEXw8&ab_channel=IndieXplorer

¡I did that! and Dear God... I think you're right. I'm impressed. I haven't been able to finish the entire video yet (it's very long) but I will soon. Signalis is much more complex than I expected. The mythology, historical and scientific references, symbolism, and lore components of this game are some of the best I can remember seeing in a game.
For now, it reminds me (just a little) of Silent Hill with the case of Alessa Gillespie, who was also between life and death, and could manipulate reality and time as if it were a dream (but it wasn't altogether). Only that signalis is much more complex, i see it now.
Thank you.

Originally posted by NoMoreUnderscores():

A stray observation: If the red eye denotes bioresonance (with or without the involvement of another unknown cosmic entity), I think it's worth considering the times when a crimson glint clearly appears in the eyes of the replikas

It's true, it's a very curious detail. It may just be a design detail but it's particularly interesting considering it could be a sign of the "red eye" influence on the Replikas; and that we have not seen other Replikas who have stayed away from the events of Sierpinski in the game to compare them.

[Wind_Falcon]

A lot of these points are contradicted in the game, or are just assumptions with no textual evidence existing that can back them up.

I've covered many of these (identity of LSTR's Gestalt, where the Penrose can and can't be at the end of the 3000 cycles etc.) in other posts, mostly in here, though I might take a crack at some of these in more detail when I have some more time:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1262350/discussions/0/5855270367475629404/

The most important thing to understand about the game, and that most people get tripped up on, is that there are no time/dream loops happening, or that the events of the game don't take place inside Ariane's mind/dreams etc. or similar assertions that are often made. The game intentionally confuses players with this possibility on a first playthrough/more surface level reading, but the game is full of textual details and evidence that refute this on a deeper level.

The game has a coherent cause-effect story following events from A to Z, but the way they are presented are disjointed. This is the key point. It is not that time or reality are actually disjointed and weird, it's just our perception of the events.

[Original Cast Recording]

Originally posted by Wind_Falcon:

A lot of these points are contradicted in the game, or are just assumptions with no textual evidence existing that can back them up.

I've covered many of these (identity of LSTR's Gestalt, where the Penrose can and can't be at the end of the 3000 cycles etc.) in other posts, mostly in here, though I might take a crack at some of these in more detail when I have some more time:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1262350/discussions/0/5855270367475629404/

The most important thing to understand about the game, and that most people get tripped up on, is that there are no time/dream loops happening, or that the events of the game don't take place inside Ariane's mind/dreams etc. or similar assertions that are often made. The game intentionally confuses players with this possibility on a first playthrough/more surface level reading, but the game is full of textual details and evidence that refute this on a deeper level.

The game has a coherent cause-effect story following events from A to Z, but the way they are presented are disjointed. This is the key point. It is not that time or reality are actually disjointed and weird, it's just our perception of the events.

I read your take, and that of Azx. I really do appreciate that Signalis inspires players to such lengths.
...
However, in your analysis you basically pick and choose when it is "safe to assume" things and when it is not. In other words, you find it "safe" to assume things you can't actually prove, and then you call out other people for not providing proof of their assumptions. I'm really not trying to start anything here; I'm giving you the unsolicited critique you tacitly invited.

[Wind_Falcon]

I've tried to be pretty thorough in my thread including giving the actual names of the memos in-game as part of the supporting evidence to everything I say (or at least, as much as I could).

I've also done a bunch of speculation, but I've always marked it as such.

If you think there is a claim I've made that wasn't sufficiently backed up, or vice versa - an argument I've dismissed without enough explanation, just point it out and I'll take another crack at it.

[Original Cast Recording]

Originally posted by Wind_Falcon:

I've tried to be pretty thorough in my thread including giving the actual names of the memos in-game as part of the supporting evidence to everything I say (or at least, as much as I could).

I've also done a bunch of speculation, but I've always marked it as such.

If you think there is a claim I've made that wasn't sufficiently backed up, or vice versa - an argument I've dismissed without enough explanation, just point it out and I'll take another crack at it.

The big one is this: If you accept that the player character can perceive a shoreline when there is not one immediately in front of them (and other such things), then the in-game notes are not ultimately reliable either. Are they thoughts, memories, feelings, transpositions, echoes? Is there a difference between hand-scrawled notes and PC logs? Is that "safe to assume"?

One can attempt to establish a arrangement in which things line up more satisfactorily than they otherwise would. This is itself speculative, and subject to perceptions of adequacy.

[Original Cast Recording]

Originally posted by NoMoreUnderscores():

Originally posted by Wind_Falcon:

I've tried to be pretty thorough in my thread including giving the actual names of the memos in-game as part of the supporting evidence to everything I say (or at least, as much as I could).

I've also done a bunch of speculation, but I've always marked it as such.

If you think there is a claim I've made that wasn't sufficiently backed up, or vice versa - an argument I've dismissed without enough explanation, just point it out and I'll take another crack at it.

The big one is this: If you accept that the player character can perceive a shoreline when there is not one immediately in front of them (and other such things), then the in-game notes are not ultimately reliable either. Are they thoughts, memories, feelings, transpositions, echoes? Is there a difference between hand-scrawled notes and PC logs? Is that "safe to assume"?

One can attempt to establish a arrangement in which things line up more satisfactorily than they otherwise would. This is itself speculative, and subject to perceptions of adequacy.

For example, I think it's possible to consider the occasional 1st-person sections as being distinct operations from the 3rd-person action which makes up the bulk of the game. That is to say, something *happens* in those moments. Is this 100% verifiable? No. But it could explain some things. It could also be the 1st-person sections are just glimpses of what's going on in the LSTR's perception the whole time; that the player is only *shown* this intermittently does not prove it only *occurs* intermittently.

[Wind_Falcon]

I've addressed the first-person segments already. Things like the scene where Ariane is alone on the train - most likely that is a thing that Ariane actually experienced. But what we play through is also obviously 'not real' in the sense that the LSTR unit we played as just before that scene didn't somehow teleport to that place (which should be in the past), saw a vanishing Ariane, then grabbed a key, and then went back to where she was with that key (in the future of that moment on the train).

It's interesting to juxtapose these scenes to one another. The train scene seems like just a flashback. The scene in the Radio Shack almost seems as if it could be a memory of Ariane's mother, though that door and puzzle you go through to end it seem kinda off in that light. The scene in the school the game overtly establishes as a memory (or at least in the perspective) of Isa (I think, have to double check). The shoreline has an obvious symbolic purpose (Avalon = King Arthur's resting place = Penrose = Ariane's dying bed/cryopod).

These differences between the first-person segments are not random. Neither is the decision to change the POV for them. They are earmarked as something different compared to the events we perceive during regular gameplay/cutscenes.

The devs use the surreal framework of their game to present to us scenes that gives us further context regarding understanding Ariane's character that they otherwise couldn't have done, at least not as effectively. If you think about it from the perspective that we play through the memories of a LSTR unit's mind breaking down, these moments of Ariane before Elster met her for the Penrose program would otherwise be impossible to implement into the game directly, making Ariane a weaker character narratively, which would be bad considering how important she is plot-wise. The devs definitely know what they are doing, why, and how they should do it in order to keep the overall idea of the game coherent.

Either way, even if you have a different explanations for these - I don't think that would lead us to viewing the rest of the events and information in the game in totally different ways.

[Original Cast Recording]

Originally posted by Wind_Falcon:

I've addressed the first-person segments already. ...
Either way, even if you have a different explanations for these - I don't think that would lead us to viewing the rest of the events and information in the game in totally different ways.

I began by saying you were picking and choosing, and then you chose to address one of my comments and not the other. You continue to *assert* that this or that is the "most likely" implication.

Where does "likelihood" enter into anything?

Why are the similarities to 'Silent Hill' more meaningful or exemplary than the similarities to 'Akira'?

Why is surrealism a more appropriate touchstone than romantic symbolism or imagism?

(I don't actually hope for full explanations of the questions above.)

[Wind_Falcon]

Again, I've already addressed all of this. It's one thing to have for example a visual homage to a scene from work X or a gameplay design philosophy in the vein of work Y, and entirely another to have the level of generic, structural, stylistic and character overlap with work Z that the game shares with Silent Hill. Signalis references and is influenced by many works in many different ways, it just so happens that the most influential in terms of narrative and structure of these is Silent Hill (which I went into more detail illustrating this in the other thread). Hence also the surrealism connection, as if it wasn't already obvious from the game itself. In many ways your questions just seem inadequate. If you are familiar with in your example different genres and movements, you would know why a work falls in line with one rather than another. I'm just pointing out something that I assume will automatically make sense to people that are familiar. Though I guess I can understand in case someone isn't why it might seem arbitrary or irrelevant.

What I don't get is why these particular points regarding Silent Hill or surrealism or the first-person scenes might be upsetting, as again even if you disagree with what I've said about these it shouldn't be that big a deal in how we understand the story of the game. When I talk about the details of the events and characters of the narrative, I've tried to always give text from the game as backing evidence. Instead of you addressing any of that and give counter arguments, you come after me for things I've said as context that I believe can help us think about the game in ways more practical for understanding and unraveling those narrative and timeline questions, which I discuss backed up with the various texts from the game, and expect people will be more familiar and interested in discussing anyway. You don't like that I use words like "most likely" etc., but another user might get upset if I use more definitive language. I just try to make it evident by my word choices that I don't have all the answers to everything, I just think I have the general and most important gist of the idea of the game's story down. Which importantly isn't time/dream loops.

Unless by "picking and choosing" you mean why I give more weight to some details the game presents than others. If that's the case the answer is very simple - the game gives you if not outright wrong information, information that's misleading, contradictory and confusing on a first playthrough/surface reading (we are obviously experiencing the events of the game through an unreliable narrator/observer[s]), and asks the player to sort it out (the game's whole opening section is it beating you over the head with it's driving mystery - the swap with the photo, followed by a reboot sequence). I just do exactly that, or at least try to the best of my ability to do, and give my reasons for why.

Finally just to clarify, I am NOT saying that the first-person sections are not important for understanding the story, far from it. I just don't think they should be viewed literally.

[Original Cast Recording]

Originally posted by Wind_Falcon:

1. Again, I've already addressed all of this.
...
2. I'm just pointing out something that I assume will automatically make sense to people that are familiar.
...
3. What I don't get is why these particular points regarding Silent Hill or surrealism or the first-person scenes might be upsetting, as again even if you disagree with what I've said about these it shouldn't be that big a deal in how we understand the story of the game.
...

1. Not really, no. You just say that and expect anyone else to go read pages of your comments.

2. That is, as far as I can tell, all you've been doing.

3. I'm not at all upset. Nor should someone be to think that the game designers might not have created an unimpeachable symbolic order, no matter how interesting and affecting the game can be.

[Wind_Falcon]

First you said I hadn't given enough evidence to back up what I say, now you complain I've written too much backing up my claims...

So as always, no argument, not even delineating what exactly you have a problem with or why.

At least in your second and third points you admit you don't understand anything. Why go after me then shall remain a mystery I suppose.